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Heroes don't kill people. She doesn't, can't look at Gui. "Okay." I can be her weapon.
Andromeda clenches her fists and seizes the Governess in a crushing, grinding grasp, horrible dissonance filling the air as force grinds and flares unevenly against force with only crumpling armor in-between
The armor enhanced and improved my powers. Is it because I'm a version of Chloe that hasn't awoken her powers yet that I can't use them?
Chloe shakes her head at Jessie as she attempts to lead her away. "Whatever she did to the real Chroknight, she screwed up. They told me, when you can see what's wrong, it means that the wraiths are coming!" She looks around terrified. "They'll purge everything to do with what's wrong here. Including your spiders that were changed. Including...Oh no!"
Horror dawns on Chloe. "Jessie, I need to get back upstairs! My dad is in danger!" He's supposed to have the bad leg. It was the only way he would have survived that car accident. That program is wrecking the timeline all over!
The sheen of angelic wings has the little Chloe calling put to Empyrean. "Help! We need to get upstairs!"
Empyrean tracks the strange phasing snake-entities briefly, but the call of a child for help is something she can't resist. With a quick "Excuse me," she launches herself into the air and tries to reach Chloe with a twirl of her feathery wings.
Indarius leads the charge against the infected Chroknight armor, icing it over with a lance of freezing magic. At the panicked urging of an even younger Sammy, Andromeda joins the fray with her telekinetic powers! The armor blurs and speeds up as it tries to hide out of harm's way! The Bull's telekinetic force tears after the temporally accelerated Governess, ripping through displays and into the adjacent walls! The ripped hole in the wall reveals a large adjacent chamber with a Khi'thyri scout craft hanging from the ceiling.
The resultant shock wave sends the craft swaying ponderously above the large displays! Shrieks of panic echo about the chamber from museum patrons as they rush out of the exhibit hall!
Xaiara pursues after the Governess, her wings blurring behind her as she ignores the rubble-strewn ground. She moves out of sight beyond the crumbling displays, hot on the trail!
* * *
Empyrean effortlessly lifts Chloe to the mezzanine level as the serpentine apparitions make their presence known! Screams of panic erupt from the crowd when the chronowraiths are spotted! Chloe spots her distraught-looking father fighting against the tides of people heading for the exits.
Pandemonium overtakes the atrium as at least three chronowraiths weave through the crowds! They move unnaturally, stuttering like a buffering video, and their eyeless faces sport insect-like mandibles. Several Daedalus students ready themselves for battle, with Valence and Johnny rising up into the air and Ne'veah destroys her dress by transforming into her giant panther form.
The Heralds in the crowd also spring into action. Nimbus and Half-Pipe take to the air and Ragnarok balls his hands into fists, ready to fight. Rendezvous aids in crowd dispersal by opening up large portals, ensuring those who pass through are transported to safety.
Chloe clings onto Joy as they lift off - as a terrible thought occurs to her amidst the terror. "Those things will attack anything that's paradoxical. My dad included - you have to protect him!" She points out the Korean man fighting against the tide of people.
"And-" Her breath catches as she spots the tailed girl standing underneath Johnny, apparently getting ready to join in the action. Beebee, as if Chloe hadn't interfered. Yet she knew this was as paradoxical as the rest.
"That one is in danger too," She tells Empyrean, latching on tightly around her neck. "...My dad doesn't have anyone to protect him right now. Please, be his guardian angel!"
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The angel nods to Chloe.
"I understand. Let me put you somewhere safe." She beats her wings and tries to find a place to put down Chloe, perhaps a mezzanine, where she won't be trampled or crushed in a crowd. Then she spins and tries to get eyes on the two people pointed out by Chloe. She taps the comm in her ear—she's part of a team now, and she must never forget that she can always call upon her Choir.
"I have eyes on two people in need of special protection," she reports. She gives a quick, clipped description of Chloe's father and of Beebee. Deciding between the two, she vaults over the railing of the mezzanine and extends her wings, pivoting in the air and making a sharp wingover to come down by Chloe's father.
"I am here to protect you. Please try to remain close and don't touch the serpentine forms," she explains quickly, keeping her wings out so that she can use them as a barrier against the chrono-wraiths... if that will even work. She isn't sure.
Andromeda rockets after Xaiara and the Governess. Possible locations of the fleeing AI smear the entire landscape with ghostly trails in her HUD. Too many, she blink-clicks them away, and her vision clears.
It doesn't reveal the Governess though.
"I will find you," Andromeda flatly warns, sheath flaring with wrath as she yanks aside the concealment for her HUD's first suggested hiding spot. "I'll find you if I have to tear this whole place down to do it," Her flat voice gets fully monotone as something inside her is strangled, "Even if it means hurting Sammy again."
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"Chloe!!" her dad shouts as the angelic being brings her towards his outstretched arms. "Thank you, thank you!" he says as he bows his head while scooping his child into his arms.
Empyrean stands in defense of the father and his child, watching as the spacious atrium of the Taylor International headquarters is filled with mayhem. The stuttering, half-ethereal chronowraiths attack wantonly, and are met by the various powered individuals in attendance at the Gala.
The Heralds work efficiently as a team, focusing on defense and ensuring the crowds of bystanders are evacuated safely. Nimbus directs the members of his team present, sending Half-Pipe into the air to distract the wraiths with his aerial stunts, while Ragnarok threatens anything that gets close to the crowds being evacuated by Rendezvous.
The Finals are less cohesive, but each put their talents to use in the battle. Valence's mastery of atomic forces are less effective against the quasi-real chronowraiths, but his sheer power is able to keep them mostly contained. Miss Hysteria can't abate the crowd's panic, but her hallucinations keep them directed towards the exits. Ne'veah's catlike reflexes avoid the wraith's mandibles, and her razor-sharp claws rend at their ethereal bodies!
