NOVEL NEXT Ch 72 – Survey Says
Things did not turn out like the demons planned.
The result of using their chronobombard (aka Hell on A Stick) was that instead of Carbon Copy joining the Periodic Platoon, his parents were killed in an accident and he was sent over seas as a child to be raised by his uncle in Germany. Long story short, he was too young to fight in world war one, became a Nazi, called himself Uber-man, and was the key figure in making sure Germany won world war two. He eventually killed Hitler for being massively incompetent and took over the world. Uber-Man made a point of hunting down and killing all mutants and metas that did not match the Arian Ideal.
To the demons, this was too good to be true. A world where all the supers except for a scant few were dead? This was going to be child's play. And so, en mass, they invaded Nazi World expecting it to be an absolute walk in the park. There was just one problem. The Nazis were good at killing all things meta, including the supernatural.
Real good.
The Nazi's anti-magic weaponry was absolutely top notch. They might have had technology that was barely better than 1960's tech, but when it came to weapons, they were second to none. You'd think they'd relax after they took over the planet, but the discovery of an alien space craft in the American territories set off every paranoid fiber in Uber-Man's brain and he shifted the entire planet into war time production with the specific purpose of being ready for alien invasions.
When the demons then invaded in 1986, they didn't know what hit them. With the entire world on constant lock down and monitored at all times, the demonic invasion was detected with ease. The Nazis had no problem going all out with tactical nuclear weapons. The war lasted about a week and ended in every demon running with their tails between their legs. The final conclusion was obvious: The alteration of the past had made things worse and invading through Nazi World was not an option.
New plan: Make Multi-Man into a villain.
The result was the arrival of a team of superheroes called the Authoritarians who were traveling back in time to prevent the creation of Nazi World. In the process of trying to stop the Nazi's from winning world war two, they restored Carbon Copy back to his original family. Unfortunately, Time Traveling Nazis went back to try and make sure the Axis powers won, regardless of Carbon Copy's presence. So the Authoritarians leaped ahead to help the Periodic Platoon win world war two. In the process, they accidentally let slip to Carbon Copy that the US government knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor ahead of time, but let it happen always. This was to convince the American people they needed to fight in Europe against the Germans.
This so utterly destroyed Multi-Man's faith in the US Government, that he vowed to root out all corruption. Unfortunately, this quest very quickly became twisted into a hatred for ALL governments and the belief that he needed to burn the whole world down and start over. With that, Carbon Copy became Ben Sinister, founder of the Legion: Sinister, the greatest supervillain of Backworld.
The battles across the decades forever colored people's perspective of things. In this new timeline, those considered heroes became villains and many villains became vigilantes. It was a cold, heartless world where people actively distrusted their governments because for all his violence, Ben Sinister was still hell bent on revealing government corruption, especially if it weakened people's faith in their nations.
As a result, most governments became increasingly weak because they lacked the support of their people. Everyone came to the conclusion that government was a bad thing and the smaller the better. Very quickly the world became a capitalist's paradise, with almost no government regulation, and virtually no taxes. Anti-socialism reached new paranoid heights and the society that eventual formed was Anti-union, anti-government, anti-corporation, anti-charity, and anti any form of collectivism. Health insurance never appeared in this world, but also no large banks, either. If a company was going to get ahead, it was driven by a cult a personality. No faceless board of directors in this world. You might think a world without any socialism would be a good thing. However, socialism has its place.
If you think about it, a family is a form of socialism. You don't charge your kids money to grow up. Everyone contributes what they can, and receive resources according to their needs. However, this world was so anti-socialistic, even grandparents were being abandoned if they couldn't pull their weight. This world wide focus on personal growth and achievement led to great innovation. It led to very strong individuals who focused on personal responsibility and betterment. It also led to great cynicism and cruelty. There was no mercy in Backworld. Being kind was synonymous with being a chump. It was a world of great hardship, but adversity leads to growth, and suffering leads to strength. Basically, they turned the world into an AnCap wet dream with people walking around with gamma irradiated anthrax missiles as personal side arms.
So it should come as no surprise when the demons attacked they didn't even last an hour.
This complete curb stomping was a disgrace. The demon lords overlooking the greater war effort were concerned about the Anti-Christ and started talking about if he needed to be recycled. The Chronobombard was over half depleted and had enough chronotons left for maybe one more timeline divergence. The Anti-Christ knew he had to make it count. But there was one good thing out of all of this, this version of Multi-man hadn't bothered to even fight the demons, so, in that regard, they had managed to remove one major obstacle from their path.
The next divergence would have to be from Backworld. But what to change?
What...
To...
Change.
Everyone regarded Grease with a look of confusion.
Grease looked up and around as she cleared her throat, "Sorry. It's a question on a test. An essay question. Everyone has to answer it to get your cape license. You can't answer it wrong, technically, but you do
have to answer it."
Grease gazed intently into the flickering flames as she mused about the capabilities and limitations of Super Gal, "There is a superhero called Super Gal. Super Gal has many super powers and can do almost anything. However, Super Gal can only be present in one location at a time and has to be in her superhero persona to utilize her abilities. If she takes time off, she has to turn off her powers. Any break from her duties could potentially result in fatal consequences because there will be people who she will not know are in trouble, and therefore, she cannot save them. She doesn't need to eat, sleep, or rest for any reason other than to have a personal life." She arched her eyebrows as she reiterated the question from the test.
"Is Super Gal allowed to take a day off?"
