We reappeared inside a ruined base.
Loose wires hung from the ceiling, lights flickered weakly, and the walls were cracked and dented from long-forgotten battles. I cast a quick locator spell and started walking. No one spoke. They just followed.
It only took a few minutes.
Then we found him.
A young man sat slumped in a chair, barely breathing, completely unconscious.
Rex Salazar.
In this world, he'd failed.
He hadn't been able to stop Van Kleiss from taking over the planet. Somehow, Van had gained the ability to turn anyone he touched into an EVO. He built an army, attacked major government facilities, overran cities, and planned to turn every living being on Earth into one.
The world answered with desperation.
Every government launched its nukes.
The only reason Rex survived was that his brother had sealed him inside a specialized pod deep within this base and buried it far underground. When the nukes hit and the radiation eventually dissipated, the pod resurfaced automatically.
By then, the world was gone.
And Rex was alone.
I stepped closer, looking down at him.
I moved quickly, channeling magic into Rex's body. The damage repaired itself in seconds, muscles restored, lungs cleared. His eyes snapped open as he sucked in a sharp breath and jolted upright.
"What?" He looked around wildly, then at us. "How are you alive?"
"Multiverse," I said simply, already prepared to explain.
"Oh," Rex replied after a beat. "Yeah. That tracks."
I blinked."…Wait, what?"
"I knew someone a long time ago who came from another universe," he said. "So it's not that hard to believe you're from another one. Especially since there shouldn't be anyone alive here besides me."
I exhaled."Oh, good. That makes this way easier."
I stepped forward. "My name's Kai. I'm recruiting people to come back to my world and join my hero team. I want you with us, Rex."
He let out a short, humorless laugh."Like I have a choice."
"You do," I said immediately. "If you don't want to join, that's fine. I'll still take you to my world. I can't, in good conscience, leave you here."
He looked at me, surprised.
"My sister can set you up with a new identity, money, a fresh start, whatever you need," I continued. "But I want you on our team. You'd be a huge help."
"Help you?" Rex snapped, anger flashing through his exhaustion. "I couldn't even help my own Earth. What makes you think I can help yours?"
I didn't flinch.
"Because you're not the first hero to fail," I said calmly. "I have someone on my team named Ranger. She failed to save her world. Lost her friends. Her family. She was completely alone, near death, just like you."
He looked up at me.
"When I gave her another chance," I continued, "she worked ten times harder. She's already helped stop two invasions on my world."
I held his gaze.
"Failure doesn't define you, Rex. Giving up does. You still have the chance to do great things."
I raised my hand toward him.
"Come with me. Let me show you."
He hesitated.
For a few long seconds, he just stared at my hand.
Then he took it.
I pulled him to his feet. The others gathered close as I activated the Multiverse Gun.
The ruined world disappeared.
And Rex Salazar finally left it behind.
We reappeared inside a massive black castle.
I cast a quick locator spell and followed the pull of magic through the halls. The others stayed close behind me. As we walked, we passed dozens of prison cells lining the corridors. Strangely, most of them were empty.
And there were no guards.
"This place is a prison or something?" Eve asked, glancing around.
"Yes," I said. "It's meant to hold the most dangerous witches and wizards in this world."
"Witches and wizards?" Marie scoffed. "You can't be serious."
"I'm a wizard myself," I replied calmly. "And I'm using magic right now to track down the next person we're recruiting."
Cate blinked. "Wait, so that's how you made those chairs and the table appear back there? Magic?"
"Yes."
Her eyes widened. "What else can you do with magic?"
I shrugged slightly."A lot. I know dozens of spells, multiple healing techniques, and destructive spells strong enough to blow a hole through a mountain or level one entirely. I've created a pocket dimension where I store most of my magical items and books. I can rebuild almost anything, teleport wherever I want, summon magical creatures, temporarily, and if I need to use something really powerful…"
I paused.
"I can transform into my true Anodite form."
"Anodite?" Cate asked.
"The alien half of me," I said.
"…Alien?" she repeated.
I smirked. "Trust me, you're going to be a lot more surprised when you meet the rest of your teammates."
The locator spell pulled sharply to the left. We stopped in front of a single cell.
I looked inside.
A young woman lay on the stone floor, wrapped in ragged clothes. She was dangerously thin, barely breathing.
I waved my hand.
The cell door dissolved into nothing.
I stepped inside and knelt beside her, already channeling healing magic into her frail body.
"This," I said quietly, "is Hermione Granger."
And she was coming with us.
In this world, Harry Potter lost.
Voldemort won, and anyone who opposed him was imprisoned. Anyone who resisted was broken.
Hermione was barely alive.
She was badly injured, far worse than I expected, and even with my magic, I could tell she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. Whatever she'd endured, it had pushed her body well past its limits.
I gently lifted her up, holding her princess-style, and turned toward the others.
"She's going to be out for a while," I said quietly. "Can someone hold her until then?"
"I can," Marie said immediately. "I might be able to heal her a little more."
"Thank you, Marie," I said. "Do whatever you can."
I stepped closer and carefully handed Hermione over. Marie cradled her with surprising gentleness.
