Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Japan Aleph?
Ship of Fools: A Taylor Varga Omake (Complete)
- Thread starter Derek M
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ah, those. How much will they know about Kaiju (the Varga-light version)?
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
Mega-lizards WILL be in the news, even in the next reality.
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
And now I have the mental image of The Family showing up to a midnight screening of several Earth Alph Gojira movie imports and commenting on how it's nice they can get news on what their cousins are up to.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Another scaly beast like this, how he's called? 'Ung' whatever, right?"
"Something like this. Thank the ancestors that that's one reality over."
JoshuaSweetvale
Insectovore
- Location
- NL, 65 Million Years Ago
Sadly, showing the wrong parties at home (Ziz, Cauldron, Scion if they crit-fail) that they can actually travel to Aleph would be rocking the boat a bit much.
- Location
- On the sofa. (Probably)
China? The Koreas?
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Chapter 25: Family
- Location
- Maryland
Chapter 25: Family
Anya was lying on the bed of the dingy motel room she was sharing with Chao-Ahn and Caridad. The two newly-minted vampire slayers had gone out to get food with the rest of the group, but Anya had declined the invitation. She was still trying to understand why Xander had gone back for her and saved her life, ultimately at the cost of his own. He had never made it back out of the high school.
She had no idea what to do with her life. For the time being, she was still part of the Sunnydale group, but without Xander, there wasn't really any attachment there. None of the other options were any more appealing, though. The vestige of the vengeance demon that she used to be was slightly horrified when she realized that part of her apathy had to do with the fact that Xander wouldn't be there by her side. She had turned her back on being a vengeance demon, so why was it so hard to turn her back on the man who had left her at the altar? He was dead, so this should have been the perfect chance to start over and make something of herself.
Instead of taking the next bus anywhere else, she found herself lying in a cheap room that smelled of mildew and the sweat, blood and dust leftover from the battle the day before. Anya had no idea how to break herself out of this emotional lassitude. She was finding it hard to even muster the energy to worry about it.
She did drag herself out of bed when somebody knocked on the door. Almost out of habit, she grabbed a cross in case it was a vamp looking for a free meal, and a can of pepper spray in case it was the skeezy desk clerk looking for something else. He had spent entirely too much time checking out the group of teenage girls checking into his motel. Maybe getting to pepper spray somebody would make her feel better?
She pulled open the door, stared at the man on the other side, and shoved her wooden cross in his face.
Instead of flinching, he just smiled and said, "It's still daylight out, Ahn."
Her eyes narrowed. "Buffy said we defeated you. The Hellmouth is closed. Don't you have some blind crazies to go watch, or something?"
He reached out and grabbed the hand holding up the cross. She started a little at his touch. "I'm not the First Evil, either."
Her mouth dropped open a little. Quietly, she let slip, "Xander?"
He smiled. "It's me, alive and kicking."
She stared at him for a few seconds. Then she whacked him on the arm as hard as she could with the wooden cross. As he yelled in surprise and pain, she started raising her voice. "Where have you been? Why weren't you on the bus with the rest of us on the way out of Sunnydale? And why do you suddenly have two eyes and look eighteen again? Do you have any idea how sad and confused and sorry I've been since we got separated? I even had to share a room with two girls, one of whom doesn't even speak English, and I haven't eaten since yesterday!"
He rubbed his arm with his other hand and said, "Ahn, easy. I know. It's a long story that I want to explain to you. Can I come inside?"
She stepped back. "I don't know, can you?"
He stepped into the room. "A motel wouldn't have a threshold, Anya."
She waved that away. "Giles cast some wards before he collapsed into bed. Now tell me where you've been."
Xander sat down in the ratty armchair, which creaked alarmingly but held together, and began to tell the story. He talked about getting sucked into the hell dimension with the ruins of Sunnydale, and about meeting a character from a comic book and getting rescued by an honest-to-Zeus spaceship. He told her about aliens and giant lizards and wizards and comic book superheroes.
"So you've been wandering around other dimensions for weeks now?" asked Anya.
"Well, to be fair, it's not like I was in control for most of it. I actually spent more than a week scavenging around in ruins looking for Twinkies and bottled water. I did find us some help, though," he explained.
"What kind of help?" she asked skeptically.
"I want to take you with me to meet some friends, actually. That's why I came here." He smiled fondly at her.
"What about the others? Buffy and Willow?" she asked, watching him carefully.
He shrugged. "I have a care-package to leave for them, and we should probably write a note. They'll keep until we can make our way back around here, though."
She smiled at his answer. "All right. What kind of help can your friends provide?"
"What would you say to practical immortality, immense magical power, infinite wealth and technology from the far future?" He grinned in imitation of a certain set of lizards.
"Seriously?" she asked, slightly stunned.
He nodded.
"Do we have to take the time to leave a note?" she asked.
They did leave a crate in the middle of the room with a note on top that Anya jotted off quickly on a dusty piece of motel stationary. Her excitement didn't stop her from looking at him in disbelief when he tapped a brooch of some kind on his chest and said, "This is Xander. Two to beam up." Her expression was halfway between disbelief and surprise when they both disappeared.
Caridad ended up running to get Buffy when they returned and found Anya gone and a suspicious crate that wouldn't open.
The note said: "Dear Scoobies, Xander came back from the dead and proved he was real. He's taking me to get money and power, and we'll probably have orgasms. This junk is for you. -- Anya"
The crate opened for Buffy, and inside were some containers with little lozenges of some kind, a set of instructions for said lozenges that she handed off to Willow, half-a-dozen cool swords that felt strange to the touch but were pretty much unbreakable (Buffy and Faith both tried), and an envelope containing twenty-five thousand dollars in cash. Attached to the envelope was a post-it with Xander's writing that simply said, "I'll be back soon -- Xander."
