Atlas had been quite busy for the last two weeks and still made time for the people in his life. He also got to meet some of the other heroes that existed and sometimes worked with the Global Defense Agency. A bunch of them had been called together by Cecil to fight against a 20 foot tall being calling himself Omnipotus. He had a skull for a face and spiky armor.

Well, he had a face like a skull. Calling himself after Omni-man had been a huge mistake and everyone wailed on the fool for reminding them of what happened, especially The Immortal. Atlas had hung back and let them get their aggression out, then he picked Monster Woman up and copied Wolverine's and Colossus' Fastball Special move and caved the giant skull in.

It was actually nice to meet some of the heroes afterwords. Someone called Two Punch Man that never succeeds in ever delivering the second punch, Beefy Guy that was just strong, Green Girl that had weird light powers, Shapesmith that was pretending to be human and was really a Martian from Mars, Hunk who just looked handsome and was slightly enhanced, Bugeye seemed like just a woman wearing a costume, and they were the least powered ones.

Then there was Throwbolt, a woman whose powers were obvious, Minotaur, again obvious powers, Knockout was a strong woman on par with Wonder Woman, Brit was an older superhero that saved Cecil's life once, Tech Jacket was an Iron Man ripoff, Shrapnel was a young black woman with a metal arm, and Pangea was a large muscular woman wearing dinosaur bones.

Then there were the weird ones, like the Mr. Freeze rip-off in an orange suit, Moth-man, who was like Arthur from The Tick, Not-Japandroid, which was and AI android and not a copy of the original Japandroid, as if that distinction meant anything to anyone, a red hood guy with a tech mask and equipment belt, a big green monster guy that wasn't like the Hulk or Monster Girl's original monster form named Big Mildew, and a boy that looked about 4 called Business Baby with super strength and fighting skills. Yes, really.

It was a hugely odd mix and was pretty entertaining to be apart of, actually. The giant opponent gave everyone a good chance to fight as well, show off what they could do in an actual dangerous situation and not under the pressure of a tryout for the Guardians of the Globe. I only had to step in a few times to stop the low-powered ones from being splattered, which they had been grateful for.

Now Atlas was back with his Eves and they finally managed to contact this dimension's Atom Eve and she agreed to visit, only for her to see the six alternate versions of herself and their slightly different costumes. She screamed almost wordlessly, accused Atlas of ruining her life, and she flew off at her best speed.

“Well, fuck.” Atlas said and started to float to go after her and stopped when Samantha grabbed his hand and pulled him back down. She had cut her hair back to how she liked it and gave him a tender and love-filled kiss.

“I've got this.” Eve said and smiled.

Atlas gave her a hug and kissed her back. “I'll leave it in your hands.”

Eve let him go and flew up into the air. “Don't worry, Atlas. I'll make her accept the truth.”

“Kick her ass!” Several of the other Eves encouraged her.

Eve grinned at them and her hands and feet glowed brightly with pink energy, then she took off like a rocket, which was much faster than the local Atom Eve could manage. Atlas and her counterparts had taught her a lot a they worked to fix and repair a dozen cities and their infrastructure to support thousands of people. They had all grown more powerful in a very short amount of time.

Atom Eve went to the same cliff she sat on when she hung out with Invincible and more recently with Atlas. In her mind, she had started seeing it as her spot and only a few people knew about it. She liked it that way, too. No one bothered her when she went there to think and tried to deal with her problems.

Unfortunately, she had been busy with personal things the last few weeks and regretted not keeping in touch with Atlas, especially after seeing what he wanted her to see. He had a bunch of clones of her! She just knew he was doing all kinds of things with them, too.

Atom Eve blushed as she remembered doing some of those thing with Atlas, then she had to fight down the anger she felt at him cheapening it and using her body like that without her knowledge. How dare he violate her privacy like that! The sheer nerve! It was insulting that as soon as she was busy, he found or created alternate versions of her to keep enjoying the things he did with her.

Although, her thoughts tried to not think about how flattering it was that he had chosen her to use, too. That conflicted with her righteous anger and several emotions crossed her face as she tried to resolve how she really felt. Being insulted and flattered at the same time was really confusing.

Atom Eve felt an atomic distortion nearby and turned her head just in time for a glowing fist to slam into her cheek and she was tackled to the ground and they tumbled over a few times and she kicked out and knocked whoever it was away from her. She paused in surprise when she saw the short fuzzy red hair on the head of her attacker.

“It's time you learned a hard truth, Eve.” Eve said and her hands glowed brightly.

