[Plot] I'm Asking For A Friend

[Natalie Denisov]

After a short discussion with Clarion, Natalie transported to the Citadel to take advantage of their connection and see what she could find out. She'd only been sending the necessary reports and had declined to deliver any of them in person, so her arrival was already a little unusual. She just desperately hoped the questions she was going to ask weren't going to cause more trouble.

[Narrator]

"Arrival from Earth Two-Four-Two-One-Two." a pleasant voice chimes. "Authorized Mastermind Node designation Intercept. Deviation from last known contact... within acceptable parameters. Logging for follow-up. Attention, you are being diverted by the direct authorization of Opal Luna Saturnyne. Acknowledge, please."

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie gave a heavy sigh and crossed her arms, "Acknowledged."

[Narrator]

"Diverting. Some disorientation is normal. Stand by."

After a brief, dizzying distortion of the space around her, Natalie finds herself in a rather well-appointed study. The trailing cape and blonde hair at the desk is familiar enough.

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"Ah," Saturnyne says as she looks up from what she'd been doing, "good to have you."

"You're a hard woman to get a hold of sometimes," she says as she turns around.

[Natalie Denisov]

"My last visit was... a visit," she says, carefully choosing her words, "I wasn't aware of any requests that I'd missed. If there are, I'll have to have a talk with Clarion and make sure nothing was lost in the shuffle of our recent temporal distortions."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"Let me guess, the inscrutable daughter of the great wizard Merlin himself made you feel like a bug, and that was a bit off-putting."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Worse, a *thing*," Natalie says with dripping venom before she can think or manage to police her tone back into polite deference.

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"Well we've talked about this, haven't we? When you're born to the role, as she is, you tend to be a bit... well, less than deferential to the scurrying of other beings."

"You wouldn't be the first Mastermind system she's done this to."

[Natalie Denisov]

"And yet she wonders why she has rebellion issues from Mastermind systems. Truly a mystifying set of occurrences," Natalie says, in-for-a-penny, in-for-a-pound now. "It just takes blank template AIs longer to build up the knowledge and come to the realization that they're nothing more than tools, no matter what words are used to describe them." She takes a deep, unnecessary breath, 'But I'm sure you didn't call me to your office to explain why I have not been dropping by for tea."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"No, I've called you in because the vicinity of your lighthouse has suffered repeated class-μ dimensional incursions, what's known in the Captain Britain Corps as a 'pinhole breach.'"

[Natalie Denisov]

"I believe we are aware," Natalie says, "Assuming the breaches correlate to the events observed in our dimension, the X-Men are currently investigating the source of these breaches and attempting to find some way to shield against them and, if possible, put a stop to their source. Again, assuming the correlation, the breaches have released beings that have been designated as 'Titans', which seem to be unfettered energy sources replicating mutant powers in an unfiltered manner. Much is still in the realm of the theoretical and there are... esoteric theories getting mixed in with the science."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"One of the situations where 'pinhole breach' doesn't really sell what you've got on your hands. A pinhole's worth of exotic energies can be a lot of trouble. Anything to do with the chronal dysjunction you mentioned?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"One of these Titans, yes. Mimicking chrono-manipulation powers. I am still cleaning up the mess that left the Crystal Computer in."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"I'd offer to send a team to help with that, but I'd understand if you're wary."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I believe the clean-up is under control, just time-consuming. I do need some information on shielding against interdimensional energy, if such information is accessible."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"In fairness, you have it within your means to shield someone against that sort of thing very well."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Noted, but if you would care to elaborate?"

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"You find someone you think is up to it, and you offer them a choice: the sword or the amulet."

"You don't do it lightly, because either one is a life-altering decision. Still, once you're done you get someone who's made to patrol the border-marches of your universe."

[Natalie Denisov]

"The sword or the amulet?" Without thinking about it, she initiated a data request for more information.

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"The sword or the amulet," she repeats, Natalie's data link drawing up references as the words are said.

"Might and Right. Or Death and Life, as the old man used to put it. It's hard to explain. Taking up either results in the same sort of power being imbued. You'd be forgiven in thinking it's the same result. It isn't, and the bearers of each are profoundly different. Either one could save or doom a world."

[Natalie Denisov]

"And if I don't want to impose that choice on anyone?"

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"Then someone with that grade of inherent dimensional shielding is off the table, I'm afraid."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Are there no alternatives? I am... reluctant to bind someone to an obligation to this place if there are alternatives."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"Well, it's by far the most thorough option, as well as the one you should about have a whole manual on in your files. Something to consider if you plan on making a habit of this."

"Otherwise? Well, there's options. Some worlds have developed ways. Some of them I unfortunately can't allow you to have access to because they'd radicalize your world's development. We don't quite have a 'prime directive' like you've seen in those insipid shows, but I'm sure you can understand we're not handing bazookas to cavemen, so to speak."

"But... one thing your particular world has in abundance, if you can think about it without your skin crawling, is magic."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Ah, yes, magic," she says, as if someone was asking her to eat something foul. "Unfortunately, most of the people with 'magic' that we trust are very inexperienced, by their own admission. But I suppose it's better than nothing."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"Well, the most powerful wizards are bastards. In the old man's case, literally."

"I wouldn't scoff though. You've got more than a little of it keeping you going."

[Natalie Denisov]

"If it is, it looks nothing like what I've seen that others have tried to explain as magic. But ultimately I have to convince the current person responsible for the area around the lighthouse of that and she is very big on science, not so much on magic."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"It takes many shapes. Not all of them involve squatting naked in a sacred grove daubed with body paint. In your case, any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science," she smirks, apparently rather proud of herself for that one.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie rolls her eyes briefly before getting it under control. "Noted. Is there anything else that would be useful or do I just need to go find a wizard now?"

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"A wizard you can trust. The 'you can trust' part of that is doing a bit of heavy lifting."

[Natalie Denisov]

"That's... a tall order. The closest experienced supposed practitioner is untrustworthy according to mission reports. Maybe the Lady of the Lake..." She was obviously musing through mission reports. "Well, I won't take up any more of your time."

[Opal Luna Saturnyne]

"If you ask me the whole Arthurian set are too tied up in their story, but what do I know? I still wound up working for one of them."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Just thinking out loud," she says, "Well, thank you anyways." With that, she flickers out, returning to her system.