The Worlds React II

Written in collaboration with Cross C

“Like I didn’t have enough shit to deal with…”

Doomscrolling was probably the worst way to spend his time, but when the internet is this crazy–and a lot of the crazy is focused on you–it’s a little hard to ignore that mental call.

Sam Wilson didn’t even really want to be Captain America. Yet now that there were so many memes and reddit opinions about him not being the right guy for the job it almost made him want to take the mantle out of spite.

Most days he got some racist trying to claim this, that, and the other about his abilities. Some said he was too weak and needed the serum, or he wasn’t as good at rallying a team, while others claimed he was Captain DEI-merica. Most days he ignored this shit. He knew Steve Rogers was a man impossible to live up to. A man out of time, a literal living legend, there was a reason he didn’t really want the damn shield.

But today? Well, now these assholes had new fuel in the fire.

Mark Williams had riled up the whole world. Of course everyone felt their reality was topsy-turvy right now. Half the populace disappeared, then just when things were starting to feel normal, they all came back. Thanos had won, but The Avengers managed to rectify what had gone wrong. The Mad Titan deposed, but the scars were still felt all over. Sam knew that–he could see it on the streets–he was fighting against any injustice he could find. Be it those in power or those that thought they deserved more than their neighbour. The chaos let those like The Flag Smashers slowly rise in the cracks of the world.

But Sam believed things could work out, as long as we all worked together.

Too bad this Phoenix prick was offering everyone an easy answer to why the world sucked.

There was no argument or twitter thread that could be made to actually argue against his bullshit. He’d created the perfect storm of rage bait and talking points for anyone to rile the internet up. You were branded an ‘Agent of THANOS’ as soon as you tried to argue against them. A villain. An ‘other’.

Shit like this could get violent real fast.

Maybe it would have died on the vine if Wanda hadn’t been there. Standing with an Avenger? That’s a powerful message. Not to mention the potential resurrection of Black Widow by his hands. Her **** had been so strange… only been told to others by Clint, who had already had five years to grieve ahead of others. Her body long buried, but also not as it was killed many years ago on another planet? Yet another part of the chaos.

As you can see, Sam’s thoughts were spiralling.

So he decided that he needed to get out of his own head. And his go-to-method of doing so when he was stuck on a problem was reaching out to others to find out their opinions. Flying around New York to hear from those he knew:

“Don’t believe everything you see on TV, Sam,” said Bucky, “Guys like that have a habit of falling apart the second anyone stands up to them. Trust me, he’s all talk.”

“I don’t think there are secret witches controlling reality, no. Would be nice to think that there was some easy fix to bring back…?” Pepper trailed off, staring at the helmet on the wall with tight lips, “Thanks for visiting, Sam. Morgan will love the presents you brought.”

“I’d love to stop and chat, Sam. But my cousin’s here right now, and she says she has to get to work ASAP, so-”

“Hey! I don’t mind stopping to chat with Captain America, Bruce!” said Jennifer Walters, slapping her cousin lightly on the shoulder, “You were asking about ‘The Phoenix King’? I mean, it's hard to really hate the guy when he totally brought Black Widow back. That was insane. But all that talk about men needing to be more ‘muscular’ makes me think he hasn’t seen Bruce’s other-side in the flesh.”

Her cousin chuckled, “Haha~ Yeah, though maybe he’d prefer to see you be the tall green one, eh?”

“Pfft. Like that’ll ever happen. Hey, why aren’t you freaking out about the Black Widow by the way? Weren’t you two… a thing?”

“Kinda. But… if that is Nat–and the jury's still out on that, no law pun intended–then she’d find her own way back to us. She was always that kinda spirit…”

“My aunt seems to be super into him? She keeps texting me about-oh here's another one look... I… I should really get back to her, sorry!” said a weirdly skittish Spider-Man before swinging away.

“Wanda’s a big girl, Sam,” Dr Strange brushed off, using magic to float the various dishevelled books back into their place of the library, “Though if she needs help, my Sanctum is always welcome to her.”

“My Sanctum!”

With a roll of his eyes, Stephen qualified, “Technically, yes. As he was given the sorcerer supreme title while I was blipped, I suppose the right phrase is: "Wong's Sanctum is always open to everyone.””

Wong huffed, walking up the still broken stairwell, “You’re trying to be crude with your phrasing to get a rise out of me, but it WON’T WORK, STEPHEN!”

“Oh grow up, Wong,” he said with a subtle cheeky wink towards the ex-Falcon.

