Awesome Land VI: Dawn of a New Era

[Myrdraxxis]

"I guess it might be a good time to interject that I can track Sark down?" Dace sort of asked. He shrugged. "THat Darkness he absorbed from Zais. I can sense it. If you want any help that is."

'Gotta build good relations with the weirdos.' Dace assured himself. The people in this room were some of the strangest walking weapons of mass destruction he'd ever met. It still kinda pissed him off that he was one of them now. Fuck Zais, seriously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leske stared down at what was recently his plate of fettuccine alfredo. It had been quite good for food aboard a military ship. He would mourn its passing in the same manner that he dealt with most situations: Violence.

THe gun mage slowly looked up, taking in the hulking samurai that had literally tunneled his way into the food court. Of a spaceship.

"Okay, you got about five seconds to come up with a witty one-liner before I send you back to Space Tokyo in sushi sized pieces."

A pair of sub-machine guns formed in his hands.

[Monika]

Artemis nodded. "I am sure. For such a small scale problem such as this one, I should be more than capable of handling it on my own. Besides," She motioned to the rather unenthusiastic half-council that sat before them. "The rest of this group is not keen on being drawn into another conflict so soon after the previous one." She looked into Knox's eyes and added, "And that includes you. I don't need telepathy to tell that you have other things on your mind."

Turning to face the rest of the Council, she said, "With that matter settled, if no one has any other items they would like to discuss, then this meeting is dismissed. Dace, I would ask that you take this time to become accustomed to your newfound powers and take care of any matters that Zais has left you with, of which there are many, I am sure. After I have come up with a suitable plan for disposing of Sark, I will alert you if your ability to track him becomes necessary. Again, I ask that you - and the other members of our Council - do not engage him on your own."

Facing the Immortal of Time again, she said, more quietly, "If you would really like to help, Knox, then I ask that we begin our Focus training as soon as possible. I will need as many advantages as I can get for my next encounter with Sark. The sooner we do this, the sooner you can attend to the other matters that require your attention."

---

Evangeline landed in her seat with an audible thud but continued staring at Monoceras with wide eyes and a huge grin plastered on her face.

"A reeeeeaaaaal alieeeen..." she whispered, entranced.

Alastor sighed. "Ah, Mr...Monoceras, was it? As much as I would like to handle this situation with peace and civility - believe me, I detest combat - the Emperor would not be pleased if three imperial employees were arrested on their first spaceflight. Thus, I will kindly ask that you release us at once so as to avoid that diplomatic nightmare. Neither of our governments wants that, right?" He chuckled halfheartedly.

[Mizagium]

Monoceras’ sneer deepened, if that were even possible. Uggo has dutifully remained seated, and so escaped much of his immediate scorn. The woman, Evangeline, was annoying but not of particular note right now. This one, however, Alastor, clearly didn’t understand the situation he was in.

“Little man, neither I nor the Shogun has any consideration for what your terrestrial government wants. You detest combat? Then remain seated and do not resist. I’m not under any specific orders to harm you all and I’m not inclined to do so.”

The ParFunSpa rattled slightly as a Shogunate vessel caught the other ship with a pair of extendable grippers. “Now then, how did a pair of primitives get roped into associating with a galactic outlaw like Captain Uggo?”

Uggo cleared his throat. “Well, you see – “

“Not. You.” Monoceras made a zipping motion with his fingers, and Uggo found he could no longer open his mouth to speak. Of course, his crew couldn’t see his mouth, so all they could hear was a frantic, but indistinct mumbling. Despite himself, the Tsuno smirked. He did so love that spell.

“Now then. You,” he pointed at Evangeline. “Explain.”

-

Knox really wanted to argue the point about Sark further, but he knew it would be to no avail. And he understood, in a way. It was personal, her feud with Sark. He could understand that. He honestly hadn’t been sure Artemis did, until recently. She was harsh and unrelenting, but not completely devoid of emotions, he was learning. Well, anger was an emotion, anyway. Time would tell if she had any more.

Some of the other Immortals had already started to clear out. Gallen Kah had apparently just warped away. Gale shouted something about mead and shoved his way out. Bill looked ready to leave, but was scribbling on a notepad.

“Well, if you’re sure, Artemis, then we can begin Focus training if you like. I’m sure there’s an empty room somewhere. All we really need is a clock.” Truthfully they could probably just use an isolated dimension that Artemis could conjure, but a spare room was easier.

-

Leporis worked frantically, pushing through the alcohol to pit out the wittiest pun he could think of. “Alfredo you won’t be eating that anymore. Just linguini to me, I’ll fix that right up!” Honestly, he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do next, but losing his balance, falling backwards off the table, and kicking the ruing pasta into Leske’s face probably wasn’t it.

“Uh,” he muttered, dazed, “Something…fettucine…elbow…ziti…”

[Calefrun]

The Shadow Soldiers may have been excited about their new ship, but Kayla hesitated as everyone else boarded. Staring at the vessel with a disdainful expression, she considered her past experiences with spacecraft. She couldn't remember the last time that she had disembarked without some kind of trouble, if such an occasion had ever occurred. At best, she might end up being shot at by space pirates or something. At worst, the whole thing would blow up around her. Again.

With a sigh, she teleported herself up to the ship's food court, appearing near Leske. She took a seat, and as her old master helped himself to some space pasta she closed her eyes and muttered a quiet prayer. “Please... Seraphina, Naga, Helix, Grenth, whoever the hell might be listening... can the inevitable chaos at least wait until we've left the ship this time?”

She sat quietly for several minutes as Leske enjoyed a plate of fettuccine alfredo, when an overweight samurai suddenly dropped in directly on top of it. “Fffffffffffffffffffuck's sake,” she hissed. Slowly rising to her feet, she took a couple of steps back and allowed the intruding man to formulate his witty entrance line.

This was a poor decision, and Kayla regretted it immediately. After the man concluded his increasingly appalling string of puns and proceeded to fall flat on his back, she swiftly moved to kneel on top of the man, with one knee on his rotund chest, and an energy kunai held against his throat.

“Really not making the best first impression here,” she remarked, “And today's been kind of an off day, so I don't really have the patience for this sort of thing. That said, I like to think that I'm a reasonable person, so I'll give you one more chance to talk your way out of this. Don't waste it.”

---

Al felt his breath leave him as Vega's strike hit its mark and he was sent sailing backwards, bouncing and rolling several feet after hitting the ground in unnecessarily dramatic fashion.

“Who the hell...” he wheezed, “what do you... guys, a little help here?” Looking around, he noticed that he and the mystery enemy were alone. “Where did they all...” A loud noise from the sky caught his attention, and he looked up just in time to see the Sideboob depart. “Yeah fuck you too.”

After catching his breath, he observed his opponent. He had no idea who she was, what she wanted, or why she looked like a samurai shock trooper, but he supposed none of that really mattered right now. What mattered was that she seemed to be fast, strong, and highly trained, and he had no intention of finding out what the pointy end of her blades felt like. Concluding that it would be best to try and take her out from a distance, he did the only logical thing.

Taking off into a dash, he began circling Vega, palms extended in front of him, projecting a barrage of burning magic missiles at her while shouting “FUCK YOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!”

---

Mysterious Hooded Mariachi Guy shrugged. “Ah well, guess it can't be helped. You seem like an alright guy, so I'll trust you. I'm sure if you knew something that could be helpful you'd tell me- otherwise I might have to kill you!” He placed his hands on his hips and let out a hearty laugh, “OHOHOHO!”

“Anyway,” he continued, “I didn't bring you here to fight a Space Weeb, but... ah, what the fiz? Sounds like fun!” The man snapped his fingers and a lawn chair on the ground in front of him out of thin air. He flopped down into it, then reached onto the ground beside the chair and retrieved a beverage inside of a coconut shell, complete with bendy straw and decorative umbrella. With his free hand he pointed to the beautiful golden sky of Sexy Land and commanded, “Now, let the music play!” And so it did.

Cozal still hadn't become accustomed to his surroundings, but he didn't see a way out of this fight. He removed the armor he had been wearing in the Rave Arena, and became aware of the fact that his shirt had apparently disappeared. Not even his jacket; just the shirt.

Without bothering to question this development, he instead drew his blasters and ducked behind a nearby leg-lamp tree. Peaking out from behind his cover, the young man opened fire on Draconis.

[Mizagium]

Leporis blinked a few times. When he was certain he hadn’t severely concussed himself, he grinned up at Kayla. What luck! A beautiful young lady practically straddling him. Sure, she had a weapon to his throat, but this was how many of his dates hand begun, and he usually came out on top. Except for when he didn’t want to.

“Well,” he said in his most appreciative tone, “hello there. You, uh, come here often?” Very carefully, very slowly, he moved to put his hands on Kayla’s hips.

-

Vega pulled herself sideways, creating a vacuum to tug her out of the path of Al’s energy blasts. Doing so destabilized her, so she rolled, altering the vacuum to swing her around and behind Al. She didn’t quite land on her feet, or in a position great for jumping, so she instead touched the gravity around her opponent, reducing it to near-zero.

Vega swept his legs out and launched him high in to the air. After a moment, she regained her footing, and 0G jumped after him, flashing her tanto.

-

“Ootenkiryuuga!”

Draconis drew his katana and it disappeared in a blur of motion. He didn’t allow the dragon spirt to fully emerge, but he did release the first lock. Typhon stirred and guided his hands. Ootenkiryuuga flashed from bullet to bullet, intercepting and destroying them faster than the eye could see.

“You will never penetrate the ultimate defense of Ootenkiryuuga,” Draconis taunted, and took slow, careful steps forward, closing the distance between him and Cozaltene.

[Bruce Leroy]

Cod Commando walked towards the base, when he looked at his watch realizing that he was late by his standards. It was 0630 when he had making his way through security and sat down in the briefing room. As he waited an hour for the briefing to begin, he began to wonder what this was all about. “Why in the hell would MGF be going to space?” he thought to himself. As he pondered this the Colonel walked in and he stood at full attention.

“At ease solider.”

“Sir, what’s going on?”

“All we know is that MGF has gone into space searching for some sort of new weapon. Your mission is to find MGF and this weapon. If you can retrieve this weapon and capture MGF. You will have no back up and no restrictions on this mission. Any questions?”

“No sir,” he said eager to finally meet Big Bass and get the mission underway.

“Good man,” Colonel replied and saluted him. “Godspeed son.” With that he handed Cod an envelope and left the room.

As soon as the Colonel left the room he opened the envelope. There was a single piece of paper with the words “Meet in room 140-15”. With that Cod stood up and proceeded out the door and to the appointed room. When he arrived at the door, he noticed that there was nothing really spectacular about the room. “I guess he wants to seem inconspicuous.” He opened the door to find that the room was pitch black and smelt of cigarettes.

“Step forward my son,” said a mysterious and deep voice.

