Origins of the Strange Quark... and how he became even Stranger

The story of Strange Quark began 10 years ago in a parallel universe called Superhero City. Well, that's 10 years ago in that universe's timeline (roughly equivalent to 10 millennia in this universe).

No one knows how he came into existence; he just suddenly materialised from a quantum probability field, as though someone had finally decided to open Schrödinger's box, only to find that it was not a cat inside after all.

His role in the defeat of the Zigonian alien invasion has been documented by a historian:

"Strange Quark is far from your average quark. Once captured by the Zigonians who were sent by Warlord Quasar, Strange Quark was able to escape with the aid of molecular rearrangement. The Zigonians soon learned that they shouldn't have messed with Strange Quark as he became one of the first heroes to take out 3000 Zigonians, as well as taking the top spot on the Champion leaderboard after ThinkingStiff hung up his cape. Quark never hesitated to help heroes in need and readily provided vast amounts of service in Superhero City, continuing to do so to this day."

A few years later, the Mayor of Superhero City released a new superpower called Quark Annihilation in honour of Strange Quark, but ironically, it interacted with him to produce anti-strange quark particles, which led to his disappearance from the Superhero City universe.

So, Strange Quark ceased to exist, or well, he sort of existed in a field of quantum uncertainty, which basically meant he might or might not still be around.

Fast forward to the present universe, in the wake of the Legion's invasion. The Morphons they released were ubiquitous. A scientist in a secret laboratory decided to study the interaction of Morphons with the Higgs boson in a particle accelerator and inadvertently collapsed the probability wave function of Strange Quark's uncertain existence. Schrödinger's box was opened once again and out came good ol' Quark, this time even Stranger than ever.

ID: 10850

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Quark stumbled out of Schrödinger's box, and thought he saw a cat on his way out.

"I thought all that cat-in-box thing was just a thought experiment. Not something real. Am I even real? Where am I?" he wondered.

Still in a daze, he looked around and came to the realisation that nothing looked familiar, and at the same time, everything did.

Déjà vu.

That could mean a few things: a shift in reality, a tear in the space-time continuum, or a glimpse into a parallel universe.

"This place looks like Earth. The same stars and constellations. But something is not quite right."

Unable to pin it down, Quark thought, "I need a beer."

He did not fail to note the irony that after rematerialising from the ether of uncertain oblivion, the first thing he wanted was a beer.

He followed a trail of molecules that had an affinity to form C2H6O compounds. They seemed to cluster around a tall building with an "A" on top. He went in.

A bar!

Quark grinned his signature Cheshire grin, upon which a third eye briefly appeared in between his normal eyes. Ah, the weird quirks of quantum tunneling.

By the bar stood a big bloke in crimsom red. Quark adjusted his physical form by manipulating the molecules of his body to mimic the appearance of the other beings present.

The guy in red saw Quark stagger in, clearly looking dazed. He walked up to him.

"I'm Rakly. Welcome to my haunt. You look like you could use a drink."

Rakly thought he recognized Quark even though they had never met.

He recalled seeing a comic book about a mythological character from a parallel universe:



"Is it even possible that the Strange Quark is real?" he thought to himself.

"Here, let me get you a beer. Any preferences?" he asked.

"Whatever you have is very much appreciated, mate." Quark grinned.

"If you don't mind my asking, but where are you from? You look kinda familiar." Rakly continued, "I believe I have seen a picture of you before."

"To be very honest, my memory is somewhat fuzzy at the moment. I feel like I just stepped out of nowhere." Quark downed the entire glass of beer in one swoop. "But the beer seems to help. " He grinned at Rakly again.

"Let me get you another." Rakly smiled.

After 5 or more pints of beer, Quark's memory started to return. He explained what had happened in the universe from which he came. The universe of Superhero City.

He didn't know how he ended up in this universe but felt it could have something to do with his ability to quantum tunnel and interact with other subatomic particles in the quantum realm. "Anything is possible, he said."

"So you can phase?" Rakly asked.

"I'm able to manipulate matter at the subatomic level." Quark replied. "I can also interact with elementary particles and traverse the space-time continuum."

"Time-travel?" Rakly started to get very interested.

"Not exactly. Time is a function of space and mass. Mass is matter. I am able to manipulate matter, and in doing so, bend space and time."

"How fascinating!" Rakly said excitedly. "Say, would you like to join my team?"

Rakly went on to explain the situation with the invasion of the Legion, and the threat to all of existence.

"But first I have to introduce you to some of my friends. This way, please."

Rakly led Quark into a room behind the bar. "Here are the first two of your new teammates: Master Kush and Mack Stallion."



