sb3audiotest Chapter 2: orangeplaneswalker2, a x-overs fanfic

Feb 15, 2020

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#139

As promised this chapter and World is dedicated to one of my cats. This cat was named Munchie. She was the fat cat of the family, the big pillow, the schmoozer. Dark brown with light brown tiger stripes, with black markings and green eyes. You could pick her up and put her down and she'd never move. May she rest in peace.

The squawking of seagulls once again assaulted my ears with the intent to destroy my sanity. The power leapt from my fists to the poor exploding miserable wretches before I had a chance to think about it, at which point I added More POWER!

"DIE!"

"BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! KA-BLAM!"

Insert lots of firecracker-like noise while lumps of meat, bones, and feathers decorate the landscape, here, with lots of burning. Rather like turkey feathers, actually…

"Whoa there lass!" Someone grabbed me from behind and tried to put me in a Nelson, slipping his arms underneath my armpits to lock his hands behind my neck. Ideally, I noticed that their arms were huge and seemed to be made of stone.

"Hah!" I screamed as I launched myself backwards at full strength. We went about twenty feet back before we his something solid.

"Off!" the man let out a breath, but didn't let go. "Just calm down lass!"

I put both my legs around my opponent. "You're stuck with me now."

Across from us there was another building. I flew in its direction as my opponent exclaimed in awe and horror. Just before impact I flipped over and let the guy take the impact in full.

"Guff!"

That sounded like it hurt, so I did it again!

The two buildings I used had craters in them. I didn't think they'd hold. My opponent seemed to have arms of rock, so he wasn't human. I was also seeing a lot of non-human aliens. Creatures that were definitely from different planets with limbs and joints arranged in all kinds of ways. Nothing I recognized off the bat.

I got a few feet into the air and started spinning. "Whoa! Now wait a minute lass!"

"You will let go of me!" I yelled as I kept going and going. First like a ballerina, then in an outside loop.

There was a pole that seemed to be holding two buildings together, about a foot thick and made of metal. When I got spinning I let me legs go and my opponent's body was flung outwards. He was still holding on though. I flew backwards onto it sideways so that the pole went up behind my back , in front of his stomach, and did my very level best to keep going, trying to scrap him off like an itch between the shoulder blades while putting my arms up.

Physics was a wonderful thing. The pole separated us and he couldn't hold on. I stopped quickly before I went through the window of some shop and turned around to view my opponent, who was now sitting down on his ass against the pole.

The man was big, about eight feet tall and had a jaw of chiseled concrete. And that wasn't an exaggeration! He looked like a rock troll had been given to the sculptors and given a chance to earn magna cum laude at a university. The rest of his body was hidden behind a massive red coat with gold decorations and tassels on the shoulders, with a white shirt, grey pants, and a black tricorn hat nearby on the ground where it had fallen.

Other details started to percolate through my brain. There were hundreds of buildings all around me positioned as if they were standing on stilts in the water, but there wasn't any water. We were in the air in space!

It was a huge dockyard in space. All of the buildings were either made of wood or stone or steel. All of it built up like this amazing three dimensional maze. Except that the gravity was pointed downwards in a generally agreed upon direction there really was no limitation on how and why things were put together. To the left and right the 'ground' of the docks gradually curved upwards into this big curved structure that had to be a hundred miles wide.

All around us were flying ships in airship dry-docks. Ships of wood and bronze. Air ships, airborne battle ships, air transports, flagships in the sky, flying warships and more.

"I'm on a spaceport?" I asked as I looked around.

"Indeed you are Miss. The Crescentia port of Planet Montressor," the rock man said as he got up and dusted himself off, and picked up his hat from where it had landed. "Are you quite done in your right state of mind now?"

"Um, yes?" I was a little embarrassed.

"Far be it from me to interfere with the local pest control agency, but I didn't think you'd appreciate accidentally acquiring a murder charge in your rampage." He gives me a flat look.

"Ah, yeah, sorry. Thanks," now I felt stupid. "I just really ... really, really, really hate seagulls."

"In this, we have an agreement," the man finished patting his self-down and mounted his tricorn hat back upon his head. "Now, mind telling me what that was all about? You came from out of nowhere and unless I had too much to drink, which I don't before I'm about to ship out, and quite sober, I'd like to know why before calling the constable that we have a disturbed individual about the premises."

"Oh, I'm a Planeswalker," I pointed a thumb at myself. "When I stepped into this universe I was just surprised by all those birds in my face. Sorry."

"Understandable," he put out a hand. "Roscoe Arrow of the R.L.S. Legacy; at your service."

I take the three fingered hand into my own. "Nova Enders, Planeswalker, Defender of the Outer Dimensions, and Gourmet Hunter."

"Very nice to meet you Miss Nova. You wouldn't be looking for a job perchance?"

"Well I was intending to exchange some gold for the local currency and get a few things while I was here," I paused, and then laughed. "Planetside that is. Can't imagine that anything's cheap up here. Why? Are you offering?"

"Aye, as a matter of fact I am," Mr. Arrow nodded. "Our financier has seen fit to hire a crew and rent a ship for our voyage. As one of the few beings I have ever met who have surpassed me in a contest of strength and can fly," he points at how I wasn't standing on the ground even then, "I believe our voyage can only benefit from someone with talents such as yours."

I grinned wide enough that I think I was showing off my non-existent wisdom teeth. This was an unprecedented opportunity. I'd already made a summons out of Mr. Arrow and no doubt his knowledge about this universe would come in handy.

I wasn't about to let a chance to sail away into space to find Treasure Planet slip through my fingers. Nope!

I'd been here long enough to grab a land from the Crescentia Spaceport at this point. It was mainly a white, no surprise there. It was peaceful, a giant structure, and full of equal opportunity for all the aliens that inhabited it. There was also blue for the knowledge, the technology, the information trade and cautious deliberate deceit from the criminal and the dastardly lot of its inhabitants. The black was there too, because space was an absolutely unforgiving bitch and even if that weren't the case the number of creatures that were dying, being killed, or harvested for parts was phenomenal. The red mana I got almost equaled the blue, because the port was full of travelers swimming in their own emotions, active, impulsive, brave, stupid, and everything in-between.

The only thing I didn't get was a green mana. No parks. Which was fine I guess? I'll get one on the planet.

"Agreed, provided that I'm allowed to bring a friend."

The man did a remarkably well Spock-eyebrow for a being made of stone. "Oh? And who might that be?"

I waved a hand, opened a Planar Portal and gave a shout through the opening, "Hey Amy, come meet our new friend!"

Amy stepped on through, looked at Mr. Arrow, and then tilted her head back to look at his face that was so very high up. "Wow."

I put an arm around Amy and brought her close. "Mr. Arrow, allow me to introduce Amy Dallon, code named Panacea. She's a biomancer, there isn't an organism that she can't treat or heal. She's my go-to-girl for all my medical needs."

"A surgeon?" Mr. Arrow gapped. The man takes off his hat and takes a bow. "Wonderful to meet you Miss Dallon. Roscoe Arrow, formerly of Her Majesty's Terran Empire, at your service."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Arrow," Amy puts out a hand, and the two shake. She looked towards me and raises an eyebrow. "Nova, what's going on?"

"This being is offering to hire us on as crew to the RLS Legacy. It's a solar clipper ship Amy. We're going into outer space! The big black bluish thing between stars! What do you think?" I asked my companion, immently please with myself to be let into the thick of things from the get-go.

Amy gets her hand back. "What do I think? To use a dockworkers expression, I think you're daft, girlie, that's what I think! You're being hired straight out of the portal. You don't know nothing about space or this universe. Daft isn't the word! Do you even know who he is?"

I waved her silent, "Trust me, Mr. Arrow is honest, brave and true, as good as they come."

"Thanks for the appreciation, Miss," Mr. Arrow said from right nearby.

"I didn't think I'd be going on a ship already, we haven't even looked at this planet yet and you want to shove off." Amy remarked.

"Starship Amy. This is a golden opportunity, trust me! You can swim, right?" it never occurred to me to ask until now. Usually when we took baths it was in streams.

"Of course I can swim! I'm just not very good at it," she paused. "Will I have to swim?"

"Not at all young Miss. My Captain runs a tight ship, no favorites!" Mr. Arrow announced with pride. "You'll be as safe as houses; you have my word on that."

Amy is silent and thinking.

"They have whales in space, " I remarked offhandedly.

"I can see that," Amy said as her eyes and head started to look around. A nervous tick in her right eye started to form as I knew her Shard was egging her on to do something that probably involved agreeing with me. "Okay, I guess we can go. A working cruise will be quite the change from the last few weeks. It'd be nice to see how professionals run a tub in any case. But if any of those buccaneers try anything funny I'm turning them inside-out, no blood needed."

Mr. Arrow nodded, smiling. "You'll be an honored addition to the crew Miss. But you'll also need some equipment, and some clothes that don't make you stand out so much. I'll prepare a list fit for such young go-getters as your selves, and write out a letter of introduction. The shops here are quite well disposed towards Naval Officers. There's a bush doctor I sailed with once, retired to do cosmetic work, that'll provide you with all the equipment a surgeon needs, and fairly honest!"

"We don't have any money right now, unless you count gold," Amy admitted, and looked fairly annoyed at that.

"There's a money changer that I use myself down on the planet, I'll introduce you. I'll also write a letter of withdrawal for the medical equipment. The equipment will be for the ship. If you want something more than the bare essentials than you'll have to put up a portion of the cost. You can consider it an advance on your pay. If you wish to keep it then it can be considered a part of your pay at the end of the voyage."

"And what's the pay? I'm an expensive commodity!" Amy groused for some reason. It probably had to do with buying useless equipment that she didn't need.

"That you will have to work out with the captain and our financier yourselves," Mr. Arrow remarked, apparently closing off any more deal making for today.

"Fine then, it's fine. Let's go do some shopping, kay?" I winked at Amy, letting her know in a subtle way that I'd be telling her more later. It's not like she can't be angry about getting into debt. We can skip town like nobody's business and we've got more wealth than we know what to do with. I could probably hire half the people here with two handfuls of my treasure and Amy knows it. She was there when I dug it up!

After all, what wasn't there to like? There was a planet out there with the loot of a thousand worlds. I'd still go at any price!

So a few things to say about this World. As a young lad my mother had gifted to me several Illustrated Classics to feed my need to read. Among them was Treasure Island, The Wind in the Willows, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, of which I eventually read eight different versions of.

It was such a shame that the movie was released during the same month as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie who then went to overshadow everything, which ran consecutively for several weeks, and that Disney had better marketing in The Santa Clause 2; everyone forgot that Treasure Planet even existed before it showed up in theaters at the end of the month.

It was a summer movie, not a winter movie, dua!

I also wasn't impressed with the Trailer that I saw on TV, it was just something that looked cool, not knowing what they were showing until the very end when they said something, "It's Treasure Planet," and then I made the connection, and I'm an avid reader! I only encountered the third trailer that had narration and explained what was going on on VHS movies. Even the people who worked at Disney admitted they could have handled the release of the film a bit better.

Most had probably gone to see the movie just because it had the Disney logo on it, while few knew of its connection to Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless tale of greed and gold. After Muppet Treasure Island I was hungry for more, so of course I saw it and enjoyed it very much.

Even to this day I find the 2D and 3D animation to be kick ass. The music is great. The scenery and imagination needed to make it is beyond belief.

Obviously there will be some differences to the classic story, not the least of which is that it takes place in space. I'm back to making multiple chapters to do it justice.

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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Feb 16, 2020

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#142

People you will meet in this story:

Amy "Panacea" Dallon (Xeno-Surgeon): A young Parahuman from Earth Bet who goes on adventures with Planeswalker Nova with the power to shape biology like clay. Far from her stifling home the young lady has embraced her abilities and shows that she is learning how to have fun with her powers.

Planeswalker Nova Enders (Rigger): A reincarnated Planeswalker who remembers his past life's memories when her mind is erased, who swears to punch in the face the people responsible. Her devil-may-care-attitude and lack of fear is backed up by the fact that there are very few things that can actually harm her.

Captain Amelia (Captain): A former Terran Royal Navy officer who resigned along with her friend Mr. Arrow, due to the navy being too bureaucratic and is rather focused on results above all else. The Terran Government appointed her Captain of the expedition. She is savvy and is rightly suspicious of the crew Dr. Delbert Doppler has hired.

Mr. Roscoe Arrow (First Officer): The First Officer of the R.L.S. Legacy. He and Captain Amelia met while enrolled in Interstellar Academy and he's her best friend. Despite his stern appearance, he is shown to be quite friendly and approachable. The first mate is a real professional, taking his job seriously and displaying significant skill. Loyal to his friends, he willingly left the Terran Royal Navy when Amelia resigned.

Dr. Delbert Doppler (Navigator): the financier who arranges the voyage to the Planet to find the Treasure, rented the RLS Legacy and secured a sponsorship from the Terran government for the expedition. He is associated with civic authority and social power, as well as with the comforts of civilized country life. The man's street smarts, however, are limited, as the ease with which the pirates trick him into hiring them as his crew demonstrates.

Turnbuckle (Helmsman): the Zirrelian Helmsman of the RLS Legacy, with six tentical-like arms.

Onus (Spotter): the Spotter of the RLS Legacy, a slug-like alien with six eyes that keeps a lookout from the crow's nest.

Hands (Rigger): Densadrons are a race of large, four-armed humanoids from a heavy gravity world with reptilian features. He is the strongest alien on the ship with the exception of Planeswalker Nova.

Scroop (Rigger): a spider-like insect-type alien that's antagonistic towards Jim Hawkins. He's for direct results, has no qualms with killing, and is quick to take advantage when an opportunity presents itself.

Mr. Zuff (engineer): a Flatula alien whose body is made out of tubes and whoopie cushions and sounds like a fart when he talks. He's in charge of the anti-gravity engine.

John Silver (Cook): 'Long' John Silver is a Pirate, who posed as a cook on the voyage in order to infiltrate RLS Legacy, with the intention of acquiring the loot of Treasure Planet. Silver is the secret ringleader of the pirate band. His physical and emotional strength is impressive. Silver is deceitful, yet he is always kind toward Jim and genuinely fond of the boy.

Jim Hawkins (Cabin Boy): Jim is the son of an innkeeper, and is probably in his early teens. He is an adventurous young lad, who would constantly get in trouble with the law and would act out against his mom. Jim doesn't take authority well, especially with men due to his father leaving when he was young. Jim is often impulsive and impetuous, but he exhibits increasing sensitivity and wisdom. He's also smart with a great knowledge in mechanics having built his first solar surfer when he was just 8.

B.E.N. (Navigator): The robot is a Bio-Electronic Navigator, a machine who once served aboard Flint's vessel. The robot had his memory taken from him by Flint, who left him to wander the surface of Treasure Planet for a hundred years. Ben's solitude and lack of functional memory has left him somewhat deranged. As Jim Hawkins is the first person he sees in over a hundred years he immediately becomes friends with the boy.

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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Feb 16, 2020

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#146

I think I've gotten all the bugs out of this chapter. If I make an error let me know.

Anchors away!

-000-

They call me Panacea.

Long days ago – never mind precisely when – having found myself on another world and on a grand adventure through many more, and finding nothing more to hold me down, I thought that I would have to provide for myself as I would when I left home. Never in all that time of those early days did I think I would once again enjoy myself shopping with another tall and shapely lady as enthusiastically as myself.

I have to admit that going shopping with Nova was both different than shopping with my own sister and better, somewhat. Perhaps because I wasn't being asked to play dress-up? Today's subject matter had somehow wandered into the old board game called Mall Madness where the point of the game was to get in and out with the items on your list and somehow get back to the parking lot with some money still in your pocket.

Regardless of being on another planet in another dimension there was still a Mall That Had It All.

After collecting some medical equipment needed for the voyage, and Nova having forked over some gold for the really good stuff with all the attachments, Mr. Arrow went to escort the goods back to the ship, leaving the two of them outside of an alien banker's office where we'd both gotten an account and credit.

Nova then traded in the gold they'd picked up in several versions of California for an additional checking and savings account, common currency and cash cards with the honest money changer recommended by and used by Mr. Arrow himself. All well and good.

From there it was a quick dash to the book store where Nova would turn into summons what she touched. I had a an awful lot of reading to do if I were to be passing myself off as a half-competent Xeno-surgeon on a solar star ship, so there was no end to the books we needed to buy. Fortunately the incredible number of aliens was working for us and the holographic books available for species with eyeballs could be programed with a variety of languages.

There was an arcade which Nova briefly got lost in playing 3D super pinball.

There were eateries which included live specimens and the butchery of said live specimens for those who were into that sort of thing. Where Nova "I'll try anything once!" was concerned it was best to point the eyes elsewhere.

The area was filled with jongleurs and minstrels by the dozen, for to hear music was to pay for it, and music was sold to be bought in the other shops for those with ears to listen. Otherwise the noise would have become truly horrible and driven away business from species that cared for it not at all.

The chanting and yelling of hawkers selling the wares of a thousand worlds were quite enough for all. Fur or fibers, fruits and drugs, skinned coats, slaves, servants, companionship, all were available equally to all and some more to others. The salesmen were happy with their products flying off the shelves to be replaced with currency in their safe boxes under lock and key, the patrons were happy to exchange their currency for items, a portion of which went to the docks and government for welfare programs and licenses and grafts, and things moved along quite well. Besides, people who could travel planets could afford the jumped-up prices. The people of the Montresor were not evil, just devious.

Products and tourists were a port trade, its blood in everything, the Crescentia Spaceport and the places it was connected to on the planet were no different. It ate travelers and shat broken men. It's clearance houses where the heart of the beast that pumped goods and transactions by the millions every week. The police were its immune system, the military its weapons. Thousands of years of successions had resulted in a quasi-evolution of government that was no more than normally corrupt because as the saying went: If there was no business there was no taxes. No taxes meant no more government. No government meant no more kings, senators, monarchs, emperors, or what have yours. And this was a state of affairs that most went to pains to avoid. So the planets were at least a little bit productive and some more than others.

Montresor continued to be a very good mining planet with ores and gems being shipped out in every direction and money coming in from every direction.

The Crescentia Spaceport had been around for a good couple dozens of years and every bit of evidence suggested that it would be around for a few hundreds more. Eventually it would grow until it made a cylinder and eventually it might circle the planet itself.

While a woman with flaming hair was hardly noticed and her own costume was taken as just another variation of the skinned animals to be found in the galaxy the sheer diversity was both a boon and a hindrance. Humanoids were in the minority. Fortunately like seeked like, just like in magic. Finding a person who could find and sell you the organic fuels you needed was simplicity itself and for an additional fee he would also sell you books on what was narcotic and what would only make you moderately nauseous. As an added bonus the poison sellers and antidote potion makers were also next door.

A brief visit to the automotive department and to the ships docked at port in the dockyards gave Nova a near complete set of air ship, air docks, and steward's cards to play with. A good number were newly constructed and for sale to sail the great darkness of the Etherium.

How the Etherium worked was something that we were going to have to work out.

A visit to the outdoor and camping department store was also a must. Among the items sampled were a solar powered water collector and a few books on weapons, armor and other miscellaneous items. There were even spacesuits for those that were interested in where there are airless voids, or mine this void, where no life dwells within.

Clothing and specialty shops were only good for the species that needed them. But belts seemed universal.

For Nova she got herself a pair of red and blue striped pants. A pass through with a tailor robot had sequins of Amber Crystals arranged in stripes from leg cuff to hips. A belt with a dozen flat disks went around her hips, complete with new laser pistol and holster. A black shirt, new space bra that was both an engineering masterpiece and guaranteed to work in various gravities, and blue military overcoat with dozens of pockets were then added on, all in the new colonial style.

For myself I got a pair of red coveralls that went from my ankles to my shoulder but had no sleeves, a pair of white boots that came up halfway past my knees, a pair of white gloves that went up past my elbows with no fingers, and a white long coat with black trim and a Red Cross on the back. I also took this time to get some new underthings and boots and shoes. A black tricorn hat also had the Red Cross on it.

The drug stores were doing Far too much Crossworld business in my humble opinion. There were things to be smoked, things to be chewed, to be snorted, to be rubbed on the skin, drunk and injected, misted into the eyes, vibrated into the bones, shook into the brain, to be mixed and mashed. It was the place to get spices and scented candles and soaps as well. What was one person's bread was another person's narcotic. And what would be a cure for one would be a good way to poison another.

The electronic stores were a good place for acquiring tools and a sort of prosthetic items for whatever your species and inclination. Some ready-made, others specially crafted on orders. The numbers of attachments were just as eye opening as the number of things which could be used to replace them. Nothing she needed of course.

And then there were the aliens . . .

"Amy," Nova's sharp warning with a slightly exasperated tone in her voice. It was evident that something had gone wrong and I was the source of it.

I gulped and looked away from the family of furry cute things that had just passed us by, unsure if they were equivalent of space rats, pets, customers, or fruits. "Yes? What is it?"

Nova rolled her eyes. "You were going squee again."

"It's not me!" I yelled in frustration, then in a slightly lower tone of voice, almost a whisper. "It's my shard. I swear it's my shard! I swear its doing cartwheels in my brain. It's making me dizzy."

Mine own shard was sometimes just as bad as Vicky's Aura. Every once in a while I'd find my hands filled of some kind of biological material and I'd not have a clue of where it came from.

It was so embarrassing!

Twice I'd nearly been kicked out of shops and arrested for nicking fruits until Nova had forced me to wear a pair of metallic gloves. At which point my shard had gone full blown traitor and started bombarding me with ideas on how to make metal-eating bacteria.

Not that I needed its help. I was practically vibrating with all the new pheromones being cataloged. Undeniably numerous were the creatures that had jostled the elbow for hours on end – square toed brutes, multi-limbed stoners, feathered punks, box-shaped gators, and what not; you never saw such a sight until it was seen and smelled and felt and you never would ever again as it changed as fast as you noticed it. How these creatures got along at full power without dying on each other's own breathy exhaust was going to win me a flaming Nobel Prize.

"We should get going," Nova announced as she looked at her power glove.

"What? But we haven't seen everything yet!" I complained.

"Amy, the place is the size of the Mall of America; we've been here for thirteen hours already. You've visited six pet shops and four markets, two taxidermists, gone to the bathroom four times and ate two meals. And we really need to go. See?" Nova tilted her Powerglove in her direction so that she could see the screen. There was a green box in the screen that said: 'From Amy.' "Your future-self sent me a message. We have to get to the ship before Jim Hawkins shows up. We need to get going."

"Awe!" I groaned with deep hatred, but followed along at a brisk pace. The crowd which had been working to give me DNA samples from every person we bumped into was now working against us. It really was like being stuck in the tide, you had to go with it. Unless you had a big guy or a Planeswalker to bully through it for you, and then it was just staying in her wake.

Ever since we had gone to the Lost in Space universe Nova had been thinking about how to best use her applications of time travel without setting up paradox or hurting causality. In this Nova had discovered her own little god to be obedient in all things and was no token idol made out of carved wood to be worshiped.

So far one of their schemes involved setting up little messages to remind them of things that needed to be done when something needed to be done as a sort of advanced messenger and schedule keeping system. The messages are then collected at the end of the day, put in a black box and then sent to yesterday, and then having the messages delivered on a timer. The messages were deliberately vague too to prevent future knowledge what was/will be happening. It was a sort of good god in that the messaging system was fairly fool proof because future-you always knew when you tried to break into the black box to do things in advance and make all your efforts useless. Our future-selves always meant the best for our past-selves, but in all cases we did not always succeed in our benevolent designs.

It was little more than having a future version of yourself around to remind you to rewind your watch.

Once we got to the ship I would compose a message to my Past Self to remind her that she needed to get to the ship. Until I wrote it out I didn't know what contents the message were to hold. By sending it to Nova I would avoid causality.

My Future Self can be such a slave driver!

Being somewhat normal in our approach we joined others and traveled as a passenger would by air bus. We paid with the alien equivalent of a shilling, taking off when it was full and not before. With us came many more sentient creatures on their travels about to escape their planet as plane spacers. Some did it for the exercise; some did it because they liked getting paid instead of having to pay; to see far off places and different things.

Up into the air we went to the Crescentia Spaceport. Like an island surrounded by a coral reef, commerce surrounded the port, as visited by as many ships as there are many different types of fish in the sea. Place your foot down in any direction and you will end up at a wharf, impossible to avoid.

So many people of so many shapes, it boggles the mind to look at them all and know that they each came from a different planet. Lined up from end to end I was sure they could hold appendages and circumnavigate my old hometown of Brockton Bay a dozen times over. Would that they wished they could have a twelfth of the commerce that was here!

We passed by the shady spots of innumerable warehouses, focusing instead on the one stuffed full of coffins yet to be sold, and took a right on Funeral Street. We ignored the merchant vessels screaming for hands to help, dodged around the unsavory and bloodthirsty sort at the whaling ships hunting in a more direct capacity their prey and riches, and avoided as best we could the slavers and prison ships.

Fully a sixth of the ships had a tent out on the deck to take in a candidate for the voyage to sign up with someone of authority on that very same ship. Some were simply ugly affairs of drab leathers and skins. Others were rich tapestries like a miniature palace, gold threaded, jeweled with ivory and tusks from hunts and adventures, or made of huge slabs of black timber taken from some no doubt rare tree that the ship knew of where to get. Others were woven frim fibers or hair, softer than the silk of the worm. And still one more were carved from just a single tooth taller than a man of some creature you'd never wish to meet without a battleship at your back.

The R.L.S Legacy was easily found in the early morning sunlight, anchored in the open for all to see its great magnificence. Four hundred fifty feet long, fifty across, the three mast frigate would have been the pride of many a navy back on my earth. It has a powerful bow non-replaceable Torpedo Tube, four Medium LaserBall Cannon, two Light LaserBall Cannon, two non-replaceable Laser Gatling Guns, and a Light Point-Defence Lancer mounted on the underside of the ship that automatically fire at torpedoes and mines as a counter measure to them. Its high mass also makes it good at ramming.

In this universe it was an obsolete Discovery Class Frigate hull converted into scout command ships as it is unfortunately slower than its competition, can't be customized as some would wish it to be, and the majority of its firepower is limited to a single hull section. It was sold from its wartime duties to private citizens at the end of the Terran Empire / Procton war without ever having fired a shot. Had it still been a commissioned warship the vessel would have twice the number of Medium Laserball Cannon and triple the number of Light Laserball Cannon.

Coincidentally we met both Mr. Arrow and Captain Amelia in a baby blue tent with the Terran Navy crest on the deck of the ship as they took down the names of all those who had been hired planet side and managed to show up. Once the book was full the tent would be brought down and the work of the ship, once suspended, would begin in earnest once the thing was out of the way.

Compared to all that I'd seen there was nothing unusual about Captain Amelia. She was a Felinid and I wanted to pet her. However she was a sentient being and unlike the dockyard girls selling their wares was less curvy and slimmer, lithe, with thicker muscle throughout, but especially prominent in the wrists from those who are proficient in sword fighting. She was brown and brawny with the sun forever on her fur, complete with a fine and almost microscopic network of wrinkles that came from squinting into the sun and with the wind into her face. It was always such an effective scowl to be found on seamen.

Yet as soon as we entered the tent the woman stood up and spread her arms out to the sides and exclaimed with a smile, "Well if it isn't the Planeswalker that Mr. Arrow hast spoken of! Never haste I met a species as yours to sail with me and mine until this day. Well met!"

"And it's nice to meet you too?" Nova remarked as she shook hands with the fast footed Captain that she found herself nose to nose with.

Then she was on me and my hand was also in hers. "So you must be the surgeon then?"

"Amelia Dallon," I remarked with a squeek.

It was clear that the Captain was one to completely barrel over the competition and her friends without even noticing them.

"So what takes thee a-sailing? I would want to know that before shipping thee."

"Well miss, I was thinking about treasure hunting," Nova said clear and out in the open.

The Captain's cat-like playfulness became that of a snarling lioness!

"Your words be damned, hush up!" Captain Amelia hissed at her and then went to the open tend flaps and looked about, before closing them. Then she hauled us through the back way and into her staterooms at the back of the ship, closing the doors along the way. When next she spoke the dockyard act was missing when she turned on us with a British accent! "How in the blackness of stars did you learn of this? Tell me now or I'll cut you through in her Majesty's name!" and she took out her cutlass to prove that she wasn't joking.

Nova put her hands up, which would do the Captain no good. I'd seen her split rock from a hundred paces with a wave of her hand; she would not survive the result.

"Easy there, we are not your enemy," said the Planeswalker. "Surely you're not the only one that heard that the Benbow Inn burned down these last few days? We are not the only people looking for that map. Those men who attacked the Inn – pirates and thief's – knew about the map and those fiends will have friends. The rest of the people that sailed that boat to give them a visit are also not far off, and those, one in all, through thick and thin, are bound tightly to get their digits on that wealth. The whole underworld knows when pirates are moving about. When the good Doctor Doppler secures a grant from the government and moves with the Benbow Inn's owner's child to get on a fast ship, who are we to put two and two together?"

"That be some pretty fast work for someone who only recently entered this dimension on the yesterday," Mr. Arrow remarks were delivered in solid truth, as immovably as he was standing tall and thin, a rock in all things.

"You pick these skills up with practice," Nova opened her arms up in a 'what can you do?' gesture with a smile on her face, and all of that was the truth. Nova's helmet had minor mind-reading abilities that allowed her to collect the most common thoughts from those around her. Supposedly most of its computer power was put to the test removing the mind's equivalent of spam and junk of daily life for the things she wanted to know as a work in progress. The woman moved over to a chair and took it, spinning it around till it was backwards before setting herself down. Then the conjured a bubble of blue into her hand, the bubble refusing to pop as she squeezed it. "And don't worry about eavesdroppers. My spell silences the air of vibrations all around us except for those I want to hear it."

I added in my two cents to be helpful and to remind them that I was here. "Didn't you notice how the calamity has been muted?"

"Jolly well, thank you for that then," Captain Amelia remarked with ill-concealed distaste. "Damn it all to a seven star system. You want in? You walk like a neophyte! I suppose you feel proud at having figured something out and gotten here before the rest. But flukes! Man, whatever mad scheme ever made you want to sail with us? Have you ever been a pirate, mercenary, killed, tortured, or be brutilised? Or is your mind set on murdering the officers as soon as we set for the great black?"

Nova answered in the negative, almost on the back step at the energy the Captain kept throwing at her. But we knew these actions for what they are, nothing more than half-baked insinuations combined with humor in an attempt to gain in a short period a psychological profile on a blatant unknown.

"We're not interested in the treasure," I added in during a lull between breaths.

"Expound on that," Mr. Arrow demanded, attempting to turn the conversation around.

"Do you think that in all the worlds we visited we didn't pick up a bunch of shiny things? Our resources are overflowing with stones and metals. Eventually we got tired of collecting them all," which was true enough in all respects. After you visited an untapped California river near enough to Sutter's Mill a few dozen times picking up all the dust and specks starts to lose its luster.

"Then why do you want to risk your necks and go?" Captain Amelia asked.

"For the Adventure," we both chorused.

"I want to collect DNA from alien planets," I admitted.

"And I want to see a universe where you can breathe in space," Nova added.

"Flukes. (Sigh). I suppose I'll have to employ you now in the good doctor's name," Captain Amelia admitted she couldn't get rid of us.

"At the very least they are not with the others, Captain. They will be a most welcome addition," Mr. Arrow said.

"Them and every other trumped ludicrous parcel of driveling galoots. Ah!" Captain Amelia rubbed at her head and hair. Not only was the fur standing up as the skin twisted underneath, but there was real pain in her eyes.

"Do you have a headache? I can heal you up no problem!" I was going to pet the kitty! The fact that I was abusing my power like this was not a factor at all!

"No thank you, I'm not one for potions," Amelia told me.

"I don't use those barrels of goop. I'm a biomancer, touch activated and quick," I held out my hand. My metal gloves had disappeared at some point and I don't know where they went. "Do I have your permission to heal you?"

"You have been very stressed lately. It would be remiss not to look after your health," Mr. Arrow swung the ambush on the trap cleanly shut.

"How am I supposed to argue with you again?"

Mr. Arrow smiled. "I'm sure you'll figure it out someday."

Captain Amelia slumped. "Very well, show me what you've got. I doubt your certificate is any good is it?" Amelia took a seat and I placed my hand on her head.

My Shard gathered new knowledge on this species and was content. She was very soft, but she could be fluffier! Started from the head down I did the biomancer equivalent of a massage, unbinding every muscle and flushing the body of its toxins. There were a few scars, burns, broken bones that could be put back together a bit better. I healed them all and did my best to each and every little thing. Every bone except a foreign device inserted into her hip.

"Do you wish for me to replace the hip bone implant with one of true bone?" I offered. "It'll only take a minute."

"You can do that?"

"Easily."

"My balance hasn't been the same since my run in with the Procyon Armada, do it!"

"Nova, I'm going to need one of those bone fruits. Amelia, I'm going to need you to undo your shit – you don't have to take it off – and for you to lean to your left," I instructed and took the bone fruit from Nova. It was an ingenious creature we found on one of the weirder worlds where some of the roles between plants and animals were reversed. The trees grew calcium like bones and shells instead of fibers and the fruits were pretty much solid rocks of the stuff.

"Oh, I haven't felt this good since my cousins wedding shower and I was convinced by that Lynx to get a massage back at Cape Cod," Captain Amelia purred uncontrollably as the effects of removing all these minor pains became pleasure. She lifted her shirt and did as I asked while Mr. Arrow gentlemanly directed his eyes towards the ceiling, her hand in his. "What are you doing now?"

Too much information! Or the beginning of a naughty romance novel?

"Replacing your hip bone replacement for one of actual bone," I answered. The metal was detached and the flesh opened up for me to extract, replacing the alloys with the bone fruit which I would shape to replace it. Nova took the implant and added it to her Hammerspace collection. Any materials left over would be used to reinforce the whole and to fuel the transformation. "You're going to need to eat a good meal after this. Fuel for healing and all of that. Double the rations for the next week and don't get scared about gaining any weight."

"Oh gods," Amelia groaned when she saw what I'd done. Then the look of horror at her body's mutilation became wonder as everything sealed itself back up as if I'd utilized some magic zipper. "Facinating!"

"Don't move, I'm almost done," I warned as I worked.

When I was done the woman took a moment to straighten out her uniform, swinging her hip left and right in an exaggerated movement before high-stepping each leg up as high as it would go, putting her foot behind her head, before tapping it back onto the ground.

"Your work is certainly an improvement over the average implant. I can even feel my hand again!" Amelia grinned as she touched each of her fingertips to the other fingertips. "However much we spent on your equipment you can expect that debt to be paid in full."

Mr. Arrow threw open a thick book with a belt, gathered up some ship articles, including a pen. It was high time to settle in for what terms we would accept in wages for the voyage. I was already aware that on a merchant ship the hands were doled out a wage. Yet on hunter ships (space whaling, squee!) all hands, including the Captain, acquired certain profits at the end of the voyage depending on how important they are. As a surgeon of unrivaled ability I had no doubt in my mind that I would get a pretty hefty sum either way just to sit there and be pretty. Yet I was also new to the trade of sailing as was Nova, neither of which had certifications to back our bragging except one little demonstration. Some would be hard pressed to pay for the clothes on their backs as a newly born landlubber. Yet not a single one of them or us would have to pay for food. Nova's pay was quite a bit lower than mine. Yet she also had the unique ability to store as much resources as you could imagine, with the understanding that anything not consumed in the voyage would be a part of her bonus.

If mother could see me today as I bartered, would she be proud of me?

Something in me told me not to get my hopes high in that regard.

But I said nothing of it after the deed was done, only looking round me sharply. I'd put pen to paper and was now gainly so employed. We were quickly brought to a stateroom, although tiny, where we found a mattress and linens, a washbasin, and some drawers. A pair of sailor's sea chests was put to the bottom of the two beds to be filled with easily accessible things from Nova's Hammerspace. The drawers and shelves were soon filled with Nova's reading and my medical books and a few items purchased from mall.

I'll gladly admit, when I saw that the vessels looked like old wooden sailing ships from the 1850s of Earth I feared that I'd find the same discomfort onboard.

Days or weeks used to pass waiting for the hulls of ships to be filled. Conditions varied from ship to ship, but on the whole used to be packed near solid with mail, goods, people and more, below the decks, where it was dark, damp, and unpleasant beyond belief. Limited sanitation and stormy seas often combined to make it dirty and foul-smelling, too. Rats, insects, and disease were common problems. 10 or 20 passengers would be packed inside a single cabin. Depending on the weather, anxiety and boredom would fight for dominance while the rest became malnourished from upset constitutions.

What a difference a few thousand years of practice makes!

The ceilings were tall, the hallways were wide, the rooms were deep, and all the aliens could fit in here with little trouble at all. Most of the aliens had their own private or semi private cabin, 10 or 20 feet wide, and some of them had a restroom. They were expected to make arrangements for their own foods if their nutritional needs were too far from the normal accepted basic fair that could be eaten by mostly everyone. A good number slept in bunks. A few staterooms were reserved and kept locked for paying passengers. Two of these had their furniture tossed out and rearranged so that I might practice, were linked together, the doors given new locks to which I had the keys, with my cabin across the hallway.

The first was soon stuffed full of vegetables which I was to sacrifice for the needed biomass I required, but grew nicely under the solar lamps until it was time to toss them into the soup. The other was to be my examination room and contained my brand new Bonesaw, bandages, and other normal surgeon-type things. Not that I really needed them under most circumstances, but sometimes you needed to be fast and crude before proper healing can begin.

There was a certain Parahuman back home that would feel right at home, and would take off both arms and legs to be allowed to touch the instruments I've acquired. In any case people tended to move out of the way of your black back quite quickly, I've found.

Advances in different kinds of technology and robotics had worked wonders, to the point where anyone with a profession was more artist and mechanic than an actual scientist, engineer or healer. The vast majority of bush doctors spend their time shuttling between isolated settlements, making house calls. They were often fitted into one of four categories: The Cosmetic Surgeon, the Cybernetic Surgeon, Neuro-Surgeon, and the Xeno Surgeon.

The "bush doctor" performs cosmetic surgery to tastes, including altering body parts, creating customized cybernetics for rich customers or their employees. I was in rich company.

The first of these fabulous technological wonders I had to familiarize myself with were the visually underwhelming Æther Pens. They looked like old fountain pens, complete with feather. The feather was a solar sail to recharge the battery, the tip of the pen a manipulation device, which was a very fine way of saying that it could telekinetically rearrange matter to your satisfaction. The pen could be used to rearrange the material of a paper to include circuit boards to write out a holographic book, however.

After some research through some game books we picked up on Earth: Final Conflict, I was as convinced as anything that I was looking at the technological equivalent of a Rod of Telekinesis.

With an Æther pen you can move objects through the power of thought. The objects can float, hover, fly, be disassembled, etc., by mental command. The object must clearly be visible. There is also a clear weight limitation of two pounds, and a range of 15 square centimeters from the tip of the rod. The tip is also like an ink cartridge in that it has only so many uses before it's worn out and needs to be replaced.

The Æther Surgeon tools, the Bone Instruments, Clips and Clamps, Decapitators, Elastic Stays, Endoscopes, Laryngoscopes, Matrices, Probes and Spatula, Retractors, Scalpels, Knives and Hooks, Scissors, Surgical Accessories, Surgical Kits, Tweezers and Forceps, Wound Closure, and the books on Instrument Care, all required some knowledge of the Æther.

With an Æther Scalpel it was a simple matter to command the cell structures to part like a jigsaw puzzle without a drop of blood spilt to expose the interior, never once having damaged a cell in the process of taking them apart or putting them back together.

Cybernetics use Æther to move parts but are limited to just the materials in those parts only, and they're only a few inches apart.

A set of surgical tools like mine are designed to work together, on flesh and not metals.

Now you can't really use that as a weapon. It's far too weak. But it's allowed the craftsmen of the galaxy to shape parts as easily as a Parahuman. No specialized environments required and factories are a bit less important. Robots and machines can't use them, so no 3D printer applications either. It was rather like learning how to whittle. It was such an easy thing to do but how many people would bother learning how to do it?

By the time all that was settled in my mind and I was ready to go a formidable line had arranged itself down the ship, so I opened my doors to my first patients in months. I placed them down on a hip-high table, worked my instruments to call up a holographic representation of their insides so that they might look at themselves, acquired samples, took their hands – if they had them – and healed them.

They were all suitably impressed as I bought back lost digits, fixed minor scrapes in the eyes, did some cosmetic work, arthritis and bone fractures disappeared, poisons were purged, livers were renovated, digestive systems overhauled and nerves smoothed out. I also replaced a heck of a lot of teeth. A great many questions were also asked about each species ailment, about what they wanted done, what was to be left alone, and what they wanted to be improved.

For a time no room onboard the ship was any less busy than my own. I learned that sailors were quite the rough and tumble lot, loud and boisterous, fairly picked with rum. They were no less sailors than the dockworkers I'd healed in Brockton Bay, save for that they were more lively and full of themselves.

Both groups were eternally grateful.

So much potential and all of it wasted. But I was going to be fixing that.

There was a rather fat alien on my table with a vest and a pair of pants, his two belts completely covered up by his blubber. The creature's jaw was a bit larger than a humans, with a larger and flatter skull, with teeth twice as big as a human's teeth, and missing a few of those. He was also all of five feet tall, and seemed to be making up for it by being wider than he was tall. He had two small needle-like horns going up from his head and two larger sideways horns, one with a gold ring on it. It was a long day, I was hungry and making a sandwich.

"What you do?" the blubbery alien demanded.

"Just made it so you can't run away." Roast beef and cheese, lettuce, and mustard.

"Me can't feel me body!"

"That's because of something I did to your nervous system. Can't having you feel anything for the surgery." I took down my brand new circular Æther Bonesaw from off the pegboard.

"What you do with that? What surgery?"

"Nice isn't it? The catalog says this can cut through an Orcus Galacticus bone in 23 seconds! I bet I can do better than that with just my powers. As for you, you're 434 pounds overweight." I powered up the saw until it purred stepping past my screaming patient in my small room so I could bring it down on the sandwich and cut it in half. It also cut through the plate and part of the cutting board underneath, which made a horrific noise. "Opps?"

The fat alien couldn't see what I was doing from over there. "What you do?"

"Nothing!" I assured him and turned around. Unfortunately I wasn't used to handling tools and knocked over my glass of milk. "Oh darn it. I can't fix that."

"Help!" the blubbery alien yelled.

"Oh be quiet you big baby. Surely a big guy like you ain't afraid of little me?"

"Me want off this ship!"

"I haven't even started yet. All that blubber needs to go. I doubt any of those dockyard girls are thankful for you burying them underneath it." I took my half a plate of sandwich over to the other side of the blubbery alien's head so he could see me and took a seat. Then I took a bite with one hand and put my other on the alien. "Time for a little proactive medicine!"

"Me skin is melting!"

-000-

I'd completely filled up four five-gallon containers with the alien's blubber. I'd have taken more but I ran out of big containers. I'd have to ask Nova for a few more water jugs.

The formerly fat Alien wobbled out my door under his own power using both hands to hold up his trousers, complete with new teeth and sense of balance. The other alien crewmen he passed by looked on with wide eyes full of awe and wonder.

All in a day's work for Panacea!

I was going to have to wash my clothes. I'd gotten the juices from my meaty sandwich on my blouse.

"Next?"

-000-

For some reason only half of the crew had shown up. I'll have to get to the rest over the coming days. I'll have no disease on this ship!

I received an alert from Nova to come forwards. I was unsure, at this time, if the alert was from the Nova in the future or the Nova in the present. These efforts of using time travel for message sending kept us on our toes at least. So I closed up my miniature clinic and made my way forwards to a place called the bow of the ship.

I was surprising myself with how much nautical language I knew. Huh.

Up on deck I found Nova having accosted Jim Hawkins with one arm around his shoulders leading him up on deck. He was cute, too bad about the raccoon eyes, definitely a bad boy. I could see my sister trying to swipe him up before she got her hooks into Dean.

As she ship's physician I should abuse my godly given power to give him a thorough examination. MWAEEEHAHAHA!

Oh gods, I was thinking about boys.

When did that happen?

Nova was talking: ". . . Anyway you're going to love flying, Jim. The stars are so bright without a planet's atmosphere in the way to make them tinkle! Oh, and you must meet my friend Mr. Zoff! Come say hi! He's in charge of the gravity engine."

Nova put Jim right next to an alien that looked like he was made out of whoopee cushions.

"Ah, nice to meet you?" he asked. The boy was a bit shy but put his hand out there to be shaken.

The alien makes a squishing noise which sounded like a question even to my untrained ear.

Dr. Doppler the dog person came up behind Jim in his yellow astronaut suit and gently pulls the boy to the side. "Don't worry Jim, I'll handle this." The man then puts his hands to his face to make a disgusting series of noises like a balloon slowly letting out air over a wet opening, followed up by using his armpits. "I'm telling him that you're the new cabin boy."

The Flatula hits his forehead with the palm of his tube-like appendage, followed by squeaks and gurgles as only he could make, and puts it out there to be shaken by the boy before he goes back to work.

"Nice accent," Nova remarks.

"Well I did take Flatula for two years of it in collage," Dr. Doppler says, clearly satisfied with his education. The man gave the alien a two-fingered salute and a whistle as he goes off to go do good somewhere else.

Nova spots me hanging out nearby and gestures for me to come over. "Dr. Doppler, allow me to meet my friend Amy Dallon, the ship's surgeon."

The man-dog puts his hand out to shake, "A very good morning to you Miss, delighted to make your acquaintance."

"More like late afternoon, but who can tell without a planet?" unfortunately I can't do anything when he's wearing gloves so his examination must come later. Turning towards the boy I asked, "So I suppose that you should be Jim Hawkins, our new cabin boy, pleased to meet you."

The boy is taken back, "Um, well, yes, I suppose,"

I take his hand and he takes mine. He's completely human, that's for sure. Just another dumb boy, which I can't cure at all.

"You're healthy enough," I announced with a blush and let go. Stupid hormones.

"What?" he remarks.

Nova leans over to remark, the fire in her hair getting more intense with every word until the eyes light up. "Amy is the best biomancer around. She can take any living creature and break it down into spare parts, turn you inside out and upside down. And if she doesn't I will. So you'd better be nice, boy, got it?"

The boy's too scared to move, but leans back away from the flame coming off my friend. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Good," as if that settled that, she settled down and took a step back.

"Well I suppose if that's all I believe we should meet with the Captain now, "Dr. Doppler said. "Could you take us to him?"

"Her," Nova corrected. "And how do you not know the Captain? Didn't you hire her?"

"Well, no, I've not met her yet," the man admitted with a bit of bashfulness.

"Well, why the black void not?" Nova asked. And I'll admit I was most curious. Why would he hire a person he'd never met?

"Well the government said they'd send me a good man to Captain the Legacy and they never game me a name," Dr. Doppler explained as he looked around.

"I'll take you to Mr. Arrow, the second mate. He will know where she's at," Nova declared after a moment's contemplation. "She's been most anxious to talk to you."

"Well I am always at the Captain's orders. Take me to her."

When we came out on deck Mr. Arrow was superintending the men at their work loading up casks and boxes through nets and by hands and crane into the main hold.

"Ah-hoy Mr. Arrow, sir!" Nova called out. "I found our employer!"

Mr. Arrow barely gave us a glance, his full attention on the men and their work. "Good afternoon. Dr. Doppler, I presume?"

The two shook. "You presume correctly. How have things been so far? All is well I hope; all shipshape and space worthy?

"Yes sir," said the second mate. "But for more on that you will need to speak to our Captain; she's currently aloft inspecting the rigging."

Everyone's heads turn to look up.

The Catwoman was clearly enjoying her overhaul to biological perfection. She ran aloft the rigging to some way out, swung up a rope, passed through cables like they weren't even there, and landed right in front of us. At last however she stood up, prim and proper, a brown old sailor lady with luxurious fur that shone in the early light.

My kitty is the best Catwoman Captain, ever!

She turned smartly to the right and addressed the second mate with a laser-like focus, who smartly comes to parade rest. "Mr. Arrow! I've checked this miserable ship from stem to stern, and as usual," her voice softens, "It's...spot on. Can you get nothing wrong?"

"You flatter me, Captain." The stone giant tips his Captain's tricorn hat. "May I present to you our financier? Dr. Doppler."

Captain Amelia turns around to give the man her undivided attention and pauses. The action is very much like when a cat and dog come around the corner of a building and face each other for the first time. For the Captain I'd say it was more because of his hideous astronaut suit than anything else.

She recovers first, however.

"So you are Dr. Doppler," the cat lady was already inside the man's personal space and when he didn't reply immediately started messing with him and his suit, giving the helmet a tap. "Hello, can you hear me in there?"

"Yes, yes, stop banging!" Dr. Doppler takes off the helmet. The suit really was quite silly, yellow was not his color and it was horrifically designed. "Yes, I'm Dr. Doppler."

Captain Amelia grabbed his hand and shook it hard enough that if he had been a drink the man could have been called shaken instead of stirred. "I'm Captain Amelia... late of a few run-ins with the Protean armada. Nasty business, but I won't bore you with my scars. You've met my good friend Mr. Arrow, my first mate, surgeon Amelia Dallon, and Planeswalker Nova Enders. And you must be Jim Hawkins, our new cabin boy."

Scars! Ha! As if there would be any after I was done with her. They were just markings like tattoos now.

Captain Amelia turned her attention to the boy, gave him a look up and down and it was clear that she wasn't impressed even when being polite about it. The woman had a lot of tension between her shoulder blades and was covering it up with a jolly attitude that might very well be her default setting and I was kind of impressed that she wasn't letting anything get to her. You don't get to be Captain without some thick skin. In any case she was about to tell the two of them why.

"Dr. Doppler, if you and your ward could come with me into my stateroom, we have a good many things to discuss," she said in a lowered tone of voice, and it wasn't a request.

We followed her inside followed by Mr. Arrow and she didn't protest our arrival but locked the door soundly behind us. Captain Amelia turns towards Nova and gestures to the door, "Could we have some privacy Miss Ender?"

"You may Captain," Nova summons a blue ball of mana and pushed it into the wood of the door, the energy of which spreads through the wood in the walls, ceiling and floor, all around us. "Sealed."

The Captain nods. "Good. Now then, I'd better speak plainly," the woman turns towards Dr. Doppler. "I don't like this crew you hired for this cruise, Dr. Doppler. That's the short and sweet of it."

"Oh really?" the man sounded slightly annoyed, and put his hands on his hips. "Well then I'm bound to ask for an explanation. How, why?"

"I was engaged, sir, on sealed orders you might say, to sail you to wherever it is you'd like to go," said the Captain. "So far so good, it's nothing I've not done before. And yet when I arrived at this tub it was to be filled with men I'd more often than not spent my time throwing in the brig or hanging; and each and every one of them knowing more about our destination than I do. Now, does that sound fair?"

"No," Dr. Doppler admitted, crossing his arms. "It does not."

"Right then. So I arrive and find every person talking about treasure hunting. Something that they weren't supposed to know about; something that I didn't know about. And then these two ladies here show up in the middle of all this," Captain Amelia pointed to Nova and myself, "Managed to figure out all on their lonesome that since you were attacked by pirates and are now burning the candle at both ends to hire a ship... well they figured it out in any case. You can see my problem, yes?"

Dr. Doppler did. "Yes, I do."

"Now, treasure hunting can be a bit of fun under the right circumstances. But I don't like secrets that have been blabbed about. It's my belief that you have absolutely no idea what you are doing and as men's lives are on the line I intend to stop this ineptitude or get off. Do I make myself quite clear?"

"Crystal, Captain Amelia," Dr. Doppler said. "What you've said is true enough. My experience in these things is quite lacking and I'll admit that. But I'm not as ignorant as you believe me to be. Now, you said you don't like the crew. What's wrong with them?"

"Let me make this as monosyllabic as possible. I don't like them," the Captain said. "They're...how did I describe them, Mr. Arrow? I said something rather good this morning before coffee."

" 'A ludicrous parcel of driveling galoots,' ma'am."

"There you go—poetry. I should have at least have had the choosing of my own hands. As it is I have only one man I can trust to have my back and two ladies who I'm sure are not in cahoots with them. Then there's you two, who I'd bet have never sailed before but no bookie would take an inside straight."

"Perhaps you should have, but it wasn't a slight against you or intentional," replied the doctor. "I admit I was having a spot of trouble hiring a crew. Until I met Long John Silver I'd only hired half of them. The man owns an Inn halfway down the spaceport and seemed to know everyone with not a word against the man. And you weren't around for the two weeks I was putting things together planetside."

"Well that explains a lot of that," Captain Amelia remarked.

"Anything else I should be concerned about?" the doctor asked. "Is the ship good, or was I fleeced on that as well?"

"The ship is as good as ever any I've seen without having run out with her myself," Captain Amelia said. "It's the rumors that concern me more."

"What kinds of rumors?"

"Of the loose lipped variety that sinks ships," Captain Amelia said. "Allow me to acquaint you with a few: They say that you have a map; they say that it was given to you by a dying man; they say that it'll show you to Flint's treasure; that the planet is entirely artificial; and that it lies in the direction of—" and the woman quoted longitude and latitude with a bunch of numbers.

I don't know much about nautical, and less about sailing in space, but they sounded important.

"I've never told that to anyone, not a soul!" Dr. Doppler swore.

"Neither have I," Jim Hawkins added in, as horrified as the other were.

"It doesn't matter who it was," Captain Amelia declared. This wasn't quite true. If the rumors came from those two it would be one thing, if it came from the pirates it would be quite another. "Now I don't know who has this map, but I do know that now that the both of you are here aboard the men know it's onboard as well. May I see it?"

Dr. Doppler and Jim glance at each other, before Jim pulls it out of his sea bag. The boy clearly didn't want to hand it over, but he knew he didn't have a choice. "Here."

