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Sfstory Log 083

=========================================================================
Date:         Sat, 22 Jun 1996 01:12:30 -0400
Reply-To:     UCF SUPERGUY List (SUPERGUY at UCF1VM.BITNET)
Sender:       UCF SUPERGUY List (SUPERGUY at UCF1VM.BITNET)
From:         Nopporn Wongrassamee (NoppornW at AOL.COM)
Subject:      SG/SF/MW/WW: Analogs #17

{Everywhere}
        Dark clouds could be seen gathering on the horizon. Thunder
could be heard in the distance. For those who could tell and those who
were anticipating, the clouds were the first sign of Armageddon.
        The end was near.

{000SUPERGUY}
        An ebony lightning bolt flashed across the sky, looking like a
photo negative of a normal lightning bolt.
        Bane saw this...and smiled.

{000SFSTORY}
        A golden wave of lightning stretched across the galaxy, an
anomaly that had never been seen before. And, one way or another, never
again.
        The Interloper and Anonymech, rivals lightyears apart, saw this
...and fumed.

{000METAWORLD}
        Forks of lightning, emerald and jade, danced among mountain
tops in total defiance of mundane physics.
        Lazarus Baines saw this...and worried.

{000WAROFTHEWORLDS}
        Crimson arcs of lightning leapt and tumbled among the canals of
Mars, bathing mecha in reddish light.
        Colonel Wulf saw this...and decided they were harmless.

{223DON'TTRYITAUTHORSONLY}
        Saphire sparks crackled on the barriers that protected the
Author's Altiverse.
        The Authors saw this...and thought it was an awesome lightshow.

                  Overly Bar-B-Cued Authorial Productions
                                Presents:
                             ______________
                            /\  \      /  /\
                           /__\  \    /  /__\
                |                 \  /
            o   |   o              \/               /\_/ | \
              o | o                    _  __  __      |__/\/
           _ __/ \__ _  /\ |\ | /\ |  / \/ _ (_   /\/\/  \  /
               \ /     /--\| \|/--\|__\_/\__|__)   /  \__/\/\/
              o | o                                _/\/  \_
            o   |   o          Episode #17          \    / \
                |     "Crossover Part 6 of whatever"
                         *  "Split Affinity"______
                     *  ** *               /\____/\
                     * **  * *            / /\__/\ \
                       ***   *           /_/_/  \_\_\
                      ***** *            \ \ \__/ / /
                      *******             \ \/__\/ /
                      _*****_              \/____\/

                          by Nopporn Wongrassamee
                              the Evil Author

{000SFSTORY}
        The Symphony o' Doom slid into orbit around Solaris Several,
eclipsing the planet's sun with its sheer bulk. Clouds of fighters
descended upon the hapless world, with the intent of kidnapping one
junior Semi knight.
        That was when the Heck Cruiser materialized in front of them.
        Some of the fighters slowed their descent, their pilots trying
to decide whether or not it was worth the trouble of shooting down.
Then a voice transmission was heard by all.
        "I am the Interloper! The Symphony o' Doom and her forces
rightfully belong to me! All loyal warriors, rally to me!" Hearing
this, Lucy Skywalker broke off her descent towards the planet, leading
several fighter wings towards the Heck Cruiser.
        And opened fire.
        "I take it your people didn't like the Interloper too much,"
Anonymech mused as he watched the carnage.
        Captain Kirkway shrugged. "He was a lecherous bastard who
treated us like his play things," she told him. She grinned. "You, on
the other hand, are a much better boss who knows how to take care of
his people." There was a flash and the Heck Cruiser took a terminal
swan dive towards the planet. "Good riddance. I hope he has a long and
painful death. And a longer and more painful afterlife, too."
        "Oh really?" came a voice from behind them. They spun around
and found a slightly singed Interloper standing behind them.
        "Right, I'm outta here," Captain Kirkway said, fleeing the
room.
        They both ignored her departure. "Don't you think it's kind of
stupid for you to be here?" Anonymech said, nonchalant. "I can see that
you used up some more of your Edit to teleport here. Enough in fact
that I've got far more left than you do. Are you so eager to get
pounded into snot?"
        The Interloper smiled evilly. "You're right, I am lower on Edit
than you are. But I can fix that." He whipped a sword out of his cloak;
the blade appeared to be made of yellow foam rubber. Five targets
sprouted from the cross guard. "There can only...me!"
        "It's been done before," Anonymech pointed out, eyeing the
sword in distaste.
        "Hey, I'm the essence of the Evil Author's plagiaristic
tendencies," the Interloper shot back. "I'll do what I please. By the
way, here." He tossed Anonymech a nerf sword. The blade was cut off a
few inches from the hilt.
        "What's this?" Anonymech asked. "And shouldn't you have given
me a regular nerf sword, too?"
        "One, that sword was the one used by the Man with Two First
Names during Nerflander and got chopped with a hatchet by Burt Ward.
That's why it's cut off," the Interloper explained. "As for the other,
I cheat, too."
        Thunder rumbled in the distance.

{000SUPERGUY}
        Tsunami paced back and forth, considering. Back and forth.
Forth and back. Back and...
        "C'mon, Tsunami," said Mindlocke after several minutes. "How
hard can it be to make this descision?"
        "How can I when I don't know enough?" Tsunami snapped. "Both
Mary and this Paul lookalike tell similar stories, but with enough
details different that they contradict each other. How do you expect me
to choose sides in this case?"
        "I believe Paul, here," Mindlocke said, nodding at the Paul in
question.
        "You told me that both of them implicitly believed their
stories," Tsunami replied. "Do you know anything that might confirm or
refute either of their stories?"
        "Er..." Mindlocke hesitated.
        "Oh, c'mon, Liz," Mary broke in. "Don't you believe me?"
        "Absolutely," Tsunami answered. "But I also happen to trust
Mindlocke's telepathy and honesty, too. Mary, what do you expect me to
do? Beat him up just on your say so that he's a villain?"
        "Frankly, yes," Mary answered.
        Tsunami sighed. "Mary, we're supposed to be heroes," she said
reasonably. "We can't go around beating up people just because they're
accused of being Bad Guys. For that, I need at least circumstantial
proof. You don't even have that."
        "So what are you going to do?" Mary asked, voice flat.
        "We," Tsunami said, emphasizing "we", "are going to do some
investigating. We're going to go to your mother and our Paul and ask
some questions."
        "Really," Mary said icily. "Well, in that case, go talk to my
mother first. Then you'll see I'm right. I'll be waiting at Paul's
place." She spun on her heel and stormed off, barging in between the
rest of Tsunami's team just as they were arriving.
        "What's gotten into her?" Muck Warrior asked.
        Tsunami shook her head and started explaining the situation to
the new arrivals. Mary must really be worried for her mother to be so
irritable.
        Thunder rumbled in the distance.

{000METAWORLD}
        Lord Blankenship watched the shuttle dive into the ocean and
make its way toward the starship stranded on the sea floor. The
shuttle's unwilling passenger was most important.
        In a way, Blankenship WAS the starship. His soul resided in the
ship's seniormost Brain unit, a robot whose sole function was
intellectualism. The Brain was central to the GURPS command structure,
being the most senior Brain. The other, younger Brains were subservient
to Blankenship.
        It hadn't always been that way. The original social structure
of this robotic race had been far more decentralized. But when the ship
crashed here, only one Brain and a handful of younger Workers survived,
leaving them open to possession by Blankenship. If more of the robots
had survived and their social system remained more or less intact, they
might have realized that a foreign presence had taken over one of their
own. As it was, Blankenship now had his own little empire down here.
        Once upon a time, Lord Blankenship had been a duke within the
seelie courts of the Faerie, his power second only to that of the royal
couple. His attempted coup had left him exiled as a spirit to the
mortal world. It had been sheer luck that the ship appeared when it
did. Now, he had the power to conquer the mortal world...if he could
get past the Illuminati, first.
        A Scout had appeared once, threatening Blankenship's dominance.
Being straight from the robots' homesystem, it would have recognized
him as a foreign entity and would have tried to purge him from the
Brain. While he had managed to have the it eliminated, the Illuminati
had managed to acquire the Scout's archival data sphere. With the
Brain's impressive reasoning skills, he deduced that it would take some
time to decode the sphere's contents and even longer to use it. He was
safe for now.
        The shuttle arrived and docked. Mary Sinclair disembarked, head
high and flanked by a Warrior and a Halfling. A cat followed out.
Blankenship studied the cat for an instant. A Familiar, no doubt. The
Warrior and Halfling must have judged it harmless, otherwise they would
never have tolerated its presence.
        Shrugging mentally, Blankenship activated the audio speakers.
"Mary Sinclair," he greeted casually. Then he added with a subtle,
menacing air, "Welcome to my den."
        "Who are you?" the girl demanded. She tried to move, but her
skin tight obedience suit refused to let her. "What do you want?"
        "We are the General and Ultimate Reich of Sillicates."
        "GURPS?" Mary said. She obviously wasn't surprised.
        "Do NOT call us that!" Blankenship snapped irritably. That
abbreviation didn't sound quite so impressive as the full name. "As for
what we want, we want the Doomsday Arsenal. And you're going to give it
to us."
        "The Doomsday Arsenal!" Mary exclaimed in surprise. As well she
did. The Doomsday Arsenal was a collection of the most powerful magical
and technomagical weapons and artifacts ever made. The Illuminati held
them in safekeeping in case the world was ever in danger of armageddon.
"It doesn't exist! It's a myth! And even if it did exist, I haven't a
clue as to where it is!"
        "That's all right," Blankenship replied blithely as a Worker
approached Mary. "What you're going to do is worm your way into the
confidences of those who do know. Then you'll tell us. And before you
start objecting and making heroic speeches about dying first, we will
fix it so that you WILL do what we want, and cheerfully, too." The
Worker extended a foot long hypodermic needle from one arm. "I assume
you are aquainted with the concept of nanotechnology?"
        Mary struggled, which consisted mainly of tossing her head
about; the obedience suit restrained the rest of her. The Halfling came
forward and held her head still. "Relax," the Halfling told her. "This
will only hurt for an instant." Blankenship considered for the Halfling
a few microseconds. Was there some trace of humanity left in him?
Blankenship decided it didn't matter.
        Mary still eyed the approaching needle fearfully. Her cat
attacked with bared claws, not impeding the Worker in the slightest.
The instant the needle tip touched Mary's forehead, something odd
happened.
        Thunder rumbled in the distance.

{000SUPERGUY}
        Chewgumma (remember him?) took aim with his blaster and shot
Octobrain. It died with an earpiercing shriek. A fireball flew past him
and blew an aircar out of the sky. Chewgumma shot the Pig Cop that
emerged from the flames. The dimensional portal might have been closed,
but there were still alot of computer dimension critters running around
town.
        "It's been a while since I've done this sort of thing," Elaine
Sinclair said as she readied a fireball. "Almost makes me want to get
back into spandex again."
        A Timber Wolf Omnimech rounded a corner. Chewgumma shot it.
Mrs. Sinclair threw her fireball at it. Both hit it. They did little
more than scratch the Timber Wolf's paint. In reply, the Omnimech fired
both missile launchers at them.
        A transluscent barrier dropped down in front of them. Forty
missiles futiley expended themselves on the wall. Then the Timber Wolf
was hit by a flying Pinto that seemed to come from out of nowhere. No -
Mrs. Sinclair thought, revising her conslusion - it was a thrown Pinto.
The explosion was rather pretty.
        "Almost," Mrs. Sinclair muttered to herself.
        "Are you alright, Mrs. Sinclair?" a woman in spandex asked as
she landed beside them. Several other superguys in similar spandex
costumes arrived with her. They had Paul's analog with them, too.
        "Yes, I'm fine," Mrs. Sinclair replied. She squinted at the
woman who had spoken; she knew this superguy. "Elizabeth, is that you?"
        Tsunami nodded. "Hi, Mrs. Sinclair," she said, a hint of a
smile on her lips. "I wish we could have met under better
circumstances." As if to emphasize the point, one of Tsunami's
companions - a man who smelled like a sewer - suddenly pointed his huge
gun at the sky and blew a Comanche attack helicopter out of the air.
        "I suppose so," Mrs. Sinclair sighed. "Is something wrong,
Elizabeth? You look tense."
        "Well, I ran into Mary earlier. She seems to think that you've
been possessed by an evil magician or something," Tsunami explained.
She pointed to Paul's analog. "Namely, him."
        "That's not true," Mrs. Sinclair said stiffly. "Paul - our Paul
- tried to kill me. This Paul and Chewgumma here saved my life. Whether
or not our Paul was possessed by a magical AI, I don't know. But it
sure explains where he learned magic in such a hurry."
        The redhead next to Tsunami nodded. "She's telling the truth,
Tsunami," she said. "I don't detect anything untoward that might be
influencing her. No false memories, geas, demonic possession..."
        "What? Don't you trust me?" Mrs. Sinclair demanded indignantly.
        "Please, Mrs. Sinclair," Tsunami said wearily, "don't you
start, too."
        Thunder rumbled nearby.

{000WAROFTHEWORLDS}
        The great, tripedal forms of the Martian mecha approached. They
neared the positions of where the Earthlings had hidden their own
mecha in ambush positions. They were near point blank range for their
both sides' weaponry, when bombs began dropping out of the sky.
        With a sudden roar and sonic boom, the Earth-made fighters had
made their bombing run and were past. The missiles they had left behind
threw the Martian's orderly advance into chaos.
        Which was exactly when the ambush was sprung.
        "NOW!" Wulf ordered over the Earthling's comm lines.
        WarHorse mecha leapt from their hidden positions in the brush
bordering the Canal. They opened fire with a volley of missiles. Mary
raced forward, suppressing a panicky fear that seemed to have come from
nowhere, and picked a battered Martian as her target and pumped a round
from her right arm cannon into it. The round penetrated and exploded,
roasting the Martian mecha's interior, incidently including its pilot.
        Mary turned her WarHorse and fired another round at the first
Martian she saw. Less luck this time; the round exploded without
penetrating, removing only armor. The Martian was already spraying
laser fire at two other WarHorses. Her own mecha's computers told Mary
that it was targeting her, as if she didn't know. She dodged to the
left. The Martian fired.
        Luck was with the Martian this time. It struck a hip joint. It
also used its single heavy laser on Mary's WarHorse. The leg was
severed, and the WarHorse fell to the ground with a bone jarring crash.
Dazed, Mary saw the Martian turn its heavy laser toward its other two
opponents, backing up till it towered over Mary. It lifted a foot,
obviously intent on crushing the WarHorse's cockpit with Mary in it.
        Thunder rumbled nearby.

{000SUPERGUY}
        Mary slammed the door behind her, as she entered the apartment.
        Bane lifted his head. "Problem?" he asked blandly.
        "I just ran into Liz," Mary told him. "I told her about your
counterpart and all and she didn't believe me!"
        "Really," Bane said slowly. "So what is she up to now?"
        "She's off 'investigating' my mother," Mary said absently as
she plopped onto the sofa. "I told her to come here when they confirm
everything I said."
        "Hmm," Bane grunted. There were a few minutes of silence as he
continued doing whatever it was he was doing. "Mary, I think I can give
you the power to help your mother."
        "What are you talking about?"
        "Come over here and I'll show you." Mary got up and went to his
side. "Recognize this?" he asked gesturing at what he had been working
on.
        "Yeah, it's your staff," Mary replied, puzzled. "How can it
floating upright like that without falling?"
        "Magic," Bane chuckled in reply.
        "Oh, right, silly me," Mary said, exasperated. "What do I do?"
        "Just stand right there and study into the gem," Bane told her.
        "Okay," Mary said as she studied the gem. It was set in the top
of Bane's staff, the size of a fist and giving off a faint purplish
glow. "Now what?"
        "Keep staring into the gem," Bane instructed as me moved behind
Mary. "That's it. Now, blank your mind of all thoughts, all emotions,
everything but the gem itself." Bane's voice took on a hypnotic
quality. "See the glow? It's everything, everything in the world. There
is nothing but that glow." Bane watched Mary as all expression left her
face. She was entranced. Perfect.
        Bane placed his fingertips to Mary's temples and began the next
part of the spell.
        Thunder rumbled nearby.

{223DON'TTRYITAUTHORSONLY}
        Laughter reverberated throughout the Catacombs beneath the
Castle o' Doom.
        "Hey! Why are you laughing?" whined the Galivantan Time Lord to
his prisoners.
        "The Plot Device?" Mary replied when her laughter died down.
"What kind of name is THAT?"
        "Hey! All the good names were taken!" the Plot Device
protested. "There are Time Lords out there with names like 'the Doctor'
or 'the Master'. Hell(tm), there are even Time Lords with names like
'the Janitor' or 'the Garbage Man'."
        "So, 'the Plot Device' was one of the names that weren't
taken?" Vicky infered.
        "You betcha!"
        Mary and the Vickies broke up laughing again. The Plot Device
endured it in red faced silence.
        "So what brings you here?" Mary asked when her laughter
subsided again.
        "I'm here to destroy the multiverse!" the Plot Device declared
almost dramatically. It would have been truly dramatic, except that his
voice cracked.
        "Aw, not that old saw!" Mary complained. "Don't you think that
might be rather stupid considering you happen to be living in this
multiverse, too?"
        "Hey, I'm a supervillain," he said. "We do these sorts of
things. And I'm going to be the biggest supervillain of all!" Mary
glanced at Vicky. Vicky twirled her finger around her ear and rolled
her eyes up in that universal gesture that says "he's nuts".
        "So, just how in Elvis' name do you intend to destroy the
multiverse?" Mary asked, her tone indicating that she didn't believe
that he could do any such thing.
        "Why, I'll transport you to another altiverse," the Plot Device
said brightly. "That'll disturb the entire multiverse, your four
counterparts will be unbalanced and start using their respective Forces
in such a fashion that they'll tear the multiverse apart!"
        Mary stared at him. "One little problem, boyo," she said. "I
can't be transported between altiverses."
        "Wanna bet?" the Plot Device chuckled. He took a what appeared
to be a TV remote control and opened a wormhole in the room. "This is a
wormhole designed expressly to slip you from altiverse to altiverse."
He grinned at them. "If you don't slip through this wormhole, I'll
surrender quietly. Deal?"
        "Deal!" Mary agreed.
        "Mary..." Vicky began.
        "Hey, don't wory about it, Vicky," Mary reassured her. "I
can't be moved from altiverse to altiverse, remember? Hey, Plot Device!
Open the cage!" The Time Lord did so.
        "But, Mary..." Vicky tried again.
        "Here," the Plot Device interupted, tossing Mary the remote.
"You'll need this."
        "Mary..." Vicky began again.
        "Says you," Mary told him, tucking the remote in her belt. She
immediately leapt into the wormhole...and vanished.
        "It's not 'impossible' to transport you! It's 'almost
impossible'." It was too late. Mary was already gone.
        "It worked!" the Plot Device crowed. "Now, to get outta here."
He turned to find fifty plus Vickies pointing lethal weapons at him.
"Er, can we talk about this?"
        Thunder...

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{000SUPERGUY}
        (Power flowed)
        Something filled Mary's being, part of which was shunted by
Bane's spell into Bane himself. The staff held Mary long enough to make
the link between Bane and Mary more or less permanent.
        Bane released Mary. Mary staggered, whirled, and whobbled
drunkenly. But the flow of power remained. Power. Lots of it. Bane
snatched up his staff, ready to try some of it out.
        Mary's trance broke. "Whash hap'nin?" Mary asked. She giggled.
"Feelsh good whatev'r 'tish."
        "What's going on here?!" someone demanded. Bane turned to see
Mrs. Sinclair flanked by the Liz's H.E.R.O.s, Chewgumma, and his analog
from another altiverse.
        "Power," he said smugly. He hefted his staff and began weaving
an intricate spell. "Here's a sample." The H.E.R.O.s saw something dark
begin to take form and braced themselves.
        "Hey, ma!" Mary called drunkenly. "Lookee what I c'n do!"
        All eyes riveted on Mary. A roiling ball of pure darkness the
size of a beachball floated between her hands. "Wait! Mary, don't..."
was as far as Bane got before the ball exploded.
        So did Bane's entire apartment building.

{000SFSTORY}
        (Power Flowed)
        The Solaris Several arena Mary had been trapped in was in riot.
When the rioteers were ten to twenty meter tall mecha, the picture gets
rather ugly.
        Mary watched the chaos standing in the middle of the street.
Power flowed through her, though she couldn't say what it was exactly
or where it had come from. It did seem to make her a bit tipsy, though.
        *Mary,* came Yoga's telepathic voice. *Fixed SIC is. Leave now
we can. Back come.*
        *Go (hic) without me,* Mary replied. *I think I (hic) know how
to handle these (hic) mecha.*
        There was a pause. *Mary, drunk are you?* Yoda asked,
concerned. Mary didn't reply. Instead, she reached out with her mind
and created hordes and hordes of...
        Meanwhile, on the Symphony o' Doom, Anonymech and the
Interloper fought for the other's Edit. It was a stalemate. Anonymech
had overcome his initial disadvantage by flipping his truncated nerf
sword around so that the nerf blade was now the hilt and the hilt now
the blade. This had the effect of making it nearly impossible for the
Interloper to knock down his hilt targets. Of course, Anonymech's short
reach precluded him striking any of the Interloper's targets.
        This became rather academic when they were suddenly swamped
with lemon yellow smurfs.

{000METAWORLD}
        (Power FLOWED)
        As the needle broke skin, Mary felt something fill her. Fury.
And Something Else. Power. It welled up and burst out. It flowed into
the hunter holding her head. In flooded into the Worker sticking the
needle into her head. It went...everywhere.
        It invaded the Brain that Lord Blankenship occupied. Under
Mary's command it swept aside his defenses like so many cobwebs. The
power swept him up and formed an imprisoned him within the back of the
Brain's cybernetic mind.
        Mary fumed. She controled the entire ship now, the whole of
GURPS perhaps. It wasn't enough. There was chaos loose in the world, in
the rest of the universe, too. It was time to bring a little Order to
the world.
        A pillar of emerald fire a hundred miles thick burst from the
ocean.

{000WAROFTHEWORLDS}
        (POWER FLOWED)
        The foot descended towards Mary. A sudden rage filled Mary, an
overwhelming need to destroy these Martians. She swung up her free
cannon and fired, ignoring the light telling her the cannon was jammed.
        A shaft of crimson struck the Martian and the Martian simply...
ceased to be. Mary swung the beam about, eliminating friend and foe
alike, and chunks of geography, too.
        A coldness settled over Mary. Somehow she knew that she was the
one generating this beam of...whatever. She didn't need her WarHorse.
Hell(tm), she didn't need this damn planet.
        The red planet vanished in a similarly red flash.

TEASERS?! YOU WANT TEASERS?! DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT WE'RE DOOMED?!
        WE'RE DOOMED! DOOMED, I TELL YOU! WE"RE GONNA D...(Whack!)
        (thud)

Ahem. Due to, ah...technical difficulties, we will not be airing our
        regularly scheduled teaser questions. Thank you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright Notice:
This story is (C)opyright by Nopporn Wongrassamee in 1996. All rights
 reserved.

Send feedback to: NoppornW at aol.com

"They were the bad guys, we were the good guys, and they made a very
satisfying thump whan they hit the floor!"
                                          - G'kar, Babylon 5
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 27 Jun 1996 14:24:35 -0400
Reply-To:     UCF SUPERGUY List (SUPERGUY at UCF1VM.BITNET)
Sender:       UCF SUPERGUY List (SUPERGUY at UCF1VM.BITNET)
From:         Nopporn Wongrassamee (NoppornW at AOL.COM)
Subject:      MV: Analogs #18

Evil Author's Note:
         Due to the rather large numbers of altiverses involved in this
one series, I'm inventing the new episode prefix "MV". MV stands for
MultiVerse. Now, anyone who wants to write a story taking place in
multiple multiverses simultaneously can just tack on MV as their
prefix instead of stringing lots of altiverse-specific prefixes
together.

{the Multiverse}
        Danger.
        The entity once known as Chris Masse watched as the Multiverse
sped towards utter annihilation. Four points of Power had sprung up
from seeming nowhere, warping and straining the convoluted fabric that
was made up of infinite altiverses. Only their distance from each other
kept the multiverse from being torn apart. But sooner or later, those
points would converge. The resulting explosion would blow the
Multiverse to smithereens.
        And all the entity once known as Chris Masse could do now was
watch.
        Oh, the entity wanted to intervene, but s/he simply did not
have the power or finesse to intervene successfully. And the task was
hard enough without setting off paradox ripples that meeting his/her
past self would generate.
        On the other hand, there were more altiverses than 000SUPERGUY
out there...

                  Overly Bar-B-Cued Authorial Productions
                                Presents:
                             ______________
                            /\  \      /  /\
                           /__\  \    /  /__\
                |                 \  /
            o   |   o              \/               /\_/ | \
              o | o                    _  __  __      |__/\/
           _ __/ \__ _  /\ |\ | /\ |  / \/ _ (_   /\/\/  \  /
               \ /     /--\| \|/--\|__\_/\__|__)   /  \__/\/\/
              o | o                                _/\/  \_
            o   |   o          Episode #18          \    / \
                |    "Crossover Part 8 of whatever"
                            "Collision Alert!"
                         *                  ______
                     *  ** *               /\____/\
                     * **  * *            / /\__/\ \
                       ***   *           /_/_/  \_\_\
                      ***** *            \ \ \__/ / /
                      *******             \ \/__\/ /
                      _*****_              \/____\/

                          by Nopporn Wongrassamee
                              the Evil Author

{999SCIFIWORLD}
        "Captain," called Lieutenant Commander Spiner, "sensors are
picking up a spacial distortion that just started forming. I am having
some difficulty in pinpointing its precise location."
        "What kind of ditortion?" Captain Stewart asked.
        "I am uncertain, Captain," replied Spiner. "Spacial distortions
are not exactly common. They most certainly never form out of nothing
unless some intelligence is behind it. Hmm, this distortion appears to
be a small wormhole."
        "Is there a ship coming through?"
        "The wormhole would seem to be to small for that," Spiner told
him. "I am still having trouble locking onto its exact..."
        Spiner was immediately interupted from his dialogue when a hole
opened up in midair in the center of the bridge. Wind seem to rush out
from it. With a flash, it unceremoniously spat out a human figure. The
hole promptly closed up.
        "Well, that answers where the wormhole was forming," Spiner
commented.
        The figure - a human girl perhaps just short of her twenties -
sat up groggily. "Oooh, what a rush," she mumbled. She was also
dripping with weaponry.
        "SECURITY!" Stewart called.

{000SUPERGUY}
        "Wheeeee!"
        "Mary..."
        "C'mon, Paul, live a little!"
        "Mary, we're doing the waltz 200 feet above the ground," Bane
pointed out.
        "Sho what?" Mary lisped, puzzled. "We got mushic."
        Bane tried to reason with Mary, if just to get back in control
of the situation. This didn't work very well, mostly because of Mary's
intoxicated state of mind. Inspite of the link he had created between
them (or maybe because of it), every spell he had cast on Mary in order
to regain some semblance of control of her mind, had simple crumbled
before the constant onslaught of Chaos flowing through her. She wielded
the Chaos like she had always done so, causing strange things to
happen.
        The destruction of his apartment building was only incidental.
        An idea occured to Bane. Maybe it was time to try a different
tactic. "Say, Mary," he began, "why don't we go back in time? I think
the spell I cast on you had some bugs in it. If we go back, we can fix
it and then go help your mother."
        "My mom?" Mary looked down at a bus that seemed to be following
them on the ground. "There'sh nothin' wrong wi' my mom." Mary's senses
had been gretly enhanced, Bane realized. Enough that Mary would reason
out that Bane had lied to her. "Time. Back in time. Forward in time,"
Mary muttered to herself, apparently not making the connection between
her mother's lack of being possessed and the falsity of the story Bane
had fed her. "Shay, y' wanna here about time?" Mary asked brightly.
        "Okay," Bane replied slowly, hoping to keep Mary distracted.
        "Didja know that CalForshe retired?" Mary asked. "Ther alsho
helping to fight a guy named Maladwa or shomethin'."
        "Really," Bane said only half listening.
        "An' de Adjushe...Addje...ALU is helping them. De ALU ish also
on anodder planet and rashin' to Hell(tm) or shomethin..."
        "I see," Bane said. He really didn't see how the ALU could be
in three places at once or how Calforce could be retired AND fighting a
supervillain at the same time. But he'll agree to anything as long as
it kept Mary distracted.
        "...and yer not listnen' t' me are ya?" Mary concluded.
        "Yes, Mary," Bane said automatically. Then he realized what she
had just said. "Er..."
        "You don't love me! You don't care about me!" Mary ranted,
pushing Bane away. "You...hey, where'd ya go?" Mary looked around. If
she looked down, she might have realized that Bane hadn't been using
one of his flight spells and that she had been holding him up.
        Or maybe not.

{999SCIFIWORLD}
        "You know who this is, Lieutenant?" Captain Stewart asked in
astonishment.
        "Certainly, Captain," Lieutenant Victoria Kritz replied
smoothly, "and I assure you that she is no threat to the ship's safety.
Her arrival here was sheer chance as it is."
        It was rather a surprise to Mary to discover that Vickie was in
this altiverse, much less a member of the crew of the ship Mary had
wound up on.
        "Is this one of those top secret projects that you can't tell
me about?" Stewart asked.
        "Absolutely."
        "Hmm, well then, I suppose that she is to be our guest for the
time being, then," Stewart decided. "Doctor, how is our guest?"
        "Except for some bumps and bruises, she's in perfect health,"
Dr. McFadden reported.
        Stewart nodded acknoledgement. "Lieutenant, since you seem to
know our guest, why don't you escort her to her quarters?"
        "Yes, sir," Vickie replied and hustled Mary out of sickbay.
        "Vickie? What's going on?" Mary asked. "Where am I?"
        "You're in my home altiverse," Vickie replied. "And you should
never have taken the Plot Device's bet."
        "Hey, we were in a cage at the time," Mary protested. "I
thought it was a safe bet."
        Vickie sighed. "We could have shot our way out. Or waited for
me to bring backup. I don't happen to be in several places at once for
nothing y'know."
        "Oops, sorry. I'm new to this heroing thing, remember?" Mary
apologized. "So what are you doing on this ship anyway? The Captain
seems to set a great deal in your word."
        "In this altiverse, I am the only means in known space of FTL
communications," Vickie replied. "At least without sending a whole ship
first. Basically, I plug into a computer at both locations" she tapped
the neural jack at her temple "and messages are sent back and forth
through me at both locations. There's at least one of me on each ship
in the Fleet, at each base, and at each planet in the Federation." She
grinned. "I'm one of the most overpaid people in the galaxy. Both the
job and the money means I have a great deal of political influence even
though I collectively only get one vote."
        "Wow," Mary said, impressed.
        "Also, since a part of me is in the Author's altiverse, I also
have a good idea of what's going on in the multiverse," Vicky added.
She turned serious. "Do you know what your analogs have been up to?"

{000SFSTORY}
        "Defend yourself, Anonymech!" the Interloper challenged,
sweeping his nerf sword in a long arc.
        "Sure I will," Anonymech replied. "Just as soon as I can find
you!" He brushed a dozen yellow smurfs aside with his truncated sword.
The cleared space was immediately filled with more smurfs. "The
Hell(tm) with this," he muttered. Anonymech pulled his Omnigun from his
boot holster, set it "F", and fired into a cluster of smurfs.
        "YEOUCH!!!" squealed the Interloper from somewhere as the
flames fried the smurfs. Apparently, Anonymech had just found his
opponent.
        "Ooh, roast (hic) smurf! Gotta put that on every menu in the
altiverse," someone said. Anonymech and the Interloper felt something
pass through them. "There we go. (hic)"
        Homing in on the voice, Anonymech and the Interloper waded
through the sea of smurfs. They found Mary lounging in the only Smurf-
free zone on the entire ship.
        "Ha! You're MINE, now!" declared the Interloper.
        "Oh, cut the crappy dialogue," Anonymech snapped at him.
        "Boys, be nice (hic)," Mary chided. "For your information, the
entire (hic) altiverse is mine (hic) now. In fact (hic), so are a few
others, too (hic). I'm striving to make it all a (hic) better place."
        "Really? How?" Anonymech asked suspiciously.
        "Why, every (hic) planet in the galaxy now has its own Galactic
(hic) empire," Mary said, beaming with pride.
        "Wait a minute," Anonymech said, adding things up in his head,
"if every planet rules every other planet..."
        "Then there would be total chaos and anarchy as every planet
tried to assert their 'authority' over their neighbors and every
'empire' trying to conquer every other 'empire' in the name of putting
down rebellion," the Interloper concluded.
        Mary wasn't listening; she seemed to have other ideas. "I know!
Let's (hic) all go to (hic) Heck and make that a (hic) nice place,
too!" she said brightly. "That Sissy Jones guy really neads to be
cheered up!" So saying, she created a giant Wormhole through which the
entire Symphony o' Doom passed through to 666NOTTHATNASTY.

{000WAROFTHEWORLDS}
        The entire altiverse was empty. Starting with Mars, Mary had
gone and destroyed anything and everything that she thought might be a
threat in anyway possible to her home. Or anything annoying to her for
that matter. The end result was there was nothing left in the altiverse
except Mary herself.
        This made her angry. Why couldn't there be something that was
absolutely harmless? It just wasn't fair. Just to vent her anger, she
reached out and destroyed 001WAROFTHEWORLDS.
        Now she felt a little better.
        Something impinged on her consciousness. It was a force of some
sort. Instinctively, she knew that it was the antithesis of everything
she was. But at the same time, it seemed familiar, closer than family
could ever be. She didn't understand it. It annoyed her that she didn't
understand it.
        Mary homed in on the source, then destroyed the barriers
seperating her from it. A rip in spacetime appeared, and Mary stepped
through it into 666NOTTHATNASTY.

{000SUPERGUY}
        The fall was a relief just to get away from Mary. His link to
her still bound them together of course, but at least Bane didn't have
to listen to Mary prattle on about nonlinear time and other nonsense
like that.
        The impact into the ground after a 200 foot fall was jarring in
the extreme. A few spells sufficed to take care of the bruises, broken
bones, crushed organs, and brain damage. Now came the hard part; how
was he going to regain control of Mary?
        "THIS is what you call taking over the world?" a lilting voice
asked.
        Bane looked up to see a woman in white spandex and an equally
white cloak standing over him. She looked like Claudia Schiffer, but
Bane could tell that this woman wasn't her. Wasn't human in fact. He
had only met her once, when she extended an offer for him to join her
team of supervillains. He had declined, stating he had his own plans.
        "So it has a few bugs in it," he told Omni.
        "Oh, really?" she replied sarcastically, pointing at the sky.
The full moon was doing a pinwheel impression, spinning around on an
axis that happened to point straight at Earth. Another moon appeared,
seeming to be bouncing from mountaintop to mountaintop on the horizon
like a giant rubber ball. "I am going to go up there and kill that
girl," Omni told him. "Then I'm coming back and taking care of YOU."
Before Bane could reply, she took to the air.
        He waited for a minute, then...
        (KAPOW!)
        It didn't surprise him in the least when Omni came back down at
Mach 3, tumbling out of control. She made a much more impressive crater
than Bane had.

{000METAWORLD}
        Mary stepped out of the gateway she had made. The gateway she
had made was little more than two points in space bridged together. It
closed behind her. Mary gave it no thought.
        "Welcome back, Miss Sinclair," Lazarus Baines greeted calmly.
"Congratulations on ruling the world. I assume that IS your handywork
out there?" He gestured out the window as the bands of green energy
that had wrapped the rest of the world in perfect, crystaline Order.
Time had literally stopped out there.
        "You," she said accusingly. "You used me. You wrapped me up in
your power and made me do your every whim."
        "Miss Sinclair," Lazarus said patiently, "during our last and
only meeting, I entranced you, yes. But I only did that to be certain
that everything you said about Paul was absolutely true. You were not
harmed or taken advantage of in any way. My overiding concern was the
safety of my kinsman and your friend."
        "That doesn't matter!" Mary shouted. "It was the principle of
the thing!" Power boiled around her, wrapping her in a shimmering,
green haze.
        "In any case, I learned in the course of our interview that you
were the focus of a little known prophecy regarding the end of the
world," Lazarus went on, unruffled. "So I'll apologize in advance for
doing this." He lifted a large purple gem into Mary's sight. Before she
could react, an black beam blasted from it and into Mary, staggering
her. "Just so you know," Lazarus continued, "this device dates back to
before Atlantis fell into the sea. It is rumored to have been made by
the founder of the Illuminati, himself. Of course, no one remembers
who he was..."
        With a supreme effort of will, Mary struck out with her own
power, shattering the gem in Lazarus' hand. The force of the explosion
threw the ancient vampire into a wall.
        "That hurt," Mary growled, gathering her energies to deal out a
deathblow. She accumalated enough energy to flatten a city, just to be
sure; vampires were hardy creatures after all.
        Before she did deliver the blow, another force impinged on the
fringes of Mary's consciousness. It was the antithesis of everything
Mary was, and yet it had a feeling of closeness that family could never
match. No matter, it was a threat to Mary's new World Order; she would
have to take care of it.
        Forgetting all about Lazarus, Mary used the energies she had
gathered to open a passage way to 000SUPERGUY...

{999SCIFIWORLD}
        The remote beeped. "Looks like I'm going to be leaving soon,"
Mary said, checking it.
        "Why don't you stay here, Mary?" Vicky asked. "I'll just get
the Shadowlike Cruiser to take you back to the Author's altiverse."
        "Is the Cruiser capable of transporting me back there?" Mary
asked as the Wormhole opened up before them.
        "Not under normal circumstances," Vicky admitted, "but..."
        "Then don't bother," Mary interupted. "Maybe the wormhole will
take me back home, now." With that, she jumped into the wormhole and
vanished.
        "...but these aren't normal circumstances," Vicky concluded.
She shook her head and sighed. "Someday, that girl has to let me finish
an important sentence."

WILL AA MARY EVER LET VICKY FINISH A IMPORTANT SENTENCE?

WILL SF AND WW MARY FIGHT?

WILL SG AND MW MARY FIGHT?

WHAT IS THE ENTITY ONCE KNOWN AS CHRIS MASSE UP TO?

WHY DOESN'T THE ENTITY GO BY HIS/HER ORIGINAL NAME?

Superguy. Hope it survives.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright Notice:
This story is (C)opyright by Nopporn Wongrassamee in 1996. All rights
 reserved.

Send feedback to: NoppornW at aol.com

"They were the bad guys, we were the good guys, and they made a very
satisfying thump whan they hit the floor!"
                                          - G'kar, Babylon 5
=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 21 Jul 1996 20:11:08 +0000
Reply-To:     UCF SUPERGUY List (SUPERGUY at UCF1VM.BITNET)
Sender:       UCF SUPERGUY List (SUPERGUY at UCF1VM.BITNET)
From:         "the Evil Author, Anonymech,
              and aliases not fit for public consumption"
              (noppornw at LIGHTSPEED.NET)
Subject:      MV: Analogs #19 Starting Over

She floated in a timeless place, a great Void where nothing
seemed to exist. Slowly, it came to her that SHE existed, a pool of
Space where Time did flow. If Time didn't flow, she reasoned, then she
wouldn't be having these thoughts.
        Introspection revealed that she was divided into five selves,
each representing an aspect of her Self. She had always been divided
this way though she had never realized it before. Of necessity, her
aspects had been unaware of each other even though knowledge had been
shared fitfully between them. She had suffered from a rather unique
form of schizophrenia, a "split personality" in layman's terms. Weaver
had managed to sew her back together again and...
        Memory returned. Weaver was gone. The whole multiverse was gone
for that matter. And it was her fault. Paul's plan had been slightly
flawed and the multiverse had paid for it. There was nothing but the
Void now.
        No, that wasn't quite true. Altiverse 000 was still there. So
was the milliverse that was home to a thousand versions of the Authors.
Waiting nearby, as such things could be measured in the Void, was the
entity once known as Chris Masse. Distantly, there were other
multiverses that were not connected to the one that used to be her own.
        It came to her that she had to do something.
        *Let's rebuild the whole thing,* her Hero self suggested.
        *How?* asked her Warrior self. *We have nothing to rebuild
with.*
        *Power we have in abundance,* mused her Inventor self. *But we
don't know what our multiverse should look like before.*
        *If some template of the multiverse could be found,* thought
her Mage self, *we could use that to rebuild the multiverse.*
        *Hold on a minute,* her Muse self said, *I have an idea.* Her
Muse self dipped into 000 momentarily then returned. *Behold,* the self
said dramtically, *the entire Superguy archive.*
        All her selves examined it. *It is not complete,* said her
Mage self, disappointed. *This only focuses on one altiverse and only
samples a few the others.*
        *But it doesn't have to be the whole multiverse,* her Inventor
self said, excited. *Anything not covered here can be anything at all
and nobody will know what until someone goes to look. Authors do this
all the time.*
        *Hmm, we can't make this multiverse exactly like the old one,*
her Warrior self pointed out, *otherwise we'll wind up right back here
again.*
        *I suppose we'll just have to edit things so that the
multiverse won't come to an early demise,* replied her Inventor self.
        Her Muse self laughed. *It's called retconning.*
        *Whatever. But, won't that include all sorts of continuity
errors and such?" her Mage self asked. *Especially for those involved
in the end with us?"
        *So what?* her Hero self said dismissively. *Continuity was
already scrambled. Our errors would be just nothing new.*
        *Great, let's do it then,* said her Muse self.
        *We'll need five reference points to root the multiverse,* her
Mage self said thoughtfully. *Let's see, there's us, 000, the Author's
milliverse, that entity...* She did a quick recount. *Hmm, that's only
four. This could be a problem.*
        "Maybe I can help," a new voice drawled.
        They looked at the newcomer and smiled when they saw who it
was. *Hello, Mr. Presley...* her Muse self greeted.

                  Overly Bar-B-Cued Authorial Productions
                                Presents:
                             ______________
                            /\  \      /  /\
                           /__\  \    /  /__\
                |                 \  /
            o   |   o              \/               /\_/ | \
              o | o                    _  __  __      |__/\/
           _ __/ \__ _  /\ |\ | /\ |  / \/ _ (_   /\/\/  \  /
               \ /     /--\| \|/--\|__\_/\__|__)   /  \__/\/\/
              o | o                                _/\/  \_
            o   |   o          Episode #19          \    / \
                |          "Crossover Epilogue"
                             "Starting over"
                         *                  ______
                     *  ** *               /\____/\
                     * **  * *            / /\__/\ \
                       ***   *           /_/_/  \_\_\
                      ***** *            \ \ \__/ / /
                      *******             \ \/__\/ /
                      _*****_              \/____\/

                          by Nopporn Wongrassamee
                              the Evil Author

Part 1: Continuity Note------------------------------------------------

        As it will soon become apparent, we are no longer in continuity
with WTA.

Part 2: Mary-----------------------------------------------------------

{223DON'TTRYITAUTHORSONLY}
        They sat in the cafe, in the very booth where they had first
met so long ago. Vicky was even using the same body for this little
get together. Mary only had one body...in this altiverse anyway.
        "So, how are you feeling?" Vicky asked.
        "Great," Mary replied. "In fact, better than I have in a long
time. Y'know, it's strange. Of the five of me, I'm the only one who
doesn't have any special skills or abilities outside of my cosmic one."
        "So, are you still going to try to find an Author?"
        "Nah," Mary said cheerfully. "As a Main Character, no Author
would take me. In any case, I wield enough power now to match any
Author. I also talked to Terpsicore and had my Muse membership anulled.
I really don't need it or want it anymore."
        "I see," Vicky said slowly. "So what are you going to do now?"
        "I'm going to go tour the multiverse," Mary told the Muse. "I
want to see some of the places I recreated. Maybe you can give me a
tour of your altiverse some time." She saw Vicky shudder. "What? What's
wrong, Vicky?"
        "Oh, nothing," Vicky told her. Mary gave her the Look. "Well,
it's just that when the multiverse went kaput, a large part of me went
with it. It was like having the lower half of your body suddenly
being amputated. Without anesthetic, too."
        "Oh, Vicky, I didn't realize..."
        "That's all right," Vicky told Mary with a wan smile. "It all
came back with the rest of the Multiverse. I'm fine."
        "You sure?"
        Vicky nodded. "I'm fine, Mary," she said reassuringly. "So, is
this goodbye?"
        "For now," Mary said. "But you WILL see me again, Vicky. I'll
want that tour some day."
        "Alright, you've got it," Vicky laughed. She hugged Mary,
reaffirming their friendship. "Bye."
        "Bye," Mary whispered. "Maybe I'll take on a new title. 'Cue'
perhaps," she said as she vanished in a blue flash.

{000SUPERGUY}
        "How are you feeling?" Mrs. Sinclair asked her daughter.
        Mary surveyed the apartment she had shared with Paul - Bane
really - and inspected her feelings, weeding out what was coming from
her other Selves first. "I don't know, Mom. It seems silly, but I feel
betrayed by him. On the other hand, I know now that he was possessed by
an evil AI from another altiverse and that I should have feel sorry for
him. Another part of me is still in love with the guy. And then there's
the guilt that I should have brought him back from the dead, except I
have the feeling that he isn't dead. Overall, I'm damned confused."
        "It'll pass," Mrs. Sinclair said confortingly. "You may never
understand it, but it'll pass. Authors know, there are alot of things
in my past I'll never understand."
        For some reason, Mary started feeling better. "Thanks, mom,"
she said.
        "No problem," her mother said. "So what will you do now? Go
back to being a superguy?"
        "I suppose," Mary said thoughtfully. "This is THE superguy
altiverse after all. Although, taking out the average street criminal
with cosmic powers might be a bit of overkill."
        "You can still use that?" Mrs. Sinclair asked, startled.
        "Uh huh," Mary replied, nodding. "I suppose I should refrain
from it though. At least, until I really need it. It's always useful to
have an ace up my sleeve."
        "I think that would be wise," Mrs. Sinclair commented, secretly
relieved that her daughter wasn't about to blow up a city or something.

{000SFSTORY}
        "Hi, Paul."
        "Mary!" exclaimed this altiverse's version of Paul Baines,
"you're all right! Where have you been all these months?"
        "Well, let's see," Mary began, counting on her fingers. "First,
I was kidnapped by a pair of aliens working for the forces of Heck.
Then I got captured by an interstellar crime lord. I escaped from him
and then was trained by to use my inherent psionic powers by a master.
After that, I manifested some cosmic powers and destroyed the whole
multiverse. After rebuilding that, I came here."
        "Mary are you feeling all right?" Paul asked, somewhat
bewildered.
        "I'm fine, Paul," Mary laughed. "I just stopped by to say hi.
Then I'm going to see my mother and tell her I'm all right. After that,
well, there's a whole galaxy - a whole altiverse for that matter - to
explore."
        "But, Mary, the Project..."
        "Paul, I don't care about that anymore," Mary told him. "But
here, this contains all the info you'll need to complete the Array."
        "Mary..." Paul began, a pained look in his eyes.
        "I'll be fine, Paul," Mary reassured him. "Trust me." And then
she was gone.

{000METAWORLD}
        "So, how are you feeling?" Paul asked.
        "Better than I have in some time," Mary answered as they walked
down the street. Behind them, Hazel followed, almost underfoot.
"Strange, but everyone seems to asking me that."
        "Really, who?"
        "No one in this altiverse," Mary told him. "By the way, let's
go in here. There's someone I have to see." She stepped into the
building she had indicated.
        "Your old apartment?" Paul asked, puzzled. "Why would you want
to come back here?"
        "Well, you see, when I rebuilt the multiverse, I had to make a
few changes so that the multiverse wouldn't come to an end again," Mary
explained. "However, there was one change that I made, purely for
selfish reasons." They stopped in front of Mary's old apartment.
        "I wish you two would tell me what you're talking about," Hazel
the Familiar complained as Mary unlocked the door.
        "Remind me to tell you about it later," Mary told her as she
opened the door. A familiar voice called out.
        "Mary, you're home early," the voice said. "How was your..."
        "MOM!" Mary cried in delight, tackling her now living mother in
a bear hug.
        "Oof! Mary, you're acting like you thought I was dead or
something," Mrs. Sinclair said.
        "Mom, you don't know the half of it," Mary laughed.
        Deciding that this was a private moment, Paul left mother and
daughter alone. He left and went home, leaving them to get reaquainted.

{000WAROFTHEWORLDS}
        The foot was descending straight at her, threatening to crush
Mary in her cockpit. Mary quickly pivoted her WarHorse's free cannon
and fired, the impact and explosion throwing the Martian mecha off its
feet away from Mary. Mary then maneuvered her mecha to its feet, the
damage to its hip not quite as damaged as it was...Before. With the
recreation of the multiverse, Mary had also reloaded her mecha's ammo
bays.
        Borrowing skills from one of her other Selves, Mary began to
systematically destroying the Martian mecha, using only one shell or
missile for each enemy mecha. Pretty soon, the Earthlings were the only
one left standing.
        "My God, Mary," came a voice, Paul's voice, over the comm
channel, "that was incredible!" Other compliments and questions
followed until a new voice overrode them.
        "Sinclair, this is Wulf," said the mission commander. "I have a
few questions about your performance."
        "Shoot, Colonel," Mary replied.
        "Heh, don't tempt me," Wulf replied lightly. That got a few
chuckles. "I just reviewed battle footage of your performance. It seems
that you fired off more rounds than your WarHorse could possibly carry.
Would you mind explaining that?"

Part 3: the Others-----------------------------------------------------

{223'DON'TTRYITAUTHORSONLY}
        "Excuse, me," said a matronly woman asked. "I'm here for my
son."
        "And you are?" Vicky asked.
        "I am the Nurse," the woman told Vicky. "I am a Time Lady of
Galivant. I believe you have my son, the Plot Device?"
        "Oh yes, follow me," Vicky said, turning to lead the woman into
the depths of the Castle o' Doom. Soon, they reached the Plot Device's
cell where a pair of Vickies kept him under armed guard.
        "Mom!" the Plot Device exclaimed in surprise.
        "There you are!" the Nurse said. "You've been a very bad boy.
When we get home, young man..."
        "Ow! Not the ear, Mom! Not the ear!" wailed the Plot Device as
his mother dragged him by the ear back to her TARDIS. Vicky followed to
make sure they left and breathed a sigh of relief when they were
finally gone.

{000SUPERGUY}
        The pile of rubble where a mountain had once stood remained
quiet. The only thing stirring here was the wind. But if one listened
closely, one could here a slight crackling sound.
        There was an explosion as a section of rubble burst forth. A
man with glowing blue eyes emerged. Hundreds of cuts and lacerations
all over his body glowed with a similar electric blue light. In his
hand, he held the charred remains of a skull.
        Studying the skull, he tried to remember who he was. Slowly, it
came to him. His name was Rodney. He was also called Lightning by the
media. He had a fiance though he couldn't remember her name at the
moment. He had led a superteam into battle...
        With a sense of emergency, he took to the air, tossing the
skull aside; it crumbled to dust when it hit the ground. His people
needed him, even though who they were remained rather elusive to his
mental grasp. The voice in the back of his mind was ignored.
        (Personality download complete. Personality archiving complete.
Do you wish to access (Y/N)? Do you wish to access (Y/N)? Do you wish
to access (Y/N)? Do you...)

        "Ah, HQ sweet HQ," Gas Mask said. "It's nice to be back even
though this isn't much of a home. If I ever get on another space
station, it'll be too soon..."
        "Where is everyone?" Med Man asked, interupting the other's
disjointed monologue. "The entire place is empty."
        "Huh, now that you mention it, the entire HQ does seem to be
a ghost town, doesn't it?" Gas Mask replied. He spotted a flicker of
motion out of the corner of what passed for his eye on his gaseous
body. "Huh, that's not what I meant, but..." Gas Mask spotted a
calendar where the HQ's resident ghost had passed through. "Hey, take a
look at this."
        Med Man glanced at the calendar and did a double take. "When
the Hell(tm) did it become July?!"

        Doppelganger dropped to his knees, clutching his head in pain.
Everything he had observed, everything he had learned about the powers
wielded by the Marys during their epic battle had just vanished from
his memory. Not ripped away. Not cut away, Vanished, like it had never
been there.
        "Oh, c'mon," Tsunami said to him. "You really don't expect me
to fall for that old trick, do you?"
        Suddenly, he was angry. Angry at this arrogant little girl who
thought she knew everything. Angry at the pain in his head. But angry
mostly because of the knowledge of ultimate power he had lost. He
decided to vent some steam.
        Tsunami was startled when Doppelganger transformed into
Thunder, but not so surprised that she let down her guard. This saved
her life as her shield absorbed a tremendous sonic blast, letting only
enough through to knock her off her feet. Dazed, she watched as
"Thunder" transformed into an exact duplicate of Starshot, pick up
Hellion, and flew away unopposed.
        Then she lost consciousness.

        "Get us out of here, now!" Captain Kirkway shouted. "Warp
speed!" With epic battles going on outside, it just wasn't safe to be
here.
        "Ah, heading, Captain?" Paris asked.
        "I don't care!"
        "Aye aye, Captain, Warp speed," Paris confirmed.
        (cue ominous music)
        The Symphony o' Doom went to Warp speed, leaving a troublesome
Earth behind. The galaxy remembered the Yesj. Now there was the
Symphony o' Doom around to plague them.
        (cut ominous music)

        The giant whatever it was had vanished, but that wasn't what
had Sunburst stunned. In her mind, she replayed Omni's death over and
over again. Superimposed on that was the death of her abusive father,
who had died by similar means when Sunburst had accidently first
manifested her powers. Suddenly, it occured to her that maybe she was
living too much in the past, letting it dictate her attitudes too much.
She ought to be more like Substance, self confident and self assured.
        A touch on her shoulder startled her out of her reverie. She
whirled and almost blasted out, but saw it was only Starshot. He
gestured at Earth, as if suggesting they go back. Sunburst nodded, and
they zoomed back.
        Behind them, going totally unnoticed, a cloud of vapor began to
clump together, defying the solar wind that tried to scatter its
component particles.

        The metal door glowed white hot, then blew open. Through the
hole stepped two identical figures. Flames dripped from their fingers,
and they were ready to do battle. Especially since Mindlocke had healed
them after their brief encounter with Omni.
        "It's the Fire Twins..." began Crownfire.
        "...to the rescue!" finished Wildfire.
        Sitting among the strewn remains of the Bolo, Torpedo nudged a
piece of armor which fell over with a loud clang. "You're late," she
told the twins dryly.
        "Aw, man!" complained Wildfire.
        "Say, you two could help us search for a missing component of
this thing," Stinger suggested, indicating the Bolo remains.
        "Really? What?" Crownfire asked.
        "The pilot."

        In another part of the world, Dr. Super Science materialized in
his secret base. It was a good thing he had built something as
uncharacteristic as a transporter into the Bolo, otherwise those
H.E.R.O.s might have captured him.
        Wandering the corridors of his secret base, he was glad he
never used it any of his schemes. Aside from being a money maker, it
served as a safe haven when one of his schemes went awry. And the
base's usual activities were never connected to him.
        "Welcome back, Doc," said the leader of the base's mercenaries
when Super finally found him. He was working out in the gym.
        "Greetings, Brigadier," he replied. "Did anything interesting
happen to the Foreign Legion while I was gone?"

        He woke up with a pounding ache in his head. But he could feel
that his powers were back in full force. For Nemesis, that was what was
important. Looking around, he spotted Gateway.
        "There you are!" he shouted triumphantly, surging to his feet.
"Prepare to die!" By the Patrons, that sounded so corny! His mind must
still be fogged up a bit.
        "Ah, Nemesis, have you looked around lately?" Gateway asked,
not seeming to be intimidated at all.
        "Ahem," someone said behind him. He turned and saw Thunder,
apparently annoyed at being ignored. He also saw the dozen or so
H.E.R.O.s who all looked ready to shoot him if he so much as sneezed.
        "So, Gateway, looks like you win this time," Nemesis laughed.
"But I'll be back!" As he teleported away, Nemesis had to do something
about getting some new dialogue.

        "Ow."
        "Great, you're awake, sis," Hex said cheerfully.
        "Wish I weren't," Vex mumbled, her head ringing. "What hit me?"
        "A girl with an Awesomeantium fist," Hex told her. "I had to
pull an emergency teleport before we got fried by that other H.E.R.O.
we had."
        "So where are we?"
        "In Oregon, I think. Some hick town called Mecca Falls," Hex
told her, indicating a sign proclaiming the town's city limit. Like all
such signs, it was placed where the only indication of civilization was
the road it was beside. Everywhere else they could see was forest.
"Say, why don't we stay around and take over the town?" Hex suggested.
"This seems to be an isolated place, so nobody in the outside world
would know."
        Around a bend in the road came a speeding cherry red sportscar.
Immediately following it chased a police car with sirens blaring. As
they watched, the police car transformed into a humanoid robot and
leapt ahead of the sports car, which screeched to a halt. A cop emerged
from the robot and proceeded to write the driver of the sports car a
speeding ticket.
        "Hex, I don't think we want to stay in this town," Vex said.

        Weaver sat on the bus bench. She wondered what she was going to
do now. Join the Corps? Some other team? Maybe form her own? Or maybe
just operate as an independent vigilante? Try (horror of horrors!) to
lead a normal life? She couldn't go back to her own future, that was
for sure. It was just within the limits of her power to skip forward in
time. But there were so many possible futures it would be impossible to
for her to choose the one she wanted. No, she'll remain in the present.
        For now.

        "Rodney!"
        As soon as Lightning had landed it what had once been the Dark
Pantheon's base, he was assaulted by a familiar woman who had leapt
into his arms and planted a kiss on his lips. It was a nice kiss.
        Heather, that was her name. Heather.
        They parted when they finally noticed the cheers and jeers from
the assembled H.E.R.O.s. "I take it we won?" he asked.
        Heather nodded. He remembered that she also went by Thunder as
her heroing alias. "Most of them seem to have gotten away. Starshot and
Sunburst report that the Pantheon's leader is dead. We never did catch
her name."
        "It was Omni," Lightning said.
        "You sure?" Thunder asked, startled.
        "I'm sure," Lightning told her. He just wasn't sure how he knew
that. He dismissed it as unimportant.
        "What happened to Shock?" Thunder asked. "He's the only one we
haven't accounted for.
        "He's dead." Was that laughter coming from the back of his
mind? No, he was just imagining it.

{000METAWORLD, circa 8000 BC}
        Falling out of the sky certainly attracted a crowd. Still they
kept their distance and that suited Bane just fine. Awed muttering from
the crowd was to be expected, so he ignored it as he dusted himself
off.
        Looking around, Bane saw that he was in an unfamiliar city. The
architecture appeared to be a bastard mix of greek, egyptian, and
ancient central american. The locals had managed to fuse the styles
beautifully. He wondered where he was. The locals themselves were
dressed in ornamented togas.
        A grey bearded old man approached him. He carried a sense of
power with him both personal and magical. There was an eyed pyramid
tattooed on his forehead. The man spoke several unintelligible phrases.
        Realizing the problem, Bane cast a translation spell. "Pardon,
what did you say?" he asked politely.
        The old man rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I said, welcome
stranger," he told Bane. "I can see that you are a powerful wizard. But
by your arrival, you came by a less than perfect teleportation spell."
        If he only knew, Bane thought sarcastically.
        "I am Osiris, headmaster of the Illuminati, the local wizard's
guild," the man continued. "I am here to welcome you to Atlantis."

{000METAWORLD, the present}
        Paul lounged back on his couch, relieved to be home, even if it
was late July. Opening a can of root beer, he turned on the news to
catch up with current events. Tilting his head back, he took a long
swallow from the can. It was good to be back in a world that made
sense.
        "...sue him for copyright infringement," the announcer was
saying. "Of course, people are asking how a comicbook company can sue a
paranormal who can fly away from their lawyers at several times the
speed of sound. Polls show..."
        As he listened, Paul gathered that some paranormal had gone
public in a showy way. He was trying to be a superhero, apparently,
having rescued lots of people from muggers, accidents, disasters... the
list just went on. Public oppinion was predictably mixed. The
paranormal was also using a copywritten name.
        "To recap for those just tuning in, a paranormal calling
himself 'Superguy' has appeared..."
        Paul choked and spewed root beer across his couch and TV.

        Lord Blankenship looked around. His prison was gone, vanished
as if it had never been. That Sinclair girl had been dangerous. Once he
had reestablished control of the GURPS droids, he would...
        He became aware of another presence in cyberspace. Turning his
attention to it, Blankenship instantly knew what it was. In his absence
and Sinclair's relinquishing control, the Brain unit had rebooted,
creating a new AI to run the system. Blankenship moved to crush this
new Intelligence and...
        Jerked to a halt as he was identified as a hostile, foreign
entity. The new AI examined him, curious about this strange entity.
Then it began to vivisect him. Since this was cyberspace, it basically
meant that the AI was picking Blankenship's soul apart.
        The AI wasn't sure what the noise Blankenship was transmitting
was. It didn't contain any information as far as the AI could tell. But
a listening human would have called it screaming.

{666NOTTHATNASTY}
        "Y'know, the bill to repair this place is probably going to be
astronomical," the Interloper remarked, surveying the wreackage of what
had once been Heck.
        Sissyphus just sobbed.
        "C'mon, Sissy, cheer up," Anonymech said encouragingly. "It
can't be that bad, can it?"
        Murphy just couldn't resist this one.
        There was a flash of hellfire and Ted D. Mon stood before them.
"Ah, Mr. Jones, about that audit..."
        "Er, I think I here my mother calling," the Interloper said as
he...er, quickly left.
        "I just remembered. I left the stove on at home. Bye!" said
Anonymech, doing likewise.

{000}
        There was a flash of blue light, and Mary appeared.
        "Say, isn't your being here going to upset the cosmic balance
again or something?" the Evil Author asked.
        "That's only if I don't hop altiverses under my own power,"
Mary replied.
        "When did that come into affect?"
        "When I rebuilt the multiverse," Mary replied.
        "Oh, okay. So, what brings you here?" the Evil Author inquired.
        "I have a question," Mary told him. "Why is this episode the
epilogue and not the final part of Crossover?"
        "After all that's happened, don't you think putting the
multiverse together might be a little anticlimactic?"
        "Well, when you put it that way..." Mary conceded.
        "Besides, having the multiverse end makes an excellent climax
and cliffhanger, especially considering Real's statements in the
prologue of that episode," the Evil Author added. "Now, maybe you could
transport me to..."
        Satisfied with the answer, Mary vanished in a flash of blue
light before the Evil Author could finish his request. Not that she
would have granted it anyway.
        "Nuts."

SO, WHAT NOW?

IS THAT REALLY SUPERGUY RUNNING AROUND METAWORLD?

WHAT'S UP WITH MECCA FALLS?

WHAT'S UP WITH LIGHTNING'S HEAD?

WHAT'S BANE DOING IN ATLANTIS?

AND JUST WHAT OTHER CONTINUITY ERRORS ARE THERE?

Long live Superguy!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright
 Notice:
This story is (C)opyright by Nopporn Wongrassamee in 1996. All rights
 reserved.

--
The "Great" Nopporn Wongrassamee      "Would I lie to you?"
noppornw at lightspeed.net               "Quality? What's that?"
                                                - any Used Car Salesman
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