Atlas worked hard to save as many people as possible without drawing attention to what he was doing, because the last thing they needed was for the Viltrumites to figure out someone was subverting their rule by stealing their slaves from right under their noses.

Some of the worlds only had Invincible present, some had him and Omni-man, some had a handsome dark haired Viltrumite that had broken Invincible and he was her toy and did everything she asked him to do.

In another dimension, it was the old fit woman that had that position and enjoyed having a young man like Mark under her. She was too old to have children herself and loaned him out to the other women as a stud, which earned her a lot of prestige under the Viltrumite Empire.

The funny thing was, they all had the same common denominator of Invincible either losing his mind, letting his experiences corrupt him, or just outright agreeing with the Viltrum Empire's philosophy that the strong had to rule and they protected what was theirs. It saved more lives in the end than trying to resist would.

Surprisingly, in almost all of them, Eve was one of the first heroes taken out. She was too close to Invincible in a lot of them and became his most vocal opponent, whom he had to silence or coerce into compliance. Only a handful had fallen for him and went along with him, thanks to how her foster father treated her like a freak and an embarrassment and Mark had accepted her, flaws and all.

Not surprisingly, most of the worlds that the prime Angstrum had saved his dimensional selves from, were all the worst cases and the most bleak, since he wanted them all desperate for any help and they leapt at it with both hands and forgot about everything else. He really was an idiot to do that, because none of them had the knowledge he thought he would gain.

They weren't scientists, or doctors, or even particularly smart in some cases. Most of them were just regular people and had normal lives. They didn't have any special knowledge or even had access to anything close to research materials, just like the average citizen. Not just anyone could walk into secured facilities or laboratories and copy their work.

As Atlas worked, he intentionally didn't have his Mark persona try to show up to help. None of the people there would be at all welcoming to have him near them, especially the six Eves that Atlas had managed to rescue from various states of capture.

Why would Invincible bother doing that? Did he think she would eventually come around to his way of thinking? That was never going to happen after he had kidnapped her and kept her prisoner, in some cases ensuring she was somehow crippled and couldn't use her powers. The one laying on the floor by Atlas, with her hand on his ankle, had stayed right there and kept watching as he searched and saved whoever he could.

“Sir?” One of the nearby Anstrums asked as he held his young daughter in his arms. “It's been hours since you started saving us and a few of us are getting hungry.”

“Some of us haven't eaten in days.” The next one added.

“And we're tired.” Another said and hugged his wife.

Atlas looked at the few hundred Angstrums left in the line that were waiting for him to help them and he felt Eve squeeze his ankle. He looked down at her and she motioned slightly with her other hand towards the five Eves that had sat around her and they were softly whispering about what they were going to do.

“Do you think I could ask them to help?” Atlas asked her.

Eve nodded. “You just have to promise to help them with their worlds if you can.”

“You didn't tell them I was going to?” Atlas asked, surprised.

“They didn't believe me because I'm biased.” Eve said with a blush.

Atlas nodded and carefully turned away from the line of Anstrums and only pivoted his foot that Eve still had a hold of. “Sam? Evie? Angel? Wilkins? SP-One?”

All five Eves stop talking and turned to look at him. Funnily enough, none of them looked at him with anger or animosity, despite how they had been treated before he rescued them. One had her arms cut off, another her legs, one had all four limbs removed, another had been blinded and her tongue removed, and the last had been bound, blindfolded, and kept in isolation.

“I still have more work to do to find the rest of the dimensional coordinates. Could I bother you to make some furniture, like beds, chairs and tables, then convert some basic foodstuffs into edible meals for everyone?” Atlas asked and dropped a pile of MREs beside them. “I can give you as many of these as you need.”

The five Eves exchanged looks and seemed to have a silent conversation, then they nodded as one and stood up. They walked around the Eve on the floor and each of them gave Atlas a kiss on the cheek as they passed by him and one of them levitated the pile of MREs using their powers. He dropped more piles for each of them and they moved over to the side of the warehouse to start working.

Tables were made first and the MREs were quickly converted into much more food than the small containers themselves could have ever held. The Angstrums and their families swarmed the tables and a lot of them thanked them, which they refused and pointed to Atlas, because they were doing it for him.

“You better do me first like you promised.” The Eve on the floor said, almost with a growl.