Cod took two steps forward and a bright light appeared above him. He saw a figure about ten yards away but he was unable to make out any of the features of the person. The person raised their hands holding two objects. Cod prepared to be attacked and the figure laughed out loud. A flame appeared from one of objects and then brought the flame to the other object.

“Just lighting a cigarette son, would you care for one?”

Cod shook his head no

“Do you know who I am?”

“I assume you are Big Bass, sir.”

“Sir, I appreciate the sentiment but you may be at ease. You are here merely for a talk son. It has been quite a while since I saw you last, in person at least.”

Cod thought back to himself. I have never seen him before what could he mean.
Seeing that Commando was visible confused Big Bass continued, “You won’t be able remember me. It was far too long ago. It seems like a lifetime ago, but it feels like it was only yesterday. None the less you have become a fine solider for me and served us well. Tell me,” he paused to take a drag from his cigarette, “what do you know about Metal Gear Fish?”

“Well si…” he felt the figures glare becoming more intense, “Well he and I both went to the academy. We constantly competed; well not competed he continually outperformed me.”

“I am well aware of your history with him and what our records have on him. What I am more interested in is your impressions of him and the things that might not have made it to the records.”

“Well, I don’t know what happened to him. While at the academy he had everything going for him to be the greatest out of all of us. Then one day while he was studying he said that he learned something and from that point on he was never the same. He was consistently distant from everyone. I wondered what knowledge he gained, but at the time I could not stop to question that. I had to continue my studies and training. Before graduation I did confront him, I am sure you already know about the situation. He said that I was naïve and said that he was leaving. I tried to stop him, but he handled me easily. From that one I swore that I would find him, defeat him, and make him answer my questions.”

Big Bass took a long moment before he started, “I assume you have received your mission from Colonel?”

“Yes I have.”

“What I am about to tell you is above top secret.” Big Bass stepped into the light and Cod felt his jaw drop. Big Bass looked just like MGF but he was obviously old and had seen a lot of combat. One of his eyes was covered by an eye patch. He took another drag and continued, “You see Metal Gear Fish is my son, and you are charged with bringing him back to us. You are among a select few that knows this information. Speaking to anyone about this will call for your immediate removal. Now while you are out there, you are not to listen to anything that he tells you. He will say anything to try swaying you to his side. Bring him back and I will deal with him.”

Taken back all Cod could do is nod his head in agreement. Bass circled him and placed his hand on his shoulder and wished him the best of luck on his journey. He then proceeded to guide Cod out the door and he disappeared into the darkness of the room. Looking as his watch he realized that he had just enough time to get to the ship without being late for the launch. After he hastily made it through the next security check point and got into the ship he was finally able to digest what he had just been told. As the ship began to take off into space he thought to himself, “What in the holy fuck is going on?”

[Sariel of Tevet]

The Sky Captain and Captain Albert Alexander swaggered into The Space Ninja like they owned the place. Though, their swagger wasn’t as swaggery as they thought. Both of them were quite plastered at this point and more accurately stumbled into The Space Ninja.

Captain Albert Alexander made his way over to the bar and ordered some pints for himself. He stood up on top of the bar, scooped up three entire pints of ale with one mighty hand, and downed it all with one gulp. The Captain smashed all three glasses into the floor and disrupted the merry making (and even some possible Mary making, as there was a couple in the corner drunkenly groping each other with nothing to protect themselves with other than a Blunderbuss). All eyes were upon him.

“Listen up, distinguished Captains, crew, low lifes, wenches, kidnapped princesses, accountants, future senators, and men and children alike. We…” as he motioned toward The Sky Captain, “…are in search of a quest. Any quest will do, so long as it is one deserving of decorated travelers such as ourselves. My ghost ship and crew have seen it all. CHALLENEGE US. And we might share our glory!”

“Aye, it’ll be me you’re wanting then.”

The Captain turned and noticed the voice coming from a head sitting table close by. He got down from the bar and took his seat at the table, beckoning for The Sky Captain to follow. The head was just that, nothing from the neck down and a beard longer than he was tall.

“Name’s Oratious. As you can imagine, I’ve nothing but stories by this point. I don’t go many places and longer either, so I share my stories and take in what others spin my way. I may have just the quest you are looking for. “
Intrigued, Captain Albert Alexander leaned in. “And what might that be?”

“Ever hear of Boötes?”

“The ox herder constellation?”

“That’s the one. As it happens, one of his oxen has gotten loose and needs to be wrangled.”
The Captain scoffed and began to rise out of his seat. “And here I thought you had a real quest for us. I’ll just be on my way then. Moving constellations, I’ll be damned for falling for that one.”

“This is no joke, I assure you. But if an entire constellation is wreaking havoc across the universe, I would have expected such decorated travelers, like yourselves, to be up for the challenge.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Nightman made his way over to Heimrall and Sark, surrounded by a group of peasants that he allows to continuously bow as he moves about his headquarters. He knelt down next to Heimrall and ran his finger, clad with an obsidian claw ring, down the side of her cheek. Her face flushed as a small cut opened up and began to trickle blood.

“How nice. I’ve grown tired of toying with robot minions and these filthy peasants. It could be quite entertaining to kick this one around for a while. But let’s not break her too quickly. I have a habit of breaking too many of my toys. “

Heimrall had just enough power to feel the remnants of earth inside of the gems that speckled The Nightman’s codpiece. She dropped her hand to the floor and The Nightman’s codpiece followed suit and hit the ground. One of the kneeling peasants pulled up the codpiece for him, without eye contact, and scampered off into the corner.

The Nightman’s eye began to twitch and he slapped Heimrall across the face.

“Go ahead Sark, have your snack, but leave what’s left to me. I’m sure the other Immortals will be wanting her back and I know just where to keep her. In the meantime, tell me more about these Immortals and how I am get my army for my global takeover. “

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SPOILER: Click to show

Atsáli stood tall with his mother, Alala, by his side. Twenty five years have passed, and the two were standing amidst the shattered remains of their once grand kingdom. The Star Samurai, Ophiuchus, had finally completed his mission years ago and overtaken their planet, just as the prophecy was foretold to Alala. The war raged on for years, but there is little one can do in the face of destiny. His mother had never believed that. Her soldiers fought until every last breathe was released from their lungs in order to change their destiny, but she still clung to hope.

Atsáli’s upbringing was a harsh one. His steely skin was as well have been forged in the flames of war themselves. Dusk til dawn he trained, and scraped, and toiled. His mother knew that it was his destiny to fall at the hands of a champion, but she refused to make it an easy loss. This is a fact she always made known to him, but now the time for battle has finally come.

Calamitous appeared next to them, in his former earthly form.

“I have a confession to make.“ Atsáli and Alala both turned toward him with intrigue.

“I have never been good at….following the orders of my brother. Believe it or not I used to be quite the handful before becoming the universe. Now and again I like to create little competitions with my other half, and this is why I have created you."

Atsáli’s eyes flashed as a robotic voice emanated from a speaker somewhere near his mouth. “What kind of a competition?”

“Well, to see whose champion would best whose, of course.”

Alala, warrior queen of Pólemos, a city state that once encompassed an entire planet, became filled with rage. She drew her sword, wrapped her hand around the exoskeleton attached to Calamitous’s jaw bone, and pulled him downward until her blade rest against his boney throat.

“You mean to tell me the prophecy wasn’t real? That I had no cause to send my boys away. That I had no reason to rip my world apart, strip them of their birthright, and cast them into exile?”

Her fist clenched around his jaw bone and you could hear the hiss of his exoskeleton compressing.

“Some deity you are.” She spat in Calamitous’s face and pulled his head down as she sliced upward with her sword. His head exoskeleton shattered and his head began to come of and he disappeared into a puff of smoke before reappearing at a safe distance.

Alala began to charge at him when Atsáli calmly grabbed her shoulder and held her back. “Do not worry, mother. We have been granted the opportunity now to change my destiny. Let’s not go wasting it.”

Calamitous was readjusting his head a few yards away. “That hurt you know, deity or not.”

“Serves you right, brother.”

The Professor had appeared next to Atsáli and was shaking his head. He looked the mechanical chicken warrior up and down and gave a slight nod.

“Atsáli, you have been raised in the face of a destiny that did not favor you. You and your mother knew that you were born to die, on this day, and yet you fought and never looked back. You never turned away, never gave in to fate. You trained each day to give your destiny hell, just to spite it.”

He motioned toward Alala. “And your mother just attacked the universe, beheaded him in fact, just for being disrespected. If you fight with even half her passion and self-assuredness, you will be more than the champion that this world needs to fight the Star Samurai.”

Atsáli looked at Calamitous, still fiddling with his head, and then back to The Professor.

“What do you mean by all of this? Where is your champion?”

“My champion grew to be weak. He was blessed with a prophecy that foretold of his greatness. With the knowledge that he would win this fight, he barely put forth any effort at all. He is a formidable warrior, there is no doubt. But he lacks the will of a warrior, something that you possess in spades. My champion’s services are better left to tending to whatever citizens still exist on this planet. But you, my new champion…”

He flicked his hand and opened up a portal into the air.

“…you have a new destiny that awaits you.”

Atsáli spread his mechanical wings and the hum of jets began to fill the air. He took his hand and placed the cool steel on her cheek.

“I will set things right, mother. You will be a queen once again, and the world will bow at your feet for a second time. Ophiuchus will pay dearly, that I will promise.”

