This is not up to the usual chapters. I just took a plot idea I had for Arc 2 and turned it into a crack chapter. It gets kind of cringe by the end.
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“Something is wrong,” Max said.
He stood atop the Central Power Battery, staring into the many-colored sky of Oa.
Nothing appeared unusual. The Beacon burned steadily above the horizon. The planets remained within their carefully controlled paths, and no alarms had sounded anywhere in the system.
Yet the unease had been growing inside him for nearly an hour.
At first, it had been little more than pressure behind his thoughts. Max had assumed it was some lingering effect from his recent sessions within the Source. Then the feeling spread through Ion, reaching parts of his awareness that did not belong to his human mind.
The universe was unsettled.
No, not merely the universe.
The entire Multiverse seemed to be recoiling from something.
Veridion stood beside him, reduced to a height of twenty feet.
“You feel it as well,” Max said.
“Yes.”
“I can feel death,” Max said. “Something close to her, but worse.”
The distinction made little sense when spoken aloud, but Veridion understood.
“I will contact the other Celestials.”
“Do that.”
The pressure increased.
Max bent slightly and gripped the edge of the platform as emerald light flickered across his skin.
“This is bad,” he muttered. “I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
Veridion turned toward him.
“You are an entity comparable in nature to the universal abstracts. If one of the fundamental concepts governing creation has been disturbed, Ion may be perceiving the damage before it becomes visible within physical reality.”
“You are correct, Celestial.”
The voice came from behind them.
Max turned.
Death stood there.
She wore flowing purple robes that concealed nearly all of her body. A hood covered her head, leaving only the pale lower half of her face visible.
“Death,” Max said. “What is happening?”
“You must come with me. The others are gathering, and you should be present.”
“What others?”
Death extended one pale hand.
“There is no time to explain. Come.”
Max looked at Veridion before approaching Death. She caught his hand before he could say anything more.
A narrow doorway appeared in the air, revealing a white emptiness beyond it. Death pulled Max through.
For a moment, there was nothing.
Max and Death walked through a void so white that he could not tell where his body ended and the surrounding space began. Even the glow of his ring became difficult to distinguish.
Then structures emerged.
Golden shapes stretched across the emptiness. Some resembled bridges, towers, and platforms. Others had no architecture Max could name, only vast geometric forms turning slowly around one another. Triangles floated beside spirals. Pillars extended in both directions without beginning or end.
Death released his hand as they descended onto a triangular platform.
Infinity waited there.
She towered above them, her humanoid body filled with stars suspended within endless blue space. Long streams of cosmic light flowed from her like robes, disappearing into the white distance.
Master Order hovered nearby, appearing as a bald man dressed in white robes. Lord Chaos possessed no stable shape at all. His features shifted constantly, changing from flesh to fire to fractured geometry before Max could properly observe them.
Max had met the two brothers before. No introductions were necessary.
“What is going on?” he asked.
A tremendous impact shook the dimension, and everything around them trembled.
Two figures fought in the distance.
One appeared as a grey-skinned man covered in glowing blue lines and dressed in golden armour. Lightning surrounded his body, and he carried a curved weapon in one hand.
The other being wore layers of ragged red cloth. A glowing skull emerged from beneath its hood, surrounded by darkness that consumed the light around it.
Max felt the presence again.
The emptiness.
“Is that Oblivion?” he asked.
“Yes,” Death answered.
“And the blue one is Eternity?”
“No. His name is Hadad.”
“Who?”
“A god empowered by Eternity,” Death said. “Eternity uses him as a champion against my progenitor.”
Max watched Hadad hurl a storm into Oblivion. The abstract being simply walked through it.
“Your progenitor,” Max repeated.
“Oblivion existed before me. Our relationship is complicated.”
Another impact shook the entire dimension.
“And where exactly are we?” Max asked.
“The Dimension of Manifestations,” Infinity answered.
Her voice seemed to emerge from every direction at once.
“It exists beyond the conventional structure of the Multiverse. Here, abstract concepts may assume manifestation bodies and interact without compressing their full nature into physical reality.”
Infinity raised one hand and pointed toward him.
Max followed her gesture.
His fingers glowed emerald.