Captain Amelia caught it as it was thrown at her, taking a moment to observe the strange golden sphere. "Fascinating," she then takes the object to a cupboard and locked it inside a solid metal safe before coding it with her own numbers. "Some of the men might be honest but I intend to take as many precautions as possible. Now, that'll stay there until needed and not before. I'm responsible for every Jack onboard this ship and I will continue to do as I see fit in order to see every one of them home alive and of sound body and mind. You will leave me to my duty or I will resign, is that quite clear Mr. Doppler?"

"I would never expect to get in the way of a professional as I would expect them to get in the way of mine own," the doctor agreed. "I have heard what you have to say, I will do as you desire. But I won't pretend to like it."

"You will find that the universe is filled with a great many things you don't like, Doctor. Now if you'll excuse me I've got a ship to launch and you have a stateroom in which to unpack your things, and get out of that suit. Mr. Arrow, take young Mr. Hawkins down to see Mr. Silver the cook to see about some work. You will follow his orders to the letter. Is this clear Mr. Hawkins?" she walked up to the boy and gave him a flat stair. My mother had used such a tactic on a few stupid boys up to no good at night while on patrol and most of them ended up sitting on the curve with their hands in their laps waiting for the police to arrive.

Jim Hawkins had a moment of defiance in his features, but eventually falls before her authority and respect. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Miss Ender will be our second cook covering for third shift until she's discovered the vagaries of preparing supper for alien palates. Miss Dallon?"

"Yes?" I straightened up and nearly saluted on the spot, so commanding was her tone. A few of the doctors and nurses back home had that voice and that was a tone I could respect. She definitely knew what she was doing.

"You've already put in a fine day's work. Go and get something to eat. Mr. Arrow will make sure you don't get lost."

"Yes ma'am!" those were orders I could get behind!

"There's a good lass," said the Captain. "Now that that's all settled we'd better get to work. We sail with the star in a few hours' time."

-000-

So, four things to say about this chapter and my little changes to Disney's cannon.

First thing is the stateroom scene. This is a pivotal point in both the book and the on screen adaptations when all the main characters get together and bring up several problems. Perhaps if Treasure Planet were a few minutes longer it would have been better. I have used material from the Treasure Island book to flesh this out as I feel it should be.

Second is Captain Amelia. She is almost literally the last person to arrive at the ship after all the crew are hired. In the book, when the good Captain Smollett confronts his employer it's with the intention to bring to him his problems in the most direct way possible and his demands, fully expecting to be fired so he could leave and not have to deal with a boat full of cutthroats and his foolish employer. This I feel is a truer interpretation of Treasure island and much closer to what happened in the book. Because no captain is going to go to sea with a crew full of cutthroats without precautions and rearranging things to her satisfaction. If Dr. Doppler was unreasonable, she would have left. She's the expert, Dr. Doppler is not. Both of them know this.

Third Dr. Doppler. The man in the Treasure Planet adaptation is a combination of two characters from the book: the enthusiastic Squire Trelawney who hires the crew and the steady Doctor Livesey who's a voice of reason. In the book Squire Trelawney admits to not exactly knowing what he's doing to Captain Smollett, but is adamant that he's not that foolish, and leaves everything up to Captain Smollett since he does. This is a very mature thing to do and something I wanted to keep.

It also takes several weeks for the original characters in the book to get together a crew and boat, so not everything happens at once. Someone at some point had to have met John Silver at the dock and he helps them get the rest of the ship to a full crew. There's this delightful scene where John Silver the cyborg goes off on his merry band of men about having put in a lot of work getting them all hired as a respectful crew and nearly blowing the whole deal before they're out of view of the spaceport. Dr. Doppler hired ALL the crew, so he would have a passing knowledge of every alien. It is remarked upon that he hired all the crew in the stateroom scene. So there is no reason why Dr. Doppler shouldn't have know John Silver. How'd he hire the man if he dosen't know who he is? Why introduce him as the financier later on?

It probably would have been better if Jim Hawkins had been introduced to John Silver before they got to the boat like it had been done in the book, but that didn't happen.

This is all probably a mistake on Disney's part that was overlooked. It didn't make any sense.

Fourth, and probably the least. Everyone onboard already knows that they're going Treasure Hunting before they left the dock. They know they're going after Flint's Treasure, and they vaguely know where it is. In the Treasure Island book the pirates already know which island it's on, they just don't know under which rock it's buried or a ship. As the Space Captain Nathaniel Flint uses an artificial planet with a Portal to rob people it's a realistic assumption that none of the pirates knew where in the galaxy it is. But with all that crew they would have known about the portal and planet both, blabbed about it at the very least. After a hundred years the Terran government most definitely knows about the planet. And now they know where it is.

The real prize here is not the treasure. It's the Planet itself. Such a thing would make the Terran Empire and the Procyon War an easily fought, one sided, and short battle.

Last edited: Feb 17, 2020

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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Feb 18, 2020

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Author's note: Remember everyone, Amy only has access to the Treasure Island book, and has never seen the movie Treasure Planet.

Please Enjoy!

-000-

Dr. Doppler, Jim Hawkins, Nova, and I were directed by Mr. Arrow to find a stateroom in which for Dr. Doppler and Jim Hawkins to unload their things. Dr. Doppler looked much better without the suit and he seemed to be glad to be rid of it.

From there we went to the galley where the infamous Long John Silver had already stowed himself away earlier that day to make supper for the hands.

Jim Hawkins grumbled, having been quiet enough, "I can't believe after all of this that woman has me bussing tables, again! I thought I had enough of that at the Benbow."

Nova said that this universe was based off the Treasure Planet book. But the Jim Hawkins here definitely wasn't like the kid from the book. Still a bad boy with that "whatever" attitude. It'll be ground out of him on a ship like this in no time.

"Well Jim it is a working ship and you are the cabin boy," Dr. Doppler reminded him as we walked.

Nova interjected, "Yeah, what did you think this was? A cruise?"

"But she took away my map!" Jim whined.

Mr. Arrow had heard enough. "Now enough of that, ship-boy! I'll not tolerate a cross-word about our Captain. She's the finest officer in this or any galaxy."

We descended into the galley following the scent of fine cooking, broiled meats and spices. The room was a fairly long one, filled with thick wood shaped into benches and tables, a pair in the front taller than others for those who sat at greater heights.

Inside someone was whistling.

"Mr. Silver!" Mr. Arrow called out.

The other half of the room was filled with kitchen appliances, hanging fruits and vegetables, a central fire with a floating soup pot and lots of wondrous smells.

Home cooking, I hardly knew thee.

The lights were turned down except around the countertops. From out of the shadows came a very large man and I knew that this had to be Long John Silver. His right leg was cut off close to the hip, his right arm was entirely mechanical including his shoulder, his right eye was missing and replaced by a glowing contraption, and some spinning gear with pistons had replaced the right side of his head and ear. He walked around with wonderful dexterity, very tall and strong, with a hand as big as a ham, a face that was intelligent and smiling.

Now, from every indication, the man was nothing like what was found in the old Treasure Island book that Nova and I were sharing between us. I knew better than to trust him, still he was such a charming individual.

"Why, Mr. Arrow sir? Bringing such fine company to grace my humble galley? Had I known, I would have tucked in my shirt! Heh heh heh heh!" the man proceeds to do just that with his shirt and apron both, and laugh about it.

"Cool, a cyborg," Nova nearly squeals.

Mr. Arrow asks, "I believe you are familiar with the financier of our voyage, Dr. Doppler?"

Dr. Doppler takes a step forwards and bows his head. "A very good morning to you Mr. Silver. Nice to see you again. Thank you for all your help hiring the crew."

Long John silver grins, his cybernetic eye widening and releasing a laser from within that goes up and down Dr. Doppler's form. "Nice to see you again, friend! And it weren't no trouble. You work at the docks long enough, you know everyone what needs a job. Whatever happened to the yellow suit you came onboard with?"

"Well, yes, I put it away. Um, nice eye," Dr. Doppler grabs Jim and brings him forward. "This young lad is Jim Hawkins, our new cabin boy."

"Jimbo!" The cyborg comes forward and puts out a hand, accidentally replacing each finger with some sharp metal instrument. "Oppsie," he tried again, switching out the instruments for a normal hand.

Jim gives the man a glair, but doesn't shake.

So I guess in this universe Jim Hawkins didn't meet Long John Silver on shore first?

Thankfully Mr. Arrow intervenes, "Mr. Hawkins will stay here in your charge, Mr. Silver."

"What? Beggin' your pardon, sir, but—"

"Captain's orders!" said Mr. Arrow shortly. "See to it the new cabin boy's kept busy."

The man sighs, "Well, who be a humble cyborg to argue with a captain? Aye, aye, sir," answers the cook.

"To help with the work, we have also hired Nova Enders here for third shift," said the first mate. "So the burden won't be so great."

Nova comes out and takes the mechanical hand, giving the man a shake. "Nice to meet you Mr. Silver, I've got a whole library of recipes from home. I'm not so sure about the ingredients though. We don't have them on our planet."

"Ah! Nice to meet you too, Lass."

"And this is Amanda Dallon, the surgeon," Mr. Arrow finishes the introductions.

I come forward to take his mechanical hand. It certainly wasn't anything like the Tinkertech worn by the heroes back home. This is far more skeletal and functional more than anything.

"Mr. Silver. I don't suppose you noticed what with all your working, but there was a general call to the crew for all hands to visit the doctor. That's me. You missed your appointment."

"Well, begging your pardon little miss. It's just that I don't care for needles. You can see what I mean," the big man gestured towards himself. "Besides, I think I heard the screaming from here, so I thought it just would be best to avoid all that as I had work to do, you know."

"Understandable, don't do it again. Hand please," I demanded, not letting him get away with it.

"Ah, yes."

"The other hand. The organic one."

I took the big man's hand and found that he was mostly human. His ancestors had grown up someplace that only allowed the big and strong to survive and so he did as well. I healed up the various aches and pains and took about two inches off his belt. Most of what was hurting him was in his bones. Taking out the permanent scars in his muscles, clearing up his arteries, rolling back the biological clock by about ten years … it was all the same old same old.

"With the amount of extra flesh on your body I can regenerate your leg if you like? Or perhaps you would like for me to take a few pounds off?" I offered.

"Ah, maybe a bit later? If it's all the same to you, I think I'll keep it for now. Oh wow, that feels much better," the man takes a step back and takes a stretch. "Now, don't be too put off by this hunk of hardware of mine, but …"

The man transforms his hand into an assortment of instruments. First a pair of scissors to cut down some meat-like fruits that were attached to the ceiling, before replacing his fingers with a number of appendages that allowed him to disembowel and then gut each one, throwing the refuge with precision into a trash can. He followed this up by bringing back the blades, but in a new configuration that looked like a butcher knife, slicing vegetables quickly and easily ... including his hand!

"Whoa!" Mr. Silver yelled, before making his hand appear out of his sleeve. "He he he!"

"Nice trick!" Nova laughed.

"Thank you Nova dear. Now I'll admit that these gears have been tough getting used to," Mr. Silver grabs a few eggs, humming a little tune, tossing them over his shoulder to where his hand had been replaced by three mechanical waldoes with three fingers each, "But they do come in mighty handy from time to time." He caught all three and then cracked the eggs over the plan.

I nodded. "Yeah." Watching this cyborg work was fascinating. He'd be perfect on cooking shows.

The cyborg put the result in a pan and threw the pan onto his mechanical hand, which had transformed into some kind of torch instrument that was strong enough to float the iron skillet in the air, searing the food to seal in the flavors. Once that was done he tossed the pan up a bit, transformed his arm back into a hand again, grabbed the piping hot skillet with his metal hand before it could fall, and dumped the contents into the soup. Then the cook added a few spices with his organic hand in a good demonstration that dexterity wasn't lost in his organic one, and taste tested the results.

"Mmm! Very good," Mr. Silver transformed his hand back into the three waldoes to hold a number of bowls and ladle the soup into each of us. "Here, now, have a taste of me famous bonzabeast stew."

I take a spoonful and take a nice sip. Nova has no fear of heat, putting the whole bowl to her mouth.

Dr. Doppler sniffs at it the same way that a dog does, "Mmm! Delightfully tangy, yet robust."

Is he a food critic or something?

"Old family recipe," Mr. Silver assures him.

"Aah!" I look over and saw that the good doctor was looking at an eyeball in his soup, which seemed to be looking up at him.

"In fact, that was part of the old family! Ha ha ha!" Mr. Silver comes over and takes the eyeball out of the soup, then eats it himself. "Oh, ho! I'm just kiddin', Doc!"

"Uh, yeah, well..."

"I'm nothin' if I ain't a kidder. Go on, Jimbo. Have a swig." The cyborg encouraged the boy with a pat on the back.

Mr. Hawkins doesn't seem hungry, but takes up the spoon anyway.

The spoon giggled.

What?

Then the spoon became a mouth to a pair of tiny eyes that grew along the lip, swallowing the stew and transforming into this floating pink blob.

Another alien! And one weirder than most.

Mr. Silver frowned at the creature floating in the air. "Morph! You jiggle-headed blob of mischief! So that's where you was hiding!"

The creature, Morph I guess, split into two, one becoming red and the other white, before spinning around to form a long straw that fell into Jim Hawkins's bowl and slurped it all up, chunks of meat and every last drop of broth.

The creature then chatters in satisfaction at the bottom of the bowl, and then belched.

"Wow," Jim was in awe of the creature. The creature flies out of the bowl to lick at Jim's face, canceling out any bad feeling he might have had about eating the lad's supper and bringing a smile to his face. "What is that thing?" at his touch the creature seemed to explode into dozens of little blobs that then spun together to form a miniature of himself, six inches tall, standing on his fingers.

"What is that thing?" the creature mimics back in a tiny voice.

"He's a shapeshifter. I rescued the little thing on Proteus 1. And he took a shine to me. We been together ever since. Right?" the morph files over to John and head-butts his face into the cheek underneath the pirate's face, chittering all the way. "Yeah. Nice boy."

By god this thing was cute. Five year olds would love to have something like this. Between its chittering face, cute eyes, ability to fly and shape ship, and acting like an affectionate pet, no little girl could leave this thing alone.

I wonder if I could breed it.

Now that I think of it I could bring out my Skrill and nobody here would care. It would be just yet one more pet in an alien world. I'll ask Nova about it later.

Mr. Arrow went off to inform the rest of the crew that now that everyone was assembled on the ship the rest of the day was to be spent packing away every last item and going over inventory to make sure that we had everything. If there was anything else we wanted to take with us tonight was to be the last night to get it.

That was fine for me. I hadn't even explored one tenth of the ship yet. However if the voyage was to be a long one I was going to have to entertain myself. I think there was a candy store down the street somewhere? I wondered if I could get the crew to chip in?

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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Feb 19, 2020

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#165

Amy's Pov.

All the rest of that day the HMS Legacy vibrated as every corridor was occupied by busy aliens going from one place to another taking in the last of the supplies arranged on the dock. There was always more food to be gathered and put away. It seemed that unless we were so overloaded that we capsized the captain was determined to fill up every nook and cranny, and all the space under the beds as well.

At least Nova and I had a bed. Jim Hawkins would be bunking with the crew, in a hammock.

Dr. Doppler would surely have been a poor man if he had to pay for all of this himself. But I guess that's why he had to get help from the Government.

When I could stand being in my room no longer with nothing to do and everything put away I came up on deck for some fresh air it was to find the hands yo-ho-ing at their work and moving powder and arms, a most delicate and involved operation that required both the first mate and the captain's complete attention. Since Nova had allowed her hair to be on fire all the time she was kept as far away as possible and spent her time moving the food and was doing things according to the cook's orders. Her ability to fly and her super strength was a real boon in harbor work.

Why they couldn't have normal guns and bullets with the powder already in them, I hadn't the foggiest idea.

They were all hard at work, and I wanted to help but had no idea what to do. I could barely tie knots. The Captain politely found me a place on the quarter deck near the mizzen mast where Mr. Turnbuckle was ready at the ship's wheel where I wouldn't get in the way. There was some navigation equipment in here that would be right at home on any ship at sea. But no radio.

A few people showed up to give their friends and family a last goodbye, to wish them luck for a safe return, before the ramp was pulled up.

All that day I saw Jim Hawkins as busy as anyone else, running from one end of the ship to another. There was a scowl on his face as he was forced to search for things that were misplaced or to return a box of nails that someone wanted. Yet there was an excitement that was shared by us both.

I'd never been on a ship before and it was all new and exciting for me. It was too bad that Brockton Bay had ruined its shipping industry or I could have experienced this more often. My only comparison to this were the times I was shipping over the long boats to the Rig in the middle of the bay to heal some of the troops who got hurt or the heroes.

As it is I got a chance to lose myself in the whistles and calls, the stomping of feet – if they had them – the commands and the hum of machinery.

"Hey, bonny lass! Sing us a song!" someone yelled up at Nova as she moved a crate fully as large as herself through the air.

The woman puts the crate down and puts one leg on top of it. "I'll take requests, but I only know the songs from home, so I'll have to teach them to you!" then the girl took a deep breath and started on one of the songs she remembered from her old home:

*Whistling*

In Eighteen-Hundred-One

The Revolution had been won

And Uncle Sam's favorite son

Had a job he needed done

Which brought Jack to a lady

Both beautiful and smart

Who found his fix intriguing

A scoundrel with a heart!

From the halls of Montezuma

To the shores of Tripoli

There was never a leatherneck braver

A daring Dragoon is he

He'll halt the whole advance

Of Napoleon's attack

There ain't a French or Pirate trove

Who don't, know Jack!

From the halls of Montezuma

To the shores of Tripoli

Sailing around the bloody world

To defend democracy

And when you need fightin man

You trust to watch your back

Just ask the bloke right next to ya. (Dang right)

It's. Jack"

Nova then pulled out a little recorder and started playing a little tune that went with the song. Apparently her memories from her past life were good enough to remember the music lessons she had in school.

I was jealous of that. But not too much.

I wondered what being reincarnated was like. To be a person, to die, to then to wake up in a new body as someone else?

It was just too bad that second life had ended when Cauldron had erased the girl's memories. Nova Ender was more than a bit bitter about it. She could remember her last past life very clearly while the life of the girl was so filled with holes that she didn't know the name of the girl or her parents. For all Nova knew the girl had been kidnaped from some other world from a clan of cannibals. She just doesn't know. But that didn't change the fact that by erasing the girl's mind that Cauldron had effectively killed a person's mind.

A person that happened to have the Spark of a Planeswalker.

Nova had promised to punch each and every one of the founders of Cauldron in the face for murdering that girl and I had every confidence that was a promise that would be kept even if she had to resurrect them from the dead.

She was coping. Was it no wonder that Nova was using all that she remembered to dance and sing?

Just in the little time I had been here I'd heard the ships and the bars and the inns around the docks shaking with song, with everyone else joining in, each singing louder than the other.

Singing, telling lies and tall tales was an old tradition found on many planets that was alive and well.

That fine bit of excitement eventually brought everyone to a dead sleep on the ship, where we would enjoy one last night without having to go in shifts, sleeping during the day or evening hours so they could be wide awake before midnight. Some aliens had different sleeping schedules so it didn't bother them too much.

When the sun came up everyone was awake for first launch.

The HMS legacy was a fine ship and had one customization worth noting and that was the landing supports. The ship was capable of landing on earth or going into the water. It didn't need to run power to stay aloft. The wings on the ship had also been changed so they could rotate out further and the ship could turn a tad bit faster. Not as fast as the more modern vessels but still much better than otherwise. There was a charge in the ship's batteries that would get us out of port. Once we were in the sky the sun would charge the solar sails and the battery for the times when we went without. The helmsman Mr. Turnbuckle was quick to point these out while we were waiting.

Waiting for the sun to rise.

All the men were on deck at their posts, standing by in some out of the way corner, ready to be sent hither and yon, like the fingers of a hand.

Eventually the time came and Onus in the Crow's nest reported that we were clear for launch. I looked around and saw that Dr. Doppler had joined us in the pilothouse with Captain Amelia and Mr. Arrow all ready to go.

"We're all clear, Captain!"

Captain Amelia nodded firmly once to the alien, showing that she heard him to one and all. A common thing to do I found, since it was a nice indicator that the person you talking to heard you in a loud area and indicated they understood you.

"Well, my friend. Are we ready to raise this creaking tub?" Captain Amelia asked her first mate.

"My pleasure, Captain. All hands to stations!" he yelled. "Smartly now! Lose all solar sails! Heave up the braces!"

Ow! Very, very loud.

Mr. Turnbuckle did something to one of the controls in front of him that made the ship and everyone on it to gradually fall into the sky as the port orbited out from underneath us. I grabbed a handhold, just in case.

The hands used a bit of application from a powered engine to run out the cables and lines to let the sails out. Not too much different from the old sailing ships that had converted to use steam power in port. So far neither Nova nor I had found any indication of hydrocarbon powered engines, so it was either solar power or muscle. The batteries didn't have enough charge to run everything all at once so we needed muscle as well.

A few touches by Mr. Turnbuckle with the rockets got us up above the port drained the batteries quite a bit.

"Brace up!" Mr. Arrow yelled as the top of the masts came into contact with the star's light.

The first sail nearly inflated to full with the first touch of sunlight, the clothe acting rather like a Rod of Absorption. The individual cells act like magnets and work together to draw in and harness a star's light, radiation and other energies. The reason it glows like fire in a hexagon pattern is because the solar energy is being concentrated between the individual units allowing the center of the hexagon to grow dark as the light is literally drawn out of the area. It then nullifies the effects and stores it, channeling it into the ship. The power absorbed must then be directed. L.E.D lights in the mast indicate power as it is filled with energy until it reaches the bottom of the mast, where I assumed it went into the engine room. From there the energy is directed throughout the ship, into the batteries, or used in the rockets on the back of the ship.

All we had to do is wait for the batteries to be recharged to full first.

As the ship is exposed to more sunlight more items become fully powered. The application to make the ship near weightless causing the ship to float about had grown strong enough that it was now including all the people on it and all its contents.

A situation what Dr. Doppler realized when he was no longer attached to the deck. But he seemed to be taking it well; he even put his hands behind his head as if he was resting on the air itself.

Captain Amelia and Mr. Arrow are experienced spacers, except for a few inches floating above the deck they don't move.

"Engage artificial gravity Mr. Zoff!" Captain Amelia ordered.

The Flatulent stayed attached to the deck with the help of its three tube-like legs acting as suction cups. He gives her a salute. "Put-put-put-poot!" and pulls a lever.

Now powered, the gravity manipulation device orientates everything to a point a dozen or so feet below the ship. Yet one more expression of the odd technology that works in this universe.

"Ahhhh!" Dr. Doppler falls a dozen feet.

Captain Amelia looked in his direction, accepting it as what it is, and then ignores him. "South by southwest, Mr. Turnbuckle, heading 2-1-0-0."

"Aye, Captain. 2-1-0-0," the helmsman turns the ship's wheel.

"Full speed, Mr. Arrow, if you please," the Captain calls next.

The man nods, and then turns to one of the tubes at the back of the ship's bridge, opening up the pipe so he can yell into it. "Take her away!"

Dr. Doppler manages to get himself on his feet.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Fine, fine, I'm fine," he says as he straightened himself out.

"Brace yourselves, doctors," Captain Amelia warns.

I grab the Doctor.

Just in time too, because the rockets at the back of the ship come to life and suddenly we went from 00 to 62 miles per hour in 2.3 seconds.

"Yeah! Whooo!" Nova screams as we accelerate out of the space dock and into the open air.

Ah, space. The final frontier. The place where the planet grows smaller the longer you look at it.

Wow.

A little while later we came across a pod of shadows. As we got closer they revealed themselves to be whales, in space!

Dr. Doppler said, "Upon my word, an Orcus Galacticus!"

That! Is a huge! ANIMAL!

BA-BUM.

How can there be whales in space? Were they thrown up there one day when a meteor hit their planet and sent them into the void? How can people breathe in space?

Nova was convinced that this was the Universe's expression of a loophole.

A universe where the laws of attraction and repulsion were a bit different.

The Etherium is a layer of space that contains breathable air, life, and small island-like bodies that seem to float among the stars. Philosophers said this varied by the size of the object, with larger things having greater air pockets. Each object had gravity as well, with the largest object overruling the others. Because of this stars could have an atmosphere that went all the way out to the outer planets. Planets had an atmosphere a few thousand miles deep. Most asteroids were chunks of solid rocks that had a pocket of air surrounding them. If you wanted to you could take a hot air balloon from the planet to the moon.

Sometimes, sections of the Etherium continuously flow quickly enough in a certain direction to form Currents; these Currents are often used by ships to quickly travel in the direction the Current is flowing in, making these Currents very useful for trade and for reinforcing the front-lines in a war.

Below this layer is an airless void, which some Spacers don suits to explore or mine, or hide.

"Does anybody know where that noise is coming from?" Captain Amelia asks.

"SQUEEEEEE!"

It took all my effort to get up to speed but when I leapt off the flying bridge I had all the momentum I needed to get across space. Only then did I realize what I had done and my heart stopped beating in my throat. What had I done?

Then I hit the big fish on the side of its body. I clung tight to its fur, like a plushy up against the side of a window, doing my best to nestle my way inside. So much fur ...

Something white flashed behind me and I turned my head to see Dr. Doppler taking my picture. "Smile!"

I waved.

The Orcus Galacticus was so soft~!

Like a super deep sheepskin rug combined with mink skin, and I just wanted to lay in it and wiggle around in it forever. Even my shard liked it.

Love~

"Having fun?" I looked up to see Nova with a Global taking a video of me wiggling around.

"Yes, yes I am," I admitted without shame. I could hear its heartbeat. There were seven of them. "Hey Nova."

"Yes?"

"I want one. I want an Orcas Galacticus."

"You're gonna have a lot of pets when we're done traveling," Nova commented with a smile.

"Don't, care. I want an Orcas Galacticus to ride. It's so fuzzy I think I'm gonna die."

"Really?" Nova flies over and buries herself into the fur. "Like a big, comfy couch. Okay! I'll collect a few of the females. Will you be able to get back on your own?"

"Yeah. I'll just guide it back over to the ship and jump off."

Nova's face was rather flat. "Never mind. I'll just pick you up when I'm done."

I had to work quickly. The University of Whales was moving off in their own direction and the ship was going in another direction and Nova worked quickly.

I managed to get myself three different coats, some gloves, boots, scarfs, and hats. There were quite a few squares of skin each a dozen yards across collected by the time I was done. Nova would have to carry them.

By the time she got back I'd just about managed to work myself up to the top of the beast and on top of the nose of the head. I took a few selfies and Nova took a few more with her Global.

Our slideshow was going to be so thick when we got back!

Our arrival back to the ship was interrupted by Captain Amelia, whose arm was waving us down. She didn't look happy.

"Miss Dallon, the next time you feel the urge to jump off the ship, don't!" Captain Amelia declared in a firm tone of voice. "You could have been killed. Or the Orcus could have turned away and you would have been lost in space. Do you have any idea how reckless that was?"

"Sorry for worrying you," I looked at the captain's feet.

"Don't do it again, am I clear?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good," Captain Amelia took a breather. "Now, what was that about? You don't seem like the suicidal type."

"Fur?" I held up one of the long coats I'd fashioned from the Orcas skin.

"Oh, how nice," the Captain smiled as she held it up. "And it's all in one piece? you do good work. I can think of one or two whaling ships that would pay anything to have you onboard."

"I used my powers to excise the skin as one peace, it'll last a long time too," I explained. "That one's yours."

"Oh! Well I, I suppose I'll just have to accept it," Amelia put it on right then and there. "Oh my, that's nice. I could never have afforded something like this normally."

"I got you some skin too, Mr. Arrow," I said, holding up a big square of the stuff Nova was holding for me. "But I'm not sure what I should make out of it."

Mr. Arrow bowed. "Sorry miss, but my rock-like exterior prevents me from enjoying such a commodity, not as well as you do. But the sentiment is appreciated."

Well one out of two wasn't bad.

Now to make myself the best bed, ever!

-000-

Not only can she make skins to order but none of the animals die in the process. Amy Dallon is the best fur trader ever!

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

NitroNorman's Stories Thread

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NitroNorman

Feb 19, 2020

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NitroNorman

The Armchair Reader

Feb 21, 2020

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#168

A few pictures from one of my favorite authors to show what a world would look like if you could breathe in space. Enjoy!

I'll not relate the voyage in detail, for most of it was very boring. It was a fairly profitable journey at the least. The hands were kept busy with the rigging so while the hours were numbing they at least had something to do. The ship was a good ship, the crew capable seamen, the Captain was competent, the First Mate reliable, Dr. Doppler was a decent navigator, Long John Silver made good food, and Jim Hawkins was worked until he fell asleep where he stopped.

When they got hurt, be it a cut or a pulled muscle or having trouble sleeping, they came to me and I fixed them up proper. At least they didn't try anything with this one of only three females on this ship. Captain Amelia was the captain, the respect was hers. Nova was supernaturally strong and won a few bets putting men's hands through tables winning money Indian wrestling before they got wise. I'd put the fear of surgery into them with my antics, always walked around with my Æther Pen on my hip, my scalpels and syringes on display like a bandolier of knives, and they knew not to cross me.

Well, there was another alien with only two arms that might have counted as female, but didn't have the usual methods of reproduction, so she didn't count.

Multiple times we came across stars thick with atmosphere to drop off letters as we made our way from place to place. From a far they looked like a giant ring of smoke stirred up by the planets. Inside there were trees thousands of feet long, these were mere saplings, spinning in the air with tuffs of green on either end to collect rainwater and other material and used centrifuge to direct it to the trees mouths at the end of their trunk. When they are young people can direct these trees together to make a sort of wheel out of the branches. The trees are still alive and the centrifuge provides gravity. Whole cities are contained on them.

It was from these areas where most of the wood for the hull of the ship was carved out as giant pieces, the keel and hull both. If the ship had been made of metal the ship would have cost twenty times as much as otherwise. They were also easier to repair since wood could be found nearly anywhere.

There were bubbles of water out there as big as any planetary sea floating about, filled with growing things and animals that could both fly and swim with lungs and gills going in and out. They looked like birds, and some looked like fish, doing a bit of both.

We fished out the birds then with nets and we were profitable in it.

Before we got to Treasure Island there were a few things that happened that I should mention.

The first of these that I think I should mention was the time I came into our room and found a great number of objects floating around our cabin as Nova worked on some project with her telekinesis handing a bunch of Wish-alloy, the name of the metal with the magical properties. Nothing unusual per see, she was always working on something these days. Unlike myself who used the Æther Pens, screwdrivers and whatnot, Nova could manipulate objects with her mind directly and with magic otherwise.

"What project are you on about this time?"

And when I asked all she would say is, "We once came close to tangling with a black hole once in that Lost In Space universe. I'll not be unprepared for next time." And that was all that she would say about it.

It was a good thing that Nova worked on this project, as you'll learn, because if it weren't for that then something that was to happen in the future would have had a terrible outcome.

The second thing I believe I should mention is about one of the crew.

Among the crew there was one alien shaped like a spider with six long limbs for legs and two clawed hands who the rest of us tended to avoid if we could. Nova had said that Mr. Scroop was a psychotic killer and that I should stay away from him. I didn't seek him out, nor did I turn away in the hallways but passed him by. Neither saying a word. He only visited me once after the launch of the ship and that was to have his claw repaired.

There was a distinct animosity between Mr. Scroop and the Jim Hawkins boy, who either dined on the other side of the room or left the area when he appeared. Even if I hadn't heard the tale of the encounter on deck it wasn't hard for me to figure out that the two square-like impressions in Mr. Scroop's claw were made by Long John Silver's mechanical arm when put into "nutcracker" mode.

The way the story goes: Jim Hawkins had been swabbing the deck that first day out of port while some of the crew were talking nearby and they took offense to it. Mr. Scroop told the boy in a very ungentle way for him to mind his own business, the boy had responded with a smart remark, which had nearly resulted with Mr. Scroop gutting him with his claws, until Long John Silver had intervened, and then Mr. Arrow had come on down to lay down the law.

"You are an idiot," I decided after I had seen to the cut underneath Jim Hawkins throat. "Those insects have only two switches, pissed off and aggressive."

"Yeah, I know I messed up," he touched the underside of his throat where the cut had bled freely, now sealed up with my good work. It would have required stitches otherwise.

"Good thing Long John Silver was there or you'd need a new tongue," I pulled a glass jar full of candy from out of a cupboard and presented it to him. "Now pick out a candy."

The boy chooses a big handmade swirl green lollipop. "Thank you. So, what do you know about Mr. Silver?"

"Nothing. Why do you ask?" I put the jar away and locked up the cabinet. Everything on this ship has locks. Not only do they keep the doors closed when the ship is rocking about but it keeps people from nicking things before dinnertime.

"Well, you keep calling him Long John Silver and nobody else calls him that." He put the lollipop in his mouth sideways, causing the cheeks to bulge.

"He reminds me of this character I read about in a book, and it stuck in my head," I admitted without revealing everything. "Now, you just stay away from that alien and you'll be fine. Back to work."

"Yeah, work. I don't think I've done this much work in my life!"

"Life is work. You do good work and you'll have a good life."

And that was on the first day of the voyage.

Mr. Scroop was not the only man among the crew that was bad. But there were plenty of wily, old, experienced spacers to make up for them. One of them was Long John Silver. And now that I've mentioned him, I should talk about him some more.

Long John Silver seemed to be one of those same spacers that could get along with most of everyone, work with them in anything and had a work ethic to be envied. He was obviously damaged, but didn't let it affect him, as if losing two limbs and an eye and an ear were nothing more than a light cold. With the prosthetics he could move as fast as anyone. And yet there were people who had sailed with the man before who expressed sadness to see a man so reduced.

"He's no average human, that John is," remarked one of the coxswains. "He's had good schooling, speaks at least three languages that I know of and is brave enough to take on a kraken!"

All the crew respected and even obeyed him in all things. With our knowledge it was that easy for Nova and I to figure out which ones were pirate plants and which were somewhat honest aliens. Sometimes I wondered why he didn't apply for the job of second mate rather than the cook. But then again, the man's skills in the kitchen were at least equal to his leadership skills.

While the man worked his pet Morph would play. At least once the creature had pulled the shape shifting trick of pretending to be some kind of cutlery on the crewmen, only to have it grow eyes and swallow it whole. Most would take the blob and throw it back into the direction of the kitchen, which was always clean even when Jim Hawkins wasn't scrubbing out the last of the pots and pans.

In the meantime Captain Amelia and Mr. Arrow continued to do a good job. The captain and the doctor continued to only have lukewarm relations, Dr. Doppler not liking being called a fool and having it be proven true. He'd admitted that he was wrong about the crew. There were no secrets on this ship. The mutters spoken by the crew in the shadows that had nearly gotten Jim Hawkins throat cut out were known and everyone asked about what you'd do with a handful of treasure. The Captain did not rub the matter into the doctor's face, but it grated on him like an ingrown toenail on an ill-fitting shoe.

We were two months into the journey when I decided that I wanted a fruit. It was pretty close to an apple, had never been on earth, and was one of my favorites. I ran up out of my practice, because everything had to be done in a hurry, and headed for the galley. There was an open barrel lashed to a pillar, half full. I took two rotting ones and with my powers made a brand new full one, pretty as anything you'd see advertised.

I took my first bite, chewed and swallowed, and was about to take another when there was this explosion.

Some sort of deep, rumbling, heavy sound that ended in a CRACK!

"Wha?" was all I managed to say. I was thinking of the sounds a gun makes far off in a canyon when the ship heaved itself up underneath me and threw me the entire length of the galley.

I hit hard amongst the barrels lined up against the walls, stayed there for a moment as the wall was the floor, before the floor was once more the floor again. I was sprawled out and my suit was unpacking itself to swallow up my clothes and replace them with something a bit better at brawling. I covered my head as the ship moved about until my helmet deployed and only then stood up.

Nothing seemed to be broken. My under suit had taken the brunt of the impact.

It could be faster though.

My female Guyver suit had evolved into a brilliant pearl of silver with a dark purple under suit. The helmet still had its Nian motif, the two eyes had great movement, and were now equipped with a proper hyper sensor horn that I'd reverse engineered from the biology of those Space Spiders, with two more on the sides. The tricorn hat seemed appropriate in this setting of sailing ships and pirates in space. From off my shoulders were the wings from mutants of the Dragon Flyz universe, equipped with solar cells to absorb extra power, that were draped over my shoulders like a cape. Both hands and limbs had integrated telekinesis Æther pens, and in my hands were the portals from the Synthetic Plants I had created from the organic technology collected from Earth: Final Conflict. In my arms were the life-sucking blades of the Atavus space vampires. I sheath them until something needed holes and gutting.

The ship groans heavily, its tilt quite pronounced. I climbed my way through the galley and up the stairs as fast as I could, sometimes on my feet, sometimes on all four limbs. Unsecured items bounced off my suit. It was like being hit by all the rubber balls from a dodgeball team while walking around in a knight's armor.

We had come across something that was overtaking the ship's personal gravity. What was happening?

I come across Jim Hawkins and the cook on their way up from somewhere below. Hadn't Mr. Silver gone out for something? Did he take Jim with him? I know we delivered mail to some of the planets we passed on by but I think we ran out of those a few weeks ago.

"You know what's happening?" I yelled.

"Not a clue!" the boy yells back as we followed Mr. Silver up the stairs and onto the deck.

The fastest of us all, Mr. Silver stops as soon as he's up on deck and I go around him to his right. "What the devil?" the man asks as we all look at the sky burning bright and red.

What's the old adage? "Red sky at night, sailor's delight: Red sky in morning, sailor's warning!"

When we see a red sky at night, this means that the setting sun is sending its light through a high concentration of dust particles. This usually indicates high pressure and stable air coming in from the west. Basically good weather will follow. Good for sailing.

A red sunrise can mean that a high pressure system (good weather) has already passed, thus indicating that a storm system (low pressure) may be moving to the east. A morning sky that is a deep, fiery red can indicate that there is high water content in the atmosphere. So, rain could be on its way. Sailing during a rainstorm.

Then all of our eyes turn into the distance. My eyes are better than most, having designed them on my suit myself. But my mind just blanks out at what I'm seeing.

Fortunately we have the good Doctor Doppler the navigator around to state the obvious for those of us whose brains have stopped working.

"Good heavens. The star Pelusa... IT'S GONE SUPERNOVA!"

"Evasive action, Mr. Turnbuckle!" the Captain yells as she runs to the pilothouse.

"Aye-aye, Captain!" Mr. Turnbuckle yelled, his grip on the helm secured with all six limbs and began turning the ship even before the orders were given.

I'm right behind her. I might have taken up a few of the evening watches on the crew rotation and done my fair share of laying out rope but that didn't mean I had to get involved. I was the surgeon, my place was at the back to fix anyone that got broken and my job was not to be broken at all.

This wasn't an Endbringer fight. It was worse.

First came the supernova, announcing its death to the entire known universe in a brief yell of energies and heat before ebbing into a cloud of energetic particles that were trying to devolve from a wave into plasma of atomic reactions into new atoms now released from a star's crushing hold.

Swirling eddies of current inflated the Etherium to fantastic heights. The star bleed gas and electricity, mass, chunks the size of moons, temperatures so hot they can't be measured.

Our ship was tossed in a storm the size of a solar system, first one way and then the other.

Behind us came a wall of death. A pyroclastic flow that contains a high-density mix of hot lava blocks pumice, ash, volcanic gas and worse things' expanding outwards at multiple times the speed of sound. The light and heat are to our advantage however, as it supercharges the sails to keep us going at ridiculous speeds.

Mr. Arrow yells, "All hands fasten your lifelines!"

Just in time too, as the wave hits us. The strange technology on the ship that gives us gravity, makes us weigh nothing, and absorbs energy kept us clean from the most of it. But we're still hit hard enough to knock down the men and send them flying, shattering all the windows, setting things on fire, while smaller rocks punch holes through the valuable sails that keep us powered and moving.

Captain Amelia yells, "Mr. Arrow, secure those sails!"

"Secure all sails! Reef them down, Men!"

Blessed be the sailors, they who run out the cables and ropes. Amen.

It wasn't that they were afraid. We were all scared spitless. But they were more afraid of what would happen if they didn't do their jobs, and become fearless in the face of it.

Flaming liquid rock ejected from the nearby star passed by the ship. In an atmosphere they were as deadly as volcanic rock, about the size of school busses. I could feel the Laserball cannons going off through the vibrations of the ship and the lance underneath the ship firing automatically at anything that came nearby. The alien whose fat I trimmed was yelling in triumph every time he broke up a rock.

Contrary to stories about pirates, most ship to ship encounters in the void do not involve cannons. They are rarely seen, or fired. Only the Protean Armada and the Terran Empire are prone to blasting at the slightest provocation. Such weapons are too expensive for the casual shipowner to use casually.

But I don't hear the good doctor complaining.

One moment there was a pony-sized rock drifting nearby, the next it was dust and being thrown back into the void away from the ship.

Mr. Turnbuckle turned the ship between the larger masses as they cooled from liquid rock to flaming obstacles. Our straight speed diminished as we turned to avoid the hazards. Throughout the race smaller rocks dinged, dented, and smashed their way into the decking and hull of the ship.

Mr. John Silver was on the front of the ship and went flying when one of the smaller rocks hit the bowsprit, damaging some of the equipment and lost his balance. It was just his luck that the cleat to his came undone. Thankfully Jim Hawkins managed to grab onto the line before it completely ran out, saving the man's life.

We wove in and out of the debris stampeding for outer space. With the power giving sails secured the race was draining the batteries at a fantastic rate.

For a few seconds I thought we were going to be fine when from out of the clouds came a tumbling lava rock five times taller than the ship itself. All the starboard Medium Laserball Cannons, the Light Laserball Cannons, and the Laser Gatling Guns are firing on the rock, but only do light cosmetic damage.

"Have at thee!" Nova yelled, throwing up two flat hands pointed at the rock. From the tips of her fingers comes a green flame with a white core of exotic energies. The two energy blasts hit the rock and managed to peel off a large chunk of its hardened exterior to go flying off, exposing the liquid iron core. The rock continues to tumble towards us.

"Shiiiit" I moaned as its shadow overcame us.

Then before it could hit the ship broadside it slows down … and goes away.

What?

The explosion was going away, and all the rock and debris was going with it.

Then I hear Doctor Doppler say something I never want to hear again.

"Captain, the star! It's devolving into a ..." the man takes a moment to breath, a completely poleaxed expression on his face that most of us shared, "A black hole!"

People start yelling. Only that my throat isn't sore proves that I wasn't one of them. I was too stunned to speak.

It just got worse.

The sky had divided into two. The material from above that was flowing down into a dark disk of nothingness from which light could not escape and the material from below swirling upwards, like two tornadoes. And we were in the middle, slowly being drawn in like a lint ball drawn towards a vacuum cleaner.

It was oddly beautiful, and so completely deadly.

Mr. Turnbuckle is having difficulty keeping the ship's wheel straight. "We're being pulled in!" Even with six limbs holding on he gets thrown off and hits his head against the wall.

I reach out to the wheel and stop it from turning any further, the strength of my suit handling it easily.

"Good catch Miss Dallon!" Captain Amelia. "Two more turns to the left, I'll tell you what to do."

"Two turns to port, aye Captain!" I say back. I knew the terminology pat at this point.

The ship goes skimming across the flaming wreck of the star. Like an inverted whirlpool made out of flame and gas slowly reaching up into the sky. It seemed like it would take forever to cross it from one side to another.

As we are drawn into that darkness that we can't see there come explosions as the material is drawn in, causing the whole ship to shake, rattle, and shake some more.

"Half a turn to starboard," Captain Amelia yells in my ear, the sound of her voice drilling through the fear in my skull.

"Half a turn to starboard, aye Captain," I remark automatically as I do as she says. My suit's strength was useful here, but it felt like I was going to break the thing. Which was silly. The ship's rudder is the strongest thing on the ship after the keel.

Another blast from the black hole overtakes the ship, sending us flying again. We're all getting used to holding on for our lives.

"Blast these blasted waves! They're so deucedly erratic!" Captain Amelia shouts.

Doctor Doppler yells back from the comfort of his instruments. For some reason these people had super radar but no radio. Then again, we're so far away from everything that nobody would be in range to hear us scream for help. "No, Captain. They're not erratic at all. There'll be one more in precisely 47.2 seconds. Followed by the biggest magilla of them all!

Captain Amelia gets a look on her face I rather don't like.

"Of course! Brilliant, Doctor! We'll ride that last magilla out of here."

Getting out of here is good.

Mr. Arrow yells up at us, "All sails secured, Captain!"

"Good man! Now release them immediately!"

Mr. Arrow looks confused. "Aye, Captain. You heard her, men! Unfurl those sails!"

"What?!"

"But we just finished..."

"Tying them down!"

"Make up your blooming minds!"

But they went to work anyway. Up the ropes they went like spiders, their grip secure from having done it a thousand times before, laying out their lifelines on cleats as they go. Mr. Arrow goes up there to help.

"Mr. Hawkins..." Captain Amelia called, and waited a moment for the boy to turn to her before she continued speaking, "Make sure all lifelines are secured good and tight!

"Aye-aye, Captain!" the boy never slows down in his work.

I watched as the boy checked over each rope attached to each mast, giving them each a tug, taking a moment to re-tie down two or three lines which didn't pass muster. Then he came back.

"Lifelines secured, Captain!"

"Very good!"

I saw it when it happened, but I couldn't do anything about it. I was steering the ship as the Captain told me to. Toes with claws grown out of the feet of my suit kept me bolted me to the deck. My eyes stared straight ahead for a course through the clouds of gas and ash, the eyes of my helmet tracking threats, other eyes from my suit and the radar on the crew.

Another wave of fire rises up from the throat of the black hole as we slide down the drain.

Mr. Arrow went up with the hands to run out the cables to take Jim's place while he did something else. Then I saw Mr. Arrow fall with the next wave. Unlike John Silver he had nobody to help. I saw him grab the line with his own hands. A man's life hanging by a thread of hemp.

Then the line let go and the stone man passed out of sight below the edge of the ship, and I couldn't see him anymore.

He was lost.

"Man overboard!" Nova yelled as she flew past like Tinkerbell on Captain Hook's ship, a smile on her face and full of mischief. "Guess I'll have to go get him. Geronimo!"

Then she was gone too.

Was she lost to me as well?

Doctor Doppler yells, "Captain. The last wave! Here it comes!"

"Steady as she goes Miss Dallon!" the Captain tells me. "Hold on to your lifelines, gents! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"

The light goes away.

It gets dark, so very dark. None of my eyes can see. Radar works on the ship underneath my feet. I can smell my own sweat. There's not much weight.

When will we hit?

…

When that explosion came it was so bright it lit up the tunnel of the black hole and supercharged the sails to the absolute limits of their designed capacity, which was large. Every last erg is directed into the rockets, sending us flying away with an explosion on our backsides like a ship in a bottle shot out of a cannon.

Safe.

We were safe.

"Amy Dallon, you can let go now," Captain Amelia tells me from my side.

I turn my head to look at her. "You never call me by my first name."

"Yes well… If you don't mind I'd like to have my ship's wheel in one piece, if you will?" she gestures at my hands.

I look down. I'd gripped the ark of the wheel with the eight fingers available in each of my suit's hands and nearly crushed it.

"Oh, right." I take a moment to let go, splinters of wood falling off. The toes in my boots take a bit longer to retract from where they'd been driven through the floor.

"Captain! That-oh, my goodness." I looked around to see Dr. Doppler untangling himself from a bunch of ropes. "That was- that was absolutely— that was the most—"

"Oh, tish-tosh," and Captain Amelia says it like it was nothing. She pulled out a solid brass sextant to play with.

I go over to the Mizzen mast and lean against it, falling onto my butt. A relieved Morph falls down like goo, expressing in puddle form how I feel. I pick him up and put him in my lap, him needing some comfort as much as I needed something cute to choke with love.

"Actually, Doctor... your astronomical advice was most helpful."

"Well, uh, uh-thank you. Thank you very much," the man seems relieved to be thanked for anything. "Well, I have a lot of help to offer anatomically- amanamonically- as-astronomically." The man slaps himself in the face.

And things go on.

Haa.

I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up and see Captain Amelia there.

"I'm sorry for your loss," the Captain said.

"Hua? What are you talking about?" I slap at my helmet and it collapses into my collar, letting my sweaty hair free.

"Miss Dallon, I'm sorry. But your friend is gone. She jumped into a black hole."

"I know." With my back against the wall I push off with my hips, my legs standing upright before I straightened up. "Nova Ender is a Planeswalker. A couple weeks ago she told me she was working on a project to deal with black holes. I'm sure she's fine. Besides, I have this," the suit withdraws the eight tendril-like fingers and the material around my real hands to show off a gold ring with a green gem with a thin string of light going off into the direction of the black hole. "This ring is enchanted to connect us together. It pulses with my heartbeat to let her know I'm alive and another pulse is returned from her ring to let me know she is alive. She's fine."

Captain Amelia follows the string, so thin that it's always at the limit of your vision, out beyond the ship and into space. "You really believe that she's alive?"

"Her and Mr. Arrow," I assure her as my suit's gloves come together. "Speaking of which. We've got a problem."

Captain Amelia looked in the direction I was looking. And by my stance as I looked, she saw that I was expecting trouble. I hadn't put my helmet back on yet. However she did lay her hand on her sword, so there was that.

Mr. Scroop was making his way through the laughing and joshing crowd of the hands who were relieved to be alive. Now, I've never heard a kind word or seen a smile come out of the big bug's face, but now he was trying to look remorseful. If I hadn't kept my eyes on these pirates and if Nova hadn't clued me in on a few details from the movie she saw in her world I would still be as suspicious as hell. Heroes are no fools and I'm out to prove I'm less than one.

He had a good poker face.

He came to the bottom of the stairs to the quarterdeck with Mr. Arrow's hat in his clawed hand, all gentile-like. "I'm afraid that Mr. Arrow has been lost." Mr. Scroop handed over the man's hat, his bug-eyes shifted to the side in Jim Hawkins direction. "His lifeline was not secured."

The boy goes as pale as clouds. "No, I checked them all." The boy runs over to the mast where all the lifelines were still knotted in place to find one of the wooden pegs missing its rope. "I—I did. I checked them all. They were secure. I swear." He looks back at the captain, and you could see the soul being crushed out of him.

The captain is silent. Her head turns to me. "Miss Dallon, was there something you wanted to say?" Her eyes go back to Mr. Scoop.

I nodded. "Yeah, I have something to say. I say that it wasn't Mr. Hawkin's fault," I nodded to the boy, before turning on the bug alien Mr. Scroop. My helmet climbs up from around my collar and I summon my energy blades to my arms. "It's Mr. Scroop's fault."

"What?" the bug backs off and the rest of the crew get clear. All pretension of being an innocent disappears like a thin sheath thrown off to reveal the true personality underneath, angry all the time. "What are you talking about?"

"My suit sees a lot with these eyes. I saw the black hole and I steered the ship and had each eye on a crewmember that wasn't blocked by the sails themselves. I saw Mr. Arrow fall and his lifeline catch him. Then his lifeline parted and he fell before my friend went after him. So, what I'm asking is; where is the other half of the line, Mr. Scroop? Did it part because it rotted, or was it cut?"

Captain Amelia drew her sword. "I think you'd better answer her Mr. Scroop."

Things were getting tense. I thought we were going to rumble right then and there. I was pretty confident that I could take almost the entire crew even with as little training as I had. Nova and I had fought a few times testing out any upgrades we made to her body or my suit, but it was never for real.

I looked to the side, and because of my helmet they couldn't see my eyes shifting. I saw Long John Silver eyeing Mr. Scroop and his flesh hand on Jim Hawkins. To throw him down or take him prisoner? I wasn't sure.

But just then I felt a tingling in my gloves.

"Wait one moment," I said, holding up a hand. The suit melts off, revealing my ring. The ring was pulsing green and the thread that was revealed glowed like a copper flame. "My Ring of Friend Finding says that Nova is coming back."

"So I suppose we'll have our answer soon," Captain Amelia remarks.

"Yes, I just have to say the activation phrase. I think she might be lost in there somewhere. Looks like she shut the black hole off."

The crew looked and saw that the disk seemed to have disappeared. There was a rolling crowd of dark smoke surrounding the area with the remains of the star spreading out.

"Then say the activation phrase, if you would Miss Dallon." Captain Amelia kept her sword aimed at Mr. Scroop from the bottom of the stairs. "Miss Enders better have my friend Mr. Scoop. Or heaven help you, or else I'll let the woman who's capable of flying into a collapsing star and out of it again deal with you. If he's fine I'll just clap you in irons for the rest of the journey and you should count yourself lucky."

Mr. Scroop looked left and right and saw no help. The crew had abandoned him, the pirates and the honest ones both leaving the area to stay out of a swinging sword arm. Long John Silver had his right eye open with the laser pointed squarely at his guts, his hand switched to a sword and the Jim Hawkins boy behind him.

I knew that Mr. Silver would run the bug through before he could betray the pirate crew. Mr. Scroop, never one for words, knew it too. He knew the jig was up. The only question was if this 'supposed' Miss Ender would come back. If it were possible for her to survive a black hole and come out again then there'd be nothing the pirates could do. And there was evidence that the black hole had been dealt with.

Damn Nova for leaving me alone.

I started to sing:

"There's a spark inside us,

That we can all ignite,

And all that's dark inside us,

Will flicker into light.

There's a power in every breath

There's a power in every note

A power that starts within the heart

A power that rises through the throat

And when it sails up through the air

More beautiful than any prayer

This power can right all wrong

And it will always thrill the ear

Of those who have the power to hear

The magic of a song

There's a strong inside us

That tells us wrong from right

Becomes a song inside us

To chase away the night"

Throughout the song the string of green fire became brighter and brighter until it hurt the eyes to look at it. The crew shielded their eyes from it. Even Mr. Scroop held up his claws and squinted. He looked at me, and I looked at him. If he moved from that spot or ran I'd have chased him down. He saw that in me and didn't move.

