DISCLAIMERS
I do not own the rights to any of the characters of the Marvel or DC universe. Any original characters referenced in this tale are my intellectual property (I think? copyright law is confusing :S)
I know and care little about the sexuality of any of the creators, actors, or characters involved in the Marvel/DC universe. Similarly, this story contains graphic descriptions of gay male sex. If that may offend you, I suggest looking elsewhere for entertainment. Otherwise enjoy some smut. The smut will be widespread and hopefully organic to character growth.
Partial credit goes to the story Mutation by Phoenixfire543 (on nifty) for inspiring me to write my own variation on the whole superhero genre. His protagonist inspired mine power wise, though mine varies a lot in temperament and disposition.
Author's notes This chapter is more big picture developments rather than individual experiences.
Chapter 11 Atonement and Ascension
Work continues on restoring and improving Alt 2 from a war torn and decimated population into a functional society. The population of the world is less than half a billion. It's slow going.
Life has settled into a sort of rhythm.
I alternate days between Alt 2 and hanging out with Iceman getting reports of 616, sparring and generally enjoying his company.
Once a week I visit VV to liaise with JAJ and arrange the transports of Help Bots from 616 with blood and to 616 with food for the 616 populace. It's a profitable arrangement for me as I sell the food cheaply and synthesize the blood in volume with a little donated by blood banks providing me with blood that's unsuitable or expired for human use. Panacea has become part of standard care for the hospitals and has subsequently reduced the pressure on blood banks to collect and store blood.
I used the discarded blood for my own experiments, assembling DNA profiles and seeking cures and or treatments for common defects and diseases.
Every month I attended a meeting with the AOV to discuss the Shadowverse and our respective universes and how they're progressing.
The second Games rolls around and even more super people arrive with another year of stress and grudges to punch away...
The winner of the Game's superpowered smack down is the Children of Tomorrow. I'm not overly surprised, the XRU-Jean's victory was a nail biter and provided more than enough incentive for the Children of Tomorrow to have a vicious internal competition to select their 6 best for the next Games.
The Games provides a chance for transdimensional trade between heroes, villains and anti heroes. Weapons are exchanged between alternates as is information. The Games give me a few ideas for the future.
I helped FM to establish an outpost of NWI in 616 Latveria with FDM running day to day operations and the remaining Phalanx members helping. FDM and 616 NWI started operations immediately offering 'guardian clouds' and 'Triton shipping' to the public. Profits tripled within a month.
I started training with FM, Alt4-me and XRU-me. I helped provide expert level training in water bending for FM, advanced training for Alt4-me. Unfortunately Alt4-me lacked the life experiences and the drive necessary for training to his full potential, he had it too easy in life to try that hard. Without Jackson as a bully, Alt4-me hadn't developed the internal discipline or a desperate drive to survive whatever the cost mentality that I had. XRU-me provided me with training on biological manipulation. He was an undisputed master of it, not that it was very appreciated in his world/universe but it was a very useful skill to have and I wanted to learn. He taught me how to sculpt life and death to my will.
By the third Games I was feeling restless and in need of a challenge. Attacks against me and mine had dropped with the majority of Xavier's students joining my Central Park School, bolstering our numbers and increasing our defenses accordingly.
I convinced the AOV that we should participate in the Games while Franklin supervised. They agreed after some consideration.
We all competed individually in order to ensure that the other competitors had a chance. Alt4-me was the first of the AOV to be knocked out during competition followed by Keeper, Warden, FM, FDM, me, ISS-me and TSS-me.XRU- me wins the Games and hands off the prize to the runner ups, the Children of Tomorrow.
XRU-me was brutal in dismantling his opposition. He mixed up his method of attack so that one opponent would be taken out by a telepathic assault while the next would be taken out with an energy blast or a telekinetic strike, hydrokinetic attack or a physical blow depending on the target. Each attack method was calculated for maximum damage with the least amount of effort. For the heavy hitters like the Thors and Hulks he cheated and rewrote them at the cellular level and turned them baseline human. For large groups such as the Avengers and the X-men and Children of Tomorrow, he simply mass produced golems of various types (water, energy, psionic constructs or enhanced flesh golems) and overwhelmed them.
