It was astounding how he could find something far too familiar for him in a completely different universe. There, on the other side of the road, stood a familiar orange building with green vertical stripes on them: Doc Burgalicious.

He hated the color scheme but he had no say in it.

Theo pulled out his wallet and counted: thirty bucks. He could grab something to eat if the money worked in this world, but he had a slight hunch that it wouldn’t. For all he knew, the dollar would have the face of someone he didn’t know on it, and to everyone else, it’d seem like he had fake money.

If it was a dollar at all, that is.

He’d watched enough movies and read comics with people who got thrown into another world to know that things would be different over here. It wouldn’t be as convenient as in the movies, too. It’d be more difficult.

After a few seconds, he pulled out his phone: it was a flip phone that couldn’t use the internet. He had a laptop at home and that was all he needed, and could afford. There was no need to carry around his laptop in his pockets, after all. Especially when it could be easily stolen.

Theo looked at the top right corner where the service bars were, and could clearly see that it had a big bright ‘X’ in its place.

That happened when there was no service, which would mean that in this world, there weren’t any phones at all or more believably, there were phones but his phone couldn’t use their reception.

It made getting food more and more unrealistic.

He could go for a day without food if push came to shove, but he didn’t want to. It made him feel miserable.

Being a messenger of God was one thing but it didn’t excuse him from eating, drinking, or sleeping unless… there were powers that did that.

As far as he was aware, though, he only had the ones visible at the moment unless there were more and he was simply stuck on the first page. That, though, was something for later. He had a grand total of 0 Points at the moment and until he managed to find another Superhuman, it could take a while.

“I should’ve grabbed food at work,” he mumbled underneath his breath and stared at the large screen standing before the Doc Burgalicious branch. It was playing an ad of a menu item that he didn’t recognize, and he would if he’d seen it before.

He had to make them.

For a moment, he thought of Super Speed and what it would have offered had he chosen that. Stealing food would be a piece of cake with that, quite possibly, especially if he could fly.

Maybe he could just become a villain and rob people?

No, he wouldn’t do that. Even if he didn’t want to hurt them, he could break bones like they were ‘uncooked spaghetti’ now and that wasn’t something he wanted to inflict on others, and that screamed accidental injuries.

But that reminded him.

He didn’t have an identity, as far as it went. If his credit cards didn’t work, then his fingerprints wouldn’t be in any database either. It was a chance to start over, in a literal sense. There was nothing that involved him in this world.

That also meant there was no need for a secret identity.

Perhaps when he got to know some people, but he had the chance to start over completely. Find some shapeshifting ability among the hundreds of abilities that he could buy, as the Goddess implied that he could have all the abilities if he could pay for them, and then start over with a wholly new identity.

Theo closed his eyes and breathed in.

He should be able to fly now that he’d purchased the power, but how he could do that, he had no idea. Punching hard or being durable was natural, and so was Regeneration, but flying?

That required active effort.

At a loss as to what to do, he closed his eyes and let go of his body as if trying to fall down onto his bed. Ideally, he’d start floating the moment before he touched the ground.

This wasn’t an ideal world.

He fell to the ground and winced when his head hit the ground. He also happened to close his eyes the moment before the impact, making him groan out loud.

“Are you alright, sir?” asked a disembodied voice from his left.

It was a tall blond that looked to be an athlete with a broad and muscular frame. The sports bag hanging from his shoulder only solidified that further. He stood next to him and offered him a hand.

“Probably,” said Theo as he climbed up to his feet, impolitely declining the support and rubbed his hair after sitting up.

Why the hell wasn’t it working?

The System itself was easy enough to direct, but it seemed that his powers weren’t. If he had to learn how to properly use each and every one of them, it would be troublesome, especially if he was in a rush.

Finding a Superhuman and recruiting them for more points was his go-to plan. He even had a cool monologue devised in his head. Whether they worked or not was up to fate and luck, but he had it planned. To do that, though, he needed to learn how to properly fly, at least.

