Ship of Fools: A Taylor Varga Omake (Complete)
- Thread starter Derek M
- Start date
- Crossover
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
I thought a few more 'They Might Be Giants" references to places, such as 'Mesopotamia' might be useful...
And, if you want to check out things like the Sun...:
www.buzzfeed.com
Somehow I feel their music fits the style of 'Ship of Fools'...
And, if you want to check out things like the Sun...:
A Definitive Ranking Of The 50 Best They Might Be Giants Songs
<b>They <i>Might</i> Be Giants but they <i>definitely</i> are difficult to rank.</b>
www.buzzfeed.com
Somehow I feel their music fits the style of 'Ship of Fools'...
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Chapter 45: Proposals
- Location
- Maryland
Chapter 45: Proposals
Faith rubbed the cloth down the smooth length of Serafina. The bow never seemed to pick up dirt or grime, but cleaning it was a regular ritual. It relaxed her, and the weapon seemed to appreciate the attention. Not that she spoke to her, not in words, but her Slayer sense picked up on the weapon's feelings about things. She wasn't sure how much of that was due to the Slayer and how much was the bow, but it didn't really matter. She was looking forward to see how the weapon felt about slaying vampires.
Just as she finished with her chore, there was a knock on the door. She briefly considered not answering...she still needed to take a shower after her last excursion into the forest, but the others usually didn't bother her unless it was something important. The Baby Slayers knew better than to involve her in teenage angst shit. Buffy had been really quiet and introspective lately. Xander and Anya had spent a lot of time recently getting, "reacquainted." Willow and her squeeze were off at mini-Hogwarts. Robin wouldn't be coming to her room because of the awkward. That left Giles, Dawn or Andrew, but she wasn't really expecting anybody.
Curious, she opened to door to find Anya standing outside by herself. The young woman gave a nervous smile. "Hi Faith, can I come in for a minute?"
Faith stepped aside, which was as much invitation as somebody who lived in Sunnydale was likely to give. "Hey, Anya. What do you need?"
Anya walked inside, and after Faith closed the door, excitedly said, "Xander proposed! We're getting married again!"
Faith was honestly surprised to hear that, despite how the two had obviously been trying to fix their relationship. "Wow, that must have been some proposal."
Anya nodded. "He asked the Nox to help him take me stargazing."
The slayer's brow furrowed. "Why did he need their help to do that?"
"Well..." started Anya.
The Ship of Fools took the two lovers on a course set by their hosts. The first stop had been the trinary system of Alpha Centauri, the closest system to Earth (though it was quite far from Gaia). They both found the views spectacular, and if that was just the first stop, then the rest of the trip was likely to be something special. The next stop had been a view of the black hole cluster at the center of the Milky Way, a view of ravenous destruction that had even the former Vengeance Demon shivering. That intimidating experience was offset by a trip above the galactic plane, far enough out that they could see the swirling mass of the Milky Way's arms below. The ship's AI, River, helpfully pointed out the locations for Earth, Gaia, and a few other key worlds. The next stop was even more unusual, as they watched a binary star system where the distantly orbiting stars' chromospheres were being stripped away by a pulsar that had passed near the two. River had been given a specific schedule by the Nox, which made the last stop possible. The ship appeared over a nebula, just a few minutes before a new-born star ignited deep within the gas cloud, casting a purplish illumination across Xander as he had knelt before her and proposed for the second time. It was so overwhelming that she hadn't even noticed the Tiffany's box until later.
"Wow," said Faith. "I gotta admit, that's a pretty kickass proposal."
Anya paused for a moment. "I still wouldn't have said 'yes,' though, if we hadn't been going to couples therapy with the Nox." Saying the pair of them had issues was a bit of an understatement. The Nox had helped draw them out into the open where they could be examined. Many of their issues actually had little to do with the other person.
"Well, congratulations," said the slayer. "Is that what you stopped by to tell me?"
"That, and I was hoping that you would be one of my bridesmaids?" the currently brunette woman asked.
Faith's mouth dropped open. "Me? Really?"
Anya nodded. "I really enjoyed our shopping trip together, and Xander and I both wanted to make up for some of what happened in Sunnydale. And two of my bridesmaids from the first wedding are dead now."
If anything, Faith felt like she owed Xander an apology, not the other way around, but Anya's typical bluntness brought her up short before she could protest. Another thought occurred to her. "Uh...are you going to be picking new dresses?" She'd seen pictures of the earlier, hideous green dresses, and she already knew she wouldn't be wearing one of those.
"Oh, don't worry. We had a long conversation with our therapist about how I didn't need to make my bridesmaids dress in horrible dresses just because they're all ridiculously pretty girls with superpowers," said Anya. "The same applies to you. Also, I plan to ask Seven, and if she's not wearing an ugly dress, then you don't have to."
"Thanks, Ahn," said Faith, feeling oddly like she'd been complimented and insulted at the same time. Deciding to take a chance, she said, "I'll be happy to be one of your bridesmaids."
"Thank you!" exclaimed the former demon, jumping forward to give Faith a hug despite the clinging scent of forest. "Now I just have to ask Seven and figure out where to hold the bachelorette party. Hebridan told us they would prefer it if we wouldn't go back there for at least a few months." Honestly, if they hadn't had such amazing credit, they might have been permanently banned.
"There's always Earth," suggested Faith, somewhat bemused.
Anya considered that for a moment, then said, "Oooh, I have an idea."
When she told Faith, the slayer had to admit she was intrigued.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Hound and his charge had arrived early for the meet, of course. That gave Ivy a chance to prepare some surprises on the off chance that Dresden's pseudo-demon tried anything. It paid to be cautious, especially when this meeting could be part of a ploy by Mab. Harry's status as the Winter Knight made his motivations a lot more unclear...not that he was that easy to predict even before then, but at least then it was clear that Dresden saw himself working on the side of the angels. Mab was generally in favor of the continued survival of humanity as a whole, but she cared very little for individuals and had her own agenda. The church was a perfect place to lay in some insurance.
It took some time to get everything ready, but finally, the two simply sat down to wait in the pews of St. Giles. After maybe thirty or forty minutes, Kincaid got back to his feet when the door to the church opened. Inside walked Harry Dresden, long coat flapping and staff in hand, but he was followed by a large shadow that seemed to maneuver it's way through the open doors with a great deal of agility. Once it was inside, it was clear that Dresden's companion was a large reptilian creature, taller than the tall wizard, with four legs and two arms like a classical centaur. More striking even that that was the creature's two glowing eyes and a mouth full of obviously sharp teeth. Kincaid frowned slightly, not recognizing the creature.
"Kincaid, Archive," said Dresden simply in greeting.
"I thought you said you weren't coming?" questioned the mercenary.
"I managed to work out my issues with Mab, so I decided it would be better to come along," replied Harry. "I figured you would be happy to see me," he said slightly sarcastically.
Ivy tilted her head, focusing on Dresden for a moment. "What issues did you have with the Winter Queen?"
"Wizard Dresden did not want to become the Winter Knight, a position he accepted under desperate circumstances," said the giant lizard, a curious reverberance in the creature's voice. "We helped negotiate his release from that burden."
Jared Kincaid had seen quite a lot in his long life, but that actually surprised him. "I didn't think that was possible." Knights served until death, whether they were killed or retired by Mab.
"It has happened before," clarified the Archive," although the last time was more than two thousand years ago and involved the Summer Court as an instigator." She turned to look at the lizard. "I don't recognize you."
"This is Varga," said Harry. "He comes from an alternate Earth."
"Technically, I reside on an alternate Earth. My original world was different," clarified Varga.
"Interesting," said Ivy. It truly was. One downside of being the Archive was that the number of truly novel circumstances she encountered was vanishingly small.
Kincaid regarded the reptilian being carefully. He could feel a sense of great power, but it didn't feel typically demonic or eldritch. Instead of asking about it, he asked, "Did you bring the consulting fee?" Charging through the nose for Ivy's time kept her from being overwhelmed by supplicants.
The reptile reached into a pocket on its armor and pulled out a large duffel bag, ignoring the fact that the pocket was too small to hold it. He placed it in front of Kincaid, who could see the contents through the open top. "Twenty kilos of twenty-four karat gold." It was actually purer than that, as human-refined gold always had traces of impurities, unlike Varga-created matter.
"Very well," said the Archive, formally. "With what can I assist you, Varga? Be aware that purchasing my time does not mean that I will answer any question asked, especially if I feel that it puts the safety of the world at stake, or violates the terms of the Unseelie Accords." Ivy did have her own sense of ethics and morality, of course, but the way they applied to supernatural issues could be exceedingly complex.
"Of course," he replied. "Allow me to provide you some context, first." At Ivy's nod, Varga began explaining what had happened to Harry Dresden, how he had met Varga, and what had happened since then. He also explained the reasoning behind their desire to obtain a sizable amount of mordite, a mineral that was essentially solid anti-life.
Their story was hard to believe, to say the least. "I don't suppose you have any proof of any of this?" asked Kincaid.
Varga reached into his pocket and pulled out a small case, which he placed on top of the duffel bag. "For one, you can examine that at your leisure."
The Hellhound looked at the small silver case and asked, "What is it?"
"A phaser from Star Trek," said Harry, a smirk on his face. "It's fully functional, so be careful with it." Kincaid favored him with a glare at the suggestion that he wouldn't be careful with any kind of weapon.
Without warning, a teen-aged girl appeared next to Varga. "There's also me. I'm Taylor Hebert, Varga's host. I grew up in a city that doesn't exist on this Earth, Brockton Bay."
Ivy's eyes narrowed. "Taylor Hebert? Does your world have people with superpowers, many of whom work for a government agency called the Protectorate?"
Taylor's eyes widened. Even Varga looked slightly surprised. "You've heard of the Protectorate?" asked the teen girl.
"There was a story about your world that was being written," confirmed the Archive. "It was about you, and how you embarked on a life of crime almost by accident with a team called the Undersiders. Unfortunately, the author died before he could make much progress, but he did have a fairly comprehensive set of notes that he had compiled in advance of the actual story."
"How did he die?" asked Dresden, slightly morbidly curious.
Ivy frowned. "He was mauled to death, probably by a ghoul or something similar." There were more than a few different types of supernatural creatures that preyed on humans.
"Would it be possible to get copies of those notes?" asked Taylor hopefully.
"It is," confirmed the Archive. "The question of where to obtain enough mordite is more problematic, however. In this universe, the only source of mordite is beyond the Outer Gates. I can provide you with a sample that should allow you to identify the material, especially if you have access to the mystical and technological capabilities you claim. Even if you are as powerful as you say, however, I would not recommend spending enough time beyond the Gates as would be required to obtain enough mordite for your needs."
"Could you create more mordite if you had access to a sample?" asked Dresden of Varga.
Varga considered that. "I am unsure. Ingesting solidified anti-life to sample it seems unwise, and I would need details on the normal creation process to attempt it otherwise."
"That is not information I am willing to share," stated the young girl that was the Archive's current host. "Every method documented requires mass sacrifice, which should explain my refusal."
