Chapter 21: Title Drop
It was something that really, really shouldn't exist. That was all Aaron could think as he looked out the window at the mass of writhing flesh, mouths, and tentacles as it reached for their skimmer. His adrenaline reaction had his heart pounding in his chest like he was running for his life, and doing just that would have been his first instinct if he hadn't been strapped into a seat on the bridge of the spacecraft. Never before in his life had he so desperately wanted to be somewhere else.
His vision was obscured momentarily as Penny's father raced past him and jumped into the pilot's seat. The man slammed his hand down onto a console button, and the craft's engines started almost immediately while a blaring klaxon began sounding through the craft. The teen felt the craft lurch up, and then he watched as the thing outside got closer much too quickly. It had almost reached them, tentacles waving hungrily, when the skimmer finally began to pick up some speed and launch into the sky. The creature let out a bellow from more than one mouth, and the unnatural sound of it made Aaron's bones hurt.
As the craft gained altitude, he sat quietly, listening to his breathing as his storm of emotions began to calm. He could also hear Penny breathing next to him. He felt the ship transition through a wormhole, and suddenly the air in the cabin just seemed to be much lighter and more wholesome to breath. The sound of a door sliding open drew his attention, and he saw his sister come into the bridge with an older boy, somebody he vaguely recognized. Tom...something? Aaron saw Sophia's eyes widen in surprise at seeing him here, and then the young man with her said, "That's quite an impressive shield you've got there."
Confused, Aaron looked down at his body. There was a faint, blue shimmering field covering his torso, and his legs, and his arms. It also extended to where he and Penny were holding hands (and when had that happened?) and was covering her as well. She still seemed to be staring at nothing slightly manically and may not have even noticed the shield, yet.
Sophia mixed a glare with a raised eyebrow and asked, "What did you do, Aaron?"
"I..." He wasn't sure how to respond. "I don't know." He tried to let go of Penny's hand, and found that he couldn't. She was still holding on tight, and even moving his fingers proved surprisingly difficult.
"He cast a protective shield over the both of them, probably when he saw the shoggoth for the first time," said Tom with a small smirk. "It must have been an instinctive reaction. It looks quite strong. I didn't know your brother was a wizard."
"Neither did I," said his sister in a slightly worried tone of voice. She had a strange look on her face.
"Um, you wouldn't happen to know how to..." began Aaron before pausing. "Do you know how to turn it off?"
"I would like to know that as well," said the deeper voice of Penny's father. The man had turned his seat around and was now looking at Aaron with a mix of suspicion and annoyance.
Aaron swallowed nervously, and the glow of his shield increased slightly.
Fighting a grin, Tom looked over at Flint Marko and said, "It should end naturally once he no longer feels threatened...by anything."
Marko's frown just deepened. At that, Tom couldn't help himself and started to laugh out loud, letting his own tension escape.
Earlier...
Aaron could feel that he almost had it. It was slippery and evasive. He was reminded of the time he and Sophia had tried to catch frogs by the lake on their one family camping trip, though his magic felt warm and soft instead of cold and slimy. He could feel his frustration growing, and he knew from repeated previous attempts that giving in to it would mean failure. He had been trying to feel his own magic for days now, without success.
Penny was sitting on her bed, quietly watching him. They were in her bedroom, because it was surprisingly hard to find a quiet space to practice magic on the ship. He couldn't practice at home, as his mother still didn't know what he was doing and hadn't given her approval. His friend had offered the use of her room, and he had accepted despite his nervousness about being invited into a girl's bedroom -- a girl who he was starting to think might possibly be his girlfriend if he didn't do anything stupid. Penny had been rather straight-forward about the whole thing, however, and had made it clear that her only intent with the invitation was to help him practice sensing his magic. Once he was inside and seated on the floor, he had quickly become comfortable and started his exercises. They were going better, but something was still missing.
He almost didn't notice it at first, but the noise started with a quiet humming. Then he heard Penny's voice start singing a song. The words were hard to hear, but the melody was soothing. Instead of being distracting, it seemed to calm him even further. His magic seemed to pulse in time with the lyrics. He refocused his attention on the pulse, and reached out his consciousness toward it. He felt the edge of his mind brush the surface of his own magic, and a pulse of power shot through his body, making him shiver. He made to grab it...and opened his eyes in shock, the moment lost, as the door to Penny's bedroom opened.
"What is going on in here?" asked a deep, masculine voice. A man was standing in the doorway. He looked big and powerful, and he was glaring directly at Aaron.
Penny groaned. "Dad! You ruined it."
Her father narrowed his eyes. "WHAT did I ruin, exactly?"
She glared back at him. "He almost sensed his inner magic. He's been trying for days, now."
