I was summoned by a super villainess to another universe

Sass was sitting up in the bed.

She had a frantic look about her, like she was having some sort of panic attack. Jack was puzzled, as he had left her maybe three minutes previously. He started to exit the bathroom as Angel. He looked out from around the door, choosing to keep his lower half still concealed by the door. He quirked his head to the side in what he hoped would look concerned, "You okay?"

She stared at him for several seconds before she collapsed back onto her pillow, "Crap. Sorry. I thought-" She made a dismissive hand gesture, "Never mind."

Jack frowned and walked over to crawl into bed. He sat crosslegged next to her, "I mind. What's wrong?"

She opened her mouth to reply, then abruptly stopped. She narrowed her eye, "Do... you have any mind control powers?"

Jack squinted with confusion, "Well, no. I don't think so. I haven't used any that I know of." He tilted his head, "Do you think I've been mind controlling you?"

She paused, then shook her head, "No. Of course not. I have extensive mind control resistance training. How to see the signs, how to warn others... I..." She trailed off and kept staring at him, "I'm just trying to figure out why I'm trusting you so much."

Jack tilted his head to the side, "You don't trust people very much?"

She laughed as she rolled her eyes, "You aren't paranoid if everyone is out to get you." She propped herself up on an elbow to look at him better, "Uh... look. About us..."

Jack tilted his head to the side, "What about us?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head a bit to clear it, "I... have broken so many rules in the past hour it isn't funny."

Jack frowned, "Who's rules?"

She squinted at him, "My rules? The team's rules? Well... policies. Well... I made the policies so... I guess they-" Jack held up a hand to cut her off. She went quiet.

"Let me guess. You've been burned several times and you have all these rules you follow to prevent getting hurt, yes?" She nodded. He nodded back, "Okay. New rule. We're friends. Just, friends. We're not dating. But we don't... talk about this either." He smirked, "I assume you don't want me going around telling everyone the super straight laced super heroine who cares about her public image likes to call her lovers fuck meat."

Sass suddenly blushed, "I-uh. Well. You see-" Jack cut her off with a kiss. She froze.

He pulled away, "It's okay. I... understand what happens in bed and how you see someone outside of bed are two different things. You look like you have a lot of pent up frustration."

She barked out laughter at that remark and immediately covered her mouth, "Yeah." She looked away from Jack, "You could say that..." She paused then slowly looked back at him, "You are amazing by the way. I think you're the first guy who could actually go the distance with me."

Jack smiled, "I'm glad you liked it."

Sass laid there in silence. The silence grew and as it did, she looked increasingly worried, "Uh... did... you like it?"

Jack blinked and had a look of dawning realization, "OH! Uh, yeah! It was... neat."

"Neat?"

Jack opened his mouth but seemed to be stumbling over his own words. He tried to lie to her and make her feel better, but he was having a hard time speaking as smoothly as he usually did. He hemmed and hawed for a bit then scratched the back of his neck, "It was... new. To me. I-" He blinked and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, "Honestly, I don't know how I feel." He frowned for many reasons and looked at his hands, "I enjoyed it. It... I'd like to do it again sometime." He fiddled with his fingers, "I like that you liked it."

Sass nodded and seemed to be concerned, "I'm... sorry. I guess I made a lot of assumptions. I didn't mean to-"

Jack cut her off, "Whoa. STOP. I did not come in this room not knowing what could happen. I just... I'm new here and how things work here and what I'm used to are two different things."

Sass stared at him then reached up to touch his cheek, "I really, truly intended only to talk to you about recruiting you to be the team healer."

Jack blushed at her touch, "So? Do you feel healed?"

Sass blinked then looked off into the distance as she thought, "Well... yeah. Yeah I do, actually. Better than I have in a long time."

Jack felt a great upwelling of pride, "I'm glad." However, in that moment, he wondered why he was feeling that way. This wasn't normal for him. He was usually a much more cynical bastard. His thoughts turned to what Doctor Brown told him and a darkness clouded his expression.

Sass couldn't help but notice. However, before she could ask, everything in the room started to pulse red.

 

---

 

An alarm was going off. Every available monitor was displaying the following in red with white letters:

 

 

ALERT
Threat Level: Phi (Meta Active)
Warning: Hostages On Scene
Requesting: Delta
Bounty: 125% (Client Confirmed Insured)
Additional compensation: CD<100k

 

Sass blinked as a nearby monitor started flashing the warning, "Whoops! Gonna have to take a rain check, love." And rushed over to her closet. She stepped into her boots which had her outfit on top of it. In one smooth motion she pulled it up, adjusted herself, then grabbed her cape as she rushed out of the room.

Jack was so taken off guard, he barely had time to watch her leave.

It took a minute for him to get dressed and catch up. Everyone had gathered in the main room. In fact, there were several new people that Jack had never seen before. Support personal, he assumed. They were getting everyone ready while a woman wearing a nice, navy blue business suit was manning the main screen. She was setting up the briefing before they headed out.

Sass was pissed.

