Chapter 3
All at once, the Witnesses sat up in their beds, wide awake. The Rogues stepped back both physically and mentally from them, a little startled at this abrupt change from catatonic to fully alert.
In moments, the Witnesses were getting up, looking around, inspecting the deck, looking out at the view, and even began to leave the deck.
"Thank you for the help," Witness Prime said to Legacy, Amalgam Prime, and all the other telepathic Rogues that had remained. "It was rather disorienting to be alone in my own head after so long."
"We're sure we'd be able to relate if something like that ever happened to us," Amalgam Prime replied. "How exactly were you even able to achieve a hive mind across universes in the first place?"
Witness Prime regarded her for a moment before replying: "Once I achieved time travel, anything was possible. We've met before. Or was that another you?"
"We've seen each other in passing. You've been witness to many tragedies, and we've attended many to give second life to the dead."
"Mmm. Morbid lot, aren't we?" Witness Prime gave a grunt and got up off the bed, his eyes never leaving Amalgam Prime's. "Curious, we share a past, and therefore were soulmates in the past, but I saw my Rogue die."
Amalgam Prime's body shape shifted into a young thirties Gambit. "And I in my dying moments, joined Amalgam." They shifted back. "We were once soulmates, and yet, ceased to be when our timelines diverged."
"Or perhaps, never ceased to be," Witness Prime replied. "At least until the soulmate binding was cut."
"Now there's a curious thought," said Legacy, and before she could say anything more, the sight of her husband floating in to join them caught her attention.
Witness Prime and Amalgam Prime turned to see what she was looking at. Witness Prime frowned critically.
"I see the Witnesses are awake," New Sun Prime said as he touched down.
"Yes, just now," Legacy replied, and moved in to kiss his cheek.
"It's good to see you up and about," New Sun Prime since with a nod to the closer Witnesses. "I just wish it was possible to help everyone." He couldn't help but look over at the remaining filled beds.
Witness Prime's frown deepened as he studied New Sun Prime, and finally gave a nod. "You're not the same New Sun I encountered before. Though, he was killed, so I suppose that would be difficult."
New Sun raised his eyebrows, though it was hard to tell under the blue light. "Killed? How so?"
"Oh, a battle with my younger self." Witness Prime paused. "My alternate younger self. Curious thing, all this universe hopping."
"It certainly makes for some interesting paradoxes."
"It does indeed." Witness Prime replied as all the other Witnesses, both those still on the deck and those who had left it, looked towards the multiverse, and the strange blue lights that were growing bigger and bigger.
The same shade of blue as New Sun Prime.
"I believe we are getting visitors," Witness Prime said, and gestured to the beyond.
Now everyone looked, and New Sun Prime muttered a few expletives.
"We should intercept, and find out what they want," Legacy said, immediately floating up. "They can't hurt us, but they might try kidnapping the Gambits, taking them into the nearest universes, and killing them there."
"Agreed," New Sun Prime said.
"We shall spread the word, discreetly," Witness Prime said, as his other selves began dispersing. "All those capable of battle should be ready to protect those who can't."
"Yes, that would be good," Legacy said. "I wouldn't want to make a telepathic broadcast and worry people who can't… Oh, what am I saying? This is us we're talking about. Even the unpowered versions of us will still take a baseball bat to a New Sun, no matter how futile that may be."
"The explanation given to a child needs to be different than that given to an adult, however," Amalgam Prime said grimly. "Go. You talk, we'll prepare. Would you like us to stay in telepathic contact so we can keep each other appraised?"
"That's a good idea," Legacy replied with a nod. "Communication will be critical."
Without another word. Legacy and New Sun Prime flew off. A bright green glow began to appear around Legacy's body, allowing everyone to easily track her position.
The bottom deck of the node was the only deck that was a complete circle. There was a wide beach around the node that was big enough for building sandcastles, playing volleyball, and host a harbour. The rest of the huge deck was an ocean. It had waves, it had reefs and sandbars, it had little islets, and many wonders under the sea for those who decided to go deep sea diving and/or had tails. Sailing the ocean were a few sail boats, a couple of yachts, and three big sailing ships. Two of the sailing ships had pirate flags, and the third had a privateer flag.
