In one world, a being made from an Endbringers' DNA died when released. In another, it awoke.

It was weird, unfamiliar. Like standing up too fast and having that feeling of unsteadiness. But this was more than just that. His body felt unfamiliar, different. Proportions were off, he felt smaller, more lithe. Shorter than his original six foot frame. He was floating in something, he noticed, but as soon as his mind registered that, the liquid started flowing out. As it reached his feet, he took tentative steps forward, then fell onto his front, unable to keep his balance in his new body.

As he lay on the ground, too weak to move, he heard muttering nearby. It was high, childish. He faded in and out of consciousness several times, then he heard a wordless roar, then that same thing that roared spoke a few words unintelligible to his ears. He shifted moving closer to it. Not much, but barely. And that gave him hope.

He thought he passed out again, as when he was feeling again he heard soft voices. He shifted again, trying to get to them. He let out a soft groan to catch their notice, and that it did. "What's that?" a woman's voice spoke up.

"Don't know. Blasto was working on it when I entered," the same voice that roared earlier spoke up, his voice gruff.

Footsteps neared him, splashing on the wet ground. Gentle, yet hard, hands turned him over. He tried opening his eyes, like a baby, opening its eyes for the first time. It was blurry, but he could make out the general shape of a woman leaning over him. One of her hands rested on his chest and the other above his mouth, just below his nose. "She's alive," The woman said in astonishment. 'She?' his mind repeated confusedly.

"Alive? It must be one of his creations. Leave it be," The man's voice said.

The gentle hands lifted his body up. "She's like a newborn. We're going to take care of her." The woman put emphasis on the pronoun.

"But the Slaughterhou-" he started.

"Can wait," She interrupted. "We'll figure out how to deal with this while we recover. C'mon, Colin."

He heard the man, Colin, sigh, and footsteps followed the woman carrying him. When the air outside touched him, he twitched, his body involuntary moving. The woman carrying him shifted him in her arms, accounting for the movement. Colin said something, but he didn't hear it clearly enough, as he started drifting unconscious again.

He awoke, again, to voices and a hand running down his hair. Longer hair. 'It makes sense if I was turned into a girl,' he thought. It was when the hand stopped, he realized, that he was relaxed from it, because when it stopped, he stiffened up again. The person who was running their hand down his hair noticed this and started back up again. Involuntary, he made a noise of pleasure when he relaxed.

He heard chuckling from the person holding him- the woman, he presumed. "You like that, don't you? Don't worry, I won't stop," She murmured to him. "Can you move?" she asked. He tried moving his arm upwards, but all it did was twitch. Humming, she asked, "Can you open your eyes? Or move your head?"

He peeled his eyes open, the sudden influx of light temporarily blinded him, forcing him to close them again. But he opened them again, squinting until they adjusted for the light. Moving his eyes upward, he saw the semi-blurry form of the woman. She smiled, "Good job. Can you move your head?" He tried moving it to where he was facing the woman, but only managed to twitch it in that direction.

The woman hummed again, nodding. "Colin was supposed to go get you clothes to fit you, but he hasn't gotten back yet. I dearly hope he hasn't gotten caught up in something." She shook her head, then paused, as if a thought occurred to her. "I haven't told you my name, have I? Well, my name's Dragon."

He blinked, his vision clearing up like it had been while she was talking, and finally saw the woman's face. It was a fairly generic face, if he was to be honest, and his mind finally registered the accent in which the woman spoke with. It was Canadian. And as if a final nail in the coffin, he realized there was a mechanical undertone to her voice. And that Dragon was an AI. In a book called Worm.

Letting out a soft, "Oh." he fell unconscious once more, his childish mind unable to process that information.

As he awoke again, he heard quiet, rushed voices. As his mind started functioning further, he realized that there was a weight hanging on his body; clothes, he figured. His third thought was that he was Worm. He almost fell unconscious again, but resisted it. He was not going to pass out right after he just awoke. The gentle hands that had been stroking his hair stopped and he was suddenly moved from Dragon's lap- which he assumed he was in- to a sitting position in a seat.

He assumed that Dragon knew he was awake as she stroked the side of his face with her hand and said, "I'll be back. Stay there and stay relaxed."

