Chapter 6: Encounter

Antares

Victoria found that interrogating the soldiers opened doors to more questions, without closing in on any actual answers. Only a few of the men milling around the portal had actually gotten much of a look inside, before the storm of vines and ice had erupted from within it. Ehajmar, the man who had fired his weapon, was particularly cagey about the entire thing, but Chris had been able to pry his story from him. He had indeed fired on someone on the other side of the portal, taking them square in the stomach after they had aimed a weapon at him. He didn't mention it, but another man who had arrived before Ehajmar said that Amy had been there, telling them not to shoot.

None of the soldiers had gotten a good look at the people on the other side, but they agreed that they had been dressed in costumes, at least one white and gold. Unnecessarily, they also informed Victoria and Chris that those people had powers.

Chris was just about finishing up questioning one of the soldiers about the perimeter they had established around the portal. The soldier, who spoke English better than any of the others they had talked to, had been especially hostile to Victoria, but, like the other men, more amenable to Chris' antagonism... if still more than a touch evasive and unforthcoming.

The soldier described how, at first, the men had fired their guns at the sealed portal before quickly coming to realize it was ineffective stalling as they debated whether or not to open the portal with explosives.

"And since we thought that might not be a good idea considering all of this," he said, spreading his arms to gesture at the Simurgh's left-behind tinker garbage, "-we haven't set it up yet. We're just keeping an eye out until we get orders. I take it, since you two are here, that we're not getting those orders from Amar."

"Well, that makes two astute observations," said Chris. "That and deciding not to blow up the Simurgh's playthings. Keep this up for now, I suppose."

Chris walked ungainly away from the soldier towards Victoria, his wings scraping along the ground.

"Do you recognize any of this Tinkertech?" Victoria asked, her gaze wandering to a half-buried device that looked like a metallic rib cage dripping blood from hairline cracks in its frame.

"A bit," said Chris, surprising Victoria by not adding any barbs or remarks to preface his answer. "Some of it looks like it got repurposed from my lab. Fucked it up, she did. You're not going to get much use out of it now. The rest of this is just junk I couldn't tell you anything about though."

Victoria turned her head another thirty degrees. There, right in her line of sight, was the largest piece of Tinkertech near the portal, resembling a refrigerator that reached nearly twenty feet in height.

"We know she had to have been gathering this stuff on a corner world, carrying it with her when she left her perch on the Kronos Titan," Victoria thought out loud. "After all, the Wardens stationed there saw here bring some with her when she left. But some of this stuff works, which means she was copying a Tinker design. Is all of this stuff just carefully prepared garbage, other than the portal and device Amy saw? Or is this really a diorama of perfectly functional devices ready to go off."

"Your oracle seems to think it's safe. That's probably a hint," said Chris.

"Where is she anyway?" he added.

"Give them time," Victoria murmured. She let her eyes wander to the ground by the fridge.

Victoria lifted herself from the ground, and gently floated herself to the large Tinkertech device, her forcefield up, keeping enough distance that it didn't touch the device. On the ground next to it, she could see the device Chris said had drawn Amy towards it, several pipes with wires running between them. Victoria reached out with her forcefield, grabbing the device gingerly in one of its many hands.

"I guess she likes something about the color gold," remarked Chris, elevating his voice loud enough she could hear him even at that distance. "Wonder where she picked up that taste."

Yeah , there was the Chris she knew.

Victoria once ignored what he said, instead flying higher into the air. From her vantage point on high, she could see a huddle of individuals standing outside the command tent crossing the red tape laid on the ground.

"They're coming!" she yelled to Chris as she brought herself down to the earth, still holding the Simurgh's Tinkertech at a safe distance.

"That should go well as long as Kid Cassandra doesn't feel the need to ask about every step on the way out," he said, shivering slightly as a chilly breeze blew past him.

Despite herself, Victoria smiled as the forcefield protected her from the cold.

Victoria descended above the ice-coated ground. She took one of the Wretch's free arms and smashed the frozen water with it, watching it shatter into pieces.

That's a relief, at least. It appears to be normal ice, whose power doesn't make it tougher.

The vines and ice had been thoroughly mixed together, but she could see that the ice primarily pointed towards the portal with Gimel, while the vines had erupted facing towards Shin's capitol.

Looks like they attacked the portal from both sides, she thought.

Victoria felt as her forcefield began fidgeting with the golden web it held. Not threatening to crush it, simply fiddling with it, swinging it back and forth in a small arc, adjusting its grip in ways so small Victoria barely even noticed.

