- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
You and your low, bass humor. We're all whaling at your bottom feeder puns here while grouper-ing for our own. 
Ship of Fools: A Taylor Varga Omake (Complete)
- Thread starter Derek M
- Start date
- Crossover
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
Well, carp. I had hoped it was all a fluke.
- Location
- Buffalo, NY, USA
I wouldn't mind seeing more of this universe.
An inversion recursion incursion?
I'm suddenly reminded of the Emisary, and related spinoff, threads. Last I checked they were up to 6 stories, lol.
You don't want to know what a version of Taylor Hebert did with that power... *shudders*
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Everyone should shad-dap before the mods shell out some infractions no matter how much we turtle up.
Last edited:
Chapter 46: Blended Reality
- Location
- Maryland
Chapter 46: Blended Reality
SG-1 was dressed in civilian clothes as they surveilled the residence of their target. The man's name was supposedly Jack O'Neill, which was suspicious by itself. Add in the fact that he was the producer of Wormhole X-treme! in a universe populated by the supernatural, and it created a whole host of questions. They had already scanned the surface looking for trace of naquadah, and had come up empty (although the sensors had noticed a few other odd substances...including a sizable chunk of uranium above ground in Palos Verdes, for some reason. A quick call to Giles explained that there was a harmless community of Qual'vahs demons in a commune there that weren't harmed by radiation, but found that exposure to it triggered a sense of spiritual euphoria.
"So, any guesses as to what's going on with this guy?" asked Jack.
Teal'c was wearing an Oakland A's cap to cover his forehead symbol, yet again adopting his slightly ill-fitting "Murray" persona. "Does this reality not have seers? Is it possible that this person is the local Jack O'Neill, and he is seeing his alternate life?" There had actually been a similar situation with the real SGC, though that was due to Ancient technology.
"It could just be parallel development," suggested Carter. "I mean, there has to be some kind of force at work to keep things similar given that there are so many realities with basically identical Earths. According to Buffy and the others, there are plenty of TV shows that are common across this reality and ours, which is odd, considering the other differences." A history of hidden magic was bound to be drastically different in many ways from one based on hidden alien influence.
Daniel suggested, "It could be some kind of higher power. Doctor Giles was aware of alternate realities and dimensions, so there might be demonic involvement, like that children's show with the puppets."
"Why would a demon create a version of Wormhole X-treme?" asked O'Neill skeptically.
"Well," said Sam, "we use it for plausible deniability. If they're using portals, they may want something similar."
"Would it not be best to simply inquire with the Jack O'Neill in this reality?" said Teal'c.
When nobody disagreed, they started to make their way toward the residence. It was a high-end condominium on the edge of West Hollywood. The neighborhood was slightly upscale from what Sam remembered, but then it had been quite a while since she had been back in LA, and it was possible that this Earth's version was different in any event. "This is kind of nice, doing the covert thing as a team on Earth again," she said.
"Just like old times," said Jack. Ever since they had been copied to their android bodies, they had steered clear of Earth to avoid running into their human selves. Apart from the risk of somebody like the NID wanting to capture them to close a security hole and get some androids to dissect...or disassemble, there was a certain weirdness to talking to a copy of yourself.
The unit was on the second floor, with an open-air walkway that ran the length of the building. The building itself was a typical modernized Spanish architecture common to the region, pretty obviously less than ten-years old if the flat-screen security station by the entry was any indication. When Jack knocked on the door, it was fairly quickly answered by a middle-aged, balding man that looked absolutely nothing like Jack. When he saw the group clustered in his building walkway, he paused, clearly surprised, and then said, "Oh, thank God!"
"You're Jack O'Neill?" asked Jack, skeptically.
"No, of course not...here, you should come in if you can," said the man, standing aside to allow the team entry. He then closed the door behind them. "I had started to think nobody was ever going to come for me."
"You appear to know who we are," commented Teal'c.
The man laughed. "Of course I do. You're SG-1. Everybody at Area 51 knew who you were. You brought back half of the stuff we studied."
"You know about Area 51?" asked Sam.
"I used to work there. My real name is Carl Steiner, and I was one of the scientists investigating the quantum mirror you guys found on P3R-233. I accidentally touched the surface of it and ended up in this dimension," explained the man.
"Why didn't you just come back through the mirror?" asked Daniel.
Steiner frowned. "Because there was no mirror...or rather, there was, but it looked like an antique full-length mirror, and there was nothing to use as a control -- no remote, and nothing that could function as one. Just touching it did nothing. In retrospect, I would guess it was probably controlled by magic, but at the time I didn't even know magic really existed...and wasn't that a rude shock."
Daniel looked interested. "You know about the supernatural, then?"
The scientist nodded. "When I arrived, I was inside a cave filled with a bunch of strange artifacts like the mirror and a large trunk filled with gold and gems, all of which was covered in thick dust. It was actually not far from a small town in Nevada, luckily, so I could walk in. Of course, a few phone calls clued me into the fact that there was no stargate program, and somebody else had my home phone number. It then wasn't hard to verify that the wrong guy was president. Eventually, I sold off the stuff in the cave, and found out from one of the more outgoing buyers that some of it was magical."
"So, what's with the Wormhole X-treme! remake?" asked Jack.
Steiner looked slightly embarrassed. "Well, I thought somebody might come to rescue me. I still have the mirror in a storage facility nearby. On the off chance that you didn't come though the mirror, though, I decided to do something nobody from our reality would miss."
"You recreated the show because you knew anybody from our reality would want to see if it was based on a stargate program here," said Daniel with a tone of sudden understanding. "That's also why you're going by Jack O'Neill, I would guess?"
The man shrugged. "I had to pick a name for my fake identity, so I picked one that might draw the right kind of attention."
"Are you aware that this reality is the subject of a television show back on our Earth?" asked Daniel, curious.
The other man grimaced. "I wasn't up until fairly recently. I saw an add for Angel Investigations in LA, and started to put two and two together. I actually thought about reaching out to them, but by the time I knew what was going on, Sunnydale was already gone and the Angel Investigations offices were closed, and I wasn't going to poke around in the supernatural world at random. That seemed like a good way to get dead pretty quickly, especially as I only vaguely remembered the shows."
"Well..." started Jack. "I assume you want to go back to our home reality?"
Steiner nodded rather frantically. "Don't get me wrong. Life here isn't awful, but it's hard not to see the supernatural around once you're made aware of it. I know I've seen more than one really pale person with outdated clothes around LA, and I have no desire to become somebody's meal. My neighbor's Chow mix went missing, and around here there's no guarantee it was just hit by a car."
"Is there anything you want to do before we take you back?" asked Sam. This was a bit disappointing as a result for their investigation, but at least it would be easy to fix.
The other man considered things for a moment. "Let me make a few phone calls. There are some good people I've been working with...I can set it up so that they take over the show and such. I also have a suitcase filled with the last bits of treasure from the cave to take back with me...and we should probably grab the mirror so nobody else gets trapped by it."
It took a little more time than implied, but in less than forty-eight hours, Steiner was back on his native Earth...an Earth where the Asgard were openly sharing technology, and where the local SG-1 team had no idea who he was. The debriefing was...interesting.
The mirror ended up in secure storage on Sineya Station.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dragon again looked out at a much more somber group of heroes. "I know this is going to sound unbelievable, but you honestly did rather well for your first time facing the Slaughterhouse Nine."
"Four dead heroes, with three times that many requiring significant medical care, and civilian casualties estimated at more than three thousand severely injured or killed is not what we typically consider a success," commented Batman.
Guy added, "I'm also not sure it was a fair test. It seemed pretty convenient for them that tiger-lady just tore through my forcefield like that."
Dragon shook her head. "That actually is quite consistent with the abilities demonstrated by Siberian in the past. There are a number of powers in our world that are far more effective than they theoretically should be. It is true, though, that some of what I programmed into the simulation was an approximation that may not reflect a true contest between yourselves and the Nine."
"What do you mean?" asked Superman thoughtfully.
