//------------------------------//
// [MIND] 066 - The Collected, Part 1 
// Story: Songs of the Spheres 
// by GMBlackjack 
//------------------------------//

The Ninth World, origin universe of the University of Doors and home to Dracogen Enterprises, could be considered a dimensional nexus akin to the mishmash world of Esefem, the eternal pull of the Sinkhole, or the ‘true Nexus’ itself that had trapped so many within its folds. The Ninth World was a place where dimensional travelers came and left constantly – not by choice most often, but by chance. It was this property that allowed the University of Doors to form, a people that grew up amongst constant interdimensional crossovers and learned to study the ways of the multiverse. 

Because of this property of the Ninth World, unusual people were nothing to bat an eye about. The people of the Steadfast, Beyond, and other locales may have been exceedingly untrusting of nonhumans, but the fact that a potato could grow legs, walk, and preach philosophical doctrines wouldn’t be that unusual to them. It was the way the world was, even if there was no way in the world they actually understood what was going on. Was the potato an alien? A being from another dimension? An ancient entity? They didn’t really care, they just accepted that it existed and moved on.

In the Beanstalk, things were different – there was no distrust of nonhumans. The people worked, lived, and died under the watchful eye of Dracogen Enterprises, a company that promoted technological progress, discovery, and equality. All of these progressive actions made it easy to forget that Dracogen Enterprises was essentially a criminal organization rooted in theft, assassination, and manipulation. 

So the Beanstalk had become a mixture of amazing progress with a decidedly despicable acceptance of thievery and murder. You only got arrested if you were particularly evil or ticked Jenny off. 

Because of this nobody batted an eye when an interdimensional traveler who flashed neon green and orange like a strobe light had their hand cut off by a giant raven-person. 

“Wh- hey! Thief! Purrgler stole my hand!” the neon being spoke with a voice combined from two entities, one of a cute higher-pitched woman, the other a deeper young man’s. The being’s physical appearance was just as much of a mess – bright bird wings, gloves with claws, a robe adorned with a strange crescent-moon symbol crossed with a gear, a catlike mouth, two horns that looked like cat ears, and the had the coolest pair of sunglasses ever. They were the epitome of a coolkid crossed with a cat and a bird. Looking at them did not make much sense. 

This had not deterred the raven-person though; he had seen what was clearly an amazing piece of technology on their arm. A green and black watch with an hourglass symbol on it - definitely not a simple watch. He had to have it and make it his own. He took off into the air. 

The strobelight being shrugged. “This should be fun.” They spread their wings and took off after the raven-person. A red gear appeared around the raven-person, freezing him in time. The neon being cut off the raven-person’s hand, reclaimed the previously severed limb, then attached the hand and the watch back to their own arm, magically sealing it back on. “Karma.”

Time around the raven-person resumed. “Wh… Who are you!?”

“I’m Davepetasprite, but you can call me Davepeta, everyone does!” Davepeta said, grinning. Then they kicked the raven-person to the ground. “Nice to meowt you! Heheh.” They adjusted their sunglasses so they would reflect off the light of the sun for maximum coolness factor. 

“I’m not done yet!” the raven-person blurted, flying up to them. “I HAVE WITH ME A CYPHER OF UNTOLD POWER!” He pulled out a cube of jello and threw it. In an instant, Davepeta was encased in a blue floating cube of gelatin. 

Davepeta inwardly chuckled. It’s not like I actually need to move to do anything. Hey, Omnitrix, Ghostfreak.
 
The green watch – the Omnitrix - registered Davepeta’s mental command. A burst of green energy flooded their body, transforming the green-orange form on a fundamental level. Davepeta’s sprite form was replaced with a horrifying ghost-like creature with cracks all along its body. The Omnitrix changed its shape to that of a badge, taking its position on the new being’s chest. 

The ghostly creature phased through the gelatin and appeared in front of the raven-person. 

“…Uh…”

“It’s just Dave now, by the way,” Dave said, summoning a giant sword with a clock on it from seemingly nowhere. He hit the raven-person with the blunt edge of the weapon. With a thought, the Omnitrix flashed again, transforming Dave into a blue creature with large wings and green bug-eyes. “Nepeta comes forth from the depths of the Omnitrix and purriously encases the rude bird-man in ice!” she declared, freezing the raven-person with frost breath. 

With another flash of green she returned to Davepeta. They set the frozen raven-person on the ground, smirking. Only the attacker’s head wasn’t encased in a brick of ice. “So, what have we learned?”

“Uh…”

Davepeta held a set of extended claws to the thief’s neck. “What did we meowtherfuckin’ learn?”

“D-don’t cut off hands!”

“Good enough,” Davepeta said, retracting their claws. They walked away, leaving the raven-person frozen. He’d melt eventually. …Eventually. Davepeta hoped there were people who’d throw tomatoes at him before then, that’d be sweet. 

“That was impressive.”

Davepeta looked up to see Jenny of the Red Gloves standing on top of a nearby roof, the tall form of the Beanstalk itself directly behind her. “Yeah, I’m fuckin’ awesome.” They leaned against a nearby building, smirking. “Davepeta raises their eyebrow in such a way as to ask the strange girl’s name without breaking the exterior of unimaginable coolness.”

Jenny smirked. “I’m Jenny of the Red Gloves. I run this place, more or less. Welcome to the Ninth World, Davepeta.”

“Awww, thanks!” Davepeta gave her a thumbs up. “So, how about you tell me what makes you so interested in me?”

“The strobe light isn’t enough?”

“Judging by the crowd, fuck no.”

Jenny chuckled. “All right, I’ll let you know just this once. That device on your arm that allows you to transform – it is very interesting.”

“Not trading it for anything.”

“Of course not. I happen to have access to a device that can copy virtually any machine – magical, technological, or otherwise. I just want some copies. Are you willing to trade for that?”

“Hrm, lemme think about it… Purring… Purring… Purring… Fuck no. Stop the presses, it’s the same answer!”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “I have many things more interesting than your watch. I could offer you something more than its value to you. Say… A spaceship. I have those.”

“Nah,” Davepeta said. “I mean, I’ll stick around a bit – this place sure seems more interesting than the other worlds I’ve been recently – but you don’t have anything to offer me.”

