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From the journal of Isaac Thomas:
Tara Silva, also known as "Twilight Sparkle", is obviously this dimension's version of the same-named character from Friendship is Magic. Like her counterpart, Tara loves learning above all else. When she encountered the other Wondercolts, Tara wasn't one to make friends. However, she eventually became a more social person, welcoming the others of her future team into her small circle of friends. She is the top student at Camelot High, which made Rebecca Skylark quite jealous...though Rebecca eventually got over that.
Tara's Gift is that of the Great Witch of the West, Gabuor'be ("Archmage"), one of the more powerful magic users ever to live on Yiziba. When Tara got her Gift, she began researching local magical magic to try and understand how it worked so she could learn how to use her new abilities better. Rose Potter became her tutor since the search for the last two of Tom Riddle's horcruxes had slowed to the speed of dust crawling. She did confirm that Tara was a fast learner. Tara would travel to other dimensions to learn how to become a better magic user in echo of what Hirosaki Chikage did in the summers between her school years at Hogwarts.
As co-leader of the Camelot Wondercolts, Tara always analyzes a situation before engaging in battle; usually, Rebecca taps into her own experience to help ensure battle plans are as good as possible. When Tara fights, she is cautious, waiting to understand how her opponent fights before using what she's learned to win.
I actually didn't need to teach her that...
Camelot High School in Santa Clara, the second school week of November...
For the Wise Lone Sage of Yiziba, being back in a high school struck him odd.
Not that he required tutorial in the subjects people studied in such an institution to prepare himself to advance to university, college or any sort of employment that didn't require post-secondary education degrees. Given his Gift as one of Yiziba's more talented hyper-genius polymaths, high school-level mathematics and sciences were ridiculously simple. While he hadn't kept up with developments in social sciences or languages — thus, classes like English, Spanish, history, politics and geography didn't bore him silly — his highly-honed observational skills and near-eidetic memory quickly vaulted the "transfer student" from New York state into the higher grade point scores in preparation to undergo the SAT tests alongside his new students within two years' time.
While he was quickly rated a "nerd" by normal students at Camelot High, Isaac was rated as the type of nerd who was safe for the "in" crowd to associate with in public forums. The yearning to teach that overcame the native of Queens after his Gifting over three years before quickly asserted itself when he noted some of his new peers in Class 11D were struggling with written work. Using his natural charm as well as a willingness to help without being simpering or submissive about it, he gained several "tutor buddies" to help those who needed guidance through the many pitfalls the teachers threw at people. That, tacked onto his friendship with members of the Rainbooms and relatives of same, quickly shot Isaac quite high in the social popularity charts.
Even more so, when peers and juniors seeking help with academics were invited to where Isaac currently lived in a rented townhouse off Agnew Road close to Oracle's world headquarters, gossip began to fly concerning the New Yorker's legal guardian, a beautifully YOUNG red-haired, green-eyed twenty-something named Mimir Shepard. Identifying herself as the executrix for the estate of Isaac's parents, the independently-wealthy Mimir — who reminded some people of the female version of the lead character of the just-released Mass Effect 2 — was a woman who was both quite friendly to her charge's new friends yet also mature enough to resist the attempts by some of the more daring jocks who wanted to date the clearly single woman.
When one of Mackenzie Appleby's brother Mustangs football players who agreed to be tutored by Isaac complained that the New Yorker was hogging Mimir to himself, that earned him a wild laugh from both.
The poor guy didn't get the joke...
...though the just-Gifted students attending Camelot High learned the truth soon enough...
Isaac Thomas' home off Agnew Road, the second Friday of November, after school...
"Hey, Isaac! Can I ask you something?"
The Wise Lone Sage tried not to smile as he glanced at the Great Witch of the West. "What is it?"
Looking at her host's "guardian" while she was busy typing on a holographic keypad projecting from a very large PAA, Tara Silva sighed. "Why does Mimir look like Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect games?"
Her host's smile turned into a knowing smirk. "Why did you wait so long to ask?"
"Well, I HAVE been busy thinking about other things, to be honest...!"
Isaac Thomas nodded in understanding. "Understandable. Mimir, would you come here, please?"
Mimir Shepard looked over her shoulder, then smiled as she tapped a button to save her work before walking over to join her "charge" and his guest. "What is it, Isaac?" she asked in a melodic voice that made Tara shiver.
"Would you mind showing Tara what you are?"
"Certainly," the gorgeous red-haired twenty-something said as she held out her bare arm before calmly tapping a point close to the inside of her elbow.
A rectangular patch of skin then elevated itself from the rest of the surrounding tissue, revealing VERY complex machinery mixed with artificial muscles, power conduits and a steel pair of bones that perfectly approximated the normal internal structure of a human being in that part of the body. Seeing that made Tara gape though she didn't feel TOO surprised given what her host was. "You're a titemyu?!" she demanded.
"I'm Isaac's first Replicant," Mimir said as she resealed her skin. "I was built during his post-Gifting shock period. Yes, he replicated me from the female version of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect 2; my given name is taken from a fanfiction story he read about a female version of the commander once."
"Using the term from Blade Runner, right?" the reborn western equatorial continent arch-mage asked.
"Exactly," the reborn northern polar continent scientist affirmed. "I didn't want to get into any form of bioroid creation; I've told you and the others already about the Niphentaxians and their slaves two days ago." As the Californian scowled on being reminded of THAT particular race of "rimrae umale", Isaac added, "From Mimir onward, I based my creations on fictional characters. Both androids and gynoids, of course. They work as fellow researchers, laboratory assistants, training assistants and crew for both Station Robert and my own starship."
"Which you modelled after the Normandy herself," Mimir coyly added.
As their guest gaped in shock, Isaac winked at his chief assistant. "Well, if Liz and Tánja could do it with the Discovery and the Leónov, why couldn't I?" he admitted.
By then, the Great Witch's jaw was around her knees. "Wait! What?! Liz and her Russian friend built their own STARSHIPS, too?!" she demanded before she moaned as she recalled the short visit aboard Peter DeHaven's replica of the Millennium Falcon back on Sunday after everyone in her new team of metahumans recovered from their Giftings. "And the Neptunians and everyone else around us didn't NOTICE?!"
"No, they haven't," the Wise Lone Sage affirmed. "Since everyone living around us save the Noukiites are far too dependent on the Niphentaxians for updates on Terran cultural advances, they just can't make themselves think outside the box and scan around the solar system. All our ships are parked at geosynchronous orbits at the meridians of Sweet Valley, Vybórg and here in Santa Clara for the Normandy."
"Even more so, Isaac, Elizabeth, Tat'jána and Peter registered their ships with the Interstellar Shipping Authority on Zeiwan," Mimir added. "Since the Yizibajohei have never caused issues with the Zeiwanites, the people in charge of the ISA were happy to see the Discovery, the Leónov, the Millennium Falcon and the Normandy properly registered as 'Free Planetary State of Yiziba Starships'."
A whistle escaped their guest. "I though the Zeiwanites were pretty tight with the Urusians!"
