The Cooper base was all seated and awaiting their next mission. "Okay, everyone, we have some jobs to do." Uncle M stated.
"How many?" Dad asked.
"Lots." M said, starting up the projection.
“So, as we’ve seen through reconnaissance, he has a whole lotta weapons and fortifications.” I started, letting the slide show several images of heavily armed guards, armored vehicles, even armored War Elephants. “And from mine and dad’s recond, we found the rightful heir to the throne…as well as what the hell he’s truly doing with the royal family.”
"And, as I feared, it's worse than just that." M said, taking over now. "With the bug planted we've gathered data and phone calls and learned the prince is one of nine children born from the original youngest prince. Apparently Rajan hunted down all the original noble women that were to be the prince's harem. He keeps them under a Spice endured hypnosis. Odds are they're so high they don't even know they're pregnant or have had many children. Their location is still unknown but the nine children we do know where they are all being held. The question is how to free them given their unique restraints."
“It’s a fingerprint lock that is biometrically encoded to Rajan and Rajan only, to the point where even I’m unable to use any of my ‘special powers’ to unlock it.” I explained. “So we’re going to either need Rajan to release them of his own volition somehow, we drug the bastard and drag his body to the prison, or we cut one of his hands off and use it like that, and nobody wants the third option to happen.”
"Well, I do but I'm out voted regardless." Nyla said with a shrug.
"That aside," M continued. "We also found out many high profile underworld business opportunists are showing up. Including some that I'm betting Kite or Nyla will be familiar with." M said, putting a forder down for Nyla and I.
My eyes widened.
These were bad guys, but not from this world. Some classing Disney/Kingdom Hearts villains were here, some other bad guys too. Not good.
"I recognize some of these guys." Nyla nodded.
“And I recognize…a lot of these assholes.” I nodded bitterly. “So…there are mighty problems here…”
"I was worried about that. Thankfully, I discussed this with Matilda and, given this is breaking many of the 'World Order' laws keyblade wielders typically follow, she will try and contact some associates for aid. Now, the last and final item is Rajan himself. He seems to have upgraded himself, likely in similar method to how Clockwerk has."
The next image showed Rajan. He looked mostly normal, but he clearly has some magical augmentations. His demeanor and aura were far more intense. Atop his staff wasn't the Clockwerk Heart, but some still beating heart of flesh and blood.
“Well shit…” I frowned. “Hopefully those augmentations doesn’t screw with his mentality, that’s one of the thing’s we have going for us.” I explained. “His insatiable ego and many fears.”
"So what's the jobs?" Nyla asked
"Nyla, Kite, given you two have experience with… off worlders, I want you to spy and see what they are using as a bartering chip. I doubt they have our worlds currencies and I think they would be trading weapons for weapons, or magic, tech. Whatever it is, let us know and if you are able, sabotage them." N stated.
"Sounds like fun." Nyla said with a nod.
“As fun as it could be.” I shrugged.
Nyla and I headed off, quickly jumping through rooftops and heading towards an airport. It was filled with ships. Gummy, space, ECT. Just space faring vessels for the whole area.
Nyla whistled. "Damn, a lot of those are expensive ships."
“Jeez, this must be some premo event if all these rich assholes are wanting in on it.”
Thankfully my invisibility covered us both well enough to make it to the first ship. Nyla got us in easy enough and we began snooping around. Odds are they're keeping their valuables on their ships.
"Class S luxury Intergalactic Star Cruiser. Whoever this ship's owner is has taste." Nyla commented as we walked around. Even I had to admit, this was extremely luxurious, especially for a space ship.
“Yeah, this is a pretty snazzy ship that’s for sure.” I nodded in agreement, snooping around as well for anything good.
We eventually came across a bedroom of sorts. There was a bar of various liquors, and a large and well made bed, dressers built into the walls and a large screen monitor hanging from the ceiling just above the foot of the bed.
Nyla rapidly went for the liquors, looking them over. "Wow, some of these brands are worth millions a bottle!"
“Then let’s steal some of them.” I said readily.
We began pocketing some of the liquors, and Nyla picked up one of the glass cups. "L.Q… LQ… oh shit I know who's ship this is!"
“Who?” I inquired carefully, kind of worried as to why she was acting like that.
"LQ, Leviathan Quartz, he's like, the biggest illegal weapons manufacturer in seven galaxies. This guy invented complete and total one shot Genocide planet killing weapons."
“Impressive.” I said simply. “What race is he? Cause I immediately thought ‘Gem race’ but Quartz can be used for many different people.”
"He's a Pilopo. They're kinda like… birds mixed with crabs."
“And there are many crab jokes to be made from that.” I chuckled.
"Yeah well he's always packing so try not to make any yourself unless you wanna get blasted into the fourth dimension."
“I’ve actually been there once, rather annoying when it’s mostly Time Walkers doing a fuck ton of paperwork.” I shrugged.
"Time Walker?"
Wow… so this is what it's like to be Cript, overpowered compared to everyone else around you and knowing things nobody else knows… it's upsetting…
“Basically the Time Police.” I answered. “And boy howdy do they have a lot of paperwork to go through…”
"Right… well in any case, if this is Leviathan Quartz, then I can bet you anything he's got planet killers kept on board."
“And we’re going to make sure that they don’t work ever again, or steal them away from this bastard.”
"My vote's on stealing. The ammo those things use are made from rare, very valuable materials."
“And the weapons, probably more so.” I nodded. “So let’s steal as much as we can and dismantle it later.”
After looting the lavish bedroom we went into other places. The kitchen, which of course had only exotic, expensive and high quality food items and cooking utensils.
A parlor room which had various rare, expensive and several illegal luxury items.
A library filled with stolen texts from many planets worth their own fortunes.
Finally we found the storage bay and armory. My gods… some of these might actually be able to hurt even me. I found that a bit hard to believe until I noticed a certain symbol on some of the weapons. Nexus. Figures…
“Of course that faction of assholes are still funding these fucks…”
I sighed. I guess even after managing to get Vincent to let this Timelines Nexus freeze some must still either want to continue their work, or just up and are using their advanced tech and magic to be criminals… heh, good thing I'm a Cooper then. Dealing with the Underworld's worst is our specialty.
