088 - Hidden Terrors
A Portable Weapons Platform (PoWR) was an essential part of any Combine invasion when significant resistance occurred even after a surrender was accepted, which was annoyingly often in the Combine’s collective mind. The station had been equipped with a few dozen of the PoWRs, to be deployed when deemed necessary.
An hour had passed since the initial invasion and the fighting still hadn’t stopped. Glassing the city would just be a horrible waste of valuable technology, personnel, and other materials, so the clearance for the PoWRs’ release was given. Eight were sent down initially.
The PoWRs were derived from a peculiar cube-shaped life form they had found on a world some untold centuries ago. This cube-thing had been known to devour everything it saw, and sort all the junk into its sixteen different stomachs remarkably efficiently.
So the Combine had taken one look at it and thought ‘that would make a pretty good weapon distribution system’. So they took it, ran it through their biomechanical engineering processes, and produced the PoWR – a cube of flesh with a mechanical porthole instead of a mouth on the bottom. The PoWR hovered through the power of four blue nubs on the top face, while its four side faces were each equipped with high-precision laser-rifles.
The PoWR was hardly a defenseless entity, and was a great boon to any squad gifted with it given its ability to provide weapons to troops specifically suited for the enemies at hand.
The drawback was any squad with a PoWR suddenly became a target because of the weapons inside the PoWR. If a resistance force managed to put up enough firepower to beat one, they would get quite the cache.
Luckily for the Combine, the resistance on Farpoint was miniscule. Applejack’s little rebellion hadn’t gotten enough force behind it to take out a PoWR just yet.
Unluckily for the Combine, Vriska Serket was now in the city. And she knew exactly what a PoWR was, why it was useful, and how to take one out.
On the trip here she had been stealing luck from every Combine soldier she had seen – while nowhere near enough to give her full control over her Fluorite Octet, she certainly had enough for an impressive roll.
“So, good guns are in there?” Rainbow Dash asked Vriska as she summoned her dice.
“Yes, for the millionth time, yes.”
“I mean, better than this baby?” Rainbow asked again, holding up a simple assault rifle she had pilfered from a downed Combine soldier. She’d discovered that her wings were close enough to hands that she could at least fire the thing safely.
“Yes…” Vriska seethed.
Nova checked her screen. “The squad has no backup. Twelve troopers, three spider-crabs, one cube of ‘PoWR’, and what I’m calling a pointer.”
The ‘pointer’ was the only thing in the squad Vriska had never seen before – a new biomechanical creation of the Combine that was a cone of solid metal sitting on top of bulbous green sacks of hot air that kept it aloft. It was a complete unknown.
Which was why Nova was going to take it out the moment Vriska rolled her dice. Unknowns were dangerous.
“Ready… go.” Vriska said, tossing her dice towards the squad. The commander noticed them and had time to fire his gun once before they activated. A tiny sawblade appeared above the dice, grew to eight meters in diameter, and disappeared. The instant growth of a sawblade had managed to cut most of the human troopers in half and taken out one of the spider-crabs, injuring another.
Rainbow fired her gun. Her aim was horrible, but the uninjured spider-crab wasn’t a small target, so she got some damage in.
Nova unleashed a swirling beam of magic right at the pointer.
It was at this point everything went wrong.
The pointer absorbed the magic and sent it right back at Nova. She raised a shield but it broke through, hitting her in the horn and sending her flying.
“Fuck, they’ve figured out how to make magic do what they want,” Vriska cursed. “List of things that are not good: that.”
Rainbow turned her gun to focus on the pointer, but it used telekinesis to blow the bullets away, even sending one right back into Rainbow’s firing wing. The PoWR deposited three glowing yellow guns that bristled with so many golden needles they looked like they had hedgehogs on top of them. The three remaining human soldiers picked them up and fired at Vriska.
Vriska took in a sharp breath – this was gonna hurt. The PoWR had analyzed her luck manipulation and given them seeker-needlers. The bullets themselves did almost no damage, but hurt like nothing else and were very accurate. Dodging them would be a miracle, and she was fresh out of miracles.
So as the bullets hit her and sent her cobalt blood flying, she mentally ordered the human soldiers to fire on the PoWR cube instead. Their minds were like putty to her, so they did without hesitation.
The PoWR killed them all in an instant with its own weapons, removing any minds that Vriska could make use of. It stood strong, along with the pointer and two injured spider-crabs.
The pointer floated over to Vriska and pointed its tip at her.
Vriska stole its luck, expecting to use everything she took to just dodge the stupid thing’s attack.
It never got to unleash its attack. One moment it was there, ready to fire – the next it was smashed to pieces, along with both the spider-crabs.
“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro said, extending a hand to Vriska. “You shouldn’t need my help.”
“Shut up,” Vriska muttered, accepting the hand. “Everything hurts right now so I’m extra irritable.”
“Cube!” Rainbow blurted. “You haven’t taken care of the cube!”
The PoWR moved all its automatic guns to point at Jotaro – and they all failed to fire. Upon closer inspection, Vriska noticed the guns were alight with a soft white glow of magic.
“You’re welcome,” Anna said with a smile, her halo shining brilliantly.
Allure poked her head out of a nearby piece of rubble. “Well, looks like I didn’t get to do anything. …I’m satisfied with that.”
Nova stood up, rubbing her horn. “This is gonna hurt for a while… Oh, hey, people. …Thanks, I assume you saved us?”
“Team effort,” Anna said, walking up to Rainbow and healing her wing with her magic. “Definitely didn’t have enough power between the three of us to actually take the weapons. But now we have enough for a small army.”
“Where’s Applejack?” Rainbow asked, noticing her absence from the squad.
“She’s in charge back at base!” Allure said. “Come on! I’ll show you!”
~~~
Flutterfree was praying.
It was a deep, honest, heartfelt prayer that everything that was about to happen would work and that as few people as possible would get hurt.
However, she was also being a little more obvious about the act than she usually would. Most times, you’d only be able to tell she was engaging in the act by closed eyes and a slight bowed head, and rarely would it last very long.
She had gone all the way with the clasped hooves, muttering words, and strained expression this time around. Not that those things actually helped in her case, it just made it easy to see what she was doing. She was rather disappointed with people who broadcasted such things to the world so loudly, most often just for attention.
But that was not her purpose. Her purpose was to get her friends to notice she was acting a little odd.
To realize that she was about to make a move.
Lolo had spread out far enough to find two very important things: the larger containment area with about two thousand other prisoners, and the docking bay. She had found the shortest route to one and then the other, and found a whale-ship that was mostly abandoned – ripe for hijacking and taking to another universe using the Combine-custom dimensional drive.
It would be so much easier if Seraphim’s portals to other universes were big enough to move two thousand people at once… But it wasn’t even close.
And nobody knew that this was the plan she concocted. They would need to have it explained to them in the very short timeframe they would have to make this work.
Basically, it all fell to her and she was barely keeping herself together at this point.
But she was ready. She had Lolo’s vines collecting in the research room below them, pressing against the edge of the tank with all the gemstones in it. Lolo was a very weak Stand physically. However, given enough time, it could push a tank over with the right leverage…
One of the soldiers noticed. “Tank’s moving!” He looked for what was disturbing the tank - but he couldn’t find anything.
He tried to push back on the tank, but he was unable to judge the actual position of Lolo, so he pushed in the wrong place and introduced a pivot motion to the tank. It fell over, shattering it and spilling the Gems all over the ground. Some of them detached from the blue goo completely – and were able to reform.
One of these gems was a very ticked off Jasper. A spiked gauntlet appeared around one of her hands and she punched a scientist’s face in without thinking twice. A short Amethyst and a Peridot formed behind her, took one look at what was going on, and let out Gem war cries.
“GO DOWN!” Flutterfree shouted at Eve.
Seraphim activated, creating an area of physics where the solid state of matter didn’t exist, melting a hole in the cube. Flutterfree had Lolo toss up tools she had seen the scientists use to cut away the blue material, letting the Gems continue to act as a distraction.
Clandestine’s horn was uncovered first – and she set to work freeing the magic of everyone else using her own.
O’Neill, meanwhile, had started using Crimson Sushi. There was no way any of the scientists were going to be able to figure out where the alarm button even was, much less take two steps without stepping into someone else.
Of course, the Gems had the same problem, but they were basically indestructible. They’d forgive him later for creating complete chaos. …Okay, maybe not, but it was fun to watch everyone below scramble.
Corona put a hand on O’Neill’s shoulder. “Drop the panic button.” A ring of magic appeared around her free hand. “I’ve got something for them.”
O’Neill shrugged, taking Crimson Sushi’s effect off. Everyone had a moment of clarity.
Corona smirked. “Selective sleep spell.”
Every being that wasn’t a Gem on the ground below them fell asleep.
