[Vol. 3] Chapter 1: Six Earths

The world designated Alpha-EIGHT-S-94520256320 is a vast, boundless multiverse. One of its universes contains six Earths.

In this universe, superheroes and supervillains run rampant, answering to no one!

Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain Marvel, the Joker, Thor, Wolverine, Doctor Manhattan, Black Widow, Wonder Woman, Magneto, Professor X, Thanos, Darkseid, the Flash, A-Train, Homelander, Ozymandias, the Goddess of Death, Deadpool, Spider-Man, Iron Man...

Fortunately, they have six Earths to wreak havoc on. Otherwise, humanity would have gone extinct long ago.

—Memorandum for the Star Cosmos Empire’s Creator God Project

...

Earth-1, North America. The megacity of Metropolis.

Finn stood alone at a busy intersection, hands in his pockets, surrounded by passing pedestrians and streams of traffic.

The city was as busy as it was prosperous.

People hurried back and forth, swept along by the pace of city life, with hardly a chance to stop and catch their breath.

Finn strolled through the crowd. Amid all those hurried faces, his leisurely pace and carefree expression made him look distinctly out of place.

“Starting from scratch, huh?”

He scratched his head and looked up at the forest of steel and concrete towering around him.

He needed to find at least two new recruits, then establish a branch of the Spacetime Destruction Bureau.

The recruits had to pass Avasarala’s assessment: they needed ideals, ambition, and ability. Most importantly, the Potential Scanner had to rate their potential as “positive infinity”!

Still, Finn was confident that in a world where extraordinary people were practically flying around on every corner, finding someone with infinite potential would be a breeze.

*Metropolis is Superman’s city, right? Maybe I could recruit him into the Spacetime Destruction Bureau...*

He considered it for a moment, then quickly dismissed the idea.

Superman was a god among men, a genuinely kind soul with an unwavering moral compass.

Most members of the Spacetime Destruction Bureau, on the other hand, operated in a moral gray area. They wouldn’t go out of their way to do evil, but they weren’t above it if that was what it took to achieve their goals.

As Finn walked down the street, he noticed a huge screen mounted on a towering building. It was playing footage of Superman in flight on a loop.

On the screen, Superman cut a heroic figure. His blue suit hugged his powerful, muscular frame, a playful curl hung over his forehead, and his red cape billowed behind him.

A caption scrolled across the bottom:

“Superman, the invincible superhero! Guardian of Metropolis! Since his first appearance in Metropolis three years ago, he has saved tens of thousands of citizens from danger...”

*Superman appeared in Metropolis three years ago? So that’s when he made his debut...*

Finn gazed up at the screen, thinking.

Clearly, some things had changed. He couldn’t rely on the movies and comics he’d seen to tell him how this world worked.

“You worship that freak in a costume too? The one wearing his red underwear on the outside?”

A mocking voice interrupted his thoughts.

Finn looked toward the speaker. A homeless man stood against a wall, his hair unkempt and his clothes in tatters. Despite that, he had a sturdy build and a strangely resolute look in his eyes.

Everyone else hurried past. Finn and the homeless man faced each other like two rocks amid the flowing crowd.

“I don’t worship him. I’m just curious. I don’t know this city very well,” Finn said casually.

“Heh. I don’t know this whole planet very well.” The homeless man turned up his filthy collar. “You a tourist?”

“More or less.” An idea occurred to Finn. “Hungry? How about I buy you a meal, and you tell me about the city?”

“Sure. Might as well get used to this place, with all its flying costume freaks.”

The homeless man bared his teeth in an ugly grin.

Finn bought a copy of the *Daily Planet* from a newsstand. The owner, an elderly man with graying hair, handed over the paper while grumbling.

“Nobody reads newspapers anymore. They’re all glued to their phones, looking at Facebook and Twitter or whatever. Things weren’t like that when I was young...”

With the rolled-up newspaper in hand, Finn walked into a KFC and ordered two portions each of sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, and ice-cold Coke.

The plastic tray was piled with food.

“This is all yours,” Finn told the homeless man.

“Thanks!”

The man wasted no time. He sat down and began wolfing down the food.

“I’m Finn. What’s your name?” Finn asked.

“Walter Kovacs.”

The man almost choked on his food as he answered. He quickly washed it down with a large gulp of Coke, then caught his breath.

Finn discreetly took out the Potential Scanner and scanned him.

The result showed very low potential, just as Finn had expected. If any random person he picked off the street had infinite potential, this world would have descended into utter chaos long ago.

Once Walter Kovacs had eaten and drunk his fill, he gave a long belch and leaned back in his chair. Then he began sharing what he knew.

“This fucked-up universe has six Earths. What’s even more fucked up is that every one of them has people with superpowers. And as if that wasn’t fucked up enough, there are countless superpowered aliens flying around the universe...”

From Walter Kovacs, Finn learned that Earth-1—the planet he was currently on—had three internationally renowned cities: Metropolis, Gotham, and New York.

Countless superheroes were active throughout those three cities, championing justice and sparing no effort to fight crime.

Earth-2 was a paradise for supervillains. Red Skull and Black Adam had both established their own countries there and spared no effort to fight superheroes.

Earth-3 belonged to the X-Men. Omega-level mutants such as Magneto, Professor X, Franklin Richards, Jean Elaine Grey, Emma Frost, Storm, and Iceman were all gathered there.

Whenever mutants carrying the X-gene appeared on other Earths, especially Earth-1, the nation of Xavier, ruled by Professor X, brought them to Earth-3 to protect them from persecution.

Earth-4 was a penal planet. It had only one supercontinent: the Primordial Continent. It was a place of chaos and lawlessness.

The United States dumped supercriminals guilty of particularly heinous crimes there. Out of sight, out of mind.

Gotham’s Batman, in particular, insisted on his “no killing” rule. Plenty of criminals, like the Joker, could have been dealt with by simply shooting them. But no—he had to lock them up in Arkham Asylum.

Of course, the supercriminals would escape again—one more flight over Arkham’s cuckoo’s nest—and commit countless murders. Then Batman would catch them and drag them back.

Round and round they went, and neither side ever seemed to tire of the routine.

Apparently, though, Batman had recently started sending the criminals he caught through a spatial portal to Earth-4 as well.

Several famous figures had already been dumped there and left to fend for themselves: Dr. Bane, an expert in spinal adjustments; Mr. Freeze, the model husband whose devotion to his wife never wavered; Killer Croc, the sewer-cleaning specialist; and Deathstroke, the mercenary who always kept his word.

“Isn’t that just breeding a monster?” Finn hardly knew what to say.

They were throwing all sorts of vicious criminals onto Earth-4’s Primordial Continent and leaving them to kill one another. Weren’t they worried that whoever came out on top would be something far worse?

Walter Kovacs continued.

“Earth-5 is really far from here. It’s got people like Homelander, Queen Maeve, and A-Train. I hear there’s also a Hit-Girl who kills without batting an eye.”

“As for Earth-6...”

A flicker of pain crossed Walter Kovacs’s eyes.

“That’s where I’m from...”