Multiverse: Chapter 26:

A Merging Crisis

(A Primalverse Prelude)

© Dylan Clearbrook

 

(Author's notes: The reader may notice a lot of hyper-links through out the first few Primalverse stories. These links lead to specific pages within the City of Heroes Wiki. These links will give the reader unfamiliar with City of Heroes more in-depth information about that particular subject as it applied to the game. Obvious differences will appear between what is written in the Wiki and what is written here.  For our purposes, consider the Wiki pages to refer to an alternate universe where things went a bit differently than they do in these stories.)

 

 

Multiverse Probability 10

The Baxter Building

(Present Day)

 War!

Reed Richards frowned as he viewed the multiple monitors that lined the room Johnny Storm, his brother-in-law and fellow member of the Fantastic Four, had jokingly nicknamed the Continuum Spy Room.  

From here, thanks to gadgets Reed had secretly, for the most part, scattered through the Prime Probabilities of the Multiverse, Otherverse, the Inheritor's Continuverse, Alterverse, and the Continuverse known as the Wasteland, he could monitor events far and wide.

Of course, in the case of Wasteland, that was no longer the case.  They had received word from Tony Stark in Probability One about the fate of the Wasteland (Author's note: See Multiverse Chapter 25/SLSH Chapter 7), but Reed had already known.

"An entire Continuverse.  Gone.  Wiped from existence!"   He muttered, staring at the now blank screens that had been devoted to the Wasteland. "The entire Continuum is gearing for war..and Kara Zor-El and Jennifer Walters-Gand are wasting their time in Probability Three!"

"Be fair, Reed." Sue admonished him. "They are doing exactly what you would be doing!"

"Sue's right, Stretch." Ben Grimm added, his tone unusually sobering. "They are doing the right thing.  If they are going to be fighting a war in the Continuum, the last thing they need is an enemy running free in their own backyard!"

"You're right.both of you."  Reed sighed. "But this.." he waved a hand at the now blank monitors, ".my god.there is nothing in the entire Multiverse that can counter something like this!"

"So what?  We just give up and let them shadow thingies over run us like they did Wasteland?"  Grimm demanded. "Look, I know we all have a soft spot when it comes to Kara, Rogue, and Jenny.but they ain't the only heroes in the Multiverse."

"Ben's right, Reed."  Sue nodded. "They didn't take all the heroes from Probabilities One and Two.and we still have those in seven other Probabilities we can call on!"

"And it won't matter in the slightest if they can't stop those two other realities from trying to merge with Probability Three!" Johnny Storm added, waving towards the screens. "We won't have to worry about any Shadow creatures."  He made an exploding gesture with one hand, letting it burst into flame to emphasize his point.

They were all very aware that there were two universes that were being pulled into Probability Three and they all hoped like hell that the teams from the first three Probabilities, with help from Sorority, could somehow stop the merger.  If they couldn't, then the best case scenario would be the complete utter destruction of the Multiverse.  Worst case, the destruction would spread to other Continuverses! One of those universes, however was a known quantity: Otherverse.  The other was an obvious newcomer to the Continuum.  The two converging universes had already, at this point, started to overlap as they began the slow process of manifesting in an area already occupied by Probability Three.

"Actually, I am not worried about that." Reed responded, looking back towards the screens.

"Excuse me?  How can you not be worried about something that could end the entire Multiverse?" Johnny leaned forward, his face showing his disbelief clearly.

"Data." Reed actually smiled. "The energy readings I am getting are quite similar to the energy readings I recorded when the Ripple passed through the Multiverse years ago."

"Meaning what?"

"I was never able to determine where or when that Ripple originated."  Reed explained. "Now I believe I know why."

"So enlighten us, oh great Egghead." Johhny quipped, frowning.

"I could never determine the Origin of the Ripple..because the event that triggered it has not yet happened!" Reed focused on the screen that depicted Multiverse Probability Three. "All the data that I collected then, combined with the data I am collecting now all point to an origin outside the Multiverse..but with its beginning there.in Probability Three."

"And just how can Kara and Jenny stomping on Brainiac cause the Ripple?" Ben wanted to know.

"Wrong focus."  Reed shook his head. "What Kara and Jenny are doing in Probability Three is important.to the people in that Probability.  But for the rest of us.it is what the Twins and the Sorority are doing that matters most!" He indicated the darkened monitors that had, at one time, given them glimpses into the Wasteland.  "This, however, makes it clear that, even if they are successful, it won't be the end of this.crisis. I am afraid that we are going to have to prepare ourselves to face something that we are ill prepared to face!" 

There was a moment of silence as each member of the Fantastic Four contemplated what must be occurring in Probability Three at that very moment.  Eventually, however, Sue turned their attention to something else when, with a gasp, she pointed out a set of view screens.

"Those monitors are tied to that new reality!" She exclaimed, looking to Reed for confirmation.

"They are."  Reed sighed. "Probability Three is not a very stable place, right now.  With Otherverse and this new reality trying to merge, there is considerable.turbulence.where they are starting to overlap.  By using brute force, in effect throwing hundreds of remote monitoring devices at it, I was finally able to get a good number through that turbulence and into this new reality.  I've been studying it for a bit now.  It seems they have recently gone through some cataclysmic event that has all but wiped out their Meta population.  But they may be able to offer something just as good."