"I had to make certain assumptions. We know how powers work in our world, so we assumed that Hatchet Job's power nullification wouldn't affect you. Powers, however, are notoriously tricky to predict, so that may have been too generous. I'm also not entirely sure that Crawler's adaptation would have been so quick to negate Zatanna's magic, though he has adapted under impossible circumstances before. Because we have no ready source of magic in our world, I just can't predict that interaction," explained Dragon.
"Nevertheless," replied Wonder Woman, "given the complexity of the scenario, we can assume that there were mistakes in the simulation that both favored us and hindered us, which tends to make it balance. I'm more concerned about what kinds of lessons we can learn from this."
"I have some thoughts on that, but first I want to get Skitter's thoughts." The insect-themed cape was sitting in the back next to Jimmy. Looking toward her, Dragon asked, "What did you think?"
Taylor paused for a moment, not wanting to say something rushed that might make her look foolish. There were a few points, though, that would have been pretty obvious to any cape in her world. "Well, the first thing is that when Shatterbird screamed, most of you seemed to jump into search and rescue mode, despite this being a cape fight."
"That's a good point," replied Dragon. "You effectively did exactly what the S9 wanted you to do, thereby giving them the advantage to choose their battlegrounds and their opponents. Rescue operations should have been a second priority behind locating members of the villain team. Anything else, Skitter?"
After another moment's thought, Skitter answered, "You ran in head-first against mostly unknown capes. No offense, but in my world, that's kind of a rookie mistake." Experienced capes learned that an unknown cape could have unknown power aspects, or an unknown synergy or counter to your powers. Like with Grue, Shadow Stalker's power didn't play well with his, but Taylor's bugs allowed her to sense things even in his darkness.
"I agree," added Batman. "A lot of us," he said, looking at Guy, "have gotten used to being able to overpower the opposition regardless of their abilities. Others," he said, changing his focus to Superman, "have fairly well-known weaknesses that are relatively easy to exploit."
Dragon continued that thought. "Known power capabilities and weaknesses are a significant part of the dossiers kept by the Protectorate and the Guild in our world. I assume you do the same?" she asked, looking at Batman, who nodded. "Part of the advantage of having Protectorate teams, for example, is that it allows them to optimize the mission team based on the opposition. Another point worth mentioning is that even mundane patrols are run in pairs of capes. Some of you were isolated because you went your own way during the rescue operations." Most of them, in fact, had been on their own.
"We've undoubtedly gotten too used to having teleporters, and also to having heroes like myself and Flash who can respond almost instantly," admitted Superman.
"It also assumes that somebody can call for help, which isn't necessarily true," added Skitter. "There are a lot of capes who can incapacitate a single person very quickly."
"So, the take away is that we need to be more cautious?" asked Green Arrow. He was still absent-mindedly rubbing the wrist of the hand that he had "lost" in the simulation.
"I've got a list of suggestions, some of which I've made previously," replied Batman. "I'll be making some updates to them based on the results of this latest exercise." He had been in the middle of doing that anyway due to the changes to the Lanterns.
The other heroes winced, knowing that Batman's ideas tended to involve both intensive training and a degree of paranoia most of them considered excessive. They also realized that this last exercise had given the League more than enough reason to actually listen and implement at least some of his ideas.
"I'm happy to hear that, especially as we may need your help in the near future," said Dragon. Skitter looked at her, slightly confused.
Aquaman, still smarting from a slightly humiliating and unsettling simulated battle, asked, "Why would you need our help?"
Dragon frowned. "Now that things with Scion are resolved, we still have a number of serious threats that need cleanup, including the Slaughterhouse Nine. Normally, we would let the Triumvirate lead the way, but that is likely to be problematic...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The scouts had verified that the forces of Winter had indeed pulled back, until they were all entirely inside the wall, and they had done so across the entire boundary. Nemesis and the other Outsiders were puzzled by this. It had never happened before in all of known history. Nobody had ever expected to see such a thing until victory was at hand for those eldritch forces trying to gain a foothold in reality. Outsiders were alien in their perceptions and thoughts, but they weren't stupid. The obvious answer was that this was some kind of trap. The problem was that they had no way of ferreting out what kind of trap would be capable of covering the entire border of reality, regardless of where an attack came.
Eventually, the temptation to attack the undefended Gates grew too great. To counter the risk, the Outsider forces attacked in mass across the entire front, attempting to climb the walls and bash the Outer Gates at multiple points. The creatures attacking ranged from foot-soldiers that scuttled like beetles, horrified faces burned into their carapaces, to more powerful brutes that looked like constantly moving walls of greyish flesh, to powerful Outsider Lords with the ability to bend reality at will. These were the more common types, but the number of monstrosities attacking were so varied and chaotic that they defied any attempt to fit them into patterns or categories.
Mab was watching the Outer Gate that was metaphysically closest to her palace. Her new Winter Knight was by her side. As the Gates began to shudder under hammer blows and dark forms topped the walls, Mab simply said, "Now."
The ground shook. A massive crevasse, parallel to the wall, opened up and swallowed hordes of attackers. A spiky, black hand grasped the side of the opening, and a horned head appeared, showing a single, red, glowing eye. A wave of electrical energy shot out in all directions, current jumping from form to form as the Outsider foot-soldiers were electrocuted. As the giant form pulled himself out of the earth, he almost absent-mindedly crushed more of the forces arrayed against him.
Once the entire forty-five-foot form of Behemoth was standing outside the wall, he began to glow white, shooting hard radiation out and frying all of the beings crawling up and on the wall for a distance of several hundred feet. Some of the more powerful survivors began thrashing as they literally burned from the inside out. Turning to the waiting hordes that had been queuing to tackle the wall, Behemoth roared, causing the ground to shudder once again.
Mab spread her senses, and she could feel what was happening elsewhere. Leviathan, The Simurgh, Khonsu, Tohu and Bohu, and fifteen other massive forces of destruction were laying waste to the forces of the Outsiders, causing more damage to them in minutes than the forces of Winter had been able to accomplish in more than a century of fighting. "I am pleased, David," said the Winter Queen.
Eidolon frowned. He didn't like Mab, and he didn't like the Winter Court. He had, however, come to terms with the idea that his own pride, and his insecurities, had led to the deaths of millions of people and many heroes. Protecting another reality from alien abominations was a suitable penance, regardless of how unpleasant the nature of the task. "May I engage with the enemy, my queen?" he asked.
Mab frowned, as if she could sense his reluctance. "You may. You should be happier, my Knight. You and your friends are so useful at the Gates that I wouldn't waste you in dealing with some of the more unpleasant tasks of Winter. There is a reason why the Knights are usually...unpleasant people."
Eidolon said nothing. He simply teleported to a section of the wall far from an Endbringer, and proceeded to use a variety of powers to crush, mangle, and shred anything hostile. If nothing else, it gave him a chance to test out a wide variety of powers.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"That was a masterful move, Saurial. Making Parker take responsibility for the space initiative is sure to keep the usual parties on the back-foot." Doom honestly included himself in that grouping. "Now I assume you're here to make sure I cooperate, even if I'm not in one of the leadership positions?"
"Thank you, Victor. Yes, your cooperation would make things go much more easily," replied Saurial smoothly. She and Doom had gotten on surprisingly well at their last meeting. Just like with Lung, Varga's experiences made it somewhat easier to deal with the somewhat benevolent dictator. Doom had even dropped the level of formality once mutual respect had been established. It was obviously rare that the man could converse with somebody who understood both science and mysticism to a level near his own. Both Stephen Strange and Reed Richards were superior in their areas of interest to Doom, but neither was particularly conversant in the other's. Saurial knew both quite well.
Doom sat back on his throne-like chair and steepled his hands together. "Very well. I believe I mentioned a personal matter in our last conversation. I am going to extend a degree of trust to you in order to acquire your aid. I do not think you will find the task too burdensome." He looked to the reptile, who was sitting attentively. He continued, "My problem has to do with my daughter."
