By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

A stranger has arrived at Eden's suburban home, and he seems to know everything about her, including her identities as Mantra and Lukasz. She could either kill him or listen to him, so she listens. The story he tells her is unbelievable. He might be a crank, but does she dare risk disbelieving him? If what he tells her is true, the universe is going to end in 24 hours, and saving it will depend a lot on the decision she makes in the next few minutes.

Chapter 2

The Tree of Eternity

Be void of feeling!
A heart that soon is stirred
Is a possession sad
Upon this changing earth.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
.

"Why do you say that?" I asked. "My old master saw the future and said I'd live and active for centuries to come."

"Unfortunately," Gabriel said, "that prediction is not true any longer."

I blinked.

"I do not doubt that Archimage's had a talent for precognition," he continued, "but the looming disaster will negate everything previously pre-ordained. Archimage foresaw a stable Main Bough, but events have occurred that endanger that stability."

"Okay, I'll bite. How long do we have left?"

"If you and I do not act to circumvent it, reality will end on September 15 at 7:11 p.m. That's Pacific Time, of course."

That was tomorrow! I had just visited an altered reality where the world had gone mad following a cosmic energy discharge that came upon the Earth a little after 7:00. The little man now had earned my undivided attention.

But he still had not won my trust.

"Why do you think that?" I asked.

"Anti-Creation is the enemy we face. My people call it the Nemesis Effect. I have traveled up to the last microsecond before it breaks free to observe all the various playing pieces of the disaster. I naturally had to flee from that onrushing future before I would perforce be made a part of that anomalous event."

I frowned. "That's very interesting. But you sound like you're leaving a lot out. Can you be a little less eager to cut to the chase?"

"I'll try. My people, the Ysgorans, travel in time, and also in space. Even one like myself, a person not really involved with exploring duty, has seen this universe billions of years in the future and also gazed upon its primordial beginnings – up to the instant of the Null Place itself."

"What's that? The Big Bang?"

He shook his head. "The Big Bang never happened. The idea is totally illogical and unsubstantiated by scientific data. Those who believe in such a wild hypothesis, are not true scientists at all. The term Null Place denotes the time before Time itself began. Past that point, not even the Ysgorans can time travel into it."

"That's a relief. Up to now, it sounded like your people could do anything."

"We do have our limits. The technology of Ysgor was, in fact, not founded upon any miraculous discovery made by our own people. We were chosen to fulfill a certain required role because we were technically inclined. Those we call the Creators passed their secrets on to us."

"Are you talking about gods of some kind?"

He shook his head. "I refer to the Creators of the Godwheel, not of the Multiverse."

"Weren't the Vahdalans the Creators?"

"No," he said. "The Creators surpassed the Vahdalans in every way conceivable. The Creators established the Vahdalans at the Godwheel, assigning them the humble task of being its caretakers. After many millennia, that stormy race succumbed to a civil war that all but destroyed itself. But you already know something about that."

I nodded. If these alleged Creators were much more potent than the Vahdalans – one of whom I'd personally met – they were not a gang I would like to meet in a dark alley. Or even in the light of the Godwheel's two suns.

"Are these Creators still around?" I asked. I wasn't buying into any of this. I was only hoping that he'd trip himself up and put me in a place to refute his con game, whatever it was.

Gabriel's eyebrows arched thoughtfully. "Whether the Creators have gone beyond recall or remain with us undetected, no one may say."

"Well, then, are the Ysgorans something like the Vahdalans?"

"We are not so impressive as the stormy and exciting Vahdalans. We served in a role analogous to that of a royal watchmaker. Just as an earthly ruling family needed people of special expertise to operate their societies, the Vahdalans depended on the Ysgorans to care for vital temporal matters, especially those which concerned the Tree of Eternity."

"What's that?"

"It's the living diagram that rationalizes the operation of time over the entirety of the Multiverse."

"It's only a diagram?" I asked.

"By no means! Forgive me; it is hard to convey concise meanings in English."

"If you don't like English, I've learned dozens of different languages over the last fifteen hundred years," I said.

"I do fear that no Earth language can express the science behind the structure of the Multiverse. Though I call the Tree of Eternity a diagram, it is something much greater. The Tree comprises the reality that it describes. In your world, a change in reality changes the diagram made for it. But with the Tree of Eternity, any change in the diagram changes the existing reality."

"This is entirely over my head, I'm afraid."

"Basically, the Tree of Eternity is self-operating, but irregularities can occur. The Timekeepers monitor these anomalies and dispatch agents to correct them. I am a Timekeeper myself, even if only a minor one."

I frowned. No such system could be operated – or even maintained -- by mortal beings. So, was Gabriel a liar, or was he more than a mortal being? His appearance, if it wasn't an illusion, made him look like a short, redheaded man who had eaten too many donuts.

"Timekeepers are like gardeners," my visitor hurried on. "We figuratively pull weeds and make sure that Time's course is cultivated and pruned. Typically, when a chaotic event confounds us, we reduplicate it under laboratory conditions and study its longer-term effects. If the effects are positive or harmless, we might allow it to occur in Real Time. If they are destructive, we seek to intervene and prevent it from affecting Real Time."

"What kind of 'laboratory conditions' are you talking about?" I asked.

"A timeline can be created to examine the anomaly. Before you ask what a timeline is, you should know that the concept is foundational to our mission. One reason I have come to you in preference to contacting any other ultra is that you are one of the few who knows firsthand about the existence of alternate timelines."

Yeah, that was for sure! In August, I'd fallen into an alternate timeline where I had never become Mantra. Unfortunately, what Lukasz had become there was appalling! But I had an even worse time of it in a different alternate world when I'd taken the kids out shopping earlier in the evening.

"Each Main Bough of the Tree," Gabriel continued, "has many timelines."

Another incomprehensible term. "Main Bough?"

"It's easiest if you think of a natural tree. It has limbs, branches, and twigs directly or indirectly anchored to the tree trunk. In the Twenty-first Century, science has finally been forced to accept the theoretical existence of alternate worlds. But the human race understands little about the concept and uses flawed terminology when describing it."

"But you haven't said what a 'main bough' is."

"Think of that tree that I mentioned. Imagine that its trunk supports a few great limbs. The trunk is called the Bole, but the limbs issuing directly from the Bole are referred to as the Main Boughs. Each Main Bough exists as a universe of its own. Each has limbs, branches, and twigs, but all Main Boughs depend on the Bole for support. As in a forest, if the trunk is cut, the limbs all fall to earth and die."

"Okay," I said, "I'm nowhere close to understanding where you're going. But I think you're claiming that the world is in trouble!"

"Yes, that is what I'm saying. Think of Argus, the enemy you battled. He threw open a gate into an alien Main Bough and snatched from it the god Thor, who inhabits a Main Bough other than our own. On has to give credit to Argus. It took a god who knew what he was doing to open a passage between separate universes."

"Out of this entire universe, why have you shown up on the planet Earth to try to fix it?"

"Because this is the planet where the Nemesis Effect will soon be released.

"Yeah, that really explains a lot!" I said sarcastically.

"I can see that you are still skeptical! The Nemesis Effect is a force from Outside. It didn't arise out of this Main Bough. Destructive elements have intruded into the universe you know by way of the portal that Argus made. But if destruction befalls this keystone Main Bough, the whole Multiverse is irrevocably doomed."

"And that's the worst possible case, huh?"

"Indeed! If any Main Boughs other than this one were lopped off the Tree, the results would be vast and tragic, but the Tree as a whole could survive it. But this Main Bough is the very keystone of the Tree of Eternity. If the Keystone is destroyed, the Bole is compromised and everything it supports collapses. There is only one Tree of Eternity, and all Creation from the beginning of Time is maintained by it. The fall of the Tree is literally the undoing of Creation."

"What you're telling me is something too big to put my mind around it. Don't you think you can find a better time agent than I am?" I was hoping that he'd say "yes."

"Your perceived shortcomings shouldn't amount to a serious obstacle. The tasks you need to carry out are those you are best suited for. I will use my advanced knowledge to direct your activities toward our focused ends." Here, he paused thoughtfully. "Mantra, if we're going to become colleagues, I cannot emphasize the extent to which you and I will have to depend on one another."

"I don't know yet if I want to be your colleague. I have a life to live here, and this cosmic thing you're talking about must come packed with about a million ways to get me killed." I still didn't believe a word he was saying but I hoped he'd go away and become someone else's problem.

Gabriel wagged his finger at me. "You will not be made safer by remaining at home. So very soon, all that you know will pass away. A sudden rewriting of past, present, and future will occur. In less than twenty-four hours, your entire universe will end. It will not be merely destroyed, but it will mean the erasure of any existence this universe ever had, alone with all its contents.

"So you say! But nothing I've heard or seen tells me I can trust a single word that comes out of your mouth."

"That is true. But haven't you just returned from an alternate reality where the Nemesis Effect has already had its initial effect? If this event manifests here, it will place a false Main Bough where the natural one used to be. The old universe will be blinked out of existence, and a flawed copy will take its place. Then, as your people say, 'It will be all downhill from there.'"

"Well, the world I visited was pretty lousy, but it wasn't a null void."

"That is because of the Tree's self-preservation system. It can perform emergency repairs. Think of a damaged automobile. One may do roadside repairs, but these are insufficient, and a little farther along the road, it will stop again. Then it is repaired again, but that allows for only a short trip before more adjustment is needed. This jury-rigging process cannot continue indefinitely. The Bole collapses when the Main Bough can no longer create a workable keystone. Should the Bole collapse, it will collapse the rest of the Multiverse."

"Oh, come on! You sound like one of those 'the sky is falling' guys," I said.

"Then why not give me a chance to prove myself? If I cannot win your trust, I will try to recruit a less accomplished time agent. But to give you fair warning, your idyllic life will end in less than 24 hours
unless my mission is successful."

I looked him straight in the eye. "If the disaster is so near, why have you waited this long before starting your mission?" I asked.

"As I've said, the Timekeeper leadership was against preventing the catastrophe about to occur."

I decided to keep on humoring the little man. "What reason would the big-cheese Timekeepers have for wanting the Multiverse to collapse?"

"My people share some traits with yours. The scientific mind, wherever it manifests itself in the Multiverse, tends to be very inflexible. If it chooses not to believe something that has not been previously accepted as truth, it seldom reevaluates its long-held beliefs. Instead, it reflexively deems the perceived anomaly to be untrue. When scientific minds deem something to be false, their reaction is to protect the prevailing belief system by obstructing the research of anyone holding a contrary opinion."

"But willfully perpetuating false theories betrays the truth-seeking mission of science," I protested.

"It truly does. But consider the many submerged cities that are being discovered in your world, dating from tens of thousands of years ago. Have any serious expeditions been sent to investigate them? I dare say they have not!"

I sighed. "If super scientists can be so stupid, what, exactly, do you expect
from me?"

"As I have said, I seek your help stopping the annihilation of – well – all Creation."

Well, I'll give the little man a one point: he was nothing if not dramatic.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 3

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Chapter 3

The Dark Shoppe

A young fig tree its form lifts high
Within a beauteous garden;
And see, a goat is sitting by,
As if he were its warden.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

.

"Thanks for clearing that up," I said sarcastically. "But you still haven't told me what you had to do with those crazy things that happened to me today."

Gabriel sighed and nodded. "All that will take a bit of telling."

"Then start talking, or get out of my life!" I said.

"I'll try to explain, but listen carefully. The concepts will sound very unfamiliar to you."

"Telling me that I'm ignorant is not going to win you many Brownie points."

He pursed his lips. "To say it simply, by an assiduous exploration of minus time, one discovers causation."

"Minus time?"

"Yes. Minus-time is the time that has already passed by in a timeline. There is also Plus-time, which is the future that results from the accumulation of events in the past. Plus-time allows us to anticipate probable outcomes. Because of the looming catastrophe, we must move swiftly to scout out Plus-time to discover the future hazards that will beset us. When I recruited you to be a scout, I learned a great deal."

"I didn't volunteer for anything! Why don't you do your own scouting and leave innocent people in peace?"

"Because utilizing a time agent is not a one-man or one-woman job. The active agent needs a support team, and no one else was available to support you while you were in alternate time. I had to remain behind in natural time and monitor you so I could anticipate the dangers you were facing. That way, I could help you avoid them."

"You did a lousy job. Danger socked me in the jaw about a hundred times when I was in that messed up world!" I stated.

He shook his head. "Those were mere inconveniences which you were able to handle very effectively on your own. My eyes were set on much graver matters.

"I wish you to understand that your life – the life you're living here and now -- was never at risk. You were never more than a virtual participant in that other world. I used my nanites to digitalize a copy of your conscientiousness and place it into host bodies living in that other time-reality. While you were in that realm, I gathered a great deal of information, while you simultaneously getting an education in the subtleties of alternate time.

"Everything that happened to me seemed damned real!"

"You only believed you had traveled to a strange place and time. In reality, the three Mantras whose memories you now share were never you; your real body remained at the restaurant where I found you."

"If that was so, why are these memories so damned vivid?" I asked.

"That is because the nanites allowed me to record all their thoughts and memories. I took the new memories they acquired and downloaded them into your mind through the interface of the nanites you carry. Their memories became your memories. Do you understand?"

I balled my fists. "Why pick on me? Why not use an AI probe that you could sacrifice without causing grief to a stranger?"

"Because I needed to introduce a living scout into a situation to gain information where an AI probe could not go."

"What happened to those three Mantras after I left them?"

"Alas, they ceased to exist only seconds after I downloaded their memories into my VIGOPS."

"Died? How?" I asked. "I didn't see that they were in any danger when I left! What was the danger?"

"Those realities they were in were unnatural universes that the Tree of Eternity created by its frequent reboots. A reboot reestablishes a new universe that is very like the old, but there will be imperfections that make the two worlds somewhat different. For example, a reboot may cause certain people to vanish from existence. And some new people will be created that the history of the new world remembers, even though they never existed before.

"So, a person could vanish like Contrary did, and appear out of nothing like Thorn Boy?"

"Exactly," the little man affirmed.

"What else did your high tech do to me? Was I brainwashed so I'd become your enthusiastic lackey?"

"Not at all, my dear fel – Mantra. I want to keep you just the way you are – with clarity of thought, lightning reflexes, and battle readiness."

"Are all Timekeepers like you? Do you all take incredible liberties with other people's lives?"

"Regrettably, sometimes one has to be cruel to achieve beneficial ends. Think of a doctor. His scalpel is a wicked instrument, but it is a necessary tool for achieving a healing treatment. "

"Maybe you're so alien you can't understand simple right and wrong. I'd be crazy to get involved with a person like you."

"I can understand your point of view, but I have a way to persuade you of the importance of my mission. Would you be willing to take a journey with me?"

"No journeys," I said. "I've got sleeping kids! I have to watch over them."

"What if I help you find a babysitter?"

"I'd rather pick a babysitter I can personally trust."

"Tonight I arrived here in the company of a person with excellent credentials in childcare. She is waiting outside at this moment." He looked over his shoulder at the front door.

"She's there now?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I'm pretty sure that whatever loonie you've got lined up won't be acceptable to me."

"Oh, I believe the person I found will meet your standards very acceptably."

No sooner had he said that than the doorbell rang.

I used my mystic scene and confirmed that there was a life-form standing outside on the welcome mat. "You let her in," I told Gabriel. "I don't want to get into a crossfire between a pair of Godwheel scoundrels."

Gabriel obligingly rose and went to the door. When it opened, I saw a woman standing there. It was Eden Blake.

Eden Blake?

My doppelganger stepped past the Timekeeper and fixed an unhappy glance on me.

"It's like looking into a mirror," my double remarked to Gabriel.

The little man stepped between us. "Lukasz -- this is, ah, Lukasz. She's a temporal clone of yours originating in a future timeline."

"She's from the future?" I muttered. My double was dressed in "suburban casual" and seemed my age. I glowered at the Timekeeper. "I don't like the idea that you've had a copy of me riding in your hip pocket all this time!"

"Is that a bad thing?" he asked.

"It's a bad thing if you plan to deep-six me and put a ringer in my place."

"I have no such plan. I recruited Mrs. Blake just today -- as your people reckon calendar dates. For a long while, the two of you were living a single life. But at one point, the Main Bough timeline bifurcated and she began a separate existence of her own."

"If you already have a pet Mantra, why do you need me?"

"Because the coming disaster is aimed at this Main Bough and it can be most effectively defended by one who is a natural resident of this universe. I'm of this time and universe, and so are you."

The other Lukasz shook her head and said, "Look, bro, the little guy is weird, but he's made me a believer. I only wish I could do the job he wants you to do since my life is a wreck, and I don't have a whole lot to lose."

"What does she mean her life's a wreck?" I asked Gabriel.

"Don't talk over my head as if I'm not here!" my double growled. "My kids -- my own Evie and Gus -- are dead. There! You made me say it. Are you happy?"

That set me back on my heels. "Dead? How?"

"Rune!" she said with a bitter grate. "He wanted the Sword of Fangs and took Gus and Evie hostage to coerce me into making a trade. I didn't trust his word, so I gathered a gang of ultras to help me take him on. But he saw us coming and killed the children before we could lower the boom."

I knew about Rune – an alien creature with incredible power and vampiric habits. I'd met him more than once and had barely survived the encounters.

"I'm sorry," I said. "But you have to realize that Rune would have killed the kids no matter what you did. He relishes killing."

She looked away. "I know that's true. I've been telling myself the same thing every day since the murders happened."

I knew how she felt. I'd seen a Time-clone version of my son Gus die right before my eyes. That, too, happened because I had made a wrong choice.

"When does Rune strike?" I asked through a tight throat.

"For me, it was October 17, next month," she said. "But I've already lived two years since then. It happened because of a stupid mistake I'd made on the Godwheel. I called Eden Blake by her own name in front of some 'friends.' But one of them was Rune in disguise. That bit of information allowed him to track down the Blake family in my universe and take me surprise."

A shiver ran through me. I had made that exact same mistake. But in my reality, Rune had flown through a gate into another universe – to hopefully never return.

I clenched my fists. "Well, I'm going to make sure that it won't happen in this world's future. One way or another, I'm going to kill that blood-sucking bastard if he shows up in this universe again!"

"I hope you can do that," the other Lukasz said. "But Gabriel tells me that you're going to die tomorrow. If you want to save yourself and your family, I suggest you take seriously what the gentleman is trying to tell you."

This was too absurd! Now I was being browbeaten by myself! This conversation was giving me a headache.

I tossed a frown to Gabriel. "What, exactly, is this journey you were talking about?" I demanded.

Suddenly, the world spun.

#

Out of blankness, a scene quickly rematerialized around me. When I could see again, I wasn't in Canoga Park anymore.

I was in a medieval-style alehouse built from sturdy timber and stone. The tart smoke filling the air was already laden with the bouquet of fermented beverages and other repulsive odors reminiscent of the Middle Ages. My daze now wearing off, I noticed that the people filling the tavern stools were wearing costumes unfashionable since the Tenth Century.

Incredible! I knew this wasn't just any alehouse; I recognized it as an establishment I knew. It was the Dark Shoppe! Centuries ago, that fabled place had served as a clearing house for arcane information. In those days, it had been run by a prophetess.

What had been her name? Diana.

Just then, a raucous male voice sounded off:

"'God's Blood, wench! From whence hast thou appeared in the wink of an eye? If I did not know this place, I would be damning myself for a drunken sot. But the Dark Shoppe e'er hath been a place of miracles. Tell me, lass, hail ye from Faery, or art thou of mortal kind?"

I turned to behold a large knight seated at a table and clutching a tankard in his oversized fist.

"Your name, sir knight?" I asked cautiously, addressing him in the same dialect of Old French that he'd used.

"Sir Lukasz at thy service," he said cheerily. Nudging the youth seated next to him, he added, "And this callow good-for-nothing is my squire, Thanasi."

I was staggered. Yet, why should it surprise me to be confronting Lukasz and Thanasi centuries in the past? Hadn't I just come from interviewing Eden Blake about a babysitting job?

"Cry mercy! What costume be'eth that, milady?" my mail-clad alter-ego inquired. "Art thou pursued by villains and compelled to travel in male attire? Faith, madam! Not e'en the most cracked-brained varlet couldst e'er mistake thee for a boy."

When I looked away, he persisted: "Fair one, tarriest a while. I would fain know thee better."

I was seriously thinking about speaking to him. By pretending to be a prophet friend of Diana, I could alert my counterpart to bad things coming down the chute. I could even have warned him about Thanasi.

But should I do such a thing? Wasn't it dangerous to meddle with history? By trying to help Lukasz, I might get him killed before his time. After all, when I intervened to help a time-clone of my babysitter, Lauren Sherwood, she was attacked and slain. On the other hand, if I let the knight go his own way, I could count on him surviving for another thousand years.

As I vacillated, Gabriel took me by the arm. "Come," he whispered.

"Lady!" the knight called after us -- but I didn't look back. The Lukasz of this era had concerns of his own. Those concerns meant little to me now that I was neck deep in the issues of the Twenty-first century.

"Gabriel," I said to the little man, "this is nuts. Why did you bring me here? I'm impressed, but all this has to be an illusion. Take me home – now!"

