Grand Fiction

Hello battlers and fans of Grand Battles! This is a thread in which you can write about what your characters were doing before they were pulled into a battle to the death, or what might have happened if they never were, or anything along those lines. Perhaps you want to write more about a specific round, or an interesting NPC; go ahead!

Essentially, this thread is for short stories about Grand Battle-related things that don't really fit in an actual battle, for whatever reason.

I'll post something in a little bit to kick it off.

"I hate this era."

"What? I thought you loved this stuff!"

"He just doesn't like the suit."

"That's- no! ...Well, okay, that's part of it. It's hot and stuffy, and heavy, and I'm the only one who has to wear the damn thing, so it's humiliating besides."

"Quit whining, Jake! I gotta wear a suit too."

"No, you only have to wear a helmet, which we all have to wear, and a tank, which I'm not even sure you still need."

Jacob kicked away from the sliver of earth, gliding over to what once had been a corvette.

"Oi! I still run some wetware, thank y'very much."

Lights flickered to life within the battered cockpit, and a cry of glee escaped over comms. The knight rapped on the glass and received a thumbs up from inside.

"What've we got to work with?"

"Three- no, wait, two working fusion engines; gonna have to kickstart those myself, but that's no problem. Twin rapid-fire EnMat rail cannons, a couple of EM missiles... Not much, all things considered. This thing's geared for speed, not firepower, and one of the engines is blown, so we're not even getting full thrust."

Jacob pushed himself through the gaping hole in the shuttle's side. "You forgot the hull breach, T."

"...Well, okay, it's a piece of junk, but it'll do to get us to that piece of junk." She tapped the radar, locking on a hulking derelict warship half a light-minute out.

"So long as nothing goes catastrophically wrong, you mean?"

"Pff, yeah, when does that ever-"

"What'cha talkin' 'bout?"

After a moment, the cyborg's arm quietly slid back together, and Jacob lowered his sword. "We were discussing the mission."

"Laaaaame! C'mon, Beardy, let's go fight some Wraiths."

"Wh- now? Can't you get Doc instead? I'm, uh, busy, with-"

"You're not fooling me! Y'can't do makeouts with a helmet on."

"Th-"

"Girl, I will shoot you if you keep that up."

"Hee~"

"I-"

"Anyway, I was out with Ratty earlier-"

"-And she picked up a group that's too strong for the two of us to handle. I'd have come myself-"

"But knowing Goldie, she'd have found more of them."

"Precisely."

Jacob sighed. "Tanya, are those missiles working?"

"They will be by the time we get there."

"Good. Goldie, crush any that come near that hole."

"Ya-huh!"

"And try not to damage the ship this time, alright?"

"...Foo."

"Rahat, hold position. We'll be there in five."

"Please hurry; I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out."

"Rodger. On our way."

Jacob vaulted into the copilot's chair and buckled himself in.

"I hate this era."

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SpoilerIn the interest of Generally Writing More, if there's anything in particular you're curious about and would like me to elaborate on or write more about - in here or later posts - please feel free to ask about it. I might end up putting something about it in Writing and Semicolons, or here if it's sufficiently battle related.

I'll probably stick to my own mythos, generally, but if there's anything battle-related you'd like me to write about as well, feel free to ask for that, too.

Both should be done through PMs to avoid cluttering the thread.

"I'm not here to joke around, I need the book."

An adult male, wearing black gloves, both with a specialized S embroidered in gold, stands in a room surrounded by what seems to be an infinite number of bookshelves. His light brown skin, dark blue hair, and hazel eyes are hidden under his hood, as he continues to negotiate with the multiple limbed being that exists in front of him.

It is silent, before extending one of its limbs out into the hidden bookshelves and pulling out an elegant dark blue book with a gold title marked ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία.

"Thank you, we will return it soon."

The hooded man then returns into the maze of bookshelves before disappearing into the mist. For far too long, he and his family have been plagued by a terrible creature, one that invaded their home and stole from them something dear. It turned his family against itself, and left without a trace.

It angered him. That something so small, so inconspicuous, could have caused all this. He paused, for a moment, as he was walking on his path home, removing his glove and wondering how he had been defeated...

===

"So you got it?"

He returns to his home, both in mind and body, and looks up to his twin sister. Unlike his simple, dark, inconspicuous clothes, she wears a colorful hodgepodge of patterns and fabrics.

"Yes, is everything ready?"

She nods and the two continue through their home, silently, until they reach a room with only a pedestal, runes, and two others, both sharing the familiar dark blue hair, and each with an S embroidered somewhere.

They lay The ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία in the pedestal and silently encircle it. The youngest of them, a boy chants.
Magic flows through him and through the room.
The book opens and the keeper of The ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία awakes.

Once more there is only silence, as the archivist takes in his surroundings. Finally, he speaks. "You kids have made quite the spell. Did you have help? No wait, don't answer that, I'm looking up... ah yes. Oh... An old family of magic. Yes, two brothers, twins, identical, kept close. The younger had twins of his own, brother and sister, the older had three afterwards. But... there are only four of you instead of five..."

"Look, we don't have time fo-"

"And who taught you manners? I may be a book, but I at least have a sense of tact, my boy... David... Mage... Of Weapons. Quite the specialization."

