"Well, we should probably lock down that information, just to be sure. Also, I still don't trust Preston. He hasn't earned it yet."
Nissa says, “She. As in she—”
Nissa’s eyes are a shade orange. She can’t see that, obviously, but she can certainly hear her tone. Her eyes gradually cool to their usual golden glow as drops the ’tude and goes on:
“—and I are dating.” There’s a moment’s hesitation before she says, “So much as I’d like to think L.C.’s jumped through plenty of trust hoops—the microscopic note, the tracker, the refusal to talk at gunpoint—there really isn’t anything I can say to get you to see her as I do, is there?”
Just at this moment 'Dr.' Moore walks in eating an unhealthy looking snack from a very large bowl. "Did I miss anything?" The look in Verve's eyes tells Nissa that Verve must have said 'Moore' or meant 'Moore'.
Nissa did trust Moore enough for that fourth-wall message to work… but Verve’s right that Moore can’t be a part of this. She suspects even Moore would agree.
“You did, Mr. Moore. A lot happened between Superman and our return here. We met a Marshall who’s interested in finding you. I guess you’re from a world designated World 5. These two gentlemen with me are from World 12.”
She says to the men of World 12, “I’d like to talk to the Marshall about Mr. Moore. He was a huge help. I sent a fourth-wall message from the Superman origin story—warning him that Portly was up to no good, and asking Moore specifically to help. Moore read my message and, if not for him, Ms. Gray would have the data. He even incapacitated himself so he wouldn’t be able to talk when interrogated.
“You guys know, better than anyone, what would’ve happened if FATE succeeded. Ya think the Marshall might hear me out, maybe strike a deal that lets Moore return home?”
She says to Moore, “That is what you want… isn’t it? To go home?”
“You did, Mr. Moore. A lot happened between Superman and our return here. We met a Marshall who’s interested in finding you. I guess you’re from a world designated World 5. These two gentlemen with me are from World 12.”
"Oh, excellent! Are you here to arrest me? Is this an extradition?" Moore asks hopefully.
She says to the men of World 12, “I’d like to talk to the Marshall about Mr. Moore. He was a huge help. I sent a fourth-wall message from the Superman origin story—warning him that Portly was up to no good, and asking Moore specifically to help. Moore read my message and, if not for him, Ms. Gray would have the data. He even incapacitated himself so he wouldn’t be able to talk when interrogated.
"Incapacitated mysel- Oh, yes, that was absolutely my motivation. I did it for the greater good," says Moore searching his pocket hopefully for more substances with which to incapacitate himself.
“You guys know, better than anyone, what would’ve happened if FATE succeeded. Ya think the Marshall might hear me out, maybe strike a deal that lets Moore return home?”[/b]
She says to Moore, “That is what you want… isn’t it? To go home?”
"Most desperately ... this world is soooo boring. I'm ready to leave... as long as we aren't stopping by World 12 first. I've heard the stories."
Nissa’s a bit surprised that Moore seems unconcerned about the arrest.
“Well… I… uh, yeah okay. The Marshall is actually looking for you, and you don’t seem worried about the whole arrest thing. Just tell her I said…” She turns to the World 12 guys. “I guess you guys can back him up, or the Marshall can call me up on the mirror.
“But if you’re gonna take him in, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. Is it possible that World 12 is an alternate version of this world?—and that Ms. Gray is of World 12?
“It’s something I was wondering earlier, and—” She says to the masked man, “—I believe you mentioned this world seeming familiar to you. So… it’s 2219 and we’re in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The Statue of Liberty hasn’t been bombed, um…” She whips out her comm and shows them a picture of a woman. “This is our current president.
“Any of this ring a bell?”
As Nissa introduces the other people to Dr. Moore, Kai hesitantly raises a finger, as if in school. "From... World 5? World 12?" Kai turns to look at Dr. Moore again, the realization that this is someone from a parallel world clicking in.
Verve looks and Kai and says "It relates to what we're doing here. You do know that much, right?"
