torn- Marvel SI YJ

Torn Chapter 1: Life, Death, Rebirth

Independence Day 2010

They walk into the library, and see me eating a Big Belly double bacon cheeseburger that J'onn got me. Their faces go from triumphant to surprised when they notice me.

I move the scarf back up to hide my face. I look like the lovechild of Freddy Krueger. The janitorial staff would probably appreciate it if I didn't make anyone lose their lunch here in this nice library.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that my outfit is a good part of their surprise.

If it's true that you look like how you feel than I definitely look like an idiot.

I showed up covered in blood, in my shorts, 50 feet over the Lincoln Memorial Pool. Since I was in Texas before then, that was a bit of a surprise, I have to say. The 50 foot drop barely hurt.

John found me after that, telepathy and all. Maybe Martian vision, I'm not sure if that's a thing here. The point of alternate universes is for things to be different, after all. Batman is probably a paranoid muggle, sure, but that doesn't mean he's not a vampire busy eating his rogue's gallery here for all I know.

So my clothes are from the Hall of Justice gift shop.

Superman hoodie and sweat pants. Flash running shoes. Definitely not the shoes. Flash gloves. Batman sunglasses, and why does the nocturnal hero get sunglasses? And a golden Wonder Woman scarf I use to cover the bottom of my face.

I have Deadpool's scarred skin, part of the whole Mimic package. Colossus, Cyclops, Deadpool, Northstar, Wolverine.

I remember growing up poor, raised by a father who was a hollow shell of a man, eaten alive by frustration and envy. Joining the X-Men, leading the X-Men. Crushing on Jean, but really, who didn't? Getting timenapped. Loving Blink. Turning into a Brood, getting Mariko killed. Almost getting killed by that Superman knockoff Hyperion. Getting possessed by Proteus, dying.

The fact that I also remember reading the comic Exiles makes that weirder, right?

But even without the scars, I can't recognize my face when I look in the mirror. I'm younger, teenager I think? But I'm also thinner, fitter. I'm built like a teenager from a CW drama.

Considering the whole "I remember being Mimic and have his powers," thing, you would think I had Calvin's body as a teenager, but nope, still brown.

But why would anything today make sense?

Needless to say, I'm having a day. I might be in shock, but can people in shock know that they are in shock?

But now they've walked in. Aquaman, Batman, Green Arrow, Flash, Kid Flash, Speedy (maybe Red Arrow), Kaldur, Robin, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado.

I could feel them before they even walked in, like how a plant feels the rays of the sun.

Damn Robin is young, like first Harry Potter movie young. He's practically a zygote.

"Who's he?" Speedarrsenal growls loudly.

"Gestalt," I say simply. Somehow I'm two people who can copy the powers of five individuals at a time. It seems applicable. Fusion would work, but it sounds like cancer clusters would form around me.

"Did Superman get a sidekick without us knowing?" Robin chimes in.

"DON'T CALL US SIDEKICKS!"

Well Roy needs anger therapy.

"No. Just a stray."

"Then why did he beat us to the Justice League headquarters?"

That is a fair question, Wally.

"This isn't the Justice League headquarters! The real one is in outer space!"

"Would that be the lunar base Watchtower or the satellite in Earth orbit Watchtower?"

And now everyone is looking at me. Awkward.

I can see Bats scowling at me through his cowl.

J'onn and I say in unison "Ultraterrestrial."

I continue "I'm from Earth, but not this particular Earth. So I know things, but those things might or might not be true here. So moon base or satellite?"

"Satellite."

Green Arrow looks sheepish as his sidekick answers the question.

Superman comes on the screen to tell the League about a fire at Cadmus.

Immediately followed by Zatara claiming that Wotan is in the process of blotting out the sun. Zatara is a Leaguer instead of Zatanna? That's unusual.

After the League leaves the kids start venting about not being respected. I finish my combo meal with Vanilla Zesti Cola.

I was surprised to find out that Soder Cola isn't a thinly veiled Coca Cola, that's Zesti Cola. Soder is basically Pepsi.

I will be upset if I can't figure out the local Dr Pepper equivalent.

They decide they want to go to Cadmus.

Cadmus as in Superboy, Doomsday, Galatea, Brainiac, Fifty Sue, OMAC, Evil Factory, Black Zero.

That...might be a mistake.

I can't talk them out of it, can I?

Sigh.

