ic Worlds Enough and Time (IC)

[Electra]

Wander looked at her counterpart, who looked back and nodded. Moving as one unit, they each applied themselves to the massive lever, all their extraordinary strength heaving against the doors to try and open them before the forces arrayed against them could come to bear against the little group. Despite their differences, they needed no words to coordinate their efforts, glances and nods did the job.

Wander did use her voice to lead the rest of her team, for all it was strained by her efforts. "Edge, we need you back here! We have to get this door open! Midnight, if you've got any tricky little shielding devices socked away, now's the time!"

[Gizmo]

"Hnn. 'Tricks'. Please," Midnight scoffed as he charged the hordes of armed minons, carbon alloy tonfas appearing in his gloved hands as if from nowhere. Coming up from under a terrorist's line of fire, he deftly hooked the gun out the the startled man's grasp before slamming forcefully into him with his shoulder, sending the thug crashing into a formation of SHADOW agents who soon found themselves beset with surprising speed and strength.

The more softspoken version of the vigilante was suddenly nowhere to be found, but a inky, light consuming cloud appeared and expanded further into the formation of their attacker. A beat later, shouts of pain and screams of terror came from within, replacing the sound of suddenly halted machine gunfire.

[Avenger Assembled]

With a tremendous WACHOOM, the pummeling from the Wanders and the Cobalt Templars blasted the door right off its hinges, sending the giant chunk of metal hurtling into what looked to be a much, much larger room on the inside than it had looked even from the cavernous time-catwalk. Inside was like looking into a gigantic clock built by civilization of gods: legions of tremendous gears and casements clicking and clacking together in an all-encompassing symphony of time. A million blue and green and red and black spheres swung through the air around a central hollow cavity, the globes-on-circles all immediately recognizable as various sorts of Earths, each with its own beat of the ticking Cosmic Orrey. At the heart of the whirling infinite omni-sphere, a problem had developed: two of the Earths had stopped their movement, entangled together by a network of high-tech cables that looked far more mundane than anything else in the room. Indeed, the Earths hadn't just stopped their movements: they were striking each other, again and again.

Standing there and watching, working together over an all-too-normal computer panel fused to an arcane array of brass levers and devices by some unknown power, were the grim armored figures of Overshadow, the Nazi super-scientist turned world-conqueror, next to him the shadowy, wispy figure of the Tiger, the paragon terrorist whose terrible shadow powers looked to be no legend. But the two world-conquering monsters weren't alone! A bizarre figure stood by Overshadow's side, a half-man, half-monster consisting of a normal man fused with a black and red mirror-reflection of himself, the instantly-recognizable face of the mad Negator! And by the Tiger was the instantly-recognizable bronze skull mask of Totentanz, the terrible paragon mercenary and worst killer of war-torn Africa.

Overshadow spoke first. "You think you can stop me at my moment of triumph!?! Childish fools! The world is already mine! Destroy them!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Kinder, eh? A bad business." Totentanz followed his employers' orders, pulling his trademark pikes that crackled with life-draining energy and falling among the teen heroes like a wolf among sheep. Totentanz was among the most feared paragons on his own world, a mercenary famous for killing perhaps hundreds of his fellow paragon-mercs in warfare in Africa and the Middle East. Perhaps it was mercy that pulled his blows, perhaps he simply didn't take children seriously. He launched a savage barrage of attacks, moving in an unstoppable blur that roared towards the united young heroes...and ultimately missed all of them. "Hah!" he exclaimed, sounding unthreatened by his miss and by his vulnerable position. "Meine Fehler, kinder. A fight after all!"

[Electra]

As the fearsome looking villain rushed down at incredible speeds upon the group of young heroes, neither Wander hesitated for an instant. Moving in unintended concert, they each leapt in front of one of the Cobalt Templars, instinctively shielding the newest and least experienced member of their respective teams. While her counterpart hung back to assess the tactical situation, the Wander who lived on Earth Prime stepped up to confront their attacker. "You want a fight," she spat, "you've got one right here. Leave them alone!" With that, she sprang into the air, turned a double flip and came down behind Totentanz, smashing him around the head and shoulders with her lightning-fast bat!

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hah, you German schweinhund!" spat the Tiger, the shadowy figure rising to his feet as terrible arcane power seemed to ripple through his black, bloated body. "I won't pay you if you don't kill them! Here, let a man show you how it's done!" And with that, he pointed at Wander and shouted, "Die, you filthy Western harlot!" He hurled a black, whirling sphere of pure death at her, a shimmering ball of terrible entropic light that zoomed so close to Wander that it singed the back of her hair! But it missed, shooting past the young heroes and into the heart of the whirling gears beyond! The whole complex gave a great shudder as the Tiger's blast seemed to rock it to its core.

