Adam lept from his captivity. "FREEDOM!"
Narwhal slapped his shoulder. "Don't do that! I don't want them shoving us back into confinement if you set off their protocols again."
He was too excited to be walking outside again.
They sent Ivy off to rejoin with her girls, likely to be working with Sonia and Adam's company from now on. Seriously, if she didn't start hiring at least a couple of guys, there were going to be lawsuits. Unless she did that 'Modeling' contract some restaurants did to ensure beauty levels with their waitresses.
CD digitized besides the pair, with a sly grin. "So... I hear the Quest rollout went well?"
Narwhal snorted. "If nothing else, the hunters are warning locals and towns about where the prey is wandering. Casualties from the people on 'Kill Order' list has drop to near zero. A few have already been taken down, which is good enough for me."
Adam nodded. "Legend got the reward for finishing the Slaughterhouse group a few minutes ago. Then again, he is a man made from lasers... long range 'issue' management is right up his alley."
The Triumvirate's power was being scanned too, very actively by Squishy and Simmy. Legend's shard was mostly energy conversion and manipulation, and the more details his powers could determine the more efficent his own abilities became. Copying it directly wasn't worth nearly as much as the enhancements gained by the other abilities.
Each 'Kill Order' target was being scanned as part of the reward process as well, though not at the same level of detail or speed that Legend was getting. Those shards WERE being worked on though, and the new messaging system was letting the victors brag about how they were given massive benefits for pulling those quests off.
Big improvements to personal power? Sure. But they could optionally gain low level copies of the Kill Order subject's abilities, ones that could grow over time.
Needless to say, interest was high.
Adam slung an arm around Narwhal's shoulder, even as she hugged CD and him back. "Well, I say some down time is needed. Twilight's been telling me that the various merchant and inventory classes have set up some sort of delivery service or market thing, why not hang out tonight and mess with that?"
CD was slightly taller than Narwhal, but her enthusiasm made her seem far younger. "Ooh! I've wanted to try a movie with popcorn thing in person!"
Narwhal laughed at the bouncing beauty. "Why not? Dates are more fun with an extra hand or two anyway." She pulled CD towards the Villa. "Let's find out if the new shop offers anything alcoholic to go with our evening. Adam, don't take too long!"
He watched his girlfriend saunter while pulling a blushing cybernetic goddess along.
Life was good.
Still, he had to go fix the dock area first. Dragon had already purchased all the heavily damaged property in that area with his personal funds, most of it entirely legally, but even with the new System only he could build a city in an evening.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
In a way, Lung's rampage was very useful.
Manipulation. Blue flames spread over the rubble, torn streets, and melted trench.
Conversion. The fire burned bright orange, with chemicals causing flames of blue, green, and more to spiral into the sky.
Consumption. The flames now spread over the perfectly smooth surface, even as the temperature reached unheard of levels.
Conversion. Fire used the samples of soil to fill the deep trench, not the dry clay filled and contaminated soil that filled the area but rich stuff, near black and fertile. It still had enough clay content to prevent ocean water from destroying the area, but this was the good stuff.
Manipulation. Fire gone, only blue flames of magic soaked the now rich soil that spawned in the middle of this town.
Straightening his suit sleeves, his skull grinned as he pushed forward with his bony hand.
Black Flame Metal formed tiles that lay out the foundations, both for buildings and where streets used to be. Asphalt was converted in, while the foundations had Null Metal pipes snake into the earth.
Access panels and tunnels formed following the streets, everything segmented so that normal tools could dismantle and access the parts inside without Adam himself being called in all the time.
The wiring was insulated with Null Metal, Flame Metal ready to conduct the charge, and all was embedded in the tubes below the reinforced road.
A series of tall apartment buildings rose from the metal foundations, covered in conversion panels to make heat, light, and energy usable to the future residents below. All of it connected to the city's sewage, water, and electrical services. Even cable TV was hooked up, which... uh. He would have to make sure the new tenants would pay for this stuff. Right now, all of it was being funded by HIS pockets. Whoops.
For now, the new residential area would prevent the crowding issues slowly cropping up at Variance Villa so far. Moving on.
As he walked toward the sea, 'Growth', 'Purification', and 'Manipulation' had rich grass fill the soil around the new homes, sidewalks, and streets. The section of dock that was rebuilt was far more sturdy and reliable than before, even as his blue flames ignored the water.
His power soaked into the bay, burning below the liquid as it consumed trash, rocks, plant and sea life. The dock that previously stood mere feet over the bay floor now had supports reaching farther and farther down as Adam consumed the material and used the energy gathered to reinforced the rock and soil in his new underwater wall. Layers of Null Metal on the vertical surface with spikes digging deep within would ensure stability for years.
In fact... Hmm.
This area would be useful, especially now that Leviathan was splashing around in his soul rather than destroying shipping attempts.
However... he was in a hurry. There were at least two beautiful women who wanted to spend time watching bad films and drinking bizarre drinks while snuggling, and he was NOT going to miss that.
His personal emotions caused the blue flames to glow near white and open black mouths filled with plasma fangs. The sea level actually dropped as sunken ships, rocks, sand and soil was 'Consumed', 'Converted', 'Purified', and 'Transferred' into more energy to devour.
He barely noticed his feet stepping on floating blue flame stones as he walked toward the bay entrance, water glowing as fish frantically fled the area. Even as the light spread below the water, it grew dim as the depth increased with each step over the sea.
Water channel for trade? Nah. Nothing that basic.
As it was, he was rebuilding the local 'swimming' areas so some form of 'beach' would still exist.
Everywhere else was dropping down dozens of meters, even as a bright blue divider ensured that the 'Swimming Area' wouldn't allow large predators or vehicles near the shore.
As he exited past the massive tanker even now dissolving into blue fire, he took a deep whiff of the open ocean, feeling more than a bit satisfied. This shouldn't get him in trouble, right?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Annette Hebert felt her heart calm down, even as the children played in the fire.
'Let`s go to the beach', he said. Danny was in SO much trouble.
She reached into the blue flames, feeling something playfully nibble her finger tips even as trash, weeds, rocks and shells evaporated into pure white sand.
The beach she had grown up with had just been split into three walled off large sections. The one closest to the parking lot was very shallow, probably for young children. The middle rapidly descended into the water, while the third was a near instant drop to the depths. Each wall was topped with a pier with railings, ladders, and what seemed to be fishing platforms at the end.
It was easy to see all the changes, as the previously green ocean was now glass quality clear as blue flames bumbled and bobbled around like confused toys. The far dividing wall, open to the bay, was now a slightly glowing blue grid. Blue lights sparkling in the darkest depths, while blue veins of power glowed up the side walls lighting up the water.
Thankfully, the kids had been mostly smart enough to leave the water once FIRE started rolling into the beach area.
Unfortunately, one of them realized it was 'Mr. Skelly fire', and they all rolled back into the flames before the adults could catch up.
She watched the same playful flames that were being carried around by toddlers or tossed by teens melting through the distant metal ships like butter.
Yeah, somehow Danny was getting in trouble for this. He must have tempted Murphy or something.
She snapped back into 'Guardian' mode once she realized one of the children with 'Manipulation' abilities was trying to start up a 'Fire fight'. "No Andrew! We do NOT throw fire at each other!"
Annette was NOT prepared for this many super-powered children. At least Taylor was helping to organize a water retaliation resistance movement.
Wait, where had she gotten an actual fire hose!?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
His vengeance would be swift. Overwhelming.
The wrench twisted sharply.
