A/N: For those of you who are fans of my other work, don't worry. Mother of Vengeance isn't on the backburner or anything, this was just something I do when I'm bored and the beta for that is having trouble with the document.
Without further ado:
Syzygy
Chapter 1: Arkhe
The woman in the black suit and the man in the white suit met each others eyes, mutually studying this odd statistical inevitability of alternate dimensions.
They met for a while, simply thinking. And Thinking.
The woman, her almost-identical experiences having lead her to a slightly more aggressive pattern of behavior, spoke first. "What are you planning?"
There was now malice in her words, no fear. The man was thinking of it himself, but thanks to his slightly more reactive pattern of behavior, was but a hair slower on the draw. "Not much at the moment. I'm honestly trying to factor how another Path to Victory might affect my own. Strange glitches are probably inevitable."
"Well said," the woman replied.
Another moment. The man, feeling he was asked to continue the conversation ever so slightly more than the woman, replied first. "I suppose she's taken a male form there, too?"
"They're both Warriors, I think. So I don't think it matters."
"Ah."
Another pause.
"You don't think-" they both began, then realized that if they were both asking the same question, neither knew the answer. "...No."
And so they continued, cycling through nearly identical goals to see how they'd conflict, completely different goals that nonetheless intersected at points, things involving their limits, like the Endbringers or their Entity-
Then the penny dropped, for both of them.
"What if we-"
Then they flipped a penny, to see who would go first with their idea.
The man won.
"What if we lured our Entity to interact with yours? They seem be driven by loneliness and lack of purpose, so if we ameliorate the former, we might be able to calm them both down enough to delay the end?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of sterilization," the woman replied. "From our research, the Planner and Warrior required each other to reproduce, and thus we may be able to trick them into not attacking."
"Such would require complete compatibility, almost identical to the Planner," the man began-
"...but they don't have the reasoning power to to notice the difference," the woman finished.
"They just recognize the form they would have chosen if both arrived," they said, in perfect unison.
The suited Thinkers began to nod, a nearly-identical plan forming.
"...We can't risk the Entities discovering the ruse," the man said.
"...We need to make sure the situation confuses them," the woman said.
"But if we make them think it was their biology calling to each other..." she continued.
"But if we hide the idea of our involvement in plain sight..." he continued.
Neither Thinker had experienced a "Eureka!" moment in quite some time. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation.
"My Endbringers are less vicious than yours," the man said. "My timeline should be the one giving up the Entity."
"My Endbringers are so used to working alone that sudden teammates might upset their operations," the woman said. "I concur."
"So then...I suppose you'll set your goal?"
"Haven't you?"
"No, I was waiting for you. But that is neither here nor there." He tipped his hat. "Until next time, Contessa."
"No glitches detected." The woman proffered hers. "We will meet again, Comte."
"Door," they said in unison.
In the modest Tinker workshop he and Armsmaster often shared, Chris, also known as Kid Win, held up the odd-looking crystal to his face, rotating it so it caught the light.
Apart from a refraction effect despite it being apparently opaque, there wasn't much else about it that was that strange. Well, apart from the fact it was spat out by some kind of merged zone of Earths Aleph and Bet. But still, it seemed mostly normal.
By all rights, he shouldn't be playing with this either, but he had noticed some odd temporal effects with the Merge Zone, as it was unofficially referred to. Namely, a lot of people would move really slow through it. Along with bullets, Blaster fire, and, oddly, the effects of powers (as evinced by Vista's trouble with it when suddenly her spatial warps grew through the anomalies instead of just happening, if that made sense). Harnessing it would probably be great for self-defense, and even better, this crystal did it on its own whenever an electric current ran through it. A simple laser gun already made, impossible to screw up.
Now, just to slot it into the belt-
There was a very large noise from outside the room as Sophia shot an air duct after a very long, very unlikely chain of events frazzled her composure and made her aim a bit worse than it normally was, and the electric current in her stun arrow overcharged the air conditioning. Startled, Chris looked up, just bringing the current he himself had been using just a bit closer to the crystal, as it slightly increased due to the extra power in it-
A rainbow flash, followed by the sound of suction and what seemed to be the slowed-down sound of an explosion-
"That didn't work."
Slowly, Chris became aware of the fact he was several feet away from where he began.
As the light began to dim, he also became aware of the large black stain radiating outwards from the glowing crystal, and the half-melted table.
Of course.
"Great going, Chris," he heard himself mutter. "You take what is literally a gun in a platter and you still manage to fuck it up. Way to go, genius, this is a completely new level of...fail...that you..."
There was someone else muttering that, too.
With the pauses.
From the other side of the room.
Slowly, Chris started to reach for a personal defense gun Colin convinced him to have at all times, priming it.
The crystal - or crystals now - began to dim a little more, revealing a shadow that was appearing to reach for something-
Chris didn't hesitate, and neither did the figure. Two blasts flew at each other-
BOOM.
The new glow was probably the visual equivalent of the ringing of his ears.
Blinking, coughing, Chris got up, cursing the fact he didn't bring his mask, as he edged cautiously closer to the other figure's location. Ready for anything. Smoke began to clear-
"What the hell are you doing in the PRT!?"
