"Friends, right." Andromeda replies flatly. She looks at Samantha. "Pru should be even higher on your list than Xaiara."
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Samantha's first instinct was to console her teammate. She wasn't responsible for Pru's death.
Sam's was to leave, run, bury herself in work and do all she can to never have to face this. She was. The shame of what she had done physically hurt.
Then Andromeda spoke.
Her green eyes narrowed in sudden fire "Should I seek lessons on how to deal with destroying without intending to? Historical evidence of your battles on both timelines will provide ample resources." a tinge of venom lacing her words, in others they would be drowning in them.
Then she shuddered, or seemed to, her head shifting from side to side so quickly she look like she shook. A split second later, her eyes look down at her hand, remembering the pain from their charred remains. Then she lifts her sneakered food, shifting it, remembering the lack of it in her legs. In some people's minds, she could be taunting the intervening force, but she wasn't. Well she was in the statement, but not in her movements.
Now she is simply thinking.
"I need to do a complete comparison of the timelines... how much can I remember..." she mutters as she pulls out her tablet, now lost in thought.
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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.
Clocking the device in the corner that up until now Indy hadn't noticed, despite all his time in Unity Station over the past two years caught his attention. The building tension in the room distracted him further however and he let out a rough growling sigh.
"Hey!" He spoke to everyone, unintentionally flairing his wings to make himself more present over everyone before calming again.
"Look tensions are high right now, how about everyone take five grab a snack and a drink and we get at this with more level heads?"
Searching his own feelings he was still prickly about what happened to Pru in this tineline as well. Although he felt guilty knowing that in the other it had been Beebee, but she survived. The strange wonder of a small part of him wishing it had still happened as it did before made him feel awful. But he couldn't let that cloud trying to guide the rest back on track.
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?"
Welcoming Chroknight's transition iver to the device, he took his own advice of stepping away for just a moment.
"Actually, in all my time here I can't say I've ever seen this thing let alone seen it on."He tapped his chin and tongue flicked the air, then scowled. "And that's far more concerning than it just being inactive this entire time."
Moving forward he placed a hand between it and Chroknight, "Serious charm to hide something from me this long. Let me tinker with it a bit." First he searches for any relevant runes that may indicate further enchantment or a potebtial trap before working his own magic on the thing.
Andromeda's head tilts to the side in faint bemusement at Samantha's implication. "You're angry that I pointed out the lethal consequence of your decision; yes, you need lessons. I have my own lists of failures and of choices. Should I pretend that your choices didn't have foreseeable consequences?"
Indarius's display of de-escalation using escalation was ignored by Andromeda, so Samantha did the same.
"My emotions are my own and do not need your analysis of them. As for pretending or not, I will attempt an alteration of my nanonites in the future so I will simply not care whether you do either." Samantha was talking in a distracted manner as she typed, not looking up. "The lessons I were referring to are ones that will teach me how to effectively deal with a 'bully' that does nothing but mock and needle, interspersed with shrieking, about consequences. Or should the lessons be how to effectively Be a bully for the next time you hurt me in a battle, so I know how I should act towards you."
Samantha blinks as if suddenly aware of what she was saying. She looks up from her tablet. "I am angry. Yes. But not at you. At the moment. Please be quiet while I work on the problem."
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 too many holes, causing her scowl 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?"
The servants all shake their heads. "No. We will now wait to arise when he calls us forth, imbued with his power," one says. "Our great reward."
The servants shuffle into carved alcoves like sepulchers to await reanimation as her father's footsoldiers. The dark basement far beneath Halcyon City was too deep for her phone to get a "signal" for its amazing location and map feature, but there are stairs leading from the secret chamber into the city's labyrinthine subway system.
As long as she goes up, Aya will find the way forward.
The rest of Odium plays out, with Ainsley bringing the song to a close with her keyboard.
"That was intense. You feeling okay?" Brie asks, kneeling down to pick up one of the drumstick pieces.
"I liked it," Dhalia adds. "You were really in the zone."
Ainsley wipes her brow and goes to the mini fridge and claims a water. She tosses one to Chloe. "I talked to Trayvon. He asked if he could come listen next time we practice. I think he really likes you, Chloe."
"Ugh. We don't need boys getting into our practice space," Dhalia grumps.
"That rule's only to keep Dave away. Trayvon said he would stay out of our way."
"I think the rule needs to stay. What do you think, Brie?"
"Hotness matters. Trayvon's cute enough. Chloe? He's your future boyfriend."
Drawing closer to the blinking tube, Indy spots an old and yellowed piece of masking tape wrapped around the lower half of the glass cylinder. It has faded and barely legible handwriting on the tape.
IND RIU
It also has a sequence of numbers, that for some reason denotes yesterday's date!
What do you do??
"Well, here goes," Max says. She steps up and knocks politely on the door.
Her second attempt at knocking results in a disorienting moment of dizziness that both Joy and Max experience. Snow begins swirling all around them though a moment ago the weather was temperate. Their Gala attire not doing anything to insulate themselves from the sudden cold, they stand there shivering on the front porch until the front door opens.
"Violet, what are you doing roaming loose?" a man's voice chides. "And you're picking up strays now? >Tsk<"
Empyrean draws her arms and her wings about herself. She prickles at the sensation of cold; having tactile sensations still seems new. Glancing over at DeeDee she says, "And these people will help us?"
"I hope so," Max says, teeth chattering. She cautiously steps over the threshold into the house, a hand on Joy's arm to be sure they aren't separated.
