Ending Will Be Up Tomorrow

Dieselworld will conclude tomorrow.

It's been an awesome journey, and I'm glad that you were there to see it--even if you're reading this for the first time, long after the last entry is published. Please, tell other people about this, and please feel free to give me feedback yourself.

I'm told that there's just one more track for the soundtrack that needs to be recorded. When that's done, I'll post all of the remaining tracks to here and YouTube.

Plus, as you'll see, it's not all over. In the weeks following the final entry I'll be making some posts about some elements that fed into the story, which will include a hilariously shitty short story I wrote in middle school that became part of Mark's story. You will laugh, because I suck.

And the story itself may not be entirely over either.

Anyway. It's been a blast, you guys. Thank you. 

#130

The final battle has arrived.

Mary takes the initiative of explaining to Harold Coppola that She and Her friends intend on aiding him and his party in capturing Mark. Though concerned at first, a little mystic tampering ensures that they believe this is a good idea. The participants get into position; and once they're ready, Mark is released.

As Coppola and his landing party rig up their equipment, two “zombies” rush down to him.

Mark doesn't even recognize Susie anymore. If he did, he'd just believe she was another zombie and try to kill her, ignoring his feelings, and filled only with rage over the fact that someone had zombified her. His anger has been grounded as a universal constant. There's only one way to slow it down at all.

Susie and Mina drive him back, with the same streams of concussive light that the Old Man was wielding. He's almost surprised for a second before the shock is eaten away. Then, it's back to hateful screaming, which almost breaks Susie's heart. But we have to remember that Susie is somewhere else.

She's remembering Mary's words to her and Mina, when they were out on the Ocean of Dreams, fighting something symbolic. The voice was the gentlest she's ever heard.

“There are many things that Men cannot do that we can.”

This truth echoes as Susie's beams lock with Mark's. But Mina keeps shoving him back. They have to get him within the frame.

“There are experiences we possess which even the most creative of Men on this or any world cannot fathom. Pains beyond bearing; joys redefining ecstasy. And it is not just motherhood, for we are often contained to merely that. We are not simply sisters, mothers, daughters, or lovers. We are mages. We have Uncountable components secret even to the primary order of the Incomputare.”

And indeed, Susie Sanford and Mina Berkley are Incomputare, but they are the priestesses of the Grandest Ritual. They are the shapers of Life itself, now; for they are daughters of Ishtar, of Aphrodite, of Epona, of Sophia and Shekinah. They are the Daughters of the Fates and Norns, and for all their erect rages even the sons of Borr and Saturn and the Lords of the Underworld have no Fury like their scorn. For the Lady lurks in the pages of books and the pigments of the canvas, and has been with them since their youthful days. May Mark beware.

“Never forget the greatness of your friends, Susie, and never forget the strength of your cousin, Mina. But always remember that behind every great hero is a heroine. And there's often one ahead of him, too. Jacob, Mark, and You must all play their role in this tale, and they and others may end up seeming like the 'main characters' up ahead. But never forget this simple fact:

“Girls rule.”

It was through a man—You—that the world was remade in such a creative way. This new world of jungles and crystal. But the force would never have been in him at all if it were not for someone else.

The force is now battering Mark back. He doesn't stand a chance. And now, by magic, he's within the frame.

“Now!!”

Up on the hill, Coppola signals for his second-in-command to open the tube. She does so, and a stream of sticky concrete begins to splatter all over Mark.

He gives a cry of confusion as the stuff covers him; it slips through his Armor, sealing his mouth shut. The suggestiveness is the last irony he'll ever know. It's not concrete at all; it's actually a substance recovered from a very far distant world, which hardens upon a heavy impact, into a layer harder than steel. As it covers him, he's paralyzed, and they let it cover its own layers, so he's sealed in a sort of oblong shell.

The rectangular frame at his feet instantly generates a box of scarlet energy around him, fed from Coppola Station's massive tesseract reactor, which rivals any of the fuel cores the Empire has ever used. It will take a tremendous amount of energy to shatter such a field, and the frame also draws in potential energy from the air itself. Soon, it will take miracles to have any heat at all; the air inside will become liquid within hours. But hours won't be needed, much less given.

Mark still has his innate abilities, including telekinesis. Though the decreased available energy prevents him from blowing apart the monolith he's sealed inside, he can crack it. He can't bring his Armor with him anyway, for the “concrete”, although it cannot bind with the Armor itself, has bound to the natural level of bacteria on the Armor's surface. It can't get out unless Coppola wills it.

But Mark turns himself to blood, and through the deafening crack he does smash his casing open, and he begins to flow out. This has been anticipated. Though he has very little room, he reforms into his humanoid form—which carries his soul with it. He is now isolated from his Armor, in a way that doesn't violate the spells that bind him to it. He's still hairless, and his face is still twisted with a predictable emotion. The area around him still crackle with fuel-lightning.

“Now!!” they shout again, and the field drops. You steps in front of Mina and Susie, and raises Your hands.

You is possessed by Madame Levingt, as She doesn't want to try the voodoo doll trick again—there's no need for You to die now. Though You will learn to use the fuel-armor again in time, even with Your soul, there isn't time to pick it up, and so She has to act. Plus, She has greater knowledge of what the fuel can do than anybody. So as Mark charges, She begins to fire a chilling beam of the fluid.

This type of fuel acts in such way, with such icy frost, that it penetrates even in Mark's higher-dimensional brain tissues—for the fuel itself is multi-dimensional. They need to stop his brain in order to have him enter stasis. And so as his body freezes, he finds himself losing his ability to think. His hot anger, both preexisting and in reaction to this, buys him a bit more time, but soon it is too late.

The fuel hardens into crystals, and soon Mark stops both moving and thinking. The Moonchild has been captured.

