The Multiversal Crisis

Chapter 6: Haunted

When Mark and Matt stepped through the portal, they noticed two things.

The first thing they noticed was that Matt couldn't use his speed.
Matt tried to scope out the area using his speed and see wherever "here" was, but instead tripped and fell flat on his face.

Matt: "Ow! Fucking hell! What the hell?"

Mark: "Hey, you okay? I take it that doesn't usually happen?"

Matt glared at Mark, and said in an aggravated tone,

Matt: "NO, that does NOT normally happen, Mark!" >:(

After Matt had stood up, the second thing they noticed was that this place had no people. As a matter of fact, there didn't seem to be any sign of people living there for a long time.

They appeared to be in the middle of a small medieval neighborhood, if you can imagine that. There were houses and shacks nearby, but roughly half of the houses they could see were overgrown with vines, while the other half looked like they had been set on fire.

After walking along a path for about half an hour in a single direction, they found some more signs that things had been set on fire.

This particular sign came in the form of a scorched pit, full of bones that were completely picked clean of flesh. Some were animal bones, but the majority were human in origin. Both adults and children appeared to have died here, or at the very least were placed here haphazardly after death. But the smell was the worst part.

You'd think that after however long it took for these bodies to burn completely down to the bone, it wouldn't smell. You would be wrong. The smell of burnt flesh still hung in the air even after all this time, almost as if there was a supernatural reminder that yes, these people were once alive.

Matt: "Ugh! What the heck did this?"

Mark: "I have a pretty good guess, and I think you do too. That alternate paradigm creature. It's methods appear to be more...extreme than the one I know." *sighs* "Let's keep moving."

As they cautiously moved past the (somehow) still smoking pile of bodies, they stumbled upon another abandoned settlement. This time it looked like people had lived here recently, but instead of being burned, it looked like they had just disappeared into thin air. Letters to family members lay unfinished in houses. Candles stood at attention on tables, still lit and ablaze. Books sat open on unmade beds, with dust still on the covers.

The two unlikely allies walked through the town and noticed all this, while Matt tried to wrap his head around the fact that so many people had disappeared without a trace.

Matt: "Hey Mark? What the hell is going on? And um, what exactly are we looking for again? I got distracted by the...lack of, well...people I guess."

Mark: *sighs* "We're looking for the paradigm, along with whoever can help us to find him. We need to extract DNA from this new paradigm in order to trace it back to your antimatter powered friend."

Matt: "Right, right. Thanks for the reminder."

Mark: "Sure."

Suddenly, they heard what sounded like someone shouting, coming from an abandoned house a short distance away.

???: Armen! Armen, Where are you?

The person in question walked into view at a brisk pace, before stopping, facing away from the two men.