|
Indarius stood out with the student and various other guests in his newest inbetween form, he'd garnered a small berth around him still mostly as people milled about and chatted with their friend groups.
The shows had been good so far, though he was too distracted to give them much thought. Every once in a while he'd glance back expecting to see a dragon and an army of goons baring down on Halcyon proper, but it never seemed to come.
The lights flickered and then went out, gasps and shouts of excitement and panic filling the air before murmurs asking what happened began.
"Odd.." He wondered if this was a result of Samantha's portal, she had said it would be fine, even if she'd have liked him there incase of rogue elements. Which in fairness he was keeping out from the outside sort of. The lights flicked back on for a few short moments as emergency generators kicked up before it all sputtered out again.
He felt an eery keening in the back of his head and began making for the lab, casting out a sending spell to Samantha.
"Samantha, what's going on down there? Everything alright? I'm on my way."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
'It is NOT alright!!!!!'
something answers in a singsong voice of panic. Samantha's voice but full of emotion
'She's turned off everything, EVERYTHING! even listening to ME, EsPeCially ME! AND Andy has TORN a tunnel through all of time and space and it is ROMANTIC and TRAGIC and very on brand!'
there is a pause
'Please hurry up, Indy, we desperately need some magic here and now! Oh, and can you give her a hug when you see her, she really needs a hug right now too.'
-------------
Samantha meanwhile doesn't looks up as they almost died from shrapnel, and then... other stuff... She instead collects and calculates. Her threads piece together mini drones from scattered bits of technology. In moments, a dozen are hovering and buzzing through the opening, sampling the walls with thin probes made of her threads, disappearing into another world to gather anything can, feeding it all back to her mind and machines to find an Answer.
There had been a point where Chloe thought that she needed to scream but couldn't since her whole body was completely frozen in timeless space. The horror of what was there existing and the potential for what could happen if they ever came into a timeline haunted her thoughts.
And then it got worse.
Getting slammed out of that zone, then rebounded like a superball plunging back into their Halcyon and Daedalus' subbasement, Chroknight realizes they'd been screaming for who knew how long and finally manage to take a breath.
Then they're looking back and seeing the rent in space-time and panic kicks in.
"SAM! We need to contain that breach! Whatever you got - don't put anything through it!!!" They shout as they see the small drones attempting to fly through the tear in time.
"I am deadly serious. Don't poke it. Don't flash light on it. Don't even breathe on it. Or you will attract the things between time."
Chroknight moans woefully as they stand to look at the untime. "We should have left it alone. She didn't even want to come back here. I have to..."
What? What could Chroknight do now?
Dazed and exhausted, Andromeda was still trying to sort out who was screaming for what - confusing even with her HUD providing labeled overlays on blurred forms. But Chroknight was giving orders; that was easy enough for her numbed mind to grab onto.
She slams a crackling field over the tear, blocking the path for any of the things Chroknight was going on about and explaining that-
Horrible words, a chill in her heart colder than the nothing she'd torn through.
"You didn't want to come back to us?"
Samantha looks up as one of her drones is shattered hitting one the crackling field. She would have pointed out particles/energy/air are all being transferred between the two times currently. That Chroknight has estimated millions of particles on their person from their visit, as well as Shayera retaining all of hers. That if the 'things between time' were coming, they were coming, and her drones were not adding significantly to the outcome one way or another.
But she doesn't. Instead she looks back down and works the data.
Data is all.
The probes Samantha sent in before Andromeda jammed a telekinetic plug into the breach find what could best be described as a tunnel through the barrier between timelines. Like an underwater observation deck in an aquarium, the drones detect shapes moving fluidly just outside the tube, probing along the new feature!
In the subbasement, Xaiara takes in her surroundings, eyes falling on Andromeda, Samantha, Ava, and Jessie. She looks around at the formerly sterile lab and its smashed equipment and a choked sob escapes her throat. Her limbs spasm as she struggles to rise to her feet, fails, and collapses. She buries her face in her arms and her wings fan out defensively.
Andromeda's question floats softly over her. Xaiara flinches anyway, and begins to sob.
Gui keeps mostly to himself, watching and trying to pay attention to everything.
Liam's words were interesting. He can't possibly believe he is a hero, not while being paid and working alongside CADRE. But does this small outburst betray a desire to be a hero? Perhaps there was something there to use. Use. Not too long ago he hated to think about using people... but he was an illusionist. His whole thing was lying.
"So tis breach has to do with Samanta?" He asks Ne'veah, whispering not to bother those in charge, but clearly for Liam to hear. "I remember hearing dem talking about bringing Xaiara back... I hope she is fine."
The breach is a tantalizing problem. Telekinetic barriers, or high energy magnetic fields, possibly gravitic? should serve to give them time. Then after that? Certain exotic matters could be used to produce a relatively stable Casimir effect, but that doesn't answer questions of...
No.
She stops staring at Samantha, visually confirms the field blocking her tear, almost manages to look Xaiara in the face.
"I don't... I don't understand - I don't know what's happened to you, Xaiara, but I'm here; Ava's here; Jessie's- Your friends are here. We just... we just want to help."
"So tis breach has to do with Samanta?" He asks Ne'veah, whispering not to bother those in charge, but clearly for Liam to hear. "I remember hearing dem talking about bringing Xaiara back... I hope she is fine."
Liam doesn't take the bait, giving Gui an irritated glance at first but then making eye contact and nodding. "Yeah, me too."