Theo quietly waits for things to die down, taking it all in.
Charles grins just a bit--or at least, that's probably what his slight baring of his teeth means.
"It's been a lot to take in, Kai. Turns out there's whole parallel-world organizations that are a lot further ahead than us."
“But if you’re gonna take him in, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. Is it possible that World 12 is an alternate version of this world?—and that Ms. Gray is of World 12?
“It’s something I was wondering earlier, and—” She says to the masked man, “—I believe you mentioned this world seeming familiar to you. So… it’s 2219 and we’re in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The Statue of Liberty hasn’t been bombed, um…” She whips out her comm and shows them a picture of a woman. “This is our current president.
“Any of this ring a bell?”
"Many things about this world are familiar, but there are differences, too. On my world, you lot look like something out of a comic book," says the only one in the room actually wearing a mask. "We don't have heroes. At least, no superheroes. There's no United States of America in my world either. There was, though. I believe that the entire Tarotverse and much of the multiverse beyond the Tarotverse might have begun as one world, endlessly branching."
"Good idea, let's stop and talk about religion," chirps Dr. Moore annoyed and annoyingly.
The masked man from World 12 continues, "But, yes, Ms. Gray sounds like she might be from our world. The Hands of FATE hide their identity and manipulate agents into doing their work for them. Those who oppose them, get erased from the timeline. Have you considered wearing masks? I never go out in public without one."
Nissa replies, “I guess this is why you never told us your name. If you don’t use your name, you remain unknown. Ms. Gray and Misters Black, White and Brown don’t use real names either.
“But if they remain on World 12… and I believe you said they’ve lost their ability to alter time. But still, what do you think we should do about them? A part of me feels that, once we rid this world of their influence, we’re all set.
“But they’ll just find a contact at another world, won’t they? And are the four I named the FATE agents you know of? There’s a way to find out—two, if the one we can do now makes you uncomfortable. Colonel Greer’s friend Scarlet can see your thoughts. If you think of Ms. Gray, Portly and I have seen her, albeit I only saw her masked and shadowed. Scarlet has seen the full face.
“Maybe it’s someone you actually know.” Addressing both Mask-Man and Bear-Guy, she says, “If you picture Ms. Gray along with other women from your world—those you found significant, including those you believe were erased—maybe we can figure out who she is.
“A smoker, if that narrows it down. I think she keeps the cigarette on the end of a long black stick.” It dawns on Nissa that the men might not need a mind-reader if her description helps. She’s not sure how helpful Gray’s identity would be though.
Theo quietly waits for things to die down, taking it all in.
"Hey, are you going out drinking later?" 'Dr.' Moore whispers to Theo.
Thoroughly bored at this time, the godling rolls his eyes at the mad scientist. "And what if I was? I wouldn't be bring any back for you, for all the trouble you've caused!!"
"Parallel worlds? Fascinating. And you think an organization on one of them, this F.A.T.E., is trying to interfere with us? How would trans-dimensional communication even work?" Kai seems a lot more excited than concerned about the whole affair.
"Nissa, pardon the interruption. You said that you have seen one of these agents? How?"
Thoroughly bored at this time, the godling rolls his eyes at the mad scientist. "And what if I was? I wouldn't be bring any back for you, for all the trouble you've caused!!"
[dice=Intimidate]1d20 + 5
"Well, if you aren't willing to bring any back, I'll just have to go with you," says Moore with a happy grin.
Nissa replies, “Well, I don’t know if you’re aware of my powers, but when Colonel Greer was…”
Reliving the moment is painful.
A shudder in her voice makes this apparent as she says, “shot…”
Nissa can’t bring herself to add and killed. She goes on, “I flew in through the wall of the metal container. That’s where I saw Moore here and L.C. There was a screen showing a face—Ms. Gray. She was in the dark, and wore a mask. But I could see her lips. Her expression was so cold, like… Greer’s body was still warm, and she was ready to take out Moore next.