It was a long time before any of the Scoobies got to sleep that night. They did, however, find a nicer hotel first.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Kingpin landed hard enough on the floor of the particle accelerator chamber to bruise, and he didn't bruise easily. At least that damned wall-crawler had fallen into the beam. Hopefully, his atoms were scattered in bits across the entire multiverse. He stood up, then steadily began to walk toward the access stairs on the bottom the chamber. He was about ten feet away when the entire facility went dark. Less than a second later, the emergency lights came on and provided enough illumination to maneuver.
It took him ten minutes to get back to the control room, which was long enough for his anger to simmer toward a boil. "Dr. Octavius, what happened?" he said as soon as entered the room.
Otto Octavius didn't look up from the computer running on backup power as he answered. "Unknown. We suddenly lost all power to every system apart from emergency backup."
"We are tapped directly into the power mains for this block, AND we have a back-up powerplant. How is that possible?" Fisk asked impatiently.
"I have techs going to look at the power feeds right now," said the bespectacled super-villain.
They ended up calling Octavious and Fisk down to look for themselves. The connections to the main lines and the backup generator had been cut straight through. The cuts were clean, as if done with a laser beam, but there was no sign of super-heating or melting. What was worse was that there was no indication on the security cameras on exactly how it had happened. Spider-man was in the accelerator chamber until his disappearance, and there were no signs of any other intruders on the premises.
Otto Octavius already knew that Fisk was not going to be happy with the estimated time to repair, and they hadn't even looked yet for damage inside the chamber itself from the fight with Spider-man.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Peter came into the window of his apartment via his usual route into the guest bedroom. He came out into the living area to find MJ sitting on the couch, her legs up, while she scrolled through a shopping site on her phone. She looked up at his entry.
"You're home early tonight," she said, putting her phone down and standing to welcome him back.
He went to her with a smile, happy to see her after weeks apart, even if it had only been a few hours from her perspective. "Oh, I had a wild time tonight."
She returned his surprisingly vigorous kiss, then looked at him and asked, "Did something bad happen?"
"No, not bad...but it would probably be easier to show you some things first," he said, not sure how to explain everything.
"Show me what? Where are we going?"
"MJ, trust me. Just put your shoes on. I have some friends who are waiting to teleport us," he said with a grin.
She went to slide on her flats. "Teleport? Did you run into the Fantastic Four again?"
He considered his answer. "More like I got rescued by aliens."
"Aliens?" She was a little skeptical, but stranger things had happened.
"Sort of..." He went to stand by his wife, then pulled out a badge of some kind from a pocket. "OK, Miles, we're ready to go."
There was a bright flash of light, and then the apartment was empty.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Newt, Ellen and Dwayne were sitting together on a couch. They were meeting with Lisa, Danny Hebert's assistant at the DWU who also provided support to BBFO. The little girl had stuck close to the two adults since their rescue, to the point where she would have panic attacks if she wasn't with at least one of the two. The Nox were being extremely supportive and patient, and she was slowly warming up to them, but it would take time. Lisa was there to talk to them about their long-term plans.
"You have a lot of options. The first option is to go to work for BBFO, Inc. Ellen, we could easily extend your contract into a salaried position, and we have options for Corporal Hicks, as well." Lisa was sitting on the other side of a coffee table in a wing-backed chair.
Dwayne took a sip of his coffee. "Doing what?"
Lisa smiled. "That depends in part on where you want to live. Obviously, BBFO has an affiliation with the DWU, which provides security for the complex where its office is located. We are also opening branches in your own home universe on Earth, where we would have use for local advisers with specialist skills."
"You'll let us choose what universe we want to live in?" asked Ellen in a slightly surprised tone of voice.
"Why not? We don't have to worry about customs and immigration rules for entire realities," replied Lisa. "I'm positive that you could find gainful employment with Daniel Jackson's employers, for example, as they're going to need people who are familiar with space travel and combat. The Federation from Miles' universe also has frequently offered sanctuary for people from different times and realities."
The two adults pondered that for a moment. "When do we have to choose?" asked Hicks.
Lisa leaned forward, resting her forearms on her knees. "Well, that's up to you. I highly doubt the Nox are going to force you to leave, and the Family isn't in any hurry to get rid of you. You don't even both have to go to the same place."
Dwayne and Ellen looked at each other. He nodded to her, so she answered. "We're going to stick together for now...at least until we're sure Newt is going to be all right." The two of them had talked about it in private after Newt fell asleep. While they both knew that mutual attraction during a crisis wasn't necessarily a good predictor for a relationship, they also were both committed to making sure that Newt stayed safe and cared for. Both of them were willing to see where things went without rushing it.
"What about the aliens who attacked my platoon?" asked Hicks. "I'm still a Corporal in the marines, and I need to report back to my superiors."
Lisa smirked. "The aliens at the colony were destroyed when the reactor went critical. Weyland-Yutani established a research base near the alien vessel, but the Family rescued the colonists being held captive and destroyed the remains of the alien vessel. Another Marine detachment arrived and took possession of the prisoners and the freed civilians."
"Are you sure all of the creatures are dead?" asked Ellen with a serious look.
Lisa handed her a picture. The picture showed a rocky landscape that Ellen recognized as the location of the alien derelict on LV-426. Where the ship had rested, the ground appeared to have been scooped out to a depth of at least three meters. There was no sign of the ship. "They also scanned the entire planet for xenomorph life signs and found nothing. Weyland-Yutani is also now in danger of entering receivership as most of its major executives and shareholders are under indictment, serving prison terms or under investigation."
"So, Earth is safe?" Hicks looked skeptical.