Mr. Drake's ears were evidently keen enough to pick up on Gui's side conversation. "It has everything to do with Samantha. She and her friends must not have trusted you with their project to retrieve Xaiara. I'm sorry to hear that." His mouth turns down in an expression of sympathy even though his eyes are still hidden behind his fashionable sunglasses.
With the word that the tear in realities is back, the entire group in the meeting room follows Mr. Drake. He strides briskly but not hurriedly through the corridors of Daedalus to the freight elevators to the various levels beneath the school. As he walks, he tells Gui, "we've obtained significant intel on the alternate timeline, and have strong reason to believe Xaiara will be fine."
Once the elevator is full Drake hits the button and the doors slide shut. "No zombie plagues, or nanobot swarms turning everyone into robots, or alien invasions razing cities to the ground. No, this timeline appears to be... ideal."
Xaiara looks up at Andromeda through tear-streaked eyes. "You can't help. You don't know what it was like. It was-- it was, was easier. Better."
"Wait, what?" Jessie blurts out in confusion. "We were so worried for you!"
Wrenching herself away from the stares, Xaiara's wings go up to shield herself. "Bronwyn said I could stay! She was going to train me and keep me out of the Red and I wasn't scared!"
|
|
Indy briskly walks through the hallways as the power kicks back on he looks down the hall at the elevator and starts heading that way. He'd have to head that direction towards the stairs anyway but on the way he reaches out to 'not-Sam' again.
"Power's back on topside, i'm about to head down. Has the tear been contained or collapsed?"
He racked his brain thinking of how the hell they'd close a dimensional tear, opening one was one thing closing it though.
Ding!
He looked at the elevator and pressed the button. The keening in his head returned in full force and he couldn't help but feel a sense of deja'vu desperately hoping that it wasn't due to anything Chroknight did. He slapped the button several more times to get the elevator to stop on his floor.
"Yeah, and nobody could communicate any of that to us, so now we got a potentially permanent fistula between timelines." And Sam seems really angry at me for diving in.
"...I might be a little panicky here, but I saw hundreds of chronowraiths around the tunnel between us. And there other things beyond them. And when the portal closed I was stuck, unable to move. And they were curious and getting closer. So thank you Andy for saving my ass. And I'm sorry, Sam for not listening to you and nearly getting trapped. Shayera would have likely been stuck if I just sent her in on her own, but you were right to be concerned." This is fate.
'Con-Tained!' the very sound invokes fairy sprinkles 'Andy SAVED the day, well, she did cause the near End of Days' each of the last three words like gongs being hammered. 'May still, the way She is wrinkling her brow. Oh! Hold on, honeybunny is talking'
Samantha does not look up from her feeds as Chroknight says words next to her, too few in the wake of the river of data she is moving through. She says nothing in return to whatever they were.
'ohhhhHHHHH, SAMMMMMMMMANTHHHHHA!' the voice cries out, every drawn out second of THA like fists pounding on a door. 'You were HAPPY! Don'tdothisdon'tdothisdon'tdothisDON'T!DO!THIS!'
"It was not e lack of trust... I just was not dere... or was not needed dere..." He says, playing it cool and adding a shrug. "Even if I was, my skills would likely not have helped dem anyway." It was not a lack of trust. It was not... but if it was, perhaps there was reason for that.
He shuts up and follows, listening and thinking. So this Mr. Drake was clearly very interested in this other timeline and more and more it was pointing towards his goal. Not that he had bought the whole "save our world" line anyway. "Perhaps in dis timeline, deir Alliance has not left and is very efficient in saving deir world."
Something unpleasant burns in Andromeda's gut. "Bronwyn? Shayera's..? Why did she want you to stay? We're your friends and she doesn't even know you."
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Drake bares his white teeth in something like a smile. "On the contrary, there is no Alliance."
Ding!
The elevator doors slide open before they reach the subbasement, revealing Indarius.
Ding!
The freight elevator opens, revealing a fully occupied car. Indy recognizes Gui, Ne'veah, Liam, and Kennedy as well as Professor Hopkins. Two other adults are strangers to him, although he recognizes them from Whippoorwill's dossier during her superhero class -- Zero-G and Cortex.
And then there is Drake in his white suit and red dress shirt, standing coolly in the middle.
"Percival," he says.
Unfortunately, with all the wrecked equipment in the lab, Samantha sees nothing of immediate use in repairing or plugging the hole. Given that the barrier's strength and resilience exceeded all previous theories, properly sealing the breach would require intensive study of the barrier itself.
Fortunately, nothing at the moment seems to be leaking through the breach, even though her drones are still registering the actions of the entities of the in-between flitting around the tunnel with curiosity. Samantha surmises they have some time to work up a solution. With that conclusion, the matrix screaming in her ear indicates that her relationship with her friends may be the most in danger!
Xaiara pushes herself up to her knees and looks at Andromeda flatly. "No, she knows Shayera. And that Shayera was like me, once. And that I could be like her!"
Chloe's phone starts buzzing.
CMG group D: Chloe, where ru?
CMG group B: powers back on. Next band is starting
CMG group D: ...
CMG group A: need u here
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Sam? Sam! Hey, Sam! I know you're probably angry at me and also fixating on this terrifying-but-interesting space between time, but can you at least talk to me so I know what your thought process is right now?" Chroknight steps up next to the Brain, hand on top of the monitor she was staring down.