There was a chance, however faint, that if Mr. Scroop cooperated and was clapped in irons that Mr. Silver would free him when the pirates took over. Or he might go down swinging. If that were the case there might be a chance that Mr. Silver would gut him to save his own neck, his own plans.

Then a hole in space opened up and Mr. Scoop lost his chance.

"You sing good, Amy," I looked up and saw Nova come down from the sky with a ring that was the twin of my own on her hand, her right arm holding up Mr. Arrow as they came to a landing on the deck. She had a new piece of jewelry around her neck. "What did I miss?"

-000-

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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Feb 29, 2020

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#175

I'm gonna write a book. It's gonna be called 'How Nova went into the black hole and who she found there.'

When things went pear shaped I felt a fear in my chest I hadn't had since I was mortal. It was the kind of sensation you get when you mount your first roller coaster ride. There you are sitting pretty, laughing it up with your friends and family, and then the warning comes, and then your off, and while you're waiting to get to the top of the hill you ask yourself 'what are you really doing up here?'

Some parts of your mind answers that you're going for a ride. The other part tells you that you're going to fall, and falling means death, yours!

There was a part of me that hadn't wanted to interfere with the plot. The rest of me said, 'If you don't do anything a man will die.'

So I made my plans.

This would be my first real attempt at interfering with the plot of this story. I didn't want to mess it up but I was afraid. Things had been going well. Jim Hawkins, the star of the story in another world, was slowly uncorking himself from the awful little teenager he was and becoming a fine young man under the tutelage of Long John Silver, the scoundrel. I didn't really want to mess that up. Perhaps I'd waited too long.

I kept an eye out for Mr. Arrow. I was busy blasting rocks one moment and helping out in the next. We were maybe a few minutes into the disaster when I looked away.

I didn't see him fall. But I did see where he wasn't.

Stupidly, I plastered a smile on my face, yelled at Amy as I flew on by and jumped over the edge of the ship.

I was going down.

A thousand ideas raced through my mind.

I could have maybe interfered with Mr. Scroop.

I could have confronted Mr. Silver in the galley at any time.

I could have talked to the Captain.

Too late now.

I couldn't hold back. I really wanted to fly away. But to hesitate now would mean a man's death. I had no idea if I could pull open a Planar Portal in the middle of a black hole and wasn't keen on trying. So I flew as best I knew to the little speck of life I could see so far into the distance even my mana sight and eyeballs could barely make it out.

As things turned out I managed to catch him just as I caught Amy on that first day of flying. He fell, I flew.

The man was looking back up at the ship when I slowed down next to him and caught the end of his lifeline. The look he gave me was of stupendous amazement.

"Why?" he cried.

"Because you and me both have better things to do tonight than die." I grabbed him and hugged him to my side. "Now hold on. I'm not sure how good this trick will work. Force field. Negation: Black Hole."

I pulled up my personal Force Field and fed it a new configuration. In an instant a big blue bubble appeared around us filled with tiny cracking lightning bolts like a plasma ball turned inside out. The rage of the explosion that hit us from the mouth of the black hole didn't affect us at all.

"What did you do Lass?" Mr. Arrow saw in amazement that the flames and debris affected no more than a fire trapped behind a display case. He put his hand against it and we stood together inside it. "What miracle do I owe my life to?"

"You'll have to let me explain it in my own way. But first would you like a brandy? To celebrate our success, yes?" I handed the man his own bottle that I pulled from nowhere and we clinked ours together before swallowing them down. The man needed it more than I did.

"Ah, that's good," Mr. Arrow sighed.

"You're welcome. I was saving it for a special occasion. Would you like me to answer your question?"

"Yes please."

"Very well. Please don't feel like I'm talking down to you or trying to teach your or anything. But I've done a lot of studying and I feel like showing off a bit."

"I don't mind. Listening to a woman speak is something I find very relaxing."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome young Miss."

"The long answer is that I studied my brains out, trying to learn how the biology of Tamaraneans works. Like all of my kind we have levels of thermal and radiation immunity. There's a limit, but it's pretty fantastically high. I can also absorb, metabolize, and manipulate stellar radiation. I once found a planet so radioactive that the crust never formed whose Deinococcus radiodurans as so amazing they can absorb hundreds of thousands of Grays. A human can only absorb five Greys before they die. I guess you're probably aware most species study themselves more than anything?"

"That seems logical. I certainly knew more about myself than any other until I joined the Spacer Academy," Mr. Arrow said.

"Yes, this is true," I nodded. "Well, with my little biomancer around it was logical to start there. Amy was perfectly irritated that she couldn't understand my biology and worked for weeks to reverse engineer it until every gene was known and understood, every chemical interaction mapped. I can also defy gravity. Some people have the technology to manipulate gravity and mass, others don't."

"Yes, I'm aware of this. Other than lighter than air craft they have no means of getting off their planet, which is, if you'll pardon my opinion, is suicidally dangerous to operate without a world underneath your feet."

"Yes, this is true. It's one of the four fundamental forces of the universe and one of the weakest; it takes as much mass as a planet to do anything with it. But the gravity in your universe' is different. It allows your atmosphere to be breathable out into space. Comparing your gravity technology and universe to what I collected on other worlds was quite a task. I'll not bother you with the figures. Sufficient to say that mathematics is a language all its own, which being a supernatural polymath allowed me to make hash out of a great deal of work."

"So that's why you were writing in your notebooks all the time?"

The notebooks were computers I could write in, each page imprinted with circuitry and holographic projectors in the corners. In my old world I used to carry an electronic book around with me everywhere, so I was used to it. "Of course, I couldn't keep everything in my head. Then again scientific notation doesn't apply itself very well to magic, which is its own Phlebotinum to the rules of reality. But it helps to understand it, a little," I explained.

"All of which I've used to upgrade myself several times over the last few months. These are something I program into my Forcefields when I create them. I could probably plow my way through a planet with this thing at this point. I can speed up, stop without slowing down, and not get smushed."

"That certainly explains why we haven't," the rock man and I could just about observe the results of the rock and other mass we were hitting when we plowed into it. It was kinda like the reentry of a rocket into the earth's atmosphere, only through solid mass instead of air. The material was going from rock to plasma in an instant and the hologram I set up was showing us some pretty amazing pictures as we went down through whatever was in our path.

"I've also layered another effect over us. This one uses blue mana to create an area effect that allows me to negate the black hole completely. So long as I understand enough of a thing I negate it. Can't negate a thing I don't know about after all." I smiled as the images projected on the inside of my force field became even more psychedelic. "In this situation I turned gravity from an attractive force into a repulsive one causing all atoms to move away from each other. Theoretically, if I wanted to I could make the black hole evaporate into a diffuse cloud of dust. It would take some time though. Still doesn't stop the mass of the star from being in our way, but we won't be crushed."

"But… how will we get out?" the man asked. "There's not much air in here."

"A day's worth or so, and we're not getting out. We're still going down," I told the man.

"Down! Why?"

"Not going to ask if we're going to be killed? I thought that would be your next question."

"As a matter of fact, when I think about it, I half-believe that I am already dead and this is the afterlife. The other half of me believes this is a hallucination, having gone instantly mad during the fall. The rest of me is curious."

"Very good then. Well the answer is the same as yours. I'm curious. What's down there? As you might remember from high school physics, gravity doesn't just magically increase itself a hundred times over just because a sun decides to pack itself in tighter. No more than a gallon of water weighs less when spread out instead of packed into a solid cube of ice. A black hole as heavy as the sun can have its own solar system, bathed on the escaping Hawking/Cerenkov glow, and the planets will be warm with life. They have a longer life span too, as they (the planets) don't have to worry about a black hole going through various phases of a star's existence."

Mr. Arrow looked down at his feet. "Then what do you believe we will find down there, other than the black hole?"

"Oh I think there's a black hole down there all right. Probably a tiny one though. Something that is smaller than dust, heavier than a mountain, which goes right through planets like warm butter without even noticing it. A micro-black hole. Probably fell into orbit around the star, going up and down, through the mantle, taking bites out of the thing with each pass like the most insidious of parasites. When the star finally blew up it probably perturbed its orbit, and that's what caught the ship."

"And now it's grown big enough to swallow the star." The man took another gulp from his bottle. "What do you intend to do when we get there?"

"Have a look at the thing. Take a photo. See how big it actually is. Get a summons out of it. The usual thing."

The man slumped to the ground and took another swig of brandy. "Tell me when we get there."

Thankfully the stony spaceman had a bigger belly for liquor than his namesake in the book of Treasure Island and didn't turn into a hazy-eyed, red-faced tongue-tied fool. After polishing off the bottle he politely handed it back to me to put away. He never displayed any drunkenness either.

"Where are we now? Deeper still?"

"We travel like a deadly lozenge down the throat hole. Almost there," I tapped at the side of my eyes as they glowed blue. "Blue mana spells give me sight beyond sight. I can see it down there. Just a few minutes more. When we're close enough I'll use the inside of the shield as a hologram projector so you can see what I see."

Down and down we went. The earth was heavy. The star was heavier. The neutron star was heavier still. The black hole was extremely heavy. But nothing was heavier than a Magic the Gathering's hatred for blue spells.

I found it.

Even in the face of the universe's most expert trash compactor I felt calmness while the man besides me had given up on fear.

The first mate stood beside me as we went up to within forty feet of the object and stopped, not an inch closer.

The moment my Negation intersected the micro black hole the vast majority of all gravity lost its grip on the remains of the star. Momentum still kept the dead star heading in our direction, nor did it stop the mass of the dead star from having gravity of its own.

An even more profound effect came from the micro black hole by a sprung leak of uncountable metric tons of protons and electrons and with considerable outward momentum, in the form of a fountain of blue-white radioactive flame. The way the object gave up mass kind of reminded me of those times I visited a casino late at night when the liquor time cut off and everyone went home. Much like a collage kid's stomach while waiting for a ride home, spewing junk uncontrollably in two directions covering everything in an assortment of colors.

All the mass stopped falling inwards went at same speed in the opposite direction. In a few minutes we had a hollow cave big enough for the entire earth and nearly perfectly round. Not much different than that cooking trick Mr. Silver had used to float a frying pan over the full output of a torch.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Mr. Arrow watched the radiation vomiting micro singularity, "How is it that we're not dead?"

"If the shield were even a little bit transparent we'd be toasted and burned, so it's not," I explained. "We have our Forcefield, we have Negation. It's negating radiation, all of it."

Negation was one of the biggest bullshit applications of Blue Mana I'd found yet. It was just as bullshit as making a sword indestructible to all things except cream of wheat. I was also defying the metric tons of mass being converted into pure energy, and that wasn't even counting the energy that was being contained within this planet-sized cave and bouncing off the walls, causing the specks of dust to flair with all the light of a neutron star.

I just told a Black hole to NOPE the fuck off, and it did!

Of course, even with all that I had to take advantage of it. An application of black mana that I'd once used to create a shield to drain out heat and radiation and life from living creatures was perfect for transferring that particle soup into my Hammerspace for a final Fuck You blast for later.

I'll call that one Draining Shield, for two black units of Mana.

I turned down my Negation effect so that the black hole wasn't spewing junk quite so violently, to a trickle no brighter than a sunny day on earth …

… Without an atmosphere …

… With all that light coming down on the planet concentrated in just one little spot.

Black holes were fascinating. They counted as two units of black manna for a summons. Radiation Poison would be one black unit of mana, and Radiation Overload so I could explode like a bomb would be four units of black mana.

I also got a Radiation card out of it, which was green for some reason. A quick check through my Magic the Gathering Cards into some of the rarer sci-fi cards revealed that radiation would cause mutation in living things, so it could be used as a modifier.

I could make giant radioactive ants with this. Huh.

Cool!

I made a few adjustments to the shield to increase its effectiveness, cast my spell to replace the previous one between the beats of an atomic clock.

So making a black hole was no longer quite so difficult. I now had an ultimate storage method and for getting rid of garbage, which will then convert the mass and radiate it in some form of energy. All I had to do was avoid colliding with it or losing it, but it won't explode.

Black Holes are really useful things.

What I wasn't expecting was for the black hole to be inhabited by a butterfly. It sat there on top of the tiny hole in reality like it was the most normal thing in the world sipping at the rainbow-colored radiation bloom.

"Hello there little fella. What are you?"

"By the Powers!" Mr. Arrow gasped. The two of us could see the body of the creature more clearly. It's body was a good two centimeters long but it also had a ten foot wingspan. the wings were made up of tiny loops of silver thread with each end attached to the body, each actively growing longer as we watched until they reached their full extension, before shrinking down and being absorbed back into the body. There had to be hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of these loops of silver threads.

"Like the Egyptian god Khepri that moved the sun. But I can't call you that, you're not a beetle. I'll call you Sin the Singularity Butterfly." I nodded to myself

So mote it be. Well of course it would be great. I'm a Planeswalker after all. My naming schemes are all great!

I also got a new friend!

What a stroke of luck to find a creature whose limbs seemed designed to apply an assortment of weak force which, over time, are just as effective as stronger forces, until it's able to fold space like origami!

I pump more mana into my sight, and as I look closer I see that I'm not dealing with a single black hole, but a cluster of them, arranged like a huge number of small flowers on a single globe cone.

1… 2… 56… 108… 118 to the power of who the hell knows … yeah, I can't count that high when they're moving around like that. Damn.

The majority of the array of micro black holes was smaller than a neutron with its throat hole capped with a single neutron, like a manhole cover. Didn't matter if it had a billion metric tons of protons and electrons shoved down into these item boxes pulling the mass of the star down on top of it, the throat hole was unable to swallow the tiniest of rocks. Structures of neutrons locked everything in place and considerable amounts of gravity were used to keep the apparatus from flying apart under its own momentum.

At the tips of the butterfly's limbs tiny holes in space and time were created to move neutrons and electrons from their orbits from one place to another, gradually slowing them down or speeding them up, their sudden appearance and shift from place to place being used to cause reactions within the whole of the matrix. If one electron's orbit threatened to cause the whole apparatus to swing out of alignment it was either negated or removed and its effects mitigated.

I lowered my Negation effect around the matrix gradually, defying the power of the cluster but kept the rest of the star at a distance.

The butterfly was constantly making adjustments, which seemed to be mostly make-work at the moment; the whole thing done faster than my eyes could track. Precognition? Or does it know all the possibilities already? All of this effort spent after some genius ancestor created the ultimate storage mechanism, to the development of an arrangement not unlike a tiny galaxy that's small enough to fit on the head of a pin.

Huh. Seems like our little butterfly here likes keeping her things sorted.

How many billions of years had these creatures existed to perfect these maneuvers and program them into its progeny?

Making my own black hole would have been difficult, even with all my power and new knowledge, but not impossible. All I had to do was pack enough energy into a small enough space to recreate the right conditions, using lasers from all sides to push it towards a theoretical center, scaling up the experiments already done by scientists in the lab on a small asteroid. Now I don't have to. Even better, I could see several different types of black holes. They are naturally very efficient.

"Would you like something to eat little butterfly?" I held out a stick of uranium out beyond the barrier of my shield.

The butterfly's wings got smaller and it hopped onto the end of my stick. It immediately started to store little bits of it inside a black hole it created. When the energy was allowed to bleed out it was like a tiny red sparkler. I wasn't sure why it was red.

Food is always appreciated.

"A creature that feeds on the exotic energies created by black holes as they bleed out, so it makes its own. God that is so cool! You're just like a bee that makes honey only you use gravity! I'm definitely going to keep you. Summon Artifact: Black Hole Cage."

I summon up my little cage of Wish alloy and put it around the clusters of micro black holes. Imagine a sphere made of Nano machined diamond, shiny with scattered light. It's a sort of small parabolic reflector, the space inside magically warped to be a hundred miles away from the cluster no matter which way it moves in free fall. Layers of magical metals are enchanted to negate forces just so, and all gravity emitted by the black hole beyond the surface of the material is phased out. Tough stuff indeed; breaking the black hole free of the cage the butterfly created was going to be difficult enough that unless it was done by another Planeswalker I couldn't ever see it happening by accident.

The surface was also enchanted to look transparent on the half of the sphere you're looking into so you could see the tiny black dots against a backdrop of the silver interior.

For every set of colored mana in my possession without a black, add one black.

"There. That'll keep any unwanted mass from falling onto your array." I explained to the butterfly.

To avoid war, the galaxy is on Orion's belt, indeed…

"All the mass of 1,212.72 solar systems in the palm of my hands," I was getting a little light headed. "Congratulate me. I just became a Type 3 civilization all by myself. MWAHAHAHA! Manacle laughter. Ha ha! Totally worth it! HEE HEE HEE HAA HAA HAHAHAHHHAA! Manic!"

"Ah, congratulations Miss Enders," Mr. Arrow said.

My ring started glowing. Well it was always glowing, but now it was glowing in time with a song that only I can hear. This brought me up short. Otherwise who knows how long I'd be laughing?

I still felt light headed.

My friend is in trouble.

"Looks like Amy needs help back at the ship. Since we're all done here let's head back, okay?"

The man nodded rather enthusiastically and tipped his hat. "That would be just fine with me Miss Enders."

"Right then!"

I held the cluster to my chest and with a little magic turned some scrap metal I had into a necklace, the galaxy of black holes resting between my breasts and glowing contentedly. But then, who wouldn't?

I then blasted the little creature eating my stick of metal with nearly all the blue mana I dared use. Much of it wasted.

As I found out the creature simply didn't have much of a mind when it came to fighting battles or being preyed upon, having been bred out of them soon after some genius of an ancestor learned how to fold space. From its point of view stars were nothing but puffy clouds as substantial as fog to be flown through, black holes were nothing more than flowers, and an entire galaxy of predators that couldn't fight at all.

Its mind was like an ordinary butterfly, smarter than your average butterfly and except for a few territorial instincts that was it. The creature fell onto the nape of my neck where it made an imprint similar to that of a butterfly tattoo six inches wide, the inks made out of exotic non-baryonic matter.

"Hold on." I grabbed Mr. Arrow to my side, pointed my right hand to the sky and, with the ring of Friend Finding shining a brilliant green thread, took off fast enough that the first mate could feel it.

"Whoa!" he shouted, and put both arms around my neck.

"Up, up and away!" I yelled in joy, the batman theme running through my head. "I've got the best toys."

We hit the cooling edge of the hollow interior of the sun I'd created, a vast hole of matter being sucked down into the miniature black hole I created, digging a tunnel towards the surface and pulling us along as I applied thrust.

The area around us was still under the repulsive effect given off by my Negation which had turned all gravity into a repulsive force. However as we moved we traveled through new areas that were beyond the scope of my area of effect where the weight of most of the star was trying to coalesce back into one solid mass. Our travel through these areas was like a bullet that ate at everything in our path. The large cave and the tunnel collapsing behind us as we went, the materials crushing hard enough to make heat and light wared with darkness as we made a hole for freedom.

I had plans for these little black holes.

I could create an artificial planet with a few of these singularities in the middle. Then I could tap into the evaporating Hawking radiation for power. The gravity would provide the surface with gravity and hold in an atmosphere.

I'd need something to simulate a sun. An engine that converts an evaporating black hole into an approximation of sunlight shouldn't be too difficult. The material that makes up the engine would take a while to develop. It would have to be both stupidly strong and immune to gravitational forces. Gamma radiation and hawking radiation could, I'm sure, be dealt with by non-magical materials.

A project for the future.

Once free of the star's muck I aimed my eyes along the light of the green line to see the ship off into the distance. So far away that even my mana-enhanced vision couldn't make it out.

"Twenty feet off the Starboard from Amy should be close enough," I muttered to myself as I cast my portal spell. "Get ready Mr. Arrow. There's mutiny afoot."

"Aye Lassie," the man took out his belt knife. "Ready I am."

"When we get there what do you want to do with Mr. Scroop?" I asked. "Seeing as how he's the one that tried to do ya in, I thought you'd like the first shot?"

"I'll feed him to the black hole, same as what he tried to do to me, if it's all the same to you?"

"This will be my first execution, yes, and I don't mind. Here we go."

I cast my spell, and there appeared a hole in space that was just like a doorway between two rooms. The eyes of all the aliens turned towards us as Mr. Arrow and I stepped on through, our feet walking onto the railing before we landed on the deck.

"You sing good, Amy," I saw that Mr. Scoop was all alone in a ring of contenders with Captain Amelia having her sword drawn on him and Amy all kitted out with her suit. "What did I miss?"

-000-

Sorry about the long wait guys. Real life kicked me in the butt.

About the Explorers 1986 film. The force field used in this movie is about the only force field I know of that is STRONG. Period. Dot. Exclamation point.

The force field that my Planeswalker uses is at least this strong. That she can change the configuration so that she can work through the field or can make it transparent or not is just another feature. And it's only going to get better.

Granted, other scifi ships have force fields, but they seem quite nerfed in comparison to this old movie. None of them are strong enough to allow the ship to go flying through a mountain or asteroid equivalent. They all seem to share that common ability of being stronger than the materials the ships are made of and tend to fail as something hits them hard enough.

Odd thought for the day:

As I was looking through my old movies I put my Explorers movie right next to my Iron man movie and I had a kind of nasty thought: If Tony Stark had access to this force field Iron Man would never have been born. Given half a day to create the 1986 circuit board design using modern Marvel technologies and he could have ripped his whole cave out of the mountain and taken it back home in a few minutes. He wouldn't have needed the arc reactor either. I was half-tempted to write a fic about that right then and there.

As always, please leave some likes and comments. They feed me.

Last edited: Feb 29, 2020

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

NitroNorman's Stories Thread

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NitroNorman

The Armchair Reader

Mar 5, 2020

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#183

Amy Dallon's point of view.

Captain Amelia's face lifted to that of Joy when Mr. Arrow's foot came down on the deck and I'd say that my face was the same under my armor. But where Captain Amelia was still facing business with her sword drawn at Mr. Scroop my biological sensors were clamoring with cautions and warnings about the object under Nova's neck. About the size of a golf ball if it were an inch, containing a speck that drank in light.

How we weren't being swallowed up by a black hole I had to attribute to the Wish-alloy it was made of and Planeswalker shenanigans.

My shard had also woken up and taken notice, like a starving dog shown a choice cut of beef, with gravy, on Nova's chest.

Not only was she marked with the first scars she'd ever had after leaving the hospital bed as a regenerated cripple, but the tissue was acting completely unlike one made with normal inks.

The Shaper Shard went through a catalog of materials hundreds of thousands of feet long and discarded them all. I nearly threw up!

The butterfly was made of some material that I could not be allowed to touch and would forever be out of my grasp. The only reason I could figure that Nova had not been sliced to bits, as matter and strange matter canceled each other out, was because she had made herself temporarily impervious to what would otherwise destroy her.

Perhaps Nova could make me temporarily immune to the butterfly's effects as well?

"Are you well from your trip Mr. Arrow?" Captain Amelia brought my attention back down to more immediate problems.

We had to deal with these ruffians first before I could examine the new life form. If any of them got in my way I'd cut them down.

"Fine as any ship that sailed her Majesty's navy, Captain," Mr. Arrow aimed his blade at the spider psycho. "Mr. Scroop I find you guilty in trying to kill me—"

Before he could finish speaking, and having quite enough, the unsettling Mr. Scroop danced to the left like a crab and then leaped at Mr. Arrow.

"Paralysis!"

The big bug became as immobile as if I'd wielded his shell shut.

Mr. Arrow easily pushed the claws away with one hand and used his fist wrapped around his sword handle to punch the arachnid's face into the floor, a long cut in the creature's face appearing as the sword got its taste of blood. It wasn't a fatal wound. Yet he still didn't move.

Nor did the rest of the crew, I saw, excluding Jim Hawkins and Mr. Silver. Captain Amelia looked around before coming out of her combat stance to stand up straight and putting the tip of her sword to the deck. The only people still moving were those that had been near the stairs, leaving statues scattered around the deck.

"Sorry, I forgot that talking was a free action. I think I overdid it a bit Captain. I only aimed for the bug." It was fairly clear from the way she spoke that she wasn't sorry in the least.

And to be honest, the more I observed the potential mutineers, the more I felt that Nova had the right idea. There had been hints throughout the journey about how awful these people pretending to be honest crew really were. There were times when I hadn't cared for Mr. Scroop at all and while I wasn't going to take the bug in hand and melt him into a soup I was just as curious as anyone what was going to be done with him now. Perhaps they'd start with a hanging?

"That's quite all right Miss Ender. Jolly good job. As for you," Captain Amelia's eyes turned to pure hate as she looked down onto the bug that was furiously looking in all directions with its eyes, "it's the yard-arm for you."

Apparently they were both of the same minds on the subject.

I wasn't certain my mother would have approved. She never did say whether she approved of the death penalty. There were some that would argue that if a lawyer had a heart they would have made a perfectly nefarious pirate. So maybe she would have? In any case the bad guy was immobilized and that was something her mother the mother, the hero, and the lawyer could all agree on.

Now it was time for sentencing and I would put out a thumb's down and all for it.

"Not this time Captain," Mr. Arrow grasped the bug at its shoulder with one arm and lifted him completely off the ground, cracking sounds emanating from the shell as he did so. "I said I'd feed you to the black hole," he told the bug, and then held him out to Nova.

The bug started to make squealing noises in its breathing spiracles -like organs.

Nova nodded and taped at her chest and when she brought her hand away the butterfly came with it. The wings were made up of thousands of ribbons, like looping hairs of silver, so close together they reflected light with a high sheen. "Meet my friend Sin, the Singularity Butterfly."

Mr. Scroop managed to gurgle as the creature flew into him. Mr. Arrow let go quick and took a few steps back. Mr. Scroop stayed floating in the air and soon gained the ability to speak again.

"What's happening?" Mr. Scroop yelled and flailed in the air.

"Singularity Butterflies are very interesting creatures Mr. Scroop," Mr. Arrow's eyes were as hard as flint steel, completely devoid of emotion, for the entire world talking about the man's imminent death as if it were already done, as it was. "They can fold space to pack away mass in black holes of their own design. They also work very quickly."

Mr. Scroop… no, the dead bug walking, began to paw at his chest where a distinct sucking sound came. At first it was a hissing like sound like from an aerosol can under pressure, but increasing to a shriek as the air was sucked into the hole the butterfly disappeared into.

"AHHHHH. No! No! Help! Help meee! Gugle-glugelenebbblele …." The man's screams soon cut off as whatever he used for lungs were gobbled up from the inside. The eyes were sucked inside the body as well.

A small explosion with a brilliant flash of light caused everyone to avert their eyes, the body coming apart as if it were nothing more than a crab stuffed with a firecracker, tearing the being apart and hurling its shell in a dozen directions in a very specific and detailed way, like professional demolitions.

With my Shaper Shard I knew that was no explosion resulting in no ordinary damage. With the hints given and having put it altogether quickly, I'd just figured it out. The Singularity Butterfly had used some kind of focused gravity beam to cause harmonics in the bug. But, by god, the computational requirements! You'd have to figure for light-speed lag, the materials you were encountering, location of the target in referential to itself, it's momentum, and you had to prevent spillage.

I had to shake my head in wonder.

All of this just so some creature could talk in space!?

The body parts didn't go very far either. Maybe sixteen inches. They stopped dead and even the drops of blood stopped moving. They were all caught up in the shaped gravity created by the Singularity Butterfly, went into orbit briefly, and then were sucked back into a tiny black dot.

It was very fast, indeed.

"Eep!" Morph screamed and hid behind John Silver's coat.

Meanwhile Jim Hawkins turned away and ran to lean over the edge of the ship and throw up.

The Singularity Butterfly then returned to the necklace to deposit its spoils with the rest of its collection.

"Well that's one way of doing it, that's for sure," Captain Amelia remarked as she put her sword away.

"Captain, there's more," Nova spoke up then, but her eyes were on the rest of the crew. "Seeing as how we're all here anyway, and to prevent more unfortunate things from happening, I suggest a meeting of the higher ups to discuss certain things."

"What sort of things, Miss Ender?" the captain asked.

"Well, it just occurs to me that we should talk about where we are going, and what we are going to do when we get there."

The captain rubbed at her chin. "Yes, I suppose we should. What are you proposing?"

What was Nova thinking? She had specifically told me that she didn't want to get involved in the plots of any of the worlds we were visiting, to the best of our abilities. Of course we never followed that rule very strictly at all. Acting as crewmen and watching events unfold had been enough until now.

What had changed? Was it because Mr. Arrow had nearly died?

I guess that's reason enough for anything.

"A lawful seizure and transfer of ownership. I pay cash," Nova snapped her fingers for effect and pulled out a small chest that I had shaped from two trees, bottom and lid, filled with shiny yellow gravel. "Mr. Doppler, I assume that renting this ship and hiring a crew cost a bit. Will this cover it?"

"My word," the man's eyes had gone round and he's lifted up his glasses. "But yes, that would indeed cover it, and more."

"Would you transfer this ship and its crew to me?" she asked.

"Well, I, er, um?" Dr. Doppler looked at the captain and she nodded. "Yes? I suppose so."

"Good. Then that makes me the new financier," Nova kicked at the chest and sent it in his direction. The dog-man danced out of the way. "Then this transaction is complete. This is my ship and crew now. Mr. Arrow and Amelia will continue on as first mate and captain. And there will be no more deaths or secrets. "

She stalked over to the paralyzed crew who couldn't move anything but their eyes.

She gave them all the eyeball, then walked back from the other end of the ship. "Here's the things you lot have to remember about us Planeswalkers. We live a rough life, and we risk death on every world we put foot on. We like good food, nice warm soft beds when we can get them, nice entertainment, lots of food, friends to have good time with, and we fight with all the supernatural powers in the universe at our call. When it comes time to pay we've got trade, bargaining, gold and platinum and silver and copper, relics and magic. It's easy to enjoy our company; nobody rocks the boat of a rich woman with loose purse strings. Take Mr. Long John Silver for instance."

All eyes shifted to the man who could move on his own when they could not.

"He's fifty! He's got money, and he could have spent it all; spent a few years begging on the street after living it up. Some of you were there already. Once back from this cruise he was planning to set himself up as a gentleman in earnest."

The man's face fell like a hanging trunk with its lock undone and its secrets spilt out onto the street. No doubt the man was surprised that Nova knew so much about the man.

Oh I see what she's doing! She's making it seem like Mr. Silver and Nova had a little agreement nobody knew about. Not only that but any plans are ruined because Nova knew too much about the man. Sneaky.

Theatrical, but sneaky.

"So I've traveled, I've seen, I've done a great deal, Amy and me; and now we're here on this ship in this universe. So here I am on this ship having a little adventure, all nice and relaxed with its fine crew with Captain Amelia, Mr. Arrow the first mate, Amelia Claire Lavere Dallon as biomancer and doctor, Long John Silver the cook, and Jim Hawkins the cabin boy. It's all very nice."

The woman was smiling but it definitely didn't reach her eyes. They were slowly going neon red. All sign of joy and levity at survival were gone. The crew was really sweating now.

"And then someone had to go rocking the boat! Mr. Arrow warned him not to rock the boat when he had that confrontation with young Jim Hawkins here on this deck on the first day. And then he did it again, and nearly got my friend killed; Mr. Arrow who was kind enough to hire me straight out of port. So I say to myself that person is no friend of mine! And so I ask Mr. Arrow on the way back what he wanted to do with him, because I don't care about him enough to know his name or speak it. And what did you say to me, Mr. Arrow?"

"I said 'I'll feed him to the black hole, same as what he tried to do to me'" came the stone man's reply.

"There, just like that, all said and done. So, don't rock the boat. That's easy, yes?" Nova nodded her thanks to the first mate and turned to face the crew. "So I'll say it calmly and plainly what I'm thinking and what we need to do. I reckon you all got ears to hear, even if you don't have much to account your thinking meats, if there ever was. So listen up!" she paused for a moment, "You're all fired."

From her hands Nova summoned a length of iron chain and threw it at the aliens. The metal wrapped itself around their bodies, forming manacles to lock behind their backs, forming one long chained gang.

"You'll be spending the rest of the voyage down under. So stay there, shut up, don't bother me, don't rock the boat, and I won't feed you to a black hole. Kay?" Nova tilted her head to the side and made her eyes glow red with red mana, the happy smile on her face was more than off-putting. Nova turned smartly to the left. "Mister Silver!"

"Ma'am!" he straightened up.

"It's not hard for me to admit, but you're a better cook than I am. Me, and I have the knowledge of a hundred chiefs and an entire library of recipes in my head. I'd hate to lose your talents now. I've been to a lot of restaurants, seen plenty of strange things, eaten my fill of my own and Amy's—"

"Hey!" I shouted out. "My cooking is not bad."

"This is true, and his is better than the both of us. So the million gold question is, are you my cook, Mr. Silver?"

"Aye, ma'am, and ready for orders!" he saluted, his eyes went to her face and stayed there, never looking down at her chest, and I didn't blame him. Nobody wants to be near something like that after seeing what that creature can do.

"Good answer," Nova deadpanned. "We're going after Flint's treasure. You will sign a new contract, live a hard life, you'll do your job, you'll speak soft, and you'll stay sober until I tell you otherwise. What say you?"

"Aye!"

"Good man. I know your kind. You're the kind to save up his coin, that's the smart thing to do. That's how I know I can trust you. You'll wait, none of this hurry and hurry and hurry nonsense. It would have been better if we had the loot onboard and we're halfway back to port before doing anything. But that no-good so-and-so had to go off half-cocked before we even saw the planet. Bad choice, that. You'll lay your course, and fly your ship with me, and we'll all be traveling in carriages when we're done."

"Aye ma'am."

"That and your health," she added. "Amy, see to it that you replace his leg with some flesh and get rid of some of that blubber. I'll not have a man under my command as wounded as that. The rest he can decide for himself."

The man who had seen one of his sucked into a black hole and the other hands clapped in irons had been as calm as can be before now glanced down at his limping leg and then up to me, and grimaced.

I knew what was wrong, of course. The nerves in his missing eye and arm were still in use whereas there were plenty in his leg that were not being used at all, and were complaining about their lack of work, dying like branches on a tree. They had no mechanical muscles to command and sensations to transmit except phantom pains. Only a foot as fully functioning as can be instead of that peg he used would do.

This would firmly put the man in our camp, and no alien would be taking his word for coin for the rest of this cruise no matter what he said. A mutiny was now definitely impossible.

Nova walked up to Jim Hawkins who still looked a bit green around his cheeks and was wiping at himself with a cloth from his belt.

"Mr. James Hawkins. I suspect that this adventure wasn't all you imagined it be when you set out, is it?" Nova asked.

"No ma'am." His eyes wide.

Nova nodded with a genuine smile on her face. "Good lad. You've done some growing up. Hasn't he Captain Amelia?"

The cat woman nodded. "As fine a cabin boy as I've ever sailed with."

Nova said to the boy, "Make sure you learn plenty from this trip, Jim. You're working to rebuild your mother's Inn, yes?"

"Yes ma'am. The Admiral Benbow Inn. It burnt down, I'm going to rebuild it," he replied smartly and firmly.

"Good lad," she complimented him again. "Investing in your future is a very good thing to learn as a boy. Save your coin, sail your ship, stick to it no matter the squalls that come your way. Keep that up, and by the time you're ready to retire you'll be riding around in carriages to Parliament. You'll make your mother proud."

"Miss Ender, would it be quite all right for us to interrogate your prisoners?" Captain Amelia went over to one of the aliens. She poked him, watched as he leaned backwards alarmingly, then let go, watching as he rocked back and forth on his feet like some kind of statue. "I would really like to know what these ruffians were going to do. For my report, you see."

Nova nodded. "Yes, I suppose we must get our paperwork in order."

Nova then pulled out a set of chairs and an enormous rectangular conference table made of wood several inches thick that probably weighed more than most vehicles from back home. There was a distinct thump as it settled into place on the deck; you weren't moving that without a crane.

"You! Front and center!"

Nova pointed out to one of the aliens and he walked forwards to stand in front of the desk.

It was pretty obvious she was using one of the variations of her mind control spells. According to Nova the things were ridiculously easy, especially after visiting the Earth: Final Conflict universe and she'd gotten her hands on the Cerebral Viral Implant. None of the animals she'd practiced it on had been able to resist her commands and she'd even gotten them to do things that were otherwise impossible to be done, like forcing them to reverse the flow of blood through their hearts.

Nova spent a moment to explain what she'd done to the Captain and the rest of us, and then it was all settled. Jim Hawkins, myself, Nova, Captain Amelia, Mr. Arrow, and Mr. Doppler all took a seat at the table. A bottle of wine and cups of water were placed on top of the table. We each had a half a glass, drank to each other's good health, our service, Nova's luck and skill, Mr. Arrow's survival, our courage.

The Captain got out her book and a Æther pen.

"It's a remarkably good thing that using supernatural powers from a Planeswalker isn't illegal, now," the Captain turned to address the alien in front of her. "If you are able to answer 'no' to all of these questions we'll let you go. So let's start with the obvious:

"The First Question: Have you ever committed an act of theft?

"Second Question: Have you ever lied before?

"Third Question: Have you ever committed robbery?

"Fourth Question: Have you ever slain?

"Fifth Question: Have you taken food from others mouths?

"Sixth Question: Have you desecrated offerings or the property of God?

"Seventh Question: Have you said no truth?

"Eight Question: Have you uttered any curses?

"Ninth Question: Have you been violent to anyone?

"Tenth Question: Have you ever destroyed someone else's property?

"Eleventh Question: Have you ever coveted someone else's wealth?

"Twelve Question: Have you ever lain with someone else's spouse?

"Thirteenth Question: Have you committed adultery?

"Fourteenth Question: Have you ever made another cry?

"Fifteenth Question: Have you ever eaten the flesh of another sentient?

"Sixteenth Question: Have you ever attacked anyone?

"Seventieth Question: Have you any debts?

"Eighteenth Question: Have you stolen from cultivated land?

"Ninetieth Question: Have you eavesdropped?

"Twentieth Question: Have you slandered?

"Twenty-first Question: Have you ever been angry without just cause?

"Twenty-Second Question: Have you ever fornicated?

"Twenty-Third Question: Have you ever debauched the unwilling, taken the under aged, or the innocent?

"Twenty-Third Question: Have you ever known men who were of no account?

"Twenty-Fourth Question: Have you caused pain?

"Twenty-Fifth Question: Have you ever polluted yourself?

"Twenty-Sixth Question: Have you terrorized nobody?

"Twenty-Seventh Question: Have you transgressed the law?

"Twenty-Eighth Question: Have you been angry?

"Twenty-Ninth Question: Have you ever shut your ears to the words of Truth?

"Thirtieth Question: Have you ever blasphemed?

"Thirty-First Question: Are you a being of violence?

"Thirty-Second Question: Are you a stirrer of strife?

"Thirty-Third Question: Have you acted with undue haste?

"Thirty-Fourth Question: Have you pried into matters?

"Thirty-Fifth Question: Have you multiplied your words in speaking?

"Thirty-Sixth Question: Have you ever wronged none, and done no evil?

"Thirty-Seventh Question: Have you worked witchcraft against the King?

"Thirty-Eighth Question: Have you ever stopped the flow of water?

"Thirty-Ninth Question: Have you ever raised your voice?

"Fortieth Question: Have you ever cursed God?

"Forty-First Question: Have you ever acted with arrogance?

"Forty-Second Question: Have you snatched away the bread from a child?

Forty-Third Question: Have you committed murder?

Truly, the sins of man were long and with great variation. Their hearts heavy with iron and each of them should fall to the deepest parts of the hell a lie there.

Of course, some of the questions were contradictory.

Have I ever slain? Yes. But they were all animals that were soon to be eaten. I've yet to murder anyone on the other hand.

Have I ever worked Witchcraft against the King? Yes, I have. I've been to several worlds with all kinds of rulers and used my Parahuman abilities to my profit. But none of them were against my king because I don't have one.

Have I ever Blasphemed? Yes, I cursed god. And if He has a problem with it then He can take it up with my friend the Planeswalker, who is as far above Him as he is above mortals. Not that any of the worlds we've gone to have gods. I'm sure they're out there somewhere.

I've also learned to curse like a sailor, which is another thing.

Have I ever said no truth? Well, Nova and I have kept our mouths shut when we knew the truth of the matter. Which is different than a lie.

Not that Nova or I couldn't say differently of us. Only a child who has not lived long enough to commit all these sins would be innocent.

A simple application of blue mana got them all to spill their guts.

Nova summoned up her mana spacer men which she had collected at the Crescentia Spaceport before the journey began. Most of them were human or Felinid, which showed where her taste's lied. The summons easily stowed away the dozens of the disloyal to the brig. A few dozen Space Spiders anchored themselves to the walls made sufficient guards.

It was stupid easy figuring out who was more honest.

Barely twenty-six in all after all of that, the rest throwing John Silver and Nova as many curses from their mouths as they could as their legs were commanded to walk them into the brig for the duration of the voyage.

Dr. Doppler leaned back in his chair after another sip of wine miserly measured out by Mr. Arrow. "Well Captain," said Doctor Doppler. "You were right and I was wrong, more than I ever knew. Beyond my libraries and books I'm a fool."

"No more a fool than I, sir," the Captain replied. "Usually a crew that means to mutiny shows signs or has a good reason. But this crew," she added, "were fairly good actors. If they'd been a bit smarter and more patient they could have waited until we found and loaded up the loot and killed us all on the way back to port. A fine catch of fish, for the jailhouse!"

Captain Amelia's words were remarkably similar to my own, Nova's, and the words from Treasure Island. The most ideal plan would be to go to the Planet, get the treasure, use the Doctor and the Captain and the cabin boy's help to load it all onboard, come back halfway to port, or at least end up someplace recognizable with the help of a good navigator, and then kill everyone with a mutiny all at once and thrown their bodies into a convenient star.

But, with the pirates we had, they were all hurry up and now, now, now, good for nothing fools. "When do we kill the Captain! I'm tired of being ordered around. I want pickles and wine!" they complained. Given half the chance they'd be full of booze lying about the deck in a stupor or getting high on the medicine in my locked cabinet and sucking down all my candies.

But they didn't have the map, didn't know where it was. Mr. Silver had to keep reminding them of that. And he had to work to corrupt some of the honest men onboard to his way of thinking. As a cook he could have poisoned them just fine. Dead men tell no tales, and nobody wanted anybody coming back from a maroon on no island to mess up his retirement plan.

Kill everyone on the island once they had the treasure, which was the plan the pirates confessed to be going to go with, as impatient as they are.

But of course, none of those plans worked out, did they?

Just about every movie and book I could remember about pirates showed that they were a stupid and impatient lot. Couldn't even get the job done before they started backstabbing each other.

It's also remarkable that the cook from Treasure Island was smart enough to save his money, practically the first person to do so in the history of fictional scumbags.

In the book of Treasure Island the man is an out-and-out pirate, a Man Of Fortune as they called themselves. They don't trust each other, but they trust their brothers to be pirates. It's like trusting and knowing when a dog is going to jump and when it's going to bark and being prepared to kick it in the face to avoid its teeth.

Long John was old and wise and smart. Men like Captain Flint, Davy Jones, and so forth are scared of him, and for good reason. He complained, mostly about how pirates go to sail in nothing but their shirts, spent and traded their loot as soon as they came back to shore, the next day were dirt poor beggars on the streets, and got hanged because they were impatient fools. The one legged man saved his money throughout his life of crime and was richer than all the people on the ship put together. How do you like that?

He didn't get the treasure, no.

He got away, didn't he?

Well he wasn't getting away this time. We had this one ensorcelled but good.

Sighing, I stretched out on the seat I'd taken. I didn't want to deal with this strange round of interrogation. I'd gotten to know these people after all. I didn't want to deal with Nova's turn of face into the kind of person that could Master entire groups of people and get the PRT's undies wound up so tight it would cause a great source of pain from between the legs.

One could fight the human, one could fight people with superpowers – even win – but it often just meant more attention. The more waves you make, the more attention you'll get.

It was easier to lie low and not trouble yourself.

Or the rulers of the world you're in.

Nova never wanted to be in the eyes of massive corporations and governments or gods. She never really built anything beyond what was needed to be comfortable.

Too much work.

But survival was another thing altogether.

"Hey, why do you want Flint's treasure so bad?" Nova asked Long John Silver.

"So I can retire and be a Lord in Parliament," the man croaked.

The book was right.

"Right. I guess that is it for questions," Nova remarked as she closed Captain Amelia's notebook.

"But I haven't asked any!" complained the voice of Jim Hawkins. "He's not innocent, in this," the boy turned to the befuddled and bewitched cyborg. "There's something I want to know," he went on. "I want to know, Nova, I have the right: was he with the crew that came down and burned my home to the ground? I was halfway convinced he was my friend even when Bones warned me otherwise and he worked me half to death, by thunder! I want you to open his mouth, I want some answers!"

"So you get your answers, and then what?" Nova sighed. "We're sorry your house burned down, but you're on the way to fixing that. He owes you a great monetary debt, fine! Mr. Silver, take a note, you owe the boy one handful of treasure when we get to Treasure Planet. Remember it."

The cyborg nods. "Yes ma'am."

"Feel better?" she asked the boy.

Jim shook his head, no.

"Want a pistol then?" Nova asked.

Again, Jim Hawkins said no. He didn't even know what to say or do now.

There was a brig full to bursting with a bunch of young idiots that wanted to be pirates because they were found starving on the streets and another room filled with thugs that didn't have a bad reputation as far as the law knew but would still rob you in the dead of night and leave you broken on the ground.

Jim sighed. "As long as justice is served and I never have to see him again after this cruise."

With all of them being marked with conviction of piracy, it wasn't likely that they'd all live to see next year, never mind having the time, ability, or money needed to worry about one little boy.

"Don't worry, he'd going to be gone for a very long time," Nova said as she pushed a contract up to Long John Silver. "Sign it here, here, here, here, and initial here."

"What's this?" Long John asked.

"Standard form of contract for working with a Planeswalker," Nova explained. "Eternal life, eternal youth, housing, food, medicine, wages, it's all in there."

I guess she really did want him for a cook.

"Why give me this?" Long John asked.

"I asked if you were my cook, you said yes. It's either this, or her," Nova pointed at Captain Amelia, "You can go into the jailhouse with the rest of the fish, get convicted and die in jail, or hung. Under me you'll have protection from the government since you'll be my man. When you're done writing you get back to work making meals for me. I'm hungry."

"What? You mean you'll save me from the noose just for meals? I've never heard of such a thing!"

"You've never had to deal with a Planeswalker before either. If you want to even see the treasure at the planet you'll have to sign the contract. Tell you what, I'll give you ten chests of treasure from my own percentage of what I get from Treasure Planet, as a sign-on bonus," Nova said. Then she stopped, waiting for his reply.

Well I gotta admit that the food Long John Silver makes is some of the best I ever had. Better than the state dinners I attended with Max Anders, for sure. It could still be healthier. But at this point I'll also admit my phobia might have interfered with the taste of what I cooked.

In any case if this worked Long John was going to be trapped in an ironclad contract for a long, long, long ass time. And it wasn't like villains have never gone straight before.

Long John Silver's fat face was clouded with indecision for a moment. Then something broke in him and he nodded.

Must be that pirate in him.

"Forty chests," he argued.

"Huh. You know what? Let's skip the back and forth and split the difference and call it thirty. I'll even let you pick out which chests. Sound good?" Nova handed him the pen.

The pirate smiled at her. It looked almost as glad as Nova's face looked like.

Two days after the voice of the summons put in charge of the lookout shouted, "Planet, ho!"

-000-

I was re-reading what I'd written and decided to do something a bit different. And besides, after a black hole, all things are optional. It was high time my Planeswalker started throwing her weight around. So I read a few Manawah comics online to get myself in the mood and changed things around a bit.

Seemed kind of stupid not to mind control the crew. You get your best answers that way. But I'm a nice guy, so it's hard for me to treat others like an arsehole. Doesn't really occur to me to do that. It's not in my nature.

Hope that's okay.

A couple of things won't happen now. No mutiny. No abandoning ship. No troubles with pirates. Nor will Long John Silver be given the Black Spot. Nor will Long John Silver bargain for his life with Jim Hawkins to save each other's skins. He won't go disappearing into the black when nobody's looking either. He's Nova's cook now, and she isn't letting him get away from her. Long John Silver's smart, he's probably the smartest Pirate ever written about. He knows when to give up.

See you next time.

Last edited: Mar 7, 2020

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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NitroNorman

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Threadmarks Sixth World: How my Planetary Adventure Began. New

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NitroNorman

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Mar 7, 2020

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#187

Amy Dallon Point of View.

The appearance of the planet had brought a small amount of tension from my neck down. It was the end of a journey, the feeling as if it would never end having disappeared. The light from the sun was shining up a gas giant like the proudly displayed piece in a jewel museum, mostly green with some streaks of white, reflecting off the clouds to the other cloud layers below… I never got tired of the sight. So even though it was technically midnight and it was getting more late and I should be asleep, I was sitting on a chair bolted to the deck in one of the few places where guests were allowed to lounge about and observe all the wonders of nature as we slowly got closer to our target when the ship came out of the shadows of the planet.

The change in the atmosphere went from late winter to the middle of summer in an instant. All the sails tracked to Starboard with a snap and the hands raced to adjust the ropes, the rockets fully powered, changing the hum underneath the deck as we picked up speed. Hours passed as the object of our attention gradually picked up detail: a grey-green smear with wings growing to cover up half the sky until it looked as big as Montresor when we left port. One set of rings made out of gravel circled the world; another set made from green energy completed the look of a giant X on the planet. All around us clouds drifted far away from the world, deep enough to hide another planet or two and a complete asteroid belt.

All ahead slow.

Mile by mile we approached closer until finally we were in an orbit above the poles to avoid the densities of the rings. With the help of some telescopes implanted into the bottom of the ship that were bigger than I was tall certain details became apparent. The greens and browns revealed thick forests of moss and fungus that dominated the planet—some singly, some in clumps; but the general coloring was uniform and sad. This tint broken up by the more colorful varieties whose only comparison I can make to some of the deadliest and most poisonous mushrooms on Earth. Most were fully as large as any tree I've ever seen except for the Integral Trees that grow in space. Not a single hill or naked rock was to be found, not even a pond of water. All to be seen was metal throughout through the eye of the Spy-glass, covered in air-plants.

The HMS Legacy was no longer under power but drifting, just enough sail out to keep our weight under control and our gravity under our feet. As the light dimmed and fluttered through the strange Solar System-sized atmosphere that was common to this universe and power was given and taken away my stomach fluttered. I had to fight my own instincts to stay upright like Albert the first monkey in space, this standing about and being subjected to gravitational fuxurations at the lowest of powers was not for me on an empty stomach.

I distracted myself very well knowing that I'd be on the planet soon. My Shard wanted to sample yet more unknowable biology. Sometimes I hated my Shard and its constant distractions, now I clung to them tightly.

"And now, men," said Captain Amelia to the willing and well paid crew of the Legacy, after all our chores were done. "Has any one of you ever set eyes on this planet before?"

Everyone looked at everyone else. Just to be sure the prisoners were brought up on deck one by one and asked the same question. The same was asked of each of Nova's summons, who contained not only the knowledge of those people she touched, but a little of her own. Universally the answer was NO.

"What about the plants and fungus on the planet?" I asked the Captain. "Any danger there?"

Captain Amelia called out my question to the crew.

Naturally, it was the most educated spacer amongst us who answered. "I have," Long John Silver spoke up. "I've seen them on a great number of planets and rocks."

"Then perhaps you can inform our surgeon all about them then," the Captain encouraged, "While the rest of us listen and learn."

"Yes, sir; Dead-Man's plants is what they're called. When men are killed or they're dumped overboard with the trash they drift onto worlds without life yet, their bodies full of little creatures ready to colonize. Skeleton Bones Planets, they calls it. It were a place for dead men once, only now there's something to eat. Throw over your fruit and nuts; introduce some quadrupeds, some birds, some sea-fowl, some fishes, shells, your frogs and snails, crustacean, and so forth. In a dozen years if marooned there will be no reason to go hungry, no cannibalism or infanticide either!" Long John's eyes burned in his head as he looked at the planet.

"I'll have the hands look for birds and fruits then. Perhaps we will find Flint's old camp. You may go," Captain Amelia gave the orders.

We had a hard day's work ahead of us. The four long-boats we had had to be gotten out and manned by the twenty-six honest sailors we had left, each to warp out at speed for various locations on the world below, mostly-filled by the competent summons made of mana created by our Planeswalker to be sacrificed as needed. The heat in the full power of the sun was sweltering and I had long since become as brown as an islander native.

In hours we had a rough map of the planet but still no starting point. There were no rivers or a sea. The plants existed to absorb moisture from the air and grow on the dust drifting down from the universe.

I was surprised at how John seemed to take things as they are, with a swing in his step on a new leg and a smile on his face. He came right up to me as we observed the shore party coming back laid down with boxes and pickled jars full of plants and samples from down below, taking up a pipe down wind of me.

"Ah, if it isn't the bonny lass who fixed my leg," he said as he settled onto the guard rail. "This here was a nice thing you and Nova did to me, even now I have to buy two shoes instead of one. And to lose all this weight? It makes me feel young again."

"Would you really have gone through with it?" I asked the thinner and much taller man.

"Aye lass, I would have if not the two of you were aboard. No point in saying otherwise," he took a deep breath of tobacco. "But that's the wonderful thing about life: It's not what you knows that gets ya, it's the unknown. Had I known who and what you and Miss Ender were and are, I'd have signed up anyway and kept the drunkards off the ship. That was my mistake. Yet I could have been fed into a black hole, as close to being within planck's length of death as I've ever been as when I lost my leg and arm and eye. I'll be desperate to lose that much more of myself, chasing a dream," the man flexed his mechanical arm, which had more than a few of its parts spelled to be indestructible to prevent wear and tear by Nova. "But I see that you two are the right sort. So I say to myself, I'll stand by Nova Ender, her and Miss Dallon, and you'll be alright John. You two are my last cards, by living thunder, it's the last hand. We'll be together. I'll have your back, and you'll save my neck!"

