The bank guards Jenny had killed now appeared in her nightmares.  At least, they did in the handful of hours that Jenny was able to sleep.

    The guards screamed and begged for mercy.  Behind them, the shadowy figures of their wives and children pleaded with her.  She wanted to turn and reply, but her knives were already moving and killing.  She tried to stop, but her arms moved of their own accord.  As each guard fell to her knives, their loved ones fell to their knees and sobbed.  She opened her mouth to apologize, to explain, to say something, anything, but nothing came out.

    She startled awake in The Destroyer’s arms, breathing heavily.  Tears ran down her cheeks.  The abandoned warehouse they had turned into their new base was silent.

    “You were having a nightmare,” The Destroyer said.  “You wanted me to hold you when that happened.”

    Jenny nodded and buried her face in his robes.  “I killed those people,” she muttered.

    “You said that they didn’t matter because they weren’t real,” The Destroyer said.  “Why does it cause you such distress if they’re fictional like us?”

    “They aren’t real,” Jenny sobbed.  “And it doesn’t matter.  It shouldn’t matter.  But I can’t stop seeing their faces!  Why can’t I stop seeing their faces?”

    Jenny wiped the tears away.  She couldn’t afford them.  Their enemies had shown themselves, and one was not only a superhero, but the superhero, Captain Infinite himself.  She had watched him throw The Destroyer around like a rag doll.  And then there was that anime girl, who had proven to be at least as strong as she was.  And when Jenny had her knife to the anime girl’s throat...she had hesitated.

    Jenny shook her head.  Why had she hesitated?  She hadn’t hesitated with the bank guards.  She hadn’t hesitated with all the monsters she had fought back in her own world.  But she had hesitated here, against an enemy who would never have done so had their positions been reversed.  If anime girl had her dead to rights, Jenny would be dead.

    Jenny sighed.  “I was made broken, Roy.”

    “Feeling things doesn’t mean you’re broken,” The Destroyer said.  “I think you’re human.  I’m the one with all of the gaps in my mind – that’s being made broken.”

    “I want to know why I’m this way,” Jenny said.  “I want to find the one who created me and ask her why she made me and everybody I care about suffer.  I want to know why she hated me.”

    “I will help you do that if you want,” The Destroyer said.

    Jenny looked up into his eyes.  “And what about you?  Don’t you want to meet your creator and find out why he made you the way he did?  Don’t you want him to give you a name?”

    The Destroyer stared at her for a moment.  “I think I want to know why I don’t have a name.  I think I want to find my creator.”

    “Let’s do that, then,” Jenny declared.  “Let’s find our creators, and find out why they made us what we are.”

    “That’s an admirable goal,” a midwestern American voice said from the shadows.  “But a bit harder to make a reality, I think.”

    Jenny was crouched in a combat stance with her knives drawn before she was even aware she had moved.  “Who are you?”

    A tall man with short dark hair, wearing a black three-piece suit, stepped into the open.  “My name is Jack Death.  You visited my world.  I was quite impressed with what you left behind.”

    “What do you want?” Jenny demanded.

    “To discuss joining you,” Jack said.  “I saw your fight with Captain Infinite and the woman in the green uniform.  A girl and a wizard against a living god seemed to be an unfair contest.  I don’t like those.”

    “Why do you want to join us?” The Destroyer asked.  “What do you gain?”

    “I want to meet my creator and hold him to account for the world he created.”

    “So you know we’re all fictional characters,” Jenny said, sheathing her knives and rising from her combat stance, “that our lives were created to amuse the people of this world.”

    “It didn’t take long to figure out,” Jack stated.  “My world is empty and simplistic compared to this one.  All I had to do was sit in a park and watch people to see the difference.  There’s so many different kinds of people here, leading so many different lives.  They do things I don’t understand, but I want to.  They live in such unfathomable peace.  All my world has ever had is violence, and I am never going back there.”

    Jenny watched Jack pause for a moment.  Then he added, “And, I think, if I kill my creator, I’ll kill the way back as well.”

    “Your world does not make you happy?” The Destroyer asked.