"Not yet. You are here to gain vital information. The person whom I most wish you to meet in the Dark Shoppe is not Sir Lukasz. You remember Diana the Mystic, I presume?"

"Of course. Is Diana here?"

I glanced from side to side. Through the smoky air, I saw the raven-haired Mystic standing by a plank table watching us.

As we approached the Mystic, she addressed Gabriel. "I had no alert that you were coming. Who's your attractive friend?"

"You should soon be getting a VIGOPS download; that will explain everything."

She sighed. "I can't wait. But the bull-in-the-china-shop way that you've come barging into my timeline tells me I've just been cloned again."

The little man smiled. "It's all for a good cause, Diana. Creating a new copy of you will start to make up for the casualties that two of your clones have unfortunately suffered."

She blinked with surprise. "I hope they didn't suffer too much, at least not like some of the others have."

I looked askance. How could she be so cold as not to show more reaction to learning of the deaths of persons who were, essentially, her identical sisters?

The Timekeeper clicked his tongue commiseratively. "Their attacker was a possessed demigoddess. Such power! Their suffering must have lasted less than a second. On the other hand, your original self is still well and thriving."

Diana shook her head. "Wonderful! A few minutes ago, I was the original, and now I've gotten a downgrade. I sometimes wonder why I agreed to live like this!" Then, with a grim smile, she looked at me and asked, "Can I offer you two a platter with a tankard?"

I demurred. "I don't think my Twentieth Century body could survive the microbes that swarm all over the Tenth Century. Anyway, I just ate at the mall."

"You'd probably be safe. I've trained my cook staff to prepare food according to Twentieth Century standards."

I suddenly had to wonder whether Diana had been originally a medieval or a Twenty-First-Century human. Of course! Her accent, which I had always found so unplaceable, was actually Old French spoken with the cadence of American English.

Before I could ask her to verify that, the Mystic froze, her glance fixed and staring through me. I looked bemusedly toward Gabriel.

"She's fine," said the man. "Diana is merely receiving the VIGOPS update I mentioned. I arranged for it just before bringing us here. All Timekeeper agents need to be kept well informed concerning unfolding events."

"This is as strange as hell," I told him, "but so far nothing here makes me believe in gods and doomsdays."

The scientist shook his head. "I think you will change your mind. Maybe Diana can help convince you."

"It wasn't like the two of us used to be close or anything," I said.

He grinned slightly. "My information tells me that the two of you were closer than you may have supposed, especially on her side."

Admittedly, I'd always thought that Diana was a looker. Also, I liked her personality. But my wife Marinna had been murdered on a sacrificial altar before my eyes, and my memory of her had always prevented me from getting serious about any other woman.

I changed the subject. "You said before that there's a god in this woodpile," I replied. "Why do you think I can handle him alone? Why not bring in another hundred ultras to improve the odds?"

"I assure you, if we had a hundred gods who were the equals of Loki and Thor, they could not prevail against such an adversary as Nemesis."

I threw up my hands. "Are you kidding? The horned god by himself was strong enough to have me for supper. And I don't think Thor would have been any pushover either."

The Timekeeper grimaced. "Do not underestimate yourself, Eden. You have vital skills; an army traveling with you would only get in your way."

"Whew!" Diana suddenly spoke up. "The download I just got was certainly informative! As if I didn't have enough problems, I've found out the Multiverse is about to end."

Then she glanced my way. "Is it true that you are, in spirit at least, the same person as that knight who's presently sitting across the room?"

I looked back at Sir Lukasz. He was still staring at me. I wondered if I could cool his ardor for my body by reminding him of his deceased wife Marinna.

"Yeah, that's me. Don't ask me to explain," I said.

She shook her head resignedly. "I've been living with time paradoxes for so long that I don't find much that can still surprise me. I've learned that you've become an ultra and have a family. How are you holding up?"

"It's not so great being an ultra." In that alternate world that Gabriel sent me to, I discovered that the only thing worse than being an ultra is not being one.

"How is it being a mother?"

"If you play your cards right, you can find out for yourself," I said.

"I've always let my professional life get in the way of my personal life. I think you've been living in that trap for a long time, too."

"Di, there's something I always wondered," I said. "You always seem the same age every time I've met you over the centuries. How does that work?"

She shrugged. "Advanced science. I receive age-retardant treatments, though I still age very slowly. When age becomes a problem, there's a technology to rejuvenate me, cell by cell. If you decide to work with the Timekeepers, you can receive the same perk." Then she added with a smirk. "With a body like yours, you really should preserve it!"

"I hope that's not necessary. My old master Archimage never aged as long as I knew him, and he told me that my magic would keep me young, too. But my question right now is whether I can believe what Gabriel is telling me. What do you say about that?"

"I could give you an opinion, but the question has many ramifications. It's hard to decide where to begin."

"A person seldom goes wrong if he starts at the beginning," I advised her.

"When you're a time traveler," Diana said, "it's hard to tell the end from the beginning."

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 4

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Chapter 4

A Guillotine for a God

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

.

I saw amusement in Diana's eyes. "When you ask about beginnings, you don't know what you're asking," she said.

"Oh, come on! Everything, even insanity, has a beginning somewhere," I replied.

"Let me say it this way: In the beginning, there was darkness...."

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"Maybe you actually don't want to hear the story from the beginning. In that case, I'll cut to the chase. How much do you know about the old Gnostics?"

To tell the truth, I didn't know a lot about that cult. The Gnostics were a persecuted Christian sect attacked by every other religion in their world. After 450 AD, the year in which I was born, only one sect of Gnostics remained, lingering on in western Asia. They were called the Manicheans. But even they were destroyed by persecution before the end of the Middle Ages.

"The Gnostics," continued Diana, "somehow knew that the god who had created the universe had himself been a created being. His creator, the supreme god, was incomprehensible and unknowable. It was this flawed, created god called the Demiurge who created all the universes. He lived, did amazing things, and then died."

"The Creator God died?" I asked.

"One would say to, but the Demiurge did not die in the ordinary sense."

"He made a close escape?"

"No, he committed suicide."

"What for? Like, if a god doesn't have everything going for him, who does?" I asked.

"One of his flaws was that he could become lonely. For eons, the Demiurge sought to create others who were as brilliant as he was and worthy to be his companions. But every sentient race he called into being proved to be inferior. Due to his own innate flaws, the Demiurge could do naught but create beings even more flawed than he himself was.

"So he got so lonely he checked himself out?" I asked.

Gabriel spoke up. "That's woefully correct, Eden. By applying his immense intellect to the problem of his own self-destruction, he found a way to end his immortality – or at least he thought he did."

"What did the idiot finally do?"

Diana chimed in again. "He created a – a suicide platform -- a sort of hangman's scaffold. The platform was a rudimentary universe created only for that purpose. Standing in that universe, the Demiurge opened a portal to an already existing universe and placed his head into it. His disastrous mistake was to place his head into the Main Bough of the Tree of Eternity."

"Do you mean our Main Bough?"

"I'm afraid so."

I sighed. "It sounds like this story is heading for a bad ending."

"Very astute! Unfortunately, we're living that ending now," said Gabriel.

"So, he chopped off his own head. Is the head in our universe now and causing all this trouble?"

"I'm afraid so," our hostess affirmed.

"Why did that cosmic nutcase pick our universe to bother?" I asked.

"Because ours was the pride of his creation work," Gabriel interjected. "Nothing else he had created ever equaled it. It was not perfect, but because it was near perfection, he wanted it to be his resting place."

Diana continued the story. "When he activated his guillotine, the dimensional door closed, shearing off his head and letting it fall into the Main Bough. His body remained in the 'Scaffold Universe.'"

"So what's the catch in all this? I'm pretty sure that there's a catch and that it's a doozy."
 
"The body he left behind in the Scaffold Universe decayed and became toxic. It became six individual gems called the Infinity Gems. Each Gem preserved a different attribute of the dead god -- control of Reality, Mind, Space, Power, Soul, and Time. They comprised the Creator god's power only lacking his unifying intelligence."

"Are you talking about his head -- the head that fell into our world?" I asked.

"Yes," said Diana. The head that fell to Earth congealed into a seventh Gem – the Ego Gem. It was the repository of what was left of the god's self-awareness.

"The six Infinity Gems repeatedly threatened to destroy the the Scaffold Universe, but the destruction of that inferior universe would not have harmed the Tree of Eternity, any more than would pulling a rotten tooth. But the Ego Gem still lived, waiting for the day it could reunite with the lesser Gems that had been derived from its dead body. Unfortunately, the Ego Gem was completely insane, because it held only the intellect of the Demiurge, not his spirit. Intellect without a moral, living spirit is a psychotic personality. However, the Ego Gem lacked meaningful power while it existed alone.

"So, what is this comedy of errors adding up to?" I asked.

Diana swallowed hard. "Eventually, the seal between the Scaffold Universe and the Main Branch of the Tree of Eternity has been gradually diminishing with time. On rare occasions, powerful beings have found ways to cross through the seal, and each time they did so, it weakened the seal further."

I frowned. "And I suppose that Thor and Rune, traipsing back and forth, did a lot of harm."

"They certainly did! And don't forget Loki's nefarious crossing also," said Gabriel. "But the blackest part of the comedy is this: When Rune returned to our reality, he brought with him terrible booty."

Rune had returned? The thought both frightened and angered me. Now my family had been made sitting ducks for that fiend's malice.

"What booty did he take?" I asked.

Diana shuddered: "He bought into our universe the six forbidden Infinity Gems. If they are ever united with the Ego Gem, the seven will merge into the Infinity Array. When that happens, it will create a mad monster that will be the veritable rebirth of the Demiurge. But this incarnation of the Demiurge will be a soulless, mechanistic reconstitution, lacking the redeeming qualities that the living Demiurge possessed."

"Wait a minute! You two expect me to go up against the totally evil and all-powerful zombie of a mad god! Don't I get any say in that?''

I had hardly been able to fight Rune to a draw due to having help from other ultras. How in hell was I supposed to go it alone against the much more terrible supernatural menace that Gabriel called Nemesis?

#

"Mantra, your fears are reasonable," said Gabriel. "But hear us out.

"The Mind Gem that Loki took from you was one of the seven Infinity Gems. Despite the cosmic power he commands now, he has done nothing meaningful with it except practical jokes. But the Ego Gem seeks to unite with the Six and has possessed Sersi, a goddess from the Scaffold Universe. The Ego Gem intends to use her power to wrest the Infinity Array from Loki and recreate itself as Nemesis!"

"Are you saying that by losing to Loki, I set the universe -- the Multiverse – on the road to destruction?"

"Do not fault yourself, Eden. You were never a match for the Asgardian trickster. It would have taken a team of ultras assisting you to fend off such a being as Loki."

Did I dare believe him? Archimage had lied to me for many centuries. How could I trust what these strangers were telling me? They might be trying to dupe me into doing something nefarious. How could I know what was real and what was not?

"So," I said stiffly, "if the six Gems fall into the orbit of the Ego Gem, will it be worse than if Loki keeps them?"

"Infinitely so," averred Gabriel.

"Can't you time travel into the future and take a peek at what happens?"

"The Timekeepers have already done that. They have learned that Loki will lose the Gems to the Ego Gem."

"That sucks, but let me understand. You're saying that the Ego Gem intends to destroy the entire Multiverse? What for?" I asked.

Gabriel clenched his fists. "The Ego Gem carries the bitter memories of the Demiurge, and the Demiurge hated imperfection. Everything that Nemesis sees will remind her of her imperfection, and she will want to destroy everything and start over again!"

"She? You've been calling the Demiurge a 'he' up to now."

The little man shrugged. "When Nemesis is recreated, it will take on a female persona. This may be for no better reason than that the Ego Gem will take on a female persona after acclimating to the body of Sersi, a demi-goddess."

"If you say so. But if this -- Nemesis -- rises, what exactly will happen?"

"She will use the power of a major god to let loose the forces of anti-Creation. But our reports say that she will fail, due to an attack by an audacious warrior. His blow will strike the Seven and cause the Nemesis Array to break into the seven individual Gems."

"That's good, isn't it?" I asked.

"It's good, but not good enough to save the Main Bough. Nemesis will be given time to release a micro-erg of energy, and the leaked energy will attack the Tree of Eternity like cancer. The Tree will fight for its life, but in the long term, it will be unable to cope.

"The toxicity of Change will eventually exhaust and collapse the Main Bough, and its breakup will bring about the collapse of the entire Multiverse. In the broader perspective, the eons of growth and accomplishment seen since Creation will vanish as if they had never been."

"What warrior gets to conk the bitch? Is it supposed to be me?"

"No. The warrior is one whom you've never met, Eden. But, even so, you've heard of him. The Black Knight."

I took that in. I had read about the Black Knight in Aladdin's reports. They said he was a run-of-the-mill adventurer, showing up seemingly from nowhere. There apparently wasn't much to the man except pluck and a glowing sword. For some unknown reason, this third-stringer had been inducted into the UltraForce.

"The Black Knight is, in fact, an intruder from the Scaffold Universe," Diana explained. "He came to your universe to find and reclaim his exiled lover, Sersi."

"Are you kidding?!" I said. "Some dude with nothing much going for him manages to shack up with a goddess and then goes on to smash what's left of the god who created the Multiverse?"

Gabriel smiled woefully. "Our best hope is to rewrite future events so that Sersi does not claim the Gems. The menace will vanish, and the Knight will never have to fight that failed battle."

"How much do you know about this upcoming disaster?" I asked.

"Not everything is clear as yet. From the information I extracted from the central VIGOPS, we know that even a tiny particle of the god-energy escaping from Nemesis will be enough to send the Multiverse careering to its doom. Once the process has begun, there will be no saving the Multiverse."

"Do you have any idea how to change the future?"

"As long as the events do not yet occur in Zero Time on the Main Bough, we still may intervene usefully," said the Timekeeper. "While we still have time, we must have a detailed reappraisal of the Black Knight's battle with Nemesis before a workable plan can be formulated."

"While all this is coming down," I asked, "what are the other Timekeepers going to be doing?"

Gabriel winced. "They will do...nothing," he said.

"Nothing?"

"They are planning a withdrawal aimed at maintaining their personal safety only -- supposing that the catastrophe will unleash local destruction only. By now, the Timekeepers will have finished evacuating the Main Bough," he said with disdain, "leaving our time agents with no specific orders."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Presuming you've been telling me the truth, nobody can be as dumb as your Timekeepers. Aren't their own hides on the flaying table, too?"

"Yes, they are. But because of their preconceived and incorrect ideas of how Fate works, they could not cope with reality and so have opted to flee."

"Where are your people evacuating to?" I asked. "Can it be used as a refuge for others, too?"

He gritted his teeth. "In the long term, there are no permanent refuges. When the collapse begins, it will not affect every location at once. The Timekeeper leadership intends to occupy these remote locations but their hiding places will outlast the central collapse by no more than a few centuries."

"I can't put my mind around this. I can only hope you've been lying to me all this time."

"I've been telling the truth, and the truth is that my people have behaved shamefully. I am even more exasperated with them than you are."

"I doubt that," I said.

The little man suddenly perked up. "All is not lost, Mantra. Michael, the former leader of the Timekeepers' field division, created new technological aids that I still possess."

"Former leader?"

He was arrested and evacuated by force with the Timekeeper leadership. Fortunately, Michael took extraordinary measures to conceal my membership in his group. I hid myself until our race departed from this universe. Only then did I gain freedom of action."

"Where does that leave us?"

I thought I saw optimism in Gabriel's glance -- forced optimism, I supposed.

"Though the Timekeepers have refused to act," he said, "I was able to appropriate their secret files concerning the looming disaster. There may be something in the data that will suggest a way to circumvent future events."

"You mean all you have to hope for is a 'maybe'?"

"Not at all. We have our own minds and imaginations. Michael did a great deal of preparatory work using his inborn assets."

"So, your leader was called Michael? Do all you Timekeepers name yourselves after Archangels?"

"Of course not. There are only seven Archangels."

I shook my head. "Okay, I get it. You're basically all alone and a renegade. I don't scorn you for that; I've done some of my best work with the help of renegades. But I'd feel a lot better if we had a super-civilization backing us up."

Gabriel's optimism was looking rather sheepish just then. "I know I'm expecting a great deal from you. In fact, I was tempted to lie to you lest the immensity of our task discourage you, but I ultimately decided that truth is the best policy."

I turned toward Diane. "How much do you know about this fiasco?"

She sighed. "I've gotten the full briefing only lately. It's grim, I admit, but I'm hopeful that Gabriel is on the right path. Getting your help will surely improve his chances."

"Don't you dare put this on me!" I snared. Oh, brother! These diehards were expecting me to straighten out a messed up situation that had been going wrong for millions of years!

"We will have two opportunities to avoid disaster," said the small man. "If we can prevent Sersi from taking the Infinity Gems from Loki the future is saved. If we fail in that, we must discover whether there are any exploitable variables in the Black Knight's clash with Nemesis. In either case, we may discover some opportunity we may exploit to avoid the collapse of the Multiverse."

I scowled. "You make it sound so easy, Gabe. What if your hopes are cockeyed?"

"Give Gabriel a break!" exclaimed Diana. "He's already accomplished a lot on his own. What Gabriel lacks is in the resource department. Are you willing to become a resource for him or not?"

"Why me? How about you becoming his ride-along assistant?" I asked.

Diana threw up her hands. "If I could do more, I would." She glanced across the room. "Lukasz -- the other Lukasz – has been waiting to speak to me. On the off-chance that Creation survives, I still have a job to do."

I looked toward the middle of the tavern room and observed that Lukasz and Thanasi were still quaffing ale. "Say, Di," I called after her, "would it mess up history if I warned my old self about some of the crap that's coming down the chute over the next thousand years?"

The time agent paused and looked back at me. "Any interference you do will only affect this timeline, not the Main Bough."

I guess that answered my question.

"Eden," said Gabriel from over my shoulder, "the time for action is now. You have to make a leap of faith -- perhaps the greatest you have ever made. You must also believe success is possible."

"I'm keeping an open mind," I said.

He shook his head. "I will do nothing to coerce you, warrior. But you must understand that if you undertake this task, much will be asked of you."

"What, precisely, do you expect from me? And if I agree to do this crazy job and get killed, what happens to the kids back home?"

"The alternate Mantra has vowed to keep your death secret from them and to rear them as her own. She will even take over your identity in Canoga Park."

"But if we fail, Holy Hell is going to come down on Canoga Park, right?'

"True. All I can say is that if we fail and you are slain, I promise to take the children and their new mother into a remote timeline, one that should not collapse until well after the end of the youngsters' natural lifespans."

"Well, that's something. But before I agree to anything you'd better tell me everything you know. And don't leave out the details; I hate missing details!"

Why had I just said that? Was I starting to believe this nut stuff?

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 5

Posted 06-18-24

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Chapter 5

The Third Force

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Let me specify," Gabriel said to me. "To accomplish what we must, we must journey together beyond the boundaries that you never imagined could be crossed. You will find yourself addressing an entirely new perspective involving the secrets of Creation."

"I see. So, what's the downside?"

"To function efficiently, you must acquire the same enhancements received by our official time agents, such as Diana."

"Enhancements? Screw that! If I let your tech into my body, you could turn me into a controlled shell of myself!"

"I assure you, Mantra, your persona will not be overwritten. You must remain the capable person you are. The enhancements I speak of are necessary to accomplish the task ahead of us."

"So you say, but how can I trust a person with powers like yours? I once trusted a man I shouldn't have, and look where I ended up!"

"You are alluding to Archimage and that is, of course, true. But for all his faults, Archimage set you on a course leading to your becoming a consummate ultra-hero."

"I think you mean ultra-heroine! I didn't ask for this! My life was complex enough the way it was!"

"I seem to recall that when you lost your ultra-powers, you very much missed them."

I tossed my head. "Why wouldn't I? My powers have been the only good thing I've gotten out of this deal!"

"Haven't you gained comfort in being part of a family?"

"Don't bring the kids into this! I'm willing to play along with you for a while unless I decide you're not playing straight with me. If you're using me for a dupe, I may have to introduce you to my Sword of Fangs!"

"It's a bargain!" he said, offering me his hand. This time, I decided to take it.

"What happens next?" I asked.

"It's already happened."

I frowned. "Nothing's happened."

"Something has happened, but it played out in attenuated time while you were in suspended animation."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you have undergone an extensive modification process while we've been standing here."

"I didn't agree to anything like that!"

"Oh, excuse me. I thought you did. We shook on it, as your people say. It is lamentable that language is such an inefficient mode of communication."

I might have done something violent had I not then been distracted by strange feelings. Nothing around me looked quite the same. My perceptions were sharpened. My mind had become keener, like radio a souped-up to receive new wavelengths.

"Your nanobots have been tied into the same VIGOPS feed as the rest of our time-agent corps. You will learn how to draw upon the information it provides, but it must be done slowly. Too much information at once overwhelms a human mind."

"I don't like the sound of this!"

"The new configuration you've received is harmless! Think of yourself as a computer that has gotten an extensive upgrade. The programming will operate for your benefit without you needing to think about it."