I began to understand.

"You know you're not going back," I say to him.

"Aye, by gun, I do!" Long John spat a wad of tobacco over the side. "Ship's lost to me, crew's lost to me, neck's lost to the Captain, no place to run – that's the size of it. As I looked into that creature of Miss Ender's I knew that there was more unknown than I ever knew. Once I saw into your Miss Ender's eyes I saw that she had changed, damn Mr. Scroop for making it so, she would do her duty and I'd hang. I'm tough, but I gave up. As for those down in the brig, they're fools and cowards, played their cards and lost. So Miss Ender wants a cook that's better than her in all things, I'll work over a hot stove and Miss Ender will save me from swinging."

It shouldn't have been a hard thing to understand, but it was the truth.

"How's the leg?" I asked to distract myself.

"Tingles like a hundred street rats trying to pickpocket the flesh for candy," he guffawed and slapped the right of it, giving it a good scratch. He emptied his pipe and put it in his pocket, taking out a flask to replace it between his lips.

"Listen to me, little doctor," he went on. "I'm powerfully grateful to you two ladies. I'm firmly on your Planeswalker's side now. I know you've got some way to keep me loyal, paper be damned. How you done it, I haven't the foggiest. There's no collar around my neck. Now you mark me. I ask no questions, nor won't I let others. I know when a game's up, I do; and I know a good thing when I see it. If only we had met earlier when I was young, ah, we might have done a power of good together!"

He held up the cask. "Will you taste, messmate?" he asked; and when I had refused: "Well, I'll take a drain myself, then. I need a caulker, for there's trouble on hand. And talking o' trouble, why hasn't the Captain taken out the map yet, Miss Dallon?"

I didn't know, and something in my face must have shown.

"Ah, well, she will, soon enough," said he. "And there's something about that, no doubt—something, surely, under that, Miss Dallon—bad or good."

And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great big head like a man who looks forward to the worst.

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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NitroNorman

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Mar 10, 2020

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#197

"Well, it's not over yet," Nova declared as she came up on the deck.

A council of ships officers been called now that a proper map of the planet had been made, the Captain calling us all together to her stateroom to speak under pleasant circumstances in the cooler air circulated. Silver was allowed to come in, sat down and kept himself quiet.

Nova had shown up with a bit of black cloth, some string and a needle she'd found. She laid it out, cut it with blades of white hot energy from her fingers, centered it, and put it back together. When she was done she turned it inside-out and put her new shirt on, with a three-eyed skull and two white rings going around it to her back.

"Where did you get that?" Captain Amelia demanded when she saw the decoration over the Planeswalker's bust.

"From down below," Miss Ender shrugged expansively. "Since the pirates don't need it anymore I thought I'd make a souvenir out of it."

"It's a nice shirt," Mr. Silver remarked.

Everyone ignored him.

"Alright gentlemen, let's get this meeting started," Captain Amelia said. "We'll start with biology. Miss Dallon, since Miss Ender has rather enthusiastically encouraged us to pick up samples of everything and the dirt and giving it to you, I assume you have something. So, speak up."

"Oh, yes, well, I've been having loads of fun there," I remarked. "I'm not sure how they were created but this Dead-man's fungus is just absolutely gold, from a biological standpoint of course. So far most of them can be consumed by animals. They have no usable vitamins in them, but plenty of sugars and peptides. Possible side effects are long term, food allergies and incompatibilities; the usual in other words. The proteins and their negative creations the prions seem to be absent. We're looking at a Type 5 biology with a mixing of Types 3 and Types 2."

One of the great things about entire solar systems having giant atmospheres is that the life zones were broad enough to include pretty much every planet.

One of the great big terrifying things about entire solar systems having giant atmospheres is that pretty much every organism imagined by science fiction could be waiting around in the dark spaces between worlds ready to jump on unsuspecting ships. The Space Spiders from the Lost In Space movie universe wouldn't hold a candle against a creature so large it was measured in fractions of a lightyear.

Didn't even matter if one world was poor and the other was choked with greenhouse gasses like Mars and Venus. Given enough time they would develop some form of life. More often than not the life would spread from world to world through meteorite impacts. Some life forms would seek out these planets during certain periods in their development, absorbing the resources and terraforming them in the process, then moving on so that other kinds of life could move onto the planet and enjoy the resulting conditions. The same sort of things happened with some kinds of creatures on the earth's floor who flourished in volcanic vents of boiling poison.

Furthermore, it also proved that life could show up in the strangest conditions. There were four accepted types of biology, only two of which used a chlorophyll type to absorb energy from sunlight, which varied in color from neon blue to a pinkish red. The other two didn't use DNA at all.

Of course I didn't have to explain to the spacers what Type 5 biology entailed. Artificial in other words, with some parts of others introduced or absorbed from contamination. They were biological machines that had been around for so long nobody could tell if they were a completely artificial creation and had evolved or were an organism that had been altered and then just survived to this day. From sunflowers to antivirals, there were plenty of arguments about which were which. Ask a dozen biologists what the definition of a species is and you'll get a dozen answers.

Since the aforementioned and named Treasure Planet was obviously artificial and seemed to be in good condition despite being covered with thousands of years of growth without a single dent to be seen where mountain-sized rocks had landed on it, that there was a Type 5 biology down there surprised nobody.

"Can we eat it? The stores are getting low," Mr. Silver gave Nova a meaningful glance that we all understood.

Nova leaned back in her chair without a care in the world, her arms behind her head. "Hey, I have the prisoners preparing food as fast as possible. It's not my fault they're slow."

It was one of the reasons why marooning a man on an unknown planet was to be avoided at all costs. As long as there were model prisoners willing to work for their suppers we never had to peel space potatoes again. If they didn't work the prisoners would starve.

"As a matter of fact there is," I pulled up one of the samples I'd put in my large black bag. Like most of my equipment I used organic portals to store larger things in an Item Box. From out of my bag came a brown mushroom cap big enough for me to use as a helmet.

I took hold of the soft cap and tore the top off, the flesh coming apart as easily as fresh bread. Folded inside the meat of the creature were dark blue moist sacs of jelly that filled the stateroom with the most amazing mouth-watering scents.

Pretty much everyone started to drool including Captain Amelia, and Nova was doing her very best to inhale all the air in the room.

"This unique specimen has no nutritional value but does have a very special ability. When I put the cell structures of another inside it, meat or fruits, the cells are distributed throughout the cap and encouraged to grow. In this one I've combined honey, nut bread, the remains of one of Mr. Silver's triple decker cheeseburgers, blueberry jam and chocolate. The result is both nutritious and delectable. The secretions are also mialdly narcotic, encouraging their consumption. They can be grown in the desert, swamps, tundra, gravel, and dust storms don't seem to bother them either. No two will ever taste quite the same either, due mostly to the differences in soil and whatever you choose to implant them with. To unravel the mystery in how this is done would require more experts since I cannot figure it out, since it is techno-organic machine. The ranges of taste are quite broad."

Nova telekinetically snatched the mushroom from my hands, tore it to pieces so we could each have a bite, and then ate the rest.

"Hold on," Mr. Arrow said loudly. "Are you saying that this plant can be encouraged to grow the fruits of any organism? Including those that can be eaten by sentient that would otherwise find our food poisonous?" I nodded at him. "Well isn't that something! At the very least this pays for the trip."

"If we can cultivate it we could literally create a new cash crop," Dr. Doppler added in. "It shouldn't be too difficult to cultivate. A few greenhouses, some experts in spores… Yes! It shouldn't be too difficult at all."

"Anything else?" Captain Amelia asked.

I nodded my head. "Oh yes. There's one mushroom that seems to secrete a fluid that's remarkably similar to petrol. I might get a few uses out of the poisonous ones. Oh, there are uses for many of them, including mushroom bread, fuels, fibers, killing insects, treating contaminated soils, to make B vitamins, as an anti-toxin, and as flavor enhancers. There might be more. But so far the rest of what was collected are only novel. I could find a few more goodies, given time that is. But that's about it."

"No plant monsters then?" Captain Amelia asked with a shiver. Had she encountered such as they?

I shook my head, no.

"Then that being the good, we may descend. Jim Hawkins, I give you your map." Jim was so amazed that the Captain used his first name that his eyes widened.

The boy took the sphere, played with it, and in three seconds had it open to an enormous star chart that filled the entire room with false light. Another minute of play gave us a direction to head towards and we were off.

Our descent into the planet came as a relief from the brutal sun and we chalked our sails to the winds of the planet. A bright line of false light that curled over the horizon, flashing images of numbers and letters and geometric shapes, planets and other things, guided us to a particularly thick clump of fungus trees. Two anchors were plunged into the meat of two stout organisms and we got off. The ground was thick and crushed easily under our weight up past my ankles, leaking up brown water.

The place was entirely gloomy, buried under the shade of mushroom caps, the ground mostly flat. I didn't like it at all.

"We need some room to work. Think you can take care of this Amy?" Nova asked.

"Just a moment," I walked up to the nearest fungus and put my hands on it. The entire organism melted into a puddle of good in which I placed a portion of my Portal Beast so that I could control it from afar.

Slowly the goo formed a ring, spreading, using up the chemical energy it had. As the ring vacated the area it left behind clean metal. When it encountered other organism they also melted to add to its biomass.

I stepped onto the clear area as it passed by me. "Onto the clearing everyone." The others scrambled to obey so that we were all standing in a slowly growing clearing of metal.

The blinking light of the orb lead us to one side which we followed as my ring of vegetation spread and cleared us a way. Eventually we came upon a cliff, climbing over cables and around various protrusions. So far the metal that was cleaned showed no damage where the fungus was removed, and that impressed me.

There on the cliff we found a depression for a mapping orb and Jim put his into it. The orb lit up, dozens of little green lines of energy from the ground projecting onto it to lift it above the ground and cover it with a miniature map of the galaxy. Green fire of circuitry cut through the land and vegetation. Five beams of light converged on our location, leapt up into the sky and grew to the side to form a great triangular portal.

On the other side was a sea of stars. Not unlike the smaller portals created by Nova, but taller and much further away. Through which we could see a sort of spilt milk-like configuration.

"Oh lord have mercy, would you look at that!" John Silver exclaimed.

"Is that the Lagoon Nebula?" Jim Hawkins asked.

"But that's halfway across the galaxy," John Silver remarked.

"It's like a big door," Captain Amelia announced, looking at Nova. "Did you know anything about this?"

"Sort of? If you look at the records you'll find that Captain Flint showed up at too many places all at once to have gotten there by conventional means. In some places he was supposed to have been on both sides of the galaxy at the same time," Nova Ender shrugged. "They were dismissed as copycats to grow his legend. Now we can figure that it was understated. He might have robbed two thousand worlds for all we know."

"So that's how he did it!" Jim pushed at one of the icons in the map, the door closing and being replaced by a wall of green script before it was then replaced with another triangular doorway to some planet or some other place in the sky. "He used this device to roam the galaxy stealing treasure."

Nova frowned. "Is it just me because I have good hearing, but can anybody hear that crackling sound?"

ZAP!

The door closed. Jim jumped back as the power to the mapping orb cut off. One by one the lines of green energy underneath the ground powered off, the second and fourth and fifth blinking rapidly as they did so. We all stared at where the portal once was. Jim picked up the orb and put it back into the depression, but no machinery activated this time.

"Well I suppose that some maintenance is needed," Doctor Doppler remarked. "Whatever ancient civilization built it built it tough, but nothing stops time."

"Then where is the treasure?" Long John Silver asked. "We've come all the way here and now there's nothing!"

"Calm down Mr. Silver, we've only just begun," Captain Amelia said. "Jim, do you think you can get that orb working again?"

"I think so," he went to work and the orb unlocked, once again letting out a stream of colored light. The light pulsed in a different direction, and from the timing of the pulsation we weren't all that far away either. "That way there must be another portal device. There's probably dozens."

"A port by any other means," Captain Amelia said. "There are three or four points as I see it, and with Miss Ender's permission I'll name them."

"You are the Captain, it is for you to speak," Nova said.

"The first point of order," began Captain Amelia, "is that we must go on. No matter what else there is to be found this is undoubtedly the greatest discovery of our lifetimes. The second point is that we have plenty of time to waste until the treasure is found. The third point is that thanks to Miss Ender we have plenty of honest crew. We can depend on your summons, I take it, Miss Ender?"

"They'll search the whole world from top to bottom for the next hundred years if that's what it takes. They don't get hungry, tired, or need sleep. I hope we can find Flint's old camp," Nova said. "At the very least we'll have some place to sleep other than the ship. Personally though," Nova reached down to touch the metal, "I don't think we're going to find a cave full of wonders. There's going to be miles and miles of machinery to search through and the easiest way to perform maintenance would be to use the portal system itself. The treasure is probably somewhere hidden inside this planet."

"Then there is the fourth point in what we must discover, is what we are to do once we return to port," Captain Amelia considered most gravely. "This planet is completely out of the trade lanes, but it won't be forever."

Nova nodded. "That's a fact."

Jim asked, "What do you mean?"

"What she means is that these portals change everything, Jim," Dr. Doppler said. "Archeologists and scientists like me will want to study it."

"Including the military who will want to use it for their ships," Captain Amelia said. "At the very least they'll want an outpost, and it won't stay an outpost for long."

"Yeah well they don't have my map," Jim Hawkins imperiously announced.

"Do you really think that will stop them from crawling all over it?" Captain Amelia asked the boy. "They'll not stop until they've taken the place apart piece by piece, and who knows what else we'll find on this world while they're at it! Whoever gains control of this planet will have an unrivaled military edge that'll allow them to become a dominant power in the galaxy."

"Unless you say no truth," Nova remarked, smiling.

Captain Amelia gave her a level stare. "You have a plan."

There are some days in which I wonder if I should renounce my vows not to work on brains to figure out what Nova is thinking.

Nova nodded. "It's simple, really. We'll just say that since Captain Flint was a crazy bastard he rigged the planet to blow higher than a Kalepsian kite! You'll escape through the portal with some treasure. The pirates will end up in jail, and Long John Silver will escape at the last minute on a skiff, free and clear. Meanwhile I'll just move the planet."

Whatever she was expecting that wasn't it.

"Pardon me, but whatever did you say?" Captain Amelia asked.

"I'm pretty sure this world has some method of self-propulsion, maybe it makes planet-sized gates as well as small ones?" Nova shrugged. "I'll just move the planet. Problem solved. No war over it either."

The Captain looked insulted, "Do you really believe for one moment that you would be allowed to get away with this? By now the entire government and those who spied on her must know of this planet. So let me see if I've got this straight. You're going to let us take as much treasure as we want. Then, using just your abilities you're going to move the entire world to somewhere it can't be found?"

"Correct," Nova crossed her arms.

The captain reached into her coat, pulled out a flask and took a swig. "If I hadn't watched you go into and out of a black hole I'd call you mad."

"The planet is the real prize here," Nova Ender said. "Take whatever booty you can find, the world is mine. I'll not have you, yours, your government or else none to have wasted blood on this artifact. I see that you don't like it. But this is the best hope you've got. You've solved the mystery of Flint's pirating ways, be satisfied with that and a little coin. Better that than war. We'll save a lot of necks that way. But until I find a control station or something it's academic anyway. Let's continue the search."

Having made her claim Nova moved off to do just that.

There was a moment of suspense after Nova had made her claim to the entire planet. The crew and Mr. Silver probably thought she was nuts, or joking. However she had also dived into a black hole, so their bets were probably on the side of legumes. However again, she also had put a bunch of black holes into a necklace, so it was best not to underestimate her.

"Hey, she can't do that, can she?" Jim Hawkins asked the Captain. "Just claim the whole world for her own?"

Captain Amelia watched Nova as she walked back to the ship. "Mr. Hawkins, the only thing I'm sure of at this time is that if she's of a mind to do something, than I have no means to stop her. If she can do as she says it will mean I'll have a lot fewer funerals I'll have to attend to in the future."

Nothing much more of interest happened until we had checked the next waystation and found that it, too, was out of service. Then we tried a third, a forth, and another and so on. A hundred places were checked out; a hundred almost pie-shaped wedges were cut out of the sky, glitching erratically before shutting down.

Finally we found one that stayed operational. "It works," Dr. Doppler remarked as the triangle stayed turned on after half an hour.

"I reached that conclusion some time ago," Nova said, "When it successfully activated and I was able to access the main menu. This is merely a confirmation."

Whoever had built the planet was a fan of triangles in the same way humans were a fan of rectangles in their keyboards and TV screens. A small green triangular hologram was now projected above the mapping orb and its small rendition of the galaxy, which Nova was navigating to open up more screens all around her. Only Nova could have figured out these strange markings; the computer was next.

The crew watched these strange proceedings from the outside looking in. Beneath the light of the portal located at some desert world with two suns Nova had summoned up a schematic of the entire planet and was twisting it this way and that. There were many circular landing pads to be found under the vegetation, several of which were occupied by the bones of teardrop shaped craft. Areas of damage were lit up in purple. Creatures were marked in yellow, people in green.

"Now, I suggest that we all acquire our weaponry," said Nova Ender, her eyes on her instruments, her hands in careful, methodical motion. "I am about to open a portal to the interior of the planet. I'm not exactly sure what we'll find inside but since I'm finding a ship in there for no good reason at all, I would counsel caution."

The triangle portal shifted quickly and sharply. On the other side was a huge cavern covered in energy projectors all pointing downwards. However the portal didn't seem stable as the cavern whirled around overhead.

The crew went to step on through when Nova held up a hand. "No haste, remember? We have time. Let's look before we leap." She turned and looked at me. "Amy, we're going to need something to look around. Mind bio-crafting up a pseudo pod for us?" Nova asked. "Insert it at the corners. There might be a chance that Flint really did rig up a nasty surprise, so let's just have us a look around."

A minute was spent observing the shifting viewpoint wasting time.

The Ring of Flesh was still my go-to creature for clearing out the vegetation around the waystations. I used a portion of it to create a tendril with an eyeball on the end and inserted into the portal. I looked around through its eye and found the problem right away.

"There's a mechanism that uses infrared lasers at the portal entrance." I announced.

"A tripwire!" Long John shouted. "We'd have been bloody blind by the treasure and marched right over it. Do you see an off switch?"

I wiggled the creature around a bit. "None to be seen from here. We might need a remote. But the sensor is only a few inches high. We can step over it."

"Or we can use some bomb disposal experts summons to take the thing apart," Nova suggested as she summoned up some humans in police uniforms, the Engineer from Dragon Flyz, along with a number of natives that she'd collected at the Montresor Spaceport and a duplicate of Captain Amelia and Mr. Arrow. "These summonses of mine can navigate their way around solid objects. I'll equip them with a temporary invisibility spell just in case, and they will all be undetectable to any technological device. With this advantage I will send my summons forth to the other side where they will then take care of our tripwire and any other things they might find until we are safe."

"A most sound strategy, I pray for your success," Dr. Doppler complimented her on her plan.

Nova waved her hand and the fake people disappeared. It was rather unnerving to have them do so all at once. It was rather like an old special effect where people and items were removed in the middle of filming. I hadn't blinked so I couldn't have missed it, and none of the eyes hidden in my suit could see them anymore.

"Go," Nova commanded to thin air. "Go and find out all you can."

The summons went in, supposedly. We didn't see anything. There was a little space between the portal and the laser tripwire. I had to assume that they studied the mechanisms for a bit. At some point the devices blinked off and were picked up off the platform along with an extremely thin wire attached to each of them. The few devices that I'd spotted had been disabled in less than ten minutes.

The summons came back with the parts and held them up for us to have a look at, their bodies gradually fading back into existence.

"Anybody know what these are?" Nova asked.

"Relatively simple perimeter sensor devices," Captain Amelia said as she picked up one of the cylinders. "Trappers use them on animals. They can also be used around camp to alert you when things are moving through your area. Extremely common, yet old and outdated. This variety doesn't recharge without sunlight. Without the power cord to a broadcast unit they would have died and we would have nothing to worry about."

"Once again this universe boasts of its reliance on solar-powered devices," said Nova.

-000-

Nova stepped through the portal soon followed by the rest of the loyal crew. It was here that Jim Hawkins got his own ship.

Dr. Doppler was waving around an electronic torch excitedly while Captain Amelia and Mr. Arrow held onto their swords. Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver stepped forwards together, somehow accidentally being paired together without a lick of antagonism. My attention hardly stayed on them; however, as I was drawn to the area beyond the enormous platform to the great sphere we stood on, it was a great distraction.

Beyond the platform, which was big enough to play out any game of sport with room to spare, was a veritable sea of Treasure. The Capitols were entirely appropriate and more. There were stairs to the bottom, but so deep were the gold and the jewels mixed in that they were completely covered with wealth, so much so that the wealth was level with the platform and in some places it was even higher.

Scarcely able to breathe the former pirate managed to whisper out. "The loot of a thousand worlds!" John Silver stepped off the platform onto the gold, dazed and full of wonder.

"We are definitely going to need a bigger boat!" Dr. Doppler cried out. "You'd fill up the ship two hundred times over with all of this!"

"Indeed, this is true," Nova remarked.

I couldn't help but agree. "Wow," was my only comment.

Even when I'd created a creature to extract gold from the bottom of a river as an organic dredge digger I had never seen in one place so much yellow metal. There were amethyst and pearl encrusted garnets, jewelry boxes, armbands made to look like snakes with the upper body of shapely women, swords encrusted with jewels, cups covered with animals sticking out of them, sheets of gold with writings, belts and buckles, coins, statues, candlestick holders, gold dishware, watches, golden flasks filled with booze, necklaces, rings, sticks, staffs, boots, devices, and more. There was a chest located every twenty feet or so, half of which had broken from the weight or because the wood had collapsed into shapeless decay.

There were entire mountains composed of every weapon in the catalog encrusted with jewels, stones, metals, ivory and other things not easily identified. The vast majorities are completely ceremonial, the sorts of things normally given to soldiers by planetary kings after saving their lives. However there were a rare few that had seen serious use and had acquired decorations with each military action.

Giant blocks of jade and other artifacts made out of that stone had their own section all to themselves. The raw ores and uncut gemstones overflowed dozens of leather bags and would require expert artists to shape them into useful products. However those same artists would probably sell important body parts just to purchase the tickets to the auction.

The next section contained bricks stacked into a pyramid forty feet tall, with some pallets of unused building materials on the sides.

Silver and platinum had their own, individual, continents to themselves on the far side.

The piles were all taller than me.

Mr. Silver fell to his knees and grabbed up a double handful of loot, the gold coins and cut gems falling between his fingers. "After a lifetime of searching, and I can touch it. Hazah!" he yelled and threw the coins into the air.

Nova pointed into the distance, "Look. Flint's old pirate ship. Jim Hawkins, that's for you."

The ship was equipped with red torn sails and looked sound enough. There were also spider-like grappling legs and a giant buzz saw attachment instead of the usual landing struts.

"The Walrus," Jim Hawkins uttered in complete awe. "It's still here!"

"Good idea," Captain Amelia said. "Alright everyone, let's get to work."

For the rest of the day we worked like men possessed.

I was forced to create a new creature, a sausage of meat hundreds of feet long from the platform inside the planet through the portal and out beyond to the HMS Legacy waiting on the other side. Onto this we would load the great mess of gold bricks one at a time by hand which would slowly covey it up and out. They would then have to be loaded into the empty cargo bay, one at a time. This was no small task even with Nova's summons and the ship adjusted to minimize the weight of the items onboard. Two bars were about the limit for a strong man provided that he rested frequently and worked slowly.

Slow and steady won the race.

We worked like machines, watching our fortunes grow. Nova and I even got excited a bit. We sorted the wealth into ever more detailed piles. Other than keeping the living conveyor belt operational I did not do much lifting. Instead my hours were spent packing the sorted coins into rolls of paper that I created and stacked like sticks.

It was a great collection of coin. The diversity was so great. There were nearly two hundred languages represented, five times as many faces on the coins from the last thousand years, pieces of eight, square coins, coins with holes, rods with marks in them, beads of wood and stone and jade strung together with silver wire linked together. Never had I see so many different kinds of money, nor did I have sufficient imagination to think up all of them.

Every day a fortune was made, and the next was another was waiting to be stored away on the ship. Day and night the work passed, we filled the hold of the Legacy and soon more room had to be found to lash casks to the sides of the ship and around every mast.

Jim Hawkins and John silver worked to awaken old Flint's ship, complementing each other and passing back and forth tools to rise up new sails made from our precious stores and the rags sewn back together.

Silver, I would mention, was allowed his full liberty, and in spite of the cold shoulder given to him by everyone else had somehow managed to be a friendly sort with Jim Hawkins. Perhaps because Jim Hawkins himself was a scallywag the two could be more honest with each other. The Captain and Mr. Arrow were too bound up in their rules to be role models anyway. The boy had something to be thankful for in the old pirate and had seen his better side with nothing other to judge him by.

People can forgive a lot when they have enough coin they could never spend it all.

On the third day when the Legacy could be filled no more and Flint's ship The Walrus could be repaired no more we said our goodbyes.

That was the last day we were together. Hands were shook and backs were slapped and a nice meal was cooked and eaten. I spied Silver and Hawkins giving each other a great big hug. Words were said, but I didn't eavesdrop. However Mr. Silver had given Morph, that strange creature, to the boy.

That was nice of him.

The Captain, with the enthusiastic approval of Dr. Doppler, left behind some of their supplies for us, even though we really didn't need them, it was appreciated. I took out all my doctors' instruments, my newly furry bed made with Orcas Galacticus fur, and all my books, then replaced them with cuttings of new mushrooms that Dr. Doppler intended to farm into a business with the Admiral Benbow Inn and others who could eat them and use them. They left us a good supply of powder and shot, some solar sail cloth, tools, the bulk of the meat and other preserved goods, rope and clothing, spare parts, and on the doctors' encouragement a healthy gift of alien-tobacco.

I'm really glad I don't smoke.

We waved goodbye as the Legacy was sailed by Dr. Doppler into the portal and Jim Hawkins sailed the Walrus into the portal directly outside the Montresor Spaceport. Without Nova to provide hands for the ships the remaining crew of 26 would be a bit tired bringing them into port, but not impossible.

That was about the last time I saw Jim Hawkins with Morph on his shoulder. They all had an ample share of treasure to use as wisely or as foolishly, according to their own natures. I'm sure the former cabin boy rebuilt his mother's Inn. He also had plenty of reason to put in a dock for his new ship.

Nova continued to study the planet for a long time, going hither and yon to the other portal-making stations, finding some so large that you could fit an entire city through them. Her time-displacing powers were used to roll back the clock until the machines were un-worn and in pristine condition. Another robot was found and paired up with a device that had been found with Captain Flint's body, restoring its memory to full functionality.

"Whoa! Hello," The robot had strange stick-like arms, blocky feet, a navigation tool, like a compass, in his chest, a head like an upturned tea kettle and two eyes made out of spy-glass with eyebrows that were sensitive to radio waves and sound. "Oh, this is fantastic! All of my memories are coming back! Right up until Captain Flint pulled my main memory circuit so nobody could find out about his booby trap! Ah… speaking of which, why haven't we exploded?" he looked around the center of the mechanism and the clear spot in which we set up camp, then focused on the doorway. "Oh! You disabled them. Well, that's great. Thank you!"

He jumped on me and hugged me. "Oh you have no idea how happy I am to be rescued by a carbon based lifeform! I've been stuck on this world for over a hundred years. Solitude is all fine and dandy; don't get me wrong, but after so long, you go a little nuts! I'm a Bioelectronics Navigator. But you can call me Ben. What's your name?"

I threw him off and stood up. "For the tenth time, the name's Amy Dallon. I'm the surgeon."

The robot reached out with both hands and took one of mine in his to shake it hard. "Oh, well it's very nice to meet you Amy. Thanks for giving me back my brains and stuff. I appreciate it. So what's going on? And who is that? And him?"

"In order, that is Nova Ender, Tammarian, Planeswalker, Gourmet Hunter and Defender of the Outer Dimensions. Our leader, I guess."

Nova Ender was sitting in the air in a lotus position in front of an active portal singing a different version of the 99 Bottles of Beer on the wall song.

"~ 1,347 worlds down, 1,347 worlds ~

"~ you take one down, jot it down ~"

Nova reached up to the holographic map and touched an icon. The triangle portal switched from some dust-filled hellhole full of shaggy tube-like plants to a forest. A creature that looked like a komodo dragon that had tried to evolve into an ape, with two great big arms and six tiny legs on the rear, twice as tall as an elephant, turned towards the portal and roared, showing off double pairs of saber-toothed teeth on the top and bottom of its jaws. Nova gestured and the creature was pulled through off it feet and roaring like a tiger, upside down, flinging itself around like a cat trying to land on its feet. Another gesture and the creature became covered with a blue aura that paralyzed it. Nova reached up to touch one of the outstretched rear legs, getting a summons out of it. Then with another gesture she sent a spike of Black mana into the creature's brain, leaving not a mark to be found but very dead. "Hey, Long John, Lunch!"

"Coming right up, bonny lass!" The carcass was set aside up against a stacked pile of treasure chests next to the kitchen. The pirate cook transformed his right arm into a sword. "I'll have this sorted out in a jiffy!"

"~1,348 worlds down, 1348 worlds~

"~ you take one down, jot it down, 1,349 worlds to throw down~"

"She's got a nice singing voice." Ben said.

I kept talking like it wasn't anything wrong. I'd be sorting out the skins of the animal later. "And the other person operating the camping stove and washing all the gold plates is Long John Silver, former pirate-"

"Pirate! Don't get me started on pirates! I don't like them. Captain Flint, my former boss, ripped out my main memory circuit after I helped him rig the planet to blow up. This guy had such a temper. I think he suffered from mood swings. You're not a pirate are you?"

"No, I'm a Parahuman."

"What's that?"

Ben was the most personality-driven robot I'd ever met and ten times better than the ones from the Prometheus. He was a lot better with his main memory chip since he stopped forgetting my name every five seconds. His first job, of course, was to help John and I to remove all the explosives scattered all over the planet and to disable the self-destruct installed in the Treasure Planet's operating systems, which he knew a lot about.

Engineering, as it turned out, were a bunch of organics watching robots do all the work. People hated crawling around tight spaces where temperatures were random and air was not a guarantee. They left those kinds of jobs up to robots who could do them ten times better. It was unusual not to have a few running around at all hours doing all kinds of deadly unpleasant tasks on a ship.

Robots were property in all but name.

They started out with a core personality that grew over the years. They usually went onto the market at ten years old. You wanted something that is stable and adult. They could be loaded up with accounting and navigation programs. Adaptability is also key since some could not be loaded into robot bodies. They called this Upload Shock and it was usually compared to having all the organs in a human removed and replaced with new ones. It took time to adapt to new hardware and if they couldn't they'd crash. This recovery period could last from anywhere to a week to a month and there was usually a slight downgrade in personality to a younger version of itself in order to acquire the adaptability it needed to grow into its new platform.

Some of the AI developed quite horrible personality quirks and were never bought, turned off and placed in storage until someone with a tight budget bought them sight unseen.

Ben's oddly hugging and enthusiastic disposition was by far not the worst of them at all.

Since Ben was a free robot all he needed was enough pay to keep him in parts. Self-repair was even more deeply ingrained into his hardware than his personality core. Without it he would have fallen apart years ago. Of course it helped that the technology of this universe was well-built in the first place. On the other hand the robots were pretty much unable to let themselves fall into disrepair. Their owners wanted their money's worth and they weren't going to let something like sabotage or negligence happen.

Over the following days we went hither and yon extracting old explosives from the most annoying of places. I was forced to construct innumerable biological engines to perform tasks, lest I be exploded, under the helpful guidance of a formerly insane AI. I had to clear out biological debris from where it was least wanted so that ancient mechanisms might open their doors and closed hatchways to inspect sparking power lines. The universe was unkind to this abandoned artifact and time itself had left its mark. Entire decks and sectors were dark and non-functional, damaged beyond the planet's admittedly stupendous ability to repair. In addition to this I had to prune back the gardens and parks and remove them elsewhere facilities were functional so that pipes and wiring could be pulled and recycled and replaced.

Even if Nova could create two hundred summoned versions of me this was an inadequate number to make a serious dent into the ecosystem of the entire planet in the little time we had before someone came snooping around. The world was sufficiently damaged that, once enough repairs had been made and Nova had turned back the clock with her time-warping powers, the rest might not be repaired in a few years. The central command center was located underneath a lake the size of Michigan, had long since become home to algae and fish, and would have to be replaced entirely. Since Nova and the Ben robot were the only ones able to read the language and Nova was busy getting Lands out of entire planets the robot was forced to travel to various locations to locate functional stations to input commands, which more often than not required a heavy dose of Nova's blue mana to overcome the authorization lockouts between stints at the portal making machine. More summons were called up for manpower as needed however they always had only the knowledge they had in their head when they were touched by Nova and, even when she put the language she had learned into their heads, were sufficiently uncreative to come up with original solutions to our problems that we eventually stopped asking except out of habit. Even the robots were more creative.

Sigh.

Beyond these major tasks, we had a few projects and a few alterations of our own. The addition of a few houses collected from an alternate earth were placed near the more intact and functional portals across from a functional garden in which I could introduce the vast majority of my seed and cell library collection. The houses were soon fully equipped and outfitted to each of our needs. A former factory building with nothing in the interior was turned into a kitchen with a full array of spices and flavorings with many pots holding freshly flowering fruit trees, and a large recipe library, and large wooden tables for dissecting the carcasses of large beasts, in order that we might dine on food that was ever-more interesting and varied than what Nova and I had bothered with in the past. A large still was soon operational producing our own beers and wines, constructed by Mr. Silver and the yeast my personal donation to the project. Our entertainments consisted of a large number of books, holoplays, and music chips from earth and a dozen worlds.

Aside from all of that it was still the chance of a lifetime. Even with all that I had known and experienced going into this adventure the idea that we might become the owners and operators of an entire world had never crossed my mind once. We had succeeded beyond our wildest expectations!

Soon it would be time for us to leave.

Nova's ability to make Planar Portals and to take things into her Hammerspace had grown by leaps and bounds over the last few months. If we could do the same with Earth we could possibly relocate my homeworld to someplace without Endbringers.

However we had still not run into any world with horrors. Rather than try to enjoy the experience seemed to have made Nova slightly more paranoid than otherwise.

Mr. Silver seemed okay with whatever we did, but then he didn't have a choice. He was bound to us with things other than chains. There was no contraption in his skull however. So that was to the good.

Would the next universe be so novel and tame?

Or was I just starting to get worried?

We could continue to travel as we have done and never find a solution to our problem. In time I might wish to settle down on some other world. The worst dreams I ever have are when I'm happy somewhere else and I hear screams and see running people and I sit up in bed with the sound of the Endbringer sirens screaming in my ears: "They're here! They're here!"

-000-

Okay, that's the end of Treasure Planet. Thank you for reading so far. Six worlds down, six to go.

I'm a bit conflicted about where I want my characters to go next. I've got a few lists and they're longer than the 12 I promised. I'd really like my characters to get a method of travel to steer them to a world they'd want rather than just random places. I also want to do some horror worlds just to mess them up a bit.

Would you hate me if I got them a Multiverse-traveling vehicle?

Some of you have suggested Toriko and Final Fantasy. I think I'd like to do FF but then I'd run out of time for my characters. Decisions... decisions...

If you have any more ideas leave them in the comments below. I can't do much if I don't get your opinion.

See you next time.

Mar 13, 2020

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#207

When I left the Disney inspired world of Treasure Planet I tried to do things a little bit differently. Well, actually, I tried to walk between worlds with a different method every time but none of it was getting me anywhere I wanted to go. I'd tried walking backwards once and that got me into a hollow tree full of bees.

Educational, hah!

With one hand on the world I'd left I tried to feel my way around the area to see if I could find a few other Disney movies. I was hoping that I might run into a few of the other versions of Treasure Island while I was at it. Maybe get a baseline or something.

People often overlook that Disney had made more films than cartoons. There are live action films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the sea, animated feature films like Snow White, documentary films like The African Lion or Victory Through Air Power where they supported the military and helped bring awareness of air power to the masses.

Fueling my hope was that I actually managed to put my hand on quite a few worlds with Cowboys and Indians between the empty worlds where there were no humans.

But… Cowboys and Indians, and trains?! Hurray! I was close!

I was hoping for Flubber so I could get my hands on weird anti-gravity and weather manipulation abilities from a mad scientist. Or a magical world, heck I'd take The Shaggy Dog at the least. In the realm of science fiction I'd take Escape to Witch Mountain.

I'd forgotten that Disney made horror movies as well.

When I stepped into the woods I found it impregnated with this heavy creepy vibe that made the hairs on my skin stand up. Which was ridiculous, I could blow this whole continent off the planet, I shouldn't have been afraid of anything.

Fear is a very healthy thing to have.

I turned around, afraid of what I'd find. This is why I turned around. If something was making me afraid, me, Nova Ender, Tamaranean Planeswalker, Reincarnated Human Being, Gourmet Hunter of wonderful eats, traveling Defender Of The Outer Dimensions, I wanted to see it.

Unless of course it was one of those things that can't catch you unless you look backwards, then I might have been in trouble.

What I saw was ugly. Really ugly. In fact it was horrible. Like a yellow submarine horrible. I wanted to push a button and make it gone.

The creature was one of those half-human half-insect things, the exoskeleton shiny like black chrome. The body had something like a torso with a skull-like head projected forwards on a thin neck. Two spinous dorsal fins branched into six pairs of interconnected wings from its back. The femur projected upwards from the shoulder, complete with tibia, tarsi and tarsal claw on the end, which folded against the sides of the body. The skull-head had a huge jaw but no cheeks or flesh, the eyes two glowing red orbs that were oddly very expressive for something without eyebrows or eyelids.

"GHHHHAAAAAAAA! Oh darkness you startled me. Ho!" I sighed as my heartbeat started to slow down. I smacked the creature on the shoulder with a light tap and gave her a tiny shove. "What the heck you doing scaring people in the middle of the forest?"

The creature came up off the rock I'd slapped it down on and came right up at me. "!yOu CaN sEe/heAr/feeL mE?" her voice was really deep but it sounded like she was trying to inhale her words.

"Well yeah, of course I can see you. It's kind of hard not to notice you. You're filling up these woods with an incredible fear aura. And that's a horrible accent. Just speak normally. I'm Nova Ender, Planeswalker; I have the supernatural ability to understand all languages. Just speak normally and I should be able to understand you in a minute."

At this point in my life I'd made amends with the fact that my reincarnation had made me a girl and I was even okay with kissing since Tamaraneans could acquire languages through lip skin transfer. But I didn't want to kiss this girl.

(*&&*^&^$##%* -hear me now?

"Telepathy? Okay, I can understand you." Can you understand me?

Affirmative. Apologies for horrible communication, my species has not needed to speak words in thousands of our years.

I knew her then. She was ageless and young. A few seconds would pass by there and the people of this world would age fifty years. The young would become old. The snow would fall while the buds were still in bloom. The galactic winds would howl. It would be the end for the little girl on this earth and the continuation for another.

Do not say that something was lost in the woods. Rather, say that something in the woods had been found. I would be the finder. The girl would be returned.

"Sure, take me there," I say and follow the creature through the woods.

The prickling sensation between my shoulder blades had been replaced with a bubbling, unreasoning, chaotic enthusiasm as the creature darted ahead and back. I felt her warmth and loveliness. She was singing.

We soon came upon an old abandoned church with a massive tree growing out of the side of the building. The road up to it was being broken up by growing trees and the wooden fence had long since rotted down to nothing leaving behind some stone pillars and chains sitting in the dirt. My footing was sure on the broken ground as I walked a few inches above the earth.

Inside it was pretty well trashed.

The trees were small when the young girl arrived.

I summoned up a micro black hole and directed it at the debris. "Wind-tunnel!" I smiled as everything not nailed down disappeared into my creation.

The young girl laughed.

The girl unfurled one sword-like limb to point at the altar. Years ago when there was no church there was a hollow tree. She never went very far.

There was indeed the echo of a Planar Portal in the room, but it was different from my own. It was far too weak.

Can't open it on your own? I asked as I examined the thing. It really did look like a Planar Portal but it also had doors in it, which was weird. At least now I'll have inklings on how to make doors with locks in them on my own Portals now.

Unhappiness, frustration, desire, wanting help. The girl wasn't strong enough.

The people of her world needed many hands.

Not strong enough. Stabbers instead of smashers, got it, I reached out to the portal and fed a little power into it and gave it a tug. Wow these doors are really stuck in there aren't they?

Well it wasn't time yet for them to open on their own. That takes power and time to gather.

I grabbed deeply into the portal, planted my feet firmly and pulled. It was a little like trying to pull a door open against a current of water shoving it closed or something.

The girl reached into the split between worlds with the sword-like end of her arm and hits something on the other side and all resistance disappears. The hole in the world opens.

The next moment we're flying through the universe to another planet, in another plane, in another dimension.

I look out into the strangest world yet.

There's a double row of pyramids on either side of a river going over the horizon. There are no roads or streets. The sidewalks are as thin as paper, never touch the ground, and move people quite quickly to where they want to go.

The aura borealis is in full effect. The whole planet has light, but there's no day sky. The night has no stars. There's a yellow sun and a red sun and a black metallic moon overhead.

We ended up going onto a saucer-like spaceship hanging in the sky. From the inside the saucer is made up of hexagon green glass within a large metal frame. From overhead there's a projection of energy creating wavy lines. Inside the projection is a glass pyramid cage. We're surrounded by larger versions of the girl.

There's another girl standing nearby in the glass cage who's got her hands outstretched. She's wearing a white dress with a blindfold over her eyes.

Time does not pass for her.

I get the idea that the big people do not approve of my uses of time travel.

Time Travel is too unpleasant to ever be something they will allow. This place exists outside conventional spacetime to prevent accidents from erasing them; I was too young by far too properly appreciate the danger.

While they cannot stop me from using my powers they do want me to wait until I'm older. They are very enthusiastic about this.

By a lot.

I sighed and took off the device on my wrist and handed it over. All right, but I don't suppose you can help me out with a few things?

Most of what I asked for was answered in the negative.

No technology, no time on their computers to help answer a few unsolvable questions, no books on the dos and don'ts of temporal mechanics, not even a map. Apparently the multiverse is ever-shifting and knowing the existence of certain things gives them both power and awareness so they can find you.

I took out a movie from my Hammerspace. There should be a universe near where I found you that corresponds to this film. the cassette was taken out of my hand with an aura of blue. Telekinesis was an awesome ability. Can you help me find it?

There was an agreement if only to get me as far away from their local multiverse as possible. Apparently I was viewed the same way a mother wanted someone else's naughty child out of their house.

-000-

Mrs. Aylwood was in the middle of preparing lunch when she heard the knock on her door. "Oh bother." She put her things down and made sure lunch wouldn't burn, and went to the door, looking through the glass to see the person on the other side.

The person there was dressed outrageously, as if going to a Halloween party or something. She had on red and purple vertical striped pants with sequins, a black shirt with a three eyed pirate motif, two armbands, and her hair was kept back thanks to some kind of face helmet. Mrs. Aylwood also thought she looked orange for a moment. But when she blinked all she saw was clean milky skin.

Damn her youth and figure, the old woman thought as she opened the door. "Yes? What is it?"

"I believe this is yours?" the woman asked and then stepped side.

Mrs. Aylwood nearly had a heart attack but dared not close her eyes. "Karen?"

The young lady with the blond hair, whom she had only seen a while ago in a years old photograph nodded, "It's me, mom!"

She'd forgotten what her daughter sounded like.

"Oh Karen!" Mrs. Aylwoon reached out and grabbed her daughter, hugging and touching her face and patting her hair, convincing herself it wasn't a dream. "Karen, Karen, oh Karen… I've waited for you to come back for so long! Oh my daughter… ~"

There was an infinite moment of joy as the two reunited. For the girl it had been only a few hours ago but she was also aware that she had gone on a long and very strange trip to someplace else for a long time. For the mother it was a lifetime entirely.

When Karen pulled away from her mother it was to see the old woman gradually losing all her wrinkles. The joy increased tenfold.

"Oh mother, you're becoming young again!" Karen declared.

"What?" the old lady looked at her hands and saw they were like new again.

Both Miss Alywood and Karen looked to the person standing nearby.

"It's all right. Considering how many years you spent apart I thought it would be best to spend the rest of them together. The both of you will also not get sick in the normal way," the lady paused. "However, I was asked to deliver a message."

"Yes?" Miss Alywood asked.

"The next time you walk around in the woods and open a doorway make sure that it does not accidentally close behind you. Things would have been so much simpler otherwise. Now I've got to get going. Have a good life Karen. I'll come back and see you both again someday!"

"Thank you so much, Nova!" Karen yelled back as the woman disappeared into the woods.

-000-

I went back across the multiverse to another earth that I'd left my friends at. There I explained the situation to them and that I'd managed to get a ride.

"Did you get a cell sample?" Amy asked me.

I shook my head, no. "Couldn't if I wanted to. Their whole species knows more about what I want to do than I know what I want to do. Nor did they let me get a hold of a Land so that I could go back. I'm just glad that they were nice about it all." I shivered at the idea of having so many in my head. "It was like my mind had been stripped and every thought was being examined."

"Aye lass, better to be ignored by the bigger fish altogether than considered a bit of shine what?" John Silver remarked. "They wants to be left alone, then alone they will be. Not for us to be rapping on their doors at all hours of the night. Listen to old John you will, many's the time a mystery is found he has. Pass it by like two ships in the night, the sails down and the lights off, unable to find each other with both hands over our ears and eyes closed while holding your breathe. Pretend it's not there and it can't find you. Let it go on its merry way. Troubles enough for ourselves without inviting more. Then when you wake up in the morning and see the stars shining bright just be glad that you can breathe."

"Space between the stars, this is true," sighing I rubbed at the space between my eyes. "We could have ended up in someplace awful like Phantasm, one of the Crypt Creeper's films, Tales from the Dark side, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, or some other anthology movie where everyone gets trapped in broken mirrors because some kid made friends with shadow creatures after making shadow puppets on the wall. There are creatures out there that would love nothing more than to make a deal with us. Better to wait, to hold onto our manners, don't threaten anyone and keep an even tone. We got no idea what we're messing with, no idea. We don't know what we're looking at, when we're looking over there. We don't know what we're up against. We never did, never will. We want to keep our skin, keep our hide, keep our minds, and keep our souls all nice? We'll take the advice and step aside. We don't like it? That's tough! All my powers? They don't mean shit!"

I'm standing there shivering with my arms around my chest trying to stay warm. I was cold. My body was warm. Maybe I felt it in my heart? Maybe I felt it in my Planeswalker's soul.

I felt hands on my shoulders and turned around finding Amy there.

"It's okay. I'm here," we hugged.

I sighed. "It's not okay you know."

"I know."

We stayed there for a minute hanging onto one another.

I sighed as we let go of each other. "Thanks." We said at the same time.

I pulled out a book at random from out of Hammerspace and had Edgar Allen Poe's Raven in my hand, read a few paragraphs, then closed the book.

"Right then! The world is a scary place. That is to say, the universe and the multiverse is a scary place. So many things are unknown, it's what makes life worth living: you never know what to expect! But we all knew that." Long John Silver and Amy Dallon nodded at my remarks. "There's no use complaining about a little fright. It's the big frights that eat the little frights that we have to concern ourselves about. No use frightening ourselves over what's there as well. I'm one of the few people that can grin and bear it."

"Then that's good then. All we have to do is grow up big and strong a little more." Amy remarks.

"Learn too, of course, nothing beats practical experience," opinioned Mr. Silver. "If monsters we be hunting, perhaps learning from a Monster Hunter helps? Nothing better than learning from the knee of a man who walked, fought, chopped, slept in all kinds of places and feared all kinds of things, then and channeled into twenty minutes of expertise for five years' worth of fortune and a lifetime's worth of backache missed, say it the truth."

I nodded. "Wise words. I was a classic looser for my life and now it's all different. You never know when your luck will run out, nor what kind you'll get. Let's get going and at some point I'll end up at a school to fill my empty head of knowledge for ten years, where I will then declare to all that I have just started to learn."

I pulled out the tiny Planar Portal the other people gave to me and slowly grew it to a size sufficient for the amazing Amy and the scoundrel Silver to step through and pulled it in after I went. We arrived completely, with all our wits and our bodies in one piece. My state of mind would take some time to assemble yet.

-000-

Have some inspired music. They don't make it like this anymore.

-000-

"Cho-ha!" Amy coughed and covered her mouth, least she acquire all her nutrients in one breathe. "What's with this ugly air?"

Mr. Silver breathed deeply into his lungs and pulled out his pipe, filled and set it on flame, the smell being infinitely more preferable to what was to be found around our faces. "Smells like home to me."

"Welcome to 1940s London everyone," I welcomed them one and all. "What do you think?"

"I think that I can get used to travel such as this," Mr. Silver put his mechanical arm into the big pocket of his coat and ambled away a bit so he could look both ways down the bricked street. He pointed to a building that had been turned inside out and had half a vehicle stuck in the remains of the second level which had fallen into the street. "We at war here?"

"The Blitz: Over a million buildings bombed, 177,000 people killed, the rest taking shelter wherever they could find it underground, ruble everywhere." I put a hand over my face and brought it down, transforming my sunny orange color into that of a normal lady with white skin and my flaming hair into brown locks. "Let's go everyone, we're shopping for a magic book. And remember: If you feel happy, bountiful joy for no reason or if you forget who you are and don't recognize yourself when you look in the mirror, let me know. Tell me of every instance of tremor, skip of the heart, nightmare, or disgruntlement in your guts. You're probably experiencing some ghost's emotions at having missed out on taxes. And if you feel hungry you're probably experiencing the deaths of my seven stomachs appetites. Do takes care not to mix the two up."

We traveled carefully over the broken streets, yet with great haste. Mr. Silver, it should be noted, tried to enter the Guinness Book of records in that category of men who like to kick things out of the way of their feet with armored boots.

We traveled through London's sooty air with only occasional remarks from those we passed by. Amy followed; I lead, Silver looked for our next adventure. He would get some of it.

The usual crowd of people just trying to get on grew thick. Soon the leader became the follower as we migrated towards the sound of music.

And this time I didn't have to start nothing!

"You're not doing this are you?" Amy accused as we watched.

"Not at all my best friend. These people are just keeping in good practice for the pay. It is Portobello Road Market road after all. Anything and everything a chap can unload will be sold off by the barrow in Portobello road." I looked around. "Now if my reading is correct Portobello is really several markets in one. The south should have antiques, the middle area the food, new fashion, accessories, household goods and so forth, clothing and fashion should be to the north, furniture and food being wherever our noses find it." I pulled a few silver bits half the size of a dime and gave my comrades half a handful each. "There, let's do some trading. We're looking for the Bookman, a bit of a scoundrel in the market of charts, papers and books. He'll have men out. Let people know that we're interested in The Star of Astoroth. Those keywords will get his attention."

Saturday being the day when all are in full swing it was crowded as heck.

Before I had gone very far I'd found a bookseller. The man looked glassy-eyed and completely stupid. Part of that might be because I was one of the best looking girls on the block that wasn't a prostitute.

"Hello," the man said from behind a wall of books on his cart. He was dressed in a white shirt with brown pants and suspenders. He was also still functional. How fortunate!

"Ah, hello. I'm here looking for a book called The Spells of Astoroth," I said, walking up to the cart and giving the selection of armature magician and card trick books a look over.

"The… Spells of Astoroth?" he looked over his cart with a quick eye. "Sorry, but I don't believe I have it."

"Oh, that's too bad. I'm also looking for someone. Do you know of a fellow named The Bookman? He might have the book?"

"He might have it?" the man's eyes looked at my chest and stayed there. "Sorry, don't know them."

Uncool!

I hit him with a bit of the fumes of mana straight to the brain and ensnared his mind in my power. First I made his eyes look up. "Sure you do. You just need to tell me the truth. Do you know where to find him?"

"Sure I do!" the man's face brightens. He takes out a piece of paper and writes down an address and some directions, then hands it to me. "The Bookman works at this address. He's moved to the basement because of the bombings. Just knock."

"Thanks, you've been so~ helpful." I gave the man a pat on the cheek. "And you don't remember me."

"Don't know you," he nods in agreement.

I walked away. Down the street a ways I found Amy looking at a bunch of finches in a cage.

"Hey Amy, I think I found the guy. Where's Long John?" I asked.

Amy pointed. "Over there looking at the girls."

The man had found a pair of gloves to cover his mechanical hand and was dancing it up with an African lady in a screaming orange dress with a bunch of African soldiers. The glamor I put over his sunglasses would cover his face and the glove would keep people from feeling the steel, so it was all good.

"Take your time. I'm going to get the book."

"Okay." She went back to looking at the birds.

The sound of gravel crunching underneath me feet was particularly loud today. And it looked like it was going to rain.

The bookman wasn't really a good man. He was more of an opportunist. He had people with knifes to do his work for him. I found his place easily enough. The door was hardly an obstacle and became unlocked on its own when I approached. Then I and went downstairs.

The man was sitting at his desk. The glasses on his face were perched on his nose. Half bald, with white hair circling around his head. Like a doddering old professor of some kind.

"Who are you?" he asked as I came down.

I hit him with a full unit of blue mana. "Please gather up the parts to the book the Star of Astoroth, and be quick about it."

In a moment and without a complaint the two halves of the book were in my hand. I applied a little time related magic and the two pieces grew younger, becoming one book again. More time was reversed in my hands until after another fifty years it was young enough that all the pages were intact and it was undamaged and I could read all the print.

