067 - The Collected, Part 2
“Little creepy that you know my name, dude,” Davepeta told the Collector.
“I have resources.”
“You just read Homestuck.”
The Collector nodded slowly. “I expected you to know, but I wasn’t certain until just then.”
“It’s not like it can be that big of a secret for that long for anyone who knew the back alleys of the Internet.”
“Was it the memes?”
“It was the memes.”
“They always give it away.”
Davepeta purred. “Yeppurrs! So, you gonna tell me what’s the deal with this place or am I gonna have to get impatient and grumpy?”
“You will wait no longer. This is the Collection. Regardless of what your life was before, it is now mine. You will do whatever I tell you to do and you won’t have the power within yourself to resist. You will never be able to betray me, and as soon as I figure out what loophole Rick managed to eke out by psyching his own mind, you won’t be able to do that either. But you’ll find that your personality isn’t rewritten either. Outside of your forced loyalty you have complete freedom of expression, speech, action, etcetera. In your case you will not be allowed to return to your place of origin since knowledge of me spreading to multiversal societies is something I prefer to avoid. This place is your new home.”
“Well fuck me sideways this sounds just purrfect.”
“I like your snark,” the Collector commented. “You won’t be called for any mission for several days, to give you time to adjust. You will be teleported to your room. The other Collected are usually more than willing to show new people around, but if you have a question you want direct answers to and don’t feel like talking to someone who can shut you up with a simple order, Lightning is always available.” He gestured toward his second. She nodded curtly. “She’ll be the one to give you a mission when I decide what it’s going to be.”
“So you’re the bad cop and she’s the good cop?”
“They’re both the bad cop trying way too hard to be the good cop,” Rick muttered.
“Hey, Lightning’s nice!” Morty interjected.
“She’s a coldhearted emotionless bitch.”
Lightning raised a hand, freezing Rick with an ice spell. Her expression did not shift.
Davepeta narrowed their eyes. “So… I just go to my room and talk to people? Is that it?”
“For now,” the Collector confirmed. “It’ll give you time to process your new situation.”
“I’m a slave.”
“That is how most of you choose to view it.” The Collector shrugged. “I prefer to think of you as instruments for furthering the multiverse.”
“My room better have a computer. And Internet.”
“You’ll find unrestricted Internet access in your room. Not that you’ll be able to use it to contact anyone you know.”
“Why no- oh. Right.” They tapped their head. “Look at mew, giving everyone the freedom they don’t have any way to use.”
“It is a delightful paradox, is it not?”
“Fuck no.”
The Collector chuckled. “In that case, I think we are done here.” With a wave of his hand, Rick, Morty, and Davepeta were gone.
The office fell silent.
“They’re unique,” Lightning said.
“I know,” The Collector responded, allowing his emotions to come through his tone. He was nervous. “Their ka is not stronger than ours, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.”
“What’s the plan?”
The Collector pondered this for a moment. “I’m not sure. Is it finally time to move forward?”
“Only you can make that decision,” Lightning reminded him.
“You can give advice.”
Lightning looked into the distance, expression clouded. “…I’d be happier if we could finally move on.”
The Collector nodded. “It may be time then… I have to consider it. If this is done incorrectly…” He put a hand to his chin. “…Get me everything we know about what the Pinkies of that local multiverse have said. Send parts of the Collection if you have to. I need to know about their Prophets.”
“I’ll activate one of the sleeper agents.”
“Not anyone unique, I hope…”
Lightning rolled her eye. “Of course not. She’ll be one of our backgrounders.”
“A fun little game of meta chess we’re going to be playing,” the Collector mused. “Always fun.”
Lightning stood up, walking toward the doors of the office.
“Lightning… Are you really ready?”
Lightning looked back at him, hesitating only for a moment. “Yes.”
“…Of course.”
“You need to get yourself ready.”
The Collector nodded slowly. “I am aware. I will be when the time comes. Go, take care of that Pinkie.”
Lightning nodded, leaving the office. The Collector sat alone, surrounded by the exotic fish.
He sat back in his chair, looking at nothing. But in his mind, he thought of everything…
~~~
The world the four multiversal nations were using didn’t have a name when it first opened; catalogues listed it simply as Non-Standard-World-108. It was a world consisting of a seemingly endless expanse of rock. There was no life, and it was always day despite there being seemingly no sun. The USM had built their outpost there in their early days to mine the gold-rich soil, though all the mines had turned out to be pointless once ways to just create gold were found elsewhere. All that effort for nothing.
The moment ponies started using the remaining facilities, they gave the world the nickname Golden Joke. The name stuck, used even by the USM personnel.
Pinkie’s team was standing in a circle in one of the Golden Joke’s hallways, looking at an empty spot in the floor. The five of them were silent, waiting patiently for another to arrive.
With a flash of red gears, Aradia appeared. She was smiling, but her hair was a mess and she looked tired. “So, they really don’t want to be followed.”
Vriska shook her head. “How could they get away from you!?”
“By being very cruel,” Aradia muttered, trying to get her hair back into a comfortable position. “I went to the universe they entered after the Ninth World. Went back in time, prepared to catch them opening the portal, but apparently the Collector has expected time manipulation as a possible attack. Because the universe crashed when I tried to do that.”
“…Crashed?” Flutterfree asked.
“When a universe gets too strained to continue existing it just falls back into nonexistence.”
“The Sea of Infinite Possibility, right?” Nova asked.
Aradia nodded. “Yeah, that’s the official term. The problem is that universe allowed time travel and could handle paradoxes – I could feel the time-streams weaving through my fingers.”
“So they did something,” Flutterfree deduced.
Aradia nodded sadly. “They wanted so badly not to be followed they had a horrible piece of interdimensional technology on them. An Assurance.”
“Fuck!” Vriska swore. “Stupid Time Lord tech!”
Pinkie sighed. “Of course you’ve dealt with it.”
“The Time Lords wanted a way to ensure past versions of themselves in non-causally related universes wouldn’t be interrupted, captured, killed, or whatever. So they made a device that would detect a splitting individual timestream and amplify it until the whole universe was destroyed, preventing interference.”
“That’s not the whole story,” Aradia chided. “In the Gallifreyan Cluster, entire new universes are created when a timeline splits, more so than most other universe clusters. The devices originally stopped the creation of new universes, forcing attackers into nonexistence – nothing more.”
“And then they kept using them.”
“The Doctor didn’t,” Aradia pointed out.
“The TARDIS had a modified one on it. Less lethal, still absurd.”
Aradia looked like she wanted to argue the finer points of temporal technology with Vriska, but she shook her head. “Let’s not worry about that. The point here is the Collector has access to Time Lord technology or something similar. We won’t be able to follow him through time, and we really shouldn’t try unless we want to blow up more universes.”
“That’s a horrible tactic,” Flutterfree growled.
“Effective, though,” Pinkie said. “None of us are willing to risk blowing up universes to try and get more information.”
“I bet Jenny’s happy she didn’t try to mess with time on the Ninth World right about now,” Nova said.
Aradia nodded. “I’d imagine so…”
“Right, so that kind of cheating is out of the picture,” Vriska said, folding her hands together. “Aradia, you and I have a ton of memories from traveling the multiverse.”
Aradia sighed. “Not enough to help us realize Davepeta was out there with us.”
“We’ll find them and fuck the Collector over. But we can put all that to use. In all our travels – have we ever encountered anything like the Collection before? Ever?”
Aradia furrowed her brow. “Not off the top of my head, no. Nothing multiversal.”
“Keep thinking,” Jotaro encouraged.
“I encountered him when I was running from my problems back on Melinda’s world,” Pinkie reminded them. “He’s like Melinda and to a lesser extent Blackjack. An aura of ‘winning’ ka around him.”
“Gary Stu,” Vriska muttered. “Valentine’s going to love to hear that.”
“He already knows. He’s understandably furious,” Pinkie said, shaking her head.
