I was summoned by a super villainess to another universe - Chapter 1

"So you are saying I was summoned by a super villainess to another universe?"

Earl Bowman, the social services liaison from The Victims of Paranormal Crimes Unit (VoPCU), sat across from Jack Cooper. Jack was sitting on a couch in the break room of the Caretakers, the strongest superhero group in all of Empire City. Apparently Empire City was geographically in the same location as New York City in Jack's old world. The group had done a raid on the Diablo Alliance who was trying, once again, to summon forth the Anti-Christ.

Earl scratched his chin and looked thoughtful, "Ehhh... basically? Yes." He cleared his throat and launched into a monologue.

"We finished checking up on you and feel we can tell you the whole story now. The Caretakers are the primary protectors of Empire City and it is a huge task, let me tell you. In 1989 the Shadow Master summoned the Anti-Christ to Empire City and the resulting death toll was over a million in less than three days. Eventually the Anti-Christ was banished back to whatever Hell dimension he had came from, and The Shadow Master was sent right along side him. The devastation to Empire City was extreme. It has taken decades for the city to recover as much as it has. However, we didn't capture all of the Alliance and several high ranking members escaped. Three days ago, when the Diablo Alliance attempted to breach the walls between realities and summon forth the Anti-Christ again, the Caretakers had been warned and got the drop on them. Unfortunately, destroying the dimensional breeching device had an unintended side effect."

Jack nodded along, "I got part of the story already. You're saying that the real name of the Anti-Christ in this world is Jack Cooper and when the machine went haywire, it summoned the first Jack Cooper it could find in the multi-verse." Jack leaned back and sipped the hot coco they had made for him. His eyes glanced around at all the beautiful women who were lounging about the room. Most seemed rather worried for Jack's well being. The only male in the room, beside himself, was Earl Bowman, a rather sweaty, effeminate looking man dressed in a cheap suit.

Earl nodded and gave Jack a well-practiced smile, "Indeed. We're terribly sorry. This isn't the first time that someone from another planet or universe has wound up on our world. It's happened enough that we're, well... reluctant experts at dealing with the problem at this point."

Jack incredulously stared at Earl over his mug, "How many?"

Earl reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of forms, "Currently? Well, in the United States, it's about one out of a hundred thousand citizens." He held out his hands as if weighing things, "About one out of a ten have some sort of Meta power, but only one out of a hundred of those have any power that is actually worth a damn." He rolled his hand in the air, "Then we have about twenty five thousand or so aliens."

"Wow... I assume you don't mean coming in from Mexico." Jack's eyes widened slightly.

Earl looked around and then let out a soft chuckle, "What? You don't have extraterrestrial life in your universe?"

Jack nodded with a shrug and a raised eyebrow, "Exactly. We call it the great silence. For some reason, we seem to be alone in the universe. The deeper we look into the great void, the more we discover we are alone." He paused, "Well... alone in OUR universe, it seems."

"Wow. No superpowers, no aliens, nobody ever arrives from parallel universes..." Earl looked stunned, "You must live on the safest planet in the cosmos!"

Jack sipped his coco and muttered into his cup, "I suppose in comparison..."

The Druidess, A woman with black hair, black eyes, and dressed in green robes, who was sitting next to Jack interrupted, "I can't even imagine such a place. It must be terribly... dull." Her figure was absolutely kicking. Even though her clothing was loose and billowing, it seemed to some how cling in all the right places to show off her hourglass figure. When Jack looked at her, he was treated to wide hips, gravity defying breasts, and the occasional gap that would demonstrate that she apparently didn't believe in undergarments. She didn't look old, but not youthful either. She had this sort of timelessness about her.

Jack laughed, "Well..." He finished the last of his coco, "It has its moments."