“I know, son. I know. May the universe guide you more truthfully this time.” She shot a sideways glance at Calamitous, who admittedly jumped a bit. “I will be watching. “

And with that, he took to the air and through the portal.
~~~~~~
The portal dumped Atsáli into the mess hall of the SS Sideboob, and face to face with his first Star Samurai.

[Myrdraxxis]

"I think we've been boarded." came the report from the ensign on Nero's left. THe captain hummed thoughtfully, nodding in agreement.

"That does appear to be the case." He agreed. 'Those poor bastards' he thought, already sending words of prayer for those that dared to step onto his ship without permission. Or without even asking. I mean, c'mon man...


"Do we know where they are?"

"Uh.. security reports that one intruder is in the food court."

"Pff." Nero snorted. "Yeah okay, good luck to him. Anyway, this ship has guns right?"

"Aye sir."

Nero nodded, grinning. "Then by all means, let's test them out." He glanced at Ydda. His XO took her cue and began barking orders. The bridge became a flurry of activity as the thought of real actual combat became a reality. Frankly, Nero was impressed that his crew even remembered their training.

"Enemy bearing?"

"Zero-Eight-Four!"

"Enemy ship at bearing zero-eight-seven turning into range-"

"Bring us around, target with the 10-inch canons-"

"Get Gree's frigate ready to launch. Just in case." Nero added to the flurry of orders.

"Aye sir. Enemy ships pinging at maximum firing range. Ready to fire!"

Ydda grinned as their displays lit up with the enemy ship, close enough to actually see in visual range. "Fire!"
THe darkness of space briefly lit up as the side armaments of the Sideboob spit fire into the void, streaks of lasers streaking towards the enemy ship in a hellstorm of death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Yeah, how about no." Leske's deadpanned statement was punctuated by the loud retort of his gun as he shot Leporis in the side of the head, sending the samurai flying off of Kayla. He reached down and hoisted his former apprentice back to her feet, glaring at the intruder behind his shades.

"Don't know what you're after pal, but you bit off more than you can chew."

"Hah! Because you're in a food court! Hilarious!" Codex's voice chimed out and Leske sighed wearily. THen he shot at Leporis, not waititng for the man to respond.

WHich was when a random guy appeared out of a portal into the food court. Leske didn't even look at him. The last vestiges of his sanity demanded it.

[Monika]

"Oh! Oh! A real alien wants to know about us! Isn't that amazing?!" Evangeline cried, unnervingly fidgeting about in her seat. It was clear she was struggling against the urge to jump up and hug Monoceras again.

"Just answer his questions..." Alastor replied. "Please..."

"Mmm!" The enthusiastic young engineer pushed her glasses up on her nose and began to think. "Okay, so he wants to know how we got here. So!" She turned to Monoceras, wide-eyed, and smiled. "We're from a place called Awesome Land! Super cool empire with lots of interesting stuff to do! Never a dull moment! We're led by our ruler, Emperor Awesome! Before he was Emperor, he was Chancellor Awesome, assistant to the former Emperor, er, Empress, Aurora! She and a couple others accidentally ended up creating a Black Nova which threatened our entire planet! It was awesome! An amazing scientific and magical marvel! If I had more time, I'd like to study it and-"

"Evangeline..."

"Right! So! Emperor Awesome, when he took over, didn't want a repeat of the Black Nova incident, even though I think it was really cool. He said we weren't really prepared to deal with threats in outer space like that, so he told us to set up a space program! None of us-" she motioned to herself and Alastor "-knew how to do that! But that's okay! Around the same time, this guy-" she pointed to Captain Uggo "-I guess he technically illegally immigrated to our country! In exchange for not putting him in prison, Captain Uggo agreed to help us build a spaceship! And I think it turned out pretty well!"

Alastor nodded as a few steel panels fell from the ceiling of the ParFunSpa. "In all honesty, it's remarkable for our first attempt. I'm legitimately surprised that it actually flies."

"Awesome Land has the best engineers!" Evangeline shouted, grinning. "So, we built the ship, and now we're doing some hands-on testing! Captain Uggo is at the helm, and we're his co-pilots!" Evangeline lifted her right hand to her forehead and gave a dramatic military-style salute to their captor. "And that's how we're here, Mr. Alien!"

"That about sums it up, yes," Alastor agreed.

---

"There is a spot we can use just upstairs," Artemis replied. She looked over to the rest of the Immortals, who were finally clearing out of the library. When they were all gone, she guided Knox up the spiral staircase and led him to a set of mahogany doors at the end of a lengthy corridor. She pushed them open to reveal a room of almost sickening opulence.

"This is the library's master bathroom," Artemis said, preemptively addressing Knox's question. "It was used by the ruler of Super Land before it fell." Between the golden sink, opal chandelier and diamond mirror, it didn't need to be said that this place had belonged to man of high stature. To complement the rest of the furnishings, against the far wall towered a jewel encrusted grandfather clock, ticking away each passing second.

"Will this room suffice for our training?" she asked. "If you feel it's too showy, I can just teleport us to another dimension..."

[Calefrun]

“Zero G, huh?” Al muttered with a grin. “I can work with this.” He blasted fire from his feet, incinerating his shoes and propelling himself out of Vega's path. Whirling around, he drew his energy dagger and started rocketing towards the Star Samurai.

A fireball appeared in his free hand and he adjusted his feet so that he would begin to spin. As he increased the speed the fireball in his hand began to leave a trail behind him, turning the man into a fiery votex with his weapon at the tip.

---

“Shit shit shit” Cozal darted away from the tree, trying to put some distance between himself and Draconis while firing over his shoulder.

”He can block lasers. Of course he can. What now? I have to think of some way to- OH SHIT” His thoughts were interrupted as he noticed that he was approaching a large river. Skidding to a halt at the river's bank, he whirled around and saw that his enemy was close behind. He drew his energy sword and prepared to try blocking this "Ootenkiryuuga" as best as he could.

---

Sark grinned and moved back in front of the subdued Immortal. “Don't worry,” he cooed with a hint of sadism in his tone, “this will only hurt a lot.” He placed a hand on Heimrall's head and started gripping forcefully. After a few seconds his flesh began to shift, merging with her scalp.

When absorbing energy from mortals, Sark had found, the power flow begins as a small trickle, then slowly builds as he steals all of their life force. This was not the case with Immortals. As with Zais, Heimrall's power immediately began surging into him as a torrent so powerful that it almost caused him to loose his grip.

As the seemingly endless supply of Earth magic poured into him, the vampire crouched down and tilted the Heimrall's head back so that their faces were inches apart. Licking his fangs he growled, “My my... you're quite the delicious one, aren't you?”

He continued until the girl was almost completely devoid of power, all the while explaining to the Nightman everything that he knew about Awesome Land and the Immortals. Releasing his grip on Heimrall's head, he stood to face his partner.

“-And what's more, it would seem that the surviving Efrun sibling is there. I could sense the man known as Leske as well, though I didn't encounter him. This is just a guess, but it's possible that if we attacked them, there's a chance that we could also encounter your other.”

He turned and began walking towards the room that he had long ago converted into his own personal workshop. “If you'll excuse me, there's something I want to attend to. The way she used her power to manipulate your codpiece... it gave me an idea.”

---

Kayla shivered, and looked to where Leporis had landed. "What a creep. Do you think he's dead? Maybe I should poke him with sword a few times just to be sure?"

Then Atsáli appeared. Assuming that he was another Star Samurai, Kayla sighed and drew her scythe. She positioned herself to swing at the newcomer then asked, "The fiz do you guys want? We already dealt with your friend, so would you mind doing us all a favor and getting the hell out of here?"

[Mizagium]

Before…

“Corvus Crater.”

The haggard and filthy prisoner started at the sound of his own name. He was, understandably, shocked to hear another speak his name. He was, by all account, the only living being in the entire Cetus sector of Astro City.

Over a decade prior, an outbreak of Space-Zika had swept through Cetus. Polaris, the diplomat that he was, ordered the area blockaded off, and a wall built, enclosing the infected population. With the city at large on the verge of a large-scale riot, and a cure too far away to be of any political good, Polaris made the decision to cleanse the entire sector. Overnight, nearly a million Astro City citizens were incinerated as Sunfire (like Greek Fire, but worse) was lobbed over the walls and dropped from aircraft.

The conflagration burned for days. Afterwards, no one wanted to return to Cetus; the wall remained and the sector was left abandoned, a monument to the dead. Ghost stories about the place abounded, along with more than one rumor of secret research facilities or black prisons. All of those were false, until the day Corvus Crater was hauled in, locked behind the bars of a burned-out jail, and left alone.

“Corvus Crater,” the newcomer said again, reassuring the prisoner that, no, he wasn’t hallucinating. Again.

“Yes?” His voice came out cracked, and weak. He hadn’t spoken to another living human since his incarceration.

“Do you know who I am?”

Corvus tilted his head at the question and appraised the man. He was big, tall. Strong. He could beat most of the Star Samurai Corvus knew – but he didn’t look like a samurai. Didn’t sound or walk like one either. His clothes looked fresh off the rack, and his beard was neatly trimmed, but it all looked fake. Corvus caught something in his eyes, a wildness that bespoke a majestic hunter taken from his home and made to dance upon a stage. The man paced before the cell, keeping his gaze on Corvus, like a predator to prey.

“No. Should I?”

“Not really, no. Do you know why I’m here?”

Corvus shook his head, more in confusion than an answer. “Should I? I can’t know why you’re hear if I don’t know who you are, can I?”

“You could guess.”

“I’m not in the mood for guessing games. If all you’ve come here to do is taunt me, please leave, so that I may continue my maddening solitude in peace.”

“Do you remember Arcturus?”

Corvus’ shoulders fell and he let out a long, despondent breath. “How could I? He brought me in off the streets, made me a samurai, said he saw something in me that even I couldn’t. He wanted – he believed I could be more than a crook.” He raised up his shackled wrists and jingled the chain connecting them. “He was wrong.”

The wild man glanced away but otherwise remained unreadable. “Arcturus sent me here to see you, Corvus.”

“Why? Why now after all these years? I thought he’d forgotten or given up on me.”

The wild man stopped pacing and stared at Corvus with eyes the color of blood. “Arcturus says he regrets leaving you to wallow here, but Polaris was not receptive to his suggestions of leniency. Based on what I’ve been told, it’s a wonder you weren’t executed, but it seems Arcturus was influential even then.”

Corvus sat up straighter and leaned in towards the bars, hanging on every word.

“Arcturus wonders if you are still loyal to him.”

“Of course!” Corvus lunged forward to sieze the bars and sink to his knees. “Oh, yes, please, believe me. I owe Arcturus so much. If he would still have me, I pledge everything to him again.”

The outburst only drew the blood-eyed man closer. “Winds have shifted in your favor, Corvus Crater. Arcturus is now in…a position to see you liberated from this wasteland, to bring you back into service. To give you another chance.” At this, the man crouched down and put his face almost to the bars. “Corvus Crater, do you believe yourself worthy of another test of loyalty?”

Crovs pulled completely against the bars, now. “Oh yes, please. Please, take me from this place. I will pledge to him again. I have lost my honor, but I will recover it. I am ready, please, you must believe me.”

The man considered a moment, then stood, and said, “Step back.”

Corvus skittered away from the cell door just before the wild man with blood-colored eyes tore the entire door from the wall and hurled it away. His entire body glowed softly with some kind of red energy, and he saw for the first time that man was missing his right arm. Before he knew what was happening, Corvus was hauled to his feet, and the manacles – really power dampeners – were also torn free.