"What my dear brother meant to say, is that we would be more than willing to offer you the information that you are retrieving, we have summoned you for something very important and dear to us."

"It is unnecessary, I already have all of the history on you, I just wanted to have some fun with Mr. Broody. By the way, Texture?"

Nicole shrugs.

The other girl uses this moment to speak, "Mr. Archivist, I realize that after sleeping for that long, you certainly wouldn't be in a hurry, but we sort of are."

"Alright, just give me a moment."

The archivist, inside the confines of the book that has been his home since the second age of magic, reviews the information he has on the Family Spettro.

===

Now let's see here...

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SpoilerThe Family Spettro, to those magically inclined, is one of the more well known magical families, having existed since ♥▲▲. They are most notable for having no lines without at least one magical user, most likely due to keeping away from marrying non-magical beings until the restructuring of magic that occurred in ϡ★▲▲.

The restructure left magic unable to form as freely as it once had in the world. Rather than flow from the Source to each of the magic users, it could only be channeled, through a specific form, called a specialization. The users of these specializations were now called Mages and after ϡ★▲ years, two other specializations became broad enough to warrant two other names, Wizard and Sorcerer. The former has incantations and one's self as a specialization while the latter has the world around them as a specialization.

The most recent generation of the most prominent Spettro's consists of the children of twin brothers Esdras and Victor Spettro.

David, son of Esdras, has weapons as a specialization, capable of channeling magic through swords, staves, knives, hammers, pistols, etc, to the point of enchanting them. As likely leader of the generation, he is serious, wearing dark, traditional clothing that easily conceals his weapons and allows him to blend in. He has been nicknamed Mr. Broody by his family.

His twin sister, Nicole, has textures as a specialization, capable of channeling magic through fabrics and patterns, adding effects to the texture in the area around her, and sometimes changing one texture into another. Much more aloof than her brother, she wears oddly sewed clothing, made with many different kinds of fabric, and conceals ribbons under her sleeves. She dyed her hair blonde, the only one of the generation with a different hair color than the dark blue they have.

On the other branch there is Beatrice, the eldest daughter of Victor and the only Mage among her siblings. As her side has a more public status in the non-magical world, she dresses rather normally for modern humans. Her specialization is artificial light, giving her a wide arsenal of magic under the electronic rays.

The middle child, Lynette, was thought to eventually become a Sorcerer when she grew older, which would have allowed her to use the world around her as a conduit for many spells. However, her ties to the magical realm had not developed and instead she became a Ragazza magica. Her location is unknown.

The youngest child, only son, and only Wizard, is Rafael. A quiet boy, wise beyond his years, has the most potential for magic, assuming that his training as a wizard does not go astray. Eventually, he will be able to perform however many spells he can handle with a single word.

===

"So your sister, Lynette Spettro, has been turned into a Ragazza magica and with the help of this Vigil, defeated all four of you, three mages and a wizard-in-training. This defeat is not surprising."

"What do you mean?"

"In the current state of the world, magic can only be channeled. You all can perform any number of spells, but you are all limited in how. David can only imbue magic in weapons. Nicole can only control magic through textures and fabrics. Beatrice can only use magic under pure, artificial light. Even Rafael is limited by how his body, mind, and spirit can deal with it and only if his voice allows it."

"Now, this does not make you any less powerful, but it still means that you can only go as far as your specialization allows. Rafael can not use magic in situations where he is unable to speak. Beatrice's magic ceases to be outside artificial light. Nicole's magic can't effect anything that her textures and fabrics do not touch. David cannot easily use magic to affect himself."

"Ragazza magica or as you call them, Magical Girls, on the other hand, do not need such conduits, for they have a direct line to the source of magic. This is the creature that you know as Vigil. This is not to say that magical girls have unlimited magical power, they are limited in what kind of magic. Fire, Ice, Life, Death, and anything else can be their so-called 'element', giving them access to any kind of magic under that banner. As I assume you know from your fights with her, this banner is loose, a magical girl does not have the structure that keeps your magic firmly specialized, and often a magical girl's 'element' evolves, going from fire, to heat, to temperature, going on until eventually, the link to the source begins to flow directly to the girl, bypassing their creature completely. What happens then, I... do not know."

"What do you mean you don't know!"

"As you know, the contents of this book is confined to this universe. Though they appear often in this realm, Ragazza magica are not native to it. Besides their different relationship with magic, the girls are almost always regular humans, without any trace of magic within them. Your sister however, had a link to magic already inside her. The behaviors that she exhibited could have been the result of their collision. I do not know, but I wish to find out."

"So then that means that you'll help us find her?"

"I can not locate your sister and I don't know of anyone alive that can. Vigil on the other hand, is a different story. His kind know how to find each other, find and confront one of them, and you may be able to locate him, and by extension, her."

The Spettro's take in the information given to them by The Archivist. Their sister and cousin is in danger, kidnapped by a wretched creature with motivations unknown to anyone in the world. They need to get her back, to save her, no matter what.

"Let's do it."

"Then I will tell you how to find one of them."

