//------------------------------// // 077 - The Collector, Part 1 // Story: Songs of the Spheres // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Pinkie tossed Starbeat into a chair at the golden table. “Behold! Solid gold party place!” Pinkie declared. With a swish of her tail and a blow of a party blower, balloons and confetti were everywhere. She pulled a cake out of her mane and placed it in front of Starbeat, grinning. “Have a freedom cake!” She examined the cake covered in instances of her cutie mark flying away from a central explosion of icing. “…Where’s the alternate version with Valentine’s face on it?” Pinkie dropped the exact cake she described next to the other one. “BAM. One MURICA cake, as ordered.” “I really need to stop suggesting things to you.” “Something the rest of us learned a loooong time ago,” Nova informed her. “Well I didn’t hang out with much of anypony. Ever. But that’s all changing now!” She rammed her face into the first cake, making a horrible mess. She didn’t care – it just felt right to shove her face with reckless abandon into the pastry. She didn’t have to worry about anything happening when she looked up. When she looked up a party cannon exploded in her face. “Thank you Pinkie,” Starbeat deadpanned. “You’re welcome!” “So, I got here attempting to find you guys,” Starbeat said, rubbing confetti off her muzzle. “Not as exciting as it sounds, and didn’t exactly go as planned.” She put on a cute smile and examined them. “What did you guys get up to here since you’ve been gone?” Allure started listing off things. “We met up with Morty, Ivan, and Gyro, spent some time wandering the Collection, got sent on a mission to stop some guy named Thanos, learned a lot about the Collector, and went on a treasure hunt for a truly pointless reward. The knowledge that we can do nothing!” “Hm?” “There’s a device called the Catcher,” Nova explained. “It regulates all the loyalty spell-things in our heads. Apparently somewhat easy to destroy, but it’s not like we can touch it because it controls us.” Starbeat almost asked if they could go there – but that would have been way too suspicious. She had to play it cool. “Interesting. What did you learn about the Collector?” Flutterfree filled Starbeat in on the strange facts they had learned about the Collector – painting a conflicting picture of the individual. Starbeat wasn’t sure what to make of him. “A madman with a hero complex…” Starbeat muttered. “Holy fuck he’s like the Doctor,” Vriska said, eyes widening. “You know what, yeah!” Starbeat agreed. “Both have the ‘holier than thou’ mentality without anything to back it up!” “And both seem unable to lose at anything!” “Alternate versions?” “Maybe!” Flutterfree cleared her throat. “I thought we weren’t supposed to feed into Vriska’s antagonism toward the Doctor?” “But he kinda deserves it,” Starbeat pointed out. “We kinda deserve it,” Flutterfree countered. “Not as much as them, but don’t we kinda do the same thing? Do what we think is right despite what others say?” Vriska rolled her eyes. “We’re not a single madman. We’re a we. That’s a lot better than one guy calling all the shots. There’s no way in hell one guy has all the answers to life.” “Agreed!” Pinkie said, glancing at Starbeat. “But we can’t hold doing dishonest things against everyone, because we have to do them sometimes!” Shit, she knows. Pinkie didn’t make any visible response to this. “After all, we often don’t have a choice.” Vriska rolled her eyes. “Bah. Think what you will. At least we can all agree he’s arrogant.” “Oh yes, no argument there,” Pinkie said, smiling. Starbeat examined Pinkie. How can she keep my secret? She clearly knows what I’ve been through, and there’s no way the story we were experiencing was hidden from her… Why doesn’t the loyalty program take over and make her stop me right here, right now? The Collector has other Pinkies at his disposal… What loophole has she found? Vriska put an arm around Starbeat. “So, Starbeat, howsabout just you and me go do some hanging out, whaddoyasay?” “Awww but that’d cut the party short!” Pinkie wailed. Starbeat smiled at Vriska. “It’s okay Pinkie. I think the two of us need to talk. Have a ‘feelings jam’ as it were. We can have another party later.” “I’ll hold you to that.” Before Vriska and Starbeat could leave, the entire Collection shook. Lightning’s voice entered all their minds. “ALERT: WE ARE UNDER ASSAULT. PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE COMBAT!” “They got here fast,” Starbeat observed, trying to sound clueless. Vriska frowned. “Great. On the one hand, hopefully they can teach the Collector a lesson. On the other, now we have to prepare to fight them. Lovely.” “Remember, we can use non-lethal force!” Pinkie chirped. “Just take them down, not out! …At least until the loyalty program takes over and demands a death for certain individuals.” Everyone gulped. “Try not to get too worked up about it, okay?” ~~~ The Flower’s fleet was already there. Which was to say, they weren’t there, and an instant later they were there and had already been there a few minutes. The wonders of plot hole technology. From the outside, the Collection looked like a metallic rounded hourglass, predominantly made of white metal with the occasional ring of blue light. The station floated in the middle of a completely empty universe, the only light sources coming from the Flower’s fleet and itself. Jay gave the order to begin the attack. The ships all fired their standard weapons – lasers, phasers, torpedoes, drones, magic lasers, you name it – but each and every one was infused with ka so it was impossible to dodge them. Every last one sailed toward the Collection, impacting the outer shield, an unidentified technology that created green hexagonal grid patterns when a bullet got too close. When the occasional attack broke through the first layer, there was a second layer of shields behind it. Orders came in from Upstairs – Flowers far away, safe from the combat. It was time to use an omni-EMP. Which was to say, a device that would have the effect of an Electromagnetic Pulse, except on every piece of technology in range regardless of whether an Electromagnetic Pulse would actually disable it or not. A large, spherical ship dropped a spherical ball laced with glowing blue flowers. As it tumbled through the darkness, electric sparks flew off of it, creating ripples in spacetime like a stick thrown into a pond. It focused all its energy forward and unleashed a pulse – completely invisible, and directed entirely at the Collection. “HOW ABOUT… I COMPLETELY NULLIFY WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO DO?” Bill Cipher spoke into all of their minds. Raising one of his tiny hands, he created a tear in reality large enough to cast the entire Collection in a red light. The X-shaped fissure flooded the universe with alien physics – or ‘just plain weirdness’. The sharp adjustment of physics from the particular Nightmare Realm Bill had opened created a bubble. This bubble would serve as a ‘natural defense mechanism’ to keep the Weirdness inside, protecting the outside world from incursion. This was the opposite of what they wanted. Then the Collector flipped a switch. A pulse of physics-altering energy shot out of the Collection’s core, turning the bubble inside-out, reversing its effect. The omni-EMP hit the bubble – and dissipated into nothing. The level of ka-manipulation it used was too much for the relative normalcy the interior of the bubble demanded. The Flowers were surprised by this, but not unprepared. They had encountered such measures before, and themselves