PLDF Chapter 36

> Chapter 36: "The Dog Days of Summer Mark the Prologue to Something on the Horizon (Sub-Entries (351-360)
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## Sub-Entry 351: "The Literal Dog Days of Summer":

I'm really opening the door on this one.

Thankfully, whether in the flesh or the fur coat, I'm thick-skinned so I can silently chuckle to my own self-depreciation.  I'm of the canine variety.  Dog jokes are to be expected; so why not just go ahead and invite them upon yourself.  After all if you can't laugh at yourself, then you don't get the concept of humility.  And that of course is how I stave off arrogance.

Now if only Jon could take a joke.

That said...what lead to this obvious saying while going into August?

Well...

I've focused so much on the Boss Monsters of Undertale so much I tend to make it easy to forget there are lesser monsters, and mini-bosses, too.

Doggo.  Doggamy and Doggaressa.  Lesser Dog and Greater Dog.

Notice a pattern?

Yeah, this is pretty much the majority of the former Royal Guard.

I know, in the past, I'd make light of Doggo's inability to see anything that isn't in motion.  And that's the nature of the game.  To slip past him is to not move until the point you can pet him.  And that just breaks his brain.  To not see what's petting him.

In fact this long-running joke can be taken so far he even gets bored of it.

Which leads of course to him smoking dog biscuits...

I can't even comment on that.  Smoking regular cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and bongs are gross enough but...the thought of igniting something that's supposed to be eaten?  Part of it makes me cringe over what it must be doing to his lungs...and other makes my stomach turn because I liken it to leaving a marshmallow in a camp fire until it's completely burned to a lump of charred, blackened goop that's completely inedible.

Enough about disgusting habits.  Preferably before this gets back to Doggo and he gives me the third degree about being too clean.  And don't get me STARTED on Burgerpants...

Where is Doggo now?

Would you believe...working the graveyard shift back and forth as a security guard at two different warehouses?  One in Miranda, one in Undertale?

Yeah...at that hour of the night, not much moves so...if anything DOES move, he'll see it and he'll intercept it.

Who knew he's actually be good that job when he wasn't so much as a sentry to nab humans?

The others?

Doggamy and Doggaressa.  Cute couple.  Still the current nose-nuzzling champions.  Asriel and Frisk haven't gone after the title yet.  But they could some day, now that they're husband and wife...though that doesn't have anything to do with it.   They've always been a cute couple.

That said...

Violet won't stop reminding me that they're the only monsters in the kingdom that wore sandals to begin with.  Granted, they were the first footwear we gave Asriel when he came to our kingdom; they were Bunnie's hand-me-downs (Oddly they were NOT pink.  Which wouldn't matter to Goat Son, anyway.).  And I've beaten it into the ground.  They're an orthopedic recommendation for us anthropomorphs on VGM-098.

But what else can I say about them? How about commenting on how keen their sense of smell is?

I've noticed that more than just Doggo have questionable vision.  I'm actually surprised that Doggo doesn't rely on his sense of smell.

But Doggamy and Doggaressa?  They easily rival Red Stokes in those lines.  Heck, they could go up against Wolverine of the X-Men if I were to be honest.  When it comes to sense of smell, like my sight, it wasn't much to speak of when I was in human form.  But as soon as I make the morph, I can easily keep pace with Red and Jonathan.  Maybe even stand on the same ground as Doggamy and Doggaressa.

They're currently unemployed but I see them all the time at both Grillby's locations.

Playing poker.

You read that correct.

Dogs.  Playing.  Poker.

Don't roll your eyes.  That painting is icon!

Even if it does kind of annoy Jonathan...

Not a lot of substance for me to talk about the lesser monsters but...y'know.  I work with what I got...what I observe.

Let's face it.  The lessers and the minibosses weren't complex.  And that's not a slight against them.  Simpler is often better.  There's plenty of time to have deep thoughts about what Alphys did to get the position of Royal Scientist or what Sans must've been doing behind the scenes at Asgore's behest.  And of course how much baggage Toriel's been carrying.  Even Muffet had a few spider exoskeletons in her closet, I'm sure.

So then there's the guards in the form of the Lessers and Greaters.

That...really sounds like stereotyping that I should feel bad about...

Lesser Dog.  If you know which one this is, I don't need to paraphrase.  But...I'll just do so for convenience sake.  This many sub-entries after I last even MENTIONED Lesser Dog, I can't expect even myself to remember.  But, yes.  This was the one with the extendable neck.

One of the easiest monsters to spare; all it takes is only one petting on the head and you've won him over.  Simple as that.

Only...Frisk has more often than not in many a run...overdone it.

In each instance of petting, Lesser Dog gets more and more excited and its head keeps rising.  Eventually ceasing attacks and rising out of the...er...dialogue box?  Again with that weird fourth wall.  From what I understand from Frisk's testimony the limit of pettings is 55.  After that...well, there's no point when it has gone where no dog has gone before.

I heard he's often rented out to the fire department to double as a fire ladder.

I still don't know how his neck shrinks back down after it's...well...see my statement after the 55 limit.

Which finally leaves the deceptively named Greater Dog.

Deceptively, not at first glance.  Upon his first appearance, buried in the snow he seems kind of harmless...

...the comes the part he rises out of the snow and you realize everything from the neck down puts him on equal ground as Asgore in terms of size.

Yeah.  He's a "biggun".  Isn't he?

His tagline, in Chara's own testimony when advising Frisk is: "It's so excited that it think fighting is just play."

Accurate.

Highly so.

Often referred to, by Doggo and Doggamy as "Big Guy"...

His armor features wrist guards that have fully functional dog faces.  Ones I'm VERY sure were Annoying Dog's idea.

Speaking of which, I'll get to him soon enough.

He knows Endogeny, though getting out of either of them how they're relate is...something you might want not want to pursue.

Greater Dog required a bit more complex strategy for Frisk to spare.  A combination of beckon, ignore, pet, play, and then two more pets.

And like any other dog monster enemy...yeah, he can be pacified by throwing the stick.

While I never got the appeal, Jon assures me playing fetch is the bee's knees.

I can't even with him.

The alternative method of dealing with Greater Doggo is apparently ignoring him four times which will make him bored and cause him to end the fight and run off.

Now, when I said "deceptively" I refer to when Greater Dog jumps out of his armor and you quickly discover...most of his body mass is the armor.  He's actually quite small.  And it leads directly to an...awkward moment of him jumping back into his armor...upside down.  Yeah.

And on that note, his "hands" seem to withdraw into the armor when he does this.  Weird.  I guess it's because he can't properly control his armor while in it backwards.

As of writing this?  I don't quite know where he is.  Or what he's doing.  But if Asgore hasn't reported him missing, it's probably okay.  His former kingship does keep accurate track of all his subjects.

And lastly...there's Annoying Dog.

He seems...quite selective of what I even write about him.  I'm not entirely sure that my logs aren't somehow being tampered with at this very moment in time.

But let's not beat around the bush.

He does seem to legitimately be an avatar or manifestation of Undertale's true god or creator.  A name I'm sure gets tossed around casually but...no one really clicks on its significance or meaning.  Just that Mettaton thinks it's sexy.  And Asriel thinks it's cool.  Everyone seems to have a positive opinion about it so I won't question what the actual reality is.

I've learned...to just let him do as he pleases.  I mean...him running off with Papyrus' special attack, alone is enough to realize he definitely makes the rules.  Even ones that Goddesses can't break.  And I KNOW that irks Fate's nerves to no end.  That's the thing with multiverses like the UltraVerse.  We know we're just a variant copy conglomeration of AU's.  We know we're only as original as our true creator makes us.  We just know the rules by now.  So importing someone else's life's work...their baby...their world into ours?  Yeah...ones in the know like myself get the very concept of "fan fiction" rules.  We're not Prime.  But by the Goddesses, that doesn't make us have any less sense of self and existence as the original Prime worlds ours originated from!

We're our own thing.  That's all there is to it.  As long as we acknowledge where we came from then...I guess there's only as much stepping on creators' toes as "fair internet use" goes, right?

Gods, this is giving me a headache.  How does Deadpool do it?

And that's about all about the fourth wall I'm going to touch ground on.

As for Annoying Dog, itself?  You never can tell where and when he'll pop up.  Or even why.  Or even what his motivations are.  Or if he's even okay with what the goddesses have done to his work.  Or what any Undertale AU has done with their copy of Undertale Prime, for that matter.

Okay, NOW I'm done speaking about the fourth wall.  I think.

I've often worried about what would happen if Annoying Dog got into it with Kid the Cat?  Or crossed a fifth dimensional being like Mr. Mxptlct or Bat-Mite.

Some of us don't do well with reality-altering beings.

Some of us just consider it the abnormal norm.  What a contradiction.  Like Scotch-Korean or Starburst being a chew that's a juicy liquid contradiction.  If anyone remembers those commercials.  Heheheheh.

That said...

So yeah.  I guess It's a round about way of saying...it's August.  It's a lot about monster dogs being dogs.  And well...it's still summer for the time being.

I saw the back-to-school stuff arrive at the tail end of July.

That means autumn's on its way.  That's the death-rasp of hot, summer days.

And it means Jon's going to gloat once the snow starts falling.

Ick.

Enjoy it while it lasts, people.  For tomorrow it's pumpkin spice and jack-o-lanterns and Homecoming and falling leaves.

Until next time.

## Sub-Entry 352: "No New Year's Day to Celebrate...Wait a Minute, We Already Did This!"

August is a weird month.

It's one of the only ones without a holiday.

And having that many days without a celebration of some kind?

How DO we manage...?

I'm not sure whether I should convey that as sincere or sarcastic.

Because either case is true.

Some of us are kind of dependent one a reason to celebrate.

Others...probably think we have TOO many holidays and birthdays.

I take both and neither stance.

I'm just that on the border.  It is okay to have two points of view at the same time, right?

There wasn't anything going on either side of the gate.

I guess that was a good thing.

But at the same time, I wonder who among our factions was actually bored.

The White Knight Contract somehow made it possible for me to count every second; whether the duration of a whole day...or a whole 1,000 or more years.

In essence...yeah, I knew exactly what it was like to be Senku while petrified.

And it wasn't even something I had to try hard to stay on task for.  It was like flipping a switch and going automatic. until an outside force got me to drop out of my trance.

The White Knight contract made it so that nutrition or relieving waste or even breathing wasn't a necessity.  I don't know how it worked but somehow, in this state, time stopped within me even though I remembered alive, alert, and active.

It honestly scared me to no end at first.  It felt like it was going to drive me mad but...the more I worried about going insane...oddly...the more sane I stayed.  Nothing about this Goddess contract made sense.  It still doesn't.  It defies too many laws of physics and too many laws of nature...pretty much every law that could possibly exist; I found myself wondering if Lady Destiny could pencil it in that I could break without consequences if she willed it so.

And I realized that to maintain the time loops I'd need to enact...I'd have to bestow this goddess contract state, though in a lesser capacity, to all of my existing Ultra Crew Institute who were destined to be my Golden Circle.

Doesn't make it easier knowing the destiny you created by your own hand was the only way out of a situation that was spiraling out of control.

It was weird but...Asriel and Frisk were the ones who seemed to understand my burden best.  Even more so than Bunnie.

Why?

Perhaps...it was the Save File...the reset...the ability to tamper with the game's pseudo-code and thus the reality of the game itself that made them eventually fear that power.  The power of a demigod...or flat-out god.

Whatever the case...the two of them always sensed when that was what was on my mind and were both equally quick at reassuring me that they get it.  And they'd reassure me to stay the course.

When it came down to it...when the time was right, the both of them gave up that all-mighty power.

I...I still couldn't get rid of mine  And even if I could...I was needed.

I really went off on a tangent again.  Starting with a day of having nothing to do or celebrate to another meta-existential quandary about what it means to be an immortal pawn of a goddess...and the favorite plaything of her sister.

The real takeaway from that is...if you can help it?  Don't become part of the Ultimate Game of Good and Evil.

As I write this, it's just me in the shop.

Business is slow if at all existent.

It's okay.

I was in no danger of dipping into the red.  One or two slow days could easily be compensated for with a new sales plan on everything.  A little more advertising.

Just stuff to keep the shop afloat and prospering.

\*knock knock knock\*

"Door's open."

Not who I was expecting but...hey, they're both married now.  And really...I don't think I have spent as much time as I should getting to know the missus.

"I thought I might drop by and check on you for Azzy.  How are you doing, Doctor?"

"Good, life is good.  Bit of a surprise but not staggeringly so.  I've been meaning to catch up with you, Frisk.  How have you been?"

"Never been happier.  Asriel is so wonderful and...and..."

She was blushing.

"Yeah.  I get it.  I was in the same position you're in when Lisa and I first got married.  Believe me, when you're truly meant for each other the flames never die down.  They just get refined and more pure with age.

She's as wonderful now as she was all those years ago when I worked up the never to propose to her."

"Sounds like you and Azzy had a lot it common."

"Yes.  And...truth be told the circumstances are actually quite similar.  You see...Lisa and I both had a long-standing reunion after...well...thinks split us apart.  Tragic things.  The things that...probably would have made anyone else have a grudge against humanity."

"Kind of like Chara?"

"I had a lot of timelines to learn about Chara's existence but never her...and sometimes his...and sometimes their...origin point."

"Chara's had as many iterations as myself.  Sometimes I feel like I'm in touch with the other version of me...and sometimes I find myself wondering who I used to be.  Who they all were  How many were good?  How many of them...went on a genocide run?"

"When our village was razed and burned to the ground...what few bodies were left as a sign of the massacre in such horrific, unspeakable condition...I was recovered by five of the Arcade Industries founders.  They were there covertly, in forbidden Vorostov territory.  Officially on a diplomatic mission but...in reality checking up on rumors of...rights violations.

What they found was an anonymous admission of guilt with no sign of the perpetrators.  The Huntress and her kind were long gone and their followers would later go on and be inspired by Regina Destralli to form modern-day Anthrocide.

Lisa...had her own horror stories about her survival and escape to Neo Arcadia.

By chance we both reconnected within UCIAT and we each became one another's anchor.  We both grew up with similar people raising us to be better than the ones who destroyed our world.  And we both were okay with leaving the past behind and looking toward the future."

"Wow.  I had no idea."

"I'd given this story to Asriel once in his late teens."

"Yeah, he's wanted to tell me so much about you but...he didn't want to sound like he's obsessing over you."

"Imagine that.  I guess we both have the same self-control issue.  When someone's been part of your life so long...how can you not gush about them?"

"I have to thank you for making him the man he is today."

"I just refined what's already there.  He was a very good hunk of clay.  We all took turns molding.  Making sure he had all the opportunities he could ever ask for.  A few decades in the kiln of life and he's turned into one precious, priceless vase."

"Azzy never said you were so good with metaphors."

"I have a moment every now and then."

I sighed.

"You both remind me so much of Lisa and I.  You're already on the path to great things.  I can't imagine what's next.  And that's the real deal.  I'm a time-traveler, yes...but I don't have nearly as much clue what's coming next as people think I do.  I've seen...possible futures of many world sand timelines.  But that's the key word.  Possible.  I can never know with 100% certainty what's going to happen.  That's especially true with Madam Fate and Lady Destiny changing the game and rewriting reality as we speak.  If one of them is going to make a change to how things have been, how they are, or how they're going to be...they'll do it.  And we'll never know until it's too late if they've already done it."

"In way...this is worse than finding out the consequences of the Reset.  And none of us did anything to actually deserve it.  Or...maybe we did in some past timeline.  Whatever the case...it's got us all worried deep down."

"And now you know my world."

"You were right, Doctor.  We are kindred spirits with a heavy burden."

"And now, together, all of us can carry it."

"Thanks for the advice, Doctor."

"I thought you were the one giving me advice.  Thank you."

Once Frisk left...like that...it was just another day again.

Okay, August.  Let's see what else you got for me.

## Sub-Entry 353: "The Understated, Underwhelming Truth of Life Going On"

Our favorite surly mercenary and his familiars plus Rainbow Wing had certainly been dragged out to a lot of adventures in the previous month.

I decided to make it up to him by staying off the radar.  He got his armor shard.  And he was compensated in terms of money to boot.  We were on his good side.  Let's not push it.

That said, there were certainly others in Miranda City that we hadn't touched ground on in a while.

