Scattered Gears (Titan of Steel/Multicross)

[We Just Write]

So, as anyone who read Titan of Steel would know, that story ended with a massive dimensional crash that dumped the Titan, Ruby Sherridan, and a very large number of Clockworks all over the multiverse. For named characters I'll be keeping them in strictly original settings so I retain the copyright for them, but I have no problem whatsoever with dropping a bunch of Clockwork Knights into whatever settings happen to attract my interest. If anyone else wants to write a Clockwork Knight's multiversal adventures they're perfectly free to do so, of course. And yes, this is just a transparent attempt to get people to read Titan of Steel.

---

(POV: Near Third Person)

The transition was extremely abrupt. One moment, Clockwork Knight Catherine was blasting away at Daemons with her omni-rifle in Nuclear Smite mode, the protonium-powered weapon erasing targets with blasts of c-fractional plasma enchanted with Holy-theme Mana. Then the Titan of Steel entered the Hellrift and sent the command to pulse all dimensional jammers. The next thing the war machine knew, she was falling off a rooftop. Only her superhuman reaction times allowed her to stop firing before she accidentally killed several civilians, then arrest her fall with minimal damage to the pavement.

As Catherine pulled herself to her feet, it quickly became apparent that she was in a settlement of some description, though she didn't yet know whether to categorize it as a town or a city. It was also immediately apparent that she wasn't anywhere near home; the gravity was heavier by a couple percentage points, the sun's emission spectra were slightly different, and the Mana Thematograph was detecting absolutely no magic in use aside from what Catherine herself was radiating. Also, the general response among the locals was somewhere between running in terror or warily staring, indicating minimal familiarity with Clockworks.

Not wasting time on assuming the locals would understand Amal without translation, Catherine immediately activated Words of Truth as she stowed her omni-rifle. This used a sizable amount of Holy-theme Mana to render all communication in her immediate proximity understood by all present, with the side effect of rendering falsehood impossible. That done, she spoke "I mean no-one here any harm. All evidence indicates that I have been displaced across realities. Information regarding where I am would be greatly appreciated."

There was an awkward pause as Catherine noticed several people 'discretely' retrieving some variety of radio communication device, the intercepted signals indicating that some agency by the name of the "Parahuman Response Team" was being contacted. Either way, Catherine figured that said agency would at the very least inform her more about where she wound up. Worst case, they tried to arrest her, and she learned that the authorities here were incredibly tyrannical and in dire need of removal.

Before that could happen, one of the adolescent men in the crowd stepped up and said "So, this is Ellisburg. We're part of the United States of America, and we're on Earth Bet. Where are you from?"

Immediately, Catherine made a very slight bow as she didn't actually have the correct neck muscles to nod, before noting "I am Clockwork Knight Catherine. I'm from the Socialist Republic of Amali on Terra Magnus. I was involved in fighting off an extradimensional invasion at the Battle of the Hellrift, which resulted in my displacement."

The group who was still making use of their digital radios continued to relay this information. A few minutes later, a van pulled into view, with the letters "P R T" marking the side along with a logo. Figuring that this would be the local authorities making their presence known, Catherine waved as the van slowed to a stop. Soon enough a few humans wearing tactical gear got out of the back of the vehicle, which Catherine wouldn't begrudge them.

A couple seconds later, the group of troopers were standing around Catherine, before one of the women present introduced herself with "I'm Rachel Ferris with the Parahuman Response Team. I'm here to find out what you're doing, who you are, and what if any plans you might have."

Catherine wasn't equipped for a shrug, so she simply elevated her sensor turret slightly before replying "I am Clockwork Knight Catherine, one of millions of Clockwork Knights manufactured by the Socialist Republic of Amali. I was a nurse prior to getting called up for military duty, and I was attached to the Amali military immediately prior to the Battle of the Hellrift. Forcing the rift closed seems to have caused an unexpected dimensional shift; both the local gravity and stellar emission spectra are slightly different than those experienced on Terra Magnus. At the moment I don't really have any plans due to lack of information, though I am heavily inclined toward the protection of innocent people. Perhaps I might look into being certified for medical duties here."

Looking distinctly bemused, Rachel asked "Were you built like that during your time as a nurse? You seem like you'd have a rather intimidating bedside manner."

Humming a bit, Catherine responded "Yes; when I was manufactured I opted for non-military government employment, which allowed me to keep my Knight-class chassis and equipment. On occasion it was needed to put down a threat to my patients. Opting for a civilian lifestyle would have resulted in me being transferred into a Mediator-class chassis; while certainly more expressive, I would have been far less empowered to actually help people."

After a few moments, Rachel seemed to pick up on something as she noted "You're not speaking English are you? Now that I'm actually focusing on your words, they aren't lining up remotely with what you're actually saying. What gives?"

Immediately, Catherine replied "I have Words of Truth active at the moment. It's a spell that renders all communication in my vicinity understood by all parties present; as a side-effect it renders deliberate falsehood effectively impossible as enough subtext is transmitted to render such attempts self-defeating. Maintaining this effect is a significant draw on my power plant, meaning that learning English for real would be highly desirable."

This is one of the other PRT agents spoke up, saying "Magic isn't real! You can't seriously be saying you're using actual magic to translate for you."

Catherine replied "Well, a lack of local magic would certainly be consistent with the effectively null readings from my Mana Thematograph. Still, I assure you that magic is real, I am using it now, and much of my inner workings are based on it."

That's when everyone heard panicked screaming from up the street, rapidly turning to look. What they saw was a group of monsters grabbing panicked civilians and hauling them off to some doubtless unpleasant fate. That said, they didn't get very far, as Catherine teleported into close combat range with the creatures and immediately dismembered them with her broadsword.

---

(POV: Clockwork Knight Catherine)
As I made the final cut on the group of monsters who had been busily kidnapping civilians, I immediately directed them "Quick, safety's that way!" while gesturing towards where the PRT agents were waiting. That done, I whirled around to check for more monsters, quickly finding another group of creatures pursuing a bunch of fleeing civilians. I didn't give them a chance, nearly instantly lifting my right arm and opening fire with my integrated gun in bullet mode, sending a burst of hypervelocity projectiles downrange and near-instantly pasting the group. The civilians kept running, which was honestly a good move given the circumstances.

As I advanced, I activated my backup radio transceiver, copying the dial sequence I'd noticed earlier to reach the Parahuman Response Team. After a brief period, someone accepted the connection and I immediately channeled Words of Truth through the transmission as I stated "Greetings. I am Clockwork Knight Catherine, currently located in Ellisburg. I am temporarily seconding myself to your agency as a combat asset. There are monsters of unknown origin attacking civilians, and I wish to combat this threat as effectively as possible."

As I said that I was already busily gunning down another group of hostiles. Whoever was on the other end started talking to someone else for a moment, before he replied "Understood, I'll transfer you to console immediately."

A few moments later, a gruff-sounding but vaguely feminine voice answered, saying "Catherine, was it? What's your situation and general capabilities?"

Immediately, I answered "I don't know how to navigate Ellisburg and I'm trying to protect civilians from monster attacks. As for capabilities, I'm a combat automaton strong enough to rip an armored vehicle in half unarmed, I can run at around ninety miles per hour, teleport with a range of fifty meters, jam interdimensional travel, withstand multiple tons of high explosives without significant damage, self-repair, and I've got a mix of integrated and modular weaponry that effectively amounts to unlimited firepower up to the tactical nuke level, with near-flawless accuracy. There are a few other things I can do, but they aren't immediately relevant."

There was a brief pause on the other end as I mowed down another group of creatures, before eventually the dispatcher replied "Understood. I'll try and guide you to where your assistance is needed most."

I replied in the affirmative and kept fighting for the next two hours with no support aside from comms, single-handedly routing thousands of these creatures and rescuing civilians left and right. As I'd fought, I'd also conversed with Jessica over the communication channel, learning what exactly a Parahuman was among other things. Personally, I found the idea rather ridiculous and more than a little suspicious, since there was no apparent cause for their empowerment. That said, Jessica found the idea of Adventurers being empowered by exposure to high levels of Mana rather ridiculous, so there was that. I'd also been gradually turning down the power on Words of Truth to properly learn English as I chatted, the translation spell finding excellent use as a teaching aid.

Either way, two hours in is when Jessica informed me "Good news. All the teams have retreated to the perimeter and are keeping any monsters from escaping. Also as far as we can tell all the civilians either left or got eaten already. You've finally got clearance to use that heavy ordnance of yours, just don't torch the perimeter."

I replied in a pleased tone "I thought you'd never ask!" and immediately switched my omni-rifle into Proton Beam mode. After all, the only reason I hadn't outright killed the Parahuman responsible for this mess yet was because I couldn't find him. Now that I had heavy ordnance clearance I could finally let loose and just start leveling parts of the city until the murderous nutcase ran out of hiding places. Before my fully automatic nuclear-powered plasma cannon buildings were nigh-instantly shattered into flying shrapnel as I blasted craters into the terrain and outright vaporized any of Nilbog's monsters that crossed my line of fire. The immense amounts of dust and heat were of no concern to me since I didn't need to breathe, but even still the destruction was breathtaking. I'd never have been able to pull this off back home, since all the buildings were rated for much more punishment than I could dish out.