“You’re part troll, right?”

Davepeta stared at her in disbelief. With a quick thought, the Omnitrix transformed into a troll akin to Vriska and Aradia – a cat-like one with cat-like horns and an olive-green symbol on her shirt. “Yeah… Nepeta leans in curiously and slightly threateningly.” She did just that. “How do mew know that?”

“I can tell you where Vriska and Aradia are,” Jenny said with a smirk. “The price? Tha-”

“JENNY DON’T TALK TO HER!”

Froppy landed between Jenny and Davepeta. The rest of her team quickly showed up to flank her – a hooded skeleton with a scythe and a man riding a unicorn. The man wore blue and had a decorative horseshoe on his hat while the unicorn was tall, white, and graceful with a light pink mane. 

“Froppy!?” Jenny blurted. “Why can’t I talk to her?”

The man took a picture out of his shirt. “Because we have reason to suspect she’s working for the guy that took Gyro.” He handed the picture to Jenny. It was a crudely drawn representation of Davepeta talking to the metallic blue guy they had encountered when they made first contact with the Sparkle Census. 

“Ivan…” Jenny said, remembering her lost friend. Her fist began to tremble. She shoved the image into Nepeta’s face. “Explain this. Now.”


~~~


The Enterprise flew through Lai hyperspace at top speed, in hot pursuit of a ship.

“How are they faster than us?” O’Neill demanded.

The communications officer – a pinkish bug-demon by the name of Lentis – narrowed her eyes. “It is possible they are using their arcs to enhance the engine. It was state of the art to begin with.”

O’Neill grunted. “We’re going to have to act fast when we arrive. Ready weapons now and prepare for targeting.”

“Yes sir.” The crew pressed some buttons. 

A handful of seconds later, Lentis shook her head. “They’re dropping out of hyperspace.”

“All hands on deck!” O’Neill blurted. “Destroy their teleporter!”

The other ship – a new Merodi design comprised of a blue Gem hull affixed to a pair of gigantic Tau’ri engines – dropped out of hyperspace. They were millions of miles from the closest star. Exactly where they wanted to be. They turned toward a blue star and activated their long-range teleporter. 

The Enterprise fired too late. The ship had already placed a miniature stargate within the star, forcing it to dial a black hole. The star began to shift unnaturally from the sudden gravitational alteration. 

“Mission failure!” Lentis declared.

“Disable their engines!”

This order was completed. The Spectral Rod sent out a pulse spell that drained all the power from the ship’s engines. The Enterprise latched onto the disabled ship with a tractor beam.

Then the star exploded in a fiery supernova. They would not be able to stay here long – if the supernova reached them there was only a chance their shields could take it. 

“Report,” O’Neill demanded.

“No rune material,” Lentis answered. “It was not a capital-S Star. They were mistaken.”

“Good,” O’Neill said in relief. “Let’s tow them out of here. Quick hyperspace jump out of supernova range.”

The Enterprise dragged the ship away from the dangerous explosion, into deep space. “Hail them.” O’Neill ordered.

An Arcei appeared on screen.

“Do you people want to be seen as the enemies!?” O’Neill blurted.

“The way to create Runes is by the death of a Star,” the Arcei declared, eyes sad. “It is the only way.”

“I know that!” O’Neill blurted. “So how about forgetting the whole arcs thing?”

“…Most of us cannot do that, General. And you know that.”

O’Neill sat back in his chair. “What you’re doing is murder, which we can’t allow.”

“I know. But we cannot stop having children, and your arc-less solution has torn families apart. We will not be like the demons and forget who we are.”

Lentis looked to O’Neill. He nodded, permitting her to speak. “That’s not fair and you know it! There are Arcei who can forget who they were and change. Your actions prevent them from having their quiet lives! You’re not just turning those on your side into your enemy; you’re turning all Arcei into the enemy!”

“It saddens me to see your kind the way it is. Hopelessly changed.”

“Maybe change is inevitable.”

Judging from the look on the Arcei’s face, he knew this to be true. He knew what he was doing was essentially pointless and hopeless. That even if they got their arcs, they would become criminals of the highest degree. And unlike on Lai, they wouldn’t be able to hide. They would be too easy to find. The Stars themselves would react in anger. 

He sighed. “If I have anything to say about it, I will never see the change come to pass.” 

“They’ve bypassed our shields!” another crewmember declared. “The-”

The Arcei and six of his crew appeared on the bridge, arcs alight. They started firing blasts of stellar energy at the crew. 

Crimson Sushi activated, scrambling the visual perceptions of the Arcei on the bridge. Only a few of their shots actually hit O’Neill’s crew, the rest hit each other. O’Neill fired his new firearm – a pulse pistol, a blue weapon that shot an orb of energy that disabled magic in a target and knocked them out. It was immensely effective against the Arcei. 

Lentis drew her pulse pistols as well – all four hands firing at once. There were certainly perks from being part of a warrior culture. 

The lead Arcei finally figured out that he was shooting his crewmembers rather than enemies when he physically touched one with his hoof. “Crimson Sushi…” he muttered.

The fishy Stand slapped the Arcei across the face, knocking him to the ground. Despite the mixture of frostbite and burn he had just received from touching the fish, he still stood strong. He began to charge his arcs. 

O’Neill fired his pulse pistol, hitting the arcs. They began to overload. 

“EVERYBODY DOWN!” O’Neill shouted, ducking behind a console.

He had expected a gigantic kamikaze explosion. Instead, the Arcei just vanished in a puff of magic, reducing himself to dust. 

O’Neill looked out from behind the console. “…He did that on purpose.”

“Wh…What?” Lentis asked.

“He could have blown up this entire room. He didn’t.” O’Neill stood up, looking at the dust with sad, old eyes. “He didn’t want to see it.”

Lentis glared. “…Coward.”

O’Neill didn’t correct her. That was her culture she was tapping into, after all. He’d had enough of taking culture from people for today. 


~~~


“Explain this, meow?” Nepeta said, nervously. 

“Did… did you just make a pun?” Jenny said, blinking. “I’m not sure if I should laugh or punch your face in.”

“The second,” the man on the horse said, summoning his giant, pink, humanoid Stand and aiming his fingers at Nepeta. 

“Johnny, calm down,” Froppy cautioned.