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Spoilerthis has two purposes
1) solidify lynette's family in case they ever become plot relevant to Deathgame
2) establish my version of magical girl and solidify their base characteristics

"The dead walk the earth? Preposterous!"
The Emperor paced up and down in front of his throne.
"It must be a trick. They're simply enemy forces in disguise."
"That was my first thought as well," said the Vizier. "But the reports do not fit with that. Men walking around with no heads, our own casualties getting up and changing sides..."
"Impossible!" the Emperor declared. "The headless men most likely are just short enough to wear their uniforms over their heads. The casualties? Spies, faking death and then attacking to catch us by surprise."
"With a sword still stabbed through their hearts? They must be quite good at it."
"No doubt our soldiers are embellishing these details. Frightened men often come up with stories, you know."
"I am well aware, Your Highness," the Vizier agreed. "But these reports are widespread throughout the army."
"Most likely some of them are enemy infiltrators. To further their story."
"If we have that many infiltrators, Highness, then we may as well not have an army at all."
The Emperor sighed, defeated.
"I suppose it hardly matters. Whether they are living or dead, they are still the enemy, and we still must fight them."
"That is one option," said an unfamiliar voice. "But I have a simpler one."
The Emperor's court gasped in unison as a black-robed man walked in, flanked by two Imperial Guards, their faces a pale white.
The stranger himself was even paler; he looked to be nothing but a skeleton, save for his strange metal arm. He held a staff with a ram's skull in his other hand, and one eye was covered with a metal patch.
"Surrender your empire to me right now, and I will allow you and the remainder of your people to live." Konka Rar grinned, an impressive feat considering his skull carried a permanent one. "I prefer my subjects to be alive when practical; minions are such dull conversationalists."
The Emperor was furious.
"How DARE you, monster! Have you any idea who I am? Do you think me a weakling who will arrgh"
Rar had grasped his mechanical arm around the Emperor's neck by the time he finished his sentence.
"Everyone here is a weakling compared to me," the cyborg lich laughed. "I could claim your pitiful empire without an army, they simply saved me time. Now, are you going to surrender, or will I simply have to negotiate with your heir instead?"
The Emperor weakly gasped out his response.
"Never... you... monster..."
And, in his last moments, he spat on the conqueror's metallic eye.
"Hmmph. Pitiful." Rar tossed the Emperor's body aside before turning to the terrified Vizier. "Now, then. Does anyone here have the legal authority to transfer power to me, or do I need to track down a prince?"

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SpoilerThis probably isn't actually canonical, but it was fun to write.

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SpoilerLet me tell you about a guy named Chad.

1 - Heroism

It is the dead of the night in FueMotion Industries, one of Olive City's many research centers-slash-criminal targets, and a breakthrough has been made. Some weeks ago, one of the divisions within succeeded in creating a new form of Energy Cell, capable of holding an obscene amount of power in very little space. There are as always, a number of other aspects to it, some sort of wireless array, an anti-compressor, watt voltages, your run of the mill super science. After comprehensive, secret testing, the division has determined that the Energy Cells are ready for announcement. It is the final night that they will be held in the lowest ultra-high security room, and no one should know of the immense power hidden.

On this night, something enters FueMotion Industries, bypasses all of the general anti-super villain security measures, enters the vault holding these Energy Cells, and takes them. No camera catches this being. No prints, marks, or record of it is left. If it wasn't for the stolen goods, none of it would have happened.

This is not something that the police are capable of handling. This is the work of someone mystical or magical or super. And as a result, the only option is to call someone who can match it. FueMotion Industries calls The Eagles.

===

"Well of course it would happen now while the rest of the team is away, come on."

Freefall, the newest addition to Olive City's star super hero team, stood, arms crossed, listening to the report from FueMotion's representative. The rest of her team, Ace, The Gadgeteer, Magenta, and M.E.T.A.L. all went off into space to fight some aliens and leaving her to keep watch for the city.

"I wanted to beat up some aliens, why couldn't I go?" She exhaleed and as calmly as she could, which for the record is still a bit snarly, asked "And what do you want me to do about it? Look, if you can't find any evidence or leads what do you expect me to do? I punch things. Most of the detective stuff is Ace's schtick, I'm not gunna figure it out."

As the heroine shrugged, the mousey representative squeaked out some more info, "Well, you see there's something else, you see we have a bit of a lead..."

"Well why didn't you say so, spit it out!"

"Well it's just that you see..." The representative murmurs something.

Freefall smashed the table, "lightly".

"Alright alright! We... we know that Apollo Inc. could use our power cells and that it is likely that our criminal was either hired by them or could strike there next. Well that is it good luck catching that whatever, bye!

Freefall could only stare as the representative ran out before she could ask anything like "how did you know that" and just sighed. With a puff, she stomped down to the Eagles' Nest's hanger, where to her surprise, she saw an unfamiliar face.

"Hey, nice place you've got here."

Freefall put up her dukes as she stared down the intruder in front of her. The red haired dude had sunglasses, a suit with it's collar popped, baggy jeans, and sneakers (who taught him how to dress?). After successfully ignoring his fashion sense, Freefall noticed that he had a clawed metal glove on his left hand (alright, so I'll have to avoid his left hook).

Rather than get up in arms over her show of aggression, the intruder began to calmly walk around, turning his back against the superhero and smugly responding to her silence. "Oh, is that any way to treat a guest? I'm just here to lend a helping hand. I saw the FueMotion suits come by, they were robbed, weren't they?"