"They are...but as a way of keeping our friends in Kutzei happy, all Terran-born Yizibajohei who liaise with Zeiwanite authorities always help in further remedial work in clearing up their planet from the Atomic Wars two centuries ago," he noted. "Besides, given how xenophobic some of the people in Onishuto are — even to their own allies in the Federation — Prime Minister Hosha is more than happy to keep quiet about things."
That made Tara nod. She knew through her past-selves' memories that even after the Union Revolution two centuries ago saw the empire that tried to invade Yiziba decades earlier collapse and reform itself into a relatively liberal military junta, the current government ruling over the natives of the fourth world of Oniboshi and its colonies STILL viewed the outside galaxy as something for THEM ALONE to exploit. And while there were many rivals willing to put the Urusians down if necessary such as the Ipraedies Empire to the outspin of Sol — this effectively stopping natives of Yiziba and all the regional superpowers like Noukiios and Yehisril from acting as galactic 'police' to make sure people elsewhere behaved, especially around less-developed societies like Earth — various factors still made the current situation around Earth a little dicey in many places.
Hence, Isaac's warning to Tara and her friends shortly before everyone went back to classes on Monday to keep any use of their metahuman powers away from the public eye.
Shaking her head to get her mind back to the here-and-now, Tara gazed once more on his host. "Why'd you start training people, anyway?" she asked. "I can see you breaking the mould and working with people like Liz and Peter on things, but going all the way to training other metahumans in using their powers? That's NEVER been done to my knowledge anytime during the Great Show of Life."
He chuckled as he moved to sit down on the couch beside her, flashing a look to Mimir. While his chief aide moved to the kitchen to get some snacks before returning to her work, the native of Queens shrugged. "When I was first Gifted, I realized that with all the tech and knowledge at my disposal, I could be the hero I've always dreamed of being." A shake of the head followed as he reached up to thread his fingers through his hair. "So, since I've heard all the rumours about the place, I went to Roanapur in Thailand to help fight crime." Noting the askance look she gave him, he shrugged. "I thought I could help clean up the city and make it a peaceful place again. Little did I know that the place is just as impervious to change as R'bemeke-koli is these days."
"The crime lords there are like the Masters of the Bazaar, you mean."
"Exactly," he affirmed before smiling as Mimir came back into the room with a tray of snacks for him and Tara to enjoy. "One of the major bosses there was Captain Sofíja Vladímirovna Pávlovena; she's the boss of Otél' Moskvá; that's the local branch of the Russian máfija. She's ex-Red Army and a veteran of the Afghanistan invasion back in the 1980s; she's an air assault soldier who led her own company there."
"Oh, my God! You mean Balalájka?!" Tara exclaimed. "She's the lady who's said to have trained her people so good, they could have gone out and won World War Three on their own if it ever happened?!"
"Pretty much so," he admitted as a twinkle appeared in his eye. "Fortunately for me, the captain is ALSO Tánja's maternal aunt, so she knew all along about Yiziba and how being Gifted could affect a person from Earth. So even if she outsmarted me, she shrugged it off in the end as a good training experience for her men." Here, he raised a finger before adding, "The captain advised me to drive myself into being able to outsmart future opponents — especially with Tariko going all-out to recruit people into being Gifted — so I took that to heart and began work on things like Station Robert, the Normandy and all my other bases."
A nod answered him. "I remember reading about some mysterious vigilante making the rounds in Roanapur a couple years ago. That was you?" Seeing him nod as he gave her a sheepish look, she reached over to munch on a brownie. "Damn! If getting smacked down by the likes of Miss Balalájka and her crew made you do all THAT over the last two years and more, maybe we should try our luck in that town."
Both of them laughed as Isaac slapped her knee. "I'll have to warn the captain to pass the word on to her friends in that town to make sure you get a good reception without going through death scenes!"
More laughter escaped the reborn arch-mage and the reborn hyper-genius polymath, then they turned to nibble on the snacks the beautiful red-haired gynoid had brought for them. Thinking about Mimir — who had gone back to work in the dining room — Tara hummed. "What about the other Replicants?"
Issac shrugged. "Well, after I started construction on the station and my ship, I realized that I needed help keeping things well-manned; I don't trust some far-reaching computer program to run everything. My first male Replicant was modelled after Doctor Thomas Light of Megaman. Once he became fully sentient, he was quick to offer his own suggestions on improving everyone further, then we went from there. A lot of my work over the last two years was inspired by people like Thomas and even Mimir."
"Wow!" she breathed out. "So how do you create them anyway?"
He gave her a surprised look. "Never figured a mistress of magic would ask bout THAT!"
A shrug rolled her shoulders. "You told me about how native magicals think about 'no-majs', remember?" she reminded him. "Except in places where the magical wildlife is harsh, like Canada and Australia."
"Ah! Right! Forgot!"
"So how did you create people like Mimir and the doctor?"
He sat back in his chair. "I use all the knowledge I have of a character to create their AI; I want to have them be as close as possible to the original in personality. Being able to glance into dimensions where people like that exist does help me..." Here, he gave her a helpless shrug. "But that's spoiled me on a ton of events that haven't been released in this dimension as fiction," he then confessed.
"I'm sure Phoebe could help you there."
"I'm sure she could. Anyway, after I finish moulding the AI, I make DAMN sure they understand they're just a replica and not that actual person." As the Great Witch of the West nodded — she could see how a mistake like that could cause a ton of issues, especially with how advanced Yizibajohei technology was — her host added, "After that, I have the AI uploaded into a proper android or gynoid body that can allow the person to do whatever his or her template was capable of doing within certain limits. Thus, I get a Replicant like Mimir or Thomas."
"Only one?"
"Only one. If someone gets so badly hurt that they're about to effectively die, I have their AIs transferred into a new body to keep them alive."
She nodded. "So other than on the station and the Normandy or down here on Earth wherever you choose to live — and we've GOT to see this ship of yours, by the way! — where are they?"
"If they're not where I normally work, I have them work out of a Replicant research facility I erected in unclaimed space inspin of Noukiite territory." Here, he reached over to a small PAA lying on the coffee table, then tapped the control button to project a three dimensional image of the local cluster. Gazing on it, Tara was quick to note all the shaded areas marking known claimed space. There was a target icon framing a star very close to the inspin edge of the small gap separating the Orion Arm of the galaxy from the neighbouring Sagittarius Arm, most of the latter structure claimed by various System Lords of the Goa'uld Empire. "It's quite safe, by the way," he added, sensing how quick his guest was interpreting things. "The areas controlled by the lar'beke there actually are controlled by Tok'ra rebels who are far nicer to their Jaffa and normal human supporters."
"Elder Egeria and her friends, you mean."
"Yep."
"Don't they get lonely out there?"
Isaac laughed. "No, not at all." He then perked. "Did your immediate past-self still live when the Dragonspeaker made her first appearance in Noukiite space about a decade ago?" he wondered.
Tara nodded. "Oh! Kyech, you mean?!"
He gaped. "She met her?!"
