Duodecimarch Revolution (Warhammer x Metroid x Worm x Transformers Multicross Quest)

Samus
[X]: Talk to Arne about the Sylux nightmare.

Arne
[X]: Read up on some of the books


Given that you were supposed to be sleeping, you were all expected to change into Pajamas and shower off to get any grime off. Separate showers at that, and no amount of arguing from yourself or Samus was going to change that. Especially when it was known that you two were involved. Oh well, always other days for that you figured as you let the water run over you. The water was of course, a bit different from what you were used to at the cadet program, your ship, or the facilities made for you at the progenitor bases you frequented. Faint trace metals leeched into the water, infintisemal to most but very noticeable to yourself. Rather than self-applying soaps and the like, you had to manually scrub yourself down.

"Only to be expected forty eight thousand years ago..." You said to yourself as you washed and rinsed out your hair. Unnecessary since the nanites you had crawling on your skin at all times were constantly cleaning it and making sure it stayed the way you liked in tandem with your control over your own biology, but it felt nice and kept your mind busy. You gave some thought to the day you had. What Samus said about the two of you being meant to be here, right now. If you weren't there...would anything on the planet have been able to both stop the Weltreich at Munich and figure out their plan? Especially on the extremely short notice you had to respond to the scheme once it was in motion?

These people weren't ready for war on this scale. K-2L and Cylosis were...you briefly drifted back to the vision of the grey and green soldiers in skull faced helmets sweeping the streets. The bark of their automatic mini-missile launchers and more exotic weapons loud in your ears, massive transophontic frames encased in sinister power armour and their voices garbled by sinister vocoders while they cut everyone down like animals in some ancient slaughterhouse. No emotion, no remorse, some monstrous brute looming near you with the dead glare of their visor, steam curling out of their mouthguard as they shot people next to you, warm blood on your hands and face, just...you were saved yes...but you were delivered to his clutches. The one eyed-glare of the being you called father in spite of his loathing of the very idea of claiming you as his child burning into you, judging you. All the mistakes you made, the hits you took, the shots you could have landed better...his cold, unwelcmoning voice...you breathed. Hard, fast, shaking.

You survived, you got off lighter than Samus did...you weren't privy to as much animalistic savagery as the Pirates inflicted on K-2L, just an unknown army sweeping for all signs of resistance and calmly butchering all life. But what came after...the cold, the pain, the berating...you had to stop yourself from crying. He wasn't here, you no longer had to worry about what he had to say about you. You no longer had to fear his hand striking you. You briefly checked all of your teeth...still there...unbroken...you were fine.

You finished up and looked at yourself in the mirror as you brushed your hair into its usual style. Simple, somewhat long, just a bit unkempt. You looked good, everyone told you that. Even toned skin, red eyes, white hair, and virtually every muscle group's outlines were traced on your skin. Lean and fast, like you were trained to be. You swished some spittle in your mouth, letting the nanites inside clean anything off your teeth before you went to go get dressed.

There were plenty of spare clothes in the base; but you were hardly much of an aesthetic. You settled on some blue and red sleeping clothes, primarily the first with strips and stripes of the latter in a two toned outfit. Cool and breathy, if hardly the match of the smart fabrics you tended to wear in civilian guise; and you were shown a closet where you could change in privacy. The motions were pretty effortless for you, mostly automatic as you slipped on your outfit and changed out of your prior one.

"So what exactly is the point of Pajamas?" You asked Chris through the wall.

"So you can stay decent while sleeping I guess. Come on, just try some earth clothes Arne. It won't kill you." Fair enough point, though you were briefly concerned at the thought that somewhere in this world was clothing that would kill the wearer...sounds like something people should be more con-oh that was another idiom, you're dumb. Alright, here it goes.

It was comfy enough you figured as your outfit teleported back to your ship; not maintained in a zero point format like your zero suit or your armour. At least, not those sets of clothes. Fairly loose on you too, but you decided you were dressed enough to head out, seeing Chris briefly poke his head out, seemingly surprised.

"Uh...how did you get dressed that fa-"

"Superior reflexes." You said as you headed back to Vista's room and took a look around as everyone else filtered inside; Samus already there due to being closer to the room than you were and Vista due to well...this being her room and all...while everyone else dripped back in one by one. Well, except for Tyrius and Raelamiel who just used magic to change instantly which you were quite sure that Lola told you was cheating; a pointed glare coming from you towards Stormchild who just eyed you up and down and smirked before refinding her seat near Tyrius as he started up some movie that wasn't out yet on Earth Bet but was old news on Primal Earth.

