Genesis

I've lived so many lifetimes, it's actually impossible to remember how many. I remember all of the little details, but most of them are out of order. Was it yesterday or next Saturday that I was in pre-Soviet Russia? Y'know, now that I think about it, it may have been over eight thousand years from now, or last Monday. These things are all jumbled up now, and completely unimportant.

What is important, however, is the plan.

I looked over all the photographs I had on my wall, all the faces I remember, that I've killed, that I've been. Not this time, but at some time. All of them exist now, or did at some point. Most of them are still alive, though a few are dead. This time around is progressing similar to the first time, so some of the ones that used to be my friends aren't around anymore.

I looked over the photos. Charlie 'Arachnya' Harkins. 'Angel'. Brenda 'Sapphire' Hobden. Sasha 'Pro-Tech' Jackson. Eli 'Brainwave' Sanders. I know or knew all of them, I've been all of them, I've killed all of them. Not this time, not this form, not for many centuries. I don't even remember most of their deaths, I just remember them. Maybe it's better that way. I shouldn't get bogged down by those details anymore.

(I remember one death. I remember her's.)

But there are some details I can't forget. Charlie's neck, under my heel. Tracy's head on a pike. Elliot's skull burning in my hand. Gabriel's blood, black as ink. These things and more haunted my nightmares and danced peacefully in my dreams. I wanted to forget them, but I loved remembering them.

Such is the dichotemy of being me.

"Boss," Jarman said, rousing me from my waking daydream. I turned to him, but didn't speak. He took the hint. "We don't know went wrong at the dorm, but we're tryin' our best. Them kids just - "

"Got the better of you? I know. I should have hired better bounty hunters." I turned away from him. "Hikari is at least semi-competent." I pressed a button on my desk and a screen on the wall showed the actions of Jarman and Hikari at the dorm. The fires raged, and Elliot Jones got away clean, even though I had wanted him dead. I pressed the button again and the screen shut off. I turned back to Jarman and folded my arms across my chest. "Would you care to explain why I should consider this anything but a cluster fuck for which I should exact punishment?"

The cowboy looked at a loss for words. I should have met with Hikari. She would have been a much better subject to debrief. In more ways than one. Too bad the Japanese woman was too busy keeping an eye on her Chosen niece to meet with me. I eventually looked away from him again when he didn't speak. Despite his ridiculous exterior, Buck Jarman was a professional. He wouldn't let this failure stop him from succeeding in the future.

Too bad for him, I didn't want him to succeed. He assumed I wanted Elliot Jones dead, mainly because I'd told him that, but the truth was far more complicated than he could ever comprehend. Hell, I wouldn't be able to comprehend it if I hadn't experienced this scenario over and over and over again over the past few billion centuries. I let Jarman leave, to finish the mission that I knew he was going to fail.

I pulled out my photograph. The one thing that tied me to my original life. It was something I'd never forget, a time I'd never allow myself to lose. I looked at that photo, and I knew I was doing the right thing.

***

Aaron Dahl looked at his love and kissed her from the bottom of her chin down to her breasts. Annette Simms moaned as he pressed his lips to her nipple, and then she grabbed him by the face and brought him to her mouth, and he didn't complain. He ran his fingers through her hair and pulled away, flashing her a smile. "That was pretty rough, Annie. Almost like the old days."

She smiled. "You mean when I was the one filling you up?"

"Yeah, those days. It seems so weird, now."

She giggled. "What does? Being on top or remembering that I used to be on top?"

He smiled again. "Remembering. I'm too used to being the man, now. It's hard for me to remember what I even looked like. I look at photos and I just think they're of other people until I remember the moments. Think we'll ever forget about our old lives?"

She kissed him on the cheek. "The one thing I want to remember about my old life is still here, and that's you." She grabbed her phone from off the night stand and took a quick picture. "Which is why I'm takin' a picture of us naked."

Aaron laughed. "Us naked? What for?"

She shrugged. "Because I have my phone with me right now and we're having sex. You want us to put our clothes back on and take another one?"

He simply kissed her again.

***

I could walk the streets unnoticed because I haven't let myself be noticed. The power of invisibility was a great help, as well. No one knew I was there, and they never would. Intangibility was also good. I could literally walk right through people. These things came in handy when I needed to follow someone. When I needed to find someone.