Coppola and the others seem hesitant to approach him, and with good reason. But Madame Levingt climbs down and stands next to him, showing that it's safe.

“By Gekkos...” he whispers. “Is he dead?”

“No,” She says with a smile.

“Good, good...” Coppola seems aghast, once more with good reason. “And you have reason to believe these crystals won't defrost unless exposed to several hundred degrees?”

“Just keep him refrigerated well and it will be difficult for him to escape.” Of course, it was more complicated than that, but She'd be helping them out, till the critical moment.

“Very well. We can transport his Armor and its...container, using the frame.” He pauses. “Thank you for your help.”

“No problem! It's like I think I told you. We're fellow explorers. Anything that'll help you will probably help us.” Her smile widens.

Susie relaxes her powers, and Mina does as well. This causes Jacob and You to feel safe coming near them. And as the crew of Coppola Station loads up Mark and his Armor, they begin to talk.

“That was incredible,” You says. You doesn't know what else to say, because it's a true statement on Your behalf.

“Glad you liked it,” Susie replies. She seems out of breath, but it's only a pretense.

There is a pause, but it's not born out any one thing in particular. It's the start of something that they've all wanted for a very long time.

The scene goes through a transition, to something mercifully slower.

“So you...have that...power, from now on? To use magic?” Jacob asks.

“It'll take practice. And I probably won't use it often. Yorick can use the fuel like he did, too, from now on.”

You is only tangentially aware of Your part in it all; but regardless Your part was objectively a good one.

“If he wears the armor, right?”

“Yes. Which I don't think he'll need anymore.”

Sure enough, the regeneration circuits Mary Levingt placed in Your armor have done the job. You has made a full recovery from death; there are barely even any scars. But of course, throughout it all, there has been a great cost on all of them. An invisible one.

They talk briefly about how Susie and Mina were chosen to carry magic into this world when they crossed the Dream Ocean, and what that necessarily means for the days ahead, now that the world has been terraformed—a fact which now almost seems to be an afterthought. They say that She called this changed Earth a “fantasy world”, where any number of new adventures can be had. But as they explain this, there's a crack in their voices, suddenly. And they and the two men begin crying.

They cry in sadness, for Amos, for Aurel, for Lex and Marcel, and for Mark. There's sadness for everyone who died when Earth-Beta-2 was destroyed, and even for those from Earth-Beta-4, whom they never even met.

They cry in anger, against Inspector Fox, against the Emperor, and against the stubbornness of Klaus and Doctor Kai, and everything in between. They allow the anger to burn them, as it burned Mark, and they feel it course through them over matters both silly and horrific.

They cry in fear, for all the times that they could've died and for the time they did, and for when it looked like they had lost everything and seemed like they would have to go on alone. Fear overtakes them for the vastness and cold emptiness of the afterlife, and the wriggling limbs of things they saw at the edges of space and time.

They cry in joy, for the fact that they're all still beautifully alive; and for the fact that now they know it's over, and there's no more confusion, and they can just go on living, which is all they ever wanted.

Jacob holds Mina, and You holds Susie, but as they all just cry together, they all come together and hold each other. For they've just needed each other all this time, and now things can start off on a better note.

It's finally over. The saga ends, and it's time for the heroes to go to whatever home they have.

#129

The Old Man senses what's coming and blinds Mark with a flash of light. At the back of hir mind, ze issues the thousandth apology to him, for what is coming. When the flash is gone, the Old Man is gone; and in hir place, a young fellow, dressed in clothes strange to You and Susie, can be seen.

Moments later, there is a flash of light to the group's left. Two men and a woman have apparently just teleported down...or something. Once again, there's more confusion. But one of the men is very old, and instantly they can recognize him as Harold Coppola.

The new figure who was once the Old Man approaches them. “Hey, man!” he shouts out, as he's running. The trio seem weirded out by his presence.

“Dude!” He seems to pretend to be out of breath. “Are you guys, like, the Children of the Moon? Man! When I ended up here I thought it musta been you guys...”

“Um, I'm sorry...sir,” the woman says, her expression reflecting her feeling of oddity. “We're not, uh, Moonchildren. We're just explorers. Now, how did you get here?”

The young man just grins stupidly, but it's a false smile.

“You look very familiar,” Harold Coppola says then. “Very familiar indeed. You remind me very much of a figure I almost knew once—Zay Arkmoor. I don't know why I see such an uncanny resemblance, however.”

“The name is Zay Arkmoor, dude. The Satanist Detective! That's what my chums call me, at least, these days.”

“Great Cyaegha!” Coppola cries. “Mister Arkmoor! How did you come to be here?”

“Look, I really don't know, man. But listen. It's gotta be the Moonchildren what brought me here. I know it! It's just one of those feelings, y'know? Hey!” He points over at Mark, who is, in fact, fooled by the disguise—and held passive, by Madame Levingt. “Maybe he's a Moonchild? You think?”

The group takes out a device which Jacob instantly realizes is a dead ringer for the tricorder from TOS. In fact, it seems to have been designed specifically for that resemblance. In his mind, he feels himself begins to call the other man “Spock” and the woman “Bones”, though he figures he'll never be formally introduced to them.

Mina picks up on the reference too, but she doesn't care for it; she keeps glancing over at Mark, who is only barely being held back. He seems to be twitching profusely.

“He does seem to emit the sort of energies you've estimated, Master,” “Spock” says. “Should we initiate capture protocol?”

Coppola strokes his wrinkled chin for some time, just staring at Mark. Then he sighs. “Yes, I believe so,” he says gently.

The young figure seems to smile at this, and then turns and walks away.

“Are they going to...contain him, then?” Susie says weakly. “Is it going to happen?”

“They won't do all the work,” the young man says. “I think we have a role in it too.”