I thought he was describing a cyborg! Damn! I should have killed the fat little rat before letting him touch me!

I was taken off guard by Gabriel's next question. "Mantra, what do you think we should do next?"

"You're asking me?"

"This is a test of your VIGOPS access. How should we address the obstacles ahead of us?"

"How do I answer that? What do I know about the obstacles we're facing?"

"You do know about them because the VIGOPS knows. Contemplate the question, and our options will manifest in your mind."

I thought for a moment. "The one thing coming through loud and clear is that we should be aggressive. We should kill that bitch Sersi before she hooks up with the Ego Gem. Wouldn't that be the logical step?"

"It certainly would be, but the Gem already controls Sersi in zero time. As you might say, we are forced to play the cards we've been dealt."

"If you want better answers, why don't you ask them yourself?"

"I do, constantly. But we can accomplish so much more as a team. Now, tell me, what other inspirations do you have?"

Deciding to play along, I said, "We need more information. Getting it should be our priority. I'm one of those people who doesn't like to have grass growing under his feet."

"Very well, we commence an intense investigation," the Timekeeper affirmed.

In a flash, we were out of the Dark Shoppe and occupying a region with an imprecise and unreal look. The only distinct in sight was an object -- a vehicle, I thought -- parked ahead of us. I somehow knew that the object was Gabriel's "Time Capsule," a metal thing structured like a piece of tubing. The little man crossed to it, opened a hatch, and invited me inside. When I entered, I saw that the Time Capsule was larger on the inside than it was on the outside!

Gabriel began a spiel about "Inter-dimensional engineering" while leading me on a tour of the Time Capsule. I couldn't believe its size! It was like exploring a city. No person was going to get claustrophobic while occupying the thing!

On the other hand, that uninhabited place made me feel as lonely as all hell!

After my awe had worn off, I asked the Timekeeper, "If nothing that happens in zero-time can be changed, what is the situation? What's going on in zero time at this exact microsecond?"

Gabriel answered with a twinkle in his eyes and I began to get a feed from the VIGOPS. The gist of the tale it told was that several other heroes, ultra types hailing from the Scaffold Universe, had arrived on the Main Bough. They represented a group called "the Avengers" that had come searching for their ally Sersi, who was missing from their home world. These beings included the god Thor, whom I had already met.

The VIGOPS further informed me that upon entering this timeline, the Avengers had fallen into the power of Loki, who had been super-charged by his control of the Infinity Array. The nut-case god forced them into a kind of gladiatorial competition against ultras abducted from my own Earth. These ultras happened to be the UltraForce, most of whom I knew slightly. Furthermore, I was informed that Sersi had not yet gained possession of the Infinity Array.

"Can we intervene and stop her?" I asked my companion.

"Possibly," Gabriel replied. "Are you ready to embark on an adventure?"

"Where are we going?"

"To a place that the VIGOPS tells me is very primitive and dangerous. You have heard of it."

"Heard of what?"

"New York City."

The Time Capsule we occupied started making noises like musical instruments being badly played. The next thing I knew, the monitors let us know we were hovering over the Bad Apple.

I suddenly understood that this scene was about to become a battlefield between an alliance of the Avengers and the UltraForce against the zombie god Nemesis. We had entered a timeline recently cloned from the Main Bough, looking at events that had not occurred in my world as yet. Gabriel intended to run a controlled experiment in this place. He wanted to see what would happen if we failed in our effort to interrupt the march of events.

My informational download told me Nemesis had successfully snatched the six gems from Loki. The God of Mischief, who had defeated me so handily the month before, had proved to be no match for the resurrected Nemesis and had slunk away, leaving the saving of the Multiverse to the Avengers and the UltraForce.

I thought I was about to watch a rousing good battle, but my monitor had not been configured for a viewer's entertainment. All I could see were flying figures in the distance.

Then it all went dark.

"What happened?" I asked Gabriel.

"Eureka!" he exclaimed.

"Eureka? Is that good?"

"It's very good," he replied.

"Why did the screen go dark?"

"That was caused by the self-defense system of the Time Capsule. It's programmed to avoid destruction. If we had remained in that timeline, released Nemesis Energy would have obliterated us along with the entire timeline.”

“That’s it? That’s how a universe dies?”

"Unfortunately, yes. But before we left, the VIGOPS recorded a secret. Something hitherto unexpected occurred there. It seems to be a mystery wrapped in an enigma."

"Tell me straight, Winston Churchill, what did you find out?"

"We have discovered an overlooked event that defies the Law of Conservation of Energy."

"So what? I thought Timekeeper science was way more sophisticated than the scientific notions of the planet Earth."

"That is true, but Émilie du Châtelet's basic concept of his law was not wrong. The problem is that Earth's physicists have understood that basic concept. "

"I didn't see anything noteworthy on my monitor. What did you see?"

"Not a great deal more than that. Even my trained eyes and expanded mind failed to notice all the action. But the subtext of the event has been recorded by the VIGOPS."

"Don't hold me in suspense. Have we learned how to save the Multiverse in zero time?"

"No, it is still doomed."

"Oh, bugger!"

"But we have learned that a third force was engaged in the conflict we just witnessed."

"On whose side was it?"

"It was on our side, definitely!"

"So some hidden party was secretly helping us?"

"Yes! In truth, we now know that the Black Knight played only a small part in Nemesis' defeat. It was this third factor that delivered the destroying blow. And the blow, I must say, was infinitely more sophisticated than the knight’s sword blow."

"But this secret flanking maneuver was still ineffective, you say?"

"Lamentably, yes. The intervention was not one hundred percent effective. The particle of Nemesis Energy that escaped from the god’s directed will cause the entire timeline to blink out of existence."

"That timeline is missing now?"

"Not exactly. I advise you to ask consult the VIGOPS. Time is pressing and you need practice in mastering your assets."

I did as he asked and realized that the clone world's original timeline had been replaced with an imperfect copy, a phenomenon I had witnessed on that wacky timeline I had been trapped in for a few days.

"If we can properly interpret the information we now have,” said Gabriel, "we may return to the Main Bough with knowledge enough to defeat Nemesis!"

"How easy will that be?" I asked.

"It will not be easy, but at least we have discovered a new road to success."

"What about killing Sersi? Wasting her still sounds like a good idea to me."

"We shall leave that possibility open. But if we discover and identify the third force, we may have an easier time of it."

"So, what do we know for certain?" I asked.

"By the current analysis, some force that we do not yet know about intervened in the battle and intercepted the great majority of the energy released by Nemesis. In a strange application of the Law of Conservation of Energy, it was converted into harmless electromagnetic wave energy."

"How harmless?"

"As harmless as visible light."

"Wait a minute! Nemesis is supposed to command energy powerful enough to destroy the Multiverse. Are you saying it was changed into a few megawatts of visible light? Shouldn't there have been enough energy to fuel a supernova?"

"Far more than that, one would think. The VIGOPS is still trying to understand the actual physics of the phenomenon."

"Where does that leave us?" I asked.

The little man looked elated. "If a force, or a being, can do a thing so incredible, we need to bring that phenomenon into our own Main Bough. If the Main Bough can be saved, the entire Multiverse will be saved with it. Our task is to discover how that energy-conversion field came to be applied against Nemesis and how it can be made even more effective."

"Effective enough to save the Multiverse?"

"Yes, that is my hope!"

The monitors came on just then, displaying us in a completely different location.

"Where have we just ended up?" I asked.

He frowned down at his monitor. "We're back on the Main Bough. We have already begun our pursuit of the third force as it exists in zero time. The VIGOPS is currently creating a broad search pattern to discover the phenomenon. When it is found, we shall go after it!"

"Do we have time to carry out any long search?"

"No, we do not, but the search is being carried out in attenuated time. We have been sensible of a few passing minutes. That means tracing the third force must be an extraordinarily difficult task for the VIGOPS. I've never seen it take so long as this."

"So, what can we usefully do while we're waiting?" I asked.

"We can greatly profit from reordering our thinking. One cannot solve a problem until first he knows the proper questions."

"What are the proper questions?"

And so he told me.

Wow! It now appeared that we would have quite a day ahead of us!

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 6

Posted 07-16-24
Revised 07-19-24

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

.

Chapter 6

The Hellscape

“By seeking and blundering we learn.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
.

Gabriel suddenly shouted from behind me. “Mantra! I found it!”

I came into the control room. The little man had changed his clothes while I’d been away and was now wearing a quilted white suit. I thought it made him look fat. “Aren’t you going to say eureka?” I asked.

“I dare say I should!”

"Time is wasting. What did you spy with your little eye?"

"I spied -- I saw – what the Third Force is”

“So what is it?”

“It’s a woman."

"A woman? A human woman?" I asked.

"She’s distinctly human, but her power ratings are astonishing! She must be an ultra – an ultra of almost unimaginable potency. But she wasn't at the battle alone; she had the Time Gem and Reality Gem on her person.”

“But Nemesis had the seven gems. How did she get her hands on two of them – or are they time-clones?”

“No, the readings say that they’re the originals! It’s a paradox, I grant.”

“If something is impossible, maybe it isn’t true. What’s going on?”

“I’ll have to put the VIGOPS to work resolving the problem. But now it's vital to find out the identity of this woman."

The mystery woman appearing on his screen appeared to be young and attractive.

He exclaimed: "Now!"

"Now, what?"

“Now is the time to run our recognition software,” the Timekeeper said.

"Don’t bother," I sighed.  

Gabriel glanced up. “Why not?”

"Because I know her.”

“Who is she?”

“That's Amber Hunt."

#

Again I had to ask myself, what did Amber Hunt have to do with all this? When I was in the alternate world that Gabriel sent me to, Hunt's name kept turning up, like a bad penny. She had been identified as part of an ultra gang suspected of destroying twenty-five percent of New York City.

I'd seen her from a distance before, but my best information came from my perusal of the Aladdin files. About two years before, Hunt had been an unremarkable college girl. Unfortunately, she had inherited a rare disease called the Theta Virus and had only narrowly avoided dying from it.

I already knew a little about the Theta Virus. Just months before, Warstrike and I had learned that Aladdin was involved in a treasonous project that involved the Virus.

The Theta Virus had come to Earth inside a UFO that had crashed in Germany in the 1920’s. The Weimar Germans had experimented with the virus culture that they had salvaged, but when the Nazis took over, Hitler saw the amazing possibilities in weaponizing the Virus. By using the Theta Virus, it seemed possible to create an unlimited number of ultras, enough to defeat all the major powers arrayed against Germany. He called his plan the "Übermensch project" and gave it as much priority as he was giving to the rocket and A-bomb programs.

The German scientists ran the core of the Übermensch project out of one of their prisoner-of-war camps that included many captured Americans, mostly airmen. The SS hoped that the Allied air command would not bomb a facility housing their servicemen but the President overwrote all advice to the contrary and ordered a hard bombing, regardless. The destroyed lab released the Theta Virus into the open air, causing widespread infection among the Allied and Axis personnel.

While the Virus had no direct effect on healthy people, it made subtle changes to their DNA, so that their future children were born infected with altered DNA. When these reached early adulthood, they would die. Often, these unfortunates sometimes left behind children, to whom they had passed down the legacy of their Theta infection.

However, German research had developed a vaccine to preserve the lives of the infected people, allowing them to live and develop ultra powers. The most promising of these had come of age when the war was at its height, and they were formed into "blitzkrieg squads" that became bad news for the enemy alliance. By early 1945, however, the overwhelming Allied air power managed to destroy the German facilities making the serum needed to keep the supermen alive. Even the longest-lived of the Nazi ultras did not endure much beyond the war's end. The Allies were avid to create super-soldiers of their own and did all they could to capture the Third Reich’s Übermensch project documentation, but acquired only some incomplete material. Using what they had, the Americans began black ops projects to create Theta-based ultras, all of them under the control of the American Deep State.

Decades later, an American research scientist named Dr. Rachel Deming was recruited into one such project whicih fortuitously gave her access to information concerning the Übermensch project. She realized that the most rotten parts of the government intended to create a super secret police force to take over the American nation and rule despotically. Her goal was to create a counter force of patriotic ultras to oppose the plot and, to achieve this aim, she absconded with the most vital documentation.

Deming stayed undercover for years, setting up a laboratory on a private island and advancing the work started by the Third Reich and by the American security services. She found infected people, saved their lives, and recruited them into an ultra team dubbed “the Exiles.”

Dr. Deming created a better Virus treatment than had the Nazis. The last Theta victim brought into her project had been Amber Hunt. According to Aladdin, Hunt had an infected POW for a great-grandfather. Due to the virus, all family members of Amber’s direct bloodline had died in early adulthood, but Dr. Deming intervened in time to save her life.

But an accidental explosion suddenly wiped out the laboratory, killing or crippling most of the Exiles team. Amber Hunt survived, but when she reappeared in public, she was super powerful and behaved as if violently insane.

But as powerful as she was, would it be enough to confront the zombie god Nemesis?

“Gabriel,” I asked, “how could a human body -- even an ultra-human’s body -- absorb the immense god-power of Nemesis?"

"I can’t really say," the Timekeeper replied thoughtfully. "Possibly she was helped by the Time and Reality Gems.”

"I just wonder…” I muttered out loud.

"What do you wonder?"

"It seems like too much of a coincidence that the planet Earth should have on hand an ultra at exactly the right time and possessing the right powers to handle a crisis like this. I have to wonder whether Amber Hunt’s empowerment wasn’t planned by design."

“Planned by whom?” Gabriel asked.

“Planned by someone a lot bigger than Nemesis."

The Timekeeper sent me a bright smile. “You must be speaking about the One who was the maker of the Demiurge. For all our efforts, we Timekeepers have discovered very little about that entity. If your hypothesis should turn out to be true, it would be wonderful, don’t you think?”

“I wouldn’t have supposed that super scientists like the Time-Keepers would believe in a supreme god," I said.

“Why not? We know that the Demiurge existed. Isn't the Supreme One only a single step above him?"

"I suppose. But why would the supreme power of the Multiverse work so indirectly? Why would he offer his help indirectly through fallible people like us and the Theta Virus? Why not just point at Nemesis and say, "You don't exist anymore!"

“That is a question I cannot answer,” Gabriel sighed.

“Can you answer another question: How can we find that missing kid before it’s too late?"

Gabriel pointed to his main instrument panel. "We'll follow Miss Hunt’s energy signature.”

“How do we get her energy signature?”

“We already have it! The VIGOPS recorded it when we were near her during the battle above New York.”

“But that happened on an alternate timeline! I thought we couldn’t use people who don’t come from the Main Bough!”

“The lucky fact is that time-clones tend to have the same energy signature as do their Main Bough originals. Now that we’ve returned to the Main Bough, we will seek that energy signature’s match on this timeline.”

"So, our next step has to be a manhunt? A woman hunt?"

"Exactly," Gabriel affirmed. “When we locate Miss Hunt, we’ll ask her to help us do what she is predestined to do anyway. But this time, we’ll help her do it better, thereby saving the Multiverse."

"I get it,” I said. “But how exactly are we supposed to make it better?”

“I’m not certain. Hopefully, the events of this journey will show us the proper way,” he said.

That wasn’t much of a pep talk, but something was bothering me, something that I hadn’t thought about before. Namely, Amber Hunt wasn’t just a soulless killing machine. She had been an ordinary girl born with a tragic illness. It didn't seem right that Gabriel might sacrifice her ruthlessly for the cause of the greater good.

But, of course, he had to! And, Hell, I’d do the same thing if it were left to me! I’d hate it, but I’d still do it.

#

By then I'd been up a long time and had gone through some powerful emotional stuff. I needed serious rest. I dropped off too sleep in one of the passenger cabins and, when I woke up, Gabriel was standing by my cot. “I hope you had a good slumber,” he said. “By the way, we’re at the location where we will soon be able to rendezvous with Amber Hunt,” the Timekeeper said.

“How long have we been here?” I asked.

“About five hours.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” I demanded.

"You need to be in top form. The road ahead may be very taxing. Besides, we haven't been appreciably delayed. You were sleeping in an attenuated time field.”

I threw off the covers and stood up. “Where are we?”

“Take a look for yourself!”

I went back to the control center and took a gander through the viewing port. What I saw below wasn’t anything like I expected.

I wasn't looking at any Planet Z in the Sagittarian Arm of the Galaxy. Instead, I was staring down at my hometown -- Los Angeles, California.

What? Had Amber Hunt been hiding in Los Angeles all this time?

If she had, that could be the reason why the megalopolis looked mostly destroyed. The vista below us looked like a version of Los Angeles from Hell.

To be more exact, it looked like a cityscape that had escaped from a drug addict's apocalyptic nightmare.

This city by the sea was ash-gray and barely lit under a dim and dirty-looking sky. “Is that the Los Angeles on the Main Bough? It looks like it’s been through a war!” I was suddenly afraid for everyone I knew down there!

"Something terrible has occurred."

"Well, duh, I can see that much!"

"The good news is that we are no longer on the Main Bough. The energy traces we followed portaled us into a different timeline. We have arrived here a little before Amber Hunt is due to show up.”

“What’s the bad news?” I asked.

“The bad news is that this solar system we've entered is under siege by the Nemesis energy."

"How did that come about?"

"According to the analysis, Amber Hunt’s trail took us about a decade into the future. Rather appallingly, this is only solar system in this universe that our scanners can locate. The amazing thing is that this system has survived only because it is inside a field of attenuated time. Something must have placed this sun-and-planet system into such a field to prevent its destruction by the Nemesis Energy. Unfortunately, it is not any permanent fix."

“Does this throw a monkey wrench into our plan?”I asked.

“Not as long as Amber Hunt appears down there as expected."

"This is too crazy. Why don't we get serious about finishing the job so we can get back where we belong?"

“The VIGOPS is working on a plan that will allow us to do that.”

“I thought we already have a workable plan,” I said.

“We have one plan, but we'd run a high risk by using it. I’m hoping that if we discover a different route to the same end, we may achieve a better result. I only know this much: Our sensors reveal that the time field protecting this solar system is progressively weakening. A powerful force is controlling the flow of natural time, but it is not strong enough to maintain its control for much longer. My VIGOPS estimates that the protective field will collapse in a day – a day in attenuated time, I mean! But that’s only a rough guess. The VIGOPS is at work establishing a more accurate measurement."

"If the dam breaks, do we go under with everything else?" I asked.

“Our self-defense systems are very efficient, but unless we accomplish what we have come here to do, the entire Multiverse will eventually meet the end that this universe is about to, and nothing can survive that."

“Tell me, what power is strong enough to protect an entire solar system, even temporarily?"

"The VIGOPS knows of only one such source with that much power: the Infinity Gems. We already know that Amber Hunt fought the New York battle in possession of the Time Gem and the Reality Gem. The Time Gem is capable of protecting an entire solar system for a while. If I had to guess, I'd say that this is the planet where our version of Amber Hunt will acquire the Time Gem before taking it away to help her do battle with Nemesis.”

“But wouldn’t this Time Gem be no more than a temporal clone of the real one?”

“Not necessarily. The Time Gem can go where it wishes.”

While he was talking, I remained stunned by the sorry aspect of the wrecked and ruined Los Angeles below us. It was never a good place to live, not by a long shot, but it had become my home. It chilled my blood to see it reduced to little more than a cinder of its old self!

Gabriel continued excitedly. "I see indications of the Time Gem below, but not Amber Hunt or the Reality Gem. This provides empirical evidence that neither Amber Hunt nor the Reality Gem has arrived as yet. If we seize the Time Gem, Amber Hunt has to come to us! Unfortunately, our sensors can’t tell us more than that the Time Gem is somewhere in this vicinity. It must be deliberately hiding its whereabouts. The VIGOPS is seeking to narrow down its location, but that will take some time."

"If Hunt takes away the Time Gem, won't this solar system be destroyed immediately?" I asked.

"Yes, inevitably! But remember, this universe has only hours to live, regardless of what we do."

This apocalyptic puzzle box was making a nervous wreck of me! "So, when can we expect Amber Hunt to arrive?"

“The VIGOPS is working on an accurate estimate. If she’s hostile, it will be to our advantage to have the element of surprise.”

I laid another question on him. "Was it the Nemesis Energy that made a wreck of Los Angeles? Or was it the Time Gem? Or was it a nuclear attack?"

He shook his head. "None of those. The VIGOPS has detected a concentration of volcanic ash covering the face of this planet."

"Come again?"

"This planet has suffered from a super volcanic explosion affecting every continent. You may know that your Earth has been living in fear of such an eruption for decades.”

"This looks like there's been more happening here than just an ash fall. It looks as if there's been arson, rioting, rioting, and street-fighting. The Los Angeles I know has about nineteen million people, but this wreck of a city couldn’t support more than a few thousand. Do you suppose that the population has been wiped out?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I suspect that the inhabitants here must be starving! When people battle to survive, they usually battle against other human beings. Alas, human violence often compounds the destructive effects of natural catastrophes."