Totentanz staggered back, splitting blood from his mask, and said, "Verdammt fanatic! You almost hit me! This wasn't in my contract!" For his part, Overshadow turned frantically to the gears and boomed, "You imbecile! You'll bring time itself down on our heads!"

[KnightDisciple]

The twin Cobalt Templars had stayed close to each other as they strode into the center of...well, it looked like the Center of Everything, really.

"Whoa."

Of course, then they were both barely saved by the Wanders from their respective universes. He shuddered to think what might have happened. Then, he was struck with an idea. He turned to face his double, clearly hanging back for a moment.

"I have an idea! But you have to trust me!"

[Gizmo]

Still not my type, Midnight mused appreciatively with a feral smirk behind his featureless mask as he surged forward while Totentanz was distracted by the alternate Wander's assault, but maybe the dork in the hat isn't entirely crazy after all. Eyes blazed luminescent crimson behind his goggles as he brought his twin tonfas down with force that would have shattered a lesser material, the lingering effects of his grandfather's experimental work on super soldier serums during the war coursing through his veins. "Contract terminated." The feared paragon mercenary went down with a satisfying impact.

[Electra]

Wander was more than ready to attack the frightening paragon who'd attacked them, but she needed to know exactly what they were up against. She wasn't going to decapitate her team because she waded into a fight without knowing the score. When her counterpart and Midnight took him down in two hits, though, she wasn't about to complain. There were a lot more baddies to fight... including one she'd been itching to meet in a showdown. "CT, Sage, get to cover!" she commanded, then ran along walkway for a few steps, hit the railing with her hands, and vaulted off it as though it were a set of uneven bars.

As she shot through the air, she executed a perfect sequence of flips and twists designed to capture the eye and distract the attention of anyone she was coming up against. It nearly worked, too. The Tiger barely had the presence of mind to mount a defense before she was on him, smashing him in the midsection with her baton!

[Gizmo]

Midnight took stock of the forces arrayed against them as his counterpart and both Wanders lept into the fray. The fearsome mercenary in the bronze mask went down quickly under the ferocious offense, leaving only the pair of masterminds and their bilateral ally. While Overshadow had dire plans for the world indeed, the black clad youth knew that Negator had designs to destroy entire universes, making him the priority. Silently, Midnight retrieved a trio of perfectly balanced throwing discs from his sleeve, each the size of his palm. A single whipping throw sent each of them hurtling without err into the villain's red and black half. The projectiles exploded on impact, starting a chain reaction of mutual destruction as matter and anti-matter violently met!

[Avenger Assembled]

"Wait, what did you-" Negator looked down at himself as light crackled and sparkled all along the dividing line between his sinister Counterverse half and his mad-eyed normal half. "I'm going to-!" Suddenly, a spectacular eruption of light cascaded from the unstable supervillain as he erupted in a brilliant explosion! Negator was gone in an instant, the shockwaves of his departure sending the whole room erupting into further chaos as dimensions shook and bounced, the blast vibrating all the Earths like an assembled gong. The Tiger cried out as the wash burned some of the black entropy from his hands, but then laughed malevolently and said, "Hah-hah! You do my lord's work, boy!"

Behind his helmet, Overshadow shot a look at his counterpart. "Wait, what did you say!?!" Almost as an afterthought, he fired a blast of whirling energy from his fingers, not at Midnight or Wander, the heroes who'd laid out his allies with such murderous efficiency, but rather at the Sage who'd come with the Young Paragons team; gobbling her up in clanking chains of flaming shadow! "You told me that you planned to rule your world the same as mine!"

[April]

The blue clad Sage struggled against the shadowy chains but was unable to slip from her bonds. She cast wide eyed, desperate look around her as she realized how hideously vulnerable she was.

Green eyes narrowed as the dark suited telepath regarded her trapped counterpart. --Patience,-- she implored her duplicate as she slipped into hiding.

[Avenger Assembled]

"All right, Young Freedom,"

"...and Young Paragons..."

"This is for our city, and our world! And all these worlds!"

"The Tiger and his goons may think they can take our world, our people from us,"

"But they've never fought a team like this one!"

"The greatest young heroes of TWO worlds!"

"Cobalt Templar, with the power of infinite will in the palm of his hand!"

"The amazing Wander, as beautiful as she is deadly!"

"Midnight, the grim avenger of justice!"

"Yeah, and Midnight!"

"And Sage, fast and furious, destroying your mind with her sheer level of awesomeness!"

"Let's show these goons that TIME HAS JUST RUN OUT FOR EVIL!"

[KnightDisciple]

"I know this will work, just trust me and follow my lead!"

Cobalt Templar hesitated for a moment. But between the sheer conviction in his double's eyes, and the stirring words from the two Edges, something sparked within him. With a smile, he took up position just behind and to the right of Cobalt Templar.

"Let's teach these scumbags a lesson they'll never forget."

