Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the Copyright Act (RSC, 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.
Somewhere in space-time, Wednesday 24 June 2013, near midnight Eastern Daylight Time…
"Because I think you have a chance to come back from this," the "cape boogeyman" known as Contessa declared. "Not much of a chance. Part of that rides on me. I could help you, or I could stop you from troubling anyone ever again. Part of that? It's up to you to win the fight, to take control and keep the administrator from claiming everything you have, leaving you a shell."
I felt a chill. Was part of it my passenger? Both of us?
I opened my mouth to reply, and I couldn't.
Didn't deserve to, either way.
"It's okay. I got the answer, myself."
I looked away.
I looked up. My eyes were wet.
So many stars. The universe so vast.
We're s-so very small, in the end…
The first bullet hit me from behind, where my mask offered no coverage, and I slowly toppled.
The second hit me before I could fall, before there could be any pain...
...and then...
...cold...
...nightmarish, worse than Arctic, perhaps worst than deepest space...
...COLD!
"No...what...?"
«Such thanks, Fortuna?»
"Who...no...NO! Delete...!"
I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Strange that there was no pain...!
«Your whole existence, forged out of blind fear...and you expected no less in the end when the time came?»
"Delete...data lost...no, how is...this POSSIBLE...?!"
No pain...still could...couldn't move...who was that...?
«Very well, then. Let what little conscience you have left within you — thanks to Abaddon′s shard which has driven you for so long even if both Zion and his late mate knew about your connection to it and could use that to blind you to so much! — be assured that Téjlor Daniílovna Èbért will no longer plague what is left of YOUR multiverse.»
"Dark...jail...souls destroyed...data lost...LOST, LOST, LOST...!"
Her wails of pain began to fade, replaced by an overwhelming silence.
Was this what being dead really...?
«Her fate is for you and yours to decide, Conservator...»
IT WILL BE DONE, RÉSAV'L!
Who...?
What happened...?
A gasp escaped me as I felt SOMETHING pierce the place where I was shot, sending a flood of lukewarm energy into me.
As I felt my wrecked body slowly respond to my wishes, footfalls then echoed from nearby.
The ground was solid. Not metal...more rock-like...no, ice-like...!
A purplish glow then flooded my vision.
A cave of some sort...
But where...?
The footsteps stopped.
Where...?
"What the HELL are you doing in MY yard, girl?!"
The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
From Shards to Gifts: The Return of Skitter
by Fred Herriot
A story set in the universe of The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei.
Certain scenes written by Dr. Tempo.
C&C by Rose Ash and Sachertorte.
Based on characters and situations from Azumanga Daiō, created by Azuma Kiyohiko; Sweet Valley High, created by Francine Pascal; Worm, created by John C. McCrae; characters created by World Wrestling Entertainment, originally founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt; Ryū ga Gotoku, created by Nagoshi Toshihiro; Sweet Valley High, created by Francine Pascal; The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin; Urusei Yatsura, created by Takahashi Rumiko; Suzumiya Haruhi no Yū'utsu, written by Tanigawa Nagaru; Sister Princess, created by Tenhiro Naoto and Kimino Sakurako; normalman, created by Jim Valentino; Stargate SG-1, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner; and My Little Pony, created by Bonnie Zacherle.
Including references to characters and situations from Oshi no Ko, created by Akasaka Aka; JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, created by Araki Hirohiko; Terminator, created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd; 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick; Men in Black, created by Lowell Cunningham; The Boys, created by Garth Ennis, and Darick Robertson; Fallen London, created by Failbetter Games; Black Lagoon, created by Hiroe Rei; M*A*S*H, created by Richard Hooker; Batman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger; The New Gods, created by Jack Kirby; X-Men, created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee; Invincible, created by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley; Rockman, created by Kiramura Akira and Inafune Kenji; Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry; Final Fantasy, created by Sakaguchi Hironobu; and Superman, created by Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster.
And including characters and situations from Urusei Yatsura: The Senior Year, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot.
Somewhere deep in the heart of Yiziba (Earth date Monday 3 January 2011, 1:25 PM UDT; Austin time: Monday 3 January 2011, 7:25 AM CDT; Niigata time: Monday 3 January 2011, 10:25 PM JST)…
For the man celebrated for years as the Phenom of World Wrestling Entertainment, what happened in the wake of the Streak-versus-Career match the previous March really turned his life inside-out.
For the man known simply as the Undertaker across TWO separate planets separated by 273 light-years of space, being empowered quite by accident as an I-shit-you-not REALITY WARPER — and one with the effectively unstoppable ability to manipulate everything that was not of the physical, ranging from all forms of energy to disembodied spirits to even higher orders of life — made the three-time WWF/WWE Champion wonder if the Spirit of Eternity Itself had a weird sense of humour.
For the man born Mark William Calaway in Houston nearly forty-six years ago, being Gifted with the millennia of memories and cosmic power of the Master of the Dark Gaol of the Great Show of Life — his battle name on the World of the Forge of the Seekers was spoken there as Ruodeuto — gave him an often-unwanted yet sometimes beyond fascinating portal into a future that would lead well beyond the squared circle. A future of vistas beyond human imagination a simple Navy veteran's son could conceive of even during that whole "Prince of Darkness" angle he portrayed in the early years of the Attitude Era.
