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Chapter One: Shadows of Energy, Part One

As the series starts we find ourselves, the viewer, the reader, the camera, looking through the looking glass and we find ourselves in a Victorian mansion above a large and tall shark in a custom tailored suit known as Koji, drinking tea before a fireplace.

"Ah, welcome there as I can tell by your gasps, and as you can tell by my not lack of speech, we are in a different universe. The Koji, you're used to seeing is in Universe C-182, or the universe where everything stays in a novel related medium, but in this universe I can do this." Alt! Koji said as he put his tea down and proceeded to push his hand towards where he thought the camera was.

"Oh wait you're still a reader and this isn't a big budget Hollywood film, well shame. In other news, you are viewing Universe C-6969, or the meta-humor universe, where everyone is very self-aware." Koji said taking a sip of his tea, and blinking at the camera. The audience groaned as they realized that the author was really going with that for the opening of his second main story, and once more as they read that and so on and so on.

"Now you may be asking, first dimensions, now alternate universes, how can know the difference, well first off potential angry commenter, I'll explain with some technobabble and explosion, no wait exposition. See think of universes as blank templates, and in each of them are all the dimensions, the Earth, Kagen, and hamster living in your butt, all very important. Then choices appear and for each major or fixed point choice, a new universe shows up for every possible outcome." Koji said as he used his hands as a teaching tool.

"Oh you'd like an example, we then I will turn you towards Universe B-123 or the 30 degree tilt universe, this is obviously a very contrasting with the previous universe and you may see some big differences or little differences. Let’s go." Koji said as he stood up as waved towards the audience as he walked off screen. However, the camera instead panned through the room, traveling through the room and phasing through the door.

"Molly what is he thinking?" Jackson said as he listened through the door, he was talking to Molly, the ever not dead Toucan confused as he looked in through the door knob at the delusional Koji.

"I don't know, but is so weird, so very weird." Molly said responding from her not dead self. “We really need to do something about this, alternate universes and dimensions what is he talking about.”

“I don’t know but I think we should call up Eric, get him to turn into a were-armadillo and make him tear this wall down!” Jackson yelled as he made two peace symbols in the air. Suddenly Jackson gasped as a hole was made in his and Molly’s chest.

A wolf and a hyena walked on to the camera looking at it and scanning it as he laughed a bit. It was obvious Afternoon and Noon.

“Hello audience, who else would it be?” Noon said as he leaned over and kissed Afternoon on the cheek. “Support our shipping!” Suddenly the camera phased out of the house and some terrible low-budget special effect formed on screen until the universes switched and the fourth wall was fully in place again, right when this sentence ends.

...

A white blur traveled over the low roof tops of Washington DC, jumping over the rooftops making noise that might wake up a few people. He was in the residential area of DC, right near the 495 and 95 junction on the river and based on the amount of traffic he heard, no one would be woke up. He was chasing a common criminal, trying to escape and go for freedom.

The criminal changed pass making a quick turn at a turn, the snow leopard barely turned; his black combat boots sliding down the edge of the house knocking off some singles as he struggled to complete the turn and get back into the chase. He just barely knocked the gutter out of place and in the person’s yard, a pile of wet stinky leaves formed.

“Ok, who am I kidding that person definitely heard that noise.” He said as he jumped again, boosting himself forward with a blast of energy from his back. His name was Zander, Zander Matthews; he was a snow leopard, and his fur white with blue spots, giving him what would have been camouflage if it actually was snowing.

It was August and just barely the warmest time of the year, soon however it would slowly descend into winter, snow falling nearly every day in the month of January, with a warm, warm, warm negative ten degree average. He did complain his race was completely used to the cold and his coat was thick enough for the season.

He was wearing a tan button up shirt, and a neat brown scarf over his neck, where he also laid his comically oversized but needed glasses that he got when he joined the Outsiders, they were much better than his previous. As it was the early fall, he was still wearing cargo shorts that had zippers so they could be changed into cargo pants.

“Ok, come on now I time for you to get caught.” Zander said as he grabbed his googles, pulling them over his face. He blinked once and the upgraded HUD menu appeared, he looked forward as the villain was tracked by the googles. He was still jumping houses, trying to hopelessly escape. Zander laughed at his ignorance.

Zander keep his face focused on the villain not because he was checking him, but because his glasses were checking him out. As they scanned him, they were tracking him finding out information about his movement and where he was travelling. He just needed to keep them locked on to the criminal’s movements and it would create an intercept path, which did as it sounded.