The other Daedalus students do what they can, though a good number of them are not built for this kind of combat. Jessie gets swept up in the crowd surging for the exit, but her giant spider PanAm clambers across the wall and sends a line of silk to her, letting her pull herself out of the sea of people. Johnny and Matt, aka Chitin, lend their super strength and toughness to continue to combat the wraiths, while a furry-tailed Beebee bounds across the battlefield with remarkable agility, leading the wraiths on a chase across the atrium!
With one of the smaller wraiths snapping at her heels, Beebee bounds up to the mezzanine level, flipping over Empyrean and her charges. The wraith whips past them in its pursuit, but with a ghostly moan it abruptly changes targets to Chloe and her father! Its tail strikes like a serpent even as Chloe's father steps bravely in front of the creature to protect his daughter! Contact is made and he falls with a scream, clutching his leg in agony! The wraith then coils for a finishing strike!
* * *
Despite distant sounds of fighting elsewhere in Praetor Tower, the search for the Governess feels eerily quiet. The groaning of the swaying alien scout craft is the only soundtrack to Andromeda's threatening words, calling out the destructive AI to face her.
It's only when she contextually admits to being the one who had hurt Samantha in the first place does the Governess show herself, appearing after a blur of motion to stand directly in front of the Bull. "You--"
A silver streak comes out of the rubble, barreling into the Governess in a haze of bladed wings! Andromeda's HUD is unable to pick the two apart as time stutters, replaying events but each time Scythe's own incredible reaction speed and combat prowess manages to keep up with the Governess' time manipulation!
Scythe screams incoherently as she fights with reckless abandon, absorbing hits and not caring about the bloody injuries she suffers while the AI-infected armor's acceleration stays just ahead of the deadly wingblades.
Before Andromeda's HUD can process the two beings to give an optimal attack vector or simply decide to blast them both trusting Xaiara to heal, a massive chronowraith appears out of the aether and attempts to engulf them both!
What do you do??
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Sammy's mind races, gets derailed by panic, rips itself back on course, only to lose it again to anxiety. Others are around her, unsure, a mob mentality reaching boiling. Sammy had read articles on such things, trying to understand people, so she understood... well nothing much, other than people wouldn't notice a cell phone getting pinched. (this age of a Samantha didn't have enough to have her own).
Quickly she uses the phone to hack into the surveillance cameras, sees IT right there, making her heart thunder with her desire to be free of this hate and guilt.
Her fingers tap, calculating all the resources available to a pint sized computer nerd and finds A Thing. A Thing being the precariously swinging scout ship.
Scout ships need cleaning and maintenance even if it is just a show piece now. That means it needs to be raised and lowered. With hacking skills still budding but fueled by sheer eagerness, suddenly one side of the anchor wires let out zipping smoking slack, swinging the large craft like a massive hammer.
But doesn't strike IT, there was no way to precisely hit IT without hitting Xaiara so instead the scout craft slams into the engulfing chronowraith.
No matter the raging fury inside her tween body, Sammy will be a hero someday and heroes still save people.
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Andromeda instinctively responds to the opening Sam created with a ravening blast, detonating the melee with a rippling torrent that almost seems to refract through space-time before it collides dramatically with the Governess, scattering the combatants across the room. "You're not keeping her safe! No one is safe! Even if you locked her away as a baby she'd never be safe from you! "
Empyrean isn't sure how her physical form will interact with chrono-wraiths, but given that people are in danger, she doesn't exactly care. She whips her wings about like a bludgeon and as she does so she twists her hands through the air like she's plucking at strings, as light pulls from her halo and forms into thin, laser-like threads.
Light is funny. It's a wave and a particle. It's always moving at a constant speed relative to everything else in the universe. It is trapped, relativistically, in a bubble of its own time. (That means even stranger things can happen when it intersects with entities that warp time.) It is also the metaphysical vision that separates the universe from the Void that came before.
The light-threads coming off of Empyrean's halo and guided by her waving hands lash through the sinuous chrono-wyrms, fundamental energetic forces engaged in a way that underlies the tug-of-war between time and space. It is easy to see, as the beams flare and glow through the air, how ancient artists would draw angels wielding flaming swords.
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Indarius worked to get his emotions back under control, because damn this A.I. was annoying with how it kept coming back to bite them all in the rear. Seeing little Sammy pickpocket someone in the crowd was concerning, he was about to go after the ominously swaying ship when it's lines gave way and just so happened to slam into the oncoming Chronowraith. Unfortunately the stuttering writhing thing was sailing towards Sammy, so he proppelled himself to her with a flap of his wings and put himself in harms way. He had a few centuries to possibly get warped forward, Sammy did not. He had to stop being afraid for her sake.
"They're not exactly where you see them, they're displaced, so don't get caught unaware!" Chloe calls out to Empyrean as she grabs onto her Dad and helps to pull him out of harm's way. It's difficult with her smaller body, but she just has to get him going here.
"Dad, we need to get out of here! Can you walk?" Chloe asks him.
When the chrono-wraiths begin their assault, Max knows it's time to take action! She reaches into her clutch and pulls forth the magic wand, activating its power. Golden light suffuses her body as the divine armor manifests itself, girding her with its might. She tosses the purse aside and charges into the midst of the wraiths menacing the crowd.
"Get behind us! Make your way to the exits in a calm in orderly fashion," she shouts to the civilians. She lashes out at the wraiths, slashing with her claws, kicking with her powerful legs, and trusting her armor to protect her from harm.
Empyrean's halo light digs into the translucent substance of the chronowraith, wrangling the semi-tangible creature away from Chloe and her father in dramatic fashion! Her brilliant wings beat the air hard as she pulls the wraith back, giving the two a chance to escape.