Losing to XRU-me paradoxically invigorated me. It was good to have a new benchmark, to have someone that could kick my ass without breaking a sweat. As Mai said in Avatar the Last Airbender, “Victory is boring”. I needed something to work towards to keep myself engaged with the world around me.
I allowed Midas and the Young Cyclops to take over the day to day tasks of running the Central Park School so I could seek out more challenges and their respective opportunities for personal advancements.
I visited the various planets of Alt 2, making myself known to the various alien worlds and empires. Those of peaceful natures I studied their sciences and helped them to advance their knowledge when applicable and advisable. Often I left behind better shielding and power generation technology in my wake.
On hostile worlds I or more often my proxies were subjected to various weapons of varying effect. The best weapons I added to my armor. I roamed about stopping wars by wading into the front line and practicing my biological manipulation on the individual level and on the masses.
Some empires labeled me a hero and others labeled me as a great scourge and enemy. Some did both.
The next Games, only a few members of the AOV compete. I progressed much further this time but I still ended up losing against XRU-me. He maxed out on powers and overloaded my energy absorption abilities. It hurt a lot.
After leaving the Games I'm both frustrated and excited about my loss. It's confusing. I decided that therapy was necessary to deal with my psychological issues.
NWI has branched out in other universes and now offers advanced health care options. Curing of various cellular failures eg cancer as well as some genetic afflictions such as sickle cell anemia and haeomophilia.
XRU-me and I enhanced various therapists with class 4 telepathy so that they could better address psychological issues from the inside of their patient's mind.
I finally get around to treating my PTSD...
Between Jackson, Phoenix, Phorcys and Apocalypse and all the life and death fights I had some serious unaddressed issues that I had been avoiding dealing with for decades.
I sought out Alt2-Galactus in order to become a temporary herald for him so Alt2-Earth could avoid his inevitable attempt to eat the planet.
I used the XRU-me's knowledge to install a temporal device on multiple moons orbiting various life bearing planets (without sentient, civilised life forms) to alleviate Galactus's unbearable hunger. This way every time he finishes eating one of the planets he could activate the moon based temporal technology to rewind time on a planetary level so that the planet restores itself. I spread these through several places so as to spread out the damage done to the cosmic entities of Eternity and Infinity. Several unpopulated planets for Galactus to use as an all you can eat buffet was a small price to pay for him not to destabilize alien empires and consume billions of sentients while he was trying to fulfill his cosmic mission.
In exchange I get a Power Cosmic boost allowing me to absorb and transmute energy and matter on a class 6 spectrum and get unlimited access to Galan's/ Galactus's tech. I could also transverse space much easier without using the Shiar translight travel equipment. I passed on my Galactus solution to the rest of the AOV so they could deal with their respective Galactii. We had previously discussed whether we should eliminate him but he served a vital purpose in that the life energy he consumed in this universe would be used to reboot the universe after heat death.
On our next meeting the AOV agreed to form a black ops division, nicknamed the Punisher Squad, their sole task is to execute those whose very existence poses an unbearable risk to humanity/decency. They are led by an enhanced CW Punisher with class 4 precognition and telepathy who oversees their task.
I visited Arena World infrequently to work on enhancing the facilities further with alien tech I've reverse engineered or stolen or with newly developed tech from allied worlds.
I visited Keeper and Warden to check on the psychological rehabilitation of the Last Beyonder. He's gained some perspective and humility during his incarceration. I take him out Keeper and Warden's supervision and relocate him to Franklin's school to be further trained and socialized.
I gave the other prisoners the choice, they could either remain imprisoned or be rehabilitated and rejoin society as productive useful members.
Most accept the offer of rehabilitation. Quite a few of them are trying to screw me over... However they don't really understand what I meant when I meant rehabilitation. I probed their minds and I root through their psyche to find their motivations for anti social behavior.
Some are deranged, others are misguided and others have megalomaniac type tendencies.
The deranged, I prescribe an ongoing series of telepathic exploration and treatment by the enhanced therapists. The process will take weeks or months to navigate and ensure their psychological health before their reintroduction to society. Those who used villainy for profit and power, I redirect their sociopathy into political activism and corporate acquisition. This gains me politicians and corporate raiders with ruthlessness and drive and reduces the Warden and Keeper's work load.
