Chap 19: Heroes, villains, women and powers

Couple of days went by since the new Guardians became a thing and it was a disaster, literally.

What is wrong with these people all of them are grumpy and act like children all the time.

You'll think Samson will act like the responsible mature one but nooo he's trying to act like a tough and serious one, I mean I get it he is between bunch of kids and one of them is the biggest asshole to ever exist but come on.

Anyway I like to believe it's getting better, after all I am the one doing the yelling and blaming not someone else and I am enjoying it, maybe I am not the only one. I feel Dupli-kate gaze on me sometimes and let's hope it's not what I think it is but, from what I understood till now there seems to be nothing between her and Rex and she even does not acknowledge his existence so yeah her advance on me and trying to get physical with me all the time is not a good sign.

(A.N.: Let's just say that Zane made an impression on her, that she just let Rex out of her mind and now she has someone else in. So no, Kate didn't sleep with Rex)

I watched the news and one of the Mauler twins managed to 'escape' prison, more like someone helped him.

Seems likes Rudy(Robot real name) is coming soon. I actually want to meet one of the Maulers, he is a genius on different fields of expertise but specially on cloning and memory duplication I believe he is even better than Cadmus and this amount of knowledge and experience will come in handy so I'm not sure when to meet him maybe after Rudy get his body first and then see from there.

Again the heroes and government of this world are weird, Batman and Superman would have lost their mind from all the bullshit that happen here, man the daily death would make the joker proud and the villains somehow pop up left and right like someone is making them.

Some of them have the super strength-set, not that strong but for ordinary people it's strong, some have other powers I managed to get my hand on using an invisible duplicate.

Like acid spit, some grows claws and tail there was one with some bone control, like he managed to make bones out of his elbow and wrists. Remind me of Kimimaro from Naruto, or some of the Spider-Man who also had something like that.

And other minor but useful stuff.

And the butterfly of my actions seems to be caching up to me, because we get a call from Cecile about Machine head and he said War Woman already on her way there and I don't know if that is a good thing or not because she is stronger and taugher than Mark but I don't know how she fair against Battle Beast and I don't really want her to get killed.

Better keep closer than I intended to be, I want to copy some powers anyway and I'll make sure no one die.

So here I am invisibly watching from outside how Mark and Holly are fighting against the beast and how he seems to enjoy it but not really struggling, I estimate his physical strength to be higher than them combined plus his beastly instinct is something.

I fear for them if he decided to use his claws and these canine teeth of his, they won't live long, I believe the rest are doing ok but not really ok, they are all over the place instead of dividing and taking them on individually one on one. And making sure they stay down.

What kind of Vitality do these villains have? Really impressive I must say.

If they were on the street instead of inside of a building! Yeah the amount of damage and collateral will be disadvantageous and disastrous.

Coming close enough and standing behind the window where Isotope is standing I copy his power first before he escapes, I would have just took it but that need me to get closer and expose myself, yes copying take more time but as long I am not too far away it's fine as stealing is better done close and it can be resisted if someone is aware and fight against it with willpower or something.

The process of copying or stealing power is like, how to explain it? It's like their body is holding their power in, like a hand is holding a small ball or something.

If I want to take the power I just snatch it from their hand, but some resist and keep holding it tight with some willpower or subconsciously like the body realise something wrong is happening and doesn't want to allow it, but it's faint resistance not like the immune system fight against bacteria or something.

When it comes to copying, it's more complicated I have to keep 'observing' the 'ball' and be careful about the details while my power replicate that same ball in my hand. So distance is possible as long as i 'observe' carefully.

Make sense? No? Doesn't matter, that's how it feels to me.

But my range and control are expanding, getting better and stronger.

Slowly but surely.

I noticed that my power manipulation and Adaptability are influencing each other. One is giving access to the other so the power can develop more 'loosely' so to say, out of the more conventional and natural limits. While the other helping the power itself to adapt and grow. There's progress not too much, like I said. But it's there.

I'm sure sometime in the future, distance and duration won't be a problem to my meta ability and my adaptability will develop in the direction of granting me the desired power on the fly. It gets me excited thinking about it. But that for the future, a distant one but there still. Future me is gonna be busted. Lucky bastard.