"So, with all of this going on, you take time to study this new universe?"  Ben leaned forward in his chair, his irritation clear on his rocky face.

"Our muscles alone are not going to solve this problem, Ben." Reed responded. "I will study anything and everything if it holds even the slightest possibility of helping us out of this situation!"

"You found something in this new universe?"  Johnny now sat up straight in his seat as well.

"What?  Space Marines?"  Ben cracked.

"Technology!"  Reed announced. "I also discovered that the people of this new reality might be in worse shape than we are."

"What do you mean?"  Sue gave her husband a puzzled look. "If we're both facing annihilation, how could they be worse off?"

"It is a puzzle, to be sure."  Reed nodded as he spoke, interpreting his wife's look. "I'm not sure, but the preliminary readings I have show that this new reality may have been going though some other form of transition phase before a wave of energy swept over it.  A rather devastating transition phase, from the looks of it.  But what is even more interesting are the readings I have been able to collect about that wave of energy. Those readings match exactly the energy readings I was able to collect after the Ripple pulled Kara and the others from Otherverse and deposited them on Probability One! The same readings I am now getting from Probability Three!"

"Another Ripple?" Sue asked.

"No.  Not another Ripple." Reed shook his head. "If there had been even the slightest difference between this event and the Ripple that brought Kara to the Multiverse, there would be some difference in the readings.  There are absolutely no differences.  The energy signatures are exactly the same.   No, this is not another Ripple.  It is the SAME Ripple."

"But that was what, eleven years ago?"  Johnny shook his head.

"I don't think it matters."  Reed said. "If I am correct, this Ripple is not confined to time as we know it. It happened then, it is happening now, and it probably happens in the future..but it is all one single event that is apparently breaking the laws of time and space as we know them. But, as I said earlier, the event that triggers that Ripple hasn't occurred yet!"

"I am still not sure I understand that." Johnny shook his head.

"To put it simply, the Ripple that saved this new reality, which transported Kara and Jenny and their people to Probability-1, hasn't happened yet!" Reed tried to explain again. "If my calculations are correct, what is going on in Probability Three will lead to the event that causes that trigger.  Exactly what that event is or how it will come about, I can't say yet." He grimaced and returned to the topic at hand. "In any case, it is not so much the causes but rather the effects these two conflicting energy waves have had on this new universe.  Since I have been able to insert probes, I have been collecting and analyzing the data they have been able to retrieve.  My analysis is now complete and the conclusions are inescapable.  This new universe was, before the Ripple made contact, under going a transitional phase that would have resulted in nothing less than total universal annihilation.  I use the term annihilation but, in truth, that is not quite accurate.  How can something that never existed be annihilated?   That is what this first energy wave was doing.  It was in the process of wiping this universe from existence.as if it had never existed in the first place!"

"Like the Wasteland?" Ben nodded towards the blank monitors.

"No, not quite."  Reed shook his head. "Wasteland existed.  Its history has not been erased.  It was destroyed, down to the last atom.  This new reality was going through an even greater form of destruction.it was not only being destroyed.it was being completely erased from history!"

"And then the Ripple hit or will hit..or whatever."  Johnny prompted when Reed paused, seemingly lost in thought.

"And then the Ripple hit." Reed nodded, pulling himself out of his thoughts. "We thought, originally, that the Ripple merely transported Kara and the rest from Otherverse to Probability One.  I am afraid we might have to rethink that.  Apparently, this Ripple washed over the new universe just as the wave of annihilation washed over it. At that moment, the new universe began to move towards the Multiverse.  But that was not the only result. When the Ripple washed over the universe, whatever had not already been removed from existence by the first wave of energy was duplicated. The first wave continued on.rubbing the original universe out of existence.but the duplicate universe survived.  It is that duplicate universe that is now trying to merge with Multiverse."

"That might be interestin' to you, Stretch." Ben Grimm shook his massive head. "But I can't see how it changes things one way or the other.  Duplicate universe or original, it is still trying to move in Probability Three."

"In that sense, it doesn't really matter." Reed agreed. "Indeed, if the Sorority is not successful in their endeavors, then nothing we do here will really matter.  If, however, they do succeed, and I have faith that they will, then it will matter very much.  This new universe is a duplicate of the original universe.  It is not, however, a complete duplicate.  Those people, places, and things already swept from existence were not duplicated. Oddly enough, it appears that even objects that were in the process of being annihilated were duplicated in their entirety. These same, however, cannot be said for people. If the process had started, then they were not duplicated at all. In any case, the end result is predictable.  On Earth alone, a full sixth of the world's population was swept from existence before they could be duplicated.  That would include a majority of their Meta population!"

"What you are saying is that they survived their own destruction.but they are now more vulnerable than ever!" Johnny shuddered

"They are.in some ways." Reed agreed. "They may, however, have some advantages that we don't. As I said, I have been studying them.  In some ways, it seems their tech levels are lower than our own, but in others, they are hundreds of years more advanced!"

"Huh?"  Ben scratched his head, looking at Reed as if he had gone mad.