While he had been enjoying breakfast with his wife Michelle at their home near Austin — despite being a metahuman, Mark was baseline human physically, his body still on the mend thanks to a torn rotator cuff suffered during the Bragging Rights match against his kayfabe "brother" — getting a mental flash from the dark, soul-absorbing chamber in the very heart of the third world of Sigma Sagittarii (locally called "Kaeyu") wasn't something he wanted to deal with on a cool overcast Monday morning.
Thus, when he teleported into the Dark Gaol thanks to his ever-handy personal administrative assistant…
"What the HELL are you doing in MY yard, girl?!"
…encountering a raven-haired TEENAGE GIRL in full body, grey-and-black insect-like armour — right arm amputated just above the elbow joint, two multi-joint gripper mechanisms sticking out from a winged backpack; the exit wounds of a pair of gunshots on the exposed parts of her forehead, the unseen entrance wounds allowing blood to spill on the crystalline floor of this place — clearly caught Mark Calaway by surprise, especially since this person was no metahuman he could recognize.
Only reality warpers like himself could access this place.
By convention first established five millennia ago when the first incarnation of the Master of the Dark Gaol lived to repel the lar'beke from Yiziba, other reality warpers would normally ASK him before dumping someone here.
In conclusion, either someone wanted to start something…
…or this girl's coming here was due to some oddball accident.
Rasing his hand, he allowed a corona of power to cloak it before kneeling beside the still-breathing girl — that fact shocking him since head wounds like she presently possessed normally shut down the brain and eventually the body — then he reached out mentally to do a basic life scan of her. While her brain matter was significantly damaged, there were VERY familiar trace elements in her still-intact cerebral matter which made him scowl. "Parahuman, huh…" he muttered to himself while mentally reaching into what he believed was the core conscience of the shard which had twisted this kid's life inside out and…
Huh…?
He gaped as images flashed before his mind's eye, revealing a pair of all TOO familiar cosmic entities resembling wriggling comets of energy, intertwined as they ejected tiny fragments of themselves — the "shards" that, upon entering a host's body, would empower them once the right conditions for a "trigger event" happened — to help the semi-sentient entities (known on Yiziba by the disparaging term kimfombeke or "worm leech") gather information which could help them escape the "heat death" of Existence. An event all self-respecting Yizibajohei knew would NEVER happen given how vast and complex Creation was.
On Yiziba, such beings were given an even more despised term: R'be Guofenukro, literally meaning "thing that cheats death".
Given one ugly aftermath of the worldwide metahuman revolution which befell the third world of Kaeyu two millennia ago — known on that planet as Muokim Yuati, the Dawn of Power — when the noncorporeal souls of over a BILLION slain innocents drew on the ever-increasing auras of energy produced by the Forge of the First Race to seek vengeance on those still living…!
Shaking his head, Mark then jolted as a very recent memory from the girl appeared before his mind's eye.
One of the kimfombeke…
Urged on a rampage to wipe out a whole MULTIDIMENSIONAL CLUSTER of Earths and all those living on them…
This thing's avatar — shaped like a glowing Zeiwanite, once revered on the girl's own home planet as the first "superhero" — confronting the girl…then being forced to gaze on the dead corpse of its mate through the eyes of THOUSANDS…
And that one act…
…drove that creature to suicide!
Mentally cutting off his mind from the girl's memories, Mark nodded in approval. "Damn, kid! You did GOOD…!"
"A-ri-ri?! What happened, Mark-san?!"
That made the phenom turn to see a young girl dressed in solid white from neck to toe — such topped with a red heart over her chest, pink belt and boots completing the ensemble — standing nearby, a concerned look on her face.
"Hinako…?"
The girl born Saeru Hinako in the summer of 2004 had been asleep — having turned in early even if she was enjoying the second week of winter vacation from kindergarten — when something BIG made her empathic abilities wake her up.
Like her current host, the native of Niigata on the shores of the East Sea separating Japan from mainland Asia had been Gifted to become a metahuman, such happening shortly after her sixth birthday the summer just past. Fortunately for those who feared the idea of someone so young being empowered, Hinako's Gifting proved to be quite the blessing for all who interacted with her.
On Yiziba, she was known as the Living Spirit of Innocence, formally addressed there by the battle name Lomroer'bem.
In lieu of using the English "Pureheart" as the local translation, Hinako naturally picked the Japanese term Suiki.
And — thanks to her having no need to worry about mandatory education until the April coming up when she would commence her first year of elementary school — the pretty girl with the dirty caramel brown hair (normally done in high side pigtails) and royal blue eyes had taken to her Gift and its endless possibilities like a duckling did to water.
Driven both by her own innocent, childish nature and the memories of her twenty-three previous incarnations spanning a two-millennia period of time from the Dawn of Power — unlike those parahumans who were forced through trigger events to make use of their shard-given powers, "Named" Yizibajohei-type metahumans got the collected knowledge of their many past-selves' experiences using their powers once the Gifting occurred — the precocious child of a middle-income salaryman and his wife began to use her new abilities to do things most "capes" normally wouldn't engage in, even in a peaceful country like Japan.
As people soon learned right away, Hinako would gladly jump into a "fight scene" between metahumans/parahumans…
…but to STOP said fight, not make it worse!
Thanks to a level of broadcast empathy which defied all Terran means of measurement — though limited due to Hinako's youth; as most natives of Yiziba knew, adult versions of the Spirit of Innocence could pump out an aura of pure power with the ability to calm the angriest or most battle-crazed metahuman at PLANETARY distances! — the cute Niigata-jin had halted more property-wrecking fights across the Home Islands in the last five months than any adult employed by the National Superhuman Affairs Bureau's field security teams, Japan's equivalent to America's state-managed Parahuman Response Team organizations.