Near the outer rim of the deck was 16 year old Mer Gambit. He was sitting amongst some rocks, half submerged in the water.
He wore a magenta shirt and a brown tail sheath over his dark blue tail. The sheath stopped just short of his tail fins. His clothing was sleek and wet, and kept its shape well: it was may by merfolk for underwater living, after all. His armband was black.
A flicker of blue drew his attention away from the fight once more, and he looked back towards the multiverse to see that there was a blue light flying in his direction. It was big, about the size and shape of a human, and in moments he was slowing down near Mer Gambit.
"Bonjour," Mer Gambit said, giving the glowing blue man a wave. "Who are you?"
"I go by the name New Sun. And you? Remy, right?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"I was a Remy once too. What has happened here?"
"I don't entirely understand it myself. Something about us and the Rogues being true soulmates, and someone cutting the soulmate bond and all our universes being destroyed." Mer Gambit gave a shrug and looked at the left arm of the New Sun (who was floating just outside the rim). "How come you don't have an armband?"
"All your universes have been destroyed." The New Sun shook his head. "Typical."
Before Mer Gambit could ask "what does that mean?" he had a moment of clarity. Though the New Sun's firey blue glow made it difficult to read his body language, there was no mistaking his hostility.
Mer Gambit immediately dove into the water.
He swam as fast as he could, and when he glanced back and saw the New Sun was catching up, he began blowing up the water at his fingers and tail. Though relatively small, the little explosions helped to push him along, just a little faster.
They also helped propel his great leap into the air in the midst of the three ships. "Help, help, help!"
An invisible force wrapped around him and yanked him in midair, just as the New Sun burst out from the water. The New Sun grabbed at Mer Gambit's tail, but missed completely.
"Arr, fresh meat!" Pirate Legend Rogue said, her eyes on the New Sun as she telekinetically deposited Mer Gambit on her deck, a slim water bubble appearing around his tail. "Load the cannons!"
Pirate Legend Rogue appeared to be in her late 20s, although her hard green eyes spoke of living far longer.
The New Sun paused midair, and looked around at the three ships: The Blackbird, the Lucky Lady, and Pirate Rogue's ship the Mystique. The only Gambit on the Mystique was young Mer Gambit. There was a fairly even mix of Rogues and Gambits on the Blackbird. However, the Lucky Lady was mostly Gambits with only a handful of Rogues.
"World destroyers!" The New Sun snarled.
He lunged for Mer Gambit, who scampered backwards just as easily as he would've in water. Before the New Sun could get close however, he froze midair.
"Arr, energy manipulation powers be very useful, don't ye think?" Pirate Legend Rogue said. "Fire to port!"
The cannons boomed as they went off…behind them. Mer Gambit frowned, thinking there was a mistake as he turned to look.
A few more New Suns were behind them, each one of them had been hit by a cannonball, not that it did them any harm. Many more New Suns came into view, a whole swarm of them flying towards the ships. Mer Gambit looked back to see the New Sun in Pirate Legend Rogue's grasp being twisted in ways that Mer Gambit couldn't believe weren't hurting him. The only part of the New Sun that seemed to be in tact was the black armband that had appeared.
"It be like playing with a voodoo doll, only without the doll," Pirate Legend Rogue said with a hearty laugh. "Being in an energy form ain't all it's cracked up to be, is it sugar?"
"I will… destroy… all of you…"
"Aye, I'm sure ye think ye will. Come, me little puppet. Dance for me." There was no mistaking the malicious glee in her voice as she twisted the New Sun around in pretty little patterns.
"Never!"
"Which is exactly what I be feeling about ye plans to destroy me new cabin boy," Pirate Legend Rogue said, and gave Mer Gambit a mischievous wink.
Mer Gambit didn't know whether he should feel relieved or very, very afraid.
The New Suns swarmed the deck of the Lucky Lady. The bullets of their pistols and blades of their swords simply passed on through, except when the New Suns managed to grab a hold of one of the pirate Gambits. Telekinesis allowed the pirate Rogues to yank the Gambits back, but there were few Rogues and many Gambits. None of them looked older than 30, but most of them were.