"For what ever reason, it seems that research took different turns through their history."  Reed explained. "Some of the lines of advancement we followed, they seem to have pretty much ignored. In most areas, we are probably about equal.  Yet in other areas, areas that might not have gotten as much attention in our society, they have aggressively advanced!  In many ways, they are far ahead of us in terms of Weapons research, medical research, communications, and even transportation!"  He turned to a keyboard and brought up an image on a single screen.  A cell phone of the flip phone variety.

"It's a cell phone." Ben shrugged. "Not many of that kind in use these days with every one getting smart phones!"

"True." Reed acknowledged. "However, this particular brand of cell phone is from that new Continuverse.and was introduced to the public.in 1949!! Here, and in the other Prime Probabilities, the flip phones, or clamshell as they were called, were not introduced until 1996!  Forty-Seven years later!"

"But..that requires extensive miniaturization!"  Sue exclaimed.

"Exactly." Reed nodded. "I venture to guess that their electronics far surpass our own.  And their computer systems...the first home personal computers were introduced mere months after their Second World War!  They introduced the Internet to the public before that decade was out!"

"Okay.so they have better gadgets than we do." Ben grumbled. "How does that help us?"

"It won't if that merging can't be stopped."  Reed acknowledged. "Then it won't matter anyway since we'll all be dead and gone. But if the merger is stopped and we can open communications with this new reality, then we maybe able to enlist their aid while offering our aid to them.  Their weapons and armor alone would allow us to field non-Metas against those Shadow Creatures should they start showing up here!  That alone would be worth it!"

"Well, we will have to be careful." Sue remarked softly, looking over the data Reed had furnished.  She looked up and around at the others before looking at Reed. "Hon, you see the scientific advancements.but I believe you have overlooked something that may be important if and when we initiate contact.  History on that world would have taken drastically different paths then ours.  Can any of you imagine how our society would have evolved had we had the internet.global communications.over forty years earlier than we did?  Look at all the changes that have taken place in our society since those were introduced here!  Now add forty more years of change!"  She shook her head. "We'll have to be real careful. Society over there, in that Continuverse, may seem similar.but there are bound to be major differences under the surface!"

 

Primalverse

Peregrine Island, Paragon City

(Several Days Ago)

 

Tina MacIntyre was not a happy woman. If the blinking light on her office phone, warning of multiple messages waiting for her attention was any indication, that wasn't going to change any time soon.

Ignoring the phone, she took the time to pour herself a cup of coffee, silently thanking her personal assistant for having it ready for her.  Come hell or high water, she was firmly convinced that Guinevere would do what ever it took to have coffee ready for her before she got into the office. When she had asked about it, Guinevere had merely shrugged.

"Self-preservation." Her assistant had answered.  "You're a real bitch kitty until you've had your coffee."

Tina, taking a drink at the time, had spewed coffee all over her desk at the assistant's answer.  Guinevere had only been honest, Tina had to admit.

However, not even coffee had been able to make a dent in her bitchiness for the past three months.

Dropping a couple of sugar cubes in her cup and then stirring in a generous dollop of French vanilla creamer, she took a moment to look over the six large monitors that lined three of the walls of her office.

The monitors, two to a wall, were each labeled underneath, showing where the live feeds that fed into the monitor originated.

Each screen was, in turn, split into four frames, showing four different angles.

It was here that Tina kept in touch with her beginnings at Portal Corps.  As the CEO, she spent way too much time playing politics and pushing paper rather than getting down and dirty in one of the six Portal Hangers housed within the three buildings that made up the Portal Corps Campus.

Though her daily routine allowed little time for her to delve into the mechanics of the giant portals depicted on the monitors, portals she herself had been instrumental in refining and developing, she always felt better when she took the time to check in on her 'babies'.

Of course, like the coffee, even the sight of the massive rings had done nothing to alleviate her mood for the past three months. Especially since, for that entire time, all six units had been dark and silent.

Three months.

Tina grimaced and turned her back on the monitors and settled herself behind her desk.

Three months and nothing was getting better. Of course the upside was that, until recently, things had not been getting any worse, either. Every thing that had happened was still, for the most part, a mystery and Tina was no closer to having an answer that leaders around the world were demanding of the science community.

 Ironically, if events had played out like their calculations had said they should, Tina would not now be here, trying to find some way to put together the pieces the events of three months ago had left.

By all rights, they should be beyond the need for questions or answers.  What need would the non-existent have for such things?

"Everyone is still in a state of shock, Tina." Her friend, Alexis Cole, had explained.  In addition to being a personal friend, Alexis was also the Over-Mayor of Paragon City and had used her position to deflect some of the flak aimed at Tina and Portal Corps.  "Several Third World and minor European governments have collapsed.  No news is coming out of China. Russia appears to be heading backwards, perhaps even considering reforming the Soviet Union. Both Central and South America are almost completely engulfed in civil wars that are threatening to spill over into Mexico. Great Britain, France, Germany, the US, and Canada are all still coming to grips with current events.with politicians all scurrying around, pointing fingers and right now, Portal Corps and Crey Industries look like handy scapegoats."

"Damnit, Alexis," Tina had responded, "We had nothing to do with this and you know it!"

"I do." Alexis had agreed. "But Tina, most of those damned politicos were not even aware that Ouroboros existed and are finding it hard to accept that when we have nothing to prove it."