Chloe puts her small body to work helping her father up, but struggles to bear his weight. The way he favors the injured leg strikes Chloe as exactly the same in her original memories, giving her the weirdest sense of deja vu!
"Omigosh! I'm so sorry! I thought it was after me and I had no idea it would come after you!!" Chloe looks up from shouldering the weight of her father to see Beebee's distraught face! "Here, let me help" Beebee takes the other arm of Chloe's dad and easily supports his weight.
"It'll be all right, Chloe, you're being very brave--" She blinks. "How do I know your name?" Any immediate answer from Chloe is cut off by the chronowraith lunging hard at the both of them, requiring Empyrean to double her effort at keeping the creature contained!
Just then, Johnny flies in and delivers a wind-up uppercut to the wraith's mandibles, giving Beebee enough room to escort Chloe and her dad to safety! "Thanks, Babe!" she shouts up to the handsome flying youth, blowing him a kiss before focusing on shoulder-carrying Chloe's dad towards Rendezvous' portal to safety!
"Stay close," Beebee tells Chloe as they're about to step through. "I trust the Heralds, they'll be taking us someplace safe."
Chloe, what do you do??
Meanwhile, Devil Diva makes use of her experience fighting chronowraiths, ripping into one with her claws and sending it echoing back into the aether! She avoids their mandibles and the tips of their tails, which is where their time disruption powers originate!
All around her, Max sees pockets of time disruption like what she and First Class experienced in the tunnels under Halcyon City. A group of people are frozen in place as if in amber, while others are stuttering like a livestream with a poor internet connection! The largest chronowraith, assaulted on all sides by Valence, Half-Pipe, and Nimbus, spasms in a way familiar to Devil Diva as it calls forth a threat from the past!
A shimmering curtain of temporal energy parts open, and a monstrous bleat fills the atrium, mercifully clear of all but a handful of non-combatants. Giant hooves colored a sickly green stomp on the marble floor support a blast from Halcyon's past -- Nitro Billy, the radioactive goat monster!
DD and Empyrean, what do you do?
* * *
Inside the museum, just as the Prime Wraith chomps down on the two entangled combatants, the Khi'thyri scout craft smashes into its side! The Chroknight armor's temporal manipulation field saves the Governess from the time-twisting effects of the wraith, but it can't save it from Andromeda! Once the jarring impact separates Xaiara from her target, the Bull is there!
Prepared for temporal anomalies, Indarius is ready when the scout craft accelerates as if time had sped up around it, swinging back toward Sammy well before she had a chance to move out of the way! The dragon hero of Halcyon is there, however, and knocks the craft away before it can do further harm!
With words almost as devastating as the telekinetic force she's wielding, Andromeda lays into the Governess, crumpling sections of the armor and catapulting it towards the metal-winged girl, still stuttering and showing temporal afterimages. With more reflex than anything, bladed wings slash upwards to impale the suit of armor!
The armor goes limp, appearing to power down while skewered on the splayed metallic feathers. It's an impressive amount of control, as the tips of the blades have managed to strike only nonlethal or reinforced points of the armored suit. Xaiara emerged from the mandibles of the wraith dressed far differently from the shredded silver gown she had started the battle in; now she's wearing a lean and flexible bodysuit and a domino mask around her eyes. Her wings, while still metal, look more like natural bird wings than a collection of swords.
She looks at everyone in the display hall warily while her wings twitch, letting the Chroknight armor fall to the ground. "Where am I, who are you, and why did you throw a suit of armor at me?"
"Sam, can you seize control of the armor's capabilities?" Andromeda asks her friend while she sizes up the stranger in Xaiara's body, ready to restrain her if it proves necessary. "You have been chronally displaced to an alternate branch or point in time. I do not know if your regenerative abilities retard your aging, so I am unable to be conclusive, though I believe you are from a different branch. I know you as Xaiara or Scythe. You know me here as Andromeda, but might have encountered me as τ-34 or some other designation. Xaiara and I are roommates and friends, as well as freed weapons seeking new purpose. I threw the armor at you so you could do that, and because I knew you could take it."
A beat passes before the different Xaiara says, "That... was way more thorough than I was expecting. I'll give you the benefit, but don't you dare call me Scythe or we'll have--"
She's cut off by a haunting moan as the huge chronowraith recovers from the heavy impact, rising up as time warps erratically around it! It's thrown up blocks and walls, making any direct assault risky lest the attacker become dislodged from the time stream!
What do you do?
"I'll try" the voice yells back from the other room as the redhead teenager hunkers down over the phone, thumbs a blur. But soon after a noise comes out of her that is two parts frustration, seven parts fear, and all the rest anger.
She cannot connect. It is too remote.
After an adjustment of her glasses and a large swallow, she is off. Past the dragon with shimmering scales, past the confident woman with crackling enery, to the black crumpled armor next to the winged woman. "S-sorry, I have to be close." then she connected a tooth nibbled wire from phone to metal feather in the exposed armor and got to hacking.
"Take care of my dad, Beebee." That's all she can say here. She couldn't explain more than this. Couldn't just leave the rest of her team to deal with the mess that her powers had caused. She might be weakened, but she needed to step up, no matter how terrified she was right now.
Right before stepping through the portal, Chloe slips out from under her dad and runs as fast as her smaller legs can carry her into the fray with the Chronowraiths. They're big and angry, but Chloe has fought them before - never as many as this though! Summoning the giant mutant billy goat was new to her.
She tries not to wet herself in terror as it roars, looking for anything she can do to help out in this situation. Yet her mind is going blank - or rather, it feels like she's thinking in tar without her powers helping her take more time to think.
