She climbed the dilapidated staircase carefully, always mindful of exactly where her feet were placed. A wrong step, the slightest amount of pressure in the wrong spot, could very well mean instant annihilation!
She had made this trek often in the past years. For longer than she cared to think, this great citadel had been her home…her prison.
Memories, pleasant and otherwise, crowded her mind, sending her back in time, as it usually did as she made her way up the great spiral staircase.
Long ago, her old mentor/master had
t
Rooms filled
Massive machinery of bygone ages,
their functions forgotten in the mists of time, filled vast caverns. Museums filled
All gathered together at the whim of one, insane, man: The Time Trapper.
For this was the Citadel at the End of Time!
A misnomer, actually, for the Citadel was not located at the End of Time nor was it truly a Citadel so much as it was a sprawling complex, most of it carved out beneath the rocky surface of this airless world. Yet, at its center, reaching from the surface towards the dark, moonless and starless sky, was the single black marble like tower from which it took its name.
The world was, in itself an anomaly. The Trapper had liked to fancy himself a Master of all the Time streams. A title and job she, Glorith of Baaldur, had never aspired to. It had been the Trapper that had named his home and fortress the Citadel at the End of Time. In truth, the world simply existed outside the normal realms of all other worlds and timelines. Time held no meaning here in this desolate place, this world suspended beyond space and time. A world between worlds, a world between times, a world…Between! A part of the vast Multiverse…yet set beyond the bounds of normal worlds.
Glorith had often wondered if it had been a violent entrance into this…nether space…that had ripped the atmosphere and all life from the planet in eons past. Yes, she had wondered…but never for very long. There were always other things to occupy her attention.
This was a world devoid of life. A world stranded forever in perpetual twilight, its dusty, rocky surface marred here and there by bleak, jagged spires of stone that reached for the darkened sky and tall broad, mountains that squatted on the bleak landscape as if in mockery of times dead and gone.
A close examination of the rock formations, the shape of the land, the huge basins, would show that this place had not always been lifeless. Fossils in the rocks, terrain that could only have been shaped by wind and rain or the pounding of now non-existent waves. They all told stories of a past far unlike the present.
None of this held any interest for
Glorith as she slowly, c
She hated this place and the years she had been trapped here, confined to this sprawling complex, had done nothing to endear it to her. Though it had, she was quick to admit, saved her life.
Fleeing from imminent destruction,
she had fled to the citadel, unaware that events had occurred that had blocked
the Citadel off from the rest of the Multiverse. She could enter, she could view the events
occurring at any time at any place
It had started
Glorith shook her head, bringing her attention back to the task at hand. It would not do to get careless at this point in time.
Yet, even as she continued her
upward climb, wary of where she placed a foot or touched the hand rail
Krona’s
actions had occurred billions of years in the past yet that single event had c
Considered a master in the fields of time and alternate realities, Krona had pushed further and further, even going so far as to produce toys…children’s playthings that could, at the whim of the child, create and then destroy new realities. Yet even mastering the formation of realities new to the vast Multiverse was not enough. For Krona desired, above all else, to discover the true origins of the Multiverse. He wished to witness the very first split of the timelines that would grow to become the Multiverse!
And it was this one thing that was forbidden him!
Nor was Krona alone in what many saw as rebellion against the Great Starheart, that cosmic power that had raised the Maltusians from their pitiful beginnings to the advanced race they had become.
The Maltusians had finally conquered death, or so they believed. They were, for all practical purposes, immortal. Death could still claim them, in one form or another, yet no longer was death of old age a part of their culture.
And, as
Yet youth there were. And their numbers grew. Painfully slow, yet they grew nevertheless and among these impetuous youths Krona found followers.
For they, like him, believed that the Starheart hid something from them. They, like Krona, believed that the Starheart feared them. Should they, it was believed, look upon creation, they would learn that which the Starheart sought to keep from them…Knowledge and power!
They would learn the secrets of the universe…they would reap unimagined power! No longer would they be under the shadow of the Starheart. For they would have power greater than it! They would be masters of the Universe…Masters of the Starheart. They would be that which the Starheart itself could not attain…They would be Gods!
And so the Maltusians were split.
The greater portion following the guidance of the Starheart…and the rest rebelling against it.
For millions, billions of years, a stalemate existed. Neither party gaining the upper hand, neither yet willing to push the other too far.
Until the day Krona could wait no longer.
His equipment had been ready for many years, disguised in one way or another so that none could guess their true purpose.
While his followers created distractions, while the councils met and discussed issues of non-importance, Krona activated his equipment and prepared to look upon…creation!
No one would ever know what it was Krona saw, for whatever it was, it drove the scientist insane. Yet on that day, waves of evil spread through the Multiverse, shattering all of reality, sending shockwaves up and down the time streams of the positive universes, creating split after split in timelines, sending the Multiverse spinning out of control, and threatening the very existence of all that was.