“All right!” Flutterfree yelled. “Listen quickly because I don’t think we have a lot of time! There are two things we need to do: free all the prisoners and take a ship to another universe! Eve, O’Neill, you lead everyone in this room along that branch of Lolo, it’ll take you to a docking bay, and specifically to a large whale-like ship. Clear it out and take control. It has a dimensional device on it that shouldn’t be affected by the blockade! If it is… I’m sure you can figure out some way to extend Seraphim’s range with the technology in there.”
“Got it,” O’Neill said.
“Corona, you have the harder job. You and I are going to free the prisoners. We’ll need to move more than two thousand people from one deck of this station to the one where the whale ship is. I have Lolo’s vines spread out everywhere between the two sections, but that is still going to be difficult!” She flew over to Corona and held onto her just below the the point where her wings met her body. “We follow those vines! That’s the plan! We don’t have time to argue, just go!”
“YOU HEARD HER!” O’Neill shouted. “LET’S MOVE, PEOPLE!” He and Eve took off down the path Flutterfree had indicated, Clandestine, the Gems, and all the other prisoners following.
Corona didn’t even need to be told again – she had already started flying along the path Flutterfree had indicated with Lolo. “Just the two of us, huh?”
“Yeah. We’ll get backup from the prisoners when we free them,” Flutterfree said. “I hope…”
“Hey, this is a good plan. I was thinking it would be something a little less frantic, but that’s just me. What I want to know is why you’re with me.”
“When we free the prisoners… They are going to attack.” Flutterfree gulped. “I have no idea from which direction right now, so our escape pathway is uh… one of twenty or so options. Unless you can teleport two thousand people into a whale ship without having a very good idea of where it is?”
“If I had an hour, maybe.”
“I’m thinking we have less than ten minutes.”
“I was going to say five,” Corona said with a smirk.
“Right. Anyway, this entire plan revolves around you not getting gunked with the blue stuff again. Bacon Pancakes is your friend.”
“I got that.”
“And I am your eyes. There’s a squad that’s likely going to see us up ahead three halls.”
Corona nodded, torching them as they passed.
“Right. The prisoners are all held right below us now… Bash through the floor. Expect a lot of guns shooting at you.”
Corona summoned Bacon Pancakes and flattened the floor, tearing through it like paper. They appeared in the center of a large room with several layers, all filled with loose, unsorted prisoners guarded by the occasional Combine soldier.
Corona raised a shield to deflect all bullets coming her way. “PRISON BREAK!” she yelled, using the Royal Canterlot Voice at long last. She raised a hand and started taking out the soldier guards.
To her immense delight, the prisoners started fighting back as well, the vast majority letting the anger grab hold of them. Corona removed the magic inhibitors from the unicorns with her other hand, only adding to the chaos as Combine guards went down left and right.
“How’s the security response?” Corona asked Flutterfree.
Flutterfree focused on Lolo. “Mostly coming from below, which is good since the docks are slightly above us. Drill a hole up through the ceiling right… here.” Lolo generated an X of green wire at an area of the ceiling slightly to Corona’s left.
“Raging Sights?” Corona asked, currently using both her hands to take care of the prisoners and guards.
“Preparing,” Raging Sights reported. “There will be a temporary opening during casting.”
Corona smirked, summoning Bacon Pancakes to protect her. “No problem.”
“Prepared,” Raging Sights reported.
Corona dropped her magic protections and blasted the ceiling with a white vaporization beam. Apparently the Combine had been waiting for this – hidden weapons and blue ring dispensers activating for the first time. A few hit her feet, but she was able to hide the rest of her body behind the central disc of Bacon Pancakes, a barrier they didn’t even know was there, much less were able to penetrate.
“You’re hurt!” Flutterfree called.
Corona realized she couldn’t heal her foot because it had the blue stuff on it, and she was much better served clearing blue stuff off of unicorn horns rather than caring for her own foot. “I can get a new foot later.”
“Corona!” Flutterfree gestured at the glowing blood dripping onto the ground.
Corona smirked. “I’m fine, Flutterfree.” She cleared her throat, pointing at the hole in the ceiling. “THAT IS YOUR WAY OUT! THERE IS A SHIP WAITING FOR YOU UP THERE! LOOK FOR OVERHEAD O’NEILL OR EVENING. I KNOW SOME OF YOU HAVE CONSTRUCT MAGIC, MAKE A STAIRWAY UP THERE WHILE I DEFEND YOU!”
After a few pegasi flew up the hole, a handful of unicorns did as was asked, creating a crystal walkway up to the hole in the ceiling. The mass of prisoners began to surge upward.
“Get to the bottom,” Flutterfree told Corona. “They’re about to breach.”
Corona nodded, flying down to the floor of the prison area, destroying the remaining automatic turrets on the way. She placed her hands to the floor and reinforced it with magical defenses, making the entire thing glow with intricate red geometric patterns.
Something hit the floor hard, but was unable to break through.
“It’s holding!” Flutterfree reported, looking through the part of Lolo she had on the other side. “They’re already moving to flank us.”
“Then we need speed above all else,” Corona said, in a fighting stance. “I hope everyone knows how to move quickly, because we don’t have much in the way of time here…”
~~~
“I have good news!” I said as we dodged another flurry of plasma weapon fire.
“What would that be!?” Renee blurted, shooting behind herself with a stolen plasma rifle.
“We’re a very good distraction for Corona and the prison break operation!”
Pinkie and I hoofbumped.
Renee threw her mane back. “Well then what are we going to do!?”
“This!” Pinkie said, producing a chainsaw and leaping into the air, carving through three spider-crabs at once, moving through the assaulting team like a liquid.
Somehow she only got red blood on herself, avoiding all other colors.
“…That goes well with your dress,” Renee observed. Then she blinked. “Oh that was the entire point of the dress wasn’t it!?”
“It’s the Pinkie Massacre dress,” Pinkie said, giggling. “Y’know, for special moments when massacres are needed.”
“You’re losing more sanity every day!”
“You need to go insane in this business,” I said, extending my senses through a nearby wall. “They care about us a lot more than they care about those prisoners. I think my ka signature scared that Advisor something fierce.”
“His colleagues probably aren’t gonna like that!” Pinkie observed.
“That’s his problem tomorrow. That won’t help us,” Renee pointed out.
I nodded. “Right. Anyway, now that we’ve served a great distraction…” I teleported us a level up, to the top of the Combine station. “I think it’s time for us to look for the interesting stuff in here. We’ve got two places to go…”
“Care to elaborate?”
“The Secret Prisoner and then the Tumor Room,” I said. “In that order. Our meeting with the Secret Prisoner should coincide more or less with Eve’s group, and then the Tumor Room will be near the end of this chapter.”
Renee twitched. “That doesn’t give me a timeframe, dear!”
“In the next half hour? Less? Everything is happening really, really fast in case you didn’t notice.”
Pinkie swung her chainsaw and cut the sluggy form of a genetically engineered machine-gun jellyfish in half before it even got off a shot. “You two should really pay more attention.”
Renee blinked. “…I expected these things to be stronger than that.”
“I’m Pinkie Pie in the Pinkie Massacre dress. The ease with which I take things out should never be used to judge their strength. …I think I’ll make a disclaimer sign for that.”
I chuckled. Renee twitched. “You do realize how impossible it is to work with both of you at once, right?”
“Eh, maybe?” I said, shrugging. “We just know ways of talking to each other that get ideas across well.”
“Yep! We can make it so every sentence has a noodle incident.”
“Hilarious, I assume,” Renee deadpanned. “Where to?”
“If I’m right, and I should be, the Secret Prisoner should be this way.” I teleported us through a large set of double doors.
We appeared in a room that seemed to be floating in nothing, but I knew better – it was really about the size of a baseball field, it was just that the walls were perfectly black and you couldn’t see the doors. Floating tiles filled the room, all level with the spherical enclosure’s diameter. These tiles surrounded a large black and white spiked ball patterned similarly to the yin-yang symbol without the dots.
I facehooved. “For the… this is the wrong room!”
“Really?” Renee said, blinking. “That looks pretty important to me!”
“I must’ve borked something somewhere,” I muttered, flipping through my notebook. “We aren’t the ones who are supposed to deal with this. There’s a whole other sequence of events…”
Renee looked to Pinkie, pleading.
Pinkie shrugged. “I actually don’t know that one. This spiked thing has something to do with Vriska, I think, but I’m not sure.”
“So what, she has to deal with it?”
“Yes! No. Er…” I rubbed my head. “She needs to be here, yes.”
“But she’s not on the station!”
“She probably will be,” Pinkie pointed out. “We’re heading for a climax on this thing, I can feel it.”
“Bingo,” I said, scribbling frantically. “And for everything to work we have to leave this place. …Ah, there was my mistake, I assumed the deck layout was fungible…” I crossed out a note and wrote a new one. “We can’t do anything with this.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
I shrugged with my wings. “Same thing in this case. I technically know what to do, but if I did it, that would screw with things I know have to happen. Namely the climax.” I closed my notebook and put it away. “By the way, Renee, you are going to be angry at me when you figure everything out.”