Freefall didn't say anything, and only moved closer to the intruder, keeping an eye on his glove, and thinking about how hard she'd punch his smug face.

"Look Freefall, I'm not here to fight. I'm here to help you find out who did this, we both know you aren't the best at detective work, and the rest of The Eagles are off who-knows-where, so come on."

Freefall reluctantly eased up her stance, but didn't change tune, "Who are you, how'd you get in here, what do you want?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes (or at least she thought he did, under his sunglasses) "You can call me Apollo, I slipped in when the suits left, and I already told you, I want to help you find FueMotion's tech."

Freefall, crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, "What are you, Apollo Inc's new poster child? I don't need help from a publicity goon."

"Oh that? Just a coincidence, I'm from out of town! Heard the rest of the team was away and thought I'd pay the lovely Ms. Freefall a visit."

He has a point, and I could use some backup, I guess. Still, there's something about his smile that rubs me the wrong way... "Whatever, you can tag along, but the moment I see you get out of line, I'll punch you so hard, you'll see antimatter instead of stars."

"Pleasure to be of service."

===

After arriving at Apollo Inc. and cajoling a few secretaries into letting them do their job, the duo reached what they concluded was the division that their mystery criminal wanted.

"Well, I could see how our completely lossless cables would be of use, but what makes you think that this criminal knows about them? No one outside of Apollo, other than you two, should know about it!"

"Well that didn't exactly stop him from stealing the Energy Cells from FueMotion, those were top secret too."

"So what do you expect us to do exactly?"

"Nothing."

"Pardon?" Freefall and the lead researcher asked in unison.

"If we want to catch this guy, we can't just put his prize on a higher shelf, there wasn't a sign of intrusion at FueMotion, so whoever it is has access or can get access to wherever he wants. If we put the cables behind more and more codes, it will just take him longer to get them, which doesn't catch him."

"So what you're saying is that they should do nothing, while we wait around for him to take it?"

"And then we'll beat him up, and that'll be the end of that."

"Alright then," Freefall turned to the lead, "You heard him, show us a place we can stake this guy out."

===

"So, how long have you been doing this sort of thing?"

It was later that night and the two were hiding inside the safe that held the all-important cables, which when paired with the cells, would be able to give anything virtually unlimited power without any loss or overloading or explosions. To pass the time, the two had been making some small talk. Freefall wasn't very sure what she thought about Apollo, but she felt like she could trust him, at least a little, maybe.

She wasn't sure exactly what it was about the admittedly charming and intelligent man had filled her with such ire, but she had done a good job of putting it aside as he hadn't done anything harmful, and had really helped her here. She'd have to thank him after they finished.

*pat-pat*

Freefall and Apollo both heard it, even if they weren't sure what it was, but it did mean that the chitter-chatter had to come to a close. The two silently stood by, waiting for their perp to come through.

A wispy woman faded into existence, her eyes like a cat, and smelled the air. She paused, wondering if her suspicion was correct, before walking to where the cables were supposed to be held. Just as she was about to open the container that held her prize, Freefall leaped from her position, lightly flowing to the villain before smashing her down in one fell swoop.

As the villainess lost consciousness, Freefall confidently stood and declared "Well that was almost too easy, thaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" Freefall began to shake as suddenly, she felt all of her energy painfully leave her body. She managed to turn around, and see Apollo, wielding a twisted smile, as everything went to black.

1B - Villainy

The Vorixian Empire was one of the more expansive ones in the universe, mostly due to their tendency to conquer over other planets and essentially harvest them for whatever they needed. This had gone very well for a while, until they hit a planet called Earth and their initial scouting team got their green, slimy asses handed to them by a group of "heroes" called The Eagles. In retrospect, they should have sent a scouting team less likely to cause such an impact, but the best hoverflyers always are.

At any rate, they had been sent home packing and then as icing on the cake, they were also dealt a counter-attack by the same group. They would let it slide for now, but after some recovery, the Vorixian Empire would return and take Olive City along with the rest of the Earth.

*boom*

"WHAT WAS THAT?" The green, bottom heavy Emperor of the Vorixians, clad in all his ornate gold and jewelry, lifted his royal, many limbed flab up from his bed full of concubines, his mojo disturbed by the sudden sound of an explosion.

*boom*

There was another, this time much closer, leading the Emperor to worry. He threw off a few of his lighter concubines (they still weighed a lot, though, the Emperor liked them heavy for a few reasons) and stretched one of his flimsy limbs to grab his golden Compressive Blaster Cannon, and aimed it at the door, his three eyes adjusting just in time for it to explode open.

In response to the blown open door, the Emperor let off a shot, which met the corpse of one his former men. "Damn," he muttered under his breath, "Why does this damn thing take so long to charge?"

The smoke cleared, revealing a young man with red hair, wearing sunglasses. "That was your pitiful excuse for a royal guard? No wonder those bird-brains beat your Vorixian asses down."

"Do.. do you know WHO I AM? DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER OR ELSE!" The panicking Emperor grabbed one of his concubines, just in case he needed to throw her to make an escape.

"Yea, I do, and I also know that you don't like a certain superhero team. I presume that you want take them out, and guess what I can help you with."