Marcel was still sitting on his crown as our king of thieves after showing up both Carmen Sandiego and Lupin the Third.  He did rematch.  And he did walk away with a much better pay-out than the last time when Lupin left him with a bit of gloating with a thumbed nose in note form.  Never make a challenge to Marcel Gilneas.  He WILL even the score.  And more likely come out ahead.

That said...he was occupying his time paying back Al Dente for attempting (again) to make a quick bit of cash selling Josquin to Quinn's Medical Research.  And he paid him back by making Al Dente pay out the nose without knowing until he was getting things...repossessed.  And then getting evicted.  Moments before Brooke had him deported...this time in irons and chains.

I was doing my best to keep a low profile with Cid Padesh.  Honestly, by this point my entire crew and I had made him jumpy with our entrances and flashy style.  But at least he was still in our corner when we needed a low-key alchemy solution.

We saw very little of Kid the Cat these days.  He'd become so involved with the Mage Academy he was full time and overtime.  Gadget...began to worry that he might never come back and visit.  For a magical cat to be spread this thin?  I wonder what they were having him do all the time?

In his place, however, Glenda was picking up the slack quite nicely.  Which meant a lot of cupcakes and rabite moments.

Red was pretty occupied with his wife, Monique.  Aria tended to be a casual observer at nights...while putting a flask or two of the spirits away.  But here excuse was that being a demon half-runt gives her a massive amount of alcohol tolerance.

Sir Alistair had his hands full now that the "Gun Nun" was in town.  But he took a moment out every time Pit was around to get him up to speed on the mortal world.

I didn't see much of Ivy and Nightwatch these days.  They had plenty behind the scenes to keep them busy.

You know...I started writing this without a common theme and...well...one kind of put itself together.

If it isn't obvious...well...a lot of the people we had close-knit ties to before this whole Undertale assignment started were now focusing on their own things.

Did...that mean we were kind of drifting apart?

Well...I certainly hoped not.

Granted it wasn't like it was in the old days when I could ask someone to give us a hand with an assignment.  Granted it wasn't like when Marcel could lend his services while we would team up with Lupin the Third or we'd offer someone from our ranks--usually Pit--to assist the Church of Eatos when they had devil or demon troubles or had some internal issues to deal with.  And yeah...Kid wasn't popping up randomly like old times.  Though...maybe we shouldn't freak the likes of Burgerpants out by ice cream falling from the sky or root beer blasting out of manhole covers or...another of Kid's classic magic tricks.

Though...I was worried that if we ever crossed paths with chaos gods and fifth dimensional beings like Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxptlct...we'd be at a massive disadvantage without someone else would could warp reality back and forth.

These days the Undertalers were taking up a lot of our time.  They were still the hottest thing to hit our world.

Ultra Crew Institute had formed THOUSANDS of alliances over the years but...we didn't exactly host a block party with people from off world and paraded them around VGM-098 like the biggest news story of all.  We kept it pretty low-key and our allies on speed-dial when we needed them or they needed us.

Undertale was the first to really change the game.  Pun fully intended.

Even back in the N-Division alliances with Videoland...we didn’t' make it wide-spread how we knew about life on other planets in other dimensions and such.  Arcade Industries quietly privatized our allies and assets.  Garfield's generation had perfected the man-made warp zone system after bringing what our universe coincidentally called the Warp Zone to Oblivion (much the same as the Alternative Videoland did).  But not all that many of us on this world knew of their existence except our organization.  It was pretty much similar protocol as Men in Black.

Don't want to start a world-wide panic or media feeding frenzy?  Don't breathe a word if you can help it.

Now that this side of us was slowing becoming public...

...it seemed like we were already getting complacent about it.  Surprisingly...no one cared as much as I thought they would.  No one was knocking down our door to turn this into that Speedy Ant transportation service in the other Videoland alternate future.

We weren't a mecca for inter-world, inter-dimensional travel, yet.  Just one between two worlds.

And might as well address the elephant in the room.

Once Asriel revealed us all to the infinite multiverse?  They didn't just forget us.

We were still the proof from one end of existence to the other that there is life on other planets.  Other worlds.

And as far as I knew...our alliances were still standing.  Our enemies were still licking their wounds and probably waiting for a chance at revenge.

All they needed was for Madam Fate to make her move and they'd dance to her tune.

It seemed like every day that went by it was more and more a challenge to not get complacent about that.  We knew this lesson.  We knew it well.  Time often made fools of us and we'd have to repeat that lesson.

Wow, I was really changing subjects.  I starting with nothing much to talk about and already my mind's racing a mile per minute with thoughts and worries.  I--

"Dude!"

"Oh!  Monster Kid."

"Call me M.K.  I think by now everyone does, Doc."

"Doc...I haven't been called that any time recent that I can remember.  This must be what it's like to be Emmett.  Alright.  Fair game.  Doc it is."

"Thought you could use a break from...whatever it is you do so I brought you takeout from Grillby's, dude."

"Burger!  Alright!"  I was wagging my tail.  "You the man!"

"I'm the dino man!"

"Yeeeeeeah, you are."

This was a first.  Me bonding with Monster Kid.

Well.   This transitioned quick.  From much to talk about nothing to too much to talk about everything...to  a sit down with a low-key awesome NPC who had...graduated to full-time member of the Quintessential Quartet.

All I needed was a back and forth with Chara and I'd have a full house.

"So.  M.K."  I decided to lead off with a nod to the American Nightmare, Cody Rhodes.

"What do you want to talk about?"

And after enough sessions with Undyne and Violet?  Yeah he picked on it.

"Duuuude!'

"I know, right?"

It was my thing just as it was Azzy's thing to root for babyfaces.

"Well, I guess I might as well go back to the beginning.  I've been thinking about it for a while now."

"How we first met?  You...remember the original timeline?"

"When Frisk and Azzy broke the Reset, it was kind of like...a lot of old memories started blending together."

That could explain things.  It was...AN explanation.  Was it THE explanation?  Hard to say.

"And you remember asking me who the bad guy was in the middle of Undyne's fight and...I saved you from going over the edge into the endless drink below.  Which...was impulsive and not very smart if I didn't have a way to get back up.

Thank goodness Undyne was quick to react..."

"Dude.  Did it hurt?"

"It's...not exactly a pleasant feeling getting grabbed and hoisted up by the tail.  But...y'know.  Who am I to complain about a sore tail in lieu of y'know...dying?"

"Yeah...my life flashed before my eyes, dude."

"So.  Still considering Papyrus a role-model?"

"Nyeheheheh!"

"I'll take that as a yes."

"No offense but...Undyne is still kind of mean."

"Yeah.  She's rough around the edges and not exactly tactful."

I thought back to her laughing fit at Alphys going splat on the ground a couple of times.  But it was just her being stupid in the moment.  She wasn't malicious.  Just rude.  Y'know...a lot like Susie.

Good grief.

"So...since then?"

"Y'know.  Went free.  Grew up.  Parents were cool with the new...normal.   Azzy came back to us and the world just changed over night.  I got these cool magnetically hovering robot arms.  It's like they're not attached but...you can yank on them all you want and they still stay in place."

"Magnetic anchor.  Yeah, that linking field is unimaginably strong.  And focused.  The magnetic vortex is shaped so that the magnetism doesn't spread out too far from its envelope.  That way it doesn't cause interference with other electronics or the arms themselves.  It's really brilliant Asriel figured that tech out.  And best of all it won't pull every metal object in the area toward you.  That could be really bad.  And unhealthy if it's something like sharp objects."

"Dude!  I never even thought of that!"

"Plus I see he made the field adjustable to your will so...there's a little bit of that Reaverbot/Inspector Gadget thing going on."

"I totally get the reference for that now!"

"Azzy must have really brought back a lot of media in the NXS, huh?"

"Alphys is STILL pulling data from that thing!  He's so amazing to have a hoverboard like that."

"And let me guess.  They're going to be mass produced eventually?"

"Minus the giant database.  Still link to the internet and download stuff.  It's still on the drawing board.  Not quite ready yet, if you follow."

"Yeah.  Technopolis perfected proper testing and refining techniques."

"Man, I can't believe I get to finally rap with you."

"Ah, it's no big thing.  My door's open all the time."

So we ate together and bantered back and forth for a while before it was time for M.K. to check in with his parents.  Make sure he was okay, out so late.

You know...I started this entry feeling like the Mirandians I knew were drifting away...giving me a feeling of being kind of alone.  But really...I know I'm never alone.  Sure M.K. represented the Undertale crew but...maybe it shouldn't matter who dropped in on me.

I just want to know that I'm not out of the loop.  Sometimes it's just good to get some closure on past events.

Maybe...I just needed someone to help me through these uneventful times.

Well.

Ask and you shall receive.

For what it's worth, thanks, Lady Destiny.

These are the kind of times I didn't even know I wanted.

## Sub-Entry 354: "King or Street Sweeper, Sooner or Later You Dance With the Soul Reaper":

I'd been planning this for a while and getting Chara to agree to it was...a chore.

I think mostly because...she really didn't want Toriel to see what kind of digs she lived in...or how much of a mess she kept it in.

Finally she badgered Asriel to help her at least make it...presentable.

Though Azzy certainly made a point to make clear...maybe she shouldn't spend so much effort to fabricate a lie of how things are going by cleaning her place to spotless only to trash it the next day or two.

But regardless...brother and sister got Chara's residence int he Rukon district...presentable.

She still wasn't going to hide how dirt poor she still was.  And on a Captain's salary at that.

Maybe she wouldn't be so poor if she didn't spend all her earnings on chocolate.

She'd totally brain me for talking smack about her.

Anyway...

Once done, Azzy and Chara went their separate ways.  Azzy had business in Undertale.  Chara had to report to the Gotei Thirteen (And probably get chewed out by Old Man Yamamoto...)

So when all was right with the world and the day had come...

I actually headed out to the Soul Society first.  Just to check to see she hadn't gotten into a chocolate bar coma and forgotten she was inviting the parents and everyone else over.

Oh boy were we going to need a lot of gigai faux bodies and soul candies...

Urahara was going to scalp the absolute miso soup out of one of us.

"..."

Chara dumped the contents of her coin purse out.  And what drifted out...was a lone flake of dust.

"Goddammit..."

What sucked the most?  She didn't spend a ryo of it on even one nibble of chocolate.

"Knock knock.  It's Volt Arcade.  Surprise, surprise."

I heard the sigh and then the door opened.

"Well don't act so enthused."  I prodded.  "So.  Guessing I know who got the bill."

"You're all laughs, Arcade."

"If it stings that much, I'll have Vi spot you."

"And feel like a charity case?"

"That wasn't a no.  Right?"

"...you're damn right it wasn't.  She better pay out the nose, too.  I'm really strapped til next paycheck."

I was really resisting the urge to smirk.

"Fine by me."

"Oh don't look so smug, Arcade."

Out of everyone, Chara was the only one who called me Arcade.  Well...Chara and Tiemtiaren.

Chameleon called me Sparky.

Most of my crew called me Commander.

Drew called me "Boss".

And because of Violet, practically everyone in town was now calling me by my birth name.

Don't expect a thank-you, Vi.  In fact, we're going to have a talk about this.

"Having a conversation with yourself?"

"And I was debating whether or not you could read me like a book.  By the way, did Urahara give you a receipt?"

"You smarta--"

"Ah-ah-ah.  Don't let Toriel catch you using that salty language."

You know, Asriel was right.  She is a challenge to banter with.  She's just so good at it.

Just as an additional jab I flopped down on the sofa and propped up my feet.

"Hey.  Sandals off if you're going to be on the furniture."

"What?  And risk Violet coming here and getting all hot and bothered over these?"

I wiggled my toes.  Just to taunt Vi from afar.

"Ugh.  The only think worse than you right now is the rabbit and her weird fetish."

"Do keep talking bad about her behind her back.  I actually support this."

Okay I was just being candid.

Chara finally threw her hands in the air in a "I give up" motion.

"Don't tell me I won already."

"As if, Arcade."

I smirked.

"So.  You got here early.  Any reason why?"

"Nah.  I guess I was just starved for company."

"Lucky me."

"Besides you could use a change of pace from bantering with brother dearest.  He's not a challenge since he's so clean-cut, right?"

"Oh you got everything figured out."

"So how much more fun is it against someone who's a challenge?"

"Laugh it up, furball."

"Oooh.  Harrison Ford reference.  You watched Star Wars."

Chara rolled her eyes as she was getting the refreshments and such ready.

"So.  As long as I'm following a trend...by any chance...?"

"Have I been thinking about the past?  Pfft.  I thought Azzy's human mom was the psychic."

"Haven't you learned how to pick up on a pattern?  It's not psychic it's just mathematics and probability.  Which Violet is way better at, I admit.

"Get on with it."

"I think you got it backwards.  You get on with it, Chara."

"Fine.  You want a story?  I'll tell you a story."

Chara sat down in her recliner and knocked back a portion of her chocolate soda.

"Our story...as so many begin--"

"Yeah, don't try to add a splash of color to it."

"Who's telling this?"

A smirk from me made her roll her eyes again.

"Stop me if you've heard this one.  The orphan that nobody wanted.  With memories of birth parents I'm sure Frisk could relate to in the before times..."

How may fallen children were coming from broken homes?  Seriously.

"So thus a reason to lose faith in humanity.  In a world you only see the worst in your own kind and you don't feel the love, what's it going to care if you remove yourself, right?"

"Gee.  Hijack my story?  Don't mind if I do.  Nice, Arcade.  Nice."

"I can take it if you can."

"Well since you got my reason for climbing the mountain so figured out...  Did you know about the--"

"Burning your house down to an ugly black?"

"Sh--!!!"

"Language."

"Seriously.  How?"

"Don't really know actually.  For some reason I've had that song stuck in my head ever since laying eyes on the mural telling the tale in Waterfall."

"Oh right...the consequences of absorbing a human soul.  Still not sure how a song connects to it."

"Or a meme about Gaster...sometimes Absolute God of Hyperdeath...with many hands, holding a TV set with weird sprites of Asriel's and Flowey's faces?"

"Okay now you're just spooking me, Arcade.  Are you...?"

"Chara.  It's terrifying how many meta-verses I've been through within each multiverse in this infinity-verse.  The more you see of the fourth wall...the more you realize you'll never run out of things that make you question reality."

"...uhhhhh...I think this is the kind of stuff that breaks my brain."

"If it breaks everyone's brain, then it's working."

"Let's change the subject already.  So yeah. Burned my bridges...or in this case my house down, ran away from home...and no one came after me."

"Which is different than how Evil-Chara's story went.  He was a terror to everyone...a pariah that rivaled Al Dente.  Sowed all kinds of trouble and discord.  Until finally the village chased him down and he tripped and fell into Ebott."

"Jeeze.  That's the guy I kept out of the timeline?  I'm not sure if I did a good thing or a bad thing, sometimes."

"Either action would have been a disservice to them."

"Damned that I did and damned if I didn't?  Madam Fate doesn't screw around."

"Mistress of the catch-22.  All roads lead to her wins.  Or so she thought until--"

"Until we gave her nice big rude gesture.  You know which finger."

Now we were on the same page.

"You know, you're alright when you actually agree with me."

"Don't get used to it."

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Well, from there you know the rest of the story.  Not going to give details on how my life SUCKED before I fell into Ebott.  But I am going to admit...my year with Azzy was the best thing in my life.  And I ruined it."

"Hey.  Second chances, remember.  You're making up for lost time."

"I just didn't know I'd have to be DEAD to do it."

"UltraVerse works in mysterious ways.  Lady Destiny works in mysterious ways.  Let me know if this old biblical cliche is doing anything for you.  Really, I don't know if there's any actual wisdom to be had.   Sometimes the two of them just pull stuff out of their behinds and roll with it.  And then they call it "continuity"."

"Man.  They ARE such DnD nerds."

"All the UltraVerse, under their watch, is now and forever a game.  So...escaping one game into an even bigger one.  How do you, Frisk, Azzy, and everyone else feel about that?"

"Why fight it at this point?  Now that I know that the game session can be won..."

"Yeah.  Not so bad dancing as one the goddess' puppets.  Especially when we can go off script."

"Y'know, Arcade.  This "meta" thing is actually getting pretty fun.  Well.  If we aren't real...if all the world's a stage...let's give whoever's reading this story something to remember, okay?"

