Guess who?
So, I just found the laboratory in the military base.
And inside, I found…
Three old men in robes, taking a machine apart.
This raises more questions than it answers.
Are they wizards?
Time to get to the bottom of this.
“You mind telling me what the fuck is going on here?”
One of them, in an orange robe, glares at me.
“It’s none of your business, Calvin Korkea.”
“I’m pretty sure you assholes have something to do with my brother going missing, so yes, it is my business. Where is he?”
Another, short and stout, in a blue robe, looks confused.
“We were told that you didn’t care about your brother.”
“Told by who?”
The third, tall and thin, in a purple robe, looks at the one in orange.
“I think it would be wise to tell him, Gaspar.”
Gaspar, the one in orange, nods.
“Might as well pay that backstabbing shitrat in kind, Belthasar. Korkea, if we tell you what you want to know, will you leave us be?”
“Considering the fact that you somehow brainwashed an entire military base? No. You’ve pissed off a lot of people.”
“We didn’t brainwash anyone.”
“Then who did?”
“It was that purple shitrat.”
“What purple fluffy?”
Outside, General Lucas tells the squad what he knows about the trance that befell the entire military base.
“Well, he wasn’t purple at first, according to Killgrave! That stray wandered into a warehouse, and Killgrave decided to feed him, and then tried to hide him when I came in! He hid the fluffy behind a canister we had recovered, and were planning to have our geeks study! When the fluffy accidentally opened the nozzle, the contents turned him purple!”
Famke raises an eyebrow.
“What’s the big deal about a color change?”
Chakra grins.
“Yu gutta pwob-wem wif puwpwe?”
General Lucas sighs.
“It wasn’t just a color change, young lady! It gave him some kind of… power! To make everyone do what he says! And I know this because I was his first victim! By the time I snapped out of it, he was gone, and so was Killgrave and one of our vehicles! They came back a week later, at the same time that big-brained fluffy and the Korkea lookalike arrived!”
Alpha looks concerned.
“I have a hunch. Sir, could you describe the, ah, big-brained fluffy’s colors, please?”
“Green fluff, red and yellow mane and tail, and orange eyes, Alpha! Wait a minute! By God, those are Marley’s colors! He didn’t act or sound like Marley, though!”
“And was there anything unusual about the Calvin lookalike?”
“There certainly was! He was bald, and it looked like someone had cut his head open and stitched it closed again! His eyes were glowing orange, too!”
Alpha nods knowingly.
“I knew it. That’s the Marley of Timeline-62, and that was his Calvin. That Marley was affiliated with the Citadel, the O.M.A. has been looking for him for a while.”
“Who the Sam Hill is the O.M.A.!”
Prometheus explains for General Lucas.
“The One Man Army, sir. They’re a group of versions of Calvin who police our part of the multiverse. They deal with multiversal criminals, so we’ll definitely be telling them about this.”
“Is our Calvin in this O.M.A.!”
Prometheus shakes his head.
“No, but he’s on good terms with them.”
“Brobot, I’ve just realised something.”
“What’s up, Al?”
“If that purple fluffy was controlling everyone here, and everyone’s snapped out of it… and if he’s allied with that alternate Marley…”
“Then they’re probably not in this timeline anymore. The question is…”
“Where did they go, Gaspar?”
Gaspar, the apparent leader of these stupid old men, has just finished telling me about his fluffy little allies.
“They didn’t say, Korkea. They just left us to deal with this by ourselves.”
“What about the alternate me? Did he leave with them?”
Gaspar scoffs.
“He was dead before we even got here, according to that backstabber. Blew his own brains out when the control device in his brain malfunctioned.”
Well, that’s ONE loose end wrapped up. Too bad it’s not one of the BIG ones.
Here’s what I want to know, Niv.
Where the fuck did these guys come from, and where the fuck is my brother?
“So where are you three from? Are you wizards? Because you sure dress like wizards.”
Gaspar smiles at me.
