- Location
- England
And then Dragon had to delete herself because of the anti-multiple run restrictions she was under.
Ship of Fools: A Taylor Varga Omake (Complete)
- Thread starter Derek M
- Start date
- Crossover
And then Dragon had to delete herself because of the anti-multiple run restrictions she was under.
- Location
- Maryland
And then Dragon had to delete herself because of the anti-multiple run restrictions she was under.
This did occur to me...but I chose to interpret the restriction as an inability to create or upload a full copy of herself. Technically, backups of her personality are "copies," but those are clearly allowed because they're not running. Her ability to edge around her own restrictions also implies she has a small amount of leeway. She could, for example, explicitly state that she cannot modify her own code, but she cannot follow up that thought with explicit thoughts on how to circumvent that restriction.
- Location
- Maryland
Ah, good catch. It didn't even occur to me to check the spelling on that one.
Possibly a Piers Anthony's Xanth series reference, used more than once there.
- Location
- Somewhere, Maybe
Xanth was explicitly built on puns, the later books actually have an author's afterword thanking readers who sent in puns.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Hope it doesn't upset, but I'm pretty sure the Blast Voice is matter erasure, not something as friendly as sonic disintegration... On the upside, at least you wont get deafened.
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
No, you will get deafened, the Blast Voice produces a lot of sound as a secondary effect. All that matter vanishing, then the air, the water, maybe even the ground if it's big enough, surges into the hole thus made.Hope it doesn't upset, but I'm pretty sure the Blast Voice is matter erasure, not something as friendly as sonic disintegration... On the upside, at least you wont get deafened.
- Location
- Earth
A simple (over)approximation: 40L at 1 atmosphere is ~1g TNT equivalent (4kJ) of energy. 40m3, 1kg TNT.
Nowhere near all of that energy is going to go into sound... but even so it's going to be loud. IIRC 1W/m2 of acoustic energy is 120dB. Under some understated assumptions (10% of the energy into sound, 40L volume, 100ms) that's still 120dB at 18m.
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
The Blast Voice does not convert matter into energy. If it did, there would be very little North America left after their initial tests up near Quebec, since they annihiliated several hundreds of millions of tons of rock and water in the process at a minimum.
It removes it from existence entirely. As in, it's gone, the energy equivalent of it is gone, everything is gone. Basically it does the exact opposite of the matter creation ability, on a larger and less controllable level.
The fringe effects of that removal may and indeed can cause serious side-effects, but those effects are just down to a large piece of scenery not being there any more very abruptly, not those of E=MC2 causing issues. But it could be exceptionally devastating even so. For example, consider using it a couple of thousand feet down off the continental shelf and instantaneously removing a cylinder of water half a mile in diameter and several miles long...
The tsunami that would result from that would make the one Leviathan produced fron Newfoundland or Kyushu look like a ripple in a bathtub
It removes it from existence entirely. As in, it's gone, the energy equivalent of it is gone, everything is gone. Basically it does the exact opposite of the matter creation ability, on a larger and less controllable level.
The fringe effects of that removal may and indeed can cause serious side-effects, but those effects are just down to a large piece of scenery not being there any more very abruptly, not those of E=MC2 causing issues. But it could be exceptionally devastating even so. For example, consider using it a couple of thousand feet down off the continental shelf and instantaneously removing a cylinder of water half a mile in diameter and several miles long...
The tsunami that would result from that would make the one Leviathan produced fron Newfoundland or Kyushu look like a ripple in a bathtub
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Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
In short, it makes conservation of energy and entropy in general its bitch. The Varga never got told it can't destroy energy, so it can.The Blast Voice does not convert matter into energy. If it did, there would be very little North America left after their initial tests up near Quebec, since they annihiliated several hundreds of millions of tons of rock and water in the process at a minimum.
It removes it from existence entirely. As in, it's gone, the energy equivalent of it is gone, everything is gone. Basically it does the exact opposite of the matter creation ability, on a larger and less controllable level.
The fringe effects of that removal may and indeed can cause serious side-effects, but those effects are just down to a large piece of scenery not being there any more very abruptly, not those of E=MC2 causing issues. But it could be exceptionally devastating even so. For example, consider using it a couple of thousand feet down off the continental shelf and instantaneously removing a cylinder of water half a mile in diameter and several miles long...
The tsunami that would result from that would make the one Leviathan produced fron Newfoundland or Kyushu look like a ripple in a bathtub
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So, Varga is the entities' solution to the entropy problem. Now they just have to learn how to do it themselves ...Pretty much, yes
- Location
- Somewhere, Maybe
Problem is that they'd do that like they did everything else: by violently crashing into Varga to learn its secrets via osmosis. Which -will not work-, because HAHAHAfuckyou. ^^
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
I'm sure that Varga could be convinced to demon-strate its powers
- Location
- Earth
That was just an approximation of how much energy would be released by the air rushing into the resulting hole. 40L of air total-converting would be somewhat more energetic.
Volume of a cylinder half a mile in diameter and three miles long: ~2.5*109m3
Pressure at 2000 feet below sea level: ~6150 kPa.
Energy released: ~3.7 MT TNT equivalent.
Though in this case it's more where that energy is going than how much energy is released.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
I was thinking more that you might be tough enough to resist sonic disintegration, and be merely deafened... Someone who's had their matter erased, on the other hand, hasn't got any ears, so, tricky to be deafened...
Yes, indeed, people not in the blast area of either are likely to be more than emotionally moved...
- Location
- Maryland
Some common conversation bits from this thread came to mind while I was watching Endgame last weekend.
So, as I watched Endgame, I found myself stumbling over the holes left in the plot due to the complexity of what the film makers were attempting. To wit, when you have a plot that is dependent upon both a) time travel, and b) a wish-granting device, you end up inventing bizarre contrivances and artificial limits in order to preserve conflict.
Taylor Varga as a fanfic already has the wish-granting device in the form of Varga magic, and this is, if anything, made worse in this omake by providing access to the omniverse, including several universes where technology and magic make almost anything possible. Therein lies the reason why I, as the omake author, push back hard against both time travel and resurrection. Let's consider the ramifications in Endgame.
Endgame explicitly calls out that MCU time travel creates branching universes rather than retroactively rewriting the future due to a change in the past. In other words, you cannot create paradox, and you cannot phase out of existence a la Back to the Future. That's all well and good, but it introduces other issues. Some of them may actually be touched upon in future films, if the new Spider-man trailer is any indication. However -- it's been stated that pulling an Infinity Stone out of a universe creates serious issues -- that's what the Ancient One told Banner. What's odd about that is that the very nature of branching the timeline effectively duplicates the set of Stones, as each universe now has a copy. So, could you pull the stones out of a doomed branch with impunity? For that matter, Thanos was able to use the Stones to destroy the Stones...so could they also be used to create copies of themselves in a universe that lacked copies? It's really unclear how this branching timeline model of the MCU interacts with the fact that you have stones that represent both TIME and REALITY, as the two concepts seem inextricably linked to each other. It's also unclear how the MIND and SOUL stones might work -- if there are multiple iterations of individuals, then do they each have their own soul? The well-done plot element of Nebula's cybernetic implants being linked suggest that both Nebulas each had a different mind linked by technology -- but do they share a soul?
Note that it's been fairly plainly stated that this is NOT the model being used in the SoF and TV universes. Some of the impacts would still apply, however.
Resurrection and time travel problems abound from the ultimate solution for the "unsnap" in the film. Stark understandably is not willing to risk his daughter's current existence, so he insists that the last five years not be rolled back. However, when half of the population suddenly comes back into existence, you have MASSIVE problems on a galactic scale at least. Just on Earth, I can think of many issues:
1) Relationships have changed. Quite a lot of people will react in rather dramatic ways to the death of a spouse (or other type of SO) in a five year period. They may get re-married. They may kill themselves. They may use the opportunity to reinvent themselves, come out of the closet, or relocate to an entirely different country. Now suddenly, the dead spouse is back. Consequences range from awkward to tragic.
2) Five years is lifetime for many kids. In that time, they'll change schools, graduate, go through puberty, grow significantly in physical terms, learn things about themselves, bond to a step-parent, try or succeed at suicide, explore their sexuality, develop plans for college, career or other major life events... Having a dead parent OR child come back is going to be a massive impact on life.
3) Property will change ownership or become abandoned in five years. Now you have dead people coming back, but their homes have been repossessed, demolished, purchased by other families, etc. Housing stocks will go from being massively over-stocked to scarce in an instant.
4) Food is produced annually based on a surplus over that needed to feed the current population. Five years is more than enough time for production to drop down from the current maximum, yet now all of these mouths have reappeared without the crops and livestock to feed them.
5) Social hierarchies are now totally different. People have been promoted to fill vacancies at jobs. Criminal elements will have expanded to fill in the gaps left by other criminals who dusted. New politicians have been elected. Religions were likely drastically affected by the snap.
6) Tons of folks would have died in the aftermath of the original snap. Your surgeon disappears in the middle of surgery. Your pilot and copilot both dust on a transoceanic flight. Most of the staff manning a nuclear power plant vanish. We already saw traffic accidents as a result of the snap in the post-credits scene in Infinity War. How horrifying is the thought that some kids died just because their supervising adults disappeared while they were on an amusement park ride, at the swimming pool, or visiting a farm? It isn't clearly stated that any of those folks came back as part of the unsnap. They certainly didn't bring back Vision, and he missed dying in the snap by what, maybe ten minutes? How many kids got unsnapped, only to find themselves orphans?
Every single one of these things exists at a micro level when you start talking about resurrecting the dead or changing the timeline in a story.