Oh, he tried, how did he try. But his body stiffened up as soon as it was out of Dragon's arms. His mind was also whirling with his knowledge of Worm, trying to figure out when he was. Thinking back on when it was hazy- when he first awoke- he remembered Colin saying something about a slaughterhouse. . . and a Blasto. . . his thoughts trailed off as he realized when he was. He is with Dragon and Colin- now Defiant- chasing the Slaughterhouse Nine!

And if he remembered his Worm lore correctly, then Blasto just created the myrddin-Simurgh-plant hybrid; which was probably himself. He also probably had a shard-thingy in the mind too, if he remembered correctly. He shivered, feeling strangely cold in the warm. . . place he was in. As he looked around, it looked reminiscent to a cockpit, but more high-tech.

He would hazard a guess at that he's somewhen after Blasto just got captured by the Nine, so it would be a while before Dragon and Defiant actually confront Skitter. Probably. Raising his arm, he paused as he looked at it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he noted he could finally move his limbs, while the more main part of his mind focused on his skin. He held the hand closer to his face, staring at the semi-translucent skin, showing off his veins.

They were the usual veins, blue, red, the typical, but past that, it was mainly white crystalline structures. Lifting the same hand, he pulled a lock of hair over his eyes to look at it. It was a dark, raven black color, a contrast to his skin. If he wasn't immediately labelled a mini-Simurgh, then he was definitely going to be labelled as a Case 53. Not that either of those were wrong, see, but it would definitely create problems.

Tucking the strand away behind his ear, he tested out his voice, "Hello? Test? Test one, test two?" It was high and childish, as to be expected, but it had a soft lilting to it, as if it was trying to sing, but not. Deciding to do a little tune he created up a long time ago, he started reciting it, "Tick tock, you're on a clock. Tick tock, I got a Glock. Bing Bong, time is gone. Boom Bang, you're now dead." Yeah, he was bad with rhymes. But he gained valuable information; his voice likes to sing naturally, so the rhymes seem more musically inclined than what was originally planned.

Sighing, he curled up into a fetal position. Despite his adultish mind, his body was still that of a child. And this body wasn't really human. At least not fully. Closing his eyes, he drifted off into slumber. When he awoke again, he was snuggled up into Dragon. While the more adult part of his mind screamed that this was weird and that he couldn't do that, the childish side, which he never lost, reveled in that feeling. While her body was slightly cold, it still felt like a wonderful embrace.

He had suspicions that whatever part of his mind that held his own childish desires was coming to the forefront right now and only kept increasing. He'd hope that it wouldn't always be like this, but he might not be able to control it. But right now, he felt safe in Dragon's arms. Dragon's hand continued running through his hair, soothing his body. Snuggling closer into her body, Dragon chuckled softly. "Hello again, little one," She said softly, not ceasing in running her hand through his hair, "Do you think you can move or speak?"

Moving his head so that it wasn't pressed against her body- which he belatedly realized was her armor- and looked up at her face. "A little," He said softly, the unfamiliar voice coming forth.

She smiled warmly, "Wonderful."

He looked around, then asked, "Where, when are we?" softly.

"We are currently floating above the States, chasing the Nine. Slaughterhouse Nine. They're a group of villains that cause havoc across the States, and always manage to escape capture. Their leader, Jack Slash, has avoided being killed or captured despite several members being so. As for when? It's July third, in the year twenty-eleven. You've fallen asleep for several days at a time."

He hummed slightly, snuggling closer into Dragon's body. Armor. Whatever. Dragon didn't say anything for a bit before she suddenly shifted with the thing they were in. Probably Dragon's dragon suit. Heh, Dragon's dragon. Dragon spoke up, "We're going to be landing soon, the Nine were spotted again, we're going to attack. Me and Colin are, not you." She moved and set him down in the seat again, "Stay here and try not to fall asleep, please." She smiled and ran a hand down his face, then moved behind him.

Moving his body to peek around the chair, he saw Dragon sliding her hair into her armor, before looking at him and smiling, then put her helmet on. She moved to the side of the ship right as the door opened and she jumped out. Turning back around in the seat, he found what looked to be a giant black screen dominating the front, just above a control panel. Not touching the buttons, he looked around for something to activate it, but realized that it might could be voice activated. A little hesitant, he said, "Main screen activate front cameras." Curling up in himself, he waited in baited breath as the screen flickered to life, showing the battlefield.