"That's clearly not an option," said Taylor, agreeing with the girl.
"I believe the key here is in the qualifier used by the Archive. Mordite comes from beyond the Outer Gates in this universe. There may be alternative sources of mordite, or equivalent substances, in other universes." The Black Lantern rings in the DC Universe were undoubtedly made of a similar substance, even if that particular route was closed thanks to their prior actions.
With that plan, it was agreed that Kincaid would test out the provided weapon. He was actually looking forward to it, though he didn't say so out loud. Assuming it functioned as expected, then he would return tomorrow with a transcript of the ill-fated author's notes on Taylor's world and a small sample of mordite to serve as an example.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dragon stood at the podium, looking out at the gathered heroes. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Slaughterhouse Nine are a team of supervillains that have been active for more than twenty-five years. They've been lead by Jack Slash since 1987. The folders in front of you list the current members, as well as what we know of their abilities. There is also a list of known crimes, as well as their signed kill orders."
"You have kill-on-sight orders for supervillains?" asked Batman grimly.
Dragon nodded. "They're issued for villains that have crossed certain lines, especially ones that are extremely difficult to capture and highly dangerous. The Nine, for example, are mass murderers many times over, and pose a massive threat to the civilian population."
"Are these crimes accurate?" asked Flash, paling slightly as he reviewed the multiple pages of crimes listed. "Torture, mass murder, using human bodies as spare parts...cannibalism?" The list was truly nauseating, even without details. One of the Nine was a little girl, for heaven's sake!
"The Nine are terrorists in the purest sense of the term. Their leader is a sadist and a nihilist. We also suspect he has some kind of thinker or master power in addition to his ability with blades, as he is adept at manipulating capes and indoctrinating new members to the group when replacements are needed," explained Dragon.
"What I want to know," said Aquaman, "is why the authorities have allowed these psychopaths to roam free for so long?"
"Yes," agreed Wonder Woman. "You've said before that you have powerful heroes...the Triumvirate...that equal some of the more powerful members of the Justice League. Why haven't they stopped them?" Diana had no real issue with the kill orders, unlike Batman. The Amazons would have put to death anybody who committed even a fraction of the monstrous crimes listed. She suspected Arthur felt the same way.
"The reasons for that are complicated," answered Dragon with a frown. "Some of it has to do with competing threats, such as the Endbringers and Scion. Some of it had to do with the impact capes in general had on society. Attempts were made to stop the Nine and a number of members have been killed, but Jack Slash always proved elusive and has rebuilt the team more than once." Dragon was glossing over the much more complicated role that Cauldron played, as well as the effect of Contessa's subversive Path to Victory. They weren't trying to keep it secret from the League, but it was no longer an issue and wasn't immediately relevant to briefing the League on the Nine.
"What do we expect are their objectives?" asked Batman practically.
"Recruitment," answered Dragon. "They're down a member. Their modus operandi in the past has been to cause mass chaos in a town or city. Since Shatterbird joined, that's usually caused by her ultrasonic scream, which destroys any glass in wide areas. In the chaos and panic that ensue, the Nine each pick a single cape, hero or villain, to try and recruit through a vicious test of some kind. This period is actually when the individual members are most vulnerable, as they're not gathered together to support each other. Having said that, these killers are extremely skilled at setting traps for capes, both from long experience and through the influence of Slash's guidance."
"This Siberian...nothing has been able to penetrate her invulnerability, and nobody has been able to stop her?" asked Superman, paging through the files. In his experience, every villain had a weakness of some kind, even if it was only psychological.
"Nothing," agreed Dragon. "She has, additionally, easily penetrated the defenses of capes that were previously considered to be invulnerable." Alexandria was the foremost among them.
"That means containment," suggested Batman. "That suggests the Lanterns' rings, Diana's lasso...possibly Zatanna's magic."
"I may also have some utility, depending upon how vulnerable she is to mental attack," suggested J'onn.
"This Crawler is another problem. His adaptive defenses seem to rapidly make him immune to any attack," continued Batman. "Any failed attack just makes him more difficult to take down. Containment may also be necessary for that one."
"That's going to be difficult to do if the other members of the team are active," commented Superman. "Especially considering that we'll also have to try and keep civilians out of harm's way."
"Be cautious of Bonesaw, as well," commented Dragon. "She may look like a little girl, but she's been known to use bio-engineered plagues in the past. She could easily wipe out a city by herself."
"Wonderful," groaned Green Arrow.
"Hey, we know they're coming, so that gives us the advantage," suggested Guy.
Dragon didn't think that was going to be nearly as useful an advantage as the Green Lantern thought, based on past experience.
The Justice League had put out an alert warning about the danger of shattering glass if the Nine came to town, but in a world that had no familiarity with that group, many people in Metropolis were careless and unconcerned. The shattering of windshields caused traffic accidents. Eyeglasses caused eye injuries, as did computer and television screens. More than one person fell from high-rise buildings when the windows broke. Emergency services weren't immune, although a few places, like LexCorp headquarters, fared better than others. The League immediately deployed to begin search and rescue operations, but they were also well aware that the scream was simply a calling card, the prologue to what would prove to be a very difficult time.
Diana heard the scream from three blocks away. Flying through the shattered canyons of the city, she came upon Shayera, her wings pinned into the concrete of a nearby building by two javelins made of solid glass. The woman was panting at the agony of it. Floating in the air nearby was a dusky-skinned woman wearing an outfit made of even more glass in a myriad of colors. Shards of razor sharp fragments circled the woman as she regarded her pinned victim.
"Shatterbird!" yelled the Amazon, flying toward the villain. The glass-clad woman's eyes narrowed, and shards of glass flew toward Wonder Woman. They did little more than scratch her skin, however. Seeing that, the S9 member dove to the side around the corner of the building. Refusing to let her play cat and mouse, Diana took a risky move (risky to bystanders, at least) and smashed through the corner of the building, slamming into the evil woman on the other side and smashing her into yet another skyscraper. Shatterbird began to fall, blood on her head, and Diana scooped her up, grabbing her by the arm. Once she verified that the villain was still breathing, Diana went back to Hawkwoman and sent her up to the Watchtower for healing.
Luckily, the plexiglass in the larger tanks at the Metropolis Aquarium didn't shatter with Shatterbird's scream, but the large glass facade on the front of the building did, and Arthur Curry, also known as Aquaman, was attempting to help the wounded. Once the EMTs arrived, he went further into the building, evacuating visitors and staff.
In a bathroom near the tide pool exhibit, he heard what sounded like a small child crying. Making his way inside, he called out, "Hello! I'm here to help you!" A little child was huddled under one of the sinks, crying, apparently too scared to move. Aquaman got down into a squat and reached inside, carefully pulling the little form out. "It's OK..." he said quietly, not wanting to scare the little boy further. As the boy turned as if to hug him, Arthur's eyes widened when he saw that the arms, chest and face of the child were covered in small tentacles, including two where the child's eyes should be. They latched on, and he could feel them sting.
"Holy Poseidon!" he yelled, pushing the small monstrosity away from him. As he did so, he felt another child-sized monstrosity jump on him from the top of the bathroom stalls, stinging him yet again around the neck and shoulders, though his armor provided some protection. Both of them kept attacking, and proved impossible to stop until he had to finally break their necks. Even then, the two flopped around helplessly on the floor, still trying to reach him. Whatever venom they had injected was starting to take its toll, even with his superhuman constitution, and he felt woozy.
He made his way out of the bathroom, only to find himself facing a little blond girl flanked by two things that appeared to be crabmen, similar to the Brine Atlanteans, though these look like they had been...assembled. The little girl spoke. "Oh shoot, you're still awake! That venom is a concentrated form of sea anemone venom, so you really must have an impressive constitution. I can't wait to look at that Atlantean physiology. We're going to have such fun together!"
Arthur verified that his telepathy had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the crab creatures before preparing himself for a tough fight.
Superman was grimacing, forced to keep his distance due to the green rock in Jack's hand. He needed to do something quickly, though, as Jimmy Olsen was rapidly bleeding out on the floor. He had tried to get in front of Lois and Cat when the madman had come into the newsroom.
"You know," said Jack, "you should be thanking me. After all, Luthor was strangely reticent about turning over this glowing rock. I did something you were always too scared to do, and took care of your worst enemy. How did it feel to be constantly humiliated by a man you could have crushed at any time, Clark."
"You won't get away with this," said Superman, trying to figure out a way to rescue the hostages.
Jack just smirked at him. "Strange that you can survive a nuclear blast, but a simple rock is enough to defeat you. Maybe I should call you scissors."
At that point, a red blur zipped through the room, and the hostages started disappearing, starting with Jimmy, who desperately needed medical attention. It took only a fraction of a second for Jack to figure out what was happening, and then he rapidly began slashing with his knife. A lucky hit sent Wally West tumbling, his leg sliced deeply, and he collapsed up against the far wall. Perry White was also bleeding from a gash in his thigh, and one of the office interns was bleeding out from a shallow cut that struck her in the neck.
Wally watched dazedly as Superman fell to his knees. Across his chest was a deep cut that appeared to be causing him a great deal of pain. Jack must have coated the blade with kryptonite dust. 'What the hell do we do now?' thought the crimson speedster desperately.
Cyborg was tracking a strange signal from the robotics lab at Metropolis University. There was a secure vault there used to store dangerous technology. Unfortunately, disasters were prime opportunities for criminals who assumed the heroes would be busy rescuing others. Unfortunately for them, Cyborg had already been on campus, dealing with the aftermath of the mostly glass campus chapel shattering. Once medical services had things in hand, he rushed over to the lab to try and stop whatever was happening.
The multiple electrical traps came as a rude shock, no pun intended, as did a certain psychopathic ball-shaped tinker. Mannequin was looking forward to examining the hero's cybernetics once he was properly disassembled.
Plas was not doing well. He had learned first hand that Crawler's acidic spit was exceedingly painful. Somehow, that monster had started to adapt to Zatanna's magic, and his attempt to restrain the S9 member had resulted in some extremely painful burns. The usually jolly hero was also rather grim after witnessing what the same acid had done to the League's resident magician. He needed support from someone like Kal or Diana to take on this one, though, which is why he was basically sneaking away to try to call for help instead of continuing to fight the monstrous creature. Sadly, his communicator had been one of the early causalities of the fight.
From deeper in the museum, a rough voice called out, "I can smell you, rubber boy..."
The multiple robotic spiders had caught J'onn by surprise. They were mindless constructs, so his telepathy helped him not at all. Luckily, his phasing and natural strength and shape-shifting were more than a match. Unluckily for him, there were a lot of them, and they served quite well as a distraction until the burning woman arrived. Before he realized it, he was in far too much pain, and far too afraid of the flames to strike back.
"Don't worry," said Burnscar in a slightly crazed voice, "I'll teach you to like fire..."
John Stewart looked down at the unconscious axe-wielding maniac. He had been surprisingly durable, but not strong enough to beat a Green Lantern. Luckily, he had arrived just in time to save Oliver Queen from death. Hopefully, the league would be able to help the hero recover. It would be awfully hard to be an archer with only one hand.