With the copy done minutes later, I ready myself to interfere before the beast do some real injury or kill someone, right now it's all punching and throwing weapons around but I feel him getting ready to get real my senses are telling me he's getting more dangerous not really a threat to me but the danger level is getting higher don't know how to explain, I am pretty sure I don't have any danger sense power yet but that probably because the martial arts I know and all the training I do my body adapted and developed a sense for power or danger. Interesting.

[3rd P.O.V]

What Zane is thinking about is partially true, his senses and body indeed are informing him about the danger level around but it's not because all his martial arts or training.

It's true thanks to Zane training, observation of many battles and his mastery of Martial arts he did develop a danger sense but it's more like body muscle, instict so to say and not power.

What Zane didn't realize yet because his focus is somewhere else, is that the moment he got the copy of Isotope teleportation ability he also got some spatial awarness power related to it and his body worked on adapting it to his senses which won him an upgrade to all his extra senses like the 6th sense and more, since he is in the middle of observing a battle close and focusing specifically on danger and accidents his power helped him adapt the danger sense he was thinking about.

If he was the one in the middle of the fight against multiple opponents he might have even developed spider senses but well not like he'll need them or that it will be hard to do in the future.

Watching the battle getting to a critical time Zane finally decided to interfere because the beast is not playing anymore and started to get in some beast mode so before he can cripple or kill anyone...

Zane with a burst of wind appeared in the middle of the room between the beast and Holly who was going to be the first one to get hurt or worse.

The beast doesn't seem to mind or care as he is still charging without a pause with a crazy maniacal grin that seems to widen all of a sudden and once he got close he swung his mace which got caught in Zane's hand easily generating a shock wave that managed to lift some of those present to their feet earning him gasps of 'wows' and 'ohs' from everyone who suddenly stopped to watch and a happy laugh from the beast himself but being the experienced warrior he is he continued with his attack while yelling about a 'worthy opponent' and Zane continued to dodge or block and counterattack here and there.

A minute or two later Zane got a read on Battle Beast power and capabilities and deemed it enough for now and decided to finish it, so waiting for the right moment he clenched his fist hard almost popping the air around and sent an uppercut to his chin sending him flying off the building.

'Coincidentally' the way he got sent to is the same place Nolan was watching from afar.

Once done he turned around and helped Holly stabilize herself and asked: "are you okay?"

She nodded with a smile on her face and turned to finish the rest of the fight with Zane which was easy with the two of them and Mark getting back to his feet the only real annoyance was the magma guy which Zane froze using cold breath which suprised everyone around. Again.

It's worth to notice that no one really sustained any bad injuries and all are awake and fighting fine just bruises here and there maybe a broken bone somewhere but that's all.

[Zane's P.O.V]

To be honest this team is not that bad compared to the Young Justice, like Robin or Artemis can beat the shit out of Rex easily and with enough preparation they can deal with Shrink Ray if not individually then together.

Superboy can beat Monster girl he has more endurance and flexibility, Dupli-kate can get tricky if not dealt with fast but Kid Flash can beat her if he got serious, Samson is also easy the most dangerous would be Robot, I saw how he moved and what kind of weapons he has and it will take two or more to deal with him but a sneak attack from Megan or Aqualad can deal with him.

It's tricky to be honest it tilt between 50-50 to more in favor of Young Justice depends on how they prepare and because of the number but the Guardians are more brutal and may go for the kill so like I said tricky.

But that just Young Justice, if the league come... yeah the whole earth is in deep shit but that's earth, against the Viltrum empire I don't think they may stand a chance especially with the number they have unless Batman figures out their weakness fast and develops something to deal with them. Then it will be manageable. If he didn't die before that.

While waiting for the GDA to come I got to take the electric guy power away without anyone's notice I saw him travel around by turning into electricity the woman from the tryouts didn't do that but had more raw power, so now they balance each others.

I literally felt some electric current moving inside of me and my senses are starting to buzz from the brainwaves and the electrons in the air, a second later everything stabilized but I'll need to train these new senses of mine later. Too many gains in short time.