With a grin the two of them worked in concert, their powers flowing out and actually mingling, until finally a huge energy cannon rested on the right shoulder of Cobalt Templar, one of the trigger handles grasped in his left hand, while Cobalt Templar steaded the weapon, the other trigger handle grasped in his right hand, even as a harness wrapped around his body, and braces extended into the ground.

With a wordless cry, the huge gun charged up a large sphere of energy, and then fired, the shot flying true and striking against that terrible villain, the Tiger!

[Electra]

Erin's eyes narrowed as she watched her friend, or the close counterpart of a friend, at least, be captured by the malicious shadows. Bad enough that Overshadow had shot at her herself, but he wasn't going to get any closer to any of her friends! Using the same rail her counterpart had vaulted off of, she leapt up and ran along the metal bar, leaping off it to soar high into the air! She caught hold of a clockwork arm dangling from the ceiling and flipped around, reversing all of her momentum to come slamming down on Overshadow from behind! The hapless mastermind never saw her coming.

[Avenger Assembled]

Wander's blow slammed Overshadow to the floor with a sound like a sonic boom, the armored mastermind bouncing a few times to show he was knocked completely cold, helpless and out of the fight. His shadowy counterpart cursed at this, but then faced the heroes with a leer on his half-visible face. "Feh! Now the worlds shall be mine! Mine, and the One-Who-Waits-In-Darkness!" He focused on the Midnight from his own Earth. "Ah, the detective wishes to know my master, eh? Here, let me show you him!" And with that, a jet of pure flaming shadow came rippling from his fingers, cold and dark and devouring as the night itself. Trevor was taken off-guard, inches from an agonizing death, before suddenly he felt strong hands close on the back of his costume. "Move!" The Edge from his own world pulled him backwards, the beam of deadly darkness passing in front of the dark detective with just inches to spare. The blast of shadowy darkness spattered liquidly against a sheaf of already black and empty earths, helplessly wasted. "You gonna take that from him!?" Edge declared, releasing Midnight.

[Gizmo]

For a moment, Midnight's eyes flashed an angry crimson behind his tinted goggles as he prepared to to leap at the Tiger. Considering Edge's last minute save however, and perhaps more effected my the cheerleader's defiant call to action than he might have cared to admit, a somewhat unfamiliar thought process stirred in the black clad vigilante's mind. With surprising speed, he slid away from their foe and instead brought his tonfas down in a pair of crashing blows across the bonds that anchored Sage in place, shattering them. "Teamwork, hnn?" he noted to Edge with a slight smirk hidden by his featureless mask.

[Electra]

With the Tiger reeling but still arrogant and mad as ever, Wander bared her teeth in an angry grin. "I've waited a long time for a chance at this," she told him. "This is for 9/11, and for my country, and for all the innocents you slaughtered!" In a blindingly quick motion, she jumped up and grabbed him by the scarf and the hair, using his head as a springboard for a flip that brought her down behind the villain. She hooked him by the back of the neck with her bat and spun him around, then smashed a fist into his jaw and another straight into his kidneys. "Your world is going to be a cinderblock cell for the rest of your miserable life," she promised, and only then looked up to ascertain the status of her team.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Woo-hoo! I love you, baby!" Edge exulted at his girlfriend's fantastic victory. He wasn't above giving the unconscious Tiger a swift kick in the head. "You're the best." He leaned over and kissed her on the lips, making the other Edge look away briefly.

"But what do we do now? The worlds are still in trouble!" Edge gazed at the vibrating universal clockwork, vibrating dangerously now. Between the misalignment they'd seen when they came in, Negator's eruption, and especially the Tiger's volley of fire at the machinery, things were looking bad! Gears were beginning to grind, worlds beginning to vibrate, as if the system itself was in danger. "Is this the end of everything? Surely not! Not with all of us here to save the day!"

And then, suddenly the Sages heard a voice.
EVE MARTEL. LET ME GUIDE YOUR HANDS. The voice was clear and strong, like a warm father figure's on a summer day, and as he spoke, the Eves could see images in her mind, bright as day, about what they should do. The system had to be reset to its previous configuration, one that would untangle all the gears and restore the multiverse' clock to its operational status. But it soon became obvious how dangerous her course was: she'd have to pull off the gymnastics feat of a lifetime to hit everything without falling into the infinite gears all around! YOU MUST RESET THE CASEMENT OF TOMORROW, UNTANGLE THE GEARS OF YESTERDAY, AND FREE THE PENDULUM OF FATE. ONLY YOU CAN BE SO BRAVE.

[April]

As one the Sage's made straight for the high-tech cables linking the two worlds that still crashed together. As the entwined words pulled apart the telepaths leaped and in a single motion severed the cables with blades of telekinetic force allowing the entangling cables to fall away and the now free spheres to resume their original movements; a tiny white-haired gymnast crouched on either one.