“What?” Her voice isn't holding up. “I refuse to help. I want to just hide in The House and wait until it's all over. Am I allowed to do that?”

“No,” he says simply.

“Why the fuck not?!”

“Because if I remove this disguise and use my powers, they'll know I'm not merely Zay Arkmoor. They'll see me as a Moonchild and...'canonically', Mark is the only Moonchild they've met. But you and Mina will carry out a special task for Mary. You will have to do something as well, at the end.”

“What am I doing?” Jacob asks.

The young man's face doesn't show any particular feeling as he says, “I'm not sure. Perhaps nothing.”

Beat.

“...what.”

“Sadly, I do not know if you really serve a purpose at this point. But there is a certain energy about you that I know is important. Unfortunately, I can't explain it right now.”

“Welp.”

“Indeed.”

The landing party is making preparations. Jacob sighs heavily, and Zay ignores him, taking the rest of the group aside.

(Permission for photo used granted by alexkon)

#128

They're now standing outside McGee Manor. Mark has no more targets to attack, but his rampage hasn't ceased. Faint thoughts of how he looks right now and opinions on popular literature are intercut with the desire to exterminate all living things in existence. In the future, he senses a battle with an adversary that defeats him, but he doesn't care. All zombies must be destroyed.

Including those ones standing outside a familiar-looking House.

He screams, just an inarticulate cry, but the Old Man raises hir hand. “Mark!”

The savage roar stops instantly. The voice seems familiar. That not-quite-man not-quite-woman voice.

“Do you remember me?”

“I remember you, queer.” The Old Man is not offended, because ze self-describes as queer. Of course ze does, ze's a pansexual intersexed individual. But the intent, from Mark, is that of appropriation and hate. Presumably where that came from, there are also ideas of nonchalance towards pilfering other races as well.

Mina, Jacob, You, and Susie see that Mark's Armor has solidified. It matches that of the sketch of the Old Man from the Fennec Gang notebook. Ornate, and intercut with shifting patterns, symmetrical and orderly; but impossible to fully conceive. And it glows with that faint greenness that isn't quite green; it's more of a color beyond the human-visible spectrum. He looks like an ancient magical knight, which is frankly what he really is.

Jacob leans in to the Old Man, who is now merely facing tension on Mark's behalf. “Can't you destroy his body without having to get the past the Armor? Burn him apart via the eye-holes or something?” He feels bad even thinking that, knowing that maybe this man could have once been his friend. And Susie is his friend, and a good friend of his cousin, so when he gets his answer—or sees the result—he has to go comfort her, or face his own guilt.

“The Moonchild's soul is irrevocably bound to his, her, or hir Armor. That soul can continue to animate the Armor even in the face of total incineration. The body will eventually regenerate, and the energy required to split a Child's soul from the Armor is beyond the limit of a singular universe.”

“So we'd all be dead if you pried his soul away from it?”

“Yes.”

Jacob then leans back, and stands close to Susie. Her face is red, but the tears seem to be stopping now.

“I said I remember you, you piece of shit!” Mark shouts.

“And am I supposed to find your memory impressive?” the Old Man shouts back.

Mark doesn't vocalize, and before the group can even finish blinking he unleashes a wave of totally white light onto them. Madame Levingt gets a force-screen up even as they think they're going to die. They see the light break at a wedge and flow around them, incinerating the already-charred rubble of the surrounding city.

The Old Man is caught in the blast, but ze doesn't care. Hir robes are burnt off, however, and beneath is hir own Armor. And Mark sees this.

At first, he's confused. But then, he slowly realizes that that's why ze insisted on wearing totally covered robes; he would know that the Old Man stole his Armor.

For as the Old Man mentions, Armor-theft is the ultimate blasphemy amongst Moonchildren. And Mark knows that that's his Armor; it may have traveled through time to get here, but it's his and no one else's.

It's just another inarticulate scream as he launches a wall of the destructive light at the Old Man.

But ze is not unprepared. Ze is an Incomputare, and while such sorcerers know that magic is subtle, it can take on another guise when needed. And so it is that ze brings up another wall, to drive back Mark's.

The walls interlock and are at a stalemate. It's the first time in centuries that the Old Man has had a true mystic challenge; and so beneath hir Armor, ze begins to sweat. But ze knows ze will win. And ze knows that Mark will sweat more. That's encouragement enough, and hir raw Will holds the line.

In 2070, a pulse from the duel destroys Venus-20181, and the ripples from such a blast destroy the Earth of that universe, and all adjacent planets. Only two members of McGee and O'Grady's Boston Group survive to represent humanity...

All words are robbed from You, from Mina, from Susie, from Jacob, and even from Doctor Kai and Klaus. There's nothing that can be done to even begin describing this. But instead of merely having their senses assailed, they can all feel the emotions that course through these displays of magic. They all know at once that they're witnessing something that they only could dream of as children; and as bitterly terrible as this all is, this rising sense of total destruction, they feel the control in it, and they are all children again. Because magic is changing, and inspiring; and they haven't lost their own magic, they've merely forgotten it.

This is battle, and it's brutal and horrible, but still very much, at its core, beautiful.

The Old Man decides to resist brute force for once and drive spikes into Mark's wall. With grips formed in it, ze reaches and Red Seas the thing, creating a horizontal pulse outward. Both ze and Mark scream out from the effort, but it's the Old Man who gets in the first new strike. An undulating tentacle of that raw light strikes towards the younger figure. Mark responds with a similar casting, and the two strike at a midpoint. After that, it's just another pushing game. But they're almost the same being—they're evenly matched. The only difference is that of who is in the Armor.

Behind all this, subtler things are happening. A psychic duel is taking place, and one would think Mark's insanity would give him the advantage. But that's underestimating things. The Old Man has known every altered state of consciousness available to humanity. Ze's just as crazy as he is.

