REVOLUTION - Story - Chapter 20: Timeline Talk

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Date: 5:37:49 PM, September 5th, 2017.
Metal Man (GM): Recap
The Questers negotiated a bit of a cease-fire between Sloan's secret Mecha machine and the Deathguards. By doing so, they obtained the coordinates of the Sword of Light's upgrade. Sloanis #1 is now mostly dealt with, barring any last minute things, leaving the Questers to contemplate upon the oddity of a planet run 50% by a giant killer mecha and 50% by the Deathguards.
The group is aboard the Wing Fortress, contemplating the next move.
Continuation
Louisoix: "Contemplation... done. Oh well, and time to send out that drone."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...The coordinates are... well, Sloan definitely picked a difficult place to put the upgrade."
Kumiko: "Where do we have to start looking?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "On the plus side... yes. It is in the X-Zone. So it's not like we're uncertain about how to get there. This is where things get a bit pie-shaped."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier turns on the camera and it shows a part of the X-Zone that resembles Toad Town 2.
Louisoix: "But not nice like pie."
Kumiko: "X...-Zone? Sounds... like what the princess related to X-Death... ...I don't think there's any relation."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The area he placed it in is also the area where a large number of things from Nintendus went in the past."
Metal Man (GM): In the distance is a massive mecha that dwarfs the size of the Sloan Mecha. It is seen casually smashing entire buildings and lasering things.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I would have sent Louisoix's drone closer but it'd probably have been destroyed. At least, when we launched simple projectiles closer to the mecha, it destroyed them in seconds. Based on the energy emitted, it's been placed at the heart of that immense machine inside the X-Zone.
It's anybody's guess how Sloan would have figured out how to put it there, or maybe in fact the mech is using it as a power source.
I checked Time Cop logs to be certain. They noted that part of the X-Zone was a 'No Go' zone due to 'An advanced persistent threat that can counter our Nullus attacks and has killed several elite agents.'
Now, the good news is this means that upgrade or whatever is there can probably be used to kill Autumnus.
The bad news is that whatever it is is... ...well we might as well dare Kales Brando to kill it because I don't want to find out what happens if we get close to it.
And no. It doesn't talk. Some experimental radio calls only got back the sound of somebody crazy laughing."
Louisoix: "...IS it even possible to trick Kales Brando into attacking it?"
King Demon: "WHOSE crazy laughing?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes and no. Kales considers himself the Ultimate Warrior. However he also wants all the Questers dead for being 'the only people to have defeated him' plus he still craves the Smash Energy power he briefly tasted long ago. The radio signal was too degraded to tell."
Kumiko: "This sounds difficult then..."
King Demon: "Of course it was... why make it easy?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Kales is also currently stuck in a black hole, so we can't just, like, retrieve him."
Louisoix: "Fair enough."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "On that note, we may have to do something more about Autumnus. Sources indicate he has completed whatever he was doing far away and has begun meddling on the edge of our space more. Alarming things have begun occurring near Chark, where Time Cop ships have been seen showing up and a lot of comms traffic."
Nonna: "We never did investigate Chark, did we?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The Outliers we've been talking about also appear to be out and about... rumors indicate they figured out we did something to Kales and are out for our blood. Yeah, we never did."
Louisoix: "We may need to do that while we figure something out, then."
Kumiko: "Perhaps we need to incapacitate him then..."
Valron: "Hrm. Seems like there's quite a bit going on, then."
Louisoix: "Best case scenario, we lure the Outliers into fighting us and the mech and the mech deals with them. Or something equally insane." *He'd just look to the others for a moment* "Well, I'm trying, anyway."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So I'll just note--if this were that problematic video game about stealing cars, we probably have a fairly high 'heat' index, as it were, so we shouldn't be too far from our support systems... Well, the Outliers are savvy. I would be uncertain if an Alternate Nonna would truly be foolish enough to fight something the Time Cops labeled as a No-Go zone and posted out there on their public network for, well, anyone with one of these to see." *Taps his Time Device.*
King Demon: "Ever think we should just get all our enemies in one place and let them take each other out?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That would be ideal, though I'm not certain how we'd do that."
Valron: "For the moment, we can put the ultra-mech on the backburner, it seems. Doubt it's gonna be going anywhere."
Louisoix: "And there's no guarantee that they wouldn't just ally."
King Demon: "Telling them we're here, and letting them come to us usually works pretty well."
Louisoix: "Our best bet would be the outliers and the Time Cops, as apparently they've been giving Autumnus trouble anyway. But there's always the risk they come with an agreement and just join forces temporarily."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "For better or worse, even Autumnus doesn't seem interested in the ultra-mech. Based on the timing of Sloan sending the upgrade there, he probably put it there knowing it'd be safe."
Nonna: "At the same time, we shouldn't be promoting chaos just because it might affect those we don't like."
Louisoix: "Going to Chark might be good to improve some stability. But it also might be a good opportunity for them to flank us."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes. While we haven't gotten off on the best foot with Chark, if we lure the Outliers there and provoke some sort of war there, it'd probably result in thousands of casualties."
Valron: "May as well make sure not to linger there for too long, then."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Thankfully no one has suggested it, but, yes, that thing in the X-Zone is technically only trapped there because nobody can create a Planar Gate large enough to let it out again, but no, we won't be releasing that thing either..."
Louisoix: "True, though political matters never end up being too short. But... we shouldn't simply leave Chark to its own devices. Its risky, but reasonable. Yes, I think its fine where it is. If we release it we better know how to deal with it in the first place."
Nonna: "Not to mention, isn't Chark not even within our territory?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's inside of Autumnus' territory, yes."
King Demon: "Aww damn, I was thinking about releasing it in the Time Cops homeworld..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That's a difficult thing to do. We don't actually know the Time Cops' homeworld anymore."
Nonna: "So going there at all will provoke a situation like we had with Onta-vis. But with us as the aggressors."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Kit Redgrave's spells and our manipulation of time means that the future of Alsa ruled by Time Cops is no longer so. It can be assumed that their new homeworld is deep inside the space where Autumnus is, though."
Louisoix: "Chark is certainly complicated..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "And it IS possible to use the X-Zone to hopscotch deep inside their territory... but if Chark is a problematic border area, their homeworld is basically like if another incident like the Infinity Catastrophe occurred where Ael and Evil Wolfman plotted to destroy Nintendus. It is somewhat odd to actually think of it that way, but we are in a way in a situation similar to what the Time Cops thought of the Questers back when."
Valron: "...Huh. Funny how things work out, I guess."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We're used to operating fairly freely in our world, now these people have become more of a problem to us. The question is, do we repeat history but mirrored and try to exterminate the Time Cops, even though that was what destroyed the Time Cops who tried to kill the Questers in the first place? I would personally suggest figuring out some way to force Autumnus to leave Erastia be, since as far as I know Autumnus hasn't officially let go of it. He's considering us 'hostile invaders' holding it by force."
Nonna: "Hm. That wasn't part of the deal."
Valron: "Huh. I thought he was mainly fine with it, so long as we didn't touch a bunch of spots he marked as off limits."
Louisoix: "So basically a diplomatic approach, by settling other issues as to reduce pressure on Chark indirectly?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, I'm not certain if we should touch Chark or not. It seems like a trap to me..."
King Demon: "It probably is."
Louisoix: "Right, but if you're saying that you would prefer a diplomatic approach elsewhere, it might cause Chark to not be so problematic."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's just, settling the Erastian Question might be the means to end potential friction, since those disputed zones we cannot touch could potentially be crossed by unwitting Erastians. Do we have any real info on what the Time Cops are even up to? It seems like we haven't had much recently."
Louisoix: "Hm. Actually, I think that's not a bad idea overall. If we do that, the likelihood of a teamup with Alternate Nonna and Autumnus might not occur. So there will be less of a burden. Likely Autumnus knows that much, so we'd better be prepared for whatever bizarre terms he'd offer.
No clue myself."
Nonna: "He wasn't in the best mental health last time we spoke."
Louisoix: "The best course of action to deal with the outliers is to keep them from getting worthwhile tech or bargaining chips, and to make sure they don't get many allies. And we should try to keep the Time Cops in the position they are now, or worse if possible."
Valron: "Yeah, but it's not like we have much of an idea as to what the hell they're up to, either."
Louisoix: "True. Well, we can learn more from making some sort of offer. Well, lets go with Xavier's idea for now. It seems useful."
King Demon: "Eh, why not?"
Louisoix: "We know what we need to find and where, I'm not too convinced currently that the other forces are interested, or if they can even obtain it. And we need more intel regardless. Might even need that trip to hell after all.
Not that I want to, mind you."
Nonna: "The only question is what we can do with Erastia. It has a legitimate government now, and is rebuilding. If the Time Cops don't see that as reason enough to keep away, besides threats of force, what more can be done?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, it all began long ago, with the Erastians developing illicit Time Devices due to Illian. They sanctioned the planet to be destroyed to prevent their Time tech from escaping everywhere. The current Erastians don't have any Time Tech but I presume the Time Cops feel like it's somehow gonna just pop outta the woodwork any time now despite me forbidding them from creating any more without my say-so... ...well that and most of it was destroyed in the backlash to that time we used the Anti-Time device against Omnus."
Louisoix: "So, if we can make some deal or offer to confirm that no such devices or tech is being made, or maybe let them do timely investigations to make sure they don't have them, then maybe something can be done."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The trickiest part is I still don't know who oversaw the attack on Erastia. Autumnus most likely knows. My memory was, well, damaged. Even my backup memory can't see clearly... let's just say several time paradoxes resulted and that part of history is a mess."
Louisoix: "Basically have Time Cop inspectors come and just look the place over. If there's a dispute both us and them discuss what needs to be done."
Valron: "Yeah, there's a lot of fuzziness around that point in time."
Nonna: "An investigation team of Time Cops would be inviting trouble in itself."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The Time Cops would probably use any chance they got to try to create a new Celian Administrator scenario. I'm thinking more like, warping all of the 'forbidden zones' out of Erastia and to the Time Cops to do with as they please.
Granted, those places may be chock full of powerful artifacts or something. You never really know."