“She snapped her fingers once I toppled her gun and shut off her camera. And that’s when the bombs were activated. So yeah, she could not only communicate but also kill transdimensionally. She was ready to blow my girlfriend to bits, just out of spite.”
Catching Moore heading in Theo’s general direction as she’s replying to Kai, Nissa swivels her head around.
“Is Zeus your dad? ’Cause if he isn’t, you gotta let Theo and his sister talk family business. Besides, you don’t wanna delay your escorts.” She gestures politely toward the World 12 guys. “They might take you along the scenic route through their home world, if you get on their bad side.”
Before Nissa's pain becomes apparent, Kai takes a step back and seems to be bracing for something. Kai takes a couple of deep breaths before speaking again.
"If it's possible, I would like to take a look at the setup in that container, perhaps it can give us some clues as to how this communication is possible. I doubt we can trace anything useful, these people sound like they are being very careful," Kai shrugs, "but we can try."
"Well, if you aren't willing to bring any back, I'll just have to go with you," says Moore with a happy grin.
Theo punches the wall right of Dr. Moore's head. "This is a family affair. Godlings only. You understand, right?"
Probably with Verve's help the crew from World 12 helped get the ship off the sandbar and the Boston Theoretical cleanup crew sailed it southward to Boston. The ship will be available for Kai to inspect.
In answer to Nissa's questions about identifying Ms. Gray.
"I would rather not have anyone read my mind, thank you," says the man in the mask. "But if you could produce an artistic rendering of Ms. Gray, I will be able to confirm if she is one of the people we believe is still running FATE. Their last attempt to reboot the timeline in their favour pretty much destroyed our world, and, we believe, their ability to time travel. If they're able to gate outside of their world though, they'll be able to re-enter at any point in the timestream. They'll be back in business."
The bear nods and adds thoughtfully, "Putting a stop to this Portly character may stop them from coming here. It doesn't bode well for our world though. Eventually, they'll find someone to help them make a jump"
Nissa replies, “Then lemme take Kai over to the container. If Kai can figure out how Gray’s communicating, that might help. Time travel shouldn’t exist… even when I believed we were doing that, I thought it was so stupidly dangerous.”
She calls Scarlet and says, “Hey, Miss Meadows? Mind working with a sketch artist to get a rendition of that smoking lady? Asking for a friend.” Nissa cringes at her own cringiness.
She then sends another voice message to L.C., “You awake, Sweetie? I don’t know how to get a sketch artist for Scarlet to describe a face to.”
She says to Kai, “We can head over to the ship. If L.C.’s asleep, I actually know a sketch artist. In Harvard. The town, not the university.”
At Kai's exclamation, Verve made a small correction "Actually, what we do is jump into the worlds of fictional works, not actual historical periods, although it is possible to jump into a place that is very similar to some place in our past or future if a book was written about it I suppose."
"They" Verve indicates the world 12 agents "actually ARE from another dimension. It's kinda like that old skyfy tv show Sliders."
At Verve's explanation, Kai gives the World 12 people a nod. "Ah, I understand. After I've taken a look at the setup on the ship, I would be very curious to discuss how travel between non-fictional dimensions works."
With a final wave at the group, Kai begins to follow Nissa (or Nissa's directions) to the ship, talking on the way.
Kai seems to think for a few moments before speaking again. "Before I got into computers, I was working as a counselor in social services. And I can imagine that doing what you do... it's a lot of pressure and risk. So if you need to talk to someone about it, or about anything else..." Kai trails off and moves into a posture with slightly open arms, as if to say Well, here I am.
Charles frowns as he listens to the World 12 people. "I don't like leaving it at that. There must be some way to figure out how they're interacting with our world and get rid of that capability permanently. I suppose that's really what our goal is tomorrow."
“Oh, right! So, I guess around the time you showed up to work today, we were on a world called Turokh, which is also number one of twenty-one worlds that work together. Ours will be World 22, I guess. For some reason, not all are referred to by number like Witch-World and Which-World. That’s two worlds, two spellings.”