A bit of a shame it wasn't always so gentle.

I don't feel too worried about letting you do your own thing girl, but why now?

Victoria turned towards Chris, and she could see that he was eyeing the device, his eyes tracking the movements it took in the forcefields hands with quick flicks of his irises. She thought he might remark on it, yet once again he stayed silent, turning his head to avoid her gaze so he could stare into the distance, standing alone with his wings pulled tightly to his body.

It took a little while before the others arrived. Chevalier was at the head of the group, cannonblade in hand. Tattletale walked confidently alongside him. She was still dressed in her casual intern's outfit, but she now had a belt looped around her waist, with a handgun holstered. With it, Tattletale looked more at ease than before.

Sveta and Rain trailed, accompanied by a man from Shin she didn't recognize. With them were Miss Militia and Legend, who did not fly but walked, evidently still rendered powerless by Shin's drugs. It lessened the mystique, seeing a member of the Triumvirate who always seemed to command the air bound to the earth.

Behind them traveled Dinah, the cape she had brought with her walking alongside her. The two troopers seemed to have been left behind, along with the Wardens' interns, but instead she was accompanied by Megan and…

Fucking why?

"You brought Lookout?" she shouted incredulously.

Dinah shifted almost reflexively as though she planned to hide behind Megan for cover, before catching herself like she had earlier with Chevalier and standing straight. She stepped forward past Chevalier, planting herself with her arms folded over each other, bracing against the cold.

Dinah stood firm, but she looked so small in that moment, her figure shivering as she hugged herself, standing in front of Chevalier and his bulky armor.

"Antares, you agreed to trust me," she said.

"I did not say that. I am willing to listen to you, but I am not going to follow everything you want without reason."

And I am not going to endanger Kenzie around Amy and the Simurgh trash heap on nothing but your say-so.

"Victoria, I understand why you may be reluctant to bring Lookout to the field. But she is an important part of preventing untold suffering. And, frankly, I don't think you have any right to tell me off for making use of her abilities," said Dinah.

Antares felt like she had been slapped in the face, and she felt a powerful urge welling inside her to hit Dinah with the hardest wallop of her aura she could muster that took real self-control to keep down She checked to make sure that the Wretch wasn't gripping the web too tightly, staring at the girl in front of her.

Antares turned to Tattletale instead. The thinker frowned in sympathy before shaking her head.

She looked to Sveta, "Are we going to accept this?"

Sveta was sheepish, staring at the ground and shuffling her feet. "I don't think she should be out here either Antares. You were right: this sucks. But if she really is important in all of this, bringing her may be the right choice. With Dinah's powers, she might even be safer here. Like Dinah said, how often have we done that?"

Victoria looked at Rain, who gave a nod as Sveta spoke.

"See Antares?" said Dinah. "She agrees. This is for the best. And I assure you that I have every intention of keeping her the safest she can be."

Victoria still felt anger at Dinah, a feeling that Dinah was abusing her agreement. But Sveta's response was calming. Even if it was the same things Dinah argued, hearing them from her made them feel better.

She knew Sveta wouldn't throw away her friends' lives on a precog's say-so. But there was that uncertainty in the back of her mind; if they accepted Dinah's rationale for this, what wouldn't they accept it for?

Lookout gave her a wave. Victoria took the time to wave back.

I'll keep you safe no matter what this girl says.

Victoria sighed, "What are we doing next?".

"We're going to head through the portal," said Dinah. Based on the lack of response from the others, she could guess they had already been told.

"Amar was willing to explain what Chris told him about the portal opening," Chevalier provided. "Although, this seal might be an issue."

"The soldiers who arrived here found Amy on the other side of the portal with several powered individuals," Victoria reported. "Amy told them not to shoot, but one was trigger-happy and shot someone who was with her. Black male wearing some sort of costume. The portal was then sealed by these vines and ice."

Chevalier nodded. "Do we know if they're still there?".

"Oh, they're still there," said Tattletale. "Or, rather, there are still people on the other side."

Dinah nodded. "You will need to fire from that angle," she said, pointing to a spot right by Chris to the right of the portal, " -just outside the ice coating the ground."

Chevalier nodded, and strode over to the spot. Chris waited until Chevalier was nearly on top of him to move out of the way, hopping to give him only just enough room to lift his cannonblade until Chevalier pointedly told him to give him more space.

Chris lifted himself a short ways off the ground and flew over towards Shin's representative.

"Are we doing this right away?" Victoria asked Tattletale.