I never actually saw Nilbog die with the level of firepower I was throwing around, but after just a few minutes more of this the aerial reconnaissance footage apparently stopped showing any further increases in the monster population. After that it pretty much just amounted to rounding up the stragglers before they could slip the cordon and being debriefed.

Said debriefing occurred with me standing in front of a desk across from a PRT trooper by the name of Emily Piggot. I'd been offered a chair, but after informing everyone of the fact that I massed 750 kilograms, it was immediately determined that I'd simply crush the unfortunate piece of furniture. So, I stood as Piggot remarked "Well, your presence is certainly one of the most unexpected but welcome changes lately. Thanks to you, we're rid of a murderous nutcase and only suffered minimal casualties in the process. That said, I would like to know why exactly you thought it was necessary to level about two thirds of Ellisburg."

I bowed slightly, before answering "Standard doctrine for the Socialist Republic of Amali is to prioritize the protection of innocent lives and the permanent removal of threats above all other factors. Buildings can be rebuilt, books can be reprinted, and businesses can be reestablished. However, people cannot be resurrected barring prior arrangement or exceptional circumstances. As I had no good way of pin-pointing Nilbog's location and his continued survival could not be permitted, my only recourse was obliterating possible hiding spots until I eventually hit the one where he was located. Of course, since the whole point was protecting the innocent, I couldn't do that until I got the all clear that the civilians had been evacuated."

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Clockwork Knight Beryl)

One moment I was in the fortified trenches around the Hellrift, the next I was encased in solid rock, the gravity sensors indicating that I had wound up on a different planet. Or, well, in a different planet, as the case may be. Straining my motor system to no avail confirmed that I was far enough down that even my prodigious strength was horribly insufficient to get me out. This required a bit of creative problem-solving, especially since I had little idea how deep I was and most emphatically didn't want to accidentally teleport into someone if I tried to escape that way.

So I cued up the interface for my self-repair system, changing my schematics to include Deconjuration Field projectors all across my exterior. After about a minute for my systems to reconfigure I activated the Deconjuration Fields for a split second, instantly erasing more than enough of the rock entombing me for me to start moving around. From there, excavating a staircase to the surface would be a simple -- albeit time-consuming -- endeavor. This is what I did for the next twenty minutes or so, ascending nearly five hundred meters in the process.

This is when I noticed a sudden change in the mineral strata to include uncompacted sediments, along with what were obviously artificial structures such as pipes of various sorts. Quickly repairing the damage I'd done to one of the local sewerage lines after finding myself unceremoniously covered in poop, I cleaned myself up and made myself an exit to the surface. In retrospect, I probably should have just teleported the last few meters, as I accidentally came up through someone's flower bed.

Immediately, I heard sounds of distress and activated Words of Truth at the same time as I turned to see a little boy having a panic attack.

"-I'mgoingtogetblamedforthisIalwaysgetblamedwhensomethingweirdhappenswhy-"

Reaching up to haul myself out of the hole, I said "Deep breaths, you need Oxygen. I'm Clockwork Knight Beryl, and if you explain why you're so upset I'll help you deal with the issue."

Nodding as I heaved myself up, the boy explained "I'm Harry Potter, and I live here with my aunt and uncle. I was watering Aunt Petunia's garden when you came up, and I know I'm going to get blamed for it. They always blame me when something weird happens and call me a freak. That usually means I don't get dinner, and I just know it's going to be even worse now."

Kneeling down, I hummed in sympathy and asked "Harry, do you want me to help put the garden back together? Some of the flowers look intact enough to replant, and it will give us some time to talk things over so we can figure out how to make your life better."

After a few moments, Harry answered "Yes, Beryl."

With that I reached down into the hole I'd dug and cast a gentle telekinesis effect to lift the displaced flowers back to the surface. As I did so, I asked "So, you've mentioned that your aunt regularly denies you meals." The boy gasped slightly as he saw the levitating flowers, but I continued "Is there anything else that you want to tell me about?"

Harry nodded as I adjusted my self-repair system again, this time using it to rapidly construct a steel platform so nothing would fall down the hole I dug. As I did so, Harry told me "I sleep in a cupboard under the stairs, like they want to pretend I don't exist. They've got more bedrooms upstairs, but they just get used for Dudley's toys."

Sighing in sympathy as we both patted the dirt smooth, I noted "Yes, that's definitely got to change. Is there anything else you want to tell me about?"

Harry started poking a hole to stick the first flower in, before he let out what had to be years of pent-up frustrations, saying "They don't just make me skip meals, they make me cook for them too. I'd probably have starved to death by now if I didn't make extra portions of breakfast and hide them, but they've started checking the pantry to see if I used extra ingredients."

A brief pulse of Holy Mana from one of my integrated guns rejuvenated the first replanted flower, and I noted "Harry, I don't think the Durlseys are good for you whatsoever, and I promise that I will get you out of there. That said, is there anything else you want to tell me? Maybe school perhaps?"

A bitter, hollow laugh came from Harry as he said "Uncle Vernon told the school I was some sort of criminal mastermind, so whenever anyone does anything wrong, I'm always the one who gets punished. Also, Dudley gets his gang together to beat me up more than usual if I get higher marks than him, and he's a complete prat."

Thinking for a moment, I asked "Would you like to live with me? It would be rough for the first few days while I got everything set up, but I promise I'll care for you much more than your relatives do."

"Even though I'm a freak who keeps having weird things happen?"

And with that I turned and actually looked at Harry's face with my Mana Thematograph active. Hmmm... Thematic signatures are registering significant interference, but there's definitely magic around this child. Also a malevolent soul fragment in his head, which I needed to excise immediately. Otherwise normal. As such, I answered "You're not a freak, you've just got some magic to you is all. That said, someone evil shoved a fragment of their soul into your head, and I need to remove it now before it hurts you."

Looking up at me, Harry asked "Will it hurt?"

I answered "It might, hopefully not." and with that I fired a massive pulse of Holy Mana directly into Harry's face. The child glowed a bit, but didn't otherwise react all that much aside from looking at his hands with an expression of confusion on his face. Meanwhile, my Thematograph allowed me to keep track of matters as the malevolent soul fragment was completely incinerated.

That done, I told Harry "Good news, you are no longer at risk of that soul fragment causing you any harm. Now, I'm going to inform your relatives that I'm taking you into my care. The next stop after that is to talk to whatever authorities can make the whole adoption arrangement official without needing to take over the country and install a new government."

---

(POV: Third Person Near Albus Dumbledore)

Nine hours spent in a pointless meeting with officials from the Ministry of Magic had drained much of the patience from Headmaster Dumbledore. Why the Ministry was concerned about the proper allocation of Hogwarts' decorating budget was completely opaque to him, but apparently they'd deemed it important enough to warrant going through every single piece of financial paperwork he'd signed in the last decade for a discrepancy that added up to a mere two knuts. Adding insult to injury, said discrepancy was in Hogwarts' favor!

As such, it was entirely unsurprising that when Dumbledore got back to his office he was completely and utterly exhausted. Because of this exhaustion, it took him a whole two minutes to notice that his collection of 'desktop widgets' tracking the status of Harry Potter was behaving very differently than they had prior to the meeting. It took Dumbledore a further several minutes to piece together what all of this meant.

The row of dipping birds had mostly changed colors from their uniform red, indicating that while Harry Potter was now a significant distance from Privet Drive, he was still within the greater London area. Not too unusual, there.

Meanwhile, the music box had changed from the tunes he recognized as indicating specific people in Harry's life. None of the Dursley's tunes were playing, instead sounding much more like a military marching tune with massive undercurrents of hope and a distinctive electronic edge. Whoever Harry was with, it wasn't someone Dumbledore recognized.

Meanwhile, the 'mood crystal' had shifted to a dark blue with spinning red lights on top... why was Harry Potter at a police station!? Did he get arrested, and if so, what could he have possibly been doing at age six!?

Confusingly, the nine-balled Newton's Cradle that indicated the level of danger Harry was in had stopped swinging completely. Usually it had three balls swinging on each stroke, and he'd never seen it go lower than two. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

Taking all this in, Dumbledore came to the logical but completely incorrect conclusion that Harry Potter had somehow gotten himself arrested, and he needed to go Obliviate the officers and give Harry a good scolding.

Sighing, Dumbledore retrieved the specially enchanted Tracking Portkey he'd made for if he ever needed to reach Harry Potter's location in a hurry and teleported off. A moment later, he'd arrived to find a VERY large gun near-instantly lodged under his chin and a metallic being holding him securely as it stated "Identify yourself immediately. I've tuned my defenses to block any further teleportation attempts, so don't even think about getting away before explaining exactly why you came in here like that when I'm busy getting Harry out of an abusive household."