And other subtle things take place, though in a much simpler way. They're subtle in that they happen to be taking place behind the assembled crowd. Coppola Station is appearing in the skies, having noted their particular redness, and how said redness indicates a magical duel.

Aboard the massive ship's bridge, Harold Coppola peers through his glasses, with the slight regret of his growing age. But he's never seen a battle like this before; and soon all these years adrift may finally be justified. He just knows he has to be careful.

“Ready a landing party,” he says quietly, in his grandfatherly voice.

#127

“You'll be safe in here,” Madame Levingt says. But in Your armor, You can see that phrase appear: “Madame Levingt says”. And Your APPLE instantly tells You that that sentence doesn't communicate the truth.

“I know that that's not your real name,” You says.

“What?”

“Your name isn't Madame Levingt or Mary Levingt.”

“The name is real, because I call myself by it.”

“You have a truer name, though, don't you? Something with three letters, starting with a G...”

There's a pause, as there have always been pauses throughout this narrative. In those pauses, You senses a tingle of grammar that might seems to be recycling itself. They're repetitive elements in a story that will be looped over and over again; the future selves of the people in this House are watching this all happen, and will travel back in time to make it happen, so they can do it all again...

“That is one of my aspects,” she says. “But in reality, I'm much more than even that.”

“How?”

“I can't explain right now. There's more important exposition.”

“God damn it!” You suddenly shouts. You's at Your breaking point. This quest has worn on You too much without catharsis. It needs to end soon or You'll go insane. That's not even hyperbole; You can't sense hyperbole, at least. “We're caught in a tug of war between a bunch of Gods and nothing makes any sense! Did you ever consider that we, as human fucking beings, can't deal with time and space being fucked up?! What sort of selfish end is all of this even fucking leading to anyway?”

“You...”

“No, be quiet!”

Mina grabs Your arm and tries to get You to stop. “I trusted you for a little while!” You continues. “But I guess that was a different aspect or something, not the feminine aspect of the cosmos or something...”

“I'm always the feminine aspect of the cosmos, You.” Her voice is kind, but You can sense She's just barely restraining Her Wrath. “That's what I am.”

“And whose Madame Levingt, then?”

“She serves her purposes.”

“No! Tell me right...”

“You...”

“...now.”

Susie helps Mina pull You back as suddenly Shekinah is towering over the group. Her features change to bitter vengeance, darkness tinged with mind-warping beauty; and unseen, a flicker of recognition enters Lefty Sinister's eyes.

“L.?” he asks.

And suddenly, She goes back to normal. She gasps.

“Sinister?” she says then.

“Libertas?” he whispers.

She becomes Libertas, then, and walks towards him. “I haven't seen you in ages, Sinister...I-I didn't even know that you were here. I guess I glanced over you...”

“Heh. Not surprising.”

“Are you still bitter?” Her voice is sad. It's totally different from that of any form the group has seen Her in. “Lefty, I...”

“Look, who was the other guy?”

“What?”

“The other guy. The guy you ditched me for.”

“Lefty, is that what you think...?” Her words catch a little bit. “You're the only one I ever loved, Sinister.”

“Yeah, and you were the same fer me. I woulda thought that meant somethin'.”

“Lefty...I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but...I'm God. I'm Shekinah. I don't fall in love unless I'm in a very certain form. You loved freedom so much that you called me to your side.”

He looks bitter, but they may be a pretense. He doesn't speak for a very, very long time.

“Didja miss me in that time, though? That's my second question.”

“Of course I missed you, dummy! But I have so many forms to be in, and I always questioned myself. It's not right for me of all beings to fall in love with a man. It's not done.”

“I bet I chained yah up, didn't I. Spoiled things for yah.”

“No! I was never defined by you, I mean. I was always the one in control. You respected that.”

“Heh.”

Another pause.

“Would you like me to get you your leg back?”

“No! I never want favors from yah. I always knew that wasn't right for me to ask.”

“I'm offering. I have that right, to offer.”

“That's true. Well, I'm grown fond of having a wooden leg. Symbolic of something? A nice reference? I don't know. I'm sure someone important who rather looks like me, so to put it, has had a wooden leg...”

“Very well. But hey, I have to talk later, okay? I will talk to you later. I just have to settle some things for now.”

“Okay. I understand.”

“I know you do. I read your mind, remember? And if you were lying, I'd smite you right away.” She grins, and he does too. “But thanks.”

The Old Man doesn't say anything, knowing ze too could be smote. But ze knows that She knows that the matter at hand is pressing.

“The Moonchild outside must be stopped,” ze says.

“You mean Mark?” Susie interjects.

“I'm sorry, Miss Sanford, but he's no longer Mark. It's not as if he's taken the identity of the Moonchild; it's that he was born the Moonchild, and was raised as Mark. He was the mystic son of Kurq'wes, who was in turn one of the children of Inspector Fox. And as You knows, the Emperor Kai was also a Son of Fox. Thus, You and Mark are cousins.”

“...what?” Her face is twisted with concern.

“Spiritual cousins. Nothing biological.”

 “Oh. Well, that just makes it all better then, doesn't it?”

“Who's Kurq'wes?” Jacob asks, sort of already knowing.

“Kurq'wes was born Robert Kirk,” begins the Old Man. Shekinah steps back, allowing hir to explain; for after all, this is a matter of hir past. “When the Sons of Fox chose their lives, he decided to be a Scottish clergyman. In his life, he gained a great interest in faeries, something also pursued by Puck, one of Fox's other Sons. He abandoned Christianity to begin the study of magic, and in doing so became a powerful sorcerer. An Incomputare. When Fox began chasing his Sons across time to absorb their powers into himself, he went on a journey only attempted by one other, and in doing so encountered several beings which changed him into something more than human, beyond even Incomputare.”

“What quest was that?” questions Mina.