Ouroboros! Tina gritted her teeth as the name of the mysterious organization bounced around in her brain.

They had known what was coming for several months.  They had even determined the cause.

The controllers of Ouroboros, led by Mender Silos, and their damned need to continuously fiddle with the time stream had created.an imbalance.,

 An imbalance that, finally, had threatened to destroy them all as tine folded in upon itself, sentencing not only Earth, but the universe and beyond to non-existence.   Earth, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe, the mega-galaxy, the mega-universe, everything.everything.gone.

There had not been a damned thing they could do to stop it. Methods had been suggested and tried, to be sure.  Fate, however, was not to be denied. All they could do was watch the end of all approach.and make their peace with whatever higher power they held dear.

The decision had been made early on that there would be no announcements to the general public.  Though some had disagreed, the majority had determined that there would be no sense in causing a panic from which there would be no reprieve. Let the people live their last days as they had, not in fear of.what?  It wasn't death approaching.  It was total non-existence.  When that wave of destruction swept over the Earth, it would be as if the world and all its accomplishments had never existed.  How do you prepare for something like that?

So the knowledge that the end was coming was a secret closely held by only a handful of individuals, of which Tina had been one.  Though a majority of Earth's Heroes had been kept in the dark, as well, many began to discern the truth as time grew shorter.  For them it was a bitter pill to swallow. Sworn to protect, they were forced to watch and wait.knowing that, even with all their powers and abilities, there was nothing they could do that would stop what was coming.

As the CEO and lead researcher of Portal Corporation on Peregrine Island, Tina had been in a unique position of being able to use the technology available to her to determine the exact time and date that the end would arrive.   When that day arrived, she had been here, in her offices, gripping the edges of her desk, knowing that elsewhere, in the labs of Portal Corps, and around the world, people were going about their everyday lives completely unaware that the end was upon them.  She could not recall how long she had sat there waiting, while the time she had predicted came and went.with nothing happening.  She did recall feeling a glimmer of hope.  Hope that she, and the others, had been mistaken; that, somehow, they had been granted a reprieve from oblivion.   She recalled standing and starting to take the first few steps to the door of her office.  Then chaos had struck!

For one brief instant, it felt as if her entire being was being torn apart.  It had happened so quickly that there had really been no time for the pain to register on the conscious level; yet deep within her sub-conscious was the memory of a pain so great she was immensely grateful that her conscious mind could not recall any more than a vague shadow of it.

During that instant of time, suspended between one moment and the next, it was as if her entire being had been divided.  No.  Divided was not the correct term.  Division of an object insinuated that the resulting objects would be fractions of the original object.  There had been no division here.  Rather, it had been more like every molecule in her body had been ripped apart, scanned, duplicated, and then reassembled.  Not into one person.but two!  During that brief instant she had the dubious pleasure of existing in two bodies at the same time, seeing through two separate sets of eyes.  Seeing not a mirror image of herself, but rather an exact duplicate..but which was the duplicate?

She had glanced around her office, noting that every single object, including the very structure of the office itself, seemed to have duplicate images of themselves superimposed over them.  And then..then all those superimposed objects and her own duplicate began to fade.to vanish into the nothingness that they had been waiting for originally.

That was when she realized something unforeseen had occurred.  The end had come exactly as they had predicted.  She did not know how she knew, but know she did.  She knew that the scene that had taken place in her office had occurred around the globe and throughout the Universe. People and places had been duplicated at the very instant that destruction had come.  One set of duplicates had gone the way they had predicted; wiped from existence as reality shut down.  The other set, duplicate or original, there would be no way of telling now, had escaped that destruction.somehow.

It would not be until much later that she would learn the painful lesson that she had only been partially correct.  Not everything or everyone had been duplicated.  For some, salvation (if salvation it was) had come too late. How can something be duplicated.if it has already been swept from existence? If there is nothing to duplicate? Tina also learned that her calculations for the exact date and time had not been incorrect.  The end had arrived exactly when she predicted.  But it had not been instantaneous. Close to a billion souls had been wiped out before the duplication process began.  A full sixth of the world's population!

Of course, there had been no denying something every single person had experienced.  The results were predictable.panic.

For some time, Tina had no time to dwell on exactly what had happened or to see what was happening in the outside world, or even the rest of Peregrine Island, much less the rest of the Greater Paragon City of which Peregrine Island was but a part. The instant the moment had passed, chaos had reigned within the confines of Portal Corps.   As if on cue, all six of the portals had started to fluctuate wildly.  For the better part of the day, Tina had to put aside the events of the morning and concentrate solely on keeping the portals from going haywire and imploding, taking all of Portal Corps and most likely all of Peregrine Island with them.  

It had been close, but under her cool leadership, her teams had eventually succeeded in gaining control of the portals and, for the time being, shutting them down completely.  And by the end of the day, though she was still no closer to discovering what had happened, she had some idea of what the results were, at least as far as the portals were concerned.