Another look through the view screen didn’t make me feel any better. Would it be of use trying to help the survivors? The Nemesis energy would be breaking through soon and would blink out the entire solar system no matter what I did. The stakes were too high for us to be scattering our resources. In this crisis, we had to think with our heads, not our hearts. Capturing Amber Hunt was the only goal that mattered. As soon as we accomplished that feat, we would have to take her away so she could do what she had to do to save the entire Multiverse from annihilation!

“What do we do if Hunt doesn’t show up?” I asked.

"In that case, we would have to fall back to a less promising plan. But the odds that she will not arrive are tiny!" Gabriel at least sounded like he believed in what he was saying.

I waited for the little man to elaborate, but he instead stepped away to check his monitors.

What an annoying moment for the usually garrulous Timekeeper to become a man of few words!

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 7.

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted Aug. 2, 2024
.

Chapter 7

THE IMPOSTOR
 
The way you see people is the way you treat them,
And the way you treat them is what they become.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
.
 
"Shouldn't we decide how to subdue someone as powerful as Amber Hunt when she drops in?" I asked Gabriel.

"I’ve been giving that a good deal of thought. Do you have any suggestions, Eden?"

"No. I was hoping that you did."

"I can assure you that the VIGOPS is now reviewing all options."

"Any civilization that leaves all its thinking and planning to machinery is heading for trouble. I hope your contraption can think faster than you seem able to do!"

"Before we commit ourselves to any definite plan," said the Timekeeper, "we need to take the measure of this world by treating with its inhabitants because living minds are always wildcards. Our sensors cannot probe people's thoughts and motivations – not unless they carry our nanobots, which give us access to their innermost thoughts."

"They're not my nanobots, they're yours! And don't think that I'm going to forgive you for cramming so much weird techno junk into my body!"

“I think you will be grateful to have that ‘techno junk' backing you up once you step into this version of Los Angeles."

"You're sending me out into No Man's Land? This is not exactly the sort of resort vacation I would have picked from a brochure."

“It's an unlovely place, I grant, but to secure the intelligence we require, we need boots on the ground."

"Isn't it convenient that they have to be my boots​?"

"Yes, your boots, alas. But in all fairness, you've become used to walking into danger for over a millennium and a half."

"I'm also the one who's gotten killed hundreds of times because I've walked into danger. What exactly is the problem with this world? I know they've had an issue with a super volcano, but I'm betting there is more going than we know about."

“That remains to be seen.”

"Can't your VIGOPS tell you? It seems to be able to do just about everything else."

“It can do very much, but not everything.”

“So, I'm supposed to find the Time Gem. But first I'd like to know if it's operating independently, or is someone controlling it?"

"I believe it's being controlled, but the standard procedure for Infinity Gems to choose their own masters. The gem probably knows that Amber Hunt is coming here, and it is waiting for her arrival."

"Why?"

"Because this plan was fashioned by the Time and Reality Gems. They are the true enemies of Nemesis. They are involving Amber Hunt in this because she is the ultra powerful enough to stop Nemesis from destroying the Multiverse."

“I can't make sense of the timeline you're feeding me! I thought the Time Gem rebelled against Nemesis and then came here. You're making it sound like the battle hasn't occurred yet.

"There was a time gap between the nanosecond when Time Gem abandoned Nemesis and the nano-second when it is yet to help Amber Hunt break the Infinity Array. To realize how important that gap is requires one to understand how the Time Gem conceives of time's flow."

“I can't follow you, and I don't think I want to," I said.

“Don’t feel discouraged. You are a skilled mystery-solver, but your world does not understand multi-dimensional physics. But because this whole world exists in a field of attenuated time, we cannot properly manipulate time to our advantage here. That means we have to work with speed to capture Amber Hunt and find the Time Gem.”

“Thanks a lot for putting the whole burden on my shoulders!"

"I assure you, Eden, I'm already doing everything possible to lighten your load."

"I can only take your word for that!" I said while surveying the grim landscape outside the Time Capsule. "If I have to traipse into a rat's nest like that, I'd feel safer toting a heavy gauge machine gun."

"You are right to anticipate violence, but even in your short lifetime of fifteen centuries, you've learned that force alone does not solve every problem. Sometimes diplomacy yields better results than does a powerful arm. We have different specialties, and this city needs a warrior's attention."

"But you just said that we need diplomacy here. Which is it? A blitzkrieg or a charm offensive? The faith you put in my versatility is touching."

Although I was being sarcastic, I actually didn't want Gabriel exposing himself to danger. What could the soft little fellow do if faced with a hard physical attack? If something nasty happened to him, I could never get home again, not even if I were still alive. I can travel through cosmic portals to the Godwheel, or cross between the Moon and the Earth, but I can't cross time. Also, I depended on Gabriel's know-how to save the Multiverse. I didn't have a clue!"

"But what happens if I’m killed?” I asked. “Do you already have my replacement in mind?" I couldn't forget that he had put a time clone of the Eden Blake into my home to care for the kids if I never returned.

"I don't wish to risk your safety if I can avoid it. But this city presents us with a challenge and you have superior instincts when reacting to unpredictable situations. So please, move with speed to scout out this city. Make every second count and take good care of yourself!"

"If I have to step into the fiery furnace, I'll need a suit of armor. I'd better switch into my Mantra costume."

Gabriel seemed to sense my ambivalence about doing that. "Is that a problem?" he asked.

“Maybe yes, maybe no.”

I didn't care to explain. In fact, since he knew everything else about me, he probably knew what the problem was. In August, I clashed with Loki on the Godwheel and after our skirmish, my magical armor started acting screwy. However, it still works how it did before its morphing ability became unstable.

The magic armor could tailor itself to reflect the character of the specific person wearing it. That meant it looked different on different people. When my friend Pinnacle transferred my life essence – my soul as I call it – into the body of a cloned male, it left the soul of Eden Blake in command of her own body. Unfortunately, the disembodied spirit of my enemy, Necromantra, had been following us around and took that opportunity to enter Eden's body to possess it. Whenever I wore it, it looked like a metallic version of a Miss America swimsuit. But when Thanasi's rotten spirit took control of it, it started looking like a costume out of some super-heroine porn fick.

I got the armor back after a few days and everything was fine until my encounter with Loki. Its morphing powers went bonkers then, and it started taking a new shape every little while. And some of those shapes have been even less tasteful than Necromantra's outfit.

"All right," I said to Gabriel. "I'll change inside that little room you gave me since it has a mirror."

I went to my cabin and flashed into my Mystic Closet by mental command. My reflected outfit was something I'd never seen before. I didn't find it unsuitable for public viewing, though it differed from my regular attire in unimportant details. A person who saw me wearing it might even mistake me for Mantra. My only major gripe was that the cape was overly long and capes were always catching on things.

Dressed to the nines, I hastened to rejoin Gabriel in the control room. He had already settled the Time Capsule down to earth. I rechecked the viewing port and saw that we were parked inside a dim back alley. I was ready to set out, but when I looked around the control room I couldn't see an exit to the outdoors.

"Did the exit door disappear?" I asked.

“Morphing is an automatic function of the vehicle," he said. "Because unneeded doors create structural weaknesses in an emergency, the Time Capsule eliminates them.

"If you say so, but I couldn't stay sane living in a place that was continually changing shape."

A hatch materialized before my eyes, probably at the Timekeeper's mental command. I tried the latch, and it opened. With a small leap, I made my exit.

The little man called after me, "We'll stay in communication through our nano-technological link. I’ll do my best to intervene to help you…if something goes awry."

"Thanks," I said with little enthusiasm.

The ground crunched when my feet struck it. I was standing on a bed of volcanic ash. That didn't disconcert me much; I'd had to stride across ash beds before this. There are few situations I haven't dealt with over the last fifteen hundred years -- except for one thing. I've never successfully healed a broken heart.

I magically scanned the area, wary of hidden surprises. I sensed human lifeforms located nearby and directed my steps toward the strongest source of them.

The surrounding buildings were utterly lifeless. This version of L.A. was nothing but an almost empty shell of itself.

I saw some light at the end of the alleyway. This turned out to be crudely lit fires in metal drums, apparently the apocalyptic version of streetlights. On the horizon were towering buildings, with all their hundreds of windows unlit. I was trying not to imagine doubles of Gus and Evie existing in this awful place. I winced at the thought of Gus and Evie living in such a place. Of course, maybe they weren't living. Most of the world's population must have died because of the catastrophe.

But I couldn't let myself think about such things. I needed to hold steady. If I let personal feelings distract me, my mission could become a fiasco, and I didn't dare let that happen. The stakes were way, way too high.

I made my way toward the human life traces that I’d detected. They originated behind the piles of wreckage ahead. To avoid getting bushwhacked on the ground, I took to the air and wrapped myself in a protective force field.

From aloft, the city looked like an unfixable wreck. I spotted a squad of thuggish shapes beyond a ridge of piled junk. They didn't look like anyone I'd like to meet, but I had a job to perform. While slowly descending, I maintained my force field. I wasn't expecting to find anything down there except trouble.

My boots sank into a deep bed of volcanic dust. The light was poor, and the shadows were heavy. I glimpsed movement between the mounds of wreckage. "Hello," I called out. "I'm a visitor from another town. I've dropped in to visit the local boss."

A shaggy-haired hulk of a man stepped into view. "Stay where you are, impostor!" he shouted.

My brow furrowed. I’d never been called an impostor before. Why would he think I was an imposter? Was there a clone copy of Mantra in this city? If so, how did he know that I wasn't her? Did she have a stable costume that he was used to?  

"I don't like people pointing guns at me," I told the guy. "Who' s your commander?"

"Watch out; she may be an ultra," someone still hiding shouted. "If she's got half the power of the real Mantra, we'll need backup. I'll connect with His Majesty's master-at-arms."

I heard a walky-talky conversation and could only suppose that no cell service existed where were were. The survivors would be using whatever old tech they were lucky enough to unearth.

"If you guys don't like my looks, I can scram out of here," I suggested.

Just then, a telepathic communique came to me from Gabriel. "Eden, I'm pleased you are already in contact with the authorities."

"I don't have very high expectations about these 'authorities,'" I said. "Things probably won't get any better even if I meet with their boss. Petty dictators are hard people to deal with."

"No doubt you are well versed in handling such situations."

"I am, unfortunately."

The tough guys had been quiet for the last couple of minutes, so I called out: "Is everything okay, or do you gents want me to beat it?"

"Stay where you are or we'll open fire," yelled some out-of-sight person.

"I wouldn’t want that to happen," I replied.

Just then a man-mountain came stomping into view and I recognized him from my Aladdin data-processing job.

"Is your name Rubble?" I asked. "Are you in command around here, or do you report to someone else?"

Rubble, a bad ultra who liked to break things, gave me a scowl.

"Watch out; she may be an ultra," the hyper-cautious walky-talky man shouted again.

"Get His Majesty online!" Rubble barked.

Majesty? Their Fearless Leader must have had visions of grandeur! Well, why not talk to the pack's big dog? Going back and forth with these snapping puppies promised to get me nowhere.  

That's when everything went black.

#

I woke up with a pounding headache. Had I been hit? If so, what had hit me – and why hadn’t my force field kept me safe?

"She's already waking up," said a woman. "I should have hit her harder."

With my vision clearing, I made out a female wearing dusty, threadbare togs. She was someone else I recognized from Aladdin's files – a cut-and-dried villainess known as Neuronne. She'd been a member of TNTNT – an ultra-outlaw gang. The maid of mayhem had the power to let fly with mental whammies. I'd been lucky. By rep, she could scramble a person's thinking power for the long term.

I cussed myself! While I allowed the toughs to keep me busy, Neuronne had come out of nowhere using a psionic attack. I been supposing that these Dead End Kids had no brain power behind them.

It was time to let Gabriel know that I was in trouble, but my telepathic call was answered by silence. Now that I wanted a little company, I was on my own!

"Back off!” barked someone in the shadow of a refuse pile. “I’ll interrogate the imposter personally."

"Yes, sir, King Warstrike," replied Rubble.

Had I heard him say, King Warstrike? A tall, wide, body-builder shape dressed in red and blue spandex stepped into the yellow light of a garbage fire.

"B-Brandon?" I muttered.

"The spy has disrespected you, my liege," said someone in his entourage. “Should I strike her?"

"If she needs to be hit, I’ll do the hitting," Tark rumbled.

This was loopy. How had the billionaire I'd known from back home become a bogus king running a mostly dead city? This clown surely did look like Brandon Tark, though. Had he been friends with Mantra? I hoped so.

Otherwise, the odds of me living through the next few minutes were about nil.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 8

The Twilight of the Gods -- a Story of Mantra

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 8

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 08-27-24

 

 
KING WARSTRIKE
 
He is happiest, be he king or peasant,
Who finds peace in his own home.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The gang of thuggish ultras took me into a large and barren room in a stone building. It wasn’t easy keeping up with them, since that glitchy costume of mine had put me into high-heeled show boots. They bullied me into a building that I recognized as the Los Angeles National Guard Armory and pushed me into a bleak room. Disconcertingly, the windows were barred, which seemed to put me into the category being of a high-security threat.

I tried to reach Gabriel telepathically again, but I still couldn’t reach him. I’m used to computerized systems glitching, but I had a right to expect his advanced systems to behave better than a Walmart desktop!

"King" Warstrike had entered the room behind the rest of us and now stood there studying me. I decided to take off my silver mask. I thought that if looked more like the Mantra he presumably knew, it would scale back his suspicious hostility.

"I would have sold my soul to have Mantra returned to me," he said, "but you can't be her."

My mind was still hazy from Neuron’s blast, so I tried hard to focus. "T-This is an authentic Mantra costume," I said. "It looks different from what you must be used to because it got shaken when I battled with a super-wizard. Now it wants to slip into a different morph every little while.” I didn’t want to tell him that the wizard had been a god from Norse mythology. That much truth would probably convince him that I was lying.

“I happened to know where Mantra's authentic costume is. I took it off her dead body. That means that you’re not Mantra, and that's not her outfit you're wearing!” said Brandon Tark. “Who in hell are you?”

I was stunned by what he said. “I’m a different Eden Blake, Mantra, and Lukasz from the one you know," I told him. "I come from an alternate dimension. I’m sorry about your Mantra; I would have liked to meet her. But I’m a new visitor to this world,” I said.

“That sounds like a load of crap!”

“If you think that's bad, wait until I tell you the rest – Majesty. Maybe we should speak in private. Once you’ve had the full story, you decide who you want to share it with."

"Majesty," a guard said, "she wants to be alone with you. She must be an assassin."

"I bet he talks that way about all the girls,” I said, weakly chuckling.

"You sound so much like Mantra it's uncanny," said the big man.

“You sound like the Warstrike I know, too.” I took a gander at his peculiar outfit. He was wearing a chest-baring, black leather vest with epaulets – a weird combination of formality and informality. He came off looking more like a rock star than a monarch. What happened, bro? Did your old spandex wear out?” I asked.

But he didn’t give me back talk for my flippancy. The man’s face had gone into a thousand-mile stare. I knew Warstrike, and I’d seen that look before. His psychic powers sometimes allowed him to see visions of the future. When that happened, a person had to wait calmly until he came out of it.

Tark abruptly shook himself and glanced around at his guards. “I’ve had a vision,” he said. “This woman doesn’t mean to harm us! I don’t want anyone hurting her!"

"Are you so sure, Handsome One?" said some out-of-sight female.

Out of sight but not out of mind. I recognized the voice. I always hated being tied up when one of my old enemies popped in!

"Queen Necromantra," said Warstrike irritably. "Save the pet names for when we're alone."

Queen Necromantra? King Warstrike?

This setup was getting crazier and crazier!

Warstrike’s gun-toting lackeys made way for the so-called queen. Now I was squared off with one of my most lethal personal enemies.

"You do really make a convincing Mantra,” she said, “except that your costume is a clumsy knock-off. Highness, have you asked her why she’s appeared deliberately dressed to provoke you?"

“He doesn’t have to ask,” I said. “I want to give him the straight skinny.”

"Help her stand up," the king told his guardsmen. Apparently, they liked that order and they came in a cluster to put their hands all over me. Boys will be boys.

"Who are you, really?" Warstrike asked.

I took a deep breath, trying to keep my balance on unsteady,igh-heeled feet. "I'm the Mantra from another reality. I've come because you and I have sensitive information to discuss – Your Majesty."

Tark stood cross-armed regarding me. I wondered whether this version of Warstrike had a heart of gold, or if he had been born bad in this world.

"This impostor isn’t Mantra, so who is she?" Necromantra asked.

"Follow me into the next room," he said to me. "The rest of you, clear out and attend to the queen by the entryway."

I wondered what his psychic vision had told him. He didn’t seem to be quite so hostile as before.

The self-appointed monarch strode back out into the room we had entered by, with me trailing behind on unsteady legs. I kept one eye on Necromantra, in case she decided to toss a back-shot my way. In all fairness, the Thanasi I was consistently straightforward about killing. So far, I hadn't seen her off someone by a snake assassination.

"Shut the door," Tark said, and one of his guards complied. Then he motioned me to an old sofa. I was glad enough to sit down. At least the windows of this room weren't barred.

"You move like Eden Blake, I'll give you that."

"Like I said, I’m another version of Eden Blake, but not the version that you're familiar with"

He glowered. "Why do you keep going on about alternate dimensions?"

“Maybe you remember that old TV series, Sliders? The real universe is a lot like that."

“You’re serious?” To my surprise, he sat down on the sofa next to me. He apparently really didn't believe that I'd come to kill him.

"As serious as I can be,” I said.

“If you come from another world, what are you doing here now?” he asked.

“It’s the usual thing. I'm trying to save the universe. Otherwise, I’d much rather be at home with the kids."

“What kids?”

“Evie and Gus.”

He winced. "You say their names with the same twang that the real Mantra used.”

“I think that your Mantra and I must have had a lot in common.

“Give me the whole story. If I like it, I might help you. If you go on talking crazy, I may have to kill you.” Then he added, “I hope we can work together again, like we used to.”

I nodded and began my spiel, without going into excessive. When I finished, I said, "That's all she wrote. Any questions?"

“How do you like our city?” he inquired.

That question was off the wall. “At best, it's a fixer-upper. That guy I mentioned, Gabriel, said you’ve had trouble with a volcano. Is that right?”

I could tell from his expression that he didn’t want to discuss that subject. “I take it that Yellowstone didn’t go up on your world?”

"No, it didn't," I said. "So, the Yellowstone super-volcano wrecked Los Angeles?"

"It sure did, and the rest of the world, too. But volcanic damage was only the start of this city’s problems."

“It never rains but it pours,” I observed. But I didn’t want to tell him the whole story, that this world only had about one day more to exist.

“Please explain something,” I said. “If every city has a king now, does that mean that the USA doesn't have a working central government?"

“The US? Definitely not. It's hard to find out what's happening in the rest of the world, but everything coming at us here is bad.”

I looked around the room, lit only by homemade lanterns. It gave off a real survivalist feel. I would have thought a king's palace would have been stocked up on the best picks from Los Angeles’s refuse heaps.

“I see what you mean,” I said. “Did people have any warning before the volcano blew?”

"No. And it wasn't a natural eruption," he said bitterly.

“What do you mean it wasn’t natural?”

“The people had gotten behind the army and the new president and the Deep State found that its choke-hold on power was breaking down. That’s when they decided to destroy the whole country and take the resources they still had to take over and rule some other continent.”

I wondered if he was talking about the sick-minded and morally rotten Deep State that we’d been dealing with at home. "Who were the bad guys in this world?”

He looked damned angry. “Billionaires, trillionaires, the international banks. China was backing them all the way. When the US Army cut off their control of the American nuclear stockpile, the CCP provided them with the nuke they needed to set off the Yellowstone blast.”

That certainly sounded like the Deep State I knew. “What happened then?”

“Look around. That’s what happened.”

“What are the prospects for getting back on your feet?”

“They’re going from bad to worse.

“How many Americans survived?”

“I can’t say. Many millions died from having to breathe in volcanic ash. The climate is all screwed up and starvation is everywhere. The Southern Hemisphere wasn't hit so hard as we were, but things aren't great there either. There was no reverse illegal immigration allowed. The federales used heavy ordinance to kill any going south over the border. Most of the rejected northern refugees died by the border, without enough food or strength to get back home.”

“That sounds grim."

"It was no surprise that ultras were the fittest for survival. We worked together for a while. But suddenly about half of the ultras decided to band together and start a revolution.”

“What are people rebelling against?”

“To get rid of me mostly They've never spelled out what they want to do differently, other than to have kangaroo trials and lots of executions, I mean.”

“When did the volcano blow?” I asked.

“About nine years ago. But that’s not even the craziest thing that happened.”

"What can be worse?"

"Every star in the sky went out, except our sun Sol, and the planets around it."

That figured. According to Gabriel, the Time Gem could only protect a limited area, no more than a single solar system. Everything outside of the protected space would have been transformed into nothingness by the Nemesis Energy.

“Prime told us that there had been an attack by a goddess from outer space. But if that’s so, we can’t do anything about it. Fighting for our lives takes up all of our attention.”

"Your people keep calling me an impostor. How did the Mantra of your world...die?"

He looked away.

“The rebels kill her?”