“Let’s go,” the other said, and Corvus could feel power flooding back into him.

Now…

Corvus Crater flew through space at incredible hihg speed. Really, he wasn’t flying, but pulling himself along in a bubble of compressed spacetime, but flying was much easier to say. A layer of darkness coated his body, preventing the void of space from tearing him apart. He loved this part, and had genuinely enjoyed voidsailor training. Out here was freedom, a freedom few others could enjoy. Space ships were clunky. Exosuit samurai were just carrying prisons around with them. No, only voidsailors truly felt the freedom of space travel, and he coveted is jealously.

Newly washed, dressed, fed, and groomed, Corvus felt a reall appreciation for the man who had released him. Betelgeuse, he’d called himself. The man was some kind of dense, though, eating up Corvus’ repentant sinner act like it was fizzing candy. Maybe being a mountain man for decades runined your truth-sense. Well it was his own fault for being tricked, and Arcturus’ for trusting the fool.

Now Corvus was free and far from anyone’s control. “So long, suckers, he called back, soundlessly into the void, and disappeared.

-

It sure was a good thing Leporis had been sunbathing before being deployed. Well, good for him, but not for the other patrons to the beach, who were given front row seats to his splendid nudity. It was not a nudist beach. Point is, all that light bronzed him something good, and filled his belly almost to bursting. So when Lekse shot him (albeit in the head) some of the stored energy released, saving him from gaining an extra hole in the head, while sending him sliding across the floor.

The second shot hurt.

With nowhere to go but against the same wall, the energy from the shot and his own release rebounded within his rotund body and rattled his teeth. He was so mixed up he thought he saw someone new appear in the food court.

Oh no wait that actually did happen. With rabbit agility belying his size, Leporis bounced to his feet and brandished his naginata, Of course, once he wasn’t bouncing, he wobbled. “

“Aye you.” He said to the newcomer. “You ain’t one of those Polemis savages are you?”

-

Monoceras narrowed his eyes. Black Nova. He recalled some news on the incident – devastating to local space around it. The Shogunate hardly had any time to react before it simply vanished. These lowpeople had caused it? The Tsuno reassessed the Earthlings. Well, not these two specifically, but the planet as a whole. No spaceflight capabilities, but they had caused a stellar catastrophe.

The idea of the Black Nova resonated through him, through his mind, and picked up stray thoughts and ideas from greater spacetime. He saw and felt something of great energy fly away from the planet, the explosion, the Black Nova conversion, dying thoughts of people the disaster consumed, the planet, the star – then it was gone.

He grunted and shook off the psychic waves. These people were dangerous.

“I see,” he said as evenly as he could. “Perhaps you would be so kind as to explain the situation to my…associates in the other ship? They’re quite interested in undiscovered planets and civilizations and would be just…delighted to hear about your people.” It sounded forced even to his snooty ears, but he hoped the female’s enthusiasm would carry the more reserved male along. As for Captain Uggo…

The ParFunSpa’s bay door hissed open and four Star Samurai trotted in. “Ah,” Monoceras said, ushering them forward. “Here they are now. Would you be so kind?” He took Evangeline’s hand and tugged her gently towards the Star Samurai.

-

Knox gave the opulent bathroom a disapproving once over. People tended to forget this about him, but he had been an orphan for most of his life, forced to play back-alley games of blackjack to stay alive. Rather he didn’t mention it anymore. Point is, he was used to scarcity, to essentials. Lavishness like this made him uncomfortable in a way he couldn’t define, like an itch under his skin he couldn’t quite scratch. But he didn’t want to tell Artemis. He had doubt she’d change the location without a second thought, or much judgement – by the way she described it, she wasn’t exactly a fan either.

Was that true though? Artemis was difficult to read, and he suspected she liked that about herself, even if it was unintentional. He liked her, though, and he hadn’t initially thought he would. She came off as cold, calculating, and direct – because she was – but Knox thought he saw glimpses of her true person in-between. Artemis was a good person in her own way. He wasn’t sure he could say the same about the other Immortals.

“No,” he said after a moment, “no this room will be fine. Look it even has a clock.” He turned his laugh into an awkward cough. Boy, it had been a long time since he’d trained anyone in Focus. He didn’t really use it anymore, since his Time abilities had completely superseded them, but the basics were ground in after years of Organization XXI foolishness.

“I guess we’ll get right to it, then. Focus isn’t as hard as it might seem, even for normal people. I’m willing to bet that a majority of Generic Awesome Land Citizens had used Focus accidentally more than once. Focus is basic-level temporal manipulation, but if you understand what’s happening, you can control it.”

Talking became easier as he went, recalling more and more latent information. “It was first described to me like this: You know how the longer you watch a clock the slower it seems to tick? Or how the more you anticipate a certain, the longer it feels to take to arrive? Well, that’s Focus in its most fundamental, primal state. If you concentrate on time, you can alter it.

“Clocks and watches make good foci since they are a physical, if artificial and arbitrary, representation of time for us. We understand that these machines stand for time, and our natural ability to alter time’s flow, if only slightly, attunes to this and our brain fills in the blanks.” He paused for a moment. This was normally where he lost people, but he was confident Artemis understood.

“Focus is typically a localized ability, affecting time’s flow only in a user’s immediate vicinity. Since we’re in a room with four walls, Focusing should remain contained within. Again, this is a natural ability that we’re honing, so our brains unconsciously fill in some of the empty spaces like that. Out in the field, in battle, Focus tends to remain limited to the user and line of sight – but I’m talking a lot. Artemis, why don’t you try to Focus on the grandfather clock? Concentrate, center on the anticipation of the next tick of the second hand. Don’t try to will it slower yet, just concentrate on the passing of time.”

-

“Gravity Vortex!” Vega declared. The moment her blade and Al’s met, she unleashed more of her power than was probably safe. The air rippled, space seemed to distort, and the two warriors spun around the point where their blade met, neither falling nor ascending. A fierce wind kicked up, beginning at their center and creating a sphere around them of violent, impassible hurricane winds.

Meanwhile, gravity waves emanated from the same point attempting to alternately crush and stretch everything they passed through, including the air, buildings, the ground, and Al himself. Vega had to concentrate hard to modulate her own personal gravity field, or else the waves could tear her apart. All she had to do was hold on and wait for the Gravity Vortex to catch this man and tear him to shreds.

-

Draconis continued to advance slowly, but released Ootenkiryuuga’s defense mode. “I appreciate a warrior who can stand and fight,” he said truthfully. “Too many who call themselves warriors are cowards, hiding behind trickery and deceit. You are an honorable man. It will bring me no pleasure to destroy you.”

Without breaking stride, the Samurai raised his katana to the sky and declared, “Ryuuga teki o hakaishiro!”

Typhon growled in anticipation as the first chains of its prison were released. Around the raised blade, the phantom form of a serpent manifested. Dark gray and speckled with bright spots like stars, it wound about the sword, then down around Draconis himself like a caged animal waiting to be set free. For one moment, Draconis looked sadly upon Cozaltene – and in the next he slashed down like an executioner’s blow.

The celestial dragon howled in pleasure as it was freed. It grew in size until its head was as big as they were tall, and erupted from Ootenkiryuuga, baring teeth and claws. With the fury and force of a runaway train, it barreled into Cozaltene, trying to force past his defense or send him tumbling over the cliff.

-

“I told you to pull the fleet back,” Betelgeuse shouted at Ophiuchus as the Sideboob opened fire on the fleet. The transport Solar Sailor took the brunt of it. Shields held, so no damage to the ship itself, but they wouldn’t hold again. As cautious as he was, even Betelgeuse hadn’t anticipated that kind of firepower.

“Monoceras hasn’t returned,” Ophiuchus hissed.

“Good. We could use less of that pompous horn around here. Besides, he’s got all that magic Tsuno nonsense.”

“And the others?”

Betelgeuse considered the monitors before him. “They knew what the risks were.” He turned to go but the scientist caught him by the shoulder.

“It’s one ship, Orion.”

The big hunter slapped his hand away. “Do not call me that anymore. And yes, one ship. We don’t have orders to destroy one ship. We have orders to dispatch the kill squad, capture notorious pirate Captain Uggo, and return.”

Ophiuchus was grinning even before he said the words. “The great hunter Orion is taking orders now?”

Betelgeuse’s face went red and he looked about to explode, but Ophiuchus had him by the balls. Calling him by his true name had been for fun – the true jabs had been at his hunter lifestyle.

“Fine.” Betelgeuse growled through his teeth. “Signal the fleet. Blow that ship out of the damn sky.” He didn’t wait for the other to give the order. “You hear me?” he shouted to the crew, who collectively jumped and cowered. “Give the fleet the order to return fire to that ship. I don’t even want to see scrap when we’re done with it! Do you understand?”

“Sir!” they acknowledged and relayed the order to the fleet. Within a minute all ships were firing upon the Sideboob.

[Calefrun]

Al coughed, already beginning to feel the pressure from Vega's gravity waves. The vortex of magic surrounding him was offering some protection, but he knew that he would be ripped to shreds before too long if he didn't do something.

So, that's how it is? he thought. Looks like she isn't affected by her own magic. Let's see if she can withstand this! He conjured a fireball in his weapon hand, then projected it through the dagger so that it would appear at the source of the Gravity Vortex.

All newly-created gravity waves now also swept with them a wave of fire, crushing, tearing apart, and incinerating anything they came into contact with. Al winced as he felt a wave rip open a gash in his right arm, which was instantly cauterized.

"Yield, dammit!"

---

Cozal raised his sword in an attempt to block Draconis' attack, but the force of Ootenkiryuuga was more than the plasma blade was able to withstand. The spirit dragon passed through completely unhindered, and Cozal reflexively jumped backwards to avoid that attack.

Realizing that he had just jumnped out over the river, the pirate closed his eyes and braced for impact with the water below... only to feel his feet collide with sometihng soft. Something... rubbery. Looking down, he found that he had landed atop a large, peach-colored inner tube. He quickly glanced around, and only to discover that the river was now crowded with hundreds of similar-looking tubes, all lazily drifting along.

Mysterious Hooded Mariachi Guy, who until this point had been reclining in his chair reading an issue of Squids Illustrated Magazine (for the articles, of course), suddenly jumped to his feet, knocking his beverage over in the process. Pointing towards the river he shouted, "Unbelievable! The annual Inner Tube Migration! To think that we would be here to witness it!" He cheered, then added, "Let the games begin, boys! And remember- Farfegtuben!!"

[Monika]

"More aliens!" Evangeline dove headfirst into the group of Star Samurai, managing to hug all four simultaneously before inadvertently knocking them to the ground. "Ooooh, is that a katana?" she asked, stealing picking up a sword that had fallen to the ground. "Look, Alastor!" she shouted, flourishing the blade. "An actual alien katana! This is the best day ever!"

Alastor closed his eyes, drew a deep breath and assessed the situation. Four samurai and their leader, he thought, quickly scanning the ParFunSpa and the soldiers that were now docking. I don't doubt that I could take them all, if need be, loath as I am to fight. It was a fair statement. As a Guardian of Awesome Land, he had been hand-picked by Aurora to govern a sect of the empire. While their monarch may have changed, Alastor's power certainly had not. He and the rest of the Guardians were all incredibly powerful^TM and taking on a team of samurai should be child's play.