"Can't uncrack this egg. Can't do much but keep an eye on it and hope some curious monster doesn't try to wriggle through this side. Andy can't play prophylactic forever. And-"
The buzz of their phone has Chroknight checking the message coming through and wincing internally.
[smaller]"And the band already thinks I'm taking the longest pee ever. I can stall for a little longer if you need me."
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ding!
The freight elevator opens, revealing a fully occupied car. Indy recognizes Gui, Ne'veah, Liam, and Kennedy as well as Professor Hopkins. Two other adults are strangers to him, although he recognizes them from Whippoorwill's dossier during her superhero class -- Zero-G and Cortex.And then there is Drake in his white suit and red dress shirt, standing coolly in the middle.
"Percival," he says.
Percy, now wearing a humanoid form that more accurately incorporates his human qualities while still being very draconic in nature stands idle as the doors slide open. He scans over the occupants a moment curious as to why Gui is in their midst, recognizing several of them and even two from when he still worked with Shin and the others. But his gaze fell and stuck on Drake who spoke to him with a cool and collected demeanor.
In that moment the worrying feeling in the back of his mind subsides to full silence and he realizes what it had been the entire time. After a tense few seconds Percy squeezed into the elevator just before the door gave it's signal to close again.
"Drake." He replies with a nod as the door closes behind him and starts to roll downward again. In the packed space he declares it easier to not turn his back towards the sketchy mix of heroes, villains, and his personal nemesis. Creating an obvious tension in the small box.
"Hope your eye healed up?" He asks without a smirk even as another part of him wished deeply to begin throwing hands.
Instinctively, Gui steps a wee bit away from Drake and closer to Ne'veah. He says nothing at all.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Green eyes blink and look up, though it is obvious terabytes of data like hurricane winds storm behind those eyes. There is a pause, a long pause...
Inside her head, muted from actually being heard by anyone but an mentally invasive dragon, there is a voice saying to the one in front of her 'You choose! And Not Her! Risked 'Us' for 'Them'! And it tore her apart so badly she shut every FEELING off. Completely! Utterly! Like with Cows! (I know this is not the time for that but... Utterly! like udders, but with... nevermind) Anyway... She locked them up, and threw away the Key down a mile long well of Nothing! All to stop hurting, but it didn't work btw, not at all, but she is ignoring that like she is ignoring ME! She is TOO good at that...' the voice sighed, long and aggrieved. 'Indy, are you still listening?'
Outwardly, green eyes finally blink once "You should go." then she looks back down at her monitor, tilting her head, but the wrong direction, just to look past Chroknight's hand.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Andromeda doesn't know what to say. 'You're better than Shayera' A lie. Objective ranking of people was mostly foolish, but even in this case involving extradimensional doppelgangers Shayera was ahead of Xaiara socially, emotionally, physically, technically - in all metrics that they both attempted.
'Shayera was mean to me, and I'm glad she's gone' Useless.
'Are you sure Bronwyn wasn't just lonely?' Purposeless. Nasty. Unrelated to the previous statement except that it kept rattling around Andromeda's head.
'I'm sorry.' Useless. Half a lie.
'We can help.' A lie. Another lie.
"...Shayera said Bronwyn didn't teach her how to be a hero. That was someone else. Someone here. We can find her."
"Yeah!" Jessie blurts out, realizing who Andromeda was talking about. "Whippoorwill! Shayera wouldn't stop talk-- I mean, she didn't, not really, but she dropped hints, you know? Like, she really wanted to meet this timeline's version."
"Shayera also had her own friends that helped her. We are yours, and want to help you, Ava adds.
Xaiara tries to control her emotions and does a poor job of it. Guilt and despair and loss contort her face into one of utter anguish.
Meanwhile, another drama is playing out between Chroknight and Samantha. Told to return to her band, the Janus has to decide whether to remain and keep trying to get through to Samantha or to leave.
Before they can make a decision, however, the freight elevator opens.
"Hope your eye healed up?"
Drake says nothing, but he lowers his sunglasses just enough for his red, slotted pupils to peer over their rims. Indy is able to see that one is slightly lighter, a red-orange of a sword just out of the forge compared to the deep red of a long-burning coal.
Little else is said in the crowded elevator, but fortunately the uncomfortable silence is not too long.
Ding!
A large contingent of people both familiar and unfamiliar fill the subbasement lab. Professor Hopkins immediately moves to look over Samantha's shoulder at her work while the impeccably dressed man in the white and red goes to stand directly before the breach.
"Wonderful! Well done, my dears!" The man in shades looks to a lanky adult with a shock of pink hair.
That man moves to stand over Xaiara and stares down at her. "Don't mind me..." His eyes lose focus briefly, then he turns to the man in the white suit. "Confirmed. She was in Wingblade's timeline, no doubt about it."
"Excellent. The we can begin."
|
|
Indy exits the elevator along with everyone else to survey the situation.
When Cortex approaches Xaiara, he begins to move to stop him from doing anything, but it's too late. At least he doesn't seem to have done anything beyond read her mind however. As talk begins things begin to click into place for Percy as he eyes Drake.
"So what, you plan on expanding operations across a dimensional rift? Gonna try to do what you've done to one poor girl to another?"
The elevator opens, filled with so much red that for a second Andromeda thinks that her eyes have ruptured.
