#bc obviously

Then his memory catches back up, and it wakes him.

He hears sirens. Talking. Loud talking, like the urgency in a disaster. The pain in his shoulder from the bullet wound has spread all over, this pounding, stinging, aching agony. He feels like the casing of a bullet after it's been shot, mangled and broken.

It's dark and dusty, and he coughs. The motion causes him to realize he's trapped under something, something solid and heavy and encompassing. He tries to call out but all that comes is this clicking wheezing from his chest.

Everything rushes back to him. The fungus, the shitty night he'd been having, Naomi, that faulty bomb, Naomi, the guns pointed at him, Naomi, Naomi, all the things he did because he just couldn't be left behind again, Naomi Naomi Naomi NAOMI-

Suddenly the world is on fire. Teacake groans against the light in his eyes, and he finally notices the muted ringing in his ears when he can barely hear a voice yell, "Oh shit- WE GOT A LIVE ONE!!"

There's hands grabbing him at the armpits, and he's too weak to even try and fight them off. Just groans as those surprisingly strong hands lift him out of the rubble, laying his head on what feels like someone's lap.

"Hey, hey man, you're gonna be alright, okay? Can you hear me? Hey," the voice says, even more muted. Teacake can feel a slight tapping on his face over the Everything.

He finally gathers the courage to open his eyes, and comes face to face with that big ball of fire in the sky. There's a man leaning over him that he can barely see. He's got a droopy face, a bright blue uniform with a big number 4 on the front, and his hair is so blond the sun melds with it from Teacake's perspective. Like a hat.

And that uses up the last of Teacake's mental function. He has just enough left to think 'Naomi and I match in deafness now,' and rasp out her name before he falls limp in the Sun's arms.

Unlike the disaster, everything after Teacake wakes back up in the hospital passes like drying paint.

Well. He says hospital like it's not some half pitched tent 5 feet from where he passed out. But he's been patched up well enough, so who's he to complain.

That guy who helped him out - who introduced himself as Johnny once Teacake was fully lucid - has apparently stuck by his side since he brought Teacake over here. Teacake asked him about it, since y'know, "You've got a real specific uniform, dude. Figured they would need you out there."

But Johnny just scoffed and said, "Nah, my skills aren't very useful out there right now. Besides, I wanted to make sure you're okay." Interesting note about that droopy face of his, his whole face reacts when he smiles.

Johnny's still there when some people in suits come to check on Teacake's memory. Nurses got to him first so of course the technical guys follow.

What's your full name? Travis Meacham.

How old are you? 25.

Do you remember what happened to you? Yeah, he was trying to save the world and the explosion he and his friends used to do it caught up to them.

Save the world from what? A zombie fungus thing that escaped containment.

Where did the fungus come from? Shit if he knew for sure, but this old underground facility was where it started for him.

He said friends, so how many? Four; him, his coworker Naomi, and two rouge government agents helping them out.

They all pause at the mention of the agents, but the suits seem to just brush past the issue for now. So instead, they ask him what year it is and where he is. Checking brain function, Teacake guesses, to make sure this fungal shit didn't get him too.

But when he says Kansas, 2026, that causes a bigger reaction than the fucking zombie fungus. He's asked to repeat himself, and a little annoyed, he does. Makes sure to say it extra confident, because where - and more importantly, when - the hell else would he be?

The suits glance at each other nervously. Teacake, in classic him fashion, starts up a ruckus, wanting answers. Johnny steps in to at least keep him in the bed, but he's still got heroism running through his blood, so Teacake tries to fight against it.

Then Johnny grabs his shoulder with one hand and his hand with the other, calling his name - the Travis one, which probably helps - with such ferocity it shuts him up long enough to look past the panic.

Because Johnny is scared. Visibly scared, like the words that came out of Teacake's mouth spelled out something he's never even thought of before.

"You want the truth, Travis?" Johnny demands, inches from Teacake's face. "The horrible, wretched, honest truth?" Teacake is so shaken he can only nod.

