Finding a nearby dimension without super powers was surprisingly difficult. I wanted to insert Angstrum into a world where he either died of natural causes or had an accident, not being murdered by a villain or caught in an explosion during a superhero fight. It would be too difficult for him to explain himself if he miraculously came back from being incinerated or obliterated.

However, I did find a world that suffered an apocalyptic event that killed the entire world's population with a super virus. Luckily, it wasn't a zombie virus or could survive without a living host, so as soon as the last person died, so did the virus.

I wasn't an idiot, though. I send a ghostly Glaistig Uaine through a portal and had her make a thousand Nilbogs to spread all over the world. Something had set that virus loose and both she and he searched for the cause and then used their powers to produce a counter-virus and wiped out everything that could possibly contaminate anyone else.

I also had them clean the waters, lakes, and oceans first, then they targeted the water tables, recycling systems, and reservoirs. Nothing free-standing was left untouched and everything was checked, even the trees and plants that might have absorbed any contaminated water. Thankfully, because they were ghostly figures, they were not bound by physical limitations and flowed through everything without trouble.

By the time I found a plausible world for Angstrum to resume his life and regain a wife, the work was done and I informed the Eves first, whom spread the news to everyone. They had a new world to go to and everything still worked, so there was no danger of being without either power or water. I would have to spend some time there to automate those, just in case.

I suspected that none of them would be returning to their normal homes, not with the richer neighbourhoods there that were ripe for the picking. Maybe the hotels and other posh buildings would also be claimed, since there wouldn't be any kind of businesses operating, unless they did it themselves.

That did bring up the need for food producers, then Samantha told us about how the resistance on her world had handled the food situation by having personal gardens that easily fed a large family without trouble. That had the other Eves give her liberal hugs and kisses and they thanked her for the great idea.

It would be easy for them to convert small lots all over the city for general foodstuffs that could be easily harvested. It would be up to the people to maintain their own food sources when the local stuff expired. The canned things would still be good for years and the perishable things several weeks to months, so there was no danger of starvation.

I also suggested putting stasis wards on the restaurants, supermarkets, and food warehouses. That way, it would all last for far longer than normal. I was kissed several times before Angstrum came over to m and asked to be sent to his new life. He claimed he was going to miss having to fight for his life, making everyone laugh, and said he was ready.

I poked his forehead and stepped him to near his house. He walked over to the front door and it was opened as a black woman jumped out of it.

“ANGUS!” Tisha yelled and tackled him. “They said you died of a heart attack!”

Angstrum laughed and hugged her. “That was the patient in the next room to mine. One of the orderlies knocked our charts off the nurse's desk and the papers were switched.”

“Oh, thank god!” Tisha gasped and kissed him.

I stopped watching and opened a large dimensional portal to the center of Chicago. Glaistig Uaine floated out and I thanked her for her help. She smiled and nodded as she faded away and I felt her grateful feeling for letting her see so many new worlds and gaining so many powers. Since I gave her everything I didn't want, she was quite happy with her life as a spirit familiar.

“All right, people!” Samantha shouted to get everyone's attention. “There's still some work to do to ensure the new world doesn't fall apart right after you move in; but, for now, it's ready enough for you to spread out and claim places to live for yourself.”

The refugees cheered and started moving towards the large portal.

“It's in downtown Chicago, so if you need to go anywhere, be careful driving a car. We haven't cleared out the streets of obstructions yet.” Angel said and formed orange pylons in her hands and a construction worker vest over her shoulders as she directed the people into the portal.

A bunch of them laughed at her and moved in an orderly fashion past her and into their new world. The other Eves helped them along and handed out water bottles and snacks to those that wanted them. It didn't take long for the last of them to pass through and the expanded warehouse was empty and eerily quiet.

“Us, too?” SP-One asked.

“No, we have to take a break. They have to find a place to live and that's going to take time.” Sam said and gave me a pointed look. “What was it you said? We did some work, some more work, and then we could play again.”

Both I and the other Eves smiled and I closed the large portal. We went back inside our space and had another great time for about two hours, which all six of them enjoyed. After that, we cleaned up and then followed the refugees into their new dimension to start the cleanup of the streets and to fix the power and water stations.

Chicago would be the first city to be made self-sufficient. Over the next few days, we would continue to visit occasionally and would move on to the next big cities to do them as well. All of the capitals were first, just in case, and the smaller towns could be done later if they were needed.

We might eventually find some experienced farmers that could take over the vast tracts of land in the mid-west to continue growing food in America's breadbasket. My own methods were a bit too involved to convert all of the farms into enclosed greenhouses, even if they would be able to produce food year-round without fail.

I should probably introduce the idea to Cecil and let him deal with the Department of the Interior to see if it would be a good strategy for a backup food source. There was a whole lot of free land out there owned by the government that would work well for a self-contained ecosystem like I had designed.

Oh, and I still needed to patrol and check in with Cecil, visit with Debbie, and had to give Monster Woman a call to see if she was busy. I quickly did the first one and tried the third one. Amanda was helping to take care of a group of minor villains named The Serpent Society, so I told her to call me if she needed help. She laughed and hung up.