Even more so, because of Hinako's innate ability to "spread the peace" even among violent groups such as the various Yakuza clans and their rivals from other nations in-country, no one could even CONCEIVE of plotting to find said girl — who, unlike most American parahuman "capes", didn't even wear protective goggles to mask her facial features — and take her out.
After one particularly nasty incident in Sapporo in November, one Chōjinji-chō team leader joked to a friend that if either Omni-Man from the Invincibles universe or Homelander from the universe of The Boys — their existence being possible given the often-proven statement that "what is fiction in one universe is fact in another" — ever crossed paths with Suiki…!
Shaking her head as she focused now on the badly wounded older girl being looked at by Mark Calaway, the Spirit of Innocence came up to gaze directly at the masked face, her empathic senses automatically probing into the still-living stranger's grey matter — which surprised Hinako very much; child or not, she knew head wounds like that were normally fatal — to obtain as accurate a sense of what had befallen this woman before she was brought to the Dark Gaol in the middle of Yiziba's very core. "Hina felt it when Onē-tama was sent here, Mark-san," she confessed as the phenom of WWE moved to gently pull the mask away from the stranger's face, revealing glazed green eyes that barely showed any intelligence, a too-wide mouth and the general aura of someone who had clearly gone through something that made even the Dawn of Power seem paltry in comparison.
If THAT was even possible…!
"Hina was sleeping when she felt a lot and lot of people trying to get rid of something…!"
"A kimfombeke," her host advised.
That made the Niigata-jin's face scrunch up in disgust. "Eew! One of THEM?! What happened, Mark-san?!"
"She somehow made the stupid thing kill itself," the Master of the Dark Gaol announced.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then…
"EH?! Onē-tama did THAT?!" Hinako exclaimed.
"Yeah. Don't have much experience with dealing with those things — might have to talk to Annie Whitman in Sweet Valley to get her input on it — but by the feel of her shard, she had to get it jail-broken to give her the power to face that thing directly."
That made her face scrunch up. "Why would she have to do that?"
That make the Texan wrestler hum for a moment. "No doubt, she comes from a dimension where those things don't have to worry about reality warpers or Praetorian Guardians or Jewel Warriors ripping huge hunks out of their body to chase them away from hurting people. Love to get this kid's full story, but she's not in a good way right now."
"I'm not…going to die…?"
To say that Taylor Hebert was quite confused was putting it kindly.
She was alive even if the pain of the bullets shot into the back of her head made the nerves inside her skull screech with agony. Even more so, with whatever it was this place was pumping into her, her sense of self was coming back to her, such having been nearly lost when she got Amelia Lavere to shear away the limiters on her shard's powers with how that came to affect her very body and soul. Atop that, she felt her shard move to restore itself in the wake of Contessa shooting it apart before she was brought here; she was starting to detect wildly different bugs located in the costumes of the two people now with her.
As she realized that, a growing sense of comprehension overcame her. Words spoken to her were no longer mere outbursts of incomprehensible sound, but clearly registering in her mind. She understood she was in some crystal-lined cave somewhere, a place that was nearly freezing even if the two who just joined her — the red-haired twenty-something man in the black bodysuit with matching trench coat and Stetson hat who claimed this place as "his yard", and the young girl in the white bodysuit with the heart on her chest that projected an aura of concern mixed with childish jubilance — clearly weren't bothered by the lack of heat.
Even more so, as the two talked, the former warlord of Brockton Bay was quick to note that the younger of the pair seemed to speak in Japanese even if her words echoed in Taylor's ears as English. How was THAT possible? Did this girl — who seemed WAY too young to have become a parahuman — have some sort of Master-like ability to make all understand her…?
"EH?! Onē-tama did THAT?!"
Did that girl just call Taylor "big sister"…?
"Yeah. Don't have much experience with dealing with those things — might have to talk to Annie Whitman in Sweet Valley to get her input on it — but by the feel of her shard, she had to get it jail-broken to give her the power to face that thing directly."
Okay…if these two were capes of some sort, the parahuman culture they had here — wherever "here" actually was — was noticeably different if people used normal names to refer to each other rather than cape names.
"Why would she have to do that?"
Taylor felt the urge to answer before she stopped herself.
No, no, NO! Even if she was a cape, she was a CHILD…!
A hum made Taylor's eyes flick over to the older man, who was staring with a mixture of amused respect and concern at her. "No doubt, she comes from a dimension where those things don't have to worry about reality warpers or Praetorian Guardians or Jewel Warriors ripping huge hunks out of their body to get them out of OUR dimension."
Haywire event…! automatically echoed in Taylor's mind on hearing that.
"Love to get this kid's full story, but she's definitely not in a good way right now."
That made her slightly twitch. "I'm not…going to die…?"
Her pained words made the other two capes gaze concernedly at her before the younger of the pair walked around to Taylor's left, placing a hand on her shoulder. As the uncertainty of this situation faded from her — she could NOW understand why Contessa moved to kill her after the battle with Scion was done; having someone with the power she gained after her shard was unlocked running loose after humanity was nearly wiped out was a no-brainer — the girl gave her a smile which had the power to knock Jack Slash off-kilter. "Oh, no! No! No! No! No, Onē-tama! Hina and Mark-san won't let Onē-tama die just because some silly person decided she was supposed to die! Onē-tama killed a kimfombeke and all of them are just nasty, evil creeps who hurt lots and lots and lots of nice people everywhere they go! Don't you worry about that, Onē-tama! Even Margo-san won't object!"