"That's all I can ask of you, who are in the know.  On that note?  Deal.  Let's put on a show and make it flashy."

It wasn't long before Asriel facilitated the transport of the others.  And it was quite an experience for a lot of people to go through what Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, and Uryu went through in order to enter the soul society as "Ryuga".  Some of them needed Soul Candies and gigais.  Some could just pass through like soul reapers and spirits.  Some...we had to get creative with.

But all in all...it was successful.  And somehow Chara managed to avoid getting lectured about being in such a run-down place.  Somehow it was any experience that got Toriel and Asgore's approval.

And somehow some friends of ours from Karakura Town got wind and dropped in on us.

Guess Chara had more clout as Squad Three's captain than she was letting on.

And yes...we even got a visit from that orange-haired knucklehead.  Not the Mew-Mew of the same name but definitely a strawberry-blond.

When all was said and done, we all made it back to the World of the Living A-okay.

This proved to be quite the bonding experience with the one person I didn't think had anything really to say to me.

Well.  Now it was a full house.  So...Azzy the king, Frisk the Queen, Chara the Ace and M.K. the Jack?

Y'know this is why the Major warns me not to play card games.

Oh well.

## Sub-Entry 355: "Discovery in the Old Library..."

Frisk, Chara, as Asriel were quite the noted bookworms in their time off.

While they might disagree one what to check out of the library, you can bet they'd always have many stacks worth going out and coming right back in.  Usually on time.  Chara's wages as a Soul Reaper just keep getting stretched.  And in this case by her own carelessness to mind her time.

So perhaps I'm foreshadowing but...

The day had come they'd make a discovery that would have me questioning how far back Undertale and VGM-098 were REALLY connected?

As Naota of FLCL put it...  "Where do the lies end and the truth begin?"

No doubt this would be another of Fate's unforeseen twists and edits to reality.

No doubt that it was also Destiny's handywork.

What were about to find was something that would shape the road ahead in a way that complete rewrote what we knew about the war between Humans and Monsters.

What we would discover would make us question how much of the Undertale story had the goddesses made a rewrite to.

And perhaps...this was the prelude to the end of Halcyon Days once again.

Peace never lasts.

For now...we'd enjoy the last bastions of it.

It began with the discovery of a tome that Azzy, Frisk, Chara, and M.K. would find by accident at the same time Bunnie and I discovered it referenced in Madam Fate's Codex.

An entry we would SWEAR wasn't there before.

If she didn't HAVE her codex...how was she editing it from afar?

Obviously...it was important to her....but not the source of her power.  She was a goddess.  Rewriting reality is what she did.  For her own amusement and our suffering.  To make a more complex story even more complex than it originally was.

She would argue she was an artist.  And as an artist only the greatest of plot twists would do.

Only she could make us dance to her tune.

That's what she believes.

That's my frustration.  And the one all of us would learn to share.

"Dude!  You have enough of these yet?  I know you're racking up frequent borrower miles on your library card but--!"

"Just a few more, M.K.!  I'm sorry I'm not helping but you're the only one of us who can fly.  They kind of wont let Asriel use his NXS indoors."

"But the let M.K. use his helicopter arms?"  Chara jabbed.

"Let's not get into this.  Before we start raising our voices and get kicked out of here."  Asriel shushed them.

"Hey...there's one up here on top of the shelf?"

"Huh?"

"One not on your list but it looks really old, Frisk!"

"Old?"

"And...dusty."

A grim silence upon mention of the word dust.

"Well...bring it down already."  Chara sneered.

"But be careful--"

"WHOAH!!!"

M.K. lost his balance and the book came tumbling down with him and CRASH.

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

A plethora of shushes directed all in their direction..

"Sorry!"  Frisk rubbed the back of her head.

"We'll take this elsewhere..."  Asriel pointed off to the side as the group managed to get away from a group of angry onlookers and miffed students trying to study for exams and write book reports.

"Oh boy...this is embarrassing."  Asriel sweat dropped, never having even gotten an overdue fine in his life.

"It couldn't be helped."  Frisk shrugged.

"Or COULD it?"  Chara glared.

"Hey, don't put this on me.  This thing is HUGE and weighs a ton."

"Can you at least read the title?"

"Uh...title?  What title?"

Sure enough the bound and clasp book was featureless.

"Is that...a wax seal?"  Asriel blinked.

"With the Delta Rune on it...?"  Frisk followed up.

Everyone exchanged glances.

"What in the HELL is it doing in a Miranda City library?  Much less the Mage Academy library!?"

"...guys...if this thing is genuine...this changes things."  Asriel had a concerned look.

"We need to show Volt and Bunnie.  Immediately."

"Maybe we should crack it open first and see what we're dealing with..."  Chara grabbed hold of the heavy tome.

"Hey, now!"  M.K. protested.

"C'mon.  Don't argue here.  Let's get this to some place where we're not going to bother anyone."

So...Frisk ended up leading them to the lower archives where it was dead as a doornail.  No one would bother them here.

"So let's see what we're up against.  Azzy?  Trash that seal."

"Maybe we shouldn't rush into this--"

"Fine.  I'll do it.  Hadou no 31--"

"Dude!  Seriously!  You're going to use Red Flame Cannon!?"  Azzy flailed his arms.

"Unless you'd rather."

"Why do you always have to strongarm me into stuff...?"  Asriel sighed and then produced a marble-sized Taiyoudama.  One just hot enough to melt the wax...

"Now.  Let's undo this oversized belt buckle and see what we got..."  Chara hurriedly undid the binding and pulled it open.

A dead silence.

"Do you...all see what I see...?"

"I see it, Frisk.  This is...this might be...shades of Lady Destiny's scripture.  This...!"

"It's real."  Chara cut in.

A long session of exchanging glances.

"Where to the lies end and where does the truth begin?"  Chara scowled.

"Did...one of the Goddesses...incept this into our reality?"  Asriel looked really concerned.

"If they did...then this forever changes the connection between VGM-098 and Undertale.  This...this predates Miranda City by millennia."  He added.

"More than that..."  Chara rubbed her chin.

"Yeah.  I follow, sister.  This pre-dates even the war between humans and monsters.   This completely changes what we know about our history."

"It seems to contain a lot about the old magics of the old world."

"It does.  And..."

"It makes a lot of references to Monsters stealing souls...and something else...!!!"  Asriel's eyes widened.

"What...what is this, dude?"

"Something that's been covered up for a long time that changes our AU's canon."  Chara furrowed her brow.

"Monsters aren't just capable of absorbing souls.  If I'm reading this right...this is a an ancient method...of linking souls together without fusing them.  Even though those who link together combine into one body, they  remain individuals linked together.  Keeping them separate...but networked.  Kind of like the parallel processing method of Pacific Rim.  Two operators, two minds working in synchronicity to drive one mechanical mobile suit.  And furthermore...it's incredibly familiar."

"Familiar?"  Frisk cocked her head.  "Like we've researched something similar to this before.  Something besides the Pacific Rim metaphor?"

"Similar?"  M.K. asked.

"Stop me if this rings a bell..."  Azzy started.  "Heart...mind...body..."

"That sounds almost like...!"  Frisk's eyes widened.

"Yeah.  The credo of Galaluna."  Asriel was stone-cold serious.  "Heart, body, and mind.  Represented by Princess Ilana, Lance, and Octus."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute.  How is Undertale connected to Sym-Bionic Titan?"  M.K. asked.

"I don't know.  Maybe it's not.  But this is pretty similar to be coincidence.

"If I'm reading this right, Azzy...this seems to indicate this ability...produces a temporary super-being that might be even more powerful than a human and a monster fused together.  Maybe...more powerful than a monster absorbing seven souls."

"Dude, that sounds AWESOME!"  M.K. grinned.

"Yeah!"  Chara raised her fist.

"But...you said that it was--!"  Asriel started.

"Yeah.  Why was this covered up?  Why was this redacted?"  Chara scowled.

"Is it...dangerous like becoming Hyperdeath?"  M.K. asked.

"No.  In fact...from the looks of it this ability...this technique...this linking process...is far safer than absorbing a soul."

"Then why would our ancestors bury this?   This could have been the answer to humans and Monsters finally joining together in cooperation."

"I don't know, Azzy...but..."

"Yeah.  I follow.  Clearly there was some controversy.  Clearly...there was some kind of scandal and someone didn't want this becoming popular.  Maybe Annoying Dog had something to do with it?"  Asriel shrugged.

"Well when you put it that way, it WOULD derail the whole Undertail story and none of us would have gone through this for the billionth or trillionth repeat of this all."  Chara wrinkled her nose.

"If this thing is as old as this looks...then I don't think there are any monsters left who would have been around during this time.  Even Mr. Gerson would be a stretch.  He's ancient but he's not THAT ancient.  Even he was a young scrapper once.   The old Hammer of Justice."  Asriel stroked his goatee beard.

"Then finding out what someone would have to gain from popularizing a technique like soul-absorbing; one that was doomed to make humans fear us from the get-go...that's going to be quite an investigation into info that may or may not exist anymore."

Frisk had that look.  That look of Determination.

And I think Azzy was okay with her letting take charge of this.

"I agree.  I want to know what happened, too."

"I don't know about this, Azzy.  After the trouble we got into over and over in all those other timelines trying to break the barrier?"  Chara crossed her arms.

"But dude.  There's no barrier now!"

"Maybe.  But we could end up causing something worse."

"Do my ears deceive me or is Chara actually being the sensible one."  Asriel cocked his head.

"Look...I..."

"No.  I understand.  One plan was enough.  And it wasn't even yours.  But I do think we need to show Volt and sensei.  Maybe...maybe this thing pairs up with Madam Fate's Master Codex of the old UltraVerse iterations?"

Asriel put his hands on his hips.

"I second."  Frisk followed up.

"Dude.  Third."

"Well, Chara?

"Oh...alright.  It couldn't hurt to do that much.  But I'm on the fence about this."

"It's not like we're actually going to TRY doing this.  Right, Frisk?"

"..."

"Frisk?"

"Oh...um...of course.  It would be reckless to try something like that off the bad."

"Frisk..."  Chara narrowed his eyes.

"Okay, I promise.  We won't attempt this."

A long silence.

"Yet.  Not until we know more."

"Hey now..."  Chara protested.

"I guess that's the best we can do."

"For sure dudes.  Does it say if--"

"No.  There's no limit to how many souls can be linked together.  In theory...you could probably link to every soul that ever existed at the same time!"

"Don't joke about that, Azzy."

"But...what if that could be something we'd need in the future?"  Frisk asked.

"Guys.  Every soul in the InfinityVerse?  That's insane.  What would we even need that kind of power for?"

"...Chara's right.  Don't hunt a rabbit with a cannon, right?"

"One of Antoine's sayings?"

"Yup."

"C'mon.  Let's check this thing out and get it to Volt and Bunnie."

Little did we know, this artifact was going to eventually change things forever.

And as it would turn out...we wouldn't be sure WHICH goddess this little inception came from.

Just as easily a trap as it could be a trump card.

For now...we'd sleep on it.

For tomorrow would be another adventure...

## Sub-Entry 356: "Struck by Lightning League"

It was actually a combination of Lupe, Antoine and Green-Scale that we stumbled into this world's conflict.

But the research of a scientist experimenting with plants caught Lupe's and Green-Scale's attention while sifting through the network of botanical research databases across the Ultraverse.

It was the last entry before the subject in question's laboratory went violently offline.

Mention of a radiation storm event that caused his research to take a hard left turn into disastrous territory.

From there it was a challenge rerouting AEON's telemetry to get us answers.

And a clue that someone or some thing didn't want their handywork discovered.

The obvious explanation was a new evil power didn't want outside forces interfering.  I don't doubt sabotage.

The other was...the one rebelling against the evil and determined to fix his mistake didn't want us accidentally discovering and giving away his hiding location.  That would probably end the war, badly, before it began.

So when info did start to trickle in...

"I confirm telemetric data."  Nikita nodded as Green Scale actually perched on her shoulder.  Why she allowed this was something only Nikita could answer.  But no doubt, Green-scale and Lupe were taking this personally.

"Evil Plants!?" I cocked my head.

"I'm afraid they'd far exceed my own ability to influence them.  They’ve evolved too far and into something too monstrous to keep contained."

"This Saw Boss seems to posses a new mix of telekinesis and telepathy that can actually splice plant matter and machinery together.  And furthermore has clairvoyance/clairsentience as powerful or more so than my own if your translation of Draconic is spot on."

Chameleon had opted to stay out of this one, following our adventures with Conan.  We'd apparently done one too many non-paying jobs with him so...he wasn't kidding that the next time would cost us.

And since a bounty on this world didn't interest him, there wasn't a price high enough to convince him otherwise.  He had his pride and I respected it.

How Green-Scale convinced Tiemtiaren to okay this was something we'd never hear about.  It's probably for the best.  I'd come to realize Green-Scale was one of the smarter of the wyrmling five and had quite the interest in horticulture and botany.  If anything she and Lupe were kindred spirits on some level.  Both the Moku Gate of Rabbotou Dojo Garden and Gaia's Navel Nature Preserve were known hangouts of hers when the five of them weren't together.

Only recently Lupe and various other members of my team had assisted with a little dilemma that had us going to the various keeps of the Rainbow Wing members to solve the mystery of their disappearances.  An adventure involving elves, a dwarf (that Glenda transformed into a rabite temporarily) and other shenanigans.  I'd have to clarify on these details another day.

Whatever the case, I think this was Green-Scale's way of repaying us and making up for...things.  Lupe had really earned a few brownie points with Rainbow Wing for her part in this.  Of note were also Bunnie, Sally, Pit, Rotor, and Mitzi for their roles in the keeps of the other Rainbow Wing members.  Though...Jon was disappointed he didn't get to visit White-Scale's parts.

"What say you, Doctor?  Do we intervene?"

I paced for a bit before picking up the dossier and thumbing through it.

"Hmm.  You've submitted findings from this scientist...Audric, before."

"Yes.  The father of the person in question."

"Jayce, you said his name was."

"Yes.  Jayce's father was brilliant botanist.  He was ahead of his time.  He actually created a plant-based humanoid--a female child named Flora."

Rotor blinked a bit.  I stopped him before he could bring up his theory about dinosaurs evolving into humans and inhabiting a fungus-covered city called Dinohattan in the middle of an endless desert planet.  Somewhere I feel like Bob Hoskins is staring holes at me from beyond the grave while John Leguizamo is crossing his arms and shaking his head.

Ahem...that little reference aside...

"I suggest never letting this leak to Pamela Isley."

"I'm no fan of hers.  Despite her strong connection to the Green, Commander?  I draw the line at eco-terrorism."

"Plus she's gotten pretty uppity and full of herself after rising through the ranks of the Legion of Doom.  Lex Luthor may have REALLY created a monster.  One even Lady Gaga would put her foot down on."

"You're really fond of that saying, Vi."  I crossed my arms.  "Must I remind you Harley Quinn's AU is a black-listed world.   You don't have authorization to investigate it."

"Right.  And you're certainly not up in arms over Sanchez."  Vi jabbed.

"That man is a menace and he keeps getting the Neo Arcadia Board of Ethics on my tail over his ENDLESS strings of moral depravity and ethical violations.  I'd want nothing MORE than to keep him off our radar!"

"Um...I don't mean to speak out of turn--"

"No, Lupe.  Vi's the one speaking out of turn.  Continue."

Lupe and Green-Scale looked at each other.  Being as how I didn't speak Draconic, figuring out what the wyrmling was saying would be a challenge.  That is unless I could bother Dr. Lynx or get Asriel to pop up with his NXS' translator app.

Apparently Lupe "sensed" Green-Scale's language.  Much like Ma-Ti of the Planeteers and his Power of Heart.

So far what little I did know about he members of Rainbow Wing was...as pure dragons, Nikita assured me they went by "Toriel" grammar.  To surmise?  They never used contractions and had a dialect not unlike Bunnie's.  In retrospect, I'd noticed similar about Tithius despite his broken manner of speaking Common.

I did know that once upon a time the five of them used to be combined into one super legendary dragon of great power and might.  Tiem had mad very clear it was a sore spot how much he longed for those days.

But before I get off track...

I reassured Tiem that this was just a one-time thing.  Just...like I assured Chameleon that the Dinosaucers were a one-time-thing.  Mostly as a reward he okayed for Tithius over good behavior and performance.  I understand this meant going a lengthy time without accidental incident.  Like the haste potion mishap.

