[Plot] Well, what if there is no tomorrow?

[Miriam Bell]

"A gun?" he asked thoughtfully, doing some quick tech-genius work in his head, "About five to adapt something I already have, but there's no guarantee it can damage the creature's core."

"You're the tech genius. You figure it out!"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"On it!" he said, running back to the workshop. Assuming the loop effect allowed, anyway.

Once there, he rifled through his assorted prototypes and threw several odds and ends onto a work table. He then started combining things.

[Victor Freud]

Victor's power reaches pretty much the entire liquid. Perhaps not at first but as the portion around him shrinks down, more of it comes into range to be shrunk and so on. And as he pushes his power out into the liquid he finds it's graps on him slipping, letting him push out to a couple inches in height again while the liquid pools in a tiny puddle around him. He's teetering on the edge, relying on holding his grasp on the shrunken liquid while something beyond tries to scrabble for purchase again but at least for the moment he's fought his way back into the macroscopic world. And outside the tank he can see Sam standing in the doorway, eyes unfocused, Tosh and Miriam peering into the room from behind her with concerned expressions on their face. Closer to the tank he's in he can see Will, talking words out of order as he's skipping back and forth in time.

Being able to shrink the Cerebra fluid did make it easier for Vic to move, but there was one unfortunate side effect; it meant that he had to transition from water-breathing back to air-breathing. And that was was an unpleasant experience. He couldn't make sense of what was happening outside. The fact that he'd been able to breath in the fluid, and seeing some familiar faces, made him realize where he was. But the WHY was the perplexing thing. Why was he in there? He wasn't a telepath. And who put him in there? He had no memory of it, he'd just been woken up to find himself tiny and not-drowning. Not being able to hear them, he couldn't understand what was happening outside - why was Will blinking back and forth? Why were... were those bodies? His skin went paler than normal.

[Will Stanton]

Will was flickering between now and yesterday, which sounds like a bad song and feels worse. As the cut-and-paste strategy of getting him to make specific sounds intensified, Will was existing in a period of time short enough to stop most cogent thoughts from forming -- every time he'd begin a thought, he'd be twisted and shot forward or backwards in chronology and have to start all over again.

That means, to even theoretically break through, it would take something beyond thinking. Fortunately, 'not thinking' was something Will excelled at, and he began to shake even as the Titan continued to use him as a glorified soundboard.

[Samantha McManus]

"I feel a little sorry for you. She didn't give you enough sense to let me spare you."

"But as cruel as she may be, I'm not her. I'm the one that got him in the end.

What follows isn't gentle, but Sam suspects the thing is beyond actually understanding. What she's doing is singing a song of pain and ending right into what might pass for his soul. A song punctuated by one last sharp note meant to break things.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh fastened one last part and jogged back into the hall with a bulky makeshift rifle that looked very sci-fi with all its lights and electromagnetic rings.

"I hope you're a better shot than I am. Because this only has the power for one shot. Not that the Titan will let you try twice anyway."

[Narrator]

How do you jiggle out of a time-loop? The same way you jiggle out of a black hole, one would assume. Inexplicably. Or rather, in slip-sliding across his timeline he manages to brush up against 'Now' and almost unceremoniously comes to a skidding stop as he finishes the jog that took him into the room to begin with.

Above him he can see Victor, roughly a foot-tall in the almost empty Cerebra tank and above that the Titan is hovering and erratically jerking this way and that. There's a lot of debate that could be had over whether or not this construct made by nothing but a very specific power has a soul, but regardless, it's Spark resonates with Sam's song and that's enough. The delicate assembly of brass and springs and dials and other time-pieces suddenly shudders and with a clear metallic ting! it snaps apart, pieces breaking and exploding outwards, some of them slamming into Cerebra's capsule and sending cracks through the glass bubble, other shrapnel flying towards Will and Sam.


And then from one moment to the other the Titan is whole again. The broken pieces snap back and for the blink of an eye a scintillating sphere is visible in it's center before disappearing again as the Titan rewinds itself.

[Miriam Bell]

"Do I look like I know how to fire a gun!?" Miriam shouts as all of that is happening. "There! You see that? It's got some kind of weak-spot it's trying to hide... yesterday or tomorrow or just at some other point in time. Just... be ready to shoot that, I'm going to try something." she says before running towards Will and Sam.

[Will Stanton]

Will cringed for a moment before the shrapnel rewound itself through time, not quite reaching the shifter. He blinked for a moment, surprised that he was free.