Johnny scowled. “Only if she starts talking.”

“I don’t know anything about that guy!” Nepeta blurted. “I mean, he looks a lot like one of those Metal Sonics, but I’ve never taken orders from one before!”

“Who do you work for then?” Johnny demanded.

“I – well, me and Dave, - are just interdimensional travelers! We don’t belong to anyone!”

“Then explai-”

The skeleton member of their team held up a hand. I BELIEVE SHE IS TELLING THE TRUTH, JOHNNY. SHE KNOWS NOTHING.

“Boingo’s predictions are never wrong.”

“They’re also pawbrobly vague and misleading, huh?” Nepeta suggested. 

Johnny sat back on his unicorn mount. “…Fine.”

The unicorn cleared her throat. “If you are not in service to the blue one at the moment, you will either be in time or encounter him. As such we will need to observe you.”

“So I’m not an enemy anymore?” Nepeta asked.

“…For the moment, no,” Johnny said, eyeing her with suspicion.

Nepeta nodded. “Good – I don’t like talking all alone in confrontations.” She activated the Omnitrix, returning to the Davepeta form. “Aaaaaand I’m back meowtherfuckers! Davepeta on the scene, shocking you all with their incredibly cool looks.”

There was no response.

“Davepeta leans in curiously, they have a question… Ahem. What did this blue guy do to mew guys?”

“Follow up question,” Jenny interrupted. “Who are these bozos, Froppy?”

“Bozos!?” Johnny blurted. 

Froppy sighed. “Right… the blue guy took our friend Gyro, Davepeta. He enslaved him and we haven’t heard anything about him since then, many years ago. I’ve been looking for him the entire time.”

“And didn’t find anything,” Johnny pointed out.

“Ribbit,” Froppy croaked with a depressed sigh. “Because I didn’t find anything I was demoted, Jenny. Johnny’s in charge of finding Gyro now.”

“Another Jojo, huh?”

Johnny folded his arms. “I’m Gyro’s Jojo, Jenny. We were the first of Valentine’s explorers. I left before you met him to settle down – but then Gyro gets captured.”

Froppy looked at the ground. “I promised I’d find him. I didn’t.”

“I’m sure you tried!” Davepeta purred encouragingly. 

The skeleton nodded. SHE DID.

Jenny looked up at the towering being. “And who are you?”

DEATH.

“Fun. And the unicorn?”

“Lileur, version of Fleur de Lis,” Lileur answered. “I’m here because Johnny needs a horse to activate his higher-end Spin powers. And as a magic authority.”

“Right.” Jenny turned back to Death. “So, death death or death death.”

YOUR INFLECTIONS DO NOT CHANGE THE MEANING OF YOUR WORDS. I AM A SPIRIT OF DEATH FOR A SINGLE UNIVERSE THAT IS PART OF THE USM. THAT SHOULD SUFFICE.

“But, I have so many questions! Can you kill people with a glance? Can you stop death from happening? Can you see how much time I have left?”

YES, CONDITIONALLY, AND YES.

“…Wait yes?” Jenny blurted, a frightened expression crossing her face. “Uh…”

DON’T ASK QUESTIONS YOU DON’T WANT THE ANSWER TO, Death declared.

“He’s messing with you,” Lileur said. “Yes, he can see how much time you have left, but the moment you translate dimensions that number changes. You should only start worrying if the timer is at, say, a few seconds.”

“At that point if you don’t get the hell out of dodge you’re dead,” Johnny said. He pointed at Davepeta. “We’re not here to talk about the finer points of what Death can do. We’re here to find Gyro. And this…”

“Sprite,” Davepeta offered.

“…this sprite is how we’re going to do it.”

“Do I get a choice in this?”

“No,” Jenny and Johnny said at the same time. 

“I could just rewind time a fe-”

“Holy pizza bagels no!” Jenny declared. “Time on this world is weak right now! We don’t need another Time Wraith problem!”

“I also have Heart powers…” Davepeta mused. “And there are aliens in the Omnitrix that let me do some pretty broken bullshit. What I’m sayin’ is there’s lots of ways I can make a choice.”

“I know where Vriska and Aradia are,” Jenny reminded them.

“Right. That. Yeah, that’s a good card you’ve got in your paws.”

“Thank you. So, Davepeta, you are going to let me examine your Omnitrix and let these fine folks watch you. Then we can take you to Vriska and Aradia.”

Johnny tensed.

DO NOT FEAR THE MERODI, JOHNNY, THEY WISH TO FIND THE BLUE ONE JUST AS WE DO. THEY WILL LIKELY ASSIST US RATHER THAN BEING HOSTILE TO OUR INTENTIONS.

“Doesn’t mean I have to be comfortable crossing that border.”

“You were sure comfortable coming here,” Jenny pointed out.

Froppy blinked. “Ribbit. You always keep the University off our backs.”

“Bah, whatever. Davepeta, we’re going to my basement.”

“Geez, at least take me out on a date fir-”

Jenny punched them in the face, knocking them back. “I finally decided you needed to be punched.”

“Worth it…”

Jenny prepared a teleport to the Beanstalk’s basement – but she was interrupted when an alarm blared in her ear. “Uuuugh, what now, YVND?”

None of those present heard the other side of the conversation – they didn’t need to. A red, metallic disc several miles across had appeared in the sky, just to the east of the Beanstalk tower itself.

“What is it? Starcross? Merodi? The blue guy!?” Jenny demanded.

Davepeta, Johnny, Lileur, Death, and Froppy prepared for a fight before the disc started shooting the ground with laser weapons, destroying homes.

“What do you mean it isn’t interdimensional at all?” Jenny blurted. “It’s just from space!? How did it get past our sensors!? You know what, never mind, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just shoot it down.”

“Looks like science and stuff will have to wait, huh?” Davepeta asked.

“Looks that way,” Jenny muttered. “If you help, don’t use time travel. That’s all I have to say.”

“Cool, cool.”

The disc activated teleporters, dropping several teams of invaders all around the Beanstalk. These invaders were purely mechanical beings that took the form of spheres on springs.

“That looks stupid,” Davepeta observed.

The spring-sphere opened up seven different hatches, producing a large quantity of space-age weapons, all of which had enough excess heat from power production to glow red hot.

