EPSILON DELTA, PART SIXTEEN: FATE’S WIDE WHEEL

Kat had been fine with doing a controlled firebombing of Compton’s camp, up until the point that he heard Alice on his communicator say, “Everyone. Get out. Get out now, NOW, N–"

Kat’s first instinct wasn’t to run, but rather to flatten himself down on the ground where he stood on the edge of the clearing. He was pretty sure he couldn’t run fast enough, and besides, the purple smoke he could see implied that Alijda had just teleported herself back in to get Beam. He tried to bend the fire of the exploding tent around and away from that location.

The mystic shockwave was a surprise.

Kat wasn’t sure whether things happened in the blink of an eye, or whether he actually lost consciousness. Either way, the next thing he knew, everyone in the clearing was flat on the ground. Except Compton. The short, bearded man was now standing rigidly, quietly, instead of bellowing about getting Destiny back. Then a smile flickered over his face.

Kat didn’t like that.

Firestorm charged in from the other side of the clearing. Kat winced, but decided not to intercede yet. Curiously, as Firestorm hummed and released a fireball towards Compton, the short man simply watched it approach. That is, until it was almost right in front of him, at which point he raised his palm, whistled - and the fireball bounced. Firestorm dove to the side and rolled as it came back towards him, causing Kat to wonder how much the cloaked man could be affected by his own attacks.

Kat took advantage of the distraction, crawling into the clearing, staying low to the ground. Alijda, Beam and the henchman who’s been holding onto Beam were all in the same general area. Hopefully they were merely unconscious, as it beat the alternative.

“Oh, this is brilliant,” Compton said, his smile becoming a smirk. “All I need now is more power. Hmmm, and what’s this aura I sense…"

Kat froze as Compton began to stride towards him - but it was Beam that Compton reached for, grabbing her by the arm and hauling the blonde up to her feet.

“Whuhhhh?” Beam warbled, the holographic girl seeming as dazed by the blast as any of them. She barely managed to stay upright as Compton began to drag her back towards the location of the stone circle. The location of the dimensional weakness.

Compton then began to whistle continuously, eyeing both Firestorm and Kat, as if to make it clear that he knew they were there, and not to do anything stupid. Beam moaned and tried to push Compton away as he reached his destination, but the man simply gripped her by the ear instead, whistling louder as Beam slumped down to the ground.

Kat remained where he was, trying to analyze the situation. Was Compton somehow draining Beam’s batteries using his magic? To what end? Compton pointed down. To weaken the dimensions? Firestorm tried to attack while their adversary’s attention was diverted - but again, his fireball bounced off an invisible wall.

“Damn it,” Kat said. He helped that attack burn itself out, before it could cause any major damage. He was getting good at that of late, given how they’d been trying to restrict the effects of their fire attacks to the clearing itself.

“Oh, you thought I had to be watching you to bounce your attacks back?” Compton snarked, ceasing his whistle. “How wrong you are. No, no, this power, awakened in me by that explosion, you have no chance of defeating it. Not with such pathetic attacks. And soon, I’ll have bled out enough energy from this strange one” - he jerked Beam’s head by the ear - “to gain full mental control over this mystic doorway. You hear that, Destiny, wherever you are? You’ll rue the day you crossed me, make no mistake.”

Compton resumed whistling.

However, having been reminded of the fact that Fate had been brought to safety reinvigorated Kat. Moreover, he knew Rose and Alice were still out there too, likely working on a plan. They simply needed to regroup. Kat resumed heading for Alijda.

He had managed to ascertain that Alijda was fine, but unlikely to regain consciousness any time soon, when Compton resumed his gloating.

“Ha ha! I can feel it happening,” Compton shouted in delight. “Control over this mystical gateway. Soon, I will be unstoppable.” He began to whistle louder.

That had happened faster than Kat had anticipated. Was another shockwave imminent? Firestorm began pushing himself to his feet; he looked to Kat for guidance.

Kat shook his head. They didn’t have enough information here. Maybe, after talking to Fate, they could reverse whatever Compton was about to do…? They certainly couldn’t manage it if they were left unconscious. Kat motioned at Firestorm to leave the clearing as he grasped for Alijda’s shoulders.

Which is when Rose ran in.

“Rose, run away,” Kat shouted.

Instead, Rose stopped and stood her ground about five metres away from Compton, issuing him a warning. So was this part of a plan? As Rose’s body seemed to double, and then double again, Kat had to assume it was, resisting the urge to gape. Did Rose have magic? Or was it holograms, maybe?

Whatever it was, it got Compton’s attention enough to free Beam, tossing her aside. But then, they had to assume Compton already had enough energy to enact his plans by now. Four sets of Rose cracked their knuckles. Then three of them rushed at him - as the fourth doubled back towards the treeline.

Okay, this HAD to be a plan.

Kat exchanged a glance with Firestorm (who was looking rather dumbfounded), then pushed himself up, running towards Compton himself. It had just occurred to him that they had only tried magical means of bringing him down. Perhaps Rose’s reasoning was that he was still vulnerable to a left hook.

His belief lasted only as long as it took to see one of the Roses try to punch Compton’s shoulder, her fist bouncing off an invisible wall, making her hit herself instead. From behind, another Rose tried to kick Compton’s legs out from under him, only to hit a similar barrier, and end up falling over herself.

The third Rose paused, then stuck out her tongue, stuck her thumbs in her ears and wiggled her fingers in the air. Provoking him? Because maybe Compton couldn’t maintain his defence while using an offensive power?

Kat honestly wasn’t sure what the plan was here any more. He stopped running, hoping someone would clue him in.

Compton seemed equally unsure of how to deal with Rose. He took a step forwards, swinging for the Rose who was taunting. She ducked out of the way, pulling SecondRose back up onto her feet as she moved. The third Rose, shaking out her hand, screamed down at the stone circle on the ground, and abruptly there were two circles there.

“You meddling…" Compton’s growl trailed off as he reached back and pulled some sort of switchblade out of his pocket.

“Oh, we’re doing physical violence here?” SecondRose snarked. “Because you don’t have the magic skills of your father?”

With a yell of rage, Compton slashed at ThirdRose, the teenager only just managing to duck and roll out of the way, audibly muttering, “oh, flûte”.

Kat was now headed for Firestorm. “The diary,” he called out. If this was all connected back to Fate’s abduction, there had to be some information there. “Is there a symbol we can use against him?”

“Uh, no, there was no handling of an invincible guy with a blade section,” Firestorm countered, pulling the book out of his robes and shaking it at him.

“Compton’s not invincible,” one of the Roses called out.

“All he can do here is absorb or reflect,” another Rose agreed.

“Watch him reflect my power,” ThirdRose added. She sang a note, and then there were four Roses running around Compton again.

“I will END you,” Compton said, lunging for a Rose. He managed to slice through part of her shirt, making her yelp.

Kat snatched the diary out of Firestorm’s hands and started running back towards the fight. “Hey, instead of beating up on girls, why not face off with me? I’ve got a book here with ALL of Destiny’s secrets in it. You want it?”

Everybody paused at that.

“Kat, do you know what you’re doing?” a Rose asked.

He looked back at her. “Do you?” he challenged. Because he was pretty sure he’d worked out their plan by now. To keep Compton away from the gateway, and to stall for time. He held Fate’s diary aloft.

“Give me that book,” Compton said.

“Say please,” Kat requested.

“Give it to me NOW,” Compton insisted.

“Wow, I can see why you’re not great at running a business,” Kat observed. “You can’t even follow simple instructions.”

Two of the Roses giggled. Compton looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel somewhere. “You think I don’t know some of my dad’s spells?” the shorter man screamed. “Hand that over, or I will use them. I will END you. All of you!”

“Hey, know what’s at the heart of this?” SecondRose mused. “Father issues. Paige had ‘em too. Find your own path separate from your father, Compton. Be your own person.”

Compton turned to glare at her. He had been letting out the occasional low whistle whenever he hadn’t been speaking. Now he whistled higher, and louder, and he started gesturing towards SecondRose. She placed her hands on her hips.

Compton gestured towards her. SecondRose’s head snapped back, and with a shocked look on her face, she fell to the ground - and vanished. The other Roses in the area staggered for a moment.

Kat almost shouted out ‘What did you do?’, but from the expression on Compton’s face, he seemingly hadn’t expected that result either.

“You think you’re so tough? Try that again,” shouted a Rose.

“Rose, what are you–" Kat cut himself off, as another Rose standing behind Compton raised an index finger and shook her head. Compton repeated his series of whistles and movements, and moments later, another Rose was gone.

Compton turned back to Kat. “Now, give me the book,” he declared. “Or another of your friends gets it.”

“Oh, no, no, please, do that once more first,” a Rose croaked out. “We almost got it that time.”

Compton obliged her. Moments later, the only people standing in the clearing were Compton, Kat, Firestorm, and one last copy of Rose. Or possibly she was the original Rose, and the Rose now returning to the clearing with Fate was the copy. Kat cleared his throat to keep Compton’s focus on him.

“Here’s the thing,” Kat said. “I’ve made a copy of the important pages here. If anything happens to me, a friend of mine will bring them to the police.”

“If you’re pinning your hopes on them, you must be desperate,” Compton observed. “Now stop wasting time and give me that book.”

“This book? Or the REAL book, which I have hidden back in the bushes?”

Compton shook his fist at Kat. “If you persist in these games, you WILL face the same fate as those redheads.“

“Actually,” came a new voice, tired but with a hard edge to it. “I’m the Fate you need to be worried about right now.”

Compton spun. Fate was now ten metres away from him. “Destiny. Have you finally come to your senses? Will you serve me?”

Both Roses moved to flank Fate, as the blonde spat into the ground. Then Fate began to trace something there with a stick she was carrying. “The spell for scrambling minds,” she remarked. “The one known by Compton Senior, the one that allowed him to abduct people. He was always so secretive about it, I was never able to figure out how it worked. Until now.”

Compton smirked. “You hope to try it against me? After I used it to dispel the doubling magic of this redhead? Fool, I can bounce it right back at you. You’ll lose your own mind.”

Fate looked back up at him. “Oh, no. No, because my spell will be stronger than the version you’ve been throwing around.”

Rose raised her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Hi. I’m Algebra. I multiply things.”

Compton’s smile morphed into a glare. “You stupid women. Even now, you do not understand my true power.”

“It still seems to be ‘reflect’ or ‘absorb’ to me,” the other Rose reiterated. “More to the point, for as long as you’re on reflect, we can do this.” She clapped her hand onto Fate’s shoulder, sang a note, and then abruptly there was another copy of both Rose and Fate, sketching on the ground. Then another.

“Meaning as long as you’re on reflect,” the Roses chorused. “We’re powering up.” More versions appeared, starting to form a circle around Compton. “The question becomes, are you man enough to absorb what Fate throws at you without succumbing? Or are you going to remain in the shadow of your father forever?”

Kat could have sworn Compton’s face went purple. And with a dozen Fates arranged in a half circle around the angry man, Rose’s notes ceased to be effective in creating any more copies.

“Now,” Rose whispered.

Fate began to chant the same phrase Compton had used earlier, but while he had punctuated his with whistles, Fate simply made her voice sound melodious. It wasn’t a happy melody, in fact Kat could pick up on an undercurrent of sadness and resentment, but it got the job done faster than Compton’s attempt to do the same.

As they finished, the Fates jabbed their sticks at the symbols on the ground. The area began to glow with a white light, and Compton let out a shriek. Kat was forced to look away from the brightness, and when he did turn back… Compton was still standing there. Looking stunned. And the only Rose and Fate in the area were lying on the ground, unconscious.

Fearing the worst, that their opponent had withstood the attack, Kat closed the distance to Compton, pulled back his free arm, and clocked the short man hard in the jaw. Compton crumpled to the ground without resistance, joining everyone else in the land of unconsciousness.

Well, almost everyone else.

“We win,” Beam chirped, from where she was still crumpled, unmoving, on the ground. “Now what. Are the chances. I could get. My own copy. Of Rose. To bring home. With me?”

Firestorm laughed. Kat’s communicator crackled back to life seconds later.

“This was probably not the dinner you envisioned,” Kat admitted.

Alijda smiled at him from across the table. “It’s not the location that matters. It was more about getting to know each other a little better.”

They had spent the last hour or so catching up on things in the Epsilon Station’s small cafeteria. This after having spent a couple of days completing paperwork after the mission, not to mention undergoing some tests to ensure there wouldn’t be any lingering issues after the mystic shockwave.

Firestorm had offered to take charge of dealing with Compton and the police down on the planet, once Fate (aka Destiny) had made it clear that she wasn’t planning to remain. In the end, Firestorm had decided not to ask more questions, deciding the more he knew, the more trouble he’d be in.

Fate had then helped Alice do a sweep of Compton’s business, confiscating anything dimensional from his records, under the rationale that his memory of such things would be sketchy anyway. It would have been like leaving matches in the hands of a toddler.

They hadn’t located records of anyone else who had once been abducted. And after years of living on the planet without finding anyone herself, Fate reasoned that randomly removing people who believed themselves to be natives might cause more harm than good anyway.

“Right,” Kat agreed. He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t see how this can work though. I’m in the military. I can’t simply disappear.”

“I could,” Alijda said. “Except it’s probably against the rules, plus someone needs to take care of Alice. I’m guessing she’s the one who volunteered to dress as a maid and serve us today?”

“Oh yeah,” Kat agreed. “Have you heard of the anime ‘Kaichou wa Maid-sama’?”[1]

Alijda shook her head. “No, and don’t even start. Back to you. Now that your decades long search for Fate is done, what will you do?”

Kat leaned back in his chair. It was a good question. “I guess I’ll stay hooked into occult matters. Still lots of pretty girls out there I can… not date?” A frown tugged at his features.

Alijda chuckled. “You sound like me when I realize I’ve blithely talked about killing myself.”

“Old habits,” Kat said dryly. “Like anything else, I guess we go forwards one step at a time.”

Alijda nodded. “I guess we do.” She seemed about to say something else, when Fate walked into the room.

Fate had cleaned up nicely, and was wearing a casual shirt and slacks, having pulled her long, blonde hair into a side ponytail. Without looking up from the book in her hands, she called out, “Hey, Alice. Bad news. The– oh, sorry, the computer said Alice was in here.” She seemed a bit chagrined once she took in the scene.

“Hmph. Thank you, Ziggy, thank you VERY much for that,” Alice sighed, popping up from behind the cash register with a sigh. She was still dressed in the maid outfit.

Alijda snapped her gaze over towards her roommate. “You were SPYING on us?”

“I was quietly counting the receipts down here after serving your dessert,” Alice said, leaning her elbows onto the counter with a grin. “And for the record, I can take care of myself, thankyouverymuch.”

“Uh, Alice? This station exists outside of space and time, there should be no receipts there,” Kat pointed out.

Alice nodded sagely. “So I gotta make sure none randomly appear. Cuz that’d be weird.”

“Hey, great news,” Beam said, entering the room behind Fate, dragging Rose along with her. “My lesbian friend here no longer has the desire to lick at my neck whenever she sneezes!”

“Ahem. She means that the police smell tracking thing has worn off,” Rose said, her freckles getting a bit washed out by her reddening cheeks. “So I’m probably clear to leave.”

Beam grinned. “Can I joke about tasting, and which of us is sweeter, as a call back to your comment on the day we met? Or is that out of bounds?”

“Don’t say it in public,” Rose advised, the roll of her eyes implying Beam’s attitude was no longer getting to her quite as much. “Moreover, there’s been no side effects from my using math powers on that planet, and Alice said that the ability shouldn’t carry over to my normal reality. So yay?”

“Hey, that’s great,” Kat said, giving her a thumbs up. “But guys, me and Alijda were kinda in the midst of…"

Alijda laughed. “Oh, Kat, it’s fine. I think we were pretty much done. Besides, with Rose departing, I’m kind of curious as to who will end up being left in charge.”

Kat double-checked Alijda’s expression, noting her sincerity, before looking back to Rose. She was already looking at him. He nodded slightly at her; they’d had a brief conversation that morning about her possible selection.

Rose took in a deep breath. “Right. Well. Since there might be issues from higher goddesses if I pick either Alice or Beam, I decided that…" She turned. “Fate should be in charge. But, I mean, the others can stick around here to keep her company, and to make sure she doesn’t go crazy or something. If they want. This is okay, yes?”

Fate’s pencil slid out of the spine of her book and fell on the floor. “Oh. I… I was wondering how I’d return home after all this time. So I suppose this… as a transition… that is… I’m honoured.”

“Ooh, I have no problems being under a woman like Fate,” Beam said, her eyes twinkling.

“It’s Fate’s Wide Wheel[2],” Alice mused. She eyed everyone in the room, then face palmed. “Quantum Leap song. From Glitter Rock. Get WITH it, people, sheesh.”

Kat chuckled, then looked back at Fate. “Congratulations. I hope this means we can still keep in touch.” Fate nodded back at him, smiling a bit nervously.

“As to the bad news?” Alijda remarked, pushing her chair back from the table.

Fate blinked. “Oh! Yes. Well.” She tossed her book on the table. “It’s as I always suspected. Compton Senior? He didn’t come across his dimensional knowledge by accident. It was somehow fed to him. By someone else.”

Alice’s expression turned serious as she came around the counter. “That’s impossible. No one on that planet could have had the knowledge.”

“I know,” Fate said. “I didn’t say it was from someone on that planet.”

“Something to do with where the arm came from then?” Rose asked.

Fate shook her head. “Unlikely. The arm appeared later. Possibly as a result of Compton Senior’s efforts. His awareness had to precede that. Somehow, there was a space-time breach, and this Station didn’t know about it. As if the abduction thing wasn’t already a clue to it’s fallibility.”

“So we have a mystery on our hands,” Kat said, frowning.

“One that me and Alice will need get to the bottom of,” Beam decided, crossing her arms. “Now that Fate’s going to be handling the daily station duties.”

“Huh. Will you need our help with any of this?” Alijda wondered.

Fate picked her pencil up off the floor. “Time will tell,” she remarked, tossing it onto the table. “Only time will tell.”

[1] Have a “Maid-Sama!” OP. [2] Here’s a Doctor Who video with Scott Bakula singing.

END OF STORY 4: EPSILON DELTA

Preferred POV character from Story4? (* means ‘voted on at the time’) OPTIONS:

VOTING WILL LIKELY REMAIN OPEN (like the end of every full story)

EXTRA ASIDE:
Thanks for reading! I’ll likely do a “behind the scenes” separate post later, maybe with some stats, and then in 2018 we’ll head into “Virga Mysteries”. Still every two weeks, as there are edits, and I need to devote some time back to my math comic. There’s a Discord comic chat coming up for it in February and I want it to see new material. I’m also now writing monthly for the Time Travel Nexus. So I’m keeping busy.

EPSILON DELTA, PART FIFTEEN: ROSE TO THE OCCASION

Rose watched Alijda as the older brunette woman considered their next move. At last, Alijda stood and moved off of the tarp, rubbing the areas where she’d been tied up. “Well, Firestorm is the resident of this planet,” she concluded. “Might as well go with his plan.”

“Really?” Rose said, surprised. It wasn’t that she had anything against the idea of fire bombing Compton’s supply tent. She had simply expected a plan with more finesse to come up.

“Unless someone else has an objection,” Alijda clarified. “Plus I suppose you are technically still in charge of the Station, Rose. Are you good with us doing this?”

“Oh.” Well, her plan had been kind of shot down by Alice. “Uh, yeah, I suppose.”

“Then I’ll spread the word,” Alice chirped over the communicator. “Because we’ve got to get on this fast. Beam turned on her communicator after Alijda left, so I’m now tuned into the happenings of Compton’s tent. FYI, Ned’s on his way to tell the others that Alijda escaped. He also beat up Beam a little.”

“He did WHAT?” Rose shrieked, one hand clenching into a fist.

“He hath attacked your lady love,” Alice clarified. “Give ‘em hell, Rose.”

ROSEMARY THORNE
Commission from Lia[/caption]

Rose spun, staring towards the clearing. She couldn’t see it through the underbrush, but knew where it was. In part because Firestorm was sending up balls of fire, and Kat was making them burn up in the air as a distraction, one which was easy to spot in the darkness.

Presumably, the two of them would now start to smash their fire down into the clearing. Destroying Compton’s plans, while sowing enough confusion for Alijda to teleport Fate and Beam to safety. And as they did that, Rose would… watch.

After giving the order, all she could do was watch.

Her hand fell open. “I have no powers. I guess I’ll fold up the tarp here.”

Alijda cleared her throat. “Actually Rose, as much as I don’t want to have to do that blind teleport a second time, it would be good to keep the tarp here. Just in case.”

“Awesome. Means I’m zero help.”

Alijda reached for Rose’s hand, and Rose turned to see the older woman giving her a reassuring smile. “Oh, Rose. You’re the one who got us here. By sniffing out Beam. That helped.”

Rose shrugged. “Except anyone could’ve done it,” she pointed out. “If they’d been the one stamped by the police instead. But it’s cool,” she continued, before Alijda could speak up again. “You’re older and more experienced anyway. Go give ‘em hell on my behalf.”

Rose forced out a smile. Alijda still seemed to hesitate, until Alice’s voice came back over the communicators.

“Beam’s getting clear of the tent,” Alice announced. “Kat and Firestorm are starting their run.”

“Hell incoming,” Alijda assured Rose. She dashed off towards the clearing.

Rose nibbled on her lower lip. She activated her communicator. “Alice, can you let me know when Beam is all safe and sound? I mean, along with everyone else too. Obviously.”

“No problem,” Alice assured her. “If you want, while you’re waiting, you can think about who should take this station back from you. Once the problem’s been dealt with.”

“Oh, right,” Rose groaned. “Can’t it just be Beam again? Or you?”

“The all-knowing dimensional God could object,” Alice reflected. “But then, they might not have a leg to stand on. Given how Beam bringing you in did save the station, and me coordinating here now proves that I would still be an asset.”

“Gods might not even have legs in the first place,” Rose mused.

“They move in mysterious ways,” Alice affirmed. She then continued to hum, “It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s all right. They move in mysterious ways.”

Rose ran her fingers back through her hair. Perhaps almost as important as who she chose for the job would be who she did NOT choose. Because what would Alice or Beam do if they weren’t working on Epsilon? For that matter, was there even anyone else to choose? Alijda had already said she wasn’t interested. What about Kat - or could having him be in charge cause problems for Alijda, putting their relationship into a chain of command.

“Oh, don’t pick a guy to run the place,” Alice added, as if reading her thoughts. “That’d be vetoed. I mean, can you even imagine a male administrator patrolling the multiverse? Ha! Men’s egos can be so fragile. Things would get seriously screwed up.”

Rose chuckled. “What’s that a quote from?”

“Not quoting, it’s just a truism. Oh, hey, hold on. These power readings are spiking, that shouldn’t be…" The humour vanished from her tone. “Everyone. Get out. Get out now, NOW, N–"

There was a blast of feedback from the communicator, making Rose wince and hold her arm out to the side. At the same time, the Earth shook. Moments later some sort of shockwave was projected out from the vicinity of the clearing, knocking Rose back on her ass.

Then things were eerily silent.

Rose did her best to shake it off, though she felt queasy. When she reopened her eyes, she saw a number of leaves and pine needles all around her on the ground, shaken free by the blast. For a moment, it seemed like there were even more trees surrounding her too - until Rose realized she had double vision again. She closed her eyes, counted to three, and when she looked once more, the problem had resolved itself.

Rose scrambled to her feet and ran for the clearing.

She nearly tripped over the blonde woman in the dark, but managed to sidestep her in time. Going down on one knee, Rose quickly felt for a pulse, only to realize that the woman was breathing.

Also, it wasn’t Beam. So with that hair, and more to the point that plain looking dress, it had to be Destiny. Or rather, Fate, the local potion master and Kat’s childhood friend.

“Hey, are you gonna be okay?” Rose asked, gently tapping at the woman’s cheek.

Fate moaned. “Today I’ve been kidnapped, tortured, and caught in a magical explosion, what do you think?” she grumbled. She cracked an eye open. “Who are you, anyway?”

“Rose Thorne,” the redhead said with an uncertain smile. “With Team Beam, trying to take down Compton and save you.”

“Oh, YOU’RE Rose,” Fate muttered. She tried to push herself up.

Rose wasn’t sure how to take that. She glanced back towards the clearing - it was now close enough to be seen through the trees, in fact some of those trees had been bent away from the area - and decided that, for right now, the stranger in front of her had to take precedence over her team. She helped support Fate into a seated position.

“I am indeed,” Rose agreed. “Can I help you?”

“Gimme a second.” Fate pressed her palm against her head, squinting at Rose through the darkness. “Huh. You don’t look like the most amazing lesbian anyone would ever meet, but then me and Beam didn’t have tons of time to talk while Compton was setting up camp.”

“Ah. Well, y’know, I’m not sure how many other lesbians Beam has really met,” Rose said. She hoped she wasn’t blushing foolishly.

Fate chuckled. “Ah, young love. Those were the days.”

Rose rubbed her neck. “So, um, did you get blown back here by that explosion?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

“No,” Fate admitted, lowering her arm. “It was that teleporting woman. She pulled me away from Compton, we appeared here, she said she’d be right back, then she vanished in a purple cloud. Moments later, boom, and I’m on the ground. What happened, did Compton’s tent blow up or something?”

“I think so? At least, that was part of the plan,” Rose admitted. She tapped at her communicator. “Alice? Alice, what happened?” There was no answer.

Fate coughed. “Okay. So, bright side, Compton can’t use his fireworks and other explosives to force open a dimensional portal. Nor can he use his potions and other magical items to force open a dimensional portal. But, down side, I think those two things interacted in a negative way as they were taken out. Hopefully not in a way that opened a dimensional portal.”

“Dimensional portal bad, I get that,” Rose affirmed.

“Bad in the hands of Compton’s damn family is all,” Fate clarified, taking in a long breath.

Rose nodded. “Right. Well, give me a moment, I’ll go see if I can tell what happened.”

Rose began to push herself back to her feet, only to have Fate reach out and grasp her leg. “Wait, let me come,” she requested. “Sounds like you’re cut off from your friends, and I might be able to help diagnose the situation.”

Rose hesitated. Fate was bound to slow them down, but still, the woman had a point.

She reached her arm out. Fate grasped it, and Rose hauled her up to her feet. Fate smiled. “Thanks, Rose. So, do you have a thing for older women at all?”

Rose flinched. “What? No. That is, damn, I’m sure you’re a nice person and all but I didn’t even know you were–"

“Trying to lighten the mood,” Fate finished, interrupting. “Because you seem tense as all get out. Though I suppose the situation warrants tension. Sorry, it was a bad joke, let’s get a move on.”

“Right. I knew that, not really,” Rose said.

Apparently Fate had a weird sense of humour. Meaning she’d get along just fine with the rest of the Epsilon team. Actually… what if Fate were put in charge of Epsilon? Could that be a thing? Or would the trauma Fate had suffered here be a deterrent to being in charge? Rose made a mental note to ask Kat about it in private.

Assuming Kat was still okay after the mystical explosion.

The two of them crept closer to the clearing.

The first thing Rose saw was the bodies. Since the clearing was still magically lit, they were hard to miss. She started to charge in closer, only to have Fate grasp her shoulder, preventing the motion. “That can’t be good,” she muttered.

Rose turned to see what Fate was looking at. That’s when she saw what had to be Compton.

The short man with the scruffy beard was standing and whistling some distance away from the bodies, with one hand pointed at the ground. His other held Beam up by the ear. The blonde hologram was slumped on the ground, her eyes open, but seemingly blank. Rose’s hands had curled back into fists before she realized it.

Yet charging in was the wrong course of action. Rose shrugged off Fate’s grip, gliding behind the nearest tree, peering around it to get a better look at the situation.

The bodies she’d seen were those of Alijda and one of Compton’s henchmen. She now saw that Kat, Firestorm, and the other henchman were also lying prone on the ground. Before Rose could ask herself if they were okay, Compton turned to look down at something, and Firestorm was moving.

The cloaked man sat up, thrusting his arm forward and letting out a humming noise. A fireball appeared in the air, streaking towards Compton.

It bounced off an invisible wall, flying back in the direction it had come.

“Damn it,” Kat said. Rose watched as Firestorm rolled away, with the fireball striking the ground and quickly burning itself out as Kat stared at it.

“Oh, you thought I had to be watching you to bounce your attacks back?” Compton snarked, ceasing his whistle. “How wrong you are. No, no, this power, awakened in me by that explosion, you have no chance of defeating it. Not with such pathetic attacks. And soon, I’ll have bled out enough energy from this strange one” - he jerked Beam’s head by the ear - “to gain full mental control over this mystic doorway.”

“Well, that’s bad,” Fate muttered near Rose’s ear.

Compton turned to look at some trees. “You hear that, Destiny, wherever you are? You’ll rue the day you crossed me, make no mistake.”

“That’s worse,” Fate added. Compton resumed whistling.

Rose turned to face the older woman. “Can you work some of your symbol magic to stop him?”

“Hmph. If he were unconscious, maybe,” Fate said. “Seems like he’d resist most anything right now. I don’t suppose you have magic abilities that would knock him out?”

Rose shook her head. “I have zip all for magic. Unless you count the tracking spell the cops gave me.”

Fate frowned. “Oh? That’s bizarre. The police would only have given you that ability if you already had major magic potential. And even if it was dormant, that blast wave would have triggered something for you, since it also did for Compton… Rose, did you feel anything after the wave hit?”

“Nauseous,” Rose said. “And I also saw double for a bit, but that happened after I got stamped in the police station too. Oh, and earlier, in your place. I’m probably overexerting myself or something.”

“I don’t think so,” Fate said, her eyes widening. “Were you in the presence of strong magic each time you saw double?”

“Uh, I guess?” Rose realized. The protection spell, the tracking spell, and the explosion did make three for three. “Why is that important?”

“Because it means the magic inside you is resonating with your surroundings,” Fate explained. “I’m pretty sure it’s the same sort of resonance which allows for my occult symbols to work more tangibly on this Earth. In fact, if you’re not careful, the magical backlash could lead to you feeling kind of drunk.”

“Oh, now someone warns me,” Rose muttered.

Fate grasped her by the shoulders. “Rose, this is great. If you’re seeing double, you might actually have the power to double the things you see, be it temporarily, or as an illusion.” She frowned. “If only we could somehow coordinate your ability with my symbols…"

“Ha ha! I can feel it happening,” Compton shouted in delight. “Control over this mystical gateway. Soon, I will be unstoppable.” He began to whistle louder.

Rose snapped her gaze back towards the clearing. It looked like Kat had crawled over to Alijda to check on her. Perhaps hoping that her teleport ability would be able to get to Compton, but she remained unconscious. Firestorm was pushing himself to his feet, but he looked unsteady. And Beam, poor Beam looked catatonic.

With still no word from Alice, it was up to Rose. Rose, and her doubling ability. Which honestly, she should have recognized sooner - after all, she had once been Algebra, capable of multiplying emotions. Was this so different?

Rose turned back to Fate. “Could I also duplicate living matter?”

Fate blinked, lowering her arms. “I don’t know.”

An idea was forming. “Tell me how to activate my magic here.”

“It’s different for everyone. But it is sound based. Humming, whistling, even the sound of a sneeze can trigger something under the correct conditions.”

Sneezing, that would probably just turn her nose on. But vocal notes, as a choir member, Rose knew all about those. She thought back to the scream she’d used when rushing into Fate’s home, the first time she’d experienced her double vision. It would do.

“Okay, Fate. If this works, just tell one of me how to coordinate with your symbols. If it doesn’t, um, avenge me.”

“One of you? Rose, what–"

Rose evaded Fate’s outstretched hand, dodging around the tree trunks to emerge into the clearing, jogging towards Compton.

“Hmmmm, what have we here?” Compton said, again ceasing his whistling as he turned to look at her.

“Rose, run away,” Kat shouted.

Rose stopped and stood her ground about five metres away from Compton. She could now see that the hand he had pointing down was directed at some sort of stone circle, which was engraved with a clover.

“Here’s your only warning,” Rose said, raising her own hand to point, while wishing her arm wasn’t shaking. “Stop what you’re doing, and let your hostage go.”

Compton smirked back. “Or else what?”

Rose drew in a breath, tried to envision multiplication, and screamed at approximately a middle C. As expected, Compton reacted as he had with the fireball, and bounced her spell back. At least, she assumed that’s what had happened, as she felt not only her vision doubling, but everything else about her as well.

She took a step to the left, as she simultaneously took a step to the right.

Both Roses felt a little queasy at that, but she immediately screamed again, to take advantage of Compton’s confusion.

“What trickery is this?” Compton demanded, as Rose became four. Apparently sensing that he had an actual fight on his hands, he released Beam’s ear, throwing her aside as he took a step closer to one of the Roses.

Rose began to circle left, even as she circled right, each version vaguely aware that only the Rose second from the left had any real permanence. Yet her other selves knew they didn’t feel like an illusion, so for as long as they were around, well, perhaps it was time to test out their self defence courses.

“You’re about to find out,” the Roses chorused as one.

A faint giggle came from the ground as Beam’s eyes refocussed. “Ooooh. You. Pissed. Off. My. Girl. Friend.”

Four sets of Rose cracked their knuckles.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Who will be taking over the Epsilon Project? OPTIONS:

VOTING CLOSES NOON EST SATURDAY DECEMBER 16th

THE ORACLE PROPHESIED:
The double vision cauldron of Part 7 was a throwaway item for me to use anywhere, if I wanted. For all I knew then, it was specific to the item, or the location. But when Part 9’s vote picked Rose to be deputized, and the double vision returned in Part 10 (“see deuce”), Rose’s specific brand of magic became all but inevitable. The oracle did not prophesize Rose doubling herself here, but hey, whatever works.

EXTRA ASIDE:
I’m pretty sure we’re down to one last instalment, which will be posted over the holidays. Then we’ll go into whatever got selected out of this post, because it doesn’t make much sense to have a runoff vote now (most everything is tied). So, go vote again on your fave? It renews every week. In other news, “Time & Tied”’s rerun has finished on RRL, and there were some character votes there, if you felt like contributing or seeing results in the final post. Thanks as always for reading here; I’m blown away by there being 7 votes for a second time running.

EPSILON DELTA, PART FOURTEEN: TIED AND TRUE

“Wondering about Kat?”

Alijda looked up at the remark by Rose. While waiting for Kat to return from his scouting mission, Alijda had taken to leaning back against a tree, her arms crossed. She fired off a reassuring smile at the redhead. “I’m sure he can take care of himself just fine.”

“Oh, I know,” Rose said, clasping her hands behind her back. She leaned forwards a little. “I said wondering, not worrying.”

Alijda felt her smile becoming more of a smirk. “Ooh. First Alice, now you, huh?” she remarked, more amused than anything else. “Fear not. The two of us are possibly doing dinner, so there’s nothing more for anyone to wonder OR worry about.”

“Possibly doing?” Rose prompted.

Alijda shrugged. “We literally do not live on the same Earth. Makes reunions awkward. The weird thing is how, despite knowing that, I haven’t been able to simply forget about him. So I guess we’ll see what happens.” She gave Rose a pointed look. “Something you may want to consider regarding Beam.”

Rose seemed to pinken, though it was difficult to be sure now that the sun had set. “Nice deflection, but I hadn’t planned on forgetting about Beam.”

“You just hope to forget about the relationship issues she sparked.”

Rose pulled back and looked away.

Alijda quickly moved to grasp the young girl by the shoulder. “Hey, not judging,” she said. “Not by a long shot. Goodness knows I don’t know how to react to anyone who shows an interest in me, romantically or otherwise. It’s only, heads up, Beam is something you’ll need to deal with before this is over. And you might not have a lot of time to decide on a path, depending on how things play out. You know that, yes Rose?”

She sighed. “Yeah. Plus I’ve got to pawn off this Station Commander role onto someone else too.” Rose crinkled her nose. “Do you think, if I gave it back to Beam, that she’d be able to email into my dimension or whatever? Because I could see having her as a pen pal going forwards. If she doesn’t hate my guts after that rant I gave her.”

“Hm! That’s not a bad idea,” Alijda reflected. “Even if Beam’s not in charge, I might be able to hack something together.” She wiggled her eyebrows as she pulled her arm back. “All you’ll need to do find a way to explain to your girlfriend why your new blonde pen pal keeps emailing you images of herself in sexy lingerie. I’ve heard that’s a tradition where Beam’s from.”

Rose’s eyes went wide. The mixed look of fear and confusion on her face gradually morphed into one of chagrin as she saw Alijda’s expression. “Oh. You’re joking. Um, right?”

“Mostly,” Alijda said. “Just remember, Beam’s ways are not your ways, plus she’s a hologram to boot. Don’t be afraid to set ground rules.”

“For sure,” Rose agreed, rubbing her neck.

“If you two ladies are done chit chatting, I can hear Kat coming back,” Firestorm remarked dryly, walking past them.

“Oh golly, we’ll swap makeup tips some other time then,” Alijda deadpanned. Rose let out a quick laugh. Firestorm didn’t seem to notice.

The three of them walked over to meet Kat as he approached through the underbrush.

“So Compton and Co are up to something,” Kat concluded after giving them a quick rundown of what he’d seen at the clearing. “The question is, how do we stop whatever this guy is up to, while also spiriting Beam and Fate out of there safely.”

“You’re sure the Destiny woman was your Fate?” Alijda verified, searching Kat’s expression. His voice had caught when describing her. Would his personal stake in things become an issue?

“I’m sure,” Kat said, clenching his jaw. “We’ve got to save her.”

“Should that be our priority though?” Rose asked.

Kat rounded on her, his body tensing, and the young girl shrank back in surprise. Alijda reached out to touch Kat’s shoulder.

“Please clarify?” she asked gently, looking at Rose.

Rose cleared her throat. “Um. Just, seems like this Compton guy feels he has something to prove. What if removing Fate, his key source of information, drives him into doing a boneheaded thing later on instead of backing down?”

“In which case I’d hope your plans don’t involve you simply waltzing away,” Firestorm grumbled.

“You’re right, Rose,” Alijda agreed. “We do need more information before we act.” She released Kat’s shoulder as she felt his posture relaxing. Though his jaw remained clenched.

“Do you know anything more about Compton’s intentions?” Kat asked, looking at Firestorm.

“No. I’m not the font of knowledge you seem to think I am,” the planetary resident insisted.

“We need to talk to Beam,” Rose put in. “I mean, wasn’t her whole plan to learn more? She doesn’t know we’re out here now, worried. She might have real good ideas, if we can get to her, as she’s seen this guy up close.”

“Another good point,” Alijda yielded. “The question is, how can anyone get to Beam when she’s in that tent, without causing Compton to overreact?”

They exchanged glances. Kat sighed. “I have a thought,” he admitted. “But I don’t like it, because it involves putting someone else in danger.”

“Let’s hear it anyway,” Alijda said.

When Alijda teleported into the clearing, she made a point of trying to arrive near the spot that Kat said Compton had been pointing at earlier. That helped her to see the stone circle on the ground, two steps away, with some sort of engraving on it. Possibly a four leaf clover? Interesting.

She didn’t have much time to think about it though, because her presence in the purple cloud of smoke had attracted everyone’s attention in the area. She raised her hands into the air as Compton’s security guy pointed a gun at her.

“Oh, golly!” Alijda said, trying to put a quaver into her voice. “What happened? However did I get here? What’s going on?”

Compton, the shorter man with the beard, had been in the process of doing something with a potion, looming over Destiny, who was on the ground. Or rather, Fate - Alijda supposed she should start thinking of the woman that way. They hadn’t been sure what Compton had been trying to accomplish from the edge of the clearing, but Alijda saw it now. He’d been cutting Fate with a knife, then applying a healing potion, as some sort of torture technique.

Alijda hated the guy immediately. She forced her expression to remain neutral.

Compton pulled Fate back to her feet, pointing at Alijda. “How is this possible?” he demanded of her. “How can people be coming through that thing before I’ve fully opened it?!”

“I still don’t know, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Fate said tearfully. She spat at his feet.

Bonus points to Fate. Alijda took a few steps forwards, her arms still up, to help pull everyone’s gaze back to her. “Can you send me back now?” she asked. “I’d hate to be late for my CyberArm class.”

Only Alijda noticed Fate’s eyes widen slightly. She the woman gave a hopeful smile in response.

“Stop where you are,” Compton’s man said, waggling his gun to arrest Alijda’s forward motion.

“Hey, Ned,” Compton called out at the same time. “Bring more rope out here, we’ve got another one.”

In less than a minute, Ned had emerged, and Alijda had had her arms bound behind her. She was then pulled towards the tent. “I can walk,” she said, petulantly.

“You can shut up,” Ned countered. He pushed her inside and she nearly fell on her face.

The tent was big enough to fit four people comfortably, and contained a few rolled up sleeping bags, implying that Compton had planned on camping out for a while. Granted, that could be due to his coming into the area from another town. The open container of potions and what looked like a supply of fireworks was a bit harder to explain away. Compton had a plan, but what was it?

“Oh!” was Beam’s only exclamation as Ned marched in behind Alijda, pushing her over next to the holographic girl.

Alijda fired off a smile at Beam as Ned got busy tying up her legs. “Hi again. Rose is worried about you,” she remarked.

Beam looked away. “No,” she sighed. “Rose hates–"

“–being drunk,” Alijda finished. “It makes her say silly things she regrets. Gotta get used to us humans being irrational, Beam.”

Beam turned back, a hopeful look on her face. Ned stood up and brushed off his hands. “Do I have to gag you, girlie? Or will you shut up?” he asked.

Alijda glared at him. “Do I have to spell out the fact that we know each other and obviously came from the same place? Or does your boss not care to have that information?”

Ned glared back. He looked from her, to the front of the tent, and back. Then he reached into a nearby pack, pulling out a towel. Stuffing one corner of it into Alijda’s mouth, he then turned and walked back outside.

Alijda gave his back a nasty look. She turned back towards Beam, glancing down at the towel which was protruding from between her lips, which she couldn’t easily spit out. Beam leaned in close, grabbing the material between her own teeth, and she pulled it free. Alijda tried to spit out the aftertaste.

“At least these guys are idiots,” she said.

CHIBI BEAM
Commission from Gen Ishihara

“Which is bad,” Beam insisted. “Very bad, considering what they know and what they’re attempting.”

Alijda caught the undercurrent of fear in Beam’s tone. “Okay. I’m all ears, and ready to teleport away again with the information,” she said.

Beam glanced towards the tent flap.

“Don’t worry, Kat and Firestorm are ready with a distraction to buy us more time if we need,” Alijda insisted. “What have you found out?”

Beam nodded. “Right. Well, you’ll need the backstory. I learned it when they left me and Destiny together while they were setting up camp. She told me it all started with Compton’s father. A man who abducted people from other worlds, recruiting them to work here, for him.”

Alijda flinched. “Wait. So Destiny - who is Fate, by the way - was abducted?”

Beam nodded again. “Compton Sr. had some way of scrambling people’s minds, giving them false histories so they wouldn’t want to go back home. But it didn’t work on Dest– Fate,” Beam corrected herself. “Possibly because she carried her own ward of protection. She even escaped from him. Tried to get local authorities to go after Compton Senior, but her story was too fantastical, and he was too influential. Plus the guy was smart, shutting down his activities when she began pointing fingers.”

“Damn. So he was a successful businessman largely due to illicit abductions from other magical worlds,” Alijda reasoned. “Did he take items as well as people?”

“Probably. So, this left Fate resigned to living out her days here, because it didn’t seem like anyone knew of other Earths at all. Of course, she did try to find people living here who might be like her, creating her club of people with powers not-quite-right for this world. But she never told them her history, fearing they might simply be locals with quirks.”

Alijda frowned. “But then why would Compton’s son now be–" It came to her. “He inherited everything when his dad passed away. He must have found information in his dad’s records, and wants to start this whole portal thing back up. To become a success story. Hoping Fate can fill in any missing pieces towards re-activating it.”

“Bingo. And he got to Fate using that Ned guy,” Beam added. “Managed to get him on her list, then boom, abduction.”

“And the cyber arm?” Alijda wondered.

Beam made a shrugging motion. “Fate found it in the clearing one day. After all, this apparently IS a dimensional weak point. She didn’t want to leave it around for anyone else to find, but hoped that despite removing it, it would phase back into her world at some future time. Hence the symbol she placed on it.”

Alijda nodded, and was about to ask another question, when there were a couple of shouts from outside the tent.

“Damn, we’re almost out of time,” she realized. “Beam, do you know how best to stop Compton?”

Beam shook her head. “All I know is he’s planning a ritual, and we can’t underestimate him. He knows things through whatever his father left behind. The only reason he’s waited to act on the stuff outright is out of a fear that he’ll end up trapped on some other world. Hence his nabbing of Fate. But if he’s cornered, who knows what he’ll do.”

Alijda nodded. “Pity we’ve still got Firestorm with us, or we could just portal everyone here up to the Station and sort it out from there.”

Beam snickered. “It amuses me that you think Epsilon has that much power,” she said. “But even so, Compton’s two friends still think he’s a bit nuts. We don’t want to give his stories more credence. I kind of regret claiming that I appeared from another place as it is, and am kind of hoping we can claim to be part of a joke that Compton himself set up for them.”

“Mmmm.” Alijda glanced towards the front of the tent as the shouting got louder. “Once I’m out of here, can you go holographic?”

“I’d need to be able to touch my earring,” Beam admitted. “Also, physical objects on my person phase with me, so I’d still be tied up. Even assuming my power reserves are enough to do it.”

“You want to come with me then?”

Beam shook her head. “I won’t leave Fate with them. Underneath it all, I’m still a hologram. Even if they cut me, my blood isn’t real, so better me than her.”

Alijda imagined that while Beam’s blood might not be ‘real’, it’d still hurt like hell, given how the blonde girl’s reactions had been programmed to mimic that of humans. But there wasn’t time to argue, plus maybe Beam could phase, once freed.

“I can at least help with your hands,” Alijda reasoned, given her ability to decide whether to take objects with her on a teleport or not. “Show me the ropes. Alice, it’s time to check in with Rose!”

“Roger wilco,” came Alice’s voice. “Apologies to any pilots listening in who are cringing and want to smack me.”[1]

“You kept the comms open,” Beam realized. “Smart. Sorry I couldn’t activate my own communicator once they got me.” She flipped over to present her back to Alijda, her arms bound tightly together behind her.

Alijda edged down towards Beam’s bottom, closing her mouth over the end of the rope and closing her eyes. She visualized the predetermined area in her mind, and that she wanted to be there with with the ropes.

Gods, but she hated teleporting blind. Even with live surveillance cameras, there was always the chance that something would turn up at just the wrong moment, or that there was some nigh invisible wire that would end up perforating her body, or…

“Rose says you’re good, Alijda,” came Alice’s voice.

‘My life’s in their hands,’ Alijda thought. She teleported.

With her eyes closed, she didn’t experience any visual disorientation, but there was a bit of motion sickness as she fell the half metre onto Firestorm’s tarp, the one Kat and his group had used earlier for his communication ritual. They’d set it out earlier for this very reason.