If he trusted in his ability to fly and rushed into trouble, then he’d be in deep shit. Powers malfunctioning at the worst times was a ridiculously dumb way to die, and he would very much prefer to live for long enough to feel special.

To feel like a hero.

He’d feel that sense of accomplishment he hadn’t felt in ages again, and that alone was drive enough.

“You looked like you tried to fall down,” said the guy with narrow eyes and a slightly open mouth, sizing him up and down.

“Trying to fly. I just can’t get it to work,” said Theo and rolled his eyes.

There was no need to hide it. Not yet, at least. He had to prepare this world and if he was allowed to take a direct approach, he’d take it. Playing mind games or protecting the world from the shadows was never his forte, and would never be.

If he could do it straight, he’d do it straight, and the Goddess didn’t have any qualms about him telling everyone that he was here to help them. Even if he wouldn’t explain it in detail, he could still spill the beans to a few folks.

As far as anyone would be aware, he’d be neutral.

“So you’re telling me… you can fly,” said the blond.

“I should be able to,” said Theo.

“Okay,” the blond said slowly and gave Theo the same look that he gave him moments prior, “Then fly.”

“I can’t,” hissed Theo and turned to him, “But I should be able to. It might be malfunctioning but I’ll get the hang of it. Before you go, though, what’s the name of this planet and the currency you use?”

“So you’re like, serious about this,” said the blond.

“Well, yes. I am, because I’m pretty sure I’m not from this place,” said Theo and clenched his fist and teeth, and through his teeth, he groaned, faking irritation, “For starters, what’s this planet and what’s the currency you use?”

“Terra, and we use Crescents over here, Mr. Alien,” said the blond sarcastically.

“Terra, huh? Well, not too different, I guess,” Theo mumbled underneath his breath and

“Alright, buddy. You’re taking it a bit too far,” said the blond and stepped back slightly, “I’ll just… go on with my evening, alright? And umm, cut back on the drugs.”

“Fine, I’ll figure it out myself,” said Theo and watched the blond walk away.

Crescents and Terra.

He had an idea of the planet’s name from the System’s so-called walkthrough but he didn’t know if the number was a part of the name or a designation for what reality it was, so he could assume that it was the 38th of the Goddess’s worlds, who had who-knows-how-many.

Playing a prick was fun and all but he had a reputation to uphold. He couldn’t just shapeshift and start over until he got access to that power in the first place, and he wouldn’t be doing that for a while.

Next time, maybe he had to act more amicable and timid.

That’s how the early heroes appeared in media, at least. Like a friendly neighborhood superhero or that one chill guy who happened to have powers, fighting against the intense ones.

From the reactions of the blond, he could assume that this place didn’t have many Superhumans. It would be unrealistic for him to act surprised and that skeptical unless there weren’t all that many of them in this place if they were there at all.

Theo looked up at the sky.

Whenever he looked up at the sky, it made him feel like he’d start floating up, and with his crippling fear of heights back in his old world, that was a reality he’d like. But here, in a place he could fly, that fear wasn’t present.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes as if praying for a few seconds, and snapped them open, taking in the sight of the night sky and the pale blue moon hanging up there.

His body started to feel lighter by the moment and before he even knew it, he had a sense of disorientation. After a dry chuckle, Theo looked back down to the ground, only to find himself an inch off the ground.

There was nothing for his feet to stand on and all he could do was grin like a madman.

He was flying!

“Oh, my God,” Theo said out loud, more of a reflex than anything else.

He turned to the blond to shout out to him but saw him nowhere. He’d possibly turned left at the corner at the end of the road, but he didn’t have to be the audience. Rather, there was already an audience below him, staring up at Theo as he gradually floated up, which he'd prefer not to be there in the first place but finding an isolated place seemed like a bother.

The bunch of them scrambled to pull out their phones for a video.