I didn't even want to imagine what Hermione had been through.
But I already knew one thing for sure: this wouldn't be the last time I visited this world.
Next time, I wouldn't be leaving it so broken.
Next time, I'd be bringing back a much stronger witch.
I raised the Multiverse Gun.
The castle vanished.
And we were gone.
Sam POV
I was in the middle of New York, fighting a giant kaiju.
No idea where it came from, only that it was incredibly annoying.
I'd been trying to lure it out of the city for nearly an hour. Backup was already on the way, and thankfully, there were no civilians nearby. Still, I was doing everything I could to keep the collateral damage to a minimum.
I flew straight at it and slammed into its face multiple times, driving it backward. It snapped at me, jaws closing just inches away, but I dodged and fired a laser blast into one of its legs.
The kaiju dropped to a knee.
For about two seconds.
Then the wound regenerated like it was nothing.
Before I could reposition, one of its massive hind legs whipped around and smashed into me, sending me crashing into the street behind it. I barely had time to roll before it turned, lifted its foot, and prepared to stomp me flat.
Boom.
The kaiju's head exploded in a violent burst of force and gore.
I froze.
Superwoman hovered where its head used to be.
The monster's massive body collapsed lifelessly to the ground, its healing factor clearly not helping it anymore. Superwoman was splattered with brain matter and dark blood.
"Disgusting," she muttered, wiping monster gore from her suit and hair.
I pushed myself up with a groan."I was trying not to kill it."
She glanced at me. "Why?"
"This is the second kaiju that's appeared out of nowhere in a city," I explained. "The last one was in Las Vegas. I was trying to get it somewhere contained so Hope could study it."
Her expression softened slightly."Sorry. I didn't know."
"It's fine," I said, looking at the corpse. "Maybe she can still get something useful from what's left."
Superwoman crossed her arms. "Any theories on why these things keep showing up?"
"Not solid ones," I admitted. "But I don't think this is random. Every kaiju so far has tunneled underground before bursting up into a populated area."
I frowned.
"That's a little too strategic for a mindless monster."
"So you think someone's guiding them?" she asked.
"…Yeah," I said. "I think that's a real possibility."
And that thought bothered me more than the kaiju ever did.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
I checked my watch.
3:30.
"Shit, I've gotta go pick up Ruby from school," I said. "Can you wait here until the Iron Legion comes to collect the body?"
"No problem," she replied. "Go."
I didn't waste another second. I took off into the sky and vanished.
None of them noticed the cracked, half-buried camera nearby, its lens flickering as it silently recorded everything.
Kai POV
We reappeared somewhere quiet and far out of the way.
"Okay," Cate said, eyeing the object in her hands, "I know I already asked this… but are you sure this thing isn't radioactive?"
She was holding the AllSpark.
"Yes," I said. "I'm sure. It's probably not radioactive."
"…Probably?"
We made a few more stops.
One was a Transformer world. Cybertron had already been destroyed, no Cybertronians left alive, but the Cube was still there. I secured it.
Then we jumped to a Marvel world and retrieved a symbiote. Rex was holding the containment unit now, watching it like it might bite through the glass at any second. For Mystique's DNA, I had to leave the group somewhere safe while I extracted it, no unnecessary risks.
That wasn't the only DNA I picked up.
Another Marvel world had been hit hard. Too hard. Mutants were dead everywhere. I took Mystique's DNA… and Elixir's as well. His ability was far too useful to ignore.
I also secured the White Tiger Amulet.
With all that done, there was only one name left on Hope's list.
Robert Robinson.
We shifted again, this time into his world.
I cast a locator spell, wrapped a protective barrier around all of us, and lifted us into the air. The trip took longer than the others. When we finally arrived, I set us down in front of a small, run-down house on the bad side of town.
I lowered the barrier and stepped forward, knocking on the door.
"Hello," I called. "Is Robert Robinson the Third, also known as Mecha Man, here?"
The door opened immediately.
To my surprise, it wasn't Robert.
A blonde woman stood there instead, wearing a hero outfit accented with yellow, blue, and white. A red, gem-like amulet rested at the center of her chest. Her eyes flicked over all of us, sharp, alert.
"…You're not who I'm looking for," I said honestly.
She didn't answer right away. Instead, she leaned out, scanned the street, then looked back at us.
"No one followed you," she muttered.
Then she met my eyes.
"I don't know who you are," she said quietly, "but all of you, inside. Now."
I didn't hesitate.
I stepped in, the others close behind me.
The door shut.
And when my eyes adjusted to the dim interior, I realized there were more people in Robert's house.
The room was crowded, way more crowded than I expected.
A massive golem was hunched near the back wall, barely fitting inside the house without tearing it apart. Beside him stood a man with a bat head, dressed in a sharp suit that felt completely out of place. A short guy in a green shirt hovered nearby, eyes darting nervously.
There was a Black woman with red-and-pink hair, shades pulled low over her eyes, leaning casually against the wall. Next to her stood a white guy in what looked like a flaming hero outfit, heat rippling faintly off the fabric. A demon woman watched us silently, horns curling back as her tail flicked once.
