As our group slowly picked themselves up in the morning, I went about making some breakfast for everyone.

"How is everyone?"

I got some mumbled mutters back from the crowd, whether it was from a full mouth, or simply one that wasn't awake yet.

After the teas and coffees were handed out, we settled down on the logs around the campfire.

Ahri looked up from her tea, "You know, you never explained how we could be… well fictional."

"I… I haven't have I?" I realise.

Gwen speaks up, "It's rather simple, honestly. In an infinite multiverse, everything is possible, even a world identical to what you have read about in a story or watched in a movie."

"Yeah, I got that from googling 'are fictional worlds real' yesterday." Ahri sniped, "but why are we here then?"

"Some cosmic being fucking with us, most likely." I said, "Though that said, it could be any number of reasons. I don't know."

Yang huffed, "What a great explanation!"

"But yeah, Gwen got it right, at least as best as I understand it." I went on, "The multiverse is vast and infinite and everything exists somewhere. Even the things that are fictional in your universes."

"So… Alien Space Whales?" asked Angela.

I laugh, "We call them Alien Space Bats, but close enough."

Hinata seemed uncomfortable, "So Hizuko exists somewhere?"

"I'm assuming that you are talking about s fictional character that you know of?" At her nod, I affirm my previous statement, "Yeah, Hizuko exists somewhere."

"Can we help him them?"

I shrugged, "I don't know how we would reach him."

Hinata raised a finger before putting it down, "Oh…"

I sat down next to her, "Yeah, it's a bit hard to get a handle on the size of the universe. I haven't managed it yet and I'm a firm believer in multiverse theory."

We lost most of the morning to that conversation, especially once Elizabeth woke up enough to start giving her own input into the situation. She was quite excited to find that we would just shut up and listen to her when she talked about the multiverse, only ever interrupting her for a bit of clarification.

That eventually shifted the topic to our plans for the day. Elizabeth would be spending time with Angela and Lena to get a better feel for their quantum signatures and search the multiverse for a world that matched it.

Raven took Starfire with her to a small flood-plain that she had scouted out in the morning, far enough from any person to actually let loose with her emotions a little.

Hinata decided to take over my little sewing project. With the patterns for a few clothes cut out already, she could busy herself with stitching up the seams and even having fun with a little embroidery.

Gwen had decided to spend the day on my computer, learning more about the Marvel universe. We didn't have too much information about her universe specifically, but it was still a treasure trove of knowledge when it came to the nuances of various powers and abilities.

Which left Ahri and me to deal with Yang.

"So you are siding with him?" Yang demanded of Ahri.

The fox-spirit rolled her eyes, "No, I think you are just being stupid. He didn't make your mother a marauding monster. In fact, it can be argued that the writers didn't make your mother a marauding monster. As far as we can tell, no one here can just imagine entire universes into existence."

"My mom isn't a marauding monster!" Yang yelled.

My head was spinning as basically everything I could say gave me bad results, "Look, Yang. can we at least wait until we can reach your world again? If nothing else, we have enough information that we know where your mother is and we can go find her so that you can learn for yourself what sort of person she is."

And then she started crying.

I let my head drop into my hands, even with my ability to predict their responses, I still couldn't understand people.

Ahri walked over to her and pulled her into a hug.

"It can't be true right?" Yang sniffled out, "My mom wouldn't leave me so that she could go back to lead a bandit tribe?"

Ahri patted her shoulder, "People can be like that sometimes. It's not your fault."

I just sat there helplessly, I kinda wish that I knew a decent therapist to help with this situation, but even if I did, suggesting that would only end in Yang getting pissed off at me.

I really needed to get Yang back to her family soon.

We eventually managed to get Yang to calm down after a liberal application of ice-cream and chocolate. She still wasn't happy, but at least she wasn't crying anymore.

As I finished making lunch, Elizabeth opened up the portal to pick us up again.

As we sat down, I asked, "So what's the news?"

Angela swallowed the bite she was eating, "We haven't been able to isolate our world yet, but Elizabeth was able to find a world that had a similar feel. According to her, they are alternate versions of the world we come from."

"So it's just a matter of time then." states Raven.

Elizabeth nodded, "I know roughly where to look, so, with some luck, I should be able to find it later today. I've been able to sort of track it down with the signature getting closer and closer to a match."

I nod, "I'll call in sick at work then, for the next couple of days at least. What do you want me to do?"

They consider things, "We sort of need this space set up better. Last night was fine for an emergency, but we should probably spruce things up."

I nod, "Getting power out here will be a little tricky, and I'll bet that your world has the better tech for that, so the primary concern is going to be squaring this place off, getting some flooring in and some better furniture. I'm going to need some help for that."

Raven and Starfire looked at each other before turning to me, the gothic girl speaking for the pair, "We can help a bit in clearing out the cave and lifting stuff."

I nod, "I should be able to rent some tools, so we can work from there. Does anyone have any preferences for this place?"

Ahri spoke up, "Hardwood floors! And plenty of light. If we are going to be in a cave, it shouldn't feel like that."

I shrug, "We don't necessarily have to live in the cave. Just squaring that off and using it as a general space should be fine if we can get the timber and masonry needed to frame out a few rooms."

Tracer nodded, "That would probably be easier. I checked out the walls and they seem pretty solid."

"Granite, I think. Plus, I should also be able to bring back some concrete with a bit of help, so we could have a compound here in as little as a week if we can get the foundation down."

Ahri butted in, "I mean, having a big place is cool and all, but why put all the effort in?"

"Because it would provide all of us with resources that can't really be matched at home. Assuming that Winston is able to figure out something with Elizabeth's portals, we should be able to store things here beyond the reach of those in our worlds and perhaps even make use of an entire earth's worth of resources." Gwen pointed out, "Just having a secure place to stash my kit or even set up a lab to develop some better gear would help me out a lot."

I nodded, "Not to mention the prize that the resources themselves represent. If we get some industrial equipment across, we could all be rich. A hop over to Australia of California and we could dig up bars of gold pretty easily. Other resources are pretty easily available to us too."

Mercy nodded, "If we brought some of Torbjorn's mining drones over and let them loose on these un-tapped deposits, we would likely never have to worry about money in any of our homeworlds."

That kind of brought everything to a halt.

Elizabeth broke the silence, "This is only if Winston can make portals too, right?"

Tracer nodded, "Don't worry luv, we won't force you to do anything like that, That you are helping us get home is already such a massive help."

Elizabeth smiles, "It's been so much fun! Like the adventures I read about in my books!"

"Speaking of which." We turned to Gwen, "If you want to explore like you told us last night, you need to be careful about it. At the very least, you need to make sure that you don't annoy anything too dangerous."

Elizabeth pausued, "What do you mean? Can't I just leave?"

"I suppose that it would be more of a danger in her neck of the woods than yours." I muse, "Where she's from there are plenty of beings able to travel between worlds, so dimensional travellers would need to be careful not to annoy anything that might be able to follow them home."

Elizabeth paused to consider the implications and poked at her food, "Could you help me then?"

Gwen nodded and continued tucking in.

As lunch wound down, I worked with everyone to get a solid idea for what we needed to be laid out as I sketched out a floor plan for our little complex. Starfire was using her starbolts to carve out the cave a bit and Raven seemed to be having fun as she blasted the earth away around the mouth of the cave for us to fill in to act as a foundation.