After the mild existential crisis, I finally got to work on opening a way to the phantom Zone to free Kara and sightseeing a bit.
Well I can't really have an existential crisis, I was just throwing a tantrum around since I finally had the chance to sit and just think about myself and not just the League, the Light and the whole shithole called planet earth.
I guess that was my paranoia in play. Did Batman rub on me or something?
Anyway I am trying to find a way to link my magic and my dimensional travel for better future uses but well not everything just work how you want it. Dimensional travel is good, pretty good even but it also had it limitations. Thanks to the teleportation ability I copied some limitations of the portals got lifted and I can open one wherever I want and not just the same place.
But..
I still can't just go wherever I want to. There's like a wall blocking me even here in DC universe. I did send couple of drones to survey and figure the situation in couple universes but I am sure there are more inaccessible to me.
The funny thing is, Invincible universe is somehow connected to the DC universe and surprisingly Marvel too. Either that or Levy's ability is truly overpowered.
How I knew there was a Marvel connection? I swear I saw a knockoff spiderman and Doc Ock, but I couldn't access or find more I need to go there first and then more will show itself.
Now why I am trying to link it with magic? Apparently my portals can't connect to those hidden dimensions too, like the speed force ones or more simply like the Phantom Zone.
Ofcourse I am not stupid to actually try to find something like the speed force or Hell or something. Just sayin.
Now that all my preparations are ready, without further delay let's start.
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Some weird gibberish, incantations and handsigns later...
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[The Phantom Zone]
How... weird.
And interesting.
All around are just rocks, floating glowing asteroid-like rocks. It actually looks cool tho.
Looking at myself it feels as if I am existing and at the same time not, I feel weightless one moment and the other I am material, phasing and materializing all without the use of my powers. Just a thought, no, Will with just a will.
It's weird and different from how my powers work.
So this is the Phantom Zone huh.
It remind me of that prison in the Ben 10 show, what was it called again?
Ah yes, the Null Void.
The difference is the color scheme even I am all blue and violet but that's not true, there's simply no color here or more precisely infra colors. The lack of thereof make people see the world around differently, it's fascinating and weird.
Maybe because I am not used to it but I am already adjusting, even my power is.
Albeit I felt like I needed more effort to use them the first second here but now all is good, it's good that I am able to recognize that something is trying to limit me before it happens.
Acausality truly is the best wish.
Now that I adapted and everything let's run some tests and look around.
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Willpower.
I wonder if it can be used outside of this dimension, it's almost giving me One Piece vibes.
I can extent my will outside my body almost like Conqueror Haki but it's more direct I believe, like you really need some powerful will to do that, it's taxing on the mind there's no physical or spiritual energy used and only the mind alone.
That explain the Zone-Sickness, any weak willed person will simply shatter here if not die on the spot. What a brutal prison, I am starting to respect Zod and his merry gang.
How long were they here? About 30 years and they are supposed to get out only ten years later.
That's some incredible will we are talking about, I doubt they will ever agree to be under me or betray Zod at this point. Even brainwashing might not work properly or at all. Do not underestimate a strong will it is what made Batman THE Batman after all.
It's a good a place to forge a strong will, anyone who can survive for a good amount of time here can probably survive Hell itself.
Well maybe not that exaggerated, I don't know how hell look likes after all but you get my point.
So the plan to recruit Zod is out and I am not really willing to spend time with and challenge them to authority then wait till I have their loyalty, good that I was not really counting on it.
Back to the original goal, I am looking at a flying pod holding a young girl inside it she seems the same height as Artemis so probably around the same age.
In many iterations she was around 14-16 years older than Superman but since she was stuck in time she still is young.
Let's just take her and go out...
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I had half a mind to take the dimension and make it mine.
Thanks to Fate's magical knowledge I learned how to take and bind a realm/dimension to myself something I was thinking of doing once I knew how.
And now I know how.
And guess who already own a dimension for his own use. Now after binding the Flaxan Dimension to myself no one can enter and exit without my permission and the cool part is I can take energy from there and turn it to magical energy for my own use. Like how the sorcerers from Marvel do it.