“Is he a… ‘Gary Stu’ though?” Aradia asked. “He seems like an actual threat, and not some glitch.”
Vriska raised an eyebrow. “He’s an all powerful being who enslaves others to his will and makes them do his bidding, and has apparently been doing so for a long time. Oh, not to mention he fucking sends them on ‘heroic’ missions.”
“We don’t know if that’s all he does.”
“I think we’d need to talk to Starbeat about that,” Nova said. “She’d be able to make a better call about what exactly we’re dealing with.”
“She’ll make her report soon enough,” Pinkie asserted.
“Anything your Pinkie Sense or Awareness telling you?” Flutterfree asked.
“He’s not a standard Gary Stu, he’s a little different, but I’m not sure how. I do know we’re not going to find him soon – but we will find him eventually. I’m also aware that he has an office that basically sits inside a fish tank and he actually cares about his second, Lightning. Other than that, not much.”
“Lightning?”
“Oh yeah, I guess we don’t know about that yet, huh? I’ll have someone take an image of her out of my mind so we can do more digging around her. Good catch, Flutterfree!”
“Anything else?” Jotaro asked.
“The scene in his office is fuzzy to me. Not sure if that’s something the Collector’s doing, or just for dramatic effect,” Pinkie admitted. “Also, yes, Scooter can read it, but her rules prevent her from telling us. So please don’t go make it awkward for her, okay?”
“Yare yare daze…”
“The game of ‘what can we ask’ sure is a bizarre one,” Aradia said with a wink.
“…Are you trying to get me to repeat myself?”
“Maaaaaaybe.”
Jotaro adjusted his hat, but remained silent.
Vriska grunted. “Well, this sucks. I don’t really have anything in my head. All I can think about is Davepeta.”
“What are they like?” Flutterfree asked.
“You’ll have to ask Jenny for now,” Vriska said, “but when I knew them they were absolutely bonkers crazy. They fused from two of my old friends and decided ‘HEY! I THINK I’M GOING TO GO PUNCH LORD ENGLISH! AHAHA!’ and then they joined me and my ghost army in the final battle. They were the unholy combination of ‘ironic’ coolkid of Time and roleplaying cat shipper of Heart. Oh, and a bird. Forgot about the bird. Caw caw, meow, the whole shebang.”
“They were pretty awesome,” Aradia admitted.
“Yeah. I can’t believe I didn’t think about them surviving…” Vriska hit herself in the forehead. “I know all the ghosts got sealed away and that Aradia and I were ejected into the multiverse, but I never thought about the sprite… Technically still living, not a ghost.”
“We really need to find a copy of Homestuck, this story sounds incredibly absurd,” Nova said.
Vriska smirked. “Holds the proud position of being the most recent threat to the entire multiverse. Apparently that’s a rare thing.”
Aradia chuckled. “Lord English was so strong he made the Class 1 Civilizations quake in their boots. He almost killed one singlehandedly.”
Jotaro blinked. “How do you even do that?”
Aradia took in a breath. “Well, first, you give a being absolute dominion over Time. Then you fuse that being with a psychotic undying clown of rage, a hyper intelligent AI in a pair of sunglasses, a horse-loving muscular man of Void, and the essence of a sprite.”
“Wow,” Nova said.
“She’s not done,” Vriska pointed out.
“And then you take that and give it access to the powers within a multiversal construct that regulates an experimental universal reproductive system within the highest orders of eldritch space. Throw in a few dozen jujus that break the rules of time and space while you’re at it. And then have the composite being find his Prophet, kill them, and take their powers.”
Everyone stared at her in disbelief.
“Orange fucktard Prophet had a ghost loophole, of course,” Vriska muttered. “Sealed away with the rest of the ghosts.”
“I’m still processing that such a thing existed,” Flutterfree said.
“Everything was his fault,” Vriska asserted.
“Good to know you defeated him,” Nova said.
“How, though?” Jotaro asked.
“I hit him with one of his own Jujus,” Vriska smirked.
“We have no idea,” Aradia corrected.
“Aradia!”
“We don’t. The House Juju activated, then next thing we knew we were elsewhere in the multiverse and everything was falling into the black hole. Lord English isn’t terrorizing the multiverse, so we knew we won, but… Well I never did figure out what exactly had happened.”
Vriska folded her arms. “I beat him and that’s that, kapeesh?”
“Kapeesh,” Jotaro deadpanned.
“Wonder what Davepeta has to say about this?” Aradia thought aloud.
Vriska looked into the distance. “…I don’t know. But I’m going to find out. Maybe they know how to get to Earth C…”
~~~
The world DISC-DW2 was one of the oldest members of the USM, and the only one of the founding worlds that wasn’t a version of Earth. It was a world that was actually flat – the Discworld, a round sliver of earth resting atop the back of four great elephants, which in turn stood atop the great world-turtle A’Tuin as it swam through space.
The Discworld was a world of magic, but not quite the magic seen in most other worlds that contained it. The powers of the aether could be manipulated into spells and enchantments, of course, but the main feature of the Disc’s esoteric power was the strength of belief. If enough people believed in something, it was guaranteed to be true. Monsters, people, myths, legends, even gods.
Hence the existence of Death.
Johnny’s team was not here to visit the Disc, though – they were here to visit Death’s Domain. A realm that wasn’t quite a universe separate from the Disc, but wasn’t quite the same reality either. It existed separate from the space and time of the Disc, and yet it had a flow of time of its own, always marching onward…
The existence-outside-existence was mostly black. Where it wasn’t black, it was a deep mysterious purple or bone-chilling white. The place was, fittingly, filled with unalive things. Unfittingly, there was a perfectly ordinary cornfield in the distance. Death did not explain the presence of the cornfield and nobody felt the need to ask.
He led the humans and unicorn to the front door of an excessively creepy mansion, knocking on the front door. An exact duplicate of himself answered.
I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU’D FEEL THE NEED TO VISIT, the duplicate-Death asked.
THE LIBRARY HAS SOMETHING WE MIGHT NEED.
I TAKE IT YOU WON’T BE USING THE DIGITAL SECTION?
IT WILL NOT BE THAT EASY, I AM AFRAID.
Duplicate-Death smiled – though he was always smiling. SUCH A SHAME. IT’S SO CONVENIENT. He stepped out of the doorway, letting them into the mansion. I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCOMPANY YOU; THE CURRENT VERSION OF VIMES IS NEARING HIS END.
HE WILL BE MISSED. DO WE HAVE A REPLACEMENT?
NOT A VERSION OF VIMES. I EXPECT A CARROT WILL BE CALLED BACK FROM EXPLORATIONS.
HARDLY A REPLACEMENT FOR A VIMES.
Duplicate-Death shrugged and walked out, leaving the Domain.
Lileur shivered. “He gives me the creeps.”
HE IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS ME.
“That’s part of the creepy factor.”
“Ribbit,” Froppy agreed.
Death led them down halls with hourglasses representing the lives of every individual currently on the Discworld. Froppy knew there were hourglasses for the three of them, but she didn’t look for them. Even though the accuracy of Death’s knowledge was decreased with interdimensional interference, it still wasn’t healthy to see your own life ticking away for most people. It fit squarely into ‘things you really shouldn’t know and shouldn’t want to know.’
They passed the hourglasses and entered Death’s Library. At first it didn’t look much like a library – just a bunch of digital consoles with thousands of words flying across the screens, words that recorded the story of every life on the Disc. These were the records of life and death for every being whose life had been on the Discworld since computer technology was introduced.
Unfortunately, Death needed to go further back than that.
They passed the digital section, arriving at the printed section. None of these books were still being written, for they represented a past era. It was relatively short. The window between ‘typewriter’ and ‘computerized’ on the Disc had been a short one.
Death stopped shortly after they entered the section of books that appeared handwritten; there was no need to go any further back. Not to the scroll section, or stone tablet section.
He picked up a book. Rincewind.
“Your world had a Rincewind? How come I’ve never heard of him?” Lileur asked. “You think the first-world Rincewind would be well-known.”