What he WANTED to do was reach out for the Titan again. This was fascinating. He wanted to know more. He saw the core. Something in him...something in him was drawn to it. He had to have it...had to come into contact with it; to see what it was, to explore...

And a more headstrong Will might well have done it, but at the moment, he had put responsibility to the fore. And so, he jammed one arm against the cracks in the glass Cerebra bubble, squirting himself through to get to Victor. Whatever was happening to Vic can't have been pleasant, so he had to try to shield him from it. And so he tried to squeeze himself into Cerebra and form a protective outer shell around the shrunken miniman; hoping a sphere of clay would protect him from whatever the Titan was doing.

Yes, that would expose HIM to the Titan once more, not to mention whatever would happen immersed in the braingoo of Cerebra, but protecting Vic was top priority.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh sighed and raised the rifle, gazing down the scope to line up the shot.

"First-person shooters don't fail now," he prayed.

"Also, please don't turn me to dust."

[Victor Freud]

With the cracking of the Cerebra's glass came the first un-muffled noise from the outside world, and fresh air. Well, no, not fresh air, kind of the opposite really. That was a lot of bodies. And now Will's grey putty was starting to seep in as he concentrated on trying to keep the fluid at bay.

"Will - whats - going on?" His breathing was a bit laboured and it made speaking difficult; his lungs still burning from their conversion back to air and the strain of him trying to keep his power redirected.

[Will Stanton]

"Mutant shenanigans," Will said, forming a sphere around the tiny Vic to help protect him from the Titans' titanic titrations.

"Breath easy. Something was trying to use your power to open some kind of doorway. It...wasn't going well."

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam comes to a stop next to Sam, briefly glancing up at the Titan which has swiveled down towards the Will-sphere coating the inside of Cerebra. It seems... not uncertain, it's not alive enough for that, but whatever drives these things clearly has no immediate solution to this. Which is probably a bad thing considering it's fallback seems to be 'rewind time and do the day over'. But at least for a moment Will's behavior gives it pause and it jabs at the protective Will-Shell with an intricate but surprisingly sturdy outcropping. Hard enough to pierce through the shifter.


"Sam! I doubt we have long until this bloody thing decides it wants a do-over, so do me a favour and trust me?" she asks and doesn't wait for an answer. "I need you to take me under. Down through that black pit at the center of your soul. The Abyss. Whatever you want to call it and I need you to do it now before we end up here all over again forever."

[Victor Freud]

Will had barely formed his protective bubble around Victor when the Cerebra fluid violently refilled the tank, streams of it spraying out of the cracks in the glass. Oh, right, if he's not touching it, he can't control it.

"Opening a door? I can't do that, that's some kinda portal power. I just do shrinky bulls-AH!" He let out a yelp as the sharp point of the Titan's probe pierced his inner sanctum, only to withdraw and poke again from another angle. This left Victor scrambling around the inside of the Will-sphere and feeling not unlike he was in one of those cartoons where someone was put into a magic box that had swords shoved through it.

[Will Stanton]

Will had not signed up to be dango today for the benefit of some time titan, and tried to catch the pokey thing the next time it poked, trying to trap it in a mass of clay.

He also shot out an inner tendril, wrapping it around Vic and trying to tether him onto (and even a little into) the base of his clay sphere, away from where the pokey thing was poking.

[Samantha McManus]

"I..." she hesitates, then steels herself.

"Okay, but if you don't come back, I'm bloody going in after you..."

Miriam then has the cawing terror of the flock swallowing her up.

[Miriam Bell]

There's not exactly a ton of room inside the Will-sphere within the Cerebra capsule but at least so far they've managed to keep Vic from getting skewered.


Meanwhile Miriam metaphorically descends into the flock of ravens. Physically she's simply clutching Sam's forearm. It's a bit like being in freefall, stomach lurching as she propels herself down the ominous tunnel of cawing and rustling feathers. She can feel the pull, the constant draw of the natural order of things. Fall to the bottom into the darkness and rest, as she should, not cling to the false warmth of blood tethering her to the world of the living like a thin rivulet of crimson that seems weaker and weaker the deeper she falls.

But she has a plan. The only way she can think of to let them get at the Titan's core. The thing through which it exists in the physical world. It's wrapped up inside it's own pocket of time, maybe only a day away, maybe a million years, it hardly matters. But if Sam is right about all her talk about Sparks (and right now Miriam really hopes that she is) then maybe her own power to manifest things from the Astral can dredge the core into reality in the here and now. If she survives plunging that deep into the astral sea and the Abyss that beckons her to pass to the other side.