Jumping over houses, suddenly the criminal jumped away from his path, landing on the street and starting a mad dash. Looking around it appeared that he was continuing towards the Landmark Mall. Zander cursed himself; he broke contact with the criminal as he jumped down onto the ground forcing everything to start over once again.

He ran towards the rundown mall, watching as the criminal broke eye contact again as he ran into the mall and made sure the door was closed behind him. Looking around Zander wondered if he should have called in reinforcements, his team could arrive in a second by forcing the HOV lanes on I-495 and I-395 clear, as much as traffic control would have hated that. The broken down Landmark Mall, would have been easy to get to. Rocco’s oil could have slipped up the villain and Rolando could have jumped into a police car, and led a blocking force.

However, Zander didn’t want that. He wanted to prove himself to the world and he knew that he tried; he could one day be as good as his father, a superhero of his own league.

“Come on Energizer, you must be able to use that thing on your back.” The criminal said as Zander opened the door and ran into the mall. He didn’t want to use it because it was over kill, and he enjoyed being the hunter stalking his prey, and slowly but surely catching them. On his back was an orange beetle, in the crest of the beetle a black and orange gem, an onyx glowing with power as he ran towards the criminal.

“Fine if you really do want me to use my powers, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Zander said as he focused, luckily the criminal was running up an escalator, a perfect opportunity to make a scene. He focused and jumped up, suddenly a blast of energy fired from his back and he flied up into the air.

He flew over the criminal reaching the top of the escalators before him, however before the criminal could turn around, Zander provided a little power to escalator. It turned on, the criminal gasping as he was knocked on his head by the sudden motion. Zander laughed looking at the criminal trying to escape but failing.

“Now then would you like to give up, this is why you don’t taunt people, so come on now then you’re really not trying that hard then.” Zander said as he walked on the escalator, looking at the criminal as he tried to get back up from his eternal spinning. Looking around he tried to stand back up Zander looked down at the criminal, and knocked him in the head causing him to fall down the escalator.

“Now then you are wanted for three murders, fifteen acts of vandalism, and twenty counts of running away from police forces, so please give up.” Zander said reminding himself and the criminal why they’re wanted.

Putting his hand on the edge of the escalator, looking sly and fly as he waited for the criminal to get up and continue down the hole that he was digging himself through, eventually he would reach the hole of prison. The criminal got up and continued through the mall, running forward pass the entrance doors.

“Oh come on, you must give up eventually you don’t have the energy to continue fighting, yet I can keep coming, this beetle can feed energy through my body and keep me going. I can run for 25 kilometers, one hour, and never touching the ground. Before you escape Washington DC, I can be to Virginia Beach and back easy.” Zander said as he reached the bottom of the stairway, jumping up and blasting with energy. He flew forward and chased the criminal, name he didn’t even know, blasting down the hallway of the mall.

He landed on the ground and continued running chasing after the criminal through a turn and following him. Suddenly to Zander’s surprise, the criminal made a turn into a secondary boutique still not moved out of the closed down mall.

Zander stopped and groaned as he saw the criminal enter the store, knocking down items and aisle walls to block the way. Zander groaned as the criminal placed himself behind a wall, obviously getting ready to push it down when Zander got near.

Zander voiced his dissatisfaction and walked into the tiny shop, medicinal like liquids and rotting flowers lining the wall. Looking around he clicked a few buttons on the cash register, the machine making a few sad noises as it chigger tried to work but failed.

“Oh really your trapped now, so just come on out, maybe they’re cut you a deal; maybe I won’t have to beat your sorry ass, so please just come out for once.” Zander said as he approached the wall, forming a shield in front of the wall to prevent it from falling.

Zander walked in front, just as he expected the wall to fall but it didn’t. He looked around and saw the empty wall. His eyes widened as he saw an open door out to a courtyard. Zander groaned again realizing that he escaped into a probably trapped area.

He ran out closing the door on the way out, and looked around the interior courtyard. Looking around he caught a glimpse of the man running to the other side of the mall. Zander laughed and continued on his way, forming a large shield on his body as he did so. If he needed to he could expand it around the villain.

The point of this story is that Zander is crafty, sly, quick and thinking. He knows his people and knows where they go. He knows that the dumb lower criminals stick to their tropes going through repeatable motions, while super criminals, ones that Metro PD cannot always deal with are genre savvy.