"It's a long story!" she calls back to the owner of the voice. "You may want to get a snack..."
The pair step through and are suddenly in a warm sitting room with a crackling fire in the fireplace, upholdered seats and wood paneled walls. A middle-aged man in a stylish smoking jacket stands relaxed in the center of the room. His hair is jet black and feathered in seventies style.
"A snack, you say?"
He snaps his fingers and the next time Max and Joy blink, when they open their eyes they are in a long dining room standing in front of a massive feast spread upon the table. The man is seated at the head of the table.
"How's this?"
"Excessive," Joy says.
"All right, then." The man claps his hands and in another blink Joy and Max are seated around a cloth-draped table with finger sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade.
The man is seated facing them in a large leather chair, leaning back and swirling a brandy glass. "How is that to you liking, my dears?"
No stranger to magic, Max simply blinks slowly. She pours herself some lemonade and takes a sip. ”It’s nice, thank you,” she says.
”So... I’m not really Violet, even though I look like her. My name is Max, and this is Joy. We’re from the future.”
The man takes a long time to react, but when he does it's just a pursing of the lips and a long sigh. "That would explain why the idol is still intact. It's not every day when a netherrealm native you have imprisoned in your basement shows up on your front porch. And with an Elysian to boot!"
He swirls the drink in his hand absently, then drops it. Rather than falling to the floor and shattering, it bursts into a tiny explosion of light. He rises to his feet and extends a bow. "Well Max and Joy from the future, I'm Doctor Infinity. What do you want from me? Are you here to change the past, or fix the future?"
"I think we're just here to get... back to the future."
Doctor Infinity frowns. "Which one?"
"The same one we came from. Which we hope hasn't been altered by our coming back here," Max says with a frown. "We got into a fight with some chrono-wraiths and wound up here. So, anything you can do to help us get back to where we belong would be appreciated."
The doctor's eyebrows raise. "Chronowraiths? Must have been a big one that got you. Sending folks back in time, causing branches that they can chew on... like growing their own food."
He rises from his seat and beckons them to follow. The room shifts once more, this time into a shag-carpeted living room that Max remembers when she explored Knighthall with Percy and Caio before discovering Quincy in the basement. A small snow globe on the mantle piece has a lifelike replica of Knighthall inside it's glass sphere.
Dr. Infinity picks up the globe and tosses it casually like a baseball. "That's a tricky proposition, going back to where you were. Right now is your present, meaning the future is not set. What you think will be the future may not be. Most likely, your future will stray from the past you know and get devoured by the chronowraiths." He tosses the globe high into the air and catches it.
"It all depends on how many ripples you made since your arrival. Steal any souls, redeem any lives, or wreck any marriages since you got here?"
"Not that we're aware of," Max says with a slight grin. "We basically came straight here, so hopefully whatever ripples we made were small.
"Oh, but while I have you here, I did have some questions to ask you. In our time, we're dealing with the potential return of a powerful villain, the Star Pharoah. Can you tell us what you know about him? Any tips on how to fight him?"
"Aha! I was going to ask what time you're from. You must be the mid-eighties, then if Ahk'nathal is about to return." He looks the pair up and down approvingly. "Interesting, has fashion changed so much that women go around in cocktail dresses? I gotta say, the future looks groovy!"
He moves to a bookshelf and selects a leather-bound tome. "The best way to fight him is to use the Shopec, an ancient weapon that he is powerless against." He flips through the pages until he arrives at an inked drawing of a curved weapon looking like a cross between a bat'leth and a scimitar.
"That's your best chance."
Max studies the drawing. "Sweet. I mean, uh, groovy. Where can we find that?"
Dr. Infinity closes the book, sending a small cloud of dust into the air. "Well, that's hard to say. I know where it is today, but I don't know where it will be ten years from now. Which is when it'll be needed. And I can't risk letting a demon get her hands on it, since they have a nasty habit of betrayal. No offense, but I've studied you, Violet, and your sisters."
"Well, actually, our time is a bit more than ten years from now. And I'm not really Violet..."
Max goes on to explain about her transformation and the future that she and Joy are from, though she doesn't go into too much detail. Just enough for Infinity to get the gist of it.
Stroking his beard, Dr. Infinity looks grave. "Your situation is even more untenable. In order for society to make it to your present, Ahk'nathal must be stopped in my future. Take the Shopec with you -- and we haven't even discussed how that could be achieved -- and you doom the world before you even have a chance to stop him in your time."
A knock on a door causes Dr. Infinity to throw a quick veil over Max and Joy. The door opens, revealing a dark-haired young man. His colorful hero's costume is draped over his arm, leaving him in his underwear. A long, furry tail is coiling behind him.
"Doctor! I can't undo the spell all the way! I got rid of all the fur, but the tail is stuck!"
Dr. Infinity tsks. "Billy, what sort of mage will you be if you can't undo a transmutation spell cast by an ape by yourself? Honestly, you should have countered it before the first tuft of hair!"
"It was a surprise rune! I didn't have a chance to ward myself!" the afflicted young man explains.
"I'm sorry, but those are the sorts of things a mage in the field has to always be on the lookout for. Figure it out for yourself, or stock up on bananas. Your choice."
The morose lad slumps his shoulders and turns to the door. "I'll be better than you one day, old man," he mutters.
"You should only worry about being better than the person you were yesterday, Billy. Now leave me, I'm quite busy." Dr. Infinity waits until the door is shut then dispels the veil. "Sidekicks. Sorry about that. Where were we?"
Joy watches the sad apprentice slouch away and notes, "That sort of rift is the sort of thing... no, never mind."