"There's obviously more work to do, but we're well on our way there. That's part of our reason for starting branches of BBFO and Dracotech. We've seeded Earth and her major colonies with the Family virus that target's xenomorphs. We're also going to be marketing medical one-shot symbiotes that will be able to cure an implantation if one does occur. We could easily find positions for you working on Earth, or even in roving roles between Earth's colonies. You're currently listed as missing in action, Corporal, but we can correct that easily." Lisa was skeptical that they would take the offer, but it had to be made.
Ellen and Dwayne again looked at each other. For two people who hadn't known each other for long, they seemed quite adept at communicating silently.
"We need to think about it," said Ellen.
That was what Lisa had expected. She actually knew what their final decision was likely to be with a 95% certainty, but they wouldn't appreciate being told that before they worked it out themselves. All three of them lacked any family back in their home universe. They were also all extremely wary, with reasons tied to their former home reality. That wariness was likely to slow down the developing relationship between Hicks and Ripley, but it would happen if the two stayed in proximity to each other. It also made the two adults highly protective of the girl, which would keep Newt from losing all faith in adult authority figures, though Lisa would still recommend professional help or an extended stay with the Nox. "That's more than fine. Just let us know when and if you make a decision."
Lisa left the three of them alone in the room to discuss things while she went to check in on Harry and Bonnie.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Karrin put down her mascara to answer the telephone. "This is Murphy."
"Karrin, it's Harry. There's been a change of plans," said Harry Dresden's voice.
She froze, tense, and said, "Oh?" Part of her was worried that Harry had gotten cold feet and was going to cancel.
"Somebody tried to kill me tonight at the boat, and I was rescued by some...highly unusual characters. I mean unusual even by our standards." He sounded relatively relaxed, which meant he probably had escaped injury and wasn't under duress.
"Where are you now? I can come to you." So much for romance, but if somebody was after Harry, she wanted to be there.
"You're going to need special help to get here. There's somebody on their way to get you. He's going to be a tall white guy with dark hair in his early twenties named Randall. He'll be able to use the...means of transit you'll need to get here." That last part was said with hesitance, like Harry wasn't sure what to say.
Suspiciously, Karrin said, "Harry, what kind of means of transit are we talking about, here?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "It's sort of like traveling through the Nevernever. I can explain it better when you get here. Just trust me, Karrin."
"All right, Harry. I'll play along."
"See you soon, Karrin." Harry's voice was affectionate.
Karrin took off the slip she had been wearing while getting ready for their date and pulled on a pair of blue jeans and a sweatshirt instead of the black dress she had been planning to wear. She also made sure to put on her ankle holster, and grabbed a purse with a concealed carry holster instead of the smaller one that matched the dress.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door to her house. She looked through the peephole and saw a young, fit kid who vaguely fit Harry's description. She opened the door, and said, "Can I help you?"
The young man smiled winningly. "Hi, I'm Randall Martins. I'm here to give a lift to Karrin Murphy?"
"That's me. Do you have a car?" asked the short blonde woman.
Randall looked puzzled. "Didn't Harry tell you how we're travelling?"
She frowned. "No."
The man sighed. "All right. We should get out of sight of the street."
Karrin stepped aside and let the kid come into the house, after which she shut the door.
He pulled a badge out of his pocket that looked vaguely familiar. Then he grinned at Karrin, pressed the surface, and said, "This is Randall. Two to beam up!"
Karrin started to ask, "Are you shitting..." Before she could finish, both of them vanished.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Thomas opened the door to his apartment to find three people outside, Michael Carpenter, his daughter Molly, and Dresden's daughter Maggie.
"Michael?" asked the vampire. "Is everything all right?"
"Thomas," said the former Knight of the Cross. "I had a very strong feeling that I should come here with Molly and Maggie for some reason."
"You came across town at rush hour based on a strong feeling?" asked Thomas bemusedly.
The man smiled back. "In my position, you get used to trusting your feelings, as a lot of times there is something with a higher purpose behind them."
Harry's half-brother gestured for them to come into his apartment. "How are things going, Molls?"
Molly gave him a grimace. "I'm dealing," she said. Thomas stared at her for a moment, clearly not buying it. Molly pretty much looked like shit. Apart from getting shot, Chichén Itzá had been traumatic for the magically sensitive girl. Harry had already told Thomas that bringing her along had been a mistake.
Molly ducked her head down. She didn't want to get into it...especially as she knew what was supposed to happen to Harry soon, if it hadn't already. She had been getting ready to go into hiding when her father had shown up with Maggie in tow and told her that they had to go to Thomas' apartment. She hadn't had a good reason to disagree at the time, but now she was worried about what would happen when the White Council learned that the sponsor who had saved her from execution was dead.
Thomas decided to let it drop. Instead, he looked to his niece. "Maggie."
"Tío Thomas," she replied with a smile.
Thomas had just closed the door and was about to question Michael some more about his feeling when there was another knock. He looked questioningly at Michael, but the man just shook his head and shrugged. He turned around and opened the door, finding a young woman standing outside. She had dark brown hair and brown eyes, and was fairly attractive.
"Hello, I'm Linda Morgan. I'm looking for Thomas Raith?" she said.
"I'm him," he answered.
She smiled. "I was asked to track you down by Harry Dresden. Here, just a moment." Before Thomas could respond, she pulled out a very nice looking smart phone and dialed a saved number. "Harry, he was in the first place I looked." She then handed the phone to Thomas.
He put the phone to his ear. "Harry?"
"Thomas, great. I was worried you wouldn't be home. Listen, can you do me a favor and take the woman who gave you the phone, Linda, to find Molly? She may be hard to find right now," said a voice that was clearly Harry's.
"Actually, Molly's in my apartment right now," answered Thomas.
"Why?" asked Harry. Thomas couldn't help being a little irked at the tiny amount of suspicion that leaked into his brother's voice.
"She showed up with Michael and Maggie right before your friend knocked on my door. Michael said he had a feeling he should be here."
