Ever notice how some writers can write so well, they seem to create entire worlds with their work? Not just any old gas-station novel, mind you, but the real stuff. That kind of creation that you know isn’t real, but is so vivid and imaginable that it very well could be. Well, there’s a reason behind that. Some people say it takes a special gift to be an author, or a painter, or a storyteller. To an extent, they’re right. You see, these “separate worlds” that writers seem to create are nothing of the sort; in most cases, they actually predate the artists who tap them. Certain people have a subconscious link to other dimensions, and this link manifests itself in their imaginations. This is what inspires them to create, and often, they reproduce the world they are linked to in their work. So your favorite comic book series? It’s actually happening, somewhere on the other end of the space-time continuum. But for the better part of human history, these creative works were the only links between the dimensions. There was no way for them to actually interact, until about a year ago. The accident changed all that.
That year had been a particularly profitable year for Jack West. He had made some very ingenious advances in nanotechnology, perfected his combat exoskeleton design, and shaken the world up more than a few times. Those were fun. Then there had been the stuff like the anthrax vaccine, tornado-detecting systems, and the other, more benevolent tools he had developed. Of course, no one would accept such gifts from the master-criminal and psychopath he was painted to be on CNN. This was the unfortunate side-effect of his style of living. Then again, most of what Jack did would be considered criminal in the free world, though he did try and be decent about it. That is, he didn’t kill without reason, he considered bio-weapons and terror tactics off-limits, and those he stole from wouldn’t miss what was stolen. He possessed an uncompromising sense of honor, and it always left one wondering where his moral compass pointed.
Jack’s true pursuit had always been personal gain, but it was closely rivaled by his scientific quests. He was undoubtedly one of the smartest men on the planet, and used this very much to his benefit. His skill at invention, and the bleeding-edge technology he considered a standard were proof of that. He had a printing press to rival any American mint’s, and even then, he could create false credit instantly in an online account. To put it mildly, he was set for life. And he had the skills to enjoy such wealth. He had trained himself to the peak of human physical ability, and was disciplined in almost every style of martial arts and hand-to-hand combat. Combined with his scientific knowledge and financial capabilities, this made him a very powerful and dangerous man. One might compare him to Batman, but on the other end of the ethics spectrum.
With all the luxuries his gifts afforded him, Jack’s biggest day-to-day problem was boredom. To this end, he pursued breakthroughs in every field of science, almost like an intense hobby. As part of this hobby, he would then weaponize his developments and take them onto the many battlefields the world set up for him. It needs not be said that every arm of the American military, and several foreign powers had him at the top of their kill lists. This allowed a perfect testing ground for his technology, with disastrous results for the opposing forces. On this particular day, Jack was working toward what was probably his greatest achievement yet: teleportation. It seemed like the stuff of a Flash Gordon comic, but his research had proved it very much possible. There was a buffer-space outside of our dimension, separating it from others. By entering that space, then returning in a different position, he could theoretically warp from one end of the Earth to the other in seconds. The device he was working on would allow him to do just that. He had just finished the final modifications, and by throwing a switch, he began the test. The portal-like device started humming, as various lights and dials came to life on the control panel. After a minute of warming up, a neon-blue energy vortex began forming in the center of the device. It looked like something out of Back to the Future, swirling almost hypnotically with the appeal of the unknown. Jack’s trance-like wonder at his own creation was broken by a shrill chirping from the control panel. Indicators were shifting around erratically, and the sparks flying from the portal indicated one thing: a power surge. At any second, the vortex could collapse on itself, and his chance at the breakthrough would disappear with it. The portal had not yet stabilized; there was no way of knowing what would happen if he tried to enter it. It was the now-or-never moment. Remembering his own adopted maxim of carpe diem, he ran from the control panel and into the energy cyclone. As he entered, he could feel his own body puncturing an invisible barrier, and he disappeared in a flash of light.
Jack rocketed out into subspace, looking back to see the rift his jump had left in the dimensional membrane. He was completely enveloped in prismatic light, and could barely make out the globular shapes of other realities. He was speeding through the buffer zone uncontrollably, zipping every which way and several times bouncing off dimensional boundaries. After almost a minute of chaotic ricocheting, he saw himself clearly heading toward his own rift. His course was unobstructed, but his journey was not finished. As he picked up speed, a shape he recognized as a mach cone formed around his swirling body. A split-second later, the entire sub-space rocked in a massive explosion, almost like a sonic boom. Jack raced through the shockwave, charging head-on into his own dimension. Back in his lab, he shot back out of the portal at breakneck speed, tumbling across the floor until he smacked into the wall opposite.
That experiment had further-reaching effects than he realized. Previously, the separate realities had been spread out, none in contact with any other. But thanks to Jack’s racing about the space-time continuum, more than a few of those dimensions had been knocked out of place, drawing them towards our own. The end result was that the dimensions crossed over. This meant objects in one dimension would unexpectedly shift to another. This led to a rise in unexplained disappearances, as well as a few unfortunate incidents of things from other realities entering ours. Such incidents were promptly dealt with and covered up by the separate efforts of Jack and the covert intelligence agencies of the world. As time progressed, Jack focused all his efforts on the teleportation project. He eventually found a way to form stable portals much more quickly, and he could use these to warp across dimensions at will. But he was by no means immune to the effects of his own experiment.
This brings us back to the present. Now, Jack was dropping through the sky at terminal velocity, a few thousand feet above the Everglades. Ra’s al Ghul, villain from the ever-popular D.C. Comics universe, had been warped into the real world. He had brought a massive flying fortress with him (not the WWII plane, a literal flying fortress), and that meant he probably had ill intentions for the Sunshine State. Being he was a Batman villain, Jack had decided to take a similar approach in his armor. He told any partners he had it was his stealth combat suit, but he had really just lifted The Dark Knight’s loadout from Arkham City and made a few improvements. Those tools were what he was equipped with right now. He planned to land on the airship, infiltrate it, then destroy it. But destiny had other plans. Just as Jack spread his cape to begin gliding, he was surrounded in a millisecond flash of blue light. By the time the burst of light had faded, there was nothing but empty air where he had been.
Across dimensions, another flash appeared, and as quickly as he had disappeared, Jack reconstituted in a new world. He was pulling out his cape to glide, but there was no room for it now. He did cut a lot of his momentum by gliding along for a few seconds, until he inevitably slammed into the ground. He had landed on a hillside of lush, green grass, nothing like the swamps formerly below him. Jack knew something was wrong. He pulled out his PDA and began searching for his location. Nothing showed up. No signal at all, and he used one of the strongest transmitters on the planet. This led him to the most logical conclusion: he wasn’t on Earth anymore. But he wasn’t the only one surprised at this new development. About 15 feet above him, he heard a cloud call out.
“Who, or what, are you?”
Jack looked up to see his inquisitor, but what he saw was entirely unexpected. He figured he must have been under the influence of some mental power or very potent drug, because hovering above him, sitting in the cloud, was a cyan blue, rainbow-maned pegasus.