Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.
Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2018-01-20. This is the second of two chapters posted today.
Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops, Chapter Twenty-Nine
29.1 (Luna Gale): [Gravity Falls] / [Danny Phantom]
Dipper didn't know why he'd agreed to this. Really, when Danny said 'I've got to show you something, it's really cool!', most people with enough common sense would run in the other direction. This was especially true if Danny had his signature mischievous smirk playing on his face, the look spelling the chaos of some sort of not-so-safe adventure for anyone involved. The preteen blamed the arguing Fentons and Danny's (most likely) over exaggerated Christmas horror stories on his momentary impulsiveness. Although, in his defense, the mutant turkey randomly attacking them pretty much had Dipper agreeing to go with the halfa to wherever he wanted to go as long as it was anywhere but the Fenton family kitchen.
Which, really, was Dipper's first mistake.
"Wait," The preteen said, after finally reorienting with himself. He looked around him, stomach dropping, and eyes going wide, as he eyed the green landscape, "Danny, isn't this the place where the ghosts live... I mean, reside?"
Danny was holding the preteen to his chest, as the two flew across the cold, endless abyss around them. Dipper was liking the situation less and less with each and every growing ectoplasm filled second, and he pretty much had a mini heart attack every time Danny even slightly loosened his grip even the slightest bit.
Unaware of Dipper's discomfort, Danny huffed, "Hey! Just because ghosts are dead, it doesn't mean they're not living somewhere. Reside just sounds rude, you know?" At Danny's small shrug, the monster hunter scrambled to hold on to the halfa's arms, "Besides, it's called the Ghost Zone. I thought you knew that."
"I am very aware of that, thank you very much! I'm making sure you knew that!" Dipper hissed, his stomach dropping even more, as he eyed the skull bone island in the distance. He gulped, and tried to look at Danny's face, but only seeing more of the Ghost Zone instead, "Why are we in enemy territory? I thought you were going to show me something cool! I did not sign up to fly through the land of evil egotistic, ectoplasmic entities!"
It wasn't like Dipper was unfamiliar with other dimensions. By this point, he'd been through the Mindscape enough times that he could control the dimensional plane nearly as well as Bill could (though, even the demon had him beat on certain things). He had visited other monster hunting worlds as well, knew the ropes on fighting non-human entities, and could, in a certain respect, wrangle nearly any type of monster no matter what shape or size.
But when he visited those locations, he'd been prepared with background knowledge, abilities, or just being plain armed to the teeth with both magical and mundane weapons just in case something happened. Here, he only had his limited knowledge of this world's ghosts, some white magic (which Danny had already strictly forbidden any use in this universe or so help him), and his own wits to keep him from getting kidnapped and/or harmed by these creatures.
And, of course, he had Danny, but considering that he was the one taking Dipper into this madness, the monster hunter didn't exactly trust his judgement on what he considered concerning.
Danny must have felt Dipper's stress radiating off him because the halfa commented, "Dude, relax will you? Nothing's gonna hurt you, in fact remember, you're human so nothing can hurt you..." -That was kind of reassuring- "Just as long as you don't go through any doors. They're bad news, as in, I'm in another timeline bad news."
Or not.
He shrunk in one himself, gripping the halfa's arms like a lifeline, "Stay away from creepy floating time warping purple doors filled with ghosts," The preteen mumbled, "Got it..."
"Hey, Dipper. It's okay," They slowed down, and Dipper supposed that Danny was trying to make his voice sound reasonable, "Calm down for once, will ya? Do you really think I would take you into the Ghost Zone if I didn't think you'd be 100 percent perfectly safe?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Dipper mumbled. The halfa sighed, even shaking his head at Dipper's reaction like he was being unreasonable. Unfortunately for the preteen's frantic heart, they sped up again, as if getting their faster would alleviate his worries, "Hey, here's an idea!" Dipper did not appreciate the snort that Danny gave. He ignored it and continued, "How about we go back to the Fenton Christmas Party? I'm sure mutant turkeys aren't so bad."
"Dipper, I told you," The halfa voice sounded a strange mixture of annoyed and amused, "There's something in the Ghost Zone I wanted to show you."
"If you want me to stop freaking out, then it would be nice to tell me!"
Danny didn't say anything, the halfa probably musing over his options. Truthfully, Dipper didn't know if he wanted to know what plan the halfa concocted up. However, he supposed that, at the very least, if he knew what he was about to face, he could mentally brace himself. Either way would trigger his anxiety, but at the very least, he knew how to attack this type.
Because, really, watching purple doors and green floating islands stream past him without any sort of knowledge of what was going on was not helpful, at all.
"Fine," Danny finally huffed, bringing Dipper's attention back to him, "The ghosts host a Christmas Truce Party every year, and I being your awesome 'cousin' wanted to bring you as my guest of honor... Besides, Sam doesn't celebrate Christmas, Tucker wanted to spend Christmas with his family this Loop, and Jazz is distracting Mom and Dad, so congrats! Welcome to your first Christmas in the Ghost Zone!" Danny said this like Dipper should be happy about the situation.
"Danny."
"Yeah."
"Please don't tell me we're about to have a party with a bunch of your enemies."
There was an uncomfortable amount of silence from the halfa. An ectopus swam in the distance, and a howling could be heard from one of the near islands.
"...Okay," Danny finally said, "we're not about to go to a party with a bunch of my enemies."
"Danny, why are we going to a party with a bunch of evil ghosts that want to take over the world?! I'm not okay with this! This is a terrible idea!"
As the preteen's mind went into overdrive, he vaguely felt Danny stop and turn him around, white gloves holding him steady in the air, "Dipper. Breathe. Find your inner zen. Do something that isn't hyperventilating," After a moment, Dipper found himself, and Danny smiled back, eyebrow arching to his hairline, "Calm?"
"Better," He replied, still kind of shaky and definitely not at all okay with the situation, "Not calm. Better."
"I guess that's as good as I'm gonna get..." Danny mumbled. The halfa squeezed his shoulder, "Look, the Christmas Truce Party is the one time of year where the other ghosts don't attack anyone, including halfas like me. I try to go to it as often as I can. It's fun, and it's a nice way to get to know the other ghosts around here."
"Danny," It was as if the halfa could not see common logic sometimes, "I think you're forgetting the little detail that I'm, I don't know, not a ghost!"
But the superhero simply rolled his eyes, and to Dipper's annoyance, held him back to his chest to continue their flight, "But you're with me," The halfa reasoned, "And attacking you means attacking me. So until the 26th, you're completely and 100 percent untouchable..." He paused and added unnecessarily, "just, don't try to provoke anyone. After the truce you're completely fair game."
Eyes twitching, Dipper continued his rant, "Okay, even if I'm not a ghost, we're still going to a party with your enemies. You know, the ones that want to kill you."