She also fills Kai in on the details of the rescue, focusing more on the tech—the gun, the camera and the screen. Once at the container, she asks Kai, “I don’t suppose you wanna see how I got in, do you?”
Kai makes notes on a handheld device that looks slightly more high-tech than the commercially available personal units. "Twenty-one worlds, and ours would be the twenty-second? Is there a formal membership process? This is... well, it's a lot to take in, for one, but it's also incredibly exciting. We could get to be part of the United Federation of Planets! Or United Federation of Worlds, I suppose." Kai looks at Nissa expectantly after that last bit. Would she get the reference?
"Anyway, to the task at hand. I'll take a look around this place."
Kai puts down a carrying case and kneels next to it, opening it and revealing a small drone nested in a protective foam lining. A few button presses later, the drone is purring almost inaudibly as it hovers a meter and a half off the ground. "Alright, Legion, here's the drill. Scan for any technology, energy sources, rare or unknown materials in a radius of 50 meters. Ping me on the latter, compile report for the rest. Good hunting!"
She instead makes a point to place her comm on the floor, then becomes a fairy-like stellar mote. Her physical gear—except for the comm—disappears as scattering orange sparks, while her feathered boa and 1938-style sun-dress fall apart as ribbons and molting feathers.
All that remains of Nissa is a ball of light containing the shape of a winged woman, mere inches tall. How many is hard to say, as her shape seems to scale with any change in distance.
Whether this means Nissa changes size as she moves, is magnified by the globe of light around her, or her size is stable and her exact distance is difficult to determine… Nissa wouldn’t know.
She’s not even in a mood to show off her super-power in fact. She only shrunk to get a better look at this Legion thing.
“This is so cool! Am I in your way?” Nissa is hovering within a foot above Legion, in a position that she thinks won’t interfere.
Nissa definitely remembers Star Trek.
She grins at the reference. “Okay… so I wasn’t the best student overall, but I absolutely loved my 20th Century Film class! And I was already a teen model, so believe it or not, Star Trek was all about the outfits! The primary colors, and Lt. Uhura’s uniform made like zero sense, but she rocked that minidress and her on the bridge… she just looked so cool. At the time we studied Star Trek and Star Wars, and had that debate about which was better—total travesty, by the way…
“Who knew one five years I’d explore new worlds, at the helm of my own ship?”
"Well, if you aren't willing to bring any back, I'll just have to go with you," says Moore with a happy grin.Theo punches the wall right of Dr. Moore's head. "This is a family affair. Godlings only. You understand, right?"
[dice=Intimidate]1d20 + 5
"You seem upset. Some family conflicts to resolve? Gotcha. I'll stay out of your way." says 'Dr.' Moore, perhaps slightly shaken.
Scarlet assures Nissa that she has sketch artists that have worked with her and Colonel Greer before. She acknowledges Nissa's sad feelings that pop up when she mentions Greer and reassures her, "You know it wasn't your fault, right?"
Most of the other containers have been examined and the pieces moved around and scanned. The one where Greer was killed has been roped off like a crime scene. Kai's drone is the least invasive way to examine it. Kai soon finds that the camera, the weapons, and the triggers for the bombs all were receiving their signal from a single black box in a nearby container.
The box, 1 foot x 1 foot, is literally black and inside a crate. From the radiation it is giving off, it was, until recently, the site of a very small transdimensional opening.
When Nissa's comm buzzes, it's a voicemail from Guidetti. L.C. Preston's status read 'resting' since the rescue, but now it reads 'busy'.
Nissa replies to Scarlet. “Hearing it from you helps.” But while Nissa’s answer is intended to be honest, Scarlet’s words give Nissa a feeling of forgiveness, rather than absolution.
Kindly let the World 12 Guys know that a sketch of Ms. Gray, or whoever the smokin’ lady is, is in the works.