Theo turned to one of the cameras and thought of something cool to say, but he didn’t know of any location in the city. If he did, he could have perhaps called for the Superhumans to gather in a spot and try to recruit them, rewarding him with a massive amount of Points but it’d take a while until he reached that point.

He gave the camera an uneasy wave and turned his head to look up, and as if reading his intention, he started to rapidly fly up. It was apparent from the wind on his face, but every moment of it made his lungs feel like bursting.

By the time he looked down, humans looked like mere dots and he was on the same level as the highest floors of the skyscrapers in the distance.

That’s when he started to feel his heartbeat start to pump faster, not only from his acrophobia but also the physical exertion, making him feel like he was about to collapse after a long marathon.

So he started falling, unable to keep himself afloat anymore. It felt like his lungs would explode if he did that and at the moment, it felt like a hundred needles were stabbing into his lungs.

With each second of falling, he sped up.

What the blond said about gravity was true. It was the same as back on Earth so it made sense that he’d inevitably accelerate to an absurd speed. Even with his durability, it would be impossible to survive.

It was a pickle.

As he fell, though, he forced himself to reduce the speed at which he fell, but not straight up flying. That was less taxing, for sure, but it was still exhausting all the same, so he let go once again.

The earth started to come closer and closer like his head would smash into it and give or take, when he was at a height of ten or so meters, he started to fly again, reducing the impact from the fall to a negligible level.

His durability was enough to endure a car crashing into him at maximum speed, and that was enough to tank a fall from a height of around twenty meters, or at least somewhere around that from all the reduction.

That’s what Theo hoped for.

Painfully, or rather, with no pain at all, he slammed into the ground and rolled over a few times, making him chuckle through his teeth.

“Whew,” said Theo as he lied on the ground, staring up at the sky, panting like there was no tomorrow. Each breath burned his lungs and made him feel like he’d die, but it was a good feeling.

He was flying!

As scary as it was, it was exhilarating. Something that he hadn’t felt in ages. It was actual excitement and the adrenaline pumped through his body, making him feel all tingly: also something he hadn’t felt in ages if he’d felt it at all.

And there was the smile! He couldn’t feel but let out that smile. He felt as giddy as a kindergartener that was trying to show off a new toy that he got to his friends.

That’s when he realized there were too many people around him, shooting a video of him on their smartphones. Whatever happened now, it wouldn’t be good. Getting tangled up with law enforcement was never good and that’s what would happen.

Seeing a guy that could fly when there wasn’t anyone else that could.

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It ought to be suspicious enough for the cops to arrest him for a bit, if not throw him into prison and try to keep him there. With his complete lack of identification, or rather, an identification that wasn’t valid in this world, it’d be disastrous.

Unless… he acted fast.

But he could fly away to the top of a building with relative ease without being caught by the cops, and even if they did try to catch him, they’d most definitely use pistols rather than the heavy guns, and that gave him a chance.

He was practically invulnerable to them, after all.

Maybe he was looking at it from the wrong perspective. Maybe, he had to start out the trend of superheroes in this world if there weren’t any of them rather than waiting for them to pop up. It was his duty to draw them out by some means.

Once again, Theo regretted not choosing [Super Speed] instead of [Super Strength], but he couldn’t mope about one wrong choice all the time.

After lying there for a good five minutes, Theo climbed up to his feet and looked up at the people who’d started leaving one by one. Clearly, a man that was lying on the ground, heaving like he’d just finished running a marathon, wasn’t a good show to watch. In fact, it seemed like there were only two of them remaining.

“Well, I'm afraid I’ll have to leave now,” said Theo and took off, flying up to the rooftop of the nearest building as he worked on his maneuvering.

Training his [Flight] was essential if it was to be his escape tool, and he hadn’t really tried to move sideways yet, only up, but it proved to be the same. As he zipped up to the ceiling of a nearby apartment building, Theo realized that floating and actively flying in a direction had no difference in terms of stamina expenditure.