Alijda spat Beam’s ropes out of her mouth after she landed - seriously, she could use some mouthwash after this mission - and drew in a huge lungful of air. She seemed to be alive, if still trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Blinking her eyes open confirmed that she had made it to the prearranged failsafe location.

“She’s here,” Rose’s voice said from behind her. “Uh, you want me to untie you, Alijda?”

“Please,” Alijda rasped. “I’m a little too shaken up to teleport out of these at the moment.”

She heard Rose’s feet approaching on the tarp, and then the redhead was looming over her, fiddling with the ropes binding her hands. “Alice passed on most of what she heard to us,” Rose assured. “But the only real plan we have remains Firestorm’s preference for launching fireballs at their tent.”

Alijda chuckled. “Well, that would set off the fireworks they have in there, so it’s sure to mess up whatever their goals are,” she remarked. “But that’s risky.”

“Even given Kat’s ability to control fire?”

“Hmmm, point. Still, our best bet might be subterfuge,” Alijda decided. “They’re not that smart. We could make Compton think he’s awakened some sort of dimensional gods his father had offended. Scare him away for good. I think Fate would play along.”

Then again, as she said it, she realized that might only add credence to his beliefs. The very thing Beam had hoped to avoid.

Rose sat back as she pulled Alijda’s ropes free. “There’s no way the Project could simply shore up this dimensional spot then?” she asked. “Making all of Compton’s efforts totally moot?”

“Oh, we could totally do that,” Alice’s voice offered up through the communicator. “The problem is it’d take time, and the process further weakens the forces, much like how waves pull back from a shoreline before a tsunami. Do we really want to risk that when Compton might know how to drive a wedge in?”

Alijda chewed on her lower lip as she considered the options.

[1] When I looked up the phrase, I learned “roger” means ‘received and understood’ while “wilco” means ‘will comply’, making both words together rather redundant.

OPTIONS:

VOTING CLOSES NOON EST SATURDAY DECEMBER 2nd

EXTRA ASIDE:
I had another medical appointment a couple days ago. Life’s stabilizing, I think we’re back on a two week schedule here. In other news, I wrote a post for the “Time Travel Nexus” about a “Back to the Future” comic book, and my NaNoWriMo for “Time Untied” has reached 25k (though Carrie’s still only on day three of University). It’s going to be an undertaking; I’ll keep poking away. Thanks for reading here - wow, and 7 votes last time!

EPSILON DELTA, PART THIRTEEN: SEARCH AND RE-SKEW

They had soon left the vicinity of the village entirely, Rose continuing her enthusiastic jog through the fields, occasionally pausing to sniff the air once more.

“It’s been over fifteen minutes,” Kat mused to Alijda as they kept pace. “What’s the range of this spell I wonder?”

Alijda shrugged. “Maybe Rose isn’t homing in? If she’s tracking Beam, could be we’re simply retracing her route. And as a hologram, Beam could move pretty quickly.”

“I guess,” Kat yielded. He sighed. “If only I’d had Rose wait outside the police station.”

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Alijda retorted.

Kat chuckled. “I seem to recall using that argument on you once.”

“Hmph,” the brunette said. “Bear in mind that you’ve also been fortunate - or possibly unfortunate - enough to have been placed in an advisory role to the people who are actually in charge twice now. Namely me and Rose. There’s a good chance you couldn’t have changed Rose’s mind about something any more than you could have changed mine.”

“I’ve gone rogue before. Hallucinogenic gas,” Kat reminded her.

“Oh, well, you’ve got an answer for everything, don’t you.”

“Not everything.” Kat wondered about filtering his next thought even as he spoke it aloud. “Not you.”

Alijda didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, “I haven’t made that easy. Did I even properly thank you for saving my life last mission?”

Kat hesitated. “In your own way.”

Alijda winced. “Meaning no. I was mostly focussed on Chris, and myself. So thank you. And know that I have been working on being less negative, and some of that is thanks to you as well.”

Kat eyed Alijda, remembering what she’d been saying right before Rose had regained consciousness. “I was getting that vibe. That’s good. But don’t feel you need to do it for me.”

ALIJDA VAN VLIET Commission from Shirochya[/caption]

They fell silent again, climbing over a fence as Rose continued her tracking. At last, Alijda spoke up again. “Kat, do we have a thing?” she asked, without looking at him directly. “Or, that is, might we have a thing? A together thing? If I don’t sabotage it? Or am I imagining things?”

“Hey, I have already seen your underwear,” Kat remarked, before he could stop himself. He rolled his eyes, pushing off from the ground a little harder than necessary on his next stride. “Sorry. Bad time to joke.”

Alijda didn’t answer.

“We might have a thing,” Kat granted after a few more paces. “Though this Destiny/Fate situation has me more than a little mixed up right now. Also, remember how I’m not the most mature person as far as relationships go. You think you can deal with that?”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Alijda said after a bit. “Am I hearing you’d be willing to give an actual dinner with me a try sometime though? Assuming Epsilon allows it?”

“Dinner works,” Kat agreed. “Do you like Thai food?”

Alijda finally looked over at him, offering up a small smile. “We can negotiate.”

He fired a smile back at her, and the two of them resumed their jog after Rose.

As they were coming up on more of a forested area, the young redhead tripped and went sprawling, letting out another sneeze. She managed to roll and come up on one knee, only to let out a whimper. “Oh noooo, it’s GONE.”

“What’s gone, the scent?” Kat asked, coming up next to her. She turned to look up at him and nodded.

“A sneeze to turn tracking on, a sneeze to turn it off?” Alijda hypothesized as she joined them.

“Oh, that could be,” Rose realized. She stood and turned to look at the closest tree, only a few paces away. “I feel like I was getting close too. Should I tickle my nose to turn it on again? Or would that intoxicating smell convince me to run into some kind of trap?”

“It’s starting to get dark, and we wouldn’t want to lose track of you in there,” Kat added. “Let’s have a quick look around first. See if there’s signs that anyone’s come this way.”

The group started to walk along the tree line, looking for a path or obvious entry point into the underbrush. It wasn’t long before Kat heard some noises. An animal? He held up a hand and flattened himself against a tree trunk, Alijda and Rose following suit nearby.

Something was definitely approaching their position. And as much as it had made sense for them to come down without weapons, that did feel like an oversight now. All they had on hand was Beam’s jeans. Then again… Kat reached into his pocket for his matchbook. He could manage something with fire, in a pinch.

Fortunately, it didn’t turn out to be necessary. Even in the fading light, Kat recognized the human figure as he jogged out into the open a few paces away.

“Firestorm,” Kat called out.

The redhead spun in place and nearly fell over. “Don’t DO that,” he accused, brushing off his robes before shaking what looked like Destiny’s diary in their direction. “You’re as bad as your blonde companion for sneaking up on people.”

“Beam?” Rose said, stepping forward. “Do you mean you’ve seen Beam?”

“Yeah, sure, we teamed up,” Firestorm said, lowering his arm.

“Then where is she?” Rose asked, turning to look at the trees.

“Caught by the enemy,” Firestorm said, shrugging.

Rose’s gaze snapped back to him. “WHAT?”

“Look, that wasn’t MY decision,” Firestorm sighed. “But Beam figured being intentionally caught would provide her with useful information. I was just on my way back to tell you guys what had happened.”

“Why did you even run off in the first place?” Alijda asked.

Firestorm peered. “Who in blazes are you?”

“Time out,” Kat sighed. “I think we need a moment here to get caught up.”

After a quick introduction to Alijda, Firestorm answered her question. He explained that he’d seen mention in Destiny’s diary of a “dimensional weak point” with occasional activity “around sunset”. So he’d headed off to check out the area, not wanting to miss the time frame. Unfortunately, he hadn’t managed to find the clearing that she had described.

“What I DID stumble onto,” Firestorm concluded. “Was Compton and two of his friends, with Destiny in tow, all tied up. They seemed to be looking for this dimensional thing too.”

“You haven’t mentioned Compton before,” Kat accused.

Firestorm snorted. “Not much to mention. His father was a big shot a few towns over, because he managed to become a pretty successful businessman. Guy passed away a couple years back, and Compton inherited everything, but he is pretty clueless. Both in business and in interpersonal skills. I sure wouldn’t have figured him to resort to kidnapping.”

“So what would motivate kidnapping Destiny?” Alijda wondered.

Firestorm rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe he wanted her for her potions, stumbled into whatever you guys are looking into, and is now hoping that Destiny has dimensional knowledge he can use to make it big? Honestly, I’m not even sure how he pulled off the abduction in the first place. Maybe he was coached?”

“Or there’s something bigger going on here,” Kat cautioned. “What did Compton say to you when you ran into him?”

“Whoa, whoa, I didn’t let myself be seen by that guy,” Firestorm protested. “Just heard his crew stumbling around in the underbrush and hid, to see what I could learn. And what I learned, I’ve already explained. It’s as I was backing away from them, figuring I might need backup, that I ran into that Beam woman again.”

Rose leaned forwards, looking worried. “Oh yes?”

“Yeah, she just seemed to be running right through, uh, everything. That’s a hell of a power, by the way. I made motions to flag her down, lest she freak out Compton and initiate an unfortunate chain of events. She came to her senses long enough to listen to me, and we decided to team up to help free Destiny. Beam apparently wanted to ‘do something right for a change’, whatever that means.”

Rose winced, as Firestorm paused, eyeing the rest of them. “And that’s when Beam proposed getting herself caught. To learn more. And given her ability to pass right through stuff, it didn’t sound like a bad idea.”

“Except it turned out to be a bad idea?” Kat said dryly.

“Eh, maybe? I’ll let you be the judge,” Firestorm decided. “Beam marched out to attract Compton’s attention while I hid and watched. She pretended like she’d come through a portal and wanted their help to know where she was. Compton was intrigued at first, but freaked the heck out once he realized she was some sort of ghost. Screamed at his friends to tie her up.”

“Oh no. And Beam didn’t run away at that?” Rose said, clasping her hands together.

Firestorm shook his head. “She doubled down, saying ‘I can be corporeal if you want’ even as Compton screamed at her to ‘Get on the ground’. She must have turned her magic power off too, because one of Compton’s guys was able to tie her hands behind her back. And after Beam wouldn’t explain to them what part of the forest she’d come from, she was gagged too. That’s when I figured I should hightail it back to Destiny’s place, to get you for backup.”

“So Beam’s been with them for a while and might have useful information by now, we simply can’t get to her,” Kat reasoned.

Rose’s palms separated into fists. “Well, he’s messed with the wrong girl. One sneeze, and I’ll have us back at Beam’s side in no time. As long as Firestorm being here doesn’t mix me up.”

“Um, I’ll try not to?” Firestorm said, scratching his head.

“Hold on,” Alijda said, crossing her arms and leaning against a tree trunk. “No need for us to charge in. This is kind of perfect, actually.”

“Perfect?” Rose gasped. “Alijda, how can you say that?”

As a response, Alijda reached down to tap at her communicator. “Hey, Alice?”

“Hey Abbott![1]” Alice’s voice chirped in response.

Alijda rolled her eyes. “Remember how you were wondering how to abduct a person who is insubstantial?”

“Ooh, doing six impossible things before breakfast down there, are you? I hope one of them was talking to Kat.”

Alijda coughed, as Kat let out a quiet chuckle. “Fo-cus, Gods Alice,” Alijda said. “Beam’s become less holographic. Meaning not only is she caught, but you should be able to pick up her communicator now.”

“Oh? Gimme a second, I’ll check.”

“You figure we can track her,” Rose realized. “Maybe even listen in on what’s happening.”

Alijda nodded. “And more than that, if Beam’s been kidnapped, this becomes an Epsilon mission again. We’re within our rights to interfere.”

Kat rubbed his chin. That seemed like a bit of a reach, given how Beam had created the situation herself. But if it helped them to pursue the goal of getting Destiny back, he wasn’t about to object.

Firestorm threw his hands up into the air. “Okay, seriously, who ARE you people?”

Kat looked over at him. “I don’t think you really want to know the answer,” he remarked. “After all, your imagination can probably dream up something far more interesting than reality, and we’ll be leaving soon enough anyway.”

Firestorm looked Kat up and down. “So you’re some sort of magical special ops unit? Looking into these portals?”

Alice’s voice came back over the comm. “If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…"[2]

“Alice, do you have a fix on Beam?” Alijda interrupted, palming her face.

“Yup, got that,” Alice confirmed immediately. “At least, I presume it’s Beam, I don’t know what else this signal could be. She’s about a kilometre away, in some sort of clearing within that forest region.”

Firestorm grimaced. “So Compton and his buddies found the clearing.”

“Is that bad?” Rose wondered. “What did Destiny’s diary say about it?”

“Not much,” Firestorm admitted. “Just that she’d used some of her occult tricks to pinpoint it, yet had no idea how to open an actual portal.”

“Could be how Destiny got the cyber arm,” Alijda mused. “If it came through there?”

“Maybe,” Kat said. “Though given her tendency to ask travellers about objects, maybe she traded for it or something.”

“Either way, we need a plan to get Beam and Destiny out of this Compton’s clutches,” Rose broke in. “Alijda, maybe your teleport…?"

“Limited to one person at a time,” Alijda said. “Meaning the first retrieval would tip them off.”

“Not if we arrange a distraction,” Kat remarked.

“Hold on. Once you get your people, what then?” Firestorm protested. “You just leave? What if Compton’s doing something illegal, are you just going to let him get away with it and prosecute him later?”

Kat exchanged a glance with Rose and Alijda. They couldn’t really interfere with that - except what if it was dimensional? “Firestorm’s got a point. Maybe Alijda should try to get more information before springing them. Beam might even be able to do something from the inside, even goad Compton into spilling the beans on his plans, if he hasn’t already.”

Alijda let out a breath. “Careful, Kat. How much of this is our fight?”

“We won’t know until we have more information,” he insisted.

“Information that we might get at this clearing,” Rose supplied. “If it looks like Compton’s setting up weird ritualistic rocks or something, that could tell us everything we need to know.”

“My fellow redhead has good advice,” Firestorm remarked. “One thing at a time. Now, do we have to walk there, or do your supernatural abilities allow for a more instantaneous transportation?”

They walked. Even if power had been fully restored to the Station, Kat knew that providing Firestorm with even more evidence of what they might be capable of could only be problematic in the long run.

As they got close, Kat offered to scout up ahead. He had a certain amount of experience through his military training, and while Alijda could vanish faster with her teleportation, the purple smoke she left behind was a dead giveaway. Even if it was dark by now.

On the one hand, a quick surveillance of the clearing showed that Compton and his men weren’t doing anything obvious that might involve creating a portal or otherwise affecting the dimensions. However, they’d set up a tent, added perimeter lighting using some sort of spell, and one of the guys seemed to be keeping an eye out for anyone watching them, implying suspicious behaviour.

Kat was just about to retreat when he saw her.

Compton - it had to be him based off of Firestorm’s description, a shorter man with a scruffy beard - pulled her out of the tent. Destiny. Her long blonde hair trailed behind her as he muscled her over to a part of the clearing and pointed at the ground. Kat couldn’t properly hear what they were saying, but he was more fixated on Destiny’s features. Her mannerisms, even with her hands tied behind her back. And he couldn’t be certain, not a hundred percent, but on some level, he knew. He knew.

After years of searching, he had finally located Fate Wallace-Wray. His childhood friend.

[1] From “Abbott and Costello”, parodied here. [2] …the A-Team. (Or this crew, I suppose.)

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

VOTING CLOSES NOON EST SATURDAY NOVEMBER 18th

EXTRA ASIDE:
I’m leaving the vote open for two weeks, as I indicated in this post, which gives me time to deal with report cards as I return to work from medical leave. Plan is to have another part up for the last weekend of the month. Thanks for sticking with me. In other news, I’m doing a sort-of NaNoWriMo on Time Untied. We’ll see how that goes. Consider a TWF vote for Time & Tied? Thanks.

EPSILON DELTA, PART TWELVE: Non Scents

“The next move… should be yours, Rose,” Kat remarked.

Rose listened as Kat and Alijda caught her up on what had happened since she’d fallen unconscious. At one point, she had to force herself to focus on their words, rather than listen to the inner voice that was screaming at her about how any decision she made here would mess things up again. The way she had messed up with Beam.

When they finished explaining, Rose rubbed her nose, wondering idly if it was going to be perpetually itchy now that she was the vessel for some magical tracking spell.

“O-Okay.” Rose bit on the edge of her tongue, trying to swallow the quaver in her voice. “Okay,” she repeated, closing her eyes momentarily. There was only one right thing to say here. She turned to Kat. “So, we go after Firestorm.”

Kat crouched down in front of where she sat on the bench, to better meet her gaze. “Rose, are you sure?”

Rose let out a quick laugh. “Oh, heck no. I mean, I think the Destiny thing might lead us into a trap, so that’s out. But while my heart says to patch things up with Beam, my head says Firestorm. And in the end, he’s closer to the mission here, right? Get the diary back, figure Destiny out. So, we track him. Beam will find her own way back to the Station. She doesn’t need me.”

Rose held Kat’s gaze levelly until he nodded, and turned to look up at Alijda. “You have Firestorm’s note?”

“Mmm hmmm,” Alijda responded. There was a silence then, to the point where Rose had started turning her own head to see what the older woman was doing. “We’re not going after him though,” Alijda finished.

Kat stood back up. “Alijda…"

“Come on, Kat. We can’t,” Alijda said. She pointed at Rose. “We’re not going to leave this poor girl to wonder for months about how her situation might have turned out better, if only she’d made a different decision in this moment. Because I know what that’s like. Both given my history, and given… I mean, listen, it’s even more terrible when this is filtered through Epsilon, because you can’t simply call up someone you’ve wronged. Not when they’re in another multiverse. So, I’m contacting Alice, to send something of Beam’s down. We’re going after Beam, and that’s all there is to it.”

Rose tried to smile bravely. “Alijda, that’s not necess–"

“Don’t care, doing it anyway.” Alijda spun on her heel and walked a couple paces away, tapping at her communicator.

Rose stared at Alijda’s back, then slumped to look at the ground. So she was screwing it all up regardless. Damn it. She ground her palm in against her freckled nose. It didn’t help with the itching.

A moment later, Kat sat back down next to her, and reached out to pat her shoulder. “Alijda does have a point,” he soothed. “This mission, it’s becoming more about feelings than logic. Given how the logical thing would have been to leave as soon as we’d figured out Beam’s memory loss. Right? But I want to connect with Fate. The same way you want to with Beam. So let’s follow your heart, and let Beam lead us to Destiny.”

“Hah. Me, connect with Beam?” Rose scoffed. “I told the poor girl to go away forever. Because of how I’m attracted to her. Which is my issue, not hers. It’s not even the same attraction as my Paige-love, with Beam it’s this… this… ugh, it’s so confusing. I don’t even know what I’ll say to Beam now. It’s all so… agh.”

Rose slid her palm from her nose up across her eye while turning her head to the side.

“Kat, you ever wanted to be someone else?”

Kat reached his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing. “Not really? I mean, the pyrokinesis took some getting used to, but I’ve accepted it as a part of me.”

“I ask because, see, I wanted to be Paige,” Rose clarified. “After I met her. It took a while, but eventually I realized that what I truly wanted was to have Paige as a constant presence in my life. Like, to always be surrounded by Paige’s pleasant demeanour, by that cute French accent, and oh God, by those long, gorgeous legs…" Rose felt her heart rate increasing. She pulled her brain back on track.

“The thing of it is, the more I learn about Beam, the more I want to be her too,” Rose admitted. “Her attitude of, oh yeah, I’m a lesbian, I know what I want, and rawr, girl power all the way - it’s like, that’s sexy. Or at least, it’s a goal of mine too. So there’s an attraction there, but… well, is it a surround me with that kind of attitude desire? Because I’m acting like it’s a surround me in a sexy way desire. Which is supposed to be my Paige feelings. I think I’m defective.”

Kat chuckled softly. “Rose, you’re not defective. If anything, this explains why you resent so much how Beam was able to turn off her sexual feelings towards you. You want to do that with her, so it’s yet another aspect of Beam that you wish you had yourself.”

“Meaning you also think those feelings are there.” Rose looked back at the ground, wishing her nose would stop itching. “What bugs me is, while I couldn’t turn my feels off with Angie back in high school, I could at least rationalize them away. So why is it so much harder now? I mean, sure, I’m more hella gay, but I’m also older and wiser. So how can I possibly see Beam as being attractive when I’m already dating someone else?”

“Honestly? How could you not see Beam that way,” Kat said. “She’s a cutey.”

Rose frowned. She turned her head back to check his expression, but he didn’t look like he was pranking her. “So you think I’m a horrible cheating bitch. Great.”

Kat sighed, and shook his head. “No, Rose, you’re not. But you are still young, and thus figuring out what love means for you personally. Consider that there’s a difference between appreciating feminine beauty, and actually following through on feelings of attraction to someone. It’s a philosophy I kind of adhere to, actually.”

“What, looky’s fine, nookie not so much?” Rose scratched her nose. “Thanks, but I’m not adopting that philosophy. I mean, if Paige was drooling over every redhead we passed in the street, I’d be hurt. Even if she didn’t act on her desires. This is the same thing.”

<img src=" width=“181” height=“300” alt=""> KAT CONWAY
(Commission from Jakface)[/caption]

“You think?” Kat leaned back on the bench. “Okay, Rose. Two comments, prefaced with the remark that I DO have a tendency to romance any woman who looks to be in my wheelhouse, while making it clear to them that I’m not looking to settle down. Not unlike Beam. So I might not be the best person to give responsible relationship advice.”

Rose gestured towards him. “Yeah, well, I’m a teenager. I may not be the best person to take responsible relationship advice. So it works out.”

“All right. First thing, more of a question, do you drool over every blonde you see?”

Rose glared. “Don’t be silly. My drooling remark was exaggeration to prove a point. Even one drool is too much.”

“But there are blondes you don’t drool over, yes?”

She had to grant him that point. “Duh.”

“So you don’t have a wandering eye. Also, remember, we’re in a highly charged situation here. You said it yourself, you’re lost and scared. Adrenaline is high, and when coupled with how pretty Beam is, it’s only natural that you might want to get in one last fling before the big goodbye. It’s the fact that you’re torn up about those feelings, rather than simply acting on them, which speaks volumes. Don’t you think?”

Rose felt forced to give more ground. “I’ll grant this isn’t a normal situation. But I’ve been in tight places before, and my thoughts didn’t trend towards pre-death sex.”

“Bringing me to my second point. Some of this IS Beam. She made blatant advances towards you earlier. That’s hard to shrug off. But you have no control over that, so tell me, would your girlfriend truly think you were being unfaithful merely because another girl was flirting with you? Accidentally or otherwise?”

Rose squirmed. “Maybe?”

“If so, that seems rather controlling. But even setting that aside,” Kat continued before Rose could interject, “what if we flipped this situation around? What if Paige came to you tomorrow, and said that she’d been in a near death experience, and that in the heat of the moment, she’d kissed another girl. Would you forgive her?”

Rose stood up, balling her hands into fists. “How dare you say that. You don’t even know Paige.”

“Maybe Paige was receiving mouth-to-mouth. Work with me here, Rose. Hypothetically, could you forgive?” Kat crossed his arms and looked up at her.

Rose squared her jaw. It was a stupid question. Her perfect Paige would never do such a thing! Moreover, CPR was CPR. … Then again, French people did kiss each other on the cheeks when they met. So what if Paige did that with an ex-girlfriend? And what if someone’s head slipped? …

Well, so what? Rose had made a point of saying that she wasn’t the possessive type. Hell, there was also that little voice inside, speculating that it was only a matter of time before Paige realized she could do better… whoa, okay, check that thought. Paige thought that Rose was already the best girlfriend to date. For whatever reason. … Why was that again?

Maybe that was part of the problem here. Rose had no practical experience with girls being attracted to her, outside of Paige. And given how she was still processing Paige’s feelings, throwing Beam into the mix as another suitor… someone Rose hadn’t even been trying to flirt with…

Fine. It was true, she could forgive Paige kissing an ex, depending on the circumstances. Meaning Paige could forgive her for getting flustered about Beam. As long as nothing happened. And nothing would. If only Beam weren’t so aggressively cute in the ways she expressed herself? But Beam couldn’t help that, any more than Rose could help finding it a-dork-able.

Rose flexed her fingers back out, then ground the palm of her hand in against her nose, hard, trying to stop the damn itchy feeling. “Kat, when do relationships get easier?”

He chuckled again. “They don’t. They only get different.”

“Figures.” Rose sat back down. “Okay. I see forgiveness as a thing. Here’s hoping Beam can forgive me too. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Any time.”

Rose angled her head. “So, speaking of flipping situations around, how about you? Assuming we do find this Destiny, and she’s Fate, will you be hooking up with her again, relationship-wise? Alternatively, will you cultivate whatever’s happening between you and Alijda? Or will you just keep hitting on random cops for all time?”

Kat flinched back, his eyebrows going up. “Uhm?”

Rose felt like it was her turn to cross her arms. “C’mon Kat. That decision HAS to have occurred to you. I saw how Alijda was looking at you earlier.”

“Euh, I think Alijda feels badly over how she acted on our last mission together,” Kat explained. “So she wants to make it up to me here. That’s it.”

“That’s it, suuuuuure.” Rose quirked her eyebrow, to emphasize that things weren’t as clear cut as he was trying to make them.

Kat looked away. “Look. Alijda and I, we haven’t known each other that long.”

“No? It’s been something like six months on her end, hasn’t it?”

Kat grimaced. “Well, yes, but I haven’t… that is, we were hardly communicating back and forth during that time.”

“Okay. So you don’t think you could date Alijda.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“What about this Fate then, your communication with her has been even worse lately.”

“That’s different,” Kat said sharply.

Realizing she’d jabbed a nerve, Rose quickly lifted her hands up, palms out. “Whoa, sorry. Just, you did tell me this mission was all about feelings, right? So you might wanna do some advance thinking on that front yourself. Because if you’re all about Fate, or at least more about Fate than Alijda, then she should know sooner rather than later. Yeah?”

Kat looked at her sidelong, tight lipped. Then slowly, he nodded. “Point taken. Thanks, Rose.”

Rose offered up a partial smile. Before she could properly reply though, there was a large puff of purple and black smoke, and Alijda appeared before them. She held a pair of jeans out towards Rose. “Here you go. These are Beam’s.”

“Alijda? Did you just teleport up to the Station to get them?” Kat demanded, even as Rose accepted the clothing. “That was hardly safe.”

The brunette woman shook her head. “No, no, not depressively suicidal at the moment. I merely had to go to a convenient doorway outside the park so Alice could pass them off to me, after which it was faster to teleport back to you.” Alijda smiled wryly at Rose. “For the record, Alice wanted to root through Beam’s lingerie drawer. I talked her out of that, since we’ve already had enough comments about underwear choices today.”

It reminded Rose of the first conversation she’d overheard between Alijda and Kat, only a few hours ago. As Rose watched Alijda’s gaze flicker towards Kat, Kat cleared his throat, turning to look at Rose instead.

It was true, relationships really didn’t get easier with age.

“Okay,” Kat said. “So, let’s get to the tracking. Rose?”

“Uh. Yeah.” Rose stared at the jeans in her hands. So she was supposed to just… sniff them? Yeah, hey, that wasn’t weird at all. She slowly brought them up towards her face and, trying not to feel self conscious, gave a quick inhale.

Nothing happened. Her nose still felt itchy.

“Longer, maybe?” Alijda suggested.

Rose lifted the pants again, wafting her free hand towards her face, inhaling, trying to pick up a whiff of… whatever this spell was looking for. Beam pheromones? Did holograms have pheromones? Ones they could leave on jeans? Beam HAD said she could get hot and bothered, with a body that reacted in the same ways as a human. But right now, Rose couldn’t even smell denim, let alone Beam sweat.

“Beam isn’t from this world,” Kat remarked. “So maybe it won’t work.”

Screw it, Rose decided. She smacked the jeans right in against her face and gave a long, deep sniff. Not once, but twice. Let it not be said that she hadn’t been trying.

It did nothing but make her want to sneeze.

“Maybe Beam hadn’t worn those much,” Alijda confessed. “I could ask Alice for something else.”

“No. Know what? Just give me Firestorm’s letter,” Rose decided. She smiled, and for once, found that she didn’t have to force it. “I mean, the important thing is that we tried. Right? I feel better for having done that, so… so yeah. Back on mission. We’ll figure out the Beam stuff later, this is a sign that it’s time for us - for me - to move on.”

Alijda and Kat exchanged a glance, and Alijda seemed about to say something, only to think better of it. “Okay, Rose.” She pulled out Firestorm’s letter. “I, uh, hope this doesn’t smell more like me now, or the tracking will be pretty quick,” she realized.

“I’ll try to tune into male smell more than female smell,” Rose quipped. “Despite my obvious preference for the latter.” Never mind that she had no idea what that even meant.

Rose took the letter. She first sniffed the middle of the page, then around the outer edge. Much like the jeans, she couldn’t pick up anything. For the second time, she stifled a sneeze.

“Maybe Rose needs to be where the note was found for this to work?” Kat suggested, lifting his hands into the air. “The police form I signed really wasn’t clear.”

“Firestorm would likely return to Destiny’s house too,” Alijda remarked. “So we might as well go back there. In the meantime, I’ll contact the Station. They should have more power restored, and maybe Alice can spot something on surveillance for how this tracking is supposed to work?”

The three of them started heading back out of the main area of town. Based on how much lower the sun was in the sky now, Rose judged that it was probably dinnertime. At any rate, even fewer people were around them now. No one approached. And Alice simply said she’d get back to them, following Alijda’s request.

It happened as Rose was grinding her palm in against her nose for at least the twelfth time. She felt a tickle, and before she could stop herself, she sneezed. In an instant, the itching sensation was gone, replaced with the very faint smell of… of something wondrous.

“Bless you,” Kat said.

Rose moaned. That scent, it was so good. Where was it coming from? She sniffed in a breath, turning in a slow circle. Yes, that way.

Alijda’s hand landed on her shoulder before she could take a step. “What is it, Rose? Nose suddenly behaving?”

“Oh yeah,” Rose huffed. She started to walk, sniffing the air as she went. Ohh, more of that smell, yes please.

Alijda’s grip tightened slightly, slowing Rose’s pace without forcing her to stop. “Are you picking up Firestorm? Or Beam?”

“I dunno. It’s…" How did one even describe it? “It’s the scent of fresh cut flowers. Of homemade baking. Of the air after the rain has fallen. Of… oh, of all that and more, Alijda. It’s just so good, please, we gotta get to the source.”

Alijda glanced at Kat, then nodded. “Okay then. Just make sure we can keep pace.”

Rose nodded back and resumed her tracking, no longer caring about the scenery around her, totally focussed on her goal. On the scent.

As she began to jog, she heard Kat remark, “Neither Beam nor Firestorm smelled like cooking. So we may not know who we’re tracking until we get there, huh?”

“Guess not,” Alijda’s voice agreed with him. “It does make me wonder though, would we be smelling the same thing in Rose’s place? Or would I be picking up aftershave or alcohol or something?”

Rose didn’t know. All she knew was, she wanted more of what she smelled now. Granted, she kind of hoped the source was Beam, not Firestorm, given how much she wanted to sniff at the target for a while after arriving, which felt wrong with a guy. Actually, no, it felt wrong no matter who it was. No wonder this spell was regulated by police. She hoped she’d be able to control herself.

Ohhh yeah. The aroma was stronger in this direction, Rose was sure of it.

(Heads up, Beam and Firestorm will be found in close proximity. WHAT’S NEXT?)

VOTING CLOSES NOON EDT SATURDAY OCTOBER 14th

EXTRA ASIDE:
The first 1,000 words of my story about Rose (“The Girl Who Speaks with Algebra”) actually placed in the Top 10 of the “Ink & Insights” writing contest for 2017, out of over 150 entries. There’s a page here looking at the other winners. My link simply directs back to this site, but it’s prompted me to update my story catalogue. And as long as we’re talking about eyes on this site, consider a TWF vote for Time & Tied? Thanks.

EPSILON DELTA, PART ELEVEN: TRAIL MIX

Alijda stared at the station’s computer output. Despite the clues pointing to Kat’s childhood friend Fate being mixed up in whatever was happening on the planet, there was no sign of any anomaly. Human or otherwise. Meaning this mission was over. Meaning… Alijda clenched her jaw, and turned to her companion. “I’m going down.”

Alice flinched. “To the planet?”

“No, for limbo practice. Yes, to the planet.”

“Alijda. Sorry, but no.” Alice began to dance nervously from one foot to the other. “Army’s been deactivated. These scans show no further technology is present, so Beam’s mission is done. Protocol dictates that we get everyone back up to the station and vamoose.”

“You don’t work for Epsilon any more,” Alijda pointed out. “Why enforce their rules?”

Alice added hand wringing to her dance. “To atone for my sins? To keep Beam from getting in even bigger trouble? To get everybody home in time for lunch? C’mon Alijda. We can’t interfere with planets that are simply doing their own thing. That’s wrong, and we both know it.”

Alijda looked away from Alice’s pleading gaze. She didn’t like that her friend was making sense, because she didn’t want to be talked out of her decision. “You once told me that signing up for this Project meant we’d get help,” she stated. “If we ran into problems. Well, I think Kat needs help.”

“The deal was, you’d be helped within your personal multiverse,” Alice said. “Not out here.”

“How is out here so different? Either way we’re getting external help.”

Alice poked her head back into Alijda’s field of vision. “Look. Even if this Destiny woman Kat mentioned IS Fate from his world, the only reason she wouldn’t show on our scans is if she breached the barriers herself. Thus not our problem. Moreover, she’s obviously started living a life down there. We can’t simply abduct her away from that, there would be repercussions for anyone who knows her.”

“This project abducted me. Twice.”

Alice stamped her foot. “That’s different, and you know it! Stop bending the rules to suit your narrative.”

Alijda spun away from her roommate a second time. “Why? That’s what I do, right? I’m questionable morals woman with enough l33t h4x0r skills to enforce my choices on others.”

Alice sighed. “Alijda, think. We don’t know anything about this Destiny. What if it’s all some sort of trap? To catch the original owners of the cyber arm?”

Alijda ran her fingers back through her hair. “Fine. We call Rose first - she’s technically in charge. If she feels like Kat’s behaving irrationally, we pull them up. Otherwise, I’m going down to help.”

“To help with what, reprogramming the local abacuses?”

Ignoring Alice’s little jab, Alijda paged Rose. They’d restored communications nearly half an hour ago, but Alijda had wanted to be sure there was no chance that they’d missed something on scans before making contact. To avoid being the bearers of bad news.

When Rose didn’t answer, Alijda wondered if that had been a mistake. “I’ll try Kat,” she decided.

Kat answered. He quickly brought them up to speed, in terms of Rose having been rendered drunk and unconscious from a magical police stamp, and Beam running off after having been screamed at by Rose in that state.

“It’s my fault,” Kat concluded. “I told Beam to act like Rose was a male lesbian, then paid little attention to issues arising from that decision. Worse, I prolonged the mission and brought us to the police station, instead of waiting for you to resume contact.”

“You meant well,” Alijda said, rubbing her forehead.

“Did I?” Kat challenged.

“Eh. Better than I probably would have under the same circumstances.”

Alice spoke up at last. “All three of us are kind of bad for breaking rules, aren’t we,” she reflected. “Hold on, I’ll see if I can pick Beam up on sensors.”

“The good news?” Kat offered. “According to the papers I signed, the magical tracking effects will wear off of Rose within a day. Two at most. I’ve pulled her off the main streets, we can lay low until she regains consciousness. And Beam might come back here in the meantime.”

“That doesn’t solve the question of this Destiny woman,” Alijda pointed out.

Kat was silent for a moment. “No,” he admitted. “It doesn’t.”

“I can’t pick up Beam anywhere around you,” Alice remarked. “Could she have been teleported away?”

“Seems unlikely, unless that’s another trick she had up her sleeve,” Kat said. “She did go insubstantial. Maybe that blinds her to your sensors?”

“Or Beam was abducted too,” Alijda said. “Making this an Epsilon mission, meaning I should go down to help with the search.”

Alice cleared her throat. “How can someone abduct a person who is insubstantial?”

Alijda resisted the urge to stamp her foot. “Look. We can’t just stand here and do nothing while they’re in trouble down there, can we?”

“Can’t we? It is hard. Doing that. Isn’t it?”

It was Alice’s tone of quiet sadness that made Alijda flinch more than anything. Because, of course, that’s the reality Alice had been faced with many times - sending people away and doing nothing, or the bare minimum, to help them. A boundary that Alice had ultimately overstepped. One which had gotten her fired.

Even now, there was no malice in Alice’s expression. If anything it was a searching, a pleading, a longing for confirmation of some feeling she had somehow never fully managed to articulate.

“Yeah,” Alijda agreed. “It’s hard. And… and there’s no need to put you through that again, Alice. How about you go down to help Kat out and assess the situation. I mean, it would seem to call for a level headed woman to put things right, and you’d be more objective about it than I would be.”

The two roommates stared at each other.

“Kat?” Alice said after a moment. “One of us will whirlpool down to the previous coordinates we used. Can you give us directions to your present location from there?”

“I can, but do you think having more people here might make things worse?” Kat said.

“Let us worry about that,” Alice stated.

Kat told them how to reach his position, adding that it might be a good idea to pick up Firestorm from the occult house on the way. Alice then closed the channel. The two women continued to stare at each other in silence.

Just as Alijda was about to ask Alice if she’d need anything, the younger woman spoke up.

“You can go down,” Alice said. “If you tell me why you want to go.”

It took a moment for Alijda to formulate her argument. “Think about it, Alice. Why would this Destiny woman magically give a cyber arm some ‘desire’, which included accessing computer records, and pulling Kat onto the Station? Why have the arm cause another crisis as soon as Kat left, then spout ‘Fate’ from a computer program? Between that and the symbols, there must be some connection to him. To his world. This might even be a cry for help, from Fate. We need Destiny, and we need Beam, and me going down can help us get them back as fast as possible.”

A smile tugged at Alice’s features. “No, you silly. Tell me why YOU want to go.”

Alijda frowned. Slowly, her eyes widened as she realized what Alice was getting at. She pursed her lips. “B-Because Kat’s an amazing guy and I screwed it all up with him once so I want to make that up to him?” She hoped she wasn’t blushing or anything so ridiculous.

Alice clapped her hands. “We now fail the Bechdel test, but as long as you’re AWARE of that issue, I’m okay with being the one staying behind. Let’s get you a communicator.”

Alijda stared. “Are you truly okay staying here? Really?”

It was Alice’s turn to look away, as she tucked some hair back behind her ear. “Old habits die hard. Besides, I need to think of a good way to incorporate initials for Rose and Beam into my pin design. This’ll give me time to do that.” She turned back, and winked off Alijda’s nonplussed look. “You know, the pin I made for Epsilon, based off Steins;Gate? I showed it to you a couple months ago.”

Alijda shook her head. “Oh, Alice. No matter what I might say about how weird you are, never change.”

“Same, honey.” Alice reached out, then seemed to think better of it, turning the movement into a stretch.

Alijda stepped forwards and grasped Alice, pulling her into a quick hug. “Thank you.” She pulled back, holding Alice by the shoulders. “Now yes, let’s get me a communicator.”

Firestorm was gone. All Alijda found in the house that Kat had directed her to was a note, left on the table, reading ‘Onto something, can’t wait’. There was no sign of Destiny’s diary.

“Sorry, Kat,” Alijda finished, after explaining. They had met up near the police station, in what passed for a park. The unconscious Rose had been laid out on a bench, Kat leaning over her, to monitor her condition.

Kat shrugged. “No need to apologize, doesn’t sound like you scared him off. We probably shouldn’t have left Firestorm alone. That’s another thing I’ve messed up planetside.”

Alijda put her hands on her hips. “Oooh, don’t you even start.”

Kat frowned. “Start what?”

“I’m a depressive. I know all about the spiral down, pinning extra blame when it’s not really warranted. I mean, if you’d left Beam behind with this Firestorm, her memory might have glitched again, or Firestorm might not have read something important, and so we’d still be in some sort of trouble. So don’t dwell.”

Kat shook his head. “Alijda, you forget, I’ve trained for off-planet missions. The repercussions of messing up in these sorts of situations…"

“Still lie in our future. We can salvage this situation, so for now we focus forwards. Okay?”

Kat chuckled. “Oh, very well. But only if you take your own advice. Particularly with respect to whatever you were doing in your six months away from me, versus my six hours.”

Alijda let out a quick breath. “Fine.” He was pointing out a conversational door there, one related to them, but this hardly felt like the time. “So, now three missing people and no way to track them. Beam’s habits we know, more or less. Tell me about the other two.”

Kat filled in the information about Firestorm easily enough, Alijda pacing back and forth as he spoke. Kat then gave what cursory information they knew about Destiny, before visibly hesitating. A few people had wandered through the area during their conversation, but there was no one there now, so Alijda knew it had to be about her.

She stopped in place, turning to face him. “If you don’t want to tell me about Fate, you don’t have to.”

“It might be relevant. It’s just…"

“It’s not on your business cards, as you said. I get it.”

Kat shook his head. “No, it’s more like, I’ve never really gone in depth with anyone about it before. So I’m not sure how to do it now. But…” He came around the bench and leaned against the side, near Rose’s feet. “Okay. Fate was my first serious relationship. Could even be why I don’t take them seriously now, you never know when the other person’s going to up and disappear.”

“Meaning you took relationships seriously before Fate?”

Kat seemed about to reply, only to rub the back of his neck, sheepishly. “Hah, okay, no,” he admitted after a moment. “But I was a teenager, and with a name like ‘Katherine’, it was all about being as manly as possible. That said, Fate was the first rejection in high school that truly bothered me. She said she was upset that I was wasting my ‘gift’. It was only by looking into her occultish things that made me realize, she’d somehow sensed my ability for fire control. And it was only by proving a genuine interest in learning more that got me into using that ability, which led to us hooking up.”

“So Fate was the first girl you actually cared about,” Alijda realized. “As far as relationships go.”

“Huh. You may be right there,” Kat said. “We went to prom together, but our paths diverged in post secondary. What with my Dad wanting me at military college. For a time, Fate and I corresponded back and forth, but then it suddenly… stopped. Fate’s parents thought she’d gone out west. I wondered as to an occult connection, but there were so few leads. I’ve searched for her, on and off, ever since.”

Alijda chewed briefly on her lower lip. “Guess I’ll just ask this then. Kat, could Fate truly have breached dimensional barriers by herself?”

“It’s possible,” Kat granted. “She was always deeper into occult things than I was, and she never told me what her gift allowed her to do. I just always figured she’d been recruited for something top secret, the way I was with the ‘Doorways’ program.”

“Did Fate have any interest in potions?”

“Like Destiny, you mean? Not really. But she could have grown into it, using that rare skill to maximize her chance of meeting someone like her elsewhere on the planet.”

“And you have no idea where Destiny might have been taken?”

“Not off the top of my head.” Kat shook his head. “It’s funny, now that I think about it, Fate did tend to wear a lot of black. Kind of like how you do. I wonder, could it be I have a different attraction to a certain type of woman?”

“Meaning you think Fate could have black, suicidal thoughts, like me?”

“Whoa. Whoa, no,” Kat protested, jumping back to his feet. “I didn’t mean… it’s only… yeah, I’m not sure why I said that. Sorry.”

The man had been pointing out how he’s attracted to you, dumbass, Alijda realized moments later. And you had to go and turn that into depression. Sabotaging the conversation, and yourself, like always.

“Hah, no, I’m the one who’s sorry,” Alijda said quickly. “I’m just terrible, in how my mind interprets…" She also needed to stop putting herself down. “I mean, not always, but my default it’s, er…" Still talking about herself. “Whereas you, uh…" Oh, just say you like him already. “See, I failed the Bechdel test with Alice.” Damn it.

Kat’s eyebrow arced up, but before he could say anything, Rose let out a gasp. The redheaded teen’s eyes snapped open, and she jerked herself up into a sitting position, breathing fast.

Kat and Alijda moved to sit on either side of her, to prevent her from slumping back down, Alijda reaching out to touch the young girl’s arm.

“Rose? Rose, you okay?” Kat asked.

“Feel all funny,” Rose wheezed. “My tongue, my eyes, my ears, my fingers, my…" She sniffed in a long, deep breath through her nose. Only to wince and reach up to touch it. “My nose. Ack, now all the weird tingles are zeroing in on my poor nose.”

Alijda met Kat’s gaze. “That signed police form, giving Rose tracking powers. Did it mention turning her into some sort of bloodhound?”

Kat considered it. “You mean, allowing her to track someone or something by scent? Yeah, it could be interpreted that way.”

Rose poked at her nose. “That’s non-scents. In fact, my nose is feeling more and more stuffed up. Like it’s waiting for the right thing to smell, or something.” She looked around. “Hold on. When did Beam turn into Alijda?”

“This means we need to give Rose something of Destiny’s to sniff,” Kat decided. “Let’s get back to her place.” He started to rise, then sat back. “Unless, should we track down Firestorm instead, using that note he left? He knows the terrain, has the diary, and might already be onto something.”

“Do either of you have a tissue?” Rose asked.

“Hell, maybe Rose should track Beam,” Alijda suggested. “Using some item of hers from the station. Alice had noticed upgrades to the sensors that she didn’t understand. If Beam could get those working, and if Destiny is Fate, and if that means the Station can pinpoint her, we’d be able to go into the situation much less blind.”

“Beam,” Rose gasped. Her hand slid to her mouth. “I told her… I said she was… oh no. Oh NO, I’m HORRIBLE.”

“That was lots of ‘ifs’, Alijda,” Kat said, looking troubled. “And what if we track down Beam only for her to tell us it’s time to leave the planet, by the book?”

Alijda shook her head. “If Rose finds Beam, it shows she cares. And I doubt Beam would shut down a friend in need after that.”

“Wait, what is going on?” Rose looked back and forth between the two of them. “What’s the next move here?”

WHAT’S NEXT?

VOTING CLOSES NOON EDT SATURDAY SEPT 30th

THE ORACLE PROPHESIED:
Subtle decision from the Part 9 vote: When Firestorm was left behind, it meant no tech would register on the Epsilon scans, as revealed in this part. (After all, Rose being deputized has kept them tied to the planet.) Had Firestorm been the one deputized, there WOULD have been signs of a tech component, as a reason to stick around and not turn everything over to Firestorm. Thanks for reading and voting!

EPSILON DELTA, PART TEN: SEE DEUCE

“Okay, good idea,” Rose decided, nodding at Firestorm. “See what you get from the diary, there could be something in there about where Destiny’s technology came from.” She glanced to Kat. “We could use the techno tech know, you know?”

Kat seemed to hesitate before nodding. Rose chalked it up to the possible invasion of Destiny’s privacy - but they needed every angle here, right?