Then Johnny sighs, and looks him dead in the eye. "It's not the year 2026... it's 3165." And that alone would've been enough to shatter Teacake's entire world, but then Johnny just keeps going. "You're not in Kansas, because that state hasn't existed in decades. There is no fungus, and there was no massive explosion. It was just you and a pile of rubble, appearing out of thin air."

And that's the thing that finally breaks Travis. "Just me...?" he whimpers, unable to breathe all over again.

Johnny's already droopy face falls even further, and it sounds like it hurts him just as much when he nods. "Just you..."

All the noise usually in Travis's head goes dead silent. The void it leaves behind sucks him down down down down. His head into his hands, his body to the bed, and any sound he could've made into the deepest darkest pit inside him, to never see the light of day.

Naomi told him that talking came easy to him, and she was right. Turns out, so did silence.

Teacake just lets everything happen from then on. He's already had his whole fucking world rocked so hard he got shot into the future or some shit, so who's he to doubt what he sees and hears now?

Teacake literally has nothing and nobody now, so Johnny offers to take him in. That ends up working out just fine, because it means three things:

Teacake finds out the future has a real, legit, full-on group of superheroes and everything Fantastic Four (explaining the 4 on Johnny's uniform, and also meaning his Johnny is Johnny Storm, the motherfucking Human Torch),

the smartest man in the known world is in the Fantastic Four; Mr. Fantastic himself, Reed Richards, and

Teacake now has direct access to said smartest man in the known world, and both of them would very much so like to know what the fuck happened.

So. Teacake has gone from being a people pleasing idiot kid, to prison inmate, to minimum wage security guard, to almost hero of the whole world... to now being regarded as just some lab rat. But again, at this point, what the hell does any of it matter now? There might even be some answers at the end of tunnel.

Reed is at least a good scientist/doctor(?)/lab partner/theoretical physicist(???), so it all goes pretty smoothly. Teacake isn't big on medical shit thanks to that lovely time spent in a jail cell, but this is the future, who needs all that old scary clunky hardware? Reed's on the blunt end of ultra-smart wisdom, but Teacake has a hard time keeping track of things on a good day, so he appreciates how thorough Reed is in telling him what he should know.

Ben - The Thing, big guy made of rocks - is lowkey pretty chill. He treats Teacake like what he is, some poor civilian stuck in an unfortunate situation. Despite that known fragility, Ben still talks to him like he's a normal guy. He introduces Teacake to their robot helper/maid(??) Herbert and his nephew Franklin, brings him cookies after his blood gets drawn, and tells dumb jokes and crazy heroism stories to keep him entertained between Reed's Shutout Times (Ben's words, not his).

The siblings take the opposite ends of their respective counterparts, though. Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman herself, tries to fix up Teacake's emotional side, as opposed to her husband's urge to solve the technical end. She gives encouraging words, makes sure he gets the biggest serving at dinner to keep up with Reed's studying, and tells him he can always come to her if he needs anything. On one occasion, she gave Teacake Franklin, her son, to watch him while she grabbed some toys or something. It ended with Teacake sobbing silently into her shoulder, because he could only think of Naomi and her poor daughter.

But, it's Johnny, of course, that Teacake takes the biggest liking to. Because while Ben lives with the regular side of him, Johnny chooses to stay with the traumatized side. Teacake still hasn't said more than a few words this whole time, so Johnny speaks for him. Learns to interpret the silence and nods and facial expressions until he's fluent in Teacake-ian (he was also the only one Teacake told about the nickname. Feels a little bit better not hearing Travis all the time). Johnny sits with him in the darkness, sometimes flaming just enough to be like a comforting hearth, other times letting the darkness swallow them both until hunger or sleep pulls Teacake away. He's there through it all, but not in the hero away. In the, 'We're brand new maybe-friends and I want to be here for you.'

Teacake wonders if he would've ever made it out of that hospital tent without him.

It takes a team of 20 different professionals in 5 different fields two weeks. Blood work and brain scanning and theories galore. It's the numbest 14 days of Teacake's life.

Then on the 15th day, Reed cracked it.

Above everything Reed did, he was studying the existence of the multiverse and parallel worlds, trying to prove its feasibility, functionality, and characteristics. Looks like all he needed was an ex-convict crashing into the desert to figure it out.