"Well, when they're not trying to kill me, some of them are pretty cool. Like Ember? When she isn't trying to mind control you, her music is even better than Dumpty Humpty. She's even a Looper. Granted, she's not Awake now and she kind of hates my guts this Loop for accidentally breaking her guitar, but I'm pretty sure we can be on good terms by the end of this. Just another reason to go, right? Oh, and Skulker? Man, metal head makes a mean Christmas Turkey. It's so good! It has all these weird fillings that I don't know where he gets- Oh look we're here!"
And sure enough, they were in front of one of the many purple floating doors that inhabited the Ghost Zone. Dipper didn't know how Danny distinguished one from another, and while some part of him was curious to see the subtleties between the dimensional doors, another, much louder part of him thought he'd be better off not knowing.
Dipper stared at the door with no little apprehension, and gut clenching, let out a heavy sigh, "Great..."
"Right?"
At that Dipper noted, as the duo flew into an unknown ghost's lair, to never, ever go on a field trip with Danny ever again, no matter how horrific his Christmas stories seemed to be, if only to keep his the rest of his limited sanity.
29.2 (Slayst): [Dishonored] Re. [The Princess and the Frog] (no local Loopers, just discussion)
Emily Kaldwin, sweet and innocent heiress to the imperial throne, was happily terrifying the poor staff members of the Hound Pits pub.
Piero Joplin had barricaded himself in his workshop, Callista Curnow was looking on the verge of quitting whenever she came back from a tutoring session with the young girl, the three traitorous Loyalists were keeping to their living quarters, and all the other employees were avoiding her just the same.
Samuel Beechworth, had previously applied an old Space Wolf philosophy that could be summarized as 'Choose your battle.', which basically meant that he was scared senseless of her and didn't want to face her wrath.
But eaten away by curiosity as he was, he finally yielded. He absolutely needed to know what had managed to put the young looper in such a sour mood and thus, went straight to his Anchor to get the full story.
At first, Corvo discarded his question with a simple "She's just venting, let her be."
Samuel didn't give up though, and after being forced to look at the inside of a Gauss rifle's barrel, the Anchor finally saw reason.
"You remember that loop you had with her, in Ancient China?"
The boatman nodded gravely.
How could he have forgot, when that loop had had such a deep impact on Emily, even pushing her to face Daud by herself – and win!
"Well, this branch is recorded in the Hub as an animated movie called 'Mulan', and produced by the Disney company. The thing is, they produced quite a number of other movies, almost all of them gravitating around a princess or a queen, and all those universes are looping. The Disney Princesses live quite the adventures, and with Jessamine for mother, Emily is basically a princess herself. She keeps on replacing them."
"Oh… so she didn't just have a bad loop, she had a number of them?"
"Well, they're not bad loops per say. There's only a couple of kidnappings, murders, betrayal, manipulation, and evil sorceresses throwing hexes around. But it's fairly easy to get friendship, love and a happy end, even without any pocket or out-of-loop abilities. Take the one we're just coming back for instance, she only had to kiss a frog."
"… did you just say –"
"That she had to kiss a frog? Yes, I did, though it was an insufferable prince unAwake me had cursed earlier, and she had the excuse of being a frog too at the time."
"I… suppose that it could have been worse. It does explain her anger though…"
The building shook on its foundations. Samuel wisely decided no to comment on it, and carried on with his questions.
"If you unAwake self had turned the prince into a frog, couldn't you have undone it yourself?"
"It would have been with pleasure, but I didn't perform the spell myself at the time."
"Then who did?" asked Samuel with an inquisitive look.
As another tremor shook the area, the Anchor stole a glance at his shadow, cast on the aged wall by the sunlight filtering through the veiled window. Said shadow seemed definitely darker than the others, and as Corvo looked back at Samuel with a perturbing smile, the shadow could briefly be seen smirking wickedly itself.
"Just my friends on the other side."
29.3 (phantomdemon2): [Lilo & Stitch]
Lilo waved at Sparky as she left the power plant, the last of the experiments let loose this time around. Smiling she turned to Stitch with wide eyes.
"Wasn't that fun Stitch? Sparky was all "Buzz Zap Zip" and we were all like "Whoosh, not today Sparky and..." Lilo trailed off as Stitch wasn't responding. "Stitch?"
"...Uh?" Stitch realized Lilo was trying to talk to him. "Ih?"
"Stitch what's wrong? You're normally happy when we finish getting all your cousins where they belong." Lilo asked
"Stitch thinking. Stitch fast, is strong, can't be killed. But stopped easy. Jumba make me best, say I'm masterpiece, but beat others through trick in powers, not because me but flaw in them. So why I'm best?" Stitch was quickly silenced by Lilo giving him a big hug.
"Doesn't matter. You're Stitch, I'm Lilo, and together no one can stop us." Lilo gave Stitch a strained smile "So let's go see if we can't undo the lock Jumba put on the hover cars."
"Ih" Stitch said in response, picking up Lilo and running towards the house.
"STIIITCH PUT ME DOWN!"
29.4 (phantomdemon2) and (Hvulpes): [Lilo & Stitch] / [Doctor Who]
It was late at night at the Pelekai household and at the moment only three people were both Awake and awake. Jumba the Mad Scientist, Stitch the walking genetic WMD and the War Doctor, Time's Champion.
"I must say Jumba, I'm glad you don't exist in my universe. Seeing young Stitch here I'm certain you would have managed something terrifying with the DNA back home." The Doctor said, both praise and condemnation held in his voice.
"Thank you, it always feels good knowing my creations can still strike fear into one's heart." Jumba responded "Though I wonder why you chose now to speak with us, Little Girl isn't awake and she is our more ... calming influence." Stitch nodded up and down in agreement
"Ih, why now? Why secret?" Stitch inquired
"I suppose it's because I've had a couple of bad loops recently and. Been going through this body here almost exclusively for the past couple of loops and when Time is fraying it makes it hard to keep track of the years. It got me thinking, a question that I suppose you two can help answer. I often find myself asking whether or not I'm a good man. I know I'm an idiot, a madman, the runaway with a magic box. I know that I try an help out where I can, never stop trying." The Doctor started saying.
"Ih. What Question?" Stitch asked.
"Heh, Straight to the point." The Doctor drew a deep breath "How do you know when to stop holding back? When your back's against the wall the answer's easy, but in everyday life? I could solve almost every problem in my universe and never leave my TARDIS, but how do I know when I should?"
Jumba looked hard at the Doctor. "Doctor, Me and 626. We're not good. We are EVIL, held back only by Ohana and our own selfishness. I make experiments and devices that could bring ruin to world's and I make them in kitchen while listen to Little Girl's School day."