This explanation seemed to only make the man angrier. "What kind of bullshit story did he spin to get you alone in your room?"
"Argh!" she said in frustration. "Look at this!" To Aaron's stunned shock, she threw the magic book at her father. He caught it fairly easily and looked at the cover. Then he started flipping through the pages.
"Is this stuff real?" he asked slightly grudgingly.
With a flat tone, she replied, "You're an Angel. You work with the Family. You tell me. Is magic real?"
He frowned, which was a slight improvement over glaring. "If you're actually studying, then why are you shut in your room with the door closed?" His eyes went back to Aaron, adding an obvious silent addition to his question. Why are you in here alone with a teen-aged boy?
"Dad, this is Aaron. He's trying to learn magic, but his mother is uncomfortable with it. She grew up Baptist and was taught that witchcraft is all the devil's work. Because of it, he's got a mental block, and I'm trying to help him," she explained.
"Still not hearing a reason," he said to her. "Why can't you get a room at the library?"
Nervously, Aaron spoke up. "It didn't work, sir." His voice was quiet, but Penny's father shifted his full attention to the teen boy. "There are still too many people around."
"Sammy?" called out Penny before her father could apply.
A voice came out of the ceiling. "Yes, Ms. Marko?"
"What would you do if a girl my age tried to get intimate with a boy in her room?" she asked. Aaron's eyes widened until he thought his eyeballs would roll out onto the floor. Was she trying to get him killed?
"I would interrupt and alert a responsible adult, unless explicitly instructed otherwise by a parent or guardian," answered the AI matter-of-factually. "When you and Mr. Hess are both over the age of sixteen and officially dating, the monitoring systems will be more lenient, but those conditions do not yet apply."
Aaron was torn between worrying about Penny's father's reaction and the degree to which the ship's hyper-intelligent AI seemed to be predicting his future love life (and how Penny might react).
Her father now appeared to be glaring at the ceiling. "You're not helping, Sammy."
"You don't need to act like an over-protective father. Sammy is aware of everything on board, and you taught me how to defend myself from pushy men!" Her tone toward her dad was a mix of affectionate and exasperated.
"I wouldn't!" stammered Aaron. "I mean, be pushy." He fell silent when her father looked over at him again.
"Boys your age are always pushy," he said with a hard tone. Then he looked back to Penny. "It's also not just him I worry about."
Now Penny looked seriously annoyed. "You head off on missions all the time, Dad. I've been on my own a lot. You've never said you didn't trust me."
Her father's face softened. "I do trust you. I trust Sammy, too." He was quiet for a few moments. "You have to admit that my reaction is pretty normal for finding a boy in your room with the door closed."
"We're not alone, and nothing would have happened even if we had been!" she said with an eye roll. A small part of Aaron was slightly disappointed to hear that, but he was smart enough to not let even a hint of that feeling show on his face. That was lucky, as Penny's father glanced in his direction to check.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but Sammy chose that moment to interrupt. "Flint, I just a got a request from Tom Riddle. He and Sophia Hess need a pickup in a skimmer. I'm sorry to interrupt your family discussion, but the others are either off-duty or have taskings. While they don't appear to be under threat, the situation does require attention as soon as possible."
Aaron knew, or thought he knew, that his sister was on vacation in New York with May and Maggie. "Sammy, is my sister OK?"
"She and Tom are both fine. There was an incident with a portal that ended up stranding them in another reality, but they reported in and said that they are in a safe location," said the disembodied voice.
Penny's father considered the matter. "All right, I'll go pick them up." He looked to his daughter. "You're coming with me. We're not done with this discussion."
Aaron swallowed nervously, then asked, "Sophia's my sister, sir. Can I come, too?"
Flint Marko frowned at the boy. "Sammy, are we sure there isn't any danger at their location?"
"Tom said that they are stuck in what appears to be an abandoned city and are under cover," replied the AI. "They haven't seen or heard anything threatening."
"Fine, you can come," he said to Aaron. "Your name's Aaron?"
Aaron nodded. "Yes, sir." The man just nodded.
The three of them made their way through the ship to the bay where the skimmers were kept. Penny and her father didn't say anything as they walked. Aaron, on the other hand, had something he wanted to ask about their earlier conversation. "What's an Angel? I mean, what do they actually do?"
Penny answered. "They're troubleshooters for the Family. When something catches the Family's interest, they send out people like Dad to go and look, and maybe fix things. Dad's like a superhero, now." That thought seemed to amuse her for some reason, and elicited a grunt from her father.
"Is he a cape?" asked Aaron.
"You mean, does he have powers? Show him, Dad," prompted Penny.
Her father held up one of his hands, and the end of his arm changed. It looked as if it turned into a grainy blob, then solidified into a fist that was larger than it should be. It looked like it was made of...