Her sheath crackles and spits, as if the tension in the air is something physical acting upon it. She tenses, deeply aware that she's mimicking the tin can more than she'd like. Different context. All Shard can do without fighting is talk. Cortex is even more dangerous if you give him time to work. Broad, high force attacks were recommended, but she shouldn't, couldn't in such proximity. He favors grappling and counterblows, but those are irrelevant in this context. Telepathic wavelength is within the band that experiences static from my powers. Possible inhibition to his usual persistent shallow read?
Too much thinking. She can't hit him right right here, but can't give him any more signals than she already has. She lunges, trying to grab Cortex and then rocket up with him through the ceiling, to let him try his mind games on gravity, but she can already feel it going wrong, too soft, too soft, too slow
"Real important news, Sam. Bad guys are coming and we're about to pop off." A brief ripple slipping back to warn Sam. No way to get between Andy and the psychic. More information was needed.
So Chroknight did what they hated to do: they waited. And watched. And looked to see what they could do in the near future and what this crew was doing here.
Samantha finally looks up, noticing the person looking over her shoulder. Her advanced technology professor. A man she has had creative debates on whether world domination was practical. "Professor Hopkins" she says simply without inflection, as a single one of her threads, which he had complimented her on so long ago, snakes up and presses the OFF button to her monitor.
Statistical probability models suggest this is not the kind of person that should be given attack vectors into other temporal dimensions. Samantha herself has complimented nine thousand and twenty one practical methods of using the data across her screen to perform mass destruction on an epic scale and this was without her having any form of a malicious agenda. Professor Hopkins could, if projections are validated and verified (and that person is correct), outdo her in a nanosecond.
Drake looks smugly at Indarius, but before he is able to answer Andromeda's power flares and she acts!
Her plan flashes in the forefront of her mind -- wrap the telepath up in her sheath and blast them both to the surface. Cortex's powers only work on the mind, so a sudden physical assault could keep him occupied and unable to focus!
::It's cute that you thought that'd work.::
Andromeda blinks and in her mind's eye Cortex is standing over her, putting a firm hand on her forehead like an adult restraining an unruly child. ::I know you from Shayera's mind. Andromeda, right? Oh, yeah. Or should I call you Tau-34? Would that put you in your place?"
He flicks his finger and Andromeda goes sprawling on the floor of whatever this place is. He looms over her easily double her size. ::Your static is annoying but nothing I can't power through. So let's set some ground rules: you don't raise a single thought against me, and I don't make every person you remotely care for see you the same way Shayera does. Deal?::
From everyone else's perspective, Andromeda launches herself at Cortex in an ill-advised frontal attack! She's way off, however, as the telepath sidesteps her charge which causes her to barely miss Xaiara in her flyby! The Bull caroms off the reinforced wall, severely denting it, then ends sprawled at Cortex's feet! The telepath looms over her, a sadistic smile on his face!
Chroknight bounces back from several quick jaunts into the future to try to figure out how much danger they're all in, but without the paradox sensor from their armor and the myriad of chrono-entities lurking just beyond the breach, they get the sense that any attempts to return to an earlier time to warn herself or her friends cause a temporal rift way too enticing to the horrors she'd just witnessed!
Drake holds up a forestalling hand before further hostilities erupt. Shall we all take a moment?" He takes a sharp breath, turning to Cortex. "Do no permanent damage, please. She needs to hear this."
Cortex straightens and steps back, still with a cruel smirk on his face.
"Now," Drake says, fixing his glare on Indarius, "to your question, yes. We have a golden opportunity here, of reaping wealth far beyond even the billions I stood to gain the last time a team of yours intervened. There is a world beyond that rift. A new market of untapped potential. Think about when China, or India was opened to trade for the first time! And then multiply it by the rest of the continents of the world!!" He clenches his fist in a covetous gesture as his teeth gleam.
"Think about it. Another timeline. Stable, similar yet different. What sort of differences are there? The cultural exchanges we can explore? The art? The history? The resources?" Drake's gaze sweeps across everyone in the subbasement. It falls on Xaiara. "You've spent weeks there as our first, if accidental, envoy. Would you like to be an ambassador to an entire world?"
When Samantha acknowledges Professor Hopkins, he nods in Mr. Drake's direction. "Nice idea, right? We need you to maintain the breach. Keep it open, keep it stable, so goods and people can pass through. Plus rebuild your equipment so additional bridges can be built. You'll be set for life."
Samantha looks flatly back at her professor. They both know her true skill is with computers, that she can manipulate them with extreme ease. And with their world being as computerized as it is, especially in its finances, she could be as rich as could be with two simple blinks.
Why would she be concerned with being Set for life?
She does not need to say this. It would be insulting to this man, who she respects for his abilities with technology, if not for his moral fiber. So she doesn't say anything.
If she hadn't turned off all her emotions, she might be getting ready for a fight, but instead she simply is watching him.
Of course, her mind being her mind, she is calculating all data points for most positive outcomes as a subroutine behind the scenes.
There is another power outage in the lab, blanketing the room in darkness for a couple seconds.
So he bolts, leaving an image of himself behind. He bolts in the wrong direction, though, jumping through the rift. They might be outnumbered and outgunned here, but someone on the otherside will probably be able to help...
Despair bloomed in Chroknight's chest as they felt the faint stirring coming from the breach of curious entities attracted to their attempts to slip back in time. Limited options for them with that knowledge. They were blind to the future.