I have worlds of resources to make use of in ZU1 and quite a bit of alien tech as well as shares of NWI. I've also expanded NWI on a smaller scale within ALt2, slowly building up infrastructure and reinvigorating the Alt2 community with jobs and opportunities for advancement.
MY mind on the other hand is a little more problematic. I seem to suffer from short term and long term memory loss... or long gaps between memory retrievals . Cybernetics serve as a stop gap measure but the problem seems to be my organic mind.
I have therapy sessions once a week with one of the enhanced therapists, it only lasts about ten minutes in the physical plane but about an hour in the psychic realm. While a therapist can dig deep into a patient's mind, it's not recommended to stay too long as the psychosis and or neurosis can rub off. My mind is especially fractured and damaged from psychic incursions, possessions and the Beyonder battle.
XRU provides additional help for SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) situations. XRU-me works with me and on me in order to rewrite neural pathways to be faster and more streamlined.
I have the 'golem collective' spread out across worlds to allieviate the concerns from the OV civilians of their population growth. The members of the 'golem collective' have no effective predators which historically is not a great sign for other species in the area. They have used Antarctica as a weapon. .. ditching their bodies to possess the continent to use against the Sentinels. They get stronger with every new member they create.
Luckily for the humans, the 'golem collective' have a strong moral core, based on who I used to be so they're not likely to try and kill humans unless excessively provoked. I try to limit my telepathic contact with them as my mind is far darker than it used to be and I don't want them corrupted or polluted by my darker psyche.
Game no 6
XRU-me and I fight to a stand still. The 5 minute time limit ending the match before a conclusive victory for either side. (I had originally instituted it so that the matches didn't drag out too long and bore the audience)
Game 10
I battle against XRU-me using hundreds of enhanced flesh golems to compete against his... I win but the cost feels too high when I see the corpses of the flesh golems, it feels too much like using them for cannon fodder when with a tiny mental tweak they'd be sentient individuals.
After my tainted victory. I decided that creating bodies solely to fight and die for my own ego was the height of hubris. I finally appreciated why XRU-me was so unpopular. I kept going down dark paths with my power, usually alternates getting there first.
I petitioned that the AOV should only participate in the Games once a decade, so as not to deprive the others of victory and to prevent unnecessary displays of power. It was agreed.
I had a talk with XRU-me about curtailing the use of enhanced flesh golems. He told me he'd think about it.
During a meeting of the AOV, we come to the conclusion that the Punisher Squad is insufficient to deal with the volume of depraved individuals in the ShadowVerse. The AOV decides on an alternate plan.
We set up a planet in ZU2 with moderate levels of technology and spread the word of its location throughout the criminal underworld of the Shadowverse. On this new planet there is no established government or legal enforcement. It's a criminals paradise, no cops, no government, just bad people selling drugs and killing each other. It's not a perfect solution by any means but it's better than the alternative for a better world.
Once the worst of the worst of the ShadowVerse are relocated to Midnight Madness (the planet's name) the unifying of the worlds can begin.
The first step is to unify the Earth's nations into a world government. The UN and SHIELD are the closest thing to a world government so I take elements of both and form a new UED (United Earth Directive/Defense). Each nation has a representative in the UED and instead of nations fighting with each other trying to inflict their ideological and cultural values upon each other with warfare, their disputes can be mediated by an impartial mediator. Each nation state retains a level of autonomy but it is held to a global standard. The persecution of those of a different religion, nationality, skin color or sexuality is banned. The oversight of the nations are monitored by the relatively impartial Triad which is in turn overseen by me or one of the AOV.
The AOV members institute the UED on their Earths. The Earths and their populations have varying reactions to the this new idea. A vast percentage of people are afraid and angry at this proposed new world, worried that their individual culture will be erased... Others are indifferent and some are relieved that World War 3 may never happen. Resistance is high.