"Kyech was there when she died; it was three years ago," the reborn arch-mage advised, a shudder quaking her body as the many echoes of that particular event surged anew through her mind. As he gripped her hand in support, Tara took a deep breath. "It was actually on Okusei; she was going out to explore the local magical fauna when a land shark ambushed and killed her before Kyech came to drive it off. She brought the body back to the Cave of the Future outside Soggulyuo, then had it returned to the Great Crystal for burial."
"Well, whenever Kyech needs a little break from doing whatever drives her, she visits the Replicants at my facility and stays with them a bit," he stated, pulling his hand back so as to not give his younger guest any false impressions. True, Tara was quite cute, but Isaac wasn't really in the mood to get a girlfriend at this time. "She also arranges for trade with some of the Coremarch worlds as well, so they do interact with normal people from time to time. Thank God for Shogai Dakejinzō! When it was discovered that she was a synthezoid, the Noukiites joined the Yehisrites, the Seifukusu, the Zephyrites and the Vosians in declaring her a fully sentient being, which bullied the smaller powers into doing the same thing. So my people at the facility are treated quite well."
"Ever make Replicants based on villains?"
Here, he swayed his head to and fro. "Yes and no."
"'Yes and no'?"
"I have created AIs based on many fictional villains, both the types who do have good reasons for being what they are and those who simply can't be redeemed no matter what. For the second type — people like a lot of Batman's rogues gallery — I've NEVER given them a Replicant body; that's a disaster waiting to happen." As she nodded, he sighed. "They're in a virtual prison I have at the research facility. I want to see how people like them think. I even have gained the chance to reform some of them. With those, I allow them to become Replicants."
"What drove you to allow that?"
"It was Thomas," he admitted. "Shortly after he became fully sentient, he asked me to make a replica of Albert Wily." As she gaped in surprise — thanks to Phoebe Pitts, she knew the dynamics of many popular fictional series such as Megaman — he added, "It turns out that Doctor Wily originally wanted to create a robot that could be a hero. What drove him into becoming a villain was the fact that his research in giving his creations immense levels of power was cut off because too many people were just too scared of that sort of thing..."
"A situation like the Terminator franchise, you mean?"
"Exactly. When Thomas convinced me of that, I promised Albert — the AI of him, I mean — I'd help him succeed where his template couldn't. That won him over, so he normally works in partnership with Thomas."
"Will we meet him?"
"Not now," he affirmed, shaking his head. "But I'm sure the chance will come in the future." Here, Isaac winked. "He did request that he would serve as your first opponent when we do group training, though."
That made Tara laugh. "Well, if the good doctor is ready to party, we'll oblige him!"
"Not yet, though," Isaac reminded her.
She nodded in understanding. "What else did you do?"
"Remember my telling you about Hirosaki Chikage?"
The Great Witch of the West nodded. "She's Dragonheart. Granddaughter of one of Field Marshal Yomigawa's senior officers during the Wars of Liberation that went down at the same time World War Two happened. She's going to Hogwarts on exchange right now; she's in the pre-grad year." As the Wise Lone Sage smiled on noting how much his guest had appraised herself with Terran magical culture over the last few days, Tara added, "She spends her summers replicating her granddad's 'magical quest' in other dimensions."
"I did that as well," Isaac confessed. "I've learned from a tonne of people, folks like Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Reed Richards and the like. It's helped me dedicate myself into being the type of 'hero' face I've always wanted to be." He patted her knee again. "I hope to pass that on to all of you."
She gave him a grateful smile in return...
Station Robert, the second Saturday of November, noon (Santa Clara time: An hour after breakfast; London time: An hour before supper)...
"Are you alright, Albus?"
Hearing that concerned question from the beautiful tanned teenager with the glittering silver hair in cute short twintails, the aged arch-mage who was seen as a living hero of the wizarding world in western Europe chuckled as he allowed the reborn horcrux of Lord Voldemort to help walk him off the materializer pad. "I've never travelled this way since Tariko began her casting drive, Thérèse," Albus Dumbledore admitted as a smiling blonde stepped around the controls for the machine that just transported the core members of the Cosmic Mage Guild — Rose Potter, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood — plus three of their allies also attending Britain's wand-magical school — Hermione's wife Pansy Parkinson, Neville Longbottom and Hirosaki Chikage — and said school's headmaster from the Potter estate in Somerset. "Quite different from floo travel..."
"But far more comfortable," Neville stated as he offered his arm to Chikage.
The lavender-haired teen arch-mage from Tōkyō gladly took up that arm from the native of Holdenhurst near Bournemouth as the other couples who had transported aboard Station Robert stepped off the pad. Leading the pack was Rose, who looked FAR different than all the presumed images of a mature Boy-Who-Lived appeared. A woman with dark reddish-brown hair in a somewhat shaggy off-the-neck style, she still possessed the eyes the green of pure emeralds she was born with as Harry Potter, they now peeking out from behind protective goggles; since the group of teens who came aboard the Wise Lone Sage's primary orbital base were Gifted — save Thérèse, who was only pre-Gifted — they were in their modern-pattern Yizibajohei fighting jumpsuits.
"Thank Merlin that I was able to make Mike leave me alone so 'Mione and I could have some alone time," Pansy griped as she walked her magical soul-bonded wife off the materializer pad. "Hey, Robyn!" she then greeted the beautiful gynoid modelled after one of the characters of Megaman.
"Hello, Pansy," Robyn Ross — the replica of Roll had been named in honour of the character's American voice actress — said with a polite nod before she gazed on the man who had defeated the Dark Lord of Europe decades before. "Your first time travelling via materializer, Professor?"
"Indeed so, Robyn," the native of Mould-on-the-Would on the shore of the Bristol Channel in Exmoor affirmed as he gently grasped her offered hand to formally kiss it, earning him a curtsy in return. "How are you and the others adjusting to Isaac suddenly gaining a group of students?"
Robyn chuckled as she guided everyone from the materializer room to the main lounge area, walking slowly to ensure the still-dazed Albus could keep up. "Given how much prep work he's done since he began replicating Chikage's 'magical quest' concept to learn things in other dimensions, all we can say is 'It's about time'," the adopted native of Vancouver stated. "It's quite the eclectic bunch as I'm sure you've been advised by Hermione. Not as powerful as the Boosters all-told, but they can stand up quite well to many known groups."
"Which is fortunate," Pansy's wife noted. "Even if America doesn't seem to produce dark lords like Europe does, the mugalophobia so many of them express even these days will cause issues with Tara or any other Gifted magical in the country. Has anyone from MACUSA shown up in Santa Clara?"
"Isaac headed that off by having Tara and her friends introduced to the local DMLE team based out of the Presidio in San Francisco on Tuesday after school. They even got the chance to meet Emperor Norton," Robyn explained, earning her laughter from the station's guests on hearing of the British-born "emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico" whose ghost haunted the recently-decommissioned Army post at the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. "All of them are 'no-maj-born' or magical constitutionalists who DO understand the PROPER relationship between the Department of Magic and the White House," the blue-eyed gynoid added.