had several similar shields around their more important worlds. Thus, they knew how to break through them. The next device was simply known as the Redactor. It appeared as four tulip heads affixed to each other, brimming with red energy. It pulled at reality from all directions, attempting to remove ka from the universe… Red lights started going off on all Flower ships and within the Collection. “STOP!” Jay yelled. “THE UNIVERSE IS DESTABILIZING! SHUT IT DOWN!” She didn’t wait for anyone to follow her order – she manually fired a torpedo from the ship into the Redactor, shredding its petals. Only a small black hole was formed due to this, and it was destroyed by spatial wrenching technology. The universe is keyed to existence with ka, and yet he has nullified it within the Collection. A Flower’s voice came into all their minds. Impossible – there must still be ka within the Collection for this to function. Another Flower spoke up – Jay recognized this one as the Sunflower Official. It’s a matter of scale. The ka within the Collection is small-scale, while we are trying to use large-scale manipulation out here. He’s played his cards well. We will have to play off the lesser levels to break through. Jay, woodpecker maneuvers with the Seeders. “Right!” Jay said. “You heard the S.O.! Woodpecker! Seeder! Let’s move it!” The fleet started pulling out Seeders – devices that looked like glowing bean sprouts – and placing them in front of their ships, firing the little things at the Weirdness Bubble. Instead of passing through, they stuck to it, using their miniscule ka manipulation to slowly ‘convince’ the Weirdness Bubble to revert back to normal. One Seeder would do absolutely nothing. Millions could alter reality on vast scales in universes where such things would normally tear causality apart. The Collector tapped his hands on his console. “Time to start the actual fight.” He pressed a button, telling his fleet that it was time to go. A hundred or so ships that he had collected over the years flew out of the Collection’s docking bay into the vast blackness of space. They stayed within the confines of the Weirdness Bubble, careful not to allow the Flowers to get the jump on them. What they did do is use their weapons to blow the Seeders off the Bubble, using vast beams of energy and swaths of plasma to clear the air of the offending beans. Move to a purely physical confrontation, the Sunflower Official ordered. Expect higher casualties than usual. “Plan E?” Jay asked. Will be underway the moment you are able to get a teleportation lock of any sort. Jay nodded. “FIRE ALL WEAPONS! No manipulation. We’ve been normalized, people.” The Flower’s fleet fired weapons, foregoing the use of ka in their attacks, allowing the missiles, lasers, and magic to pass through the Weirdness bubble. In response to this, the ships within the Bubble fired back, creating a volley of blasts back and forth. Ships on both sides began to explode – and yet, somehow both sides knew this was going to be a long, gruesome battle. “Get us a teleporter lock on the interior,” Jay demanded. “Now.” ~~~ Blackjack wasn’t sure why Squeaky started yelling the moment they returned to the Golden Joke. “What is wrong with you?” she shouted at Rev. “That was no place to take a kid!” “You knew that,” Rev said with a sigh. “I told y-” “You knew they would try to kill us before we even got there!” Rev stared at her. “And yet, we got what we wanted, didn’t we? We’re all alive and Starbeat made it through.” “It’s the principle of the thing! Minna is just a kid! Younger than any of the League has ever been! You don’t just take kids like that along for the ride!” Rev frowned. “…Were she not there we would have perished, Squeaky.” Squeaky blinked. “W-what?” “None of us even thought of – or were able to think of – harming the rose. She was the only one. She saved us.” Minna smiled. “I did!” Squeaky twitched. “You… You…” “Squeaky, what I did was not wrong,” Rev told her. “I didn’t want to do it, but it was what needed to be done. One does not ignore the call when it comes knocking.” “I ignore it all the time,” Alushy commented. “That explains a lot,” Blackjack said. “Not really,” Minna added. Blackjack shrugged. “Well, mission accomplished, emotional stress unleashed, what now?” Squeaky looked like she had a long-winded retort to Blackjack’s sentence, but the Sunflower Official appeared in the middle of the Golden Joke in person, making everyone in the hall fall silent. Due to the efforts of the unicorn we believe to be named Starbeat, we have found the Collection and begun the assault on the Collector. There were a few whoops and cheers at this. The battle, as it is now, is going to be a long, bloody, and hard one. We will lose many ships and likely will not be able to save any within the Collection itself. The explanation is long, and time is short, so just accept that he has found a way around our higher-order manipulative technologies. He was prepared for a confrontation. Normally in this case we would just destroy the universe from outside, but we have another method to try before we resort to such final measures. “Don’t you dare destroy the universe with anyone inside!” Corona shouted. That is one of the reasons we are not, the Sunflower Official said. Within the Collection, low-level ka is still in play. Our calculations have determined that if we send people with a connection to the Collector in, those who have reason to fight him, there is a significant chance we can take the Collection out from the inside. What we need are heroes with high levels of importance and drive to fight inside the Collection. In other news, whoever is willing to volunteer out of deep personal obligation or desire. Minna raised her hand first – but Squeaky forced it down. “You can’t fight a war, Minna.” Minna turned to Alushy, eyes wide. Alushy rolled her eyes, raising her hoof. Blackjack did as well. Dozens of other limbs went up across the hall – Corona, Lieshy, Johnny, Death, YVND, Sunny, Nanoha, Discord, Jolyne… The list went on and on. Those of you who are leaders of your people, put your appendages down. Valentine, Toph, Eve, and a handful of others hesitated before doing as the Sunflower asked. This is not guaranteed to succeed, and your nations will need you long after this is over. “Screw you, I’m going anyway,” Jenny declared. As you wish. Gather everyone you can. You have ten minutes. I suggest finding a way to reliably resist the loyalty conditioning. “How are we going to do that!?” Corona blurted. “I’VE GOT AN IDEA!” Jenny shouted, opening a portal to the Ninth World and jumping through. Everyone shrugged, hoping she was going to get something to help. Rev turned to Alushy and Blackjack. She smiled. “You two… Good luck.” “Not going to offer us a blessing?” Alushy asked. Rev snorted. “Funny.” She tossed her mane back. “I’m going home – I was never one for large battles, or even violence at all. I leave this to you.” “Yeah, we are pros at the killing thing,” Blackjack said, smirking. “I also want you two to know that…” Rev struggled to find the words. “…I don’t agree with virtually anything you say or do. But I respect the place you hold in life. You’re both horrible people, but that’s okay. We’re all horrible in one way or another.” “I feel strangely insulted and inspired,” Blackjack said. “My words are often a two-edged sword,” Rev admitted. “Good luck.” Blackjack saluted. “BRING MOM BACK!” Minna called after Alushy. “I will, kid. Or my name isn’t Alushy.” “Isn’t it Yhsula?” Blackjack asked. “…All right who found my source material and didn’t tell me!?” No answer was