by The Pighead

So, I said in the last story I had an Addendum coming up who was a repurposed post-credits scene for said last story. Well, here it is!

It is one of those stories who is here more for worldbuilding rather than advancing plot lines... but I do love worldbuilding, so sue me.

Also, I want to say that this story was inspired by both The Sentinel Saga (by Sentinel) and The Cop and the (Reformed) Crook (by JB). You'll guess why right off the bat.

Enjoy!

Dear Novu, dear Harbinger,

As a gesture of good faith, I've investigated what we've briefly discussed in our last conversation. I'm grateful, once again, that you actually decided to give me a chance to prove myself, no matter how small the task may be.

But I won't try to digress that much.

As you probably know, our Multiverse is far from being the only one existing in all of reality. Because of the multiple layers of said reality existing above and below us and the fact that said layers constantly influence and inspire each other, alternate timelines and universes start to exist almost all the time. The concept of imagination is the key to why there's so many of them and the particular layer in which we're living is the most connected to it, which is why there's way more than one Multiverse – or «Multiversal Cluster», a more accurate name to describe them that several people have coined, including some of my fellow Monks.

Below, you'll find some of the most important Clusters out here. I doubt we'll ever be able to reach them or communicate with them – going from one Multiverse to another would require something very special in order to make sure everything happens well, like a reality warper using all its power to do so – but trying to understand what they went through might be useful in order to figure out what can happen or what we can do. At least, it's what I think.

In no particular order:

- Multiversal Cluster DCU: Also known as the DC Universe. One of the oldest Multiverses to have ever existed. Home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and others. The first Multiverse to have faced its local iteration of the Anti-Monitor and to have defeated him (multiple times, shall I add).

This Cluster is unique in the sense that it has survived several cosmic retcons and even managed to come back from the dead – in a way – after the initial Crisis on Infinite Earths. Four main iterations of it can be noted: the pre-Crisis iteration that was destroyed by the Anti-Monitor, the Hypertime iteration that consisted on a giant stream of timelines and existed in the post-Crisis world, the « 52 » iteration created after the heroes faced against Alexander Luthor (from Earth-Three), Superboy-Prime (from Earth-Prime) & Kal-L (from Earth-Two) and consisted of 52 worlds, and finally, the « New 52 » iteration created after Barry Allen's failed attempt to save his mother Nora from death and Jon Osterman's own changes. This iteration also originally consisted of 52 worlds before becoming infinite once again. The reasons of why aren't really clear: some people think it happened when the post-Crisis versions of Hal Jordan & Superman were sent back during the original Crisis and undid it, others think it happened after Wonder Woman threw the Darkest Knight into the Sun and the Hands recreated everything afterwards... and others think the rebirth occurred because of the experiments of Pariah, a survivor of the original Crisis, who became insane.

- Multiversal Cluster MU: Also known as the Marvel Universe. Home of Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider and others. The only differences this one has, compared to the DCU, is that it doesn't have an Anti-Monitor and only ever had one iteration to this day.

- Multiversal Cluster STH: A Cluster in which the Freedom Fighters, led by Sonic the Hedgehog, fought against the tyrannical Dr. Robotnik after the latter's hostile takeover of the Kingdom of Acorn. Has ended up being destroyed by the Super Genesis Wave unleashed by Dr. Eggman – himself another version of Robotnik who jumped to the Prime universe of the Cluster – and Dr. Wily, now possibly reduced to one Earth.

Surprisingly, this is not even the Earth from which the real Prime versions of Sonic and his friends come from, all across the Omniverse. Also, bit of a tangent but considering that a lot of people who were impacted by the Super Genesis Wave from our Cluster turned up to still be alive, unlike in the STH Cluster, we definitely had big luck on that point.

- Multiversal Cluster DT: A Cluster whose main point is the Dark Tower that gave it its name. Said tower is also the object of the investigations of a man named Roland Deschain, a gunslinger and the last of his kind, who lives in a world who is unraveling and had assembled a group of peculiar people in order to reach the tower.

A version of Stephen King also inhabits this Cluster and he looks similar to Roland in terms of appearance. I thought it would be interesting to add it.

- Multiversal Cluster MM: The oldest Multiverse to have ever existed. Its main foundation is the concept of the « Eternal Champion », a being who is constantly reincarnated through time and serves as the balance between law and chaos, whether they want it or not. Other beings like him also serve as the anchors of this Cluster, like the Eternal Companion, the Eternal Consort or the Eternal Enemy.

- Multiversal Cluster AW: Also known as the Arrowverse. Home of Green Arrow, the Flash, the Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning and others. Has had two iterations over the years: the pre-Crisis one and the post-Crisis one. They also had their own Anti-Monitor… and he was defeated by the heroes, too. Though, unlike the DCU, the Multiverse was rebooted instead of having the surviving worlds fused into one.