You couldn't help your curiosity as it was drawn inexorably towards the books on the shelves like moths to a flame. You didn't handle paper books too often, unnecessary consumed space in a time of space travel. And the inconvenience of having to pick up another book instead of loading up another file in an era where battery life was a complete non-concern and EMP could do little but temporarily inconvenience most machines was hardly worth any nostalgia for the timelost era of holding paper in hand. Yet there was something to it, a bit of history to a tradition that had died among one of your two species long before you were born or your family or even clan had existed.

Your eyes scanned over the titles. DK Eyewitnesses: Protectorate Parahumans, Knights In Spandex: Heroes of the Modern Age, Visual Guide to American Parahumans, Scholastic's Guide to: Strange Monsters. Just a few out of many dozens of books all on various interrelated subjects, neatly organised into the shelves based on subject. She kept books on more personal subjects of interest such as faerie legends, fiction she was reading through, normal animals; particularly horses which she seemed rather fond of; as well as a bunch of stuff on space and physics. It seemed that she was aware that her powers revolved around space manipulation and was trying to gain a deeper understanding of spacetime.

You didn't really need to take a second look to know that the books on physics were hopelessly obsolete to you; you'd already gone through this universe's understanding of physics the second you got here. But the parahuman stuff was more interesting.

You looked back to the group and saw Samus trying out Mario kart with Raelamiel, Chris, and Zach and offered a small smile. "Hey, uh...you're fine if I read through some of these right?" You said as you looked back to her, a nod coming from the green pajama clad girl with a big grin on her face.

"Help yourself!" She said in a friendly voice as you pulled out the guide to strange monsters. You figured it'd be a few hour long read for someone with normal reflexes, but your reaction time let you literally flip through the book as fast as its paper could withstand and quickly scan through every word and picture to give it your complete thought and analysis.

Many of the most fearsome monsters were called "Endbringers" which you thought was a bit overdramatic given that the planet was still standing nearly twenty years after the first one showed up. But they certainly commanded a great deal of fear from the local populace. The first was Behemoth, a being who manipulated energy around itself and stood about fifty meters tall; able to generate energy inside of targets who lacked protection against such defense bypasses to burn them out, create deadly radiation or electricity, and of course had a great deal of simple raw brute force; tunnelling its way through the earth to reach various population centres to try and destroy them. Then was Leviathan, a beast of the sea that stood thirty meters tall at the shoulders and had the power of mass control over water. Incapable of fine-tuned control, such as over the water in people's bodies or finely shaping it into specific shapes, but enough to swamp over small landmasses like Kyushu and Newfoundland; quite fast too, especially in the water, while also constantly generating its own shadow of more water. Then there was the Simurgh, or Ziz to some who preferred to keep the biblical beasts theme. At fifteen meters tall, her form of an enrapturing nude woman surrounded by wings was the smallest of her kind, but her telekinesis and ability to replicate technology and induce madness to cause further catastrophes made her perhaps the most feared due to her unpredictability, all paired with her ability to perceive past and future but not present.

They were the first, perhaps the most feared and iconic. Behemoth was the brute of all brute and the proverbial immovable object, Leviathan a lightning-fast bruiser who tore through defences with far more speed and cleverness than something of its size should be able to, and...you were going to call her "Ziz" just to keep the theme; a cunning mastermind with ever-changing capabilities and a mastery of technology. Consulting with your scanner in zero point mode...no it didn't seem like Ziz had any understanding of magic. That seemed to be overall, a blindspot in these shards. They may be extradimensional; but they were still beings of the material and physical, not the spiritual and esoteric. Which gave you interesting theories about the proper nature of these beings.

But on the endbringers were capable of great feats of regeneration, and the deeper one bored into their bodies the more durable they became. Few attacks had managed to cut all the way through, until Laserbolt sliced one of Behemoth's arms off in Northern Brazil which seemed to make Behemoth lose any stomach for the continued fight and withdrew, especially as something about her energy was interfering in Behemoth's regeneration. It resulted in the Endbringers avoiding any area she was likely to visit afterwards rather pointedly, and from the list of capes that facility had conducted its incarnate experiments on, you noticed that the Endbringers tended to try and pull away as soon as one of them showed up and that they seemed to be outright invisible to Ziz. The sample size wasn't that big but...hrm.

More Endbringers had been created since then. but most too recent for this edition of the book to keep track of in the same degree of detail about the rise of a time manipulator, a shard power mimicker, and a terrain absorber and shifter. Of course, the book raised the question as to whether Laserbolt was a monster in and of her own right as she ruled her fiefdom mostly like a petty tyrant, and it speculated that her victory perhaps came less through raw power and more some capacity to interfere in the Endbringer's increasing internal durability and their regenerative powers that made them increasingly weak to her attacks until she could dice off an arm with her beams.