But Drake's soliloquy has them actually take a moment to stare at the dragon man.
"What's with the colonizer b+~$##$&, dude? You sound like some dandy old money fop from a period drama, all you need is the powdered wig. You think they're just going to roll out the red carpet for invaders? Ship all the resources you want to strip away back to this timeline? You're crazy if you think you can profit off this."
The lights suddenly and briefly flicker out.
"Besides, how are you planning to deal with all the monsters between time?"
Samantha regards each of the new arrivals. Recognizing that Drake was the being that Indarius feared, she would imagine that his power is likely the most dangerous, followed immediately by the telepath. Cortex being able to humble Andromeda in so swift a fashion lends credence to that analysis. Liam's power, also, she knows is considerable, and Ne'veah's physical prowess is not to be taken lightly. That left the stranger, Professor Hopkins, and Kennedy. With her emotions on current lockdown, she estimates that Kennedy would be the least effective against her.
The lights flicker for a moment and Gui is gone, though his illusion remains.
"Hopkins, status!" Drake calls out.
"The breach isn't connected to the power grid anymore. That was just a random fluctuation... I think." He leans over Samantha's shoulder to turn on the monitor that she'd surreptitiously turned off.
After the power flicker, Chroknight tries to call out the flaws they perceive in his plan. He tsks with a curt shake of his head.
"Please, you're assuming the worst of me. This timeline is not some backwards culture of regressed simpletons! You've met Shayera, have you not? What's through that breach is another market of sophisticated customers! Buying power! Products unavailable here that we can import, just as we can export goods there!" He grits his teeth in impatience. "You're young. A child, even. I expected the reality to be obvious for one such as yourself, but if basic economics is too much for you, then perhaps you should not speak on things you do not understand."
Finished with the debate, Drake gestures to the breach itself. "Let's address the 'monster' situation. Zero-G, Valence, what can you tell us?" Liam holds his hand out towards the tear which Zero-G just folds his arms and shakes his head.
"The tear's got matter, air molecules, but beyond it -- nothing. I can't sense anything. The air must be from our dimension, or theirs."
"No gravity, either. It's a void," Zero-G says. "It's like... the hole created by a bullet going through ballistic gel. Except... the gel isn't real."
Cortex focuses on the breach. "And there's things in there."
Diving into the breach, Gui feels oppressive cold and a deadness of sensation all around him. Sound, even vibrations, are absent as he crawls desperately forward. Despite the dead silence, he feels an unnerving presence that spike his fear and drives him onward!
Before it becomes too much and true panic sets in, Aquarelle finds himself falling! A rush of moist, warm air hits him a second before he lands on a brick and flagstone surface!
"Human. Not one of those entities," a metallic voice says flatly.
"I recognize him. Aquarelle, right?" he hears Shayera's voice. "One of the good guys, if I recall. Took the lead during the giant space mushroom. Yes, really. Ask him if you don't believe me."
She wasn't fast enough to catch Cortex off guard. With all these people around she couldn't just hit hard enough or wide enough to not care if he was on guard. And he was in her head, knew he had to be in her head; she couldn't even plan.
So she didn't think about everyone she normally tried not to think about, and that left her time to stare at... Liam.
"You tried to make me think you were better than this, that you weren't just a thug who didn't care about who got hurt. Is money really enough? All your power and it's just money?"
"...I am impressed by your lack of restraint, man. This world's market isn't enough for you so you need to conquer the next, trade them Labubus for lithium?" Chroknight flexes the fingers of their gauntlet. "What a sad little man you are. You don't even realize just how small and petty you really are. I really feel sorry for you."
Samantha turns to point out the obvious flaws in this man named Drake's plan, but then pauses, runs all the available models she can find on social economic/temporal mechanics/anthropologic growth "The core metrics support your plan but would require competent oversight and significant biological safeguards, monitored on both sides of the portal, as well as a fully trained containment on hand powerful enough to counter the entities around the tunnel." the brainiac says in her flat tone as she talks about logistics of all things.
In her mind, a spunky voice is urging her to 'Punch Him!' but she is not listening.
Chroknight's insult slides off Drake so completely they might as well have called him a stupid-head. His poise, bearing and sophistication only emphasize their age difference. Her lost years from the de-aging burn in her mind, and her childlike instinct is to flee to the safety of her new peers.
Samantha, similarly, tries to point out the flaws of Drakes plan and unfortunately lays bear the very difficulties he plans to profit from! He gestures at her with the smile of the vindicated. "You get it! Few entities have the resources to set up the oversight and safeguards, as you say. My organization, fortunately, does. And once in place, the service fees and tolls for the transfer of goods and services between timelines would be near limitless.
"For example, Behind the Mask is translated into eighteen different languages and has a global viewership of just under a billion people. According to Shayera's memories, the show does not exist in her timeline. Even a conservative estimate would add five hundred million new viewers to the show! That alone would make this endeavor worthwhile!"
Andromeda's turn of attention to Liam catches him making frequent glances at Xaiara even as he's doing his job of probing the dimensional breach. He gives her an irritated look. "It's not just money! How is this hurting anyone? It makes sense, doesn't it? Keeping the rift between the timelines open so anyone can go through and return?"