"Well, that's convenient," said Harry. "This is going to sound strange, but can you guys let Linda bring you to my current location? She's going to use a special means of travel. Also, if Molly is reluctant, tell her that I remember, and that things have changed."
Thomas didn't like how ominous that sounded. "All right, Harry, but you owe me an explanation."
"Oh, don't worry about that. You'll get it, and I'm sure it will blow your mind." He sounded entirely too amused about that.
Thomas handed the phone back to Linda, then explained the conversation to the others. Michael was willing to come along with Maggie. Molly started to refuse, but she turned pale and quiet when Thomas conveyed Harry's final message. Once everybody was settled, he turned back to his guest. "I think we're all ready."
The woman smiled, then pulled out what appeared to be a badge from the old Star Trek TV show. She pressed it, and it chirped. That wasn't so strange, as Thomas had seen novelty toys like that. Linda said, "This is Linda with five to transport."
When Thomas' view changed from the inside of his apartment to what looked like the inside of a spaceship, he thought, 'I'm going to kill Harry...'
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Ship of Fools exited a wormhole in orbit over Brockton Bay, already moving in a path descending to the city. Down below, the Endbringer known as Leviathan suddenly turned to look in the direction of the descending ship. His tail knocked out the wall of a nearby building, sending a certain insect-themed villain plummeting into the path of a grenade created by the tinker Bakuda. The gathered capes continued to attack, but the Endbringer ignored them and began running at an impossibly fast speed back out to sea, diving under the waves as quickly as possible.
Tattletale froze as she heard her armband say, "Skitter deceased, Eidolon down. Leviathan appears to be retreating back out to sea." There was a pause. "All capes, we have an unknown aircraft descending from orbit toward Brockton Bay."
Another voice came over the armband. "Attention all capes involved in the defence of Brockton Bay. This is Saurial, and I am on the ship descending toward Brockton Bay. We request coverage under the Endbringer Truce. We have healers to deposit at your triage center, and I and my sister will participate in the search and rescue operations."
"Saurial, this is Dragon. You are cleared for landing under the Endbringer Truce."
"Landing isn't necessary," replied the strange voice. Tattletale's head came up at a flash of light from the infirmary arrival zone. Two giant lizards had appeared, one an iridescent purple, while the other was black with red highlights. The black lizard looked directly at Tattletale and grinned. The supervillain felt her power seem to hiccup just before she lost consciousness.
On board the starship, Taylor was sensing the layout of Brockton Bay through the huge quantity of relay and search bugs Ianthe had created to help in the wake of the Leviathan fight. Miles had transported bunches of them around the entire city. It had taken her a few moments to adjust to the massively increased range, but she was already sensing injured and dying people. She started directing Raptaur and Saurial toward the worst spots. She also noted that the damage wasn't as bad as she had expected, and even noted that her house was still intact, though nobody was home. Hopefully, her father was in one of the shelters.
"I'm coming for you, Dad," she said quietly as she started to work.
Anya was lying on the bed of the dingy motel room she was sharing with Chao-Ahn and Caridad. The two newly-minted vampire slayers had gone out to get food with the rest of the group, but Anya had declined the invitation. She was still trying to understand why Xander had gone back for her and saved her life, ultimately at the cost of his own. He had never made it back out of the high school.
She had no idea what to do with her life. For the time being, she was still part of the Sunnydale group, but without Xander, there wasn't really any attachment there. None of the other options were any more appealing, though. The vestige of the vengeance demon that she used to be was slightly horrified when she realized that part of her apathy had to do with the fact that Xander wouldn't be there by her side. She had turned her back on being a vengeance demon, so why was it so hard to turn her back on the man who had left her at the altar? He was dead, so this should have been the perfect chance to start over and make something of herself.
Instead of taking the next bus anywhere else, she found herself lying in a cheap room that smelled of mildew and the sweat, blood and dust leftover from the battle the day before. Anya had no idea how to break herself out of this emotional lassitude. She was finding it hard to even muster the energy to worry about it.
She did drag herself out of bed when somebody knocked on the door. Almost out of habit, she grabbed a cross in case it was a vamp looking for a free meal, and a can of pepper spray in case it was the skeezy desk clerk looking for something else. He had spent entirely too much time checking out the group of teenage girls checking into his motel. Maybe getting to pepper spray somebody would make her feel better?
She pulled open the door, stared at the man on the other side, and shoved her wooden cross in his face.
Instead of flinching, he just smiled and said, "It's still daylight out, Ahn."
Her eyes narrowed. "Buffy said we defeated you. The Hellmouth is closed. Don't you have some blind crazies to go watch, or something?"
He reached out and grabbed the hand holding up the cross. She started a little at his touch. "I'm not the First Evil, either."
Her mouth dropped open a little. Quietly, she let slip, "Xander?"
He smiled. "It's me, alive and kicking."
She stared at him for a few seconds. Then she whacked him on the arm as hard as she could with the wooden cross. As he yelled in surprise and pain, she started raising her voice. "Where have you been? Why weren't you on the bus with the rest of us on the way out of Sunnydale? And why do you suddenly have two eyes and look eighteen again? Do you have any idea how sad and confused and sorry I've been since we got separated? I even had to share a room with two girls, one of whom doesn't even speak English, and I haven't eaten since yesterday!"
He rubbed his arm with his other hand and said, "Ahn, easy. I know. It's a long story that I want to explain to you. Can I come inside?"
She stepped back. "I don't know, can you?"
He stepped into the room. "A motel wouldn't have a threshold, Anya."
She waved that away. "Giles cast some wards before he collapsed into bed. Now tell me where you've been."
Xander sat down in the ratty armchair, which creaked alarmingly but held together, and began to tell the story. He talked about getting sucked into the hell dimension with the ruins of Sunnydale, and about meeting a character from a comic book and getting rescued by an honest-to-Zeus spaceship. He told her about aliens and giant lizards and wizards and comic book superheroes.