His might would be spoken of in legends! Sung of by bards!
A few more checks. The metal would need to be replaced after this next test run. No weakness would be permitted.
Few could bear his wrath, none would withstand his fury! No one would dare try.
A few more checks showed the engine purred like a lion and could roar with a thrust for vengeance.
"Hey Phil, I'm going to take lunch early, right?"
He waved the minion off. The fools thought to profit from his majesty, but they only allowed his greatness to grow in the shadows.
One last swipe from a towel and the beauty was prepared for a harsh life.
Andrew whistled from the door, pausing on the way out. "Damn Phil, you do fine work."
He frowned, but his internal righteousness could harvest profit from the lowest of seed. "Of course!"
None could deny the brilliance of Track-Tor, the Invincible.
And one day, his vengeance would sprout in glorious fields of glory!
He paused. Hopefully the prison cafeteria would have pudding today.
It was a glorious day for pudding.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
He knew Alexandra was stuck in her alternate identity due to the paperwork. The whole world gaining powers had basically destroyed ALL her free time for the next forever.
He knew Eidolon was frantically searching for any trace of the Endbringers, showing a level of paranoia that he had never expected.
So it was with some small guilt that Legend ended another villain on the 'Kill List'. Being in the field and literally fighting the good fight felt a million times better than 'fighting crime' by doing paperwork, in a city where everyone dropped their weapons and started crying if he showed up. Including his own team members, sometimes.
Also, it felt morally good to do this. Sickos like this ass needed to be put down. This one for example was the guy who kept consuming children and living in their corpses.
Because this cleansing... this was making the world a better place. Each monster knocked off this mortal coil ensured thousands of innocent people wouldn't suffer.
And this 'Quest' option made finding them and understanding how to deal with these demons very easy for someone as powerful as himself. The constant reward power ups didn't hurt his progress either.
He read another alert. The bounty reward had already been transferred to his accounts, although how 'Blue Angel' pulled that off was a mystery. It had initially caused his boyfriend significant confusion, but his new class of 'Homemaker' had him investing the stuff within hours. The apartment looked even more amazing than usual and the last home cooked meal was nearly divine.
More importantly than mere money, the power based reward was giving Legend more options for improvement.
Again, he chose carefully. Power wise, he had always been gifted when it came to raw energy output. So these updates had been focused on something he had struggled with for literally decades.
Control.
Increased ability to multitask, so that he could control more lasers safely. The ability to automatically scale power output based on target... in other words, power enough to stun a brute would no longer accidentally vaporize a normal human, power for burning a minion wouldn't be ignored if a brute jumped in the way, and so forth.
The ability to lock onto a target and auto-guide his beams without concern that it would hit a friend or unrelated object. The ability to automatically find openings for his attacks to go around obstacles to hit a target, or find the least destructive angle of aggression.
Now though, his options were more strange. Convert lasers into other materials? It could be strong, basically turn his beams into machine guns with infinite ammo, but it basically changed his power completely. It would require massive retraining and new tactical options. And would the material fade away? He wouldn't want to litter over a state sized area during a conflict.
Solidify lasers into physical objects? Similar issues, and his boyfriend would insist on using it for kinky things.
So... maybe?
At least it was an optional power setting, not one that fully replaced his ability.
The third options and beyond just made his powers MORE deadly than focused energy attacks already were. Multidimensional Shifting, to hit objects unknown to the normal world. Corrosive effects, causing wounds to fester or shields to corrupt. Bouncing lasers, that didn't lose any energy despite hitting multiple targets... well that seemed dangerous and uncontrolled. Lasers that only damaged clothing? Heh, no.
His eyes drifted back to the laser rope bondage option.
...Well. It wouldn't be a Quest Reward if he always spent it on work related stuff, right?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Last night was awesome!
Adam had walked into the living room (At least, ONE of the living rooms, Variance Villa was huge) and found that CD and Narwhal were cuddling with blue Simmy (Still nude) on the couch while something was playing on TV (He was distracted).
The couch was full, but the girls had him lay on their laps for the film (No idea which one). While nothing too sexual really occurred, it had been a warm and enjoyable experience, especially once Narwhal started stroking his hair and the other girls tried to 'massage' his 'tired' muscles.
That his body was formed from raw power and magic didn't matter, and he told no one that his body healed so quickly that 'sore' didn't really exist for him anymore.
Massages rocked!
He stretched on the mostly empty couch, then re-wrapped his arms back around Narwhal and tried to go back to sleep.
...No, that was Simmy. The nudity was a big hint.
Whatever, it was too early to freak out about this. Hugs for everyone, and good night.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Dragon sighed as her sister gossiped more about her date last night. Just because she and Colin moved a bit slower in their relationship status didn't mean she would try and drag CD down emotionally now that SHE had romantic options.
Whatever this rectangular love thing was, she was at least having a good time so far.
She reviewed her tasks, CD babbling away as she lounged nude on Dragon's virtual couch. The girl had near zero modesty, but at least her sister made the day feel brighter when around.
Birdcage? Still up and running, the massively secured prison still steady as stone. Some changes had to be made after Dragon was freed from her code shackles, and a lot of flaws in the prison were found and patched, but it was safer today than ever before. Now that she was able to make free decisions, she had even improved the food quality of the place. Morale had actually gone up this month!
Many thousands of Guild operations were plodding along, only thirty three needed escalation to Narwhal's actual attention.
Adam's companies were now fully handled by Sonia, so Dragon was basically checking up on those for no real reason other than curiosity.
The sales numbers for the new Guild Products were not in yet, but the market had reacted VERY favorably to the new computers, materials, and software being offered now that Adam was less terrified of the consequences for standing out. Then again, his display at the docks had been going viral online from the few who recorded it, so even if it WAS easy for people with powers to target him, they would be having second thoughts. Probably.
She paused. Right, where did the Baku Rangers end up? Missy had one, the Pink one. Oh, the White one was now with Panacea, and seemed to enjoy the taste of her whole family based on these images they shared.
Dragon digitally blinked. Why was the Black Baku heading to the American South? Was it after the 'Fallen', the gang focused on worshiping Endbringers? She sent a question off to Adam, that whole group of villains focused on Master abilities mostly. Bakus should be immune to that, right? She sent some messages towards the Black ball of fur as well.
...It was ignoring all her attempts to communicate with it.
Well. Adam's response said it should be fine... right?
With a digital sigh, she assigned a drone to follow the slowly bouncing/floating ball of fur as it meandered toward an incestuous region of the south. This could only end well.
It was technically outside of her jurisdiction anyway, so no one should yell at her when those people bump into a tiny elephant-tiger-thing. Variance may still get blamed though.
Hopefully the others would turn up soon. One, the Red one, was drifting from park to park as it meandered towards Wisconsin, and Ivy said her Green one was hanging around for now.
She sighed as CD started another sub-story about her evening. Siblings were new, but her old relationship with Narwhal helped Dragon adapt some.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Kaiser frowned at his management team. "No."
Brad, partially forming into his 'Hookwolf' battle state, actually growled. "WHY NOT!?" His arm began writhing as metal hooks and shark spikes swirled over the flesh. "That territory was going to be MINE, I had groups ready for deployment months ago!"
James Fliescher, known to most as 'Krieg' snorted. "Think about it Brad, you couldn't push into that territory back when all you had to worry about was Lung. Not for long, anyway."
He ignored his friends rage. "Now that Lung turned into a mountain and a giant elephant popped him, why do you THINK we are going to lay low?"