Finally, Pirate Queen Rogue stretched out her arms and projected a full telekinetic shield across the deck of the Lucky Lady. The other pirate Rogues continued to rescue the pirate Gambits until they were all back on deck.
"Arr, who do they think they are, spoiling a perfectly good sea battle," Pirate King Gambit demanded.
"Well sugar, they be looking like that New Sun gentleman who flew by earlier," Pirate Queen Rogue replied, "so I'd say they be a whole bunch o' Gambits on a bad day."
The Lucky Lady shuddered beneath their feet. Pirate King Gambit and several other pirate Gambits looked over the sides to see numerous New Suns picking up their ship.
"Avast ye scurvy dogs! Let go of me ship!" Pirate King Gambit shouted. "Load the cannons! Fire at will!"
They couldn't hold onto the ship and phase cannonballs at the same time.
On the Blackbird, Cabin Girl Jean watched, detached, as the fighting went on around her. She found this whole situation highly distasteful. Before her universe had been destroyed, she had been the quartermaster on the Blackbird, right up until Captain Darkholme had set the young Rogue on her. Jean had taken over Rogue's body, but had attempted to pretend to be Rogue. Unfortunately, First Mate Adler had seen through everything. Jean didn't know what she was more bitter about; the fact that when their universe had ended, she'd needed a lot of healing on the Hospital Deck, or the fact that the torture ultimately would've succeeded in restoring Rogue's control over her own body.
No, scratch that. Cabin Girl Jean knew exactly what she was the most bitter about: what Captain Darkholme had done to her original body after Rogue was finished absorbing her lifeforce.
Pirate Hunter Rogue, like Pirate Queen Rogue, had erected a telekinetic forcefield over the deck. The other privateer Rogues on board were suppling forcefields, and flying around the Blackbird trying to beat up New Suns. The privateer Gambits were manning the cannons. The New Suns were trying to pick up the Blackbird like they had the Lucky Lady, but weren't making any progress.
Cabin Girl Jean couldn't believe Rogue might one day join the crew of the Blackbird. It turned her stomach to think Captain Xavier would recruit her.
One New Sun skimmed around the figurehead, alternating between tangible and intangible as he evaded a privateer Rogue. His blue glow seemed to dance across the wood.
"St Elmo's Fire," Cabin Girl Jean said softly.
Subconsciously, her fingers brushed her black armband, proudly inscribed with "Jean". There was a rumour not that long ago about about St Elmo's Fire appearing on a dock and killing the cabin boy of the Golden Tide, flagship of Captain Jean-Luc LeBeau's pirate fleet. Cabin Girl Jean's eyes flickered to Pirate Hunter Gambit, who lit a cannon fuse with a touch of his finger. Undoubtedly, the cabin boy was a young Remy LeBeau.
A dock was a strange place for St Elmo's Fire to appear, when there were ships in the area. Why would it pick the end of a dock, when there were much taller targets, like masts, so close?
"Everyone! We're under attack by New Suns. They cannot hurt you, but they do intend to kidnap the Gambits and take them into neighbouring universes so they can kill them there," said the telepathic voice of Legacy. "They think they're saving lives by killing every Gambit they can find, and regularly dip into universes to seek them out."
Cabin Girl Jean's eyes looked back towards the New Sun flying in circles around the mast with the other privateer Rogue.
A faint light appeared across her armband as she ran across the deck towards the figurehead.
Rage burst inside the 16 year old body.
"You killed him!"
The light on the armband faded, and it now read Rogue.
Cabin Girl Rogue passed through Pirate Hunter Rogue's forcefield, leapt through the air, and landed hard on the figurehead. She grasped for the New Sun just as he was making another attempt to lift the Blackbird.
"He was me soulmate and you killed him! I never even got to meet him!" Cabin Girl Rogue screamed, punching at the New Sun with little care if she hit him or the figurehead. "They all thought it was St Elmo's Fire but it was you!"
A band of Rogues and Gambits were on the stage on the Concert deck. Several other musically inclined Rogues and Gambits were nearby, and they were all taking turns playing. They'd further subdivided themselves according to what music they mutually knew.
One Rogue with two white streaks in her short brown hair was roller skating around the deck, absorbing the sound and turning it into a light show. She had absorbed Dazzler just before her universe ended and was having a marvellous time with her powers.