The Emperor loosened his grip on his concubine, but kept his charging Cannon pointed at the intruder. "And so what if I do? I am an emperor, I can't just team up with any low-rate supervillain who wants to take out The Eagles."

"Who said anything about teaming up? I just want to make a deal, you see, I have... acquired some technology that I think will benefit your army greatly." Chad holds out a bag and removes a yellow cylinder and some gold cables, "This is a FueMotion Infinity Energy Cell and an Apollo Inc. Lossless Cable, with these in your army, you will have nigh unlimited power along with the ability to connect and divide it in any way you want. It's all yours, if you attack the planet of Lagran."

The Emperor raised an eyebrow, "Lagran? But I thought you wanted to attack The Eagles?" He eyed the charging meter on his cannon.

"Lagran is the closest civilized planet to Earth, if you attack there The Eagles will come to their aid, no doubt about it, you can take them out and meanwhile I'll be wrecking Olive City."

"Ha, as if they would leave their city defenseless."

"Oh I have plans for whoever mans the fort, I just need you to lure the rest of the birdies away, so, do we have a deal?"

Charging complete. "Hmmm, a generous offer, but how about instead..." He fired the second shot, "I TAKE THE CABLES, LAGRAN, AND EARTH ALL FOR MYSELF!"

The cannon's second shot goes off and... misses? No impact that the Emperor could see, yet the intruder no longer stood where he was. His confusion ceased when he felt a cold, metal hand clamp onto his shoulder. He quickly realized that this was not a problem that he would be able to solve by throwing a fat person at someone.

"I'm sorry," the tone of voice was noticeably colder, and lower, "Wrong answer, would you like to try again," the grip on his shoulder tightened, he could feel the pain spread, "Or would you like your reign as emperor to come to a slow and painful conclusion?"

The Emperor gulped.

===

Shaderider hadn't had the best of luck. The former super-heroine had temporarily used her invisibility and phasing-through-inorganic-object skills to perform a few heists here and there, but she had to, she was down on her luck and super-heroing almost never paid the bills. At the moment, she was in one of Olive Cities seedier bars, head clamped on the counter, almost in tears.

"Hey lady, here's ya drink."
"I didn't order any drink..."

The barkeep planted a glass in front of her, "It's from the guy over there," he pointed over at the other end, where a man wearing sunglasses waved.

After some thought, Shaderider downed the drink and slowly stood, making her way toward the nice man who had kindly bought her the drink. "Uhm, hi, thanks for the drink..."

"No problem, you looked like you needed it, something wrong?"

"Yea, well, you know, things aren't all that good right now, jobs are hard to come by, I'm in a rough spot... oh but I'm sure you don't care..."

"No, go on, I am very interested." Chad smirked.

Later that night, after many drinks, a trip to Shaderiders home, and a night of what some would call passion, Chad dropped his drunken act and pinned the sobering Shaderider down to her bed and calmly told her what she would do for him. After a heated convincing, she agreed to his terms, albeit, over tears.

And with that, all of the pieces were in play...

1.5 - Conclusion

Freefall awoke. Of course, her arms and legs were strapped to a wall or something, and no amount of density manipulation was changing that. After failing to break out of her binds, Freefall took a look around, the first thing she noticed was a swirling orange portal. The second thing she noticed was the scum that had knocked her unconscious. "YOU LITTLE MOTHERFUCKING SHITFACED ASSHOLE! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I WILL CRUSH YOUR TORSO, REMOVE YOUR SKULL, AND FUCK IT!"

"Feisty, aren't we? Straight to the point, no asking questions or speculating on how I'm getting away with this?" Chad gave a chuckle, "As expected from Freefall, I knew it was a good idea to team up with you, saves time on the monolog."

"YOU AREN'T FUCKING GETTING AWAY WITH THIS."

Chad scoffed, "Of course I am, the rest of The Eagles are dead, just like you are about to be!" There was no megalomania in his voice, just the same chipper tone he used when he was introducing himself in the hangar.

Freefall was taken back the statement, not so much by the content, but by his indifference at it, normally villains are so triumphant about this announcement, but he said it as if it was a solid, immutable fact. Still, she stuck to her gut feeling, he was lying and rolled her eyes. "Riiiiiiight, I'm so sure that they're gone, beaten by those Vorixians, ooooh, I know how tough those shitheads are!"

Chad chuckled, before giving a sigh and shaking his head, "Oh Freefall, I didn't expect you to be so full of hope! I'm not going to pretend that the Vorixians are your top-notch aliens, but even you, with your pitiful deduction capabilities, can see the damage that they would do with a few crates of infinite, easily distributable evidence... given time."

Freefall raised a brow, thought about it for a bit, and decided to indulge in his obvious hook, "...Why did you say that last word so oddly?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you, I can travel through time. That's what this is, you see," He pointed at the swirling portal, "What, you think this is my first attempt at trying to get rid of you? No, I've been doing this for a while now, I just haven't gotten it perfect until right now. Last time I got the news that your friends died right as I was about to kill you, one thing led to another, and well, you spit at me! Chad looked as if he was remembering a fond memory, "That didn't end well, but I promise it won't happen again." Chad pointed his finger at her and winked.