"Very good," I nodded once. "And I was never here."

"You were never here," he agreed.

I nodded and left the building, already poring over my prize. The Spells of Astoroth book had quite a few spells in it. The first three spells included a spell to turn people into rabbits, another was the famous Traveling Spell, and another which turned a broom into a somewhat reliable steed for flight.

The only spell it didn't have was the Substitutiary Locomotion spell until I wrote the words down from memory. On it are the words "Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee". I quickly drew the star out on a spare piece of paper with the words on it and glued it into place on the back of the book.

Because I used time to turn the book into a younger version of itself, rather than the DnD equivalent of Mend, it was perfectly fine and even had the energy to cast the spells inside. The user didn't need to be a special person for the spells to work for you. Mind control and turning everyone who hears and sees you to stone are as easy as mispronouncing Latin. Furthermore, every spell has a counter-spell and a condition for breaking it.

I looked back at the bookman's shop. "You should be careful what you collect, Bookman. By the pricking of my thumbs; sometimes something wicked this way comes. They're not all as nice as I am."

Something that I should keep in mind at all times.

As should we all.

-000-

Worlds visited:

The Watcher in the Woods / Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

Author's note: I'd always intended for my character to to Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I wanted to fill out all 12 worlds as well. I also had made several lists and organised which world to visit first. That was before my cats died and I dedicated three worlds to them alone.

Up until now Planeswalker Nova ran into worlds at random. I've decided to discontinue this for two reasons. One, I've already written a lot of pages about my characters doing things in all kinds of worlds. I could keep on writing about going to new worlds and some of them will be getting pretty lengthy. At the rate I'm going it could be months before she gets back to Earth Bet to do anything. I want to speed that up. There are always going to be more worlds worth visiting and my list is never going to be short enough.

Second, I might get bored with the whole random traveling thing. Some places might get shortened down to a single chapter or a few paragraphs. I want to keep this interesting but most importantly of all I want to keep this interesting for me so I keep writing.

New characters, new dynamics, new fun.

See you next edition, kiddies.

Last edited: Wednesday at 6:06 PM

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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NitroNorman

Mar 13, 2020

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Threadmarks Dreamland: What dreams will come New

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NitroNorman

The Armchair Reader

Mar 20, 2020

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#216

Everything that was and will be, started with a dream.

-Lavagirl.

-000-

"So, where are we going to next?" asked Amy. She herself was excited and fairly bouncing off the bed (she'd made it herself). "Or do you have so many ideas you can't think of which one to try first?"

It all seemed fairly amusing to the rest of the crew: Just yesterday I was worrying about what kind of world I'd step out on made my head spin.

Sure, it was infinitely more likely that we'd end up in yet some other variation of the solar system without humans in it and for some reason I'd recognized all the worlds I'd visited that did have them. The abilities of a Planeswalker's spark to travel the Multiverse seemed to put them near where the action is. Now thanks to a few locals who were used to opening doorways to take a peek - I'd call them Peekers - I'd gotten my hands on a reliable traveling method. The massive wooden bed we'd chosen to attach to the Traveling Spell had been grown up out of the ground by Amy and was big enough for a twelve sister sleepover. The mattress was covered with Orca Galacticus fur, which Amy had fallen in love with, was at least as expensive as mink.

Judging by her shit-eating grin and the smiling face of Long John Silver as the two lounged on the sinful bed without complaint, the two rascals didn't really care.

"This Planeswalker has to admit that she is pulled in three directions," I remark proudly. "The first is that she is tempted to get her hands on a weapon that, if she recalls, is capable of killing a Planeswalker herself even as she is now. The second, it should be noted, is to get her hands on a teacher or goes to a place of learning. But that would take time and I was kindly asked not to use time travel."

Rather enthusiastically asked. The up-and-coming barbarian warrior does not go against civilizations older than writing.

"We are kinda running out of time," Amy sat up. "I'd like to go home. Traveling around is fun and getting new stuff is great. But home sounds really good right now." She pauses and thinks, "Unless there are ponies. Or ponies with wings. And ponies that fly and have horns. Then I'm all for it."

I crouched down, put my right leg over my left knee, put my chin on my fist and my knee on my elbow and stood there on one leg like a flamingo, assuming a thinker's pose. "The last is if we could do something about Earth Bet right now it would be for the best."

"Then what's the trouble then? Go over there and give these Endbringer galoots a shake!" Long John Silver said. "Don't you have the power?"

"But what if I'm not strong enough?" I asked. "What if they're just spinning on their training wheels?"

"Ah, I see, I see," Long John sits up off the bed and turns to me. "The way I see it, from what you told me, your world has people you want to save in it but the monsters might crack the world in two if you tried and kill everyone as you fight. You're afraid that if you go in there to fight thinking you're ready they'll pull out some new fighting moves and fold you over five times before you hit the ground. That's about the size of it, right?"

"That's about the right of it, John," I nodded, very sad. "Now I'm not sure that the humans there have the slightest of chances. We can't just grab the monsters, haul them off and put a bullet into their brains. They've got powers I know it not, and their big daddy is asleep. When the monsters become active and big daddy comes around to take a look it's going to want answers and it'll squeeze them out of me like a grape, it'll take them from wherever it can get them—even from the world itself. I could, of course, destroy the monsters. I'm pretty sure Amy could take care of most of the world by herself now. But I'm not sure anyone would be around after the fact and I'm pretty sure we can't move fast enough to keep the world from getting wrecked. The world isn't going to stay the same as it was. We can't keep going on indefinitely. I need to destroy those monsters and their idiotic master. To kill the monsters I need to confront them. That means standing in a house of glass swinging around battle hammers. You understand that's a sacrifice I'm not willing to make. It's a vicious circle."

"What would you do John?" Amy asked.

Long John got off the bed and ambled over to a broken stone from some building that had been destroyed in the bombings of London. He took out his pipe, tapped it on the side of the rock to make sure it was free of ash, stuffed it with tobacco and lit it. He took a long drag, held it, then blew a smoke ring, and then gave us our answer. "The way I see it the world is an island. There are always more worlds and more islands. See this building here? Once it meant something and now it's in ruins. Doesn't matter why, it just is. A spacer like me has seen good ones, bad ones, ruined ones. If we don't like someplace we go elsewhere. If the island is on fire, if the ship is sinking, we leave. There are never enough lifeboats but those that have them are glad."

Amy sits up. "You mean, just leave and go somewhere else?"

"Aye lass," Long John nods. "No dishonor in leaving, now is there?"

"I'm not so sure about that," Amy's face crumbles. "Can't' we just keep going and find a weapon to kill the monsters and save the world?"

I reached into my Hammerspace and pulled out a pizza and put it on an upside-down metal bathtub. After opening the box I took two pieces, folded them over and took a bite. I was sad. The more I thought about it the more I realized how stupid we were being. No matter what happened people are going to die.

It was the same old question. If you have a lifeboat that has fifteen people hanging off the sides and the boat can only support nine people (not counting yourself) and you're in charge of the boat, who do you eliminate to save the rest? Who do you save?

"Amy," I asked quietly. "What's the first thing they teach heroes about fighting Tinkers in their labs?"

Amy grew a poleaxed expression. "You don't."

I nod. "That's right, you don't. Human beings on Earth Bet are like rats in cages. They were experimented on and given some powers. They're not allowed to leave, the Endbringers see to that. If the portal to Earth Aleph were wider you could migrate, but you don't do that and that's probably the biggest reason why or else the politicians would have lied and bribed their way to saving their fat asses; and the Simurg stopped your outer space projects. The scientist is dead; the security guard walks the building. One push of the button from him and the whole place is incinerated. So we bust in like Lab Animal Activists, grab a few cages that we can, and then we run like thieves." I raised my head to look Amy in the eye.

She was agape at the idea but soon schooled her features.

"We're going to need some stuff. We're going to need a sanctuary. And we're going to need a path that the Big Entity can't follow us through. How many do you think we can save?"

"At a guess?" I shrugged. "Maybe a billion lives, hands down. This is also something I can do right now."

"Then that is something we will do right now. We now have a plan. We will work to make the plan work and maybe, if we're lucky, we can save even more lives," Amy announced, and it was so. The doctor was in.

This was a new direction we were going. No longer did we have to wander around at random. We could go out and find some things now. We had stopped being gatherers, and now we were hunters. Truly a new stage in evolution.

"I've just had an idea. From now on I think we should go through the dream dimensions. It's the universe of human fantasy. Every land, every creature, is a peace of the dreams and hopes of mankind. So it has no boundaries. Even if the Entity followed us there he'd be just one more creature in a universe of nightmares," I announced, having come up with the idea on the spot just then. "I can get my weapon along the way and make a few pit stops as well."

Amy's serious expression was countered by her glowing smile. "The dream dimensions! Of course, why didn't I think of that? A bed is the perfect way to go into the land of dreams as well." She hopped onto the bed and took her place at the front. "This will be a perfect chance to test it out. Let's go."

I jumped onto the right hand side while Mr. Silver climbed up onto the left hand side of the bed. Even with our legs out there was plenty of room for Amy at the foot of the bed.

"So what's our first destination?" Amy asked.

"Better to take the scenic route, that way we can get off and look at things along the way. We're going to Slumberland. That's one of the oldest dreaming worlds in fiction, from 1905. When they made the Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland movie just about every author of the 80s had their hand in it before they all dropped out. If we need to visit any works by Disney, Looney Tunes, Studio Ghibli, Universal Studios and Star Wars, this should give us a short cut. King Morpheus is a good king, so he should be convinced to help us."

We were about done running around.

Or as Long John would say it, "Well lads, you can't be at sea forever."

Amy took out the shiny brass ball I'd enchanted and screwed it into place on the bed. "Bed, please take us the scenic route into Slumberland please." Then she tapped it thrice and gave it a quarter turn to the left.

"Got any idea what might happen next?" Long John Silver asked as the bed started to shake.

I say to him as the bed starts lifting up off the ground, "No idea, but it's going to be awesome!"

The bed's legs had once been nothing but the broken roots of a blasted tree when Amy had gotten her hands on it and forced it to grow into a new shape. Now the legs had claws on the ends and had grown to enormous lengths. The bed got up and walked over to a nearby building as easy as you please. Gripping the walls with six fingered hands it climbed up the side as easily as a spider. When we got to the top six branches grew from the sides of the frame and was covered in palm tree leaves.

The wings flapped and yanked us off the top of the building and into the air.

"By the dreams of little children, we're flying!" Amy yelled. "I didn't know it could do that!"

"Ha-ha! Lass, what's so new about flying, ha-ha!" Long John yelled as he kept one arm on his hat. "This is living!"

Up and down the wings of the bed pumped throwing us up and down with an easy motion. I was concerned about what the folks down below would think of us. But a look revealed that London was fading away like an image in a disturbed bit of pond before vanishing completely.

The clouds fell in underneath us and I knew in my Planeswalker spark that we'd left the earth as we knew it behind. We weren't just going to another version of existence but to an entirely other plane.

On the horizon the moon started to come up. Behind us the last of the sun was setting. But we were so high up the rays of light were still illuminating the clouds all around us. Brilliant rainbows of red and greens and yellow shot out of the clouds in giant loops as the sun set on the other side of the world.

"Look at that!" Amy pointed into the distance.

There was a formation of clouds around a hole in the sky. Even though the night sky was coming out it looked like there was daylight on the other side.

"Go for it!" I yelled over the whistling of the air.

Amy gripped the foot board with both hands and pulled causing the bed to shoot nearly straight up.

Just before we disappeared through the hole in the sky I swore what looked like a castle had been built out of one of the nearby clouds. The buildings all around it have hearts built into the architecture. All of it inhabited by a bunch of multi-colored; upright walking, small and fuzzy bears with different markings on their stomachs.

They'd been waving at us when we went by. I waved back.

"Where those who I thought they were?" Amy yelled back to me.

"Yes, I think so!" I replied.

I shivered in fear. Stupid mind control drug bears. It took me the better part of ten years to get those evil cute creatures out of my head and there ain't no way this side of the hell dimensions that I was ever going back. Those stupid creatures watch kids 24/7 and when someone is unhappy or sad they stage an intervention like fluffy social workers. Then when things go wrong, more often than not they shoot you with happy beams. They use it in every episode because it's their go-to thing. Now I don't mind using your powers on obviously evil people that mean you harm, and its utility in doing other things is okay, but I had a thing for drugs.

I didn't care for them at all.

One day after watching Gummy Bears with some friends I'd gone home and asked my mother for some Gummiberry Juice and she had no idea what I was talking about. So I told her how to make some. Then, because there are forests where I live where people tell other people not to eat the berries on the bushes because they're only good for animals to eat, she thought I was talking about drugs. Eventually we got things straightened out, after my mom talked to my friend's mom, but it was a very awkward week that I still remembered after being reincarnated. From Popeye's Spinach, to Captain America's superhero serum, to Underdog's Super Miracle Pill, to He-Man's I make you bigger Sword, to Dungeons and Dragons potions, there were just some things I could never look at the same way again.

Of course these days I try to employ a more intellectual view on these things. Drugs are great when you get sick. Like with Cancer. While I was waiting for my grandmother to get treatment after driving her to the clinic I read a few magazines. On the one hand the treatment for cancer is poisonous. On the other hand there were no other options, it worked, and she recovered. I also read an article where the neuro-toxin from a scorpion was used to help a woman with incurable back pain after having parts of her spine replaced.

Now I think that drugs are useful.

The same thing for my powers. They can be used to harm, to help, but are very useful. Especially to me.

When we broke through the hole in the sky we came out of a lake. We didn't even get wet.

The lake was in the middle of a desert on top of a twelve story building, which turned out to be a big swimming pool on this side. All around us was a caricature of New York, but run down. From every window there flowed overwhelming amounts of sand. This sand flowed together to form rivers through the streets that emptied out into the desert region. There was a constant rumbling from the sand-falls that was very loud.

I grabbed some as we flew by a building. I sniffed it, gave it a lick, spat it out, and rubbed it between my fingers. "Huh, sleeping sand. Dreams ground down to dust. We should collect some, while we can."

The next time we drifted by a building we each held out a bag to catch as much as we could. A small bag with a small amount was to be kept in our pockets. The big bags went into my Hammerspace.

"Look at that!" john Silver pointed into the distance as some creature came up from out of the sand.

"Sand worms. And they look just like the ones from Beetle-juice," Amy remarked.

"Naw, those looked like the sand-worms from Dune. They're so far away, to be as big as that to our eyes, they must be huge. Well, the red ones at least," I argued.

"There's a bunch of different kinds. Looks like there's a fight over there," John Silver said. "We should steer clear of it, lest we become worm food."

We soon left them behind. In the interest of our own safety we flew a bit higher to keep anything that might want to from jumping out of the sand and taking us for a snack.

Over the land we flew swiftly and majestically for a great while. We flew so far and so fast that you'd think we passed the world several times over. Mountains were seen many times coming and going as if they were in a hurry to a great party. Lakes came and went and so did storms, appearing suddenly and then hiding, as if embarrassed to be caught playing jokes.

Some curious things were seen as well. Rock formations that appeared to be lizards carved out of mountains, or mountains grown around lizards. You could never tell until they turned their heads and yawned.

"To see this strange world is a marvelous thing," Long John remarked.

"Never mind the scenery, and hold on tight. If we should tumble because of an accident you'll regret it." Amy said.

"It will be getting dark soon," I remarked.

"If you fall asleep in a dream, do you wake up?" Long John asked.

"If this is a dream then it's a good thing that we're already in bed," Amy said. "We should make sure we don't fall out."

"I don't think we should fly at night," I said, looking about. "We should find a place to set up camp."

"If we weren't taking the scenic route do you think we could have gotten there already?" Amy asked.

"Maybe? I didn't think the night sky would come so quick. I'm not even tired." I looked up and saw a bunch of shooting stars go by.

"What about at that amusement park? They might have hotels as well as eateries," Long John pointed straight up.

Amy and I looked up for the first time in a while, proving to old John that we weren't true spacer's yet. For up in the sky was a remarkable planet. Instead of vegetation the landscape was composed of the most curious unmixed semi-solids of purple, brilliant glow in the dark green and red goop. On one part of it was an amusement park full of amazing rides that were in turn full of screaming children between the years of ten and nineteen. Parts and pieces of the planet had been pulled this way and that into twisted artwork that created towers and mountains. The world wasn't very big either, for it was plainly obvious to anyone with two feet that you could walk that world once in a single day.

"What kind of weird planet is that? It looks wrong." Amy remarked.

"It looks like a chemical spill," Long John remarked.

"It looks like Nickelodeon Gak. That's Planet Drool, and we need to go there," I decide. "Amy go up to your highest height. When we get close follow your nose. There should be a land of milk and cookies on the far side. We can get a snack there."

"You're always thinking about your stomach-"

"I have seven."

"-But we'll go. Makes about as much sense as anything else. This is the weirdest adventure yet." Amy pulled on the headboard and we ascended into the sky.

We flew past the Moon, past Mars and past Saturn before I realized it.

We flew as fast as ever dreamed was possible and as there were no speed limits we weren't bothered by the police either. Planet Drool had the weirdest and strangest architecture. It was completely fluid, and yet solid under your feet, and the very image of the reverse of what should be found on Earth.

"Where should we set down on this detour?" Amy asked.

"I'm hungry, and I can smell sugar, and it's making me even more hungry," I announced. "We'll circle around to the far side. We should find the land of milk and cookies eventually. Then I can get something to eat."

Once we got close enough we just followed our noses to the land of milk and cookies. The whole area was surrounded by Ice Cream Sundae Mountains. There were lakes of fudge, caramel, and strawberry syrup. The milk that flowed through the land was warm for babies. Instead of boulders and rocks there were cookies.

"Wo-hoo!" I yelled and jumped off the bed and dived right into the ground. I went about two dozen feet in before I surfaced into the open, smashing sprinkles and hard marshmallows out of the way as I did the backstroke. "Oh sweet sugary delights of life~ la la la la laaaa~!"

Chocolate really does make one feel much better!

Then I flapped my arms and made an angel in the chocolate dirt. My hand came into contact with some cherry ice cream pile that was bigger than me with cherries big enough to make me feel inadequate. I grabbed one by the stem, pulled it out of a pile of whip cream and started munching on it.

I freaking loved my life.

"Oh no, what's happening?!" Amy yelled in alarm.

I jumped up and rushed to my companion's side. I could scarcely imagine would could alarm her so in such a wonderful place. I also noted, in my running, that all the cookies and treats that I'd been swimming in had fallen off my body leaving me completely clean.

I arrived at the wonderful bed Amy had created and parked on top of a large gram cracker, and was immediately stupefied. The bed began to disappear a little bit at a time from existence. Long John Silver's reaction was lightning quick. He tossed himself out of the bed and landed on his feet.

"Get out of there Amy!" I roared.

The girl didn't think about it and bounced out, grabbing two cushions of her precious Orcus Galacticus furred pillows she tossed to the side as she went. "Save the mattress and blankets!"

I grabbed the exposed mattress by the handles, Long John grabbed the neatly folded blankets from off the top, and together we both pulled .

I set the mattress up against a lollipop tree and turned back to the bed, just in time. The wood evaporated into nothingness and the parts that were no longer attached stayed there in the air until they too no longer existed.

"Let me take a look at that. What do you think happened?" Amy came over and looked the mattress over from top to bottom, then had me turn it over. "Darn it! My brand new Orcus Galacticus fur mattress is ruined! Waaaaa!" Amy gripped at the remains and cried a good cry. Long John Silver patted her on the back with his mechanical hand to comfort her.

The other side of the mattress was missing parts of itself where it had been in contact with the wooden frame of the bed. It almost looked as if someone had carefully lit parts of it on fire and allowed it to burn big holes all the way through while leaving the other parts untouched.

"If only we had a box spring, perhaps the damage would be less," consoled Long John. "In any case we are alive and the rest can be replaced."

"We must find out why this happened and try to avoid it in the future. Or else I will have to acquire a warehouse of furniture if we want to get anywhere," I said, going over to where the bed now wasn't. Making a few deductions, I said my thoughts, "Our journey has been rather odd. The bed isn't just totally gone, it is totaled. The amount of magic needed to get us this far must have exceeded the value of energy in the bed. Oh well."

"Amy can make another in her sleep. A bed made in another world created in a land of candies and cookies and milk should be even more valuable, yes?" Long John asked.

"Yes, most obviously. But if Amy is asleep before she makes her bed, how will she sleep in it?" I asked.

"Would you quite it with the jokes?" demanded Amy, who was already pulling a seed out of her pocket and planting it into the ground, which grew limbs and leaves as we watched. The remains of the bed were sat on as she worked.

"Why should I? I need to practice don't I? Otherwise how else will I get better?" I asked.

"I'd wish you'd never start at all. I don't like being the joke. If you're going to make anything you should make a mint," Amy remarked as she overlooked her work, then smirked.

"Aye, to make a large amount of money is a worthwhile cause, but I don't think that's what you meant," Long John said.

"That's a very nice example of Agonis flexuosa," I said. Amy's look of frank amazement and open mouth made me want to laugh, and I giggled politely.

Amy's ministrations had created something from out of Dreamland. She had grown candy instead of a plant.

Amy looked over the white striped plant that had grown underneath her fingers. "My peppermint tree is rainbow flavored. Apparently nothing can be grown in the land of milk and cookies without a high sugar content."

I nodded. "Well there's nothing much higher than a tree made of spearmint. It's as taller than a redwood! Let's take a few pictures and then get out some axes to harvest the results for later. Eating candy before I sleep will just ruin my appetite and give me nightmares, and I'm not interested in a herd of horses today."

"If that's what you say about cookies than why did you want to come here and eat?" Long John asked.

I sighed, " First Correction, I said that candy will give me nightmares before I sleep. That has nothing to do with cookies or milk. Cookies are not candy! They are bread."

"Lots of people would argue otherwise," Long John remarked.

Amy harrumphed, "You two stay back and just watch. Axes indeed! Just watch as I reap what I sowed!" shaking her head she put her hands onto the trunk of the Peppermint Tree she grew and once more put her Shard powers to work.

With a shake the ground was covered with a foot deep cover of sprinkles all around the tree, which Long John and I used show shovels to gather up. Only later did I think to use telekinesis to get the job done.

"Wind-Tunnel!" I yelled as I sucked everything into Hammerspace with my Planeswalker vacuum technique. The best part of putting dirty things into Hammerspace, of course, was that when I took them back out again I could leave the dirt behind.

We were finished with the cleanup right after.

In the next moment all the branches dipped down and let loose their leaves of ribbon candies, which Long John and I took effort to roll up and put into boxes before they hardened. Then the branches broke apart piece by piece until we had a very tall pile of logs, sticks and limbs, the largest of which took all three of us linked hand to hand to circle around.

A problem came up halfway through our work. Mostly it was because the plant was new, as if it were summer or springtime. That's when the sap runs in trees. Full of water and heavy. It was also extremely sticky.

I threw the last of the big pieces into my Hammerspace and groused to Amy, "These are stickier than pine when the sap is running."

Long John was busy cleaning his hands with the washbasin I'd summoned and using a power tool scrubber on his mechanical hand to get all the sugar out of it. "Aye, what mess crystallization makes when made by amateurs. Next time I'm in the galley baking stay a while and I'll show you how to make confections that don't stick at room temperatures!"

"Complain, complain, complain," Amy took a split of log covered in blood red cinnamon stripes and chomped off a bite of it savagely, fairly moaning over the spicy confection. "Hmmmm! The next time you make thirty three tons of trees you'll have to listen to me! You're just grumpy because its past lunchtime and we're surrounded by sugar you're not allowed to eat. Let's eat something before we find ourselves not being friends in the morning."

"Perhaps we should leave the land of milk and cookies first? I don't think our houses will stay upright on this soft stuff that goes for ground around here," I suggested. "And they'd be easier to wash clean if they weren't covered in confections

"A good idea lass. Let's get somewhere else," Long John found a path and started marching out, the rest of us following the trailblazer to the end.

As suspected the Planet Drool wasn't very big. Although the land of milk and cookies had its own ecosystem it wasn't bigger than a farming town. It was quite a bit of a walk. After half an hour we'd walked out and found ourselves on a landscape that looked like the Montana desert drenched in purple paint, sloppily applied with a trowel.

"This is good enough," Long John jumped up and down on the rocks. "Nice and solid and flat."

I pulled out the three houses that'd been collected and decorated to each of our tastes. There was also a platform with a thick wooden canvas to keep out the sun and rain, a chimney in the middle over a duplicate kitchen setup similar to that found on the LHS Legacy, with plenty of cookware and dishes and refrigerators full of food. If you put a pot over the open flames it would float in place. Their foundations were solid blocks of cement which crushed everything else underneath them.

While Long John got out the goods I decided to do to do some harvesting. The cookies were big enough to require power lifters, a forklift, or one Tamaranean to move.

Amy said, "I'm gonna try and figure out how the land of milk and cookies allow me to grow strawberries with chocolate on them."

"Make sure you bottle up a few thousands of gallons of that milk while you're at it," Long John told us.

I did my best not to eat while I worked. My stomach growled in rebellion and I hoped Long John would be done soon; because it all smelled delicious and I have seven stomachs. If all seven went against me I'd be outnumbered.

At the same time we had visitors.

The first came out of the sky. It was creature named Tobor. The machine had two mechanical eyeballs the size of cars and a gear-toothed mouth big enough to swallow a buss whole. All three units floated around on their own like a big smiling face made of aluminum.

He floated down to where we were working, blinked at what we were doing with a "Snick!" sound, then said, "Greetings. I am Tobor. I am very pleased to meet you."

I'd been working at a frenzy pace to try and ignore my rebellious stomach, but it was loud. But such was my strength I wasn't tired or sweaty at all, which is good because I don't want that on my treats. It was good to take a rest now and again.

So I did the only sensible thing and sat down on an oversized gumdrop. Amy and I looked to each other, I nodded at the robot, and afterwards she approached the visitor. It was her turn to be sociable.

"Hi Tobor!" Amy yelled up at the big face. "I'm Amy Dallon. And that's Nova Ender. It's nice to meet you too."

"Nice to meet you for the first time!" I yelled at last. "I wasn't expecting to meet you, but then the unexpected tends to happen with remarkable frequency."

"If you'll follow us we'll show you to Mr. Silver." Amy offered.

"I would like to meet this Mr. Silver. We get so few guests on Planet Drool," Tobor explained.

Then I had to get up. But I made a point of pocketing the gumdrop when I did.

Amy and I walked back out of the land of milk and cookies to where we'd set up camp.

Mr. Silver, seeing the giant face approaching before he saw us come up over the tiny planet's horizon, relaxed a tad and transformed his hand back from a laser pistol and into a hand again.

Amy showed Tobor our companion to him. "Tobor, this is our cook Long John Silver. Mr. Silver, this is Tobor of Planet Drool."

"A fine day Mr. Tobor to meeting such a distinguished individual as yourself," Mr. Silver then tipped his hat.

"This is true," Tobor said. "But please tell me, how did you three manage to get to Planet Drool? You must have powerful dreams to end up in this reality."

"We traveled on a magic bed," Amy frowned. "But it disintegrated when we arrived."

"A powerful dream indeed," Tobor seemed to nod, but without a head it was kind of hard to tell.

"Can you help us find another?" Amy asked. "I tried to make one, but all I ended up growing is a big Peppermint Tree made out of candy."

"The land of milk and cookies is a very nice and sweet place. Anything you grow there will be made out of sugar, and will not be good building material," Tobor said. "The Dream Lair has the only bed in the whole world of Planet Drool. It is currently performing a very important task, so you can't use it. However, if you ask nicely, Sharkboy and Lavagirl might let you use the old one."

"What a good idea that is. Let's go see them then!" Amy decided. "Please, can you introduce us?"

"A task easily accomplished. I dreamed that they would be here soon and they are on their way right now," Tobor said.

"I guess all we have to do is some more waiting," Amy said.

"Then why don't you finish packing away the milk and cookies before they ruin your appetite more than they already have?" Long John declared, and went back to working, unloading his kitchen for more guests. "We're having spiced fish stew for lunch! It'll be done shortly. That's what I'm doing."

"Then I'll finish packing," I went back over the border back into the land of milk and cookies where I had more work to do.

Very good work. Very important work.

Among these were rolling ten foot tall cookies onto a stack of five others, all peanut, before making them disappear into my Hammerspace. I'd already gotten the Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Gingersnaps, Shortbread, Whoopie Pies, Molasses Cookies, and the Kiss Cookies. And now I was working on the rest.

"Will you be joining us for lunch Tobor?" Amy asked the robot face floating above us.

"I can't," the floating face replied.

"Why not?"

"While my mouth is fully functional, there's no swallow connected with it," the machine looked around. "In fact, I am a poor lunch companion, as I cannot complement the food even if I could eat it."

Observing this remark to be true, Amy said: "Then we shall just have to enjoy your company. But I'm sure we'll get used to you in time. I guess I'd better set out two more plates than usual then, instead of three." Amy shook her head, as if in amazement. "What a strange place this is."

The machine watched as she set out a place for lunch between our three houses, quite content to observe our actions.

"That is a fascinating appendage," Tobor complemented Long John as the man transformed his limb so that he could cut up garlic, chop the green bell pepper, halved a few bakers dozens of peeled tomatoes, crushed the red pepper, and measured out a portion of olive oil.

I gave the man a few lengths of fish, which were quickly removed of their heads, fins, guts, skin and bones.

"Cleaning and preparation always comes first, it does." Long John laughed as he combined these ingredients together. "I'll admit that sometimes I miss my old flesh and blood, but these old gears of mine have been rather useful ever since I lost it. Now in fifteen minutes this should be all right to serve."

In twelve minutes we heard the unmistakable sound of an engine of some sort. In a moment we realized there were two. In thirteen minutes two new machines came over the horizon with two figures on them.

First in the lead was a young lady with incredibly pink hair that shimmered with heat. Her outfit was made of cooled lava, mostly pink and deep red, with sharp yellow lines where it needed to bend and move. This had to be Lavagirl. Her bike looked for the entire world like a motorcycle where all the moving parts had been replaced with liquid rock. It's powered by a churning magma engine of liquid rock, the hubs of the wheels are also liquid rock but the tires are heat-resistant metals. There was every reason to give that the bike should be on fire, but stubbornly refused to be so.

Following behind the trail blazed by the not-on-fire bike was Sharkboy. He had black jagged hair, dark brown eyes, a shark fin coming out of his back, and an dark blue super suit that could be used for deep sea diving covered in shark decals and grey armor. His bike flew in the air on jets and rocket engines, the entire thing playing up a chrome shark motif with two red eyes in the shark's face to use as headlights.

The two came around the houses and parked their bikes nearby to take a look around on foot.

I noticed that the Sharkboy didn't look quite like how he appeared in the movie. For one thing Sharkboy had grown so he and Lavagirl were of equal height. They also looked a tad bit older. Sharkboy was more muscular and Lavagirl had some curves. In addition to this Lavagirl wore her hair in a ponytail with a black diamond scrunchie to show off pointed ears. They had a definite comic book physique.

I went over to greet them.

"Hello there Sharkboy and Lavagirl, so nice to meet you," I reached out to Sharkboy, grabbed his hand and pulled him close, then took his face in both hands and kissed him on each cheek. Lavagirl looked mad that I would get handy with her boyfriend, then worried as I reached out to her next and did the same thing to each of her cheeks. My auntie used to do this with me every time she came over to visit. "I've always wanted to meet you, and now I have." They were completely disarmed and dumbfounded.

I'd laugh, but that would be mean.

"Ah, nice to meet you?" Lavagirl questioned.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," Sharkboy managed to say. "How'd you kiss her without burning up; she's made of lava!" he rubbed at his cheeks. I also used to do that when my aunt came around.

"I'm a Tamaranean," I brushed out my hair and they all watched as it caught fire. "A little heat doesn't bother me at all. My name is Nova Ender. I'm a Planeswalker."

"I'm Lavagirl," says the young lady.

"I'm Sharkboy," saith the young man.

"I've never been kissed before," Lavagirl remarked as she touched upon her cheeks fondly. "If Sharkboy tried he'd just get burns."

"Then we shall have to fix that!" I announced with every intention to do so. For no girl should miss out on kissing! "Would you like to join us for lunch? We're having spicy fish stew in a few minutes—"

"Lunch!" Long John yelled.

"Right now, that is," I went on. "Come with me and have lunch why don't you? We shall eat and we shall talk, and when we're done I'll help you with your problems and you will help me with mine, and we'll all become friends. Come!" I waved them over and started in the direction of camp.

The two followed me over to where we had set up over the border.

Introductions were made.

"Everyone, this is Sharkboy and Lavagirl," I pointed them out and they waved at my old friends. "Everyone else, these are my traveling companions: Amy the surgeon and Long John Silver the pirate cook, who will be serving us spicy fish stew today. I am Nova Ender the Planeswalker, but I already said that. And of course everyone knows of Tobor the flying robot face." I pointed to the various people and to the face above us.

The face made a dip in the sky that could be assumed to be a bow. "Hello again, everyone."

Everyone shook hands except Tobor, who had no hands to shake.

"So you're Long John Silver?" Sharkboy asked Long John.

"That I am lad," Long John tipped his hat with his mechanical hand. "Nice to meet a fine upstanding lad as yourself."

"I'm not just Sharkboy. I'm also the King of the Ocean of Planet Drool," the young man puffed out his chest proudly. Then he took out a pad of notebook paper. "Can I have your autograph?"

Long John's eyes bulged out. "I suppose being related to the book of Treasure Island has something to do with this, Lad?"

The boy, young man really, nodded his head enthusiastically.

The man transformed a finger into an Æther pen and signed the paper with a large and elaborate flourish. "There you go lad."

"Thanks!" he gushed.

I pulled out a stone bench from out of my Hammerspace and put it down on my side of the picnic table so that Lavagirl and I could sit together. Sharkboy took the opposite side and sat with Amy. John Silver brought over a five gallon pot and ladled out five bowls for each of us, serving him last, along with a basket of rolls.

"This is really neat. Thanks for having us." Lavagirl said as the food was passed around.

"It's always neat to eat with friends," Amy said as she passed the rolls to Sharkboy.

"Is that what we are?" Sharkboy asked.

"I suppose so." Lavagirl said.

We ate food.

There were more things said. Talking was the good of drama.

"So why are you here anyway?" Lavagirl asked.

I swallowed what was in my mouth. As I was not a stirring conversationalist before going on my adventure as a Planeswalker I was usually a poor dinner companion. I was too busy putting things in my mouth to say anything with it.

This time I tried anyway. "We are on a quest to find a weapon we can use against the monsters in Amy's home reality. King Morpheus of Slumberland might have it, or know where it can be found. We were testing out an enchanted bed to travel through Dreamland when I saw your planet. I decided to stop for sweets and lunch when our bed disintegrated. We need a new one to replace it. I was wondering if you had a spare we could use?"

Tobor floated down a nod. "I'd suggested that they might use the old bed that Max doesn't use anymore if they asked politely."

"Well, maybe," Lavagirl said to her old friend. "You used a bed to get here? How'd you do that?"

"With magic," I answered. "I'd used a Traveling Spell that can be attached to things that twist. Amy made a bed and I found a knob to plug into the bedpost."

"Traveling by bed into a dream is not all that strange," Sharkboy said. "That's the usual method."

"I couldn't agree with you more," I said.

"You can have the old bed," Lavagirl took a drink of firewater, the name for a liquid that was more than perfectly suitable for describing the contents than could be found. Even when it was sitting there harmlessly it constantly put out a haze of red smoke. "It's in the Dream Graveyard now."

"Why is the bed in the Dream Graveyard?" I asked.

"Unfortunately Max got older and he outgrew his old bed," Tobor answered. "So we brought it there. I'm sure Max won't mind you have it."

"He won't mind us taking it?" I asked.

Lavagirl shook her head in the negative. "He'd be happy that it was being used."

"This is really good," Sharkboy said before his teeth turned to sharp points so he could take a big bite out of a hand-sized fish steak.

Sharkboy and Lavagirl liked the food and I was happy with that.

Long John Silver shared some recipes that involved both fish and spicy foods with the both of them. And the best part was that they weren't all the same thing!

While I ate with one hand I worked with my other.

I took out a bit of Wishalloy and fashioned it into a ring and imbued it with the concept of temperature resistance. Another similar ring was imbued with the concept of temperature immunity. The first was given a red amber crystal that would absorb ambient energy from Lavagirl and use it to power the ring, which would allow her to handle items without incinerating them. The second ring was equipped with a blue amber crystal that would absorb heat that was too hot to handle to power the ring and give the wearer the ability to touch super-hot things.

And finally they were both made indestructible. Nothing could harm them except hemp grass juice, the exception to the rule that would make it so they could wear out and be destroyed like ordinary rings.

When I was done I gave Sharkboy and Lavagirl their rings and explained what they did.

"Here you go. This ring will make everything you touch just as immune to fire as you are and will not be destroyed by your touch. There's a mental switch to turn it on and off for when you want to hurt something," I told Lavagirl. "This ring will make you more resistant to temperatures, high heat specifically. It also has a mentally triggered off switch. This should allow you to touch each other without getting hurt," I explained to Sharkboy.

"Wow," Lavagirl took her ring into her hand. "My ring, it's not melting," she exclaimed in wonder. Then she put the ring on. Reaching over to a glass of water she put her finger into it and was amazed when the water didn't explode into steam. Or melt the glass itself for that matter. "It's not melting!"

"My ring makes the air feel better," Sharkboy said.

The two small heroes then looked at each other with a bit of fear and wonder.

Tentatively at first the boy and girl dream people reached across the table to touch each other with just their fingers. When Sharkboy's fingertip didn't burn to ash they started holding hands. Their eyes grew large with wonder.

Lavagirl broke it off first and jumped over to hug me. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Yeah, thanks a lot!" Sharkboy reached across the table to pat me on my shoulder around his enthusiastic girlfriend's hugging.

For that alone we could have the bed and run off with it.

We were delayed in getting to the other side of the Planet Drool by means of finding a common ability to get there. Amy and I could fly, Long John could not. Sharkboy's jet motorcycle could fly but wouldn't support a passenger. Lavagirl's lava bike would kill him after it cooked him in the middle of his legs first, so that was out as well.

"I will carry him to the Dream Graveyard," Tobor said.

"By the powers, how will I do that?" Long John asked.

Tobor turned his mouth around. The mouth was so big that the backside of the upper lip had enough room to stand on. It wasn't too different from standing on a very thin sidewalk and leaning against a short fence.

Long John climbed up and held on with both hands as the smile positioned itself below the two eyes. "Usually when I go into town I have a smile on my face. This is the first time that I'll be on a smile in someone else's face," Long John guffawed as we took off.

In five minutes we were on the other side of the planet where we ended up in the Dream Graveyard.

Along the way we passed over the Stream of Consciousness, a green river of spinal fluid created from the innumerable brains growing up from the ground. The green stuff glowed in the dark. Flying over the hills and mountains of grey matter was a train made up of three school buses connected together. It went erratically in every direction but usually got from one end to the other, eventually.

We just had to avoid being hit by it or hitting it.

It goes without saying that along with claiming a land from Drool, pure blue mana, I'd also gotten some summons out of these weird things when I could.

In the Dream graveyard was a simply enormous four poster bed. The bed was completely solid wood darkly varnished, the purple blankets flowing over the sides had spread out in every direction. It looked well used, with loose bolts barely holding the wooden bits together and a bit dusty as well. The bed was over a hundred feet wide and twice as long. The four posts were big enough to be trees, and the curtains had their own rails to run back and forth on. It was kind of a big rectangular box, but there were no moving parts. I'd seen ballrooms that were about the same size.

Tobor brought his mouth down to a landing in front of it so that Long John could get off.

"Thanks for the ride, mate!" Long John said, patting Tobor as he got off.

"It's no problem at all." Tobor said as he backed up into the sky.

Sharkboy gestured to the old and worn out furniture. "There's a lot of old memories tied up in this bed. If we left it here it would eventually fade away like all memories. It would be better if you had it."

"Well let's see if I can't attach my Traveling Spell to it." I walked up to the bed and tried to find something that could turn or twist. I walked from one end to the other and declared, "No moving parts except the curtains,"

"Well if there are no moving parts, perhaps we can give it some?" Amy asked. "Then we can attach the spell to it."

"That's a great idea Amy!" I said. "But how do we do it? I'd really rather not carve holes into such a magnificent craftsmanship."

"I think I can do it with my powers," Amy came over to the bed right below me, but it was much too tall. To the astonishment of many but not I, four green wood-like branches came out of the back of her suit and extended to be about a hundred feet long, then they bent in several places to make joints, and then worked together to help Amy climb up and get behind the footboard. Her hands went to the middle and before my eyes crafted a deep impression into the wood big enough for two hands and put in a wooden knob. "There you go. All done!"

"Amy, how did you do that?" I was astonished. "This wood is harvested and not alive anymore. Your powers only work on things that are alive, right?"

"Yes, this is true. However while the bed is in Dreamland it's memory still lives on after a fashion, so I was able to make it work," Amy answered.

How the heck does that make any sense?

I shrugged. Go with the flow Nova, go with the flow.

"Then let's test it out," I jumped onto the bed and cut my flight so I could land besides her and slap on my Traveling spell. "It should work the same as before. All aboard everybody. Sharkboy! Lavagirl! Do you want to come with us?"

The two nodded.

"It'd be nice to have something new to do," Sharkboy shrugged, then he made an enormous leap onto the bed.

"Or at least we can stay with you through the test flight," Lavagirl poured out a double helping of lava from her hands which propelled her high into the air which allowed her to fall onto the bed. The bed did not catch on fire. "That way if you get into trouble we'll be around to help."

Long John gave the bed a look over, shaking his head from right to left. "Perhaps we should make the bed first? It wouldn't do to go somewhere and have all of this lying about. If this were a ship I'd say it needed more than a spot of maintenance. Better to take care of this now, the poor thing."

I nodded. "Yes, you are right."

I went out to the far end of the blankets and used my incredible strength and ability to fly to pull up, shake out, and then fold back onto the bed the enormous blankets. Amy and Long John helped from up top while Sharkboy and Lavagirl tucked them in on the bottom. It took a while because the bed was so large, but we got it done.

"There, much better." Lavagirl announced with satisfaction.

"Aye, a well-made bed it is," Long John remarked. "And not just a well-made bed, but the bed is now well made too, and all put back together again. The shabbiness disappeared!"

The bed was indeed put together real good and tight. All the wood was shiny, the mattress was full and fluffy, and there was not a sign of wear and tear to be found.

"Well of course it did," Sharkboy said. "A well-made bed isn't shabby at all."

"Is that so?" Long John asked.

"That's dream logic," Sharkboy nodded.

"This is true," I nodded.

We all climbed aboard and took a seat in the middle. Amy was up front with her hand in the hole in the footboard.

"Where should we go now?" Amy asked.

"Let's test it first," I turned to Sharkboy and Lavagirl. "You two know that we're going to Slumberland in the hopes of getting a weapon. But I was wondering if you could help us one more time?"

"Sure we can … if we can, that is," Lavagirl said. "What kind of help do you need?"

"Well, I was wondering if Mr. Electric was still around?" by the widening of their eyes I guessed that he was. "I'm going to need some help with the monsters in another reality and he'd be perfect for a few things."

"Mr. Electric was frozen. You'd have to thaw him out," Sharkboy told me. "He's in the land of ice and snow. The ice princess keeps him there so that he stays imprisoned forever."

"Why would you want him?" Lavagirl asked. "He's evil."

"Perhaps," I said. "Or perhaps he got tired of doing his old job. Let me ask this, when was the last time he had a day off?"

"Day off?" Sharkboy put his head in his hand and seemed to think on it. "Now that you mention it, I don't think he ever did. He was always just the guy who plugged in the power cords and made sure everything stayed running. Without him we've had to do a lot of those things ourselves, so we kinda missed him. But never enough to thaw him out."

"But even prisoners who go to jail have their day in court. And they don't stay in jail forever. How long has it been? A few years?" I asked. "That's long enough."

The boy with the fin on his back shrugged. "I guess."

I turned towards Amy. "Have the bed take us to Mr. Electric in the land of snow and ice."

Amy nodded. She reached out to the knob and gave the bed its commands. "Bed, please take us to Mr. Electric." She then tapped on the knob three times and turned it to the left.

The whole bed shook and this time when we took off it was quick. There was a brief flash, as if the entire countryside had passed us by in an instant. Then we were in an incredibly large cavern made of ice. The bed shouldn't have fit, but it seemed to have shrunk some to accommodate the conditions here.

"That was fast," Amy remarked.

Mr. Electric was in the middle of the cavern. His body was mostly a pair of hips attached to a giant round TV screen with his face projected inside and blown up to be ten feet wide and tall, and that was just his torso. His arms and legs were made of arcs of electricity that connected to a pair of robotic shoes, with a clamp for a right hand and a three fingers robotic left hand. Altogether he was about twenty feet tall.

Even frozen in semi-transparent ice Mr. Electric was a bit intimidating. There was also no doubt in my mind that he was powerful. The guy had taken the full of Lavagirl's lava blast right to the face, pretending the whole time it hurt when it didn't so he could surprise her with a sneak attack, and walked away without a scratch on him. Sharkboy had also dropped him into the icy waters of the ocean and then used his army of sharks to maul him, and he'd eventually managed to get away without any damage to his mechanical body. He could also fly as fast as lightning if he wanted to from Planet Drool all the way back to Planet Earth and summon up electrical storms.

Utility workers were number #6 in the top ten most important jobs in the world. Anyone whose job it is to keep the lights on, the water running, the roads patched and the snow cleared has my vote. Whatever comfort we enjoy is due primarily to them.

"There he is," Lavagirl got up off the bed. "Are you sure you want him? Once he's unfrozen it'll take the Ice Princess to freeze him again."

"He's an expert electrician. And I'm a Planeswalker," I got up off the bed and jumped down onto the ground. "I'm sure I can convince him."

"Then it's up to you to unthaw him," Sharkboy told me.

I nodded and approached the statue of ice, metal and electricity. I studied it for a time. Even though the man's face wasn't moving the screen was still powered on. There was still three arcs of current, representing the neutral, the hot, the ground, connected from the body to the hands and shoes. He was alive in there. "I'm going to assume that you can hear me. You can think of this as your parole opportunity. I've got a job for you. So let's get this show on the road," I reached out towards the ice and applied a little Tamaranean powers to get rid of the ice.

A little ultraviolet energy manipulation projected through my hands. A little molecular acceleration to the water molecules. The nuclear pyrokinesis in my hair flared brilliantly as I shattered the ice into rapidly evaporating snow.

Now freed, Mr. Electric stumbles back. "Ah, brain freeze hertz so bad!" he cried out, and then grabs at his head.

I actually heard that electrical pun in his voice. We got a punner!

You know watt? Let's go with it!

I gave him a minute to get himself together. The electrical arcs in his arms steadily grew brighter.

"Okay Mr. Electric, this is a power play! I have a job for you." I told him.

The man focused his entire body on me. "Well aren't you a bright little spark. Why'd you thaw me out and what do you want with me?"

"Your abilities as an electrician allow you to rewire the power grids of an entire planet. This ability is useful to me and your experience will be invaluable," I floated up so that he and I were level.

The machine-man-energy being takes a step back at that, using his clawed right hand to tap at the screen TV of his chin. "You want to hire me? For a job?"

I nod. "Yes."

Mr. Electric takes two small—for him – steps back and then starts walking around me to the left. "I've spent the better part of my entire life plugging in power cords for one little snot nosed brat, who never gave me so much as a thank you buy the way, and when I was given the chance to destroy the place I'd come to hate these two low watts attacked me," he glared at Sharkboy and Lavagirl. "Max then threatened to blink open his eyes and unmake me if I didn't get back to work. I said no then and I'll say it now—Nope!" he made it sound like an electronic beep.

"Your condition for your parole is your freedom after you have helped me in every way that you can, which shall not last less than one hundred years. There will also be hazard pay and sick days. Plugging in power cords will be the least of your new duties. Or," I looked around at the ice cave. "You can go back to being an ice cube."

Mr. Electric didn't say anything for a minute, but frowned, growled, shook his head, and muttered. "No, no not again..."

Long John Silver took a step forwards. "Here big guy, just take the deal. It'll only be for a while. We got good health and benefits and cash and everything you could want. It's all laid out in a contract so it's simple and plane. We even get a cut on salvage! And mandated time off! It's much better than what you were doing before, and you might even like it!"

Mr. Electric turned towards the man at his feet. "I'm sorry but I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Mr. Electric!" he put his hands together and separated them out to discharge a huge amount of voltage with a Crackle! and Pop!

"Long John Silver is this one's name. I'm the Planeswalker's own personal chef these days. But in the days of yor I was sometimes accused of being quite the scalawag." He tipped his hat. "Nice to meet you."

"Long John Silver? As in, the pirate?" he spoke the name in awe. Mr. Electric took a step forwards and raised up his hands, as if in anticipation of catching something good. "What kind of dream did you come out of?"

"A momentary bit of clarification, Mr. Electric sir. I'm not a dream that I am! I'm from another realm! This Planeswalker hired me after she stopped me crew from rebellion, and saved me from swinging. We're in the same boat you and I. So what do you say? What to be pals?"

The big face frowned. "I don't eat food," and then straightened up and took a step back. "No brats, no amusement parks, I want a vehicle, and," he paused as if thinking deeply, "I want my Plug-hounds and my Powerlines back. Those creatures are the only friends I ever had on this rock."

"Deal."

I reached out with my right hand and he put his giant clamp hand in it. The hand was at least as large as a bucket loader and had three joints on each side. He tried to crush my hand; I tried to melt his hand and turned it red hot.

"OW! Okay, I give, I give!" he took his red-hot hand back. "Fiery little thing aren't you? So what's the job?"

I smiled, knowing I had him. "Have you ever heard of a staff called the Dyracchion?"

"The Dyracchion? The Dyracchion! Of course I know what a Dyracchion is. I'm Mr. Electric!" he flared his arc limbs to make them super bright for a moment. "Thousands of years before mankind fell out of the trees and gave a name to fire – your ancestors—!" he pointed to each and every one of us, "Learned that if they wanted to survive an electrical storm on the planes of Africa they had to stay underneath a tree. The first lightning rod," he said with wonder. "That! Right there, was magic! The staff was created in a time when dreams were believed in so hard by humanity they could make magic work. So long as they had a stick to stand under and plant in the ground they would be fine. And thus began the long culmination of collecting wood, walking around with sticks and clubs, learning how to walk upright and all the rest and you get the idea!" Mr. Electric paused. "So yes, I know about the Dyracchion. The question is: Why do you want it?"

"We can use it as a weapon against the Endbringers in Amy's realm." I explained. "One of them has Dynamokinesis-"

"Let me guess!" Mr. Electric jumped in with an enigmatic smile, held up his right hand and I stopped talking. "Radiation hazards and microwave weaponry on average and on a grand scale; right?" we nodded. "Thus explaining why you'd need my help. You don't just want me, you need me. Oh this is going to be fun! Let me get my stuff and we can be on our way."

With the papers signed Lavagirl and Sharkboy escorted us on another jump with the bed to Mr. Electric's old lair. Without electricity the Plugs couldn't move and had to stay behind to keep Planet Drool's power grid online. But a few of the spares could come along. The Plug-hounds and the Powerlines could move around on their own.

The Plug-hounds were made from the one end of a plug, the three wires woven into a body that gave them four legs, back and tail. The Power-lines were the same, but made of much larger wires like the ones from power poles with long necks like giraffes. When the creatures moved it looked a lot like stop motion clay animation, very smooth and a little off putting. They didn't have bones or muscles.

The moment the doors opened and we entered the creatures came right on over.

"Ah, my little sparks! Did you miss me?" Mr. Electric crooned as he petted his creatures. "Daddy's back, daddy's back. And hey! I've got a new job. Everybody on the bed! Except you! You two stay here." Mr. Electric pointed at Sharkboy and Lavagirl, then dismissed them, walking over to the bed with his back turned. He helped his animals up onto it and then climbed up on it himself. It was easy for him to do so because of his size.

"Are you coming with us?" I asked them.

The two looked at each other and then shook their heads, no.

Sharkboy said, " Normally we would, but not now. Since you're taking Mr. Electric along we thought it would be better for us to stay here. We don't like him. Maybe if he weren't so high strung!" he yelled the last part in the direction of the bed.

Mr. Electric pauses from petting one of his Plug-hounds to turn and glared down at the Sharkboy. "Oh, you pick now of all times to start on the puns!" he gestures with the Bras d'honneur since his robotic hands weren't very expressive, but he got the point across.

I turned around and nodded. "Okay, that's fare. Well it was nice meeting you. Sharkboy, Lavagirl," I shake each of their hands. "I'll see you later. Maybe even outside of my dreams."

The two wave at me, but are also holding hands. "See you later Nova!"

I jumped onto the bed.

"Bed, please take us to King Morpheus, the King of Slumberland," Amy tapped the knob three times and turned it to the left.

The bed immediately jumped off the ground and went straight up at a terrific pace, but we felt no accelerating at all.

"Whoa, that's fast!" Long John yelled, holding onto his hat. But there was no breeze or wind at all either.

The folded up purple blankets flared around us forming wings in the vague shape of a mantaray, before we took off at an even more extreme acceleration.

Down below us the landscape passed us by at great speed. It was as if the entire map of the earth had been unraveled and laid out as one long highway. The bed seemed determined to pass over all of it in under a minute. Forests old and new, swamps, deserts, oceans, rivers, snowbanks and more we passed by in a flash.

"Very impressive," Mr. Electric said as he held onto his Plug-hounds. "Very impressive indeed. Where are we now?"

"Wish I had a high speed camera" I remarked. "Can you slow the bed down a bit Amy?"

