[Plot] Duty Calls

[Narrator]

Regardless of what Natalie and her various operational shards are pre-occupied with they would all suddenly receive a transmission straight from the uplink-node. It's mildly disconcerting at first, almost like an invasion of privacy in how unhindered the data seemingly appears out of nowhere and perfuses her system. At least it turns out to be a simple message and not any actual code execution, but it does seem to come with an inherent importance and weight to it.

Code: Select all

To the New Caretaker of Node 24212
Report to the Starlight Citadel posthaste for an audience with Lady Roma
Direct one-time coordinates and permissions are encoded in this message

There's no way to dismiss, archive or ignore the message. The only viable response, aside from tolerating it sitting square in the center of her awareness like the world's worst pop-up window, seems to be to activate the 'Attend' codelet embedded in it.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie frowns at the message, her virtual avatar rippling over to her X-Men uniform almost without thinking. She messages the others, "Implement the off-site protocol. I'll hopefully be back soon." The triple acknowledgement gives her the go-ahead and she activates the "Attend" code.

[Lady Roma]

Immediately she feels her digital self compressed and pulled through space folding around her, like the crystal node stretches out into infinity like a singular point and shoots her along the curvature of the multiverse. A single point of light riding an arc across a void filled with glittering diamonds and she could swear she can hear music blaring as she zips towards the majestic shape of the golden Citadel that hangs in the fulcrum between worlds. And when her avatar suddenly materializes she can tell she was somehow picking up sounds from her destination before she even arrived, for she finds herself in what can only be described as a throne room of sorts. High, curved walls filled with empty vestibules where a larger audience could find room rise behind her and to the sides, hundreds if not thousands of them. In front of her a wide approach of thin but somehow still soft carpet stretches out into a round room with walls of nothing but windows creating a dome that's only broken up by curved decorative struts.

And prominently in the center a large dais with strange alien plants on it's multiple terraces and narrow stairs leading up to a seat that's both throne and observatory. It'd be ostentatious if much of it's bulk wasn't due to telescopes, monitors and arcane-looking astrolabes arrayed around the elven looking woman seated on purple cushions. The blaring fanfares announce Natalie's arrival as much as they underline the woman's presence and very clearly aim to set a sense of importance. In case the room and the sparkling void outside the dome weren't enough.

"Welcome." the woman intones and despite the fact that she's a good 150 yards away from where Natalie appeared she can hear her perfectly fine, like her voice fills the entire room not with volume but sheer presence.

[Natalie Denisov]

"Thank you. It is an honor to be here," Natalie says, at least assuming the sort of decorum one should have around someone of importance.

[Lady Roma]

Lady Roma looks appreciative as she rises from her seat and gestures for Natalie to come closer as she descends from her throne.

"I am the Omniversal Guardian, Lady Roma Regina. I try to meet as many of my caretakers as I'm able. Especially ones from more tumultuous worlds. As you can imagine, it is a near futile effort, hence the delay since your re-establishing of your spoke. First of I owe you my thanks for bringing what we thought lost and severed back into the fold. The Citadel stands as a bulwark against chaos and entropy and each node connected to us strengthens us all. Yours has a troubled history, as I'm sure Majestrix Saturnyne already brought to your attention, so I hope you do not take what I'm about to say as a threat."

"We have detected a surge in irregular dimensional activity from your spoke." she says and let's that sentence hang for a moment.

"Normally this would not be cause for concern. The Multiverse is fluid and ever-changing, ever-adjusting and fluctuations are common. Even in and excursions beyond our purview are not, strictly speaking, forbidden. It is, after all, how the Citadel originally came to be. But yours is still recovering from instability and, to speak metaphorically, battered and bleeding, lashed haphazardly to other worlds by scar tissue. To put it bluntly; is everything alright? Holding together still?"

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie approaches, stopping near the foot of the dais and assuming a more relaxed posture, though it's obviously something she's seen done rather than something she's actually done. "To the best of my knowledge, things are holding together. We had an incident with an interloper who made use of a large device to prompt mutations in people by harnessing dimensional energy and possibilities. The device was destroyed and the X-Men have been working on stabilizing those affected. The interloper is still at large, but, I believe, currently being hunted."