It's hard to please everyone when you try to promote inclusion.  Not just make UCIAT business exclusive to us.

Vi and Red were still tight as friends and Jon was always one to bribe him with the juiciest prime rib that he'd ever cooked up.  Hey, meat is meat.  We had a hard enough time keeping a large enough batch for Monkey D. Luffy.  Plus I'm sure even he had to scratch that itch of when he was using the Null Armor and being launched from her giant cannon like a Samurai Pizza Cat.  Though he didn’t' do that anymore.  Man, even I have to understand that fatherhood really puts the breaks on the good old times.  If it weren't for this Goddess Contract, there's no way I'd be doing this much field work anymore.

Cid tried to keep out of our affairs.  We were...just too dangerous.  At least he rated us easier to work with than Aurelis.

Alistair worked most exclusively with Pit.  I mean...an archangel.  Who else do you get to ally with the Church of Eatos?

One upon a time we used to collaborate with Night Watch.  Sometimes even the Lord of Raxis contracted us with Brooke's okay to do a job every now and then.

And then there were the joint contracts with Mainland.  While on the surface it was to try to smooth things over and facilitate diplomacy between rival companies and organizations...Violet considered it an opportunity to keep them all under a microscope and consider ANY ethics violations that got her kimono in bind.

There were still other allies of ours in Miranda City and outside of it that sometimes asked for our help.  Or vice-versa.

"Alright, Lupe.  You're spearheading this one.  Recruit anyone you feel is best for this."

"I choose Bunnie, Sally, Gadget,  Frisk, and Asriel."

"Short.  Concise.  And makes a lot of sense..."

I reviewed the Dossier again.  This time for a summary of how this started and a condensed file on the people of interest.

"This began with Audric's grand experiment to create a plant that could end starvation."

Audric himself?  Jayce's father and the original master of Oon; creator of the Magic Root (of which he bears the other half), the Monster Minds, Flora, and the early Lightning League vehicles

Noble that he's tackling world if not galactic-wide hunger."  Lupe observed as Green-Scale nodded.

"Until it went horrible wrong like you said.  A nearby star exploded and the supernova released cosmic radiation that mutated his creation and four other plant specimens, creating the Monster Minds."

Lupe's ears drooped.  It was depressing for her when good intentions when so wrong.

"Jayce.  Protagonist; bearer of the Legendary Ring of Light and half of the Magic Root.

Gillian. A wizard, mentor to Jayce and Flora; Flora's co-creator and the creator of all five Lightning League vehicles; implied to be centuries old."

"And the reason you think Asriel should be on the team.  While not a magic user himself, Asriel does understand machinery.  Which Gillian seems to have an understanding of as well.  Hmm..."

"Flora.  A flower created and developed into a humanoid by Gillian and Audric; she has telepathic powers with which she can sense Monster Minds and can communicate with animals and plants."

"She actually reminds me a little of Gadget."

"Yeah.  I can see the parallel."

"Oon. Oon is an Eternal Squire, created by Squiresmith Wixland. Oon originally served Audric, but has since been appointed to Jayce."

"Looks like a little robot knight."

"Possibly a living suit of miniature armor.  Either way...a bit of a timid guy who tries to put on a brave face."

"Herc Stormsailor.  A mercenary who is the proud owner and pilot of the space barge The Pride Of The Skies II. He used to have a close relationship with Pirate Queen Morgana and it is implied he once was a member of the Pirate Guild. He was once an intergalactic commando before he quit. "

"And why you want Sally in on this.  If anyone can deal with a fast-talking Han Solo type, it's her."

"Despite her affinity toward knights she's just as good with pirates, Commander."

"Brock.  Flora's flying fish mount, which "speaks" in chirps and whistles."

"...I got nothing on that one."

"So.  Overall a Team Acorn reunion with Goat Son riding shotgun.  Okay, Lupe.  Approved."

"Good.  That covers our allies.  As for our enemies?"

I fed the data into the computer and displayed them, turning grim and dour at their twistedness; which obviously went more than pulpy green skin-deep.

"Saw Boss.  The leader of the Monster Minds. He was spawned from the very plant that Audric had intended to end starvation.

Gun Grinner.  Sub-boss of the Monster Minds, he oversees the Gun Trooper clones.

Terror Tank.  Sub-boss of the Monster Minds, he oversees the Terror Trooper clones.

K.O. Kruiser.  Sub-boss of the Monster Minds, he oversees the KO Trooper clones.

Beast Walker Commander.   Sub-boss of the Monster Minds, he oversees the Beast Walker clones.

Saw Trooper Commander.  The only one other than Saw Boss that can take a humanoid form. Smaller in stature than Saw Boss and notable by the stripes on his chest and the absence of a cape.

Dr. Zorg. A scientist working with Saw Boss."

"One short of a Mega Man lethal octet."  Violet crossed her arms.

"Or one extra from the first batch of Robot Masters.  But we're not dealing with robots.  We're dealing with plants--"

"That just happen to morph into plant-robot vehicle hybrids."

"Technically correct, Violet."

"Deploy whenever you're ready.  If you need me to step in at any time I'm just a phone-call away."

"Thank you for trusting me with this mission, Commander."

"You ask for so very little, Lupe.  You're good for it."

And so...

"I think you're asking for trouble inviting total strangers.  And aboard my ship, no less."

"Miss Lycans kept in contact with my father when he was conducting his early botany research."

"Plus she's a druid!"

"You actually trust one of those cloak and sandals wearing weirdos?"

"Of course I do!"  Flora replied.  "Druids are the friends of all things nature."

"Yeah, well it's my experience that not all nature is friendly."

"The Monster Minds aren't nature.  They're science gone horribly wrong, Herc."  Gillian clarified.  "They are pure evil and must be stopped before they conquer the universe."

"You believe what you want.  I'm not out to start splitting bounty with outsiders."

"Actually, Herc, they're offering to compensate us for our troubles."

"Well when you put it like that..."  Herc rubbed his chin.

"Master Audric spoke h-h-highly of Lupe Lycans."  Oon said, shaking a bit, while trying to hold onto his lance.  "B-but he never said what k-kind of being Lupe Lycans was."

"Does it matter what she is as long as she's on our side?"

"You tell him brother."

"So how are these fancy-pants outsiders getting onto our ship if we're not even stopping at a port--"  Herc started just as the Cyber Gate opened.

"Wow....!"

"Jayce and the Lightning League?"

"Yes."

"I am Lupe."  Lupe stepped through and pulled off the hood of her cloak.

"She's...!"

"A dog?"

"Wolf.  Zoanthro-Sapien wolf actually.  And these are my friends within the Ultra Crew Institute.  This is Grand Master Bunnie Rabbotou."

"Y'know I was just kidding about sandals and cloak but...she's actually wearing sandals and a cloak.

Bunnie gave a stoic bow.

"And Sally Alecia Acorn."

"The sooner I can stretch my legs the sooner I can start earning my keep.  I don't like to stand around and idle much."

"Our makeshift technologist, Gadget Tress Hackwrench."

"I'm so happy to meet you all!"  Gadget waved.  Yeah, Flora was sold instantly.

"And from our sister planet codenamed Undertale, Prince Asriel Tobias Dreemurr."

"Actually it's just Asriel Arcade now.  Also, this is my wife, Frisk."

Frisk was already petting Brock.

Flora giggled.  "Someone made a new friend."

"And representing the Dragon Council, one fifth of Rainbow Wing.  For simplicity we call Green-Scale.  She only speaks Draconic so--"

"Yeah.  I'm on hand to translate."  Asriel raised his hand.

"Quite a team of specialists you have."  Jayce commented.

"Yeah, yeah.  All fancy and stuff.  But what experience do you have with battling evil plant monsters?"  Herc said with as shrug.

"More...than you'd think."  Lupe tried to cover up her smile.

"It is of no consequence.  They are a threat to the universe.  Evil must be fought.  And contained or destroyed."  Bunnie narrowed her eyes.

"Scary!"  Oon hid behind Flora.

"Well.  I guess the question remains...how much time to we have until Saw Boss' next attack and what do we have to work with?"  Asriel rubbed his chin.

And so...

Gadget's joyful squeal could have gone one for minutes.

"Impressive."  Asriel crossed his arms and admired.

"You'll excuse me if I do not chime in.  Machinery isn't exactly my forte."  Lupe apologized.

"Hey, that's why you got all of us to pick up the slack.  Tech is practically Bunnie's life-blood and I grew up in a city of the future."  Sally one-arm hugged Lupe briefly.

Armed Force:   a vehicle with a large golden grappling arm mounted atop it. Gillian had intended it for Audric, but instead he gave it to Jayce, when Audric was unable to join the League.

Drill Sergeant : a two-seater vehicle with a drill to dig tunnels. It is also equipped with two pop-out guns in the front of the cab.  Usually driven by Flora.

Quickdraw: a vehicle with a concealed gun in a shield atop the vehicle, and an extended arm at the front with a spiked wheel for digging. It seats one, Gillian had driven it at least once.

Spike Trike: a three-wheeled vehicle built for speed. Similar to a half-tracked dune buggy, it has a pair of crunching spiked wheels at the front that lift on a single arm. Herc drives it most often, and it is thus his vehicle of choice.

Trailblazer:  a large, robotic, four-legged vehicle with a front-mounted battering ram, capable of carrying the smaller vehicles. It usually seats one, but also has unused seating for four. Trailblazer was stronger and more durable than the other vehicles.

There were some other vehicles, too; Flingshot, Spray Gunner, and Motor Module.

Gadget had that look in her eyes as she looked to Sally.

Sally yanked a giant double-ended wrench from Gadget's backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

"I'm thinking the same thing as you."

"If I may make a little request?"  Gadget turned to the Lightning League.

"I'm all ears..."  Gillian seemed to catch on before the others.

It wasn't long before Saw Boss made his move.

"It seems like a risky move going for a direct assault."

"Which is why they won't be expecting it."

"But as soon as they figure it out..."

"Actually, Herc-san...that's what we're counting on."

"You are either the craziest long-eared--"  Herc started.

"Or the craftiest."  Gillian stroked his beard.

Jayce and Flora looked at each other and shrugged.

And thus...

"Hear me, son of Auldric.  You stand before your greater.  Accept your defeat and give me the Root."

"You want it?  Come and take it!  Know this, Saw Boss!  We're coming for you first!"

Saw Boss cackled darkly.  "What a worthless gesture.  You throw your life away over some bravado?  Do you not realize you're playing right into my hands?  A frontal assault might as well be a surrender!"

"It's not a surrender if I don't hand it over willingly.  You must know you can't defeat the Lightning League!"

"That remains to be seen!"

Saw Boss rose from his throne and commanded legions of his clones to meta morph into his familiar namesake; a monstrous biomechanical vehicle with a mechanical arm sporting a very deadly buzzsaw.

As he did so, the other Monster Minds did the same, becoming their monstrous vehicle counterparts.  By this time it was clear the majority of them were all just clones spawned off of Saw Boss and the original batch of plants from Auldric's laboratory.

Saw Troopers.  Pretty much enough said in the name.  Gun Troopers.  They had cannons clenched in their fangy teeth.

Terror Troopers.  They were like vans with prehensile stalks with one of Lupe's Venus Fly-Traps after getting a massive dose of steroids and mutagen.  Very chompy to say the least.

K.O. Troopers.  They had a pulp appendage with a wrecking ball/mace ball on the end.

And Beast Walkers.  Very few in number due to how resource-hungry they were and how taxing they were on Saw Boss.  Their front-mounted claw weapon was nightmarish.  Asriel described them as being like AT-AT's of Star Wars infamy.

And this was only the main battalion.  There were legions of variations from Flapjacks, Lurchers, and Snapdragons to Drill Vines, Cruisers, Pods, and Space Fighters.  Violet would have considered them unused enemies from space shooters like R-Type and Gradius.

Suffice to say...Jayce and the Lightning League found themselves VERY much outnumbered as what to be expected.  This was seemingly suicide.

At least until...

"SURPRIIIISE!!!"

The warning actually came after the gruesome impact, sending a Saw Trooper flying through the air and over the edge of the canyon.

"WHAT IS THIS!?"

Saw Boss about rose from his throne, far away from the action in his biomechanical fortress palace.

"Your reckoning."

Saw Boss suddenly clutched his bulbous head.

"What...what is this...who are you!?  Show yourself--"

"One of such telepathic strength should recognize when another has invaded his mind."

"You dare...!?"

"Dare is just an extension of determination.  The point when potential becomes kinetic."

"You are wasting my time with your philosophical nonsense.  Face me!"

"I am.  Just on a plane of existence you are not used to being full duplex."

"Identify yourself at once."

"You need only know me as Master Rabbotou.  And my telepathy is fit to compare to yours if not your greater."

"A boast you shall regret when I find your physical form!"

"You will find that quite difficult while splitting your conscious mind over the battlefield.  Did you think the Lightning League would come alone?"

From the cockpit of her newly assembled vehicle,  Kagemusha...

"How's the psychic battle going, sensei?"  She opened one eye as the radio communication came through.

"It is as I predicted.  He is off his game, so to speak."

Bunnie squeezed the control's triggers as the twin racks of blade launchers started spewing shuriken in sprays.

"You really came through with the rush job, kid.  Good job!"  Herc complimented.

Gadget giggled as she piloted Sprocket Rocket before launching the grind blade missiles.  It was obvious she borrowed this idea from Red's Null Armor.

"Great.  Let's stress test him, shall we?"  Asriel gave a thumbs-up from his two-seater with Frisk as his co-pilot.

"Dreamchaser handles like a dream, Gadget!   I wish we could take her home."

"You know we'd never fit in the garage, dear."  Asriel mused as he trained the flamethrowers on their targets.

"They didn't see a blindside maneuver coming, did they?"  Sally plowed through a group of Monster Mind clones from the right side in Hyperdrive.

Its Vulcan cannons lit up the opposition at blazing firing rates, tearing bits and pieces of plant matter and machinery away from their victims.

"Keep on task, my friends.  We have to divide and conquer and hope that it's more than Saw Boss can keep up with."

And In swooped Lupe in Lifegiver.  With that her vehicle's multitude of harpoon grappling hooks, spearheaded multiple drones before dragging them helplessly.  Despite its slimmed down size, this one had surprising power behind it.

Green-scale perched on her shoulder, having gotten used to relying on technology to combat nature gone wrong.

"You underestimate the Lightning League.  You speak of inevitable loss.  But you are mistaken."  Bunnie continued the psychic battle.

"One cannot be a failure if he has many friends to turn to in his time of need.  You...stand alone in this war.  Your Monster Minds may be super-intelligent entities born of plants in a hive mind hegemony....but you face individual minds of fauna.  Fauna who are diverse in every way, yet our hearts all beat as one."

"Good speech, sensei..."  Asriel mused.

"Sacrilege!"  Saw Boss exploded.

Bunnie's eyebrow arched as she noticed the lapse...the discrepancy in Saw Boss's will versus the actual response of his clones on the battlefield did not go unnoticed.

"And in the end, you are your own foil.  Be undone by your own inability to manage distractions.  So a quandary for you to ponder.  How does one split their mind into tens if not hundreds of pawns on the battlefield and still maintain this psychic conversation with me?"

"What are you--"

"You CAN'T!"

And sure enough the Lightning League and allies were putting the pressure on...and the pressure was starting to crack.

"THIS--"

"I'm going to save you the trouble of saying ever supervillain's cliche of a catchphrase in this situation.  It can be.  It will be.  It already is."

Asriel's voice called out.

"Then if you want to make a bold statement, then PAY THE PRICE FOR YOUR ARROGANCE!"

"Asriel!  He's trying something desperate!"

"I heard, Master Rabbotou.  Leave this to me!"

Jayce commanded his ring to grant his ally protection.  In that moment, the sudden attack on Asriel's vehicle was stopped by a golden bubble.

"That was a close one, Azzy.  I was actually worried."

"C'mon, Frisk.  I know you better than that.  Where's the girl that headed straight into danger with a smile on her face."

"Guess you know me better than that."

"Hurry!  We need to follow up a counter attack."

"I'm on it, Big Brother!"  Flora commanded Drill Sargent to make the next move.

"Want to try keeping up with me, mercenary guy?"  Sally leaped from the cockpit of her vehicle, letting the autopilot take over.