Dr. Infinity narrows his eyes at Joy. "I'm afraid I've left myself out of the equation. Our interactions will no doubt cause even more ripples forward in time. I don't know the circumstances surrounding allowing Violet's prison out of my care. But I see it's happened, and she is evidently not the dominant personality. How do I act with that knowledge going forward?"
He seems to be weighing his choices, including drastic ones.
What do you do?
"You do what your conscience demands, of course."
"I might have to ask, is your future one worth preserving?"
"By whose standard? There are still people; there are angels learning to be human, and demons living their better natures; it is a world of changes and problems, hopes and fears. Every day I see people acting out of greed and vanity, and also people acting out of charity and love."
"It's a world with life. Just life."
Dr. Infinity mulls over Joy's words. "Kid Cadabra and I just averted an Ape-pocalypse yesterday. They never should have taught the sign-language gorilla magic. If we'd failed, I wouldn't be so eager to make sure the timeline stays intact if I traveled back to the sixties. That's the point of my question. By your words... I take it that Halcyon's doing all right then?"
"We did not come here of our own accord with the intent of altering the... hmm, how to explain it... altering the track of the experiential timeline from the various cosmic variants," says Joy. "The version of time from which we hail experiences a world not too different from your own. There is still a New York. There is still a Halcyon. There is still humanity, and human civilizations, and nations, and cultures. There is no world-destroying war, or overwhelming alien invasion, or apocalyptic zombie plague. At least, not yet, and any such global catastrophes have been averted."
"Excellent achievements," the magical hero says. "And very nice to know that humanity didn't blow itself up."
He sighs, then sits down in a leather easy chair. For several minutes he is in thought, rubbing his temple and occasionally eyeing the pair.
"As time travelers go, you have some options for returning to your future. Opening a portal is the riskiest, like standing on a car racing down a track and throwing a ball out ahead of it and hoping you hit your target that you only have a vague idea of where it is. Too easy to stray off course.
"The best option is to wait it out. Just... exist until your future arrives. But that's hard to do because you would be actively trying not to change things while living over the course of what I would estimate to be around fifty years. That's a long time to resist the temptation of playing the stock market."
He rises from his seat. "You both have an advantage however -- you're not human. I could bind the two of you. Put you into something like what Violet -- this Violet, er, past Violet -- is currently in. So long as the vessel is kept in good hands, and opened after you left -- voila! You're back in your own time, having effectively slept through half a century. Just like Rip van Winkle."
Joy looks over to Max for some support. She had been found and released from a container in the main timeline... but would that mean she'd now be stuck in a time loop, released in the future only to go back in time and be imprisoned again?
Having had some experience being imprisoned in magical containment as well, Max frowns at the thought. "It's not ideal, but it may be the best chance we've got. But can you make it so that we're asleep for all that time? I'd hate to think about being trapped and conscious in there for fifty years or more!"
Dr. Infinity nods like that's a given. "That was the sort of binding I had in mind. The instant you are bound, you will lose consciousness. You would only awaken if the vessel is disturbed. Like rubbing Aladdin's lamp, except without wishes and Barbara Eden." He smiles and watches for them to get his joke.
"The trick will be in making sure the vessel stays undisturbed for fifty years, and to have someone in your time find it and break it open."
"The former part sounds easy. Put the vessel in a museum. The latter? We would need some way for someone in our time to know to open it. But... I am a stranger and don't know that time well, either."
"I've enough trinkets lying about that would make a good enough exhibit in a museum, though if you can't think of some way to ensure you are freed we should explore other options. If you don't want to rely on blind luck. Or me.
"I'll be around eighty fifty years from now. Hopefully my memory will be intact."
"Maybe we should let somebody else know about the plan. Somebody younger, like your apprentice?" Max asks, hesitant to reveal too much information about the future. "We can tell him the date we need to be released so he can ensure that it happens at the right time."
Dr. Infinity folds his arms and strokes his beard while he considers Max's idea. "I don't know if young William is particularly suited for that task. And your suggestion that I look to someone younger is... telling. I take it that I don't survive to eighty?" He waves that away. "Don't answer. Knowledge of my future risks your own."
He purses his lip in thought. "I could hit myself with an amnesia spell, making me forget our meeting."
"That would probably be for the best," Max replies, her tail twitching behind her.
"If I do that, we should be able to speak freely about the future. Who is alive in your time who could be entrusted with the task of freeing you?"
"His name is Percy Dorne. He goes by the codename Indarius."
Dr. Infinity pauses, searching his memory. "I don't recognize the name. Or the codename. Does he live in Halcyon?"
"He will," Max says.
His eyes narrow. "Is he... alive right now?"
Max frowns. "Uh, no. Hmm..."
"There's an added advantage if the target opener is magical, in that you could leave a sigil or magical mark that they can read to know what's inside, instead of deciding it's too dangerous to open and just...leaving us on a shelf."
"Indeed. But magically-trained individuals are in short supply these days. There is myself, William, Morgana du Rayne, Caledoth the Groovy, and a precocious British girl named Myridia Vale."
He begins to pace. "If there are no reliable people who you know from this time to keep and open your vessel at the appointed time, then perhaps it can be stored in some place where you know it will be broken open? Can you think of a spot that will remain intact through the years, but will be opened at your time? Things are always getting smashed in Halcyon."
"I think I know just the place. Unity Base," Max says with a smirk.
Joy looks questioningly at Max, being less familiar with the locations of the modern world.