"Goddamn it. How we going to beat them there?"

Wanderer shrugged, "I can only port so far. I know my limitations and even if I push it, it'll be three and a half times my base range. You know how long it takes to do a safe port that many times. There is no getting around the math."

Grease was scratching her chin, "I could run ahead, but I don't think that will shave off enough time."

Jack leaned over to talk to one of the support people, "What's the problem?"

She gave Jack a double take, "Uh... More than one team has responded. Our ETA is going to put us there about a minute too late. The bank being robbed is too far away. Normally it'd get picked up by the team that handles the Jersey side, but they currently aren't responding. So it's open to whatever team gets there first." She frowned slightly, "Normally we teleport on site, but that's way outside our usual stomping grounds."

Jack thought for a second, then rushed over to the main five. They were gathered around the big screen that recently was showing episodes of the He-Bulk, "Mind if I try something? I never did this before, but I have been meaning to try it out."

Sass gave Jack a dismissive wave, "Not now. This is a time sensitive-" She stopped dead, "Wait. You can teleport!" She turned to stare at Jack, "Angel, please-" She stopped, "Wait. You said you could only port ten feet, right?" She took him by both shoulders, "Tell me that's only normal porting and not long range?" She looked very hopeful.

He shook his head, "Nope. Sorry. But-" He turned and poked Wanderer in the shoulder, ~If I can boost the strength of objects as Jack, and a person's strength as Angel, can I boost someone's meta power?~ He focused like he was trying to enhance someone's strength, but instead focused on strengthening her ability to teleport.

There was a clear and present transfer of white-bluish light into Wanderer. She jumped back, her eyes glowing the same color, "What Did You Just Do!" She cut herself off, "Wait..." She blinked, "My... remote viewing... I can only see as far as I can teleport but-" She frowned and furrowed her eyebrows, "It's gotten clearer. I can... almost see the area." She nodded to herself, "I can see it from about... a mile away? The flashing lights of the emergency vehicles... but I can't get any closer.

Jack scrunched up his lips, "Okay..." He touched her again and put forth more effort this time, pushing himself past the level of casual use and to the point where he started to burn stamina. Wanderer's eyes flared brighter, "Oh... Oh ho HO!" She got a rather evil smirk, "I can see right up to the bank... The building has the typical amount of hardening making it impossible to long port directly inside, but I think I can get past the minimal amount covering the main lobby." She blinked and her eyes went to normal, "Once we get to short port range."

Sass turned to the woman in the suit, "Carolyn! What's Twilight Guard's ETA?"

"Three minutes, but-" She looked at Jack, "Who's the new guy? We don't have him on the roster. What's his cape number?"

Jack quirked an eyebrow, "Twilight Guard?"

Grifter snorted with derision, "No no no, they are THE Twilight Guard." She shook her head slightly, "The superhero team with a name so edgy, you might get cut just hearing it."

Sass made a dismissive wave towards Carolyn, "We're not taking him into combat. He's just helping with the port." She then turned back to Jack, "Right?" She bit her lower lip, "I mean... you'll help us out, right?" She tried to give him the biggest eyes she could. Her desperation was a palatable thing.

~Wow. I think she wants this more than getting laid.~ Jack sighed like he felt he really didn't have a choice in the matter, "Well... I don't know how long I can boost her at that level, but I can try." Inwardly he thought, ~Well, I don't have any plans... and it's not like I'm actually going in to fight... I hope.~

Wanderer nodded, "We have nothing to lose by trying." She then grabbed Jack's hand and put it on her shoulder, "Do that thing you do. It'll take me a minute to charge up for the port. You'll need to keep me boosted for that long."

Jack took a deep breath, nodded, then closed his eyes as he started to funnel power into Wanderer. While he was focusing, he felt his available energy reserves start to waver and begin to slowly, but consistantly drop. It would be close, but he didn't think he'd pass out if he kept this up for sixty seconds. The activity around him took on a fevered pitch as everyone did last second adjustments. Quickly they gathered around, each one reaching out to touch Wanderer.

Grease stood next to Jack and 'accidentally' pressed her body up against his while they waited. She muttered softly in his ear, "You heal and you buff? Damn... We really need you to stick around, you sweet, sweet Angel, you."

Jack gripped Wanderer's shoulder tighter as he felt Grease rub up against him, ~Bad time to be so distracting, babe!~ He snuck a glance at her chest, ~But maybe after the fight.~

Wanderer frowned and muttered, "Whatever you are doing is wavering, Angel." As she felt the influx of power fortification fluctuate.

Jack felt the sweat build up on his brow as he redoubled his efforts. Beads formed and began to roll down his cheeks with increasing frequency, "I don't know how much longer I can do this, Ladies."

Golden Knight looked a little confused, "Ladies? Pray tell do you often use-

Wanderer cut her off, "QUIET." She had a thousand yard stare as she looked off into the far distance through her mind's eye, "Just a few... more... seconds... and..."

The world started to twist in unnatural ways.

"NOW."

**BLIP**