Somehow, two different energies..no.one type of energy and the anti-energy that they had been awaiting.had clashed.  Though she could not tell all the results of that clash; she could surmise that it had something to do with the duplication.  Of course, it had played holy hell with her portal equipment.  At this point in time, she could not tell if the entire multiverse had shared their fate or not.  It had been several years since the first portal to another reality had been opened, making the careers of scientists that had long theorized the existence of alternate realities, and ending those of many that had scoffed at such a theory.  Of course now, those that had had their theories proved had very quickly splintered into different camps as they floated competing theories on how the multiverse worked. But now that same equipment that had allowed them to explore strange new worlds that shared the same space as their own, merely separated by a thin dimensional wall, was now silent.  Before they had discovered the existence of the alternate realities, they had merely thought themselves to be unique.  Was that now the truth?  Were they alone?  Had all those other realities ceased to exist as this reality should have?  Or had they been duplicated just as this universe, which they had long ago named the Primal Universe, or Primalverse, had been duplicated?

"Am I intruding?"

Tina looked up from her morose musings to see Alexis Cole standing in the door of her office.  She shook her head and waved for her friend to enter and pointed at the coffee pot.

"I have to warn you that I am here, officially, as Over-Mayor." Alexis warned, accepting the invitation and pouring herself a cup. Unlike Tina, Alexis took her coffee black.

She took a seat and sipped, looking at Tina over the rim of the cup.

That was one thing Tina loved about Alexis.  She was always so careful to make sure she knew whether she was talking to Alexis Cole, her friend, or Alexis Cole, Over-Mayor of Paragon City.

"In that case, I am out of the office.until some time next year." Tina quipped in a tired voice.  "I'll have Guinevere contact your office when I return."

Of course, Alexis's warning, this time, had not been needed. Today was the day the two had set aside for their weekly debriefings.

"Anything new?" Alexis, never one to beat around the bush, demanded.

"Would you like me to make some answers up, Alexis, or try to find some real ones?"  Tina responded to the Over-Mayor's demand.  She then sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Alexis, the plain truth is, I don't think we are going to find any answers. None that will satisfy anyone one, that is. I think what ever happened is beyond us. You would probably stand a better chance of getting answers from someone in the Midnight Squad."

"I would, if there were any of them left." Alexis sighed as well. 

"Them too?"  Tina dropped her hands and clasped them tightly before her on the desk.  "Damn.how many are gone?"

"The question should be: how many are left?" Alexis' voice was close to cracking.  "And the answer would be: too damned few." 

Tina remained quiet, studying her friend for a long moment.

The middle aged blonde woman, daughter of the late hero Statesman and mother of the hero Ms. Liberty (a title she held in her own youthful days), was not only the one person the Paragon City Combine looked to for answers.but the one person the rest of the world looked to as well, even if most of them did not know of her connection to two of the most famous heroes in the world.  As the Over-Mayor of the city known as the hero capital of the world, she was expected to have answers.answers she didn't have.   And those people around the world could care less about the personal turmoil Alexis was going through.

"Alexis, go home."  Tina spoke softly.  "Let some one else handle this shit for now."

"I can't, Tina."  Alexis shook her head. "Dealing with this..this whatever it is, is all that is keeping me going." She closed her eyes only for a moment, but when she opened them, they had a haunted look that had not been there earlier. "We.We were together when it happened."  Her voice was so soft as to be almost inaudible. "Megan was wearing the Girdle.the Girdle of Hera."  She gave a sad laugh. "She had offered to let me wear it at the end.  She wanted to give me the chance to go out as Miss Liberty. I declined, of course.  My time was over. It was hers.and...and.." her voice caught, "I watched her fade, Tina.  Right before the duplication happened..She just faded..just a few seconds more.if she had just had a few seconds more.."  She trailed off as the tears began to stream from her eyes.

Tina shoved back from her desk and raced around to fall to her knees and wrap the other woman in her arms. She had known that Megan had been one of the many metas swept away into non-existence, but this was the first time Alexis had actually opened up about it.or admitted that she had watched her daughter's existence end right before her eyes.

"Oh Alexis, I'm so sorry." She crooned.

They remained there for some time until Alexis could pull herself back together. Tina, seeing that the older woman was once again in control, moved back behind her desk.

 "Sorry." Alexis sniffled and took a deep breath. "Tina, I know you don't like to speculate, but please, I need you to tell me something..anything.  I don't think you realize how tense the situation is out there."

"Oh, I have a pretty good idea." Tina replied bitterly.  "I'm sure you noticed the extra security we've had to add.  And I know damned well you couldn't miss the barriers we had to put up to block the rest of Peregrine Island away from us."  She shook her head. "How anyone could thing we were responsible for this.."  She left the sentence unfinished.

"They're frightened, Tina."  Alexis responded.  "A majority of those people didn't even have a clue something like Ouroboros existed.  But Portal Corps.they know you.  And, truth or not, you know there are still many that believe Portal Corps brought the Rikti down on us.  So it is not a big leap of speculation."

Tina opened her mouth to protest and then closed it with a nod. Alexis was right, of course.

"I can give you what we know, Alexis," She sighed, "But it isn't much more than you have probably gotten from the reports your Under-Mayors have sent you. I have made sure the Peregrine Under-Mayor has daily updates."

"So tell me anyway."  Alexis rubbed the tears from her cheeks and gave the scientist her full attention.   Though nearing sixty, the woman was still in the best of health and her figure was that of a woman decades her junior.