"Hey!  You live dangerously, don't you?  Don't you know that's a good way to risk a bounty?"

"As if paycheck was ever my biggest concern.  I'm the type that lives for the thrill."

"Man, you are one crazy whatever you are, lady."

"A fuzor squirrel-chipmunk crossbreed.  But Sally is easier to pronounce, y'know?"

"Well, Sally.  I hope you got big pockets because I'm going to have to tack on some expenses after this."

"I’ll have Violet wire me something good to leave in your mailbox."

"What's a mailbox?"

"Wow, and I thought Technopolis went through weird times when we phased out paper."

And at the same time.

"Well it seems I've gotten myself in a bit more than I can handle."

Gillian was fairly calm for a wizard who had gotten himself fin over his head.

\*SMASH\*

"Mind if we cut in?"  Gadget waved.

Asriel  gave a sly grin as he spun out Dreamchaser and pulled an "F-Zero X"  spin-cutter move, flipping several Monster Minds over.  He continued on his path as he and Frisk speed ahead...while keeping their vehicle moving backwards.

Frisk waved as Asriel licked his fingertips before snapping his fingers and drawing in the air, forming the number 1 in momentary flames.

Gillian's chuckle and grin was most certainly noticeable.

"It seems the teacher has been shown up by a quick study.  Bravo, Sir Asriel."

At the same time, Oon was desperately trying to play keep away from the various vines and plant growths Saw Boss's forces were attempting to capture him with.

"Upside-daisy!"  Lupe's voice rang out as she suddenly zipped by with herself atop Brock, the flying stingray fish creature.

"When did you...?!"  Oon gasped momentarily before he suddenly huddled around his lance and trembled; clutching it for dear life.

"We UCIAT have had experience with getting in and out of vehicles quickly in battle."  Frisk called over the coms.

Lupe could almost see Green-Scale's sly grin as she perched on Oon's tiny head.

"Ahh!  The Eternal Squire flailed, unused to a dragon wyrmling using him as a roost.

Lupe giggled as she read the translation of Green-Scale speaking in Draconic.

"What!?  What is it saying!?"

"SHE...said that silly little machines are adorable when they try to act like brave little knights."  Lupe covered her grinning maw.

"You're making fun of me, aren't you!?"

I'm sure Lupe could almost see the halo over Green-Scale's head.  It was a rare moment, as Lupe had come to know Green Scale as one of the less mischievous of the group.  She tended to be the sensible one; bookish and tending to have an interest in ecology; plants especially.

Before long the battle had been decided.

"You will rue this day, Lightning League!  I will have that root and wipe it from existence.  Know this, Master Rabbotou.  You have made a powerful enemy!"

"Do not single me out.  We stand united as one."  Bunnie linked her mind with the rest of the group on the battlefield so they could chime in.

"Master Rabbotou isn't the one in charge of this mission. I am."

"Who are you!?"

"I am Lupe Ayla Lycans.  Druid.  And enemy of all who bring harm to the living creatures of this world.  Even if they are of nature itself.  You have gone against the natural order.  You have strayed from the path.  Plants must not dominate anymore than animals should.  Know that I will defend the balance and coexistence of life in all its forms."

"Then when next we meet Lupe Lycans...my wrath will focus on you ten fold!"

"I do not fear you.  And you cannot teach a druid to fear you.  Like any threat to an ecosystem...I will be at the Lightning League's side to vanquish you."

"Silence!"

Asriel nodded at Green-Scale's chitter.

"I agree.  We will do no such thing.  We will not remain silent.  And we will not be quelled."

Asriel blinked a bit, thinking to himself, "who actually uses the word 'quell' in this day and age.  Oh well..."

"So go back to where came from!"  Frisk challenged.

"That is unless you want another instance of us coming to kick whatever a plant has instead of a butt."

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaarrgh!!!"  Saw Boss' temper boiled over.

"We will meet again!"

And the psychic connection cut out.

"Golly, he sure was mad."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm not sticking around to see just how mad he's gotten.  Besides, waiting around for wrath doesn't pay the bounty.

"Hmm?"  Asriel turned to Green Scale.

"Yeah, I suppose it's fortunate the other members of Rainbow Wing aren't around to hear him speak of "wrath" so casually.  It's kind of a sensitive issue for the ones of you who align with that one of the seven deadly sins."

"You did great out there, everyone."  Jayce joined them all as they exited their vehicles and joined up to overlap hands.

"This alliance was a great idea, Lupe."

"Thank you, all."

"I hope we come back again soon!"

"We will, Gadget.  We will."

"For now...let us return home."

A long goodbye with few words and a lot of waving ensued.

Before then...it was done and over.

On this day...Saw Boss got struck by more than Lightning...League.  He got thunderstruck by all of us under Lupe's command.

## Sub-Entry 357: "The Gods Must Be Crazy.  Then Again So Are We if we Stand With Ulysses"

This one came to us through Pit and Asriel.

They'd long since been friends.

Pit had long been on good terms with Zeus.  At least the one from HIS realm.

So when it got back to him that Zeus had become aware of other iterations of himself, it wasn't long before he discovered one of his...less than reputable incarnations starting trouble in the distant future with the captain of a space vessel.  A captain named...Ulysses.

From what Pit told me...it all started over Ulysses and crew venturing to rescue his kidnapped son, Telemachus.

But it was the beast they slew that royally pissed off Poseidon.  And when you piss off one of Zeus' brothers?  You piss off Zeus.  Big time.

Now we were dealing with a ship drifting endlessly lost in between 31st century incarnations of mythology.  A long way from Earth.  The entire crew save for its captain, his son, an alien girl, and a servitor robot that likes to eat metal nails were in a state of suspended animation akin to being turned to stone.  Hmm...turned to stone...sound familiar?  By Crom...!

Ahem.

Anyway.  It's not like us to let a potential ally stay in peril.

Even if it means we'll probably piss off the gods, ourselves.  No doubt.

Well...after slugging Madam Fate?  They can go and take a number and get in line.

That's me at my most salty.

How did you put it again, Mentor from New York? Oh yeah...

"We eat gods for BREAKFAST!"

Time would tell where and when I'd probably live to regret that.  I mean...what are they going to do?  Kill me?  Depends if they can actually break my goddess' contract.  That...okay that might be something I should really think though before daring to get cocky.

"Ulysses.  The emissaries of VGM-098 and Undertale have arrived on deck."  The computer A.I. beckoned.

"Very good, Shurka."  The captain of the ship, the heavy bearded Ulysses observed from his seat at the controls.  "If they are who they say they are, we could use all the allies we can find, given the circumstances."

"Father!   Aliens from another dimension actually come to us?"

"It would seem that is the case, Telemachus."

"But how did they do so without a ship?"

"It seems they possess a form of teleportation that can transport them across entire star systems and through dimensional boundaries.  And across time itself."

"They must be a highly advanced race to have science that amazing."  Blue-skinned alien girl, Yumi.

"I bet they don't have robots as miraculous as me!"  The diminutive No-No boasted, while nibbling on a metal nail.

"You shouldn't make such naughty assumptions about them."  Yumi scolded.

"For all you know they might have robots far more advanced than you."

"They might?

And a look of worry, fear, and misery crossed the little guy as he went into a sporadic tirade.  Like he was having a panic attack.

"Whoever they are they should know what they're up against.  By assisting us they might make themselves targets of the Gods."

"But they've done nothing wrong.  Right?"

"In war, Telemachus, there are no neutral sides.  And we are definitely at war with the gods."

At the same time...

Pit stared longingly at the data holo-video.  The dossier I provided him and Asriel with so that they were not flying blind on this personal assignment of theirs.  Pit had been observing their plight for a while and found himself in a difficult position.

"It is the 31st century, Ulysses killed the giant cyclops when he rescued the children and his son Telemachus. But the ancient gods of Olympus are angry and threatened a terrible revenge."

"Revenge..."  He looked rather upset.

" Mortals, you defy the gods? I sentence you to travel among unknown stars. Until you find the Kingdom of Hades, your bodies will stay as lifeless as stone!"

Pit grimaced as he heard the voice play back.

"That cannot possibly be Zeus, King of the Gods.  I know Zeus to be a fair and just lord of our sacred realm.  Why would--"

Asriel put his hand on Pit's shoulder.  It was sometimes odd, since Asriel towered over Pit.

"I remember how I was when I discovered that not only to mortals like myself have Variants across the Axis of Realities...so do deities.

It's...hard to say how many gods and goddesses have counterparts outside of the UltraVerse.  Counterparts who...aren't so friendly."

Pit wrapped his wings around himself as Asriel pulled his hand away.

"It's hard for you to accept, isn't it."

"I...just know what I was brought into...what I've been a part of.  What...and who...have been my world since I took my first breath after being forged by Lady Palutena."

"I know.  In a way I understand.  I...I had a long while to come to terms with what my other selves had done across the Undertale Timelines.  Being...the me that is me...it just weighs heavy on my shoulders feeling all that guilt try to pile up on you.  I did nothing wrong...but...I still can't help but feel so bad and so sorry for what all the other Asriel Dreemurrs did to his own people.  What he almost did to the other Frisks out there.

Understanding that the you that is you and the you that is not you.  It's a simple concept but the heart just cannot accept it sometimes.

Much as you cannot accept there's a Zeus and other gods who are horrible to mortals.   Who's declared war over the death of a cyclops creature.  For going against their strange an cruel ways; kidnapping children and letting them be sacrifices.

I just don't understand where the wisdom lies.  And that's why I get it, Pit.  I get why this bends you out of shape."

"Come on.  We're leaving the remaining crew of this ship waiting."  I beckoned.

"How drab.  This ship could use a bit of glamour."  Metton complained.

"Yeah, well...looks are secondary priority after what happened here.  When they say skeleton crew, they mean bare-minimum around here.  There are only three lifeforms awake and a robot servitor."

"What a scandalous situation!"

"M-maybe I shouldn't have come along."  Alphys stayed behind the sexy rectangle.

"You okay not taking Frisk and Chara with us?"

"It's cool.  If we spent every waking moment together we'd probably drive each other crazy.  I know that'd be the case with Chara."

Azzy shrugged.

"Right now we're hoping we've come at a point in between the Gods' challenges...or traps, rather."

"So many familiar names and places and situations in this."  Pit looked at the collective of things Ulysses and company had been through.

"Sisyphus...Aeolus...Chronos...Scylla...Charybdis...Circe...Theseus...Mercurius...Calypso..."

The list went on and on.  And every one of them a name or place or situation Pit recognized from his own realm.  But the dossiers for each reach a different story than what he knew.

"Hades?  But...that's not a place.  That's the evil big bad back in..."

Pit finally rolled the scroll back up in frustration.

"I know it's hard for you, Pit.  This is what I faced every time I came across variants and learning the truth about how many times our UltraVerse has been rebooted.  Who was friend in the last timeline and who was foe.

Ever since we started reading Madam Fate's master codex...it's been one lie and one cover-up after another.  We're absolutely buried in her mountain of deception."

"Volt...you think Madam Fate has a stake in this?"

"This world was found inside the UltraVerse.  It's practically a given she's found another nostalgic plaything.  And thus pawns to dance to her delight."

"Do you think we have any chance of cutting the strings on Ulysses and his people?"  Asriel asked.

"It's up in the air, Azzy."

"In manner of speaking.  Though I would say there is a lack of it in space."

"Major?  Did you just make a joke?"

Bunnie smirked, having stayed silent all this time.

"This isn't like you.  Usually you'd be the stoic one."

"Perhaps.  But the mood is woefully melancholic.  We would not leave a good impression on our allies if they see us in a rather dismal mood, would you not agree?"

"Right as always, Major.  We're supposed to be the ones inspiring hope."

"So...this isn't really a team-up yet.   Just a first-contact."  Asriel asked.

"Yes.  So we should probably not expect to encounter any adventure per se.  But...we should be ready for any trick of the gods.  Once they become aware of us, I'm sure we'll have made their list."

"R-R-Right.  I-i-in and out.  An m-maybe we w-won't draw attention to ourselves."

"Ulysses.  They have arrived.  They await outside the bridge doors."

"Very good.  Open them so we may greet them.

And with that...

I was first to extend the handshake.

"Welcome, strangers.  I am Ulysses."

"Greetings, Ulysses.  I am Dr. Volt Alessandro Arcade.  I represent the Ultra Crew Institute.  We are scholars, explorers and peace-keepers.  This is my former understudy and my current partner, Asriel Tobias Dreemurr."

"Though I have adopted the Arcade surname having been welcomed into his family."

"Wow!  A prince!  I should be on my best behavior, then!  Umm.  Hello, good sir.  I am Telemachus."

"You don't have to do that.  Just be yourself, Telemachus.

"And this is Dr. Alphys.  Former royal scientist of Asriel's people."

"H-H-How d-do you d-do?"

"Don't be shy.  We're glad to have you."  Yumi welcomed.

"And I am know the world over as Mettaton.  The glamourous mechanical superstar at your service."

"So...big!"  No-No struggled to look up at the towering Mettaton, who had taken on his EX form before entering the room.

"And lastly, this is our archangel scout and archer, Pit.  But we call him Kid Icarus."

"Icarus...I know I've heard that name before."  Ulysses stroked his beard.

"Yeah, it does sound familiar."

"I wish someone would tell me why it's so prominent or why they chose to nickname me such."

"We had our reasons, Pit."

Sometimes it seemed like Pit forgot why we gave him that name.  Or the meta-facts behind his world's namesake.  But it seemed like the gods of his world were picky about what information he could take out of Angel Land.

"Pit and I have had a chance to...review your timeline."  Asriel glossed over the parallels of timelines and their connection to...well...TV series that seemed to be based on other world's timelines.

I was still debating which of my two theories was viable in this instance.  There was the Coincidence Theory.  Which, while drawing upon that unexplainable X-factor that things just happen in simultaneity sometimes...  I tended to call B.S. when Madam Fate and Lady Destiny were involved.  It wasn't coincidence, often.  But the illusion of it as a thinly veiled smokescreen.  One that most of us were too smart to be blinded by.  Usually.

Then there was the Umbilical Cord theory.  It was a theory that I first overheard in one of the alternate Captain N universes.  By this pointed I'd managed to navigate other iterations...other AU's.  Including the infamous Captain N/Zelda Message Board continuation that Captain N Neo warned me about.  The one that the former Commandant had birthed from his mind in the before times.  Before the new prophecy had been given; the Glove of Power prophecy, I called it now.

Essentially it was the idea that all content creators and writers had the power to actually make worlds from their fiction and they were connected to the "real world" in some way.  By that logic, it was possible to...say make a video game where all of VideoLand is destroyed in the end.  And...well...there was the risk it could actually happen.

It was also similar to how Bob the Guardian banked everything on letting Mainframe crash and force a restart.  It was...faith that the User actually exists and he could bring everything back from the damage that had been done from the combing of the Web.  Bob being betrayed by Megabyte.  By Enzo losing an eye and having to attach his code to a game cube after losing in a tournament of the Gods.

I could come up with plenty more examples but they were all morbid to think about.  Heck.  Undertale was one of those examples.

"You've...been though so much..."  Pit looked down at the ground, wrapping his wings around himself.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"He's...a little beside himself.  You see the gods exist in his realm but...vastly different than they are here."

"Different?"  Yumi questioned.

"They are...far more benevolent.  They don't work in that "Mysterious ways" thing.  If a god is going to be cruel to you, they're at least direct about it."

"How could anyone possibly know Poseidon would be up in arms over the death of such a dangerous creature as the Cyclops.  That thing was a menace."  Asriel crossed his arms.

"It doesn't matter how it happened.  It happened and now the Gods have it out for you guys.  Does seem pretty one-sided that they can't be held accountable.  But I guess that's what it means to be a god.  To be above the consequences."  I smoldered, not caring if Zeus or Poseidon or any other deity in this universe heard me.

"I w-wish we c-c-could help p-point the way back to your Earth but..."

"I know it was erased from Shurka's memory systems."  I frowned.  "Unfortunately we don't know the location of your universe's Earth.  Every Universe isn't the same and the location in space and time can differ to an infinitesimal degree."

"Your sentiment is appreciate, Dr. Arcade.  It seems that there will be no shortage of hardship on our path to Hades."

"Right.  The only way the Gods deemed that you can bring your people back to life."