The Starheart, in a rare moment,
released a portion of its energy
And yet not even the Starheart could repair all the damage nor undo all that which had been done.
For as the Multiverse settled once
again, moving backward away from the precipice of destruction, the Maltusians were made aware of the existence of a new
universe. Krona’s
actions had c
The positive and negative universes created the Monitors, born on the moons of Oa and Qward. And, as fate would have it, the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor would become mortal enemies and begin a war that was still, to this day, undecided.
Krona’s crime had not gone unnoticed by the Starheart, the massive, intelligent cosmic force that had watched over the universe. Nor had it gone unnoticed by the other Maltusians.
The Maltusians, also aware of Krona’s actions, cornered the criminal scientist and his followers. For his crime, Krona was reduced to a disembodied prison of pure energy and sent to circle the universe for all time. His followers were banished to the nether regions of the universe.
To contain the damage Krona
created, the remaining Maltusians left their dying
world for Oa where they would eventually come to be
known as the Guardians of the Universe.
Holding themselves responsible for Krona's
actions, they set to the task of bringing order to the universe. The Oans created the Manhunters, an
android army that eventually rebelled against their creators. . In later years,
a portion of the Oans would depart from Oa in disagreement on future courses of actions. Calling
themselves the Controllers, these former Oans were
believed to have joined
It was only when the Manhunters began to rebel against their creators that the Starheart finally stepped in once again and, for the first time since the creation of the original universe, chose a single being to be its conduit…its Champion. The first Sentinel was created!
Eventually the Starheart would choose beings in many of the new realities of the Multiverse to act as Sentinels for their particular reality. Often times, however, it would simply allow one Sentinel to travel over many realities.
Glorith p
Krona had eventually escaped his prison and, taking the name Parallax, had sought out the Oans, vowing revenge.
The first victim of the insane Maltusian’s vengeance was one who had nothing to do
The self proclaimed Master of Time
and Space had, to put it simply, been in the wrong place at the wrong
time. Naturally he had dragged her along
She had watched, paralyzed
She fled, of course, to the Citadel. It was her thought to use the apparatus at
the Citadel to flee to an alternate timeline…one
Parallax had never reached Oa. He was met by
the combined power of the Green Lantern Corps and several Sentinels pulled from
their own realities to deal
And that situation had opened the door for her other master, Mordru.
It had been during the lull after the defeat of Parallax that he had struck.
Breaching the Kryptonian Phantom Zone and freeing several of the prisoners, Mordru had then led them and the Khunds, a war like race that Mordru had conquered in years past, against the planet Earth.
The events that followed where easy to watch, trapped as she was here in the Citadel. The death of the Sentinel, the death of Superman and many other heroes of Earth and finally the splitting of one reality into three.
From her vantage point at the citadel, Glorith could observe the happenings on all of the Earths and was not surprised when one of the three, the one labeled Earth-3, somehow became a natural gateway between the positive universe and the negative universe. Qward and Earth-3 quickly became allies. More Kryptonian prisoners were released from the zone…but only those that swore allegiance to General Zod.
On the world named Earth-2, she had
watched as visitors from another reality, a reality existing elsewhere in the
Continuum, beyond the Multiverse, traveled to Earth and met the sole surviving
Kryptonian…Lanie
And on Earth-1 she had watched the arrival of new heroes…and her anger soared!
Eventually, her long climb ended at the doorway of what the Trapper had called his Star-Room.
She p
Stepping inside, the view, as always, took her breath. From the outside, the once grand tower seemed featureless. A rounded surfaced unbroken by doors or windows. Yet from here, on this top most level, from the inside, it seemed as if the walls themselves were transparent, allowing one to look out over the desolate landscape in all directions.
The floor of the room was of the
same material as the outer walls of the tower.
Jet-black marble, shiny and smooth. In the
center of the room, inlaid into the black marble, were five concentric silver
rings, each a good meter in width. The
surface of each ring was engraved
In the center of the circles, rising over the jet-black island, a great mechanism, not unlike a giant gyroscope, spun and wobbled freely in the air, floating twenty feet above the floor, energy crackling from its surface. A small pedestal, holding a unique, strange control panel stood just below this monstrous spinning object.
It was here, in this room, that she had appeared when she had fled her own reality. And here, in this Citadel, she had been ever since.
It was to this that she now made her way,
carefully keeping her eyes off the gyroscope.
She had become so entranced
She touched a few controls, her fingers well practiced by now, and the gyroscope began to spin faster, the transparent walls becoming murky. The inner ring on the floor grated softly as it turned in a clockwise direction. When it stopped, the next ring out turned in the opposite direction. This process continued until finally the outer ring, the largest, moved only slightly. She waited and soon, in all directions, she could see the entire schematic of this Continuum she had found herself in.
This was only a recent development…and, if it were a blessing, it was mixed.
When first she had arrived to this dead world, the view had been confined to a single timeline of a single world.