So I make it public how many worlds and universes pose a risk to Earth... and they huddle together (after the riots) against the dangers that their universe and other universes posed to their lives. It's depressing how much easier it is to unite people with fear rather than logic or reason. Oh well, humanity has its flaws but it has great potential. It's somewhat sad that so often it's a fear of a larger threat that unifies a disparate people.
Gaining a world government is only the first stage in resolving the Shadowverse problem but it's an important first step.
I waited ten years for people to get used to the Earth Global Initiative, where nations let go of their nationalistic pride and ego and slowly start combining resources in order to protect their world from the bigger threat...
Then AOV introduces the second stage of the Shadowverse plan; Universal cohesion.
Representatives from each Earth are sent to neighboring alien empires in order to establish relations. The reactions from the aliens from the upstart humans infringing upon their worlds and empires is mixed.
Some welcome us, most ignore us as insignificant and others fear us for our involvement in multiple universe threatening antics.
It's a mixed bag.
It takes nearly a hundred years for humanity to expand its reach and improve its standing in the intergalactic community to be considered adequate for inclusion.
The Games help keep the heroes busy during down times. Due to the high volumes of entrants, we've had to institute a qualification round prior to the Games for the heroes. Similar to the Olympics. The training and qualifying helps to ensure only the strongest and smartest compete in the hologramatically recorded events watched by trillions of individuals.
Throughout the universes NWI provides free health care to mutants, mutates, aliens, enhanced humans and anyone else with an unusual power set or mutation and their family members. Part of it is philanthropic, most of it is practical. Insane and insanely powerful is not a healthy combination.
The Franklin School has expanded as has the Alt2- Central School.
Those with untapped genetic potential are sent to the Franklin Planet in order to be with the millions of other potentials so they can learn the basics in order to control their powers whenever they develop. Meditation, mental health and morality are the main tenants of the preparatory schools on Franklin's Planet.
The AOV has worked together to push each other further and protect each other from harm. I used XRU's gene clones sparingly if at all in combat, ISS's superior cybernetic and technological advancements are inside me keeping my mind and body together in relatively good condition and TSS's higher order spells keep me protected from any random mystical threats. We layer protections over each other so that if a spell fails to hold against a threat, a technologically generated energy shield will spring up. We have so many layers of protection that to an outsider it probably reeks of paranoia but it's been an odd and perilous journey to get here and we're not going to coast to an early grave. With the weakness sight, multiple redundancies are necessary to prevent frustration.
I watched (via the Bridge) as the Marvel Multiverse descended into chaos and its remnants were reorganized under their 616 Doom which fell apart with the introduction of new elements that destabilized his reign. The Marvel Multiverse's 616 Reed Richards and Franklin Richards combined with Molecule Man to create new universes. Thousands of them. It was a stupid and careless method that restored Molecule Man's mental health while endangering everyone in the Shadowverse. Hence the AOV and me struggling to unite each of the universes against the threat of rogue universes breaching the ShadowVerse's defenses.
Despite the growing amount of reality warpers and superpowered individuals helping to shore up the defenses between the multiverses. It was inevitable that the Marvel Multiverse would infringe upon the Shadowverse again and something someone did over there would risk their Multiverse and ours.
Their Beyonders had been destroyed in an unknown way by Doom, the Molecule Man and Stephen Strange.
After 120 years of operations the AOV has solved many large and small problems but this one had loomed over us since the Beyonder Battle. Admittedly the AOV had caused some problems of its own usually while trying to fix another problem.
Hulk was rigged with a special cybernetic implant that remotely regulated his neurochemicals, decreasing or increasing his rage as needed. The operation was performed on Bruce Banner while he was asleep so as not to trigger a Hulk event. It was a success but it meant while Bruce Banner had control over his own emotional stability, anyone that got hold of his control system could trigger a Hulk event at any time.
War for the most part has been ended across the Shadowverse as the universes are united. There are skirmishes from time to time as nations or tribes or races fight between each other or themselves. However each planet has its own defense force comprised of a selection of local heroes, Helpbots, golem collective members, loyal Skrulls and mutates for diplomatic and defense reasons. This policy helped to reduce the risk of a critical build up of superpowered in the one place. They serve as international and galactic peacekeepers.