Directionless, she pivots to get close to the hero that's the most effective so far against the monsters - Devil Diva, taking one apart effortlessly. "Deedee, I can help end this, but I need to get to Chroknight's armor!" She calls out to her, flinching as something smashes apart close by.
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The spaceship rocked Indy especially in his smaller humanoid form, but the wards protecting him and Sammy held as it glanced off to the side taking a nearby display or two with it. Then Sammy was off, able to see the situation that had been happening behind them before him.
He turned to see Andromeda and someone that looked like a more organic Xaiara. Then the Chronowraith bringing up a slew of temporal barriers, interplacing walls that were once or not yet in place, solid rock faces, time-warping cross-streams, all manner of out of place things or things that would simply cast one awash in the timestream.
Planting his feet he called out to Andromeda, "Good job Andromeda, let's keep the pressure up!" Then getting a better read on the situation he loosens up and begins weaving his hands, shifting at the feet and drawing symbols through the air in almost a dance as he calls forth the wellspring of Halcyon's Aether.
"Tiid rath bo stin pa
Miiraad los vahzah han miiraad oblaan
Yah ni sos uv tiid"
Times river flows free,
All paths are true Your path ends,
Seek not blood or time beast
Indarius works to change the chaotic flow of time around the Chronowraith, like putting a very upset fish in a separate container while cleaning the rest of the tank. Strengthening the Temporal placement of his allies in the process. That should hopefully allow for Andromeda to strike without being thrown about like a ship in an ocean storm. With some spare threads he weaves them into the Chroknight armor attempting to lockout the Governess and make the suit operable only by a manual pilot again.
Andromeda doesn't hesitate. The dragon has given her an opening; she takes it. She can't lance through the monster with a precisely aimed blast the way she can't help but wish for. But the dragon has given her an opening; she can get in close.
Sheath flaring she grabs the Wraith up in her awful power, forcing it against the grinding entropy that surrounds her, wrenching, crushing, yanking, tearing at it until it's gone.
"Seriously? A goat?!?" Max balks. She sighs and shakes her head. "Alright, whatever. Come on, Empyrean, let's put this guy back out to pasture!"
She dashes in and leaps high in the air to deliver a powerful uppercut to Nitro Billy's bearded chin!
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The sudden appearance of a giant radioactive goat draws the attention of most of the heroes in the atrium. DeeDee gets the first lick in with a leaping punch to the jaw that sends Nitro Billy reeling!
Valence envelops the creature in an energy cocoon to protect everyone from the deadly radiation of the beast, while Johnny flies in to land some punches of his own! Ne'veah leaps at its flank, ripping at the glowing hide with her claws, and Ragnarok grabs one of its cloven hooves to hold it in place! Assaulted from all sides, Nitro Billy vents through unthinking violence, bucking, kicking, and biting at everyone in the vicinity!
Meanwhile, Chloe had slipped away from the portal, hoping to still help despite her reduced age. She had called out to Devil Diva but her smaller voice was lost in the mayhem of the battle.
The rampage of the giant goat dislodges a towering statue of a stylized Praetorian, sending it toppling down towards Chloe! Just as her (shortened) life is about to flash before her eyes, a blurred shape snatches her out from under the statue in the nick of time! She's spirited to a relatively protected alcove by her rescuer, who turns out to be Beebee!
"Look, I'm not good at doing what I'm told either, but this is no place for you! I understand wanting to help so bad that you put yourself at risk, but you're scaring your dad!" Beebee squeezes her eyes shut for a moment. "Whoa, deja vu."
She shakes that off and focuses on Chloe. "Why does this feel so familiar?" she asks, almost to herself.
* * *
Indarius's impressive powers are on display as he strips away the chronowraith's temporal barrier and leaves it open for a devastating attack by Andromeda, then manipulating residual chronomantic energies to stabilize the Chroknight armor!
While young Samantha accesses the armor, Xaiara spreads her wings defensively over her while watching the battle against the wraith which seems to be well in hand. The armor is in rough shape, but Sam is able to connect to its advanced software through her incredible genius with computers.
She learns the programming is beyond futuristic, able to calculate and extrapolate temporal anomalies in nanoseconds but that all of the safety parameters had been bypassed, allowing for time manipulation on an aggressively reckless and likely catastrophic level! Ending this time crisis quickly would require restoring the safties and powering up the armor with a time manipulator inside!
Just as Sam is processing this, Indarius's spare threads strike the armor, forcing a temporal reset! The armor spasms and convulses, making it hard for Sam to work. Xaiara moves in, pushing her aside from the struggling armor and popping off the faceplate with a deft flick of a pinfeather, revealing someone inside! "I swear it was empty before," she mutters. "I've been having the weirdest day."[/b]
The woman inside is no one Sam recognizes, but she's older, likely in her late twenties or early thirties, and gasping for breath in the crumpled armor!
What do you do?
Time was a funny thing. Moments sometimes passed so swiftly you didn't notice and other times they stretched on. Chloe felt the moment where she looked at her impending doom from the falling Praetorian statue with grim acceptance, until she was jolted out of it by the swift and sudden rescue by her best friend.
The swift lecture from Beebee was bitterly ironic. Chloe tugs nervously on her left ring finger. "Probably because I told you the same thing in a different timeline," Chloe admits. "Technically, I'm older than you by like two months. Except some stupid A.I. went and took over the Chroknight armor, and if we can't get it back those chronowraiths are going to keep wrecking stuff until they've pruned every paradox - including us," She tells Beebee.
"I really wish I could give us more time to talk, but I need you to help me get back over there so I can fix this," Chloe says as she points. "...I can't do it on my own. I need help. Please!" Her desperation shows as she starts to tear up again, frustration showing on her face.