And behold: a grey guy with nothing on but white underwear and tattoos was standing next to a bronzed bloke in a tight G-string and kneepads.

Upon seeing them, Quark literally jumped out of his skin. Actually, he disassembled into a mass of particles and quantum jumped out of the room, and reassembled outside without even knowing what he did.

Embarrassed by his reflexes, he knocked on the door. "Sorry about that. I don't know why I accidentally quantum tunnelled."

Rakly laughed, "I don't blame you buddy. This is just their "professional" look. I would flee too."

(Author's note: a situation like that actually happened when Quark first joined Master Kush's team. He had to be invited back in.)

Master Kush took one look at Quark and turned to Rakly, "He is not suitable like that."

"Like what?" asked Rakly.

"Look at him. He's weird, has three eyes (albeit one is hidden), and, well, he is *way* overdressed!"

"Oh that! Yes, Quark, we need you to dress more 'openly'," Rakly quipped.

"Openly? What do you mean?" asked Quark, confused.

"Mack's undercover gig is at the Club. You know... Give 'em a bit of the Magic Mike." Kush was going to add, "Mack's a pro," but decided against it.

Quark stood there flabbergasted, picturing Mack as Magic Mike, led on stage by Rakly as Dallas, and himself as naive, innocent, Adam, "The Kid".

Except in this incarnation the movie would be called Magic Mack and the Morphon Men.

"Mack has a secret rendezvous with a Gallifreyan to get some ancient text translated," Rakly explained. "Meanwhile, I'd like you to help me figure out something."

"But before that, I'd like to introduce you to The Fallen. My sources tell me that he has a very important role to play in the coming confrontation with the Legion."

Rakly led Quark through a secret tunnel under the building which led to a small room with a chair. Seated on it was a red-haired guy wearing an eye mask. He had a red top, and a blue cape.

"Fallen, meet Quark," Rakly introduced them.

Fallen had a calm, composed demeanour. In one hand, he clutched a bottle in a brown paper bag.

"Moonshine," Rakly whispered to Quark.

"Fallen has some kind of temporary amnesia. We're trying to figure out his identity. All I know is that we need him. Badly. The beer did wonders for your memory, so I figured..."

"The less sober I am, the more lucid I get," Quark said. "I don't think it works that way with others."

"Fallen has a gift. He is able to determine his opponent's weaknesses and figure out how to counter them. But without his memory, he can't access the right equipment to do the job."

"I'm off to the lab," Fallen stood up and took a last swig from his bottle. "If you come with me, I will give you a tour of the facility and explain what we do here."

Quark followed him, and they took an elevator that descended for what seemed like forever. "How far down does this go?" he wondered.

As soon as they got to basement 500, the doors opened and in front of them stood a man in a suit, immaculately dressed, and a lady with long, flowing red hair, perfectly fitting golden top, and blue jeans.

"I recognise them!" Quark thought. "I know them from somewhere..." Alas, the effect of the alcohol had gone, and with it, Quark's clarity of mind. He was too sober to remember.

Fiero, the lady with the red hair, exclaimed, "Quark!"

"You guys know each other?" Fallen asked, surprised.

"From a different life, a very long time ago in a place called Superhero City on a parallel Earth." Fiero replied, barely containing her emotions. "Quark, how did you get here? Where have you been? You disappeared... We never thought we'd see you again..."

"Fiero?" Quark could barely speak, shocked and confused at what he saw before him. "Uh... Um... " His memories flashed obscurely past him at lightning speed, coming and going before he could comprehend anything. Clearly, he should've had a couple more pints of beer.

The immaculately dressed gentleman beside Fiero smiled at him. Quark recognised him too. The Banker. Also from Superhero City a lifetime ago. "He's here too!" Quark gradually recollected himself (and some of his memories).

The Banker was a person of few words, but of precise and forceful actions. Quark remembered him as a firm but generous man. He played a critical role in the defeat of the Zigonians in Superhero City and continued to defend it after Quark disappeared.

Fiero studied Quark's face, "You haven't changed."

"I... I..." Quark stuttered. "I was stuck in a state of quantum uncertainty... until my probability wave function was collapsed..." He spoke in his typical abstruse manner. "Then I rematerialised here." He continued. "How did you two get here?"

"It's a long story." Fiero replied. "One day we'll have to get together over a nice long meal and talk about it..."

Quark loved nice long meals. He remembered that he, The Banker, and a few others would often talk about food. (The Banker had a subsidiary culinary business called The Food Porn Hub.)