As far as he could notice, that is.

He had to work on his appearance during flight. If he’d be running away from anyone by flying, he had to look cool while doing it. Running away in itself was a lame act and it’d be doubly lame if he scrambled away like an amateur.

More importantly, though… food.

He needed something.

Having no money at all was troublesome. He didn’t know anyone he could borrow money from like in his old world as well, so it was doubly terrifying.

Maybe, just maybe, he had to steal.

Theo looked down at the Doc Burgalicious building on the other side of the road and stared at it. He knew when it closed back on his Earth but whether it closed at the same time in this world, he did not know.

He pulled out his phone and stared at the digital clock that took up most of the screen: 21:38.

The time looked to be just about right and the sun had mostly set, only a dim blue glow enveloping the sky, giving off the impression of it not being dark yet. But it would be, and it’d get dark very soon.

Sadly, the sunset didn’t matter to fast food chains. Without fault, most of them would work until midnight. He could bear his hunger until then, and after the last worker left, he could slip in and out.

Many would ask one simple question if they figured out a superhero robbed a store. Why Doc Burgalicious of all places?

The answer was simple: he hated the place and it was the only place he could steal from and feel like he wasn’t doing anything wrong. But it was also a place that was more of a home to him than his shabby apartment, as he’d spent more time there than he did home.

Then he let out a deep sigh and took a seat on the ground, leaning on the rusted black fence that lined the outline of the building. He’d seen them before but sitting around on a roof wasn’t something he’d done back on Earth between his acrophobia and busy lifestyle.

That’s when he heard the all-too-familiar sound of sirens. Several of them.

Theo hopped up to his feet and leaned over the fence to look at the firetrucks speeding by. A look at their destination let him see the trail of smoke rising high up into the sky in the distance, accompanied by a dull orange light down below it.

Give or take, it was a kilometer away.

Would he make it if he flew?

Definitely not, as that was even more tiring than running and give or take, he’d only flown a hundred meters last time and was about to die. For the third time within two hours, he regretted not choosing [Super Speed] over [Super Strength]. He could live without the strength but the speed was proving to be an essential asset, which would have let him scale a greater distance in a shorter amount of time, allowing him to make better use of his measly stamina.

But then again, did he need to fly in and save the day?

It wasn’t like a superhero had to jump in at the first sign of trouble. Firefighters were in business because they were competent and they were good at putting out fires. That possibly extended to saving people too.

There had to be a stamina-related power… right?

You have gained access to the [Beginner Store] as you have spent your initial 50 Points.

Would you like to access it now?

[Yes]

[No]

He shrugged it off and the screen faded into nothingness.

That was for later.

Theo noticed a traffic jam at the next junction, full of honking and it could take a bit for the trio of firetrucks to make it there.

With tightly sealed lips, Theo jumped over the fence and started falling down to the ground from the rooftop of the six-story building he’d been on. He knew what he was doing now and he’d learned to fly. While it wasn’t as good as it could be, he had the hang of it.

Just before he hit the ground, Theo willed himself up, letting him land on the ground lightly. Like he was gently placed there by a friendly giant.

It was a decent landing and he managed to persevere his stamina as much as possible by only using it at the last moment to stop his fall. And he hadn’t accelerated too much from that fall. Otherwise, he’d have hit the ground with far more force but even if he did, he was durable enough to take the fall.

At least that’s what he assumed. Being hit by a car and falling from high were drastically different in terms of how much punishment they’d dish out, and he didn’t know which was worse.

Sprinting a whole kilometer was absurd and it’d tire him out, but there was no other way around it.

Theo steeled his resolve and started sprinting, which was far faster than he could back on Earth. He wasn’t unnaturally fast nor enough to make everything a blur, possibly because he hadn’t purchased Super Speed but it was enough to be noticeable.

It was like he had the conditioning of a world-class athlete, barely feeling out of breath when running.