And since the [FL] is one related to time and space... well not really realted but the different time dilation there make it so it generate energy faster for me which make it literally infinite mana generation for use so that's that.
I wanted to do that to the Phantom Zone too but I don't think that's possible or hold any advantage at all.
One, it exists outside of time and space beside hiding in it I don't see any other use to it for now.
Second, it's a barren land with it own defying sense of logic, it's not worth cultivating or re-transforming it.
Third and most importantly it's a (probably) well known prison for centuries and I doubt there's no mysterious method to just breach it, after all if a New God known as the smartest with some omniscience bullshit powers hold a projector and is unwilling to part with it then I don't know.
Apart from that I read in one fanfic that the Phantom Zone already has an owner who has god-like powers? I am not sure but it sounds too much of a trouble than it is.
I will just put it on a folder for now and if I ever had some dangerous experiments to do I can try it there.
After putting Kara in the medical room and instructing Amy to take care of her and inform me when she wakes up I went to my main room of operations and uploaded everything I found about the Zone and some schematics to make a projector to not only rely on magic and my portals since I tested it there and it worked after my body adapted to the Zone which means my powers did too.
Beside that I spent some time reviewing the informations my drones uploaded about any news on Earth, the surrounding planets and mapping of the galaxy, along with the ones that are in different universes and I did find couple interesting ones that were in my mind.
Good it seems my traveling plans are working well.
I wonder how stronger some of these universes are than here, I am pretty sure the Young Justice universe is one of the weakest ones out there the evidence is my fight with the League.
Even though most of them were giving it all but the most important ones like Flash, Wonder Woman and Superman were not.
Flash and Wonder Woman because they have no enmity with me and Superman probably for collateral damage since we were fighting low and he can't give his all with people near him.
Despite that I expected some challenge or a miracle to happen yet I got none.
And I know Superman is super strong if he doesn't limit himself subconsciously as seen in that one universe when Lois dies and he fights an alternate version of himself and wins no diff.
So this will be a good opportunity for me to copy new powers and fight strong and serious peoples.
First I need some preparations to deal with some annoying peoples.
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Meanwhile with the ladies...
After the introductions were over, some talks about the differences between both universes, peoples and other women things they finally got to talk about their mutual interest being Zane himself.
"You have some interesting peoples here, now I understand what he meant when we first met but he did downplay them a bit." said War Woman after seeing the record of Zane's fight with the League. It's good that Zane already instructed Amy to hide the part where he butt-slapped Wonder Woman or he will be in trouble right now.
"They... are a lot and seems stronger than the Guardians" commented Eve fascinated with the power being shown.
"So you really have like the same team to protect earth and all with the same powers and stuff?" asked Serly still excited about the talk of different universes.
"We... used to, there's only two of us left and now we have new people" said War Woman with a hint of sadness and anger.
"Oh! I am sorry I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay, you didn't know besides if I was not spending my time with Zane back then I wouldn't have been here now so I'm thankful"
Both Eve and War Woman had different reaction to the memories and with a pat on Holly's back from Serly which earned her a grateful nod they moved on talking more about the teams and the fight till Eve couldn't hold her curiosity and asked : "Why are they fighting anyway aren't they supposed to be on the same side?"
*sigh* with a sigh Serly went with what Zane told her " He didn't say much beside not seeing eye to eye, and Zane was only there for fun since he doesn't really have an interest being a hero and all which is his excuse to everything" there was a hint of annoyance saying that last line of hers.
Which earned her a snort of understanding from Holly: " tell me about it, he tried to push me away saying he is not really a good person and a hero and stuff"
The ladies only giggled hearing this with Eve adding her bits and stuff " yeah he told me the same thing"
"Pff...Please I had to literally confess to him and even then he had some excuses but I just got tired of it and he accepted at the end"
That made them all laugh at the stereotype.
After a while both mature women noticed Eve nervousnes and her trying to say something but just couldn't so Serly took it upon herself to make her comfortable and said" You can get it out sweety just say what you want"
Eve than began to blush a bit but steeled her resolve and asked " I am sorry if that comes rude or anything I even asked War Women about it but I am still a bit confused but how can you accept being with Zane knowing well... ehm you know, and aren't you worried?"