"How soon will President Bartlet meet them?" Dumbledore asked.
"It's up in the air, sir. The President's still recovering from what that gunman tried to do because he didn't approve of Mister Young dating his daughter. Atop that, with Congress about to flip in the New Year..."
The headmaster of Hogwarts could only shake his head. He had met Josiah Bartlet in his capacity of Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards a couple of times since the former governor of New Hampshire was elected to the post of America's chief executive two years ago. He found the former Dartmouth economics professor to be a brilliant and compassionate man, someone who had the temperament to take charge of the world's most powerful nation in this post-9/11 age with the War on Terror STILL ongoing. Not to mention take effective command over Yiziba's most feared heel bar none, the beautiful yet deadly Margo Black of Savannah, who had used her power as the Archangel of Mortality, Litronie Erba ("Doctor Death"), to cull a company's worth of Dementors in May thanks to the issue with Sirius Black's recent escape from Azkaban.
Not to mention TERMINALLY deal with a former defence against the Dark Arts professor the previous spring — one who had gone so far as to RAPE the niece of Secretary of Magic Samuel Quahog! — the very day that the youngest of the group who had come with him today to visit Isaac Thomas was Gifted.
If fools like Cornelius Fudge — much less Dolores Umbridge — ever knew about the times the elder daughter of a Persian Gulf War veteran had dealt with OTHER magical issues when she visited Britain...!
"Hey, everyone!"
People beamed as the man who had built all that was around them now came up from the direction of the main lounge, he accompanied by a smiling woman dressed in a very flowing traditional sleeved jumpsuit with hooded cape, such in a gunmetal blue-grey shade trimmed in burnt umber; on seeing the Great Witch of the West in her jumpsuit for the first time the Saturday just past, Isaac was reminded of an enemy of the future Manhattan Clan from the Gargoyles animation series. Tara Silva's uniform came complete with the very complex runes lining the jumpsuit and the cape that helped magnify and govern the magic she welded. "Good afternoon, Isaac," Albus said as he reached over to shake his host's hand. "We're just in time for lunch, correct?"
"My chefs are preparing some snacks for everyone since it was near suppertime when you left Hogwarts," the Wise Lone Sage said as he nodded to Robyn, who headed back to her station. "But first, if you'll excuse me..."
The elderly English arch-mage nodded as Isaac Thomas straightened himself, gazing upon the current incarnation of the Sorceress Supreme of the Cosmic Mage Guild, Lokrole (the "Warlock"). "«In the name of friendship and eternal companionship throughout the time you all star in the Great Show of Life, I humbly present unto you Gabuor'be Bolem, Lokrole Bolem,»" he formally declared in Yizibajohei.
"«In the name of my battle group mates, I give you eternal thanks for your kindness, Raer'buo Erba,»" the transformed and Gifted "hero" of the Blood War unleashed by her lover's other-self almost two decades before during the end years of the Cold War affirmed as Tara went to one knee before the leader of one of the two main magical factions native to the World of the Forge. "«On behalf of my battle group mates and our dear friends, I can only rejoice at the fact that you've answered the casting call in this matter, Gabuor'be Bolem.»"
"«I thank you for your kind wishes, Lokrole Bolem,»" the native of Santa Clara responded as she gave Rose a hopeful look. "«If I can ask but a simple boon of yourself and your battle group mates.»"
"«Please ask,»" Luna — who was the Far-Seer of the Cosmic Mage Guild, Yudim ("Prophecy"); this made her Rose's acting major domo — then bade as she gave the Californian a knowing look.
"«That I would seek lessons from yourself and the others of your battle team group in better mastering my own Gift to the betterment of my battle group mates, Yudim Bolem,»" Tara explained, earning her surprised looks from Pansy and Neville even if Chikage was nodding in understanding. "«Much that the Gifting did bestow me my past-selves' memories, this is a far different situation than what our past-selves faced back home.»"
Considering that, Rose gazed on Thérèse, earning her an approving nod from the still-not Gifted reborn dark lord. A glance to Luna earned her an agreeing nod. With that, the native of Godric's Hollow within the borough of Taunton Deane smiled as she placed the fingertips of her hand on Tara's forehead. "So it has been requested by you, Lady Archmage, so it is agreed, so mote it be," she declared in English; even if the greetings initiated by her host were in her adopted language — which was understood by Albus thanks to the omniversal translator fields aboard the station — given the nature of the Californian's request, the agreement had to be made in a Terran language in case local authorities wanted confirmation as to what happened this day. "Baron Dumbledore, even if I requested your oath of silence two years ago concerning my Gifting, do you — in your capacity BOTH as Chief Warlock of the Right Honourable the Lords Magical of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Wizengamot assembled AND the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards — acknowledge the request of Lady Archmage to seek an informal apprenticeship with my battle team?"
"I do indeed, Marchioness Potter," Albus affirmed with a gracious bow of his head.
"OI! WE'RE HUNGRY, TEACH! CAN WE HAVE SOMETHING TO EAT?!"
Hearing that shrilled voice, Tara moaned. "Pinkie...!"
Neville and Pansy both laughed as Chikage shook her head, clearly amused...
An hour later...
"Professor, I'm going to come out and say it."
Albus Dumbledore blinked before he gazed on the Mistress of Implausibility. "Say what, my dear?"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!"
Phoebe Pitts' shout caused everyone to be blown over, earning the reality warper of the Wondercolts wide-eyed looks from the others in the room; given that she WAS someone who could twist the fundamental forces of the Universe itself with an ease that not even experienced arch-mages like the headmaster of Hogwarts could equal, getting one of them angry was often seen on Yiziba as a very stupid way of committing suicide!
"What in the name of God made you leave poor Rose here in the hands of a pack of umale lo'obir'ba like the Dursleys in the first place, Professor?!" the pink-haired Californian demanded as she waved towards Rose Potter. "Yeah, hiding the poor kid from that death-cheater's pals was the right thing to do, but didn't what Professor McGonagall say about Rose's uncle and aunt click in even ONCE inside your head?!"
Wincing at that admonishment from someone who was clearly uncomfortable making such statements, the native of Mould-on-the-Would took a deep breath before he gave the Sorceress Supreme an apologetic look. "You have every right to question my decisions that evening, Miss Pitts," he lamented. "True, Minerva's warnings about what Rose's relatives were like did register in my mind, but I never ONCE believed they would do THAT to her — then him, of course — all because she was magical and they were muggle. Yes, I come from a time when corporal punishment was seen as acceptable when raising a child, but I never believed what happened to Rose before Tariko — thank Merlin! — got to her was possible from anyone. Not even traditionally 'dark' families would do something so heinous; that is how precious children are seen in our society."
"If I can cut in here, Professor," their host then spoke up. "At the same time, given the sheer levels of mistrust Riddle and his maniacs had unleashed on magical society in Britain, the professor simply didn't know who TO trust in the end. And yes, magical law in the country does demand that if there is no acceptable magical guardian as mandated by Rose's parents available, sending her to her normal relatives is acceptable."
