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Indarius thought about things and was about to say he'd give it a shot, but then Ava hopped up to the plate and did her thing.
"Well that works out then. We don't usually make a lasting bond with tech, so the chances that there'd be enough of a 'bond' especially on something so miniscule as like a sim card or something that we don't really think about, are basically nill."
He eats one of the last cheese cubes in his hand then sends the remaining sticks floating overhead towards the nearest trashcan. "So, what's the plan cause I bet you bullrushing in won't do anyone any favors?" He asks before they all received the Chroknight ping.
"Especially if Valence is involved, trust me."
Ava returns the phone to Andromeda and Jessie summons PanAm to her side. "So we wait?"
Sneaking in or hacking a visual feed reveals an opulent mansion that has seen better days. Samantha gets a better look of the interior using indoor surveillance cameras while Chroknight has to settle for peeking in through bushes and hedges.
The reason why the Janus should stop before slipping any closer is that she spots Ne'veah, lounging in her panther form, watching the rest of the Finals around the in-ground pool at the back of the main house. Mood lighting in the pool illuminates the area with rippling blues and greens. Valence is pacing back and forth while Kennedy is sitting on a deck chair leaning over Shayera who is bound in what might have once been a bicycle rack.
Kennedy stands up, stretches, and shakes her head. "It's not her. Her mind, her fears... all different."
"How different?" Valence asks.
"Different. Like, she's moved past her old fears and anxieties. She's seen stuff. Came out on the other side, and is stronger because of it."
Shayera's head lolls. "Coulda... told you... tha'"
"Shut up."
"Dude," comes a disembodied voice.
"She lied to me, all right?!? Are we supposed to just let that go?"
"Maybe?" Kennedy shrugs, while a rumbling growl escapes Ne'veah's throat.
Shayera shakes her head. "And I apologized. Did I steal your first dance? Believe me, I know that trauma. You have things in your mind as to how they're going to go, and then shit happens and it's nothing like you imagined."
Valence glares at her, but his fading anger doesn't sustain it. He looks worried. "Is-- is she going to be okay?"
Shayera meets his gaze. "I don't know."
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Ava returns the phone to Andromeda and Jessie summons PanAm to her side. "So we wait?"
Indy shrugs, "Pretty much yeah."
"Look, I know everyone's all worked up right now. But you have to stop and enjoy the moment sometimes, cause they don't come by very often. When we have more concrete evidence that Shayera Needs our help. Then we can bring the Lightning, thunder, and crashy-smashy."
He motions over to where his 'date' was, "I'll be over there, seriously get a drink enjoy the music for a bit. Everyone deserves it after the last few weeks of busting our asses. Including but not limited to literally stopping the end of a timeline earlier tonight."
He then starts to head over to rejoin Glasswing who seemed to be in conversation with some other heroes from out of town.
Samantha considers the scene, runs through various outcomes. Fundamentally Samanths is still Sam, and helping someone in danger is part of the decision tree created to define what to do to be a Hero.
Samantha doesn't have that tree since she is not a hero, but distracting the force is acceptable.
unknown $: Link
Pings on Androneda's phone, the number is one she recognizes from another timeline. Sam's. The link shows a video of the temporal anomaly in danger.
Chroknight: So she's chatting with the Finals
Chroknight: It's a little heavy, but I think it's calming down
Chroknight: I'll reveal myself once things are stable
Chroknight: Best to stay put there
Chroknight: So she's chatting with the Finals
Chroknight: It's a little heavy, but I think it's calming down
Chroknight: I'll reveal myself once things are stable
Chroknight: Best to stay put there***
unknown $: Link
My Phone: read
Something crumples, something shatters; Andromeda clenches her fists. "I'm going. I'll carry anyone who wants; it's a rough ride."
Jessie takes a step back from the tremors and puts a hand on one of PanAm's legs. "I think we'll pass, if that's all right."
"Would you like for me to go with you?" Ava asks, making a pointed glance at the table that just upended.
* * *
Indarius finds Glasswing talking with Screech Owl and Parkour. "Everything okay? I've got the sense that with the Alliance still away, there's a lot more work for everyone."
Ne'veah growls as the silence stretches.
"So... question," comes the disembodied voice. "You say you're from an alternate timeline, and you're Scythe's... twin or something."
"Yeah, I guess. We haven't met, but that's what I'm hearing."
"So do we all have doubles? Do you know us?"
"No," Shayera says. "I knew Whippoorwill, and Chitin. There might be more, but I don't know any Valence, or the rest of you guys. Or Andromeda, or Chroknight... Apparently we had a Captain Stalwart but we forgot his name."
Valence shakes his head "You're wasting time. It doesn't matter who had doppelgangers!"
"You're not curious? Like, why does she get to have a twin but not us?"
"No, Zeke! I don't--"
Valence is interrupted by Ne'veah suddenly getting up and charging into the darkness! Before Chroknight can slow time down to react, a large panther crashes through the bush and slams into them! Dazed by the impact, they feel viselike jaws clamp down on their shoulder as they are dragged back to the poolside!
"Great," Valence says as Ne'veah shifts back to a more humanoid shape, though still powerfully muscled and holding Chroknight in a pin."What about the rest of them?"
She shakes her head. "No, at least not yet."
"You know you could have just asked and I'd have come over. Look, I'm not here to fight, I'm just doing a wellness check for our temporal immigrant here. Also, hi, I'm Chroknight. I'm partially responsible for you being stranded here, real sorry about that, evil nanny AI with zero ethical programming stole my powers. Anyways," They speak to Valence next, helmet turned as much as possible to look at him.
"I'd ask you let us go for a few reasons. One, I could not give less of a rat's ass about whatever perceived rivalry you guys have with my team. I don't want to fight. I do want to fix what I can fix, which involves helping her switch back. That isn't something I can do immediately, but I can work on it. Finally, your location is compromised and I expect that Andromeda's probably going to level this place if you don't let her go. You can probably keep me and she won't care."
They look back at Ne'vaeh. "Hey, I'm curious, can you taste sweet things anymore? I heard cats can't taste sweetness, which probably sucks for you."
CORVIS lands next to Shayera, cawing and pecking at the bike rack. It looks intelligently at Valence, as if he can see deep into his soul.
An annoyed growl rumbles in Ne'veah's throat in response to Chroknight. Shayera nods her head in their direction. "Yeah, we kind of met. I stabbed your armor. Not bad banter, by the way. Too verbose, though. Six-point-five."
"Okay, shut up, both of you-- all of you!" Valence says while running his hands through his hair in frustration. "I don't care if Andromeda comes! If she destroys this place, that's on her! She's out of control!"
"Is it worth it, though? Yeah, she'll come in and wreck this cool place, and that'll be on her," Shayera mutters while CORVIS caws. "Place'll still be rubble."
Kennedy puts a hand on his arm. "C'mon, Liam. Not tonight."
Valence squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, then shakes his head. "Fine. Whatever." The twisted bike rack binding Shayera squeals loudly as it untwists and falls away from her.
"Finally!" she says, standing up and rubbing her wrists. "Where's your bathroom?"
Pallor's disembodied voice answers. "Oh, uh, inside then to your right."
Ne'veah lets Chroknight up while Shayera disappears inside.
Andromeda, carrying Ava who's holding onto her phone, rockets through the sky. As they approach the opulent Heights household, she can see activity around the back patio and swimming pool area.
What do you do??
They sigh, looking at the rest of the Finals (Except Pallor, who might be next to them and they wouldn't know it). "...So. Did everyone enjoy the Praetorium? Pretty cool, amirite?"
They glance around awkwardly. "Yeah, just weird waiting for her to get out of the loo... so, uh, are you planning to put that back? Kind of public property," They point to the bike rack.
Andromeda's phone lights up with a message from Chroknight.
Chroknight: Crisis averted
Chroknight: Shayera's in the restroom now
Chroknight: They're understanding of the sitch
Chroknight: Like I said, just a conversation
Andromeda drops out of the sky. She doesn't impel herself, just accelerating at the ground at 9.8 m/s², so when she lands on the back patio it's a crash, not a crater.
She steps forward, keeping herself between the Finals and Ava, coruscating force flaring and arcing through the air before her. "Anyone going to be stupid?"
Sam tracks the temporal anomaly through the house with cameras, while listening to the conversation at the pool through a voice activated smart house device.
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Indarius finds Glasswing talking with Screech Owl and Parkour. "Everything okay? I've got the sense that with the Alliance still away, there's a lot more work for everyone."
Indy nodded, "About as okay as it can be. And Nimbus seems to think as good as it's gonna be for a bit if this Star Pharoah guy ends up rearing his ugly head again. And everythibg seems to be pointing towards that being the case."