Bruce's eyes widened when he finally received a ping on his tracker. Dragon had been able to provide him with a cape detector when he asked. He had intended to duplicate it for the entire League, but there hadn't been time. Now it was too late...the Nine were in Metropolis. Based on what he had seen, it was also too late for Guy and Nightwing. The tiger-striped woman had torn them apart. She was fast, and Guy's green forcefield hadn't stopped her.
One of the things he had learned about superpowers in Skitter's and Dragon's world, though, was that there were different types of capes. Some of them could summon creatures or beings that didn't necessarily obey the laws of physics. It had seemed like a good idea to check for nearby capes, both to prevent ambushes by other members of the villain team, and also to verify his theory that the Siberian was just a projection. Sure enough, there was apparently a cape sitting in the back of an RV parked a few blocks from where the heroes had encountered the invulnerable nude woman.
On a hunch, Batman leaped off the roof just in time as a striped fist smashed up through from the floor below. It would have crippled him if it had hit, despite his armor. In mid-flight, he tossed a special batarang through the smashed windscreen of the RV, then turned to see the Siberian jumping after him. He used his grapple to change direction, which brought him a few seconds as the woman had to land and jump again to do the same thing.
As he was preparing to leap again, he heard the gas from the batarang release. The Siberian briefly got a surprised look on her face, and then popped like a soap bubble.
"Isn't this a little harsh?" asked Jimmy. He was sitting with Dragon and Skitter in the Watchtower, watching the simulation run. It was proving to be quite brutal. Watching a holographic version of himself bleed to death was unpleasant, but it was far from the worst part of it.
"They did ask for it," replied Skitter with a shrug. "Dragon even gave them a thorough briefing on the S9."
The tinker nodded in agreement. "The Nine are brutal opponents. Even Alexandria lost an eye to the Siberian, and she's considered one of the three strongest capes on our world."
Jimmy shook his head. "I guess I didn't really believe you, Taylor, when you said that my world and Peter's world seemed less dangerous for heroes. Are the Nine typical of the villains?"
"They're worse than average...but they're not unique," replied the bug controller. "There are quite a few A- and S-class threats out there. Nilbog. Ashbeast. The Furies. Heartbreaker. Butcher. The Fallen."
"The S9 do move around more than most of them. Heartbreaker, for example, pretty much keeps to his compound up in Canada. Nilbog is sealed up in the ruins of Ellisburg," clarified Dragon. "The S9 move around, which is why PHO coined the term, 'murder hobos.'"
Jimmy grimaced. He was starting to get a feel for just why the other Earth felt the need for drastic measures like kill orders and the Birdcage, an inescapable prison that also didn't allow for the release of those inside under any circumstances. Powers in their world seemed as much a curse as a blessing. Maybe this level of brutality would help serve as a wake-up call for the League, however. Some people, even in their world, were dangerous enough that letting them live to kill again wasn't a good idea.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The purple lizard sat on her tail, her gaze resting on the other three occupants of the room. Professor Charles Xavier sat at his desk, his wheelchair tucked in behind. Standing next to him to the left was a tall, red-headed woman dressed in the uniform of the X-Men (in contrast to the professor's business attire). To the right, there was another team member, though this one was covered in blue hair. The group of them were meeting to discuss Ianthe's attempts to protect Peter Parker and Jimmy Olsen from telepaths who might go looking for secrets in their heads.
"Ianthe, we're grateful for the assistance the Family provided us with Shaw and his robots, but we have a few questions that we would like answered before we agree to any kind of information sharing. Mutation is a rather sensitive subject in this world, as I'm sure you noticed," began Xavier.
Ianthe favored him with a smile. "Of course, Professor. What would you like to know?"
"I'm curious as to your objectives in this research, first of all," prompted Beast. Not everybody studying mutants had their best interests at heart.
"That's easy enough to explain," answered the lizard. "Some of those we've helped get home come from realities with natural telepaths."
"Like Peter," said Jean. The X-Men were quite familiar with Spider-Man, being so close to New York City.
Ianthe nodded. "Exactly. Unfortunately for them, your universe is featured in many works of fiction in our world. Those works are, for reasons we're still trying to divine, accurate to a startling degree when compared to actual events. While there are major variations in many cases, there are enough real secrets revealed there-in to make these people targets once home. I am hoping to develop a method to block invasive telepathy."
"There are certainly technological means to block telepathy," contributed Xavier. "Magneto's helmet, for example, protects him from telepathic attacks." Of course, the primary reason for that was to protect against Xavier when the two of them had been at odds.
"Technology can fail, and it isn't really my area of expertise in any event," said Ianthe. "Biology is more my specialty. I believe I can provide them with a native immunity to invasive telepathy, but in order to do so I need to observe how it operates, ideally from both sides -- the telepath and the target. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, depending upon your perspective, telepathy is not a power available in our home reality."
"How do you intend to observe it?" asked Beast.
"Nothing invasive," replied Ianthe. "I simply need skin contact. My abilities as a biosculptor will allow me to observe the physiological impact of power use in real time."
The three X-Men looked at each other. Ianthe assumed they were having a private conversation inside their heads, which seemed to be born out by slight changes in expression. Finally, Professor Xavier looked at her and said, "We've agreed to allow you to monitor Dr. McCoy and myself while we communicate via telepathy."
Ianthe smiled. "Very well. Can I monitor Dr. McCoy by himself first, then Professor Xavier, then both at the same time?"
With their agreement, Ianthe went over to Beast and put her hand on top of his. The good doctor raised his brows in slight surprise as the tendrils touched his flesh and seemed to burrow within, but said nothing. Her examination was quite interesting, as this was the first actual mutant from Peter's world that she had examined. The first thing that she noticed was that while the activating mechanism was different for Beast than it had been for Spider-Man, there was little scientific basis for considering them entirely different types of power sets. Both were mutations of their genes -- the X-Man's had just occurred spontaneously. She could also tell that Hank McCoy had no control over his external appearance, which corroborated many of the stories from her universe featuring the X-Men.
Mentally, she could sense that telepathic communication was activating portions of the brain related to memory, as well as those involving both speech and hearing, interestingly enough. "Could you try reading an image from Dr. McCoy's mind, instead of speaking to each other?" she asked. Xavier nodded. This resulted in some activity in the areas of the brain related to vision. Apparently, active participation by the target triggered areas of the brain related to specific types of sensory input.
After this, she went to Xavier and repeated the process. She could sense the areas triggered in his brain by the use of his power. Humans here had no Corona Pollentia, but there were atypical structures in mutants' brains in both the thinking and autonomic areas. There seemed to be slight variances depending upon the mutation. Holding the hands of both Xavier and McCoy, she could see the specific actions and reactions happening on both sides.
Finally, she let go of both of them and announced, "I believe I have a solution that will work for disrupting telepathic manipulation biologically. I think I can even allow for voluntary telepathic communication while disabling more intrusive types of contact." If the comic books were accurate, then a skilled telepath could simply turn off the consciousness of unprotected normals, make them feel debilitating emotions, confuse them with illusions...it was all rather over-powered, and made Ianthe wonder why telepathic capes weren't even more dominant in this world.
"You have that degree of control after such a short examination?" asked McCoy, somewhat incredulously.
The purple lizard smiled with just a hint of teeth. "I have experience dealing with powers...it was just telepathy that was foreign to my experience. By the way, I noticed that your mutation's impact on your appearance is involuntary. Would you like me to fix that?"
Beast stared at her for a moment. "Despite the drawbacks, I would prefer to keep my mutant ability."
"Oh, you would," she explained. "I wouldn't depower you. I can just add a mental switch for you to turn on or off the pigmentation and fur." It was actually surprisingly similar to what she had already done for Vectura.
"What would I have to do?" asked the furry scientist.
Ianthe held out her hand. "Just hold my hand and wait a few seconds." After a brief hesitation, Beast grabbed her hand. She made her changes, then said, "All right, now pay attention. I'm going to trigger the change, and you should be able to feel how it's happening." She shifted him, and soon Hank McCoy stood before them in human form. "Now, the change back is very similar. Pay attention to the difference." She shifted him back, and again he had blue fur. She let go of his hand. "Try and practice that back and forth a few times."
She then turned to Xavier, while Beast began trying to trigger his changes by himself. "Professor Xavier, would you like me to fix your spine while I'm here?"
Charles looked briefly surprised, then held out his hand and said, "If you can, then yes, I would like that."
Ianthe quickly made the repairs, then said, "Your spine and back are healed, but you'll undoubtedly require some physical therapy to get used to walking again."
At that moment, Hank McCoy shifted to human form on his own. "Well, that seemed to work," he commented, pleased. "You seem to be a miracle worker, Ianthe."
"I agree," said Charles. He was eager to head to the clinic, where they had facilities for physical rehabilitation, but the fact that he could feel his toes wiggle when he tried was amazing.
"Well, I think my work here is done. Thank you for allowing me to observe your powers in action," said Ianthe. It would be pretty straight-forward to protect Jimmy and Peter...and she might as well include Mary Jane in that as well.
Jean, who had simply been watching, said, "Before you go...do you think you might be able to help some of the others mutants who have powers that they can't fully control?" Scott and Anna Marie immediately came to mind as people who could use similar help.
"Of course..." muttered Xavier. "I apologize. I'm afraid I was so fixated on what you've done for me that I neglected to ask the obvious question. We would greatly appreciate any help you could give our students and colleagues." McCoy simply nodded with a slightly embarrassed look. Uncontrollable powers were both dangerous and traumatic for their users.
"I'll be happy to do so. Why don't you let me know when you can gather together a group of mutants who need help, and I'll see what I can do?" Apart from genuinely wanting to help them, it was worth the investment of time by Ianthe to help reduce the risk posed by uncontrolled powers. There might even be a way to come up with a modified symbiote that would fix power-related disabilities without depowering the individuals in question.
On another plain of existence, a fiery force of destruction was watching yet another of these interesting lizards through her avatar, and wondering what other changes they might be introducing into this reality. It might be amusing to have some direct interaction with these beings...she would have to consider the matter.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Your name is Talia Cosas. According to system records, you're an expert in both advanced materials science and environmental engineering. Is that correct?" asked the large black lizard.
Talia had been woken from stasis, expecting that somebody had come to rescue her now that the Destiny was far enough away from Terra. Instead, she had been told by a very sympathetic Nox that she had been in stasis for SIXTY MILLION YEARS, which meant that she was far, far away from her home, and her people had never retrieved her. Now, she was sitting in a conference room, facing a group of people who were supposed to help her adjust to her circumstances. They included the afore-mentioned Nox, what seemed to be an Asgard (though he looked slightly odd), a human (she presumed -- she didn't feel like an Alteran), a strange cat-like alien, a large reptilian alien, and what was clearly one of the ascended.
"Uh...yes, that's correct," replied Talia. "What...exactly is happening here?"