Stars moved beneath the surface of his hands.
His human body was gone. Ion’s immense form stood upon the golden platform, reduced only enough to occupy the space beside the other abstracts. Emerald light spread from him in waves.
“What the fuck?”
Death smiled beneath her hood.
“Here, beings like Infinity can wear forms closer to their conceptual nature. The dimension has done the same for you.”
Max examined his arm.
He felt no boundary separating him from Ion. Max was in full control here.
“Wow.”
Infinity regarded him with interest.
“At last, we meet properly, Ion.”
Max looked up at her and inclined his head.
“It’s good to finally meet you as well, Infinity.”
Lord Chaos’s shape broke apart and reformed.
“Our exchange of courtesies does nothing to restore equilibrium.”
Master Order’s expression remained perfectly composed.
“The conflict must end before the damage spreads beyond this realm.”
Death looked toward the battle.
“Eternity created Hadad, or drew him from another universe. He intends to use the god as a weapon against Oblivion.”
“What started the fight?”
“Oblivion and Eternity have been disputing the limits of their respective domains,” Infinity said. “The void contracts as creation expands. Eternity refuses to limit his growth. Oblivion claims that Eternity has violated the balance.”
“And Eternity decided to just throw a random god at Oblivion?”
“Eternity refused to confront Oblivion directly,” Death said. “Hadad is not the first champion he has sent.”
Max watched the two combatants strike one another again.
Hadad’s weapon cut through the darkness surrounding Oblivion. In response, the red-cloaked abstract seized him by the throat and drove him through three golden structures.
“And we’re here to do what?” Max asked.
“Stop the destruction,” Master Order answered.
Max’s emerald form began to grow.
“Then let’s do it.”
Infinity raised one hand.
“We are waiting for another.”
Max stopped.
“Who?”
Fire appeared in the white distance.
It began as a distant spark, then expanded into an immense burning bird whose wings stretched across the Dimension of Manifestations. Red, gold, and white flames flowed from every part of it, carrying the power of life, death, and rebirth.
The Phoenix Force flew toward them.
Max froze.
For one painful moment, he saw Firehair in its place. He forced the memories back. This was not her.
The burning bird descended and compressed into a humanoid figure wrapped in flame.
“Why are you waiting?” the Phoenix demanded. “End this madness before they destroy the realm.”
“Well, you heard her,” Max said as the Phoenix launched herself toward the battle.
Infinity followed. Order and Chaos moved together, while Death drifted after them, her purple robes spreading like wings.
Max allowed himself to grow.
It felt incredible. There was no fear of losing himself. No mortal vessel tearing apart under the pressure. He possessed Ion’s strength while remaining entirely Max.
He reached the battle first.
Hadad had Oblivion trapped inside a sphere of storms. Lightning struck the abstract from every direction.
Oblivion opened his arms.
The sphere disappeared.
A wave of nonexistence rushed toward Hadad.
Max thrust one hand between them and formed an emerald wall. The darkness struck it, eating through layer after layer, but Max rebuilt each section as quickly as Oblivion erased it.
Hadad raised his weapon to attack again.
The Phoenix seized his arm.
“Enough.”
Hadad turned on her, lightning spreading across his golden armour.
Infinity expanded between them. Space folded around Hadad and carried him away from Oblivion before he could strike.
Order constructed a perfect cage around the storm god. Chaos filled it with contradictions, ensuring that every direction Hadad moved became the wrong one.
Death appeared before Oblivion.
“Stop.”
The glowing skull beneath the red hood turned toward her.
“Have you come to fight as well?”
“Let’s all calm down,” Max said as Oblivion backed away.
Hadad remained trapped inside the cage, which Max reinforced with layers of emerald energy.
The dimension shifted as Eternity manifested above them. His body contained the entire cosmos, with stars and worlds moving beneath its surface. His face was formed from darkness outlined by cosmic light.
“What are you doing?” Eternity demanded.
“Stopping your champion from destroying everything,” Max answered.
“You interfere in matters beyond you.”
Oblivion laughed.
“Weak,” he said to Eternity. “You have become too weak even to face me yourself. You send lesser beings to fight on your behalf.”
“Hadad is my champion. He acts with my authority,” Eternity replied.