Kaiser frowned. "Sadly, while that is a factor, the issue is more concerning. For E88 as a whole."
That drew the attention of the group of Nazis.
He extended a metal sword, thin, to point at the white board behind him. "The numbers, remember?"
Kaiser swept from his throne, each step loud in the meeting room. Pacing. "It was bad enough that our departments were losing profit, or that our ongoing conflicts with those lessors and lowers kept costing us time and money. And occasionally personnel, although we have been lucky with retrieval so far."
He held his metal gauntlet up, watching his power redistribute the metal surface. "We were handling that. Setbacks were common but low in damage, and recruitment was high. No, while the evidence that Variance can destroy or capture massive powerhouse parahumans is certainly a negative, the real issue is the 'System' itself."
Brad scoffed. "No real man would stoop to begging some self righteous prick to gain power. None of my people would touch the damn thing."
Kaiser sighed. "And that is the issue. Branches of the Nazi supporting organizations are all pulling away because of widespread push back from formally powerless minorities. And then... the education camps."
More than a few winces hit the room. Even the most die-hard white power supporters were not exactly thrilled at the 'Empowerment Camps' which near-tortured children to get them to gain abilities, then brainwashed them to be weapons for the cause. It was an understood if not widely mentioned threat that stepping too far out of line could have a family member or two sent off for 'training'.
Kaiser nodded. "The whole concept doesn't work when those being 'educated' can suddenly transform into a mound of magma. Or teleport. Two camps had all staff executed, no outsiders even involved."
He pointed roughly at the board. "The numbers are against us, and if we want to continue to support the cause we need to bind together. There will be a series of meetings to hopefully find a solution, but we must end nearly all operations locally and at all external branches. We can't handle being attacked when we are so strained."
The feeling of resentfulness but understanding mostly swept the room, but Brad had always been an emotional man. "But Lung's gone! His people are in shambles, and Oni Lee was captured a few days ago! This could be the only chance to move, before Variance rebuilds and claims even more land!"
Seeing no supporters, his clawed hands gripped his hair. "And what about those filthy Merchants!? Are we even keeping an eye on those drug dealing bastards!?"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Skidmark jerked, falling from the mound of mechanical parts. "I'm awake!"
His girl ignored him, her hands working inside the massive machine.
Skidmark blinked at the ceiling. Or was it a roof? Life gave hard questions. Absently, he brought up his class, 'Pharmaceutical Manufacturing'. 'Self Medication' was leveling up nicely. He still needed some buzz though. "Baby, you got the good stuff?"
She snorted. "Busy Adam, this is going to be F$#% #$ amazing!"
He frowned. Her 'Scavenger' class had massively improved the number and quality of parts found for her to tinker with, but it also kept her from being able to party as much. "S^ *, I know baby. I'm going to $# # ing get some good stuff from the *#&&$# stash."
Squealer waived him off. Whatever this new machine was, she was dedicated to seeing it completed. Whatever.
He stumbled into the main base, passing the drugged gang members and moving towards the stash. They had to cut down on a lot of gang activities to keep these cool powers, but several members got some abilities to grow the good stuff and process it better, which made everything cheaper. Fewer imports meant cheaper goods and more profits, even with operations at an all time low. Better buzz too.
So yeah, they didn't get to go out and # $ stuff up like the old days, but the high was higher and the pains were lower, and the stash kept flowing. Heck, even the bills were no problem for now.
He nearly collapsed into the back room, but things could always be worse.
With less crime, there was much lower chance that he would get caught and be forced to be sober.
He'd shoot up to that.
He blinked at the bartender. Drugtender? "Hey, have you always been a tiny yellow elephant?"
"Squeak?"
Oh, there was the stuff. "Never mind, I'm good."
Now to get back to the tinker lab. Hopefully without falling.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam 'Adventure' Burns was a wise man.
Indeed.
Snuggling between Narwhal (Cyber Narwhal, or CN, was doing the paperwork) and CD (Dragon's sister had been coming over nightly for a while now), they had finally gotten to the Star War's trilogy. Technically the middle three, or four, five, and six. No reason to expose poor CD to Jar Jar Binks right now. And this had turned into a long series of movie nights recently anyway.
Simmy had sort of insisted, as the ability to turn off future and past predictions (As well as all the new abilities she gained becoming his wife) allowed her to finally begin to forget things if she tried hard enough. Or to at least not automatically remember the ending of the film and the entire lives of every person related to casting, filming, and processing said film.
So instead of knowing all movies ever made, she could actually feel surprise. Enjoyment. Suspense.
Thus, movie nights.
Simmy was getting the popcorn. Adam was not sure where it was from, but the description in the System's 'Shop' said it was a snack tinker with a 'Dietitian' class who had managed to make the stuff healthy, more buttery tasting, with no oily feeling. Today they were aiming for the chocolate variant of the stuff, since the cheese and caramel flavors had been so popular.
Narwhal hummed, with CN watching from her virtual office. "So... could we go there?"
Adam hummed right back. "Squishy says maybe on my own. If we asked for it directly though, yes I could get to at least a version of that Realm... but the downsides I have to choose would end up with me spending a LOT of time there. They have slavery and stuff, and I would be very hard pressed not to meddle."
CD hummed just to join in, her side pressed firmly to his. "Yeah, but there is Infinite Realms out there. Nightmare Moon has been spending a lot of her free time just working with Squishy to see which ones are interesting, but even the ones she analyzes tend to vanish or duplicate or whatever."
She accepted the floating tub of popcorn even as Simmy entered the room and sat in front of the couch, nestled between Adam's legs and humming some tune.
...They really should try to get Simmy to wear some actual clothing at some point.
CD turned back to her friends. "Point is, if any injustice exists anywhere, you can find an infinite number of nearly duplicate places suffering that specific issue, in copies of that specific world. It would drive you mad with guilt and grief as you spent the rest of eternity fighting that one issue, and it still wouldn't address a percentage of the total places with horrible problems."
Adam sighed. "Yeah, Squishy and I talked about it a bit every once in a while. We decided to address the issues as we ran into them, but not to deliberately search out problems that are not directly affecting us." He frowned. "That said, there is a 'flaw' I can choose to show up at significant points of time in other worlds, an I will likely keep that option active. It saved a few lives already."
Narwhal snorted. "Well, duh. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and assume you will have a very lax definition for 'not affecting' yourself. For example, I doubt you could watch someone treat a slave badly in the Star Wars Realm without stabbing a few people."
He blinked. "Well..." Huh. No, the idea of actual torture and death didn't bother him as much as it should. "I better take someone with me eventually, now that you mention it. My scale for 'acceptable levels of retribution' sort of go out the window even at the idea of someone beating a baby or whatever."
A few quiet questions between himself and Squishy and he nodded. "Right. I will try to always kill people instead of long sadistic punishments or endless tortures."
Narwhal's look was dry. "Thank you for that, but we meant more like 'Don`t slaughter someone following the law unless it is very strongly against your moral code'. Especially because jerks like slavers could also have dead man switches or whatever."
He blinked. "Not going to push that 'Never kill' stuff from the unwritten rules?"
She snorted. "Ideally you would spare people as often as possible, but I have seen you operate. You start off at overkill and go up." An image popped up, shared by CN. "You could have sent Lung to sleep with 'Recovery'. You went giant monster fight."
Adam paused. Huh. "You know, for as much as I use 'Recovery', I really sort of ignored the crowd control functions." He nodded. "Right, my bad. In my defense, it was easier for Twilight to map his shard while he was using it."