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The fight between doing as Chloe asks and the much more sane option of returning a child to her parent wars on Beebee's face. She finally shakes her head with a groan. "I can't believe I'm doing this. Okay, fine. I'll take you to Chroknight, but if it's not safe we're out of here." She picks Chloe up in her arms and runs into the museum.
The trail of destruction is easy to follow, with wrecked displays and blasted-out walls leading them in the direction of the interior battle.
"Not looking safe..." Beebee warns just as she carries Chloe into the large exhibit hall where a precariously dangling alien scout craft swings from the ceiling while the largest chronowraith she'd ever seen is being pummeled by the continued assault by Indarius and Andromeda.
On the other side of the exhibit hall, Chloe sees young Samantha working on a battered Chroknight suit while being shielded by the wings of Xaiara wearing a super hero outfit.
As she's carried closer to the armor, Chloe sees that someone's inside the armor, someone she recognizes.
Her mother.
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"...Mom?"
Hannah Rachel Parker's face in the Chroknight armor. The mole under her left eye. The lips that always curled up into a smile whenever she saw her. The shock gives way to a horrifying realization for Chloe.
I'm the same age as when she died.
The cruelty of this moment was not lost on Chloe, even as she was trembling in Beebee's arms and trying to stop crying. This would hurt her more in the end. But right now, she squirms out of Beebee's grip and rushes up to lock her small arms around her mother's torso.
"...you're not supposed to be here. How are you here?" She asks - though considering her blubbering she doubts anyone could understand her right now...
Xaiara steps back from prying the crumpled sections of the armor to let its occupant breathe when Chloe rushes up with a giant hug.
"Chloe!? You shouldn't... ooph, shouldn't be here!" She looks to Samantha, realizes that she's only a couple years older than Chloe, then turns to Xaiara while trying to sit up.
"The armor's compromised. Time's going crazy. I have to fix-- nnngh!" She winces hard and stops trying to get to her feet. "Please, get these kids out of here," she pleads to Xaiara.
She runs a tender, loving hand over Chloe's head. "I didn't want you finding out this way, but you have to go now. I'll explain everything later. I'll be fine, but only if you go now."
Xaiara pinches her brow, mindful of the chaotic battle happening behind her and the family revelations occurring in front of her. "You're really asking me to do this? Fine. C'mon, kids, Auntie Shayera's going to keep you safe." She takes a hold of the arms of Chloe and Samantha.
The battle with the chronowraiths and the temporal echo of Nitro Billy is a chaotic mess worthy of a double splash page. Empyrean and Devil Diva find themselves fighting back-to-back, demonic strength employed with angelic light to keep the chronowraiths from interfering with the other heroes' efforts to bring the goat monster to heel.
Their combined effectiveness against the wraiths seemingly awaken some sort of rudimentary instinct in the otherwise mindless creatures, as the largest one throws a temporal storm at the pair!
Caught in the tumult of chronal energies, the angel and demon are flung outside the time stream entirely! After a moment of complete disorientation, they crash hard on the pavement of a city sidewalk! Once their heads stop spinning, they look around to see the streets of Halcyon City, but markedly different! From the fashion and the makes of the cars rumbling past, they're somewhere in the 1970s!
What do you do??
Emotions are like a pendulum, swinging with chaos sublimely in a glass shop. Seeing Chloe's mom, seeing her alive, knowing what it is like to lose someone that is EVERYTHING to you... Sammy might be a blank just mirroring those feelings, but to her the pain is a seeping wound that will never close.
Chloe has a chance... but time has to change.
"The safeguards were removed!!!" Sammy screams to get everyone's attention "IT sent us into a rending of time and space that is minutes away. We will all Die. Worse we will never have Been." the red head struggles against the woman's strong grasp.
"Ms. Parker-Myeong, please!" science wants to pour out of her but she swallows it "The paradoxes are twisted up like a overextended water hose, and it is swelling beyond natural limits. We... YOU... have to untie them, you have to allow me to restore the defaults to your system. I... I KNOW HOW! PLEASE."
Sammy's green eyes flash at Chloe, guilt suddenly firing in there depths. She is keeping something secret, something the tween is tore up about but a firm swallow means she is making a decision. Back to the woman in the armor "Only you can save us, please let me help."
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"Listen to her, mom! She's the smartest person in the room by a large margin!" Chloe pleads as she supports Sam. Her hand reaches over and grabs onto the redhead's, squeezing it. "She can help you save my friends."
Her eyes drift to Beebee as she takes in the scene as well, before focusing on her mother.
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The sudden appearance of a giant radioactive goat draws the attention of most of the heroes in the atrium. DeeDee gets the first lick in with a leaping punch to the jaw that sends Nitro Billy reeling!
Valence envelops the creature in an energy cocoon to protect everyone from the deadly radiation of the beast, while Johnny flies in to land some punches of his own! Ne'veah leaps at its flank, ripping at the glowing hide with her claws, and Ragnarok grabs one of its cloven hooves to hold it in place! Assaulted from all sides, Nitro Billy vents through unthinking violence, bucking, kicking, and biting at everyone in the vicinity!
Empyrean pivots from the time wraiths to the demonic goat-creature. She's about to make some kind of remark about demonic goats when Nitro Billy beats her to the (literal) punch, rushing forward and bashing the angel so hard that she lands on her back and skids several feet, with feathers flying about.
Empyrean winces and rolls onto her side, the slowly pushes herself back up to her feet. Her body may simply be a materialized shell for her spiritual self, but that doesn't mean it can't be damaged. She takes up a fighting position with DD to repel the chrono-wraiths and try to create an opening, when the temporal wake comes crashing in and sends the pair into the relative past.
Hands still up, her halo still brilliant, Empyrean pauses, her eyes flickering left and right.
"Deedee... I think we have a problem."