The man I was looking for would never be picked out of a crowd. He would never be noticed in any building. He was utterly forgettable. His one distinctive feature: he smoked cigarettes. Lucky for me, I knew exactly what he looked like, and I knew exactly where he was. His base of operations was a secret building underneath the White House, unreachable by any elevator except for one hidden in the Oval Office itself, in a corner near the President's desk.

I entered the Oval Office, where the President was speaking with his seventeen year old daughter, formerly his seventeen year old son. Few people knew that the President's interest in Chosen was brought on specifically by the Choosing of his own child. As a matter of fact, aside from me, the President and the cigarette smoking man, no one knew. All anybody knew was that the President had a reclusive child who few ever saw, and fewer still knew that the child was that of the President. But now, the President's daughter wasn't reclusive, she was a semi-public figure, in fact a champion for gay rights.

I found the elevator and phased my way down, into the secret building paid for by dollars the tax-payers would never know they contributed to. I slipped through the elevator doors and found myself in a very plain hallway, which didn't surprise me in the least. I passed by offices and conference rooms, all with people in suits doing things that no American citizen would ever know about. These people made Marvel's SHIELD look like the Neighborhood Watch in comparison.

I made my way through the building, looking for the office of the cigarette smoking man, and finding it. I slipped inside and found it empty, but that was of no concern to me. I was looking for one thing and one thing only. I checked his drawers, his cabinets, but they were all empty. The only thing I found in one was a small cube-like device.

Exactly what I was looking for.

I took the device in one hand and concentrated on it. Within seconds, an exact copy of the device created itself in the palm of my other hand. Everything on the original would be on the copy, absolutely no degredation. And with it, each and every secret that the cigarette smoking man had would be at my fingertips.

Time to change the course of history.

***

William Brand stood up as his guest arrived. Penelope Banter was dressed exquisitely, as always, with a very flashy, yet simple black dress that nearly reached the floor on the left yet barely covered her thigh on the right. "It's been awhile, William," she said, giving him a hug.

"We've both been busy. I was a little dismayed that you didn't show up at the White House yourself the other day."

She made a brushing motion with her hand. "Please, I had better things to do. You'd never believe all the hard work that goes into starting a super hero team." She smiled. "Or, well, maybe you do."

He nodded. "Yes, I assumed Kaplan told you everything that happened. How was that little secret?"

She giggled. "I can't say I'm surprised. Big billionaire, sees a whole bunch of super heroes flying around, decides to buy a costume of his own and join the fun. I can understand that feeling very well."

William looked over the restaurant menu. "And just how well does the Titan work?"

As he suspected, Penelope took it in stride. "Quite well if I do say so myself. It was no small task developing a device to replicate muscle memory, but it ended up being the easiest thing to design. The weapons systems actually took me longer, believe it or not."

He smiled. "I'd think the daughter of the world's most famous weapons designer would be able to kick that one out in an instant."

"Hardly." She picked up her own menu. "What's good here, anyway?"

"I'm partial to the spaghetti myself, but I was brought up on Itallian food. How's Karen?"

She glanced over the top of the menu at him. "You know about that, too?"

"I pride myself on my detective skills."

She sighed. "It's been difficult, obviously. The man I love is still in there, even if the outside doesn't match. For the sake of appearances, however, I just finished work on a device to allow her elasticity to mimic her former appearance. Harry should be showing it to her now. She'll never be male between the legs again, unless I can find some way to do that, but at least we can go out in public without looking like a pair of girlfriends on a shopping trip."

William nodded. "And what about the two Brits? Brenda and Elliot?"

"They're coming along nicely. Brenda was the difficult one at first, her powers are controlled by her imagination, and that has been both her greatest strength and weakness this whole time. Elliot on the other hand, he's been doing just fine with his powers."

"Young Chosen can be a problem at times. Sadly, my plans for a young Chosen training center didn't pan out."

"Doesn't mean you shouldn't try again. Maybe Guardian could run it this time. What does he do, anyway?"

"He's a reporter."

"You're kidding, right? A reporter?"

He glanced over the top of his own menu. "Arachnya's a photographer."

"She's also fifteen years old."

"Sixteen."

"Still."

"You're a billionaire genius."

"You forgot playgirl and philanthropist."

"We both run multinational companies, dealing in a great many different things." He reached into his pocket. "Which reminds me, take this," he said, handing her a small black case.

She took it. "What is it?"

"Nanocytes. In case you run into any difficult Chosen. These will suppress their powers to the point that they can't access them. There are sixty vials in there. Call me personally if you need any more."