“I’m not angry already?”
“Tower’s base, no,” I answered, remembering many times I had gotten other Raritys really angry.
Renee groaned. “Fine, fine, I’ll get angry later. Let’s just go to the thing we need to do for the thing of… Uh…”
“Secret Prisoner,” Pinkie suggested.
“Yes, right.” Renee put a hoof to her head. “That.”
~~~
Vriska had been expecting a high-tech organized rebellion with lots of people scurrying about and yelling things about the fight against the Combine.
What she got was a hole in the ground with a few hundred people sitting around portable heaters. Hardly any actually had any weapons, and most of those had been at the door, ready to defend in case their position was compromised.
“This place is a dump,” Vriska said, looking at Applejack.
“Yep,” Applejack said, jumping down from a crate of supplies. “Glad you’re okay.”
Rainbow pushed Vriska to the side and pulled Applejack into a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Nova smiled brightly. “I brought a gift for my part of the reunion!” She stopped levitating the PoWR and dropped it next to Applejack with a squishy thud.
“We all got that,” Vriska pointed out.
“I carried it all the way here. And I had the invisibility. So there.”
Applejack looked at the PoWR and grinned. “Does this have as much firepower in it as Ah’m told it does?”
“You bet it does,” Vriska said. “Sixteen compartmentalized stomachs, each with several copies of precision weapons. We have seeker-needlers, radiation railguns, the carbines, long range detonators, and any number of other things.” She reached a hand into the porthole and pulled out a gun that looked like a squirrel had been grafted onto it. “…I have no idea what this is.”
“Probably useful against a very odd type of enemy,” Nova said. “Tree people, or something.”
“We’re gonna have to use this stuff soon,” Applejack said. “It’s only been two hours since the attack and it’s becomin’ pretty darn clear this whole resistance thing isn’t workin’.”
“Not where they can hear!” Anna hissed.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “They already know, and Ah ain’t lying for your sake, and you know it.”
Anna sagged, her halo dimming in shame.
“There is a ‘but’ I was getting’ to,” Applejack said. “They’re rootin’ us out and we can’t ‘take control’ of any area of the city, because they just hit us with overwhelming force. The only reason we’re here is because they have no idea where we are. But we have learned a lot during our little rebellion here. And one of those things is that they get all their orders not from the station in space, but from a repurposed tower here on the ground. The molybdenum tower.”
“The mayor’s building, right?” Nova asked.
Applejack nodded. “They have it as a symbol, of sorts. Subjugatin’ us through our own leadership. Also, I think they’re mockin’ our knowledge of the Dark Tower. Twofold punch. The point here is that all orders come from the top of that building. We take it out, we scramble their communications on the ground – and we might have a way to get to their station. Ah wouldn’t create such an important base of power in such an obvious place unless there’s an escape plan.”
“So you want to charge right in?” Vriska asked.
“Eeyep. ’Cause destroyin’ ships and squads doesn’t really seem to do much. Gotta get somethin’ that actually matters. ...We’ve already lost a fifth of our number not doin’ much.” She looked up. “It’s basically the last idea Ah’ve got besides ‘hunker down and hope they never find us.’ If this doesn’t work the rebellion’s going to evacuate into the flower jungle and try to live free there, out of Combine’s direct control. They may have observation posts out there already, but an endless jungle’s still hard to police efficiently.”
Nova blinked. “You’ve gone through a lot in just a couple hours.”
“Overwhelmin’ force’ll do that to ya,” Applejack commented. “Point is, we’ve gotta do this. These weapons give us enough power to maybe pull it off. Can Ah count on y’all?”
Vriska, Nova, and Rainbow saluted without even hesitating.
“Good. Anna, Ah’ll be goin’ this time instead of you.”
Anna blinked. “But Applejack, you’re th-”
“Ah’m a farmer who won’t be able to keep them together for long. You need to take control. Protect them no matter what, got it?”
Anna wanted to argue for a moment – but nodded in the end. “Yes, Applejack.”
Applejack smiled. “Good. Hey Affix!”
The scarred Rarity looked up from what appeared to be a giant bomb. “Huh?”
“How’s the big boom coming along?”
“Oh! Very good, actually. I’ve even got smaller ones!” She pulled a few miniature bombs out of her saddlebags. “It’s amazing how much exploding material the Combine have on them.”
Nova blinked. “Where did you find this one?”
Allure shrugged. “She was kinda just… here. Being… eccentric.”
“All is as it should be!” Affix decreed. “All that remains is to make these bombs fashionable!”
“You have until Ah give out all these new weapons,” Applejack said.
“Genius is always best under pressure!” Affix declared, getting to work.
~~~
In a situation this dire, Eve would have used Seraphim to dial the universe where ‘biological life is impossible’ to clear the ship they were stealing, but there was a pretty major problem with that.
Half of the ship itself was biological. So they were going to have to clear it manually. And it was a big ship.
Eve could see Lolo’s tendrils shifting into the ship, telling her, O’Neill, and the rest of the force that it was the right one.
“Okay, here’s the deal!” O’Neill shouted. “Eve and I are following the vines into this thing. The rest of you, spread out and clear the ship of any personnel you find. If you make it to the bridge, make sure you can control it, but do not launch. We have a couple thousand escapees waiting for us to break them out of here. Got it?”
The high-value prisoners all nodded, splitting off into several teams.
Eve and O’Neill summoned their Stands actively as they ran through the halls of the whale-ship, switching seemingly at random from metal floors to biological squishy surfaces.
“Chances we’re walking in this thing’s nose?” O’Neill asked.
“About as high as you telling a snot-related joke every time we’re on flesh-floor,” Eve said with a smirk.
“I was gonna go with earwax, but snot sounds good as well.”
“No you weren’t!”
O’Neill smirked. “Where’s your proof?”
Eve raised an eyebrow. “Amusing.”
“Really? I thought it was lame.”
Eve rolled her eyes. “O’Neill, never change.”
“I became a vampire in order to do that, so I think we might have a tiny paradox here.”
“Drinking Corona’s elixir does not make you a vampire. …Wait, you didn’t drink it, you have those nanobots!”
O’Neill grinned – revealing fangs.
Eve jumped. “W-wh-”
O’Neill removed the false teeth.
“…What!?”
“I’ve been keeping these in my pocket for years, breaking them out when the moment is just perfect.”
“…That can’t be sanitary.”
“Nanomachines, son.”
Eve groaned. “Don’t remind me about that guy.”
“Makes Valentine look like a teddy bear, huh?”
“Just… INCOMING!”
The two of them barely had time to dodge to the left as a sort of Combine speedster creature tried to ram them. The moment it missed it turned around and tried again – only this time it found that there was no friction on the floor. It lost all traction and rammed itself into the ceiling in an instant.
O’Neill whistled. “Speedsters. You never know there was a fight until it’s over.”
“So this ship is guarded, at least a little,” Eve noted. “We have to be at least a little cautious.”
They scrambled forward, running toward the front of the whale-ship, presumably where the bridge would be.
A few moments after this new surge of scrambling, they encountered a group of three human Combine soldiers. Eve took care of the bullets with a magic forcefield and Crimson Sushi delivered a ‘slap of no return’ to each of them. Easy and simple.
When they got to the bridge with no further resistance, they both got the same sinking feeling.
“Way too easy,” Eve muttered. “Flutterfree was right, this ship was almost completely empty…” She ran to the controls, looking for anything wrong.
They were locked out, sure, but it was easy enough to override the lockouts with her magic. She performed some diagnostics – the engines were fine, life support was fine, and the dimensional drive was operational. Just to make sure, she tried to interface it with Seraphim, and found it would be easy enough to create a portal for the entire ship if it came to that.
“Way, way too easy,” Eve said, narrowing her eyes. “There’s almost no obstacles on our end.”
“They could all be busy with Corona,” O’Neill suggested. “…Yeah, I don’t believe that’s the answer either.”
“Good, because if you did, I would have been sure you were a changeling,” Eve muttered, scanning everything. She was able to put nearby life signs on the screen. She could see Corona engaging heavy enemy resistance, and all the prisoners moving closer to the ship. She performed a quick teleport to the prisoners to make sure they were going the right direction, then she teleported back. “There’s hardly anything trying to stop us at all.”
“Part of their plan?” O’Neill suggested.
“I doubt it. I really, really doubt it,” Eve muttered. “They brought everyone up here to add them to their armies like all the other conditioned humans and biotechnical things we’ve seen. Something’s changed their mind about that, and they’re trying something else.”
“Let’s hope that involves ‘letting us go’.”
“Maybe… Maybe two thousand prisoners aren’t worth anything compared to whatever else they find…” Eve furrowed her brow as the first prisoners started to load onto the ship. Corona, how are you doing down there? She asked.
Doing fine. Looks like everyone’s finding their way to you faster than expected.
Are you going to last?