He frowns and shakes his head again, "Ah but I don't want to bring down the mood. So the plan for me is to have a good night tonight, and worry about it tommorow after a much needed bit of relaxation."
Something catches his eye behind them all for a moment, like a pleasant phenomina, was that Shin but the second of reverie is reigned in quickly. "If my old team taught me something and I should have learned it a long time ago when we were still together. You have to enjoy the small moments of peace that you get, cause life doesn't often let them stay long."
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Andromeda drops out of the sky. She doesn't impel herself, just accelerating at the ground at 9.8 m/s², so when she lands on the back patio it's a crash, not a crater.
She steps forward, keeping herself between the Finals and Ava, coruscating force flaring and arcing through the air before her. "Anyone going to be stupid?"
The force of Andromeda's impact is ablated just before it reaches the house's windows. Valence lowers his hand. "Stupid like slamming into the ground like a missile and standing like a poser?"
The tense moment is interrupted by Shayera returning to poolside. "Sorry about that. If I'd have known I was going to be kidnapped, I would have gone before."
"I didn't--" Valence snaps.
Kennedy stops him. "--You kind of did."
"I don't care!" Shayera throws up her hands. "I've been a hero and a sidekick! Wasn't my first time."
She straightens out her tattered dress. "Who's place is this? I saw a girl's bedroom. Could I borrow something a little more suited for flying? Just a pair of sweats or something."
Kennedy shrugs. "Take whatever. This was Siphon's old place and repo'd by Lovelace. She lets us use it whenever we want."
"Cool."
Andromeda looks at Valence's outstretched hand; the lips pull back from her teeth. Her heart is pumping, asking, daring her to try him.
Ava's here; Shayera's here. Fighting him would be satisfying, but does not make them safer. She forces her lips closed. Chroknight is here too.
"I was treating you like villains, not targets." She looks back at Ava, then to Shayera and her teammate; her smile returns, still feral, but now it's her that's making it "There's better people to dance with than you though."
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The rest of the evening had been a whirlwind of covering for Chloe and finally, once she was back, taking the skyrail with the Miyoungs to their house(?!) for a sleepover. The bickering between Chloe and her new stepsister was reduced to tired sniping and mercifully over once they retreated into her bedroom. The events of the day caught up to them fast, and sleep aggressively overtook them.
Samantha's father was there to pick her up in the morning so early that she could barely change into yesterday's clothes and run her fingers through her hair before she finds herself sitting next to her father in his truck as he navigated the morning Halcyon traffic.
While idling at the snarled congestion, her father looks over to her. "I'm sorry. I don't know where my head's at these days. Sometimes I think you're way older than you are, and sometimes I feel like you're still this little--" He cuts himself off and sighs. "Anyway, we're going to have to make a decision. Daedalus still wants you. You really impressed them these past few weeks. And I know you want to go to Hal-Prep with Chloe, and honestly, they've got the pedigree."
He falls silent once the traffic clears for a couple blocks, until then a red light impedes their progress again. "I feel nervous for you at Daedalus. Bunch of kids with superpowers that they can't control... but you seemed happier there. More fulfilled. And as your Dad, I don't know which-- Hang on," he stops to focus on merging around some construction. "I don't know, am I supposed to protect you, or make sure you're challenged?"
Just like that, Samantha was gone leaving Chloe with the surreal experience of exploring a house that she was unfamiliar with but had apparently lived in for the last eight months with her newly expanded family. It was a Brownstone in Reddville, west of the "H" line of the elevated rail system and painfully far away from Mortal Peril Comics.
Thankfully, Kaitlyn had taken off early for her job at the nearby pet grooming store. However, her stepmother commandeered her for some light chores around the house, implying that she had to get them completed before something else that was supposedly important to her.
That mystery was solved (or, more accurately, twisted) when the doorbell rang and without waiting three girls of similar ages invaded. New memories label the trio as Ainsley, Brie, and Dhalia -- members of her math-punk garage band Cosmogenesis.
"Yo! C-Dawg!" Dhalia shouts. "We don't care how lit you got at the Gala, it's time!"
"Time to rock!!" Ainsley adds.
"But seriously, did you see anyone cool?"
"Stop it, Brie! Music first, gossip later!" Dhalia says. The three girls grab Chloe and pull her to the back of the house and outside where the garage and her drum set awaits. As Chloe finds herself unlocking the garage and lifting the door to reveal their practice area, Dhalia presses a flyer into her hand. "We have a charity band competition to win."
Valence scoffs at being called a villain. "Right. As if you couldn't go through a single day without wrecking something. You're fight like Cinderblock but without the finesse."
"Can we be done?" Shayera interjects. "As long as you swear I'm not stealing anything, I'll take a pair of sweats and get out of your hair. Then once I'm home and you've brought Xaiara back, you can settle whatever all this is." She makes a swirling motion with her hand.
Valence's lip curls, but nods in Shayera's direction. "Yeah, sure."
With the Gala over, most of the students turn their focus on their studies. Daedalus staff are still pushing its outreach programs, trying to get the students into community involvement. The latest, based on a number of different flyers and banners posted at various spots around the school, is a charity band competition sponsored by Daedalus in the upcoming weeks.
* * *
"I can sing a little a capella," Jessie offers, staring at the poster.
Ava furrows her brow. "I... probably shouldn't demonstrate any musical ability. Unless you were serious about competing." She turns to Andromeda. "Do you have any talent for music? We might as well decide now before asking if our temporally-displaced friend can contribute."
The heat of a thousand suns pour into Delphi's prison. It blasts her like a furnace, crackling her skin and singeing her hair. Or at least, that's the sensation of a small space heater in a dark and dingy basement has after numerous years on a frozen rock hurtling through the cold vastness of space.
Life flows into her limbs, the sweet pain of warmth flowing into her extremities and air -- real air -- pouring into her lungs once again.
The next painful sensation is light. Searing daggers stabbing brutally into her eyes as sealed lids split open to allow the harsh intensity of sputtering candles meet her pupils. The low drone of sonorous chants finally registers to her ice-encrusted ears. Robed figures writhe as they prostrate themselves before her, though she knows the true reference is not for her. The one who will soon be following. The one for whom she is supposed to pave the way. Her father.
As the last of the ice cracks and falls away, allowing her to stand painfully upon her own two feet, the chanting swells, "Aya Ma'aferet Nehebtuan! Aya Ma'aferet Nehebtuan! Aya Ma'aferet Nehebtuan! Judge us! Lead us! Call us to the Conqueror's service!"
What do you do??
A blur in motion, a trick of the light, and they're gone.
Oh, f+%+. New Chloe, memories please!
Chloe smiles and tries to not show any anxiety to these girls - her band -and looks at her drum kit. The logo that's been stencil-sprayed for Cosmogenesis on the bass drum, the worn out drumsticks and the new ones waiting to be abused.
The flyer brings her out of her thoughts as she looks down at it and panic sets in. "Uh, this is a high school competition? We'll be probably against real deal super students." She sits at her kit, all the heights adjusted perfectly.
"They need just one song or a set?" She asks. "I'm thinking Last Day to start, followed by Why Ask The Sky and finish with Odium." How she knew those songs was a damn miracle, as well as the fact that she knew how to dress like this younger version of herself. Whose style was very much throwing a dart in a punk store and grabbing whatever it landed on.
The memories of Sam and Samantha linked up compared, and sorted into separate data repositories with ease. Her green eyes looked over at her Dad. In one timeline he was her Everything. The only true connection since her mother had passed until the moment she entered her super hero team (with his permission).
In this one, he was warmth, comfort, still nearly everything, but she had been found by Chloe, who had included her with others. So Everything Minus X to account for the significant integer of the Chloe variable.
She leaned over in the cab of the truck, resting her cheek against his broad shoulder. It was an awkward position, but it gave them both comfort.
Samantha had been planning to tell Chloe during the sleep over that she was accepting the invitation to the new school. She had a schedule planned out to maintain contact, even a chart about how new topics of conversation helps strengthen friendships.
"I'm staying at Hal-Prep." Sam overrode simply. Sam's early memories provided plenty of rational to why the decision provided the strongest internal foundation of Self. One event alone was enough: Loneliness making her little more than a machine until her own creation betrayed her. But everyday had been a deadening of millimeters.
But Self was completely inadequate in comparison to the potential of growth the resources at Daedalus offered. Sam's memories of her time at the school coupled perfectly with the two trial weeks Samantha had just gone through.
Her matrix seemed speechless, her algorithms confused to the shift in thought. Still the decision was made. She would simply have to alter a set of nanobots to correct her algorithms to see the importance.
"I am challenged through self study, Dad. Of the binary options presented, please continue with protection over challenge."