"Ih, Stitch protect Lilo, Lilo protect Stitch from Stitch"
"Aye, 626 is correct. Little Girl is one who started this for us. You have Companions who hold you back as well, No? But for Me and 626, we ALWAYS hold back, because if we don't, we cause our Ohana to be sad. I came to this planet as a last attempt for freedom, capturing my own experiment so that I could be free. But 626 different, now cares for Little Girl and Family, makes no sense." Jumba started shaking his head back and forth from the memory. "I make six-hundred-twenty-five Experiments beforehand, I encode Death and Mayhem into every fiber of being. Yet, he wanted to protect this little girl. But still causes mayhem and destruction the way I intended towards enemies, when saving her stole tank of fuel and drove it into volcano. 626 was still violent and destructive."
"Never towards Ohana." Stitch stated, the words coming out as pure fact.
"Aye 626, never towards them. Doctor, you ask us when to stop holding back? For us, the answers simple. If Ohana, if Family is ever in true danger, we fight back with tactics deemed evil, with technology for domination. If they're ever in true danger, than we stop holding back. In many ways these loops of ours prevents that true danger from happening often so we've never had to stop yet."
"I see." The Doctor rose from his seat "Thank you for answering this question of mine you two, but I must be going. I took a detour to come here but I still have a war to fight."
29.5 (lord Martiya): [Sky High] / [W.I.T.C.H.]
It had been a while since Will started finding himself back in time (while still keeping his powers), and by now he knew how to deal with Gwen/Royal Pain (he just couldn't think of her as Sue) early without getting in trouble himself. And yet this time he'd been thrown a curve ball, with Gwen this time being a short redhead who, in her introduction speech to the freshmen, had pointed out it was created to not risk people with weak powers unnecessarily before admitting it had been handled badly-and somehow convinced Layla to demonstrate her powers to the coach and be enrolled in the Hero track so she could change the system from the inside (he did it too, but to get closer to his target).
After that unusual day Will went to sleep… And found himself in an empty space, his only company being the 'new' Gwen. Who was now an adult, wearing purple boots and high-collared shirt, skintight short green pants, striped socks in two shades of green that covered her legs between the boots and the pants, and fingerless black gloves, and had wings.
"Hello, Bill Stronghold." she saluted him.
"Uh, it's Will…" he protested, earning a glare.
"I suppose you've been wondering why time started rewinding and you're the only one to remember, don't you? Well, the answer, as crazy as it sounds, is that the universe is a computer and is broken, and the system admins, that is the gods, are putting all universes in loop to repair it."
Will blinked. Of all things he expected from this strange situation being told that was not one of them. Must have been a dream… And he really shouldn't have tried the mystery meat.
"Sounds crazy, doesn't it? I wouldn't have believed it either had it not come from someone I really trust…" 'Gwen' admitted as she pulled out a large book and put it in his hands. "Still, it's true, and this book includes most of what you need to know. Now, why don't you wake up and see that this isn't exactly a dream?"
With that the empty space dissolved and Will found himself lying in his bed, the book from the dream next to his head.
The following day Will tried to meet 'Gwen' at school, but only caught the aftermath of her stopping Lash and Speed's bullying antics (electrocuted by faulty wiring). But, as expected, she once again showed up in his dream.
"So, did you have a good read, Bill?" she asked. As he confirmed, she continued: "Then welcome to the Multiverse. I'm Will Vandom, from the Kandrakar Loops.
"By the way, a warning: the Loops aren't peaceful and easy, in fact they're rather dangerous. Sometime the danger comes from someone ending up in a foreign Loop and getting in a situation they aren't equipped to deal with."
Those words were followed by a change in scenery, showing a man in a dark metallic armour pinned to a giant magnet while a blue-skinned man in white military uniform looked at him with calm satisfaction.
"And sometime you have to face Loopers who actively cause damage."
The scene changed again, showing Will Vandom and four other girls trying desperately to stave off a horde of THINGS as a cute-looking critter watched with a smile.
"In fact I'm using this Loop as a little test." she continued. "I'm going to try Royal Pain's plan."
"Wait, you can't!"
"I can, and I will. But to make things less one-sided, I'll only use technopathy in the endeavour, both mine and the one I got from replacing your villain, plus my experience. I'm also giving you a week to make preparations before I continue from where I left. Good luck, you'll need it."
And with that, the dream ended.
True to her word, the other Will gave him a week before attacking, a week he used to set alarms, cameras and detectors to know when to intervene and get his parents on the case. There had been a little scare the first day when a blackout interrupted the feed, but Will saw that the other Will was still at school.
A few hours after that, however, she made her first raid, trying to sneak in a small recovery bot. Then a squadron of giant robots. And as the months passed her attempts at recovering the Pacifier grew crazier, culminating in a cooking-themed mecha that fired carrot-shaped missiles. That one had actually defeated his parents and gave him a desperate run for his money, much worse than Gwen had ever managed. Nonetheless, homecoming had arrived and the Pacifier was still in the Secret Sanctum.
And now 'Gwen' was about to make a speech to the assembled teachers, students and alumni.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm well known for my criticism of the Hero-Sidekick divide." she started. "Oh, I do recognize that some superpowers aren't exactly useful-no matter what, I can't think a serious use of things like turning into a beach balloon,-"
"HEY!"
The other Will blinked for a moment, mouthing "Seriously?". Apparently she had believed it was a joke. Then she resumed her speech.
"-and so some superpowered people should be kept out of unnecessary danger. My problem is the WAY it's done. Little combat training to defend themselves, or do some jobs by themselves. Rampant bullying from supposed 'heroes'. Not only it's unjust and a waste of people's powers, but do you have any idea of what could happen if someone shunted away as a sidekick for supposedly lame powers became resentful and changing circumstances made her powers much stronger? Such as for a technopath with an age-altering device?"
That was when Will started realizing something was amiss, and tried to fly-unsuccessfully.
"She could come back to this school, wait for the right moment where you're all in one place to put you under the effects of a power nullifier, gloat to you about what she has just done from the safety of a forcefield, show you that the highly qualified janitors and bus drivers with the technical knowledge to wreck her plans-"
And that was when every single janitor and bus driver popped out chained and gagged from the roof.
"-and, before turning you into toddlers and deciding if she should raise you as villains or just let this be a lesson in manners, show you exactly who you're dealing with."
At that point she changed in her armour under an apparent dress, made a mock bow and, putting on the helmet, presented herself as "Will Vandom, also known as Royal Pain."
"Royal Pain… Is a girl?" the Commander asked.
"Mrs. Stronghold, if I decide to give you back your ages please keep the chauvinist on the couch for a while."