"But basically, what happened was after the collapse of Superhero City (it's ironic that it survived a full-on Zigonian alien invasion but was eventually consumed by internal politics), there were all those lost souls - victims of the invasion war - stuck in purgatory, waiting to be rescued.

"I had to do something. So I got The Banker to help me and we went into the Underworld and defeated the evil Sarubarus.

"We emerged from the Underworld, only to find ourselves here, on the brink of yet another alien invasion...

"Then we met Rakly and he recruited us to team up to defend this world."

After making plans for a "nice long meal" with Fiero and The Banker, Fallen led Quark to his laboratory.

"So, you are an expert with power-enhancing equipment?" Quark asked.

"I think so," Fallen replied. "But I'm not sure. I seem to know a lot about the stuff, but can't remember how or why."

"How long have you known Rakly and the team?"

"Not long. But I like it here. The guys are so funny."

"Funny haha or funny peculiar?" Quark wanted to ask, but decided against it. "That dude with the kneepads... What does he do undercover? Dressed like that?"

"You mean *undressed* like that?" Fallen grinned. "He does a lot of undercover work, often *under covers* too."

Quark tried not to picture anything, less he phase involuntarily again.

"Actually, he is very good at it. If ever we need information or stuff, he always gets to the bottom of it." Fallen added. "He used to work delivering pizza in Vegas for $750 an hour!"

"Wow! Really?"

"Yes, well he also delivered other services with the pizza."

Again, Quark refrained from any mental imagery.

"But seriously, Mack is a real asset. A brilliant investigator, and very sharp too."

"Like Mack the Knife?" Quark burst out laughing. "He he he he!" And his head momentarily phased away from his body as he tried, unsuccessfully, to regain composure.

Fallen rolled his eyes, sighing under his breath.

Fallen took Quark to the equipment he was working on. "These here are elemental cores. Each harnesses a different source of power. You've heard about the Legion's Morphon particles?"

Quark nodded.

"Well, they interact with these cores differently, depending on their elemental properties. We've been able to develop gear that, when worn and equipped, can enhance our abilities.

"A few of us on Earth have developed certain abilities, mostly due to biochemical interaction with the morphon particles. But this gear can magnify certain powers."

"How fascinating," Quark mused. "I kind of suspected that the particles were somehow responsible for the collapse of the probability wave function that led to my emergence here. It will be interesting to see their effect on my powers here... Nice toys you have to play with."

"Well, I leave most of the playing for our lab technician. Allow me to introduce you to..."

Fallen beckoned to another red-haired guy with mechanical bionic limbs. He wore a white lab coat and nothing else but really tight red Speedos.

"I'm Ichi."

"Odd way to introduce one's self," Quark thought. "I'd be itchy too wearing that super uncomfortable-looking banana hammock." But he had learnt to keep such thoughts to himself.

"Ichi is our gear technician." Fallen said.

Quark was glad he kept his thoughts to himself. "G'day, Ichi. I'm Quark. Strange Quark."

Ichi thought it funny to call one's self strange, but he sure looked kinda weird with that third eye which came and went as it pleased.

"Welcome to the zoo." He grinned.

After the tour of the facility, Fallen gestured to Quark, "Aight, let's head back. Rakly wants to see you in his office."

Quark nodded.

"Time for a drink," he added.

Rakly was sitting at his usual spot by the bar.

"Another pint for you?"

Quark lit up. "Yes, please."

"So, how do you find the place?"

"I really like your office. The variety of what you have on offer here is amazing." Quark eyed the bottles of 30 year-old single malt whiskey behind the counter.

Fallen looked at Rakly and rolled his eyes again.

"I mean what we do here. The lab?" Rakly smiled. "He's strange alright," he muttered to himself.

"Oh, yes, very fascinating indeed. I think I can do lots here."

Right then, Mack and Master Kush walked past and gave them a wave. They were followed by a guy wearing a red top and vest, with dark glasses concealing an eye patch on one eye.

"Mack's pimp," Rakly whispered to Quark.

Quark raised his eyebrows. "I see..."

"And the grey guy... What is his story?" Quark asked. "Why is he...?"

"Oh Kush... His is an interesting case. His weed was contaminated by an unusually high dose of Morphons. He was up and up. One couldn't get any higher."

"Another beer, or would you like something else?" Rakly asked.

"Everyone's drinking like it's Happy Hour," Quark remarked.

"Every hour is Happy Hour at Rakly's," Fallen grinned.

"I might try that single malt..."

Quark was interrupted by a cry, followed by a panic-stricken, disheveled man whose face was completely white with fear. "You gotta come see this! It's the park... in the retirement village... The horror... The horror... "

"What is it?" asked Rakly.