"Didn't Rose have godparents?" Tara Silva asked.
"Yes, she did, Miss Silva," Dumbledore declared as he slipped off his glasses to wipe them clean with a touch of magic. "Rose's godfather is Sirius Black while her godmother is Neville's mother Alice. However, in the fortnight after Voldemort's attack on James and Lily, Alice and her husband were in hiding; the prophecy that drove that whole situation could have seen Neville marked in lieu of then-Harry. I was hoping that Rose's stay with Vernon and Petunia would be just temporary until the rest of the Death Eaters were rounded up and secured so that no vengeance seeker would strive to kill her. However, by the time that could have happened, Sirius was incarcerated — falsely so, it was later discovered — and poor Alice was driven into a coma from overt Cruciatus exposure." Here, he gave the Master of Plants, Ukor'be Dumdyatosi ("Vinclozolin"), a knowing look.
Lance Silva gazed on the native of Holdenhurst. "Aren't your parents back on their feet, man?"
"They are," Neville Longbottom explained. "After Tariko rescued me from my Uncle Algie trying to scare the magic out of me, I got Gifted, then discovered what really happened to Mum and Dad on my next visit to Saint Mungo's. Since metahumans — even magical metahumans like me — have to fly under the radar to make sure stalebloods in the 'Mot don't get ideas above their station..." — that comment earned him a chorus of laughter from his peers — "...I sneaked in one night, slip in a pair of plant-based bio-droids to make the outside world think I was still 'orphaned', then got Mum and Dad brought back to Holdenhurst so I could cure them. We won't make the big reveal scene until AFTER Riddle and his crowd are all put six feet under or locked up in Gonebren."
"And Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice are both laughing at all the umale r'betike for thinking they can chew Neville apart when he assumes his post of Marquess of Holdenhurst," Luna Lovegood added as she gave her friend an amused stare. "Given that Gringotts is involved in this, all the kobaloi in the country are likewise laughing at such fools for being so narrow-sighted. Tariko's actions are well known in our society."
"Given that 'Mione and I owe Tariko magical Life Debts for her saving our lives before we came to Hogwarts, it just boggles my mind that all of Riddle's idiots like my parents and Mike haven't considered something like that," Pansy Parkinson added before she swept her wife's hand up to courtly kiss it. As the Bright Seamstress of Spells, Myuno (the "Enchantress"), giggled at such a classical form of affirming one's love, the Shadow Hunter, Semtato ("Silhouette"), added, "Fortunately, my relatives don't realize that I went all the way to be Gifted during second year when Riddle's horcrux was possessing Ginny here." Here, she thumbed the youngest of the cadre from Hogwarts, who blushed once more at being reminded of the events of her freshman year.
"Don't they still have a bounty out for the person who slaughtered the Dementors that came to drag Hagrid off to Azkaban when Fudge ordered him arrested because he was seen as guilty of the attack that killed poor Myrtle?" the dentist's daughter from Crowley near London asked as she gazed on her wife.
"A private bounty from Drake's father Lucius," the heiress to the Earldom of Keerford near Lancaster affirmed. "As soon as Susan's aunt got the lowdown from Mycroft about the whole thing, she withdrew the Ministry's bounty, putting out an add in the Daily Prophet complementing whoever it was for 'standing up for true justice' like she did." As the other visiting metahumans from Scotland laughed, Pansy added, "Fortunately, Drake's father was in his house recuperating from what Rose did that got Dobby free..."
The Wise Lone Sage winced. "Pansy...!"
POP!
"Uhhh...Dobby hates going into orbit...!"
Chuckling, the now-female "boy who lived" gestured, allowing a swaying house elf to be floated over to sit in his mistress' lap. Moaning, Isaac Thomas walked over to lean down and gaze into Dobby's swirling eyes. "Dobby, what on Earth did I warn you about when it comes to teleporting yourself off Earth to visit this station?"
The former Malfoy clan elf shuddered as his body was infused with fresh magic thanks to his mistress' powerful aura, then he gave the Wise Lone Sage an apologetic look. "Dobby is sorry, Master Isaac, but Dobby heard one of the Great Mistress Rose's friends call Dobby's name! Mistress Rose told Dobby to always be ready to help Mistress Rose's friends if they call out Dobby's name!" the knee-high sprite declared.
Shaking his head, the native of Queens gave his younger friend a knowing look...
Once lunch and snacks were finished, the Wise Lone Sage then moved to give everyone who had not visited this place before the nickle tour of Station Robert. As the Wondercolts, the members of the Cosmic Mage Guild and their allies — save Hirosaki Chikage, who had visited this place several times before — and the non-metahuman visitors drank how much one man's genius could create, footfalls heralded the arrival of a man who seemed as grandfatherly as Albus Dumbledore; he was dressed in conservative slacks and shirt with a scientist's smock. "Ah, Isaac, good news," the silver-haired man with the Santa-like beard and the twinkling blue eyes announced. "The dimensional viewing device is ready to be used to help Miss Potter and Miss Peverell in their quest."
Dumbledore blinked as his passive Legilimency reached out to scan the newcomer, quickly confirming what he was. "He seems quite familiar, Isaac," the elderly arch-mage mused. "A video game character?"
Isaac Thomas chuckled before he moved to do introductions. "My first male Replicant, Professor. Thomas, this is Albus Dumbledore. Professor, Doctor Thomas Light."
That made the Hogwarts headmaster's eyes light up in delighted recognition. "Ah, yes! We meet at last, Doctor," he said as he offered his hand, which Thomas Light took with a grin. "I've heard your name bandied about whenever I've met with Mycroft Holmes and several senior metahumans who would take charge of the Royal Specialized Warfare Fencibles should they be summoned to serve by Her Majesty. You're quite gifted..." — here, Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in merriment — "...and no, I don't mean that as a pun, of course."
Everyone laughed. "Naturally, your reputation has long proceeded you, Professor," Light stated as he waved everyone down a corridor towards one of the several work pods branching out from the main mass of the station. "I've actually seen both yours and Professor Flamel's work on the application with dragon's blood. With samples of such blood willingly given from those living at the Grímsvötn reserve in Iceland, I was able to improve on some formulas. Field testing in Canada with the magical wing of the Royal Canadian Medical Service supporting the Foresters has shown marked improvements for people recovering from Wendigo attacks; you'll no doubt know that is a very acute issue with those magical residents living in the northern reaches of Ontario and Québec."
"Wendigo?!" Hermione Granger exclaimed. "They're said to be even more vicious than nundu! Haven't the Canadians moved to fully cull those things from their territory, Professor?"
"Such is beyond even the remarkable means of the Ministry of Magical Affairs in Québec City, Hermione," Dumbledore stated. "The appearance of such beasts in Canadian territory is a sad byproduct of the nation's landmass hosting the Power Jewel that Dean Raeburn found in 1889, with the sheer levels of mesonium deposits throughout the land that lies directly on or over the Canadian Shield." As the quite Ravenclaw-like Gryffindor senior student nodded in understanding, her headmaster added, "With the infusion of beliefs that had millennia to percolate on the land — you're aware of how mesonium can influence that — the chances are always there that some poor soul will be compelled to commit acts of cannibalism; that is how a Wendigo is created."