Saurial simply raised an eyebrow. She hadn't been aware that Doom had a daughter. According to the information provided by Asti on the current state of this world, nobody else seemed to know that either, including S.H.I.E.L.D. "She must be well hidden," she said with a grin. "Given your resources, I'm surprised you need my help."
Doom frowned. "The fact that she is my daughter is well hidden, but she herself is not. Sadly, she knows who I am and wants nothing to do with me. That makes it difficult for me to take action on her behalf. She will not listen."
"You want me to deliver her a warning," asked Saurial, knowing that it could not be something so simple.
"The problem is her employer. My daughter is familiar with the mystical side of the world, in part because she has no small amount of personal talent thanks to her heritage. I believe she decided to go into law just to spite me in a small way because of that. Her awareness, however, brought her to the attention of a minor law firm that specializes in the supernatural. At least, she thinks they are a small firm. My sources have revealed that they are actually a branch of a much larger organization that extends beyond this dimension," explained the armored monarch.
Saurial's eyes actually widened at that. "They wouldn't happen to be called Wolfram and Hart, would they?"
Doom's estimation of the lizard rose yet again by a small amount. "I see you are familiar with them."
"They're a multidimensional law firm that serve as the front for the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart, a trio of powerful demon lords. They use political influence, legal maneuvering and corruption to extend their power into various Earths. I'm surprised they're so limited in this dimension," said Saurial. There was plenty of magic here to attract their attention.
Doom shook his head. "I suspect Mephisto and some of the other major powers keep them from gaining more than a small foothold here. Their type of power suffers when their opponents are aware of their presence and their tactics. Regardless, my daughter has taken employment with them. I wish her to find other employers before she advances to the point where she cannot leave of her own free will."
Saurial considered the problem. As Victor's daughter, she would like be fairly headstrong, and possibly a little arrogant. That was Victor's primary flaw, after all, and it had led to more than one defeat at the hands of his opponents. The easiest thing to do would be to play on that. "Do you have any objection if she were to go to work for the Family or one of our associates?"
Doom considered that for a moment, then replied, "No. Employment with you or your associates would be acceptable. I have no doubt that you treat your employees far better than the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart do. I also have no doubt that you would find her to be a great asset." Left unsaid was the fact that it would also reinforce the positive working relationship he had established with the powerful reptiles, regardless of his daughter's personal feelings.
Saurial smiled without showing teeth. "I think I have just the thing, then. For who and where are we looking?"
"I will give you all of the information I have on her," answered Victor. "She lives in Los Angeles at the moment, and she uses her mother's maiden name, so she's known as Lilah Morgan."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Bobbi Cade was a damned-good ship designer, if she did say so herself. She had been more than capable of holding her own as a new hire at Weyland-Yutani's starship engineering department, despite some of her colleagues' attempts at character assassination. It wasn't her fault that she was more talented than jerks like Yu and O'Malley. She admitted to herself that she wasn't the most politically savvy or tactful person in the department, but her design skills were top notch. The error she caught in the newest ground-to-orbit shuttle design easily saved the firm millions, not to mention lives. Saving a couple of bucks a unit in a way that could cut thrust in half during maneuvering was just stupid.
When her boss called her into his office and said the higher-ups wanted a word, she had worried at first that she was going to be blamed for something. Her firm wasn't exactly known for its fairness to its employees, though it had gotten much better recently. To her relief, her vice president had simply offered her a position on a top secret research station. The station was pretty far out from Earth, which was a drawback, but the company would pay for relocation, and it included the unusually generous option of regular trips back to Earth. Her veep also told her that it was the same place as Jimmy Ito had gone. Ito had been one of the top senior designers in the group, so it had been a surprise when he took a transfer assignment. Everybody had assumed he was next in line to take over the department. With that revelation, she couldn't help but say yes.
Now she was on a shuttle to the station, having taken a a long journey out this way via courier ship. The courier crew and the shuttle pilot had both had little to say about their destination. They either didn't know, or they weren't supposed to talk about it and were actually good at keeping secrets. That was probably a good thing, even if it was personally frustrating. Also frustrating was that she didn't get a good view of the station due to the limited field of view of the shuttle's windows. She had caught a brief glimpse from a distance that showed that it had been fitted with spacedocks, which made sense for a secret facility for designing spaceships, but she couldn't tell exactly what they were building.
She was surprised when the inner airlock door opened and she was met by the forty-something Jimmy Ito. "Mr. Ito!" she exclaimed in surprise.
He smiled at her. "Hello, Bobbi, it's good to see you again. You can call me Jimmy, by the way. We're not big on formality around here."
"All right..." she said, hesitating. "Where and what exactly is here, though? Nobody actually told me much of anything."
He began walking into the station from the docking area, beckoning her to follow. "This is Sineya Station. It's a special projects site for the new owners and managers of the company. Ship prototyping is one of the types of work they do here."
"What else do they do there?" asked Bobbi as she followed. She had heard the rumors like everybody else about the company's bioweapons division, some of which sounded more like a horror vid.
Jimmy gave a little laugh, guessing her concerns. "It's nothing horrifying...don't worry. It is very unusual, however. You'll see more of it as we head through to our section."
Inside, they began walking through what appeared to be an athletic training facility. To one side, she could see a group of very muscular men watching an elderly Asian man demonstrating some type of martial art. "That's Master Cho. He's teaching a group of Jaffa a new variation of hard aikido," said Ito.
"Jaffa?" she questioned. "And what's hard aikido?" She had taken some aikido during her undergraduate training, and it was characterized by redirection and holds, not strikes.
"You probably won't believe this right now, but hold your disbelief until we get to our section. The Jaffa are genetically engineered warriors who surrendered to our employers in battle and swore themselves to service," explained her colleague. "And the new form of aikido is apparently something designed for strong men to fight things that are stronger. I don't know much about it. Just being Japanese doesn't mean you know martial arts, despite what movies will tell you."
"Genetically engineered? Who did that?" she wondered out loud. Was this some type of secret W-Y project, or was it some shady government project? She also wondered about what kind of stronger opponents these warriors were planning to fight, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.
"That's the most unbelievable part. They were engineered by a race of alien parasites that take over human beings as hosts. The Jaffa served as their warrior class, while regular humans were kept as slaves," continued Ito.
"I haven't heard anything about that..." Bobbi figured that type of threat would at least make the rumor mill.
Ito laughed. "Don't worry. Their former bosses are a LONG way away. You're not likely to run into them."
At that moment, something that she could swear was a flying monkey zoomed down the hallway. Shortly thereafter, a young man and a young woman ran around the corridor, chasing it. She could hear the woman saying, "Damn it, Andrew, when Willow finally gets here, she's going to be pissed at you for this!"
"It wasn't my fault, Dawn. That summoning crystal was misfiled by one of the slayers. It was supposed to be a scrying crystal!" said the young man in a slightly whiny voice. The voice reminded Bobbi of some of the more irritating engineering grad students from school.
The woman came to stop in front of Bobbi and Jimmy. "Did you guys see a flying monkey go by?" Ito simply pointed in the direction where the thing had fled, and the two young people continued the chase.
Bobbi stared after them. "Um...what the hell was that?"
Again, Ito chuckled. "You won't believe me, but that was probably a magically summoned demon."
Bobbi's stare turned into a glare. She was pretty sure she was being hazed as the newbie. "You're right, I don't believe you."
He shrugged. "Just hold on until we get where we're going."
Cade stayed pissed until they entered the ship design facilities. At that point, she was stunned speechless as Ito introduced her to a Roswell Gray that was talking to a human. The Gray was apparently named Svafar, which sounded strangely Nordic. The human was named Tsol and had an extremely unusual accent. As they left the two to their conversation, Ito explained that Tsol was actually part of an advanced pre-modern-human society and had been stuck in stasis for sixty million years.
"Nobody would survive that long in cryostasis!" she exclaimed.
He smirked. "I didn't say it was cryostasis. You're going to see a lot of odd things around here."
Their journey ended at a large bay window looking out on a construction gantry where the frame of a rather large ship was taking shape. There were two women looking out over the frame. One was a tall, very shapely blond woman who appeared to have cybernetic implants in her face. The other was a cat woman. There was no other way to describe her. Bobbi was having trouble with the fact that there was no other way to describe her.