Freefall winced at the wink, momentarily wishing she could erase the gesture from history, before focusing on what mattered. Really, time travel? Rather then scale the wall of crap that had been built in front of her, she settled for a "Well. That's a load of bullshit!"

"Hey, whatever keeps you comfortable in your last moments, if it makes you feel better, that bitch you hate died all alone." The last words were elongated, with every syllable increasing in wretchedness. Chad walked to the suspended Freefall, still wielding his crooked smile. "That high density of yours makes killing you difficult, so if you don't mind..."

Chad grabbed at Freefall's lips before she could spit at him with his right hand and started chocking her with the left. Once more she felt her energy fade, and she found it difficult to keep her high density. The pain was bearable now, but she felt if she lowered even a little, it would be the beginning of the end. As she felt her focus slip, she stared down at the smiling bastard in anger one last time before closing her eyes.

"LET HER GO!"

Freefall opened her eyes to a blown away 'Apollo' and the members of her team, heroically standing and prepared to kick that assholes ass. "About... time you..." Freefall struggled to regain her breath, "Fuckers showed up."

"It isn't our fault that it took Gadgeteer and M.E.T.A.L. so long to diffuse the Energy Cells."

"Huh?" Freefall let out as Ace freed her, and the rest of the team started to confront 'Apollo.'

"The Vorixians were using the things that this guy here stole, luckily, they deactivated them wirelessly. Sorry it took so long to get back, it was a bumpy ride." Ace and Freefall started to join the others, who despite the 3-to-1 advantage, seemed to still have trouble with the lone villain.

SURRENDER V1LLAIN. Y0U CAN N0T DEFEAT US ALL.

The snarling and angry Chad faced down his opponents, all five of The Eagles, and let out a "I disagree." before there was a crash from the sky and a flaming ball turned into a majestic dive kick that hit the lone fighter square in the forehead.

As the newcomer cleared his flames, The Eagles couldn't help but notice that something about him felt familiar. This curious feeling of familiarity turned into shock when the man turned and he had the same red hair, sunglasses, and smirk as the man that had just been kicked down. "Hello Eagles, thanks for your help in dealing with my evil time clone, he's a pesky bugger."

"Wha.. WHAT?"

"Name's Chad," he reached down and handcuffed the unconscious time clone(???), "I'm sorry for the trouble he's caused, every time I send him to the Time Police he just finds a new way to wreak havoc." Chad lifted the unconscious body of himself(?) over his shoulder and typed some things into the console near the glowing vortex. "Now, I've got to rush and pop him back were he belongs, but after that I'll stop by your Nest, if you don't mind."

Without another word, the two were gone, into the threads of time, leaving The Eagles a bit confused. Still, the episode had left them tired, so they decided it would be best to wait and see what this Chad had to say. Without another word, they made their way home...

1-Final

There is only darkness, darkness and a chair. Sitting on that chair is Chad Chaswell Charles, reviewing the plan that he made and smirking at its perfect execution. With the triumph over his 'evil time clone,' the establishing of his tendency to escape or be freed, and his subsequent talk with The Eagles, he was now free to do anything he wanted. He would become The Eagles' greatest ally, and slowly take Olive City from their grasp, along with the rest of the world.

Once more, he put on a twisted smile.

"Suckers."

"No, no, no. This won't do at all."
Sorsa Rar looked over the cyber-skeleton he had just draped in a black cloak and shook his head.
"I can't expect you to pass as Konka up close, of course, but even from a distance it would raise suspicion. You lack his sense of poise." He pointed to the staff in its bony hand. "Hold that up straight! And quit slouching!"
The minion obediently stood up straight, and lifted the staff upwards. Much higher than Sorsa had expected, in fact. It pounded the steel imitation-ram skull right into an ornate chandelier.
Sorsa sighed.
"No, I mean keep the end without the skull on it on the ground! And hold it up straight!"
The cyber-skeleton tried to obey. Sorsa was unsurprised to note that its attempt brought the chandelier crashing to the ground.
"Yes, like that," he said, not interested in dealing with the ruined chandelier at the moment. "Now, take a step forward, but try to keep that pose as you do."
The minion obeyed, and promptly fell flat on its face.
"This is going to take some work," Sorsa groaned. "You can stop trying to hold that pose. Get up."
The skeleton stood up, inadvertently knocking over a small vase with the staff. Sorsa stared at the pieces and just shook his head.
"...Give me the staff. Eximo! Get in here!"
A bizarre vacuum cleaner rush into the chamber, carrying a broom in two of its skeletal hands, a dustpan in a third, and a washcloth in a fourth.
"This room is a mess. Clean it up."
"Order confirmed," Eximo replied.
"Now I'm going to look through the necromancy texts," the young mage grumbled. "Perhaps I can find a way to produce a more intelligent minion."
Sorsa wandered off, leaving the vacuum cleaner to its own devices.

Eximo got to work swiftly, cleaning the remnants of chandelier and vase in just two minutes.
Then it was still. Alone with the imposter Rar.
It reached into its storange compartment and pulled out a spellbook. Quickly, it flipped through to the desired page, and then gestured with its upper arms while reciting the incantation.
"Redipu tsemoc ebllah suoy!"
A dark aura surrounded the cyber-skeleton for a moment, and then faded. Eximo put the text away; its work here was done.