*sigh* sighing again Serly took a moment to gather her thoughts and then went to explain.
"Well I told you about me and how I met Zane, and after spending a good amount of time with him I came to understand some stuff I never thought about before"
Seeing both of them listening carefully she went on " like you know I am a scientist and before meeting Zane I was only focused on my work and research and didn't have time to socialize and before that I couldn't just click with people my age because we didn't have the same interests and they only wanted to woo me to get into my pants and not for who I am" this earned her a nod of understanding from both woman.
"And that's just my thinking but heroes like you probably have the same problem if not worse with secret identity and all, and men are just worse since they can't accept a woman stronger and better than them right"
Nodding like sages both woman agreed and felt like they met a kindred spirit, Serly without even knowing had deepened their respect and closeness to her.
"But Zane is different, at first I thought he was just a smart enthusiastic man so I didn't give it much thought only later I discovered he was much more than that. Did you know he goes around everywhere talking with every scientist and Professor he can meet just for inspiration and because he's bored and has nothing better to do!"
War Woman started laughing hard at that and said:" Yeah he did that when he first arrived to our universe, Cecile got so paranoid he thought Zane was trying to build weapons of mass destructions or stealing classified information or something"
"I knew he was smart but didn't know it was to this extent" said Eve schocked.
"And beside he didn't hide his identity from me, and never tried to hide anything he either talked or stayed silent, and with every day he showed me something new some things I never dreamed of. I mean look where I am, on HIS planet that HE'S building with HIS own hands and creations and I am talking to two Persons from another whole UNIVERSE.
Honestly if I was not a scientist I would have said he's perfect, and even that is becoming more true every day so what if he will have a couple more women around him. As long as he treats me well and give me enough attention I am satisfied.
So if you are thinking it's weird, offensive or against the law and the norm just forget about those things and go for it, we don't live in normal worlds anyway so as long as you truly love him and see me as equal lover to him I don't mind sharing.
Besides, I can't really handle him alone the man is a beast."
Serly went on and on and became passionate with every word she said until she became thoughtful and serious at the end, even War woman was having a smirk and dreamy eyes having remembered some things.
Only the poor Eve was blushing so hard her mind going places she was about to faint.
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Back with Zane...
Seeing my preparations are going well and adding some finishing touch here and there I was thinking how much power should I show in some of these worlds or what package to use as a form of change and cautiousness.
To be honest I don't have a reason to hide my powers, like what can they do against me? I'm physically strong and will be getting stronger. Throw more force at me and I will adapt and become even stronger.
Nothing less than Gods and divinity is a threat to me at this point along with some special individuals.
But to those I have several teleportation options in case of extreme danger, be it meta-power, technology and now magic you just can't catch me if I don't want to. And let's just say you can for the sake of it then what? Put a power inhibitor on me? that shit may work till it stop and only on my meta-gene, nothing else.
That what they think anyway. I already tested some of these stuff in Invincible universe, yeah they don't work on me, at first there was a nudge on my power, a tickle that just fastly disappeared. My powers got 1% weaker for a minute then went back to normal I may even say stronger but it was so abysmall it didn't really matter. I will work on this in the future, for training and other powered individuals.
Ofcourse all that could have been avoided if I so willed it.
Acausality privilege and all.
Control me? My mind, body or soul? Yeah you have better chance at imprisoning me than that.
The only reason I don't use all my powers is because I'm already strong, I'm limiting myself but not like mentally or subconsciously limiting myself, more like controlling myself.
You know how they say power corrupt and shit? Yeah that's not my concern I have good control on myself and mentality. My morals or let's say limits, where I draw the line, are still there. I know when it's too much or I'm taking it too far. That's why I don't go brainwashing everyone I meet or directly go to their mind.
It's not like I can't 'influence' the Justice League to accept me, just couple suggestions here and there make Superman accept me as a brother or cousin of his, Batman think of me the same as Superman but younger. Half of the league doesn't even need that you know.
They didn't really want to fight me and only few were serious about it. The few like Batman and Superman as much as serious Superman can get at least and couple others. And as for J'onn, he's a follower if Batman and others say it's ok then he will simply accept it.
Of course the whole plan need some fine tuning but it's not impossible.