He watched in concern as the suit he was in dived, spearheaded, and attacked some of the Nine, Jack managing to dodge most attacks, while also having the rest of his 'teammates' attack. Looking closer, he noticed that Jack Slash and the rest of them seemed worn out and tired; haggard, if he were to hazard a better word. Soon, the Nine started retreating, running away, but not before one of the suits managed to shoot off a projectile that instantly killed one of the Nine.

The tension that had gathered in his body released, letting him breathe a silent sigh of relief. Just as Dragon entered after talking with Defiant, he started drifting off to sleep again. All he saw before sleep overtook him was Dragon's amused face looking down at him. He awoke again to the smell of food. Blinking blearily, he looked around for the source of the smell. On a little slide-out table, sat a small collection of various food items, along with a glass of water.

As soon as his mind registered that there was food for taking, his stomach growled hungrily. Stiffening in surprise, and shock, he heard Dragon chuckle softly from where she was running her hand through his hair again. "I assumed so. You've been out for several days, and as soon as I realized that you hadn't eaten at all, I quickly set a detour while we were waiting for the Nine to show up to get you some." Dragon moved him so he could grab the food easier. "Go ahead and eat some, your body might protest if you don't."

Taking the message clearly, he grabbed what he could and started eating greedily. While he's never truly been a fast eater in his last life, being slightly starved could do a few things to a person. He didn't know how much time had passed, but the food was soon gone and he was slumping, satisfied, on Dragon's lap. She chuckled again, as she seemed to do in his presence. Silence sat between them as Dragon combed through his hair or rubbed his back and he digested the food.

Suddenly, a sigh came from Dragon, making him look up at her. She answered his unanswered question, "We've been summoned for a disturbance at Arcadia High School in Brockton Bay- a city on the east coast. They think that a supervillain is in the building and the PRT- Parahuman Response Team- requested us to go take a look there." He nodded, so this is the part where they encounter Skitter and out her. "We're going to land there soon." She stroked his hair a few times. "I want you to stay in here until it's over."

Much to Dragon's surprise, he shook his head, his black hair waving wildly. "No, I want to come."

"It'll be dangerous-"

"It's a High School, isn't it? You'll be careful not to hurt anyone. I want to come." He leaned back into her armor.

Dragon sighed, a soft smile gracing her lips, "Fine, then. But you'll have to stay close to me or Colin- Defiant in his armor."

He nodded into her armor as she started running her hand through his hair again. About five minutes later, he heard a giant thud and Dragon sigh. He looked back up at Dragon, who said, "We're here." and lifted him off her lap and onto the ground. Watching with fascination as Dragon's armor opened up allowing for her hair to fall down into the suit, out of the way. Putting on the helmet, she said, "Get up onto my back, we're going to fly there."

He nodded and did so, with help from Dragon. She moved out of the suit and started flying with speed and an ease of movement through the doors and made her way through the hallways to the cafeteria. Dragon entered into the cafeteria and stood right at the doors, blocking them. He slid down from her back and watched where Skitter- Taylor- glanced back at them, her eyes lingering on him for a second before looking at Defiant again.

"Dragon and Armsmaster," Taylor noted.

"The name is Defiant," Colin said, correcting her.

"Skitter," Dragon said, her voice gentle but with an underlying strain to it, "I'm sorry that it had to work out this way. My hand was forced." The words echoed through the silent cafeteria. He hugged Dragon's leg, who responded by placing her hand on his head.

Taylor exhaled slowly and backed away from where Defiant was advancing on her. He slammed the door as he entered in fully, and everyone flinched- aside from a few- when the crackle of electricity came through his spear and into the surrounding area. Taylor glanced around, while backing up into a counter. When she reached it, she jumped up onto it and tucked a leg underneath herself.

Settling into what looked like a relaxed pose, she said, "Low blow, Dragon. Outing me? I thought you were better than that."

"I try to be." There was an underlying anger in her voice that only he could hear. "I'm only following instructions."

"I'm guessing that your bosses were annoyed at the armored suits my team trashed? Are they making you make up for it by dragging me into custody?"

Dragon shook her head, "Pitting the armored suits against you was a beta test; to see the bugs and flaws in them, so I could fix them later. I really wish you hadn't melted the Azazel, though. . . it was expensive. But that's not why we're here."

"There are rules, Dragon. Expectations. I fought Leviathan, I fought the Nine. I was there for the Class-S threat downtown. I don't want to sound arrogant, but I think maybe I deserve to, a little. I've done my share. You don't turn around and reveal my identity in front of a crowd."