Earl handed the pile of papers to Jack, "As for your case, the government will provide you with a place to live for six months. There is a month of mandatory monitoring by agents from Vop-cu. We already have your apartment; in about three days we'll have all the paperwork done. You know, basically everything you need to start a new life." He handed over a card, "This is the contact information for your psychologist. I'm afraid you will have mandatory weekly meetings for a year, just to make sure you are adjusting well." He sighed, "I am sorry we can't send you back. We don't know which universe you came from, and sending you out blind..." He let the sentence drift away, heavy with implication.

One of the women who was lounging in the corner waved two fingers, "Just call me Doctor Brown." She had long brown hair, brown eyes, a thin figure, well tanned, and came across as a stereotypical scientist type. In fact, that was one of things that stood out about everyone that Jack was meeting. Everyone seemed to dress and act like a stereotype. Like her name sake, she wore a well tailored, brown pant suit.

There was the strong, bulging muscle, Amazonian girl with long, strawberry blond hair, towering over everyone else at almost seven feet. Her skintight outfit made her look vaguely like a baseball player. On her chest right between her massive breasts was a giant 'A', which stood for 'All-Star', her super-heroine name.

Earl started swiping along the surface of a tablet as he jumped from file to file, "Just to clarify and confirm things. Sorry if all this is redundant, but I am required to confirm everything and make sure you understand the full story." He looked up over the edge of his tablet, "You are Jack Cooper, correct?" Jack nodded. Earl frowned, "Please speak aloud. This is being recorded."

Jack make an 'O' with his lips, "Ooo! Sorry. Uh, yes. I am Jack Cooper. I am from another Earth. There I am a citizen of that planet's United States. I have read the notes you gave me before and I am prepared to live under your laws, as it seems to be basically the same."

"You are twenty eight years old. You were working as a..." Earl squinted, "Phone... Monkey?" He looked up, "What's a phone monkey?"

Jack cringed, "Sorry. I wasn't taking all of this very seriously when I filled that form out." He tapped himself on the side of his head, "It's only just now really sinking in." He leaned forward and hunched his shoulders in a gesture of compliance, "Phone Monkey means I worked in a call center."

Earl nodded, "AH. I understand." He returned to scrolling through the file, "You had no wife or girlfriend. Your mother is dead. You have two older sisters who... also died from cancer." He looked up, "My condolences."

Jack shrugged, "It was a while ago."

Earl looked back at his tablet, "And your father was alive last time you checked, but that was quite a long time ago."

Jack shrugged, "The bastard cheated on Mom while she was dying of cancer. We had a huge fight the last time we talked, so there is no love lost there." He put his empty cup on the coffee table, "So I'm not going to miss him at ALL."

Earl nodded, "Well, that might be a good thing, in the long run." He checked his tablet again, "We did some checking, and it does not appear that any of them have dimensional duplicates here. Also, it does not appear that you are a true dimensional duplicate of our Jack Cooper, AKA The Anti-Christ." He looked up, "Which will be for the best. You do not want his face."

Jack nodded, "Oh. I agree!" He paused, "If... it's okay. My name sounds kind of generic where I come from, but it is MY name. Would it be okay if I keep it, or do you think I should change it, because of the negative association?"

"There shouldn't be any problems in that regard. Very few people know his real name anyways..." Earl rolled his eyes, "For security reasons, obviously."

"Obviously..." Jack echoed.

Earl sighed and took off his glasses to clean them, "Now... I know it's been a rough few days, but... well... I have bad news."

Jack looked around at everyone, "I was wondering why we were having the intervention." He took a deep breath, "I'm a rip the band aid off kinda guy." He patted his chest with both hands, "Lay it on me."

The Druidess put a hand on Jack's shoulder, "Your results came back. You have superpowers."

Jack stared at her, "Annnnnd... Why is that BAD news?"

Doctor Brown stepped away from the wall she was leaning against, "There are a number of factors when it comes to having superpowers and how they manifest. The primary one is monad strength." Jack squinted and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. Brown clarified, "Monads are the WIMP particles that allow people to manifest powers. About one in ten have enough monads to manifest SOMETHING. We chart it on a logarithmic scale. Most men are at a two. Most women at a three. The average monad strength you need to manifest powers is a four. The ratio of  women to men above a four is about nine to one. You... are a four point one."