“Wait…didn’t Vincent…or Grey give me all of Nexus?” I muttered to myself, now that I’m mulling all that over.
"Huh. Weird." Nyla said from where she was. "I think this one was holding a Keyblade." Confused, I walked over to where Nyla was. We stood before an open case. The weapon was gone but the outline of it within the case filled me with rage… I'd recognize that shape anywhere. Void Key…
“Oh come the fuck on…” I growled. “What the hell is that thing doing here?”
"Probably was stolen, or might be counterfeit." Nyla said. Right, she doesn't know. Wow, all this knowing stuff and having to explain shit is getting kinda old.
“Neither, cause this asshole is a sentient parasite that needs to burn in the deepest darkest pit in hell.” I growled. “And normally I’d be all for knowing it all, but this is kinda getting old and boring.”
"Okay? So what about this Keyblade has your tail in a knot?"
“Because it’s technically not a Keyblade.” I said. “It’s a Parasite in the shape of one, wanting the death’s of everyone so it can control them all with the Void…and also he put one of my wonderful wives in a Coma for years and hurt many other important people in my life.”
"Huh. I guess that would do it." She shrugged. "Well, if it's not here, then where is it?"
“I don’t know and I don’t like it.” I growled. “Or…he could be possessing Quartz…which is also not good.”
"Huh. Well, let's grab the rest of this then worry about that."
“Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get to more stealing.”
We finished looting the storage bay and armory, and began making out way out.
The next several dozen ships were much the same as the first. Loot, loot and loot. Made me really glad one of them had pocket dimension storage cubes. Not quite an Assistant but it will do.
We then came across a ship I was very familiar with… holy shit, this is Braig's ship?! Why… oh right, he's a weapons collector… of course he'd be here then…
“Oh god…this is gonna be so awkward if this is the same Braig…” I grumbled to myself.
Then again he hasn't trained me yet… but, this is a different timeline… he… doesn't have to die. I mean, he got to be reborn as one of my kids but still… I do miss him.
“Ugh…this sucks…” I grumbled, scratching my head bitterly as I had too many thoughts about my old teacher and friend now turned son.
Before I could react, Braig's ship opened up, and he was walking out, whistling. He looked a fair bit younger than when I knew him. "Wait what?" He said as he saw us. "Holy- Hey Nyla!" He waved at her.
"Braig?!" Nyla said in surprise. "This hunk of crap is your ship?!"
"You bet." He laughed, making her laugh as well. Wait they know each other?!
“Hold the fuck up, you two know each other?” I asked in shock.
"Damn right random raccoon." Braig said, he and Nyla walked up to one another and hi-fived. "This little kitten taught me to shoot and how to fly a ship."
"Braig, I'm older than you." Nyla replied.
"Only by like, ten years. Speaking of I see you still have not aged a day and looking fine as ever."
"Yes, and I see you finally grew tall enough for your ego." She chuckled.
"That's not the only thing that grew~"
"Oh really? I'll have to see that sometime~"
Error, Kite.exe not responding.
“I…hate everything I’m seeing right now…” I grumbled. “So why the hell are you here?”
"Word on the galactic black market is that this planet is hosting an extensive auction of weapons illegal in almost every galaxy. I came to try and pick up a few… less than legal toys for the collection."
"You sure have built it up since the last time I saw it." Nyla said, looking at Braig's packed ship of weapons.
"Yeah. So what are you doing here?"
"Oh we're stealing all these weapons because we're apparently good guys who steal." Nyla said, looking at me now.
“Exactly.” I nodded. “And so far, we’ve stolen a whole lotta goodies from all these assholes…so I have an important question, where’s Void Key?”
"What's a Void Key?" Braig asked.
"Some parasite shaped like a Keyblade and forged in void or whatever. He's been freaking out about it since he realized it's here." Nyla answered.
“And when you're the smartest man in the room, everything tends to be a pain in the ass when you have to explain literally everything.” I frowned. “Did you see anyone acting weird? Like…weirder than whatever nonsense they normally do?”
"That's setting a high bar for stuff like this raccoon guy." Brain answered. "So, why are you helping him?"
"Free room and board, for now, and cause he literally hunted me down just to ask questions about some guy I know." Nyla replied.
"Wow. Determined little trash panda ain't he."
"Tell me about it. Wanna join?"
"Hmm. Steal a fuch ton of illegal toys and incur the wrath of all the Galactic underworld… throw in some casual sex and I'm in."
"Casual sex and expensive liquor." Nyla said, pulling out one of said liquors.
Braig grabbed the bottle, chugged some and handed it back. "I'm in!"
“Welcome aboard.” I nodded, aggravated that I literally got no word in edgewise for an actual explanation but fuck it, I’m already aggrivated enough by shit today. “So right now, we’re just making sure Rajan and Clockwerk are losing out on business and more important things.
"Oh then man you need to hit them where it really hurts. The stuff people brought here to exchange in the auction. Dust in the wind compared to their main storehouses. Wanna hit the Underworld where it hurts, hit them in their homes." Braig said.
“And where would these items be? Also when’s the Auction going to occur?” I inquired.
“At four am this world's time. Also, most all these types will have an account of such at Moogle Bank to store their fortunes and items.”
“And I’d rather not fuck with Moogles.” I said carefully.
“Why do the Moogles do business with them again?” Nyla asked.
“Their whole species has remained exclusively neutral in all galactic politics. They don’t care if you're evil or good. Munny is Munny, so as long as you don’t start anything in their facilities your business is good.”
“Fair enough.” I nodded. “So don’t fuck with the Moogles…and just gotta wait until they bring all their shit here and then take it all.” I said. “Or…I could technically buy out everyone without a single fuck given since…well outside causes that I’m still waiting to bite me in the ass.”
