Awesome Land VI: Dawn of a New Era

[Mizagium]

Clara brought her hands up quickly, making as many placating gestures as she could. "No, no, please don't disturb the Goddess, please. I-I-I would not want to distract her from her gardening. If has tasked you to deliver a message, then, I will consider it as having come from the Goddess' mouth herself."

She pointedly did not look at Antitheon, but she was sure he was staring holes into her. Well, tough. Maybe. He was her lord and master, but the Goddess was the Goddess whatever wrath he might bring down upon her would be a welcome punishment for distracting the Mother.

Was she supposed to be able to think like that? To reason? To choose a higher authority over Antitheon, her creator? It seemed natural to her, but would he think it so?

Questions for later...

-

The new dimension hit Knox like a wave of, well, sound. Growing up as a time-displaced orphan and raised to be a strange criminal, Knox had never heard of the A-Rave-ian Nights, but that was probably a good thing, considering.
Had he known, he had no doubt that he and Jiir-Row would have run off here and never returned. Now, though, it hurt. The place was an assault on all of his senses. All of them.

"This is dumb," he muttered and took Artemis by the hand. Time around them slowed until the dancers almost seemed to stand still, and the music was a dull thrumming and the wavelengths stretched on and on. He wasn't sure how Artemis's body and mind would react to a temporal full-stop (although she was probably better suited to it than even other Immortals) so an infinite-stretch would be the next best thing.

"I need you to lead, he said," and indicated the crowds. "You can follow the mental link with Roewk right?" He didn't ask about Ollie or anything like that. Artemis hadn't offered which meant she likely didn't know anything else. He would find out soon, though.

-

Veritaz nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose you are correct. We should alert the King and Queen about this alleged Peeping Tom - or Peeping...what would be the female version? Sue? Anyway, perhaps you should dress, first? I shall await you outside."

He turned and stopped suddenly. "It occurs to me you may not have a change of clothes on hand. Please, have a look in the wardrobe and dresser. Take anything you like that seems it will fit. I'll have the tailor-ninja make some outfits just for you."

With that, he shut the door behind him and buried his face in his hands. "Goddess give me strength.

-

Leporis scratched his stubble. "Well, I can do this." He spun around briefly, then returned to face the captain, hands outstretched. They were arranged such that it appeared one index finger cover the other thumb. Very slowly, he moved them apart, as if he were detaching his own thumb. After a moment, he put it back with a flourish, as if repairing his digit.

"Eh?"

Rick Thunder applauded.

-

Betelgeuse was gone. His mind had completely submerged into the crimson fury of battle. What little was left of him decided it would be a good idea to meet his charging opponents head on. Because that was going to end well. Shots bounced off his enhanced body or otherwise failed to slow him down and he pushed on and caught Taler by the shoulders, meaning to grapple with him.

"I've wrestled space boars larger than you," he taunted in a low almost-growl. "Tasty space-boars. You don't look so tasty to me."

[Monika]

"Do you miss it?" Messenger asked. "Do you miss her?"

Antitheon's icy stare shifted toward Messenger and he found himself smirking. Hah. The sister she willingly killed in cold blood? he thought. As if she'd miss that miserable wretch.

"Do you miss being her? Clara, I mean," Messenger clarified, rising from the crystalline throne.

The smirk disappeared from Antitheon's face.

"Human will is a remarkable thing," she said as she moved toward the back of the room, stopping in front of one of the fourteen massive cylinders that lined the wall. "It can be shattered into fragments. The connection to its host can be severed. It can even be relocated across time and space. But it cannot be destroyed. Despite Her best efforts, the Goddess has found that to be the one thing beyond Her power."

Antitheon winced. Everything Messenger said was true, of course, but that didn't make it any less painful. The Goddess, his Mother, was the most powerful being in the universe, a fact in which he took no small measure of pride. Even the lowliest of mortals who knew nothing else about Her were aware of her omniscience. To openly acknowledge and reveal this one thing She couldn't do - destroying the will of a mortal - didn't sit well with the angel.

"As we speak, your will sits perched atop this container, begging to be returned to its owner." Messenger pointed to the glass orb on top of the Light Element's cylinder. The wisps that were floating inside seemed to swim more vigorously and glow more brightly in the presence of Antitheon's Angel of Light.

"You've felt it, haven't you?" she continued. "The remnants of human emotion. Pride, maybe? Excitement? Some small amount of freedom and individuality. Perhaps you aren't as subservient to my brother as you'd like to be, and even that is a lingering aspect of her - your - personality. Even now, the pull your will has is strong. The only thing keeping it from flying back into your body is the overwhelming influence of Seraphina's All-revealing Light. And I guess the glass orb helps too."

Just why are you explaining all this to her? Antitheon wondered. He desperately wanted to say something out loud, but if this was a message his Mother wanted delivered, then interrupting it simply was not an option. Begrudgingly, he kept his thoughts to himself, eagerly awaiting the point to Messenger's explanation.

"Since human will is so powerful, yours is currently being used to maintain the seal keeping the Element of Light imprisoned in that tube," Messenger said. "But the Goddess has several other ways of accomplishing that task. Because you have killed the Immortal of Light and served your purpose, She has requested that this offer be made to you as a reward. Do you wish to be Clara Lux once more? Simply say 'yes' and I will return your will to your body. We'll take back Her sword, and you can go back to the life you had before."

Antitheon froze. This was why Messenger had him invite Clara inside. This was the reason for her explanation. This was the message his Mother wanted her to deliver. Equal parts incredulity and anger welled up inside him, and it took every fiber of his being to resist screaming. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused all his energy on maintaining his angelic composure. If he showed even the slightest hint of anger, it might influence Clara's decision, which he was certain went against the purpose of his Mother making the offer in the first place. And so he waited, knowing that regardless of the choice that was made, he would be having a serious discussion with his sister after the fact.

"Take your time," Messenger said. "It is in abundance here, after all. There is no reason to rush this decision, and there is no right or wrong answer. The Goddess is simply curious."

---

Artemis nodded, closing her eyes and leading Knox by the hand through the crowds of ravers. It was significantly easier to navigate the seas of people with time slowed, though no less unpleasant. She followed Roewk's energy signature and could almost make out his voice over the dull booms of the rave music. She wove through the crowds toward areas where the signal was stronger, avoiding collisions with the rabid partiers with her spatial sense abilities. After what felt like an eternity of walking (and it very well could have been that long, what with time slowed down), she eventually stopped once the signal was at its strongest.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that she was standing in front of a bar. Sure enough, standing on top of the bar was the Immortal of Wood, surrounded by dancers. With time reduced to an infinitesimal crawl, the pained, anguished expression on his face was clear for all to see. Though their interactions with one another had been brief, Artemis got the impression that Roewk was very monk-like. Of course he would be in such agony in this bastion of temptation.

So she smiled.

Knox wanted her to be more in touch with her emotions, right? It was a requirement for Focus!

Well, spite is an emotion, isn't it? she thought. Roewk had questioned her methods, doubted her intentions! He had refused to lend the Council his aid in their time of need and had run off with Ollie instead. It was because of his shortsightedness that the Immortal of Light was now dead and he found himself trapped in the rave dimension, practically being molested by a bunch of lascivious dancers. Artemis found it difficult to muster up much sympathy for either of them.

Let him suffer. At least for a little while, she thought. If it helps him learn his lesson, it will be worth it.

So she stood there watching Roewk, motioning for Knox to return time to normal. She conjured a barrier around herself and the Immortal of Time to defend against the onslaught of the resuming rave as she enjoyed the show. After what could have been another eternity of the ravers shaking their lady-bits uncomfortably close to the Immortal of Wood, Artemis finally turned to Knox and rather dully announced, "Oh look, I've found him. I suppose we can leave now."

In no major rush, Artemis created a spacefold with geometric mathemagic (a process significantly longer than just using her Immortal powers) and teleported herself, Knox, and Roewk back to the main room of the Super Land Royal Library, dumping the latter rather ungraciously onto the floor.

Taking her seat at the head of the table, she said simply, "Talk, Roewk."

---

Amelia exhaled a deep sigh and walked toward the wardrobe in her room. To her surprise, Veritaz's tailor-ninja had already stocked the thing with a variety of outfits that all seemed perfectly sized.

"Impressive," she noted, retrieving a suit jacket and skirt not unlike the ones she had been wearing the day before. Discarding the robe Veritaz had placed around her (neatly folding it, of course), she put on the business clothes, checked herself in the mirror, and opened the bedroom door.

"Shall we depart, then?" she asked, all too curious about how the King and Queen would react to this whole incident.

Emperor Awesome had better appreciate my efforts, she thought.

[Mizagium]

Clara Lux continued not looking at her master, Antitheon, as the Messenger spoke. In fact, she found it difficult to look at the Messenger herself. So, once it was indicated, she focused all her attention on the Pillar of Light. That was her there, or what had been. Her humanity – her soul? – acting as a seal on the Light Element.

Something…pulled on her. The faintest of sensations, like a whisper just out of range, or a flicker of motion, out of focus. A phantom itch that seems to move or disappear as soon as you try to scratch, providing no relief once it was gone.

Of course she’d felt lingering remnants of who she had been. She’d assumed that the All-Revealing Light had burned it all away, but hearing it now from the Messenger, that seemed a naïve assumption. Blasphemous as it was to think or acknowledge that the Goddess was incapable of something, it did make sense. And she was certain that the Messenger was being truthful. The rivalry between her and Antitheon was evident, but surely she wouldn’t blaspheme in the Goddess’ own home!

Clara chanced a look at Antitheon, and found him utterly still and neutral, which she took as confirmation.

What did she want?

That wasn’t a questions she had ever expected to have to answer again. What she wanted was to serve the Goddess, beyond that, her own desires were as nothing. She wanted what Seraphina wanted. But now the Goddess wanted her to choose. She had served Her, delivered a piece of Her power back Her, wiped one heretic from the world. Now she could…walk away?

Clara frowned at the Element, and thus, at herself.

That was Ollie, and every Immortal before her. She had ended that cycle.

She had killed her sister.

Something cold and sharp passed through her like a wave of winter air. She had killed Olivia Lux and now might be holding her soul prisoner. How could she? How could she do that and then walk away from what she’d done? It was the Goddess’ will, but…but…

“No,” Clara said before truly deciding. How could she go back to being human after this? For one, she’d tasted the power of Angels and gotten to serve the Goddess directly, which was truly the highest honor. But, perhaps more importantly, Clara felt what awaited her in the mortal realm.

Guilt.

Sorrow.

Regret.

Despair.

She had overestimated herself as a human. She had made her choice because she had known that she would literally be incapable of doubting the choice or regretting it later. Now the Messenger – The Goddess – was offering her all of that. It wasn’t really a choice.

Unless.

Clara wondered suddenly if this was a test of some kind. A test of loyalty? Of humanity? Of…something more esoteric? What was the right answer? Was there a right answer?

Clara inhaled sharply, realizing she’d drifted closer to the cylinder, and recoiled. She could not go back, not ever, not knowing what awaited her. All she could do – all she had left – was to continue serving as an Angelic Warrior. At least then she would never have a chance to regret or to doubt. The hard choices would be made for her, and that was better. Clara now knew what kind of person she really – truly – was.

And she hated it.

She spun and bowed. “Please, convey my deepest gratitude to the Goddess, but the greatest gift would simply be to continue serving her as I am – if that would not offend her too greatly.”

Please, take me away from here. I cannot continue to confront myself.

-

In spite of himself, and the situation, Knox chuckled at Artemis’ behavior. It wasn’t unlike her, exactly, but certainly not the same Artemis from even a few hours ago. She was changing, if slightly. Idly, he wondered if she was changing him.

“Please,” he added, once they were back in super Land. “What happened to Ollie? Wasn’t she with you?” He noted the lack of urgency in his voice.

-

Veritaz muttered a silent prayer to whatever deity was listening and beckoned Emily forward. It wasn’t a long journey – the Palace was only a single story, and some basement levels. Finer than most of Really Cool Land, but certainly less ostentatious, ambitious, or arrogant than the Imperial Towers of Awesome Land.

Through the throne room to the receiving room, which was still pretty nice, Veritaz had her wait while he vanished briefly. He returned quickly with the King and Queen in tow. King Randolph had a rather amused look on his face, as if he wasn’t sure if this was a prank or not, while Queen Francine wore one of indignation.

“Unacceptable,” she was saying as they entered.

“I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding,” the King muttered.

“I’m sure.”

“Well I certainly don’t believe it was – “

“Miss Robertson,” the Queen cut her husband off and rushed over the poor girl. “Veritaz briefed us on the situation. Please, you have my – and my husband’s – most sincere apologies. Please, sit.” She pulled the girl down to a sofa with her, leaving the King to awkwardly seat himself alone. “I hate to ask, as I’m sure you’ve given the story multiple times already, but if you would tell me everything – from the beginning – and we can get to the bottom of this immediately.”

Veritaz took up position inside, back to the closed door.

[Myrdraxxis]

Roewk inhaled, taking a moment to calm himself. A long moment. In fact, it dragged on for a full minute, a testament to both his lung strength and perhaps a worrying amount of stress. He liked to think of himself as a calm, rational person. Or a complete bore, as Noores would call him. But all of this was starting to get to him. Especially the small, smug smile that Artemis was wearing, probably completely unaware that she was doing so. Gods, if he hadn’t needed a way out of this place…

“Someone murdered Ollie.” He stated plainly. “I doubt that means much to you, but the fact remains that someone- a single person mind you, walked right up and slew the Immortal of Light.” Which was no small feat, he didn’t need to state. No Immortal would admit it, but some of their powers were simply more powerful, or at least more potent than others. Darkness, Light, Time, Space: the more conceptual elements tended to wield more variety of power than those tied to a material element. And more importantly… “And then stole her powers.”