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Andromeda sees the logic in Sam's argument, but she sees the almost frenzied fear behind it that only her father's peril can summon up. It's the correct thing to do, the right thing to ask of the woman in the Chroknight suit as a hero, maybe even as a mother.
Chloe plainly doesn't see it; Andromeda doesn't help her.
Yet she finds she can't help Sam, even though she's right, even though it will save many, many more. Her mind slips from even grasping that choice, the choice that Andromeda will never have to make. Thank God Sam's father is still alive to give her this cruelty.
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Having done his best to continue holding the chrono-wraith at bay he moves to join his allies around the armor before it can break free of it's shackles. It takes him a bit to get the read on the situation and his heart drops a bit. He kneels next to Sammy and Chloe, giving Chloe a long, for the short time they have, look. He knows that face and what it's silently screaming.
There is a twinge in his chest, not where the usual worry and hurt comes from, but that new unfamiliar place. He can't help but to feel so much hurt for Sammy, Chloe, and somehow more than anyone the woman in the armor he's never really met. He breaths a heavy sorrowful sigh before steeling his resolve against the task at hand.
"I'll buy you what time I can."
Standing and turning towards the wraith again, he can vaguely hear the clash in the other room. He sheds his humanoid form and grows to be a wall of scale and muscle to stand in the way of the group and the thrashing wraith.
"I don't know what comfort or aid it might bring you now. But I believe that all timelines are possible, even one where you both live. You and Sammy are smart enough to find that way."
"Andromeda, let's end this."
Max reels from the radioactive goat's assault, unable to get her wits about her before the timestream washes her and Empyrean away!
"Oof," the demoness grunts as she crashes hard on the sidewalk. She pushes herself up and looks around at Empyrean's pronouncement. "Yeah, it's a problem, alright. It looks like we've gone... back in time!"
She looks around for something that might help them get back to their proper chronology.
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The woman in the Chroknight armor, Hannah Rachel Parker and Chloe's mother, looks at a readout in a HUD projected in front of her eye and sighs. "I'm the paradox," she says, resignedly.
She turns to Chloe and cups her face in her hands. "I'm going to have to do something that's very important for the whole world. It's going to make things different, but no matter what changes, I love you. I will always love you, in every timeline. Can you remember that?"
Andromeda and Indarius buy as much time as possible, battering the giant chronowraith with their powers, but their attacks are becoming less and less effective. Indarius can sense that the mana that had once been so rich is fading -- an ominous sign that the timeline they're presently in is not sustainable!
* * *
After the initial shock of getting displaced in time wears off, Max starts looking for solutions to their predicament. Thankfully Joy is there with her, settling her nerves
Spotting a nearby newsstand, Max is able to see the exact date they've been sent to, and then a headline of a newspaper catches her eye: DR. INFINITY STOPS SIMIAN SORCERER'S SINISTER SCHEME The article talks about how the magical hero and his sidekick Kid Cadabra prevented Koko the Ape Magician from de-evolving the city council yesterday.
Doctor Infinity is alive and active in this time. And Max knows his address, since she's been there. Knighthall.
Sammy pulls herself out of the woman's hand (though in review the tween had no possible way to do so so the woman must have simply let her go).
The redhead rushes over, giving the other girl a quick look "I'll fix it" she says before she connects her phone back into armor and gets to work.
There are so many possibilities being translated down to a speeding output that only someone with heightened intellect can make sense of. Quickly she finds their timeline, sees exactly how to get everything back to exactly how it was...
and swipes it away.
Then she filters to get the one thing that has to happen to get the change she WILL put into place. But thousands, then millions of nanosecond permutations later she knows she cannot get the change without sacrificing more.
But what...
Her own age is the simplest, though allowing IT to have its way is maddening and deserves to be atomized for even considering it, but it is the easiest way. A curling fist, a small snarl, and then that parameter in is place.
Not enough
Other choices. Death, pain, destruction, insanity, poverty, loss of self, nothing acceptable... how many are worth one, normally her comparison algorithms would always weigh for the least loss of life... but she knew, without a doubt, she would not do so here. She had to do this thing, but could she...
Looking up she sees Andromeda watching her between defending her, an Inarius's shimmering shield taking a heavy thunk just a few feet away. They trusted Sam, but they shouldn't. Wouldn't, not after this, if she did this, if anyone found out and it ended in a Single negative flag.
It ate at Sammy, but she didn't stop, instead she hunched over the phone, hiding the screen, just in case.
Time to choose, how many and who.
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Sammy didn't know anything about this new version of Xaiara, it was a chaos of chronological data. A time traveler could straighten out the stream, could tell her a lot. But asking either of the Parkers would let them know what she is doing.
All Sammy knew is the two versions were very different and that just made this decision worse. To have what Sammy chooses, what her heart refuses to let happen to someone again, she NEEDS this change. It is the only way she can see it happening without actual loss of life.
Completely changing a person, sending their alternative self into a time line that will wither and die, is a loss of life.
Sammy knew this. A coldness seeped from her shoulders down, leaving only her brain to process.
It had to be done.
No, it didn't have to be done.
But she was still doing it.
Sammy's green eyes track the path, tallies the cost, and then decides on one life for the shadow of another.
Stop, no, it one life for another Period. Face the evil you do, no matter the reasons why.
With the blankest face Sam has ever had before, the young programmer adds the last curly brace to the script and presses send.
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For those inside the museum at the epicenter, it's strangely anticlimactic. One moment, a massive chronowraith is chewing at the fringes of reality with nothing seeming to be able to stop it. Then Samantha executes the program on the Chroknight armor, and everything reverts to perfect normalcy.
The Praetorium is fully intact, with its displays of Halcyon's history unmarred and fully restored from the previous devastation. The visitors to the museum for the first time in years explore the exhibits while the dulcet tones of jazz quartets elevate the occasion to one of high-society significance.