It seems like it. Haven’t seen one of those slug-things yet. I’m fighting big things, yes, but I know they have bigger.
I know. We’re beginning to suspect something’s up. Tell us the moment you see anything suspicious – the Combine have something else going on here.
I’ll ask Flutterfree to keep an eye out. After a moment’s pause, Corona responded. She says there’s a lot less soldiers and troops than when we started. As if most of them were called elsewhere.
To do what?
Lolo doesn’t go out far enough to tell. They’re just moving away from the prisoners and the docking bay.
Eve narrowed her eyes. Keep with the plan for now. But be prepared to improvise.
“Well?” O’Neill asked.
“She’s suspicious too. And most the soldiers seem to have left this area of the station – letting us do what we want.”
O’Neill frowned. “They going to try an internal self-destruct?”
“I think I can execute a universal jump before the explosion reaches us,” Eve said. “If that’s their plan, it’s a stupid one.”
Clandestine ran onto the bridge. “That’s everyone but Corona and Flutterfree.”
“How on Earth do two thousand people move that fast?” O’Neill asked.
“I don’t know. They just… did. All of them worked as one to get here.”
Eve blinked. “How in… Never mind, I’ll question it later.” Corona, we’ve got everyone. Get here and let’s go.
Hold that thought! Flutterfree just saw Renee, Pinkie and… Twilence on the edge of Lolo’s vines!
What!?
They’re running from much heavier resistance than I’m getting!
Eve blinked – and then laughed. “Well, I now know why everything’s going so well.”
“Why?”
“Twilence is here. She’s probably altering ka in our favor.”
O’Neill narrowed his eyes. “That still doesn’t sit well with me.”
“Of course not. But it means this really is going to work. …It also means we have to go help them.”
“Right, right… Clandestine, you have the bridge.”
Clandestine saluted. “I shall get everyone to safety.”
“Remember the way back to Merodi Universalis?”
“I can get there, General.”
“Good. Eve, take us out.”
Eve teleported herself and O’Neill out of the whale ship. They watched as it rose into the air – and left the universe, escaping the wrath of the Combine.
Everything was deathly silent except for an alarm in the background.
“…No, not even Twilence messing with things explains this much of a ghost town,” O’Neill said. “There’s a Combine plot here. Something more than just conquering a planet and enslaving people.”
Eve nodded. “Maybe she’ll know what that is.” Corona, go to where Flutterfree saw Twilence. We’ll teleport to you when you get there.
Got it. Did everyone get out?
The only ones left here are O’Neill and myself. We’ll use Seraphim to escape with such a small number of people.
Got it! Watch yourselves!
…There’s no one here to watch ourselves from.
O’Neill and Eve stood alone in an abandoned docking bay while war raged elsewhere.
~~~
“Something’s up indeed,” I muttered to myself, scribbling some notes. “Problem is I know exactly what it is…”
Renee sighed. “Let me guess, it’s one of those things you can’t tell us?”
I shook my head. “It has to do with the thing we saw earlier. It’s not a problem we get to deal with. But it’s certainly affecting us…” A troop of a dozen speedsters charged Pinkie from all directions. She twirled around their speedy forms, relying on her Pinkie Sense to dodge their attacks before they came. One hit at that speed would turn her into a pancake.
As she dodged, she swung her chainsaw wide, slicing several of them in half. Due to their speed, it was like cutting paper. The blood arced through the air and landed on Pinkie’s body. She paid it no mind, jumping into the air and slicing another two in half. One managed to graze her mane, but she was able to turn with it to keep her hairs from being pulled out. She flung the creature to the ground and drove the chainsaw through its chest.
“I... am a pretty terrifying monster, aren’t I?” Pinkie asked with a demented giggle. “Yeah. This is a lot of blood.”
“Pinkie, we’re fighting for our lives. I think we have the right,” Renee said.
“Oh, I’m not saying we don’t have the right! I’m just saying, yeah, I probably scare little kids.” She threw her warhammer over her shoulder and hit a spider-crab in the face, causing it to explode. “Not exactly what I was going for when I signed up.”
“You knew there would be death,” I pointed out.
“Aaaand I didn’t expect me to be the one dishing it out is all I’m saying,” Pinkie admitted with a shrug. “It is what it is though!”
“Pinkie… Are you doing okay?” Renee asked.
“Meh,” Pinkie said wiping the blood from her eyes but only getting more blood on it. “I think I’m fine. Though I’m covered in the blood of my enemies which is a pretty good indication of something other than fine. So I dunno, you make the call.”
I created a complex cylinder-based spell that fired a razor-sharp card construct into fifty-two different enemies, immobilizing all of them. “I think you’re as fine as you can be, considering. You have a remarkable force of will, Pinkie. You had to face the truth alone. I could not have done that.”
“I’m also one bad day from going completely psycho, so there’s a biiiit of a personality tradeoff here, y’know.” She threw a cream pie into a soldier’s face. The pie was made of gasoline and exploded on contact due to a sparkler embedded within the delectable pastry.
Renee had been spending all the fighting surrounded by her magical shields, hoping none of the blue goo got on her by sheer luck. “Maybe now isn’t the best time to question our sanities?”
“Renee has a point,” I observed. “Let’s just accept we’re insane and will have to work through this later. Agreed?”
“Agreed!” Pinkie said, pulling out several party cannons and blowing back numerous spider-crabs. “News flash: Pinkie has not yet suffered a single wound! No candy red blood here!”
“Stop tempting Murphy,” I suggested.
“But it’s time to move!”
“Oh, right, right…” I facehooved. “I got caught up.” I lit my horn, preparing a teleport. “Here it goes again. Hopefully this goes better than last time…”
I teleported all three of us into a secret, purple observation station. There were six chairs in the room, each affixed in front of a desk. On each desk was a computer, all currently off or asleep.
In front of the six stations was one gigantic window that looked out at… absolutely nothing. Darkness.
Renee blinked. “Uh… what is this place?”
“The Secret Prisoner,” I answered, running a hoof across the main window. “I’m so sorry,” I said.
“For what?” Pinkie asked.
“A lot of things,” I admitted. “But he knows at least one of them.”
“Stop being cryptic! Where is this prisoner?” Renee asked.
I pointed at the window. “Through that. If you bashed right through it you would see him – but then you would go completely mad from the sight.”
“Right, an eldritch deity. See, that’s important information. Thank you.”
“The highest form of eldritch deity,” I continued. “The being behind this ‘glass’ is one of the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors.”
Renee blinked. “…Horrorterrors. Pardon me if I don’t register what that means right away, but that’s a Class 1 right? It’s… It’s the ones responsible for Sburb…” Her eyes widened. “Wait, wait wait wait… I can’t comprehend quite how big this is right now… How are they even containing something like that!?”
“He’s weak,” I explained. “Captured, and contained in a ‘bigger-on-the-inside’ bubble.”
A series of eyes appeared plastered to the window. The great Horrorterror spoke, a voice not like Majora, not like Thrackerzod… It wasn’t reverberating or layered, nor was it deep and horrible. It didn’t even sound like words, but it didn’t drive them mad. They were struck by the importance of it.
“I__A M__N E O A N .__W E__H A V E__M U C H__T O__D I S C U S S__A N D__L I T T L E__T I M E .”
I wince. “Uh, yeah, we need to wait for Eve to get here for that. Don’t worry, I’ll make it go faster.” I took out my notebook and started scribbling. “Don’t panic, the Tumor won’t explode while we’re talking.”
“WHAT!?” Renee blurted.
~~~
Attacking the tower from the air was pointless – Combine ships surrounded it from all sides. They didn’t have the required aerial firepower that, say, Corona would have at her disposal. They had a couple of hard hitters, teleporters, and mostly just regular people with big guns.
Applejack said the plan was simple.
It wasn’t really.
They wanted it to look simple. And the first layer of the plan was. It was essentially ‘smash it and hope something happens’. The majority of the rebel forces with the PoWR’s provided advanced weaponry came out of the sewers around the tower and started shooting the place up, ensuring they stayed close to the structure so the Combine ships wouldn’t risk triggering a structural collapse.
“Move move move!” Affix yelled – she wasn’t technically in charge, but the actual commander let her do the barking since her voice demanded attention. The initial strike force held explosive weapons that blew the front doors of the tower down easily. They charged in, smashing the initial resistance without much fuss whatsoever.
“That was easier than expected,” Affix commented. The commander didn’t say anything – and Affix slowly realized she had quite forgotten his name. He was human, past middle aged, and stern. Military, probably, or perhaps a psycho mercenary for all she knew. Whatever, he was in charge, and she could just keep calling him commander for eternity.
The first floor was apparently cleared within a minute – bizarre, considering how large it was. But it let them move in with layer two of the plan: bombs. Specifically, one huge, invisible bomb carried by none other than Affix herself.