Then you have the issues of preserving dramatic tension. Using the Infinity Stones has to be ruinously hard, else you have NO drama as the heroes just fix anything with a snap of the fingers. Even with this constraint, there are obviously multiple characters in the MCU who probably could make use of the Gauntlet. Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, and the half-celestial Starlord all come to mind as possibles. Hell, Tony Stark could probably have figured out how to do so safely -- that's what the Tesseract kind of did, wasn't it? Wasn't that also the purpose of the Eye of Agamatto? He just didn't have enough time. Too bad he didn't have access to a time machine.
There is also the ridiculous constraint on not bringing back Black Widow. The Infinity Stones can be used to destroy the universe. They can also be used to destroy themselves. They literally control time, reality, and the soul. Yet, the whole Gauntlet can't undo a restriction placed on a single Stone? That makes little sense except as a way of writing the character out of the MCU in a semi-permanent fashion (I say semi- because we're talking about a comic book universe.) Why not just bring forward the Widow from before she left, like they did with Gamora?
In short, when you can do ANYTHING, you lose the ability to maintain any dramatic tension, which makes a story one of simple wish fulfillment fantasy. To keep it interesting, you end up doing logical back flips to try and justify your plot. Endgame had me asking WAY too many WHY questions.
1) Why wouldn't you bring back Vision?
2) Why wouldn't you go get past versions of Stark or Romanov?
3) Why can't you reset everything to five years ago, but make sure that everybody born since then goes too, and everybody who wasn't snapped keeps their memories?
4) Why wouldn't you just go into the past and steal an infinite amount of Pym particles so that you can have more than one shot at steeling the Stones? Didn't Cap and Iron Man do just that?
5) Why wouldn't you look into de-aging people the way they de-aged Ant Man accidentally?
6) Why didn't you resurrect everybody who unsnapped and then died in the fight with Thanos' armies?
7) Why can't a user of the Gauntlet FIRST use it to make themselves powerful enough to survive using the Gauntlet?
8) Why would you want to bring back everybody? I mean, if somebody dusted when they were in end stage terminal cancer, is it really moral to bring them back without healing them? What about oppressive dictators, serial killers, etc.? I made a point in an earlier post about how some people did the world a service by passing on.
So, in SoF, time travel is really, really dangerous. Bringing people back from the dead after years have passed is dangerous. In both cases, it does wonky things to space-time and can have really negative personal consequences. That doesn't mean that there is no interest in things like Stargate-universe sarcophagi, DC-universe Lazarus pits, or Buffy-universe resurrection spells, but Ianthe can already heal most lethal issues, so the interest there is mostly academic, and the healing symbiotes make it unlikely that anybody they truly care about is going to die anytime soon in any event.
EDIT: Also, Captain America going back in time makes NO sense. He risks altering the only timeline where Thanos is defeated. He should have just brought Peggy Carter forward into the future, where she could have discovered the wonders of WiFi and a lack of polio.
Taylor Varga as a fanfic already has the wish-granting device in the form of Varga magic, and this is, if anything, made worse in this omake by providing access to the omniverse, including several universes where technology and magic make almost anything possible. Therein lies the reason why I, as the omake author, push back hard against both time travel and resurrection. Let's consider the ramifications in Endgame.
Endgame explicitly calls out that MCU time travel creates branching universes rather than retroactively rewriting the future due to a change in the past. In other words, you cannot create paradox, and you cannot phase out of existence a la Back to the Future. That's all well and good, but it introduces other issues. Some of them may actually be touched upon in future films, if the new Spider-man trailer is any indication. However -- it's been stated that pulling an Infinity Stone out of a universe creates serious issues -- that's what the Ancient One told Banner. What's odd about that is that the very nature of branching the timeline effectively duplicates the set of Stones, as each universe now has a copy. So, could you pull the stones out of a doomed branch with impunity? For that matter, Thanos was able to use the Stones to destroy the Stones...so could they also be used to create copies of themselves in a universe that lacked copies? It's really unclear how this branching timeline model of the MCU interacts with the fact that you have stones that represent both TIME and REALITY, as the two concepts seem inextricably linked to each other. It's also unclear how the MIND and SOUL stones might work -- if there are multiple iterations of individuals, then do they each have their own soul? The well-done plot element of Nebula's cybernetic implants being linked suggest that both Nebulas each had a different mind linked by technology -- but do they share a soul?
Note that it's been fairly plainly stated that this is NOT the model being used in the SoF and TV universes. Some of the impacts would still apply, however.
Resurrection and time travel problems abound from the ultimate solution for the "unsnap" in the film. Stark understandably is not willing to risk his daughter's current existence, so he insists that the last five years not be rolled back. However, when half of the population suddenly comes back into existence, you have MASSIVE problems on a galactic scale at least. Just on Earth, I can think of many issues:
1) Relationships have changed. Quite a lot of people will react in rather dramatic ways to the death of a spouse (or other type of SO) in a five year period. They may get re-married. They may kill themselves. They may use the opportunity to reinvent themselves, come out of the closet, or relocate to an entirely different country. Now suddenly, the dead spouse is back. Consequences range from awkward to tragic.
2) Five years is lifetime for many kids. In that time, they'll change schools, graduate, go through puberty, grow significantly in physical terms, learn things about themselves, bond to a step-parent, try or succeed at suicide, explore their sexuality, develop plans for college, career or other major life events... Having a dead parent OR child come back is going to be a massive impact on life.
3) Property will change ownership or become abandoned in five years. Now you have dead people coming back, but their homes have been repossessed, demolished, purchased by other families, etc. Housing stocks will go from being massively over-stocked to scarce in an instant.
4) Food is produced annually based on a surplus over that needed to feed the current population. Five years is more than enough time for production to drop down from the current maximum, yet now all of these mouths have reappeared without the crops and livestock to feed them.
5) Social hierarchies are now totally different. People have been promoted to fill vacancies at jobs. Criminal elements will have expanded to fill in the gaps left by other criminals who dusted. New politicians have been elected. Religions were likely drastically affected by the snap.
6) Tons of folks would have died in the aftermath of the original snap. Your surgeon disappears in the middle of surgery. Your pilot and copilot both dust on a transoceanic flight. Most of the staff manning a nuclear power plant vanish. We already saw traffic accidents as a result of the snap in the post-credits scene in Infinity War. How horrifying is the thought that some kids died just because their supervising adults disappeared while they were on an amusement park ride, at the swimming pool, or visiting a farm? It isn't clearly stated that any of those folks came back as part of the unsnap. They certainly didn't bring back Vision, and he missed dying in the snap by what, maybe ten minutes? How many kids got unsnapped, only to find themselves orphans?
Every single one of these things exists at a micro level when you start talking about resurrecting the dead or changing the timeline in a story.
Then you have the issues of preserving dramatic tension. Using the Infinity Stones has to be ruinously hard, else you have NO drama as the heroes just fix anything with a snap of the fingers. Even with this constraint, there are obviously multiple characters in the MCU who probably could make use of the Gauntlet. Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, and the half-celestial Starlord all come to mind as possibles. Hell, Tony Stark could probably have figured out how to do so safely -- that's what the Tesseract kind of did, wasn't it? Wasn't that also the purpose of the Eye of Agamatto? He just didn't have enough time. Too bad he didn't have access to a time machine.
There is also the ridiculous constraint on not bringing back Black Widow. The Infinity Stones can be used to destroy the universe. They can also be used to destroy themselves. They literally control time, reality, and the soul. Yet, the whole Gauntlet can't undo a restriction placed on a single Stone? That makes little sense except as a way of writing the character out of the MCU in a semi-permanent fashion (I say semi- because we're talking about a comic book universe.) Why not just bring forward the Widow from before she left, like they did with Gamora?
In short, when you can do ANYTHING, you lose the ability to maintain any dramatic tension, which makes a story one of simple wish fulfillment fantasy. To keep it interesting, you end up doing logical back flips to try and justify your plot. Endgame had me asking WAY too many WHY questions.
1) Why wouldn't you bring back Vision?
2) Why wouldn't you go get past versions of Stark or Romanov?
3) Why can't you reset everything to five years ago, but make sure that everybody born since then goes too, and everybody who wasn't snapped keeps their memories?
4) Why wouldn't you just go into the past and steal an infinite amount of Pym particles so that you can have more than one shot at steeling the Stones? Didn't Cap and Iron Man do just that?
5) Why wouldn't you look into de-aging people the way they de-aged Ant Man accidentally?
6) Why didn't you resurrect everybody who unsnapped and then died in the fight with Thanos' armies?
7) Why can't a user of the Gauntlet FIRST use it to make themselves powerful enough to survive using the Gauntlet?
8) Why would you want to bring back everybody? I mean, if somebody dusted when they were in end stage terminal cancer, is it really moral to bring them back without healing them? What about oppressive dictators, serial killers, etc.? I made a point in an earlier post about how some people did the world a service by passing on.
So, in SoF, time travel is really, really dangerous. Bringing people back from the dead after years have passed is dangerous. In both cases, it does wonky things to space-time and can have really negative personal consequences. That doesn't mean that there is no interest in things like Stargate-universe sarcophagi, DC-universe Lazarus pits, or Buffy-universe resurrection spells, but Ianthe can already heal most lethal issues, so the interest there is mostly academic, and the healing symbiotes make it unlikely that anybody they truly care about is going to die anytime soon in any event.
EDIT: Also, Captain America going back in time makes NO sense. He risks altering the only timeline where Thanos is defeated. He should have just brought Peggy Carter forward into the future, where she could have discovered the wonders of WiFi and a lack of polio.
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- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
It's actually worse than that, I think.