Also, Simmy had thought it would be awesome, and she had been totally right. It was really fun having her around and be all non-murdery. He felt her pat his shoe leaning back against him, humming away.
Narwhal chuckled as she took another handful of popcorn. "And wanting to fight a giant dragon god had nothing to do with it?"
Damn it, that had been awesome! "Hey, let's focus on the tiny furry Muppet things fighting an army!" Those Ewoks... did those actually exist there, or were they only included as a toy option for Lucas Arts? They didn't affect the story much... or show up anywhere else. Hmm.
Either way, perfect distraction.
Narwhal idly stroked Simmy's blue hair feathers. "When CN and I merge we both experience the same stuff, so you could just bring her along once in a while so we can explore a bit like a couple. CD can join in easily enough, although I think Twilight wants to stay here and keep messing with the System. Also, Nightmare Moon has become something of a nightclub idol. Seriously, she has like a following online and on the System forums."
Alright, distraction was only partially successful. Ah well.
He sighed. "I hate being a stickler about this, but no. I don't want to risk traveling with people when possible. After a few more trips, hopefully I will feel strong enough to risk taking you girls on trips into unexplored Realms, but not likely any time soon. Really I only really allowed it before because of my crippiling loneliness, a sense of responsibility having created the cyber girls, and the inability to return home safely."
Adam frowned. "We got lucky that the most powerful entities encountered were more focused on flirting and friendship rather than conceptually crushing me. Or at least, attempting to do such."
Narwhal grumbled but gave in. "But you WILL take Simmy. She can entirely fit in your soul and is able to see problems before they become issues."
He felt his angel wiggle from praise and chuckled as he gave her a hug using his ankles. Arms were a bit busy after all. "Fine, not like I can't see your point."
CD tapped his knee. "If you do travel again, what will happen to System? It won't shut down or whatever, right?"
He hugged her tighter. "Nah, it will be fine. System is a faith based magical system, and while it took a ton of power and effort to set up on my end... once we hit 10,000 followers in a small region it became self sustaining. It would take literal millennium for it to start having issues at that point, and we passed that low number a LONG time ago."
Their conversation drifted off until the end of the movie, and as the credits scrolled they discussed what they would consider worth taking from various movies or books and what penalties he would have to be accepted to lower the cost enough to actually attempt a trip.
Bottom line: Aiming for a specific place shot the price of transit through the roof. Better to ask for a particular ability or technology base instead and hope for the best, and even then he would sort of be dropped into active situations with little or no idea of what was going on or any support.
He could handle that.
As far as morality goes, the general consensus was to use a self based code of ethics. After all, some worlds may encourage cannibalism, murder, or who knew what... best for Adam to make internal judgments that he would be comfortable with rather than try and follow billions of laws from trillions of countries.
Still, the idea of Adam being off on his own again seemed to put the others on edge.
He had no clue why.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The 'Night Life', as it were, turned out to be VERY profitable.
Nightmare Moon, or 'Luna Dark' as she was called now online, had discovered a fascinating fact after visiting the local night club.
With her human form, scantily clad as she enjoyed, she found that most men and many women were worshiping her.
Literally.
The faith was filling up her weakened reserves, and although it would take a long, LONG time... she could reach and eventually surpass the power levels of her glory years.
She continued to move to the beat, a wonderful drink in one hand and a beauty dancing to her side.
This world... lived in the night. Thrived in it, no less.
Unlike the far less industrialized world of Equestria, people staying up past dark was not only common but almost socially required. Going home before midnight was considered an 'old people' thing.
It felt more warm here and now than the last decade spent in her old home. No terrified whispers, no claims of demons and night feeding and dark teeth.
Yes, the majority of the worship was sexual in nature. Not even a surprise. But even now she felt more and more people just enjoy her dance moves or her singing voice. It didn't hurt that she had close ties to The Guild and Variance as well, as far as her online presence was concerned.
She had even made deals through CD to have merchandise released and an album recorded... and her fans were actively eating it all up. Loving it. Loving her!
The idea of exploring realities seemed less desirable when she could feel an ocean of people who enjoyed having her here. Who wanted to just know about her life, about what she wanted, about her opinions. They may not know her magical powers or years of conflict for the peace of the realm, but the desire was real and plentiful.
She was pulled back to the party as they pushed for her to sing another tune. To be honest, the musical choices of this world were both varied and fabulous, they had been such a wonderful surprise gift in many ways. So many tribes of people, so many cultures, so much media and communication! Even now hundreds of songs and plays and such were being created and shared and spread, even BEFORE the System powers began lowering the difficulty for normal people to create amazing new products and services. 'Home Movies' were rapidly becoming a new genre of media, and theoretically could challenge big box office creations!
The evening thrummed with sound and life and music...
She wasn't alone in the night. Not here.
Sometimes, while friendship was magical, acceptance could be just as amazing.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Twilight wish she could go home and tell her former life how amazing this was.
Global research into new forms of power! Teams of people, some members of Variance's business, others in The Guild, many more simply with compatible 'Class' choices, working together!
There were human magical research teams now, and they worked under HER, Twilight, in return for contribution points and System levels.
Sure she had to remain in human form, even if she kept the horn. But... in Equestria, while she loved her friends, she had been alone.
Only the Alicorns could even understand magic in the way she did. And more and more often, only she could explain what she was attempting, why it might work, what could be achieved.
But here?
Nightmare Moon may have wandered away, but now Twilight had whole teams of people who could follow along with her, argue with her, debate the ideas behind belief and magic itself!
She barely got sleep, not that her non-biological body cared. She ate rarely. She studied and worked and tested constantly. Being a cyber intelligence made all her old issues and weaknesses optional, age would no longer stop progress, and her life was focused on investigations, study, and research... about MULTIPLE REALITIES!
Was it even possible to be more happy? To feel more accomplished?
Eventually she would want to visit her friends and family back home, to show them how much she had done and how much she would do...
But Adam could choose 'when' to go back. So... she could take her time and enjoy this thoroughly. No friends or family ignored, because she was a digital clone. No guilt for leaving anyone behind, because she hadn't!
Have her cake, eat it too!
She paused, before taking another bite of perfectly duplicated triple-layered double-dipped chocolate-fudge cake. This one had chocolate sprinkles.
Perfectly duplicated as if freshly cooked, totally cybernetic cake.
No tummy ache, no getting fat. Unlimited amounts.
She sighed with joy as she pulled up the soon to be constructed 'Auction House' for the System. Life was awesome.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
They were gone.
Eidolon floated over the South Pacific sea, the waves ignored.
He... felt conflicted.
The Endbringers had been the focus of his training, the unreachable peak, the monster in the dark for him to one day triumph over.
True, the more times he... failed... the harder it was to stand back up and fight again.
With each death, his emotional burden grew... having not already conquered the beasts, each death fell on his shoulders.
When he suddenly gained a FOURTH open power slot, he thought his day of victory had finally arrived!
But to have them just vanish...
His heart was empty.
All those fights seemed pointless. All that pain. All those sleepless nights, those secret training hours. He once spent three days before the next projected attack alone in his room, frantically changing his selected powers. Hoping for some combination of three that would save everyone, and prove how powerful and important he was.
Even when he found his abilities start to fail, the powerful skills weakening, he still had hope. There were just SO MANY abilities, skills, and tricks.
But what was the point now?
Conversely, he did feel some level of peace. At least, assuming the monsters don't come back, the innocent wouldn't die at his feet anymore. The crowds wouldn't be snuffed out like an afterthought.