“Yeah, you don’t look like the type that can walk into this place.”
“With how I look now, that would be the case.” I nodded. “But I’m magic in many different ways to solve that problem, but that’s if we want to have me just walk in and out bid those assholes and not just steal everything while they’re trying to bid.”
“Without a name or criminal record on a galactic scale. Plus, buying out everything is often a red flag in this kind of lifestyle.”
“Fine fine.” I relented. “So we’ll just have to plan on fucking with everything during the auction night.”
“Or, option three.” Nyla said.
“And what’s that?” I inquired.
“When in doubt, nark out.”
“It’s usually the last option but it’s a good way of getting everyone here out of this place, leaving just those who live here.” Braig stated.
“Hmm, fair.” I nodded. “But…that’s all dependent on if they’re being protected by Clockwerk or not…and that’s the main thing at the moment.”
“As they say in the Underworld. Leave it to the Police to clean.” Nyla added.
They arrived way faster than I expected. All kinds of galactic alien law enforcers, even the Guardians of the Galaxy.
After an Avengers Endgame scale battle, and all kinds of arrests, deaths and explosions, the airfield here was a mess. And Nyla, Braig and I made off with everything that was usable and wasn’t. Even several ships.
“And that is how you nark out.” Nyla said.
“Normally we get the cops involved after we’re done stealing everything we can carry and dismantling everything the big bad’s worked for.” I brought up. “Would have saved…a lot more lives…”
“Eh, they're all low life scum. No one is crying over their corpses.” Braig said with a dismissal wave.
“Plus, easier to keep hold of goods taken off a corpse. Rule 82 of galactic underworld criminals. If the owner’s dead, it’s free game.”
“Well, the Cooper’s are a family who steal from other master thieves, or any of these asswipes, to show that all their hard work means absolutely nothing in the greater scheme of things.” I said. “So honestly…seeing them cry in rage as everything around them crumbles before the final blow is struck is at least a bit more appealing to me.”
“Heh, guess you aren’t much of a Cooper after all.” Nyla said, turning at looking at me. “Which is fine with me. Plenty of space out there to be a drifter like us.”
“You don’t know who I really am, and Braig here…” I grumbled. “Braig won’t know who I really am for probably another…I don’t know, twenty years or something? But I’m also not abandoning my family…even if I’m not a good person in general.”
With that done we headed into the auction house. Time to see just what Rajan was selling. Entering the surprisingly well kept intact main airport, the makeshift stage held one item on it… Void Key…
I immediately walked forward towards Void Key, grabbed it, and then picked it up. “Alright, now let’s see if this is the real thing, or just some conduit.” I muttered. “Either way, if Void Key feels the insurmountable pain I’m about to put it through…goodie for me.” I said, as I activated Consume and started to devour the rat bastard right in front of Braig and Neyla.
It’s form began getting pulled into my skin, almost like it was melting into my body. Void Key oddly didn’t say anything, no cries or noises at all. This conduit body went silently into me.
“Damn, just a conduit.” I growled, lightly flexing my hand as Void energy flickered from my hand. “Well, at least no one’s going to be able to use it anytime soon.”
“Wow, you’re just full of bullshit powers aren’t ya?” Nyla said.
Huh… Wow this is how it feels being Cript… Yeesh… I actually regret calling his bullshit OPness now that I’m doing it…
“You have no idea.” I answered simply. “And you’ll see just how strong I am if I get into a fight with someone cause I have a…’curse’ let’s call it on me at the moment.” I said, dispersing the Void energy and stretching a bit before activating my communicator. “Anybody on call right now?” I inquired to my family over our Binocucom channel.
”Do you mind telling what the hell that massive space alien battle was?” Sly picked up.
“Oh, just some Galactic Police officers taking down a Galactic Underworld Auction.” I answered. “Me, Nyla, and a new friend stole as much as well could and called the feds on them.”
”There is too much for me to unpack there.”
“The police got here, they busted and killed bad guy’s, we stole a bunch of really neat crap.” I summarized. “That help?”
”No. It really doesn’t.”
I sighed, rubbing my temples. “Alright, we’ll get back to base before Rajan’s goon’s get here and try to explain everything clearly alright?”
”If you can. Cause… how in the fuck did you turn a stealth and sabatoge mission into a battleground?” That was where Sly left it as he hung up.
I sighed. Out of everyone, I know Sly has had a harder time understanding and processing all this stuff with me. I’ve noticed. He’s not good at hiding it. Mom, Dad, Carmalita, Bently, Murray, Uncles Jim and M. They all genuinely don’t mind the insanity… Sly just does though.
“It’s almost like looking myself in the mirror when I was first starting out in all this garbage…” I chuckled to myself.
We made our way back to base, Braig moving and hiding his ship elsewhere as Nyla and I got inside. Nyla walked off to her room and I found Sly in his.
“So, what exactly happened?” He asked me.
“So, me and Nyla went off to look into the Auction going on.” I said. “As our pictures concluded, there were many ‘off worlders’, and even more extremely wanted bad guys along with them. Me and Nyla started to steal everything we could while they were away, and then the two of us and our new compatriot, Braig, called the Galactic Police since they were already wanted and were never meant to be on this world to begin with.” I explained carefully. “The…massive fight with the many, many being’s wasn’t really what I had in mind…but sadly that was going to happen either way.”
“So all that was how space police handle things?”
“That’s how police would do things against bad guy’s that enslave, torture, to even commit planetary genocide.” I answered. “I…” I sighed out, looking at my Sly…my older brother…”Please, tell me what’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“I suppose I’m just being paranoid,”
“As you normally are.” Sly added.
“But I’m just worried that…with all this craziness going on…everyone else is going along with it in strides…but you…I’m scared to lose you due to all of this, not because of injuries or the like…but the fact that all of these things are hard to understand and just…happening in general.” I explained to the best of my ability, hating how a lot of the times I had to say something important, it just didn’t feel like coming out right. “You know what I mean?”
“I… won’t lie. I’m not exactly happy.”