"It looks like the frame is almost done!" said Ito excitedly.
The cat woman smiled, two sharp canines appearing slightly through her lips. "Yep. Raptaur finished it up early this morning."
The blond woman added, "It was very convenient that the Family has no difficulty operating in pure vacuum."
"Ladies, allow me to introduce the new recruit that I was telling you about. This is Bobbi Cade, one of the best new designers at Weyland-Yutani. Bobbi, these two women are Seven and Vectura. Vectura is the lead for this project, and Seven is her second," introduced Jimmy.
Despite the level of unreality, Bobbi was pleased to hear Jimmy describe her as one of the best new designers. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said. "Can I ask what the project is?"
Vectura seemed happy to explain. "We recently built a number of smaller test-beds that integrated the technologies from a diverse set of universes. The dimension skippers went well, so now we're trying the same with a larger ship."
"The previous vessels were closer in size to a shuttle-craft, despite being significantly larger on the inside. This ship will be truly massive in terms of internal volume," added Seven.
With yet another mood shift, the young engineer decided that they had to be making a joke at her expense. "All right, that's funny. What are we really doing here?"
"You haven't explained the situation here?" asked Vectura, looking at Ito rather sharply.
Jimmy looked slightly sheepish. "She literally just got off the shuttle. I thought we would do the orientation after the tour."
Seven raised on eyebrow. "I suggest you take her to the stargate next. That will likely cause her to suspend some of her disbelief."
Ito quickly led her to another part of the station. There was a strange metallic ring installed in a standing position, with some type of control station next to it. Bobbi was puzzled by what it was supposed to do, as it didn't look like any piece of technology with which she was familiar. Without explaining anything, she watched as Ito entered a series of twelve strange symbols into the control terminal. She quickly stepped back as a backwash of plasma rushed out, before settling back into a placid pool inside the ring.
"What the fuck?" she asked, forgetting herself for a moment.
"This is the stargate. It's a transport device. Just follow me," said Ito. He quickly walked up to the event horizon, then passed into it and disappeared. Bobbi walked up to the circle and looked on both sides of it. Jimmy wasn't hiding on the other side. There was a sign on the back of the gate that said, "WARNING: ONLY ENTER ON OTHER SIDE TO AVOID LETHAL DE-MATERIALIZATION." Heeding the sign, and deciding that she was only going to get answers by following, Bobbi stepped through.
There was a massive rush of light, and it felt as though Bobbi was being sucked through a slightly chilly tube. At one point, there was a brief...hiccup...as if she had had to push through a thick mesh of cobwebs. She stumbled forward as she reappeared. On the other side, Ito was waiting for her, along with a teen girl wearing a sword and one of the Jaffa carrying an odd staff. She noticed that he also had a strange tattoo on his forehead, with a symbol she didn't recognize. "Welcome to Cleveland, Ohio," said Ito, helping her away from the gate. The two...guards...paid them no mind.
"We're on Earth?" she exclaimed? That wasn't possible.
"Come and see," he said, leading her to an elevator. She followed along, slightly dazed.
The elevator led them up to the roof, where she could see the surrounding urban landscape. It definitely looked like Earth, though the surroundings were surprisingly primitive. She couldn't even see any aircars. The skyline in the distance looked like Cleveland, though slightly different than she remembered. The Key Tower was clearly visible, though the Weyland Tower was missing. "Why does it look...different?" she asked.
"We're on Earth," he explained, "but we're not on our Earth. This is the Earth in the universe where those two you saw, Dawn and Andrew, originated. We're also not in our time, as this Earth is currently in the early years of the twenty-first century."
Bobbi considered herself fairly level-headed, but there was only so much she could take in a short period of time. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell forward.
Jimmy, alarmed, jumped forward to catch her before she hit the ground. "Well, crap," he muttered to himself. Vectura was going to be pissed...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"There are several traditions of magic that don't cause the same effect as Harry Dresden's magic," explained Stephen Strange.
"Totally," agreed Willow. "I use computers all the time. Most of my magic calls on external sources of power...which has its pluses and minuses, but one plus is that I can use a smart phone without problems."
"Even with our type of magic, you could probably get one of these bracelets, especially if Harry helps teach you," prompted Molly.
Über considered the three spellcasters. He had idly asked whether there was any way to do magic without the annoying tendency to destroy technology that Harry had manifested. Stephen had answered evenly, but Molly and Willow both looked far too eager to drag him into the world of magic. "What would be involved in learning that?"
Willow started to dig around in her purse. "Well, first, take a hold of this crystal." She handed him a large purple crystal, large enough to close his hand around with the ends sticking out of his fist. He grasped it, and a mild glow began coming from it. "Ooh, well that's not bad. That crystal is showing your potential to do magic. That opens up some options," she said.
Having seen the TV show, the young man asked Willow, "How does it look when you grab it?"
All three of the casters winced. "We don't let Willow do that anymore," said Molly. "It took fifteen minutes for my sight to come back the last time." Luckily, Willow could still handle the crystal without setting it off, as you had to grab it in your fist before it started to glow.
"If you wish to learn, then there would be a significant amount of research and reading required. Natural skill by itself is insufficient," warned Stephen.
Über shrugged. "That's not a problem." While his power didn't let him learn all of the esoteric details related to a skill, it just so happened that research, speed reading, reading comprehension and language translation were all considered skills that his power could enhance. There was a reason why his power was as bullshit as Leet's in its own way, especially with the enhancements from Amy.
Strange smiled. "Then I have no problem with you attending our lessons and discussions, Randall."
"This is going to be sooo cool," said Molly excitedly.
In another universe, Emily Piggot woke up from a deep sleep suddenly. She felt as though something fundamental to her understanding of the universe was about to shift yet again, though she had no idea what. As she grumpily drifted back to sleep, she mumbled, "What the hell have those damned lizards done now?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Kevin Norton had been talking to a young woman when the golden man reappeared. She was shocked and amazed to see Scion floating there silently by the homeless man. Kevin was in turn shocked when, just as he was about to explain how he had prompted Scion to be a hero to his audience, the golden man got a startled look on his face, and then popped like a soap bubble. Kevin looked down at his dog, Duke. "Well, he's never done that before..."
"What do you mean, Scion has disappeared from the Path? You could never model him before!" said Alexandria.
"I couldn't see him, but I could model the impact he had on the world. That's what we've been basing our plans on, after all," explained Contessa patiently. Alexandria was obviously off her game right now.
"What does that mean?" asked Eidolon.
Contessa frowned. "I have no idea."
"Why do I think the lizards had something to do with this?" said Alexandria. She frowned at David before he could answer, and he stopped before he started. The question had been rhetorical.
"Well, that takes care of that," said Varga.
'It was a lot easier the second time around,' replied Taylor. 'We're going to have to do something about Cauldron in this world, though, and I don't think Mab deserves two Eidolons.'
Varga considered, then gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. "They'll keep for a while. We can decide how to handle them after we've resolved some other issues."
'Maybe we should make Skitter's Cauldron help clean up this one?' mused Taylor.
Varga though about having two Alexandrias in the same room, each of them trying to take control of the situation. "Let's hold that option until things get boring," he suggested.
Taylor laughed. 'When does that ever happen when we're around?'
There was no arguing with that.
SG-1 was dressed in civilian clothes as they surveilled the residence of their target. The man's name was supposedly Jack O'Neill, which was suspicious by itself. Add in the fact that he was the producer of Wormhole X-treme! in a universe populated by the supernatural, and it created a whole host of questions. They had already scanned the surface looking for trace of naquadah, and had come up empty (although the sensors had noticed a few other odd substances...including a sizable chunk of uranium above ground in Palos Verdes, for some reason. A quick call to Giles explained that there was a harmless community of Qual'vahs demons in a commune there that weren't harmed by radiation, but found that exposure to it triggered a sense of spiritual euphoria.
"So, any guesses as to what's going on with this guy?" asked Jack.