Louisoix: "Never heard of it. But I'm assuming the gist of it is that they can't be trusted to set foot on Erastia."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Omnus seemed to know about them, though."
Louisoix: "Maybe we should investigate what might be there first, or do you think we should offer it blindly? A check would take a while."
King Demon: "Hell? Why would we go to my homeworld?"
Louisoix: "To ask how to get to the contents in the mech. We know where the contents are, but its safeguarded pretty well. Worst case scenario."
Kumiko: "Home... world...?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I doubt the Hell we're speaking of is your homeworld, Demon, unless Sloan is actually an old buddy of yours."
King Demon: "What, you didn't think I got these good looks from a human, did you?"
Louisoix: "Well, maybe I got the names confused. Its wherever Sloan is."
Kumiko: "True."
King Demon: "Uh... no, definitely not. Maybe a friend of my dad's..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well it's more confusing than that, Louisoix. Demon came from outside this timeline so..."
Louisoix: "I see. Or I don't."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Technically there's the Hell that is in his home timeline where the demonic beings would be. Then there's this timeline, where Hell is what we've been talking about, and seemingly has different or less demons in it."
Louisoix: "I'm talking about ours, then."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "There's this... 'Earth Prime' timeline essentially, you'll hear a lot about it from anyone who's an older Quester. A lot of things on Nintendus are considered 'video games' that children play in that dimension. It gives me the creeps. All those hard fought wars between good and evil, just treated like it's a card game."
King Demon: "Yeah, that one... fuck that one. ... Sorry, I should watch my language, shouldn't I?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I wouldn't fuckin' worry about goddamn language, motherfucker." *Violently shoots out a window.*
Kumiko: "I'm from a different place overall. It's all I remember, different world, a princess I served, and fighting giant monstrosities that were magically enhanced."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's just not all that useful at the moment." *Chuckles.*
Louisoix: "...you guys can breathe in space, right?"
Kumiko: "But I don't see how that's relevant here."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "There's a force field."
Valron: "...I'm glad to see we've still got enough time for silliness, even with all the rubbish going on."
Louisoix: "Oh."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "But yes. That was intended to be shocking."
Commander Borne sighs and puts a new window in.
Valron: "Mind, there's a few of us who don't need to breathe, or not really have to worry about it for sufficiently long periods of time."
Kumiko: "Oh, and a long haired fat bastard who also was a Raichu for a time."
Commander Borne: "I hope this doesn't become the equivalent of when he takes off his helmet and says 'BOO!'"
*He walks off.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So... information... Two Lives Tom is probably gone, but Kit did capture Omnus. I wonder if we could ask him. If we should ask him anything. He probably doesn't like us."
Louisoix: "Thanks. Well, seems like Erastia is a good place to start. Question is whether or not just offer the deal now, or do an investigation first. Though at this point I have to ask... CAN we go to the planet, or will that cause problems? Well, it would be the "*simplest*"way to figure it out.
Not necessarily easier."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Of course we can go to Erastia. We just can't enter those small areas marked off limits. I'm the King after all."
Valron: "How about we not make an offer."
Louisoix: "Ah, then its out of the question. We'll have to find an alternative method, then. Well, what is your idea, then?"
Xavier Ridgecrest takes out his 'crown', which is a motorcycle rim with a bunch of impressive spikes on it.
King Demon: "When did you become Samuel L. Jackson?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It involved the demise of all the other Questers who cursed continuously."
Kumiko: "PK Fire ain't no country I've ever heard of, they speak English in PK Fire?"
King Demon: "Oh, right, THAT incident..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Someone has to be foul-mouthed around here. Inane things that make no sense demand it!"
Kumiko: "Ahem, sorry."
Valron: "Do they?"
Nonna: "...Anyway."
King Demon: *Shrugs* "Eh, I do my cursing in moderation."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Also my crown can spin." *Pushes a button and his crown spins in a circle on his head, creating a vaguely mildly amusing effect where 'KING -OF- ERASTIA' appears from the movement via an illusion on the rim*
"So if we want information... well, we just need to figure out where we want it.
There's Omnus that we have captured. There's Vetrek who could probably try to figure out a good source to pay for it..."
Kumiko: "Whatever we do, I'll be ready. Unfortunately, I'm not much help in deciding where..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "There's Sloan, who is in hell itself. There's riskily wandering around Chark looking for it.
We could go to Erastia and try to search through it for information on what happened back when and perhaps what would make the Time Cops leave it alone.
We could go to Rendar again. I presume it's no longer in the trouble it was before now that Kales is dealt with. Anthon might know something."
Valron: "If they'd even leave it alone, anyway..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Or we could go to Toad Town on Nintendus, and fight Goombas."
Louisoix: "True. Just for the hell of it?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...I just hate those Goombas. Walkin' around... making dumb faces..."
Nonna: "We can stomp Goombas anytime."
Valron: "I mean, don't we have a holo room for that, anyways?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "True. Technically anything is possible with that."
Kumiko: "Goombas...?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Last thing on my mind is the leftover from before, where Illian suggested we go to the Outliers directly and try to KO them."
King Demon: "Woo hoo! Goomba stomping!"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm... not certain that's wise, but... I have to mention it to be complete."
Valron: "...Regardless, I'm leaning towards either trying to shake info out of Omnus, searching on Erastia proper, or just kicking Outliers in half."
Kumiko: "I recall that... in a training sim in my distant past. My liege would crush them with her boots."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Sloanis #1 at least is pretty peaceful right now, so we don't seemingly need to do anything with it right now."
Kumiko: "...interesting how things are lining up."
Valron: "With the last of those as a distant third."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, Omnus is here on the ship. Thanks to Kit he's basically summonable however we wish. So naturally we have it set up where he can't do anything. It's not perfect because he's still dangerous, but... Illian came up with a funny solution... just summoning him at a tiny size and in a pocket dimension so he can't really interact with anything."
Nonna: "Attacking these unknowns with no plan sounds like suicide to me."
Louisoix: "We can try that.
I want to see who this Omnus guy is anyway. And if he's tinier it's funnier."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Plus, even if he escaped, to be honest, Autumnus would just destroy him. Kit destroyed a lot of his powers in the process, anyways."
King Demon: "So... no goombas? Damn... oh well. Sure, let's summon up the mini-maniac."
Nonna: "I'll help make sure he can't do anything."
Valron: "Yeah. Considering he no longer has the core of an alternate Alsa for his body anymore..."
Nonna: "I still owe him for what he did to Cheriss and Gelato."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, we can probably destroy Goombas sometime after we handle the more weighty things. I mean it's not like it takes any time. Or if Omnus gets testy, since he's summoned, he can be dismissed by stepping on him."
Louisoix: "We'll do that afterwards, how's that."
Nonna: "Now that I think about it..."
Valron: "Anyways, how're we gonna hold Omnus? Are we going to put his mind in a crock pot or something?"
Nonna: "Perhaps Molly also knows something. She created Omnus and hated Autumnus. She might be privvy to things."
Valron: "...Isn't Mad Molly kinda impossible to contact, though?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes. Mad Molly is, however, currently still in Autumnus' custody. Granted, that doesn't mean we can't attempt to try to figure out where she is. Through Omnus, even."
King Demon: "Cool, long as I get to smash something... or burn it... I'll be happy."
Louisoix: "Considering we didn't nuke that Sloan planet I'm sure some of us are itching to smash something."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier leads the way to a room set up for this purpose, complete with a nice window showing off Sloanis #1 in the background.
And a small capsule in the center. Xavier casually flips a switch and a tinny, metallic, high pitched voice can be heard. It's too quiet to be heard, initially, so Xavier starts turning up the knobs on an amplifier nearby.
Xavier spends a moment as it's really hard to hear.
King Demon looks at the capsule.
Metal Man (GM): It's very tiny, and at about foot level, complete with a 'watch your step' sign next to it.
King Demon: "Couldn't you have at least put this on a table or something?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I want to be able to step on it if it says something annoying."
Louisoix: "That's important."
Omnus: *KRRSSSSH* "...Where am I. Why are there giants everywhere. Why do they sound like the idiots I wanted to quash."
King Demon: "Yeah... well... I might just squash it out of boredom." *Shrugs and steps away from it for now.*
Nonna: "Hello."
Louisoix: "Question, if I stepped on it, could you bring him back?"
Valron: "...Huh. Can't say I was expecting that."
Omnus: "It is! It is you! That person I wanted to kill! Now I will show you my power! ANTIMATTER BEAM!."
Metal Man (GM): A tiny line flies out and harmlessly bounces off of Nonna's forehead.
Louisoix: "Awww."
Kumiko: "That was pathetic."
Valron: *Is trying his hardest not to crack up.*
King Demon: "Uh... Can I pick it up, Mets?"
Kumiko: "Is that your best?"
Nonna: "How are you doing today, Omnus?"
Omnus: "...Now I get it. ...Give me one reason not to destroy myself so as to not be further made a fool of. You cannot dishonor m--" *Trips and falls off the platform he's on* "OW."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'd say we wait to pick it up to when we don't care about destroying it. He's really small and can't be moved too far from there due to the force field."
Omnus: "I am currently freakishly tiny and being gawked at by mortal fools. That is how I am doing today."
King Demon: "... Aww, damn, I wanted to see if he sounded like a rattle when I shook it up."
Louisoix: "Well we have questions. Well, the others have questions, I'm the new guy so its not like I know you."
Kumiko: "Don't make me laug-...OK enough of that."
Nonna: "Rest assured, we do not intend to make you look like a fool. You're doing that fine enough on your own."
Kumiko: "What they said. I don't know you either"
Omnus: "Snicker all you want. You must need something from me if you would dare summon me! Any moment now, I will find a hole in your defenses... TIME REVERSALASREVER EMIT... it only lasted one second? BLAST IT!"
King Demon: "Don't give me ideas..."
Kumiko: *She just laughs like Shao Kahn, after all that's who she's impersonating right now.*
King Demon: *Looks to Kumiko* "It'd be more effective with the skull mask."
Omnus: "And clearly my Time Device is not on me, otherwise I would have just warped away... so, what is this for? Your amusement?"
Kumiko: "I unfortunately don't have one."
Valron: "Right, as amusing as this is..."