And with that a dozen automated Pacifiers popped out of the roof and turned everyone but 'Gwen' and Stitches into toddlers, with the power nullifier keeping Medulla from being able to think his way out of it.
"Where is everyone?!" Will asked when the other Will (now in the form he had always seen her in the dreams) turned him back to his real age.
"Stitches' putting them all into various locations, some embarrassing depending on how I feel about them." she replied. "Don't worry, I'm going to turn them back to their real ages. Now do you get it? Loopers are the real deal, not supervillains that I'm starting to believe have been trained wrong on purpose by this school."
"How did you get it? And when?"
"The first day after the truce. I spent the week to put together the Ultrasonic Remote Stopper, wouldn't believe where I saw it, a scanner and a robotic double, and while the double made you think I was still here I just waltzed to your home, that I knew where it was thanks to the eye of the bot, blocked all alarms and electronic security, entered and scanned the Pacifier to know how to make more. Then I just launched a few overt attacks just to make you think I hadn't got it yet while I put together the forcefield and the nullifier in this room. Easy, simple, and not a wacky Silver Age plan with more holes than machine-gunned Swiss cheese.
"You know what you did wrong, Bill? You should have made a mock-up of the Pacifier, your parents can't tell the real thing anyway, then destroyed the real thing during the truce, and after that try and expose me. Or just bashed me in the head. But don't worry, I'll teach you a few tricks in the time we've left. And lesson number one, when I'm around the only Will is me."
29.6 (Shadow Wolf75): [Mighty Ducks] / [Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]
For once, the Ancestors did not have an answer for Wraith. Oh, the spirits knew there was something wrong with time itself, but they were unsure what, and did not experience the strange looping he was cursed with. In the end he sighed to himself and wondered why he bothered asking. Their non-answer was the same for all thirty attempts he made. Or was that number closer to fifty by now? It was entirely too easy to lose track of how many times he was sent back...
A bit later on he ran into Siege in the Raptor's corridors, and just out of making idle conversation, Wraith asked the same question he did for the last handful of loops. "Siege, have you ever... felt as though you have lived this life before?"
"Huh, what kinda question is that?" The bulkier Saurian's green eyes narrowed for a second as he actually put some thought into it, and then he just kind of shrugged. "Nope, not that I can think of. Why'd you ask?"
Wraith shrugged himself, using the motion to hide his disappointment. His problem would be so much more tolerable if one of the others was stuck along with him, even as infuriating as they could be. So far his typical bad luck was holding, though. "It was just a passing thought I had, nothing of real importance. Well, I have that assignment to take care of, and I'm sure there are a few repairs you could attend to until I return, so I'll see you later."
He parted ways with Siege at the next corridor junction, off to tend to his part of the current plan.
The sorcerer teleported to just outside the range of the Pond's defense fields, in the hopes of gaining a distraction from the rest of Dragaunus's efforts. Wraith hid himself behind a cloaking spell and lurked around the Pond's main entrance, waiting for the Ducks' manager to emerge from the building as he always did. By this point he had the timing down to the second, so it was rather surprising when the pudgy human was close to five minutes late!
Phil did eventually wander out, but he stayed close to the entrance, glancing around warily and not daring to venture over to his car.
Wraith continued invisibly lurking there for a moment, the end of his tail twitching as a sign of his irritation. How could he pull off a proper ambush if his target was already this spooked-
Wait, did that stupid human know he was there?! Impossible . . . unless the fool remembered what happened from a prior trip through time, of course.
In the next instant a fireball slagged the entranceway so Phil couldn't go running inside for help, and then Wraith dismissed his cloaking spell, seeming to appear from the smoke created by the slowly growing flames. He let out a laugh at Phil's shock, though it had a slight edge to it. "My, whatever could be the matter here, human? I thought you had work to do, away from those noisy Ducks?"
For his part, Phil backed away a few steps, before straightening his tie to regain his composure. It only half worked, though he still felt confident enough to try and talk his way out of things. "What's the point? You would've just interrupted me again anyway. Say, this whole going back in time thing is probably your fault too, isn't it?"
"My fault? Bah, I only wish I had such power. I certainly wouldn't be subjecting myself to this slow torture, if I had any choice in the matter." Having said that, Wraith glanced around, though he kept most of his attention on the human in front of him. "Enough talk. My abilities no longer work on you, so I suppose a simple kidnapping will suffice as enough distraction for those blasted waterfowl..."
From there it would've been as simple as just reaching forward to grab his enemy and teleporting away, if not for two new voices making themselves known,
"Chain Bind!"
"Restrict Lock!"
The buildup of mana in the area was subtle enough that Wraith hadn't quite picked up on it, not until the magic circle appeared at his feet, and by then it was too late to dodge. Two sets of magical bindings sprang up around him, chains at his limbs and energy bands nearly everywhere else, pinning him in place quite effectively. It was almost instinct to try to teleport, but the binds were giving off too much interference. Unable to do much else, the sorcerer glanced in the direction the voices came from and blinked a bit in surprise.
Oh, right, the other odd thing about this latest trip through history other than Phil remembering. Instead of Mallory, there was a duck named Nanoha in her place. She had reddish hair, and acted somewhat similarly, so Wraith dismissed the change as unimportant. Now he wished he hadn't, as she stood there as the source of one of those spells, with what looked like a fairy familiar hovering at her side maintaining the other binding. They also put out the fire he started, likely with another spell.
"Phil, you okay? Raising Heart sensed someone casting out here, so we both came running." Having asked that, Nanoha looked over the Saurian she caught for a moment, a curious expression on her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine; he didn't have time to do anything with his powers other than the fireball. So, what are you doing with him? You could drag him to the holding cells, but I happen to know a guy who owns a snakeskin shoe factory..."
"I was hoping to talk with him, actually. And you too, considering you both mentioned going back in time." At that, Nanoha stepped closer to her captive, not intimidated at all by the Saurian's impressive height as she looked up at him. "Are you all right, Wraith? The Loops can be stressful enough on their own, let alone when you don't know what's going on."
It was all sorts of ironic to hear a duck asking him that first question, but Wraith could see the sincerity in her eyes. Then the rest of her words hit him, and the desperation he managed to keep so well hidden over the past however many loops broke through his calm facade in an instant. He pulled against the bindings, maybe he would've tried to grab her if he could free himself. "You- what do you know about all of this? I demand that you tell me!"
"Shh, take it easy! I'm getting to it, don't worry." Nanoha would've added 'this might seem far fetched', but considering the loop's baseline, events like these would almost be expected. "Every universe that exists, or will exist, is contained within the branches of Yggdrasil. It's both a tree and a giant supercomputer, I guess. Unfortunately for us, right now it's pretty badly damaged. It also can't be fully shut down, so the only choice the Admins had was to set every world into a time loop, to keep things from getting worse..."