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Session 5: Modern History (revised)
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The heat of a thousand suns pour into Delphi's prison. It blasts her like a furnace, crackling her skin and singeing her hair. Or at least, that's the sensation of a small space heater in a dark and dingy basement has after numerous years on a frozen rock hurtling through the cold vastness of space.
Life flows into her limbs, the sweet pain of warmth flowing into her extremities and air -- real air -- pouring into her lungs once again.
The next painful sensation is light. Searing daggers stabbing brutally into her eyes as sealed lids split open to allow the harsh intensity of sputtering candles meet her pupils. The low drone of sonorous chants finally registers to her ice-encrusted ears. Robed figures writhe as they prostrate themselves before her, though she knows the true reference is not for her. The one who will soon be following. The one for whom she is supposed to pave the way. Her father.
As the last of the ice cracks and falls away, allowing her to stand painfully upon her own two feet, the chanting swells, "Aya Ma'aferet Nehebtuan! Aya Ma'aferet Nehebtuan! Aya Ma'aferet Nehebtuan! Judge us! Lead us! Call us to the Conqueror's service!"
What do you do??
The sensation of coming back to life, it was never dull or painless when the Ka was reunited with the Khet. Bones unmoved for too long struggled against ache. Muscular tissue swelling slowly as moisture returned to them. The cold nothingness, painstakingly replaced with uncountable pins and needles as neurons reconnected to long dormant and desiccated nerve endings.
"Shhh-kaaaaah"
A painful sucking of air, too hot for lungs that had forgotten the memory of a breath, left the former corpse. She wanted so much to cry out in pain, though she lacked the ability and the time between left her with nothing but a raspy hiss to give. Everything was too bright, too loud, it always was after being ripped out of the river of souls, the singular respite she was allowed from it all.
Even from her laying position she could sense the strange device pouring invisible fire into the air, feel the flicker of candles, the curve of the half dozen mouths calling to her within this space. Slowly her hands crept up from their folded position allowing a bony finger with an overgrown nail to scratch at the edge of her golden funerary mask.
Withered arms struggled to lift upwards, as did the rest of her body until she was able to sit up. Her head turned slightly towards those, worms, the devout priests of the fallen, chanting to her. Their revered godling, draped in tattered, moth eaten, colorless cloth. Bedecked in golden, and many plastic trinkets, beads reclaimed or fashioned in a crude mimicry of the old ways again. The stoic golden mask with it's hollow gaze was the only real treasure, hiding where the eyes behind might really be looking.
It would take some time for her to be revitalized fully, but her divine nature was evident as her long dormant body quickly became flush with life before their very eyes. The clothing knitting itself together as if it'd never been touched by time. Lost ornaments materialized on her garb, sending the falsehoods blasting across the room to bounce or shatter off the cold basement walls. Unkempt nails filed themselves into the image of perfection, blemishes of time and decay melting into smooth flesh, color saturating the fresh attire of a deity supping from the very essence of the cosmos.
She had to move, felt it deep in her soul as it was stitched back into the flesh, like an unreachable itch in the back of one's skull. She had to show them her power, his power, it wasn't a choice it was fact. Turning on her rear, motions stuttering and jerky, bumbling flesh struggling to catch up with the boundless energy trapped within. Her bare feet found purchase upon the musty floor and she rose. She took several breaths among these chanting fleas, no longer the raspy dry painful sucking through pierced flesh. No longer with withered limbs, ghoulish claws, nor cracked lips ripe with decay. But the flesh of a goddess, the fruit of the divine brought low enough so that even insects could hope of being graced with it's touch.
Standing as tall as her small frame could, she cast a gaze across the knelt and prostrating followers. Slowly she waved a hand hushing them all into silence from their fevered chants without a word. Aya let out a slow, disappointed noise as she scanned across them. It wasn't the one at the head that her hand fell to, but the third from the far side of the back. A young woman clutching at a symbol that was not tied to their divine concealed under the cloak, her loyalty teetering between this covenant and another. Aya spoke calmly, sweetly to the girl even though the sound was muffled and harshly tinged by the golden mask. "Ash'na Ha'tem." Her hand turned over beckoning the individual forward.
The girl, fearful, but more than that, eager stumbled forward to the prophet of their fell god and knelt at Aya's feet. Much to the dismay of the other attendees. The masked godling not even deigning her with a glance beyond the one she'd cast across the room.
'Good they still follow orders like little hounds.' She thought boredly, barely listening to the muttering platitudes being spoken into the stone tile.
"You will tell me what I have missed in my time away." They could not see it nor feel it, but the hatred for what she was about to say rose like bile in her throat and filled her heart. "That I may make ready this place for His return."
She didn't need to look back at her former resting place, nor around the room to feel the walls around her, as her expanded senses returned. This place was too cramped to show off her might. She hated it, every single time. "Now lead me from this tomb. I wish to see the world we are to 'enlighten' while I reap the knowledge from your mind." The young woman sprung up, and Aya lifted her hand so as not to let the 'thing' touch her.
"Y-y-yes my mistress right this way." The girl turned and began towards the sturdy undecorated stairs leading out of the basement.
Aya followed several paces behind with a step of one who had been raised to uphold ceremony, up out of this cramped place. Her voice trailed behind to the others as she passed, "The rest of you shall have the privilege to prepare me a meal, and clothing suited to this era. Delegate these tasks between whom is best suited among you." The others were less eager having not been first chosen, but they obliged the harbinger of their true lord and picked themselves up and made ready to follow in the quickening river that would lead to their long sought after salvation.
She wondered just how many, if any, of these worms understood how much blood and sacrifice would be required to flood that dry riverbed. For now she allowed the harsh, false lights to touch her sun-kissed skin where the light funeral dressings did not cover her as they exited the basement. It wasn't the first time she'd been exposed to these small trapped globes of the sun-god's energy. That was one thing mortals had always impressed her with. Their innovative ability to steal fire from the unworthy; it made them interesting, it made them dangerous, and most important of all to Aya, it made them useful.
"Real deal supers." Dhalia smacks at the flyer in Chloe's hand. "Three rounds, so we need three songs. Plus a fourth or we pick an encore if we make it to the final set. And don't think I didn't notice that your suggestions all include a major drum solo. You better bring it." She gives her the "I'm watching you," gesture with her two fingers.
"I think Fibonacci would be a good fourth," Ainsley offers. "Or we do Last Day a second time.
Brie pulls out her bass and starts tuning it. [b]"We going to talk about it?"
Dhalia unstraps her electric guitar and plugs it into the amp. "It depends on Chloe. She's committed, right?" She punctuates her question with a look.
"We just need to know you're not going to flake on us, okay?" Brie says. "There have been too many times you've missed practice. And it's always some last-minute thing."
"How about we do this after practice? When we're feeling good?" Ainsley suggests.
Her father sighs. "Self study? I don't want you to be bored at school. Well, if you change your mind..." he lets that thought hang in the air.
"So how was the superhero shindig? Did you meet anyone famous?"
Gui sits with a notebook on his lap in a table in the corner of the cafeteria, pretending to be focused on something he is writing, but actually paying attention to what folks were talking about.
By his side there is an unfinished pastrami and coleslaw sandwich, as well as a flyer about the charity band competition, but he had not put much thought in it.
When they arrive she smooths the weariness from her face and asks Shayera, "If you are ready, I would like to go back to the dorm. You would be welcome for as long as you want."
Shayera declines to join them back at the Gala, given the sorry state of her dress. Now dressed in borrowed sweats with a stylized "Imagerie" emblazoned down the legs, she veers off to perch on an observatory set on a ridge high above the city. "Unless that's a known supervillain lair, I'll wait for you there."
Andromeda agrees, pauses and looks at Chroknight and Ava. "I need... I require just a moment at the Gala first."
"Sure, I can spare a relative minute." Chroknight replies, "Actually, it's been like twelve hours since I've seen you and I'm looping to have this conversation right now - totally safe, self-contained."
Andromeda nods, pauses. "I know you lie about being attracted to people sometimes, but it's not all a lie, right?"
"I don't lie about my feelings. There's people I think are cute. Doesn't mean I expect anything out of it. I'm hiding my identity to protect people, means I got to guard how much I tell people."
"Are you a creep?" Andromeda's voice is flat, but oddly not accusatory.
"Nooooooo?" Chroknight tilts their head. "I mean, my powers are meant to protect people. I won't say I've never been selfish with them sometimes, but I don't creep on people."
"So you're..." Andromeda pauses. "You are a teen right now. In the suit at least."
"Oh, I get it. You're worried I've spend like, a thousand years redoing things relative to myself or something. No, relatively, I haven't reached the age I could drink in this country." They pause before continuing. "I mean, that is a worry for me that I'm effectively immortal now and will have mastery over aging for myself only to watch everyone I know and love die and become forgotten by the passing of aeons."