ROSEMARY THORNE
Commission from Lia[/caption]

She was second guessing her decision within five minutes of leaving Firestorm at Destiny’s house. True, he had given them the information they’d need for dealing with the police, including the location of the station, but what if something unexpected happened? Maybe the only planetary resident they knew should have come along. Rather than leaving him to snoop. Then again, maybe they had the Station for backup by now?

Rose tapped her communicator. “Rose to Alice, are you up there?”

Kat reached out to seize Rose by the arm, though he stopped short of actually touching her. Still, Rose flinched at his sudden movement.

The tall man cleared his throat. “What’s wrong, Rose? Anything I can do?”

“I wondered if they’d managed repairs up there yet, I guess,” Rose admitted. “But I probably shouldn’t disturb them, huh? They’ll call us?”

“Probably,” Kat said, smiling wanly at her. “Don’t worry, Rose. I can handle talking to the police.”

“Yeah. I just… yeah.”

“It’s just, you’ve been abducted from your Earth and are feeling a little out of sorts. I get it.”

Rose let out a long breath. “Don’t forget, I’m also in charge somehow. If this goes pear shaped, it’s on me.”

“Oh, Rose. Oh no,” came a soft voice from her other side. Beam reached out and touched Rose through the shoulder, with her incorporeal hand. “It’s on me. Because I’m the one who pulled you into this. I’m so sorry it’s distressing you.”

Rose turned to look at the blonde hologram, and immediately had to look away. That tender, apologetic gaze… Rose wasn’t sure if she was more irritated at the sense of being pitied, or more rattled by how her first instinct had been to give Beam a reassuring hug. Her feelings for the pretty girl were still rather mixed up.

“Let’s all talk about something else,” Rose suggested. “Your previous missions, maybe? Were any of them as screwed up as this?”

Kat spoke first, as they walked down the dirt road. He offered up some highlights of his only previous Epsilon involvement, where he, Alijda and a personified parabola - Rose idly wondered if this “Para” was in any way related to “Sine” - had come together to look into dimensional tears on a scaled-down world. It had apparently led to Alice being fired.

Though the way things were going here, Beam might end up fired too, so that wasn’t entirely comforting.

Then Beam launched into a tale of her first Epsilon involvement. She had been pulled onto the station, where some higher entity had communicated to her through the computer. They had provided her with the station’s mission, requesting equipment repairs at first. After Beam had agreed to and accomplished those, there had been the actual prospect of a retrieval mission.

“It’s like it had been hand picked just for me too,” Beam remarked. “Very tech world, but with a magic amulet. Which had been buried in a lava flow, so the Station couldn’t get a positive lock until it was uncovered by an archaeologist centuries later. So, fine, I devised a clever plan. I appeared shortly after said archaeologist found it, pretending like she’d released me from being confined in said amulet. After rewarding her for my freedom, I left with the artifact, mission accomplished.”

“Rewarding her?” Kat asked. “Does the Station have money?”

“Oh, no, no. She swung my way. I was the reward.” Beam raised a finger to her chin. “Interesting thing is, she tasted spicier than the women of my world.”

Rose stumbled and nearly face-planted into the dirt.

“I mean, sure, every female tastes different,” Beam chirped, without breaking stride. “And it’s connected to diet and all that, but sometimes I wonder if it was that Earth? Or maybe being an archaeologist contributed to her–"

“BEAM,” Rose cut in, wide-eyed. “TMI!”

Beam turned to her. “The Michener Institute what now?”

“Too. Much. Information. Ix-nay on the Issing, ‘kay?!”

Beam glanced from Rose to Kat, where she saw his eyebrows were up, and then back again. “‘k-kay. I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t mean to overstep. I really haven’t had occasion to socialize much since leaving my Earth. Except with the Epsilon computer.”

“We know you didn’t mean anything by it, Beam,” Kat soothed. “But don’t forget, Rose was a tad conflicted about you, particularly on that sort of subject.”

“I haven’t forgotten.” Beam nibbled on her lower lip. And it was cute, and Rose had to look away again. She took a moment to take in the village (town?) that was now around them. They had covered a fair bit of ground during story time.

The three of them were still on the dirt road, but there were now other roads crossing it, and wooden or stone structures surrounding them, versus having houses appear only every so often. There were a few people about too, though they were not paying much attention to them.

Well, aside from the occasional sideways glance at their outfits - their lack of cloaks might be making them stand out. But the residents themselves seemed more intent on getting to wherever they needed to be.

It was probably close to dinnertime. Or maybe, on a magic world, you simply took things at face value and didn’t ask too many questions.

Rose also noticed that the tavern that Firestorm had told them to be on the lookout for was up ahead. The police station would be down on the cross street, not far away. Making it easier for the cops to get to refreshments whenever the work day ended, the fire mage had griped.

“R-Rose…?"

Suppressing a sigh, Rose looked back at Beam. “Yippers?”

“Clarify. I’m used to talking about - um, let’s say kissing of girls - with both girlfriends and guy friends. But I gather that’s a bad topic for girls who are friends? Or is it more a case of too soon?”

“Yes. That is, maybe. That is…" Rose paused to press the heel of her palm to her forehead, before sliding her hand down over her face. “Flûûûûûûûte.” As she said it, Rose realized something. The mild french swear word was becoming a way for her to feel closer to Paige. Her girlfriend. A multiverse away.

With effort, Rose swallowed away the lump in her throat.

“Look, Beam,” Rose began. “You said all girls… taste different?” Damn it, normal girls didn’t talk this way when they got together. Did they? Beam simply nodded back. “Well, girls as friends have different tastes in conversation too. Meaning for me, right now? Sexy time talk is a no-no, and that qualified. But maybe the next girl you befriend will be different. That make sense to you?”

Beam nodded again. “It does. I guess I’m just hoping some universal truths will come up. Ones which will always apply for your new subclass. Like how the male subclass is all just kind of ugh.”

“Oh, thanks,” Kat remarked, a hint of amusement to his tone.

“Oh no, I mean, you’re nice enough. It’s only, men are lousy lovers,” Beam clarified.

“Thanks again,” Kat said. He apparently couldn’t resist adding, “you know our anatomy is the basis for how your toys are shaped?”

“Pffft, it’s not about anatomy,” Beam scoffed. “It’s about the five senses. For instance, compared to a man, ooooh, the scent of a woman, that’s so…" Beam paused, hands partially clasped, looking sidelong at Rose. “So totally a movie. Yippers, on some Earths ‘Scent of a Woman’ is the name of a movie.”

Rose wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at the conflicted expression on Beam’s face. She settled for lifting her finger and pointing, to change the subject. “There’s the tavern. We’re almost to the police station here. Destiny awaits?”

“Right,” Kat agreed. “Let’s get to it.”

Rose felt a tingle as she walked through the doorway into the police station. Shaking it off, she held the door for Beam, so that the hologram wouldn’t need to phase through the wall. Kat walked up to the main counter before them.

The station itself looked like a small time police department out of a TV show. A female officer was looking over some sort of newspaper as Kat approached. There were a couple more male individuals in the back, one reading, another looking at papers he’d taken out of what Rose took to be a filing cabinet. A door in back led to where they presumably had a jail cell or two.

“Take a number,” the desk officer said, before Kat could speak.

Kat looked around. “We three are together though,” he said. “And there’s nobody else in here.”

“I’m on break. More people might come,” the officer said, not looking up from her news article.

“Okay, well, crime waits for no one,” Kat said. “So maybe you could take a break from your break?”

She looked up, irritated. “Why, are you about to go commit a crime?”

Kat smiled. “Heeey, only if it’s a crime for me to look this good. Though I will grant that, next to you, I pale in comparison.”

Rose considered gagging. Until the officer folded up her newspaper and smiled. “Well played. I can appreciate an ego that rivals my own. What’s the trouble?”

Kat gave a quick rundown of their situation. They used the angle that Firestorm had recommended, saying they had come in from out of town to find Destiny missing. As the story came out, the interest of the desk officer gradually faded, and neither of the cops in the back paid them any attention. Soon, the woman was reaching back for her newspaper.

“Fill out an initial report form, then come back in a couple days,” she said.

Kat winced. “Isn’t there anything that a charming and intelligent woman such as yourself can do for us in the meantime?”

She eyed him sidelong. “Fishing for special dispensation? Fine, fill out the waiver form.”

Rose had already noticed the various forms in the slots near the door. Grasping the one they needed, she took it over to Kat, placing it on the countertop. He grasped a pen and filled it out as Beam paced back and forth, occasionally looking over their shoulders.

The desk officer scanned over the form after Kat pushed it at her. “Hmph. I guess this is in order,” she sighed. She reached underneath the counter and brought out some sort of stamp.

It happened quickly. Before Rose could react, the cop had seized her by the wrist and brought the stamp down onto the back of her palm. There was a chiming sound. “Hey!” Rose protested, jerking her arm away.

Now she was seeing double. Much like how she had seen two cauldrons after charging into Destiny’s place. It was making her nauseous, so she closed her eyes and fell to her knees, judging that to be more dignified option versus falling on her ass.

“What the hell?” Kat’s voice was saying. “I’m the one who filled out the form, lady! What did you just do to Rose?”

“This isn’t our first rodeo,” the officer answered. “You know magic potential gets scanned as soon as you walk in here. That girl’s is the strongest, so she leads the search. We’re not going to let you file a complaint as if we didn’t notice that.”

“What?? But Rose doesn’t do ANY magic. And I’m the one who handles fire.”

“Oooh, good for you. Look, either fill out a rescinding form, or get out of here.”

Rose reopened her eyes. She was still seeing double, so it looked like Beam’s concerned gaze included four pretty blue eyes and two sets of kissable lips. Whoa, no, no, bad thoughts again. “Bye bye bad thoughts, go away now,” Rose gasped.

“Rose, are you okay?” Beam asked.

Rose hiccuped, then giggled, despite trying to suppress the urge. She smacked her palm over her mouth. “Oh, ah feel shooow gooood,” Rose cooed. “‘Cept mebbe ah’m too shexhy for dish magicks.” Wait, she was saying that aloud?

Rose pulled her hand back, glaring at both her right palms, as if they were to blame for letting those words escape.

“No,” she accused them. “Bad hand. Ooo, filtersh, filtersh, come back brain filtersh… ah neeeed youuuu… ah neeed yoooouu lik a lite houshe needs a coasht…"[1]

Rose had no idea why the lyric of that hokey country song had suddenly come to mind, and she dissolved back into giggles. It was just too FUNNY, that a song she’d heard maybe ONCE would come back to her now, in the presence of a seductive lesbian hologram while on some alternate magical Earth.

By the time Rose was able to stop laughing, she’d been helped outside, Kat leaning her up against the side of the building. He was saying something, but Rose wasn’t entirely clear on what.

“Youse haff two hedds,” she pointed out to him. Granted, they were sort of focussing themselves into one, but they didn’t seem to want to stay that way.

Kat said something else while waving six fingers in front of her face, as if that would help anything. Rose closed her eyes, turned to the side, and reopened them. Beam was standing there. Oh no, pretty lesbian.

“Rose…" Beam began.

“Nooo,” Rose yelped, trying to step back, and only succeeding in flattening herself against the wall. She hiccuped again. “Know what? You my anti-Angie. Shtay ‘way, anti-Angie!”

Beam frowned. “Auntie Angie?”

In a flash, Rose realized what the root of her problems was. And she couldn’t stop her stream of consciousness from running out of her head via her mouth. “Angie. I liked her ’n high schewl. An’ she pulled back, an’ so I diden go deeper, an’ so I diden figger me out. But now’n I know, wif me an’ girls, an’ here you are.”

Rose took in a deep breath. “An’ Beam, you go thuther way, instead of no deeps, you want ALL the deeps, Beam, ALL the deeps, an’ I canna take it. I canna, cuz I wanna wif Paige, but ’m lost n’ scared here, ’n you is pretty, ’n you lead me to titillation, and you don’ deliver me from evil, and thine is a kingdom, an’ power n’ glory, uh…"

Rose steered her thoughts back on track. “Yis, so Beam, you an anti-Angie cause jest like wif Angie I wanna, but I DON’ wanna, cuz it’ll mess all life up. Which, okay, we deal wif it, maybe? Until you TURN LOVE OFF. Is NO FAIR BEAM, I no turn it off, not wif Angie, or Paige, or you, an’ then you make me all confuzzled about friendships. Why you do this to me, Beam? Why?? DAMN it, I HATE you,” She was almost screaming by then.

Beam flinched back. “Rose, stay calm. Okay? Y-You’re being affected by that police stamp. You d-don’t really mean you hate me, right?”

“I DO. I hate YOU, an’ I hate bein’ in CHARGE, an’ I hate my head’s HURTIN’ now, an’ somehows I gots magicks so I canna even flee to Station no more,” Rose sobbed. “So know wha? YOU, Beam, I wan YOU t’go ‘way frum me.”

Beam reached out, so Rose lifted her arm to point for emphasis. “NO. Go ‘WAY, y’hear? Go ‘WAY Beam, you an’ your cutesy love off switch. Mk? JEST GO FAR ‘WAY FRUM ME F’REVER!”

“Rose, stop, that’s enough,” Kat said sternly, grasping her by the shoulder. She swatted his arm away. Alas, the movement unbalanced her enough that she felt herself sliding down the wall and onto the ground.

The last thing she saw before closing her eyes again was a sideways view of Beam sprinting away as fast as her legs could carry her.

The last thing she heard before falling unconscious was the sound of the Station communicator on her wrist.

[1] “I Need You”, Tim McGraw featuring Faith Hill.

WHAT’S NEXT?

VOTING CLOSES NOON EDT SATURDAY SEPT 16th

EXTRA ASIDE:
There was a post last week with information and a poll about where to take this site in 2018. Also, voting for the time travel story never hurts… this site just had two consecutive zero view days in a row (plus nine spams).

EPSILON DELTA, PART NINE: DESTINATION: DESTINY

Kat suspected that his brain was trying to interpret what he saw as double vision. But what surrounded him was actually overlapped images, and he wished his head would figure that out already. As it was, he was trying to focus on the Epsilon Station by targeting the people there, largely because they tended to be the things speaking and in motion.

Still, when Alijda stepped back, overlapping with Beam, who was rocking back and forth on her heels… the one person passing back and forth through the other person forced him to close his eyes and shake his head to readjust.

When Kat reopened his eyes, all he saw was Destiny’s house again. He snapped his attention over towards Firestorm. “Hey! Turn that back on!”

“I’m surprised the spell lasted as long as it did,” the robed magician grunted. “Never tried communicating in quite that way before.”

Rose coughed. “The place is kind of smoky now, can we go outside?”

Kat took in the scene that now surrounded him. He was standing in the middle of the room, on Firestorm’s fire-resistant tarp. The wood in the circle around him had been burned down to ash. Beam stood to one side, monitoring, unaffected by the fire owing to being insubstantial. Firestorm was at his other side, holding up some magic symbols. Rose was halfway across the room.

“No, listen, I just needed another minute or two,” Kat insisted. “Find something else to burn.”

“That was all the firewood, and we’re not burning Destiny’s stuff,” Firestorm objected. “In fact, I’m starting to think you weren’t talking to someone on the other side of the country at all.”

“Maybe the communicators will work soon?” Beam suggested. “Now that the others know you need to talk?”

“And what was up with your muttering about Alijda building an army?” Rose asked. “Also, can we go outside?”

Kat pinched the bridge of his nose, forcing himself to remain calm. If Destiny really WAS Fate, from his world, she’d apparently already been here for a decade or more. Another few minutes wouldn’t change things. Would they? Well, he’d at least give Alijda and Alice some time, in order to avoid interrupting them while they stabilized the station.

“It wasn’t an army, it was the arm they were catching,” Kat explained. “And before we go outdoors, we need to figure out if Destiny left her home voluntarily. Because if they can’t track her from the Station, we’ll need to track her ourselves.”

“Swell,” Rose said, coughing again.

“Would you like a soothing massage, Rose?” Beam said brightly. “Once I can touch things again? Or can girl friends not do that without it getting sexy?”

“Oy,” was Rose’s only comment, looking sidelong at Beam.

Firestorm cleared his throat, setting aside the pages with the symbols on them. “Kat, you really think Destiny would have left her place looking like THIS if she’d left by choice?” He made a shooing motion in Kat’s direction.

“For misdirection, sure,” Kat retorted. Realizing what Firestorm wanted, he moved off the tarp, to allow the man to start retrieving it.

“Oh, hey, the front door,” Rose remarked, walking towards it.

“Yes, fine, Rose, I get it,” Kat sighed. “If the smoke’s bothering you that much, we’ll catch up with you out front.”

“No,” Rose said, pointing at it. “I mean it was locked. Beam had to muscle her way in. Isn’t that a clue?”

Kat again tried to keep his emotions in check. “Good point, sorry Rose. Firestorm?”

Firestorm nodded. “Yeah, if it was police cracking down on Destiny for spell casting, they would have busted that thing down. So she wasn’t arrested. Or if she was, it wasn’t here.”

Kat nodded. Firestorm had explained to them that magic was highly regulated on this world. That was the whole reason they’d had to perform the communications spell indoors, to avoid detection.

“But if Destiny locked herself in, why isn’t she still here?” Beam wondered.

“I locked the door,” Firestorm said, shooting her a look as he swept the last of the ash away. “After your unauthorized access earlier.”

“Oh. That,” Beam said, nibbling on her lower lip.

Rose turned away from the door. “Firestorm, can you maybe explain what happened the first time Beam arrived? We’d like to, uh, hear it from your point of view.”

Firestorm looked towards the ceiling. “You people… but very well.” He continued to speak as he folded up his tarp. “I was supposed to meet with Destiny tonight. As it turned out, I got a lift into town, so I came by early. The place looked like this when I arrived. I’d barely had a chance to start looking around when blue-eyes there,” he jerked his thumb at Beam, “appeared in the doorway, saying she had ‘come for the technology’.”

“I was polite about it, yeah?” Beam asked.

“You acted as if I knew what the hell you were talking about,” Firestorm said, shooting her a look. “We argued, I made a fireball, you did some freaky acrobatic jumping moves, I grabbed the fireplace poker to defend myself, and you used it as some conduit for a lightning attack. Which knocked me out.”

“Again with the lightning? How did I…" Beam’s eyes widened, and she reached up to touch the side of her head. “Oh no. No, no, did you hit my hairband with that poker? Or my earrings?”

The man rolled his eyes. “Girls and their trinkets."

“They’re my control mechanisms,” Beam snapped. Her hands fumbled over her hairband, touching it and tapping at it. She didn’t pull it out to look at it though. Actually, Kat recalled, hadn’t the hairband popped up from her head, to let them power her up? Perhaps it was a part of her. If they removed it from Beam’s hair, might Beam herself vanish?

“Major systems all functional,” the holographic girl muttered, seemingly to herself. “If I had been damaged, I’d have rebooted after self-repair. The mission would still be in short term memory. Or I might have contacted the Station… but it means I was already partly damaged when I returned with the arm… what if I’m prone to blackouts now?"

“ANYway,” Firestorm said pointedly, ignoring the rambling blonde. “When I came to, alone, I locked myself in here. Took a closer look around, found the diary, and was reading that when you all showed up again.”

Rose had approached Beam by now, reaching out to touch the troubled hologram on the shoulder. Of course, her hand passed right through, but it got Beam’s attention. She turned and fired a grateful smile at the younger girl, pulling her hands away from her hairband off Rose miming the action.

Kat decided to refocus the conversation back on his original question. “Firestorm, during that closer look around, did you see anything that might have explained what happened to Destiny? I mean, you know her better than we do. Does this seem more like the results of a struggle to you, a search, something staged…?”

“She’s a fighter,” Firestorm said, tucking his tarp away in his robes. “But her opponents wouldn’t be able to use spells in here, unless they were on the list. I’m inclined to say a search. But I don’t see her that often, so I don’t know what ‘technology’ she might have had that everyone’s obsessing over.”

Kat rubbed the back of his neck. “Would that have been the target though? I mean, they left before finding it. Didn’t they?”

He looked to Beam, who seemed to have calmed back down. She shrugged. “I didn’t know what I’d find here,” Beam answered. “There could have been more than the arm, if it was removed before I arrived. All I know is, Destiny couldn’t have had too much, or the initial reading would have been bigger.”

“Maybe there’d be information in Destiny’s diary?” Rose suggested.

Kat frowned. “Yeah. I’m hesitant to read that without permission. She kept it hidden, it feels like an invasion of privacy.”

Firestorm grinned. “I didn’t care about that.”

Kat shot the man a glare. “I noticed.”

Firestorm seemed unfazed. “You want to know about what I read, or not?”

Kat waged a brief internal battle between his morals and their mission. “Fine.”

Firestorm’s gaze became smug. “Destiny started it by saying she was ‘resigned to living out her days here’,” he said, picking the book up off the table and holding it aloft. “There’s a bunch of stuff near the start about our customs, and her symbol magic which ‘works more tangibly here’, which is why I wonder if she was originally one of the fae or something.”

Firestorm paused, as if hoping that one of them might confirm or deny his belief. When no one spoke, he continued on.

“She mentions deciding to specialize in potions, because it’s the best way to encounter people from all over. And she’s right about that. It’s not a simple trade, people travel to find potion masters. And speaking from personal experience, I know Destiny liked hearing stories or seeing objects related to the unusual, things outside the norm.”

He paused again.

“Things like you?” Beam said in the ensuing silence.

Firestorm shot her a look. “I’m not that unusual. Not everyone on her list has unusual beliefs, okay?”

“Yeah, hey, what is the story of this list?” Rose wondered.

He peered closer at her. “Don’t you know? Aren’t all of you ON the list?”

“Actually, Rose isn’t. Yet,” Kat said quickly. “She came with us in order to join. We were reluctant to give her the details, but now that Destiny’s gone, maybe you should tell her…?"

“Oh, sure. Just tell strange people ‘on the list’, who never saw Destiny in person, about that list.” Firestorm looked back and forth between them. “Ah, hell, you might be playing me, but at this point it’s probably in the diary anyway.” He adjusted his robes. “We’re the few mages who can imbue objects with powers. Meaning we’re able to use Destiny’s ‘occult’ symbols, as she calls them.”

“Anyone who can do that ends up on the list then?” Rose asked.

“No, we have to be vetted, directly or indirectly,” Firestorm said. “Destiny didn’t want this going to our head, leading to us trying to take over a city or anything. It was a way to spread the word though, in an urban legend sort of way.”

Kat rubbed his chin. “That symbol on the arm,” he mused. “That desire. It could have been a desire to connect up with others who know the symbols."

“And your symbol knowledge would be in the Epsilon database,” Beam remarked. “How DID you end up on the Station, Kat?”

“Alice thought it was a glitch,” Kat said. “Because I left right after her, so when she was pulled in… but maybe…” Could his being here be more than random chance? His hands curled into fists. “We have to find Destiny.”

“Well,” Rose put in, “if we assume Destiny let people in the front door, or was lured out, it had to be by people she knew. Probably either occult-list people, or rare-potion people.”

Kat nodded. “They subdued her, and then searched the place for… that list?”

“The list wasn’t physical,” Firestorm said. “Or at least, I didn’t think it was.”

Rose looked at Firestorm. “If we check out the storage-and-potions room, do you think you’d notice anything out of place?”

Firestorm hesitated, then shrugged again. “Maybe.” He headed towards the other room, Rose falling into step ahead of him. Kat moved to follow, only to have Beam step in front of him - he almost walked right through her.

“Kat?” the hologram said. “I am on the cusp of a logic error.”

Kat blinked. “Related to damage on your hairband?”

Beam shook her head. “No. This mission. Because it’s over. The station is safe, it sounds like the women have secured the cyber arm, and I know what happened with my memory. There is no reason for us to remain here.”

“No reason?? Beam, DESTINY–"

“Is internal to this world. Not our problem.”

“Not if she’s Fate.”

Yet again Beam shook her head. “No. This Fate may have breached the dimensional barriers herself, without external interference. That’s also not our problem. The Project cleans up rogue anomalies, it does not correct for human error.”

Kat felt a hand closing around his heart. After the years of searching, of wondering, it felt like he was suddenly so close. They couldn’t take that away from him. “The… there might be other technology,” he blurted. “Taken by whoever took Destiny away.”

Beam nodded. “That is the loophole I am holding onto. But you should know that, if further technology is not the case? I will advise Rose that our mission is over.” She glanced down at his communicator. “As such, I’m not certain how eager you should be to hear from the others.”

Kat flinched, one hand automatically covering the wristwatch device. He swallowed, and pulled both hands back to his sides. “Understood. Thank you for the warning, Beam.”

Beam nodded, her more serious expression dissolving back into a smile as she pivoted on one foot to follow after Rose and Firestorm. They met the two of them right outside the storage room, as Firestorm was emerging.

“Healing potions are gone, as are a few of the more powerful ones,” the redheaded man remarked. “But it could be Destiny simply sold out. Her permit’s not there though, her storage permit, that’s weird. Her permit for manufacturing, which she likely would have hidden, might explain the search. Rose may be onto something with her potion people abduction theory.”

“But it could still be technology,” Kat put in quickly, before he could stop himself. He bit down on the edge of his tongue.

Firestorm shrugged. “Hey, all we can do is theorize. I almost hate to say it, but maybe we should go to the police station, open an investigation? They might grant us special dispensation to use search-and-tracking magic, assuming there’s anything here to track.”

“Wow, seriously? They’d just give that kind of power to random civilians?” Rose asked.

“Sure. Because they can always revoke it, and then they’re able to say that the early interference makes solving the case unlikely,” Firestorm grunted. “Holier than thou jerks. Hence my hesitation. Thing is, police won’t investigate directly until Destiny’s been missing for a couple days.”

They couldn’t wait a couple days. Kat knew that much. Either the Epsilon Station would locate Fate - or rogue technology - probably within the next hour or two… or it would all be over. Unless they somehow ingrained themselves more into what was happening on this world, such that they couldn’t simply step away.

“We’re off to the police station then,” Kat decided. Belatedly, he looked at Rose. “Er, if that’s okay with you. You’re still in charge.”

Rose let out a long breath. “Well, is there any real alternative?”

Firestorm shrugged. “I’m cool with staying here and reading more into the diary, maybe I’ll stumble on something more concrete about Destiny’s stranger associates in her more recent entries.”

Rose pursed her lips.

WHAT’S NEXT?

VOTING CLOSES NOON EDT SATURDAY SEPT 2nd

EXTRA ASIDE:
If you hadn’t noticed, I like grabbing throwaway things (like Beam breaking down the front door) and twisting them to be significant. If it now feels like “kidnapping” was always in the cards, then I’m probably doing my job right. Had “arrest” been chosen, I’d have obviously gone a different direction with that. Is this a skill? I don’t even know. Anyway, thanks for reading. Voting for the time travel story never hurts, August has been the worst month for views in 2017.

EPSILON DELTA, PART EIGHT: The Arm of Fate

“Wait, wait, I want to hear more of the cute girls flirting,” Alice pleaded. But it was too late. Even as she spoke, Alijda was tapping the button turning off communications to the planet. Alice made a pouty face at her. “You’re no fun.”

Alijda sighed. “Alice, sweetie, roomie, we’re trapped on a space station with a freaky magical cyber arm. Priorities?”

Alice crossed her arms. “Alijda, doom and gloom, also roomie, one of my priorities is staying sane. Pretty girls who want to kiss? It’s a sanity branch, showing me love can survive in a screwed up multiverse.”

Alijda matched her pose, not backing down. “You DO realize Beam’s attention makes Rose uncomfortable, yes?”

Alice couldn’t help but smile. She liked how Alijda challenged her opinions. It had been like that since their first encounter. Actually, no, what she liked even more about Alijda was how the teleporting woman would challenge, up until the point she realized that Alice wasn’t going to budge, then back off. There were even times when Alice yielded to logic. On occasion.

“Two girls can be good friends and share sexual pleasure stories without being actual make-out girlfriends,” Alice fired back. “Look at us.”

Alijda’s cheeks tinged a shade darker. “That’s different. Rose is half our age, she’s still figuring herself out. Also, I maintain that I really didn’t need to hear that vibrator story.”

Alice’s smile widened. “Ohhh, yes, you did. You were whining so much that afternoon about how you chase all the good guys away, how you were never going to find anyone, and how you’d never know the pleasures of a relationship again. You needed SOMETHING to take your mind off of it.”

“Most women would have suggested a day at a spa!”

“Most women didn’t find themselves alone on a space station for soooo looooong. Did you even try using one that way?”

“Oh, for–" Alijda closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, and seemed about to turn away, when her posture straightened. “Wait. That’s it.”

Alice also liked when Alijda surprised her. “Really? Should we find you a–"

“NO. Stop, Alice, those images, Gods. I meant, you know this station. You know where to go to evade the sensors, yes?”

Alice shrugged. “I used to simply turn off the ones in my bedroom when I wanted–"

Alijda grasped her shoulders. “Please focus. Fo-cus. If this arm is smart, it’s going to be hiding somewhere. In a place where, even if we get all the sensors working, it’ll still be shielded from detection. Possibly even from force field confinement. Where would that be?”

Alijda’s line of thinking clicked. “There’s a few places that would work.”

That’s when the station vibrated, some red lights lit up on the console, and a warning klaxon sounded.

Alijda glanced around, then back to her. “Does one of those places also let the arm do something like that to us?”

Alice nodded. “I know exactly where it is.”

Their first major stop was auxiliary control.

“I should be able to pull something together here that’ll neutralize both the Army’s tech parts and its magical occulty parts at once,” Alice remarked. She dumped all the items they’d picked up en route onto the floor.

Alijda sighed. “Can you not call it ‘the Army’? It’s one cyber arm, not a platoon.”

ALICE VUNDERLANDE Commission from Cherry Z[/caption]

Alice grabbed the nearby toolkit and sat down to begin sifting through the assemblage of parts. She’d had something in mind ever since discovering that magic and science were blending together on that world of scale, her last Epsilon mission. She’d never thought she’d get the opportunity to build the thing.

“Army needs a name,” Alice countered. “Do you have a better one?”

Alijda’s grumble implied she didn’t. She turned towards Mr. Smith instead. “What’s the situation with these new alarms?”

“Automated,” came the computer’s reply. “Orbit is now decaying due to internal interference. I’m prioritizing the stabilization systems over everything else, save necessities like life support, so communications are down. You have approximately ninety minutes to regain control.”

“Of course. Any clue as to why the Station wants to kill us again?”

“Unknown.”

“Never easy,” Alijda mumbled. She looked back at Alice. “Can I help you build?”

It had been months since the vague blueprints had been a thing in Alice’s mind. But now that she was focussed on it, she found she could pick up where she left off. Much like remembering the next line of dialogue in “Back to the Future”, once given the right prompt. That was simply how her mind worked.

“Sorry Alijda, hardware thing here, not a hacker thing,” Alice said. “Would take longer for me to explain than to simply do it.” She snapped on a pair of goggles and began to solder. “We could talk about Kat though, that’d help.”

Alice wasn’t looking up, but she suspected that Alijda rolled her eyes. “No.”

“Totes serious,” Alice insisted. “I can work better if I’m not consciously thinking about what I’m doing. I’ve had Ziggy or Smith play music to me in the past, but the computers are kinda preoccupied right now. So come on, what did you two talk about when getting the power for Beam?”

“Nothing.”

“Ooh, yuh huh, sure, a ‘nothing’ that’s got you all bitter about relationships again. What, did you hope Rose would pick me to go to the planet? Giving you two more quality time together? You shoulda described me better than ‘walking encyclopaedia’, that’s not really a selling point.”

Alijda let out a breath of exasperation. “I was trying to sum up your skill set as best as I could. I was NOT trying to– look, don’t even start with me, okay?”

“Okee dokee. If you’re sure?”

Her roommate remained silent, but now it was the sort of silence that felt uncomfortable enough to warrant a follow up. Maybe? It took a couple minutes, but at last Alijda continued with, “It’s just… Alice, am I an egomaniac?”

Alice started splicing the necessary wires together. “I didn’t notice any huge, framed pictures of yourself on the walls of your home.”

“I don’t mean like that,” Alijda grumbled. “I mean, in how I make things about me. Because of how I shut other people out. Doing that, all I have is me, so everything becomes about me, and that shuts people out even more. A feedback loop of me, me, me.” She stamped her foot on the ground. “Damn it. I’m an uncaring bitch who should have died years ago.”

Alice spat the paperclip out of her mouth and looked up. “WHOA. Back up. That’s the depression talking. You do care. You jumped through a doorway to be with me, up here, now. You didn’t have to do that.”

Alijda shrugged, looking sullen. “Yeah, well, maybe I’m trying to find new, more exciting ways to die. It’s been all downhill since plummeting into the Thames on my first Epsilon mission.”

“Oh, stop. I’ve never been keen on black humour, and that silly show ‘A thousand ways to die’ is fiction. I hope you’ve never watched it.” Alijda didn’t even react to the random reference. Thrown off by that, Alice looked back down at her work. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to send you to the dark places.”

“I know. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry too.”

“Remember, deep down, I don’t think you want to die, Alijda. You want to stop hurting. Totes different. We’ve had that argument before, yes?”

“Yeah, yeah. Things are always an argument with us.”

Alice looked back up. “Oh no. No, honey, they’re really not,” she countered, with a sincere smile. She hoped.

This, Alice granted, was something she was lousy at. Appropriate reactions and proportional response. Maybe she should have quoted Monty Python there. Maybe adding ‘honey’ had been stupid. She hoped she didn’t sound glib. Please, her friend had to know by now when she was being serious. Right?

Alijda simply smiled back. There was another protracted pause. Unable to gauge the uncomfortableness of it all this time, Alice kept working, glancing up every so often.

Alijda finally crouched down. “I’m reminded of how you’ve read Kat’s info file.”

“Yuppers. Yours too.”

“And you remember everything you’re exposed to.”

“More or less. Junking a lot of my hell dimension memories helped free up space.”

“Then tell me, what do you know about Kat’s childhood friend, Fate?”

Alice shrugged. “Aside from her vanishing? Not much. Why, did he tell you about her?”

“Sort of. In passing.”

It felt like there was more to say there, but Alice wasn’t sure how to prompt. More to the point, she was finished building. She banged the last piece into place. “Done. We have an EMP.”

Alijda blinked. “You’ve been making something that generates an electromagnetic pulse?”

“Nope.” Alice shook her head, then flicked her hair off her shoulder with a wink. “This’ll create an Electro-Magical Patch. Press this end against Army, hit the trigger, you’ll render our target inert in both sparks and spells.”

“Meaning it needs to make direct contact.”

“Well, yeah. That’d be where your teleporting comes in. Also, we have the cliche one shot only, so make it count.”

“Right. Okay, let’s get to it then.” Alijda pushed herself back to her feet. “Lead the way.”

Alice nodded, holding out the EMP device. Alijda took it, then reached out to touch Alice on the shoulder as she walked by. “Also, thank you. Really. I mean that.”

“Sure,” Alice said, blinking in surprise. After all, it was just a tech gizmo, nothing to get overly dramatic about.

The ventilation systems on the Station weren’t large enough for a person, and there were very few sensors there. But, Alice reasoned, Army could fit in many of the ducts. And while the vents could be closed off to impede it, there was a manual override.

Army had to be near that room, the override room. The terminal there could be configured to manipulate other overrides on the Station, affecting their orbit. Thus, their plan was to shut the ducts, and when Army went to trigger the override and escape, nail it.

Unfortunately, she and Alijda had needed to waste time setting the commands up, because if Army was tracking their location on sensors, being direct could tip their hand, while splitting up might equally allow it to keep them separated. Fortunately though, they were able to route the necessary shutdown to a room near Army, meaning Alijda wouldn’t have to teleport into a live video feed. She was never a fan of doing that.

“I’ve been thinking,” Alijda said slowly as they finally approached their destination.

“Do tell,” Alice encouraged.

“Something Rose said, about the Station stabilizing once it had us. Yet now it’s in trouble again. Maybe that’s because some of us went to the planet? It has to be more than coincidence.”

“Ooh. Working theory. Maybe Army’s got internal memory, and you can hack it to learn if there’s something to that. You ready?”

The two women were now strolling nonchalantly past the override room. Alijda nodded.

Alice took a right at the next doorway, tapping the code she’d set up into the terminal there. Alijda vanished in a teleport cloud of purple smoke, back down the hall.

Alice then quickly ran back after her, to cut off any chance of escape if Army somehow got past Alijda’s teleporting by not using the vent. She saw Alijda run inside the room. Moments later, Alijda let out a shriek.

“What? WHAT?” Alice gasped, half expecting Army to jump out at her as she closed the distance, her stun grenade at the ready. The purple smoke of Alijda’s teleport dissipated enough to allow for visibility.

Alice peered around the corner. Army didn’t launch itself into her face. Instead, she saw Alijda lying on the floor of the room, with Kat standing over her. Kat?! It couldn’t be! Had Army learned to project holograms??

“OW,” Alijda said, rubbing near her bottom. “A little warning next time?”

“Communications are down,” Image-Kat said. “Or I would have.”

Alice caught herself up. “Magical projection from the planet,” she realized. “Using a variation of that spell that the Chris woman did on your last mission. Smart.”

“Thanks,” Kat said, glancing her way. “Listen, you two need to scan for–"

“Where’s Army?” Alice interrupted, looking to Alijda.

Kat flinched, looking over his shoulder. “You’ve got an army…?"

Alijda pointed up at the open grate in the ceiling. “Vent. Kat appeared between us as I was reaching out. Which made me scream and flinch back, so the cyber arm managed to trip the override… I jumped to hit it as it was trying to escape though. So I don’t think it got far?”

Alice looked up. “Leaving us with inert Army stuck in the ventilation. Good times.”

“Also a station falling out of orbit, so let me see if I can’t fix that,” Alijda remarked, pushing herself up off the floor and moving to the nearest computer keyboard. She began typing, as Kat returned his attention to Alice.

“You’ve been busy,” Kat observed.

“Nah, not really,” Alice said, firing off a grin. “Scan for what now?”

Kat shook off his confusion. “People. A person on the planet. Someone who’s not supposed to be down here, the same way that cyber arm wasn’t supposed to be here.”

Alice pursed her lips. “What, you mean you think someone fell through the multiverse cracks along with the arm? That’s not very solo-missiony. Are you sure?”

“We found a diary,” Kat explained. “Supposedly written by a women here who calls herself Destiny. Thing is, I recognize what’s in it. Not just the occult symbols, but some of the shorthand the writer was using.”

Alice peered closer. This scenario was a bit too weird. Was the image of Kat speaking to them under duress? “Blink twice if you’re being held captive.”

“Alice, I’m serious. I think that, somehow, it’s–"

“Oh my God,” Alijda gasped. She turned to them. “The computer. It’s…" She took a step back, pointing at the screen. “There was already a program in active memory to fix our orbit. I gave it a quick scan for viruses, then ran it. Look at what else it’s doing now.”

Alice took a few steps closer and leaned in to get a better look. One single word was typing and retyping itself, filling the screen with a single word, over and over.

Fate. Fate. Fate. Fate. Fate.

WHAT’S NEXT?

What happened to this Destiny woman?

VOTING CLOSES NOON EDT SATURDAY AUGUST 19th

THE ORACLE PROPHESIED:
The section for events you indirectly voted on returns. The “Fate” connection (misdirection?) was locked in place with Vote 3, “Beam’s memory is damaged” (focussing attention on the artifact). That’s why Part 4 had to close off Kat’s loose plot thread of “Fate” on his home world, and why I had him recognize the symbols. It’s ALSO why Rose’s decision of who to bring down to end Part 5 was KEY, thus why I felt I couldn’t break that tie, and got so crushed at the low vote total. Anyway. All out in the open now! More or less. ;)

EXTRA ASIDE:
Heyyy, we’re back to zero view days over this three-year-old site’s 247 posts (we’ve had two empty days in the last ten). A weekly vote for T&T still helps to get eyes on us… though really, better than that is sharing a link out to anyone you think might enjoy interactive fiction. No pressure though, I’m happy you’re still here, voting and morphing the story. Ciao for niow.

EPSILON DELTA, PART SEVEN: Goodness Gracious

Rose stared at Kat. He, in turn, stared back at her.

“It’s your call, Rose,” he said after a moment. “You wanted to come down to the planet.”

“What?” Rose flinched. “Oh. Oh, yeah. Uh, I guess I just… I figured… yeah.”

I figured, you’re the one fixing my relationships here, Rose thought to herself. Hell, I’m the youngest one on this team, what idiot would even put me in charge in the first place? Only a crazy person. A crazy blonde hologram person.

With that thought, her gaze slipped to the side, to Beam’s eager expression. No doubt eager for more than Rose’s opinion on how this mission should go. As there was also the question of how to properly make small talk with another girl that you really wanted to mack on, but were now trying to see as only a friend instead.

Gods, how was it that this hologram could be blonde, like Paige, and experienced, like Paige, and yet somehow be even more innocent than Rose herself? It made Beam way too adorable. And not necessarily in a sexy way, so Rose found herself wondering why she was now feeling some disappointment over Beam no longer seeing her as a potential sexual partner. Especially since, being undesirable, that’s what Rose had ASKED for, right?!

“Oh, flûte it,” Rose grumbled, pushing those thoughts away and shifting her attention over towards the house.

Kat was right, she had to maintain her focus down here. The sooner the mission was done, the sooner the Beam stuff would become a non-issue.

“Let’s go investigate.”

Rose pivoted, heading towards the structure, Kat falling into step right behind her, and Beam trailing after them. It had to be about the house. It had a symbol, like the arm. Plus she’d suggested investigating there, so if she didn’t stick with that choice, she might look indecisive.

Rose had to go up on her tiptoes in order to properly see in the window, in part because the glass itself was dirty. And not merely dirty on the outside, as the wiping of her palm on the surface revealed. Still, she could see the outline of the objects in the large room. A table and chairs, maybe a kitchen area with pots and pans, nothing out of the ordinary. Except for how the items had been tipped over and strewn about, as if there had been a search, or a struggle.

“Could be a tornado ran through the place,” Rose remarked.

“A wind spell gone wrong?” Beam suggested.

“Dunno,” Rose mused. “Wouldn’t a protection symbol be trying to prevent rampant spells?”

“We’re still lacking the necessary context for those occult symbols,” Kat reminded them. “It may protect against detection of a person inside, not the structure itself.”

Right. So maybe she should have called Alijda after all. Rose pursed her lips, but as she turned away, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. She peered back inside. “Ooh, wait, someone’s there. At least, I think it’s a someone. Not a something.”

“What do you see?” Kat prompted.

“A filthy window. Maybe one of you can boost– aww, fiddle mix.” Rose ducked back down out of sight. “I think the whatever saw me.”

“Are you sure?” Beam wondered.

“The head of the thing was looking to the window, then it dashed back out of view,” Rose admitted. She looked to Kat. “Is there a military procedure we should enact now to keep it from getting away?”

“Well, I’d suggest you and Beam burst into the front, making a lot of noise, while I circle around to the back. I’ll grab the whatever if it tries to run, and if it doesn’t, I’ll sneak up behind it.”

Rose nodded. “I like it. Good plan. Beam, let’s act on this good plan.”

“But what if the something is a robot with still one functional cyber arm?” Beam asked. “Isn’t that possible?”

Rose winced. “Okay, yeah. Not the best time to point out that we should have come down armed. That is, armed with weapons, not with actual arms.”

“Seeing weapons might antagonize this thing even more,” Kat remarked, as he moved off to circle around the house. “Also, it’s a magic world, not a tech world, so a robot’s unlikely.”

“Let’s hope it knows that,” Rose muttered.

“Rose, don’t worry, I can kung fu,” Beam assured. “It’s only, a part of me thinks that you should be the strong one protecting me. Not the other way around.”

“Then screw that part of your program, I’m good with being protected,” Rose said, smiling half-heartedly. “Though, I have been taking self defence courses too, yeah? And those can teach a girl more than just how tasty floor mats can be. So I’m not totally defenceless these days. Don’t count me out yet.”

Beam extended her arms for a hug, then seemed to think better of it. “Right. Let’s do this, girl friend.”

The awkwardness of that phrase nearly made Rose cringe, but Beam was already turning away, so Rose simply hurried with her over to the front door. She saw Beam gently try to turn the handle, but the door seemed to be locked. Beam looked back, shrugging up one shoulder.

Rose nodded. “On three,” she whispered, holding up three fingers. That’s how they did it in movies, right? She curled her fingers, one by one. As the last finger came down, Beam threw her weight in against the door. It popped open.

“Noooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise,” Beam shrieked as she charged into the residence.

On the one hand, it was a silly thing to yell, but on the other hand, Rose hadn’t thought of what noise to make herself. “Eeeeeeeeeeee,” she was screaming before she could think about it. Though being an alto and not a soprano, she felt it lacked the proper effect.

Her gaze swept across the room as she entered next to Beam, stamping her feet for what she hoped was added intimidation. The place looked much like it had through the window, just less indistinct. No one was there. Curiously, the cauldron on the floor vibrated unexpectedly as she screamed towards it, giving her double vision.

Perhaps due to that, the sound of a humming noise failed to draw her attention right away, and she only saw the danger coming from out of the corner of her eye.

“Rose,” Beam gasped.

Rose felt herself get shoved to the side. She stumbled, falling forwards onto the ground, quickly spinning over to look back. To confirm what she had feared. There had been a sensation of increased heat. Now there was a great big ball of fire where Beam was standing. Burning her up.

“BEAM,” Rose screamed back.

“Ha ha, I got you first this time,” came a new voice, a male voice.

Rose snapped her gaze over to the source. A doorway towards the back of the structure. There was a red haired man standing in it, wearing what looked like a monk outfit, with his hands on his hips.

“What have you dooooone??” Rose cried out, pushing herself off the ground and charging towards him.

Caught off guard, the man lifted his arms again, Rose belatedly processing he might well be about to throw a second fireball into her face. But this could be their only shot at taking him out. She closed her eyes, turned her face to the side, and bent her body lower, but didn’t cease her charge.

It was a bit of a surprise when she connected solidly with the man’s midsection without feeling a blast of heat, and then both of them were driven backwards and down to the ground. Rose used him a mat to cushion her landing. She quickly moved to try and pin the guy’s arms down on the ground, hoping he needed them to channel magic. He didn’t resist.

“How did you DO that?” he man demanded, glaring.

“Adrenaline helps me run faster,” Rose breathed.

His eyes rolled. “No, no, how did you manipulate the fire? I heard nothing.”

“It’s actually me,” came Kat’s voice. Rose looked up to see him standing next to them. She had propelled the monk-man into the room at the back of the house, where Kat was holding his arm out and grimacing as he looked back through the doorway. Following his gaze, Rose saw that the fireball which had encompassed Beam had moved to the middle of the room, and was burning itself out.

“Beam,” Rose gasped. “Kat, she was hit, go see if you can still save–"

CHIBI BEAM (scan)
Commission yesterday from Gen Ishihara

“Hi hi,” Beam said, stepping into the doorway and wiggling her fingers in a wave. Incredibly, she looked completely undamaged. Rose felt her jaw drop.