The man shook nervously as he pointed to the park across the street. "The old folks at the home... They're coming!!!"

"What? Who?"

Before the man could say anything, the whole building rocked violently as the ground shook.

THUMP... THUMP... THUMP... The sound of footsteps magnified by a thousand, like Godzilla was on the doorstep. THUMP...

Everyone rushed to the door to see what it was.

Rising well over a hundred feet above the pine trees in the park was a figure, bent over, stooping, with long grey hair draping over its shoulders, and its hands clutching a walking frame.

Behind it was another figure, a bald man, waving a walking stick a hundred and fifty feet long, gesturing to the other figure, "Wait up, will you?"

It was quite a spectacle. A really weird one. Two Godzilla-sized apparitions, not unlike the elderly folks you'd see around the neighborhood, except for the fact that they seemed almost tall enough to touch the stratosphere.

As the man hobbled after the woman, who seemed furious, they cleared a path in the park, leaving a trail of flattened pine trees and footprints in the soil that resembled dinosaur tracks.

Quark stared in disbelief. "Geriatric Park."

Déjà vu.

He's seen this before. In Superhero City. A lifetime ago.

"How is this possible?" The odds of a super rare occurrence recurring in a parallel universe, and he was in the middle of both.

He knew what to do. Turning to Rakly and Fallen, Quark said, "They're about to trash the city centre. If you can keep grandmasaurus distracted, I will take care of grandpasaurus."

With that, Quark vaporised into thin air. Actually, he disassembled himself into sub-atomic particles and projected them into the giant apparition, which was waving his walking stick in wild confusion. Clearly, the poor man was as bewildered as everyone else at what was going on.

The ability to manipulate matter at the sub-molecular level really comes in handy in situations like this.

The man was reduced to his normal size, as he stood motionless, confused and shocked.

Quark then went to the other giant apparition and did the same.

"Nick of time," Rakly said. "They were about to reach the city centre."

Alas, Geriatric Park had been reduced to a mess of flattened pine trees. "What a wreck," gasped Fallen. "What caused this?"

"I have no idea, but I am certainly going to find out!"

The Director of the retirement village was a serious-looking man with a stern demeanour.

"This is Dr Jerry Hatrick, Director of the facility." His secretary introduced them.

"Dr Hatrick," greeted Rakly. "This is Quark and Fallen."

"Well, I do not know where to begin," the Director said. "The two of them have been in the Village for years. Not long ago, they were diagnosed with terminal cancer. A scientist researching cancer treatment heard of their condition. He offered to treat them with an experimental drug. The success rate was only 50-50. But as they had nothing to lose, they went for it."

The Director was emphatic in the way he spoke.

"The treatment was unsuccessful. The couple were give a couple of months..."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. A nurse came in and handed the Director something.

"It's a miracle," she said.

"What? This is not possible... How?"

"We don't know, sir. But I have contacted Dr Fulcrum.

"Dr Fulcrum is the research scientist who is treating the couple," the Director explained. "The man and his wife have made a full recovery. Further tests are pending, but the prognosis looks very good."

"That's fantastic," Rakly said. "But how..."

"Perhaps Dr Fulcrum might be have the answer."

"No..." Quark muttered to himself. He suddenly realised what had happened.

Back at Rakly's office (over a pint of beer), Quark explained to Rakly and Fallen, "I think I know what happened. When I broke down their molecular structure and reassembled them in the correct proportions, all the diseased cells must have been removed..."

"That's incredible," Rakly said. "You can cure cancer!"

"Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. I myself am not sure exactly how it occurred. There is a random element at the sub-molecular level that cannot be controlled. So they must have been very lucky..."

"Surely it's more than random luck?" Fallen interjected. "I'm sure we can figure out how to replicate it."

"Maybe," Quark replied. "But probability is not my strong suit. *Improbability* is."

"Well that may be," Fallen said. "But in an infinite universe, anything is possible, no matter how improbable it is..." he added, surprised at himself for thinking like Quark.

Rakly said, "Well one thing I know for sure is that we need to pay Dr Fulcrum a visit."

These story are totally Awesome. Some of the best reading I've done in a long time. Could be HRC best read.  Keep'em coming.

I'm so glad you enjoy the story and my weird narrative. 😃

There is a reason why stereotypes exist, and why we continue to associate certain personality types based on their appearance.

Quark never liked to box people into generic categories, or make assumptions about them based on how they look or behave - himself being as weird as he is - and preferred to see each individual as unique and special in their own way.