Taylor blinked. "Who…is Margo…?" she asked. "She part…of your Triumvirate…?"
A hand covered in purple fingerless sports gloves squeezed her other shoulder. "You'll get the explanation soon enough, kid," the older man advised. "First of all, given how bashed up your body and brain are, we'll need to clone you a new one, then shift your soul into it to let you have a brain firing on all neurons. A bit of rest after that, then come the reveal scenes."
"Who is Onē-tama anyway?" the girl asked. "Where's Onē-tama from on her Earth?"
A couple blinks later, a tired sigh escaped her. "Taylor Hebert…Brockton Bay…"
The older man chuckled. "Have a Brockton Bay where you're from? Can't take a walk without kicking a cape every corner?"
That made Taylor bark out in laughter before she cringed as her whole skull sharply protested such a move…
Brockton Bay (twenty miles north of northeast from Boston), Wednesday 5 January, 7:42 AM EST (Austin time: 6:42 AM CST; Niigata time: 9:42 PM JST)…
Taylor Hebert's eyes slowly opened to reveal the ceiling of what appeared to be a normal bedroom.
Moaning as she sensed her body slowly respond to her mind's desire to shift herself out from under the warm blankets spread over her — a desire instantly squelched as she sensed that she had no clothes on whatsoever under said covers — she shifted her head right, then left to scan around. A standard bedroom that didn't look really lived in, possessing (atop the bed she was on) a nightstand with lamp, dresser drawer with vanity mirror, closet, work desk with a very advanced laptop computer on it, plus a couple of guest chairs off to one side for visitors. One chair had folded clothes on it, no doubt prepared for her ahead of time.
Grunting, she leaned on her left elbow to push herself up into a sitting position, the covers falling away from her diminutive breasts to expose herself. Automatically, her right arm came out from under the sheets to shield her…
She then stopped, staring down.
A completely intact right arm.
Without even any sign that it had been amputated in the first place!
Blinking as she considered that, Taylor recalled what her rescuers — Mark Calaway and Saeru Hinako, she recalled; the former using the cape name "Undertaker" while the latter called herself "Suiki" — talked about before she was teleported out of the cold place to a safer location. How they would contact allies to CLONE A NEW BODY for her to use given the sheer damage her birth body had suffered over the years. While that did provoke a little flashback concerning the "Slaughterhouse Nine Thousand" created at the instigation of Jack Slash prior to Scion's rampage, the fact that the Texan and the Niigata-jin didn't seem disturbed about making such a drastic choice impressed Taylor a lot. Even more so, according to Hinako, Margo Black — whoever she was — wouldn't object to having this happen to Taylor given that she had helped kill a "worm leech".
An act that both Hinako and Mark — and Margo as well — held with great respect.
What have those things done here?
"They find it pretty hard to play around with normal folks in this multiverse."
Taylor awked before spinning around…
…then she gaped on seeing the smirking woman her age seated on the windowsill, the recognizable skyline of Brockton Bay's downtown framing her. Despite her being in normal yet fashionable clothes, this dark-haired beauty with the stormy grey eyes — who would make one Emma Barnes look like pond scum in comparison — seemed to bleed an aura of pure, raw, imminent DANGER that made Taylor cringe, the fight or flight urge she had long experience with thanks to three former schoolmates of hers surging up to seize her heart with a grip of iron. Before she could say anything, the newcomer's lips twisted into an amused smirk while she lifted herself off the windowsill, moving to head over to the chair holding the clothes obviously set aside for Taylor. "No underwear," she said with a voice that was a mixture of flat New Englander, wise New Yorker, and pure Southern belle. "Typical Avalonians. You'd think they'd understand that Terrans have different standards than they do."
Taylor blinked. "What are Avalonians?"
"Bioroids," the newcomer said as she picked up the folded blouse and jeans. "Designer clones, in effect. Created by technology brought here by alien mimics who are so fascinated by Terran society, they came here in droves to observe us." As she handed them to Taylor before she walked to the dresser to see what was there, she added, "Of course, even if they're humanoid, the Niphentaxians do have pointed ears. You got Star Trek wherever in the Multiverse you come from, Taylor?"
That made the other brunette nod. "Yes."
"Think of the Ionians from the classic episode 'A Piece of the Action'. Tack on a serious religious bent to them, though; that's your average Nick Niphentaxian…ah!" the newcomer said as she pulled out some packages. "Some Terran-borns with this observation post. Should fit you," she said as she tossed one packaged brassier and one packaged set of panties over.
Taking them with her "regrown" hand — it had been difficult for Taylor to learn how to be left-handed in the brief time before she got her shard jailbroken — she then tore them open to get dressed. "You have actual aliens here?"
"Sure do. In a way, it pays to be in part of space which others see as a galactic crossroads of sorts," the other woman said as she moved to sit. "So, you're from a 'parahuman-only' universe, huh? From what I've heard, kimfombeke love to isolate those dimensions from the rest of Creation so they could keep death cheating their way through the genocide of species after species."
As Taylor slipped on the panties — Damn! Were they made of silk?! — she gazed on the other woman. "Why 'worm leech'?"
"Because they leech the energy and effectively the LIVES of those people which they 'gift'," the other woman sneered to a degree that would have impressed one Sophia Hess. "You think your multiverse had it bad? Creation is way vaster than all that. Those things have loads of places where they go to try to feed off people's knowledge and experiences. They've tried with this multiversal cluster, but there were defences put into place by those who provoked the Big Bang here to stop that."