Surprisingly enough, Phil actually recognized the tree's name. "Yggdrasil? Like the one in Norse mythology?"
"Yes, that's right. The gods from that mythology are some of the Admins, in fact. Actually, all of the Admins are gods of one religion or another, with the exception of one."
Still bound, but content to cease struggling and listen for the moment, Wraith rolled his eyes at that. "So the 'gods' of Earth are responsible for this? Somehow I find that rather difficult to believe..."
The girl's smile turned a bit catlike; she might've reminded herself of Hayate if there was a mirror nearby. "Have you found any other answer in the loops? From how desperate you sounded a minute ago, I'm willing to bet you haven't. Come on, to create illusions means you have to be able to see the truth; you know I'm not lying."
That got a slow nod out of the sorcerer. "Yes, my power is telling me as much, which makes it all the more confounding. Very well, I believe you. Is there anything else particularly important we should know about?"
And so the mage turned alien duck went on, about loopers and the different kinds of loops, and the various things to watch out for.
Phil perked up when Nanoha mentioned something like their current situation, of a looper replacing someone else. "Oh, so that's why you're here instead of Mallory, because this is one of those 'fused' loops?"
"You're picking up on this really quickly, that's good! Yes, normally my name is Nanoha Takamachi; I'm a human mage from Uminari City in Japan. Since I'm replacing your friend, Yggdrasil made me into a Duck for this loop. It's not bad, though having feathers takes some getting used to." She idly scratched at one elbow, ruffling the feathers there a bit.
Nanoha even went on to teach them how to ping, and how to reach their subspace pocket. Wraith had the easiest time with both, given he was already used to bending physics with his mind.
The new loopers didn't seem all that confused, and looked to be getting the hang of their abilities. Nanoha still had one thing she was concerned about, though. "All right, you two seem to have gotten all of that down pretty well, but I've got one more question. How many times have you been looping so far?"
Phil glanced over at Wraith for a moment, then back to his employee and sort of shrugged. "I only remember going through this once, so I guess this is my first."
Wraith went a bit quiet at the question, seemingly lost in thought. Just, the idea of being alone for so long... A shudder ran through him before he managed to speak up. "It's been very close to fifty times. I may be blurring a few together, events have largely remained similar until now."
"Hmm, that long, and this was Phil's first loop..." The Ace of Aces considered things for a moment, then nodded to herself. "If you've been going for that long by yourself, that means you might be this world's Anchor. There's a slim chance it could be someone else, since some Anchors prefer to stay hidden, but it's probably you."
Those red eyes of his went wide, maybe Wraith would've taken a step back if he wasn't still trapped. "Me? Surely it should be Wildwing or one of the other Ducks! Why would anyone possibly think I was stable enough? Besides that, wouldn't those Admins prefer someone more 'heroic' for this sort of duty?"
"Well, the world hasn't glitched once since I Woke up here, so that's a nice indicator of your stability. And you've seen the difference in Wildwing when he's wearing the mask compared to when he's not, that sort of split might disqualify him." Nanoha didn't mention how her own Anchorhood might be helping to keep things in check, and went on. "Ultimately the choice is between your Admin and Yggdrasil, but the tree isn't above acting on its own. An Admin might try to make one choice, but then the loop either won't start or crashes instantly, until the person Yggdrasil feels is correct gets selected."
Ultimately there was silence from the Saurian mage, his tail lashing back and forth as he couldn't properly fidget otherwise. So many possibilities flitted through Wraith's mind, to the point where he wasn't entirely sure what to do.
Nanoha sighed a little bit. Not everyone could take the news as well as she had, though at least he wasn't actually panicking. Still, it was probably best she got him moving away from the Pond, otherwise the other Ducks would come out and capture him. Better he processed things while still free as opposed to sitting in one of the holding cells. "Well, that covers everything, so welcome to the Loops!"
Raising Heart had a pretty good idea of what her partner was going to do next, so she guided Phil so that Nanoha would be in a good position to defend him if necessary. Given the amount of mana that was about to get thrown around, hopefully Wraith would be smart and just run, though.
"All right, Raising Heart and I are going to drop these binds. We'll even be nice and let you have a thirty second head start before we start casting again!" With that, both binding spells were canceled, and Raising Heart floated to Unison with her master.
The huge flash of light and the sudden spike in mana levels were plenty to snap Wraith out of it, but spying the magic circle appearing at the transformed Nanoha's feet was what got him moving. The duck mage never used any spells in front of him before, but the sheer amount of power being channeled would be far too much for his defenses even before it was focused. He turned to run before suddenly remembering he could fly and taking to the air, then either vanishing behind a cloaking spell or just teleporting.
With the enemy properly shooed, the mage and her device dropped the Unison, then looked toward Phil. "Well, that went about as well as I hoped for, now let's go back inside. It won't take him long to come up with another distraction, considering he couldn't use you for one."
Sure enough, Nanoha's comm unit started beeping crazily, she answered it and Wildwing was on the other end. "Nanoha, where are you? Drake One just picked up teleportation energy downtown!"
"Phil and I are on our way, Wildwing!"
They dashed off, while unknown to either of them, Duke l'Orange was listening to the entire proceedings from behind some of the facade around the Pond's entrance. He peered from his hiding place to make sure they were gone before starting to follow after them. "Loops, huh? That explains a lot..."
A few months later . . .
Events in Anaheim ran very close to typical baseline despite Nanoha's presence, though dealing with Asteroth was significantly easier. Not much could stand up to a full powered Starlight Breaker, not even the Lord of the Red Dragon. Somewhat more intriguing (and maybe a bit worrying) was the fact that Wraith had picked up a few Mid-style spells via simple observation. He didn't have the raw output for anything serious yet, but it was surprising to see him toss up a Round Shield to hold off a barrage of pucks.
Nanoha shot down the Raptor herself, with a pinpoint Divine Buster to the engines as opposed to taking out the gateway generator directly and causing an overload. Now the mage stood there on the coast along with the other Ducks, looking down into the ocean and wondering if the loop would end soon.
The group all went back into the Aerowing at Phil's prompting. Once they were in flight there was something else Nanoha was wondering, and that was how the Saurians were faring. She sent out a ping, then reached out with her telepathy, hoping she might get a response. Hey? Are you all right down there?
Down below, Wraith was just settling into his quarters to wait for the loop to end when he heard the message. He rolled his eyes and sat down on his bed, figuring the reading he intended to do could wait. You are entirely too kind-hearted, are you aware of that?
Yup, people tell me that all the time. Though Nanoha's expression was neutral as she stared out the Aerowing's windshield, the image she projected along with the thought was of her smiling mischievously. Someone has to be willing to reach out or to care. If no one else is, it might as well be me. Besides, we're both Loopers; we should look out for each other because of that, if nothing else. So, how are things? Dragaunus didn't get too angry, did he?