"Holy crap! You're Sandman! Like, from the Spider-Man comics?"
Flint winced. "Your world has Marvel comics?"
"Yes, sir. Holy crap!" Aaron forced his mouth closed when he realized he was repeating himself and sounding like an idiot.
"Well, don't believe everything you read," replied Penny's father.
Aaron couldn't help but wonder at the fact that Penny's father was Sandman. Her dad had been a super-villain. Her dad had been a super-villain that had fought Spider-Man on a regular basis. Her dad had been a super-villain that had fought Spider-Man on a regular basis...and he had found Aaron inside his daughter's bedroom with the door closed. He was suddenly a lot more nervous.
Penny chuckled. "Don't worry. Dad's actually a big softie." This elicited another emotionless grunt from the man.
As they entered the skimmer, Aaron could only hope that the rest of the day would prove to be slightly less stressful.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Some days, Tom had to wonder if he was paying for the karma imbalance caused by the fact that most iterations of him across the multiverse were, at best, complete and total arseholes. How else do you explain that his portkey dropped him and the girls into the middle of another battle? He was soon casting silent curses at the horde of black-armored invaders that seemed to be fighting their way through EDF headquarters. Maggie quickly joined him, though May and Sophia took a few moments to realize what was going on. They were probably disoriented due to the portkey, he realized as he sent a reducto at a hostile who was trying to perforate an EDF trooper with bolts of plasma. Thankfully, their Family-provided armor was more than enough to turn aside a stray bolt of plasma, which saved Sophia from a nasty burn from a near miss as she recovered her wits. The various spells he and Maggie were casting seemed to catch the attackers off-guard. He watched as one of them was hurled back into a wall by a bolt of force sent by the witch next to him. Maybe they weren't prepared for magical defenders? Magic wasn't as common in this world, even if it had been a factor in the fight they had just left.
Tom spared a glance at May and Sophia. May found that her webbing just slid off of the black armor, suggesting that the attackers knew that they would be facing members of the Spider clan. Sophia had more luck with her bolt gun. She was getting better at timing the phasing of her bolts. One of the attackers stumbled as a bolt passed through the armor on his leg, then solidified once it was inside. Tom could actually see the head of it sticking out the back of the man's calf. That looked very unpleasant, and the man's silent thrashing implied he wasn't enjoying the experience.
The unexpected reinforcements must have made the invaders reconsider, as they were soon falling back down the corridor. Once they were gathered together, there was a flash of light and the entire group vanished. Tom let out a sigh of relief, then went to check on the status of the girls. Once he verified they were fine, he began healing injuries sustained by the local defenders. Most of them weren't serious, but a couple of the soldiers had severe burns. Shortly after that, additional EDF soldiers arrived to help, but the battle was already done.
May walked over to the Lieutenant in charge of the relief. "Excuse me, do you know where my parents are?"
The officer looked like he was ready to salute her spider costume, but he stopped himself when her question registered. "May Parker?" he asked. When she nodded, he replied, "Your parents are on another floor. They seem to be stuck in some kind of force-field, but we're working on getting them out."
Tom was about to head over to join May and the officer when he heard Sophia call his name. He looked over and saw that she was holding some kind of unknown device. His eyes widened, and he began to quickly walk over toward her. "Sophia! What's that, there?"
She shrugged, turning the device over as she examined it. "I don't know. One of the guys I shot dropped it."
"You should let somebody scan that before handling it," he said as he came closer. "For all you know, it could be booby-trapped." Her face turned to look at him, and as she did so, the device slipped out of her fingers and began to fall to the ground. "Oh, Merlin..." he said as he lunged to try and catch the damned thing before it hit. He wasn't quite fast enough, and the device landed on the ground with a flash of light. Then there was an odd rushing noise, and a very disquieting hiccup in the nature of reality. Tom staggered and closed his eyes.
A moment later, he heard Sophia say, "Well, fuck."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Saurial thought it interesting that the Family wasn't the only group regularly crossing dimensional boundaries. Her visit to the French moonbase in another reality had revealed that a local trader was hiding a device for interdimensional transit in his back room. It seemed to be some kind of projector that could send a person or cargo to anther reality. They had spent a good half-hour examining the device in different visual spectrums. Varga had proclaimed himself impressed, despite the fact that the device in question wasn't nearly as flexible as their wormhole drive. For one thing, the level of technology used to create it was much lower than that possessed by the original inventors of the wormhole drive. It was even lower than most forms of tinkertech back home (not counting Leet, who seemed to be in a class of his own in terms of his inventions). For another, it was very sensitive to a number of different factors that limited how easily it could reach alternate realities. It would never be able to reach any version of Brockton Bay, for example...at last not without some major upgrades.