Another pin in the wall. String running between a photo of a generic looking man in the centre with the newest picture: an Avenger in a slutty outfit. Many new pins and photos needed to go up after today, but this was the main one that needed to be investigated. What was Mark William’s connection to this woman? What did a partnership mean for him? What was the speech he gave the world really about?

And why was there a different Avenger sitting in her waiting room?

“You gonna tell me why the new Captain America knows about my shitty little business?”

“Well why wouldn’t I?” Sam smiled, leaning back in the chair while taking in the slight boozy smell and run down lodging, “Jessica Jones. The hero investigator that always has the people’s backs. I have my ears open to these sorts of things.”

“Don’t use the H word,” she growled, still not fully looking away from the pin board, “Fine. You know me. Doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“I think you know why.”

Jessica flicked her eyes towards him only briefly before going back to that central man. This last month of investigations was intense. A building that looked fine on the surface but Jessica could feel its deception. She’d avoided contacting anyone that lived there directly, but they were seemingly free to come and go as they pleased. People in their lives often weren’t able to claim that there was anything truly different about them, only a slight increase in wanting to return home and multiple partners being dumped. If this guy was another Killgrave he was being clever about it. Sickeningly subtle.

Well, until the big speech today that is.

“All that Avenger money and you can’t do shit about him, can you?” She frowned at Sam.

He scratched the back of his neck, “The… well, let’s just say you’d be surprised how little the hero gig pays without a Tony Stark around.”

She simply gave him a frustrated exhale. Unfortunately she did know. “What is this about, Mr. Wilson? You want me to put on some purple tights, call you ‘Cap’, and we all jump through a portal to beat this guy up?”

“I’m just looking around for information,” he replied, putting his hands up defensively, “This whole thing is fishy, especially with a town mysteriously vanishing, and having a naked man on TV speaking about how ‘things should be’ would usually be laughed off without a second thought. Yet the craziest part… is everyone’s actually listening to him. Makes me think something deeper is happening, and I want to be ahead of the curve if it is.”

Jessica lowered an eyebrow at him, “The masses are easily scared, and even easier manipulated. Maybe if they had their dumbass flag bearing mascot they’d ignore the freaks selling them snake oil.”

“...me and the shield? I just don’t know. Getting kinda sick of everyone telling me I need to be Steve Rogers.”

“Then don’t be.” she shot back before she could stop herself. The heartfelt smile from Sam made her internally cringe, “Shut up. I’m not going to tell you to believe in yourself like we’re a Disney movie. I’m telling you to grow a pair and ignore shitty internet trolls,” she frowned, earning a hearty laugh from the Avenger. With one final roll of her eyes she growled, “This isn’t a therapy office, bird boy. If you’re not hiring me then you’re bothering me. Leave until you come back with more information.”

“Oh? So I’m allowed back in?” Sam teased, standing up and edging back to the door, “Well, I think this has been a great session, doc. Maybe next time we can go through some of my unresolved trauma too?”

Jessica kept a tight unimpressed glare, “One more minute? And I will bill you. It will not be cheap.”

In the end, Sam didn’t feel like he got anywhere closer to any sort of answers. But all that time in the air flying about the town did clear his head. For one, he’d stop caring about that stupid website run by the moron who’d done a Hail Hydra salute on national television.

And another, he’d keep an eye on Mark. Something told him that they’d come to blows eventually.

“Wow…”

“Molly, stop staring at the screen so closely,” said Karolina from the table.

“But look! He’s a new hero guy!” Molly insisted, pointing excitedly.

“No, Molly. He isn’t,” Nico said flatly, arms crossed.

“Huh?”

“He’s not a hero. He’s just some villain with access to a video camera.”

“But he’s with Wanda! She’s an Avenger!” Molly protested..

“Maybe she’s a villain too?” Chase shrugged, mouth half full of chips.

“Chase! Avengers don’t turn into villains!”

“She started on the side of Ultron, didn’t she?” Chase asked the room.

“And blew up that building…” Gert added quietly, nose wrinkling.

“So what?! That doesn’t make her a villain! Captain America saw the good in her, and she helped everyone to save the day and–!”

“Okay! Okay, Molly. Maybe she isn’t a villain,” Chase said quickly, hands raised.

“That means he’s a good guy?”

Nico narrowed her eyes, “Where is this coming from? Why is it so important that this guy is legit?”

“I mean… okay, what if…”

“…Molly?” Karolina gently pressed.