Teal'c was wearing an Oakland A's cap to cover his forehead symbol, yet again adopting his slightly ill-fitting "Murray" persona. "Does this reality not have seers? Is it possible that this person is the local Jack O'Neill, and he is seeing his alternate life?" There had actually been a similar situation with the real SGC, though that was due to Ancient technology.
"It could just be parallel development," suggested Carter. "I mean, there has to be some kind of force at work to keep things similar given that there are so many realities with basically identical Earths. According to Buffy and the others, there are plenty of TV shows that are common across this reality and ours, which is odd, considering the other differences." A history of hidden magic was bound to be drastically different in many ways from one based on hidden alien influence.
Daniel suggested, "It could be some kind of higher power. Doctor Giles was aware of alternate realities and dimensions, so there might be demonic involvement, like that children's show with the puppets."
"Why would a demon create a version of Wormhole X-treme?" asked O'Neill skeptically.
"Well," said Sam, "we use it for plausible deniability. If they're using portals, they may want something similar."
"Would it not be best to simply inquire with the Jack O'Neill in this reality?" said Teal'c.
When nobody disagreed, they started to make their way toward the residence. It was a high-end condominium on the edge of West Hollywood. The neighborhood was slightly upscale from what Sam remembered, but then it had been quite a while since she had been back in LA, and it was possible that this Earth's version was different in any event. "This is kind of nice, doing the covert thing as a team on Earth again," she said.
"Just like old times," said Jack. Ever since they had been copied to their android bodies, they had steered clear of Earth to avoid running into their human selves. Apart from the risk of somebody like the NID wanting to capture them to close a security hole and get some androids to dissect...or disassemble, there was a certain weirdness to talking to a copy of yourself.
The unit was on the second floor, with an open-air walkway that ran the length of the building. The building itself was a typical modernized Spanish architecture common to the region, pretty obviously less than ten-years old if the flat-screen security station by the entry was any indication. When Jack knocked on the door, it was fairly quickly answered by a middle-aged, balding man that looked absolutely nothing like Jack. When he saw the group clustered in his building walkway, he paused, clearly surprised, and then said, "Oh, thank God!"
"You're Jack O'Neill?" asked Jack, skeptically.
"No, of course not...here, you should come in if you can," said the man, standing aside to allow the team entry. He then closed the door behind them. "I had started to think nobody was ever going to come for me."
"You appear to know who we are," commented Teal'c.
The man laughed. "Of course I do. You're SG-1. Everybody at Area 51 knew who you were. You brought back half of the stuff we studied."
"You know about Area 51?" asked Sam.
"I used to work there. My real name is Carl Steiner, and I was one of the scientists investigating the quantum mirror you guys found on P3R-233. I accidentally touched the surface of it and ended up in this dimension," explained the man.
"Why didn't you just come back through the mirror?" asked Daniel.
Steiner frowned. "Because there was no mirror...or rather, there was, but it looked like an antique full-length mirror, and there was nothing to use as a control -- no remote, and nothing that could function as one. Just touching it did nothing. In retrospect, I would guess it was probably controlled by magic, but at the time I didn't even know magic really existed...and wasn't that a rude shock."
Daniel looked interested. "You know about the supernatural, then?"
The scientist nodded. "When I arrived, I was inside a cave filled with a bunch of strange artifacts like the mirror and a large trunk filled with gold and gems, all of which was covered in thick dust. It was actually not far from a small town in Nevada, luckily, so I could walk in. Of course, a few phone calls clued me into the fact that there was no stargate program, and somebody else had my home phone number. It then wasn't hard to verify that the wrong guy was president. Eventually, I sold off the stuff in the cave, and found out from one of the more outgoing buyers that some of it was magical."
"So, what's with the Wormhole X-treme! remake?" asked Jack.
Steiner looked slightly embarrassed. "Well, I thought somebody might come to rescue me. I still have the mirror in a storage facility nearby. On the off chance that you didn't come though the mirror, though, I decided to do something nobody from our reality would miss."
"You recreated the show because you knew anybody from our reality would want to see if it was based on a stargate program here," said Daniel with a tone of sudden understanding. "That's also why you're going by Jack O'Neill, I would guess?"
The man shrugged. "I had to pick a name for my fake identity, so I picked one that might draw the right kind of attention."
"Are you aware that this reality is the subject of a television show back on our Earth?" asked Daniel, curious.
The other man grimaced. "I wasn't up until fairly recently. I saw an add for Angel Investigations in LA, and started to put two and two together. I actually thought about reaching out to them, but by the time I knew what was going on, Sunnydale was already gone and the Angel Investigations offices were closed, and I wasn't going to poke around in the supernatural world at random. That seemed like a good way to get dead pretty quickly, especially as I only vaguely remembered the shows."
"Well..." started Jack. "I assume you want to go back to our home reality?"
Steiner nodded rather frantically. "Don't get me wrong. Life here isn't awful, but it's hard not to see the supernatural around once you're made aware of it. I know I've seen more than one really pale person with outdated clothes around LA, and I have no desire to become somebody's meal. My neighbor's Chow mix went missing, and around here there's no guarantee it was just hit by a car."
"Is there anything you want to do before we take you back?" asked Sam. This was a bit disappointing as a result for their investigation, but at least it would be easy to fix.
The other man considered things for a moment. "Let me make a few phone calls. There are some good people I've been working with...I can set it up so that they take over the show and such. I also have a suitcase filled with the last bits of treasure from the cave to take back with me...and we should probably grab the mirror so nobody else gets trapped by it."
It took a little more time than implied, but in less than forty-eight hours, Steiner was back on his native Earth...an Earth where the Asgard were openly sharing technology, and where the local SG-1 team had no idea who he was. The debriefing was...interesting.
The mirror ended up in secure storage on Sineya Station.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dragon again looked out at a much more somber group of heroes. "I know this is going to sound unbelievable, but you honestly did rather well for your first time facing the Slaughterhouse Nine."
"Four dead heroes, with three times that many requiring significant medical care, and civilian casualties estimated at more than three thousand severely injured or killed is not what we typically consider a success," commented Batman.
Guy added, "I'm also not sure it was a fair test. It seemed pretty convenient for them that tiger-lady just tore through my forcefield like that."
Dragon shook her head. "That actually is quite consistent with the abilities demonstrated by Siberian in the past. There are a number of powers in our world that are far more effective than they theoretically should be. It is true, though, that some of what I programmed into the simulation was an approximation that may not reflect a true contest between yourselves and the Nine."
"What do you mean?" asked Superman thoughtfully.
"I had to make certain assumptions. We know how powers work in our world, so we assumed that Hatchet Job's power nullification wouldn't affect you. Powers, however, are notoriously tricky to predict, so that may have been too generous. I'm also not entirely sure that Crawler's adaptation would have been so quick to negate Zatanna's magic, though he has adapted under impossible circumstances before. Because we have no ready source of magic in our world, I just can't predict that interaction," explained Dragon.
"Nevertheless," replied Wonder Woman, "given the complexity of the scenario, we can assume that there were mistakes in the simulation that both favored us and hindered us, which tends to make it balance. I'm more concerned about what kinds of lessons we can learn from this."
"I have some thoughts on that, but first I want to get Skitter's thoughts." The insect-themed cape was sitting in the back next to Jimmy. Looking toward her, Dragon asked, "What did you think?"
Taylor paused for a moment, not wanting to say something rushed that might make her look foolish. There were a few points, though, that would have been pretty obvious to any cape in her world. "Well, the first thing is that when Shatterbird screamed, most of you seemed to jump into search and rescue mode, despite this being a cape fight."
"That's a good point," replied Dragon. "You effectively did exactly what the S9 wanted you to do, thereby giving them the advantage to choose their battlegrounds and their opponents. Rescue operations should have been a second priority behind locating members of the villain team. Anything else, Skitter?"