“Still stupid,” Davepeta declared. 

The next thing the sprite knew they had been teleported fifteen feet beneath the ground by a banana-yellow laser. 

“Ugh…”


~~~


Lady Rarity and her team returned to Castle Lai, laughing as they passed through the main gates. 

“That. Was the best mission ever,” Olivia said. 

“You don’t know the half of it,” Lieshy said, smiling brightly for once. 

“Oh, I do.”

“No you don’t,” Lieshy insisted, nudging her playfully. “There were no cameras in the Bogged Bog. While you were busy with all those robot rabbits…”

“Absolute terrors to behold,” Lady Rarity decreed.

“…I was in the bog discovering that, yes, the world did have take-out waffles.”

“Wait, really?” Corona asked – currently in the form of a unicorn. “I thought that was just some kind of running gag!”

“Found some bug-people. All it took was a little bit of convincing from Limelight and presto, I was in.”

“Such a useful ability,” Olivia mused. 

Corona pursed her lips. “I was going to say ‘Stands generally are’ but then thought better of it.”

“Why? Yours is pretty good, right?” Lady Rarity asked.

Corona smirked. “Yeah, it’s pretty sweet. Wish you two had got one so you could see it.”

“The process for Stands is what it is,” Lady Rarity said. Olivia folded her arms in an obvious exaggerated pout. 

“That it is. But some Stands really suck. There’s a guy on Earth Stand that can’t leave a pylon because of his. He’s not upset about it, but if he were any other person it’d drive them nuts.”

“Ouch.”

“There was also a Stand that only activated after the user’s death. I don’t even want to imagine how they found that out.”

“You’ve been reading Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure,” Lieshy commented. 

“…Yes,” Corona admitted. 

“So you did take my suggestion.”

“Why do you think I named mine Bacon Pancakes?”

“That’s a song name!?” Lieshy blurted in surprise, a rare tone for her. 

“Yeah!” She cleared her throat. “Bacon pancakes, makin’ bacon pancakes, take some bacon and I’ll put it on a pancake…”

“What…?” Lady Rarity said, her expression that of disbelief.

“They’re geeking out,” Olivia answered. “Something we didn’t realize until we found the actual Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga is that Stands are named after song names. Both of them took this to heart, apparently.”

“Limelight is a song name?”

“Uncultured swine,” Lieshy muttered. “Go to an Earth, find the band ‘Rush’, and educate yourself in real music.”

Lady Rarity twitched. “…I’m the uncultured swine?”

Lieshy chuckled. “Yep!”

“Looks like I have a new band to listen to and a series of manga to read in order to keep up with modern culture. What fun.” 

“Part 4 is best part,” Olivia pointed out.

“Part 7!” Corona blurted. 

“Part 8, especially because of the ending,” Lieshy asserted. 

Lady Rarity ignored these suggestions. “…do you think Jotaro and the others mind?”

Lieshy shook her head. “Jotaro doesn’t. Rohan…”

“Rohan does,” Corona said, smirking. “But he still hasn’t taken the ‘Corona cannot attack Rohan Kishibe’ out of my face, so I could care less.”

Olivia folded her arms and grumbled. “He makes me look bad.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Lady Rarity encouraged. 

“He doesn’t need to hack into anything, he can just find the person who knows how and tell them to do it. It’s ridiculously overpowered.”

Corona rolled her eyes. “And Eve can alter reality on a fundamental level. Alushy basically can’t die. Discord can snap his fingers and turn everyone into a mouse.”

“Point taken.”

The four of them finally made it to Toph’s throne room. They fell silent, expecting the usual ‘welcome home’ – but Toph remained silent, staring at the floor. 

“Toph?” Corona asked with concern.

Toph said nothing.

Corona took off her front boot and walked up to the Queen.

“Ugh, fine,” Toph muttered, sitting up. “So, guess what happened today?”

“Arcei again?” Lady Rarity offered. 

“Yes. Arcei again,” Toph sighed. “Just when we were making progress, they have to go and contact the Starcross Society and learn how to make Runes. Suddenly they’re all bent on destruction again.”

“Not al-”

“Enough,” Toph interrupted. “Enough of them are. Enough that the hatred of them is back on the rise again after going down for the first time in years.” She punched the side of her throne, breaking it off. “They stole one of our largest ships and took off, blowing up a star. Fortunately it wasn’t a capital-S Star, but if they had been just a bit smarter…” she shook her head.

Corona shook her head. “You think they’d be happy living the way they’ve had…”

Toph folded her hands together. “The leaders that aren’t Starcei have always been telling them ‘eventually, progress will give us Runes.’ They’ve been basing their entire hope as a people on it. It’s the reason they allowed themselves to leave Lai, the reason they’ve listened to everything… But now that we know the answer?” She stood up. “I have to war against them!”

“…How many have attacked Lai since we last left?” Lady Rarity asked.

“Three. Only one of those successfully captured a Rune,” Toph muttered. “They’re shaping up to be the next Siron.”

“They have no organized leader,” Olivia decaled. “Somnabula has declared a no-Rune policy, as has Starcei. We’re not facing an army, Toph, we’re facing small groups, not a cohesive whole.”

“If they get the Stars angry at us though…” Corona added.

“The point is they aren’t a threat to Merodi Universalis as a whole. The reason they’re able to think hunting Stars is a good idea is because we can fight them. The Stars aren’t a society anymore, just a loose collection of flaming balls of gas. We can take them.”

Toph turned her back to them, standing up tall. “I still have to fight the Arcei. I really don’t want to.”

“I know,” Lady Rarity said. “But sometimes you have to do things with consequences you’d rather do without.”

“Part of being Queen,” Toph said, knitting her eyebrows. “Wonder what Queenie would have done…”

“Not have taken a hard enough stance,” Lieshy said. “You’re handling it better than she would have. You’re actually willing to fight them.”

Toph smirked, shaking her head. “…You know that thing I say?”

“It’s good to be the Queen?” Olivia suggested. 

“Yeah. That’s a load of tar.” She shook her head. “I know you’ve all gone through a lot… But it’s nothing like being the Queen.”

“Go talk to Evening,” Corona suggested.

“I have,” Toph admitted. “The fact is… there’s not a solution. We just do what we have to do, and that’s that. Dealing with it is a separate question that has to be answered differently every time.” She put her hand on the Master Sword’s hilt. “Every time…”

Corona hugged her from behind. Toph didn’t reject it – but she didn’t say anything either. 

What am I going to do if I have to destroy them?
 