"Okay..." Jack rolled a hand in the air in a gesture urging them to get to the point.

Druidess spoke next, "There are three... well... general categories of powers. The elementalist is someone who has a very tight group of powers based around one thing, typically an element, but it can be any concept, really. They are very limited in what they can do, but they are the most efficient at monad usage. The next category is the generalist. They usually are limited to a certain broad category. They can do way more than an elementalist, but usually not as effective."

Brown spoke up, "For example, a fire elementalist could be made of fire, shoot fire, fly, detect fire, that sort of thing." She cleared her throat, "But a generalist might be able to make a flame thrower, or a dome of fire, or a much broader range of fire adjacent effects, but usually can only do one or two things at the same time, where as a fire elementalist can do everything at once."

Druidess nodded, "And usually an elementalist can do it much longer than a generalist."

One of the women who hadn't said anything yet, giggled as she muttered, "All-star definitely can go much longer than the rest of us." All-star glared at her.

Druidess continued, "The third category is called... cosmic." She raised a single finger and slowly brought it down until it pointed at Jack.

Jack pointed at himself, "I'm... cosmic?"

Doctor Brown nodded, "Yes. Cosmic power users can usually do... anything. Well. They usually have some sort of limitation to help focus their minds, but in theory, a cosmic user can do anything, but..."

Jack nodded slowly, "But if you can do anything, you are the least efficient at using monads, I assume?"

The Druidess touched her nose, "Bingo. Honestly, I have no idea how you can even have a cosmic power framework with a monad score so low. Theoretically, it shouldn't even be possible."

Doctor Brown nodded, "I'll be surprised if you could figure out how to light a cigarette."

Everyone looked very concerned at giving Jack this bad news. To be so close to being a superhero, only to have your dreams crushed at the finish line. This is what all the women in the room were thinking. Jack had a different attitude about all this, "I... didn't have any powers to begin with, so even if I learn how to light cigarettes with my mind, that's more than I had back on my world." Jack smiled around the room, "It's all good."

All-star looked touched and a little impressed, "Wow. I read what you filled out on the paperwork, How you wished to be a superhero? I was quite moved. I thought you'd take this a lot harder."

Jack remembered what he wrote in the paperwork they asked him to fill out when they first rescued him. When asked what he wanted to do with his life, he wrote an essay that was absolutely dripping with sarcasm because at the time he thought this was one massive joke. If they look it seriously, they'd obviously think that he wanted to be a superhero, more than anything, ~No wonder they all gathered around like this. They think they are shattering my life's dream. Ouch! Do they not have sarcasm here?~ He took a deep breath through gritted teeth, ~Well, best not be an asshole about this.~

Jack let out a long breath, then did his best to look like he was trying hard to put on a brave front, "Isn't the point of being a superhero to help other people? Just because I don't have any powers, doesn't mean I can't help people." He looked around at the people who had been taking care of him for the past three days and had to admit to himself they were very nice people. He had been rude to them because he was pissed. He was increasingly coming to regret his actions and resolved to do better.

Doctor Brown perked up, "Oh. We didn't say you didn't have ANY powers, you just... well... whatever they develop into, they are just going to be very, very, very WEAK."

All-star looked a bit sad, "And... I'm sorry but we'll have to turn down any application to join the team. It would just be too dangerous and we're full up on sidekicks at the moment." She tried to give him an encouraging smile, "However, I don't think anyone would object to you signing on for a support position."

Jack nodded slowly, "You know what? Maybe... it's best I just take a few weeks to find myself, you know what I mean?"

Druidess moved her hand to give him a supporting pat on the knee, "That's a good idea. And hey, you are still young! Haven't quite hit that wall yet! Rather than running around as a superhero, you should focus on finding yourself a good woman and raising a family." She gave his knee a squeeze, "I'm sure any woman would be lucky to have you as a house husband!"

Jack gave Druidess a double take, "House husband?"