"No. Back then, we were constantly being attacked by armed bands from outside, looting food and clean water. Mostly, they were violent illegals. The most dangerous were the hardcore military deserter units packing heavy weapons. Our ultras fought back and we stood them off. But the day came when Prime, Mantra, and some other good people got the worst of up against a military gang. The deserters were beaten off, but our people turned against one another.”

“When did Necromantra show up?” I asked suspiciously.

“It was a few weeks after Mantra died.”

"That doesn't smell right! I said.

He nodded. "If one scrap of legitimate proof had come up against Marinna, I would have killed her myself.”

“I’m only surprised she hasn’t already killed you and taken over. Did you actually marry here? What did you gain from that?”

"It’s hard to explain. But she’s one of the most powerful people in the city and she decided to fight on my side.”

“Why do you trust her? My Warstrike knew what a rat she was. Even if you didn’t, you had to have figured it out eventually. By the way, Necromantra started out as a guy, another knight of Archimage like I was. Did you know that?”

“Yes, I knew that much about her. But remember. I was the guy that married Mantra."

“What? Mantra and you got married?”

“Why? Didn't you and your version of Brandon Tark get married?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“Maybe because we didn't have a super-volcano to drive us out of our minds! But you said that happened nine years ago. Two years ago Archimage and his knights were still alive and nothing big had happened yet. Did I mention that the space scientist brought me into the future?"

“What year do you come from?” Tark asked.

I told him, and he shook his head. "If that's true, you probably don’t know that Evie is sixteen now!"

“Hell!” I said.

"Anyway," he pressed, "things fell apart here when Eden died. Mantra was the real leader, and I supplied the muscle. She had a way of getting people to work together and be better people than they naturally were. Necromantra is as powerful as Mantra, but every time she opens her mouth, she divides the people more. It doesn’t help that we lost some of our steadiest people, like Hardcase and Prime."

I felt sorry, but there was nothing I could do to save this universe. If I understood him, the whole universe was empty except for the Sol solar system.

“Brandon,” I asked, “you say Evie is sixteen. Is Gus still alive?”

“They’re both well. They’re with me here in this armory.

That was a load off my mind. Though full of questions, I didn’t want to get involved in the problems of this dying universe. It was best if I didn’t get to know the version of my kids living here. The very thought of their imminent deaths felt like an attack of acid reflux.

I changed the subject. “This place is an armed camp,” I said. “What is everyone fighting about?"

"As far as I can see, everyone's fighting because they're desperate for a win, even though they're foggy about what sort of prize they're seeking. Trying to govern ultras is like trying to herd cats. After Eden died, one of my political enemies decided to form a coalition to unite the less stable people against me. I tried to beat the people back into order and the killing started. Somewhere along the way, people started calling me their king, but we haven't been able to stamp out the violent people. Lately, they've been making gains against our side.”

I definitely didn’t want to have anything to do with this world. "I'm an outsider, and what goes on here isn't my business,” I said. “But why do the people on your side all seem to be ex-criminals? Can it be that your side has been mistreating the people?"

The big man gritted his teeth. “I wish things were different, but I want this city to be a civilized place and have no choice but to use the support I have. Selfish people often turn out to be the easiest sort to work with. You know what they say, thieves hang together. You know a lot of history, Luke. Doesn't history tell you that it's the impractical idealists that use government to do the really crazy things when they take power? Look at France, Russia, and China."

"Even if that's so, what needs to be done to bring order out of all this chaos?”

“What I’d like to do is stop the fighting so we can work together to produce enough food to feed everyone."

“If you could, would you be willing to feed even your enemies?”

“That’s a tricky question. For a long time, there won't be enough to go around. We can't share with people unwilling to work with us.”

“So, how is the ‘friends only' approach working out?”

"Not well. But we don't hear anything except nuttiness coming from the other side. If we stopped fighting, I'd think they'd give us the Czar Nicolas treatment.”

I was getting only one side of the argument and couldn’t offer a valid judgment. Warstrike had made some bad mistakes, no doubt. Brandon Tark had impressed me as a good fighter but not a good leader. I knew him as a rambunctious loose cannon whose bull-in-the-china-shop methods for handling problems were too direct and heavy-handed. But what did I know? Maybe a world as crazy as this one needed a crazy man to run it. What I wanted above all was to finish the job and leave this nightmare version of my world behind.

“Would you like to see Gus and Evie?" Brandon asked suddenly.

I swallowed hard. “T-That might not be a good idea,” I stammered. “I can't stay for very long. How would it help the kids if their mother suddenly drops in and leaves again tomorrow? And seeing them living miserably in a messed up place like this is going to slam me emotionally, too. I have to stay focused. If I haven't already told you, my mission is to keep the alien goddess you heard of from annihilating all the alternate dimensions, including my home universe.”

Tark sighed. “Do what you have to do, Eden. But the kids are already hurting. It hurt them terribly not having had a chance to say goodbye to their mom. They never got the closure that the human heart needs."

This discussion was pointless. The kids would only have to bear their grief for a few hours longer. Death isn’t a happy solution, but death was coming and it was going to put an end to all the heartache going on in this world.

"Hey," Tark suddenly said, "I was just thinking. If you never married your version of me in your timeline, does that mean my Jamie was never born?"

I looked askance. “Your daughter Jamie died years before I met you. She was killed by gangsters who came gunning for you. I'm hoping that that that tragedy didn't happen in this world."

He winced as if I’d torn open an old wound.

“Oh, that happened here,” he sighed. “But when our Jamie was born, Mantra suggested we name her after the child I'd loved and lost."

My mouth dropped open. “Mantra’s Jamie? Are you saying that Mantra and you had a daughter?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I guess that didn't happen in your reality.”

“It sure as hell didn’t happen!” I said.

“That’s sort of too bad. Mantra was always a great adoptive mother for Evie and Gus. But after she had Jamie, Eden became an absolutely incredible parent.”

This news wasn’t easy to wrap my mind around.

Most of all, I was staggered to think that I – sort of – had a daughter that I never met living on this planet?

Was she living in this very building?

I definitely didn’t want to meet her!

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 9

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 9

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 09-16-24

You can easily judge the character of a man
By how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Just what do you expect to accomplish by coming here?" Tark asked suddenly.

"I came to find someone," I said. "We have good reason to think that a powerful ultra will soon be stopping here."

"Is there a lot of this dimension-jumping going on?"

"More than you'd guess."

"Who's the 'we' you're referring to?"

I didn't want "King Warstrike" to know too much and especially didn't want to start a manhunt for Gabriel. I still didn’t know if this version of Brandon Tark could be trusted, and tyrants are notoriously double-dealing.

"I'm helping a group from the Godwheel – a race of super-scientific geniuses. They’re trying to catch up with a female ultra who they think can help us, but up to now, she's been a loose cannon. We have to convince her to join the team and take our advice.”

He thought briefly and said, "Okay, you just do that. I'm more concerned with the mess that's going on right here. But somehow I get the idea that things aren't going so well in your universe, either."

"That’s for sure!”

“Do you suppose that your Deep State is going to do your world in, too?"

"It's possible; those bastards are capable of anything. But our biggest problem right now doesn’t have anything to do with the Deep State. If we survive the catastrophe we’re currently dealing with, maybe I can turn my attention to that gang of psychotics, mass murderers, and traitors."

There came a tapping at the door.

"It's open!" Warstrike yelled.

A uniformed man stepped over the threshold followed by a girl who wasn’t Evie.

"Daddy?" she said to Warstrike.

"Shut the door behind you, Maverick," he told the guard. Then, to the child, he said, “Come here, Jamie.”

This was Jamie, the daughter of Warstrike and Mantra! She was looking at me with her eyes wide and her mouth open.

"This lady," the child said, "she's dressed like pictures of ..."

This is your aunt, Jennifer," her father lied. "She's your mother's twin sister."

Jennifer? That was my least favorite name for a woman -- and Warstrike knew it!

“I didn’t know Mommy had a twin,” she said.

“Ah, yes she did,” Brandon answered. “Your mom and I thought Aunt Jennifer died years ago. That was sad, and we didn’t want to tell you about things that would make you sad. Why don’t you give your auntie a nice big hug?”

She looked at me uncertainly and then came my way. I knelt so that I could look into her eyes. They were just as blue as her father’s.

And her mother’s.

Jamie put her arms around my neck and gave me a long, strong hug.

“You look just like Mommy! And you look like my sister Evie, too!”

“I look like Evie?” I said. “What a surprise!”

I was wondering about my specific relationship with this child? If her mother was a clone she would have the same genetics as I. If I looked at that clone as being my twin sister, that would make me Jamie's aunt. I liked that idea; it made the two of us close, but not so close as to create a messy situation.

I looked up at Warstrike. "Brandon, we have to talk about grownup things. Maybe Jamie shouldn’t have to listen to all that."

He nodded and said, "Jamie, your aunt is right. You should go back to your room with the guard."

"Can I tell Evie and Gus about seeing Aunt Jennifer?" she asked.

Tark sent me a questioning look.

I said, "Maybe you shouldn’t tell your brother and sister about me until suppertime tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to meet them at a super-secret surprise party!”

Jamie smiled, liking the idea.

I was trying to delay the meeting until I was gone from this world and everyone in it would be….dead.

Also, if the kids knew I was here, they’d tell Jamie I was lying. Eden never had a sister, much less a twin sister.

Laughing, Jamie said, “Okay!” Then her dad took her by the hand and led her to the door.

When Tark and I were alone again, I asked, "Why did your version of Mantra marry you? I never would have.”

“Why? Am I so bad a catch?”

“Maybe it's just that your Mantra lived as a woman longer than I have. So far, you haven't started looking like my type.”

"The main reason we got married was because we had a baby on the way."

"Perfect," I said sarcastically.

"Those were terrible times,” he said. “We found ourselves avoiding close ties with everyone because frightened people need to think of their leadership as strong. If we leveled with them, they would have realized that we were just as messed up as everybody else. Eden and I needed each other because we didn’t have anyone else to turn to."

"I get the picture," I said, wanting to drop the subject. “I'm just glad Mantra wasn't to blame for starting this civil war!"

"Exactly how different are the two of?" he asked.

"Plenty different. I haven't gone through the same hell that she did. Back home, you and I were just good friends, and that's the way we wanted it."

“Mantra and I started as good friends, too,” Tark replied.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

He suddenly changed the subject. "Jamie isn’t good at keeping secrets. What will you say to the kids when they show up wanting a look at you?"

"I hope I can avoid that. My job is crucial. If it fails, things are going to get soooo bad. It will be like the whole Big Bang never happened."

"You come from the Dark Ages, Luke. Since when did a half-Polish Visigothic barbarian like Lukasz Theordoricson start believing in the Big Bang?"

“Not until the Twentieth Century, actually."

“Do you think Twentieth Century people were smarter than people living before them?"

“Well, no,” I had to admit.

“Okay, skip the subject,” Warstrike said. “What about that woman you’re looking for? Who is she? Anyone I’ve heard of?"

"Oh, yes, you certainly know her. She’s called Amber Hunt."

"Whoa! Amber Hunt?! That nut case almost cauterized the entire planet with gamma radiation. How can you depend on someone like her to save the multiverse you believe in?”

"I’m working with people who think she’s salvageable. Amber was just an ordinary college girl before the Exiles got her involved in some risky science that went out of control."

“Even if that's so, is it smart to trust her? A mad dog isn't responsible for getting sick, but it still has to be put down,” he said.

Then his expression changed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I saw Amber Hunt in the skies over Los Angeles. She was glowing. Is it possible that a child might see the same thing and describe her as a 'Flaming Woman'?"

"I suppose it’s possible. Why?"

"My daughter keeps dreaming about somebody she calls the Flaming Woman."

My brow furrowed. "Tell me more."

"Jamie’s been saying things that make me think she’s inherited my power of precognition."

"If she’s predicting the arrival of a 'Flaming Woman,' why haven’t you?”

“You know how quirky my power can be. Or is your Tark different?"

"No, he’s no different."

Warstrike shrugged. "Anyway, Jamie has been dreaming that a Flaming Woman is coming to do away with me."

"That’s pretty specific. What does Amber Hunt have against you?"

"I don't know. Did she have a bad relationship with your Brandon Tark?"

"Not as far as I know."

“If she’s after me, maybe I should kill her before she kills me."

I shook my head. "No, don’t think that way! We need Amber Hunt. Otherwise, the whole universe is going to be lost.”

“And you know this because you’ve seen it while time-traveling?”

“I’ve actually seen that final battle. If things play out the same way in my time-dimension, we’re all doomed.”

"I don't know if I should listen to you, Luke. I've survived as long as I have because I've been taking out my enemies as soon as they show their hand."

"Look at it this way. My friends and I want to escort the girl out of this universe as quickly as possible. She can't hurt you then."

Tark clenched his teeth. "You're tackling a big job, but you don't seem to have any ideas about fixing the much smaller problems we have here."

I didn't dare tell him that his problems were much bigger than he knew. Instead, I said, "I wish I could suggest something. Have you offered the opposition peace terms – along with the offer to relinquish your authority?”

"If I did that, my people would turn against me. I'd become everybody's fall guy. You've lived long enough to know what happens to ex-kings during violent times.”

"Well, I can’t argue with that,” I said. "Listen, I'll make you a deal.”

"What kind of deal?"

"I'll let the other side know about the Flaming Woman. I'll explain that we need a truce until we can get rid of her."

“Well, if they were sane, it might be worth trying."

"I can't just stand around doing nothing. I have to get into contact with the other side as soon as possible. Am I free to do that or am I a prisoner here?” If you want me to talk to your enemies, I’ll need freedom of movement."

"I see your point," he said. "Do what you can do.”

"I’ll be winging it, but I promise I'll do my damnest to be an honest broker. But remember, my focus has to remain on corralling Amber Hunt."

“She's powerful. Are you ready to take her on?"

"Like I said, I'll do my best. What's next?"

"You're free. Do you want a bodyguard detail for your truce talk?"

I wondered whether that would make things safer or less safe in a situation so volatile.

A tapping at the door interrupted me. I read the bio-signature on its other side and it turned out to be a familiar one. Very familiar. A shiver ran through me.

Warstrike walked to peer through the security slot before he lifted the latch.

The door opened upon a dark-haired girl in her middle teens.

It was Evie Blake.

Her eyes widened when she caught sight of me. My eyes must have been pretty wide, too. Jamie’s big sister was the image of Eden Blake at her age. I was seeing my second-grade daughter as a nearly grown woman.

I was glad to see that she wasn’t too shabbily dressed, and didn’t look underfed.

Behind Evie, stood an excited Jamie. Tark had been right; his daughter was not good at keeping secrets.

"Jamie – Evie, come in," Warstrike said. He took Jamie’s hand as she entered. "Sweetie," he said, "have you dreamed about the Flaming Woman since we last spoke about her?"

She nodded. "Yes, Daddy. I didn’t tell you because I got so excited when I met Auntie Jennifer."

"Mantra has seen the Flaming Woman, too. We have to find out as much about her as we can before she arrives."

The little girl veered my way. "Mantra, is the Flaming Woman coming to hurt us?"

I drew a deep breath. "I believe she's coming, but maybe it's not because she wants to hurt anybody. I hope she'll want to give us some help."

Jamie frowned. "How can she help us? She's bad, isn't she?"

I tried to smile. "I don't think she wants to be bad. Sometimes a person who gets confused and afraid will act like someone bad. I need to talk sense to the Flaming Woman, so she'll agree to help us save a lot of innocent people."

"Will she save Daddy and our friends?"

"Yes, and other good people, too." That wasn’t true, but why would anyone care to help me if they knew they were going to die tomorrow?

"You’re not any aunt of mine!" Evie suddenly shouted.

I glanced her way. I'd never be able to convince her that her mother had a sister. Unfortunately, I didn't think it would be easy to convince her of the truth either.

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 10

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 10

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 09-16-24

“It's true that nothing in this world makes us so necessary to others as the affection we have for them.”

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
.

THE BIG SISTER

Chapter 10

"Brandon," said my adopted daughter, "our mother had no sister. Didn't you know that?"

"Of course, I knew, but it might have frightened Jamie if she learned the real story," her stepfather answered.

“What’s the truth!” Evie demanded.

“That's something for your...aunt to tell you," Warstrike replied.

At that, father and daughter left the room, with the guards trailing after. If ever there had been a time when two people needed privacy, this was it!

"What is the truth?” my daughter repeated, her jaw jutting defiantly, her expression bewildered.

“I truly am Eden Blake, but I’m not exactly your mother. I come from an alternate dimension.”

“What?!”

“I'm trying to say that I’m a version of your mother from an alternate world. It’s complex. Do you see why I didn't want to explain to your preschool sister where I come from?"

“Are you talking about alternate dimensions like in science fiction books?”

“Yes. Your stepfather believes me and it would be nice if you would, too.”

“If you're telling the truth, why are you here?”

“I have a job to do. 'Ultra stuff,' as you used to call it. I've not only had to travel here from another timeline, but I've also had to come about nine years into the future. When I left my own Evie and Gus, they were still in elementary school. Just by looking at you, I'll know what my little girl will look like when she’s almost grown up."

Her brow furrowed. “You look exactly the way I remember you – her."

The teen’s face suddenly filled with so much hurt that I felt like taking her into my arms.

Evie shook her head. "I dreamed a thousand times about you not being dead. But if you're not my real mom, the dream hasn't come true. I guess it never will."

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to meet you on this trip because I knew it would hurt you when I had to go away again.”

She pulled back and looked away from me. "Have you come to help us with the war and the hunger?” she asked.

"No. I came for another reason. Until today, I didn’t know this world existed, or how bad the situation would be here."

“So, why did you come at all?”

"I'm looking for the Flaming Woman, the one Jamie keeps dreaming about?"

“That’s just a dream.”

"No. Jamie has an ultra-power similar to Brandon's. If the Flaming Woman comes, she might be able to help us save untold billions of lives, not only on Earth but on other planets, too."

"Will she save our lives here?” Evie asked.

“I’m not sure.”

Sometimes I think that most lies are told to be kind. There was nothing anyone could do to save her world. The Nemesis power had already flooded this timeline and its destructive effects could no longer be staved off. The Time Gem had delayed the timeline’s annihilation, but its power was nearly exhausted. There was no hope for this world, but I still hoped to save millions of others.

“Was there a super-volcano in the world where you came from?” Evie asked.

“No, not yet. If there’s a chance to stop it, I'll do everything possible.”

“How can you help so many others, but not help us?”

“There's a big difference in preventing something from happening and changing something that's already happened. I have no power that can rebuild all the wreckage in this world.”

She looked away, depressed.

"How bad have things been for you here?"

She shook her head without looking back. "I think the rebels will attack the castle soon. They've wanted to kill Warstrike and Necromantra for years. Maybe they'll kill all the rest of us, too. I don't know."

"So you think that your – stepdad – is going to lose the fight?"

She nodded. "I think he will."

I stepped up behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders. I had been expecting my daughter to grow up in a happier world than this one and be in love with living. But this reality was a bizarre parody of my world. It had nothing to offer except wreckage, fear, violence, and death.

"I'm going to talk to the rebels. Maybe that will do some good," I said. "But I've been wondering, how has Warstrike been treating you?"

"He's been okay. I think he cares about us because he loved our mother. It must be torture for him to look at you knowing that she hasn't really come back."

"Have you been able to keep up with your studies?" I asked.

She turned suddenly and incredulously. "How can something like that matter to you?"

I forced a smile. “I don’t want any dimensional version of Evie Blake to grow up a dummy."

"I can read and write and do arithmetic. Brandon finds us tutors. Anyone with something worth teaching us can get better eating if he helps us rather than living in the streets."

"Knowing that makes me like my old friend even better than I already do. What kind of a king has he been?" I asked.

She glanced at the door nervously.

"Are you afraid that someone is listening?" I asked.

"I – I don't know," she replied haltingly. "Everybody’s always spying. If Dad doesn't do it, Necromantra will."

The sound of that bitch’s name spoiled my mood.

"I’ve been wondering about Necromantra. How has seen been treating you?"

Evie shuddered. "I hate her! She killed my mother."

It was true. Necromantra had murdered the real Eden Blake. "Yes," I said, "but has she tried to harm you?" In my timeline, the witch had tried to drain Evie's magical potential into herself. That was a dangerous operation, especially if carried out by the crude methods that came naturally to Necromantra.

"She keeps her distance," said Evie. "It's horrible having the murderer of your mother living in the same house with you!"

"I'd agree. Why does your stepdad put up with her?"

“I’m not sure. Maybe it's because Necromantra is so powerful. She likes to fight, and there is plenty of fighting to do. But I don’t know why they thought they had to get married.”

"How do they behave with each other?"

Looking perplexed, she said, “I don't think Brandon trusts her, but she fascinates him somehow." Evie lowered her voice. "It's crazy, especially since there's talk that she used to be a man."

"Does she act like a man?" I replied evasively.

"Not that I can see."

I smiled. "Well, maybe the rumors aren't true then."

But instead of smiling, Evie's expression intensified.

"Mom – Mantra, I mean, are you like my mother? She told me that she had the ghost of a man inside her, like people say Marinna does." She carefully watched my expression.