The warlock sighed a little, not entirely understanding but oddly reassured by her continued kindness. Well, we did crash, obviously. The safety systems worked a bit better this time, as only the engine room is flooded and not the entire deck surrounding it. I suppose we have your very accurate spellwork to thank for that? I could be helping with repairs, but the loop usually ends soon anyway. He paused as he heard Dragaunus out in the corridor bellowing something, probably at Chameleon. Oh, and Dragaunus is always angry about something, this event just makes him especially livid. It's simple enough to teleport out of reach, however...
Nanoha had a feeling the old Saurian wouldn't quite be ready for what she was about to suggest, but the memories of all those she helped along the way were what made her send the words. If she managed to get him thinking about it, then that would be enough for now. You don't have to stick so closely to baseline, you know. Try something different, learn more about Earth or Puckworld, challenge yourself to handle something in another way. Maybe you could even strike out on your own, away from your boss?
If this was the original timeline, Wraith was certain he would have started shaking at the very idea. Fifty loops later and the warlock had seen nearly every iteration of Dragaunus's bluster he could imagine, though even then he surprised himself at how little fear he felt. Something still held him back, though. I could leave, yes . . . but I have no wish to be alone on a planet full of humans. This looping is isolating enough by itself. Perhaps when either Siege or Chameleon start to loop, I can convince them to join me...
A mental nod from Nanoha. That's a good idea, but you might be in for a long wait. At a sudden influx of noise, she looked up and noted the Aerowing was coming in for a landing at the Pond. Well, we're back in Anaheim and I guess we have a hockey game to win, so I should let you go. Goodbye and good luck, Wraith! I'll see you around the Loops, but you'll probably run into some of my friends before we cross paths again.
Farewell, Nanoha. If your friends are anything like you, I do look forward to meeting them. As that seemed to be the end of the conversation, Wraith let the mental channel drop, and reached for the book he was going to read earlier. The Art Of War would certainly be enough to occupy him for the two and a half hours it would take the Ducks to win that game, at which point the loop would finally reset.
29.7 (Shadow Wolf75): [Mighty Ducks]
Wraith Woke, and immediately had to stop himself from lashing out at the circles of runes that kept him contained. Sometimes he really wished his Waking didn't vary so wildly; he was usually so much better at keeping himself out of trouble than his in-loop self was most of the time. Another second or two and he had access to the proper memories . . . so, he was grabbed by some source of power on the other side of a dimensional gate, the same one they tried sending the Ducks through to get rid of them. He tried sending a ping, frowning a bit when the first reply seemed really distant. Whoever that was, was probably back in Anaheim. There was another reply ping a few seconds later, likely one of the Ducks that got pulled to this world.
Well, standing there in what looked like a castle dungeon wasn't getting anything done, so Wraith drew on his power and burned a path through the barriers that held him with a massive bolt of flame. Certainly whoever tried to trap him was now aware of their rune array getting vaporized, but the warlock was too irritated to care. No, he simply focused his senses on the magical energies around him, zeroed in on the strongest mana source besides himself, then stepped forward and started blasting holes in walls. A labyrinth is only a problem to those who can't make their own straight path to the center.
Flying over the walls might be quicker if there weren't any defenses up there, but breaking things made him feel better. He especially looked forward to raining on the parade of whoever was stupid enough to capture him.
Eventually Wraith heard the particular high pitched screeching of a puck launcher in use, and on following the sound, discovered five of the six Ducks as well as an elf of some sort. Of course, as soon as he was noticed, four puck launchers and one saber were instantly pointing at him.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Is it against the law to do a bit of sightseeing, Wildwing?" Nope, none of them seemed willing to bite at his snark, and so Wraith got on with the actual explanation. "Fine, I was dragged to this world at the same time you lot were, by something that lives here. I imagine they're just behind that wall, given the amount of magic I sense in that direction?"
"Yeah, it's another sorcerer named Asteroth. So, are you willing to help us fight him, or do we get to deal with you first?"
"Bah, I'll help, if only because that fool attacked me first. The barrier array around my cell would have siphoned off my mana for his own use, I take offense to that!" As he spoke, the warlock sent out another ping, and was rewarded with a smirk and a one-fingered salute from Mallory when no one else was watching. Wraith thought he saw Duke jolt as well, but then again the thief could have just been jumpy because they were all standing on the enemy's doorstep. Hmm, there was that bet he had going... maybe he would see if he could act on it shortly.
The battle had quickly gotten hairy. Wraith had a bit of advance warning simply because he could feel the amount of power contained in that stupid amulet, but even then he wasn't quite expecting Asteroth to turn into a dragon. Said dragon probably wasn't completely fireproof, but his usual fireballs didn't seem to be making much of a dent. He tossed two more in Asteroth's general direction, before the answering torrent of dragonfire had him diving behind a bit of cover already being used by Duke.
"That 'fighting fire with fire' ain't workin' out so well, huh?" Duke had a good laugh at that, in spite of the rampaging dragon still trying to kill them all. It was there he noticed Wraith was starting to cast something different than his usual spells, with a glowing magic circle forming and all. "Where'd you get that one?"
It was hard to focus given he still wasn't quite used to this sort of spellcasting, but at least switching out the Mid runes for Saurian ones improved his speed a bit. One last calculation and Wraith unloaded his modified version of Axel Shooter at the dragon still soaring above, smiling viciously when that finally got Asteroth to flinch in the air. Given Duke's question, he saw an opportunity to act on his bet and took it. "I don't suppose you remember Nanoha?"
"I kinda wish she was here right now, actually-" At Wraith's chuckle, Duke realized he screwed up but it was too late to take it back. "Tch, dammit... "
"Ahaha, I won a bet~" Having to quickly pull up a shield spell to block more dragonfire made Wraith pause in his gloating, and he took a moment to send another barrage of mana bullets towards Asteroth before speaking again. "Namely, your manager and the soldier over there did not think you were looping. My intuition said that you were, but keeping it to yourself. Thank you for proving me right. Oh, and I didn't ask for anything destructive as a reward, if you're wondering. They just have to buy me takeout whenever I want it for the rest of this loop."
Duke rolled his good eye at that and focused most of his attention back on Asteroth, who was currently trying to torch Nosedive and Wildwing. "That's nice for you, I guess. You got anything like a Starlight Breaker in that new bag of tricks? We're gonna have to take care of him the old-fashioned way otherwise."
"I would need a Device, and if my understanding of that spell is correct, there currently isn't enough loose mana to focus into it."