“Do you want the truth, Korkea? We’re from a land far to the east of here. A country that doesn’t exist anymore, we’ve discovered. We’ve been gone for a long time, you see.”
Waaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiit a minute.
I’ve heard this story before.
A year or two ago, when a certain duo showed up outside the School’s gates.
Asking if they could speak to an Omega Class.
Oh, fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I know exactly where these assholes are from.
Or rather…
When they’re from.
What I don’t know is how they got here.
Hans only had one of those coffins.
He had this whole booby trap set up to put me in that coffin. It was actually pretty clever, but not clever enough.
We’ve confiscated that coffin, and put it in storage. It can contain an Omega Class, and we can think up better booby traps.
And I can think of at least one person we could use it on.
But, to get back on topic, I’m not telling these assholes that I know where they’re from yet.
This time, it’s my turn to do that big reveal.
Plus, if they are from where I think they are from, they’re not just a bunch of old men.
I wonder what they can do…
“What about that machine?”
Melchior, the short one in blue, tries to play dumb.
“Machine? What machine?”
“Don’t try that shit with me, Melchior!”
Yeah, playing dumb is my signature move.
“I mean the big machine with the dome that you three chucklefucks were dismantling when I walked in! What does it do?”
Cal, did you see that?
Did I see what, Niv?
The tall one just tried to hide something behind his back.
Good catch, Niv.
ZOOM
In the blink of an eye, I snatch whatever Belthasar tried to hide from me.
“What the-- I didn’t even see you move!”
It’s a control panel. With a big dial on it.
And it’s not a dial that goes up to eleven.
There is a setting that goes past ten.
But the eleventh setting isn’t a number.
It’s an omega symbol.
Oh God.
Please, please, please don’t tell me that this machine does what I think it does.
Huh. The funny thing is, I was JUST talking about this earlier. I didn’t know it was actually a thing.
Niv, that light-hearted tone indicates that you haven’t yet grasped the gravity of the situation.
No, I get it. They made a machine that can force people over Threshold X. And it can even make people into Omega Classes! Yeah, that’s fucking dangerous! But it’s been taken apart, it’s not a threat anymore-- OH. No. No no no. No they didn’t…
I think they did, Niv.
They used this thing on Scott.
“I’m done asking nicely, gentlemen.”
FWOOSH
Wreathing myself in white flames, I stare the three old bastards down with glowing red eyes.
“WHERE’S MY BROTHER?!?”
Elsewhere in the state, Scott keeps moving on, still holding the hoverboard.
Home is still a long way off.
“Aren’t you getting tired, Scotty? Don’t you want to lay down and take a nap? Just close your eyes, Scotty.”
“No… If I do that… you’ll take over…”
“Hahahahahaha! So you’re just going to keep pushing on, Scotty? Until you can’t take another step? Or are you planning to keep going until it kills you, and take me with you?”
“Not… the worst case… scenario…”
“Is that how you want to die, Scotty? Alone, in the middle of nowhere, leaving your corpse for the vultures? Oh boy, I hope those vultures bring a can opener! Hee hee hee!”
“That’s… not… funny…”
“I know you suppressed a giggle, Scott. Deep down, you agree with everything I’ve said, but you just won’t admit it. Because you think you’ve changed for the better. You try to be nice to Cal because you think he’s not the snot-nosed layabout stoner twerp he always was. And that’s just not true. The only thing that changed is that you stopped being stronger than him. But now, the ball’s back in your court. You’ve got all the same power he has! Theoretically limitless power! It’s all yours!”
“Wait… what? So… I’m like him now? An Omega Class?”
“Ahahahahahaha! Fooooooooool! It took you this long to connect the dots? He’s told you about Phenomenon X, hasn’t he? He’s told you where his power comes from! There’s no mistaking power like that! Can’t you feel it, Scotty? I did! It felt great! Come on! Let’s see what we can do! Maybe we can copy powers like Cal can. You could copy his powers! All of them! And then you could kill him with those powers! You could kill the other Omega Classes! With that machine destroyed, you’d be the only Omega Class! The most powerful being in the universe! A god! The only god!”