"I'll try."

Whatever she did worked because the speeding blur down below became more an extreme travel.

I got down on all fours and leaned over the side of the bed. "I do believe that we're over Fantasia, from the Neverending Story."

"How can you know?" Amy asked me.

"Well, for one, Falkor is flying besides us," I pointed.

Coming up from underneath and about two hundred feet away was a 43 foot long luck dragon. With white and pink scales along the spine of his back and his eyes were like rubies but flashed brown. It's doggy features were very well known to the people who knew of Jim Henson's work.

We waved at him.

"Oh my god!" Amy yelled when she got to see him. The bed started to turn and tilt. "Woops!"

"Keep your eyes on your driving, Amy!" I chastised. I left the bed for a moment to go greet the big flying dog. "Greetings! The name's Nova Ender. I'm a Planeswalker." I took out a big leg bone from the ancestor of a horse that was extinct on most earths and gave it to him. "Have a gift! Free of charge with no obligations or strings attached."

Falkor spoke with a big deep voice that matched his giant size. "I accept your gift, Nova Ender," he snatched the bone from out of the air. "The name's Falkor, I come from the land of Fantasia. Are you coming down to see the Silver City, or visit the Childlike Empress in the Ivory Tower?"

"Sorry, I'd like to visit, maybe later. We're on our way to see King Morpheus in Slumberland. We seek the Dyracchion." I reached over to pet him. I also made a summons out of him. But I really liked petting the grains dog-dragon.

Falkor liked it too. He rolled completely over out from underneath my hand. "Then you will definitely need to go to Slumberland. The dreams of mankind are even older than the stories told by mankind. If there is any place in which the Dyracchion can be found it'll be there. I wish you luck on your journey!" The dragon made an inside-out loop and then made another outside-in loop, the body so long it was able to do both at once before flowing out of both of them. His tail hit the side of the four poster bed and then me. With each hit there was a burst of yellow-white sparks.

Falkor then flew away. For a few seconds I thought he had transformed into a long Chinese kite, the way he flew was so odd. Then he dipped underneath a cloud and was gone.

Standing tall, I flew over to the bed to stand on it.

"Well I feel lucky," Amy said and grinned. I frowned at her, because she knew I was going to say that, and said it first.

I walked into the center of the bed and sat down. "Extremely lucky. We could use all the help we can get."

"Think we should buy a lotto ticket?" Long John asked.

"Probably," Mr. Electric said.

"Back on the road then, even if we do fly to get there," said Amy

The bed flew steadily on.

Presently the land below us began to change in some strange manner, there was a quality to the landscape that was different. Ahead of us there was nothing but clouds from the topmost area of the sky all the way down to the fogbank below, and going in either direction.

"Must be the place. I guess we'll just have to fly all the way through," Amy told us all.

"It's the strangest Cumulonimbus cloud I've ever seen," Mr. Electric remarked. "Watch out for lightning between the clouds."

"Right," Amy remarked.

The bed flew through the clouds, going in the same direction from whence it had come. At least, that was Amy's opinion, and we all agreed that Amy's faith in the bed was best. After passing through various cloud formations with a few glimpses of the landscape below in tiny patches the clouds eventually separated into those that were below us and those clouds that were above us.

"Prepare for a cold draft!" Mr. Electric warned. "Oh, not again!"

The air became colder. Ice started to form on the bed and grew inches thick. I flared up and the heat from my body and hair provided us with a bit of protection. My force field would keep my heat in with us and melt the water but that didn't stop the water that was coming in from being ice cold.

In the distance the sky became dark. Green lightning flashed up and down between the clouds above and below us. Patches of clouds in the middle area were filled with water and ice droplets. When we hit one the entire front of the bed tilted downwards because it instantly became covered with several feet of ice as the water splashed over us.

"Amy!" I went to the front of the craft and started breaking off chunks of ice and throwing them off the craft.

Amy was all right because she was safe behind the headboard. When I exposed her head she popped up out of the little igloo that had been made.

"I'm okay. Use your force field!" she yelled.

"I am! But it's a very light force field. The bed might not be able to fly if I turned it on all the way. The cold water will melt off." I explained.

"This doesn't look like Slumberland to me," Long John remarked as the weather outside our warm bubble got worse.

"It isn't Slumberland, so it doesn't look like Slumberland," I said.

Then up ahead there was a disturbance. Two giant eyeballs like twin moons rose up from the lower layer of clouds. Clouds from below reached up in streamers to touch the ones above and lightning split the sky. Each eye was blood red. As we got closer the eyes seemed to get larger.

A powerful wind hit us then that sent the bed tumbling up as the bed was caught up in a powerful current.

"Ride the current!" Long John yelled. He crawled over to Amy and pointed in a direction. "We've got to go with the winds or we'll be turned over like laundry in a washing machine. Go that way!"

"You got it!" Amy turned the bed in the proper direction.

Suddenly we went from tumbling around underneath a giant wave of wind to surfing up the side of a pipe.

"Nice job Long John," Mr. Electric said as he came up front. "But it's my turn now to earn my way. Charge forwards!" Mr. Electric climbed up the Starboard bow bedpost and extended his right hand all the way to the inner surface of my force field bubble. "Lightning! Coming now! Plugs, get into position!"

The snake-like power cords plugged into each other and wove themselves around the posts of the bed.

The lightning had been flashing around us for a while now. A few seconds later a new green bolt passed us by, its zig-zagged course coming near enough to us to branch off a small bit of its power to dance along the surface of my force field.

When Mr. Electric let go of the pole and jumped back down to us, his body was thrumming with power. His plugs were touching my force field and lit up like Christmas Lights. "A jolt, to perfection!" Mr. Electric grinned at us. "Not only are my batteries topped up but my impromptu static discharger will keep us safe from all forms of static electricity."

"Including the lightning strikes," I nodded in approval. "Good work."

The man shrugged, "It's the best meal I've had in years. Spicy. I'm just glad my lightning arrestors work as well as they do. I haven't upgraded my systems in years."

"Who the heck is that thing?" Amy pointed at the giant eye as it came closer.

The monster eye had about six or seven iris, one inside the other, flexing constantly around the pupil. As we got closer a deep heartbeat could be heard. Amazingly the cornea that protected the iris must have been miles across, and the eyeball had a fifty miles radius at the least.

"Not sure, but whoever it is sure does like the cold," I flashed mana through my eyes to examine the creature.

The giant eye slowly rotated around and focused on me. No matter how we flew in the wind it stayed perfectly aimed at me. The iris flexed and I felt my own flex in turn.

{Greetings four small creatures on the flying bed!}

{Hello giant eyeball in the sky among the clouds!}

{You're eyes are flashing very pretty colors I've not seen the like before!}

{Your eye is large and complex!}

{Thank you, I have several.} it boasted.

"You're eyeballs are doing lots of weird looking things and so is the giant eyeball," Amy told me of her observations. "What's going on?"

{One moment please while I communicate with my friends}

I looked down and blinked away the strange vision that had overcome my eyes. "I'm talking to the giant eyeball. It flexes its iris in a similar manner to which light signals are used in semaphore towers. Slow down the bed so that we might talk."

I went back to observing the giant eyeball. In truth it was hard not to see it even when not directly looking at it because it took up so much of the sky above us.

The eyeball had not stopped looking at me. In truth it wasn't that strange for an eyeball. It was just magnified out of all proportion. In my opinion, and the others agreed, it was just a very strange thing.

"Strange, right," Amy nodded.

"Very strange," Long John agreed.

"I've seen stranger," Mr. Electric announced.

Standing with one hand on the Bow Port post on the edge of the bed I spoke to the eye once again using my own eyeballs. {I confess, that your abrupt appearance has caused us all some surprise, and startled my companions, and probably a great many others. I hope, however, that this circumstance does not distress you. We shall probably get used to you in time.}

{Do not apologise, I beg you, for what I am! It affords me great joy to surprise people; for I am unique from all that I have seen, far and wide, and am entitled to both curiosity and admiration from those I meet.}

{If you will permit us to get closer I wish to touch you for a brief moment. I am a Planeswalker and when I touch someone new that I like I can make a summons out of it - an energy construct in other words. It also allows me to have the same abilities as they have expressed in my body. While talking to you using my eyes as they are is possible, I think they are being damaged in the process. They hurt.}

{You are, indeed, correct. But do not grief over your inferior orbs. Once I was as small and as limited as yours are now. It took a great amount of time to develop the ability to see all in this realm of mine. I have seen many eyeballs of many creatures and incorporated many of the things I saw in their eyes into my own, through the scientific method. And while you will never see as much as I do, you may be permitted to get at least that much closer.}

The great eyeball flew through the air with such a speed that I knew that if the bed and it were to race all the way back to Earth that he would undoubtedly win. Once he was close enough I reached out with my hand and touched him, gaining a most unique summon, indeed.

Amy also reached out and touched him and unlike most animals that flinch when you go and poke them in the eye he did not flinch back.

"Holly molly!" Amy exclaimed as her own eyes became big and black as they dilated out to their maximum. "This guy's so enhanced he's defying the laws of physics, and I can see it! He can see whatever's happening in an entire solar system, and even beyond that! He can see through to the other side of the planet, see the vibrations of molecules and use that to hear earthquakes happening on the other side of the world, and identify the atomic makeup of everything he sees. He used to have other super senses but they've all been overshadowed by his super eyeball. He can see disruptions in reality, gravity wells, pocket dimensions, the powers from other beings, and a whole bunch else that I don't even know the names of!"

"I need a mirror!" I summoned a ten foot tall silver mirror and put it in the middle of the bed so I could give myself a good look. And what did I see! I could see through the silver mirror to the otherside. My eyes were a miniature version of the big guy overhead. They were each some variant shade of red, with six irises stacked one inside the other.

"Super cool! I've got super eyeball powers!" I did a fist bump.

"But how did he get like that and where did his mouth go?" Amy asked. "If he had a mouth he could tell us."

{You may ask me any question that you please,} said the giant eyeball. {If you would care to translate I will answer as best as I am able, so that you will be able to comprehend what I am and my unusual – my I say remarkable?—appearance.}

"You may tell us your story, we don't mind," said Long John.

So the giant eyeball flew alongside us through the clouds, always facing our little group of wanderers, and told me the following story, so that I might relate it to my friends.

-000-

Worlds visited:

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (departing)

Slumberland of Little Nemo (entering)

Care Bears (passed it by on the way in)

Planet Drool of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D (visited)

Fantasia of The Neverending Story (passed over it)

People we met along the way:

Sharkboy and Lavagirl (heroes), Mr. Electric (very unhappy Utility worker)

Falkor (luck dragon with dog-like features)

Watcher (really big eyeball)

Well, this chapter is quite long enough, I think.

Dream us a better tomorrow, everyone!

Last edited: Wednesday at 6:08 PM

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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NitroNorman

Mar 20, 2020

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Threadmarks Dreamland: Meeting King Morpheus New

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NitroNorman

The Armchair Reader

Monday at 11:54 AM

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#225

Well, looks like I'm on a Furlough. I'm out for a minimum of 4 weeks with nothing to do but write. I'm okay at least. But my heart goes out to those people who don't. Stay strong everyone!

-000-

{It is to the good that I should acknowledge at the beginning of my recital that I was born an ordinary person,} began the creature, in a frank and friendly tone. {Knowing no better, I lived what I thought was an okay life. However I must also admit that it was so long ago I hardly remember it at all.

{One day while traveling I got lost in the fog. The area was cold but not intolerably so, for I wore clothing back then. There was no sun, and yet I knew the passage of time very well. I counted sometimes, and the numbers would get so long I'd forget how my zeros are in them.

{Many times I thought I'd go mad, and sometimes I did. I thought I'd grow old and die, and I think I did that a few times. One day while stumbling around in this dark and damp place I realized that I could see a little better. Just like being in a dark room, I had learned how to use my senses better in the reduced conditions.

{Nothing bothered me. At first I was all alone. But in time as I learned to sharpen my senses to a fine point I learned of other creatures in the fog, but they all missed me. They either missed me completely or found me not appetizing at all. So I did my best to try and learn how to expand my awareness and focused on sharpening my senses for a good long time.

{The creatures in this realm are, doubtless, the most unusual in the land of dreams, and in time I began to hear them as they flew, leaving an unusual scent as they passed by. None were more observant than I, the humble, unseen watcher, as I studied their habits. I learned everything I could of them, and I acquired a fund of knowledge that I must admit is marvelous. That is why I continue to watch, as much as possible, everything around me, for my greatest pride is the fact that none that I have seen are as able to see as much as I.}

"I do not blame you for wanting to keep a good eye on your surroundings," said Long John. "A good set of eyes on a ship is worth its weight in gold in troubled waters. To know the unknowable is to see the unseeable. I've had two eyes all my life, when I lost one I got another. I would not want any less."

"Nevertheless," interrupted Mr. Electric. "I think that having more than eyes is also important. A set of hands to manipulate the world around you, a way to talk, to move, are all very good things to have as well."

The giant eye listened patiently – even respectfully – to these remarks, and then resumed its story.

{I must have spent a great deal of time in this realm, observing all that's observable, learning all that's knowable.

{But one day,} continued the eyeball, {a marvelous circumstance occurred that altered my very existence and brought me to my present pinnacle of greatness. The creatures that I observed as a small thing was swallowed by one of the flying monsters without being noticed, and before I could escape fell through the body and was made a part of it.

{But so great was my knowledge that the mindless beast could hardly contain me. Then I made my way through its huge body and eventually ended up in its eyeball where I hoped to get out through its tear ducts.

{But then I pondered, as I often do; this circumstance might be to my benefit. Within this creature's eyeball I might be able to see more miraculous things, and travel far and wide besides that! So I made a home inside that head behind the eyeball and got to see even more miraculous things and watch even more bizarre things happening.

{Time was meaningless and I learned even more than ever before. I learned how to manipulate myself as the creatures do. I even created some creatures of my own. Here's a picture of one.}

Author: The best image I could find of a Dreen, sorry

The floating giant eyeball projected an image in the air of an alien creature. It was a creature shaped like an upturned basket, egg-like, with large floppy ears draped over each side of the body with tiny ear holes at the top, a small mouth at the bottom of the body, resting on four legs symmetrically located at four points around its fat bottom. The legs were only a foot long; the body was five feet tall. The face had a sharp horn like nose/tool. No neck, no shoulders. But it did have a rat's nest of pink hair on top.

I really hoped that the giant eyeball couldn't see my thoughts. Because if he did than he would know by now that he is the creators of the Dreen. The creature is one of the less known aliens from Frank Herbert and Brian Herbert's book A Man of Two Worlds. The Dreen are capable of idmage. Idmage-ing is done by rotating their eyeballs completely around inside their head to look at their brains. The Dreen have an ultimate ability that allowed them to shape shift completely into anything they wanted, and more. They could imagine, idmage, a thing and create something from nothing with just the power of their minds. They could create living monsters to fight meaningless battles as children to entertain themselves. They also don't die of old age. They could idmage that there was always room enough for everyone on their planet, and it grew so large it had its roots in infinity. The Dreen eventually imagine up the entire universe, including everything in it. Should the Dreen die or forget that a thing exists then the thing would collapse into nothingness, including the dust and junk that eventually made, after a few billion years, the star system of Earth!

{I haven't seen them in a while though. I lost them and I am still looking for them. If you find them please let me know.}

Well at least I might have a very good idea of where they went.

{So while I looked for my creations and continued to learn I also continued to develop my senses. Eventually I settled onto the form you see now, and continued to watch what I want as it pleases me.

{It eventually occurred to me that there were things I couldn't see no matter how well developed I am. With this idea in mind I divided myself so that my other eye could watch what I wasn't watching, and together we had good binocular vision. Eventually I might make another eye. But for now I am content to be as I am.}

"Nice story!" Mr. Electric clapped his clawed and three fingered hands together.

"It was, indeed," I agreed. I pulled out a book from Hammerspace. {If you will care to observe this book, you will see that one of your creations ended up in a story.}

{I see that my creations have gotten up to a bit of mischief!} observed the giant eyeball. {It is unfortunate, but we must bring this meeting to a close.}

The giant eyeball looked off into the distance. There was a titanic thrust of some kind and a path was cut through the clouds as if punched through by a laser.

{To the end of this hole in the clouds is the beginning of Slumberland. Observe it well,} remarked the large eye. {Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find a dream about the Dreen – nice to remember their name once again! – and give them a good talking to. When I see them again I will have to observe them very carefully to understand all that they have done and to make sure that none of it is undone through harm. Have a good trip.}

Having said that to me in his own special way the giant eyeball met up with his other eyeball and took off through the clouds at great speed. And when he was gone I could hardly believe that I wouldn't meet up with him again.

"Well that was interesting," Mr. Electric observed. "Do things like that happen all the time?"

"More frequently than before," I admitted. I had that floaty feeling again that usually only comes with a near-death experience. I dismissed the silver mirror and sat down on where it had been. "Let's continue. Full power Amy."

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Amy turned the knob and we flew off down the tunnel with remarkable swiftness.

I hardly paid any attention at all. I just left the book out and occasionally paged through it. Mr. Long John Silver took the book from me and, with Mr. Electric looking over his shoulder, started reading it.

I had just sent what was arguably the greatest pervert in the history of dreams on a journey through the dimensions. Someone was going to be having nightmares involving flying naked eyeballs and it wasn't just going to be me. Just goes to show you that even nice things can be stupidly powerful and bloody dangerous even when they don't mean harm to anyone.

I looked at my hands and idmage a pound of uranium in a lead box. My eyeballs rotated all the way around in my skull. The box appeared in my hands. I didn't bother opening it to look inside because unlike superman my eyesight was unimpaired. A little, but not really. I held the box of weapon's grade nightmare fuel up to my chest and let my little Singularity Butterfly eat the whole thing before going back to his/her/its beauty sleep.

Weirdness is a hell of a thing to have on a late afternoon.

This could have easily gone very badly. I had no idea if the thing could see my thoughts. But after being able to see through matter and being able to see the construction of atomic matter, being able to decipher the electrical signals in a brain seemed like the logical next step to me. Mr. Giant Eye in the Sky was at least a few dozen levels beyond that.

This was the second time I've met with things that can read my mind. Three things if you count the Writer Guy I noticed in the fourth-wall while at the Samurai Pizza Cats universe. Writer Guy had also erased from my mind what I'd seen on his computer. I'd put a check-mark next to him for a willing to mess with my brain. I'd also messed with people's brains, so I can't throw stones. But continuing on being hopeful of other people's good intentions was in no way a good idea. Even when they're nice they can just as accidentally screw you over into next week with an "oops, my finger slipped." Putting you back together afterwards wouldn't erase the fact that you had been taken apart in the first place.

After I get my Staff I'm finding a brain fortress and putting on my head.

That will at least be a step in the right direction when I meet up with the Simurgh and prevent having my brain go through the wash cycle. I like my meats where they are, thankyou.

"We need to find a way from stopping other creatures from screwing over our minds," I announced to one and all.

"Good luck with that," Amy deadpanned. "I don't suppose you asked Mr. Watcher in the Skies what he thought about us?"

"Unfortunately he left before I could ask many relevant questions. If we get the chance I'll ask his summons. Lots of questions, that is," I promised.

"Shame. Maybe he knows how to deal with the Entities already," Amy remarks. She turns back to guiding the bed as it moves through Dream space clouds.

After some deliberations I admit, "He could probably look right through them to their shards and tell you how they all worked," and wouldn't he have been nice to have as a researcher? "I'd have liked to hire him onto my staff but I have no idea how I would pay him. He'd probably do the job just to see new things. But then again he'd probably go off looking at things mankind would be better off not knowing. And seeing as how he's not ... well, whatever he was - is? - anymore those rules wouldn't apply to him."

I briefly use my new eyes to look at Amy's head. I've gotta admit, I was seeing things that not even my mana enhanced sight could see. I'd read through a few dictionaries in quite a few languages at this point just to understand alien technologies, and I don't have the proper words to describe what I'm seeing. But it would involve music, food, and colors.

At the end of the tunnel was another realm. Like Fantasia it had no boundaries or limitations, so it went on forever in all directions.

When we broke through the crystal cloud I knew we were there. Down below us was an immense moat. Clouds, rain, and oceans of sand were constantly falling into it. There were also a good number of random people from all walks of life appearing from thin air to fall into the thing too.

I gave it a look, and no matter how I focused my new eyes I could never see the bottom. "The moat is made so that the bottom is always far away from prying eyes," I announced my observation to my friends and employees.

"That's really deep. Deep and meaningful, in the mental way that is," Amy said as she too leaned out to get a look.

"Bet me last shilling that that's what people see when they're falling out of bed," Long John said. "They never hit the bottom. I wonder if I'll recognize anything?"

"~ Where nothing here never is exactly what it seems ~" I said with wonder. "Welcome to Slumberland everyone."

I got out a pad of paper and started to write. "We'd better sing the song, just in case. We don't want anyone to think we're unhappy. The whole land might work together to make us happy."

"Is that a threat?" Amy asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Slumberland is an elegant and safe place made by the dreams of every person who was once a child; endless amounts of hot foods and sweets, the best drinks to be quaffed, and not a single sourpuss to be found anywhere."

Amy asked, "What do you mean, not a single sourpuss?"

"Actually, not a single unpleasant person to be found no matter where you look."

"This is true," Mr. Electric remarked. "You would not believe how weird things can get when an artist – or worse! – a bard comes around. Architects will rearrange the landscape to make magnificent cities. Sailors will command huge fleets of ships to plunder everything in sight. Dragon tamers would conjure up dragons big enough to darken the sun. King Morpheus has spent ungodly amounts of time creating his kingdom. If he wants everyone to be happy, then happy is what we shall be."

"Sounds like Anthony Fremont." Amy remarked with a bit of fear in her voice.

"Yes, I'm sure he visits periodically when he sleeps as well," Mr. Electric said.

"Who is that now?" Long John asked.

I looked at John and tried to explain to him who Anthony Fremont is: "Anthony Fremont is a three-year-old boy with near-godlike power from the story "It's a Good Life." The character can transform other people or objects into anything he wishes, think new things into being, teleport himself and others where he wishes, read the minds of people and animals and even revive the dead, and he's been able to do that since he was born. It is assumed that he either disappeared the town he lives in to another dimension, or made the world go away. He disappeared all the clocks because his mother scolded him for being late coming home to supper. He disappeared all the vehicles because he nearly got hurt walking across the road, and disappeared all the people that were in them. Although many who read the story believe that someone tried to kill the kid by running him over. One day his Aunt tried to sing because she was actually happy for a moment, Fremont's mind snapped at her because he doesn't like music, and turned her into a mute vacant-eyed thing that will sing no more. And when those eyes look at you, you'd better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge."

Long John broke out into a cold sweat. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handkerchief and gave his face a wipe. "Blimey! And this be the person we're going to go see?"

I shook my head, "No. This is the King we're going to pay our respects to. But don't be afraid. Can't you hear the music? I think that's Princess Camille singing on her harp. So just listen to the song, and relax. No need to be uptight." I leaned out of the bed with on hand on the Plug wrapped around the port bow post. "This is a good place."

The moat on infinite depth gave way to lands that once again seemed to never end. The clouds were white around the edge of the moat but came in light peach and green as well as blue. Behind the clouds there was an immense air fair, thousands of hot air balloons holding baskets and carriages and miniature castles. Clowns on bicycles were peddling in the air supported by incredible numbers of balloons. There were boats and tiny little toll booths with chimneys in them as well. There were more floats from parades, a good number holding up signs that said to one and all:

"WELCOME TO SLUMBERLAND!"

"They really roll out the welcome here, don't they?" Mr. Electric remarked with a sneer.

"Good morning!" An ice-cream man threw us a few frozen treats from his bicycle cart as we flew on by. "Have a sweet!"

We waved. It was only polite.

"I feel like Dorothy Gale in the Wizard of Oz," Amy remarked as she uncovered her frozen treat. "Oh! This is made out of honey!"

"Old style handmade ice," Long John remarked.

Mr. Electric picked up the ones that had fallen on the bed and handed them to me. "Here."

There were really a lot of people who liked flying.

There were more than one guy who was just hanging onto a lot of balloons tied to his feet and legs. People flew around on swans, birds, crows, snakes and donkeys with wings. The balloons could be like those you got in a store, hot air balloons of immense size, or five foot wide beach balls covered with stripes, polka dots and stars. One clown that floated by was just holding onto an umbrella.

That wasn't even getting into the number of aircraft and dirigibles. And while we were wondering at the ingenuity and genius of the inventors one of the flying machines wove itself between them and headed directly towards us.

However one of the most distinct was an old box-styled biplane with Da Vinci's five fingered bat wings on the ends that had to have come from 19-teens model kit. The box shaped structure had no engine and room for only one person, the pilot sitting out in the open cockpit, holding onto his stick above a pair of bicycle wheels. He maneuvered through the air like an ordinary hand glider with no difficulty at all.

I took out a book from my Hammerspace titled Aircraft, The Complete Guide, and started rifling through its pictures. "Jetcraft, no. Aircraft, no. Helicopters, no. Warplanes, no, no, no, nope, nada, ah!" I pointed. "Adventures in flight! Bleriot monoplane, well that's close. But this one is a biplane glider. The Otto Linthiel Glider comes closer. But, no, that's not quite right…" having run out of pictures to look through and with nothing that was very accurate, I threw my book back into my Hammerspace in disgust.

The young man who flew the craft was dressed leather boots that went nearly up to his knees, brown-green pants, white shirt, brown-green aviation jacket, a long white scarf, red cap and blond hair. The kid took off his red hat to show off an air-blown mop of blond hair before firmly jamming it back down into place and said:

"Good morning!" he yelled at us.

"GOOD MORNING!" we all yelled back.

"That's a nice looking bed you've got there!" the pilot exclaimed. "I am the Flying Squirrel Icarus of Slumberland. May I inquire who you are, and what is your business?"

I cupped my hands over my mouth and yelled back, "I'm Planeswalker Nova Ender and these are my companions," I returned, smilingly; "but as to my business, we're here to see King Morpheus! And pay our respects!" I added.

"All of you?" we nodded.

The Flying Squirrel of Slumberland looked surprised, and then shook his head, grinning as if knowing of some private joke. "This is a very strange meeting!" declared the young lad, "But you seem harmless. Folks do not smile so delightfully when they mean mischief."

"I always smile when I'm up to mischief!" I yelled back.

"Yes, but not make MEAN mischief, which is entirely something else entirely," Icarus yelled back. "So come on down, to the palace, and I will see what can be done for you!"

We rode the bed in the direction the biplane went through all the flying craft, and never straight at all, but in long curves and ups and downs.

"Good!" cried Amy the surgeon, delightedly. "We do not need to get into any more adventures with weird things, now that we have arrived."

Gradually the Bed sank lower and nearer to the ground until at last it came to rest within the beautiful gardens of the palace of Slumberland, settling upon a velvety green lawn of such quality that you could play a game of croquet or golf and never a judge would find it lacking in quality. Close by a fountain which sent sprays of flashing gems, instead of water, high into the air, whence they fell with a soft, tinkling sound into the carved marble basin placed to receive them. And these were but the least of the decorations to be found.

Everything was very gorgeous in the gardens and expertly shaped with incredibly vibrant colors, and while we looked around and Icarus climbed off of his great craft a company of soldiers silently appeared and surrounded us. But these soldiers were dressed entirely in green and equipped with halberds, very tall green hats and dark green pointed shoes. They had not a hair on their heads except their eyebrows and eyelashes; and they marched with a skill and precision that proved them well trained in the arts of war.

The garden's bushes nearby suddenly opened and a curious kid of undetermined sex came out. To distinguish girl from boy here, you either needed a keen eye or a lot of experience, for they either dressed the same, here, or so outlandishly that mistake one for the other, and the hair of both was allowed to get as long as they liked and then bound it up in elaborate costumes so that it would get out of their way.

Fortunately my experience was up to the challenge and I decided that she was a girl would any help at all from my new eyes, helped along a tad by my nose, which was twitching the fragrance she gave off, which I identified as thaumatin (also known as talin) that is the sweetest known substance on Earth. It is 1,600 times as sweet as sucrose.

Starting from the bottom she wore white pointed shoes with little puff balls on top, her long muscular legs covered in yellow and red stripes, white short shorts and extremely puffy, the vest was red with pink trim and yellow buttons, the sleeves were green with ruffles at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. And topping it all off on top of her peach colored and very poufy hair was the hat, a tall sugar ice cream cone with a tiny apple dipped in candy on top, each diamond colored either red or green.

Only my new eyes allowed me to take in all her features at a glance, for she was not only very beautiful but expertly crafted, as she was entirely made out of candy.

She quickly came whizzing into the garden sitting on top of a ball. The ball was divided from the north and south poles into alternating stripes of red and white, with a band of blue around the middle decorated with yellow stars.

The Candy Kid came right up to us and stopped so abruptly that anyone in the acrobat industry would have expected her to fall upon her face and smash her nose. Instead she spun around a few times, as firmly attached to the ball as if she could never be dislodged and the ball firmly attached by a powerful spring bolted to the ground on a track we couldn't see and gave every appearance of not being there. I know, because I checked!

She kicked out her legs, bounced up and down on her knees on her ball bouncing up and down in the middle of the air, and came to a complete stop, sitting on it and completely fine.

She jingled and jangled when she stopped.

"Well who do we have here?" she stood up on her floating ball and gave a most improbabley low bow with respectful salutations. "The name is Bonbon, at your service." She turned to Icarus who now joined us and took off his goggles and hat, putting the former into the latter, and hanging them onto his belt. She then asked before we could get a word in, "Who have you brought to us this day, Icarus?"

The young man said, "This strange group came from the area of the great big eyes and came asking for an audience with the King."

Bonbon asked, "What do they want to visit the King for?"

"That is His Majesty's business," returned Icarus. "I have troubles enough of my own. All outside troubles must be turned over to His Majesty."

"Huh?" The Candy Kid with the multicolored outfit looked at us with much care and curiosity, her emerald green eyes flashing when they blinked. Finally, she shook her head positively, and then said, "His Majesty is waiting for very important guests to arrive and desires that they be promptly delivered to him as soon as possible, so nothing can delay their arrival. Other than them he's not seeing anyone until his business with them is done. Sorry."

Awe dang.

Icarus asked, "Then what should we do with them until then?"

"Put them up in the guest quarters and give them a tour of the city, of course. However," Bonbon pointed at us. "If I knew who you are I might be able to schedule you in for later."

"Good day!" I said, gallantly sweeping my right arm before me as if doffing a hat I did not have and giving a bow to the girl, my head almost touching the ground, but my hair staying where I wanted it on my back and out of the way, while the rest of my companions did their best to imitate my movements; "My name is Nova Ender. I am a Planeswalker. My friends: Amy Dallon the Panacea, and my employees: Long John Silver the cook, and Mr. Electric my electrical engineer. We have come to request an audience with your fair Ruler."

Bonbon clapped her hands together. "A Planeswalker, truly?" She then placed one hand on the top of the ball she was sitting on, unfolded her legs, then bent her body up and up and over her head so that for a moment she was doing a single handstand on top of her ball, then continued folding herself over until both feet touched the ground, standing upright before me with the ball in her hands on her hip.

Then the acrobat said, "Then it is to the good that you are here. King Morpheus is now within his palace, awaiting you to arrive," said the Candy Kid; "for he saw you coming long before you arrived."

"That is remarkably well informed!" said Long John, wonderingly.

"And very true," BonBon replied, turning around three or four times as she pirouetted to lead us inside, holding her ball on her hip. "For King Morpheus is the God of Dreams, and nothing goes on in the lands of Dreams and Nightmares that escapes his notice. I suppose he knows why you came as well you do."

"Anthony Fremont-ish," whispered Mr. Electric to Long John Silver, who nodded.

"Well let's not keep the big man waiting, since he expects us," I said.

In truth there was only one thing we could do: Look to our guides and do everything they asked of us to the best of our ability.

We crossed the garden and through a side gate, then stepped onto the palace's stones. The doors opened silently, and half a dozen servants invited us to mount up on four small couches arranged on a palanquin placed between a quartet of elephants. A quartet of well-dressed elephants that is; all in red velvet robes with blue trim and silver tassels, their tusks capped with gold and their ears full of earrings, decorated with enough jewels that you almost couldn't see the metal. This was class; I had to hand it to them.

Once properly mounted in their preferred chair, an easy-back for me, some deeply furred sofa that nearly swallowed Amy whole in one gulp, a leather throne for Long John, a metal and rubber high backed bench with plug-in sockets at the appropriate places for Mr. Electric, the four elephants decided together that it was time to stop lazing about and work off their last meal and get up off the ground so they could go for a walk.

They just so decided then that they might as well take us with them.

We were carried along in this fashion for quite some time for what seemed to be forever. Numerous empty hallways were passed along the way, and I stopped counting at some point. Back and forth, this way and that we went. I at first thought they were trying to confuse us, except sometimes when we were passing by a window I'd see a mountain in one, an ocean in another, the underground with a lake of lava in a third, or some alien planet from the vantage point of a mountain on another world, and I think I saw a theme park in black and white.

"Was that Disney's City of Tomorrow?" Amy asked as her suit tracked everything with its extra eyes.

"I think so. But wouldn't that make it Walt Disney Disneyland, from 1955?" I asked.

"Probably." she shrugged.

Finally I determined that this was the only way to get anywhere: Slumberland had its own ways of doing things, they did not involve mile markers and directions. It was either this way or not at all. The interior spaciousness of the house made a permanent impression on me, and from the outside it had looked to be bigger than a mountain already.

Finally we arrived at a great hall that was only very extremely large and half filled with people that looked as if they had only just arrived after announcing the latest events at the circus by walking through town on parade. Each of them was half-undressed, lounging about on chairs and sofas, fanning themselves with feathered fans and quaffing drinks from a serving table half a mile long poured over ice chopped from a brick that had probably been ten feet tall at some point, while another set of servants worked to remove makeup and repair costumes getting ready for the next great performance.

We flowed around this group to the other end of the room, our stretcher-bearers long noses pointed unerringly in the direction of the buffet, showing to one and all exactly where they wanted to go. Eventually we arrived, were unloaded, then the Elephants deposited their carrier into an unused corner of the room, then they went to go visit the restroom and to go get some drinks themselves.

Upon his Throne up two flights of stairs of natural blue Lapis lazuli quartz crystal stone sat his Majesty King Morpheus, and the big man could scarcely repress a smile as his guests finally arrived and bowed down before him.

I was later to learn that he had appeared a little differently to each of us, but we all agreed upon a common theme. A giant of a man that was always a head higher than the tallest person in the room, great big arms, long white beard that went all the way to his waste. To me he was decked out in kingly blue tiger striped robes, to Amy in black flowing robes covered in the stars of the cosmos from ancient Greece, to Long John Silver in green fur coats like a ruler of Vikings, to Mr. Electric in a yellow sultan's outfit complete with hat like out of an Arabian Knights.

Bonbon took her place to the right of the bottom of the stairs while Icarus took his place to the left of the bottom of the stairs and came to attention.

Bonbon began, "Presenting! Nova Ender, Amy Dallon, Long John Silver, Mr. Electric! All to greet His Majesty!"

We bowed to show our respect the protector of everyone's good dreams.

This was when the King, our hospitable host, covered his eyes with his right hand and announced:

"I greet you as if in a waking dream!"

We did our best to repeat the performance.

"Well somebody get our guests a drink, they look parched from traveling dust and sleeping sand!" he bellowed, and things happen. A dozen clowns appeared in an instant, each one competing to be more outlandish than the other, with at least two trays in each hand and sometimes one upon their head, loaded down with refreshment. Nothing more would be said until we drained a few of them.

"Well met travelers," King Morpheus kept a hold of a coconut the size of a barrel keg equipped with a silly straw and an entire umbrella of the normal sort. "You've done me a great service getting that Watcher to go after his forgotten and long lost Dreen. That guy has always been looking into things I wish he wouldn't and been frightening every visitor I've had for a while. I know why you've come; you seek the Dyracchion, created in a time long ago when humans believed in their dreams enough to make magic work."

"This is true," I said.

"You wish to use the staff to help fight the perils of Amy's world, as well as defeat to Endbringers there, the one who created them and the one who controls them unknowingly," continued the Dream. "And if you cannot do that you wish to run with as many refugees as you can to escape their clutches before their days are ended."

"This is true," I said.

"Therefore you have to come to me to beg for my assistance," resumed the King, "Believing that I can help you."

"That is also true," I said, slowly. "But I'm not sure if I can oppose the Endbringers or the Entity, or if I should run. As far as I know all the humans there are all fine right now. Do I have the right to make such a decision, and how will I know I've chosen the right one? Will you give me your assistance?"

"In answer to your first question, which should always be obvious with hindsight, is that you have the right to do as you please simply because you are a Planeswalker," he announced plainly and simply. Then he took a long draft of his drink through his crazy straw. "What right does the ant and the lion have to exist? Answer: Both equally well. Yet when the lion walks it tramples the ant, it doesn't even know the ant is there. Leaders of nations are chosen through various procedures, gods by other means, still others are born into it. I am a God by divine right. The difference between us is that I was recognized by many beings long ago, the Greeks and comic book writers most recently. Outside of my realm I am nothing but another old man and not a very strong one at that, in this realm my power is absolute. You are beyond me. You wield the power of a God; you can create, change, destroy, to walk the Blind Eternities where no god fears to tread. You can also raise the dead, I cannot."

The man paused for a moment to climb down further from his throne to my level, taking another sip of his drink, "Furthermore," continued King Morpheus, "The nature of the crisis on Earth Bet is such that it admitted that only a solution from godlike being could provide. You are that solution. You are coming into your godlike abilities, you enjoy using your godlike powers, you do not shrug off the responsibilities that come with them, nor the equally awesome moral burden."

Oh great stars, he's giving me the birds and the bees. I wanted to reply, but the words would not come.

"Allow me to show you this, so that I may help you with your second question," Ming Morpheus said, and waved his hand.

The walls of the room were painted so well that the clouds on them were moving and you could walk right through the walls into the outside. From the painted sky one of the far away clouds came off the wall and floated over to be besides the King. Inside a moment of time was frozen displaying the events that occurred elsewhere. Morpheus asked:

"Tell me what you see, Traveler."

I took a moment. "This seems to be a Rorschach test, King Morpheus," the man nodded. "Then what I see appears to be a woman experiencing a sexual fantasy. Her boss is choking her and ravaging her over her desk at her place of work and is getting off on it."

The King shook his head. The image leapt forwards in time by about a few seconds and a shotgun appeared at the bottom of the dream sequence before blowing the man's head clean off from the other side of the room.

"This is the memory of a man with frustrated feelings for his office worker, who found that his boss was blackmailing the girl, and was now in the midst of killing her. He then went to his car to retrieve his gun and blew the monster away before it could take her life," he dismissed the dream and the cloud went back to the wall. "Depending on your point of view it could be a dream, or a nightmare, a vision of things to come, a regret, or a most cathartic expression of pent-up release. The man who dreams this dream enjoyed killing his boss, because the man really was a monster, even though he never did get the girl." He paused, "Do you understand?"

"Life is never perfect," I said.

"The truth is that you will never be one hundred percent sure of anything you do," answered the King. "Nova Ender, there is no rational, perfect, equitable, scientific, technological, or human answer to the dilemma of saving an entire planetary populous operating under assumptions, outright lies, misapplied strengths, secret groups and hidden monsters under the bed. It admits to answering only with miracles – an outside context problem, fantasy in a scientific world, cheats and the like. Your appearance in the Earth Bet you know of has already altered the timeline. While you have done well to allow Panacea to grow and develop, she was not there to stop the deaths she could have stopped."

Amy nearly folded up on the spot, but she had more spine than that and kept her eyes up. Good for her.

"It is also to the good that Amy was allowed to live," he continued on. "Her power is incredibly dangerous, and should not be used until she has grown in wisdom and strength. However she has not been afforded that opportunity. You have given her a little bit of that, which is more than what most can say for her mother."

Amy balled up her fists and seemed to growl.

"Then what should I do?" I asked.

The guardian of all dreams reached out with his left hand to the air and with thumb and pointer finger gripe a bit of it between his digits. So pinched, the god pulled downwards and exposed from out of nothingness a staff of red wood as tall as I am, with etchings expertly carved into the length of it. He takes hold of the staff and presents it to me. "First you will receive your staff Dyracchion. It's the least I can do for getting rid of the Watcher from my neighborhood. Just remember to always pay your debts."

"The weapon is something I receive," I reiterate as I take the stick of wood into both my hands.

"Unfortunately I cannot provide a power source," King Morpheus said, then winked.

I remove an Amber crystal from Hammerspace. It was the same kind of crystal as I'd gotten from the Dragon Flyz universe. I really should put a team on researching all it could do. I then charge it up with some golden mana before inserting it into a slot in the staff with a smile. "Somehow I don't think that will be a problem, your Majesty."

"And this as well," King Morpheus reached behind his back and pulled out his Royal Scepter. I swear it wasn't there before. Gold and four feet long with a gradually thickening hexagonal shaft capped with four petals around an incredibly green jeweled sphere of incredible depth. "Well, go on; make a summons out of the artifact! Something tells me you'll need it."

I reach out to touch the Royal Scepter, "A prediction?"

"The obvious," he replied. "Between this and a connection to the lands of Slumberland you should be able to power it with a fraction of human dreams. It's not the genuine article of course. But at least you'll be able to keep certain creatures from trying to enter your world through children's nightmares. That'll help us both."

I reached out to touch the Royal Scepter. I'd have to power it with one unit of Slumberland mana for every ten units of normal blue mana to power it.

"Nova Ender, I acknowledge you."

From one end of the realm to the other I felt the universe tremble. I'd just been acknowledged by one of the Big Seven Gods!

"Now, what do you say to that?" King Morpheus asked.

"Thank you?" I wasn't sure what to say to that. But I knew of something I could. I say as I gained a bit of Adamantium in my spine: "I will save as many as I can." And looked him right in the eye.

"The right answer," he nodded. "Oh, and one more thing!" he reached out to the back of my head and pulled me in for a brief kiss on the lips. "WAKE UP!"

"Wha-"

-000-

"-aat?" my eyes blasted the sleeping sand out of my lashes as I sat up in a forest of maple trees surrounded by fall leaves. I looked left then right and found my sleeping companions all around me, snoring heavily with their drinks still in their hands. Where they drugged? In the distance where a single ray of light pierced through the canvas overhead was the Dream Bed. I touched my lips with my left hand, the right occupied by the Staff of Dyracchion. They tasted like mangos. "The man's got style."

-000-

Didn't expect that, did you?

Worlds visited:

Slumberland from Little Nemo.

People met:

Icarus the Flying Squirrel in human form.

Bonbon the Candy Kid

King Morpheus

Items acquired:

Idmage eyes from the maker of the Dreen. Yes, these eyes really are as overpowered as I make them seem. Imagine that if you looked at a brick and thought hard enough your eyeballs will roll into the back of your head and turn it into an animal of whatever else your imagination can conceive. Including themselves. This is the kind of power that's usually only given to horror movie monsters like the IT or Anthony Fremont. But the Dreen are kind of autistic and are only a threat if they happen to forget your solar system is supposed to exist.

The Staff of Dyracchion. It comes from a movie I liked to watch. Takes a couple of reruns to understand what's going on because it was made cheaply and is also a bit of a mind twister. You can look it up, but that's spoilers. I'll go over it more in the next chapter.

The Royal Scepter. The only defense Slumberland has against the Nightmare King. Shoots out a big blue ray that explodes its target with what looks like an atomic bomb in psychedelic colors; but you won't go blind if you look at it. Also comes with a long and funny activation phrase. But if you want to learn what that is, you'll have to watch the movie.

Last edited: Wednesday at 6:07 PM

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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#228

-000-

Learning about one's powers can be dangerous. This is especially true if someone in a silk suit of royal garments just gives them to you, spins you around, and leaves you in another dimension, in a forest, near a river, on another continent, across the ocean than from the one you started off at.

I got a Staff.

Do these seem familiar to you? They do to me.

The staff is this red wooden carved thing called the Scepter of Dyracchion. I got the idea to get it from the Crossworld movie. Not a very good movie, mind. But they did a pretty good job of conveying what a bunch of reality warpers would look like if they fought. It's pretty dated now but it still holds up on what that kind of fight would look like where if one punch would send you into a desert, another fist to the face would send you into a land of snow, and a trip with your feet would send you plumbing off a cliff that wasn't there a second ago as you're bounced between parallel dimensions.

The staff comes from the dawn of myth when people believed in magic so much that they could make it work. It's a pretty solid cylinder of wood with carvings an eighth-of-an-inch-deep that look like vines with leaves, with one end slightly thinner and the other end slightly thicker. For the life of me I can't figure out how it looks different every time I take my eyes off it. Nothing is squirming under my hand, the weight doesn't change. It's even fooling my new Watcher eyes. But I'm assuming that it's got more abilities than being the bazooka equivalent to a dimension-stepping reality warping weapon.

The amber crystal I have inserted into it is working, I think, a power source. Or maybe a key. There's a slot in the side of the staff that appears when I want to plug it in. It disappears when I take it out.

It seems otherworldly still even when it's supposed to be powered off. More real. Like the staff was being projected onto the screen with the latest million dollar special effects, and the rest of the world used cheap 1996 B-Grade movie making technology.

Amy asked as she woke up from her nap, "Why am I staring up at the forest canopy?"

I sat on the bed looking the staff over and over again. "Have a good sleep?"

Amy stretched and reached for the sky, "Very good morning," she yawned and looked around. "'scuse me. Where are we and how did we get here? What happened to Slumberland?"

I waited for the other two to wake up.

Long John stretched out like a bear on all fours before climbing to his feet. Mr. Electric's big TV face went from static to showing his face all in one go, standing up and looking around in bewilderment.

Long John found his hat on the ground and mounted it on his head. "What in the blue blazes happened?"

"All I can remember is everything going dark when I blinked," Mr. Electric said. "And then I was here."

"Did the same thing happen to you?" Amy asked me. "Wait. Didn't he kiss you?"

I nodded. "Yes. The man of my dreams kissed me."

"Ha!" Long John slapped at Mr. Electric, who was also laughing. "Stole a kiss from a firefly red-head and got away with it. Now that's the kind of scoundrel I like!"

Good naturally I said, "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," I touched my lips. "Well the guy is the king of course. I might have said yes you know. Well, maybe not. I guess. Not sure how we got here."

"Lots of people in dreams use the same trick," Mr. Electric waved it off like it was nothing special. "You think you're doing something, went through the whole process of going down the rabbit hole, but when you open your eyes you're still under a tree where you've been taking a nap this whole time. Ever hear of Alice in Wonderland?" he opened his eyes wider and nodded, "Yeah, same thing. Only difference is that you ended up with something in your hand. That's incredibly dangerous. Good way to bring monsters into the real world. Wouldn't recommend it. Nope."

Amy came to look at the staff. "Is that it?"

I nodded, "Yes it is. Care to have a look?" I held it out to her.

"Don't mind if I do," she took a hold of the staff, then frowned. "I can't tell what it's made of. One moment I'd swear it was pine, and then it's redwood, oak, cherry, ash, beech- My Shard is twitching." She let go. "So what does it do?"

"I'm not sure of that myself. One thing that I'm pretty sure of is that you can't use it unless the person who has it gives it to you. That right there is a neat little feature," I stood up off the bed. "Let's see what we can do with it."

For my first experiments I actually tried to get rid of the staff and the amber crystal, a few times, just to see what would happen.

I put them down on a rock and walked away.

"Should we really be doing that?" Long John asked as we followed the human made dirt road before us. It looked like a nature trail to me. "You spent so much effort to get it. Why would you leave it behind like that?"

I assured him, "Just trust me on this. If it does what I think it does we can always go back."

Half a time later, on the other end of the road near the bottom of a hill, in the middle of a meadow, I found the staff and crystal waiting for me perched on that exact same rock. It was the same rock stuck up out of the ground and the same landscape. The tree nearest to it giving it shade was the same one from the forest that was butted up against the rock. But the hill was still behind me.

"Didn't we just leave that behind on the hill?" Long John pointed at it, then looked back at where we just came from.

"Apparently not," Amy said. "That is weird."

"It is dream logic," Mr. Electric smirked because he knew what this was all about.

"Come on. Let's go check where we left."

I picked up the staff and golden amber crystal and walked back up the road where I'd come from to where the ground was flat. My confused companions followed behind me like baby ducks.

Retracing our footprints took me back to near where we appeared in this world a little while ago. And do you know what I found? I found that the landscape was missing and replaced with the other landscape from the other end of the road. The road didn't have a slice missing out of it, the rocks and trees and moss fit together like they'd always been there. Even the leaves fallen on the ground were undisturbed. But I knew in my heart and in my Planeswalker Spark that this landscape used to be somewhere else.

The next thing I tried was to actually throw the staff away.

We went to the river.

Mr. Electric put his hands behind his head and grinned, in on the joke. Long John Silver frowned at the staff. Amy was smiling, eager to see what would happen next.

"Ready?" I asked them.

"Aye," Long John said. "Toss her!"

"Aye," Amy said, almost at the same time as Long John. Then she said, "I want to see what happens with my own eyes."

So I tossed the staff into the river just to see what would happen. See, there was a beaver damn about a mile down the way out of our collective sight, so I knew the staff couldn't go far. I didn't want to lose it permanently, mind. I'm not stupid. I just wanted to see what would happen.

What occurred was that as soon as the Staff of Dyracchion was out of sight down the river bend it reappeared upstream floating down the river to where we were at. Some turbulence from the river had it land right in front of me on the river bed. Like it was fate or something.

Mr. Electric said, "Yup, knew that would happen."

I picked it up and checked it over. It wasn't damaged or anything.

"Wait here," I cautioned my friends. Then I walked away.

I walked over to a tree and leaned the staff against it from the other side. Then I walked around the tree. Then I carefully backed up until I was across the road back to the river. Then I walked past my friends.

Behind them I reached behind a new tree and …

You can see where I'm going with this, right?

… and grabbed the Scepter of Dyracchion right out from out of the shadows.

I looked back across the road where the tree was standing all innocent-like. I was half tempted to go over and look around the back of it and check it out.

"You know what?" I say to the people all around me. "This is getting into some real loony toons weirdness. But you also know what? I'm not going to look. Nope! Just in case the Staff still over there," I nod, and then keep walking down the road.

"Well at least you're not a complete fool," Mr. Electric followed behind us.

A complete fool? Me? Of course not.

But I didn't say anything out loud.

-000-

Earth, 1975, California beach, BattleTech Earth.

One moment there was nothing. Then in the next I was there, stepping between the eye blinks onto a California beach. The smell, the wind, the sun on the back of my neck, heck even the gravity seemed different and yet somehow undeniably right.

I looked to my left and right. Mr. Electric had his hand on Long John, who had his hand on my left shoulder. Amy had her hand on my right shoulder.

I seemed to be getting the hang of this.

I turned to my employee and said, "You'll have to be in my Hammerspace for a bit. This is a mundane earth," I explained.

The big guy looked down and kicked at the sand. "That's fine. I don't want to get any sand in my machinery. I'll see you all later then," he waved goodbye as I made him disappear.

I wasn't a complete fool you know.

I looked at my friends. "We need to change our clothes. Let's tour the beach okay?"

Amy nodded. "I'm okay with that."

Long John said, "When the sun comes up this place will be swarming with beach rats. We'll fit right in."

I handed them each a bag with a change of clothes and headed to a whitewashed square building with openings on each end and signs for males and females.

I was still wearing my striped pants and pirate shirt with the Singularity Butterfly Black hole Cage necklace. I was sure I would be fine.

When Amy reappeared she had on a pair of white shorts and a green shirt. Her hair was braided up with some green vines that put a big red and yellow flower over her left ear. Vines with tiny bell flowers circled her wrist and arms and neck.

When Long John appeared he had on a full body white and red swimsuit, over which he put on a pair of blue shorts and a Hawaiian shirt that exposed his chest, scars, and tattoos, sandals, but he kept his hat. Amy's extra set of clothes were put in her bag, which were put into Long John Silver's carrying bag and put over his shoulder.

The man put on his sunglasses with the illusion spell that seemed to make his cybernetics disappear. But I said, "Your arm and eye are going to be a problem even with your sunglasses of illusion." I wove a new spell with an application of blue mana. When I touched his arm it looked like a normal arm but now so covered in tattoos it looked almost black, the hand covered with gears and pistons like some kind of Machine Age artwork, the upper arm covered with sailing ships and whales, with skull and crossbones on the shoulder.

"There, much better," I remarked upon my work.

John gave it a look over. "Aye, now all the ladies know I'm a pirate fair and true."

"Let's get some of this world's money first," and walked off down through a beach of the mundane.

As always my intention was to find something to eat. I had no money worth using at the moment on this world. But I was confident. So I walked from the boardwalk into the beach and stopped halfway to the surf. The sun was just rising over the backside of the town and the water was as black as oil as the night gradually recited before the rising sun.

So far my Crossworld Staff of Dyracchion seemed to be based on some theme of utility magic. That if you simply believed in it enough that it'll happen. If you don't believe in it then it won't work so well. But if you believe in it enough then you can do almost anything.

After all, I'd already seen the staff do some things while I wasn't looking. Like I was a participant on TV looking around while things were happening off screen and you were looking elsewhere. It was enough to give me the hebejebes something fierce.

Getting some money should be fairly simple.

So, I focused on the idea of the loose change on this beach up and rolling over to me, like it was the most natural thing in the world. I kept my eyes on the horizon and thought hard.

It didn't take long.

The first quarter popped up out of the ground and was halfway to rolling over to me before I even noticed it. Rolling over the sand, note. It came right over and bopped against my shoe and fell over. Then another coin popped up out of the sand, followed by another.