But what... what use was he now?
No one used a nuclear tank to sweep a street, or a hydraulic press to knit.
He was a man filled with life threatening powers... with no tasks to his level. No challenges.
Eidolon, now more or less simply David, looked down at the sheet of paper his friend had passed.
It was a personal thing, hand written by Legend on his way to take out another 'threat', if normal Parahumans could count as one. It told of his experiences with the new powers sweeping the globe.
Before, he had scoffed. He had goals. Now?
"Variance, I... I need worthy opponents."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Simmy frowned. Then made some choices.
'New Class: Challenger! When fighting an opponent, may restrict power to an equivalent level or lower. The more restrictions enabled, the greater the reward!'
There. Let him choke on it.
She went back to choosing sexy outfits to mess with Narwhal's afternoon. Something lacy.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam wiped the sea water from his face and looked back at the Bay.
This was like the third or fourth time he had been called back here. First, the deeper sections he had created needed plant life and smaller creatures to encourage fish spawning. Secondly, the faith based barriers he had placed had to be adjusted, because a couple had been filtering out salt which was messing with everything.
Now, he was reintroducing more sea life, even if said creatures were being modified to 'Peak' 'Recovery' levels. The fishing areas near the swimming peers had been useless without them, and the new artificial reefs were made with bright colors... because why not.
Ironically, having more girls in his life had increased his free time and lowered the amount of sexy time. He and Narwhal had slowed things down to not pressure CD, CN, or Simmy (Although Simmy took this as a challenge somehow), and the girls had taken several nights out.
This did leave Adam more time for his own projects, which was needed, but well... somehow after so much frantic work taking time off seemed wasteful.
He checked again... theoretically THIS time there should be a balance without one particular animal eating all the others. A few spawning areas that restricted creatures to a single species should ensure that he didn't have to come down here every month or so. No chance of over fishing, as the 'spawn pits' wouldn't allow babies to escape until they reach a certain size... probably.
Whatever, this was more than good enough. Might be too much in fact, to the point where seafood was likely to become a major export of the area. Meh.
He 'Transferred' home, moving towards his lab.
This latest project was personally important.
Artificial Intelligence Hardware.
Dragon. Cyber Dragon. And technically Cyber Narwhal, Twilight, and Nightmare Moon... Or was she going by Luna Dark full time now?
They could run off his massive super computer setup, for now. But they were tied. Restricted.
There were worlds out there where computers the size of his thumb could run a full AI. Solo. With power and cooling included.
His attempts to create something similar had shown him some disturbing issues.
He could pull it off pretty easily. Worm tinkertech handled multiple dimension devices amazingly well, so having all the big parts in another layer or layering lots of small things in one space would allow fast data transfer and 'small' local size.
But moving that through Realms? No.
And based on Squishy's opinion, the other realities (MLP and Inuyasha) did NOT handle the same kind of dimensional shenanigans with any level of grace or dignity.
The best he could do was design great hardware, convert it into a spell, and anchor it to a small object. It worked very well, but the issue again was the hardware.
Almost all the coolest stuff his followers were using or developing needed dimensional shenanigans to form or stay stable. Even the damn wires needed special universal laws to exist.
So... he needed something more. Advanced. New ideas.
The best example he knew of was probably Commander Data from Star Trek. Even in THAT Realm the damn android was beyond advanced, so advanced that duplicating the feat was something entire worlds attempted and (the majority of times) failed at. Oh he had some issues, like difficulty experiencing emotions or whatever, but fixes for that existed in the television series itself so Adam should be able to do something.
But that realm had an entire civilization of almost all powerful creatures named 'Q' that actively watched humans in general and Data particularly. Time manipulation, Reality manipulation, the works. Not to mention the other way powerful forces and such that filled the dang place.
Adam would be lucky to just be kept as a pet or something if not instantly wiped out if they felt offended by his presence. For now.
Point was, he would NOT be disabling the safety features of his 'Transfer' ability. After all, 'Q' wasn't the ONLY god like beings out there, and the ability to avoid realities with malicious ones was worth not visiting Star Trek for a while.
Still, androids and gynoids existed in multiple stories and movies and such.
He had almost left a day or so ago, but in the middle of discussing it with his girls Squishy had popped in and informed the group that Eidolon had suddenly joined the System.
Immediately Twilight started examining his shard, and quickly dragged CD, Squishy, and a surprisingly reluctant Simmy into the job, and the benefits began rolling in.
First of all, his ability was a template for rapid selection of power units and a great boon to 'Manipulation', 'Research', 'Harmony', and well... anything that needed multiprocessing features. Twilight had said something about how much it was synergizing with the 'Queen Administrator' shard that Variance Villa had found earlier this month, and then they were off to the races.
Not sure how Taylor had gotten the thing, really. Had it always locked onto her and the System just helped out? At least that child didn't have to be emotionally abused for years to get the damn thing. Anyway.
Even while they worked, Eidolon was being quite the team player. Every time he selected a power for one of his empty power slots, he had a habit of trying out a dozen or so options before setting down on a single effect or ability. In a single day he could access hundreds of powers, or if the guy was bored even more.
All those powers, powers that belonged to the 'Thinker' entity, the one that was 'dead' and therefore unable to complain or set off doomsday scenarios?
Yoink!
Twilight left a process running that did nothing but record all the new dimensional addresses for those power shards and the reported properties of such. Her other teams were having a field day debating which ones should be consumed and converted next, and each crystal shard handled as such helped teach Adam's power how to build 'Crystal Power Shards' in more effiecent and effective ways.
Needless to say, he didn't want to leave to a new Realm in the middle of all these delicious power ups.
Still... he looked at his virtual plans and designs.
He wanted his girls to be safe, even if this Realm and his powers vanished. And organic bodies had issues that he didn't accept, enhanced as he could make them aside.
A fully artificial body with human sensations, the ability to self repair, and the ability to procreate with organic bodies. It would have to be a long term goal.
For now...
He continued to tinker in his lab. The more he understood about electronics, programing, and robotics now, the easier the long term projects would become.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
It was art.
The work of generations, trillions of pieces that interwove a tapestry of intent.
It was flawed. Uncountable failures and setbacks, each overcome, each growing the beauty of the final design.
It was fluid. Constant adjustments were needed at every level, more than any one person could ever control. He had needed to trick people into serving his purpose with care and ignorance and bribery.
And, even with the most recent setback, even with his plans partially exposed and his identity revealed to those meddlesome fools, even with his personal wounds grave and his body artificially aged by dozens of decades...
It was time.
Fighting an army of psychic warriors, one that can read the future and predict the present... it took the delicate fingers of death and deceit years of subtle works and twisted whispering to battle.
Generations of suicidal attacks, of sacrificing apprentice and master over and over, and now the Light Side was veiled. Hidden from all but himself and his people.
Underground works, political intrigue, generations of careful alliances and betrayals, and now Jedi no longer married, had children, nor even permitted themselves to feel emotions on any level. Near robots, denied compassion, love, or passion... so easy to twist and convert.
Multiple worlds fell under his rule, armies uncountable on both sides danced to his whims, and the remaining few Jedi not secretly turned or killed in far off lands were now surrounded by minions of his own creation, with mental triggers set to end it all. Their communication inhibited and watched, their support groups scattered and strained from ongoing war.
But Sidious had not accomplished so much by being hasty.
Even so spread, even so surrounded, Jedi warriors were famous for last minute saves and surviving the impossible. Unable to see the future, they could still predict the local events, see the tide of battle. To ensure success, he needed them unaware. Disturbed. Distracted.
