Chapter 38 - Filling The Second Slot

Mirio was back inside the Multiversal Currents; swirling blinding lights sending him into a spiral of emotions, physique, and mentality. Now, instead of the aching pain of immobility, Mirio experienced a deadly silence that spoke volumes.

The silence was scarier than the pain – it was deafening.

Flames were consuming Mirio, burning him in an embrace that felt number as time passed.

The Phoenix Force was like a living infection that knew no boundaries, consuming Mirio's body as much as it could, forcing death or change – something that was nearly indistinguishable on most days.

After all, death was a state of change as well.

Luckily, Mirio's quirk wasn't to be underestimated, and though the Phoenix Force was a monster, All Above One had an empty slot just enough to contain even a Cosmic Force of Universal Nature.

The sense of internal burning brought Mirio some much-needed clarity in a dire time. This sensation was enough for Lemillion to realize that there was hope to escape his situation yet.

And as long as there was hope, there would be Lemillion.

Mirio didn't know how or what allowed him to exit the Multiversal Currents previously, and honestly, he didn't really care about anything more than the fact that just moments ago, he was holding Jean in his arms.

Yes… he knew her name was Jean, but he couldn't tell much else about her. If anything, even as he burned from the inside out, Mirio was concerned about the mystery teenager.

Compared to the brunt of the Phoenix Force Jean had stared down, drilling into her body in ways he could only consider excruciating, the amount that made it into Mirio's veins was like a speck of dust in comparison.

Still, the facts remained unchanged, and patterns were easy enough to protect… most of the time. So, what remained true? Well, chances were, Mirio would be able to exit the Multiversal Currents at some point in time.

Whether by accident or intentional didn't matter in the least – only getting out did! Yet, there were things left to account for. How could he remain behind instead of being pulled back into the colorful tunnel of Universes?

Perhaps, permanence came with hugging a tree as if his life depended on it… and judging by the situations he had been in thus far, Mirio had little doubt that his life depended on staying out of this tunnel.

He closed his eyes to focus, and when he reopened his eyes, Mirio could perceive a movement that he couldn't before… it was as if being pulled in all directions at once, but simultaneously moving backward instead of forward.

Then, directions would suddenly change, but always being pulled in all directions. Confusing wasn't even the word he would use for it. There were tributary tunnels branching in every direction.

Each new branch was an infinite journey into the unknown.

Mirio clutched at his head with burning fingers, trying to ground his consciousness inside his body. It felt like it was expanding beyond him, giving way to the darkest of unknowns.

He didn't like it.

Where was up? Where was down? Was anything relative to anything else in this colorful world? And what was a speck of nothing in infinite somethings?

Each path was a new Universe awaiting discovery… some had already been discovered, but infinite more were just there – no life, no sounds, waiting for the absence of absence so they could exist.

Just a glance into the profoundness of the Multiverse caused Mirio a sharp headache, and of course, he could barely store the information even as his eyes took everything in.

Mirio drifted in the Multiversal Currents for what felt like forever, but eventually, the movement weakened and he was tossed into yet another world.

A much darker, colder world.

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EARTH 92156

FANTASTIC FOUR UNIVERSE (2015)

PLANET ZERO

Victor clawed his way to the surface, trying to get outside the reach of the green liquid that had molded his bio-suit to his skin. Everything was burning and aching, but he also felt a sense of superiority and power never before experienced.

He broke through the surface, witnessing the green liquid that had permanently altered what it meant to be human. The green liquid was somehow organic and sentient – a very deadly combination.

As for how he knew it was Sentient… easily, it didn't kill him.

It took a bit of paddling in place before Victor found a suitable surface to break him free of whatever he was in. The prickling sensation of the green liquid pulling him towards the eternal abyss could be felt even as he swam to the shore.

Luckily, Victor was a strong enough swimmer to ignore the pull and make it onto the solid ground once more. After the long journey of crawling onto the shore, Victor looked down at the brownish-silver glaze that screamed he was no longer human.

It was neither metal nor skin, but something between the two. Victor felt as if he had been transformed into something both transcendent and awfully mutated. He couldn't tell where his skin ended, and where his bio-suit began – he wasn't even sure if there was a difference anymore.

Skin – Bio-Suit.

Bio-suit – Skin.

Skin – Bio – Suit – Skin.

But there was power coursing through his veins, and for some reason, Victor thought that was enough. For all the pain and sadness, he felt inside his heart, there was also something there – something hidden a bit deeper.

It was a profound type of deepness that wasn't deeply hidden, but far from thought… Like that one memory, you wanted to suppress at all costs, but you knew you needed to acknowledge that memory to live a fulfilling life.

Victor picked a rock from the ground and crushed it in his palm. It was so easy, and he suspected, crushing a human's skull would now prove just as easy… if not easier. This was not simply a matter of Physical Strength, but Mental, Spiritual, and Instinctual!