If you magically and instantly remove this cylinder of water, the immediate result is that the remaining void will suddenly collapse. Internally, all there is for most of the collapse time is a perfect vacuum. There will be a small amount of water vapor that starts to outgas from the inner surface as the water boils due to the vacuum, along with other gasses dissolved in that water which come out of solution, of course. But that will be negligible, so there's very little to slow down the infalling sea until it hits itself.
The water will be pushed inwards to the center by both water pressure (from the sides and bottom) and gravity added to that water pressure (from the top.) It would have up to a quarter mile of run up, and even under only gravity that would give it a final velocity of some 88 m/s. Under the water pressure at depth, the acceleration will be considerably higher. With the given figures, the half-mile cylinder diameter will break the surface by a few hundred feet so the end result won't be symmetrical, but all that water is nominally going to meet roughly in the center of this cylinder and then just... stop. Velocity goes to zero instantly.
It's even worse if it's much deeper, of course, since the velocities will be higher and it will be coming in fast from all directions. In fact, it would be much worse, thinking about it, since if it doesn't break the surface and allow air in, any cushioning effect will be at a minimum...
The end result is the single largest pulse of water hammer you've ever heard of
The sound of the initial pulse would be heard around the planet and the shock wave would kill everything in the water for many miles. There would be other shocks as well as it would basically bounce, producing enormous turbulence and smaller cavities, which would then repeat the process.The inrush of water as the surface collapsed, followed by the rebound effect, would obviously cause a tsunami similar to the Sumatran one of 2004 only on a far, far larger scale. Yes, the total energy release is smaller than over 800 miles of fault line slipping, and over a much smaller area, but it's far larger in amplitude so the wave heights would be apocalyptic. It would be analogous to something like a very large undersea avalanche, I think.
Now, for the special effects... Bearing in mind that tiny bubbles which resemble the above description on a much smaller scale result from cavitation, and that when something only microns across can collapse hard enough to get sufficiently hot it emits light... Well, a bubble of vacuum at a size of cubic miles collapsing is going to get very hot indeed. I wonder if it would get hot enough, and high pressure enough, to at least briefly emulate inertial confinement fusion?
Not sure and I can't be bothered to work it out, but I suspect you could arrange this to happen if you made the cavity large enough and deep enough. If nothing else, you'd get one hell of a flash and a lot of heat, which would add to the overall entertainment.
So yes, it's not necessarily the total amount of energy released, it's how it's released
- Location
- St Joe MO
Yeah my first thought was similar but I made one mistake.An excellent analysis of Endgame, most of which I thought of myself. However, my first thought after watching it was...
In Civil War, Cap made out with his niece!
I thought Sharon was Peggy's daughter or granddaughter and since she was blond when Peggy was brunet and Cap was blond...
Chapter 31: Shining a Light
- Location
- Maryland
CHAPTER 31: Shining a Light
The Guardian Ganthet appeared in orbit over Oa in the location where the energy surge had been detected by the security sensors. The being that was waiting calmly for him was surprising. "Highfather, to what do we owe your visit?" asked the Guardian curiously.
The white-maned leader of New Genesis regarded Ganthet sternly. "Guardian, I come because it is time to correct a mistake that was made long ago. You chose to elevate logic over feeling, crippling your ability to relate to the mortals of this realm. Even when the Manhunters turned on you, you persevered in this error. Now I fear that you are on a path that will lead toward ruin."
Ganthet frowned. "Are you referring to the Blackest Night prophecy? You see our failure in how we changed ourselves after the betrayal?"
Highfather allowed the ghost of a smile to touch his visage. "Some of you changed less than others, old friend." He grew serious again. "We have learned things, things about our universe, and our possible futures, that make it imperative that we not allow certain things to occur. To truly guard this universe, you need to be invested in it in a way that is impossible today."
"The others will fight you," said Ganthet, simply. There was no accusation or warning...simply a statement of fact.
Highfather gestured to the space around him. "I do not come alone."
Fading into view behind Highfather were the rest of the New Gods...Orion, Hyalt, Avia, Gideon, Metron...the entire host arrayed in splendor. A short distance away appeared the pantheons of the Old Gods, led by Zeus, Odin, and Amon-Ra at the front, though he could see representatives from other pantheons like Quetzlcoatl and Vishnu. To the other side of the New Gods appeared the Endless. Dream took the center, but was flanked by Death and Destiny. Behind stood Desire, Despair, Delirium and Destruction.
Farther away, in the opposite orbit from the massive gathering of gods old and new, there were other groups appearing. Ganthet recognized Nabu, the Lord of Order, surrounded by cloaked figures...presumably the other Lords, mysterious in their anonymity. Offset to the side from the Lords of Order sat a being who was in many ways their opposite, the Fifth Dimensional imp known to the heroes of Earth as Mister Mxyzptlk. On the other side of the Lords of Order sat a globe of power holding three human-like figures -- Michael Demiurgos, his daughter, Elaine Belloc, and Lucifer Morningstar. Their relatively slight stature belied their power, both as individuals, and for who they ultimately represented.
Next to Highfather appeared five final figures, a Kryptonian, an Amazon, an Atlantean, an avatar of the Speed Force, and a non-powered human dressed like a bat. "I notice that John Stewart and Guy Gardner are not here as well," said Ganthet, addressing the League members.
Kal-El nodded in acknowledgement. "They felt that they could not remain impartial given their roles as members of the Corps."
Ganthet looked around at the arrayed power...power that would give pause to even the Guardians of Oa. "You all feel that this is necessary?" asked Ganthet of the assembled host.
"An outsider to this universe came to me and presented me with evidence that was in agreement with my own observations," said Highfather. "They have conversed with each of us, and we have all independently come to the same conclusions. You know how unlikely that would be were it not true."
"Yeah, the lizard made some really good points," came Mxyzptlk's high-pitched voice, seemingly from nearby despite his presence on the other side of Oa. "We need to make some changes."
"We do not normally choose to intervene," said Lord Morpheus, "but reality itself is broken in ways that were starting to manifest in our realms...in ways that threatened causality."
Ganthet looked down upon Oa. He closed his eyes and communed with his fellow Guardians. The debate did not last long, despite its contentiousness. Finally, he looked up and regarded the gathered host. "Very well. We will not oppose you. We open ourselves to your judgement."
"So be it," proclaimed Highfather.
Arcs of force extended between the groupings of the gathered beings before stretching out to touch Ganthet and the planet below. A tendril of power extended into the Central Power Battery, reaching for two beings imprisoned within. In one tentacle of power writhed a yellow, worm-insect hybrid being. Another held a green whale-like being. The creatures, Parallax and Ion, were the sentient personifications of fear and willpower. Other bolts of power shot off across the breadth of the universe. Soon, Parallax and Ion were joined by the personifications of the rest of the emotional spectrum: Predator, Ophidian, Adara, Proselyte, and Butcher, representing love, avarice, hope, compassion and rage. The seven beings merged into a singular ball of fluctuating color under the will and power of the combined host, which then exploded into a horde of glowing orbs of emotion. These orbs flowed down toward Oa, with one smaller orb heading straight to Ganthet and merging into his form.
All across the planet, the Guardians suffered the same traumatic ignition of feeling. Reactions varied. One Guardian had been reviewing the case of a group of particularly inept pirates apprehended in Sector 421, and he found himself laughing uncontrollably. Another, whose close friend had died over six hundred years ago, sank to the floor and began sobbing uncontrollably in grief. Around the planet, massive extremes of emotion manifested themselves...sometimes violently. Ganthet appeared to be keeping his lips and eyes tightly closed.
"Are you alright?" asked the Man of Steel to the Guardian in orbit.
Ganthet said nothing for a moment, then replied, "It has been a long time since I have had feelings so intense, son of El. I fear that it may be some time before my people are able to again assert themselves in the galaxy."
On the planet below, three figures appeared. One was reptilian, while the other two were more human-looking, though still alien.
Anteaus looked around. "These people chose the wrong path."
"That's true," agreed Saurial. "But we've started to fix that. Now what they need is help in dealing with their emotions. Each of these Guardians is more powerful than one of the Ascended Ancients, and they have responsibilities in the galaxy that must be met."
Lya smiled. "Some of the Nox relish this opportunity, Saurial." She looked meaningfully at Anteaus, who gave her a very tiny smile in return. "It is unfortunate that this is necessary, but it is the first step needed."
"This reality may not have persevered without intervention," agreed the male Nox. "Truth is not always kind." Their findings in their examination of Jimmy Olsen had only been but a symptom of the structural weaknesses of this reality.
"I'll leave it in your hands, then. Thank you," said Saurial. At the answering nods, she touched her communicator and vanished.
Around Oa, several hundred Nox appeared in ones and twos and began moving to aid the Guardians. A time dilation field shortly appeared over the planet. Satisfied that their work was done for the moment, the collected beings of power departed. The New Gods made sure to remove the members of the Justice League back to the Watch Tower. Waiting for them were two men dressed in green.
"Is it done?" asked John Stewart with a frown while Guy stopped his irritated pacing to hear the answer.
Batman replied, "The Guardians are restored, and there is a time dilation field over the planet to aid in their recovery."
"They just left them there to stew?" said Gardner, incredulous. "That seems harsh, even to me."
Superman shook his head. "No, they left help there. Members of a race that are especially adept at helping others know themselves and find peace."