Doctor Brown smacked her forehead, "Goddamn it, Druidess! Why do always have to keep spouting that trad crap? It's not the nineteen fifties anymore!" She turned to Jack, "I'm sorry our friend here is a little sexist. It's perfectly acceptable for a man to seek a career outside the home."

Jack blinked and blinked HARD, "You don't say."

In the corner of the room was a girl with tattoos and a cybernetic arm. She had been fiddling with her arm the whole time and had not spoken up until now. Jack vaguely remembered the red head cyborg as Quantum. She glanced up, "We're making assumption here. Do they even have men's liberation on your world?"

Jack looked back at her, "Are you talking about Men's rights?" Quantum nodded. Jack chewed on his thumbnail for a moment before continuing, "Theoretically, everyone is equal under the law where I come from. In practice..." He shrugged, "It is what it is."

Doctor Brown gave Jack a sympathetic smile, "Well, We'll address those issues as they come up. That's what the weekly meetings are about."

"Right-right." Jack kept nodding, "Well... thanks for all you have done for me. This has been a wild few days. I think-" He looked at Earl, "If I have an apartment, I'd like to go see it. If that's okay?"

Earl nodded and pulled out a small yellow envelope that jingled as if there was a set of keys in there, "It's not that far from here, and on a bus line!" He offered the envelope, "All provided by the government through section ten."

Jack took the envelope, opened it up, and upended its contents into his hand. A smart phone and a set of keys slid out along with some instructions on how to activate the phone, and the address where he lived.

Jack had spent several hours in his new apartment surfing the Internet on his phone.

His section ten housing was in a motel complex that had been converted to use. You got assigned one of the motel rooms. If you needed to use a kitchen, there was one provided in a common area. The in-ground pool had been drained and left empty. There was parking available, but not many cars, apparently.

On the surface, this world was like his old one. Once you dug deep, you discovered a number of differences that stood out. Mainly how it seemed like gender roles had flipped. He tried to figure out why for the better part of an hour before giving up. Eventually he just leaned back on his bed then talked to himself, "I'm on a planet of horny, super powered women."

He put his hands behind his head and regarded the water stained drop tile ceiling above his bed, "Is there a downside to this?" He started bounce his foot on the edge of the bed, "I mean, my life wasn't that exciting back home. The chances of me getting laid were non-existent. However, if I sleep around, I'll have to worry about slut shaming… right? Is there a way to have my cake, and eat it too?"

He abruptly sat up, "Do I give a shit what people think about me?" He got up and walked into the small bathroom that came with his one room apartment. He looked into the mirror, "Do you?" He peered intently at himself, "Do you give a shit?" He hung his head, "Why am I talking to myself?" He turned on the sink and washed his face, then looked up again. He frowned as he concentrated on his reflected visage, "Wait a sec..." He turned his head to the left, then to the right, "Why... don't I have any stubble?"

He scratched his chin, "Holy shit... I haven't been growing a beard?" Straightening up he examined the mirror, "I wonder why? Wait. She said I can do anything with cosmic power, there are just... power limits, right? I can only do... small amounts of anything, I presume. If that’s the case, what is a small amount of..." He looked intently at his chin, “Shape shifting?”

He straightened up and focused on his face, specifically the small scar on his chin. It always bothered him, even if it wasn't anything special. He focused on it and thought to himself, ~Smooth.~ He felt something click in his head and the scar disappeared. He blinked and staggered back in surprise.

As soon as he stopped concentrating, it returned.

He touched his chin and started to rub it, "What the...?" He thought for a few minutes then left the bathroom to go check the door. He made sure it was locked, then drew the curtains closed. He turned off the lights, retreated to the bathroom, closed the door and locked it as well, "Okay..." He cracked his knuckles.

"Let's find out exactly what the weakest wielder of cosmic power can do!"

And if you got any silly ideas, just jot them in the comments. I got a stack of 30 year old notes I'm using, so don't expect this to be Proust. Let's have some fun with this.