Her Gambit sat at a table more towards the rim than the stage. He and 80s Gambit, who was from a similar universe only a few months ahead, were listening to the music and enjoying the show. It was a good way to get his mind off of what had happened in those short months: the tragic end of his Tracts Of Passage and the disastrous wedding day.
Also with them was 80s Rogue, who had meandered her way through the node after leaving the Hospital Deck. She was a little jealous that Dazzler Rogue's universe had ended while she still had Dazzler's powers. 80s Rogue didn't particularly enjoy having Colossus's melted steel form.
At the next table over, sat Hatred Rogue, all alone. She didn't want company and rebuffed anyone who tried to sit with her. She was just enjoying the music, at least until a new song came on: "I Slept With Remy LeBeau (And Damn If I Wouldn't Do it Again)". Hatred Rogue winced and looked away. She looked for a distraction, something to keep her from listening to the lyrics, and her eyes focused on the numerous blue lights beyond. They were growing bigger, closer, they almost looked like humanoids.
"Everyone! We're under attack by New Suns. They cannot hurt you, but they do intend to kidnap the Gambits and take them into neighbouring universes so they can kill them there," said the telepathic voice of Legacy. "They think they're saving lives by killing every Gambit they can find, and regularly dip into universes to seek them out."
Legacy's warning was all the notice they had. The New Suns came into full view and immediately began zooming after Gambits. Two of them grabbed 80s Gambit and Dazzler Gambit, and 80s Rogue flew after them, using the powers of Ms Marvel to beat their sorry butts into releasing her new friends. She snatched them up as soon as the New Suns dropped them, but then it became something of an uncomfortable tug of war.
Charged cards did nothing, but Dazzler Rogue was able to dazzle the New Suns. The Rogues on stage continued to play: they knew how the mutation of the Alison Blaire in their universes worked, and knew this was their best means of helping.
A trap door entrance to an orchestra pit no one had noticed before opened up, and the Gambits began retreating inside. As soon as Dazzler Rogue realised what was happening, she expanded her efforts to keep the New Suns distracted and blinded with sparkles and strobe effects.
Other Rogues, like 80s Rogue, used their own additional powers to fight off the New Suns.
Hatred Rogue sat at her table, watching it all. She wanted to say she didn't care what happened to the Gambits, but she did. As angry as she was with her own Gambit, she didn't wish for anyone to die. Instead of continuing to dwell on her resentment, she focused her attention on the New Suns, trying to figure out how their powers worked. At the same time her brain ticked over the puzzle: how to defeat an enemy that couldn't be hurt, how to restrain a being that could just turn into energy and escape.
An absurd idea popped into her head. Would it even work in the real world or what she knew as the real world? She had no idea. They didn't building Penning traps this size in the real world. But then, in this place, this node, there was the Workshop Deck where technologies that shouldn't co-exist did.
Hatred Rogue got up from her table, knelt down and placed her hands on the floor. They were able to make materials appear out of nowhere on the Workshop Deck. Surely she could do the same here? The musicians certainly had their pick of instruments. She concentrated on exactly what she wanted and hoped that she wouldn't actually have to build it from scratch.
"Please, my node friend," Hatred Rogue said softly as overhead Rogues and New Suns flew, fighting over the Gambits. "I would appreciate your help."
The ground shifted beneath her, and from the deck grew a cylinder large enough to fit a man. The outer wall was clear. There was a copper base on the floor and ceiling of the cylinder, that pointed inwards, almost like a battery housing. A low electrical hum came from it, only audible over the sounds of battle and music because Hatred Rogue was literally right on top of it.
"Thank you," Hatred Rogue said.
Now to see if it worked. She needed to lure a New Sun to her, and for that she would need bait.
Rockstar Gambit, heart throb and lead singer of Thieves Guild, found himself grabbed around the wrist by one of these New Suns and being flown over the Concert Deck back out towards the multiverse. Throwing charged guitar picks at the New Sun was pointless, though Rockstar Gambit did try anyway.
"Come now, mon ami, I need this hand to play guitar," Rockstar Gambit said, even as he tried every self defence technique he knew to force New Sun to release him.
"You're not going to need to play guitar where you're going, world destroyer," the New Sun snarled back.