Dr. Infinity frowns. "That's... where's that? Sounds like someplace that would be in West Berlin."
A quick explanation of the old, displaced subway junction that Horizon would name Unity Base nearly fifty years from their current date later, Dr. Infinity nods in approval. "That has promise. I might even be able to tailor an obfuscation spell that can keep your vessel hidden for the duration. Then it's a matter of us finding the station now, and then hoping that when the obfuscation spell ends someone will be around to see it."
"Just got lost in some bad memories," Chloe admits to Brie. She hesitates before replying to Ainsley. "Trayvon is nice - and really hot - but, uh. Well. I mean...I might be crushing on someone else?"
Her face turns red as she admits this. "So. Yeah. I don't think that I could date anyone else until I either get over this crush or confess to her."
"Nope, not touching the freaky device there," Chroknight says as they back away from the tube. "All yours chief."
Then they were between Statian and Andromeda. "Hey, stop sniping each other. If you should be mad at anyone, be mad at me. It was my responsibility to protect the timeline and I failed. Any consequences are a direct result of my failure. Any deaths that have happened...are on me. I have to live with it. I have to live with all the mistakes."
Retorts and indignation claw their way up Andromeda's throat, but she chokes them down, giving only a brief nod to Statian's order before looking away.
She doesn't look at Chroknight either. "Mistakes and choices are different. Have you made your armor safe against the Governess? That's what you should focus on."
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Drawing closer to the blinking tube, Indy spots an old and yellowed piece of masking tape wrapped around the lower half of the glass cylinder. It has faded and barely legible handwriting on the tape.
IND RIU
It also has a sequence of numbers, that for some reason denotes yesterday's date!
What do you do??
Indarius hums not seeing any obvious trappings of well a trap. Tapping on the glass tubing with the back of a knuckle he does all the usual checks. Sees if there is any latent magic to the device, and then determines it's best to disarm any magic that's not his own at least in this moment.
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The servants all shake their heads. "No. We will now wait to arise when he calls us forth, imbued with his power," one says. "Our great reward."The servants shuffle into carved alcoves like sepulchers to await reanimation as her father's footsoldiers. The dark basement far beneath Halcyon City was too deep for her phone to get a "signal" for its amazing location and map feature, but there are stairs leading from the secret chamber into the city's labyrinthine subway system.
As long as she goes up, Aya will find the way forward.
Aya finds that response odd, but accepts and waits as they all file into their alcoves. "To our great reward..." She trails off. It was going to be far more difficult now that she didn't have the aid of the servants, but she turned and started upwards, running a hand along the wall the entire time feeling the weight pressing upon the old stonework.
Adorning her new clothing some ways away from the sepulchers Aya hums to herself an old song, this wasn't the first time she'd returned to a new world. It'd certainly not be the last either. But she foresaw that she might at least be able to get some more power in her hands in the meantime.
For the next few weeks it would be learning more about this time and place, consolidating her own power, and moving from there. For that she'd need to get out of this tomb, reconvene with the stars and then the real plans began.
Eventually Aya stumbled out into a track of the subway system, having tripped on the rail line in the dark. For a moment she lost the wall, grabbed the rail, and continued forward till she hit it again and stood up. Using her booted feet to kick the solid track she noted several things, metal, not rusted, oddly familiar, and was that a vibration?
The pulsing glass tube contains magic, Indy quickly determines. The device itself is not inherently magical, however. Running through his regular detection spells and the special ones devised by Connie Mathers, he realizes that the cathode ray tube is being used as a vessel to imprison a magical being -- no, make that two!
"Called it," Dhalia interrupts the stunned silence after Chloe's admission.
"Oookay, that's fine. We'll just keep up the 'no boys' rule. Easy enough," Ainsley says.
Brie leans in. "So, you gonna tell us who?"
"It's pretty obvious," Dhalia says.
"It could be... well, Trish came out last year," Brie replies.
Dhalia rolls her eyes. "... and is seeing Lisa."
They all turn to Chloe. "If you don't want to say, you don't have to. Don't listen to them," Ainsley says, offering her an out.
A sleeker and smoother subway train rushes past Aya, forcing her up against the wall as it blows by and taking the air out of her lungs. The clunky and screeching machines that she'd first seen two cycles ago had been upgraded once again.
As the train recedes into the tunnel, she is once again plunged back into the darkness of the underground rail line, with only dim lights widely interspersed along the ceiling. Utilizing the glowing surface of her plaque, she tries to get her bearings. The recurring subway trains posed a danger to blindly wandering in the large tunnels, but the service and maintenance tunnels were labyrinthine.
The timekeeping feature of the plaque tells her that it's been nearly an hour of wandering the underground tunnels, but at last, she finds a main passage leading to a station that will no doubt provide her with access to the surface.
Just then, as she passes a nearly hidden alcove a flare of her prescience strikes. The alcove is not just a small recess in the old tunnel like countless others she'd passed in her wanderings. It went somewhere. Clever, hidden, and meant for others, but it was there. Her precognitive powers swirl around her, marking two distinct paths laying before her. One, to reach the surface and continue her father's task of readying his return. And the other, to explore the unknown, and more importantly, to discover herself.
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Pressed against the wall Aya waited for her heart to slow, not even a full day back and that would have hurt badly. It makes them dangerous
She reiterated in her head before traversing down the tunnel some more, when she feels the strands of fate unwind and split into two threads she hesitates only long enough to scan which either may be. Before veering off onto her own path. She knew damn good and well that He'd be back, no matter what she did, but if she were to have some time to herself, a seldom gift she would take it for as long as she could. Too valuable to get rid of for someone so great and powerful and paranoid.