    Jack shrugged.  “I don’t know what ‘happy’ even means.  When I remove an obstacle, I feel satisfaction.  When somebody makes a demand, I feel trepidation.  When I fight and kill, I feel nothing.  I thought that was normal, until I got here.  When people smile in this world, there isn’t any malice in their eyes.  That’s not normal, at least where I’m from.”

    “Your world sounds worse than mine,” Jenny said, “which is quite impressive.  My story turned my world into a hellscape in which I lost everybody I ever cared about or loved.  But at least I had those people in the first place.”

    “I will champion your cause,” The Destroyer declared.  “You may join us.  I would see you learn what it is to be happy.”

    Jenny held out her hand.  “Welcome to the gang.  I’m Jenny, and this is Roy.”

    Jack paused for a moment, and then took her hand and shook it.

    “I am known as The Destroyer,” The Destroyer added.  “‘Roy’ is what Jenny has decided to call me.”

    “His creator was so half-assed that he didn’t even bother giving Roy an actual name,” Jenny explained.  “But as I keep telling him, Roy is not a villain and doesn’t deserve the title he has.”

    “From what I saw in the bank,” Jack said, “the title isn’t completely wrong.”

    “Maybe,” Jenny said.  “But I spent my life hunting and fighting monsters.  I know the real monsters when I see them.  Roy isn’t one.  He’s just a good man with horns on his head and magic powers.”

    “You’ve still got a problem, though,” Jack said.  “Captain Infinite.  He and his friends want that orb of yours, whatever it is, and they’ll kill you to get it.  I know killers when I see them.  It’s why you’re hiding here and not just staying in a hotel.  What is that orb thing, anyway?”

    “It’s a power source,” The Destroyer replied.  “It maintains my powers in this world, and allows me to travel to other worlds at will.”

    “So why not hide in one of those?”

    The Destroyer smiled, his eyes beaming with enthusiasm.  “I like this one the best.  All the others are empty in comparison.  And this is the world where our creators are, so it is where we need to be.  It is the place that makes me happy.”  He looked at Jenny for a moment.  “It is the place I hope my friend can be happy and at peace.”

    “Makes sense,” Jack said.  “I can probably hold the woman in the military uniform at bay with my guns, but they won’t do anything against Captain Infinite.  The man’s bulletproof.  And knife-proof.  And, although you haven’t seen it yet, he can shoot lasers out of his eyes.  I’m amazed you managed to get a hit in on him at all, and he recovered very quickly.  We’re going to need more help.”

    Jenny nodded.  “I know.  We know of him in my world too.  How overpowered do you have to be that you’re famous in worlds that aren’t even related to your story?”

    “So, we need to know what our enemies are doing, what they’re planning, and where we can recruit allies.”

    “I can help with that,” The Destroyer said.  “I am not without the powers of a god myself.  I will scrye for the answers.”

    The Destroyer waved his hand in a flourish.  Four images appeared in the air before him.  Jenny’s eyes widened.  In the first, the people who had fought them languished in what appeared to be a barracks.  In the second, a black woman was being escorted by Japanese soldiers alongside a slightly overweight grey-haired white guy to the door of a long building.  In the third, a short Japanese man in a bathrobe tapped away at a keyboard in a small apartment.  And in the fourth, a tall Japanese man with a scar on his face in a blue cloak and leather armour leaned against a wall, shaking his head.

    “Our enemies are in confinement,” The Destroyer reported.  “They have requested the aid of the government of this nation, but that request has not yet been approved.  Jenny’s creator has been taken into custody and is being confined with them.  Her name is Alice Matson.  My creator lives at the other end of this city.  His name is Habiki Matoyami.  And a new character has fallen into this world, and is in a city called Osaka.  His name is Daiki Yamato, and he seeks his family.”

    “Then we need to take advantage of our enemies being sidelined and get to Daiki Yamato before they do,” Jack stated.  “We recruit him, and then find and meet our creators.”

    “That works for me,” Jenny said.  “Once we’ve got this new guy in our camp, we’ll meet Roy’s creator first.  We know he’s unprotected.”

    The Destroyer waved his hand again.  The images dissolved into the air.  “Then we have an agreement.”  He paused.  “Does anybody know where Osaka is?”

NEXT: “Daiki Yamato”