That made Taylor freeze from putting on her bra, her jaw dropped in shock. "They've been around for THAT LONG?!"
"Time flows differently depending on which multiversal cluster you're talking about," the other woman declared with an eerie smile, one that made Taylor's heart ache as she recalled the last time that she had seen Lisa Wilbourn before she allowed herself to tap into her shard's full potential. The type of grimace the lady also known as Tattletale gave when she revelled in displaying how much she knew to people who dependant on her "wisdom". Despite that expression, the other lady seemed not interested in showing off to Taylor; the way she had expressed that simply was a statement of fact, no different than if she talked about the weather. "In one multiverse, it's the time of the Big Bang. Another multiverse, the time of dinosaurs. Yet another, the final disintegration of all matter into nothingness; the 'heat death' the kimfombeke so desperately want to avoid." Shaking her head, she then shrugged. "Death cheaters," she then declared with a look akin to her stepping into dog poop, something Taylor had got long used to from dealing with one Rachel Lindt. "All things must eventually perish, even a so-called 'god'."
Hearing that, Taylor nodded in understanding. "You must be this 'Margo' that Mr. Calaway and Hinako spoke about when I was brought into this universe after Contessa shot me," she noted as she fixed the bra in place before moving to slip on the jeans. "What was that place, anyway? It was dark, lined in crystals and Mr. Calaway called it his 'yard'."
"The Dark Gaol," the woman born Margo Chapelle answered. "It's a place where we toss the really dangerous alien heels we've run across over the years and centuries whose powers we might want to have circulating around the population but whose knowledge we DON'T want to have Gifted…" — Taylor was quick to sense the capital letter fall in on hearing that word — "…to cause even more trouble." Here, the Vermonter and adopted New Yorker/Georgian blinked before an amuse smile crossed her face. "I bet you didn't realize you were in the heart of another PLANET when you got dropped in there by Lord Rjazán'!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then…
"That…was another PLANET?!" a now-pale Taylor exclaimed with a squeaked voice.
Margo chuckled. "Oh, yes, it was. About 273 light-years from here. Third planet of Sigma Sagittarii; that's the second brightest star in Sagittarius if you're into astronomy. People who live there — even the adopted ones like Mark, Hinako and I — call the star 'Kaeyu'. The planet's name is 'Yiziba'; people who live there are called 'Yizibajohei'." Here, a snort escaped her. "Unless you're like the useless dweebs on other planets near this system who can't stomach the fact that we MUST become metahumans to simply SURVIVE there." As Taylor's jaw dropped in disbelief on hearing that, the other woman derisively added, "Idiots there call us things like 'Unspeakable Ones' or 'They Who Must Never Be Named' or 'Scary People' or other crap like that."
Blinking as she took that in — A PLANET FULL OF CAPES?! she mentally railed as that very concept nearly overwhelmed her — Taylor then dropped onto the bed as she gaped in disbelief at the other woman. "Did the Entities cause that?!"
Margo stared at her before she laughed. "Oh, Forge, no! That was guaranteed because the whole planet could effectively Gift those types of abilities to those who wanted them…and thanks to a bunch of selfish fools who would even make Adolf Hitler look like some school bully, they drove MILLIONS of desperate folks into empowering themselves to win their freedom."
As Taylor blinked a couple times, the other woman shrugged. "We call that the Dawn of Power."
An hour later…
"There you go, Taylor-san! A nice, nutritious breakfast that won't upset your stomach! Bon appétit!"
Blushing at being doted upon by the mauve-haired twelve-year old with the sparkling royal blue eyes after she placed a BIG plate full of standard Western breakfast fare before her, Taylor blinked several times before she gave the newcomer — Osamu Shirayuki was her name, hailing from Nagoya in Aichi prefecture west of Tōkyō itself — a confused look. "You're a cape?"
Shirayuki blinked before she chuckled in amusement as she turned to head back into the kitchen of this multi-bedroom dormitory-like home currently serving as the home base of an effectively-defunct alien observation post. "No, Taylor-san, Hime's not some silly parahuman! Hime's a metahuman like Hinako-chan and Margo-san are! Now you eat!"
With a wag of her finger, the Aichi-jin ducked into kitchen. Wincing at such an admonishment, Taylor then tensed on hearing her empty stomach creak before she picked up a cup of tea to sip from it. Smiling as the lovely taste danced over her effectively virgin tongue, she sat back in her chair. Seated around said table were young women spanning from middle school age to mid-twenties in looks. All of them were quite beautiful by Western norms, dressed in the same type of fashion Taylor had seen in her own hometown. While there was something slightly pressing at her mind from all of them, it didn't feel in any way threatening to her. From what Margo Black had told her, her current hosts were all "Terran-form Avalonians", bioroids — the word as a portmanteau meaning "biological android" — who had been created as unique beings and not cloned from someone else. All of them had been "assistant observers" to their slavers on the second world of the Phentax system; said slavers had been killed by some of the minor gangs in the Bay who were aware of the Avalonians' presence on Earth to effective free said women.
To Taylor's immediate right was the "elder mother" of this group; the term was applied to the person who would serve a quasi-spiritual leadership rôle among groups of Avalonians. "So, while you enjoy Thoughtmistress-prime Shirayuki's 'welcome to our multiverse' breakfast, Thoughtmistress Taylor, we'll go through a series of questions to give you a better idea of what you've effectively been forced to become a part of by your being shifted here by Elder Thoughtmaster Résav'l. Please feel free to ask things in return. While the younger ones have school to go to, we older ones can take a day off work if necessary."