The lizard smiled without teeth. She...assuming it was a female...appeared to be leading this discussion. "We're here to answer questions you might have, and to give you an overview of the current state of what you call the Avalon Galaxy, and to let you know what kinds of options you have now that you've been awakened. We're having similar discussions with each member of your engineering team as we bring them out of stasis." It turned out that the Alterans in stasis had come aboard to fix a pre-launch problem, only to be caught on the ship accidentally as it started its long journey. They had entered stasis to wait until the ship was far enough from Earth to use the stargate...but nobody had come and they had never been awakened.
"My name is Metis, and I represent the Family, a multi-dimensional group that helped sponsor the team that located the Destiny and discovered that you were still aboard," began the lizard. She then went around the table, introducing the others. "This is Vectura. She works with the Family and is our transportation specialist, including starships. She has a number of projects that could use someone with your skills, and we have bases in a number of realities at a variety of local technology levels." She continued to move around the table. "Lya, of the Nox, is willing to offer you asylum with her people. Penegal, of the Asgard, is in the process of helping your people's human descendants on Earth ascend to a higher level of technology. The Asgard High Council is also willing to offer asylum."
"I'm sorry," interrupted Talia, speaking to Penegal, "but you look different from the Asgard from my time?"
Penegal answered, "My people made some significant errors in our cloning process that led to genetic degradation. It is only recently, thanks to the assistance of the Family, that we have been able to correct that issue. Our clones are still somewhat different than what you would remember from your time."
Metis continued. "Colonel Samantha Carter is a representative of the humans of Earth, or Terra, and is a leading scientist in their efforts to assimilate both Alteran and Asgard technology."
Talia held up her hand. "I'm sorry to keep interrupting, but where did you get Alteran technology?"
Carter smiled at the woman. She was not the first one to ask this question today. "We're here to answer your questions. As for your technology, a lot of it was left lying around when the rest of your people ascended or left for the Pegasus galaxy. Much of it was taken and adopted by a parasitic race called the Goa'uld that used humans as hosts, a race that my people spent a significant amount of time fighting."
"You're at war now?" asked Talia, concerned.
"Technically, but most of the Goa'uld have been eliminated by the Family, and the Asgard have been keeping the rest in line," said Sam.
Talia turned her head to look at the ascended. "We just left our technology lying around after ascending? Why didn't we destroy it, or at least secure it?"
Ganos had the resigned look of somebody who had had to convey the same embarrassing facts repeatedly. "A lot of information was lost during the plague that swept through our people, and once we ascended, we decided on a non-interference policy, lest what happened with the Ori happen again."
"Of course," said the cat woman sarcastically, "that just left most of the galaxy being dominated by mind-controlling parasites using stolen tech." Ganos ignored her...again.
"And why were we never rescued from the Destiny? There was supposed to be a rescue," said the revived engineer angrily, looking again to Ganos.
Ganos yet again shook her head. "I don't know, exactly. The most likely answer is that most of those involved in the project died from the plague. It struck our leading administrators and scientists first." The timing for that didn't really work out...but the second most likely alternative was a bureaucratic mistake. Revealing that, though, tended to make these sessions with the rescued degenerate into hostility and recriminations that could go on for some time.
"Ganos Lal is here representing the ascended. Because you are Alteran, the others are willing to allow you to attempt ascension with assistance," continued Metis. The expression on the rescued Alteran's face made it clear that she wasn't likely to favor that option.
"You mentioned Pegasus. Are there still Alterans living there that I could join?" she asked.
Penegal answered. "Sadly, no. The Alteran refugees managed to engineer an insect-Alteran hybrid species known as the Wraith. Those Wraith managed to eliminate the last vestiges of your civilization in that Galaxy. The Asgard are just now finishing off the remaining Wraith there."
"Where were the Asgard when the Wraith were wiping them out?" asked Talia. Her tone was more curious than accusatory.
Penegal gave the Asgard equivalent of a shrug. "For whatever reason, the Alterans there failed to keep in contact with us, and never requested our assistance. By the time we learned what had happened to the remnants of our allies, it was too late."
Talia looked at Ganos again. "At what point did our species lose any sense of competence or common sense?"
Ganos frowned. "I would say it was when four-fifths of our population died from an incurable plague while the rest ascended or fled." She couldn't really defend her people's actions -- she didn't really agree with them herself. She also, however, wasn't responsible for most of them. She had been a school teacher, not a leader.
Talia frowned and thought for a moment. "So, the Family rescued me. They also helped the Asgard with their genetic degradation..."
"And," added Penegal, "they requested the Asgard provide our technology to the humans of Earth."
After a nod, Talia continued. "They also have taken care of your hostile parasites that used to rule your galaxy." Sam just nodded. Talia looked at Vectura. "What kind of projects are you working on right now?"
Vectura gave her a grin, then handed her a tablet. The device was unfamiliar, though sophisticated and fairly intuitive. The Alteran engineer quickly got the hang of it, and began reviewing the cat-woman's specification for a new class of ship. Upon reading about the planned drive systems, she looked up and asked, "A wormhole drive?"
The cat woman nodded. "It's actually inspired by an Alteran prototype, but that design was never fully realized by your people. The Family version is much more flexible and robust."
"And you're supplementing that with gravitic thrusters, a hyperspace drive, and a real-space faster-than-light space-warp drive?" asked Talia, slightly incredulous but interested. "What kind of hull material are you using to handle those kinds of stressors?" asked the engineer.
"Electron degenerate matter," replied the cat woman with a smirk. The shock at that response on Talia Cosas's face was amusing to most of them there.
Ganos just rolled her eyes. They had just rescued a crew of engineers, so of course, the Family was an attractive alternative. Out of forty-seven interviewed so far, three had decided to go with the Asgard, and two had gone to Earth, much to Samantha Carter's delight. Twenty-three were undecided. The remaining nineteen had all expressed interest in working with the Family and their multidimensional companies filled with fascinating technology. The AI expert had been literally salivating when they told her about Dragon and the other artificial beings working with them. Several with backgrounds in high energy physics were fascinated by the Family's matter creation and wormhole technology. Not one rescued engineer or scientist had expressed any interest at all in ascension. It was like her only purpose here was to allow the rescued Alterans to vent their anger at another Alteran.
Lya smiled quietly to herself, happy that things were going as expected.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Tyros Kanten was an important man. He was the lead scientist in charge of new ship development at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, a role that had hundreds of skilled scientists, engineers, designers and technicians reporting to him. He had personally had a guiding hand in the development of the Sovereign-class cruisers, and was satisfied that Starfleet was again starting to move toward multipurpose vessels and away from warships like the Defiant and Akira classes. In his opinion, Starfleet was not meant to be a military force.
Kanten was also the council member for industry and economics for Section 31. The fact that their objectives happened to dovetail nicely with his personal philosophies was convenient for him, as his detractors and opponents frequently found themselves outmaneuvered thanks to the implicit support of that organization. Amusingly, 99% of the time, Section 31 was able to accomplish their objectives using completely mundane, and usually completely legal, methods. No matter how egalitarian, meritocratic, or progressive an organization, politics always played a role. That was one reason why the organization preferred to suppress AI research. Artificial intelligences were much harder to manipulate using psychological levers. They were also harder to fool.
Unfortunately for Kanten, there was now an engineered nanovirus in his blood stream. It was harmless, and not something the biofilters on a transporter would destroy. It did, however, mark him as a person of interest to one of those disliked artificial intelligences. Draco had released the nanovirus with specific instructions. It would be contagious only when the carrier was alone with one other person, and when both subjects were calm, and when they were together for at least five minutes. The net result was a nanovirus custom-tailored to infection during clandestine meetings and information transfers. While it did generate a number of false positives, it helped narrow down the population of possible Section 31 agents from trillions of sapient beings to those who had direct contact with a chain leading back to the agents on Deep Space 9. Kanten was the most highly-placed member to be tagged so far.
It had taken months, but Draco now thought they were reaching the beginning of the end for a certain clandestine organization. All he needed was to identify the rest of the leadership, and a certain group of very effective lizards would take matters in hand. Draco, for one, was looking forward to it.
Faith rubbed the cloth down the smooth length of Serafina. The bow never seemed to pick up dirt or grime, but cleaning it was a regular ritual. It relaxed her, and the weapon seemed to appreciate the attention. Not that she spoke to her, not in words, but her Slayer sense picked up on the weapon's feelings about things. She wasn't sure how much of that was due to the Slayer and how much was the bow, but it didn't really matter. She was looking forward to see how the weapon felt about slaying vampires.
Just as she finished with her chore, there was a knock on the door. She briefly considered not answering...she still needed to take a shower after her last excursion into the forest, but the others usually didn't bother her unless it was something important. The Baby Slayers knew better than to involve her in teenage angst shit. Buffy had been really quiet and introspective lately. Xander and Anya had spent a lot of time recently getting, "reacquainted." Willow and her squeeze were off at mini-Hogwarts. Robin wouldn't be coming to her room because of the awkward. That left Giles, Dawn or Andrew, but she wasn't really expecting anybody.
Curious, she opened to door to find Anya standing outside by herself. The young woman gave a nervous smile. "Hi Faith, can I come in for a minute?"
Faith stepped aside, which was as much invitation as somebody who lived in Sunnydale was likely to give. "Hey, Anya. What do you need?"
Anya walked inside, and after Faith closed the door, excitedly said, "Xander proposed! We're getting married again!"
Faith was honestly surprised to hear that, despite how the two had obviously been trying to fix their relationship. "Wow, that must have been some proposal."
Anya nodded. "He asked the Nox to help him take me stargazing."
The slayer's brow furrowed. "Why did he need their help to do that?"
"Well..." started Anya.
The Ship of Fools took the two lovers on a course set by their hosts. The first stop had been the trinary system of Alpha Centauri, the closest system to Earth (though it was quite far from Gaia). They both found the views spectacular, and if that was just the first stop, then the rest of the trip was likely to be something special. The next stop had been a view of the black hole cluster at the center of the Milky Way, a view of ravenous destruction that had even the former Vengeance Demon shivering. That intimidating experience was offset by a trip above the galactic plane, far enough out that they could see the swirling mass of the Milky Way's arms below. The ship's AI, River, helpfully pointed out the locations for Earth, Gaia, and a few other key worlds. The next stop was even more unusual, as they watched a binary star system where the distantly orbiting stars' chromospheres were being stripped away by a pulsar that had passed near the two. River had been given a specific schedule by the Nox, which made the last stop possible. The ship appeared over a nebula, just a few minutes before a new-born star ignited deep within the gas cloud, casting a purplish illumination across Xander as he had knelt before her and proposed for the second time. It was so overwhelming that she hadn't even noticed the Tiffany's box until later.
"Wow," said Faith. "I gotta admit, that's a pretty kickass proposal."
Anya paused for a moment. "I still wouldn't have said 'yes,' though, if we hadn't been going to couples therapy with the Nox." Saying the pair of them had issues was a bit of an understatement. The Nox had helped draw them out into the open where they could be examined. Many of their issues actually had little to do with the other person.
"Well, congratulations," said the slayer. "Is that what you stopped by to tell me?"
"That, and I was hoping that you would be one of my bridesmaids?" the currently brunette woman asked.
Faith's mouth dropped open. "Me? Really?"