Then again...

There's no guarantee those other two will fare as well in battle, and I'd rather not have them serve as collateral... he mused, his eyes darting between Captain Uggo and Evangeline. I embarked on this mission at Emperor Awesome's request. He wanted us to establish a space program and, well...We've more or less done that. The plans for the spaceship are still in the lab, so we can make more at any time. And the controls are simple enough to figure out, I'd say. There's really no reason for us to return immediately...Besides, this is a good opportunity to learn more about extraterrestrial life. If we can present interesting findings to the emperor, he might let me form that search party to look for Aurora...

With a heavy sigh, Alastor nodded and casually strolled past the pile of Star Samurai. "Come, Evangeline," he said, walking aboard the vessel that had captured the ParFunSpa. "Let's go talk to the aliens, okay?"

"Yes!" Without missing a beat, Evangeline ran after Alastor, somehow carrying three of the Star Samurais' katanas.

---

Artemis mulled over Knox's words. "The longer you watch a clock, the slower it seems to tick. The more you anticipate a moment, the longer it feels to take to arrive, she repeated. Something about his words just didn't seem right to her. "A minute is always composed of sixty seconds. Each of those sixty seconds can then be divided into 1,000 equal milliseconds, which can be further subdivided into 1,000 equal microseconds, and so on. How can one moment feel any slower than another?"

Feel.

It wasn't a word Artemis used very often - neither in her vocabulary nor her actions. In her view, 'feeling' was the opposite of 'rationalization', and as such was diametrically against her very being. Still, if it were simply a matter of concentrating, then she should have no issue picking it up. It's a power of which anyone was capable, according to Knox, and her laserlike focus was second to none. Now she just had to see if it would translate into the temporal ability.

Concentrate. Center on the anticipation of the next tick of the second hand. Artemis nodded and crossed her legs, levitating above the bathroom floor in her classic meditation pose. With her hands relaxed at her side, she stared up at the grandfather clock and did exactly as Knox said: concentrated. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The clock counted second after second, but none felt any longer or shorter than the one before it. She continued concentrating, though, tuning out the world around her, patiently waiting for something to happen.

[Sariel of Tevet]

The Nightman had to admit, he was a touch impressed by Sark's ability to drain these Immortals, but was even more taken with how these new powers could help achieve his own ends. The Obsidian Prince snapped his fingers and his servants scrambled to pick up Heimrall by her arms and face her in his direction.

She awoke slightly, enough to see the blurry figures of The Nightman and Sark before her, but she was too weak to respond or even fight the grasps of the servants holding her. Heimrall sunk her head and listened as the ringing in her ears faded into their conversation.

"Ah, yes, the girl and that...Leske, did you say? Is he of any importance, I wonder. He seemed like nothing more than a...oh how do commoners say it...a mook? Always assumed his handler would have come to his rescue at some point. But, no matter."

He opened up his infinity belt and a faint glow of light shined in Heimrall's face.

"I will dispose of this one, for safe keeping, and then we can chat about what to do with my...other half...later. It's a shame I cannot have full power while he exists, no matter how emasculated he is at the moment. Pity."

The Nightman tapped the top of his belt and his servants chucked her into infinity. He dusted his hands off, as if he had done all the work, and turned around to head back to his obsidian laced lair to plot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heimrall tumbled through the air, or at least it felt that way. She was still barely conscious and could sense nothing but weightlessness. Her body tumbled through the void that was the infinity belt, flying through dimensions, time, and nothingness all at once. A world began to form around her. Fine, dust like, sand dunes flooded the landscape as far as the eye could see, and further still. Wind whipped through the strange desert and started to cover her body and the Immortal of Earth nearly disappeared into the background.

She raised a hand and tried to manipulate the sand away from her body, but felt her essence almost slip backwards as the sands shifted about. Heimrall fell out of consciousness again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Atsáli narrowed his eyes at Kayla and would have scowled if his mechanical frame allowed such a thing.

"I assure you child, I am not Star Samurai. And to you, friend."

He turned to face Leporis.

"I assure you that I am no savage either. Misguided a people as they are, they are only human. But now they are simply either slaves or dead. "

He pulled a large Spartanesque blade from his wrist and pointed it at Leporis.

"They fought your kind for decades. Mere humans, with more resolve, and cunning, and strength than you could imagine, kept you at bay for years. And yet, you are so inclined to think this world for yours to take. Warriors born of the stars held back so steadily by warriors born of clay and flesh. You are nothing in the face of your equals."

A large shield sprang forth from his shoulder and rolled down to his free hand.

"I, like you, was not born from the earth. I am more like you than I would ever wish upon another creature to suffer. And it will be your undoing."

Atsáli's feet burst into jetfire and he hurdled toward Leporis, shield first, and they collided through the wall of the cafeteria and into the adjacent room.

[Myrdraxxis]

"Hard to port!" Yda yelled as the ship buckled beneath them. Their attack had been a surprise, one that that had afforded them a precious few moments to damage the ship before them. But the surprise had passed and the might of the fleet around them was being brought to bear.

"Shields?" Neero asked, idly swishing his drink around in his cup. He was feeling something. Some sort of emotion that he hadn't felt in a while. Being in the middle of a naval battle like this was stirring something in him. Was it fear? Probably? This was pretty crazy after all. Frankly he wasn't even sure his crew was up for this considering most of them were still pretty hung over from the luau.

"Holding at 72%, sir!" an ensign told him. Nero nodded. Was this feeling pride? Excitement? Actual excitement at the prospect of pushing his ship and crew to their limits in glorious naval combat? A role that they had been given and lorded over for nigh on a century?

Pff nah. He'd stopped worrying about things like pride, shame or professional conduct a long time ago.

Coincidentally, that was around the same time he discovered martinis.

Nero took a sip of his drink.

"We're getting hemmed in here." Yda observed.

"Well that's no good." Neero sighed. "Helmsman, bring us about, forty degrees down angle! Put us below that ship. If those battleships want to take shots at us they'll have to fire at their own vessel."

There was a pause in activity as the crew considered this (during which Neero took another sip of his beverage), then jumped into action. The deck of the Sideboob dipped slightly as the ship began descending. The viewport became shadowed by the looming enemy ship. THe act gave them cover from the majority of the ships around them, but not their target itself. "Draw power to the shields. And contact Gree." Neero ordered. "Have his shuttle launch on my mark."

"Aye sir."

Neero eyed the massive warship before them over the rim of his cup. "Let's see how they like a taste of their own medicine."

-----

"We've got a green light!" Their shuttle pilot called into the cabin. Gree finished cinching on his armor and gripped the handhold just above his head. "Take us out!" The shuttle jerked to life and began to move, exiting the Sideboob's hangar. Gree wished the could be taking the Ariadne out to fight, but it was still under....extensive repairs. For now they had to settle with the shuttle that they had discovered literally minutes before Neero had ordered them to prep for boarding action.

"Show time boys and girls." He turned to face his team. He couldn't say he ever expected to command such an eclectic group, but at this point he was just rolling with the punches.

"About time," The turettian soldier to his left drawled. Darrus, his designated marksman and token alien when Nali or Rax weren't available. Speaking of which..

"Rax, can you not?" He asked casually to the large reptilian alien who was currently engaged in a friendly choke hold with Taler. TO the shadow trooper's credit, he looked more angry than anything, the threat of asphyxiation activating the man's berserker rage.

"He started it."

"I swear to god, I will turn this invasion craft back around..." Gree began, and Rax sighed, releasing Taler who fell to the ground gasping.

"You made some weird friends." Vin pointed out the obvious, eyeing the green alien guy was, in turn, eyehim back in a way that was beginning to make Vin uncomfortable.

"You don't know the half of it." Gree muttered. The commander felt the shuttle suddenly stop and slam against something large.

"Contact made! Prepare to breach!" their pilot yelled. Gree grinned.

"TIme to work, team! Jaden, make us a door." The human marine nodded smartly and made his way over to the shuttle door. It opened, revealing the metal bulkhead of the Geisha's Mirror, vacuum sealed to the shuttle's door. He slapped a few charges on it and fingered the detonator.

"Might wanna step back." He said and clicked the button.

Somewhere in the lower reaches of the Geisha's Mirror, a wall suddenly exploded inward, sending several crewmen and janitors flying int he hellstorm of debris. Those that survived had the privileged of seeing Rax's massive form charge out with a bellow, shotgun blasting.

Gree and his tram followed the alien out. "Nali, hack into their system. Get us a direction to the bridge."

[Bruce Leroy]

The Sky Captain took a giant swig from his pint of ale.

“Aye! You seem not to be knowing who I be mate! I am SKY CAPTAIN BACTUS VIRERINA CAPTAIN OF THE SKYS,” He said as the Foul Thunder unleashed a volley of fireworks into the sky. ‘ah the crew is on time with the fireworks this time good job lads’ he thought to himself. “There be no challenge too big or too small for me crew and I. Capt’n Alexand’r what say we finish up this drinks and head out towards our next adventure?” With that Bactus threw his head back and poured of the rest of his drink down his throat in one motion. Taking a moment to steady himself and allowing his body to grow accustom to the new surge of alcohol flowing through his body, he let out a mighty roar of laughter and headed for the Foul Thunder before Captain Alexander could even say a word to him. Upon getting onto the ship he yelled for Captain Albert to hurry up or he’ll be left behind.

“Lads we got a new objective, that we do. Crendor,” he said pointing to the first mate, “have the lads finished preparing the ship.”

“Aye, Cap’in we be space ready.”

“Err… how did we even get to space? Better yet how are we breathing?”

“Bad writing sir, bad writing…” They both look at an invisible camera.

“Never mind that mate.” Bactus jumped down to the main deck. “Let us be off. Set a course for Boötes!”

“Aye captain, but one question. Will you ever call me by me real name? It be Jimmy by the way.”

“Nevermind that Crendor adventure is afoot.”

With that the Foul Thunder set a course for the Boötes constellation.

---

Sitting in his chair Cod Commando thought to himself there must be something do while waiting for contact with MGF. “I will bring him back to us. I will make him answer for his crimes. And I Will make him answer me questions.” He said aloud as if trying to convince himself. He then got out of his chair and began to float around the ship. ‘Just 5 more hours until I arrive at his last known location. Then the hunt begins’ he thought to himself. ‘Might as well try to get some rest before shit hits the fan.’ He laid down in the cod in the back of the ship, thinking about all that had transpired between him and Big Bass. “This is all fucked” he said as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

---

Elsewhere somewhere in the void of space, in a dimly lit room stands a shadowed figure looking into the emptiness of space

“Sir, we just received intel that Cod Commando will be reaching location ω-3 in 5 hours.”

“Good. Make sure the welcoming party is there and ready for him when he arrives. When he comes to face me again he must be ready or else this was all for nothing.”

“Yes sir.”

“And tell them not to overdo it this time.”