Grease pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs, "I answered, 'No'. I made a very good argument for why. At least I think so. The test was graded and I got my cape license. I was so happy at the time, but the evaluator wanted to talk to me in private. She told me she almost didn't approve me. She explained that my answer to that question worried her. She was afraid that I would die doing this by taking too many risks. She was worried I would burn myself out, but she also realized that she couldn't stop me, either. So she approved me, but wanted to give me a bit of advice. She told me, 'don't make your entire life this job'." Grease then cleared her throat and spoke with not a small amount of sarcasm, "And learn to prioritize self-care."
Laughing as only someone laughing at themselves could laugh, Grease looked up through the holes in the ceiling at the night sky, "I blew her off at the time, but what she said has really come back to haunt me." She bit her lower lip for a second before continuing, "She said some day, you will come this close to saving someone... but you won't. If you don't learn how to be something other than a cape, when the time comes, that failure will destroy you." Grease looked away from everyone, "You know what? She was right." She nodded her head for a bit, "Because Balloon Boy died a couple hours ago, and I was so close to saving him." She held up her fingers an inch apart and stared at them as her hand started to tremble. She spoke with a sneer, "This. CLOSE."
Everyone else tensed up at the unexpected revelation. Grease continued before anyone could interject, focusing her attention on Quaalude, "Are you what I'm going to become? The woman constantly trying to get blood off her ledger? Running as fast as I can to save the next victim so I don't add any more?"
Quaalude shook his head without taking his eyes off Grease, "Not if I can help it. That's why I'm here."
Grease laughed bitterly, "What? You think your broken legs made you? Or having dead parents? Are you blind? Do you think if you save my parents I become HIM?" She jogged her head towards Conscious, "I'm ALREADY THIS! Is this what it's all about to you? Trying to fix yourself by fixing me? Well I hate to tell you, PAL, but it's a little too late to save me." She shook her head for a moment, then buried her face in her knees, "Hell..."
"I don't think anyone can be saved."
"..."
Quaalude cleared his throat.
"He saved me."
Grease looked up.
Quaalude was pointing at Grifter.
Conscious cleared his throat and pointed at Quaalude, "And he saved me."
The Battling Bowman jogged his head towards Conscious, "I'd still be robbing banks if it wasn't for this damn fool never giving up on me."
Everyone paused and turned to look at Grifter.
Grifter looked back at everyone then blurted out, "What? Nobody saved me. I'm just that awesome."
Grease let out a bark of laughter then turned away to hide her smile.
She felt a hand on one shoulder, then another on the other side. She looked up to see both her counterparts sitting beside her. Quaalude spoke first, "I don't want you to turn into anyone. I'd like you to be yourself. I just want to give you a chance to be the best self you can be." He took a deep breath, then looked across at his warped reflection, "I don't come visit your mom, because it hurts. Being happy hurts. That's how fucked in the head I am. I don't sleep anymore because when I dream... all I dream about is the shit I'm trying to forget. But when I do the job, I... don't feel better, per say. I just... stop hating myself for a while."
"It's all I got left."
Conscious nodded and simply accepted what Quaalude had to say, then turned to Grease, "The Lord of Courage was my friend. I... tried to save him. I was..." He teared up as he fought to suppress his emotions, "So close." He wiped at the corner of his eye as he continued, "My mistake was, I didn't talk about it. I never opened up. I didn't want to appear weak. I wanted to be like him..."
"Courageous."
Conscious squeezed her shoulder lightly, "The longer I went without admitting it hurt, the worse it got until I started... fixing myself. Just a little pick me up. Just to get through the day. Then a little more... then a little more... then it didn't work any more... so I had to take something... a bit stronger. Next thing I knew, I was calling myself Captain Quaalude and partnered with a guy called Toxic Wastrel working for a drug cartel."
Conscious cleared his throat before continuing, "The problem wasn't the drugs or that Courage died. It was that I tried to handle it alone. I didn't talk about it, didn't open up, and it just ate at me until I broke." He let out a rueful chuckle, "Truth was, it wasn't just Quaalude's treatment stopping the withdrawal from killing me that fixed my problems. It was admitting I had a problem, that allowed me to fix my problems." He gave her shoulder another squeeze, "Do you have friends you can talk to?"
"Well, I have a Grifter on my team. We don't talk much. It's not like we're-" Grease paused and thought back to the meeting where the team reviewed the museum job. She furrowed her eyebrows, "Well... maybe we are friends and I just didn't notice."
Grifter smirked, "Well, I'm not usually one for this touchy feely crap, but if he's anything like me, I'm sure he's a cool dude to talk to."
"She" Grease corrected. Grifter frowned slightly.
The Battling Bowman raised an eyebrow, "A version of Grifter, but with tits?" He began to stroke his goatee while looking thoughtful, "Hmmmmm..."
Grifter snapped his head around to focus on his counterpart, "I should have killed you when I had the chance." The Bowman just grinned and laughed.
Quaalude gave Grease's shoulder a little shake, "Sorry about your friend dying. I hope it's the last time this happens to you, but chances are it won't be." He took his hand away and leaned back, "You need to trust someone in this business, or it'll drive you mad."
Grease relaxed and went back to sitting crosslegged, "Oh I do I have ah..." She frowned, "I was going to say boyfriend, but he's more of a fuck buddy. My ex was the one who died." She rubbed her forehead, "Goddamn so much has happened in the past few hours. I got so many questions, like... alchemy? How's that work? But... I guess I should start with the most important question."
She looked around at everyone, "Do you guys trust the Caffiend?"
There was silence as everyone looked around, waiting for someone else to go first.
Captain Conscious broke that silence.
"No."