"I spoke with some of them, and you can believe me when I say I think they're in good hands," agreed Wonder Woman. Unwilling to contradict both Superman and the Amazon, both Green Lanterns reluctantly nodded their heads in acceptance. Soon, the members of the League returned to their duties.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lex began going through his emails by force of habit. This morning, luckily, was occupied with matters that were extremely mundane -- just the day-to-day peculiarities of running a multi-billion dollar business empire. Not too long ago, Lex would have been chomping at the bit to plow through it and get to something more interesting...usually yet another plot to kill, or at least inconvenience, a particular Kryptonian. Now, he welcomed the mundane, as it gave him the opportunity to think. His recent hosts had been particularly adept at picking apart his own self-delusions. Lex shockingly felt a significant amount of disgust at his own past behavior, though in truth the cancer eating away at his body and mind, as well as the side-effects of the various experimental treatments tried, had at least some of the fault for his actions. Pausing at that thought, he pushed a button on his desk. Within moments, Mercy Graves walked into the room.
"Lex?" she asked expectantly, using his given name as they were alone.
"Mercy, I want you to tell me something with complete, blunt honesty," said Lex.
Mercy raised an eyebrow. "Do you have reason to suspect that I'll lie?" Her relationship with Lex was complicated, but she would have thought that it was well past that point.
"No," he said, shaking his head, "but you may be inclined to be...careful in choosing your words when you hear the question. I'm telling you now that I would prefer your initial response without any sugar coating."
This time, she raised both eyebrows, but she replied with, "All right, Lex."
"What do you think of my general behavior and business acumen since I got sick?" asked Luthor.
Mercy frowned. "Put bluntly...you've been distracted and somewhat careless. Your focus on Superman has bordered on obsessive, and you've lost some of your ability to properly assess and mitigate risks."
"You didn't think that was worth bringing to my attention?" he asked, though her assessment matched his own in many respects.
"Lex, you wouldn't have listened, and you weren't doing anything that exceeded the parameters we set for my stepping in and checking for outside influences. Yes, you were more intense, but only on those things you always focused upon in the past. I assumed that part of it was coping with your illness." Mercy looked slightly troubled as she spoke. "Why do you ask?"
"Last night I was kidnapped," he said, though from his perspective it had actually been several weeks ago.
Mercy tensed. "Why wasn't there a security alert?"
Lex actually smiled at her concern. "The kidnappers were very adept, and were ultimately there to cut a deal with me. For one thing, they cured me."
Now Mercy looked shocked. "Really? You've verified the cure?" Given how long Luthor had been trying to fix his sickness, she had reason to be skeptical.
"I triple-checked it," said Lex. "Not only do I have no sign of cancer, but every single thing that was ever wrong with me is fixed. My knee that always twinges when the weather changes? Fixed. The scar from where that thug stuck me in the side in Gotham? Gone." He noticed her glancing to his bald scalp. "I've had to shave my head until I figure out what to do with all of this." The stubble on his scalp had been a pleasant surprise, but he realized that suddenly growing hair would raise a lot of questions, and he hadn't yet decided on answers.
"Who were these people?" asked Mercy.
"I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself," said Lex. "They were, literally, alien lizards from another dimension." Mercy was staring at him. "Really, I'm not making this up. If I had, I would have come up with something more plausible. It turns out, though, that they share a lot of my concerns about the Justice League and their role in this world."
"Is there a reason they care?" asked Mercy, honestly curious.
Luthor gave a chuckle. "Believe it or not, they ran into somebody from our universe and agreed to help when they learned certain things." Mercy's look made it clear she wanted him to explain. "Apparently, Olsen wasn't actually kidnapped by paradaemons. He fell through a portal into another universe. While they were looking into getting him back home, they discovered some troubling facts about our reality -- problems that piqued their interest."
"Problems you know how to fix?" asked Graves.
"Let's just say I have skills that can contribute." He looked at his watch and noted it was getting late. "Have them bring a car around. I have an appointment with Dr. Wexler at S.T.A.R. Labs in forty-five minutes."
Mercy left to take care of transport while Lex considered whether or not he should take the next step. Finally, he lost patience with his own indecision and sent the email to Bruce Wayne. That would ensure that the Justice League got a hold of the materials the lizards shared with him. He smirked to himself at the level of effort Wayne was likely to put into making sure the materials were both safe and authentic. Sometimes the best pranks were played by not doing anything deceptive at all.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Vala was wandering around, trying to find something interesting to do. It was frustratingly difficult to get up to mischief on the Nox home world. They were great hosts, but not the most exciting species in the galaxy. She decided that looking through the buildings in the little human village was better than sitting around and staring at the sky, though most folks seemed to be off somewhere. Inside one of the residential buildings, she came across a tall blonde woman staring at a data pad. Vala smirked at the woman's outfit, a grey bodysuit that left little to the imagination. "Well, you're new," she said suggestively
The woman looked up from her pad, and Vala realized she had some type of cybernetic implant embedded over her left eye. "I have accepted an offer of employment with the Family. They informed me that my first assignment was to discuss my time in the Collective with the Nox." The woman showed no signs of being surprised at being addressed, nor did she seem to react at all to Vala's tone of inquiry.
"The Collective? Is that some type of criminal gang?" asked Vala, curious.
The blonde quirked an eyebrow. "The Borg Collective are a cybernetic group consciousness that dominates a large portion of my home galaxy. The Borg are known for conquering other species and assimilating their biological and technological distinctiveness to service the Collective. I was assimilated into the Collective as a young girl."
"That must have been difficult...I'm Vala, by the way, Vala Mal Doran," said the brunette.
"I do not remember my assimilation. My designation was Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One."
Vala frowned. "That's a bit of a mouthful."
"The crew of the U.S.S. Voyager preferred to call me Seven," said Seven of Nine.
"All right, Seven! So the lizards have you going to therapy with the Nox?" asked Vala.
Seven quirked her head to the side, like a puzzled bird. "On the contrary, I was simply asked to provide them with information. It is not the first time I have been queried about the Borg by others who fear them."
Vala laughed. "Oh, that's how it starts. You think you're just sharing intelligence. They asked me to talk about my time as Qetesh. I figured they were looking for information about the Goa'uld, secret stashes of treasure and technology and that type of thing. The next thing you know, I'm baring my soul to them and they're making me confront my issues and I didn't even realize it until later when I was eating dinner, thinking about it."
"What is a Qetesh?" asked Seven.
Vala laughed again, but this time there was a hint of hysteria to it. "Qetesh was the name of the Goa'uld who possessed me." Seeing Seven's lack of understanding, she continued. "The Goa'uld are a parasitic life form. They burrow into your body and take over. Most of them are sadistic megalomaniacs, and they do everything they can to crush the spirit of their hosts. Hosts are stuck watching while their bodies commit atrocities." By the end of this, the usually upbeat Vala was looking at the floor between her boots, her voice quieter than usual.
Seven regarded her without expression. Finally, she said, "When you are part of the Collective, your entire mind merges with it. There is no sense of self. Your body is just another drone doing the bidding of the Borg. The Borg Collective sees assimilation as a gift...but most of the other races in the galaxy see it as an atrocity, stealing the individualism of entire societies for our own benefit. As part of the Collective, I know my body helped assimilate other sapient beings against their will."
The brunette looked at her, both curious and sympathetic. "Do you feel bad about that?"
"As part of the Collective, I had no control over my body's action, and no free will with which to make decisions," replied Seven.
"So you don't feel guilt?" asked Vala.
Seven frowned. "I am unsure how I feel."
"I know what that's like," muttered Vala. "So, what do you do for fun when you're not talking to the Nox?"
The blonde woman looked back down at the data pad. "I am reviewing the control algorithm for the wormhole drive of the ship that brought me here, particularly the multidimensional targeting mathematics."
Vala got a determined look on her face. "You, my new friend, are in desperate need of some excitement, and I think I know just the thing!"
Seven wondered why she suddenly had a feeling of profound disquiet at the other woman's declaration.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Willow went into the conference room referenced in the message she received from Metis. Somehow, her laptop continued to work despite being on an alien planet in another universe. Apparently, the Nox have WiFi and Internet, although it was the local Earth's version. Strangely enough, she hadn't had to charge either her laptop or her phone since she arrived. Part of her was relieved that she didn't have a cell signal, as she wasn't sure if she could handle the revelation that MCI Worldcom had cell towers on alien planets.
She looked up when a voice from the doorway asked, "Are you Willow Rosenberg?" The man who owned the voice was tall, with dark hair and a beard peppered with white. He was handsome in a stern mentor kind of way, and was dressed in a blue and red costume that was decorated with arcane symbols.
"That's me," said the redhead with a nervous smile.
"Ms. Rosenberg, my name is Dr. Stephen Strange. I was given your name by Saurial as somebody who might be interested in attending lessons," said the man.
Willow looked at him askance. "I don't know what Saurial told you, but I took a leave of absence from college. I intend to go back and finish my degree, of course, but things in Sunnydale got kind of wonky..."
Dr. Strange held up his hand. "Ms. Rosenberg, I'm not a college professor. I am the Sorcerer Supreme for my branch of the multiverse. The Family introduced me to Harry Dresden, a wizard who was travelling with your friend Mr. Harris. I'm going to be tutoring him at a private retreat for a number of months. Your name also came up as a fellow practitioner."
Willow looked interested but cautious. "What types of lessons do you intend to give, because I've learned to be careful about certain things? I mean, you don't look all evil, not that I would judge you by your appearance, but I try to stay away from dark magic these days."
Strange filed away the, "these days," comment for future exploration. "Harry comes from a universe where magic has a strong sympathetic bent that has an unfortunate technology bane distortion. We were going to first focus on attempting to circumvent those issues."
"Are you thinking of a thaumaturgic inversion field?" she asked, suddenly interested.
"Perhaps, but we need to explore his channel rate. It may work with a fetish tied in as a mana battery," he answered.
Willow continued to ask questions, and found herself being impressed with the man's general magical knowledge. She was also surprised at how much she was learning just from this single conversation. Finally, they reached a natural break in the conversation.