“And why aren’t you happy?” I asked. “I understand all of this is crazy, believe me, it took me a long time to get over most of it.”
“It’s not so much the craziness as… well… it’s you.”
I sighed out. “Honestly…I fully expected one of you to still not be okay with me in some capacity…even after we went through that whole ‘hear to heart’...”
“It’s not like I don’t still care about you… but… I still feel… lied to. Everything we went through, and you knew all of what was going to happen, and you… I know when we were little, you didn’t have your… powers, back, but still. Meeting Bently and Murry, pushing me and Carmalita together. You’ve been… pushing for certain things to happen, but you never just… let things play out normally?”
“So…just gonna start with you and Carmalita…no, I was gonna push you two together whether I knew what was going to happen or not, cause both of you are just adorable together.” I pointed out. “And two…well…not everything played out like ‘normal’ from how I thought it would go…” I started carefully.
“And how you thought it would go was based on a child's video game?”
“Honestly, I only thought about the ‘main story beats’ as it were…everything else would have been completely different and even I wouldn’t have known certain events…and then I learned that Vincent and group of baddies got involved…” I sighed. “Which that threw a wrench into literally everything…” I shook my head. “Listen, I’m just gonna get to a point…it’s fine for you to hate me, I hate myself a lot as I…still believe I’m personally responsible for everything going to absolute shit, even when my own family tells me ‘everything’s fine’...and when my Time Walker, the one that’s allowing me to do this crap, tells me ‘while you did change some events, it was outside forces that caused the rest’...” I shook my head. “Believe me when I say…if you hate me, that’s fine, and I openly welcome it.” I said, getting that whole bit off my chest as I didn’t want other’s to feel terrible because of my dumb decisions.
“I don’t hate you Kite… I just… don’t trust you…”
Somehow, that hurt so much worse…
After that I went to my room, laid on my bed and was thinking to myself.
“Heh…” I started to chuckle to myself. “My own selfish desires…wanting to relearn what it’s like to have fun, to be carefree and do the right thing with a family…and all I do is mess everything up, make my family not trust me because of my dumb decisions…again...”
“And this is why Admins choose to forget.” I looked over, seeing my Time Walker sitting on a chair at my desk, playing with a basketball. “You can’t relearn to live and be in a happy family when your memories of your failed ones are weighing you down.”
“That’s why if I do this again, I’m doing it without my memories…it hurts less people…” I sighed. “But I can’t turn back now, this is a special timeline now due to my deal with Vincent…and I’m just gonna have to suffer more because of it.” I said simply.
“Well, just goes to show, immortal beings can never truly be happy, unless they forget who they are.”
“We can be happy…I wouldn’t be…well doing thing’s or still alive if I thought I wasn’t…”
“Well, whatever your choices, from this point on your actions will decide what all their futures will hold. Happiness or despair, life or death. All that is up to you now.”
“I want them all to be happy…” I said. “I…already hurt them enough with my mistakes…I want to do something to fix that.”
“Well, what will you be doing then?”
“Only thing I can do…play out this bet…and Consume Clockwerk, so he can never hurt my family ever again.” I growled. “And help the many people who’s been affected by him…and steal everything that won’t make too much noise from all these bad guys.”
“Calling the space cops on the galactic underworld’s biggest players probably didn’t help in terms of not making noise.”
“That was after we stole a majority of their shit, and then during the fight we stole even more of their shit.” I shrugged. “Just…wish there wasn’t that many deaths…”
“You had to have known that was going to end in a mass shootout?”
“I knew it was…” I sighed. “Guess I’m just too used to having Second Chance that…seeing other’s die is a little hard for me…”
“Too used to being able to prevent mass death.” The Time Walker stated as he continued to play with the ball. “And with that power gone, where will that leave you and your choices?”
“And you're not helping…” I grumbled, already having enough on my mind.
“I’m not here to help. I’m here so you can talk our thoughts out.”
“You know…I find it funny how, ninety percent of the time…if I do something for myself, it always ends up poorly for myself and a lot of other people, even if it’s supposed to be harmless.” I said plainly.
“Like?”
“This for starters.” I motioned. “I did this as supposedly harmless fun, trying not to think to much of it or use whatever knowledge I had of the world around me…but no, it all had to get flipped because I was born...” I growled. “This entire world got sucked into a bunch of Nexus bullshit because I decided ‘why not try something new for myself? What’s the worst that could happen?’, and lo and fucking behold, a whole lotta bad shit happens.” I growled. “Then I can go on a list of other bullshit…how I could have lost the people I care about either through my actions or inactions…”
“When you mean to do well and end up causing a bigger mess.” They said, spinning the ball on a gloved finger. “Did you ever wonder how things would have happened had you not meddled into the Nexus affairs in this world?”
“I mean, they would have strip mined the planet and used the people as slaves, like they were already doing after supporting Clockwerk in his bullshit.” I explained, stating the obvious here.
“And yet, the timeline of this world started the same in the one you came from as it is this one. Tell me, have you even looked into the Nexus files for this planet?”
“I honestly haven’t had the time.” I answered. “But please, explain to me how I’m probably only making things worse…”
“Well, this planet was still turning, and Sly still entered the Thieves in Time events. You might wanna read those files.”
“My point.” I stated, getting up from the bed and going over to my work table, which held plenty of the Nexus files. “Just more proof…”
It wasn’t hard to find the main files for Nexus, just find the ones that were kept in the highest security and… Storage. They dubbed this planet unfit for conversion or colonization. Once the Monofilament was mined out, they were to convert all bases set up to Storage.
I proceeded to get up, and walk out of my room.
I walked out of the base and just sat on the roof. If I’d done nothing… “Can’t predict the consequences of good or bad actions.” The Time Walker said, appearing behind me.
“Shut up…” I said. “It just proves to me…again…that thing’s would have been better off if I wasn’t born…none of this would have happened…everything would have been the same, nothing too bad would have happened…”
“Well, your options now are to soldier on, or wash your hands of it.” They said, making me look up at them.