"Welp, old-fashioned way it is, then." At that, the former jewel thief called to the other Ducks and the Prince that fought alongside them. "Hey guys, try and box him in by blasting open the fire hydrants; I'll try to get the amulet while he's distracted!"
Ending the battle at that point was painfully simple, with Duke's plan working just as well as it did during baseline. It was admittedly rather tempting to swipe the amulet the moment the group all landed in Anaheim, but Wraith knew that generally artifacts of that power were more trouble than they were worth.
He also didn't have the chance, as the gate from the other Anaheim dumped them all right into the area where Siege and Chameleon installed that earthquake generator. Wraith didn't want to be seen with the Ducks, and the constant shaking spooked him more than he was willing to admit. Even living in California and repeating time as long as he did, earthquakes still bothered him. The first moment he could reach his teleporter, he hit the return button, vanishing back to the Raptor.
A few hours later, as he was enjoying his ill-gotten Chinese food (roast duck, of course), Wraith decided this wasn't such a bad loop so far in spite of the rocky start.
29.8 (Shadow Wolf75): [Mighty Ducks] / [Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha] / [Madoka Magica]
Mallory blinked pretty hard when her actual memories came up alongside the in-loop ones, and was suddenly rather confused. Wait, this was Midchilda, not Earth? And she was currently a combat cyborg, not a Duck? It took most of the military training on both sides of her memories to keep up proper decorum and discreetly glance to her current commanding officer.
"Uhm, Commander Yagami, may I have a word with you in private? It's really important..."
"Of course, Mallory, let's just go in my office for a moment." Well, that was what Hayate said as she started leading the way down the corridor. What she sent with her telepathy was this: Oh, I was wondering when you were going to Wake up; normally there's a girl named Subaru in your place.
The red haired cyborg nearly blurted something out, but they hadn't quite reached the safety of Hayate's office just yet and managed to keep quiet. At least when speaking out loud, anyway. What? You know what's going on here?!
At that point the two of them entered the office, after which Hayate closed and locked the door behind them. "Yes, I do; you're looping. Luckily for you, I am as well, so I know exactly what you're going through. Come on, let's trade stories; I'm sure you come from somewhere very interesting!"
"... And that's where I was last loop, helping Commander Yagami and the rest of Riot Force Six deal with the JS Incident. Being a cyborg was actually kind of fun, and I brought back some nice souvenirs too . . . hehehe, I can't wait to try them out on the Saurians! I wonder who will be more surprised: Siege when he finds out I can knock him over with one punch, or Wraith when it turns out he's not the only mage around anymore?"
With how excited Mallory sounded, Phil kind of hated to rain on her parade, but it had to be done. "Funny you should mention Wraith. You know that ping we both got earlier? Take a wild guess where it probably came from."
"What, he's looping? That is so not fair." A pause, as the Special Forces operative realized something. "Are any more of the lizards looping? This could be really bad if Dragaunus is..."
"Nope, so far it's just Wraith. He's been looping for a lot longer than us, too. Nanoha mentioned something about him being Anchor?"
Mallory's eyes widened a good bit at that, disbelieving. "That... that can't be right. Everyone that was Awake in the other loop were heroes . . . well, there was that white furry thing that Hayate ended up casting Diabolic Emission on the moment she sighted him, but that was the only exception. The only way to be sure is, well, if something manages to kill Wraith and the loop crashes afterward."
Phil raised an eyebrow at that, not sure he liked where things were going. "You're not going to test that theory out, are you? I'm going to guess a loop crash is bad."
"No, of course not! We're not here to kill the Saurians, we're here to stop them, even with time being broken like this." What went unsaid, was the thought she wouldn't particularly go out of her way to save the warlock if he needed it, either.
29.9 (Hvulpes): [Star vs. The Forces of Evil]
Star had been waiting for Marco's news, but he had decided to wait till the first adventure of the loop was over. Once alone, he began.
"Star, you are not going to believe it... but I was on a Hub loop. I decided to surf the net about our show, just in case I could find an edge just in case as it never hurts to be careful... When I read this!" Showing her the news story he had copied down.
"We're getting an expansion! With more weirdness! Awesome! I wonder if I should get a new dress... or battle armor... oooo...ooo.. A dress which doubles as a battle armor!"
"I'm sure Tony Stark Tailoring Shoppe has one of those."
29.10 (lord Martiya): [Eden Hall] / [Disney]
Ryu saw Donald and Daisy Duck, both in their superhero outfits (Donald with the one from what he dubbed the "Might and Power" expansion, Daisy with the one from the "Ultraheroes" expansion), coming to the bar with a dazed expression.
"Fat Margaret, please." they asked together.
"What-what did just happen?" Ryu asked, surprised at them asking the strongest alcoholic drink after pure ethanol.
"He's Paperinik!" Daisy shouted, pointing at her boyfriend.
"She's Paperinika!" Donald shouted, pointing at his girlfriend.
"You mean you didn't know? We thought you had figured it out long ago and were just flirting..."
The two ducks' eyes twitched before Daisy grabbed her head with both hands and Donald started counting.
29.11 (lord Martiya): [Avatar: the Last Airbender] / [W.I.T.C.H.]
"What?! Imposs-!" Zhao tried to shout before being buried in mud with his men. All left rigorously alive: the soldiers already had it bad enough, and Zhao would have welcomed a death in battle...
Sokka looked at the show, then turned to his sister for this Loop, Irma Lair. Who had just Bent the mud.
"Since when you can Earthbend?" he asked.
"That was Waterbending." Irma replied. "Been using the Power of Water as the Power of Mud since my baseline, and wanted to see if it worked with Waterbending too."
Sokka facepalmed. Why didn't anyone thought of it before?
29.12 (lord Martiya): [Disney]
"KEEP THOSE THINGS AWAY FROM ME!" Pete (the Awake one) shouted, pointing at the vegetables in Mickey's bags. "WHY DO YOU HAVE THEM?!"
"But... It's cucumbers!" Mickey replied. "And I've been out for groceries! And what's the problem with cucumbers?"
"KEEP THEM AWAY! AWAY!"
29.13 (wildrook): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Lion King]
Sora had been a lion once or twice in Baseline. However, this latest Loop had him considering a few things.
One is that there's an outright expansion involving Simba's branch that he just found out about.
The second is that lions know how to open doors. Which is how they managed to get an entire pride or two stuffed into a Gummi Ship.
"I didn't see this coming," Goofy replied, ignoring Donald's angry ranting.
"Me neither," Sora replied.
"You guys mind if we hitch a ride?" Timon asked them, on Pumbaa's head. "The Heartless are getting a bit too rowdy and we're evacuating as much as possible."
29.14 (lord Martiya): [W.I.T.C.H.] / [Winx Club] / [Paperinik New Adventures]
"HOW DID IT EVEN GET SO BAD?!" Will shouted.