"So you've been wandering around other dimensions for weeks now?" asked Anya.
"Well, to be fair, it's not like I was in control for most of it. I actually spent more than a week scavenging around in ruins looking for Twinkies and bottled water. I did find us some help, though," he explained.
"What kind of help?" she asked skeptically.
"I want to take you with me to meet some friends, actually. That's why I came here." He smiled fondly at her.
"What about the others? Buffy and Willow?" she asked, watching him carefully.
He shrugged. "I have a care-package to leave for them, and we should probably write a note. They'll keep until we can make our way back around here, though."
She smiled at his answer. "All right. What kind of help can your friends provide?"
"What would you say to practical immortality, immense magical power, infinite wealth and technology from the far future?" He grinned in imitation of a certain set of lizards.
"Seriously?" she asked, slightly stunned.
He nodded.
"Do we have to take the time to leave a note?" she asked.
They did leave a crate in the middle of the room with a note on top that Anya jotted off quickly on a dusty piece of motel stationary. Her excitement didn't stop her from looking at him in disbelief when he tapped a brooch of some kind on his chest and said, "This is Xander. Two to beam up." Her expression was halfway between disbelief and surprise when they both disappeared.
Caridad ended up running to get Buffy when they returned and found Anya gone and a suspicious crate that wouldn't open.
The note said: "Dear Scoobies, Xander came back from the dead and proved he was real. He's taking me to get money and power, and we'll probably have orgasms. This junk is for you. -- Anya"
The crate opened for Buffy, and inside were some containers with little lozenges of some kind, a set of instructions for said lozenges that she handed off to Willow, half-a-dozen cool swords that felt strange to the touch but were pretty much unbreakable (Buffy and Faith both tried), and an envelope containing twenty-five thousand dollars in cash. Attached to the envelope was a post-it with Xander's writing that simply said, "I'll be back soon -- Xander."
It was a long time before any of the Scoobies got to sleep that night. They did, however, find a nicer hotel first.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Kingpin landed hard enough on the floor of the particle accelerator chamber to bruise, and he didn't bruise easily. At least that damned wall-crawler had fallen into the beam. Hopefully, his atoms were scattered in bits across the entire multiverse. He stood up, then steadily began to walk toward the access stairs on the bottom the chamber. He was about ten feet away when the entire facility went dark. Less than a second later, the emergency lights came on and provided enough illumination to maneuver.
It took him ten minutes to get back to the control room, which was long enough for his anger to simmer toward a boil. "Dr. Octavius, what happened?" he said as soon as entered the room.
Otto Octavius didn't look up from the computer running on backup power as he answered. "Unknown. We suddenly lost all power to every system apart from emergency backup."
"We are tapped directly into the power mains for this block, AND we have a back-up powerplant. How is that possible?" Fisk asked impatiently.
"I have techs going to look at the power feeds right now," said the bespectacled super-villain.
They ended up calling Octavious and Fisk down to look for themselves. The connections to the main lines and the backup generator had been cut straight through. The cuts were clean, as if done with a laser beam, but there was no sign of super-heating or melting. What was worse was that there was no indication on the security cameras on exactly how it had happened. Spider-man was in the accelerator chamber until his disappearance, and there were no signs of any other intruders on the premises.
Otto Octavius already knew that Fisk was not going to be happy with the estimated time to repair, and they hadn't even looked yet for damage inside the chamber itself from the fight with Spider-man.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Peter came into the window of his apartment via his usual route into the guest bedroom. He came out into the living area to find MJ sitting on the couch, her legs up, while she scrolled through a shopping site on her phone. She looked up at his entry.
"You're home early tonight," she said, putting her phone down and standing to welcome him back.
He went to her with a smile, happy to see her after weeks apart, even if it had only been a few hours from her perspective. "Oh, I had a wild time tonight."
She returned his surprisingly vigorous kiss, then looked at him and asked, "Did something bad happen?"
"No, not bad...but it would probably be easier to show you some things first," he said, not sure how to explain everything.
"Show me what? Where are we going?"
"MJ, trust me. Just put your shoes on. I have some friends who are waiting to teleport us," he said with a grin.
She went to slide on her flats. "Teleport? Did you run into the Fantastic Four again?"
He considered his answer. "More like I got rescued by aliens."
"Aliens?" She was a little skeptical, but stranger things had happened.
"Sort of..." He went to stand by his wife, then pulled out a badge of some kind from a pocket. "OK, Miles, we're ready to go."
There was a bright flash of light, and then the apartment was empty.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Newt, Ellen and Dwayne were sitting together on a couch. They were meeting with Lisa, Danny Hebert's assistant at the DWU who also provided support to BBFO. The little girl had stuck close to the two adults since their rescue, to the point where she would have panic attacks if she wasn't with at least one of the two. The Nox were being extremely supportive and patient, and she was slowly warming up to them, but it would take time. Lisa was there to talk to them about their long-term plans.
"You have a lot of options. The first option is to go to work for BBFO, Inc. Ellen, we could easily extend your contract into a salaried position, and we have options for Corporal Hicks, as well." Lisa was sitting on the other side of a coffee table in a wing-backed chair.
Dwayne took a sip of his coffee. "Doing what?"
Lisa smiled. "That depends in part on where you want to live. Obviously, BBFO has an affiliation with the DWU, which provides security for the complex where its office is located. We are also opening branches in your own home universe on Earth, where we would have use for local advisers with specialist skills."
"You'll let us choose what universe we want to live in?" asked Ellen in a slightly surprised tone of voice.