The magma guy is interesting but I don't know what will happen if I took his power away and there's no time to copy since Cecile is here.

"Good job everyone we will take over from here and do the cleanup." After Cecile's order everyone got to relax and do their thing and I notice him and Holly coming my way while I am pretending to watch over the villains and observing the medics.

"Hey didn't expect you to come you helped greatly from what I heard" said Cecile with some relief in his eyes.

"Yeah I figured it may not be simple if you need Holly and the team together with Invincible so just to be sure I came to see if everything's alright."

"And good that you came that guy is a tough one and I couldn't give my all or the whole building will get destroyed and if anyone else had interfered they would have died" said Holly sharing her experience of the fight.

"True, that guy seems to get physically stronger the more excited he gets and this is not the place to continue fighting him so I sent him flying in hope he doen't come back" and it's true the more I fought him the more animalistic side he showed and the more powerful he got, I heard back then that he was powerful enough to go against viltrumites so that's that.

----------

[Guardian of the Globe HQ]

Hours later..

After the fight Holly went with the Gda to do her stuff and I came back here with the team who decided to celebrate by drinking. Again.

But I allowed it this time since it was kinda a big victory, not deserved but a victory nonetheless. I told them as long as they drink with moderation and always be ready then it's not a problem. Being always tense and serious is not good after all and even Samson seems to agree.

He didn't get his power back but I am sure he will in the future, all it need is some trauma or a lot of stress. Maybe I'll help him later, maybe not. I say what my mood will tell me.

They wanted to invite me and Kate pressed really hard but I told them I can't and have work to do by writing a report and reviewing the fight as part of my responsibilities... Yeah that's a lie I don't have anything to do I am just not in the mood to stay with them, they are really a handful to deal with.

Much worse than the Young Justice honestly.

Hm?.. I feel and hear someone coming this direction.

I focus a bit and is that.. Eve? What is she doing here? And with suitcases too.

If I remember correctly she is supposed to be leaving to live alone in the forest but why is she coming here?

Hmm... After the fight Mark rushed out directly in a hurry, he had a date or had to meet with Amber at the volunteer house and Eve was there if my memories serve me right and I know they do... could it be that seeing them together and happy made her sentimental and changed her mind?

Well it's a possibility but I wonder what she wants. Here she is.

[Atom Eve P.O.V.]

I just want to go away... far away.

Just why can't they understand, why is dad so stubborn I can litterally rearrange our lives from zero and give them anything or everything they dream of. But no.

He is willing to be a 9 to 5 worker even though he doesn't like it or that it's not enough sometimes.

And he wants me to do the same.

Work, marry and have children... ugh what age does he thinks we live in. That's wrong on so many levels but he doesn't even get it and mom just doesn't do anything. Ughh!

Is he right tho? Is having powers really bad? Helping people and saving lives, I mean yeah it's dangerous and I can get hurt but.. but. Haah. I can't help but sigh at my thinking, what am I supposed to do now I want to just leave away and never come back but I also want someone to talk to... to understand me.

After Mark came late and made the lame excuse of getting hit by a bike to hide the bruises- must have been a tough fight- everything seemed to get fine with him, he is happy with Amber, both are.

Why can't I have something like that. Ugh that asshole Rex, he thinks I didn't notice I have been seeing him for months trying to hit on Kate or any other girl for that matter, and everytime I confront him he comes with some shitty lie and tells me to relax and nothing bad will happen. The asshole didn't even come with a good excuse when he was about to kiss Kate who just lashed at him and shoved him to the side.

I got actually a little surprised by that, the Kate who I know would have done it if pushed a little. Well she was acting a bit different the last two weeks. Wonder what's with her.

Anyway back on track. I should have broke up with him long ago after giving him so many chances. What's sad is even my parents say I should give him a chance and that's normal. MEN and all. What bullshit.

I just want to hit something right now... where should I go now?

Suddenly the image of a man in a black and red suit came to my mind, glowing eyes, blue and green. Zane. He did tell me to come if I need something. I feel like.. he can help me maybe, probably?