"So, these are the famous nanocytes. Does HealAll know that you make these things?"

"They do now, after that meeting at the White House."

A new voice said, "Say cheese!" After that, there was a bright flash. William turned and saw Ms. Charlotte Harkins standing there, holding her camera. She lowered, exposing her smiling face. "Wow, William Brand and Penelope Banter in the same place."

William rolled his eyes. "Ms. Harkins. What brings you to this fine establishment?"

"Work, actually. My boss sent me here to interview you two. The country's two top billionaires having dinner with one another, Mr. Brindleson couldn't pass up the opportunity to send his only super reporter over here. Lemme tell you, swinging in this dress," she motioned to the ridiculously simple yellow dress she was wearing, "was not easy."

Penelope asked, "They wouldn't let you in here in your costume?"

"Nope. They were being dicks about it. Told my boss over the phone that if I wasn't all dressed up, they wouldn't even let me stick to the walls. Threatened to hose me down, even, it was rude!" Harkins pulled a chair from another table and sat down beside them. "So, what's the occasion? Is this how billionaires date?"

Penelope shook her head. "We're not together. I do have to say, though, it's an honor to meet the world's first public super hero."

Harkins shrugged. "I'm just the first, nothing special."

"On the contrary! Because of you, there'll be plenty of Chosen out there who can feel great about not having to hide."

"And because of the Harpies, there'll be plenty who just want to keep themselves hidden. I can't blame them."

William raised an eyebrow. "Harpies?"

Harkins rolled her eyes. "Why does no one know that?"

Penelope giggled. "I actually do. My young wards use it."

"Thank God! I was beginning to think I was the only one in East City that knew what it meant."

William said, "I can only assume it means members of HARP?"

"And you'd be correct! Still, they're a pain, and I can understand any other Chosen choosing to stay low-key just to keep their families safe."

Penelope said, "I hate to rush this, honey, but William and I are only meeting for dinner, so can we speed up this little interview?"

Harkins smiled.

***

One of my many abilities is, unsurprisingly, teleportation. I still enjoy the relatively normal act of taking planes, however, when the opportunity shows itself, but hopping on a 747 won't ever take any supposedly normal citizen to the South Pole, especially to a base that doesn't exist. And so, I had to use my teleportation ability, and I found myself at a secret facility not thirteen miles from McMurdo Base.

The wind was raging, as was usual for this region. I regulated my temperature and kept myself from freezing. I made my way closer to the facility and smiled as I saw the two guards standing outside. Had to be pretty cold for them. I was about to make them very warm. I walked right up to them and then made myself visible. They both looked surprised, then raised their weapons. I held out my hand and opened black holes beneath both of them. They each fell through, landing somewhere close to an active volcano.

I reached out with my hand and crushed the entrance, sending the doors flying inward. Two more guards stood and raised their assault rifles. They fired, sending bullets my way, but that didn't last long. I held the bullets in mid-air, then sent them flying right back at the guards. Blood sprayed the walls behind them as the bullets slammed into their bodies at seven times their original speed. I calmly walked inside, ignoring the sound of the alarms.

The target was seven floors down. I made my way to the elevator, as calmly as possible. I didn't want to look like I was desperate, after all. Two men in suits jumped out in front of me, handguns drawn. I looked at each one, and then they pointed their weapons at each other. Both of them thought that the other man was me, and that I was the other man. Both men fired, killing the other one. I continued on my way to the elevator.

When I reached the seventh floor, the doors opened to seventeen soldiers, each one pointing an assault rifle at my head. I smiled. Time for some fun.

Faster than any of them could see, I sped toward the man in the center and jammed both my hands in his chest. Smiling to his face, I pulled my hands in opposing directions, splitting him in half vertically. I threw each piece of the man at a different wall, then kicked the closest man in the face, tearing his face right off of his skull. His body fell to the ground with a thump that was drowned out by dozens of bullets being fired at me.

None of the bullets reached their targets, thanks to my telekinesis, but that didn't stop them from trying. I grabbed the closest man and crushed his skull in the palm of my hand, letting his body drop. The next man decided the best thing to do would be to drop his rifle and take me on with a knife. I showed him the error of his ways by plowing my fist through his stomach. I sent billions of volts of electricity through his body. His corpse burned at the edge of my arm. I threw him at another man, then used my mind to construct two saw blades, made of solid light. I launched them directly at the closest soldier and watched as they buried deep into his body, spraying blood at the walls, and on the eleven remaining soldiers.