Anya nodded. "I really enjoyed our shopping trip together, and Xander and I both wanted to make up for some of what happened in Sunnydale. And two of my bridesmaids from the first wedding are dead now."
If anything, Faith felt like she owed Xander an apology, not the other way around, but Anya's typical bluntness brought her up short before she could protest. Another thought occurred to her. "Uh...are you going to be picking new dresses?" She'd seen pictures of the earlier, hideous green dresses, and she already knew she wouldn't be wearing one of those.
"Oh, don't worry. We had a long conversation with our therapist about how I didn't need to make my bridesmaids dress in horrible dresses just because they're all ridiculously pretty girls with superpowers," said Anya. "The same applies to you. Also, I plan to ask Seven, and if she's not wearing an ugly dress, then you don't have to."
"Thanks, Ahn," said Faith, feeling oddly like she'd been complimented and insulted at the same time. Deciding to take a chance, she said, "I'll be happy to be one of your bridesmaids."
"Thank you!" exclaimed the former demon, jumping forward to give Faith a hug despite the clinging scent of forest. "Now I just have to ask Seven and figure out where to hold the bachelorette party. Hebridan told us they would prefer it if we wouldn't go back there for at least a few months." Honestly, if they hadn't had such amazing credit, they might have been permanently banned.
"There's always Earth," suggested Faith, somewhat bemused.
Anya considered that for a moment, then said, "Oooh, I have an idea."
When she told Faith, the slayer had to admit she was intrigued.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Hound and his charge had arrived early for the meet, of course. That gave Ivy a chance to prepare some surprises on the off chance that Dresden's pseudo-demon tried anything. It paid to be cautious, especially when this meeting could be part of a ploy by Mab. Harry's status as the Winter Knight made his motivations a lot more unclear...not that he was that easy to predict even before then, but at least then it was clear that Dresden saw himself working on the side of the angels. Mab was generally in favor of the continued survival of humanity as a whole, but she cared very little for individuals and had her own agenda. The church was a perfect place to lay in some insurance.
It took some time to get everything ready, but finally, the two simply sat down to wait in the pews of St. Giles. After maybe thirty or forty minutes, Kincaid got back to his feet when the door to the church opened. Inside walked Harry Dresden, long coat flapping and staff in hand, but he was followed by a large shadow that seemed to maneuver it's way through the open doors with a great deal of agility. Once it was inside, it was clear that Dresden's companion was a large reptilian creature, taller than the tall wizard, with four legs and two arms like a classical centaur. More striking even that that was the creature's two glowing eyes and a mouth full of obviously sharp teeth. Kincaid frowned slightly, not recognizing the creature.
"Kincaid, Archive," said Dresden simply in greeting.
"I thought you said you weren't coming?" questioned the mercenary.
"I managed to work out my issues with Mab, so I decided it would be better to come along," replied Harry. "I figured you would be happy to see me," he said slightly sarcastically.
Ivy tilted her head, focusing on Dresden for a moment. "What issues did you have with the Winter Queen?"
"Wizard Dresden did not want to become the Winter Knight, a position he accepted under desperate circumstances," said the giant lizard, a curious reverberance in the creature's voice. "We helped negotiate his release from that burden."
Jared Kincaid had seen quite a lot in his long life, but that actually surprised him. "I didn't think that was possible." Knights served until death, whether they were killed or retired by Mab.
"It has happened before," clarified the Archive," although the last time was more than two thousand years ago and involved the Summer Court as an instigator." She turned to look at the lizard. "I don't recognize you."
"This is Varga," said Harry. "He comes from an alternate Earth."
"Technically, I reside on an alternate Earth. My original world was different," clarified Varga.
"Interesting," said Ivy. It truly was. One downside of being the Archive was that the number of truly novel circumstances she encountered was vanishingly small.
Kincaid regarded the reptilian being carefully. He could feel a sense of great power, but it didn't feel typically demonic or eldritch. Instead of asking about it, he asked, "Did you bring the consulting fee?" Charging through the nose for Ivy's time kept her from being overwhelmed by supplicants.
The reptile reached into a pocket on its armor and pulled out a large duffel bag, ignoring the fact that the pocket was too small to hold it. He placed it in front of Kincaid, who could see the contents through the open top. "Twenty kilos of twenty-four karat gold." It was actually purer than that, as human-refined gold always had traces of impurities, unlike Varga-created matter.
"Very well," said the Archive, formally. "With what can I assist you, Varga? Be aware that purchasing my time does not mean that I will answer any question asked, especially if I feel that it puts the safety of the world at stake, or violates the terms of the Unseelie Accords." Ivy did have her own sense of ethics and morality, of course, but the way they applied to supernatural issues could be exceedingly complex.
"Of course," he replied. "Allow me to provide you some context, first." At Ivy's nod, Varga began explaining what had happened to Harry Dresden, how he had met Varga, and what had happened since then. He also explained the reasoning behind their desire to obtain a sizable amount of mordite, a mineral that was essentially solid anti-life.
Their story was hard to believe, to say the least. "I don't suppose you have any proof of any of this?" asked Kincaid.
Varga reached into his pocket and pulled out a small case, which he placed on top of the duffel bag. "For one, you can examine that at your leisure."
The Hellhound looked at the small silver case and asked, "What is it?"
"A phaser from Star Trek," said Harry, a smirk on his face. "It's fully functional, so be careful with it." Kincaid favored him with a glare at the suggestion that he wouldn't be careful with any kind of weapon.
Without warning, a teen-aged girl appeared next to Varga. "There's also me. I'm Taylor Hebert, Varga's host. I grew up in a city that doesn't exist on this Earth, Brockton Bay."
Ivy's eyes narrowed. "Taylor Hebert? Does your world have people with superpowers, many of whom work for a government agency called the Protectorate?"
Taylor's eyes widened. Even Varga looked slightly surprised. "You've heard of the Protectorate?" asked the teen girl.
"There was a story about your world that was being written," confirmed the Archive. "It was about you, and how you embarked on a life of crime almost by accident with a team called the Undersiders. Unfortunately, the author died before he could make much progress, but he did have a fairly comprehensive set of notes that he had compiled in advance of the actual story."
"How did he die?" asked Dresden, slightly morbidly curious.
Ivy frowned. "He was mauled to death, probably by a ghoul or something similar." There were more than a few different types of supernatural creatures that preyed on humans.
"Would it be possible to get copies of those notes?" asked Taylor hopefully.
"It is," confirmed the Archive. "The question of where to obtain enough mordite is more problematic, however. In this universe, the only source of mordite is beyond the Outer Gates. I can provide you with a sample that should allow you to identify the material, especially if you have access to the mystical and technological capabilities you claim. Even if you are as powerful as you say, however, I would not recommend spending enough time beyond the Gates as would be required to obtain enough mordite for your needs."
"Could you create more mordite if you had access to a sample?" asked Dresden of Varga.
Varga considered that. "I am unsure. Ingesting solidified anti-life to sample it seems unwise, and I would need details on the normal creation process to attempt it otherwise."
"That is not information I am willing to share," stated the young girl that was the Archive's current host. "Every method documented requires mass sacrifice, which should explain my refusal."
"That's clearly not an option," said Taylor, agreeing with the girl.
"I believe the key here is in the qualifier used by the Archive. Mordite comes from beyond the Outer Gates in this universe. There may be alternative sources of mordite, or equivalent substances, in other universes." The Black Lantern rings in the DC Universe were undoubtedly made of a similar substance, even if that particular route was closed thanks to their prior actions.
With that plan, it was agreed that Kincaid would test out the provided weapon. He was actually looking forward to it, though he didn't say so out loud. Assuming it functioned as expected, then he would return tomorrow with a transcript of the ill-fated author's notes on Taylor's world and a small sample of mordite to serve as an example.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dragon stood at the podium, looking out at the gathered heroes. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Slaughterhouse Nine are a team of supervillains that have been active for more than twenty-five years. They've been lead by Jack Slash since 1987. The folders in front of you list the current members, as well as what we know of their abilities. There is also a list of known crimes, as well as their signed kill orders."
"You have kill-on-sight orders for supervillains?" asked Batman grimly.
Dragon nodded. "They're issued for villains that have crossed certain lines, especially ones that are extremely difficult to capture and highly dangerous. The Nine, for example, are mass murderers many times over, and pose a massive threat to the civilian population."
"Are these crimes accurate?" asked Flash, paling slightly as he reviewed the multiple pages of crimes listed. "Torture, mass murder, using human bodies as spare parts...cannibalism?" The list was truly nauseating, even without details. One of the Nine was a little girl, for heaven's sake!
"The Nine are terrorists in the purest sense of the term. Their leader is a sadist and a nihilist. We also suspect he has some kind of thinker or master power in addition to his ability with blades, as he is adept at manipulating capes and indoctrinating new members to the group when replacements are needed," explained Dragon.
"What I want to know," said Aquaman, "is why the authorities have allowed these psychopaths to roam free for so long?"
"Yes," agreed Wonder Woman. "You've said before that you have powerful heroes...the Triumvirate...that equal some of the more powerful members of the Justice League. Why haven't they stopped them?" Diana had no real issue with the kill orders, unlike Batman. The Amazons would have put to death anybody who committed even a fraction of the monstrous crimes listed. She suspected Arthur felt the same way.
"The reasons for that are complicated," answered Dragon with a frown. "Some of it has to do with competing threats, such as the Endbringers and Scion. Some of it had to do with the impact capes in general had on society. Attempts were made to stop the Nine and a number of members have been killed, but Jack Slash always proved elusive and has rebuilt the team more than once." Dragon was glossing over the much more complicated role that Cauldron played, as well as the effect of Contessa's subversive Path to Victory. They weren't trying to keep it secret from the League, but it was no longer an issue and wasn't immediately relevant to briefing the League on the Nine.
"What do we expect are their objectives?" asked Batman practically.
"Recruitment," answered Dragon. "They're down a member. Their modus operandi in the past has been to cause mass chaos in a town or city. Since Shatterbird joined, that's usually caused by her ultrasonic scream, which destroys any glass in wide areas. In the chaos and panic that ensue, the Nine each pick a single cape, hero or villain, to try and recruit through a vicious test of some kind. This period is actually when the individual members are most vulnerable, as they're not gathered together to support each other. Having said that, these killers are extremely skilled at setting traps for capes, both from long experience and through the influence of Slash's guidance."
"This Siberian...nothing has been able to penetrate her invulnerability, and nobody has been able to stop her?" asked Superman, paging through the files. In his experience, every villain had a weakness of some kind, even if it was only psychological.
"Nothing," agreed Dragon. "She has, additionally, easily penetrated the defenses of capes that were previously considered to be invulnerable." Alexandria was the foremost among them.
"That means containment," suggested Batman. "That suggests the Lanterns' rings, Diana's lasso...possibly Zatanna's magic."
"I may also have some utility, depending upon how vulnerable she is to mental attack," suggested J'onn.
"This Crawler is another problem. His adaptive defenses seem to rapidly make him immune to any attack," continued Batman. "Any failed attack just makes him more difficult to take down. Containment may also be necessary for that one."
