Chapter Forty-Five: All-New, All-Different

Mr. Negativity
and
Haywire
featuring Timeslip
The End of the World As We Know It: Part II-5

Charles had hoped the flight back to New York would clear his head. It wasn’t working. Immediately after his battle with Deadpool and the Dark Riders concluded, Charles had felt the whole world blink out of and back into being. It had taken Deadpool and the Dark Riders with it, and Charles knew that he was back in his own home dimension- or one very much like it. Worse still, the psychic bond he ordinarily shared with Joe had- well, not so much vanished as gone on vacation. The phone line to Joe’s brain was nothing but static. Charles chalked that up to cosmic interference. Still, he’d really wanted to find someone to compare notes with. The plan had been to meet back at Liberty Island once everything was settled. Charles hoped that Joe and Kyle had the presence of mind and presence of reality to stick with that plan.
As Charles flew in to New York, however, he saw something that made him toss that plan out the window. The long spire atop the Empire State Building was coated in gooey webbing very much like Spider-Man’s. Chuck knew that Spider-Man wasn’t the culprit in this case, however, and even as he turned his course toward the Empire State Building, he counted among his blessings the reunion he knew was about to occur. Sure enough, as he landed on the Empire State Building’s roof, he waved at the two familiar friends he saw standing there.
“Hey Rina, hey Milo. I got your page. What’s up?”
“Charles, is that you?” Harry asked. “Oh my God I’m glad you’re here. Things... aren’t good.”
“This- thing- is a friend of yours?” Rina asked. She stared at Charles with a look that perfectly blended horror and disgust. At that reaction, Charles began to notice a few other differences in this new Rina. Her posture, body language, hair style, and clothing- all were just a little bit off-center for the Rina he remembered. It was like he was looking at a very clever impostor, though something fundamental about this Rina rang true. For the sake of his friends, Charles shifted back into his human form.
“Huh. Didn’t know you could do that, either,” Harry said.
“Yeah, neither did I,” said Charles. “Until we went to Asia. Kind of a long story.”
“I’m sure. It seems like we’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but I’m not sure now’s the best time. Something’s really wrong with Rina, and I don’t think she’s the only one.”
“No, I don’t think so, either. But I just got back into the city right now. I was in a battle with some superpowered bad guys, and just as soon as I beat them, they vanished. Now the whole world feels a little... funny. Does that make any sense?”
“None of this makes any sense,” Rina interjected. “I thought Crazy One here was just some whacked-out pervert when he said we were living together, then he did that thing with the wire. Then you come in, flying out of nowhere, glowing or whatever! If this is a practical joke, it’s way too twisted to imagine.”
“It’s not a joke,” Harry said. “And Chuck, she’s not messing with you, either. Rina had another one of her visions not long ago, and said that we’d better high-tail it back to New York, because some major cosmic mess was about to come down on us. Then all of a sudden, her wardrobe changed, and she started insisting we’d never met, that she wasn’t a mutant or a superhero, and that furthermore, the only people with powers of any kind were in movies and comic books.”
“It’s like the Marvel Universe has become an analogue of my home dimension,” Charles said. “I made it through okay, though, and so did you, though I’m not entirely sure why. I can only guess that Joe and Kyle did, too, but with our psychic bond on the fritz, I don’t think we should waste a lot of time trying to track them down. The Dark Riders said that the X-Men are under siege, and I know that the Twelve are destined to change the world, so I’d suggest heading over to the X-Mansion to see if anyone there still has powers. If Xavier does, he should be able to pull Rina’s memories from out of her mind, I think. That’s where our best chance lies, anyway. And hey- what’s the use of belonging to a major superhero team if you can’t call on your allies for back-up every now and then?”
“Let’s not forget, I sort of have an ‘in’ with the Avengers,” Harry noted. “They’re pretty good at this cosmic menace stuff, too. But we can always try them next. If you think this Xavier guy is the one who can best help Rina, I’m all for that.”
“And let’s not keep talking about Rina like she’s not here, if you don’t mind,” Rina herself pouted. “I’ll follow you guys out to these ‘X-Men’ for now, but only because I’m as confused as you seem to think you should be.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “But the second you try anything crazy...” Neither man seemed to mind that Rina couldn’t finish her threat. Charles shifted back to his Mr. Negativity form and, as soon as Rina was comfortable with the idea, he picked up his two erstwhile teammates, and lifted off into the sky.