"Indeed," she said. "Kid Cassandra said we shouldn't waste any time at all. Hon, I won't let her go through with any bad ideas. That's a promise."

Victoria wanted to talk to Lookout, but she could see Chevalier preparing his weapon, and knew there would be no time now.

She let me talk things out with Rain and Sveta earlier, even if it was for only a moment. Even if it's only to keep us line, hopefully she lets us talk soon. And if she doesn't, that might be a hint she is planning more than she is letting on.

She could see Chevalier gesturing, beckoning her towards him.

The soldiers near the portal were falling back. The representative from Shin taking command.

Chevalier lifted the cannonblade and fixed his gaze along the length. "Before I pull this trigger," he said to Victoria, "I want you to know that Shin's governments have agreed to let us investigate. According to Luis, the vote was narrow, but he won it. They will have one representative present, but otherwise the terms are very favorable to us."

He lowered his voice. "And, underneath the table, Luis called from a private location and said that if we need assistance 'in travel or espionage,' that we should call him."

"And are we going to take him up on that?"

"Hopefully not."

"He seemed sincere about it," said Tattletale, shrugging "More sincere than he did when talking about how he wished us the best."

Victoria gave decided not to remark on that, although Tattletale seemed to know what she was thinking, adding "Look, all I'm saying is that he isn't trying to fuck with us."

"Also," said Chevalier, "Miss Militia and Legend are still recovering. Their physicals are fine, but they won't be able to use their powers for a while, and their powers will take some time to reach full strength even after they come back. We can't say how long it will take, unfortunately."

"And, before you ask," said Tattletale, "yes, they are supposed to be coming despite that."

"I know you still can't read my mind. Couldn't do it then, can't do it now." Victoria said.

"Then learn to appreciate I'm just very good at figuring out what you're thinking."

"I'm ready," shouted Chevalier.

Victoria and Tattletale backed away from him, Chevalier waiting until they had given him ample space positioning his finger to pull the cannonblade's trigger.

"You can fire," shouted Dinah.

Chevalier pulled the trigger on the cannonblade.

As the ice came crashing down, snow began to fall from the sleet gray sky.

Adora

Adora didn't get to see the barrier around the portal break, but she did hear the sound it made as it did so, and she saw a projectile slam into the cave wall, pushing a depression several feet into it.

Taking a second to groan to herself, she swiftly turned around. Everyone else did the same. She could hear Bow yelling "come on!" while Frosta whooped excitedly.

"Cluster together," ordered Shadow Weaver.

Adora watched as the barrier began to collapse and rushed to clump with the others, who listened to Shadow Weaver without a second thought despite the raging argument from mere seconds ago.

"Now Melog," said Shadow Weaver calmly.

Adora wondered for a second if the creature would listen to Shadow Weaver, but it seemed to understand that she was, in fact, right for once.

Adora blinked as Melog flashed with light. When her eyes reopened, everyone standing near Melog looked to her eyes to be made of bold white lines capturing the most basic visage of their features. To anyone Melog hadn't affected, Adora knew that they would all be invisible.

"Now stay quiet," said Shadow Weaver, unnecessarily. If it hadn't been for the fact that time was short, Adora would have chewed her out for the blatant violation of her own guideline.

Silence fell swiftly, and even Entrapta and Wrong Hordak, who had miraculously reappeared right in the thick of things after vanishing when the portal had appeared, contributed to it.

The ice barrier had fallen apart swiftly but, Adora noticed with a fevered sense of relief, the rubble still made entering the portal on foot difficult. Unless you could fly or were abnormally agile, getting through would be difficult.

As soon as Adora had finished that thought, the largest chunk of ice was pushed forward away from the portal. Far enough away that someone could walk through the portal into the cave.

Adora could see Shadow Weaver and Castaspella summoning diagrams at their hands. Carefully, she lifted her sword, thinking about what to change it into to best attack from afar, when she heard a voice shout from the portal.

"We are peaceful. We don't intend to harm any of you!"

A figure edged around the block of ice that had been pushed away from the portal. Adora's first thought, despite how much she knew great power could come in small packages, was that this girl did not look like she could have pushed something so large herself. The girl, whose dark-brown hair was cut short, wore a plain, white blindfold over her eyes and was dressed in a bland dress-suit.

"I know you're here," she said. "Please reveal yourselves. I have nothing but positive intentions."

Someone else came through the portal and around the ice. This girl seemed slightly older, edging into adulthood. Her hair was blonde, her eyes green, and unlike the first girl, she did not wear a blindfold, although her shirt and pants were similarly unadorned.