He hadn’t been sure that’s what had happened at first. He’d never seen another Immortal die, but given time to consider it, this murderer had definitely stolen Ollie’s Light powers. “Where she went after that, I cannot say. I didn’t witness most of the fight. Regardless this is unprecedented.”

---

Captain Neero stared at Leporis for a moment, hiding his grin behind another swig of his drink. “So then,” he began, glancing at Leske. The man seemed to understand his reasoning instantly (which was weird, considering they hadn’t had more than a couple of conversations but whatever), and conjured up a pistol. The gun mage pressed the barrel to Leporis’ head.

“What I’m hearing is there’s no reason to keep you, an enemy combatant and intruder, alive.”

---

Gree grabbed Vin by the shoulder, holding the other man back right as he was about to teleport back into the fray. “We’re wasting time here.” Both ducked as a wave of whatever the fuck that space samurai guy was using came slicing through the air overhead. “Take the rest of the squad and find another way to the bridge.” Vin hesitated for a moment then nodded.

Gree watched the rest of his squad retreat back down the corridor slowly, then finally disappear. Talor, Larry and Rax were holding their own, barely. Their opponent has gone berserk, barely even paying attention to them anymore in a frenzy of furious attacks. Attacks that were beginning to make a complete mess of the hallway. How sturdy were these ships? Could they take this kind of damage without breaking? Gree didn’t fancy the idea of being sucked out into space.

“Keep him busy!” Gree ordered, deciding their course of action. This guy was clearly the “mid boss” of this place, as Corr would have put it. All they had to do was keep him busy while Vin and the rest accomplished their objective. That said…

“Easier said than done, boss!” Larry panted, hurling an orb of energy at Betelgeuse.

---

The commotion had moved elsewhere, leaving the fallout of this rather embarrassing (for some people), incident in its wake. Most of the Thundercougerfalconbird ninjas had returned to their duties, save for one.

Azzi let a small frown slip onto his face as he glanced around Amelia’s room. Something was off. He may have been “a complete and utter screw up why the hell did you bring back a balloon dinosaur” as his dad would have put it, but he was still a competent ninja. Something about this whole situation was off. Had played too perfectly. He had known Hrathen for a while now. Or at least, he was pretty sure he had. Azzi had only recently gotten his memories back and a part of him was suspicious that his dear old dad had messed with them somewhat in the process. Point was, Hrathen was a serious, sincere fellow and the only this situation could have occurred would be through Misunderstandings™.

“Just like my Ramen Land animes.” Azzi declared to the empty room. Something about Amelia had rubbed him the wrong way (and a little bit the right way hue hue hue) ever since she’d arrived. She was polite, unassuming, attractive without standing out. Textbook infiltration material. Either he was being paranoid here or someone was underestimating the shinobi of the Royal Family. His pride as a ninja would not stand for such a thing!

“Time to begin investigating.” He declared, again to an empty room. Now where had Hrathen gone off to…

[Calefrun]

“Wait, octopus freaks? What are you talking about?”

"The... the ones in Cloud Land?" Al stopped moving to reply, taken aback somewhat by his opponent's response. "Wait, how much do you know about what happened there? I was with some others on a ship who's captain needed to meet with Cloud Land's leader or something, but all of the people had been replaced by these gross octopus... things. We were lucky to get out of there alive. My buddy Gabe was hurt pretty bad..." He trailed off, remembering his friend's all-too-recent demise.

---

Kayla sighed, thinking about what had happened the last time she'd seen someone try to use the detachable thumb trick to get out of a sticky situation. She leaned against one of the bridge's control stations with her arms crossed and chimed into the conversation, "Can't you offer anything of value? Like what the hell you people want with us, for example?"

---

Cetis grunted. "Now listen here, you sassy lost child. I've got business with this kid too, so whatever space mission nonsense that Shogun jackass sent you on can wait. I decided to let you join us here because I had heard that the Star Samurai had a respect for tradition, but I see now that that simply isn't the case. I'll have to teach you that respect myself!"

Inexplicably, the tube on which the man stood suddenly began moving backwards, headed straight for Draconis. He adjusted his footing, and the tube began to rotate as well. Though it spun slowly at first, Cetis and his outstretched swords began to turn faster and faster, until he appeared as just a whirlwind of steel coming straight at the samurai.

Cozal opted to ignore whatever the hell was happening behind him, and instead focus on putting as much distance between himself and the two lunatics as possible. As he entered the loop, he was surprised to find that gravity seemed to continue pulling him towards the river, regardless of his orientation with respect to the ground. Before long, he found himself standing completely upside down as his tube reached the top of the loop.

[Sariel of Tevet]

Atsáli placed a robotic hand on Kayla's shoulder.

"I can answer that. Leporis is a Star Samurai, and not a very good one it seems." He shot a glance over at Leporis and scoffed at his half baked thumb removal. Atsáli, could remove his thumb entirely and reattach it if he wanted. For realsies. It only mostly has everything to do with him being a robot. It still counts though.

"They are destroyers of worlds, and even slavers. They have vast armies that they lead to overtake any planet they come across. They are monsters, tools, and worse, cowards."

Atsáli raised a blade in Leporis' direction. "I'll only ask this because it seems to be your ship, but allow me to end what he calls his life. I can assure you, his existence brings no value to any of us, nor to the rest of the universe."

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

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you."

Captain Albert Alexander stumbled onto The Sea Slater, occasionally being pushed upright by his ghostly crew.

"Tell me, Sky Captain, have you ever wrangled a bull before? It's quite a task, believe you me. However, my expertise is not exactly in...land creatures. "

He began to stroll about the ship, twirling his magnificent mustache and allowing himself to fall into his memories. The ghostly chorus realized what that look meant, and began to play background music for his harrowing tale.

"You see, some years ago, there was a great white shark that had begun to terrorize the fishing grounds of a small village. I was passing through to resupply and was nearly turned away. Even if they wanted to sell to me, they couldn't spare the rations. No fish was coming in and all of their spare planks went into repairing their damaged boats. "

The chorus was still humming in the background, rhyming about planks and a somewhat clever music pun about scales and fish.

"So I set out to kill this great white, but as you know, a mighty predator like that cannot be easily trapped. It was much too strong for any traps the villagers left out in the harbor for it. I had to devise a plan, a cunning plan, one that has caused fisherman half the world over to sing my praises. We took all the spare supplies we could find and created a female great white shark. We plopped it into the water, and waited for the hunger for fish to give way to a hunger of a different sort. While the great white was...distracted...my men and I attacked."

Captain Albert Alexander pointed his mustache toward a wall behind him, at a mounted shark.

"That shark isn't the same one, but I assure you, they all look quite similar, so it doesn't matter. Sky Captain, old pal, what we need, is a female bull to wrangle in our constellation."

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

The Nightman was wandering about his hideout, servants in tow. They were on their hands and knees, struggling to keep up with his pace, and scrubbing his codpiece with tiny toothbrushes. He came across Sark after passing a few empty rooms. Well, they weren't empty, you see. They were just rooms that housed the royal servants, who amount to nothing you see. Hence the rooms being...em...pty....ah. Sorry, sir. I just thought our readers would like an explanation of...to demonstrate you villainy........I'll stop.

The Nightman begrudgingly rolled his eyes in the presence of such idiocy, and tried to pushed it out of his mind before approaching Sark for a bit of business.

"Hard at work I see, or, I think. It's hard to tell with all the starting and stopping sometimes. Now that we have Heimrall safely tucked away, who, or what, is our next target?"

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

A searing pain swept through Heimrall's body and she slipped back into consciousness. A flock of scavenging birds, eyes crying the strange, sparkling, sand that this world was filled with were clawing and scraping at her skin. She awoke screaming, without quite realizing why until she saw the vultures tearing away at her. She swung at the closest one, but it merely blinked backward, and then continued its attack.

She managed to climb to her knees and swung more violently back and forth. The entire flock began to blink around her, disappearing and reappearing all the time. A rather large one swooped in and clawed her right below the eye, creating a large gash. She managed to catch it by the throat for a brief moment, before it blinked back into the sky. The bleeding stopped and she raised a hand to her eye. Nothing was there, not even a scratch. She was even now positioned as she was moments ago, before being attacked.

"Are..are they...turning back time when I attack them? Oh my God, my friends will not believe this. I HAVE TO LIVE STREAM THIS ISH."

She began to fiddle with her phone and pull up her social media account, unaware that the largest of the flock was in a nose dive toward her. It pulled up at the last second and it's beak tore at the side of her throat before heading back up into the sky. Heimrall slumped forward and her eyes began to glaze over. Her thumbs twitched about her phone, mechanically stumbling through her apps. Another sandstorm started to blow through, spitting sand into her open wound.

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

The walls echoed as Heimrall shot up and her lungs filled back with air. She coughed and sputtered, and struggled to sit up. Her mind was filled with a flash of memories, and of the final strike to her throat. She put her camera into forward camera mode to use it as a mirror, and saw a thin layer of that strange sand covering her wound. It didn't burn. In fact, it almost just felt numb, displaced even. Everything was still a blur.

The cave she was in seemed to have basic amenities, but barely even that. The only blanket was the one she seemed to be laying on, and there were just pots and pans scattered around here and there. She stood up and walked to the front of the cave, and could see the sandstorm raging outside its mouth. She touched her neck.

"Did a sandstorm blow all of that onto my neck and stop the bleeding? I'd say that was great luck, but I bet this is awful for my skin. Ugh."

She flicked her wrist to use her powers to brush the sand off her skin, but felt a rush of air and blur of lights and sound. After it passed, Heimrall was sitting back down on the blanket on the other side of the cave.

"Did...did I just...what's wrong with me?"

She looked at her hands, bewildered. And saw that her veins were now sparkling, as if the sand was running through her veins now.

Sand was sifting around outside the cave, and the sound of feint coughing followed it. Heimrall turned around and saw a figure walking her way. She couldn't quite make out any details about him, aside from the tattered cloak, and wild silver hair and beard.

"Who..are you? Did you bring me here?"

[Calefrun]

"I'll leave that decision up to you," Sark replied to the Nightman without looking up, instead staying focused on his work. "The way I see it, there are two ways that we can proceed. The first approach uses this-" Finally setting his tools down, the vampire lord stepped aside to allow his ally to view his creation.

The object lying on the table had the appearance of an ornately carved mask, and was practically radiating magical energy. After pausing a moment for dramatic effect, Sark continued his monologue.

"Using the energy I absorbed from the Immortals known as Zais and Heimrall, I have determined that the magic employed by these beings gives off a unique- and traceable- signature. Wearing the mask enables one to sense this power, and will lead the wearer to the Immortal to whom it belongs. There remains one problem, however." His face contorted somewhat, as though what he was about to say brought him physical discomfort.

"With the power I've drawn, I'm confident that I can hold my own against any of the other Immortals in single combat, at least in terms of raw power. But there is one of them who is... exceedingly intelligent, to a degree that I would consider her a threat on merit of cleverness alone. Ruthless too; if she were only possessed of higher ambition I might consider her a potential ally. She is still my lesser, of course, but I've learned the price of reckless arrogance, and have no intention of tempting fate."

"For that reason, I have sought a means to identify which Immortal my device is tracking, based on the unique elemental power controlled by each. That way, we can avoid her, and instead focus first on potentially easier targets. The theory behind it is simple enough, but the universe in which these beings reside is unstable, containing a myriad of pocket dimensions and weak boundaries allowing for relatively easy travel between it and other universes. In order to accurately track Immortal energy within this nonsensical mess of intertwining realities, the device will need a powerful focus. As of yet, I have not identified any suitable material."

"Alternatively..." he reached for something on his desk then extended his arm towards the Nightman. Opening his hand, he revealed a pair of glittering jewels, which he held uncomfortably close to the Nightman's groin. "I created these while attempting to develop a solution to my focus problem. I call them Entropy Sapphires, and they each contain a reservoir of energy stolen from one of the Immortals. It's not quite as potent as the power that now resides within me, but inserting these into your codpiece should augment your abilities and give you some influence over darkness-aspected or earth-aspected beings."

"Personally, I would encourage a subtle approach. But if you were to endow yourself with the power of these gems, you could feasibly thrust your way into their world, erect an army of considerable size, and penetrate the defenses of the world's defenders with a full frontal assault."

---

The man considered Heimrall's question. "I am..." He tugged at the tangled mess of hair under his chin as though deep in thought. "...don't remember. But yes...... brought you here..." His voice had a strange, almost otherworldy quality to it, and at times it would fade out despite his mouth continuing to move.

"Come..." He motioned for her to follow him out of the cave. "Even here...... not safe. You must leave or else...... just like me."

[Monika]

Messenger simply nodded, her expression one of disinterest. "I see. Thank you for answering," she said. "I will relay your response to the Goddess."

A slight, almost imperceptible smirk crawled back onto Antitheon's face. Walking over to Clara, he placed a consoling hand on her shoulder and brought his lips close to her ears.

"I apologize if Messenger's question has distressed you," he whispered. "But I sincerely appreciate your answering. Now..." He shot a glance back toward his sister and, struggling to restrain the venom from seeping into his voice, asked, "Were there any more questions?"

Messenger shook her head. "That was all."

"Very well. In that case, Clara, you are free to go. For the time being, I have no task for you. You may do as you wish. Perhaps you could travel the world, proclaiming the glory of my Mother." He smiled, as warm a smile as he could deliver. "The choice is yours. My only request is that you refrain from going after the other Immortals. For now, at least. You could use the time to recover."

Raising his hands into the air, Antitheon conjured a sphere of angelic energy around Clara. "I shall see you again. Please enjoy yourself in the meantime. And if ever you need me, remember that I am only a prayer away. Farewell, my Angel of Light."

And, just like that, the sphere dissipated and Clara Lux was gone.

