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At 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI. The current year is 1904 giving the people of Northern California time to get ready for the earthquake that is to come. Plans are in place and the people of the cities and towns have been informed what to do before the earthquake happens. For them to take their valuables on anything they can transport them on and take them out of the city or out in an open field where the danger of the earthquake will be negated. (1)
In the city of San Francisco many businesses have been at work in either reinforcing their buildings to withstand an earthquake, adding shock absorbers and other things to make a building safer. The plan is to turn off everything when the earthquake happens so that there be no fires or anything else that would cause problems when the earthquake happens and the clean up afterwards. With the Protectrons and Mr. Handies brought from Mr. House, working the utilities around the city preparing for what’s to come. The city was well on the way of being ready for when the earthquake hits.
Some people are also planning on rebuilding their homes when the cost of earthquake proofing is as much as just building a new building. Many buildings and homes would be torn down before the earthquake hits so that a new one can be build in its place. The city government has already made laws to make all new buildings be built with earthquake proofing to avoid risks. It was during some digging for a new foundation of a building that a discovery was made.
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Stepping out of the car Empress Barbie look down at the dig site where a metal door was discovered. The workmen were digging a basement for the building that would be built but found the top of a underground structure and dug down till they found a metal door. Word got around and caught Barbie’s attention and decided to see what’s happening herself. Bringing with her Crimson Viper and X-49 who drove the car, there are also 4 Eyebots with them.
The door and the level of technology matches that of the world where the machine animals came from, as it has the golden logo of Faro Automated Solutions emblazoned into the door. The event didn’t just effect the states of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona but also the states around them like Nevada and California just at a lesser degree. A bleeding effect as it’s called where a large event causes smaller events that pulls in places and things from the world where the main event happen to the surrounding area.
Machine animals not found in the main event area had showed up all over, Bristlebacks pig like machines that tear up anything like real pigs, Clamberjaws monkey like machines, Shellsnappers massive turtle machines, and even Tremortusks giant mammoth like machines. There are also the flying machines that have been flying around, like the Sunwings that resembles a pterosaur, with flexible solar panels as wings and Dreadwings giant bat like machines. Then there is the Tiderippers that are a large amphibious plesiosaur-style machines that have been attacking ships, like sea monsters in old stories. The machines also come in different variants, some being able to use acid while others fire.
Then there is also the blight that has been ruining farmlands, the Red Blight as the natives call it. The Red Blight takes the form of long red tendrils or stalks, which can grow in dense clusters. While little is known about the Red Blight and its exact mechanism, it is known to spread quickly and is toxic to most plants and animals. Humans are no exception, although prolonged exposure is necessary for serious complications. The Blight appears to grow best in regions with poor soil quality, such as over-fertilized or swampy soil.
It wasn’t all bad thanks to reprogramming the machines to make them safe to be around. With the capture of HEPHAESTUS Prock has been able to setup signals to broadcast a software update to stop the machines from attacking people. But there are still some dangerous machines who for one reason or another aren’t receiving the signal.
The machines who are blue in color are now being seen here and there, thanks to Prock making it permanent. With radio towers to keep the signal active to keep the machines calm when they’re in the range. There are farms where Plowhorns who resemble ceratopsids such as Triceratops, bearing a large cranial frill and four large horns, with a smaller fifth horn atop its "nose". A single eye is found at the tip of its face. Its long tail splits in two, plowing the land behind it as it moves. Are doing their thing in plowing the fields and spreading seeds. The machines that could be mounted are replacing horses, and are used to pull carts around. As well as being used to create blaze that is being used as fuel.
“Hi mom,” Penny Proud Norton greeted her mother who is with her sister Peppermint Rose Norton. They’re with their bodyguards, Judy, Nick, Bebop and Rocksteady.
“What are you two doing here?” Barbie ask.
“Me and Penny are the owners of the building and we’re called about the workers finding this underground,” Peppermint explains.
“Just stay back no need for you to put yourself in danger,” Barbie said.