“I cannot say, for it is hidden by the very nature of the Incomputare—a story in itself, and one long in the telling. Robert Kirk eventually broke free from being Fox's Son. He became Kurq'wes, a name of unknowable significance. Though he appears to be a skull-faced humanoid, his true form is incomprehensible to beings even of my stature. He is a rogue element in this tale, as he created Mark, who we believe was initially never supposed to enter the story. Though the appearance of a Moonchild like Mark in my life at this stage is inevitable. Mark just happens to be the one who satisfies the end that my past self eventually had to face.

“We cannot know in rational terms what Kurq'wes desired when he created Mark. Perhaps he merely enjoys the chaos that arises from Mark's current actions. Or maybe he plays into my personal destiny more than I know. That investigation is still ongoing. But in any case, my story must be told in order to explain what is about to happen. I was born on Earth-Alpha as an ordinary human. I grew up in the 1960s, and was a hippie, which may be a phrase that You and Susie don't recognize, as American and indeed Western history is not actively taught here, due to the obvious presence of the Empire. I was a rather foolish young man, but I had the libertine spark that I still carry with me today. I was a teenage occultist, and had many adventures with a group of...well, no matter how much context I give you, I'll never be able to properly explain it, so sadly this story will be but a pointless background reference. All I can say is that in the early 1970s I was badly injured—killed, in fact. And that was when I met Harold Coppola—an Incomputare who had abandoned magic to become the Administrator of a space station.

“Coppola had, when I was just a boy, gone mad, and traveled into The Unscene in search of a being which he believed could destroy the Ultra, whom Jacob knows as the architects of the Multiverse. He was a sort of anarchist in that respect, not unlike myself. He was fascinated with me as a historical figure, and the two of us shared a homeworld in Earth-Alpha. At one point he acquired my remains, and using a certain process which I'll neglect to describe here, he restored me to life.

“Before he had added me to his collection, however, Administrator Coppola had also captured a certain mystical being. One who had had a particular sort of garb that he believed was meant to be the chassis of the creature he sought to use to destroy the Ultra.”

“He captured Mark?” Susie interrupts. “Does that mean that this is all...about to happen? These events?”

“He did; and they are,” the Old Man says simply. “And if I am to be here, nothing can be done about it. I will offer my apologies in due time. But please, I ask you to restrain your anger, because time is running out, and I need to finish explaining. Coppola had come to guess that the perfect being he sought for his plan could never exist in Nature, and so he had to create it. So he decided to acquire a Moonchild. But Mark was, or will be, too unstable. He needed someone experienced with the occult, of certain youthfulness, whom he could fuse with the Moonchild's Armor, which it had been separated from. So he forced me to volunteer.

“Needless to say the experiment was a success. I was fused with the Armor, but Mark became active. He sensed that someone had stolen his Armor, which is the primal crime for a Moonchild. Nothing could contain him after that, and...”

“...you were forced to kill him?” Susie says breathlessly.

The Old Man says nothing.

“You killed him.”

“I did. I'm sorry, Susie. This is the past. I will not have a choice. My powers have helped Mary guide this all along, and if I cease to exist by failing to aid Coppola capture Mark, so that I may take his Armor and thus become the Moonchild myself, as I am now, the timeline will be altered. You will all probably be dead by this point. The Empire may succeed, and annihilate the Multiverse.”

“This isn't fair!” You suddenly feels bad, realizing what Mark's whole life has been. As tears begin to drip down Susie's face, everyone feels the grip of pity. She's just realizing now that in spite of everything, including the brief time they've known each other, she's come to know him in a way that makes her feel strange.

“I know, child.” And hir voice actually gains emotion now. But You knows this is all scripted. The feelings aren't real. “Coppola will come, and I will help restrain Mark. Please, think of all that has been lost to the Emperor, and to Inspector Fox. All of that loss will be in vain if my present form is not allowed to manifest!”

Jacob still feels empathy for the crying girl. But he knows that answers still have to be sought, if this is inevitable. Maybe he can improvise a way out later, who knows.

“Why is Mark going mad out there? Aside from all the power he's absorbed, I guess?” Jacob is speaking, and his voice is trying to stabilize the situation.

“Kurq'wes and others—sadly, myself including—have tampered with his mind. Used him to push forward these events. There are several sides to Mark now, all subtly different. Initially, he was a homophobic and close-minded culture snob. I changed him to suit my purposes, so he would be a champion against the Empire, and an apprentice sorcerer. This fate was taken away when Kurq'wes tried to get him to evolve further, which resulted in the creation of The Thicket. He eventually stabilized into a generally kind person, a fourth personality. These personalities were kept from conflicting until Fox attempted to steal his body. As aspects of Fox's persona overrode Mark's, it was a dagger stabbing into his psyche, and now those personalities are in conflict. The close-minded hatred he feels for zombies, conditioned into him for irony purposes, is now being fused with hallucinations brought on by his brain attempting to balance itself. He truly believes all life in this universe, save himself, is composed of that which he hates.

“And his mind has evolved. No spell of mine or even Mary's can override this madness. He is doomed, and for that, I sincerely apologize.”

“How can you say sorry?” Susie asks. “How can you 'apologize' for helping some monster use a man as a tool for his entire life?”

Once more, the Old Man does not respond.

“The intense magical energies spreading into this universe are attracting Harold Coppola,” Doctor Kai says, breaking his long silence. “It's time.”

The Old Man and Mary begin to walk towards the door. Following them, now, seems to be the only option.

#126

You and Susie hear a familiar cry up ahead. It's Mina, but they can't tell what feelings are in the shout. They instantly start running towards the sound, knowing Jacob is with her.

What surprises them then is that Klaus is with them too. He must have gone all the way around instead of directly towards You. His face lights up when he sees You, and though You has gone back to wearing the faceplate, You's also smiling.