"Your little test failed, Messenger," the angel sneered. "She chose to forsake that vile curse known as humanity and continue fighting on my behalf."

"It was not a test and therefore could not have failed," she responded. "It was simply a question."

Antitheon growled. "Well your question could have cost me my servant! Do you have any idea how hard it was to find the perfect candidate for the All-revealing Light?!"

"It was not my question," Messenger corrected. "It was a question of the Goddess."

"I am so sick of you trying to ruin my plans and then hiding behind my Mother! I hate you!"

"I know."

"GRRRAAAARGH! AND I HATE THAT MOST OF ALL!" he screamed, his voice and body trembling with fury. "You...You just...just sit there! Looking down on me! Always so calm, acting all high and mighty! Constantly taunting me! I HATE you! I just want to snap your little neck!"

"Would that make you feel better?" Messenger asked, unfazed.

"More than anything!"

Before Messenger could utter a word in response, Antitheon had pounced. He leapt toward the crystalline throne, tackling his sister to the floor. Using his knees to pin her to the ground, he reeled back a fist and delivered a vicious punch to her face.

"I HATE YOU!" he said again, another fist following the declaration. "I HATE HOW YOU ALWAYS GET TO TALK TO MOTHER! I HATE HOW SHE CHOSE YOU INSTEAD OF ME! I HATE HOW NO MATTER WHAT I DO, I'M JUST NEVER GOOD ENOUGH!"

"Antitheon," Messenger choked out, "please..."

"I. CAN'T. STAND YOU!" he shouted.

The brutal beating went on for a time. Every sentence, every word, every expression of contempt and disdain accompanied by another savage blow. Before long, the Angel had turned his sister's face into a swollen, bruised, unrecognizable mess. Panting heavily, he finally stood up, releasing his captive.

Still lying on the floor, Messenger touched a finger to her lips. She examined the tips, now coated in blood, and said, "Are you satisfied now?"

"Very," the angel retorted. "I'm going to show you just what I'm capable of. I'm going to show Mother what I'm capable of. I'll make sure that I become the favorite." Turning away from her, Antitheon summoned another angelic energy sphere around his body.

"Where are you going?" Messenger asked.

"Now that I'm in a better mood, I have some business to tend to. A certain person to visit. The next time I return, Mother will regard me as a hero, and you will be relegated to the shadows where you belong," he said, his voice ice cold. Taking one more glance at his battered sister, he added, "Go clean yourself up. You disgrace the Marble Palace with your current appearance."

And then he disappeared...

---

Artemis froze, any hint of a smirk vanishing from her face. The first thing that came rushing to her mind was Sark. After all, how many people out there were actively seeking out Immortals to take their powers?

But that can't be right, she thought. Roewk referred to this person as a 'she'. 'Clara,' he said before. Could he have shapeshifted? His waitress possessed such an ability, so perhaps he does as well.

A microsecond later, she had dismissed that thought, too.

No. Even if he could shapeshift, this doesn't make sense. Ollie was an Immortal. Reckless. Impulsive. Untrained. But an Immortal nonetheless. Sark is clever, to be sure, but still comparatively weak. That someone like Sark could have so easily slain her and taken her powers is unlikely. It borders on absurd. Artemis shook her head, convinced that the so-called lord of all vampires was not behind this. But then, who was this mysterious Clara, so powerful that she could singlehandedly kill one of the planet's fourteen demigods. And, more importantly, did she intend to come after the rest of them?

After a few moments of consideration, she finally responded out loud. "To the extent that I can express such an emotion, I am...happy that you are unharmed." She briefly glanced at Knox, as if to ask 'Am I doing this right?', before continuing with a heavy sigh. "You do not like me, Roewk. I do not need my Telepathy to sense that. But I shall ask you this: Would you be willing to attend the next Council meeting? If a being like the one you have described truly exists, then she poses a significant threat to our group and the world at large. It would behoove us to come together and plan ahead, lest we lose another one of our number."

---

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Amelia sniffled, her eyes glistening with tears. "I...I just thought I was going to come here and invite you to dinner. Emperor Awesome really wanted to start things off on the right foot and mend relations with Really Cool Land. So he sent me here. I came to the palace, I socialized at the party, I got roped into Leon's impromptu indoor beach volleyball game, and I thought I played decently...I was doing everything I could to put my best foot forward and represent Awesome Land well..."

She paused, taking the opportunity to draw in a deep breath.

"But your guards didn't seem to appreciate that. Ever since I set foot on the palace grounds, the ninja had been glaring at me, as if I were some sort of criminal! I understand I'm from Awesome Land, but that's no reason to profile me like that!"

She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief (conveniently in the pocket of her borrowed suit) and went on.

"After what felt like a year, I was finally granted an audience with you and was able to make my request, and Your Majesty was most gracious and accommodating. You even allowed me to rest in the palace, permitting me to use a spare bedroom! I couldn't believe how kind you were. But still, your palace ninja were...decidedly less so. Even as they escorted me to the room, they kept eyeing me suspiciously. At one point, I thought they were going to throw me in the dungeon!"

Amelia shook her head, whispering, "I only wish that their intentions could have been that benign. When I finally got to my room, I took off my business clothes and changed into a nightgown that was in the wardrobe. I was so tired, I fell asleep almost immediately."

Another deep breath.

"And then...I woke up. And when I did, I was completely naked. The nightgown was nowhere to be seen. I screamed, as anyone in my position would have done, and that's when it happened. Dozens, maybe hundreds of your guards came rushing in, each one of them staring at my naked body. No doubt that's what they had been trying to get from me from the start. That's why they had been glaring at me all night long! I was absolutely mortified! I just...I don't understand why...I really wanted to help our countries finally get along and now..."

She trailed off, burying her face in Queen Francine's shoulder.

[Bruce Leroy]

Arriving at the coordinates, Cod felt himself becoming anxious. ‘All these years and never once has he done anything like this? It’s not his normal MO. Show up, raise hell, disappears for weeks on end, and repeat. What is he playing at?’ “…you are not to listen to anything that he tells you,” Big Bass’ words rang in his head. The curiosity what happened between them started to take hold of him. He snapped out of it. Orders are orders and he did not intend on being removed. Caught in a daze, he failed to notice the blinking light on the navicomputer. Reaching out his hand he thought to himself, ‘And here we go…’

Marcus appeared on the screen. “I see you can follow directions. Lower your shields and I’ll let you in.”

“One, why would I do such a thing. You’d just shoot me right then. Two, there is nothing here.”

“Look if MGF wanted you dead, we would have just killed you when you were fighting before.” Marcus paused so the commando could think about that statement. “And think about it, you never know where we are unless Fish wants you to know where we are. Did you forget that he had a secret base inside of someone else’s secret base?”

Cod paused and contemplated what the Gear had said. “Fine.” He said begrudgingly. Lowering his shield felt unnatural, he did not feel like he could trust the man, but up to this point he had not lied to him. Left out details yes, but not lied. He lowered his shield and as soon as he did he felt his ship being pulled towards an unknown destination. In that next moment he saw a shimmer and suddenly a space station appeared. “Oh what the fuck? How is this possible?”

“Fish has powerful friends. Powerful friends that like to give him things for his work. You’ll be brought into a hanger. Feel free to exit the ship once the hanger doors shut, I will be along shortly. Oh and try not to break anything until I get there.” With that the image disappeared.

Sitting in his chair Commando was and waited until his ship had stopped moving. He heard the enormous hanger door slam shut. ‘Might as well head out and wait for ‘em.’ Rising out of his chair, he headed for the shuttle door. Once outside he stood on his landing pad and waited for Marcus. He only had to wait a few moments before the Gear stood in front of him. He tensed a little.

“Right this way.” Marcus said as nonchalantly as he could muster, pointing towards a hallway. The two started off into the dimly lit hallway. “So… How was your flight?”

“Really?!”

“Look I was told to be your guide by MGF. To me that means at least attempting to be sociable.
”
“You know it wasn’t so bad minus the being tricked into killing those guys.”

“Are you really going to bring that up? Let. It. Go. You did a great deed for all in the story."

“Still was a dick move.”

“Whatever man, you know you loved every moment of it.”

“You right.”

“See common ground was that so hard? Anyway the boss is just through these doors.” He pointed at two closed doors each marked with ‘MGF’ in gold lettering.”

“Bit of a show off don’t you think?”

“He has an entire secret space station and that is what you choose to comment about. See you around man.” With that Marcus turned around and a few moments later he was gone.
He pushed open the door and entered the dark room. In front of him were a desk and two chairs facing the empty void of space.

“So you finally arrived?” MGF said as he turned around in his chair.

“Are we really going to do the cliché evil bad guy routine?”

“Fuck off, this is my ship and I want you here. If I wanted you could be dead in a moment’s notice.”

“I’m sure.”

“Please,” Fish motioning towards the empty chair, “have a seat.”

---

“Hmmm I nev’r though of that mate. But to be honest the land ain’t exactly my thing as well. You know ‘Sky Captain’ and all. That being said I’m sure we can figure some’in out.” Bactus stroked his beard. “Wade, come here lad.”

“The name is Jimm..”

“Never mind about the lass you met last time we made port. How are the new upgrades we got? Anything of note?”

“Well,” the first mate started, “the ships were small and didn’t have much to be salvaged. But we did manage to attach some new guns to the bow and a cannon that shoots nets.”

“Well that just sounds silly we’d never have a us forWAIT A MINUTE! Cap’n Alexander, me thinks I have an idea on how to get us that female. We’ll need a lot of alcohol, bull semen, a waffle iron, gamblers den, a mass amount of wenches, and a spot of luck. With all of these we might just have a chance.”

“Sir what do you expect to do with… you know I don’t even want to know what you have planned.”

The Sky Captain just smiled at the lad. "You'll see lad, you'll see."

[Bruce Leroy]

Preceding with caution, the commando walked towards the seat his advisory gestured towards. Sitting down he felt himself tense up. He looked MGF in the eye and for a moment that seemed to last an eternity the room fell silent. Finally Fish started.

“I assume my father sent you to capture me and bring me back to him.”

“That would be correct. Am I correct in assuming that you will not be coming quietly?”

“That would also be correct.”

“Then what’s next?”

“You are going to listen and then leave.”

“Yeah that’s not going to happen. You are coming with me.”

“I think what I have to say will peak your interest. Don’t you want to know what happened to me at the academy?”

Cod’s interest had been peaked. “Go on…”

“Well as you already know, Big Bass is my father. While at the academy… it was expected that I was to exceed. Any failure was met with swift chastisement. So I kept pushing my limits further and further. Whenever I thought that I had finally distanced myself from you, there you were forcing me to dig deeper. Nonetheless, without you pushing I never would have studied enough to learn all the skills I needed to learn the truth. You see, one night I stumbled upon a particularly interesting file. Not only was I Big Bass’s son, I was his clone.”

*dramatic music sounds in the background*

“Dammit Baird get out of here!” Fish commanded. Gathering himself he continued, “Not only that but it seemed that he had made several other clones of himself, three to be exact. To this point I have only been able to locate on of my clone siblings.”

Cod knew he was hearing too much. ‘Extract and leave. Simple no more talking.’ With that Cod jumped out of his seat and pulled out a handgun. “Enough of your lies! You are coming with me, like it or not.”

“You damned fool. How do you ever plan to free yourself from the constraints placed upon you by some old bastard that you’ve never even met before this mission. True freedom will come once you are free from his grasp.”

“There is plenty of freedom in what I do. Providing people of this land with protection is paramount to me. If I have to sacrifice a little for the greater good, then so be it.”

Suddenly the room fell dark. “You will hear what I have to tell you.” With that a bright purple beam came to life. The beam was about a meter and a half long and with the light emitted he could see MGF’s face.

“Really!?!?” Cod said dumbfounded. “Are we really going to fight with laser swords?”

“You could always just listen to what I have to say…”

Before he could finish his sentence Cod had lit up his own yellow laser sword. “Fuck it lets just get this started already.” he cried and he charged towards his old adversary.

[Mizagium]

Knox considered in silence for a long moment, nodding absently at Artemis when she looked to him. She was getting better at speaking to others, of recognizing that not everyone could be bullied. One day he would make sure she never actually lost her ability to command – although he suspected she wouldn’t need reminding.

It was very upsetting that one of their order had been killed, even more so for Knox that it had been Ollie. He had personally recruited her, more or less. And she had died as a result. He was taking responsibility for her death even before he realized it. Sarah, he thought, would assure him it wasn’t his fault – that Ollie had made her own decisions. He couldn’t have done anything. Artemis, on the other hand, would probably tell him it was indeed his responsibility that Ollie had been killed, that her death was at least partially on his shoulders. She wouldn’t mean it to be malicious, just facts.

Already knowing what kind of reactions he would get, Knox elected not to bring it up.

“I think we definitely need to call another Council meeting,” he agreed once Artemis had finished speaking to Roewk. “I had hoped we wouldn’t need to call another so soon after Zais – of course, I had also hoped that the Council would simply stay in sessions and not disband.”

He drummed his fingers on his knee. “Could it have been Karzem?” he wondered aloud. “Or an agent of Chaos? He likes to use proxies.” But he wasn’t so sure.

Hoping that their telepathic link was still established, Knox thought to Artemis, Somehow I feel like we caused this. I think we set a dangerous precedent with the Zais incident. He still couldn’t bring him self to even think of the event for what it was: fratricide.

-

Leporis raised his hands in defense. “Whoa, whoa man, I’m just a desk jocky, ya dig? Sure I was a soldier once, but we weren’t slavers or anything that bad.” He shrugged. “I mean I’m pretty useless, yeah, but I’ll not have you talk shit about the Shogunate or Shogun Artcturus.”

Leporis started to make a move toward Atsáli, but stopped short, realizing he was outgunned.