“I can’t just ‘wash my hands’ of it, I have that deal with Vincent, I can’t just go back on it…” I brought up.
“True, and what about them?” He motioned. Through the roof skyline I saw Mom and Dad cooking, Sly and Carmalita playing chess. Bently and Uncle M doing something on a computer, Murray and Uncle Jim lifting weights. “Will you go back on them?”
“Never.” I stated bluntly.
“Then tell me, what’s your choice, Admin?”
I looked at everyone down there…my family…”It’s gonna be another big conversation with all of them…” I sighed out. “Goodie…” I muttered. “And here I was hoping something would get…simpler here…”
“You’re an Admin, at war against the oldest entity, or one of them, in this grand machine we call home all while training in every conceivable way possible at once just to fill this insecurity you have about losing everything. You can never be simple.”
“It’s not really an insecurity when it could literally happen at any time.” I pointed out.
“And yet the world keeps turning.” They said. “You need more than therapy, my wolf in racoon’s clothing.”
“Lyra would say otherwise.” I said simply.
“Yes well the mint green devil isn’t here. You, tell me, what do you most want to do this very moment? What do you want to do to the ones that are hurting your family, the people, right now?”
“I want to tear them limb from god damn limb that’s what I want to do.” I stated.
“Then why don’t you? You know where Rajan is, and it’s not like he’s a match for you.”
“Because I’m supposed to be better, I’m a thief, not an assassin.” I countered. “Plus, yes he would be because I still have Equilibrium stuck to me…plus the way I want to beat him, I need to get him just angry enough, slam his ego just enough, and hope to god he’s still hydrophobic for it all to play out.”
“And if he isn’t?”
“Then my poor sitar needs to get benched again, and I’d rather that not happen cause I barely use it enough, and I don’t want to get rusty with it…plus I started listening to a really good song.”
“So your grand plan sums up to sing a song and get the kitty wet. Wow, how clever.”
“Okay first of all asshole, so far you have basically told me ‘hey, just so you know, everything you’ve done has been fucking everything up’, and now you have the audacity to start thinking my idea’s for how to deal with a person nonlethally is bad when you barely do shit?”
“Oh, I do more than you see. While you’re here messing up your own personal timeline, I’m going through time dealing with Nexus Runners and making sure they don’t kill my comrades to steal their keyblades to make more of Void Key’s conduit blades. So pardon my lack of empathy towards your self made issues.”
“Oh I’m sorry, it’s not like I’m currently trying to stop the bastard that’s causing these problems to begin with, but please oh messiah of not giving a shit, I’m so sorry for offending you.” I said sarcastically.
“You want to help? Try stepping foot on the actual battle grounds and put your so-called efforts and training to use.”
“I’m sorry, I thought Time Walkers were supposed to be smart.” I said. “But apparently no, your fucking not if you don’t understand that, the moment I step into the battlefield, and I have had this made abundantly clear by many people, the moment I step in and fight on the front lines, this makeshift stalemate is going to end and everything will fall apart around us in the crossfire.” I stated bluntly. “I have been told, countless times, no matter how hard I prepare any and all defenses for the Kingdom, it’ll mean jack fucking shit…then everything I’m fighting for will be gone.”
“So you say. I think you’re just a bitch with a bigger bark than bite.”
“And I think your just a stuck up bureaucrat that can barely handle a real fucking fight when they could be behind a desk wasting away precious time just to be a vague asshole!”
I didn’t notice when the environment changed, all I felt was the impact that sent me flying across this empty void-like space. I looked back up, seeing the Time Walker, Gazing Eye drawn and pointed at me. “Ready to put your money where your mouth is?”
I didn’t answer as I slammed my fist into their gut before they could react, sending them flying away from me as I brought out Interdiction. “Then you better not bore me ya fucking pencil pusher.”
They rushed back just as fast, slamming their Keyblade into Interdiction hard enough to cause a sonic boom from the impact of our clash.
And our fight began.
“Aw, the time walker can throw an attack, aren’t you just adorable.” I taunted, twisting the blade away and using Haki to harden my tail as I tried to smack the bastard in the face hard.
They dodged, rapidly kicking my leg and taking my temporary loss of footing to impale me, then tossing me off their Keyblade. My body rapidly regenerated and I moved before he could get me again. He’s good. I’ll give him that. Not many people can land a hit on me.
I shot off a bolt of Interdiction that then split into dozen’s as I brought out Sharpshooters and fired a fully charged shot afterwards.
They deflected it all, Blue energy covering their Keyblade as time around us seemed to reverse, enough that the bolts reappeared, but rather than vanish they continued, shooting back at me.
They didn’t deal much but he then began shooting off more and more of my own bolts at me through puffs of that blue energy that was appearing around the area.
I swapped to Lindworm, deflecting all the energy bolts away, before jumping high into the air and thrusting all my lances down onto him.
Again, he rewound time with the blue energy. Rapidly he let them fall back, only for me to suddenly be under them. I wasn’t able to stop them all, one managed to slam into my arm, but I healed the second I pulled it out.
“Oh, you want to play with Time?” I asked, swapping to Fair Game. “I can do that too, asshole.” I stated as I threw several cards as a distraction as I was already starting to formulate a plan for this.
In one swing he cut all the cards to pieces and suddenly, there were five of him, and each one was rushing at me from different spots.
“Wow, where have I seen that bit before?” I muttered, a large card appearing behind me with a clock symbol on it, the clock rewinding as the five was reversed back into one who was just slashing my cards to bits, which I appeared from one of the ever so tiny cards stuck to the shreds and haymackered the bastard hard.
The return impact I got I didn’t even see. Then another, and another. Shit, he’s not even moving? The hell is hitting me?! I was still receiving mystery damage when he got back up and used my state to deal damage I could see on me.
I was on the ground now, feeling pinned and stabbed but there weren’t wounds, and no one was on me. The hell?!