Zander knew how to deal with criminals he was around them all his life, he seen all kinds of horrible scum that would walk this Earth. He knew how they acted, how they breathed and how when they saw him their heart rates would slowly increase as he got slowly every closer, eventually catching them.

Zander did catch that criminal but catching the criminal was never the point of showing that, however Zander was not always the sly smooth superhero he needed to be. A few years back he was just a lonely snow leopard, exploring the white desert of the Himalayas, trying to find a purpose in his life.

…

Zander covered his face, his googles keeping his eyes clear of the snow that was blasting at his face. The world was like a windstorm, snow constantly blasting at him while he tried to continue on through his life. He was here because he wanted to think, try to figure out where he was and find treasure.

He didn’t have superpowers, which was like finding out you didn’t win the lottery to most people. Of the billions of people of Earth, most would be fine to find out they didn’t have one genetic mutation of one gene that led to one superpower. However it wasn’t find to Zander, as he zipped up his tan snow parka he thought about how drained into the world of superpowers he was.

His father, was perhaps the greatest superhero to grace the Earth with his presence. At least in Zander’s mind and when he figured out that he would never come close to filling those shoes, he felt destroyed. He needed that, so he set off going to hidden places, learning skills, and trying to find some sort of artifact; all trying to find purpose in his un-super life.

He walked around the Nepal wilderness, searching plains and flats walking for miles and days, keeping his intake of food low, purposely punishing himself. He thought about Adriano, and how he could complete his promise to him. He needed to get there, pushing himself forward as he felt he was close to his destiny.

Finally he did reach his destination, taking off his googles and looking as he saw the massive white temple standing in the snowy mountain side. He looked in amazement as he saw the temple, he walked forward through the foot deep snow and pulled himself onto the temple.

He looked around and pushed the heavy snow of his body looking around in amazement. No snow fell on the temple and it felt a bit warm. He looked around and saw the open doors. He walked in and there were lit flames on the wall of the temple, but no one was around. The temple looked ancient as he walked in, ten lines of pews down each side of the holy place. On the walls, strange and confusing pictures along the wall.

Looking around there was an alter in the back of the temple. Zander walked over to the alter and as he circled around it, looking at the mysterious diagrams on the edge of the alter. Circling around there was a picture of a beetle, a strange artifact for the location but it wasn’t that out of place.

Strangely the beetle was located between a strange temple and a mountain. The more Zander looked at the image of the beetle, the more the image of the temple reminded him of the temple he was located in. Looking around he left blessings in the temple and looked around for sources of people, there was no one around and the temple must have been some sort of retreat for monks.

Walking around he attempted to figure out what kind of place he was in, wandering around he became struck with a headache. Zander fell to the ground grabbing a few for support as he figured something was invading his mind. He fought it as he fell to the ground, trying to control himself as his vison changed.

In his eyes, tiny explosions appeared within his range of vision. In the entrance of the temple strange shadow covered men appeared walking in and surrounding Zander as he was trapped in the temple. Suddenly from the altar an orange blast of energy shot out and the shadow men disappeared and so did his headache.

Standing up leaning on the pew, Zander looked around as he tried to figure out who the shadow men were. There was no one around, and no evidence of people. In fact the temple seemed barren, there was not a single cot, or a fire place in fact the entire temple seemed to just pop out of nowhere. He looked around and exited the temple, looking as the snowstorm let up a bit. To his right, there was a strange mausoleum.

He walked off the temple and walked over to the mausoleum through the snow, opening it up as he cleared out the dust and opened it. It seemed warm in the mausoleum, even though it should have been freezing something was providing it heat. He closed the door and walked around the grave, looking for why it was so warm.

Zander found strange pipes lining the walls; they had heat in them and appeared to be carrying water. However without a power tool, there would be no way to check if he was correct. Zander followed the pipes and they led down into a tiny hole, Zander looked down and tried to figure out what was down the hole but he had no idea.

Putting his hand on the altar of the mausoleum, it felt lose. He pushed it a bit more and suddenly it pushed out of the way a staircase leading itself deeper into the ground revealing itself. Zander looked as he thought he figured out the temple. Looking down into the temple, he felt that he might find his destiny in its dusty caves.

He reached around and pulled a piece of wood off the mausoleum’s wall, he lit it with a match making a temporary torch as he descended down the stairs and into the dark caverns. He continued downwards, feeling the wall for a real torch as the piece of wood in his hand slowly burned out. He could barely see five feet in front of him.

