[center][img] https://i.imgur.com/ZnOpQuF.png[/img][/center][center][h2][b]The Mandela Effect: Part 1[/b][/h2][/center] [center][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4003794]Previously On Create-A-Hero[/url][/b][/center] [center][b]Emerson Enterprises[/b][/center] [center][b]Nashville, TN[/b][/center] The last of the lab assistants had just locked up the building and were heading home for the night. They, along with the rest of the lab staff, had been hired by Daniel Emerson to monitor his nephew, Matthew. After a plane accident in the Caribbean that had left Matthew an orphan, something weird had happened to Matthew. In the last year, the occurrence of metahumans have exploded. The staff knew that Matthew was a normal boy before that trip and afterwards he had powers, although they were not sure what exact powers he had. The problem was that they could not just run tests to test his powers because Matthew was stuck in a coma, probably induced by the activation of his powers. Or at least that is what the scientists thought. A bright light suddenly appeared in front of the security cameras that were monitoring Matthew. Instead of just blocking the feed, the light reflected a loop of Matthew floating in the center of the room. Once the cameras have been blocked, Matthew’s eyes snapped open. He slowly drifted down to the ground until his hands and feet pressed against the floor. Matthew then jumped to his feet and hurled himself onto the well-made bed that had been furnished in his “room.” Before Matthew leaned up against the pillows that rested against the bed’s headboard, he snapped his fingers, which caused a small portal, similar to the lights that were blocking the camera feeds, appeared next to his bed. He then reached into the portal and pulled out a plastic bin, filled with comic books. But instead of the books published by Marvel and DC comics, the comics in Matthew’s collection was centered on the fictional adventures of real superheroes, such as the Raptor Pack or War-Pulse. But he really enjoyed the stories written about Icon. If anyone could save the day, he could. In fact, these comics were one-of-a-kind, or at least in Matthew’s universe. A couple of weeks ago, Matthew found a gold mine when he accidentally stumbled through one of his portals and found himself in a different world, a place where there were no superpowers and superheroes were just a creation of fiction. After he found a couple more worlds like that boring, normal one, he had quite the pull-list featuring different versions of the heroes he adored, some more different than others. Since Matthew basically sleeps all day, he had plenty of time to catch up on his giant, multiversal pull-list. He spent hours poring over these magazines. However, one could only waste so much time reading a comic that takes less than ten minutes to complete. But when Matthew realized he could replace a character in one comic with an alternate version of that individual. For example, he replaced the feline heroine, Bast, with an alternate version of her who was in a romantic relationship with Lyger and went by the superhero handel Anaconda. These “swaps” would sometimes create funny situations. Others were more sombering. Yet other times, interesting situations and conflicts arose. With this newly found power, Matthew discovered countless hours of experimentation. He could, however, never do anything with Vigilante for some strange reason. After Matthew had used his powers on a few comics, he turned to some issues set in the magical corner of the universe. In the past issue, there were several supernatural folk traveling out west. But Matthew was scratching his head while he read the current issue. The entire group kind of just dispersed after the Hounds of Humanity had attacked. One of the witches had dragged the young werewolf across the country, with the specific purpose of helping her find some magical items. Yet she then abandoned him, out of the blue. She did not even offer to take him home! “This guy sure looks like he needs a friend right now,” Matthew muttered to himself, “or at least someone closer to his age. Only if I could be there.” Then a thought came to mind. He had never tried it before, but maybe his powers could also allow him to teleport there. It was worth the shot, anyways. Therefore, Matthew closed his eyes and focused on the scene from the comic. He kept that mental image in his head until, after a few moments, he disappeared. The comic that was in his hand fell harmlessly onto the bed. [hr] Time: Early Morning Location: Las Vegas, hotel room [hr] Ben’s hand turned the knob then he limped inside. Pain flared up his side causing him to flinch, his arm curled to cradle it as he breathed heavily. His eyes traveled down to observe red seeping through the white bandage. Gradually his legs gave out from underneath him as he sat down. The memory of Duff etched into his thoughts. He had left the old wolf snoring away and curled up in his hotel bed. He sighed under his breath before he began to move to his feet again. His hand balanced himself against the door as he rose upright, still hurting from the fight. Duff mentioned it would take a few days to properly heal. Thankfully with Barron’s grateful assistance, his parents wouldn’t notice it. Once at the bed, he stopped. His body promptly belly flopped into the covered surface and considered sleeping for