She was more than willing to admit that she was trigger-happy about the whole ordeal. They had a bomb that could bring this entire place crashing down with the push of a button – if they couldn’t take it, they’d blow it up and destroy whatever was at the top easily enough. Of course, it was a last resort, only if the teams going up the tower couldn’t progress.
...Or that was what a lot of troops had been told was the actual plan. Try to confuse the Combine with a direct assault, and really have a bomb in place on the bottom to accomplish the mission when everything went sideways. The fact that it hadn’t gone sideways in any way yet was a little odd, but Affix didn’t concern herself with such things as ‘ka’ and ‘fate’, she just acted.
The third layer of the plan was the real one. Behind the initial assault, behind the bomb, there was a team of six ‘heroes’ trying to take the stealth mission approach. Affix was convinced the way they leaned on ka to jump to their aid and give them what was needed would kill them one day.
But she hoped that wouldn’t be today just like everyone else.
She hoped even more that the actual strike teams would prove themselves excellent and actually get to the top of the tower, despite few actually having any training or combat experience. …It seemed to be working so far.
Affix circled her giant invisible bomb, glancing out the windows. “Why aren’t we getting attacked by ground forces?”
The commander narrowed her eyes. “You just noticed that now, did you?”
“Well, I was a bit excited about the big bomb, which I really want to explode but understand that’s basically the worst of all our options.”
“They should have been shooting our asses the moment we popped up,” the commander muttered. “This reeks either of complete apathy, or a trap.”
“Right…” Affix said, grimacing. “If they were apathetic about the tower, wouldn’t they just blow us up inside?”
“For all we know that’s a waste of resources. From what little intel we have, the Combine are all about resource management, sending the minimum firepower in to deal with the situation. If they think we aren’t worth it, or have some sort of cost-efficient way to take us out, they’ll jump all over that option like rabid dogs.”
Affix narrowed her eyes. “All right, something really fishy is up here. Really fishy. Hope our little heroes can figure it out for us.”
The commander nodded. “It’s always best with the small strike forces.”
“Is ka overruling your military training?”
“…I’m a barber.”
Affix flushed and facehooved. “Forget I said anything.”
The commander smirked, gun continually trained on the front doors of the black tower.
Meanwhile, seventy floors up, Jotaro, Nova, Vriska, Rainbow, Applejack, and Allure were flying up an elevator shaft, Nova’s magic doing all the heavy lifting. And maintaining the invisibility spell.
The only other person doing anything was Vriska. She’d picked up a gun from the PoWR with a scope that could see through walls – giving her the ability to steal luck at an unprecedented rate. “I really should see about getting one of these,” she said, smirking. “The luck just keeps growing.”
“Can we expect all eights?” Allure asked.
“Fuck no, I have to drain a crowded city block for that. But it’ll keep me – and by extension the rest of you ungrateful lot – hidden. Isn’t that convenient?”
“Yep.”
“Nearing the top!” Nova called. “We don’t know what we’re gonna find up there! Remember – stealth before shoot. I’m looking at you Vriska. Jotaro. …Rainbow. Why do we have three loose cannons?”
Allure snickered. “I could make convincing arguments that you and Applejack are loose cannons given the right situation!”
“…And we are once again reminded that you are the smart one.”
“Don’t even need a PhD to prove it! Woo!”
“But I’m serious, shut up.”
They all fell silent as Nova gradually decreased the rate at which they climbed. Vriska felt her luck drop significantly as they presumably passed through a specialized security net. Nova carefully teleported them through the elevator doors instead of forcing them open.
The room at the top of the tower was filled with Combine technology – metal intertwined with grotesque biological parts. The technology in here did not look as seamless as the creatures they had seen in the battlefield. Much of this stuff, being state-of-the-art, had not passed through any sort of ‘aesthetics’ consideration at this point.
There were some communication stations, giant screens that were tall rather than wide, a couple of weapons, and a large platform embedded in a nearby wall.
They saw a human man talking to an image of a slug-thing on the screen. Well, he was talking; the slug-thing didn’t appear to be talking back.
But Vriska was able to detect the psychic communication.
“Why am I not getting any reinforcements!? They’re storming the tower! I don’t have enough personnel! They’re a third of the way up already and show no signs of stopping!”
You have all you need to deal with simple rebels.
“No, I don’t! They have your weapons!”
Whose fault is that?
“Not mine! You’re the one who set down the PoWR cubes!”
You requested further assistance; that was our compliance. Why do you not have one on site?
“They were all out patrolling by your request!”
You could have kept one back.
“Look, just send a single dropship with some elites or something! You won’t experience any casualties!”
It is possible they have an individual with the unknown ability pattern.
“I sent you the data on the Stands already! Haven’t you figured them out yet!?”
The slug-thing made no response.
“I knew it. You have nothing. I don’t even know why I was asking. I turned away from these people thinking you could help me! You can’t even figure out something that simple!? What is wrong with you?”
There is another presence with you.
“What are you talking about? The room is completely empty!” He threw his arms wide. “But it won’t be for long!”
A powerful presence. Enough to hear my half of the conversation.
“Busted!” Vriska said, firing her gun into the man’s skull. “Well, that’s one traitor out of the way.”
Vriska Serket. This is a surprise.
Nova dropped the cloak. “And the rest of us?”
The slug-thing ignored them. You have been an issue multiple times before, Vriska Serket.
Vriska looked at them, confused. “You know, it feels weird hearing one of you Advisors say my name with respect. Did I hit you too hard last time?”
On the contrary, we have simply learned more about your origin since then. The worlds of Paradox Space have been a major focus of Combine study as of late. Your meddlesome interference in our society has proven to be more enlightening than any of the damage you have caused.
Vriska’s smile faltered. “…Oh no, you’re not trying to mess with… you are! You’re trying to mess with Sburb! Do you realize how stupid that is!? Do you know what happened!?”
It almost pains me to know you will not get to see the fruit of our labor come to pass. …Or perhaps you will. We have never been able to test the limits of a god-tier.
“What the fuck? What the fuck are you planning?”
Congratulations, Merodi Universalis, he said, finally addressing everyone in the room. You have removed the Combine presence from your world. You should celebrate. The feed was cut.
Nova ran to one of the Combine consoles, using some magic to quickly tell it to show her the space around Farpoint. She saw ships… leaving the universe. Every single dot that represented a Combine presence was suddenly gone.
With the exception of one.
The station, floating alone.
“I don’t think I need to tell anyone that we haven’t won,” Vriska said. “There was a death threat in there somewhere. Something’s going on in that station. And if what he’s implying is true, we need to get up there to keep everything from being super fucked.”
Allure nodded, running to the platform. “I think this is a teleporter.”
“Pretty bulky for a teleporter,” Nova observed.
“They never teleported, always used dropships,” Allure pointed out. “Maybe their teleportation technology just isn’t that great. Because it has to be this big.”
“Why not use magic?” Rainbow asked.
“Very few magic-based enemies, remember?” Allure said. “Just the pointers. Everything else is focused on magic inhibition. The blue stuff. Hey Nova, think this thing can teleport us up there?”
Nova lit her horn, interfacing with the technology. She scrolled across the data on her screen. “Uh… It looks like it’s the only place that can receive a teleport.”
Applejack turned to Nova. “Send a telepathic message to the commander, tell him the basics of what’s happened. Tell him we definitely haven’t won, and that if he can get anyone up here backup would be appreciated.”
Nova nodded. “Done.”
“What are we waiting for, let’s go!” Rainbow blurted. “I can feel the seconds slipping away!”
Nova nodded. They all piled on top of the teleporter – and vanished.
~~~
Eve and O’Neill teleported to Corona and Flutterfree. Eve let O’Neill ride her so they could keep up with Corona.
“Have you seen any resistance at all?” Eve said.
“There was some about a minute ago,” Corona called back. “But the closer I’ve gotten to Twilence’s signature, the less of everything else there is.”
Flutterfree nodded. “It’s like they’re all just gone. I’m only seeing wounded now.”
“Something is going on, something nasty,” O’Neill said. “We need that triclops alicorn to tell us what.”
You’re in luck, I told them telepathically, because I’m waiting for you around… the third corner. I may be off slightly.
Why not just teleport us at this point? Corona asked.
Because it’s amusing to keep an eldritch deity waiting.
O’Neill laughed. “And I thought this day couldn’t get any better!”
Eve rolled her eyes as the four of them entered the purple room with the six consoles. I waved at them. “Welcome to the Hidden Prisoner!”
Pinkie rushed Eve into a hug. “Oh, Eve, it’s good to see you!”
“Good to see you t- that’s a lot of blood.”
“Yeah! It’s my new massacre dress! You like it?”
“…It does make you look good,” Flutterfree admitted.
Renee tipped her hat to Eve. “Glad to see everything’s fine. Even though these two wouldn’t shut up about you. Sorry if I’m not as elated to see you since I am fed up with the things coming out of these two’s vocalizations.”
“Ahem!?” I said, holding up a wing. “Hidden Prisoner? Hello? Big, important eldritch deity who’s willing to talk to us?”