"Can I surmise based on your interest in this topic that you would be willing to join us at the retreat?" asked Strange.
Willow's face fell. "I'm not sure how long I can be away from my friends. We have our own world that needs protecting."
Strange smiled. "Believe me, I understand completely. I wouldn't be going myself if it weren't for the time dilation available through the Family's wormhole drive. We can return to our universes without losing significant amounts of time."
Willow hesitated. She had ample reasons to be cautious about magic. "Can I think on it for a while?"
Strange looked at her with a knowing look. "Certainly. If I may suggest something...you may want to talk to the Nox about this."
She wondered what Strange meant, and how much he knew about her past. She considered asking him, but instead just said, "I'll consider it." She would talk to Xander first and get his opinion.
"Very well," replied the wizard. "I'll leave you be. Just let the Family know if you wish to join us."
Willow sat for a bit after the Sorcerer Supreme left. The time she had spent with the Devonshire Coven had been mostly about learning control and the ethics of spellcasting. Part of her wanted to immerse herself into learning about magic without the constant guilt. Unfortunately, that appeal is also what gave her pause. Her background of learning magic on a Hellmouth left its mark on her psyche.
Finally, she went looking for Xander near his quarters, and instead came across Anya. She was sitting and reading a business magazine that seemed to have a picture of Lex Luthor on the cover. "Anya, is Xander around?"
Anya looked up from her magazine and shook her head. "He went over to Brockton Bay to check out some of the construction projects the union guys are working. What do you need him for?"
Willow considered the question. She and Anya hadn't interacted much, but the woman seemed calmer and more confident since Xander came back. "I'm looking for his opinion of the Nox."
"Huh, well, I've spent a lot of time talking to them. What do you want to know?" asked the ex-demon with a slightly artificial smile.
Figuring she had little lose, she replied, "I just spoke to a man named Dr. Strange, and he suggested I speak to them about my past."
A look of realization passed over Anya's face. "Ah, you want to join Dresden in the universe with the xenomorphs, but you're worried about black-veiny evil Willow showing up again, right?"
Willow grimaced. "Basically correct."
"Talk to them," said Anya simply.
"Talk to whom?" asked the witch.
Anya shrugged. "Talk to any of them. If they aren't the right one to help, they'll put you in touch with the right one. The Nox are like the best therapists of the multiverse. They helped me understand how much of my past was the demon and how much of it was me."
Slightly confused, Willow asked, "How much of it was you?"
Anya sighed. "Willow, people can get used to almost anything. I got used to doing terrible things to men based on the flimsiest of reasons, and part of the reason it was so easy was because it gave me a feeling of power, and more importantly, control. That's something that I had to acknowledge, and its something I can feel guilty about."
"You almost sound happy about that," said Willow.
"Guilt is like fear, Willow. It has a purpose. The important thing is to learn how to work through it so that you can become better," said Anya unusually seriously. "You can't change your past, but you can change how you act in the future."
"The Nox told you that?" asked Willow, surprised at Anya's insight.
Anya shook her head. "They don't come out and tell you things, usually. Talk to them, and you'll find yourself coming to your own conclusions."
"Thanks..." said Willow awkwardly. Anya simply nodded and went back to her magazine. Willow wandered off, trying to figure out how she ended up in a world where Anya spouted wisdom and wizards held sleep-away camps.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lisa left her bedroom and went to grab a glass of water to take her aspirin. She was explicitly not thinking about the giant lizards, as doing so had given her a massive headache. It was like her power was slamming her head against the wall repeatedly, too stubborn to give up in spite of the relative difference in hardness between her forehead and the concrete blocks. It was just like she had overused her power, but it came on annoyingly fast when she tried to think about the reptiles.
Rachel was out checking on her dogs at her kennel, which had thankfully escaped unscathed during the fighting. Alec was playing an online shooter, taking advantage of how ridiculously fast the power had come back on after the Endbringer fled. Brian was in his room talking on his cell phone. Even without her power, she could tell by the frustration in his voice that he was probably talking to Aisha. The girl seemed particularly adept at winding him up, and he was still keyed up from the Leviathan fight and the split with Skitter.
Coil had been quiet...surprisingly so. She could only surmise that he was busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack. Having an underground lair was probably less than optimal during a fight with the aquatic Endbringer, even if it was based in a re-purposed Endbringer shelter. Either that, or he was preoccupied with the same thing as the PRT -- the alien spaceship that deposited giant lizards with magical powers that made Leviathan run like its conscience was chasing it. Still, she had expected to have to explain by now why she couldn't use her powers on the visitors without having an aneurysm.
Putting her glass in the sink after swallowing her pills, she noticed a hand-written note sitting on the counter. The hand writing was unfamiliar. She picked it up and read, 'Coil's power is the ability to split time into two paths; he can drop one of the paths at any time and keep the other, then split time again. He is currently distracted because he has rapidly started to have issues with his power failing unexpectedly, and the absence of his usual crutch is making him indecisive.'
"Alec!" she called out. He started to swear at somebody over his headset. "Alec!" she said slightly louder. She still didn't get a response, so she yelled, "ALEC!"
"WHAT?" he yelled back. Then he swore profusely as his game character was killed. "Damn it, Tats, look what you did. What the hell is so important?"
She held up the note. "Where did this note come from?"
"How the hell would I know? I've been playing for the last couple of hours. Whose handwriting is it?" he asked.
She shook her head, then regretted that action as it made her headache worse. "I don't recognize it. It isn't any of us, so that means somebody came in here and left it."
The irritation on his face was now mixed with some puzzlement, which was a minor improvement. "Is it from the Boss?"
She walked over and handed him the note. "Somehow I doubt it, given the contents."
He read through the note and Tattletale could tell he was as surprised by the contents as she was. Having finished his call, Brian came into the room. Seeing them huddled over something, he asked, "What's going on?" Lisa handed him the note and explained about how it appeared next to the sink. "Nobody saw or heard anything?" the nominal team leader asked.
"No," she answered, "and I can't see how anybody could have entered and left the note without being seen unless they were using a Stranger power."
Brian glanced around the room, looking in vain for anything seeming out of place. "Why tell us this? Do you think this is right about Coil's power?"
Carefully not nodding her head, she said, "Yeah, it fits with the evidence we've seen, and it also matches the way he operates. That whole thing where he randomly tells us a job is on or off would mesh well with a power that lets him try both options and keep the one that works."
Alec raised an eyebrow. "So any time we got a no-go, that means something went wrong?"
"For Coil, at least," she said. "Or maybe something went right in the timeline he kept and he wanted to lock it in."
"Could Skitter have left the note? She could have had her insects bring it in," said Brian in a neutral tone of voice.
Lisa's power told her that Skitter probably could do it, but that she hadn't done it in this case. "I don't think so. Besides, she could have just called me if she had information. I would have spoken to her."
"Is there anything we can do to check, or to catch whoever left the note," asked Grue.
"I'll keep an eye out for anything out of place, but if they're a Stranger, we might not be able to catch them," she said with a frown. "At least, not without some additional gear. We might be able to rig something up with Coil's help." She didn't like the idea of having to ask for something, but she liked the idea of a Stranger stalking them less, and she might as well use his money if she was stuck working for him.
"Mention it the next time he calls," was his response. Lisa acknowledged that, then went back into her bedroom to lie down.
On her bed was another note.
"Oh, for Christ's sake," she said under her breath.
She picked up the new note. 'You don't want to bring Coil in on this. His days of freedom are growing extremely short. We have an offer to bring the Undersiders in and have them switch sides.'
She plopped down onto the bed and rested her head in her right hand, her elbow resting on a knee. "If you're in my room," she said somewhat angrily, "then you better show yourself." She looked around at the walls of the room and didn't see anybody. Glancing down at the note, she froze.
At the bottom of the note, the words, 'LOOK UP,' had appeared.
"Oh, shit," she said quietly. Then she turned her head to look up.
The tall warehouse loft ceiling gave the inhabitants plenty of head room. That was really the only way that the giant fucking lizard hanging from the ceiling could do so without brushing the top of her head. It was the midnight black lizard that had appeared near the medical center during the Leviathan battle. Lisa gasped and fell backward onto the bed.
"Hello, Lisa," said the reptile with a mouth that she could now see was filled with some very disturbingly sharp teeth. "You can calm down. I don't intend to hurt you or any of the other Undersiders." The words did little to calm the staccato rhythm of her heart beat. The reptile patiently waited for her to respond.
"What do you want?" she finally asked nervously.
"My name is Metis. I came here to tell you that we will very quickly be taking down Coil, which means that the Undersiders will soon lack a sponsor. We've struck a deal with the PRT and the Protectorate that will let all of you leave your life of crime behind," explained the lizard.
After a few seconds, Lisa realized she was staring silently into the glowing eyes above her. "What kind of deal?" she finally asked.
The lizard gave a closed-mouth smile. "Amnesty for crimes committed while working for Coil. A guarantee that Coil is going down for good despite his influence and the moles working for him in the PRT. A new identity for Alec. Help with Aisha's custody for Brian. A fair trial with a good defense lawyer to clear Rachel's murder charges."
Lisa's jaw dropped open. "How do you know so much about us?" she asked, confused.
Metis got a look that seemed slightly sad. "I know a lot about you, Lisa, including why you left home, and how you got caught by Coil and forced to work for him. I can tell you that your life is about to get much, much better relatively quickly."
"Why?" was the simple response.
"Because I, along with the rest of my Family, make a habit of helping people who don't deserve their situations." Lisa could hear the capital letter on Family. "Also, because Skitter asked us to help."