Xaiara pushes aside Jessie and Ava who had in the meantime stepped up to comfort her. "We can go back and forth? Really?" She looks between Liam and Andromeda. "We should do that! You could meet Bronwyn! Why don't you want to do that?!?"
|
|
Indarius had remained long silent through the back and forth exchanges as he mulled over this all, it seemed harmless enough, but he knew Drake enough to know there was some ulterior motive. Maybe he was wrong to assume he'd immediately go off exploiting the people in the manner he had thought, but he certainly was going to exploit the populace.
"We have no idea what connecting two timelines would do. Diseases that evolved to different factors, heroes and villains interacting between the rift. The creatures that exist in between these timeways and how they may be or will affect us all. There are too many unknown factors. And for the end goal of this all to be profit? Cultural exchange is one thing but we cannot assume anyone would want that level of intrusion."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There is a low whine on the other side of the mental divide 'Well, I could...' as drawn out as the word could could be 'She believes fundamentally in the word 'Safeguard', security blankets upon security blankets in that word. Even better if it is Chained together with others like safeguards of contingencies of countermeasures.' there is a pause 'There will be consequences, can't have program even one as AMAZING as me to do something like this without Those now can we? But if you think it is necessary... I have two conditions, tell Andy to believe in herself, for honeybunny to take a moment to listen to what is around her, oh, a third, tell Jessie we miss her, even though she won't understand that.' the pause is as short as possible, before there is a quick mock chipper 'oh, well, no time like the present. Good bye, sir magical dragon!'
Click.
Samantha who had been looking at her monitors with a slight frown, trying to discover the flaw in their very sensible plan, when suddenly she looks up, panic on her once calm face. She tilts her head to the side, and that frown becomes a true one, as deep as a canyon.
Green eyes flash toward Indarius, suddenly wet and full of a look that could guilt the dead. Those eyes grow hard, before she turns her attention back to the professor. "I have been in this basement waiting for my algorithms to discover the correct time-stream. A slow process. While I waited I designed countermeasures to potential deviations to the Plan. Intruders was one such deviation." her threads swipe the monitor to show the briefest overview of ONE such countermeasure. Nanobite swarms designed to coat every surface of the sub-basement, dissecting biological matter at the cellular level.
"I did not anticipate each and every person here, so I cannot be certain all would be incapacitated or terminated, but I do know, Professor, you would be in the latter camp. So kindly Step Back Now." there was anger in those last words, soft and low, but in Samantha's terms, they were basically volcanic.
"This is the man who caged you, experimented on you, all to sell you piece by piece." She turns towards Liam, not minding the rush of force that accompanies her sharp movement. "His money is never only money. His plans are never harmless."
She looks more carefully at Xaiara, eyes dropping fast down to her waist. "His plan only makes sense if he controls both sides of the breach. Would your- Would Bronwyn let him do that? What will he do, what will he tell his thugs to do when she says no?"
"...Jesus Christ, I can't believe how much you're investing into unhatched eggs."
Chroknight looks at Drake, trying to not let it show how much being treated like a kid affects them. "I'm going to say this in terms a money-loving idiot like you can understand. This is a bad investment. The technology doesn't exist to make you any money on this. You can't build infrastructure in a space full of timeless monster that will pull it apart. The only reason that portal exists is by virtue of superpowers you don't have access to, so it can't be replicated! You want to sink your fortune into trying to make it work, be my guest."
Chroknight turns to Xaiara. "I'd also like to state that there's no guarantee this breach is permanent either, or that it will always lead to Shayera's world. If you're going to go back, know there's a non-zero chance you'll be wiped from all existence. So maybe tell the people who love you why you need to do it."
Shayera staggers back to her feet after being smashed away from Xaiara by a wave of force tearing into their reality!
Staring at the jagged cut into the fabric of space and time, she can only say one thing.
"What the Hell?!?"
Bronwyn winces at Shayera's profanity she's supposed to be working on that, but the more serious issue is clear. "Shayera, I don't know why you attacked Xaiara, but you put me in an awful position, and I need an explanation."
Shayera rises to her feet, working her shoulder after the brief but intense fight. Her attention is pulled away from the breach by the accusation in Bronwyn's voice.
"Awful position? Bron, I promised I'd get her back to her friends! They were terrified for her!"
Bronwyn's jaw is set, eyes bright. "So it was okay to force her to go where she didn't want to go because you made someone else a promise? Not to even listen when she told you what I'd promised?"
"Bronwyn, I--" Her voice gets caught in her throat. Her eyes tear up and she sways on her feet. "I screwed up. I didn't know what to do. I was lost, missing you, and so selfish, and Whip was there but lost in space and I wanted to wait but I couldn't... I had to come back. It meant making sure she got back to them. I thought she'd want to."
Bronwyn's eyes soften, and she cups Shayera's face in her hand. "I was scared too, but we can't just do the right thing when we're not afraid. And Shayera? You were already home. So, that... Portal is open again, but it doesn't look the same. Or safe. What are we gonna do to help her?"
For a heartbeat Shayera savors Bronwyn's touch, but then pulls back. "You're implying I did the wrong thing. There wasn't time for a debate. So you didn't once try to talk her into going back?" She shakes her head, hating that they were fighting but not willing to totally concede. She brushes the tears from her eyes and turns to look at the breach. "You want to try to go through? I'm not going without you, 'cause if I get stuck again, I don't want... I can't...you know."
Bronwyn meets Shayera's gaze levelly. "I think that you more than most have reasons to have a hard time thinking of Xaiara as another person who gets to make her own choices, no matter what I advised. I love you, but yes, attacking her to force her through the portal was wrong."