“It’s fine,” Beam explained, smiling at Rose after glaring at the man on the ground. “I turned myself insubstantial right after I pushed you.”

She reached out, swiping her arm right through the wall next to the doorway. Unable to drop her jaw any lower, Rose tilted her head to the side instead.

“You can do that, huh, Beam?” Kat grunted. He closed his hand into a fist, and the fireball in the other room disappeared.

“Hologram, remember?” Beam said, as if that explained everything. Only to add, “The transition is a serious power drain though, and I did it without thinking. Switching back will be the same issue, so I think I’d better stay this way until we know whether or not you need me to interact with anything.”

The only reason Rose managed to pull her attention away from Beam’s still quite solid-looking and unblemished form was that the man beneath her tried to move.

She renewed the pressure on his upper arms while looking back down. “Just stop. Ooh, you are SO lucky you didn’t hurt her, or we’d have you on trial for murder.”

“Hurt HER?” the man grumbled. “You’re the ones breaking in. And your blonde friend already knocked me out once today. Who are you people anyway? You shouldn’t be able to cast in here. The building is protected against that, unless you’re on the list.”

Kat crouched down, resting his palms on his knees. “Well, here’s the thing. You want to know about us, and we want to know about a cyber arm. Any chance we could all simply have a nice chat over some tea?”

The man shot Kat an incredulous look, but upon seeing the irritated expressions Rose and Beam were sporting, he gave a resigned sigh. “Why not. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened today.”

The man’s name was Firestorm, or at least that’s the name he gave them during a round of introductions. Firestorm assured them that no one else was in the house, but Kat asked Rose and Beam to take a quick look around to be sure. The place turned out to have four rooms in total.

The main room in the front seemed to be the kitchen, slash meeting room, slash whatever else room… it was all a bit of a jumble, what with the furniture and pots and pans strewn about everywhere. The smaller room in the back was the structure’s bedroom, or at least it had a comfortable mattress there, plus a dresser.

Then there were two smaller rooms off to the side, one a storage room for a mop and numerous potions, and that what seemed to be a washroom, implying some form of indoor plumbing. Beam used her insubstantial form to push her head through the doors before Rose opened them, to check for traps or other occult symbols.

“It’s no good if the room is totally dark,” Beam remarked as she did so. “But enough light’s filtering in through the cracks.”

“Except, uh, how does that even work?” Rose asked. “To see the world around us, light needs to hit our eyes, so if your eyes are no longer in phase with the world…"

“My eyes are also light now,” Beam said, turning back with a smile. “I don’t sink into the ground very much either. Don’t think too hard, Rose. I know I don’t.”

When they got back to the main area, Kat was finishing setting up the chairs from where they had fallen, as Firestorm peered in the cupboards. “Destiny’s out of tea,” he remarked. “Do you want macaroons?”

“Let’s just compare notes,” Kat suggested. “How long have you known Destiny?”

Rose frowned. She almost spoke up to ask about the name ‘Destiny’, but then realized what Kat was doing, and bit her tongue. It stood to reason that if Destiny was the true owner of the place, Firestorm might think she’d authorized them to be here. Admitting they didn’t know this Destiny woman could mess that up.

Firestorm turned, adjusting his robes before leaning back against the counter. “Several years now. And she’s never mentioned you.” He focussed in on Beam again. “Why did you knock me out?”

“I was after a cyber arm?” Beam answered.

Firestorm sighed. “Is that the technology you were talking about before? When I said I didn’t know what you meant, and told you to leave, you instead knocked me out with some lightning attack.”

“I did?” Beam rubbed the back of her neck. “I guess I didn’t want you in my way as I searched.” She glanced around the room. “Wait, I didn’t mess this place up, did I?”

“No worse than it was already, when I got here this morning,” Firestorm said. “I’m worried that something’s happened to Destiny. At first I thought you were involved in taking her away, but if you were, why would you come back? Twice? Particularly after finding whatever you’d been looking for.”

“So that cyber arm WAS being kept in here then,” Beam said, her eyes lighting up. She moved to lean in against the table, but of course passed right through it, and ended up sprawled on the floor. “Derp."

Firestorm rolled his eyes. “Could be? When I came to, I discovered someone, presumably you, had pried up part of the floor. There was a secret storage place down there that I hadn’t known about. Thanks for leaving behind the diary, by the way, it gave me something to read after I regained consciousness. And it helped me realize that I didn’t know Destiny as well as I’d thought. Which brings me back to, who are you, and how long have YOU known Destiny?”

The question was addressed to Kat, but instead of answering it, he shifted his attention to Rose. She wasn’t sure if he was deferring to her being “in charge” for the more pointed question, or if he was trying to give her some sort of signal that he wanted her to be a distraction, but Firestorm was now looking at her instead.

Rose squared her shoulders. “We’ve never met Destiny in person,” she said, figuring truth was the way to go, even if only a partial truth. “But we know things.”

“Is that the diary?” Kat asked, pointing to the book on a corner of the table as Beam pushed herself to her feet. She ended up standing in the middle of it.

Firestorm shrugged. “Yeah. Recognize it?”

Kat walked over to have a look, Beam moving out of the way. He flipped the book open, and frowned at whatever he saw there. Then he picked the book up, scanning the passage closer. A haunted look came into his eyes, and he grabbed for his communicator watch. “Alijda? Alijda, are you there? Alijda, come in!”

There was no answer.

Kat looked to Rose. “Try yours.”

Rose looked down at her wrist, and attempted to open a communications frequency. “Hello? Alijda? Alice?” Again, there was no answer.

“Mine won’t work unless I switch back,” Beam remarked. “It’s phased with me.”

“Well, we need them to do a scan,” Kat said. “An in-depth scan, NOW.” He jerked his gaze over towards Firestorm. “You! Do you know any communications spells?!”

WHAT’S NEXT?

We’re going back to the Station, probably for an Alice POV since she’s been used already, but if anyone would prefer Alijda, feel free to comment. The vote is for how communications get restored. OPTIONS:

VOTING CLOSES NOON EDT SATURDAY AUGUST 5th

EPSILON DELTA, PART SIX: SHE LOVES ME NOT

Kat was the last to arrive out of the transportation whirlpool. He tucked his body and rolled on the field of grass as he landed, looking up in time to see the vortex shut behind them. He first looked over to where Beam was helping Rose up to her feet, then tapped at the watch device on his wrist.

“Alijda?” he asked. “Any problems your end?”

“Aside from having a magical cyber arm stalking us? No, no, we’re good,” came Alijda’s voice.

“How’s it look down there?” Alice asked.

Kat stood up, brushing off his pants as he looked around. They were in a field of grass, by a dirt road, with a cluster of houses not very far away. Logically, that village had to be the origin for the arm, as the three of them had been transported to the planet at the same coordinates Beam had used for her first visit. It seemed to be late afternoon here, based on the location of the sun.

“Civilization’s nearby,” Kat reported. “We’ll go check it out. I figure we’ve got to hit something within twenty minutes, since Beam had less than an hour to come down, get the arm, and return.”

“Might take you thirty minutes,” Beam spoke up. “My top speed is a bit faster than that of a normal human.”

Rose tilted her head. “So do you sweat like us when you run?” She immediately smacked her palm over her mouth, as if she hadn’t meant to speak aloud.

Beam clasped her hands behind her back, wiggling her eyebrows and letting out a giggle. “Ooh, Rose, yes. Every time I get all hot and bothered, my body reacts JUST like yours does. Thank you for asking?”

Once again, some of Rose’s freckles began to wash out as her cheeks darkened.

“I heard just enough of that to not want to hear any more,” Alijda remarked. “Be careful down there, Kat, okay? We don’t have the power to pull you back yet.”

“Understood,” Kat said. “Signing off.”

“Wait, wait, I want to hear more of the cute girls flirting,” Alice’s voice came, right before the connection ended.

Kat shook his head, then looked over at his two companions. They were standing side by side, though Beam was leaning in towards Rose, looking hopeful, while Rose was staring down at the grass. Or rather, sidelong at Beam’s legs. He sighed.

“Alice makes a good point, if accidentally,” he remarked. “Rose? Beam? We really can’t afford to have you two making eyes at each other right now, not if there’s someone or something dangerous lurking down here.”

Rose snapped her gaze up towards him. “What? Oh, Kat, I wouldn’t. I mean, I’m not. I mean, I have a girlfriend, a wonderful girlfriend. I would never cheat on Paige. No way!”

Kat crossed his arms. “And I believe that. But you DO seem to be affected by Beam somehow, whether it’s curiosity, something physical, or because this situation has turned her into a damsel in distress. I know I’ve fallen for a few pretty girls under that sort of circumstance.”

Rose visibly swallowed. “Well, yeah, I want to help Beam. B-But I would never cheat on Paige,” she repeated softly, before looking away, towards the settlement.

Kat looked to the blonde hologram. “Also, Beam, you’re not helping. For now, can you modify your algorithms, or set Rose as unattainable or something? She is, as she points out, taken. Not to mention very possibly your superior officer.”

Beam leaned back away from Rose, her smile disappearing as she focussed on Kat. “Apologies. Under these circumstances, I cannot help but flirt with Rose.”

Kat lifted his eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

Beam sighed. “Honestly? Rose is now more than a run-of-the-mill cute, funny, intelligent redheaded girl. Because she has saved my life, as it were. Meaning I owe her. And by default, I am programmed to repay such debts to women in a very specific way. By cozying up to them, until such a point that I can reward them with–”

“Space?” Rose squeaked, cutting Beam off.

“–kisses,” Beam finished regardless. She eyed Rose. “Kisses… everywhere.” Yet even as she generalized, her gaze wandered south for just a moment. “All very commitment free. Whenever you’re ready to accept.”

Rose let out what Kat interpreted as giddy laughter. The teenager began to backpedal. “Wow! Okay, so, I’m sorry Beam, that’s not happening. Like, ooh, I’m sure you’re awesome and good at what you do, but not only am I off the market, I’m sure no parts of me taste sweet at all. Besides, mission. Big mission here! We gotta get back on track, right Kat? Time’s a-wasting, we gotta get going here, we gotta–"

As Kat raised his hand, palm out, Rose stopped a few steps away. “Rose, wait. Please. Remember, you wanted me along with you? Not Alijda, who might have tried to ignore this relationship, or Alice, who probably would have encouraged it. I think we need to put it to bed.” He frowned. “Though, bad choice of words.”

“Kat, I wanted you along since you recognized the occult symbol,” Rose mumbled. Though she did stop, executing a series of such rapid fire toe-taps on the ground that the tip of her shoe began to make an indentation.

Kat peered closer at Beam, who was now looking at the ground with a pouty expression. Almost like she was a young twenty something who wasn’t being allowed to borrow the family car. It WAS sort of adorable - but surely that too, had to be programming.

“Beam?” he said. “I’m sorry if this sounds indelicate, but I’m not sure how else to put this. Were you created to be some sort of high-tech prostitute? Is that part of the problem here?”

Beam’s pouty lower lip started to quiver, as if she was upset. From the corner of his eye, Kat saw Rose smack her hand over her face - while still peering out between her fingers. For a moment, he was worried she’d jump in and say something to deflect before Beam could speak up, but Rose held her tongue.

“I do not know,” Beam answered at last, her expression becoming more neutral as Rose failed to object. The hologram again scrutinized Kat. “I can tell you this. I have experienced memory loss before. My first memory ever is waking up in an alleyway on my Earth, with no idea as to how I got there. At the time, I knew little more than my name, and my basic programming.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I like to think that my creator, whoever they were, had honourable intentions, and was sadly forced to leave me behind on that day. But it is equally possible that I was discarded there by a creator who became disgusted by my lesbian settings, and was unable to reformat me. Which, yes, might make me nothing more than someone’s off-the-market high-tech sexual plaything.”

“Ohhh, Beam, you poor–” Rose froze in the process of reaching back towards the holographic woman, leaving her fingers twitching in the air. Apparently, her desire to help out was still battling with her fear at being seduced by the pretty hologram.

Kat found he wasn’t entirely surprised by Beam’s answer. Granted, he’d thought that maybe the holographic girl’s reluctance to give Rose space was due to a different sort of boot-up imprinting, but… “Then did a redheaded woman take you in on that day, and treat you nicely as you coped with your memory loss?”

Beam shook her head. “No.” She looked sidelong at Rose. “But your thinking does match my own here, Kat. For while the woman did not have red hair like Rose, I repaid that debt in much the same way I want to here. She was even funny, in a similar way to Rose.”

“Ah ha ha, funny looking, you mean,” Rose muttered.

Beam smiled. “Oh, no Rose. Have I mentioned yet how much I love seeing your shirt?”

Rose pounded her toe into the dirt. “Don’t even. I hope they’re still growing. That is, oh, DAMN it, you meant the pun there, huh?”

Lia even drew the shirt
Such a good commission[/caption]

Beam giggled. “I did. You can handcuff me whenever you want. To whatever you want. Commitment free, Rose.”

Kat had been vaguely wondering about the meaning of Rose’s T-Shirt, which sported a squiggle leading down to the single word ‘YOU’RE’. With Beam’s remark, it suddenly clicked - the squiggle was music notation for a quarter rest. Rose’s top read: YOU’RE, under a rest.

Rose again buried her face in her hands, turning away. “Should I die now? Because under the circumstances, I think dying of embarrassment is the only proper thing for me to do. Solves everything. Give my love to Paige. Not literally.”

“Ohhh, Rose, you poor–” Beam froze in the process of reaching back towards the other girl, leaving her fingers twitching in the air. Kat wondered whether the blonde was mimicking Rose’s earlier actions deliberately, or instinctively. At least she seemed to know enough not to hug Rose just then.

He sighed. “Beam. Listen. You have GOT to scale it back, for Rose’s own sake if nothing else. Is there any way you can just… reclassify Rose as less your saviour, and more one of your girl friends?”

Beam turned to look at him, lowering her arm. “I could. That would stretch out the time frame for intimacy, though not remove the compulsion.”

“I meant, your friends who are girls,” Kat added quickly. “Not girlfriends as in girls you might one day end up sleeping with.”

Beam canted her head to the side. A puzzled look crossed her face. “Honestly, I’ve never been clear on that distinction.”

“Girls that you simply get along with,” Kat pressed. “That you don’t sleep with, who aren’t into you sexually. Heterosexual girls, for instance. Rose’s preferences aside.”

Beam shrugged. “On my Earth, the default is that people feel they are compatible with everyone, regardless of gender,” the hologram explained. “That’s partly what made my programming so unique, its inherent rejection of the unfairer sex. It’s why I had to remain in hiding, why my existence was looked down upon by most men, and even some women. It’s also why I saw my recruitment to this project as a form of escape, rather than as an abduction.”

Kat shook his head. Beam had surprised him at last. “Wait, no. You’re from some free love society? Where every female on your Earth is open to any gender, no exception?”

Beam tilted her head the other way. “It is the same for the males.”

Kat swallowed. “But then, you’ve… with ALL your female friends? But that’s impossible.”

”Impossible?” Beam half smiled. ”Do you really want me to answer that?”

”What about marriage?” he objected.

“Marriage unites one woman with one man, for procreation, but she is still welcome to have as many female partners as she requires for pleasure. As is the man with other males. Cheating doesn’t apply with the same sex.”

Kat let out a low whistle. “Huh, unique. So you really… like, you mean ANY girl you’ve met, you eventually kiss and… damn, really? Seriously?” Kat said, starting to feel flustered himself at Beam’s penetrating, yet increasingly inquisitive look.

“If I meet a pretty woman in the grocery store, no,” Beam admitted. “Yet if I have become friendship bonded with a female who is old enough to understand, the next step is quite natural.“

“Even if they give you a hard ‘no’?“ Kat said, feeling he was grasping at straws.

Beam crossed her arms. “Do not misunderstand. I will not initiate when a partner is not ready. But in the interim, having established compatibility, I cannot help but flirt. Thus, for now, it must continue until Rose is no longer my lesbian friend, or my life debt is repaid.”

Rose had dropped her arms to her sides and was now staring up towards the sky. “Ohh, yup, Lesbian Rose Thorne is now dead of embarrassment,” she sighed. “So, we gonna have an open casket funeral for the poor dear, or just a big ol’ girl love orgy in her honour, ooooh, choices, choices…"

Kat rubbed the back of his neck. There had to be a way out of this. “Can’t you make some new off limits classification for Rose?”

“I would need a point of reference. I am still desperately trying to compute your distinction between lesbian girlfriends and friends who are lesbian girls. Because I…” Beam bit down on her lip. “I don’t want to lose Rose’s friendship. I feel that would hurt my heart.”

Rose turned her head, eyes widening. “You have a heart too?“

Beam looked back at her. “It was a metaphor, but I can simulate having one. If it would please you.“

Rose sighed. “Ohh, Beam… would it help to lie to you about my preferences? It’s just, I spent so long lying to myself…”

Kat clapped his hands. “Wait, that’s it. Beam? Classify Rose as a male friend.”

Beam gasped. “Oh. OH. Of course, it’s so simple.”

Rose shifted her wide-eyed gaze to Kat, then let out a moan as she dropped to her knees, placing her hands back over her face. “Y’know what? I can’t even tell if I’m offended or relieved. But know that Lesbian-Boy-Rose is ALSO DEAD. He/she/we are all dead, dead, stone cold dead from being too embarrassed. Uhh, as long as that’s doesn’t categorize me in a fetish way instead, Beam? Cuz if so, I’m only mostly dead. Also, ew.”

Beam let out a soft cooing noise. “Oh, Rose, don’t worry. I could never truly see you as male. You’re too curvy, not to mention adorable. But overlaying my feelings for men onto a new subclass of girl could make you my first real girl… friend. If that’s acceptable?” Her look was hopeful again, her body faintly quivering with excitement.

Rose looked back upwards through her fingers. “Why do I feel like I’ll be in charge of teaching boundaries to a hot lesbian hologram?”

Beam clasped her hands together, silently pleading.

Rose pulled her hands down. “Um, okay, acceptable.”

Beam blinked a few times. Then she squealed in delight. “Oh, ROSE, is this how you see ME?”

Beam knelt down next to her, grasping Rose in a sideways hug. Only to immediately pull back slightly. “Hugging, I can mean it non-sexually, right?” Rose nodded mutely in response, only to be pulled back even tighter into Beam’s bosom. “Oooh, it’s so weird and different, but I feel like I really get your reluctance now.”

“Urk. Yeah, uh, so I guess Rose lives again?” Rose wheezed. “She needs to breathe though. Beam, please let Rose breathe?”

Kat found he could only shake his head in wonder. And as Beam released Rose and then tried to engage the stunned redhead in a discussion of sports and beer, he realized that long term, he had probably only served to trade off one problem for another.

The first two houses they passed on the road, which were spaced a few city blocks apart, looked unremarkable. They continued on, Beam practically skipping along the dirt road, all smiles, as Rose trailed long looking sheepish. But, Kat suspected, secretly relieved.

Kat extended his arm as they came up to the third house, bringing the two girls up short.

“I see it too,” Rose remarked. “Another occulty symbol, on the wall there.”

“That’s no desire symbol though,” Kat revealed. “It’s used for protection.”

“So is it protecting someone who’s inside the house?” Beam wondered. “Or is it keeping something in there from getting out, like a freaky homicidal robot who’s short one cyber arm?”

Kat could only shrug. “I don’t know. We could call Alijda for an update, see if maybe they have the arm, or can get something from the station’s database about how common these symbols are on this world.”

Rose expelled a breath. “Well, it’s only a one story building, and I’m feeling amazingly brave given all my resurrections of late. We could at least look in the window.”

Beam pointed down the road. “Or, look, someone’s in the street, closer to the heart of this village. They’re coming this way. Could be a local. Or maybe they saw me here last time? We could always talk to them before messing with the spells in the area.”

NEXT?

What should they do about this symbol? OPTIONS: 

VOTING CLOSES NOON EDT SATURDAY JULY 22nd

EPSILON DELTA, PART FIVE: Holo Victory

Rose repeated the “hand squeeze of support” with Beam once more before releasing her, rising to her feet at the same time as Alijda. “If the planet already knows we’re here, they know more about us than we do about ourselves,” Rose pointed out. “We need to fix that fast. So, we scan them. Which will also tell us if there’s still an artifact to be retrieved.”

Beam blinked up at her. “Rose, you already know that much about Epsilon’s missions?”

Rose nodded. “Alice explained. Collecting stuff or people which are drifting between the multiverses. She did some solo missions when she started out too.”

“Yuppers. Never send others to do things you haven’t already tried yourself,” Alice remarked. “But in the end, this place REALLY needed maintenance. Plus some artifact stuff is a lot harder to pinpoint without ‘boots on the ground’. Ergo, recruiting.”

“Except, Rose, can’t we check containment here to know if an artifact was retrieved?” Kat insisted. “That would also tell us whether any prior artifacts have gone crazy.”

“We could,” Rose admitted. “But we’d probably have to split up then, plus that won’t help Beam’s memory loss. Fixing Beam is our priority now.”

“Oh?” Alijda said, raising an eyebrow. “Why, so that she can take control of the station back from you?”

Rose frowned at Alijda. “No. So that we’re all on the same page, and not making the same mistakes twice with whatever’s on the planet.”

“I don’t think Rose or I will be allowed to retain control anyway,” Beam murmured, lying back on the floor. “Not after bringing Alice back in.”

BEAM (Approx)
A modified Haruki

Alice winced. “Geeeez, Beam. You’re making me feel like I killed kittens while I was in charge here.” She eyed the others. “I didn’t, for the record.”

Alijda glanced from Rose to Kat and back. Then she stepped to the side, gesturing at the computer. “Well, you are technically in charge, Rose. Scan away.”

Rose blinked. “What? Er, I mean, right.” She exhaled. Why had she insisted on taking this stand?

To help Beam. Yes, that was her cause now, Rose decided. And not merely because the two of them were the youngest, or the only ones into girl love, or the most inexperienced with whatever was going on as compared to the others. It was because Beam had asked for her help, so damn it, she was going to stop acting like a scared teenager, and start doing more to provide that help.

Rose interlaced her fingers and pushed her palms forwards, cracking her knuckles. “Right,” she repeated, staring at the computer. The problem being, Paige was techno-girl, not her. Hell, pretty much everyone in this room was more tech savvy than she was. Too bad the interface wasn’t a piano keyboard.

Rose chewed on her lower lip. She looked back at Beam, then extended an arm down towards the other girl. “Let’s have you do whatever it is you would have done here, as if you were first arriving at the planet,” Rose suggested. “I’m guessing that would include a scan, and it might trigger a memory for you.”

“My memories may have been deleted, versus being rendered inaccessible,” Beam murmured.

Rose shrugged, keeping her arm extended. “Won’t know until we try.”

“I guess.” Slowly, Beam’s smile reappeared. It became hesitant as her gaze drifted back over everyone else in the room, but finally the blonde hologram looked back to Rose, and took her hand. Rose pulled the other girl to her feet.

Beam turned and stared at the computer. Seconds ticked by.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Rose encouraged.

Beam nodded. “Just a moment. Normally I interface directly, but I believe it’s better for you to see what I’m doing in human time. Also, the station is actually in synch with, and orbiting, the planet. Not usually something we do. Adjustments are needed.”

“Truth,” Alice observed.

“Oh. Okay. So just tell me if I’m being a moron then,” Rose said.

Beam turned, still smiling. “Oh, you’re not. You’re very sweet, Rose.”

“You haven’t tasted me, how would you know I’m sweet?” Rose shot back.

She immediately wished she could rewind the last five seconds. Rose spun away, pounding her fist into her forehead. Damn it! Bad Rose. Do not make sexy jokes at the pretty holographic lesbian.

Rose heard Beam giggle, and saw Alice mutter “Adorbs” towards Alijda. Kat seemed to take a sudden interest in the computer hardware. Before Rose could recover by saying ‘tasted my cooking, I meant my cooking’, Beam was speaking again.

“I’ve now mentally run through everything I would do prior to a scan,” the hologram said. “Having the computer execute another one seems like the best plan now.” Beam reached out, tapping at the computer interface. Images began to appear on one of the monitors.

“First, it’s a magic pure world,” Beam said.

Alice let out a sigh of relief. “That means less stuff in orbit for us to possibly be crashing into,” she explained off Alijda’s look.

“But it means they probably won’t have the technology we need to restart the station’s systems either,” Beam pointed out.

“Sooo computers can’t run on magic, huh?” Rose asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

“Hmmm,” Kat said, rubbing his chin. “Rose raises an interesting point, given how that small world we visited had been trying to find some sort of fusion.” Rose arced her eyebrow back at him.

Alijda clasped her hands behind her head. “That also tells us the artifact Epsilon wanted from that world is technological, yeah? Tech being the sort of thing that would stand out as wrong on a magic world.”

“Correct,” Beam confirmed. “And I’m not reading any such signs now. Either the tech is being magically shielded, or I already brought the artifact back.”

“My money’s on that,” Rose said, pointing. “You brought something back, and that tech is what messed up the station tech.”

“Or maybe the tech messed with Beam’s tech, and her tech transferred it to the station tech?” Alijda mused.

“Oooh, technobabble,” Alison purred.

Alijda rolled her eyes. “Anyway, this would explain why the virus wasn’t in the communication logs.”

“Hold on. Is the entity up here some sort of sentient computer virus then?” Kat wondered.

“Perhaps I should access the transport logs,” Beam decided. She continued to type. “All right. It looks like I whirlpooled down to the planet, and returned less than an hour later. There is no record of any entity accompanying me.” She frowned. “There is also no record of me checking in a new artifact afterwards.”

“So this problem hit pretty fast,” Alice remarked. “Since that’s the first thing you should do upon retrieval.”

“I know that,” Beam said. “Could be my programming was already glitching by then.” She sighed. “I wish I could remember any of this.”

Rose turned from the monitor displaying the planet. “This is the station of creepy oversight, right? Couldn’t we see a video of your return, Beam?”

Beam blinked. “Oh, yes, of course. Let me pull up the last activation time.”

Everyone clustered around the monitor as Beam tapped the necessary keys. “Uh oh, looks like a lot of the feed is unavailable,” she remarked. “Could have been damaged or blocked off, as has been done to me. I do have something from one camera though, here we go…”

Beam paused, her fingers over the ‘Return’ key. “Rose? Your idea, and you’re in charge, you want to do the honours?”

Rose opened her mouth, but before she could say ‘No, do the thing’ she saw Beam’s eager expression. “Oh. Uh. Sure,” was what came out instead.

She reached over. Her hand brushed against Beam’s. Before she knew it, she was staring into Beam’s eyes, and Beam was staring back, and it’s like the hologram was searching her for something. For some deeper connection, maybe…

Alijda cleared her throat behind them. Rose quickly tapped the key and turned back to the monitor, inwardly cursing herself for getting flustered. Again.

The image of the room they were in appeared on the screen, with a big blue whirlpool in the centre of the floor. Moments later, Beam was spit out into zero gravity, floating towards the top of the monitor screen. She appeared to be carrying something.

Alice let out a low whistle. “What is that, like Cyborg’s arm or something?”

Then things began to happen quickly. Rose’s attention was on the floor irising shut over the whirlpool, so it wasn’t until the others gasped that she looked back up. In time to see the arm device jet away from Beam, the holographic girl in the video letting out a rather human shriek.

“What? I missed it, what did that?” Rose asked.

Alijda held up a finger, as if to say ‘wait a moment’. They continued to watch, as the Beam in the video said, “Computer, normal gravity.”

Beam plunged back down towards the now sealed whirlpool, Rose wincing in anticipation of the impact - but Beam managed to land on her feet without injuring her legs. In fact, she bent her knees and pushed off, running in the direction of the computer banks. Right. Holographic legs, Beam likely had no bones to break. So then why give her anatomy that… Rose pushed that thought aside.

“No, no, no, NO,” came Beam’s voice from off the screen. There was a zapping sound, and then Beam’s body flew back through the slice of the room visible to the camera. Sparks were flying from her hairband. Again she was gone, there was a smacking sound, then a dull thud. Then the picture cut out entirely.

Rose licked her lips as she glanced at the others. Alice looked surprised, Alijda looked wary, Kat looked worried, and Beam was simply wide eyed.

“You gonna be okay, Beam?” Rose asked. Beam cleared her throat. (A human mannerism, programmed in? Did Beam even eat with that throat? Why did she keep thinking about this stuff, Rose wondered.)

“I’ll be fine,” the hologram said. “That even explains a few things. Namely, me regaining consciousness in this room, learning of the station’s problem, and hooking myself into the system to summon you, Algebra. Um, I mean Rose.”

“Beam, can you rewind to when that symbol appeared?” Kat asked. “And pause?”

Beam nodded, turning back away from Rose to reach for the controls.

“That was a magic thing then, right?” Alijda said. “That symbol on the arm?”

“I’d say so,” Alice agreed.

“Sorry,” Rose apologized. “I missed it. A magic symbol on the cyber arm what now?”

“Pretty much just that,” Alijda said. “Somebody booby trapped the tech artifact with magic.”

Rose tilted her head. “But why would someone do that?”

“Good question,” Alice grumbled. “Want another good question? How could anyone down on magic planet even know to magically program that tech to go and mess with other tech like our tech, when tech down there is not technically a thing?”

“Oooh, technobabble,” Alijda murmured, half smiling. Alice stuck out her tongue.

“Maybe someone figured out what Beam was, in the time she was down there?” Rose guessed. “And thought she was part of some advance strike force?”

“I’ve got the symbol up,” Beam remarked.

Rose looked back at the screen. She saw it now, glowing white on the cyber arm Beam was holding. For all she knew, it was a Chinese character. Yet Kat’s worried expression had shifted to alarm. “You know it?” Rose asked him.

“It’s an occult symbol I recognize,” Kat said. “Someone imbued that arm with a… desire, that’s the best way I can put it.”

“A desire to screw around with advanced technology?” Alice said.

Kat shrugged. “No way to know specifics unless we find the caster.”

“I guess we’re going down to the planet then,” Rose decided. “That’s where the caster would be.”

“No way,” Alijda asserted. “We’re going to figure out where on this station that damn cyber arm is now. If it gets to Mr. Smith? We could be done for.”

Rose put her hands on her hips. “Exsqueeze me? What happened to me being in charge? The station self corrected, remember. The arm might have screwed things up by accident. And Beam’s answers are down there, not up here.”

“Sorry Rose, I have to agree with Alijda,” Alice said. “I mean, there’s probably enough power now to make a whirlpool down once, but then you’d be stuck on the planet with no backup for at least an hour of recharge time. Whereas Kat, if we found the arm, could you reverse engineer something occultish to find this caster’s ’desire’?”

“Uh? Well, maybe,” Kat said. Rather unconvincingly, Rose thought.

Beam latched onto Rose’s arm. “I’m with Rose. My answers are down there, with my past. You three can stay up here if you like, but the two of us are going.”

Rose smiled at Beam, glad for the support, while simultaneously worrying that she was somehow giving off all the wrong signals.

Alijda rubbed her forehead. “Oh boy. Look, Rose, Beam, if you’re dead set on going, please bring one of us along? Because I can teleport people out of trouble, Kat seems to know something about that symbol, and Alice is a walking encyclopaedia. Whoever’s left on the station can search for the arm.”

Rose pursed her lips. “I guess that’s fair.” This way, she and Beam could have an experienced chaperone.

NEXT?

Who should Rose and Beam bring with them? OPTIONS:

VOTING CLOSES 7am EDT THURSDAY JULY 6th

THE ORACLE PROPHESIED:
New section. This will chronicle events you voted for indirectly. (For instance, the firing of Alice in Story3 occurred after a vote, not to fire her, but to have her break the rules.) Here, the fact that Beam was voted to have a memory loss, followed by a Rose point-of-view? Means we’re getting more of Beam than we would have had with any other combination. To the point of me hunting for a reference picture. I am totally fine with this, but it was unexpected.

EPSILON DELTA, PART FOUR: Turnabout

Kat Conway made his decision before arriving at the auxiliary control room. He would let Alijda resume the conversation between them, assuming there was even a conversation for them to have.

She barely addressed him as they reunited. Their group of four then headed back to the large cylindrical arrivals room, looking for Beam. He ended up sidelined with Alijda as Alice and Rose discussed the unconscious blonde holographic woman, and Alijda still said nothing. Then Alice asked the both of them to get a power pack, back in the auxiliary control room.

“I can just do a series of teleports to get there faster by myself,” Alijda pointed out.

“Oh good, so we’ll do the horror movie trope of splitting up after all?” Alice said, smiling and clasping her hands together.

Alijda glared. “Sarcasm isn’t a good look on you.”

Alice shook her head. “No, seriously, I’m curious if something will try to pick us off, and you’re the best equipped of any of us to get away from an attack.”

Alijda sighed.

“Maybe Rose should go with Alijda instead,” Kat suggested.

Rose stood from where she had crouched next to Beam. “If you like?”

Alijda looked from Alice, to Rose, to Kat. She shook her head. “No, that’s silly. Rose, you keep learning more about the station from Alice. Kat, you’re with me.”

Kat nodded, and he allowed himself to be teleported back into the hallway. They walked from there. He continued to wait to see if Alijda would resume a conversation.

It wasn’t until they’d hooked the power pack device into Mr. Smith to recharge that she finally spoke up, and even then, it was without turning to face him. “So. Kat. You were gone less than a day, huh?”

Kat Conway
Never commissioned art for him, but he looks a bit like Colin Ferguson.

“Yeah,” Kat answered. “Gone just long enough to be disappointed by what I learned.”

There was a brief silence.

“I’ll bite,” Alijda yielded, still looking at the power pack. “What’d you learn?”

He found himself wondering what Alijda would make of it. “I’ve been searching for this girl. Er, woman. Well, childhood friend,” Kat explained. “Named Fate. She’s the one who first got me into the occult, only she disappeared after high school. I’ve been searching for her, off and on, for over fifteen years now. I finally thought I had a lead, a phone number I’d snared right before I was abducted by this station for the first time. In fact, that’s why I was keen on getting sent back to my Earth when we first met.”

Kat paused, wondering if Alijda even cared to hear more. She continued to stare in the other direction. He waited.

“False intel?” she said at last.

“Not exactly,” Kat elaborated. “There was, indeed, a woman named Fate trying to organize an occult group in the town I went to. Once I left this station, I wandered, returning to my hotel room only after 8pm, in order to phone the number. This Fate didn’t know what I meant, seemed to be the wrong age, and had no other useful information. She invited me to her meeting though. I was just heading out to it when I found myself back here in zero gravity instead.”

“Oh.” Alijda finally turned, biting down on her lower lip. “Kat, you must think I’m terrible.”

Kat lifted an eyebrow, trying to connect the dots that had led the brunette woman to make such a statement. “Actually,” he pointed out, “I’ve called you attractive on more than one occasion. Despite your protestations of being ugly on the inside.”

“Except I didn’t know any of that about you,” Alijda said, her gaze slipping to the side. “We had an entire mission together and I didn’t know you’d lost a childhood friend. Even now, you’re hesitant to tell me about her.”

That at least helped to number the dots for him. Kat shrugged. “I don’t put it on my business cards. Anyway, you said it yourself back then, we were going our separate ways once that whole shrinking mission ended. Why talk about ourselves?”

“Because we talked about me. And now that our ways didn’t turn out to be so separate…”

Alijda looked back at him. Then she turned and gave a side-kick into the wall. “This isn’t FAIR,” she hollered. “I’ve had six months of thinking about you, on and off, wondering about what-ifs and might-have-beens. You’ve had six hours, if that! Now you’re back, and I have another chance, and all I can do is act like a stupid tsundere from one of those animated Japanese shows Alice likes.”

Kat smiled, catching the reference. “To be fair, I think you push everyone away, and it’s regardless of any feelings you have towards them.”

Alijda snapped her gaze back over to him. “Did you just mansplain tsunderes to me??” She gave the wall another swift kick.

Mr. Smith made as noise as if he was clearing his throat. “Alijda, if you could avoid potentially damaging–"

“Oh, shut the front door, Smith,” Alijda shouted.

“The front door is not open, or we’d be exposed to the vacuum of space.”

“Damn it, I meant I don’t need you butting in on top of my angst with Kat on top of my writer’s block issues from before I even got here today!”

“Ah. Very well,” the computer said, falling silent again.

Kat managed not to laugh at the exchange. “If it makes you feel better, Alijda, I’m sure all of the information about my connection to Fate is in whatever file this station has on me,” Kat said. “I remember how you didn’t read it, feeling that would be unfair. So points in your favour.”

“That doesn’t help.” She drew in a deep breath. “Kat, it’s your turn.”

Kat blinked. “My what?”

“Last time we went on about me. My shrinking, my depression, my hacking, my friggin’ issues. I need to stop with the ego trips. Your turn now. It’s only fair.”

“What makes you think I even have issues?”

Her gaze softened. “Kat, I overheard you, that time you mentioned to Para about your mother dying in childbirth. And Alice has told me about the fire manipulation you can do. Now we’ve got a lost childhood friend in the mix. Granted, I don’t know whether any of that stuff necessarily connects to your hormonal interests towards anyone wearing a skirt, but you have issues. Unless your issue is that you don’t see your issues.”

This time it was Kat who felt like he couldn’t look Alijda in the eye. Part of him wished she’d kept ignoring him. “Okay,” he said, after a minute of scrutinizing one of Mr. Smith’s keyboards. “I suppose I don’t take relationships seriously. And I might have female abandonment issues.”

“Did you join the military so that you’d be able to form bonds with men?”

He laughed, despite himself. “Alijda, I’m not gay. Not by a long shot.”

“Didn’t mean to imply you were. But people with abandonment issues, they sometimes cling to close friendships or bad relationships. In the military, you’d get more of the first and less of the second.”

Kat realized he was now clenching his jaw, and he forced himself to stop. “I went to military college because my dad felt I needed more discipline in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good relationship with him, but he was pretty lax with me. Particularly when it came to my hanging out with occult people all the time.”

“Were any of the occult girls pretty?”

“I really don’t want to talk about my sex life.”

“Hmmm. That escalated quickly.”

“DAMN it, Alijda…" He rounded on her, only to see an expression of genuine concern. There were no hints of a self-satisfied smirk. He looked away again. “We need to focus on the mission here.”

“That’s an excuse. Besides, right now, all of us getting along and making peace with ourselves kind of IS the mission,” she pointed out. “Because whatever’s out there, manipulating the situation? It’s probably been able to access our files. So it’s liable to go after our weak points, to try and fragment us.”

Kat found he had to grant her that. Whatever faults Alijda had, being timid was not among them. “I guess. Though you’re assuming that whatever put this station in danger will be actively targeting us.”

“Until we get more information, I figure we might as well assume that.”

Mr. Smith made a throat clearing noise. “Then would now be a good time to mention that your power pack is fully charged? Meaning more information is possible?”

Alijda sighed. “There would never be a good time, Smith. So sure, now works.”

Kat heard Alijda approach him, then felt her hand on his arm. “Kat, let’s leave our talk at, I do want to get to know you better. Okay?” She pulled back. “After all, one thing I’ve realized after six months with Alice is that I need to have more well rounded friends. Ones who aren’t inclined to run through the entire ‘Back to the Future’ movie for me, from memory.”

“Right. Okay,” Kat said, turning back to her. He smiled. “And hey, look on the bright side. At least Alice only quotes, she wouldn’t act that movie out for you at the same time.”

Alijda seemed to deflate a little, her eyes rolling back in her head.

Kat did a double take. “She didn’t. Did she?”

“Never give that woman alcohol,” was all Alijda would say as she turned to retrieve the power pack.

Soon, Kat was watching as Alice hooked some cables from the power pack into the hologram’s hairband. Or what had obviously been made to resemble a hairband - it had now been popped about an inch up from her hairline, exposing what looked like a number of ports and lights beneath. And while Kat was pretty technically minded, he didn’t recognize this technology, and had no idea what Alice was doing.

At least Mr. Smith had managed to restore the proper lighting to the room by now, so Kat could watch, in case he needed to do this himself later.

“Uh, so how do you know that setup will work?” Alijda asked Alice, apparently having similar reservations.

“I don’t,” Alice said brightly, dusting off her hands as she seemingly finished up. She looked up from where she was crouched. “But from what Rose has told me, I’m pretty sure all this holo-girl needs is some power. And plugging the pack into her hairband seems the best way to juice her up.”

“Oh no, no no, Alice, don’t put it that way,” Rose moaned. “Not after what you did earlier.”

Alice grinned at the redhead. “C’mon, we had to check her body for other ports. And you were wondering, you know you were.”

Alijda looked back and forth between the two of them. “What ports? Wonder what?”

Kat cleared his throat, having realized what they were getting at. “So, this Beam is anatomically correct?”

“Ooh yes, she seems fully functional,” Alice purred, waggling her eyebrows. “And if she’s an artificial life form anything like Star Trek’s Data, she’ll be programmed in multiple techniques. Lesbian ones, to boot.”

“ALICE,” Rose said, her face getting red enough to start washing out some of her freckles.

“I’m sorry I asked,” Alijda sighed.

“Oh Rose, don’t be like that,” Alice assured the younger girl. “I’m not saying you should cheat on your girlfriend. But there’s nothing wrong with talking, yeah? Swapping techniques? Knowing that this Beam might have felt first hand whatever she–"

“Alice, maybe you should drop it?” Kat interrupted. “Rose looks very uncomfortable.”

“But…" Alice paused, as she looked from Kat to Rose, and then the ground. “Okay. It’s just, I hate how Rose got pulled into this. I… I want her to get SOMETHING out of it, at least.”

Alijda reached out to touch Alice on the shoulder. “She is getting something out of it, Alice. New friends.”

Alice looked back up and smiled. “D’awwwww, Alijda. See, Kat? She really is a softie underneath it all.”

Kat saw Alijda’s grip tighten on Alice’s shoulder. “You need to stop pushing your luck, friend.”

Alice nodded, without losing her smile. Then Rose was smiling too, looking back and forth between the two other women.

That’s when the new voice came, slightly higher pitched than any of the other females present. “Reinitializing.”

Kat turned his attention to the blonde hologram, as Beam blinked her eyes open. One of her palms reached up to touch the cord that was running up to her hairband interface. “Power source. Confirmed.”

It idly occurred to Kat that he was becoming increasingly outnumbered as far as gender went.

Rose reached out to grasp Beam’s free hand. “Beam? You back? You okay?”

“I am. Unsure.” Beam blinked her eyes several times in rapid succession. “Resynchronizing. Time stamp. Confirmed. Congratulations. Are in order. Restoring. Full power. To communications.” Her hand squeezed back at Rose. “We’re not dead, and the station’s still here. Oh Rose, you were successful.”

“Uh, not exactly,” Rose admitted. “Also kinda brought in the first string team to help.” She gestured over towards Alice and the others.

Beam’s gaze followed the motion, the holographic woman freezing up as she saw Alice. “Oooh. We are so fired.”

“Eh, I was fired too. It didn’t take,” Alice chirped.

Alijda joined the other women in crouching down beside Beam. “Beam, I hate to impose on you right away, but we think there’s an entity on board. Because the station’s problems somehow self corrected. I don’t suppose you can confirm that? Or offer any alternative reasoning?”

Beam blinked twice. “I cannot.”

Alijda glanced up towards Kat before looking back at Beam. “Well, anything more you can tell us about what happened would be helpful.”

Beam opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “My memory is damaged.”

Alijda palmed her face, sliding her hand down and off her chin.

“It’s never easy,” Kat remarked.

“No, you misunderstand,” Beam said, squeezing again at Rose’s palm. “That’s helpful. I run occasional diagnostics. Everything was in order prior to my coming to this planet. Whatever damaged me, it must relate to my mission here.”

“Or it’s due to some artifact you were storing here, on the station,” Alice said, standing and bringing her hands to her hips.

Beam’s gaze tracked over to Alice’s shoes. “That is possible,” she admitted. “Containment could have been breached during the time of my memory loss.”

“So we scan the planet for more information about Beam’s mission,” Rose decided.

Kat cleared his throat. “Ah, except shouldn’t we check on Alice’s artifact containment before potentially alerting said planet to the fact that we’re up here?”

“Kat?” Alijda met his gaze. “We’re in orbit. They might already know.”

NEXT?

What should the group do? OPTIONS:

We were overdue for Kat point-of-view. Now what?

VOTING CLOSES 7am EDT THURSDAY JUNE 29th

EPSILON DELTA, PART THREE: State of Confusion

“Ziggy,” Rose said. “Initiate that recall teleport thing from the last time Alice was in charge of computers here. Authorization code, uhm, Paige-Paige-Paige.”

“Initiating, Rose,” came Ziggy’s resigned voice.

Moments later, the lights went out. Rose closed her eyes, biting down on her lip again. It was fine. Alice would fix things, and they’d all go home. She reopened her eyes as the lights came back on.

She remained all alone in the room.

But it had worked, right? Alice wasn’t in auxiliary control, she was somewhere else in the station? Rose shifted her weight forwards and back, until she couldn’t take it any more. “Alice?”

“Your phone conversation terminated when Ziggy went offline,” the large wall computer codenamed ‘Mr Smith’ advised her.

Rose swallowed. “But is Alice here? Like, not HERE here, obviously, but up here with us?”

“I do not have complete access yet. However, Alice is likely one of the life signs that I am picking up in the arrivals room.”

The sense of relief that Rose felt was quickly washed away as she parsed that. “One of? Oh, flûte! Is Alice being attacked there by whoever wanted to crash this station??”

“Unknown.”

“Does she need my help?”

“Unknown.”

“Are there even weapons I can use in this room?”

“Unknown.”

“Oh my GOD, why don’t you supercomputers ever KNOW anything??”

To her surprise, Mr. Smith let out a sigh. “Rose, I am sorry, but it’s taking me some time to figure out how to activate all the station’s backup systems. It is much like you trying to work out how to control a third arm.”

“Huh.” Rose frowned. “This project has a habit of growing extra arms for people?”

“No. I was merely trying to find a human analogy.”

“Oh.” Rose ran her fingers back through her hair. “Did you want me to shut up?”

“You are not slowing down my processing abilities to any great extent. I simply do not yet have the answers you require.”

“So you want me to shut up.”

“That is not what I said.”

“Well, I want me to shut up.”

“If so, that would seem to be something under your control.”

“You’d think so, right? Except I’m nervous.” Rose bounced on her heels. “This is why I don’t spend much time on social media, you know? I can’t stop myself from saying dumb spur-of-the-moment stuff.”

“Rose, you seem overly self critical. Would it help to hear that, in your own way, you are becoming as interesting to me as Alice was?”

“I hope that’s a compliment?”

“It is an observation.”

“Right. Well, okay, let me know when you’re able to see all the station or recalculate our impending deaths or something then, I guess?”

“Of course.”

Rose tried to figure out if she felt more like curling up into a ball in the corner and crying, or running around the room with her arms in the air screaming. She decided to split the difference, and resumed pacing in a circle with her lower lip quivering.