He’d expected worse from how difficult it was to fly but then he realized something about the description of [Flight] when he purchased it. It said: “Your Stamina drain is increased dramatically while flying.”

That meant that it was far more draining than simply running, which wasn’t very draining but he felt some straining on his calves and lungs. It was negligible but it was present.

Within moments, he’d appeared at a crosswalk but there was a red light and he could see cars speeding past.

Theo rolled his eyes and jumped up, which was drastically higher than he expected: two meters, and that was an almost casual one, too.

Before he fell, he started floating, and instantly, he felt his lungs strain.

Only lungs, he noticed.

That was good. It didn’t make his entire body ache and that was good enough. This made him look forward to buying the second level of [Flight], though, which he assumed would make flying a lot less draining.

Getting to the other side took him less than a second and a half.

After he landed, he proceeded to run and that happened a total of four times, as that was the number of roads that he had to pass through before he reached the fire. The exhaustion was there, forcing him to heave like there was no tomorrow.

Four short bursts of flight had caused that, and while running didn’t drain him too much, the fact that he wasn’t resting in-between and running instead magnified the effect. If he’d only been flying and then resting, the reality could perhaps be different.

It was easy to spot the burning building. Rather, it wasn’t a burning building but simply the topmost floor that was on fire, letting out a generous amount of smoke through its windows. He could see several people sticking out near the windows as if waiting for someone.

Theo let out a deep breath and instantly shot up, scaling the height of thirty meters in a mere second. It was like with each instance of [Flight], he was getting better at it. It was less learning to properly fly and more his body getting used to flying.

Was his body automatically learning how to fly intuitively, as the Goddess explained her System as?

But all that thinking had to be done later, because he couldn’t save all these people while spacing out, and simply spacing out while flying wasn’t something he could do yet.

He snatched a kid that looked to be eight first and noticed that the kid practically weighed nothing. So he placed the kid on his shoulder and grabbed his older brother, who seemed to be in his teens, and descended carefully, breathing heavily all the while.

Lightly, just like before, he landed. Instead of falling until the last moment like before, he flew all the way down and placed them there.

Theo turned to look up and counted ten more.

He jumped up but his lungs said otherwise. They screamed for him to stop and rest, but he couldn’t. Not on his debut, at least.

That’s when a purple streak passed right above him and within a moment, zipped around several times before landing on the ground. Caught off guard, Theo didn’t fly. He simply landed on the ground and stared up.

There were fewer people up there.

That’s when he realized it: the purple streak was saving them.

So they did have a hero.

That was good.

Finally freed from the responsibility of saving the people, Theo leaned on the walls of the building and closed his eyes, breathing hard.

If he could fly properly, then he’d have placed them with the group of people that had left the building and were standing in a neat group on the other side of the road as the purple streak did, but he couldn’t, so the best he could manage was straight below where they’d been before.

“You alright?” asked Theo as he looked at the kids.

“You’re slow,” said the older of the two.

“Thank you. I’m working on that,” said Theo.

He should’ve gotten that Super Speed.

The purple streak landed next to him and Theo finally caught a glimpse of the suited hero for the first time, if you could call his purple hoodie one. It had a joined pocket near the abdomen and the hood was covering the upper part of his face while the lower part was covered by a black bandana.

The people cheered, so clearly, it wasn’t unusual for him to make an appearance.

“You can fly,” said the purple streak quickly, his voice giddy.

“Yeah,” Theo answered and within a second, a brilliant idea struck him out of nowhere. It was a half-truth that could possibly let him get some free food while getting closer to that sweet 50 Point bonus for recruiting a Superhuman, “I’ve been looking for you, Purple. We need to talk.”

“It’s Valiant,” he countered.

Bingo.

Got his name.

“Follow me,” said Theo, channeling his inner nerd that always wanted to say cool lines while acting badass. However, the flight up to the rooftop of a nearby building wasn’t as cool as he wanted it to be, and at the end of the hundred or so meter flight, he was gasping for air like a man that was stuck in a desert for years thirsting for water.