His apprentice, now Darth Lord Vader, was about to move with his 501st Legion.
The Jedi Temple was barely defended.
Let's see how well those damn Light slaves fought when the screams of children fill their minds.
He had armies. He had advanced weapons and ships. He had the Force, and the Chosen One selected to bring balance to the universe was corrupted to his designs. His foes were unaware, surrounded, and about to be mentally handicapped while unknown traitors awoke to new orders.
Nothing could stop him now.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam nodded. Everything here was mostly handled, and he could return near instantly anyway.
He gave Dragon and the others the heads up, got some well wishes back, and focused.
No idea where he would end up, so human body. Suit was probably fine. Weapon?
He formed a black rod of Flame Metal, and began filling it with pure energy. A small ball of blue magic sang as it danced off the end. It would be good enough, and he could adapt pretty well. Even worked as a light source!
Right, now... restrictions.
No safe travel. Arrive at an 'interesting' time. No language package. No reality insertion. Etc.
Goal: Gain Advanced Technology for Robotics.
Ooh, it was even cheaper than before! It looked like the constant advancements his followers made here in Worm was helping lower the costs.
Any other options then?
...No. Too expensive. The Language option alone was STUPID expensive. How many languages did this place even have!? Whatever.
"Transfer: Abyss."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Bene nearly slipped as she ran through the door leading to the emergency room. A rapid code locked the door for what little use it would do before she began feeling the room.
Thank the force, they were all here.
Little Zett Jukassa stood at the front of the small crowd of children, his blue light saber the only light in the unpowered room. His face relaxed slightly as he recognized her.
She snapped out. "Report."
Zett nodded. "I got the emergency signal before the power went out, and gathered all the Younglings I could. I was unable to contact outside, but had the older children grab any supplies they could on the way here."
Only a few of the younger children were crying or sniffling, honestly she was very proud at how well they were handling the situation. If only they had more time.
Her expression must have set something off in his mind. "Is this a Separatist attack? How long until the reinforcements arrive?"
She glanced at the younger children. No... nothing she could say would change anything. No reason to crush their hope. "It is an attack. I am not sure when reinforcements can get here, so we need to find a separate escape route if possible, defend carefully until then. The standard operating procedures we have however may be compromised."
Of course they were compromised, the one leading the slaughter was a Sith in black armor and a squad from the Republic itself. The same Republic that objected to 'overly expensive' protections and protocols, who had all the floor plans for this building, who had enforced laws restricting weapons and armor while in the building, and so forth.
Something must had slipped, as she noticed Zett go wide eyed... then serious. "Right. Smallest ones, to the back room. I need two of the oldest to keep them calm and if possible, try to get everyone to do meditation exercises. The Force will guide us."
Bene fought back the despair in her heart. The Force had nothing to say despite her frantic begging. It felt hidden, like it had for years now. Barely accessible.
And the hallway began to thump with the sounds of armored feet.
She stood at the front of these young boys, girls, and others. These innocents.
A few had training sabers, training tools unable to do more than lightly sunburn an unarmed person. Worthless against the clone armor, worthless against a true lightsaber. But anything that kept what little hope they had left alive was worth it.
She gestured silently for Zett to move to the edge, hopefully catching the first few invaders by surprise as they focused on killing her first.
Even as the room fell into silence, the ever louder attempts at someone trying to open the door grew and grew.
Then it all stopped, and something overly optimistic and innocent inside of her thought that someone had come to save them. That they had some more time. Just a few more seconds.
The red light of slowly melting metal burned her hope away.
The red beam of power that pierced the door and began to melt away at the frame killed anything left.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Even under his despair and rage, Anakin Skywalker felt the rich flavor of the Dark Side pull him forward on his path. The stain of these betrayers, these fools that had held him back for years, it would all be cleansed.
These tainted children would thank him on some level, able to escape life of hypocrisy and pain that he had to suffer. His burned stump, fractured bones, and robotic limb were nearly puppeted by the force itself now, its weakness unable to handle full Jedi combat even as the charred nerves screamed against the material.
He would have to redesign them later.
His red lightsaber burned another inch through the door.
It was slower going than when he was at his prime. Unlike when using the Light Side, the Dark Side cared not for his pain or anger, but for the passion itself. It didn't try and heal his wounds or keep him calm, but used everything to drive his mind forward. For more. It tempted him to let go and lose himself.
If the Light was numb robotic apathy, the Dark was flaming passion and self gratification.
He allowed none of it to move him from his goal.
This was a harsh task, but necessary. With the death of these things, all his other targets would die like the womp rats they were. Screaming. As they should.
They took his mother, they held back his training, they prevented him from gaining enough power to save his love. Each thought pulsed dark energies through his body, through his robotic limbs, into the air.
They all deserved nothing less.
Moments before the door was fully compromised, he felt the burning of the force screech a warning.
The red glowing metal seemed to... twist?
He signaled his men to retreat even as the metal seemed to catch on fire. Strange, eldritch blue flames.
Then a mountain fell on the world and he fell unconscious, unaware of his men frantically carrying him off to medical and trying to set up defense positions as they fell back.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam felt himself enter the new Realm easily.
Too easily.
He didn't even have time to make a choice or anything, something inside it just snagged his essence and smashed him into a door. Something like a white hand or vines or something had just... flung him.
...The hell!?
He forced the nearby pathetic flames to grow, to give him enough energy to form a body here.
Adam barely had enough time to see two kids with glowing rod toys before something clicked inside his rapidly forming skeletal body... and his magic just smushed down.
Not in the physical world, thankfully, or several miles of this place would have been crumpled, but he barely had time to hold his power back from the children in front of him before feeling something crumple behind him. And another. And uh. Shit.
He glanced at the... nope, they were unconscious too. Not the youngest ones, but the two oldest. Just unconscious though, not mentally smushed. Probably.
At least it didn't feel like he had killed those... thirty? Forty? Huh. That was a lot of random people being knocked out.
What the hell. Why only those people? And he could feel some large group of others frantically trying to escape the building. At least THAT seemed reasonable.
And now the children were staring at him. And he forgot the whole skin stuff, so he was currently skeleton in a suit.
Wonderful.
He gave a weak smile. "Hello! I don't suppose anyone can tell me what is going on?"
One of the other... oh. That wasn't human. She was cute though, even with the head tentacles... Oh.
This was Star Wars, wasn't it? Really should have picked that up earlier. Dang.
Anyway, she seemed older than most of the others, excepting the two unconscious kids with what were probably light sabers, now thankfully deactivated.
She cautiously walked forward. "Fru yna oui? Hu, fryd yna oui?"
...Crud.
Just. Wonderful.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
If one were to map out the galaxy, or at least the regions controlled by the Republic, it would be large. And if one were to map out the flows of the Force and color in alignment, it would be beautiful.
Rich black swirls, spiraling white arcs, and on planets or regions of space with no intelligent life rich grays composed of microscopic patterns of light and dark, dancing in the void.
But for a moment, however short, there was something unexpected.
Coruscant, covered by a city and filled with life, would normally swirl with hope, rage, anger, love, and more at all times. Waves of black force energy would collide with rivers of white, with something like islands representing order or chaos, light or dark, scattered within.
And for years now, something unheard of had been spreading from here.
Order, always a component of the Light, had been enforced on the Dark side. On Chaos.
Like webs, strings of corruption, it had spread through the planet. It became harder to feel calm, to find peace. It became easier to rant, to fault others.