However, Your armor is detecting a high source of fuel nearby. It doesn't take long for You to notice it, because it happens to be a twenty foot tall giant wearing a white variation of a Crimson Guard's outfit. This is a White Guard, the final elite in the now-dwindling age of Imperial politics.

Mina is shooting at it with her revolvers, but it's doing so little; the tiny spots of blood that are opened up by the shots are nothing more than mosquito bites to this titan. It's just been lumbering around, having lost contact with the Blue Tower, but now that it's being attacked it's going into a programmed self-defense mode.

Though this knowledge will never be known to the group, White Guards are giant clones made of the Emperor enhanced with Crimson Guard circuitry, following an assimilation process carried out by the medical cyborgs. They are the giants that Mark saw being transported in the Blue Tower, naturally, and they wield the enormous pronged staffs that he found so unsettling as their weapons. Right now, that staff is being uncertainly aimed at Susie and You. You detects a massive fuel source being cradled within the staff, and it's presently being charged.

The two barely hit the ground when a screaming burst of electricity flies over their heads. There's an explosion, however, which blows the pair to the side.

You rolls over and finds Yourself staring up at the sun. It's turned red, and indeed clouds are massing as they did over Imperial Central. It is here that You encounters something that You'll never know the truth behind; Mark is warping this sky. His presence on this Earth, without containment, is dragging the planet into a magical maelstrom that could wipe out its life. Which is something Mark is suddenly finding himself wanting to do.

“Get up!”

Susie grabs You and yanks You upward; the Guard is getting ready to fire again.

“Use Your fuel thing!”

“My what?”

“Shoot that blazing fuel out of Your hands, or whatever it is You does!”

You can't, and You knows You can't. You tries to communicate this, but You has to jump aside again as another pulse of force narrowly misses You.

You stands again, and as the red skies become more and more noticeable, You begins to lose hope, and assume that without Your laser pike, or Susie's Tommy gun, this thing could be unbeatable.

Of course, the Tommy gun isn't that far away. There's the sound of echoing thunder just as a whole string of those tiny chicken pocks opens on its right side.

“Come on, yah idiots!” Lefty Sinister shouts. “I don't even know why I'm payin' kind to you chumps, but I've got somethin' cooking in my brain.”

Then he fires again. The clone gives a bestial roar and starts charging after him. Apparently lots of gunshots are enough to piss it off, but not those generated by the rate of fire of a pair of revolvers.

Lefty keeps firing in bursts as the thing comes towards him. It must be dumber than it looks, he realizes. It has a ranged weapon in its fuckin' hand and it's not even usin' it. But that's okay, because he's leading him towards the other big idiot.

Mark has begun to realize why he's so full of hatred for these scattering hordes of rebels and Crimsons running about. He indicates this by screaming, which is now, aside from massive bursts of force, his primary form of communication.

“GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU ZOMBIES!!!” he shouts, as he destroys a group of Allegiance members. He's not discriminatory, though, as he shouts the same thing again as he blows some Crimson Guards to paste and grue.

Lefty overhears this, of course, and decides to use it to his advantage. He keeps a safe distance from the marauding hipster as he draws the White Guard within range. Not like Mark really has a range, but still.

“Hey, ugly!” he shouts, and Mark pauses to look at him. “Here's a big zombie for yah!” He could've said something more creative, he realizes, but he's working and he always directs more physical energy into his work than verbal.

Mark gives a cry of rage and wastes no time firing his blast at the Guard. It barely registers what's happening as the upper half of its body is cremated. Charred ashes that were once a spine settle onto Lefty's ducking body, as he had jumped away at the last second.

The party stands at the top of the collapsed building looking down on this scene. It's impressive, to be sure, but it once again reminds them that they have no way of dealing with Mark at this time.

However, it is here that The House removes its disruption aura. It had never moved, as the Old Man had suddenly remembered that The House had miraculously appeared not far from the party. That is to say, it had reappeared where it had landed to begin with. Thus yet another piece of pointless non-story has taken place, to conform with equally pointless time travel bullshit. Of course, because of time travel, the pointlessness was always required to happen, despite serving, of course, no goal or aspiration of anyone ever in any way, shape, or form.

“Get inside, young ones,” the Old Man says condescendingly. It's here that the group first takes notice of hir, and allows themselves each some private irk.

But clearly this individual knows what ze's doing, so they have to take a chance, and go in.

#125

Inspector Fox sees his hand seize uncontrollably in front of him. It's like a dying spider. His spine rattles and shakes and fizzes with agonizing brightness. A million tenth-dimensional thoughts blaze through his brain as he struggles to dissociate himself from that possession attempt. Never again, he figures. Then he senses, in a diseased hipster way, that that thought's ironic.

He looks up, still on his back in the crater. Mark still rages nearby, but he's below his notice. But there are two figures standing over him. Mark and...Lefty Sinister.

But Sinister couldn't stand, not with Mack Greasy ripping his leg off. It's a fight to get his eyes to focus under the sun, which is now blood red for some reason, but at last he notices that Lefty's grabbed a wooden pole and has made himself a new leg with it. He's holding something, which Fox instantly recognizes as a weapon. One of the party's weapons; Moonchild's messing everything up, so he only gets its trope impression. What could it be...? Laser pike? Magic revolver...?

No, of course not. It's something Lefty's familiar with.

Fox gasps, and the sound comes out with a gurgle.

“No!!”

“Buenas noches, Inspector.”

It's only twenty shots, but the echoes in the ruined city makes it sound like more. Even above the Moonchild screams.

Lefty smiles as he looks down at the very mortal mess. He's gonna hang onto this baby; oughta really come in handy. For now, though, it's goin'-on-the-lam time.

#124

“Susie, please,” You begs. “I can't run. I-I'm torn apart; I can't breathe...”