Sensing imminent death if he did not comply, Dumbledore answered "I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I knew Harry's parents before they died, and when I found that he had been separated from his foster family I needed to find out what was going on so I could get him back to their protection."

After a moment, the machine asked "Did you know that the Dursleys were regularly starving Harry, sabotaging his education, making him sleep in a cupboard, and forcing him to do all their chores?" as it withdrew the deadly weapon, still holding on with a literally iron grip.

"THEY WERE WHAT!?"

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Clockwork Knight VanChrome)

I arrived in what was obviously a summoning circle of some sort, though the surroundings immediately ruled out the summoning being a Daemonic one. Looking down at the pink-haired adolescent chanting at me, I activated Words of Truth just in time to hear "-my Familiar!" before she leaned in and kissed me.

[WARNING: COGNITIVE INTRUSION DETECTED, INITIATING ANTI-SUBVERSION MEASURES, LOCKING MOTOR SYSTEM]

[SUBVERSION ATTEMPT PROGRESSING AT 0.1% PER SECOND, MEMORY COUNTER-OVERWRITE ACTIVE]

[SELF-REPAIR SYSTEM COMPROMISED, SCHEMATICS ALTERED TO INCLUDE RUNES ON LEFT HAND. PURGING ALTERED SCHEMATICS.]

[PRIMARY LOCUS OF SUBVERSION ATTEMPT IS RUNES ON LEFT HAND; EJECTING COMPROMISED PART.]

[INTRUSION THEMATICS IDENTIFIED: VOID. QUEUING COUNTER-THEMATICS FROM TCU.]

[SUBVERSION ATTEMPT IS ADAPTING TO LACK OF LEFT HAND, RUNES FORMING ON ENTIRE LEFT ARM. EJECTING.]

[PROJECTIONS OF SUBVERSION ADAPTATION MADE. SELF DESTRUCT PRIMED: YIELD, 30 KILOTONS. TRIGGER, 2% SUBVERSION.]

[COUNTER-THEMATICS READY. ACTIVATING MANA FLOOD.]

[SUBVERSION PROGRESS HALTED AT 1.1%, OVERALL PURGE PROGRESS NEGLIGIBLE.]

[ATTEMPT TO SUBVERT ANTI-SUBVERSION PROTOCOLS DETECTED. REDUNDANT COPIES ACTIVATED. COMMISSAR PROTOCOL ENGAGED.]

[PRIMARY EGO SHUTDOWN UNTIL PURGE COMPLETED, ALL POWER TO ANTI-SUBVERSION MEASURES.]

[SELF-REPAIR SYSTEM AUTHORIZED TO PHYSICALLY DESTROY COMPROMISED MEMORY SECTORS.]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 1%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.9%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.8%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.7%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.6&]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.5%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.4%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.3%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.2%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.1%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.5%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO 0.25%]

[SUBVERSION LEVELS REDUCED TO ZERO]

[ELAPSED TIME: 110 SECONDS. DAMAGES ACCRUED: 30% OF MEMORY SECTORS DESTROYED, LEFT ARM ABSENT, SELF-REPAIR SCHEMATICS MUST BE RE-CREATED FROM INFERENCE.]

[REPAIR SCHEMATICS RE-CREATED. SELF-REPAIR ENGAGED. REACTIVATING MAIN EGO.]

I snapped back to consciousness and glared down at the confused and somewhat terrified pinkette, before snarling out through Words of Truth "I do not approve of attempts to take over my mind. The ONLY reasons I haven't killed you for that are because judging by your confused expression you had no idea the spell worked that way and because I purged the corruption from my systems before it attained a critical threshold. I am leaving and have no plans to return. If anyone here follows me, I will kill said pursuer without hesitation."

That said, I gave the adolescent Mage a solid punch to the temple precisely calibrated to give her a moderate concussion without killing her, and teleported on top of the wall around the courtyard. A few moments later I jumped back down to ground level, and walked off towards the planet's nearest rotational pole.

---

(POV: Third Person near Louise de La Valliere)

Louise was nervous, anyone would be in her position. Today was her absolute last chance to prove she wasn't a complete failure as a Mage, as if she didn't summon a Familiar she'd be expelled.

So, after carefully drawing a summoning circle, she began her chant.

"I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, in the name of the great Five Pentagon Powers, following my fate, summon a familiar."

There was a thunderous crash and reality seemed to fracture for a moment, cracks seeming to propagate through thin air. For the merest fraction of a second Louise could have sworn she saw a young man wearing a plain white shirt in the middle of the fracture, before he was abruptly replaced with a heavily armed three-eyed metal golem.

Rushing forwards, Louise hurriedly chanted "Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, bless this creature and make it my familiar." before immediately kissing the golem.

Abruptly, the construct froze in place, where before it had been looking around as if somewhat confused. Slowly, Louise could see the familiar runes forming on the golem's left hand.

Overjoyed, Louise couldn't help but call out "Finally I did a spell right, I'm not a failure!" as she did what could almost be described as a dance. Briefly, as she was interrupted by the sound of an explosion, and whirled around to see that the hand that had been developing the Familiar runes was no longer attached to the golem in question, and had in fact reduced itself to a small pile of metallic fragments on the ground.

Louise's anxiety only grew as the golem continued to stand immobile, giving out no sign of any further action until the runes started inscribing themselves agonizingly slowly again, this time on the left forearm. A few moments later, the entire arm was fired off at speeds that made it clear that the ejection was no accident. Was her Familiar actually fighting the contract!?

No further runes appeared, but after another minute of awkward silence the golem stirred, a new arm growing from their empty shoulder socket at frightening speed.

Then, as Louise looked up at the golem in confused terror, it spoke "I do not approve of attempts to take over my mind. The ONLY reasons I haven't killed you for that are because judging by your confused expression you had no idea the spell worked that way, and because I purged the corruption from my systems before it attained a critical threshold. I am leaving and have no plans to return. If anyone here follows me, I will kill said pursuer without hesitation."

Louise's last thoughts before being punched into unconsciousness were entirely about being a complete and total failure of a Mage who would almost certainly be expelled in the coming days.

---

(POV: Third Person near Professor Jean Colbert)

The instructor asked Marie -- Tristain Academy's on-campus medical professional -- "Is Louise going to recover from that golem's punch any time soon?" while staring at the comatose pink-haired form of his student.

Answering seriously, Marie said "Probably. She has a somewhat serious concussion, but I've seen people recover from worse. That said, even after she wakes up, she will need several weeks of bedrest to recover fully, and will only be semi-conscious during most of that time. That metal golem was either very lucky or very careful, as they seem to have precisely struck with the exact amount of force required to incapacitate Louise for a prolonged period without seriously risking her life."

Sighing, Colbert simply noted "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see then. Please notify me if there are any changes to Louise's condition."

Marie nodded and said "Of course." before gently gesturing towards the door to shoo Colbert out of her office.

Taking the hint, Colbert vacated the room while trying to think what could possibly have happened. He'd taken a look at that arm the golem had left behind, finding both its design and its composition extremely remarkable. However, what bothered him more about that arm was the insignia painted on it. It was obviously some sort of national symbol, but it certainly wasn't a match for any country he'd ever heard of.

Other concerns were the obvious fact that the golem had been actively fighting the Familiar binding, and if its words were to be believed, had actually succeeded at doing so. That was something Colbert had never even heard of happening as even a theoretical possibility, and indicated that whatever sort of golem that was, its creators had put in a rather extreme amount of effort to keep it from being subverted. Then there was the golem's ultimatum, short and simple: anyone who tried to chase after it would die. And yet, they had spared Louise after what they obviously viewed as an incredibly violating attack.

It was with these many contradictions swirling around in his head that Colbert reached his next stop at Osmond's office. As he entered, the headmaster looked up from some paperwork and asked "So, will Louise live?"

As he sat down in the airy office, Colbert answered "As far as Marie can tell the answer is yes, but we don't know for sure yet."

Nodding somberly, Old Osmond thought for a moment, before noting "We won't be able to hide this from the Church, will we? A Familiar rejecting their summoner in such a manner is completely unheard of, and I don't know what sort of punishment they'll try to give us for letting this happen."

Thinking for a moment, Colbert noted "Well, there's one possibility, once Louise wakes up. If that golem did indeed manage to fight off the Familiar contract, then technically speaking Louise shouldn't have a Familiar right now. If that is the case, then she should be eligible to summon another Familiar; we know that she can bring something through just fine, it's just the binding that went wrong. We just arrange a private summoning ritual for her, and claim that whatever new familiar she summons was here all along."

And so, the two professors plotted.

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Clockwork Knight Yarrow)

I emerged in hard vacuum, staring out at countless stars. Rotating my sensor turret quickly revealed that I was in the gravitational influence of a sizable terrestrial planet with three moons, albeit one without much surface water. I could just about make out signs of orbital traffic, which at least indicated that some people lived here. Hmmm... Angular magnitude growth of the planet in my view indicates that I'm approaching at a distressingly fast velocity. I really need a way to control my descent.