His body was stronger…

More durable…

More resilient…

More powerful…

More… everything…

Victor raised his hands to the skies and felt like he could hold the energies of the world within his palm.

Undeniably, irrevocably, absolutely powerful!

Those were the only words that could describe the Euphoria gifted to him by Planet Zero. Such was the illusion of Power. And there wasn't anything Victor wouldn't trade to keep this feeling of power flowing in his veins forever.

Victor knew he was high on power, but that was the thing with addictions – he kept telling himself that one more day would not hurt, but eventually, one more day became the norm. Like any drug worth its price, Victor eventually forgot that he was snorting in the first place.

His mind was warped beyond what Humans could perceive as even crazy… and if a man was not crazy by human standards, then he may as well be deemed sane by the Universe.

A week passed in the blink of an eye, and Victor no longer counted the days - there was no need to count when the Dimension was in a separate Plane from Earth's. There was no day or night, just a perpetual state of just bright enough to see for a couple of miles at a time.

To assuage the boredom and utter lack of purpose, Victor walked and walked and walked and walked, hoping to find a new purpose in the emptiness of Planet Zero. Where else would he be able to find it?

"So much power," he kept whispering to himself, soaking in all the green vapor in the atmosphere.

The green vapor was sentient sustenance, entertainment, and comfort. It was anything Victor wanted it to be, and it took care of him like a mother would her newborn. In some ways, Planet Zero treated him better than humans ever did.

Victor was a cynical person to begin with, so give him the isolation in a completely different Dimension, and you have a man pushed so far over the brink that only death could bring him any real peace.

Unfortunately, Victor's solitude in a Dimension of his own was broken by the rippling of a void opening slowly on the peak of a nearby rock formation. As soon as the void was stabilized, Mirio's figure, clothe in flames, rolled out of the portal, smashing into the jagged rocks as he rolled down the slope.

The rocks were like mini-blades, scarring his skin that was already burned by flames, and frozen by the embrace of cold space. This was basically suffering atop suffering. It took a couple of powerful bashes for Mirio to realize what he had to do.

His body permeated for a couple of seconds, sending him into a void of nothingness. Mirio sunk through the sharp rocks and into the ground, sinking for a couple of seconds until his quirk couldn't remain active anymore, launching him upwards.

The accumulated momentum launched Mirio dozens of feet in the air, just far enough to avoid further rolling down the slope. With two quick tucks to balance himself in the air, Mirio landed on his feet like a professional gymnast, ready for anything that could possibly happen.

His eyes swept over the strange new world. He widened his stance to hide the weakness in his knees. In Mirio's eyes, the world appeared to be an endless rocky plane with green vapor sizzling between cracks in the ground.

It was a strangely beautiful world devoid of life and all the struggles that come with it. It seemed like a very young world still searching for its identity. But, somewhere deep inside, Mirio could tell it was a world that had extinguished all life on the planet for reasons unknown.

There was no indication of genocide, but sometimes, a hero could just feel the negative energy saturating the air. Suddenly, Mirio's senses screamed. Accessing danger was instinctual to every hero trained at UA.

Mirio could leap backward in time to avoid a blast of green energy shot towards his head. The heat radiating from the green energy was intense, and judging by the way the ground turned to molten lava, the beam of green energy had an equally deadly penetrative power.

Mirio dug his feet into the ground, ready to permeate at a moment's notice as he made eye contact with the person who just attempted to blast him away – Victor von Doom.

Mirio calmed his breathing and the flames around his body were extinguished… it took him a while, but he eventually realized that the flames were fueled by his anxiousness.

"And who are you?" Mirio inquired, preparing himself for the battle that would certainly follow.

He was weakened and barely had enough strength to last five minutes in a battle, but Mirio was not about to let that information show on his face.

"How… are… you… here?" Victor questioned in a slightly robotic voice, wondering how Mirio entered this separate Dimension without the Matter-Shuttling Device.

Mirio noticed the subtle manifestation of green energy around Victor's hands, so he ignored the aching in his spine to prepare for permeation. But everything turned out useless.

BOOOOOOOM

SIZZLE

A green geyser burst out of the ground, shooting Victor and Mirio in different directions. Victor skipped across the ground, remaining relatively unharmed by the green gas, but Mirio was different.

Mirio had never been exposed to the mysterious green energy of Planet Zero, so as soon as he was exposed to the geyser, his body had an automatic reaction. The green liquid seeped into Mirio's skin, not unlike the Phoenix Force.

Of course, there was once again pain. Pain so intense it made the burning feel like a vacation. The energy seeped into every crevice of Mirio's body, but like the Phoenix Force, it was quickly contained by a green slot in Mirio's Quirk.

All Above One could hold three quirks including Mirio's own, and now, two of the previously empty slots have been filled. Just as the empty slot had been filled, Mirio rose to his feet, but before he could examine his surroundings once more, the void cracked open and swallowed him whole.

Author's Name: The_Young_Flash

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