The moment Charles, Harry, and Rina landed on the grounds of the Xavier estate, two men came jogging out to meet them. As the two men got closer, Charles realized that one of them was Xavier himself. That’s when he knew for sure that something was wrong with the world.
“Isn’t that guy supposed to be in a wheelchair?” Harry asked.
“Yes,” Charles said. He quickly transformed back into his human state, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. Xavier saw him. Moments later, the bald man and his companion had stopped in front of the three friends. Both were sweating from their morning jog. Xavier was also breathing heavily, but the other man, a strongly-built red-haired jock, seemed unaffected by the exercise.
“It’s true!” Xavier shouted. Then, he doubled over gasping for breath. After a moment, he sputtered out, “I always knew I was right.” He panted and wheezed a few more times. The man with him put his hands on Xavier’s shoulders.
“Easy, Charles. You know you’re not entirely recovered yet.” Xavier brushed the big man away. The man turned to greet their guests. He put out a hand, which Harry quickly took.
“Harry Danforth,” Haywire said. He shook their host’s hand.
“Cain Marko,” the man said. “This is my brother, Charles Xavier. And if we both saw what we think we saw, he’s very happy to have you here. But his health isn’t what it used to be, so I suggest we all continue this discussion in the mansion.” Harry looked at Rina looked at Charles looked at Harry. The three of them nodded, and the party made its way into the mansion.

When the mansion, its two primary occupants, and its three guests were all happily ensconced in one of the sitting rooms, and Charles Xavier was comfortably in place in a large easy chair, it was Cain Marko who first spoke.
“It’s clear from the looks on your faces that at least one of you seems to recognize me. That’s fine, but I’m going to tell you right now that I don’t want to hear a word about it. You seem to pretty well back up my step-brother’s theories, and as I see it, whichever guy you think you know is me probably isn’t me. Is that clear?”
“No!” said Rina. “What are you, crazy? Not one thing has made sense since... since...”
“You don’t exactly remember, do you, Rina?” Harry asked. “You can’t quite be sure, can you?”
“Not exactly,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t mean anything. That could be you, messing with me.”
“Or it could be reality,” Harry insisted, “Making you take a look around you and get a clue!”
“Whatever it may be,” Xavier interrupted, “Arguing about it now is pointless. Young lady, if these men insist that they know you, I think you should trust their word... at least to a certain degree. You see, I’ve devoted my life to the study of paranormal beings, and I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there exist parallel worlds to our own, where the smallest decision could bring about massive change. I believe that these young men are travelers from one such world.”
“Actually,” Charles said. “We’re each travelers from different parallel worlds. But that’s got nothing to do with anything right now. Because we haven’t traveled between worlds. I mean not recently. This is our world, or at least the one we were all in an hour ago, and we’re still in it, only now everything’s different. Which means time travel, I guess. Yes. Definitely time travel. And if you’re around in this world, but not telepathic, then someone’s managed to time travel to eliminate all mutants from the world.”
“Which would explain why Rina doesn’t remember me,” Harry said. “She’s been altered, too.”
“And we haven’t,” Charles said.
“Because we’re from alternate dimensions!” Harry realized. “Something’s happened to get rid of all the superpowered people on this world, but even a rewrite of that size can’t eliminate the fact that we came here, and we’ve got superpowers!”
“Which means there could be more of you, right?” Cain asked.
“I guess,” Charles said. “But if there were, why have you never heard of superpowered folks until just now?”
“Assuming that our world is just an altered version of your own,” Xavier replied, “I’d say that whatever changed it happened only recently. You were entirely unaffected, so you’ve just arrived here, retroactively. More of you should be turning up even now, all over the world.”
“This time travel stuff gives me a headache,” Rina said.
“Just wait,” said Harry.
“I’ve been working on something I think will help,” Xavier said. “Come with me.” He lead Cain, Charles, Harry, and Rina into the next room, where a familiar looking chair-and-helmet apparatus was poised in mid-assembly.
“Oh my God!” said Charles. “It’s Cerebro.” He turned to explain to Rina and Harry as Xavier strapped himself into the mechanism.
“Cerebro is a device which amplifies the Professor’s telepathic abilities to ‘tune in’ to the mental frequencies of other mutants.” Harry looked intrigued. Rina looked confused. Xavier and Cain look entertained.
“No, silly,” said Xavier. “This is just a ham radio. I modified it to get great reception, and the sound quality inside this helmet is unbelievable. I’ve tuned it to the local news... Got something! It seems another odd personality has turned up downtown. Cain, you’d better go with Charles and Harry- this isn’t their world. I’ll stay here with Miss Patel, and perhaps we can make her a little more comfortable with this strange new world she’s been pulled into.”
“Right,” said Cain. “We’ll take the limo. Boys, come with me- we’ve got more mutants to round up.”