Fascinating stuff really. It did give you ideas though...some sort of enervation weapon would be ideal for enemies that need to be softened up before they can be properly beat down. Ah, your clan for something to sketch out your ideas on; you thought as you scratched at your nose before taking another book. This one on the theory of parahuman powers, quick highlights were that most powers had some more limited effects on living beings or the possessions of living beings, potentially to stop them from harming the user as theorised by the now dead Professor Manton. There were some exceptions, usually among "double triggers" who had some sort of limiter removed in the process. But this wasn't a hard and fast rule. As far as you can tell though, most of the theories they had made were decent enough guesses with the tools they had but...not quite on the mark.

"Well...extradimensional symbiont would be pretty far-fetched." You said to yourself before scanning through another text. A computer would not have been able to process the information you were absorbing as quickly as you were; the pages flying by in a blur to outside observers as you moved through the words limited only by the material limits of the strength of the books. The DK Eyewitness book was mostly fluff, entry level stuff to get kids excited about a topic with large pictures and diagrams and the sort of vocabulary a younger school student could grasp. Even the briefest glance told you they were skimming over all manner of moral quandries and complexities in favour of simpler narratives. Strongly in favour of heroes who worked closely with law enforcement and more condemning for vigilantes or militias.

"Not sure what else I expected..." You muttered, taking another second to check on Samus who seemed laser-focused on her game. Hrm, competitive as usual but she was about to win...enough time to go through one last book before she called for your attention.

Putting the book exactly back where you found it, you started on another text, your fourth in a minute. Not terribly interesting, again mostly just fluff about the fineries of how costumes are put together, a dozen more were consumed similarly quickly over the course of a few minutes but right on cue; someone's destiny had intertwined with yours through interaction just as you had seen coming. Yep, there she was.



Your experience with Earth cleansing rituals was rather smooth. The water was a bit foul, but you held your tongue since it was being freely given. The chief annoyance though was that the water was never quite the right temperature you wanted. Something that annoyed that fiddly part of your brain that craved certain sensations and perfection. This almost made you not want to try this out again, especially if you were supposed to do this completely on your own. Someone to help reach all the spots on your back and your enormously long blonde hair at its full length would have been hugely appreciated. But being alone did give you time to think.

You had just joined a bunch of giant robotic life forms who have been busy fighting a civil war since the middle-triassic with seemingly no end in sight that has lead to the complete fracturing of their society and the destruction of its golden age and the onset of a long slide towards decline and technological stagnation. They seemed nice, pure of heart, noble of purpose, and most of their agents here seemed to be hugely dedicated to the cause of protecting life from beings they were not ready to face themselves. But so far you had seen nothing of their enemies; not the Decepticons of Megatron nor the Imperioids of Imperator Nova. You suspected that'd change sooner than later.

But these people...Primal Earth, Earth Bet...this planet had a wormhole junction built by the Space Pirates situated over it. The mysterious army that devastated Cylosis were fighting with the Confederates in a gruesome skirmish. Fleets with dozens of capital ships and hundreds of screens, millions of soldiers. An infintisemal fraction of what either could do. Fighting through them was hard, it tested you and your relatively middling loadout, and while the...monsters didn't recognise you, they recognised what you wore. They knew you were one of the inheritors.

Though they were of a different Armada than the Inferno Pack whose lead fleet scoured K-2L; they were hardly any less vicious or savage. Gruesome, horrible cannibals who gladly smothered themselves in bloody feasts. No quarter given or taken, any attempt at mercy being met with the fatal wrath of their superiors. You still could see one of the brutes; more than twice as tall as you, pushing themselves through the arm blade you had shoved into their heart to try and bite you. The berserk lust for violence overpowering even the failure of their biology; even burnt from the inside out with electricity and power fields; they were still trying to kill you.

You faltered then, took hits you didn't need to; broke the tempo of your movement as you realised that this space pirate who had never met you in their life was still clawing at you like a hateful, rabid beast. You faltered until...you succumbed to your own hatred. You hated them, you hated their barbarism, their monstrous love of cruelty and their scorn for all things weak. At least the raiders were cold and professional, these beasts, these Pirates; those of them who believed in their cause were just monsters.