forthcoming. “Fine,” Alushy said, turning tail. “Blackjack, let’s ditch these losers. We’ve got ass to kick.” “Let me grab some whiskey.” Alushy raised an eyebrow. “Lemme guess, it improves your performance?” “One can only hope it still does!” Blackjack laughed. They walked up to the central stage, mingling with all the other volunteers. “Okay!” Nanoha shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth. “We need to split into two groups – those who are strong enough to face minor deities and attack directly, and those who work best as more of a stealth group! The former, with me! Rest of you, talk to Lady Rarity!” Blackjack and Alushy knew where they were going – they walked up to Nanoha. Corona, Discord, and Hastur were already next to her, talking about plans. “Blackjack?” Nanoha said, raising an eyebrow. “You sure?” “Yes. Feels right,” Blackjack said. “You know I’m powerful enough even without being the ‘Princess of Win’, you just don’t want to say it. Also, we don’t have time to argue.” Nanoha nodded. “All right. Those of us here will be the heavy-hitters who serve as distractions for the others. We deal with all the Collector’s primary servants, which will likely have some entities with a very impressive résumé. I personally won’t be using lethal force unless I have to, but this is a war and the Flowers certainly will be. All of you make your own decisions.” Corona nodded. “I’d recommend that, if you’re a lethal-force fighter, focus on individuals that look like they’re enjoying what they’re doing. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best I can suggest on the fly.” Nanoha noticed more people coming – a handful of alicorn Twilights from the Sparkle Census, Jane, Sunny, Blumiere, YVND, Jenny, Death, and a handful of others – and began repeating what she’d just said. “SHUSH!” Jenny said, snapping her fingers. A hundred small black octahedra fell onto the ground in front of her. She held one of the elongated devices up. “This Numenera is a mental reconditioner. We don’t really understand how it works, but when you eat it your mind cannot be altered from outside – it’s as if a firewall has gone up. Nothing we’ve done has gotten through these things, but their effect is only temporary. Once you eat it, you have an hour. It also might give you a headache and a nosebleed.” “Good enough for me!” Corona said. “Everyone grab one of those!” Blackjack levitated two over before the chaos began. She took a breath. “Today’s certainly been an eventful day.” “It’s Tuesday,” Alushy commented, accepting the reconditioner from Blackjack. “That joke doesn’t apply! This isn’t normal here!” Alushy started howling. “What?” “I’ve been waiting forever to get someone with that! It’s actually Tuesday on this planet, Blackjack! GOTCHA!” Blackjack blinked – then rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Right.” Aradia appeared in a flash of red gears, dropping a handful of other people onto the ground. “And there’s all the people who would have been late.” She shook her head. “Shame on all you.” Giorno stood up. “What am I-” “Shh. I brought you here because you’re strong. That’s the only reason.” She winked. Giorno accepted this with a shrug. “Nanoha, I’ll be on time control,” Aradia reported, saluting. “No offense to the Flowers but I’ve got a better handle on it than they do.” Nanoha bowed. “Thank you, Handmaid.” Blackjack grinned. “Man, with a team like this, how can we lose!?” Alushy facehooved. “You’ve jinxed us.” “…Fuck. That’s actually really bad in this case, isn’t it?” “Yeeeep,” Alushy grunted. “And chances are I’m getting assigned to the same group as you. Wonderful.” “I probably won’t blow you up!” “Great. I’m going to have to come back from an explosion. Love it when that happens.” ~~~ The Primary Team for assaulting the Collection was composed of the strongest of the strong that had been present at the Golden Joke. Nanoha, Corona, Discord, Hastur, and Tom, the Star-spirit from Equis Fallout who took the form of an ethereal white alicorn shimmering with moondust. They were one of many such groups within a cargo hold on board a Flower ship – none of them knew what the design was from, but it sure had a large cargo hold. “YVND is in!” Someone reported. “He’s managed to screw their anti-teleport measures!” “GO GO GO!” the Voice of Jay yelled over the intercom. “Start teleporting in already!” Nanoha readied Raising Heart. “It’s been a while since I involved myself in a fight this large…” “You’ll do fine!” Discord assured her. “But don’t feel afraid to tell me to tone down the chaos if it’s too much for you.” “WE MUST FIGHT AT OUR FULL POTENTIAL,” Tom decreed. “EVERYONE IS COUNTING ON OUR ACTIONS HERE.” Hastur nodded. “Including those we care deeply about.” Corona nudged him playfully. “We’ll get your girl back, don’t worry. She probably can’t be beaten. I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually has her locked up somewhere reserved for people he just can’t control.” “One can hope.” “Primary team, away!” someone shouted. They barely had time to react. One moment they were in the cargo hold – and then they were at the edge of the Collection Plaza. “Defense, Corona!” Nanoha shouted. Corona nodded, creating a complex series of defensive enchantments around Nanoha. Tom aided in the defense as well, surrounding the two of them in a diamond-encrusted shield. Discord and Hastur moved to attack any of the Collection who were smart enough to realize they needed to move fast. “HIGH POWER…” Nanoha shouted, pointing Raising Heart forward. The Collection collectively realized what was happening and surged forward, hurling magic of their own. What wouldn’t have just bounced off of Corona’s and Tom’s enchantments were stopped by Discord and Hastur with a combination of eldritch power and chaos magic. “STARLIGHT…” The Collection finally started getting organized. One of their Discords appeared, summoning an apple covered in sawblades. Their Discord met this with a cactus-pear, showering the nearby Plaza in fruity death. More than a few of the Collected fell to the spiky-sawblade mixture. “BREAKER!” Nanoha shouted, unleashing her spell. The cone of pinkish-white energy came out in a cascading cone that filled the entire Collection Plaza, hitting everyone with enough concussive force to knock out not only a regular human, but something several orders of magnitude more resilient than a regular human. Most of the Collection fell to that one attack. This part of the plan had been beyond important – if they gave the Collection enough time to organize internally, they could overcome the incursion with sheer numbers, regardless of anything they did. This way there was a fighting chance. The drawback? The Collected who were still standing and ready to fight after the Starlight Breaker were going to be the really strong ones, as evidenced by the four beings approaching Nanoha’s group. Kars, Bill Cipher, a Discord, and some impossible conglomeration of eldritch geometries that looked as if someone had stuck all the platonic solids together and decided it worked best as a liquid. “I LIKE YOUR SPUNK, KIDS!” “I AM OLDER THAN MOST PLANETS,” Tom said, indignant. “AND I’M OLDER THAN MOST UNIVERSES, GET OVER YOURSELF,” Bill said with a wave of the hand. “Enough talk,” Kars said, sprouting a unicorn horn from his forehead and ten squid tentacles out of his back. “We must fight.” The geometric thing gurgled, then rushed them from all sides at once. It was met with a combination attack from Nanoha, Hastur, and Corona. “We’re not going to go out easily,” Corona said with a grin. “There’s a reason we’re here.” The other Discord grunted. “Woohoo.” He clearly wasn’t really into the whole thing. Bill, on the other hand… He transformed into a giant red pyramid with three rotating sections, extra arms, teeth, and a dangling tongue. “FRESH MEAT SOON EVERYBODY!” The giants clashed, tearing reality apart as they moved. ~~~ The Secondary Team held Blackjack, Alushy, Giorno, Tornado, and Death. Alushy looked at the short, green-haired Tornado. “Hey… I know who you are! You’re that girl who got her mind fried by the Celestialsapien!” “S-shut up,” Tornado said, weakly. “What was it like?” Tornado looked at Alushy, trying to muster the rage or courage to yell at her – but couldn’t do it. She just looked at the ground, despondent. Blackjack nudged Alushy. “Give her some space – she’s helping us despite what happened. …Whatever actually happened.” “Locked inside her own mind for a thousand years,” Giorno said, frowning. “Punishment for being impatient.” Tornado twitched at the word ‘impatient’. TRAUMA IS NOT GOTTEN OVER LIGHTLY, Death pointed out. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO FIGHT, WE WOULD NOT THINK LESS OF YOU FOR DROPPING OUT. “I… I want to. I need to. For me,” Tornado said, still refusing to make eye contact with any of them. An announcement reached their ears. “SECONDARY TEAM GO! NANOHA’S CLEARED THE MAIN PLAZA! YOU’RE GETTING PLACED IN THE HALLS!” The five of them had time to take a ready stance and were teleported to a hallway with two dozen or so random members of the Collection - the majority of whom were kid-squid hybrid things holding highly advanced sci-fi weaponry. Death could have killed them all in an instant, but he was not one to kill without reason – he held back, watching to see what would happen. Blackjack took out her sword and started cutting legs, spraying bright multicolored ink everywhere. “COME AND GET US! WE’RE INVADERS!” “Normally I’d be chiding you for that, but it is what we’re supposed to be doing,” Giorno admitted. “GOLD EXPERIENCE REQUIEM!” Blackjack couldn’t see the Stand – but she assumed it was golden. Might have had something to do with the name. Several inklings fell back from invisible punches. “USELESS! MUDA MUDA MUDA!!!” Giorno shouted. Alushy shrugged, transforming into shadow and taking out many of them with a sweeping motion. Tornado let out a ‘tch’, a hold-on from her prior personality. She raised her hands, grabbing every visible member of the Collection, and tossing them to the side. “Stop showing off.” A literal demon got up after Tornado knocked him down. He charged, eyeing her with eyes telling of a more horrid desire than simple bloodlust. Death pointed at the demon and it died on the spot. Blackjack whistled. “Nice.” I HAVE TO BE SURE. “So, where to next? We need to be making a lot of big booms.” “Sadly, nowhere,” a tired voice said, walking toward them in plain sight. It was a version of Superman. “I’ve been told to stop you. And you know I can’t stop.” “Sending the purest of the pure to attack Death…” Giorno muttered. Superman rushed faster than any of them could see, punching Giorno in the face. The force should have killed him… But suddenly the punch had never happened. Superman looked at Giorno, confused. “What did you do?” “You will never reach the reality you seek,” Giorno said. “That is Gold Experience Requiem’s ability.” Superman nodded. “A powerful one.” Blackjack started shooting him with bullets, but he didn’t even notice. “I hope you use it honorably.” “Depends on your definition,” Giorno said, glaring. Alushy rolled her eyes. “Enough talking more fi-” Superman punched her head clean off. It grew back. “HOLY HELL THAT WAS PAINFUL! I-” Superman punched the head off again. Blackjack brought her starmetal sword down on him, but he twisted it out of her cyborg hooves easily. Tornado grabbed him with her telekinesis, but he was too strong to be held. He also intercepted Death’s scythe, twisting the weapon out of the anthropomorphic personification’s boney grip and throwing it at Giorno. The Scythe returned to Superman’s hand. “You can’t win,” Giorno decreed. “Not if I’m alone.” Superman admitted. “But the Collection has more than just me.” Other superheroes began to appear – the Flash, Iron Man, Thor, Batman – all paragons of truth and justice, forced to do the bidding of the Collector. Blackjack gulped. “This is going to be… fun.” “That’s one way of putting it,” Alushy said, grinning. “I wonder if my teeth can pierce Superman’s skin…” Another set of giants clashed, tearing through wall after wall of the Collection in their fight… ~~~ In one of the more secluded halls of the Collection, a dual-team was working at a console. That was to say, Olivia was working at a console while Lady Rarity, Lieshy, Froppy, Johnny, and Lileur protected her. They had already taken care of a few dozen random people who had just wandered by. “Anything?” Froppy asked Olivia. “If I had gotten anything done, I would have told you!” Olivia snapped. “This isn’t exactly a normal system and half of it operates on ka, far as I can tell. Give me a moment.” “One of them is going to raise the alarm eventually,” Johnny said. “They may have already, as far as we know.” “We just have to be ready,” Lady Rarity reminded him. “People say that a lot.” “Like sheep, we follow the shepherd,” Lieshy observed. Johnny ignored her. Lileur turned to Lady Rarity. “How can you understand her?” “Practice. And getting lucky,” the spirid responded. “Hm. It seems like it would be an interesting tongue to learn, if I have time.” “All of us get vacations after this,” Froppy said. “All of us.” “I’m going to take Gyro to another Earth,” Johnny said. “They’re just about to hold a Steel Ball Run. We’ll finish the race together.” “You don’t get exclusive rights to Gyro,” Froppy pointed out. “I get dibs.” “…Ribbit. Okay.” “…That’s not good,” Olivia said, taking a step back from the console. “And we just lost jenga,” Lieshy facehooved. “What happened?” “YVND’s been compromised. Don’t know if he’s just been captured, dead, or what, but he’s not assisting anymore.” She scratched the back of her head. “I can still make headway, but he was doing a lot of the heavy lifting…” “Ribbit. Don’t worry, I’m sure you can do it,” Froppy said. Olivia looked at her for a moment. “By the way, you and I need to go out for lunch sometime. There’s some things I’d like to say.” Froppy blinked. “…Sure.” Lileur cocked her head at Froppy. “You know her?” “Not really,” Froppy said. “I’m a hacker. There are secrets,” Olivia said, tapping a few things on her holographic displays. “You’ll just have to accept that.” Lileur shrugged, not taking it personally. Lady Rarity’s ears perked up. “Somebody’s coming. Multiple people.” Johnny readied his Stand and aimed his fingernails. “Here we go again.” Lieshy summoned Limelight and Froppy took a battle stance, tongue at the ready. They had planned to attack the newcomers before they knew what was happening – but familiar faces made them hesitate. It was Gyro, Ivan, Morty, and Davepeta. “Gyro…?” Johnny said, lowering his finger. Gyro put a hand over his face. “Johnny, why’d you have to come?” “I’m here to get you!” “…You should have stayed with your family.” “What about me?” Froppy asked. “Should I have stopped looking?” Gyro grimaced. “Sorry.” Morty pulled a gun out of his pocket. “Nothing personal, but you’re our enemy right now.” Ivan let out a dejected sigh. “Guys, guys, I’ve got this,” Davepeta said, smirking. “I’ll just go back in time and stop them there. No pawblem, nobody has to kick the bucket.” Aradia appeared in front of the sprite. “Good sentiment Davepeta… But I can’t let you do that.” She smiled