~~~


The problem with robotic invaders were that they weren’t technically alive in the strictest definition of the word – no flesh, no soul – and therefore nothing for Death to work with aside from hit-with-scythe. He was a lot less devastating compared to how he usually was in combat, which made Froppy nervous. 

She was having trouble dodging all the attacks from the spring drones. She was extremely adept with her agility-boosting frog powers, but she was cutting it a little close with the beams of brightly colored light sailing by the side of her head. There had been dozens of citizens hit by crossfire already that she was unable to save due to her complete focus on not getting hit herself. 

It was painful. 

Jenny clearly felt the pain of her people being slaughtered, seeing as how she was fighting the machines with more rage than calculation, her fists flying wild. It was a good thing she was completely indestructible because she kept getting tossed around like a ragdoll. 

Davepeta had proven to be quite versatile with all their different forms – they rapidly changed from being to being, using powers in tandem to destroy the most invaders. Froppy had figured out their secret – Davepeta was a fusion mind, and when they transformed Nepeta took over female beings while Dave took over male. The most impressive combo was them turning into a being of magic that set up dozens of magical bombs, a being that could duplicate itself taking those bombs to select locations, and then a powerful psychic detonating all of them at the perfect time and place. 

Johnny and Lileur were having the most luck though – Johnny infused Lileur with his Spin energy, allowing him to access his full powers. His Stand, Tusk, took a defensive posture, absorbing most of the lasers as they hit. Johnny launched his super-Spin infused fingernails, each one embedding into a robot and tearing it to shreds through the rotation. One-hit-kill, every time. When Johnny ran out of fingernails, Lileur used a spell to grow them back, giving him infinite ammo. Every shot destroyed an invader. 

He’d even shot the ship above them, but the progression of the Spin energy through the disc was slow. Parts of the edge had started to fall off, but it would probably be hours before the entire ship was engulfed in Johnny’s power. 

Jenny was yelling on her communication device. “YVND! Just hack them all! …What do you mean you’re busy? Oh, on the ship? …Carry on, get it to go away.”

“Who are these guys?” Johnny demanded, Spinning ten more into oblivion. 

“There’s a lot of random evil crap in space here,” Jenny answered, punching through one, getting her arm shot off by another. “Just be glad it isn’t Mozck.”

“Mozck?”

“Eldritch deity in AI form,” Jenny muttered, casting an EMP spell on the spring drone that had shot her arm off. “Though he could easily show up. If these drones start glowing pink and turning into starfish-scorpions, then we’ll have a problem.”

“We don’t have a problem already?” Froppy blurted, dodging another flurry of lasers. 

“A bigger problem.”

One of the shots hit Davepeta again, this time knocking them into a nearby building, through the walls at an angle. The sprite did not reappear within the next few seconds. 

“Davepeta!” Froppy shouted. She wasn’t doing very well actually fighting these robots compared to the others – so she hopped to the wrecked building, leaping inside. Jenny decided to follow her while the others kept destroying robots. 

The two of them found a hole in the ceiling and a small crater on the ground where Davepeta now stood, surrounded by the robots. Froppy and Jenny would have rushed to the sprite, but something gave them pause. They ducked behind a wooden crate, hiding themselves from view. 

In the room, next to a high tech console, were Rick and Morty. The brash, blue-haired scientist that almost nobody in the multiverse liked, and his grandson. 

…Were these the same ones that had been taken by the blue guy?

Davepeta readied their claws, prepared to take on the robots – but they didn’t move. They just looked at Davepeta. “Uh…”

“They’re disabled,” Rick said with a burp. “In a few seconds all of them will be, and that ship will fly away.” 

“Hang tight,” Morty said, aiming a gun at the robots. “If they move, Rick’s fucked up.”

“I don’t fuck up.”

“Funny,” Morty muttered. “I happen to remember one particular time wh-”

Rick didn’t let him finish. He pressed a button, triggering the command to disable all the robots. The sound of several thousand invaders falling to the ground all at once was like a minor earthquake. 

Froppy and Jenny looked out a window – they saw the disc vanish. Froppy wondered if they would cut off the part infected with Spin in time to survive. 

“There we go, mission complete,” Rick said. “World saved from springy little robots.”

“This wasn’t an actual mission,” Morty pointed out.

“Shut up, Morty. Might as well have been.”

“Mission?” Davepeta said, sticking their head between the two of them. “You, Rick, taking a mission? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“Morty, present this thing with the ‘no shit, Einstein’ award.”

“You know them don’t you?” Morty asked, gesturing at Davepeta.

“I know it Morty. Know it. You don’t use a plural pronoun to refer to an individual. That’s just bad grammar.”

“But it is just so… robotic!”

“I’m technically two beings!” Davepeta suggested.

“Never at once,” Rick muttered. “You’re it, thing.”

Davepeta chuckled, tapping Rick on the arm. “Tag! You’re it!”

Rick twitched, looking like he wanted to do something but couldn’t.

“Awwww… You’re no fun.” Davepeta folded their arms. “Let’s be serious then. Why the fuck would you help people!?”

“We help people!” Morty interjected. “All the time!”

Davepeta raised an eyebrow at Morty. “Davepeta raises an incredulous eyebrow, as if to say ‘in your dreams’.”

“…I forgot how weird you were,” Morty muttered, shaking his head. “We try to help people.”

“That’s you. If I know Rick, he never does anything without some sort of angle. So spill the beans! What’re you expurrting these people for?”

“Nothing,” Rick muttered, the answer clearly angering him. “Jack shit, fuck all, rotten potatoes!” 

“Now, see, this doesn’t make any sense – is it pawsible that you really don’t want to be here? But nobody can tell you what to do!” Davepeta narrowed her eyes. “Hrm… Curiouser and curiouser…”

“Fuck it,” Rick said, pulling a device out of his pocket. 

“Rick no!”

Rick flashed Davepeta with a blue light. “Congratulations. You’re one of us now.”