“Look, I’m honestly just following orders. Shogun Arcturus took over not terribly long ago and started handing out assignments to his new inner circle. Loose ends from Polaris’ regime, personal grudges to settle, wrapping up the Polemos – that kind of thing. A few of us were to try to take ships orbiting Earth.”

He sniffed. “You didn’t hear it from me, but Shogun is mighty interested in this place. Can’t imagine why. Backwater. No cosmic presence. Barely a footnote in galactic astrography. Man could disappear here and never be found. Criminals. Outlaws.” He paused meaningfully. “Cosmic Crusaders.”

-

Betelgeuse snarled something in a harsh, alien tongue as his prey escaped. It was getting harder for him to maneuver. Starship corridors were straight and narrow, not built for hunters. Not built for warriors. He liked the hunt. Enjoyed stalking. He was patient. He could fight hand-to-hand, but whenever he did, he tended to get carried away.

Which was what was happening.

He didn’t used to get like this. Hunter’s Blood hadn’t always made him go berserk. But ever since Antares…whatever Ophiuchus had done to him – besides the arm – had changed him. He wasn’t exactly complaining, but right now, he was fucking it up royally.

Larry’s orb of energy wasn’t really more than an annoyance, and Betelgeuse batted it away – right through another wall. Some of his Blood seeped into the energy orb, causing it to tear away the hull as it arced away. More and more alarms sounded. The ship bucked and pitched. Somewhere, air started leaking into vacuum.

Calm

Betelgeuse’s vision cleared marginally. He didn’t immediately chase after the warriors. The ship was going down. He was still on it. Even being Blood Raged couldn’t completely suppress survival instincts. Better to let the animals escape now. Resume the hunter.

With a huff, he turned his back on them and made for the nearest airlock.

-

Vega stopped moving entirely. "I...Octopus freaks...that can't be." She chewed on that a moment. Could it be true? The Shogunate would never deal with the Octopodes. Everyone knew they couldn't be trusted. They were masters of disguise, infiltration, and deception. They never made a straight deal, and were known to have scammed entirely civilizations out of their planets.

"I...would like to call a truce," she called. "I would like you to tell me everything that occurred at Cloud Land. Everything you witnessed, everything you experienced." After a moment, she added, "That may not sound very convincing to you, but I am a Star Samurai of a kind. I give my word on my honor. I will not go back on that. Please, I need to hear this."

-

To his credit, Draconis did not falter. “Anata no shin ni chokumen suru he said solemnly, then ran – on top of the water – right at Cozal, pointedly ignoring Cozal’ whirlwind of tube and blades. "Face your death with chin high and swords drawn, Cozaltene! Do not embarrass yourself any further"

-

Francine sighed and patted Emily as she wept, making indistinct comforting noises. “There, there, now. It’s alright. Once again you have my deepest apologies for this incident.” With her other hand, she massaged her temples. “I very highly doubt it was anyone in the palace, although I suppose that isn’t a great comfort, considering.”

She had a lot more to say about Emily recounting of the tale, but she seemed awfully young. Twenty at the oldest, but she suspected younger – especially now, and she remembered raising teenagers. Oh yes, did she remember. The act of mentally suppressing those year nearly forced a migraine.

“Listen, Miss Robertson, why don’t you stay here with me for a bit. I have my husband and the whole palace ninja guard investigating the issue, but once you have calmed down a little, why don’t we do a little investigating on our own, hm? Oh, the men are just fine, but they could never understand just how distressing this is for us women.”

She looked pointedly at Randolph and Vertiaz – who exchanged a long-suffering look and left the room, delflated.

She eased the girl away from her shoulder and met her eyes. “What do you say? Shall we bring this perverted perpetrator to justice?”

-

Turns out, Hrathen hadn’t actually gone anywhere. Veritaz had ordered Azzi to “take him somwhere I can’t kill him” and then left. Fearing for his life and his testicles, Hrathen had stuck by Azzi. Admittedly, he hadn’t made much noise sense – and Azzi wasn’t the best at remembering – but still.

“I’d rather it not be like an anime, please,” Hrathen muttered. “In fact, I think I should just start doing penance. Like digging a hole. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll go our back and dig the deepest hole possible. I’ll make a whole undergound city. Then I’ll cover it up and live there. I’ll bury myself so deep that not even Veritaz can find me and kill me.”

[Myrdraxxis]

"Enemy combatant is bugging out!" Larry reported, somewhat unnecessarily s Gree could very well see that their bloodcrazed opponent had broken out of his rage and was the decision to retreat. A sensible decision, if the blaring alarms and worrying shifting of the ship were any indication. The deck lurched beneath his feet and Gree had to catch himself against the wall to remain upright.

"Vin!" he barked into his radio feed. "Status report!"

"Found the bridge-" came the garbled reply, nearly drowned out by distant explosions. Gree winced. "Grabbed what we could. Making our way back to you."

"No time. Find another way off the ship and we'll pick you up." Gree said, turned and motioning his remaining team members to follow him. The team broke into a run, falling back down the corridor. Larry yelped as an overhead panel fell from its place, sending sparks flying and metal crashing. Gree muttered a quiet curse and dove back into their shuttle, still somehow safely parked up against the breach they'd created.

A few terrifying moments later and their shuttle detached from the Shogunate vessel. Gree sighed and leaned back in his seat, carefully guiding the small craft away.

"Getting a signal from one of those escape pods." Rax reported. Gree nodded. At least Vin and the others were able to escape as well. Now with any luck they'd managed to data-mine the ship for all it was worth.

---

Neero stared at Leporis and then out the viewport. Down, towards their planet. He honestly wasn't too surprised to here about the strange interest this "Shogun" had with their world. Maybe he was a little biased, but he could kid of understand why someone would be interested in their world. Crazy shit happened down there. Hell, this space battle was probably the least strange thing to happen to him in a while.

"Send a message down to the surface." He declared, finally. "Dunno who it should really go to, but Lord Dace should know about the fleet suddenly surrounding this planet."

"This a recent thing, I wonder?" Leske spoke up, eyeing Atsáli and then their captive. "Pretty sure I heard that people from this world went to space recently, and there wasn't any mention of a Cosmic Shogunate." 'Magnus' notes never mentioned anything about it either.' he thought. 'Codex?'

'Bossman logged a few reports about spacefaring civilizations he'd encountered before, but nothing from this dimension. The closest thing I have on record is the OCU exploratory fleet which is uh...something like this, really.

"Whatever it is, it's bad news for us." Neero concluded. "On our own up here, limited intelligence and an apparent galaxy-spanning empire gunning for us." Yda nodded in agreement.

"So are we turned back then?" The first mate asked, already half-turning to begin barking out orders, readying for atmospheric reentry.

"Pff, no."

She faltered, rounding back on her captain and her usual stern expression broken into a look of disbelief. "Sir?"

"We're on the edge of a new frontier here, Yda." Neero grinned. "We can't falter here, just because a massive, heavily armed fleet of intergalactic weeaboos want to kill us!" To Yda's horror there were excited murmurs of agreement from the bridge crew. "We're space explorers! Adventurers! Do adventurers run at the first sight of danger?"

'That's exactly what we usually do.' Yda didn't answer aloud, even as several crew members responded with a loud 'no!'.

"Of course not!" Neero cheered, now well and truly enthused, just as he was well and truly deep into his fifth martini. "We dare to press forward, damn the dangers! We'll send these Ramen Land rejects home crying into their dakimakuras!" A slightly confused, but nonetheless inspired cheer came from his crew, prompting a victorious smile from Neero. "Full speed ahead, I say! Set our course and let's charge right past this lot!"

"Sir, Gree's crew reports that theyre all back aboard."

"Excellent." Neero's smile grew. "Then have our tech boys tear through any data they grabbed and let's blow this joint." He began to walk towards his usual place at the head of the bridge. THen paused. "Oh, and throw this guy in the brig, I guess."

"We turned that into a petting zoo." Yda muttered.

"Well throw him in there, then."

---

"It didn't feel like anything Karzm could do." Roewk sighed, slumping in his seat. "In fact, I'd say that this strange opponent matched Ollie. It was eerie." he frowned. "We've had issues with others misusing the power of the Elements before. Xavian being the obvious case, but this..." he trailed off, the implications not something that left him feeling very comfortable. The moment stretched on, Artemis' question hanging between them as the Immortal of Wood considered his option.

Roewk closed his eyes for a moment and then slowly nodded. He'd made his decision before Artemis even asked, to be honest. Roewk was able to put his own feelings aside for this matter. As much as the Council (and its rcent actions) made him uneasy, this was too much to simply overlook.

"Aye, I'll be there." He answered the other Immortal.

---

Azzi, to his utter embarrassment, jumped as Hrathen spoke. He rounded on the other ninja and let out a loud, totally not nervous laugh. "Oh, don't be such a drama queen!" He slapped Hrathen on the shoulder. "Besides, Veritaz would totally be able to find you anyway." Azzi began pacing, glancing around the room as he went. "I don't think we're dealing with a simple case of Perverse Paraphernalia Purloining. Seriously man, nothing about that struck you as odd?"

[Sariel of Tevet]

Atsáli emitted a low hum of disapproval and crossed his arms and drew his attention to Neero.

"Captain, I will lend you my sword. I see no reason as to why we should not work together in this endeavor. Cowards as they may be, the Shogun are not to be taken lightly. Ceinia, my planet, was under the control of one country, Polemos. For generations its army swept through the planet, country by country, seizing control of their people and their armies. The Shogun arrived and defeated an army that conquered our entire world. "

"And besides, I am not letting this one leave my gaze. "

Atsáli eyed Leporis and stood next to him.

"I'll follow him down to this...petting zoo. I have questions for him."

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

"Bactus," Captain Albert Alexander scratched his head with his hat, "I sure do hope you know where we can get all of these things. Especially the uh...bull semen. I have had many adventures in my day, but that is one that I might like to not try my hand at."

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

The Nightman's began to rub his codpiece against the Entropy Sapphires seductively, which of course, were still awkwardly placed in Sark's hand. The surface of the obsidian codpiece started to melt around the gems and absorb them, along with their powers. His nether regions began to tingle with darkness.

"Perhaps even another idea, my friend. How many of these Entropy Sapphires are you able to have made?"

The Nightman snapped his fingers and a servant rushed into the room and fell to their knees, holding up a large remote with a single button. He rolled his eyes and kicked the servant in the side, and just glared. The servant soon realized that pushing a button is beneath the prince of darkness, and pressed it for him.

The walls of the room all began to retract into the ceiling and filled the air with the sounds of machinery hissing and scraping. A large factory, creating hundreds upon hundreds of mechanical clones of The Nightman, was fast at work.

"Perhaps, my army and I, powered by these gems, could create a bit of a...distraction. Which may allow you to single out the Immortals as they become separated. They no doubt will have to meet soon in order to track down my newest pet."

The Nightman pat his hand against his infinity belt, referencing Heimrall.

"Even if you can find them with that mask, and I am sure you will, you won't want to be taking them on while they are grouped like that."

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

Heimrall stood up and dusted her pants off.

"Good. Leaving sounds good."

She waved her phone around, in search of more bars. There was no service, wherever she was, so she huffed and put it away.

"So how do we leave then? Or do you not know? I assume if you knew how to leave you would have done it already."

[Calefrun]

"Charge on through, huh?" Kayla muttered to herself. "That's not... the worst plan I've ever heard, I guess. I think I'll just go man the guns. Or the bar. Whichever I find first."

Leaving the bridge, she picked a direction and started making her way through the ship. She passed some of the destruction caused by the recent battle, and shook her head in an attempt to clear the image from her mind.

"It's fine. Everything's fine. We definitely aren't going to crash or explode this time. Not on my watch."

---

Al hesitated, and for a brief moment considered continuing his attempt to escape. Deciding that Vega would probably find him anyway, he climbed out of his hiding place and approached the Star Samurai, doing his best to hide the extent of his injuries. He wasn't sure what interest she had in the octopi, but at the very least her willingness to talk proved that she could be reasoned with. He might survive this yet.

He positioned himself closely enough to his attacker that he could speak without having to raise his voice, but far enough away that he could react if she decided to go back on her word. Leaning against a large piece of Underboob debris, he began, "You want to hear about that misadventure, huh? It all started with a man named Uggo..."

---

"Oh shit!" Cozal shouted over the roar of the river, raising his weapon and bracing for Draconis' attack. As soon as the Star Samurai came within striking distance, however, a large, ghostly arm appeared between him and his prey.

A voice not belonging to any of the combatants bellowed, "HORA!!," and the arm rocketed a punch directly into Draconis' chest at an incredible speed, sending him sailing far enough into the air that he escaped the loop's warped gravity and began to plummet.

Cetis abruptly stopped spinning, pulled a pair of binoculars out of somewhere, and used them to watch the man fall. "Oh! Oh! Oh! It's clean! Hang on, I got this!" He raised the weapon in his left hand, which was now a gun, and fired a net that wrapped around Draconis. He then leaped into the air, changing his right-hand weapon into a large-wooden bat, and with a mighty swing he sent his opponent back up to the top of the loop, where he landed headfirst in a tube.

As he fell back to his tube, which had remained stationary at the base of the loop, Cetis cheered, "Woohoo! 35 points! Eat it, scrubs!"

While Cetis had been claiming the point lead, Cozal was instead staring at his own hands, bewildered. "What... did I just do?"

---

Sark crossed his arms as he considered the Nightman's words. "Right now... I'm not sure I could create any more without a risk of diminishing some of the power I've already obtained. However..." Hungrily, he lashed his tongue over his fangs. "If I were to consume enough mortals, I may be able to use their life energy in combination with the Immortals' elemental power to mass produce gems with power comparable to the ones created purely out of Immortal energy."

