Hear My Cry

Nicole Taylor

## DIMH Base, Deep Space

Following a week of quarantine in a deep space DIMH base after the events of Lost in Waves, our team is together again for the first time, chatting about their situation (and Salisbury wondering why they're together in a room at all).

Suddenly, Vichoides starts speaking, his program being present in the room as well. Appearing as a hologram, he begins reporting on the findings from the debriefings of all the people found in the alternate universe. While evidence points that the alternative Threat Null's Void Engineer-equivalents were different compared to that of ours - which are still unaccounted for - the information gained gave Vichoides enough data to run predictive models.

All calculations point to the VE-T0's - as the pending official abbreviation goes - returning to Earth after initially fleeing the effects of the catastrophy from Empty Night. The timeline for their return would be 1 to 5 years - giving very little time to prepare. Furthermore, something would have to be done in advance to prepare the rest of the Technocracy for the events to come.

Soon after, Vichoides bids farewall, and notes that he has been reassigned - to keep watch on the AI-offshot of Friend Computer from the alternative universe, in the vaults of Antwerp.

Not long after his departure, Wrinkle suddenly appears in the room, stopping time so they can have a talk (frustrating Nicole Taylor's attempts to inform security). Discussing current events, Wrinkle confirms Threat Null's incoming threat, although he is "unable" to give a more specific arrival date.

More specifically, he brought worrying news - during the events of Night Breaks Through, one additional member of Threat Null came through the breach from the alternate universe - none other than Tychoides himself. Turned mad by the transformation, Wrinkle had to stop him, but he can't remember any specifics of what happened. All he knows is where - and only because he found himself along an item from the Efteling, a theme park in the Netherlands. Wrinkle 'suggests' that the team should go and deal with the threat.

After starting time back up, the team goes to a meeting room for the original plan for the day, a meeting with General Blackwell. Originally a simple final debrief and sending off following the quarantine, the discussion soon turns darker as the team discusses what they found out that morning.

One point of contention is what to do with the rest of the Technocracy - with Blackwell fearing an all out civil war if the truth about Threat Null breaking out. Taylor counters that they no longer have a choice - with the new addition of VE-T0 approaching and resources dwindling, their only option is to try to bring the full union to bear.

As it turns out, the chance to find out what would happen would come soon - Blackwell informs them that they are invited to a Union-wide Convention in two weeks. Whatever the ETD would decide has to happen - something Blackwell would take up - would likely happen there.

Meanwhile, however, the team would have the next two weeks freed from other duties to prepare - except for a little problem in the Efteling.

## Antwerp

The team reunites with Levi, bringing each other up to speed on events. The team learns that alt-Taylor from Night Breaks Through 'escaped' to Charon, with the other two alternate team members still around under surveillance. With the Resilience returning to port for repairs, the team then prepares to set off for the Efteling, after gaining some interesting intelligence - the Efteling is a Changeling stronghold.

## Efteling

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Mission Report: 'A tale as old as time'

Agent Jane, MD

Once upon a time, in a place actually not that far away from here, a mighty king lived in a very tall. His realm was vast, but there were other realms bigger and mightier than his. The king’s biggest wish was a nice, peaceful world, where all the kingdoms were peacefully united. Most of the other regents agreed with that. They squabbled over the little things, such as who should be emperor. But they all agreed to do everything they could against the evil kingdoms that wanted to destroy the world.

To help him with his lofty goal, the king had several people in his service. Most notable were his knights of the round table. Named after the round table they conferred around, on the top floor of his tower. There was a powerful knight in shiny armor, who could blow up the world if he so wished. There was a knight who was the nimblest of them all. She could move faster than anyone else in the world. Thirdly, there was a devoted shieldmaiden. The king, and most of the allied kingdoms used notes to keep everyone informed. Except that some of the evil realms should not be informed. So there were notes about that too. And notes about those notes. Everybody hated this. Except for this shieldmaiden. She was devoted to these pieces of paper. She believed that this was the best way to ensure peace in the kingdoms. And because she believed this so strongly, for her these pieces of paper formed a shield to protect everything good.
Lastly, because you need one, and because she’d better serve you than anyone else, the king also employed a wicked witch. Other kingdoms had their witches as well, but this one was particularly depraved. She really loved to torture people.

In this tale as old as time, a powerful spirit had noticed this king and these knights. He secretly brought them together so they could become a mighty force to help him save the world from evil. So, one day, the spirit requested their help. A king of an allied kingdom had defected to the dark side. One of his versions was here now, on this earth, to wreak havoc on the whole world. Fortunately the spirit had caught this evil king in time. Except, he forgot where.

So the devoted shieldmaiden, the knight in shiny armor and the wicked witch were send on a quest to find and kill the evil king. The devoted shield maiden did not like this. She was originally from the country of this king, before he became evil. She did not like to kill her former king. But she knew there was no other option. She wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

The spirit did have something to give them a hint. A neck. Which he broke of its original owner. So the threesome went to innocent victim’s remains. There, they discovered they were in a land ruled by fairytales. They encountered a talking bird, terribly big trolls, a very enticing satyr, annoyingly singing frogs and even a canny cannibal. The wicked witch really enjoyed how that last one made his victims come to him voluntarily.

The devoted shieldmaiden used her powers to be done with this assignment as soon as possible. But that wouldn’t make for much of a story, would it? This is a fairytale after all. And fairytales need fair maidens who accompany the heroes. In accordance with this law, the knight in shining armor found a sweet girl to accompany him into this magical land. The girl was familiar with this world and wanted to do everything to help him in hairy situations. Unfortunately the wicked witch wouldn't give them a moment alone until they found the evil king.

Thus, the four heroes tried to contact the queen of this magical place. The fair maiden even broke her leg so they could reach her in time. On instigation of the wicked witch of course. When they reached the queen, the wicked witch tried to be kind. She cannily bowed for the queen. But since she was wicked, what she actually said was a threat to kill the queen and all her subjects. The queen didn't take too kindly to evil witches who threatened her realm. Her bodyguards took a tight hold of her. Luckily for the witch, the shield maiden and the knight explained that she did not mean to do harm. She was wicked, not evil. Instead, they were here to prevent harm to her realm. The queen relented, and lent her prized crystal ball to the witch to help them find the evil king. The wicked witch secretly suppressed a smile, her sneaky way of impressing urgency to the queen had worked. And used the ball to see the entire magical realm. In seconds, she had found the right place.

The queen wanted the foursome to succeed. Wickedness she could handle, but she did not want evil in her realm. So she marked the knight in shiny armor to be her handsome champion and to get rid of the evil in her realm.

The four adventurers went to the right place. There they easily killed the evil king. The spirit had frozen him in time and space, thus he could not defend himself. The wicked witch did take a risk, she tried to see the final moments of the evil king. He took a bite of an apple. Which was weird, because that is another fairytale.

Secretly the queen saw in her crystal ball that the foursome had not left her realm yet. Her handsome champion was adorably wooed by his fair maiden. The wicked witch distracted the innocent shieldmaiden from her feelings of guilt of killing her former king by showing her cute fairies and ghost to play with. She knew of her devotion to this former king.

Later that night, the queen turned quite red though, when she looked in her crystal ball again. The wicked witch was still there. And oh, how wicked she was at that moment!