He continued downwards. He had no idea how long he was descending down the tunnel, it could have been seconds, minutes, hours, probably not a day, but that wasn’t beyond Zander. He didn’t feel hungry or thirsty; it was like his body functions had stopped. He could have been dead or he could have been knocked out and hypnotized, but he knew he needed to reached the bottom of the staircase.

Suddenly, he saw another torch, a real torch; he took his dwindling fire and placed it on the torch. It exploded with fire and a line of fire ran down the staircase, more torches lighting up down the path and as it disappeared out of Zander’s eyesight a large light source appeared.

He continued down the stairs and reached his journey’s end, he was at his destination he could feel it. He felt power around him, everything pointed to this room. Hieroglyphics covered the walls, different color beetles on the wall and shining as he entered.

“What is this place?” Zander said to himself as he put his hand on the wall and dusted off the hieroglyphics, suddenly as he reached an orange beetle, a needle jutted out and Zander groaned in pain as he pulled his hand away and saw that it sampled his blood.

The belt of differently colored beetles started to spin around; the gap from the entrance turning until it faced Zander. The snow leopard looked confused as an orange beetle exited the wall, it seemed to fit in his hand and it had an orange and black gem in its back. The beetle jumped to life and flew over Zander’s head landing on his back and suddenly attaching.

The floor shook and Zander backed up as he felt energy run through his body, he felt powerful, he had energy. It felt like he could do anything. He felt a few pains in his back and the beetle attached to his back, its six legs wrapping around his waist before turning invisible.

Zander screamed as he moved around, with the beetle belt moving around the floor fell out from beneath him and he was suddenly falling down towards the ground that had to be five hundred feet below him. Looking around the had no idea on how he would or could even survive a fall of that magnitude. He screamed as he tried to slow his fall, hoping that the snow below would cushion his speeding body.

However, while we will come back to that, we should turn our attention to one of the first chronological events after this. We should find ourselves at one of the first situations that Zander was forced into after he joined the Outsiders. We find that we are at Sibley Memorial Hospital, getting scans done on Zander’s energy beetle.

…

“So why does Zander need to come here again? Haven’t we already caused enough public uproar with that unplanned public appearance at the prom?” Adriano said as he walked into the hospital sticking his arms out in front of the door to make sure they opened. Most interestingly unlike Zander, a snow leopard, Rolando, a komodo dragon and Rocco, a dragon; Adriano was human, completely human. He had no powers, nothing; he was only here because he remembered.

“We need to find out how much energy Zander is putting out, while the beetle is in its inactive mode, where it uses a perception filter and manipulation of quantum waves to disappear a second out of sync, it still produces energy, and we need to find out how much it could store, or if it is possible to overload.” Rocco said, he was on one of his few occasions out, wearing an orange jumpsuit with machinery on his body. Why he had that wasn’t important right now nor was his superpower, but he was very smart for his age and was calculating many algorithms on his powers.

“Exactly, what he said. We don’t need another public danger in the market.” Rolando, the komodo dragon said gleefully as they passed through a group of people. A perception filter blocked out their voices to other people and self-censored their voices, protecting their identities, and allowing them not to focus on protecting themselves.

“Listen, we don’t need to think about this right now. Right now we don’t have any training to deal with; we can enjoy each other and the company of each other’s.” Zander said as he reached out holding Adriano’s hand as they walked up the stairs, making their way up to the clinic they were going too.

“Well aren’t you romantic today?” Adriano said as they reached the top floor that the stair went. Rolando pressed the elevator button and soon the metal box appeared the group of four entered. The door closed and they disappeared as they were pulled up the hospital.

“If there is a force that would dare to manipulate the timelines, why would if have to every possibility is possible, it might be possible that every combination of events of every crossover happening has happened.” Adriano said as the doors opened, he was a bit more right then he possibility thought. Multiple universes all possible within the continuum of time and space, every single event with multiple outcomes has happened and thus anything is possible.

“Why would there be multiple universe, the energy required to create new universes would exponentially increase as more combinations became possible. How far to infinity would all these universes happen.” Rocco argued as they continued out of the elevator, the nurses looking in confusion.

“It’s a quantum function, energy can appear out of nowhere with quantum waves.” Adriano said continuing the subject as everyone looked basically understanding except for Zander, who appeared so very confused by what they were speaking about. “Sorry did we confuse you?”