I turned to another man, who cowered before me, trying to dry-fire his rifle. He didn't realize he hadn't reloaded yet. I simply glared at him, and two wounds opened up on his neck. His skin burned, thanks to my heat vision. When I was done with him, there were matching holes on the back of his neck as well, blood pouring out over the cauterized rims of the holes.

Ten men left. I grabbed the next one by his wrists, pulled him close, and then kicked him away, tearing his arms right out of their sockets as his body flew back against a wall. I pulled up a section of the floor and crushed him against the wall completely. Another man tried to get me with a knife, this one burying the blade into my arm. My body absorbed the metal, and I used it to turn my fingers into razor sharp claws. I dug the claws deep into the man's face and twisted my fingers around, making a disgusting swirl of blood, bone and skin.

I turned into a gaseous form now, and entered the lungs of the next man. I transformed, then, into liquid, and filled his lungs up. If that wasn't bad enough, I turned into acid, and ate away at his lungs. His death was not a quick one. I resumed my gaseous form, left his body, and became a man once again. The seven remaining men continued to try and shoot at me, still not realizing what they were dealing with, obviously. I stopped the bullets of one man, threw them into another, and then pinned the first man against a wall. I used my telekinesis to choke him, all the while his fellow soldiers kept shooting at me. I picked another one of them up and used him as a bullet shield.

Four men, four upcoming deaths. I closed my eyes and then opened them again suddenly, a tiger's eyes in their place. I leaped onto another man, tore his throat out with my fingers and sank my teeth into his forehead. He barely had time to scream. The next man turned to run, but I teleported in front of him and made the metal in his dog tags so charged that it sent him to the opposite end of the hallway and severed his head from his neck. The third man pulled a grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it in my direction. I caught it, teleported beside him, caused it to shrink, and then dropped it down his throat. I kicked him away from the final man just before the explosion sent human shrapnel everywhere.

The final man finally got the idea, and fell to his knees. He begged for his life, begged me to either let him live or give him a quick death. I didn't grant his wish, however. Using my telekinesis, I yanked his vocal chords through his skin, squeezed his heart, punctured his kidneys, and ripped his scrotum apart molecule by molecule. He collapsed in a bloody heap, his final exclamation a simple gasp of breath.

I continued down the hallway, passed the body of the man with the severed head, and ripped open the only door on that side of the hallway. The girl sat up from her bed in fright.

"You don't have to be scared. Melody Hunter, I presume?"

She nodded. "Yuh - yes." She tried to back further away from me, but she was all the way against the wall.

"I'm here to free you." A man who obviously had to be Melody's personal security detail pointed an assault rifle directly to my head and squeezed the trigger. The bullet bounced painlessly against my skin. I turned my head toward the man and raised my hand. I snapped my fingers, and he fell to his knees, an earsplitting noise scrambling his brains into mulch. He finally stopped screaming with blood seeping out of his eyes, ears, mouth and nostrils. "Are you ready to go?"

***

Tim Saul couldn't believe he was laying on a giant spider web. He was six stories up, between two apartment buildings, and the only comforting thing about this was that he was holding onto his girlfriend. Charlie nuzzled up against him and made sure his arms were around her. She looked up at his face and giggled. "What's wrong?"

He laughed nervously. "Oh, y'know. Here we are, six stories up, and I can look down and see traffic go by. Not to mention it's damn near midnight, so some helicopter could come passing by and accidentally cut us down."

She tapped her temple. "Spider-sense, remember? We'll be fine. And don't worry about the webbing, it's strong enough to hold us."

"Is it strong enough to withstand helicopter blades?"

She reached up and kissed him on the lips. "Shut up, okay? Just shup up and hold me and give me lots of kisses, okay?"

"Well, since I have nothing better to do."

She held his arms against the webbing. "Um, nothing better?"

"It's an expression, I didn't mean anything. I love you, and I'd spend time with you before I'd do anything else. Well, except, maybe, donating a kidney, or something."

She pressed a finger against his chest. "As long as that kidney's going to somebody who needs it, I don't care." She then leaned in on him and kissed him again. Much to both their surprise, there was bright flash. Tim broke off the kiss and looked toward the source of the flash, as did Charlie. There was a man sitting in a window, with one of those old cameras that developed their own photos. "Hey! Who said you could take pictures of us!" Charlie squealed.