“He dies with it as well.”
Oblivion raised his hand.
A blast of absolute darkness crossed the space between them and struck Hadad inside the cage. The god was hurled away into the void.
Infinity’s expression hardened.
“That is enough. This conflict has exceeded every permitted boundary.”
Eternity faced her.
“Do not presume to judge me.”
“I will not.”
Infinity’s voice shook the Dimension of Manifestations.
“I will summon the Living Tribunal himself.”
Oblivion ignored her and looked toward Max.
“Ah, I know you,” he said. “Yes. I see it now. You escaped. You are one of the Seven from the Source, are you not?”
Oblivion drifted closer, ignoring Infinity’s threat to summon the Living Tribunal.
“I remember you.”
“That makes one of us,” Max said. “I can’t say I remember meeting you.”
“You were less complete then.”
Eternity and Infinity spoke over one another. Master Order demanded immediate judgment, while Lord Chaos laughed at the possibility of a trial. Oblivion questioned Max about how he had escaped the Source, and Death remained close to him, her attention fixed upon her progenitor.
None of them noticed the storm god rising.
Hadad floated among the shattered golden structures, one hand pressed against his chest where Oblivion’s attack had struck him.
His breaths came slowly.
Fragments of memory returned.
A voice offering him power while concealing chains beneath every word.
Hadad looked down at his hands.
He remembered being summoned. Reshaped. Filled with power so vast that he had nearly lost himself within it. Then he had been hurled against an enemy whose power dwarfed even his own.
He had been used.
Anger filled him as he examined his surroundings and realised where he stood.
The Dimension of Manifestations.
A realm where concepts could take form.
Hadad smiled.
The entities continued arguing, unaware of him. His gaze passed over Infinity, Oblivion, Order, Chaos, Death, and Max before settling upon Eternity.
His creator.
His master.
His jailer.
Hadad raised one hand.
Golden lightning tore across the dimension.
It wrapped around Eternity’s cosmic body before the abstract could react, binding his arms and constricting around the stars and worlds moving beneath his surface.
Eternity turned toward him.
“What are you doing?”
Hadad closed his fist as Eternity’s immense manifestation collapsed inward. Within moments, Eternity had been compressed into a living cloak.
Hadad pulled it toward himself and the cloak settled across his shoulders.
He spread his arms, and the fabric opened behind him, revealing the universe moving across its inner surface.
Power surged through the cloak and entered Hadad. His body expanded as he absorbed Eternity’s strength.
Death was the first to react.
Hadad was faster.
He crossed the distance between them before Max saw him move and caught Death by the throat. She tried to escape, but Hadad forced his will upon her manifestation body.
Before Max’s eyes, Death transformed into a massive battleaxe.
Hadad swung the weapon toward a golden cube.
The structure vanished from existence.
“Death!” Max shouted.
Hadad turned toward Infinity.
She expanded, space unfolding around her as she attempted to trap him within an endless distance.
The cloak of Eternity bent that distance back upon itself. Hadad reached through the folded space and seized her.
Infinity’s manifestation body collapsed into a broad shield just in time for Hadad to use it against the Phoenix’s attack.
Phoenix fire struck the shield and spread across its surface.
Before the Phoenix could retreat, Hadad swung Death’s axe through her burning body. Her flames folded around him, transforming into armour that fitted itself across his expanding form.
Max stared at the being before him.
Hadad wore Eternity as a cloak.
Infinity had become his shield.
Death rested in his hand as an axe.
The Phoenix Force burned across his body as armour.
Master Order moved beside Max.
“Eternity has made a severe error.”
Max flew in the opposite direction, narrowly avoiding another swing of Death’s blade.
“That is one way to put it.”
Lord Chaos scattered into a thousand conflicting forms and rushed Hadad from every direction.
Hadad raised Infinity’s shield.
Space curved.
Every version of Lord Chaos was drawn toward the same point and merged against his will. Hadad caught the compressed abstract in one hand.
Master Order moved to attack, but Eternity’s cloak uncoiled from Hadad’s shoulders and wrapped around him, restraining his manifestation body.
The two brothers transformed together.
Master Order became a white-gold gauntlet around Hadad’s right hand.