"That's going to be difficult to do if the other members of the team are active," commented Superman. "Especially considering that we'll also have to try and keep civilians out of harm's way."
"Be cautious of Bonesaw, as well," commented Dragon. "She may look like a little girl, but she's been known to use bio-engineered plagues in the past. She could easily wipe out a city by herself."
"Wonderful," groaned Green Arrow.
"Hey, we know they're coming, so that gives us the advantage," suggested Guy.
Dragon didn't think that was going to be nearly as useful an advantage as the Green Lantern thought, based on past experience.
- - - - -
The Justice League had put out an alert warning about the danger of shattering glass if the Nine came to town, but in a world that had no familiarity with that group, many people in Metropolis were careless and unconcerned. The shattering of windshields caused traffic accidents. Eyeglasses caused eye injuries, as did computer and television screens. More than one person fell from high-rise buildings when the windows broke. Emergency services weren't immune, although a few places, like LexCorp headquarters, fared better than others. The League immediately deployed to begin search and rescue operations, but they were also well aware that the scream was simply a calling card, the prologue to what would prove to be a very difficult time.
- - - - -
Diana heard the scream from three blocks away. Flying through the shattered canyons of the city, she came upon Shayera, her wings pinned into the concrete of a nearby building by two javelins made of solid glass. The woman was panting at the agony of it. Floating in the air nearby was a dusky-skinned woman wearing an outfit made of even more glass in a myriad of colors. Shards of razor sharp fragments circled the woman as she regarded her pinned victim.
"Shatterbird!" yelled the Amazon, flying toward the villain. The glass-clad woman's eyes narrowed, and shards of glass flew toward Wonder Woman. They did little more than scratch her skin, however. Seeing that, the S9 member dove to the side around the corner of the building. Refusing to let her play cat and mouse, Diana took a risky move (risky to bystanders, at least) and smashed through the corner of the building, slamming into the evil woman on the other side and smashing her into yet another skyscraper. Shatterbird began to fall, blood on her head, and Diana scooped her up, grabbing her by the arm. Once she verified that the villain was still breathing, Diana went back to Hawkwoman and sent her up to the Watchtower for healing.
- - - - -
Luckily, the plexiglass in the larger tanks at the Metropolis Aquarium didn't shatter with Shatterbird's scream, but the large glass facade on the front of the building did, and Arthur Curry, also known as Aquaman, was attempting to help the wounded. Once the EMTs arrived, he went further into the building, evacuating visitors and staff.
In a bathroom near the tide pool exhibit, he heard what sounded like a small child crying. Making his way inside, he called out, "Hello! I'm here to help you!" A little child was huddled under one of the sinks, crying, apparently too scared to move. Aquaman got down into a squat and reached inside, carefully pulling the little form out. "It's OK..." he said quietly, not wanting to scare the little boy further. As the boy turned as if to hug him, Arthur's eyes widened when he saw that the arms, chest and face of the child were covered in small tentacles, including two where the child's eyes should be. They latched on, and he could feel them sting.
"Holy Poseidon!" he yelled, pushing the small monstrosity away from him. As he did so, he felt another child-sized monstrosity jump on him from the top of the bathroom stalls, stinging him yet again around the neck and shoulders, though his armor provided some protection. Both of them kept attacking, and proved impossible to stop until he had to finally break their necks. Even then, the two flopped around helplessly on the floor, still trying to reach him. Whatever venom they had injected was starting to take its toll, even with his superhuman constitution, and he felt woozy.
He made his way out of the bathroom, only to find himself facing a little blond girl flanked by two things that appeared to be crabmen, similar to the Brine Atlanteans, though these look like they had been...assembled. The little girl spoke. "Oh shoot, you're still awake! That venom is a concentrated form of sea anemone venom, so you really must have an impressive constitution. I can't wait to look at that Atlantean physiology. We're going to have such fun together!"
Arthur verified that his telepathy had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the crab creatures before preparing himself for a tough fight.
- - - - -
Superman was grimacing, forced to keep his distance due to the green rock in Jack's hand. He needed to do something quickly, though, as Jimmy Olsen was rapidly bleeding out on the floor. He had tried to get in front of Lois and Cat when the madman had come into the newsroom.
"You know," said Jack, "you should be thanking me. After all, Luthor was strangely reticent about turning over this glowing rock. I did something you were always too scared to do, and took care of your worst enemy. How did it feel to be constantly humiliated by a man you could have crushed at any time, Clark."
"You won't get away with this," said Superman, trying to figure out a way to rescue the hostages.
Jack just smirked at him. "Strange that you can survive a nuclear blast, but a simple rock is enough to defeat you. Maybe I should call you scissors."
At that point, a red blur zipped through the room, and the hostages started disappearing, starting with Jimmy, who desperately needed medical attention. It took only a fraction of a second for Jack to figure out what was happening, and then he rapidly began slashing with his knife. A lucky hit sent Wally West tumbling, his leg sliced deeply, and he collapsed up against the far wall. Perry White was also bleeding from a gash in his thigh, and one of the office interns was bleeding out from a shallow cut that struck her in the neck.
Wally watched dazedly as Superman fell to his knees. Across his chest was a deep cut that appeared to be causing him a great deal of pain. Jack must have coated the blade with kryptonite dust. 'What the hell do we do now?' thought the crimson speedster desperately.
- - - - -
Cyborg was tracking a strange signal from the robotics lab at Metropolis University. There was a secure vault there used to store dangerous technology. Unfortunately, disasters were prime opportunities for criminals who assumed the heroes would be busy rescuing others. Unfortunately for them, Cyborg had already been on campus, dealing with the aftermath of the mostly glass campus chapel shattering. Once medical services had things in hand, he rushed over to the lab to try and stop whatever was happening.
The multiple electrical traps came as a rude shock, no pun intended, as did a certain psychopathic ball-shaped tinker. Mannequin was looking forward to examining the hero's cybernetics once he was properly disassembled.
- - - - -
Plas was not doing well. He had learned first hand that Crawler's acidic spit was exceedingly painful. Somehow, that monster had started to adapt to Zatanna's magic, and his attempt to restrain the S9 member had resulted in some extremely painful burns. The usually jolly hero was also rather grim after witnessing what the same acid had done to the League's resident magician. He needed support from someone like Kal or Diana to take on this one, though, which is why he was basically sneaking away to try to call for help instead of continuing to fight the monstrous creature. Sadly, his communicator had been one of the early causalities of the fight.
From deeper in the museum, a rough voice called out, "I can smell you, rubber boy..."
- - - - -
The multiple robotic spiders had caught J'onn by surprise. They were mindless constructs, so his telepathy helped him not at all. Luckily, his phasing and natural strength and shape-shifting were more than a match. Unluckily for him, there were a lot of them, and they served quite well as a distraction until the burning woman arrived. Before he realized it, he was in far too much pain, and far too afraid of the flames to strike back.
"Don't worry," said Burnscar in a slightly crazed voice, "I'll teach you to like fire..."
- - - - -
John Stewart looked down at the unconscious axe-wielding maniac. He had been surprisingly durable, but not strong enough to beat a Green Lantern. Luckily, he had arrived just in time to save Oliver Queen from death. Hopefully, the league would be able to help the hero recover. It would be awfully hard to be an archer with only one hand.
- - - - -
Bruce's eyes widened when he finally received a ping on his tracker. Dragon had been able to provide him with a cape detector when he asked. He had intended to duplicate it for the entire League, but there hadn't been time. Now it was too late...the Nine were in Metropolis. Based on what he had seen, it was also too late for Guy and Nightwing. The tiger-striped woman had torn them apart. She was fast, and Guy's green forcefield hadn't stopped her.
One of the things he had learned about superpowers in Skitter's and Dragon's world, though, was that there were different types of capes. Some of them could summon creatures or beings that didn't necessarily obey the laws of physics. It had seemed like a good idea to check for nearby capes, both to prevent ambushes by other members of the villain team, and also to verify his theory that the Siberian was just a projection. Sure enough, there was apparently a cape sitting in the back of an RV parked a few blocks from where the heroes had encountered the invulnerable nude woman.
On a hunch, Batman leaped off the roof just in time as a striped fist smashed up through from the floor below. It would have crippled him if it had hit, despite his armor. In mid-flight, he tossed a special batarang through the smashed windscreen of the RV, then turned to see the Siberian jumping after him. He used his grapple to change direction, which brought him a few seconds as the woman had to land and jump again to do the same thing.
As he was preparing to leap again, he heard the gas from the batarang release. The Siberian briefly got a surprised look on her face, and then popped like a soap bubble.
- - - - -
"Isn't this a little harsh?" asked Jimmy. He was sitting with Dragon and Skitter in the Watchtower, watching the simulation run. It was proving to be quite brutal. Watching a holographic version of himself bleed to death was unpleasant, but it was far from the worst part of it.
"They did ask for it," replied Skitter with a shrug. "Dragon even gave them a thorough briefing on the S9."
The tinker nodded in agreement. "The Nine are brutal opponents. Even Alexandria lost an eye to the Siberian, and she's considered one of the three strongest capes on our world."
Jimmy shook his head. "I guess I didn't really believe you, Taylor, when you said that my world and Peter's world seemed less dangerous for heroes. Are the Nine typical of the villains?"
"They're worse than average...but they're not unique," replied the bug controller. "There are quite a few A- and S-class threats out there. Nilbog. Ashbeast. The Furies. Heartbreaker. Butcher. The Fallen."
"The S9 do move around more than most of them. Heartbreaker, for example, pretty much keeps to his compound up in Canada. Nilbog is sealed up in the ruins of Ellisburg," clarified Dragon. "The S9 move around, which is why PHO coined the term, 'murder hobos.'"
Jimmy grimaced. He was starting to get a feel for just why the other Earth felt the need for drastic measures like kill orders and the Birdcage, an inescapable prison that also didn't allow for the release of those inside under any circumstances. Powers in their world seemed as much a curse as a blessing. Maybe this level of brutality would help serve as a wake-up call for the League, however. Some people, even in their world, were dangerous enough that letting them live to kill again wasn't a good idea.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The purple lizard sat on her tail, her gaze resting on the other three occupants of the room. Professor Charles Xavier sat at his desk, his wheelchair tucked in behind. Standing next to him to the left was a tall, red-headed woman dressed in the uniform of the X-Men (in contrast to the professor's business attire). To the right, there was another team member, though this one was covered in blue hair. The group of them were meeting to discuss Ianthe's attempts to protect Peter Parker and Jimmy Olsen from telepaths who might go looking for secrets in their heads.
"Ianthe, we're grateful for the assistance the Family provided us with Shaw and his robots, but we have a few questions that we would like answered before we agree to any kind of information sharing. Mutation is a rather sensitive subject in this world, as I'm sure you noticed," began Xavier.
Ianthe favored him with a smile. "Of course, Professor. What would you like to know?"
"I'm curious as to your objectives in this research, first of all," prompted Beast. Not everybody studying mutants had their best interests at heart.
"That's easy enough to explain," answered the lizard. "Some of those we've helped get home come from realities with natural telepaths."