In the real world Miriam falls to her knees and she steadies herself with her hands on the floor, but the ground begins to turn into a shadowy morass and she slowly sinks. Other peoples' thoughts are easy, they're right there on the surface, only need a gentle tug to manifest but this? This is buried deep, beyond thoughts, beyond dreams, perhaps beyond death. And yet she can feel it, the point where power crystalizes into an abstract shape and she plunges her hands deeper until she's almost down to her shoulders in the circle of darkness she's kneeling in. She digs her fingers into it and hauls even as the morass is slowly sucking her down. Her legs are gone and her arms are still submerged to the elbows as she's breathing through clenched fangs.

"Sam?" she manages, looking up at the red-head next to her. "Thank you." And with that she throws herself back, already waist-deep in the muck and slipping deeper she pulls her arms free and dredges out a sphere of rainbow hues, shimmering like a pearl. She holds the manifested Titan's core above her head with one hand so Tosh has time to take aim as she's jerked down another couple inches into oblivion.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh took aim and pulled the trigger. The rifle hummed with electricity as powerful electromagnets accelerated one of the arrowheads he was developing for Chase down the length of the weapon, firing it at high speed towards the core.

[Samantha McManus]

As Tosh fires at the core, Sam lunges to keep Miriam from sinking, scrabbling to get a grip on her wrist.

[Narrator]

Time slows to a crawl as Tosh pulls the trigger, the arrow-head still moving swiftly despite having been slowed to a fraction of it's tremendous speed.

Tick.

One can see the wobble in the arrow, poly-carbon coating flaking as the material stress sheds everything but the metal arrow-head.

Tick.

The Titan turns his attention to Tosh, sharp probe still jabbing down into the Will-Sphere at slow-motion, coming dangerously close to Vic's head at a snail's pace.

Tick.

Sam's lunge becomes glacially slow, but so does Miriam's descent into the mire.

Tick.

Almost all movement becomes imperceptibly slow and everyone can feel time approaching a tipping point where it will snap backwards.

Tick.

Only the arrow-head is still moving, it's ridiculous speed carrying it forward so fast even the fraction of a fraction of a second has it pass several feet through the air.

Tick.

Even the arrowhead slows down, a hair's breadth from the core it struggles to complete it's journey before time can halt entirely.

Tick.

And then a tiny crack appears on the Core where the arrow's tip has makes contact and time rushes forward again, core shattering into a million pieces as the projectile embeds itself several meters into the wall, Tosh's rifle smokes and groans as the loud bang from the projectile breaking the soundbarrier echoes through the room, the Titan itself falls apart at the seams as strange brassy components break apart into pieces, leaving the sharp probe stuck in Will less than an inch from Victor's eyeball. Sam's fingers barely miss Miriam's wrist but close in time to grab her hand, giving her just enough time to reassert her grip before the pale hand disappears into the darkness, clutching Sam's and beginning to drag her under as well.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh dropped the overheating weapon with a start.

"Ow, ow, ow, holy shit! That... was way stronger than expected."

"Shijin two, Titans zero."

[Samantha McManus]

"Tosh, if you have a bloody minute I could use a bit of absurd surfer strength over here," Sam grunts, bulking up a bit herself as she tries to fish Miriam out.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Snapping back to the task at hand, he said, "Shit, right! On my way!"

He turned into Bruce as he ran over, monstrous shark-man hand reaching for Miriam.

[Victor Freud]

Victor had his arms raised and eyes closed, trying to shield himself from the inevitable hit that... never came. It had been like a nightmare, that spike inching toward him, his body moving in slow motion to try and get away from it. But after the sound of something shattering (and the massive boom before that), he opened his eyes to find that he could move... but that thing just about to skewer him was still and apparently inert.

"... Um... are we good?" He asked, only have the clay walls and a hunk of metal to judge what was going on around him.

[Will Stanton]

"Yes. Mostly yes," Will clarified, still skewered by the probe.

"I don't know how to open Cerebra from the inside, so I can either keep you in the sphere until someone finds a release button, or can dump you out to float in the goo. They seem to be kind of busy, uh, sinking into the floor? So it might be a bit."

[Victor Freud]

"Will, if you have to go help them, I'll be fine here." Well, mostly fine. Transitioning back to water-breathing was going to suck real hard.

[Will Stanton]

"I'm, a, still a little skewered, and I want to preserve this thing so I can study it," Will said, in the tone of voice you use when you're looking for an excuse for something. "But if you want out, be my guest."

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam has sunk into the muck entirely and has pulled Sam's arm down to the elbow with her. But Bruce can estimate and add his hand as well. It's like plunging their hands into nothing. It doesn't feel like anything at all and almost makes it hard to gauge what their hands are doing like they've fallen asleep. Just before Bruce's hand closes around Sam's she can feel Miriam's fingers letting go, hanging slack in her hand and threatening to slip out of Bruce hadn't added his strength. But even with both of them pulling Miriam barely budges, every inch hard work and making the next one twice as hard. No amount of muck, as shadowy and strange as it is, should have this kind of grip on her. Something else is dragging her down, something that's perhaps stronger than a muscular woman and a giant shark.

Miriam has been dead for a while and when she willingly took a step across the threshold what lies beyond has come to stake it's claim.

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm not letting you go," she grunts, even as she's starting to get dragged down herself.

[Miriam Bell]

Sinking into the dark is a strange sensation, though a distantly familiar one for Sam. It has a certain serenity to it even if the lack of sensation makes it feel cold and empty. Beneath her Miriam is hanging from their hands, eyes closed and looking at ease even as she drags them under, down towards a distant pale light that shines from the top of a tower of amalgamated styles that rises from the Abyss. Whatever force is drawing Miriam down is unyielding, until the flaking remains of the Titan's obliterated core fall onto the puddle and sink alongside them in streaks of rainbow hues. Like pieces of dye the flakes dissolve in the darkness but leave behind a trail of colors as they spiral around them and between those streaks Sam can see flashes and glimpses of other places. No, other times. Hers and Tosh's but mostly prominently Miriams.

A teenaged Miriam scoffing at Sam at Muir.

A haze of blood and drugs obscuring a rather... carnal meeting of two monsters.

Miriam walking out of a bank, more than smug as she carries a metal suitcase.

Wanda standing behind her as Miriam's on her knees, crying in front of a grave behind a tiny church.

A hand in a silvery gloves lashing out in anger and passion.

Two young girls, huddled under a well-worn blanket covered in cartoon moons and stars, the older one with a flashlight shining up at her face as they both collapse into giggles.

Rain hitting the scattered pieces of metal and plastic of a crashed car and onlookers and driver all frozen in an agonizing scream around the young girl cradling her sister.

Miriam, huddled in the shadow underneath an umbrella, carefully stalking her way to a farm building in wholly unsuited shoes.

Dancing in a crowd of people that all seem to share her rapturous expression only for it all to come crashing down at the sight of Will's disapproving face next to her.

A screaming and struggling pre-teen Miriam being pulled out of the counselor's office at Muir.

Miriam sitting at a poker table with a subdued but confident smile on her face.

Moments reflected in the final bits of dissipating power as it swirls around them. And more often than not as a still-living version of Miriam's refracts across time, they can feel the unseen force release it's clenching grip on her.

[Victor Freud]

"I'm, a, still a little skewered, and I want to preserve this thing so I can study it," Will said, in the tone of voice you use when you're looking for an excuse for something. "But if you want out, be my guest."

"I mean, if you're not goin' anywhere... I think I'll just wait a little while longer. In the meantime though... what the fuck just happened?"

[Will Stanton]

"So, there was some kind of...time guy, I guess. One of those monsters, like we saw attacking the town? But this one controlling time. He apparently grabbed you and stuffed you in here, and was trying to access your power to do....something. To access the Quantum Realm, maybe? Only it wasn't working, and we kept coming down here to try to stop him. But somehow, it kept...resetting everything. Looping back to the beginning and trying again once it failed. Some kind of Groundhog Day scenario or something; I'll have to try to investigate that a little more."

[Toshiro Narumi]

Only able to see the light show, a wonderstruck Bruce only said, "Ooo, gnarly."

[Samantha McManus]

"Sightsee... later," she says with a grunt of effort, just before the unseen force lets go and all three of them go tumbling backward.

[Miriam Bell]

All three of them go sprawling to the ground as the pool of darkness fades and solidifies back into floor. Sam and Tosh aren't too much worse for wear (if perhaps a bit drained from the effort) but Miriam rolls off of Sam like a lifeless doll. And then she suddenly spasms, eyes flying wide open as she gasps for air in hacking coughs with lungs unaccustomed to drawing breath.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Wait... are vampires... like... supposed to breathe?" he asked between breaths.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well we got her out, didn't we?" Sam groans, sitting up.

[Miriam Bell]

"Boody hell..." Miriam croaks. "What happened? Everything feels like... warm mud."

[Samantha McManus]

"We just pulled you out of the afterlife's jaws."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Smells different too. Less... bloody... Holy crap, you're not a Dracula!"