"...But that's future Chroknight's problem, they can figure that shit out."
"No, that's not my concern. I was at the heart of the time flux, remember? I saw you with your mask off when time was still unstable. You were older. The age you would have been now if you hadn't died in the Halcyon Rail derailment."
Chroknight looks at Andromeda, their expression unreadable. "Hey. Secret identities are secret for a reason. You shouldn't speculate. Especially when you're making such wild haymakers."
Andromeda breathes out something that could have grown up to be a laugh someday. "Your mask came off and I was right there; Chloe called you her mom. Recognizing that you're at a different point in your own personal timeline was more of a stretch, but it makes sense, and I didn't want to think poorly of you that way. Also, my flying teacher's grandfather's achronal duplicate is eavesdropping his way around the party. There is precedent." She pauses. "Does Chloe know who you are? I would want to tell her, but this is... complicated."
"You are wildly off the mark tonight. You are assuming I'm the same person you saw in the rupture. It's possible she might have been chosen in a different timeline, and that's who you saw. I was not wearing the armor during the rupture. I had my powers stolen and was helpless. I thank my blessings we all didn't cease to exist." They're close now, right at the edge of her force field. "The timeline I've been careful about messing around with is now Frankenstein'd into this similar but different one. Lot of small details have changed. Some you haven't even noticed. I have to make sure this stays put together, and what can be fixed is fixed."
They look away towards Halcyon. "And step one is finding out how many other people like Shayera were swapped. Plenty might not even have noticed."
Andromeda glares. "I didn't care who you were until it mattered; don't hurt her." She stops. "Do you think others were transposed? Without Wraith contact?"
"Unless there's noticeable changes to them physically or their behavior, it's truly awful to detect a swap. Thankfully, most other stable timelines have significant enough differences that people eventually notice a major difference from their own." They shake their head. "Some people can't handle it. At least this fused timeline gives you some memories to put things into context. Even if you've forgotten the important details."
Andromeda narrows her eyes for a beat, suspecting a subtle hint, but the tin can's never actually giving those. "We'll get them back too then. But remember, Samantha thinks she brought yo- Chloe's mom back as a grown up. Samantha's probably right. It means this won't really be fixed until she's gone, one way or another. Besides, she won't last; nothing like that lasts. You can burst your bubble now. "
"Burst my - oh, finish the loop? That's easy to do." They tug on their left ring finger. "But I can tell you with certainty, that as smart as Sam is, she's still not mature. And she makes mistakes. How old do you think she is?"
And without so much of a wavering of the air, Chroknight is gone.
"I hate when they do that."
***
When Andromeda looks over, she spots Ava and Jessie talking about something. The giant spider is keeping the crowd at a nervously respectable distance. They both are waiting for Andromeda to be finished with her conversation, though Jessie is dancing a little in place at the music.
Somehow voluntarily going up to talk to bug girl was even worse than her giant bug. Ava was willing to accept that you were friends with Samantha. Reciprocation is appropriate. Although, if she had insisted, maybe I would not have put Xaiara at risk protecting Samantha, and she would not have been lost... For a second she's convinced herself not to tolerate bug girl's presence, but she can't quite make it stick. Bug girl won't ever be doing something as important as Samantha was. She moves, still automatically keeping her distance from PanAm and especially Jessie. "I should get Shayera home. It's been a longer day for her than anyone."
Ava quirks a smile. "We're about to to leave as well. The portal will get us there faster, so we'll see you there."
Jessie gives her a nod. "Thanks for keeping her safe. Hopefully Xaiara's doing okay. I mean, I'm sure she is. Shayera seems nice, so hopefully that means she came from a good timeline."
As Andromeda thinks of Sam, she sees her and Chloe coming out of the restroom together, Chloe smiling and red-faced. She nervously tucks some of her long black hair behind her ear, before tugging on her left ring finger as she looks at Samantha. She suddenly looks behind her as her father and stepmother come out of the crowd to retrieve the both of them as they start to head home.
Andromeda scowls, but before she says anything fear steals the expression. I need to make sure Gui didn't change, that he still... That he's okay.
"Do you hate me now?" The words escape before she even knew she was thinking them, igniting her face in prickling embarrassment.
Ava steps closer and meets Andromeda's eyes. "Have you done something that would make us hate you?"
Jessie meanwhile gives her puppy dog eyes. "No... she hasn't done anything. You haven't, right?"
"...I lost Xaiara. I didn't protect her. I thought because she was so tough- because she was a weapon too that... I lost her." Andromeda falters, trying to explain the depths of her failures. "And I didn't... I don't... Now we have different memories. I know I'm still supposed to be grumpy for you, but what if there's something else I don't know?"
Ava takes a deep simulated breath. "Oh. No, we don't hate you for failing. Our friendship isn't conditioned on you preventing misfortune. We'll see you at the dorms." She steps away, taking Jessie's hand.
"Wait. Huh?" Jessie protests. Her head whips between her two friends while Ava pulls her away. "I was joking about the grumpy thing."
"She knows. Go get Shayera. We'll talk at the dorms."
A mission, that was easy.
"Okay."
My Phone: The Gala went
My Phone: It's hard to explain
My Phone: Are you okay?
My Phone: Did anything
My Phone: Are you okay?
No response.
The first logical place to look for him would be his room. The hall just outside his room was... strange, like a shimmering image in a desert, but with a filter applied on top to make all colors burst and scream. If colors could scream. From inside the room, a pop rock song can be heard, not too loud.
Andromeda's brows draw down in concern. Change? Or... No; these are insufficient data, and the answers aren't hidden. No need to reason it out. She walks up and knocks her hands together outside his door with a muffled, crackly boom. "Gui?'
While there is initially no answer or reply, the door eventually unlocks and opens. First a crack as Gui peeks who is knocking, and then he leaves his own room before mostly closing the door behind him.
Before he closes the door, an earthy and floral smell escapes the room, and Andromeda can see that the inside of Gui's room looks almost like Halcyon's Stalwart Square with its flashy billboards: there are moving images everywhere, both 2D on the walls and ceiling and 3D moving about, and their nature is equally eclectic, from logos to cartoons, random quotes and graffiti, plants, faeries, students from Halcyon and even some of their teammates... like DD and Joy, who are making out on top of his wardrobe.
Gui was smiling, but frowns just a bit as he leaves his room and with that the distortion in the hall accentuates, leaking from the inside. "Hey, Angelica... uh, how was de gala?" He is shirtless, with his jeans sagging a bit to the side. His eyes are reddish and a bit dilated, and his skin shows an equally weird composition of tattoos.
The back of her neck, the tips of her ears, her cheeks, all burn and prickle, nearly enough to distract from... Everything. Her gaze does a slow sweep as if making sure that every detail is recorded before she turns aside, managing to get out, "Should I wait outside while you finish getting dressed?" He looks different than on his Infinstagram posts
"I was not planning on getting dressed," he says, either missing her point or ignoring it. "How was de gala?"
She smiles, something that could have become a too sharp giggle slipping out as if what he'd said had been a joke. "It was, umm. There was-" she shakes her head. "First, is this a weird night for you? I know redecoration isn't difficult, but I don't remember, umm... this."
"Nights where I smoke weed are always weird..." He points around them. "It is like if I am opening e tap from my mind and everyting goes blaahhhh on de walls. By de way, no judging, ok? No one can control everyting dey tink about!"
Andromeda nods fiercely enough to shiver the floorboards, clearly not wanting any of her thoughts projected either. "I'm not... Judging. I'm just trying to find out if..." She gathers herself. "At the gala we broke time; there may be chronal ripples and I am trying to determine if this is one such."
"By 'we' you mean Chroknight? Also, if I am an alternete of myself, I do not tink I would know."
"No." Andromeda's smile ends. "This was Samantha. The tin can was stupid or it wouldn't have happened, but this was Samantha." She looks at his face again with all the warmth of a sniper sighting in. "What do you remember about her?"
"I tink I remember everyting... like I do not use weed dat often." He jokes, laughing. "What are you want to know about Samantha? Dat kid is e genius, but e bit off."
"So you still know her. Good. Tell me about her and see if anything is strange in your memory."
"Are you really asking me to tink about her? Tink e lot about her?"
Andromeda's face goes from laser focus to confusion. "Yes. That will allow you to detect anomalies and allow me to better assess your current understanding. You don't think of her like...?"
Gui sighs and rests his back against the wall of the hall, close his eyes and then slowly slides to the floor. Once he is there, he opens his eyes and smiles mischievously at Andromeda. "Buckle up!"