Valiant was there long before he was.

“So much for following you,” said Valiant, arms crossed, leaning on the small cabin that led to the rooftop from below.

“To my credit, I just learned how to fly around thirty minutes ago so cut back on the disses,” said Theo in-between breaths and rolled his eyes behind his closed eyelids.

“So, why you looking for me,” asked Valiant and raised both arms in a shrug, “Wanna be a sidekick or something? If so, I ain’t recruiting.”

“No, no. Far from it,” said Theo and held up a finger. He bared his teeth and let the air leave his lungs through closed teeth, and then breathed in with his nose, “Just give me a minute. I need to catch my breath.”

“Great, the first Super I run into can fly and he can’t even do it properly. Just my luck, huh?” Valiant said out loud and walked around in circles, arms crossed, waiting for Theo to catch his breath.

“Okay, I’m done,” said Theo after letting out a long breath, clearly lying through his teeth, but he’d recovered enough to articulate properly. He had his hands on his hips and was in a pose similar to bowing, almost a ninety-degree angle with the ground, “This world’s in danger. You and I. We gotta find more of us. As many as we can.”

“Well, easier said than done, buddy. You’re the first one I’ve run into and I’ve been out and about since September,” said Valiant.

“I’m the only one?” asked Theo and raised an eyebrow as he looked up at the hooded hero, “No one else?”

“Duh,” said Valiant and pulled down his bandana. Then he breathed in the fresh air without the bandana blocking off his nose. Shortly after that, he pulled off his hood, revealing short curly hair that clung to his head, “You been living under a rock or something?”

He was light-skinned, that much was apparent, clean-shaven if he’d grown a beard at all. His skin was smooth enough to pass as a high-schooler or a freshman in college, not to mention his voice sounding a tad bit too immature.

Was he a kid?

“That’d imply I’ve been in this world at all, and I haven’t been,” said Theo.

“So like, you were born yesterday or something?” asked Valiant and looked at him with narrowed eyes and a tilted head.

“Another world,” explained Theo and rubbed his forehead, “Like, there’s an another… planet, just like this. Full of humans and all.”

“So you’re practically an alien,” said Valiant, pointing a finger at him as he slowly nodded.

“No, no. A parallel world. Like, it’s another Terra, but in another world. So you can’t get there through a rocket but an inter-dimensional portal,” said Theo, gesturing with his hands wildly.

While he wasn’t the greatest when it came to science, he’d read and watched enough stories where science-savvy characters explained parallel worlds to others. It was common knowledge back on Earth but on Terra, it could be different. So he prepared to explain, but Valiant stopped him with an unexpected question.

“So, umm, what’s a rocket again?” he asked.

“Well, it’s that thing that spouts out fire from the bottom and flies up,” said Theo, trying to explain it to the best of his abilities. If he was this dumb, then working with the guy would be difficult. After staring at Valiant’s expression until he gave an obnoxious shrug, Theo proceeded, “You know, that thing you use to get to the moon? And other planets. Ring a bell?”

“Wait, you mean you can get to the moon? That’s possible?” asked Valiant and slowly, a grin spread on his face.

Theo stared at Valiant with a wide-open mouth and deadpan eyes.

Rockets… didn’t exist in this world?

“Come on, you ought to have seen something like that in comics, at least. Or books,” said Theo, brows droopy.

“Comics? Are those like books or something?” asked Valiant.

“Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit. Shit!” shouted Theo and looked up at the sky, lips shut and eyes closed. He nodded a few times at the sky and turned back to Valiant, “We have a lot of learning to do, my friend.”

“Do? Like what? Save people?” asked Valiant.

“Let me guess,” said Theo and slowly walked closer to Valiant, “There isn’t any superhero fiction on this planet.”

