Dimension Worm [A.U./Multi XrosOver]

[CalumTraveler]

A.N.: Tired. Posting this and the end-of-chapter then going to bed.

Resisting Resonance: 5.4

--

Another day, another visitor. Why is it that they always come during the kids training? This time, it's Dennis, or Clockblocker as he goes by. At least he yelled out before I could tell Missy to turn everyone invisible. As for why he suddenly showed up, apparently there was a visitor at the March who wanted to see me personally. Why did I get called in? Because this involves a sensitive subject not to be discussed over the phone.

And so I tell the kids to leave, get Dragon and Dennis in the car, and then we're off on the road.

"So why couldn't we talk about this over the phone?" I asked once we were on our way and safely out of the range of any prying ears.

Dennis just shrugs. "I was only told that you'll see why when we get there."

Dagon and I fill the remainder of the drive discussing tinker gear- much to Dennis' displeasure. The traffic is just as bad as it was that one day two weeks ago, but at least now there are enough people on the road for it to not feel like the universe spiting us with poorly timed streetlights.

When we arrive at the March and managed to pass by the current round of robot fighting without pausing to stare (Just a couple of beginners with their rent-a-bot champions). What's surprising is that Dennis waits where Amelia usually stands guard and takes that post, because Amelia isn't there. For once, I actually get to walk to the Marquis' office on my own. Once we get to the Marquis' office, I can quite honestly say that i did indeed see why I wasn't told what was going on.

The Red Ranger and Gold Rangers were sitting in the chairs on the visitor's side of the Marquis' desk.

Gold was talking excitedly with the Marquis about something that had been on TV, and likely would have continued unnoticed if not for Red sharply jabbing her elbow into Gold's side.

"Oh! Colin!" The Marquis flashes a brief smile at me once he catches on. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Where's Amelia?" I ask.

"Mourning still," Marquis dismisses it with his recently decided upon 'off healing Victoria' reply. Code phrases are handy things to have when talking in front of other people, but frustrating as well. There's something to his tone of voice that sounds odd.

"So what's going on?" Dragon asks.

"Hi, I'm Dino Gold," the girl in the golden costume said. Hers was themed after a Brachiosaurus. "Red tells me you two were there during the fight with Lung."

"We were," I say. "What of it?"

"What did she get as her power?" Red's question is direct to the point, and I can only assume she's looking at Dragon by the way her head is tilted.

"What does that matter?" Dragon asks.

"Everything," Red answers curtly, which isn't enough for Dragon to feel comfortable about talking about her power, going by her reaction.

"Umm... That's..."

"Quit being vague," I glance to the Marquis. "What's going on?"

"As it turns out," Marquis answers, "the Rangers have contacts on Earth Aleph. They're offering to keep us in the loop regarding our little... problem. In exchange for you two potentially helping them with a project."

"Legitimate contacts?" I ask. "As in, people who can tell us what's going on over there with no politics obscuring everything?"

"Exactly that," Gold nods her head. "And as a freebie, Lung was just spotted this morning in Aleph's version of Washington D.C."

So that was where the bastard went after the explosion.

"How did Lung manage to get all the way over there?" I ask.

"That green hell fire punching the sky?" Gold asks rhetorically, "That punched a hole straight through to Aleph. Happened at the exact same time in both worlds."

"What?" Dragon's definitely startled by this bit of information. "But that's impossible!"

"Apparently not, considering what we know about Newfoundland's Coil." I shake my head.

"Newfoundland?" Three voices ask at once. Oh, right. I'd forgotten to tell the Marquis this, didn't I?

"Miss Militia dropped by yesterday to warn me that Newfoundland's Coil was active again." I explain.

"Damn it, Colin, you should have told me about this sooner!" Marquis sounds angry. Whoops, better difuse that time bomb.

"I wasn't sure if I really believed her or not," I counter. "Because really, it sounds impossible on the surface of it. An explosion here in the bay affected That Coil?"

"Colin," Dragon begins, sounding scared. "If that explosion punched a dimensional breach into Aleph, then it's extremely likely that the Newfoundland Coil landed on Aleph rather than Dimension W."

"We haven't heard anything about a Coil falling through," Gold begins warily. "But that doesn't mean it hasn't happened and nobody's found it yet."