Some time later we all had a look at the hold where the entire crew remained suspended in zero gravity.  And motionless as stone.

"They are not stone per-se...but the effect is disturbingly similar."

Pit ran a hand across the cheek of Yumi's older brother, Numinor.

"Back in my realm I would use Big  Hammer's to smash Centurion statues.  That would break Medusa's spell over them and bring them back to life but..."

Pit wrapped his wings around himself.

"I can't...take that kind of risk on your people without knowing for sure what it would do.  I could end up doing serious harm or completely obliterating them.   And...one life is one too many."

Yumi was noticeably distraught over this information.

"He who dares...does.  But not when lives are at stake.  We'll help you find another way.  There has to be one."  Asriel assured.

"Until then...we have to steel ourselves for when the Gods make their move."  I bowed my head and shut my eyes.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom.

Alphys soon found herself inspired by the multitude of robotic assistants and servitors still aboard the ship.

Though...she did have to decline No-No's offering of a nail to chew on.

"Maybe we should save a few for Crunch.  He can use them for flavored toothpicks."

"Before munching them like pocky sticks."  Asriel chuckled.

That got a smile out of Alphys.

I took some time to do some maintenance on the ship and upgrade vital components including the engine system.

"I was hoping we'd be more help but...every little bit helps."  I packed up my toolbox.

"Hey, Pit.  I hope some day I get to meet these friendly gods of yours.  They'd be a great change from the ones that are always causing trouble for us.

"I've...been worrying that they might sense my presence and confront me.  As an angel I may not be mortal but I still answer to the gods."

"Yeah.  Well I've had my fill of gods.  Specifically goddesses."  I crossed my arms.  "I should tell about the time I thunder-punched a goddess into the walls of her chambers.  Left quite an impression."

"You actually struck a goddess?"

"She had it coming."  I folded my ears back.  "Besides, I'm not going to let gender issues be a blockade for someone who's immortal and makes us her playthings for her own amusement.  She seriously gets stimulated by our suffering and death."

"It sounds like you have god troubles of your own back home."

"Some are decent.  But the one that I oppose?  She'll get hers."

"Maybe we should change the subject."

"Yeah.  Like how we're coming up on the end of our time window."

"A-A-Agreed, Doctor.  Every m-m-minute we go over, we r-r-risk Zeus and the others f-f-finding out we're h-here."

"it's just as well.  We've done all we can for now.  But I have a feeling we'll be back to have a more direct approach assisting Ulysses."

"I agree, Volt.  And when that happens, we tip our hand and make ourselves targets.  We intervene directly and that's holding up a sign and saying "here we are"."

"Do you really have to say goodbye?  We were just becoming good friends."

"We have to.  For your sake.  For everyone's sake aboard this ship."

"Then safe travels, Dr. Arcade and company."

"And to you as well, Ulysses.  May you find the Kingdom of Hades and put an end to this madness."

"That you might go home and be one with your wife, Penelope."  Pit followed up.

I smiled, realizing the ties to Homer's epic.  Thirty-one generations of his family line and it all stemmed back to what I once thought was just a fable.

We said our final goodbyes and headed through the Cyber Portal.

Another diplomatic mission.  And allying with those among the stars.  First the Dinosaucers, now the crew of the Odyssey.

As we headed home, I found myself oddly...humming "Jump Jump, Superstar" from...an Odyssey of a different kind.  Mama mia!

## Sub-Entry 358: "Code Name: God Mars.  Adventures With Mighty Orbots!"

I've mentioned Dr. Robert Simmons before.

I've mentioned his connection to Nikita.

Though...it often gets ambiguous if they worked on the same project together...

...or if she's up in arms over him coincidentally creating the same design for his automatons as she did for hers.

But nevertheless...

This is the story of a project she once codenamed "Super B.R.O.O.T.S" before deciding the name was stupid and reclassified it as "Project God-Mars 2.0".

I'm told that a copy of her prototype blueprints ended up in Rob's computer and were discovered by his creations which lead to...kind of a ballsy move of them attempting to go directly into the heart of the evil organization, S.H.A.D.O.W.

I'd heard her whisper the name UMBRA before.

But I'd never followed up on it.

Maybe I should have.

Either way...when an Earth AU was in trouble...we just had to meddle.  That's what superheroes do, right.

Well...meddle.  Not solve their problems for them.  We were the additional NPC backup.  We even the playfield.  That's what we do.  That's our thing as the Kingdom of Crossovers.

Okay I gave us that name.  If you're going to be a de-facto king of crossovers you might as well consider your crew your kingdom.

And boy did we have quite a mix of strange bedfellows.  That's the norm for the UltraVerse.

Once Nikita gave us the marching orders...wait, who's in charge of this operation again!?

Ahem...once she "strongly advised us" to assist Dr. Simmons, Asriel was all over this.  After all. It meant going to two of his favorite places:  Space.  And the Future.

And being the target was the 23rd century and alien races had formed quite the mecca on Earth, it was an easy call to waive the rule about human disguises.  We' fit right in a world filled with humans, aliens, and robots, right?

Eheheheh.  Optimistic, aren't I?

Either way...

Confirmation came directly from the head of the Galactic Patrol, Randu.

Which, in turn, would be coordinated in conjunction with his daughter, space officer, Dia.

When it came to volunteers, of course Azzy and Frisk were at the forefront.  And Undyne and Alphys were on hand.  Undyne has started to like working with law enforcement.  Even though she wasn't a cop or security guard herself...  (still working on that employment) ...any time she could break faces in the name of justice was a good day for her.

And do I NEED to explain the good lizard doctor's interest?  Aliens.  Robots.  Future science and technology?  And of course EVERY anime cliche's promise of giant robots fighting monsters.  Yeah.  She's totally in it for the science and anime aspects.

Oh and Mettaton invited himself.

My team decided to round it out with Bunnie, Violet, Nikita, and Pit.  The five of us.  The five of Azzy's team.  Meeting up with the five robot parts of Mighty Orbots.  And their creator, Rob Simmons and his assistant, Ohno...the er...bossy mother hen robot girl with a short fuse.

Oh yeah, Nikita had one of her design, too.  We...avoided her when we went to Dr. Lynx's true lab.

I couldn't argue there was something very...anime-esque about their world's...style and appearance.  Something felt almost...like it came out of Japan or Korea. But...somehow also localized?  If that made sense?

It was the same vibe I got from Arus and the Voltron Force...or...Voltron Paladins.  Whichever iteration.

And yet, something felt more...how to put it?   Like it pre-dated the Voltron era.  If by only a year.

Fourth wall at work, maybe?

"Well.  I guess we've been waiting a long time to meet you, uh...Dr. Simmons?"

"It's just Rob.  You don't have to be so formal.  My facility is your facility."

"Oh good.  I was worried this was going to be awkward."

"Why would you think that--"

\*ahem\*

"Oh...uh...Dr. Lynx, I--"

Nikita brushed past me and looked Rob Simmons in the eyes with a very dour, very unamused look.

"Uh...something I can help you with, uh...?"

"Rob?  This is Dr. Nikita Katherine Lynx.  She's our head researcher at our operation and--"

"She has a bit of a...unique issue with some creations of yours."

"Wait, something I invented has upset her?"

"I’ll...try to explain it's probably just--"

"There are no coincidence, Commander.  Only the illusion of them as that...infernal goddess who has made all of us her enemies and unwitting pawns in her game."

"Okay...that's true, doctor.  But as for first impressions, can we tone back the cynicism a bit and just get to the root of your displeasure?"

Nikita snorted at first but...

"Very well.  But you are explaining this."

"Lucky me.  Well, Rob...um...it's about your greatest creations, specifically..."

I turned in the direction of their locations on the monitor where their battery chambers were.  Where they were recharged in between Galactic Patrol business and duties.

"The Orbots?  But everybody loves them."

"Yeah, yeah.  Many of us know them by reputation, even from as far away as Neo Arcadia on VGM-098..."

Asriel smiled and gave a thumbs up while Alphys just kind of waved briefly before hiding her flustered face behind her clipboard.

"I don't quite know how to tell you this...how to break it to you but...

You have to understand coincidence theory."

"Huh?"

"I take it you get the concept of prime dimensions and the Axis of Reality and such."

"It seems intuitive.  What's this have to do with anything."

"Well...it's the idea of multiple timelines...multiple iterations of...oneself."

"You mean like a flip-side where--"

"Every person can exist in another instance.  A familiar but...different instance.

To put it simply...other selves.  As different as they are the same."

"What are you getting at?"  Rob pushed his glasses back up.

"This is inefficient."  Nikita reached into her lab coat and fetched a roll of blueprints...before unrolling them.

It didn't take Rob long to notice...the familiar.

"Wait...these are...!  How did you get these?  There’s no way I would let these leak out of my computer."

"Check...the author in the text fields."

"Dr....Nikita...Katherine............Lynx."

The light went on in his head.

He ran a hand through his blond hair for a moment.

"Are you saying you...came up with your own Orbots?"

"In so many words.  She did.  The thing is...I don't think they were stolen, per se.  I think it really is coincidence that you both should invent the same machines.  The same ones with the same...feature."

"This is kind of giving me a bit of worry to say the least."

"It's very rare we come into a situation like this, Rob."

"It's all so unbelievable."

Nikita lowered an eyebrow before turning toward one of her liquid mercury sphere portals...and out marched...!

"Hey, Rob!  You weren't answering your calls.  What gives--"  Torr strutted into the room followed by the other Orbots and Ono.  Right as the last of Nikita's designs left the gateway.

"Am I dreaming or am I seeing double?  Who is THIS handsome hunk of hardware."

"B-B-But, how can I b-be over there when I'm over h-here?!"  Nervous Bort pointed in disbelief.

"I'm beside myself...literally."  Bo joked.

"Rob...how could you?  I thought we were the only Orbots--"

"I didn't do this?"

"They...belong to me.  I am there creator."

"You copied our designs!?"

"It's...less plausible than that, Ono.  You see...Dr. Lynx and Rob came up with your designs...at the exact same time; despite being from completely different universes and under completely different circumstances.   Orbots?  Meet your other dimension variants."

Rob continued to look over the blueprints.

"Project: God-Mars?"  He questioned.

"Eheheheh...it's best not to question Dr. Lynx's naming schemes."

Nikita remained stone-faced.

"There are a few modifications I don't recognize."

"Well, even though they're identical in appearance and function and such, there have to be a FEW differences.  I mean our civilizations likely have some variation to how our technology evolved."

"Her line of Orbots seems to make use of something called nanotechnology."

"Really?  I'm actually a little surprised you haven't heard of that here."

"Closest we got are microbots."

"Ah.  So you're close to development."  I rubbed my chin.

At the same time the Orbots were attempting to interact with their counterparts.

"So.  Aren't you a looker?  I wouldn't blame you if a handsome hunk of hardware wants to hang out with a superstar like me."

"..."

"Not much of a talker are you?"

Bort had similar luck.

"S-so what is it you're into?  Um?  Chess?"   Bort transformed into a robotic chess table.  "Sports?"  And he transformed into a robotic tennis racket.  "M-maybe music?"  He transformed again into some conglomeration of brass instruments right out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Silence.

"Th..that's okay.  I w-probably wouldn't want to t-talk to me, either..."

And Bo was getting a bit snippy with hers...

"Hmmph.  The less you can do is give a yes or no answer!"

She wasn't saying anything.

"How rude!  Of all the nerve.  You better hope I don't put you on my pranking list.  You'll get it so good.  Ooooooooooooh!!!"

And she stormed off.

Crunch offered his a massive balled up hunk of scrap metal and parts.

"Want some?"

No response.

"More for me."

Then it came to Ono...

"Your bots aren't that great, Doctor.  They can't even--"

"HEY!  You better watch what you say, Missy!  I'm at least as good or better a bot than you!"

"I beg your pardon!"

"You heard what I said!"

"I will NOT be talked down to by the likes of a cheap copy!"

"Cheap copy!?!?"

Both Ono's practically bashed their foreheads together, in a rage.

"So won't any of ours talk to us?"

"Um...maybe it's not that they refuse to speak...maybe they can't speak?"  Boo turned to the others and shrugged.

"Um...yeah, Dr. Lynx only programmed one of them with a personality matrix.  She's kind of locked out the E.P.U. system on account of--"

"On ACCOUNT of one of my colleagues, Commander...who won't keep her mischievous fingers off a keyboard and away from my very intricate programming."  Nikita practically snapped.

"Uh...yeah.  Violet has a tendency to upload personalities with...a few quirks."

"They have speech capability but currently they are in service mode.  You'll find that in active mode, they have no more personality than a SIRI operating system.

"I'm guessing that's some kind of computer intelligence where you're from?"  Rob shrugged.

"We call it Artificial Intelligence.  A.I. for short."  Asriel chimed in, finally..

"Every cell-phone has something like that."  I pulled mine now.

"Wow...!  This is amazing."

"Should...we be showing off our futuristic tech to anyone on this world."

"Technically THEY'RE the ones from the future.  I'm pretty sure it's okay."  I glossed over it being the 23rd century on Rob's Earth.

I turned to Dr. Lynx.

"Satisfied, Doctor?"

"Hmph.  It seems there is no trademark infringement."

"Yup.  We wasted this poor man's time by--"

And suddenly we were rocked by tremors from an explosion outside.

"We're under attack!"  Torr staggered.

"It must be UMBRA!  He's going for the direct approach."

"UMBRA?  But I thought we--"

"I guess the reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.  S.H.A.D.O.W. is still in operation!"

Sure enough...

"NO MORE TRIVIAL GAMES, ORBOTS COMMANDER.  THIS TIME SHADOW WILL WIPE MIGHTY ORBOTS FROM THE ANNALS OF HISTORY!"

Deep inside the Shadow Star, a massive galaxy-sized artificial asteroid, within its core...

The planetary-sized cybernetic supercomputer, UMBRA rages with a vengeance!

Huh...that's odd...I was finding myself compelled to narrate with more dramatic bravado.  What a curious anomaly of this world.  And for some reason I kept hearing some other person's voice as I write this.

I wonder if this is one of those planets with a voice-over narrator that everyone is oblivious to?

Ahem...

"AGENTS OF SHADOW!  ANNHILATE EVERYTHING IN YOUR WAKE!  DO NOT LET UP UNTIL THE EARTH IS SPACE DUST!  FAILURE TO OBEY MY ORDERS IS PUNISHABLE BY DISINTEGRATION!!!"

I could describe UMBRA as looking like the world's ugliest, angriest red-colored catfish if it were tightly packed into a crystal clear marble the size of at least three or more suns put together.

"I guess we got a job to do.  C'mon, Ono!"

"Her or me!?"  Both pointed at each other in a two-person version of the Spider-Man meme.

"Oh brother..."

"G-golly."  Alphys finally worked up the nerve to speak.  Oh yeah, I'd forgotten she came with us, too.

"Commander.  I think we should leave this one to Dr. Lynx."

"Astute as always, Bunnie."

"Oh man...are you about to do what I think you're going to do?"

"You are a proper student, Asriel.  You have no doubt surmised I am about to put my ego aside for the greater good."  Nikita thrust her hands in her lab coat pockets and headed after Rob and Ono.

"Oh yeah!  TEAM-UP!"  Asriel thrust his fist in the air.

"Dude!  Too cool!"  M.K. followed.

"Wait for us, Azzy!"

"Can we hurry this up?  I want to check out the food-synthesizer and make a few requests."

Jon also tagged along.  Yeah...I asked my crew to keep it quiet while the smart people settled their differences.

Hmm....Asriel...Frisk...Chara...M.K.  and Jon.  With support from Dr. Lynx and Dr. Alphys...

"You aren't out of line pointing out my machines lack personalities.  And while I have never been much of one to embrace emotion, I have seen the benefit of the...personal touch.  The human aspect.  Ironic coming from a lynx zoanthro-sapien."

"What are you getting at?"

"Therefore in the interest of proper combat, I felt it only necessary to come up with a quick fix until I can code proper personalities without Violet Tokugawa's interference."

"I don't follow!"  Ono shrugged.

"It will make sense once we command our creations to deploy."  Nikita started fitting together, what looked like crystal circuit cards into a weird star formation.  One in red, one in yellow, one in orange, one in black, and one in blue.

Wait a minute...

"The apps are loaded into our bracers, Dr. Lynx."

"Boy will S.T.C. be hot under the collar when they find out what you did, Volt dude."