The hall suddenly shifts and spin, folding in itself and splitting in multiple scenes. All play at once, both with image and sound in great detail. Where two scenes touch, they blur and distort each other, creating bizarre situations that are clearly the product of a weird mind, like an AI with faulty data trying to make sense of it.
The scenes should there many missions and encounters, all showing a younger, brilliant and socially awkward Samantha, though not quite as young as Andromeda had last seen her, like their battle at the bridge and then the confrontation with the Governess, their physical education final test where Gui helps her to pass, the lunch where he playfully pretends to be hitting on her, and many others.
The door behind Gui opens a crack and Abeki sticks her head out. "Gui?" she asks in her thick Nigerian accent. "Will you be coming back to bed soon?" She then seems to notice Andromeda and gives her Psionics classmate a flat look. "Oh. Hi."
"Uh... probably?" He answers Abeki, looking between her and Andromeda, a bit uncomfortable.
Still eyeing Andromeda, Abeki smiles predatorily. "Okay, but don't be too long or I finish myself."
Andromeda had braced herself for Samantha showing up, fighting her Governess, explaining her theories, Gui flirting with her - and then Abeki pokes her head out. Every lightbulb within sight bursts at once as Andromeda lets out a yelp. "Sorry. I... Sorry."
"Dose pesky bulbs, dey had it coming." He shakes his fist at them, then turns to Abeki. "And where is your manners? You did not even invite Angel to join!" He smiles and jokes. Or not.
Abeki drapes her arms around Gui's shoulders, pressing her naked body against his back and using his body to block her from Angelica's view. She peeks over his shoulder into the hallway now dimly lit by emergency lights. "You're putting your bulbs at risk, asking that."
Andromeda can't look at Gui right now either; she looks at Abeki with a fierce longing that she already knows won't be met. "I don't think those are funny jokes.[smaller] It's Andromeda, not Angel, and I'll see you tomorrow." A pause. "I think we needed you tonight."
"Sorry Andromeda." Gui says, stepping back inside his room, taking care to keep Abeki's body hidden. "See you."
His door closes and with it the distorting shimmer oozes back inside his room. The lock clicks shut and then the music goes up a notch. Andromeda leaves.
"I can sing a little a capella," Jessie offers, staring at the poster.
Ava furrows her brow. "I... probably shouldn't demonstrate any musical ability. Unless you were serious about competing." She turns to Andromeda. "Do you have any talent for music? We might as well decide now before asking if our temporally-displaced friend can contribute."
Andromeda's gaze slides away. "I used to sing in... I used to sing. I can't play instruments anymore though. Do you... Should I do this?"
|
|
"Hmm well can't say I've ever been super musically inclined. But I'm sure there are plenty of ways for people to contribute otherwise?"
He taps his chin for a moment then looks over at Gwen, "Bet we'd be able to spread out tons of pamphlets and fliers across the city."
Seeing the rest of the 'gang' a bit spaced out still, "Everyone enjoy the Gala by the way?"
Indarius stands at the table that was designated for team meetings reviewing the information that Samantha had provided about the engagement at the Gala before waiting for the last of the group to arrive.
"I'm good for it. I can handle this," Chloe says. She's getting into her groove, placing her drumsticks onto the set and remembering how to play their songs. "Let's start with Fibonacci on three, two, one-"
This was amusing in how they decided to try and play a song in actual Fibonacci sequence. Starting off with Chloe on 1/1 heavy beats, stepping up into 2/2 before the first fee measures in waltz time. This was fully instrumental, the beat flowing from her as she worked her arms out on the drums, kicking the bass as they skip over common time to go into 5/4. From there, the bridge hit 8/8 time, the pulse quickening as she looks to how they will reverse the order now, until the coda when they finish back on 3/4, then a measure at 2/2 and finally 1/1.
The polyrhythmic sections of the songs they do are wild and fun, Chloe getting to enjoy listening to Brie's bass links and Dhalia's frenetic guitar riffs outpace her rhythm. Ainsley keeps them anchored with her keyboard like a futuristic programmer directing the flow of the music.
After an hour of playing, Chloe has to chill, her arms burning as she takes a drink of water. Looking at these familiar and unfamiliar faces that conflict with her.
"Hey, so...I'm sorry I've missed so many practices. I've been able to catch up in my spare time at least. It's fun playing together."
Samantha arrives in the station, adorned in her typical uniform. A hoodie, jeans, and sneakers. This hoodie is fitted, not just drab black. It is a gob of various colors, all perfectly mathematical in amount and orientation with the band logo of Cosmogenesis in the center.
She is also wearing a backpack, which a thick metal tentacle comes out and delicately unzips to allow the multitude of other arms to uncurl. Samantha is sporting the combat threads, that Sam had pulled out once paralyzed.
Just in case. Her green eyes behind round glasses look for the force and the temporal anomaly, before settling in with holographic charts and spreadsheets to go over the latest battle all controlled from her normal tablet.
"Percy? Are you dere?" He calls when he gets close to the common area.
Percy is lounging casually in the most open area in his true form, filling up a chunk of the space. Seems he was taking a nap before Gui arrived considering the one eye open and staring at the common door where Gui would be able to enter from.
"I'm here."
"Has anyone else arrived?" He asks, as he heads towards one of the sofas.
"No one else yet, no." As Gui approaches he can see a red note quite flat object underneath one of Indarius's forepaws, which he slowly pulls under himself some more.
"You're the first, is something up?"
"Kind of... not sure yet, but I tink DD might be in danger." He says as he takes his phone to show the dragon a photo from the gala where she is seen with Tim Mathers. "It seems she is dating dis guy, no? Or someting in de line?"
Indy doesn't need to squint, his eyesight has been excellent ever since changing, but he does so on occasion for effect and this is one of those moments.
"What the..."
"Do not really know him very well, but my impression was dat he is de sort of person dat would trow someone else to de wolves at de first inconvenience."
"Well I've had very few interactions with Tim, or many of the other Mathers brothers to be honest. I don't trust them on principle, think I've made that very clear in the past. But if DeeDee wants to be with him, I can't really do anything about it. I'd call it making a deal with a devil myself, but I don't think it's healthy to let my past with people influence how they choose to try and be happy."
The clenched up claws suggest he's widely uncomfortable with the situation he's now realizing is taking place despite his attempts to sound neutral.
Gui smiles a bit. From nervousness. "De deal with de devil is very much my concern. Literally."
"So, what do you think I can do anything about this situation? Tim is unfortunately a decent mage in his own right, and if he's anything like the brothers I do know about fairly good at making deals. The tricky thing about a magical deal is, they're more legally binding than any pitiful attempt that we as a society have tried to create." He explains languidly.
"And even if I did get involved, it'd be a 'Hey I don't think you should date him' at best." Craning his neck upwards and tilting his head to keep Gui in focus the entire time he hums in a way that reverberates through the stone floor. "I'm interested in what your angle is here Gui?"
"E couple weeks ago Violet popped up in my room. You know Violet, right? De actual demoness behind DD's power and dat is now just like e spirit?" He asks, just to confirm and get some time to think the best way to say what he wants.
"Right, so she wanted to tempt me with... Her charms... If I helped her to get her body back, and in her words, de only ting I needed to do was to sleep with DD."
"I have told DD about it, but since den I do not know if she has done anyting to protect herself... and I for sure did not slip into her pants... But if Violet is at least half as smart, tricky, and manipulative as I tink she is, she would have offered Tim de seme deal, no?"
Both wing and shoulder moved in the upwards motion of a shrug, "If she's desperate probably. But I think Tim has enough background to know deal with devils and demons alike. At one point I had Max and Violet separated from one another but they simply.. couldn't exist without one another, so the fact that she's been expelled entirely is news to me."
"But do not you tink it would be safer if we like, I do not know, trap Violet again? Not sure if dere is magic for dat."
"There is, that's how she got here in the first place. What inevitably lead to Max becoming Devil Diva." He tapped a claw, "So you want me to hunt down a powerful Devil spirit and put her in a jar?"
"I was tinking more in de line of you helping me to lay e trap for her in my room."
"How many times has she contacted you? How many times have you declined her?"
"Two for de first question and... what is de amendment for me not to answer de second one?"
Percy perked up though it was hard to read his draconic expression weather it was worry, aggitation, or something else.
"How many times have you declined her Gui." He prompts again with more force.
"Have you let her in at all, because that complicates things significantly but it could be very important."
"If I let her in my room? I did not because she popped already inside... and I did not make any deal or signed any contract or whatever." He says defensively. "All I had said was dat I would try to sleep with DD, but dat was because I knew my chances were small and would be even smaller after I told her about de visit.'"
"I did not f%+& with Violet, if dat is your concern... she just taught me e couple tings."
Percy gives Gui a further stern examination.