"So you are saying I was summoned by a super villainess to another universe?" Earl Bowman, the social services liaison from The Victims of Paranormal Crimes Unit VoPCU, sat across from Jack Cooper. Jack was sitting on a couch in the break room of the Caretakers, the strongest superhero group in all of Empire City. Apparently Empire City was geographically in the same location as New York City in Jack's old world. The group had done a raid on the Diablo Alliance who was trying, once again, to summon forth the Anti-Christ. Earl scratched his chin and looked thoughtful, "Ehhh... basically? Yes." He cleared his throat and launched into a monologue. "We finished checking up on you and feel we can tell you the whole story now. The Caretakers are the primary protectors of Empire City and it is a huge task, let me tell you. In 1989 the Shadow Master summoned the Anti-Christ to Empire City and the resulting death toll was over a million in less than three days. Eventually the Anti-Christ was banished back to whatever Hell dimension he had came from, and The Shadow Master was sent right along side him. The devastation to Empire City was extreme. It has taken decades for the city to recover as much as it has. However, we didn't capture all of the Alliance and several high ranking members escaped. Three days ago, when the Diablo Alliance attempted to breach the walls between realities and summon forth the Anti-Christ again, the Caretakers had been warned and got the drop on them. Unfortunately, destroying the dimensional breeching device had an unintended side effect." Jack nodded along, "I got part of the story already. You're saying that the real name of the Anti-Christ in this world is Jack Cooper and when the machine went haywire, it summoned the first Jack Cooper it could find in the multi-verse." Jack leaned back and sipped the hot coco they had made for him. His eyes glanced around at all the beautiful women who were lounging about the room. Most seemed rather worried for Jack's well being. The only male in the room, beside himself, was Earl Bowman, a rather sweaty, effeminate looking man dressed in a cheap suit. Earl nodded and gave Jack a well-practiced smile, "Indeed. We're terribly sorry. This isn't the first time that someone from another planet or universe has wound up on our world. It's happened enough that we're, well... reluctant experts at dealing with the problem at this point." Jack incredulously stared at Earl over his mug, "How many?" Earl reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of forms, "Currently? Well, in the United States, it's about one out of a hundred thousand citizens." He held out his hands as if weighing things, "About one out of a ten have some sort of Meta power, but only one out of a hundred of those have any power that is actually worth a damn." He rolled his hand in the air, "Then we have about twenty five thousand or so aliens." "Wow... I assume you don't mean coming in from Mexico." Jack's eyes widened slightly. Earl looked around and then let out a soft chuckle, "What? You don't have extraterrestrial life in your universe?" Jack nodded with a shrug and a raised eyebrow, "Exactly. We call it the great silence. For some reason, we seem to be alone in the universe. The deeper we look into the great void, the more we discover we are alone." He paused, "Well... alone in OUR universe, it seems." "Wow. No superpowers, no aliens, nobody ever arrives from parallel universes..." Earl looked stunned, "You must live on the safest planet in the cosmos!" Jack sipped his coco and muttered into his cup, "I suppose in comparison..." The Druidess, A woman with black hair, black eyes, and dressed in green robes, who was sitting next to Jack interrupted, "I can't even imagine such a place. It must be terribly... dull." Her figure was absolutely kicking. Even though her clothing was loose and billowing, it seemed to some how cling in all the right places to show off her hourglass figure. When Jack looked at her, he was treated to wide hips, gravity defying breasts, and the occasional gap that would demonstrate that she apparently didn't believe in undergarments. She didn't look old, but not youthful either. She had this sort of timelessness about her. Jack laughed, "Well..." He finished the last of his coco, "It has its moments." Earl handed the pile of papers to Jack, "As for your case, the government will provide you with a place to live for six months. There is a month of mandatory monitoring by agents from Vop-cu. We already have your apartment; in about three days we'll have all the paperwork done. You know, basically everything you need to start a new life." He handed over a card, "This is the contact information for your psychologist. I'm afraid you