Author's Note- Inspired by this story prompt.​

 

Torn Chapter 2: Friendly Fire

I can't believe I had to threaten to rat the kids out the kids before they'd let me come with them. I don't even want to go on this stupid field trip!

Anyway at least Roy left in a huff. Spares me basking in his warm sunny personality. Honestly, I don't want to know if he has a fire suppression arrow in that quiver anyway. Right next to his bazooka arrow and black cat arrow.

So Wally ran up a wall to save people. That's impressive.

And then he lost momentum and is now hanging by his fingertips out a window. Less impressive.

I fly up there and give him a lift up, while Kaldur uses his hydrokinesis to finish rescuing the people Kid Flash saved by running up a wall.

Well I suppose that is probably hydromancy, although the difference between psychic power and magic has always seemed a little fuzzy to me in DC. Jason Blood has telepathy and clairvoyance, after all.

Anyway, Robin quickly hacks the Cadmus computers, just like he did the Justice League system. Isn't Hollywood Hacking Tim's thing? Is this not Dick Grayson?

Wait, so they are called Genomorphs here and not DNAliens? Kind of sounds like Ellen Ripley is going to bust in any moment and say "Get Away from her, you bitch!"

But I think I like it, DNAlien was rather a weird name since they were actually based on human DNA. Not that you could tell from Dubbilex, who looks like Satan's majordomo.

And now Guardian shows up with some clawed elfy things and a shoulder gremlin. I wonder if this is the original or a clone like in the comics.

And that shoulder gremlin is obviously messing with Guardian's mind. If its not careful Guardian is going to start drooling right here. I would think that was obvious even if I wasn't a minor telepath who can remember hanging out with Prof X and Jean.

ZAPT rings out as ruby red beams of force fly out of my eyes.

Don't worry, I didn't kill the shoulder gremlin. It'll need extra strength Tylenol when it wakes up though, I'll bet.

Oddly enough, the claw elves see that as a hostile gesture. Go figure.

"What do you think you are doing?!" Kaldur asks as Robin lays out a smoke pellet to decrease visibility.

"He was being mind controlled. Hey, Guardian, call of your guard dogs before we get the SPCA after us."

I can hear the elf things' heart beats speed up. I think the comparison to animals might have hurt their feelings.

"STAND DOWN!"

The elf things seem reluctant to obey.

The kids and I get going while the getting is good.

Wally says "Down? Up is out! Up!"

Robin explains that Project Kr is down.

Kr. So it's a pretty safe bet that's Kryptonian cloning. Cloning Kryptonians is about as popular a sport as foosball at Cadmus.

Superboy, Galatea, Doomsday. Maybe something weirder.

We run into Dubbilex and he throws shit at us with his mind. That's pretty inefficient. Why not grab us so we can't escape? Squeeze the air out of our lungs? Telekinetics are horrors in combat.

Robin covers our escape with a smoke bomb.

No point in staying and playing, really. And this Dubbilex looks like he'd drift away in a strong breeze. I'd rather not find out the limits of his durability the hard way.

We're now locked in a cave laboratory with those elf things waiting for us.

Seriously, who did the decor? Oh I'm doing delicate experiments, let's leave the walls bare rock, we're going for the Volcano fortress look.

So whoever had bets on Superboy is owed five bucks.

Kaldur orders him set free.

He opens up his eyes, and in a blur of motion he heads straight for me.

On an instinct I didn't even know I had, my body changes. Weaker flesh, blood, and bone is replaced with Osmium steel, my cloths stretch as I gain almost a foot in height in my armored form.

CLANG!

CLANG! CLANG!

He's dented my face!

I idly wonder if my Superman hoodie offended him as Kid Flash and Kaldur try to grab his arms for my sake.

Kid Flash just gets thrown into equipment for his trouble.

Fortunately my hands are free.

I raise a hand to his face and use Northstar's speed to crash my atoms against each other. Blinding light explodes out.

Kaldur and Superboy audibly react.

"Get back, Kaldur!"

He jumps away as my arms break the sound barrier as I box Superboy in the ears.

I don't know if he's telekinetic, has Kryptonian powers, or both.

But Kryptonians have supersenses, and psychics need concentration to be effective.

While he's blind and deaf, I grab a hold and move.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I break the sound barrier as I slam his head into a rock wall, again, and again.

Rock explodes with the force of the impact, and Superboy's hair isn't even mussed. Damn.