As if boosted by seeing it happen once, the stage fright left, and then all the other coins popped up out of the sand and rushed on over. Like chickens rushing to a farmer to get some feed. A few dollar bills snaked their way up through the sand, rolled themselves into tubes, and blew their selves way on over with a touch of the wind as well.

Wallets, watches, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and other things like that followed along as if animated by the Substitutionary Locomotion spell.

Like it was the most natural thing in the world for money to roll up against my leg and not be blown away.

I ate fish, whole belly clams and fries with tartar sauce that day. Long John like clam strips. Amy had steak and shrimp.

Minor telekinesis to move things around. Those were fun. I could drop my amber crystal and pick it up without bending over.

Storing small items in pocket dimensions. I could already do that but now I had several Hammerspace pockets to choose from.

Creating a shield for your arm. Shooting out blasts of energy from your palm. Teleportation. Hit with a rock? The rock falls through, myself, like I was the illusion. Illusions to make you seem not to be there, or to make people appear where they are really not there. Or to change your clothes.

The illusions I made were too real, and effortless. People would move around them.

And then some rollerblading girl bumped into them and fell over. Being all apologetic and everything, my illusion-person helped the young lady up.

That was weird. And that possibly explained some things from the movie that was never explained at all.

Up until that weird thing happened I was just going through the motions of trying to duplicate what I'd seen in the Crossword movie that I could remember, being only half surprised when they worked.

If I'd list all the stupid things I'd done in that day, we'd be here all day.

So, in conclusion, if I believed in something enough I could make magic happen. It didn't cost me any mana at all. It also helped to have an imagination and some knowledge of what you're doing, as weird as that is. That something could be an illusion that would be so real that the universe would agree that it is REAL-real was really super neat.

All I had to do was imagine it.

-000-

So. Goals.

One, learn my powers. That seems to be going okay. The hero of the no-budget movie Crossworld had three days or so to figure things out between the shooting and the incredible number of "What-The-Fuck!" moments and getting the crap beaten out of him before he got pissed off. I'd managed to replicate the powers of the protagonists and the teacher figure easily enough. But I was sure I could do more.

Two, I needed a job, as ironic as that is. Being a beach bum was all fine and good when you could find free barbecue parties to skunk around and sleeping on the beach was an actual thing you could do on these warm days. But I wanted a home, my own bathroom that I don't have to share with Amy, TV, a car, health care. And I'd need them after I saved Earth Bet.

Three, I wanted to be healthy. I wanted to protect my Planeswalker Spark. I wanted my mind clear of mental influences. I wanted to live a long time.

Four. I'd like to have some companions. I even have a few; at the very least they'd help me out with stupid shit. And prevent me from doing stupid shit.

My plan, such as it is, is to go with an old writer favorite: Taking advanced knowledge from the future and using it to your benefit in the far distant past.

The twist was that I was going into the future.

-000-

One old favorite of mine the BattleTech universe was one of those universes that I could really get into. Giant robots, diverse political and business and military battlefields, giant robots, space travel, lots of worlds and military fiction.

It was also one of my more favorite fanfiction universes. I decided that now that I was going to start an empire that this would be a good place to start.

Currently the year was 1975.

The BattleTech universe had enough books written about it that I could choose between a few hundred variations of the year 3000. This small chunk of the multiverse was going to be my play toy.

The way to get here would be a long one. Not only was I going to be using the Planeswalker method of travel to escape Earth Bet once the dirty deed was done, but I was also intending to set up a relay race that would use the Dream Bed, Dreamland, a few Planar Portals and the Crossworld Staff of Dyracchion, all the while hoping through time as well. My first stop was going to be the black hole of the Lost In Space Universe.

I really hope that Scion couldn't follow me through all that.

I'd spend the next twenty days in various worlds gathering star charts. Starting in 2020 and working my way around using some sideway time travel to alternate worlds that had all identified over a thousand super earth planets throughout the cosmic neighborhood. I'd spend the entire day there doing research. First I gathered some money found on the streets, and then I bought a bunch of books from Paperback Bookstores, and then I'd do some more research to see if there was anything else I might need from off the internet.

If they didn't have anything I already had I went over to the model section, the ones with diagrams of past models, and took a bunch of those when I went to another world further into the past. I wasn't a nerd of BattleTech. Didn't care for the nit-gritty details of numbers where you broke down the details of what everyone is supposed to do for half a book. But the models were cool.

I took them all back to the past and put them in boxes organized by year then put them in a storage locker.

In 1975, noon time, I opened a portal a thousand years into the future around the orbit of a super earth in 2975 on the edge of the Inner Sphere. This planet had been previously identified by the Taelons of the Earth Final Conflict universe in 867 years old navigation data that Amy stole from their organic computers. By cross-correlating this star chart information with star charts from other Earths that each had identified more than a thousand super earths I'd managed to create a map that would point me to all the good places to start looking for one. And this time I found one that I liked.

In the BattleTech universe of 2975 the world was ugly, rocky, uninhabitable, useless, uninteresting, and forgotten. It had probably been previously identified by a nameless stellar cartographer whose name never got into the history books, then the records had probably been blown up at some point. But that's okay. I only needed it for a minute because I was replacing it with another world from another universe.

Using the portal tricks I'd gotten from Treasure Planet I switched this useless super large world out for another super earth with life on it. I had to hold these portals open for several hours as each world "fell" out of their universe's orbit so they could replace each other around their stars. Hopefully my amateurish attempts at stellar pool would keep the sun from becoming unhappy and doing the solar storm dance.

I didn't even care what kind of fictional universe I was pulling it from. In each universe there would be dozens of habitable planets, all with good air and water and sensible gravity, with large fields of high grade ores to mine and enough life to keep hunters and biologists doing crazy things for a thousand years. It had an equator four times larger than earth, but the density figures were such that a three hundred pound man would become five pounds lighter, or .016 percent for the math nerds.

A trial run using the Treasure Planet world and all the information it contained allowed me to put my new planet around the G-class star at the right distance, orbit, and orbital tilt. In addition I also installed Treasure planet in the same orbit to follow along behind it at a good distance. Using human rockets it should only take twenty days on a slingshot orbit around the moon to get there.

Since I didn't have moons for my super earth and they were important for a whole list of reasons but I'll only mention two, like tidal action and the fact the super earth had some once, I had to add some. I found two near enough Luna sized masses and put them in orbit opposite each other. One of the moons was actually a Luna; it had come from a universe where the planet Earth had just been hit by a meteor and was currently breaking up into chunks, so it looked the same and would occupy the same orbit. The other was an ugly rock composed of no elements lighter than iron, heavy and dense and a bit smaller but with the same gravity, and you could see the veins of gold with your own eyes from the planet's surface when the sunlight shone off of them.

So good so far.

The planet became a bit active for a little bit from the move. It was already pretty active since it was four times the size of earth but lighter, ignoring the internal features that would keep geologists scratching their heads for the next thousand years.

During the next twenty years I dropped off probes that Amy created so that she could test the environment as it developed from the disruption. Then, because we didn't have time to waste, I traveled forward in time to pick up the information I needed twenty years in the future and then traveled back in time to 1975 Earth to drop them off on the same day I left.

Amy did a quick check of the air and didn't find much of anything. Bugs and germs yes, weaponized super organisms no.

Not much of a danger to someone with a healthy immune system with access to modern medicine.

However most of the people of the Inner Sphere didn't have access to modern medicine. Or even their less advanced versions. Do they?

But more on that later.

While I didn't care for where I got the planet from, I did choose the universe I snatched it from for a reason. The main reason being that the enigmatic aliens from that universe had this weird hobby.

This hobby being of finding habitable worlds and then spreading the life of those worlds onto other not inhabited worlds nearby, restocking their ships every few centuries or so just in case that world was cracked like an egg from a meteor.

Even worlds that should never have developed life had an atmosphere added, their orbit altered, and life put on them whether they wanted to or not. I'm sure the Terraformers were very proud of themselves for their accomplishments. The world was very stable. The planet even survived my clumsy handling and Amy reported that there were no mutations that would be harmful for human beings that she could find after twenty years and one day's observation.

The result was a planet with every life form known to mankind for the last hundred million years or so on it somewhere that had adapted to alien conditions. A good number of creatures had probably died when the atmosphere was altered to comply with more "recent" versions of earth, but a good number survived. There were three continents that had dinosaurs from different stages of the late cretaceous age on them. There was one ocean that had the megalodon and sharks ruling supreme in them. And yet despite being numerous the ocean was also filled with whales in so great numbers they're a navigational hazard.

Big. That was the name of the game. I'd gone for a quick tour of the world I'd stolen and I kept running up against that word. Not as big as the Xianxia novel planet I'd first been dumped on by Contessa when I started this journey, but plenty enough. Stars, you could take all the land masses of Earth, fit them all back together like the primordial supercontinent of Pangaea before the continental drift separated them, and you would call it the little brother to that one monstrous landmass that sat on the equator with its fat end in the southern ocean. Amy had created a few organic satellites that communicated with organic lasers that had counted nine million islands so far that varied in size between Madagascar and Hawaii. Big deserts. Big forests. Mountains taller than Everest. Big herds of animals with hunting grounds bigger than Texas. Big with a capitol B.

The geologists were going to go stark raving nuts when I introduced them to this place. They were going to be arguing for years how many oceans there are, how big the seas are. Hell, there was a lake on that giant Equatorial continent bigger than the Pacific with fish that would eat Moby Dick for breakfast. There was a lot to explore about this world. All I really knew was that there were no sentient creatures on it. As for the rest, even with modern technology, it would take too long to explore.

Five days. That's how long I'd put to exploring the place with my ragtag group of misfits. One biologist and surgeon with the power of a god in her skull. One space pirate that had been on and off more planets, moons, asteroids and seen more stars up close than he could count, but it was more than I'd visited up to this point. One super powered electrician that was already designing up electric dams, geothermal power taps, wind turbines, wave-motion generators, power grids, and who knows what else, ready and raring to go. Of course they would have voted to get going immediately instead of taking some time to check things out over the next couple of months.

But all I have are five days. And then I promised to start trying to get Earth Bet's people over here.

So each day I would put out more and more of the organic probes Amy created, one after the other, back in 2975. They didn't have much to eat except sunlight and atmospheric dust. However they all also had Amy's the Synthetic Plant. An organism, I'll remind you, that budded organic portals instead of seeds. A few were sent to Luna and a few were sent to Ironmine and in twenty years they had grown into a dozen impressive facilities in their own right. The world now had numerous satellites and from their observations we had all the data we needed.

All we needed was a place to set up shop. Someplace not so warm and temperate that people would become lazy, where there was fresh water to be had, but not so cold and isolated either. Someplace like the heart Africa where we would be isolated from the rest of the world for a bit, and safe, until it could be explored more.

On one of the middling continents in the northern hemisphere suited my purposes perfectly. It was rectangular, the western side nothing but thick steamy jungles, the middle area forests, the eastern side was all tall rugged mountains with a deep thrust of land nearly twice as long on that side, north to south, as the continent was long, east to west, half drowned in swamps. The north was a frozen hellscape where the ice was so thick and heavy that when it moved during the seasons it crushed the mountains underneath it. Along the southern shore there were two tiny bites taken out of the land leaving a sharp point in the middle. In the middle of the continent were a number of lakes being fed fresh mineral heavy water from the Eastern Mountains From those lakes to the Point where a number of rivers, creating numerous estuaries, islands, inland salty seas and more connecting rivers and streams. On one of those islands the salinity of the sea about matched the salinity of Earth's Pacific and Atlantic oceans. There were even coral reefs and fish there.

According to Amy's meteorological data it was a sweet spot where hurricanes almost never went.

I intended to put the people of earth on that spot.

It wouldn't be perfect. But then again nothing ever is.

There were deep deposits of oil and coal down underground, metals and gems along the shorelines in nuggets from all across the continent to dig up like a magnetic gold rush. There were fertile river valleys enough for everyone for farming, although some of the plains would require irrigation. Kids would run barefoot through the beaches looking for shells of sea creatures, and basking in the sun.

Twenty years of observation hadn't revealed a serious need for natural defenses to any of the creatures that inhabited the planet. This continent had been seeded with life from one of the more recent terraforming efforts. There were cats and dogs and bear equivalents. Even when the ocean level dropped to form land bridges there were no direct connections to this area. So far the only super predator to be found to rise up from the ocean to bother land creatures was the descendant to the prehistoric four legged whale that walked on land, and a bunch of creatures that appeared in the Late Cretaceous period (100 million years ago) that thrived in all the ancient oceans of the world until the Cretaceous–Paleogene Mass Extinction Event. There were a couple variations on these creatures, including a few that looked similar but came from different evolutionary trees. As the coral reefs in place were a hundred million years old and had never been touched by mankind's stupid pollution they acted as fences keeping the larger ocean predators somewhat separated.

For some reason the aliens that had seeded this planet had stabilized the genomes of the organism transplanted to this world, which had gotten Amy all twitterpated. That means no mutations. No cancer, no extra limbs or eyeballs.

The only way for these creatures to evolve is through selectivity.

As a result of this evolution has slowed down to a crawl and the more modern creatures introduced in recent centuries have had quite a bit of success shoving out their more primitive cousins.

On a microbial front the selections were rather limited and plane. The creatures that were too small to be seen by the human eye were very much the same no matter what part of the planet you looked at. I had to take Amy at her word.

"It's as if all the world's people had forgotten what color looks like and they all decided to go around wearing the same school uniform," she told me, "Nearly all the viruses that exchange DNA and RNA are missing! There are no airborne bacteria or viruses, at all. There are no hybrids or exchanges of DNA or RNA anywhere either, so the descendants of those hybrid creations are also missing at every level. And because of that nearly all of the Junk DNA is also missing from these organisms."

My explanation for that was thus: "The aliens who populated this planet didn't like mutations. They probably decided that 'these' and 'these' bacteria we have on the planet already were good enough and didn't bother to import many variations. The animals were inoculated to work without them, so their descendants don't need them."

"There are still viruses around. But they're locked down tight! A good many are in the ocean helping to break down dead carcasses to produce one/fifth of the available biomaterial for plankton. I'm not even sure I would have been able to create such tight little creatures if I wanted to! Isn't that amazing?"

I nod.

"And so nobody evolved in millions of years because nature's best approximation to nanobots are missing," Amy concluded. "In addition to that there's a retrovirus in nearly every creature that speeds up the suicide rate of mutant cells to kill cancer and other ungood cells. Without viruses to act as taxi transporting DNA between animals to speed up mutation nothing really happens. They just plod along."

"That sounds about right to me. You're the expert. I prefer to your judgement. But at least you found a way to kill cancer that didn't involve Parahuman abilities."

Amy beamed and said, "There is that."

I asked, "So what's going to happen when people start moving in?"

Amy frowned, thought, then replied, "Well in the long term the alien's work at preventing evolution will be ruined. My probes did land after all and you did shed water and skin cells into the upper atmosphere. The process is already underway. As many of the creatures have an unusually strong immune system to keep the microscopic bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa out of their system I suspect there may not be a massive die off, relatively speaking. There are more animal cells in the animals than there are bacteria, and the bacteria here are strong against viral infection. I don't have enough computer power between my Shard and the Taelon bio computer to predict everything. I'd need some real engineering done before I had a computer capable of simulating an entire planetary biosphere. But I strongly suspect the aliens included a few failsafe devices when they did their alterations to account for the invasion of un-neutered microorganisms. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what to look for. But a girl can hope."

I asked, "Soooo… we're good to go?"

Amy blinked up at me, and then answered, "As far as I can tell? We're good to go."

The planet was good.

Location was also important.

Amongst the nearby stars was a planet named Detroit. We were practically neighbors.

The only reason I'd looked it up online this one time was because I was a fan of RoboCop and BattleTech fics. The place wouldn't even be a historical footnote until 3060. The place was hotly contested during the First Succession war, but none of the others to follow. It was a part of the Taurian-Canopian War, also known as the Herotitus Crisis or the 200-Hour War, with such notable names mentioned as General Blake Andrews involved, but that happened about two hundred years ago; Herotitus, Rockwellawan, and Spencer was also involved with the 200-Hour War. The military on both sides exhausted themselves there. A peace treaty was signed here.

And what else?

Well the Fronc Reaches were nearby. I looked up some stuff about Free Worlds and Pirate raids.

Practically speaking our neighbor was open to invitation and trade deals. No significant defense force. Tiny pre-industrial economy. Not rich enough to hire anyone to protect them and too people poor to scrounge up their own military that would be worth a damn. So they weren't a threat.

They were about five or seven jumps away from us, which was a good buffer as well, depending on which way you go. There was also a neutron star nearby between them and us. So you know, road hazards. Anyone trying to get to us the long way around would have to take a damn long way around

They're supposed to have significant resources underneath the surface. However they don't have enough economy to develop the technology to get at them. And the pirate raids don't help. Lack of ecology also keeps the population low. Poor environment. Some creature called a Tree Frog – no! A rainbow tree frog – is the highest life form on the planet, some kind of amphibian. I think you could use it to make drugs worth exporting, or something.

Without going there I wasn't very sure. But the drug trade was fairly lucrative. I'm sure I could use it to make good legal drugs for the betterment of the medical community.

All part of those Periphery Worlds that were used as testing grounds for new Inner Sphere weapons before the death of the Star League kicked the bucket of fire ants all over everybody.

And that's about it. The place was open.

Guess I now know about where those weapons were made.

I had some vague ideas that the place would be important later. Just another planet for things to happen as the world was contested between rival star empires. I found that several treaties were signed on Detroit on both ends of the spectrum between fighting and wars, past and future. There was supposed to be an assassination that kicks up a larger fuss in the future that I'll probably butterfly away. So that was about it.

Detroit was like any other town in history that goes bankrupt. Only there was no place to go. There were policemen but no crime because there wasn't anything worth stealing. There were plenty of mom and pop stores, but no factories to mass produce goods. Canning and pickling jars were probably about the highest and most important industry on the planet along with gathering enough firewood to last through winter. The seaport, airport and space ports were either bombed out ruins or covered in vegetation, just like every other Inner Sphere planet.

And while there were doctors they didn't have the tools they needed and were of a low education. I'm hoping I can change that soonest.

I didn't like or particularly care for this universe. But it had so much damn potential!

I'm not one to write long scathing remarks about the Depression of 1929. How unfortunate that I'd arrived in a universe that was doing a full scale reenactment while fighting various forms of world wars with giant robots and space travel when not many could afford the price of electricity and hot and cold running water!

While I, on the other hand, probably had enough equipment stored in my Hammerspace to give every man a vehicle and enough household service robots to completely change the socio-economic dynamics of home and housewives stored somewhere in there.

I now had a destination to go to when I left my planet. The business opportunities for a guy who can loot long dead worlds is fantastic.

And as an added bonus I was on the opposite side of the invasion of the Clans from Terra. The Fronc Reaches was free and clear.

So it was a good starting point.

-000-

Yes I am. I'm doing a Worm/Battletech crossover. Something that should have been done a long time ago but never happened.

So here is your homework for today: In what card of the Magic The Gathering decks would allow a Planeswalker to perform an ISOT?

-000-

Worlds visited:

BattleTech past/future.

Alternate earths, unnamed.

Super Earth, moved to Battletech, to be named in the future.

Last edited: Wednesday at 3:09 PM

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#230

Before going on to perform my glorious thievery I had to practice.

This was no more than a rehearsal for very military maneuvers, and I treated it as such. Amy, Long John, and Mr. Electric would be staying at an abandoned town in 1975 Earth during my efforts. While they could all do combat none of them could run where I'd be going to be running.

To practice I found an arsehole Planet of the Apes world, not like the movies but worse, and I made an attempt to remove all the super smarty-pants apes to another world where they wouldn't bother humans.

To say that my first attempts at entering a world to make off with a large portion of its population was a disaster was a downplay of the truth.

To start it takes Time for the effects of your spell to go from where you're standing and doing the casting to reach the entire world. It takes Time for the spell to get into the ground and cause effects.

It wasn't like on TV where things go Whoosh! and suddenly the world is changed. I was going to visit one of those these days.

But no. Bad Nova! No visiting new worlds for looting and stuff until this was done, damn it!

It's even worse for the Planeswalker who is trying to move the land when he doesn't have a connection to the land. Land Exchange was something I expected to be instant. Not take hours to accomplish!

At the very least the spells I cast are the speed of a thrown baseball. A human athlete can't run as fast as a baseball, but a human athlete can throw a baseball four times as fast as a human athlete's maximum running speed.

That sounds nice until you realize that I can move faster than that.

Depending on air densities I can run at the speed of sound. The average bullet is more than twice that. Without enhancements and with an indestructible ball that won't burn up in the atmosphere I can throw a ball fast enough to outrace most bullets and cannon. Given enough start time I could fly faster than that. Again without enhancements that is, because with them I was a cheating cheater who could cheat like a Planeswalker.

If I wanted to go faster I'd open a portal so I'd get there near instantly. Na-na!

So I practiced summoning Planet of the Apes who were engaged in slavery. And lizard people who were engaged in slavery and cannibalism. Then I put them both on the same planet and moved the humans elsewhere. The humans left on that Earth should be fine.

In the end I could get my spell down to about seventeen seconds just for the American Continent alone. I just needed to practice.

Seventeen seconds doesn't seem like much, but it is a literal eternity in war. I didn't even have seven seconds before this Rob fucker set his eldritch dog on my ass. I needed to set down on the planet, launch and execute my spell in seven seconds or less. After that I was pretty sure the Entity would know something was up and zero right in on me. Then I had to be gone and run like heck.

If I can't at least get the time down by half I was going to be in so much trouble!

This is me pulling my hair out.

I'd even visited the Ring of Fire universe, hoping I could look at what happened to Grantville and the prison and the Alexander ship so I could get some ideas. While the shard of artwork made out of the space/time continuum had bent my poor abused Tamaranean brain in ways that I can't even think about properly, it was only somewhat useful and not in any ways that counted, and by a little I meant not at all. It got my thinking meats to exercise but that's about it. I couldn't forge space/time, I wasn't big enough. Nor was I that much of an artist. I didn't have the tools or the paints either.

Okay. I lied and went looking for help. Shut up!

Other fiction universes like manga where mass summoning occurred weren't even a friendly consideration. Basically anything that involved ROBS had its own protections in place to keep fuckers like me O-U-T, out! Beings that could move through the multiverse and were older than me all seemed to have detection equipment, who were NEVER caught unaware. Their universes slipped out of my hands like greased fish at the least. The people who could move between universes are generally aware of the consequences of trespass and tend to approach such places with caution. Not cautious enough I guess. As it was I was lucky that whoever set their eldritch horror dog on me decided to call it back after I ran far enough away.

I wasn't even trying to go to those universes. I was just having a look around the neighborhood!

Having to deal with one eldritch horror dog that seemed to be trained to 'only' lite every one of my pain centers on fire every two seconds and chase me through the Blind Eternities for two days was enough. My experiences had instilled within me more than ever a high regards for others privacy.

I don't want to know what the big guns looked like when the big guys stopped fucking around.

Nor did I want to know what the heavy stuff looked like.

I stopped trying after that.

I didn't even get a summons out of that scary dog abomination for all my troubles. It had protection. It was protected damn it!

I was still on fire too.

-000-

Finally regenerating my vocal cords what I said was: "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow-"

Amy looked up at me with tired raccoon eyes as she removed the blue flame enshrouded skin from my hand and threw it into the overly large dumpster we were using as an eldritch disposal bin. It was kinda full. There were at least three or five complete sets of my skin in there, along with various assorted other body parts. My helmet and all my clothes were in there as well. What a write off.

The only thing not in there was my staff of Dyracchion and my Black Hole Cage Necklace.

There was a buffet of drinks nearby with Long John on hand to fill up more. As soon as I had enough energy to regenerate a thumb onto my hand I was grabbing one and throwing the contents against my face.

I yelled "Heeeeoeedeee!"

Mr. Electric at the end of my stone hospital bed grabbed the mirror from out of the bathroom and showed it to me.

Holly fuck did I look awful.

I didn't even look human. Nor did I look like a woman either.

I looked like a corpse. My face looked like it had gone seven boxing rounds with a guy who used chainsaws instead of fists while another guy who used flame throwers instead of fists took turns. I shouldn't have had eyes, the sockets were cracked and broken, the skull malformed. It took extraordinary effort to make them move. But the Eyes of the Watcher were stronger than what had been done to me so they'd come through intact. They were the only part that didn't hurt.

There were no ears or nose. Just a few holes amongst burnt flesh. Nor did I have eyelids.

Fuck! I didn't look like a woman either. All my best parts were gone. My breasts had been cut off and the lower half of my body was missing. My chest rose and fell with labored breaths as I got used to not being on fire anymore. I didn't have any fingers other than the thumb I'd recently regenerated.

I could see through my ribs to where Amy had removed one of my lungs. Fuck it was hard to breathe!

Amy took a seat on the hospital bed with me. "Do you remember what happened?"

I held up my right hand with its new thumb and moved it back and forth.

"So-so? Okay. Well let me tell you what happened from my point of view," Amy said. This was the part that comes after going through the extremes of high emotions. I can tell. She was having that floaty feeling too. "You came from out of nowhere on fire. Every two seconds just as soon as we got the flames out you'd light up on fire again. The flames were blue. I couldn't touch you because it would set me on fire as well. I had to sacrifice an entire island's worth of biomass lifting you up, moving you around, and cutting off your on fire bits. I had to shove a root down your throat to feed you biomass. I then had to constantly feed the root biomass because it would be set on fire as well and it needed to constantly regenerate and shed its skin to survive the flames to do its job. No material we have would survive the burning. That job was to keep your airways and stomach and intestines free of the blue flames by creating a blockage at your nose, mouth and bottom. You were covered with marks and I had to cut all of these off. Most of them were on your bottom. And we'll get into how perverted that is later. Once all the marks were removed you stopped flaming up. I then had to remove your skin in layers a few dozen times to remove all the flames and char. You've been here for about a week."

Fuck Amy looked tired. Too tired to cry either. It looks like all the hysterics had been burned out of her a while ago.

I turned my head to look at the dumpster. The only thing left of those marks had merged together into a larger three inch wide mark at the bottom of the dumpster. The ash of the skin and bones were still burning.

The building we were using as a hospital had a lot of its interior torn out. Almost like it had been set on fire at some point. The most dominant feature were Amy's plants which were all focused on me. The bed looked to have been recycled from the bricks of a stone fireplace, and probably the incinerators from the mortuary.

I took the next offered drink, threw it down my gullet. There was a blockage of plant matter behind my throat that was feeding nutrients into my body. I ignored it.

I held up my right hand with its missing finger and only one thumb and wiggled it.

Amy laughed and cried, sniffled, then put her fist against my ruined one with her thumbs up as well. "I'll fix you. Don't worry. I'm really good at fixing things."

Almost instantly I could feel Amy's power at work. I hadn't needed it for the longest time since I could do most of what she could do by myself. But fuck if I was too tired and fucked up to care.

In ten seconds what teeth I still had in my gums rearranged themselves to be straight. Where there were holes new teeth grew through the gums to fill the spaces. Broken teeth that I'd cracked clenching my jaw tight against pain repaired themselves. A set of lips bled over the teeth followed by nearly transparent cheeks.

Then I was spent.

"That's all I can do now until you get more biomass," Amy wiped away the tears in her eyes.

I patted her on the shoulder. "Put me in a dreamless coma so I can rest. Go get some sleep. When you wake up you can clone me a new body without a brain. I'll turn into liquid and flow into it after we've had a good rest. Sound good?"

She just looked at me. "Okay."

-000-

The process was a simple one. The Dreen would swallow whole other animals and directly transfer their biomass to replace the flesh they lost if they were injured. Technically speaking they didn't need a digestive system. While on the other hand Morph was a shapeshifting blob that only had eyes and ears because it wanted them. It could eat food and even enjoy it with manufactured taste buds. But it also didn't have a digestive system. The direct absorption of nutrients was usually swift.

When I finally let go of my body the remains flowed through a funnel directly into the esophagus and into the empty stomach of my clone. There was no brain; even most of the nerves were missing. Amy had done an excellent job of exercising the muscles. We became one, and just like that I was whole and complete.

The Planeswalker symbol appeared on my left shoulder.

Huh. I'd forgotten all about that.

A moment was taken to put the Singularity Butterfly back where it belonged on the throat of my chest, the Black Hole Cage Necklace around my neck, grab a new helmet, a new pair of pants with belt and shirt, and take my Staff of Dyracchion back from out of thin air.

A meeting was called. Food was provided by John who had become quite sober over the last week. I ate my fill and drank until I could drink no more. I took shuddering breaths. I was tempted to try drugs very badly. Amy had pumped me full of psychedelics during my stay in the hospital on the fire brick slab I'd burned a hole through. My pain had never diminished but it was easier to disconnect my mind from the altered state of consciousness I had experienced during the event and put it behind me.

King Morpheus had never visited us in our sleep since the weeks had past when we'd been kicked out of Slumberland. The guy must be busy.

After my second helping of ice cream I said at last, "I'm not fucking doing that again."

"Just take your time lass," Long John told me. For once he didn't smell like he'd been smoking. Neither Amy not I had appreciated him smoking at the dinner table, so he didn't, but that did not stop me from smelling his pores. It seems like he'd gone out of his way to comfort me. "Just tell us what happened."

"Maybe I just walked in front of the wrong person's front yard. I'm not entirely sure," I admitted. "The next thing I know I'm flapping my arms because they're on fire and there's this eldritch thing there smacking my ass with a long black tendril whip. I take off running and it followed me. I don't really remember much, I was in too much pain. The next thing I remember is diving into oceans and volcanoes trying to put the fire out. The eldritch dog was still following me, smacking me, setting me on fire, so I kept running. I don't even remember coming back here."

"What were you doing?" Mr. Electric asked.

I yelled in frustration. "I wasn't trying anything!" I paused and took a breather, then continued on in a much calmer tone of voice. "I was thinking of acquiring some magic. You know like a summons spell, to see how it worked? Isekai manga is out. I don't seem to be welcome there. They've got protections to keep me out. I think one of them took offense to me. That's my best guess. I think, I'm not sure, but I think that one of their attack dogs saw me passing by their front porch and decided to have some fun with me for kicks."

"You were very lucky," Mr. Electric put down some alcohol near where I could get at it. "How are you feeling?"

I answered honestly. "Horrible. The memory of the pain is giving my heart palpitations. But at least it wasn't worse."

Amy asked, "How?"

I asked, "How what?"

She looked at me as if I were stupid and frowned. "How could it have been worse?"

I answered, "It could have burned my soul."

Amy looked at the ground. "Ah."

Long John asked, "You think this was just an attack dog?"

I mimicked his speech, "Aye. Trained to chase and hurt but not to kill unless the master ordered otherwise. At least I got some purple flames out of it. I'm going to be studying the fuck out of those so I can Negate'em."

Amy asked with a bit of hope in her voice, "Do you think they'll work on Scion?"

I nodded, "Definitely, that and that little eldritch dog too. I want one of those fuckers under my command. I'm going to punch that thing in the face the next time I see it. It's not going to be getting the drop on me again."

I thought about sending such a package right up the Entity's ass.

A very comforting idea that is.

But prior experience with other Rob type entities and Gods has revealed that he will probably know I am coming before I get there. It's a guarantee.

Amy mustered up some courage and said, "You don't have to go back if you don't want to," and it was very obvious that it broke Amy's heart for her to say that.

I took her in my arms and gave her a hug. "Just because some neighborhoods in the multiverse have the equivalent of high fences and attack dogs for security systems doesn't mean that's going to stop me. I'll keep on trying."

Amy quietly said, "Okay," then she looked me up in my eyes and gave a serious expression. "But if you can't do it don't try, okay? I want you to come back alive."

I sobered and stopped smiling quite as much. "I'll do my best Amy girl." I rubbed at her head. "At least there's some golden light of mana in this. I've found out where the Warhammer 40,000 universe is and now I can avoid it."

Said universe didn't have any protections at all because I think people avoided the place. It was like walking along a nice sidewalk while on the other side of the fence the landscape is covered with bombed out ruins, un-bagged garbage twenty stories high and completely infested with vermin, wild dogs, cats, snakes and other things you didn't want to look at. Most of the neighborhood had their protections aimed AT the WH40K universe and seemed content to ignore me so long as I kept on walking.

Amy buried herself underneath my breasts. I hugged her tighter.

I sighed.

There was only one entry into Earth Bet that I had access to and that was the mana tap I put on the land around the hospital I left. The Dreaming Bed and the Crossworld Staff of Dyracchion were out.

I'd have to walk it.

Last edited: Wednesday at 3:08 PM

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#232

Good Morning Agent Nova Enders,

The world you are looking at is Earth Bet; a Planet Earth in 2010 which has recently become infected with Shards of the Entity giving humans supernatural powers. Upon learning this we set off across the multiverse to gather a diverse number of superpowers from various worlds in order to combat the enemy with the help of one Amy Dallon, herself infected with the Shaper Shard in order to assist in our collecting.

Unfortunately we have learned that it is possible that the Entity has the ability to detect extra-universal intrusions into its region of the multiverse. If the Entity does indeed have these abilities and they detect our coming then it is highly probable it will try to kill us and render the Earth extinct before we can assist the humans there. The success of the survival of the humans of Earth Bet is so important that the multiverse itself has arranged for a Planeswalker Spark to ignite on Earth Bet to get one over the border, if you will excuse that expression. You are that Planeswalker.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to discover if it has these abilities and to rescue as many of the Earth Bet humans as you possibly can.

As always, should you or any of your MI-Force be caught or killed, your soul will be forfeit to the winds of Fate. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck Nova.

When I snuck up to the Worm Universe through the Blind Eternities I wasn't exactly sure what I'd find when I finally reached my destination.

I had this crazy idea that Amy and I would end up in the desert. Then, because we'd want to make a grand entrance, I'd summon up a few Kaiju summons after visiting Godzilla so we could walk back to Brockton Bay in a parade in style.

Something like that.

It would have been cool as fuck, so I made a note to do something like that in the future.

Or with recent experience I had been thinking that I'd have to break into the place, tear down some doors. Something!

I hid behind a structure of spacetime in the Blind Eternities and spied on my connection to the lands of the hospital. I leaned to the left around the stream of energy, around to the right around the stream of energy, and then slunk off downstream circling around the place the long way. My head was always on a swivel looking for things that might be in here with me.

Fool me twice and all of that.

Oh there were worlds here all right. One world layered on top of another world in an endless spiral with its roots in eternity. The vast majority of the planet Earths were unavailable to me, but not the rest of the universe.

I turned around and walked back to another world, my foot landing on a beach with the sun about to set in the distance, not even interrupting my stride. Without even thinking about it I pulled up a land to add to my ever growing collection.

This was so simple I couldn't believe it was a trap. It just didn't seem right in my mind. The entity is a powerful being with many protections on his own body, for the planet his own body resided upon. He projected himself into other realms, the connection between them very much like a string between a living human and his astral self on walk-about. There should be more. The eldritch equivalent of a fence like I'd found around the gods realms. Endless planes you could never walk across, sky's filled with acid germs, toothed planets, lightning machinegun suns, creatures beyond counting. A tripwire at the very least.

Something!

I went back into the Blind Eternities, walked the long way around from the other direction, wasted a great deal of time being sneaky and quiet, then came back to the world on which the sun was setting on the beach.

Okay, I had to finally admit that the universe was something I could get at. I could get to Mars.

According to my Watcher eyeballs The Entity's domain seems to only extend to about as far as the next planetary orbit of the next nearest planet centered on Earth. Mars and Venus could be visited without tripping over the creature's domain and setting off his proximity sensors, if he has them.

I can vaguely tell that the Entity is over there, but there are so many overlapping earths with Shard powers it was like trying to look through a rapidly rotating chandelier with a bunch of mirrors all shooting out eye searing lasers. There were thousands of powers protecting his body from the stupid and the mundane that were being rotated out in a crazy pattern I didn't have time to decipher.

I was pretty sure there was a power protecting him from the number 13 as well!

I wanted nothing more than to reach out and find an off switch to that apparatus or take a shotgun and send the crystal chandelier crashing down. But this was no shooting gallery. Those were worlds not ducks! While the Spike of artwork from the Ring of Fire universe had given me some vague ideas on how that might be accomplished the dilemma is that there is a good reason why Planeswalkers try to stay out time manipulations is to keep themselves from being erased when the timeline is destroyed.

I wasn't suicidal.

So that was out.

It would also be kinda pointless to destroy all the worlds that have Shards in them. Amy would cry.

Another way had to be found.

It was becoming a really big pain in my ass.

I put one shapely new leg over the other so I could stand on it like a flamingo and assume a thinker's pose.

Busting down the wall between worlds like the police with a battering ram was definitely a no-go. There were definitely mines. Nothing could be more painful than that purple fire junk I got sprayed with, but I was probably wrong.

What else was there?

I took out a shelf of books and for the lack of another reason to do so, started looking. This would take some time. I was proud of my avid reader status from before I was a Planeswalker with the body of a Tamaranean and while my efforts had become more scientific recently in trying to understand the science behind advanced alien technologies I was still grateful that I could find most of my old favorites.

There are a lot of TV shows with magic and there are plenty of books and movies that don't have 'tiers' of higher magical beings and eldritch horrors in the background waiting to escalate things. I was going to visit one of those when I was done. But for now I was going to try and use the inspiration from the books first.

Unfortunately I didn't find what I was looking for. Isn't that always the way?

But it didn't matter. My thought had run its course and I had an idea.

I was going to put the entire Earth in my hand.

The more I thought about it the more excited I got. It even worked on the empty Earth I practiced it on!

-000-

This D-Rated Horror Movie is brought to you by Really Dumb Ideas TM

So this was it.

I climbed up out of the Planar Portal I'd created on the surface of Mars and looked towards Earth Bet. The American Continents were most prominently displayed as they rotated around in my direction. This side was dark and full of the lights of civilizations.

There was no going back from this.

It will take three minutes and three seconds for the light from Mars to reach Earth. Once they were aware of me all bets were off.

The clock was ticking.

Everything was ready. I was standing here, I knew what to do. And the most important things—my relay race through the multiverse was all set up.

I took a deep unnecessary breath of the thin atmosphere of Mars and then I, Nova Enders, Planeswalker, Glutton and Gourmet Hunter, Defender of the Outer Dimensions, and way too fucking young and inexperienced to be pulling off these shenanigans, reached out to the planet Earth and placed my spells upon it.

"Strip Mine the Americas, bring them home."

In three minutes every person who considered themselves in their heart of hearts to be an American would end up back at their house American soil.

"Strip Mine the English Speaking people to put them ON America."

In three minutes every person who spoke English would disappear from where they were at and reappear somewhere on America.

"Strip Mine the Women and Children to put them AT America's shores."

In three Minutes every person who was a woman and who was a child would appear at where the water met the land. That one kind of hurt, because different peoples had different ideas about what a 'woman' and how young a person had to be to be a 'child.'

I summoned a copy of the Royal Scepter of Slumberland.

"Strip Mine those who sleep and put them at America's beds."

In three minutes every person that was asleep would wake up in another country.

"Strip Mine the ocean to put all the boats AROUND America."

In three minutes every boat that could be put to sea was going to be removed from wherever it was located at and appear within the coastal waters of America, whether it was full or empty or not.

This was starting to fucking hurt. I could feel my magic burning away at an incredible rate. But I knew I had enough. I'd calculated it and I'd practiced it. I knew it was working.

But now I was out of colorless mana to power the Strip Mine spell. Those lands would be ruined and devastated without those people. That was the cost!

I took a deep breath and spoke again,

"Political Trickery, Shifting Border, Vedalken Plotter; I move this stone here for that stone there, I expose my hand and pay its price, I do not play fair at all."

Ten blue mana tore its way out of my body a few seconds after the others.

There was no going back now.

I turned around to step into the planar portal when … HE appeared before me.

A man so bronze that he glowed gold, with black hair bleached light brown in the energy he gave off. The man had no eyes in his head but glowing searchlights instead and I knew he could see me just fine.

If I hadn't already been walking into the portal I might have hesitated. Pure momentum kept me going as my foot came down on nothing.

Scion reached for me.

I put my hands up reflectively, summoned two black holes for a microsecond.

In that microsecond Scion summoned one of his powers to deal with the black holes.

My black holes evaporated on command turning the wisp of air sucked from the Martian atmosphere into a twin high energy kinetic events that was just as good as an A-bomb without the fallout. I was thrown straight down into the Planar Portal at incredible speed.

In the Blind Eternities I ran. Ho boy, did I ever run.

Maybe big golden and stupid thought he could stop my spell by killing me. His prediction shards probably told him of what was/will be happening. But even if I was killed it wouldn't stop the spell.

Earth Bet was safe.

Scion appeared behind me in the Blind Eternities and followed me. I don't know how or why he could keep up. But that was fine. It was all according to plan.

I ran. With the eyes of the Watcher I avoided every trip and fall and danced around timelines of alternate worlds full of beings that hadn't been born yet.

I didn't go near any of the worlds I'd visited so far yet.

I skirted around the Warhammer 40,000 multiverse cluster like the cancer they are. Scion followed me. A quick check showed that he was all power and little finesse. Chunks of his avatar were being lost every time he hit another universe, setting off big bangs and creating new worlds of alternate existences.

I ran past the neighborhood of Isekai Manga and watched with some satisfaction as the protections aimed at the WH40K universe started smacking the avatar around.

It didn't seem to matter how powerful he was or how much weight you moved. If you got hit with a two by four up against your head you were going down.

"Here doggy-doggy-doggy!" I yelled out.

The eldritch creature appeared about where I remembered it. A giant crab-like claw coming out of one side of its body, five mismatched eyes on top, a human left arm, ten feet tall, elephant left leg, snake-like right leg, made out of black shadows and blood and green insect carpus, claws and teeth I hadn't gotten a good look at the last time I was here. As I watched the lump of mismatched parts did the werewolf thing and turned into a four-legged canine variant of itself with purple flames coming out of its head and down its back like a Mohawk. A wire thin tendril grew out of its stomach up a channel through its chest to an opening out of its left shoulder, a poisonous barb on the end.

I grabbed the stinger behind its barb from out of the air and pulled, "Sorry, fool me once and that's one on me, fool me twice and well, that's not going to happen again."

I planted my feet and pulled the creature off his feet, tossed him around like a Hammer Throw for the Olympics and threw him at Scion. The long sharp nails that had erupted out of the Eldritch Nightmare Dog sparked shadow-cutting flames and shone brilliantly in the Blind Eternities. The blades cut through the energies and then found refuge in Scion's flesh. I blinked my eye in wonder and appreciation.

"Good doggy," I smiled at the chaos I had unleashed and took this moment to sneak around.

At first Scion didn't seem to understand that there was something attacking him and doing a reasonable job of doing it. The Eldritch Nightmare Dog was stinging for all its worth, every mark erupting into flame, biting down and trying to disembowel the guy. The marks disappeared soon after for some stupid reason I don't know why, the flames went out a moment later. The claws were tearing at flesh but they didn't seem to last long between cuts and were just pulling themselves closed.

I couldn't see everything from where I hid but I could hear sounds.

A shrill scream, undetectable to the mortal ear, but which still seared my insides raw, erupted from over where the contestants' battled.

Normally I would be running by now. It was in my very best interest to run, to leap, to bound, and never come back. Oh stars and darkness, I should be leaving. Why wasn't I running? Did I have a death wish? Why am I still here? My instincts said I should flee before the dog.

Instead I was circled around the clearing. This rabbit was a good listener, runner, thumper with the swift warning. I was cunning, and full of tricks. I was searching for something.

When I looked up from my hands and knees I saw the avatar of Scion standing above me. The Eldritch Dog looked very much the worst of it, hanging broke in one of his hands, twitching. The both of them had holes in their bodies.

He reached for me and I knew then I wasn't going to be running this time.

I held up a bit of string in my hands. "Do you know what this is?"

Scion's eye holes opened a fraction. Perhaps he didn't understand what I held in my hands?

This was the connection between his real body and his avatar. Just like when a human goes to the abyss there is a cord connecting his astral self to his body. I made a loop, put my hand in it, doused it with the cursed purple flames that had hurt me so much and parted the string into two. "Ha!"

Scion still reached for me but where there was perhaps something there was now nothing. The Avatar fell and started to evaporate as the energies of the Blind Eternities fell on it. The Eldritch Dog turned its head onto its fallen foe and bit down, every golden piece of flesh flowing into its mouth and down its gullet until nothing remained. Where holes in its body once were was now filled with golden flesh. The last piece it swallowed was the connection still in my hand, which I let go as the creature slurped it up like a wet noodle.

The other end of the string burned like magnesium back through the Blind Eternities and out of my sight. Probably all the way back to Scion's body.

I looked at the Eldritch Dog and he looked at me.

I asked, "Are we good?"

The creature threw its shoulders back, stamped its hind-leg and roared, throwing me a good distance away.

I looked up from where I'd fallen and saw the creature standing proud on four legs, walking away.

I went in another direction.

While I walked I looked down at my flaming hand. It didn't hurt. There was the mark of the beast on the back of my right hand.

"I guess a sound that no mortal hears is the key to this purple flame," I put my left hand over the Mark of the Beast and pulled it up so it was on my right shoulder across from my Planeswalker tattoo on my left shoulder. The Mark burned with purple flames but it couldn't hurt me anymore.

I wonder what the dog got out of Scion's Avatar.

I snorted, "A fair and equitable exchange if you ask me."

I had no idea if Scion was alive. For all I knew Scion had Avatars in a bunch of different universes and losing one was an accomplishment equal to a lizard losing its tail so it could grow back.

I couldn't check either. When I ISOTed Earth Bet I took the connection I had made to that land with it and that was all the way over in the BattleTech Universe now.

It could take me forever to find the place again.

Ah well. Take your victories where you can Nova Ender. Tomorrow is another day to die.

-000-

That's it, that's it. The wandering days of Nova Ender and Amy Dallon are all over. The people of Earth Bet (at least most of those who were mentioned in the books) are safe and sound and we even had Scion mauled.

Not such a bad outcome really.

I am actually kind of interested in other fics where Scion is killed. But while some people manage to take care of Brockton Bay, in infinite variety, and a good number take on the Endbringers, only one fic comes to mind where they actually kill Scion. A few others where he offs himself because the right words are said, or they convince him to go away, but that's it.

There were a great many different ways I wanted this fic to go. Other worlds to visit before visiting Bet. I am satisfied with how things ended up however. We'll be visiting those worlds later.

As for worlds with ROB and Higher Beings and Gods that have protections against intrusion I'm going to be keeping that. Oh there will be plenty of worlds who won't care if a Planeswalker comes around. But in general, if a God dabbles in summonings I expect them to be more informed than most and make plans to keep interlopers from ruining their fun in the same worlds as their worshipers.

Except for Warhammer 40,000. WH40K don't care about shit.

Last edited: Wednesday at 3:53 PM

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#237

Nation of The Displaced.

Nation Name: North American Union

Included Governments: USA, Canada, Mexico, The Bahamas and the Lucayan Archipelago, The Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, plus all its smaller territories, etc...

Capital: None currently.

ISOTed from: WORM AU Timeline, A year without Panacea.

Year ISOTed from: 2010

Technology level: 2010+ (estimated)

Special traits: A good number of people have Shard Superpowers.

Territory ISOTed: It's the entire Northern American Continent of Earth Bet and a good number of the islands around it.

Religions: All known religions, etc...

Languages: English (official), all known languages, etc...

Population: 5 billion (estimated.)

A Brief History: Earth Bet is the main setting of Worm. It diverged from Earth Aleph in roughly 1982, with the arrival of Scion.

America was the most powerful country in the world. The United States had strong traditions of capitalism and democracy. Thanks in part due to outside actors the United States has a tighter gun control policy then seen in Earth Aleph, with fewer guns in civilian hands. It is unknown how this has affected illegal gun running.

The United States has become a major resettlement area for refugees of failed states and areas devastated by Endbringers and the like. The Preservation Act, legislation signed during the Bradley administration, helping such people to get on their feet. This policy allows capes such as Miss Militia to obtain citizenship with ease.

Canada is like a pleasanter politer version of the United States with more French speakers and the same discrimination against first nations people. Also the Earth Aleph version has a single payer health care system that the Earth Bet version likely has and both versions of the United States probably don't. Also Ice Hockey, which they like a lot.

The Protectorate and PRT were founded as US organizations under President James Griffin, although they later expanded to Canada.

The PRT is legally considered a paramilitary (that is, organized like military but not explicit US Military,) grouping of law enforcement, akin to SWAT, with a code of justice modeled loosely after the military one. Congress has the power to stipulate the laws governing them and the executive the power to direct the PRT. The Protectorate, Wards, and Watchdog programs, among others, fall under the umbrella of this organization.

The Protectorate was also responsible for 25-50% of the defending side against Endbringers in fights outside of North America.

More to come...

Last edited: Thursday at 10:32 PM

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#238

You guys are going to love these chapters.

-000-

February 8, 2010 (3010)

(Sunday)

Washington, D.C.

United States of America

Oval Office

7:30 AM EST

On Earth every government in the world was starting to panic. It was just one more in a long list of panic attacks. Generals and bureaucrats desperately wished they could back to the cold war days when all they had to worry about were leaked secrets of nuclear bombs from double agents, biological and chemical weapons, subliminal messaging on public TV from other countries, women's rights, immigrants, bad health, new cars and public officials caught in embarrassing situations.

Confirmed reports had shown that the hand which had descended on them from the heaven had everything from fingerprints to mass. The fingers had stopped just shy of the outer atmosphere and hung with its shadow covering the entire Northern Continent of America. Satellites in orbit had been squashed flat. The ring finger had almost casually smacked the Simurgh on its way in and imparted enough of a jolt to send the monster on a one-way ride straight up out of the solar system.

And then the voice spoke:

"Strip Mine the Americans, bring them home."

"Strip Mine the English Speaking People to put them ON America."

"Strip Mine the Women and Children to put them AT America's shores."

"Strip Mine those who Sleep and put them at America's beds."

"Strip Mine the ocean to put all the Boats AROUND America."

"Political Trickery, Shifting Border, Vedalken Plotter; I move this stone here for that stone there, I expose my hand and pay its price, I do not play fair at all."

Across the Continental United States, from Canada to Alaska, from Mexico to Texas, the Bahamas and Cuba, Jamaica and even Hawaii were all confirming the sudden appearance of massive numbers of people.

People who could speak English who had never left their country or their hometowns were finding themselves relocated left, right, center, at any conceivable location where a body could fit. A good number who were out driving ended up somewhere on the road as the vehicle became the only thing in the world that they owned. They appeared on top of a skyscraper, in a forest, in the desert, on a mountain and even inside an abandoned mine shaft. God help them if they weren't dressed for the occasion.

Women and children, thankfully with their blood relatives nearby, appeared along every single beach, at the mouth of every river, along the shore, up estuaries and down streams. The vast majority left the water as soon as possible. Grandmothers met with sons and daughters, grandchildren, their children and their children. Some fell, some drowned, some could swim and did what they could to help.

Screams could be heard from every building as every unoccupied cot, every bed in every department store; every sleeping bag was filled and loaded down with the maximum number of sustainable people it could. Couches were overflowing with blankets from other countries. Chairs collapsed. Vans with beds and kidnapped children found themselves keeping company with African warriors that had been out on Safari with long spears. Men and women who feared for home invasion pulled out an incredible number of shotguns, rifles, butcher knives and Tinkertech contraptions, screamed, turned on lights, and prepared to defend their homes, their families and their lives.

A state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) from its baseline. However as the woman is only passingly knowledgeable of all things nautical on Earth, Nova could be excused from her naivety. While a good number of ocean going craft appeared within 12 nautical miles of the U.S. of A. the vast majority of the boats appeared in the Alaskan region which covered a surface area roughly two thirds of the United States. A good number of these boats should never have been put in salt water never mind the Dutch Harbor and Sand region that is the icy waters of Alaska's southwest area. People in kayaks and rowboats found themselves peddling for their lives as they attempted to get out from between submarines from other sides of the world playing a game of bumper-cars. Car ferry boats were gunning their engines for all their worth trying to dodge ice bergs. Military vessels started heading out to sea with their guns trained on their neighbors but were soon busy in rescue operations. Oil ships, cargo ships, passenger ships, private yachts were all caught in the biggest surprise of their lives. Most dropped anchor where they were and started yelling at their new neighbors, asking such questions as, "What the fuck is going on? Where are we? Who are you? Why is the water so cold?"

In addition to the above, Nova had also recently gotten it into her head that boats would fly. As a result the Airports and every aviation field became covered with aircraft, helicopters, gunships, model planes, hang gliders, kites and hot air balloons. Those sea planes that could take off and land on the water fairly littered the lakes and streams of national parks.

Then when the final words were spoken the universe went dark. People blinked and found themselves in another world.

The first things they noticed was that the sun was once again rising over the horizon and that the clocks would have to be turned back by about two hours. The second was that there was something not right about the moon. The third was that the sun wasn't quite right either. When it became night time the stars were definitely wrong.

Beneath the White House in the presidential bunker, President Edward N. Pulver was meeting with his military leaders. General Burns looked solemn as he stood to address the group.

"More people keep showing up by the hour," Burns reported, grim faced. "We managed to lock down our military bases after the initial fiasco but they are now surrounded by various militaries that had been caught snoozing on the other side of the world, and are now outside the fence. Fortunately a good number of them are friendly towards out countries or were allies. Unfortunately they have absolutely no where to go. And it's only going to get worse. Those people who are not our allies or friends seem scattered to the four winds. But we don't expect that situation to last long."

"Exactly how many people are we talking about here?" President Pulver dreaded hearing the answer.

"A lot," all eyes focused on the TV screen displaying Dragon's Avatar. At the president's nod she continued, "As of last consensus, plus or minus ten percent, there are 6.399 billion people in the world. Or rather… there was. 54% of them speak English either as their primary, secondary, or tertiary language. 1.1 billion to 4.5 billion people are sleeping at any given time, less for those when Endbringer sirens went off all over the planet, not including those who are in a coma. And since most of everyone has a grandmother their entire families are here too. At a guess the North American Continent just went from having 545,947,744 people on it to having a population of 5 billion."