"Why not? We don't have to worry about customs and immigration rules for entire realities," replied Lisa. "I'm positive that you could find gainful employment with Daniel Jackson's employers, for example, as they're going to need people who are familiar with space travel and combat. The Federation from Miles' universe also has frequently offered sanctuary for people from different times and realities."
The two adults pondered that for a moment. "When do we have to choose?" asked Hicks.
Lisa leaned forward, resting her forearms on her knees. "Well, that's up to you. I highly doubt the Nox are going to force you to leave, and the Family isn't in any hurry to get rid of you. You don't even both have to go to the same place."
Dwayne and Ellen looked at each other. He nodded to her, so she answered. "We're going to stick together for now...at least until we're sure Newt is going to be all right." The two of them had talked about it in private after Newt fell asleep. While they both knew that mutual attraction during a crisis wasn't necessarily a good predictor for a relationship, they also were both committed to making sure that Newt stayed safe and cared for. Both of them were willing to see where things went without rushing it.
"What about the aliens who attacked my platoon?" asked Hicks. "I'm still a Corporal in the marines, and I need to report back to my superiors."
Lisa smirked. "The aliens at the colony were destroyed when the reactor went critical. Weyland-Yutani established a research base near the alien vessel, but the Family rescued the colonists being held captive and destroyed the remains of the alien vessel. Another Marine detachment arrived and took possession of the prisoners and the freed civilians."
"Are you sure all of the creatures are dead?" asked Ellen with a serious look.
Lisa handed her a picture. The picture showed a rocky landscape that Ellen recognized as the location of the alien derelict on LV-426. Where the ship had rested, the ground appeared to have been scooped out to a depth of at least three meters. There was no sign of the ship. "They also scanned the entire planet for xenomorph life signs and found nothing. Weyland-Yutani is also now in danger of entering receivership as most of its major executives and shareholders are under indictment, serving prison terms or under investigation."
"So, Earth is safe?" Hicks looked skeptical.
"There's obviously more work to do, but we're well on our way there. That's part of our reason for starting branches of BBFO and Dracotech. We've seeded Earth and her major colonies with the Family virus that target's xenomorphs. We're also going to be marketing medical one-shot symbiotes that will be able to cure an implantation if one does occur. We could easily find positions for you working on Earth, or even in roving roles between Earth's colonies. You're currently listed as missing in action, Corporal, but we can correct that easily." Lisa was skeptical that they would take the offer, but it had to be made.
Ellen and Dwayne again looked at each other. For two people who hadn't known each other for long, they seemed quite adept at communicating silently.
"We need to think about it," said Ellen.
That was what Lisa had expected. She actually knew what their final decision was likely to be with a 95% certainty, but they wouldn't appreciate being told that before they worked it out themselves. All three of them lacked any family back in their home universe. They were also all extremely wary, with reasons tied to their former home reality. That wariness was likely to slow down the developing relationship between Hicks and Ripley, but it would happen if the two stayed in proximity to each other. It also made the two adults highly protective of the girl, which would keep Newt from losing all faith in adult authority figures, though Lisa would still recommend professional help or an extended stay with the Nox. "That's more than fine. Just let us know when and if you make a decision."
Lisa left the three of them alone in the room to discuss things while she went to check in on Harry and Bonnie.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Karrin put down her mascara to answer the telephone. "This is Murphy."
"Karrin, it's Harry. There's been a change of plans," said Harry Dresden's voice.
She froze, tense, and said, "Oh?" Part of her was worried that Harry had gotten cold feet and was going to cancel.
"Somebody tried to kill me tonight at the boat, and I was rescued by some...highly unusual characters. I mean unusual even by our standards." He sounded relatively relaxed, which meant he probably had escaped injury and wasn't under duress.
"Where are you now? I can come to you." So much for romance, but if somebody was after Harry, she wanted to be there.
"You're going to need special help to get here. There's somebody on their way to get you. He's going to be a tall white guy with dark hair in his early twenties named Randall. He'll be able to use the...means of transit you'll need to get here." That last part was said with hesitance, like Harry wasn't sure what to say.
Suspiciously, Karrin said, "Harry, what kind of means of transit are we talking about, here?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "It's sort of like traveling through the Nevernever. I can explain it better when you get here. Just trust me, Karrin."
"All right, Harry. I'll play along."
"See you soon, Karrin." Harry's voice was affectionate.
Karrin took off the slip she had been wearing while getting ready for their date and pulled on a pair of blue jeans and a sweatshirt instead of the black dress she had been planning to wear. She also made sure to put on her ankle holster, and grabbed a purse with a concealed carry holster instead of the smaller one that matched the dress.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door to her house. She looked through the peephole and saw a young, fit kid who vaguely fit Harry's description. She opened the door, and said, "Can I help you?"
The young man smiled winningly. "Hi, I'm Randall Martins. I'm here to give a lift to Karrin Murphy?"
"That's me. Do you have a car?" asked the short blonde woman.
Randall looked puzzled. "Didn't Harry tell you how we're travelling?"
She frowned. "No."
The man sighed. "All right. We should get out of sight of the street."
Karrin stepped aside and let the kid come into the house, after which she shut the door.
He pulled a badge out of his pocket that looked vaguely familiar. Then he grinned at Karrin, pressed the surface, and said, "This is Randall. Two to beam up!"
Karrin started to ask, "Are you shitting..." Before she could finish, both of them vanished.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Thomas opened the door to his apartment to find three people outside, Michael Carpenter, his daughter Molly, and Dresden's daughter Maggie.
"Michael?" asked the vampire. "Is everything all right?"
"Thomas," said the former Knight of the Cross. "I had a very strong feeling that I should come here with Molly and Maggie for some reason."
"You came across town at rush hour based on a strong feeling?" asked Thomas bemusedly.
The man smiled back. "In my position, you get used to trusting your feelings, as a lot of times there is something with a higher purpose behind them."