"Okay." Tina rubbed her temples, her eyes closed as she talked. "All we know is that our sensors registered some form of unusual energy wave approaching just as the anti-energy wave, or entropy wave as some are mistakenly calling it, hit us.  We were able to determine that it was some form of dimensional or temporal abnormality.or perhaps it was both.we just don't know.  It was like a Ripple in space and time.   We know that it was temporal in nature and we surmise, because of that it reacted with the anti-energy wave when they overlapped. No, we don't know where it came from and we have no reason to believe it was intentionally aimed at us.  As far as we can tell, it seems to have been some form of natural occurrence.  Understand, that this is all information we received from automated sensors." Alexis nodded for Tina to continue.

 "There's not much more to tell."  She shrugged. "After the.duplication.our systems went a completely haywire.so I ordered the Portals shut down." She tossed a hand in the air and shrugged.  "That is when we discovered that almost half our personnel were gone."

 "Half your personnel are gone?"  Alexis demanded.

"At least."  Tina nodded and closed her eyes again. "Castle as well."

She sighed again and looked up, knowing that this time it was her eyes that were haunted. It was only then that Alexis recalled that Tina and Castle had had an on and off again relationship.

 "I had security search the premises but there were no signs of him.   I happened to know where he lived.so I went there.Alexis, there was nothing there.  No furniture, nothing.  It was an empty apartment.  The landlord was just as shocked as I.  He knew damned well that he had rented that place out to Castle.  But when he checked his books.there was no record of the place having been rented." Tina began to shake and wrapped her arms around her body.  "I checked on the rest of our missing people.  Alexis, except for our memories, there is absolutely no physical evidence those people ever existed."

"It's the same everywhere, from what I am able to gather." Alexis sighed. "And I mean everywhere, not just Paragon City. And it appears that the effect is completely random.  Sometimes just the people are gone, but their belongings remain.  Most times, it's just as you said. But if you think people's memories are not affected, you are mistaken.  If a person was not actively involved with a person that has vanished, then the chances are that they have absolutely no memory of that person existing."

"What about the meta status?"  Tina asked, not really knowing if she wanted an honest answer or not.

"World wide, it is estimated that over ninety-five percent of existing Metas, hero and villain, have vanished.  We got hit harder here in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles since the greater portion of Metas were concentrated here and there. That is a conservative estimate, though.  It could be, and probably is, worse."  She grimaced. "We aren't sure, but our preliminary reports suggest that the Rikti Enclave was hit just as bad."

"Vanguard?" Tina clinched her hands around her arms tighter. Like most residents of Paragon City, Tina remembered the initial Rikti Invasion all too well.   And if any could forget, simply seeing the massive concrete, steel, and energy barriers, the War Walls, which cordoned off each and every part of the greater Paragon City community from every other part, would be an instant reminder.

"In complete disarray. Their entire top echelon vanished; as have the two ranks below that." Alexis delivered the devastating news. "If the Rikti decided to break out at this point...Vanguard would not stand in their way.not for long, anyway. Thankfully, it appears that the Rikti are as uncertain as we are."

"Of course they are."  Tina's eyes grew wide. "I would wager that whatever knocked out our ability to connect to the other realities we were studying has knocked out their ability to connect to their home reality as well!"  She gave a bitter bark of a laugh. "It must be galling to their leaders to see such a ripe opportunity but not able to exploit it because they can't open their mobile portals!"

 "Longbow is sending in people to beef up Vanguard but we don't know if it'll be enough."  Alexis went on, surprising Tina.  It was well known that, though they both worked for the same side, there was little love lost between the two organizations. Alexis waved that away and motioned for Tina to continue.

 "Okay. I think that.Ripple.was some form of moving dimensional/temporal rift that somehow reached out and snagged our universe. It's truly mind boggling. I don't think we have the ability or technology to determine what exactly happened and what exactly caused it. I mean, my God, we're talking about something that grabs universes." She shook her head, "I believe the how and the why are beyond our comprehension. So I think we're going to have to focus on the effects for the time being. But I think the fact that it hit us at the exact time the anti-energy wave hit is what saved us..or at least most of us. I can't explain it yet.but I think that we, our entire universe, aren't where we used to be. That place..it no longer exists.  We..we are duplicates and we have been.transported.  Transported to some other.Continuum." She tossed her hand up in the air. "And I have to admit that I am in a minority of one with my theory."

"Damn it, Tina, I don't know if I should be hoping you are wrong or not."  Alexis breathed after a long silence.  "But my gut tells me you're not.  And if you are right.then."  She trailed off as she realized that there was no answer.none at all.

Tina opened her mouth to respond.and then closed it as a thought occurred to her.

"You know, I think I know just how we can get some answers." She said, slowly, as if still thinking it through.  "It is a long shot.It won't be easy and will probably be dangerous as hell, but if the person I am thinking of is willing, and I believe she has a better chance than most, then we might just be able to get some answers!"

 

Primalverse

Open Space

(Present Day)

 Space and time were being.stretched and twisted!  Perhaps not the most technical of terms but the description fit.

Mercy Vengeance soared through the vastness of space, performing a seemingly impossible task. She wore no protective gear.in fact the costume she wore could, at best, be called provocative, leaving almost as much skin exposed as it strategically covered.