will have mandatory weekly meetings for a year, just to make sure you are adjusting well." He sighed, "I am sorry we can't send you back. We don't know which universe you came from, and sending you out blind..." He let the sentence drift away, heavy with implication. One of the women who was lounging in the corner waved two fingers, "Just call me Doctor Brown." She had long brown hair, brown eyes, a thin figure, well tanned, and came across as a stereotypical scientist type. In fact, that was one of things that stood out about everyone that Jack was meeting. Everyone seemed to dress and act like a stereotype. Like her name sake, she wore a well tailored, brown pant suit. There was the strong, bulging muscle, Amazonian girl with long, strawberry blond hair, towering over everyone else at almost seven feet. Her skintight outfit made her look vaguely like a baseball player. On her chest right between her massive breasts was a giant 'A', which stood for 'All-Star', her super-heroine name. Earl started swiping along the surface of a tablet as he jumped from file to file, "Just to clarify and confirm things. Sorry if all this is redundant, but I am required to confirm everything and make sure you understand the full story." He looked up over the edge of his tablet, "You are Jack Cooper, correct?" Jack nodded. Earl frowned, "Please speak aloud. This is being recorded." Jack make an 'O' with his lips, "Ooo! Sorry. Uh, yes. I am Jack Cooper. I am from another Earth. There I am a citizen of that planet's United States. I have read the notes you gave me before and I am prepared to live under your laws, as it seems to be basically the same." "You are twenty eight years old. You were working as a..." Earl squinted, "Phone... Monkey?" He looked up, "What's a phone monkey?" Jack cringed, "Sorry. I wasn't taking all of this very seriously when I filled that form out." He tapped himself on the side of his head, "It's only just now really sinking in." He leaned forward and hunched his shoulders in a gesture of compliance, "Phone Monkey means I worked in a call center." Earl nodded, "AH. I understand." He returned to scrolling through the file, "You had no wife or girlfriend. Your mother is dead. You have two older sisters who... also died from cancer." He looked up, "My condolences." Jack shrugged, "It was a while ago." Earl looked back at his tablet, "And your father was alive last time you checked, but that was quite a long time ago." Jack shrugged, "The bastard cheated on Mom while she was dying of cancer. We had a huge fight the last time we talked, so there is no love lost there." He put his empty cup on the coffee table, "So I'm not going to miss him at ALL." Earl nodded, "Well, that might be a good thing, in the long run." He checked his tablet again, "We did some checking, and it does not appear that any of them have dimensional duplicates here. Also, it does not appear that you are a true dimensional duplicate of our Jack Cooper, AKA The Anti-Christ." He looked up, "Which will be for the best. You do not want his face." Jack nodded, "Oh. I agree!" He paused, "If... it's okay. My name sounds kind of generic where I come from, but it is MY name. Would it be okay if I keep it, or do you think I should change it, because of the negative association?" "There shouldn't be any problems in that regard. Very few people know his real name anyways..." Earl rolled his eyes, "For security reasons, obviously." "Obviously..." Jack echoed. Earl sighed and took off his glasses to clean them, "Now... I know it's been a rough few days, but... well... I have bad news." Jack looked around at everyone, "I was wondering why we were having the intervention." He took a deep breath, "I'm a rip the band aid off kinda guy." He patted his chest with both hands, "Lay it on me." The Druidess put a hand on Jack's shoulder, "Your results came back. You have superpowers." Jack stared at her, "Annnnnd... Why is that BAD news?" Doctor Brown stepped away from the wall she was leaning against, "There are a number of factors when it comes to having superpowers and how they manifest. The primary one is monad strength." Jack squinted and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. Brown clarified, "Monads are the WIMP particles that allow people to manifest powers. About one in ten have enough monads to manifest SOMETHING. We chart it on a logarithmic scale. Most men are at a two. Most women at a three. The average monad strength you need to manifest powers is a four. The ratio of women to men above a four is about nine to one. You... are a four point one." "Okay..." Jack rolled a hand in the air in a gesture urging them to get to the point. Druidess spoke next, "There are three... well... general categories of