"And if folks in the Habitation let their full technomagical and other abilities be revealed, the stalebloods in Geneva would have litters of puffskeins, Hermione," Neville Longbottom added with a wry smirk. As the Bright Seamstress of Spells again nodded in annoyed understanding, the Master of Plants reached over to unlock the main hatchway into the work pod. "If you want to start another War of Liberation..."
"True, true..."
Stepping inside the bright space, Dumbledore took a deep breath of the quite fresh air. Noting the machine with the wide view screen set in the middle of the room, the aged arch-mage hummed before gazing on his host. "'Dimensional viewing device', Isaac?" he wondered as he gave the New Yorker a knowing look. "Does this machine actually allow people to gaze into alternate timelines and parallel dimensions?"
"Same idea," Isaac declared.
"And Miss Suzumiya doesn't mind you making use of such a device?"
"Only when I'm trying to probe into future events, Professor," the native of Queens stated as he stood behind the podium where the senior technician monitoring the use of said device would place him/herself while it was in use. "She's rather a stickler for that. Fortunately, her being quite the xenophile before Tariko got her Gifted back in the winter of '08 does allow her to 'bend' rules about viewing alternate dimensions."
"She's the Weaver, right?" Mackenzie Appleby asked.
"One and only." Here, Isaac waved to the machine, whose exposed parts included a seat encompassed by something akin to a motorcycle side car poised before the view screen; the mechanisms themselves were in a large flute-sized chamber behind said screen that reached into the bulkhead shielding the work pod from deep space. "I've most often used this device to scan ahead into other universes I wanted to visit on my own training trip akin to Chikage's summer trips," As people glanced at the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos, Nosyo'or'bem ("Dragonheart"), the Wise Lone Sage added, "Of course, as Chikage and her grandfather proved, any travellers from THIS dimension can only remain in another dimension for one solar year before being forced back."
"Even if I was destined for Hogwarts thanks to my being descent from the Carters of Ifield, the ultimate levels of Yizibajohei science is just magical in its own right," Hermione noted.
"It seems that to me as well at times. So..." Here, the native of Queens gazed upon the transformed "boy who lived". "I've heard that you've got stuck in your little quest to make your wife's mind whole."
As Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at that oblique way of referencing the quest to locate various horcruxes created by Thérèse Peverell's other-self — such having effectively allowing Tom Riddle to survive being disintegrated by Lily Potter's actions in the fall of 1996 — the Supreme Sorceress of Yiziba shook her head. "Before you ask, Isaac, I don't want to use this device to trace down the last two parts of my girl's brain," Rose Potter stated as she gave her wife a one-armed hug. "Even if viewing other dimensions where that death-cheater pulled the same stunt to avoid his death scene with Mom's other-selves might give us clues, the chances are there things could be quite different here." As Isaac nodded in understanding, Rose shrugged. "After all, you've shown how much our universe seems to be quite the smörgåsbord of different storylines as they'd be viewed elsewhere."
"Yeah! Children's novel series for us," Neville said with a click of his tongue and a wave of his hand before gazing on his peers. "How's it feel to be a work of fiction, people?"
"I'm still wrapping my head around the idea that some fans of Rose in other dimensions want to stick the poor girl with a harem of all things!" Ginny Weasley noted. As people hooted in response to that comment from the Mistress of the Fires of Passion, Dumta ("Soulfire"), the youngest child of the Weasley clan of Ottery Saint Catchpole added, "You imagine what sort of time management skills you'd need for that?!"
People chortled at that comment "Yeah! None of us are Suzumiya Haruhi!" Pansy Parkinson noted.
Phoebe Pitts began clapping her ear lobes with her hands, her cheeks as red as cherries. "Too — much — information!" the Mistress of Implausibility chanted. "Ix-nay! Ix-nay! No perverted stuff!"
As Isaac waved his other guests down, Luna Lovegood hummed. "Still, even if Isaac's honour did require him to ask Rose about her current quest for Thérèse, perhaps a demonstration of this device could be used for our new brethren joining us," the Far-Seer noted before waving to Rita Diaz. "Perhaps show a dimensional counterpart to Rita here," she then proposed, making the woman with the rainbow-shaded brown hair blush.
"Me?! Why me?!" Rita wondered.
"You'll see," the magical precognitive advised with a wink.
Isaac smirked as he flashed Luna an amused look. He loved it whenever the daughter of the publisher of the Quibbler came up with suggestions like that; her father's monthly publication was quite the amazing magazine to read, requiring REAL intelligence to truly understand. "An excellent idea, Mistress Luna," the New Yorker declared, making the blonde Devonshire native beam as he tapped controls on the monitoring station.
The main view screen turned on, revealing a series of horizontal lines, some straight with others wavy and still more quite spiky. "This is a readout of dimensional wavelengths," the Wise Lone Sage explained as people gathered around the viewing car. "Once I load in a person's specific DNA and/or mental pattern, this device allows me to find counterparts to someone I know of here. So, Rainbow, if you wouldn't mind..."
Light came over to open the viewing car's door, helping Rita to relax herself. Instantly, thin scanning beams danced over her, making her blink even if she didn't feel anything from those units. Once said scan was done, Isaac tapped a control to permit a vertical scanning line to pass over the dimensional wavelength graph on the main screen. Soon enough, a targeting icon appeared at the intersection with one dimensional readout. "And we got us a hit right away!" Isaac noted as he tapped controls to open a dimensional wormhole to allow a visual image to appear. "Say 'hello' to another version of yourself, Miss Diaz..."
People looked. Instantly, the Americans in the crowd were gaping in disbelief while the visitors from Scotland were blinking with surprise. "A blue-furred pegasus...?!" Ginny demanded.
"Possibly!" Hermione mused. "Her mane has the same colours Rita's wearing now..."
"I'd put her about seventeen hands high," Neville declared. "Professor?"
"Yes! Someone about five years old, I believe," Dumbledore concluded, nodding.
"That is NOT possible!"
Eyes locked on Rita. "What do you mean, Rita?" Rose asked.
The Californian waved to the screen. "Save for it being quite realistic, this is EXACTLY the same scene in the first episode of Friendship Is Magic, Rose!" Rita exclaimed. "Just when Twilight Sparkle met..."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"...Rainbow...Dash?" a now white-faced Rita then eeped.
The other Wondercolts exchanged looks before Rebecca Skylark gazed knowingly at her host. "Is THIS what you meant when we first met last Friday, Isaac?!" the Moulder of the Solar Wind demanded.
Isaac's face had an all-knowing grin threatening to split it in half. "Holy freaking HELL!" Jackie Appleby exclaimed. "If that's the real-time version of that first scene in the cartoon..."
"Hey! Look!"
Heads snapped back to gaze on the screen on hearing Jackie's brother Mackenzie called out...