Barbie summon one of her sisters, Ghost Barbie who has the power to turn into a ghost as she’s half ghost like that boy Danny Phantom that girl Sam talk about. Before she left Sam in that town after she caused a riot to happen that got Sunset hurt, and refused to admit that she’s in the wrong. Seeing how Sam refused to even say sorry, Barbie left her to fend for herself as she would just endanger Sunset who was just 7 at the time with her actions. It was only years later did one of her sister’s learned what happen to Sam, once she was left to fend for herself, reality quickly hit her. (2)
Sam ended up in a whore house selling herself, seeing how she was nothing but a spoiled rich girl who pretend to be something just to feel special. Which was in a nearby town where Barbie had left her and she had to walk to as she had burnt all of her bridges in the town she was left in. And all of her soap boxing and protesting were all just something she was able to do when she was living with her rich parents and didn’t have to work for a living. Not to mention that she was eating meat when the Barbie who came across her spotted her, seeing how she was only doing that to be special and in a world where she had to work for a living and face the consequences for her actions she couldn’t just give up any meal. Sam is just like hippies who come from worlds where they mooch off resources from others as opposed to actually getting employment. Who once they find themselves in this world where they’re no longer living off of their parents or have any of the resources that allowed them to be lazy bums, many couldn’t survive for long having to take care of themselves. (3)
“Sister go inside and look around before opening the door. And bring one of the Eyebots with you to make sure the air is safe,” Barbie said as she doesn’t want to unleash a virus or something.
"Right away," Phantom Barbie said as she phases through the door finding herself in an Egyptian style room.
Barbie and her daughters waited for awhile taking about half an hour for Phantom Barbie to return. Barbie was surprise seeing her sister returning clearly shaken from whatever she discovered inside. No words were exchanged as Phantom Barbie was reabsorbed into her sister, becoming apart of the hive mind again, and sharing her memories with her sisters.
"Mom?" both Peppermint and Penny asked seeing the shock look on their mom's face.
"Keep the doors sealed till Prock and a team can come," Barbie said.
"Is it bad?" Penny asked.
"It is, there's a dead man switch inside which if activated will cause the entire bunker to blow up. Set some guards to make sure no one gets in till it can be deactivated," Barbie said.
"There's something else inside isn't there?" Peppermint asked.
"Someone tried to make themselves live forever. They did, just not how anyone would want," Barbie said.
"Not another one," Penny said having seen some examples of people trying to live forever and ending up in a fate worst then death.
"Now, I have some calls to make," Barbie said heading back home to make some calls.
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Pentagon -
Intelligence Barbie shakes her head having been reabsorbed into Dominate Barbie and was resummon so that all the information that Phantom Barbie learned while in the bunker. She had remained as a ghost to bypass any security that is still active, she had found two working Corruptor/FAS-ACA 3 Scarabs and didn’t want to activate anything else. Phantom Barbie discovered who the bunker Thebes belongs to, Ted Faro.
Thebes was created to serve as Faro's personal bunker during the Faro Plague, the apocalypse caused by his malfunctioning Chariot Line of military machines. Thebes was designed to serve all of Ted Faro's needs and desires: the entrance to the facility was genetically locked to open exclusively to Faro (although an emergency exit could be triggered by anyone inside); the power system was designed to be simple enough for Faro to operate, and safeguards were placed so that Faro's death would trigger the system's collapse; most insidiously, all of Thebes's occupants were secretly implanted with a device that would trigger death at Faro's command. In short, Ted Faro had complete control of everything and everyone in Thebes. Beyond Faro himself, Thebes's occupants included his spiritual guru Grigori Fasbach, his physician Dr. Narong Somptow, Somptow's daughter Kanya, and a collection of girlfriends, including a holo-singer named Brianna.
Most of the doors inside the bunker are disabled or blocked off thanks to no one taking care of the bunker for years. There were no bodies as they were taken care of long ago but there were signs of many people who use to live in the bunker. There is a medical lab that was doing experiments in making a human live longer which had worked in the one subject that was treated with the experiment treatment. The cells of the subject regenerated and aging stopped making the subject immortal.
The power system used a geothermal system for power which would once connected to the city’s power grid would help not only the city but the state. And where the subject for the immortal experiment was found. Ted Faro is still alive but not as the immortal man he had wanted to be, thanks to the mutations of his immortal treatment going out of control. He had gone into the power room in hopes that the energy there would help fix the problem, it didn’t.