The appearance of purple and black smoke in the doorway, with a woman seemingly in the middle of it, might have made Rose shriek on any other day. Except by this point, she was adjusting to the absurdity of it all, so fell into an approximation of a fighting stance instead. Thank goodness for her self defence classes.

“You won’t take me alive,” Rose declared.

Curiously, the brunette smiled at her. “Rose?”

Comprehension dawned. “Alice!”

Had to be, right? Rose ran towards the teleporting woman, her arms outstretched. Only then did she wonder if a hugging approach might give the wrong signals for a first meeting. Maybe station commanders here were always about the girl-love? Rose was already in a relationship. She stopped one step away, her arms still spread wide. “Are you a lesbian too?”

A curious sequence of emotions played out on the older woman’s face. Rose fancied that the initial look of comfort became confusion, dismay, then resignation, before finally settling on wariness. “I’m Alijda. Me and Alice, it’s not like that. How is our housing situation even relevant?”

“I dunno.” So this woman was with Alice. But not that way. Rose lowered her arms as she looked her new companion up and down. Decent dress sense for someone who didn’t expect to be on a death trap of a station, though the all black clothing was giving her a funeral vibe. Also, brown hair. “For the record, I prefer blondes and rainbows anyway.”

ALIJDA VAN VLIET
Commission from Shirochya

“Good for you? Rose, you’re not hallucinating me. I am here.”

“Oh, I was pretty sure of that. Like, me hallucinating Beam I could maybe buy, but you’re kind of old to be a fantasy of mine.”

“Oh, ha ha. I can still date, you know. Men in my age range. It’s just, I’m depressive and occasionally suicidal, so it never really works out. Okay?”

That explained the funeral vibe, if not the defensiveness. “Well, okay then. I guess you can go sit in the corner.”

“I can…" Alijda tilted her head. “What?”

Rose tilted her head the other way. “What? Didn’t you just say you came here to die?”

“No, no, I’m here to help save us. But what is this about needing to be a lesbian to gain access to the room?”

“Uh, nothing?”

Alijda’s hands went to her hips. “So then why ask if…” The woman caught herself, shook her head a couple times, and switched to, “Look, never mind, just let me at the computer interface.”

Rose stepped aside, gesturing vaguely in the hopes that Alijda knew where that was. “Go for it.”

Alijda marched into the room and vectored towards some sort of terminal. “Great. Rose, I’ll need access to all station communications logs. If I can spot when a computer virus got on board here, we should be able to do a backup restore from a time before the infection.”

Shoot. Where would the logs be?

Fortunately for Rose, Mr. Smith spoke up. “I can make that information available, Alijda. Incidentally, a course correction will be necessary within the next eight minutes.”

“No pressure,” Alijda muttered. She glanced sidelong at Rose. “Can you check in with Alice? She’s probably grabbed one of the Epsilon communicators by now.”

Rose cleared her throat. “Yes, ah, Mr. Smith, can we patch in a link to Alice? Please?”

“We can. Link established.”

“– still can’t believe it’s been six months for you, compared to my few hours. That’s amazing,” came a male voice. A male voice? At this point, Rose figured she’d best keep rolling with it.

“Hello, Alice?” she called out. “Did you bring your boyfriend along?”

“Oh, hi Rose,” came Alice’s bright, cheery voice. “Great, I’d hoped the individual communicators could be patched in until allcomms are restored. No, this is Kat with me. He wouldn’t work as my boyfriend, he’s been asking allllll about Alijda.”

“Whoa, whoa, hey, I was asking about both of you,” Kat’s voice protested. “I mean, not in the bits about Alijda dealing with her depression, but I was sort of including you in the rest of my questions, Alice.”

“He’s probably hoping to score with me now,” Alijda sniped, from where she was typing at a keyboard. “Having had a look at my panties.”

“Alijda, please,” Kat said. “Would you have preferred I didn’t say anything to you?”

“You didn’t have to make fun of me in front of my housemate.”

“That wasn’t my intent. In fact, part of me feels like you would be complaining no matter what I said.”

Alijda hit an enter key on her keyboard with what Rose judged to be more force than necessary. “You haven’t changed a bit, Kat.”

“No kidding. For me, it’s been less than a day since I saw you.”

“Right. So you didn’t even miss me. Fine, then.”

“Alijda, for what it’s worth, I did miss you. To the extent that I could. I didn’t miss all this defensiveness though.”

Rose wondered if Alijda’s cheeks were getting redder, or if it was her imagination.

“Too bad that’s all part of the package deal that is me,” Alijda asserted. “And as I’m sure Alice told you, still a depressive. So there.”

“We all have our flaws, Alijda,” Kat fired back. “They help make us what we are. Now come on, it’s not like I told Alice what colour they were.”

“Oh, how NICE for you. Alice already knows I don’t always wear black EVERYwhere.”

“Oh, uhm, I didn’t know that,” Rose offered, raising her index finger into the air.

It had seemed only fair, to remind them of her presence. Except, Rose reflected, maybe she’d mistimed that. Her interjection had simply created an awkward sort of silence. Rose noticed that Alijda’s cheeks were definitely redder now, as the woman resumed typing.

The redhead slowly lowered her arm back down.

“I wonder,” came Alice’s voice over the communications link, “were you two like that all through your last mission too? Because it’s sort of adorable, in a Sam Malone and Diane Chambers kind of way. Of course, let’s hope things work out better for you than it did for them.”

Alijda’s posture seemed to tighten, and she started to turn her head.

“Alice?” Rose broke back in quickly. While this relationship angle was sort of interesting in a soap-opera-esque way, it really wasn’t their priority. “Have you figured out what’s causing us to plummet to our deaths yet?”

“Hmmm? Oh, that, right. Nope,” Alice said, sounding far too chipper for Rose’s tastes. “The most likely places for physical damage look fine so far. We may all have to cram into the station’s escape pod. It’ll be cozy, but we’re already swapping underwear stories, so it should be fine.”

“There’s an ESCAPE pod?” Rose gasped. Beam could have at least mentioned that.

“Yuppers,” Alice affirmed. “Thing is, while that saves us, lots of people might die if this station actually crashes into a planet. So let’s keep at it for as long as we can, okay? Alijda, any luck?”

“No,” Alijda said, still typing. “Nothing obvious in the logs yet. If this problem is a computer virus, it’s arrival was well hidden. Or it’s been here since the station was first built.”

“Mr. Smith?” Rose said, looking back to the computer. “How much time do we have?”

“About fifteen minutes,” the computer advised her.

Rose frowned. “Uhhhh, no. Wrong. We were at less than eight minutes a short time ago.”

“Braking thrusters have fired,” Mr. Smith explained. “We are gradually vectoring into orbit. If this continues, we may end up out of danger entirely.”

“Wooo, well done Mr. Smith,” Alice whooped.

“It was not me,” the computer noted.

“Wooo, well done Rose.”

“I’ve just been standing here,” Rose admitted. “Must be something Alijda did.”

“Wooo–"

“It wasn’t me either,” the brunette interrupted, turning away from the computer.

“And while I’d love to say I did something,” Kat remarked, “I’ll have to make the confusion unanimous.”

“Wooo boy, that’s weird,” Alice concluded. “Mr. Smith, anyone else on the station?”

“Not according to main sensors,” came Mr. Smith’s response. “Someone could be hiding. In fact, without Ziggy, we’ve only made staying hidden easier for them.”

“Maybe Beam reactivated?” Rose guessed.

“A what now?” Alijda asked, approaching her. “Some laser beam?”

“No, no, the automatic hologram who was in charge before me,” Rose explained. “I guess she was a light beam, oh, hey, that’s a very clever pun…”

“A hologram in charge? I never heard about this,” Alice protested. “Are we talking hologram Rimmer style? Or more Doc from Voyager style?”

Rose shrugged. “Lesbian hologram?”

“Hmmm, a Hatsune Miku style hologram then,” Alice decided. “I mean, there’s nothing official, but I’ve wondered about those vocaloids in their off hours."

Alijda rolled her eyes. “Focus, please, Alice.”

“Oooh, you’re one to talk, Miss Miracle Romance.”

“Hey, I can type and snipe at the same–"

“Mr. Smith?” Rose cut back in. “Anything on this Beam?”

“No. Your hologram woman never activated me,” the computer apologized. “Only Ziggy would have that information.”

Alijda turned back to Rose. “Where did you last see this Beam?”

Rose shrugged. “In that big cylinder room, where I guess people arrive. She was plugged into the computer. See, Beam was trying to save the station as much as the rest of us, until she lost power. So maybe a backup kicked in, then she figured something out?”

“I can double back and look for her,” Kat offered.

“Great idea, Kat,” Alice said brightly. “Splitting up is definitely what we should do if we’re re-enacting a horror movie on a space station.”

Alijda palmed her face. “Look. Alice, Kat, come here first, both of you. We’ll all go together. You can meet Rose that way, so that she knows what we all look like.”

“Roger, Alijda. On our way,” Kat said. It was followed by a chirp, as the connection was cut.

Rose offered the older woman a smile. “Thanks. Were you once in charge of this place too?”

“Oh, heck no,” Alijda said, pushing some hair off her forehead. “This place sucks. The couple times I’ve been here, I’ve been angling to shut it down. Their whole oversight thing is real creepy.”

Rose sighed in relief. “That’s what I thought too. Glad it’s not just a me thing.” She paused before asking, “What brought you back here then?”

Alijda’s gaze slipped away. “Yeah. Uh, Alice? I guess? She’s a bit helpless. Or sometimes she is. I felt I couldn’t let her do this alone, that’s all.” She looked back. “I didn’t know Kat would be here. And me and Alice, it’s a friend thing, not a romance thing. Seriously.”

Rose laughed despite herself at Alijda’s expression. “That’s fine. In fact, it’s nice of you.” Rose smiled hopefully. “You know, Alijda, you’ve got a real great ‘take charge’ attitude. If I get the chance to, um, hand off all this authorization stuff to someone, maybe you could be the one…"

“No,” Alijda asserted. Her tone was firm, while her expression was apologetic. “Sorry Rose, I’m not running this station. Once this problem is fixed, if the project’s even still running at that point, you can give control back to Alice and her God.”

Rose winced. “I’m not sure I can authorize Alice. The main computer didn’t even want me to call her.”

“Oh. Well, we’ll figure something out,” Alijda decided. “Don’t worry.”

“Right. Don’t panic, still my motto.”

“For now, back to the original problem,” Alijda said, crossing her arms. “Rose, maybe you can help me to think things through. Why would this station be put in danger, only to be somehow saved hours later? Could it be that we’re dealing with two separate warring entities on board, and shutting down Ziggy somehow turned the tide?”

Rose thought about it. “Maybe. Or it could be one single entity, which now has what it wants,” she suggested.

Alijda blinked. “How? What does the station have now, that it didn’t earlier?”

Rose swallowed. “It has us.”

NEXT?

What’s the deal with Beam? (Also connects a bit to that entity talk.) OPTIONS:

VOTING CLOSES 7am EDT THURSDAY JUNE 22nd

PATHS NOT TAKEN:
Software problem would have been Alijda’s point of view. She’d have restored an earlier Ziggy, and they’d have had to track down the origin of the virus. Hardware problem would have been Kat’s point of view. He’d have helped Alice, and they’d have then turned their attention to the planet. We got Rose’s point of view (by a wide margin), with the problem solved by unknown means, and on we go. (Alice’s above links this time are all musical, by the way.)

EPSILON DELTA, PART TWO: How Far She’ll Go

Alijda’s home universe included Time Lords. For whatever reason, as Alice dashed back to the house that the two women now shared, that was the thought at the forefront of her mind.

It’s not that Alice thought the fact would be of any particular use. Rather, it simply meant that this universe, which she was presently in, had no “Doctor Who” episodes. Since the mythology of one universe tended to only be reality somewhere else, even if it was still debatable as to whether myths formed from other realities, or vice versa.

As a result, Alice was behind on watching that series, and so returning to the “Epsilon Station” aka “The Hub” might give her a chance at catching up. “Behind” itself being a misleading term. Given how the Station had access to all of space and time, one could theoretically watch episodes that hadn’t yet been produced in a specified “present”.

But given actor fluctuations across realities, Alice had tacitly settled on a stream of continuity not far off from her own universe. From before her Earth had been pulled into that hell dimension, at any rate.

Of course, Alice hadn’t even known about real Time Lords being an issue until that “cease and desist” letter from the BBC, which had come after running her first major populated mission. Oh well, at least Alijda’s universe did include the TV show “Wynonna Earp”.

None of those thoughts would help the Rose Thorne girl.

ALICE VUNDERLANDE
Commission from Cherry Z[/caption]

Alice sighed, wondering if her tendency to have a unique thought process would one day manage to target itself into whatever configuration it was that supposedly “normal” people had on a daily, good, there was the house, home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Alice burst through the front door. “Honey, I’m home,” she called out, leaning against the wall to catch her breath.

The large living room area was visible from the front door. It took a moment, but an arm came into view on the top of the leather couch, followed by Alijda’s head. The brunette thirty-something stared at Alice in silence for a moment. “Laugh track quieted down in your head yet?” she said at last.

Alice beamed. “Yes, thank you.”

“Great. I notice you did not, however, buy bread,” Alijda noted, her gaze falling to Alice’s empty hands.

Alice closed the front door. “Because I got a call from the Epsilon Project. They need me. Us.”

Alijda’s gaze returned to Alice’s face. “So you’re being pranked?”

“Pranked? Alijda, who on your Earth would even know about it?!”

The brunette’s eyebrow went up. “Anyone you’ve talked to in the six months you’ve been here? You can’t seem to stop yourself. Hell, even though I’m not actually sitting in on your job interviews, I have my suspicions there too. I’m pretty sure the reason you can’t get stable work is because, when people ask you to clarify your prior work experience, you go on about monitoring alternate realities for anomalous events.”

Alice pushed out her lower lip. “It’s not like I can talk about being the secretary for an Angel from back on my own world. That’s even crazier. And I have no references here. Haters gonna hate.”

“I hacked out a false trail on our internet for you,” Alijda reminded her. “You can claim you were the secretary for a movie studio. Not to mention employed by the same guy I used when I was under my fake ‘Alison’ alias.”

“I know. I can lead with pride, I can make us strong, I’ll be satisfied if I play along. But the voice inside sings a different song. What is wrong with me?”

Alijda’s stare became an eye roll. “Oy, I should have smacked you when we first met. You’re still dealing with our lunch.” She dropped back out of sight to lay on the couch.

Alice’s smile returned. “I love you too, friend.”

Alijda let out a grunt. Alice walked into the room, now noticing that her housemate was staring at a laptop computer on the coffee table. Probably back to writing another of her stories.

Her writing really wasn’t that bad. In a sense, the stories were more than a way of Alijda coping with her own depression, they could be seen as a way of helping others who had similar problems. Alijda had a certain dry wit about her.

If only she wouldn’t push people away so much. Or wear black dresses all the time. One of these days, Alice swore she would get the woman into a pair of blue jeans.

“What?” Alijda asked, without looking up again.

“Alijda, please, I’m serious. The Epsilon Station made me an offer I can’t refuse. It’ll crash into a planet without help.”

The brunette met her gaze again. “Alice, you’re a dear, but face reality. The whole project got shut down when we left. Okay? It’s done. And even if we assume it wasn’t, and this isn’t some stupid joke, their whole oversight thing? That was creepy as all hell. So if the new idiot in charge wants it all to crash and burn, fine, I’m in favour.”

“Rose didn’t want it, Alijda. She sounded scared. And young. Even younger than I was, when I started.”

Alijda reached out to smack her laptop shut, muttering something indistinguishable under her breath. “What the hell is wrong with your random God, recruiting the inexperienced?”

“Mistakes were made,” Alice intoned. “Truth be told, I messed up a bunch even before recruiting you for that first in-person mission. Please, Alijda.” She leaned in against the side of the couch. “This girl’s frightened. She’s inadequately prepared. You want me to say ‘I need you’? I need you.”

Alijda sighed. “How is it that I now know when you’re quoting something, even if I have no idea where it’s from? Fine. When is this Epsilon thing supposedly happening?”

Alice felt her phone vibrate in the back pocket of her jeans. “Now?”

Alijda rolled off the couch. “Damn multiverse whatevers are never simple. Let me grab my meds.”

Alice answered her phone as Alijda headed for the bathroom. “Hello,” the former Epsilon caretaker announced. “Know that your call is very important to us.”

“When this is all over, you’ll have to tell me what your actual voicemail is,” came Rose’s voice. “For now, please, I’m in the spare control room, how do I get at this Mr. Smith??”

“Am I on some kind of speaker phone?” Alice asked.

“Beats me, but your voice is coming from all around.”

Alice nodded. She took in a deep breath, and called out, “Mr Smith! I need you.”

She heard the musical fanfare start to play in the background. The difference in ‘need’ quoting between Captain Picard and Sarah Jane Smith, it was all in the inflection. Come to think, Sarah Jane was probably the reason she’d had Time Lords on the brain.

“Greetings, Alice,” came a deep male voice. “You seem to have become a redheaded teenager since I was last active.”

“Hi, Mr Smith,” Alice chirped. “That’s Rose in the room. We need to get me back up there to fix things. Trouble is, Ziggy may be infected with something. Can you tell if that’s the case without interfacing?”

“That would take some time,” Smith mused.

“I’m going to die in less than 30 minutes,” Rose shrieked. “Also, a talking computer coming out of the wall what now?”

“Rose, your motto is don’t panic,” Alice reminded. “Mr Smith, can we get you to reroute a teleport, done by Alijda? To get us up there?”

“If Rose creates an interface by patching in the necessary circuits, yes.”

“Meaning no,” Rose asserted.

Alice chewed on her lower lip. Interfacing might simply infect Mr. Smith anyway. She needed more data. “I suppose it’s too much to hope for that the planet you’re crashing into is the one I’m on now?”

Ziggy’s voice broke in. “It is not your world, Alice. I know that much.”

“Right.” Alice smacked her fist into her forehead. There had to be a way. She turned her attention towards sifting through the limited data she already had.

Fact 1: Ziggy still had the ability to retrieve, given how Rose was somehow there, but the main computer lacked the power. Mr. Smith had the power, but lacked the ability. Their systems ran independently, for obvious reasons.

Fact 2: Rose lacked the understanding to interface the machines, assuming it was even safe to do so. She also wouldn’t be able to program them. Meaning whatever they came up with here, it was going to have to be something automated.

Automated. The failsafe.

“Ziggy,” Alice said, spinning around. “Hypothetical. If you were to be completely shut down, would Mr. Smith take over operations? Now that he’s active?”

“Affirmative. But he would not have my scope. Access to teleportation systems would be–”

“He would automatically attempt to complete a teleport if it was in progress and putting lives at risk.”

A pause. “The teleport might abort instead,” Ziggy suggested.

“Not with Rose in danger too. Okay, Ziggy. Initiate a recall teleport based on my prior departure, relative to the months I’ve spent on this Earth with Alijda, using this cell phone signal as a beacon. When you go dead, Mr Smith will pull us in the rest of the way.”

“I have never attempted that before,” Mr. Smith pointed out.

“Agreed,” Ziggy said. “I can find no guarantee this will work. I cannot authorize it.”

“We’re out of options! Do it!” Alice asserted, falling back on a quote by Picard from the TNG episode “Heart of Glory”.

“Alice, I bet I can authorize this,” came Rose’s voice again. “Except… are you sure? As scared as I am, I don’t want to order something here that might hurt you.”

Alice decided she liked this Rose girl. “It’s okay, I installed failsafes.” Mostly. “I’m sure they’re still in place.” There was no way to know. “It’ll be fine.” This was risky as all heck. What WAS wrong with her?

“Alice?” Alijda said, narrowing her eyes as she reentered the room. “Alice, what’s with that expression? Who are you talking to and what are you telling them?”

Alice flapped her free hand up and down to try and shush Alijda.

“Ziggy,” came Rose’s voice. “Initiate that recall teleport thing from the last time Alice was in charge of computers here. Authorization code, uhm, Paige-Paige-Paige.”

“Initiating, Rose,” came Ziggy’s resigned voice.

Alice ceased her arm flapping, looking to Alijda. “Change of plan. I’m headed up. I’ll bring you later.” She turned and sprinted for the nearest doorway.

“Alice? Alice, damn it, don’t you dare do reckless and foolhardy things on your own.”

As Alice began to pass through into the next room, she felt the disorientation of a teleport taking place - and Alijda’s hand seizing her wrist from behind. A dangerous and potentially suicidal act. So not exactly out of character for Alijda. Being unable to shake her off, both women ended up falling through the doorway together.

And then the house was empty.

Alice felt herself spinning through a dark void. She slammed into a wall, and a rush of air was expelled from her lungs.

“Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into,” came Alijda’s voice from somewhere else in the darkness. Above her, maybe? They’d become separated upon arrival.

Alice managed a giggle as she worked to stabilize herself in the zero gravity. “Actually, that’s a misquote. Laurel and Hardy use the phrase here’s another NICE mess in dialogue. The name of one of their films was ‘Another Fine Mess’.”

“Oh, well, I beg your pardon,” Alijda mumbled.

“Uh, did something go wrong?” came another voice. A male one.

A dim red lighting finally switched on, giving partial illumination to the large cylindrical room. Alice turned her head, spotting Alijda floating a short distance away… as well as Katherine “Kat” Conway, the military man who had been part of their last mission together.

“Kat?” Alijda sputtered. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He scratched his head. “Beats me. I thought I got back to my hotel just fine, but now I’m back here a half hour later.”

“It’s the recall feature,” Alice realized. “Because Kat left AFTER us, remember, Alijda? He wanted to make sure all of us ladies got off the station okay.”

“So you mean him leaving after we did pulled him back in before us this time?”

“Right. Could be a glitch, could be the recall order to Ziggy wasn’t specific enough to exclude him. Technically, he was the last person to leave when I was in command.”

“So chivalry isn’t dead, it simply gets you killed,” Alijda remarked.

“A ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking - on my part,” Alice sighed. “Though it occurs to me now that Kat’s chivalry is possibly the only reason Ziggy even had my phone number, since I told her to call me once Kat himself had left. So there’s that.”

Kat cleared his throat. “I feel out of the loop here, ladies. Granted, that’s somewhat par for the course when I’m with you, but still.”

“Oh, the Epsilon Station’s gonna crash into a planet real soon,” Alice offered. “I’ll head to auxiliary control now to find Rose, and see if there’s something I can do about that. I kinda hope there is.”

“No,” Alijda corrected. “I’LL head to auxiliary control. I’m the hacker, Alice,” she continued, before her housemate could protest. “I can whip almost any system back into shape. You’re the one who knows this station backwards and forwards, so you need to check to see if any physical connections are out of place. Kat? You stick close to Alice.”

“Uh, yes, ma’am,” Kat said, lifting his eyebrow. “Though if I might make a request?”

“What?” Alijda asked, looking down at him.

“Stop giving your orders from directly above me? I mean, I am resisting the urge to continually stare right up your skirt, but you don’t seem to be aware I even can.”

Alijda’s eyes grew wider as her hands moved to grasp at the material of her dress, trying to bunch it back between her legs in the zero gravity of the room.

“I keep telling her, jeans,” Alice couldn’t resist saying.

“Shut it!” Alijda snapped, her face a bright red - though that was largely due to the lighting in the room. “I’ll be with that Rose girl.” Moments later, she vanished in a puff of purple and black smoke, as she teleported herself up to the doorway in the ceiling.

NEXT?

What is the nature of the mystery damage? (This will also impact a new point of view, if you think about it.) OPTIONS:

VOTING CLOSES 7am EDT THURSDAY JUNE 15th

If it had been Alijda’s world, they’d have teleported up instead of using the recall, so Ziggy would still be active. If it had been Kat’s world, he would have been kept planetside for now, perhaps contacting Rose from there. We got what we got. (Do people prefer prior vote result info here, rather than compiled in a later post? Does anyone even care?)

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART SEVENTEEN: FIRING LINE

“What’s your suggestion?” Michaela asked.

Kat gestured at Bonnie. “As she said, a firewall. Literally. To push back the invasion. Does anyone have magical experience controlling fire?”

Michaela shook her head. “We tend to steer clear of the elemental magic. I might be able to craft an illusion of fire?”

“That won’t convince them,” Kat sighed. “It’s fine, I can do it. I just hope it doesn’t get me fired, pun not entirely unintended.”

“How can you make a real fire which is not only big enough, but created fast enough so that the invaders don’t have time to stop you?” Bonnie challenged.

“Erm. With help,” Kat said. “Like, if Andi can run fast and drop some matches…"

The thunderclap in the air made everyone turn their heads. A second dimensional rip was appearing, roughly 100 yards away from the first one. “Oh, that can’t be good,” Para sighed.

Kat wasn’t sure if the bunny mathematician was referring to the tear itself, or the red dragon that flew through as it opened.

On the bright side, either the dragon was small, or a larger one had been reduced in size by the transition - the winged animal wasn’t much larger than the size of a house. On the down side, the dragon didn’t look happy.

It seemed even less pleased when one of the invaders let out a shriek and fired a projectile weapon at it. The dragon responded by breathing fire, setting a wide band of the grassy field by the train station alight.

“We never know if it’s TechWorld or MagicWorld who will drop stuff,” Michaela said, rubbing her chin. “Has it ever been both?”

“Alijda and Axiom are back!” Para cried out. She pointed above the fire, to where the flying carpet had reappeared. Originally aiming for the sky, it made a quick course correction back into the smoke upon spotting the dragon.

“I’ll try an illusion, to get the dragon to go back into its rift,” Michaela decided. She held up a weed whacker, previously selected as her focus. “Can you guys handle the fire?”

“I…" Kat glanced at Para, who was already activating her Epsilon communicator. “Para! Wait, give me… thirty seconds?”

Without waiting for a response, he ran off towards the fire, barely aware of Bonnie running after him.

“When you sang about going down in flames, I didn’t think that’d be literal!” Alijda protested.

Their carpet had clipped the edge of the fire, in trying to avoid both the tech invaders below, and the dragon above. Clyde stamping out the smouldering material wasn’t very effective, seeing as both he and Alijda remained doll sized as compared to their surroundings.

“Hold on. I see an open door,” Axiom panted, evidently deciding that some sort of refuge was the best option.

They smashed through a flimsy screen covering, tumbling from the flying carpet onto the floor of a kitchen. Alijda automatically adjusted her fall with a teleport, and as such was the first to spot Queeny and Larry approaching.

“You’re back! You made it!” Larry said, clasping his hands. “And you have Clyde, and he’s… he’s, um, wow, very… tiny…"

“Yeah, that was not a typical rift,” Clyde said, staring up at Larry. “A reunion hug will have to wait.”

“Actually,” Alijda spoke up. “The spell that Chris - er, Axiom - used to stabilize me? And keep Kat and Para from shrinking? I was thinking it could be used to vary your density the other way.”

“Fine, talk later. Please,” Queeny said. “For now, help us search this house for anything to drive away those invaders!” She gestured outside, then did a double take. “And what the hell is breathing fire on my city?!”

Axiom let out a breath. “I’d better seal off our dimension, before anything else appears.”

“In that case, I’m off to link up with my friends,” Alijda noted. She eyed the smouldering carpet. “By teleporting, I guess. Thanks for everything!”

With a final wave and a smile, Alijda disappeared in a small cloud of purple smoke.

Kat was worried. He had never previously attempted to manipulate any fire larger than what you might find in a fireplace. And as he exerted his will, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to handle all of it; only enough of it to move the flames towards the invaders, pushing them back towards their dimensional rift.

“I’m sorry,” he said to Bonnie, halting his advance. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to snuff this thing out. You’ll want to call a fire brigade.”

“Explain to me how you’re controlling it.”

Kat shook his head. “This isn’t something you can learn to do in the time–"

“If the spell casters can channel their spells by using technology, it’s high time someone tried to activate the technology properly, by using a spell!” Bonnie shot back. Kat watched as the older woman pulled a crystalline object out of her pocket. “This is supposed to manipulate the weather. Tell me how you’re manipulating the fire.”

For a moment, Kat was reminded of Tara, the woman he’d encountered right before this whole “Epsilon” escapade began. Except instead of him looking for occult information from an asian, Bonnie was now looking to him for the information. The information which he had first learned about from Fate, way back in high school.

It made him want to get back to his Earth, to continue his search.

“Clear your mind,” Kat suggested. “Focus on the flame, or rather, your device there. Making any physical motions can actually help, as you’re learning. Say whatever comes to mind.”

As he spoke, he pushed his own arms out, making the grass fire leap forwards. Although he couldn’t see all of the invaders due to the smoke and flame, the fire was in some sense an extension of himself, and he sensed that they were back-pedalling. Back towards the dimensional rift.

Bonnie said something that he didn’t catch. That’s when the griffin appeared in the sky.

“It’s an eagle-lion?” Para wondered.

Michaela swung her weed whacker in a wide arc. “Griffin,” she explained. “Enemy of dragons, if the fantasy stories I read as a child are to be believed. I hope I made it look convincing.”

“That will scare the dragon away?”

The redheaded woman cut through the air with her garden implement again, making the griffin move. “Maybe? I’ve never made such a massive illusion before, and dragons are smart. Still, he may decide our world is too crazy to be worth investigating.”

“Right.” Para finished counting down the rest of Kat’s thirty seconds, then initiated communication with Alice.

“You’re all alive, right?” was the first thing Alice said. “Please?”

“Uhm, yeah!” Para assured. “But we need extraction, is there a doorway somewhere we should use?”

“This isn’t ‘The Librarians’! No matter what it looks like down there,” Alice countered. “Tell me when you’re within two metres of each other, with nobody else around. Oh, and make that happen fast?”

Para nodded eagerly. “Will do!”

A small cloud of purple smoke puffed into existence on the ground. Para crouched down. “Alijda! Great timing - we need to get to Kat, fast!”

“Riiight. I’m teleported out, give me a ride?”

As Para offered her hand to Alijda, a gust of wind blew through the area, resolving into the form of Andi. The older woman was breathing hard. “Invaders are… are leaving…" She rested her hands on her knees. “Oof. I’m spent. Does Bonnie have any extra PROM?”

“The dragon’s leaving too!” Michaela added, narrowly missing Andi with the weed whacker as she continued gesturing. “Though I’m a little worried about the storm clouds forming…"

Para glanced into the sky, but only briefly, as that’s when Alijda grabbed onto a fistful of her hair. “Sorry, nearly slipped. Just go, get to Kat,” the brunette suggested. Para nodded, and began to run, Alijda perching on her shoulder.

Kat knew better than to ask Bonnie if she was the one affecting the clouds. Since if she was, any disruption in her concentration could cause things to go haywire. Instead, he did his best to try and dampen down the grass fire, to keep it from spreading. He hoped the last of the invaders had departed.

“Kaaaaat!” came Para’s familiar voice.

Thunder rumbled overhead as Kat turned to see Para approaching. It had probably been longer than thirty seconds, hadn’t it. Before he could shout an apology, he noticed that Para seemed to be gesturing vigorously off to his left. He turned.

“SEALING MODE,” came a voice that Kat identified as Minerva, the consciousness which had been born of Chris’ transformation into Axiom. Then he saw the magical girl (woman?) herself, standing in front of a nearby house, her arms outstretched.

Which was when Axiom’s USB staff grew in length. It seemed to be mechanically transforming as it did, getting larger and larger… Kat turned away and started to run to meet Para.

“I think you’ve got the hang of it, good job!” he tossed over his shoulder back at Bonnie.

They were done here. The invasion was no more. The fire wasn’t exactly under control, but a few drops of rain had started to fall. Between that, and the static charge that seemed to be building in the air, a swift departure seemed to be in order.

Para obviously concurred, because as Kat reached her, she shouted into her communicator, “Alice, we’re good to go!”

The last thing Kat heard as a blue portal opened up in the ground under them was Minerva’s voice intoning, “ANGELIC BARRIER.”

The trip through the whirlpool was becoming standard fare for Alijda. What was different was being spit out into zero gravity, with her momentum sending her up towards the ceiling.

Flipping her body around, Alijda spotted Alice holding onto a console with one hand as she typed with the other. They were back in the main control room of the Hub. As Alice finished typing, the whirlpool below them was covered by the familiar iris, and then Alijda felt the tug of gravity gradually reasserting itself.

“Okay!” Alice said, turning to look up at them. “There should be just enough time left for us to get Alijda back to her normal size before we all have to evacuate! In fact, Kat, Para, I can return you to your worlds right away if you want. Well, once you remove the density suits.”

“Evacuate?” Alijda asked. She blinked as her descent pulled her past a console display. “Wait, what the hell is that about?”

Alice looked at where Alijda was pointing, namely the screen which read in big letters, ‘YOU’RE FIRED’. There was a timer underneath, counting down past three hours.

“That? Oh, well, I’m fired. Fired like Future Marty McFly.” Alice swallowed. “See, I told myself, hey, I’ll simply look in on Smallville, to see if we’ll need to send another team. To replace you guys. But after I looked, I had Mr. Smith run some extra calculations, and it all led to, well…"

Her voice trailed off. Kat’s feet reached the floor first, and he walked towards her. “The convenient dragon - was that you?”

Alice smiled sadly. “Bingo. And a dragon is about as far from a tiny alteration as you can get! Of course, I’d already bent protocol, sending you off with knowledge of the third incursion, so maybe my getting kicked off the station was a foregone conclusion?”

“But if you leave, who will run the ‘Epsilon Project’?” Para protested.

Alice shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe no one? I do hope Ziggy and Mr. Smith will be okay, not that they even have emotions b-but…" The brunette technician let out a choking sound, then quickly ran her arm over her eyes. “N-Nevermind. Let’s get you home.”

“No, stop, this is ridiculous!” Alijda shouted. Her feet finally touched down, allowing her to stamp her foot. “I’m not turning over any dimensional information from these tech glasses unless you’re reinstated!”

Alice shook her head. “Oh, Alijda, don’t insist. Please, no. God has spoken. Besides, I deserve this!” She again tried to smile, spreading her arms out. “Look at this this way, you got what you wanted - we’ve been shut down.”

Alijda swallowed. The worst of it was, Alice was right. And yet… “It shouldn’t be happening like this. Not like this. I mean, where will you go?”

“Oh, not back to my hell dimension, so that’s good. I’ll find some quiet world somewhere, I guess. It’s fine.” Alice sniffled.

“It’s not fine!” Alijda objected. Then, without even thinking about it, she added, “How about you come to my world.”

Alice’s eyes widened. “I… I’d love to. Except you hate me.”

“Actually, Alijda hates herself more than other people,” Kat put in. “Meaning I might feel better knowing she had someone else around.”

“Alijda also pushes away the people she likes the most!” Para agreed. “So she might like you even more than me.”

Alijda glared at her companions. “Stop helping. I’m not asking Alice to move in with me, I’m thinking I can hack up an identity for her, and give her someone she knows on an otherwise foreign world. Which seems to be more than this Project is doing for her.”

“Oh, no. No, I’m not going to be a charity case!” Alice asserted. “If I go with you, it’s going to be as your friend, or not at all!”

“Hah! Kat, Para, tell her how I’m a terrible friend.”

Kat shook his head. “You said to stop helping.”

“Oh Alijda, no matter how small you shrink, your heart stays huge!” Para declared, clasping her hands.

Alijda rolled her eyes. “Look, Alice, I’ll give you the lowdown on my world as you unshrink me. That itself may be reason to change your mind.”

Alice simply nodded, though the genuine smile spreading across her features implied that she wouldn’t be so easily dissuaded. Alijda sighed. So, hopefully having a friend wouldn’t be so bad? As long as Alice could tone down on the pop culture references.

--END OF STORY 3--

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FULL SCALE INVASION, PART SIXTEEN: Perchance to Dream

Kat watched as Alijda and Chris - or rather, Axiom - flew through the dimensional rift on what appeared to be a throw rug. He didn’t question it. Partly because he didn’t know the specifics behind the current magic-technology blend, but more because he didn’t have the time to think about it.

Four masked men (women?) had emerged from the rip between Earths, carrying some sort of ray guns.

For a moment, the arrivals seemed disoriented. Possibly an effect of being shrunk down, Kat reasoned, given the difference in scale between TechWorld, and the world they were on now. Either way, that moment gave Tom the time he needed to act. He sat up from the ground and took aim with his walkman.

“Click,” the young man with the bright red hair intoned, pressing the eject button.

Instead of spitting out a cassette, when the walkman popped open, a pulse of energy shot out. It travelled the 50 metres necessary to strike the first of the masked men. In the process of reaching for his head, the guy seemed to freeze in place.

Tom slapped the walkman closed and took aim again. He managed to get off two more paralysis spells before the last of the individuals realized what was happening, ducking behind one of his companions, out of Tom’s line of sight.

“How many shots do you have with that?” Kat asked, on the ground next to him.

Kat scanned back over the area of the train station. The Magic User’s Club, along with Queeny (of the government), plus Bonnie and Larry (of the DEO), had constantly gathered there, at both sunrise and sunset every day. That being the time of day when the invasion was supposed to occur. This morning, they had finally been proven right.

The lone non-paralyzed Invader poked his head out from behind his friend, seemingly firing his ray gun off in Tom’s general direction - but nothing happened. No beam of energy, no explosions, nothing.

That’s when Mook, one of Queeny’s faithful guards, charged in. The remaining invader spun ninety degrees, pointed his ray gun at the man, and seconds later, Mook face planted down into the dirt. Seemingly unconscious. Kat heard Queeny let out a shriek.

“I guess their own TechWorld tech still works fine, assuming the gun was designed to do that?” Tom mused.

Keeping low to the ground, Kat circled away from Tom, over towards where Mook had come from. He saw Queeny and Larry, flattened back against a nearby building.

Kat and Para had agreed to hang back, acting as backup more than anything else. And while Kat was stretching the definition of “hanging back”, if Queeny was getting reckless, it could impact Alijda’s safe return.

“How could I know?!” Queeny was saying as Kat got within earshot. “That gun hadn’t worked, and his friends got zapped easily!”

“Your habit of issuing orders to people based on superficial information is why people like Bonnie and Shemp don’t tend to tell you things,” Larry sighed.

Queeny did a double take. “Why bring up Shemp?”

“Please. I know he was reporting to you. How else could the guy afford new business cards?”

Queeny fumed. “Well, maybe if people told me things, I wouldn’t have to issue orders using only superficial information!”

“People shouldn’t have to state the obvious, Queeny. As Tom said, listen, and become a better observer,” Larry suggested. He peered back around the corner, raising a pair of binoculars. As the rift wasn’t that far away, it seemed to Kat like this was a signal he wanted to end the conversation.

To her credit, all Queeny said was, “I hope he’s okay.” She looked towards her fallen bodyguard again before lapsing back into silence.

As the stalemate continued to play out, Kat retreated.

“PROM away!” came a new yell. Kat looked back up, in time to see a fast moving woman in a dress approaching the last Invader from behind. Andi, moving faster than human limitations really allowed, completed a right hook to the guy’s jaw before he could turn and bring his ray gun into position.

The last invader crumpled to the ground. Then Andi started hopping around in a circle, still moving at triple speed, shaking out her punching hand while yelping, “Ow! Bad idea! Ow! Ow! Bad idea!”

“Andi! Grab the ray guns!” came Kendall’s voice.

Kat glanced at his watch; it had been barely a minute since Alijda and Axiom’s departure. As if on cue, at least a dozen more people emerged from the rift.

The carpet streaked through the sky, weaving around flying drones. Alijda was pretty sure she had the capability to hack into those helicopter-like devices, what with the magic infused tech glasses she was wearing. More to the point, doing so might provide the TechWorld people with something of a distraction.

She didn’t do it though. After all, she was meant to be taking readings and providing support, not actively sabotaging anything… though she was also rather preoccupied too. Giving Axiom a better bead on Clyde.

“Veer left!” Alijda called out. They had, what, ninety seconds left? Before their density shield failed? “Great, Clyde will be almost right below us,” Alijda noted. “I think it’s best if I teleport down to grab him.”

“But I was going to be the one who–"

“Rescued him, I know,” Alijda finished. “Except you can’t cast spells on account of maintaining the shield. It’s fine, life and death situation, I’m the same size as Clyde, and I’ve got the density suit. Just, you know, catch us when I teleport up?”

“Okay,” Axiom yielded, simultaneous to her USB staff Minerva stating “Affirmative.”

If Alijda had to guess, she’d say they were flying over an abandoned military air field. Or formerly abandoned - the largely open space was currently home to maybe a hundred individuals, and some large equipment. Nearest to the rift, the front line seemed equipped for an assault. At the back, where they were now, there was more equipment, technicians, and possibly the higher ranked officers. And androids.

“Wait, what?” Alijda muttered. There was no time to consider it - they were almost directly overhead.

In a cloud of purple smoke, Alijda vanished, reappearing in an open space on the ground, near to where Clyde was being guarded by the pale android-looking bodies. She got her bearings, and then teleported next to their prisoner. He was easy to identify, not merely due to his size, but from being in a cage. Handcuffed to the bars.

Alijda reached out to grab Clyde’s arm, then willed for the both of them to be teleported back up into the air, picking a place that would avoid possible rematerialization inside an airborne drone.

They began falling. Seconds later, they landed on Axiom’s magic carpet. It immediately shot back up, high into the air again. Alijda felt out of breath, but they seemed none the worse for wear.

“What is going ON?” Clyde said, nearly back-pedalling off their improvised vehicle, but grabbing at the rug fibres instead.

“Magical rescue mission,” Axiom said. “Hold tight, we’re headed back for the rift.”

“About that rift,” Alijda began. Then she stopped herself. Was her thought of shrinking Axiom down even feasible?

Clyde quickly came to his senses. “If we’re out of here, I’ve got a script to execute. Is that a VR keyboard chip in those glasses? Give me those.”

“Hey!” Alijda bristled as Clyde plucked the glasses off her nose, severing her link with the portable keyboard and technological surroundings. “I need those readings!”

“Sorry. I’ll give these back, but I’ve had a parting shot planned ever since these goons forced me to help them assemble the damned portal generator.” Glasses on, Clyde began to run his fingers over what Alijda assumed was the virtual keyboard. “Move in close to me, I’m not sure if my exclusion field will cover everyone.”

“Exclusion field?” Axiom said, crouching down.

“Yeah. Don’t want you to be caught in the sleep ray.”

“Sleep ray?” Axiom parroted again.

“It’s some ray these guys can fire to stimulate alpha waves and induce unconsciousness,” Clyde explained as he typed. “Only reason I never attacked them this way before is because the ray doesn’t affect those damn droids.”

Axiom shook her head. “But why wouldn’t the rest of them be protected against their own weapon?”

“Oh, they are. But not at the force I’m invoking. This program will set off all the possible sleep ray pulses for miles around, simultaneously. And they’ve got a bunch here, what with the invasion. Even us, this far up in the air, and within an exclusion field, we’ll probably still feel tired.”

“Miles?” Alijda broke in. She glanced back out at the landscape, noting what looked like houses in the distance. “But what if there are people within your zone who aren’t part of this invasion force? Could they end up in trouble, like if they’re driving past or something?”

“Do I look like I care?” Clyde countered. “Damn place has been keeping me prisoner for over a year! And they want to mine MY world for oil and other natural resources! Screw them. I gather most of their vehicles are self driving anyway.”

Alijda felt like she should continue protesting, but that was when a laser sliced a hole in their carpet. Axiom executed a sudden stop, then flew higher, beginning evasive maneuvers.

So the brunette hacker held her tongue. Again, she was meant to be primarily an observer, right? She didn’t know the people of TechWorld like Clyde. This wasn’t her call. Never mind that she’d executed the jailbreak, making this possible…

To avoid thinking too hard about it, Alijda instead wondered whether she’d looked as bizarre as Clyde now did, waving his hands over on an interface that was invisible to everyone else. It did look a bit like he was trying to invoke some form of magical spell.

“Boom. Good night,” Clyde said, punching his finger into the air.

A brief humming noise surrounded them. Axiom yawned. Then, on the ground, everyone began to keel over. Some of the drones also dropped out of the sky, as others began to spin in circles.

“Ten seconds to density shield failure,” Minerva noted. “Accelerating our departure.” The carpet went into a dive, as Axiom yawned again.

Clyde pulled off the glasses, handing them back to Alijda. “Thanks.”

Alijda accepted them, unable to turn away from the sight of an uncontrolled drone landing on top of a military man who was lying unconscious below them. “You’re welcome,” she murmured.

Para’s job was simple. As soon as she saw Alijda and Axiom return, she was to use her (recently returned) Epsilon communicator, and call Alice. That way, their group of three could still get picked up, before the spell could be cast to seal all dimensional breaches.

Granted, there was no guarantee that such a spell meant the Epsilon Station itself would become inaccessible. But there were a lot of unknowns at present, including whether Alice would even be able to make a portal for them as quickly as they hoped.

Not to mention whether Para would be the only one left conscious by the time Alijda reappeared.

“They knocked Tom out. We’re not going to be able to contain this force much longer,” Michaela decided. The magic user had been keeping herself out of the thick of things, along with Para and Bonnie.

“You may not have to,” Kat said, crawling back to reach their position. “Looks more like those ten are trying to establish a foothold. Meaning the real problem is convincing them to retreat, now that they’re wise to ranged attacks and Andi’s speed.”

“Hrmph. We need some real life version of those blasted tech security systems those people run,” Bonnie declared. “Firewalls, I think they’re called.”

Para felt her ears drooping. “Should I simply call Alice now? I mean, she’s like the inter-dimensional police… so maybe she can help?”

“No, don’t,” Kat asserted. “If Alice interferes, she’ll probably end up in even more trouble than us.” He grimaced. “I’ve got a suggestion.”

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FULL SCALE INVASION, PART FIFTEEN: RESCUE STRANGERS

Some people were good at waiting. Alijda really didn’t understand those people. After all, it was during the waiting that the demons would creep in, telling you that you were worthless and alone, making you second guess all of your decisions. In this case, the key decision burning at Alijda was the one that had her accompanying Chris on the mission to retrieve Clyde. Why had she insisted on that?

Alijda burst into tears about 36 hours after telling Kat and Para that she was going, bar none, so that any consequences would all be on her. Alijda’s sobs attracted the attention of Chris herself, who was sitting on the other side of the room. After a good couple of minutes of crying, the brunette drew in a long breath, and strode up to the Magic User.

“I’m sorry,” Alijda sniffled. “This was a bad idea.”

Chris dropped the magazine that she’d been busy ignoring. “What was?”

“Having me here.”

“Oh? Why?”

“Because I’m a damn DOLL!” Alijda said, rage surging up through the sadness. “It takes forever to cross a room, I can’t handle doors, I’m bathing in a sink and drinking from a thimble - what use am I going to be on your rescue mission?? If I were a character in my own fiction stories, I bet a majority of readers wouldn’t even want me to be the one doing this. You better go find Para instead.”

Chris half smiled. “Bit late for that,” she noted. “The tech glasses were fitted for someone of your size. Besides, didn’t you insist to me that you’d be the best person to deal with a technological world?”