Whether this was bec
It had taken her time to figure out the workings of the Star Room. She was sure that here was the mechanism of her eventual escape from the Citadel… if escape was ever truly possible.
She had set it up
Finally, gathering her nerve, she had set the process in motion…if she had it right, if she had taken everything into account, she would soon witness the birth of a new timeline! A timeline into which she could escape.
She had not taken everything into
account! There was no way she could have
known, no way she could have foreseen the wave of
destruction that would wash over her and this…isolated timeline. A wave of destruction that heralded the birth
of a new Continuum! A wave of
destruction that washed over the timeline and the Citadel and played literal
hell
Like a star that explodes brilliantly, expanding tremendously and then contracting again, the wave…or Ripple…had flashed outward, engulfing sector after sector of timelines from various Continuum and pulling them back into itself…forming a new Continuum!
And that was not the end of it. For this Citadel …her prison…could now lookout over the entire….Multiverse and the entire Continuum into which the Multiverse had been pulled!
It never ceased to amaze her. The
equipment here in the Citadel could, in a fraction of an instant, tag and
categorize each and every reality
Yet this Citadel was not so limited.
She had queried the computer once, demanding to know what process it used to determine a naming sequence. The explanation was beyond her. Yet a simplified answer sufficed. The Citadel assigned the names of the Primary Sectors based on the name of the first world of the first sub-sector it cataloged.
Each a primary, separate yet connected to the whole.
Here there was a world ground under the heels of alien invaders…Sector 112113AV…Alterverse to the natives.
Next, a world that was a dark shadow of others…Sector 2211251891SV…A dark world; A Web of Shadows.
Sector 18511213TR: A sector that defied explanation…The Realm!
Sector 619208IV: A fairly young sector, comparatively speaking…but full of promise…The Inheritors Universe.
Sector 26112512OV…Otherverse!
And finally Sector 111181MV!
Of course, there were others. Many others. Sectors where magic ruled entirely and
science was a thing of fantasy…Sectors that had progressed faster in
science…Sectors where dinos
And some of those Sectors were, of course, divided even further into sub-sectors, producing what some called Hypertime, though Glorith was not sure that the term was entirely appropriate in this setting. Paratime would probably be closer to the mark.
In Sector 111181MV, at least, Glorith was aware of what occurred. At major points in history, where events could end in a variety of different ways, a timeline appeared for each result…branching from each other….none being the primary…all just alternate outcomes.
The Sub-sectors were created when each of those timelines split even further.
She shook her head as she looked over the vast multitude of realities that spread before her. She was not greedy enough, nor insane enough to believe she could have total control of even a single one of these massive sectors. And, for the moment, such thoughts were far from her mind.
Only desperation, a desire to escape from this…this Xanadu of malice…had driven her to attempt to devise a method of leaving this dead world.
Years earlier, in another reality, the Time Trapper she had known had been able to use the knowledge he had gained in his Citadel to create what many had referred to as a Pocket Universe.
She still smiled at that idiocy. There was no such thing as a pocket universe. True, the Trapper may have given out false information, to mislead those less intelligent, but in reality, he had merely engineered a split in the timeline of a particular world, thus creating an alternate time line or alternate reality.
Of course, he had done this merely
bec
She had seen it many times as she
had looked out over the myriad of realities. It was always the same. The Time Trapper had existed outside the
boundaries of time, yet even he had many different versions of himself through
out the multitude of Sectors that existed
Working according to a model
created by the Trapper, Glorith now believed she could changed events on the
world called Earth-1 just enough c
Working quickly, she called up data on three timelines of this Multiverse, timelines tagged by the computer as having been created artificially, and studied them closely.
Before long, she was shaking her
head
Seventeen years earlier the Mordru of the original timeline had led the Khunds to Earth. After freeing the Kryptonian criminals from the Phantom Zone…and allowing her precious Lar Gand to die in the process, he had simply vanished.
She watched as history unfolded…watched as one world became three, all slightly changed, their histories altered the slightest bit.
She watched as Superman died, she watched as two worlds fought back, defeating the Khunds and forcing them from their worlds. The third world lost the war and was now the private playground of Kryptonian Zoners and their Khund Minions.
But then something c
A recent development on the first world…MV E-1, as the Computer tagged it, deriving the nomenclature from the citizens of that world itself.
Glorith hissed in anger as she read the data.
Though Kara Zor-El might not have existed in the original timeline, she damned well existed now!
Glorith quickly did some cross checking and discovered what she had expected to find. This Kara was not native to this timeline.
Though the information was naturally sketchy, Glorith was able to determine that this Kara had first appeared in the Otherverse Sector before being transported MV E-1 by the very forces that had pulled the Citadel into this Continuum.
Glorith was able to use the Citadel’s computer to get more information on this Kara Zor-El and was surprised to discover that she had been a member of the Legion Super-Heroes in her own reality and had, in all likelihood, fought against other versions of Glorith. Yet this Kara died at the hands of the Anti-Monitor! Or rather, her body was that of a clone while the spirit…the mentality, was that of the Kara Zor-El she had known.