From what Phantom Barbie had discovered from the files in the computer, Faro was given extensive genetic therapy by Dr. Narong Somptow, intended to stop his aging and render him effectively immortal. Somptow's treatments successfully halted Ted's cellular aging but were accompanied with mutations: each of these mutations needed to be treated individually, and despite Somptow's best efforts were difficult to stabilize. It became apparent that the gene treatment had turn Faro into a walking form of cancer. (4)
As Faro's mentality became more erratic, he used the "off-switch" to gradually kill the other survivors in the bunker, including his various girlfriends, notably the holo-singer Brianna, who was privy to Faro's inner-self. Eventually, Somptow and his daughter Kanya were left the only survivors with Faro, until they chose to commit suicide at Kanya's suggestion, leaving Faro alone and with no one to treat his continued mutation. In a last-ditch effort, he entered the generator room of his bunker, hoping that proximity to its energy would halt his mutations.
Phantom Barbie had look inside and was horrified at what Faro had become. A grotesque being of twisted flesh made up of tumors and cancer cells, with little brain activity, filling much of the generator room and incapable of speech. Causing her to flee back from the thing that was once a man.
“I’ll send a team and get it under control,” Intelligence Barbie said to Dominate Barbie who can by one of their sisters who can teleport.
“We’ll be able to learn much from the files that Faro has in his computers. And once Prock and the others can disarmed the dead man switch we can put that man out of his torment. Be too dangerous to try anything till the entire security system is taken down,” Dominate Barbie said.
“Too bad there wasn’t any files about Zero Dawn on the computer our sister found. If anyone knows about Zero Dawn it would be Faro,” Intelligence Barbie said.
“See you later sister,” Dominate Barbie said as she summons their sister who can teleport to places they been to before.
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Norton manor -
On her estate Ginger Snap Norton looks over the handiwork of the workers as they setup the power lines on wooden poles that leads down to one of the rivers of the Caymus area where her manor is built at. The power lines are connected to an old watermill used to power the saws of a abandon lumberyard. Ginger has brought the old lumberyard and fixed up the old watermill connecting a generator to it. The watermill would now power her estate which is also connected to the nearby town’s power grid.
The whole thing is part of the Norton renewal project, using already existing buildings and repurpose them for other uses. Old windmills or watermills are found brought and used to help power the Nearest settlement to it, or connect it to power poles if it’s in an isolated area. The windmills and watermills that are still in use are also being upgraded to produce electric power, if the owner of said mill agrees to signing a contact where a deal is made so that a generator can be installed to help power the ever growing power grid of the nation.
Ginger has contacted the factories that make windmills to start selling ones with a electric generator for people who want one or to replace old ones, or just convert the old ones to produce power. So that homesteads and farms be able to generate their own power, at affordable prices. That does have buyers as people do need to replace their windmills that pump water and having one that also provides power is seen as a good bargain.
“All setup boss,” Hugo said as he and his family the entire Andore family who are a group of muscular giants standing over 8 feet, Andore Jr., F. Andore, U. Andore, and G. Andore had helped in setting up the power poles.
“Let’s see if it works,” Ginger said cutting the power of the house off from the local power grid.
That was the signal for the workers at the watermill to pull the rods out that was keeping the waterwheel from turning. Once freed from the rods the waterwheel began turning the generator began producing electrical power. The power lines began buzzing with power as the lights of the Norton Manor began turning back on.
“Great work,” Ginger said to her workers. “Your pay will be mailed to you.”
Ginger walks back into her home as the workers cleaned up and pack away their tools. Inside as she made her way to her workroom, she found Poison and Roxy sitting at a table looking at a pile of coins. Both of them like going to town and gamble at the local bars.
“What do you two have?” Ginger asked.
“A bunch of strange coins that a guy was using when I was playing cards,” Roxy said.
“They’re not legal currency but they are made of gold and silver,” Poison said looking at a gold and silver coin.
“That happens,” Ginger said as people and places from other worlds appear and while paper money isn’t good, the coins they used are sometimes accepted if they’re made out of valuable metals. Mom told stories of how grandpa made his own money and some places did accepted them, but only from grandpa and not others who tried to use them. The surviving money her grandpa made are now collector items. (5)
Some of the coins came in silver and gold which had a Roman theme to them. The silver ones had a head of a man on one side and three men on the other side. The inscriptions on the coins are in Latin, "Caesar Dictator"meaning "Dictator Caesar" or “Absolute Ruler Caesar" on the front and "Magnum Chasma" meaning "Great Abyss" or “Great Fissure" on the back.