So, I reconfigured my self-repair system to enclose my main chassis in a pod made out of regular nanotube steel. Said pod featured six thrust control nodes allowing for full six-axis control, and with the addition of some sensor pods and an auxiliary cognitive driver I had a much better idea where I was going. So, I settled in for a nice sedate cruise towards the planet at around ten kilometers per second, with a nice fifty-gee deceleration burn just as I was approaching the atmosphere. I also adjusted my descent profile so that I'd touch down just a few kilometers outside of one of the larger settlements I'd spotted.

Apparently no-one noticed or cared about my descent, and I touched down unmolested. I quickly deconjured my descent pod, and that done I started walking towards where I remembered the city was. Sure enough, I quickly found myself entering a populated area that seemed to be a residential district, countless small dwellings stacked on top of each other in massive rows. I noticed some people of varying species milling about, but as I approached they largely scattered and tried desperately to ignore my presence. That was fair I suppose, I was a rather intimidating figure.

I figured I'd rather not scare anyone any more than absolutely necessary, so I briefly fired up Words of Truth, said "So, I'm Clockwork Knight Yarrow, and I have no idea where I am. If anyone wants to come talk to me eventually about that, it would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, I'm just going to be waiting out here." and simply stood to attention.

Sure enough, eventually I was cautiously approached by one of the local children. They looked human, generally speaking, with straight blonde hair and an inquisitive expression. After a few moments spent in silence, I remarked "I know you're nervous about talking to me, but I can't very well answer any questions that I haven't been asked."

The child said "Just trying to figure out who made you, and how you're put together. I've seen quite a few Droids, but never one like you."

I hummed a bit, before answering "I was actually made by the Titan of Steel, a being who took it upon themselves to rescue their entire planet from the brutal oppression of the Daemons and their Grand Dragon creations. That said, you wouldn't have heard about any of them; I'm almost certainly not in my home universe, given the dimensional crash I was caught in."

Looking up at me, the kid asked "You must have gone on all sorts of adventures, haven't you? I've never gotten the chance, Watto wouldn't allow it despite being a kinder master than before."

Immediately, I asked "Wait, master!? You're a slave? You mean that barbaric practice is extant here!?"

Sadly, the child simply nodded, before saying "Yes. These are the slave quarters of Mos Espa. Everyone here is a slave, and we can't run away or the implanted bombs will go off."

I was horrified, and immediately stood up as I told the child "I'm getting that bomb out of you, along with every last slave on this planet. All I need is a safe location to construct an operating room, then I can do the rest." The plan was already coalescing in my mind. I'd need to reconfigure into a pseudodungeon to get enough hospital space and teleporters to treat everyone. Once I had that up and running, mass-producing more Clockworks to bring down this entire planet's slaving institutions would be trivial. From there I could easily expand to house a shipyard and a research facility, and get started on purging the galaxy of slaving scum once and for all.

Back in physical reality, the boy hesitated for a moment, before he said "Follow me, my mom might know a place." and started walking off towards one of the residences. I followed.

---

(POV: Third Person near Shmi Skywalker)

When Shmi saw the massive heavily-armed Droid entering her home following Anakin, she had something of a panic attack. After all, that was a hulking humanoid war machine entering her home. This panic attack was slightly eased when said Droid gently closed the door and said "Ma'am. I am Clockwork Knight Yarrow. I'm here to remove the explosive devices implanted in you, your son, and eventually every slave on this planet. Do you have anywhere I can place a secret entrance to an underground operating room? I will require no additional tools or materials. Just tell me where I can work."

Immediately, Shmi was incredulous, asking "Wait, what do you mean that you won't require any additional materials? Are you planning to just magically convert whatever rock and stone you encounter into medical supplies?" there was optimism, and then there was madness.

Shmi most emphatically was not expecting Yarrow to answer "Not exactly, but you aren't far off." before proving her point by materializing a flawless glass jug full of precious life-giving water from nothing whatsoever. Having gently set down the jug of water on an unoccupied piece of floor, Yarrow noted "I can remove matter as easily as I can create it, so as long as I have a place to work I can trivially make a quite large facility to start getting those bombs out of your people. Where would be a good place to put a concealed entrance?"

Thinking for a moment, Shmi answered "The back room. Follow me." Soon, she had arrived over a specific section of floor and said "Here. This corner will work, as long as the entrance is straight down. The tenement was built into a hillside, so there isn't a dwelling below us here, despite the fact that we live on the second level."

Yarrow replied with "Understood. Please be aware that I am about to drastically reconfigure my chassis, and that this process may be visually disturbing."

With that, Yarrow's limbs and head started to melt away, leaving only the torso lump full of systems as it descended into the floor. After a moment, Shmi looked down the shaft, seeing what looked like a simple square pit lined with metal, seeming a lot deeper than she expected. Shortly afterwards, she saw a lift platform rapidly ascending and ducked out of the way. A mere moment later, the platform was seamlessly flush with the floor of Shmi's home, offering no sign at all that anything was out of the ordinary. Seeing all this, Shmi couldn't help but say "Anakin, your new friend works fast."

Almost as lost as his mother, Anakin replied with a simple, silent nod.

After most of an hour, a holographic projector activated showing a simplistic representation of a three-eyed face. This was an immediate prelude to Yarrow stating "I've reconfigured into a facility, and now I have a suitable operating room to locate and remove your detonators. Stand on the pad, and I'll bring you down. Please be aware that this is a teleportation system, rather than a lift."

---

(POV: Yarrow, Pseudodungeon)

It took a few minutes to convince the two people I met to actually trust the teleportation pad I installed. However, once that was done I immediately directed the two to the operating room, where I had a medical scanner set up along with a mechanical surgeon and some other relevant equipment.

Either way, as the mother and son were looking around, I noted "So, first I need to give you a disclaimer. I don't know enough about your biochemistry to safely render you unconscious during the procedure, and I'm not willing to make stupid assumptions that risk your lives. That said, I will be able to suppress the pain signals that you would otherwise experience, and I will take every possible measure to avoid infection. If you think you might need to be strapped in place, please tell me so that I can arrange the restraints prior to the operation and avoid accidentally hurting you any more than absolutely necessary."

The woman thought for a moment, before saying "I could probably stay still, but it would probably be best for you to restrain me anyway. I don't know if I might move involuntarily. The same goes for Anakin."

I made my visual representation nod, before I noted "Understood. One of you onto the scanner table. I need to know where your bombs are before I can safely remove them."

Before the woman could stop him, the boy (apparently named Anakin) jumped up onto the scanner, and when I told him "Please lie down so I can get a better quality scan." he obediently did so.

Thus I fired up the scanner, rapidly locating a foreign object about one centimeter long implanted in Anakin's right armpit. It wasn't quite touching his lung, but it was uncomfortably close to the vital organ in question. As soon as I found it, I informed my patient "I have located the bomb in your ribcage immediately adjacent to your armpit. Please remove your shirt before I strap you down. While I could trivially provide a replacement garment, I would prefer to avoid unnecessarily damaging your possessions."

A few moments later Anakin's shirt was removed, I had him immobilized, a Holy-powered pain suppression effect was active, and I had just disinfected Anakin's skin in preparation for the initial incision. Carefully, I made a single small cut, then inserted a small gripping appendage to pull the bomb out. Seconds later the explosive device was in the disposal bin, and I activated the regeneration mode on the general purpose spell matrix I'd built into the operating theater. Anakin's wound closed up, and I cheerfully informed him "Good news, you're no longer at risk of sudden explosive death. You're a free sapient, and as soon as I've finished overthrowing the planetary government it will even be official."

As I talked, I quickly cleaned off the operating table, a process which included the total destruction of the few drops of Anakin's blood that had been spilled.

Another few moments later, Anakin's mother was on the operating table, and the scanner quickly found the bomb... in her neck, between the airway and esophagus. Why would someone even put it there!? Yes it's harder to remove safely, but by the same token getting it in there had to have been a pain. As such, I informed the woman "Your bomb is at an inconvenient location in your neck. To remove it I will need to insert manipulator appendages into your esophagus through your mouth. Please hold as still as you possibly can, as the immobilization I can provide will be limited."

After that warning, the operation went about as smoothly as it could possibly have been hoped, given the circumstances. I had the bomb out of Anakin's mother in less than a minute, and as soon as the operation was complete I noted "The operation was successful at removing the explosive device. You might suffer some mild discomfort while swallowing during the next few days, as your system isn't fully acclimatized to Mana-enhanced healing yet, so there is unfortunately a small patch of scar tissue in your esophagus."

Nodding in acknowledgement, the woman noted "Thank you sincerely, Yarrow. I know there isn't much, but is there anything at all we can provide to pay you back?"

Without hesitating at all, I answered "A list of the biggest slavers on the planet, along with a basic rundown of what factions are supporting slavery both here and in the wider galaxy. I need accurate information to get rid of the slavers before they wise up to my activities and start using the bombs in other slaves as a hostage situation."