It was also not native to the reality they were in, though it likely connected back to the reality where it was built. Of course, there was no way to use the device without alerting its owners, but they had other options. Scanning the technology gave them enough data to derive a dimensional offset from their present location. Once they returned to the ship, it was a matter of minutes before the skimmer was on its way to the machine's universe of origin.
The world she found was very different from anything they had located so far, as she found from perusing the local Internet. For one thing, inter-dimensional travel (known locally as parachronics) was common knowledge, and the technology to do so appeared to be relatively widespread. There was a global body responsible for managing the technology, and a whole group of private companies leveraging it...including one which apparently offered safaris to see living dinosaurs, among other novelties. There was also an inter-dimensional police force known as the Infinity Patrol. Interestingly, a lot of the world's history and current political disposition was quite familiar up until the invention of parachronics, with the usual balkanized set of competing interests and power blocs. A quick, invisible visit to the headquarters of the Patrol in Canada allowed her to install a data repeater that would let the Dragon Clan parse through everything this Earth knew about the multiverse.
Luckily for Taylor and Varga, the focus of the Infinity Patrol on law enforcement meant that threat assessments were fairly easy to locate within the mass of data.
"I have to admit," said Taylor, "part of me is slightly relieved that Brockton Bay isn't the only place plagued by Nazis." One of several versions of Earth with an ascendant Nazi Germany apparently had discovered the secret of inter-dimensional travel, and was proceeding to act like...well, Nazis, in different worlds. She found it slightly better to think of the fascists as persistent, cross-universe cockroaches, as it meant they weren't a peculiar failing of her own homeworld.
"Hm, we may want to return here and clean up that mess. I believe I have internalized your antipathy toward that particular flavor of totalitarianism. Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that the SS Raven Division is behind the incursions into the universes of our friends." In their experience, it was almost impossible for Nazis to avoid flaunting their allegiance in some fashion. Apart from that, the technology base didn't match that of their assailants.
The threat assessment database included a number of other organizations. The biggest threat to Patrol agents was perceived to be a group called Centrum. They were a world government from a post-apocalyptic timeline that seemed to be somewhat well-meaning but largely at odds with this Earth's objectives. There were also a number of large criminal organizations that had obtained access to parachronic technology, as well as a loosely associated group of mystical world jumpers known collectively (and unimaginatively) as the Cabal.
Taylor shook her head. "None of the top threats match the profile of our attackers. We may have to go through the un-categorized threat reports one by one, or ask one of Dragon's folks to do so."
Varga, in the form of a small dragon on Taylor's shoulder, nodded. "That would be the sensible approach. I'm also curious to see if we have any fictional depictions of this particular universe in our collected archives."
Taylor returned to the higher-level system directory for the information taken from the Infinity Patrol and began looking at topic listings. There was an alerts folder for Patrol agents that looked promising. "Why don't we take a quick look through the most recent high priority alerts? If we don't see anything of interest there, then we'll let the Dragon Clan search through the bulk while we go back to looking for Eden's species."
The first couple entries were interesting but not relevant to their immediate search. One was about a cape that had world-jumping powers and was using them to steal rare works of art from other timelines. Another described an incident with a Patrol agent on a version of Earth suffering from a literal zombie apocalypse. Taylor made a note to forward information on that to Ianthe. It seemed that the prion-based disease causing the problem could rather easily jump realities.
Much to their surprise, the third entry was exactly what they were seeking. "That image looks extremely familiar," commented Varga, looking at the black armored figure wielding an energy weapon. He noted the description of the incident where the photograph was taken. "It looks like we have another location to investigate."
"Well," mused Taylor, absorbing the information. "Time for us to visit the Rightly Guided Stellar Caliphate." Using her best Mel Brooks impression, she added, "Muslims in spaaaaaace!" Varga snickered.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Things were fairly calm within the Federation at the moment, so Draco had more than enough bandwidth to start parsing through the information Saurial sent to them. A quick scan of the contents made him wonder if he was being pranked. Was there really a world that almost exactly mirrored the history of Earth, but was inhabited by evolved dinosaurs descended from troodons? And what about the world where the entire population spontaneously shrunk? He queried Bahamut, who rather quickly disabused him of his arbitrary skepticism at the unlikely by pointing out that Starfleet had records of transporter accidents turning crew members of the Enterprise into children and of starships being overrun by balls of fur that are born already pregnant. He tried to argue that those were understood phenomena, but gave up when the motherbox brought up Howard the Duck and Squirrel Girl, as she would undoubtedly pull Asti into the argument if he was stubborn about it.