“…One of what?”

“The Collection,” Morty said with a sigh. “I’m sorry, you were asking too many questions…”

Davepeta blinked. “Wait, so you really are under control of someone!?”

“Yep. The Collector,” Morty said, shaking his head. “And now you are too because Rick got fed up. Rick you shouldn’t have done that to them!”

“It was being a nosy asshole!”

“And you’re never a nosy asshole?”

Rick snorted. “What’s your point?”

Morty facepalmed. “Look, Davepeta, sorry. But you’ve just been conditioned to be loyal to the Collector. When we open a portal to leave this world, you’ll be compelled to leave and you won’t be able to disobey.”

Davepeta turned into a being made of pure mental energy. “I can try,” he said, Dave now. 

Rick started laughing. “It actually thinks it can disobey by turning into a mind-creature! Oh that’s rich! Ahah!” Rick opened a portal. “I dare you not to go through that portal. But I’ll tell you that if you stay here, you won’t be loyal to the Collector.”

There was no hesitation. Dave moved across the portal. “What the fuck…?”

“Yeah,” Morty said, shaking his head. “The Collector’s loyalty algorithm doesn’t appear to have a weakness. Though since we’re under it, it’s hard to tell if we’re really the best judges…”

Rick chuckled. “I like how this day’s turning out. Davepeta, I get to welcome you to the living hell of being a slave. We’re going to have such fun.”

“Does the loyalty algorithm keep me from decking your face?”

“Yes,” Rick said.

“No,” Morty muttered, following them through the portal. 

Jenny angled a finger at the portal, planning to shoot something through it – but it closed too fast. “FRICK.”

Froppy gulped. “This… This isn’t good.”

“The Collector…” Jenny said, clenching her fist. “The Collection – finally. Finally we have new information. Good gravy I’ve been waiting a long time for this. One step closer to Ivan…”

“But that’s not much to go off of.”

“It’s enough,” Jenny said, standing up. “We’ve got a report to make.”

“To the University?”

“Screw the University, they don’t give a rip,” Jenny said. “I think your leadership would be more interested in this.”

Froppy nodded. “Very.”

“Then what are we waiting for, exactly? Let’s move while the trail is hot! We’re going to find them!”


~~~


Ambassador Valentine looked at the people on the other side of the couch – the entirety of Johnny’s team and Jenny of the Red Gloves. 

“Jenny, do you know who Gyro is?” Valentine asked, pulling a data pad out of his coat marked Steel Ball Run. 

“Arrogant guy who uses Spin a lot,” Jenny answered.

“He’s much more than that,” Valentine said, flipping to a particular page of the manga. He showed it to her. “He’s the man I killed.”

“Ouch.”

“You could say that,” Valentine said, leaning back into the folds of the couch. “We were enemies on our home world. Earth-ST1-America. Local year 1890. We were fighting over parts of an ancient Saint’s corpse, one with the power to endow people with Stands. We ended up on the opposite sides of the conflict by fate – but that day when Gyro fell, Johnny and I made a deal. We would no longer be enemies. But instead of going on our separate ways, we went into the multiverse with my Stand, looking for a way to revive Gyro, rather than just replace him with a copy. It took a long time, but we eventually found what we were looking for many, many worlds away. The journey back, the three of us got to know one another.” 

Valentine laid the copy of Steel Ball Run down on the table, showing his death at the hands of Johnny. “Rather than everything ending here with my true death, the United States of the Multiverse was formed out of my, Johnny, and Gyro’s travels. I became the first president, and when my term was up I took the role of Ambassador. Johnny settled down after a few years, raising a family. Gyro never stopped exploring.”

“How old are you?” Jenny asked. “I thought the USM was over a century old.”

“It is. The three of us stumbled across immortality when Gyro was returned to us.” Valentine folded his arms. “You understand why it’s important we get him back. Not only is he an old friend, but in many ways he is a symbol of our people. How would the Beanstalk react if you vanished? Or if the Merodi’s primary team were killed?”

“I can imagine,” Jenny said. 

“Good.” Valentine put Steel Ball Run back into his suit. “So, for the first time in years, we know more. We have a title – The Collector – and a group – The Collection. We also know a bit about what he uses his slaves for.”

“Missions, Ribbit,” Froppy said. “Rick and Morty talked about them for a short while. It seems like the Collector sends his slaves to perform tasks across the multiverse. Apparently those tasks are to sometimes save worlds from robot invasions.”

“Totally didn’t need saving,” Jenny muttered. 

“The important thing is Rick thought you did,” Valentine pointed out. “And therefore felt compelled to help.”

“But that doesn’t really make much sense!” Johnny blurted. “Why brainwash and enslave people only to have them be ‘heroes’?” 

“It is unusual,” Valentine admitted. “Perhaps a case of ‘the ends justify the means’, or possibly insanity. I find it more likely he is tormenting them – helping others is a particular hell for Rick, after all.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Jenny agreed.

THAT DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR MORTY. HE ENJOYS DOING SUCH WORK, Death countered.

“He seemed really… dissatisfied with everything,” Froppy said.

“That’s normal,” Johnny said.

“No, it was more than that. He was more than just jaded. Conflicted, angry, short…” 

“It isn’t like we know him that well,” Valentine said. “Clearly, we need more information. Did we find out where they went?”

“Transition universe,” Jenny said. “They scrubbed their dimensional signal after that so they couldn’t be followed.”

“Then we’ll have to follow them another way. Time travel is a disaster waiting to happen in the Ninth World…” He put a hand to his chin. “All we have are names now. The Collector and the Collection. We can make do with that.” He stood up tall. “I am going to use every resource at my disposal to find mention of these things. We will find something – in reality or in fiction – that helps us. That gets us closer to Gyro, to Ivan, and to all the others the Collector has enslaved.” He curled his fist in visible rage. The undemocratic horror… The Collector was the opposite of freedom! 

“But what if we get stuck again?” Johnny asked. “We were all thinking this when we first encountered the Collector, but we didn’t find anything for years!”

Valentine paused. “Then we keep looking. It’s as simple as that. This atrocity against democracy and justice cannot be allowed to continue. It is against everything the USM stands for.” 

Froppy nodded. “Ribbit.”

“All of you use every connection you have as well to find every possible detail on the Collector.” He summoned D4C to his side. “I’m going on a trip.” He produced a Murican flag and used it with D4C to translate to another universe, leaving the teams and Jenny behind. 

“Time to go look through my impossibly huge diary to see if anything jogs my memory,” Jenny said, clearly dreading the activity. 

“Good luck,” Froppy said.

“Thanks.” She vanished through a nearby door. 

“What are we doing?” Lileur asked. 

I MAY BE REMEMBERING SOMETHING… Death said, bony hand to his chin. PERHAPS WE SHOULD RETURN TO DISC-DW2.

Johnny looked into the distance, fire in his eyes. “We’re coming for you, Gyro.”