HE VANISHED SOME TIME BEFORE VALENTINE AND JOHNNY CAME THROUGH HERE, Death said. AT THE SAME TIME, I EXPERIENCED WHAT I CAN ONLY DESCRIBE AS A ‘GLITCH’ IN EXISTENCE. He flipped to the last page of the book. I WAS UNSURE WHAT IT MEANT. WHAT I DO KNOW IS THAT, AT THE TIME, SEVERAL GODS OF THE DISC HAD VANISHED, THROWING THE WORLD INTO CHAOS. BELIEF HAD BEGUN BEHAVING ERRATICALLY DUE TO THE ‘HOLE’ CREATED BY IT. I WONDERED IF IT WAS GOING TO TRIGGER THE END OF TIMES. BUT IT WAS STOPPED, AND I WAS NEVER SURE WHAT STOPPED IT. THAT IN ITSELF IS VERY… UNUSUAL. He put a finger on the last page of the book. BUT SOMETHING CHANGED THE WAY BELIEF FUNCTIONED THAT DAY. I HAD ALWAYS ASSUMED IT WAS RINCEWIND, GIVEN HOW HE WAS INTIMATELY INVOLVED WITH THE EVENTS SURROUNDING IT, AND THAT HIS SOLUTION TOOK HIM OUT OF THE WORLD. NOW I’M NOT SO SURE.
Everyone crowded around to read the page on the book.
Rincewind looked behind himself – out of habit more than anything. But this time there was something behind him.
It was a yellow rat bursting with electric power.
“…What?”
“Hey,” the rat said.
Rincewind took off at a run.
“Good riddance,” the rat muttered. “Don’t need that moron in the Collection.”
The rat scampered off.
The page ended sharply after that when Rincewind turned a corner into something that wasn’t described very well.
“The Collection was there,” Johnny said. “You have a book on this rat, right?”
DEFINITELY, Death said. WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY TO FIND IT?
Froppy shook her head. “No…”
I THOUGHT NOT. IT WOULD TAKE EONS TO FIND A BOOK ON A RAT THAT WAS PROBABLY ONLY IN THIS WORLD FOR A SHORT TIME. SMALL BOOKS LOVE TO HIDE. RINCEWIND’S BOOK JUST HAPPENS TO HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN THE COLLECTION.
“Why was the Collection here, though?” Lileur asked.
“To change the force of belief,” Johnny said. “Am I right?”
IT SEEMS THAT WAY, Death confirmed. BECAUSE, AS YOU KNOW, GODS AND OTHER ENTITIES OF BELIEF NO LONGER DISAPPEAR INTO OTHER UNIVERSES. THE MOMENT ONE OF US LEAVES, A REPLACEMENT COMES INTO EXISTENCE. THAT WAS NOT THE WAY THINGS WERE BEFORE THAT DAY. IT WOULD NOT ONLY SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF VANISHING GODS, BUT IT WOULD ALLOW THEM TO STAY GONE.
“Wait…” Froppy said, looking to Death. “You said you felt yourself ‘glitch’ at the time.”
YES, FROPPY. IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT I WAS TAKEN BY THE COLLECTION. IT WOULD EXPLAIN MUCH. I AM NOT THE ORIGINAL DEATH – AND THE ONE WE PASSED IS JUST A DUPLICATE OF A DUPLICATE.
“So they have a Death, and have the capacity to rewrite the physics of a universe,” Lileur said. “Lovely.”
“I’ll say,” Twitter said.
The four of them turned to stare at the moth-pony of the Sparkle Census.
“…How?” Lileur asked.
“L-Space,” Twitter explained. “The ‘force’ that connects all libraries of the multiverse. We in the Sparkle Census are really good at rummaging through it for information.”
“Find anything useful?”
“Aside from that book you’re looking at now? Nothing,” Twitter admitted. “Granted, searching L-Space is an exceedingly slow process when you’re looking for a specific book without any idea what sort of library it’d be in, so we weren’t exactly expecting results yet.”
She trotted over to a nearby shelf. “This is a fascinating library, by the way. So glad we can finally come here. When your Ambassador changed policies, we had to actively avoid Discworld L-Spaces. Harder than it sounds.”
DOES THE CENSUS HAVE ANYTHING OF USE?
“Twilight-GM is currently being grilled for information. Again. I don’t expect much to come out of that. It’s hard enough to keep her from killing herself…”
~~~
The Twilight known as GM lifted the plastic teacup to her mouth and drank. Her horn was encased in a rubbery, black anti-magic coating, her remaining wing was pinned to her side, and her hooves were covered in plush boots. It made it difficult to drink, but she didn’t care about that.
At least there was no conceivable way to kill herself in here, so she didn’t have to try because of her conditioning. The walls were padded, and there was a magic strait jacket around her that would lock up if she tried anything.
“Thank you,” she said suddenly to both the other Twilights looking in on her from the other side of a thick pane of softened safety glass. “For going through all the trouble you have.”
“We’ll find a way to cure you, eventually,” 4T said, M4 nodding next to her.
GM smiled sadly. “I hope you do. I’d love to be able to go outside… To sit in a library… To go to a restaurant…” she looked wistfully into the distance. “But an opportunity will present itself, and I will not be able to resist. There’s no choice.”
“We know,” M4 said.
GM sighed. “You’re going to try to get new information out of me, aren’t you?”
The two nodded.
“I can only tell you what you already know, that’s how it works. I can’t betray him.”
“The Collector?”
“Oh good, you know his name,” GM let out a sigh of relief. “That makes it mentally easier to talk about. Yes, the Collector. I can’t betray him. If I think there’s any chance you don’t know something, I can’t tell you. Including this fact, but that’s something you reasoned out a long time ago.”
“And you aren’t allowed to open your mind either,” 4T noted.
GM shook her head. “No. The mental protections the Collector gave us… They’re not only impressive, they can’t be shut off. I’m thinking about a lot of things you’d really like to know, and I’d really like to tell you, but I can’t.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t come with a built-in self-destruct.”
GM shrugged. “The mental suicide command is usually more than enough.”
“Let’s try something a little underhooved,” M4 said. “I’m going to say things. You can confirm them. You obviously won’t be able to deny them, but you know.”
“You’re going to make me second-guess myself into mentally ordering myself never to talk again,” GM asserted. “…Please don’t do that.”
M4 twitched. “How controlling is this guy!?”
GM shook her head and smiled sadly, saying nothing.
“Damn. Not even that…”
“Paranoid,” 4T asserted. “Very, very paranoid. He doesn’t want anyone knowing about him. Those stuck in the aurora world were supposed to forget everything. If GM hadn’t been caught when she was, he would have remained unknown.”
“We’re basically just lucky we know he exists at all,” M4 said. “The guy’s clearly planned out his secret well.”
“So well that even those who know he exists can’t find him…”
“I wouldn’t feel bad about it,” GM said. “It’s not like any of us can actually defy him either.”
“…We’ve got to be careful,” M4 realized. “If we get too close, he could just control one of our leaders and force the entire thing apart.”
“We can detect the conditioning though. It has a unique mental signature,” 4T reminded her.
“You still have to look,” M4 muttered, hoof to her chin. “…I just don’t like the situation we’re in. Nobody knows anything about him, and the scant traces we do find just make him and his Collection more terrifying and bizarre.”
4T sighed. “Guess we really aren’t going to be able to learn anything here.”
“I’m sorry,” GM said, meaning every word.
“Don’t worry about it,” 4T said with a smile. “I’ll be back for our weekly game of Battleship tomorrow.”
GM beamed. “I look forward to it. Oh, could you get me a copy of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures? I hear it’s topical from the news feed.”
“Sure thing.”
“Maybe some Discworld books as well.”
4T rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, you’ll get your books. We’re not monsters.”
“I know. Thank you. …You don’t have any idea how much all of this trouble you go through means to me.”
“You’re welcome, GM.”