a thousand years. At least, until morning. It was times like this he felt the loneliness gnaw at his insides. Then suddenly, a swirling vortex of bright blue light appeared near the roof of the hotel room and out of this portal feel a boy, who was no older than Benjamin was. He landed on the floor with a thud. “I need to perfect that landing,” the boy said out loud as a mental note while he rubbed his back, which he had landed on. At first, the boy quickly scanned the room to get his bearings. However, when he saw Benjamin, his eyes grew wide in excitement. “Holy shit! I think I actually break through the space-time continuum! This is [i]so[/i] exciting!” At the sound of the voice, Benjamin’s eyes opened. His arms pushed against the mattress as his teeth bared, his attention located the the source. For several moments his mind seemed to pause in confusion. Seeing a kid close to his own age caused Benjamin to glance at the door, noticing it was still shut tightly. It didn’t help there was no scent coming from that direction. Still inhaling heavily, Benjamin shifted his right leg off the bed’s edge and rose to his feet. [color=chocolate] “You know… it’s really rude to just waltz into someone else’s room.”[/color] Hastily he pulled his jacket closed to hide the bandages keeping his insides in place. “That was the most nonchalant response to someone falling out of a portal I have ever heard,” Matthew reacted to Benjamin’s response, while he pulled himself to his feet. “But I guess, considering what you have gone through, that shouldn’t come as a surprise.” “Anyways, I’m Matthew. I read...err...heard that you’re in need of some friends. So I traveled across space and time to come see you!” Ben blinked. His head tilted to the left and sized the boy up, unsure what to say at first. He was grateful his inner wolf didn’t imprint this time. It might’ve been because he already had a pack with Duff, but he didn’t dwell on it. [color=chocolate] “Yeah, I’ve had a long day. Why do you have to gain by being my friend? And considering you seem to know more about me than I know about you, how can I be sure you simply won’t walk away like the rest?”[/color] Ben’s anger latched on his tone, but his figure didn’t move. “That’s such a pessimistic view of friendship. True friends don’t measure their worth by what each other can gain from their relationship.” Matthew answered back. “Can’t someone be giving a helping hand for altruistic reasons?” [color=chocolate] “I haven’t met a single person yet. So the odds are not in your favor…”[/color] Benjamin countered. “I mean, you did meet those nice people from Albany. I understand they live some distance away from you, but it wasn’t like they just kicked you to the curb.” [color=chocolate] “I almost nearly ate one of them. I doubt they wanted to take care of a teenage werewolf who can barely control his impulsive changes at the time. If they stuck around, I’m certain they would’ve dropped me off like the rest.”[/color] “More like chased a catgirl up a tree, but it doesn’t look like I’m not going to be able to convince you of anything in this regard.” Matthew paused for a moment before speaking again, contemplating his next move. “Anyways, the first thing we need to do is get you home. It was really irresponsible of your ex-friends to just ditch you out here, far from home. Sure, sometimes family can be complicated, but I’m sure your home is better than living in a hotel in Vegas and running around in the wilderness during your free time.” [color=chocolate] “Duff’s training methods might be…,”[/color] Benjamin paused long enough to remind himself of his wounds, and not wrinch in reaction. [color=chocolate] “Unorthodox, but at least I’m not hurting anyone.”[/color] Benjamin slowly sat on his bed as he watched the boy, still confused at how Matt was intending to get him home. [color=chocolate] “There’s still the issue of the imprinting. If I leave Duff, I’ll get depressed. That’s what happened with the last imprint…”[/color] He refused to say the White Witch’s name as it still hurt like hell to think about. “Well, there is one thing I could try?” Matthew pondered aloud. “I’ve only done it with inanimate objects , but I guess it should be worth a shot.” [color=chocolate] “Whoa there… what do you mean by that? I swear, if you’re going to try to some weird magic than let’s take a step back. Cause I don’t want to end up as a smear on the wall. I’ve already had a troll try that.”[/color] Benjamin’s figure jerked up and hissed in pain. “Well, nothing back has happened [i]yet[/i], and since I was able to teleport here through a comic book, doing something like this should be a breeze.” Benjamin inhaled, fighting the urge to vomit from the pain. His fingers pressed into his nose bridge as he thought carefully about his next words. Thankfully he wasn’t stressed enough to change, but he doubted that would last long. [color=chocolate] “Are you sure you’re not related in some way to the Ambassador or the White Witch because they are only people I know that uses portals or some type of teleport stuff. Do you even know what you’re doing?”