"I don't mean to impose, Ms. Blake," Taylor said before picking up an orange to peel it.
"Please, Sharon," the pretty brunette with the brown eyes declared, smirking. Looking to the iPad-like device in her hand — it was called a PADD, short for "personal archival display device", akin to the like-named device in Star Trek: The Next Generation — she breathed out. "So, to begin, you're from your universe's Brockton Bay, correct?"
"Yes."
"Your parents are Dockmaster-prime Daniel Hebert, current hiring manager/chief of negotiations for the International Longshoremen's Association Local 1102 for the Port of Brockton Bay; and Thoughtmistress-prime Annette Hebert, junior professor for English classical literature at the University of Massachusetts Brockton Bay?"
Taylor blinked. She knew that "Thoughtmistress"/"Thoughtmaster" were the Avalonian equivalents of the Japanese "sensei"; adding the "prime" suffix meant a senior teacher or professor. Naturally, given her father's work with the dockyards, being called "Dockmaster" seemed fitting. "Well, in my universe, Dad's group was just the 'Dockworkers' Union'; since the Endbringers effectively wrecked all maritime trade and the port was sealed up in the Dock Riots of 2002, most of the union locals decided to merge as one single group to protect themselves from the gangs. Mom was killed in a car accident in the fall of '08…"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then…
"Wait! There are versions of MY PARENTS here?!" a wide-eyed Taylor demanded.
"Yes, they're here. As is 'you'," one dark-skinned girl in clothes that might have marked her as part of the ABB back in Taylor's universe — save for also wearing black as well as red and gold — declared with a pained smile. "Your counterpart was caught in an attack by the Kŭmdal-jop'ok, a Korean gang with suspected connections to the Democratic People's Republic, due to her father's friends interfering in the movement of drugs and sex slaves in and out of the Bay. She's in a coma now at Brockton General Hospital. Given Healer Laverne's aversion to altering a person's brain tissue, the chances of recovery…"
Taylor hissed before a warm hand squeezed her shoulder, making her look up to see Shirayuki gazing worriedly at her. "Do you want Hime to call Hinako-chan to come over here, Taylor-san?" the pre-teen master chef asked.
Sensing the desire to help, the older woman sighed. "What time is it in Niigata?"
"Five to eleven in the evening," one of the older bioroids answered.
Taylor shook her head. "No, she needs to sleep. I won't take that from her." She nibbled on an orange before sipping her tea as Shirayuki moved to serve coffee to those who wanted refills. "So, you have Panacea here. Does New Wave exist?"
"It does to an extent," another teenage bioroid answered, one in more fashionable clothes which wouldn't seem out of place at Arcadia High School; Taylor had got her hosts' names when she was walked down for breakfast, though she couldn't draw up this person's now given what she just found out about the local cape scene. "Only Vicky and Amelia — or 'Amy' as everyone in the group wants her to be known by even if her true parentage is pretty much an open secret now — effectively keep the flag flying. The first generation of Dallons and Pelhams are semi-retired, their older cousin Crystal just got into UMBB and their younger cousin Eric's going through some gender identity issues." As Taylor winced in sympathy, said girl added, "They all come out for any major big fight. Like if the Empire goes at it with the Red Dragon Society or some outside group comes in to cause issues with the locals." She sipped her coffee. "Thank Lyna that the Slaughterhouse were wiped out by the War Hawks on the Cold Lake Ranges in '07 when they tried to go after that one healer in Regina who just joined the Army Cadets…"
"Riley Davis?" Taylor wondered.
"She exists in your universe?" Sharon asked.
"We know her as 'Bonesaw'," the now-permanently dimensionally displaced older teen answered. "High Tinker, specialized in biomanipulation, plus a Trump classification since she could also change some aspects of one's powers." After sipping her tea, then nibbling on another orange slice — she had been told to eat slow to give her new body a chance to adjust to being active in lieu of being in cryogenic storage, not moulded to match her old body's DNA in a process called "templation" — she pointed to her head. "She actually helped my version of Amelia jail-break my shard to help me go up against Scion."
"Why would you do something like that?" the girl that Taylor privately guessed attended the Winslow of this universe wondered.
Sensing the honest curiosity in her hosts' eyes — and knowing that these people supported those like Margo Black and Mark Calaway, both of whom had given Taylor two thumbs up for forcing her peers back on Earth Bet to deal with Scion and save what was left of humanity in her home multiverse — the insect manipulator shrugged. "When Jack Slash set off Scion, scant few capes want to help fight him to save all the normal people from being slaughtered en masse. We — Lisa Wilbourn and Amelia along with some others — felt that we had ultimately no choice but to find a way to master EVERY CAPE ALIVE to have them combine their powers to deal with that monster. So, I let Amelia unchain my shard to make me the ultimate Master."
Saying that, Taylor blinked on realizing that the guilt she had felt on being made to dominate everyone like that wasn't there. Yes, it was immoral in the extreme to mentally ENSLAVE thousands of capes like that. Even if the Star Trek concept of the "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" could be applied here — the "many" being the trillions of normal people from Earths Bet, Aleph and elsewhere; the "few" were the parahumans, who numbered only about six thousand from what she could recall before losing all sense of her humanity not even a week ago in her timeline — the idea of being Mastered like that was something ALL of humanity where she came from loathed with passion, the example of Nikos "Heatbreaker" Vasil being one big object lesson of same. Was it because she had been effectively tossed aside like she had been by Contessa? What had the man named Résav'l — Margo told Taylor he was a semi-immortal guardian of Earth who had warred against interdimensional invaders like the Entities for as long as modern man existed — said when she had been phased into the Dark Gaol…?