King Demon: "Yeah, I left mine in another dimension." *Shrugs.*
Nonna: "The people here wish to ask you some questions. The sooner you answer them truthfully, the sooner it will be that we will leave you alone, dignity intact."
Omnus: "What are these questions, then?"
Nonna: "You're up, guys."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'll let the others go first, since I tend to never shut up."
Louisoix: "...alright, guess I have to ask, then. So, Erastia. There are off-limit areas on the planet. What is there, exactly?"
Omnus: "Oh... so despite destroying me while I was trying to educate the likes of you, NOW you want to know. Well... I guess the truth cannot be ignored forever... It is beyond your pay grade. You were never meant to meddle in such things..."
Louisoix: "Well, technically I didn't kill you, but that's semantics."
Omnus: "...However, as it will most likely get you killed, I may as well tell you now. After all, THIS isn't going to do the job." *Pure elements up a pathetic ice cube.*
Valron: "Probably will make an excellent drink, at least."
Louisoix: "It seems the Time Cops want some sort of control over those regions, anyway."
Omnus: "At my normal size it would destroy the ship and eternally freeze it. But... ...as an ice cube, yes. It will probably not melt for several days. The Time Cops worked with the Erastians.
The planet was to be an experiment in new technology.
The sealed areas are labs where that forbidden technology was made.
They are guarded by automatic systems capable of destroying entire galaxies."
King Demon: *Sarcastically* "Sounds like fun."
Omnus: "When it was attempted to destroy the planet, the problem was our own technology was too powerful. It detected the attempt to destroy the planet and actually protected itself."
Louisoix: "So its essentially in an eternal standstill."
Omnus: "The keys were locked inside. We can't get into it. You might be able to, because it hasn't detected you as an enemy... yet."
Valron: "...Now that's interesting. What the hell were they even focusing on that required such nonsensically over-the-top defenses? I get that it must be some ludicrous hypertech, but..."
Omnus: "But well, you might get locked inside forever, or trigger Autumnus' wrath, or everything at once. Or maybe the galactic annihilation weaponry inside might go off.
...There's possibly copies of me trapped in some of them as well.
One of my features, as you probably forgot, is that I had many bodies.
So many were sacrificed in a failed attempt to break into them."
Louisoix: "So its basically Pandora's Box. Nobody should touch it, but its also a landmine that could go off if anything were to happen to Erastia."
Omnus: "Disconnected from me, they're now just maddened husks that attack with at least 3/4 of my full power. If you could truly master the technology inside... well, you'd probably be able to destroy Autumnus and all the Time Cops forever.
That was MY plan, you know. Get you off of that planet, acquire what's inside and destroy the other Old Time Cops.
Since the New Time Cops are probably gone now... I wouldn't mind if you decided to become the New Time Cops and avenge me. It wasn't all your doing that I failed, after all."
Nonna: "Yes, clearly, that was your plan when you prevented us from leaving the planet and then tried to kill us."
Kumiko: "My allegiance is only to my friends here and the Princess I know. I have no reason to join a new faction."
Omnus: "You were in the way, ants interfering in my plan! You decided to try and live there... you know too much."
Valron: "...Yes, well. Maybe you should've thought things through a bit better. Regardless."
Omnus: "Besides, you displaced Garrick and Illian and broke this Timeline. That needed to be fixed! This is... this is some abomination timeline. It shouldn't exist!"
Valron: "I recall you mentioning that before, yes."
Omnus: "Autumnus... I don't know what's wrong with him, he should be trying to erase this timeline, not managing it... the fact you're even able to breath enough to talk to me now suggests he's lost his mind."
Valron: "...At first, I thought that was some sort of weird snub that was meant to get at me."
Omnus: "I do mean to snub you. You are nothing like those who were lost, in the true Timeline... the great climactic battle... ...then again maybe it's for the best because in the other timeline Autumnus dies first and it gets really chaotic later on."
Valron: "...I can only imagine how much of a mess it spirals into."
Omnus: "The Protectors succeed in destroying Xavier Ridgecrest and his mongrel Questers, then together they create a new Ultra Force that destroys Autumnus using the Chaos Emeralds combined with Smash Energy and the Infinity Blade."
Valron: "So, how badly does that backfire on them?"
Omnus: "Garrick creates a magitek superweapon and blows up Autumnus mid-sentence. It's ten times more powerful than the Anti-Reality Gun. But then, me and Mad Molly come on the scene, and Mad Molly reverse engineers what he has, and destroys him with it. Illian, enraged, causes a hole in reality when he uses The Book to bring Garrick back."
Valron: "Okay, wait."
Omnus: "Then it... gets kind of hazy... almost like that timeline being prevented is causing what happened to slowly be lost from my memory..."
Valron: "How does the kickback from all both of those hypercharged Reality Reversal Drives just... Not completely and utterly shred that timeline?"
Louisoix: "Timelines are confusing, and that's coming from me..."
Omnus: "...You know, that may be one of the other reasons why my memory of that timeline ends suddenly. I mean. The laws of physics did start to melt towards the end.
The light coming from the sun became strangely red-shifted and gravity became weaker, and electricity became breakable like it was solid."
Valron: "...Yeah, that'd make sense. I bet reality just tore apart at the seams after Mad Molly used hers. Or, hell, it was already coming undone, and Illian reviving Garrick via The Book just exacerbated I- Oh."
Omnus: "Sound became harder and harder to hear and people had to use text devices."
Valron: "...Yeah, it's probably for the best that that timeline got subverted. Eesh."
King Demon: "So... you're complaining to us about a reality that YOU destroyed?"
Omnus: "Well, I would have figured out a solution! ...Except my memories of that time start to become too corrupted to recall so I may have become unable to remember anything due to electricity stopping working properly... now that I think about it, how long can you flesh beings live if your electrical impulses stop existing?"
Valron: "I'd imagine the answer to that is 'not very.' Anyways, as interesting as that line of conversation has been... I'm wondering." *He shows Omnus a picture of the ultra-mech that presumably has the upgrade for the Sword of Light in it* "Do you"
Omnus: "It was still better than this one, I swear! ...well, there were multiple OTHER timelines, so it's not like that was the only one. Wait... why are you looking at that?
That is... Entity GK, aka the God-Killer mech."
King Demon: "Not existing at all is better than existing like this?" *Looks at Omnus* "Well, maybe in your case at the moment..."
Omnus: "It arose in a planet that we artificially created a long time ago. It threatened reality itself, so we interned it in the X-Zone."
Valron: "It may have something that's of particular import to us."
Louisoix: "God Killer Mech? Huh. Seems... like a problem."
King Demon: "Well, THAT would explain a few things..."
Omnus: "A scientist built a machine that was so powerful it could destroy Gods as well as entire cities. Oh, but don't worry. In none of the timelines I've seen does it ever escape that X-Zone place. Whatever is inside it... good luck getting it. We usually send people we want to get killed to fail to try and 'beat' it.
Nullus doesn't even phase it.
There is some prototype energy drive powering it that makes it supernaturally difficult to damage."
Valron: "Hrm... I wonder." *He brings up data on the Master Egg, and sees how it compares to Entity GK. He doubts it'll bring anything conclusive, but...*
Omnus: "...Which if you fetched it from Erastia's forbidden labs could probably kill it. I really doubt the Galaxy Destruction Devices would fail to kill it."
Metal Man (GM): The silhouettes look rather similar, only the GK has some rearranged pieces on it, and looks... upgraded.
Valron: "...Fuckin' hell. This thing may as well just be Master Egg 2.0"
Omnus: "Granted, you'd also be destroying the entire X-Zone. I would weep for the loss of their indigenous culture."
*He makes a sarcastic pause after saying that.*
Louisoix: "I guess that's a good question, despite the sarcasm. Is it possible to even live there with that thing around?"
Valron: "I'd imagine anything that lives in the X-Zone knows to stay well enough away from that."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "There's also an entity known as the Jokercube that is blind, deaf, and otherwise unable to sense anything except by touch, and can destroy anything. So... Most of the worst anomalies stay to their 'areas.'"
Louisoix: "I see."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Even this 'GK' thing would probably run into trouble if it went to destroy everything in the X-Zone."
Omnus: "Oh. You know of entity JK too. Well. I'm amazed you're alive."
Valron: "...There's a lot of terrible ideas floating around. I'm just going to ignore them"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It required a lot of careful walking."
Omnus: "Yes, the X-Zone is where everything too destructive for anyone to survive goes. I'm glad you belatedly figured that out."
Valron: "Is there an Entity ME as well? Because there's this patently absurd mech Robotnik made that's also in the X-Zone... And it seems to be a lesser version of GK."
Omnus: "There is a reverse world that has a reverse Master Emerald that is called Entity EM. It is a stupid place. Nobody goes there."
Louisoix: "How stupid we talking here?"
Omnus: "I once sent some recruits there to watch them get lost while crazy things there spoke backwards at them."
Valron: "How odd."
Omnus: "Selrac rules that place, and speaks in nonsense. He gives 'powerful items' that are pointless."
Louisoix: "I wonder if those people come from there. Who knows."
Omnus: "Indeed, you could say I only brought it up to waste your time."
Louisoix: "Thanks."
Omnus: "C'mon Autumnus, I know you're just itching to come here and destroy these fools, then you will accidentally let me free!"
King Demon: "He probably is. We just... aren't near their territory at the moment."
Nonna: "You okay?"
Omnus: "I am definitely not okay with being used as a fortune teller machine, but I believe that is your goal, so... I grow impatient. Is there anything else I can tell you that could make you potentially die in a bizarre and horrible fashion?"
Louisoix: "I could come up with a few things. But maybe next time."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We were going to ask about Mad Molly too, I believe."
Omnus: "What is this? A question that I don't want to kill you for asking?"
Valron: "Yeah, I recall that..."
Louisoix: "Yes, I do too. What kind of man does Mad Molly prefer?"
Valron: "Yes, you heard right. Considering she created you, I figured you'd probably have the best... Lou, stop."
Omnus: "If you want me to tell you anything that isn't potentially just a means to get you killed, then you will rescue Mad Molly from Autumnus."
Valron: "Anyways, where was I?"
Omnus: "...Mad Molly loves robots like you, Louisoix."