sadly. “Looks like we’re finally going to get to see who’s the better Time player, huh?” “Aradia…” Davepeta said, grimacing. “It’ll be a bloodbath.” “I know better than you when that’s acceptable.” “You’re too frivolous with your lives!” Aradia narrowed her eyes, two time clones of her appearing to the sides. “I’ll be the judge of that, Davepeta.” They clashed – and vanished into time. Morty fired his gun, a beam of instant-death energy flying forth. Johnny's Stand Tusk blocked it with its impressive pink girth. At the same time, Johnny retaliated with his own instant-death Infinite Spin bullets at Morty, but Gyro used Ball Breaker to block, countering with his own Spin. “I wouldn’t use those Johnny,” Gyro said. “Somebody might get hurt.” “Just keep them distracted!” Olivia blurted. “That’s all I need!” Johnny shot holes of Spin into the ground, unraveling the space below everyone. Ivan summoned grand illusions that made the floor seem like it was rocking. Limelight punched the crystalline man in the face, shocking him. Lady Rarity swung her hammer, Morty fired his gun, Gyro shot a steel ball. In other words, chaos broke loose. ~~~ Pinkie’s team, Allure, and Starbeat rushed outside into the Plaza. They saw thousands of unconscious forms. Pinkie whistled. “Wow, Nanoha does not mess around.” “There she is,” Allure said, pointing up. The rippling chaos-eldritch magic combination made it very difficult to see what was happening in the air above them, but they could catch glimpses of Nanoha’s signature magic circles. Vriska produced her dice. “Well, time to go kill her. Or try, and get killed ourselves.” Then, under her breath, she added, “why did you have to come, Hastur?” Jotaro summoned Star Platinum, ready for an attack. “Wait!” Starbeat shouted. “Maybe we don’t have to!” “What are you talking about!?” Flutterfree called. “Of course we have to!” “What if we did something else to defend the Collection, something that didn’t involve fighting our friends directly?” Starbeat gulped. “Like… Going to go protect the Catcher! If they destroy that, it’s all over.” “…Dammit Starbeat!” Nova blurted. “Why’d you have to think of that? Now we have to go do it! Gah!” Jotaro furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure it’s our best course of action.” “The loyalty spell allows it, we’re doing it,” Pinkie said. “This way we don’t have to do any fighting we don’t want to do!” “We have to deal with Rick though,” Nova pointed out. “Small price to pay. Ahem, Nova! Can you teleport us there?” Nova nodded. “It’s not hard to get to a second time. Give me a few seconds…” She lit her horn and closed her eyes. Starbeat scratched the back of her head. “S-sorry, was it really bad to think of that?” “Now there’s not going to be a chance someone gets lucky and destroys it,” Vriska muttered. “Which, frankly, I would have loved to happen.” Well, they might follow us, Starbeat thought to herself. Which is frankly what I’m banking on since I doubt I can destroy it with all them watching. In an instant, they were in the Catcher’s room. Starbeat marveled at the device. “FUCK YOU!” Rick shouted at the seven who had just arrived. “Do you have any idea the aneurism you just gave me!?” He shoved his hand in their faces – it was holding a big red button. “I had this place rigged with so many traps it’d kill Cthulhu! I was going to push it! But the Catcher caught me and I had to tear my finger off that button. Do you have any idea how mentally painful that was!?” Vriska punched him in the face a lot softer than she would have liked. “Shut up, we’re here to protect it. It makes your job easier.” Rick threw an empty bottle at her. She caught it effortlessly. Starbeat pointed at the red spot on the Catcher. “This what we need to protect?” “Yep!” Pinkie said. “Under no circumstances let any invaders get close to it.” Giggling, she scooted Starbeat until her face was pressed against the red mark. “See this? This is what you don’t want.” “Riiiiiight,” Starbeat said, chuckling nervously. “All right, you’re suspicious,” Rick said, drawing a gun on her. “W-what!?” Starbeat blurted. “Hey, cut it out,” Allure said. “She’s very new and a bit overwhelmed by it all. We’re not all that calm either!” Rick folded his arms. “How do you know she’s not with them, huh?” “She came here long enough before the attack to have a party?” Flutterfree said. “Rick, stop being paranoid.” Rick stared at Starbeat. “Bah. There’s enough uncertainty now the Catcher won’t let me take the shot.” He tossed the gun to Starbeat. “Enjoy.” “…I don’t need this.” Rick leaned went back to his lawn chair, putting his finger on the red button again. “First sign of trouble, kaboom goes the weasel.” He burped. “Ugh… What’s a guy gotta do to get a decent drink in this place?” Pinkie tossed him some beer. “Thanks.” “Screw you,” Pinkie declared with a perfect smile on her face. “Ah, another member of the ‘everybody hates Rick’ club. Shocker,” Rick muttered. “You really should invest in obtaining some fucks to give. Screw is kind of pathetic.” “You wanna get insulted?” Vriska challenged. “Ooooooh I’ve got a list of retorts for you. How about we start with your complete lack of social skills! Specifically, why not talk about that hive-mind you like so much.” Rick glared at her. “Ah, the look of a man who wants to kill me, but can’t!” Vriska laughed. “Let’s see how badly I can insult her and your relationship – oh wait, did I just call it a relationship? Sorry, slip of the tongue, I meant a sorry excuse for an interaction between two hunks of flesh. I bet she’s happy with that other guy! Wait, no, she’s a fucking loser, just like you.” She continued to tear apart at Rick’s personal life bit by bit while he just took it, unable to retaliate due to the loyalty program. It was no easy task chipping away at what little husk of humanity remained in Ricks nearly heartless shell, but Vriska was most assuredly up to the task. Man, she really needs to let off some steam, Starbeat observed, seeing no reason to step in to stop her moirail. Rick, frankly, deserved worse. ~~~ The Collector watched the chaos unfold on the many screens in his office. He saw his Geometric Monstrosity fall to Tom. He saw Death get punched around by Superman. He watched Gyro and Johnny fight each other, only one willing to do anything lethal. A strange clanking sound reached his ears. “…Are you okay?” Lightning asked, placing a hand on the Collector’s shoulder. The Collector realized the clanking was coming from him. He was trembling, causing his armor to scrape against itself. “Yes. No.” He stood up and started pacing. “I’m just nervous. Exceptionally nervous about it all finally happening. It’s… It’s harder to take in than I thought it would be.” “…Understandable,” Lightning said. “But we can’t back down now.” “I know.” The Collector rubbed his knuckles together. “I know.” “We’re claiming superiority in the space battle,” Thanos reported. “It’s a slow but sure process. They haven’t been able to pierce the third layer of shielding with anything significant.” “Good… Good… It has to be done in here, not out there,” the Collector said, pacing. “Too fast…” “It’s just fine,” Lightning assured him. “A faster timetable doesn’t change anything.” “So you keep reminding me…” the Collector shook his head. “So you keep reminding me…” “Do you need something to calm yourself?” Thanos asked. “I’ve found a record of something called chill strips in the databanks.” “It’ll all be over soon, not worth it. Thanks for pointing them out, though.” He folded his arms. “I don’t know, I have this nagging feeling that something completely out of left field