They killed for fun and a chance to pick on something weaker than them and they didn't feel the slightest remorse. They tore apart people who couldn't fight back for their diseased amusement, filled their bellies with the flesh of their foes, slaughtered their own weak like flies and they laughed about it. You hate them! HOW CAN THEY ACCEPT SUCH CRUELTY WHEN LIFE IS SO PRECIOUS?! WHY DO THEY ENJOY THE WORST THINGS IN LIFE, DON'T THEY HAVE FAMILIES, LOVED ONES?! HOW CAN THEY LAUGH ABOUT TAKING THOSE THINGS AWAY!?! WHY K-2L?! WHY BILLIONS OF FRENZIED BERSERKERS AGAINST THOUSANDS OF TIMES FEWER MINERS?!! WHY! WHY CAN'T THEY GO AWAY?!! YOU HATE THEM! HATEHATEHATEHATEHATEHATE

You realized you crushed the bar of soap you were using in your hands faster than it could have slipped out of it.

...That's not getting put back together.

You felt embarrassed, anger had once again overtaken your thought process. You had to think rationally. You were alive because one Space Pirate militia trooper couldn't bring themselves to kill you on K-2L. Because they took pity on you, pointed you to a safe passage, and lied to their superiors about what they had seen. Many of the pirates were just too scared of their superiors to act better, especially with the...you remembered a surrendering Pirate's upper body detonating before they could tell you who sent them or why they were here...

Viscera from something pleading for its life all over your shielding; scalded away the next instant.

Monsters even to their own.

You hadn't really changed since arriving here after a look in the mirror. You were intensely defined and toned. Skin completely even, your face girlish and heart shaped, blonde hair spilling to your hips. You figured yourself well proportioned, and with a few brushes, your hair was all nice and proper. An aura of gold. You covered yourself in cyan and orange pajamas with eagles printed upon them, a noble bird whose visage you were only happy to have decorating the outfit you wore. You smiled at yourself, and decided to make good on the time you spent showering.

You beat everyone besides vista to the room, your changing room being rather closer to her bedroom than everyone else. Well, except for Tyrius and Raelamiel who just magicked their way into fresh pajamas, Raelmaiel in a t-shirt and breathy shorts with her hair down and Tyrius in...the same except red and gold instead of blue and white.

"Yo, Sammy, you ever hear of Mario kart?" Raela asked.

You definitely had not.

"No, but based on the name...it would be a game about racing yes?" You said as you eased yourself into a spot close to her as she offered you two spare controllers. Hrm, they definitely felt natural in your hands, though you should be careful with them; you'd shatter them with a squeeze.

"Deffo, got everyone unlocked and all the DLC. Just gonna wait for some scrubs to show up." She said as you scanned around the menu for a bit before settling on the blonde in the blue outfit. Chris and Zach joining in shortly afterwards.

The controls were pretty quick to grasp, nothing struck you as particularly odd about them. But you set yourself the goal of winning. After all, if you were going to be here...you may as well master it. Now this was something of a challenge, you might have superior reflexes and precognition, but you were against someone who knew the ins and outs of the game better than you did. Still, precognition and knowing which were the right and wrong ways to do something were powerful tools.

It even let you dodge the dreaded blue shell reliably, something that raised an eyebrow from Raelamiel for managing on your first try.

But after Arne had entered and found himself a spot on a beanbag chair, you couldn't help but feel the need to speak to him about something you felt from him as soon as you landed here. His dreams were troubling him as of late, more than usual, and he was so afraid to speak to them amongst people he knew; though you knew that he had confided in them to Elmorni and Spire. You weren't going to be left out of that, but you needed to observe tact when approaching him. He could very well shut himself down. But he was someone special to you, and you had an oath to help those in need who couldn't help themselves.


You walk towards him, handing the controllers to Vista who wanted to have a turn and sitting yourself next to Arne on the bean bag chair as you looked at him, gently lowering the book in his hands with a touch from your fingers and looking straight into his eyes. He seemed to be bright, enjoying himself, though still looking around the room's other inhabitants as if any of them might turn on him if he makes the wrong move. Paranoia always eating away at him.

"Arne, we need to talk." You said, briefly noticing the attentions of Tyrius who looked over with a flash of concern on his face before turning back to the Kaiju movie about Pyrantis.

"About what?" He said, pretending to not know exactly what you wanted to talk to him about, perhaps hoping he could avoid his everlasting fear of being a burden for you.

"Arne, you've been having persistent nightmares. The same figure haunting your farsight and your worst dreams. Who is he?" You said, pointedly using the pronoun. You knew that the figure was male at the very least, based on words that slipped from Spire's craggy mouth in a few conversations with the Freelancer.

"Just a figment, nothing to worry about. I'll be fine..." Arne said, but you shook your head.