Disease has mostly been eradicated with alien biotech and Panacea. However there are still deaths from malpractice (incompatible biology or training mishaps ) and overuse of Panacea results in complete cellular fatigue. Panacea is used frequently to combat old age as well as thousands of various of low level to mid level injuries and illnesses. This negligible death rate resulted in a overpopulation of humans on Earth which required expansion through the stars and beyond. This population explosion triggered a massive investment by the UEDs in space exploration technology and terraforming capabilities. Humanity spread throughout their own universes and when demand outstripped supply they ended up expanding into ZU1 and ZU2. Then the death rate increased again with extra planetary pioneering and restoration efforts. Reality warpers were in high demand to restore planetary ecosystems or to modify them for terran purposes.
A transdimensional airport was built. In the beginning only the rich, powerful and super intelligent traveled between universes either for their own reasons or to participate in the Games on the Arena Planet. However it wasn't too long after the Games became a transdimensional tourist attraction that millions of people traveled between universes daily. The airport became a major hub of activity requiring telepathic, telekinetic and technological screening to prevent transdimensional fugitives and terrorists from causing destruction and suffering on an unexpecting universe.
Universal unification only required a few assassinations and supported coups to remove some intransigent leaders. Iceman wasn't thrilled by my ruthlessness but it was remarkably effective in reducing resistance to unification. As a compromise to his sensibilities, I aimed for more slapstick measures to dethrone intractable opposition. Sex tapes (using shape shifters or clones) were distributed, non fatal accidents were arranged, hypoxia inflicted to dumb down opposition and leaders that were more agreeable were bankrolled.
One of the less problematic solutions that the AOV came up with was the Disaster Program.
Disasters and planetary threats are dealt with teams of supers. A-teams tackle the major threat while B-teams secure civilians and rescue civilians from incidental combat. C-teams consists of healers necromancers and telekinetic reinforcers. Training for heroes has become heavily regulated in areas such as combat strategy and civilian defense. Telekinesis is one of the most common and least appreciated of all mutate talents.
B teams are traded from universe to universe for experience in order to see if they had enough potential to be included in an A team.
Teleportation technology developed during the incursion crisis replaces Triton transport, eliminating one of the NWI revenue streams.
The Punisher Squad gets trigger happy on Midnight Madness. Most of them die during the battle. CW Punisher ends up killing himself and me (proxy) in a bloody frenzy.
'Guardian Clouds' are replaced by personal shielding as the 'clouds' became a bit too fanatical about protecting their charges.
On a personal front Iceman and me were married after 12 years of dating/shagging when the US finally got around to legalizing and recognizing gay marriage on a federal level. I've seen my own family die of old age while I remained eternally in my prime through biomanipulation. I did offer to extend their life spans through biomanipulation but they remained stubborn about living out their mortal lives.
I've developed genetic manipulation to such a level that I'm essentially the Swiss army knife of super powers. Most of the time I limit myself to class 5 hydrokinesis, class 4 telepathy, teleportation and class 5 biological manipulation with class 3 range. It's impractical and incredibly dangerous to have all the powers I've accumulated on and active at the same time and generally unnecessary.
Quentin and Danger are a power couple... Quentin converts to psionic energy to remain in his prime, signs of deterioration caused by mental fatigue.
The younger version of Iceman is set to replace my Iceman when he/we retire.
Everyone else in the AOV have settled into their own particular grooves, most of them associated with the NWPI (New Wave Pandimensional Industries). TSS-me runs the mystical division of NWPI, ISS-me runs the technological department, XRU-me runs the medical research division, Warden and Keeper jointly run the correctional facilities. FM is CEO of NWPI and FDM run the security division of NWPI liaising with Adam and Ben in the Panoptichron to monitor the Shadowverse for threats and coordinate relief and defense initiatives. Alt4-me has shacked up with Franklin Richards in his school and helps out with the students by organizing fun social events for them.
I'm restless and eager for a new challenge as life has become too safe and mundane. It's getting to the point where the administration of the Shadowverse and dealing with all my alternate selves is becoming unbearable.
End notes
This chapter was chock full of seeming non sequitors to indicate Victor's psychic damage from the cumulative effects of over a century of conflict and administrative tedium.
One more chapter to go... Woohoo !