Glorith knew it would only be a matter of time before Superwoman, as she was calling herself now, would notice anything Glorith did to alter any time stream. Kara, in her own time and place, had known the Trapper, and had battled against him alongside the Legion. If she began to suspect the interference of the Trapper, she would know where to come looking for answers!
And if that were not enough to
worry about, Kara was not alone! In her
company were no less than four Kryptonians, counting herself. Two of which were among the girls Mordru had
taken captive! The fourth, a red-haired
vixen
Unknown to her as well, was the fifth member of Kara’s little motley crew. A green woman wielding energy of the Green Flame! The Cosmic energy of Parallax, though not nearly on the same scale as he! For that she was indeed grateful. And this…this green hussy was the mate of the final member of Kara’s group: Lar Gand!
The woman seethed as she thought of this. She carefully held her arms at her side, daring to touch nothing while she was in this state.
When she had calmed, she noticed a
blinking light on the console. The
Citadel’s computers had detected a particular power surge from MVE-1. A power surge consistent
She waited, seething, as the walls cleared…and she smiled. Here, she knew, was her avenue of escape…and freedom to take that which was rightfully hers….Lar Gand!
Carrie stood before the door that led to her first class of the day and took a deep breath and smiled at herself.
She had been in battles and situations that would make
normal people’s hair stand on end…and here she was…
After Kara and Rogue had brought them back to this new Multiverse, as they called it, from Otherverse, the girls had spent a couple of weeks getting used to the place and had both enthusiastically agreed that this place was much better than Otherverse.
For one thing, it was civilized. What Otherverse had lost, this place had rebuilt and improved upon.
They had spent their time wandering around as much as they could, learning the people and places. But always incognito. Neither Kara nor Rogue were yet willing to reveal that a Supergirl and Powergirl existed.
So instead of flying where ever they wanted to go, they traveled using mundane means.
In the small town near where Kara and Rogue had built their
new home…a home that hid a vast underground complex…it became a common sight to
see the
Barbara Gordon (she had insisted the girls call her Babs and from there the girls had dubbed her Aunt Babs) had stuck around for a time, catching up
Both girls had l
All things considered, however, it had not taken long for both girls to also come to the conclusion that life in the boonies was not something either of them wished to return to just yet.
So when Kara suggested the girls attend the next three years until graduation at Xavier’s School for the Gifted, they had jumped at the opportunity.
Their first meeting
For one thing, there was no
The X-Men had not even been a concept before Kara and Rogue had arrived…but now Prof. Xavier had admitted to considering the idea.
During the initial enrollment process, while Jean Grey showed the girls around, Prof. Xavier had questioned Kara and Rogue.
“Pardon my asking, but is there a reason why you do not wish
the girls to use the name of
“They did.” Kara
agreed. “But that was each on their own…before they had come into contact
“Ah.” Xavier nodded.
“I think I begin to see. It would probably be wise not to forget that they are
not truly twins…but rather different versions of the same person. Even twins have some differences…and can be
told apart by their distinctive DNA patterns.
I would be willing to venture that such would not be the case
“It’s not.” Kara
admitted. “Unless they wear their hair differently, there is absolutely no way
to tell them apart. Not even if you analyzed their DNA.” She p
“Interesting.” Xavier made a note. “I think either Jean or I
can help
“They are suspicious.” Rogue spoke up before Kara could answer. Kara looked at her in surprise. “They know the name Querl Dox. They have even heard Kara mention it. But they don’t realize that Querl Dox and the green man they saw when they were rescued…or the Legionnaire called Brainiac 5…are one and the same.”
“One last thing.” Xavier shut the folder
“That is where you are wrong.” Kara actually smiled. “Yes
they are highly intelligent. They are
probably the most intelligent people on this planet! They take after their father in that. But it
is empty intelligence. The Knowledge is
not there. They have to learn like
anyone else. Oh, don’t get me
wrong. I think they could probably run
circles around your quantum mechanics experts or some of your other top
scientists…but that is mainly bec
And so Carrie and Karen were enrolled in the sophomore classes.
As
They had protested vehemently…to no avail.
“Neither of you had the other around in your old lives…perhaps it is time for you both to realize that you can still function separately. Besides, splitting up twins is best…if only for the sake of the teacher.” Jean had smiled as she explained.
And so now Karen was off in another part of the building, getting ready to enter her first class…and Carrie could tell that Karen was just as edgy as she. Which didn’t make matters any easier. She closed her eyes and tried to block out the feelings of unease that were coming from her ‘sister’, and figured Karen was probably trying to do the same. They had learned, during the time they thought Zal had died, that their empathic link was not always a good thing.
Finally, her emotions under control…and Karen’s emotions a dull feeling that could only be described as a light throb…Carrie opened her eyes and took another breath, smoothing the front of her t-shirt.
The picture on the shirt brought a smile to her lips.
She wore a pair of white tennis shoes, a pair of hip-hugger jeans, and a black shirt that proudly proclaimed “I Love Superwoman” beneath a figure that was, in Carrie’s opinion, a fairly good rendition of Kara.
The girls had found that shirt…and a matching one that
proclaimed “I Love Andromeda” beneath a fair likeness of Rogue...the previous
day and had promptly snatched them up…trying hard to hide their amusement at
the irony of the situation. The
merchant, an honest entrepreneur that had seen a new market and jumped at it,
had no clue that she was selling the shirts to none other than the d
Another moment of growth. Though both girls were well aware that Kara was not their true mother, they had both come to regard her as their mother. At first, Rogue had simply been Rogue. The person that had rescued them while Kara was busy saving a world. Yet now it was a telling point that the girls would refer to both Kara and Rogue as their mothers.
Or rather, they would around people that knew who they were.
For now, no one was to know that Karen and Carrie were the anything other than normal.
That in itself would be strange in a school like this. Carrie had reflected, wondering if either her mothers or the Professor or Jean had considered that point.
In a
No sense in putting it off. Karen took a deep breath and turned the doorknob and entered the room, letting the door close behind her.
Nevertheless, the first month went fairly smooth for the girls as they settled in and found their ‘niche’.
They found their science instructor, Dr. Hank McCoy, to be extremely interesting (aside from his blue furred, brutish appearance). He never once tried to belittle the girls, instead learning from them while pushing them to learn even more.
Their music instructor was a temporary…filling in until the Professor could find some one permanent.
As it was, most of the students, Karen and Carrie included, were awed by the sheer talent of the instructor. Of course both girls had known the instructor in the world where they had first attended Xavier’s school. In this world, however, Allison Blair (aka Dazzler) was not only a well known pop star, but a graduate of Xavier’s school.
And she firmly believed in trial by fire.
The girl’s first day in class, Dazzler had pointed to a stage of instruments and said six words by way of greeting: “Let’s see what you can do!”
They showed her.
Carrie,
They started out simple and then, improvising to make up for
the lack of accompaniment of stringed instruments,
As the last notes fell away, they looked at the instructor,
their faces smug
“Not bad.” Dazzle had nodded. “But it could be better.”
As the girls stared, open-mouthed, Dazzler had gone on to explain, in exacting detail, precisely what they had done wrong and how they could improve. She was, however, not totally heartless. As she finished, she smiled.
“You are good, girls…but by the time you are done here…you’ll be great!”
MVE1-8
After a few days to acclimate themselves, the girls quickly fell into the school routines and though they were careful not to show off, their obvious intelligence soon earned them the respect of many of the students and teachers.
They began to make friends and, along
As the days became weeks, the girls came to be accepted, even if thought a little odd, by most of the students. If anyone noticed that occasionally one of the girls would move a little faster than humanly possible, or perform some feat of strength that was far beyond the reach of any normal teen girl, it would be ignored as being impossible, or explained away in some rational manner.
Not everyone, however, was quick to befriend the twins. Some became jealous and some simply saw them as fresh meat.
All schools will have their bullies and miscreants and Xavier’s school, though better than most, was no different. As far as many of the high school class students were concerned, the devil had a name and it was Margaret Shiver…nicknamed Frost.
Her hair was pure white and her mutant talent, which she was ever ready to demonstrate to some hapless classmate, was the ability to freeze. She could form ice walls, fire ice missiles from her fingers and, in a fight, freeze her opponent! Thankfully, her freeze power also preserved her opponents if they were thawed in time. In essence, her powers were almost an exact duplicate of a former student of Xavier’s school…Bobby Drake: a noted scientist now doing extensive research in the Antarctic.
Being the new girls, Carrie and Karen were destined to be ‘tested’ by the bullies of the school. They had both expected it. It was a fact of life and one they had both lived through before.
They both knew that bullies would eventually tire of the game and go away. Some one, however, had failed to inform Frost of this fact.
At first it was little things. Just things to annoy. Knocking books out of their hands or c
Through it all, both girls were able to keep their temper…yet each incident pushed them further and further towards the edge.
Perhaps, had they gone to an instructor or even talked to Prof. Xavier, what followed could have been avoided. Yet, teens being teens, neither wanted to admit that they could not handle the problem. A mistake.
The final straw came one day during lunch.
Having gotten their trays, the twins had made their way to a
table they had started to share
And then Frost and her toadies had arrived.
The girls had gotten their trays and, after looking around the room, followed Frost as she made a bee line for the table where the twins were seated.
“You’re in my seat.” Frost kicked the back of Carrie’s chair. Softly at first and then harder when Carrie didn’t even acknowledge her. “I said you are in my seat!”
Carrie took a deep breath and attempted again to ignore the girl, stabbing her fork into her plate of spaghetti and twirling. Had Frost watched the speed of that twirling, she might have had second thoughts. Other girls at the table, however, noticed and looked up at Carrie and then at Karen. So far neither girl had displayed any mutant ‘gift’…another reason Frost chose to pick on them. Yet some of those girls were starting to recall little incidents they had witnessed over the past month…
“I’m talking to you!” Frost hissed. She reached around and touched Carrie’s
plate, c
Carrie closed her eyes and released her now frozen fork and placed both hands on the table as if to push away.
The girls across the table paled…not bec
“Carrie…don’t!” Karen said through clenched teeth.
“That’s right Carrie!” Frost mocked. “You better listen to your little sister. She might be a coward but she…urk!”
The room grew deathly silent as everyone turned to see
Karen…not Carrie…holding Frost up
“I have had enough of you.” Karen snarled. “I suggest you go find some other playmates before I really get angry. Believe me, Frost, you DON’T want to see me angry!”
“How dare you!” Frost’s face was a mask of fury. No one…ever…had handled her so…it just wasn’t done!
She slapped her hand down on Karen’s arm and smirked as the brown haired girl froze…a thick coating of ice surrounding her form.
“Okay.” Carrie pushed back and stood…and turned to lean on the table, her arms crossed. “Now you have really pissed her off.” She told Frost, smiling. “I would start running now…but it wouldn’t do any good.”
Frost started at Carrie and then turned back to the frozen Karen…just as the ice shattered and fell away.
“Would you like to try again?” Karen demanded into the silence.
Frost, however, was in no mood to try again. She, like everyone else in the room, was staring at Karen.
“Oh no.” Carrie moaned, covering her eyes.
Karen had simply flexed and broken the ice around her…she
had not taken into account that the ice would freeze her outer clothes. Both
Kara and Rogue had advised them not to wear the uniforms beneath their
clothes…yet neither girl could quite bear to part
At this point, however, Karen was beyond caring.
“What’s the matter, Frost?” Karen took a step forward and Margaret instinctively threw up an ice wall between them.
A single blast of heat vision and the wall was nothing more than a memory rising to the ceiling as steam.
“Any more tricks?” Karen demanded. She glared at the pack that followed Frost
everywhere, her eyes flashing, and they quickly moved away, disappearing in to
the crowd of students that now surrounded the pair. They wanted nothing to do
“You…you…” Frost was pale as she turned to run…only to find her way blocked by the ring of students…none of which showed her a friendly face. For too long she had been the bully…now she was getting what she deserved.
She felt hands grasp her under her arms and felt herself lifted into the air. She was released but before she could fall an inch, Karen had whipped around to grab her from the front.
“Well…Frost?” Karen hissed. It was only then that Frost noticed that the hair…that had been brown when she had frozen the girl was now blonde. “Take a good look, Frost!”
Karen forced the girl to look down at the room of faces staring up at them.
“These are your classmates…not your victims…never again your victims…do you understand?”
Frost nodded.
“Good. And remember this…Frost. I can see you wherever you are…I can hear what you say…I will know the instant you decide to start being a bully again. And next time I will knock your ass to the moon! You got that?”
Again Frost nodded. By now she was sobbing uncontrollably and Karen finally lowered her to the floor and released her.
Several girls made angry moves towards her but Karen stood in their way.
“No.” She shook her head. “Being what she was is not the answer.” She looked down at the sobbing girl and shook her head. She looked over at Carrie and saw her ‘twin’ nod. She then stooped and gathered the girl in her arms and flew out of the lunchroom, leaving Carrie to answer the questions that would undoubtedly follow.
Carrie sighed as, after following Karen’s progress out of the room, all the heads in the room turned towards her.
She pulled her chair back out and plopped into it, her elbows propped on either side of her frozen platter of food.
A slight smile touched her lips as she looked at the frozen mess. Why the hell not?
Her eyes flashed briefly and, as the students closed in, Carrie once again began twirling her fork in a steaming pile of spaghetti.
MVE1-8
There were no repercussions, officially, resulting from the incident. Yet both Carrie and Karen knew they had made a life long enemy of Frost.
They had humiliated her in front of the entire school body,
broken her power base, and rendered her the l
Prof. Xavier had called both girls to his office where he and Jean Grey, after getting a complete report, had broached the subject of their empathetic link.
The girls were, naturally, stunned.
“Your mothers informed us of the link.” Jean explained. “It was for that reason that
you were enrolled as Dox rather than
“I informed both Kara and Rogue that I believe Jean and I
might be able to help you
Neither girl spoke, sitting sullenly in their seats.
“Girls, we are not your enemies.” Jean had felt the sullen resentment that both girls felt…and probing ever so gently, was able to determine that the feeling was being amplified by the link. Her face grew stern. “It is one thing have a problem and not be aware of it. It could be, in your case, almost criminal to have the same problem, to be aware of it, and do nothing about it. With the power you two possess such negligence is not only foolish, it is dangerous. Not only to yourselves, but to those around you! If you do not learn how to control this, then no one will be safe around you. That is one end of the spectrum. At the other? If you do not learn to control it, and something happens to one of you, the other will not be able to function! That inability to act could cost one…or both…of you your lives!”
The Professor and Jean then went to work setting out a regimen of practices that would help the girls, but they warned that it would take time and effort on their part.
At first it was a bit awkward in classes after that but,
after a couple of weeks, the rest of the student body got used to having the d
The girls had answered questions tossed their way as
honestly as they could…yet they never revealed any information that might be
used against Kara or Rogue. They now
understood the reason why they had not been enrolled as
It became a deeper mystery when, after attempting to look
the name up in the commpads, which held basically the
complete Kandorian Databases (or rather, those Zor had felt would not c
When asked about their father…neither girl was prepared to let it be known that they had no clue who their father was. They simply insinuated that he was dead and made it clear that it was something they did not wish to talk about. It soon became known that it was a subject to steer clear of.
The girls that had once followed Frost were eventually rehabilitated. Some a bit more forcibly than others. Some, fearful of what the other students would do, had made attempts to befriend the twins. While Carrie was reluctant at first, Karen decided to give them all the benefit of the doubt.
In a month the now ex bullies had reentered the mainstream of the student body…all past actions forgiven…if not totally forgotten.
Except for Frost.
Though she did not c
MVE1-8
“What?”
Carrie turned, trying to look innocent, as Karen glared at her from the door of the lab.
“I said ‘are you trying to get us in trouble?’” Karen repeated herself, raising an eyebrow and looking at the massive object behind Carrie.
“That was not there thirty minutes ago!” She declared. She shook her head and walked over to look up at the contraption her ‘sister’ had quickly pieced together.
At first she had taken it to be a portal like the one they had constructed in Xavier’s school in Rogue’s Probability. There were, however, some differences.
“I got the idea from a show they have here. Stargate.” Carrie tried to explain.
“You what?” Karen turned to her, her face showing her disbelief. “You are trying to build a…Stargate?”
“No.” Carrie shook her head. “It is still a Probability Portal…or Broach as mom calls it. But that show gave me some ideas on how to construct it in a more efficient manner. Believe it or not…that stargate theory is not all that far-fetched. But it adapts even better to a Probability Portal.”
“But the Stargates have to have a gate on either end.” Karen shook her head.
“Only if you ever want to return to your starting point!” Carrie pointed out.
“Oh…just a minor detail…I’m sure.” Karen drawled.
“Well, yeah.” Carrie sighed. “So far I’ve only been able to open it up and snatch a few things.”
“You what?” Karen demanded.
“Well, I kinda brace myself and reach in and…grab the first think I feel and pull it back.” Carrie smiled. “That is where I do the show one better.”
She ran around to the console and touched a couple of switches.
“Here…watch.” Karen watched as the space
Karen saw Carrie jerk her arm back…and then jerk forward, as if something were trying to drag her through the portal.
“Oh no.” Karen raced up and grabbed Carrie around the waist and pulled. “Why do I listen to you? Just let go of it!”
“I can’t!” Carrie cried. “It’s got me by the wrist!”
Together the girls heaved. There was a slight pop and both girls were amazed as a blue sleeved arm was pulled through…and then everything went to hell.
A warning light flashed on the console, yet before either girl could react, they felt themselves pulled inward. Another pop and the room was empty…or nearly so.
“There’s another one!”
Barbara “Babs” Gordon pushed away from the computer terminal and crossed her arms, glaring at the screen.
Three weeks had passed since Kara had returned from Alterverse…over two months since Lord Ian of Otherverse had snatched her away from the Mad God Aries in the Alterverse set of Probabilities and brought her here to this new…Multiverse Earth-1. The timing had been off, depositing her here before Kara had even arrived, but everything had worked out as it should!
Since then, she had dove right in and helped out as Kara, Rogue, and Stark Industries put the finishing touches on their new Colorado Fortress and finished installing equipment taken from their Colorado Fortress in Otherverse…including a copy of the Crystal Mind Zal had discovered in the destroyed Antarctic Fortress of the Otherverse Kal-El.
From what she had heard, Zor-El, Kara’s father and a citizen of the shrunken city of Kandor, which remained in the Antarctic Fortress of this world’s deceased Superman, had been torn between professional curiosity, overwhelming joy, and understandable revulsion when they had first activated the hologram of his dead brother Jor. Or rather, the Otherverse version of Jor-El.
Of course, at that time, she had still not gotten over
meeting the Twins for the first time. In some ways, she could see the
Kara she had once known in them. Yet, like Kara, part of that innocence
had been shadowed by their tr
“There’s another what?” She turned her head to see that Kara had slipped up behind her and was looking over her shoulder.
Across the large Control / Research center, Rogue and Tony
Stark were busy at another terminal, working
Two more figures completed the picture. Two pure white animals, one seemingly a large wolf-like animal and the other seemingly a feline of a size that would rival an African Lion. It was obvious, on a closer look; neither animal was exactly what they appeared.
The wolf sat on its h
Barbara shook her head in disbelief.
“What?” Kara asked. Babs indicated the animals.
“Them. I still have trouble believing that they are only
slightly over three months old.” She said. “ Yes, I
know. It’s all bec
“Well, it’s true.” Kara smiled as she glanced over at the animals.
Both were offspring of a mating between Krypto
and one of Ian’s enhanced wolves…
Yet not even Lord Ian was perfect. Out of the entire litter, these two most resembled their sire. Both were white, had the same range of Kryptonian powers (if somewhat lessened) and were unswervingly loyal to their chosen partners…in this case, the Twins. And theywere extremely agitated at having to be separated from the girls. But the rules at Xavier’s school did not allow for personal pets.
The animals had other, unforeseen traits that had separated them from their littermates.
On Earth, it had been theorized that, at one time in the distant past, both canines and felines might have had a common ancestor that eventually branched to form the two distinctly separate species. On Krypton, where both canines and felines had been in abundance, it wasn’t theory…it was an established scientific fact. A fact easily proven since it had been Kryptonian biologists that had manipulated the genes of the savage Skrall to create both canines and felines. Indeed, right up until Krypton exploded, the Skrall had continued to exist, along side their feline and canine descendants.
In Otherverse, Krypto, exposed to the hellish energies of the rampant Shard, had reverted, devolving back into the Skrall from which his species had been created. While the Kandorian scientists had been able to reverse much of the effects of the Shard, giving Krypto a near Earth Wolf appearance, they had not foreseen the possibility of Krypto mating, and so they had not bothered to research what effects such a mating would have on the offspring.
Nor
had Ian, a master of the art of manipulation (in every sense of the word, Babs thought to herself), taken the Shard effects fully
into account. While all but these two had turned out exactly as Ian had
planned, these two could only be deemed failures. Failures in the sense
that they could not perform the tasks that Ian had planned for their
littermates. And so these had been gifted to the twins. It was only
then that they had all learned that both animals were highly telepathic, able
to communicate at will
And, though not a gift in the sense of the word, the rapid growth of the two had startled everyone, maturing in months while their littermates still played puppy games.
“You said ‘there’s another one’”, Kara reminded Babs, drawing her attention back to the computer terminal. “What did you mean?”
“Another bug.” Babs shook herself,
bringing herself back to the present. “Look, right here in the….” She p
The canine crossed the distance between him and the feline in one bound, gently touching noses….and then both animals did something no one had been prepared for…they seemed to wink out of existence!
Katherine Pryde stiffened and stared in disbelief. Seemingly, in front of her eyes, the creatures phased into existence.
At first, she was not quite sure what to make of them. They were unlike any other animals she had ever seen. Yet even as she watched, they began to change…they shifted shapes, their forms blurring, melting and refocusing. Where, an instant before, two strange, fearsome beasts had stood, were now a rather large white wolf and an equally large white panther.
Katherine watched as the animals seemed to communicate, nodding to each other before taking off in different directions. She knew enough about animals to know that they were hunting for something. She was only grateful that, whatever their prey might have been…it wasn’t her! But why did she think of Kira Jor-El? Kira had not lived in the cave for almost a year!
“I wonder if the Resistance knows anything about this?” She wondered aloud. And then she sent a mental message to Charles Xavier. “Charles, have you heard any reports about…”
From her hiding place, Frost stepped into the open, her face a mass of confusion.
She would never know how lucky she had been to avoid detection. Had either of the twins been more diligent or more experienced, they would have picked up on her presence instantly. By her heart beat or her breath or even the cold that radiated naturally from her body.
She started towards the swirling gate way and stopped,
frozen
“Free.” The woman crowed, smiling. She looked around and her smile grew when her eyes lit on Frost. Her power reserves were nearly depleted. Yet, as fate would have it, here was a meal waiting for her.
Frost had just enough time to scream once as the woman pounced in her direction…and touched her.
-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2003 by Dylan Clearbrook
-- and may not be reprinted
-- The Continuum Worlds Concept is a joint creation of
-- Dylan Clearbrook and Eldric. Otherverse
-- and Supergirl’s Multiverse, as depicted in the
-- Continuum Worlds, are original creations of Dylan Clearbrook.
-- Alterverse and The Inheritors, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,
-- are original creations of Eldric.
-- The Realm and The Web of Shadows, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,
-- are original creations of John P. and Jason G respectively.
-- Some characters in Continuum Worlds stories are original creations
-- of Dylan Clearbrook, Eldric, Michael Liebhart, Jake H., Jason G.,
-- Andrew Shields, Kyle M., Brian, or Jason Froikin and may not
-- be used
-- All DC characters are property of D.C. Comics.
-- All Marvel characters are property of Marvel Comics.