powers. The elementalist is someone who has a very tight group of powers based around one thing, typically an element, but it can be any concept, really. They are very limited in what they can do, but they are the most efficient at monad usage. The next category is the generalist. They usually are limited to a certain broad category. They can do way more than an elementalist, but usually not as effective." Brown spoke up, "For example, a fire elementalist could be made of fire, shoot fire, fly, detect fire, that sort of thing." She cleared her throat, "But a generalist might be able to make a flame thrower, or a dome of fire, or a much broader range of fire adjacent effects, but usually can only do one or two things at the same time, where as a fire elementalist can do everything at once." Druidess nodded, "And usually an elementalist can do it much longer than a generalist." One of the women who hadn't said anything yet, giggled as she muttered, "All-star definitely can go much longer than the rest of us." All-star glared at her. Druidess continued, "The third category is called... cosmic." She raised a single finger and slowly brought it down until it pointed at Jack. Jack pointed at himself, "I'm... cosmic?" Doctor Brown nodded, "Yes. Cosmic power users can usually do... anything. Well. They usually have some sort of limitation to help focus their minds, but in theory, a cosmic user can do anything, but..." Jack nodded slowly, "But if you can do anything, you are the least efficient at using monads, I assume?" The Druidess touched her nose, "Bingo. Honestly, I have no idea how you can even have a cosmic power framework with a monad score so low. Theoretically, it shouldn't even be possible." Doctor Brown nodded, "I'll be surprised if you could figure out how to light a cigarette." Everyone looked very concerned at giving Jack this bad news. To be so close to being a superhero, only to have your dreams crushed at the finish line. This is what all the women in the room were thinking. Jack had a different attitude about all this, "I... didn't have any powers to begin with, so even if I learn how to light cigarettes with my mind, that's more than I had back on my world." Jack smiled around the room, "It's all good." All-star looked touched and a little impressed, "Wow. I read what you filled out on the paperwork, How you wished to be a superhero? I was quite moved. I thought you'd take this a lot harder." Jack remembered what he wrote in the paperwork they asked him to fill out when they first rescued him. When asked what he wanted to do with his life, he wrote an essay that was absolutely dripping with sarcasm because at the time he thought this was one massive joke. If they look it seriously, they'd obviously think that he wanted to be a superhero, more than anything, ~No wonder they all gathered around like this. They think they are shattering my life's dream. Ouch! Do they not have sarcasm here?~ He took a deep breath through gritted teeth, ~Well, best not be an asshole about this.~ Jack let out a long breath, then did his best to look like he was trying hard to put on a brave front, "Isn't the point of being a superhero to help other people? Just because I don't have any powers, doesn't mean I can't help people." He looked around at the people who had been taking care of him for the past three days and had to admit to himself they were very nice people. He had been rude to them because he was pissed. He was increasingly coming to regret his actions and resolved to do better. Doctor Brown perked up, "Oh. We didn't say you didn't have ANY powers, you just... well... whatever they develop into, they are just going to be very, very, very WEAK." All-star looked a bit sad, "And... I'm sorry but we'll have to turn down any application to join the team. It would just be too dangerous and we're full up on sidekicks at the moment." She tried to give him an encouraging smile, "However, I don't think anyone would object to you signing on for a support position." Jack nodded slowly, "You know what? Maybe... it's best I just take a few weeks to find myself, you know what I mean?" Druidess moved her hand to give him a supporting pat on the knee, "That's a good idea. And hey, you are still young! Haven't quite hit that wall yet! Rather than running around as a superhero, you should focus on finding yourself a good woman and raising a family." She gave his knee a squeeze, "I'm sure any woman would be lucky to have you as a house husband!" Jack gave Druidess a double take, "House husband?" Doctor Brown smacked her forehead, "Goddamn it, Druidess! Why do always have to keep spouting that trad crap? It's not the nineteen fifties anymore!" She turned to Jack, "I'm sorry our friend here is a little