But all of that went out the window the moment his three eyes set upon Dr Fulcrum.

"Mad scientist," he thought.

It was as if someone had said, "let's take all the qualities associated with mad scientists and put them all in the one person."

And that was Dr Fulcrum.



He had a disheveled head of white hair, pointing in all directions as though they were charged with static electricity, and his eyes had a crazed look about them. He wore the obligatory white lab coat, and had a shrill high-pitched voice like that of a siren. His grin was wide, and full of mischievous intent.

"My research is top secret, I'm afraid," when asked about his experimental drug. "You know, the pharmaceutical companies have spies everywhere."

Fallen was well prepared for that response. Hidden under his red hair was a miniature external brain - courtesy of Ichi at Avenger Labs - connected to his own cerebral cortex by a series of synthetic neurons. Called "Thinking Cap", it was a bizarre contraption, but it bestowed upon its wearer powerful telepathic abilities.

By focusing on the electric fields generated by Dr Fulcrum's brain tissue, Fallen was able to interpret his thoughts with the help of the Thinking Cap.

He was not prepared for what he discovered.

Dr Fulcrum's "experimental drug" was in fact part of a secret project using Morphon particles to alter cell growth in humans. To what end exactly, Fallen could not determine. But he was certain Dr Fulcrum wasn't working alone.

*****

Back in Rakly's office, the three of them regrouped over two pints of beer and a brown-bagged bottle of Fallen's home-brew.

Fallen described what he learnt from their meeting with Dr Fulcrum.

"That explains a lot," Quark interjected. "The Morphons must have been responsible for the rapid cell mutations leading to the exponential growth of body tissue, causing our elderly couple to mutate and expand out of control."

Rakly left to meet up with a new recruit called Blue Cheese.

Fallen and Quark sat at the bar in silence for a few minutes reflecting on the day's bizarre events.

Four rounds of drinks later, Quark started to feel a little bored. He was still sober.

Turning to Fallen, he asked, "Here's a funny riddle for you: How many weird Quarks does it take to change a light bulb?"

"What?"

"Guess."

"I dunno. How many?" Fallen tried his best to humour Quark.

"Just one. But it's got to be really really Strange!"

Fallen rolled his eyes and sighed. "I hate it when Quark is sober," he thought.

"No?" Quark was disappointed his joke fell flat.

"No."

Silence.

After another five minutes, Quark asked, "OK, how about this: What do you call inpatients in a hospital who can't wait to go home?"

"Not again..." thought Fallen. "I give..." he said to Quark weakly.

"IMpatients!!!" Quark replied. "HA HA HA HA he he he he..." He laughed uncontrollably as his head phased away from his body.

"One of these days I'm gonna sock him in the third eye..." Fallen muttered to himself.

Quark was just about to attempt another joke when Rakly returned with a guy in blue. "Guys, meet Barry Childs aka Blue Cheese."

Fallen was so relieved to see them.

"Call me BC," the blue guy said.

"Good to meet you, BC. I'm Fallen and this is Quark."

BC nodded at them while trying not to stare too hard at Quark's eyes.

"We've just had a really bizarre day, and my office is like a refuge to rest, relax, and restore our sanity. Drinks, anyone?" Rakly asked.

Fallen and Quark both said simultaneously, "I'll have my usual, please."

Rakly ordered a pint for Quark and pulled out a bottle from a box behind the bar. "Fallen's private reserve. He's strategically put several boxes of these all over the building." Handing it to Fallen, "Just letting them know so no one else touches your stuff."

Fallen blushed. His red hair got redder.

"BC?"

BC smiled, "No, thanks... Maybe later."

"Quark needs his grog to stay lucid and think better." Rakly grinned. "Fallen needs his to put up with Quark."

Quark was too busy downing his pint to hear that, but Fallen was in quiet agreement.

"It's been a long day, guys. I might head off to the Blue Oyster to meet up with Mack." Rakly said. "BC, these guys will give you a tour of the place," he added, as he stood up and left.

"Blue Oyster?" BC asked Fallen.

"It's a male revue bar," Fallen said. "Mack does some undercover work there, amongst other things..."

BC raised his eyebrows.

"They are also trying to figure out what the two owners - Brain Chef aka Mr Late and Space Ape - are up to. Rumour has it they are developing something secret. No one knows what, but it has something to do with the Legion." Fallen continued.

Then he got up and pulled the miniature brain from the back of his head. "I have to return this to Ichi. Come, let's go play with some toys."

The three of them made their way to the lab.

"BC, wanna hear a joke?" Quark asked.