He lifted the mask, and placed it somewhere within his cloak for safekeeping. "Yes... heh heh heh... that would serve to further agitate the Immortals, perhaps drawing them out and allowing us to separate them from one another." Without waiting for his companion's response, he strode towards the exit. "If you'll excuse me, I'm feeling a bit peckish. And I know just where to go for a snack."

---

The hooded man shook his head slowly. "I... cannot leave. You... should not stay. I sense...... power. You need only...... harness it."

He led Heimrall out of the cave and into the desert, and together the pair set out across the steep dunes. For a while the desert seemed to be a vast and empty wasteland, but after they had trekked for some unknowable length of time they reached the crest of one of the massive mounds of sand, revealing something rather odd down below. Dried and withered vegetation marked what had recently been an oasis, and scattered all around it were countless statues. As they drew closer, it became apparent that most of the statues had sunken or fallen so that they were almost entirely covered in sand. Those that still stood upright had eroded so severely that any detail they might once have contained had become completely unrecognizable, leaving only unsettling, human-shaped masses of stone.

Two statues near the center of the former oasis stood out from the rest, partly due to being notably larger than any of the others. The smaller of the pair had decayed in a manner much like the rest of the statues, but had retained just enough of its original detail that it could be identified as a man wearing a long coat of some kind, holding what appeared to be a ranged weapon. The other had not been so lucky. It was coated by an enormous flock of vultures- the only other life that the Immortal and her companion had encountered since departing from the cave, and possibly the same birds that had attacked Heimrall earlier. Every so often, one of the birds would take flight, circle back around, and dive towards one of the statue, using beak or talons to chip away at the stone.

This seemed to upset the hooded man, who let out an enraged-sounding groan before marching up to what remained of the statue, waving his arms around at the birds. "Get... away! Shoo! ......damn birds!"

The vultures ignored him, which only served to upset him more. Turning to Heimrall, he pleaded, "These creatures...... defile... must be stopped. Need... your help..."

[Mizagium]

The Imperial Starliner Rejuvenation of Genji crossed vast swaths of interstellar space in hours. At full strength, the hyperlight engine could have simply jumped him from Space Land to Pólemos in minutes, but Arcturus enjoyed the trip. Space travel was something he had always enjoyed. Modern jump-drives took all the excitement out of it. They were great for military missions, of course, but he had never enjoyed them in pleasure craft. If he had his way – and he probably would – jump-drives would be banned from all non-military vehicles.

Shogun Arcturus considered the documents laid out before him. The bottle of sake prepared for him waited, untouched, and shoved to the far corner of the table. He was giving himself a crash course in history on the flight, a cramming session on the Pólemos Conflict that had never been declared a war. Distastefully, Arcturus continued to flip.

Polaris, his predecessor, had not been a fan of war or conflict in general. It had been treasonous to point it out until earlier that day (local Astro City time) but now Arcturus was free to openly criticize as he pleased and BOI did it please him to do so. In fairness, Polaris had not intended on beginning a conflict when his Far Realm Expeditionary Fleet landed on Ceinia. What was that place – Chersónisos? FREF forces had landed in time to come into conflict with the Pólemos army. Now Chersónisos was the Hantou Province, and much of the former Pólemos state was under Shogunate control.

“Hrm.” Polaris had made a mistake handing control to Ophiuchus. Dangerous and illegal medical experiments. Biological weapons. Gene splicing. Mind control. Various forms of magic and mysticism. Terrorism. Weapons of mass destruction. Assassination. Shameful. Ophiuchus had no morals, no conscience. When the time was right, Arcturus was going to kill that snake with his own hands.

But later, now he was reading about this Warrior Queen, Alala.

Her file was hardly more than a collection of anecdotes, hearsay, and folklore. She was variously a ruthless tyrant, a benevolent leader, a fierce warrior – and chosen by the gods, in some of the more outlandish tales. Unconfirmed reports claimed she gave birth a child, usually identified as a son (although, again, the more outlandish tales claimed he was a divine being). She had other children, but none were named or described in great detail, which was curious. Arcturus was not as willing as many to dismiss claims of divinity – how could he, when he himself was blessed by the Azure Dragon?

But she was successful, that much was clear. She had won over her followers, her enemies, and had survived many challenges to her throne. She had held Pólemos against the Star Samurai, even though so many of her soldiers and generals had been obliterated. It was admirable, really. Arcturus was going to conquer Ceinia for the Shogunate, but it would be with honor. He found himself longing to fight her. By all accounts, she was a formidable opponent on her own.

What a battle that would be.

Arcturus had not announced his visit for this reason; he had not yet begun plans to pacify Pólemos, and he needed to assess the situation for himself before he could. The other various military campaigns were already lined up and scheduled for the most part. Only Pólemos required something extra.

It hadn’t been intentional, but the slower paced travel should afford a bit more stealth. A jump-drive would produce a telltale energy signature at the points of departure and arrival, whereas a more traditional FTL tunnel was harder to detect. Harder, but not impossible, he reminded himself.

Satisfied – or as satisfied as he was going to get – Arcturus stood and stretched. The starliner would be arriving soon, and he wasn’t about to appear as if he’d just sat through a three hour flight in front of the Hantou garrison.

-

Knox nodded, as if the matter had been settled. “Then we shouldn’t waste any time. Artemis, would you put out the call? Or should I?”

-

Leporis situated himself amongst the goats and sheep and dropped his considerable girth to the hay with a thud. He scratched one kid under its chin until it brayed and skipped off. Another quickly took its place. Assuming that the robo-warrior had followed him, he asked, “What do you want kid? I don’t know nothing.”

-

Vega listened intently to Al’s story. She couldn’t be sure he wasn’t lying. It’s what she would have done. She would have done anything to save Altair – or herself. But Al seemed genuine. He didn’t carry himself like a crook. He seemed like...just a guy.

And that worried her.

“You could be one of them,” she said after he had finished. “You could be one of the Octopodes. Or you could be an agent.” She ran a hand through her hair. “You could be lying to me. You could have had your mind tampered with. I’ve seen Ophiuchus do it.”

Vega exhaled hard enough that it became a snarl. “How can I trust that anything you say is true?”

-

Draconis slipped. Somewhere between the “HORA” and being hit with a bat, he lost the control his normally maintained at all times. It was a combination of things. The surprise, the impact, the second impact, and the lack of time to react. Which was doubly impressive for him. Star Samurai are trained better than that – and he actually had Space Ninja training, too, so for him to be kicked around like a can of beans, well…

But just a little slip was all the Dragon needed. It filled him, suppressed his conscious mind, forced back into the same box he normally kept the dragon, and layered itself upon him. The Dragon was not pleased. It had no love for Draconis, but it did share the same body, and it was not one of those pansy scholarly dragons that talked and read books and banged human women.

No, no, not this dragon.

Not Tiamat.

Puppeting Draconis’ body, Tiamat drew Ootenkiryuuga again, releasing all of her power. Old, cosmic energy radiated out from their shared body, blue and green and gold and black. Water and Chaos. The tube burst unspectacularly and Tiamat hovered in place. The loop of the Lazy River shuddered and bent. It curved around Tiamat, disrupting the entire event. Other patrons were dumped off their tubes or otherwise caught in the increasingly violent swirl of the water.

Tiamat allowed the water to completely engulf her, then shape itself, pulling more and more water from up- and downstream, until, at least, a great serpentine head emerged. It was filled with roiling energies and distressed tubers like s much flotsam and jetsam. The surrogate head of Tiamat shouted something in an ancient tongue that sounded like waves and thunder crashing.

A great claw materialized from the churning waters, poised for just a moment, then slammed down upon CETIS and Cozaltene, bringing more tubers and unstable energy.

[Monika]

"One down," Emperor Awesome said, the vaguest hint of triumph in his tone. "And only a hundred million more to go..." He had just finished filing the paperwork for the new organization Asher wanted to create, but that still left thousands more documents that had to be read, signed, and organized. "As long as I can go without any additional paperwork or unwelcome visitors, I might be able to get the rest of this done between now and the end of time..."

"Emperooooor! Emperooooooooooooor!" Everyone's favorite (and heretofore only named) palace attendant, Leslie, came tumbling out of the elevator right onto Emperor Awesome's office floor. "Emperor!" she yelled again.

"I am right here, Leslie," he sighed. "What is it?"

"We have a visitor!" she replied.

Emperor Awesome slapped an armored palm against his helmet. "Rick Thunder. Uggo. Albert Alexander. Asher. My office has gone from a place of imperial business to a veritable freak show in the span of a few days. And now you're saying we have another one?"

"This one seems kinda normal!" she offered. "And really handsome, too!"

The emperor sighed again. "Fine. Since I'm apparently never going to get this work done, send him in."

Leslie nodded and made her way back into the elevator. An agonizing wait later-

"A nine thousand floor tower was by far the most unnecessary thing to come from Aurora's rule," Emperor Awesome muttered.

-and Leslie reappeared at the front of the emperor's office, an interesting-looking...person? at her side.

Emperor Awesome stared intently at this newcomer for a few long seconds. The man certainly didn't seem strange - at least, not compared to previous visitors. Yet something about him didn't seem quite right either. He was certainly handsome, as Leslie had said, but seemed almost impossibly so. His hair was very long and very dark blue; neither was particularly weird by Awesome Land's standards, but neither was all that common, either. And he was clad in robes, which wasn't inherently abnormal (they were, after all, the official clothes of Awesome Land). But his were entirely white! And unless the emperor's eyes were playing tricks on him, the garments almost seemed to...glimmer, even in the moderate lighting of the office.

"Thank you," Emperor Awesome said after a while. He nodded toward Leslie, who took her cue to descend back down the elevator shaft (after struggling for a moment to break her gaze away from the visitor).

"You have such lovely palace attendants," the man said, his voice soft and smooth. "How do you manage to recruit such wonderful talent?"

"Most of the 'recruitment' was handled by my predecessors," the emperor responded. "They just liked me enough to stick around, I suppose. May I ask to whom I'm speaking and why exactly you've come to visit?" The words came out more curtly than he intended.

"Oh my! Did I really neglect to introduce myself? How embarrassing. My Mother raised me better than that."

Even the way he said 'mother' just now, Emperor Awesome thought. It's right on the border of completely normal and unimaginably weird.

"My name is...well, you would probably find my full name a bit strange. I hope you will indulge me with the abridged version: Theo. Prince of Sacred Land." The man, apparently known as Theo, gave the emperor a deep bow.

"Sacred Land?" the emperor asked. "You'll forgive me if I say that I've never heard of it. And I thought I was up to date on the modern geopolitical landscape."

"It is quite all right," Theo replied. "Sacred Land is a remote island nation separated from here by a great distance. I would not expect you to have heard of us. We try to stay out of trouble."

"Hah. If only more countries could be that way." After an extended pause, he added, "Then again, it's my country that causes most of it."

"That is actually why I've come to visit," Theo said. "Even to our small country, news travels quickly. When I heard that Awesome Land had a new leader, I simply had to pay him a visit myself. Congratulations, Emperor Awesome."

"Ah, well, thank you, Theo," Emperor Awesome said, unable to conceal his mild surprise. He was probably even smiling from beneath his helmet.

This is the first visitor I've had who has actually congratulated me. And it doesn't even seem like he wants anything! I could get used to this, he thought. "In truth, I hadn't expected this in the slightest. I always just assumed that Aurora would hold on to the position until she died of old age or in a violent revolution. I never expected her to have a change of heart and willingly cede power over to her chancellor." The smile under his helmet probably turned around. "I honestly think she was too hard on herself. Deep down, she was a good person. Terrible empress, but good person. To have thrown herself into the Null-Void just for almost causing a universal disaster...it seems a bit too harsh a self-punishment."

"Did she not put a mass murderer and professional conqueror in charge of Homeland Security?" Theo asked.

"...Terrible empress," Emperor Awesome repeated. "But I really hope that she's okay."

"I am sure that she is fine. Anyone that strong-willed should have no trouble surviving in an endless expanse of nothingness."

"Mmm. I hope you're right," the emperor said, nodding in agreement. "On the subject of Voids and Homeland Security, I wonder what happened to Zais. The town seems to have quieted down - the evacuation effort can probably be credited with a lot of that - but it feels like it's been (p)ages since I last heard from anyone about the matter."

Theo flashed the emperor a warm smile. "You will be happy to know that Zais is dead."

"Hmm? How exactly would you know that?"

"As I said," Theo replied, "news travels quickly to my country."

The emperor shrugged. "Well, regardless of where you heard it from, that is excellent news! That means Artemis actually did it!"

"Artemis?" Theo inquired.

"I suppose news about her wouldn't have made its way to you. She seems to prefer maintaining a low profile. Artemis is the one whom I appointed as the new head of the Homeland Security department after becoming Emperor. I charged her with taking care of Zais, among other things." Emperor Awesome stood up and looked outside the window behind him, surveying the complete vacancy of the metro Dynasty City area. "She probably also handled the evacuation," he noted. "Honestly, I swear she's the only reason anything gets done around here."

"Oh?" Theo smiled. "She sounds like a truly amazing person. I hope that I get the chance to meet her one day."

"That would be nice, wouldn't it? Just hope that you get to meet her as a new acquaintance and not as a target."

"Haha. I will make every effort to stay on her good side," Theo laughed. "But I hope that you do not work her too hard." His tone shifted to one of sincere concern, his voice picking up just enough to emphasize the point.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Emperor Awesome (presumably) raised an eyebrow at the remark.

"Please do not take offense at my comment. I meant only to say that a person can only handle so much before they crack under the stress of their work. She seems to have done so much for the empire already, and I would hate for such a valuable resource to succumb to the pressures of the job."