I used Fair Game to swap places from underneath that random ass person and away from the group, drawing my Keyblade and Frozen Pride. “Okay…that’s a little new…”
He raised his Keyblade at me. Suddenly something kicked me in the back, then uppercutted me. What the hell is that?!
I barely had time to dodge and block him when he actually swung at me. That same invisible force kicked me in the knee, making me buckle and giving him the chance to slam me to the ground and stab me. Wait, this pain’s location… That was when I was…
My eyes widened. He’s putting future attacks, pain and damage to me in the present time?! That’s bullshit!
“Okay now that’s legit bullshit.” I countered, rushing forward and slashing at the Time Walker again, trying to distract his concentration or whatever the hell he’s doing.
I don’t know how, but he was in front of me, I was about to hit him, then suddenly he was up close to me, giving me the uppercut I remember feeling earlier. Shit!
“Diamond wasn’t this difficult…” I muttered to myself, getting back to my feet as I used Fair Game again. “Alright asshole, you want to do time shit? Well let’s make it faster.” I growled, as multiple time cards showed up with Foudre as the Minute and Hour Hands, as electricity and time magic started to fuze together as I bolted towards him again.
Despite my new speed and time magic fused he still countered or blocked me. What’s worse, he was surpassing my speed, rapidly!
He tore through cards and slammed his fist hard into my face. I felt my nose break on that one as he continued the force and punched my head clear into the ground behind me. And there’s the skull fracturing… Damn it! Who is this asshole?!
“Alright you…who in the fuck are you?” I asked,
“None of your business.” They replied. Well at least they finally spoke!
“Kinda is to be honest.” I stated. “Cause even after all the shit I had to put up with and all the brand new fucking powers I got…the fact that your still faster than me and doing some weird time shenanigans seems a little off.”
“Then I guess you did all that for nothing.” He said, swinging his Keyblade and rushing me again.
I grabbed his keyblade and his face. “Oh, you picked the worst choice of words to say to me.” I said coldly, as I slammed him straight into the ground extremely hard, before kicking him in the ribs that send him flying. “Cause you know nothing.” I growled, pulling out Skysplitter and Lunatic and leaping after him, reaching up to where he was in that single leap and swinging both of my super charged weapons straight down into him.
“I know everything about you.” He said, grabbing my wrist and breaking it, pushing me off and pinning me to the ground. “I know everything you have done, will do, and worst of all, can do. That’s my job.”
“Well isn’t that just fan-fucking-tastic.” I growled, headbutting the bastard to get him off me. “Yet more vague bullshit that I’m magically not allowed to know about,.”
“You want to know? You fuckers win.” He said, making me stop and pause as I looked at him. “And not just against Grey, against a real fucking monster. When I’m from, you all built utopia. Or as close to it as you can. Small things are still issues but nothing world ending.”
“H-hold the fuck up what?” I blinked. “But…okay seriously…who are you?”
He got off me. I got up and he pulled his cloak hood back. He looked human, but then I sensed it… Nothingness. “My species hasn’t officially been made yet. Still some… thousand or so years away til you do. Nobody Race. You are so unoriginal.”
“Listen, when the first new race happened to be called ‘Floof Noodles’ because some cosmic entity wanted to laugh at me for a cute pet name…” I frowned. “Also naming is very difficult damn it.” I huffed.
“Whatever. I’m just doing my job.”
“I doubt being an asshole to me is part of your job.” I said. “But…I can make a pretty good guess as to why you’re here if you said you’re from…after we win.”
“My job is to keep an eye on you across your entire lifetime. And given your fat fluffy ass is immortal, it’s a long, long job.”
“Hey, no dissing my fat fluffy ass.” I countered. “And…yeah I can see where that ultimately goes…” I sighed. “Did it happen yet?”
“Much to my regret, no. And it’s not Madness, you found a cure for that but it’s only good for you and ‘The Family’ given there’s complications in actually distributing that kind of, nope, can’t say more. All you need to know is that my job is to kill you should you get too bored.”
“Fair enough.” I nodded. “And I presume you’re an asshole because that’s either part of the job or you just straight hate the fact that you have to be around me for all eternity.”
“Both, actually. I hate you extremely and having to watch your lazy ass and living through history I learned in school just fuels that hate.”
“Right then.” I nodded. “So that clears that up…” I sighed. “Well, what do you do besides watch over me like the Grim Reaper?”
“Shit like this where I get to kick your ass and enjoy it.”
“That sounds…kinda boring.” I said honestly.
“Fun for me.” They said. “I get to kick your ass and insult you about your problems. For me, this is a win-win.”
“And for logical people, that sounds completely counterintuitive to what you're actually supposed to be doing chucklefuck.” I pointed out “You’re not supposed to drive your quarry completely apeshit before thing’s are resolved.”
“Bitch please you- Woah almost gave a spoiler there. Look, I hate you both because of the history I’m living through now, and because frankly, learning your history… you causing your own problems. The solutions are so simple, most of them are in your face and yet your dumb ass just does the more complicated bullfuck route.”
“Now you understand what kind of ultradepression esc bullshit I have to deal with everyday because my history is a convoluted mess, and also no…a lot of my problems are not just simply ‘point a to b’...some of them are yes, but not all of them.”
“Alright then, let me ask this… have you even tried using your Kingsblade, your Admin level keyblade, to unlock the kids locks?”
“Yes actually.” I answered. “But I decided not to because Clockwerk might have rigged it to explode if I did that, that’s also why I didn’t use my Code to hack into it cause he also rigged it to explode if it was fucked with, cause Vincent was training that rat bastard to do many things, and Code is one of those many things.” I explained. “While I could test it out, it’s a fifty fifty shot on if the kid will be alright if I’m lucky and Clockwerk wasn’t that fucking spiteful against me.”
“And did you think to shrink the kid so the collar and chains just slid off?”
“And either have the kid react poorly to that sudden thing, or again, the thing goes off anyways because said child was affected by it?” I asked. “I know these simple answers, believe me, I’m not the dumbass you think I am, but with what little I know of Clockwerk’s knowledge of Code, I have to be careful with it.”