I nod, "Enough about the Coil for now, though. You were saying?"

"Right, well," Gold coughs to regain her composure. "We want to know what the girl's powers are, in case they could help us before Aleph declares an interdimensional war on Bet."

"Damn it," I sigh. Of course that was what they were worried about.

"Did you tell them about the message?" Dragon asks, directing the question at the Marquis.

"No, just that we were having trouble with Hawkmoth," Marquis replies.

"And nothing beyond that, too," Gold adds a flirty giggle at the end of that sentence. "What message?"

"Victoria Dallon was mastered by an Aleph Cape named Hawkmoth," I explain. "He left us a message before frying the implant that would kill her."

"So what's the message?" Gold asks, her flirting fading to wary at this point.

"He wants to start a war," it doesn't matter who says it, but for the record, it was Amelia, as she enters the office by way of hidden stair case. She stays only so long as to grab a book off of a bookshelf and say "and he's willing to kill anyone he has to in order to do it," before she leaves the way she came.

What's she doing down there anyways? Gold and Red don't seem to mind her sudden intrusion, which says to me that she's been doing this for a while now, probably as long as the two Rangers have been here.

"Damn it," Gold swears, looking towards Red with what I could only assume was a 'What do we do?' expression. "We should have known he'd have his filthy wings in this mess."

"It makes sense," Red nods. "He would push events to make sure that everything lined up this way."

"I wouldn't doubt it if he made that damned bomb go off in the first place," Gold growls. "But I have to wonder who he managed to talk into suicideing like that? It's not Hawkmoth's usual M.O."

Upon hearing this piece speculation, Dragon starts to lean against my side for support. I can't imagine she's very happy with the idea that some lunatic from another world pushed her father into killing himself with a Coil Bomb that caused all of this.

Red notices this happening, but Gold doesn't.

"We need to inform the others," Red says, then, to Marquis, "excuse us for a moment, we need to make a call." And so she and Gold excuse themselves over to the staircase to make said call.

Nobody says anything for the few minutes it takes the Rangers to make their call and carry it through to fruition. I look to Dragon and she whispers, "Go ahead and tell them." Her power, she means.

"Why not tell them yourself?" I ask, similarly whispering.

"I... what if I slip up and tell them who my father was?" She answers. "What that Coil did... All of this is just so far beyond what I thought would happen if it detonated."

"Fair enough on that last point," I admit. This is all so beyond what I thought I'd be getting into. How did we even get from a Coil retrieval to a potential war between the worlds? "Still, that works in our favor. Neither of us really know what that Coil really did, so..."

At this point, Amelia returns again, trading the last book for another one, then retreating down below once more.

The Marquis doesn't say anything to her, and instead seems to find a particular spot on the ceiling more fascinating at the moment.

Just what is Amelia up to down there?

"I think I understand what you're getting at," Dragon muses before the Rangers end their call and walk back over.

"I'm pretty sure this conversation hasn't gone how anyone expected," I say before Gold can open her mouth. "Dragon will tell you what her power is if you tell us what this project is."

"Well, that was always the plan," Gold says with a shrug. Red just nods.

"My power is primarily a Tinker/Thinker hybrid," Dragon says.

"Interesting," Gold muses. "Not what I'd expect from such a violent trigger event though. Usually those give shaker or breaker powers." She looks Dragon over once more, and then says, "Rough home life, I'd imagine?" An extremely telegraphed flinch follows almost immediately, before she apologizes, "Sorry, I shouldn't pry like that."

"It's alright," Dragon says in return. "Is my power anything you can use?"

"Yes. It is." Red stands there for a few moments, then... "You were once Armsmaster, yes?"

"I was, yeah," I reply, wary of where the girl's going with this.

"Your powers both synergize well together?" Red asks.

"They do," Dragon nods.

"What is your stance on Coils, as collectors?"

What a stupid question.

"Coils will destroy the world, given enough time," I state simply.

"But at the same time, Coils are necessary for life as it is now to continue to function," Dragon says. "All of the infrastructure of life as it was before has been slowly torn out until all that's left are Coils. People will continue to use Illegal Coils even if legal ones are put out of production."

Red nods at that. "Given sufficient time, could you both design an alternative to Coils?"