A few hours later, Sorsa emerged from the library, irritated.
"Nothing useful," he grumbled to himself. "Not even a temporary intelligence augment! How am I supposed to hide his disappearance at this rate?"
He continued the one-sided conversation for some time, paying little notice to the vacuum cleaner as it passed him in the hall.
"Actually, there are quite a few necromantic spells I don't remember seeing on my search," he mused. "Did I overlook them? Or did I miss a book?"
He sighed.
"I suppose I'll have to take inventory tomorrow. If the new overlord is any indication, I can't trust the help to read the list properly. Useless things."
The mage then heard a loud thumping noise nearby.
"What on earth could that be?"
He followed the noise, and found a headless cyber-skeleton in a black robe running into a wall repeatedly.
Sighing, Sorsa hurled a small fireball at the minion to put it out of its misery.
"That makes five in a month," he said resignedly. "And here I thought my ancestor built things to last."

"Parsley! Wake up, boy!"

The old hunter's booming voice alone was enough to wake his young apprentice. Banging on the door was overkill, really. Parsley groaned weakly as he pulled himself out of bed.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'!" he yelled back, dressing quickly. "No need to yell yerself hoarse, sir!"

Parsley already knew what the call was about. It had happened enough times in the last twelve years, after all. His master had a letter asking for his aid, and Parsley was going to stay behind to take care of the hut. And, of course, continue his training.

"So where are ye ridin' off to this time, sir?" Parsley asked, opening the door.

The old hunter grinned widely, something Parsley had rarely seen him do in fifteen years.

"Yer askin' the wrong question, boy," the old hunter teased. "The right one is, where are we ridin' off to?"

Parsley didn't miss a beat. He drew his dagger and stepped back carefully, keeping his eyes on his supposed mentor the whole time. The old man laughed.

"The holy water's under the third floorboard to the left of the table," he said, still chortling. "And me mother's middle name was Clarice. Ye need anythin' else?"

"What were my first words to ye?" Parsley asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"Ye said, and I quote, 'Vrath! Sku nifor temati, hasaka!' Or, loosely translated into Central Strylvaille, 'Help! Get yer filthy hands off me, epithet!' Ye know, I never did find out exactly what the last word meant."

"Because everyone ye asked was too polite," Parsley said, smiling slightly as he sheathed his knife. "So what's this about me riding with ye?"

The old hunter's usual stern expression returned.

"Parsley, I've been training ye for a good twelve years now. But all of that won't do you a lick of good without real experience in the field. I'll be clear, ye won't be involved in any fightin' if I have my way about it. But ye need to see for yerself what the job is about."

"Ye couldn't have told me to be ready for this before the letter arrived?"

Parsley's mentor laughed again.

"And miss the chance to see firsthand how prepared ye be for demon impostors?" He chuckled for a bit. "Nay, boy, hadn't thought you'd be quite so keen-witted yet. 'Twas merely meant to be a surprise."

"Ye never taught me how to ride, sir."

"Aye, and now's a good a time as any. Ye'll ride with me today, get some practice in while I work, and we'll buy a horse for you in town for the trip back."

"Seems costly, sir. And we'll need twice the feed for two mounts."

"I know, boy. I've saved up enough. And if yer worried about who's watchin' the hut, I called in a favor on that one. Now quit dallying about with yer questions, we've got work to do today."

"Yessir. What should I bring?"

"If I've trained ye worth anything, ye should already know that." The old hunter smirked at his apprentice. "No more stallin', boy! Today, ye become a man!"

"Ye've said that before, sir," Parsley said, smiling back. "And yet I notice ye keep callin' me 'boy' anyway."

"Old habits die hard, boy," the master replied. "It may be another twelve years before I stop. Now, pack what ye need and be ready to leave in five minutes. We've taken enough time already."

"I'll be ready in four, sir," Parsley replied, walking back into his room.

The old man chuckled and walked out to the stable. He glanced at the letter again to check where they were headed; he'd overlooked that on the first read, too caught up in the excitement to take note.

His good cheer promptly evaporated.

"I really ought to have checked that first off," he muttered to himself. "How am I to tell the boy we're riding to his old home?"

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SpoilerSo I was going to write this as one long piece, but as I tried to continue it I figured it would work better split up.

I'll post Part Two tomorrow.

Note that this is not canon for Konka Rar's pre-Savage Brawl backstory. It does, however, reference some canonical things that I haven't mentioned in battles.

"Sorsa! Come to the lab at once! I've done it!"

Sorsa Rar didn't bother to ask precisely what his undead ancestor had done this time. By now, he was used to Konka's childlike excitement in the face of new technology or magic.

Five thousand years had passed between Konka's reign and his second resurrection, and much had changed. The former tyrant was not yet entirely familiar with five millennia of new inventions and discoveries, and this meant that he often recreated something that had existed for centuries.

Granted, given Konka's frame of reference, it was rather impressive that he could reinvent the wheel, even if it was disturbing that the wheel was covered in putrefied flesh. It was even useful at times; just because something existed didn't mean it was easily available, after all.