"World destroyer? I admit I've broken a few hearts, but 'world destroyer' is going a bit far, even for a critic." Rockstar Gambit started looking over New Sun's glowing body, hoping to spot a more sensitive target. "You know, I've never been tempted to punch myself in the nuts before."
"Wha—" but that was as far as the New Sun got. Rockstar Gambit slammed his fist into the New Sun's groin, and the New Sun instinctively curled up in a ball, losing his grip on Rockstar Gambit's wrist.
Rockstar Gambit fell. The automatic panic that set in felt a lot more distant than it would have had he fallen from the same height in his universe. Here, at the node, where wounds and death weren't options, the terror of the fall, much like the pain done to the New Sun's groin, was more instinctual than real.
He hit the ground hard and visions of what he thought his body should look like right about now swam across his mind. There was no time for that. Looking straight up, Rockstar Gambit could see the New Sun righting himself above…
"Over here!"
Rockstar Gambit turned to see Hatred Rogue standing above her Penning trap and waving to him wildly. He pulled himself to his feet and ran towards her. Lots of the Rogues around here seemed to have extra powers, and they sure were a big help.
Hatred Rogue jumped down from the Penning trap. As soon as Rockstar Gambit was close enough, she yanked him next to her, keeping the Penning trap between them and the New Sun, who was gaining quickly. The New Sun ignored the Penning trap, shifting into his energy form to phase through it, and promptly got stuck between the copper bases.
"Ha! It worked!" Hatred Rogue said smugly, throwing her arm up in the air.
"Cool," Rockstar Gambit said, watching as the New Sun struggled to move. "What worked exactly?"
"It's a Penning trap. It's used to trap energy particles for study, usually," Hatred Rogue replied. "Not much call for trapping energy beings, so wasn't sure if the man sized version would work but…" She grinned, and for the first time since she'd arrived here, she wasn't the slightest bit annoyed about socialising with a Gambit.
New Sun dropped his energy form and rammed the clear wall, trying to get out, but the wall held fast. He tried to shift back into energy form, but immediately got yanked back into the centre. Hatred Rogue chuckled.
"Come on," she said, grabbing Rockstar Gambit's arm and pulling him away. "We should see if the node is willing to make more. You okay with being bait?"
"I mean, if it prevents them from kidnapping and killing us," he said, his gaze shifting to the New Suns that continued to fly overhead, with or without prisoners, and fighting Rogues.
"Destroyers of worlds!" the New Suns shouted as they flew hard and fast at their nearest targets.
"I am Death," replied a Deathbit, standing at the ready for the onslaught.
"Horseman of Apocalypse," said another, a smoky shadow at his feet.
"What did you expect?" said a third.
The two sides collided. They weren't quite evenly matched, but since they couldn't actually hurt each other it was more of a matter of the New Suns attempting to grapple the Deathbits and fly off with them. The New Suns were more powerful over all, but they weren't counting on the Famines.
"Hello sugar," they said, and flew into the fray.
There were only a small handful of Rogues who had been converted into Famines, and their enhanced absorption powers had no impact on anyone. However that didn't mean they couldn't pack a punch.
New Suns went flying, but not the way they wanted to.
"Sammy, is that you?" said an elderly Gambit as a New Sun carried him off. "Is it time for the BBQ?"
"No," New Sun replied as he flew. "There will be no more BBQs, only death."
The elderly Gambit gave the New Sun a feeble whack. "Don't sass me, pup. I'm going to outlive all of you."
"Not likely, old man."
"Ha! I lived through two world wars, three civil wars, more aborted apocalypses than I can count, and a dystopia. You kids are soft these days, Soft!"
Sugah launched herself at the New Sun who had grabbed X-Baby Gambit, and started biting him.
"Let go!" She shouted. "Let go of my Gamby!" She bit down again hard while X-Baby Gambit wailed in New Sun's grasp, along with a five year old Gambit who was in New Sun's other arm.
"Stop that, you little brat," the New Sun snarled at her, more annoyed than hurt.
LDC Gambit stood in front of the young Gambits and Rogues who had been enjoying a nice campfire on the Camping Deck when the invasion began. Before them were a dozen New Suns.