[/color] “Hold your horses, buckaroo! I definitely fall on the metahuman side of things. So there isn’t any magic involved. Plus, I’m not a villain, either! I’m not scheming to screw anybody over. You know what, let me see if I can demonstrate what I mean.” Matthew then appeared to focus on a spot in the room right next to him. A swirling portal, like the one he had fallen out of, manifested at that location. Matthew then stuck his upper body through the portal for a few seconds, as if he were looking for something. When he pulled himself out, the portal closed right behind him. In his hands, he held two comicbooks. “Alright, here is an issue of the Sensational Arachne that i canonical with the book I used to get here,” Matthew started to explain as he held up the first comic. Then, he held up a second comic that was aesthetically different from the first. “This other one was written during the 90’s, with all of that era’s stereotypes.” “Now, with my powers, I can insert the 90’s Arachne into the modern one’s book.” Matthew then stacked the two comics on top of each other and closed his eyes. A dim, blue light surrounded the books for a few seconds before dissipating as quickly as it had appeared. After Matthew had opened his eyes, he first revealed the cover of the 90’s comic. Nothing had changed. However, when he showed the other book, something had changed.The cover itself was generally intact. But the titular heroine had her appearance altered. She now looked identical to her counterpart from the 90’s comic, ignoring the difference in art style. “See? So hypothetically, I should be able to do something like this to real people, too.” [color=chocolate] “And how do you know there isn’t any ill effect with living creatures?”[/color] Ben asked, trying to keep his amazement hidden with his question. He was slightly jealous as the best thing he could do was get beaten up or deserted. “I’m sure there isn’t any side effects. And if something bad happens, I’ll just turn you back. How does that sound?” [color=chocolate] “And what if you find out you can’t? Do you have a back-up plan?”[/color] Benjamin hesitated in accepting this because it sounded too good to be true. “I mean, if you think the risk is too great, I can just take you home, if that’s just what you want.” Benjamin rolled his tongue against his inner cheek. [color=chocolate] “Let’s try something simple first. Can you make my wounds go away? Heal them or whatever?”[/color] “We could try that first.” Matthew answered. He approached Benjamin and placed his hand on the werewolf’s shoulder. Just like he had done with the comics, Matthew closed his eyes, resulting in the same blue light surrounding Benjamin. As Matthew focused on the werewolf’s wounds, these injuries slowly disappeared, almost as if they had never happened. “What do you say about that?” Ben had braced himself. His eyes slowly opened as he felt his wounds vanish, leaving him feeling surprisingly fine. [color=chocolate] “Uh… How do I look? The same?”[/color] He suddenly asked, half expected he had grown another eye somewhere. “Oh no! You turned into a girl!” Matthew jokingly exclaimed with a laugh, showing that he was not serious. But just in case, he made sure to make it explicit that he was only messing with Benjamin. “I’m just joking. You look the same. Minus the wounds, of course.” Ben had considered abruptly checking to ensure his anatomy was correct, but quickly found the joke. His hand balled into a fist as he gently punched Matt’s arm in response. [color=chocolate] “That’s not funny,”[/color] he snapped then tested out his healed form with a few twists and rotations of his torso. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary so far. [color=chocolate] “So far, so good. I seem the same… Now for the bigger test.”[/color] Benjamin looked at Matt. [color=chocolate] “Are you ready?”[/color] “Let’s do this.” Matthew took the same position as he had done when he had healed Benjamin of his injuries. This time, he had to picture in his head the end result. If the young werewolf had never been turned into a werewolf in the first place, then there would not have been any opportunities for him to be abandoned by all the people who had crossed paths with him. But he also had to make sure that Benjamin would remember him. Otherwise, he would have to do the whole song and dance of “who are you?” with Benjamin all over again. Once he had captured the image in his head, Matthew could feel his powers flowing through him. A little blood started to drip from one of his nostrils during the process. Fortunately, the procedure was not long. “How do you feel?” Matthew asked. His voice wavered a little, showing that using his powers in this way had taxed his body physically. Ben just stood there. His eyes wandered over the room, confusion on his face and gradually came to rest on Matt. A eyebrow arched before he answered his friend. [color=chocolate] “I’m about to ask you the same question. Are you alright? Should you lay down or do you need something? Also, where the heck are we?”[/color] Benjamin couldn’t stop his questions from pouring out. “I’ll be alright. And to keep a long story short, let’s just say we’re very, [b]very[/b] lost. Now, let’s get you home.” [color=chocolate] “Okay. Are you sure you should this is a good idea, you don’t look so good.”[/color] “I’m [i]fine[/i]!” Let’s get you home.” Another of the spirals portals appeared next to Matthew. He gestured towards the portal, suggesting that Benjamin should go first. “After you.” [color=chocolate] “All right…”[/color] Benjamin backed off, through his concern didn’t fall back from his expression. Cautiously, he stepped into the portal and vanished from sight.