The great red and white wings that adorned her back beat rhythmically, despite the fact that there was no air in space for them to push against.  Not that they actually functioned in the same manner as other winged creatures of her home world.a small blue green orb floating around a rather unspectacular G-Class yellow dwarf star in the Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. A world called Earth.

To many that saw her, she represented a contradiction.  Everyone knew that no human could achieve flight using feathered wings the same way birds do.  Their body weight to body size was just too much for such comparably small wings.

But she knew that the wings were as much for visual effect as anything. Even if they refused to function properly if injured, just as a bird with an injured wing would have trouble   They flapped much like the wings of a bird, but it was not air they pushed against..rather they produced a cosmic thrust all on their own.  And the rate at which her wings beat had nothing to do with the speed she travelled.   The wings always beat at the same rate..only the amount of thrust they produced changed.

It was that, along with the fact that the same cosmic energy that infused her cells, that made her one of the few meta-humans.one of the few, oh so very few, remaining meta-humans.that could survive unassisted in the vast vacuum of deep space and achieve the speeds necessary to cross extreme distances in a relatively short time.  Another seemingly impossible act.  She never had a sensation of entering what was commonly referred to as Hyperspace.instead she travelled every single inch of the space..far faster than a great man named Albert Einstein theorized was possible.  Once out of the gravity well of a planet, it was no effort at all for her to outrace light!  It took eight minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth..she could cross the distance and be waiting before the light had travelled even a fraction of the distance to Mercury!  Impossible. Yes.  Just as impossible that a human could fly with a pair of bird wings.

So naturally, she was the one out here, trying to discover what was happening.what had already happened.  Travelling in a matter of hours what should have, according to all known laws of physics should have taken thousands of years

Like everyone else on Earth, she was still in shock.  By all rights she, and they, should no longer exist. It had originally been thought that it had been thanks to the interference of Ourubous with the time stream that time and space had start to unravel, causing what had erroneously been named the Entropy Wave that swept through the entire Universe.  Earth and the rest of the universe should have ceased to exist when the Entropy wave hit. Yet they had survived something that should not have been survivable!  Or some of them had, at any rate. A third of the Earth's population and damned near all the meta-humans, the last estimate placed the percentage at 97.5%, had simply vanished.faded into nothingness as if they had never existed in the first place. Yet even as the Entropy wave covered the universe, a second, unaccounted for energy had swept through. While the Entropy Wave had wiped billions away virtually painlessly, or so it was thought, the second wave was anything but painless.

For every person that had not yet succumbed to the first wave, it felt as their entire essence was yanked out, disassemble, scanned, duplicated, and reassembled. There were countless stories of people reporting that they suddenly found themselves facing a mirror image of themselves.a mirror image that quickly faded as the Entropy wave took them.

The leading scientists, those that survived, had theorized that the Entropy Wave had done as expected..wiping everything from existence. Yet the Second, unexpected and unknown Wave of energy had been salvation.of a sorts. Those people, places, and things that the Entropy Wave had not already taken were duplicated and, while slightly out of phase with reality, had been saved while the Entropy wave continued on, devouring their originals. And the damage had not been confined to the Earth.  So far, no one on Earth had yet determined what effect the Entropy wave had had on the rest of the Galaxy.  How many solar systems.how many civilizations had simply been erased?

Dr. Tina McIntyre, the CEO and lead Scientist of Portal Corps had been the one to discover that the wave of energy that had saved them had been similar to the energies to be found in or around Portals that lead to other realities and the one to determine that their safety, their salvation, might be short lived.

It had been Tina who had discovered the.shimmering.in space.  A shimmering that appeared to be growing at an alarming rate.

"It is as if some one has pulled the plug in a bathtub and our entire.reality.is starting to swirl down the drain!"  She had told a gathering of world leaders and what few of the Heroes that remained. "Our entire reality is being pulled into what we can only refer to as a dimensional rift.  A rift that opens up into another, similar reality. To put it simply, our reality is being forced to manifest in an area already occupied by another reality.  If it continues, the only outcome possible will be the complete destruction of both realities!"

 When asked what she intended to do about this crisis, Dr. McIntyre had merely shrugged.   That is when Alexis Cole, the Over-Mayor of Paragon City, had taken the stage.

"We are going to dispatch someone to investigate." She had told them. "At this point, that is all we can do. Ladies and Gentlemen, even if all our vanished heroes returned, there would not be a lot we could do.  Like the Entropy Wave, this is something that is, in all likelihood, beyond our abilities to effect.  But we won't know for sure until we get eyes on the scene, as it were."

That is when they had approached her, never realizing that she had been in the gathering to hear the news.  No, not as one of the political leaders or great scientists, but merely an assistant to one of those great men.

Mousey little Adrienne Keller. Child prodigy. The ultimate academic over-achiever with a body and face that, barely a year earlier, no one in their right mind would have even called pretty, much less beautiful. 

At the age of 27, with no less than five doctorates under her belt and absolutely no social life to speak of no one would have even spared Adrienne Keller a second glance.before the accident.