“Of course sir”

The henchmen motioned a salute, turned, and walked out of the room. The figure now in the room alone lights a cigarette and takes a long drag.

‘We are finally coming to it. After all these years, after all our battles you will finally learn the truth.’ With his free hand the figure reached his hand into his pocket and gripped two circular objects. ‘and with these, he’ll know that I am serious .’
Feeling confident the figure takes a step forward closer to the window, the dim light reflecting just enough so that he could see himself. ‘Cod Commando will finally know what I learned at the academy all those years ago.’ MGF took another drag of his cigarette gripping the circles in his pocket even tighter as the scene faded to black.

[Mizagium]

Knox watched Artemis concentrate, which was just about as awkward and one might expect. He glanced from her to the grandfather clock and back. He dampened his own abilities and best he could to avoid any interference with Artemis, but time when on…and on…and on…without any kind of temporal alteration. That was one of the benefits of being the Immortal of Time: he could detect any alteration of time, even stemming from himself.

And there was no alteration originating from Artemis. Puzzled, he considered the situation. Appropriately enough, he tried to get into Artemis’ headspace as she tried to get into his. By now, everyone he had trained had been able to slow time even a little, but this was zero progress. Why? What was different?

Anxiety and anticipation were very human emotions, nearly universal. And it didn’t seem a stretch to assume that most people had experienced the finger-tapping anxiety of awaiting a promised time, or wanting time to move faster to escape an undesirable situation. It was such that he hardly needed to explain these feelings to others. People seemed to know them intrinsically. Wasn’t that how people connected – unnamable shared experiences?

But maybe that was it. His training was predicated on assuming that Artemis experienced the same kinds of emotions and stresses that most humans did, yet Artemis had repeatedly demonstrated that she was anything but a typical person. Immortal-ness aside, Artemis was not typical. She didn’t seem to experience emotion like others did, didn’t seem to rationalize like others did. Artemis was, for lack of a better word, strange. Knox liked her, and didn’t think her strangeness was any kind of flaw. Rather, the flaw lay in his own assumptions.

“Stop,” he said suddenly. “This isn’t working. Artemis, I need you to do something for me. It’s going to sound odd, and possibly difficult, but I need you to tell me how you’re feeling right now. What emotions are you experiencing? Please, this is important. Focus is about feeling and perception – against logic. So please, what are you feeling?”

-

Rick Thunder wasn’t sure how he ended up in Sideboob, but then he wasn’t sure of a lot of things in his life. Why did he wear a greaser jacket and sunglasses even indoors? Why could he control dinosaurs with his mind? Why was there a dolphin tank on a spaceship? As with many things in his life, Rick decided it was best to light up and let it roll.

He studied the directory while his cigarette dangled precariously on his lips, and four compsagnatus squirmed in his duffle bag. He’d had to leave Petra and his t-rex behind (also the Greater Impossisaurus Rex, which was probably still rampaging about in…where had he left it? Dynasty City?) but at least he had his compies. It was unzipped just enough for Tiki to poke her snout out and get a taste of the air. Actually, taste was right.

“Is that pasta?” He muttered?”

He turned, following his nose – and a giant robot chicken crashed through the wall, fighting with an armed, glowing, fat man.

Rick examined his cigarette dubiously, and flicked it away.

-

Monoceras grimaced after Alastor as he joined Evangeline. A pair of Star Samurai shot him questioning looks, but he gestured placatingly. With a shrug the two followed, shepherding the Awesome Landers into the waiting shuttle. Monoceras felt more than saw them board safely. Well, that’s done he thought. Or almost. Once we’re back in Astro City and I can wash my hands of these disgusting primatives. He meant that literally, too.

Uggo tried to slide past Monoceras but the Tsuno caught him with an stiff arm. “No,” he said cooly. “Not you, pirate.”

“What are you talking about?” Uggo gasped when the silence charm was released. “You’re taking me prisoner, right, so I should - ?” He tried to go again, but Monoceras shoved him back.

“No. No, not you. You’ve been a thorn in the Shogun’s side for quite some time.”

“Hey now, me and Polaris go way back.” Uggo raised his hands pleadingly.

“Polaris is no longer the Shogun, Captain Uggo.”

“He’s…not?”

“He meant with an unfortunate end. Arcturus is the new Shogun, and he is not pleased with scum like you flitting about the empire. Capture and detainment isn’t out of the question, I suppose.”

Uggo straightened, hopefully, and Monoceras delighted in it.

“However, I was not given explicit orders to see you back safely. Unfortunately, there was a struggle and our talks broke down. We managed to secure two, but our fight resulted in your untimely death. Oh well. What’s one less pirate in the cosmos, hm?”

Monoceras turned his ack on Uggo perfunctorily and made only one step before Uggo lunged at him. The masked pirate only made it halfway across the room before invisible hands seized him. He thrashed in place, swinging his cutlass at some unseen assailant.

“Defiant to the end,” Monoceras observed, and cast a stern look back over his shoulder. The hands tightened and dragged Uggo back into the captain’s seat – and held him in place. “How admirable, but of course, the captain must go down with the ship.”

Uggo shouted after him, drawing on every curse and slur he’d learned in his piratical career, many in languages of which he couldn’t speak more than those curses. Spittle coated the inside of his mask, mixing with sweat as he struggled against the, presumably magic, hands that bound him. He breathed heavily, the moisture filling his mouth and nostrils.

But Monoceras never looked back; he crossed the threshold from ParFunSpa to his own shuttle, the Horneater and sealed the door behind him. “Show our...guests to their quarters,” she ordered with a malicious smile. It was just a shuttle, so ‘quarters’ just meant being strapped down against the bulk with a poor view of the front window.

The Horneater disengaged from the ParFunSpa, moved out a distance, and rotated to fix it squarely ahead. Monoceras considered simply blasting the patchwork vessel out of the sky. Instead, he extended one hand until he almost touched the plastoglass. Larger, more powerful versions of the hands that bound Uggo seized the ship and yanked it. It jerked visibly, moving not on its own thrusters, but on magical chains. The Horneater tracked the other ship as it was pulled closer and closer towards the planet until it was finally caught in the gravity well with no chance of escape.

Monoceras released his hold over the magic, slacked from the release of tension, and saw his own toothy reflection in the window as the ParFunSpa was pulled down, down, into the Earth’s atmosphere, accelerating until flames coated the first Earthmade spaceship and it was lost to sight.

“Get us out of here,” he ordered, nearly panting.

“Sir, the fleet has engaged another ship,” the pilot explained cautiously. “Betelgeuse has ordered us to return to the – “

“I said. Get. Us. Out of here.”

“Sir. We can’t go anywhere but back to the fleet. The shuttle doesn’t have a hyperdrive.”

Monoceras growled, which startled the pilot. He wasn’t angry at the man, exactly, but he just wanted to be done with all of this. He was tired of looking at this ugly, backwater world and its ugly denizens. He longed for the tall skyscrapers and bright neon lights of Astro City, his adopted home.

In a rare show of rashness, Monoceras retrieved a horn from his pouch. This horn was tinged rose pink and had a slight spiral patter to it. He vaguely recalled it belonged to a young Tsuno girl from the ghetto who’d sold her horn to him – for a very good price, he recalled. He’d used the horn to siphon the powers of a mathemagician from the Astro City University, but he couldn’t recall which one. Regardless, he plunged the horn into his thigh, slicing through fabric, skin, and muscle easily. Blood pooled from the wound and was soaked up by the horn, activating the latent powers within.

Power surged in him. Magic, normally as easy as breathing to Monoceras, became even more innate, specifically the ability to magically commune with numbers. In that moment, he understood the universe and the numbers that governed it and, most importantly, how to use magic to manipulate those numbers. He extended his thoughts to the arcane energies of the universe, pulled on the threads illuminated in his mind, and opened a spacefold to swallow the Horneater.

In an instant, the shuttled was dumped out in geosynchronous orbit above Astro City, the ecumenopolis serving as the center and capital of the Cosmic Shogunate.

“Take us in,” he sighed, as the euphoria of the magic wore off. He passed the pilot and slumped down closer to where Evangeline and Alastor were seated. With a hiss, he yanked the horn out of his leg and tossed it away.

“You should feel honored,” he slurred while applying a healing charm to his leg. “Very few citizens of the Shogunate ever get to visit Astro City. You savage outsiders – you’re special.” He snickered to himself, a private joke.

-

Leporis had missed the thrill of battle, the way blades sang in the air, the hum of blaster fire. He missed the feeling of finding a worthy opponent and matching them blow for blow. Leporis missed fighting and feeling alive.

He did not miss being shoved through a wall by a giant robot chicken from another world, which had actually happened once before. Only that time, it hadn’t been piloted by a person, but by an actual chicken. The Chicken Nuggers Campaign was weird.

Leporis withstood Atsáli’s charge, even though it carried them through several rooms. Sword lost, he planted his feet until they scraped into the floor, and gripped the mechanical suit in what handholds he could find – and suplexed that bitch! Leporis managed to pick Atsáli up and slam the warrior down on his back. Leporis went down with him, but floundered to his feet.

“Yeah. Suck on that.”

-

Vega strained against the gravity waves and air pressure and now ripples of fire. She screamed against it, and poured more power in. “I will never yield!” she shouted back – and the whole mess of air, gravity, and fire exploded finally. Vega was hurled down into the city, creating a decently-sized crater around the point where she impacted.

She lay there for a long moment, visions of home, of Altair, swimming across her sight and she fell in and out of consciousness. When her head cleared, she found only a blue sky ringed by asphalt waiting for her. She just wanted to lay there, but memories of Altair dragged her up.

Vega groaned the whole way up, dragging herself along the lip of the crater. “Where are you?” she muttered, pulling up over the edge. “Where are you? Come back here so I can kill you.”

-

Draconis frowned at the Lazy River Inner Tube Migration, then at the Mariachi Man. Curious. This must be some sort of local custom. Well, not one to buck tradition, Draconis got a running start and leaped over the river’s edge, aiming for the nearest unoccupied inner tube.

He landed ass-first in one of the ones without a bottom. Stars, the water was freezing! Draconis raised Ootenkiryuuga and shouted the, apparently, traditional Migration phrase, “Farfegtuben!” Then he unceremoniously started to paddle with it.

“Turn and face me, coward,” he challenged Cozaltene.

-

Corvus Crater was far, far away from the greater Shogunate before he slowed. He hadn’t come out this way since before his recruitment. Boötes: where the Shogunate faded way into the rest of space. Not exactly a frontier, but not exactly civilized. One day, Arcturus might turn his covetous gaze upon Boötes, just as he would the rest of the galaxy. But for now, it was one of the best spots out of the Shogunate to get a –

Lost in thought, Corvus never noticed the celestial ox gallop past on hooves of stars and nebulae, hook his robes with a horn, and carry him off into the distance…

-

Betelgeuse pointed to an alert on the nearest tactical display and asked, “What is that?”

“Monoceras’ shuttle, the Horneater. It isn’t answering our hails or returning to dock. It’s – “ and then the light blinked out. “Uh, it just jumped away.”

The hunter frowned. “Do they even make hyperdrives that compact?”

Ophiuchus sighed behind him. “No, they don’t. More likely, the uppity Tsuno used his profound mystical abilities to take himself back to Astro City.”

“Coward,” Betelgeuse growled.

“Smart,” the scientist countered. “Although the two are often conflated. Like myself, you’ve called me a coward several times since we set out.”

“Because you are a coward, Ophiuchus.”