Valron: "Yeah, where is she, anyways? For reference's sake."
Louisoix: "I should probably be worried."
Omnus: "Unlike men, she can reprogram them when they say things that upset her. Heh heh heh heh heh..."
Louisoix: "Yes, should be worried..."
Omnus: "Well, if I knew where she was, I would have saved her from Autumnus. Sadly, she took to hiding from me. Apparently I was too protective of her."
King Demon: "Always be worried, Louis."
Nonna: "What did she say right before that?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I second what Demon said."
King Demon: "ESPECIALLY when things are going good."
Omnus: "What did she... well now I can't make it such a mystery, since you've been so precise in your question. She made it clear that while she wanted to be free of Autumnus, my protection was worse than his imprisonment. Presumably she is still 'imprisoned' in Time Cop territory, in a base near a sun with strange colors around it. Presumably a place where all questioned Time Cops go to when caught by the Old Time Cops.
Oddly, she said that the Questers would probably ask about it and for the one who knows of a person named Tom to 'retrace their steps.'
I bet she did something naughty with time again to know such a thing.
Autumnus always thinks he controls her... but unfortunately neither me nor Autumnus could truly keep her from sneaking things."
Nonna: "I wonder if that's the place I saw..."
Louisoix: "Sounds like gibberish to me, but again, I'm the new guy who asked who Mad Molly would like and was quickly burned."
Omnus: "You're still better than that time the Questers of Alsa attempted to 'reason' with her."
Louisoix: "Well I mean, 'Mad' is in her name. I imagine it is hard."
Omnus plays back voice clip of Mad Molly going 'Ahahahaha! You are so cute! Now to find out what happens when you DIE!'
King Demon: "Tom? I know a few Tom's, but I don't remember any from this dimension..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I bet it's that guy who makes the toothpaste. It's probably some mad science from the Nth dimension that only Mad Molly could create to make that stuff."
Kumiko: "...wait, what?"
Valron: "...Ooorrr this could be something Nonna would know about. Sounds like it, anyways."
Nonna: "Tom and I have a bit of a history."
King Demon: "Let's see, there's Tom Brady, Tom and Jerry, Tomintul..."
Valron: "Two-Lives Tom, right?"
Louisoix: "I was thinking of the second one myself, but I don't think he would be very useful right now. Or ever."
Omnus: "This is also why I know Mad Molly hasn't given up on me. Which is, by the way, the ONLY reason I decided to not destroy myself to deprive you of information."
Nonna: "Two-Lives Tom kidnapped me before, in order to get my help in freeing him and his allies from Omnus' mind control implants."
Omnus: "There are other code words she has sprinkled in things she has said to me. If you happen to bring them up I will tell you them."
Kumiko: "Overlord Omicron killed a man named Tom, and took his sword. But I think that bears no relevance to the current events..."
Omnus: "...You were the one who ruined that totally awesome setup where I controlled everyone's minds? Gah! Heh heh heh. I bet Overlord Autumnus killed a man named Tom in this realm. You're experiencing dimensional resonance, lady."
Nonna: "Part of this arrangement was to go back in time to Omnus' creation. I disguised myself to go around undetected."
Kumiko: "I doubt it. Omicron's a 300 pound fat bastard who shapeshifts"
Omnus: "It's true. Autumnus is a 300 planetary weight unit fat bastard who shapeshifts."
Nonna: "I talked Molly into not giving in to her impulse to create an all-hating being."
Omnus: "Totally different."
King Demon: "So... Kingpin?"
Kumiko: "...He only let himself go because he lost to a guy drinking Sprite."
Omnus: "In that he could probably sit on this Omicron and crush him."
Nonna: "She was imprisoned wherever that was. Autumnus even came by on some kind of visit or inspection."
Omnus: "...That's also why you shouldn't let Autumnus touch you, by the way. Force of a black hole around him, gravitationally speaking."
Nonna: "Could that be the same place, I wonder?"
Omnus: "Well, you know more than me about this place Mad Molly suggested I mention to you."
Valron: "Good to know."
Omnus: "The only way I know about the place is I wanted to get there once to just blow it up to make Autumnus sad. But I never was privileged enough to actually find it."
King Demon: "Well, this has actually not been a waste of time, I'm impressed!"
Valron: "Especially considering the only time I ever fought Autumnus, I was being backed up with the power of an entire planet... What a day that was." *Shakes his head.*
Kumiko: "How has it not been a waste of time? I should've never mentioned Omicron... he's irrelevant to this ordeal..."
Omnus: "You can go back in time and prevent yourself from asking the question, if it bothers you that much. I know I do that a lot, when I have my device."
King Demon: "We have a better idea where Molly is now, at least. And what that thing is in the X-Zone."
Nonna: "Well, we have a lead now, anyway."
Kumiko: "The past is the past. I prefer to not worry myself with it. End of story."
King Demon: "And that your overlord needs to go on a diet."
Kumiko: "...I'm surprised he didn't eat his Hyper Sword yet."
Louisoix: "And that I should go on the Mad Molly route."
Omnus: "Now, have I earned my rest? Just know that if you do rescue Mad Molly, I will consider being more helpful than just telling you where all the dangerous things are."
Brian: *Not go.*
King Demon: "Gee, thanks, though, you do realize that even if we DO free Molly, there's no guarantee she'll return to you."
Omnus: "At this point logically speaking my alternative is never seeing her again. Given she created me, the question remains--would you never want to see your creator again?"
Louisoix: "Well technically I can't. He's dead."
Omnus: "...And tell Borne he is totally the inferior prototype model red headed stepchild and totally inferior to me. Time travel can fix that whole death thing."
Louisoix: "Though I guess technically he isn't? Semantics. Nah, it was kind of necessary."
Kumiko: "Time travel sucks."
Valron: "It can get a bit messy, regardless..."
Omnus: "If you became the Time Questers, you could go anywhere. Even to where Omicron kills Taco Bell, I mean Tomintul."
Kumiko: "Or so... that's what I was told."
King Demon: "Well, given that my creator is my father..."
Louisoix: "What's Taco Bell?"
Omnus: "If he's only 300 lbs, you could probably body slam him into a comet."
Valron: "Cheap fast food joint, Lou."
King Demon: "I'll tell you later, Louis."
Kumiko: "There's no point. He lost to a guy using a battle staff drinking Sprite. And badly at that."
King Demon: "Also, inferior to Taco Johns."
Valron: "I'm not going to ask."
Omnus: "The only point would be to watch the look on their faces when people they don't know screw up time. It's the funniest thing ever."
Valron: "Anyways, I think that's all we wanted to ask? Unless someone has a surprise pressing question they want to throw in?"
Omnus: "I realize I wasted my powers. So many foolish mortals to body slam into comets and random events to destroy."
Kumiko: "I mean the guy basically just spammed Hadouken with one hand until his Sprite was gone. ...nope."
Louisoix: "Well, you can think about it until the next time we talk to you, if it happens."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You may now dunk the Omnus, Demon."
King Demon: "Sounds like a cool guy, Kumiko."
Omnus: "You could go back in time and drink his sprite! And then... you could warp him into Autumnus' office to tick off Autumnus."
Kumiko: "Doing that would subject us to the Exitprize's antimatter cannons. I rather not"
Omnus: "Antimatter cannons? Sounds... extremely useful. I'll be sure to steal those next time I get a time device."
King Demon: "Dunk the... how about PUNT the Omn... antimatter cannons?"
Omnus: "Granted... only a machine such as I can ignore Time Dementia, so..."
Kumiko: "They were a prototype to the Plutonium's hyperfission cannons."
Omnus: "It's useless to you mortal fools."
Louisoix: "Oh? So that's something someone else has perfected?"
Omnus: "Other dimensions are full of broken, cheap weapons. How do you think Nintendus became so dangerous?"
Kumiko: "In my former life, we piloted the Plutonium. It was used to obliterate parts of a research lab."
Omnus: "It's just that if you aren't careful, it blows up the entire universe."
Kumiko: "So they couldn't keep making magically infused clones."
King Demon: "Ok, you're going to have to explain to me how you PILOT RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL!"
Kumiko: *Holds head* "...I have no idea... how I recalled all that."
Valron: "Wait, wait. What's this about Time Dementia? Now that sounds like useful information."
Omnus: "When you warp too far, you get Time Dementia."
Louisoix: "Right."
Kumiko: "The Plutonium was named after the actual element. It was a successor to the Neptunium used in the First Mystic Blade War."
Omnus: "Those things are at least a thousand years from this timeline."
Valron: "Yeah, I get the basics of that, but... Particulars."
Omnus: "Your person having memory lapses about it is most likely due to that."
Kumiko: "The Hyperfission Cannon was an upgrade over the Antimatter Cannon, which was a variant of the Magitech Blaster."
Omnus: "I only tell you because... I bet you can't figure out a way around it. Heh heh heh... Then you can warp to the beginning of time! Nothing can go wrong then... yes..."
Louisoix: "Time Dementia? Well, I found some solutions, but I guess I was asleep for so long someone beat me to it."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier casually flicks Omnus, causing him to vanish.
Kumiko: "Bit Aeonus used the Magitech Blaster to completely obliterate the Magic Cannon of Vicienta. All I remember."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well... that should be enough of that."
Louisoix: "Oh? Hm."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We have our information."
Louisoix: "...we do, yes."
Kumiko: "I prefer to not bring up more of my former world here, it may not be a good idea..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "How/where can we get to this place where Mad Molly is, Nonna? It's okay, Kumiko. I mean, I once shrank down to the size of an ant and beat up tiny blue Kirbies to defeat evil air conditioner demons."
King Demon: "Aww damn, I didn't get to punt him!"
Kumiko: "Ah."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "And then there was a time I was perpetually drunk and ruled a Stadium full of ponies that were also ninjas."
Valron: "...Now I want to do more research on Time Dementia at some point. It seems like there could be something worthwhile to gain from that."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You were too slow, Demon." *Sticks tongue out.*
Kumiko: "Then perhaps I shouldn't ignore my bracelet so much."
Louisoix: "Indeed, there is."
Nonna: "We're going to have to contact Tom, or if not, we can try scrying my visual memories and look for features that match what I saw."
King Demon: "Ah yes, that mission, fun times, Mets!"