She took a deep breath, and began speaking "Well, the biggest group supporting slavery is the Hutts..." she continued on giving me as much knowledge of the situation as she had for the next hour. Meanwhile Anakin occasionally chimed in, and I was carefully noting down every single thing they said.

Thus, on a backwater planet in a largely irrelevant part of the galaxy, a Clockwork decided that the continued existence of the Hutts as a galactic power bloc was intolerable...

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Clockwork Knight Adamant)

Immediately after the command to pulse all dimensional jammers, I found myself in a barren rocky wasteland streaked with lava flows. Immediately, my Mana Thematograph pinged "Demon, Evil, Clockwork, Torment" as the local Themes. Apparently, I was in a hell dimension, though not the one I had been previously engaged in combat with. On the other hand, it was a solid bet that whatever sort of Daemonic hierarchy existed here was busily committing atrocities and needed to be removed immediately.

Of course, I didn't have much time to think on that, since the dozens of cybernetic Daemons in my immediate proximity noticed my presence near-instantly and started attacking. I obligingly returned the violence, opening up at full power Nuclear Smite with my Omni-rifle at the same time as I began teleporting around and dodging like mad. My omnidirectional sonar was nearly overwhelmed by the amount of contacts in my immediate vicinity as I also started firing the occasional nuclear missile on low yield and continuously running the Plasma Pulse weapon in my chest at maximum area denial throughput, salting the area with literal tons of Holy-charged radioactive isotopes. Yet despite the frankly ridiculous amount of carnage I was causing and the literal near-mountain of heavily irradiated Daemonic corpses I was quickly climbing, I just couldn't seem to make an actual dent in the endless influx of Daemons, and my armor was slowly being worn down despite my self-repair system running at full tilt.

Clearly, this wasn't sustainable. I needed backup so that I could rotate out of the line of fire, and for that I would need to self replicate. To self-replicate, I would need to get away from this massive Daemonic legion long enough that doing so wouldn't be complete suicide. My decision made, I immediately fired ten missiles straight up in loiter mode and legged it at top speed, using a teleport to get out of the mob currently surrounding me. As I ran, I directed the loitering missiles to hit the closest parts of the mob to me, discouraging pursuit. Occasionally, I needed to replenish the swarm of missiles overhead, but that wasn't any significant issue. For the briefest of moments I'd actually thought I'd gotten away, then I spotted another massive mob of Daemons up ahead. I was caught in a pincer.

Immediately, I directed a massive number of my indirect fire missiles to blast the back lines of the Daemonic horde at their maximum yield of 120 kilotons each. This would give me a brief reprieve, but since I didn't much want to nuke myself into molten slag, it didn't help all that much with the hundreds of Daemons I'd need to fight off to get that reprieve. That's when a figure in green armor made their presence known, brutally tearing into the demonic flanking element with a wide variety of weapons. Interesting, the Daemons actually seemed nervous of that person's presence, as they were visibly hesitant to engage them in combat.

Either way, I had bigger problems in the form of the force that had originally been pursuing me, since they weren't currently occupied by that trooper. As such, I whirled around and once more started blasting with Nuclear Smite mode, the Holy-charged blasts of C-fractional plasma having a distinct tendency to blast all but the largest Daemons into smears on the terrain with only one or two hits. Considering that I was firing upwards of 40 such shots per second and was hitting almost every time, I was rapidly mowing down Daemon after Daemon, especially when I mixed in the occasional low-yield missile shot.

After a few minutes of constant firing, I noticed that my current area of focus was currently clear of Daemons and that the figure in green was near me. I immediately started the self-replication macro, a bud that would soon be an entirely new Clockwork Knight forming on my back. As I did so I shouted to the man in green "Keep those Daemons off me for a few minutes so I can self-replicate!"

The man's only reply at the moment was an incredibly brief thumbs-up, before he got right back to killing. Good enough.

The first system of my child to come online were the reactors, followed immediately afterwards by the self-repair nodes and their brain. As soon as that was complete, I detached the 'egg' from my back and got started on making a new one.

Meanwhile, the 'eggs' I was laying very rapidly achieved their final atomic configuration, standing up and getting ready to fight in just a couple minutes; that said, it would take them nearly half an hour to finalize their durability enchantments, which meant that compared to me the three newborns I'd just created were still highly squishy and didn't yet have their full firepower.

Taking a brief moment, I turned to look for the man in green and noticed that there weren't currently any Daemons around. As such I told him "My children and I can handle ourselves from here on out. I look forwards to fighting alongside you in the future."

The man in green simply nodded before going on his way to whatever else he had been planning on doing. As he left, I turned to my triplets and said "Guess what kids? We're going to build a fortified factory complex."

As one, they replied "Sure thing, dad!"

With that, we got to work. Carrie took overwatch duties first, bombarding large groups of Daemons with nuclear ordnance before they could get closer than a hundred kilometers. Fireheart and Jerry meanwhile started digging the initial fortified positions.

As for me? I was the only one here whose reactors were fully enchanted right now, meaning I was on system construction duty. More particularly, the first thing on the to-do list was the base's reactor system, as that would drastically accelerate production and make skipping the Minimal Enchantments phase practical. Plus, when I added the mind who'd become the facility, they'd have plenty of power output to work with. Being a place was a bit too much of a transition for me to make comfortably; I had every intention of remaining a Knight.

---

(POV: Third Person near VEGA)

The Artificial Intelligence currently inhabiting the Doom Slayer's armor was intrigued. Those robots were clearly highly capable at killing Demons, but by the same token there was nothing remotely similar in any records they had access to; their technology base showed no commonality with the humanity VEGA knew, the Sentinels, or the Maykrs; this was especially the case due to a complete lack of Argent energy usage. Similarly, their demonstrated self-replication capabilities meant that if not constantly pressured they could plausibly increase their power far beyond what Hell could cope with. Yet, when that first robot was found, they were the only one present.

Idly, VEGA started comparing hypotheses against the known data about these newcomers. After a few obviously wrong ideas were immediately discarded, they narrowed things down at least somewhat. All available evidence indicated that those robots (now codenamed the Autonomous Knights) had arrived in Hell very recently in extremely small number. On the other hand, clearly these were extremely effective combatants when it came to killing Demons and knew what they were, even if they used a slightly different word. Making this apparent contradiction even more annoying, if this had been a deliberate intrusion into Hell on the part of whoever made those robots, they would presumably have produced more combatants prior to entering.

At the moment, VEGA's tenuous hypothesis was that whatever faction originated the Autonomous Knights knew of Hell and built the constructs to counteract its influence, but that the Autonomous Knight who they had encountered entered Hell by accident. This fit most evidence, including the demonstrated complete independence from Argent energy; a civilization that serious about having nothing to do with Hell would naturally refuse to be dependent on anything sourced from it.

However, this hypotheses didn't quite fit with the total lack of prior documentation; even Hell tended to keep records of the civilizations they interacted with, and a civilization that familiar with and contemptuous of Hell would surely have been mentioned. Perhaps this hypothetical civilization learned of Hell through second-hand experience and took precautions? Immediately after thinking that, VEGA came to the conclusion that they were at the limits of what they could postulate from available evidence, and turned their attention to more productive endeavors.

Namely, helping guide the Doom Slayer to the location of the Fortress of Doom.

Admittedly VEGA also wanted to investigate the infinitesimally small trickle of power they could now detect coming from their core processor of all places, but that would have to wait.

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Clockwork Knight Catherine)

In the aftermath of me demolishing most of Ellisburg, I found myself chatting with Emily Piggot over lunch at the nearest PRT department. Well, it was lunch for her at least; seeing as I didn't need to eat. I suppose it could also technically be considered an interrogation, but I didn't really mind; I rather liked the lady's no-nonsense attitude, and it's not like anything I was telling her about the Republic of Amali would really hurt them. Mana mechanics were possibly in that bin, but at this point I'd spread enough Mana around that it getting everywhere on the planet and subjected to scientific analysis was just a matter of time. It wasn't like I could actually stop it, so I might as well make sure things went smoothly to avoid people getting hurt.

Either way, our conversation started with a specially reinforced chair rated for my immense weight being provided. I was moderately curious where the PRT had gotten it on such short notice, but I wasn't about to question the comfortable seating. Shortly afterwards, Emily asked "So, from reports you mentioned that you apparently run on magic? Would you like to explain that?"

Briefly depressing my sensor turret to imitate a nod, I noted "So, to be more specific most of my systems run on Mana, which isn't exactly matter or energy in the conventional sense. That said it can easily be converted to or from matter, energy, or cognitive activity. The conversion ratios are pretty unbalanced, meaning that by conjuring a sufficiently energy-dense fuel you can actually get a net Mana gain."

After another few moments of thought and a bite of her sandwich, Emily said "So, going by what you've told me, I'm guessing that you're powered that way? It would make sense given that you don't seem to have any sort of port for taking in fuel or recharging your batteries."

Another simulated nod, and I replied "Got it in one; the fuel I'm burning is Protonium, a synthetic nucleus made out of one thousand protons and zero neutrons. Technically it's a form nuclear fission."