The two left, leaving GM alone.
Again.
She sighed, flopping onto the soft floor of her confinement.
They didn’t stand a chance… They were going to fail and she was going to be taken back…
She started to weep. She had a lonely agony that only someone trapped in their own mind could experience. And unlike those who were in a vegetative state, she was fully aware of everything.
It hurt. It hurt so much.
But she couldn’t fight her own mind.
~~~
The TSAB had an odd range of people they would employ, to put it mildly.
Due to their origins around a cluster of ‘magical girl’ universes, the minimum age to work within the TSAB was eight years old. That custom had never gone away – it was relatively common for any TSAB ship or office to have at least one exceptionally young mage on staff, treated essentially the same as any adult. There were certainly laws in place to keep this rule from being exploited – only children who were naturally capable of the job they were working in question were allowed for instance – but this did not change the fact that the TSAB allowed child labor.
This left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths, particularly the USM. The Merodi didn’t take as much issue with it – after all, they allowed the League of Sweetie Belles to operate, among other things.
Renee and Daniel still found it exceptionally odd that the TSAB’s contact they were meeting was an eight year old redheaded girl with two braided pigtails and a hammer device. She had a ‘barrier jacket’ of her own, though it looked a lot less like Nanoha’s ‘battle dress’ and more like an actual red dress one might go to a dance in. If it wasn’t for the hammer she’d look ready to go to an extravagant ball.
Her name was Vita. And she could see the couple trying their best not to look at her with disrespect. They were failing.
She twitched. “Quit looking at me like that.”
Daniel nervously adjusted his glasses. “Er…”
“Apologies,” Renee said, bowing. “It is just difficult to move past our own biases.”
“I’m not eight, you know,” Vita muttered. “I’m older than Nanoha.”
“Really?”
“I’m a Wolkenritter. A full magical program.” She smiled proudly. “So don’t treat me like a kid.”
“Again, apologies, the appearance still makes it difficult.”
Vita shrugged. “Well, you weren’t here to talk to me anyway,” Vita admitted. “I’m just here to get you into places.”
The three of them were currently in an Outpost universe within the Strands, and one of the shadier worlds at that. The world was composed entirely of dead, black trees tied to each other in an endless work. Structures were built inside the tremendous trunks of these trees, lights in the eternal darkness of the world. People in cloaks moved around in hushed tones, clearly up to no good. A den of liars if ever there was one.
The perfect place to get information, as Olivia would say.
Vita led them to a tree that didn’t look like it even had anything built into it. She hit it lightly with her hammer three times. “Vita here. The password is not swordfish.”
The three of them were teleported into the tree by a quick spell. The tree held only a single room lit by a warm fireplace. The only other individual in the room was an alien being with a largely cone-shaped body, three tentacle arms, and a round head with three eyes.
“Hey Adder’na,” Vita said, leaning on her hammer. “Been traveling much lately?”
“Always,” Adder’na said. His voice arrived in their heads, clearly through telepathy. “What does the TSAB wish to know today?”
“Let me do the introductions first. Adder’na, Renee and Daniel Jackson, Merodi Universalis.”
“Ah, the new kids on the block. Charmed. I would shake your hand, but one of you lacks hands, and my tentacles are somewhat disgusting to most.”
Renee smiled. “It’s no problem.”
Vita gestured at Adder’na. “This is Adder’na, of the Great Race of Yith, a Class 2 Society that operates out of the D-Sphere. They’re a race of beings who project their minds across the multiverse and across various times to live out as many experiences as possible. Adder’na is one of the oldest Yith. He’s older than most of the Class 1 Civilizations, I hear.”
“You flatter me, but over-exaggerate,” Adder’na said. “What is it you wish to prod my lengthy experiences for?”
“We are looking for an entity known as the Collector and his Collection,” Daniel said. He took a data pad out of his coat and held it out to Adder’na.
“May I just garner the information directly from your mind?”
“So long as you promise to only grab what relates to the Collector,” Renee said. “And if you find any Merodi state secrets, leave them alone.”
“You do not have many of those, from what I hear, so that should not be difficult.” Adder’na touched their minds, prompting a tickling sensation in the back of their thoughts. “Hrm… This is quite the quandary you’ve found yourselves in. I have nothing in my deep memories about that. But in one of my more recent experiences, I have seen the Collection – not by name, but I have seen two of the people you know have been taken. Ivan and Gyro.”
“Where?” Renee asked.
Adder’na looked to Vita. Vita sighed. “Nanoha’s personal account will take care of whatever you want for this.”
“A simple week in the mind of a TSAB agent will suffice for payment,” Adder’na said. “Such a rare experience.”
Vita sighed. “If nobody else will do it, I’ll do it.”
“Good. Regardless, I was in the body of a human on a world filled with magical, elemental creatures, based on the Pokémon games. I was capturing them all for the experience of it – of course when you find one of these worlds you’re going to have to deal with a serious political fallout from the pit-fighting of various sapient creatures, but that’s neither here nor there at the moment.
“The world focuses around battle – a LOT of battle – but mostly as a competition. For a people so fixated on conflict and combat sports, they have almost no wars or international conflicts on a large scale. But while I was there, war was brewing on the horizon. Their god – a being known as Arceus – had been revealed to just be a creature that the humans of the world could subjugate to their will. With difficulty, admittedly.
“Needless to say, the religious types took issue with those who weren’t, and it wasn’t going to be long before they started killing each other over it. Arceus himself was not an omniscient, omnipresent, or even all that understanding a god so his interactions with the situation only made it worse. I became caught up in a conspiracy to capture Arceus because I had become known as the individual who would catch them all – using my vast knowledge to my advantage, of course.
“I had plans to pull a bait and switch – capture Arceus just to say I could, and then release him on the people who organized his downfall. It might not have stopped the war, but it would definitely create some justice. I’ll never forget that battle – me, an ordinary human with the mind beyond even Arceus, fighting the god with nothing more than my magical companion creatures. My fellow ‘trainers’ had already fallen behind me, and I was having difficulty against the minor deity. I am still not sure if I would have been able to win had things gone interrupted.
“But then they showed up. Gyro Zepelli and Ivan. They made quick work of my already weakened team, using out of context abilities to toss them aside. Ivan’s illusions were my downfall – Gyro’s spin took down Arceus in a second. I was baffled by what had happened – so much that I dropped my mask I wear as a Yithian. Gyro noticed I could see Ball Breaker. While Ivan conditioned Arceus to obey – presumably another servant for the Collector, I see now – Gyro walked up to me, and decided it was a good idea to have a chat.
“I still remember what he said. ‘Have you heard the pizza mozzarella song?’ I told him I had not. He went on to sing what is quite possibly the worst song I have ever heard. Strangely catchy, but still horrendous. Then he grinned. ‘Hey, if you ever see a Johnny Joestar in your travels, tell him Gyro Zepelli said hi. Tell him not to worry, I’m doing great.’
“I told him I would, of course, do such a thing. Clearly you all can carry the message to Johnny now. Ivan came up to me and showed me a list of creatures slightly lower on the power tier of that world than Arceus – demanding that I provide any of them I had on me. I had only brought one of the ones on the list, although I had most of the others captured elsewhere. I didn’t feel like it was a good idea to fight, so I handed them over.
“Then they left. I told the world I was in what happened, and suddenly both sides no longer wanted to fight each other, but find out who took Arceus and bring them to justice. In order to solidify the peace, I provided them with the simplest basics of dimensional travel. Then I continued my journey, slowly realizing that they had taken a lot more than just Arceus – most of the deities and demigods of the world had been taken.
“Once I was sure there was nothing more for me to capture, I left the body I had occupied. I learned nothing more about Gyro or Ivan until today.”
Renee bowed her head. “Thank you, Adder’na, for this assistance.”
“It is my pleasure, Overhead Renee. This is likely not as much as you wanted.”