~~~


“Cessera,” Eve said, looking up from her desk at her Sapphire Second. “Is this real?” she asked, holding up a report.

Cessera nodded. “Yes.”

“The Citadel?”

“It’s not the Council of Ricks anymore, you know.”

Eve stared. “I still never expected them to contact us in any official way…”
 
“You know there’s a Morty in charge, right?”

“Yes, yes, I know, but… Celestia, it’s hard to imagine Ricks listening to Mortys, not to mention a society with Ricks in it wanting to talk to us.”

“The Grand Secretariat and M4 vouch for their intentions.”

“I’m not saying I don’t trust it, I’m saying I haven’t processed it yet.” She shook her head. “Doesn’t their time stream move slower than ours?”

“Significantly.”

“And yet they still changed that quickly…” She furrowed her brow. “I’ll go to the meeting, of course, gauge them personally. I’m not turning them down because of bafflement. Just a tad odd…”

“Good, because I have to go to the Embodiment.”

“There still isn’t an agreement between them and Galaxa Immaterium?”

“Between the chaos gods, endless war, and eldritch screw ups, no. Adama’s presence has helped a tad, surprisingly, but there’s the slight issue of one side not understanding any language but war, and the other not having what we would understand as language at all.”

“I do not envy you.”

Eve nodded, sifting through more papers. “Ah, this is interesting. Pinkie’s managed to get the TSAB and ETSAB to talk to each other. Things look to be going well, but they need someone from Relations to take over from here. Don’t think either of us need to go…”

“Pinomat and Pippy are both available,” Cessera said. 

“They’ll do nicely. An-”

“We are about to get a very surprising visitor.”

“Dangerous?” Eve asked, taking Cessera’s future sight in stride.

“Depends on your definition of dangerous.”

“Ah. Which door?”

“Translation.”

Eve blinked. “But you can’t translate into this room…”

“D4C’s particular method is not blocked by our spells.”

“D4C!?”

Funny Valentine appeared from the floor, pulled by his Stand through the interdimensional boundary. “We need to talk, Miss Sparkle.”

Eve shook the surprise out of her face. “I wasn’t expecting you to ever be in here again.”

“Something’s come up.” 

“Clearly. You know you can contact us directly. The isolation thing you’ve created doesn’t go both ways.”

“That would have taken time, and I believe you’ll want to know this sooner rather than later.” Valentine took a seat on a nearby chair, folding his fingers together. “We’ve found some information on the metallic blue man who trapped so many of our people and stole others.”

Eve blinked. “You did?”

“Roughly five hours ago Rick and Morty were spotted on the Ninth World in the midst of an invasion from Ninth World’s space. They acted to stop the invasion in an instant. A multiversal traveler by the name of Davepeta – another Earth C traveler, evidentially – questioned them about what they were doing, and was enslaved as a result of it.”

“Davepeta?” Eve said, blinking. “I… I think Vriska mentioned that…”

“They likely know each other,” Valentine asserted. “What we learned is that the blue man is known as the Collector, and his slaves the Collection. There is not much else besides these names. From Rick and Morty, we can determine that the slaves are sent on missions, and that they cannot refuse the Collector’s programming. Rick and Morty had been ordered to ‘help’ it seems, though it is unknown if this is what all slaves must do, or if it is just their personal punishment.”

Eve nodded. “This doesn’t tell us much.”

“We need to pool our resources to find everything we can,” Valentine said. 

“I’ll contact the Sparkle Census,” Eve assured him. “We’ll check everything we can, including stories and legends.”

Valentine nodded. “My people are already doing the same.”

“Should we set up an actual meeting place?” Eve suggested. “I mean, it’s not like I can just walk into your nation and start talking to get your attention.”

“You have my contact information.”

Eve sighed. “Look… We’re helping, because we all want to find this guy. I have a feeling when I tell Vriska about Davepeta we’ll have even more reason. That said, if we weren’t who we are, we wouldn’t even consider doing something for you, since you’ve branded yourselves our enemies.”

“You did that.”

Eve raised an eyebrow. “You know I had absolutely nothing to do with that. It was all Sombra.”

“With assistance.”

“Clearly, wasn’t me though,” Eve pointed out. “And that was years ago. I know these things don’t go away quickly, Valentine, but we can’t just be at each other’s throats all the time.”

“And I can’t let you threaten our way.”

“You see how one-sided this is?”

Valentine nodded. “It’s unfair to you. But I am on the side of justice. You are on the side of eternal compromise.”

Eve bristled. “Fine. Don’t accept my olive branch.”

“I’m not batting it away entirely,” Valentine said.

Cessera looked at him. “It sure seems like it.”

“I’m speaking frankly, which is something that can be done with Eve,” Valentine pointed out. “We do not agree. Our ideals are mutually exclusive.”

Eve sighed.

“That said, it would be foolish to drag this on longer than necessary. Finding the Collector will be a joint mission between the USM, Merodi Universalis, Dracogen Enterprises, and I expect the Sparkle Census. We will not operate separately – but in tandem, helping each other. In ‘friendship’, since you seem to like that word.”

Eve let herself smile. “…This sounds like a great idea, Valentine.”

“There is a world in the Strands we can commandeer as neutral territory,” Valentine offered. “It is a useless rock, but we have a small outpost there from back when we still thought gold was valuable. It will serve our purposes nicely.”

“And after we find the Collector?”

“We shall see how it goes,” Valentine stood up. “But if all goes well… the USM is willing to leave it open to all indefinitely.”