...then all the Californians found themselves gazing with dropped jaws at the sight of an amethyst-furred winged UNICORN with a raven mane streaked with red approach the being that clearly called herself "Rainbow Dash" in the universe the metahumans were gazing upon. "I believe that's your counterpart, Tara," Chikage dryly noted.
People gazed on the teen arch-mage from Tōkyō, then Phoebe Pitts moaned. "Holy cow...!"
"Ee-yup!" Mackenzie quietly breathed out.
People stared at the man, then Tara gazed knowingly at their host. "Oi! The next thing you'll say are..."
"'But what about Rebecca and Lance?'"
The visitors from Scotland blinked — save for Chikage, whose eyebrow arched — then laughter filled the room; both the Wise Lone Sage and the Great Witch of the West spoke that simultaneously. "Oh, that is GOOD!" Phoebe exclaimed, clapping her hands before she pointed at their host. "Isaac pulled a Joseph Joestar trick!"
"Who's Joseph Joestar?" the normally quiet Thérèse wondered.
"JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, Phoebe?" Rose asked.
"Ee-yup!" both Phoebe and Mackenzie answered.
As others in the room laughed at the Mistress of Implausibility and the Living Wrecking Machine speaking in stereo, mock-outrage crossed the face of the future Marquess of Holdenhurst. "What?!" Neville exclaimed. "What's the matter with you, Potter?! Where's your loyalty to The Beano?!"
"I'm more cosmopolitan than that, Longbottom!" the Sorceress Supreme answered the Master of Plants.
Even more laughter filled the room as Isaac took a bow. "Thank you, Phoebe!" he called out to make people calm down. "I've personally scanned into a universe where the events in JoJo's actually occurred to learn how Mister Joestar does that trick. I've loved using it ever since."
Rebecca nodded in agreement to that, remembering their meeting on the station a little over a week ago. "Tara did have a good question just now," Isaac continued, waving to Tara. "Rest assured, Rebecca and Lance have counterparts on Equestria." He indicate the images on the view screen as Thomas Light moved to help Rita step out of the viewing car. "They just haven't appeared in any cartoon being produced in this dimension."
"Yet."
That was Chikage. "Indeed, yet. Still, it didn't really surprise me once Rebecca told me your nickname, Tara. As you'll know from Friendship Is Magic, Twilight is destined to become quite skilled in magic. You yourself became a top-ranked mistress of magic on your Gifting. Even if we are separated by dimensional barriers..."
"The Fates seem to always follow a common 'plot script' as you call it, Isaac."
"Indeed so, Professor," Isaac affirmed with a nod to Dumbledore's observation.
People nodded, then Tara gazed on the leader of the Cosmic Mage Guild. "Care for a spar, Miss Potter?" the raven-haired Californian wondered. "I need to see how far I have to go."
"I'm up for that," the shaggy red-haired native of Somerset affirmed. "Care to call the dance, Professor?"
"I'd be delighted, my dear," the defeater of Grindelwald said...
Within Bodmin Moor in Cornwall (thirty-five kilometres northwest of Plymouth), over an hour later (local time: Two hours after supper)...
There were THREE places in the British Isles that all "right-thinking" magicals feared to tread...
One was Her Majesty's Prison Azkaban, a tower-like fortress currently located on a windswept outcropping of volcanic rock, magically hidden somewhere in the North Sea east of the Shetland Islands.
Two was Her Majesty's Tower of London within the great metropolis itself on the north bank of the Thames, a place where hundreds both magical and normal had been executed since the Norman era.
And three was Her Majesty's Prison Gonebren and the Special Magical Reserve of the Duchy of Kyme Eau within Bodmin Moor, the oldest known magical prison still active even if most wand magicals thought it closed.
Thanks to one Thérèse Peverell being of the blood of the first Duke of Kyme Eau, Salazar Slytherin...
"Damn! This place makes Alcatraz look NICE!"
Hearing that wry comment from Phoebe Pitts, Tara Silva took a deep breath as she allowed herself to draw in the ancient magic that had pooled here since well before her current host's ancestor acquired the land in the wake of his departure from Hogwarts after Edward the Confessor became King of England in the last decades of the Anglo-Saxon era. "Yeah, you can just FEEL all the magic that's pooled here, Pinkie," the raven-haired arch-mage noted. "It's very dense, almost on par with a lot of places on Yiziba." Seeing her friend blink in surprise, the Great Witch of the West added, "I can understand why so many 'normal' magicals would think this place dark, especially within the prison itself." Here, she indicated the stone wall-topped earthen works nearby.
The Mistress of Implausibility gazed towards what was properly called "C" Block, the part of HMP Gonebren set aside for the incarceration of minor offenders. Allowing her own meta-sight to reach out, she grimaced on noting some of the cells were occupied. "Ouch! Wonder why they got put into the slammer!"
Albus Dumbledore came over, he gazing upon the foreboding prison in the near distance with his own well-honed mage-sight. "The Magus of the Meridiana School acts as the magistrate-in-chief of Gonebren in the name of the Crown, Miss Pitts," the aged arch-mage explained. "No doubt, the people occupying 'C' Block are spending time there due to minor offences. Potential violations of the Statue of Secrecy, for example."
"No normal folk can see Rose and Twilight go at it, Professor?" Rebecca Skylark wondered.
"No, Miss Skylark. The Gonebren Reserve is ten by ten Roman miles in size; over nine miles square by modern measurements," the current headmaster of Hogwarts assured. "Given how skilled Rose is — and I'm sure even with your uncertainty, you are just as skilled, Miss Silva — I doubt there will be issues. I did warn Amelia Bones about a potential duel here; the Ministry's sensory network will no doubt pick up on such a bout."
"She's your chief of police, right?" Tara wondered.
"Indeed she is. A rather incorruptible person at that, which is quite the RARITY in the Ministry." Here, Dumbledore winked at Renée Gerrard, making the native of Lyon titter at the pun.
"How much does she know about Rose there, sir?" Tara's brother Lance asked.
Eyes focused on the Sorceress Supreme of the Cosmic Mage Guild, who had slipped off her cape, handing same to her fiancée. "Like practically everyone who has not been touched by Yiziba here in the United Kingdom, Mister Silva, Amelia is ignorant of what Tariko did for Rose that changed her so much. She is aware that Rose is alive; that is as far as the bankers in Gonebren will go in revealing their clients' secrets. Beyond that..."
"You ready, Tara?"
Tara nodded at Isaac Thomas' words, then jogged over to stand close to the Wise Lone Sage, who had assumed a place near the centre of the football stadium-sized duelling ground selected for tonight's lesson. Noting that, Rose Potter shared a kiss with Thérèse before coming over, assuming her place on a stone marker in the ground indicating where one participant in a duel would stand. After Isaac gestured to where the Californian should place herself and Dumbledore headed to the magically-protected judges' stand — he joined by the others who had come out to see this — the native of Queens gazed on Rose, then Tara. "No heavy spells," the New Yorker advised. "I doubt Her Majesty would understand if we turn this place into something like we'd see on Yiziba."