Another Black woman stood apart from the rest, metal wings folded behind her, her entire outfit made of sleek alloy. Nearby was a Latina woman with short hair and a purple jacket, arms crossed, clearly sizing us up. A broad-shouldered man in a red outfit sat on the couch, muscles straining against the fabric.
Closer to the door was a light-skinned guy wearing goggles and what looked disturbingly like a swimming suit, shifting his weight awkwardly. Looming behind him was another tall, heavily built man with long hair and tattoos running down one arm.
And in the corner, quiet, watching everything, was an old man I didn't recognize at all.
I scanned the room again.
I didn't recognize any of them.
Except for one.
Hope had shown me a picture, so I recognized him immediately.
Robert Robinson sat in a chair near the center of the room, watching me just as closely as I was watching him.
"You don't look like much," I said honestly, "but I'm not going to doubt Hope's judgment."
"…What?" he said flatly.
I sighed."Okay. This is going to sound insane, so just try to keep an open mind. I'll explain it as clearly as I can."
I gestured to the group behind me.
"We're not from this world. We're from another multiverse. And yes, I know how that sounds. I'm here because I want to recruit Robert Robinson to join my hero team back on my Earth."
Silence.
The kind where everyone's deciding whether to laugh or reach for a weapon.
"Is he on drugs or something?" the woman with the multicolored hair muttered. "What the hell is he talking about?"
Robert didn't laugh.
Instead, he leaned forward slightly."Okay. If what you're saying is true," he said slowly, "how does your sister even know about me if she's from another multiverse?"
"My siblings and I have a… gift," I explained. "A kind of multiversal awareness. It doesn't give us everything, no complete files, no full futures, but it gives us enough. People. Names. Potential."
Robert frowned."Then why don't you know as much about me as she does?"
"Because the knowledge isn't shared evenly," I said. "She knows things I don't. I know things she doesn't. It's random. Fragmented."
"Convenient," the short-haired woman said dryly.
I didn't argue.
Instead, I reached into my pocket dimension and pulled out a few sheets of paper.
"Robert Robinson the Third," I began. "Also known as Mecha Man. Highly intelligent. Highly skilled. Competitive. Natural leadership ability."
Robert stiffened.
"Your childhood wasn't easy," I continued. "Your father was obsessed with being the second Mega Man. Always working. Never really around."
"Chase, he was more like a brother to you than a babysitter. You used to convince him to steal things with you. Thought it was harmless."
Robert's eyes widened.
"One day, during a barbecue with your father's team, you snuck into the garage. You activated Mecha Man."
The room went still.
"The machine fired. Shot part of your ear off. Nearly killed you. Chase broke through the door just in time and pulled you away before it could finish the job."
Chase swallowed hard.
"Your father shut the system down. You were crying. Your arm was injured."
Silence.
Robert and Chase stared at me.
I floated the papers onto the table in the center of the room.
"There's more," I said. "You can read it yourself."
Robert hesitated, then stepped forward, picked up the documents, and began reading. After about a minute, he slowly set them down.
"…Okay," he said. "I believe you."
The room exploded with reactions.
"Robert, you can't be serious," the blonde woman said.
"Mandy," Robert replied calmly, lifting the papers, "these files don't just detail me. They detail all of us. Things no one could get from hacking a system or asking around."
He handed pages out to the others.
Shock rippled through the room as they read.
"How the hell do you know where I was born?" the woman with multicolored hair demanded. "And who told you I never had a dad?"
"I didn't," I said honestly. "I haven't read all of it. My sister has. She knows far more about all of you than I do."
"So you don't?" Robert asked. "You're just here to take me to your world because she can't leave hers?"
"She can," I said, "but she's extremely busy right now. She only asked me to recruit you. I didn't even know who the rest of you were."
"So Robert gets a fresh start, and we don't?" the guy in the flaming outfit snapped. "That's bullshit."
"Fresh start?" I asked. "Why do you need one? Aren't you heroes here?"
"We were," Mandy said. "Until heroes were outlawed."
"Outlawed?" Rex asked.
"One hero stopped a guy from committing suicide," the short-haired woman said bitterly. "The guy sued him. Somehow won."
The room darkened.
"After that law passed," the long-haired, tattooed man said, "we all lost our jobs. No work. No purpose."
I looked around the room.
"Well," I said evenly, "my world could always use more heroes. If you want to come, you're welcome."
The multicolored-haired woman didn't hesitate."Wait, seriously? Hell yeah, I'm in."
One by one, the others nodded in agreement.
I exhaled.…This went way better than expected. Came for one. Got a team.
"I'm not much without my suit," Robert admitted. "And it's destroyed."
"Don't worry," I said. "My sister can build you something. Probably something even better."
I raised the Multiverse Gun."Alright, everyone, come close."
They gathered around.
"Oh, quick question," Mandy said, pointing at Marie. "Who's the unconscious girl she's carrying?"
"Oh," I said casually. "Her name's Hermione Granger. She's from another messed-up world, too."
Mandy blinked."…Okay."
"She's a witch, too."
"Wait, what?"
I activated the Multiverse Gun.
And the world vanished.