“A R E__Y O U__F I N A L L Y__R E A D Y ?” Neoan asked, drawing everyone’s attention to the ever shifting eye patterns appearing on the ‘glass’. “O R__D O__Y O U__M O R T A L S__N E E D__T I M E__T O__A D J U S T__T O__T H E__‘ P R O P E R ’__T I M E L I N E ? ”
“Wouldn’t you understand the need for a proper timeline?” Flutterfree asked. “I mean, if what Vriska’s said about you is true, you lived in a place where time and space were so fluid you had to know about those things. Your ability to do that was how you all became Class 1, right?”
“W H I L E__T H E__F U R T H E S T__R I N G__D I D ,__I N__F A C T ,__R E Q U I R E__T H A T ,__W E__A R E__N O T__T H E R E .__T H I S__I S__A__W O R L D__O F__S I N G U L A R__T I M E__A T__T H E__M O M E N T .”
Eve held up a hoof. “Right. So, you’re clearly a prisoner here. Why are you locked up? And why should we free you?”
“… I__A M__ L O C K E D__U P__B E C A U S E__I__W A S__ F O U N D .__D U R I N G__T H E__A T R O C I T I E S__W R E A K E D__O N__O U R__K I N D__ I N__T H E__E N G L I S H__I N C I D E N T ,__T H E__N O B L E__C I R C L E__O F__H O R R O R T E R R O R S__W A S__A T T A C K E D .__M A N Y__O F__U S__P E R I S H E D .__I__A M__T H O U G H T__D E A D__B Y__M Y__B R E T H R E N .__H O W E V E R , I__W A S__N O T__ K I L L ED__ – M E R E L Y__H E A V I L Y__I N J U R E D__ A N D__S E N T__A D R I F T__ A C R O S S__T H E__ M U L T I V E R S E .__ T H E__C O M B I N E__F O U N D__ M E__I N__T H A T__S T A T E__A N D__I M P R I S O N E D__ M E ,__B E L I E V I N G__M E__T O__B E__T H E__C A T C H__O F__T H E I R__E X I S T E N C E .__W H I C H__I__W A S .
“ T H E Y__A T__F I R S T__S O U G H T__O N L Y__B I O L O G I C A L__T R I C K S__F R O M__M E ,__B U T__ S O O N__ F O U N D__T H A T__ M Y__F O R M__W O U L D__ B E__O F__L I T T L E__A S S I S T A N C E__T O__T H E M__W I T H__T H E I R__C U R R E N T__L E V E L__ O F__D E V E L O P M E N T .__S O__T H E Y__B E G A N__T O__D E L V E__ F O R__I N F O R M A T I O N .__A__N O B L E__H O R R O R T E R R O R ’ S__M I N D__I S__O N E__O F__T H E__M O S T__C O M P L E X__A N D__P O W E R F U L__I N T E L L E C T S__I N__E X I S T E N C E__ –__B U T__ I__W A S__ I N J U R E D .__A N D__W I T H__E N O U G H__T I M E ,__E V E N__T H E__G R E A T E S T__M I N D S__W I L L__F A L L , E S P E C I A L L Y W I T H T H E__S C I E N T I F I C__ R E S O U R C E S__O F__A N__E N T I R E__S O C I E T Y D E V O T E D__T O__P R Y I N G__ S E C R E T S__A W A Y__F R O M__A N__ E L D E R__G O D ’ S__ MI N D .
“ T H E Y__W A N T E D__T H E__S E C R E T S__O F__S B U R B__F R O M__M E .__A N D__T H E Y__G O T__ E N O U G H__ T O__S A T I S F Y__ T H E I R__C U R I O S I T Y . ”
Eve nodded slowly. “That’s bad.”
“ T H A T__I S__A__S E V E R E__U N D E R S T A T E M E N T .__T H R E A T S__ T O__T H E__ E N T I R E__M U L T I V E R S E__A R E__ R A R E__ E V E N T S .__T H E__ E N G L I S H__I N C I D E N T__H A P P E N E D__A L M O S T__A__M I L L E N N I U M__A G O ,__W H E N__S P E A K I N G__O F__M E T A T I M E ,__A N D__ T H E R E__H A S__N O T__ B E E N__ A N O T H E R__ C O M P L E T E__ T H R E A T__ S I N C E .__ T H E R E__L I K E L Y__W I L L__N O T__B E__ F O R__M I L L I O N S__O F__Y E A R S .__A__ D A N G E R__O F__ T H A T__M A G N I T U D E__I S__A__O N C E__I N__A__L I F E T I M E__T H I N G__F O R__ T H O S E__O F__M Y__ K I N D . ”
“…What the hell is Sburb?” O’Neill asked.
“ T H E R E__W A S__O N C E__A__H O R R O R T E R R O R__O F__T H E__N O B L E__C I R C L E__W H O__A S C E N D E D__T H E__D A R K__T O W E R .__T H I S__H O R R O R T E R R O R__C A M E__T O__T H E__ L A S T__D O O R__A N D__U S E D__H I S__E L D R I T C H__N A T U R E__T O__ P A S S__T H R O U G H__T O__T H E__R O O M__A T__T H E__T O P__O F__T H E__T O W E R__W I T H O U T__B E I N G__S E N T__A W A Y .__H E__L E A R N E D__ M U C H__T H E R E ,__A N D__S H A R E D__ I T__W I T H__H I S__K I N D .__T H E Y__D E C I D E D__T O__U S E__T H I S__K N O W L E D G E__T O__C R E A T E__A__N E W__W A Y__F O R__U N I V E R S E S__T O__B E__M A D E__–__N O T__B Y__A N C I E N T ,__F O R G O T T E N__C O N S T R U C T S ,__N O R__B Y__D E S I G N ,__B U T__ T O__A L L O W__T H E__B E I N G S__ O F__ O N E__U N I V E R S E__ T O__B U I L D__ A N O T H E R__T H R O U G H__A__J O U R N E Y ,__C R E A T I N G__A__ G L O R I O U S__M Y T H O L O G Y__F O R__A__W O R L D .__ A__W O R L D__T H A T__C H O S E__I T S E L F__H O W__I T__W O U LD__B E .
“ T H E__E X P E R I M E N T__W A S__D I S A S T R O U S__A N D__R E S U L T E D__ I N__T H E__ N E A R__D E S T R U C T I O N__O F__ H O R R O R T E R R O R__S O C I E T Y ,__A S__Y O U__K N O W . ”
Renee gulped. “I’m almost afraid to ask… What are the Combine trying to do? Recreate Sburb?”
“ N O . ”
“Oh that’s a relief…”
“ B U T__T H E Y__H A V E__N O__I D E A__W H A T__T H E Y__A R E__D O I N G .__T H E Y__T H I N K__T H E Y__A R E__J U S T__R E C R E A T I N G__T H E__P O W E R__S O U R C E__O F__S B U R B__–__K N O W N__A S__T H E__G R E E N S U N .__B U T__ T H E Y__D O N ’ T__T H I N K__A B O U T__T H E__C O N S E Q U E N C E S__ T H I S__M I G H T__H A V E .__T H E__L O S T__W O R L D S__I T__W I L L__B R I N G__F R O M__T H E__S E A__O F__I N F I N I T E__P O S S I B I L I T I E S .__T H E__C O N N E C T I O N__ I T__H A S__T O__T H E__W O R L D S__ O F__ P A R A D O X__ S P A C E .__A__ N E W__G R E E N__S U N__W I L L__ H A V E__ C O M P L E T E L Y__U N K N O W N__E F F E C T S__O N__A L L__T H E S E__T H I N G S .__E V E N__I__C A N N O T__S A Y__F O R__S U R E__W H A T__W I L L__H A P P EN . ”
“And if we let you free you can stop it?” Eve asked.
“ N O .__I__C A N N O T__S T O P__I T .__T H E__C O M B I N E__H A V E__A L R E A D Y__ C R E A T E D__A__T U M O R ,__A N D__T H E__M O M E N T__TH E Y__D I D__I T__W A S__F A T E D__T O__G O O F F__A T__A N__E X A C T__M O M E N T__A T__A N__ E X A C T__T I M E .__ S U C H__I S__T H E W A Y__W I T H__H O R R O R T E R R O R__T E C H N O L O G Y .__T H E__T U M O R__W I L L__F R E E__M E__O N C E__I T__G O E S__O F F__–__D O__N O T__W O R R Y__F O R__M Y__S A K E .__I__A M__J U S T__H E R E__T O__W A R N__Y O U__O F__T H E__G R E E N__S U N ,__O F__S B U R B ,__A N D__W H A T__T H E__C O M B I N E__H A V E__ D O N E . ”
“Can we do anything to stop it?”