She focuses on the new whorls and snarls of the rent in space. "It's much less stable. I wouldn't want us to go in there and not even find her."
She reaches into a pouch at her hip and pulls out a jet black feather, blowing it into the wind where it becomes a large, disgruntled looking raven. "Mabel? Can you take a look?"
Voice thick with emotion that she's struggling to contain, Shayera bites out, "I didn't attack her. I tried to grab her and she went crazy on me. My job was to get her back home. It was like... a misunderstanding."
Bronwyn turns back to look at Shayera, really look. "Oh. Shayera, can you hold still for just a moment?"
Gingerly she places the flat of Gae-Dearg's blade against Shayera's temple, nodding with a sharp intake of breath as the enchantments of her spear react to something within her fiancee's mind.
Shayera huffs, but relents. "I'm sure we'll laugh about it later," she offers with a forced smile while letting the blade touch her skin completely unafraid.
A moment passes as Shayera feels the cool tip of the spear against her cheek. Sudden Clarity dawns upon Shayera, making her aware of the thoughts being imposed on her. Conversations layered with compulsions and suppressions bubble to the surface! She grips the sides of her head and wrenches herself away, her body spinning drunkenly and her wings spasming. She drops to her knees painfully, still clutching her head!
"Let's take a stroll down memory lane. No place like home, huh? I'm Whip's apprentice! Let's explore that! And she's gone... Trying to fill her role, cute. Andromeda's abrasive, is she? Selfish, possessive. They saw you the same as you see her, didn't they? How could I stand someone like that? How could I have said that to her? I need to go home, send Xaiara back, and I can forget about everything. Chalk it up to one big misunderstanding. Hell, we'll laugh about it one day..."
Panting, Shayera looks up. "There was someone in my head," she rasps.
"It's okay, Shayera, I've got you." She holds her close. "Do you know who it was? It sounds like we know what they wanted."
Shayera rubs her forehead. "Not really. Male, middle-aged. I just... dreamt of home. Stuff that I've been through."
"Well, it seems like he wanted you not to trust one of the other students who had been used as a weapon, and he wanted you to deliver Xaiara back to him."
A rather more haggard raven returns from the portal, quorking and quethaning until it has Bronwyn's attention.
"It's still open, thank you, Mabel, but there are monsters in there now." She turns to Shayera, and though her helmet conceals it, her grin is palpable. "Ready?"
Before they can even clasp hands, the breach spits out a figure!
"Human. Not one of those entities," Matrix, who'd been studying the breach nearby, says flatly.
"I recognize him. Aquarelle, right?" Shayera says. "One of the good guys, if I recall. Took the lead during the giant space mushroom. Yes, really. Ask him if you don't believe me." She gives Bronwyn a wink.
Gui lands and rolls on his back, staring at the whole in reality, and craws away from it. "Putain! C'est quoi cette merde?" He turns briefly towards Shayera's voice. "Dere is someting in-between... someting... someting horrible." He finishes with a whisper, for a moment forgetting the very reason he crossed the rift.
"Just great. Are they following you?" Shayera asks.
"Greetings, Aquarelle. Thank you for the warning. How do you propose to get back?" Matrix inquires.
Drake sighs again, his patience being put to the test. "Risk yields rewards, whelp. Go back and hide in your egg. Pretend you're human and be mundane if you fear the unknown."
Professor Hopkins sneers at Samantha's threat, forcing a laugh but sounding uncertain that she's not bluffing. "Threatening lethal force? Are you ready for that, girl?" He looks around briefly and his eyes fall on Jessie and Ava. "That's cold, even for you."
Andromeda's entreaty to Xaiara has her resolve cracking. "I-- I don't know what Bronwyn will say! She might be okay with--" She glances at Drake, frowning.
Chroknight gets her attention before she's able to fully answer Andromeda, turning her back to her intent to go back to the other timeline. "You won't understand. It's just... better there. >sniff< You know someone else went through, right? The boy with the accent?" She points in the direction of Gui.
"What?!?" Ne'veah shouts, overhearing Xaiara. The hybrid grabs the illusion by the arms, causing it to dissipate into nothingness! "No! Why did he--? We gotta go get him!!" She shifts into her large panther form with a reverberating growl.
Drake smiles at the turn of events and addresses Samantha. "Before we strand a large number of our friends on the other side of the breach, why not put your prodigious intellect to the task of keeping it open and holding the creatures at bay? Valence, Zero-G, Cortex? Do what you can as well." He lowers his shades and peers over them at Andromeda. "Your stock is rising, my dear. Would you like to contribute to the effort?"
Samantha's fist balls up as she stares at the professor, as if she is about to slug him hard in his nose, but Xaiara announces Anquarelle absence and Ne'veah confirms it. Her fist shakes as if she wants more than anything to continue with its place, but instead an angry noise growls from Samantha's lips as she turns quickly to hammer away at her terminal, frantically attempting to find Anquarelle on the other side.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Although fairly humanoid in appearance at the moment Indarius gives a very draconic dismissive snort at Drake's suggestion.
"Of course it's easy to ignore the dangers when you'll be safe and sound from them far away on your remote island. Leaving all your lackies to deal with the actual issues at hand."
He looks to Liam and the rest of the Finals, "What's a lost pawn in a game of chess, so long as your bank acccount is green in the end? Is that seriously how you want us to look at this? Capital investment comes with risks, but who gives a s&#+ if that risk is 'lowly human' life?"