is going to derail ever-” Jenny punched through one of the glass aquarium walls, upturning the Collector’s office in a wave of saltwater and exotic fish. Her fist continued, charged with transdimensional energy, hitting the Collector square in the face. The force was so large it not only dented the armor, but popped off some of the plating around the left eye, revealing the sparking circuitry beneath. The Collector fell back, staggered both by the sudden influx of water and the punch to the face. Jenny pulled back for another punch. “I’ve been looking forward to this one…” “BLIZZAJA!” Lightning shouted, ice shooting forth from her fingers. The water coming out of the hole in the glass froze solid instantly while Jenny was skewered with about a dozen icicles. Jenny seethed, activating a Numenera device within her suit. She exploded, shattering the ice, allowing herself to regenerate. She pulled back for another punch on the Collector. Thanos punched her this time, knocking her through another section of glass. Lightning opted for an Earth spell to catch her this time. Jenny just twitched and teleported out of the attack, her crushed legs regenerating in seconds. She ignored them, going for the Collector again – but his metaphorical right and left hands stopped her from advancing. But she wouldn’t go down either. Her rage was a force of nature, not to be stopped by anything. She was going to kill the Collector and there was nothing they could do to stop her. That is, until Thanos extrapolated from incomplete data and figured something out. He punched into her stomach and closed his fist around a small octahedron. He pulled it out. “I knew it. They have a device keeping us from conditioning them.” Jenny’s eyes widened. “No no n-” The Collector snapped his fingers, and Jenny stood at attention. He walked toward her slowly. “It is not my time to die, Jenny. Especially not to you.” He narrowed his eyes. “Teleport yourself into deep space. I’m sure you’ll be picked up eventually.” Jenny obeyed, subjecting her regenerating body to the void outside the Collection. The Collector walked to Thanos and held up the black octahedron in his hand, examining it closely. “Can we cancel this thing’s effect?” “I can attempt a countermeasure now that I have a sample,” Thanos said. “Then do it,” the Collector ordered. “Let’s take away the only edge they have.” ~~~ “Johnny!” Gyro shouted, using Ball Breaker to deflect more of Johnny’s Infinite-Spin nails. “Stop it! You’re going to kill someone with that!” “Yes. He is,” Morty said, pointing his gun at Lileur. The ray from the gun pierced the unicorn in the heart. She didn’t scream – she just shot Froppy a pitiful glance and fell to the ground, forcing Johnny’s mastery of the Spin to falter. Unable to channel the Spin through her, he lost control of Tusk. “Lileur!” he, Gyro, and Froppy shouted. Morty took in a deep breath. “…Sorry.” He fired at Olivia again, but Lady Rarity deflected the attack with a magic shield. “You’re not taking another life!” Lady Rarity declared. “…I wish that was true,” Morty said. He shot at her several times, but she deflected every last one. She brought her hammer at him from the side, cracking several ribs and forcing blood out his mouth. He crumpled to the ground, barely breathing. Lieshy used Limelight to drive Ivan into the ground, “Ready to give up yet?” she asked. “G…mmm…” his body began to go into convulsions. “I think Limelight’s ability and the loyalty conditioning are tearing his mind apart,” Lieshy said, kicking him. “He hasn’t even managed to create any illusions the last few times.” Ivan shot up, trying to drive a crystal shard through Lieshy’s heart, but Froppy grabbed him and tossed him to the side. Johnny aimed his fingernail bullets at Ivan – he only had ten, since Lileur wasn’t going to magically recharge them anymore. He needed to make these count… Just a few shots… Gyro’s Steel Ball hit Johnny in the head, twisting the Joestar to the side and into a wall next to Morty, blood dripping from his mouth. Gyro sighed – at least he was alive. Lieshy and Lady Rarity teamed up on Ivan, pummeling him until he couldn’t take anymore. The mental effort he used to keep his crystalline self cohesive gave out. He fell apart into about a hundred different shards, waiting to recharge. Given his conflicting state of mind, it was going to take a while. Gyro stood alone against Lady Rarity, Lieshy, and Froppy. He sent Ball Breaker after them, Limelight meeting the much smaller Stand’s fists. Ball Breaker may have been an exceptionally overpowered Stand with complete mastery over Spin – but it didn’t hit anywhere near as hard as Limelight. Gyro grimaced – Ball Breaker was where most of his power was consolidated. Froppy knew that, so Lady Rarity and Lieshy probably knew that. If they flanked him here, he was down. He could tell from their eyes they were going to do exactly that. Lady Rarity moved to the left, Froppy to the right, hammer and tongue ready. Morty’s gun went off again, the bolt going through Lieshy’s ears, forcing blood to squirt out the exit wound. The red liquid shifted in the air, taking the form of miniature rose petals, blowing in the wind. Limelight dissipated into nothing, her spirit no longer able to hold on to her Stand. Despite the wound in her head, she somehow retained awareness. As the world blacked out around her, she heard it. The sound of a large clock going tick. The rose petals that were drops of blood swirled around her. She swore that she could see the Dark Tower in the midst of those petals. Tock. She fell to the ground with an unceremonious thud. The rose petals all turned to blood, pooling around her. Gyro, Lady Rarity, and Froppy didn’t know what to make of what had just happened. Morty passed out, his gun falling to the ground with a jarring clank. The sound shook the three of them out of their stupor. Lady Rarity turned to the prone form of Morty. “You…” He couldn’t make any response. Gyro sent Ball Breaker after Lady Rarity. She threw her hammer at Morty, but the Stand touched the hammer just enough to Spin it into a wall, forcing its handle into a corkscrew shape. Lady Rarity was the victim of Ball Breaker’s other fist, her own body being contorted next to her weapon, parts of her armor digging into her flesh. Froppy made a last ditch effort to take Gyro down – she tried to wrap her tongue around his neck. She didn’t see the Steel Ball he had shot behind him until it hit her. The shock forced her to release her tongue, a motion that allowed her to twist herself off the ball and back onto her feet. “Ribbit.” Gyro stood over her. “...Looks like I win.” Froppy grunted, refusing to say anything. He touched her with Ball Breaker, forcing her to rotate quickly enough to embed herself in the floor. Then he took a moment to take stock. Two dead, Lileur and Lieshy. Everyone else heavily wounded, except himself and… “I’ve got something!” Olivia declared. “He’s got a room of uncontrollable people! I’ll just do a little bit of this and then w-” Ball Breaker punched her aside, forcing all her holographic screens to either glitch out of existence or just plain close. Her white cloak was resistant to the Spin, but Gyro didn’t care how or why that was possible. He just punched her again before she got any ideas, tossing a Steel Ball to make extra sure she didn’t get back up to surprise him. Only then did Gyro let himself stop. He moved over to the unconscious form of Johnny and sat down, pulling his legs to his body. He didn’t have anything to say or do. He just sat. Sat and tried not to cry or scream. ~~~ So far, only the creature made of