There are an infinite number of different universes in the multiverse, Reed explained. Within each universe is then separate parallel versions of itself, each of which carrying infinite possibilities at every single crossroad, decision, or chance at fate. Turns out, Teacake's home universe simply hit the worst possible statistic. That one second too early on the bomb destroyed literally everything.

Universal Fragmentation, Reed calls it. The bomb's explosion was just powerful enough at just the right moment to completely break the fabric of reality and shatter the entire goddamn universe, sending the fragments throughout the multiverse.

And on one such fragment carried an unconscious Teacake. A fragment that landed in this very universe, one so insignificantly small that it simply... melded into it.

Teacake is now an unremovable body within this universe. Everything he knew is gone, and this is now his new home... forever.

It takes a few more days for him to finally learn the rest. This was just one possibility for his life out of an infinite number of others. There are just as many versions of himself that lived or died, and he got lucky to survive the one thing that should've been his end. Plus, he landed in a pretty sweet new place to boot.

But Teacake - this Teacake - is the one who has to live that impossibility. And since they barely know what happened to him, fuck knows what happened to his friends. They are just as impossibly far from him as he is from them, the furthest they could ever be from each other for the rest of their lives. Everyone and everything Teacake knew and will never know - Naomi and her kid, the fungus, Robert, that other lady, Kansas, the world, his home - are essentially... dead.

But remember, he doesn't hear all that for a while. Because first, that black hole that opened up a few weeks back finally implodes.

Travis breaks his silence on that fateful 15th day, through the guttural wail he screams into Sue's arms.

Travis stops seeing himself as Teacake so slowly, he doesn't even notice.

He grieves. He remembers. Then from there, what is there left to do but move on?

He gets his voice back. At first only with Johnny in the darkest corners of his room. Then through mouthfuls of dinner, then quiet nights on the balcony with Sue, until suddenly he's rambling freely again.

Ben helps him cut then dye his hair back to blond when it gets too long and brown. For a guy composed of rock he's surprisingly nimble with scissors.

He gets used to this retro, futuristic style in the world. Learns its ways - not much different than his own, if he's being frank. Guess the world just can't or won't change no matter what it gains or loses. He does appreciate the lack of complete assholes, but maybe they're all underground nowadays.

Johnny takes him to get a proper tattoo about a month into his stay. Travis had found out this universe has gone way further in interstellar travel - evident in the very people he lives with - and on one planet, they discovered a vibrant tree-like plant dubbed a Naomi. So he gets its fruit and leaf over his heart, in honor of the girl he almost could've loved and her child he never got to meet.

It's still a little sore when he and Johnny sit on the balcony the next day, watching the sunset. In the days Travis was quiet, he learned the fresh air helps him feel safe. The tradition to do it every night just kind of stuck though, and he uses it to think on everything he puts to the side day to day.

"Y'know," Johnny starts, because he's still fluent in Teacake-ian, "you don't have to be so quick to leave. Tower's big enough for you, and I can help you find something to do to get you a little more steady on your feet."

Travis hums at it. "Thanks, but... I don't know, though, feels like I owe you guys-"

"We're superheroes, Tea. This is just what we want to do, no need for repayment. Plus, you're not some civilian who popped up on the side of the road anymore. This isn't pity or anything, you're welcome here now. If you want to be."

Travis sighs, and they sit in the silence for a while. "Thanks, Torch." Then he takes one more deep breath and admits, "You can call me Travis more often, if you want."

"Yeah?" Johnny asks, intruiged.

"Yeah. I mean, Teacake is still a nickname I like, but... maybe prioritize Travis a little more. I didn't get called it much back home. Feels nice to hear it again."

An entire monologue is probably being spelled out to Johnny in the quiet that follows, but out of curtesy, he doesn't comment.

The sun dips down under the horizon and they head back inside. Their rooms are on opposite sides of the hall, and Travis gives Johnny a playful shove as they get closer to bed. "Help me start looking for the rest of my life tomorrow?"

There's a proud smile Travis can't place to any dynamic they've had so far. "Of course, bud." Johnny places a hand on his shoulder, gives it a reassuring squeeze. "You ready to figure out who the new Travis Meacham is?"