"Hmm..." Emperor Awesome considered the statement. Artemis always seemed like the consummate workaholic. She seemed to enjoy all of the work she had to do. Well, perhaps 'enjoy' wasn't the right word. Emperor Awesome wasn't really sure that Artemis enjoyed anything; she didn't seem to mind it, at the very least. But could what Theo was saying be true? Had the emperor been unknowingly overworking her? And was she close to breaking because of it?

Perhaps Theo is right, he thought. Perhaps I should be more considerate of my employees. Disregarding their feelings is what Aurora would have done, and I've made every point thus far to distance myself from her more...questionable actions. This should be no different.

Theo looked over at Emperor Awesome, who appeared to be in deep concentration, and put up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Forgive me, please, Emperor. I did not mean to intrude upon official government matters or pry into how you handle your administration. It was just a thought, but I forgot my place and spoke out of turn. I should leave, lest I say something else to insult you." Theo gave another deep bow before turning toward the elevator doors and-

"Wait!" Emperor Awesome called out. "No, I agree. My employees are valuable resources - Artemis especially so - and it is therefore in my best interest to keep their well-being at the top of my priority list. They're citizens just like the rest of the public, and I should be concerned with protecting them all the same. Thank you, Theo, for helping me come to this realization."

"It was just a thought," Theo said again. "You certainly need not make any changes on my account. Looking after people - all people - is just a natural part of my mindset. It is the way my Mother raised me. It is the way She would want me to lead, and it is the way I would want all other leaders to behave as well."

"Is your mother the Queen of Sacred Land, then?"

"I suppose you could say that." Theo smiled.

Emperor Awesome nodded. "She seems like a very wise person."

"I would say that there are none wiser than She is," he replied, a notable amount of awe and reverence in his voice.

"And she has raised a very wise son as well!" The emperor paused for a moment, as if again contemplating something, and finally said, "Tell me, Theo. Do you have any plans for the evening?"

"Paying a visit to our most newly inaugurated world leader was the only thing I had scheduled for the day," Theo said.

"Good, good! I intended to have Queen Francine of Really Cool Land over for dinner to start things off on the right foot, since our countries have a bit of...bad blood between them. I would love to have you over and turn this into a small 'world leaders' dinner of sorts."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly infringe upon your time or living quarters anymore than I already have," Theo said, shaking his head emphatically. "And I certainly would not want to insert myself into a diplomatic meeting, of all things. They can be quite sensitive, and I could not forgive myself if I ruined any negotiations."

Emperor Awesome shook his own head. "Nonsense!" he said. "The queen seems like a very reasonable person. I'm sure she won't mind another guest, especially one as poised and polite as you. And I can have Artemis over, too! You said you wanted to meet her, and this will be a great opportunity for her to take a well-deserved break! It couldn't be more perfect!"

"Well..."

"I simply will not take 'no' for an answer!" The emperor extended his hand forward, aiming to seal the matter right then and there.

With a bit of hesitance, Theo took a few steps toward the desk and locked hands with the emperor. "If you are certain that this will be all right," he said.

"Positive," Emperor Awesome replied. "I'll call Artemis at once and let her know of the plans. By the time you both have gotten ready, Emily should be here with Queen Francine in tow. I simply cannot wait!"

Theo gave another warm smile and nodded. "Very well. I look forward to meeting the queen and Artemis over dinner tonight. May this be the start of a long era of peace and diplomacy."

"A long era indeed," the emperor responded.

"I shall go retrieve something more suitable to wear at a dinner party. I will see you very soon, Emperor." And with a smile still on his face, Theo approached the elevator doors and descended to the bottom floor of the Second Imperial Tower...

---

"I'll take care of it," Artemis said to Knox, but before she could so much as even say 'telepathy'-

RING! RING! RING!

Her official Awesome Land government issued badge began to ring.

Emperor Awesome! she thought. I've completely neglected to stay in contact with him. No doubt he wants to chastise me for my lack of communication about the situation.

She quickly withdrew the badge from her robe pocket, placed it to her lips, and clicked it.

"Emperor Awesome," she began, "I'm sorry that-"

"Artemis!" came the reply. "I need you here immediately!"

"Emperor, I can-"

"Quickly! There's no time to dawdle! We only have a few hours to prepare! Meet me in my office as soon as you can! It's very important!"

CLICK!

"He hung up..." Artemis shoved the badge back into her robe pocket. "I apologize, Knox. Roewk," she said, turning to each of them. "But it appears that I have another mission to take care of. If you two could gather the other Immortals, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll meet up with you all back here when I can. If I don't make it before the meeting starts, I trust that you will be able to facilitate the discussion Knox. Thank you both in advance."

With no further explanation, the Immortal of Space disappeared.

---

With all the instantaneity of someone who was an actual master of Space, Artemis reappeared at the top floor of the Second Imperial Tower, right in front of the emperor's desk.

"I came as quickly as I could, Emperor Awesome," she said. "I apologize for not having maintained regular communication with you. In between overseeing the Zais effort and evacuating the town and tending to council matters-"

"Artemis, please, slow down!" Emperor Awesome put up a hand, the universal symbol for 'chill, bro.' "Is it true that Zais has been defeated?"

"Yes, he has," she replied. "Where exactly did you hear that?"

"Would you believe that the Prince of Sacred Land actually stopped by and told me?"

"Sacred Land?" That's not a country that I've ever seen or heard of before. "Is this a joke of some kind?"

He shook his head. "The only joke here is the way I've been treating you, Artemis! I've been working you nearly to death!"

The Immortal's eyes narrowed as she tried to process what was going on. "I am not sure I understand-"

"Look at you!" he shouted, grabbing his shield from its resting place against his wall. He held it out in front of Artemis, allowing her to gaze into its reflective surface. "Your hair's a mess, your palms are bloody, there are bags under your eyes! You look terrible! I've been treating you like a slave!"

I think...insulted is how I am supposed to feel right now. I should check with Knox later, she thought. "I assure you, Emperor Awesome, that I am not overworked, if that is your concern."

"Be truthful, Artemis-"

"I always am," she interrupted.

"-how much sleep have you actually gotten since you started working in the Homeland Security department?"

"Approximately two hours," she said. "But that is for reasons entirely unrelated to-"

"You don't have to make excuses for me," Emperor Awesome said. I haven't been the greatest employer, and I know it. Therefore, I have decided to make it up to you! I'm inviting you to a special dinner! You, me, the Queen of Really Cool Land, the Prince of Sacred Land, and all the fancy food you can stomach. What's your favorite meal?"

"I am partial to ramen for its ease of preparation and cost-effectiveness, but I'm really not hungry and-"

"I'll have one of the attendants begin making dough for the noodles at once! Now, do you have a dress?"

"I'm sorry?"

"A dress!" he repeated. "This is a fancy dinner, after all, so you must wear fancy clothing!"

"I think I have one from college that Mara Lee tricked me into wearing once, but really, Emperor Awesome. There is absolutely no need to go through all of this trouble. I am perfectly fine."

"But there is a need, Artemis! If I don't give you a break every once in a while, you might die. Or, worse yet, you may take it as a sign of apathy and go find a new employer, one who cares more. Both would be absolutely devastating to the empire and to me personally. Now, you are going to make room for ramen, you are going to wear your nicest dress, and you are going to this party. That is an order. Am I understood?"

"...Yes, Emperor Awesome," Artemis sighed.

"Excellent. A young man was here earlier looking to start a new organization. I believe one of his founding members said that she is a costume designer. I recommend paying her a visit for a proper makeover before the queen arrives. She should be down on the first floor, decorating the dining room."

Artemis nodded and walked over to the elevator. "I will do what is necessary to make myself more presentable."

"Great!" Emperor Awesome cheered. "I can't wait to see you there! I think this is going to be spectacular!"

That makes one of us, Artemis thought, and with the loud swoosh of the closing elevator doors, she was on her way to meet this mysterious costume designer and receive a wholly unwanted makeover. I hope Knox has everything under control...

---

Amelia nodded, wiping away the tears with her sleeve and doing her best to mirror the queen's look of determination. "We'll let this voyeur know that their behavior is unacceptable!" she cried. "But...I hope I haven't caused any trouble here, Your Majesty. I wouldn't want to take your time away from your other queenly duties. And I certainly wouldn't want to do anything to mess up your dinner plans with Emperor Awesome."

---

Evangeline marveled in awe at the view of Astro City from the elevator in the Shogunate Internal Affairs building. "It's soooo beautiful..." she muttered, wishing she had brought along a camera. "And you get to see this everyday?" she asked. "I don't think I would ever leave!"

"Speaking of," Alastor added, "I was wondering exactly what you intend to do with us, and how long you intend to keep us here. I'm as entranced by the view as my young co-worker here is-"

"Beeeeauuuuuuuutifuuuuuuuul..." she whispered.

"-but I do have government responsibilities I must get back to. Our emperor will no doubt be expecting a full report of our ship's performance and a description of the area outside our planet. I can't really provide either of those while I'm...here."

[Mizagium]

­Ensign Aster drummed his fingers on the console. Several screens displayed reading on local spacetime. The deepscan had started going off about an hour prior, telling him a shallow hyperspace tunnel was being created towards Ceinia. That in itself wasn’t worrisome. Despite the enduring conflict, hyperspace traders still flew this way. Some even landed on the planet and were allowed to peddle their wares for the most part. Sometimes military rations just didn’t cut it, especially not for those born there.

What troubled Aster was the continuous updates the console fed him. As the vessel tunneled closer, the deepscans refined their projections, calculating a more likely trajectory through hyperspace. About twenty minutes prior, calculations showed with 94.6% certainty that the tunnel would intersect the planet’s orbit. A trading ship, he had assumed – but it wasn’t following any of the usual trade lanes. Any other kind of civilian vessel was also out of the question; it was long past the astrographical demarcation of open and local space.

It could be a military ship, but it wasn’t transmitting any known codes, Shogunate or otherwise.

Whatever it was, the ship was flying dark and true. He had to assume the worst and alerted the planetary defense command. Fighters were still grounded but ready to launch; surface-to-atmosphere missiles and lasers were scanning. He was waiting on the hyperbeams to signal they were charged. Those monsters could shoot into hyperspace, normally a dimension safe from conventional weaponry. The occupation of Ceinia had produced interesting results.

Like the fact that Aster, a mere Ensign, was somehow calling the shots for the entire Hantou garrison.

Aster waited. He really didn’t want to have to smear the wreckage of this ship across several dimensions. Partly that was a genuine desire not to have to kill anyone unnecessarily. Mostly, it was the fact that each missile or slug expended was worth more than his yearly stipend – and that each hyperbeam discharge could potentially cause a city-wide blackout. Years and years of shoddy repairs and a revolving door of technicians ultimately created a situation where nobody was quite sure how anything worked, only that it did and PLEASE GOD DON’T TOUCH THAT WE ALL MIGHT DIE.

Bloop. Deepscan confirmed with 99.7% certainty that the hyperspace tunnel would intersect Ceinia’s orbit and an 83.2% it would align with the Hantou Province. Unless it dropped out of hyperspace very soon, the ship would be on a collision course with them all.

Aster closed his eyes and sighed. Possibly the worst case scenario. A hyperspace impact would certainly destroy the incoming ship. It would also likely destroy the entire garrison and most of the Hantou Province, so severe would the resultant gravitational waves. Parts of the country might disappear into another dimension entirely, but the rest would simply be torn apart and sundered. He thought of all the people who lived here, of all his friends and comrades. In an instant the decision was clear.

He picked up the handset. “Hyperbeam team, begin your charging cycle. I’m feeding you deepscan data, including the trajectory and coordinates to intercept. The computer should do all the work, just - “

Someone interrupted his call – again because of the random rewiring and repairs. “Sir. The vessel is broadcasting IFF codes.”

“Fizzing finally.”

“It’s...I don’t believe it.”

“What?”

“Shogunate codes, sir. Decrypting now… this can’t be.”

“Tell me what’s going on!”

“Shogunate codes. High level. That’s the Imperial starliner!”

Aster nearly choked. “That’s impossi – send me the data! Hyperbeam, continue charging cycles.”

He hung up as the decrypted info appeared on his screen. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It was indeed the IFF code of the Rejuvination of Genji the Shogun’s personal ship. Why was it coming here?
Unannounced? And why hadn’t it - ?

Aster had picked up his comm to speak to the hyperbeam crews, when someone else – possibly the same someone – shouted in his ear, “It just dropped out of hyperspace in-atmo!”

He sat in stunned silence for a moment before he understood. The Imperial starliner had waited until the last possible instant before emerging into normal space again. In the big book of interstellar travel such a maneuver was known as “suicidal”. Technically possible but unbelievably difficult. The timing had to be so precise…and yet there it was. Deepscan and traditional radar confirmed.

Shockwaves lashed his tower a few moments later, a combination of displaced atmosphere and local spacetime. Not nearly as severe as the impact would have been, but it would definitely stir up the populace. Plus, even the Pólemians should pick that kind of displacement up on their systems. Aster signed and hung his head. Nothing was in proper order for an inspection. Even with a warning, he doubted they could have done more than sweep the worst of it under the metaphorical rug.

Aster sucked in a breath, straightened his uniform, and headed down to the landing pad.

…

Several minutes later, Aster and the rest of the Hantou garrison had assembled in something loosely resembling a welcoming party at parade rest. They had barely come together before the starliner landed on the starport tarmac, and he was certain the passengers had seen them hastily scramble into formation.

A ripple of nervous apprehension spread throughout the troops. Atro City and Ceinian natives alike were anxious to hear from the fatherland, whether for the first time in years, or the first time ever. Aster let it all pass over him while he stood pensively. Something about it didn’t sit right with him, but he couldn’t quite define what it was. The war was stagnating. Lord Ophichius had left them all years ago and effectively all communications had ceased. Now suddenly a surprise visit – and the Shogun, too!