Lord Chaos became a black-and-red gauntlet upon his left, its surface changing shape from one moment to the next.
Hadad closed both fists.
Order and Chaos answered him.
Oblivion attacked while Hadad’s attention appeared divided. The primordial void opened beneath the storm god, seeking to swallow him and everything he had taken.
Hadad drove Death’s axe into the darkness.
The weapon cut a wound through nonexistence.
His Chaos gauntlet reached into the opening, caught Oblivion by the robes, and dragged him from his own void.
Oblivion resisted.
The Dimension of Manifestations disappeared around them as the two concepts collided. Entire sections of white emptiness turned black, then gold, before ceasing to possess meaning at all.
Hadad forced the glowing skull toward his own head.
Oblivion’s body unravelled, transforming into a dark crown that settled upon Hadad’s brow. Black horns rose from either side, while primordial emptiness flowed down his face like a veil.
Max stopped moving.
He could no longer properly comprehend what stood before him.
Hadad carried the power of Eternity, Infinity, Death, the Phoenix Force, Master Order, Lord Chaos, and Oblivion.
Hadad smiled at Max.
“You remain.”
“Lucky me.”
“Come here.”
Hadad reached for him.
Max flew backward.
His hands tore at the white space as he searched for the doorway Death had opened. He remembered how she had done it and tried to reproduce it with Ion’s power.
A thin green opening appeared.
Hadad laughed.
“Allow me.”
He screamed.
The Dimension of Manifestations shattered.
Golden structures broke apart in every direction. The white void cracked like glass, and physical reality poured through the fractures.
Stars appeared beyond the nearest opening.
Max turned toward it and flew into the universe.
Hadad appeared in front of him.
Max changed direction.
Hadad was there again.
Emerald power gathered around Max’s fist, and he struck with all the strength Ion could command.
Infinity’s shield met the blow.
Space folded around Max’s arm and threw the force back into him.
Hadad caught him by the throat.
“Too slow.”
He hurled Max across the universe.
Ion’s body struck a star and passed through it. The star exploded behind him.
Then another.
And another.
Thousands of suns vanished along his path. Max crashed through a galactic core, scattering worlds and tearing a black hole from its place.
Hadad appeared beside him and struck him with the Order gauntlet.
Everything became still.
Max’s movement, thoughts, and power locked into perfect arrangement.
The Chaos gauntlet followed.
That order broke apart.
Max was hurled through two colliding galaxies as stars scattered around his emerald form.
He tried to fight back.
A construct larger than a galaxy formed around Hadad, but Death’s axe cut through it. Max released waves of will powerful enough to wipe out Celestials, only for Infinity’s shield to bend them away.
Hadad seized him again and drove him through another galactic cluster.
Lives vanished. Trillions at a time and Max felt every death.
The Source.
He needed to reach the Source.
Hadad raised Death’s axe above him.
Max closed his eyes and opened a gateway into the Source.
He disappeared before the axe struck.
============
Max entered the Source.
Adara found him the moment he arrived.
Blue light swept around him as she approached, her many wings opening in welcome.
“Ion,” she said with a smile. “You have returned.”
Then she saw his condition.
Stars had vanished from large sections of his emerald body. Cracks ran through his chest and arms, bleeding green energy into the surrounding currents. His form struggled to remain whole.
Adara’s smile disappeared.
“What happened?”
Max tried to answer.
Nothing came.
“I don’t even know how to explain it.”
“Try.”
He told her.
By the time Max finished, the light around her had dimmed.
“You cannot face this being alone.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.”
“We must act quickly, Ion.”
“Any suggestions then Adara?”
“There is only one way.”
Max looked at her.
“Only our combined strength can stop him.”
Parallax’s voice came from behind them.
Max turned.
The yellow serpent emerged from the distant currents, its immense body coiling through the Source. The Butcher followed, red fire surrounding its horned ape form. The Predator descended through violet light. Proselyte emerged more quietly, wrapped in indigo radiance.
Ophidian circled above them.
Parallax stopped before Max.
“Adara is correct. Only the united Spectrum can oppose this abomination.”
The Butcher bared its teeth.