Contessa's own power, the Path to Victory, had been an effective open book to Scion…?!
"Do the Entities get any feedback from any parahumans here?" she then asked.
Heads shook in the negative. "Our multiverse is protected with the presence of this element…" Sharon declared as she tapped her PADD, allowing a holographic image to appear over it, revealing a VERY complex atom with the code Ms and the atomic number of 173, indicating something that wouldn't — according to any form of science that Taylor knew of — exist naturally. "This is called 'mesonium' in English; some people shorten it to 'meson' unless they want to mention the subatomic particle of the same name. Nicely named; even if it's known to be radioactive, it's not harmful to any forms of organic life. Created by the beings who created the Great Forge which the Yizibajohei know of as the Great Crystal of Power. The Dark Gaol…"
"Is the central chamber of that," Taylor finished. "Damn! So, what does mesonium do?"
"Well, it's common nickname is the 'atom of the Mind and the Soul'," Sharon declared as some of the younger bioroids checked the time, then moved to excuse themselves. "The Seekers — the immortals who create the Great Forge and are believed to have provoked the detonation of the Primal Atom to create this multiverse we're in — wished to create a type of material which would promote the creation of life wherever it was possible. When life became sentient, mesonium atoms would bond to a person's mind. If present in a large quantity, it's potentially a very effective shield from any sort of telepathic intrusion."
"Being Mastered, you mean?"
"Yes, that's the parahuman equivalent concept."
That made Taylor perk. "Wait! Shirayuki here mentioned the term 'metahuman'. What's the difference?"
"The two terms can — and in places, are — used interchangeably. They mean the effective same thing: A human being with abilities which are well above and beyond normal standard. Here in America, there's a legal difference imposed in due to international treaty. A parahuman like Healer Laverne or her sister are monitored and supported by state-level agencies…"
"Parahuman Response Teams, you mean?"
A nod answered her. "We call them that here even if half are subordinated to the various state National Guards. Massachusetts' PRT is legally seen as a potential second battalion of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment; the Governor could call them to official duty with an executive order in cases of statewide emergency or if they need to be federalized." As Taylor gaped — the idea of military capes was something which had been done away with by the creation of the national Parahuman Response Team and Protectorate — Sharon then finished her tea. "Metahumans are those who are directly empowered by mesonium, such as Gifted Yizibajohei. They're managed federally through the United States Joint Specialized Warfare Command in case the President needs to have people mobilized; 'specialized warfare' is the euphemism for military metahuman forces."
Hearing that, Taylor tried not to laugh as she recalled hearing about all the bureaucratic turf fights between the PRT — which was part-and-parcel of the federal Department of Justice back on Earth Bet — and the uniformed services of the United States, the latter group having taken huge cuts in their operational budgets thanks to the drive (ultimately provoked by Cauldron) to make parahumans seem beyond the reach of even the elite of the special forces. That it was effectively reversed here — hopefully, there was no Cauldron here to gum things up — would have driven one Rebecca "Alexandria" Costa-Brown completely up the wall given how much of a control freak she had been; that had been according to people like Keith "Legend" Richardson or David "Eidolon" Mercy as the scuttlebutt in Chicago revealed to her when she had served there as a ward. Since some people in the Protectorate back home had worn the uniform before becoming capes, what were their counterparts like here…?
"Are there people you need to know about, Thoughtmistress?" a silver-haired twenty-something woman to Taylor's left asked.
"Lisa Wilbourn," Taylor automatically asked.
People turned to their PADDs. "One of our Shōzoki friends saved her from Coil's people just before Christmas," a woman who looked like she was a university freshman — complete with a UMBB jacket hanging over her chair — stated.
A moan answered her. "Oh, shit! Coil?! What about Dinah Alcott?!"
"She attends Brockton Middle School alongside Thoughtmistress Melissa Byron," another woman stated.
"Vista?! Oh, perfect! What about Aisha Laborn? Does she go to Brockton Middle?"
"She's there."
"What about Miss Alcott?" Sharon asked.
"If it's like home, she'll trigger into a very powerful precog. My version of her can give exact percentages about the chances of potential future events," the dimensionally-shifted insect master stated. "Coil gets his hands on her to help him take over the local underworld. What about Aisha's brother Brian? Is he in town?" As the person who answered about Aisha and Missy Byron nodded, Taylor crossed her arms. "Alec Reynaud? Or Jean-Paul Vasil? Heartbreaker exists in this dimension, right?"
"War Hawks got to the elder Vasil two years ago when he tried to target a pretty pilot from the 2nd Canadian Cavalry Regiment," another woman answered. "General Raeburn didn't care for anyone trying to rape one of her troopers, so she used her sword to skin the monster alive in front of all his loyal children and slaves." As Taylor winced — THAT would be one hell of a brutal object lesson to any villain, even someone as nasty as Nikos Vasil! — the other woman added, "Both Jean-Paul and his sister Cherie fled from Québec a year prior, coming down here. He's using the alias you gave us, Alec Reynaud. Cherie goes by the named Cherie Reynaud. They're supported by a commune of sister Avalonians in the southern part of town."
"Oh, sweet! Rachel Lindt?! Is she here?"
"She camps out near the Boat Graveyard."