Further ruminations were drowned out by the roar of turbo engines used for atmospheric flight. The starliner came to rest before them and the engines cut off with a deflating whirr. A sharp hiss preceded the lowering of the docking ramp. Three figures descended, one in front, two flanking.

The leader was an older man, maybe twice Aster’s age with black hair and beard, and wearing blue armor. It took Aster a moment to realize it was o-yoroi armor, a kind not really used much by the Star Samurai these days. Mainly they were akin to officer’s dress, but only for very ancient or important families. This man’s looked new, however, like it was recently craft, not handed down through generations. The soldiers flanking this man were forgettable, generic looking guards and Aster dismissed them in importance almost without realizing.

The blue-armored man stopped at the base of the ramps, folded his arms behind him, and surveyed the assembled soldiers. Many shrank perceptibly under the weight of his gray, piercing eyes. Was it his imagination, or did the man’s gaze linger on Aster just a little longer than everyone else?

“Who is in command here?” he asked, his voice carrying without the need for a speaker or enhancement spell.

That’s when it hit him. Aster knew this man! It was Fuku-Shogun Arcturus. The low whisper that spread told him everyone else had figured it out, too.


“I ask again,” Arcturus declared, letting a trace of impatience creep in, “who is in command here?”

The Fuku-Shogun studied the crowd again, his eyes sliding off one Star Samurai after another until...they came to rest on Aster. The boy resisted the urge to glance around him, to make sure it was he whom the Fuku-Shogun was looking at. He knew it was him. A man like Arcturus was hard to mistake.

“You there, soldier, name and rank.”

Aster stepped forward, hoping that was the correct response. “Ensign Aster, my lord.”

Arcturus narrowed his eyes. “Ensign? Ensign.” he said the word as if tasting it, then, “Why does it seem as if everyone looked to you when I asked who was in command?”

“I suppose it’s the truth, my lord. Lately, I’ve been directing the various divisions here at the Hantou garrison. I’m a deepscan technician, so it makes sense, of a sort, for my division to coordinate everyone else.”

“That it does. What I fail to understand, is why that duty has fallen to an ensign.”

“If you’ll pardon me, my lord, I honestly don’t know. It seemed to me that it just happened one day.”

“It just happened,” Arcturus repeated flatly. “Indeed. Well, then, Ensign Aster, since you appear to be in command, I’m tasking you with taking me on an inspection tour of the entire facility today – is that understood?”

A question formed and died on Aster’s lips. Take the Fuku-Shogun on a tour? Well sure, but what about the Shogun? Arcturus had come on the Imperial starliner – the Rejuvenation of Genji surely he wouldn’t take that ship without the Shogun accompanying him. And yet, Arcturus and his guard had all left the boarding ramp, which had closed several minutes ago. No one else was coming.

“Is there a problem, Ensign?”

Aster gave the starliner one final look before straightening up and saying, “No problem at all, my lord Shogun.” He said it as loud as possible without shouting, so that it would be heard by everyone assembled. They might not have put two and two together like he did, he was not about to let anyone embarrass him before the new Shogun – since he was apparently in command.

“Very good. If you please?”

Aster stepped out of line to follow just behind the Shogun. Although he was leading the tour, it would not do to walk in front. He nearly left the samurai like that before it occurred to him to stop and shout, “Return to your posts!”

To his surprise, everyone obeyed.

…

The inspection was much shorter and more disappointing that Arcturus as expecting. The young Aster had shown him the shoddy barracks where the walls were cracked and the roofs leaked. He showed the rest of the starport with overgrown runways and control towers where not all the instruments worked. He showed him the armory with rusty and dull weapons, the town of stone and mud, the ridiculously complex electrical wiring, and the dilapidated vehicles that hadn’t had fuel in years. And to top it off, he produced casualty reports, recent campaign records, and statistics on resources that all depressed him.

“Are the other garrisons like this?” Arcturus had finally asked, frustrated.

“Sir?”

“I was given to understand that the Star Samurai had conquered more than this…this…the Hantou province. Are the others is a similar state of disrepair?”

Aster hesitated before answering. “I would imagine so.”

“Imagine?”

“My apologies, but our planetary comms are, well spotty at best. And they’ve been in use for so long, the Pólemians have to expend very little effort to hack them. For these reason, he don’t have much communication with the other provinces. The frontline hasn’t moved very much very much since Lord Ophiuchus left.”

Truthfully, Arcturus liked this boy, Aster. He might be not be a native of Astro City, and he might speak with thick country drawl, but he was perceptive and quick. The situation was unfavorable, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that it was not Aster’s fault. If anything, thing would have fallen apart much sooner.

“Lord Ophiuchus? Ophiuchus is not a lord, Ensign Aster. He is a scientist, nothing more.

“My apologies, lord Shogun; that was how he required us to address him.”

“I’m sure he did,” Arcturus muttered. After a few more minutes of skimming reports, he pushed them aside and massaged his eyes. Aster had taken him to the office of the last general, who had died earlier that year. Since then, no one had taken up the office. Evidently, it was around then that Aster had started to command the others. “Let me be frank with you, Ensign: nothing you’ve shown me has inspired anything resembling confidence.”

“I suspected that might be the end result, Shogun.”

“And yet you did it anyway?”

“I felt it would best serve you and everyone if I showed you the truth of the matter.”

Arcturus nodded. “I’m not so sure that it will server everyone’s best interest, but I appreciate the candor, and would not have had it any other way. Ensign, you have lived here your entire life, is that correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What is your assessment of the state of things?” When the other hesitated, Arcturus added, “Speak freely, please.”

“Sir. It’s a mess.” That earned him a sad chuckle from Arcturus. “Nothing works like it’s supposed to. All our officers are either dead or out on the front lines. Or incompetent, to be really honest. We don’t have enough food or fuel or weapons. The other provinces have forgotten about us, and – honestly, we though the fatherland had, too. Once Lord – once the scientist, Ophiuchus left, we stopped getting messages from Astro City. We stopped getting supply drops, food drops. No rotation of troops. It all went to hell and I think we’re still there.”

“I’m afraid I have to agree with you. The late Shogun Polaris – may his soul sail among the stars – drastically underestimated the Cienians, especially rhe Pólemians. He let Ophiuchus have far too much freedom, and trusted his reports without verifying them with his own eyes. I see the question in your eyes. No, Ensign, I should probably not be telling you this information, but I don’t have anyone else I can rely upon here.”

“Whatever you require, Shogun, I will make sure you receive it.”

“I appreciate that, Ensign, but I fear what I require is beyond your capacity to procure, given the current state of affairs. However, I will make you this promise. On my honor as Shogun, I will not abandon my people here on Ceinia. Foreign-born though you may be, you are Star Samurai. I am responsible for you all.”

He drummed his fingers a moment. “I need to make a few arrangements here and go over these reports you have provided, since this tour is going to take longer than anticipated. I’m going to have to visit the other provinces and the frontlines of the war, but I would like to reestablish a solid communications line before leaving Hantou. As well, I’ll see you prompted to a more appropriate rank and provided a star crystal. Hell, I’ll do the one right now. Ensign Aster, on my authority as Shogun and Pole Star of the Cosmic Shogunate and Grand General of the Star Samurai, I promote you to Captain-Commander of the Hantou Garrison, and grant you the authority and privileges therewith. I’m quite unprepared, but you’ll have your rank insignia and star crystal by day’s end.”

Aster stood there, slack-jawed for a moment before answering. “Ah – th-thank you, sir! Lord Shogun! It-this is a great honor! I promise I won’t let you down.”

The Shogun smiled without warmth. “See that you don’t. In the meantime – I don’t think you’ll have trouble getting the others to obey as you are – bring me the various commanders or acting commanders of the other divisions. I would like to speak to them and hear their own excuses before I decide on long term plans for Hantou. Dismissed, Captain-Commander Aster.”

“Sir!” Aster saluted smartly and left the Shogun to review the reports.

“I need a drink,” he muttered.

…

Elsewhere, in the shantytown that had sprung up adjacent to the garrison, a lone figure ducked into a secret sub-basement that was barely large enough to hunch over. The figure only carried a dim candle down there, scattering just enough photons that they could detect the outlines of the objects assembled. The room hadn’t been altered in years, so their steps were largely muscle memory.

As were the motions to turn dials and press buttons on the illegal commset hidden there. The device hummed and whirred softly, too indistinct to be heard unless you pressed your ear to it. It was oldtech, too ancient for the Star Samurai to detect without extra effort.

The device was only built to transmit, and it did so via a complicated system of wired and wireless receivers that stretched halfway across the world, until it was picked up by a twin device built only to receive.

The figure spoke their message into the device, then retreated, peeking out of the secret chamber. No one was around. They kept watch for ten minutes before returning and repeating the message. After fifteen more minutes, they repeated the message for a third and final time before shutting it all down, after which they waited another thirty minutes before exiting the sub-basement and resuming their normal life as a Shogunate citizen on Ceinia.

This is Agent Tyresias with a priority one alert. Repeat: This is Agent Tyresias with a priority one alert. The Shogun is on Ceinia, in the former Chersónisos region. Repeat: The Shogun is on Ceinia in the former Chersónisos region. This message is for all active any and all Pólemos agents. I repeat, The Shogun is on Ceinia, in the former Chersónisos region.

-

Hrathen sighed and put aside thought of digging his own grave. “I mean, yeah it all did. I never liked that girl since she showed up. Like how the fizz did she get past all of us without anyone seeing her? Plus like, all her clothes are gone? I can really only think of Lestor “No-Pants” McGee as a culprit and we locked him up years ago.”

The alliterative Perverse Paraphernalia Purloining finally registered with Hrathen and he looked at Azzi oddly. “Are you ok, man?”

-

Francine waved Emily’s concerns away. “Oh nonsense. If I know Emperor Awesome – and quite honestly, I do not, as that’s the entire point of this dinner – but he is head of state. And I know I wouldn’t like it if...” she pause, realizing her words were getting away from her.

“What I’m trying to say is that I’m sure Emperor Awesome will understand.”

She pulled Emily to her feet. “Now then, if you’re feeling up to it, let us return to the scene of the crime and begin searching for clues.”

-

Ophiuchus winked at Alastor, a quick gesture that felt more sinister than it would have on literally anyone else. “Well, I had originally planned to take you to see the new Shogun, but since he’s away on a business trip, it seems I have you all to myself.”

At long last the elevator dinged and opened. The room before them was the customary stark white of scientists – or at least scientists of any renown. Various individuals in white coats clustered around work stations or monitor screens. Ophiuchus began walking with Mayuri on his heels; the Star Samurai guards ushered Evangeline and Alastor after them, having to physically pry the former away from the cityscape. Large block letter proclaimed this the Far Out Research & Development Laboratory, or FORD.

“Your planet is really quite fascinating,” Ophiuchus spoke as they walked. “It’s been in our logs for a long time, but with vary few notes. Until just now, the last interesting entry of note was that a rogue daimyo and his army of Star Samurai staged an invasion of…what was that place? Really Cool Land? I think that was it – invasion about twenty years ago or something. In any case, he was soundly defeated, retreated, and we blasted him out of the sky. Even then, your planet was an undeveloped backwater of no interested to the Shogunate.”

He lead them though rooms with various experiments. A few featured weapon and armor tests. Many seemed to be of a more mystical, esoteric nature – if either Alastor or Evageline were magically inclined, they might recognize broadly what was happening.

“Then, of course, the wanted criminals, the Cosmic Crusaders, arrived on your planet and we were forced to take special interest. Particularly the renegade space ninja, Stella, had interfered with our experiments and stolen a valuable piece of our in-development tech. But all that could be be ignored were it not for the black nova. You remember that, yes? It was a very notable, very destructive event that happened. We have records of at least a dozen planets consumed by the event horizon, and emerging data suggests that the very nature of our universe was altered during the incident. And where should the black nova have originated from, but nowhere else but Earth?”

They stopped in a room bare except for a large glass cylinder in the center. A great fire seemed to burn within, but you stepped closer, you could just make out a dark humanoid form at the center. Monitors and readouts displayed temperature fluctuations in the tens of thousands of the degrees Melvin (it’s like Kelvin but with an M). The name card at the base of the cylinder read:

002: Starburst - Roman, Alaizabel

“Then we started really observing. Turns out, Earth is positively lousy with powered people like her. It seems to be a defining feature of the place. And if such a planet would produce as destructive a force as the black nova, I think we were right to be concerned, don’t you?”

They were ushered along again, this time to a room dominated with a star chart. Major spacefaring factions were defined by colored three-dimensional areas, and points of interest had their own flags. A few, like Earth, were noted with a red flag.

“Space is big, but once your reach our tech-plateau level of faster-than-light travel, you find that it doesn’t make much difference. Light lag and time dilation become antiquated concerns like terraforming or cloning ethics. So when a – form our perspective – primitive planet suddenly causes a cosmic disaster, well, what else are we supposed to do?”

This was evidently the final stop, as no other doors occupied the walls.

“I’m afraid then, that you two were unlucky in many respects. Unlucky to be born on Earth. Unlucky to have been turned over to me. And unlucky that the Shogun was not around to speak to you. You see, there are no records of your arrival. Monoceras is in my pocket, and the Shogun is not here to look over my shoulder. So, I’m going to take you both apart. I’m going to find out what makes you Earthlings tick. I’m going to document the physiological differences between you and Shogunate citizens - and then I am going to determine the most effective method of wiping your whole entire species off the galactic map, to spare us the trouble of having to fight another war when you inevitably achieve cost-efficient space travel.”

Strong hands closed around Evangeline and Alastor and began to haul them away from each other, towards previously hidden doors. “I’d like to say I won’t take any pleasure in this, but that would be a lie. I do so enjoy taking others apart and putting them back together.”