Debbie was delighted when I showed up at her work to take her out to lunch. Of course, we also had a quickie because she needed it, and I left her happy and satisfied before returning her to work and I went back to the warehouse.

The Eves didn't mind me sticking around the base with them, even if they were curious about the Eve of this dimension. She didn't answer her cell phone when I called her, so meeting her would have to wait for a bit longer. I left a message to call me when she wasn't busy and went back to work.

Redesigning a power plant to become automated wasn't a 'snap my fingers and it was done' kind of job. It took real engineering and technical know-how to rework things to not need a human's intervention to monitor possible problems. The emergency services needed to be integrated as well, since the fire department wouldn't exist until the new population decided to make one for themselves.

*

Mark woke up at his normal time and tried to not wonder how his body knew it was the break of dawn back on Earth. He attributed it to power bullshit and forgot about it as he stored his bed and went to the pilot's seat to check the console. It was the sixth day and the distance counter to his destination was ticking down almost too fast to see.

He sat down and ran another diagnostic to see that the spaceship was running fine. No anomalies had been encountered during the entire journey, even in the dark space between galaxies. He had felt how close the Shadowverse was when he was about halfway between the Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy.

He didn't try to enter it, because there was no guarantee he could get back onto the ship with it moving so fast. Maybe he could stop on the trip back to Earth and try it, just to see if the creatures this far out were different than the ones that had access to a planet's gravity. The shadows were much darker and deeper when there was no stars nearby, after all.

The spaceship started to slow down as it entered a solar system with several oddly-shaped planets. One of the larger ones had obvious signs of habitation and the ship flew over to it and down into the atmosphere. It slowed down even further and there were no heat flames from reentry, which Mark noted down to pass on to the scientists.

It slowed down even further as it approached a large city with weird shaped buildings and arches were everywhere. They had no discernible function besides being a flying hazard, and the spaceship deftly avoided them as it came in for a landing on a landing pad. It was the only one in the entire city, so that was a bit concerning.

Did they only have the one spaceship? Mark asked himself as the ramp opened.

He shut down the ship's power and locked the commands with a human password before he equipped his Invincible costume. He left the ship and there were hundreds of Praying Mantis people gathered around. They hadn't been there when he landed, so they were either hiding or had arrived in the few seconds the ship took to power down.

“Greetings from Earth.” Invincible said and bowed slightly. “On behalf of the Global Defense Agency, we hope this meeting will benefit both of our peoples.”

The bug people exchanged odd looks, probably because they had bug faces, then the entire group turned as one and started walking towards the center of the city and the large temple-like structure there.

“That wasn't a no.” Invincible whispered and followed. His eyes caught many children running and playing, and also a few of the females trying to corral them. He had to admit that a few of them had great bodies, both from the front and the back.

Whether they were physically functional was up for debate, though. Just because those bumps on their chest looked like breast shapes and the bumps on their backsides looked like heart-shaped asses, that didn't mean they actually were. Did they have nipples? Was it actual flesh or was it chitinous armor?

Also, who's to say what they had under their dress-like clothing? They looked humanoid enough to pass a basic inspection, he supposed. He didn't use X-Ray Vision to check, though. He wasn't that curious about it and would leave it to the scientists back on Earth.

We approached the temple and they stopped walking and spread out at the bottom of the large set of steps that led inside.

“Inform the Monarch that Mark Grayson has arrived.” One of the male bug people said loudly to the three females at the top of the stairs.

“My name is Invincible while in this costume.” Invincible said and held in his surprise at them knowing his name, because he hadn't told them. Someone came out of the shadows at the top of the stairs and all of the bug people bowed deeply and folded an arm across their chest. Mark didn't bother bowing and stared up at the person.

“Hello, my son.” Nolan said with an accepting look on his face and held a hand down towards him, as if welcoming him. “Welcome to Thraxia.”

Invincible started to take a step up towards him, then launched himself at sub-sonic speed and buried his fist into Nolan's face. That accepting look instantly changed to worry as his cheek cracked and his nose broke as the momentum Mark had carried over and the both of them flew up into the air and through the ceiling, the next floor and ceiling, and out through the main spire in the middle of the temple.

“Hello, dad.” Invincible said and grabbed him by the neck with his other hand and his fist punched him again. The cracked cheek shattered and his nose was crushed. Blood spurted out and Mark easily dodged it, flipped them over, and drop-kicked him in the chest.

Nolan grunted with pain as his chest caved slightly and his ribs creaked. The force threw him back down to the ground almost instantly and he made a crater behind the temple-like palace and dust flew up into the air.

Invincible flew down and stopped ten feet above the crater and the force of the air shifting pushed the dust away and cleared his view. He saw Nolan cough and held in his smile.

“I know you're upset...” Nolan started to say.

“Upset? Why would I be upset?” Invincible asked and moved in a blur as his fist punched the other side of Nolan's face. “Is it because you beat me to death?” He asked and punched him again, shattering his other cheek. “Is it because you called mom a pet?” He asked and his foot slammed down and crushed Nolan's ankle. “Is it because you abandoned us to be slaughtered by your people?”