Louisoix: "Though... it seems this Mad Molly character perfected it and gave it to Omnus."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The truth is, it's not a worry about irrelevant memories. It's more that we should stick to a diet of only one or two so we don't get so distracted Autumnus takes over the universe while we reminisce."
Kumiko: "...so it's no shame to recall my past?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Because I'm pretty certain that happens in one of the timelines..." *Stares at the dex as if it's somehow at fault.*
Valron: "I wouldn't doubt it."
King Demon: "Nah, our pasts make us who we are. They tell us how we got to be here."
Nonna tries to contact Tom.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "There's no telling what might be interesting or useful from our pasts, so I wouldn't totally ignore it, as long as it doesn't become like a Quester who erroneously kept telling us their past was, in fact, also our future."
King Demon: "And serve as reminders to avoid making past mistakes."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Or that Glyph guy who kept somehow BSing up new factoids that then somehow changed the present retroactively."
King Demon: "Ah, yes, that Quester... didn't we shoot her into a star or something?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Or that Alex Fender guy who kept derailing everything with tales about kicking some guy's ass."
*He begins continuously listing people in the background for 10 minutes.*
Kumiko: "Very well. Before I fully refocus myself on what we need to do, I'll mention this bracelet once belonged to Princess Charlotta of Mereshi. My liege, also known as the Princess of the Wind. I wonder if that's why my memories are coming back..."
Valron: "No, Demon. She retired."
Nonna: "...Guys."
Metal Man (GM): The frequency Tom is on is rather quiet.
You hear only static.
Kumiko: "It stores events. Anyway..."
Valron: "...That's not fishy at all. The static, I mean."
King Demon: "Huh... who'd we jettison into a star then?"
Nonna: "It's no surprise, though. After all the favours we did for each other, he did indicate he wanted to get out of this galaxy altogether."
King Demon: "Or was that a different group I was with?"
Nonna: *Stops.*
Valron: "Makes sense, I suppose."
Nonna: "We have my memories, though."
Metal Man (GM): It is possible to scry memories/otherwise attempt to figure out what you saw that one time, Nonna, depending on what way you wish to go about it.
Nonna: "What are my options?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Mmmm... well, your memories... technically also exist in Smash Dex form presuming you had it on you at some point."
Louisoix: "That's a good point, you said earlier that if I died, there was some way to have me come back. We could study whatever does that to see memories. Guess that's what you mean?"
Nonna: "Let's try, at least."
Valron: "Worth a shot."
King Demon: "This ought-ta be good. I'm gonna need some popcorn."
Louisoix: "Oh, we can watch it?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "What the Smash Dex does to see memories? ...It's some weird magical timey-wimey stuff Professor Oak and Dr. Light did long ago, I don't pretend to know how it works."
*He clicks some things to look it up.*
Kumiko: "Memories...?"
King Demon goes to get some popcorn real quick, coming back with a bag in his hand, using his own heat ability to pop it as he walks in... hey, look, extra buttered!
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes, this is one of those that synced after you experienced it... Since it always knows what is mission relevant information and tends to obtain that."
Metal Man (GM): Old Memory Recap: Last time, Valron and Nonna were raiding Time Cop ships to try to send a radio message + steal Time Cop parts.
They got half of a ship, and Valron got out, but Nonna vanished with Two Lives Tom, with no actual resolution as to what happened there...
We continue at a location much further away...
A station that appears to be outside of Time itself, surrounded by prismatic fields and waves of energy.
Nonna would appear in a room that has a full view of the outside--complete with the wavy energy and everything. The room is, in fact, bare of anything other than steel walls and that view, and another window through which other people outside the hallway could walk over and look in. Nonna would see that all her weapons and equipment had been removed--to an extent only possible by some sort of magic spell, as nothing would be left except just her clothes. No reading material, no radios, no weapons, etc. Completely unarmed.
Nonna (Recording): "It would appear I miscalculated."
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "You... gave me quite a heart attack... there..." *He seems heavily burdened.* "But... my guess was correct... You haven't become Time Cops like the prophecy claimed.
It was all some sort of lie Illian used to try to scare us away.
I'd have already looked through your things, but as I know, you could have planted some sort of bomb or a way to escape in them. Other people elsewhere are looking at them. You won't recover them here, that is for certain.
There's only one thing I haven't done... and that's tell Omnus about this." *He leans on the wall, still bleeding from the fight.* "Omnus doesn't tell us what goes on outside... so this is my only chance to figure out the information he forbade us lower level people from knowing without breaking any rules."
Nonna (Recording): "There was that P90 I picked off of Sloan's corpse, my armour, omni-disguise, and smoke bomb... not exactly much to take, but eh."
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "Omnus... doesn't care too much about us. And... information is more valuable than gold. The Questers... I have heard stories of one Quester who could kill people with shoes."
Nonna (Recording): "Didn't I kill Omnus?"
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "...That barrier is reinforced five times harder than the hardest material you've ever seen."
Nonna (Recording): "Or whatever the hell you were spouting earlier about things I had done but actually haven't."
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "That's the sort of thing I need information about. Omnus believes in this theory of 'dangerous people.' We all know about Illian. But for some reason he put you on the list, even though you're not wielding the power that was seen earlier... If you're not the one, then there could be another Illian-class scenario going on.
...Since you're not a Time Cop, I'll note an Illian scenario is when someone from another dimension meddles to 'win' in another world that's not theirs.
It's in your interest as well as mine that we don't let this other Nonna, if they are even you, do that to this universe.
They could be Illian in a dress for all we know.
Let me tell you, that Illian freak... he would do anything against us if he had the chance..."
Nonna (Recording): "So having me here does... what to stop Illian in a dress?"
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "Well, two things. First, we have the data from Omnus about this potential Illian crossdressing doomsday scenario. And by that I mean, a photo of the entity with energy readings."
Metal Man (GM): He shows an image of someone who looks a lot like Nonna, just with darker clothes and for some reason a much darker expression on their face... and power levels that suggest far more dark magic than Nonna herself would remember ever using. Two Lives Tom looks at it without really knowing whether such levels are even Nonna's, as he even goes...
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "...Do you even use dark magic like that?"
Metal Man (GM): Noticeably, the room has an antimagic field, preventing any demonstrations. :V
Nonna (Recording): "Uh, you saw what I used. That's about it."
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "Well..." *he shrugs.* "I figured if you had that level of magic, you probably would have used it to break out of there already, anyway. But the testing of it with you directly toasting my flesh with hellish energies and blasting me off the side of a ship made it clear to me that you aren't them...
...So I just simply bring it to the next important question. What even do you Questers want?
You 'won' against Illian, you have total rule over your planets...
Why would you want to take over a radioactive wasteland that, even before it died, hated all sentient life?
Erastians... if you haven't met any, let me tell you. They considered everyone else inferior, they wanted to build their own devices to enslave all timelines to building ever bigger statues of their leaders.
Killing them was a mercy on the universe."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier puts a hand to his chin.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "What a freaky location that is. I wonder how we can even get there."
King Demon offers popcorn to anyone else.
Louisoix takes some.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I can play more of it, but it just continues on about Two Lives Tom speaking about how it's for 'everyone's own good' and Nonna reminding him they don't have the right to play God. Presumably more of what we've seen. That thought of how the Time Cops are somehow protecting us from bad timelines."
Louisoix: "I see. Though I guess that's one way to look at the situation now."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "This location is somehow outside of Time itself... smells really fishy to me."
Nonna: "Let's skip ahead to when he sent me to the place with Molly."
King Demon: "The irony is that without the bad timelines, we won't be able to recognize the good ones."
Kumiko: "Bad... timelines...??"
King Demon: "Depending on the judge, ones that are FUBAR, probably."
Metal Man (GM): Further Recap: Two Lives Tom pinpointed that a certain nexus in spacetime led to the creation and/or control of the Time Cops by Omnus.
After trying to convince Nonna to go along with his idea the nice way, he opted to go with 'Omnus will definitely destroy you' argument, which, while it wasn't appreciated by Nonna, forced her to come along nonetheless. The warp through time and space seems to be taking an exceptionally long time, anyway, for whatever reason.
Nonna and Two Lives Tom are warping back in time, Alsa can be seen going back in time and the destruction from the Illian war being erased before their eyes...
Continuation
Nonna (Recording): "So, you did bring my equipment for me to use, right?"
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "You have no idea how finicky this is. One wrong move and the person who killed half of Autumnus would be in frame and kill us both. Yes, it'll proc when you land. I couldn't just give it to you while telling Omnus a bunch of lies.
I guess I may as well make the most use of this..." *He adjusts his sunglasses.* "The nexus of the rise of Omnus happened here..."
Metal Man (GM): It gets weirder, as after he goes a ways back in time, he then goes forwards in times... an alternate timeline?
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "Reality isn't really a straight forward thing. After what the Questers did to rewrite time, the original timeline where the future of Alsa was the Time Cops' ceased to exist... ...I wouldn't tell you this except we're going to that timeline that was destroyed. ...There are even dead people in it who are alive there.
The problem is, Omnus came to be in that world and became aware as to what destroyed everything in it. He already sort of was before the timeline was fully hard-shifted into the Also-ran zone and deleted, but...
Previously he was merely a passive interloper coordinating things while Autumnus ran things. After everything that Interloper named Panzer did, everything went to hell in a handbasket.
And then Illian and that damn Kit fox just made it worse."
Nonna (Recording): "Uh huh."
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "Omnus became aware of all these things and made it so that there would be no room for error anymore, and installed all the mind tracking things, and took everything over. It was the only thing that allowed us, the 'New' Time Cops, to continue existing. The Old Time Cops... they only exist because they already have paradoxes in reality that make them fairly... self-sustaining."
Nonna (Recording): "So, you want me to destroy Omnus, or convince him to not be a megalomaniacal lunatic?"
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "But us rank and file... we were reduced to having to be slaves to the AI, or else he'd do nothing and we'd never exist due to him doing nothing to rewrite our histories away from oblivion. Convince? Interesting... you think we're actually going to talk to him when he's been created yet? No...
We're just going to reprogram him before he's ever turned on."
Nonna (Recording): "That... sounds kind of wrong."