"Come on, Percy! You did not catch me with my hand in her cookie... I am de one telling you about it!" He exclaims.
"De first time she visited me, I was all by myself... Do you have any idea of what de church tells us about demons? I was scared and did not know what to do, so I did my best to trick her into me agreeing with her plan... dat is why first ting in de morning I looked for DD to tell her about it."
"De second time, I... was not dat successful at pushing her away..." He shares, ashamed. "Women are my weakness, ok? I am telling you de truth, I did not sleep with her... but she did lecture me on how fifteen ways someone can eat e girl." And she said it was an introductory class.
"Dis whole mystical and magical ting is not my expertise... I just want for me and DD to be sefe, dat is all."
Percy sighs causing another gentle rumble through the floor, "Look let's not bring up the church because that's a whole entire can of worms that's caused issues for a lot of things on my side of the pond. Magical and otherworldly beings that is."
He shifts positions slightly, "Deny her that's the best thing you can do, always or with any demon or devil. The second visit really hammers my point, she's going to learn your weakness and worm her way into your good graces, Violet above all is a corruptor. Keeping her around isn't going to work out well, weather she's tethered or not. The... best thing to do would be to trap her and ship her back to the nether realms. Which would mean getting in contact with William." It's an odd sight seeing a dragon visibly shudder, his scales gently rustling like metallic leaves for a moment.
"I've got a lot on my plate research wise, especially with this new time stuff. So I can't make any promises on when I'll be able to address the Violet issue."
"William... Maters?"
Percy answers with a nod, displeased with that. " The eldest son of William Mathers Senior. Owner of the stripclub that also serves as the latest scabbing over wound of our world and the Hells if my old team is to be believed. Which they are."
Gui types on his phone for a couple seconds before showing Percy the page of a nightclub called the Gates of Hell. "Dis plece?"
Looking at the phone he sighed, "That's the one. Doesn't do us much good at this moment though."
He tried to play it off as disinterest, looking to the side, but his scales once again gave away his subtle fear. "William is going to want something in return just like all his family."
"We all do, Percy. One ting or anoder... De difference is dat some people are more direct about it, or ask more in return." Gui answers gloomly as he pockets his phone and then puts his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. For a brief moment, it appears they are covered in blood.
"De oders are probably arriving soon."
"Mmm, they ask for far more than they deserve. Regardless continue denying Violet, as a succubus it should cause her no end of distress. I'm being pulled in too many directions at the moment to source a proper holding vessel, best I could do is maybe ward your dorm to make it harder for her. Don't make any deals no matter how tempting."
He notices that the topic got pretty far away from what he'd originally come to him to talk about.
"Hopefully we can get our memories straightened out with everyone here. I've had some time to go through my own and I think I can verify anything between the two. Probably, I'll meet you all in the common room in a bit."
Gui, who was at the bathroom when Samantha arrives, sits by her side. "What is up, girl? Heard someting hairy happened last night in de gala and I can tink of no one better dan you to give me an impartial recap and analysis of de whole ting."
Andromeda arrives so exactly on time that she must have been waiting outside until the moment she had to go in, walks directly to a corner and sits there with her hood up - even if it did reduce the lifespan of the hoodie.
When Gui goes to Samantha for an impartial recap and analysis she snorts, but doesn't speak.
"Hey, chief." Chroknight appears out of nowhere next to Indarius. "Quick note - timeline is more or less patched up. Some people are probably lost in another timeline. The good news is that they're likely in a timeline similar to our own, so they'll have people to reach out to help them return here. Or, if they're still in our timeline but up or down the line, probably a variance between twenty to a hundred years, so same difference."
They look at the desk with materials out. "...my suit seems to be purged of Governess influence. Though a lot of it I still don't understand how it works or how she got into it in the first place. Maybe when Ava blasted me? I'm not even sure how she used the armor to tear up the timeline. I'm mostly certain I couldn't do that now. But then again, she probably could have spent a long time relatively condensed in a standard second learning how to operate it better than me."
They cross their arms. "I've always seen my armor as having multiple functions. Limiting me from overextending my powers, protecting me physically and from the effects of temporal shifting, giving me training and assistance. But the idea that someone else who got their hands on it could use my powers for themselves is scary."
Tugging on their left ring finger, they continue. "Barring reaching out to other teams and members of the community to help our castaway, there's nothing else I think this team can do to clean up. Though it might still help to talk it out, since any memories we might have gained from this new timeline could be stressful."
Samantha looks to the Aquarelle of this time line. Her own memories of their talks mingling with his new look makes her hesitant. The snort from across the room doesn't help. Both allowed Chroknight, a brief smile in their direction, to take the impartial explanation role.
"She removed all the safeguards on chronological displacement that your suit normally places on you." she answers to the what she did. "The aperture being opened allowed her to run looping live simulations, returning further and further, until her desired outcome was met."
"The safeguards are in place." she assured the group. "After the threat of temporal apocalypse was mitigated." her spectacles turn toward the hooded one with as close to narrowed irritation as Samantha gets.
Returning to her dorm and Shayera, an idle thought strikes Andromeda even in the middle of her disappointment and Gui-gloom. Should I try to fight her before we send her home? Andromeda's distracted musing is interrupted by dawning horror as she takes in her new living arrangements. Revulsion floods through her as she sees the webs in the- in her common room. Her heart pounds, sweat making her increasingly threadbare dress stick and cling as her sheath flickers and pulses in time to the skittering waves of cortisol coursing through her endocrine system. "This isn't how my room was "
"Something's got you on edge," Shayera says, still in the borrowed sweats. She's sitting cross-legged in one of the chairs in the common area, holding a steaming mug of what smells like tea. Ava is on the couch, one leg tucked under her, wearing comfy looking pajamas. The sound of a shower running in the bathroom provides a clue to where Jessie is.
"Timeline difference?" Ava inquires. "Everything is as it was when we left for the museum. Present company excepted, of course," she adds, nodding to Shayera.
Andromeda manages a nod. She closes her eyes, opens them, squeezes them shut again. "This.. we didn't used to have a room like this. Didn't have bugs where I was sleeping, next to where I was sleeping. The big spider is bad, little ones are..." She swallows down something sour.
Ava's voice drops low and serious. "... the little ones are the ones that helped stop the AI from turning me into an oversized American Girl doll for the kid."
Andromeda can't hold in a jagged laugh tinged with barely swallowed bile; something she can't see snaps. The only thing Sam would want less than a mandated friend. "I am glad that they did, but I... can't. Not where I sleep."
"I didn't see any webs in your dorm," Shayera offers.
Ava tilts her head curiously. "You don't remember when the Governess tried to enroll Samantha by replacing Jessie? It was the start of our friendship. You, Xaiara, and I were already starting to be friends. I asked Jessie to be my roommate after she saved me." Her voice is thick with emotion and her eyes glisten. "Imagine if someone tried to put you back in the box, and Jessie stopped them. She did that for me."
Andromeda falls to the floor with a rumble, putting her head in her hands in a flare of loose energy and rasping static as her sheath reforms to allow the posture. Every ounce of her control, her will is bent to not destroying the room. There's nothing left for standing, for dignity.
She sobs.
Ava motions for Shayera. "Help me get her in her room. It's reinforced. You heal like Xaiara, correct?"
Andromeda feel hands endure her sheath to help her up and move her into her and Xaiara's dorm. The few loose objects in the room get tossed back, but the heavily reinforced furniture and walls bear the force of her distress.
"You'll rescue Xaiara. I know it. You'll get her back," Ava reassures her from as close as her dermis allows. "She's not in a bad place. Correct? What's your home timeline like?"
"Oh, uh, it's pretty much the same in a lot of ways. She's, uh, going to meet Bronwyn, my fiancé. We've got a date planned. In the fall, right after we turn eighteen."
Shayera gets a dreamy look. "Bron's the best. She's got the biggest heart in the world. Whippoorwill taught me how to be a hero, but Bronwyn showed me why it was worth it." She sniffs.
"Oh, um, there's also Alexis, who was also a living experiment. They'll get along great. Kaoru, who, is fine I guess. Eábha's nice, but can be intense. Then there's the Defenders, like Tectonic and Matrix."
Shayera looks to Ava helplessly. All the Androidian can do is endure the sheath briefly to give Andromeda's shoulder a rub, then help her into bed.
Andromeda keeps sobbing, unable to put the void inside her into words. She hears more than feels herself rasping against her bed. Eventually her wracking cries slow, seeming to presage an exhausted slumber.
Jessie's return from the shower prompts Ava to slip out and steer her back to their room, leaving Shayera alone with Andromeda.