"I know you're right there," the second girl said, pointing straight towards Melog. The blind-folded girl whipped her head, not to where the blonde girl was pointing, but instead at her.

"Now, if you think that-"

"Kid Cassandra, listen to me. I know you know the odds, but you're making a muck of this at the moment."

The blonde girl turned her head so her eyes once again followed down her arm. "I understand that some idiot attacked you earlier, but Kid Cassandra here is right. We really do want to just talk, and if you just come out, that will make things easier for the both of us."

Shadow Weaver shook her head, pointedly glaring at each person protected by Melog. She made sure to stare especially menacingly at Wrong Hordak.

Perfuma was the first to step out anyway.

Shadow Weaver screeched something horrible, but the invisibility was gone as quickly as it had been summoned. Shadow Weaver stared daggers at Melog and yelled for it to vanish them again, but it was too late.

"Hello there," said Perfuma. "I'm Perfuma. And you?"

"This is Kid Cassandra," said the blonde girl. "And you can call me Lisa."

'Kid Cassandra' looked ready to rocket to the ceiling of the cave, but Perfuma was already moving ahead with the introductions. "I apologize for some of the negative energy here. I think we're just a little on edge. This is Adora-"

Adora gripped the Sword of Protection. It wasn't that Perfuma's judgement call was a bad one per se, but she still wasn't going to entirely let her guard so quickly.

"Entrapta, Bow, Frosta, Netossa, Castaspella, Melog, Wrong Hordak and Shadow Weaver. And Glimmer was here a second ago…"

Glimmer appeared, and both of the strange women flinched, Kid Cassandra's frustrated expression slipping as her eyes widened.

"Oh, there she is. Yeah, she can teleport. Oh, and I can't forget Emily. Don't worry Entrapta. I didn't forget."

Adora took one satisfied glance at Shadow Weaver. The sorceress was waving her arms in frustration. Castaspella whispered to her,"Stop waving your arms like that before you blast someone."

"Hello," Adora said, giving a smile and casual wave she hoped wasn't too intimidating, when she stood nine feet tall.

"Are you Amelia's friends?" asked Perfuma.

"We know her well enough," Lisa said diplomatically, a contrast to her previously cavalier tone.. "There's a whole bunch of us right on the other side of this portal. If you don't mind, could we let them through?"

Adora stole a glance at Glimmer, who nodded.

"Do you want Amelia and Catra to come out and meet you?" asked Bow.

"I don't mind this Catra person coming out, but I think it's for the best to keep Amelia inside," said Lisa. "Just for now." she added with a foxy grin.

Adora was about to ask another question, but she was shoved aside by Wrong Hordak. The clone, who apologized for jostling Adora, was acosting Kid Cassandra within seconds, proselytizing about the lies of Horde Prime.

"Are you aware of his lies? Of his claims to divinity? Please tell me, so I may know if you need my guidance."

Kid Cassandra began to stammer something about not knowing about Horde Prime, which only encouraged Wrong Hordak further.
"Then let me explain to you all of the untruths."

"Do you think we could get Wrong Hordak to keep an eye on Amelia instead of bothering our visitors?" Adora asked Glimmer.

"That sounds like a suitable task for him. Hopefully Amelia can take an earful though. I already told them to stay put, I'll go check on them again,"

"Hey, Wrong Hordak," said Adora, walking up to the clone and prying him away from Kid Cassandra with an apologetic smile and shrug. "Look, can you keep an eye on Amelia? Maybe make sure she isn't taken by spies of Horde Prime's? Catra is coming out of the tent, and we think you can keep an eye on Amelia just as well as she can."

"Of course, brother," said Wrong Hordak with bottomless enthusiasm. "I consider it an honor to protect anyone from Horde Prime's villainy."

With that taken care of, Adora approached Kid Cassandra. "Sorry about him Kid. He just switched sides, and he is a little overenthusiastic about it."

"Dinah," she said. "Call me Dinah. Please. Amelia isn't really in any danger of being kidnapped, is she?

"Okay Dinah. And don't worry. That's just an easy way to get Wrong Hordak on task."

Adora hadn't seen when the cue had been given, but it looked like whoever was on the other side of the portal had gotten the all-clear to head through. The first through was someone in white, black and gold armor, wielding a massive blade with which he pushed the ice further from the portal. He was followed by an assortment of others, most wearing outfits more expressive and colorful than those worn by Lisa and Kid… Dinah. As far as she could tell, all were human, except for one who looked like nothing she had ever seen before, a thin figure sporting leathery wings and a disc-shaped mouth ringed with teeth. One of them flew in the air, a strange relic of some sort levitating a short distance from her and Adora felt a wave of relief that they didn't appear hostile, imagining the flying girl gliding over the obstruction in front of the portal to attack the Rebellion while they were still stunned by the collapse of the seal.