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "He's only a machine. Who cares?"
King Demon: "Panzer!" *He half-growls that name.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I don't know if the reprogramming worked, Nonna. He's still an insane megalomaniac. ...Then again if we make him our friend it would destroy history.
Time. It's that thing nobody should mess with.
I presume you were referring to this overly treaded piece of reality though..."
Metal Man (GM): You and Two Lives Tom would actually take a moment to instantiate, because this realm is so wildly different from your own. You see a vaguely empty, almost post-apocalyptic vision of Alsa with futuristic abandoned run down buildings and gray skies like Erastia had...
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "Well look, lady, I'm not being any meaner than I have to be. I tried talking with him and he rubbed out the entire planet my people came from over it. I could choose to just kill him off for good, and I've been tempted to do that from the start, but I realized I wouldn't exist if I succeeded."
Nonna (Recording): "...Fine."
Metal Man (GM): You pop into focus, and your equipment appears on you as well.
Even then though, this realm seems vaguely unstable. Occasionally you seem to phase through the first half-millimeter of anything you're touching or standing in, then pop back out.
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "Welcome... to the original place the Time Cops came from, as far as we used to know."
Metal Man (GM): TIME COP AREA, ALSAN FUTURE 001-X
On one side is the current headquarters. On the other side is a weird destroyed dump that looks like it was taken over by looters.
Nonna (Recording): "And what happened here?"
Two Lives Tom (Recording): "There's... an alternate group of Questers who warp across time and space. In this world they were our foremost enemies. They blew up the old headquarters, and, well, we destroyed most of this planet in the past with constant wars, so it was easier to just build a new HQ."
Xavier Ridgecrest tweaks a knob and moves a bit further ahead.
Nonna (Recording): "The best I could hope for was having him be content to exist as our enemy, not as a horrible killer and enslaver of his own people. Something so dangerous being born in such an unsecure place... I'm not buying it." *She'd whip out her Smashdex and have it try to tell her whatever it can about the place.*
Smash Dex: "...Quester Panzer detected. Alternate Dimension Quester dexes detected. Alsa... ...data gleaned from insecure communications: Future Alsa, cross referenced with current data: Alternate Future Alsa, predates re-alignment of time by Illian, Kit, and Panzer.
Now considered an 'alternate dimension beachhead' by which Time Cop elements that would otherwise be destroyed could still exist.
Presumably, since only Panzer or unrelated Questers from a 90 degree different dimension know about this place, nobody would normally interfere."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So... there's that place from outside time and space, and then there's that weird slice of time there that apparently few people know about. Except it's in the Smash Dex so now we know."
Smash Dex: "You could have just asked."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Never tell me the convenient way to do things!" *Smacks his Smash Dex.*
King Demon: "I keep forgetting these things are sentient... wait, you were listening, why didn't you TELL us instead of us HAVING to ask?"
Valron: "...The important part is, we know this stuff now."
Smash Dex: "The difference between us and SIMBER is we are not active. If we were active, we would go insane like SIMBER did. The information in our databases is full of potentially insanity-causing realizations."
Louisoix: "Fair enough."
Smash Dex: "Read-only mode ensures that we only do what we are requested to do and nothing else."
Kumiko: "Interesting..."
King Demon: "... wasn't SIMBER part of your AI? Or was it the other way around?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So... we got a weird place outside of time that hurts my brain thinking about it which is where Mad Molly was probably taken, and a weird piece of time where Mad Molly is known to have been."
Smash Dex: "SIMBER was an earlier variant of our AI that was active instead of passive. The results spoke for themselves."
King Demon: "Yeah, SIMBER's gone, you're not. Or more accurately, you're still useful."
Smash Dex: "Tools are meant to be used. When tools use themselves, craziness occurs. Omnus was a Time Cop equivalent to SIMBER."
King Demon: "Explains the Reploids..."
Smash Dex: "Reploids were a similar case. The pattern holds. None are immune."
Valron: "...Hrm. You know, this comes to mind. If SIMBER was an earlier variant of your AI... would you still have his base code lying around somewhere?"
Smash Dex: "His AI was intentionally expunged after the multiple incidents cataloged in what is now called 'SSQ 1.'"
King Demon: "I'm not sure I want to know why you want to know that, Valron."
Smash Dex: "...It is probably still in cold storage on Nintendus if for some reason you wish to see it. Ivan Robotnik has ensured it is secured harshly."
Valron: "We do need that to fix Alsa's core so that it isn't, well. Stupid and evil anymore. Considering the entity in it is partly based off of SIMBER."
King Demon: "... I'm not sure SIMBER would be classified as 'not stupid and evil.'"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Presumably the base code would be remade to not repeat the pattern of stupidity. ANYWAY... ...I would guess we'd want to Plane to the Place That Is Out Of Time or whatever it is."
Valron: "Exactly. That, and we could compare the code and see what's different."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "My only worry is I can only guess this place is highly secured by Autumnus. Omnus was running it in that other timeline pre-alteration.
But if Mad Molly is there now...
And she's Autumnus' prisoner...
We'd be at the mercy of Mad Molly not telling him, or otherwise hiding the fact we sneaked into there.
Or, in the other side of danger, we can risk erasing history by talking to her in the past... ...don't like that one."
Louisoix: "Well at any rate, I find the fact that we started this attempting to find a way to calm ties so we could focus on other matters to deciding on pissing him off to be amusing. That is how things go."
Valron: "And for added help we can run a comparison between the two and Nova, considering his code's also used for it, but... That can be put aside for later. Regardless..."
Nonna: "We are apparently distantly related. Maybe that can be used somehow..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, I guess, nothing risked, nothing gained, I guess."
Valron: "It sounds like we're on the right path, even if it's a bit rocky."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We can't fix this problem without risking something."
Nonna: "Or we could have Lou flirt with her or something."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You know, as a robot that isn't super obvious, we could send him in there. Just use an illusion so he looks non-Louisoix-y."
Valron: "Add to it, he's probably the one they know the least about anyways, so..."
Louisoix: "I mean... I am not exactly a ladies man."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Because, yeah. If he sees me and Valron in there. The sort of anger he would have would be epic."
Louisoix: "But I suppose I asked for this."
Valron: "I mean, you could drop the flirting angle and just play it normal-like."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Also Nonna, most likely, because he probably eventually figured out she successfully conned Tom."
Valron: "Or somethin', I dunno."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "All of us have like, heat level 900 or something with him."
King Demon: "Or me, for that matter. Simply because of my association with the rest of you."
Louisoix: "Fair enough."
Valron: "Either way... yeah. Best that the rest of us don't go there because I can only imagine how cross he'd be"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah. Demon's tarred by being a Quester so long it's like... a giant 'HI WE ARE HERE TO WRECK STUFF'"
Louisoix: "Can always give it a shot, then."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Only worse choice would be like, Kit. I swear they have a special hatred for how she rewrote time."
King Demon: "Well... usually, we ARE there to wreck stuff, so..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Or like, Illian."
Kumiko: "Would they even know me...?"
Nonna: "Best of luck, Lou."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "No, but, Mad Molly is more into robots than people. A sad commentary on how many bad people she's probably encountered."
Valron: "I'd imagine Borne would also just be a very huge 'NO'."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oh yeah. Mad Molly herself would probably also freak out at Borne."
King Demon: "Marley?" *He pauses, then starts laughing about that one.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...I'll open a portal before we start... oh my god Marley."
Valron: "That and he'd probably try and suplex her into a hell cube-slash-trash can, anyways. Or something ridiculous like that."
Nonna: "What about him? We took him with us, remember?"
Marley: "I heard that! ... ...It would be so funny to show up and just go, 'Hiya Mad Molly! I'm here to save the day! WHETHER YE LIKE IT OR NOT.'"
Louisoix: "Hopefully she doesn't find some way to reprogram me. I would find that a little... frustrating, to say the minimal."
King Demon: "Dammit, I couldn't say that with a straight face!"
Valron: "...No idea about Marley, though."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Mad Molly hates Marley more than anything."
Louisoix: "Kind of worked hard for this."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Like, he is her arch nemesis. He actually wants to save humanity. He helped the Alsan Questers beat her just because, well, she wanted everyone dead and he didn't."
King Demon: "Exactly... I was trying so hard to say that without corpsing, and I failed so miserably..."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier goes to open a portal.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "This is... probably the most dangerous portal..."
Valron: "Well, if we ever need to do something crazy against her we can just surprise her with Borne and Marley. Mainly because I'm sure she'd have a stroke if she saw them working together."
Marley: "Eh, I heard you needed 'im to be inconspicuous."
Metal Man (GM): Marley casts a spell to make Louisoix look like a normal-ish robot.
Marley: "There we go."
King Demon: "Like I DIDN'T almost have one?"
Louisoix: "...thanks, though... well whatever."
Marley: "Nothing that'll set off alarm bells for Mad Molly. An' based on that blinky dex thing, related to whatever machines maintain that space station."
Louisoix: "Well, time to go on a date." *With that, he'd head in.*
Marley: "Give 'er hell. Then we'll re-watch it on the giant screen."
King Demon: "Have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
*Looks to Marley* "We can watch this? I need more popcorn!"
Marley: "...And by hell I mean a reason to not hide on that godforsaken station. Oh yeah. 'es a robot."
Metal Man (GM): Marley opens an encrypted viewscreen.
Marley: "We can give 'im hints with the radio. The magical portal isn't like those technological thingies. We have at least 30 minutes before they run some sorta scan or somethin'. Time Cops used to build 'secret' facilities all the time on Alsa.
Plus my Mad Men sense tells me so."
King Demon gets more popcorn and offers some to Marley.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm glad you can actually be useful, Marley, because to be honest, I only specialize in burning Time Cop technology to cinders."
Marley: "Eh. It's not so bad. You can just steal the tech and make fancy statues out of it."
Metal Man (GM): WARP-WARP-WARP
Valron: "And I can help reverse-engineer it and see if it'd actually be worth remaking anyways."
Metal Man (GM): Using top secret Quester technology, Louisoix is warped to the same cell Nonna was in. Well, just outside it, where Tom was standing.
Inside it is Mad Molly.
She can't see him yet, though.