Hair whipping behind her as the sphere flew through the chamber Sage could make out the Casement of Tomorrow, a bizarre and bewildering array of clockwork surrounding what appeared to be an ordinary--and closed!--window. <<Makes sense,>> she thought to her counterpart as she dropped from her World-sphere toward the Casement. As Sage dropped onto a large sideways rotating gear the gymnast wished she had a grappling hook as she waited for her target to come into view.

The Not Into Trevor Sage was similarly busy, the speed and trajectory of her World-sphere sending her hurtling straight at the Pendulum though her direct line of flight was littered with numerous gears and springs! Twisting in the air a gloved hand snapped out and caught hold of a protruding rod, whipping around and using it to alter to path; sliding across the surface of one gear on her back and catching an upward moving chain.

Each Sage hit their mark perfectly, one severing the same high-tech cables pinning the Pendulum while the other found the trigger to reset the Casement. Finding their way back to the main platform the twinned telekinetics regarded each other with silent respect.

[Avenger Assembled]

As the Sages finished their work, the harsh, dissonant chiming of the Universal Clock settled back to a steady, reassuring iambic beat. This was no simple Earthly clock, its cycle bespoke the stability of the multiverse itself, and now gears whirled and pendulums swung with the steady reassurance of Creation itself. As the heroes watched, their two Earths, once colliding with each other, began to move apart, ticking away slowly and inexorably. Seeing this, Edge exclaimed "Oh jeez! We need to-"

FEAR NOT, MY FRIENDS. From the assembly of gears came a cascade of parts that assembled together into a robed humanoid, a figure with a human shape despite the metallic cast to his skin. He looked young, and confident, with a slight academic cast to his features. YOU HAVE SAVED THE TICKING CLOCK OF TIME ITSELF, AND TIME WILL REWARD YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS. HOWEVER MUCH TIME YOU SPEND IN THE DOLOROUS CLOCK, YOU WILL RETURN SAFELY TO YOUR HOMES.

[KnightDisciple]

Slowly, both Cobalt Templars relaxed, allowing their large gun to disappear into nothing. They gave each other a grin and a handshake, before stepping forward a bit, joining the rest of the group.

Cobalt Templar tilts his head curiously.

"What, so we'll reappear at our homes at almost the same time we left, no matter how long we're here?"

 

Cobalt Templar was thoughtful.

"Dolorous Clock? That's what this thing is called? Are we still in the Imageria? Or something, somewhere else? And who are you?"

The question wasn't hostile, only curious.

[Electra]

Erin took a bare moment to make sure that the Tiger was really down for the count, then leapt off the platform and gave her Mark a hug that was pure relief. "Oh god, we did it. It's all going to be okay again!" The embrace was enough to knock the breath from her boyfriend, but even in the emotional moment, she was well-trained enough not to crack any ribs. She gave him an enthusiastic kiss as well, threading her fingers through his sandy hair and bringing his mouth down to hers.

On the other side of the platform, Erin performed the same check on Overshadow, who would be visiting neverland for a little while longer, then hopped down off the platform as well. She found her Trevor and put a hand on his arm, looking around at the massive clockwork mechanism. "That was good work," she told him, "with Negator. We all did good work."

The two Erins, still only a couple of yards apart, looked at each other once the initial flush of victory had died off. Erin looked at Erin, and Erin looked at Erin, sizing each other up. Finally they spoke, exactly in unision. "You know,I see what you see in him, but really..." They clammed up in unison as well, both of them flushing.

[Gizmo]

Trevor tilted his head slightly toward Erin as she placed a hand on his arm, admitting, "Underestimated reaction." Whatever phenomenon had allowed Negator's matter and antimatter halves to coexist had evidently been more precarious than he'd realized. At the synchronized comment, he coughed lightly, looking upward silently. The Midnight from the Young Paragon's reality made a flat sound that might have been a chuckle filtered through his mask. Trevor responded with a subtle but pointed glance in the direction of the two Sages returning from their acrobatic display. His counterpart made a nonchalant gesture but refrained from further comment concerning the Wanders' remark. "Tastes will vary," Trevor observed diplomatically.

[April]

The Sage from Young Paragons touched her counterpart lightly on the forearm and nodded once before leaving her side and joining her World's Midnight. There she just leaned against him, head resting on his chest.

The telepath watched her dimensional double for a moment, shaking her head slightly. She didn't understand what her duplicate saw in Trevor; not to say that he wasn't a good friend, he was, but it just seemed so alien to her. Sage thought about asking Wander about it, but changed her mind. The timing wasn't good.

Glancing at the unconscious Overshadow the telepath amended, for that subject anyway. Time to get some answers, Sage thought as she crouched over the supervillain. Laying a gloved hand on Overshadow the telepath started to peel back the layers of defenses and rifle through his mind.