"I will not allow you to kill them," LDC Gambit said firmly, his body glowing with magenta light.
"You've already destroyed your world. You're already on your way to becoming one of us," said one of the New Suns. "You should join us now."
"Why? You're not accomplishing anything. You're just killing people, and not saving anyone. You do know that the universes split every time you enter one, right?"
Faerie Rogue grabbed the New Sun who was holding her beloved Faerie Gambit. At three inches tall, she could really only get a good grip on the New Sun's thumb.
It was plenty.
The New Sun hit the ground, then found himself swooshing through the air and hitting the ground again. Back and forth he slammed on the ground on one side then the other of Faerie Rogue.
"Why don't you do pick on someone your own size, you big bully!" she demanded.
"Enough!" The New Sun recovered himself to phase out of her grip. "You little brat. You'll never see the light of day again!"
A box appeared out of nowhere, which the New Sun slammed down over the two little faeries. Faerie Rogue immediately busted a hole in it.
"What? Am I a spider in your house you're scared of?" she snarled at him and flew right at his eyes to futilely poke them out while Faerie Gambit cheered her on.
The New Suns were leaving with Gambits in their possession.
Rogues and the more powerful Gambits chased after them. The pirates of the Lucky Lady continued to fight even as their ship was carried off.
A new ship emerged from the node. It was wood, loaded with cannons, and had a massive blimp like balloon over the top. The steam engines hummed and burbled.
"Fire at will!" Steampunk Rogue commanded from aboard Zenith's Majesty.
Below decks, the steampunk Gambits (and Irony Rogue) fired the cannons. Great nets sprung forth and wrapped themselves around the Gambit prisoners and any New Suns that got in the way. It didn't take long for the New Suns to get very angry about their prey being stolen from them. Those that got caught in the net were easily able to extract themselves by taking energy form. The Zenith's Majesty was soon carrying many a filled net with Gambits.
The machines below decks quickly hauled the nets back in, and the steampunk Gambits manning the stations opened them to release their fellow Gambits. Other steampunk Gambits prepared the nets for refiring, while the first team of steampunk Gambits fired freshly loaded net cannons at more targets.
Above deck, the steampunk Rogues were in small groups, each armed with a lightning cannon. They aimed at the New Suns turning on them and fired. Bolts of electricity slammed through the New Suns, regardless of which form they were in.
"You'll not take our Remys!" Steampunk Rogue declared. "Keep firing!"
She couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous. There were lots of New Suns flying off with captives, and they were just one ship. There were many independent Rogues doing what they could, along with Amalgams and Legacy, but they were spread much thinner than Steampunk Rogue liked.
On the otherside of the node, a figure glowing red appeared at the outskirts. Several New Suns were making good progress getting away with their Gambit captives. Only a small handful of Rogues were following, but they were getting caught up battling other New Suns.
The figure had crossed paths with New Suns before.
She knew exactly what she needed to do.
An immense red cloud began billowing from her. It engulfed all nearby and continued to grow. The figure pushed forward, the centre of the cloud moving with her.
It grew and grew as she flew forward to the node, the centre of the destruction. The red cloud filled the entire space, and a little beyond, catching those few New Suns that had managed to escape past the boundary.
Then the red cloud collapsed.
The New Suns were gone. No one knew whether to be relieved or worried the worst was yet to come.
The red glow around the new arrival faded somewhat. She was wearing all black, complete with cloak and hood, her face in shadow. Only the red glow of her eyes could be seen, but they weren't at all like Gambit's eyes. They were more mystical.
She stopped in front of New Sun Prime.
"You are not like the others," she said.
New Sun Prime knew her voice, and his eyes went to her arm. The black armband blended in very well with her cloak, but he was too far away yet to read it.
"I was fortunate to have my Rogue by my side at the critical time, and we soon learned that trying to interfere in other universes as they do was a fools errand," New Sun Prime replied. "What exactly did you do to them?"
"I killed them," she said simply, coldly.
"Impossible," said Legacy. "You can't kill anyone in the node."
"It's not impossible, only improbable. And I'm nothing if not a specialist in killing." Her voice was grim as she pulled back her hood, revealing a familiar face and messily short cropped brown hair with a puff of white in the front. "My name is Reaper."