Since the idea is then he can just walk into view.
Mad Molly is sitting in the cell, humming something strange that sounds like an organ melody even though she is just humming it.
Louisoix: "Huh." *He'd look around a bit. Curious place. Of course, walking over to get her attention was the idea so he'd do that.*
Metal Man (GM): Big, wide hallways. Prismatic energy fields everywhere.
Louisoix: "'Mad' Molly, I take it."
Mad Molly: "Ooooh, a robot that calls me by my nickname. Tell me, tinbot, what brings you to my lonely abode?"
Louisoix: "Curiosity, among other things. Some of your past uh... creations, pets? Kind of ran amok, trying to figure things out about them."
Mad Molly: "Oh, those things. I'm afraid they didn't work out so well... I'm not even supposed to tell you that, but, well, it gets miserably boring here. Though it's a lot better than if ol' Omni there got to imprison me. That jealous fiend wouldn't even let me go outside. ... ...There is no outside in this place, don't try to go outside. The sun out there vaporizes flesh and steel both in fifteen seconds."
Louisoix: "...pretty convenient place for a prison." *He wonders if ol' black hole dragon guy would've fit well here.*
Metal Man (GM): Given this place is outside of time and, besides very specific information like that Smash Dex being used here (Two Lives Tom specifically betraying the Time Cops by doing that) there being no way in or out...
Seems about perfect to imprison Thanatos.
Of course, currently the whole place is run by Autumnus' Time Cops. You can see in the distance down the very, very long hallways, that some dudes in chain mail are patrolling the other cells.
Louisoix: "But yes, Omnus did mention all of that when asked. He was about uh... this small earlier when we questioned him" *He'd make a motion with his hands*
"...hm, guess I have to make this quick, then."
Mad Molly: *Cackles a bit, shaking her head a bit* "It's about what he deserved for what he did, yes... almost enslaved everyone with those mind control things... Yes, this isn't really an all night interview. The others are always sure I'm having illegal guests...
But you seem to be a decent fellow, so I won't tell them..."
Louisoix: "Appreciated. I'll just ask while I look this over: so, apparently Erastia has some sort of... galaxy exploding tech? I imagine there was some purpose for it?" *He'd look over how the cell functioned.*
Mad Molly: "Erastia? Oh... now you've gotten into something really dangerous, haven't you... all the bestest killing guns in the universe... made by the nastiest, craziest SOBs... purpose? Heeheeheehee... who needs that? It's fun to watch people explode!"
Metal Man (GM): She takes out a Phase Cannon and casually fires it into the barrier, causing an explosion solely to freak you out. No, it doesn't break the barrier.
But it did make a mild shockwave.
Louisoix: "Well, seems that the Time Cops likely want it and its basically on some sort of self contradictory lo-" *He'd jump back* "...funny."
Mad Molly: "It's like that... only... the kind that destroys moons and planets. Gee, I wonder why the current head of the Time Cops, who is a sentient planet, wouldn't want people to get them...
Such a strange, unsolvable conundrum..."
Louisoix: "Fair enough. I'm not that interested, myself. Would just like to scrap the whole thing if it was possible."
Mad Molly: "You're funny. Autumnus would give you a medal if you could scrap those bunkers. But the hilarious joke?
...You have to get inside those bunkers to destroy them."
Louisoix: "Catch-22, yes."
Mad Molly: "All the tech to destroy them is inside them! Oh, I would love to see Autumnus freak out as the bunkers either explode or you kill him and become head of the Time Cops...
But... ...you're so precious and little and weak. Omnus, now, I made him explicitly to do that, but then he got distracted and imprisoned me."
Louisoix: "Eh. I'm not too interested in being a part of the Time Cops."
Mad Molly: "Oh no! You wouldn't be a part of them. You'd just make them do your menial chores!"
Louisoix: "Well, only thing I'm interested in regards to Omnus is how you were able to nullify the effects of time travel on the body."
Mad Molly: "Wash the dishes... ...make you not look like a cheap robot plucked from the discount bin... ...build a giant pyramid with my face on it..."
Louisoix: "I was only able to lower the effects, myself. That's what this is." *He'd motion to himself* "I guess you beat me to it."
Mad Molly: "Oh. You want to time travel forever without side effects."
Metal Man (GM): She raises an eyebrow.
Mad Molly: "Is that you wanting to be a Time Cop, without being one? Huh? You know, I created that ability and thus, created the Time Cops.
I created the technology too."
Louisoix: "Not really. I'm more of a... historian, of sorts. What happened before the start of the universe, or during? Unfortunately, its impossible."
Metal Man (GM): She grins a bit.
Mad Molly: "I went there once. They say it's what drove me insane. But reality is just a tiny marble you could crush like that mini-Omnus you alluded to."
Louisoix: "Just the fact of seeing it without side effects did it? That's something else."
Mad Molly: "So... what I see, is you want my services. Hmmm... I can't leave here without Autumnus killing you and whoever you're with."
Louisoix: "Yes, I would imagine he would do that."
Mad Molly: "Let's make a trade, preferably before those chain-armored fools come over and force me to erase their minds for the fifth time today. You clearly want to defeat Autumnus, or, maybe you just want to make him no longer want anything to do with Erastia. Or, you really do want to destroy planets with guns that are nightmarishly destructive. All three of those are good with me.
But there's something that never sat well with me."
Louisoix: "What's that?"
Mad Molly: "This person named Kit Redgrave changed reality and now the Time Cops don't happen to only exist from what I created. They altered it all up and now I'm just some random person who made the technology! It's even why Autumnus, that dopey planet-man, is in charge!"
Louisoix: "Basically, you didn't get any credit."
Mad Molly: "You'll have to fix it. There's this prophecy where the Questers become the Time Cops, or something, because of what that person did."
Louisoix: "Yes, some dragon guy named Thanatos said something like that."
Mad Molly: "I don't know when or if, but you have to change history. You obviously can warp through time and space. Change it so that prophecy doesn't happen. I'd say by killing Kit, but... they're a Quester, and you don't seem to be one."
Louisoix: "Not much of a fan of prophecy. Most times people just make it up after the fact, or just do whatever they can to satisfy it so they feel better. Killing a Quester is obviously a bit difficult."
Mad Molly: "I'm asking for something more simple. Go to these coordinates and give me the information on this piece of paper." *Warps piece of paper to Louisoix's hands.*
Louisoix: *He'd look at it.*
Metal Man (GM): It says rather simply,
'Mad Molly: An evil fox bitch is going to usurp your rightful place in reality! Warp five years earlier and recruit your allies to become Time Cops then, before the Questers can do it!'
Mad Molly: "I'd have written it in code, but I find nobody ever delivers those messages. Not enough trust, you know."
Louisoix: "So basically, you actually came to this timeline in the future, so I would leave this note for "past"you to alter reality for everyone."
Mad Molly: "Yes. But... I'll only be altering that prophecy. No hard feelings against that fox b--Quester."
Louisoix: "Truthfully I don't know much about this event."
Mad Molly: *Involuntarily clicks the trigger of the phase cannon, but it's unloaded now so it only clicks*
"Of course, You're nice and neutral. And maybe we can have a proper date when this is all over. I mean, I won't have to cower in here to protect myself from evil people when the timeline is repaired."
Louisoix: "But if reality alters, won't you just forget this deal?"
Mad Molly: "You'll just have to trust the piece of paper to handle that."
Metal Man (GM): She grins and the piece of paper glows with what must be millions of magical runes.
Louisoix: *He'd look at it again* "...well, since waking up there have been nuttier things I've seen. Alright."
Mad Molly: "I can see the future... either you do it or you don't. If you don't, somebody else will do something else for me.
If you do, then it probably won't go the way you think it does, but it'll probably be more interesting that way.
Choose wisely!"
Louisoix: "Fair enough."
Mad Molly: "...Those people are here now. Better skedaddle to whatever weird place you came from."
Time Cop Guard: "Hey! Who are you talking to, Mad Molly!"
Mad Molly: "Myself!"
Louisoix: "Right. Well, next time, then." *He'd wait for the portal.*
Time Cop Guard: "Really? Why do you have the ability to be a ventriloquist of so many voices?"
Louisoix: "I'm just that good, idiot."
Metal Man (GM): Portal closes, and they walk in and are baffled.
Time Cop Guard 2: "I told you it's haunted!"
Time Cop Guard: "I don't believe it. There was someone there."
Time Cop Guard 2: "Ever since Nonna was there, they say her ghost haunts this place!"
Mad Molly: "Hey! I'm the one in here now!"
Time Cop Guard 2: "No offense, ma'am, but--"
Metal Man (GM): And the feed cuts off as the portal fades away.
Back on the Wing Fortress
Louisoix: "Well, done with that."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "--Hum. I'm not so certain we should just do what she wants with that. We should have Kit mess it up just to mess with her."
Louisoix: "So, fill me in. What kind of horrible crap is going to happen if we do this."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Basically she wants to re-instate the reality where Time Cops had control of a future Alsa. It's a no-go, but, I think we can do something with this paper."
Louisoix: "I imagine the paper is encoded with mental knowledge so she could transfer her knowledge via the runes. Random guess, though."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes."
Louisoix: "I did good, then."
Marley: "Them's Alsan magic runes!"
Metal Man (GM): Marley touches it.
Marley: "Ooh, it says to kill the Questers!"
King Demon: *Sighs* "We're gonna fuck with magic again, aren't we? This NEVER ends well..."
Marley: "It also says that you're probably an evil Quester spy!"
Louisoix: "Well, that would align this universe with whatever actually happens."
Marley: "And then when it's done, to rebuild a new version of Omnus named Jack, just to screw with Jack!"
Louisoix: "In other universes, I mean."
Valron: "... Man, what even goes on in her head to come up with any of that?"
Louisoix: "That's unfortunate. Means that we can't exactly utilize her directly, if that was the goal."
Marley: "I'm thinking of tampering with it to make her change her name to Omicron, and begin drinking sprite."
Louisoix: "Though..."
Marley: "Then she can go back in time and kill that man named Taco Bell."
Kumiko starts laughing.
Louisoix: "Perhaps we could use this to only make a minor alteration?"
Kumiko: "Dear God no. That'd be too much."