“Well it’s not like you doing nothing is helping the kid, and when Rajan gets his future bride then they’re really fucked.”
“That’s why we need to find the family fast, to prevent that from happening.” I said honestly. “Still gonna need to get to Rajan and kick his ass…”
“Gods you’re oblivious to the obvious answers.” He sighed, rubbing his temples.
“And again, you're not helping.” I stated simply. “I know you’re not allowed to spoil things, but saying ‘obvious answers’ when you already know how this is going to play out just makes you sound like a jackass.”
“Eh. Alright, look, I can’t tell you right out, but I can give you a hint. If only to end this stupid talk. Sneak into Rajan’s office.”
“Only reason why I didn’t do that was because I thought someone else already did.” I said, thinking that we had someone sneak into Rajan’s office not too long ago.
“They did, to plant that bug. But what you’ll be looking for can’t be overheard or hacked into.”
“Fair enough.” I nodded. “Wonder if I should do this solo or get someone to tag along…” I muttered. “Maybe…I can at least try to get Sly to trust me…”
“Do whatever.” They said.
Suddenly, he slapped me hard.
I woke up feeling really sore, and back in my room. Ouch… All that crap, and he KO’d me with a slap… Well, if he’s meant to kill me in a worst case scenario…
“Christ…” I grumbled. “That was…all around annoying as shit…”
I got up, checking myself in the mirror and seeing my face was a bit swollen. Damn, whatever time that guy is from… I must be way stronger than I am now if he can inflict damage like this to me now… oddly, that makes me a little happy. We do win, and I do get stronger.
“Everything’s going to…finally be okay…” I muttered. “Everything I’m doing…it’ll all work out in the end…”
I spent some time cleaning myself up before heading to Sly’s room. “Woah, did you piss off Matilda?” He asked upon seeing my swollen cheek.
“No, thankfully.” I said. “Just had to deal with some…personal things.” I said carefully. “So, how would you like to do a mission today with me?”
“I thought the missions were done for the day?”
“Call it a…trust exercise.” I said carefully.
“If you say so, I guess. So, what are we doing then?”
“We’re going to be figuring out where the royal hostages are.” I answered.
“And where will we be searching then?”
“Rajan’s personal office.” I answered. “Cause while the bug was good…there’s more there that we need to find.”
“Something the bug can’t get to? So files or a journal then?”
“Or a secret passage way to Rajan’s secret sex dungeon cause at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he had one.”
“I’m hoping for paperwork. If it’s what you just said, I’ll be taking a vacation to forget that.”
“That would be for the best.” I nodded. “So…will you trust me enough to do this?”
“If it means finding the royal family and freeing those kids, I’ll have to.”
“Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s…just get this over with then…” I said, still feeling incredibly hurt with Sly’s words.
Sly grabbed his cane and we headed off. After all that fighting, a lot of Rajan’s security was stretched thin. Finding his office was easy and sneaking in was just as easy. Once inside we began to look around.
“Odds are Rajan will keep it either in a hidden safe or secret door.” Sly said as he felt along the walls and bookshelves.
“Most likely.” I said, searching through the many drawers around the place carefully as I also used Scan to check the entire room for anything of importance or a secret door.
After some searching we found a hidden safe kept behind a false wall. Opening it we found several files, a journal, and a metallic feather like remote. Clearly Clockwerk’s. Looking that over, it was an override key. This must be what can free, chain or kill the people with Clockwerk’s code collars.
“And now we have the override key.” I said with a smile. “This can help save all the slaves and imprisoned.”
“These files detail all the royals, both the children and parents… oh no…” Sly muttered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked quickly. “Please tell me it’s not too late…”
“No, they’re alive. But if I’m reading this right, each of the… ‘wives’ has already produced a daughter. And, if I’m reading this right, Rajan is going to pass them along to something called a Time Runner to groom and age them to adults to be his immediate brides. I’m assuming Time Runners are some Time Travelers that aren’t good?”
“In a sense yes, except instead of using magic, they literally run so fast they can run through time.” I said honestly. “Like the Flash except they do it for terrible reasons.”
“Like taking babies to be groomed into obedient wives for an egotistical cat with a superiority complex. If these files are right, the wedding day will be the same day as the execution of the prince, his concubines and the other kids… and it’s in two days.”
“Shit.” I growled. “We have to work fast to stop all of this, and thankfully a lot of Rajan’s asset’s have been either stolen, taken, or just straight murdered due to that…event.”
“Right… Well, it says here the Prince and the concubines are all kept on one of his Spice farms way up in northern India. And the rest of the kids are dotted all across the country. You got any godlike speed to reach them?”
“Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “It’s gonna take a while still, but hopefully this’ll all work out…”
“Well, you best get running, I’ll take all this back to the base. Just take the Override key.”
“Stay safe alright?” I asked, gently taking the Override key. “And…I’m sorry…” I sighed out bitterly.
“Just, next time you pick a fight with another Godlike entity or whatever you deal with, try not to give me a heart attack. You are still my baby brother. Hearing you get blasted to the moon, across the planet and stabbed isn’t something I like to hear even if you can survive all that.”
“Yeah…” I nodded simply. “We’re still family after all.”
“I never said we weren’t.”
With a nod and a small smile I brought out Fondure and rushed off. I already had the locations of all the kids and the prince and his concubines. I moved faster than any of the guards could react, using the Override Key to unlock their collars and chains and quickly dropping them off at the base.
Given the distance between them all, it took me about three hours before the kids, the prince and his concubines were all safe. For an added measure, when I rescued them I also burned down that Spice farm.
“Now see, why can’t you do that to reassure me.” Sly asked as I was checking them all over. The kids were alright, but the Prince and his concubines were all still really high from the Spices.
“Because my life is a fucking mess and I can’t reassure shit because when I do, I only hurt people important to me.” I stated bluntly. “I’m sorry just…stating that fact about myself…”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t try.” He said, picking up one of Fondure’s knives. “So this knife makes you run fast and controle lightning?”