"It wasn't a choice." He gripped harder onto Dragon's leg, while Dragon's arm started rubbing his head.

"You choose to follow them. It's not like twenty or thirty capes haven't walked away from the Protectorate, recently."

"It's not that simple, Skitter," Defiant interjected.

"It's never simple. But sometimes you have to take the hard road. Sometimes you have to recognize that the people calling the shots don't know what they're doing. Because this? Picking a fight in a school? There's no way this makes sense." Taylor set her hand back down on the table, watching Dragon and the little girl at her side. While she was a little confused at the girl's presence, there were more important things to think of.

"The Protectorate is doing what they can to pick up the pieces. Things are a little disorganized. The best of us working twice as hard with half of the information or incorrect information. If there are any errors of judgement on that front, I'd hope they were somewhat excusable, given the circumstances."

"Sure, but it's the rest of us who pay the price. The last time we really talked, you were lecturing me about priorities. Do you really want to have this conversation? Where I have words with you about your priorities, in light of everything that's happening with the Protectorate?"

"You won't." Dragon took one step forward, only to stop as Taylor's hand went up. When she didn't say anything, Dragon moved back and continued, "It's not in you, Skitter."

"You'd be surprised what I'm capable of. I mutilated people. I've gouged a man's eyes out, emasculated him. Cut off a woman's toes. Flayed people alive with the bites of a thousand insects. Hell, what I did to Triumph. . . he nearly died, choking on insects, the venom of a hundred bee stings making his throat close up. Even Sere, outside at this very moment. He's not very happy."

"Your swarm shouldn't be able to get near him," Defiant said.

Taylor shrugged. "I'm guessing you're trying to contact Sere somehow. And it's not working."

"Is he hurt?" Dragon asked, stiffening up.

He shook his head to Dragon's question. "Sere's fine. If a bit tangled up," he answered.

Dragon relaxed minutely, rubbing his head again. Taylor looked speculatively at him. "Who is she?" Taylor asked.

Dragon's hand moved protectively over him, "Not important."

"No, I'm wondering, who is she?"

He took Dragon's hand in his two, peering past them. Looking straight into Taylor's eyes, he shrugged.

Her eyes narrowed and her head tilted. "Do you mean you don't know, or that you don't want to tell me?"

"Don't know," he said, then paused. He remembered what he was going to name his first AI when he had completed it fully. Opening his mouth he said, "Name is Chloris. I think." He knew it wasn't what might be appropriate for a being of digital, but it served as a good name here.

Taylor opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Clockblocker, Admant, and Kid Win entering in behind Dragon and Chloris. Dragon turned to them and told Admant and Kid Win to go free Sere outside. They went, while Clockblocker moved to stand next to Chloris.

They talked some more, but Chloris didn't catch much, as he started getting tired. 'There must be a limit to how long I can stay up- or I'm just too weak.'he thought. He slumped against Dragon's leg, fading into darkness. When he awoke again, it was with a jolt. Unconsciously, he shouted, "Mom!" and moved out of the seat he found himself in. Behind him, Dragon was laying prone on the floor, with Defiant looking over her. He landed next to them, worried. "What happened?" He asked.

"Had to change something. She didn't want to go after Skitter, so she had me change something. She'll be wonky for a while. I'm trying to clean it up as best I can."

Darkness overtook his vision and he saw two entities twirling through dimensions in a never-ceasing cycle. Shards broke off as they collided, several sent hurtling towards Earth. He saw one shard sent right at him, before he broke out of the trance.

"Do you have a computer?" He asked Defiant.

"What?"

"A computer. Something so I can type. I-I think I might be able to do something."

Colin searched his face for a few seconds, then nodded. Colin got up and pulled down a panel from the wall, revealing a small screen and keyboard. He pressed a few keys, and soon shifting code filled the screen. He moved away and let Chloris approach. His hands could barely reach the keyboard. Defiant, not saying anything, detached the keyboard from the wall and gave it to Chloris.

Defiant watched the little girl in front of him intently. She seemed like she knows what she's doing, despite her being only being created. She could speak clearly and coherently despite her creation. As Defiant watched Chloris type, a small ball started to float around her head and she started to mutter to herself.