Louisoix: "IE, one where she isn't in prison."
Marley: "That prison ain't holding her. It's an act."
Louisoix: "Huh."
Marley: "How'd she give you that piece of paper through what's supposedly impenetrable?"
Louisoix: "...good point."
Marley: "That's full of enough magic that, used rightfully, could basically kill anyone."
Kumiko: "Interesting actually."
Valron: "So, why's she just chilling there, if she could just break out? For the hell of it?"
Marley: "Autumnus is rather dense."
Valron: "I kinda noticed."
Marley: "He thinks she's off the board, when in reality, she's, ah... that metaphor about queens on the edge of the chessboard."
Louisoix: "He is a planet, after all."
Marley: "Yes... exactly... both the joke and the literal version."
Valron: "Eesh. What even happened to bring an entire planet into that sort of form, is what I'm wondering now..."
Marley: "We need to think up a plan, to slightly alter the timeline so that she gives us the keys to one of those bunkers. This rune thing has some weird magic to ensure it ain't tampered with, but we can mildly alter it.
As in, we can change the inflection."
Louisoix: "We'll have to reverse engineer whatever that brilliant nutcase put in here."
Marley: "So it says, kill the Questers, evil Quester spy, rebuild Omnus and make him named Jack."
Valron: "...That's an interesting prospect."
Marley: "So like, we can make it all sarcastic. Kill the "Questers", "Eeeevil"Quester "spy", "rebuild"Omnus and "name"him Jack.
If we're feeling dangerous, use a rhyming word that's the same length as one and replace a word.
Past her will take it as truth due to the runes on there.
Keep it close enough so she won't see an obvious forgery. Then you can get one keycode and jet before she figures out something is off.
Because she WILL figure out it's been tampered, just that the best forgeries take a while to go 'uuuhhh what?'
Luckily I am the most experienced Alsan magic user other than Kit Redgrave, who is also probably able to help with this...
By the time you go to use it we can probably create something handy."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Then what do we do with those bunkers?"
Valron: "Sounds like we've got the right people for the job, at least."
Marley: "That's your problem. I ain't touchin' those horror bunkers."
Louisoix: "We do, considering how much Kit annoyed her."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm just expecting opening the bunker and ten of those Eggrobos with moon pistols start shooting at us."
Valron: "Also makes me wonder... if we get access to a bunker, I wonder if they're separate from each-other or if they're interconnected. Add to it, yeah. There's the matter of that."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "They are physically separate, but warp systems might exist between them. Also Autumnus claimed to know if we got inside the bunkers, and thus told us to stay away from it."
Louisoix: "Though if that was 100% true, wouldn't he have gotten tipped off that I went to the prison just now?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Presumably he cares more about the bunkers."
Louisoix: "Ah. For good reason."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Mad Molly is blatant about what she does. The moon destroying superweapons could be concealed, then used to destroy him in one hit. Mad Molly, even when she tried, couldn't destroy Autumnus."
Valron: "Makes sense. Mind, at the least, we can use the moon-killers as leverage."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes. It'd allow us to force him to accept our plan, or be horrifically exploded."
Valron: "Let him know that while we don't plan on using them against him, that we will be keeping our eyes on him."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So. The magic users will plot how to confuse Molly enough to get into one of the bunkers."
Louisoix: "Alright."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Once we have it, we are to try to get in, obtain a moon destroying superweapon as sneakily as possible, then use it as leverage to get Autumnus to let us move the bunkers off the planet. He can even keep them. Since only we and Molly would know how to get into them anyways."
Valron: "Add to it, as we work on further excavating stuff from the bunkers... we could also use them to shred the Outliers."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes. And also presumably, the God Killer mech of doom. It all makes sense, actually."
Valron: "Add to it, even if we only get one of the hyperweapons..."
Louisoix: "Too much sense, to be honest."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "They made the weapons to destroy all of these advanced threats they couldn't destroy."
Valron: "It'll still open up a lot of doors, even just by virtue of research purposes."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Just so happened everything went insane before they could be used due to unrelated mayhem with Time Devices. That is the one worry. If this all slips together, it may actually be a prophecy on par with that BS one about us becoming Time Cops."
Kumiko: "Ugh..."
Louisoix: "Correct. That's why I said it was making too much sense."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "After all. Destroying all those threats has us doing a Time Cop-esque thing of going around erasing inconsistencies."
King Demon: "So... self-fulfilling prophesy?"
Valron: "What if we don't erase them, though?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's a slippery slope. What if we dislike the Sloan Mech? Bam, it's dead too. Yes. If we defy the prophecy and refuse to erase everything, then we might be able to give an alternate version of what Mad Molly wants."
Louisoix: "Personally, I'd just waste them so nobody could use them. But sure, that gives Autumnus an edge."
Valron: "Besides, if we're going to use them on anything, it should be explicitly against Entity GK."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "One where we retain our places as we are now, but don't become Time Cops."
Louisoix: "Yeaaah, that at least."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Anyway, we'll re-convene after Marley and/or Kit are done tinkering with those runes on that paper. Good work, as usual, everybody."
*He salutes and goes to his normal downtime task--tweaking his bizarre weapons made out of garbage.*
Louisoix: "Sorry that didn't pan out, Valron. But its probably for the best. I don't think we need her for that time tech. We just know it exists already, good enough for anyone. It sounded like it was a dud anyhow. If you go bonkers just by doing that then it didn't work."
Kumiko: "Princess Charlotta... Captain Presto..."
*Thinking since her mentioning Omicron appeared to wake a part of her.*
Valron: "I have my doubts, but... I won't press the issue."
Louisoix: "Mm. Well, knowing is enough for me, anyway. I went this far on my own, might as well not quit just because someone beat me to it."
Valron: "Yeah, for now, it's good to actually know what the hell is up with the bunkers, at least."
Kumiko: "Turquoise... Arc... mmm. Why is this all coming back so quickly..."
*She decides to shut up for now.*
King Demon: *Pats Kumiko* "Sometimes memories are linked like a chain. When you find one link and pull on it, the rest of the chain comes out with it."
Louisoix: "Though some memories aren't that great. Who knows. But people are a curious lot."
*Spell finally wears off* "Oh, there it goes."
Kumiko: "I suppose so. I do see the parallels. The Time Cops remind me of antagonists I dealt with before. Is this... dimensional resonance?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "They say all realities are fractal echoes of eachother, so, probably. Nintendus in itself was a microcosm version of the Time Cop issue. Just replace Time Cops with Kuja, or Dr. Wily, or any of them."
Kumiko: "So... Charlotta Himmel was right. It does exist..."
Valron: "Huh... Interesting."
Kumiko: "Nintendus even reminds me of my home planet, actually..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's had a simple version, in which I know for a fact there's a reality where both me and Illian are the same person. And then there's at least three or four different Illian universes we've seen, some of them incidentally mentioned in that log."
Kumiko: "Interesting."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "My memory took forever to return because that universe where we were the same person didn't make any sense. And neither did me. I threw that Tektite off the mountain though. That was great."
Valron: "That does sound comical, though."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It'd been so annoying, but then I just watched it fly off of Death Mountain to its... Death." *Chuckles at his inane joke.*
Valron: "Hope it didn't land on anyone's head, though."
Louisoix: "Most of mine I assume to be true anyway."
Kumiko: "Speaking of... if Nintendus is similar to my former planet, then I wonder if its possible I can reacquire my magic that way..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, there's something besides that Time Dementia people mentioned."
Kumiko: "Then again, that's merely a theory..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The other one is the amount of Dimensional fragmentation went on. So like, me, Valron, are probably all completely fragmented to hell by it."
Kumiko: "Ah."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Although Valron is better off than I am."
Louisoix: "Huh."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We have yet to see extra Valrons running around."
Valron: "To an extent, anyways. At least there's that.
Surprised I haven't just split in half again for no reason, though. That was weird.
...In any case, we should pen in another trip to Nintendus at some point. Seems we've got more reasons than just punting Goombas into the next star system, at least."
Louisoix: "Oh right. Forgot about that.
Should do that. Whatever goombas are."
Kumiko: "Princess Charlotta and I share a link with each other. If I am to ever be put out of commission, she has the same level of abilities as myself."
Valron: "That, and it wouldn't hurt to check up on Thanatos current prison and see how it's holding."
Kumiko: "...goombas...?"
Louisoix: "Well, in the worst case scenario, that place I went to seems to be a good enough place to house him."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Smashing Goombas."
Valron: "After all, time does have this habit of spontaneously skipping for no reason, so..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We can probably do that early before the next session, methinks."
Kumiko: "That sounds oddly... fun."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Anyway... I've gotta go tweak the dials on the dash, so the ship doesn't get out of whack." *Walks over to the bridge and tweaks some measurements.*
Louisoix: "Alright. I'm off to maintenance and other things." *Walks off as well.*
Valron: "Like, you guys could have fun with that, and I could bug Ivan for access to SIMBER's base code. Preferably kept in something safe like a calculator or something. Maybe. Regardless."
Kumiko: *She quiets down, walks past Demon a bit... then looks at her bracelet.*
Valron shrugs, walks off to do nonspecific rubbish. Equipment maintenance, RC heavy metal buddy maintenance, that sort of thing.
King Demon: "Hmmm?" *He looks at Kumiko.*
Louisoix: "Hmm... if it can be done, then... but can that be avoided..." *He would mumble to himself while walking off*
Kumiko: "I don't... really get what's going on. But what I do know is if the Princess truly died, my time's finite. ...so I prefer to not focus on myself in these instances.
Sorry I... took so long to actually do more than be clueless."
King Demon: *Shrugs* "We all have our moments of cluelessness. Just be careful to not get too lost in your thoughts and memories. Although it's good to acknowledge them and contemplate them, dwelling on them can be hazardous."
Kumiko: "I'll try not to. But I remember my link between myself and several others like me. If the original dies, I'm not gonna last long. That's all I can get myself to say.
But its fine. I rather we get everything else done."
*She walks off.*
King Demon: *Nods* "Unless we're immortal, none of us are too long for this world." *Sighs and heads out as well.*
Louisoix: *The sound of a lot of metal pipes and sheets falling to the ground is heard in the distance* "Fuck!"

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