Atlas smiled down at her before he whispered. “You don't see anyone else willingly helping me search for survivors, do you?”

Eve gave me a pointed look, because she knew if he asked them, then they would. She had, didn't she?

“We'll have time to get to know each other soon enough, Samantha.” Atlas said and turned back to the line to hold a hand out to the next Angstrum. “Believe me, you won't regret it.”

“I won't.” Eve said and caught her breath as another world devastated by Invincible appeared in her mind's eye. Why are there so many of them that he ruined?

Because it was all the prime Angstrum focused on. He wanted desperate versions of himself, not nice and stable ones that weren't in danger. Why would an Angstrum from a safe world jump at the chance to have a helping hand save his family? Atlas asked her.

He wouldn't. Angstrum answered and his thoughts led them to his wife and two daughters. They were hiding in an underground bunker that was their neighbour's fallout shelter. The neighbours were there as well and looked scared and a little hungry. Please, help them, too.

Atlas didn't have to be asked and pulled Angstrum's wife out first. She gasped at seeing her husband alive, because she thought he was dead, and hugged him. The two daughters were next and the mother pulled them into the hug. The man and woman were panicking and he pulled them and their two sons at the same time to shock them into not panicking anymore.

“There's food being set out over there.” Angstrum said and let my hand go. “Thank you, Atlas.”

Atlas shook his head. “There's way too much to do to thank me for it this soon.”

Angstrum led his family and friends over to the side of the warehouse and the next Angstrum eagerly grabbed Atlas by the hand. His wife and son were in a homeless shelter with dozens of other families. They were plucked out without a fuss and the family reunion repeated again, then the next Angstrum stepped forward.

*

Mark worked at the Global Defense Agency for his afternoon shift and he was almost completely ignored by the women that were interested in Atlas. It was an odd dichotomy for him, because he was the same person and they adored him as Atlas and ignored him as Mark. It brought home just how different he was in his normal persona than he was in his hero persona, which was the whole point of having a separate identity, so he couldn't complain about it.

He went home to have supper and he and Debbie had a great evening watching television and talked about their day at work. It was kind of funny that they could do that, considering he was barely out of high school and she had been working for years. It just clicked between them and that was all that mattered.

Mark went upstairs to change for bed and climbed under the blanket. He checked his cell phone and saw a text from Sarah. He chuckled at her complaining that college was boring when he wasn't there and she really needed him to get her off. He typed up an apology and that he would see her on the weekend if she was free. Unfortunately, she wasn't and she apologized as well.

They both knew it would be difficult to continue their relationship once she went off to college so it wasn't that disappointing that it wasn't working out. That was just how life worked out sometimes. Mark signed off with her and sent a text to Sarah's mother, Olivia. He had to laugh that she was busy as well and she apologized and deeply regretted having to say no. She really needed him to get her off, too.

Mark felt it when something crossed the ward boundary. They didn't instantly die, so they weren't hostile towards him or his mother. That didn't mean they weren't a threat to him, though. He didn't move and kept his eye on his bedroom window as his Danger Sense didn't even twitch.

A soft glow appeared and a dog's face appeared in the window. It was a Scottish Terrier, with a kind of beard shape to the fur on his face, and he floated up into view using a jetpack and wasn't flying on his own.

Mark's eyes went to the Science Dog poster on his wall, that showed a similar view with a muscular Dog-man wearing the same tight red t-shirt, military cargo pants, and grenades and equipment on his belt. He sighed and climbed out of bed and walked over to the window, opened it, and waved the being inside.

“Mark Grayson.” The Scottie-man said in a deep voice as he floated inside and landed to face him. “My name is Science Dog and I need your help.”

Mark crossed his arms and looked at the poster on the wall and back at him.

“I know this might seem strange; but, there are a multitude of dimensions out there where both dogs and science are as real as the air you breathe.” Science Dog said, as if imparting a very important secret.

Mark was tempted to tell him about what his other self was doing at that moment and decided not to. He would try the same trick, though. He uncrossed his arms and stepped towards him with a smile on his face and his hand held out to be shaken. “It's nice to meet you, Science Dog.”

The being smiled and it looked really weird on a dog's face. He shook the offered hand and Mark hid his surprise at finding out the thing was really a humanoid Praying Mantis that had a shapeshifting ability. He also had the same energy signature as everything else in this dimension, so he was both a liar and a fake.