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With the future Unity Base decided as the place to hide the vessel, Dr. Infinity gathers a number of components and then hides the three of them under a shroud of invisibility. He transposes them to the closest landmark that Deedee could describe that he recognizes. Once out on the streets of Halcyon near the venerable Halcyon Preparatory Academy, Max leads them into the sewers and through the maze-like underground.
They come upon a sealed-up passage that requires magic to bypass rather than break it down and risk altering the future by revealing the ancient and displaced subway junction in the 1970s.
Finding a bank of old computer equipment, Dr. Infinity selects a cathode ray tube, writes a message on a piece of masking tape, and using the date that Joy and Max disappeared, crafts an obfuscation spell that should wear off on or around that day.
He finally casts the binding spell, scrawling sigils in chalk on the floor around the two magical beings. Trapped within the arcane circle, Max and Joy can only watch helplessly as he chants words of power that draws their essences into the prepared vessel.
Their last memory is that of falling...
... and then hitting the ground as the glass tube shatters!
Tangled on the ground and still clad in their Gala dresses, Joy and Max are fully disoriented. The room spins, but it's still the same subway station -- did the binding spell even work? Did the glass tube fail to contain them?
Then they look up and see Indarius the dragon standing over them. Chroknight, Andromeda, Aquarelle, and a young-looking Samantha are also there!
* * *
As soon as Indarius flicks the glass tube, it shatters with a burst of white and violet light! The light sprays all across the base, but then coalesces into two distinct globes -- one of clean white light and the other a sensuous purple. Then the lights reshape into lithe, feminine forms before dropping down to the ground on top of each other, solidifying finally into Max and Joy!
Gui sighs and buries his fingers in his hair to calm himself, then looks away from Andromeda and Samantha before he'd say something to escalate even further the bickering. He was pretty tired of the competition of who had the smartest dick.
Up on his feet, he watches over Chroknight's shoulder and then raises his eyebrows when the two missing girls appear on top of each other. "I am pretty sure dere are far easier ways for you two to get in e room..."
Andromeda's eyes widen, and a little tension disappears from her posture despite her surprise. "Oh. How long were you in there?" Her gaze sharpens. "Do you remember time the way it used to be? Does Samantha look young to you?"
Samantha looks up, narrows her eyes, and looks confused at the two missing members of their team. Her brain was still working on the problem, comparing every death to every known participant in any situation she was involved with determine the tole of either timeline.
"...Wow. I didn't realize I hadn't come out to you guys yet." Chloe buries her face in her hands. "Oh, I'm dumb. My stupid brain makes me dumb and want to do dumb things like kiss girls and forget to tell my friends I like the idea of kissing girls and boys and- and I'm going to stop talking about that and go to the bathroom," Chloe says as she hops up to run into the house.
She pauses just long enough to say, "Sam," before vanishing for five minutes - relatively.
She would return after that, calm and with the redness on her face gone. Mostly because she'd realized a horrible thing. She had come out to her dad the year before becoming Chroknight. Which meant...
"I'm going to have to come out to my dad." Again.
"Wait, hold that pose for a moment." Chroknight frames the awkward pile of inhuman girl parts with their fingers. "...okay, let me help you up there. Did you really just life raft the time river? That's crazy," They say as they reach out and help them to their feet.
"...I really wanted to prank you about being like a year overdue, but it's not the time for that. Updates - you may have some conflicting memories because your personal histories have likely changed, mostly relationships. Also, some people you might remember as dead are alive, and vice versa. Statian's back to being ineligible to get a learner's permit. And on a personal note...I'm really sorry about all of this and getting my powers used against you. I'm stoked that the chronowraith only diplaced you and didn't wipe you from existence."
They sigh, stepping back towards one of the exit tunnels to the newer subway - they needed a longer route to get home now. "Chief, anything else we need to discuss here? Kind of getting antsy, and no one cares who I am, so I might just go punch some bad guys on patrol."
"Chief, anything else we need to discuss here? Kind of getting antsy, and no one cares who I am, so I might just go punch some bad guys on patrol."
Something snaps and rumbles, but Andromeda doesn't say anything to contradict Chroknight.
"I care." Samantha says, finding a moment through her problem solving to look up at Chroknight, a flash of a smile, before it is lost to the slight scrunching of analysis.
One life before, one life after, comparison of lives is complicated and, by all sources, imprecise. a simplified thought flashing through the data tables and algorithms. One she finds frustrating. All she can do is attempt to determine if there is anyone else alive in this stream but dead in the other, and the same the opposite.
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Gui rolls his eyes and turns to Samantha. "Did you accidently put us inside e Mexican Novela? Today's episode is "El Misterioso Misterio de la Chica del Tiempo."
"Come on, Chro! You want to tell everyone because you need help and people to talk to, but you decided you are only doing it if people tell you they want to know your secret." He shakes his head, angry and desperate.
Gui cups his hands together, as if he was holding something hidden inside, and then throws them up, releasing a sparkling ball that explodes in glitter and fireworks. From the rain, Chroknight's face and name form and then changes to Chloe's.
"Oops." He says, sitting on his chair with violence.
"Come on, Chro! You want to tell everyone because you need help and people to talk to, but you decided you are only doing it if people tell you they want to know your secret." He shakes his head, angry and desperate.
Gui cups his hands together, as if he was holding something hidden inside, and then-
"You're right. I decided that. But that was wrong of me to do." Chroknight's hand is on Gui's cupped hands.
