Infinite DC: "Before the Thing From Another World"

Part One

Five months was the longest time Neas kept themselves tethered to one realm, which – in this case – was the realm of their adopted little brother and best friend, Craig Williams. It wasn't like they had banished themselves there or they were stuck due to a faulty mechanism inside their TARDIS. In fact, it was the opposite: they opted to stay there with their father, Aznavorian, following the incident on Themyscira – the incident that led to Aznavorian regenerating into their sixth incarnation, a young Caucasian brunette with Lebanese features and a loving, caring personality. In this regeneration, Aznavorian called herself 'Rania'.

Neas, on the other hand, was enjoying what felt like several eons in his current eleventh body – a young African-American man who he gave the name of 'Thomas'. Never had Thomas been more of a big brother (particularly in the literal sense, considering he stood around six-feet and five-inches tall) to Craig. Whenever Craig hung out at the Creek, he always looked forward to whatever adventures he could share with Thomas and Rania.

Of course, his adventures were nothing compared to those his two alien friends had across the infinite dimensional corridor.

Craig longed to one day go to one of the other realms.

All that stopped him was Thomas, who hesitated to take him somewhere that may have been too dangerous for the 9-year-old.

"Neas! Can you come and help me?" He heard Rania call from the console room.

Thanks to the ship's intercom system, he heard her all the way from the engine core room where he conducted some long-awaited tune-ups. Her angelic voice sounded urgent, so he wasted very little time in getting back to the console room. Soon as he got there, something seemed off.

Multicolored balloons, anchored from the steel floor, floated while a white banner that read "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" was hung from the ceiling. In the midst of it all was Rania, wearing colorful, cone-shaped party hat, standing tippytoed on a stepladder and trying to string some glittering rainbow streamers high up on wall. "You're a really tall dude," she stated the obvious in her struggle to maintain balance. "Mind helping me here?"

Thomas was too distracted by the decorations to assist. "Whose birthday is it?"

Rania sharply turned to him, her face caught in a look of disbelief. "Are you seriou—WHOA!" She suddenly lost her balance on the stepladder, teetering right off of it. Luckily, Thomas acted fast and caught her just in time. Her petite, hourglass figure was very light in his strong, massive arms. "Thanks, hon," she breathed in relief. Her graciousness was short-lived as she then went on to scold him, "How could you forget one of the most important days we've been looking forward to?!"

Setting her down on her feet, the perplexed Thomas said, "O.K., I give up. What important day am I forgetting?"

Rania shook her head, disappointed. "It's Craig's birthday!"