“Or all of existence will be destroyed before we can claim any part of it.”
Max looked among the entities.
“Fuck. How did this happen? It went from zero to a million in seconds.”
The Butcher laughed. “That is the best kind.”
Adara moved between them. “If Ion carries us into the physical universe…”
Parallax’s jaws opened in what might have been a smile. “We will be free,” it whispered.
Max prepared to answer.
Ophidian’s voice filled the Source. “You have no choice, Ion.”
The orange dragon flew down toward him.
“We must unite as we once were.”
The Predator nodded, her form becoming more luminous.
“It is the only way, if the threat is as severe as you describe.”
Proselyte inclined her head.
Max looked toward Adara.
She hated violence, yet she held his gaze and nodded.
The entities were right.
Hadad now possessed enough power to destroy the Multiverse. Max could not defeat him even with Ion’s full strength. None of the entities could do it alone.
The Spectrum had begun as one force.
It would have to become one again.
Max bowed his head.
Then he opened his arms.
“Come.”
Adara reached him first.
Blue light entered his chest.
Hope spread through Ion, strengthening every damaged part of his form.
The Predator followed. Violet light wrapped around the blue and green, binding them together.
Proselyte became indigo light and entered him without resistance. Compassion carried the pain of every life Hadad had destroyed and made it part of their purpose.
The Butcher roared as red fire rushed forward.
Rage struck Max like a burning star.
Parallax came next.
Yellow light forced every fear Max possessed into the open, but this time it did not control him. Fear became warning, instinct, and the will to survive.
Ophidian descended last.
Orange light wrapped around everything.
Avarice demanded that all Hadad had stolen be taken back.
The entities collided within Max.
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Indigo.
Violet.
The Source erupted in an explosion of color.
For one instant, every color remained separate. Then they became white.
=========
Hadad floated above the ruins of a thousand galaxies.
He had begun testing what his stolen powers could accomplish.
A movement of the Order gauntlet arranged stars into perfect lines. Chaos scattered them again. Infinity’s shield folded galaxies together, while Eternity’s cloak created new space only for Death’s axe to erase everything within it.
The Phoenix armour burned brighter with every life destroyed.
He laughed as trillions died.
As he raised one hand to cause more destruction, a white fist struck him across the face.
The impact hurled him through a galactic cluster.
Hadad tore through suns, planets, and clouds of cosmic matter before stopping himself. Infinity’s shield shook upon his arm. Cracks spread through the Phoenix armour.
His laughter ended.
Hadad looked back.
A being stood within the darkness.
Its body was made entirely of white light.
“So, you have returned,” Hadad said with a grin.
Across from him, Max burned with white light. For the first time since the Emotional Spectrum had separated, it stood united within physical reality.
Max raised one hand.
White energy crossed the universe.
Hadad met it with Infinity’s shield and moved forward, swinging Death’s axe.
Max formed a blade of white light and caught the blow before driving his free fist into Hadad’s jaw.
The strike sent the god across a supercluster.
He crashed through one galaxy after another. Their central black holes were pulled from place and hurled into neighbouring systems. Stars collided in chains of blue-white fire, and entire civilisations disappeared before they could even understand what was happening.
Max followed.
He caught Hadad before the god could recover and carried him through the heart of another galactic cluster. White light enveloped them both as they struck stars and clouds of dark matter.
Hadad seized Max’s arms.
The Order gauntlet locked every part of his body into place.
For one instant, Max could not move.
Hadad brought the Chaos gauntlet against his chest.
The unity of the Spectrum broke.
Red tore away from blue. Orange tried to consume violet. Yellow filled green with visions of failure. Every emotion within Max turned against the others, and white light fractured into separate colours across his body.
Adara’s voice reached him through the turmoil.
Together.
Max forced the colours back into alignment.
White light returned as Hadad raised Death’s axe.
Max caught the haft with both hands.
The universe bent around them.
“You cannot keep them united forever,” Hadad said.
Max retaliated with a beam of white light that struck Hadad’s Phoenix armour and tore it open from shoulder to waist.
Flame erupted from the wound.
Hadad roared and swung Death’s axe.
The blade passed through Max’s side.
The white light dimmed.