Cracks begin to show.
Chloe and her best friend Samantha are chaperoned by Chloe's dad, who gamely tries to keep up with their youthful energy as they flit from exhibit to exhibit, limping on his prosthetic leg and aided with his cane. Memories of their last days of middle school hit them, along with the realization that they're both celebrating their acceptance and enrollment in the prestigious Halcyon Preparatory Academy with a special trip to the Gala. The new memories stand in stark contrast to their original arrival and experience at the Gala.
Andromeda and Indarius find themselves unchanged for the most part; their Gala clothing unharmed but with jumbled memories of the chronowraith/Governess battle.
"Abacus? Matrix?" A metal-winged girl in a silver dress speaks a string of what sounds like Chinese into a handheld. When it doesn't seem to do what she wants, she grunts in frustration and pockets it into a clutch purse. "Just great," she mutters.
Spotting Andromeda, Xaiara strides up to her. Without her super suit and domino mask and in a cocktail dress and strappy heels, Xaiara holds herself with far more poise than her counterpart. "You. You said you knew me, or some other me. Looks like I didn't make it back to my timeline when everything reset, so I need to talk with Matrix. Or any of the Defenders, really, but Matrix will know what to do."
Samantha stops in mid rush, her pale face suddenly losing the smile that had been sparkling. She turns to her best friend, a small tilt of her head at adjective in her mind. "We should leave, let you find your mother."
Chloe's in a less extravagant version of the jade dress she wore in the other timeline, this one suited for the Chloe that still possesses more girlish charm than womanly appeal. She looks around in terror and confusion for several moments. She takes in things that she knows to be true and also objectively contradictory.
"There's more people missing - where's Max and Joy? Where's Beebee?" She asks, pulling on her left ring finger nervously. "It's all wrong, we're not supposed to be this young-" Her voice catches as she looks at her dad, at the obvious prosthetic. "I saved the leg before."
"Sam, it's still all messed up." She is struggling not to just run away right now. "I don't know if she's even here anymore..."
There's one part that's glaringly different, with the other steel winged girl approaching Andromeda. "...She definitely shouldn't be here."
She glances down at her ring, still unchanged if resized to fit perfectly on her finger. Does she still have access to the Chroknight armor? Or was she still yet a version of herself that hadn't been to the bridge?
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One minute he and Andromeda were slowly losing the tug of war against the Chronowraith to buy time for the others to fix up the timeline and the next he was standing next to Glasswing again.
Laughing at a joke she had told that he becomes vividly aware that he couldn't remember being said. A look of concern briefly crosses his draconic features, long enough for anyone to notice as he takes some time to sift through the old and new memories.
Thankful usually, but in this moment petrified, that he'd always had a keen recollection of events heightened even more by his new nature. Which made all the memories from the 'old' timeline sting just that bit more.
A pit opens in Andromeda's stomach as she looks at... Shayera. Anyone looking can see that she's not Xaiara She takes in the more obvious clue again. Even if they didn't, her wings give it away. But who is there that can help us?
She nods, smiles. "I will help you." She pauses, smiles again for good measure. "Do not panic."
She triple checks her files in case this is some sort of temporary temporal amnesia, but she already knows what she will find. "Matrix and the Defenders do not exist in this reality. At least not by that name."
She pauses a beat too long trying to decide what she should disclose about Xaiara's other friend before deciding that discretion must prevail until she can speak with Ava about this situation. Unless Ava is one of her Defenders? Or is Matrix? I hoped that Xaiara and Shayera was as far apart as the names would go, but... there's no way to quickly know. Especially if some of the duplicates are souls instead of bodies. Spiraling, she tries to come up with something comforting, returns to her existing repertoire. "I will help you. It... may not be quick. If I watch you fight again, I might be able to discern if I am familiar with your influences. Fighting styles might have changed like names, but it would be more data at least." She looks down Shayera's body posture in frank assessment. "Despite the dress, I don't think Ava taught you how to stand, unless this variant is one of the later lessons."
A slightly too long pause, she smiles again, about to remind Xai- Shayera not to panic, but suddenly aware that to Shayera, the simple smell of Andromeda's own terror must have be a screaming, endless beacon, and dares to ask her real question. "Are you free? On your world, are you still with the people who put those wings in you? Xaiara must have taken your place; will there be anyone there to help her? What if she goes into the Red?"
Doctor Infinity. The person indirectly responsible for her transformation, for loosing Violet upon her and the world. He's long gone in their normal time, but here...
She grimaces and turns to Joy. "I think I know who can help us get back to the future. But from what I know, he's not the nicest person. Let's go, but be ready if he turns out to be a massive dick."
Before they go, she flips through the newspapers and periodicals to try to see if she can glean a bit more about Doctor Infinity in what seems to be his heyday.
The angel/demon pair turn the heads of the passersby on the street, but in a surreal sign of the times, no one pulls out a phone, asks for a selfie, or starts livestreaming.
The newsstand employee nervously looks on while Max peruses the papers and magazines, but doesn't say anything. She finds a few other articles and pieces on Dr. Infinity, discovering that for a wizard superhero, he's surprisingly image conscious. His costume is overly dramatic with a flowing cape but mixing the extreme styles of the seventies including a flared and open collar exposing his chest hair. The interview Max finds has him playing up the complexities of the magical arts, cultivating an air of mystery, but also talking men's fashion and the disco lifestyle.
With that in mind, one flight and/or trip on public transportation later, Max and Joy find themselves standing in front of 7171 Knighthall.
What do you do?
"Hey," Shayera snaps her fingers, making direct eye contact with Andromeda. "I've got lots of people I care about back home. Yeah, there will be some freaking out, but once that's over they'll all start working on finding me and bringing me home. Which is what we're going to do for your Shay-- Xai? era. By the way, my hero codename is Wingblade."