“I have an exaggerated sense of my own importance,” Alijda concluded. She pulled the glasses off her face, wiping tears from her cheeks. The spectacles had been fitted with a microchip and imbued with magic, to allow the wearer to take readings of things like the dimensional tear.

“Para can re-fit these. She’s great at that square-cubed stuff. Here.” Alijda tossed the glasses onto the floor, then turned away. “Go find her, I’ll be hiding in a cabinet somewhere until this is all over.”

Alijda hesitated, but turned around again. Chris had leaned forwards. Despite the purple haired woman sitting on the floor - or rather, on a sleeping bag - she still towered over the brunette hacker. Or that’s what it felt like, being around eight inches tall.

“Would you like us to find you some medication?” Chris offered. “Kat mentioned that you were a depressive, and that cutting off your communications with Alice might pose a probl–"

“NO! I would NOT like that, I’d like you to LISTEN to me and do as I SAY! Understand?!” She stamped her foot for emphasis.

It was a bit hard to interpret Chris’ reaction to that. While there was a bit of shock in her expression, the best word Alijda could find to fit that expression was bemused. Perhaps bewildered. “WHAT?” Alijda fired off, before she could stop herself.

“Well,” Chris began, “first, you say you’re upset that you’re too small, and then you start issuing orders. You’re torpedoing your own argument, by making it clear size doesn’t matter, only strength of character. And second… second, Gods, Alijda, you look super adorbs! I guess I don’t know how to take seeing you cry. Sorry.”

“I look super–" Alijda wiped at her cheeks again, then crossed her arms. “Exactly WHAT ELSE has Kat been mentioning to you?!”

“Nothing! I swear, only the meds thing, because he was worried about you. And while I grant some of the ‘adorbs' factor is your size - I used to play with dolls growing up - you’re obviously the sort of woman who doesn’t have to do things like dye her hair lavender in order to get noticed. Kinda envy that about you.”

“Well, don’t. I’m dateless in my mid-thirties, on track to being forever alone. Which is just as well, I’d hate to inflict my kind of misery on a parter. Or worse, a daughter.” She laughed. “Can you imagine how awful THAT would be?”

Chris continued to stare. “You don’t have to lie to me, Alijda,” she said. “I mean, when this is all over, you’ll probably never see me again. So why not be honest?”

“I am being honest!”

“Really? Then how did daughters even enter this conversation? Is it because you’re lying to yourself too?”

Alijda found herself doing a mental double take. She didn’t enjoy it. “Shut up. Para’s on my mind, and she’s a bit like a daughter to me, that’s all. What with needing an adult to explain to her about human interactions and all that nonsense. Don’t change the subject!”

Chris tilted her head. “Okay. And what was the subject? You, deciding to send your surrogate daughter on this dangerous mission with me, rather than going yourself? Because you somehow think she’s more qualified? Explain to me how that makes sense.”

It felt like Chris was twisting her words, yet at the same time, she wasn’t. “K-Kat then,” Alijda said. She winced at her much less assertive tone.

Chris pushed herself up onto her feet. “Or how about this idea. I see about getting you some medication, and then we chat for a bit about how life kinda sucks no matter what Earth you come from.”

“That sounds like a terrible plan!” Alijda said, kicking her toe at the floor as she eyed Chris’ giant shoe.

“Even so, let’s try it. I’ll be right back. Please don’t go anywhere?”

For at least a minute after Chris’ departure, Alijda continued to stare at the rumpled sleeping bag on the floor. Eventually, she walked over, picked the glasses back up, and replaced them on the bridge of her nose. “I bet these make me look stupid,” she declared to the empty room.

They knew where the invasion would come through - the fairy mirror had identified the new weakest dimensional spot as being near the train station. They also knew the approximate time of day - a vision potion some weeks back had shown Kendall a bunch of masked men charging through a fissure at either dusk or dawn.

But the day itself was a mystery. Which was why Chris and Alijda were effectively camping out in an abandoned house, with everyone continuing to prepare the best defence possible in whatever time they had left. They needed something that wouldn’t make the invaders turn around completely, at least not right away, but rather something that could contain them long enough to allow for the rescue of Clyde.

“The most impressive thing,” Kat remarked to Alijda, when he stopped by one afternoon, “is how this whole ‘being united against a common enemy’ thing is working out. Bonnie even gave Andi back her PROM.”

“Oh yes?” Alijda smirked. “I’m thinking the fact that said PROM is now useless, without having some sort of magic to blend with it, might have been a factor.”

Kat chuckled. “Cynical, yet probably not wrong. Still, I wonder if Queeny, Bonnie and Kendall will continue to work together like this in the future. And if the techno-magic limitation will even hold once the dimensions are sealed.”

“We’ll never know,” Alijda shrugged. “We’re already overdue with Alice. I’m actually starting to feel bad, what with keeping her in the dark for this long.”

Kat’s eyebrow went up. “Wait. You’re feeling bad for the woman who you claim watches our every move? Who can abduct us without warning, and who puts us into these life or death situations in the first place?” He leaned in closer. “Is your new medication working out?”

“Ha ha, you can shut up,” Alijda suggested.

“Not before I tell you how sexy you look in those glasses.”

“And now you can leave,” Alijda concluded with an eye roll.

“All normal then. Excellent,” Kat said, giving her a thumbs up before departing.

The invasion began the next morning. As soon as the loud thunderclap sounded, Chris was grabbing for her USB. “Pretty Phlebotinum, Henshin Go!” she blurted.

A glowing circle formed on the floor, and Alijda heard music playing as she ran for the window. As the song faded out, she heard Chris’ voice declare, “Technical problems? I’m the cure. Cure Axiom! So it’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna go down in flames.”

Alijda glanced over her shoulder. Axiom was dressed as Kat had described, wearing a dress of purples and blues which was covered in bows. Her hair was held back by a hairband with a small blue witches’ hat stuck onto it. “New catchphrase?” Alijda mused.

“I guess?” Axiom sighed. “These songs are stored on Minerva’s drive, I’ve never heard them before. Am I really a nightmare dressed like a daydream?”

Alijda shrugged. “Talk about it later?”

“Right.” Axiom stepped forwards, next to Alijda. She tapped the end of her staff, which remained in the form of a USB cable wand, onto the throw rug beneath them. The rug lifted off into the air.

As their magic carpet shot out of the window, Alijda tapped at her glasses, chanting “I spy with my little eye…" Scrolling text lit up on her lenses, and a glowing keyboard appeared in the air in front of her.

“Rift bearing at 50 degrees left of straight ahead, right above the train tracks,” Alijda noted. “It’s expanding.” She began typing, to take more in depth readings.

“I see it,” Axiom noted. “Looks like everyone else is getting into position too.”

Alijda risked a quick glance down at the ground. She immediately regretted it, as her flight through the air, coupled with her size, made her feel like she was falling from a great height. On the bright side, she had been able to spot Para’s bunny ears, registering that the blonde was waving at them.

“They’re coming through,” Alijda noted, as the numbers started to surge up.

“That won’t stop us,” Axiom countered. The rug went into a dive, and Alijda barely had a chance to register the masked people appearing amid a crackle of energy before they were over their heads - and into the dimensional rip.

Naturally, this was the cue for things to go very wrong.

Axiom let out a shriek of pain, the rug spinning in a circle as it blasted out into it’s new environment. Alijda herself felt a bit like throwing up. “Mass error! Emergency density shield activated!” came a female voice from the USB staff.

‘Oh, hell,’ Alijda realized, as the scene coalesced around them. ‘The size conversion - it’s not attached to the stuff and people that TechWorld is sending. They’ve somehow baked the scale differential into this rift itself. Meaning we’ve been enlarged, and are now the same size, relative to them. Complete sitting ducks.’

“Axiom! Go up, up, UP!” Alijda shrieked. She had registered enough to know that they were outside, rather than confined to a building. Thank goodness for small mercies.

The light on the cable wand flashed. “Up, up, up, can only go up from here…"

The rug stopped it’s spin, and immediately blasted towards the sky, on a path perpendicular to the ground. Alijda was pretty sure that the only thing that kept them from being shot at by the dozens of military-looking men on the ground was the element of surprise.

The sky itself wasn’t devoid of hazards though. A number of flying drones were zipping back and forth, and there was no way of knowing if any of them were armed or not. It was all happening too fast.

“Density shield will fail in under two minutes,” Minerva’s voice warned.

“Of course it will,” Alijda groused, typing furiously.

“And it’s taking all we have to maintain the carpet and the shield,” Axiom croaked. “We can’t handle any more spells.”

“Of course you can’t,” Alijda reiterated. She tapped at her glasses. Finally, some good news - she had a bead on Clyde. Meaning he was not only in the vicinity, but in order to appear on her scan, he had to still be shrunk down relative to TechWorld. Alijda supposed that meant he was about her size. Well, that was potentially convenient.

But with Chris, aka Axiom, being a big, obvious target - how were they going to get everyone safely back through the rift?

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FULL SCALE INVASION, PART FOURTEEN: BAD PLAN

Para wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. She wasn’t upset by that though, as the only person in the room with access to the entire story was Chris - the member of the Magic User’s Club who had interfaced with the USB drive taken out of the Department of Extra-Dimensional Objects.

Granted, Kat and Queeny seemed to know at least part of the story as well. Para wondered whether Tom, also sitting at the conference table, was as confused as she was. At the least, she knew that Larry, the DEO agent and most recent arrival, was completely in the dark.

“What do you MEAN the truth about what happened to Clyde?” Larry sputtered. “He died, because of our premature use of portal technology. We shouldn’t have been so arrogant as to try and generate our own method to traverse dimensions without proper testing.”

“Oh, drop the front!” Queeny shouted. Fortunately, the head of government hadn’t shouted it into her megaphone. “We know Clyde’s really alive.”

Larry gripped the door frame. “How DARE you! Bonnie has been doing her best this past year, there’s no way Clyde is pulling the strings!”

“That’s NOT what we mean,” Queeny declared. “If you keep playing dumb…" She waggled her finger.

“Queeny, isn’t it possible he truly doesn’t know?” Para ventured. “I mean, I don’t really know what this is about Clyde, and I’ve been in the room longer than Larry.”

“You mean Bonnie could have been keeping the truth a secret?” Kat mused.

“Transported?” Larry choked. Para noticed that the DEO agent was now holding onto the side of the doorway, seemingly to keep himself from falling down.

Chris nodded. “I’m certain that Clyde was sent to an adjoining world. The very one this USB drive originated on, in fact. That’s why Minerva recognized it.”

At last, it all started making sense for Para. “Oh, okay! So Clyde’s arrival on TechWorld alerted them to the dimensional weaknesses. Which led to that world’s subsequent tests. Meaning sending those large scale objects to this world.”

“Which also led to Alice and the Epsilon Project noticing the problem,” Kat added.

“Which will eventually lead to an invasion,” Chris concluded. “As TechWorld plunders us for who knows what reason. The good news is that I can now prevent it. The bad news is, that would strand Clyde on the other side.”

Larry swallowed. “H-How do you even know that Clyde is still alive over there?”

“The fact that all the huge incursions were in our town, and nowhere else in the world, is a hint that he’s got a hand in things,” Chris explained. “But even if we assume that’s related to the original breach, Clyde stored some personal data on Minerva too. When we correlate it with the objects that arrived, namely a hat, an iron, and a thimble, well…"

“Oh my God.” Larry sank down to his knees. “Me and Clyde used to love playing that ‘Monopolize’ board game together. How did I miss that?”

“Good thing they didn’t send through a racecar,” Kat observed.

Para pushed her chair back to keep the DEO agent in view. “Um, Larry, you okay? You want a glass of water or something?”

Tom leaned forwards. “Just a vibe I get, but, dude, did you have a thing for Clyde?”

“What?! I… no… I… I’m fine, that is…" Larry pulled himself back up to his feet with the help of the wall, stammering incoherently.

Tom smirked. “Okay, yup, you totally did,” he concluded, before lapsing back into silence. Larry looked like he wanted to run.

Kat frowned. “Wait. Larry, Clyde was your BOSS, right? And yet Tom is saying you two–”

“Being his BOSS is your issue? Clyde’s also another GUY!” Queeny cut in. “What freaky stuff was going ON in that department?!”

Para stood, moving for Larry even as she spoke to Queeny. “Isn’t it true that, when two people love each other, it doesn’t matter what–"

“Shut it, or I’ll throw you in jail!”

“We’re kinda losing the thread here,” Chris said, raising her hand. “Invasion?”

“Yes!” Queeny said, grabbing her megaphone to yell into. “Which you can prevent. So go do that. Never mind about Clyde, the good of the many and all that.”

“Hold on! Didn’t you say the DEO ran less shady with him in charge?” Kat wondered. “We’d agreed–"

“Changed my mind! Now you can shut it too!”

Para reached Larry’s side, gingerly taking him by the hand. “Do you really think Bonnie didn’t know?” she murmured.

Larry shook his head. “I don’t think she would have kept something like that from me. Besides, when Clyde died, the whole project got a rebuild from the ground up. If she’d known he had been successful, why she would have done that?”

“You can’t blame yourself then,” Para stated. “There’s no way you could have known.”

Larry sniffled. “Oh, Clyde… you were the only one who liked my poetry…”

“Look, Queeny,” Chris said, rising to her feet. “It’s very possible that Clyde is being tortured over there for information about our world. The fact that all TechWorld technology in this city went offline after that thimble came through can’t be coincidence. So retrieving him isn’t merely the humanitarian thing to do, it’s also the best thing strategically.”

Queeny narrowed her eyes. “Killing Clyde would also fix that problem.”

Kat whistled. “That escalated quickly.”

“Either way, we would need a mission to find him,” Chris countered.

“What’s your proposal?” Larry asked, squeezing Para’s hand as he straightened out his posture. “I gather that’s why you wanted Bonnie here? To discuss bringing Clyde back?”

Chris didn’t speak, still staring at Queeny, so Kat cleared his throat. “Two rescue options are available. The first, which I’m pretty sure is a no-go, would be us getting our communicators back. With those, we contact Alice, and she sends us, or some other rescue party to TechWorld.”

“Actually, that’s feasible,” Larry said. “I can spin it as you getting your gear and leaving, which was frankly our preference from the beginning.”

Kat shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. Doing that would mean we’re actively helping you, and I don’t think that’s the point behind ‘Epsilon’. It’s more likely that you’ll need to do it without our help.”

“So what’s plan B? Try to reconstruct Clyde’s original portal designs?”

Queeny finally blinked first, meaning Chris shifted her gaze over to Larry. “No, there’s no time,” she sighed. “We’ll need to piggyback a rescue on TechWorld’s invasion itself.”

Larry stared. “That’s a bad plan.”

“You’re damn right it is!” Queeny asserted, sounding increasingly desperate. “We need to seal ourselves off now, and–"

Tom reached out, grabbed the megaphone out of Queeny’s hand, and walked over to hurl it out the nearest window. “Loosen up, el Presidente!” he snapped. “Did you ever think that maybe the problem isn’t that people can’t hear you, but rather, they don’t like what you’re saying? Try listening for a change.”

Queeny stared, open mouthed, her fingers twitching.

Chris flashed Tom a quick smile, then nodded at Larry. “The plan isn’t perfect,” she admitted. “But if we’re in and out fast enough? TechWorld won’t gain a foothold here before we block them off for good.”

Para saw a problem with that. “Um, but Clyde is the same size as the rest of us. No bigger than a small bird on TechWorld,” she pointed out. “How are you going to find him?”

“We’re hoping we can adapt the DEO’s density sensors,” Chris admitted. “Another reason we need Bonnie’s co-operation.”

“And what if Clyde’s in a jail or something over there?” Larry asked.

“Well…" Chris pulled out the USB drive from her pocket, turning it around in her fingers before turning to look at Kat. “Would borrowing your friend Alijda’s teleportation ability be allowed, as a method of non-active assistance?”

Para walked over to turn off the sound of the oboe coming from the phonograph in the corner. “Is that better?” she asked.

“Yes,” Alijda responded. “Also no.”

Para blinked. “No?”

“No, I can’t teleport someone of your size,” Alijda sighed. “I just tried to teleport along with this lovely silky pillow here, and I nearly passed out. I think I’m stuck teleporting doll sized items until my scale problem gets fixed.”

“Oh.”

“Guess that’s what happens when you’re shrunk. I take it that’s a problem?”

“Possibly?” Para said, wringing her hands. “Again, not sure I’m the best person to explain…" Which was when Kat walked into the room. Para let out a breath of relief - it didn’t take long for the military man to bring Alijda up to speed.

“Okay,” Alijda said, once Kat was finished. “So, the hope was to be able to teleport Clyde, because Chris’ communication spells allow her to bleed spell effects off of fellow Magic Users?”

“Assuming they give consent, yeah,” Kat affirmed. “Of course, no idea if it would work with us, since we have abilities, not spells, but then, Chris is already interfacing with otherworldly tech so…" He shrugged.

“Except it’s all moot, since I can barely teleport a banana,” Alijda concluded.

“Apparently,” Kat agreed.

Para glanced back and forth between her two companions. She hesitated to bring it up AGAIN, since they never seemed to like the option, but wasn’t it the right thing to do?

“So shouldn’t we leave?” Para asked. “I mean, I’m not saying I’d be happy doing that, but Alice said to warn these inhabitants. We’ve warned them. They now believe us, and seem to have a plan going forwards.”

“Valid point,” Kat acknowledged. “Plus here’s an extra conundrum - when Chris seals off dimensional access, will that seal off our way home too? I’m not keen on wearing this pink under-suit for the rest of my life.”

Para had to do a double take. She hadn’t expected Kat to support her. Alijda seemed less sure though, crossing her arms and glaring at the floor.

“Know what though?” the brunette woman said, after a moment. “We should get some up close readings on these dimensional weaknesses. Could be really valuable information for future “Epsilon” missions, since the project itself doesn’t seem to be as good at monitoring us as I thought.”

Para should have known. Her human companions never did the rational thing. She wasn’t upset, of course - merely confused. “I thought you wanted the project shut down!” she reminded Alijda. “Why do you want to HELP Alice now??”

“I think Alijda has thought of a convenient excuse to stick around,” Kat said, smiling. “Because on the inside, she’s much prettier than she believes herself to be.”

Alijda rolled her eyes. “Hey Kat! Speaking of ‘Monopoly’, you are sorely tempting me to access your world’s computers and program a bank error very much NOT in your favour after all this.”

Kat winked. “At least I’ll know you’re thinking of me.”

Gesturing dismissively at him, Alijda turned her attention back to Para. “Here’s the thing, Para - Chris apparently saved my tiny little life. So I’m not comfortable simply running away if she still needs us. Besides, can you tell me the data WOULDN’T be useful?”

Para half smiled herself, as she realized more fully what Kat had been saying. “I can’t. Okay, I’m still with you both then - but if we all join Chris, we’ll just be in the way. Right? So which one of us should go with her?”

“The person who can fare the best on a technological world,” Alijda concluded. “Me.”

“We all have different strengths though,” Kat countered. “You’re good with programming, but Para’s good at technical designs, and I’m decent at actual hardware configuration. Moreover, none of that might be even relevant to a rescue operation.”

“So who?” Para reiterated, her bunny ears twitching.

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

[polldaddy poll=9430691]

VOTING WILL CLOSE LATE ON TUESDAY MAY 31st EDT.

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART THIRTEEN: Transformation

It’s strange, the common bonds that can bring people together. Kat was reminded of that fact after their retreat to City Hall. With the shrinking Alijda having been brought to a convenient break room with Para, Kat had set his goal as having both Queeny and the Magic User’s Club on board with helping him to save his companion… his friend.

“We can argue later about who was in the wrong here,” Kat began. “Right now, our focus HAS to be on keeping that woman from shrinking away to nothing!”

“Wrong!” Queeny shouted into her megaphone, making Kat smack his hand against his ear. “You’re not even from this world. You can’t waltz in and tell us, the local government, what our priorities should be!”

“She’s right!” Chris asserted. “Society has to have rules. We can’t break them without considering the consequences!”

“Are you two willing to let someone die because you delayed?” Kat protested.

“Magic and technology seem to be going haywire,” Chris noted. “Unless we know more about what’s happening, we could make your friend’s problem worse.”

“Exactly!” Queeny agreed. “Maybe this mystery spell I have will go wrong, and make that woman grow to be the size of that thimble, destroying this whole building. We don’t know!”

Chris eyed Queeny. “You know, for being a government person, you’re making more sense than usual.”

Queeny lowered her megaphone. “And you seem a lot more practical to me than I’d expect of someone who believes in magical abilities.”

“Awesome lesson, individuals aren’t necessarily the same thing as their collectives, blah blah, can we leave yet?” Tom asked, stifling a yawn.

Kat saw the opening. Despite having some reservations, he decided to take it. “Enough! You have to listen to me - and not waste your time trying to form an alliance against that shady Department of Extra-Dimensional Objects!”

“Who still have my PROM,” Andi huffed.

“Speaking of, why DID you want Bonnie to see us at the motel?” Kendall asked Queeny. “You seemed to think the real one would show up instead of Andi.”

“Bonnie DuChessy always knows more about what’s going on than I do,” Queeny complained. “She certainly figured out my doubles plan faster than anticipated. So, I wanted to know if she’d be as surprised by your attempted murder of a gov… by whatever you were doing,” she amended, off Kendall’s look.

“Is Bonnie also the reason you were tracking us, trying to find the weak dimensional locations?” Michaela asked.

“Yes, since you weren’t always subtle about your activities,” Queeny admitted. “So, after seeing your interest in that motel five or six days ago, I paid off the owner to advise me of anything unusual. Either with respect to Bonnie herself, or arrivals like this guy’s package,” she said, jerking a thumb at Kat. “Or the rest of you trying to jam an oboe into an unusual location.”

“That’s why you moved our meeting,” Andi concluded. “You were told about the rest of them setting up for the spell.”

“Right. Thought I’d have one up on Bonnie, but SOMEHOW, she knew to stay out of danger.” Queeny adjusted the straps of her red silk dress. “That department was much less shady under Clyde’s direction.”

Tom slapped Kat on the back. “Okay guy, good job in getting us to unite against the DEO rather than against you. What’s your next play?”

Kat winced. “Okay. I admit that was my goal there. But it’s because I have intelligence for you, that I took from the DEO base.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out the USB drive that he’d grabbed, back before Alijda had teleported them away. “This was in a hidden back room, where the DEO seemed to be trying to build their own portal technology. It could explain a few things.”

Queeny’s eyes narrowed. “What?! You mean they’re continuing that project? That’s crazy, that’s what got Clyde killed!”

Kendall let out a low whistle. “Okay Kat, what’s this thing you’ve got? Does it project a hologram or something?”

“No, it needs to interface with a computer. Queeny, can you get us access to one?”

The head of government hesitated, then finally grimaced. “Oh, you’d likely figure it out - no, no, I can’t, not without Bonnie knowing. Her department regulates all the useful stuff. All we have on hand is confiscated odds and ends that haven’t been classified yet.”

Kat rubbed his forehead, considering alternatives. “Would any of those items include a USB on-the-go cable? Plugging the drive into something like that might at least activate it. Like the trigger on those laser cutters. Then one of the magic users could channel a spell to read the data.”

“Oh, I’m all about communications, spells or otherwise,” Chris affirmed.

Queeny snapped her fingers, and the security mook in a suit, who had been silent for as long as Kat had seen him, stepped forwards. “Go look into that,” she ordered. “Bring all the tech odds and ends to my office.”

“And could we maybe hurry?” Kat requested. “I am providing this information in the hopes that–"

“You get help for your companion in exchange, yes, I haven’t forgotten,” Queeny said. “We’re under a bit of a deadline here too, you know! I’m sure the press will want a statement about the thimble incident within the hour.”

“Some of us can run interference in the public for you,” Kendall offered. “Assuming you drop this sudden vendetta you’ve acquired, painting us as assassins…"

Queeny let out a noise of exasperation. “Yes, fine. But I reserve my right to change my mind about ALL of this when we learn about whatever’s on the DEO’s Sub drive thing!”

“Good to see that, underneath it all, she’s still the same old Queeny,” Michaela muttered to Andi.

They were ready to attempt data retrieval less than half an hour later. Para was still with Alijda, while the others were dealing with the fallout from the third major incursion, so only Kat, Chris, Tom, Queeny and her security man stood in the office.

Chris eyed the USB drive she had in one hand, and the USB OTG cable she held in the other. “You’re saying I plug these together, then channel a spell?”

“Best plan I’ve got,” Kat said.

“Rock on,” Tom said, giving a thumbs up.

“Hurry up,” Queeny sighed.

Chris murmured a few words that Kat didn’t catch, then carefully fit the two pieces of technology together. For a second, there was nothing. Then the magic technician jerked her gaze forwards. “OH.”

Five glowing purple lines traced themselves out sequentially on the floor. They formed a five pointed star with Chris in the centre. She rotated her arms ninety degrees. There was a flash of light from the USB. Then the jumpsuited technician smiled. “Pretty Phlebotinum, Henshin Go!”

Incredibly, Kat heard music playing as a glowing circle formed around the star on the floor. The last thing he saw of Chris before she was enveloped by a column of purple light was her hair magically undoing itself from her usual ponytail.

When the purple light burst away, Chris was gone. There had been barely enough time for Queeny to stammer and for Tom to curse. Which was weird, because the musical interlude had felt like it had gone on for much longer.

Where Chris had once stood there was now a slightly younger woman, wearing a pretty dress of purples and blues, covered in multiple bows. Her hair was even longer, now held back from her face with a hairband that had a small blue witches’ hat stuck onto it. And in one hand, the woman held a very long USB cable wand. She spun it in her hands a few times like a quarterstaff before tapping it’s base against the ground.

“Technical problems? I’m the cure. Cure Axiom!” the woman announced. “If you can’t do the math, then get out of the equation.”

The stunned silence that ensued was finally broken by Kat. “Chris?”

The purple haired woman rolled her eyes. “Did I, or did I not introduce myself?”

The light on her USB cable wand flashed, and a feminine voice that Kat didn’t recognize intoned, “Interface confirmed. Introduction verified. Auditory assessment required.”

Kat exchanged an uncertain glance with the others present. Honestly, his first instinct had been to compliment the technician on her makeover, kiss her hand, and ask whether she was doing anything that evening. But it hardly seemed the right approach. Besides, what if it wasn’t Chris? First impressions, as Alijda had said.

“Yeah, okay,” Tom said at last. “Look, Chris–"

“Cure Axiom!”

“–you’re 28, isn’t that a bit old to be playing dress up?”

“I didn’t authorize any of this!” Queeny asserted, finding her voice. “Give me a good reason not to throw all of you in jail!”

Axiom adjusted her hairband. “Fine, it’s me - yet somehow more, so it helps if I don’t think of myself as Chris. In fact, the two of us realized very quickly that communicating through that spell was liable to give Chris a brain aneurysm, so the form of a techno-mage was adopted as a safer way of interfacing. Isn’t that right, Minerva?”

The USB wand flashed. “Affirmative.”

Queeny snapped her fingers. “Mook, go find us a psychologist. Fast.”

“Hold on,” Kat protested, prompting Queeny to motion for Mook to wait. “Chr– Axiom might not be crazy. In fact it sounds like she can access the data, so we should hear what she has to say! That way we’ll have something we can act on while she’s being assessed, and maybe we can also finally–"

“Save your friend Alijda?” Axiom finished, making Kat wonder if his requests were becoming something of a broken record. She smiled, and it was a brilliant smile. “I can do that.”

The purple haired woman then looked to Queeny. “In fact, with Minerva’s help, I can resume channelling magic safely. Meaning I can not only save the teleporter, but also use the necessarily wavelengths to seal the dimensional rifts.” She grimaced. “Yet based on this data, which is related to why Bonnie has been acting the way she has, that spell might be a bad idea. It will take some time to explain.”

“Time we don’t have,” Tom objected. “Chris herself was the one who called today’s meeting, saying the dimensional alien attack was imminent. If she’s in there, you must know that!”

“I remember. Worse, I am not sure how much longer I can maintain this form. But we need to take the time to do this right,” the magical woman asserted. “For the sake of our world.”

“Okay, whatever, Mook go find that psychologist NOW,” Queeny demanded. “For ME,” she added, before Kat could speak up.

It was night before another formal gathering could occur. By then, things had calmed down. The government had released a statement about how they were looking into the thimble incident. The older members of the Magic Users’ Club had left to take some readings, leaving Tom and Chris - who had been forced to temporarily dispel her Axiom form - at City Hall. Alijda, while cured, remained unconscious.

Queeny had made the main conference room available to them. She had already sent a message to the DEO, telling Bonnie that the jig was up, and to come and discuss their next move. Instead, at the allotted time, it was Larry who appeared in the doorway.

“Huh. Is he your DEO spy?” Kat wondered.

“No,” Queeny sputtered. “And shut up about that.” She rose from her position at the head of the table. “Where is Bonnie?!”

“She’s pretty sure the entire government has been corrupted by this point,” Larry said, nonchalantly shoving his hands into his trenchcoat as he leaned against the door frame. “I can’t say I blame her. I see you’ve met the offworlders, and haven’t thrown them in jail?”

“Hi Larry Appleson!” Para said, waving energetically. “Did you miss us?”

“Bonnie thinks WE’RE corrupt?! Why that–” Queeny reached for her megaphone. “You tell that power crazed department head that I–"

“We know, Larry,” Chris interrupted. She was as loud as Queeny, yet her tone was gentle where Queeny’s was abrasive. “We know the truth about what happened with Clyde. About what happened to the former head of the DEO. We know.”

Kat wondered if that would be enough.

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

[polldaddy poll=9424687]

VOTING WILL CLOSE LATE ON TUESDAY MAY 23rd EDT. ALSO, LAST WEEK’S VOTE REMAINS OPEN! VOTE AGAIN, OR FOR THE FIRST TIME!

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART TWELVE: Thimbolism

When you’re under three feet tall, objects sized for a more typical person will appear to be much larger. Thus any object which is truly out of scale, such as the house-sized thimble Alijda saw hovering in the air, seemed gigantic - more like a spaceship.

It was hard for Alijda to judge how the others around her were reacting to the object’s arrival. Largely because she couldn’t hear anything over Queeny, the city’s head of government, shouting “Go away! Go away!” into the megaphone she was holding. Yet the thimble maintained it’s existence.

Alijda’s companions, Kat and Para, drew closer to her. It seemed like Kat was doing so protectively, Para more seeking reassurance, but Alijda figured it was equally possible that she was merely seeing what she expected of them.

Honestly, the most pressing concern seemed to be one of gravity.

“We can’t hold it!” Tom yelled. He had joined hands with Michaela and Andi, the three of them standing in a line, both women with their arms in the air.

“Wait, I’ve got this!” Chris hollered back, trying to drown out Queeny. The hand she didn’t have interlinked with Kendall was tracing shapes or symbols into the air. “The rift, I can–"

The thimble smashed down, covering them, the lawn and wiping out the edge of the motel building too. Bricks and mortar rained down. Thankfully, the thimble’s opening was at the bottom, meaning everyone was simply engulfed by it, rather than flattened outright, and no one was seriously injured by debris.

There was a brief silence. The blue glow from the magic five pointed star on the ground made for an eerie light, coupled with the sun being filtered in from above, through the thimble holes. Then the magic went out.

“I can’t channel the magic,” Kendall said, sounding surprised.

“Whaaat is even the hell?” Tom chimed in, releasing Michaela and Andi to look down at his own hands in surprise.

Queeny cleared her throat. “I’ve changed my mind. Everyone is under arrest for attempted murder. Mook, cut us out of this thimble with your laser thingie.”

One of the guards reached into his suit jacket, producing an object that looked vaguely like a screwdriver. He walked over to the perimeter of their temporary prison, pointed it at the thimble, and thumbed a button.

The thimble shuddered and rose maybe a foot into the air before smashing back down again. Mook blinked and looked down at his device in surprise.

Michalea cleared her throat. “Hey, um, did that thing just fire off the anti-gravity spell we’ve been attempting to use?”

“It sure wasn’t acting like a ‘laser thingie’,” Tom agreed.

The thimble shuddered again - and shrank in size, constricting around them.

“Quick, fire the laser again! Again!” Queeny shouted into her megaphone.

“No, STOP, you’ll kill us!” Alijda countered. Actually, she was pretty sure they’d be fine. If the thimble was acclimating, it would become light enough to lift before it smashed them all in together. But the hyperbole didn’t hurt, and self-preservation seemed the best tack to take to get Queeny on board.

Sure enough, “Stop, wait!” were the next words out of Queeny’s mouth. She eyed Alijda suspiciously.

“Give the laser screwdriver to one of THEM,” Alijda said, pointing at the Magic Users. “They know the spell it’s apparently channeling.”

Queeny’s expression implied she was not fond of the suggestion, but when the thimble shrank in a second time, forcing Chris and Kendall to step in closer, she relented. “Yes, fine, do that. You’re all still under arrest.”

“Really?” Kendall remarked. “Because if you arrest us, word might get out to the public that the government is trying to hide something by silencing us.”

“Hide WHAT?” Queeny sputtered. “You’re the ones who tricked me into coming here by leaving me that package! And then you tried to kill me by dropping an oversized object onto my head!”

“We’re under here too,” Andi pointed out.

“Plus that package was actually ours,” Kat interjected. “Don’t be upset with them.”

“And we weren’t trying to kill anyone!” Para protested.

The thimble shrunk once more, down to about half the size it had been on arrival.

“Let’s discuss this outside, maybe?” Michaela said. She held up Mook’s device. “If I hold down the button, will that sustain the spell?”

“Holding it sustains the laser, but it’ll shut down automatically after a few seconds,” Queeny said, before Mook could speak up.

Michaela pointed the device at the thimble. “In that case, we run for it in five… four… three…”

Alijda started running at ‘one’, knowing she was at a disadvantage in terms of her shorter legs. She charged out as the thimble levitated up, aware of Kat pacing her without overtaking - even though he was capable. Still being protective? The military man was bothering her more than she’d expected him to, though not in the way she’d originally expected.

The thimble now hovered about ten feet in the air, confirming Alijda’s suspicions that, for whatever reason, local technology was doing better in the hands of magic users. Michaela inched toward the perimeter as everyone else got clear, her arms thrust up, holding the laser device… and then the thimble shuddered and shrunk down again.

Whether it was that change, or the laser device powering down, Alijda didn’t know. But the thimble was falling again, and tilting, and there was no way Michaela would get out from underneath in time.

Alijda didn’t even think about it. She teleported over, grabbed for the older woman, and teleported them back to her prior location. Which at least signified that her own brand of “magic” was unaffected.

The thimble crashed down onto the ground for the last time, having shrunk to be about the size of a small shed. And this time, it kept shrinking, while above them, the rift, or rip, or whatever it had been, closed up.

A crowd of onlookers was gathering. The crazy splash of colour caused by their outfits made Alijda wonder if the townsfolk ever tried to coordinate better, for meetings at City Hall, or the like. Wait, the dizzy sensation wasn’t merely due to their bright outfits…

Alijda fell to the ground. Everything around her wasn’t quite in focus. It had been the teleporting - she shouldn’t have done that. But the jolt of fear was quickly replaced with a feeling of resignation. Fine. If she was going to die, at least it had been for a purpose.

She wondered fleetingly whether she’d get buried on this world, or whether Alice would transport her body home.

“Okay Queeny, good idea,” Kat announced loudly. “You should bring all of us somewhere to get statements, while filling Chris in on the information from our package. Because that information is the only way we can save this woman, who has valuable intelligence!” He gestured towards Alijda.

Alijda half smiled. It was nice of him to try. But Queeny didn’t seem too pleased by having words put into her mouth. Then again, the head of government had yet to seem pleased by anything.

Alijda closed her eyes. The last thing she heard before falling unconscious was Queeny’s megaphoned voice saying, “Let us through, nothing to see here, merely a shrinking thimble, move along…"

As had happened after being knocked out by the fairy dust, it was the sounds which came to her first. Again, Alijda gave no hint of movement. It wasn’t voices she heard this time though, the noises were resolving themselves into some sort of classical music. And the fabric beneath her was silky.

She risked cracking an eye open. The light around her was bright, making her wonder first whether there was an afterlife, and second whether it was run by Alice’s God. The huge head belonging to Para that swung into view chased those thoughts from her mind.

“Are you awake? Are you okay?!”

Alijda brought one hand up to block her ear, the other to her forehead, to shade her eyes. “Hi! Can not shouting be a thing?”

“Oh, sorry - but I’m SO glad you’re back! I’d hug you, except, um…"

“Yeah,” Alijda sighed. “Incredible shrinking girl is still a thing.”

“No, you’re okay now!” Para assured. “I mean, yes, you’re under a foot tall, but you won’t shrink any more. Chris was able to cast the spell in time, and I’m hoping I can rework my density calculations to restore you to your proper size. Makes hugs difficult, that’s all.” She tapped her index fingers together.

“Mmm hmm. I suppose it makes clothes shopping easier, I can wear doll outfits.” With effort, Alijda pushed herself up to take in the room.

She was lying on a pillow, on a couch, in a room that seemed to only have a lamp, a chair and a small table as other furnishings. The classical music was coming from a phonograph in the corner. “Where are we?”

“Government offices.”

“Not jail?”

“Not yet. We’re still running on Queeny’s goodwill. Thanks to the intelligence you gave to her.”

Alijda squinted. “Intelligence I gave… while unconscious? Do I talk in my sleep?”

“No. Well, I don’t think so,” Para amended. “See, it’s like this. Chris wouldn’t have stumbled on the information if it weren’t for her needing to interface with technology in order to use her magic to heal you. So in that sense the intelligence is from you.”

Alijda pushed herself off the cushion, onto the couch. “Wait, you mean that magic-technology blending thing is still an issue? Then what’s with the functional phonograph?”

Para turned to look at it, then turned back. “The technology of this world is okay. But anything that came through dimensional rifts now seems to need magic to work in any way. Magic which can’t be channelled in the usual way. It’s all a bit confusing.”

“Prelude to the invasion?” Alijda hypothesized. “So how did Chris fire off her spell on me?”

“Oh, Chris interfaced with the USB drive that Kat took out of that secret room in the DEO. Hence, information.”

Alijda lifted her eyebrow. “The…” Right, when she’d teleported over to grab him, he’d said ‘It’s been thirty seconds, all I’ve found is this–' USB drive? Okay then. “What exactly did Chris find out?”

Para bit down on her lip. “I’m not sure I’m the best person to explain about Clyde. Kat should be back any minute though. We’re under a bit of a deadline now too - you were actually out for a whole day. Do you feel… normal?”

“Doll sized normal. What are you getting at?”

Para sat back, her bunny ears twitching. “We kinda need to know - are you currently able to teleport someone of my size? Or are you limited by the scale of your own body?”

“Beats me. One request before we try anything though?”

“Of course!”

Alijda pointed. “Turn off that music. The last thing I want right now is to be reminded of Chris’s oboe.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

[polldaddy poll=9417792]

VOTING WILL CLOSE LATE ON TUESDAY MAY 17th EDT

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART ELEVEN: FIT FOR A QUEENY

“Go on without me.”

“Not happening,” Kat answered.

“My shrinking legs are too goddamn short to keep up!” Alijda said. “I’m going full tilt, and you’re practically walking!”

Part of Kat’s brain suggested he say ‘Would you like me to carry you?’. But the rest of him knew that was less than funny, so instead he countered with, “Being a couple minutes later than Chris and Para won’t make any difference.”

“You don’t know that. At this point, I’m a liability. I can’t even teleport without potentially making it worse!”

“Well, I’m keeping my eye out for a skateboard.” Kat wondered belatedly if he should have filtered that thought too.

“Fine,” Alijda said, stopping to put her hands on her knees. She took in a deep breath. “Forcing your hand. Gotta catch my breath. You keep going.”

Kat stopped too. “Sorry, not letting you out of my sight. We need you on this mission. No matter how much you might wish we didn’t.”

Her hands curled into fists. “Right, because I’m doing a HELL of a job with non-interference. What with allowing Para to tell the Magic User’s Club about the third big breach, leading us to this!”

“I see our actions with the magic club as levelling the playing field against the DEO. Besides, it was me and Para who convinced Chris to do the spell to reach Alice. You kept quiet about it.”

“I could have overruled you. SHOULD have overruled you. My shrinking doesn’t really matter.”

“Alijda, stop.”

The brunette shot him a look. “Stop WHAT? Being a depressive bitch?”

“Oh, because it’s just that easy. Thanks for that life tip.” She resumed running, perhaps hoping to end the conversation.

Kat wasn’t willing to let the topic simply drop. Not now that he’d managed to articulate what had been bothering him. Hell, it had been bugging him long enough that he hadn’t even considered hitting on Chris.

“You’re harder on yourself than you are on us,” Kat said, matching her pace again. “Why? I want to get you, but I don’t.”

“Yeah, sure, I know how you ‘want to get’ me. Is it more of a turn on for you now that I’m the size of a midget? Or does that kill the mood?”

Kat clenched his jaw. “That’s not fair. To either of us.”

Alijda glanced at him, then away. “Sorry. Still, maybe don’t bribe women to eat with you right off an introduction next time, it sets a certain tone.”

“While abduction doesn’t? But okay, okay,” Kat said, as Alijda drew in another deep breath. “Sometimes I have a one track mind, and that was a bad track to start out on. But don’t change the subject. I do want to understand you.”

“What’s the point? We’ll be going our separate ways soon enough.”

“If I can understand you better, I might be in a better position to help like minded people on my Earth. Or maybe I’ll learn something more about myself. Alijda, don’t dismiss this. Please.”

Alijda ran her fingers back through her hair, sweat beading on her forehead as she continued to run down the city street. “Look, there’s nothing to understand. For whatever reason, you seem to think I’m pretty on the outside - except on the inside, I’m really frigging ugly.”

“Prove it.”

“I steal. I hack technology. I cut corners when I don’t want the rules to apply to me. I have a bunch of enemies, and no friends to speak of. Moreover, whenever I think maybe, just MAYBE life’s getting better, reality beats me down with nonsense like my shrinking away to nothing. The multiverse is trying to tell me something.”

“That you have the determination and drive to succeed against overwhelming odds?”

“Ha! If this is success, I’d hate to see failure.”

“Alijda, I think failure is when you give up. I hope you don’t. Your moral compass doesn’t seem completely out of whack, and I’m starting to believe that meeting you is the only bright spot for me in this whole crazy mission.”

Alijda glared. “You seem to have forgotten to shut the hell up when it comes to concern for my welfare.”

“I didn’t say I was concerned about you. I said I hope you don’t give up. Also, news flash, you don’t get to control what I tell you.”

“Mmm. Hmph. We’re nearly there.”

Again she was deflecting, but it seemed like he’d given her something to think about. As she had with him - namely, his first impressions needed work. Kat decided not to push the point further.

They rounded the last corner, on their jog towards the outskirts of town. The motel sat there, in the middle of the block, with members of the Magic User’s Club standing around on the front lawn. Chris seemed to be arguing with Tom. Not a good sign.

Kat figured asking Para for an update was a better plan than interrupting the spell casters. “What did we miss?”

Para frowned. “Um, Chris is upset the others didn’t do a magic sweep during the setup. She told Tom to do one now, to find Alice’s package. Tom said that’ll interfere with said setup. Chris said no, that’s an excuse for it not being set up properly in the first place. We’ve reached the point where Tom is saying Chris can take her oboe and jam it up her–”

“Is there anything we can do to help them?” Alijda interrupted.

“I don’t see how,” Para said, wringing her hands. “Chris said that Alice said that the stuff would be found with magic fu, yeah?”

Alijda grimaced. “We are lacking in that. But we know about the dimensional issues.”

“Right, Alice would have to shrink a package down,” Kat offered. “Granted, by now it’s ‘acclimated’, to use Larry’s term - might be why Alice had to send it back in time in the first place - but maybe it can be identified in some other way.”

Para tilted her head. “Except, what if the DEO got to it before it acclimated. Maybe THEY have the package right now!”

Alijda shook her head. “If they had it, I think Bonnie would have asked us about it.”

“But what if it didn’t exist back then? Not until we contacted Alice! And so Bonnie DID ask us, but it’s in this new timeline, rather than the old timeline we remember?”

Alijda stared, then struggled to speak, settling on, “Stop that.”

“The magic users said they use a fairy mirror to track these things, right?” Kat noted, feeling the need to escape from the causality conversation as well.

Para nodded. “So could THEY have the package, without realizing?”

“Let me check.” Kat headed for Michaela, deciding not to get between the increasingly rude gestures that Tom and Chris were making at each other. “Hey, question for you - when did this motel register as your weakest dimensional spot in town?”

The redhead rubbed her chin. “About five days ago, I guess? But these spots can register for months before anything actually comes through. We try to wander by whenever we can, so that we can be the first ones to get any objects. Or, you know, to actually see a breach.”

“So you haven’t picked anything up in the last five days?”

“Nah. Besides, the mirror usually shifts to a new weakest area after an incursion. That’s our key to really comb through a location - after it changes.”

Kat blinked, as a thought occurred. Namely, if someone wanted to track dimensional portals, and didn’t have the means to do it themselves… the next best thing would be to track those who DID have the necessary technology. Or magic. Right?

He wondered if Alijda’s paranoia about the government was rubbing off, but considering it from a military point of view, it also made sense.

“Your club - it’s hardly a secret, is it? I mean, Chris was doing spells for hire.”

Michaela gestured vaguely. “We don’t advertise the club. But people know we’re among the few who have magical abilities, sure.”

Kat motioned for Alijda to join them. “Could the government be tracking you, and through you, these breaches?”

“Why bother? The DEO has their own technology to do it.”

“I didn’t say the DEO. I said the government.”

Michaela blinked. “What - you think Queeny’s monitoring us separately? But then why call attention to it by hiring Andi? Unless she hoped to learn more about the glamour we used, to help with the resemblance to Bonnie.”

“You used a…” Alijda cut herself off. “Kat, government involvement makes total sense. Do you think Queeny has been tracking artifacts too?”

“Maybe QUEENY has the package,” Para said, having approached along with Alijda.

“It’s a setup!” came a shout from across the street.

Kat turned, and was as surprised as Michaela to see Andi running towards them. She was still recognizable, despite having changed out of Bonnie’s business suit into a flowery dress.

“My meeting with Queeny,” the older asian gasped. “It was moved here, why here, cuz they’re gonna take your stuff, so get outta here, run…!”

“Excellent! You’ve arrived!” came yet another voice, this one substantially louder.

Kat spun again, this time seeing a woman dressed in a red silk dress marching out of one of the motel rooms, holding a cone up to her face. She was flanked by two men in dark suits, presumably some sort of security detail. As if that wasn’t enough to give away the new woman’s identity, the amethyst crystal she wore on her head like a crown clinched it.

Behind them, Chris leaned towards Tom, their earlier disagreement apparently forgotten as she muttered at him, “Why does she always have a megaphone?”

“We can hear you just fine, Queeny,” Michaela pointed out.