"I will tell them when I need to tell them. The moment passed. Another one will come. But that will be my decision to make. I don't want the choice to come out taken from me again. Are you going to be that person?"
Gui looks at Chroknight's hands on his and frowns, putting two and two together. "We are all here to discuss consequences of time twisting crap and... did you rewind time so I would not meke fireworks to tell dem who you are?"
Shaking her hand off, the throws his hands up, releasing a sparking ball that explodes in glitter and fireworks. From the rain, Chroknight's face and name form and then changes to the current president.
"I will still keep your secret, but do not spring dis nonsense on dem again." He says, sitting on his chair with violence.
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Indy watches the unleashing of the binding magic that eventually deposits Empyrean and Devil Diva onto the floor of the base.
"Well, that's not too terribly inefficient." He reaches down to help them up, "You feeling alright?"
"Yeah actually, aside from the time stuff I've got some more info on the Star Pharoah guy. He's got several like lieutenants that he calls his children, and the cult is trying to scrub anyone knowing anything about the whole situation so that he can more easily overthrow the world."
He looks off to his room and scratches his arm nervously for a moment. "And-"
His gaze falls to the table where he firmly places his hands, "He also drags powerful magical creatures and such to his side. I'm not sure by what means and due to my past actions I may have saved us one issue and become the issue myself? Ehh maybe it'll just be easier to show you all. Give me a second."
He wanders off into his room for a bit leaving the group to wonder about that cryptic information.
Max blinks with disorientation as she and Joy find themselves back in the present time, as if no time had passed for them at all. Before she can get her wits about her, her teammates bombard her with exposition.
"Huh? What? Wait, wait, one at a time, please," she murmurs, already feeling a headache forming.
Once the other have said their pieces, it's Max's turn. "So we fell through a time rift back to the 1970s. We met Doctor Infinity in his prime, as well as his apprentice, Daddy Mathers. We came up with this plan to store us in a magical binding until you released us at the right time. I guess it worked.
"Before we left, I asked Infinity about the Star Pharoah. He told us the best way to fight him is to use an ancient weapon called the Shopec. If we can find it, we may have a chance to stop him."
Samantha pauses her work on timeline causality comparison and shifts over to a search on anything referring to the Shopec. Anything of interest she brings up on holographic screens around the station for the others to see.
Samantha's research produces results right away. She finds images of an oddly-curved weapon, evocative of a sickle, throughout history. Engravings, pottery shards, tapestries and more all depict warriors wielding variants of this weapon while slaying monstrous enemies. The most recent image was a blurry photograph from the 1980s, in the hand of heroic weaponmaster Stallion Vester.
The Shopec's current whereabouts are unknown.
"Stallion Vester," Andromeda recites, "In his hands, anything is a deadly weapon. His father was a soldier who trained his son how to kill from the moment he was born. In his battles he acquired an array of weapons from ancient relics to alien hypertech. He's retired now, but They have his likely location, a compound in the Canadian Rockies. I have the coordinates."
She frowns as she finishes her briefing, the turmoil writhing in her stomach's external sign. You're not abandoning her. Other people are doing research on the best way to find her. An invasion will hinder efforts to recover her. She would understand. You're not abandoning her.
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"Well that's some great information to get compared to what we had. Can't say I know about Stallion though, certainly not enough to get a good scry on him. We should see if we can get into contact with anyone who knows his whereabouts better than somewhere in the mountain though, and tell Nimbus."
Indy eventually returns from his room carrying a fiery crimson scale the size of his chest, which he csrefully lays out on the table. "This is the scale of my... uh well it's hard to say arch-enemy considering we've only fought once. I don't really want to actually fight him, I just wanna change his outlook on humans. But this is Drake's scale. Leader of Manticorp, a big red dragon, the one who experimented on Xaiara among other meta-humans. It's also why I'm bound to only my draconic forms and why he's stuck in his human one."
Indy watches the unleashing of the binding magic that eventually deposits Empyrean and Devil Diva onto the floor of the base.
"Well, that's not too terribly inefficient." He reaches down to help them up, "You feeling alright?"
When Empyrean first erupts from the binding, there is a moment of chaos. A flurry of wings and eyes, surrounded by rotating rings of blazing light, for half a second. Then suddenly it resolves into her familiar humanoid form, crumpled on the ground.
Empyrean struggles to her feet and slowly stretches her wings.
"Disoriented," she finally manages.
"Max described the situation well. I'm... I hope we didn't break anything in the past. But now we need to focus on how we can help the future."
The angel seems oddly frazzled.
"...Wow. I didn't realize I hadn't come out to you guys yet." Chloe buries her face in her hands. "Oh, I'm dumb. My stupid brain makes me dumb and want to do dumb things like kiss girls and forget to tell my friends I like the idea of kissing girls and boys and- and I'm going to stop talking about that and go to the bathroom," Chloe says as she hops up to run into the house.
She pauses just long enough to say, "Sam," before vanishing for five minutes - relatively.
She would return after that, calm and with the redness on her face gone. Mostly because she'd realized a horrible thing. She had come out to her dad the year before becoming Chroknight. Which meant...
"I'm going to have to come out to my dad." Again.
Chloe's bandmates are waiting for her when she comes back out. They don't say anything at first, they just look at her with concerned faces. As one, they step forward and draw her into a group hug that lasts as long as Chloe wants.
When they finally break the embrace, Dhalia gives Chloe's hand a squeeze. "Feelz are done. Come on. Let's rock."