"I'm counting on it."  I grinned a toothy grin.

Once outside and away from any prying eyes, Rob flipped the switch and activated his Omni Suit; donning his secret identity as the Orbots Commander.  He continued his run with Ono, while cradling his helmet and signaling for the Beam Car.

A quick press of buttons on his watch and he gave the command.

"Orbots!  UNITE!"

And the command was given as his five robots flew into formation.  As they did, their armor glistened and gleamed for a moment before unpacking and expanding, actually molecularly enlarging each one to a much greater size.

Then came the choreographed dance of synchronized transformations as each Orbot mechanically shapeshifted into one fifth of their combined gestalt.

As Torr became the body, Bo and Boo became the arms, and Bort and Crunch became the legs.  All which docked with Torr to form Mighty Orbots.

As a final step, the chest bay doors opened; the whole thing now large enough for Rob and Ono to fly their beam car inside the great machine.  It docked with a mechanical screw-lift that raised them up into the main chamber where the Beam Car interfaced with the surrounding systems.

"Ignition, Ono!"

Ono's stomach panel split open as a mechanical key not unlike R2D2's own data plug made contact with the ignition receptacle and initiated the final activation.

Dr. Lynx raised an eyebrow.

"Wow.  That's a tough act to follow."  Azzy looked up at the towering behemoth."

"Follow?  How quaint."  Dr. Lynx shoved the circuit cards together as they lit up with bright light and sound.

"Combat mode enabled."

Each of her batch got into formation as their eyes lit up.

"Run program as Administrator.  Command: UNITE."   Nikita furrowed her brow.

And that was when her robots started mecha-morphing similar to the All-Spark cube of the "Bay-Formers" Cybertronian AU.

"I never get tired of seeing those little nanos get to work."  Asriel grinned as he stroked his goatee.

"Duuuuude.  This is going to be so rad!"

"Better believe it.  And we get to be a part of it."

"No way!"

"Oh, Undyne is not going to like missing out on this..."  Chara gave the creepy look.

"Just think of THIS as our take on DeltaRune C2's final boss sequence."  Asriel took off toward the bots as their individual components finished modifying and resizing.

"Hee-YAAAAAH!"  He leaped into the air just as the center of the machine sort of...unpacked away; leaving a person-shaped hole at the very core."

"Oh no...don't tell me...!"  I watched as Asriel docked and strapped into moments before the cockpit Mecha morphed around him and the Torr copy sealed up

"Now this is how you REALLY Pacific Rim!"  Azzy's voice came from the robot as it suddenly sprung to life with a personality.  Azzy's personality!

"Symbiotic interface!?"  I gaped.

"As if any other method would be adequate."  Dr. Lynx scoffed.

"Oh I'm going to enjoy this..."  Chara followed suit as the Bo construct wrapped around her.

"Determination!"  Frisk raised her fists to the sky before the Boo construct snapped around her.

"Righteous!  Righteous!  Righteous!"  M.K. practically somersaulted into the Bort construct.

"What?  Me?  No, no, no, no!  I'm not--!"  Was all Jon got out before he found himself as the core of the Crunch construct.

"God save the Queen...!"  He whimpered before shoving the rest of his food down the machine's saw-toothed mouth before belching up a fiery green cloud.

"By Jove that's not going to sit right..."  He moaned.

I decided NOT to question Dr. Lynx's methods as Alphys and I were soon swept up in our own version of the Beam Car.

"Oh cool.  Guess I still have the rank of Commander."  I mused at the sleek, silvery take on the Omni Suit completely with silver sandals with circuit paths etched into them and a helmet shaped for a werewolf's head.

Alphys fumbled around a bit, trying to get a grip on the flashing, beeping ignition key.  It was probably bigger than it had to be but...again.  Not going to question Nikita's design.

"Like the Mighty Morphin's say...let's BRING EM' TOGETHER!"  Asriel grinned from inside the machine as the parts continued to shapeshift and expand into the body parts of Dr. Lynx's own take on Mighty Orbots.  Easily a 2.0 by comparison.

"Okay there are some revisions I didn't see coming."  Rob observed from his monitors inside the Beam Car cockpit.

"Ready for a crossover for the ages, O.G. Mighty Orbots?"

"Sounds like a plan.  You have a play in mind?"

"I was thinking a new spin on some Double Vision, with a Meteor Madness play topped off with the old Vortex Vindicator!"

"Sounds like you've been reading up on our play book, Asriel.  Go ahead and lead us off!"

Dr. Lynx watched from below, hands in her pockets, lab coat fluttering in the winds that were being kicked up.  All while looking dour and stone-faced as ever.

"Double Vision?  I d-d-don't know what that s-strategy is...!"  Alphys stammered as Bort was similarly flustered.

"Let me give you a hint, Doctor.  It starts a little like this..."  Boo projected several hologram clones of Mighty Orbots, forging an army around them.

"Oh!  The old Bushin no Jutsu.  You know that one, Doc."  Azzy grinned.

"And I'll follow it up with this!"  Frisk did the same with illusions of M.O. 2.0

Sure enough the enemies were confused by the sudden armada of giant robots.

"And now that they're off balance...!"  Rob prompted.  "Orbots!"  He led of.

"Separate!"  He and I said in unison.

And the real Mighty Orbot gestalts separated into their respective pentads, before attacking individually.

"Get ready, because my punch packs a wallop!"  Torr boasted before brute-forcing his way through the enemy ships and turning them into scrap.

"And d-d-d-don't forget me!  I can serve up some of th-th-this!"  He transformed into a giant grain thresher-like machine, sucking in the enemies and shredding them into scrap parts.

"I think they just don't appreciate..."

"...The hot and cold in us!"  Chara and Bo alternated between plasma fire and cryokinetic ice.

"Mmm!  Space junk food!"  Crunch went to town literally Pac-Man-ing his way through ship after ship after ship.

"Oh bloody bollocks...I’m going to have the worst indigestion..."  Jon whined as his Crunch frame also got busy eating.

Before long both sets of machines had reduced S.H.A.D.O.W.'s invasion to nothingness.

One last final boss though.

"Great galaxies!  It looks like that beast that hatched from Targon!"  Ono pointed.

"I was going to say it looks like that Babylon hydra boss from Magmax."  Asriel rubbed his chin.

"Don't know what that is but it sounds like a challenge."  Torr mused.

"Believe me it would have had the Dragon Council up in arms.  I know Tiemtiaren would be offended."  Azzy shrugged.

"Orbots, unite!"  Rob and I commanded in unison.

And once assembled.

"Let's give it everything we got!"

You know...I still never came up with a name for our crossover attack.  Much less composed myself enough to even describe it.  You're just going to have to take my word for it.  It was pretty awesome.

"And that's how you save they day!"  Torr bragged.

From over our communicators, the head of the Galactic Patrol contacted us.

"Excellent work, Mighty Orbots.  You are in our debt once again."

"Our pleasure, Randu.  We're heading in for a well-earned recharge."

"I think we should offer a special thanks to Mighty Orbots' new allies, father."  Dia suggested.

"I was thinking the same, my daughter."

"If there's a feast involved, we accept."  Jon cut in.

"We appreciate being acknowledged, Randu.  But really.  It's all in the line of duty.  Ultra Crew Institute stands by any hero in need of some backup."  Asriel spoke up before Jon could get a reply.

And so...

Back at Rob's lab the celebration was going on in full force.

"How unfortunate the Orbots Commander couldn't attend."  Dia seemed disappointed.

"Oh well.  You know those hero types.  Can't stop to take a coffee break much less party."  Rob shrugged after fixing his lab coat.  So uh...if you're not doing anything?  Maybe we can have this dance?"

"I'll have to take a rain check.  I see our allies over there.  I must speak with them."

Rob was left holding the bag.

Dejected, he pushed his glasses up on his nose.

"Now what's he got that I haven't got?"  He shrugged, keeping in character to make sure his secret identity was secure.

"You'll get em' next time, tiger."  Torr put a hand on Rob's shoulder.

"Not if he takes advice from you, ya big lug."  Bo taunted as she slid past.

As such, Alphys was the last one for Randu to place a medal around her neck.

"G-g-g-g-gosh.  I'm a-a-all a fluster...!"

"It is an honor, Randu.  Let these be a symbol of our continued dedication in the fight against evil."

"Well spoken, Prince Asriel.  I should hope we'll have continued support in the future."

"Well, we hate to spread thin..."  I shrugged.  "But a lot of other worlds out there are going to need us, too."

"We understand.  It's a big universe out there."  Dia agreed.

"Until then.  Our affairs here are complete.  Let us return."  Dr. Lynx grabbed Alphys by the back of the lab coat and dragged her off.

I gave a shrug and a look of "what-can-ya-do" before bidding my final goodbyes.

"Ultra Crew Institute!  Let's go home."

## Sub-Entry 359: "It's a Bird!  It's a Plane.  Yes, It's Who You Think It Is"

Goat Son's interest in Superheroes remains as steadfast now as it did back then.

Heck.

He even met the Man of Steel on the battlefield during the climax of the Crossover Wars.

For Truth and Justice.

On the same note he also met Captain America and gave the battle cry for us all to assemble, but this isn't about the Marvel Universe.  This is about the DC Universe.

So of course the chance to meet back up with him was certainly on the table.

As it turned out...we'd end up getting the wrong Earth's iteration.

A new one.

A younger, less experienced Clark Kent would have his own...unique tales to tell.

Funny I should have named-dropped Mr. Mxptlct earlier.  Coincidences don't write themselves.

No.

In our universe, they needed a Goddess to incept those.

Then they stopped being coincidence and started becoming a pattern you wanted to bash your head against the wall over after the hundredth time it happens.

As luck would have it and much to Papyrus and Monster Kid's delight...it would be a Superman variant...that was quite anime-ish.

In fact...yeah...I'd say this one even drew Alphys' attention.

As well as the concern of Kid the Cat for some reason.  I'd learned that mentioning the name Mxptlct...tended to make his fur stand on end.

Why?

Your guess was as good as mine.

Fortunately...we wouldn’t' be DEALING with the imp from the 5th dimension.

No...our headache would come from us catching the eye of my least favorite government shadow operation, CADMUS.

I had...rolls and rolls of complaints that, given the chance, I'd spew every word in the face of one Amanda Waller.

The woman was absolutely ruthless with what she'd do to defend the Earth against invaders like the Kryptonian, in her opinion.

Ruthless enough to have almost let a bridge filled with civilians become collateral damage and then cover it up with some media spin to erase CADMUS' involvement.  Yeah...AEON saw what you did.  If he hadn't stopped you...I'd probably have flown off the handle and marched right down there and probably done something stupid and gotten myself captured.  I'm pretty sure if they had a way to keep Livewire on a leash they could put on me or any member of my crew.

So...how do we deal with an organization so dangerous while being in the corner of the Last Son of Krypton?

Huh.  Well...I guess this is where I'm supposed to love a challenge, right?

Planning for them was going to take a lot of resources if we WERE intervening in the affairs of the Man of Steel.

But what I couldn't plan for was...how quickly Lois Lane and James "Jimmy" Olson would know his secret.  And the latter far before Miss Lane!

You know I had to really scratch my head on something Miss Lane said, calling Superman out as a liar and saying how much she hates liars...when what was the first things she did to get the scoop from the warden at the prison?  Uh...lie about Perry White ordering them back to the Daily Planet.  Impersonating other legit card-carrying reporters.  Did I mention the three of them were only just INTERNS?

A little hypocrisy with your coffee, Lois?

No matter.  She was right though...Clark did keep that from her.  And from Jimmy.  And it came out at a pretty badly timed moment when they had one job to do as Jimmy's friends.

Yeah...I'd expect it from Lois but...Clark flaking.  It...wasn't all that intentional, I mean but...

I'm not going to successfully defend either of them.

That said, and things resolved...i wonder where Monsieur Mallah and the Brain DID end up...?

After all that exposition I had prepared myself for having to cross wires with Cadmus in the event the Man of Steel would get himself into a situation that was more than he could handle.

And let's face it.

I knew he was burning the midnight oil and packing the coffees away after he discovered he had super-hearing.

And he wasn't exaggerating.

People  had problems.

SOOO many problems.

It's one thing if a normal Earth man stretches himself thin trying to do everything at once for several days.  But sooner or later the sleep deprivation would do him in.

A kryptonion expended far, far greater energy.  Well beyond the tera-joules.  Maybe beyond peta-joules.  Unfathomable what the Man of Steel was truly capable of.

But even if you're a Superman.  You're still a man.  And man, no matter what walk of life you come from...no matter what alien race you are...no matter how much you stretch the boundaries dividing mortal from divine...

...you'll reach your limits.

You won't be at 100%.

You will mess up.

And it will cost you.

People will see you at your worst.  And when you can put a massive dent in a speeding bus because you weren't watching where you were going?  Why wouldn't someone be afraid you could have killed someone?

But at the same time...doesn't that also carry the connotation of being afraid of who and what's different?

It's  a reasonable fear coupled with an unreasonable response.

"Hmm."

I eyed the photos of Clark's murder board that he spent all week trying to trace Cadmus.

This was dangerous thinking.  While I agree to battle the enemy, one must know they enemy.  But not when you're about to crash.

I sighed then looked at the copy I'd made of the hologram Lois had lifted from the ship after escaping the detainment cylinder and taking it to the archive were Mxptlct had definitely played everyone to get back his most dangerous artifact; the hat.  It may look like a derby.  But really...it was the key to unlocking the third eye of a chaos god.

But it was what was on the hologram that could give ANYONE doubts about who they are.

When you see yourself as a tyrant Heat Ray blasting Metropolis while people run for cover?

Yeah.

Not good therapy.

As it turned out we'd be waiting a lot longer to find a moment to decide to intervene on his world.

Fortunately things worked out well for him after escaping Cadmus.  But not so well for the General.  Now demoted following not only Superman's escape, Dr. Ivo's betrayal, and the jailbreak of Task Force X.

Yeah...things were going to be bad ahead.

All the while...I was waiting for word from STCA on another matter.  The case we'd started working in the form of Unicorn; Warriors Eternal.

And there were still more worlds with activity catching our eye..

Our friend, Senku was about to kick of the Science Wars while getting to the mystery of the Petrification Beam.

The Straw-hat Pirates were now bound for Dressrossa, following the ordeal with Breed and his Pet-Pet Fruit.  Oh, and Dr. Caesar Clown was still in their custody.

And then there was the Five Nations; mostly captured by the Infinite Tsukuyomi genjutsu.

Which finally left word that there Chara was seeing the first signs of what would become the Thousand-Year War in the Soul Society.

Things were stirring.

Was this a sign?

"I wonder if it's wise to get that guy in Gotham involved this early on?"  I muttered.

If there was a Vicki Vale, there was certainly a Batman.

And likely...other preludes to a Justice League.

Really...I couldn't help but think far into their future.  I mean...things happened pretty fast.  This was a record for how quickly a Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson discovered Superman's identity was none other than Mild-Mannered Clark Kent of Smallville.

I pondered passing this one off to Goat Son.  To at least get a second opinion on before we made any moves.

Right now...things were looking okay in the moment.

Right up to that kiss between Lois and Clark  Heheheheh.

I decided not to ruin a good moment and closed my research for now--

\*FLASH\*

"Goddammit, Vi!  Knock before coming in--"

Vi charged out of the cyber gate.

"Um...we might have a situation in Gotham."

I sighed.

"I warned you about visiting code purple and code black dimensions.  But nooooo.  You had to hang out with Harlene Quinzel--"

"That's kind of what this is about.  Y'know.  She joined the Bat Family, Poison Ivy's now executive of the Legion of Doom...there was a Time Sphere involved--"

I pinched my brow.

"Alright...I'll hear you out and decide how many of us to deploy...once we make up our mind who's willing to break protocol for fixing up a messed up world like Harley Quinn's.

It almost frustrates me as much as the Venture dilemma."

"Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart."

"Violet...just go."  I pointed out the doorway."

And she was gone and I was left to wrap up my research on the Kryptonian.

"Maybe I should at least consider getting Dr. Lynx to make a translator key for Kryptonian.  Clark should at least be able to know what Jor-El is saying in those holograms..."

I cleaned up and headed out of my lab for the day.

And all the while...I found myself humming a familiar score...

"That's catchy.  I wonder if it was in a movie..."