“Shut up,” Queeny said, not putting the cone down despite being a mere two metres away from the redhead. “Now don’t worry, I don’t want your trinkets today. What I want is Bonnie’s reaction to…” She paused. “You’re not real Bonnie. You’re my Bonnie. Did you escape using magic?”

“I’m not telling,” Andi said. “Unless you pay me, or give me back my PROM.”

“Hold the phone,” Kat protested. “How does Queeny even know about Andi having been captured?”

“Queeny must have a spy in the DEO,” Alijda said, rubbing her forehead. “Meaning the government didn’t need the Bonnie double. It was a ruse to lure out someone with magic.”

“Shows what you know!” Queeny sputtered. “I needed the double, my spy isn’t competent. Also, if you three are you’re who I THINK you are, you’re going to jail!” She snapped her fingers and motioned to the two men in suits.

“Oh, you do NOT want to start that now,” Alijda said. Kat recognized the same look and tone that Alijda had used in her staring match with Bonnie2. And while it lost some power from the brunette being under three feet tall, it still seemed to make Queeny hesitate.

“Correction, you’re going to jail AFTER I get my information.” Queeny snapped her fingers again, and the two men resumed their original positions. “In fact, no one’s leaving here until I find out why you magic people left a package for me, talking about a thimble appearing here today!”

“Thimble,” Chris breathed. “That’s–" There was a thunderclap, and a great rip seemed to appear above them in the sky. “Noooo, not yet!” she shrieked. “I don’t have time to adjust the spell for–"

“Chris,” came Kendall’s calm voice. He raised his palm, and only now did Kat realize that the blonde man had been quietly chanting off to the side the whole time.

Chris sprang over next to him, slapping her palm against his. A five pointed star, albeit somewhat skewed, began to glow on the ground beneath all of them. Queeny swore in a language Kat didn’t recognize.

And then things got a little crazy.

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

[polldaddy poll=9410743]

VOTING WILL CLOSE LATE ON TUESDAY MAY 10th EDT

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART NINE: PROM, Committee

Para hesitated to speak as she walked up, wondering if it was proper to interrupt the silence between Alijda and Kat. Fortunately, Alijda spoke first. “So, Para, who’s your new friend in red?”

The blonde cleared her throat to answer. “Well, while me and Andi - er, she’s the one you’ve been calling Bonnie2 - while the two of us were out learning where the DEO’s secret exit had left us, we encountered someone she knows.”

“My name’s Michaela,” the redheaded woman announced. “I’m part of the Magic User’s Club.”

Kat blinked. “This city has a magic users club?”

“Ooh, visitors from another dimension not knowing about our magical abilities. Shocker,” Andi observed. “Of course, I’m of the opinion that such fantasy stuff’s overrated. I think we should have PROM!”

Alijda rubbed her forehead. “I’ll probably regret asking this, but… PROM?”

“Programmable Read Only Memory,” Bonnie’s double clarified. “I was starting to figure it out, when the government took it away from me. Proving once and for all that dimensional technology like PROM is more useful than dimensional magic. Otherwise, why would they regulate it so strictly?”

“Hey, magic is regulated too,” Michaela protested.

“Except the Department of Extradimensional Objects doesn’t have the authority to permanently confiscate your magical items, like they did with my PROM!” Andi countered.

Para tilted her head. “So, is it the police that are out of control? Or is it the criminals?”

“Hey, guys?” Kat broke in. “Let’s not talk about this stuff in the middle of a park. Did you happen to come across a building where we can lay low for a while?”

“Oh, sure. We’re in my neighbourhood, so you can come see our magic club,” Michaela offered. “If anyone’s there, they’ll jump at the chance to meet actual dimensional travellers.”

Andi nodded. “We might as well, my meeting with Queeny isn’t for a couple hours yet.”

“Okay. Whatever,” Alijda agreed, hopping off the bench.

Para bit her lip as she looked down at her now much shorter friend. Alijda seemed to have shrunk even more since their jailbreak. Was that a delayed reaction from the earlier teleportations? Or was Alijda now in the process of shrinking away to nothing? Para wondered if she should say something.

“Don’t even,” Alijda said, as if reading Para’s thoughts. “Just lead the way.”

The house Michaela led them to was pretty nondescript. But then the club member brought them around to a large shed out back, and the people they were introduced to there seemed quite the opposite.

Of everyone in the room, Para reasoned that dark haired Andi was the oldest. Given how she was doubling for Bonnie, head of the DEO, who was in her early fifties. Michaela, with her short red hair, was perhaps fifteen years younger, and had been hard to miss, what with her bright red vest matching her pants.

Kendall seemed younger still, around the same age as Alijda and Kat. The man had flowing blonde hair and sported a practical button up shirt and slacks. Meanwhile Chris, or presumably Christine, Para judged to be in her late twenties. She had the longest hair, tinged purple and tied into a ponytail. Her blue jumpsuit and the goggles she wore implied she was a technician of sorts.

Finally, there was Tom, a twenty-something with green hair, who wore a casual shirt underneath a black leather jacket. As Michaela was finishing the introductions, he jumped up from behind a stack of tires, swinging a flail. Andi hit the ground just in time.

“Tom, stop, it’s ME!” Andi shrieked.

“Oh yeah? How do we know you’re not the REAL Bonnie, here to shut down our club?!”

“Ask the blonde bunny girl! She saw that Queeny had tailored my suit too well, and got me locked up. Though, to be fair, Para and the others also helped me to break out of the DEO earlier this morning.”

“It’s really Andi,” Michaela added. “Unless Bonnie DuChessy has intel about how much our techno-loving actress friend misses having her PROM.”

“Hmm. Okay, but I’ve still got my eye on you,” Tom said, pointing.

“Where did you even get a flail?” Andi asked, standing up and brushing herself off.

“My dad bought one. He’s a renaissance enthusiast.”

Kendall chuckled. “Tom, you told me yesterday that it was because your dad LARPs.”

Tom glared. “Shut up, spider farmer.”

Kendall simply rolled his eyes and resumed leafing through the file folder he was holding.

Para leaned in closer to Kat. “Um, wait, is that an… insult? An actual job…?" she whispered. Kat merely shrugged, making Para glad she wasn’t the only one who was unsure.

“So, you’re dimensional travellers, huh?” Chris mused, placing a cane she’d been examining onto a nearby table; the object seemed to have the image of a duck on one end. The brunette pulled her goggles up off her eyes. “I knew it was only a matter of time. How long have you been observing our society? Do you know the rules? Define ‘anarchy’.”

“Calm down, Chris,” Michaela said. “Give our guests a moment to process… I didn’t actually expect the whole Cabinet to be here, not this early in the morning.”

“Seriously?” Chris sighed. “Then did you not get my message either? Committee meeting, here.” She glanced at her watch. “In one hour.”

“She’s doing her covert ops thing again,” Tom explained, off Michaela’s look. “Publishing in the local newspaper, using code, instead of simply talking to people. Good thing I met up with Kendall last night. Chris, can you please just be normal for once?”

Chris shot him a look. “Noted.”

“I saw the message, Chris,” Kendall soothed.

Tom shook his head. “Kendall, you’re the only one who reads the paper. And you only do it so that you can get annoyed at the articles.”

“Tom, you used to read the newspaper too,” Chris protested. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have seen the ad that brought us together in the first place.”

“Ha ha ha, false. My ex used to read the paper.”

“Guys, me and Michaela are here now, that’s what matters,” Andi offered. “So, what’s the magic club meeting about? Here to debate pizza versus poutine?”

“No,” Tom said. “Chris is worried about the imminent zombie uprising.”

“Alien attack!” Chris corrected, visibly exasperated. “Tom, you know the Magic User’s Club is Earth’s only defence against the aliens.”

“Whoa!” Para gasped. “You have space aliens attacking this world too?”

“No.” Kendall closed the file folder, tossing it onto the desk next to the duck cane. “Aliens, as in anyone who arrives on our Earth illegally. As in, you three qualify. Unless you’ve got government papers explaining your presence?”

“So not happening. Our decisions on this mission never seem to involve the government,” Alijda admitted.

“But as aliens go, we’re mostly harmless,” Kat added. “Granted, we’re now kind of stuck here. The DEO took away our communicators.”

“Oh?” Chris smiled. “Did you want a spell caster who can communicate with another dimension? For a very reasonable price? Granted, you wouldn’t be able to talk directly, only through me. And there’s a waiver you’ll have to sign, signifying you’re not trying to call Cthulhu, while exonerating me from any side effects you might experience.”

“Yeah, hey, make sure you stand completely inside her magical symbol,” Tom noted. “My hair hasn’t been the same since I accidentally bent over during her last spell.”

Para had to do a double take, as she realized that at some point, the young man’s green hair had shifted to being a very vibrant red.

“That sounds really great,” Alijda admitted. “But first, about the dimensional invasion - why exactly does your club think it’s imminent?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Kendall fired back. “Aren’t you the aliens’ advanced scouting force?” He was seeming more and more like the leader to Para, though she saw no signs the group was that structured.

“No. Granted, we can’t prove we aren’t,” Alijda admitted, anticipating the next question. “Though if we were, we’re doing a pretty lousy job of it. What with telling people the invasion is coming, losing our communicators, and me shrinking down to two thirds of my usual size due to faulty density circuits.”

“For real?” Tom asked. Alijda nodded. “Man, that sucks out loud.”

Inwardly, Para winced. She wished she knew what had gone wrong between her mathematical theory, and it’s practical application. Alijda’s teleportation ability had to be a factor.

“Either way,” Alijda continued, “You obviously scheduled this meeting before knowing we were coming.”

“Touché,” Kendall conceded. “Very well then, we believe it’s imminent because of a potion which gives whoever drinks it a hint of the future. Other signs point to the invasion event being less than a week away. We met this morning in large part to give the information to Michaela to do the math.”

Para perked back up again. “Oh, math? Maybe I can help with that.”

“Be my guest,” Michaela said. “Trouble is, while we are really close to a magical method for temporarily blocking off dimensional travel, we can’t get the readings we need. I mean, sure, there’s a fairy mirror that shows us where the weakest spot is in town with respect to the next incursion… but we never know when the next event is going to take place. So we never know when to cast our spells.”

Para found she was getting better at looking to Alijda before blurting things out. “It’s happening mid-morning today,” Para said, off Alijda’s shrug. “Roughly 24 hours after our arrival yesterday.”

Chris gasped. “This morning?”

Para nodded. Then Tom yelped, as Chris stepped on his foot in her hurry to get to a box of assorted items sitting in a corner of the shed. “Great!” the purple haired technician declared. “I can set up my monitoring equipment with no danger of it being confiscated! That way we’ll know exactly when to cast!”

“Confiscated? Oooh, Chris, are you breaking the rules?” Andi teased.

“Hey, I have permits for all this stuff,” Chris protested, hauling the box back to the main table. “Thing is, my documentation doesn’t stop the authorities from impounding it for days at a time, citing ‘verification purposes’.”

“Well, at least you always get it BACK, unlike my–"

“Don’t say PROM,” Tom groaned.

”Is that a clarinet?” Kat asked, pointing to an object inside Chris’ box.

Chris looked down. “That? Is an oboe,” she corrected. “With a special mouthpiece sent in from Orleans.”

Para tilted her head. “Wait. You play French reeds?”

“We’re getting off track here,” Kendall interjected. “Focus - this is the first and possibly only time we’ll know both the location and timing of a dimensional incursion. With luck, we can get the necessary data to block off any future invading force.” He turned to Alijda. “What do you recommend we do? What’s landing on our world this time?”

Alijda leaned against the table. “Pray. And we don’t know. The person running the Epsilon Project doesn’t give details. Now, we could try the spell Chris mentioned to contact her - in fact, we kind of need to, and soon, to fix my whole shrinking thing - but no guarantees.”

“No way! I’m the only one who can perform that spell,” Chris objected. “And I’d have to do it here, and I can’t, not if I’ll be busy setting up my equipment!”

“The rest of us could set up your equipment for you,” Michaela offered.

“Oh my God. Do you even know how to position the oboe??”

“On the other hand, Chris, if you know what’s coming through in advance, the data you’ll obtain will be more useful,” Tom pointed out. Chris frowned.

“Tom’s right,” Kendall agreed. “But at the same time, we don’t want to lose our one shot at getting any data at all, by someone positioning the equipment incorrectly.” He looked to Alijda. “Any thoughts on that?”

Alijda looked down at her smaller body. “No, but I think we’re sticking with Chris either way.”

“What? Hello!” Andi gasped. “I’d like to revisit my Queeny meeting. Just because you’re all keen about dimensional magic, doesn’t mean we can ignore the country’s politics! What if the DEO turns out to have technology, like the PROM, which renders all of your efforts completely moot? Alijda and her friends need to come with me, to learn more about what Queeny and Bonnie are up to!”

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

[polldaddy poll=9396014]

VOTING WILL CLOSE LATE ON TUESDAY APRIL 26th EDT

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART EIGHT: HALF THE BATTLE

“You can say ‘I told you so’.”

Alijda stared out at the sunrise, swinging her legs back and forth off the park bench. She’d needed help to reach the seat. As she was under four feet tall relative to their surroundings. “Why?” she asked Kat. “What would that accomplish?”

“Might make you feel better?”

Alijda shook her head. “I’m a depressive. I always feel lousy. Sure, sometimes I hide it better, but now that we’re trapped on this Earth, just wait. Without my meds, I’ll be throwing myself off a building pretty soon. Assuming I’m still tall enough to climb one.”

“We won’t be stuck here forever,” Kat assured her. “Alice is sure to realize there’s a problem when she can’t contact us. At that point, she can scoop us off this Earth the same way I was teleported off of mine. By walking through a door or the like.”

“Hah. First, you’re assuming that the scale factor thing won’t be a problem for retrieval. And second, you’re assuming that Alice is paying more attention to us than to the latest movie out of the Marvel universe. Which, come to think, is probably an actual universe out there. I wonder if she visits.”

“Alijda, don’t be like this.”

She snapped her gaze over to him. “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I acting too much like myself here? Because if you wanted happy chipper perky, you should have gone with Para to map out the neighbourhood.”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m… worried about you.”

“Well DON’T be! Okay?” With effort, Alijda managed to not grab fistfuls of her hair and yank, simply to feel the physical pain. “You didn’t even KNOW me a day ago! So don’t pretend like you really care. Or if you’re a lunatic who always cares, do me the courtesy of not saying so. I’m tired of mattering to people. It’s exhausting. Let me shrink away to nothing in peace.”

Alijda closed her eyes, resting her palms on her face. Seconds ticked by into minutes. Only when the silence started getting to her did she look back up at him. He hadn’t changed position. “Look, thank you for worrying. But don’t. It’s easier that way.”

“Easier on who?”

“On everybody.”

Kat turned to face her once more. Whatever he was about to say though, he seemed to change his mind based on her expression. “Look, there’s no question that we’ve suffered a setback. So why don’t we review how we got here. To keep it from happening again.”

“Right. Because we’re so likely to be breaking more people out of fortified government installations.”

“Maybe not. But we might end up selecting another idiotic suggestion of mine, which is at the heart of all this.”

Alijda sighed. “Oh, don’t even. It wasn’t an idiotic suggestion.”

“You did point out that we’d never pull it off without the DEO knowing.”

“I did. And then you pointed out how we might want to get out anyway.”

With that, the whole sequence of events began to replay itself in her mind.

“The longer we stay here,” Kat argued, “the more we’ll end up accidentally influencing things. So, if we’re caught breaking Bonnie2 out? We merely make a run for it ourselves.”

Alijda shook her head. “Again, communicators…"

“If things go south, we have a look for them before leaving,” Kat assured. “I know where they’re keeping their technology.” He glanced over towards the radio, as if to check that it was still broadcasting static. “In fact, here’s the thing. In a hidden room at the back, the DEO are building a dimensional doorway of their own.”

Alijda, who had just thrown herself back onto the bed, sat back up. “What? Are you sure?”

Kat nodded. “On my world, I’m part of a secret interstellar program. I also remember what Alice’s setup looked like on the Epsilon station. The setup here is much cruder, to the point where I don’t know if it’s operational, but it’s portal technology. I think it was constructed using the tech that landed here from the adjacent dimensions.”

Alijda frowned. “Well, damn. Could Alice have royally screwed up? Is it possible that THESE people are the invaders?”

“Or the adjacent world is invading them, to take their technology back,” Kat suggested. “The hat and the iron could have been test items, as opposed to objects that slipped through naturally.”

“Which would be why they weren’t accompanied by a density shift and change in size!” Para offered.

“Maybe,” Kat agreed.

“Well, that changes things.” Alijda crossed her arms. “Explains why it felt like the DEO was only holding onto us until they found a reason to have us exiled or locked up for good. They probably think we’re here to shut down their portal technology.”

“Do you think that’s what the government is trying to do too?” Kat mused.

Alijda shook her head. “No way of knowing. All we know is that Queeny’s suspicious of their reports - which could be timelines for when their portal is complete.”

“How about we ask Larry?”

Alijda winced. “Para, no. Telling them we know will freak them out. Hell, maybe there is something to their fears. They’re using technology that isn’t supposed to be here. Can we really allow that?”

“Alijda, non interference!” Para reminded.

“We’d be removing an interference that’s already here!” Alijda countered.

“I don’t think that’s our call,” Kat interjected. “But I do think that, to let things play out normally, we’ll need to get Bonnie2 out of the DEO.”

“Ugh, that again. But okay, I do see the logic now.” Alijda rubbed her forehead. “Look, let’s try to get some sleep first. Partly so we’re fresh, partly because I see our best bet as occurring a little before sunrise. That’s when they’re liable to have a shift change.”

They briefly discussed a plan, then Alijda and Kat went to bed - the latter having been hit in the face with a pillow. Given his quip about the two of them sleeping together.

Fortunately, the room they had all been left in was equipped with a clock, a bowl of fruit, and an adjacent bathroom. So they were up, fed, and ready to go at 5am the following morning.

Kat started by sabotaging the toilet, then asking the guard at the door to use another bathroom. “Plan A” continued to work, as the guard was subsequently convinced to take Kat somewhere else, saving the trouble of knocking the man out.

The guard did lock the door after he left. But since Alijda could see through its window, she was able to teleport to the other side. Then to the end of the corridor. Then, somewhat trickier, across the DEO’s central hub, towards where the holding cells were. Alijda found she also had to teleport past the cafeteria, as someone was eating breakfast by the large picture window.

By the time she reached the cell block, teleporting past the lone guard at his desk, her equilibrium felt off. She ignored it.

“Hey, Actressy,” Alijda hissed. What was Bonnie2’s name anyway? In another cloud of purple smoke, she teleported into the cell to shake the Bonnie lookalike awake.

“Don’t make me read Shakespeare,” moaned the semi-conscious actress. “I don’t like the bard, I prefer playing a cleric…”

Alijda shook harder. “Hey! Wake up. We’re trying to get you out of here.”

“What?” The asian woman opened her eyes. “You? You got me in here.”

“Things change. Stand up, I’m going to teleport us out, then towards the exit.”

Bonnie2 shook off the remnants of sleep. “Great. Can I do my reconnaissance first? I need to get paid for this gig.”

Grasping Bonnie2 around the shoulders, Alijda teleported them both out of the cell, back into the corridor. “No,” she answered. “But we had a tour, we’ll give you the gist of things - if you can give us the info about today’s meeting.”

“Queeny already told me the layout of this place.”

“Even the location of the secret room?”

Bonnie2 raised an eyebrow. “That was on your tour?”

“Hold onto me.” Alijda teleported them again, out past the guard, then again past the cafeteria. Back at the central hub, they hit a snag.

“What are we waiting for?” Bonnie2 asked.

“There’s a couple agents talking where we’ll need to teleport next. They’ll see us.” Alijda scanned the area for an alternative route. It didn’t help that her head was starting to hurt. Naturally, that’s when their luck ran out.

“Hey, what the hell are you two doing there?”

Alijda spun - the agent in the cafeteria had come out, and seen them. She tried to think of a way to talk them out of the situation. After all, Bonnie2 looked like the head of the DEO…

“We’re escaping, what does it look like, idiot?”

Dammit, Bonnie2. “Plan B,” Alijda sighed, grasping the asian woman by the shoulders again. She teleported them out to the next corridor, right by the two agents she’d seen. Without even watching for their reaction, she continued on her way to the break room, throwing the door open upon arrival.

Para turned, then gasped. “Alijda? Y-You look…"

“I don’t want to know! Plan B, get Actressy out front, I’m going for Kat.”

“But if your teleporting is messing with the sizing circuits, you can’t–"

Alijda teleported away. They were committed to Plan B now. She was going to see it through. They’d reasoned that the nearest other bathroom would be over by the medical bay - and indeed, Kat was now being escorted back from that vicinity by their guard.

Alijda teleported over, grabbed Kat, and teleported him over towards the hidden room he’d investigated before. She then teleported randomly, to draw everyone’s attention to the purple smoke, then teleported up to the second level. Where the railing seemed too high. Her head was now pounding from the frequent teleports. And because of something else?

“I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know.” It was fast becoming her mantra.

As soon as someone spotted her, she ran. And stumbled. And teleported again, down next to the guard taking aim. He was taller than she’d expected. Alijda grabbed his gun on her second attempt. But now agents were mobilizing for the weapons lockers. Why had she signed off on this plan again?

Alijda teleported back to where she’d left Kat. A doorway now stood ajar. “Kat! Time’s up!”

“It’s been, like, thirty seconds! All I’ve found is this–"

As soon as she saw Kat poke his head out of the opening, she grabbed his shoulder, and teleported back across the central hub. Startled, he dropped a flaming chair leg that he’d been holding. It fell right in the passage, which would buy them a bit more time, so Alijda decided to try running instead. But again she stumbled. Then was horrified to see how much bigger Kat’s strides were…

On her third step, she fell to the ground. Kat spun. “Alijda! Are you okay? You look–"

“I DON’T WANT TO KNOW!”

She hadn’t meant to scream. She bit down on her lower lip. Hell with it.

Alijda pushed herself back up and slapped her hand against Kat’s back. She teleported the two of them further down the corridor. Kat quickly took out the guard questioning Para and the DuChessy Double at the entrance.

They ran most of the way after that, Kat helping Alijda along. But five more teleports were required, because the final doorway had been locked down, and Alijda could only bring one person through at a time.

“What I SHOULD have done,” Alijda decided, resting her head against the back of the park bench, “was tell Bonnie2 to impersonate the real Bonnie from the start. Instead of telling her it was a jailbreak. I’m the idiot. So I’m paying the price.”

“Still might not have worked,” Kat asserted. “Hindsight is 20/20.”

“Fine. Apply the same hindsight to your suggestion.”

“Well, fine.” Something in his tone made Alijda think he wanted to say more, but again, he didn’t. In fact, the two of them said nothing more until Para returned.

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

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UPDATE: VOTING WILL CLOSE NOON ON FRIDAY APRIL 22nd EDT.

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART SEVEN: DOUBLE DOWNER

Para felt nauseous, to the point where her bunny ears drooped. So while she wasn’t “tripping” on the hallucinogenic gas like Alijda, Larry and Bonnie, she still followed them as they stumbled out of the passageway, back into the central hub of the DEO - the Department of Extradimensional Objects.

Para spotted Kat right away. He was running towards the wall furthest from their original entry. But that’s when the lighting in the room gained a red tinge, and an alarm blared briefly.

“Whoa! Call off your goons,” Alijda said, rubbing her eyes. “I’ll figure out why Kat freaked.”

“Didn’t turn that on,” Bonnie said curtly, the older asian woman’s attention going towards the main entrance tunnel. She pointed at Larry. “You deal with these three!”

Bonnie strode off, looking a bit unsteady on her feet. She seemed to be in better shape than Larry though, who had both hands on his head and appeared ready to fall over at any moment. “Candle? Collections? What?” he gasped.

“Let me help you sit down,” Alijda offered. She grasped Larry by the arm and steered him for a desk chair. Then she made a head motion at Para. One which Para was pretty sure meant, go for Kat. So she did. No one stopped her.

Para reached Kat as he was feeling around the wall. “What are you doing?”

“Technology,” Kat said. “Larry mentioned magic style items, but also a Macbook, implying at least two worlds feeding artifacts into this one. Yet most of their tech items? Which they seemed to colour code blue? Weren’t in storage. Plus you said they might have a perimeter network.” He pointed to the floor. “And there’s cables feeding into this part of the wall.”

“Oh! So they’re using the technology artifacts? Maybe with a power source back there?”

“Maybe. There must be something.” As Kat’s hand hit a knothole, there was a click, and a door swung out towards them. Kat grasped it and pulled it open.

The region behind was shrouded in darkness. Kat pointed to a nearby desk chair. “Bring that over?”

Para hurried to retrieve it. As she handed the chair off to him, he snapped a leg off, then struck a match he must have had in his pocket. He held the flame up to the wood. Para shook her head. “You can’t light that…" With a whoosh of flame, Kat was holding a torch. “…so easily?”

Kat ducked into the darkness, pulling the door mostly shut behind him. “Keep an eye out, I’ll be right back.”

Para turned to scan the central hub again. Some armed agents were taking up a position near the main corridor, while others were heading into it. Alijda was gesturing at her, in a manner that either meant “hurry up” or “spin in circles” - likely the former.

Para leaned in towards the crack in the wall. “Kat, hurry?”

There was a low whistling noise. Moments later, the door swung back open and Kat stepped out. “Okay, close it,” he said.

Para threw her weight against the door, and it clicked back into place against the wall. When she turned back around, Kat had somehow managed to snuff out his torch. He tossed the burnt chair leg back on the floor, looking troubled. But Para decided there would be time to ask why later.

“Back to Alijda,” the blonde said, grabbing his arm.

Kat nodded, and they both hurried back. Para let out a breath of relief - with the excitement over, her bunny ears were returning to their state of minimized depression. They reached Alijda as Larry pushed himself back to his feet.

“What the hell was that about?!” Larry shouted at Kat.

“Sorry,” Kat apologized. “Had a flashback. A gas canister once attacked my father.”

“Oh. In that case– wait, what?" Larry glared. “Walk. All of you. In front of me. That way.” He pointed.

Once Alijda and Kat were facing away from Larry, Para saw them exchange a glance. Alijda looking… frustrated? Expectant? Kat simply shrugged. Para followed along, their trajectory taking them towards one of the other agents, a woman who hung up her phone as they arrived.

“Mary, have someone get a gas mask and do a quick cleanup outside the medical bay,” Larry ordered. The woman nodded back, reaching again for her phone. “As for the rest of you, keep moving, you’re off this Earth as of–"

“Larry!” an agent cried out, running back into the room. “You’ve gotta come see this.” He hurried up to them.

“Ahem. Joe, I’m dealing with these three. Ms. DuChessy’s orders.”

“Which Ms. DuChessy?”

Larry blinked. “What do you mean which Ms. DuChessy?”

“Come see for yourself. In the break room.”

For a moment, Larry seemed torn between his orders, and going to see what Joe was talking about. Then he decided he could accomplish both things. “I’m not leaving you three here,” Larry asserted. “You’re still off this Earth as of very soon! Joe, follow behind us, and if any of the offworlders step out of line, make sure they regret it.”

“Can do,” Joe affirmed. He eyed them. “No false moves guys, or I’ll read you some of Larry’s poetry.”

Larry, who had seemed about to say something else, palmed his face instead. Para missed whatever he mumbled as he spun away.

The whole group of them backtracked to the room they had been shown earlier, the one containing the pool table and the couch. There were now a few agents with guns there, along with Bonnie DuChessy. Or rather, two Bonnie DuChessys. Larry froze in place, his eyes darting back and forth between them.

“Oh. A shapeshifter?” Kat mused. “Seems like your DEO has a J’onn J’onzz problem.”

Alijda frowned. “Kat, was that a reference? We do NOT do references.”

Larry ignored Para’s friends, instead turning to Joe. “Is one a double? From another dimension, another Earth?”

Joe shook his head. “Doubtful. If so, she didn’t come through recently. We’ve seen no activity today, aside from the arrival of those three. So, are you sure the Bonnie you were with was the real deal?”

Larry turned back to the two Bonnies, who were currently standing and glowering at each other. “I WAS a little surprised she agreed to the tour.”

“What?!” one of the asian women snapped. “It was to deal with these visitors. Something you don’t seem capable of doing alone!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the second Bonnie cut in. “I’ve been tied up in my house all day. Who knows what my double has been doing to our organization??”

Joe rolled his eyes. “The guard on duty out front registered Bonnie Two’s arrival. He sounded the alarm, knowing she was already inside. The doubles encountered each other in the hall and have been sniping ever since.”

“Huh. Is one of them in a wig?” Larry said hopefully.

“Natural hair,” Joe countered. “Similar features. Same outfit.”

Para nearly laughed. “Same outfit?” she blurted. Only to feel embarrassed as most of the eyes in the room turned to her.

“Grey business suit, cut the same way,” Joe said, pointing. “DuChessy has a closet full of them.”

“But…" Para caught herself. No. No, she was NOT going to finish her thought out loud. Not this time.

“But what?” Larry pressed.

Para swallowed, looking towards Alijda. A hint of a smile formed on the face of her first human friend. Then Alijda turned to Larry and the Bonnies. “Oh, look! We know something you don’t know. But we have no incentive to say anything, not when you’re kicking us off your planet before our investigation is concluded. Perhaps you should reconsider that plan?”

“Oh, seriously?” Larry said, frustrated. “I thought you were worried about shrinking away to nothing if you didn’t leave soon.”

“At present? I’m worried about a lot of things. Including your poetry.”

“Larry, let them speak,” Bonnie1 put in. “Maybe they can break this stalemate.”

“Yes, or at least give us more reasons to get rid of them,” Bonnie2 agreed.

Larry clenched his jaw. “Fine. Talk, and we’ll reset our relationship back to how it was before that stunt Kat pulled.”

Para waited. Alijda considered, and then gestured for Para to continue. “Okay,” Para said, smiling. “Second Bonnie’s outfit? It’s more expensive. Same cut, sure, but fits her better, nicer material, and a bit less worn. See, at the sleeves?”

Joe grunted. “I can’t believe we’re being lectured about clothing by a blonde wearing a hot pink dress overtop of a neon pink bodysuit.”

“I know suit jackets, I wear one when I’m in factored form,” Para protested. “And our jumpsuits are density adjustors.”

“More to the point, she’s right,” Larry realized. “No way can Bonnie afford new suits, not on our department’s budget. Someone grab the one on the left!”

“What?! This suit was a gift! I got it last month from my, um, er… aw, hell with it,” Bonnie2 sighed. Two armed men had grasped her by the arms. “Queeny didn’t pay me enough to do such extensive role-play.”

Para was unable to hold back her gasp at hearing Queeny’s name. She felt her cheeks darkening further, to match her outfit. So much for self control. Though it was reassuring to feel Kat patting her shoulder and murmuring, “Good job.”

“Interesting. Seems our head of government disbelieves my reports SO much that she’s stooped to sending in a spy,” the true Bonnie said, pacing slowly around her doppelgänger. “How fortunate that I ended up cancelling my evening plans, and coming down here instead.”

“Score another one for us there,” Kat pointed out. Alijda frowned again.

“Rather remarkable resemblance,” Larry agreed. “Queeny couldn’t find someone like that overnight. She had to be planning this for a while.”

“No doubt,” Bonnie agreed. She completed her circuit, coming eye to eye with her double. “How long has this been in the works?”

Fake-Bonnie rolled her eyes. “I don’t know nearly as much as you think. I’m an actress, I was hired a couple weeks ago to come and do reconnaissance.”

“When are you reporting back?”

“Midday tomorrow.”

Bonnie nodded. “Then you will give me all the details, so I can report in your place. Oh, and we will, of course, hold you here until then.”

“Meaning we throw Actressy in a cell with these three?” Larry asked, jerking his thumb at Para and her friends.

“No, they can stay in this room until the meeting. The couch has a roll out bed.”

“And we get back one communicator,” Kat reminded.

“Oh no.” Bonnie shook her head. “No, you could still have planned this whole charade. We’re not letting you talk with your project, not unless you’re going to leave immediately afterwards.”

Alijda seemed troubled. She eyed Kat and Para before saying, “You’re not getting rid of us that easily. Someone bring us bed linens.”

Less than an hour later, Alijda, Kat and Para were alone in the DEO break room.

Peering through the window in the door confirmed that they were being guarded. “I can keep an eye out, while you two sleep,” Para offered. “I don’t rest quite the same way as you. I mean, they already drew blood, but you never know.”

“I’m not that tired,” Alijda said, after switching on a radio in the corner of the room and tuning it to static. “Here’s the thing. We were supposed to warn them, and go. Instead, it got complicated. And now, we’ve interfered significantly.”

“Have we?” Kat asked.

“Yes! Without us, that spy might not have been caught,” Alijda said. “We’ve affected the whole political landscape. And Alice had us arrive before an incursion - what if our actions here have messed that up?”

“Should I not have said anything?” Para worried.

“No, you did fine,” Kat said. “Alijda, we didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.”

“Maybe we didn’t. But we have a choice now. Namely, should we simply let things play out? Or should I teleport out of here and go warn Queeny about Bonnie?”

Kat’s eyebrows went up. “Whoa! That’s kind of drastic. We could simply help Bonnie2 escape.”

The brunette shook her head. “Please. There’s no WAY we pull that off without the DEO knowing. Then we’d never get our communicators back.”

Para cleared her throat. “Ah, the more we do, the more we might mess stuff up,” she noted. “If Epsilon is about non-interference, doesn’t it make more sense to wait?”

WHAT’S NEXT?

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[polldaddy poll=9380404]

VOTING WILL CLOSE LATE ON TUESDAY APRIL 12th EDT

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART SIX: FOOL ME TWICE

“We can’t go back to the station so soon, Para,” Alijda asserted. “If we leave this world now, we could end up causing more issues upon our return.” The personified parabola bit her lip, but didn’t protest again.

“That said, why not tour this place before risking your life, Alijda?” Kat insisted. “For all we know, your teleporting is causing the glitches in your size. We should stick together until we figure it out.”

Kat saw the brunette woman considering his words. While she had claimed to have suicidal tendencies, hopefully she would see the logic in his statement.

Larry cleared his throat. “You keep talking tour, yet I have not authorized anyone to wander around our facilities, LEAST of all you three.”

That statement seemed to make up Alijda’s mind. “So authorize it now. Convince us that you’re ready for the inter-dimensional invasion.”

He shook his head. “From my perspective, you might BE the invasion! Or at least the advance scouts! What possible motive would I have to show you our defences??”

“Consider that we obviously didn’t want to be here,” Kat suggested, off Alijda’s hesitation. “You had to bring us in the hard way. Plus she can teleport, and she’s immune to your dust,” Kat added, gesturing to both his female companions. “I may have abilities too. Given that, why would we invade the slow way? We’re even under a shrinkage deadline ourselves.”

Larry’s frown deepened. “Look. I’d have to make some calls.”

Kat couldn’t resist. “What, all out of minutes on your phone plan?”

Larry went back to his desk. Alijda’s no-nonsense face morphed into a quick smile, flashed in Kat’s direction. He couldn’t help but smile back. She really was quite attractive - despite wearing a black dress over a pink bodysuit. And Kat couldn’t think of anyone he knew who could even partially pull off that look.

Well, okay, maybe Alijda wasn’t pulling it off. But her attitude implied she was.

“Okay, here’s another–" Para cut herself off, as Alijda held her palms out, motioning for a quieter tone. Larry was now on the phone, speaking in hushed tones himself; Kat tried to catch what few words he could.

“Okay, here’s another thing,” Para resumed in a murmur, once she’d figured out Alijda’s gestures. “These guys aren’t high tech, right? Yet they can detect density fluctuations in the city. That implies they HAVE to employ some kind of - perimeter network? At minimum? Meaning they might have some equipment to diagnose our shrinking issue here too.”

“Good point,” Alijda muttered. “And I can probably get past whatever ancient electronic firewalls they might have.”

“What about a magic firewall?” Kat asked. As he said it, he wondered if that’s where his pyrokinesis would come into play. Alijda simply crossed her arms in thought.

Meanwhile, Larry was now on his second call. From what Kat had been able to overhear so far, this call was an escalation of the first one, where he had mostly been dealing with arguments or excuses. Of particular interest was the phrase “night shift”. How long HAD they been unconscious? Para hadn’t said.

“Uhmm, this is weird,” Para said. She’d grabbed a book from off the filing cabinet, and was flipping through it. “Seems to be about us. Going to a ‘Collections’ room.”

“What?!” Alijda said, peering at it.

Larry finally hung up the phone. “That book’s an artifact. Generates stories about the reader. Put it down.” As Para did so, Larry leaned on the desk. “Also, be impressed. You’ll not only have your tour, my boss will be leading it.”

“Okay… and who’s that?” Alijda asked.

“Bonnie DuChessy.”

Kat decided that it was impossible not to be impressed by Bonnie. Sure, the asian woman wasn’t that tall, and she looked to be in her mid forties to early fifties. But her posture, her practical attire and her severe expression spoke volumes before she even uttered a word. She carried herself as if she owned the place. Then again, Kat supposed that she did.

“Here’s the deal,” Bonnie said, following a period of scrutiny from the door of Larry’s office. “We let you look around. We give you one of your devices back. You leave our world.”

Para gasped, even as Alijda’s shoulders shifted back to match Bonnie’s posture. “No deal. If you’re doing something illegal, we’re not going anywhere.”

“Like hell,” Bonnie snapped. “You have no authority here. For all we know, the colour plaid is illegal on your worlds. What gives you the right to waltz in and claim the high moral ground here? How would you feel if we did that, visiting whatever land you came from?”

Alijda took a physical step back. “Look… some things are just wrong no matter where they occur,” she said, with much less conviction. Kat grimaced.

Based on Alijda’s expression, and what he knew of her, he imagined that the brunette’s thoughts were along the lines of ‘How did this even become an argument? I don’t support Epsilon being in charge of the multiverse any more than Bonnie does.’

“Only ONE device? We had three,” Kat put in, hoping to deflect the conversation.

Bonnie’s gaze fell upon him. “Our techs tried to open the others. They self destructed. Very nice failsafes you have.”

The communicator devices had a self destruct? Kat supposed it made sense. Alice hadn’t said they did, but there seemed to be a lot Alice hadn’t said. Of course, even if there was a self destruct, that didn’t mean the DEO techs hadn’t circumvented it somehow.

Bonnie’s gaze tracked back to Alijda. “Rest assured, we’re not killing and eating anybody. So, deal?”

“That’s not…" Alijda let out a breath through her nose. She resumed her earlier posture. “Deal. Under one condition.”

Bonnie, in the process of turning away, turned back. “Oh yes?”

“Oh no,” Larry muttered, barely audibly. Kat didn’t even look at him - the guy had been pretending to do paperwork at his desk since before his boss’s arrival.

Alijda set her jaw. “If there IS anything sketchy going on? We’re not leaving alone.”

Para’s ears twitched. “Alijda, the field put out by the suits won’t–"

“Hush,” Alijda said, raising her palm in Para’s direction. “Understood, Ms. DuChessy?”

The women now seemed determined to stare each other down. Bonnie blinked first. The only evidence Kat saw that the older woman was displeased by that was in how the side of her mouth twitched. “Understood, Ms… what IS your last name?”

“Van Vliet. Here with Kat Conway and Para, um, Bola.” Alijda quickly recovered from the stumbling uncertainty of whether Para had a last name. “Hoping that you’ll return our honesty with more of your own.”

Bonnie resumed her earlier scrutiny. “Mmm.”

A throat cleared. “Well, hey, my full name’s Larry Appleson…”

“They don’t care, Larry.” Bonnie spun on her heel. “All of you, follow me.”

Kat let Alijda and Para leave the room first. Though when it became apparent that Larry wasn’t about to let Kat depart last, he fell into step behind the blonde. Larry locked up behind them.

“I’ve heard Bonnie’s voice before,” Para whispered at him as they walked. “She’s the one who said to throw our unconscious bodies in a closet.”

“I gathered, based on your gasp when she spoke,” Kat admitted.

“Oh.” Para’s bunny ears twitched. “I’m the worst Epsilon agent ever, aren’t I.”

“I wouldn’t say that. You’re our best math tech.”

She perked at that. Kat was glad - in the brief time they’d had to talk before Alijda came to, he’d decided that Para was a decent sort of person. Or, well, being. Granted, not really the sort of woman he would date, even assuming math was date-able, her ingenue vibe was too strong. Just as Bonnie’s attitude leaned too far in the other direction to be appealing. No, Alijda was the only one here whom Kat felt was worthy of taking out to dinner.

He rubbed his forehead. Okay, he really had to stop going off on such mental tangents. Particularly such female centric ones, it was kind of sexist. As if to atone, Kat glanced over his shoulder and tried to picture a dinner date with Larry.

Their trip took them all the way down the hall, towards a reception area. They bypassed the guy in the fedora at the desk, proceeding directly to the elevator. “Oh, hey Larry,” the secretary said, waving as the other man passed. “Want to see my new business cards?”

“Not now, Shemp,” Larry said curtly.

Bonnie produced a key from her business suit. Once everyone was in the elevator, she inserted it into the main panel and turned it before pressing and holding the button for the lowest floor.

“So. In the vein of honesty, how about you tell us more about Simon?” Bonnie asked, as the elevator lurched down. “The guy who showed up here last April 1st.”

“We don’t know anything about that,” Alijda said. “Our boss doesn’t give us any particularly useful information.”

“Hmph. Smart woman.”

“Hah. Matter of opinion,” Alijda muttered.

The elevator doors opened on another reception area. A bored looking military man stood there. Granted, he was in regular clothes, but Kat recognized the signs. “Passwhoa, Ms. DuChessy, I… I didn’t expect…"

“As you were.”

There were two passages out. Bonnie led them down to the right. “The other way is an emergency exit,” she stated. “I’ll show you the main rooms, if you promise not to bother anyone.”

They passed through a vault-like doorway, where there was another man sitting, doing a crossword. Bonnie pointed to the placards next to the doors in the wall as they approached. “Research and development. Figuring out what the stuff that falls onto our Earth does. Also how we can use it to boost our tech - and repel an invasion.”

There was a window in the door, but Bonnie opened it anyway. Kat let the women look in first before giving the room a glance himself. It seemed to be set up like a laboratory. There were two techs on duty, one of them glancing up from a microscope. Kat barely had time to wave before Bonnie was moving on.

“Filing and records,” Bonnie stated at the next room. It did seem to be mostly filing cabinets. Next came “Storage”, which contained windowed cabinets and a ladder on wheels. Kat found himself wondering as to their databasing. Something about it bothered him. The crudity of it, maybe?

Then there was some sort of break room, containing a pool table, a couch, and a few individuals. Then a larger open area that stretched at least two stories up - some people were on catwalks above. No windows; Kat was now pretty sure they were underground. The larger area did contain a number of tables, desks, cables for phones, wardrobes… and weapon lockers.

“Central hub,” Bonnie said airily. There were a couple of additional passages out of the large room. She strode briskly towards one. “Down here, cafeteria, weight room, holding cells… we might have left you in one, were it not for the teleportation.”

The rooms weren’t anything out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until they were headed back to the central area that Kat realized what had been bothering him about the storage room. The colour coding. Green and blue. Green cabinets had held vials, bags, and crystals… while a lot of the blue ones had been empty. What had they held?

Kat scanned the central hub area - and saw what he’d expected. But would they simply let him wander over there? Larry in particular was keeping a close eye on them. It seemed unlikely. And then, they’d passed into the opposite passage.

“Medical bay,” Bonnie said, pointing out the first room.

But there was his best chance. Kat decided he had to do this - if he was wrong, he could always claim he’d gone rogue. He grabbed the canister by the medical room door, the one labelled as containing hallucinogenic gas, and bashed it against the doorframe, fracturing the seal.

“What the hell?!” Bonnie said, spinning.

Holding his breath, Kat dropped the canister and ran.

“Kat, what– whoa!” Alijda said, stumbling. “Okay, trippy… I-I’m now seeing that story Para had before? Collections! Black market?”

“A candle?” Larry said, tilting his head.

Kat didn’t slow down. The hallucinations wouldn’t fool them for long.

WHAT’S NEXT?

OPTIONS:

[polldaddy poll=9372319]

VOTING WILL CLOSE LATE ON TUESDAY APRIL 5th EDT

FULL SCALE INVASION, PART SIX: Tour Ism

Alijda pondered over their options. As much as she wanted to investigate City Hall, she knew that leaving Para and Kat alone presented too many risks to be worth it. Her life was one thing to gamble, but theirs was another matter entirely.

Going back to the station would give the Lilliputians ample time to cover up whatever it was that they were hiding. Although Larry’d been tight-lipped, he’d said just enough to ping as suspicious on her radar.

“We’ll go with the tour idea,” she decided. “We can eke out more information from Larry and the rest of his cohorts that way.”

“I’m more interested in what the DEO could be housing,” Kat said. They were bound to be storing worse things than fairy dust there. The items Larry had mentioned may have only been the tip of the iceberg.

“But, the shrinking—” Para tried.

Alijda cut her off. “We’re not leaving. Even if we wanted to, we can’t. They’re holding our communication devices hostage.”

“I’m still standing here. My ears work,” Larry reminded them. “Hostage is a poor choice of words, by the way. I’d call it collateral. We’re keeping your things until we’ve determined you’re trustworthy.”

“I’ve been more than gracious to you, especially after your little stunt with our coats.”

“Blowing fairy dust in our faces counts as gracious? Sorry, I couldn’t tell.”

“It does?” That was news to Para. She’d have to update her definitions.

“Do you mind showing us around the DEO?” Kat jumped in. He gave Larry a friendly smile. With Para being off in la la land and Alijda being… well, herself, he figured he was in the best position to charm him.

Larry’s mouth stayed flat. “Alright. I suppose I can do that.” He strode past them, to the door. “Follow me this way. I’ll take you to the archives. Perhaps this will make you lighten up.” He shot Alijda a pointed look.

“Lightening? I can explain the Boolean arithmetic for that!” Para exclaimed. “There’s an even simpler expression for lightening, though, but either works.”

“That’s not what he meant,” Kat clarified.

“Glad you think this situation is appropriate for a math lesson,” Alijda said, her bitter sarcasm continuing.

“Thank you!” Para missed it.

Larry cleared his throat for attention. “Can you step out of my office already? I need to lock it up.”

Kat, Para, and Alijda stepped out and off to the side. Larry took care of the door—another sign that he had something to hide, Alijda noted—and led them through the building. People were hunched over at their desks, clacking furiously on their typewriters. They looked up briefly to say Larry’s name as they passed. He grunted in acknowledgement. Kat overheard someone shouting for Johnson to get the McDougal files and a blacker than black pen.

“They’re serious about ink here, aren’t they?” Kat remarked.

“Signatures aren’t the same when they’re not in blacker than black ink,” Larry explained.

They reached a desk occupied by a familiar face: Shemp, one of the trench coats from earlier. He was missing said trench coat, his fedora propped next to his typewriter. “Larry, you sly dog. What are you doing with these three?”