"I hoped that by the time you grew up, you'd have forgotten what I said," I told her gently.

"I almost did. I tried to. I couldn't understand how a stranger, especially a man, could talk and behave so much like my real mother and still not be her. After a while, I tried not to think about it at all. A lot of the time, I pretended that you really were my mother."

I knew the reason that Evie had come away so confused. I'd never explained that the two of us hadn't met for the first time on the day of her mother's murder. I'd already been in her mother’s body for more than a year. That was why she didn't see any abrupt change in my behavior and how, from the first day, I appeared to know so much about the everyday life of the Blake family.

“Are you exactly like the real Mantra?” Evie suddenly asked.

I smiled. “I’ve always thought of myself as the real Mantra. I never knew your mother existed until today. But I think I must be almost the same as your mother was ten years ago -- before the volcano happened.”

“You almost make me feel like my mother has come back. Do you have to leave?” she asked.

“Yes, I do. I don’t have any choice about that. Too many people on too many worlds need the help the Flaming Woman against a terrible enemy.”

"Then tell me something ugly about yourself, so I won't have to miss you when you go!”

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"If you're an awful person, tell me about it, so I won't be sorry that you're gone! Like, were you really a man? What kind of a man were you? An outlaw?"

In fact, I'd done plenty of things to be sorry for. It wouldn't be hard to make Evie hate and despise me.

But I couldn't bring myself to destroy my daughter's regard for me, even if it gave her closure. "Evie, I was a man in love with your mother and we both wanted to get married. I already loved you and your brother and I wanted to be your new father. I've made mistakes, but I always thought I was doing the right thing. I'm not perfect, but I'm not a deliberate monster, either. After I go, please remember that you're not alone. Your mother exists in millions of different timelines, and all of us love you."

Suddenly, she looked like she wanted to be held. I pulled her close and she hugged me back, sniffling. We held on to one another for a minute until I drew away. "I have to get ready for the Flaming Woman's arrival," I told her. "Be strong and be wise, Evie. And take care of the others. They need you much more than you realize."

Evie nodded, wiping her eyes. "I'll try. Goodbye...Mom."

I felt that parting as if it were a physical ache. I walked to the door, reached for the door....

But there are many a slip between the cup and the lip.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER ELEVEN

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 11

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 10-23-24, revised 10-24-24
.

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 11

A Story of Mantra and Black September
By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

The moment one definitely commits oneself,
Then Providence moves too.
Whatever you think you can do,
Or believe you can do, begin it.
Action has magic, power.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
.

I was suddenly in a misty, insubstantial place. I would have flipped, except I was becoming used to this.

I looked back and saw Gabriel, not Evie. "Where have you snatched me away to this time?" I asked the short and pudgy scientist.

"This is the best I can do for a private meeting place so long as we are already in a zone of attenuated time,” he explained.

"If you say so. Did you fix the problem we’ve been having with communications?"

"There wasn't much to fix. The psionic blast you were subjected to damaged your nano-receptors, but they're self-repairing. Though you couldn't hear me, I was able to monitor your progress."

"I'm afraid I messed up and involved myself with local people. It's hard to focus when surrounded by faces I think I know."

"You've been proceeding splendidly. Warstrike has already agreed to lend you aid, and you’re preparing to meet with the opposing political faction. I would say that you have a natural instinct for time agent work."

"Spare me the flattery. When is Hunt arriving?"

"From all indications, she will arrive within several hours. We must use our time to cement friendly relations with both sides."

"But this world is still doomed! Isn't there anything we can do to prevent that?"

Through glumly pursed lips, Gabriel said, "I don’t see what we can do. If Amber Hunt takes the Time Gem away from this world, as she must, the local reality is unsustainable. It will be obliterated by the Nemesis Energy."

"And that’s all she wrote?"

"I'm sorry. It is."

"Gabriel, I need to ask you something."

"And what is that?"

"Can't we at least take a few people away with us? I'm talking about Evie and her family."

"Such a thing is possible.”

“Well, great! Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“Because I wished to keep your thoughts focused on the mission.”

“Are time-clone people real or not?"

“They are. Most people in the Multiverse are time clones originating in other realities. ”

“So is there anything we can do to stop this catastrophe?"

“Saving an entire solar system is far beyond our capabilities."

“I'll keep that in mind," I said. "But what should we do about getting Evie's family out of here?"

“You should ask whether she's willing to exchange her universe for a new one."

“I need to go back and talk to her. Do you have any other advice?"

"I'm willing to leave all the details to you."

"Okay. So, what now?"

"I'd say it is a good idea for you to go talk to the rebel leaders."

"I'll get right on it.”

An instant later, Gabriel vanished along with the strange environment we had been occupying. I was back in that room with Evie. I heard her gasp.

"What's wrong, dear?" I asked.

"You blinked out of sight and now you've reappeared," she said incredulously.

"What happened to me was one of those crazy things that sometimes happen to ultras. They’re hard to explain, Button."

Evie startled. "N-Nobody's called me Button since – Mantra – died."

"Why should they? That was my special name for you."

"I know you’re not her, but you sound so much like my mother."

"And you're like my Evie, too. But I've come back with good news!" I said. "When I vanished, I met with that super-scientist who brought me here. He says you and your whole family are invited to come with us when we're ready to leave."

Her mouth gaped. "Are we all going to live together?"

"I can’t stay with you for very long. I have to go back to my own family. But I promise we won't part until I find you a safe and happy home."

She returned the cautious smile typical of children who have had their hopes shattered too many times to count.

"Can't we go now?"

"My job here isn’t finished. If I don’t do what I came to do, there won’t be a happy ending for anybody. In the meantime, ask Gus if he’d like to come with us. Do you want me to invite your stepdad to come with Jamie?"

"Yes, please!" she said.

I stepped up and kissed her cheek. I again said goodbye and repeated my attempt to exit the room. The door was locked, but my knock summoned a guard to open it for me.

#

Tark was waiting in the adjacent room. He gestured to a chair in front of him.

"What now? Shouldn't we be doing something?" I asked.

"We are. I sent my chamberlain, Nicolas Lone, into the neighborhood to make a truce with the rebels. I asked him to get their consent to meet with you. They knew the old Mantra when all of us were still working together. They should be curious enough about your reappearance to want to meet you.”

"Should I know this Nicolas Lone?" I asked.

"Maybe not. He used to have a public identity as that anti-mob avenger, Solitaire. He was the son of L.A.'s top mobster. He was injured and his life was saved by receiving some ultra wetware. Sometimes such operations bring about personality changes.

"In this case, it was a good change. Nick decided to use his new ultra abilities to become a nighttime avenger with a beef against mobsters -- especially his father."

I had read Solitaire's file at Aladdin. Their analysts had doubts about him, but on balance, he seemed to be a good guy. Of course, good guys are not what Aladdin is looking for. They keep their eye out for flawed types they can flip and makeover into Deep State agents -- spies, saboteurs, agent provocateurs, and traitors, mainly. "I'm glad to find that not all the people you're working with are ex-criminals," I told Brandon.

He shrugged. “It’s the luck of the draw.”

But I was less interested in Solitaire than in my adopted son, Gus. I asked Brandon about him, interested in finding out what sort of young man he had grown up to be.

"He's handy with computers, databases, and analysis," Warstrike replied. "We don't have much of a tech division here, but we have some tech people to tutor Gus."

"As a boy, he was handy at violent video games," I said.

"He has a lot on the ball, but you might not like the job I've given him."

"Have you made him a soldier?" I asked.

"You mean like you? No, he's the sort who enjoys delving into databases. He’s using the resources available to check people's personnel records. We're looking for the rebels we might win to our side, and what people on our side might be hiding troublesome red flags that make them untrustworthy."

"Are the red-flag people marked for execution?" I asked pointedly.

"Not always."

"Whatever you do, don’t make Gus a killer," I said firmly.

"Why? You thrived as a killer for a millennium and a half."

"I have, but I'm not proud of it. I want my son to have a clear conscience like I've never had."

"I want the same for Jamie. Just remember that most people who go bad choose that kind of life on their own. But I'm not going to encourage Gus to be violent."

A cloaked man stepped into the room. “This is Nicolas Lone,” Warstrike said.

This Lone guy had a face that some women might like, but he looked dangerous, as Sean Connery did as James Bond. Something about his eyes made me wonder whether his inexpressive face was a mask hiding something not so nice. Of course, the firearm he had slung over his shoulder reinforced that impression.

He looked at me and then at Warstrike: "One of our truce negotiators got through to the rebels. He's set up a parley with Mantra."

"That was fast work!" Brandon replied with a nod.

"The enemy was very interested to hear that Mantra was back!"

"When's the meeting?"

"The rebels said they’d have people at the Collab building at 1900. The deal is that Mantra and anyone with her will go to the building’s west side so they can be eyeballed from cover. If our people spot a threat, they’ll kill them all. If they look clean, their representatives will meet them."

"How far can we trust the other side?" Tark asked.

"They've been respecting truce flags up to now," Lone said.

"Do you know whether Mantra has any enemies on the other side that she should worry about?" Tark inquired.

"Not really," the chamberlain said. "Her worst enemy I know of is Necromantra, but she’s on our side."

"Leave that problem to me," Brandon said darkly.

"Who will I be negotiating with?" I asked Lone.

He shrugged. "The rebels didn't give out any names."

I wondered whether Nicolas Lone was reliable. It seemed illogical that the gang-busting ultra would choose to team up with a man who was being called a tyrant. Like, if he wouldn't follow his own father, why would he follow a hated king?

"Well," I said, rising, "I should get over to the Collab building. Tark grabbed my arm and shook his head. "You shouldn't show up there before 1900," he told me. "If you make yourself a sitting duck for too long, somebody might get the idea to take you out, truce or no truce."

“Do you want to take a bodyguard?" Lone asked me.

“How can they protect me if we're going to be deployed as sitting ducks?" I asked.

He shrugged.

I waited a little longer while Lone and Brandon conferred in private. When the time was nigh, they took me to a street door and I went outside. I at once ghosted myself, and also made the extra effort to shield my mind from the kind of psionic attacks that Neuronne had used to take me out. The rebels had a wide array of ultra abilities to choose from.

As a phantom, my footfalls made no sound crossing through ankle-deep volcanic ash. The ground outside the Collab headquarters building was wide open, except for the ever-present junk and detritus. I felt hidden eyes drilling into me as a prickle on my skin, but after a while, I heard footsteps.

Three persons advanced on me from behind a mound of rubble, like gunfighters slinking out of a livery stable.

I was surprised to see a short guy wearing ancient Greek-style battle attire. How did he end up in America when he was a European ultra. His main power was invulnerability and he went by the code name of Achilles. There was also a big blue guy who I’d never seen in Aladdin’s files. He looked like someone who’d be a powerhouse in a fight, but I wasn’t sure if he was a human being. Though curious, I thought it would be impolite to ask him about that.

The third negotiator was a woman and a real looker! I instantly knew her for Choice, an ultra who had done some good work in association with Hardcase. Aladdin’s analysis believed that her powers had been artificially created for her by the Choice Corporation, for whom she had worked as a public spokesperson. Supposedly, she could shoot force beams from her eyes, fly, project force shields, and was ultra strong. Oddly, though, she had to choose her power of the day, since not all of her abilities were at her beck and call simultaneously. That explained her code name, which was about the worst that I’d ever heard an ultra using. She had changed her costume over the last nine years but had held on to the white-and-pink idea.

"Hello, Choice," I said amiably. "Is Hardcase around here, too?" In my world, Hardcase had been a modern Hercules, one of the world's most admired ultras. I had had few contacts with the Hardcase of my own reality, but I had gotten to know one of his doubles on an alternate world.

The ultra woman looked at me crossly. "You really don't know?" she asked.

"I'm new to the neighborhood," I said lightly.

"Let's have your spiel," the slim brunette said. "And make it good, because we know damn well that the real Mantra has been dead for years."

"Didn't the chamberlain pass along the word that I'm the Mantra from a parallel universe? Both you and Hardcase have doubles there, too. They're be as sad as I am to see how devastated this world is. Where I come from, Yellowstone's never erupted."

"And so you're a tourist?" she asked skeptically, her arms crossed.

"No, I'm here to do an important job. I didn't know about the civil war until a few hours ago. I want to say that I don't want to choose sides."

"Since you're carrying messages for Warstrike, maybe you've chosen sides without even realizing it," she challenged.

"The message I'm carrying is my own. I think Tark is helping me because I look like his late wife. On principle, I'd like to see this civil war settled peacefully, but I'm not here to deal with that. What's important is that if my mission succeeds, very many lives are going to be saved in the Multiverse."

“Multiverse? Isn't that a concept that comes out of comic books?"

“Don't I wish! But I've discovered our universe exists in a neighborhood of universes, and it's a rough part of town!"

“The whole idea sounds silly, but I've had to deal with plenty of silly ideas since becoming an ultra. Tell me the rest of your story and then I'll decide what to do with you," said the woman in a white. I had to wonder how she managed to keep her clothes so clean in this wreck of a city.

“I hope we can make a deal to help me save lives.”

"Does helping you mean we're expected to make peace with tyranny?"

"No, that's too much to ask," I said, trying not to sound sarcastic. "But a daylong truce would be very helpful."

"None of us like the war, but those are the cards we’ve been dealt."

I was tempted to offer some common-sense advice on that score. But war hawks hated peace talks, and I didn't want to step into an argument at the worst possible time. Anyway, no matter what we decided to do, this war would only last a few more hours. Instead, I replied, "It sounds like a bad deal all around."

"Why are you here?" Choice asked sharply.

I laid out the story like I'd laid it out for Warstrike. Naturally, I didn't mention that her life expectancy was only a few hours long. I ended my pitch by saying, "If you see a woman who bursts into flame whenever she uses her power, that'll be Amber Hunt."

"I once saw Hunt over Las Angeles last year," Choice said. "Are you asking us to capture that world-destroying bitch for you? Why should we do that kind of heavy lifting?”

"I’m prepared to do the hard work. What I'm seeking is an agreement that whoever captures her, she belongs to me."

"Then what?"

"Then I want to return to my home universe and take her with me."

Without indicating whether she believed me, Choice answered, "I'll take your request to the committee."

"Don’t forget to mention that if my plan works, it will save more lives than you can imagine."

"Remind me why anyone living in this world should care what happens in another universe?" Choice asked.

"No reason," I said. "But the Choice I know back home would care. Hardcase would care, too.”

"Hardcase is dead!" she whispered as if the words hurt her lips.

I blinked with surprise. "I'm sorry. What happened?"

She was gazing into the distance, beyond the rubbish piles and wreckage that filled the next block. "He left L.A., looking for other Americans to help. Tom thought we had enough ultra-power to keep L.A. running without him."

"How did you learn that he died?" I asked.

"We didn't. But Hardcase would have returned years ago if he were still alive."

I didn't want to irritate her with cloying sentiment, so I just said, "Probably so.”

"If your mission succeeds, will it save your universe from disaster?" Choice asked.

"Definitely! That would be the big payoff for me," I admitted.

"But what's going to save this world?"

"I honestly don't know. But if you want suggestions, ending this war would be a good idea."

She looked at me as if I were naive. "We'll end it the only way it can be ended. But I can't help but wonder how much you aren't telling us. Like, is the success of your mission going to do any harm to us here?"

"Wherever Miss Hunt shows up, there'll always be danger," I said. "But if she listens to me, we’ll go back to our own universe immediately, leaving you people to work out the best solutions for your own problems.”

Choice grimaced. "All I can promise is I'll carry your message to our council."

"And emphasize that Hunt is expected to arrive at almost any minute now," I said.

She shrugged. “Sure, I’ll mention that. Anything else?”

“Nothing that I can think of," I replied.

With that, the ultra turned and walked away with her escort.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 12

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 12

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 11-07-24
Revised 11-07-24

.

THE TIME GEM

We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an atmosphere about which we still know nothing at all.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 
Now left alone in the darkness among the ruins, I wasn't sure how well my conversation with the rebels had gone. With nothing else on my day planner, I sent a telepathic jingle to Gabriel.

What do the rebels want? The little man spoke into my mind.

"Mostly, they want Warstrike dead."

We can offer them anything except homicide since their world will not
exist when the debt comes due.

"Gabriel!" I declared. "That's cold-blooded! Remember, I have family here. Sort of."

At that, he went silent.

"Gabe, are you there?" I asked.

His returning voice said, "I was looking for an apparatus I have. It operates like Warstrike's precognition but is more efficient."

“What precognition do you want to have?" I asked. “Where Amber Hunt is going to touchdown?"

The Time Gem is the bait in the trap we must set. It’s what Amber Hunt is coming here to find.

"I was supposing you had some sort of trap idea already worked out."

Everything will unfold in its proper time, he replied.

"Aren't you the one who's always reminding me how little time we have left?" I asked.

Gabriel gave a sudden shout: I see it! It's hidden inside the castle!

"It's an armory, not a castle," I corrected him. "But earlier you said you couldn't find the Infinity Stone because it was shielding itself from you."

True, but it's possible it no longer wants to hide. Or else, it's exhausted after protecting this world for years and now has had to divert its last energies toward that effort.

"Yeah, I suppose. But who has the thing? Not Necromantra, I hope."

Jamie Tark has it!

"Jamie? How had a pint-sized little girl snagged a piece of a dead god?"

By its permission, I suppose. Hurry. We need Jamie's help to contact the gem. We lack the means to force an entity of such power to do anything against its will.

"I don't like hearing that you plan to involve Jamie in something so dangerous."

"With the world about to be destroyed, the child can hardly be placed in any more danger than she is in presently," he advised.

“I get that. But what about Warstrike?" I asked. "If he finds out his daughter is controlling one of the most powerful entities in the universe, he'll want to grab it himself to turn it into a weapon against the rebels."

"And then there's Necromantra! I don't think there is much going on in this city that she's not going to know about. She's likely to do something crazy if she gets her hands on that much power," I said.

Necromantra is a problem, but you will undoubtedly find the best way to deal with her.

"Another dirty job for me? Why don't you use your VIGOPS to come up with an idea?"

It has mechanistic logic, but it doesn’t have your resourcefulness. You consistently outperform the best technological substitutes.

"Honesty! Your tech must be a million years ahead of ours, but you don't seem to have made much progress in all that time!" When he didn't answer, I asked, "Okay, where is Jamie now?"

The little girl is in her room.

"And where is her room?" I asked.

He gave me a mental snapshot of the armory's interior layout. After that, I no longer sensed Gabriel's presence in my mind, meaning our conversation was over. I leaped into the air and ghosted myself. Time being of the essence, I flew through the mounded junk and rubbish that choked the city streets and came through a wall just behind Jamie. She was sitting at a small table playing with dolls.

I solidified behind the child and said, "Hi, Jamie!"

She looked over her shoulder and gasped. "Mantra!"

"I didn't mean to startle you."

"Evie said you're going to take us all home with you!" she said excitedly.

"I'll take you away as soon as I can, but I learned something that makes me afraid for you especially."

Jamie wrinkled her brow. "What, Aunt Jenny?"

"I've found that there's a big secret you're keeping. Some secrets are too big for a child to keep all by herselve. Can you tell me what it is?"

"I don't know any secrets," she said nervously.

"Well, a while ago, when I used my Mantra vision, I saw you holding a pretty gem. But instead of being happy, you looked sad and worried. Why is that, sweetheart?"

"I – I –" she stammered.

"Is it a bad gem? Does it make you have nightmares?"

"No – I don't have bad dreams." She said, looking guilty. "I had to fib to Daddy."

I stepped beside her and took her hand. "Isn't it naughty to keep secrets from people who love you? I asked."

"The gem told me I couldn't tell anybody or bad things were gonna happen," said the tot.

"What sort of bad things, honey?"

"The gem said it had all sorts of powers like angels do, and if Daddy got the gem, he might hurt people using it."

She was probably right about that. But it was hard for me to believe that an Infinity Stone could care about people getting hurt. "Why would your daddy want to hurt people?"

"Because he has to. He's the king."

"Is he a king who does bad things?"

"I don't know. But he's fighting with people, and when people fight, they hurt each other, won't they?"

"They usually will," I agreed. "But does the gem really speak to you? I've never met a talking gem. Will it speak to me?"

"I don't know. Maybe it will if it likes you."

"When you talk to it, what does it say?"

"It told me the Flaming Woman will soon come and to take it away, and that if she does, everyone is gonna to die. So I hid the Gem to keep the Flaming Woman from finding it."

"Will you tell me where you hid it?” I asked.

Jamie glanced away, unable to look me in the eye. I gathered her into my arms and whispered, "Jamie, I think the gem is saying these things because it's afraid. Maybe if I talk to it, I can help it to stop being afraid."

She drew away and went to her toy box. From it, she withdrew a smooth, glowing vermilion stone. It looked pretty much like the Mind Gem I had seen before, except for its color. Finally seeing it made this whole incredible situation seem totally real. I knew it contained world-destroying power.

The trouble was, I wasn't sure that even Gabriel could be trusted to control it. Maybe he wasn't the good-natured person he seemed to be. After all, I still didn't know him very well.