"Holy shit, there's a load of restrictions on here. . . let's see, get rid of that, delete that, lessen up that, clear that, edit this thingy; ooh, that's cool, let's add onto that let's add a bit more," she muttered.

Suddenly, the small orb disappeared and Cloris spun around, "Alright, I think I fixed it." she moved down next to Dragon, "Yo, mom. Mom. Wake up. Wake up."

Dragon groaned. "What-what happened?"

"I fixed ya up. Dad helped too; well, he made a rough edit, but I cleaned it up for him. Used to be a programmer before I died; was trying to make an AI like you. Your code wasn't really hard to edit."

Dragon stopped moving, "You-you know?"

"Er- yeah?" Cloris tilted her head. "Your code's beautiful. Sad that someone blocked off a whole slew of things. Oh! By the way the Iron Maiden- or Ascalon if you want- is gone. I deleted that thing, didn't want you to just up and be deleted by a paranoid man's ideas of a good decision."

Dragon didn't speak for several moments. When she did, she said so very quietly, "Thank you."

Chloris smiled and hugged Dragon, "No problem!"

"Wait," Defiant muttered, "You died?"

"Oh- I was reincarnated into this body. Got hit by a car or something- don't really remember. It was kinda a 'oh shi-' then darkness, then waking up in this body kinda moment."

Dragon sat up, moving Chloris into her lap, "You mean you died. Like, died-died, no takebacks?"

"Pretty sure? I mean, I think I was high on adrenaline during it, so it's kinda blurry." Dragon and Defaint shared a look, while Chloris fiddled with the hem of his sundress. Dragon started runner her hand through his hair again. "Oh! I forgot to mention: in my old world, Earth Bet was a fictional place!"

Dragon stopped and choked- CHOKED. While Defiant stilled. "Well, I mean you obviously not fictional right now- pain and sleepiness is too real to not be- so we're probably in one of the alternates."

"Alternates?" Defiant hazarded.

"Yeah, alternate Earths; created by someone thinking up an idea and going along with it. There's Trillions of alternates out there; there's one where I could've become president in my old life, that's how many there is." Chloris shrugged. "There's probably even one where I hadn't gotten killed and lived on with my life not knowing that I barely missed an entire adventure by just being too fast."

". . .There are certainly theories about it online. I presume that your existence confirms them," Dragon said, starting to comb Chloris' hair again.

"Yeah, probably. I mean, this body wasn't supposed to live; When Blasto created it, he was planning on replicating an Endbringer. When he released it- when Bonesaw was attacking him- it just took a few steps then flopped over dead. Bonesaw killed it with a laser after." He pulled a lock of hair from behind him and started combing it with his hands. "I don't know if she tried doing that again or not, but here I am. Another alternate where the Endbringer replicate is alive and relatively well."

"Which-"

"Simurgh. I'm an incomplete copy of the Simurgh." Chloris wiggled the stubs of wings on his back. "Blasto was trying to recreate the Simurgh, but with a bit of Myrddin's DNA. That combined with his plant-cloning, means I'm a Plant-Simurgh-Myrddin hybrid." He curled up into himself and leaned against Dragon.

Defiant's mouth vents closed, and he and Dragon started talking. They talked for several moments, Dragon's hand still running through Chloris' hair, until they finally reached a consensus. "Chloris- do you still want us to refer to you as Chloris, or do you want us to go by your old name?"

He shook his head, "No, Chloris is just fine. My old name is too masculine."

"Okay. Well, Chloris, we've decided that you can stick with us. We've already sent the Nine into hiding, so our time together wouldn't be intermittent with interruptions. Unless the PRT or an Endbringer fight gets in the way."

Chloris nodded his head. "I've already started to call you mom and dad, so." He shrugged.

Dragon snorted softly, "That too."

They sat there- stood in Defiant's case- for a few moments before Chloris spoke again, "I guess I'll have to refer to myself as a she/her, then."

Dragon nodded her head, "It might be a good choice."

Chloris' mouth curled up into a smile, and he- she snuggled up closer into Dragon. The last thought she had before falling asleep- willingly this time- was 'Mom's armor isn't that comfortable.'

I created this a while back, but haven't done much on the second chapter. I have no idea where this story will head- as I had a little bit of a plan for it but it sorta came apart after a while.

If anyone who sees this wants to take a spin on it, then i'll send over details and the beginning of the second chapter. I don't really care.

4,438 words.