This actually prompted a chuckle from Emily, as she said "Best to be on the lookout for Scion then; he's made an occasional hobby of trashing nuclear weapons."

There was another pause, before Emily sighed and finally got right to the point, asking "So, to make a long story short, apparently you mentioned that super-powered individuals can be produced by prolonged exposure to high levels of Mana coupled with specialized training regimes. Would you mind doing that for us?"

Leaning back a bit, I noted "It's actually already happening, and I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to. Though a small amount, you're actually producing your own Mana already just from being around me, as has anyone else I've interacted with. They've doubtless encountered other people and kickstarted their Mana generation and so on. Inside two years environmental Mana levels will be high enough for just about anyone to develop capabilities that would currently be described as superhuman if they put their mind to it."

Looking mildly shocked, Emily responded "But I don't feel any different? Shouldn't I be able to tell if I suddenly had magic powers?"

Thinking for a moment, I noted "Well, you're only generating a trickle of Mana and you've had it for less than a day, so that's not surprising. That said, I can probably teach you how to control your Mana along with the basic four spells right now if you like."

Looking around, Emily asked "In the cafeteria? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

My reply was a simple "Good point, practicing the smokescreen or repulse spell in here is probably a bad idea. On the other hand, the Theme Ping spell will be easy for me to verify if you've managed it, and will be almost totally nondisruptive. So, first thing's first, you need to get really introspective to feel your Mana system the first time; you haven't developed a cohesive set of thematics yet, so it should feel like a vague warmth along your nerves, with a major concentration in your brain. Once you can feel it, you should be able to move it around without much trouble."

Emily blinked, incredulously asking "Are you seriously telling me to meditate for superpowers?"

I mimicked another nod, before bluntly saying "Yes. Now do you want to learn magic or not?"

And with that, Emily closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. I waited patiently with my Mana Thematograph active, watching the woman's nascent Mana system gently diffusing Mana into the environment. I didn't have to wait long until I saw a significant contraction towards her brain, followed by a rebound. Emily's eyes snapped open, and she said "Wow, that's a serious rush. It's like there's an entire part of me that I didn't know was there before now."

In response, I remarked "That's because it didn't exist until your initial Mana exposure. Anyway, here's how the Theme Ping spell works. First, you need to understand the basics of how Thematics work. Basically, almost all Mana has a distinct Theme to it that informs what sorts of things that Mana is useful for. As such, if you can identify what themes of Mana someone has, you can get a general idea of their capabilities. Anyway, to do a Theme Ping you just need to fire out a bit of Mana after imprinting it with the idea that it bounces off stuff and picks up on the Themes it hits."

Shrugging, Emily remarked "Sounds simple enough." pointed straight at me, and fired a pulse of Mana. After a few moments, she asked "Atomic Clockwork and Holy? Mind explaining those to me?"

I was about to start when a man's voice from off to the side asked "What's this I hear about magic? Imitating Myrrdin?"

Both Emily and I turned to look, seeing what I recognized as one of the Protectorate's "capes", namely a flying telekinetic codenamed Grav. He was floating over towards us with his lunch tray in his hands. Well, until he got within six meters of me, at which point he fell to the floor with a confused yell that was interrupted by him briefly burying his face in his mashed potatoes.

Immediately I dashed over and helped the man up, asking "Are you alright?"

Shuddering, Grav answered "Not sure, my powers have never crapped out on me like that before."

Thinking fast, I said "One of my systems may be responsible for this. I'm turning it off, try now." at the same time as I deactivated my Dimensional Jammer. Immediately, Grav floated back up by a few inches before I noted "Turning it back on." which lead to him falling again as soon as I reactivated the Dimensional Jammer.

Everyone in the room was looking at me for several moments of stunned silence before Emily asked "Wait, you're a power nullifier? Why didn't you tell us?"

In response, I answered in an extremely serious tone "Because the system responsible was never intended to nullify powers; it's the jammer technology used to block dimensional travel. The only possible way for it to nullify powers is if those powers are external to Parahumans, and are being provided by an extradimensional agent. I had found the entire idea of Parahumans rather suspicious before now, and those suspicions have been largely confirmed; so many of the oddities surrounding the phenomena make much more sense in light of this information. I'm going public with this before some idiot can classify it; your world is under extradimensional assault and everyone needs to know."

---

(POV: Third Person near Rebecca Costa-Brown)

The Cauldron conspirator currently undercover as Chief Director of the PRT had been enjoying a relaxing chunk of time mercifully free of paperwork, when suddenly an aide showed up and dropped a bulging manilla envelope on her desk that had been stamped with a big red [TOP PRIORITY] [DELIVER TO CHIEF DIRECTOR IMMEDIATELY] [INFORMATION PUBLIC]

Information public!? The only way that could happen and get a Top Priority stamp is if something so massive and impossible to hide happened that the information control teams simply gave up. So, dreading what she was about to read, Rebecca opened the envelope.

What followed was several incident reports, the first of which recounted how an extremely powerful sapient combat robot accidentally arrived in Ellisburg from another universe and subsequently leveled most of the city to put down a murderous biotinker. Then there was a report of this self-identified "Clockwork Knight Catherine" successfully inducing powers in a PRT strike team leader just by talking to them, along with anecdotal evidence that a substance called "Mana" was now uncontrollably spreading and would allow nearly anyone to develop superhuman capabilities if they put their minds to it. Honestly, those first two reports were more a boon than anything else, since it would allow the PRT to massively increase the number of powered personnel available through dedicated training programs.

Then there was the third report. Apparently, Catherine had a dimensional interdiction system installed in her chassis, which became relevant when a Protectorate member who'd been nearby went to join the conversation and wound up getting their powers nulled. Catherine had immediately put the available evidence together and arrived at the accurate conclusion that powers were being provided by extradimensional agents and that Earth Bet was under extradimensional assault. She then proceeded to teleport out to a concealed location and hijack every television and radio broadcast over a significant portion of North America using a ten Gigawatt radio transmitter informing everyone tuned into those media of her identity, her findings, her intention to make Dimensional Jammers widely available as soon as possible, and that she had chosen to do this for the explicit purposes of keeping "some short-sighted fool" from classifying the information.

This left Rebecca caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, if she authorized the mass deployment of the jammers, she would completely cripple Cauldron's operating capabilities. On the other hand, if she were to obstruct the jammers' deployment it would almost immediately expose her as not having the public's best interests in mind. Then there was Clockwork Knight Catherine to consider; that robot had leveled half a city to save lives (as strange as that sentence sounded) and singlehandedly deployed one of the most powerful radio transmitters on Earth Bet to get her message out to the public. Something told Rebecca that someone like that wasn't terribly likely to stand aside from what she would obviously view as incompetence.

So, after thinking for several minutes about her course of action, Rebecca signed the forms to force the jammers through the most rigorous and red-tape laden Tinker-Tech evaluation she could think of, Doored to HQ, and told Doctor Mother that Contessa would be needed to eliminate an interloper.

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Clockwork Knight Beryl)

After our somewhat rocky introduction, Dumbledore and I had managed to settle down to a relatively civil conversation, each of us sitting in a chair we'd magicked into existence. We'd already gone over my origins, the basics of the hidden society of magic users lurking about, how Harry came to be living with the Dursleys, and the fact that I would get physical again if he tried to wipe the memories of any of the police officers. We'd been chatting for several minutes, before I noted "I don't think that what you call magic and what I call magic are actually the same thing. They behave far too differently."

Looking thoughtful for a moment, the elderly wizard replied "You may very well be right, though I would like to hear your reasoning."

I answered "The biggest difference seems to be how magic spreads in each case. The magic you wield seems to be a purely inherited trait, with no possibility for someone born without it to ever use it. Mana on the other hand gets absolutely everywhere, spreads exponentially, and simply doesn't care who's using it." Idly pointing at one of the police officers watching us at random I noted "I could probably already teach that lady a few basic spells of the sort I know, but I highly doubt you could say the same."

Nodding, Dumbledore confirmed "No, I don't believe I could. Nor am I quite certain what will happen once this Mana you've described spreads to every person in the world. Wizarding society is deeply traditional and is unlikely to accept such a drastic change as this easily."

Releasing a simulated sigh, I said "They won't have much choice in the matter. I've run the projections, and those outside the wizarding world will have sufficient esoteric defenses up to render your memory wiping coverup teams ineffective within a decade at the longest. People won't take kindly to the knowledge that elitist magic users have been violating their minds for centuries."

A sad look on his face, Dumbledore agreed "Yes, this doesn't seem to be a change that can actually be avoided. I just fear the bloodshed that will occur when hidebound old wizards collide with an onslaught of justifiably upset empowered muggles."

A saddened hum, as I noted "Yes, that doesn't seem to be completely avoidable, and we both know that lots of innocent people will get caught in the crossfire when that happens. Still, there has to be some way to mitigate the casualties aside from the brute force approach of making an army of Clockworks and arresting most of the planet's population."