Eve beamed. “Cessera, start making some calls. I know what we’re going to do today.”


~~~


 

The room was round and built like a small stadium with a bleacher-style arrangement of chairs and desks circling a central podium. Currently, only a handful of seats were filled, four nations having only sent a couple representatives to the first meeting. 

Ambassador Valentine took center stage first. “The United States of the Multiverse are present. Merodi Universalis?”

“Here,” Evening said, raising a hoof.

“University of Doors?”

“Dracogen Enterprises representing,” Jenny said, expression bored.

“Sparkle Census?”

“Here,” 4T said with a smile. 

“Eldritch Embodiment?” Valentine asked, receiving no response. “Any others present?” There was only continued silence. “Then we shall begin. All of you already know why we’re here, so I won’t bore you with the details again. We are here to take action to find the Collector – who he is, what he does, and how to get those he’s taken back from us. In order to do that we need to search every record we have at our disposal and make them available to everyone else. All four of us need to be willing to release all classified information we may have sealed away in our records, away from prying eyes.” Valentine took a folder out of his coat. “As a show of faith, the USM is willing to release everything we have on Gyro Zeppeli, including personal details and top secret missions he has been on. But this can only be done if we all agree to be transparent – and all agree to secrecy.”

Eve, Jenny, and 4T nodded.

Valentine placed a document on the podium. “This is a simple document you were all sent prior to coming here. It outlines what information you are expected to make available to all the others in this joint mission, and what you are expected to not divulge. It also outlines the use of this world as neutral territory. Does it meet with everyone’s approval?”

The three others nodded. 

“The USM is held to these regulations just as all of you are – we are all equals at this table. If there are no objections, we shall all sign – promising our transparency and secrecy – and then begin actual work.”

Eve, Jenny, and 4T signed for their respective nations. 

“It is your responsibility to ensure your agents understand what you’ve signed for,” Valentine said, signing with his own hand as well. “Now, we get to work. We are going to find this Collector – this atrocity to all of us – and we are going to bring him to justice, freeing our people from his clutches.”

The other three nodded. 

“Good. First, Gyro’s file…” he tossed it onto the podium, and they all began to pore over it. 


~~~


The Collector’s office was a mixed bag.

The floor and ceiling were made of perfectly white metal that produced its own light, removing shadows from the rectangular enclosure. The room was far too large to be just an office; the empty space gave it an expansive appearance. The walls were made of solid glass that showed a complex aquarium filled with exotic life from many universes. The only break in this glass wall was the single reinforced door made of some sort of blue metal. 

The room was sparsely decorated. There was a bookshelf next to one of the walls filled with a mixture of traditional books and data pads. There were a few chairs with wheels spread out randomly around the front of the room for seating guests. The desk itself was a white U-shaped piece of furniture large enough to accommodate six monitors, dozens of notebooks, and an adjustable whiteboard. 

To one side was a light blue chair affixed to the ground – one perfectly designed for the Collector’s second-in-command, Lightning. She sat, hands folded, her single eye suck in an eternal glare, her eye patch only heightening her intimidation factor. Her hair may have been pink, but nobody dared mock her for it. 

The Collector himself sat in a bigger chair in the middle of the U-shaped desk. He wasn’t looking at any of his screens, notebooks, or whiteboard – he was staring right in front of him with his deep, red eyes. His metallic blue figure was dulled in the omnidirectional light of the office, but this only made him appear rugged. 

He tapped his fingers together, not saying anything to the three sitting in front of him. Rick Sanchez, Morty Smith, and Davepeta – two agents who had been in this office many times before, and one who had only just arrived. 

Davepeta had no idea what was going on, Morty was looking down at the ground in fear, and Rick held the Collector’s gaze with a steeled expression. 

Nothing was spoken for the longest time.

“Uh… Are we gonna talk about anything or are we going to continue being statues?” Davepeta asked. “Because I’ve got somewhere to b-” Something in Davepeta’s mind twitched. “Oh. Well, that’s purrfect.”

Rick visibly twitched at the cat pun but said nothing. 

“So, Collector, buddy, you gonna do anything or are you just going to sit there all menacing?” Davepeta asked. “Hellooooo…?”

The Collector didn’t budge – he just kept staring.

“You know I can fastforward time until something happens. That’s a thing I can do.”

No response.

“Well that’s what I’m doing then.” Davepeta sat back and started accelerating their perception of time. It took quite a while before Morty blurted something.

“JUST SAY SOMETHING!”

The Collector finally moved, judging that the lengthy silence had been enough. “E-C137. E-C137. E-SB3C. Your worlds.”

Davepeta was mildly concerned the Collector actually knew the dimensional code for Earth C. 

“Who the fuck cares?” Rick said.

“You should, Rick. I know you don’t, but you should. I cannot touch E-SB3C, nor would I want to, that was just for Davepeta’s benefit. But E-C137…”

“Don’t you dare…” Morty said.

“I already did,” the Collector asserted, leaning forward. “E-C137 no longer exists.”

“NO!” Morty shouted.

“Big whoop,” Rick muttered. “We can just go to another one in our cluster. Noooo problem.”

“I know you don’t care,” the Collector said. “You think this isn’t a punishment. You think it’s liberating, in many ways. But it is a punishment. You found a loophole Rick. You knew you weren’t allowed to return to universes we had stolen people from, so you purposefully became careless. Allowing your mind to slip into carelessness so you would, one day, be able to defy me without actively doing so. It’s a very impressive feat that you managed to lie to yourself so hard that you not only fooled yourself, but the conditioning as well. But you did end up in a universe you were not supposed to go to. You allowed your conditioning to take over and help them. They may not have seen you, but you also took someone. Someone important.” The Collector leaned in. “Your punishment is not to have your home world destroyed – it isn’t even your home world, after all. Your punishment is to push Morty away from you. Your one ally in this place – you just killed his family by defying me.”

“Pff, Morty won’t do that. You’re the one who killed them.”

“He can’t do anything to me. He can do everything to you.”

Rick rolled his eyes. “Nice try, Constipator.”

“We’ll see who wins out, in the long run,” the Collector said. “I’m rarely wrong about this sort of thing.” Then, for the first time, he turned to Davepeta. “Now… you.”

Davepeta gulped. 

“Welcome to the Collection, Davepetasprite Squared.”