#97

Everyone has since settled in at McGee Manor. Now that The House has more guests, it's being a bit more agreeable with the settings and is doing its best to avoid making everyone feel like they need to vomit. It might even be able to conjure up some weapons for the could-be fight ahead. Fancy sci-fi weapons. Hyper-cannons and optima-bombs or something.

Doctor Kai has been able to get the computers working in a way that won't attract unwanted attention. Now he's currently scanning for anywhere that the Emperor might have fled to; or potential trails, in case the destination for his escape pod was just a temporary rendezvous. However, so far, said scanners appear to be picking up a large maroon shape directly head. A Tower, as it were.

But Doctor Kai, like his own Master, b̶e̶g̶a̶n̶ begins to sense things, particularly about this Tower, and what it was linked to concerning one of the current House crew members. And this leads to the making of deductions about certain suspicions surrounding said crew member—in turn, these deductions caused him to realize that the suspicions were not grounded. That is to say, it was not impolite, in this scenario particularly, to be suspicious of the mentioned crew member, yet the suspicions should be geared towards something other than the insinuations that said crew member was involved with such cultural annoyances such as, say, hypothetically, hipsterism, and as this sentence d̶r̶a̶g̶g̶e̶d̶ drags on, Kai knew that his brain was fucked up. What made it worse was, actually, getting closer to the Tower. Using as aggressive a tone as he could summon at that point, doing his absolute best to avoid beating around the bush, knowing that, in fact, beating around such things as bushes tended to bog down text in an irksome and worrisome fashion, he holy shit he t̶u̶r̶n̶e̶d̶ turns back to the main “crew”.

“I'm not sure I'll be able to follow you in on this battle,” he says.

“Why not?” Jacob says then, genuinely concerned. (While he is concerned, Klaus and Mark look more annoyed.)

“Our target is, as Mark says, a Tower...but the Tower has a presence within it that, in this situation, is resulting in a defined complication of absolute magnitude in my psychiatric personality...” He breathes heavily, as if trying to force words out—which is what he's doing. “The Tower is making me demonstrateanotherpersonawhichisinturn...which is making me speak in...padding.”

“So,” Mina says. “You're having difficulty not using sesquipedalian loquaciousness, as the Internet calls it.”

“Yes, in theory. And...I feel an urge to...exposit, now, in a way which will no doubt serve to entangle, bamboozle, frustrate, and infuriate any degree of battle tactics that you may choose to utilize.” He pauses. “I can give one of you my magic guns, though.”

You in particular, having suffered from an APPLE all Your life, sympathizes with the Doctor's present vulnerability to trope magic. You hopes that, as a voodoo construct or whatever, Klaus isn't vulnerable to such things. In fact, he isn't, and is presently explaining such a thing to his brother.

Give the guns to the Beta-2 girl. I get the impression she and I may be able to communicate soon. I'm getting some emotive radiation from her and I like the cut of her jib.

Kai nods and hands two revolvers to Mina.

“For me? How sweet. I suppose this is your way of not coming across as a creepy interdimensional wizard.”

Klaus smiles.

“For your information, young lady, you literally have no occupational reason to harbor such ill will against one such as myself, given that is merely my nature to express malcontent at those who apply such unpleasantries as loud noises to me in times of crisis.”

“Relax,” she says with a grin. “I actually am glad to have this. It would have been handy...not that long ago.” Then she thinks. “Besides, in regards to the whole...mad at me randomly thing? I think all of our personalities are messing up now. Our...'characterization' as it were, is being glitched with because, as you say, something is messing up space and time and grammar—at least, we feel that way. And in any case...you've got a couple personalities in you, don't you, Doctor?”

Kai blinks then, and looks around as if suddenly nervous. Which is, as she's hinting, part of another persona inside him. “Yes.”

No one else is paying attention at this point.

“Because you're...part of a larger system of people? A duplicate made of someone else from across time. But...different from your kin. An ugly stepbrother.”

“Yes.”

“The Son of someone else. A hero...”

“The greatest hero. The enemy of the Second Enemy.”

“You fought him, as Sons always fight their Fathers...and your own Son killed you.”

“No. I was...killed by the Second Enemy. And...I became the Second Enemy. And because I was a duplicate of the Second Enemy, I was always him, but when he absorbed him I became him in a different way. And then my Father defeated him, as my Son defeated me.” He pauses. “This isn't a story that's meant to be told right now. It's the Second biggest story in the Multiverse, and telling it could...break things. It's a story with heavy words.”

“I understand.”

“How?”

She blinks, and as she does so something seems to change in her.

“I don't know.”

Doctor Kai at once senses a time trail coming from her, and tries to track it; but then his cerebral functions are overburdened with ultra-complicated systems of ceaseless permutation and infinite ire, so he can't pursue it in a proper manner.

All he knows is that he was strangely lucid during that conversation, and so was she. In fact, she was super-lucid, like she had some knowledge of something that went beyond her described experiences. But he can't figure that out for now—so he figures he might as well just destroy this Tower, regain his sanity (as much of it as he still has) and ponder it all later.

Mark had been complaining this whole time about not having a weapon, so Klaus slips him a knife. He had been hesitating for a while to give him the knife, not because he fears such a weapon in Mark's hand, but because he's Klaus and he thinks Mark spouting off is hilarious. He's been getting “emotive radiation” from Mark, too—except what he gets from him is utter bullshit.

Klaus isn't done doing things. He starts thinking over to Kai.

Brother, that time trail you sensed...

You sensed that I sensed the time trail?

Peripherally. I have followed it. And I believe certain measures will need to be taken for the safety of the party.

Kai didn't say anything aloud. If Klaus had meant for the others to know of this he would have said something.

Of course I would have said something, you non-German idiot. We must hurry if we are to initiate my plan; follow me.

Where are we going?

The House's crafts room.

Kai says nothing once again, on behalf of his brother, as the two men go off to do such a thing.