//------------------------------// // Head Games // Story: Command & Conquer: My Little Psychic // by unknown2 //------------------------------// Today was an excellent day. Sure, that pest, the comrade general, had destroyed my network of Psychic Dominators, forged an alliance with the capitalist dogs, and laid waste to my Moon Base. The plan for world domination was now an impossibility. Even now, his forces assault the very heart of my operation. The walls are crumbling. My castle was not built to withstand this kind of assault after all, and I was unfortunately unable to attune the Psychic Beacons to the specific brainwave patterns of his men. A consequence of using suboptimal tools, I suppose. To be fair, it's not like I had the time to come up with anything better. I had been busy with a personal project, a proverbial ace in the hole. And now it is complete. None of the commander’s actions matter anymore. In his eagerness to destroy me, to undo whatever future in that other timeline, where my plans had undoubtedly succeeded, the comrade general had left his little device completely unprotected. Such a tactical mind, but oh so foolish in grasping the truly important details. A pity I could not look into it in depth. I became aware of his device from a report I received while the commander was busy with the fool Romanov. I had to have it. While the general was destroying my fleet of Boomer submarines, I sent out a retrieval team. Security was, rather lax, for such an important wonder of machinery. With my knowledge of technology, as well as some of the finest scientists, short of that funny little german Einstein, repairing it was… well, alright, it was not that easy. Still, the important thing is that it was done in time. A few hours, or even minutes, late, and it would not have bode well for me. The Union is not famous for being kind to traitors, after all. Energy reserves in place, chronoshifters ready… Heh, I remember once thinking to myself: ‘Why should I be content with ruling one country, when I can rule the world?’ Well, now the question is: ‘Why should I be content with ruling one world, when I can rule all of human history, and beyond?’ My senses become aware of certain human brainwaves corresponding to panic. Focusing, I determine that they are radiating from... Ah it's the intelligence officer of that meddlesome general. I believe her name was... Zofia? She has discovered my little project, it seems. Well, it’s not like she can actually do anything about it, now can she? I have a few seconds left before the time machine activates, and I don’t sense the presence of any soldiers that can interrupt me in time. Why not indulge in a little gloating? As a parting gift to the comrade general. Video connection online, and one two three: “I found your little device in San Francisco. Repairing it was a simple matter. It is too late comrade. The entire world, and all of its history, is mine, to command and conquer.” One of my best speeches yet, if I do say so myself. The shock on his face, and, most importantly, the sheer horror in his brainwave patterns… Ah, those are the memories I will treasure forever. Who knows? Maybe I can track him down in the annals of time, and get the good look I wanted after all? Might take some work, but I have all the time in the world now, don’t I. The machine glows blue, and I vanish from the ruins of my ancestral home. ***   Lt. Zofia was having a good day. The remnants of the traitor Yuri’s bid to conquer the world had been cleaned up. Soon, the man himself would be captured, and executed for his crimes against the people. She contacted the general who made this possible to deliver the post-battle report: “The castle has been taken, my general. I knew you would be victorious.” Then, the sensors picked up something concerning: “Comrade general! We are picking up an energy buildup beneath the castle! The signature wave is consistent with distortion wave of the time machine!” At that point, the traitor himself made contacted them, boasting about his victory. While the live transmission blared the would-be conqueror’s farewell, Zofia realized that Yuri had missed something important: “We still have the time machine’s command codes, comrade general. I have overridden the controls, and released all of the energy reserves. If you remember, we ourselves experienced some difficulty when too much energy was channeled into the machine. The machine’s energy reserves have been depleted. Yuri cannot use the machine without additional power. He will be trapped in time.” What Zofia had been expecting was that Yuri would be banished to some ancient part of Earth’s history, to be devoured by the wildlife there. After all, that is what had happened on their first try at using the time machine. The difference being, of course, that they had spare power to make the journey back, as well as guns and tanks to fend off the local wildlife. Yuri, on the other hand, would have had no way of recharging the immense energy needs of the time machine, and it was well documented that his psychic tricks were ineffective at controlling non-sapient life forms. Without his powers or the benefits of modern technology, he would be eaten by the local fauna almost immediately. That is not what happened. In another universe, one more magical and fantastic than the one Earth inhabited, hatred, jealousy, and loss drove one inhabitant, a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer, to uncover an ancient spell, written by Starswirl the Bearded, which she used to travel back in time and prevent the Sonic Rainbow, an event that was central to life of Twilight Sparkle, the pony she most blamed for the failure of her life’s work: a perfect little town, where everypony was completely equal. Twilight got caught in the spell, and did her best to prevent Starlight’s meddling, spawning a number of alternate timelines. Now, the problem was that Twilight was one of the Elements of Harmony: a group of friends who were the key to preventing Equestria’s fall at the hands and hooves of celestial deities, spirits of chaos, and other, nastier things. Every time Starlight prevented the Sonic Rainboom, she spawned an alternate continuity, where Equestria was subjugated by some dark force that Twilight and her friends had fought off in the original order of things. Eventually, Twilight managed to convince Starlight to stop, and return things to how they once were. But, the timelines created by her spell persisted. While that was bad for their inhabitants, the disturbance of time by such powerful magic left behind several temporal anomalies and weaknesses. Normally, they would be academic intrigues for those with the ability to detect them, but of little practical concern otherwise. But, as Yuri’s machine received more energy that it could safely handle, the temporal chronosphere, unstable even in the best circumstances, picked up on certain weaknesses in the time stream, and managed to puncture through the fabric that separates on universe from another, depositing Yuri into one of these stillborn timelines. As Lt. Zofia did not have the sensors to detect such a breach, she assumed that Yuri had been sent to his doom in the Jurassic Era. Practically speaking, there was little difference between her assumption and reality, as it pertained to the fate of Earth at least. The puncture the machine created was quick to heal, and the time anomalies faded away soon after, leaving the psychic mad man well and truly stranded. Einstein’s notes on the time machine were confiscated, classified, and stored in the safest location the USSR could find, so to as prevent any challenges to Soviet domination by way of temporal shenanigans. Wall Street was shut down. Having defeated the Allies, the USSR spread Communism across the globe. A space program was launched to spread the ideology to the rest of the solar system. Romanov got the legacy he always wanted.  The general took up Zofia’s offer, and they eventually married. Life was, from a certain perspective, good.   *** Yuri’s tale, and his endless hunger for power and control, however, did not end, as it would have had under almost any other circumstance. Instead of being devoured by dinosaurs, he got a whole new world, which, while not without its own dangers, warlords, and powerful beings, had yet to see his own special blend of genius and monstrosity. A world that he could Command & Conquer.