Shaking his head he moves to intervene any move towards the portal from Drake, Zero-G, Cortex, or Professor Hopkins. He looks at Ne'veah.
"If you want to go after Aquarelle, bring him back safe. But I trust him to come back on his own, he's stronger than he looks. Trust in him like I do, but don't put your faith in Drake, he just wants to use you and get rid of you when you aren't profitable or worth the expenditure to keep around."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"...this doesn't make sense."
The breach should have had chronowraiths swarming through both sides trying to fix it. Everyone should be screaming and dying. Especially since Guu jumped through. He should be dead - worst, erased from time. But no one had forgotten hum, so he must have gotten through.
The paradox unit from their armor. It must have acted to conceal the breach from chronowraiths during the formation and even now it continued to baffle their senses. But every body that passed through risked bring one chasing after them.
And somehow this was dragging on way too long and she was getting closer to missing the band's time slot.
This was getting nowhere. They couldn't just stand around talking in circles. Someone needed to actually do something. Time to follow Gui's lead.
"...For Christ's sake, let's just get this over with now."
Chroknight kicks Drake as hard as they possibly can in the chest, pushing them towards the breach. "Let's see what you're really investing in and visit your customers, shall we?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Andromeda's entreaty to Xaiara has her resolve cracking. "I-- I don't know what Bronwyn will say! She might be okay with--" She glances at Drake, frowning.
Chroknight gets her attention before she's able to fully answer Andromeda, turning her back to her intent to go back to the other timeline.
Irritation lances through Andromeda's skull as a counter ticks up on her HUD: Moments of real connection interrupted by the tin can.
She was going to have to stabilize things soon, or at least try, again. but Xaiara was going to listen to her, and... Does she really not remember Gui? She knows that I... Doubt seizes her. I had my date with Gui before she was gone; we talked about it. Why doesn't she remember?
"Xaiara, you know the answer. You know what-"
"...For Christ's sake, let's just get this over with now."
Chroknight kicks Drake as hard as they possibly can in the chest, pushing them towards the breach. "Let's see what you're really investing in and visit your customers, shall we?"
The counter ticks up again.
"Since you are all standing here watching dat rift, I teke you can not close it, right?"
On his back, away from everyone's sight but Matrix's, letters appear: You are about to be invaded. We could not stop them. You have little time. They have a powerful mind reader/controller, but I'm assuming he won't be able to read yours. Do you have anything to shield my mind? If so, I might be able to trick them. Lose a battle to win a war.
"I have seen dis telepat, I tink. His neme is Cortex, e mercenary. I have seen he checking on Xaiara and stopping Andromeda as if it was noting," he says, turning to Shayera, "and you know dat is far from an easy ting."
"How far he, if it is de seme person, is manipulating tings, I do not know... like, I am not usually impulsive and I did cross jump trought de rift, so dere is e chance I am not clean."
Realizing he did not answer her completely, he adds. "Xaiara seems fine, but she wants to come back here. Between our realities, it is clear she prefers yours... unless dere is e way to actually turn de rift into e sefe passage." There, hopefully he has weaved the main clues in a way someone smarter than him can pick up at least the main idea of what is going on.
Shayera scowls at the mention of the telepath stopping Andromeda. "Yeah, he's better than good. Picked my brain all about this timeline and made me forget he was doing it. But I'm sure it was all just a big misunderstanding and we'll laugh about it later."
The robotic figure standing behind a bank of technical equipment similar in variety to Samantha's makes a sound like a clearing of a throat. "Shayera, a telepath invading your mind is not a 'misunderstanding.'"
Slapping a hand to her temple, Shayera groans. "Dammit. Brighthop is going to have a field day with this."
"If the telepath wanted information about this timeline, he could have wanted information about the Defenders," Matrix states, eyes flashing. Gui notices the equipment surrounding the automaton is hastily assembled, not surprising since they all were in the middle of what looks like a community park and at night.
"And he wanted me here and Xaiara there," Shayera says bitterly. "What do we do? We gotta get you back, monsters or no. How did you get through? I couldn't budge it and it took Chroknight carrying me and I nearly froze."
"That's because there was Nothing in between," Matrix says.
"Then why couldn't I move through it?"
"Not 'nothing' like a vacuum. 'Nothing' as in no time, space, or existence. The Nothingness between universes," Matrix says.
Shayera puts her fingers to her temple. "Wait, I think I remember this from when I was a genius. It was theory, but enough energy could push us through. Chroknight must have managed because they manipulate time. Which means after that, probably Andromeda punched it so hard she left a hole."
She turns to look at Shayera and her smile is plain to hear in her voice. "Aquarelle says Xaiara wants to come back. You ready to save the day?"
She barely pauses for Shayera's answer before she's back to Gui. "I think we can keep you safe from the monsters in the Nothing, can you help us get the drop on Cortex?"
When Matrix suggests Andromeda punched her way across the timelines, he almost laughs and mumbles. "It fits her pretty well... I fear someday dis will be a 'classic Andromeda move'."
"I would prefer e bit more certainty on your part about keeping me sefe..." He says. "I am not sure how much help can I be against Cortex. As e telepath, he will know what you are planning as soon as he reads one mind." Perhaps he could help, but better to be sure and give empty words that he could spin later to another meaning.