“It tells us they really do like ‘helping’,” Daniel asserted. “And they also capture more and more for the Collection while they do so…”
“Seems like they’re self-contradictory,” Vita muttered.
“If they’re run by the will of one person, of course they would be,” Renee pointed out. “There’s nobody who can be truly consistent.”
“You should return to Johnny.”
“We will,” Renee assured him. “Now… Do you mind getting us out of here?”
“Not at all. Vita, send someone my way within the next week for payment.”
“Yeah yeah, got it,” Vita said, arms folded. At this remark, the three were teleported outside the tree.
Daniel furrowed his brow. “Is his entire race like that?”
“Mind-jumping?” Vita asked. “Yeah. They just love to do that. Don’t worry about whoever he’s going to take over for payment – they’ll be prepared for it, nothing bad will happen to them. The random people they jump into do tend to go insane, though. Be glad he generally doesn’t do a full body-swap, he just suppresses the mind.”
Renee bit her lip. “Well, I’m glad we talked to him, but I’d rather not do more business with his kind. I’m sure you understand.”
“The other option is the Melnorme.”
“At least all they try to do is rip you off.”
“Touche.”
~~~
Nine Worlds.
Jenny of the Red Gloves had lived through all of them.
Not that she remembered all of the billion years she had existed – her mind was still mostly human despite her age, and the human mind could only hold so many memories. She remembered her origins and her recent history with enough clarity to live her life, but everything in the middle was a bit of a mysterious blur in her mind. She couldn’t even determine where her memories of one world began and another ended. She was able to tell people what the First World looked like when she was young, and what the Ninth World had looked like a couple centuries ago. That was it.
This was likely why Jenny had procured a magic book back when she was in the First World. She didn’t remember how she got it – the irony – but she knew it had been with her for the vast majority of her life. A book with an infinite number of pages that served as her journal, chronicling her random thoughts, jottings, stories, and sketches over the course of millions upon millions of years.
Needless to say the book was an absolute mess on the inside. It was written in more or less chronological order, but Jenny was never one to keep meticulous notes. On some pages there would be a retelling of a legend, on others there would be scientific diagrams, while others would only contain drawings of whatever Jenny had found fascinating at the time. Apparently she went through a ‘flowers’ phase around her third millionth. Weird.
Until recently (recently being about a century ago), she hadn’t even been able to read everything in the book because it was written in a number of different languages, or sometimes even just chicken scratch. But as the current public head of Dracogen Enterprises, she had access to translator glasses that were able to reveal what all but the most outlandish scribbles meant.
She always got aggravated with herself whenever she read the book. She didn’t remember any of the adventures she described, but she always felt like her past self was an idiot for falling for things. After skimming around the book as a whole for about a day, she flipped to the start and started reading, looking for anything about the Collector or the Collection.
The First World had nothing for her, that was easy to see. The First World started out as a somewhat dark ‘fantasy’ world where chaos reigned that eventually became a sprawling war across the galaxy over several millennia. Ah, Emperor Karl – she remembered him. Her first adventure, actually. He was just a boy with a special power then, but he became so much more.
She skimmed through her memoirs about fighting in eternal war as one of Karl’s
Agents that didn’t officially exist. The result of that war…
She could never remember. And the end of the First World sections always told conflicting stories. Jenny currently believed the timeline had been churned into soup around that moment and the book had probably been written in by numerous Jennys trying to work it out, but it was impossible to determine now.
The Second World was an interesting one for Jenny to remember – because apparently it was just a Standard Earth. With a dark past that hardly affected it at all…
It was here that she found something.
She had apparently decided to have a normal life – as normal as an unaging young girl could – going to school in the local 2010s. She had become obsessed with stories – novels, movies, comics, legends, etcetera – and had started to write her own. This made it somewhat difficult to tell what was really happening, what were short story ideas she had come up with, or what were observations on other works of fiction. She did spot a picture of Jotaro with a character study next to it. Something to check out later.
The next page showed a map of a galaxy split up into sections. Some of the names seemed familiar to her – the Tau’ri, for instance – while others meant nothing. What kind of space nation called themselves the Culture?
But a side note near the end of a timeline caught her attention. Project Odin occurs. Heralding the creation of the Collector. He will use his meta-knowledge to start an empire and become a major threat for the future.
The timeline was clearly incomplete. Jenny turned the page, but there was no more information on the galaxy. Just the map. She flipped a few pages forward and back, but found nothing.
Just that one tiny note. The Collector was created, and had meta-knowledge. He was set to start an empire – presumably the Collection – from birth.
“…What kind of meta-knowledge?” Jenny wondered aloud. “Fourth wall? Prophet? Future sight? Visions from beyond? Knowledge of ‘fiction’? Too many options…”
She took a picture of the pages and sent it to the rest of the nations. It wasn’t much to go off of, but it was something.
Jenny just wondered if this galaxy of fiction on these pages was her idea or someone’s she had copied down for some reason…
There she went, second-guessing her past self again. She wasn’t even sure if this was really referring to the Collector and not just some other being that conveniently had the same name. After all, the Collector was a pretty simple ‘name’. They had encountered a couple other beings in the universe with the name, though for the most part it was very clear they weren’t who they needed to find…
Jenny turned the page, going deeper into the Second World.
~~~
Charter-Princess Evening Sparkle addressed the gathered members of the Collector Research team in the primary meeting room of the Golden Joke, where they had signed the agreement a couple weeks prior. “What I am about to tell you is one of the Merodi’s closest guarded secrets. We may not have many, but those we do are kept for good reason. What I say is not to leave this room, and no citizens of any of the four nations are to find out what I reveal here today.”
That got the attention of the USM, Sparkle Census, and Dracogen representatives. Valentine in particular leaned in, curious.
Eve nodded, teleporting Rohan Kishibe to her side. “This man is a Prophet. That is to say, the things he writes have the ability to influence how reality shapes itself.”
Valentine let his expression betray his surprise – but not his fear. A Prophet!? They’ve had one this whole time!? We’ve never found one definitively!
Eve lit her horn, teleporting copies of various manga manuscripts throughout the room. “Rohan has, for the past couple weeks, been writing stories about us. Stories about us having success. Stories about us finding things, information, or people by chance. This method of writing worked in the past helping us in the encounter with the Starcross Society. However… The only one of these that has come true is the one that had nothing to do with the Collector, written as sort of a control.”
Jenny sighed. “If he has meta-awareness, perhaps he has ways to defend against being Propheted? Perhaps he is a Prophet?”
“That is possible,” Eve admitted. “Our current psych evaluations give us the impression he thinks he is the hero of his story. But it could just be that there is another Prophet writing him to be immune to being written against. …As is obvious by this point, we’re making a lot of guesses and shots in the dark about how all this works.”
Valentine looked at Rohan, face stern. “Are you certain you put your all into the work?”
“Yes…” Rohan growled.
“I heard that forced writing doesn’t qualify. Are you sure-”
“Yes I’m sure,” Rohan reiterated, face clouding. He remembered one moment in particular all too well…
“Damn you!” Rohan shouted, throwing the manuscript to the ground. “I PUT MY HEART AND SOUL INTO YOU, WHY DON’T YOU WORK!?”
“…Do you need a moment?” Starbeat asked.
Rohan ignored her. “HEAVEN’S DOOR!” He tore the manuscript to shreds with his Stand. “If you won’t do what I want then you are worthless!”
Starbeat scribbled down some notes in her notepad. Rohan stormed back to his desk and began speed-drawing again.
“Mister Kishibe?” Valentine asked.
“Mmm?”
“I asked you if you did anything different with the one that came true opposed to the ones that didn’t.”
“I removed all references to the Collector, that’s it. It’s an edited version of a different manuscript!”
“How can you make so much manga!?” A Twilight asked, gawking over all the art.
“Skill,” Rohan answered.
“Stand,” Eve corrected.
Rohan folded his arms, still ticked off that his power wasn’t working properly.
“The conclusion here is that we’re either extremely unlucky, or the Collector is protected from Prophet powers somehow,” Eve finalized.