“What if our parents are, like, Agents of THANOS too?”

“Huh?”

“‘Agents of THANOS’? Was that what that guy was peddling?” Chase said, brushing off some crisps from his chest.

“Yeah! He said that they’re making reality all… wrong! Like they put a grey filter on our world camera! He said that guy heroes used to be bigger, and girl heroes used to be slimmer.”

“Ugh, chauvinist pig,” Gert muttered with a disgusted scowl.

“But what if Thanos made our parents evil?!”

“Our parents were evil before Thanos attacked, Molly,” Karolina reminded her.

“Well, that wouldn’t matter.” said Gert matter-of-factly.

Chase turned to her with a baffled expression, “What? What does that mean?”

“It would be reality changing, Chase. Reality. Hypothetically speaking, if our world had been altered and we weren’t strong enough to detect it, we’d just think everything is normal when it isn’t. Molly could be right and we have no way of knowing.” Gert said, launching into a thoughtful, stressed-out ramble.

“Ha! Gert says I’m right! Hermanas de por vida!” Molly cheered.

“Not helping, Gert,” Nico muttered through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, what the hell? Do you think he’s legit then?” asked Chase.

“I didn’t say that! I’m just saying it isn’t good to lie! The reality is we don’t know what reality is! This could all be a simulation, or a dream, or a cosmic fanfiction! And maybe–whatever reality is–Thanos did change it! He had all the infinity stones and made most of us disappear for five years!”

“I still can’t believe Nico and Karolina are 21 now,” Molly muttered.

“At least it meant we could adopt you all, now that you’re back from the blip,” said Karolina, a warm smile on her face as she pet Molly’s head.

“Yeah, but Gert says that’s a bad thing,” Nico pointed accusingly.

“What the fuck!? No, I’m not, Nico!” Gert growled, “We’re talking about hypotheticals here, I’m definitely not saying I trust the new freak wanting to be king, but we can’t just say we have all the answers either!”

Chase scratched his stubble, “Surely the Avengers would know though, right? Or… maybe there’s an ‘agent’ with them too?”

“It would be kinda nice knowing that our parents weren’t always evil monsters…” Karolina murmured in quiet agreement.

“…”

The room was quiet. Only interrupted by Nico abruptly standing up from her chair.

“Nico?” Karolina asked cautiously.

“RAGH!” Nico roared in frustration, jamming a needle into her shoulder and drawing a single drop of blood. In an instant purple flash the Staff-Of-One appeared before her, surging from her chest before she caught it in her hand.

“Hey! Don’t go slinging spells in the house!” Chase yelped.

“We can’t live in hypotheticals. You guys want answers? Fine. REVEAL THE TRUTH!”

She aimed her magic directly at the TV screen. For a moment it fizzled and glitched before suddenly jumping back a few minutes and playing Mark’s message again, though this time with new words being said. “My name is Mark Williams. I come from another universe following the signal of my girlfriend, Jean Grey, The Phoenix.”

“Sounds okay so far…” Chase whispered.

“Shh!” the others hissed in unison.

“I have the power to control others through just a touch, but I can also connect to others if they think about me for too long and too hard. I plan to have rigorous breeding sex with all the females of the universe I can. I have already enslaved some of the strongest women and powerful figures of your world, and through these images on television I plan to lower the guards of everyone who sees me. By the time anyone realises what’s happening, it’ll be too late to stop me. Soon I will be King of this entire universe.”

“...”

“Did… did anyone record that?”

“Uhh… no.”

“Fuck.”

The Citadel Beyond Time.

It stood like a mausoleum at the edge of existence, suspended in a place where reality had grown thin and exhausted. The sky outside was a churning bruise of purples and starless black, as if the universe itself had run out of breath. To reach it you must be banished to The Void, fight past those with nothing left to lose, and survive the creature that can erase you without a trace.

Which is what two gods of mischief managed to do.

The ancient palace both stood eternal, yet creaked with every step–as if applying only the weight of your existence was enough for its tired walls to crumble from old age. They had approached the final chamber ready to fight. Weapons drawn, breaths unsteady, but prepared to deal with the one behind everything that had happened. The face behind the TVA. Their imaginations filling in the blank of what that could be–perhaps an insane warlord wearing bones of dead timelines, or a cosmic titan flossing his teeth with the concept of ****–but no, it was just a man.

And he had been humming.