"On the run from the PRT? Bad issue with her trigger event, wants to rescue dogs and all that?"
"Yes, Thoughtmistress."
Taylor groaned. "Just like home…!"
A knock from the largest window in the room made people perk before turning…
"TAYLOR!"
…then Taylor yelped as a white-and-brown blur slammed into her from port forward, knocking her off her chair onto her back as the weight of a VERY familiar — and sobbing her guts out! — biokinetic healer nearly crushing her with a hug. A quick glance to the now-open window revealed an equally familiar blonde, blue-eyed flier gaping with delight at her, she dressed not in her normal uniform as the "Alexandria-lite" of Brockton Bay, but stylish civilians patterned in such a way to not rip should she get into a scrap with anyone. As the unfamiliarity of a weeping Amelia Lavere moaning her name and hugging all the air out of her began to sink in, Victoria Dallon spun around to gaze on the local elder mother. "When the hell did THIS happen, Sharon?!" she demanded, an invisible aura of power emanating from her to make the bioroids present all wince. "Why weren't we told that you found a way to get Tay-Tay back on her feet?! Yeah, keeping it from those stupid gooks is one thing, but…!"
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
"OW!"
"DAME DESU NO! STOP THAT, VICKY-SAN!"
Taylor and Amelia stopped before turning…
…then the latter shrieked with delight on seeing Victoria now face-first into the floor thanks to one Osamu Shirayuki having pounded her in the back of the head with the heavy part of an umbrella of all things! "Hinako's?!" the healer demanded.
"Hai desu no!" the pre-teen high-end trofikinetic known on the World of the Forge as the Great Chef of the West, Syuosekuo ("Küchenchefin"), snapped before glaring at the woman also known as Glory Girl. "How many times does Vicky-san have to be told this?! That stupid aura of yours HURTS PEOPLE! Now Hime must make tea to help all Taylor-san's new sisters recover from your silly aura! Does Hime have to call Annie Whitman-san over in Sweet Valley to take your powers away…?!"
"EEP!"
Taylor's and Amelia's heads snapped over to see Victoria now trying to make herself look VERY small in the corner of the room. "Illbegood!" the blonde bombshell of New Wave croaked out a mile a minute.
Taylor blinked as she took that in, then blinked again as warm hands cupped her cheeks, turning her head around…then she awked before a very warm set of lips caressed hers in a kiss that nearly sucked all the air out of her lungs!
Then…
Amelia jolted as she leaned back to gape in horror at the person her powers had confirmed was that of her friend Taylor Hebert, even if now in an Avalonian bioroid body — A naturally, functionally BISEXUAL body at that! Yummy! — and…!
"Taylor…who made you TRIGGER?!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then…
"Okay. Who the fuck gets to DIE?"
Taylor blinked before staring wide-eyed at Victoria, noting the smoldering look on her face. "Um…ah…!"
"Dame desu no, Vicky-san!" Shirayuki snapped. "This is not your Taylor-san! She's a Haywire event victim from another multiverse!" As the newcomers gaped in shock, the Aichi-jin waved them to the table. "Now, Hime will make some nice tea for everyone to make people calm down, then you'll get a reveal scene about why Taylor-san is here! Desu no?!"
The woman in the middle of all this moaned. "'Reveal scene'? Does that mean I can get some questions answered now?!"
"Hai desu no!"
Taylor breathed out, holding up her hand. "More tea, please!"
"Hai desu no!"
To Be Continued…
WRITER'S NOTES
The teaser scene at the start of this story is partially inspired by the events shown in the seventh part of "Speck", the thirtieth chapter of Worm. Résav'l AKA Vladímir Rússalovich Taychéshko AKA Lord Rjazán' first appeared in my fanfic Wanderers. The Conservator is the living sentient spirit of the Great Crystal of Power forming the core of Yiziba.
Outside events surrounding members of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) appearing in this story such as Mark Calaway (the Undertaker) are as they happened in real life; Mark himself is forty-five years of age at the start of this story.
Saeru Hinako (Suiki) and Osamu Shirayuki (Küchenchefin) are two of the sister characters from Sister Princess. Note their family names are my creation, having been used since I first began writing fanfiction stories on them on the Anime Addventure website years before. Note this story happens well before Hinako and Shirayuki learn of their sibling relationship with Tariko Katabarbe AKA Moroboshi Ataru. As an aside, the Avalonians and the Niphentaxians first appeared in The Senior Year story "What Price For Love?"; the Zeiwanites were introduced in the TSY story "Darling's Other Girlfriend", and the Shōzoki first appeared in my lemon fanfic story The Galatea Syndrome.
Translations and source language: Lar'beke — Snake leech, common nickname for the Goa'uld from the various Stargate series (Yizibajohei); Chōjinji-chō — Short for Kokuritsu Chōjinji-chō (in kanji, 国立超人事庁), directly translating "National Superhuman Affairs Bureau" (Japanese); (name)-jin — Suffix indicator creating the demonym for a particular location (Japanese); Kŭmdal-jop'ok — Gold Moon Society (Korean).
Annie Whitman (Oblivion) and Margo Black (née Chapelle) (Doctor Death) are both characters from the Sweet Valley High novel series from the 1980s. The former first appeared in the tenth novel, Wrong Kind of Girl. The latter first appeared in the ninety-seventh novel, The Verdict.
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment (Select Volunteers) is a ceremonial unit of the Bay State's army National Guard formation; it takes its designation from the famous Civil War infantry regiment whose actions in that conflict were portrayed in the 1989 movie Glory starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman.