The Great Belligerency [Round 4: Static]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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Not long after Balance left the village, he sensed that something was wrong.

The floating rocks arguing with each other were his first clue as to precisely what.

"I'm telling you, it's a lobster, not a scorpion!"
"Don't be absurd! Why would there be a lobster here? I don't think we even have an ocean."

That directed Balance's attention to the next oddity - the gigantic crustacean awkwardly flailing about on its back nearby. The first rock had been correct - it was, in fact, a lobster - but so out of its element as to be hopelessly out of place.

He sighed, and focused on the rocks, sapping them of their knowledge and placing them back on the ground; then he focused on the lobster, changing it to a scorpion and shrinking it in size. But something still seemed off. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse; two seconds later, a frog hopped past him, and was promptly gobbled up by a fly.

Balance gazed off in the distance. The horizon seemed to end in a mountain, no matter which direction he looked in. But was this not supposed to be a plateau? That implied a lack of mountains.

He looked at his scales; they were waving back and forth dangerously. There was something wrong with the balance of this world. But from the Executor's description, the Eternity Plateau had sounded remarkably balanced. Aside from this village's isolation by the others, which they were unable to fight back against until he had released the barrier...

Balance slapped his forehead. That was the problem. The balance of this world was so delicate that merely removing that barrier had thrown everything off. He would have to restore it, or at least counterbalance it. Unfortunately, he could sense new disruptions emerging nearby; he wouldn't be able to fix the barrier from here. He'd have to go to one of the villages involved and work from there. Naturally, it made sense to work from the closer one.


Upon re-entering the village, he sensed his own work, still recent. Traces of it remained; he could undo it quickly, restoring the state of both this village and the one that had produced the barrier.

Of course, the issue with restoring the barrier in such a way was that he would be inside it himself. That would prevent him from repairing the damage the others were doing, particularly Girnham.

After a moment's thought, he settled on the solution. He would restore the barrier now, undoing the damage from his first hasty attempt, and then take it down again, but this time he would do it more carefully, so that the balance would be maintained. It was the simplest and fastest approach.

He focused on his past actions, and undid them. The village was surrounded by a dome once more, much to the surprise of its inhabitants, who had just begun to make plans for using their newfound freedom. A crowd of them gathered around the god, and began shouting at him.

"Calm yourselves!" he said, holding up a hand. "This is only temporary. I made a crucial error before, this time I shall avoid it."

Grudgingly, the mob's jeers turned to grumbles as they hoped he wouldn't take too long about it. They simply stood and watched.

***

Carl sighed as he noticed the barrier go back up around his village.

"I told them. I told them it would be best to leave right away, but no, they insist on packing and planning. Well, their loss."

And so he wandered off. He had a lot of villagers to teach baseball to if he was going to get the Eternity League started.