It had been her own fault, of course. The one time she had cut corners in an experiment was the one time she paid for it.  In an experiment designed to show the results of combining two artificially created cosmic isotopes, she had neglected to apply appropriate shielding.   Oh she had made sure that her lab was shielded.  Nothing that happened would go beyond her workspace. It had been herself that she had neglected to shield properly.

What shielding she had put in place had probably saved her life when the two isotopes combined with hypergolic reactions. The cosmic energy released had bathed the lab briefly in a hellish red and pink fire and Adrienne had screamed, unheard, as the fires engulfed her body.

When she awoke, moments later, the lab appeared to be untouched.  Other than the bent and twisted apparatus she had used to combine the isotopes, there was no indication that anything at all had happened.  A quick check showed that there were no levels of radiation above normal present.  It was as if nothing had happened at all.  She would soon learn that there had been consequences to her actions, after all.

It was not overnight.  Indeed, the changes occurred over a matter of months.  Her naturally curly hair had straightened and lengthened.  The fat had seemed to melt off her short, pudgy frame, leaving behind a sleek, petite young woman.

Most who saw her were amazed as the changes became apparent. None, however, attributed it to anything other than natural causes.

After a year, mousey Adrienne Keller had been replaced by an Adrienne Keller who could, if she wished, grace the covers of any magazine she wished.

For another year Adrienne had lived a life she had never dreamed of..and then the attack.

For the life of her she could not remember the name of the young hero that had come crashing through the walls of her lab, broken, bleeding, barely able to stand.  But the three villains that had followed him through..those she remembered.   They were going to kill the young hero.there was no doubt about it. And there was no one around to stop them!

That is when the final change occurred.

Rather than cowering in fear, little Adrienne had rushed to stand between the would-be murderers and their victim.  Even as she spread her arms in a feeble attempt to protect the young hero, her body had changed.

Growing several inches, though still short by normal standards, her hair fading from brown to snow white. From her back, massive wings sprouted, spreading out in imitation of her spread arms.  Her eyes, with their hazel-green iris had changed becoming two glowing white orbs.  Her clothes, suitable for lab work, were even transformed, becoming a red costume that barely covered anything.

All this she took in later.  Right then, however, she reacted by instinct.  Her arms flew forward and blasts of energy poured forth, knocking the assailants back through the hole that had been made in the wall. 

The blast had taken them off balance and unprepared, but had not hurt them enough to keep them down.

Again reacting by instinct, she had let one hand sweep backward and a reddish-pink energy had flowed forth, bathing the fallen hero. And healed him!

Together, the two of them had trounced the assailants, bundling them up for the authorities.

She had never seen the young hero after that day. Perhaps coming so close to death had shaken his resolve and he had faded back into civilian life.

Afterwards, while friends and colleagues searched frantically through the rubble for Adrienne Keller, the new hero who identified herself as Mercy Vengeance had flown off.

It was only after a matter of hours that she learned that, through an act off will, she could force herself to shift from one form to the other and that her particular abilities were only available while in her Mercy Vengeance personae.

She had reveled in her new found abilities.and had been sobered by the responsibilities that came with such abilities.for barely more than a month before the Entropy Wave.

Yet here she was..still alive when so many other meta-humans were gone.zipping through space towards..something.

She slowed her approach as she reached the area of space Dr. McIntyre had indicated.  Even from this distance, she could see that the scientist had been correct.  There was, indeed, a shimmering.  It was almost as if she were looking at a scene distorted by the hot air rising from baking asphalt.

One thing Dr. McIntyre had not been able to tell her was how close she could get to the.galactic whirlpool.before her.   And even as that thought registered, she realized that she had already gotten too close!

She felt the tug of energies and, reacting totally by instinct, twirled and attempted to fly off in the opposite direction, hoping the cosmic thrust of her wings would be enough to break the hold of the forces that were starting to pull her in.   She was out of luck.   These were not gravitational forces that had her in their deadly grip.but rather reality twisting energies that ignored the cosmic thrust of her wings as if it did not even exist.

Mercy Vengeance screamed as her body stretched and twisted.but never breaking. It was a blessing that she lost consciousness as she tumbled through the void until she finally faded from Primalverse!

 

To be Continued.... 

 

 

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2014 by Dylan Clearbrook

-- and may not be reprinted without permission.

-- The Continuum Worlds Concept is a joint creation of

-- Dylan Clearbrook and Eldric.  Otherverse, Multiverse,

-- and Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, as depicted in the

-- Continuum Worlds, are original creations of Dylan Clearbrook.

-- Alterverse and The Inheritors, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- are original creations of Eldric.

-- Wasteland, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds, is an original

-- creations of Nomad (Jake H.).

-- The Realm and The Web of Shadows, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- are original creations of John P. and Jason G./ Andrew Shields respectively.

 -- DCM: The Merging, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- is an original creation of Chip Caroon and the stories therein remain

-- the property of the respective writers.

 -- Some characters in Continuum Worlds stories are original creations

-- of Dylan Clearbrook, Eldric, Michael Liebhart, Jake H., Jason G.,

-- Andrew Shields, Kyle M., Brian, John P., DTO,  or Jason Froikin and may not

-- be used without express permission of the respective author.

-- All DC characters are property of D.C. Comics.

-- All Marvel characters are property of Marvel Comics.