And both sides of the Force hated it.
The Light was oppressed, slowly consumed, and betrayed by Order.
The Dark was restrained, forced to obey, and betrayed by its minions.
And for but a moment, less than a few minutes, it all went odd.
A node of Light, the Jedi Temple, beset by Orderly Dark and screaming in outrage, found an opportunity. An impossible chance.
The ever flowing pattern of Light and Dark bulged outward, as a massive sphere of blue fire swirled in place.
The Order, forced onto the Dark, was strained and being fought at the best of times. But a construct designed to work on set information couldn't handle something so far outside of context. It didn't break, and indeed with the disturbance happening so close to the core of the construct it even managed to adapt to some degree, even if it wasn't able to restrict the flowing power.
However, the invisible cogs of an impossible machine slipped slightly.
It was enough.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The Veil over the Force was not simply a curtain blocking the sunlight, but a weight.
A restraint.
A taint.
Every Jedi in recent years had to grow under it. To fight every moment for but a glimpse of the Light, a moment of self direction and clarity. To use with struggle the gifts that came so simply for the armies of Jedi that existed in the far past.
More complicated abilities collapsed, reducing the powers available to train to basic options. Push and pull, foresight, low level energy absorption, and such. The days of connected to an army and directing the fight became few, the idea of flight or even healing the wounded became legendary.
But for a moment, just an instant, almost every Jedi, adult and young, had a glimpse at the unveiled side of the Force. The Dark didn't fight it, and the Light wasn't obscured.
An instant was enough.
Years of hard work against impossible resistance had honed the abilities of even the 'weakest' of Jedi to unheard of levels.
Full access? No burden?
Unknown to Adam, Jedi everywhere not only realized the traps they were in, but gained instant information about safest routes of escape, easiest methods of sabotage, and most efficient methods to free their mentally enslaved clone followers from being transformed into traitors.
Even as the veil fell again, things were moving as one within the Jedi people.
And unfortunately for the Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, the soon to be declared Emperor of the Republic, the Sith Darth Sidious... well.
These changes were only felt in the Force, and his planet was swirling with blue metaphysical fire.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam glanced at the melted door. That was probably where his physical fire started, and considering the melted metal the damage was intentional.
Not that anyone was trying to break in now.
Just in case, he waved a skeletal hand. Blue flames of magic began flowing through the melted scars in the door, flooding the corridor and spreading through the building.
Hearing reactions from the kids, he tried to give them an innocent smile.
This would have been so much easier with an actual face.
Right, before he went too much farther, this would be a great time to get some language skills.
Absently he activated 'Harmony'... and nearly collapsed.
Clenching his jaw bones while raw pain flooded his body, he forced the power to swap to 'Consumption'. Even so, his soul twinged as his mind forced the raw data into his crystal library, Simmy already floating with the information and helping to sort the flow to the most relevant sections of memory.
Wincing harder, he focused on staying as calm as possible... but damn.
Never activate 'Harmony' in a Realm where so many people are not only psychic, but the air itself is permeated by a field of spirits, memories, and impressions of the past.
Forget languages, he just gained... WAY too much information. On nearly every topic. Even now, Simmy was carefully applying mental locks on entire shelves of information to restrain it for later analysis. Oww.
Right. Galactic Basic Standard, right? Simmy, please get that language alone for now and block the rest of it all until it's needed.
Ice flowed into his veins, cooling and soothing his slightly steaming skeletal structure even as the pain relief helped him find his inner calm.
Right. "Sorry, I couldn't understand any of that." The pause in the previously ignored conversation between children helped him focus on the moment. "Right."
He stood tall, straightened his suit, and held out a skeletal hand for his reforming club. Gripping the orb of fire and using it as a cane, he gave a small smile, his glowing blue eyes helping to light up the still dim room.
He glanced at the blue Twi'lek that had spoken to him originally. "My name in this form is Variance, and I am a hero. Can any of you tell me what is going on right now?"
The girl in robes still stood protectively in front of the crowd, but still gave a weak nod. "Ah. We believe the Temple is under attack." She glanced at the two unconcious padawans on the floor. "Bene and Zett implied it was a Separatist attack, but we saw a red lightsaber trying to cut the door down... so there may be a Sith attacking. Or there had been, before you and the fire thing."
Adam nodded, before turning to look at the door. "Right. Well, with no power I doubt it will be easy to get messages out... then again, if someone is willing to attack a place as famous as this one, there could be a bomb or an orbital strike planned." Which would just be annoying, really. He fed magic into the ocean of fire. Better have full coverage for this part.
Tossing his club into the air and catching it by the non-flaming end, he gave a smile. "So why don't we wake up your two friends here and find a way out of the building first? No reason to stay in such a dreary place like this if we have the option."
One of the younger boys piped up. "But what if there are more bad guys out there!?"
Adam's smile oozed blue fire, drifting through his crystal filled skull like smoke. "Well... if they get in our way I will just ask them nicely to stand aside."
He turned to the blue flames covering the wall, an absent minded hand gesture ripping the reinforced metal like paper as a path in the fire opened up.
"After all..." Adam began strolling forward. "Most people tend to be reasonable if you ask the right way."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Vonreve, Von to her friends, cautiously motioned for Bene and Zett to be carried by a couple of the oldest and strongest Younglings. Basic force reinforcement would make the process simple enough.
The creature thankfully spoke basic. Surprisingly well, even... was it a robot? Parts of it wasn't connected with anything. Maybe some sort of magnetic attraction or tractor beams or something? It wasn't using the Force to do so.
That was the part that felt the strangest. Energy everywhere, but none of it felt like the Force.
In the middle of their terror, as death neared closest, the saber in the door began sparking blue flames... and everything fell.
Some unknown power pushed EVERYONE down, to the point where Bene and Zett didn't even have time to react. From the way the red saber snapped off, it had made an impact on the Sith attacker as well.
And then fire. Blue fire flowed everywhere. Before they could react, it had covered her and the other children... but it didn't hurt. It just felt warm.
Even now, as she ensured no one was left behind and the supplies were carried in various packs and bags, the fire seemed... playful. It almost seemed to have white eyes hidden within, and every once in a while a small ball of flames would meander away from the walls they passed through and bump into one of the Younglings' ankles, then bob off somewhere.
Wandering along, the skeletal robot had a rambling conversation going on with the group as they burned through the smokeless hallways. She and the others gave their names, and the more mature group tried probing for information from the strange creature... which the robot was very amused to answer. Not that the answers explained much.
The oddity of the situation bothered her, something felt just slightly off. It taunted her, teased her attention... until she noticed what was out of place.
There were signs of damage, of fighting, but no blood or bodies. It was confusing until she realized that the fire was SELECTIVELY burning things, as this 'Variance' walked through a door that just... melted out of the way.
Not into molten goo like with a light saber, it just sort of evaporated. How hot had that flame been!?
She nearly bumped into the skeletal robot's suit when he paused and turned to face her.
His eyes had blue flames dancing within. "Right, this place is way bigger than I expected and I want to get out before some idiot tries to blow the whole building up. Von, do you know which way we should go to get on a vehicle? I am pretty sure getting you guys off planet is the best idea at the moment."
One of the girls was worried. "But we can't leave! What if other Jedi need help?"
Adam sighed. "Well, I did feel several Force users pass out when I arrived, but..." He glanced at Von.
She knew. The other Jedi wouldn't have sent ONLY Padawan Bene to support all the Younglings if they had more options. And that Sith wouldn't have had so much time to try and open the door if the other Jedi had lived to oppose it.