Every living thing connected to the Life Entity screamed inside him. Max staggered back as Death’s power spread through his form. Stars went dark beneath his glowing skin. The Predator howled. The Butcher demanded retaliation. Parallax whispered that they had already lost.
Max refused to listen.
He seized Hadad by Eternity’s cloak and pulled him forward.
Their foreheads collided.
The impact split the surrounding reality into seven overlapping versions. In one, Max won. In another, Hadad killed him. In five more, the battle continued until nothing remained but light and darkness.
Lord Chaos’s power collapsed those possibilities together.
Master Order chose the one in which Hadad remained standing.
Max was thrown away.
He crossed the universe in seconds as a host of Celestials appeared in his path.
Hundreds emerged, drawn by the destruction spreading through creation. The oldest among them raised a weapon shaped like a golden staff.
“CEASE.”
Hadad turned toward them.
The void spilled from the crown of Oblivion upon his head.
The Celestials vanished.
They had ceased to exist.
More beings arrived. Gods, cosmic entities, and even Galactus himself came to confront Hadad.
Hadad destroyed them all.
Max felt every death through the white light.
The pain became unbearable.
He attacked again.
Max charged at Hadad, and they collided through a million galaxies. He formed a spear of white light in his hand and struck the god again and again, finally beginning to wound him.
Hadad caught the spear and broke it in half.
“I will tear down every universe and every dimension,” he said.
He closed his fist, capturing entire galaxies and compressing them into a single point of light.
“I will remake existence from the beginning. There will be no suffering. No disorder. No freedom wasted upon creatures incapable of using it.”
Max struck him again.
He grew until galaxies became sparks around him. The full power of the Spectrum gathered between his hands, forming a sphere brighter than creation’s first dawn.
Hadad spread Eternity’s cloak and became equally vast.
Max released the attack.
Hadad met it with everything he had.
Life collided with Eternity, Infinity, Death, Order, Chaos, Oblivion, and the Phoenix.
The universe disappeared beneath white and gold.
The blast spread across all of creation, taking half of it with it.
The light faded.
Max remained standing, but barely.
Hadad floated before him.
The god’s armour had been torn apart. Infinity’s shield was cracked. Death’s axe had lost one of its blades. Eternity’s cloak hung in tatters.
Yet Hadad still held them all.
His wounds began to heal.
He seized Max by the throat and dragged him closer.
“You cannot defeat me,” Hadad said. “Even with all this power, you cannot defeat me.”
His grip tightened.
“You are alone.”
Golden light appeared behind Max and blasted Hadad away.
A hand reached through the radiance and rested against Max’s back.
“He has me,” a voice said.
A golden figure stood beside Max. Its face could not be clearly seen. Every time Max tried to focus upon it, he saw someone different.
The figure raised one hand.
It snapped its fingers.
Hadad disappeared.
So did the universe.
Max felt himself falling.
He struck a wooden floor.
When he opened his eyes, he was lying inside a small room.
Loose sheets of paper covered the floor around him. More had been stacked across shelves and pushed into untidy piles beside a desk. A computer sat upon it, its screen displaying an open Google Docs page filled with text.
A fan rotated overhead.
Clothing hung from the back of a chair.
Max stared at his hands.
They were human once more.
He wore a plain shirt, trousers, and shoes.
“What just happened?”
He pushed himself upright and looked around.
The door opened.
The golden being stepped into the room.
It had reduced itself to human size. Light still covered its body, though it now wore the vague shape of casual clothing.
“Sorry about the mess,” it said.
Max remained on the floor.
“What?”
“That whole writing session got out of hand.”
The being walked past him and began gathering papers from the floor.
“I mean, you were on Oa making rings a few chapters ago, and then suddenly you were fighting a multiversal threat while transformed into the Life Entity.”
It placed the papers on the desk.
“Even for this fanfic, that was too much.”
Max stared at it.
“Fanfic?”
The golden being nodded.
Max’s breathing quickened.
His eyes moved from the papers to the computer and then back to the thing standing before him.
“I’m in a fanfic?”
The being spread its hands.
“Come on, Max. What else could this be?”
Max tried to stand and nearly stumbled, but he managed to regain his balance.
“And you are?”