"You're not fine, Arne. Something has you afraid for the future."

"It's...it's not something you should worry about. I need to be able to handle it. Pl-" You placed a finger on his lips to hush him briefly before pulling it back and nodding at him to let him try again. "I'm just...afraid you won't understand. Because you worry so much and I don't want you to worry about me too. You already have so much on your shoulders...it wouldn't be fair for me to ask you to add my problems onto that. Just...I'll handle it, I can, I must..." He said, trying to do his best to say that without hitching, failing occasionally but putting on a brave show of it.

But you could intuit what he was saying. You almost hesitated to speak, afraid of making him back away, shelter himself in his armour of reclusion. But you didn't have to be the first to take a crack at his fortress gates.

"It's a vision of your future self, isn't it?" Tyrius said, turning from his movie as the flaming giant mantid in the film swatted at some manner of elephantine walrus monster that breathed frost.

Arne seemed to go cold as he looked at the Fae with almost disbelieving eyes. You were also caught somewhat off-guard, having not studied his pathways in destiny too deeply. Rookie mistake, but then you were by Chozo standards essentially an infant fresh from the egg.

"When you deal with gods, faeries, and the well of furies as often as I have; prophecies are something of an old hat. Especially divination." He said, turning fully away from the film for a bit and looking at Arne as you held onto his hand.

"But Samus, you're not going to get him to admit it by cornering him. You two clearly care for each other but you still need to work on communication." He said with an easy smile and an encouraging hand gesture.

"So when did you become a marriage counsellor?" Lola asked, turning towards him as he shrugged.

"One of my parents was a Nymph, its a bit inherent to me." He said, relaxing a bit.

"Well, what about what you see is troubling you to the degree it does?" You decide to ask, gently this time rather than trying to dig your way in. Arne tensed slightly, but relented.

"I see a tall figure in a suit of two tones of blue with blade like pauldrons, armour sectioned by green lines, a helmet with few features and no eyes but divided in half by a single green line down the middle. He fights a lonely war against the Federation, against the army that took Cylosis, even fighting you sometimes..." Arne admitted, noting that everyone was now starting to look towards you at least on occasion.

"Fighting me? How." You leaned into him, you tried to lower your guard to not give him the impression you'd be mad or reject him for it. You knew that your anger was something terrifying and frightening, and that he was ultimately somewhat meekish and fearful of confrontation. But you let your hand assure him that he was safe among friends. And perhaps to assure yourself that you were more than simply a warrior without peer, but someone who could care and nurture too.

"I don't know. But the road that leads there is full of pain, grief, and heartbreak. And a project called...Sylux. On a world I know but cannot perceive, by someone I trust but cannot foresee. Then I wear the eyeless crown and take the mantle of Sylux and our paths separate for years...maybe even forever." He said with soldierly monotone, just trying to push through a briefing with as little emotion as he could manage, to combat his fear of revelation and his terror of disapproval.

You felt briefly mad at him, hiding something like this from you. The possibility of breakup, throwing the inheritor prophecy into deep risk of subversion or delay, trading blows and even attacking the Federation directly? Telling Spire but not you? Why was he so afraid of just telling the truth? Did his father really leave him that afraid of speaking openly about his feelings to...yes...he did, you realised. He had seen your rage, and how it made his cold fury seem paltry in comparison. He was wrong to keep this hidden from you...but you were scarier than you admitted. Especially when he already had such a small circle of friends he hadn't built in a workshop specifically to be his friends.

"Arne. I..." No, there you go again, making it about you.

"We aren't going to let that happen. We decided to fill the inheritor prophecy. And we'll try to find out what leads down this road, I promise. We aren't going to fail." You said, brushing some of his white hair out of his face and staring into his eyes for a moment. He wasn't the best with words, but he did respond all the same with a lingering kiss that seemed to last an eternity.

Warmth, togetherness, knowing that you two would face armageddon as one surrounded by friends old and new. A moment in time that stretched far beyond its duration. His body soft and smooth beneath his shell, just as yours was full of warmth and passion. The road was dark, but you would shine a light down that path, and he would be there to not simply assist, but to shine his own radiance down the oncoming shadow engulfing the paths of destiny.

You should probably write that down in a poem somewhere, maybe even show him some when you felt a little less embarrassed by them.

The activities lasted well into the night, though eventually it was decided to have a short sleep. At least just to pass the time until morning. You snuggled into a sleeping back and flopped close by to Arne while Raelamiel simply draped herself over Tyrius and started snoozing like someone had hit an offswitch. Vista stayed in her bed and put some covers and earmuffs over her eyes and ears. Chris tiptoed out, mind still burning with ideas, Zach dozed off in the corner, and Lola rolled over in her sleep onto her side.

