THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELED [S!1][ROUND THREE: PORT CERIDWEN]

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Spoilerdont worry everyone, im going to be sure to make freefall posts of the quality you would expect from them, until i stop doing so

"Dreams?" Freefall, on the edge of the harbor, looked into the sparkling ocean and scoffed, "More like delusions..."

The mighty heroine was sitting, alone, letting her hair flow in the sugary breeze. A wave of pink water that probably wasn't water crashed against the crystalline rock under her just like her hopes of ever leaving this battle. How had everything gone so wrong? How could she let this all happen? Even if she hadn't had anything under control before, at the very least she was getting a grasp on things... but then... so many changes, all at once, all so fast.

Even if there was nothing she could have done to prevent Nizzo's death, it still hurt, not because it meant that this wretched game would go on, but because it meant that one of the new elements obviously wasn't on her side. Well, as much as she had a side. Freefall knew that while Kriok, Aaron, and the rest had more or less sided against the ringleaders of the event, they weren't unified on that front. But Beunissima seemed to... enjoy this, to almost revel in the carnage... it was disgusting.

"Just like all of these dreams..."

Freefall had dreams once, but that was such a long time ago that it's hardly worth remembering. She was young, five years old, just learning to read, spending her days playing with her friends, the usual things. Those times would soon be swept away, like hopes are swept away by reality. Everything changed on that fateful day, when The Beacon died. Sunny skies were replaced by a cloudy darkness, and a grim reality began to rock her world...

The death of the highest profile superhero does more than destabilize the world of super heroics, it touches upon every life, no matter how young, no matter how poor, no matter how utterly pathetic and weak. Freefall doesn't remember when she realized that she wasn't like her friends, how they all still seemed to have plans and options and places to go... but when she did, it wasn't the sort of thing that she could just... forget.

Oh, it wasn't immediate, she still had hope at first, even if she couldn't be super, she could at least be strong, carry on the messages that The Beacon imparted unto her and others like her. In those first few mourning weeks, she thought that even if his light got snuffed out from this world, someone else would carry it on. Instead, the world turned against him... journalists questioning if the new, more brutal waves of heroes, raised while The Beacon was at his peak, were encouraged by his acts of so-called violence. Saying that if he was so great, why did he fight, couldn't he have talked his enemies down, set a better example? Slander. All of it was slander, but the world wouldn't listen, even less to someone like her.

So her strength became a strength for herself. She began to fight, and fight, even making it to real fights. Until she got her powers, that was all she thought she would do, her fourteen years of failure...

"Am I... jumping to conclusions? What if Beunissima was lost, like I once was? I need to be sure... I can't just..." Freefall got up and tied her hair back. She took a few breaths of the air, clenched her fist, and looked back into the town. "What should I do? What would..."

Freefall took out her communicator, now in the worst condition it had ever been. What was she doing? What could she do? Her hand was shaking, maybe... it was time to let go...

Without another thought, she tossed her communicator into the ocean, watching it slowly sink and get carried away. Despite being so close to the shore, the moment it was fully submerged, it vanished from her sight. It was gone, but Freefall was not, she resolved to solve things here, on her own terms. First on the docket, Beunissima. Given the type of person that the new competitor seemed to be, the best place to start would be the shopping district, plenty of people, plenty of chances to show off, and plenty of things to do, on both sides of the law.

"Alright Beunissima. I'm coming for you."

Freefall dashed from the harbor-side, intent on questioning the enigma that was Beunissima...thoughts and memories interweaving into a haze that overcast the town's blue-grey crystals beneath her feet, the glinting golden twilight, and one singular blue light, focused on her...

---

Olive City... a multiverse away...

METAL and Ace had been working away at the Eagle computer, scanning across the multiverse for signs of their lost member, both of them knowing little other stimulation than the sounds of METAL's fingers tapping the keys and the glowing data scrawled across the screen, with the exception of a report or visit from one of the other members of the group.

"Why can't we find her? It's been days, and we have some of the most sophisticated equipment in the universe!"

"C0RRECT. H0WEVER, MULT1VERSE D0ES 1S 0N A LARGER SCALE."

"That shouldn't matter! We've traveled it before, we've made it back, before! Why is this time different?"

"MY M0ST L1KELY HYP0TH0S1S SAYS THAT 1T 1S DUE T0 B0TH 1NTERFERENCE AND HER M0VEMENT THR0UGH THE MULT1VERSE. 0NE 0R THE 0THER W0ULD BE EAS1ER T0 DEAL W1TH. B0TH, LESS S0."

"And let me guess, the fact that her communicator's busted doesn't help?"

"THE STATUS 0F THE C0MMUN1CAT0R 1S 1RRELEVANT. 1 AM US1NG THE TRACER Y0U PLACED 0N HER WHEN Y0U MET."

"The one thing she'd never let go... a beacon to always keep her on the path of righteousness..."

"AFF1RMAT1VE."

*BWIPBWIPBWIP*

The two looked at the computer screen, which suddenly seemed to be working faster. The numbers and letters that made the various calculations began to finally slowing down to a reasonable pace,much to the shock of Ace.

"What's going on?"

"1T SEEMS THAT THE C0MPUTER HAS P1NP01NTED 0N HER UN1VERSAL L0CAT10N."

"What, how?"

"JUDG1NG FR0M THE RECENT DATA, SHE HAS JUMPED L0CAT10NS 0NCE AGA1N. UNL1KE THE PREV10US JUMP, TH1S 0NE HAS ENDED 1N 0UR FAVOR. WE CAN HAVE AN EXACT L0CAT10N 1N A MATTER 0F H0URS. SH0ULD 1 CALL THE 0THERS."

Ace paused for a moment before answering, "No, the two of us should be enough, whatever is going on is obviously powerful, the less noise we make taking her back the better."

"AFF1RMAT1VE."