The serpent shrugged. “Perhaps, but I am also smart. However, in this case, I will be exercising my cowardice. I’m afraid I really don’t want to be blasted to space dust before my time, so I’ll be leaving now. You’ve got things under control here, right?”

Betelgeuse grunted noncommittally.

“That’s the spirit.” Ophiuchus fished a palm-sized device out of his lab coat and adjusted the myriad dials before pressing the center button. He shimmered like a heat mirage for an instant, and was gone. Personal transporter. Ophiuchus hadn’t been entirely truthful about hyperdrives it seemed.

“Another ship, sir,” a radar tech called. “Well, a shuttle, looks like. Broken off from the main enemy vessel.”

“Where is it going?”

“Coming up alongside the Geisha’s Mirror, sir.”

Betelgeuse scratched his chin. “Leporis’ vessel? Has he returned already?”

“Leporis hasn’t checked in, sir, and Mirror’s distress beacon just activated – I think it’s been boarded!”

At last, the time had arrived. Betelgeuse could give orders and direct fleet and troop movements, sure, but his real calling, his true power, would be in actual combat, like a real warrior.

“Do we have any of those transporter things that the snake just used?”

“Uh, no. The Shogun wanted to outfit the Pole Star with one, but we deployed before the decision was finalized. We just have the shuttles, really.”

“Really?”

“Well, the escape pods. But you can’t really direct – “

“Show me to them, and line us up with the Mirror.”

Several minutes later, Betelgeuse had shoved his bulk into an escape pod, despite the protestations of the crew. He didn’t need to control it very much if they aimed correctly. And he was pretty sure the he could do what he needed to do. He tested his artificial arm again.

The servos whirred dully, and the metal responded near enough to his own arm. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but he could. He detected the slightly slower reaction time, the lack of precision in the fingers. Perhaps he felt it so much because it had been his dominant hand. Although he’d trained himself to be ambidextrous years ago, a dominant hand was still dominant. And now it simply wasn’t a hand at all.

Betelgeuse pulled the lever that launched the escape pod and turned to watch through the small, circular viewport. The crew had aimed well. The pod sailed through the void of space, rotating only slightly. The ship spun as he approached, and for the first time since setting sail, Betelgeuse felt the slightest bit of vertigo. He forced it down.

The Geisha’s Mirror drew closer and closer until – he lashed out with his power. Crimson energy coated the pod and formed a conical drill at the head. Instead of simply impacting the other ship, the escape pod-turned-boarding-vessel burrowed into it. His aim hadn’t been perfect, so he missed the shuttle, but at least he hit the damn thing. Missing something so large seemed silly, but in space, size was relative. Compared to a planet – to the void itself – a ship wasn’t very big at all.

Betelgeuse released the drill before it burrowed all the way through the ship and waited for it to halt, which only took another few seconds. Blood burning, he summoned more crimson energy – more Hunter’s Blood – and punched his way out of the pod, and into the Mirror.

Flashing lights and blaring klaxons threatened to overwhelm him, but his own training and liberal use of the Blood narrowed his focus. Most Shogunate ships used the same general layout, one he had studied on the journey. If the boarding shuttle had been where he thought then – he took off at a run, taking corners at breakneck speed, tossing crewmembers out of the way. He didn’t bother with lifts, choosing stairwells. On and on he ran until the anticipation was almost too much and then –

A large reptilian creature charged down the hall, blasting everything in sight. At last! Prey!

Betelgeuse conjured a longbow from Hunter’s Blood, a brilliant red arc that shone over the lights and smoke. He slowed to a walk, drew the energy bow, and let loose a volley of energy bolts at Rax.

-

Ophiuchus emerged on the 723rd floor of the Shogunate Internal Affairs building to the tepid surprise of the bureaucrats bustling about. None of them gave him more than a passing glance; they’d long since become accustomed to his comings and goings. Also they were afraid of him, somewhat, and really didn’t want to end up as one of his experiments.

One eventually did approach him. “Lord Ophiuchus, Shogun Arcturus has asked me to inform you that he has, ah, stepped out, briefly.”

“He knew I would return?” Ophiuchus raised one eyebrow.

“He prepared several messages for a number of circumstances, but stated this one was the mostly likely.”

“Where has he gone?”

“He didn’t say, but he did take the Imperial Starliner, so somewhere important.”

Pólemos, Ophiuchus throught. I told him to wait for me. “No matter. Thank you, Miss…?”

“Mayuri Kuchiki, my Lord.”

“Miss Kuchiki. Thank you. Is there anything else?”

“Yes, sir. Lord Monoceras has reported in just now, stating he has two prisoners from the Earth campaign and would like to have them interrogated.”

“What a wonderful day. Gather an escort of Samurai. We’re going to meet Monoceras and these prisoners, personally.”

So it was that Ophiuchus the scientist, Mayuri Kuchiki the secretary, and ten Star Samurai were waiting there when the Horneater touched down and Alastor and Evangeline were escorted out.

“Welcome, guests,” he said as cordially as he could, “to the grandest city in all the Shogunate: Astro City!”

[Monika]

"What am I-" Artemis broke her attention away from the grandfather clock and hovered gently to the ground, turning to Knox. The question caught her off guard. "Feeling?" There's that word again. Feeling. She considered it for a moment before answering, "If anything, I suppose I'm feeling mild frustration. I'm used to learning things fairly quickly, so this experience is a little disconcerting."

Indeed, Artemis took some measure of pride in her intellectual capability. Her brain operated quickly, and she had trained for several years to become a skilled logician; such was necessary in her field of study. But here Knox was, saying that Focus was about "feeling" and "perception", going against logic. It seemed like patent nonsense.

But was it? Knox had studied Focus for some time and trained many people in the art before. And here Artemis was, unable to do something as simple as slow down the second hand on a clock. If Knox said that Focus was about feeling, then she had no choice but to defer to his wisdom. Isn't that what she came here to do anyway?

So she tried again, thinking that "frustration" probably wasn't a useful answer to either of them. She had been practicing meditation since middle school, so introspection and self-reflection were second nature to her. Or they would have been, anyway, had she performed them more often. She didn't like to dwell inside her mind for too long for fear of getting lost in her own thoughts. Still, she wasn't about to disappoint Knox after he'd agreed to teach her. If he was going to put in the effort, she had no choice but to do the same.

Artemis closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and repeated the question. "What am I feeling right now? What am I feeling?" She traversed the maze-like web of thoughts sprawled across her mind, doing her best to prevent them from overtaking her. You're standing here across from Knox in a makeshift training hall. How does that make you feel, Artemis? she thought. She quickly followed up with an answer. There's the frustration again, I think. Is there anything else? Disappointment that Knox has taken on such a troublesome student, maybe? Eagerness to learn Focus?

No, those aren't it. They might be there, maybe, but they aren't very strong feelings, if they exist at all. I don't know if I'm really feeling them or if those are what I'm supposed to be feeling and my mind is just trying to fill in some emotional gap...Is there even a difference?

She opened her eyes and sighed. "This is difficult," she said aloud. Normally so self-assured, so confident in her abilities, Artemis scowled as she realized she may have just come across the one thing she couldn't do.

No. That's ridiculous. You're a human, Artemis. You must be feeling something. Anything. You just have to keep searching for it. She shuddered as a cold chill swept over her body. Something was tugging at the back of her mind and a more sinister version of her inner voice spoke to her. And if you do keep searching, will you like what you're going to find?

Against her better judgment - for Knox's sake - Artemis closed her eyes again and delved further into the recesses of her mind, the parts she would normally stay far away from. As she traveled the mental corridors, all sorts of images flashed before her. Images of Knox and Heimrall. Of Emperor Awesome and Clyde and countless Awesome Land citizens. Of Zais and the members of C.O.M.A.S. she'd left behind. Kingdoms and dungeons. Battlefields and magic spells. Then two more pictures stood out in particular. Images of-

"Ah!" Her eyes flew open and she took in a sharp gasp of air, as if she'd awoken from a terrible nightmare. The answer had finally come to her. An answer she'd expected deep down, but one she dreaded all the same. "I feel...I feel..." She turned away from Knox, too hesitant to respond.

---

"Oh. My. Seraphina. It's beautiful!" Evangeline gaped at the hustle and bustle of Astro City. Buildings that touched the sky, neon lights at every corner, and, of course, aliens. Everywhere. She had been born and raised exclusively in Awesome Land (a decidedly fantasy setting), so this place seemed like paradise in comparison.

"It's a bit showy, if you ask me," Alastor muttered under his breath, though he had no room to talk considering his own home was just a few blocks away from the First Imperial Tower, a literal monument to the former Emperor Veralice's greatness.

"Absolutely beautiful!" Evangeline said again, making a beeline for Ophiuchus before Alastor grabbed her by the collar of her lab coat, stopping her mid-embrace.

Pulling his overeager engineer a few feet back, Alastor gave a slight bow and said, "Thank you for having us here." He didn't mention that they'd more-or-less been kidnapped. "I'm Alastor and this is Evangeline. We're scientists from Earth. Awesome Land, specifically. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Deep down, he couldn't help but wonder what Aurora would have done in this situation. He was almost certain it wouldn't be to politely introduce herself and bow before someone who had just dragged her to a foreign planet. No, more likely she would have transformed into a dragon and incinerated everyone in the area, then commandeered a spaceship she barely knew how to pilot and flown back to Awesome Land. Alastor chuckled at the thought.

[Mizagium]

Knox wanted to shout “Tell me, tell,” but wisely decided not to. This was the most emotion he’d ever seen Artemis express that wasn’t logical or rage. So, he tried to approach another way.

“What?” he asked, and laid a hand on Artemis’ shoulder. “What is it?”

-

Ophiuchus raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Scientists? Indeed. Monoceras, you’ve brought me quite the catch.”

The Tsuno, now staggering out of the shuttle, grunted in a manner very unbefitting of the haughtiness with which he normally carried himself. He waved off the Star Samurai offering to help and shuffled past them all.

“I never liked that man,” Mayuri muttered. She started, realizing she’d said that out loud, and busied herself in the reports she had carried with him.

“He’s quite humorless, I’m afraid,” the space scientist observed. “Hopefully he wasn’t too rough with you? Brutes like him always look down their nose at us intellectuals. Now, if you would be so kind as to accompany me.” The guard of Star Samurai around Alastor and Evangeline didn’t offer much in the way of other options.

Ophiuchus lead them away from the landing pad and back towards the Shogunate Internal Affairs building, which was basically just a skyscraper, but, you know, taller and more spacey. Mayuri kept pace without seeming to actually be looking ahead, and Ophiuchus talked at his guests the whole way.

“As you may have seen from the arrival, Astro City isn’t really a city, but an entire planet! Well, planetoid, I suppose. Astronomy isn’t my field unfortunately, but I do know we’re smaller than your planet and consequently have lower gravity. Similar enough air, it seems.” He eyed them over his shoulder. “Are either of you feeling short of breath? Feeling oxygen-deprived? Asphyxiated? Well, we’ll find out soon enough.”

Inside the Tower, they all boarded the surprisingly spacious elevator. It was an exterior elevator, and although it rose several hundred feet a second, it’s inertia dampeners prevented passengers from feeling the crushing G force.

“Take a good look,” he told them. “One of the best view of the city, if you ask me.”

[Monika]