sexist. It's perfectly acceptable for a man to seek a career outside the home." Jack blinked and blinked HARD, "You don't say." In the corner of the room was a girl with tattoos and a cybernetic arm. She had been fiddling with her arm the whole time and had not spoken up until now. Jack vaguely remembered the red head cyborg as Quantum. She glanced up, "We're making assumption here. Do they even have men's liberation on your world?" Jack looked back at her, "Are you talking about Men's rights?" Quantum nodded. Jack chewed on his thumbnail for a moment before continuing, "Theoretically, everyone is equal under the law where I come from. In practice..." He shrugged, "It is what it is." Doctor Brown gave Jack a sympathetic smile, "Well, We'll address those issues as they come up. That's what the weekly meetings are about." "Right-right." Jack kept nodding, "Well... thanks for all you have done for me. This has been a wild few days. I think-" He looked at Earl, "If I have an apartment, I'd like to go see it. If that's okay?" Earl nodded and pulled out a small yellow envelope that jingled as if there was a set of keys in there, "It's not that far from here, and on a bus line!" He offered the envelope, "All provided by the government through section ten." Jack took the envelope, opened it up, and upended its contents into his hand. A smart phone and a set of keys slid out along with some instructions on how to activate the phone, and the address where he lived. Jack had spent several hours in his new apartment surfing the Internet on his phone. His section ten housing was in a motel complex that had been converted to use. You got assigned one of the motel rooms. If you needed to use a kitchen, there was one provided in a common area. The in-ground pool had been drained and left empty. There was parking available, but not many cars, apparently. On the surface, this world was like his old one. Once you dug deep, you discovered a number of differences that stood out. Mainly how it seemed like gender roles had flipped. He tried to figure out why for the better part of an hour before giving up. Eventually he just leaned back on his bed then talked to himself, "I'm on a planet of horny, super powered women." He put his hands behind his head and regarded the water stained drop tile ceiling above his bed, "Is there a downside to this?" He started bounce his foot on the edge of the bed, "I mean, my life wasn't that exciting back home. The chances of me getting laid were non-existent. However, if I sleep around, I'll have to worry about slut shaming right? Is there a way to have my cake, and eat it too?" He abruptly sat up, "Do I give a shit what people think about me?" He got up and walked into the small bathroom that came with his one room apartment. He looked into the mirror, "Do you?" He peered intently at himself, "Do you give a shit?" He hung his head, "Why am I talking to myself?" He turned on the sink and washed his face, then looked up again. He frowned as he concentrated on his reflected visage, "Wait a sec..." He turned his head to the left, then to the right, "Why... don't I have any stubble?" He scratched his chin, "Holy shit... I haven't been growing a beard?" Straightening up he examined the mirror, "I wonder why? Wait. She said I can do anything with cosmic power, there are just... power limits, right? I can only do... small amounts of anything, I presume. If that's the case, what is a small amount of..." He looked intently at his chin, Shape shifting? He straightened up and focused on his face, specifically the small scar on his chin. It always bothered him, even if it wasn't anything special. He focused on it and thought to himself, ~Smooth.~ He felt something click in his head and the scar disappeared. He blinked and staggered back in surprise. As soon as he stopped concentrating, it returned. He touched his chin and started to rub it, "What the...?" He thought for a few minutes then left the bathroom to go check the door. He made sure it was locked, then drew the curtains closed. He turned off the lights, retreated to the bathroom, closed the door and locked it as well, "Okay..." He cracked his knuckles. "Let's find out exactly what the weakest wielder of cosmic power can do!" Announcement Hi. Chances are you are here from FTS. Truth told, I wanted to lighten up in FTS, but realized that I reached a point in the plot I couldn't. It wouldn't make sense if I didn't have the cop plotline advance now. A bunch of things are coming together and they have to happen in order. So, to lighten the mood, we have this. And if you got any silly ideas, just jot them in the comments. I got a stack of 30 year old notes I'm using, so don't expect this to be Proust. Let's have some fun with this.