But he's out. For now.

I can feel the metal of my face filling in as my healing factors get to work.

"You're a boy of steel! I'm whelmed, very whelmed." Robin says as Wally gives me a dirty look.

Boy? I'm Gen X, I grouse in my head. But that needs to be part of a longer discussion, and now's really not the time.

"A warning next time would be appreciated."

"Sorry, Kaldur, but I felt like keeping my face attached to the rest of me. We can work on improving our teamwork later."

I pick up Superboy.

"Everyone good? Be ready. It's time to blow this popsicle stand."

I grab hold of the vault like door with one hand.

There was this rather Speed Force like trick I remember Northstar's twin sister using with her speed. Transferring the motion to something else.

The metal squeals as it rips free, I then fly forward, using the door as a battering ram. I have to be careful here, don't want to accidentally kill anyone.

"Go! Go! Go!"

As we try to make our escape a herd of those elephantine trolls blocks our path while those claw elf thingies burst out of pods behind us.

I grab one of the trolls and go bowling with it, making a path as the other trolls are knocked aside.

Suddenly I feel a contact with my mind. "Go left." The mind feels...benevolent, feels concerned. "Dubby?" I think back, but the Voice makes no response.

Well if worse comes to worse I can probably tunnel our way out, although I suspect that might hurt.

"Go left!"

The Voice "Right."

"Let's go right!" I repeat.

And we run out of hallway. Swell.

"Man what's wrong with you?" Wally yells at me. Can't really blame him there.

"Get in the vents!" Robin orders before I get a chance to reply.

Wally races ahead and uses himself as a human battering ram to clear the way of the claw things.

And we run into a bunch of monsters and Guardian.

"You still you in there, Guardian?"

Unbeknownst to me, Dubby was waking Superboy up. "Wake up, brother. It is time for you to make a choice. Will you be a weapon to be used, or will you braze a trail for your brethren, the hero genomoph?"

I put Superboy down as I notice he's coming too. I hope he'll be in a better mood.

"Yes, I'm still me, whoever you are."

"Ah, Gestalt."

"Get out of here, I'll handle Desmond."

"I think not, Guardian, when Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order!" Desmond says.

It's weird that he sounds like Odo from Deep Space Nine?

And before Not Odo can drink his little potion Guardian is smacking him in the face with his shield. I can hear his jaw breaking from here as the vial falls and shatters against the floor.

Superboy is glaring at me, but he's not trying to rip my face off anymore, so, you know, progress.

Guardian escorts us to the entrance, I think he's happy to see the back of us.

The moon shines on us as we enter the night air.

I can feel power, lots and lots of power, I look up and see the Justice League coming towards us.

Conner's eyes latch onto Superman, and approaches him.

"I am the Superboy, a genomorph, a clone made from your DNA, created to replace you should you perish."

Superman's eyes widen in shock.

Batman takes lead and demands to know what happened.

Superman awkwardly comes up with an excuse and flies away. While perfectly understandable, I can't recall Clark ever being this weirded out about the whole thing.

The Justice League is not happy with us. Oh well. I'm not Batman's sidekick and I think I'm older than he is here anyway.

"Help us or get out of the way." Superboy proclaims. I can completely see Superman saying that. Luthor too. We're going to have to check that out, but currently I'm drawing a blank on geneticists in DC who aren't evil. Way to encourage kids to get into STEM, there, DC comics.

.....

So apparently I'm going to be living in a cave. What's up with this universe and caves?

"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian."

Niece? Since when? Well she's adorable, I want to pat her on the head and give her a cookie. She's not openly white here, so I assume she's not a retired serial killer like in Smallville.

And I can smell Wally going into heat and the sight of her. Well that's off-putting and disturbing.

She changes the color of her shirt to match Superboy's black t-shirt. They dated in Smallville, although there Superboy's personality was less broody and byronic and more horny popinjay.

Hmm, is it possible that Batman is his other gene donor? Could he be the local Composite Superman? I can just see that discussion going well. "Congrats, Wonder Woman, you have a teenage son, Bruce and Clark are the fathers!" But I admit that would be cool.

Later that night, I'm watching Wendy the Werewolf Stalker with Megan.

"Oh look, we made the news."

"Who is the mysterious Superboy? Does Superman have a secret son?" Cat Grant says on the TV screen.

Well Conner will appreciate they got his nom de guerre right.

That's a video of me from the Cadmus fire. Shit.