geometry had perished in the fight between Corona’s group and Kars’. The Discords had been put out of commission – their magic had allowed Nanoha to seal them both away in a crystal box, and it would not be unlockable for several hours. Nanoha and Hastur were fighting Kars, Nanoha proving to him just how formidable a woman could be in combat. Her magic was nigh-limitless, but so was Kars’ ability to imitate any biology he saw to extreme degrees. Kars was also so insane that Hastur’s madness-inducing magic wasn’t doing much. They’d been at a standstill for a while. Bill Cipher was facing Tom and Corona together, the triangular dream demon folding himself through dimensions to attack them from all angles, outwitting Tom and overpowering Corona. “HAHA! YOU’D THINK A STAR AND AN ANGEL WOULD BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE YOU COME UP SHORT!” Corona threw her hands wide, summoning a complex series of magical circles all around her. She started a spell to make it impossible to fold through space like he was, combining the move with Tom for a brilliant finisher, but then it hit her. It was like an ice pick going through her heart. Someone’s dead. “OH WOW, YOU HAVE SOME STRONG EMPATHY THERE!” Bill laughed at her. “HERE, LET ME ADD TO IT!” Rather than going for the currently motionless Corona, he went for the concerned Tom. He grew his triangular form to the size of a building, transforming his singular eye into a mouth. He bit down on Tom, tearing the ethereal Star spirit in two, tossing the other half to Corona. Corona stared at the dissipating back half of Tom, her brain not processing what’d just happened. Bill’s eye flashed with the light of a dying Star. “THERE YOU GO SUNSHINE, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! ALL BECAUSE YOU HAD TO TAKE A MOMENT TO PROCESS A DEATH YOU CAN’T EVEN IDENTIFY!” Corona lit herself on fire. “PLEASE, WHAT’S THAT GOING TO DO, SCARE ME?” She teleported a centimeter from his eye, touching her fingers to the dream demon’s flesh. She stood in an endless expanse of white, with only Bill in front of her – though now he was normal size, about that of her head. “WELL WELL WELL WELL WELL WELL WELL…” He said, circling her. “YOU’RE GOING TO TRY TO TAKE ME IN A MINDSCAPE BATTLE? THAT’S REALLY STUPID, SUNSHINE.” “Bill, what are you planning?” “LET ME TELL YOU! I’M GOING TO BURN YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE MENTAL IMAGE TO OBLIVION, EMPTYING YOUR BRAIN!” “Bill, what are you planning?” “I JUST TOLD Y- WAIT.” “Bill, what are you planning?” “CORONA, WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING!?” Corona smiled. “Hi Bill! This is Corona’s will to kill you. I’ve been shafted into this mindscape with only scant hints of a personality, enough to keep you here. I have now determined exactly how to destroy this place with both of us in it.” She imagined a gun and held it to her head. Bill teleported it away. “CLEVER TRICK, BUT YOU CAN’T JUST KILL US LIKE THAT. SORRY TO BURST YOUR BUBBLE.” Corona kept smiling innocently. “I don’t need it.” “…WHAT?” “Goodbye.” Corona’s fragment willed death onto itself. She shimmered, sparked, and disappeared in a puff of fire. Bill stared at where she’d been. “…CORONAAAAAAAAA!” Corona’s fragment did not return to her – so she had no idea what had occurred in the mindscape, or even what her plan had been after touching Bill. She was left with a gaping hole inside her mind, one that would bother her for eternity. All she knew was that she did something that worked. Bill disintegrated right in front of her, shouting her name as he vanished into pixelated nothingness. The force of his destruction shot a powerful burst of energy up her extended arm, breaking it in three places, forcing blood to fly off the shattered limb. The weirdness bubble remained; it would take more than the destruction of Bill to remove it. Corona took a moment to herself – Nanoha and Hastur could deal with Kars. She used her free hand to start mending the limb, allowing a moment to process. Someone had died. Then Tom had died. Then Bill had died, somehow. “This isn’t going to screw me up again,” Corona told herself. “Never again.” She lifted her bloodied arm that had been broken just a minute ago into the air. “NEVER AGAIN!” She rushed Kars, planning to tag-team with Nanoha and Hastur to finally beat the ‘ultimate lifeform’ into the ground. “RECONDITIONER FAILURE!” Raging Sights and Raising Heart shouted at the same time. “INITIATING COUNTERMEASURES!” Nanoha and Corona’s minds were protected by automatic spells, preventing the failure of the reconditioner devices from letting the loyalty program in. Hastur was not so lucky. He went from unleashing the spawn of hell on Kars to unleashing the spawn of hell on Nanoha and Corona. Nanoha raised a shield around the two of them. “Something disabled the reconditioner!” “That means…” “Anyone without a way to defend mentally, like us, is now an enemy!” Corona didn’t say anything – she just ground her teeth. That was perhaps the worst thing that could have happened. ~~~ “MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!” Giorno shouted, meeting every last one of Superman’s punches with Golden Experience Requiem, undoing every last action – yet unable to trap Superman in his own death. The Stand simply didn’t have the physical power to overcome the hero. Death was fighting with his scythe – avoiding using his control over the life-force at all costs, for all their attackers were heroes at heart, people who did not deserve to die for actions that were out of their control. Despite his inhuman accuracy, he was not skilled at fighting to incapacitate; most of his prior opponents had themselves been inhuman, to put it extremely mildly. He was being beat back. He may not have been tiring, but he wasn’t winning. Tornado was doing the best out of all of them, taking care of multiple heroes at once with her telekinesis – but she was bleeding, bruised, and battered. She was certainly tiring. Tiring to the point at which she would soon pass out from overexertion. Alushy had been losing, badly, for several minutes now, but nobody could keep the shadow vampire down. She just kept lashing out with her darkness, proving her tenacity to all. Blackjack… Blackjack was on her fourth hero. She’d killed a Professor X and a Spider-Man, and had simply defeated an Aquaman. In front of her was Wolverine. He was pissed, to put it mildly. Blackjack would bet he knew the Professor X she’d shot, thinking he would be made of sterner stuff. Blackjack was running low on magic reserves, and Wolverine had a nasty combo of knives in his hands and regeneration that didn’t depend on anything in reserves. He was cutting her up pretty badly, and there wasn’t much she could do about it besides wave her Starmetal sword and hope it worked. The good news? It cut his supposedly indestructible claws. The bad news? Wolverine was smart enough not to let her cut a limb clean off, so his regeneration was able to compensate. Oh, and Blackjack was about to pass out from blood loss. That was bad news as well, but she wasn’t paying much attention to it. She unleashed a shotgun in his face, forcing him back. She took to the skies, bombarding Wolverine with magic bolts that did nothing. He leaped up to her and scraped her neck. All right, Blackjack thought, teleporting a ways back. I just need to last a little longer, and a way to beat this guy will come to me. It always does. Just gotta keep thinking… Have to stay conscious, too. Have to… Have to… Her legs buckled beneath her. W-what? No, I have plenty of energy left! I can keep fighting! I