“Well, considering I made up that term like last month, no,” said Valiant and narrowed his eyes as he stared at Theo. “Unless there’s some fan-fiction about me floating around the web. I-I’m not sure there aren’t any.”

Theo put his index and middle finger on his temple and softly massaged them.

Prepare, she said. It’ll be fun, she said.

Well, it’d probably be fun, but this was utterly ridiculous.

The Supers on this world hadn’t even started popping up by the dozen and he was supposed to prepare it. It was cool, though. At least he could play the wise mentor type in a world like this where his endless fount of useless knowledge would serve the heroes well.

And that’s all he had to do to feel like he was worth something.

Theo started to chuckle.

“Dude, you’re creeping me out,” said Valiant.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” said Theo and stifled his laughter. With a more serious look on his face, he once again turned to Valiant, “Your world’s in danger, and a bunch of strong Supers will be invading. I don’t know when. Could be years, could be months, could be days, and before then, I need to teach you to properly use your powers.”

“Meanwhile, you can’t even use your own,” countered Valiant.

“Yes,” said Theo and paused, a finger raised to stop Valiant from dropping another sentence, “But I know how you can use your powers. Trust me. I’m from a world where Supers are everywhere. And trust me, superheroes have been there for ages. I used to know a guy like you. With powers like that, I mean”

That was the lie part of the half-truth.

He had to convince him that he wasn’t just some nerd but someone that was actually a superhero, or at least an advisor to one back in his old world. If his theory about it being a different multiverse was valid, then it’d be borderline impossible to confirm it.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Valiant and stepped back a few times. He let out a scoff and raised both hands, and as if karate-chopping two invisible wooden planks in front of him, he hit the air a few Tims and proceeded, “So like, there’s a bunch of people like me on whatever planet you’re from?”

“A lot,” said Theo, and his stomach grumbled, but it wasn’t comically loud enough for Valiant to hear. But he could hear it and it was an uncomfortable feeling. So he asked, “So, mind shouting me dinner?”

“Shout? Like shout out the word dinner?” asked Valiant.

Right, he was in another world and the Australians hadn’t poured into the neighborhood enough for their slang to take over the city. This wasn’t even the same world so the slang might as well not exist.

“It means you pay for me,” explained Theo and turned the palm of his hand up, “Alien or not, I don’t have any money that works in your world. Crescents, was it? Can I see one, by the way?”

“Umm, I don’t have any right now. I don’t bring any while I’m flying. They get lost easily. Flies right out of my pockets,” said Valiant and that’s when Theo remembered about something that could also easily get lost: his glasses.

He touched his face and found no trace of his glasses.

Before the panic set in, Theo realized that he could see perfectly.

“Oh, my God,” said Theo.

“Wait, you say… God in your world? Not Goddess? That’s weird,” said Valiant, pointing a finger at him with a slightly tilted head.

“One of many differences between two worlds, if you will,” said Theo and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t mention the part about his missing glasses, though. It was a welcome benefit from the Goddess.

No rockets, comics and Valiant was the first superhero in this world.

That was rich.

“Well, since you kinda don’t have a place to go to, since you’re from another world, you can have dinner at my place. Mom won’t mind,” said Valiant and as if remembering something, he extended a hand, “Name’s Colt Collins, but just call me C.C. It’d be weird if you start calling me Colt near mom.”

Theo thought for a few seconds.

That was actually an excellent offer, and he was going to accept it. But if he could sell that Theo was indeed his friend, which would be difficult if Colt was as young as he looked.

“How old are you, by the way?” asked Theo with furrowed brows.

“Twenty-one,” said Colt.

One year older than him and he looked this young?

That was one hell of a baby face.

“Sure, yeah. I’ll crash at your place,” said Theo and after a second, he added, “That’s like… a thing, right? Like it’s not some slang from another world.”

“Umm, yeah, yeah. That’s a word here,” said Valiant and nodded a few times.

It’d be awkward to learn more about this place if every conversation would be like this.