After another moment's thought, Skitter answered, "You ran in head-first against mostly unknown capes. No offense, but in my world, that's kind of a rookie mistake." Experienced capes learned that an unknown cape could have unknown power aspects, or an unknown synergy or counter to your powers. Like with Grue, Shadow Stalker's power didn't play well with his, but Taylor's bugs allowed her to sense things even in his darkness.
"I agree," added Batman. "A lot of us," he said, looking at Guy, "have gotten used to being able to overpower the opposition regardless of their abilities. Others," he said, changing his focus to Superman, "have fairly well-known weaknesses that are relatively easy to exploit."
Dragon continued that thought. "Known power capabilities and weaknesses are a significant part of the dossiers kept by the Protectorate and the Guild in our world. I assume you do the same?" she asked, looking at Batman, who nodded. "Part of the advantage of having Protectorate teams, for example, is that it allows them to optimize the mission team based on the opposition. Another point worth mentioning is that even mundane patrols are run in pairs of capes. Some of you were isolated because you went your own way during the rescue operations." Most of them, in fact, had been on their own.
"We've undoubtedly gotten too used to having teleporters, and also to having heroes like myself and Flash who can respond almost instantly," admitted Superman.
"It also assumes that somebody can call for help, which isn't necessarily true," added Skitter. "There are a lot of capes who can incapacitate a single person very quickly."
"So, the take away is that we need to be more cautious?" asked Green Arrow. He was still absent-mindedly rubbing the wrist of the hand that he had "lost" in the simulation.
"I've got a list of suggestions, some of which I've made previously," replied Batman. "I'll be making some updates to them based on the results of this latest exercise." He had been in the middle of doing that anyway due to the changes to the Lanterns.
The other heroes winced, knowing that Batman's ideas tended to involve both intensive training and a degree of paranoia most of them considered excessive. They also realized that this last exercise had given the League more than enough reason to actually listen and implement at least some of his ideas.
"I'm happy to hear that, especially as we may need your help in the near future," said Dragon. Skitter looked at her, slightly confused.
Aquaman, still smarting from a slightly humiliating and unsettling simulated battle, asked, "Why would you need our help?"
Dragon frowned. "Now that things with Scion are resolved, we still have a number of serious threats that need cleanup, including the Slaughterhouse Nine. Normally, we would let the Triumvirate lead the way, but that is likely to be problematic...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The scouts had verified that the forces of Winter had indeed pulled back, until they were all entirely inside the wall, and they had done so across the entire boundary. Nemesis and the other Outsiders were puzzled by this. It had never happened before in all of known history. Nobody had ever expected to see such a thing until victory was at hand for those eldritch forces trying to gain a foothold in reality. Outsiders were alien in their perceptions and thoughts, but they weren't stupid. The obvious answer was that this was some kind of trap. The problem was that they had no way of ferreting out what kind of trap would be capable of covering the entire border of reality, regardless of where an attack came.
Eventually, the temptation to attack the undefended Gates grew too great. To counter the risk, the Outsider forces attacked in mass across the entire front, attempting to climb the walls and bash the Outer Gates at multiple points. The creatures attacking ranged from foot-soldiers that scuttled like beetles, horrified faces burned into their carapaces, to more powerful brutes that looked like constantly moving walls of greyish flesh, to powerful Outsider Lords with the ability to bend reality at will. These were the more common types, but the number of monstrosities attacking were so varied and chaotic that they defied any attempt to fit them into patterns or categories.
Mab was watching the Outer Gate that was metaphysically closest to her palace. Her new Winter Knight was by her side. As the Gates began to shudder under hammer blows and dark forms topped the walls, Mab simply said, "Now."
The ground shook. A massive crevasse, parallel to the wall, opened up and swallowed hordes of attackers. A spiky, black hand grasped the side of the opening, and a horned head appeared, showing a single, red, glowing eye. A wave of electrical energy shot out in all directions, current jumping from form to form as the Outsider foot-soldiers were electrocuted. As the giant form pulled himself out of the earth, he almost absent-mindedly crushed more of the forces arrayed against him.
Once the entire forty-five-foot form of Behemoth was standing outside the wall, he began to glow white, shooting hard radiation out and frying all of the beings crawling up and on the wall for a distance of several hundred feet. Some of the more powerful survivors began thrashing as they literally burned from the inside out. Turning to the waiting hordes that had been queuing to tackle the wall, Behemoth roared, causing the ground to shudder once again.
Mab spread her senses, and she could feel what was happening elsewhere. Leviathan, The Simurgh, Khonsu, Tohu and Bohu, and fifteen other massive forces of destruction were laying waste to the forces of the Outsiders, causing more damage to them in minutes than the forces of Winter had been able to accomplish in more than a century of fighting. "I am pleased, David," said the Winter Queen.
Eidolon frowned. He didn't like Mab, and he didn't like the Winter Court. He had, however, come to terms with the idea that his own pride, and his insecurities, had led to the deaths of millions of people and many heroes. Protecting another reality from alien abominations was a suitable penance, regardless of how unpleasant the nature of the task. "May I engage with the enemy, my queen?" he asked.
Mab frowned, as if she could sense his reluctance. "You may. You should be happier, my Knight. You and your friends are so useful at the Gates that I wouldn't waste you in dealing with some of the more unpleasant tasks of Winter. There is a reason why the Knights are usually...unpleasant people."
Eidolon said nothing. He simply teleported to a section of the wall far from an Endbringer, and proceeded to use a variety of powers to crush, mangle, and shred anything hostile. If nothing else, it gave him a chance to test out a wide variety of powers.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"That was a masterful move, Saurial. Making Parker take responsibility for the space initiative is sure to keep the usual parties on the back-foot." Doom honestly included himself in that grouping. "Now I assume you're here to make sure I cooperate, even if I'm not in one of the leadership positions?"
"Thank you, Victor. Yes, your cooperation would make things go much more easily," replied Saurial smoothly. She and Doom had gotten on surprisingly well at their last meeting. Just like with Lung, Varga's experiences made it somewhat easier to deal with the somewhat benevolent dictator. Doom had even dropped the level of formality once mutual respect had been established. It was obviously rare that the man could converse with somebody who understood both science and mysticism to a level near his own. Both Stephen Strange and Reed Richards were superior in their areas of interest to Doom, but neither was particularly conversant in the other's. Saurial knew both quite well.
Doom sat back on his throne-like chair and steepled his hands together. "Very well. I believe I mentioned a personal matter in our last conversation. I am going to extend a degree of trust to you in order to acquire your aid. I do not think you will find the task too burdensome." He looked to the reptile, who was sitting attentively. He continued, "My problem has to do with my daughter."
Saurial simply raised an eyebrow. She hadn't been aware that Doom had a daughter. According to the information provided by Asti on the current state of this world, nobody else seemed to know that either, including S.H.I.E.L.D. "She must be well hidden," she said with a grin. "Given your resources, I'm surprised you need my help."
Doom frowned. "The fact that she is my daughter is well hidden, but she herself is not. Sadly, she knows who I am and wants nothing to do with me. That makes it difficult for me to take action on her behalf. She will not listen."
"You want me to deliver her a warning," asked Saurial, knowing that it could not be something so simple.
"The problem is her employer. My daughter is familiar with the mystical side of the world, in part because she has no small amount of personal talent thanks to her heritage. I believe she decided to go into law just to spite me in a small way because of that. Her awareness, however, brought her to the attention of a minor law firm that specializes in the supernatural. At least, she thinks they are a small firm. My sources have revealed that they are actually a branch of a much larger organization that extends beyond this dimension," explained the armored monarch.
Saurial's eyes actually widened at that. "They wouldn't happen to be called Wolfram and Hart, would they?"
Doom's estimation of the lizard rose yet again by a small amount. "I see you are familiar with them."
"They're a multidimensional law firm that serve as the front for the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart, a trio of powerful demon lords. They use political influence, legal maneuvering and corruption to extend their power into various Earths. I'm surprised they're so limited in this dimension," said Saurial. There was plenty of magic here to attract their attention.