"Skitter? You people rescued Taylor somehow?" Lisa's relief at that idea started to take the edge off of her initial mind-rending terror.
"Yes," said the lizard, "and she's going to be helping us take down Coil and rescue Dinah Alcott. Would you like to help?"
Lisa paused to think on that for a moment, but the answer to that was obvious despite her fear. "Yes, I believe that I would."
"Talk to the others about the offer. I'll be in touch," replied Metis. With that, the giant lizard vanished.
Lisa stared in shock at the ceiling for a good thirty seconds. Then, she raised her hand and waved it around in the space where Metis's head had been, hitting nothing. She was starting to wonder if she was hallucinating when she felt her other hand brush against paper on the bed. Lifting up the third note, she read, 'No, that wasn't a hallucination. -- Metis.'
Lisa finally breathed out, realizing that she had been holding her breath for too long. She lay there for some time, trying to not think about giant invisible lizards creeping around, and wondering how she should broach the topic with her team mates.
Outside the building, Saurial and Metis were heading away from the Undersiders' hideout. "Well, at least she didn't pass out," said Saurial cheerily.
Metis looked at her skeptically. "That's why I didn't let YOU talk to her. You're the one who always caused that reaction."
"I still say people are too sensitive," complained Saurial.
Metis scoffed. "That's what the weird ones always say."
Saurial hid her amusement under a fake glare as the two reptiles transported back to their ship.
The Guardian Ganthet appeared in orbit over Oa in the location where the energy surge had been detected by the security sensors. The being that was waiting calmly for him was surprising. "Highfather, to what do we owe your visit?" asked the Guardian curiously.
The white-maned leader of New Genesis regarded Ganthet sternly. "Guardian, I come because it is time to correct a mistake that was made long ago. You chose to elevate logic over feeling, crippling your ability to relate to the mortals of this realm. Even when the Manhunters turned on you, you persevered in this error. Now I fear that you are on a path that will lead toward ruin."
Ganthet frowned. "Are you referring to the Blackest Night prophecy? You see our failure in how we changed ourselves after the betrayal?"
Highfather allowed the ghost of a smile to touch his visage. "Some of you changed less than others, old friend." He grew serious again. "We have learned things, things about our universe, and our possible futures, that make it imperative that we not allow certain things to occur. To truly guard this universe, you need to be invested in it in a way that is impossible today."
"The others will fight you," said Ganthet, simply. There was no accusation or warning...simply a statement of fact.
Highfather gestured to the space around him. "I do not come alone."
Fading into view behind Highfather were the rest of the New Gods...Orion, Hyalt, Avia, Gideon, Metron...the entire host arrayed in splendor. A short distance away appeared the pantheons of the Old Gods, led by Zeus, Odin, and Amon-Ra at the front, though he could see representatives from other pantheons like Quetzlcoatl and Vishnu. To the other side of the New Gods appeared the Endless. Dream took the center, but was flanked by Death and Destiny. Behind stood Desire, Despair, Delirium and Destruction.
Farther away, in the opposite orbit from the massive gathering of gods old and new, there were other groups appearing. Ganthet recognized Nabu, the Lord of Order, surrounded by cloaked figures...presumably the other Lords, mysterious in their anonymity. Offset to the side from the Lords of Order sat a being who was in many ways their opposite, the Fifth Dimensional imp known to the heroes of Earth as Mister Mxyzptlk. On the other side of the Lords of Order sat a globe of power holding three human-like figures -- Michael Demiurgos, his daughter, Elaine Belloc, and Lucifer Morningstar. Their relatively slight stature belied their power, both as individuals, and for who they ultimately represented.
Next to Highfather appeared five final figures, a Kryptonian, an Amazon, an Atlantean, an avatar of the Speed Force, and a non-powered human dressed like a bat. "I notice that John Stewart and Guy Gardner are not here as well," said Ganthet, addressing the League members.
Kal-El nodded in acknowledgement. "They felt that they could not remain impartial given their roles as members of the Corps."
Ganthet looked around at the arrayed power...power that would give pause to even the Guardians of Oa. "You all feel that this is necessary?" asked Ganthet of the assembled host.
"An outsider to this universe came to me and presented me with evidence that was in agreement with my own observations," said Highfather. "They have conversed with each of us, and we have all independently come to the same conclusions. You know how unlikely that would be were it not true."
"Yeah, the lizard made some really good points," came Mxyzptlk's high-pitched voice, seemingly from nearby despite his presence on the other side of Oa. "We need to make some changes."
"We do not normally choose to intervene," said Lord Morpheus, "but reality itself is broken in ways that were starting to manifest in our realms...in ways that threatened causality."
Ganthet looked down upon Oa. He closed his eyes and communed with his fellow Guardians. The debate did not last long, despite its contentiousness. Finally, he looked up and regarded the gathered host. "Very well. We will not oppose you. We open ourselves to your judgement."
"So be it," proclaimed Highfather.
Arcs of force extended between the groupings of the gathered beings before stretching out to touch Ganthet and the planet below. A tendril of power extended into the Central Power Battery, reaching for two beings imprisoned within. In one tentacle of power writhed a yellow, worm-insect hybrid being. Another held a green whale-like being. The creatures, Parallax and Ion, were the sentient personifications of fear and willpower. Other bolts of power shot off across the breadth of the universe. Soon, Parallax and Ion were joined by the personifications of the rest of the emotional spectrum: Predator, Ophidian, Adara, Proselyte, and Butcher, representing love, avarice, hope, compassion and rage. The seven beings merged into a singular ball of fluctuating color under the will and power of the combined host, which then exploded into a horde of glowing orbs of emotion. These orbs flowed down toward Oa, with one smaller orb heading straight to Ganthet and merging into his form.
All across the planet, the Guardians suffered the same traumatic ignition of feeling. Reactions varied. One Guardian had been reviewing the case of a group of particularly inept pirates apprehended in Sector 421, and he found himself laughing uncontrollably. Another, whose close friend had died over six hundred years ago, sank to the floor and began sobbing uncontrollably in grief. Around the planet, massive extremes of emotion manifested themselves...sometimes violently. Ganthet appeared to be keeping his lips and eyes tightly closed.
"Are you alright?" asked the Man of Steel to the Guardian in orbit.
Ganthet said nothing for a moment, then replied, "It has been a long time since I have had feelings so intense, son of El. I fear that it may be some time before my people are able to again assert themselves in the galaxy."
On the planet below, three figures appeared. One was reptilian, while the other two were more human-looking, though still alien.
Anteaus looked around. "These people chose the wrong path."
"That's true," agreed Saurial. "But we've started to fix that. Now what they need is help in dealing with their emotions. Each of these Guardians is more powerful than one of the Ascended Ancients, and they have responsibilities in the galaxy that must be met."
Lya smiled. "Some of the Nox relish this opportunity, Saurial." She looked meaningfully at Anteaus, who gave her a very tiny smile in return. "It is unfortunate that this is necessary, but it is the first step needed."
"This reality may not have persevered without intervention," agreed the male Nox. "Truth is not always kind." Their findings in their examination of Jimmy Olsen had only been but a symptom of the structural weaknesses of this reality.
"I'll leave it in your hands, then. Thank you," said Saurial. At the answering nods, she touched her communicator and vanished.
Around Oa, several hundred Nox appeared in ones and twos and began moving to aid the Guardians. A time dilation field shortly appeared over the planet. Satisfied that their work was done for the moment, the collected beings of power departed. The New Gods made sure to remove the members of the Justice League back to the Watch Tower. Waiting for them were two men dressed in green.
"Is it done?" asked John Stewart with a frown while Guy stopped his irritated pacing to hear the answer.
Batman replied, "The Guardians are restored, and there is a time dilation field over the planet to aid in their recovery."
"They just left them there to stew?" said Gardner, incredulous. "That seems harsh, even to me."
Superman shook his head. "No, they left help there. Members of a race that are especially adept at helping others know themselves and find peace."
"I spoke with some of them, and you can believe me when I say I think they're in good hands," agreed Wonder Woman. Unwilling to contradict both Superman and the Amazon, both Green Lanterns reluctantly nodded their heads in acceptance. Soon, the members of the League returned to their duties.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lex began going through his emails by force of habit. This morning, luckily, was occupied with matters that were extremely mundane -- just the day-to-day peculiarities of running a multi-billion dollar business empire. Not too long ago, Lex would have been chomping at the bit to plow through it and get to something more interesting...usually yet another plot to kill, or at least inconvenience, a particular Kryptonian. Now, he welcomed the mundane, as it gave him the opportunity to think. His recent hosts had been particularly adept at picking apart his own self-delusions. Lex shockingly felt a significant amount of disgust at his own past behavior, though in truth the cancer eating away at his body and mind, as well as the side-effects of the various experimental treatments tried, had at least some of the fault for his actions. Pausing at that thought, he pushed a button on his desk. Within moments, Mercy Graves walked into the room.
"Lex?" she asked expectantly, using his given name as they were alone.
"Mercy, I want you to tell me something with complete, blunt honesty," said Lex.
Mercy raised an eyebrow. "Do you have reason to suspect that I'll lie?" Her relationship with Lex was complicated, but she would have thought that it was well past that point.
"No," he said, shaking his head, "but you may be inclined to be...careful in choosing your words when you hear the question. I'm telling you now that I would prefer your initial response without any sugar coating."
This time, she raised both eyebrows, but she replied with, "All right, Lex."
"What do you think of my general behavior and business acumen since I got sick?" asked Luthor.
Mercy frowned. "Put bluntly...you've been distracted and somewhat careless. Your focus on Superman has bordered on obsessive, and you've lost some of your ability to properly assess and mitigate risks."