Atom Eve formed a glowing pink shield just in time for a beam to shatter it and then a heavy boot kicked her in the gut and doubled her over. An uppercut snapped her teeth together and she flipped over in the air, then her cape was grabbed and she was flipped around and thrown down into the dirt on her back.

She couldn't breathe after two strong hits like that and she stared up at the smug look on a copy of her own face. It was not a nice look and she didn't like seeing it on her face, because she had never felt smug before.

A glowing fist moved down to punch her lights out and she made a wedge and deflected it and rolled over to her side, her own glowing hand swiped at the other Eve's feet, only to bounce off the reinforced boots. She was too shocked by that to defend as a knee caught the side of her head and knocked her head over heels again.

She hadn't been hit that hard in a long time and she wondered if she could win against someone that must know all of her moves. She tried to shoot two beams at the other Eve and both were deflected and then a beam came from the other Eve's foot. She wasn't flying with it, though. It shot at her and Atom Eve could do nothing as it hit her in the chest and threw her into and through a tree.

“You've already forgotten what Atlas taught you about fighting with what you have?” Eve asked as her fist hit Atom Eve's forehead and pushed her down into a small crater. “What have you been doing the last few weeks while Atlas has been saving tens of thousands of people from alternate Earths?”

Atom Eve couldn't catch her breath when she heard that and only stared at the two heavy combat boots dropped onto her chest and shoved her body down into the dirt and increased the size of the crater she was in. Thankfully, the hit let her suck in a huge breath and she coughed and sputtered as the other Eve floated up slightly.

“I think you need a reality check, Atom Eve.” Eve said and her hands glowed brightly.

“W-wait... s-stop... please.” Atom Eve pleaded.

Eve looked down at her and the glow around her fists faded. She landed beside the crater and transfigured the ground into a suitable chair and plopped down onto it. Atom Eve looked shocked that had worked and she didn't know what to do next.

“You and I have a lot to talk about, now that I have your attention and you're not angry anymore.” Eve said and waved her hand. The crater filled in, lifted Atom Eve up and the grund changed into a copy of the same chair and Atom Eve was sitting on it.

Atom Eve was surprised by her words and realized she was right. Her anger had fled and she felt empty. She slumped in the chair and Eve nodded. Her ploy had worked and now she could tell Atom Eve what she needed to know and could explain why there were so many Eves and why they were all in love with the man that gave them their lives and restored their bodies.

*

Cecil was in the command center and working out a few changes to the Guardians of the Globe with one of the secretaries. There had been a few standout heroes at that last battle that would be beneficial to the team and he wanted to make the offers before they dispersed back to their own cities.

“Sir, the new sensors and detectors have picked up a huge energy signature coming from Mars.” One of the techs monitoring the solar system grid said. It had been Atlas that suggested seeding independent satellites between all of the planets for both communications and information relays.

“Bring it up on the screen.” Cecil said and leaned back down to the secretary. “Deliver the messages as soon as you can and coordinate with Carol to set up a few meetings.”

“Yes, sir.” The woman said and continued typing.

Cecil walked away from her and stopped in the center of the room. “That thing is huge.”

On the screen was a gigantic spaceship that was much larger than any ship had any right to be. The power readings were it being charged up or its reactors coming online. The odd thing was, the damn thing was slow as a turtle going uphill, because it launched and very slowly lifted up into the air.

“Rough estimate is its about the size of two aircraft carriers side by side.” The man added.

“Lifesigns?” Cecil asked.

“One humanoid.” Another tech said. “It's also fairly large and seems to have several echos.”

“Dammit, it's those squid things Invincible discovered the last time he was on Mars with the astronauts. They must have finally gathered enough together to defeat the martians.” Cecil said and walked over to the communications console. “Connect me to Atlas.”

“Go ahead, sir. He's online.” The woman said.

“Hey, Atlas. Enjoying your day off?” Cecil asked with a knowing smile.

Atlas chuckled. “You say that every damn time you interrupt me on my day off, sir.”

A few of the techs also chuckled, because something always seemed to come up when their on-call hero booked off for a day.

“We've got an impending situation.” Cecil told him.

“Is it immediate and world ending like usual?” Atlas asked.

“Of course, I wouldn't call otherwise.” Cecil said. “Although, the immediate part could be delayed for a few months as the enormous squid infested martian spaceship makes its lumbering way to Earth.”

Atlas was quiet for a moment. “The Sequids are coming?”

“It's only one lifesign and it's scattered across most of the ship, so yes. It's confirmed.” Cecil answered.

“How far away from Mars is it?” Atlas asked.

“It's just leaving the thin atmosphere now.” The tech that first discovered it responded.

“I'm on my way.” Atlas said.