Doom shook his head. "I suspect Mephisto and some of the other major powers keep them from gaining more than a small foothold here. Their type of power suffers when their opponents are aware of their presence and their tactics. Regardless, my daughter has taken employment with them. I wish her to find other employers before she advances to the point where she cannot leave of her own free will."
Saurial considered the problem. As Victor's daughter, she would like be fairly headstrong, and possibly a little arrogant. That was Victor's primary flaw, after all, and it had led to more than one defeat at the hands of his opponents. The easiest thing to do would be to play on that. "Do you have any objection if she were to go to work for the Family or one of our associates?"
Doom considered that for a moment, then replied, "No. Employment with you or your associates would be acceptable. I have no doubt that you treat your employees far better than the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart do. I also have no doubt that you would find her to be a great asset." Left unsaid was the fact that it would also reinforce the positive working relationship he had established with the powerful reptiles, regardless of his daughter's personal feelings.
Saurial smiled without showing teeth. "I think I have just the thing, then. For who and where are we looking?"
"I will give you all of the information I have on her," answered Victor. "She lives in Los Angeles at the moment, and she uses her mother's maiden name, so she's known as Lilah Morgan."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Bobbi Cade was a damned-good ship designer, if she did say so herself. She had been more than capable of holding her own as a new hire at Weyland-Yutani's starship engineering department, despite some of her colleagues' attempts at character assassination. It wasn't her fault that she was more talented than jerks like Yu and O'Malley. She admitted to herself that she wasn't the most politically savvy or tactful person in the department, but her design skills were top notch. The error she caught in the newest ground-to-orbit shuttle design easily saved the firm millions, not to mention lives. Saving a couple of bucks a unit in a way that could cut thrust in half during maneuvering was just stupid.
When her boss called her into his office and said the higher-ups wanted a word, she had worried at first that she was going to be blamed for something. Her firm wasn't exactly known for its fairness to its employees, though it had gotten much better recently. To her relief, her vice president had simply offered her a position on a top secret research station. The station was pretty far out from Earth, which was a drawback, but the company would pay for relocation, and it included the unusually generous option of regular trips back to Earth. Her veep also told her that it was the same place as Jimmy Ito had gone. Ito had been one of the top senior designers in the group, so it had been a surprise when he took a transfer assignment. Everybody had assumed he was next in line to take over the department. With that revelation, she couldn't help but say yes.
Now she was on a shuttle to the station, having taken a a long journey out this way via courier ship. The courier crew and the shuttle pilot had both had little to say about their destination. They either didn't know, or they weren't supposed to talk about it and were actually good at keeping secrets. That was probably a good thing, even if it was personally frustrating. Also frustrating was that she didn't get a good view of the station due to the limited field of view of the shuttle's windows. She had caught a brief glimpse from a distance that showed that it had been fitted with spacedocks, which made sense for a secret facility for designing spaceships, but she couldn't tell exactly what they were building.
She was surprised when the inner airlock door opened and she was met by the forty-something Jimmy Ito. "Mr. Ito!" she exclaimed in surprise.
He smiled at her. "Hello, Bobbi, it's good to see you again. You can call me Jimmy, by the way. We're not big on formality around here."
"All right..." she said, hesitating. "Where and what exactly is here, though? Nobody actually told me much of anything."
He began walking into the station from the docking area, beckoning her to follow. "This is Sineya Station. It's a special projects site for the new owners and managers of the company. Ship prototyping is one of the types of work they do here."
"What else do they do there?" asked Bobbi as she followed. She had heard the rumors like everybody else about the company's bioweapons division, some of which sounded more like a horror vid.
Jimmy gave a little laugh, guessing her concerns. "It's nothing horrifying...don't worry. It is very unusual, however. You'll see more of it as we head through to our section."
Inside, they began walking through what appeared to be an athletic training facility. To one side, she could see a group of very muscular men watching an elderly Asian man demonstrating some type of martial art. "That's Master Cho. He's teaching a group of Jaffa a new variation of hard aikido," said Ito.
"Jaffa?" she questioned. "And what's hard aikido?" She had taken some aikido during her undergraduate training, and it was characterized by redirection and holds, not strikes.
"You probably won't believe this right now, but hold your disbelief until we get to our section. The Jaffa are genetically engineered warriors who surrendered to our employers in battle and swore themselves to service," explained her colleague. "And the new form of aikido is apparently something designed for strong men to fight things that are stronger. I don't know much about it. Just being Japanese doesn't mean you know martial arts, despite what movies will tell you."
"Genetically engineered? Who did that?" she wondered out loud. Was this some type of secret W-Y project, or was it some shady government project? She also wondered about what kind of stronger opponents these warriors were planning to fight, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.
"That's the most unbelievable part. They were engineered by a race of alien parasites that take over human beings as hosts. The Jaffa served as their warrior class, while regular humans were kept as slaves," continued Ito.
"I haven't heard anything about that..." Bobbi figured that type of threat would at least make the rumor mill.
Ito laughed. "Don't worry. Their former bosses are a LONG way away. You're not likely to run into them."
At that moment, something that she could swear was a flying monkey zoomed down the hallway. Shortly thereafter, a young man and a young woman ran around the corridor, chasing it. She could hear the woman saying, "Damn it, Andrew, when Willow finally gets here, she's going to be pissed at you for this!"
"It wasn't my fault, Dawn. That summoning crystal was misfiled by one of the slayers. It was supposed to be a scrying crystal!" said the young man in a slightly whiny voice. The voice reminded Bobbi of some of the more irritating engineering grad students from school.
The woman came to stop in front of Bobbi and Jimmy. "Did you guys see a flying monkey go by?" Ito simply pointed in the direction where the thing had fled, and the two young people continued the chase.
Bobbi stared after them. "Um...what the hell was that?"
Again, Ito chuckled. "You won't believe me, but that was probably a magically summoned demon."
Bobbi's stare turned into a glare. She was pretty sure she was being hazed as the newbie. "You're right, I don't believe you."
He shrugged. "Just hold on until we get where we're going."
Cade stayed pissed until they entered the ship design facilities. At that point, she was stunned speechless as Ito introduced her to a Roswell Gray that was talking to a human. The Gray was apparently named Svafar, which sounded strangely Nordic. The human was named Tsol and had an extremely unusual accent. As they left the two to their conversation, Ito explained that Tsol was actually part of an advanced pre-modern-human society and had been stuck in stasis for sixty million years.
"Nobody would survive that long in cryostasis!" she exclaimed.
He smirked. "I didn't say it was cryostasis. You're going to see a lot of odd things around here."
Their journey ended at a large bay window looking out on a construction gantry where the frame of a rather large ship was taking shape. There were two women looking out over the frame. One was a tall, very shapely blond woman who appeared to have cybernetic implants in her face. The other was a cat woman. There was no other way to describe her. Bobbi was having trouble with the fact that there was no other way to describe her.
"It looks like the frame is almost done!" said Ito excitedly.
The cat woman smiled, two sharp canines appearing slightly through her lips. "Yep. Raptaur finished it up early this morning."
The blond woman added, "It was very convenient that the Family has no difficulty operating in pure vacuum."
"Ladies, allow me to introduce the new recruit that I was telling you about. This is Bobbi Cade, one of the best new designers at Weyland-Yutani. Bobbi, these two women are Seven and Vectura. Vectura is the lead for this project, and Seven is her second," introduced Jimmy.
Despite the level of unreality, Bobbi was pleased to hear Jimmy describe her as one of the best new designers. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said. "Can I ask what the project is?"
Vectura seemed happy to explain. "We recently built a number of smaller test-beds that integrated the technologies from a diverse set of universes. The dimension skippers went well, so now we're trying the same with a larger ship."
"The previous vessels were closer in size to a shuttle-craft, despite being significantly larger on the inside. This ship will be truly massive in terms of internal volume," added Seven.
With yet another mood shift, the young engineer decided that they had to be making a joke at her expense. "All right, that's funny. What are we really doing here?"
"You haven't explained the situation here?" asked Vectura, looking at Ito rather sharply.
Jimmy looked slightly sheepish. "She literally just got off the shuttle. I thought we would do the orientation after the tour."