Catra and Glimmer were arriving, and the former seemed taken aback by what she was seeing. She slipped over to Adora, leaning in her ear to ask "Are we just letting them in?"

"Well Catra, they sort of let themselves in. By shooting the barrier in front of the portal. The point is, they're friendly. Probably. If they're not I'll give them a good taste of She-ra. They just want to talk."

"I guess this is where I follow your endless ability to see the best in people, isn't it?" Catra asked, her voice tinged with resignation.

"A positive outlook on life is a good thing Catra. I'm happy to see you trying it out."

The party that had come through the portal had formed a rough line;Lisa, Dinah and the man in the shiny armor standing slightly ahead of the others. Lisa and Dinah seemed to be finishing an argument, although Dinah seemed more bothered than Lisa. After an interjection from the armored man, Lisa begrudgingly sauntered to a spot in the line beside the flying girl.

"Hello," said the armored man, projecting his voice expertly. "My name is Chevalier. There is a lot of ground for us to cover here, but I'll try to explain who we are as best we can. We are representatives of the Wardens, an organization of the best heroes of our world."
"First, I want to ask if you are all okay. I heard that one of you was shot in an irresponsible and dangerous action. Is he all right?"

"I'm fine," said Bow. "Amelia took charge right away. Patched me up good as new. The weapon didn't even damage my clothing."

"Amelia," said Chevalier, his voice growing heavier. "Where is she?"

"Oh, she's right in that tent in the back with Wrong Hordak watching her. She's fine, although I feel a little bad for keeping her in there right now."

Adora noticed Dinah steal a glare at Lisa as Bow spoke. Chevalier also gave her a glance, although she couldn't tell what expression he wore underneath his armor.

"Very well. I am glad everything turned out okay," Chevalier intoned, his voice laboriously measured and placid.

I can't begin to figure it out, but there clearly is something going on there. I guess they didn't all quite get along with her.

"How did she behave?" asked the floating girl.

"Fine, I guess." said Bow. "She took everything in stride more than I would have expected. Look, I can tell you might have some sort of trouble with her, but she really did save me, and has been nothing but nice to us so far, so I hope you keep that in mind."

"Thank you for that explanation," Chevalier cut in. "We have had some... difficulty with her as of late, but we certainly do not object to her using her power to help others like you." Chevalier glanced at the flying armored girl, who simply crossed her arms."Now, I hope to address the most important matter at hand.

"Recently, we became aware of an approaching event, one that could destroy our worlds, and all others we know of. We expected that event to be fast approaching, but hours ago, our models detected something unexpected, something we didn't think possible. While that event still approaches, it is much further off.

"At the same time, a being we call the Simurgh attacked a world we are in contact with, one we call Earth Shin. She left behind a plethora of technology, including a portal to this place, before disappearing. Naturally, we believe these events are connected, and we want to find out how, if they are."

Chevalier placed his cannonblade on the ground, freeing his hands to point at the others along the line.

"With me, I have many of our greatest heroes. Legend and Miss Militia, on the left, are two of the most respected members of the Wardens. Next to them are Antares, Precipice and Tress, heroes from a team called Breakthrough, who were brought along for their… experience with the issues we face. With them is Lisa. You could say she is a consultant of ours.

"To my right, we have Stand-off, one of our heroes, and Lookout. Megan is a valuable staff member. Menaf is a representative of Shin, and he has decided to bring Chris Elman, who has worked closely with Shin, along with him."

"And I am Dinah Alcott," said Dinah. "I have come because I can see the way to preventing a coming catastrophe, one connected to this world and that portal."

Glimmer stepped forward without hesitation. "I am Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon. I am the leader of the Rebellion on this world."

"If I may," asked Chevalier, "what world is this?"

"Etheria," said Glimmer.

Glimmer introduced the Rebellion to the Wardens and other 'heroes', even as Bow had to hold back Entrapta from trying to rush the Wardens with a menagerie of diagnostic instruments. She also made sure to mention Swift Wind and Sea Hawk, patrolling the nearby woods.

"And, this is Adora, wielder of the legendary power of She-ra."