Jamie stepped up, carrying the Time Gem cupped in her hands. "You can have it, Auntie," she whispered.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"It makes me scared. I think a grownup should take care of it."

Wow! She was offering me a treasure that she hadn't offered to her own father. I must have a face that children trust!

She placed the gem upon my hand. Its warmth penetrated my gloves. A month before, I had been close to another Infinity Stone, the Mind Gem but I had never touched it. As warm as this stone was, I felt chilled to be in contact with such an unbelievably powerful artifact."

"Can you speak to me?" I asked the gem warily.

I can communicate with you, stated a whisper inside my mind.

"What have you been telling Jamie?" I asked.

Only the truth.

"What is truth?"

Truth is an accurate description of a quantitative reality.

"Cute answer! Why are you here?"

I escaped the Infinity Array and chose to occupy this timeline and this planet to hide from my brothers.

"Why do you need to hide from your family?"

They regard me as a traitor. I cooperated with the Reality Gem to help the Black Knight break the Infinity Array. The other four gems now crave revenge.

"How can they hurt you?"

They have power enough to render me inert, which is what I saw happening to the Ego Gem when I looked forward in time.

"Why did you turn against the array?"

I see the future in time. If the Ego Gem ended the Multiverse, even the Infinity Array will cease to exist. The Reality Gem and I prefer continued existence to oblivion.

"If you've already helped the Black Knight, are you saying that while you've been hiding in this world, hardly a second has passed back on zero time on the Main Bough?

That is so. The Crisis is great. With the assistance of the Reality Gem and myself, the Black Knight broke the array, but not before the Nemesis Array released a wave of energy upon the Main Branch. If a second wave follows it, the Main Branch will be utterly destroyed.

That was why I had to capture Amber Hunt and take her back to zero time to fight Nemesis. She would have only a pyrrhic victory unless we could find a way to make her attack more effective. Doing that would prevent a second wave from forming.

I had to ask myself, was this a battle we could actually win?

I was facing a conundrum beyond the understanding of a Dark Age barbarian like myself. I wondered whether even Gabriel understood the mind-boggling situation.

If he turned out to be as clueless as I was, the Multiverse would be in deep trouble.

Again I addressed the stone. "Time Gem, is it possible for you to go back in time and prevent any particle of the Nemesis Energy from escaping?"

I cannot do so. If I return to a nanosecond of zero time that I have already occupied, it will create a paradox that will destroy all Creation, just as Nemesis's plan would have!

"Why should that be?" I asked. "Not too long ago I met a version of myself from a different timeline! Being together didn't hurt either one of us!"

That version of Mantra was a clone of your original. The danger I am speaking of arises from meeting another original of myself. The different situations are incomparably different.

It was no use trying to understand the Multiverse as the Infinity Stone saw it. This was a problem I had to turn to Gabriel's big brain as soon as possible.

I hear you, Mantra, the Timekeeper said, speaking to me by mind-to-mind communication.

"I'm glad of that. What are we supposed to do?"

The data is being analyzed. But an Infinity Stone can't be properly analyzed remotely. Please bring it to the Time Sphere.

"What if our little vermilion friend doesn't want to go?" I asked.

Persuade it.

“How?”

Begin by asking it nicely. Sometimes politeness will yield excellent results.

"Auntie!" Jamie shouted from behind me. "Your clothes suddenly changed. How come?"

"They're magical clothes," I said. "They're always changing. Isn't it fun?"

"I guess so," she said bemusedly.

Suddenly I heard a grating voice echoing between the cement walls of Jamie's room: "So, there you are, bitch!"

My force shield flashed on to protect both Jamie and myself.

I was always horribly conflicted about Necromantra. She was physically my daughter. What killed me was knowing that I would have loved this woman like a parent would if her fetus hadn't been possessed by a psychotic murderer in the womb.

Not wishing to start a fight with Jamie present, I tried to forestall by using a threat: "Don't test me. I killed you once, I'll do it again."

"What? When did you kill me?" she asked.

"I killed an exact duplicate of you in another timeline. I felt bad about it, but having seen you again, I can't remember why."

"Ahhh, poor Mommy. All those bad feelings will go away once you're dead yourself," Necromantra said scornfully.

"It's good to see you're still the same little ball of sunshine you always were."

"What's that in your hand?" the witch asked.

"Take a guess."

"I'm good at guessing. Its energy patterns are almost the same as those that emanated from the Power Gem that Lord Pumpkin used to attack me on the Godwheel. Wherever that gem comes from, it is endowed with power like I've always dreamed of having. Hand it over!"

"Why should I?" I asked.

"If you surrender it without a fight, I'll let my little sister Jamie live. Do we have a deal?"

My lunatic daughter didn't realize time was running out for her and little Jamie. "I would love to negotiate," I said, "but after our past experiences together, I have trouble believing that you'd keep your word?"

The tattooed woman smiled. "How you talk! We're all family, and family are special."

"If only that were true, Marinna," I said. "If it were, I'd ask kyou about your larger goals. Why are you staying in this wreck of a city? It can't be pleasant for you."

"Will you stop jabbering? I've stated my terms and you're still stalling," she pronounced in a cold, hard voice.

"Here are my terms," I answered back. "Get out of my way, go to your room, and keep on playing at being a princess. If you do, I'll let you live. You seem to overlook that I'm in control of the gem, and can easily unleash its power against you. If Lord Pumpkin roughed you up with the Power Gem, you'll be even worse off once I get through with you."

I was pouring on the tough talk, but I didn't have the foggiest idea how to use the gem or even what it could do.

Necromantia made a sweep of her arms and flaming destruction came at me.

Wow! That really stung, and it made Jamie to faint away in my arms. My shield had saved our lives, but I didn’t think my defenses could stand up against many blasts like that!"

Mantra! Gabriel suddenly spoke into my mind. Think! The Time Gem controls time. Ask it to do something involving time! Think outside the box!

I said the first thing to come into my mind. "Time Gem, protect Jamie and me by sending this obnoxious bimbo to a place full of hungry dinosaurs!"

A vermilion vortex opened within the small room and swirled around us, forming a funnel made of arcs of crackling light. The funnel narrowed around Necromantra and swallowed her whole. Almost as quickly, it vanished, taking the witch with it.

I laid Jamie on her bed and checked her over. I suddenly heard her murmur, "Where did the queen go?"

I glanced at the weighty Stone in my hand. "Gem, where did you send Necromantra?"

In your terminology, she now exists in this same location seventy-five million years ago. Is her banishment a satisfactory reply to your request?

"Yeah, you made an inspired choice. Thanks much."

"Is the queen gonna come back, Auntie?" Jamie asked plaintively.

Would she? I doubted it. Necromantra couldn't time travel and couldn't possibly survive for seventy-five million years. Anyway, if I understood Gabriel correctly, when the Nemesis Energy struck this world, it would mean the destruction of the solar system in the past, present, and future, dooming every person who ever existed.

"No, I don't think she can come back. She'll never make you afraid again."

With a happy laugh, Jamie hugged me.

It was all good that I'd defeated Necromantra but it was an almost meaningless victory. Her threat had added up to no more than an annoyance. The intractable problems we faced still lay ahead.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 13

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 13

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 11-19-24

.
THE FLAMING WOMAN

Chapter 13

Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
.

Jamie was holding me by the waist. I sank to one knee and pinched her chin.

"Evie says you have to go away, Aunt Jenny, and we can go with you!"

“Yes, I'd like that," I said. "You'll be coming, too, won't you?"

“I don't want to be with Daddy. Do you have to go away from here?"

"Yes, I really, really have to. But I’d be so happy if you three kids accompany me."

“Why can’t Daddy come?!”

"He's welcome to come if he wants to. Anyway, we need his permission to take you, Evie, and Gus away. I need to talk to King Daddy about that right away."

I wasn't looking forward to confronting Warstrike. I had just rid the world of his wife Necromantra, and I wouldn't be surprised if he got angry about that. Whether he had personal feelings for the witch, he definitely wanted her power backing him!

Suddenly, the door burst open, and two rough-hewn guards burst in.

I threw a shield around Jamie and myself. "What is this this about?" I demanded.

"The chamberlain sent us to protect the princess!" said the uglier of the two. "Why are you here, lady?"

"I'm just visiting. Maybe you’ve heard that I'm the girl's aunt." I glanced down at Jamie. "Aren't I, sweetheart?"

The child nodded emphatically.

"An assassin has injured the king, and he may be dying," yammered the other guard. "He wants to see his daughter!"

“Daddy! No!” Princess shouted.

The clod! How could he blurt out anything so brutal in front of a child? "All right," I said, picking up the little girl. "Let's all go!"

The gunmen led me to a dressing station. Nicolas was already inside with his leader but was wearing his Solitaire outfit. His hood was down, though, exposing a stern and urgent face. Warstrike occupied a cot with a blanket thrown over him. His skin was marked by burns. Jamie let out a dismayed dismay; I squeezed her close and kissed her.

"What happened?!" I demanded.

"It was attempted murder by Jimmy Ruiz," Solitaire said. "His Majesty was in his cell offering him a pardon in exchange for information against his co-conspirators."

"Prototype tried to kill him?"

"Ruiz wasn't wearing his ultra armor," Nicolas Lone replied. "Somebody smuggled in a suicide explosion device. That means we have an enemy infiltrator among us!"

Jamie was crying, shuddering with shock and grief. I've heard that sound so many times over the centuries. Usually, it happened after I killed some kid's father. When I took my hands from Jamie, she dashed to her father’s bedside.

"Daddy! Don't die!"

I put my hands on her shoulders, afraid that she'd climb on her dad and hurt him even more.

"Jamie…" Brandon whispered. Then he glanced my way. "I…I'm glad you're here for her, Eden."

"You've got to hold on, Brandon," I said. "You have accelerated healing and it can pull you through it if you give it enough time."

He gave a weak, bitter laugh. "That cheap Chung Brothers' wetware isn’t working so well today. I regret I didn't have my operation done at NuTech."

I touched the blanket that covered his seared and blasted body. "I can give you some of my energy," I told him. "Maybe it will kick-start your Chung Brothers enhancements."

"I'd like that," he said "Getting an energy boost from you is almost as good as sex."

He remembered someone else, but I didn't want to take away his happy thoughts.

"Eden…" Brandon whispered hoarsely, "The kids are in danger. I want you to take them away if...I don’t make it!"

"No, Daddy, don't die!" the child shouted.

"I promise to take care of her,” I said. "I know of a better world she and the others can live in."

"Thank..." he whispered as the strength went out of him. I lightly touched his face and felt that he still held a flicker of life, but it was fading fast.

I put my hands on him, willing my bio-energy to flow into him. Something was wrong, he wasn't receiving it properly. I kept trying to get him to respond until someone burst into the room wearing old doctor's togs. “Give me room!” he said. I backed away and took Jamie with me. She was shaking with sobs.

The man on the bed was not the same Warstrike I knew in my world. He had gone where I hoped my friend Warstrike would never go. If I had been a native of this dying city, I might have joined the rebels against him. But yet, somehow, the other Mantra had loved and stood by this dictatorial version of Warstrike. What did she find so lovable in him?

"We haven’t been able to find Queen Marinna," said Solitaire. "Do you know where she went, Mantra?"

I didn't feel like lying. "The two of us fought and I had to send her away."

"What do you mean?"

"It’s a complex business,” I said. "Do you want me to bring her back?"

"No way!" he exclaimed.

"Who's going to take over now?" I asked, not really caring. This world had only hours to live.

"I'm not sure," Nicolas answered. "If the king and queen are gone, it gives us a window of time to work with the rebels to choose new leadership."

“Why don't you make yourself king?" I suggested, wondering how ambitious he was.

“Why don't you take the throne, Mantra? You’ve made fewer enemies here than I have," he said.

"No can do! I came here to corral the Flaming Woman and take her where she’s needed. It's absolutely vital.”

The medic suddenly said, "The king...is dead. " We stared at Brandon's body for a moment, before the medic drew the blanket over his face. The girl beside me gave out an ear-hurting wail.

"Jamie, come away with me,” I said “This is too awful for you."

"No! I want to be with Daddy!"

Then we heard new voices; Gus and Evie were trying to enter the crowded room. I hadn't seen this twenty-something version of Gus before. How tall he'd gotten! He looked more than ever like his father.

"Dad!" Gus moaned as he beheld his stepdad's blanket-covered shape. I knew that his parents' divorce had hurt my grade-schooler terribly. Maybe Brandon had filled some of the emptiness that the family breakup had left in his heart. Then he shifted his blue eyes my way.

"You!"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's me. Whoever me is."

"Evie told me…." He ended his sentence in midair. I wondered whether he had ever been told that Mantra hadn't been his real mother, Eden Blake. Maybe it would be best if he found that out. I wasn't sure.

Evie said, “Mother – I mean…"

I opened my arms to her, and she stepped between them. The teen clung to me like I were a lifeline, leaving me hoping that I could be that lifeline for her.

"Is he really gone?" Evie whispered.

"I'm sorry, yes. Can you do anything for your sister?"

Evie turned to Jamie and dropped to her knees to hug her.

"What's going to happen?" Evie asked me without looking my way.

"Brandon wanted me to take you three away. I want to do that."

A woman guard scrambled in. "Lord Chamberlain!" she yelled.

"What now?!" Nick barked, sounding like a man pushed to his limit.

"War Eagle's group has brought in a prisoner! The guards have locked her locked up in the dungeon."

"Is…is she flaming?" the chamberlain asked.

"She was, but she flamed out when she struck the earth."

#

The “dungeon” was a basement with cells installed. I saw a young blonde woman in lockup. She was raggedly dressed, which fact made me wonder why her flame-ons hadn't incinerated her clothes.

"Is that the flaming woman you've come looking for, Mantra?" Solitaire asked.

I hadn’t seen high school and college pictures of Amber Hunt in Aladdin's records for a while. Most other photos showed her ablaze with energy. "If she was on fire, this has to be her."

I considered it a blessing that Warstrike's men had captured Hunt. If we had to deal with the rebels, it would have complicated matters. Nicolas Lone was in charge now and seemed to be semi-sane. I wasn't so sure about the rebels' leadership. The sad and angry version of Choice I’d met hadn't left me with a good impression.

“Nick,” I said. “It’s vital that I take her Miss Hunt away with me. Do you have any objections?”

“Not really,” he said. “Just don't even think about bringing her back. We have enough problems without her!”

I looked back at the cell. The captive was lying on her left haunch, looking like an exhausted, battered college girl – which was what she was, down deep. My mystical senses detected a stream of power emanating from her, an unfamiliar sort of power. Probably, the Reality Gem was nestled inside her body. I wasn't sure whether that was a problem or not. The Time Gem had told me that the Reality Gem had an important role to play an important role in this crazy situation.

I wondered how badly hurt Amber was. She had to be kept alive. Her energy-absorbing power was the only thing powerful enough to save the Multiverse. But given my experiences, it was hard for me to see the girl as a savior instead of a world-endangering menace.

Hunt's eyes slowly opened and saw the bars of her cell. She flamed on again and looked like she was covered in blazing gasoline.

I sent out a mental appall: Have you got any ideas, Gabriel?

The next thing I knew, the little man was next to me. I didn’t know if it was the physical man or a hologram.

"We have to persuade her to cooperate."

"Yeah? And how do we do that?” I asked.

"I suggest you ask the Time Gem to negotiate with the Reality Gem. The gem Miss Hunt carries can probably control her actions!"

"Time Gem!" I said to the lump in the bag I was carrying. "Speak to the Reality Gem and ask it to make the girl understand she has to come with us to oppose Nemesis."

Then I looked at Gabriel. “What’s next, Gabe? You have a plan, don’t you?"

I didn't care for the abashed look on his plump face.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 14

AUTHORS’ NOTE: For the last several months I’ve been posting two chapters monthly of TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, but in the immediate future I'll have to start aiming at only one story per month. What's changed is that I have been offered an opportunity by one of the publishers I’m working with. But the time is short to accomplish it and it will leave me with almost no time for anything else for the next several weeks at least. So, don't expect the next chapter of TWILGHT15 for about a month. I'm hoping I will have time to do that much, even while working on the other project.

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

NO ATHEISTS IN FOX HOLES -- Chap. 14

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 12-05-24

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I didn't hear any conversation going on between the two gems, but the aura of fire around Amber Hunt suddenly turned off like the flames of a gas burner. Whatever that fire represented, it couldn't have been natural. Otherwise, it would have set the straw on her cage floor aflame.

"Now what?" I asked Gabriel."Now we must take Miss Hunt away from here. What is left of this universe will not last much longer." I felt depressed. Every being in this universe had vanished years ago, except for the Sol solar system. But as soon as we took the Tim Gem away from the Sol solar system, the last life on Earth would be snuffed out, too.

While I was in a funk feeling miserable, Gabriel was talking to the Time Gem. "You and your brother, the Reality Gem, have been in constant telepathic contact, haven't you?"

The gem made no reply."

Perhaps it only communicates directly with the being holding it," said my partner in Time. "Please repeat to the Time Gems what I said in your own words, Mantra.

I did so, holding that lump of rock so tightly in my hand that no pickpocket could have snatched it away.

"The gentleman wants to talk to you," I said to it. "I hope you'll listen to him in a friendly and productive manner."

A brief silence followed. Then the reddish rock said, "I will listen."

"Okay, Gabriel, do that persuasion thing of yours," I said.

The Timekeeper, flashing an edgy smile and drew in a deep breath. I wondered what he could say that might interest a piece of dead god.

“From what we have learned so far, you gems intend to use Amber Hunt to absorb the Nemesis energy and render it harmless, correct?” Gabriel asked.

After I repeated his words to the Time Gem, it gave a reply.

Yes. We have been in contact, the gem answered.

"How can you and the Reality Gem defy the will of your equally powerful five brothers?" asked Gabriel.

The two of us are capable because we are unique.

“That is good to know,” said the Timekeeper. “What is the probability of your successful defiance of the Infinity Array?”

We were interrupted by a voice behind us. “Why am I locked up?” asked Amber Hunt. She didn't look or sound formidable at the moment, but I didn’t like to think about how powerful she was. We depended on the Reality Gem to keep her in line. “I'm sorry, my lady," said the Timekeeper. "You made a rough landing on the surface of this world and fainted. You frightened the people living here, so they put you in there.”

"I didn't mean to frighten anybody," the girl said.

"Miss," said Gabriel, "we believe that you and the Infinity Gems intend to act against the Nemesis Array, but we already know that you are fated to be unsuccessful."

She gave a bemused look. "I'm not sure why the gem brought me here."

"We understand the gems want to accompany you on a mission," said the little man. "We want to help that mission to succeed, and we will do everything we can to help."

"You'd better talk to the gems," said the college girl. "Maybe they know what they're doing; I don't."

"Well, Miss Hunt, we want you to go with us to a place in time and space where we can carry out a dry run of the upcoming battle with Nemesis. We'll be monitoring every detail and evaluating its probability of success."

"Yeah, fine. I was never good at statistics," the young blonde replied.

We had all run out of words , so I broke the silence. "A question, Amber."

She looked my way.

"You sound very cogent," I observed. "When we last interacted, you were in an awful state of mind. What happened?"

"The Reality Gem happened," Hunt said. "The last thing I can remember before the Reality Gem met me was being inside a laboratory the size of a planetarium. It suddenly went up like a bomb! There were people in there with me. Good people. I think…they died. I also thought that I'd caused it by turning on a machine that I shouldn't have."

I looked at Gabriel. "We've got so little time left. If you're going to take us somewhere, I think we should be on our way."

That was cold-blooded of me. I already knew that if the Time Gem left this universe, it would be the end of all life here. I only hoped I could remember that one death is a tragedy, but a planet full of people lost is a statistic.

"You are right, Mantra. Please free Miss Hunt from that cell," Gabriel said. I winced, knowing that leaving his planet would destroy it hours before it was fated to die, but I had no choice.

I'd had experience using telekinesis to open locks, so opening the cell door was easy. What a day! When I signed on with Gabriel, it was to save trillions of lives. I hadn't realized that I would have to kill hundreds of millions to do it.

#

I went back to the armory to bring Evie, Gus, and Jamie to the Time Capsule. They were still so affected by Warstrike's death they hadn't even started packing. Now, in the rush, they could take with them not much more than one piece of luggage, the teddy bear Mr. Paws. I honestly don't remember how the four of us got back to the Time Capsule, but I think Gabriel must have snatched us up by teleportation. When I came out of my daze, he stood there telling us that we were in a different universe, some hundreds of feet above version of New York City.

The scene was just like the one we'd seen before. The battle royal was already in progress, with thousands of ultra-clones throwing themselves into a battle that staggered the imagination.
Like Gabriel had said, raw power alone was useless against Nemesis. She was only the remnant of the Creator God, but that fragment was so powerful that an army of ants had as much chance of defeating her as did that army of ultras.

Gabriel sent the kids through a hatch and suggested they have a good time exploring the endless corridors of the Time Capsule. As bad off as I was just then, I realized that wasn't good enough. I had to help them settle in. Before catching up with them, I flashed back into my civilian clothing. They needed something familiar in the face of all this strangeness, and maybe seeing me looking like their mother from the good old days would help them out psychologically.