Harry's half-brother gestured for them to come into his apartment. "How are things going, Molls?"
Molly gave him a grimace. "I'm dealing," she said. Thomas stared at her for a moment, clearly not buying it. Molly pretty much looked like shit. Apart from getting shot, Chichén Itzá had been traumatic for the magically sensitive girl. Harry had already told Thomas that bringing her along had been a mistake.
Molly ducked her head down. She didn't want to get into it...especially as she knew what was supposed to happen to Harry soon, if it hadn't already. She had been getting ready to go into hiding when her father had shown up with Maggie in tow and told her that they had to go to Thomas' apartment. She hadn't had a good reason to disagree at the time, but now she was worried about what would happen when the White Council learned that the sponsor who had saved her from execution was dead.
Thomas decided to let it drop. Instead, he looked to his niece. "Maggie."
"Tío Thomas," she replied with a smile.
Thomas had just closed the door and was about to question Michael some more about his feeling when there was another knock. He looked questioningly at Michael, but the man just shook his head and shrugged. He turned around and opened the door, finding a young woman standing outside. She had dark brown hair and brown eyes, and was fairly attractive.
"Hello, I'm Linda Morgan. I'm looking for Thomas Raith?" she said.
"I'm him," he answered.
She smiled. "I was asked to track you down by Harry Dresden. Here, just a moment." Before Thomas could respond, she pulled out a very nice looking smart phone and dialed a saved number. "Harry, he was in the first place I looked." She then handed the phone to Thomas.
He put the phone to his ear. "Harry?"
"Thomas, great. I was worried you wouldn't be home. Listen, can you do me a favor and take the woman who gave you the phone, Linda, to find Molly? She may be hard to find right now," said a voice that was clearly Harry's.
"Actually, Molly's in my apartment right now," answered Thomas.
"Why?" asked Harry. Thomas couldn't help being a little irked at the tiny amount of suspicion that leaked into his brother's voice.
"She showed up with Michael and Maggie right before your friend knocked on my door. Michael said he had a feeling he should be here."
"Well, that's convenient," said Harry. "This is going to sound strange, but can you guys let Linda bring you to my current location? She's going to use a special means of travel. Also, if Molly is reluctant, tell her that I remember, and that things have changed."
Thomas didn't like how ominous that sounded. "All right, Harry, but you owe me an explanation."
"Oh, don't worry about that. You'll get it, and I'm sure it will blow your mind." He sounded entirely too amused about that.
Thomas handed the phone back to Linda, then explained the conversation to the others. Michael was willing to come along with Maggie. Molly started to refuse, but she turned pale and quiet when Thomas conveyed Harry's final message. Once everybody was settled, he turned back to his guest. "I think we're all ready."
The woman smiled, then pulled out what appeared to be a badge from the old Star Trek TV show. She pressed it, and it chirped. That wasn't so strange, as Thomas had seen novelty toys like that. Linda said, "This is Linda with five to transport."
When Thomas' view changed from the inside of his apartment to what looked like the inside of a spaceship, he thought, 'I'm going to kill Harry...'
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Ship of Fools exited a wormhole in orbit over Brockton Bay, already moving in a path descending to the city. Down below, the Endbringer known as Leviathan suddenly turned to look in the direction of the descending ship. His tail knocked out the wall of a nearby building, sending a certain insect-themed villain plummeting into the path of a grenade created by the tinker Bakuda. The gathered capes continued to attack, but the Endbringer ignored them and began running at an impossibly fast speed back out to sea, diving under the waves as quickly as possible.
Tattletale froze as she heard her armband say, "Skitter deceased, Eidolon down. Leviathan appears to be retreating back out to sea." There was a pause. "All capes, we have an unknown aircraft descending from orbit toward Brockton Bay."
Another voice came over the armband. "Attention all capes involved in the defence of Brockton Bay. This is Saurial, and I am on the ship descending toward Brockton Bay. We request coverage under the Endbringer Truce. We have healers to deposit at your triage center, and I and my sister will participate in the search and rescue operations."
"Saurial, this is Dragon. You are cleared for landing under the Endbringer Truce."
"Landing isn't necessary," replied the strange voice. Tattletale's head came up at a flash of light from the infirmary arrival zone. Two giant lizards had appeared, one an iridescent purple, while the other was black with red highlights. The black lizard looked directly at Tattletale and grinned. The supervillain felt her power seem to hiccup just before she lost consciousness.
On board the starship, Taylor was sensing the layout of Brockton Bay through the huge quantity of relay and search bugs Ianthe had created to help in the wake of the Leviathan fight. Miles had transported bunches of them around the entire city. It had taken her a few moments to adjust to the massively increased range, but she was already sensing injured and dying people. She started directing Raptaur and Saurial toward the worst spots. She also noted that the damage wasn't as bad as she had expected, and even noted that her house was still intact, though nobody was home. Hopefully, her father was in one of the shelters.
"I'm coming for you, Dad," she said quietly as she started to work.
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Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
In what world are China and Korea part of Japan?
Besides, Leviathan only sank Kyushu, so the answer to the question of 'what is left of Japan?' is 'most of it.'
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- Location
- Germany
Fixing things and being badass!
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
As Taylor's research paper in Mauling Snarks points out, sinking Kyushu is likely only the tip of the metaphorical iceburg. The country was devastated and has barely recovered.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Oh yeah sure, unless Leviathan was veeery careful about how it sunk the island the resultant tsunamis and quakes would have utterly ruined every coastline in the entire asia-pacific region, most of the Japanese population likely evacuated elsewhere, leaving only the diehard nationalists behind. But that doesn't change the fact that the answer to 'what is left of Japan' is still 'most of it.' The country is absolutely devastated yes, but it's mostly still there. Utterly ruined, but extant.
