The People in My Head: Derrick the Maybe Man

Derrick was a man who wanted to plumb the depths of the universe to discover its secrets. But the further he delved, the less things made sense to him. Beneath the veneer of a seemingly stable reality he discovered that quantum phenomena, while observable, were seemingly chaotic. Things could exist as both particle and waveform. Things could exist in multiple states, multiple places. He found himself obsessed with the potential of a continually shifting universe. And then it happened. He became unstuck and started to travel through multiple realities. He discovered that bubbles of reality were continually moving through a fluid state multiverse. The overlaps formed reality at any given point. Just because he remembered that dinosaurs once roamed the earth was no guarantee that he would think that again, as the reality bubble of that fact might separate itself from "reality" and everyone would just forget it, since you cannot know something if it is not part of your reality.

Derrick also discovered that being aware of this he could, to some small extent, control reality. Donning a costume with an infinity symbol and a giant question mark he became the Maybe Man, a superhero of quantum uncertainty. He rescued small children and grandmas from speeding cars with his reality distortion field. Nobody would ever know what became of the drivers, but nobody cared because they passed out of reality into another dimension. He was never thanked for his actions, because in the memories of everyone there had never been a threat in the first place. He didn't mind, because he couldn't remember either. He just had a strange sense of well-being and the knowledge that he could control reality even if he could never observe it. Unfortunately for him, this meant that everyone thought he was a delusional madman dressed up like a costume fetishist. So they locked him up. His powers were useless against the combined view of everyone that he needed to be locked away.

It was there, in his padded cell, that Professor Schroedinger came to collapse his wave-function. Someone like Derrick was dangerous, he could unmake the universe, albeit only one reckless driver at a time. So he opened the door to the cell, and upon discovering that Derrick was alive he pulled out a gun. However Derrick made it disappear then beat up the professor and made good his escape. The professor swore he would destroy Derrick, since Derrick had broken his nose. Out of joint, he became the nemesis that every superhero requires.

Professor Schroedinger spent the rest of his life trying to trap Derrick in elaborate schemes that all were aimed at putting inside a box which might or might not release poison and kill him. He was quite insane, but mad professors are mad by definition. He never did succeed. Eventually they both got old and died. Nobody cared, but nobody remembered because when they ended reality disengaged them from itself and the bubble floated off into nothingness.