"It's...sorrow." Artemis looked up into Knox's eyes and exhaled a deep breath as her memories unearthed themselves. "It was thirteen years ago. I was in a dark place. A really dark place. I had actually planned to kill myself." She said it very matter-of-factly, as if it had been the only sensible conclusion. "But I was too afraid of what lied beyond to go through with it. What a pathetic wretch I was..." She walked over to the bathroom mirror and gazed at her reflection. The eyes that stared back at her were gleaming with anguish.

"That's when I met him. William Cauldwell. A young boy, barely any older than I was - right at thirteen. I didn't know it at the time, but William was a huge rival of Leon Veralice." The girl in the mirror was smiling now, but her eyes were still filled with pain. "Everything Leon had, William had to have, too. Everything. When Leon boasted of his younger sister, Aurora, William had to get one of his own. So when he found me, alone and with nowhere to go, he was overjoyed. I didn't understand his reasoning back then...All I knew was that someone was happy to see me, which was more than enough."

"He and his father, Richard, took me in that same day. It wasn't long at all before we formed an unbreakable bond. There wasn't an ounce of shared blood between us, but he was as much my brother as Leon was Aurora's. We went to school together, practiced magic together, played games, talked...William truly was as close to me as any family member." For a brief moment, she saw herself smiling and quickly turned away from the mirror.

"Once I neared eighteen and we'd finished middle and high school, it was time to go off to college. I desperately wanted to stay in Awesome Land, to stay with my family in the place I called home. But William wouldn't tolerate it. At first I thought he had grown tired of me after five years - I wouldn't have blamed him - but he told me that all of the schools in the country were second-rate at best. If his sister were to study mathemagic, he said, then it would be at the best school she could get into." She laughed softly, turning back toward Knox. "Can you believe it?" she asked. "I think he cared too much." Artemis scoffed at the notion - caring too much - but knew that she wouldn't have had it any other way.

"To appease him, I traveled overseas to attend one of the most prestigious schools for mathemagic in the world. In exchange, he promised to write me a letter every week. And he did! They started off innocuously enough." She outstretched a hand and opened a portal - her extradimensional closet, specifically - and retrieved a bundle of old papers, setting them onto a table.

Gently pulling one from the top of the stack, she read, "Dear Artemis, how are classes going? They haven't started here yet, but I'm not looking forward to them. The schools here are so stupid." She pulled a second letter from the stack and read, "My Darling Little Sister, I already don't like college. I'm thinking about taking a break and working with Dad at C.O.M.A.S. Wouldn't that be neat? Um...you'd better stay in school, though. Don't come back without a degree, okay?"

With a sigh, she set the letters down and pulled a few from the bottom of the pile. "But as my semester went on," she said, "the letters became increasingly grim. It was around this time that the towns and villages that made up Awesome Land were invaded by Aeolus Black, Mystic Land's Sage King. The messages were no longer about how William hated school or loved his job at C.O.M.A.S. No, now they were summaries of skirmishes and lists of casualties." Artemis unfurled one scroll in particular, which hit the ground and then spread across the floor for several feet. She held it out for Knox to see; this letter had been nothing but name after name of the deceased.

"Every week," she said, struggling to hold back her disgust, "I would write back, begging to join the war effort. I'd never been in an actual fight, but I knew enough mathemagic to make a capable soldier. Every week, William would tell me not to worry about them, to stay in school and finish my studies. And every week, I would get another letter. Just. Like. This one." She punctuated each word by striking the list in her hand.

"It was then that I realized that the only thing I feared more than my own death were the deaths of other people. At one point, William must have sensed this, because he offered to stop sending me letters during the war. I refused his gesture. There I was, fiddling about at some school on the other side of the planet while people were shedding their blood to defend the land I called home. People I'd studied with and worked with who would never again see the light of day... I didn't deserve to be isolated from that any more than I already was. And besides," she added. "As long as he kept sending letters, I would know that he was still alive."

She sent the letters back through the portal - all except for one. "This, by far, was one of my favorites," she said. "After a year of tortuous uncertainty, it only took one sentence to make everything better. 'Dear Artemis, the war is over.' Leon had unified the towns into the Empire of Awesome Land and defeated the Sage King, ending the war once and for all. William wasn't happy that his rival had become the new Emperor, of course, but that didn't eclipse the fact that he and the rest of the people could finally be safe again."

Placing the last letter back into her closet and sealing it behind her, Artemis continued. "Life was uneventful after that. I think I prefer it that way, honestly. I continued my studies in mathemagic for several years, eventually earning my Ph.D. I had my choice of positions in academia around the world, but by that point I was all too eager to return to Awesome Land. William, determined to help the country through magical advancement, had taken over C.O.M.A.S. and needed someone to help conduct research. When he sent that message, I was there in an instant. We talked and studied and developed spells together...It was like nothing had changed at all."

"During our research, he came upon a rather unique artifact: one of the Scrolls of Science," she said, her voice tinged with bitterness. "We were the Committee of Magicians Against Science, so such a thing seemed blasphemous to have with us, according to our more vocal members. But William recognized the Scroll's power. A more unscrupulous wielder who managed to collect all seven of them would be able to erase magic from the face of the planet. Permanently. Suffice it to say that he kept the Scroll to keep it from falling into the wrong hands."

As she went on, her expression darkened. Her eyes, once sparkling with sorrow, were now narrowed. Colder. "It was more popular than we'd realized. A few months later, a group of...adventurers came to us, asking for the Scroll of Science, supposedly at the behest of the Empress. They didn't say what they needed it for, so William couldn't just hand it to them. They could have wanted to use it against us, for all we knew. If they had just told us that the planet was in danger, I'm sure he would have gladly given it away. Instead, he proposed a trade. He would give them the Scroll in exchange for the True Sword."

She sighed again, this one laced with contempt and disgust. "I've done enough math to be able to identify an equivalent trade, and I can say that the one he proposed was certainly fair. The two objects are of roughly equal power," she said. "But I don't think he was even concerned with the Sword's magical abilities. No. He wouldn't admit it, but I'm sure that this was just an extension of his rivalry. William knew that Leon had stolen the Beauty Mirror from Really Cool Land. And everything Leon had, William had to have as well. By this point, Leon had been an emperor, a businessman, and a world-renowned celebrity - achievements that weren't easily matched. William thought that this might be one more chance to beat his old rival, by having another Artifact of Wisdom - a better one - delivered to him personally."

Artemis closed her eyes, shaking her head as she recalled the event, wondering if she should go on with the story. After a moment, she decided that she had no choice, having already divulged this much. With a deep breath, she went on, though not before turning away from Knox. She didn't want to look at him - no, she didn't want him to look at her for the next part.

"Not too long after we'd made the arrangement, the adventurers came back with none other than the Princess of Really Cool Land herself: Sarah Mambutoo O'Malley. We thought nothing of it, assuming that she wanted to personally oversee the trade. It made sense, and that would have been what I would have done in her position. But no." Artemis clenched her fists, her nails digging hard enough into her palms to draw blood. "She'd actually come there just to betray us. The True Sword she handed to William was a decoy, the False Shield in disguise. She'd intended to use the real True Sword to take the Shield back and the Scroll by force. As happens all too often, a battle ensued: the adventurers versus C.O.M.A.S."

Artemis looked at her hands, watching the streams of red trickle down her palms. "It was a bloodbath," she whispered. "They had Aurora, who didn't seem to mind casualties of the civilians she'd sworn to protect. Even Zais joined their side...but William. He didn't want me to fight. He told me beforehand that, on the off chance a battle did occur, I was to stay back. Though I hadn't yet been in a real fight, I was a seasoned mathemagician. But to William, I was still just his darling little sister."

Her voice became even softer. "We didn't stand a chance," she said. "Our numbers fell by fifty percent in one day. Member after member were cut down, murdered for no reason. I looked to the heavens, wishing for someone to bring an end to this massacre...and that's when it came. In the worst way possible. Zais..." She steadied her breathing and took a long pause. "He ran his scythe through William's throat...and then it was over."

She placed a hand over her chest, and there was a slight indigo glow at the contact. "I had never consciously used my Immortal powers before. I hadn't even really been cognizant of their existence. But when William died before my very eyes, something came over me. The restraint had been released. I immediately set upon Sarah, who had orchestrated this entire mass murder. It was nearly instantaneous between the time I'd set my eyes on her and the time I'd placed her within my grasp. I was ready to kill her for what she'd done. It would have been effortless."

"Do you know what she did then, Knox? As she stood on the precipice of death for her crimes?" Artemis turned to face Knox and laughed a dry joyless laugh. "She apologized. And do you know what I did?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I let her go. I told her I forgave her as we worked to clean up the mess she and her adventurers had made. I told her that it would be okay as she promised to hold a funeral service and give a eulogy and do all manner of things to placate me. I made it look as if I would be completely fine, to give her no cause for worry. And do you know what else, Knox?"

She paused.

"Those things I said to Sarah were among the only lies I've ever told." She took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. "And not just to her. I'd been lying to myself, too, and I actually believed it. The brain is the most powerful tool at any human's disposal, but I truly think that mine works a bit differently...Without my even trying to, it automatically filters and buries these feelings. But I think I know why. It's because I wouldn't be able to function otherwise."

She was trembling now, and her eyes welled with tears as they met the Immortal of Time's. "Even with all my justifications, do you think the Council would have so readily agreed to wage war on Zais if they knew I had a personal vendetta against him? Do you think that you would even be standing here today, willing to teach me Focus, if you knew that I wanted to snap your girlfriend's neck?"

She didn't give him the opportunity to respond. "Magical power. Political power. It doesn't matter the type. People will continue to abuse them, and innocents will continue to die senseless deaths as a result. More than anything, I dream of a world where that doesn't happen. But I can't create such a world if I'm mired by emotion. Because it's not just sorrow I'm feeling, Knox. It's anger. Pure, unbridled anger!" she yelled.

"I hate Sarah! I hate Zais! I hate the Sage King. I hate Leon. I hate Aurora. And, most of all, I hate myself. I hate myself for not having been able to protect their victims. And I hate myself for even feeling this way." The tears ran down her cheeks and fell to the floor. "Do you understand now? This is why those emotions stay suppressed. If I ever slept, I wouldn't even be able to crawl out of bed underneath the weight of it all!"

Artemis ran over to the sink and snatched a towel from a nearby rack, hurriedly dabbing at her eyes. She took a few seconds to regain composure before finally saying, "And that, Knox, is how I'm feeling."