Adora noticed that not a single one of the 'heroes' responded to the mentions of She-ra, Glimmer being Queen of Brightmoon or anything else that she would normally have expected to draw a gasp, or at least a raised eyebrow.

If they're lying about being from some other planet, they're really good at acting the part.

"These questions may be awkward," Chevalier spoke up, "but there are a few things I need to ask of you."

"Of course."

"Firstly, I see that some of you have physical features that I do not know of on our world. This may be an uncomfortable question, and I apologize, but I wish to ask if you were born with them."

"What features are you talking about?"

"Ah, for example, Catra's tail."

"Really?" said Catra, her face peppered with amusement. "I see Chris there, who looks like a deep sea creature bred with a Fright Bat and you're asking me about my tail? I will have you know that, yes, this is my tail. I was born with it."

"I've got a question." Chris lifted his head,. "Why do you all have such stupid names?"

It didn't take long for shouts of indignation to pour from every Etherian present, but they were matched in speed with a reverberant admonition from Chevalier.

"I'd like to apologize for him," said Antares, glaring down at the bat-thing. "He enjoys poking fun and we had to bring him along because Shin's representatives and Dinah said we had to. Right now, he doesn't have much to go on other than your appearances and names, so he's making the best he can with them. He likes to pry at vulnerabilities like that."

"You know," said Frosta, the objections to Chris dying down, "I always learned the importance of impressions. Adora, you remember the Princess Prom. My behavior was all about impressions. And the fact that Chris here decided to lead with this behavior means two things. Either he doesn't know how to make a good impression, or he wants people to hate him."

"Who taught you all this freshmen psychological bull?" droned Chris.

"If you must know, my advisor Iceon-"

Chris laughed hysterically, keeling over so his elongated snout almost reached the ground. "I'm sorry, but Iceon. And I thought Catra was bad."

"Like your names are good!" Frosta shouted. "What does Chris even mean?!" She asked, brandishing a fist coated in ice.

Chevalier cleared his throat. "Please, I beg of you. I apologize for Chris' horrid behavior. I know that he has been insulting, but I implore you to focus on matters of importance for the moment."

"I'm just happy they haven't shot at me yet," said Antares. "Some shouting is certainly better than people shooting at me if I do anything more than sit down silently."

Lisa and one of the other Wardens near Antares- Precipice, Adora thought- chuckled at that.

"Have you detected anything unusual?" asked Chevalier. "I know this is putting you on the spot, and that we can talk more of this out later, but I want to ask if you have experienced anything unusual recently, especially related to dimensional stability, if you have the technology for that."

"Ah, yes," intoned Shadow Weaver. "I do not wish to divulge all of the details, but the magic on our planet has been behaving oddly as of late. Each time I try to cast a spell, I find it weaker than it should be. Or rather, did until a few minutes ago. I believe something was siphoning magic from the planet. And it only started mere hours ago. Me and Castaspella, my partner in our endeavors to understand this planet's magic, rushed back here as soon as we discovered it, of course."

"Magic, you say,"

"Magic," said Shadow Weaver. She held up her hands, summoning diagrams at them, shooting a small magical blast onto the ground. "I hope that I won't need to explain too much of this to you."

Before Chevalier could say anything, Entrapta bounced past her. She walked on her hair, holding a pad in her hand.

"You were right," she said to Chevalier, pulling herself to his height and holding the pad in front of him. "There is something strange about the dimensional stability here. It's subtle and I can't get a good reading on it, but it is there. I missed it earlier because my sensors weren't equipped to make the correct readings."

"Listen," said Glimmer, cutting off both Entrapta and Shadow Weaver. "I have no doubt that the catastrophe you face is real. And I really do want to help. But we're facing something of our own, and I don't know if we can afford to help. Our planet is being taken over by an alien warlord, and he is implanting chips in every Etherian he can capture so he can control them. He has taken many of our friends. And if we don't stop him, he won't only take over Etheria, but he could use it to threaten the whole universe. I want to help, but I don't want to promise more than I can give."

The heroes all stood in silence, saying nothing, not even Dinah or Chevalier. Adora saw Lisa glance at Antares. Antares met her eyes, and Lisa nodded.

"We could help, of course," offered Antares.

"Yes, Antares, you are correct," said Dinah. "Glimmer, I don't want to imply that we are here to do nothing other than seek your help. We will aid you, Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon. We will help you save your friends, and stop your world from being conquered. It will be the best for the both of us. Now, I think we have the basics down, but I think we could be due for some more detailed explanations. Let's get set up in a way that's more suitable for conversation and planning, shall we?"