This one is an important one, since our own Cluster started as an almost-carbon copy of this one before growing and evolving. Also, I need to point out that the local version of you is responsible for its creation – unlike in the DCU, where Krona is the responsible – and, because of the consequences of this action, became a more ruthless, more uncaring man in its hope to make sure his Multiverse survives. You and him are quite different – you remind me more of your DCU version, in fact – and I think his existence can serve as a warning of whose lines we shouldn't cross. I know, it may sound hypocritical of me, but still, having plunged this deep into the darkness allows me now to be very aware of where the lines are.

This Cluster and another one, the Multiversal Cluster DCEU – short for « DC Extended Universe » - are technically supposed to be the same after the former was rebooted by its Crisis. However, when I did some research, I realized that there were a bunch of discrepancies and continuity differences, enough to put this status in doubt. I don't know if something happened during the fusion that made it go wrong or if it's the fault of their local Barry Allen – the young one who fought against Zod – but there's clearly something here that isn't right.

Also, you really need to tell me if you remember having created our Cluster or if you remember having been here when it happened. Just by curiosity.

- Multiversal Cluster ST: Home of James T. Kirk, Spock, Khan Noonien Singh, Jean-Luc Picard and others. This Cluster is mostly known through the spatial adventures of the respective crews of several ships named « Enterprise », who all respond to the orders of the United Federation of Planets, an interstellar government based on Earth, and their primary mission is to explore the cosmos and to discover more new planets and civilizations.

There's Earths on our Cluster who are similar to those on this one, but we can't reach them for the time being. My fellow Monk, the Administrator, has decided to reinforce the barriers around them – along with those of several other worlds of interest – in order to prevent its most dangerous elements from escaping. My personal recommandation is to make sure it stays this way. At least, until Mr. Weyer decides that we'll need the heroes from those worlds as a last resort.

- Multiversal Cluster DB: Home of Son Goku, Piccolo, Lord Frieza, Cell, Beerus and others. This one is finite, being composed of 12 universes (initially 18), and its main artifact of interest are the Dragon Balls, sets of seven magical balls who allow anyone who unites them to have a wish granted. Naturally, a lot of less-than-well-intentioned individuals wishes to gain them.

Since our Cluster's version of Prime!Frieza is currently busy leading the Conqueror's Cabal in their plans of Multiversal invasion, I did my best to combine all the informations I could about the most well-known felons from this Cluster in order to maximize our chances to defeat them, should we ever need to.

They're tough and deadly dangerous, but they're clearly not indestructible.

- Multiversal Cluster DM: A Cluster based on the DCU but with one difference: its version of the pre-Crisis Multiverse survived when Kara Zor-El moved out of Earth before it happened to live in the planet Rokyn and when Dream of the Endless decided to intervene, successfully saving it.

- Multiversal Cluster AFL: A Cluster who gained relevance when the powerful Quirk (another way to say «super-power») known as « All For One » was given to Luz Noceda, who also ended up having the villain of the same name as a mental host, let's say it like that.

- Multiversal Cluster UV: Also known as the Underverse. Home of King Asgore, Queen Toriel, Royal Scientist Alphys, Captain Undyne and others. The universes in this Cluster have the common point of having once been populated by both humans & monsters before war was declared between the two species, a war the humans won. The monsters were sealed inside Mount Ebbott by the use of a powerful spell and they resided in this place until a child named Frisk fell into this same mountain.

It's generally at this point that the timelines diverge. But considering that, no matter how the setting changes, the story always starts the same way, I think this Cluster is a very great example of what a constant is.

- Multiversal Cluster HS: Home of the planets of Alternia, Prospit, Derse and others. Describing this one is… complicated. The way universes are created is a bit like this: there's this video game called « SBURB » (or « SGRUB », depending on the planet) and it creates new universes in which its players can travel to. Said universes are created by the way of the Genesis Frogs, who hold them – and can even hold multiverses – within their bodies and are exactly what the name suggests. Then, there's also locations known as the Furthest Ring, who has a sun known as the Green Sun as its center… and all of this combined is named « Paradox Space ».

I have to oversimplify it, for the sake of everyone. Currently, this Cluster is also at risk of being destroyed by a black hole created by the destruction of the Green Sun but I can't really go deeper on that, due to… let's say, issues with canon.

I'll explain this later, maybe.

- Multiversal Cluster AT: A Cluster in which the main point of interest is the Land of Ooo, a fantastical kingdom which, in reality, is the remains of Earth after his destruction during a conflict known as the « Mushroom War ». Home to Finn the Human, Jake the Dog, Princess Bubblegum, Marceline the Vampire Queen and others.

This one doesn't have an Anti-Monitor, but it has quite the equivalent in the person of the Lich. Most of his versions actually failed but I've actually managed to see one who actually succedeed… and it's not a pretty sight. Might be a good idea to watch over Earth-151515 to make sure the one we have meets the same fate.

