Chapter 3 – Newton's Third Law

"While these so-called Heroes come from universes where somehow, nobody talks about the damage that massive conflicts they are involved in cause, here in reality we are faced with an act so beyond comprehension that it puts 9/11 to shame."

In fact, more people died than September 11th, Pearl Harbor, and all terrorist attacks since the Oklahoma City bombing put together when blue plasma rained from the sky.

"There was nothing we could have done" said Johanna solemnly when interviewed by a battery of major news channels. "We did not attack SPEAR. We did not attack WET. They chose to use weapons of unbelievable destructive power in ways that defy any morality I know of."

"The ship whose destruction they sought could have been hit with minimal damage to the surrounding area" added Nova, speaking from a position of expertise on high-level bombardments. "There was absolutely no reason to use a wide-dispersal pattern."

"Or, they could have tried to talk about it instead of shooting" finished Jaina bitterly. Though she'd helped keep the peace since, that did nothing for those who stood vigil outside what remained of the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Board and Heroes insisted emphatically that "nobody will escape responsibility" for what could only be dubbed an act of mass murder. The mood in the country, though, favored action over words. This became especially apparent when weeks dragged into months without even so much as a name (to plaster on signs) or face (to burn in effigy). It became popular for political candidates to promise that "my administration will seek the death penalty, once we know who to send the SWAT after." More hawkish responses replaced "SWAT" with "Marines," "Special Forces," "Delta," or similar.

"And if they happen to not make it into custody alive, well, that's just bad luck!" said one particularly bombastic personality.

Divisions within SPEAR sharpened drastically—already uncomfortable with the Weaponized Extraction Teams, there were those who now felt safe openly agitating for not only their abolition but the destruction of SPEAR itself.

Steadfast Samurai was withdrawn from service for "investigative purposes." Its name and image were not widely known, so this change went unnoticed by the world at large.

A loose group calling itself the "Direct Repercussion Investigators" began gathering currency within SPEAR. Their stated mission? "Fight for the lost."

"We are lost!" thundered many a religious figure. Though many faiths dealt in events that met the dictionary definition of supernatural (such as miracles or resurrections), recent events caused much dissension in the ranks. Already reeling from losses to what was considered to be against godly creed, churches in the United States now found themselves up against something that made the previously-mentioned events seem pedestrian by comparison. Many thought experiments wondered what the reaction would be from faith communities were life to be found on other planets (possibly defying the story of Creation); the revelation of what essentially qualified as magic made these discussions very relevant.

Three camps emerged: ignore the whole thing entirely, try to live with the presence of Functional Supernatural Phenomena, and "stuff the genie back into the bottle, then sink the bottle to the bottom of the ocean where it came from." As with most arguments surrounding topics of a religious nature, heated words were exchanged but nobody packed heat. Still, it did lead to odd allies of convenience between some of the last group and a certain subset of personnel inside SPEAR…