And now I hear something break very loudly.

 

Ch 3: The Box Episode

The Watchtower, a satellite orbiting the Earth, the Olympus from where humanity's new gods watch from on high.

In the Watchtower there is a room, and in the room there is a table where Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter all sit.

The Martian Manhunter intones "Gestalt authorized STAR Labs to share their findings. He said he might as well spare Batman the trouble of hacking the files."

Diana raises an eyebrow.

"It might be a defense mechanism, but my sense of him is that his humor naturally runs to the sarcastic. Which reminds me of why we are here, STAR Labs' findings are peculiar."

"Explain."

"The indicators of his age are contradictory, Batman. According to their tests, his physiological age would be around 16 years old. His mind is hard to read, like it is fragmented, but he feels close to my niece's age of 48 to my telepathy. The blood work shows he is a newborn. That Big Belly combo meal I got him along the way to the Hall of Justice was probably the first food to ever pass his lips."

"J'onn, do you think he's another clone?" Superman leans forward as he asks.

"A Trojan horse, an infiltrator to slip in unnoticed while Superboy draws our attention? Clever," Batman muses out loud.

"No, I do not think so, for a few reasons. I brought his bloody clothes for testing as well. It was not blood, not really, more like an advanced sea water than anything organic, and it was definitely of non terrestrial origin."

"There is also his knowledge. He knows all our names, he knows the names of the kids. There are gaps in his knowledge though. He knows that Arthur is Aquaman, he does not know if Thomas Curry was his adoptive or biological father. It has gone both ways depending on the universe according to him. He knows a fact about my niece she is not comfortable sharing, but was surprised to learn she is my niece. He said that was new to him. He knows Captain Marvel's identity, but doesn't know his age, because he apparently has been chosen at the age of 10 and 15."

Batman has the decency to look uncomfortable.

"Lastly, his physiology. He has a hormone in his blood they have never seen before. They found an unknown exotic subatomic particle. Mosaic DNA, his power changes him at the genetic level but no more than necessary, it seems, they believe his prior mutations are stored in his junk DNA."

"It would not be impossible this is all some elaborate scheme, but it seems rather unlikely."

"Moving on, his set consists of five niches."

"From a hero called Cyclops, his body absorbs ambient energy, especially light, to shunt extradimensional energy that manifests as ruby red blasts of concussive force. Oddly analogous to your solar powered heat vision, Clark."

"From Colossus, he has the ability to replace his molecules with Osmium steel, becoming a literal man of steel. Along with the obvious strength and durability that affords him, many of his biological functions such as breathing or bleeding are suspended while in his armored form."

"From the speedster Northstar, he can control the atomic motion of his own body, propelling himself on land, or in the seas and skies. Unlike Barry, his limitation is that he will start damaging himself above a certain speed. He can also use this as an engine to generate energy, such as light or electricity."

"Wolverine gives him enhanced senses, a healing factor, general physical enhancements, and bone claws."

"Like the horror frog?"

"More or less, Batman."

"Lastly there is Deadpool, the reason for his scarred appearance. He also has a healing factor, and fourth stage metastatic cancer. Tumors grow and spread only to be destroyed by his healing factor, the organs regenerated, only for new tumors to instantly develop."

"Is he in pain?"

"Yes, but his tolerance for pain is fortunately also enhanced."

"Why hasn't he switched that power out than?" Batman asks.

"He cannot. He theorizes that the cancer would remain, and that his abilities will not leave him vulnerable. So until he finds a metahuman that will make him immune to cancer, or find an outside cure, he will remain as he is."

Mulling it over, Diana asks "How did he take all this, J'onn? You've been our point person on this."

"It would be wise to send Dinah to talk to him. He has asked to talk to Dr Fate to uncover the mystery."

"Is that wise?"

"I can approach Kent to see if he thinks he can help. What alternatives are there, Bruce? Giovanni is not the occult scholar that Kent Nelson has become over the years," Diana states.

"We're in agreement than?"

They look at Batman but he raises no objection.

"Very well, Gestalt expects you to to want to talk to him soon, Batman. Diana, he wishes to ask you a favor when it is convenient for you. Clark, he wishes to speak with you soon."

"Did he say why?"

"He has led me to believe that the main reason is that he wishes to clear up publicly the issue of him being called Superboy. Since you are the one with the strongest ties to the media, you would be the expert. He has volunteered to go Metropolis to meet you if you would prefer."