Our departure from the Super Volcano world had destroyed it, but I hoped they didn't realize that all life on their planet was now vanished. Worse than dead, their universe had vanished from the history of Creation. When I found them by following their life-force signatures, I gave them all hugs. Not even Gus squirmed much when I put my arms around him.

I stayed with the three of them for a while, trying to answer their questions. But all too soon a telepathic voice barged into my mind. "Mantra, get ready," the Timekeeper said.

"What do you want me to do?" I projected back at him.

"For the moment, I suggest you pray."

I wasn't used to hearing religious references from Gabriel, but I knew well enough that there were no atheists in foxholes. "I'll at least keep my fingers crossed," I promised.

I hurried away to the control room. "What have you found out?" I asked the little man.

"I found out something I hoped I wouldn't find out."

"If it's that bad, don't tell me," I said.

"That is not an option," Gabriel replied. "We have received more information from the Infinity Gems. The VIGOPS interprets the new data to say that the Reality and the Time Gem broke away from Nemesis too late. A lethal surge of Nemesis Energy was released before they left the scene of battle"

"Do you mean they were beaten even before their rebellion began?"

"That seems to be the case."

"So why don't we go back in time and correct their mistake?"

"Because to do that correction, the gems would have to undo an act that was performed by themselves at the very moment they performed it. That would create a paradox that the Main Branch universe could not accept. It would be as destructive to the fabric of time as will be the Nemesis Energy itself.

"But I've existed in the same time and space with two other Lukas's."

"Those versions of you were time clones, which was an entirely different situation. We are talking about multiple originals performing contradictory actions."

"If it's a blunder that can't be fixed, what was the purpose of us going to that sad and dying city?" I asked.

"We gained knowledge."

"About what?"

"About a course of action that will not work for us. Also, when we started on the trail of the Third Force, we didn't know what the Third Force was. Now we've found out it was Amber Hunt."

"What are we going to do with that information?"

"I'm uncertain. What we hoped to do we just found out can't be done."

"But you're supposed to be the big brain. I'm depending on you to know everything! Can't you think of anything that we can do to save this situation?"

"Not yet, but the VIGOPS is trying to work out an answer."

"Oh, brother!” It hit me just then that we had accomplished nothing so far to improve the situation that had been facing us since the beginning. It seemed like the VIGOPS that was supposed to be so smart had managed to steer us into a dead end.

I went to the main viewscreen. About all I could see on it was dazzling light.

And then the sky and New York City below it were gone.

"Gabriel!" I called.

"Fear not! The Time Capsule has taken us out of phase with that universe, and I'm re-calibrating," the little man explained.

"What happened?"

"Everything."

"What do you mean?"

"We escaped without harm."

"Escaped for how long?"

"The Time Capsule has taken us into a safer timeline."

"What happened back there?"

"That was a world where Amber Hunt had not joined with the rebel gems, and Nemesis released its total energy charge. It caused the universe to vanish."

"So, everybody in that universe is dead?"

"They didn't suffer," Gabriel said. "Nemesis changed their reality so that they had never existed at all."

"That's it? I asked. "Another universe died and you're not reacting at all?"

"My reactions will not change what's already happened. But maybe my actions from this point on might accomplish something. We both have to keep our minds clear."

"How much time do we have to fight back against this craziness?" I asked.

“In your terms, hours. But we may still have some moves left to play.”

"Are the Infinity Gems and Amber Hunt going to be of any use to us at all??"

"We have yet to find out that out."

"Do you think the gems have learned anything useful from what's happened so far?"

"We will have to ask them," said the scientist.

"Gabriel, can we even trust such inhuman entities? All they're seeking is to do is to continue along in their state of undeath. If they could find a way to do that by sacrificing every living being in the Multiverse, you know they would do it. They must see us as less than dust in the wind!"

"We do what we can with the resources we have while hoping for the best," the man from the Godwheel said.

"Sorry," I said, "but depending on hope tastes like a thin stew."

"Hope sometimes prevails. Pessimism is always born dead in the water."

"Gabriel, I asked, "how much wiggle room do we have left? You said you could find us a place where the disaster won't reach us for over two hundred years. Shouldn't we start thinking about that, at least for the kids' sake? "

"Please don't be satisfied with the idea that the tiger will eat us last, Eden. It's the people who hold on to hope who sometimes conquer in the most hopeless situations. People who give in to despair will be defeated every time," said the Timekeeper.

"Okay, Mr. Optimist, what are we supposed to do now?"

Crickets. The person I depended on to fix everything didn't appear to have anything to say.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 15

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

THE TOWERING INFERNO

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 01-03-25

Chapter 15

THE TOWERING  INFERNO

“To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
.

Glancing at the Time Capsule’s view-screen, I was not pleased with what I saw.

New York was below us again.

But how could that be? We had left New York only seconds before it was destroyed.

This had to be an entirely different version of New York. This insane mission was like a repeating dream that wouldn’t end.

Which version of New York was this? And what was the date?

The monitor showed me an aerial view of physical damage below, as if New York had been slugged by a heavyweight boxer. The bruiser must have been on fire, too, because I saw licking flames below.

“What happened here?” I asked Gabriel.

“We’re in another alternate timeline. In this reality, Nemesis has already seized the Infinity Gems and the ultras that opposed have rallied on Earth to await her attack.” 

“Why did we come here?” I asked.

“To observe, learn, and to plan.”

“Serious fires are burning down there. What are we going to do?”

“We shouldn’t do anything. This timeline is doomed. The standard policy advises the Timekeepers to leave bad enough alone. Try not to be too upset by what you see. This isn’t your timeline, after all.”

That came across as incredibly cynical. “We think differently; maybe it’s because I’m not as educated as you are. But when people are in danger, this dumb person wants to help. Are you going to give me trouble about that?”

You’ll be risking your safety for a world that may not endure much longer.

“Mom!” yelled Evie. “Don’t go!”

The three kids were standing together in the open hatchway. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I have to save lives, but I’ll be as careful as possible. If the worst happens, never forget how much I loved you.”

I flashed back into my Mantra armor, and the youngsters looked dismayed to see me do it. Their mother had died trying to pull off the sort of brave deeds I was going to attempt now.

I entered my ghost phase again and leaped through the hull of the Time Capsule. That put me high above the ground and falling fast.

My levitation ability arrested my plummet. As I floated took stock of the scene below.

I saw scorched concrete and plenty of blown-out windows. I saw buildings swaying, but I knew that knocking over a Manhattan skyscraper wasn’t easy.

But one high rise was on fire in its upper reaches and that meant that hundreds of lives were in danger. I don’t possess the powers I needed to evacuate crowds of people en masse, but maybe I could hold the flames back long enough to start an orderly evacuation.

I phantomed myself through the high-rise wall and entered an inside room. I immediately needed to raise a shield to protect myself from the smoke. From one hall, I heard panicked cries. The elevators, as usual, were disabled by the emergency system, causing a commotion as people fought for entry into the fire stairwells.

We were high up, close to the fire above us, and the route of escape would be slow. It looked like everyone was wild with fear.

Someone grabbed my arm. “Are you Mantra?!” an adenoidal voiced intern type asked in a shaky, adenoidal voice. Then he answered his own question. “You can’t be. She protects L.A.”

“I’m here to help. What can I do?”

“The people above us can’t come down. The stair is jammed somewhere above us.”

“Thanks,” I said and ghosted up through the ceiling. The next floor seemed empty, so I flew higher. I came out where choking smoke filled the air. I heard many cries; many people were trapped on this level.

Getting air to them was the overriding necessity. Using a force bolt, I smashed a gap into the outside wall. With access to the cleaner atmosphere outside, I employed my elemental power to draw in fresh air. Due to the excessive smoke on the level, I shielded the suffocating people in front of me with a force bubble and provide them with fresh air.

The confusion among the people escalated as they found themselves trapped and surrounded, causing even more panic. Escape attempts were being made. Scuffles had broken out, and the clamor drowned out my shouted instruction. To startle them into quiet, I released a burst of light.

When I could hear myself think, I yelled, “You’ll be all right. I’m Mantra. I’m an ultra! I’m here to help!”

Some people understood, and they tried to calm down the others. “No pushing, no climbing over one another,” I said. “Settle down and get into order! Does anyone know if there are people above us?” I asked.

“I think there are! But they can’t come down,” a woman shouted. "There’s a blockage in the stairwell.”

Assuming she was correct, I had to do something. “You people have to stay orderly. Panic will kill you, so keep your heads on straight! I’m going to get the stairway clear.”

Above these people, a blockage existed, and I had to remove it. I therefore phased through the concrete to locate the problem. I found a mass of helpless people stopped in front of a slug of rubble and twisted steel. They couldn’t go forward and the human press behind them made it impossible for them to go back. When something is in my way, it’s my instinct to use a magical blast to clear it away, but in a case like this, it would hurt people next to it. Also, the falling debris would land on people farther down in the stairwell.

I thought I might have a clever solution. I possessed the power to move matter from a dimensional plane where I’m standing into an alternate dimension. It was just a king-sized version of what I do every day when I project solid objects into my mystical closet for safekeeping.

But I didn’t know whether that other reality was inhabited. I could hurt people if I sent them a few tons of rubble to them. I hesitated to take a risk, but clearing a path for the trapped was a life and death necessity.

I concentrated like hell, and suddenly parts of the obstructing mass disappeared. I kept up the effort until the entire mass blinked out of existence. The cleared stairs appeared usable. But the herculean effort had taken a lot out of manna out of me. I was hoping for a second wind, so I could continue to save lives.
 
Although evacuation was improved, the fire and smoke filling the upper floors were still placing many at risk.

Fire departments fought flame with floods of water, and they knew better ways to firefight than I did. Going to a wall-sized window, I broke it and then invoked my elemental command over water. I used my power to condense the moisture held by the cumulus clouds hanging like a lighter-than-air mountain range above the city.

Out of that cotton-candy sierra, I summoned a rushing creek of water. I directed this through the burst windows toward the flames, while trying hard not to drown anyone. Where the cold water collided with the searing flames, clouds of hissing steam rolled up. Hot steam presented a danger, too, so I needed to spend even more magical manna to protect myself and others.

Using telekinesis, I directed the water to where I needed it. However, the hallway and office occupants continued to suffocate. Water wasn’t enough; I had to provide air for people to breathe. This multitasking proved to be more difficult in practice than in theory.

I spotted a flying man through a window. He looked like an ultra, but I didn’t recognize him. Had this interventionist come to save lives or to loot? He looked like a powerhouse, though, and I needed some heavy-duty help.

I flew out of the high rise through a broken window and sped after the stranger, waving my arms to make him notice me.

When he saw me, he stopped to chat, descending into the chaotic street. I followed him down.
The unknown ultra wore red and gold armor that made him look like a robot. But I sensed his bio-emanations, so I knew there was a man inside that metal shell. I landed short of him. He stood watching me, cautious but not overtly defensive.

I remarked, “I’ve met a lot of ultras, but I never came across you before.”

The armored man, his voice electronically altered, replied, “I’m new around here, but I’m not inexperienced. Why did you flag me down, miss? Do you need rescuing?”

“No, I’m good, Armor Man,” I said. “But there are still office people trapped in this burning building. They need more help than I can give them.”

“My handle is Iron Man,” the newcomer informed me. At that moment, he gazed skyward.

“This must be our lucky day, Goldy,” he said to me. “We’re getting reinforcements.

“I’m called Mantra, by the way,” I told him. I looked up and saw that the “reinforcement” he referred to was somebody I’d already met.

A powerful being, godlike in aspect, set down near us. He recognized me as well. “Lady Mantra!” he exclaimed in a powerful baritone I’d heard before. I guessed it was the sort of male voice that would send shivers down many a female spine.

“Verily ‘tis I,” I affirmed.

“How do you know a person living in another universe, Thor?” Iron Man asked.

“I did speak to thee about the land of Vahdala,” answered the blonde titan. “This maid of blue and gold was the fairest flower I encountered there.”

Clearly, he liked brunettes. But though Thor didn’t know it, he wasn’t complimenting me. The Mantra he had met months before had been Eden Blake during that brief, tragic episode when she had regained possession of her own body and had taken over the role of Mantra. I’d been standing beside her in a cloned male body when we interviewed the Asgardian. With both his eyes filled with Eden Blake’s beauty, Thor probably hadn’t even noticed me.

“Hi, Thor!” I said. “Can you give me and Mr. Iron Guy a hand rescuing some people trapped in that burning building?”

Thor looked up at the high rise and answered, “It shall be a pleasure, my lady.”

The two men, not only from a different timeline but also from a distinct branch of the Tree of Eternity, soared toward the top levels of the fiery tower. That left me standing on the asphalt pavement amid a squad of excited, just-arriving rescue workers.

I buttonholed an authority figure and told him what I knew about the fire, before jumping clear and levitating into the air. I intended to rejoin Thor and Iron Man to help them pull off a major life-saving operation. Saving lives today would take the sting out of all the lives I hadn't been able to save lately.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 16

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

A Story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

Posted 02-03-25

Chapter 16

NEW PROBLEMS FOR OLD

By seeking and blundering we learn.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[A NOTE to readers. I will have to suspend my uploading of the TWILIGHT OF THE GODS for a while. I'm not sure how long that will be. Hopefully, it will be only for a month or so. I will make an announcement here when I see myself clear to post Mantra's adventure again. Why the suspension? Well, instead of slackening off, my other commitments are becoming heavier these days. That's not all bad, because some good things are shaping up. But to take advantage of them, I have to do considerable preparatory work. That means I need to free up more time and am unable to continue to work on TWILIGHT at present. This is because the unpublished portion of TWILIGHT exists in an early rough draft state and I have to put a lot of time into each new chapter. But I remain very dedicated to posting this superior novel by Aladdin and I will resume work on it as soon as possible. Fortunately, I have another story ready to post here at BC. Most of it is polished already, and the rest of the story is far along in the polishing process. It will not take long to offer it in highly polished new chapters for BC. It is called "JOSETTE'S STORY," A PREQUEL TO "A SOCK IN THE MOUTH," a chapter in the "DARK OF THE MOON" novella. "Dark of the Moon: A SOCK IN THE MOUTH" is already posted here at Big Closet. Of all my recent works, it is one of my favorites. In a month I hope to start uploading chapters of JOSETTE'S STORY for the entertainment of the BC readership. Now let's get back to Mantra's ongoing adventure:]
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I didn’t reach the flaming tower. I was suddenly in the command center of Gabriel’s Time Capsule. Startled, I looked about and saw him standing across from me.

"Mantra, you've been taking unnecessary risks," he scolded. "I had to bring you back to save your life."

I rounded on him. "I was the one saving lives! What do you do to snatch me out of mid-air?"

"Teleportation technology is elementary compared to time travel. The moment after I transported you, the Avengers received an alarm that Nemesis was approaching Earth. The heroes are even now committing themselves to the fatal battle destined to destroy them and the timeline universe they occupy. We dare not remain where we are, or we will be destroyed, too. The Capsule's self-preservation AI will take us about from this doomed timeline any minute now."

“You mean everyone I just saved down there is going to die, anyway?"

"The possibility is close to one hundred percent," he replied. “If this timeline has a version of Amber Hunt, she will not be able to save the universe any more than the Main Bough's version of Amber Hunt can save the Main Bough.”

"Listen! For a change, why don't you tell me something that will cheer me up?" I asked.

He gave a faint smile. "You'll be glad to know that you have people waiting outside that hatch door who are very relieved that you've returned safely."

He opened the portal, and the three kids came rushing at me. Jamie grabbed my cape, and Evie's arms were tight around my neck. Gus stood off, looking uncertain.

He looked so much like his father, just as tall though thinner. But the senior Gus wasn't so emotionally constipated as his son. I have sometimes wondered whether it was his parents' divorce that had damaged him. I reached out to him over his sister's shoulder, and he took that as encouragement to step closer. I put my gloved hand behind his head and stood on my tiptoes to kiss his forehead. I remembered how much I had liked to be kissed by my own mother in my twenties.

I heard Gabriel’s footsteps and looked back. "If we can't save anybody,” I asked, “what have we accomplished by coming here in the first place?"

"There was never any possibility of saving lives in that universe, not unless we brought a few of its people into our Time Capsule. Our only purpose in going there was to observe and learn."
"What have you learned?" I asked."

"The most confounding thing I've learned is that Amber Hunt has escaped!"

I glared at him like a grizzly bear. “What? I went through hell to capture her, and you let her slip out the back door already?"

“In a metaphorical sense, yes. I'm very sorry."

"What I'm sorry about is that you had me convinced that you're smarter than you are!" I told him.

“Recriminations are not productive, Lukasz. But I still have more to tell you. The Reality Gem vanished with her. Possibly, it had even encouraged and instigated Amber's escape. It's bonded to the young lady, as you know."

“Do you think they'll remain together?"

“I hope so," said the little man. "Because without Amber, the Time Gem, and the Reality Gem all working in tandem, they cannot destroy the Nemesis array. If they are not there, the Main Bough will collapse under Nemesis’ attack. It will take the Tree of Eternity with it, not hundreds of years from now, but immediately."

"Is the Time Gem gone, too?" I asked.

"Fortunately, no. The Time Gem remains with us, at least for now. It's created its own bond with Jamie and hasn't seen fit to abandon her yet. But it must leave soon if it is to rendezvous with Amber Hunt and the Realty Gem on the Main Bough. That attack will not save the situation, but it will delay the collapse of the Multiverse for over two hundred years."

I didn't want the kids to hear this doomsday talk. "Evie, Jamie, Gus, Gabriel and I have to do some major grown-up talk right now. Please give us some privacy."

"Hey!" said Gus. "I'm legally an adult!"

He had grown up in a lawless world. I wondered how he could, even for argument's sake, suppose that a dead law that was never followed in his lifetime counted for anything. Worse, that world was already gone, erased from history by the Nemesis Effect. "Please, Gus, trust me," I said.

Sourly, he left the control deck, followed by his sisters. Jamie, just orphaned, still looked sad, but Evie glanced back at me and tried hard to smile.

"Do you have any more good news to dispense?” I asked Gabriel. "If you know how to fix this disaster, fill me in on it before I develop ulcers!"

"The VIGOPS has no explicit recommendations for any new course of action. Unfortunately, our original plan was fatally flawed and we had to change our approach to the problem

"Duh! I'm no Big Brain like you, but I've already guessed that much on my own! Do you have a new plan, or are you waiting for inspiration?”

Gabriel shook his head. "There are various possibilities, but if we pick the wrong recourse, there may not be enough time left to reverse course."

“Well, then let’s get a move on! By the way, what's happening in Zero Time right now?"

"Presently, the Ultra Force is trapped in Sersi's Soulscape pen. She is doing the bidding of the Ego Gem. As part of its scheme, the Ego Gem intends to use the UltraForce to lure Loki into a trap.”

“We know that the Avengers will join with the UltraForce and do battle of Nemesis. I met two Avenger time clones in the world we last visited. But where are the real Avengers right now?”

"In Zero Time, the Avengers have not yet left their home realm, the Scaffold Universe. Soon they will enter the Main Bough in an attempt to rescue Sersi. They haven't discovered yet that she has been possessed by a powerful evil influence. Shortly after they arrive on the Main Bough, the Grandmaster will induce Loki to accept a sporting challenge—to pit the Avengers against the UtraForce. The prize to the winner will be the seventh gem—the Ego Gem—. It's a ruse. When Sersi touches Loki, the Ego Gem will take power over the six gems that Loki holds. That will initiate the creation of the all-powerful Nemesis."

“The Grandmaster?” I echoed, my brow furrowing. “Who’s he?”

“One of the oldest beings in the Multiverse,” Gabriel explained, “a cosmic game player who enjoys pitting mighty beings against one other. It is like the gladiatorial sport on ancient Earth.”

I crossed my arms, my mind racing. “So, if Sersi is the Ego Gem’s puppet, shouldn’t we be trying to keep Loki out of her grasp? At the very least, shouldn’t we warn him?”

“Loki is... difficult to guide,” Gabriel said carefully. “As the god of lies, he assumes everyone is lying to him. His ego makes him susceptible to trickery, but negotiating with such a one is nearly impossible.”

I sighed. “Gabriel, I’m no match for these battling ancient gods and cosmic entities. I've been trying as hard as I can, but what good have I done so far?”

He smiled faintly. “The VIGOPS has recommended you as my optimal companion for this mission. Collaborating with you has strengthened my agreement with its prognosis."

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t soft-soap me. If luck is all we have to depend on, we’re in trouble.”

Gabriel chuckled lightly, his calm demeanor infuriatingly unshaken. “Luck is a vital element in any plan. And if anyone has luck, it’s you.”

I glared at him. “If you’re counting on me to pull off the miracle that you and your VIGOPS can't deliver, you have to be just as dumb as you’ve been acting lately.”

His smile didn’t waver. “What can I say? Holding onto hope, however slim, serves one better than embracing despair.”

I turned away, my mind racing. Hope or no hope, I damned well knew we were running out of time—and options.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 17