Para whispered to Alijda, “why is his foot bouncing if he’s sitting down?” Shemp was the trench coat that had gotten hit with the friendly fire. Para wondered if the foot thumping was aftereffect of the fairy dust. If it was, then that was strange… Alijda and Kat didn’t seem any more fidgety than usual.

“They’re covering something up,” Alijda whispered back to her. Why were they making it so obvious, though? There had to be something more to all of this.

“Or he has Restless Leg Syndrome,” Kat joined in. Alijda’s paranoia wasn’t warranted. Plenty of people suffered from RLS. Even if this was a different dimension from where they were from, it was likely the Lilliputs had RLS sufferers in their midst, too.

“I’m giving them a brief glimpse of the archives,” Larry explained to Shemp, “but not of any of the areas someone would need level 2 clearance to see.”

“Ah, alright. Hey, you wouldn’t be able to tell me which color I should use for my business card, would you?” Shemp held up three color swatches. “Bone, egg shell, or pale nimbus?”

“They’re all white. Am I missing something?” Kat scratched his head. Larry and Shemp glared at him. Great, he probably lost a few points for that comment.

“I prefer the subtlety of ivory.” Larry flashed him his card. He stuffed it into his shirt pocket before Alijda could read it.

Shemp’s eyes widened. “Oh, I see.” He laid his color cards down. His foot quickened. “I have to get back to work. Remind Joe to drop my trench coat off at the cleaners if you see him.”

“Will do. See you later, Shemp.” Larry reached up to tip his fedora at him, but realized he wasn’t wearing it and lowered his hand awkwardly. He turned to Alijda, Kat, and Para. “C’mon, the archives are this way.”

He took them down a hallway, far removed from the office noise. Alijda made sure to memorize the path they took, in case things got hairy. They stopped in front of a door marked COLLECTIONS. Larry fished for his key ring.

“Why is it called that?” Para asked.

Alijda sighed. “Archives. Collections. It’s all the same. Will you stop asking so many questions?”

Having found the ring, Larry jingled it around to find the right key. Once he did, he pushed it into the lock. The door opened with a click. He held it open for them. “After you.”

They shuffled in. Larry closed the door behind them and made sure to lock it. When he caught Alijda looking at him funny, he said, “it’s DEO policy.”

“Locked doors and general shiftiness, yeah, I figured that,” she said.

Tall cabinets loomed before them, going from floor to ceiling. A ladder on wheels leaned against the wall. Labels and signs kept the maze of cabinets organized. The place reminded Kat of a library. It made him cringe to think that they were databasing their collections manually. Perhaps they should boot up that Macbook Pro and start an analog-to-digital conversion.

“You can stop glaring at me now,” Larry said to Alijda. “I don’t appreciate it.”

“Show me something from your collection. For all I know, you could be collecting beige cabinets.”

“They’re cream cabinets,” he corrected. He leaned down and pulled open one of the shelves. The trio peeked inside to see a folded basketball jersey. Larry held it up for them. “It’s from The Ulrich F. Gephardt Academy for Unruly Girls. Our planet doesn’t have a school called that.”

“Yeah, that’s a rather specific name,” Kat said. “I believe him.”

“I don’t.” Alijda shook her head. “Show us something else.”

“You’d think the fairy dust would’ve been enough. Fine,” Larry said. He re-folded the jersey and slid the drawer shut. “Take a look at this extradimensional object.” He walked them over to one labeled BELT, and pulled it open. “This is an artifact. It’s called a belt ornament. Whoever owned it kept it in impeccable condition.”

“Larry. You brought guests.” A woman came out from around the corner. Her glasses were pink crystal-studded. She wore an elaborate, high-collared Victorian dress that clashed with the true ’90s kid light-up shoes on her feet.

“Dutchessy, I didn’t know you’d be in the archives,” Larry said.

Dutchessy? She had to be one of Queeny’s people, Alijda thought to herself. She should’ve been someone that the DEO was trying to hide its operations from, if the royal naming trend was anything to go by.

Kat held out his hand. “Nice to meet you. Your shoes bring out your eyes.” Alijda rolled her eyes. Kat never passed up a moment.

Obviously, there was something strange about this woman, too. Judging by her outfit, her sitcky fingers were dipping into the archives like it was going out of style.

She might as well cut to the chase. “Are you one of Queeny’s people?” Alijda asked the woman.

Dutchessy stiffened. “I wouldn’t say that. We don’t see eye-to-eye on many things. How do you know Queeny?”

“Wait, I know this woman!” Para blurted out. “I know her voice. She was with them earlier when we were getting dumped off in this place, back when they took our blood.”

“They took our blood?” Kat clapped his hand over his arm. “Why would they do that?” He looked over at Larry and Dutchessy, and amended his words. “Why would you do that?”

“Para, why would you say that in front of everyone?!” Alijda screamed.

“I’m sorry!” Her bunny ears fell.

“We need your blood to know what price you’ll fetch for on the market. Certain materials sell for more. We do that for all the extradimensional objects that make it through here,” Dutchessy told them, as if all of that was common knowledge. She lifted her glasses. “Sweethearts, we’re black market traders. You’re standing in our trading hub.”

“Did she really just say that?” Kat took a step back. His eyes roamed the area, looking for something he could use to his advantage. A convenient candle happened to be in the corner.

“We’ve got a surveillance team monitoring this whole building. There’s no way for all three of you to escape,” Larry announced.

Dutchessy added, “and we’ve got things worse than fairy dust stored here. You haven’t seen half of what we’ve got in storage all over the DEO.”

“And I can teleport. I’ll stop you before you can try anything,” Alijda said. She wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice.

“You’ll abandon your friends?” Dutchessy turned away to laugh. “You care too much about them to do that, otherwise you would’ve gotten yourself out of here a long time ago.”

Para’s bunny ears perked all the way up. “Wow, I thought you didn’t like me. Thanks, Alijda.”

“Yeah,” Alijda muttered. “This is not the time, but, yeah, I do like you.”

Kat glanced at the burning candle. Larry and Dutchessy were distracted. Their attentions were too focused on Alijda to notice what he was doing. If Kat timed this right, Alijda would be able to teleport out of there, get through the building, find their devices, and get in touch with Alice. What would happen to him and Para because of this, he wasn’t looking forward to finding out but he’d have to deal with that later. As long as Alijda made it out, things would be alright… mostly.

He focused in on the flame.

The room flashed. Larry and Dutchessy threw up their arms to shield themselves from the sudden heat.

It faded just in time for Kat to catch sight of a cloud of purple smoke. He grinned.

“Whoa!” Para rubbed her eyes because everyone else was, not because she needed to.

“What was that?” Larry’s head whipped back and forth. “What happened to my mother’s candle? I’ve had that lit for years!”

“Alijda’s gone, that’s what that was,” Kat said. He crossed his arms. “It’s only a matter of time before she contacts our headquarters and gets us out of here.”

“No, that’s not happening. I’m stuck in the wall,” Alijda called out. Her voice was understandably muffled.

Para held her hand over her mouth. “Her voice! It’s sounding smaller and smaller. She’s shrinking exponentially.”

Dutchessy, now recovered from the flashbang moment, clapped for them. “Good show, everyone. You made this too easy for us. Larry, tag ‘em and price ‘em.”

APRIL FOOLS!

Gregory Taylor (aka mathtans), who normally writes this story, has today created their own piece of tomfoolery for J.A. Waters who writes SyncPoint. (Find Gregory’s entry at this link.)

For a full list of all April Fool’s Swappers and their stories, as well as dozens of other serial novels that will tickle your fancy, check out The Web Fiction Guide Forums.

Thanks for reading and remember, the best way to support your favourite serial novelist is to tell all your friends about them.

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FULL SCALE INVASION, PART FIVE: Info Swap

A voice came from the other side of the door; Alijda recognized it as Larry. “If we let you out, are you going to start teleporting around the base? Or teleporting our clothes away?”

Alijda took a step back, crossing her arms. “No,” she called back. Given the danger that their group might still be shrinking, she figured they needed to cooperate in order to get their communicators back. Besides, playing along now seemed like their best chance of escape.

The door opened, and Larry poked his head in, sweeping his gaze across Alijda, then Kat and Para. He was still in his trench coat, but he no longer had the fedora. “Follow me,” he said, backing up.

Alijda did so, finding herself in an ordinary looking hallway. “So, going to give us our stuff back?”

“No,” Larry said. “But we’ve decided your intentions aren’t malicious.”

“Then you WERE listening,” Para said, wringing her hands.

“We were. More or less.”

“I didn’t see a receiver,” Kat remarked. “So your technology must be at a higher level than what’s implied by the rest of society out there.”

Larry chuckled as he led them next door. “Honestly? A glass held up to a thin wall is surprisingly effective. It’s YOUR technology that I want to know more about.”

As they entered, one of the other trench coat people from before exited, lifting an empty glass in a “cheers” motion. Larry went around to sit behind the desk, motioning to three wooden chairs. Para took a seat. Kat went over to scrutinize one of the maps on the wall. Alijda leaned in against the desk, eyeing the man who was essentially their warden.

“If you heard us, you know we’ve got a shrinking problem,” she stated. “Given that, withholding our devices isn’t in anyone’s best interests.”

“At this point, all I know is that trusting you outright isn’t in OUR best interests. But we are willing to hear you out - so where are you from?”

“We’re from other worlds,” Para offered. “Ones which are much larger than your own. Well, their worlds are, my world is a bit two dimensional, so I suppose I could be any size relative to–"

“Para!” Alijda interrupted, turning her head. “Let me handle this?”

The parabola clamped her lips shut, looking apologetic. Not for the first time, Alijda considered how Para’s innocence and naiveté were such enviable, and yet simultaneously infuriating qualities.

“We did know as much before listening to you,” Larry offered. “It’s why we didn’t want you talking to Queeny.”

Alijda looked back at him. “Explain.”

He shook his head. “This is my office. You first. Other larger worlds?”

Alijda pushed herself back from the desk. Great. He didn’t seem too flexible there. So how much should she say? Information might be their only bargaining chip.

Rather belatedly, Alijda realized that Kat was a resource she was leaving untapped. Hell, perhaps she should have let him weigh in before their abduction too. She really preferred the predictability of technology over people. She turned his way. “Kat, what do you figure?”

He didn’t turn, still looking at the map. “We’re supposed to warn this world,” Kat noted. “Our mission didn’t specify who to talk to. So, a warning, with as much context as is necessary, would seem like the best way to get us out of here.”

Kat had a point. Alijda took a deep breath, quashing her fears of soon fitting into a size 4 dress in the worst way possible. After all, she hadn’t even noticed the shrinkage until Para had mentioned it. Besides, so what if she died? In the end, the multiverse would probably be the better for it.

“Okay. We explain, then you give us back our tech,” Alijda said.

Larry shook his head. “You explain, then I tell you about Queeny.”

Alijda grimaced. “And about your organization here,” she countered.

Larry considered it. “Fine, as long as you tell me if you’re from an organization too.”

“Okay then.” She wasn’t married to the damn Project anyway. Alijda thought back to what she’d read earlier in that ‘Mission Statement’ document. “What if you could find brand new worlds, right here on Earth?” she began. “Same planet, different dimension. Well, there is a gateway - but it’s not always stable.

“Enter the Epsilon Project, someone’s last, best place for hope. A self-regulating station, tracking right and wrong, located in neutral territory. It targets people and objects that aren’t in the dimensions where they’re supposed to be, then strives to put right what might otherwise be going wrong.”

Alijda gestured at the window blinds. “And your large iron problem out there? That qualifies,” she concluded. “In particular because there will be an invasion, following enough such incursions. Unless you all get your act together and do something.”

“And do what?”

“Beats me, likely depends on what you’re already aware of. For instance, how were you able to target us so soon after our arrival?”

“The dimensional gateway problem has been going on for a while.” It wasn’t Larry who spoke then, but Kat. He tapped at the map on the wall. “If I’m interpreting this correctly, you’ve had two major incursions of scale - but they were hardly the first ones, were they?”

“What?” Para gasped, rising to her feet.

Alijda walked over to have a closer look at where Kat was indicating. She saw now that there were a number of ‘X’s drawn on the map, in various locations all over the city. Two of them were large, but there were over a dozen smaller ones as well.

Alijda spun back to face Larry, who had leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. “Your turn,” she said, hands on hips. “Talk.”

He regarded them for another few seconds before sighing, and rising to his feet as well. “Very well. I am part of the DEO.”

“The Department of Extranormal Operations?” Kat hypothesized.

“Department of Extradimensional Objects,” Larry corrected. “Fairy dust. Mystical potions. A device called a ‘Macbook Pro’. All items which have found their way onto our world over the past decade or more. And I do mean world - we have branches in other towns across the globe. That map only shows the local appearances.”

“And these items, they were normal size for you?” Para asked. Larry nodded, prompting the parabola woman to turn to Alijda. “Okay, so, being that small, Alice’s equipment might not have registered them.”

“Peachy,” Alijda said, feeling a headache coming on. “So, this DEO has started tracking the dimensional breaches.”

“Not so much the breaches as what comes through them,” Larry said. “There is a window of a couple hours that allows us to pinpoint anomalous objects before they… ‘acclimate’, for lack of a better word. That’s how we found you.”

“Are you spotting fluctuations in density, perhaps?” Para wondered.

Larry shrugged. “I’m not a technician. Thing is, the breaches were all very hush hush. Until a year ago.” He walked around to the front of the desk. “A giant person appeared. He mentioned someone called ‘Alice’, did some card tricks, mumbled about an invasion, then vanished.”

Alijda’s eyes widened at Alice’s name. Then she rubbed both her hands against her temples. “He’s the someone she sent to this world already. Damn it, Alice…"

Para walked over to place a hand on Alijda’s shoulder. “Alice isn’t trying to cause you problems, you know. It makes sense that she only realized the scale problem after he arrived, which is why she pulled him back. Then had me work on the situation, leading to us…”

“She could have SAID something.”

“You don’t seem to like it when people tell you things.”

“Government oversight things, Para! Not what would ultimately be blindingly obvious. Not mission relevant information. I mean, was Alice embarrassed or something?!”

Kat spoke up again, from where he now leaned against the filing cabinet. “Just a vibe I get, Alijda… but maybe Alice thought you’d use her blunder as ammunition for why the whole project should be shut down?”

“Yeah, well, maybe she’d be right!” Alijda fumed. Para drew her hand back. Which made Alijda realize the extent to which she’d tensed up. She forced herself to close her eyes and count down from five. “Fine. It’s in the past. Larry, you were saying? Not hush hush now?”

“No,” Larry said, after a moment’s pause. “Not hush hush. A week after that incident, a huge top hat fell into the middle of the town, big enough to cover a building. It provided the ruling council with just the excuse they needed to clamp down on the population. Claiming other dimensions were coming after us, that there were spies among us, and that anyone with ‘Extradimensional Objects’ would be considered a traitor.”

“Meaning, if we’d actually gone to city hall?” Kat mused.

“Jail,” Larry confirmed. “Or some sort of detention. Even now, Queeny and the rest don’t know half of the things this department is doing. We were nearly shut down, back then.”

“So YOU say,” Alijda felt compelled to point out. Maybe she was still being paranoid, but she didn’t like how all of this was being filtered through one individual.

“True,” Larry said. “Of course, if we assume that what I say is true, I’m in danger of being called a traitor right now. For simply talking to you. A little gratitude would be nice.”

“Right, yes, thank you,” Kat said, speaking before Alijda could. “I suppose we should also assume the rest of the planet is just as concerned? As you pointed out earlier, this is only one town.”

Larry hesitated. “The few countries we’re in regular contact with feel similarly,” he admitted. “Though they haven’t all enacted laws against anomaly objects. And some countries keep to themselves, and others deny the truth, so I can’t speak for everyone. But we’re a pretty typical snapshot of the world here.”

“Wait. This doesn’t make sense,” Para protested.

Alijda sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Para…”

“No, listen, it sounds like we’re here to warn a world about an invasion - that they already know is coming! How does that make any sense?”

They had to make a filter for the cute bunny woman. They HAD to, somehow. Biting back her first instinct to chide Para yet AGAIN, and her second instinct to knock her own head into Larry’s desk, Alijda managed to simply roll her eyes. “Para makes a good point,” she said to Larry in resignation.

Larry’s response was to shrug. “Maybe your ‘Epsilon Project’ got it wrong. If giving us a warning was the only reason you showed up, we can send you on your way.”

“Yeah?” Kat said, sounding hopeful.

Now Larry was lying. Or at the least, not telling them something. Alijda could see him trying too hard to look relaxed. Damn it. “Hold on,” Alijda said. “We can’t simply leave, not without corroborating any of this.”

“But Alijda!” Para gasped. “Our shrinking problem - we can fix that, back on the station!”

“No, Alijda’s right,” Kat granted. “We should at least get a tour of the DEO first. To be sure.”

“I was more thinking I should go visit this Queeny,” Alijda said, clenching her jaw. “Because if they try to arrest me or anything, I can teleport away.”

Kat shook his head. “Your ability has limits. There’s no need to risk yourself yet.”

“There’s no need to risk any of us,” Para said, wringing her hands. “What use will we be, if all of a sudden we’re three feet tall? Relative to our surroundings, I mean. Why can’t we go back to Alice, at least for now?”

WHAT’S NEXT?

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FULL SCALE INVASION, PART FOUR: Small Problem

“Or we can not do ‘this’ at all,” Alijda countered.

Inwardly, Kat sighed. He wondered, would it really be so bad, to simply go along with the strange man in the trench coat and the fedora? Maybe the guy had come to tell them that, guess what! Everything had been solved, and they could get back to their normal lives!

But Kat wasn’t in charge. Thus, outwardly, unless there was any obvious benefit to disobeying, he resolved to follow Alijda’s lead. And not merely because he believed there might still be some sort of compatibility between them.

“You’re crazy,” the short man was saying. “No one, seeing the position you’re in, would have picked THAT option.”

“Not crazy. Occasionally suicidal, that’s all,” Alijda countered. She moved to walk around him.

Kat decided to dub their aggressor Shorty. Granted, Shorty didn’t look to be much under five feet, but this whole world was small, so height was relative.

Shorty moved to block Alijda, slipping the device he held into a pocket of his trench coat. “Last chance,” he remarked. And Shorty snapped his fingers in the air. The action prompted four other men to amble out of the alley, dressed identically to him. They began to circle around the group.

“Huh. Store must have had a great ‘buy one fedora, get four more for free’ deal,” Kat remarked. He said it not only to lighten the mood, but also to draw Alijda’s attention to the number, as she seemed focussed on Shorty.

“Really?” Alijda sighed.

“So,” Shorty stated. “The easy way, or–"

Alijda reached out to grasp the sleeve of Shorty’s trench coat. And before he could even flinch back, in a puff of purple and black smoke, the brunette was no longer there. Nor was Shorty’s coat. The guy now stood in a black button up shirt and pants.

Kat immediately shifted his attention to who would be the fifth, and final man in the circle. Sure enough, he was looking at the guy next to him, and raising his arm to execute a punch - not at Alijda, but at where she was going to appear next. Beside him.

These guys weren’t idiots. They’d been trained. Well, either that, or they were accustomed to seeing teleporting people. That said, Kat was no idiot either. To punch, you needed to draw your arm back. So Kat stepped forward, grasping the man’s arm and continuing the movement back, throwing the guy off balance, and preventing the punch.

And then Shorty’s last friend was also without his coat, and Alijda was standing in front of her original quarry. Kat wasn’t sure if she’d even noticed his maneuver - the whole area around them was now cloaked in a purple haze, due to Alijda’s rapid teleportations. Kat wrinkled his nose. It also smelled vaguely of sulphur.

“So, as I’ve likely disarmed you now,” Alijda remarked. “Do we leave, or do I pull the same trick with your pants?”

“Hard way it is,” Shorty declared. He grabbed a bag hooked onto his belt, and swung it out in a wide arc. Sand spilled out, except it was multicoloured sand, glittering as it flew through the air… and even as Kat flinched back, he felt his legs cease to properly support his weight.

“Well, damn,” Alijda commented.

As Kat fell forwards, he saw their brunette teleporter crashing to the ground too, on top of her collection of trench coats. His landing wasn’t as soft. The last thing he registered before losing consciousness was Para’s knees giving out next to him.

The arguing, the teleporting, the throwing of the dust - it had all happened too fast for Para. As personified math, she could calculate the foci of a conic in the blink of an eye. Yet by the time she’d decided that ‘the hard way’ meant a threat, versus - for example - taking a derivative from first principles, the whole spectacle was already over.

She wondered briefly why her companions were keeling over. Then the man next to her also dropped to the ground. So, suspecting that the dust was causing it, Para mimicked their actions, letting her knees give out, and closing her eyes as she sank down.

“Oh, nice throw, Larry!” came a sarcastic voice from her left. “You knocked out Shemp too!”

“Shut it, Joe,” Para heard the short man called Larry sigh. “If I hadn’t had the fairy dust on me, we’d all be in trouble. What in hell is that woman capable of??”

“Teleporting these huge objects away from our town?” posited a third voice.

“Or INTO the town,” Joe said.

“We’ll know soon enough. Hurry up and get them out of here,” Larry ordered. “We’re calling attention to ourselves. And here, put your coat back on.” Para felt a rush of air and heard a ‘thwacking’ noise as the object was thrown over her head.

“This isn’t mine. It’s Shemp’s.”

“I don’t care! Hurry up!”

There were a few seconds of shuffling about, after which Para felt one of the men grasp her under the shoulders. He hauled her body up, then pulled her back towards the alleyway, her feet dragging on the ground.

She decided to focus more on where they were going, versus what the men were saying. Since their talk was only general complaining. As such, Para registered being brought back into the nearest building - but at some point, after standing in a room for a while, they went back out the same way.

An elevator? Then there were echoes, so it was possible that they were underground. And then she was being laid onto some sort of cart. And then Alijda was being laid directly on top of her.

That proved to be distracting. Para couldn’t help but become aware of the ways her own curves differed from Alijda’s human ones, not to mention the properties of friction that came into play as the cart began to bump it’s way down what was likely a tunnel. Something about Alijda sliding against her felt strange.

Para managed to keep her eyes shut. She strained to hear - her bunny ears were chiefly cosmetic. It did sound like Kat and Shemp were enjoying a similar ride behind them.

More than five minutes later, but less than fifteen, they were unloaded from their carts, and the “elevator” process was repeated. This time, as they emerged (even lower down? higher up?) someone said “Password?”. The response was either mumbled, or non-verbal… either way, Para didn’t catch it.

More dragging. Then a female voice: “They’re UNCONSCIOUS?”

“They resisted,” Larry’s voice retorted. “And the brunette female can magically relocate. It was fairy dust or nothing.”

“What a waste of several hours. But very well. Confirm your readings, grab any devices they might have, then throw them all in a closet somewhere until they wake up.”

“Shemp too?”

The woman didn’t seem to want to dignify that with a reply. And ten minutes later, after nearly giving herself up with a yelp when a needle jabbed her arm (seemingly drawing blood), Para found herself dumped into a tiny room. Alijda ended up on top of her again.

Consciousness returned quickly, once Alijda realized there were people around her. But she resolved to make no movements or noises until she had more information. After a minute or so of stillness, the voices resolved in her head, and she realized it was only Kat and Para talking.

“You’re right,” Kat was saying. “Katherine isn’t a typical boy’s name. But my parents thought I’d be a girl, and then my mom died giving birth to me. Complications, no hospital, you know how… actually I guess you wouldn’t know how it is.”

“True,” Para admitted. “I was named by Apollonius, long after my discovery. Of course, I didn’t gain sentience until this author saw ‘Hetalia’ and wondered - oh! Alijda, you awake?”

Alijda had decided to open her eyes to learn more about their situation. They seemed to be in a small, white room, around seven feet in every dimension. There was a light in the ceiling, which was on, and a door, which was closed. Nothing else.

She reached for her wrist. Their communicator watches were gone. “Yes, I’ve been awake for a minute or so,” Alijda said. “Figured I’d fake unconsciousness, in hopes of learning something.”

“Great idea!” Para said. “I faked being out myself, ever since that Larry guy first threw the fairy dust on you.” She smiled.

Alijda sat up fast, a bit too fast. She smacked her palm into her forehead. “PARA. You did NOT just say that.”

“Um, yes? Why, should I have tried to escape? I’m sorry, I didn’t want to leave you…”

“No, it’s not that,” Alijda sighed. “It’s more that our captors are probably monitoring this room, and so now they know that too.” She stumbled to her feet, leaning against the wall.

Para’s ears twitched. “Oh. I… I never considered…"

“To be fair to Para,” Kat broke in, “You weren’t exactly hiding your teleportation power. Is that ability commonplace out in the multiverse?”

“What? No,” Alijda said. She tried the door. Naturally, it was locked. “Where I’m from, I’m it. And people want to catch me and dissect me to replicate the accident that made me this way. But hey, I’m not there now, so I figured…" Her voice trailed off.

“You figured different people could catch us and dissect us?” Kat mused.

“I guess. Shut up.” Alijda rattled the door handle a bit harder, then banged on the door with her fist.

“Sorry,” Kat apologized. “That wasn’t funny. Here, look on the bright side! If they wanted to dissect us, they’d probably have done that while we were knocked out.”

“I think they believe we have information they can use,” Para ventured.

Alijda looked back over her shoulder. “What information?”

Para shrugged. “I don’t know? I didn’t hear as much as they think I did.” She cupped her hand to her mouth and called out at the ceiling, “You hear that? I really didn’t!”

“If we’d simply gone with this Larry, we might know their motives,” Kat pointed out. “Maybe we can try that next time?”

“Oh, well, pardon my paranoia,” Alijda said. “I figured we were safer dealing with things out in public versus wherever this is.”

“Alijda, there’s… something else you might want to know,” Para ventured, her bunny ears twitching. “Something strange. But I don’t know if I should say, if they’re listening.”

Alijda sighed. “Come here and whisper it then.”

Para nodded, and did so. Alijda’s eyes widened. She felt her mouth go dry. She grabbed Para by the shoulders, looking her in the eye. “No. No way. Are you SURE?!”

Para nodded. “I felt you, when you landed on top of me. Definitely smaller now.”

Alijda took a step back, staring down at herself. From the corner of her eye, she became aware of Kat’s eyes also tracking down over her body. “Um, what’s smaller?” he wondered.

Alijda swallowed. “All of me. Para says I’m still shrinking.” She pressed her hands against her belly. “Merely slower than what happened through the whirlpool.” She looked back up. “What about you two? Is this some delayed problem with the circuitry?”

“I don’t have a good frame of reference for myself,” Para said, wringing her hands. “If we contact Alice, she could check.”

“Which we can’t do while trapped in here,” Alijda said, fighting down a rising panic. “More to the point, if I’m going to die, I’d rather it NOT be by getting stepped on!”

She resumed pounding her fist against the door. “Hey! Trenchcoat boys! You hearing this? Let us out before we shrink away into nothing!”

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FULL SCALE INVASION, PART THREE: Whirlpool

“You hate the suit?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Para frowned, trying to read Alijda’s expression. “Then you like the suit?”

“I didn’t say THAT either.”

“How about we agree that it’s good our normal clothes can be worn overtop,” Kat broke in. “Since pink’s not really my colour.”

The group had assembled in the station’s control room, prior to heading out on the mission. Part of their preparations had involved each of them putting on a specialized jumpsuit, so that the shrinking process would be non-lethal. Para had helped design it, but it had been Alice who had actually had the clothing synthesized. And who had used pink material.

Para wondered if she should say as much. Being math personified, she tended to second guess her human interactions. Would they take the information as a statement of fact? Or as an accusation on Alice? Kat in particular was hard to read. The women had suggested to Para that she be out of the room for his initial arrival, so she didn’t really have a baseline.

Para settled for, “I think pink could be anybody’s colour!”

“It does the job, that’s what’s important,” Alijda said, running her hands over her waist once more before gesturing dismissively.

It occurred to Para then that the pink showed through on Alijda’s legs and arms, while the brunette wore a black dress overtop. Was that bad? At least Para’s dress was a similar colour. But the suit could be mistaken for leggings. Should she say as much?

Before she could, Alijda continued. “We CAN remove the body suit for short periods of time though, right? Like call of nature?”

Para bobbed her head. “Oh yes. The main issue here is density. After all, if you remain the same mass once you’ve shrunk down, your density’s going to increase.”

“Right. More density, making us stupider,” Kat stated.

“He knows, Para,” Alijda sighed. “He’s trying to hit on you or something.”

“Trying to lighten the mood, actually,” Kat countered. “To hide the fact that I’m getting unnerved by all this.”

“Oh. S-Should I stop talking?”

“No, please, finish your thought,” Alijda said, smiling.

Para ventured a smile back. It was hard to stay mad at Alijda. Even after effectively betraying Para’s faith in her, in hacking the station’s computers, Para couldn’t help but feel like the woman meant well. She hoped that they were moving on from that new low point in their friendship.

“Right, so, increased density would be a problem,” Para continued. “Not neutron star levels of problem, but problem. Yeah? Thus, as you lose volume, you need to lose mass too, in order to maintain your density. This suit helps your body deal with that process, preventing you from losing any vital organs. That said, after the initial transference to their world, it’s mostly doing a checks and balances thing. So you can remove the bodysuit temporarily.”

“So, this mass issue…" Kat mused. “Exactly where does it go? I mean, if we simply threw any untreated objects into the portal, would sublimation occur, as mass got expelled?” Kat glanced to Alijda. “Sublimation refers to going from a solid to a gas with no liquid state in between.”

“Yes, thank you, I took grade school science,” the brunette woman retorted.

“I guess the objects would at least distort?” Para hypothesized. “Though, as long as they’re within the same field now surrounding all of us due to the suits, they’d be fine. Like how our clothing and supplies will be fine. The suit itself is more a living tissue necessity.”

Kat nodded. “Which brings up that mystery field. It would be…?"

Para glanced towards Alice, who was typing something over at the computer banks. “Classified, I guess? Alice didn’t show me. The initial schematics weren’t mine.”

Alice glanced over her shoulder at them. “It’s MAGIC! So baby, don’t kill, don’t kill the magic. Ohhh!”

Alijda’s brows knit. “Alice, was that another cryptic allusion?”

Alice beamed. “Why you gotta be so rude?”

“Hey, if you think that was rude…"

“Wait!” Kat pointed at Alice. “I understood that reference. Canadian band.”

Alice clasped her hands together. “Yes! Alijda’s SO much better at setting me up than Simon. I think on some level, she really gets me. If only we got along better, we could have a real ‘Skye’ and ‘Agent Coulson’ vibe going. You follow?”

Kat eyed Alice’s eager expression, then slowly shook his head. “Lost me again.”

“Okay, not Skye, Daisy. Maybe? No?”

Alijda crossed her arms. “She’s mentioned Skye before. Something about ‘Agents that YIELD’.”

Alice sighed. “I should probably track which of your realities include the pop culture things I like, but I can’t be bothered.” She reached out to hit the enter key on her virtual keyboard, and the whole room began to marginally vibrate. Para watched as a light around the central ring in the floor switched on.

Para hadn’t seen a whirlpool activation since their first mission. Along with teleportation, it was one of the things in the station that took a fair bit of power, thus was done sparingly. Or so she had been told. This was why testing of the square-cube circuits would be done in tandem with the start of the new mission.

A second light switched on; Para noted how there seemed to be nine chevrons in total. Then a third - but Alice had approached and was now talking again, diverting Para’s attention.

“So, I’m bending protocol a bit,” Alice admitted. “You’ll be arriving on their world roughly twenty four hours before the third incursion. You can’t stop it - and my God, for the sake of causality, don’t try - but predicting it for the locals might give you some credibility. Also, if the new circuits DON’T work, this gives us a window to try again.”

Kat frowned. “Back up. Incursion being…?"

“You’ll know it when you see it.” Alice handed out WristWatch devices. Their digital readout was blank, and a small epsilon symbol was engraved on the back. Behind Alice, a fifth light switched on. “These can be used to keep in contact with me. Try not to split up, turning me into messenger girl, okay?”

“Hold on. I thought you sent someone to this world already,” Alijda noted. “So do we have any contacts or other inf–"

“No,” Alice interrupted. “We got nothing. Beyond the fact that the place might be a matriarchy. So, warn them and protect them from the invaders from the fifth dimension!”

Para flinched at that. “FIFTH dimension?” Despite all her talk of volume, she was still two dimensional at heart. Thus handling the third dimension - outside of the theory - was still was a struggle, never mind a fifth.

“Yeah, okay, not really,” Alice apologized. “Watch ‘Bride of Chaotica’. But not now.” She pointed at the floor. Para looked back in time to see the covering on the ring iris open. For an instant, the huge circular gap revealed only an inky blackness, the portal/door big enough to drive a vehicle through.

Then the ninth chevron lit up, and a shimmering blue light rushed in from the portal’s circumference, covering the ring’s interior, making it look a bit like a pool. “Good luck!” Alice declared.

Alijda shouldered her backpack of supplies. “Right. So, don’t any of you come through until I radio with an all clear.” She eyed the shimmering circle. Five seconds passed, then ten.

“Want a push?” Alice chirped.

Alijda bristled. “Want a smack in the face?”

“Look, I can go first,” Kat offered.

“No, I’m the most expendable one,” Alijda sighed. And with a cry of ‘laten we gaan!’ she jumped forwards into the whirlpool.

Alijda had been through the whirlpool once before. It was a bit like travelling down a water slide. Her hesitation hadn’t been about the journey itself, more how it might feel while getting miniaturized.

Was the pink body suit pinching in a bit harder? Was this head rush a symptom of a bigger problem? What if parts of her stayed regular size, while the rest of her got tiny? And why did she even care, given how she felt like killing herself anyway?

She’d barely had time to think about it, before she was being shot out of the swirling portal of blue light - and into a tree. Or nearly into a tree. Without really thinking about it, some self preservation instinct kicked in, and Alijda teleported herself back and to the left.

Her velocity was preserved, so she still hit the ground rather hard. But not tree trunk hard, not enough to knock her senseless. Indeed, the brunette woman managed to roll, then came up on one knee. She looked around.

No one had noticed her. She was on a pathway, between two rows of trees. It looked like a park - good thing she hadn’t ended up several metres to the right, where there was some kind of children’s play area, right out in the open.

Alijda took off her backpack and patted herself down. Everything felt like it was in the right place. And relative to everything else around her, she seemed to be the right size. Her lips pursed. Okay, relative to ALMOST everything else around her. But first things first. She tapped at her watch device. “Alice?”

“Hi!” came the technician’s voice. “You re-enacting ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’ yet?”

Alijda was glad that the connection was audio only. Because she couldn’t immediately mask her surprise at understanding a reference. “No, I’m not,” she shot back. “In fact it’s looking good. The circuitry hasn’t caused any immediate problems. Want to wait five minutes to be sure?”

“Nope, whirlpool’s a power drain. And shutting it down means it might move. So I’m sending the others now.”

“Okay. Oh! Tell them to watch out for that tree!”

“George, George, George of the jungle…" The connection clicked off.

Alijda shook her head, and hurried to stand in front of the offending tree trunk. As long as Kat and Para came out one at a time, she could teleport them - her limit was somewhere around 300 pounds.

Yet as she watched, the swirling portal rotated left about ten degrees, so that when the others emerged, they fell on the path running between the trees, rather than partially into them.

Alijda moved to help Para up, as the portal shrank and vanished into the air. Para smiled up at her. “Thanks! Wow, so do you feel smaller? I don’t, but I’m kind of used to vertical stretches and compressions.”

“I feel normal,” Alijda answered. ’Or as normal as I can be, given what I’m wearing,’ she mentally added. With Para standing, she looked over towards the brown haired military man. “Kat?”

“I seem to be fine.” He was already brushing himself off. His gaze shifted to past Alijda’s shoulder. “Also, I think I know now what Alice meant by incursion.”

“Right.” Alijda turned herself, to look back at the enormous clothing iron. Way out of scale with everything else, it towered in the air, perhaps a couple blocks away. “I guess that would look normal size, if we weren’t shrunk?”

“You want me to do the math?” Para offered. Alijda slowly shook her head.

“I think I saw this anime,” Kat noted. “Not really a fan.”

“Oh, don’t you start referencing,” Alijda grumbled. She moved to retrieve her backpack. “Okay, best guess, it’s mid-morning. Let’s try to figure out who’s in charge around here. If we’re not done with the mission by sundown, we’ll need them to give us lodgings.”

There weren’t many people out wandering the streets. At first glance, Alijda judged this world’s technology level to be early 20th century - some vehicles, no television aerials - but fashion seemed to trend closer to the 1960s. So she and Para shouldn’t stick out too much. Their group did get a couple raised eyebrows, but they also got directions to City Hall.

About a block away from their destination, a short man in a trench coat and a fedora stepped out of an alleyway, directly into their path. He looked down at something in his hands, then up at them. “Come with me,” he asserted.

“Why?” Alijda shot back.

The man sighed. “Look, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

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FULL SCALE INVASION, PART TWO: Kat Scan

“People usually have a reason for disappearing.”

“I’m aware of that,” Kat retorted. “I still want to find her.”

“Obviously. For yourself, or for the military?”

Katherine “Kat” Conway leaned forwards, resting his arms on the table. The asian woman he was speaking with - one Tara Aizawa - was drawing out their conversation deliberately. And he supposed he couldn’t fault her for her caution. Heck, under other circumstances, he might have found it charming. But at present, it was a pain.

So, apparently she knew he was military, even though his clothing wasn’t. Meaning either she was picking up on some non-verbal cues, or she had done research in the twenty four hours it had taken him to get into town. Or John had told her.

“This is personal,” Kat countered. “I knew Fate in high school. Before joining up with the Canadian military.”

“Meaning over fifteen years ago.”

“Yeah. That’s why I don’t exactly have any useful pictures to show, or handy terms to plug into a search engine,” Kat said. He wondered if he’d been able to keep the sarcasm out of his tone. “But she helped me back then. If she ended up in trouble, I want to return the favour.”

“Fifteen years later. If she wanted your help, perhaps she would have contacted you by now.”

“Except perhaps she couldn’t. Or perhaps she’s dead. And perhaps you have no useful information for me, and merely wanted to be seen out in public with a good looking guy. And if that’s the case, perhaps I should leave.”

As Tara herself had pointed out, his friendship with Fate had been half a lifetime ago. He’d given up actively searching for her. He’d nearly given up passively searching, as his life had become rather more complicated since becoming involved with the “Doorways” project… the joint Canadian-British-American operation working out of Nevada. The project that allowed travel to alternate worlds.

Either way, the universe was far too vast to waste any more time here. Kat was pretty sure that there was a better chance of Fate having been abducted by aliens, versus hiding out in British Columbia all this time. He stood, dropping five dollars onto the table for his drink. “Thanks for nothing. Give my regards to John, I have no idea why he suggested I use my leave to get in contact with you.”

Kat turned away, only to have her reach an arm out in his direction. “Wait,” Tara said. Kat paused, but didn’t turn back. “Can you prove to me that you have a personal interest in the occult?”

Kat kept his face impassive, quickly doing a scan of the coffee shop. No one was paying attention to them. So he turned, maneuvering himself to block the view for what he was about to do. He pulled a pack of matches out of his pants pocket. Then he struck the match - and tossed the flame towards the dark haired woman.

Tara flinched back. But before the match could reach her, Kat concentrated. The match burst into brilliant light, burning up in less than a second, pieces of ash and soot floating to the ground.

“I have a personal interest.”

Breathing harder, Tara slowly lowered herself back down into her seat. “Pyrokinesis. I see.”

“So, am I leaving? Or am I sitting back down?”

“You’re leaving, but with information,” Tara decided. She pulled a card out of her jeans pocket. “There’s a new woman in town who calls herself Fate. I don’t know if it’s your friend or not, but John recognized the name on your behalf. She’s been trying to organize an occult group. Don’t call that number before 8pm.”

Kat took the business card from her. One side was all black. On the other, there was a phone number underneath some occult symbols. He pocketed it. “All right. Thanks.”

Of course, if he couldn’t call that number right away, this meant he now had the rest of the afternoon to kill. And Tara was pretty, and only slightly younger than him. He flashed her a smile. “I can still sit back down.”

“If you do, I’ll get up. Military was already a strike, now that I see your interest in fire, I’ll pass.”

Oh well. It had been worth a shot. “All right,” Kat yielded. “Though for the record, I’m not interested in fire. It’s interested in me.” He turned, and walked out of the coffee shop.

It was that same series of steps that brought him right out of his reality.

In a blink, Katherine found himself in a large, cylindrical room. He spun. Despite having just passed through the shop’s doorway, it was gone. Everything was gone. Instead, behind him there was now a pair of brunettes, standing at some sort of large computer terminal against the curved wall. One woman in a black dress, the other in jeans and a white T-shirt.

His military training kicked in, and he automatically dropped to a crouch, hand poised to grab the gun from his ankle holster. But at the same time, he’d been witness to some pretty strange things in the “Doorways” program. Was this some offshoot organization? With beaming technology? “What’s going on?”

Jeans Woman turned to look at Black Dress. “Well, go ahead and explain it.”

“Me?!” Black Dress objected. “Your station, your project, your God!”

“Your mission.”

“Yeah, well, not if the square-cube circuitry kills me.”

“It won’t do that. Unless you hacked in and messed with Para’s protocols. Kind of hoping you weren’t that suicidal.”

“Oh, well, you would know, wouldn’t you? What with tracking everybody on Earth and randomly abducting them?”

“Hey, speaking of abductions?” Kat broke in again. “What’s. Going. On?”

Inwardly, Kat allowed himself to marginally relax. The room was largely empty, and these women didn’t seem to pose an immediate threat. They weren’t armed, and seemed more focussed on each other. Also, Black Dress was attractive, and there was no point in messing up his chances for a date twice in one day.

Actually, as they both turned back to him, Kat was forced to admit that they were equally attractive - but Black Dress looked to be closer to his age, early to mid thirties. He really hoped they were both human, not aliens concealing themselves under some illusion.

“Hi!” Black Dress chirped. “Welcome to The Hub, the main station for a scary oversight organization tracking dimensional anomalies across a multiverse. I’m Alijda, and I’ll be your commanding officer.”

Kat frowned. Dating was out then! “What’s your rank?”

“My RANK?” Alijda frowned back, then turned to Jeans Woman. “Do we have ranks?”

She shrugged. “Katherine’s probably referring to how he’s a Sergeant on his Earth.”

“Of COURSE he is.” Alijda faced Kat again. “This is Alice, by the way. She doesn’t provide any useful information until AFTER we need it.”

“‘Just bring him in,’ you said,” Alice remarked, half smiling. “I could have given you lots of data, but you said–"

“Yes, fine, I elected not to be a creeper, point made,” Alijda interrupted. She looked back to Kat, and sighed. “Yeah. So. Mind if we conscript you for a while? We have a ‘small’ problem.”

“Actually, yes.” Kat decided that his patience had worn out. This obviously wasn’t a military program. And while that potentially put a date with Alijda back on the table, he really did have more important things to do. “I’m in the middle of an investigation. Please return me back to that town I was in.”

“Fine.” Alijda turned to Alice. “Who do we try next?”

The younger brunette shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. The station targeted Katherine. We need him.”

Alijda made a sound of exasperation. “Fine. So put him back now, and pick him up later in his timeline. When he’s more amenable. After all, I get the impression that less time passed for you up here than it did for me, between my visits.”

Again, a shake of Alice’s head. “Waste of power. Too many variables involved. Also…" Her voice trailed off.

“Also?” Alijda pressed.

“Also, we aren’t able to retrieve Katherine on the occasions when he’s away from his Earth.”

With effort, Kat kept his expression neutral. Somehow, Alice knew about “Doorways”! Yet based on Alijda’s surprised expression, she did not? Kat decided he really needed to get out of here. Because he would now have to report this, and based on what they were saying, he was in danger of drowning in paperwork for the rest of his leave, instead of potentially seeing Fate again.

“Return me,” Kat asserted, drawing himself up to his full height.

“Is he an astronaut??” Alijda asked.

“‘Just bring him in,’ you said…”

“Oh, shut the front door!” the older brunette snapped. She spun away from Alice, and took a few steps towards Kat. “Look, stalemate. We apparently can’t ‘return you’. So you can either hang around here until me and Para have dealt with the Lilliputians, or you can join us, and thus potentially get back to your life sooner. What do you say?”

Kat gave the brunette woman another once over. Neither option seemed preferable. Yet if he was truly stuck here, should he start making the best of a bad situation? “Join me for dinner, and I’ll consider it.”

“Join you for…" Alijda turned back to Alice. “The hell? Is this guy for real?!”

“‘Just bring him in,’ you said…”

“Oooh, I hate you SO much right now!”

“A coffee, at least? Or tea?” Kat requested. After all, Alijda seemed like the better prospect in terms of getting him information. And if they actually had a pleasant interaction on top of that, it could be win-win.

Alijda shot him a look. “I’m a teleporter with suicidal tendencies. You really, REALLY don’t want to be chatting me up.”

“That wasn’t a ‘no’.”

Her eyes rolled. “Fine. We’ll have a tea, then go to Lilliputia Earth.”

“I still go under protest,” Kat noted.

“Whatever.” Alijda gestured to one side of the room, where there was a table and some chairs on wheels. “After you, Katherine.”

“Call me K.C.,” he offered. “Or simply Kat.”

Kat found himself sipping his tea slowly, and deliberately drawing out the conversation. He could only assume that Tara would have found this reversal HILARIOUS. A twist of irony, or karma, or something. At last, Alijda sat back to glare at him, with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face.

“You know what? I’m done talking,” she stated. Kat smiled amiably, and took a sip of his drink. In doing so, he mentally sifted through what his ‘mission leader’ had revealed so far.

This whole “Epsilon Project” wasn’t too dissimilar from “Doorways”. It merely involved teams travelling to other dimensions, instead of to other worlds. And it seemed to be for the purpose of cleaning up “anomalies”, rather than for exploration or trade. This project was also relatively new, with not many personnel. All reasons why they might have targeted him.

All of which meant that, had Fate been abducted by aliens, it probably wasn’t these aliens. He wondered idly what the non-human “Para” looked like. At least Alijda was human. And although she had been born in the Netherlands, she was also Canadian, like him. And she seemed nice enough, for a depressive. Maybe a little paranoid. Which wasn’t necessarily bad.

“Know what? You’re an interesting woman,” Kat remarked, lowering his cup.

“While you’re becoming an annoying man. Finish your tea already. Or, better plan, how about you tell me more about the secret program YOU’VE been alluding to?”

“It’s classified,” Kat apologized. Her jaw tightened. Okay, she’d been pushed to her limits. “But maybe another time.” He downed the rest of his tea. “For now, on to your ‘Lilliputia’! These circuits that you said will adjust our size, you’re sure they’ll work?”

“Hell no,” Alijda countered, rising. “That’s why I’m going through first, as Alice’s guinea pig. I’ll let you know if it kills me.”

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