"You didn't think that was worth bringing to my attention?" he asked, though her assessment matched his own in many respects.
"Lex, you wouldn't have listened, and you weren't doing anything that exceeded the parameters we set for my stepping in and checking for outside influences. Yes, you were more intense, but only on those things you always focused upon in the past. I assumed that part of it was coping with your illness." Mercy looked slightly troubled as she spoke. "Why do you ask?"
"Last night I was kidnapped," he said, though from his perspective it had actually been several weeks ago.
Mercy tensed. "Why wasn't there a security alert?"
Lex actually smiled at her concern. "The kidnappers were very adept, and were ultimately there to cut a deal with me. For one thing, they cured me."
Now Mercy looked shocked. "Really? You've verified the cure?" Given how long Luthor had been trying to fix his sickness, she had reason to be skeptical.
"I triple-checked it," said Lex. "Not only do I have no sign of cancer, but every single thing that was ever wrong with me is fixed. My knee that always twinges when the weather changes? Fixed. The scar from where that thug stuck me in the side in Gotham? Gone." He noticed her glancing to his bald scalp. "I've had to shave my head until I figure out what to do with all of this." The stubble on his scalp had been a pleasant surprise, but he realized that suddenly growing hair would raise a lot of questions, and he hadn't yet decided on answers.
"Who were these people?" asked Mercy.
"I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself," said Lex. "They were, literally, alien lizards from another dimension." Mercy was staring at him. "Really, I'm not making this up. If I had, I would have come up with something more plausible. It turns out, though, that they share a lot of my concerns about the Justice League and their role in this world."
"Is there a reason they care?" asked Mercy, honestly curious.
Luthor gave a chuckle. "Believe it or not, they ran into somebody from our universe and agreed to help when they learned certain things." Mercy's look made it clear she wanted him to explain. "Apparently, Olsen wasn't actually kidnapped by paradaemons. He fell through a portal into another universe. While they were looking into getting him back home, they discovered some troubling facts about our reality -- problems that piqued their interest."
"Problems you know how to fix?" asked Graves.
"Let's just say I have skills that can contribute." He looked at his watch and noted it was getting late. "Have them bring a car around. I have an appointment with Dr. Wexler at S.T.A.R. Labs in forty-five minutes."
Mercy left to take care of transport while Lex considered whether or not he should take the next step. Finally, he lost patience with his own indecision and sent the email to Bruce Wayne. That would ensure that the Justice League got a hold of the materials the lizards shared with him. He smirked to himself at the level of effort Wayne was likely to put into making sure the materials were both safe and authentic. Sometimes the best pranks were played by not doing anything deceptive at all.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Vala was wandering around, trying to find something interesting to do. It was frustratingly difficult to get up to mischief on the Nox home world. They were great hosts, but not the most exciting species in the galaxy. She decided that looking through the buildings in the little human village was better than sitting around and staring at the sky, though most folks seemed to be off somewhere. Inside one of the residential buildings, she came across a tall blonde woman staring at a data pad. Vala smirked at the woman's outfit, a grey bodysuit that left little to the imagination. "Well, you're new," she said suggestively
The woman looked up from her pad, and Vala realized she had some type of cybernetic implant embedded over her left eye. "I have accepted an offer of employment with the Family. They informed me that my first assignment was to discuss my time in the Collective with the Nox." The woman showed no signs of being surprised at being addressed, nor did she seem to react at all to Vala's tone of inquiry.
"The Collective? Is that some type of criminal gang?" asked Vala, curious.
The blonde quirked an eyebrow. "The Borg Collective are a cybernetic group consciousness that dominates a large portion of my home galaxy. The Borg are known for conquering other species and assimilating their biological and technological distinctiveness to service the Collective. I was assimilated into the Collective as a young girl."
"That must have been difficult...I'm Vala, by the way, Vala Mal Doran," said the brunette.
"I do not remember my assimilation. My designation was Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One."
Vala frowned. "That's a bit of a mouthful."
"The crew of the U.S.S. Voyager preferred to call me Seven," said Seven of Nine.
"All right, Seven! So the lizards have you going to therapy with the Nox?" asked Vala.
Seven quirked her head to the side, like a puzzled bird. "On the contrary, I was simply asked to provide them with information. It is not the first time I have been queried about the Borg by others who fear them."
Vala laughed. "Oh, that's how it starts. You think you're just sharing intelligence. They asked me to talk about my time as Qetesh. I figured they were looking for information about the Goa'uld, secret stashes of treasure and technology and that type of thing. The next thing you know, I'm baring my soul to them and they're making me confront my issues and I didn't even realize it until later when I was eating dinner, thinking about it."
"What is a Qetesh?" asked Seven.
Vala laughed again, but this time there was a hint of hysteria to it. "Qetesh was the name of the Goa'uld who possessed me." Seeing Seven's lack of understanding, she continued. "The Goa'uld are a parasitic life form. They burrow into your body and take over. Most of them are sadistic megalomaniacs, and they do everything they can to crush the spirit of their hosts. Hosts are stuck watching while their bodies commit atrocities." By the end of this, the usually upbeat Vala was looking at the floor between her boots, her voice quieter than usual.
Seven regarded her without expression. Finally, she said, "When you are part of the Collective, your entire mind merges with it. There is no sense of self. Your body is just another drone doing the bidding of the Borg. The Borg Collective sees assimilation as a gift...but most of the other races in the galaxy see it as an atrocity, stealing the individualism of entire societies for our own benefit. As part of the Collective, I know my body helped assimilate other sapient beings against their will."
The brunette looked at her, both curious and sympathetic. "Do you feel bad about that?"
"As part of the Collective, I had no control over my body's action, and no free will with which to make decisions," replied Seven.
"So you don't feel guilt?" asked Vala.
Seven frowned. "I am unsure how I feel."
"I know what that's like," muttered Vala. "So, what do you do for fun when you're not talking to the Nox?"
The blonde woman looked back down at the data pad. "I am reviewing the control algorithm for the wormhole drive of the ship that brought me here, particularly the multidimensional targeting mathematics."
Vala got a determined look on her face. "You, my new friend, are in desperate need of some excitement, and I think I know just the thing!"
Seven wondered why she suddenly had a feeling of profound disquiet at the other woman's declaration.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Willow went into the conference room referenced in the message she received from Metis. Somehow, her laptop continued to work despite being on an alien planet in another universe. Apparently, the Nox have WiFi and Internet, although it was the local Earth's version. Strangely enough, she hadn't had to charge either her laptop or her phone since she arrived. Part of her was relieved that she didn't have a cell signal, as she wasn't sure if she could handle the revelation that MCI Worldcom had cell towers on alien planets.
She looked up when a voice from the doorway asked, "Are you Willow Rosenberg?" The man who owned the voice was tall, with dark hair and a beard peppered with white. He was handsome in a stern mentor kind of way, and was dressed in a blue and red costume that was decorated with arcane symbols.
"That's me," said the redhead with a nervous smile.
"Ms. Rosenberg, my name is Dr. Stephen Strange. I was given your name by Saurial as somebody who might be interested in attending lessons," said the man.
Willow looked at him askance. "I don't know what Saurial told you, but I took a leave of absence from college. I intend to go back and finish my degree, of course, but things in Sunnydale got kind of wonky..."
Dr. Strange held up his hand. "Ms. Rosenberg, I'm not a college professor. I am the Sorcerer Supreme for my branch of the multiverse. The Family introduced me to Harry Dresden, a wizard who was travelling with your friend Mr. Harris. I'm going to be tutoring him at a private retreat for a number of months. Your name also came up as a fellow practitioner."
Willow looked interested but cautious. "What types of lessons do you intend to give, because I've learned to be careful about certain things? I mean, you don't look all evil, not that I would judge you by your appearance, but I try to stay away from dark magic these days."
Strange filed away the, "these days," comment for future exploration. "Harry comes from a universe where magic has a strong sympathetic bent that has an unfortunate technology bane distortion. We were going to first focus on attempting to circumvent those issues."
"Are you thinking of a thaumaturgic inversion field?" she asked, suddenly interested.
"Perhaps, but we need to explore his channel rate. It may work with a fetish tied in as a mana battery," he answered.
Willow continued to ask questions, and found herself being impressed with the man's general magical knowledge. She was also surprised at how much she was learning just from this single conversation. Finally, they reached a natural break in the conversation.
"Can I surmise based on your interest in this topic that you would be willing to join us at the retreat?" asked Strange.
Willow's face fell. "I'm not sure how long I can be away from my friends. We have our own world that needs protecting."
Strange smiled. "Believe me, I understand completely. I wouldn't be going myself if it weren't for the time dilation available through the Family's wormhole drive. We can return to our universes without losing significant amounts of time."
Willow hesitated. She had ample reasons to be cautious about magic. "Can I think on it for a while?"
Strange looked at her with a knowing look. "Certainly. If I may suggest something...you may want to talk to the Nox about this."
She wondered what Strange meant, and how much he knew about her past. She considered asking him, but instead just said, "I'll consider it." She would talk to Xander first and get his opinion.
"Very well," replied the wizard. "I'll leave you be. Just let the Family know if you wish to join us."
Willow sat for a bit after the Sorcerer Supreme left. The time she had spent with the Devonshire Coven had been mostly about learning control and the ethics of spellcasting. Part of her wanted to immerse herself into learning about magic without the constant guilt. Unfortunately, that appeal is also what gave her pause. Her background of learning magic on a Hellmouth left its mark on her psyche.
Finally, she went looking for Xander near his quarters, and instead came across Anya. She was sitting and reading a business magazine that seemed to have a picture of Lex Luthor on the cover. "Anya, is Xander around?"