"Can we support that many people?" one of the security advisors asked. "I know we export a lot of grain and we have food for the Endbringer shelters, but can we feed them?"

"At the moment the only person who could possibly answer that question is the Parahuman known as Accord," Dragon told everyone, much to their dismay. "For those of you who do not know, Accord is a Parahuman whose power increases his intelligence in relation to the size and scope of the problems presented to him; therefore the greater the problem he's given, the faster he can devise a solution for it. And without asking for permission after the Governor of Massachusetts had declared a state of emergency, he had Accord put in charge of his planning committee in order to deal with all the new people and the boats in the harbor. Accord's already sent me the beginnings of a new plan to house and feed everyone on the continent. People are following him. Apparently he's learned his lessons from last time and is willing to 'start small and stupid and work his way up,' his words not mine."

"But aren't his plans unbelievably complex?" President Pulver was by no means a cape geek but he liked to believe he knew more than most about the successful villains that would be more trouble than they were worth to get rid of. If he could have gotten his hands on the man before his idiot superiors in WEDGDG had turned him villain the world would have been much better off. "You know what, the heck with it. Let him feed people. If he does a good job I'll give him a presidential pardon. Let's focus on something more important; how is Ellsberg?"

"Much better than it was yesterday," Dragon's Avatar on the big wall mounted plasma screen was replaced by a large hole in the ground surrounded by a concrete wall that was on fire. Except for the size discrepancy you'd almost think it was the remains of a campfire. "Except for the Ash Beast none of the other S-class threats from other countries has been found. The countermeasures that were in place took out the rest of Nilbog's creations that the Ash Beast didn't destroy—the PRT is currently opening a dialog and I'll have more on that later as events unfold. The Three Blasphemies are believed not to be human enough to count and the rest didn't fit the criteria. The Machine Army is producing Trap Buildings to catch the unwary but we have a good eye on them and are diverting everyone we can away from their area. There's been no sign of Behemoth or Leviathan. The Birdcage is secure."

President Pulver sighed, "Thank god for small mercies," the man took a swallow of room temperature water, draining a fifth of the glass, then put it down. If he followed his instincts he'd drink the whole thing in one go and be in the bathroom in five minutes. What he really wanted was some whisky but he was pretty sure he couldn't sneak a glass of that at this time. Best to avoid that. "Okay, has anybody seen the Triumvirate yet?"

The people in the room looked around and at each other, but nobody spoke up.

President Pulver said the words, "Door me," and smirked when nothing happened at all. "That's what I thought."

Rebecca Costa-Brown, or Alexandrea in her cape persona, often liked to think their Cauldron group had everything figured out but that simply wasn't the case. People had been playing James Bond and Mission Impossible theme songs in their head long before Parahumans came crashing in with their Thinker powers and ruined decades of work. However the Thinkers had a rather nifty flaw in that they were able to do magic with whatever was right in front of them but never seemed able to work out what was going on behind them. They knew the reasons why things happened but not the reasons behind the reasons. It doesn't matter how fancy you moved your money around, the fact that there is money to move around was enough. Connect where it came from to where it appeared and you can triangulate.

For someone that's able to think two moves ahead of the game this doesn't seem like a huge advantage, but it is a skill that can be taught.

"Well, it's been four hours since the event and it seems that Cauldron and their little witches are officially out of the picture. I'm sure we've got a contingency for that somewhere," President Pulver remarked with some fire in his eyes. "Let's bust out the books and start reading. I'd like to figure out how to run a country without those jackasses leading us around by the nose sometime today!"

"I'll tell my people," the director of Homeland Security stood up and walked out of the room.

Nothing is Impossible! It Just Might be Very Hard to do

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#240

Taylor Hebert POV

-000-

February 12, 2010 (3010)

(Thursday)

Brockton Bay.

United States of America

Morning

"This is insane," Madison remarked to her group of cronies and hanger's on, and privately Taylor Hebert had to agree. "Nothing is going to be the same again."

One of the knows-nothing talking heads asked, "Hey, have you seen Sophia?"

Emma said, "Not in the last three days…"

Other than that last tidbit Taylor decided that she was better off ignoring the recently downsized Terrible Two. She was putting all her efforts into tracking everyone with her bugs so that she could stop being stepped on so she could go home. They were just going through the motions anyway...

It was just like the aftermath of an Endbringer battle, but not.

The entire school roof was crowded with kids because there was no room for them on the lawn outside. A few of the teachers and the people from other countries who said they were teachers were doing their best and were barely containing their emotions against any bullshit they found amongst their off-the-walls adolescent charges. Whatever reason that had been making Winslow High her personal hell-realm had its back broken and then kicked to the curb to be thrown out with the rest of the trash.

Brockton Bay had three hundred thousand people the other day and today they had five times that many. Since the children needed to be somewhere every single classroom in the country was filled and there were not enough seats in the auditorium either.

It kinda reminded her of that Soylent Green movie she'd watched a long time ago. The one where every scene out in New York included so many people that there was nearly no room to move around without stepping over someone who had found a flat spot to sleep in. There were people sitting on stairs and on stoops that were acting as lookouts and each of them had a gun in their hands. All the abandoned buildings were completely full.

The ships stuck in the Graveyard had increased twenty times over and there was a cruise ship two miles off shore loaded with more people. There were also a large number of tugs, transports, helicopters, salvage ships, crane ships, construction tenders, dredge diggers, firefighting ships and barges and a whole bunch more mixed in. Without asking for permission the crews had apparently hired themselves and started cutting the wrecks to make it easier to get in and out of the harbor before the crews on the ships ran out of fuel or starved.

Her Dad used to be helping them.

That wasn't even counting the military ships from different countries floating offshore that had been caught out with skeleton crews on shore leave. The only reason you could still see the ten submarines out there was that there was no room for them to maneuver to get out. Those guys had to be sweating bullets.

The PRT was out in force and they were being joined by a number of villains and heroes from other countries that had ended up on their shores. Everyone besides the Merchants had decided to operate on Truce protocols for the next week until things could be figured out.

She actually got to see Armsmaster's bike on the way home, that was so cool!

In addition to them the police force of every precinct had swelled to the bursting point with plenty of police specialists from other countries who didn't know a thing about America's police procedures. They were working for shit pay since there literally wasn't enough money in the country to pay them all. But it allowed the police to take full and complete control of their towns for the first time in years.

Everyone except the Merchants, that is. They were doing their best to riot and steal everything not nailed down. Starting today Toilet Paper had become a rarer commodity than un-drugged Merchant.

Then someone calling himself Bigfoot who could apparently break down the bonds of matter to absorb mass and grow stronger decided to play Czech hedgehog with one of Squealer's abominations and bust through the fuel tanks by turning that part of the vehicle to dust. Skidmark's force fields didn't work on someone who weighed 4,000 plus pounds, was now in lockup, but Squealer had gotten away on a beefed up scooter. The rogue couldn't run or move without setting off an earthquake with every step. He was currently using extra-long chains to slowly haul wrecks out of the pier areas to where they wouldn't be in the way, from the bottom of the ocean.

Since the bus was absolutely full of people Taylor had to walk home.

With so many people Taylor had to step carefully. She couldn't go five steps without dodging some kid or stepping over someone sitting down on the ground. By the time she reached her neighborhood she felt like she had gone the whole way jumping through tires. There were muscles she didn't know the name of screaming in pain in her hips and ankles, two pounds lighter or not.

Another of the things she'd noticed was that all the roads were better than before and Brockton Bay was bigger. If they had holes in them they were now filled. In New York City they said that the space between buildings had increased by as much as a hundred feet. Roads that were supposed to end with unfinished construction were now linked together. Houses and buildings in the wrong places out in the country. Buildings that weren't on any map that looked to be years old had appeared in the weirdest places. Rivers were in the wrong places as well.

It had everyone scratching their heads.

She had immediately sensed some changes in the basement with her bugs. When she got closer to the house she'd found that most of their basement stuff was on the back porch.

Taylor looked up at her house. It was strange what a few days of weirdness could do to it. Thankfully she had been at school and her dad had been at work when people had showed up inside on their beds, and they had left without taking anything.

If people had shown up at night she would have probably drowned them in black widows. As it was she had to figure that she was outed as a cape. With all the new Parahumans from overseas showing up she had to figure that some of them had to be Thinkers. If one of them had actually ended up in her house she could be outed already and wouldn't even know it, vulnerable to the unknown.

People without jobs from other countries had also gotten into the habit of roaming around doing odd jobs for five bucks. Taylor walked up the steps and made the effort not to dodge the third step but to walk on it normally. Her dad had even paid a roaming gang of kids to do the lawn and trim the hedges and paint the fence.

That was the other change.

Taylor yelled as she went in, "Dad, I'm home!" She put her bag down on the coat hanger and made sure to close the door behind her and lock it. Then she looked around with her actual eyeballs.

It looked like her Dad was in full on spring cleaning mode.

Her heart was beating so loud. There had definitely been changes in the basement!

Her dad said, "Welcome home! I'm in the kitchen!"

He was in the kitchen. Taylor poked her head in and found him underneath the faucet doing something with wrenches. There was a new faucet where the old one used to be and the old one was in the recycling trash can.

Oh no, Taylor thought to herself. If dad goes around fixing things up he'll find my black widows factory! Or did he already do that?

This was one of those new dangers in her new world.

In the last three days, on orders from the President of the United States, on a large number of 'suggestions' from the Parahuman Accord, pretty much everyone was encouraged to hire back their old employees, those without jobs right now, putting them to work according to the schedule he'd drawn up. And it was looking more and more that the more people listened to Accord and did what he said the more likely they'd survive the crisis.

Even if it was something as simple as sitting in a chair reading a book watching an underground parking garage doorway to make sure nobody comes in with a radio on your belt, you'd at least get food stamps.

As the bare facts of being on a giant planet percolated their way through people's heads it was looking more and more likely that this would require a major shift in their civilization, as soon as some people could shove it down other people's throats. Why? Because their new planet was a Super Earth that had a 32 hour day with an extra 115 days of the year which would make each month exactly five weeks long with eight day weeks.

A good number of people and businesses were still operating on a regular 8 hour work day so the grave shift and swing shift workers were gradually finding themselves working daylight hours.

The kids and other children like Taylor didn't have to work, so since they had to go to school in the daytime were already well on their way to adjusting to the 32 hour day/night schedule that had been posted online and in newspapers and handed out on fliers. This required at least an hour of rest when a person wakes up and an hour of rest to relax before going to sleep, working and doing things during the daytime for approximately 20 hours with regular breaks, then sleeping between 8-10 hours.

The longer cycle was already doing a great job of separating people into groups. Some people have a longer natural rhythm and some people will never adjust beyond the initial 24 hour cycle but would still have to contend with a 32 hour day. The 24 hour cyclers were feeling some real jet lag about now, falling behind and making stupid mistakes.

Considering that the clocks were going to have to be adjusted/replaced at some point some the 32 hour cyclers were already using it as a great excuse to get rid of Daylight Savings Time and the Leap Year. People wanted to call the eighth day of the week Holiday and adjust the schedule so that all the holidays had one weekend each of their very own. It wasn't like they could keep accurate track with an old calendar now anyway, so…

Once enough people shifted over, which should take about three weeks or so, a new Rotating Shift adjusted to a 32 hour day would be in full effect.

The new schedule required each planetary cycle to be covered by six teams (crews) working five overlapping ten-hour shifts to provide 32/8 coverage and have days off. It consists of a 2 week cycle where each person on a team works five consecutive 10-hour shifts, followed by 3 days off duty, works five consecutive 10-hour shifts, followed by 4 days off duty. It even included a paid lunch hour, a retainer fee, and a bunch of other items that had to be included because of all the new workers from overseas that had very different working conditions and a bunch of new stuff that fit with the new reality. The overlapping shifts provide extra manpower during the switch so that the people coming on shift can find their proxies and be fully informed of the previous shift's events while providing extra manpower during high activity periods during certain times of the day and on weekends. And that wasn't even covering off-days or the people who worked weekends.

It was confusing as heck and not a lot of people were NOT enjoying making the switch. Taylor had already applied a variant of the schedule to her bugs and seen quite a bit of improvement. But they were bugs and not people.

While not many had managed to meet this criteria yet since having the right people at the right places with the right job skills and experience was an ongoing evolution, and there were people who simply could not work the night shift because they had things to do during the day, there were plenty of companies with larger work forces who'd already reached this goal.

People were popping sleeping pills and coffee by the gallon. In another week as the factories increased production to old-time wartime levels there should be enough toilet paper produced that everyone could have more than one roll per week per family.

As a result of these changes the Dockworkers Association was pretty much the first and only group in Brockton Bay other than the Police Department to have hired enough people to make its quota. People desperate for work, who NEEDED to work. Even if they weren't exactly getting paid at the moment they were at least employed and being given food stamps. Clearing out ships and rebuilding the docks gave each and every one of their hands at the Association plenty of work to do.

But now her Dad had the next three days off.

Better get this started, "What are you doing?"

"Hey there little owl. Can you hand me a rag?"

Taylor got a clean rag and handed it to him.

Her Dad asked her, "You know that cargo ship that's out there?"

Taylor shook her head, no. She could just barely see him underneath the sink. "No. I know about the passenger ship but not a cargo ship."

"Well it has been 'suggested'," the way her Dad said the word indicated that this suggestion had also come from Accord, "That until further notice the people who own the ships are the ones driving them. Since the companies are in another world and all. It's expected that the people from those corporations that got here might get together to start up their businesses again, or something. So you could say that that it is those people who own the ships, but they don't have the paperwork or proof, so that's not going to work for everyone. Even so a bunch of the owners who have been identified are cooperating anyway. Right now they're going by a 'whoever has it owns it' gimmick."

Taylor could imagine some CEO Tycoon peddling down the road on a broken down bicycle in the remains of his seven million dollar silk suit and coming over to the ship to point at it and say, "Hey! That's my oil tanker!" and getting invited on-board to scrub decks for a living and getting paid in toilet paper.

Taylor nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"Anyway, the people on this particular ship is setting their cargo on the docks ten units at a time and auctioning them off. Some of the material is being put into the warehouses until they can be delivered to their respective owners or returned to sender. But they're also selling a bunch of those containers off. They set them down, open the doors, you can look but don't touch, get five minutes to decide, and then the auction. You would NOT believe how much the cost of a box of oranges is going for."

Endbringer and hurricane preparations for a seaside community were a must. "I'm glad our shelves are full then," Taylor frowned, "You didn't buy a shipping container with a box of oranges, did you?"

Her dad started extracting himself out from underneath the sink. "No, the Association did, a bunch of times, but it wasn't oranges," he pulled out all his tools. "We're exchanging our manpower for stuff since we don't have enough cash to pay, water and electricity and fuel are being provided, sewage and bilge are being purged. There's quite a bit of haggling going around. If I had a box of meat I would have made a killing!" The man groped at the air, really hamming it up, which put a smile on Taylor's face. "When we cracked it open we each got to take something. The rest is being sold on the sidewalk. I got the faucet and a box of books. They're upstairs in your room."

"Oh, neat!" she liked books.

He folded himself out from underneath the sink with a handful of white tape, "How was school? Learn anything new? I'm guessing you're home early for a reason?" he put all his tools into his toolbox.

Taylor shrugged, "Not really? It was crowded. The teachers are trying but most people are just hanging out. Mr. Gladly was supposed to teach us a class but he never came in and some other teacher was talking to the students in Spanish. We've got another teacher teaching Arabic and another speaking Russian."

"And the gangs in school are allowing this?"

"Well they're kind of outnumbered and most of these teachers have steel in their spines. I think a one of the Gym teachers used to be a paratrooper," and wasn't that an eye-opener? "It's kind of amazing how quickly things can change. I think Winslow has, like fifty new teachers or something."

"Well that was fast." Her dad stood up, wiping of his hands and arms. "Well if you haven't heard of it I guess I can tell you the good news," Dad broke out into the happiest grin Taylor had seen on him all month. "Your Principle Blackwell isn't coming back!"

Her face broke out into a smile he said it, her happiness exploding violently for the upper atmosphere, she felt so light-headed. She nearly shrieked, "What?"

Dad nodded. "You heard right—" he couldn't say anything more because suddenly Taylor was hugging him very hard. "That's right baby girl. She's gone, she's gone! She isn't coming back Taylor."

Taylor looked up at her father with tears in her eyes, "Really?"

Danny patted her on the head, feeling incredibly young again with his daughter in his arms. "Really, really, reeeally," he put Taylor down, and then he tapped the side of his nose with his finger, and winked. "I'm not sure but I think someone punched her in the face. When they learned about your case the entire school administration was ready to tear them a new one. My guy on the inside say's the only reason she isn't in jail is because it's full of worst guys from other jails from other countries. She's got an ankle bracelet on her leg and is prevented from leaving her house. One of the guys running utilities in her neighborhood saw the police cars. The other teachers probably aren't that far behind."

"But, but, but I haven't heard of anything!" Taylor yelled.

Dad shrugged, "Too much chaos. When the Brockton Bay Police Department took in all those foreign officers? They threw a bunch of them at the records department and all those old cases that were closed down due to lack of manpower. Whatever force that was acting behind the scenes to shut our case down got trampled," he really enjoyed saying that word. "Dead bodies can't tell tales if they're buried, but right now we've got an entire workforce of excavators and bulldozers spinning their wheels for something to do."

Taylor giggled. She couldn't help it and ended up laughing long and loud and clear. Taylor and her Dad ended up doing a dance in the kitchen with their arms linked going around and around in a circle until they were too dizzy to keep going and fell into the chairs.

Dad took a deep breath and took the toolbox into his hand. "Taylor, I've got to ask you something. Follow me?" and then he went through the door in the back of the kitchen underneath the stairs and down into the basement.

He knows.

Taylor whimpered.

Taylor followed her dad down. This was what she was afraid of. The floor downstairs was clean and all the clothes were folded up or on racks near the washing machine and it was full.

"Did you clean the place out?"

"A bit. Like it?"

Taylor shrugged and looked around at her clean and much better organised basement. "It's cleaner than before."

"True, which it is. Almost all of it. All except that," he pointed to the corner where the coal chute was located.

Taylor thought she was so cleaver to put her spiders in glass beer bottles when she wasn't around to keep them from eating each other. Taylor guessed that she didn't hide them enough. Since each had a screw on cap Dad had managed to gather them all up without getting bitten. Then he'd collected the shelves, put them on the wall, and then arranged the bottles like they were trophies.

She'd only just started collecting the bottles so there were only 273 of them. They also had to be capped so they didn't go wandering around when I wasn't around to keep an eye on them and sting my dad.

Dad waved at the collection, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

I frowned. "Sorry dad."

The man sighed and rubbed at his face. "Taylor, that's not good enough. Remember what happened?"

Taylor nodded.

"Do you remember what happened when you came home from the hospital and you were steadily becoming more lucid when they took you off those blasted drugs? Do you?"

Taylor nodded.

"Taylor!" his sharp retort brought Taylor's eyes up off the ground. "Do you remember what happened?" he enunciated clearly and precisely.

Taylor knew she'd be in bigger trouble if she didn't answer his question. "I do."

"Do you remember what happened when you woke up from your first nightmare in the middle of the night?"

Taylor said in a small voice, "I do."

"Do you remember waking up covered in spiders?"

"I do."

"Do you remember me running into your room with a baseball bat? Do you remember how I found you covered with every insect in the house that you called into your room?"

"I do."

"Do you remember how you almost mobbed me with spiders?"

"I do."

"And do you remember the promise you made to me back then? What was it?"

Taylor replied, "No venomous or poisonous insects in the house."

Danny nodded, "That's right. That is exactly right. Nothing poisonous, nothing that's venomous, then, now, or otherwise! You can keep the bees because they're fuzzy and they can make honey. You can use termites to carve wood. You can have all the butterflies and beetles that you want. You can make bug houses out of pallets. You can even go hunting for vermin and I'll help you get paid for it. And god knows I like the idea of having lobster and crabs every once in a while, especially now. But nothing that's going to kill your old man is to be kept in this house, especially when you're not here to control them!"

His rant over, Danny started to calm down.

He sighed and rubbed at the back of his head. He probably had a headache now, was Taylor's guess.

"You have a great amount of potential Taylor. You're power is scary and awesome. But you can't keep doing things like this. Either these bugs have to go or I have to go, and I'm definitely not going. Taylor," Taylor looked back up from the floor again, but instead of seeing a very pissed off father she saw a man with a big grin on his face. The last time Taylor had seen a smiling face like that, her dad had forgotten to do something special for her mother for Valentine's Day and had come up with something that was awesome at the last minute and her help to pull it off. "I've got a surprise for you. Perfect timing," he looked up to one of the basement windows to the outside.

That was when she heard the sound of diesel truck backing up.

In her driveway!

-000-

Taylor didn't know what was going on so had stood by while things were happening and watched. She'd watched her dad talking to Elmer the driver as the man had backed up a shipping container and had maneuvered around the house so it was flush with the woodshed on the right and the fence. Then another truck following behind the first had dropped off a second and backed that up to the corner in the backyard on the left hand side so the two of them made an L-shape.

After paying off both drivers with cash her dad went over to the first container, which was painted blue and practically brand new, fiddled with some locks and opened the side doors. It looked like one of the containers that went on trains; there were duplicate sliding doors on the other side as well. It had some furniture inside and lights in the ceiling and a row of plugs along the ceiling they were plugged into. Then he hurriedly went over to the second one, which was black and rusty and full of bullet holes. It had normal doors on each end. Inside the container was absolutely filled with pallets, and had a wielder and some gas bottles tied down on another pallet at the open doors.

Taylor went to the open door of the second shipping container and watched as her dad started to unpack the wielding equipment and torch. "Dad? What is all this?"

The man just smiled beatifically. "Well since you needed a place to work and the warehouses down at the docks are out. One of the new girls … Denise, I think? She thought we should convert the shipping containers to housing and ship them around the country for people. It was such a good idea and I thought, 'why didn't I think of that?' I gave her the green light to put together an assembly line and I asked for one for my daughter and one to put stuff in and they just gave them to me. Didn't even ask for money, other than the fuel to deliver it. I think we can link them together. Then you can have all the bugs you want."

Her Dad got out a spray of paint can to write BugHouse on the inside of the second trailer, then he turned to her and asked, "So what do you think?

Taylor's brain was already buzzing with the possibilities. A shipping container was much bigger than a coal shut, and she could use the other container as her own personal club house. Together she'd have enough room for all her bugs and they wouldn't be in the house at all!

Taylor glomped her Dad, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

-000-

I have an awesome superpower, Taylor thought to herself. Sure, she hadn't always thought that of her power, before, but that was back before she'd almost covered her dad in insects after one bad night while the drugs were coming out of her system. She's always wanted to be a flying, laser shooting, super strong, super beautiful one, but that's not what she got. It had taken a few long talks with her dad for him to start pointing out all the damage Victoria Dallon gave the Dockworkers Association to knock that out of her head. She was going to be a hero.

The strange thing was that it had taken her Dad to make her see the light. He'd also gone to the library and rented a movie about insects called Mr. Bug Goes to Town and The Secrets of Life by Disney. Those made her feel better. A little.

It was still too cold to go out most days even on another world with new weather. But now that she had a place to work in she'd asked for her dad's help and his truck. Together they'd visited the outskirts of Brockton Bay and cut out a bunch of wasp and bees nests with their queens and transported them into the second trailer. With some glue and some paper they'd patched over the holes and with some electric heaters the place became somewhat warm. From then on it was just a matter of directing her swarms of bees and wasps to cover the walls with honeycomb and paper mesh in layers until enough insolation kept the heat inside.

With all the people from foreign lands about she'd hoped for (and found!) some rather exotic creatures amongst the tent cities. But the real finds were from the shipping containers. With her dad's help they'd managed to rescue a few before they died from the cold; scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, fees and gnats, fleas, and so on. There were quite a few invasive species ready to invade this world. So her dad and her were doing their part to get rid of them.

A few shovelfuls of frozen dirt had gotten her the queens to some ants nests and a quick run around the docks had gotten her plenty of termites. Those were dumped into the house next. Once they were up and working tunnels were dug from the basement to the underside of the Bughouse, reinforced with termite mud. From that point on all their garbage was going to be taken care of by Taylor's bugs.

Without Earth Aleph the available media on the internet had almost been cut in half. However nearly every black market Tinker had copies of movies and they were making that available through new servers they'd built. One of the movies she'd found was an 'artwork' where people got spiders to spin webs on a frame to make sculptures that gradually changed shape. She was halfway through devouring everything she could find before she realized that it was a scam. The artwork looked like it was made by spiders, they did use spiders, but they were made by humans with the same stuff used in movie props. It was a joke.

A really cool joke. One series of pictures showed the construction of a massive cobweb in an abandoned building of some kind with columns that had to be the size of a football field made out of wrapping tape.

Another internet search showed that the largest spider webs in the world were made by a socialist spider called the anelosimus eximius, a community 50,000 strong that worked together and covered entire trees of a forest.

I can do something like that, she thought to herself. It was settled then. She'd breed up to 50,000 black widows and other assorted spiders to see what that got her.

Finding abandoned bottles and cans to put her swarm in was about impossible at this point. The entire population of the world was in America and they'd already found them all for a bunch of nickels. Fortunately with her growing population of wasps and bees she could make apartments for them.

Back in the beginning one of the things Taylor had to learn the hard way was how bees made wax and honey and wasps made paper and termites made mud and spiders spun different kinds of silk.

She'd had to release control of the insects, which was about as difficult as relaxing a muscle that you'd learned all your life to keep tight. Once that was done the insects were free to move about as they wished.

Then she could learn how to make wax and honey and paper and silk by watching through their senses, which took more time.

Taylor learned everything she could from her books on insects and learned a lot more that was never covered in books. A lot of the things they did in construction wasn't so much an application in layers as a combination of types too many to name, put down one at a time. Different kinds of wax, different kinds of paper, different kinds of silk to use in different environmental conditions, so many that she doubted she'd found them all in the little time she had.

Taylor surprised herself keeping them straight in her head.

Even when she let go of her control Taylor still knew where the bugs were in relation to herself at all times. She could feel it when they were born and when they died and when they went beyond her three block range. She was like an aircraft carrier in the middle of the sea with all her sensors going full blast handling all the boats and ships and sea planes and satellites all at once without a stop for breath.

Taylor had to walk a fine line between letting the insects do what they were naturally programed to do and organizing and commanding them to do things her way, which was the better way. Slowly her ability to multitask and organize was increasing by the hour.

In the meantime there were a bunch of ladies from East India that had formed a sewing circle and a Guild with Parian at the park who were also running a laundromat service and doing customization.

She was sooo going to be there.

-000-

Taylor struggled to get into the house with her books, pamphlets and shopping bags, but she managed. Her dad was carrying in four times the amount on one arm because he hadn't been in the hospital two weeks ago and she had the keys. Taylor was smiling like an idiot the whole time and her dad wasn't far behind, but she was definitely winning the smiles award this time.

"You need to work on your enthusiasm Taylor," her dad said as he set their things down on the kitchen table. "I'm not sure if you managed to become Parian's number one fan all in a single day, but you were cute enough."

Taylor wined, "Dad!" she took her brown bag of insects to the basement door and set them down on the side. Over the next few minutes the bag would empty itself out and then she'd retrieve the bag. "Thanks for buying the crickets."

"Just so long as they don't wake me up," Dad cautioned her. "I figured those bugs would make a good population of bug cattle for your more important creatures. How's the spider population?"

"Uneaten, growing, and the eggs are safe," Taylor reported.

Her dad smiled and said, "My little girl is growing monsters under the bed to scare people with. I'm so proud of you." Her dad started putting the groceries away. It was slim pickings at the moment. The grocery stores were nearly running out of meat. "This was a good idea. I had fun. We hardly do anything together anymore."

"That's because you're always working and I became a shut-in because of the Terrible Trio. I'm glad I'm not in school anymore," Taylor grabbed a bag of ships, poured them into a bowl, and started munching. Technically speaking it was way past dinner time now. The days were so long it was always going to be a snack time at some time.

Her dad made some non-conformal noise at her from the direction of the refrigerator as he put the soda away. She liked hers warm, he did not. There were another few bottles to be put on top of the refrigerator.

"I suppose we don't. I always thought if something was wrong you'd say something. I mean, we're Father and Daughter. I can't help with some things, but bringing unholy wrath down on those who wronged you is my job." Taylor handed him the vegetables so he could load up the crisper drawer with potatoes and cabbage. "At the very least, the both of us could have let off some steam about the idiots at work and school to one another."

"I don't snitch," Taylor said. "At least, not anymore I don't."

"No. No you don't. But you should. At least you should to me if to nobody else. Complain long and loud and clear. If you ever get stuck like that again I expect to get an earful until the pressure blasts some common sense into my old brain."

"That's before you go and find me in the hospital again to stake out my room?"

"You bet your young teenage butt I will," he handed her a coke, then went back for his own glass and added ice. "Getting onto another topic: Did you see the price of meat?"

Taylor replied, "Thirteen dollars a pound for hamburger, three dollars more tomorrow. Expect there to be wheat less Thursdays and meat less Tuesdays going forwards from now on," she recited what the butcher behind the counter said. "By Monday morning expect there to be ration booklets for everyone. We'll have to sign up."

Her dad shivered at the thought. The lines at the soup kitchens went all around the block all day and night and never got any shorter. "I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for those foreigners. You know a lot of those people don't even eat the same foods we do? God help them if they have dietary problems. You may have to go out earlier than I thought."

"I-wha…?" Taylor looked at her dad dumbfounded. "What did you say?"

Her dad repeated himself, "You might have to start going out, as a cape," he took a seat at the table. "I was thinking that you could start out doing a few publicity stunts. Make pictures in the air with fireflies. But with the food shortages running up and down the pipeline despite Accord's best efforts with the government you might have to step up."

Taylor's face looked as dumbfounded as she felt. "I thought you didn't want me going out until later?"

Her dad nodded. "I don't want you to go out at all. But there are plenty of people fishing on the docks for their supper using shoelaces, a pin and some chewing gum. Kids are out to catch crabs and shellfish. There are small boats going out every day. People are already bringing in this world's version of tuna, and they're huge! You've seen how these foreigners accidentally brought in those insects? Those are going to destroy the ecosystem in America when the weather warms up. You can help with that."

Taylor wasn't sure what to think. "I guess it would help. I just thought… I thought I was going to be a hero, you know? Not the exterminator and little miss crab catcher. Making money with my power sounds kind of… cheap." Although now that she says it out loud it sounded kind of stupid.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with saving a home from insect invaders and bringing food to the table. You'll be a hero in plenty of people's eyes," he reached over and padded her on the shoulder. "You've been planning on being a hero since the hospital, right?"

Taylor nodded. "Yeah, ever since I realized I could see and hear through my bugs and spy on the TV they have in the nurse's breakroom. I probably saved the hospital a lot of money getting rid of rats and plugging up the cracks in the walls so they couldn't get in again."

Her dad triumphantly smiled, "See? There you go, heroic deed number one," he took a sip of his coke. "But I thought you couldn't see through your bugs?"

"Well, not exactly, exactly. They don't have the same eyes and ears as people. But if I line them up on the wall and they sit still I can kind of combine the image together in my head. And while they can't hear very well the vibrations picked up in webs comes through okay. I kinda have to figure things out, kinda."

"I think we have a spare TV in the attic—"

Taylor checked with her bugs, "We do."

"It's also a black and white. We can sacrifice it for the greater good that is you. We can move it into your playroom and hook it up. You can practice watching that with different combinations of bugs. Figure out which have the best eyes and ears. Cover the entire wall if that's what it takes. You'll be nightmare perfect for reconnaissance."

Taylor asked, "Do you really think the PRT will want me for my powers? They don't seem special."

Her old man smiled, "You didn't see the books I got you today, did you?"

Taylor shook her head. With all the things they'd gotten done that day she'd forgotten about it. Twenty hour days were a heck of a thing.

"No, I forgot," she admitted.

Her dad waved at the stairs, "Go get them and bring them down."

Taylor did as her dad had asked and was back in the kitchen in no time. Together they opened up the box. Her father reached in and pulled out one book and placed it right in the middle of the table.

He gestured to it. "That a look at this!"

Taylor read the words on the cover page out loud,

"The Barrabas Run. The soldiers of Barrabas—mercenaries who fight a special war for a special man," her dad flipped the book over. "SOBs. Meet Nile Barrabas.

The Man, the Legend, the Leader.

Nile Barrabas was the last man out of Vietnam, the guy who leaped up from the U.S. Embassy roof to grab the skid of the final departing chopper.

Regular military service was now over for him. But the irregular service had just begun.

Meet the soldiers of Barrabas; their skills are for hire, but they can't be bought!

The Soldiers of Barrabas are nine hard-bitten men (and one woman) welded by their leader into a fierce squad of warriors."

Taylor sat back in her chair and said, "Wow."

Her dad nodded. "Yup, wow is right. It's one of the last action series printed before Parahumans ruined everything. It's thrift store garbage, sure. It's got two hundred pages of prep time for the heroes before the action starts, but that suits your power to a T. Preparation, practice, performance, that's your powers all over the place. You've got the same grit that my grandfather's got. Somehow I think that if the army had dropped you off in the jungle swamps of the Kap Long's upper delta you'd have turned the enemy inside out."

-000-

I'm not actually a fan of Barrabas. I found the old books in a box while doing some work at home cleaning things up, forgetting that I had them. But now I've got a way to seperate my Taylor out from the innumerable kinds of Taylor that are in other fics. The first being that she wasn't able to hide her power from her dad, the second being that she's got an action series to get some ideas from.

It's kind of ironic that my fics have a long prep time with a little action at the end.

I'll post another chapter tomarow.

Last edited: Yesterday at 1:28 PM

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#246

February 16, 2010 (3010)

(Holiday)

Brockton Bay.

United States of America

Morning-Early

There were too many people.

It was oddly comforting to be surrounded by as many people as a party on New Year's or Marti Gras. The number of pick-pocketeers had gone up by some ridiculous number, like 3,000%!

It was virtually impossible for normal crime to happen with every single place filled to capacity, cheek to jowl, with fifty or more people living in each other's pockets, with enough police to have an officer on every street corner.

There had been no dark empty alleyways to go and hide in for over a new world week.

Every rooftop had turned into a tent city so it was now impossible to go roof hopping in the normal heroic fashion.

Parking lots with cars and trucks were stuffed full of tired and hopeless people sleeping in their vehicles. Each road out of town had a few more cars parked in the empty fields under trees. There were guards keeping people out of the shipping docks. Tow trucks ran all night.

Every publicly available toilet was occupied. Ew.

It was getting better. Sort of. A thousand people at a time grouped together for protection were migrating out into the countryside. Everyone wanted a bicycle. Every house and rented flat was occupied. Every car that could be rented was off the lot.

It was not a good time to be a delivery boy.

By the time the universally agreed upon eighth day of the week 'Holiday' came around a person in a coma would have never recognized the city.

Taylor hadn't been back to school since Thursday, mostly because there was no point and her father had agreed. There were enough kids who wanted to go to school that there simply was no room. There were enough teachers that they were working outside, teaching botany and earth science, and if you were an athlete you had to wait your turn in line to use the track and gym.

No thank you.

People from her hometown might have gotten a seat but that was no guarantee. The library was always occupied with people reading books for something to do and you can't share those. They'd even taken the limits off the online libraries so everyone could borrow books and movies and games electronically without limits and they'd lowered the rental fees. If you could work from home it was a good time to stay at home.

Rather than skulking about the rooftops late at night, as she had first thought she would make her debut Taylor was walking around in broad daylight as the new sun came up over the planet.

Using some sports equipment her dad bought, some old clothes, some comic books her father had, Taylor had made a cheap costume to go out in. This way she could promote her cape persona and abilities amongst the dozen others that had arrived in town and make something of a small impact with her Master Powers before she became just one more in a crowd.

She was currently wearing a brand new pair of the best shitkicker boots her dad had managed to get his hands on, followed by exercise pants and a shirt, covered with enough sports gear that if she fell down she wouldn't get hurt.

Under her father's observation she had very carefully fallen down onto the floor and then the stairs in their house and basement a dozen times just to try it out and while she was shaken up it worked fine. She also knew how to fall now.

Over this gear was a full body grey spider silk mesh with drawstrings that kept her warm and highlighted the armor underneath. With some experiments with dyes, inks, markers and paint, and another few layers of carefully applied silk from different spiders, she'd managed to give her morph-suit a muscular female body pattern. There was even a skirt on the front and back that covered a horribly applied zipper and buttons that had been added at the last moment so she could go to the bathroom in this getup. An additional rectangular plate of metal on her chest that her Dad had salvaged and cut with the torches protected her lungs and heart and gave her costume a hint of some curves.

The belt that held the skirt had a ridiculous number of huge pockets and there were more belts with pouches around her legs and arms. She had to admit that she was a bit confused about having it.

While Taylor didn't mind too much how the pouches embiggen her hips and seemed to make her butt to pop out more, she was wondering what all those 1990 comic book heroes kept in their pouches. The most obvious reason seemed to be, really, why not?

The pouches she'd made were huge and water tight. Taylor had to ask her dad's help to fill the ones on the left hip with water bottles and the big right side pouch with a gallon of a sugar-water mixture used for hummingbird feeders. The nectar was for her bugs and she was keeping the water for herself. The test of her belts and harness had gone very well. Not only were they strong and stayed in place but she could take them off to switch out different sizes, they were also both moderately fire proof and could hold liquids on their own.

Her utility belt (thank you Dad for the names of all these things!) held items that might come in handy in the field. It includes, but is not limited to: a compass, emergency rations (candy bar), a book of matches and lighter, medical supplies, steel and magnesium powder, wire, maps, thin rope, a rain poncho, flashlight, and multi-tool. The other pouches had batteries for flashlights, Gold Bond medicated powder, more empty pouches, paperclips, pencils, sticky paper to write down ideas, throw away cell phone, some spare yarn, string, a few miles of her spider silk string, failed spider silk cloth, tiny scissors, razor blades, and a couple knitting hooks for the yarn. Taylor was pretty sure that if her Dad had found the cast offs of Batman's utility belt they'd be in there as well.

She also had one of her Barrabas books for reading material. It wasn't a good book, mind, but it was something that was better than nothing.

But the vast majority of what she had with her was her Hive. Her dad called it her Swarm since the Hive was at home. But tomato tama-to.

Her dad didn't want her going out without her arsenal on hand at a moment's notice. Being dependent on the environment to randomly provide you with the tools you needed on second's notice when the bad guys have spare clips of ammunition and you had one can of pepper spray was never going to be close to enough.

The pouches along her legs held her bees, just like how bees have pollen baskets along their legs, which is where she got the idea to put them there. The pouches along her arm had hornets. And the massive backpack that her Dad had gotten at a camping store was filled to the brim with black widows and flying ants. There were beetles as well.

The whole thing was a bit too heavy to carry for a young girl with a bit of flab on her stomach fresh out of the hospital. Privately Taylor thought her Dad had loaded her down as an excuse to prevent her from going out as long as possible until she was strong enough to actually carry all this junk. But once she got everything packed away and the distribution right it was actually okay walking.

Taylor decided to just grin and bear it. If she couldn't run properly or jump out of aircraft she'd weight train.

Her dad had visited a friend in a motorcycle shop for an old dirt bike helmet. The visor was tinted so nobody could see her face and the helmet around it had a beautiful purple and pink butterfly. It was probably the only part of the costume she intended to keep after she upgraded her suit. The only reason her dad had gotten it was because the decal work was just amazing and for an extra fifty bucks had added on a few additional flourishes. The helmet was black, but there now looked to be insect mandibles along the jaw of the face mask. There was this nightmare blue and white scorpion sitting on the back of the head too.

Unfortunately for her, her old/new helmet tended to fog up a bit. It wasn't bad after some equilibrium with the environment had been reached but it had left her walking around for a few minutes nearly blind. Which was definitely a checkmark in the negative column. If it got too bad she could take the lens off and wear the emergency pair of goggles that had come with it.

Her REAL helmet was going to be much cooler. She'd been looking things up online and what Taylor wanted was something more like a Scorpion Exo-Tech Helmet. It had a tinted visor on the inside that slide upwards into the helmet and a clear visor on the outside that slid up over the outside of the helmet. There was also another variant that could also unlock to slide up out of the way the full face protection to expose her mouth. The same shop not only sold parts (currently available for order) but could also put visor decals on lenses so she wouldn't have to wear her glasses underneath! And it would be more fog proof. So she fully intended to get those. As soon as she had more money that is.

At the very least she had no trouble breathing since the helmet's mouth screen allowed for maximum oxygen intake and she needed every bit she could get. She just had to focus her breathing down through her nose instead of out through her mouth. She could also sip water through a straw without exposing herself, which was something her new hero helmet would need.

Her stay at the hospital did not make for a very fit Taylor Hebert, the construction work she did on her playhouse and this walk across the city was proof of that.

In the days to follow Taylor fully intended to replace every bit of this sub-optimal crap with her own armor made out of spider silk, seashells, and the carpus of her insects. And maybe get an Air-brush painting set for decal work. It would be lighter and fit better above all else. And if she could swing it the armor inserts would be made out of Tinkertech materials with the helmet outfitted with an integrated communications system.

Right now she really, really wished her old bike didn't have two flat tires and was too small for her. A motor scooter would be nice about now. Just to zip along on the road like nobody's business would be really, really great!

Okay she had a goal. She was getting a bike!

All the while Taylor continued on for the docks on this glorious sunny day of cold and kept an eye out for good places to put her feet amongst the legs of all the people sitting against the walls. Many of them were huddled together for warmth under blankets and newspapers and looked tired enough to be in some kind of waking coma.

These were people that she knew were obviously having trouble adjusting from a 24 hour day to a 32 hour day. Ironically Taylor was having no trouble at all and she was attributing that to the fact that the various creatures under her control had different sleeping habits but her dad, who worked long days anyway, seemed to be thriving in it better than she was.

Hopefully neither of them would have a psychotic episode.

The weird thing, as far as Taylor was concerned, was that she did not feel uncomfortable about going out and using her powers in full view of the public. It would be a calling card for the entire city, but she was more uncomfortable about staying at home using her powers than going out and showing them off.

According to PHO this was normal. Parahumans feel a need to use their powers whether they want to or not. They needed to use their powers. The longest anyone had ever gone without using their powers were a few Parahuman prisoners fitted with electroshock and tranquilizer collars. Without exception they'd ALL eventually used their powers and simply couldn't stop themselves. One unlucky bastard had managed to go 103 days and he'd devolved into a nervous twitching wreck. A few of the wardens had almost been charged with war crimes for cruel and unusual punishment just for doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. This had resulted in the whole concept of long-term jail sentencing for Parahumans to be thrown out as unfeasible and made the Birdcage so necessary. Did it affect Parahumans minds? The answer was always yes. They need to do something; they need to know things; like a bunch of kids told to sit still and incapable of doing so.

The most amazing problem was finding a place where a person could hide so she could change into her costume and come out as someone else. No exploding/shady phone booth for her.

Her dad had to take her down to the Dockworkers Association so she could get lost among the buildings where nobody could see her and there were no cameras, change her clothes, sneak into a service truck, and then have one of her Dad's friends drop her off down the street.

Walking along the sidewalk back to the docks Taylor had gathered more bugs from the body-warm abandoned buildings full of refugees. There were ladybugs on her chest arranged in the shape of an enormous spider. There were bees on the back of her neck looking like dreadlocks. And there was a carpet of undesirables killing each other, eating each other, following in her wake.

Seeing all the people in front of her get out of her way as her body was covered with more insects was giving her a thrill. Taylor wanted to be noticed, to be seen, to show off, to be talked to, appreciated…

The heads of tourists, natives and foreigners alike turned to watch her progress as the new hero Weaver walked along the docks up to the small boat launch. Former gangsters outnumbered a thousand to one glared from amongst the crowd. Druggies stared at nothing, lost in their own dreams. Phones with cameras were out recording it all.

The impromptu weekend flea market had swollen to gigantic size with a lot of new faces she barely recognized. And not an Empire 88 wannabe or Asian Bad Boy in sight. There were real police amongst the crowd too.

However seeing another Asian with a sword on his hip dressed in jeans, white T-shirt, leather jacket and black sunglasses, prompted Taylor to give the place a second look. There were gangs; they were just from other countries. She then remembered that there were nearly a billion Chinese and a good number of them would have been either asleep or able to speak English that were now spread across the Continental America.

Taylor used the last of the petty cash her father had given her and rented a stall. She then put up a big cardboard sign over my head. I then then used my bugs to make words and change them around every ten seconds or so.

Parahuman Rogue Weaver

Crabs and Lobster

Exterminator

Insect Bait

She wasn't trying to sell bait or lobsters, not yet. Taylor didn't have the licenses. Among other things she had no guarantee other than the words out of her mouth that the lobsters and crab she was selling were parasite and disease free. So right now she was just selling her services and making herself available.

People needed her services. And once people saw what she had available she'd have the leverage.

Her dad didn't have very good things to say about the PRT. The two times Taylor had tried to call them on the phone had resulted in her playing phone tag with an operating machine because all the lines were busy.

Either the PRT would show up on their own or not. It was certainly more appealing than trying to get through the fortress that had been set up around the PRT headquarters downtown.

Taylor got out her Barrabas book and started to read a little bit. She didn't really get what the book was talking about with setting up deals with scum to get their weapons over the border through two different ways and then making sure the smugglers didn't kill you or you killed them first. It wasn't what came into her head when she thought about Heroes. Very slowly she was also getting around the idea of operational security. There was a difference between loyalty and money and one can be used to get the other. People on the sharp end also hated it when their handlers doled out information in tiny bits, armchair generals trying to puppet their men from half a world away with no idea what was going on in the dirt, so she could sympathize with Barrabas whenever someone was holding out on something that changed everything and the need for as much information as possible.

Taylor was also developing a disinclination for male chauvinistic attitudes towards women.

It wasn't a good book, but it was something to read.

In the meantime she was using her bugs to scout the ground looking for quarters. If she got enough change she'd call the PRT from a payphone and try again. Then she could be escorted inside in style.

Or at least that was the plan anyway.

She got a bite not ten minutes later.

The man looked like a businessman, but he was wearing an apron with blood on it. "You have a Parahuman powers that involves insects?"

Since a sufficiently smart person should have been able to figure out her abilities just from watching what she did so far, it was best to be open about it. Like ripping off a band-aid. "Yes. I'm a Master. I can control very small things with a very simple brain that are in my range. This includes all the bugs you see here, crabs and lobsters, oysters and barnacles, and the worms and parasites that are in them, if they are there."

She didn't mention how there were some parasites in the fish being sold right now. A little bit of proper cooking would kill it. Only she could tell. And the people knew they might be in there but there was nothing they can do but cook their food properly and kill it with heat. Chances were that anyone who had eaten any kind of meat had eaten some with parasites in them at some point. But between testing the meat animals beforehand, cooking the food in the factory, cooking the food properly at home, the digestive system, and antibiotics, they were sterilized into protein and nothing came of it.

She was trying not to think about it too much.

The man waved to a boy standing nearby and he came over with a bag full of the usual crabs. She could name every one: Hermit Crab, Horseshoe Crab, Blue Crab, Green Crab, Rock Crab, Jonah Crab, Ocelot Crab, Spider Crab, and Lobster.

She pointed each out and named every single one as they came out of the bag. Then she made them move around on their own so they were separated out into groups.

The seller guy nodded, "You can control crabs and know your shellfish. Which of these do you think have parasites in them?"

Taylor pointed them out immediately, "These three."

The man picked them up and gave them to the boy, "Cut these open and get back to me."

The boy ran off.

"So your powers work on flatworms as well. What about fish?"

"I can do fish as well. As long as they're alive of course. I mean the parasites and bugs, that is. I can tell if there are parasites and bugs in fish. I can't control fish. If they're eggs they don't seem to count. But I think I can control shrimp." Taylor stopped talking.

"What about in people and pets?"

Taylor nodded, "I've sensed them in people as well. A lot of people from… overseas aren't as healthy as they think."

"Yeah, they're disgusting all right. The medical industry is making a mint trying to vaccinate everyone." The man nodded, and then he held out his hand. "Jeffery Lion. I own the Lionfish restaurant down the street."

"I'm Weaver."

The boy, Henri, came back and told Jeffery Lion that all three had been filled with parasites. The other shellfish were free of parasites.

Jeffery Lion was now certain of her abilities and willing to help her.

Mr. Lion made his offer on the spot, "How'd you like to get paid two thousand a day to make sure none of those F-U parasites get past our Fishmarket, getting paid for every building you clean out, dining out at our restaurants for every meal? I can make it happen."

Taylor was floored. Two thousand? "Can I make that much? Don't they have Parahuman laws about that sort of thing?" Taylor wondered.

"A health inspector makes 150.00 a day. You are dead accurate and more versatile. Besides, it's a new world. Four fifths of the people in this country didn't vote for those laws, and neither did the Parahumans who came from other countries. I know I didn't. In another week they'll be forgotten about," Jeffri Lion told her. "This is the way things are going to be. You want in?"

Hands were shook.

What promised to be a very long day became even longer.

By the time she finished her first nine hours awake advertising her skills at the docks she had a whole notebook filled with date and times so she could go and inspect buildings.

Jeffery Lion got her in contact with a man of unknown nationality with slanted eyes that had taken over a noodle shop and filled it with his men. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that someone had contacted Jeffery Lion and asked to make an introduction. Some muscular thug had shown up out of nowhere to talk to Mr. Lion and got him sweating bullets.

Taylor wasn't exactly sure what was going on with the criminal underground, but it probably involved quiet and sudden hostile takeovers. No name was given, she was already calling him "The Noodle Man" in her head, but he paid her three hundred dollars a pop to clean out several empty buildings, another five hundred a pop to tell them where the rats had been hiding so they could keep the places clean, and then another thousand on top of that to be quiet about what they were doing for a new world week. The man also offered her an old Beretta with two clips of ammunition and some manuals for free.

She wasn't given a chance to say no.

"You're a nice girl," the man had said, and then disappeared behind a paper wall. Two thugs had shown up to escort her out of the noodle shop. A woman in a silk dress handed her the money she was owed, as easy as can be, along with a big paper bag full of fresh cooked noodles and other authentic European Asian foods and a bottle of wine.

Then Taylor was off back to the docks.

When her heart stopped beating so fast, and after she used a restroom in one of the better restaurants, Taylor made a round at the docks and the Fish Market to tell people if their produce had something in it they didn't want. She was also paid to clear out some boats.

Rather than throwing those parasites and bugs out Taylor got to keep them and throw them into her BugHouse back home by directing them underground through the sewers. She made three trips.

That had worked out well.

A few people eventually came to ask if they were infected with parasites. They then had the option of trying to work their way through the completely full hospitals and clinics or allowing Weaver to work her frankly disgusting powers making the creatures leave their bodies. And Weaver didn't have a map.

This was one aspect of her powers that she and her dad hadn't considered the full implications of.

And now she was in the hospital.

Doctor Geraldine was watching in frank curiosity as Weaver forced a number of hookworms out of the feet of a little girl half her age that Taylor honestly thought was disturbing, and this was from someone who had woken up one day and found her fear of insects turned off.

Fortunately for the little girl she was sedated. Unfortunately when she woke up the drugs she was going to be fed were going to give her a serious bowel movement.

"Fascinating!" the odd man collected the worms and put them in the biohazard bin, then he cleaned up and bandaged the little girl's feet. "And you're sure you've gotten them all?"

Taylor nodded. "All the ones that have a brain at least. The eggs and some pieces are probably still in there. I won't know unless they hatch."

Doctor Geraldine started writing up a pad. "Too bad we don't have a Parahuman doctor, but this will work as well. I'm asking you to make rounds at all the hospitals to help out. It's a sort of heavily suggested order, in case you didn't get my drift. You can say no, but we really do need your abilities this badly. We'll provide a car."

Taylor asked "What about the PRT?" she still hadn't managed to contact them.

"What about them?"

Taylor explained, "Well I was hoping that after my debut that I could—"

The Doctor interrupted, "Forget about them. They like to think that they're important but they're small fry. We'll contact them and tell them you're here. There will be paperwork to sign as a matter of course. You'll want to call your parents and get a lawyer or three, one for Parahuman law and one in business law and one for medical law. Don't worry, you can afford it. I understand you wanted to use your powers to exterminate and go fishing and sell bait, probably honey and silk cloth too, right?" Boy was he smart. That was pretty much everything she and her dad had thought about up to this point and he hadn't expended any effort and she hadn't told him about any of that at all.

Taylor nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I'm also using thousands of spiders in a factory I built to make a spider silk costume so I don't look like a motocross racer."

"And I'm sure you'll be a really great hero when it's done. But never mind all that. The World Health Organization is operating on emergency powers right now, in case you hadn't heard. It happened about an hour ago. We've got four billion squalor rats excreting in our drinking water jammed together like sardines. Unless we get ahead of this we're going to be hit with a dozen plagues at once. Since you can take control of the mosquito population to keep the blood borne pathogens from spreading the CDC will be in your corner every step of the way. Effectively unlimited funding and any kind of permit you want will be a formality by tomorrow, and when this is all over they'll buy you a boat as a 'thank you'. The term is 'cooperation.' Works quite well with the public. What do you say?"

"Absolutely!" Taylor nodded her head vigorously. "I mean, the chance to use my powers for something this big is a dream come true! I really want to help!"

"Good," Doctor Geraldine said. "Good thing we've got longer days. Now if you'll excuse me, right now I need to get on the horn with some friends about stopping the spread of yellow fever and who the hell else knows."

And that was how her first day as a Hero went.