Cain drove, and Charles and Harry rode in the back of the Xavier estate’s private limousine. They were at the attack site in fifteen minutes. As Charles and Harry watched from behind the limo’s tinted glass, a gathering mob pressed against the walls of a rickety shack. It seemed the building itself would collapse any moment. Charles and Harry moved into action. Haywire stepped out of the car, spraying his psychic cables left and right. At the same time, Mr. Negativity flew from the sun roof, drawing gasps and screams from members of the crowd.
“It’s them!” someone shouted. “More of the aliens!”
“Look out, fellas!” Cain yelled from inside the car. “They’ve gone crazy!” A crowd of people rushed toward the limousine. Haywire’s powers worked overtime, filling in spaces everywhere with his thick, coarse wire, building a fence from his own mind. Mr. Negativity lifted himself over the fence, and flew toward the ramshackle building. He burst through a dusty window, and there, curled into a fetal position on the floor, was the cause of all this fuss.
“Please help me,” choked Spiral. Mr. Negativity frowned. He thought for a moment, then made up his mind. He scooped Spiral up into his arms, and carried her back toward the limousine. As soon as he’d dropped her through the sun roof of the car, and gestured for Haywire to get back inside, Mr. Negativity lifted the whole car off the ground, and carried it further away from town, to an undisturbed rooftop where the heroes could speak with the woman they rescued.

“And yet you find their story completely implausible, don’t you?” Xavier asked.
“Strangely, Professor... no,” Rina admitted. “It’s like there’s this part of me, this nagging little bit at the back of my mind that tells me that they’re right. That their world is the right one, and that this is all a lie.”
“You know, they claim that in their world, you have tremendous time-altering powers. Do you believe that to be the case?”
“Oh, it’s definitely part-and-parcel of the story. I mean, I’m not sure I believe this whole other-dimension story, but they do have powers, and if I end up buying into their time travel theory, I’ll take my own powers, too.”
“Fair enough,” the Professor said. “But what if they are right, and telling you the truth. If time is somehow out of synch in our world, mightn’t your latent time powers be what’s telling you that this world is wrong?” Rina rubbed her temples.
“Oooh, too much,” she said. “This Back to the Future bullshit is giving me a headache.”
“Relax,” Xavier said. “Let your body go limp. Right now, we’re only concerned with your mind. Your body is getting very drowsy. Your feet have become anchored to the floor...” Professor Xavier continued to drone on, lowering Rina further and further into a hypnotic trance.
Suddenly, Rina’s eyes popped open. “Professor!” she cried. “I remember! There was another world.. not yours and mine, not Chuck’s or Harry’s, but another one! A time, out of time, out of time! And a woman- a... green... woman. She told me that I would have to fix it! That I would have to make everything right! And she gave me... She gave me... She gave...” Rina opened her eyes in amazement. “It’s all true,” she said. And then, she fainted.

“You can feel it, too, can’t you?” Spiral said. She’d nearly worked up the strength to stand to her feet, and managed now by leaning against the car. “You two survived the switch because you’re not from this world,” Spiral said, nodding. “I was in Nexus Dimension- the realm between mine and this one- when the Event took place. I made it here, but I was so weak. I couldn’t stop them from attacking. My magick- it’s still coming back to me.”
“What were you doing here?” Charles asked. Spiral laughed. “An excellent question for both of you to ask me. The last time we encountered one another, I was working on the side of the angels, believe it or not. You see, some time ago, an alternate version of me came crashing into my lab. She, the other me, called herself the Traveler, because she came from a world where only she could move in and out of New York City.”
“Huh?” asked Haywire.
“She was a hero in that world,” Spiral continued. “And the two of you both were among its most evil oppressors. All lead by the wicked hand of-“ Spiral shuddered as she said his name. “Kyle.” Charles and Harry began laughing. Hysterically.
“It’s not funny!” Spiral warned. “In this world, he was all powerful, and all evil. Already, he had destroyed everyone he could by burning them alive from the inside out- poisoning their Celestial seed.” At Cain’s puzzled look, Spiral elaborated. “The Celestial seed is what separates this new world from its correct destiny. The Celestial seed is the potential for greatness which is locked inside everyone. That’s why I captured four young people, Mr. Negativity and Haywire. I needed to “borrow” their Celestial seeds. The plan was to take those seeds back to my counterpart’s world, where four people without names- four who never achieved that potential in our world- could use their powers to defend their world. Alas, that world has since been destroyed, and everyone on it is gone. I came to return those Celestial seeds.”
“But wait!” Charles said. “We could use them, couldn’t we? What if we gave those seeds back to those same young people? Wouldn’t they be able to use their powers then?”
“No,” Spiral said. “As soon as those same people got their Celestial seeds back, the power of Doom’s retroactively chronology would take them away again. But, if we could give those seeds to four people who never existed in Doom’s world...”
“There’d be no one to be affected!” Haywire cried. “We could make our own new superheroes!”
“Exactly!” Spiral said. She reached into her pouch. Charles, Harry, and Cain waited with bated breath as Spiral continued digging in her purse. Finally she stopped. “They’re gone,” she said. “I must have lost them between dimensions. There’s no way to get them back now.” All four heads hung in despair.
“But hey!” Charles said. “We can’t give up now! We’ve still got powers, the three of us. And Joe’s somewhere on this world, too. Which means Kyle’s probably still got his powers. Plus, this used to be the Marvel Universe. Surely there’s at least one other person on this whole planet who came from another dimension, right?”
“There is one other I am aware of,” said Spiral. “I think my magicks have recovered enough for a simple jaunt across the United States.”
“Across the United States?” Cain asked. “Where are we going?”
“San Francisco,” said Spiral. She danced her danced, and then, with a whirl, the limousine and its occupants vanished.
“Here we are,” she said, a moment later.
“Oh my God!” said Cain.
“Who?” asked Harry.
“Oh Dear Lord, not him,” said Charles.
“Waugh!” said their soon-to-be ally.