That's... "Damn near treasonous if the Protectorate ever heard you that question," Marquis takes the words right out of my mouth.

"Still," I allow after sharing a look with Dragon. "We could do it, yes." And I'd already done it.

"Rache, what are you getting at?" Gold whispers to Red, not quiet enough, though, for me to not hear her say Red's name. Sloppy.

"Given sufficient time," Red continues instead of answering that question, "could you both figure out how to exploit a Coil's extra-dimensional properties to locate and block a specific Parahuman's power source?"

I take it back. She actually did answer Gold's question, just with a question of her own. A question that caused everyone in the room to think the same thing.

"What kind of question is that supposed to be??"

Once again, that statement was voiced by Amelia, who had just returned to the room in time to hear the Red Ranger's question.

--

A.N.: Rachel's reaching out pretty far for a cave girl.

 

[CalumTraveler]

A.N.: Yae though I walk through the dream bubbles of the furthest ring, i shall dream no dreams. For while ice is but a tireless slumber, fire is the eternal waking world.


Resisting Resonance: 5.5.E

--

Each flake of snow came down like a piercing tusk.

The small gathering of Hunters waited in silence as the Woolly Mammoth drank from the broken hole in the ice covered bay.

Soon, the Mammoth would be done with its drink, and return to its small tribe of mammoths. The Hunters had but a limited amount of time to stop it before then, lest their own meagerly small Tribe go hungry on this day.

This winter had been harsher than the last, which in turn had been sharper than the last. The next winter was expected to be even worse than this one. Life would only get harder as this proverbial age of snow continued on without end.

Hunger rumbled in the stomachs of the hunters as they readied their spears. Among the hunters was a girl, though her features were obscured by a woolly mammoth hide jacket and face cover, she is recognizable to us by the shining red crystal embedded in the bone made hilt of her spear. It had been taken from a Velociraptor skeleton found in a cave.

Though this girl would not receive her name for many years to come, we shall call her Rachel for simple sake of narrative cohesion.

Rachel listened to the silent commands of her team's leader, she and two others moved to circle the mammoth while the rest began to approach from the rear.

That was when Rachel saw something strange.

Glinting in the reflection of the red crystal on her spear was the shape of a human wearing clothes wholly improper for this winter environment. Rachel turned her head to look over her shoulder, and she saw no woman, but instead a towering monster with glimmering white scales and crimson eyes. It was slowly, quietly, creepily moving forwards on all fours, larger than the mammoth they were hunting...

No, the Hunters were no longer hunters. They were this beasts' Prey.

The others of her splinter noticed her distraction, and began to panic upon seeing the monster barely hidden by the blizzard raging around them.

How the giant moved across the snow and ice without crunching the snow beneath it and alerting the hunters of its presence- this was a question Rachel did not ask.

She acted.

With a mighty yell- Rachel broke the silence. The Mammoth reared back in surprise, and the Hunters behind it jumped in surprise. The leader looked across the snow towards Rachel and her fellows, anger and confusion evident in his body language.

Rachel's cries of attention getting held no translatable meaning in the modern era, however, her exaggerated waving and pointing backwards in the direction of the beast got the man's attention enough to make him and the others look.

And then they saw.

The giant beast transformed its scales- going from snow white to a bloody crimson.

It roared with an ear piercing scream as its body shuddered in tiny, barely perceptible details, and began to grow.

The Mammoth heard the beast and saw it's appearance. Judging this the more important threat, the Mammoth let loose a returning trumpeting challenge. That was when the beast got off of its fore-legs, and stood firmly on its hind legs. It let loose another cry of anger as its blood colored scales brightened to an even flashier red. Its eyes disappeared into the brightness of the skin around it. Then, the mammoth began to charge.

Caught between over a hundred teeth and two very sharp tusks, the hunters had nowhere to go.

That was when Rachel found herself years in the past, inside the skull of a velocriraptor as a woman in a black bodysuit and a green cat themed helmet gave them the Red Energem.

When Rachel came back to the present day, it was to the eyes of not just her human body, but of the crimson colored, ghost like projections of a whole pack of Velociraptors.

Half jumped on the Mammoth, another half jumped on the giant beast of changing colors.

The mammoth went down with little fuss, it was wholly unprepared for a pack of extinct predators to rip into its flesh.