“Okay, we can stop,” she says. “But not for long. I don't know what he'll do now, but his mind is...messed up.”

They're on top of a hill that was once a whole block, with a cathedral. Mother Nature moves very quickly, even in these scenarios. A single giant quartz chunk is beside them.

“Oh, did you get to be a mind-reader when I was gone?” You wheezes. “Or were you telling that from him screaming and blowing everything up...?”

“You, be quiet. I know You doesn't like him, but we need to get away for now, then calm him down, or...or...”

“You don't know what you're doing.”

“No.”

“But that's okay, neither do I. What do you want out of...of all this?”

“I should help Mark.” It doesn't take her long to realize that. “But he's not up for talking at this stage...”

“I think he's past talking in general.”

“Look, You. I know You doesn't like Mark, but...”

“You said that already. You've said it a hundred times already, but that's not the point. I have a different reason for saying this. My armor is uplinked with the fuel, and presently he's...well, I think something made him turn into this creature early. He grew up too fast. Or maybe he was intended to be 'changed' at this particular stage all along, I don't know. I don't know anything anymore after all we've been through. But the fuel was used to turn him into that thing, Susie. And so whatever's in him is magic—I can just sort of know that it's magic, because of what that Old Man said, and I don't ze's lying—but he's getting even more power from the fuel.

“I can sense parts of him, Susie, and I don't comprehend parts of it and I don't intend on comprehending it, because he's not human anymore; but I know that he's gone mad. Irrevocably mad, the sort of madness you just can't...I'm sorry, but...”

You lets Yourself trail off. And for a very long time, there is quiet.

“No, I trust You.”

You sighs. He's still choking on a number of things. “You do?”

“Yeah. Because You's my friend, and that's something I can put trust into.”

“I don't think 'trust' is quite the word you're searching for...”

“Shush. I know the word, and I know Your APPLE knows the word. I'm just not saying it because it's been said too many times.”

You smiles. And Susie smiles too.

“C'mon,” she says. “We do have to do something about it all, but first I'm finding Mina and Jacob. They ran past us, and we have to make sure they're alright.”

“Fox is still down there, you know.”

“I know, but he's not doing well. I saw, when I wasn't looking at...everything else.”

“Alright. Yeah.” You looks back. Mark is still raging. At the edge of Your vision, You sees The House and everyone enter it, but the sight of it doesn't solidify totally. You looks away, and it's gone.

This doesn't seem the right plan of action, but...yeah, trust, and all that.

#123

The group, Lefty, and Fox lands in a crater in Troy Novantum, which is in the process of being conquered by the Empire. The European Allegiance is tired from decades of war, and so here they are losing. But, miles away, the last of three central command computers has ceased transmitting to the assembled Crimson and White Guards, who are now panicking and relying on faulty backup programming. Similar, the terrain has shifted, with a number of large quartz crystals emerging everywhere. The old city is broken apart, but these fractures benefit the resistance. All around the travelers, the fighting commences again.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!” Mark keeps shrieking. “LEAVE ME ALONE!!”

“Mark!” Susie shouts. Her head is still messed up from prolonged exposure to the plot-warp field, but she's the least affected of all. “Mark, calm down...”

He's ignoring her, just as everyone else is now ignoring Fox.

“Wha...” Fox moans. “Feel so sick...what happened...?” His fox-head, for the first time in years, feels weird. His power is both ebbing and waxing, and thus evades his control. He nearly vomits, but he strains to look up at the too-bright field of power around Mark.

“A-a Moonchild?” he whispers then. At first, he feels nothing for this.

Then, an endless greed fills him, supplanting his desire for order. It's a greed he's buried all along. “MINE!”

Using a spell taught to him by Kul'ul, he lunges forth from his body as pure essence. Desperate to become one with this omnipotent being, to regain even a portion of his power, he enters Mark's brain and immediately attempts to erase Mark's identity. He seeks to become the Moonchild.

And this is when Mark goes totally insane. There are reasons behind this, which shall be explained shortly.

There is a pause.

Then, with an obligatory “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!” he raises his hand towards a building and fires from his palm a burst containing the fury of a star. Everything in the path of such a beam is decimated on an atomic level. The beam cracks the speed of light and bends space and time around it. It travels to the edge of the universe in seconds, and annihilates at least one planet. Somewhere, a star begins to go nova.

This is the Moonchild. Mark is magic now, and in reaction to his manifestation, The House begins its flight to England. Under the power of Shekinah, it arrives in seconds, and its four passengers climb out.

“Blast,” says the Old Man.

Mark has begun his near-final stage of transformation, as he begins to sweat ectoplasm.

“Is it happening, Master?” Doctor Kai says.

“Indeed it is. The Moonchild is generating his Armor. That ectoplasm will sheathe his body and then harden into an unbreakable substance.” Hir narration is directed at the party as well.

You sits up, suddenly invigorated, for the purposes of the four. “You...” You mutters weakly. You's not entirely invigorated, but You's made aware of the four and is given enough energy to address them. “You're the Old Man. I saw you in the Fennec Gang's journal...”

“Yes, I created the Fennecs, somewhere along the way. I'm glad You recognizes me. Some of us may have met, but given the tempest we've faced lately you may not remember.”

Jacob, Mina, Susie, and Lefty indeed don't remember.

“At this stage in the Moonchild's life—the stage of trauma, or else near-omniscience of the inherent abilities of the self—he, she, ze, it, or they become invincible. Nothing can shatter the Child's ectoplasmic Armor; not even the combined energies of three universes.”

Ze's about to elaborate further when Mark fires another beam of energy. Mark is turning now; turning towards the group. Susie feels concern for him, but she also feels fear. She can't look too closely at him, because there's a terrible feeling rising in her. The concern and the fear are blending to become something...uncanny. And she doesn't want to indulge such an attribute, even in him. So once again, even as she's buffeted by a long-standing desire to just give in, she buries her feelings.