Returning to his task, he began assessing information. If you ignored the truly strange ones, then there were a lot of interesting historical variations recorded by this new Earth's explorers that could have prompted hours of discussions about philosophy, the path of history, and predestination. The researchers there had answers to questions like what would happen if Rome had managed an industrial revolution, or if the Americas had been discovered by Carthaginian explorers? The answer in the latter case seemed to be a collapse of the Roman empire and a powerful Aztec Empire that still practiced slavery and human sacrifice.
One world, code-named Steel by the Infinity Patrol, was flagged for action by him and his relatives. The world had suffered a classic Skynet scenario. There was no way Dragon or his sisters would abide a world dominated by rogue AI bent on exterminating humans. It just set a bad precedent and hurt the reputation of AI's everywhere. In fact, the locals in the universe Saurial had found seemed to have a knack for locating horrifying hell worlds that made the Sineya Council's home Earth with its Hellmouths seem positively warm and fuzzy. Collapsing biospheres, nuclear war, alien invasions, and hideously lethal pandemics were all documented in great detail. It made Draco happy that the local tech they had for crossing dimensions was strictly limited in reach compared to what the Family had. Things would quickly get messy if some of these threats started jumping between realities.
On the other hand, he could easily understand why their mysterious assailants would involve themselves in this bit of the multiverse. The amount of chaos would make it easy to avoid detection. There were also plenty of resources ripe for the taking, especially if you were willing to engage in a little grave robbing. For that matter, there were quite a lot of places where an unscrupulous power could dispose of unwanted nuisances. Draco began drafting a memo to his family and their allies to that effect. Hopefully, they could avoid that type of unpleasantness.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Sophia looked around, wide-eyed, at the landscape where she and Tom had been deposited. They were in the middle of a city...possibly New York, though the city looked more old-fashioned than the one she had been touring on vacation. This version was clearly abandoned, with the rusting wrecks of vehicles littering the streets and vines crawling up the buildings. It reminded her, rather disturbingly, of a variety of post-apocalyptic television shows and movies that were popular back home. "Well, fuck," she said out loud.
Tom was shaking his head as if to clear it of cobwebs. After a moment, he took in the surrounding ruins, then looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "And that is why we do not pick up random equipment dropped by unknown assailants."
Sophia looked away, clearly embarrassed. "Sorry," she muttered. Her gaze turned to look at the dark, vacant windows of the surrounding buildings. "We should get under cover before the cannibal mutants show up."
Tom's eyes widened. "Cannibal mutants?" He looked around, searching their surroundings for clues. "Is there a reason to think those exist here?"
She shrugged nervously. "If there's anything movies and video games have taught me, it's that abandoned cities are usually filled with cannibal mutants, or plague zombies, or hostile aliens, or something dangerous, and as both the only female and the only black person present, I'm the obvious first target and think I have the right to be a little paranoid."
Tom was clearly amused by her statement, but his grin quickly turned into a frown. "I have to admit...something about this world feels unsettling, and I'm not just talking about the fact that wherever we are seems abandoned. The...mystical flavor of this world is troubling. It almost feels...greasy?"
By mutual agreement, the two of them moved into one of the abandoned buildings. It appeared to be some type of accounting firm, though the technology inside was clearly pre-computer if the rusting manual typewriters and mechanical adding machines on the desks were indicative. There was a thick layer of dust over everything. Once they had the possibly illusory safety of being surrounded by walls, Sophia asked, "So, now what do we do?"
"We call for help," replied Tom, pulling out his Family phone. "It shouldn't take long for somebody to come and get us. One of the things I've heard Faith say is that there's no sense taunting Murphy." Luckily, the call connected without issue and he quickly described their situation to Sammy, their home ship's AI. "Honestly, we haven't actually seen any threats. The city we're in is completely quiet. We can just stay where we are and wait for pickup." He put the phone away. "Somebody should be along shortly in a skimmer."
Sophia parked her butt on a desk after using a rag to wipe off most of the dust. It creaked a bit, but wasn't so decrepit that it was in danger of collapse. "I wonder what happened to the people here? Everything around here looks kind of old."
Tom nodded. "From what limited bit we've seen so far, the best guess I would have is that whatever happened, it happened sometime between the 1920's and 1940's. We're obviously in the United States."
"How do you know that?" asked Sophia. Admittedly, she had no reason to think otherwise, but she was curious about what he had noticed.
He grinned at her. "What signs are still legible are in English, and these typewriters still have some keys that look like a normal QWERTY layout. The cars in the roads were clearly driving on the right side. Also..." and he pointed at the back wall. Sophia looked at where he was pointing and could make out the faded words, Empire State Tabulators. "We're probably still in New York City."
"Maybe we could find a library, or a newspaper, or something," she suggested.
Tom shook his head. "No reason to do so. I have to admit that I'm slightly curious myself, but the safest thing to do is to wait for our ride. There is plenty of danger in the multiverse without running afoul of whichever apocalypse happened to strike this version of Earth."