Anya looked up from her magazine and shook her head. "He went over to Brockton Bay to check out some of the construction projects the union guys are working. What do you need him for?"
Willow considered the question. She and Anya hadn't interacted much, but the woman seemed calmer and more confident since Xander came back. "I'm looking for his opinion of the Nox."
"Huh, well, I've spent a lot of time talking to them. What do you want to know?" asked the ex-demon with a slightly artificial smile.
Figuring she had little lose, she replied, "I just spoke to a man named Dr. Strange, and he suggested I speak to them about my past."
A look of realization passed over Anya's face. "Ah, you want to join Dresden in the universe with the xenomorphs, but you're worried about black-veiny evil Willow showing up again, right?"
Willow grimaced. "Basically correct."
"Talk to them," said Anya simply.
"Talk to whom?" asked the witch.
Anya shrugged. "Talk to any of them. If they aren't the right one to help, they'll put you in touch with the right one. The Nox are like the best therapists of the multiverse. They helped me understand how much of my past was the demon and how much of it was me."
Slightly confused, Willow asked, "How much of it was you?"
Anya sighed. "Willow, people can get used to almost anything. I got used to doing terrible things to men based on the flimsiest of reasons, and part of the reason it was so easy was because it gave me a feeling of power, and more importantly, control. That's something that I had to acknowledge, and its something I can feel guilty about."
"You almost sound happy about that," said Willow.
"Guilt is like fear, Willow. It has a purpose. The important thing is to learn how to work through it so that you can become better," said Anya unusually seriously. "You can't change your past, but you can change how you act in the future."
"The Nox told you that?" asked Willow, surprised at Anya's insight.
Anya shook her head. "They don't come out and tell you things, usually. Talk to them, and you'll find yourself coming to your own conclusions."
"Thanks..." said Willow awkwardly. Anya simply nodded and went back to her magazine. Willow wandered off, trying to figure out how she ended up in a world where Anya spouted wisdom and wizards held sleep-away camps.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lisa left her bedroom and went to grab a glass of water to take her aspirin. She was explicitly not thinking about the giant lizards, as doing so had given her a massive headache. It was like her power was slamming her head against the wall repeatedly, too stubborn to give up in spite of the relative difference in hardness between her forehead and the concrete blocks. It was just like she had overused her power, but it came on annoyingly fast when she tried to think about the reptiles.
Rachel was out checking on her dogs at her kennel, which had thankfully escaped unscathed during the fighting. Alec was playing an online shooter, taking advantage of how ridiculously fast the power had come back on after the Endbringer fled. Brian was in his room talking on his cell phone. Even without her power, she could tell by the frustration in his voice that he was probably talking to Aisha. The girl seemed particularly adept at winding him up, and he was still keyed up from the Leviathan fight and the split with Skitter.
Coil had been quiet...surprisingly so. She could only surmise that he was busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack. Having an underground lair was probably less than optimal during a fight with the aquatic Endbringer, even if it was based in a re-purposed Endbringer shelter. Either that, or he was preoccupied with the same thing as the PRT -- the alien spaceship that deposited giant lizards with magical powers that made Leviathan run like its conscience was chasing it. Still, she had expected to have to explain by now why she couldn't use her powers on the visitors without having an aneurysm.
Putting her glass in the sink after swallowing her pills, she noticed a hand-written note sitting on the counter. The hand writing was unfamiliar. She picked it up and read, 'Coil's power is the ability to split time into two paths; he can drop one of the paths at any time and keep the other, then split time again. He is currently distracted because he has rapidly started to have issues with his power failing unexpectedly, and the absence of his usual crutch is making him indecisive.'
"Alec!" she called out. He started to swear at somebody over his headset. "Alec!" she said slightly louder. She still didn't get a response, so she yelled, "ALEC!"
"WHAT?" he yelled back. Then he swore profusely as his game character was killed. "Damn it, Tats, look what you did. What the hell is so important?"
She held up the note. "Where did this note come from?"
"How the hell would I know? I've been playing for the last couple of hours. Whose handwriting is it?" he asked.
She shook her head, then regretted that action as it made her headache worse. "I don't recognize it. It isn't any of us, so that means somebody came in here and left it."
The irritation on his face was now mixed with some puzzlement, which was a minor improvement. "Is it from the Boss?"
She walked over and handed him the note. "Somehow I doubt it, given the contents."
He read through the note and Tattletale could tell he was as surprised by the contents as she was. Having finished his call, Brian came into the room. Seeing them huddled over something, he asked, "What's going on?" Lisa handed him the note and explained about how it appeared next to the sink. "Nobody saw or heard anything?" the nominal team leader asked.
"No," she answered, "and I can't see how anybody could have entered and left the note without being seen unless they were using a Stranger power."
Brian glanced around the room, looking in vain for anything seeming out of place. "Why tell us this? Do you think this is right about Coil's power?"
Carefully not nodding her head, she said, "Yeah, it fits with the evidence we've seen, and it also matches the way he operates. That whole thing where he randomly tells us a job is on or off would mesh well with a power that lets him try both options and keep the one that works."
Alec raised an eyebrow. "So any time we got a no-go, that means something went wrong?"
"For Coil, at least," she said. "Or maybe something went right in the timeline he kept and he wanted to lock it in."
"Could Skitter have left the note? She could have had her insects bring it in," said Brian in a neutral tone of voice.
Lisa's power told her that Skitter probably could do it, but that she hadn't done it in this case. "I don't think so. Besides, she could have just called me if she had information. I would have spoken to her."
"Is there anything we can do to check, or to catch whoever left the note," asked Grue.
"I'll keep an eye out for anything out of place, but if they're a Stranger, we might not be able to catch them," she said with a frown. "At least, not without some additional gear. We might be able to rig something up with Coil's help." She didn't like the idea of having to ask for something, but she liked the idea of a Stranger stalking them less, and she might as well use his money if she was stuck working for him.
"Mention it the next time he calls," was his response. Lisa acknowledged that, then went back into her bedroom to lie down.
On her bed was another note.
"Oh, for Christ's sake," she said under her breath.
She picked up the new note. 'You don't want to bring Coil in on this. His days of freedom are growing extremely short. We have an offer to bring the Undersiders in and have them switch sides.'
She plopped down onto the bed and rested her head in her right hand, her elbow resting on a knee. "If you're in my room," she said somewhat angrily, "then you better show yourself." She looked around at the walls of the room and didn't see anybody. Glancing down at the note, she froze.
At the bottom of the note, the words, 'LOOK UP,' had appeared.
"Oh, shit," she said quietly. Then she turned her head to look up.
The tall warehouse loft ceiling gave the inhabitants plenty of head room. That was really the only way that the giant fucking lizard hanging from the ceiling could do so without brushing the top of her head. It was the midnight black lizard that had appeared near the medical center during the Leviathan battle. Lisa gasped and fell backward onto the bed.
"Hello, Lisa," said the reptile with a mouth that she could now see was filled with some very disturbingly sharp teeth. "You can calm down. I don't intend to hurt you or any of the other Undersiders." The words did little to calm the staccato rhythm of her heart beat. The reptile patiently waited for her to respond.
"What do you want?" she finally asked nervously.
"My name is Metis. I came here to tell you that we will very quickly be taking down Coil, which means that the Undersiders will soon lack a sponsor. We've struck a deal with the PRT and the Protectorate that will let all of you leave your life of crime behind," explained the lizard.
After a few seconds, Lisa realized she was staring silently into the glowing eyes above her. "What kind of deal?" she finally asked.
The lizard gave a closed-mouth smile. "Amnesty for crimes committed while working for Coil. A guarantee that Coil is going down for good despite his influence and the moles working for him in the PRT. A new identity for Alec. Help with Aisha's custody for Brian. A fair trial with a good defense lawyer to clear Rachel's murder charges."
Lisa's jaw dropped open. "How do you know so much about us?" she asked, confused.
Metis got a look that seemed slightly sad. "I know a lot about you, Lisa, including why you left home, and how you got caught by Coil and forced to work for him. I can tell you that your life is about to get much, much better relatively quickly."
"Why?" was the simple response.
"Because I, along with the rest of my Family, make a habit of helping people who don't deserve their situations." Lisa could hear the capital letter on Family. "Also, because Skitter asked us to help."
"Skitter? You people rescued Taylor somehow?" Lisa's relief at that idea started to take the edge off of her initial mind-rending terror.
"Yes," said the lizard, "and she's going to be helping us take down Coil and rescue Dinah Alcott. Would you like to help?"
Lisa paused to think on that for a moment, but the answer to that was obvious despite her fear. "Yes, I believe that I would."
"Talk to the others about the offer. I'll be in touch," replied Metis. With that, the giant lizard vanished.
Lisa stared in shock at the ceiling for a good thirty seconds. Then, she raised her hand and waved it around in the space where Metis's head had been, hitting nothing. She was starting to wonder if she was hallucinating when she felt her other hand brush against paper on the bed. Lifting up the third note, she read, 'No, that wasn't a hallucination. -- Metis.'
Lisa finally breathed out, realizing that she had been holding her breath for too long. She lay there for some time, trying to not think about giant invisible lizards creeping around, and wondering how she should broach the topic with her team mates.
Outside the building, Saurial and Metis were heading away from the Undersiders' hideout. "Well, at least she didn't pass out," said Saurial cheerily.
Metis looked at her skeptically. "That's why I didn't let YOU talk to her. You're the one who always caused that reaction."
"I still say people are too sensitive," complained Saurial.
Metis scoffed. "That's what the weird ones always say."
Saurial hid her amusement under a fake glare as the two reptiles transported back to their ship.
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- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
- Location
- The City of Tears, Hallownest
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Nox are extremely convenient