For once, your dreams were pleasant and...normal.

Having strange new alien friends over for tea. Random nonsense like that.

When you next awoke. The day was rather normal. Arne was still sleeping, seemingly intent on catching up to a rare chance to take time off without being beset by nightmares or prophetic dreams. You couldn't blame him, you yourself were of much the same mood. You even slept a whole eight hours.

You decided to take a quick look at the situation monitor via your ship, reaching through your armour's zero-point form to get a quick readout.

Most things weren't all that unusual. The weather was clearing up at least and the snow was finally being cleared out so much of the city was coming back online; especially as trade with Paragon City was starting to flow.

However, it seemed that there was some trouble leaking in from Paragon. The Clockwork, golems made of random junk given power and animus by the incredibly powerful Psion known as the Clockwork King; had pushed through some portals opened by the power of the Cyborg's mind. Spontaneously animating junk in the rough shape of mechanical men with powers of electricity and psionic attack and unnatural resilience and strength were mostly engaging in random vandalism and metal theft; making a mess in the junkyard chiefly. Nobody had been killed so far, but they seemed to have driven some of the local gangs out of their territory out of an understandable reluctance to fight scrap-metal people who could shoot lightning.

One of the local religious groups was also accused of the abduction of a missing person; the fifth this week for the group. Yet every time the police investigate they always report nothing is suspicious and everything is fine no matter what their opinions were beforehand. Which in and of itself, is suspicious.

Paragon was reporting a number of strange break ins stealing items of mystic power as well as some new villain who could turn into a dragon making a ruckus with the Hmong dominated mysticist gang known as the Tsoo; seeking to absorb them.

A new cape known as "Black Moth" had also made a name for herself by driving out the Empire-88's presence near one of the suburban malls, bashing multiple highly feared villains on her own and demonstrating powers you identified as Nictus.

Bumblebee had found a possible lead on the computer virus worming its way through the computer systems of many earths and was tracking what he felt was likely to be an alien presence, but as of yet had yet to establish any concrete leads as well as some newfound beings he identified as non-native to the universe; fast and deadly.

And also back in Paragon, the Phalanx had offered an extension of a chance to do a patrol with them and investigate some spooky mystical secrets in the buried city of Oranbega, where the Demons and Ghosts of that lost civilisation were growing particularly restless in the face of a new apparent rival to the presence of the Prince of All Demons.

Of course, all of these were pretty low priority. The phalanx's offer was a general one given to the whole of the protectorate and the autobots, Bumblebee just sent a general autobot message, all the other things could be dealt with by the local authorities while you got a chance to explore around or get to know some friends better.

Options:

[]: Mop up the Clockwork and whatever else might be leaking from the Primal Earth portals the Clockwork King is making
[]: Investigate that cult.
[]: Go to Paragon and see what the Tsoo are so busy with
[]: See who this Black Moth is.
[]: Join up with Bumblebee's investigation
[]: Head to Oranbega in Primal Earth and see what might be having Demons show worry.
[]: Have a more relaxing day, check out what normal children do outdoors in this era.
[]: Have a deeper tour of the base to get a better understanding of some of your allies.

[X]: Investigate that cult.

Samus

The Clockwork could be handled by the local heroes for the most part. The Clockwork King was more of a nuisance than a deadly threat in most cases that you knew. Though you took a moment to look at what was known of him. He used to be a scrawny teenage mutant with a tremendous psychic presence that he was able to use to among other things; breathe life into metallic constructs. Born in the late nineteen eighties and coming into his powers on puberty, he started assembling the Clockwork army; having his newfound friends and minions go out and scavenge for more metal with which to create more of themselves. A nerd playing out a fantasy of being a king with a court of followers. The law enforcement eventually tried to stop the clockwork from its nuisance raids and eventually, one officer was killed when a Clockwork that didn't seem to understand human fragility broke his neck in a grapple.

The resulting manhunt lead to Blue Steel; a superpowered police officer; to eventually track down the young king to his hideout where he was animating more clockwork and in a fight that killed three more officers and set the building on fire; grabbed and beat the boy to seeming death before leaving his body in the burning building out of disgust for losing control. Apparently the Clockwork saved his brain, implanting it into a clockwork body, but his sanity crumbled after losing his flesh; retreating entirely into his fantasy world. He latched onto Penelope yin, essentially adopting her as his daughter after being drawn by her psychic power, and when the Rikti tried to kidnap her to use her as a psychic battery and she called for his help, he unlocked more of his power and created far more powerful clockwork able to go toe to toe with max-security level threats to save his princess; forming an army spontaneously around the Rikti base and taking on both the Rikti and eight max-level capes also sent to save a teenage Penelope. All at the cost of much of his remaining lucidity.