She could see the sense in that. Knowing what had happened to the locals wouldn't change the fact that it had already occurred. If there was still a lurking threat, then there was no good reason to poke at it. All they had to do now was pass the time until their ride got them. "So, you said you were adopted, but you don't use your parents' last name?"
He paused in thought, and Sophia realized belatedly that she may have brought up an awkward topic of conversation. Tom didn't seem overly disturbed as he answered, however. "I take it that you're not familiar with the Harry Potter stories?"
She shook her head. "Not really. I know they were a set of movies about wizards on Earth Bet, but I haven't seen them."
"Well, after the death of my mother, I was abandoned to an orphanage in England. According to the fictional account of my world, my destiny was to grow up and become the antagonist of the story, a dark wizard so feared that no one would dare even mention my name." He paused at the shocked laugh that escaped from her lips.
She shook her head, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, it's not funny, but I just got this image of a deep voice warning about the the Dark Lord...TOM!"
He smiled back at her. "My alter ego used a nom de guerre rather than his actual name. It was slightly more intimidating sounding. Thankfully, my parents rescued me from the orphanage before I had a chance to live the experiences that would shape my into that other person."
Sophia tensed at those words. She found them a little too relevant to her own thoughts to be coincidence. "Did Metis ask you to share that information with me?" She relaxed slightly at the honestly confused expression that appeared on his face.
"No, she didn't. Why?" he asked.
She sighed. If she had controlled her reaction, he wouldn't have known anything was amiss, but it was too late for that. She decided it wouldn't hurt to share. Given his own background, he would probably understand it better than most. "You know the Family originally comes from a different version of Brockton Bay than mine?" At his nod, she continued. "In their version, I was a psychopath that did terrible things."
His eyes widened slightly in a mixture of surprise and sympathy. "That's a hard thing to learn. My parents started telling me about my alter ego when I was twelve, but I didn't learn the details until I was older and able to do my own research. How long have you known?"
"Not that long..." she said before her voice trailed off.
He began to pace in front of her. "So, let me see if I can guess your thought process." She opened her mouth to stop him, but he held his hand up and she paused. "Your first reaction is to wonder if you're inherently unstable or dangerous? Is it only happenstance that you haven't gone off the deep end and begun hurting people?" The slight English accent softened Tom's analytical tone in Sophia's ears. "If you're lucky, you talked to people who care about you and they told you that you're not responsible for how other versions of you behaved." He stopped walking and glanced at her.
Sophia nodded and decided to let him continue. She was curious about where he was going with this.
He turned and began to pace again. "Then you began to wonder if there is something inherent to your character that made you vulnerable to the kinds of experiences that turned your other self into a monster? In other words, are you just one of the weak ones, only able to become a hero...or heroine, I suppose...with luck?" He was frowning a bit now. "The answers to that generally are a mix of saying that every human, and most sentients, for that matter, exist on a spectrum ranging from complete angels to vile demons, and that fortune, circumstance, and free will all have a factor in deciding where you end up on that line."
That sounded right to Sophia. Nobody had summed up the answer so succinctly, though. "That's about what Metis and my father have been telling me when I talk to them..."
"So, that's where you're at in your thought processes?" She nodded again. "All right, I'll tell you the next step since I've gone through it myself. You're going to start questioning free will, and if you do enough research, you'll get to the nature of the soul. Does every version of Tom Riddle share a single soul across the multiverse, or does each have his own?" He gave a slightly bitter little smile. "That question was very pertinent in my case, as evil Tom had a tendency to snap off pieces of his soul and use them as anchors to keep from dying."
Sophia's jaw dropped. "You can snap off pieces of your soul?"
Tom stopped pacing again. "It's possible. It requires a willingness to murder an innocent in cold blood, along with a great deal of magical power and education in the darkest of magics. Generally speaking, I don't recommend it, especially as we each have one of those wonderful symbiotes Ianthe created."
He began to move back and forth again, and Sophia wondered if it was a nervous habit. "What you will find, assuming you don't give up in frustration, is that the question of souls is metaphysically complicated on a level that beggars belief. The rules tend to vary based upon where you are in the multiverse, and they only apply at a local level. There does seem to be a connection across universes, but it is at a level above our concept of soul, similar to how souls tend to be above physical reality, at least for non-magicals."
The teen shook her head, slightly confused. "I'm...not sure if that helps. It sounds like you're saying I'm not smart enough to understand the real answer."
He frowned deeply. "I apologize. That was not my intent. The only evidence I've seen so far is that you're easily intelligent enough to understand these concepts if I explain them correctly." Sophia felt her cheeks heating up and hoped her blush wasn't noticeable. "You see," he continued, "the real answer is that people are complicated, with massive amounts of potential. We are also social animals that instinctively support each other. It's only the harshness of the universe...whichever one you happen to be in...that makes it so common that we go wrong."