'So bad' was Phobos, the Guardians trickiest opponent, stealing the immense power of Moldrock (Paperinik's mightiest enemy, a low-level reality warper), Valtor, Darkar, and many others, until he was powerful enough to pose a danger to all their Branches-and be beyond their ability to stop him.
"I don't know!" Flora admitted. "How do we stop him?!"
"Relax and enjoy the show, I've called for reinforcements." Paperinik said.
"FOOLS!" Phobos bellowed. "I AM INVINCIBLE! YOUR REINFORCEMENTS SHALL BE-"
Suddenly a hulking man with a terrifying black beard appeared behind Phobos and gave him a powerful slap, knocking him out and knocking all his power out of him, to the amazement of the fairy and the Guardian.
"Thanks for the help, Bud." Paperinik said to the newcomer.
Bud grunted and left in a hurry-he had been cooking some beans when Paperinik called.
29.15 (Duckapus) & (Hvulpes): [Phineas and Ferb]
"Here," Candace said as she shoved a piece of chocolate in an orange wrapper into Buford's hand, then walked away.
A few minutes later a raspy voice could be heard throughout the neighborhood, "PEANUT BUTTER WITH CHOCOLATE ISN'T AN ABOMINATION!"
Candace grinned, "Goodbye Molecular Separator! I love Reese's peanut butter cups."
Sometimes the simple solution is the best.
Of course, Candace didn't realize she had encouraged her brothers and their friends into making a Molecular Combiner... also known as the Combininator in baseline.
29.16 (Awesomedude17): [Gravity Falls] / [Admin Shenanigans]
Xolotl appeared before the Awake Pines, causing Stan and Dipper to fall out of their seats.
"What gives? What could be so important that you decide to interrupt breakfast?" Stan yelled.
"Long story short, Monkey, thinking it was funny, pressed a random button on his terminal and now nerfed Bill Ciphers are everywhere in Yggdrasil, annoying pretty much everyone. Any fused Loop for the next few thousand iterations are going to be more annoying than dangerous. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to have a chat with Monkey." Xolotl disappeared.
"Oh great, just what we needed. More Bills." Dipper rubbed his head.
"Well, can't be all bad. Xolotl said they were nerfed." Mabel shot at Stan with a nerf gun.
"And now I'm annoyed." Stan said as the darts bounced harmlessly off his head.
29.17 (Masterweaver): [My Little Pony] / [Finding Nemo] (not yet compiled in MLP Time Loops as of this writing)
"Literal seahorse. Okay." Lyra Heartstrings flicked her fins. "Seapony, you want to take this one?"
"Oh sure, just because I'm the one with the closest body-type-"
"Okay, okay, just asking. Pony? Human? Sweet Roll?"
"Roll for it?" Human suggested.
"Yeah, alri-"
"-mo! Nemo! No!" A panicked blur of orange and white darted past her. "Nemo! Nemo! No! No, please, no! No, no!"
For a moment the multiple personality seahorse frowned. "Anybody have any idea what that was about?"
"Somebody called Nemo is in trouble?"
"Okay, yeah, that much is obvious Sweet Roll-"
"I say we help orange panic-face," Pony piped up. "Any takers?"
"Eh, nothing better to do," Seapony replied.
"Would be the right thing," Human pointed out.
"Right. Limit loop abilities to things that can be explained or not noticed though," Lyra insisted. "Let's go swimming after orange panic-face."
Orange panic-face had turned out to be a clownfish called Marlin, and with the help of a blue tang called Dory they had been shanghaied by a shark into some sort of carnivores anonymous group. Lyra had casually let the sharks know that if they tried to eat them, she would blow them up. It helped that there were mines and a few unlaunched torpedoes around the sunken submarine.
Although, given the scuba diver's mask had been caught on a jut of metal in the sub, she'd refrained from unleashing her full wrath. Marlin didn't deserve to have the sole clue to his quest disintegrated.
The other two had nearly collapsed in panicked, tired relief, only just managing to rest in the goggles themselves before passing out. Lyra decided to read the scuba mask herself, just to keep abreast of the situation-Dory was pretty friendly and all, but she knew from personal experience that unusual thought processes could be distracting at the wrong time. Now all she had to do was wait till the others woke up.
"...seven arms, so you're a septapus..." Dory murmured drowsily.
Lyra snorted, quietly settling down between the other two fish. "Sounds like a fascinating dream."
"...running only makes me want you more..."
The seahorse nodded, letting her eyes shut as she nestled against the plastic.
"...haven't we done this before? I remember this..."
"Wait..."
The other four personalities reluctantly groaned in Lyra's head as she prodded them awake. "Did you all hear that?"
"Ugh, what?"
"Dory's sleeptalking. Did you hear-"
"It's a dream," Human grumbled. "It doesn't mean anything."
Lyra took a breath and nodded, still frowning as she shut her eyes.
"...p-sherman 42 wallaby way sydney..."
Lyra's eyes snapped open, leading again to groans from the other mental constructs. "You heard that, right?"
"What?" Sweet Roll groaned. "What were we supposed to hear-?"
"Wait. Did Dory just sleeptalk the address on the diving goggles?" Seapony asked.
"Yes!" Lyra hissed. "I mean, how could she have-?"
"She did catch a glimpse of it," Pony pointed out. "She might have... read it then."
"In the middle of a shark attack."
The other constructs paused. Dory mumbled something about purple shells.
"...What are you thinking?" Human asked slowly.
"Look, you know how we did a lot of psychology research back when we started looping because of... you know, how our memories work in the loops?"
The other mental constructs nodded.
"Well, even if Dory has short term memory loss," Lyra continued, "those memories have to go somewhere. Maybe they get caught up in her dreams. And she did mumble something about 'doing this before,' and just now the address on the goggles-"
"Oh oak," Sweet Roll groaned. "You think she's looping, don't you?"
"I'm not saying she is, but it's certainly a possibility-"
"A possibility we can explore after we get some sleep," Human grumbled.
29.1: Smart idea, Dipper.
29.2: The implications at the end there are terrifying.
29.3: These two...
29.4: Sage advice there.
29.5: Welcome to the multiverse, Will.
29.6, 29.7, 29.8: And with these, we welcome the Mighty Ducks to the Loops. And an odd choice in Anchor, but it worked.
29.9: Indeed.
29.10: Some superheroes are surprisingly bad at figuring out who their fellows are behind the mask.
29.11: Good question, Sokka.
29.12: Equally good question.
29.13: ABANDON SAVANNAH!
29.14: Do I even want to know?
29.15: "Sometimes the simple solution is the best." Yes. Yes, it is.
29.16: (groans)
29.17: Dory's nice, but an oddball.