Young Writers Society

Cassandra, tucked away in a corner watched it all unfold, doing what she did best when around people, observing and analyzing. She flinched when Asher slammed his fist into the table and made a mental note not to be within range of his arms in the near future.

What really got the wheels turning was Ollie's declaration. It was true that some of them probably weren't that powerful. And some like me don't even know how to use our powers. Its one thing to have powers and another thing entirely to know how to use them. And after that Ollie dropped another bombshell. That meant that some of the people might actually be proper heroes that got dragged over here.

One one side, this terrified Cass, having to be with strangers was hard enough, but through grumpy superheroes after losing their powers into the mix and she wanted to super speed out of there. But secretly, the inner nerd was also giddy at the thought of meeting people who actually used powers on a daily basis. Maybe they will have some advice for me to figure out how to use my powers finally.

Maahes shifted uncomfortably at the comment.

"...I'm also in that situation," he finally admitted. He glanced down. Molly was technically in that situation, too, but he didn't feel like now was the best time to point that out. He wasn't sure any time was the best time to point that out. Molly didn't seem to even notice the conversation; she was humming as she stacked up the little milk containers into a mini-tower in front of her.

There was a screech of wheels from near the backroom.

Maahes looked back by the back door.

The Actor was standing there with a portable cart full of food, a sheepish expression on his face as they made eye contact.

"...I'm sorry," he apologized. "I thought I could try carrying everything with tentacles, but I wasn't sure I trusted my balance. And the carts rarely need to be used-"

The Actor froze, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"I, um, think that they're rarely used!" he corrected. There was another loud screech as he pushed the cart over to them - it was so loud that Molly slammed her hands over her ears.

The Actor started handing out the food to everyone; the more general foods were put in the very middle of the table. When he was finally done putting all the food down - Maahes made sure to thank him as Molly started to tear into the bacon - The Actor joined them at the only empty seat at the table.

Which was right next to Asher.

Asher narrowed his eyes at The Actor, who had just sat down next to him and reached for a sandwich, trying his hardest to keep a scowl on his face as he took a bite. His resolve disappeared as soon as the food reached his mouth. It was so good! He didn't know if it was his new powers, or the fact that he was now super strong, but this was the best thing he had ever eaten.

He lowered the sandwich from his mouth, trying to restrain himself from tearing into it and glanced over at The Actor.

"Do you have a name?" he asked. "You're not telling me that you were born with the name "The Actor". We told you ours, so it would only be polite..."

Cassandra accepted her food with a smile, doing her best not to show how nervous she was in front of so many people. She nibbled away at her food, her mind running a mile a minute as it tried to process what exactly The Actor had meant by that little slip up. It had certainly been a very interesting one.

She had to stifle a laugh as she saw The Actor sit down next to Asher. The look that Asher gave The Actor as he tried to eat his food was priceless but what came next got her back into serious mode.

Of course. There is now way his parent named him The Actor. This man does all of this but never tells us his name. Now that is suspicious.

"-Ignore him." Adrid interrupted. "Thank you for the food, Mr Actor."

Adrid had barely gotten into her sausage roll and strong, strong coffee but it was already doing wonders. She could have chaperoned a band of tipsy, larcenous monkeys, and still relaxed.

"When you're ready, I would like to hear whatever you have to say."

"You're welcome," The Actor said, giving Adrid a small, nervous smile. His gaze shifted over to Asher. Maahes wasn't sure if calling whatever was going on tension was quite the right word - it seemed mostly one-side - but, whatever it was, Molly was still oblivious to it. She just kept eating her bacon.

"...I do have a name," The Actor finally said, "but it's my secret identity. I want to trust you, but I don't want my family to get hurt."

Maahes glanced towards the backroom. He could understand that.

"That's alright," Maahes reassured him with a warm smile. "We won't pressure you anymore about it. You're a superhero and haven't done anything to hurt us - we can trust you."

The Actor sat a little straighter in his seat.