“Kill them?!? Marley?!? Miles?!? Quin?!? Quin’s my nephew! Er, nephews! I can’t do that!”
“There’s only room for one on the Throne, Scott. And you know you want the Throne. You want it all. But you won’t take it. Because you don’t have the balls. Toughen the fuck up, Scott Korkea! That’s your problem, it’s always been your problem! You’re weak, and you broadcast your weakness! That’s why Gilda cheated on you! That’s why your siblings keep trying to drive you out of your company! Because they can smell the weakness on you, like sharks smelling blood in the water! But you’re not weak anymore, Scotty! You could make all of those parasites pay for wronging you! You could put Cal in his place once and for all! Crush the world beneath your heel! Destroy everyone who has ever slighted you! Tear down Creation just to see if you can!”
“I don’t want to be a monster!”
“Scotty… you’ve always been a monster.”
In Mexico, a small two-man spacecraft flies over the Chicxulub crater.
Inside the spacecraft, Voilet and Bleu look down, into the crater, seeing the burning wound at the very center, the crevice sealing itself shut.
Voilet, steering the ship, looks worried.
“We’re too late, Bleu. He’s already up and about.”
“But the entire planet isn’t on fire yet, that’s a good sign.”
The brothers look at a screen, displaying a map of North America and Mexico.
A flashing red dot on the map is moving towards America.
“He’s on the move, Bleu.”
In the Texas badlands, a feral herd carries out whatever duties they have left before it gets dark.
One of the toughies looks up, pointing a hoof to the sky.
“Du aneewun ewse see dat?”
All the fluffies follow the toughy’s hoof, seeing something bright falling to Earth.
One of the mares, a pink pegasus, who was a house fluffy before she was abandoned here and taken in by the herd, smiles when she sees it.
“Dat am a shoot-in staw! Owd mummah towd Wan-duh abowt dem! Make a wish! Oh, but nu say wut yu wish am, ow it nu come twoo!”
All of the fluffies start babbling about what they want to wish for, completely disregarding the last part of what Wanda said.
“Fwuffy wish fow end-wess sketties!”
“Soon-mummah wish fow aww babbehs tu be gud babbehs!”
“Babbeh wish fow a baww!”
“Smawty wish fow wots mowe wishies!”
There’s always the asshole who wishes for more wishes.
CRASH
The fluffies are completely preoccupied when the “shooting star” lands nearby, and the sound startles them out of their fantasies.
FRRRRRRRRRRT
More than half the herd makes scaredy poopies.
As the fluffies freak out, the smarty calms himself, and orders half a dozen toughies to follow him.
They head to the new crater, not far away, seeing something looking like a large mass of magma and volcanic rock at the center, the air around it rippling.
The fluffies feel that it’s getting awfully warm. Texas is already a bit too warm for fluffies.
The mass starts shifting, into a hulking, vaguely humanoid form, over ten feet tall.
The head has no ears, no nose, just a mouth, and two eyes that burn like stars.
The smarty reluctantly addresses the burning entity.
“Um… hewwo? Am yu hewe wif aww da fings fwuffies wisht fow? Cuz smawty wisht fow mowe wishies, su dewe am a wotta fings smawty wan…”
The entity smiles up at the fluffies, and speaks in his slow, deep, rough, raspy, echoing voice.
“Burn.”
“Wut–”
FWOOSH
Everything in a mile radius around the new crater bursts into flames.
Including the entire herd.
“SCREEEEEEE!!! SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
“HEWP!!! BUWNIES!!!”
“MUMMAH!!! HEWP WAN-DUH!!!”
And the entity emerges from the crater, seeing the destruction he has just wrought with that smile still on his face.
“Not a bad start. But I should be going.”
The entity departs, leaving charred footprints behind him.
“I have an appointment with Calvin Korkea that’s long overdue.”