"Like Peter," said Jean. The X-Men were quite familiar with Spider-Man, being so close to New York City.
Ianthe nodded. "Exactly. Unfortunately for them, your universe is featured in many works of fiction in our world. Those works are, for reasons we're still trying to divine, accurate to a startling degree when compared to actual events. While there are major variations in many cases, there are enough real secrets revealed there-in to make these people targets once home. I am hoping to develop a method to block invasive telepathy."
"There are certainly technological means to block telepathy," contributed Xavier. "Magneto's helmet, for example, protects him from telepathic attacks." Of course, the primary reason for that was to protect against Xavier when the two of them had been at odds.
"Technology can fail, and it isn't really my area of expertise in any event," said Ianthe. "Biology is more my specialty. I believe I can provide them with a native immunity to invasive telepathy, but in order to do so I need to observe how it operates, ideally from both sides -- the telepath and the target. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, depending upon your perspective, telepathy is not a power available in our home reality."
"How do you intend to observe it?" asked Beast.
"Nothing invasive," replied Ianthe. "I simply need skin contact. My abilities as a biosculptor will allow me to observe the physiological impact of power use in real time."
The three X-Men looked at each other. Ianthe assumed they were having a private conversation inside their heads, which seemed to be born out by slight changes in expression. Finally, Professor Xavier looked at her and said, "We've agreed to allow you to monitor Dr. McCoy and myself while we communicate via telepathy."
Ianthe smiled. "Very well. Can I monitor Dr. McCoy by himself first, then Professor Xavier, then both at the same time?"
With their agreement, Ianthe went over to Beast and put her hand on top of his. The good doctor raised his brows in slight surprise as the tendrils touched his flesh and seemed to burrow within, but said nothing. Her examination was quite interesting, as this was the first actual mutant from Peter's world that she had examined. The first thing that she noticed was that while the activating mechanism was different for Beast than it had been for Spider-Man, there was little scientific basis for considering them entirely different types of power sets. Both were mutations of their genes -- the X-Man's had just occurred spontaneously. She could also tell that Hank McCoy had no control over his external appearance, which corroborated many of the stories from her universe featuring the X-Men.
Mentally, she could sense that telepathic communication was activating portions of the brain related to memory, as well as those involving both speech and hearing, interestingly enough. "Could you try reading an image from Dr. McCoy's mind, instead of speaking to each other?" she asked. Xavier nodded. This resulted in some activity in the areas of the brain related to vision. Apparently, active participation by the target triggered areas of the brain related to specific types of sensory input.
After this, she went to Xavier and repeated the process. She could sense the areas triggered in his brain by the use of his power. Humans here had no Corona Pollentia, but there were atypical structures in mutants' brains in both the thinking and autonomic areas. There seemed to be slight variances depending upon the mutation. Holding the hands of both Xavier and McCoy, she could see the specific actions and reactions happening on both sides.
Finally, she let go of both of them and announced, "I believe I have a solution that will work for disrupting telepathic manipulation biologically. I think I can even allow for voluntary telepathic communication while disabling more intrusive types of contact." If the comic books were accurate, then a skilled telepath could simply turn off the consciousness of unprotected normals, make them feel debilitating emotions, confuse them with illusions...it was all rather over-powered, and made Ianthe wonder why telepathic capes weren't even more dominant in this world.
"You have that degree of control after such a short examination?" asked McCoy, somewhat incredulously.
The purple lizard smiled with just a hint of teeth. "I have experience dealing with powers...it was just telepathy that was foreign to my experience. By the way, I noticed that your mutation's impact on your appearance is involuntary. Would you like me to fix that?"
Beast stared at her for a moment. "Despite the drawbacks, I would prefer to keep my mutant ability."
"Oh, you would," she explained. "I wouldn't depower you. I can just add a mental switch for you to turn on or off the pigmentation and fur." It was actually surprisingly similar to what she had already done for Vectura.
"What would I have to do?" asked the furry scientist.
Ianthe held out her hand. "Just hold my hand and wait a few seconds." After a brief hesitation, Beast grabbed her hand. She made her changes, then said, "All right, now pay attention. I'm going to trigger the change, and you should be able to feel how it's happening." She shifted him, and soon Hank McCoy stood before them in human form. "Now, the change back is very similar. Pay attention to the difference." She shifted him back, and again he had blue fur. She let go of his hand. "Try and practice that back and forth a few times."
She then turned to Xavier, while Beast began trying to trigger his changes by himself. "Professor Xavier, would you like me to fix your spine while I'm here?"
Charles looked briefly surprised, then held out his hand and said, "If you can, then yes, I would like that."
Ianthe quickly made the repairs, then said, "Your spine and back are healed, but you'll undoubtedly require some physical therapy to get used to walking again."
At that moment, Hank McCoy shifted to human form on his own. "Well, that seemed to work," he commented, pleased. "You seem to be a miracle worker, Ianthe."
"I agree," said Charles. He was eager to head to the clinic, where they had facilities for physical rehabilitation, but the fact that he could feel his toes wiggle when he tried was amazing.
"Well, I think my work here is done. Thank you for allowing me to observe your powers in action," said Ianthe. It would be pretty straight-forward to protect Jimmy and Peter...and she might as well include Mary Jane in that as well.
Jean, who had simply been watching, said, "Before you go...do you think you might be able to help some of the others mutants who have powers that they can't fully control?" Scott and Anna Marie immediately came to mind as people who could use similar help.
"Of course..." muttered Xavier. "I apologize. I'm afraid I was so fixated on what you've done for me that I neglected to ask the obvious question. We would greatly appreciate any help you could give our students and colleagues." McCoy simply nodded with a slightly embarrassed look. Uncontrollable powers were both dangerous and traumatic for their users.
"I'll be happy to do so. Why don't you let me know when you can gather together a group of mutants who need help, and I'll see what I can do?" Apart from genuinely wanting to help them, it was worth the investment of time by Ianthe to help reduce the risk posed by uncontrolled powers. There might even be a way to come up with a modified symbiote that would fix power-related disabilities without depowering the individuals in question.
On another plain of existence, a fiery force of destruction was watching yet another of these interesting lizards through her avatar, and wondering what other changes they might be introducing into this reality. It might be amusing to have some direct interaction with these beings...she would have to consider the matter.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Your name is Talia Cosas. According to system records, you're an expert in both advanced materials science and environmental engineering. Is that correct?" asked the large black lizard.
Talia had been woken from stasis, expecting that somebody had come to rescue her now that the Destiny was far enough away from Terra. Instead, she had been told by a very sympathetic Nox that she had been in stasis for SIXTY MILLION YEARS, which meant that she was far, far away from her home, and her people had never retrieved her. Now, she was sitting in a conference room, facing a group of people who were supposed to help her adjust to her circumstances. They included the afore-mentioned Nox, what seemed to be an Asgard (though he looked slightly odd), a human (she presumed -- she didn't feel like an Alteran), a strange cat-like alien, a large reptilian alien, and what was clearly one of the ascended.
"Uh...yes, that's correct," replied Talia. "What...exactly is happening here?"
The lizard smiled without teeth. She...assuming it was a female...appeared to be leading this discussion. "We're here to answer questions you might have, and to give you an overview of the current state of what you call the Avalon Galaxy, and to let you know what kinds of options you have now that you've been awakened. We're having similar discussions with each member of your engineering team as we bring them out of stasis." It turned out that the Alterans in stasis had come aboard to fix a pre-launch problem, only to be caught on the ship accidentally as it started its long journey. They had entered stasis to wait until the ship was far enough from Earth to use the stargate...but nobody had come and they had never been awakened.
"My name is Metis, and I represent the Family, a multi-dimensional group that helped sponsor the team that located the Destiny and discovered that you were still aboard," began the lizard. She then went around the table, introducing the others. "This is Vectura. She works with the Family and is our transportation specialist, including starships. She has a number of projects that could use someone with your skills, and we have bases in a number of realities at a variety of local technology levels." She continued to move around the table. "Lya, of the Nox, is willing to offer you asylum with her people. Penegal, of the Asgard, is in the process of helping your people's human descendants on Earth ascend to a higher level of technology. The Asgard High Council is also willing to offer asylum."
"I'm sorry," interrupted Talia, speaking to Penegal, "but you look different from the Asgard from my time?"
Penegal answered, "My people made some significant errors in our cloning process that led to genetic degradation. It is only recently, thanks to the assistance of the Family, that we have been able to correct that issue. Our clones are still somewhat different than what you would remember from your time."
Metis continued. "Colonel Samantha Carter is a representative of the humans of Earth, or Terra, and is a leading scientist in their efforts to assimilate both Alteran and Asgard technology."
Talia held up her hand. "I'm sorry to keep interrupting, but where did you get Alteran technology?"
Carter smiled at the woman. She was not the first one to ask this question today. "We're here to answer your questions. As for your technology, a lot of it was left lying around when the rest of your people ascended or left for the Pegasus galaxy. Much of it was taken and adopted by a parasitic race called the Goa'uld that used humans as hosts, a race that my people spent a significant amount of time fighting."
"You're at war now?" asked Talia, concerned.
"Technically, but most of the Goa'uld have been eliminated by the Family, and the Asgard have been keeping the rest in line," said Sam.
Talia turned her head to look at the ascended. "We just left our technology lying around after ascending? Why didn't we destroy it, or at least secure it?"
Ganos had the resigned look of somebody who had had to convey the same embarrassing facts repeatedly. "A lot of information was lost during the plague that swept through our people, and once we ascended, we decided on a non-interference policy, lest what happened with the Ori happen again."
"Of course," said the cat woman sarcastically, "that just left most of the galaxy being dominated by mind-controlling parasites using stolen tech." Ganos ignored her...again.
"And why were we never rescued from the Destiny? There was supposed to be a rescue," said the revived engineer angrily, looking again to Ganos.
Ganos yet again shook her head. "I don't know, exactly. The most likely answer is that most of those involved in the project died from the plague. It struck our leading administrators and scientists first." The timing for that didn't really work out...but the second most likely alternative was a bureaucratic mistake. Revealing that, though, tended to make these sessions with the rescued degenerate into hostility and recriminations that could go on for some time.
"Ganos Lal is here representing the ascended. Because you are Alteran, the others are willing to allow you to attempt ascension with assistance," continued Metis. The expression on the rescued Alteran's face made it clear that she wasn't likely to favor that option.
"You mentioned Pegasus. Are there still Alterans living there that I could join?" she asked.
Penegal answered. "Sadly, no. The Alteran refugees managed to engineer an insect-Alteran hybrid species known as the Wraith. Those Wraith managed to eliminate the last vestiges of your civilization in that Galaxy. The Asgard are just now finishing off the remaining Wraith there."
"Where were the Asgard when the Wraith were wiping them out?" asked Talia. Her tone was more curious than accusatory.
Penegal gave the Asgard equivalent of a shrug. "For whatever reason, the Alterans there failed to keep in contact with us, and never requested our assistance. By the time we learned what had happened to the remnants of our allies, it was too late."