Pressed against the wall Aya waited for her heart to slow, not even a full day back and that would have hurt badly. It makes them dangerous
She reiterated in her head before traversing down the tunnel some more, when she feels the strands of fate unwind and split into two threads she hesitates only long enough to scan which either may be. Before veering off onto her own path. She knew damn good and well that He'd be back, no matter what she did, but if she were to have some time to herself, a seldom gift she would take it for as long as she could. Too valuable to get rid of for someone so great and powerful and paranoid.
Aya slips into the well-disguised side tunnel and continues down the lightless corridor with the pale glow of her plaque giving her enough illumination to avoid tripping.
It seemed odd to her, almost enough for her to question her powers of precognition. Something in her intuition says that a future for her lies in this direction, yet the tunnel makes her feel that she is going backwards in time. She is no stranger to old and decrepit things, and the tunnel she finds herself in is definitely that. Signs of wear, deterioration, and the scars of old cataclysms are exposed with every sweep of her plaque's light.
The doubt in her ability grows and a fear that she shouldn't be straying from the path that her father had laid before her. There is comfort in knowing her place and expectations, and stepping outside of those shackles, while liberating, is still the unknown. Perhaps her prescience is capable of leading her astray? Would she be able to rely on her visions going forward?
More doubts and fears assail Aya, calling for her to turn back. The tunnel goes nowhere, so why bother? The urge grows stronger, and she feels her will being tested.
It almost becomes too much for her when she hits a ward.
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Trudging along in the dark wasn't exactly a new sensation. To keep herself from getting too into her own head about her powers possibly leading her astray in some vain hope for something outside of just servitude. She remembered all the times she had to delve through the lightless expanse of her Father's prison, before they had all began this cyclical battle.
She was younger then, everything was so much bigger and scarier. Her father had been the assertive 'my word is law' kind of parent. Given his divinity it was fairly more literal than mortals could say. But then it all -Bonk-
Aya fell onto her behind and quickly scrambled to remove her mask in an attempt to soothe the tender if minor wound as she rebounded off of solid air. Even godlings knew the pain of sensitive sinuses.
Undignified was all she could think as she tended to the minor injury sitting there in the dark carefully massaging her face.
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Indy waited for some questions or anything for him really when something in yhe back of his head clicked like a chime and he snapped to attention out the subway tunnels. Elation and fear surged into him for a moment. "Someone just ran into my ward."
Holy shit my ward finally worked
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Chroknight cools off as they listen to Indarius - though also getting some spare clothing for the two of them that had been left here so they could change out of their evening wear. They were deliberately avoiding Andromeda and Gui, giving them a wide berth for now.
"Well, that's just dandy, seeing as we've got you, and the angel/demon pair who are likely going to be targets for indoctrination. Or your dragon rival. Seriously, it's both weird and oddly thematic to have a dragon as the head of a multinational corporation of bad guys."
They sigh, before noticing a little warning sign flashing on their HUD. Which was weird, because they had no idea what that symbol meant. They ignore it for now - if it was really important, it would be telling them audibly.
"Okay, so, let's go talk to the old dude and ask where he stashed the thing. Since it was the 80s, I'm guessing it's been converted into a wicked keytar." They look over at Samantha. "...bit of a trip to go to Canada. I don't suppose there's a secret jet-"
Indarius announces the intruder, and Chroknight straightens up. "Which tunnel? I'll check it out. If it's real bad, I can warn you right now."
We should see if we can get into contact with anyone who knows his whereabouts better than somewhere in the mountain though..."
Andromeda's brow creases. I said I had his coordinates, but before she can object, danger calls.
"More details about indoctrination will be required. After this."
Samantha had looked up for the revelations on the scale, waiting for more information on how it could be used to solve their current conundrum.
"Where?" she asks, as she looks down to pull up cameras and sensors, attempting to pinpoint an adversary.
Indarius announces the intruder, and Chroknight straightens up. "Which tunnel? I'll check it out. If it's real bad, I can warn you right now."
"If it is real bad, better not to go all by yourself. Being hasty as put you more in bad situacions dan anyting else, Chroknight."
Samantha had looked up for the revelations on the scale, waiting for more information on how it could be used to solve their current conundrum.
"Where?" she asks, as she looks down to pull up cameras and sensors, attempting to pinpoint an adversary.
Samantha finds that the intruder is in the hidden pedestrian tunnel connected to the subway rail near 56th Street and Green Guardian Junction.
The camera image is grainy, but the figure in the tunnel appears to be a teenager picking herself up after colliding with the magic barrier.
"Please, Gui, I'll be back before we even had this conversation," Chroknight says before racing off in the direction Sam and Indarius described.
Once they reach the right tunnel, Chroknight speaks up to the teen girl, whose face they can't quite make out in the dark. "Hey, it's dangerous to stumble around in the dark like this. You're lucky you didn't run into something worse than some magic force field. You need an escort to the surface? What's your name?"
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Aya's stomach drops as she feels something horrible on the strands of fate. Like a tangled mass of knotted strings, roiling and grasping out for anything nearby, suddenly surging towards her. She scooped up the mask and stuffed it into the deep inner pocket of the jacket before the 'thing' approached. For the first time in a long time she feels anxious and afraid, putting her arms up in a crossed defense at it's approahc.
Chroknight finds the girl sitting on the ground, arms crossed in front of her, with an older model smartphone clutched tightly in her grasp, pressed up against the dank subway wall.