THERE IS A THIRD OPTION, Death suggested. WE COULD BE MAKING AN ASSUMPTION ABOUT THE COLLECTOR THAT WE SHOULDN’T BE MAKING, WHICH MAKES ALL OF ROHAN’S MANUSCRIPTS IMPOSSIBLE THROUGH SIMPLE LOGIC.
There was silence in the room.
Eve sighed. “The truth is we just don’t know enough. In many ways, we can’t know enough. With our resources, we’re able to get hints of the Collector, scant pieces of information blowing in the wind telling us there is something. I know there’s a way to find the Collector, but I can’t imagine for the life of me what it is.” She shook her head. “This doesn’t mean we’re going to stop. Eventually we’re going to progress enough to find something. We just have no idea how long that’s going to take.”
“Your point?” Jenny asked.
“We all have nations to run,” Eve said, looking at Valentine knowingly. “We’ve dropped focusing on our normal duties to devote time to this endeavor. If we were going to get a quick result, that would be fine. But we’re not getting a quick result, and what we’ve left undone is unraveling back home.”
“Are you telling us to stop?” Jenny demanded.
“I’m telling us to delegate people lower down the chain to work on this,” Eve said. “We have entire nations that hinge on us. We can delegate specialist teams to work on this rather than see it through ourselves.”
Valentine stood up suddenly and walked up to Eve. He stared at her intensely.
“I second what Evening is saying,” Valentine said at last. “These efforts will not benefit enough from our continued close oversight. I will be returning to my regular ambassadorial duties upon choosing a replacement for my current position.”
Eve smiled. “I’ll do the same.”
Jenny shrugged. “Eh… Fine. I’ve got people I trust enough.”
Eve nodded. “Good. Does anyone have anything else they’d like to add to the meeting?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“In that case, dismissed.” She left the podium, walking out into one of the halls.
Valentine caught up with her. “You revealed something big to us today.”
“I took our promise seriously,” Eve said. “I can only hope you did the same.”
Valentine nodded in understanding. “We had no secrets relating to the investigation.”
Eve checked him over. “…I believe you.”
There was silence.
“So, how are we going to move forward?” Eve asked.
Valentine looked into the distance, expression deep in thought. “Borders can be opened again. But before the people will allow that, there will have to be a treaty on the nature of interference, colonization, and culture.”
“I’ll be glad if we aren’t stuck in a Cold War.”
“That’s a low bar to aim for.”
“One step at a time.”
Once again, they let an awkward silence fill the void.
“…Do you think we’ll find him?” Eve asked. “Ever?”
“Yes. For we are on the side of Justice. And Justice always prevails.”
Eve beamed at him. “You know, for all your stubbornness, your devotion to justice is something I admire.”
“Your empathy and understanding is a force to be reckoned with itself,” Valentine said.
Eve chuckled. “Well, I am the Princess of Friendship. Charter of the Multiverse is basically just an add-on.”
“Perhaps it is your fate to ally with everyone.”
“It’s what I try to do.”
The two looked to each other, nodded curtly, and went their separate ways. It wasn’t friendship – but it wasn’t animosity either. It was a relationship built on mutual respect.
Merodi Universalis and the USM would not be allies just because of one conversation and joint mission. There was too much to smooth over for that to happen. But it was a step in the right direction.
~~~
Somnambula’s Throne, constructed from an ancient gray Rune, had the power to summon the Spectacularium.
Unfortunately the throne in question had been lost in the recent upheavals on Lai relating to the Arcei and their newfound rage against the Stars.
Lady Rarity, Corona, Lieshy, and Olivia had spent the last few weeks attempting to find this throne. They were at the end of their journey, fighting Lai dragons. Three of them – red, green, and blue – were circling the mountaintop Lady Rarity’s team found themselves on.
“There is a decidedly annoying lack of things to hack!” Olivia shouted, dodging a red dragon’s foot only by a few inches.
“Magically?” Lady Rarity asked, smashing one across the head with a hammer.
“Why do you think they’re not breathing fire at us?” Olivia blurted, firing her pulse pistol. Even at maximum charge, the weapon only burned off chunks of flesh the size of a bowling ball. It was certainly painful to the dragon, but the mountainous behemoths were too large for such attacks to faze them.
Corona spread her hands wide. “Got the red one.” She summoned her Stand – Bacon Pancakes. It took the appearance of a red disc with her cutie mark on both sides, the four-pointed solar design giving the disc the overall appearance of a compass. Eight red satellites circled the compass around the long edge, each of them composed of three red toothpicks fused together. Corona focused on the red dragon, launching all eight of the spiked objects at the dragon.
They each hit in a particular location – one in each knee joint, one in each wing joint, one in the head, and one in the tail. They did no damage, they drew no blood – but they affixed themselves to the dragon’s body like the pins they were. With a quick order, Corona told the spiked pins to drive the dragon into the mountain, closer to where she was. The dragon could have resisted, but it wasn’t expecting the sudden jarring motion from its own body. It crashed into the mountain.
Corona ran up to it with the main body of Bacon Pancakes. She leaped onto it, riding it like a sled down the mountain to where the dragon’s dazed face rested. She plowed into it, activating her Stand’s close-range ability. The orbiting pins were able to push and shove, but that was about it. The actual disc though, it could flatten.
The dragon’s head became two-dimensional, like a piece of paper. It would have been all too easy to reach down and rip the dragon’s head off at this point, since the strength of the flat flesh was almost nothing. But Corona had no intention of doing that. She continued flattening more parts of the dragon’s body as she rode down the mountain, using her telekinesis to direct her path down one of the legs. She tore there, severing the dragon’s limb.
The beast howled in pain, trying to retaliate – but with half its body the consistency of paper, all it did was crumple itself into a messy wad. Parts of its body began to tear from the thrashing, sending warning signals to the dragon’s brain. It stopped moving, scared it would tear itself apart by moving.
“Good boy,” Corona said, teleporting back to the top of the mountain, recalling all eight of Bacon Pancakes’ pins. Olivia and Lady Rarity had worked together to encase the blue one in magical spirid silk.
Lieshy was on the green one, riding it like some kind of horse. The green dragon couldn’t shake her. Lieshy’s stand, Limelight, kept punching the dragon from the side. Limelight was an almost featureless stand – four green, furless pony legs attached to a body. No tail, no head, just four green limbs. It was one of those Stands that was really good at punching at close range and jack squat at longer ranges.
“AUGH!” the dragon shouted. “WHY WON’T YOU GET OFF?”
“Limestone,” Lieshy said, having Limelight punch the dragon in the face again.
“Would you please stop doing that?”
“Tell me where the throne is.”
“No!”
“More punching.”
“OW!”
Limelight punched the dragon in the eye.
“Why would such a nice mare torment me so!?”
Lieshy smirked. “Ah, signals of progress. Where’s the throne?”
“I don-”
Limelight punched him again. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me just because I’m a nice mare?”
“But I- OW!”
“Pleeeease?”
“I… I… Okay fine, but just because you asked nicely.”
Lieshy chuckled evilly. “Good work, Limelight.”
The green dragon willingly landed on the mountain, allowing Lieshy to dismount.
Corona smirked, high-fiving Limelight. “Nice work.”
“Thanks.”
The green dragon growled.
“Dragon, the throne?” Lieshy asked.
“I don’t kno…”
Limelight punched the dragon in the chest.
“Right… Whatever you wish…” With a loud hacking noise, he threw the throne out of his gut, dropping the gray Runic artifact to the ground below, covered in sticky slobber.
“…Ew,” Lady Rarity commented.
“Awesome,” Olivia countered.
“Now take your friends and go,” Lieshy told the dragon. “Okay?”
“R-right…” He grabbed his head. “Let’s… Let’s go.”
Corona released the paper-effect on the red dragon. The two of them had to carry the blue dragon away.
“How hard did you punch him?” Corona asked after they were out of earshot. “He was basically eating out of your lap!”