"I hear that about keeping your identity a secret," Ollie sighed, swallowing her bite of cake. She had to admit, whoever this Actor guy was, he had good cake. Ollie shrugged, dangling her fork in one hand. "I mean, if anyone back home in Chrystaline found out would I can do, there's a good chance I'd be enslaved to the city's royalty lickety-split." She frowned. "Or, I suppose, for what I could do now." Huh, it was weird to think of her powers that way.
Ollie said this somewhat shocking fact for two reasons- 1: She wanted to shock everyone for her own amusement because she was juvenile like that. And 2: She wanted confirmation of something she had suspected for a while now.
None of them were from the same homeworld. I mean, it made sense, didn't it? More than just some of them being from a non-Magi city as opposed to a Magi one like Ollie, but Mahaas has known who and what superheroes they were and he had confirmed he was a former Magi like Ollie. Ollie hadn't known anything about who they were now, so unless he was a Renegade who had forsaken the Magi world, there was no way he was from the same world as Ollie. And she figured, if that applied to the two of them, it applied to the rest of them as well.

Cassandra's brain hit a brick wall when Ollie finished her sentence. There are worlds out there where that is still a thing? I need to know more about them. I really hope someone else is curious enough to ask about it. Why do I always have to be so bad at talking to people?

She picked at her food thoughtfully. Not even the delicious smell coming off it was able to distract her as she tried to process the three or four problems currently running through her brain. She needed answers and it was starting to look more and more like she was going to have to seek the answers out rather than wait for them to come to her.

Maahes wasn't fazed by Ollie's mention of other worlds, but his gaze softened when he heard what he heard her mention enslavement. He wished he knew her better; then it wouldn't be so strange to reach across the table and give her hands a squeeze of comfort.

Molly was completely ignorant of the entire conversation; she was still digging into her bacon. When Maahes glanced around the table, he found that The Actor looked both surprised and horrified at Ollie's comment. The Actor must have been aware that Ollie was from a very different world than his own, but Maahes was sure the enslavement comment had thrown him off.

"That's horrible," The Actor whispered, eyes wide. Not for the first time, Maahes wondered how old The Actor actually was. "The government here doesn't have any problems with superheroes, but..."

Maahes gave him a questioning - but supportive - look.

"...there are villains," The Actor said. "And those are the ones I'm always worried about learning my identity."

There was an awkward pause, quickly followed by The Actor giving an equally awkward smile.

"But that's not important right now," The Actor insisted. "I need to help you get home. There has to be some reason you were brought here. Once we find that out, we can figure out how to get you back to your worlds."

The Actor thought for a second, the food in front of them untouched.

"...Maybe there was a secret government program that sent you here?"

Maahes froze for a moment at the comment, but tried to play if off like he hadn't been thrown off by the mention of it. There was a secret government program he was very much aware of - he couldn't help but glance down at Molly at the thought of it - but he knew that the SGC had absolutely nothing to do with this.

"Maybe," he said, "but it doesn't explain how we all came from different worlds. If there was a program on one of our worlds, it would have probably just brought one of us here - or you to our world."

The Actor nodded.

"...That's a good point," he admitted. "...Maybe it was an evil science experiment? A magic spell gone wrong? Multiple realities colliding like in Into the Spiderverse? But that would be an evil science experiment, too..."

It wasn't until Maahes heard the last comment that it finally clicked: The Actor wasn't speaking from personal experience. He was referencing comics.

Harper could only take so much of the Actor's rambling before she burst out laughing.

"You.....oh my gods, seriously?" she said, trying to calm down enough to speak. Once she had, she leaned back in her seat, still chuckling, and proper her feet up on the table. "I'm fifteen, no secret government experiment or whatever brought me here. We were all probably just a little close to that little thin space between dimensions or whatever. Got sucked through. It's not always a conspiracy."

Cass's brain stopped in its tracks at the word villains. Why can't we be superheroes with just regular thieves or something? Its one thing to have cool powers but then having to fight others with cool I mean awful powers is the worst thing ever.