[Lady Roma]

"That would certainly explain it. This is..." she waves her hand and draws a rectangle with her fingers, conjuring a glass screen in a bronze rim that floats in the air. A list of names and attached codes scrolls by and Natalie senses the information stream of a large database. Dimensional criminals and fugitives. They're divided into several categories of threat-assessments with the majority in the lower two. The middle category has a couple dozen, the penultimate one just a few and the final one seems to contain only one entry. Lady Roma pulls out the second to last category, quite literally pulling them from the surface of the screen to enlarge into a holographic projection.

"One of the Wests. Of course." she sighs as Conduit's entry comes up. Who knows where she got this information from, but it certainly looks like the young technopath hellion.

[Natalie Denisov]

"That's her. She has at least one known associate with her in our dimension, a cybernetic sharkman named Thresher. By all reports, he is definitely the brawn and not the brains. She seems to have an intense hatred for the X-Men, blaming them for the 'destruction' of her dimension. I don't believe her dimension was actually destroyed, but, reviewing the reports, more that the X-Men were accidentally pulled to her dimension by her own meddling and tipped the balance against her in a power struggle in the process of making their way back to our dimension. She did appear to have another associate with her prior to this latest incident, but to our knowledge, she was not with Conduit at the time of this incident and they may no longer be working together."

[Lady Roma]

"Curious. If you wouldn't mind transferring all the data you have?" she says and makes a complicated set of gestures with her hands, creating a set of lines of light that flash into an elongated piece of crystal she hands Natalie. Apparently this was less of a request and more of a statement as Natalie feels a brief tingle and the crystal begins to glow with absorbed data.

Then Lady Roma's display as well as the crystal suddenly flash blue and a number of warnings pop out of the display in layers.

Code: Select all

19.6% Pattern Match
Type: Black
Potential Precursor Identity
Data Flagged as High Priority

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie frowns, and while her voice is a bit uncertain, her thoughts are not, "Not to be impertinent and I am more than happy to share data, but I am not a typical Mastermind system, I am a person and I would have appreciated you allowing me to compartmentalize the data to provide to you rather than taking it."

[Lady Roma]

"All Mastermind system are people in the sense that they are sentient beings. All Mastermind systems also have an obligation to the Citadel. I apologize if that comes as news to you, I assumed you were aware when you accepted your position."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I did not know the full ramifications, no. I only knew that the existing Caretaker could not be trusted and that we were in danger of either losing the Crystal Computer completely or having it fall into the wrong hands. I took the role because no one else could at the time."

[Lady Roma]

"That's unfortunate but commendable. Let me tell you then of the situation you find yourself in. I care not to interfere with your day to day operations as long as the node remains stable nor will I pry into matters irrelevant to your position. But when called upon you will respond and when asked to you will surrender information pertinent to the safety and protection of the Citadel and it's worlds. I understand you're currently without a member of the Britain Corps so some lenience will be allowed should the need to marshal our forces arise, though if you wish to keep the current arrangement I highly encourage you to be able to send those tasked with the Node's protection in lieu of a Captain Britain. Otherwise a Captain will be chosen and assigned to you from those worthy of the position."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I am currently working on a solution to be able to bring the X-Men to your assistance should that become necessary based on plans provided by the Citadel, so we should be able to provide assistance if needed."

[Lady Roma]

"Excellent. Then unless you have any questions for me, you are dismissed."

[Natalie Denisov]

She gestures at the displayed analysis of the data she provided, "What does this mean?"

[Lady Roma]

"Ah. They're the preliminary analysis of the data you provided on subject..." her fingers dance over the windows and rearrange them as she looks for something. "Cailleach. As far as I can tell not inherently dangerous to the dimensional fabric, though associating with a West is always problematic at best. But there's a distinct similarity across the aura-spectrum to..." With a sweep of her arm she brings up the list of known threats and enlarges the top-most entry. There's no image, only a black silhouette along with very little actual information and a lot of technical jargon.