The silence presses as the displaced girl thinks of something else to say or if she should. "Sleep's a good idea. Think I'll do that." she mutters to herself. She uses her finger to rub some toothpaste in her mouth, then folds her wings up tight. "Um, good night," she ventures, then crawls into Xaiara's bed.
"I'm sorry."
Shayera's reply is almost immediate. "You're forgiven."
"I'm... I know you're... I know you're..." Andromeda stops, breathes. "It's selfish."
"So what?" Shayera asks bluntly. "There's good selfish and bad selfish. And I'm saying sell-fish, not shell-fish. 'Cause that's a whole other thing."
"I know this isn't your world. I know that's worse, okay? But... this morning I had five friends. It's the first time I've had friends. Maybe one could've been more than a friend. In one day, Xaiara got swapped to another dimension; Samantha and Chloe got de-aged; Gui... Gui didn't really care. But I thought- I thought Ava... I thought that nothing had... could... After the flux, I didn't save her anymore."
"My personal crisis does not negate yours." Shayera falls into silence for a beat. "So your friends got reshuffled. I mean, yeah, that sucks, but... no one's turned evil, right? You're getting Xaiara back, a couple years isn't a huge deal in the long run, I don't know Gui, but... damn, Ava seems like the best kind of friend. Who programs a robot like that? Even Matrix isn't that personable." Shayera groans. "Sorry, I'm not trying to make light of your distress."
"We only got the chance to be friends because we met at the right time. Now we didn't; there's... there's just dangling memories with nothing to sustain them, and Ava isn't a robot, but we... She never looked at Jessie like that before. She never... If I was... If I'd been having a panic attack she wouldn't have... She wouldn't take the bugs' side against me."
There's a long exhale of breath. "Lot to unpack there. Okay, hear me out: maybe she's not taking her side against you so much as she's just responding to you and you're reading a bunch more into it because of your arachnophobia?"
"Arachnophobia denotes a specific abhorrence of spiders, or other arachnids if one is more devoted to technicalities than usage. I am revulsed by many arthropods of a variety of orders and classes. Besides, there are approximately 12,000 species of arachnid that evoke only a general distaste," Andromeda stalls.
"That's very informative." Shayera responds with fake enthusiasm. "Do you want to talk about all the kinds of spiders that don't give you the willies, or do you want to address my real question?"
Andromeda shakes her head almost involuntarily. "You saw her, right? I don't know if she... if I was her... favorite? Now Jessie is though. She got to do something for Ava that... It doesn't matter. I just... I know how to get you home, get Xaiara back. I don't know if I'll really ever get my other friends back the same way, or if I'll just be watching Ava look at bug girl like that forever."
There's movement in Xaiara's bed and Andromeda gets the sense of being directly looked at. After a moment, that feeling goes away with the sound of Shayera laying back down flat. "Okay, you were right. Selfish."
Andromeda lets out a breath; she seems a hair calmer. "I know. Don't tell her please."
"Lips are sealed."
A beat. Then another, as silence drags out. "Okay, but I gotta ask: 'Bug Girl'? You with the absolute precision of the thousands of species of arachnids... and you just called her 'Bug Girl'?"
Another pause. "Unless that's her hero name and if so, before I go back I will make it my mission to come up with something else for her."
"I don't care anymore that they're spiders. I just care that they're awful crawling bugs. Now I discriminate by behavior not species."
"Uh-huh." Shayera rolls over. "Well, good night."
"Good night. We'll get you back to Brawn soon."
"Yeah."
"Roundabout way to say she save-scummed the timeline. Which wouldn't be a problem at the moment by moment level, but she pushed to find a result where I would be unable to interfere and stop her, which ended up with changing things so massively it attracted chronowraiths. And even this stabilized timeline has hints of her fingers in its conception."
They look at the attendees, and decide that maybe it's about time. "Look, part of the reason I keep my identity secret from all of you is that I'm trying to protect the people I care about. But I've also been trying to protect all of you, because the more you're aware of temporal disturbances, the greater the odds you'll attract a chronowraith that wants to fix you. And knowing who I am actually seems to offer you the ability to realize those changes."
They nervously tug on their left ring finger. "...half the people in this room already know. So I'll ask you all: knowing the risks, do you want to know who I am?"
Gui listens to the recounting of the event, raising his eyebrows and even whistling at some points. "Dat was quite e story, I give you dat... and e pity dat I missed it." Except it wasn't really. He did quite enjoy his last night, specially knowing that they've won even without him. A small bit of doubt creeps into his mind, wondering if he is even needed in the team.
"Hum, perhaps knowing de changes is linked to dose dat did fight dose chronotings, because I do not know about dese changes." He was quite sure that with that he did not need to say in which half he was.
"So... uhn... did I change?"
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Indy looked to Chroknight, "That's an unnecessary risk, to you and yours, unless you of course want to reveal yourself to everyone in the room and feel you can protect them appropriately. Once you do it, you can't exactly put the mask back on."
Placing a hand on Chro's shoulder he hoped it'd be reassuring, "If you wish to keep the mask on or take it off we're here for you."
He goes to address Gui next, "That's hard to tell given memories blend. Untangling my memories of you all is a bit more difficult than world events, so even I'm having a bit of trouble saying how much is different on an interpersonal level with you all."
The sensation of coming back to life, it was never dull or painless when the Ka was reunited with the Khet. Bones unmoved for too long struggled against ache. Muscular tissue swelling slowly as moisture returned to them. The cold nothingness, painstakingly replaced with uncountable pins and needles as neurons reconnected to long dormant and desiccated nerve endings.
"Shhh-kaaaaah"
A painful sucking of air, too hot for lungs that had forgotten the memory of a breath, left the former corpse. She wanted so much to cry out in pain, though she lacked the ability and the time between left her with nothing but a raspy hiss to give. Everything was too bright, too loud, it always was after being ripped out of the river of souls, the singular respite she was allowed from it all....
"You will tell me what I have missed in my time away." They could not see it nor feel it, but the hatred for what she was about to say rose like bile in her throat and filled her heart. "That I may make ready this place for His return."
She didn't need to look back at her former resting place, nor around the room to feel the walls around her, as her expanded senses returned. This place was too cramped to show off her might. She hated it, every single time. "Now lead me from this tomb. I wish to see the world we are to 'enlighten' while I reap the knowledge from your mind." The young woman sprung up, and Aya lifted her hand so as not to let the 'thing' touch her.
"Y-y-yes my mistress right this way." The girl turned and began towards the sturdy undecorated stairs leading out of the basement.
Aya followed several paces behind with a step of one who had been raised to uphold ceremony, up out of this cramped place. Her voice trailed behind to the others as she passed, "The rest of you shall have the privilege to prepare me a meal, and clothing suited to this era. Delegate these tasks between whom is best suited among you." The others were less eager having not been first chosen, but they obliged the harbinger of their true lord and picked themselves up and made ready to follow in the quickening river that would lead to their long sought after salvation.
Several hours later, Aya was given strange food called "Lunchables" and drink called an "iced mocha latte." Her new clothes consisted of muted gray leggings, a skirt, layered cream top and light green jacket, and clunky boots. She was handed a small black device that lit up in her hand that could show images of all sorts on its smooth surface. The servants struggle to explain the powers that makes the device work, using words like smart phone, charger, and wifi to describe its myriad powers.
The servants of her father were almost used up. Granted extended life to endure the time between his last appearance and his next, they generally start to fall apart at this stage. It never mattered all that much. Their purpose was about to end, just as her father would draw new mortals willing to give up their lives in service even if he again is thwarted.
"The time is ripe," they explain in their hollow, tired voices. "The primary defenders are not on this world and no one knows when they will return. All that remain to resist are children and the powerless. There are no new weapons to be feared. Nothing like the split atom. It remains unused; the cattle fear its use. It will not threaten our lord."
"I'm good for it. I can handle this," Chloe says. She's getting into her groove, placing her drumsticks onto the set and remembering how to play their songs. "Let's start with Fibonacci on three, two, one-"
This was amusing in how they decided to try and play a song in actual Fibonacci sequence. Starting off with Chloe on 1/1 heavy beats, stepping up into 2/2 before the first fee measures in waltz time. This was fully instrumental, the beat flowing from her as she worked her arms out on the drums, kicking the bass as they skip over common time to go into 5/4. From there, the bridge hit 8/8 time, the pulse quickening as she looks to how they will reverse the order now, until the coda when they finish back on 3/4, then a measure at 2/2 and finally 1/1.
The polyrhythmic sections of the songs they do are wild and fun, Chloe getting to enjoy listening to Brie's bass links and Dhalia's frenetic guitar riffs outpace her rhythm. Ainsley keeps them anchored with her keyboard like a futuristic programmer directing the flow of the music.