“A lot of times,” Lieshy answered.
“Must be nice, to have people you’ve beat up do your bidding,” Olivia mused.
“Defeat equals friendship,” Lieshy asserted.
“Or stalker,” Olivia reminded her.
“I am never going to punch anyone with Limelight that hard ever again.”
The four of them chuckled.
“Stands are weird,” Corona said.
“You say that every time, dear,” Lady Rarity observed. She took a few steps toward the throne, lighting her horn. “Let’s see… The correct spell should be-”
The Spectacularium came into existence. Normally, it would have been mad that they had dared call it again, but this time it wasn’t. Realizing this, the four heroes were confused – they had expected to need to talk the Spectacularium down.
The Spectacularium apologized. It would not be able to help them. It did not have knowledge that extended to the Collector. The Spectacularium could recount mostly things they had heard already – plus a few extra stories of the Collection appearing in places, doing something, and vanishing. Sometimes taking people with them to the Collection, sometimes not.
There was nothing else the Spectacularium could tell them. It was not omniscient.
“…Did we really spend these weeks for nothing?” Olivia asked.
The Spectacularium could answer that. It was indeed for nothing.
“Egad, it has a sense of humor!” Lieshy decreed.
The Spectacularium had no idea what she was referring to. Probably. The Spectacularium vanished before it could be questioned further.
Lady Rarity sighed. “Well, let’s get this throne back to Somnambula. Then we can deeply contemplate what we’re doing with our lives…”
“Lovely,” Corona deadpanned.
~~~
“This sounds desperate,” O’Neill observed from his seat in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise.
“It is,” Starbeat said, pacing around the bridge. “But right now it’s all we’ve got. All I’m asking for is a test run.”
“You want to burn out the Enterprise’s dimensional drive?”
“Look, I’m just trying for a proof of concept,” Starbeat said. “I don’t need you to translate to another universe every second. All I need the Enterprise to do is move around universes randomly for a while with quick translations. If we want to find the Collector, the best bet seems to be calibrated ka sensors. And to work with that we’ll need to perfect the technology of multi-universe ka scanning.” She gestured toward a large metal box with three green lights she had hooked up to a nearby monitor. “This is just a test run to see what we pick up without going through the trouble of constructing a hummingbird drive specifically for the box.”
O’Neill shrugged. “…Yeah, it’s not like I have anything better to do right now. Not even a USM invasion to worry about.”
Starbeat put her goggles over her eyes, as if bracing for impact. “If you don’t mind, could we get going then?”
O’Neill nodded to the pilot – a Binary, one of the very few who had enlisted for military service. The hairy creature plugged in the program and the Enterprise began to jump from universe to universe within the E-Sphere. Starbeat began to collect data, watching the screen closely for the inflections in ka.
She made a ‘hrm’ noise in the seventh universe.
“What is it?”
“Not doing what I want it to do. Haven’t picked up much…” They jumped universes again. “We’ll have to visit a few dozen to be sure, though.”
“You’re very specific for a scientist.”
“Treating ka like science is like trying to determine whose tastes are objectively better. It doesn’t work.” They jumped again.
“So you’re telling me it’s basically just art, hrm…?”
Starbeat lit up. “Actually, the relation between art, science, and ka is a complex one that I hope to write a complete study on one day in which – and you were mostly trying to mess with me there.”
“Yep.”
Starbeat’s bracelet started beeping. “I have no breaks… I haaaaaave nooooo breaaa-”
She saw the beat readings on the screen change – not because of her.
“STOP THE SHIP!” Starbeat shouted, pressing her goggled face to the screen. “What the… What is this reading!?”
“Where are we?” O’Neill asked.
“Earth Stand!” the pilot responded.
“Earth Stand? But that would me-” Starbeat turned to O’Neill. “Go to the system’s sun, now.”
O’Neill nodded. “Engage.” The Enterprise performed a quick jump to the yellow sun of Earth Stand.
“Their sun is a Star,” Starbeat fretted. “These readings – well it means the thing is working – but something’s going to happen and….”
“Ship detected! Civilian, but with high levels of magic! Arcei signatures detected!”
O’Neill’s eyes widened. “Stop them! Now!”
“Too late, they’re already firing something at the sun!”
A beam of red and white light shot out of the tiny, triangle-shaped ship, heading right for the Star of Earth Stand.
Something stopped it. A ship of unknown design appeared from a swirling mass of glowing white vines. It was composed of white metal in an overall rod-shape, a rounded two-part hull covering the front. The hull absorbed the beam head on, shrugging it off.
Starbeat stared at the ka readings on her screen. “T-that’s the Collection. No doubt about it.” She grinned. “I’m getting so much data! I… I’ll be able to use this to find them!”
“He wouldn’t be so stupid,” O’Neill said. “He’s too smart for this… This is all intentional…”
In a mass of white vines, the smaller ship was completely engulfed. The large Collection ship turned to the Enterprise.
They teleported Gyro right onto the bridge, through the Enterprise’s shields. With a snarky grin he threw a steel ball into Starbeat’s box, destroying it instantly. “Sorry.” He was gone before Crimson Sushi could slap him.
The Collection ship vanished in a mass of white vines, leaving Earth Stand alone once again.
“Can you salvage anything?” O’Neill asked.
“Y-yes, but… Not enough!” Starbeat shouted. “It was running the needed calculations along with the readings and – I knew the design was imperfect! AGH!”
O’Neill grabbed her. “Starbeat, calm down. Tell me what this means.”
She kissed him. He fell back, so surprised he lost his footing. “Yeah, you should have waited, the ‘click’ hadn’t worn off yet. To answer your question, this means the device works. What it also means is that we can’t find them now. We have to wait to get another reading with a device that actually works. So it looks like we’ll need to make those hummingbird drives after all to scour the multiverse… The next time any of them show up, we’ll be able to get a reading. And with a full ka scan, I’m sure we can find him.”
O’Neill took a seat back in the captain’s chair. “He did this on purpose, though. He’s too paranoid to just let us see one of his ships without reason. He wanted this to happen.”
“Obviously,” Starbeat said. “Or he wanted something here bad enough that he was willing to let us see a ship to get it.”
“What would he want though?”
~~~
“Good work,” the Collector told Gyro. “Complete success for every mission objective.”
Gyro shrugged. “I even got to see the looks on their faces. Priceless.”
“I bet it was. You can keep the ship.”
“Hell yeah.”
The Collector nodded. “Glad to see you’re learning to enjoy yourself again, Gyro. I always appreciate it when people accept their life.”
“It was either that or go crazy.”
“I thought you were already crazy.” the Collector said with an amused chuckle.
Gyro laughed. “I guess so!” He coughed. “So, can I take the girl for a spin or what?”
“Go enjoy yourself. You’ve earned it. Don’t crash.”
“I won’t if I have any choice in the matter!”
“That is how things are.”
Gyro ran off, leaving the Collector in his office with Lightning.
“It has begun,” Lightning said.
“Project Odin II, Moving Forward,” the Collector said wistfully. “It’s finally time for all this work to meet its final fruition…”
“Are you certain they are the right ones?”
“I’m certain. Remember what the Pinkies told us about their Prophet. The time has come, Lightning. Of course, it won’t be for a while yet – have to let things stew for a few years at least so the stew can simmer just right – but everything has been set in motion. You see it, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“The purpose of the Collection… My purpose. It is about to be realized.”
“And mine?”
“Will be what you make of it, you know this,” the Collector said. “Let’s not worry about the future for now, the gears are moving on their own for the moment. How about we go say hello to our newest member.”
“Not any of the Arcei, I presume?”
“Of course not.”
Lightning nodded, ordering a teleport.
In front of them stood a tremendously muscular man wearing almost nothing: a purple loincloth, armlets, and boots. His dark hair flowed in the air despite no breeze flowing through it. He gave off an aura of power that could only be described as menacing.