He’d spoken with grandfatherly amusement. A strange proudness in his voice as Loki, Sylvie, and He Who Remains just spent their time chatting. He seemed relaxed, smiling, far too jovial for the role he played in the machinations of the world. It was almost disconcerting how laid back and mild mannered this pivotal king-like being spoke. Casually eating an apple as he awaited for the decision that either trickster would make, changing the fates of so many.

Yet, something about this exchange was making Loki’s eyes tighten ever more.

Right when Sylvie and HWR were at the apex of their argument–discussing the many ways that the TVA was fucked up beyond measure–Loki’s single question cut through the room’s tension in a second.

“This is all well and good, but when are you going to take off that mask?”

They both paused. Looking at him with confusion and bewilderment. “Loki?” asked his interdimensional female clone.

Loki kept his eyes trained on the man, lightly pointing towards him as he studied his suspicions, “I’m afraid we’re being tricked. Whoever this is, that isn’t his face.”

Sylvie had been too focused on her goals to see it, but as she snapped her head around she began to understand. Looking at the edges, the corners of the facade, and as confusing as it was she was starting to believe Loki’s claim.

This Kang just brazenly laughed at the ridiculousness, “My boy, why would I lie? To whom would I need to wear a mask for?!”

“I’m not sure,” said Loki, “But I’m starting to have theories.”

“Can you believe this?” asked He Who Remains.

“Yes,” said Sylvie, eyes matching Loki’s tense glaring, “your face isn’t sitting right on your own skin. He’s right, isn’t he?”

There was a moment where He Who Remains continued to look bewildered at the pair. Of all the things to be calling him out for, he never expected to be called a faker. He couldn’t help but give a low rumbling chuckle at the pair.

“Heh,” he began, covering his mouth as the humour got to him, “HehehehaHA! WHOO! I suppose it’s only fitting that of all those I have fooled, only the trickster god saw through me.” He exclaimed, interlocking his fingers and stretching out his hands above his head before sighing in content, “Yes, Loki. You’re right. This is not my true form. I killed the man who sat here many eons ago. Finished his work, perfected the TVA. I’ve been pretending to be him for so long, I almost forgot who I was.”

He slammed his fist against his own face so suddenly it made both Gods jump.

When someone punches themself in the face, you usually expect the face to take the brunt of the damage… not for the hand to start morphing around his own skull like a demented mummification. His skin rippled, contorted, reverberated in strange shapes… before his hand moved back and the face changed completely.

This new man’s skin was a pale white, brown hair with white accents around his temples, and a small unkempt beard.

It was a shocking reveal, but not to the two who sat on the other side of the desk.

“Are we supposed to know who this is?” asked Loki, bewildered.

He Who Remained chuckled once more, getting up from his chair with a strange unnatural smoothness and stepping towards his grand window to oversee the end of the universe, “In my world, I’d hope you’d remember me. I have foiled your plans enough times, though as I suppose after living so many generations myself I can see why you Gods struggle sometimes to remember the tiny details.”

His cadence had changed. No longer a jovial king sitting alone, he seemed a little more calculating. Analytical. Distant.

Sylvie grumbled, idly waving her sword at this new foe with growing frustration, “So are you the one who made the TVA, or not? Are you even one of these ‘conqueror variants’ you spoke of?”

After a long pause of staring out his window, he finally spoke. “I suppose you’re entitled to some answers. No, I didn’t make it, I took over the TVA. But not to stop any ‘Kang War’. Kangs are troublesome, but far from impossible to best. Most timelines manage to destroy him, or he finds a way to destroy himself.” He sighed, not for his foe’s loss, but as if he was remembering a past he’d long forgotten, “No. No, I used the TVA to look for someone. You see, my Master is out there, in the infinite multiverse, and eradicating timelines where he does not succeed seemed like the easiest way to find him. I know the answer you truly seek, and I must tell you that the destruction of your world wasn’t personal.”

“It was personal to me! UNF!”

Just as Sylvie had leapt from her seat to attack, the man had turned immediately to stop her. Stretching his arm out that wrapped around her neck and then slamming her body against a nearby musty bookcase. She gasped in surprise and for air.

Loki had taken a moment to even understand how this man’s arms had performed such a feat, a moment that lost him the fight as he used his other arm to grab at Loki and perform a similar action to Sylvie. Both Gods pinned against opposite walls as he closed the tightness on their airways ever more.

“GrrCk! Who ARE you?!” asked Loki through gritted teeth.

He took a beat, glaring at both of them before speaking.

“My name is Reed Richards. And I wait to put Mark Williams on the throne of all time.”