I do hope you're smiling wherever you are, Christopher Reeves.

## Sub-Entry 360: "Rahuro's Grunge Grudge: No Fooly?  That's Cooly."

I honestly thought I cleared the air with every last confession I kept from everyone in Undertale.

Then...one day...I remembered.

Something I kept from Asriel.

I honestly didn't intend to keep the secret forever.

It was just something that time made a fool of me over once more.

But the fact was...this was something that was left unresolved for a very long time.

I probably never would have remembered it.

But then...

"Ugh.  Sour drinks.  They're the worst."

I took a moment to brush past Elektra's old bass guitar.

"Huh.  What am I still doing with that here?  I thought she took this with her when she went to Medical School years ago."

I eyed the antique-looking TV set in the corner...it was...no TV set I recalled any model of.  Not within the last 70 to 80 years of TV's existing.

I tried to make out the logo.

"What kind of name is "CANTI"...?"

Really.  All the signs were smacking me in the face.

I sniffed around a bit.

"Penny, are you still eating those darn Little Prince brand instant curry meals again.  You know Bunnie's the only one who can take THAT level of super-spicy."

Huh...

I eyed the V-shaped sunglasses on my workbench.  Curious.  I don't own a set like those...and even I did, who'd wear shades indoors?

I looked outside the shop window at my car...my 57 Chevy.  I wondered...what would it look like in powder blue.

That...thought was random.

I shook my head before sifting through the latest batches of stuff in my repair bin.

"Ugh...seriously, Vi.  Why do you have these tacky things.  Would they even fit on your head, you silly rabbit?"  I picked out the curious headphones with the cat ears.

Cat...ears...and light up rings on the sides......is this one of those Jangese imports?

I should have picked up that Lady Destiny and Madam Fate were rewriting reality around me to drop me not-so-subtle hints.

it had been ages since they'd done something like this.  And ages since they did so with intention of catching my attention rather than avoiding it.

What was this all about?

I went out back to dump some conventional waste into my dumpster.  I noticed the massive number of what looked like Dr. Pepper 2-liter bottles in the recycling bin...a lot of them.  And crumpled instructions on building an air-pressure homemade rocket.

"Darn kids.  That's no way to win a science fair."

I didn't notice the rock star magazines on the ground with the covers with the words "PROGRESSIVE" and "ALTERNATIVE" spelled out in massive block text.

I took only a moment to sidestep as a baseball hurled past me.

"Sorry!"  I heard M.K. call after me.

"Didn't hit anything.  Or anyone.  It's all good."

I stopped to check my kilowatt-hour meter.  Spinning about as normal as I'd expect it.  I mean...why wouldn't it.

"You know something...I kind of miss Crystal Pepsi."  I muttered to myself as I idly watched a delivery truck deliver a shipment of...pillows to the bed store across the street.

Next door I could hear Antoine attempting to go for his record of attempting to lift the smallest weights in the world.

"I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...!"  I heard him pant in between grunts.

I blinked a few times.

So what finally did it?

I was back inside, idly staring at an old chemistry book; my eyes darting from different spots on the Periodic Table.

"Fluorine....Chlorine...Fluorine...Chlorine......FL...CL....FL...CL..."

No, that wasn't what trigged it.

I scrolled past some entries on my tablet, kind of keeping a blank look as I watched a recent movie preview...something about sea creatures turning human and dry land...a very Italian town with a grudge against mer-creatures...something about a race where the prize was...a.......Vespa...motor scooter...wait a minute..."

It didn't click yet, either.

Well...what did make it click?

"Azzy.  I think we have to talk."

"Sure, Volt.  About what?"

Truth be told?  I don't remember.

"Well...no pun intended and no slight against Sans or Papyrus but...I may have found an old skeleton in my closet."

"Yikes.  You at least put an outfit on him--"

"C'mon, Az.  You already heard me say what kind I meant."

"Sorry.  Guess it doesn't work forcing a tired old joke, huh?"

"Very funny.  But no...I...remembered something I never told you about."

"Yeah?"

"I think you should have a seat and prepare yourself.  For a long story."

"Okay."

I sat down and eyed the drinks still in my glass-doored mini-fridge.

I opted against the ones with the pulp in them.  But I did ultimate go for one of the sweet ones.  Super-sweet, if you know what I mean.

I offered Azzy one.  He declined.

"It was way back in your teenage years.  Not quite the Crossover Wars but...definitely in the era of conflict where old cases reared their ugly heads."

"I'm still following."

"So.  First...some background.  Before your time I came across correspondence from another of the many alternate Earths.  This one from a man identifying as "Amaro".  I tried digging up info on him but any data was redacted."

"Redacted?  Like--"

"The kind of redacted that comes from way above top secret.  People in high places or organizations the government disavows.  You know.  Men in Black level stuff."

"So...?"

"He warned about two dangerous threats to be on the look out for.  One we were probably safe from...but just in case, I should look for...something really obvious.  The other was the REAL threat.  And it was just one person.  I'll get to that in a minute."

"Go on...?"

"We live in an era where you mention anything medical technology and no one bats an eye.  We all want to live longer, better lives.  And gosh all mighty there are cities back home that are just DROWNING in pharmacies.

So...one day his Earth supposedly got a visit from one of the two threats.  Though...he wouldn't say which.  Still...I'm pretty sure I know which one.  That said...he had...an experience I know that changed the course of his life, because he spent the next years preparing for a possible return."

"Okay."

"He established what's colloquially known as the Foreign Embassy.  Sometimes called The Interstellar Immigration Bureau."

Asriel cocked his head.

"So.  Our prologue kicks off in the town of Mabase.  And our focus is on a young, moody, angsty boy named Naota Nandaba.  A 12-year-old at that age of rebellion, living with his widowing father--a perverted editor and chief of his own trashy magazine that he sells in their convenience tore--and his grandfather, a geezer who's libido hasn't slowed down any."

"Uh...very descriptive..."

"I'll get to the point."

"He's fawned over by a high school girl named Mamimi who had a one-sided crush on his older brother, Taskun; who went to America to play baseball."

"This is a lot of detail, you know.  How...does it figure into--"

"So.  One day his life is turned upside-down by a pink-haired, green-eyed maniac of a woman on a yellow Vespa motor scooter when she runs him down and causes a head injury that...develops into a far-from-normal bump.  And over the course of the day this woman ends up stalking him and trying to bash his brains out with a blue, vintage Rickenbacker 4001 electric guitar with a pull-string dynamo in back."

"This...story is getting weird..."

"It's only getting weirder.  So.  That night after he think he finally escaped her; he comes home to find out she's moved in as their new housekeeper maid and identifies under the name Haruko Haruhari--"

"Wait.  Is this one of the--"

"The threats I'm getting to.  But...now I have to backtrack before all this happened because...the other threat had already established itself and was lying dormant."

Asriel tugged at his goatee.

"A while ago, some representatives suddenly appeared and proposed the construction of a new facility in the heart of Mabase."

"Yes...?"

"Before anyone in the town council could take a vote, practically overnight their factory was not only constructed but in full operation the next morning.  A factory...with no visible doors...windows...or anyone in town who claimed to even be EMPLOYED there.  And the biggest tell that it was unusual?  The factory...was shaped like a GIANT CLOTHES IRON."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said, Goat Son."

"Yup.  Getting weirder.  And..."

"As I said earlier...no one bats an eye about medical technology.  So it of course subtly went by that this factory...this plant...was known simply as Medical Mechanica."

"Sounds like a places that builds prosthesis."

"Oh if only..."  I rubbed my temples.  "So...Amaro's been keeping an eye on them but they weren't even the main threat in his eyes.  Not after his encounter with--"

"The Vespa Woman?"

"Mind like a steel trap, you know?"

"So...things started getting really weird as I tried not to get wrapped up in Amaro's claims about what was going on.  But...the more he subtly warned me without warning me...if that makes sense...the more I found myself hooked in and subconsciously worried.

Before I knew it I was getting reports of mechanical beasts and robot sentinel creatures popping up and causing major incidents all over town.

I finally decided to peek into Amaro's agenda and I found some alarming data about what he was preparing for.  Apparently there was an uneasy truce between these invaders, Medical Mechanica and the Interstellar Immigration service.  But the real meat of it was that Medical Mechanica...had a bit of a problem.  A common problem that they and Amaro share..."

"Let me guess.  Vespa Woman?"

"People know here by her alias, Haruko Haruhari.  A crazy, ditzy, space case who craves super-spicy things and goes into flamboyant tirades...and seems to write her own rules of reality.  Like she's got super powers or something.  All accurate.  You see...her real name is Rahuro."

"Rahuro?"

"Rahuro is...probably the most outspoken and the most unpredictable if not most maniacal of the Cult of Atomisk."

"Okay this keeps getting more complicated.  What's this Cult of Atomisk?"

"Simple answer?  A harem of space girls who worship a god-like inter-dimensional super-being akin to a phoenix in its unreleased form.  But can take many forms;  all of them a super compressed mass of flaring red energy.   This being is Atomisk.  A master of a great power that is the crux of all this chaos."

"Great Power?"

"For practical reasons it's identified simply by the initials N.O.  To this day...I still don't know what it stands for.  But I CAN describe it as a powerful phenomenon of the right brain and left brain resonating in such a way they create wormholes in time and space to pull anything in or out of anywhere in the universe."

"Wow...that's kind of impressive."

"Atomisk is a being with so much N.O. he can steal entire STAR SYSTEMS."

Asriel's jaw dropped.

"It's this reason he was given the nickname, "the Pirate King."

"So...his connection to...?"

"Amaro never met the guy but he established that he's what this whole drama has always been about.  The end goal."

"And you say Rahuro is of this cult based around him?"

"Like Amaro said, normally, Atomisk and Rahuro would be mortal enemies save for the key detail I'm sure you picked on if you know harem anime."

"She's hopelessly in love with him?"

"Gold points for Goat Son."

"And....she'd...?"

"Do anything if not everything to "acquire" him.  And that's where our little wrinkle comes in."

"Medical Mechanica crossed the Cult of Atomisk when they...?"

"Captured and imprisoned the Pirate King."

"Oh.  That would definitely explain things.  So...why her obsession with...?"

"N.O. isn't just a phenomenon of demigod phoenixes that steal star systems if they desire....no...this ability has been seen in other species.  And it can quite beneficial to those who know what to do with it."

"Like...Rahuro?"

"Like Rahuro."

"Which relates to why she's stalking Naota?"

"For simplicity let's call him Ta-kun.  But yes.  The thing is you can't use just ANY head to open the portal to N.O.  You have to use the RIGHT head to do it."

"Ta-kun's.  Yeah.  Now I get it.  So...that's the key in all this.  Every time she opens that portal in his head...?"

"Atomisk gets closer and closer to Earth dimension.  And makes it that much easier for Rahuro to yank him out of there and devour him."

"De...vour...?"

"She once said...everything belongs to Atomisk.  Including her.  But also...I know that she'll stop and nothing to ingest him and become one.  All that power for her to command.  All that power to absorb."

"But she obviously hasn't succeeded?"

"Yes."

"So...how does this end?"

"With her giving Medica Mechanica what THEY want so that she gets what she wants.  Even at the expense of everyone and everything.  She really is an apathetic seductress under all that maniacal behavior.  There's nothing she won't do and no one she won't cut down if they stand in her way."

"So...what is it that Medical Mechanica wants?"

"For an oddly advanced civilization...they sure do hate intelligent races.  Their solution is to put an end to the chaos by smoothing out the wrinkles.  Literally and figurative.  Their plants go globally if not galactically.  They literally flatten worlds all over the galaxy by steam-ironing them.  By activating the plants."

"Whoa."

"But wait.  It couldn't have ended that way."

"It didn't.  Her plan fell apart when Naota instead became the vessel for Atomisk and thus wielded his power.  With that...Atomisk fled the planet, while drawing an unimaginable about of the wreckage of the destroyed Mabase city area into himself.  And in doing so...he destroyed the Medical Mechanica plant.  With that, Rahuro just shrugged it off and left Earth to chase after him again.

But then...about five years ago...or at least five years ago from today on their timeline; I don't know how much Destiny and Fate rewrote ours...

Medical Mechanica resurfaced.  And we got new targets in Mabase's near future.  One...Ko Ide; a bespectacled high schooler who had...a questionable night with his teacher.  Don't think into it.  And two...a tsudere girl named Hidomi Hibijiri.  An almost robotic girl who tuned out the world with a unique pair of cat-ear headphones.   Someone with unresolved issues over her father who left years go, leaving her and her mother to fend for themselves and manage a small cafe.

It kicked off with not just the return of an old headache but a new player in the game.

If Rahuro is best compared to Violet?  Then this new person, Julia Jinryu was best compared to Bunnie.  But the two of them?  Still questionably stable.  So...it started when Hidomi was run down by Jinryu's 57 Chevy."

"Oooh.  Bit of a personal spot there, huh?"

"Let's not get into it.  Well...I'll paraphrase this as two beings...who were one and the same.  If I may rephrase...Jinryu splintered off of Rahuro when she last failed to absorb Atomisk, somewhere in the depths of the cosmos.  They're two crazy women with the same goal...but separate ideals...separate methods.  A very distinct different in opinions...and end game.  Both are dedicated to Atomisk but...Jinryu wants to give Atomisk his freedom.  Rahuro?  Keep him all to herself...devour him.  Have him inside her.  Y'know...old tricks.  So...to simplify this down...a lot of crazy things happened and...a lot of familiar signs popped up harkening back.  And...the return of Medical Mechanica's failed prototype, CANTI."

"Canti?"

"Forgot to mention the first robot to come out of Naota's head but...yeah...a shell for channeling Atomisk's power.  Merged with Naota to combat Medical Mechanica's biomechanical abominations.   Well...his remains turned up again; long story short, he was the final key to Hidomi accepting her destiny and fighting for what...or rather who she desired."

"Ide?"

"Ide."

"A race between her and Rahuro to get what they loved."

"And again...Atomisk couldn't be contained and...Mabase lay in ruins."

"Heavy."

"So one last incident was recorded back to back with this.  And Rahuro definitely returned as did Medical Mechanica.  And this time...it was a story without Atomisk.  This time it was about Rahuro taking revenge on Medical Mechanica while serving as a mentor of sorts to a group of friends who...are in a transition period as things are about to change now that their school is having them turn in worksheets about their college plans...their ambitions."

"Oh...the drifting apart game, yes?"

"I don't need to explain more.  So I'll just cut this short and say...it ends with Rahuro transported by N.O. to Mars and...Medical Mechanic actually about to succeed with the plan, world-wide when...a  last minute N.O. McGuffin saved the day and....that was the last I heard from Mabase and Rahuro..."

I looked down and hesitated.

"Until...?"

"Until later on that same estimated year; shortly after Mabase had somehow reconstructed itself.  And I ran into Rahuro."

"Uh-oh..."

"Only I wasn't the target.   But..."

"Someone you know..."  Asriel suddenly looked at me with deer-in-headlights bug eyes. "Oh no...it's me, isn't it?"

"Yeah.  You were the one with a working head.  Suffice to say...I objected and we...had a battle.  Pretty big one."

I set down my saxophone case.

"I think she mistook me for someone else, initially but her grudge against Medical Mechanica remains even though her desire for Atomisk was stronger this time around.  It ended with a stalemate and I swore I'd be there to make sure she didn't touch a whisker on your head."

"So...that's what's been eating you, huh?"

"It's been a lot of years but I haven't heard back from her.  I...don't know if you're in the clear or...if she'll come after you eventually.  I mean...she abandoned Amaro when she declared him useless."

"I guess it depends if I'm still capable of...."

"Yeah.  If your head is suitable to generate a portal to N.O."

"Wow. This is kind of mind-blowing and...I'm glad you came clean about it but..."

"Yeah.  Not much we can do unless she makes the first move.  And so far...I've been waiting a long time with not a peep out of her or Amaro...or any sign of Medical Mechanica."

"Hmm..."

"Well.  I guess we're cool now, right?"

"We're cool."

"No...fooling?"

"No fooling."

"No fooly coo--"

"Come on, Azzy.  Don't go there."

Asriel chuckled.

"Well.  I guess we'll be ready if she shows up again."

"Thanks."

"So...how do you feel about getting some lunch.  I know a curry place up the road.  They got super-spicy--"

"Azzy.  No.  Just no.

Chapter 37

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