Thinking for a few moments, Dumbledore said "I actually have a fairly sizable amount of political influence within the British Wizarding World. If I apply it carefully I might be able to gradually loosen the restrictions on secrecy to a degree and get Wizards and Witches used to going out in public once the new magic starts taking off. That might help with the backlash from my side of things somewhat at least."

I replied "Not sure what I can do about the outer world's reaction so long as the memory wipes remain standard operating procedure. When that gets out, people are going to be absolutely furious. I'm expecting lynch mobs."

Making a saddened sigh, Albus said "You are quite likely correct in that regard. That said, stopping Obliviation is going to be an extremely hard challenge, since the laws mandating its use reach beyond my sphere of influence. I simply don't have the capacity to unilaterally stop it."

That prompted me to ask "What if I made a bunch more Clockworks and we visit all the various centers of wizarding governance to explain the problem and 'persuade' them to see reason? Worst case scenario of that is needing to coup most of the wizarding governments, and being completely honest they aren't long for this world anyway once everyone else notices."

Dumbledore went silent for a few minutes as he thought about the idea, before he said "Sadly, that might actually be the best of a lot of bad options. I certainly can't see any other way to stop Obliviation from happening worldwide, and as you have mentioned, the use of Obliviate is one of the major issues that will turn the outside world against us Wizards and Witches."

"Am I to take that as permission to go ahead with the plan?"

To this, Dumbledore shook his head, before saying "I know it probably won't work, but I would like to try my hand at the diplomatic route first. If it doesn't work, I will contact you again by owl."

I hummed in confirmation, before saying "On a somewhat less grisly topic, I still have every intention of adopting Harry and raising him as best I'm able. Do you have any remaining objections to that?"

Sighing, Dumbledore said "Only one, though it seems surmountable. The last Dark Lord still has a lot of old bitter followers around who believe in his ideals, and I'm worried that without the protective enchantment being recharged by proximity to blood relatives he may be at risk."

In response, I simply answered "Understood. By the time Harry is accepted to Hogwarts, I'll have trained and armed him to the point that I would gladly have served alongside him at the Battle of the Hellrift. You have my word on that."

There was another brief pause, before I noted "Just remembered something important. When I first met Harry, he had a soul fragment from someone absolutely evil lodged in the scar on his forehead. I got it out. Do you think that had anything to do with the former Dark Lord?"

Immediately, Dumbledore stiffened, before he admitted "Probably. I now have a much better idea of how Voldemort was such a seemingly invincible presence prior to his sudden disappearance, but I will need to do a bit of research to confirm my suspicions."

---

(POV: Third Person near Harry Potter)

It had been a few days since he had been adopted by Beryl, and as far as Harry was concerned, events had taken a turn for the bizarre. Beryl's first priority was getting a place to live, which proved mildly problematic for the simple reason that Beryl had absolutely no money to purchase or rent a residence. After asking around for a few hours and determining the local homeless shelters woefully inadequate for raising a child, Beryl had informed Harry "Good news, you're going to be an astronaut. We're going to be building a moon fortress to live in, since no-one will actually be able to enforce a squatting complaint that way."

Looking up at his new mechanical caretaker, Harry couldn't help but ask "Er, doesn't going to the moon need a rocket?", vaguely remembering how history class mentioned that the Americans went to the moon.

That's when Beryl responded "Indeed, that is the case." and began growing a space launch vehicle the size of an SUV designed to seat both Harry and Beryl. One brachistochrone trajectory and a custom-made space suit later, Harry Potter was standing on the moon, looking at Earth on the horizon.

It took several moments for him to process this sudden change of locale, but eventually Harry remarked through the suit's comms "It's going to be really lonely on the moon. I hope we can have visitors over regularly."

Looking up from the construction site for the initial center of the moon fortress, Beryl answered "I promise you, I'll make sure you get plenty of chances to interact with other children. Come to think of it, would you mind if I were to adopt more siblings for you?"

Immediately, Harry spun around and almost fell over in the low gravity before he exclaimed "Really? You'd do that for me? And you wouldn't let them bully me, or anything?"

Taking a break from the construction, Beryl knelt down and gave Harry a gentle hug as he replied "Of course."

 

[Ash19256]

"Alright, Director Goldin, tell me why you and Director Duncan decided to call this meeting." The President leans back in his chair.

"To cut straight to the point, Mr. President, I assume you've heard about the 'Clockwork Knight' that's been making waves in the news?" The DARPA director is sitting relatively straight in their chair.

"It'd be pretty hard not to," the president snarks.

The NASA director speaks up. "In particular, this meeting is with regards to their method of transport, and its implications for manned spaceflight."

The president raises an eyebrow. "Apologies, gentlemen, but I fail to see how a magical flying minivan has implications for NASA's spaceflight programs."

DARPA's director speaks up. "More or less, sir? It has implications due to the fact that the 'Knight' has referred to residing on the Moon."

The president catches on quickly. "Ah. So if we can get them to tell us how their flying minivan works..."

The NASA director finishes the sentence. "We can skip the need for a complicated launch vehicle in favor of a single, multi-purpose ship. Depending on how scalable the technology is, it's entirely possible we could use the technology to launch not just a 'flags and footprints' scale mission akin to Apollo, but a full moonbase, able to sustain it's crew on the lunar surface for months if not years at a time."

"And that's not counting the implications for launch to Low Earth Orbit. Even if the drive system the Knight is using can only carry something the size of a minivan into space, and can't be scaled up, that's still more than a ton and a half up to low orbit, with little to no discernible fuel expenditure and with a fully reusable spacecraft. Even if only 500 pounds of that could be used for payload, that would still be enough to potentially make it cheaper to operate a space station in LEO assembling spacecraft to be shunted up to higher orbits via spacevan based tug instead of trying to launch satellites from the ground on rockets - even the Shuttle can't claim full reuse." DARPA's director is positively excited.

The president looks thoughtful. "Real trick will be trying to figure out where the Knight is fast enough to get someone to ask them about it." He thinks for a moment. "I'll bring it up at the next cabinet meeting, see if we can't work out some ideas for how to get the request to the Knight with as little risk of it getting lost in transmission as possible."

"That's all we can really ask for, Mr. President." The NASA director nods.

"Unless you two have anything else you need to discuss, I think we should all get back to work - the United States may be the greatest country on God's green Earth, but it still won't run itself."

The two directors nod, and politely leave, even as the President turns his attention back to the paperwork he was focusing on prior to the meeting.

Spoiler: A/N

This popped into my head and wouldn't leave. Assuming that Harry Potter takes place around the early 1990s. See if you can guess who's actually showing up here.

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Clockwork Knight VanChrome)

There were several reasons for my decision to leave the area I had arrived in. First and foremost, the experience had me in a nearly murderous fury towards that particular group of magic users, but judging by the reactions I had observed, none of them actually deserved to die. I needed some time to come down off the emotional high and actually think clearly about my situation. There was also a debatably irrational fear of a repeat occurrence, which I might not come back from. Last time I had come dangerously close to the self-destruct threshold, which would have killed who knows how many people in a nuclear fireball.

So I walked due north, climbing straight over whatever obstructions presented themselves. Eventually I would hit either a town or a coastline, then I could decide what to do. I trudged along for several hours, before eventually coming across a small town. About thirty assorted buildings, some fields for growing food, rows of trees that still had blossoms all over them, a couple barns, just generally giving off the impression of a small-time farming community. I'd have to be careful to avoid scaring everyone off, but otherwise it could be nice to spend some time here while I got my bearings.

As such, I slowed down to a pace that a baseline human would consider fairly sedate as I walked the last eight hundred meters into town. I idly noted that it currently seemed to be spring planting, judging by the plows being towed by some beast of burden that I didn't recognize. Several people looked up from what they were doing with easily recognizable expressions of concern and even some fear. As soon as I noticed this, I stood still, fired up Words of Truth, and said "I mean you no harm. I would like to talk with you after today's chores are done; what you're doing is important, and it would be rude for me to get in the way."

That done, I returned to my sedate walking pace until I reached the town, conjured up a chair for myself, and sat down to wait. Sure enough, a couple hours later a few of the people living here walked up. I'd already put my modular weaponry in a small pile off to the side since I wouldn't be needing it right now, which seemed to reassure them at least somewhat. After a few moments of awkward silence, I noted "You've all clearly got a lot of questions that you're worried about asking. Go ahead and ask, I won't take offense."

The first to ask was a well-muscled woman wearing no-nonsense work clothing, asking "What are you and why are you here?"

Simulating a nod, I answered "I am a Clockwork Knight, a magical construct created in another world. I was caught in an unexpected anomaly at the Battle of the Hellrift and wound up in a summoning circle. I then proceeded to purge the mental domination effect that Mage was trying to inflict on me, punched her unconscious, and walked straight north until I arrived here."

Immediately, everyone reacted with fear, before the woman said "You need to leave, now. If the nobility find out we're harboring you after you assaulted one of their children they'll wipe our town off the map and we won't be able to stop them because we can't use magic!"