You felt saddened, almost outraged on his behalf. Someone who had so much potential reduced to what Paragonites now mostly just saw as a deranged monster while to what you could see; Blue Steel remained completely free. Even still holding his job. Penelope was in large part, responsible for ensuring nobody tries to outright kill the King, instead hoping to placate him by letting him linger in junkyards and play around in his own fantasy world, speaking to intelligences born entirely of his own. It was sad, and you for a moment wondered; could he still be turned to good?

Nevertheless, it didn't seem like something that needed your help. The King himself had not made his appearance and the scrap legions were mostly considered annoying by the Bay.

The Tsoo were a gang famous for a few things; their heavy usage of magic, their ability to punch at virtually all weight categories of criminal activity, their consumption of the Triads in New England, and their no-nonsense attitude. Founded by the Hmong expatriate Tub Ci who fled from the Indochina wars, they would come to overcome the larger and more traditional Asian gangs through the usage of Magic tattoo ink that could grant incredible power to their recipients; as well as a collection of tomes on magic that Tub Ci had to give his associates a superpowered boost. They even had incarnate grade ink to give their most elite incredible power that they used in the Astoria district of Paragon City to fight the forces of the Death God Mot for years until the situation in Astoria was finally dealt with and Mot banished for good; though it seems most of that incarnate ink was lost in that fight. It seemed that the Dragon Man was set on usurping the Tsoo and claiming their ink for himself; drawn by the power vacuum that has existed in the gang since Tub Ci submitted himself to arrest following the events of Astoria.

The thefts were likely all being done at the behest of the Tsoo from the rival magic using gang known as the Warriors, but this also seemed like a street-level incident that didn't exactly need your help.

Black Moth seemed to be a very recent new vigilante, having only started being seen since yesterday. She operated largely alone, and was still learning how to manage her abilities as a warshade. While interesting, you didn't exactly want for friends right now, you thought as you chewed on a pinky nail slightly.

Normally spelunking into the haunted ruins of long buried civilisations was straight up your alley and everything you learned about Oranbega; its ancient war with Mu over devotion to antedeluvian gods, its early forrays into magic, its pact with a Great King amongst Demons to turn the tide of the war and damnation by refusing to slaughter the non-combatants of Mu that lead to them being reduced to ghosts until they honoured their pact by slaying all Mu descendants and its rediscovery by the esoteric society of the Circle of Thorns and alliance with Baron Zoriah's cult all were very interesting. One of the most feared villainous organisations on Primal Earth due to their mastery of magic, legions of demons, ability to simply swap bodies as one gets worn out or captured, and the often mind-bending architecture of the buried city all made them a terror to behold. And they were afraid of something, rivals poking into their domain that they hoped to contain. And a magical war brewing beneath the largest city in America that Positron hoped to contain...ah but you were still so new to magic...

Bumblebee was tracking some definitely extraversal beings. Four warriors with fleshmetal suits that they seemed to be remote controlling through some manner of extradimensional energy that they could channel through these frames engineered for battle. Hunting for a number of strangely designed robots capable of rapidly adapting to damage dealt to them unless struck with a purer format of this extradimensional energy; usually by some projection of the suit controllers teleporting into the fray; small and child like; and striking these bizarre-looking machines. So far they were largely keeping out of sight, but it seemed that the robots were onto some possible repository of infected mainframes for the worlds spanning computer virus, clustering around it as if trying to comprehend it until the four warriors drove them off and pursued them in a relentless chase. Bumblebee was also hoping to scout out these mainframes, noting that many of the occupants didn't seem to react to the brief, high-velocity brawl near them as humans should.

Continuing your break was out of the question. You needed something to do for now, keeping a bit busy. But the Cult...that caught your eye. How did they spread so fast? Why did they command such loyalty? And how was it that all members displayed such similar behaviour?

You quickly scoured the internet for anything you could about the so called Cult of the Star Traveller this fine 14th of January. It was a Friday morning, roughly eight-thirty. Their internet presence was surprisingly quite clean. Even their discussion boards seemed largely innocent. Even the private and out of the way ones that you sliced into were utterly devoid of anything suspicious. Which was...in and of itself, suspicious. Too coordinated. You checked some of their published religious writings on the site.


This is uhh...hrm. It seems nice but every part of your distant sight is screaming out loud about the warning signs here. Something vast, something old, something hungry poking a few cells into the skeins of some worlds to make ready for its arrival.