She takes a centering breath, but concern creeps into her expression. "Wait. You know about the Red, but that shouldn't be a problem unless... she went by Scythe? That's probably not good. Is there someone here called the Red Raven? Or Bran the Blessed? Whippoorwill?" She looks around at their surroundings and notes that they're standing in a museum to superheroes. "I'm going to have to do some research... Can I borrow a phone?"
* * *
Glasswing puts a hand to her temple as her antennae twitch. "Indy, something just happened. I remember... a radioactive goat? And serpent things... there was a fight, right here in this museum, but now it's like nothing happened except I think it still did."
"Well, here goes," Max says. She steps up and knocks politely on the door.
Wing Blade? That's so... Stupid. "You got to name yourself?" Andromeda asks hopefully. That hope quickly ebbs though when Wingblade starts listing people who don't exist again. There's no Red Raven, Bran the Blessed just brings up a summary of the Mabinogion that she blink-clicks away, but Whippoorwill...
A faint smile of relief tugs at Andromeda's mouth. "Whippoorwill trained you." It's not a question. "She's part of the Alliance; she's off-world, but that's one more person in common. Her team is: Captain Stalwart, Yeoman, Foray, Ordnance, Imagerie, and Feya, if there are any more crossovers. My phone is in my... Purse."
She realizes that with no battle to be fought, her purse hasn't disintegrated yet, though one side is already quite distressed. For a second, still keyed up from the battle that wasn't, she can't get into it, but she looks at Shayera's face- Not at her wings -and peels her Sheath open for long enough to hand over the phone. "It's not locked."
While Chloe studies the ring still on her finger, Sam notices Jessie wandering through the exhibit hall, followed by her monstrous spider like a loyal hound. She turns and looks at her with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, she doesn't bite. People. She doesn’t bite people, I mean."
* * *
"I named myself Shayera. Wingblade was the project I was under, and yeah, I kept it. Not the most imaginative, but at least it wasn't some letter-number combo. No offense." She offers a disarming smile, which quickly falls. "Scythe's the name of my evil twi-- er, follow-up project."
She shakes her head slowly as Andromeda recounts the Alliance roster. "No, not ringing a bell. Huh. Well, if you'll give me a moment," she says once the phone is handed over.
Shayera becomes engrossed in the phone's information for several minutes, until she's interrupted by an exclamation behind her. "Xai! Your wings are lovely! I didn't know that you could change how they look!" Ava says, gushing.
Shayera looks up, blinks once, then smiles and does an easy twirl. "I thought I'd try something different. I'm glad you like them!"
"Girl, I love them! And see? I told you you'd get used to the heels!"
Taking a brief glance at Andromeda, Shayera nods. "... it helps a lot that I heal."
Ava laughs musically. "And you almost made a pun!"
Nodding slowly, Shayera agrees. "Uh huh. Say, have you seen the, um, Silver Shield exhibit yet?" She holds up Andromeda's phone.
Ava nods. "Yeah, Bronze Age wing. That way."
"Thanks," Shayera says, then waits until Ava's out of earshot. "That's a robot."
"She's a friend," Andromeda corrects. "She's Xaiara's other friend, and she will figure out that you're not Xaiara soon if she hasn't already. I can tell her that I know about it and not to worry, or you can trust her. I trust her. She's an Androidian, not a robot, fully sentient and sapient. That isn't universally known, and I'm asking you not to tell others without good reason."
She walks towards the Bronze wing, "You're thinking dimensional travel? Instead of chronal reversion?" Andromeda considers. "Your world is distinct in many ways that aren't the result of a small number of branches." She releases a fear she hadn't accepted. "Both worlds are likely stable enough for long-term existence."
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Samantha grabs her friend's hand, a little too tight "She SHOULD be here, she is alive and nothing else matters" there is a hint of intensity, almost manic, like a spark in the attic insulation.
The teenager then frowns as she eyes track Jessie, seeing her makes something suddenly hurt. Quickly, like she is forcing something to happen, her head tilts.
Tell me what to say NOW
Samantha's head straightens making her red waves bounce, and she calls out in as best as possible of an approximation of a Fan girl voice "Your spider is Cool!!" she smiles wider then her face is used to.
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Shayera arches an eyebrow at the information about Ava, then affirms, "Understood."
Her eyes flick back and forth around the exhibits in the Bronze wing, appraising most of the displays at a glance. "I'm thinking smart people. I'm not saying you're not, but you don't strike me as good with technology." She holds up Andromeda's long-suffering phone, but keeps a light tone of voice. "Also people with resources, but who also have ethics. It's a tall order anywh--"
Shayera cuts off abruptly, going on high alert. Her eyes zero on the massive armored form of Matt. She studies him warily from across the hall, starting to relax when it appears he is not about to break into a wildly destructive rampage.
"Sorry. Fought a guy like that once. He seems... nice."
* * *
Jessie's slightly worried smile at possibly terrifying someone younger than her turns genuine at Sam's enthusiasm. "Yeah, she kind of is. I named her PanAm, after a video game." She pats the side of the spider's glossy abdomen.
"Um, here." Jessie makes a click with her tongue, and PanAm runs a line of webbing from her spinnerettes. Jessie collects the glob and stretches it into a length roughly as long as a jump rope. "A souvenir. Spider silk has a stronger tensile strength than steel cables." She offers it to Sam.
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Samantha gives a sad smile as she looks at the glob of white threads in her hands "Calculated to be 1 GPa. Depending on the breed." she says softly. "I studied spiders... for a friend." green eyes look back up "Thank you for looking out for us, Hero Lady." the last sounded a stuttered as her head cocked slightly and since Samantha had to stop from using Jessie's name.