Zeroing in on her, I asked "So, to be clear, this country operates on the basis of Mage supremacy, and this magical nobility is perfectly willing to engage in collective punishment against those they consider lesser?"

Nodding frantically as she futilely tried to push me out of town, the woman answered "Yes, that's why you need to get out of here!"

Thinking for a moment, I said "Well, going by what you just said, I think what you really need is a change of government. No regime that relies on terrorizing their citizens like this is worth keeping, and luckily for you I happen to be a highly principled machine with plenty of power to make things happen."

With that I stood up, teleported to a clear vantage point before jogging to outside the town's fields, and got down to the business of self-replicating.

---

(POV: Third Person near Louise)

Groggily, Louise woke up with a splitting headache. After a few moments, she managed to get together enough willpower to open her eyes, and found herself face-to-face with a machine much like the one she had summoned. This one was painted up in a garish blue-red plaid pattern though. Through the pounding headache, Louise was barely able to get up the motivation to turn and look before the machine said "Ah, good. You're awake. I'll be able to finalize treatment for that concussion of yours soon."

With that, the machine got out a device that looked an awful lot like someone wedged a crystal ball into a metallic box and brought it up to Louise's head. A few moments later, Louise noticed the agonizing pain in her head receded, and the pink-haired Zero found herself able to think clearly.

With that clarity of thought, she was able to ask "I thought you said you wouldn't be coming back?"

Much to Louise's surprise, the machine answered "That is what VanChrome said. However, I am not him. I am Clockwork Knight Cuprate, and I am currently responsible for your recovery."

Another few moments of thought, before Louise managed to say "I could have sworn I only summoned a single Clockwork. Why are you here?"

Sitting down in a nearby heavily reinforced chair, Cuprate responded "We Clockworks are capable of making more of ourselves very, very quickly. I was constructed two days ago."

This immediately puzzled Louise, and she found herself wondering just how long she was unconscious. Eventually, she asked "After I summoned VanChrome, how long was I unconscious, and why are you here at the academy?"

Cuprate's answer shook Louise to the bone, "You have been unconscious for nine days. During that time, the previous government of Tristain has been deposed and the previous social structure of nobility has been abolished. The academy is still in operation, though much of the non-teaching staff has left for other opportunities."

Immediately, nightmarish visions of mass executions whirled through Louise's head. However, before she could ask, Cuprate cut her off with "None of your family or acquaintances are deceased, nor are they being held as any sort of hostage. They simply no longer have authority to rule over the masses. That said, many did need to be non-lethally incapacitated."

This immediately clashed with Louise's sensibilities and she mumbled an incoherent sentence that might have had something to do with Tristain's tradition of Mage rule.

At this, Cuprate at least had the decency to look somewhat apologetic (somehow) before answering "The magic native to our home universe spreads uncontrollably through the environment and the people occupying it. It is already in low-level usage by a significant portion of the formerly non-magical population, and would have eventually lead to a bloody revolution if the pent up class tensions were not dealt with in some manner. We took action to prevent countless innocent people from being killed, and to end the abuses suffered daily by commoners."

 

[We Just Write]

(POV: Yarrow, Pseudodungeon)

Preparations for purging Tatooine of Slavers took a little while to get ready. First and foremost was actually finding everyone who was responsible for facilitating the slave trade. Shmi's information was excellent for this, but it was clear that her knowledge was distinctly limited. As such, my first course of action was infiltrating the slave markets using rather literal surveillance bugs; bio-engineering wasn't my strong suit, but I'd already got a research and development team of millions of Clockworks happily doing science in the massive underground complex I'd quickly become. Some local insect fauna was quickly captured and analyzed, before the research team came back with a close copy, except that this one had drastically improved sensory organs, and an integrated Mana Comms system allowing for remote direction and sensory data streaming.

I made about ten million of the little bugs in question and surreptitiously scattered them around the various settlements of Tatooine, my insectile observers quickly displacing the unaltered bugs from their ecological niche and settling in to watch the various comings and goings. Very rapidly I started assembling a comprehensive list of everyone who was buying, selling, or trading slaves on the planet. Within forty eight hours I had a hit list of people who I needed to take out, complete with a few exceptions who turned out to be fronts for a secretive 'Underground Hyperlane' that made a point of liberating slaves. I made sure to note down the exceptions, and started getting the forces of every Clockwork Knight who volunteered for the job into position.

I was going to do this quickly and simultaneously. The first that any slaver would know of this would be the receiving end of a quick, clean kill; anything slower and there was a risk that they'd set off the detonators in the remaining slaves. As such, I was getting strategic-range teleporter pads ready for worldwide deployment during the period of observation. Sadly, during this period, I did notice a few slaves being unfortunately detonated. In a couple cases I was able to recover and resuscitate them, but most of the time I would have had to break stealth to achieve that.

One thing I did do while I was waiting however was use a low-yield protonium warhead to kill that nightmarish living execution pit Jabba apparently liked to throw people into. If this planet never saw another Sarlacc, it would be too soon.

Either way, at the end of forty eight hours (about a day and a half local time), I was ready. I sent the command through the tactical net, and every single Knight walked to their teleporter pad. Mere moments later, I flung them all through pseudo-space to their targets. Watching through the eyes of my bugs, I saw to it that justice was done.

---

(POV: Third Person near Jabba the Hutt)

The sail barge known as the Khetanna gently cruised through Tatooine's atmosphere at a leisurely pace. Aboard, Jabba was smugly gloating to his various subordinates about how today he would get rid of a major thorn in his side. After all, he'd finally caught the pair of vigilante Twi'Lek who had been having a surprising amount of success at stealing his personal slaves. As such, when one of the crew aboard the sail barge informed Jabba <<We have arrived at the Great Pit of Carkoon. Or, well, where it's supposed to be.>> the Hutt simply hummed in acknowledgement, before abruptly starting in surprise.

Immediately snapping to attentively gaze at the unfortunate underling, Jabba asked <<What do you mean, where it's supposed to be?>>

To this, the Rodian answered <<There's only a smoldering crater where the Great Pit was. Said crater is faintly radioactive, suggesting that someone took offense to the Sarlacc's existence and fed it some nuclear ordnance.>>

After a moment, Jabba heaved himself off his seat and began slithering towards the ramp for accessing the top deck, idly asking <<Curiously, how deep is the crater?>>

As he came out onto the shaded top deck, Jabba idly heard his underling comment <<At least a hundred meters, sir.>>

Indeed, Jabba thought, the crater was that deep. In fact, seeing it in-person conveyed a new appreciation for just how big the Sarlacc had actually been. Then he looked up, and saw some of his other underlings looking around in sheer confusion on the skiff, apparently uncertain if they should simply kick the pair of rebellious lesbian Twi'Lek over the side to their deaths by falling.

Groaning in frustration, Jabba called out <<Drop them off the side already! The Sarlacc is gone, so we might as well->>

That's when the Hutt crime lord was treated to a very brief yet incredibly peculiar sight. Namely, a three-eyed combat droid seemingly appearing from nowhere right in front of him. He barely had time to process said droid bringing their arm up in a single smooth motion before he found himself staring down the barrel of the integrated gun on said arm. After the briefest fraction of a second, the combat droid fired, the hypervelocity bullet splattering nearly the entirety of Jabba's head in a massive fountain of gore.

---

(POV: Third Person near Qui-Gon Jinn)

The elderly Jedi master nearly fell out of his seat as the ship abruptly dropped out of Hyperspace. After steadying himself and helping Jar-Jar Binks back to his feet, Qui-Gon asked towards the cockpit "What happened? Normally dropping out of hyperspace isn't that disruptive."

In response, the three-eyed combat droid aboard responded "You slammed right into the dimensional jamming field around Tatooine that we put up to stop some nutcase from disabling their hyperdrive's safeties and slamming into the planet."

Abruptly, everyone whirled to face the heavily-armed intruder in their midst. Qui-Gon Jin and Obi-Wan both readied to draw their lightsabers while Padme readied her blaster. After a tense moment, the droid noted "Apologies, I should have introduced myself when I boarded. I am Clockwork Knight Vigilance, and I am currently operating in a customs capacity for Tatooine. That said, what is your purpose for coming here? Please be aware that I will know if you lie."

After a few moments, Padme answered "We were trying to reach Coruscant so we could get relief for the blockade of Naboo. Our ship was damaged when we ran the blockade, and this was the only planet we could reach before our hyperdrive failed where the Trade Federation would not find us."

Nodding solemnly, the droid going by Vigilance answered "Understood. Dock at any of our spaceport facilities and we'll see what we can do to repair your starship. Please bear in mind that it may take some time to fabricate compatible replacement parts, but we will eventually manage it. In addition, we will begin preparing a relief force for Naboo immediately."

Somewhat flabbergasted and suspicious at the sheer generosity on display, Qui-Gon Jinn noted "That's awfully kind of you, though I'm not sure how we can pay for it."

This is about when Vigilance slapped one of their knees with a loud metallic clang and remarked "Hah! Who cares about money when there's innocent people to save! We're going to do it simply because we want to, and we've got the capabilities."