“ N O , ” Neoan said. “ Y O U R__S E E R__O F__V O I D__I S__R I G H T ,__I T__I S__N O T__Y O U R__D E S T I N Y__T O__I N T E R F E R E__W I T H__T H E__T U M O R .__I T__I S__T H E__D E S T I N Y__O F__T H E__T H I E F__O F__L I G H T__A N D__H E R__E N T O U R A G E__T O__D O__S O . ”
Eve turned to me. “So we just sit here and wait then?”
“Oh, Tower’s will no!” I blurted. “We need to get to the Tumor room as fast as we can, our presence there at the end is absolutely paramount.”
“Right.” Eve shook her head. “I think I see what you had to deal with.”
Renee shrugged. “Yeah. I have the sinking feeling it’s only going to get worse.”
“ G O__F O R T H ,__H E R O E S .__T O__T H E__T U M O R__A N D__Y O U R__D E S T I N Y .__B E__P R E P A R E D__F O R__T H E__U N E X P E C T E D . ”
Eve was about to say thanks – but something shot across her mind. “…I dreamed about the Green Sun. On the ride here…”
“Celestia had dreams like that,” Corona said. “You have her essence.”
“I know, I’ve had visions before, but why…?”
“ B E C A U S E__T H E__T I M E__H A S__C O M E ,__ W H Y__E L S E ? ”
I put a hoof on Eve. “We need to go, Eve. I know the way. Follow me.”
All of us ran, leaving Neoan behind, alone with his incomprehensible thoughts.
~~~
Vriska, Jotaro, Nova, Allure, Rainbow, and Applejack appeared in an empty room on the Combine station. Maybe it was the bridge? They had no idea. They didn’t take the time to think about it either.
Nova checked her screen. “Huh… There are a lot of alarms going off.”
“What kind of alarms?” Rainbow asked.
“The ‘something is about to go boom in a way I can’t understand so I’ll just throw a lot of unknown alerts at you’ alarms.”
“Aradia gave you that,” Vriska said, gaze becoming distant. “It should be able to figure out what’s going on…” She shook her head. “Find the source! Whatever’s causing it!”
“I don’t know!” Nova blurted, scrambling through all the data. “All I know is that there’s something, and it’s resonating with the universe, and it’s getting stronger!”
“Then it’s time to cash in some luck,” Vriska muttered. She closed her eyes and started spinning, pointing her finger. Wherever she stopped would b-
She tripped, her luck dropping considerably. Her sword fell out of her other hand and embedded itself in the ground right next to her neck. “Fuck, too low.”
Jotaro thought otherwise. He punched a hole in the ground right where the sword point landed, taking them to the level below.
“This isn’t it…” Vriska said, putting the weapon scope to her eye. “Not it… Not it…”
Jotaro punched down another level. “Now?”
“No no no…” Vriska scowled. “We don’t have much time, I know it. But where i… duh.” She pointed the scope down – and saw it. She gaped.
“What?” Applejack asked.
“Three more floors Jotaro,” Vriska told him.
Jotaro didn’t need to be told twice. He punched all the way down three floors. In front of them was a large door with a spirograph on it.
Vriska moved to kick it open – but it slid right open for them. The room was impossibly dark, and the floating platforms were interesting to say the least, but Vriska didn’t give a rip. She flew over to the black and white orb in the center.
She knew exactly what it was.
The Tumor.
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…” Vriska muttered, putting her hands to her head. “This is bad on so many levels…”
“Can you explain?” Nova asked.
“Think universe bomb, except worse,” Vriska said. She noticed that there were floating computer consoles next to the tumor. “…There might be something here though. Nova, start interfacing with this technology. I’m probably about to turn on a lot of alarms…” She reached out with her hands and grabbed the prickly surface of the Tumor. She tore it in half – one black side, one white, letting the two halves fall into the nothingness below.
Inside was a machine. The machine consisted of a platform with three sections. The outer two sections held tremendous glass tubes. The one on the left was tinged red, the one on the right tinged blue. They appeared to be filled with stars at first, but closer inspection revealed every single light to be a galaxy. Each tube connected to an entire universe.
In between the tubes was an icosahedron. One of the triangular faces was a screen with a timer on it.
3:19.
“We don’t have that long to stop this thing,” Vriska said. “Nova, got anything?”
“All I’ve got so far is ‘universe selection program’!”
“That’ll do!” Vriska said, checking it. “Let’s see… I don’t know what the universe in the red tube is… Uh… Right, uninhabited rock, failed session, not worth my time. Blue tube… Of course the blue tube is fucking Farpoint.”
“Farpoint?” Applejack blurted.
“Yes! When this thing goes off it’s currently taking all of Farpoint with it!” She grabbed her hair. “Gah, this is why everything was so easy! They needed a universe that went through Sburb to fuel this thing, and when we proved to be just a little too much hassle for some shiny yellow rocks they just threw Farpoint in to fuel the flames. They’ve been letting us walk around like big heroes because they really didn’t care anymore – they were just going to blow us up!”
“Vriska, it’s a universe selection program,” Nova said. “Just switch it to something else!”
“Right, right…” Vriska tapped some buttons and brought up a menu of many other universes. “Find an uninhabited one.”
“There,” Nova said, pointing at a universe that was marked ‘lifeless’. “That should do it.”
The universe in the blue tube shifted, changing to show another arrangement of galaxies.
Vriska began to sweat. “That doesn’t help us. We’re still in here…”
“Can we just leave the room?” Allure asked.
“It’ll engulf at least the entirety of this station. Do you think we can get back to the top and figure out a reverse teleport in… two minutes?”
“We can try!” Rainbow said, grinning as she landed next to her.
“No, you can’t,” I said, walking into the room with the rest of them – Eve, O’Neill, Flutterfree, Corona, Pinkie, and Renee. “Multiple reasons. The most practical being that the Combine remotely blocked teleportation once they realized you were messing with this. Really, the fact that you got here at all was an oversight on their part.”
“It’s handy to have a Prophet around to create convenient oversights,” Pinkie offered.
“So what, we’re just going to die here!?” Vriska blurted. “Whoop-de-do, we saved the universe! Except this Tumor is still going off and it’s still going to do gog knows what!”
“We’re not going to die here,” I said, glancing at Pinkie and Eve. “…Or if we do, I know for certain it won’t be permanent. This is not the end of the story, even if it may feel like it. I Pinkie Promise.”
Vriska’s knuckles paled. “…That’s it? Some assurance?”
I put my hoof out, pointing at Vriska. “You’ve still got over a minute to try something, Vriska. You can still change something. You’re the one with the power here.”
Vriska stared at me. “…You’re just saying that, aren’t you? You know how this ends.”
“…Not exactly.”
“But you know that, even though I do have the choice, one of the results ends up happening?”
“…Yes,” I said. “I know what happens.”
Vriska prepared to punch me – but instead she just turned to stare at the timer on the Tumor.
Fifty seconds.
“I think I see what’s going to happen,” she said, scowling. “I see all of you. I see a pattern. I see a destiny. …Maybe.”
“You might or might not see the right one,” I told her.
“But how do I survive, Twilence?! If that fate is right, I… I… This will be Heroic and you know it!”
I held up my notebook and gave her a knowing smile. “I know how to pull a few strings, Vriska. I’m not just going to let you go like that. Not when we’re so close.”
Vriska’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean…”
“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” I said. “This is the point where everyone should start hugging each other to brace for what’s about to come.” I turned to stare at the Tumor, its blue and red tubes reflecting in the Eye of Rhyme.
A few pairs went off – Allure to hug Renee, Flutterfree to Eve – but Corona decided that wasn’t enough.
“Screw it, we’re all in this together. Stand as one.” She pulled all thirteen of us together into one hug – a hug that soon transformed into a defiant stand where we all stared into the threat of the tumor.
Star Platinum, Seraphim, Bacon Pancakes, Lotus Locus, Crimson Sushi, Raging Sights… They stood by us as well. Not quite heroes, but not quite separate.
0:03
“This is going to hurt a lot,” O’Neill commented.
0:02
“Just remember to giggle at the ghosty,” Pinkie suggested.
0:01
“I love you all,” Eve said. “Whatever happens.”
0:00
~~~
Two universes, abandoned universes of failed Sburb sessions as far as the Combine were concerned, were destroyed. The Combine unleashed universe-destroying technologies in them to fuel the Tumor, for it could not destroy them itself. The Combine station had intended to shoot a reality cascade into the universe it was in, but Vriska had taken care of that. Farpoint would not be fuel for the Tumor’s fire.
The other two were. As their very physical laws fell apart at the seams, instead of falling into the Sea of Infinite Possibility to be forgotten, they fell into the eldritch internal workings of the Tumor and fused into one object – an object that was its own universe.
The Combine station was completely engulfed in the explosion of the Tumor, killing anything inside that hadn’t already been dead. A green globe of fire erupted from the station, expanding to a size larger than most universes. And yet, it only appeared as a green speck of light to Anna and Affix. Just another light in the sky.