♥️,
Da Bomb
...shell
She doesn’t let L.C.’s busy status concern her too much.
As soon as she sees the voice message is from Guidetti, she taps the screen to listen.
"I think that what you can do is also really cool. Reminds me of those really old, pre-computer era stories about fairies. Alright, I've got something here... some kind of box that gave the signal to all the equipment in here."
The black box is investigated via Legion, from a safe distance for its human operator. "You fly your own ship? That's amazing! Okay, this box had a tiny transdimensional portal in it, which supports your theory that Ms. Gray is from another parallel world. It raises a lot of questions, though." Kai ticks them off one by one. "How can they consistently communicate into our dimension if they don't know the world address, as apparently this communication involves the opening of transdimensional portals? And who is doing the legwork for them, someone must have physically installed all these. And if we can trace the portal signature back to them somehow? I'm very new at all this dimension-hopping, but it would be consistent with laws of physics that apply in similar situations, unless... are there dimensions where 'our' laws of physics work differently? Hmm."
While it’s hard to make out any expression on her little glowing face, Nissa brings a hand to her head, which is sort of a eureka! gesture.
“Hey! I have a theory too! Not on Star Trek, I mean—like, just now. It popped into my head, so I haven’t really thought this through, so it’s probably dumb.
“But… okay, like… my purse, my clothes, my mercy pistols—all my stuff just goes when I change. Like, goes away. I don’t know where, but I always get my stuff back when I change back. My clothes is back on my body, and if I had something in hand, I’m still holding it. All that stuff must go to a pocket dimension.”
Nissa’s mind is hardly scientific, and she knows this.
“So… given I can send things to a dimension I can’t travel to, and I’m kind of a ditz, an evil supervillain can probably find a way. For her though? Probably a signal that expands, like radio waves or whatever. Or like the light coming from my body, which goes in every direction. I could shine light on something I can’t see.”
Hearing herself, she explains, “I kinda changed theories while talking. I think the conical or spherical radio signal makes more sense, but I know more about Sci-Fi than actual science.”
As that is being done, Kai writes a quick script that downloads the tags from Legion's memory and runs a search on all the corporation of provenance, looking for any common elements or patterns.
She says, “Call me if you need me for anything… and I’ll be with L.C. if you need someone smart.”
Nissa then let’s Kai get to work without distraction.
In a few minutes, a hover cab picks them up at the front entrance and takes them to their first stop, The Meadhall in Cambridge. Both Children of Zeus begin with several mugs of mead each. Both are wise enough to honor both Dionysus and The Gods with every fresh draft.
“Hey, Shear Awesomeness… I’m outside your door, thought you were home, but… guess not? Can you call me so I know you’re okay?”
If Nissa doesn’t hear anything, the lack of a key won’t stop her from entering.
"Thank you. we'll go check it out." She then looked around, and everyone was gone. Shrugging, she went and put on civilian clothes and went outside to catch a cab.
Enyo goes on to describe a World 7 as a world in which the age of myth never truly ended. The Egyptian, Greek, and Norse godlings filled the world with their progeny. Technologically, it is far less advanced than your world. There are various nations and city-states, but all of them acknowledge the Greeks rule (according to Enyo). This world is aligned with the Charioteer. The Charioteer, she says, is also known as the Valkyrie, because the 10,000-year-old Elven records about the first meeting between the Celestials and the elves of World 3 uses a word that could either mean 'wings of steel' or'wheels of steel', so they're not sure how the Charioteer is described, which is cool with the Asgardians.
"And, of course, most fully mortals want to f@~# us. Sometimes because we're awesome, but mostly to have little godling children. I don't really blame them. Their theatre stars, politicians, and heroes are all ... us."
"So, what do you think? Wanna come visit?"
The bed has been slept in but not made. The apartment has a wired-in communication system for security messages. A light is flashing indicating a message has been received and not deleted. "Dr. Preston, this is Ted; a chopper has arrived for you."