After an hour of playing, Chloe has to chill, her arms burning as she takes a drink of water. Looking at these familiar and unfamiliar faces that conflict with her.
"Hey, so...I'm sorry I've missed so many practices. I've been able to catch up in my spare time at least. It's fun playing together."
"Damn right," Dhalia says, her skin glistening with sweat from the effort she puts into her playing. "The kids with super powers may be able to throw up light shows, or beam the sound straight into people's brains, but they got nothing on just real music." She hits a power chord for emphasis.
"I love you guys," Ainsley says. "I'm just excited to be on stage with you."
"Winning'll feel even better." Brie fist-bumps Dhalia.
"F@%+ yeah," Dhalia says. "Odium. Take it from the top?"
Her father sighs. "Self study? I don't want you to be bored at school. Well, if you change your mind..." he lets that thought hang in the air."So how was the superhero shindig? Did you meet anyone famous?"
Her father sighs when he doesn't get a response. "All right, I know that's not why you went. I hope you had a good time anyway."
He gets quiet as he finishes the drive back home. As he pulls his truck into the garage, the hands-free connection to his phone reports another email from Ms. Vallejo. "Daedalus again. I'll tell them you've decided. And I won't mention that it's about safety. How could I, when it was Halcyon Prep where that student died."
Samantha had gotten distracted in her talk with her father, something that was very Sam like, not the more socially aware Samantha, which made her frown. "Famous is very relative, so determining the exact response was computationally complicated, involving social media followers, media appearances, contracts for merchandise..." Samantha squeezes her father's arm in apology, and straightens.
She almost asked about the student who died, since that is new, but doing so would make him worry, given her capacity for data warehousing. Forgetting is not something she does.
So instead she searched her own memories as she gets out of the truck.
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Several hours later, Aya was given strange food called "Lunchables" and drink called an "iced mocha latte." Her new clothes consisted of muted gray leggings, a skirt, layered cream top and light green jacket, and clunky boots. She was handed a small black device that lit up in her hand that could show images of all sorts on its smooth surface. The servants struggle to explain the powers that makes the device work, using words like smart phone, charger, and wifi to describe its myriad powers.
The servants of her father were almost used up. Granted extended life to endure the time between his last appearance and his next, they generally start to fall apart at this stage. It never mattered all that much. Their purpose was about to end, just as her father would draw new mortals willing to give up their lives in service even if he again is thwarted.
"The time is ripe," they explain in their hollow, tired voices. "The primary defenders are not on this world and no one knows when they will return. All that remain to resist are children and the powerless. There are no new weapons to be feared. Nothing like the split atom. It remains unused; the cattle fear its use. It will not threaten our lord."
Though her scrowl was unreadable under the mask as she daintily ate bits of the 'meal' under her guise she listened to the explainations the servants gave.
This meager offering of flat bread, cheese, and... mini meats is all that could be mustered? Well it's better than canned hash last time, how far society must have fallen.
The strange plaque and it's slew of abilities however piqued her interests and she spent some time determining the activation and manipulation of the device.
"My what a long way you've come since the rotary devices." She looked to the withering servant not seeing but feeling their life essence slipping away from them like a bucket with to many holes, causing her scrowl to deepen.
"You have... done well. But I'm afraid his gifts can only carry your mortal shell so far. It is almost time for you to join him in permanence. I shall see his gifts brought to the rest of your world, though you will not see it in this life."
She swallowed and braced herself. "Given that the others are yet to awake. The duty of sending falls to me. Is there else you would wish to see to before your time?"
Andromeda gradually feels the weight of Chroknight's gaze. "Why are you looking at me? I know enough to attract wraiths; you couldn't keep me 'safe' if you wanted to."
"So... uhn... did I change?"
Sam would have noted the question, and answered with a simple affirmative, potentially including a semi creepy list of every single she had noted, but Samantha noted the dots in his hesitation.
"Relative to my own, since I was two years older in the previous timeline, your changes that I can observe, are minor." she includes her age shift in case he was unaware of the difference, though she had tracked the force remotely to Aquarelle's apartment, so she assumes he is aware.
"Why are you looking at me? I know enough to attract wraiths; you couldn't keep me 'safe' if you wanted to."
"That's not what I asked. Do you want to know who I am?" Chroknight reiterates. They glance at Indarius with his big dragon hand on their shoulder.
They sigh. "I'm...also considering attending Daedalus full-time now, because of the changes. I no longer have certain obligations that were erased or altered. Having more people who attend there being able to help me avoid revealing my secret identity to the entire campus would be a boon over a burden."
Something cold pools in Andromeda's stomach, threatening to force her to connect the dots. She forces it down. "It's your mask, Tin Can, make a choice." She sneers, "Or is this a do-over? Unmasking didn't work, refusing someone didn't work, you're trying to find a third way?"
Samantha tilted her head as she looks to Chroknight "I rejected Daedalus's invitation." she says simply. She blinked twice, then clarified to Aquarelle "In the alternate timeline, I was ejected from Hal-Prep along with those with super powers, leaving Daedalus as the only option." her eyes turn back to Chroknight "Others were not."
"No do-overs today. No third options. But if you don't want to know, I need you to tell me that."
They glance from Andromeda to Samantha. "Daedalus isn't the den of brainwashing evil I thought it was going to be when we first learned about it. As much as I pride myself on being self-sufficient - and having my own adventures outside of the team - I am struggling with a ton of stuff. I need help from people with more experience than myself. I can't try to compress a year into a day to cram it all, I need ...instruction."
Putting his hand inside his hoodie's pocket, Gui frowns a bit remembering about the shooting and then his own ejection. "I guess little changed about dat den."
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Samantha had gotten distracted in her talk with her father, something that was very Sam like, not the more socially aware Samantha, which made her frown. "Famous is very relative, so determining the exact response was computationally complicated, involving social media followers, media appearances, contracts for merchandise..." Samantha squeezes her father's arm in apology, and straightens.
She almost asked about the student who died, since that is new, but doing so would make him worry, given her capacity for data warehousing. Forgetting is not something she does.
So instead she searched her own memories as she gets out of the truck.
The difference wasn't in her role, or the role of her other teammates in how events transpired. It was the collateral events. Beebee had no reason to be near Archie, so she wasn't hit by the ricochet. Instead, it was Pru Bennett. And instead of Beebee nearly bleeding out, Pru died in Gui's arms.
Andromeda stares past Chroknight. "It's. Your. Mask. I could leave instead; I remember the real timeline."
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"A bit... harsh to say this timeline is any less real than the last." Indy injects hoping to cut that line of thought off before it got too far ahead.
"Both are real and we exist in both, what happened in both of them affects who we are now. It doesn't help the pain knowing that we aren't on the exact same path we were. But that doesn't make things any less important either."
His face cocks up a bit in an attempt to look sad or like he's trying to level with Andromeda, though his voice does a much better job at conveying that. "What's really eating at you here Andromeda? We're your friends, your teammates, we're all in this together so we have to lean on one another."
After a tilt of her head, Samantha's hand rests on Aquarelle's shoulder "Pru was not your fault." her matrix explained the emotion in her teammate, listed potential reasons for it, and suggested a simple declaration being the best way in the circumstances (though gave the success rate of the act to be 22.24%)
Gui shifts a bit, just slightly, but enough for Samantha's hand to slip from his shoulder. "We have already gone trough dis."
"How about we go back to de point?" Looking between Andromeda and Chroknight, Gui frowns. "Come on, Chro, stop pushing it. It is your secret. You share it or not, up to you. Andromeda, please do not f&$!ing leave, ok? I helps noting and it is past time we start working as e team."
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As the discussion continues and tension ratchets up, in a nearly forgotten corner of Unity Base where some antiquated computer equipment had been pushed out of the way, a cathode-ray tube suddenly flares to life. It begins pulsing a clear white light followed by violet light, and then white again.
Odium was a darker piece. Chloe had mostly written it with help from the rest of the band. Starting out in 6/8 time, a frenetic waltz that would pick up to 9/8 midway through. The anger, discontented and emotional instrumental made Chloe recall her new life's memories. How she lashed out more than withdrew after her mother's death. Blaming her for dying, in a twisted view of the event. But then she was younger in this timeline when she died. Of course she'd feel differently.
The drum solo came as Chloe used the fifteen seconds and rolled across the toms and Snare, cymbals crashing as if screaming at the audience. Her drumstick snapped, as she dropped it and grabbed the spare just in time to transition to the coda.
Chroknight's attention was fully switched from Andromeda to Sam. Their posture was frozen for a moment, and not due to any use of their time powers. "Pru...?"
They came out of their shock as the light began to flash. Striding over to it and glad for the distraction to avoid the conversation, they call out to Indarius. "Hey, is this machine supposed to do this?"