But that was, on the whole, harmless. Perhaps even beneficial, if only because designing a clock that screamed on the hour diverted his attention from the salvage pile.

They had taken the parts from the ruins of an ancient city, one that had opposed Konka five thousand years ago. Their technology was far beyond anything else in his time, and much of it still surpassed the modern day.

It was here that Konka's incomplete body was augmented with cybernetics, and it was here that they had acquired an enormous selection of parts from ancient machinery. Parts that Konka would occasionally take great pains to restore, before he fully understood exactly what he was reassembling.

This was how they had ended up with a vacuum cleaner that could probably fight off a charging bull if it needed to, and a vending machine that dispensed its own rotting organs. There had been some useful weapons amongst the rubble, but these successes were far outnumbered by the failures and embarrassments.

Sorsa knew his ancestor had been rummaging through the salvage pile recently, and so his expectations were low as he walked into the laboratory.

"Behold!" Konka declared triumphantly. With a flourish, he pointed his mechanical left arm at some sort of strange booth in the corner. It was covered in flashing lights and had an incomprehensible control panel inside.

"Amazing," Sorsa said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. "What does it actually do?"

"Observe!" Konka declared, this time pointing at a nearby table. A notebook suddenly vanished from it, and Konka's skeletal grin widened as he stepped over to the machine.

"I don't understand. You haven't actually done anything yet."

"It will all be clear very shortly," Konka replied, flicking a few switches and pressing a few buttons. He then held his bony right hand up expectantly.

Three shrieks came from the clock, and the notebook reappeared in Konka's hand.

Sorsa just stared at his ancestor in bafflement for a few minutes.

"How did you make it disappear before you touched the machine?" he finally asked.

"Is it really that complicated, Sorsa? This machine can transport objects from one point in time to another."

"How is that even possible?"

"I do not fully understand it yet, but surely you can imagine the potential if we could harness this power. Time itself would be at our command!"

"Yes, I'm sure the nations of the world will bow down before us when all their notebooks suddenly disappear."

"I was thinking more along the lines of traveling back five thousand years, and overpowering my old enemies with a superior arsenal."

Sorsa reflected on this.

"And what happens to me if you do this? It strikes me as quite possible that, were you to do that, the world would change in such a way that I am never born. Even if the same parents got together, there would be no guarantee they would have the same children. Would I still exist, or would I suddenly vanish?"

"An excellent question," Konka mused. "Once I better understand this device, I shall conduct an experiment to answer it."

"How very comforting," Sorsa grumbled, walking out of the laboratory. "Do let me know when you've found out if your plans will make me cease to exist."

Show Content

SpoilerPart two.

It was some days later when Sorsa was called into the laboratory again. He had nearly forgotten about the device, though the memories soon came rushing back as he saw it once again.

Though it was a bit hard to focus on the machine when the room was filled with large piles of carrots.

"Why are there so many carrots here?" Sorsa asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"I needed to test the machine on living matter. A carrot may not be the perfect test subject, but it is more suitable than a notebook."

"I see more than just one carrot," Sorsa said, moments before one of the piles vanished.

"It is the same carrot taken from different points in time, all brought here at once. As I took them all from the future, they will begin to disappear over time."

"Wonderful. I suppose this means we can threaten our enemies with famine."

"Not the most elegant form of conquest, but I suppose it is a viable plan," Konka agreed. "Once I know enough to take something from a great range, that is. Regardless, this is the perfect opportunity for a basic causality test."

"A what?"

Konka handed him a carrot.

"This is the original. All the other carrots are future versions of this one. We are going to see what happens if you eat it."

"I don't especially like carrots."

Konka glared at his descendant. Reluctantly, Sorsa bit into it and began chewing, as Konka pulled another carrot out from the nearest pile.

"No bite marks," he mused, as another pile of carrots faded out of existence.

Sorsa swallowed, grimacing.

"So what does that mean?"

"It strongly suggests that, if we return to my time, and prevent my past self's defeat and interfere with your own birth, I will still exist in my current body and you will not vanish from existence."

"Suggests?"

"I have not tested the device on anything sentient. Though I see no reason to believe it will affect our physical bodies any differently from this carrot, I cannot yet be certain it will not affect our minds. Perhaps our bodies will be fine but our minds will be erased, or our memories altered. There is also the slim possibility of a delayed physical effect, though I can test that rather easily."

"How so?"

Konka examined the carrots in the nearest pile, even as others vanished around him, then pulled one out.

"This iteration should not fade as I retrieve duplicate carrots. Place this in formaldehyde. I will then pull it from a time twenty years into the future. If causality somehow has a delayed effect, the carrot should have experienced it by then."

Sorsa obediently pulled out a jar, and Konka placed the carrot inside. The tyrant then returned to the console, and a second jar soon appeared on the table.

The carrot in the second jar was perfectly preserved and untouched. There were no bite marks in it.

"Perfect. There are other tests to be done, of course, but this is very promising."

"Wonderful." Sorsa stared at the carrot in his hands. "Do I have to finish this? We've already seen that nothing changed."

"Yes. If you are going to keep your mortal body, then it should at least be a healthy mortal body." Konka

Sorsa sighed, and continued chewing the carrot.

"I never expected you'd tell me to eat my vegetables," he muttered in between bites.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Sorsa."