Nolan didn't cry out as his other ankle was crushed, then he lunged up and tackled Mark, then rained punches on his face and chest. “Mark, I... I made a mistake.”

“Yes, you did.” Invincible said and caught Nolan's fist, surprising the older man. He held onto the fist and turned his upper body to drive his elbow into his father's and the loud crack echoed across the landscape.

“ARGH!” Nolan finally yelled in pain and clutched at his broken arm.

There were many gasps from all the bugs that were watching. Their Monarch was being beaten to a pulp by his own son and there was nothing they could do about it.

“You made several mistakes, actually.” Invincible said and punched him in the left kidney. “You overreacted to me getting powers.” He said and punched his right kidney. “You murdered your friends in the Guardians of the Globe.” He jabbed his liver. “You trained me badly.” He jabbed his stomach and made him dry-heave. “You tried to convince me to betray the Earth.”

Nolan took a deep breath and tried to stand up straight and winced. “Mark...”

“You told me how you really felt about mom.” Invincible said and punched him in the diaphragm and knocked the wind out of him, bending him over. “You beat me into a pulp and left me to die.” He said and his knee came up and smashed Nolan's broken nose, making the man stand up straight again. “But, you know what? None of that compares to your biggest mistake.”

Nolan needed a moment to recover when he wasn't punched again. “What...” *cough* *wheeze* “...what mistake?”

“You told me yourself, dad. You'll live for thousands of years and a human lifetime in comparison is meaningless.” Invincible said and Nolan nodded. “If you had just stayed quiet about your mission and went through the same motions you've been doing for 20 years pretending to be human, nearly everyone currently alive would have died of old age. You could have taken over the whole world as its champion without any fuss or trouble at all.”

Nolan's eyes widened in shock at hearing such a simple solution to his problems.

“Can you guess what I'm going to do now?” Invincible asked as his fist blurred and went through the carefully and methodically softened up facial structure and crushed the older man's brain against the back of his hardened skull.

Invincible pulled his blood-covered fist out of his father's head and the body dropped to the ground. The eyes had popped out and hung by strings from the gaping hole where his face used to be. It looked disgusting and he shook his hands, blood flinging all over, and he waved his hand to store the body and cleaned up the blood.

He turned around and walked back over to the palace and all the bug people followed him. He didn't object to that and walked all the way around to the front of the temple-like palace to the large set of stairs. He went up them and saw a well dressed female standing at the top.

“Mark? Where is my husband?” The creature asked when he was close enough.

Invincible paused walking for a moment, then barked a laugh and continued. “He fled a lot farther from humanity than I thought he did.” He commented and came to a stop in front of her at the top of the stairs. “What did he do to you?”

“He saved my science team and my ship from being sucked into a black hole.” She responded. “I fell in love with him, spent the majority of my life with him, and gave him a son.”

“The majority of...” Invincible tilted his head and read her mind to find out she was a queen and only lived for a single year, or 365 days. “You have a son? How? A normal pregnancy would... oh, that son of a bitch. He used your short lifespan to gestate a replacement for me, just like he said he would.”

“That's not what happened.” She said. “He loves me and our son.”

“Of course he did, Queen Andressa.” Invincible said and went inside the temple.

“What do you mean?” Andressa asked and followed him. “Where are you going?”

“I need to check on your son and see if he really is viable as my replacement.” Invincible said and went to the queen's private chambers. He found the cradle and inside was a dark purple humanoid baby that looked to be about 8 months old. He reached in and touched the baby's hand, making the boy giggle. “Okay, there's good news and bad news.”

“What do you mean, Mark?” Andressa asked.

“Good news, his growth will slow down as he gets older and he will live longer than a year.” Invincible said and Andressa looked happy. “Bad news is his body is too weak to grow his powers anywhere near what a normal Viltrumite can handle, let alone what his father was capable of.”

Andressa huffed, like it didn't matter, and picked the baby up to hug him. “He is our little miracle. I don't care if he's going to be strong or not.”

Invincible opened his mouth to argue, then huffed as well. “Yeah, okay. Not my problem.” He said and walked towards the door.

“Wait!” Andressa gasped and jogged over to me. “Did Nolan convince you to help?”

“Help with what?” Invincible asked before he could stop himself.

“The Viltrumites.” Andressa said and hugged her baby. “They will hunt him down to execute him, then they will kill the rest of us.” She said and her mouth kissed the boy's forehead. “Because of him.”

Again, Invincible opened his mouth to argue, then turned away and walked out of the private chamber. “Of all the arrogant, self-important, and asinine things to bring me here for, that was the last thing I expected him to do.” He stomped out of the palace and stopped at the top of the length of stairs. “Since I suspect dad was stupid enough to wait until it was nearly too late to contact me for help...”

A light buzzing came from the back of his head from his Danger Sense.

“...they will be arriving here in a few minutes.” Invincible said and looked up into the sky as a crack of thunder came from something breaking the sound barrier.