"Call it, Isaac," the leader of the Cosmic Mage Guild bade.
"Right. READY?!"
Both girls crouched, their hands glowing with power. "BEGIN!" Isaac barked.
"BEST NIGHT EVER!"
A defensive field automatically formed around Isaac as a considerable poffle's worth of puffskeins near Tara lunged out of the calf-high grass, they transforming into large leopard-like creatures to literally swarm Rose. The native of Somerset allowed her own defensive field to form around her, such making the transformed scavengers bounce off to stumble onto the ground. With a wave of her hand, Rose sent stun bolts at her opponent while space-warps then appeared, allowing a couple northern polar continent ruolosuo to lunge into the scene. Instantly noting the presence of the rather large dog-like creatures that had just appeared in their territory, the transformed puffskeins — who mentally saw themselves as the mouse-sized scavengers they really were — all squealed in fright while the newcomers from Yiziba began chasing them around...
"...TIME!"
Rose dodged right as a SECOND Tara appeared behind her, sending out bolts of power just as the FIRST Tara called, "ABOUT..." before vanishing herself, such making the crowd exclaim in disbelief.
"She shifted back in time!" Hermione Granger exclaimed.
"Was that something previous versions of the Archmage could do?!" Neville Longbottom demanded.
"Not that I personally recall," Luna Lovegood calmly stated as she watched the mad circus of fleeing felines being chased by two growling range wolves. "I hope the ruolosuo don't eat those poor puffskeins!"
"No! Those were the dogs Rose's past-self raised at her castle back home," Ginny Weasley advised her wife. "They'll sense what Tara did to them, then just chase them around for a bit..."
"CRYSTAL REFLECTION!"
"Oh! Excellent blocking spell, Miss Silva!" the headmaster of Hogwarts called out on seeing a storm of energy fired by the transformed Boy-Who-Lived come back at her, such deflecting off Rose's own protective fields as she sent bursts of magic spiralling away in every direction. "Your sister has considerable power, Mister Silva," he then advised the Brilliant Knight of the Islands. "With some finesse..."
"...TIME!"
"She has to stop verbalizing," Hirosaki Chikage warned as another Tara appeared yet again in a different location just as the "original" Great Witch of the West moved to temporally shift herself. "It's telegraphing her moves."
"And Rose is just too experienced to keep falling for that," Thérèse noted.
"Still, the professor's right about your sister's power, Lance," Hermione added as he gave Lance an approving look while the two arch-mages continued to try to pummel each other with fusillades of energy strikes.
As he flustered, Tara gestured, "CASTLEMANIA!"
A foggy-like geyser of power snared Rose, freezing her in place! "Crystal have mercy! That's the full body-bind curse!" Pansy Parkinson exclaimed. "Why'd she call it...?!"
"Tag! You're it!"
Tara exclaimed in surprise as the very air behind her shifted, allowing Rose to appear...while the "Rose" the Californian had captured with her entrapment spell faded into nothingness. "HEY! WHAT...?!"
A virtual whirlpool of energy surged up from the ground to wrap around the Great Witch of the West, making her cry out as she was spun around dozens of times before tumbling clear to fall flat on her back! With a gesture of her hand, the Sorceress Supreme of Yiziba instantly bound her opponent in rock-hard metallic chains growing out of the ground, such having the effect of making the transformed puffskeins revert back to their original forms and disappear into the grass. While the two ruolosuo moved to track down their interesting prey, the Wise Lone Sage held out his hand. "TIME! HOLD BACK, WARLOCK!" he instantly ordered.
Rose stopped herself as Isaac came over, scanning the struggling Tara with his own systems before nodding. "Do you yield, Madame Archmage?" the New Yorker calmly asked.
A squeal escaped the Californian as she tried to temporally shift away before she found herself unable to move. "Damn!" Tara hissed before she relaxed herself. "Yield."
A glance to Rose prompted her to vanish her magic suppression chains...
...before the whole poffle of puffskeins lunged out of the grass to lick the surprised Tara with their long tongues, that making the Great Witch of the West squeal before she started to laugh. While she was soon to be saved by Rose's bush wolves, a haunting cheer echoed from the direction of the ancient gaol off in the near distance.
«Brilliant! Brilliant duel!»
«Well fought, my lady! Well fought indeed!»
«Oh, good show! Good show, both of you!»
Heads turned to see many of Gonebren's ghostly inhabitants now standing at the ramparts, they cheering...
To Be Continued...!
WRITER'S NOTES
Hirosaki Chikage (Dragonheart) is one of the characters of one of Fred's favourite dating simulation game series, Sister Princess, created by the team of Kimino Sakurako (who also created Strawberry Panic) and Tenhiro Naoto. This story is set well over a year before Chikage would learn about her "brother darling". Her maternal grandfather, Hirosaki Ryūji, first appeared in Fred's Icemaidens series; his own superior, Yomigawa Tsukiko (AKA Tsukuyomi), was first mentioned in that series and would appear in the second Wizards and Avalonians side stories to Phoenix From the Ashes. Note that all social rankings revealed here concerning British wand magicals are Fred's creation. Of course, Her Majesty's Prison Gonebren and its inhabitants first appeared in the Icemaidens series; the note above concerning the Tower of London is a nod to the excellent Harry Potter fanfic story Quoth the Raven, Nevermore, by GenkaiFan.
Translation list and source language: Titemyu — Machine woman/gynoid (Yizibajohei); Rimrae umale — Literally "copycat same", people who replicate social behaviours with fanatic accuracy (Yizibajohei); Otél' Moskvá — Hotel Moscow (Russian); Bolem — Lady, honorific given to a Gifted woman (Yizibajohei); Umale lo'obir'ba — Literally "same worshipper", people who follow others who set a strict standard of behaviour (Yizibajohei); Umale r'betike — Literally "dead blood same", a local way of saying "staleblood" (Yizibajohei); Smörgåsbord — Sandwich table (Swedish).
The Zeiwanites and their prime minister, Hosha of Kutzei, first appeared in The Senior Year. Also appearing there was Shogai Dakejinzō, who was a major character in the series.
The Masters of the Bazaar (from the online video game Fallen London, created by Failbetter Games) was introduced to the overall series by DestyNova. Their current base of operations, R'bemeke-koli ("city of the new yew"), is Yiziba's analogue of New York City.
In the continuity of The West Wing, this story occurs after "The Portland Trip" (second season, seventh episode).
The Royal Specialized Warfare Fencibles (RSWF) is the projected name of a gathering of all British metahumans mobilized for war as a defensive fighting unit. Mycroft Holmes (from Sherlock) is seen as the Master of the Fencibles, the man who would take overall charge of the group when so ordered to mobilize.
The Royal Regiment of Canadian Foresters (RCF) is Canada's magical militia. It was first introduced in Magic and Canada. As an aside, the Royal Canadian Medical Service (RCMS) is the Canadian Forces' in-house corps of health services professionals, serving all branches of the military of the Dominion.
The Beano is Britain's longest running children's comic magazine, first appearing in July of 1938.