Those passed out Force users must have been Sith or Sith followers.
She focused on emotional control and forced a small smile. "We can help most by ensuring that none of you are hurt and that we are out of danger, so that the Jedi fighting can focus on escape rather than having to protect us."
If any were still alive, that would actually be true. Conflict may be something Jedi warriors could handle, but a combination of body enhancement and battle prediction meant escaping an unwinnable battle was fairly easy. Even if captured, it would be easier to escape without the Younglings being held hostage. And if all the Jedi left, there would be no fight for innocents to be caught up in.
She had some of the Younglings that worked in engineering direct Variance towards the upper floor landing pads. Hopefully at least one ship would be available for escape.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Palpatine restricted a furious howl with experience. "What do you mean everything is on fire!?"
The clone trooper on the video call visibly winced. "Sir, Lord Vader had cleared out all opposition and was near the final objective when something reacted to his weapon."
The video shifted... and the entire structure danced with blue fire. Burning on nothing, burning from nothing, those materials required unreasonable levels of heat just to react, forget supporting actual fires of this size.
He glanced at his various meters and instruments, remotely displayed. He was still stuck in medical after all, and no plans had involved him being treated during such a large operation as this.
The conflict with Jedi Masters Mace Windu, Agen Kolar, Saesee Tiin, Kit Fisto had turned out well enough, four dead Jedi and the gain of Skywalker as a tool, but the wounds had been far more than desired.
Matters were only made worse because of an ill timed communication that his tool had overheard about that useless woman Amidala passing away, forcing Palpatine to redirect the massive amount of rage towards the Jedi so as to at least be productive.
At the time, he thought the extra fury would be of great assistance to Vader during his assault, and to a degree that had been true. Dozens of Masters had fallen far ahead of schedule, and Palpatine had been prepared to time the activation of Order 66 at the climax, with the dead and dying children ensuring his complete victory.
Instead, the damn fool had clearly done SOMETHING wrong. He was in a Bacta tank, in a KRIFFING coma, while everything was on FIRE.
He glanced at his tools again. Should he just activate the Order now? He had spent so much power restricting the death echos of those blasted Jedi Masters and Padawans that had died up to this point, just so that the screams of the children would have greater effect.
But not one death since then had been a Youngling or child. Even with the damn building on fire, which should be broadcasting screams and burning flesh, the Force as a whole was being silent.
And... somewhat smug?
He felt a headache raging as he forced himself to stay focused. "How long until the flames can be extinguished?"
The Clone slumped. "Unsure. We attempted to use standard fire suppressants, and they burned. Then the fire burned the devices. And the clones operating them. And the vehicle they arrived on."
The urge to just slaughter the entire division and start from scratch was only held back by urgent time restraints. "How far is this expected to spread?"
The man shifted. "All flames that spread from the temple seem to flow back into it after a certain distance. Theoretically a good chunk of the nearby city should already be ashes. We are very unclear on what to do."
Palpatine was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he had the same problem.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Unaware of the other worldly issues his plan was suffering from, Palpatine already was a man paranoid enough to know that time was running out.
The public was growing upset about the communications blocks he had put in place, now restricting services for FAR longer than his initial estimates. He couldn't hold it much longer without global panic, which could theoretically be felt by Jedi off world and give them a dangerous chance to fight back. This was unacceptable.
With a deep seated rage he went for one of the less satisfying backup plans he had just in case his newest pawn had hesitated when attacking the young.
Over the Temple, far into the restricted flight zone and with weapons fully charged, the massive ship floating above prepared to fire. The public relations disaster would be easy to handle, just claim that the same Jedi whom had attacked the soon to be Emperor had attempted to die while causing as much damage as possible. More damage prevented thanks to the Republic's brave clone army, may their sacrifices be remembered.
His wrinkled face, twisted in pain, managed a bright smile as the orbital strike began the charging sequence. Any questions about why a Star Destroyer was intruding on a civilian location would not matter after that section of the populace vanished.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam felt a soft feathery poke, and looked up. "Huh."
Von noticed his pause, but her frantic expression didn't seem to feel the power building above. "What!? Did something happen?"
He shook his head. "No, I was just a bit surprised how convoluted this temple is. Half the hallways are nearly closed loops. Is it a defensive strategy?"
'Conversion', 'Consumption', 'Purification'.
Two massive white eyes opened on the blue flames coating the building... and even as raw power slammed downward, a black maw opened wide.
Mmm. Tangy.
The power was directly pushed into his magic, the massive overflow building his kami reserves.
Von shook her head. "Not purposefully. From what the Masters told us, sections had to be shut down due to declining Jedi numbers and some budget concerns."
He blinked, gently melting a path through another reinforced door. "Uh. Shouldn't your budget be more flexible if there were less Jedi around?"
She shrugged. "I just do the meditation stuff and all that, I'm not looking forward to the paperwork and politics side at all."
Well, fair enough.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The clone died, helmet squished instantly.
His second in command tried to stay stoic as he took the console. "Sir."
The Chancellor seemed... a bit more angry than expected. "Explain."
He did NOT glance at the corpse. And he would not be stupid enough to fall over the same issue that had just promoted him. "The flames seem to be controlled through an unknown method and have either mitigated or negated the damage from our initial volley. Worse, the attack seems to have increased the flame density, if not the area under effect."
Seriously CT-7455, why would you tell the angry space wizard 'Sir, it nommed my lasers!'
He had to be from a defective batch.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Chancellor Palpatine glared once more at whatever force construct blocked his forces. It must have been a sacrificial last stand, to deny him the rich resources buried under that facility... artifacts, Holocrons, ancient texts, many even his insidious reach had been unable to obtain, many he had been waiting for with greedy claws.
Now it was all on fire. Possibly some sort of energy being, tethered locally? If so, it could be a remnant from the much older wars where experimentation on other life forms was far more accepted.
This setback was infuriating.
"Wake Lord Vader, use the restricted stimulants if needed. Leave observers and move on to the other objectives."
He ignored whatever the moron had to say and cut the connection.
His wrinkled hands gently moved to the activation sequence for Order 66... this single act would restore communications, send out the codes, and rewrite the mental facilities of all clones near instantly to take the final steps of eradicating the Jedi.
It wouldn't get them all, rats tend to scurry even from the harshest dangers, but he would be mostly unopposed in mere moments. Ultimate Victory.
He moved with a hideous grin as he activated the Order, the tiny chips in those flesh clones surely doing all the busy work of becoming Emperor for him.
Reports began flooding in almost instantly. It was certainly going to be good news.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Aayla Secura flinched as she felt the small mound of cybernetic command chips to her side activate at once, her hands still shaking and slightly bloody from the last procedure done on her companions.
The blue Rutian Twi'lek woman gave a weak smile to her friends. "That... that was cutting things a bit too closely."
Commander CC-5052, Bly, frowned. His face was near stoic. "Indeed." He glanced at the Republic symbols attached to his equipment. "I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I think we may have built up some vacation time."
The soldiers all nodded.
Her smile a bit more relaxed, she stood. "Well... I'm not sure about everyone else, but if we are about to go on a bit of a holiday anyway, why not take some time and leave some... appreciation gifts... for whomever comes to visit us during our time of relaxation and self reflection?"
The men were already moving back toward camp to begin looting and 'local asset denial'.
Bly's grin was more than a bit furious. "Remember. Pillage, THEN burn."
The chuckles warmed their hearts.