"You can make arrangements on your own time. Tell Gestalt that Giovanni has finished his watch and I'll deliver it to him when we have our talk," Batman says as he dismisses the meeting.

 

Chapter 4: Clothes Make the Superman

J'onn hooked me up with a Martian biosuit.

Which I can use, because I'm oh very slightly telepathic. A residual from when Mimic copied Xavier and Jean. Basically only good for cheating at poker and ordering telepathic symbiotic clothing around it turns out. Otherwise not anything to write home about. Fear evil doers, for I can guess your card at higher than random frequency! Beware Card Shark Man! Maybe J'onn can teach me how to be better at that, that'd be useful.

Megan says my telepathy feels like a teeny tiny Martian baby. I'm pretty sure a normal guy would find that sort of comment emasculating. If I knew any I'd ask them. But so far I've pretty much only met superheroes and STAR Lab folks, who are like at least 40% mad scientist. And lets face it are just one lab accident from becoming a superhero or villain.

I think, and I repeat think, it's a leftover because humans in Marvel have innate but latent psychic powers.

I'm also pretty acrobatic. Even though Mimic gave up Beast's agility and strength for Deadpool's regeneration, that's 9 years of acrobatic experience. Like muscle memory.

I think that pattern will hold for other stuff. Like say if I mimicked Aquaman for a while I'd get better at swimming. That even when the powers go away, I still retain any skills using those powers develop.

Anyways, I decided to stick to Mimic's classic X-Men blue and gold color scheme.

Spoiler

My biosuit forms a ruby quartz for controlling my optic blasts. Sure OG Cyclops was so good he could curve his blasts like freaking Darkseid, but I don't know how to do that. Yet. So it's training wheels for power stunts there.

And I cover my entire body. I look like Deadpool with a tan, so I think I'll try to avoid giving people nightmares.

J'onn says the biosuit can be ordered to go into camouflage mode. If I master that trick, with my bone claws and my camouflage I'd be all set to hunt Arnold Schwarzenegger in a rainforest.

So today I'm going to Metropolis.

Need to clear up this whole "Superboy" business, before Conner murders me in my sleep.

I'm pro not waking up dead, I'm funny that way I guess.

I make myself a breakfast sandwich. Breakfast, the most important meal of the day, you should eat it three times a day according to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Megan is sweet, but really, I'm a grown man, no matter what my lab results say, I wasn't dependent on ramen noodle cups and Doordash orders before, I'm not going to be dependent on a Martian trying to learn how to cook now.

You would think a gal from a species vulnerable to hyperthermia would want to avoid the kitchen to begin with. I guess it makes sense, Mars is hella cold, but I'm used to Martians having a psychogenic response to fire, not a physical reaction to heat.

Martians here are also neither Gumbies or slime monsters. I asked J'onn, not Megan. I'm not completely tactless, and asking an adolescent girl what kind of monster she is, yeah no.

Considering that Martians in fact look like something HR Giger would design for a horror movie, that instinct was a good one.

I'm trying to figure out how to broach the subject of her probably being a White Martian. In the comics, it made sense for her to be a bit reticent to reveal that, what with the gazillion invasion attempts by the White Martians.

Here, not so much.

So that leaves some unfortunate implications with her going to the trouble of passing.

As a Hispanic kid growing up in Texas, my response to people thinking they were better than me because I had some melanin in my skin was that I didn't generally value the opinions of morons.

Helped make me the totally well adjusted misanthrope I am today, I'm sure.

A better experience than Calvin Rankin, though, and his universe was practically a utopia of human-mutant relations. Good ol' Calvin was so popular that any politician trying to campaign on "Let's build giant killer robots to kill our own citizens!" would have met the career ending response of "What's wrong with your brain? Mimic just saved a children's hospital in the alien invasion last week!"

So the giant killer robots were privately funded. Probably not much of a comfort to those who got killed by them.

It's hard to beat "Someone built giant killer robots to kill you" in misery poker.

I step to the zeta tube and as "Gestalt. B-04" rings out the Mountain disappears.

Author's Note- Made my picture here using Marvel's Create Your Own Superhero, Spider-Man edition, if anyone is curious. It's not exactly perfect, but it gives you a general idea. As a biosuit, it's not like it can't be changed as desired. So if you looked at the picture and thought "That looks like Spider-Man!" have a cookie.