A light in the sky that could be seen in every universe it connected to. Farpoint. Worlds near Farpoint. Combine worlds connected to the two universes that had been eaten. Worlds once thought lost in the depths of Paradox Space.
On a world lost for so long, a chalk-white skinned human woman in a black cloak flashed green for a moment. The sensation sent chills up her spine.
Near the Green Sun, planes of existence split off into new universes – physically connected to the Green Sun, but yet of different physical properties. It recreated the worlds it was designed to exist in – black, formless voids where time was space and space was time, but neither were true at certain apexes. Bubbles began to form in these darknesses, like dreams…
Bubbles that soon coalesced into one once they realized there was no longer enough space for them apart, only together. In the center of this central bubble, a dark vortex swapped inside out – and vanished completely.
The Combine didn’t waste any time moving in. Gone were the simple biomechanical ships the Merodi had seen in their struggles. In their place were ships the size of solar systems, crafted with stars at their center, the fleshy-mechanical masses burning in the light of their own power, and becoming stronger because of it.
The Green Sun was important enough to draw the attention of the true Combine presence. They were more than willing to devote more resources to this great creation than anything else in their civilization’s long history.
But to say they were the only ones interested would be foolish. In the light of the Green Sun, an enemy the Combine had spent centuries creating loomed in the darkness – the form of Neoan, the Noble Horrorterror. Alone, the full might of the Combine would have been able to take him.
He was not alone. The re-creation of the Green Sun had sent ripples throughout the multiverse, alerting every Horrorterror who cared about the sudden resurgence of their past mistake and tragedy. The fleshy, horrendous masses of eldritch power dropped into the Green Sun’s new cluster, standing opposite the Combine’s stellar constructions.
The Green Sun sat in the middle, with the bubble of dreams ‘orbiting’ it closely, watching, waiting to see what the two multiversal giants would do.
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I'M CURRENTLY WORKING ON FIXING NEOAN'S DIALOGUE.
Edit: Okay, it should be readable now.
(grumbles in formatting pain)
-GM, master of dialogos.
Not a bad chapter, looking forward to see whar happens with our heroes.
Okay. This is definitely something big enough to be considered a tipping point of the whole story. Twilence getting personally involved, Vriska's past becoming relevant, a Class 1 society in more than a passing reference or cameo. (Have we seen any Class 1's before, or only heard them referenced?)
I love how the episodic nature of this whole arc just got upended during an chapter that was clearly a one-shot filler meant for the characters to talk through their issues, not get wrapped up in the main plot. Now that we made it through the 3rd part of the Farpoint Saga, it's become so much more. Perhaps this points towards some messing with the natural flow of ka? Pinkie didn't see it coming, but Twilence did... then again Twilence is something a little more than other Awares...
Thanks to Twilence for letting us know that our heroes will be okay... mostly... hopefully? As she said, it's not the end of the story yet.
I find it interesting that Applejack and Rainbow Dash have been brought back for this arc, after a lack of multiversal involvement for a while. I suspect something big and story-changing is about to happen. I just hope it isn't a main character death.... although I'm sure there will be one before too long.
I wonder if the main conflict of the story will come into view soon. We do have the foreshadowing that something that threatens the multiverse is super rare, but we only have a few scattered clues as to the main conflict of SoTS as a whole. Given this shift halfway through the arc, I suspect the finale of this arc is where we will get a major infodump that changes everything.
Okay, I'm just rambling now... but I love this story! Keep up the good work!
9512727
Class 1 societies met in the past:
Them: the creatures who organized the Hunger Games
The Abstracts: the conceptual beings that contained The Living Tribunal
Xeelee: technologically advanced society that helped face Kars and tried to "help" Merodi Universalis
Celestialsapiens: beings made of stars who spend most their time debating.
And now: Horrorterrors: eldritch creatures of... "fun."
There are two more you haven't met yet. You will soon though.
Ooh, you're smart, but while there IS an infodump at the end of the arc, it's not the one that really changes everything. THAT infodump comes in chapter 115. So you can look forward to that.
-GM, master of cod.
The Green Sun has arisen once more... Are First Guardians now in the field of play again? Does SBURB technology work again, now that the Sun's light shines? Are any of my questions even relevant to the plot?
9512986
Patience, my dear calliope, all will be answered in due time.
-GM, master of Qs.
Well, I don't exactly know what Horrorterrors can do but I can say this:
The Combine is SCREWED!
hell yes, more SBURB stuff! im HYPED now lets GOOOO
Twilence as a Seer of Void... Yeah, makes sense. She perceives the unknown and unknowable, and, for the most part, must work in the dark corners of the narrative.
At that look at Evening and Pinkie... That's something we'll look back on in understanding in a good fifty chapters, isn't it?
Also, I find myself worried that the Combine might have gotten a sample of Corona's blood, or something else going wrong because of that cut. It feels like enough attention was brought to it that it will prove significant down the line.
In any case, heck of a cliffhanger. Eagerly looking forward to more.
Great chapter! Probably unintentional but I found it somewhat humerus that I could draw parallels between some of the cards & lore of Magic the Gathering and this chapter.
Horrorterror = Emrakrul the Promised End, one of the Eldritch Titans that wander through the space between planes called the blind eternities, in magic lore.
Green Sun = Green Sun's Zenith, one of the five sun's of the plane / universe of Mirrodin.
Combine = Simic Combine, one of the ten guilds of Ravnica focused largely on biomancy and is known for coaxing new morphologies by combining traits from multiple organisms in one.
I guess the only question now is that if the tumor spawned universes connected to the green sun, is one of them the universe / plane of Mirrodin? If so we could be looking at a Phyrexian incursion / corruption. From what I remember Phyrexia had a method of dimensional travel that involved collapsing the barrier between between different planes. Which was how, the artificial plane of Rath was able to invade Dominaria, but I may be forgetting things.
9514773
Disclaimer: All MTG references are FanOfMostEverything's fault in some respect or other, and virtually all of them are unintentional on my part.
The Green Sun here comes from Homestuck, something that's completely unrelated to MTG. I think.
-GM, master of CARDS.
I never thought the idea of a starship with a sun as its core, how much materials would it need?
9514891
Multiple planet's worth, which is nigh-impossible in our universe, but if you have access to the multiverse there are entire planes made entirely out of, say, silicon. The Combine are MASTER resource managers.
-GM, master of reosurces.
9514911
Yeah, gravity itself would make collapse said ship inside to its core, due to the mass of the object, if it works in another universe, the best shape would be a sphere, or better, an icosahedron, they need to manipulate gravity though, in a universe were gravity is easily manipulated it could work, anyway, there is a lot of creative stuff in this story, you have a big imagination dude XD; now we have 2 class 1 societies left to know, we have the Celiestisapien, Them, the Xelee, the HorrorTerrors, and the other one mentioned in the dc-marvel chapter, which I don't' remember the name XD.
Just wanted to drop in to let you know that this story updating is the undisputed highlight of my week. I love practically everything about it. Thank you for your effort and devotion in writing this, and thank you for sharing it with us.
9515232
d'awww, thanks! Comments like this give me reason to keep writing and striving for more! I'm glad you're enjoying!
-GM, master of SMILEZ.
9510392
I agree completeley about the name changes being sudden. So far the most smooth name change was rarity's, but that one was a bit special compared to the others.
Okay, I know people have a tendency to be weird about abbreviations in an effort to make them easier to say, but this is simply outrageous. None of these words even start with R, so why is R one of the main letters in it? You don't just ignore the first letter in a word and choose an arbitrary one in the middle just because it makes the abbreviation sound better. I'm not saying it has to be changed, I'm just voicing my opinion about abbreviations in general. For all I know, GM didn't create that abbreviation, and it's just from the source material.
9551516
I made it.
I made it because it sounded stupid.
Thanks for noticing!
-GM, master of dumb.
You spelled “Green Sun” with a space one, and without it the other time.
You forgot an underscore-space between G O and O F F.
"IT IS A TUMOR." Pinkienegger intoned.
Heh, "Tower's base". Now there's a unique exclamation I haven't heard before that is strongly linked to the context of this story.
I've said something to the effect before, but Pinkie is terrifying when she cuts loose. And her with a chainsaw? Yikes.
God. Damn.
And lol.
I am not well-versed in Homestuck lore, but I've gathered enough from within the context of this story that this can't be anything good. Not even just from the fact that it's one of the highest Eldritch beings because that's concerning enough.
Also, chalk up another one for a Class 1 getting encountered. I'm starting to get a bit concerned with the frequency here.
...Uhh....UHHH. That's not good, and I bet it has something to do with Neroth.
Ah, wonderful, the old "fool gains immense amounts of power and ends up stupidly causing mass amounts of destruction because of it" trope. And the fool in this case is The Combine.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, our heroes are going to have a fun time with this one.
Also I was right about Neroth being involved but it wasn't how I expected.
...Yeah I don't think anyone wants to be caught in the crossfire of this fight.
But I don't think anyone really has much of a choice.
herewego🍿