“The Author. Or the One Above All, from your perspective. I would tell you my real name, but there are privacy concerns. People read these, you know.”
Max lowered himself into the chair before his legs gave way.
The computer screen remained open behind him.
Words covered the page.
His name appeared among them.
Max.
Ion.
He turned away.
“Don’t worry. I’m making everything that just happened non-canon.”
Max looked up.
“All of it. Hadad stealing the abstracts, the Life Entity transformation, the universe being destroyed. It was too crazy. I mean, I wrote all of this after that World Cup match. Can you believe Germany were beaten by Paraguay? Horrible. Just horrible. Three World Cups now, and we haven’t even reached the quarterfinals.”
Max could not believe what he was hearing.
What the fuck was this?
“You know, for the last few months, you’ve actually been the character I’m most interested in writing. It fluctuates between the others, of course.”
“Others?” Max muttered.
“Oh, let me show you it's not like you would remember this.”
The Author caught Max by the hand and pulled him from the chair.
He dragged Max toward the desk and began spreading manuscripts across it. Each one had a different title page and an image of someone printed beneath it.
The Author lifted the first.
“This one is about a man travelling back into his younger body and using his knowledge of the future to become successful in Hollywood.”
Max looked at the image.
A handsome man stood before cameras and red carpets.
“What?”
“He makes movies, becomes a billionaire, and marries Margot Robbie. How about that, eh?”
The Author pushed it aside and lifted another manuscript.
“This one has the Dragonborn from Skyrim arriving in Westeros.”
Max looked from one manuscript to the next.
The Author pulled out another.
“This is yours.”
Max read the title.
Marvel’s Green Lantern.
“I... what?” Max muttered.
He opened it and found chapters detailing his entire life in the Marvel Universe.
The Author produced another manuscript from beneath the pile. The Son of Ice and Fire.
“This one is basically on life support. The only reason I’m writing it right now is because one reader keeps reminding me that it exists.”
He flipped through the final pages.
“It only has around three chapters left...you know what I think i will post one today.”
Max did not know how to respond. He stood completely frozen.
“And this,” the Author continued, lifting another story, “is a Harry Potter one. I have some crazy ideas for it. It will be great once it really gets going. It’s kind of like yours, you know. You have to create entirely new characters and storylines. It takes time.”
Max looked at the manuscripts covering the desk.
“So I’m...”
He tried again.
“These people are...”
Words failed him.
“It’s a hobby.”
“A hobby?”
“A fairly time-consuming one, but I quite enjoy it.”
Max looked down at his own story again.
His entire existence had been reduced to pages.
“Everything has been reset. You’ll wake up on Oa soon, and none of that Hadad nonsense will have happened.”
Max’s confusion sharpened into anger.
“Why did you do it? Why did you take me away from them?”
The Author’s expression changed.
“I had to. The story needed it. I kind of fucked up after mentioning some time-loop stuff in the earlier chapters, so I came up with this. Safe to say, it worked perfectly.”
“You fucker. This is all some sick game to you, isn’t it?” Max said.
He seized the Author’s glowing shirt.
The Author looked down at Max’s hands.
“Okay, I do feel a little sorry about it, especially because of what is about to happen.”
Max froze.
“What is about to happen?”
“It gets worse.”
Max stepped back.
“Then it gets better,” the Author added. “Then worse again. But even better by the end.”
Max could not speak. His body felt weak, and his head grew light.
“You won’t remember most of this.”
“No. You... you...”
“Goodbye, Max.”
The Author placed one hand against his chest.
Max tried to move.
Golden light filled the room.
“No. You don’t get to...”
The Author pushed.
Max fell backward.
He awoke inside his home on Oa.
He sat upright, breathing hard.
Morning light entered through the open wall facing the mountains. The Beacon burned beyond them, and silver mist moved through the valley below.
Max looked at his hands.
He felt strange, as though he had awakened from a dream he could no longer remember.
A vast emerald face appeared beyond the window.
Veridion looked down at him.
“I have new developments concerning the rings’ artificial-intelligence architecture,” the Celestial said.
Max remained still for another moment.
Then he shook his head and flew out of his house.
He had a Corps to build, after all.
.
.