“Think about it this way, every time you make a choice. Left or Right, even if you have a plan to go left, if the possibility for you to go right exists another universe where you did was created. Sorry we can’t all go on trips to Nepal some of us had to go to school and learn about particle-wave duality.” Adriano said clearing up some of the confusion from Zander’s face, human leaning on the snow leopard as they walked into the clinic.

“Ok, we’re here.” Rolando said as he opened the door to the clinic, letting everyone pass into the tiny medical room. When they arrived in the clinic, there were no patients only about seven doctors all looking at Zander. Adriano got a strange feeling from them and moved a few inches to the side of Zander.

The seven doctors rushed around Zander, knocking everyone out of the way each trying to get to him first and fight over who could make a research paper about his powers. Rolando and Rocco pulled Adriano out of the crowd of doctors, letting them fight for Zander.

The doctors babbled and spoke, spouting loud and confusion words from their mouths, each trying to push all the other doctors away from Zander. Each of them was attempting to scan or make the important discovery on the energybeetle. Soon the doctors pulled Zander with them, pulling him deeper into the clinic as they agreed on taking him into the equipment room.

Adriano was going to follow him but he was blocked by Rocco who nodded at him. Rolando opened the clinic door and stepped out seeming abandoning the snow leopard to the forces of the doctors not that it was all crazy, but Adriano felt they should have at least stayed in the room until he came out.

“Trust me; we don’t want to stay here. Soon the engineers and the physics will come. Possibility even a mathematician, do you even know what happens when they see a fire?” Rocco said as he walked out of the clinic, posing to Adriano a hopefully rhetorical question.

“No, why would every mathematician around the world do the same thing when they found a fire. That sounds a bit like something has taken over the mind of every single mathematician.” Adriano said being a bit smart as he returned a question with another question.

“No, the idea is that they find a bucket of water and tell us only that the solution exists. They are the kind of people that hold us back, now engineers, they are the life blood of this nation and will save us.” Rocco said as he walked into another room, the canteen in order to eat something.

“Ok, please I’ve lived for two hundred years and this has happened nearly every time a triad is complete. Now Adriano you can’t interfere with Outsider’s operation.” Rolando said before noticing that Adriano was looking out the window, “Oh yeah he’ll be fine.”

Rolando didn’t remember that it was supposed to rain but he figured there might be a change for some farmer in Virginia, and they were getting some off reach. He did really car as he entered the line and started to wait for his food. He walked down the line, behind Rocco who seemed excited at much to have some normal food for once.

Eventually time passed and a few more people were looking out the window, as much as lunch called him Rolando decided to investigate. He walked over to the window and looked out, he was amazed at what he saw. The rain seemed to be only affecting their building; for the view of DC they could see out the window, no clouds seemed to cover it nor was any of it wet.

“What is happening here?” Rolando said as he signaled Rocco and started to pull him over. They looked out the window trying to figure out what was happening, as they did so the rain froze midair. Thunder roared above them and soon lighting arced down the building. Rolando pulled everyone back as the lightbulbs started to flicker on and off. The rain instead started to pull up into the sky.

“Personalized cloud someone is trying to rain on someone’s parade?” Rocco suggested as pressed his face against the window trying to get a view of the cloud above.

“No, the smell of ozone in the air, which should only appear after the cloud, disappears.” Adriano said opening up the window and smelling the air, but that revealed something else. There was no sound of rain against the hospital, Adriano stuck his hand out and the water teleported off his hand, leaving him dry.

“That is not good, what’s happening here?” Rolando said as more lighting started to appear around the building, more and more flashing down to the ground. The entire building flashed and the ground was blinded by a massive flash of lightning.

Suddenly the window was smashed close after the second and as Rolando’s eyes adjusted he looked out of the window and suddenly felt a feeling a massive dreed over his body. Brownish ground replaced the normal Earth background they were used to.

A shield formed over the hospital, a green layer of shine reflecting before disappearing. Looking up into the air, Rolando couldn’t comprehend the image. Adriano instantly regretted coming to the hospital, he backed up as he looked up into the sky.

“That is very worse; very, very worse.” Adriano said as he looked up into the sky. He could see the Earth above them, and the Moon, between them the tiny moon of Baldor orbiting between the Earth and the moon. That could only mean they were on the moon, Murano, orbiting barely in the Earth’s sphere of influence.