Okay, ready for almost anything. Chris blinked. "I work here? Wait, what the hell are you doing!?"
The brown-haired girl in a utility belt looked just as angry and confused as Chris did. "Yeah, funny story, I work here, and I think I would have been told if there was a new Ward working here-"
"N-New Ward!? I've been almost as long as Vista, and second-"
"WHO THE FUCK IS VISTA!?"
"Oh, you know, pubescent spatial warper, green suit, deserves your appreciation you-"
"I'll give him appreciation when he stops ripping off Singularity you liar-"
"Maybe you can explain to me?"
Ulp. Busted.
Suddenly, both guns were holstered as the two youths inhaled nervously and began to sweat profusely.
"...Hey boss," Chris squeaked as he turned to face the door.
"...Hi ma'am," the girl squeaked as she did the same.
Wait, that voice sounded a bit odd-
There were two Armsmasters.
"...W-wh-what?" two voices stammered in unison.
Okay, one was the same Colin Wallis Chris was used to, with the completely unamused expression that still was a guest in his various nightmares of incompetence. Who had been sleeping, if the t-shirt under his half-strapped armor was any indication.
The other was a thirty-something bespectacled woman with hair tied in the world's tightest bun. With the same exact expression of complete lack of amusement, with the same appearance of having just woken up and half-strapped the armor.
"...I didn't know you had a sister/brother, boss," both teens said, stupidly.
"I don't," the two armored Ward superiors said in equal unison.
"Ah."
A long pause.
The girl spoke first "Then who-"
"I was hoping you would tell me, given how you seem to be the reason," the woman replied. Dear god, her tone, he knew that tone.
"Um, well," Chris began automatically.
"My guess is that it had something to do with the material we found next to the spatial anomaly that you illegally took?" his Armsmaster interrupted.
"Er, um, yes-" began the girl.
"And purposing the lab for unmonitored experiments, without any degree of reasonable protection whatsoever?" the other Armsmaster finished.
"The box seemed reasonable..." both teens trailed off.
"..Right," both adults said, looking completely unconvinced.
And then through the shame and embarrassment, the bleeding obvious finally streaked.
"Hey wait a minute-" both teens began.
"I've already tested," the male Armsmaster bluntly stated. "Unlike some, I happened to have my Halberd in reach-"
"Only because my table didn't come with me, and while you were swinging that thing around I suggested the hypothesis-"
"And unlike you I didn't put it on the table, I kept it in my bed-"
"-a behavioral position that implies the overpowering degree of paranoia you feel, thus ruining your abilities to accept helpful suggestions-"
"-and yet you were so overconfident you didn't bother with keeping a panic button nearby in case of infiltration-"
"-as opposed to wearing armor in case of assassins, which you were completely lacking-"
"Boss, stop," the brown-haired girl said. "Please...just stop."
A moment of silence as both capes suddenly remembered what they were actually doing.
"Right. Ahem." The Armsmaster that Chris knew hoisted the Halberd up, flipping open a screen.
A tinny computerized voice rang out. "Subject appears to be dizygiotic sibling of Subject Colin Wallis. Analysis indicates possible deliberately imperfect clone, given that primary difference appears to be gonosomic signature."
"Gonosomes are, in layman's terms, sex chromosomes," the other Armsmaster said.
Sex chromosomes?
...Wait.
Slowly, the two youths turned back to each other.
Brown hair.
Similar design in utility belt.
Two crystals.
Identical tactics when working on instinct.
...Oh.
Ohhhhh.
"...Er."
"...Um."
"...Nice to meet you?"
"...Hello...me?"
The almost-identical duplicates apart from the one critical difference attempted to think of adequate words to say.
The Wallis pair found it for them.
"Chris, what did you do!?"
"You know, this is actually kind of a relief," Missy said as she leveraged a spatial warp against her counterpart's version. "The Wards were about the most packed of sausage boxes before the Incident."
Max Byron, also known as Singularity, grinned a little while attempting to counter it by crushing the warp. "Me, I'm relieved that the 'harem comedy protagonist' joke has been permanently spoiled. Even Denise thought that was getting old."
Trap sprung. Missy's warp unfolded and inverted around Max's, though he seemed to have guessed that was going to happen if the sudden 'spikes' were any indication. "Bet it's nicer than having to deal with your Stalker."
"Yep. Alden's a giant prick no matter what universe you're in, I guess."
Both glanced over at the table where, respectively, Shadow Stalker and Wraith Hunter were apparently involved in the world's longest staring contest.
"Trying to get the other to back down?" Max wondered aloud.
"We'll get back to them next year," Missy replied, slightly quieter as she was mostly involved in figuring out how to get past the spikes.
"Wards?"
Damn. Too soon.
"Draw?"
"Draw."
Both dissolved their warps as they turned to the twin deputy organizers of the Wards.
Perhaps to help them remember which was which, both Miss Militia and Minuteman had shown up in full costume, though Missy thought that was entirely pointless. It was kind of hard to mistake blue for dark green, or a tricorner hat-and-mask for a flag.