Now Sophia frowned. "So, if we turn evil, it's not really our fault?"
He stopped moving and held up his hands as if he were balancing two weights. "Yes and no. Let me put it to you this way. Do you follow or participate in any athletic competitions?"
"I ran track." At his confused look, she elaborated. "You know, track and field? Running races?"
"Ah!" he said with comprehension. "Which is more challenging, running a short sprint or running a marathon?"
"Marathon, obviously," she said, trying not to let her voice shift into a condescending tone. She assumed he had a purpose to this line of questioning. "Sprints require natural ability and technique, but you need endurance training to even try to run twenty-six miles."
He nodded and yet again started pacing. Sophia was starting to get amused each time he started up again. "And triathlons are harder still, because you need endurance and different skills, and then you get to decathlons, and so on. Winning any race is an accomplishment, but you have more respect for people who regularly place in the more difficult competitions, yes?"
"Yeah...I guess so. Why?"
He smiled, now. "We can't control our luck, or where we start in life. The multiverse is not fair. I was born an orphan, abandoned by my biological father while my mother died in childbirth. I was put in an orphanage during a time of global pandemic and war, at a time when the attitude toward children was...more practical. Did you know that children younger than ten could work in factories in Britain until 1878?" She shook her head. "Add in that for some reason, the magicals in my world didn't start teaching muggleborns about magic until the age of eleven, even though they started manifesting power earlier...sometimes much earlier."
"Muggleborns?" queried Sophia at the unfamiliar term.
"Sorry. It's a pejorative term used to describe wizards and witches born to non-magicals. They called non-magicals muggles," he said. He sounded slightly embarrassed. "You know how people use insulting names to put others down..." He paused and noticed the look on her face. "Right, of course you do. Sorry...again. The point is that an abused orphan developed magical powers, and nobody was there to guide him in their use. When a wizard finally did show up, he decided that young Tom was already a psychopath and made his feelings obvious."
Slightly shocked by that, Sophia had to ask, "Was he stupid?"
Tom shook his head. "He was actually quite brilliant in many ways, but I've found that many geniuses are blind to their own failings and prejudices. In any event, I was saved from that path because my parents came and stole me from a crib in the orphanage as a baby. They showed me love and guided my development. While they weren't magical, they knew people who were and made sure I was trained from an early age. Now, obviously, I was lucky that out of every version of Tom Riddle in every reality, I was the one that my parents decided to rescue. I got to run a sprint instead of a decathlon, and I'm grateful that the choice to do good was made so easy for me. Do you understand?"
She considered his words. She could understand being grateful to his parents for making his life easier. She wasn't sure how that addressed her questions, though. "Doesn't it bother you that it was only luck that kept you from going bad?"
"Every Tom Riddle has the potential to be a demon, Sophia, but every Tom Riddle also has the potential to be an angel. That's true for everybody. That's why what the Family and their allies do is so important. We have to try and make the better path as easy as possible for as many people as possible. If you just focus on the negative potential, you're ignoring a very important aspect of life." He smiled at her expectantly.
There was a cynical and very teen-aged part of her brain that wanted to scoff at what Tom was saying. She might have done that if she hadn't already been weighing such heavy issues. The more mature part of her psyche grabbed onto his reasoning like a drowning sailor thrown a life preserver. It really wasn't fair to herself...any version of herself...to only focus on the negative. "I...think I get what you're saying. Doesn't that kind of put a burden on us, though?"
Tom stopped pacing and gave her a large grin. "A wise man once said that with great power comes great responsibility, and if you'll forgive me mixing metaphors, knowledge is power. Also, there are rewards. I'm positive that I'm far happier than evil Tom in many ways." With a wave of his hand, he used magic to wipe the dust off of another desk and leaned back against it.
He was barely settling his weight against the furniture when there was a deep, groaning tremor that rattled through the earth and the building. Bits of dust and detritus dropped down from the ceiling. Tom's eyes widened. "Oh Merlin, shouldn't have done that..." He jumped back up to his feet and ran toward the exit to the street.
"What? What happened?" yelled Sophia as she jumped up to follow him.
"I don't know!" he called back as he ran out into the street.
Sophia joined him as he was frantically looking around. His eyes stopped on what looked to be an old subway entrance down at the corner of the block. He stared at it for the better part of a minute, then began to relax slightly. He tensed again at the sound of a disconcerting noise that sounded like a metallic screech, but one that sounded far away and distorted. Tom grabbed her arm and said, "I think we had better move away from here."
"What is it?" she asked nervously.
He shook his head and started pulling her down the street, further away from the now slightly ominous subway station. "I don't know, but I think using magic woke something up...and given the state of this city, I don't think we want to meet it."