I don't know what I am thinking about, he just feel safe to be around it's not like it's the first time I felt like that it's just different. And it's like... he understands me I mean he was the first to notice my mood back in the tryouts.

He's even willing to just let go of Rex so I can join, not sure he can do that but I felt his sincerity.

Is he interested in me? I mean yeah I am beautiful no point in sugarcoating it and he's handsome too and his eyes.. NO. Bad Eve what am I thinking about I litterally know nothing about him and he doesn't seems like that kind of person who will just get attracted so easily. And I know, I see and notice a lot of guys with their eyes and gestures.

He didn't even bet an eye in the tryouts just serious and tough and big and.. Stop stop what the hell!! Am I that desperate? Ughh.

Ehm.. I- it's seems I was too deep in thinking I actually arrived at the guardians hq. Huff well I am already here, maybe no one is there?

"Eve!.. to what do I owe the pleasure, hm.. and with suitcases too are you moving in?"

Yeah he's here. Alone. The only one.

"I.." I don't know what to say I don't even know why I am here.

"Are you alright Eve? Need any help?" He asks me worriedly, am I that desperate? Is it really that easy to read me. No he's just that good yeah that's it.

"I... i don't know" I blurt out still not sure what to say.

"I see" what? What do you see tell me.

"Come with me Eve leave your stuff there no one will take them. Follow me" he flies out and I follow. We came out of the mountain it's a little bit cold, I hug myself to warm up a bit, and look at the sky we are high in the mountain it all clouds you can't see the blue sky. He hands me a blanket. Where did that come from?

"Sit with me Eve, tell me what happened" I sit on the other blanket that came out of nowhere and just blurt out everything, school, college, my parent even my relationship with Rex. I don't know why I am telling him that. It's just feels right. And he's listening and nodding occasionally not interrupting me.

*sigh*" Well what I can tell you is what you are feeling is normal Eve. You are in a point in your life where you start thinking about the future and the past about all the decisions you made or will have to make."

He says sagely looking at the sky forward not giving me a glance.

"You see Eve we try our hardest to satisfy and make everyone around us happy and proud especially our parents but, all on the expenses of our own happiness. We forget that the opinion of others don't really matter" He says, and I notice something in his eyes the first time I see something other than the calm steady gaze, melancholy or something? It was brief for a second and he went back to normal again.

Like he talks from experience. I don't know I just feel he understands and is not just spewing some wisdom words or something.

"The world doesn't owe you anything Eve, and you owe no one anything. It's your decision, tell me Eve did anyone ever asked you 'What do you want to do?' did you ever ask yourself Eve. Instead of taking anyone's opinion you should look inside yourself and ask what do I want?" He looks me in the eyes and says.

Wow. That.. that really make me think, he is right ever since I dicovered my power, the truth about my parents and everything else I alway tried my best to satisfy those around me, make them happy, proud.

I... I really never cared about my own happiness I thought making everyone else happy will make me happy, satisfied. Well look what it got me.

"And if you still want to help people and be a hero, then remember not all hero wear capes. Small details matter too. No matter how small it is" he says with a small nice smile.

Ok what with this guy how can someone be so.. soo. " I understand, thank you. I feel better now, I know what I have to do" and I really do, I had this idea for a while now and now I am sure. No more hesitating.

"Glad to hear that Eve, if you ever need help you are welcome to talk to me whenever you want. You are not alone. Remember that too"

I can't help but look at him, his warm smile and those eyes. I can't, I need to go. NOW.

"Thanks Zane I will remeber that. Um... I know what do now I need to go thanks again" I gulp internally and... give him a fast kiss on his cheek and fly away as fast as I can.

This guy is dangerous, I can't calm my blush and heat going on my brain. If I stayed longer I don't know what will I do. Thanks god he didn't pull some food or candles out of nowhere. I don't think I am strong enough to resist that.

[Zane P.O.V.]

Hm... I put my hand on my cheek and watch as she.. run away? as fast as she can, she has soft lips. I didn't expect that to be honest.

What about the candles and drinks I have in my inventory? What a shame. Haha kidding.