Evangeline put up the least resistance and was easily carried into another empty room and strapped to what was clearing an operating table. Ophiuchus allowed the door to seal, cutting of her screams, before turning to the struggling Alastor. “I’ll get to her, but you, my friend, are much more interesting. I detected something about you when Monoceras brought you in that I just can’t quite place.”

He knelt slightly to meet Alastor’s eyes. “Show me what you truly are, Earthling.”

[Mizagium]

Betelgeuse wasn’t sure how he ended up back on the flagship. He achieved lucidity as a team of medics swarmed him, talking around him with terms he didn’t understand. He brushed them aside, but they returned like gnats. Like gnats they poked and prodded and annoyed him. And like gnats, he ignored them and continued on.

Whatever they said, he couldn’t hear; blood still rushed in his ears and the wail of absent alarms had not yet abated. The mighty hunter staggered towards his quarters. Pain threatened to split his head wide open, like every hangover he’d ever experienced all at once. At one point he had seized a crewman – unknown rank and unfamiliar face – and growled something he meant as an order to depart for Astro City. The man must have understood, because soon he felt the thrum of the ship’s engines.

Eventually he reached his quarters, shouted incoherently at his insects, and ducked inside. Safely alone, Betelgeuse pitched forward, fell to his knees and howled a wounded, feral cry. His mechanical arm failed to respond so it hung uselessly at his side; his one good arm clutched at his head. His vision blurred and spots danced in his eyes. He though he saw bright red liquid drip from his mouth, but light pained him.

Hunter’s Blood hangovers were always bad, but never this bad – never this intense. He had long since learned to cope with them, knew ways to mitigate their aftereffects. Oftentimes he just suffered the pain and moved on. In time it would fade. But this time was different. This time felt like the first time he had ever tapped this well of power. It was wrong, oh so wrong. It had felt different, too. It came on too strong, too quickly. The Blood hadn’t obeyed him like it should. Normally he had to coax it into life, he thrust his hand in and pull it out of it’s burrow.

This time, the Blood had been too eager to suffuse him, and he knew at once who was to blame. That bastard, that snake, Ophiuchus, had something to him. Mechanical arm aside, the good doctor had somehow altered how he reacted to the Hunter’s Blood – or how the Blood reacted to him. Either way, it was changed.

Betelgeuse didn’t like change, especially when he hadn’t wanted it.

As the last and greatest wave of pain wash over him, Betelgeuse vowed that he would find Ophiuchus and make him answer for this.

“I’ll kill the bastard,” he snarled, before blacking out completely.

Elsewhere, the prototype FTL engine – powered by unobgassium and high-level mathemagic – spun to life. It reached out to touch the very fabric of local spacetime and bore through it. Seconds later, similar engines on the rest of the fleet cut similar holes in space. And in a flash, they vanished through the wormholes, back to Astro City.

Back to Space Land.

Back to the Shogunate.

[Bruce Leroy]

Leaping towards each other, their blades clashed sending purple and yellow specks of light flying all around them. Slash after slash, parry after parry they moved around the room neither one of them able to gain the upper hand. They knew each other too well; their movements countered each other as if they had choreographed them. The two of the swung as hard as they could in a futile attempt to make the other hesitate for just a moment, one single error on the others part was all that would be needed. But yet neither of them gave way. Finally MGF jumped back and got into a defensive stance. ‘What could he be thinking?’ Cod asked himself. Before he could get a word out MGF spoke. “You know next to nothing about this man, but yet you will blindly follow his orders. You have been deceived your entire life, but you are too ignorant to listen for a moment to hear the truth. You are still that same stupid kid from the academy.”

In a fit of uncharacteristic rage, Cod charged at his enemy. ‘His words make no sense. What is he trying to say? He must be playing games with me.’ All these thoughts and a million more came rushing through his mind, but when he looked Metal Gear Fish in the eyes all of his thoughts faded away and were replaced by pure rage.

‘Perfect.’ MGF thought to himself. As Cod sprinted towards him, he did not notice that MGF had removed a remote from his pocket. With the push of a button four posts sprang up from the ground surrounding Cod. In an instant they lit up blue and sent beams of electricity all over creating and cage, the commando was ensnared in an electrical net.

“Always with the tricks.” Cod grunted.

“Now how was I going to get you to a place where you would listen to me without attacking? I assume I don’t have to tell you what would happen if you touch the cage now would I?”

“Bastard!” Cod shouted back at him. ‘If I were to touch the net, I’m sure I would either end up dead or at least knocked unconscious. If it were the later… I don’t know what situation I would be in when I woke up. Assuming I would wake up.’ He began to calm down. Rational thinking would be the only way to get out of this. As the rage began to dissipate, he relaxed slightly. “What do you want to tell me?”

“Finally ready to listen I see. It seems not killing outright was the correct choice. Between you and I, personally I would have like that option more, but it seems that I actually need you alive and functional.” MG F deactivated his sword and lit a cigarette. “Do you remember our days at the academy? Do you remember how you arrived?”
Thinking back, he found that he could not. His earliest memories involved him studying in class, playing with the other children, but nothing of him arriving. “I must have just been really young when I arrived.”

“What parent would send their child to train to be a spy dumbass? No logical parent would knowingly put their child through the hell we went through. So if you weren’t sent there, how did we arrive there?”

Thinking for a moment, he made a point. Their training was intense as they got older. Failure was met with harsh punishment. And never once were his parents ever mentioned to him. Come to think of it, the notion of parents had never dawned on him until this point. It was always training, mission, training, assignment. There never was any time for any real personal relationships outside of the other classmates. “What are you getting at?”

“I see you are starting to think. So if we weren’t sent there then how did we get there? I discovered the truth a long time ago. The awful truth that I was Big Bass’s son. When I learned of it my whole world shattered and I didn’t know what to do. I distanced myself from everyone else. My hope was that if I impressed him enough, that he would openly tell me the truth. If could prove to him my skill that he would answer my questions. It did not take long for him to notice. Within a month of learning the knowledge myself, I was summoned to a part of the academy that I had never been before. I was ordered not to speak to anyone about where I was going and I was told that the answers to all my questions would be given. This was astounding because I have never in anyway let on that I had doubts about the academy. That Night I saw him for the first time.” Fish look a long drag from his cigarette as if he was trying to steady his nerves. “There in that isolated room I saw him. Face to face. As I walked in he smiled and embraced me with a hug. ‘My boy’ he said. Taken back I did not know what to say. I stood there frozen unable to find the words that I so desperately wanted to speak. ‘It’s been a long time coming but now I think you are ready to learn the truth.’ We sat in that dimly lit room for what seemed like an eternity as he explained to me my purpose. I along with every other student at the academy were brought there not to be spy, but rather a secret army to do his bidding. He said that his ‘Liberation Army’ would free Awesome Land from its inevitable demise. That through our might that we might be able to create order in an otherwise order-less and doomed land. He had been searching for someone to lead the army for him and was torn between two for quite some time. I assume you can figure out who the other individual was. Upon my discovery that he was my father, he knew that I was to be his rightful successor. He laid out the basics of the plan to me, thinking back on it now I have to admit it was genius. Train thousands of children to be obedient solders, tricking them into thinking that they would grow up to be freedom fighters.”

Cod was shaken to the core. He had never questioned his orders, or ever thought about the impact his assignments had had. His hands began to shake. He felt his stomach turn, but he managed to keep himself from vomiting. “Why? Why? Why?” where the only words that he could utter.

“That’s not the worst of it yet.” Fish spoke. It was almost as if he was bracing himself. “You see, Not only was I his son, but I was his clone.”

‘How is that possible?’ Cod asked himself still unable to speak coherently.

“And on top of that I had a little brother.”

The universe stopped. Cod felt as if he was being sucked into a never ending black pit. He knew the words that Metal Gear Fish was about to say. He prayed and prayed that they would not come out nut they did.

“You are my little brother. After all that he put us through, all the training all the fighting, you were my brother and he purposely pitted us against each other.” With that MGF deactivated the cage. “Together we can right this wrong. Together we can stop our father.”

[Myrdraxxis]

Roewk stared at the spot where Artemis had been, then over at Knox. "I uh...I hope you can get us out of here, because I sure can't." He glanced around at the area and winced.


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

"Sir, the enemy fleet is bugging out." Yda reported. Neero watched the computer readouts, occasionally glancing at the viewport to the inky blackness of space as his crew rushed about, prepping them for launch. Sure enough, the Shogunate fleet was leaving; ships vanished from sight, leaving only starlight and emptiness in their wake. Neero frowned, eyeing the readout near his command seat.

"Do we have a general heading?"

"Aye sir. We know where theyre going, but..." Yda trailed off. Neero glanced at her. She took that as her cue to continue. "We don't have the fuel to follow them all they way to their projected destination. Best estimates put us here..."

Neero's command screen displayed their current path, and then switched to a readout of what appeared to be an asteroid belt. That is, an asteroid belt that had been completely overtaken by some madman's vision of commercialism. Bright neon signs and advertisements jutted out of every space rock, with restaurants and businesses covering the largest asteroids in small pseudo cities. Neero stared. "What am I looking at here?"

"A...pit stop, from my estimates, captain. From what we can tell this appears to be a waystation to the galaxy at large."

"Well..." Neero stared a moment longer. "Better than nothing, I suppose. From there we can at least get our bearings. Full spead ahead, Yda."

"Aye sir."

With that, the SS Sideboob accelerated and vanished from Earth's atmosphere, into the void of space and the Cosmic SHogunate beyond.

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

Life was one big ride. A hectic rollercoaster of ups and downs, liable to throw you off at any point if you weren’t careful. One moment you’re hanging on just fine and enjoying the heady feeling of life as it coasts along, and then the next its over because you made a tiny mistake, or were shoved off, or for no reason at all. Unfair, is what it was. And the saddest part was that most people just rode along without a care in the world for their fellow man, with no interest in helping others from falling off that ride. From reaching out a helping hand and pulling each other back up. It was a simple philosophy, really. If everyone just helped each other out occasionally, then everyone would get on better in life. The galaxy would wind up a much better place for it in the end, too. People you help will go on to help others, and then before long you have a whole galaxy of friends, all enjoying the ride together. Sounds pretty great, right? “So whatta you say, friend? Help a guy out?”

“No.”

The icy glare that Bushido Jones received from the diner’s owner didn’t seem promising. “This is the fifth time, Jones.” The man growled, a deep, rumbling sound promising pain. The large knife clutched in one hand did little to disprove that image. “Fifth time I’ve caught you trying to worm your way out of here without paying. Well not this time, buddy.” Jones eyed him over the rim of his sunglasses, idly swirling his sake glass. The two ladies that he’d been regaling with his tales of adventure and glory (only slightly exaggerated of course), were now edging away from him, sliding carefully away from his table. Pity that, things had been looking so promising.

“I thought we had an agreement, Iwabe. What happened to my tab?” Jones asked, setting aside the drink, swaying slightly.

“Oh you had a tab here. Thing about that is, a tab is something you actually pay off later!” The diner owner, Iwabe, all but yelled. “I told you last time not to come around here again unless it was to pay.” Actually, his words had been “Don’t show your filthy fucking face here again unless its got my money flowing out of every orifice like a goddamn yen fountain you unwashed ronin scum.” Iwabe had a real way with words. His talents were lost on this dingy restaurant. Jones squinted at the irate chef, partially to look intimidating and partially because his vision was going a little blurry from all the sake. He opened his mouth to reply and Iwabe cut him off. Thankfully, not literally as the man was still clutching that cutting knife rather tightly in one meaty fist. With his other hand, Iwabe grabbed Jones by the shoulder. “Listen Jones. You’re dipping into my revenue. Every time you come here it drives away other customers, and then you don’t even pay.” He began shaking Jones to punctuate each word, an action that rattled Jones’ brain rather dizzyingly. “I’ve got dues to pay, and when the Sakagi-gumi comes around asking, guess whose ass its going to be on the chopping block?”

Jones stared at him, disoriented, until he realized the man wanted an answer. “Yo-“

“YOURS, MOTHERFUCKER,” Iwabe roared with impressive volume, spittle fogging up Jones’ glasses. “BECAUSE I’LL BE SELLING YOUR ORGANS FOR CASH UNLESS YOU PAY YOUR GODDAMN TAB BY MIDNIGHT!” Iwabe bribed Jones’ shoulder hard and lifted the man into the air. By one hand. With a great heave, Jones was sent flailing through the air, right out the door and into the street outside of Iwabe’s diner.

Several passersby gave him looks as Jones lay there for a long moment, waiting for the spinning to stop. When the world finally stopped shaking around him, Jones stood up, sniffed disdainfully and in a fluid motion whipped out his comb to smooth out his pompadour. He checked himself in the window of the diner -Iwabe’s glaring visage visible through the glass, making strangling motions, and began walking away, satisfied.

Well, that was a thing. Jones wasn’t too worried, but Iwabe had seemed kind of serious this time. Maybe it was time to finally skip town? Problem was, Jones didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket outta this shitty place. Shiganemachi was a small port, little more than a rest stop for ships passing through the Shogunate to better places. It started as a fuel depot, then restaurants and shops moved in, then before long a small town had sprung up on the largest asteroid in the belt. It was a gateway to the rest of the galaxy, if you could afford the travel fair. Luckily for Jones, opportunities tended to spring up pretty often around here.

He glanced out at space, visible through the atmo-shielding that kept the town safe, just in time to see a strange, wedge-shaped battleship come out of FTL. He grinned.


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

Azzi sighed and cleared his throat, forcing himself to calm down. "err, I'm fine. Totally fine. Just uh...just maybe don't mention this to my father." Failing to notice that another ninja was present was liable to make the man wipe Azzi's memories again and send him on another "training journey". "Don't suppose you have any ideas on where to start here? This chick is clearly suspicious but uh...I dunno, do we start going through her stuff or what?" Azzi gestured around to the room.