"I'm a photographer, I take pictures of everybody!" He held out the developed photo. "Here, on the house."

Charlie crawled across the web and took the photo. "Thanks, I guess." She crawled back over to Tim and handed him the photo. "Look at how cute we look up here."

He took the photo from her and laughed. There they were, kissing on a web. "Only here in East City."

***

I sat at my desk and watched the monitor as Cloak poked and prodded at Melody. He'd find nothing that I didn't know, but that didn't stop him. He'd keep looking until he knew everything about her, and then he'd try to find some sort of way to use her powers against me. Cloak didn't know that he could keep no secrets from me. He didn't really know as much about me as he thought.

I looked at my photo one more time, then tapped a button on my desk. "Yeah, boss?" Harmony's voice came over the radio.

"Bring him here," was all I said.

***

Tim heard something coming from the living room. He sat up in his bed and listened for something else, but he didn't hear anything. He cautiously stood and walked toward the door, but he didn't quite make it. The door blew inward, splinters flying everywhere. He coughed from the smoke, then opened eyes he hadn't realized he'd closed and saw someone he really didn't want to see.

Harmony Sprite grabbed him by the neck and held him up in the air. "Hi there, boy toy, how's your little girlie friend?" She applied pressure, and Tim blacked out in seconds.

***

Cloak, Harmony, Korra and Melody all joined me in the operating theater. Timothy Saul was strapped onto the table, ready for the injection I was about to give him that would change his life forever. I gently slapped him on the cheek. "Wake up, Timothy," I said, my voice taking on a soothing tone.

Tim woke up slowly, and I could see his eyes refocusing. I smiled, then walked back over to my cohorts. "Welcome to the operating theater, Timothy," I said, spreading my arms wide. "We got it ready just for you."

Tim's mouth tried to form words for a second, then he finally said, "Wh - Who the hell are you?"

I walked over to him. "My real name is unimportant, so my friends here call me the Benefactor. You'd be surprised just how many I've truly helped." I used my powers to create small clouds, similar to the ones Angel would create to show futures, and I suppose that was what I was showing him. After all, to me, it's all the future, and the past, and the present. Time has no meaning to me. "The government, the Joker, HARP, everyone. I've played each and every side, and now I'm going to help you."

"Lemme go!"

"On the contrary. But first, I have a demonstration to give." I walked over to Harmony. "Harmony, you know. She's been in my employ for awhile, though she didn't know it at first." I moved behind Melody. "Melody Hunter, the terror of Los Milagros, a recent addition to my circle of friends." Korra, now. "Korra Reston, a young woman similar to me in that she can mimic many abilities, though her mimicry is truly just theft, and death." Finally, I stood behind Cloak. I reached around, grabbed his head, and twisted. His neck snapped with a satisfying sound. "And this poor soul was named Cloak, but he was planning to betray me, much like Gustav Hammond did." I let Cloak's body fall to the floor and then picked up the syringe that would forever change Tim's life. "You see, Timmy boy, once upon a time, I was much like you. I was a simple soul, just like you, and I had a love, just like you. I was then granted great power, much like you will be."

"You're a Chosen?"

I shook my head. "No, though you could technically say I was chosen, after a fashion." I pressed the syringe into his arm. "You have been chosen, power has been granted to you." I depressed the plunger, injecting the blood into his veins. "Your form, however, is correct. Even so, you will be reborn today, Jumper." I pulled the syringe out of his arm and threw it at the wall. "Every one of my powers was in that syringe. Every one of them. You won't be able to access them right away, and they'll certainly be difficult to control right away, but I'm sure you'll do fine soon." I walked back over to the table and picked up the handgun that was placed there. I aimed it at the boy strapped to the table and cocked the hammer back. "Don't worry about this, kid, the bullet will never hit you." I squeezed the trigger and just before the bullet touched Timothy Saul's forehead, he disappeared.

"What the hell?!" Harmony exclaimed.

I turned around to her. "He's in another dimension. He'll be there for awhile."

"How can you know that?" Melody asked.

I pulled out my photograph once again. I looked at it, and felt the faint beginnings of tears that would never dry until the day I died. "He and I are very much alike."

I looked at the photograph, taken by a photographer who told us that it was on the house. The photo showed us kissing, on a giant spider's web.

Charlie and I, a billion years ago, a century from now.