And that's all for my list. There's possibly others I could make for you if you require me to do it, because it was far from being an exhaustive one. Again, I doubt we will ever interact with all of them but I still think it has its utility to gain more info about them. I know for sure that looking at the respective histories of all those Clusters actually allowed me to understand better the history of this one. And also, to feel more confident about our ability to stop the disasters that are coming towards us.

If you wish for me to clarify or to answer a question you could have in mind, do not hesitate to contact me. If you decide to call the Hazbin Hotel by telephone, use the password « Charlie Van Halen » and say you want to talk to Jade. They'll understand.

Yours truly,
The Pighead.

And that's all! For the Author's Note:

- So, the mentions of Multiversal Clusters (and other Multiverses in general) in the two stories I've mentioned at the beginning were what led me to write this. You've probably seen it in some previous stories but the concept of "reality being made of multiple layers", one of them containing all fiction inside of it and imagination & creation being what allows them to exist is a concept that is very important to me, one that guides me when it comes to write worldbuilding for IC. This was my way of doing this in a more explicit way and of making it clear that yeah, this is why the plot went off the rails since the beginning. You can say it's my Grant Morrison moment.

- The names of the four mentioned iterations of the DC Multiverse are directly taken from the DC Database wiki on Fandom. I think it's one of the (if not the) best Wikis existing on Fandom (which is quite rare, considering how shitty this platform is) and I liked the names enough to put them here.

- Also, the events quickly referenced are the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Flashpoint, Convergence, Dark Nights: Death Metal and Dark Crisis. It also allowed me to poke fun at the fact that DC Comics made a lot of events in recent years since 2015 that always ended with "oh well, the Multiverse is reborn infinite and anew!". Like, guys, you did it more than once. Make up your mind.

- The STH Cluster is the one from the Sonic the Hedgehog comics made by Archie. So, of course, it mentions the Super Genesis Wave.

Also, I haven't mentioned the universe of the games (and the fact that, technically, Sonic Prime is canon to them, which means that they're also part of their own Cluster)... and it's simply because I haven't watched Sonic Prime and because I'm a bit unsure with all of this and the fans not really liking the show being tied to the games and all, so yeah.

- Had to mention the works of Michael Moorcock, since he was the first to invent a Multiverse in fiction.

- I originally planned to give the DCEU its own part, but ultimately, since I mostly wanted to use it to point out how the 2023 Flash movie created a lot of discrepancies with the 2019 Crisis mini-series, especially when it comes to the official connections between the Arrowverse and the DCEU, I've mentioned it here.

- The Clusters DM & AFL represent two fanfictions: Dark Mark's version of the DC Universe and All For Luz, by DeathlyJazzHands55. I wanted some fanfiction representation in the story and those two looked interesting enough. Like Zoom said in the story, there's ridiculously few chances that the IC-verse interacts with these Multiverses and it is more a "Look, when I say all of fiction is present in this layer, I mean it but it doesn't go deeper than that" rather than proper canon welding.

- Same for the Underverse Cluster, who represents both Undertale and the shittons of AUs and fan creations made around it.

- Of course, I had to mention Homestuck. I mean, I've started my IC journey with them, so I had to mention it!

- I thought the Adventure Time Multiverse would be nice enough to maintain, even if (to my displeasure) I've never managed to watch the show.

- There were other Multiversal Clusters I wanted to mention: the canon MCU, the Krypton-verse, the Rediscovered Frontiers Multiverse, the one from Kill Six Billion Demons... but ultimately, I didn't want to stuff the Addendum. Doesn't mean it's not canon, tho.

- I plan to tell the tale on how the Soldier went back to meet Mar Novu again and apologize to him for her past behavior towards him. If you want to know how him and the Meddler meet before, read My Source Is That I Made It Up Then I Made It Real.

- Basically, why did Future!Pighead did this letter beyond "Novu asked her" and "It can allow us to figure what to do or not"? Well, there's two other reasons.

1) It's Pighead encouraging the Monitor not to cross some lines. The mentions of his Arrowverse version being ruthless and uncaring aren't here by coincidence: the IC Monitor is definitely closer to his comic-book version and, if you look closely, you can see that he has morals and lines that he won't cross. He said once to Harbinger he didn't wanted to slaughter heroes, but to test them. And his tests are actually less destructive, he frequently gets help in order to accomplish his goals... so, I think that Pighead, a woman who once crossed lines before coming back, would want to inspire Novu not to go the same road she once did.

And 2) It's Pighead trying to make sure they stay hopeful. She mentions several DC Multiverses in which their respective Anti-Monitors lost to the heroes because it's her way to say "See, the one we have is not invincible, if others were defeated, we're able to do so with our one!". Just to make sure Novu and his allies don't end up fall into despair. I mean, better to be hopeful about things, eh?

Now, that's all I wrote! If you have questions, reviews, comments... to make, please do so! Other, bigger projects will resume in the near future so stay tuned for that.

Pighead, Signing Off.