And it's even easier when it came to villains just fuck their brain. I can go to Lex Luthor and brainwash him to be my slave, to kill himself or simply to confess everything he has done till now. Simple. But that's just boring and easy.
Because the more I use these power especially the mental ones, the more it will seems normal to me. I may get so used to it I will stop speaking with my mouth and instead use telepathy.
I mean I can teleport,fly and run faster than any means of transportation there is but I still want to use a car and motorcycle you know. I like driving, slow air hitting my face and making my hair sway, music and some humming. I don't need to sleep or eat but that's not stopping me from doing that now right? God I love sleeping and eating imagine stopping just because I can. What will I do with my life then if I already can do everything and at the same time don't need to do anything!?
Won't that be just sad then? All that power and you're just depressed! Isn't that the reason why all those immortals go crazy or those whith strong power go for world domination?
Yeah I don't want that I want to enjoy my long life. Have fun, people close to me who will love me spend time with me share my happiness and fun. Isn't that what life is about? The small but meaningful things?
Honestly even without Power Manipulation I'm already strong, and I don't see the upper limit of my growth. If not for Doomsday stupidity and Plot I don't see the Justice League defeating him.
But still, again, in this kind of universe I don't believe in something like having 'enough power', unless I can alter reality. Then maybe I'll say it's enough. But again can reality Manipulation work on 5th dimensional imps? Lords of Order and Chaos? What if one them come because I defeated his idol Batman or because I made the helmet of Fate my bitch?
Yeah I need to make some countermeasures. Serious countermeasures. I really don't know what means they have to kill me, if they can't there are fates worse than death. What if they locked me somewhere outside space and time? Or do they have something like Hakai that can erase me from existence? What is the upper limit of my adaptation? That I don't know.
Maybe develop some clone that I can transfer my consciousness to if my body disappeared or some kind of technology or magical spell? Yeah I'll need all of them. The introduction arc is done time for business.
"Master Zee, lunch is ready and the ladies are waiting for you"
Eating with the ladies first, business later
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Author:
Yo! My reader, how have you been?
As you can see in this chapter and the last one I laid all of Zane's anxiety and worries to all to see.
Some of you thought why all the talk? Is that Zane or the Author?
Well there is a reason why I am doing that. Maybe. Probably.
Anyway this will act as foundation for later chapters especially those with multiversal travel, Zane is strong yes but there is always someone stronger and Zane doesn't know it all, he will make mistakes and not all will work fine even if he was over cautious and prepared. Mistakes will happen and there will be consequences.
I am also trying to explain to you why did Zane do this and didn't do that? Why act passively and not just take what he wants? If he's that strong why just not take over already?
I hope that is a satisfactory answer to your questions if not, then I did my best.
About the Phantom Zone I searched in the wiki and there were different things I found like how the Zone is owned by Aether? Some says the kryptonian discovered it first and there were talk about it in S4? I think about Metron and the projector he owns. So I just thought 'fuck it' just leave it there's nothing to do there let's get Kara and be done with it.
Kara is just a favorite of mine and it's better if she's not in Darkseid hands there nothing more to it and she's too young for Zane so before you complain just forget about it maybe in the future with different older Kara or something. The interdimentional FBI is dtrong on this one.
Now moving back to the ladies, you will probably think it's boring? Why am I doing that?
*sigh*
I really want a good Harem story not just add to the list and move on. I saw a lot of good stories getting ruined because of bad harem writing or started good and then got just ridiculous.
I don't want that, I want a good and reasonable story it doesn't matter who Zane will end with they will play a part in his story and not just as bed warmers. And Zane doesn't have that Harem protagonist halo so they will have to talk with Zane or with each others. It's going good with those three but maybe future interests won't have that and there will be problems
Maybe I should do some arc about it? The multiversal Harem tournament Arc or something? Food for thought.
I hope that will answer some of yours unasked questions and if you have any doubts don't hesitate to ask and I will do my best to answer.
This mark the end of Volume 1 and now we are coming to the 2nd one with it being about some multiversal travel, most DC but maybe I will add something else? Like The Boys, Marvel or more Invincible?
Tell me your ideas so I can see what to do.
Peace.