“It’s one of over a thousand dagger’s…and I have heard different takes on it, either it was handcrafted from a massive electrical storm in space due to certain reasons…or Thor’s baby teeth, and I’m not sure which one is correct.” I said carefully.
“Weird.” He said, getting a small shock from the knife. “Hmm… Can you make weapons like this?”
“Yes I can actually.” I said honestly. “It will just take me some time to find the right materials and crafting it. Even without my real powers, it took me well over two years to craft you all your Christmas Gifts…god-like powers or not, if I want to make something, I’m not gonna half ass it with a wave of my hand.” I said simply.
“Think you can make me a cane with whatever energy you controle?”
“That would be Nothingness.” I said. “And sure…do you want a brand new one or do you want me to reforge your cane with it?”
“I guess a new once, since this is just a replica, and I gave dad the family cane back.”
“Fair enough.” I nodded. “Do you want it just as a normal cane or do you want anything else added to it?”
"Well, I guess some fancy powers would be neat."
“I can make it as fancy as you want.” I said, walking over to my work table and starting to literally craft the Cane out of Nothingness. “Think of any fictional media, and I can give it to this wonderful cane.”
"Huh… can you make it shoot out like a rope or something that I can use to climb or walk across?"
“Yes.” I nodded. “That’s just a simple grappling hook to be honest.” I shrugged, starting to add in the rope and firing mechanism for the hook to act as the grapple.
"Yeah, but can you make it able to not need to be attached to anything for me to climb or run across it? Like, the rope floats in the air?"
“Well it’s a good thing Nothingness can work like that.” I nodded, bringing out the Thorn rope. “And don’t worry, it may look thorny and fluid, but it’s incredibly durable and harmless to the wielder and they’re allies.” I explained simply. “So, we got the grappling hook and rope, anything else?”
"Can you add something that, like if I fall off something, like a pole or can't make a large jump it can hook into the air so I can catch and swing myself?"
“Sure.” I nodded. “Hmm…do I still have air gems?” I wondered as I went into one of my drawers and dug through it a bit. “Ah, here we are.” I said happily, pulling out a very light green gem that looked like it held a gust of wind inside of it. “And with this, you can do a whole lot more with it.” I said while putting it into the cane and smithing it in. “Now your Cane is attuned to the Wind Element, where it can latch onto the air, use wind magic, and a bunch of other nifty things.”
"That is impressive. I also didn't know wind had it's own magic."
“You’d be surprised to know that everything has magic to it.” I said honestly. “All you need to know is where to find it, and how to channel it.” I said simply.
"That's fair, especially given some of our ancestors." Sly said with a nod.
“Yeah, and honestly…didn’t know our family was this magic.” I said honestly. “I knew we were kinda magic with some of the Cooper techniques but…literal sages? That was new to me.”
"Considering dad's special technique was to walk on light beams itself, not too surprising." He shrugged. "So how much can you pack into this thing?"
“As much as you want me to.” I said honestly. “Cause I have mastered many ways of crafting thing’s cause…well crafting is cool, so I can fit a lot of things into this.” I said honestly. “Also, I find it surprising that you all don’t question me more when I don’t know something.”
The next few hours I spent with Sly making this cane were honestly the most we bonded since my Admin stuff came out. It was nice, reminding me of simpler times back on Cane Island.
When it was done there was actually little Sly's cane can't do. Majority of it was either magic takes on gadgets, or safety measures Sly wanted. Once it was finished I was helping Sly learn to use it properly.
"So your energy is called Nothingness because… it doesn't exist in a normal sense?" He asked while practicing running along the thorns his cane generated.
“Pretty much.” I shrugged. “Before it was the ‘inbetween’ of Light and Darkness, the soul and body without the Heart, or the other forces…and then Void came into the picture…”
"Right, which your Nothingness… can break it apart?"
“Break Apart, or in cases with Void corrupted being ‘Cure’.” I said.
"Okay, but what's with your real form being that huge… wolf?"
“I am a Den Mother Dire Wolf.” I said. “And…that’s a long and..highly complicated explanation. I don’t even know if I could put it in simple words…” I sighed out. “But all I can say is, I was ‘reborn’ as a dire wolf…and then I decided to become both genders because I was…kinda pressured into doing it, but eh.”
"Well… do you enjoy being both genders?"
“Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “I’m still me…and honestly, after becoming a Den Mother…well, there are lewd plusses to that, but I got stronger, faster…and honestly, being a mother is a wonderful feeling.”
"I guess that makes sense. But does that mean that Wolf guy you really did… rutt with them?"
“I did.” I nodded. “Honestly, that whole thing…I blame puberty for a lot of that horniness.”
"Right, so does mean you were in your wolf form or did you gender swap your current one?"
“I was in my wolf form the entire time.” I said simply. “And I was more confused on why he wasn’t feeling a darn thing, figured out his…’handler’ destroyed his emotional center…then I fixed that, and boy howdy did he go from monotone and stoic to the goodest boy.” I chuckled, still remembering that silly woof’s face when I called him a good boy with his emotions back.
"Heh, well alright." Sly said as he dropped in front of me. "I think that's all I can process for today. Bad enough I know you, Matilda and Jing have fairly regular sex, I don't think I want to imagine your sex life as the two gendered oversexualized wolf god you are."
“You do not, and I am not ‘oversexualized’, believe me.” I said honestly. “So, any other questions you don’t need to process?”
"No, I'm good for today. And tomorrow we're hitting Rajan in his base. A bit ago M said the Bug picked up he was furious that everyone was taken and you burned that one Spice farm. Apparently he's planning on meeting up with his soon to be brides and Clockwerk tomorrow instead of after the wedding. So if we don't get him before he leaves with them we might not catch him again until who knows when."
“Yeah, we need to get to him before he meets up with Clockwerk.” I said simply. “And if I fight Clockwerk…it’s not gonna be pretty.”
"I don't expect it to be." Sly added.
To be continued...