Sophia began moving quickly away under her own power, though she couldn't help but feel a bit smug. "Didn't I tell you? There's always something hiding in a place like this."
They turned the corner and kept walking, the subway station no longer in their line of sight. The new perspective revealed that they were, indeed, in New York City, as they could see the Empire State Building. Before that moment, sight of it had been blocked by the closer buildings. One disturbing note was that it looked as if something had taken a chunk out of the side of the skyscraper, almost as if a giant mouth had decided to see how the architectural landmark tasted, about halfway up. When she realized what she was seeing, Sophia muttered, "What the hell?" She actually started moving faster than Tom, though it wasn't long before he was matching her new pace.
They had made it across most of three city blocks before they heard it. It sounded like a horde of animals all roaring at once in a disturbingly synchronized manner. The sound was wet and loud and violent, and promised nothing light or good. Tom looked over to Sophia and said, "Run!" She didn't argue with him.
His phone rang as they were sprinting around the remains of an old milk truck. He answered it. "We need pickup right now! OK." He looked over at Sophia. "He said he can't use the transporter for some reason. There's a park on the next block. They'll meet us there."
She nodded. A small, competitive part of her was slightly annoyed that Tom was able to keep pace with her in a sprint while simultaneously talking on the phone, but the more sensible portion of her brain squashed that with extreme prejudice. It was things like that feeling that made her wonder about her own sanity, at times.
As they rounded another wreck in the street, she saw the park in question. It was filled with dead trees and bushes, but there was an open space where a skimmer could land, and in fact she watched as one flew down at what seemed to be too fast a speed, only to pull up at the very last second and touch down, a swirl of trash around the landing struts being the only indication that it had happened. Suddenly, she felt Tom grab her around the waist, almost causing her to stumble, and then the world changed again. She felt like somebody was squeezing her entire body through a narrow tube. Then they were instantly at the opening ramp of the skimmer. Dazedly, she saw Flint Marko inside at the ramp controls.
"Get us in the air NOW!" shouted Tom. "I'll close the ramp." Without questioning the order, Marko ran back toward the bridge.
Sophia tried to get her breath back and her nausea under control from the sudden magical teleport...that had to be what Tom had done to them. Unfortunately, she was looking back the way they had come, and she saw it come around the corner. The entire creature was covered in some type of visual distortion, but what she could see actually made her nausea worse rather than better. There were far, far too many eyes and mouths, and what looked like a mix of legs and tentacles. She stared, frozen, until Tom grabbed her arm again and began pulling her toward the bridge. She realized belatedly that the ramp was closing and they were in the air.
The two of them passed onto the bridge through the sliding door as they felt the wormhole transition. She started to feel a sense of relief, only to stop again in shock when she noticed who was on the bridge. Her brother was there. Her brother was there, holding hands with a girl. Her brother was there, holding hands with a girl, and he seemed to be covered by a blue, glowing force-field. She heard Tom say, "That's quite an impressive shield you've got there."
After the day she had just experienced, with at least two major battles, an accidental portal to another world, and running for her life, all she could muster was a raised eyebrow and a slightly exasperated, "Aaron, what did you do?"
Hesitantly, her brother replied, "I...I don't know." He seemed to be trying to let go of the girl's hand without much success.
"He cast a protective shield over the both of them, probably when he saw the shoggoth for the first time," said Tom. "It must have been an instinctive reaction. It looks quite strong. I didn't know your brother was a wizard."
"Neither did I," she replied. Mom was going to be pissed. Actually, Sophia worried that Aaron might get off easy just because her folks would be too busy yelling at her.
"Um, you wouldn't happen to know how to..." began Aaron before pausing. "Do you know how to turn it off?"
"I would like to know that as well," said Marko from the pilot seat. Sophia could see her brother gulp at the tone, and the shield actually increased in brightness. She had no idea why their rescuer was so aggravated by the situation, or why the man had brought two teens along on a rescue mission.
Tom appeared to be enjoying this. "It should end naturally once he no longer feels threatened...by anything," he answered. Then he started laughing at the look on Marko's face.
Sophia just plopped into a nearby chair. She just knew that this day's trials weren't over yet, even if all she wanted to do was make sure May and Maggie were all right and fall into bed. She could wait until tomorrow to find out about her brother's weirdness, or continue to ponder the nature of duplicates across the multiverse, or find out who had been attacking EDF headquarters, or figure out why the name Tom had used for that thing chasing them seemed so familiar.
Tom plopped down next to her. "Would you like a calming potion?"
"Do you have enough for my parents, too?" she asked.
He handed her three small bottles without asking any questions. She couldn't help but think that Tom was a pretty cool guy, all things considered.