Talia looked at Ganos again. "At what point did our species lose any sense of competence or common sense?"
Ganos frowned. "I would say it was when four-fifths of our population died from an incurable plague while the rest ascended or fled." She couldn't really defend her people's actions -- she didn't really agree with them herself. She also, however, wasn't responsible for most of them. She had been a school teacher, not a leader.
Talia frowned and thought for a moment. "So, the Family rescued me. They also helped the Asgard with their genetic degradation..."
"And," added Penegal, "they requested the Asgard provide our technology to the humans of Earth."
After a nod, Talia continued. "They also have taken care of your hostile parasites that used to rule your galaxy." Sam just nodded. Talia looked at Vectura. "What kind of projects are you working on right now?"
Vectura gave her a grin, then handed her a tablet. The device was unfamiliar, though sophisticated and fairly intuitive. The Alteran engineer quickly got the hang of it, and began reviewing the cat-woman's specification for a new class of ship. Upon reading about the planned drive systems, she looked up and asked, "A wormhole drive?"
The cat woman nodded. "It's actually inspired by an Alteran prototype, but that design was never fully realized by your people. The Family version is much more flexible and robust."
"And you're supplementing that with gravitic thrusters, a hyperspace drive, and a real-space faster-than-light space-warp drive?" asked Talia, slightly incredulous but interested. "What kind of hull material are you using to handle those kinds of stressors?" asked the engineer.
"Electron degenerate matter," replied the cat woman with a smirk. The shock at that response on Talia Cosas's face was amusing to most of them there.
Ganos just rolled her eyes. They had just rescued a crew of engineers, so of course, the Family was an attractive alternative. Out of forty-seven interviewed so far, three had decided to go with the Asgard, and two had gone to Earth, much to Samantha Carter's delight. Twenty-three were undecided. The remaining nineteen had all expressed interest in working with the Family and their multidimensional companies filled with fascinating technology. The AI expert had been literally salivating when they told her about Dragon and the other artificial beings working with them. Several with backgrounds in high energy physics were fascinated by the Family's matter creation and wormhole technology. Not one rescued engineer or scientist had expressed any interest at all in ascension. It was like her only purpose here was to allow the rescued Alterans to vent their anger at another Alteran.
Lya smiled quietly to herself, happy that things were going as expected.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Tyros Kanten was an important man. He was the lead scientist in charge of new ship development at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, a role that had hundreds of skilled scientists, engineers, designers and technicians reporting to him. He had personally had a guiding hand in the development of the Sovereign-class cruisers, and was satisfied that Starfleet was again starting to move toward multipurpose vessels and away from warships like the Defiant and Akira classes. In his opinion, Starfleet was not meant to be a military force.
Kanten was also the council member for industry and economics for Section 31. The fact that their objectives happened to dovetail nicely with his personal philosophies was convenient for him, as his detractors and opponents frequently found themselves outmaneuvered thanks to the implicit support of that organization. Amusingly, 99% of the time, Section 31 was able to accomplish their objectives using completely mundane, and usually completely legal, methods. No matter how egalitarian, meritocratic, or progressive an organization, politics always played a role. That was one reason why the organization preferred to suppress AI research. Artificial intelligences were much harder to manipulate using psychological levers. They were also harder to fool.
Unfortunately for Kanten, there was now an engineered nanovirus in his blood stream. It was harmless, and not something the biofilters on a transporter would destroy. It did, however, mark him as a person of interest to one of those disliked artificial intelligences. Draco had released the nanovirus with specific instructions. It would be contagious only when the carrier was alone with one other person, and when both subjects were calm, and when they were together for at least five minutes. The net result was a nanovirus custom-tailored to infection during clandestine meetings and information transfers. While it did generate a number of false positives, it helped narrow down the population of possible Section 31 agents from trillions of sapient beings to those who had direct contact with a chain leading back to the agents on Deep Space 9. Kanten was the most highly-placed member to be tagged so far.
It had taken months, but Draco now thought they were reaching the beginning of the end for a certain clandestine organization. All he needed was to identify the rest of the leadership, and a certain group of very effective lizards would take matters in hand. Draco, for one, was looking forward to it.
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- Location
- Lake superior, Minoc
Are both sentances supposed to start with talking about false positives?
Anyways, Im really looking forward to the Leagues after action report on the Slaughter House 9 simulation.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
You and everyone else my friend.
Sits back with a bucket of M&M filled popcorn.
- Location
- Maryland
Are both sentances supposed to start with talking about false positives?
Anyways, Im really looking forward to the Leagues after action report on the Slaughter House 9 simulation.
No, that's an error. Thanks for pointing that out.
As for the League...let's just say that Dragon deliberately programmed that simulation to be a challenge...
- Location
- The City of Tears, Hallownest
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ok, I know this is a simulation, but magic isn't an object you can adapt to, its a series of techniques. is he adapting to being chained up, because thats not inflicting injury, is he adapting to fireballs because he already did that. "Adapting to magic" makes no sense
OstermanA
(Unverified Penguin)
- Location
- $PWD
Powers make no sense, and there's precedent in DC of things adapting to literally anything, such as Amazo.
- Location
- Maryland
This will be addressed as part of the after-action report. It will make perfect sense within the context of the simulation.
- Location
- The City of Tears, Hallownest
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Crawler is not from DC, shards don't know anything about magic
And this doesn't answer the question of what she was DOING that he adapted to
- Location
- Maine
- Pronouns
- They/Them/Theirs
Also, Magic Resistance is a thing in DC, and it's specifically stated that (Silver Age) Superman has close to zero magic resistance. So "developing a magical tolerance" is within expectations given what I know about DC. Whether or not Crawler could actually pull it off is beyond the scope of this paper.
That's going to start generating false positives in the millions VERY quickly. Because all it takes is to start a chain of false positives, for that one to spread to lots of other false positives, and you're going to start LOTS of chains like that. Give it a few years and it will have spread to literally almost everyone, because ANY kind of friendly meeting can trigger the spread. Visiting a relative, visiting a friend, visiting a colleague etc etc...
- Location
- Canada
Love the new chapter. I was very confused at the S9 in Metropolis. I started to write a nasty post enquiring if I had missed a chapter; wondering how the S9 made it to DC. Boy was I embarrassed 😳 when they started talking about a simulation. Not sure it needs a fix, I just personally found the transition jarring and confusing.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Point of order; stars do not actually have an 'ignition point' where they go 'foom' or anything visibly impressive. The process of stellar ignition is a gradual one that takes place over thousands of years as a protostar slowly collapses and heats up, steadily changing from converting its gravitational potential energy to nuclear fusion as its primary source of energy until it reaches equilibrium, with the internal pressure from the fusion reaction perfectly balancing the weight of the star's gas, and stops contracting. The protostar is glowing just as bright as a normal star from the heat generated by that gradual collapse (sometimes even brighter, in fact) throughout this entire process, and sadly it is quite boring to watch.
There is no moment where the star suddenly lights up, it is just a cloud of gas that slowly and steadily gets brighter and smaller until it stops doing that, at which point it is a star.
Stars are just too fucking gargantuan to do anything quickly enough to be really relevant on a human scale, the fastest thing that a star does is die, and even that takes months, or days\hours at least. And you really don't want to be anywhere near one of the ones that takes hours, because when an object the size of a star does something in a span of time measured in hours, the only word to properly describe what happens is 'kaboom'.
There is no moment where the star suddenly lights up, it is just a cloud of gas that slowly and steadily gets brighter and smaller until it stops doing that, at which point it is a star.
Stars are just too fucking gargantuan to do anything quickly enough to be really relevant on a human scale, the fastest thing that a star does is die, and even that takes months, or days\hours at least. And you really don't want to be anywhere near one of the ones that takes hours, because when an object the size of a star does something in a span of time measured in hours, the only word to properly describe what happens is 'kaboom'.
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- Location
- Omniverse #1345
Technically if you could artificially increase gravity, or bring something sufficiently large close enough to a brown giant you could create such a moment where it effectively instantly begins undergoing fusion. But yeah, that is not natural. If that is happening someone is throwing around some very advanced tech. or a black hole is about to eat it and the gravitational distortion created enough stress.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Well yes, a fusion reactor that someone constructed has a moment of ignition where it suddenly lights up and goes 'foom', but normal stars were not built, they are just a thing that happens when the universe leaves lots of unsupervised hydrogen lying around for a very long time.
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- Location
- Omniverse #1345
That's what you think! Grumbles
I think it's best to just assume that Crawler runs on similar rules as Doomsday, which means adaptive regeneration that often doesn't make sense. With Doomsday, that meant that magic worked on him sometimes, though he didn't fight magic users often. He did notably become a cyborg after fighting Cyborg-Superman and having to adapt to tech/nanotech. Basically, if adapting is their thing, assume the only way to get rid of them them is to make them adapt in a way that neutralizes them, obliterate them like they're Perfect Cell, or find a way to imprison them.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
IIRC there are things in DC that innately 'resist' magic, or at least specific forms of magic. Certainly the inverse is true as Superman is noted for his weakness to magic, with his physical invulnerability being bypassed entirely by magical attacks, so I don't think it is impossible that Crawler could adapt a degree of magic resistance after being exposed repeatedly to magical effects. I'd need to go do some research on how magic works in DC to know for sure, but Crawler adapting to DC-verse magical attacks doesn't break my suspension of disbelief off the top of my head.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Think you probably meant 'plane'...
Nice chapter, I'm glad to see how you are progressing things. Out of curiosity, is that robot Sam Carter meeting the Alteran? Are Alteran exotic senses good enough to spot if she's a robot?
- Location
- Maryland
Well, one benefit of writing is that you learn things about a bunch of esoteric subjects. Honestly, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about that passage, assuming that the Nox would be able to come up with a series of impressive sights when given the entire galaxy as a playground. Let's say that they didn't actually see a star being ignited -- Anya is describing it, and she's not an astrophysicist. They witnessed a very unusual point where a previously ignited star burned away the material blocking visible light in a nebula unusually high in certain elements -- maybe strontium and copper? I did mention a purple light.
The only thing Anya really witnessed was a sudden increase in luminosity of a stellar object, and a purple glow of some kind. Maybe that's what color a space buffalo's hair glows when it gets set on fire on the galactic "plain."
- Location
- Maryland
Yes, but keep in mind that Draco is an unchained Dragon-type AI. Pruning false branches when they occur is well within his capabilities. He has effectively created a technological means of tracking the six degrees of separation. It wouldn't be terribly useful for a human doing the tracking, but it suffices for an AI. Also, inherent to the tags is an ability to see how the infection spread through the network thanks to timestamps and unique (really large) identifiers.
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- Location
- Maryland
I needed someplace to put the space buffalo. Actually, yes, I did mean, "plane." Annoyingly enough, I actually looked up the correct term to MAKE SURE I GOT IT CORRECT, and I still put the wrong term in the story. Grr...argh. Of course, the spell checker is useless for detecting homophones.
This Sam Carter is human. Robo-Carter was created before she was promoted, and is busy helping the Scoobies when she isn't consulting on Soong-type androids.