She grabs You's hand, and the two beginning running.

“Susie, wait!” You cries out.

“Yeah! Wait!” Mina calls after her. “You may be the only one who can negotiate with him...”

But suddenly, she understands, because they've all been holding back a lot. She looks at Jacob, who is like You; manifesting his mental collapse in the form of giving up. She grabs onto him and begins to carry him away as well. They do need a rest and there's no time to consider logic. He protests, but only because he feels he has to.

“They have a point,” the Old Man says. “I really shouldn't be here. Mary, let's get out of here, for now...”

“Wait!” It's Doctor Kai. “We're not just pacifying him to begin with?”

“No,” Mary replies. “Things must follow the way we remember it. So we said this now, and we said what we said then, then. And the kids ran away, too. That's how it happened.”

Kai says nothing else, and turns back to face The House; but Klaus has already bolted. Klaus is good at moving fast when no one's looking, as has been seen. “Shit.”

“What?”

“Did Klaus escape, too? In your memories?”

“Of course,” the Old Man says. “Your brother's place is at You's side, as always. He is concerned about the boy.”

Kai says nothing else, and begins to sweat (though he doesn't sweat ectoplasm). Mark does not notice them as they go back to The House. He's occupied, even though his powers should allow him to notice all things at once in this universe. He's throwing Inspector Fox free from his body, back into his own.

“Master?” Kai says when they're away from the noise, and heading off to where they're needed next in the story. “What if we're altering things away from your...original memories? What if you just remember it as this because we're changing it to suit your...past-future selves?”

The Old Man laughs. “Have faith, Doctor!” ze says. “It worked for the girls. She has got things under control, because She can keep certain things objective.”

Doctor Kai glances at Shekinah, who is smiling behind Mary's voodoo eyes. “Is that a thing?”

“Of course, darling! What sort of Goddess Almighty would I be without the ability to keep some things orderly around here?”

The Doctor decides to only nod; or maybe She makes him nod, he doesn't know. Ze's right though.

Faith is okay in these circumstances.

#122

It's happening too fast, but even in what time there is, the two most important parties of this stage can act.

Madame Levingt, or Shekinah, or Asherah, Libertas, Venus, or Columbia releases You's soul from Your voodoo doll. This is the sum of the crafting room backup plan of Klaus and Doctor Kai.

Kurq'wes stops Mark's personal time-field, and enters the room to speak with him.

The resulting shock of the soul being released disables much of You's powers, for h̶i̶s̶ Your personal morals are now back in effect. The shame You feels over Your father, and the fear and hatred of the fuel that arises as such, induce mental blocks so that You can no longer properly use the armor and its fuel powers. The shock also releases a burst of electromagnetic force, unshackling You from the terraformer device. In that solitary second, however, Inspector Fox nearly manages to echo Susie's shouts. For part of You's soul is instantly siphoned into the machine, and a final command is issued.

All across its surface, Earth-Beta-3 begins to transform.

Crystal cities rise from the ocean. Rock plateaus never seen except for on Mars rise in central Europe. Deserts and jungles full of strange and beautiful monsters appear.

You's soul becomes the planet, and You has the soul of an adventurer. So You makes the world in Your image.

You's head fills with the chime of some sort of bell, but You drowns out such a noise with Your screams. At first, they're merely the screams of Your death, and now they become the cries of all the power flowing through You. You reaches up and removes Your mask, exposing Your grey face, possessing only color from the blood dripping out of Your eyes. As You does so, the fuel-flow stops, saving Your life.

Mark is set down even as he screams at the sight of Kurq'wes. Kurq'wes babbles on about how Mark must face his destiny, and while Mark can't hear him that destiny will happen when Mark wants it or not.

He changes Mark, and in that instant Mark becomes what he was created as at birth. He becomes Kurq'wes' Moonchild. He is now a magical god, and with Kurq'wes controlling him, he begins to reach out towards the fuel gathered on the Beta-2 and Beta-4 spires. Thus, he begins to draw this fuel into himself, screaming with pain, rage, and madness all the way.

Susie, Mina, Jacob, and Lefty are dropped, and Susie shouts You's name against the whirlwind before running to You. You looks up and clears the blood from Your eyes, the faceplate still in Your hand.

The joy You feels at seeing his friends alive is beyond all words. You thanks all the Gods at once, before You begins to sob uncontrollably. And in the midst of all of this, the others can't help themselves from such a thing either; not even Lefty, though he hides it with his irk.

Mark begins to glow with the crackling brown lightning of The Unscene; this act is getting him closer to that realm, and as such his mind begins to fall apart at the dawn of super-consciousness. But he's wielding that power. His hair burns away and his scleras turn yellow. As he drinks in the fuel, he also becomes a funnel for the power of Kul'ul. This time Fox gets a chance to scream.

And then it all snaps into focus. The whirlwind ceases and just becomes two men, one mortal, and one not, screaming their heads off.

Mina is about to ask what's even happening, because there is finally allowance for such a thing, but she is interrupted by Mark, who makes a simple request.

“I WANT TO GO HOME!!!”

Then, before the eyes of those present, Mark seems to collapse into a black hole. In reality, this is pretty close to what he is doing. Seconds later, this hole widens and drags everyone in; the kids, Lefty, Fox, everyone.

Then it erupts outward with a burst of silver light, millions of degrees hot; the terraformed island is destroyed, and the Blue Tower is launched somewhere near the proximity of Andromeda.

And then, over the sound of the gulf imploding over where the island once was, there's a certain lull that suggests a return to normalcy. And yet also, there's a voice that's everywhere at once, but is only heard by a handful of people.

“Now it's just getting started.”