I noticed I am pulling Women too easily in this life, I was attractive too back then and was also able to pull some but not that obviously!!

Am I a harem protagonist now? Do I also have the 'protagonist Aura' on me?

I did notice I do a lot of pep talk and Mc speech. Well in my defence you can make a lot of difference with just a few words.

Like half the problems in the superheroes worlds are because of some misunderstanding and Heroes who wants to shoulder everything on their back alone without speaking with anyone.

So... I don't mind giving some council. Solving some stupid and unnecessary issues. I bet half of those in Arkham can be 'cured' if you just talk to them normally.

That why Flash is the greatest hero in my opinion. The dude litterally can make some enemies into allies. Well Arrowverse Flash can I don't know about YJ one.

I read somewhere on tiktok one time that the Flash villains are terrified of him simply because he can talk them out of it.

Hm... should I visit Arkham? Recruit some people? Food for thought.

Haahh... speaking with her did remind me of some stuff I was trying to leave behind and forget. Futile effort with a brain like mine.

I did have similar issues back then too, especially with my parents, so I can relate to her. My dad was also a stubborn old school and mom was always in the middle trying to pacify everything, till they separated.

It got so bad I had to split myself between the two and try my best to make them both happy and proud. I didn't have time to care about myself because I worried about them, I even stopped caring about myself entirely because I just didn't care anymore and just kept going with the flow.

*sigh* Despite everything, I still love them both and miss them too. I hope they both have or had a happy and good life without me around.

Mah out with the depressing thought I should finish here soon and go back. I think I stayed enough in this universe and there's nothing more for me to do. Just have to deal with Armstrong and take his power for good, that will spare them future problems.

I read in the wikis back then that he will cause some multiversal war or something. So with him out of the picture they can have a better time maybe.

Beside that the only thing left is Omni-man, I will see what will happen I don't really want to interfere much and just want it to be the same as in the show but I know that's not possible because Holly will for sure interfere after knowing and he will kill her.

I don't want that, obviously. I may not love her deeply or whatsoever but I do like her, no use being an emotionless asshole who treat people like a mean to an end.

Yeah 'let's see how this will work out.' I think lifting my hand producing a pink energy, then changing it color to black, white, blue, green. I will decide on that later.

"What a convenient power you have Eve."

___________

______

Author:

-Here we see how Zane is dealing with the new Team, some of you might think it's getting repetitive and Zane is being too passive. But I want you to remember that's how Zane personality is, chill and laid back.

Besides Zane is already, probably, the strongest person in this universe so he doesn't see the need for conflict nor the hurry to do what he wants or go back fast. He is literally taking this universe as a vacation and a buffet to take powers or stuff that interest him.

-Second point is the women. You can notice the hints and stuff i am doing about both Kate and Eve. Is it forced? Maybe? I don't think so.

To be honest Atom Eve won the last vote but i am still feeling complicated about her, i don't see her in something other than a romantic relationship and that the problem. Zane is NOT looking for serious relationships if you didnt notice. I don't even have a main female or females for him I am just going with the flow and trying to see how it fits or not.

Kate will be easy to write. I could have done it in this chapter but like i said i am hesitating and want to be fair for you. As for Eve i can do more stuff like calling and visiting even after going back to DC he still can come here or i can just do it faster in a somehow forced way but i don't want to do it like that. It is a harem yeah but like i said not a Pokémon 'gonna catch 'em all'.

-We also got a glimpse on Zane's past, why does he think the way he thinks? How is he so nonchalant with no trauma or delusion about the past? How can he move on so fast? I hope that put some perspective on the why and how. There may be more in the future or maybe not who knows?

I want you to understand that as much as impossible it is in these kind of universes.

I am trying to make things logical and have sense you know. About his powers, his plans, way of thinking and relationships. But don't forget it is still a fanfic and some bullshit may happen for no reasons.

So for one last time i will ask:

Dupli-kate

Or

Atom Eve

----

Or should i do some alternate Atom Eve?

Whatever you decide i will try my best.

Bless me with your ideas and opinions and leave some nice reviews.

See you next week. Peace.