You knew it wasn't good, and you quickly tugged at Arne, making his red eyes blearily part their lids as he sat himself up and murmured, yawning a bit and getting a similar reaction out of yourself.

"Arne, there's something I need to show you." You said, showing him the evidence you'd gathered as the "I just got up" feeling quickly disappeared from his eyes which snapped to attention and concern as soon as he looked at the message and felt the presence it had in the causeways of destiny.

"We should get some allies and head in as soon as we've got a good plan. Come on." You said to him as he unzipped the sleeping bag more completely and extended his legs while you hugged your own knees to your chest.

"If they're infiltrators, how can we be sure they don't already have agents here?" He said, drawing his lips into a fine line as you gave it a thought.

"We could scan people, make sure there's no obvious signs of alteration." You said, though admittedly..."Though we can't really be sure what we're looking for at the moment." You said with a sigh as you tried to give it a think. "Well...just looking for any sort of anomaly that we don't already know might work perhaps?" You suggested.

"Orrr..." You gave it a thought. "We could ask the autobots for information?" You said as he tapped at his lips and gave it a thought.

"Both would work. Give me a second." Arne said as he used his armour's zero point form to quickly wire a connection to the Autobot Teletran A.I to get all relevant datalogs he could. But the number of possible matches was quite simply ridiculous. Lots of organisms the Autobots knew fit the pattern presented here. Some from your reality even such as the Socioraptors of the Klarisian Galaxy or the Sinistra of the Ylakrin Swarm. But there was a file specifically on this Ecumene.


After he relayed the information to you, he quickly stood himself up and manifested his zero suit over his body, followed by you repeating the gesture yourself; orange and blue light filling the room while Tyrius and Raelamiel stumbled into wakingness, rolling off to the side and letting out a blurt as limbs crashed into each other while Lola rubbed at her eyes and pushed herself onto her feet.

"Huh...wuz goin' on?" She said as you quickly cracked your knuckles.

"We've found some possible trouble with the Church of the Star Travellers. We're going to head to their primary compound in the city and find out where a person last seen with them went." You said, using the sigil on the back of your zero suit hand to project the image of the missing person; Emma Barnes. Though why they'd want her was beyond you.

"Itz...snowday...I'm gonna...go back to be-...wait...that Sophia's friend?" Lola said, gradually coming to her senses as her eyes slowly snapped open and she let out a whistling sound through her teeth that startled Cerebro awake.

"GAH WHAT WHY!?" He said, shaking his head quickly and looking around.

"Yo, Sophia's bestie is in deep shit." She said as Zach frowned.

"...Who cares?" He said as he fixed his glasses back onto his face.

"Come on, you really want to deal with her if we don't do something about it?" She said with a sigh.

"Point taken."

"Come on, meet us at the cafeteria and we'll discuss what to do." Zach said as he dusted himself off while Arne looked back at you.

"This is going to take too long, we should enter the mission area ASAP. Send out a call if you want to, but the longer we wait, the longer Emma is at risk." Arne said with a sigh.

"Okay...anime boy." Zach started with a harrumph and a serious look.

"My name is Arne Eriksen Skjoldr. Not "anime boy"." He hissed.

"I know; you can't just break into a religious facility without a warrant. We could get reprimanded if you go charging in." He said before Raelamiel raised her FBSA card.

"This baby here lets me investigate on reasonable suspicion even in other universes." She said proudly as she dolphined herself onto her feet with a brief slap while putting her sunglasses back onto her face at the same time in a gesture that struck y ou as trying entirely too hard.

"...What the fuck is with your legal system?" Zach said in bewildered disbelief.

"Honestly like, you two ain't with the legal system. You can just go with whatever. Whatever those cultists do messes with people's heads man. I dunno if I'd feel safe calling randos to my side to deal with 'em." Stormchild said,s shaking her head while Vista pulled her earmuffs and blinds off and yawned, taking a second to check around and sleepily wave.

It was once again, up to you


[]: Go to the site entirely by yourself (just you and Arne, any backup that you get would be incidental and discovered)
[]: Go through the proper legal channels to rush a warrant (Allows you to call in Wards, Protectorate, and PRT help plus autobots, vigilantes, or paragonites)
[]: Go to the site but send out a call for help (Allows you to call in vigilantes, autobots, and paragonites)
[]: Inform the Autobots and Starsetters that you'll be heading there (Just autobots and paragonites will be available as possible team options)
[]: Inform only the Autobots (Only autobots will be available as starting allies)
[]: Write in