ca… She crumpled to the ground, gasping for air. I… Wolverine drove his claws into her chest, piercing not only her heart, but several vital motors. I can’t just win anymore. She realized, unable to even try to breathe at this point. This is what she’d asked for. None of her friends would die here… but she would. Her last act was to smile at the irony of it all. She felt something inside her switch its loyalty to the Collector – but she didn’t care. She couldn’t do anything at this point. She just needed to… go. That’s right. The last thing she saw was a vibrant purple flash. ~~~ Nova looked at the reports flying across her hoof-screen. “The Collector just figured out how they were resisting the Catcher. Almost all the invading force has been conditioned to join the Collection now.” Starbeat bit her lip. “Do they even have a chance now?” “It’s not looking like it. The odds are overwhelmingly in our favor now.” But that’s when the tables always turn, Starbeat reminded herself. Plus, they have me now. I’m still free. I can do something here… Something to bring it all back around. Flip the table flip. “Whoop de do,” Rick blurted in response to Nova. “Now you can get out of my space.” “Not yet,” Pinkie said. “The fight is still ongoing. They might make a last-ditch effort here yet. We must be ready.” Starbeat gulped, putting on her goggles. Somehow, deep down, she knew nobody was going to just find this place by chance. That’s why she was here – she had to do something other than just wait for fate. She cleaned off her lenses with her magic and put on her game face. Jotaro glanced at her. “Preparing for battle?” “You could say that,” Starbeat said. “I have a sense that it’s about to get really wild in here.” “Pinkie?” Jotaro asked. “Same,” Pinkie said, her tail twitching. “Something’s going to happen.” Everyone got on their guard – even Rick – looking everywhere in the room for a possible incursion point. Conveniently leaving all their eyes off the weak spot. Starbeat sauntered over to it, attempting to look like a guard dog. Luckily none of them were paying close attention to her. She lit her horn, charging as much energy as she could into it. “Huh. The magic readings in the room just spiked considerably…” Nova said, tapping her screen. “It’s coming from…” Starbeat knew she was out of time. She whirled around, driving her horn physically into the weak point and unloading all the energy she had into the Catcher. The column surged, twitched, and then exploded, sending Starbeat flying. She didn’t care that she had horribly electrocuted herself or that several shards of metal were now embedded in her body, she had done it. She had destroyed the Catcher. Every member of the Collection would run free and take down the Collector before he could fix it. It was a victory. Then Starbeat realized she wasn’t flying backward anymore – she was falling forward. She’d been caught in a rewind spell. Starbeat saw Nova crying out of the corner of her eyes. “Why couldn’t you have been a little faster!?” Nova shouted. “It was almost gone! WE WERE ALMOST FREE!” The Catcher completely fixed itself, allowing Starbeat to stand, dumbfounded. “I… I couldn’t do it.” “Knew it,” Rick said, lifting a gun. “Say good-” The gun was kicked out of his hand. But it wasn’t by any member of Pinkie’s team, Allure, or Starbeat. It was Lightning. “Stand down, Rick,” Lightning said, walking slowly toward Starbeat. “She’s been beaten already.” “No, you think?” Starbeat shouted at her, wailing. “You people designed it like this, didn’t you? So ponies like me could be humiliated!” Lightning didn’t respond. She just examined the Catcher, making sure it was still operational. “That was a pretty clever trick, lying to all your friends,” Lightning said. “Getting them to think you were one of the Collection, tricking them to coming here… That was some excellent work, Starbeat.” “So what now? You zap my mind and add me to your little fun-time Collection?” “Not yet,” Lightning admitted. “I want to see if you’ll try something. If you’ll think of another way out of this. If you have some other plan.” “That’s dumb of you,” Starbeat commented. Lightning didn’t respond to this. She just started walking around the room. “You are right, we designed it this way on purpose. It doesn’t have to be centralized here. It could be split up over several nodes and have backups. But it doesn’t.” “Then why build the fucking thing!?” Vriska shouted. Lightning looked to Pinkie and Starbeat. “Because that was the way it needed to be built.” “Bullshit, copout,” Rick declared. “That’s never the only reason unless you’re one of those ka religious nuts. You’re not. I think it’s because you like to mess with people.” Lightning didn’t confirm or deny this. She just turned to Starbeat. “Well?” “…I’ve got nothing besides try to kill you and fail miserably.” Lightning nodded. “Shame you didn’t try… It probably would have been interesting.” She held up a hand, focusing a conditioning spell on Starbeat. She grimaced. ~~~ The Collector felt the Catcher explode. He took in a sharp breath, holding it. His heart raced faster than it ever had before. Then he felt it reassemble. He let out the breath, but his heart kept racing just as fast as it had been. “If you weren’t an augmented cyborg, that would be dangerous,” Thanos observed. “I know…” the Collector said, breathing heavily. “I’m very aware I’m beyond all sane levels of stress right now. I’m probably more off the end of the crazy plank than I already was.” “You should check yourself for brain damage after this.” “No, really?” Thanos nodded. “…Right, sorry. You’re just being helpful. …Not like you can be anything else anyway.” Thanos looked away. “It looks as if we are going to win now.” “Famous last words,” the Collector said bitterly. “The Flowers are still hammering on our doorstep. And if we do drive back all their forces, they will resort to simply destroying this universe and everything in it.” Thanos blinked. “…I thought you had a plan for that?” “I do, Thanos, I do have a plan. The plan ensures it never comes to that.” The Collector started pacing around the office again – it had been cleaned up remarkably well in such a short time, the only remnant of the recent fight being a fishy smell coating the room. It annoyed the Collector, but not enough to be a large concern at the moment. He rubbed his knuckles together, the motion becoming more violent as the day went on. “Thanos, give me a prediction. What are the scenarios in which we can stop the Flowers from destroying the universe?” Thanos raised an eyebrow. “I th-” “Just answer the question.” Thanos processed the request. “We capture the Sunflower Officer and use him as a hostage, but even then he may be deemed an acceptable loss.” “Right… Right… Thanos, forget I asked the question.” Thanos did. He looked lost for a few seconds, but got back to work. “It appears I lost concentration there for a few moments. Excuse me while I get back on track…” “No worries,” the Collector said. “You’re doing great.” He turned to stare at the screen that still had fighting. Nanoha and Corona, two of the last few still standing. “No matter what you say about the White Devil, she does have her limits,” the Collector said. “Do you think they can take care of Kars and Hastur?” “Perhaps. But when our new forces arrive to face them, they will fall. Come to think of it, we can reroute many of our higher powers to there now that we have control again.” “Do it. Crush them.” Let’s see if that’ll make them move. The Collector continued rubbing his knuckles together, ever-increasing the speed. It would all end soon.