"First," Miss Militia began, "I would like to welcome our new friends and counterparts to Earth Bet, and hope they enjoy their stay while we figure out a way back to their home universe."
A round of polite applause came from the counterparts in question.
"Second..." she began, "we have a problem."
The sound of hands hitting the faces of both capes Chris resounded through the meeting hall.
"Thank you, I'll take it from here..." Minuteman cleared his throat while bringing down the projector screen.
"Apparently the Resonance Incident was on a far larger scale than it would normally seem possible for a material of that size," he said clicking on the projector.
As the screen came on, a still of Scion, mutely assisting a cat out of a tree.
"These photos were taken of Earth Bet's version of the First Parahuman at the time of the incident."
Click.
An explosion of light, which startled everyone in the photo except Scion himself, who was apparently more casually intrigued by this than anything else.
Click.
A silver woman in a golden suit appeared where the portal was.
From the expression on Scion's face, that actively surprised him.
"The being you see on the photograph would be Eden, our version of him. Her behavior and personality are, from what we can understand of her, exactly the same as your Scion's."
"And from what reports we have, they, and I quote," Miss Militia continued, "'proceeded to study each other for the next hour, before resuming their normal behavior, but apparently more content.'"
Click.
Scion again, but this time he was putting out fires.
And, by all appearances, smiling for the first time on camera. Ever.
It was the native Aegis that asked the obvious question. "So? We have an extra Golden Man now, what's the problem?"
"She's not the only immigrant."
Click. A video.
Two men, one muscular and one frail, were in the thumbnail.
"Leet and Uber?", Dennis wondered aloud.
Just before he paled. "Oh God. Don't tell me that-"
"Yep," replied a glum Minuteman.
The video clicked on.
"Hey guys, Uber and Leet here, with some tragic news."
You had to give credit to Leet, the man could fake being sad really well.
"Today, the Videogame Reality Hour has met an end due to circumstances absolutely no one sane could foresee. Sadly, there is absolutely no way to continue the show as is-"
"Leet," whispered a much lighter voice from beyond camera.
A look of faux-annoyance came over Leet's face. "Hey, this is an emotional moment, I'd really like it if you-"
"Leet, please don't lie to the camera," the voice continued. "It's not becoming."
"I know, I know, I was just...really attached to that pizza, y'know?"
"Sorry."
"You're forgiven." Back to the glum face. "Anyway, due to circumstances beyond our control the Uber and Leet show is no longer possible as is. After all, we are not the most rich capes in the world, and fending off copyright claims would be just catastrophic."
"Not to mention," said the voice as the camera turned. "the proceedings would be really fucking weird."
The woman it had turned to was the spitting image of Leet, dressed identically, her desk area in the same exact disarray, with the only real difference being the nametag in the bottom right of the screen: Haxx.
The forehead of every Ward, Bet native and not, impacted the table in front of them.
"So, instead of give the poor court a migraine figuring out pronoun use," began Uber's voiceover.
"We consolidated!" finished the yet-unseen duplicate.
The new title of the Uber, Leet, Pwn, and Haxx Show flashed on screen, as all four game-themed supervillains posed.
"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is nowhere near the first of April! Reality had blended, pigs have grown wings, and the lovely Pwn's cat is getting on quite well with his new roommate-"
Mercifully, Miss Militia chose that time to hit the pause button.
"As you may have surmised, a significant portion of native parahumans have reported encountering their duplicate," she continued, "While most of the immigrant Protectorate has happily signed on with assisting us while we figure out a way to return them to their dimension, as shown by the Four Stooges here, we have little doubt that many villains have made friendly contact with their alternate versions as well, and are likely drawing up plans that synch their respective cape abilities in various schemes. The PRT has been alerted, and it's likely more than a few possess such antisocial personalities or mental issues that they cannot stomach working with a nearly identical personality, but still, we should prepare for, say, the E88 to have significantly more muscle behind them."
The presentation clicked off. "So, any questions?"
Denise's arm shot up. "Yes, I have one - we have similar histories, right?"
"Yes, but um-"
"Was there a bank robbery roughly a week ago?"
"Yes?"
"In which the perpetrators were a team known as the Undersiders?"
"I don't know where you're going but yes, and-"
"On a completely unrelated note, did one of them happen to be a bug controller?" Dennis interrupted.
Miss Militia caught on. "Would they happen to have insect-like body armor?"
One could feel the rapidly sinking enthusiasm of both redheads. "Yes."
"Except for the hair?"
"Yes."
"Got into a fight with a certain healer with a public identity and his adopted brother?"
"Yes."
The look of abject pity on both Protectorate capes said a thousand words.
"...Mirror-Bro?" asked Denise.
"Yeah?"
"Hold me."
"I was going to ask the same thing."
A second later, both timestoppers were bawling into each other's shoulders, vocally cursing god, the cosmos, and fate.
A/N: Behold!
The genderswap fusion universe!
(Not pictured: The Endbringers' duplicates. I want to leave both crass reheads vaguely sane for the lethal punchline).