In the dark of the tunnel it's hard to tell exact features. But the dark skinned teen is dressed in oversized boots, gray leggings, with a skirt, and a light green jacket layered over a cream colored top. She tries to scoot back from Chroknight pressing further into the dusty wall, cloths already stained with several patches of mud pressed in.
"Stay back." she calls out before Chroknight gets too close the hint of a lingering arabic accent on her lips. "I don't know what you are, but I-i know how to defend myself!"
Once they reach the right tunnel, Chroknight speaks up to the teen girl, whose face they can't quite make out in the dark. "Hey, it's dangerous to stumble around in the dark like this. You're lucky you didn't run into something worse than some magic force field. You need an escort to the surface? What's your name?"
Chroknight speaking seems to calm her down, albiet only slightly, obviously having not expected to meet anything down here in the darkness. "My name?"
'Well it would only make sense for the non-initiated to not know my name, which means the cult was doing well'
"My... friends call me Delphi." She foregoes answering anything about an escort or giving information on why she was down here, for now. She follows where Chroknight steps, keeping forward facing towards the armored hero, though her motions tend to lag behind just a bit until she actually steps.
'I wouldn't need an escort if it weren't for you causing a wash in the river'
For anyone staying in the station, Samantha pipes in the audio and displays anything the video is showing, depending on how many cameras are in the path they are taking.
"Why is she in the tunnels?" Samantha says into the coms.
Nothing the girl had done had flagged Andromeda's threat overlay, but she turned her green just to be safe. "Nothing she has done requires her to be anomalous. However, her hesitation concerning her name suggests her friends are not a typical peer group, and that she's giving a fake name; Delphi's a weird name," explains Andromeda.
"She's hiding from something, or she's hiding something from us."
"Hold up, my friends are asking me to ask you why you were in the tunnels." Chroknight stops and replies to Samantha.
"She's just a lost girl. Doesn't appear to be hurt. Likely was just exploring. I'm going to get her out of here and make sure she can't find her way back. I'll ask a couple questions, see if she might be in trouble here."
They turn down towards Delphi. "So, let me guess, your friends think you've got some kind of intuition and some of your predictions come true? Can't think of another reason someone would call you an oracle," They speak, trying to get her to be at ease around them. It seems like she's afraid of Chroknight, but probably because they're an armored shadow in the dim lighting.
"Let me help you back to the surface. Where's your neighborhood, Rustside? City Center? The Heights?"
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"Hold up, my friends are asking me to ask you why you were in the tunnels." Chroknight stops and replies to Samantha.
"She's just a lost girl. Doesn't appear to be hurt. Likely was just exploring. I'm going to get her out of here and make sure she can't find her way back. I'll ask a couple questions, see if she might be in trouble here."
They turn down towards Delphi. "So, let me guess, your friends think you've got some kind of intuition and some of your predictions come true? Can't think of another reason someone would call you an oracle," They speak, trying to get her to be at ease around them. It seems like she's afraid of Chroknight, but probably because they're an armored shadow in the dim lighting.
"Let me help you back to the surface. Where's your neighborhood, Rustside? City Center? The Heights?"
Delphi tilted her head a bit behind her arms as she thought. Silent communication, a telepath perhaps
"I don't have friends exactly."
Even being near this 'thing' disguised as a person was disorienting. "I was..."
She falters, "It was a dare, for payment, or perhaps they just thought it'd be funny to watch and never planned to actually pay me though."
She very slowly lowered her arms, "I don't really have a neighborhood either, for what it matters. But escorting me out would be beneficial to say the least."
Before the armored, headache-inducing being talking to Delphi can say anything more or escort her back to the surface, a vision sears images across the Scion's eyelids. Pain lances through her body as the frozen vacuum of outer space steals her breath, sending her mind back to when she exists as nothing but a mummified husk.
Chroknight watches helplessly as the girl suddenly appears to suffer a seizure! Her eyes are wide and unblinking, while her mouth gapes for air that doesn't seem to reach her lungs. Her body becomes rigid and strangely cold to the touch!
Delphi's mind is transported to her true home, the frozen and lifeless asteroid with the black ice-rimed pyramid tomb of her father and siblings. She sees signs of fresh battle amid the barren landscape, and she understands. Her father transmits the knowledge through their connection, informing Aya that a giant outer space entity ran across his comet. The mindless creature sent its spores and tendrils against him, trying to enslave and consume. A giant fungal invader.
Of course, it failed and was driven away -- even partially awake her father had the power to respond. Though mindless, it still understood pain. Ahk'nathal sent it back towards Earth, wounded but still dangerous. It could not prevail, but it could do damage. It could weaken the defenders of the world, and in so doing, it would serve Ahk'nathal.
Delphi feels the warning, not so much out of fatherly concern, but for her to take advantage of the entity's arrival!
What do you do?
"Delphi could mean she eats a lot of ergot, or inhales gas fumes." Andromeda comments dryly as she watches the feed. "Hospital?"
By the time that Andromeda has suggested the hospital, Chroknight is already in the base carrying the convulsing girl in their arms. "Med bay is here," They say as they bring her into the facility and lay her on a bed.
"Don't see a med bracelet on her. Need to watch her until this episode ends," Chroknight says. They wonder what could have happen to her. "She's definitely a runaway. Doesn't have any ID on her, and her phone's a burner."
"Or she's an underage dealer, high on her own product, who's hoping to make intake enough of a hassle to give her a better chance at something that doesn't get her booked officially."
Not quite she why she's being do harsh, Andromeda modulates. "Toxins would be a likely cause of her symptoms given her age. If these seizures are recurring and frequent, then she will probably have marks on her from unprotected falls."