She only vaguely nodded at government conspiracies. There were so many things to process here and at any rate the main thing that she had to figure out was how many villains were there and how likely was it that they would meet one of them. Someone else please ask that question.

The Actor's face turned bright red at Harper's laughter. The hero looked absolutely mortified now that Harper had pointed out an alternative explanation. Her explanation made sense, but Maahes couldn't shake the feeling that something else was going on.

...Maybe he was just too used to some kind of external force being responsible for anything strange that happened in his life.

"But it...it could be," The Actor protested, face somehow growing even redder. "That's what would happen in the...um..."

He muttered the last word.

When he realized no one else heard him, he stared down at the table.

"...Comics," he repeated, this time just barely loud enough to be heard by everyone present.

Meanwhile, in another (much smellier) part of the city...

When Rew woke up, he felt weird.

His first thought was to blame one of the artifacts in Romi's shop; his second was to blame the cult. He wasn't really sure where he was or what had happened, but the cult was usually the culprit for anything weird in his life. And this definitely took the cake. He felt like he was covered from head to toe in something incredibly restrictive. It wasn't just that the clothes were stuffy - which they were - but it felt like ropes were tied around his body-

He glanced down.

...There were ropes tied around his body. And was that a noose hanging from his neck? This didn't make any sense at all! The cult had seemed like a good group to blame, but he couldn't figure out what weird ritual this was supposed to be. And his face felt weird, too. What had they done to his face?

He glanced around.

He was looking for some kind of mirror, but instead he found himself staring at his surroundings. He was in sewer system. A smelly sewer system. His sense of smell wasn't as good as it usually was for some reason, but he could still make that out. There was a river of disgusting water running through the center of the tunnel; Rew was thankfully standing on the side of it.

But he wasn't alone.

And Rew really wasn't sure he wanted to be with other people with right now.

After a moment passed, Rew stepped back into the shadows on the very edge of the sewer. Hopefully, no one would notice him there until he had a chance to figure out what the heck was going on right now.

Tapusha woke up to a strange surrounding for what must have been the millionth time in her life. Why did I sign up for this job again? Ahh...if they pranked me again. She balled her hands into fists to let the usual sparks flicker between her hands except...nothing happened. And her hands felt weird. Her costume didn't feel that grainy did it.

She looked at her hands and cursed. Why on Earth am I wearing yellow? She looked down at her chest to see a familiar lightning bolt. Wait just a goddamn minute. Why am I wearing the symbol of that psychopathic idiot? And why don't my powers... She let loose a grunt of frustration as she tried to channel her lightning. She tried to spread her wings, but they were stuck inside the suit. Of course this idiots suit doesn't come with slots for wings. I need to tear that one open She then tried to see the heat sources in the area. Nothing. Her powers were officially not functional.

She punched the nearest object which happened to be some kind of concrete wall. Her hand accelerated faster than it should have and pulverized a section of the wall. Wait a minute. Did I get this idiot's powers? She tried sensing for the speed force and sure enough she could feel the energy running through her veins. She punched the wall again for good measure. What on Earth has happened this time?

Rew jumped at the noise - and at the sudden destruction of the wall that he was standing next to.

His plan to hide in the shadows until he figured out what the heck was going on was completely ruined. He didn't have the chance to casually reveal himself. Instead, he went stumbling over his own two feet right out of the shadows. He finally managed to catch himself just as the wall was punched for a second time, but his euphoria was quickly lost.

He had ended up right next to the one pulverizing the wall.

He gave an awkward smile.

"Uh, hi-"

He paused.

And then his eyes widened as the costume the woman was wearing finally registered.

"The Reverse Flash?" he whispered, voice incredulous. First it was Spider-Man last Halloween, and now it was the Reverse Flash today? What kind of luck was this!? Technically Spider-Man had been Autumn and it would probably be good if this woman wasn't actually the Reverse Flash, but everything related to superheroes was cool and the perfect source of information.