Code: Select all

Entity classified as 'Tir na Idir'
Presence detectable in hundreds of Nodes from pressure residue on dimensional lattice
No physical translocation incident noted
Indirect agent presence indicated by Dimensional Terminus 'Ibbur Golim'
Indirect agent presence only confirmable post departure

"A being so vast it is present in countless worlds, though never physically manifest beyond it's agents. We've never been able to confirm it's location or identity, leading to some speculating it exists in the Gevurah, the space between. Hogwash if you ask me, but I do have to admit I have no explanation for it's ability to seemingly exist as a vast presence across worlds. It's motivations are unknown, but anything that insinuates itself throughout layers of reality with such ease could be capable of splitting wide the skeins of the multiverse. And it is not dormant, it has sent countless agents throughout the worlds. And this." she taps the '19.6% Pattern Match' on Cailleach's data set. "Is magnitudes larger than any similarity we've seen before."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I can speak with our dimension's counterpart to Cailleach and see if she has any insights to flesh out the data. I believe they have directly interacted several times."

[Lady Roma]

"That would be much appreciated. As you can imagine, tracking these things can be a lot of book-keeping. Hence our reliance on Mastermind Systems such as yourself, inherited or not." she adds with just the feintest hint of a smile. "And why we can't rely on curated data packages from them. Statistically mistakes and malice are an unfortunate reality."

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie looks as if she has something she wants to say, but she bites it back and inclines her head. "I'll let you know if I find anything out. If there is nothing else you need from me, I'll be returning to my duties."

[Lady Roma]

"That would be all." Lady Roma nods.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie winks out of Roma's area of existence, returning to her own system. She looks at Clarion, "Next time, you get to go talk to her." With that, she sets about sending Sam an 'at your convenience' e-mail.

[Samantha McManus]

It's not that long before Natalie gets a response that Sam is on her way. Making her way down to Natalie's Batcave grotto, she peers around the corner and looks about.

[Natalie Denisov]

The room is still pretty flush with crystals, though a large flat panel monitor has been added to one wall and is currently showing various scenic campus views, almost like a window. A path cuts through the crystals to a door set into the wall. After a moment, Natalie materializes in front of the door, "Sam, I didn't expect you to come so soon."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye well, figured it was important," she shrugs.

"Not interrupting anything, am I?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"No, and I have three more of me to help manage things, so we can always spare someone, depending on what's needed." The screen switches to showing Cailleach's file. "The Citadel would like more information about Cailleach and I was hoping you could fill me in on what you've observed."

[Samantha McManus]

"Well she's who I was one bad decision away from becoming, aye? We're... pretty distressingly alike."

[Natalie Denisov]

"There are concerns about a larger entity and Cailleach's profile, or whatever it is they use for comparison, was a 19.6% pattern match, which is more of a match than they've seen yet apparently."

[Samantha McManus]

"A... larger entity, you say?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Something along those lines. They've designated it 'Tir na Idir' and it seems to touch multiple worlds, but never is actually in one beyond the presence of its agents."

[Samantha McManus]

"I ah... I may know what you're talking about, there."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Apparently it's potentially a threat and they're still not sure exactly what it is."

[Samantha McManus]

"It's what Cailleach is running from. It may... also be a version of me."

[Natalie Denisov]

"That's... not good," Natalie says, "What makes you think that?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Well, Cailleach certainly thinks it is. It lives... outside. Out near the border between life and death. It doesn't have a body and... well, Cailleach thinks it wants one of ours."

[Natalie Denisov]

"That would follow with what they know. It seems to exist in the space between according to the Citadel. That it's looking for a body is potentially relevant to why it hasn't managed to manifest in any actual dimension."

[Samantha McManus]

"And versions of me are... compatible, I guess. I think I ran into it once and it tried to get inside me. I barely made it out."

"It was... familiar, though. I don't know if it was drawing off of me or what."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'm not sure how helpful this will be to them, but it's at least more to process," Natalie says, pondering.

[Samantha McManus]

"My Gaelic isn't great but that name is something like... the land in-between?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"That would follow. They said they think it lives in the space between dimensions."