The Collector spoke to him like an old friend. “Hello Kars. Welcome to your new life in the Collection.” He folded his hands together. “I can tell you’re going to be an interesting one to integrate into my society. Let’s start with who I am. I am the Collector – your new master. You and I are going to get to know each other very well, Kars…”
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is it bad that i had mostly forgotten about the Binary?
i wonder if Kars is a new charecter or if he is from some anime or work of fiction.
9287005
Jojo's.
He was mentioned very briefly in the Clipshow.
-GM, master of CLIPS.
Jotaro vs. Kars would be an interesting fight. He is Earth Stand's version of the ultimate life-form(although a pretty shitty ultimate life-form on a multiversal scale.)
If we compare how OP Dio seemed to be in part 1, when compared to normal humans and hamon users and how he got destroyed immediately by Star Platinum, I think Kars will actually lose without a stand of his own, as he has nothing to protect himself with. Not that Jotaro can actually kill him, but he can keep breaking his legs and face repeatedly.
9286788
Not really. They were the minor plot element with a superiority complex. Ka decreed them useless.
9287005
You need to watch more Jojo.
9288014
never watched nor read jojo, the first time I heard of it was here XD, but i may start reading the manga.
9288020
As a newcomer you should probably watch the anime first. The anime follows the plot 1:1 and it's music, voice acting and visual style are absolutely gorgeous, and it's in my personal opinion a superior format for jojo. It also has a bonus of not occasionally looking like ass for the first 2 parts.
Seriously, do yourself a favor and watch the first 2 parts first as anime even if you want to read the manga. Araki's early art was weird and... warped and hard to read at times.
9288074 I mostly read mangas because is faster, I don't have much time to look for anime, in an hour of anime I can read 6 manga chapters word of anime in a manga set.
Guess Vita made her Great Escape after all.
Ps. Not sure if it was intentional but I'm aware of the series she's from. And I use the term loosely.
9290400
(This is the Vita from Nanoha, not Great Escape, derp)
https://nanoha.fandom.com/wiki/Vita
-GM, master of spice.
9290684
...
Right, gonna download Nanoha now.
Curse you GM! Master of Tempatation*
9290695
whispers: Nanoha's an anime.
-GM, master of temptation.
Wow. The Collector and Lightning have raised the Omniscient Council of Vagueness routine to an art form. Of course, meta-awareness means knowing when to employ it.
Ah, the enigmatic House Juju. As far as I can tell, it's a massive-scale metanarrative device, various settings pulling characters out of the story, sealing them in one if you go with the more Gnostic interpretations of Homestuck, or just flat-out ending the narrative there and then. Though I suppose you have your own theories. We may even see them in action. After all, in all the excitement of the final act, the various accoutrements of the Felt seem unaccounted for. I wouldn't be surprised if many of Lord English's jujus were scattered about the multiverse.
Ah, that's how the USM can have Death as an agent. At least the Collector... kind of cleans up after himself. Sometimes. That Pokéverse would probably disagree.
Ooh, Yithians. Given the Embodiment, I shouldn't be surprised to see more Mythos-based stuff.
So... the Collector was purpose-built to be an antagonist? Why? For whom? By whom? Curiouser and curiouser...
Revealing Rohan's nature might have been a tremendous misstep on Eve's part. I suppose we'll see in time. At least Valentine seems to appreciate the tremendous amount of trust it shows.
Huh. So the plan is to basically spam the multiverse with ka-sensing Angel probes.
(This is what the refrance: In The Maretian, one Equestria that integrated changelings into polite society by way of a space race—long, still ongoing story, see Changeling Space Program—manages to invent a multiversal drive by accident. When your automated teleportation system is programmed to plot the shortest course to avoid collisions and you forget to restrict it to three spacial dimensions... Well, you get the idea. The Equestrian Space Program ship Amicitas crashes in a magicless universe, on a Mars currently occupied by one Mark Watney. As part of the ESP's ongoing efforts to determine where the ship ended up, they send a series of probes, the Angel series, to deliberately hop back and forth between universes and record what they find. This includes that Equestria's EqG world, at least one Earth under attack by Decepticons, the realm of an instance of Nyarlathotep (who is thankfully pacified by the local Pinkie,) and the Earth of Wanderer D's XCOM 2 crossover Ranger.)
Well, that was a wall of text. In any case, despite the inconclusive results, this was still a most intriguing arc opener. Looking forward to more.
Oh, and one more thought: I can't help but wonder if Bacon Pancakes is a subconscious tribute to Sparky on Corona's part. Pin down the specimen and prep them for the slide...
Hymn I think the dimension witch yuko ichihara could find the collector ...not directly she never does things directly plus he's immune to being traced apparently ... I mean she can put them where they need to be to find the answer like where he'll show up eventually not where he is now or something like tsubasa where they jump dimensions using mokona to find feathers their in the right spot but they still gotta find it... it doesn't guarantee they get it they failed to get quite a few feathers... just the result of what happens reside on what they do ...but the question is what would be the price. She's taken freedom, weapons, magic ability, vision, concepts like luck. What would the price be to be able to be in the right place at the right time before he shows up.
Pizza Mozzarella, rella rella rella rella.
Wow. Of course they wanted Him! I really enjoyed part 2 of Jojo. I look forward to seeing how he can be of use with his "magical sunlight breathing" and weird squirrel hands.
Congrats on finally hitting 200 likes! (Well, 199 at the time of the post.)
9288089
Find a streaming site that lets you watch at 1.5x speed? All else fails, Firefox and Chrome have a video speed extension.
>Punching Stand
Now I'm wonder if Limelight can also shout THE WORLD
Making sure I understand this: he did not destroy the 9th world, where Jenny had warned not to use time travel, but the next one ( the unnamed 10th world)
And the Time Lords have effectively red miles technology, able to completely destroy a universe?
Meanwhile, I love how Pinkie is basically able to read the chapter so far.
Reading this description of death's domain, I have to wonder if at some point you will come across an infinite, almost featureless gray plane with dimples on the ground in a regular pattern; the only thing to be found in this universe at the very center is a desk manned by a death.
(The infinite featureless plane of death, from irregular webcomics).
Oh Lord. The Sparkle census can basically connect to every Library anywhere? Including, say, the infinite library that was organised by Twilight Sparkle, or a version of a Twilight Sparkle, currently found on fimfiction?
Hold on. Did GM just try to use the same loophole that Rick used, mentioning two books that would be relevant information while at the same time just being something for her to read?
you realize, if these dragons fuse together they will form a white dragon. What eye color will it have?
10193616
dunno who "he" is, but if you're referring to the Collector, he didn't destroy any world.
Yes, the Time Lords can do that.
They can connect to every library. Buuuut... uh... it's hard to find what you're looking for.
-GM, master of Hackintosh.
10193669
Clearly, they need to visit the Infinite Library of Hell, organized and categorized by Twilight herself (or one of them anyways), that she basically has as a vacation spot.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/435360/heaven-of-a-hell
Didn't he just set up a "If time travel is used, this universe will self destruct" construct here?
9288074
I’ve tried watching JoJo’s on Netflix and gave up halfway through the first episode. It really isn’t something for me.
Nice to see Lieshy have a stand that can she use to defend herself. I still love double, though it's sad to see she doesn't use it as much anymore.
Well, no appearance from Flagg (yet), but The Collector alone is a massive threat alone. So much so that his actions are starting to unite the multiversal societies closer together. He's not easy to pin down info on either, not even from something like the Spectacularium...which is kinda terrifying.
Yeah, MIND is definitely a theme here. He's a threat to the free will and minds of anyone he can get under his control. And the way things tend to go in the multiverse, I don't expect him to go down easily.
One of these days I actually need to sit down and read through some Discworld novels. I never have and only have a fairly passable knowledge/experience of the lore.
...Detective Pikachu?
The fact that the Sparkle Census has frequent interaction with L-Space is not in the least bit surprising, but that still doesn't stop it from being hilarious.