The gold coins have an older looking man on one side and a bull on he other. The inscriptions in Latin again reads, "Aeternit Imperi" meaning “For the eternity of the empire" on the front and “Pax Per Bellum" meaning “Peace through War" on the back.
The other coins are all silver that have a Scroll, Sword, and Key, on one side and a an angel with all three items on the other side. There are also other coins that all look different from what is normally used but are still used around as they are made out of valuable metals. That is getting rarer as people are switching to paper money but in gambling dens and in more isolated places foreign coins are still used. (6)
“The coins can be exchange for real money at a bank. Or find someone who collects them like how there are people who collect Confederate money or the money that grandpa made,” Ginger said.
“Don’t you have a whole chest of coins?” Poison asked.
“I pick up coins here and there. Got a bunch of Gold-Pressed Latinum from Star Trek. All worthless expect for the metals they’re made out of,” Ginger said.
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San Francisco -
Yashamaru and Hotarubi sitting at a park bench watch as the Norton children are playing around. The playground where the kids are playing at has modern playground equipment, a jungle gym with a slide, seesaws, swings, playhouses, a sand box, spring rides, and a crawling tunnel for the kids to play with instead of being on the streets. They like the others working for Dark Hand, have been keeping an eye on things and sending any new information back to Japan. But they have to be careful as the Norton’s have their own ninjas working for them.
The Kasumi sisters as they are known are the clones of Kasumi who number around 30 in all and are all working for the Norton family. They’re all ninjas who help keep an eye out for trouble and watch over the young kids of the royal family. Not they really need to as each of the kids has an eyebot following them around when they go out.
Both Yashamaru and Hotarubi are sure about their skills to remain undetected, but against non humans that’s another thing. They have to be careful around animals when they sneak around as they’re able to detect them from smell or other senses that a human just can’t. They seen first hand back in Japan when a stealth suit was used that made the wearer completely invisible, only to show that dogs are still able to smell the user. (7)
So Yashamaru and Hotarubi have been doing what they can to just act normal so that they wouldn’t stand out and watch the kids from as far as they could. As they watch the kids play around at the playground, they suddenly saw, Vanellope Norton the youngest of the children trying to climb a tree to get to her kite that’s struck in a tree. She was struggling to climb up the tree which was too thick for her to climb but as she was hanging onto the trunk she just glitched and appeared on a tree branch and pulled her kite free, dropping it to the ground below. She then grabs onto the eyebot that’s following her and floated down as she hangs onto the eyebot.
“She can teleport,” Yashamaru said.
“Well her sister Sunset does have telekinesis and her other sister Lila is super strong,” Hotarubi points out.
“Yes but they’re already known. Vanellope seems to be the only other with special powers, which the other royal houses will be interested in learning,” Yashamaru said.
The royal and noble houses around the world have for centuries been adding out-worlders who have special powers or abilities to their houses. Having them marry into the house to see if their powers or abilities would pass on to their children. Which has worked with how the Russian royal family youngest child while weak in body has powers, showing the strength of their house to their people. Many houses have managed to hold onto power by having the heir displaying powers or abilities showing that their house is still strong and powerful.
“Too bad the Russian prince will be the first one to have a chance of getting her to fall for him,” Hotarubi said.
“I don’t know she does have two other sisters around his age to pick from,” Yashamaru points out.
“Good point,” Hotarubi said as Barbie wouldn’t allow any type of arrange marriage with her kids. So the Russian prince will have to do it the normal way of charming and getting along with one of the young Norton sisters to be his future bride. “I wonder if it be like where the sisters fight over him like the girls with Ranma?”
“That would just scare him off if it’s anything like that,” Yashamaru said.
“You mean you would run off if I was fighting with other women over you?” Hotarubi asked glancing at him.
“Of course, I would. Remember that woman with the hammer sent him into a coma when she hit him with her hammer? There’s no way I’m going through that,” Yashamaru said.
“That did happen,” Hotarubi said seeing his remembering how that had almost killed Ranma.
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