Cecil nodded. “That's good, kid. When you get here, we can discuss what to do about it.”

There was no response and he glanced at the woman at the console.

“He's still connected.” She said in her defense.

“Atlas?” Cecil asked. “What's your ETA?”

“About two minutes.” Atlas said.

“That's a bit faster than usual. You don't have to rush.” Cecil commented.

Atlas didn't respond and everyone in the room waited. Almost right at the two minute mark, he spoke. “Watch the screen.”

Everyone stopped working and looked at the screen at the front of the room that showed the giant spaceship. To their surprise, the entire front of it caved in as it collapsed from something impacting it, then there was a bright light and the screen blacked out.

“Atlas! What the hell was that?” Cecil asked.

“That was a reactor core failing its containment.” Atlas said.

“You didn't...” Cecil started to say.

“No, that was an accelerated railgun fired from high Earth orbit.” Atlas interrupted.

One of the techs split the screen to the local feed and it showed Atlas with a big ass gun the size of a sailboat. He waved at the camera and showed off the thing, shrunk it, and gave them a thumbs-up.

“You need to drop that off.” Cecil said, his voice flat. “Immediately.”

Atlas chuckled and flew back down into the atmosphere. “I'll be there in a few minutes.”

“Good.” Cecil said. “How long have you been working on that?”

“Do you want the truth or me trying to inflate my reputation?” Atlas asked.

“Humor me.” Cecil said, his voice still flat and without emotion.

“About ten minutes.” Atlas admitted and a few of the secretaries let out soft pleased sounds. “I figured Earth needed a few things to help defend it from extraterrestrial threats and this was the easiest and quickest to construct.”

“You have to spend a few days with the lab guys if that was the easiest one.” Cecil ordered.

“Ha, I figured you'd say that. Have Carol adjust my patrol schedule to include appropriate lab time and consultations with Mark and Justine. Sinclair's going to be too busy to help.” Atlas told him.

“What do you hear?” Cecil asked, because he didn't want to give away that Atlas and Mark were the same person in two different bodies.

“Just that Invincible's mission was more successful than anyone could have anticipated.” Atlas answered. “Oh, and he's bringing back a large group of Praying Mantis people to start a new colony under the GDA's supervision.”

Cecil usually didn't let things startle him, not after all the shit he had been through during his lifetime. But that? That was a shock he couldn't hide and everyone around him saw it. “You're serious?”

“Yes, sir. A hundred of them, along with the one you captured, will create a new colony of short-lived and technologically advanced bug-people. They love digging, working, and reproducing. They only live for a year, so the reproducing is going to happen really really fast.”

“Damn.” Cecil said and sat down. “Goddamn.”

“My thoughts exactly, sir.” Atlas said and walked into the command center as he tapped his earpiece to turn it off. “I already dropped off the gun and the construction plans at the White Room.”

“How many baby offers do you have now?” The closest secretary asked.

“I've lost count.” Atlas said with a laugh and gave her a quick one arm hug. He didn't want to disrupt her too much while she was working. “Isn't that a sight for sore eyes?”

Everyone turned and looked at the screen and it showed a very small debris field of metal scraps and nothing else.

“No life signs.” A tech said and let out a relieved sigh.

“Good work.” Cecil said and didn't clarify who he was talking to. He stood up and walked towards the door “Atlas, walk with me. We need to talk.”

Atlas nodded and followed the man out of the room and everyone started talking about what just happened. Many of them wondered how long it was going to take to produce more of those railguns to help protect Earth. A few of them wondered what the females of the bug-people looked like, too.

*

“That really happened?” Atom Eve whispered, shocked. “And you... all of you...”

“At the same time, usually.” Eve said and didn't blush. They had been together for a couple of weeks already and she was used to it. “They do it for me.”

Atom Eve wanted to ask why and saw how tense Eve was, and chose not to. She would find out later from one of the other Eves, assuming she could build up the courage to ask. “And Atlas?”

“Treats us all differently, since he knows we're similar and also not the same person. We all have different experiences and that's what makes us who we are.” Eve said.

“And you... you are...”

“A badass.” Eve said with a smile. It faded and she put a serious look on her face. “Do you think you can put aside how you feel long enough to meet with us without judging us?”

Atom even gave her a searching look and was sure she wasn't being set up to be beaten up again. Once was enough, especially because Eve was so much better at fighting than she was. “I think... yes, I want to meet them, just to see how different and alike we are.”

Eve nodded and stood up. She held her hand out and Atom Eve accepted it. She stood as well, the chairs reformed into normal ground, and the pair flew up into the air together. Neither of them wanted to let the other's hand go and both had small smiles on their faces.