On the other hand, the beast of changing colors shifted through a rapid range of colors even as it started to grow in size right before them. The spikes off its head began to elongate, and its limbs began to thicken as well. Mere moments later- its skin ignited with fire and flames. Rachel's ghostly raptors respawned on the ground around her and her hunters as they regrouped.

She made a decision, pulling down her face mask to look her team leader in the eye.

She would stay behind and deal with these beasts while the others would retreat to safety to recover the mammoth carcass once she'd defeated the growing monster of flames.

There was no argument- the flaming monster let loose another ear piercing shriek. The hunters ran- all but Rachel heading away... While Rachel and her Raptors ran towards the monster.

It sprouted wings- or perhaps just made them visible to Rachel- and gave a mighty flap. The burst of fire met snow, and steam came flying at Rachel.

Rachel covered her eyes on instinct, even her projections closed their eyes to avoid what should have been a painful onslaught of burning water vapor. Had she bared through it, she would not have missed the beast thrusting itself forwards on those newly revealed wings with a twisted smile on its maw.

A moment later, it cleared the distance between them and the beast swung one of its giant arms right at her.

Like a child knocking away an unwanted toy, Rachel was sent flying from the impact. She cried out in pain and dismay- but it was short lived. For the sudden impact of her body hitting ice cold water knocked the air out of her lungs entirely. The Energem in her still held spear flashed with power and light. The last thing Rachel saw was a tiny velociraptor materializing from the crystal and swimming through the water into her arms.

--

Thousands upon hundreds of years later, Rachel awoke as air reached her lungs and ice cracked around her.

--

Several years after that, it became clear that Aleph was gearing up for war. The why was simple- the green beam of light had been confirmed to have come from Earth Bet by some unknown Aleph scientist.

Or perhaps it was just the creatures plan in play?

Coils were tricky things- they were immune to Thinker powers, especially those of the more predictive varriety. Could someone plan around a void pocket of information? The Energems gave off a similar power to their chosen, and through careful testing, it was revealed that the Miraculous stones shared it as well.

So, then, could those anti thinker fields cancel each other out in some way? Or were the beings in the background able to peer through these induced blind spots?

The Collector had been there during the Trigger event. They had all seen that blast of energy. Whatever power had been granted... It was what would play a vital role in future events.

Rachel wasn't sure if this was playing right into the hands of the creatures who sent these powers or not. If it was, however, then would it perhaps not be better to try and direct things under the cloak of the Energem's Anti-Thinker properites?

Surely, then, nobody could predict what would happen in that pocket of void...

Rachel began to wonder, then, could a weapon be devised to attack these creatures?

--

The decision was made.

--

"Given sufficient time, could you both figure out how to exploit a Coil's extra-dimensional properties to locate and block a specific Parahuman's power source?"

"What kind of question is that supposed to be??"

Rachel turned to look at Amelia over her shoulder. "It's entirely serious. I want to find a way to block Hawkmoth's powers."

"Wait, you think that could work?" Sarah asked, and even despite the helmet visor blocking most of her face, Rachel could see her sister's surprised expression. "But what about the-?" The Miraculous stones.

"If that makes it not work on him," Rachel interrupts. "I'm certain it will work on most other Parahumans, at the very least." And though she did not say any more, her thoughts continued, 'And if that works, we have a way to directly attack those who grant the powers to people in the first place.'

--


A.N.: Next Arc: The World that Everyone Calls Okay.

We take another detour back to Aleph. Because, yeah, you're thinking- Lung is Dead. So how did he appear in Aleph? ...Okay, who am I kidding I was being extremely transparent with this chapter with timeline shenanigans. I am as transparent with my foreshadowing as Chat Noir is with his love of Ladybug. Speaking of, He's the focus character of the next arc.

As for this arc? It was mostly just set up and flashbacks. At this point the story definitely does not resemble any of the original source universes. Dino Charge? HAaaah. Nope. Not even close. Dimension W? Okay, maybe just a liiiitle bit?? But it's still pretty divergent at this point. Worm? Oh boy we left stations of cannon back in the first chapter. Ironically, Miraculous Ladybug is the closest still to the source material pre-crossover. But not for LOOOONNNGGGGGG

...okay yeah, I'm starting to type nonsense sentences. I'm gonna go to bedddd...