Seven raised on eyebrow. "I suggest you take her to the stargate next. That will likely cause her to suspend some of her disbelief."
Ito quickly led her to another part of the station. There was a strange metallic ring installed in a standing position, with some type of control station next to it. Bobbi was puzzled by what it was supposed to do, as it didn't look like any piece of technology with which she was familiar. Without explaining anything, she watched as Ito entered a series of twelve strange symbols into the control terminal. She quickly stepped back as a backwash of plasma rushed out, before settling back into a placid pool inside the ring.
"What the fuck?" she asked, forgetting herself for a moment.
"This is the stargate. It's a transport device. Just follow me," said Ito. He quickly walked up to the event horizon, then passed into it and disappeared. Bobbi walked up to the circle and looked on both sides of it. Jimmy wasn't hiding on the other side. There was a sign on the back of the gate that said, "WARNING: ONLY ENTER ON OTHER SIDE TO AVOID LETHAL DE-MATERIALIZATION." Heeding the sign, and deciding that she was only going to get answers by following, Bobbi stepped through.
There was a massive rush of light, and it felt as though Bobbi was being sucked through a slightly chilly tube. At one point, there was a brief...hiccup...as if she had had to push through a thick mesh of cobwebs. She stumbled forward as she reappeared. On the other side, Ito was waiting for her, along with a teen girl wearing a sword and one of the Jaffa carrying an odd staff. She noticed that he also had a strange tattoo on his forehead, with a symbol she didn't recognize. "Welcome to Cleveland, Ohio," said Ito, helping her away from the gate. The two...guards...paid them no mind.
"We're on Earth?" she exclaimed? That wasn't possible.
"Come and see," he said, leading her to an elevator. She followed along, slightly dazed.
The elevator led them up to the roof, where she could see the surrounding urban landscape. It definitely looked like Earth, though the surroundings were surprisingly primitive. She couldn't even see any aircars. The skyline in the distance looked like Cleveland, though slightly different than she remembered. The Key Tower was clearly visible, though the Weyland Tower was missing. "Why does it look...different?" she asked.
"We're on Earth," he explained, "but we're not on our Earth. This is the Earth in the universe where those two you saw, Dawn and Andrew, originated. We're also not in our time, as this Earth is currently in the early years of the twenty-first century."
Bobbi considered herself fairly level-headed, but there was only so much she could take in a short period of time. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell forward.
Jimmy, alarmed, jumped forward to catch her before she hit the ground. "Well, crap," he muttered to himself. Vectura was going to be pissed...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"There are several traditions of magic that don't cause the same effect as Harry Dresden's magic," explained Stephen Strange.
"Totally," agreed Willow. "I use computers all the time. Most of my magic calls on external sources of power...which has its pluses and minuses, but one plus is that I can use a smart phone without problems."
"Even with our type of magic, you could probably get one of these bracelets, especially if Harry helps teach you," prompted Molly.
Über considered the three spellcasters. He had idly asked whether there was any way to do magic without the annoying tendency to destroy technology that Harry had manifested. Stephen had answered evenly, but Molly and Willow both looked far too eager to drag him into the world of magic. "What would be involved in learning that?"
Willow started to dig around in her purse. "Well, first, take a hold of this crystal." She handed him a large purple crystal, large enough to close his hand around with the ends sticking out of his fist. He grasped it, and a mild glow began coming from it. "Ooh, well that's not bad. That crystal is showing your potential to do magic. That opens up some options," she said.
Having seen the TV show, the young man asked Willow, "How does it look when you grab it?"
All three of the casters winced. "We don't let Willow do that anymore," said Molly. "It took fifteen minutes for my sight to come back the last time." Luckily, Willow could still handle the crystal without setting it off, as you had to grab it in your fist before it started to glow.
"If you wish to learn, then there would be a significant amount of research and reading required. Natural skill by itself is insufficient," warned Stephen.
Über shrugged. "That's not a problem." While his power didn't let him learn all of the esoteric details related to a skill, it just so happened that research, speed reading, reading comprehension and language translation were all considered skills that his power could enhance. There was a reason why his power was as bullshit as Leet's in its own way, especially with the enhancements from Amy.
Strange smiled. "Then I have no problem with you attending our lessons and discussions, Randall."
"This is going to be sooo cool," said Molly excitedly.
* * * * *
In another universe, Emily Piggot woke up from a deep sleep suddenly. She felt as though something fundamental to her understanding of the universe was about to shift yet again, though she had no idea what. As she grumpily drifted back to sleep, she mumbled, "What the hell have those damned lizards done now?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Kevin Norton had been talking to a young woman when the golden man reappeared. She was shocked and amazed to see Scion floating there silently by the homeless man. Kevin was in turn shocked when, just as he was about to explain how he had prompted Scion to be a hero to his audience, the golden man got a startled look on his face, and then popped like a soap bubble. Kevin looked down at his dog, Duke. "Well, he's never done that before..."
* * * * *
"What do you mean, Scion has disappeared from the Path? You could never model him before!" said Alexandria.
"I couldn't see him, but I could model the impact he had on the world. That's what we've been basing our plans on, after all," explained Contessa patiently. Alexandria was obviously off her game right now.
"What does that mean?" asked Eidolon.
Contessa frowned. "I have no idea."
"Why do I think the lizards had something to do with this?" said Alexandria. She frowned at David before he could answer, and he stopped before he started. The question had been rhetorical.
* * * * *
"Well, that takes care of that," said Varga.
'It was a lot easier the second time around,' replied Taylor. 'We're going to have to do something about Cauldron in this world, though, and I don't think Mab deserves two Eidolons.'
Varga considered, then gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. "They'll keep for a while. We can decide how to handle them after we've resolved some other issues."
'Maybe we should make Skitter's Cauldron help clean up this one?' mused Taylor.
Varga though about having two Alexandrias in the same room, each of them trying to take control of the situation. "Let's hold that option until things get boring," he suggested.
Taylor laughed. 'When does that ever happen when we're around?'
There was no arguing with that.
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- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
Straining puns is never good. You want to mash them!
Keeps all the juicy bits in the mix, you see. Far better for you.
Keeps all the juicy bits in the mix, you see. Far better for you.
- Location
- united states
I actually find myself wanting to read The Lizard and Spider-Woman.
- Location
- Newfoundland
These are the kind of MultiCross I love. The MCs traversing the Multiverse collecting Advanced Tech. Stargate has the Alteran, Ori, Nox, Asgard and Furlings, Star Trek has whatever(I don't know anything about Star Trek), Nanoha has the Belkin Tech, TYPE-MOON has the Moon Cell and Kaleidoscope Tech, Sekirei has their Medical Tech and Bio-manipulation Tech, DC Has Krypton and Lantern Rings as well as Brainiac and High God Tech, etc... I love it more if the MC is nigh-Invulerable to all harm so that, when their enemies think that they are hiding behind their tech and confront them, they can troll them hard.
- Location
- Maryland
Maybe Amy will get stuck with some bad chili at some point...
Jonn Wolfe
(Verified Sarcastic) (Not a Wolf)
- Location
- Beyond Sanity Since 1971
That was far too amusing to talk about any one point in detail.
I will say that I loved every minute of it.
I will say that I loved every minute of it.
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
I, wanna get in on the puns, but.
Hoki, you lot were tunad to stop doryng that.
Unfortunately, it's easy to do for those who don't have experience on the board. It happens by just pressing the ←Reply button.Um... Best not to quote the entire chapter in a post, methinks
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
Most epic knock-down, drag-out cat fight in a hundred worlds?
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
I ain't gonna be koi about it, that was an amusing chapter.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Except that because of their Thinker power they would both be playing out the fight in their minds at computer speeds, and after about half a minute (several days simulated) both realize it would be a draw.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
Don't worry about it and go back to sleep, you can't do anything about it so why worry.
- Location
- Deep in the Badlands of Equestria
I figure that is a Varga-enhanced version of the Stargate. That, or Taylor figured out the math to combine the Stargate with the Quantum Mirror.