When Rina came to, she was lying on the floor, cradled in Charles Xavier’s lap.
“Rina, are you okay?” He was shaking her gently, trying to wake her. “Rina, are you alright?”
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’ll be fine. It’s just all so- AAAH!” Rina screamed as the wall of the Xavier estate broke down and the imposing form of Dr. Doom entered the building. He raised a gauntleted hand, and fired a bolt of energy down at the young girl. Charles threw his body in front of the blast. Rina screamed, and felt Xavier’s body jerk next to her own. Doom took another step into the room, and laughed. The life was spilling out of Xavier’s body, and Rina knew she was next. Doom’s power bolts fired again, and this time made their way straight toward the young girl. There was no time for Rina to jump out of the way. And then, there was no time at all. The bolts were frozen in mid-air, and Rina snapped. She snatched the lamp from the end table near her, and ran at Dr. Doom, who was stand stock-still in the center of the room. The lamp fell against Doom’s face mask, then came crashing down again, and again, and again. The mask fell away, revealing a mass of twisted and distorted wires. Motion came back into the room, the bolt slammed into the wall, Doom raised his arms, and Rina jammed the lamp into the mass of wires that was Doom’s head. The Doombot exploded, throwing Rina across the room to slam roughly into the wall. She dropped to the floor, and didn’t move.

“What the hell is wrong with the world?” cried Howard the Duck. “Last thing I know, I’m back in my old apartment, looking to hook up with the old gang, when all of a sudden BAM! The old gang thinks a duck man is a big freak of nature or something! What’s with the world these days?”
“Dr. Doom has sent a machine back in time to keep the Celestials from implanting their seed in our world, rendering it virtually uninteresting,” said Charles.
“That was my second guess,” said Howard. “Whatever it is, it sucks.”
“Yeah, you should try living there full-time.”
“Get in the car,” said Cain, trying to disguise his surprise. “We’ve got to get back to the mansion to regroup.”
“X-Mansion?” Spiral asked. Haywire nodded.
“I’ve been there,” said Howard.
“Yeah, me too,” said Spiral. She danced, and the car vanished again.

When the car reappeared, it was parked in the garage where it belonged. When Spiral, Charles, Cain, Howard, and Harry reappeared, they were standing in the middle of the Xavier Estate’s living room. Rina was on her knees in the living room, cradling Xavier’s unmoving body in her arms. Tears were pouring down her face. She was shaking her head from side to side, and mumbling, “None of it right... so wrong... my head, killing me... it’s all wrong!”
“Not now, Rina,” roared Cain. He pushed her aside, and held his stepbrother’s body in his arms. “We don’t have time for your stupid games! Can’t you see that Charles is dead?” Cain set the body down against the ground, and stood up. “Charles is dead,” he said. “But his dream will never die. We, the six of us, are this world’s last best hope. And together, we’re going to make this Doctor Doom fellow pay!”
“Yeah, sounds like fun,” said Howard, chomping on his cigar.
“We can do it,” said Chuck. “Together. As... the X-Men!”
Spiral rolled her eyes. “Surely,” she said, “you must be joking.”
“Oh, I’m not joking,” Charles said.
“Yeah,” Howard put in. “And don’t call him ‘Shirley.’”