- Location
- Southern Georgia
The sinking of Kyushu is very devastating, causing massive tsunamis. I am surprised there is a Los Angeles, Seattle, Australia, or anything left of the Pacific Coast of any land mass there.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Given that Leviathan also sunk Newfoundland without decimating Europe, it can be assumed that it did something to at least mitigate the worst collateral effects of its abrupt geographic remodeling, but there's a big difference between 'mitigated the worst collateral' and 'prevented all collateral' after all.
Some degree of mitigation is also congruous with standard Endbringing protocols; the Endbringers are supposed to apply constant external pressure on the native population, not actually destroy them. If it hadn't mitigated the worst collateral it would have wrecked half the planet with those two acts, which would go counter to The Plan. (Even if The Plan was ruined when Eden face-planted, the Endbringers' programming doesn't give a crap about that.)
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- Location
- Adelaide, Australia
While I agree that Leviathan likely prevented the worst of the damage from escaping Newfoundland and Kyushu (at least in canon,) the Endbringers have nothing to do with the Entities plans. They were never intended to be handed out and are operating entirely on Eidolon's obsessive need for a challenge.
And yes I know that their purpose was to apply pressure to the subject species, but that was by having their cores planted near the borders of countries and using their abilities to arrange incidents, not by straight up attacking population centers. The way things go the loss of parahuman life far outweighed any gains that might have been achieved during the fights.
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Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Eidolon woke them up early, from Eden's vision of a perfect future we know that the Endbringers were supposed to mostly remain dormant outside of the occasional incident until near the end of the cycle, when they would steadily 'ramp up' until the big final battle at the conclusion of the cycle. Eidolon caused them to wake up early and his 'be worthy opponents' order is what is causing them to attack right now, but the 'be worthy opponents' order is layered on top of the 'standard Endbringer programming' so to speak. Based on what the Endbringers actually do, the standard programming is to prevent hosts from leaving the planet, prevent hosts from developing 'forbidden' capacities (nanotechnology, unrestrained true AI, space travel etc), isolate host groupings from each other and prevent hosts from forming large\stable unified factions, and to force a steady 'decline' in host conditions by targeting and removing hosts that are likely to spearhead improvements in host conditions.
The 'be a worthy opponent' command thus makes the Endbringers attack, but the standard protocols dictate how, what, where and why they attack. The fact that they're out early is also why they're sandbagging so heavily; they're trying to conserve enough energy to operate for ~200 years, as part of their standard programming is presumably 'continue operating until end of cycle', which would be in ~200 years if not for the cycle being all buggered up.
The Entities are very 'computer-like' in the nature of their intelligence, and much like a computer they set things up to operate with the assumption that certain other things are true (primarily, that the Thinker is there to keep an eye on things), should those things not be true however, the processes set up continue on blindly regardless because they weren't programmed to consider alternatives.
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FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
I strongly suspect that Eildolon has more say in their targets then you think @Neruz. Why target the location of a peace summit, especially considering how likely it was to actually bring world peace? The idiot was probably feeling threatened by a major event that could lead to world peace having nothing to do with him. Sure, Eildolon wouldn't consciously have wanted the summit attacked. But they aren't getting their orders from his conscious thoughts.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Entirely probable, I'm sure certain specific targets would have been at least partially influenced by Eidolon's subconscious desires, especially given his tiny fragile ego. But I doubt all or even most of the targets had much to do with him; my point is that Eidolon's input on the Endbringers goes on top of their default programming. In absence of specific overriding commands from Eidolon, the Endbringers just fall back onto standard endbringing protocol. The Endbringers are autonomous intelligent weapons intended to serve as a clear external threat for the hosts to unite against, and are programmed as such. Eidolon's theft of their command and control protocols doesn't change their underlying purpose or programming, it just alters their operating parameters.
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- Location
- Marietta, OH USA
You can't 'only' sink an island. An island the size of Kyushu sinking would trigger tidal waves (on top of the ones Leviathan was causing) that would wreak havoc up and down Japan and the coast of China.
- Location
- Amongst the ashes.
Well, if you have more or less unlimited hydrokinesis, you can very well choose to 'only' sink a specific portion of land. How much Leviathan would try to limit damage, and how much it was sandbagging is of course up for debate. This is also a world with parahumans, where there might be some people around with powers that can at least mitigate the damage a bit.
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FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
Even in the original story it's heavily implied that both landmasses being sunk caused wide spread damage. Of course this fact was then completely ignored since any thought what so ever would tell you said damage makes the events of the story impossible. I mean, Brockton Bay shouldn't even exist. And this would have pre-dated the story's start.
- Location
- Milky Way
Nah just put her where she needs to be for the Time loopDid you just off the QoE??!
- Location
- Amongst the ashes.
Yeah, this is my read of what happened too. Still, that situation feels a bit forced to me, since we both know that Taylor and Varga are avoiding making changes if possible, and that they're aware that the endbringers will notice them immediately (or at least as soon as they drop the Assassin's cloak). I can't think of anything they know that would make them want to reveal themselves before Taylor got sent off, especially since as far as I can tell they have no way of seeing that it was needed to trigger the loop.
But honestly, it's not a big issue, considering they might well have discussed it with the Nox/Q etc. by now, any of who might be able to tell this was needed. If I remember correctly the plan was to deal with Skitter last, after having had time to look for fictional matetial about Taylors' realities.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
I assumed that was just them showing up at the absolute earliest they could do so without causing a paradox, Leviathan was already going to flick Taylor into the grenade and they appeared in its senses at exactly the precise time that it was too late for Leviathan to stop the flick, but before it could do literally anything else. Due to Leviathan having a moment of 'wtf' when it sensed them, that meant they could actually arrive slightly before Taylor got grenaded, as Leviathan would mindlessly follow through on its last action in that moment of confusion.
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