“Likewise, Mark Grayson.” Science Dog said. “During my travels, I came across a planet several galaxies away and they are in desperate need for someone to save them from an impending meteor shower that will devastate the planet.”

Mark nodded and let his gloved paw-like hand go. “Several galaxies over, huh? That means you have advanced teleporter technology or a spaceship nearby.”

“The latter. It's hovering above the city and waiting for us to depart on our mission.” Science Dog responded. “Shall we go right now?”

“Sure, just let me change.” Mark said and equipped his Invincible suit. “Let's go.”

Science Dog smiled again, which still looked weird, and he activated his jetpack and flew out of the window. Mark took out his cell phone and sent a text to Cecil to warn him, then stored it and flew out through the open window, closed it, and flew up into the air to follow the fake dimensional traveller.

They arrived at a fairly advanced space ship, one even better than he one the Atlantians had, especially if it could traverse galaxies in a short time.

“How long will it take to get there?” Mark asked and pretended to strap in as the creature sat in the pilot seat.

“About 6 of your Earth days.” Science Dog responded.

“That's good to know.” Mark said and lunged forward and tapped the back of the creature's neck to disable the thing's nervous system.

He pushed him out of the seat and tied up his arms and legs, then sat down in the pilot's seat. It had taken a few minutes to familiarize himself with the layout and operation using the dog-man's mind, which had been helped along as Science Dog set up the piloting coordinates for the return route to wherever they were going.

Mark took out his cell phone and sent another text. He waited and received one back with the location to fly the ship to. It was at the GDA and he nodded. The tech guys were going to have a ball with an actual hyperspace capable spaceship that they might be able to reverse engineer, or at minimum, give them ideas on how to reproduce it for themselves.

After casting a few spells to hide it, Mark flew the thing to where it needed to go and put a copy of it into his inventory, just in case. He landed in the hangar in front of Cecil and a large group of very excited scientists, including the two Sinclairs and Justines, and dropped the ramp.

The ship was immediately swarmed inside and out and Mark was patted on the back several times and even received a kiss on the cheek from one of the Justines. The other scientists applauded and she huffed at them for making a big deal out of it.

“Good work, Mark.” Cecil said and motioned towards the unconscious dog-man.

Mark picked him up and followed Cecil out of the ship. “He said the ship can cross a couple of galaxies in about 6 days. The coordinates for where he wanted to take me are on the main screen.”

“We can't read it.” Sinclair said and his other self outside ran over to Mark. “How did you read an alien language?”

“It's in another language?” Mark asked, pretending to be confused. He was not going to tell them he could read and understand every language that existed. They would have him translating everything from ancient texts to the Italian label of ingredients on the boxes of their favorite cookies.

“Sir, we need to requisition Mister Grayson's services exclusively after the alien's interrogation.” Sinclair said.

“I concur!” Justine confirmed from inside the ship. “Everything's marked with names in here.”

Cecil nodded and Sinclair walked back to the ship to continue examining it. “You're in demand a lot around here.” He commented to Mark, whom shrugged. “We'll go to interrogation room B. It's big enough to contain him if he changes into a giant spider or something.”

Mark chuckled. “He's currently paralyzed from the neck down, so even if he wanted to change back, he can't.”

Cecil smiled and brought him to the right room. There were a couple of other agents there and they handled the rougher parts of the questioning, once they woke the creature up. It was a surprise to find out that Nolan Grayson, aka Omni-man, had flown so far away since he had left Earth almost 6 months ago.

He had stumbled across the Thraxian people by accident, then took over their planet at their request, and he had been their Emperor ever since. Why did that matter? Because he had sent the Praying Mantis scout specifically to retrieve Mark Grayson, his son, to save them and the planet from the Viltrumites that would eventually track Nolan down.

“Well, that's a huge pile of shit to drop on your shoulders.” Cecil said and leaned against the table as he looked at Mark. “What are you going to do?”

Mark sighed and rubbed his face. “I think there's only one thing I can do.”

Cecil raised his eyebrows at him. “You can't seriously think that accepting his offer is going to work out? For anyone? Especially for you and Debbie?”

“Accept it?” Mark asked with a scoff. “No, Cecil. You got that wrong.” He said, his face blank. “I'll be going there to kill him.”