Date: February 22, 2222
Time: 10:45 UTC – 12:45 LT
Coordinates: 45°N 34°E (Crimea, Europe)

The small port town of Yggdraz had been thrown into disarray by a sudden meteor crash just an hour ago. The impact site was located half a kilometer away from any homes or buildings, but stray debris had fallen throughout the town, where it landed harmlessly on the ground or resulted in minor roof or road damages. It was certainly a high point of excitement for the residents of this town, still wrapped in the lethargy of winter. But that was not what had the residents mingling in the streets and shiftlessly leering into CapCap, the local family diner.

It was the fact that with the meteor came a person. A person who bore an uncanny resemblance to Abigale Quinlan, yet called herself Verde Dusk. Her hair was longer, skin was darker, and eyes were a dark green, but she displayed many of the same abilities as Abigale. Her very presence was enough to warrant more than a small crowd to gather to see this enigmatic figure for themselves, but what kept them looking was how… unsightly she was.

Abigale Quinlan was seen as a selfless, focused, and determined figure to the people of Earth, and the citizens of Yggdraz were no exception. Which made it all the more intriguing to onlookers when this doppelganger barged into this local eatery and proceeded to gorge herself. All while speaking to a Constable Machi, asking them casual questions about history.

Verde: “So what you are telling me is that there were seven kids that the Flare Foundation manufactured, but then it turned out that there was a secret eighth?” 

Constable Machi: “Yes, Abigale fought and murdered the ‘seventh’ child, B-17, Marz, Punky, Ultros, and finally Athena. The ‘fifth’ child was stillborn due to complications with the reproductive process on behalf of the Flare foundation. And the true first child, or the ‘zeroth’ child was Fiona—”

Verde: “Are you kidding me? That’s the most weeb shit I ever heard in my goldarn life. You can’t have a zeroth child! Babies ain’t measurable in binary! Y’know Murphy, I’m starting to think that this world might be a touch stupid. But don’t tell nobody, ya got that?”

‘Murphy’: “For the last time, my name is not Murphy, it’s—”

Verde: “Don’t care! You’re Murphy now. Because you’re a Robocop! A lame-ass Robocop who wouldn’t merc rape-bros in the dangus, but a Robocop nevertheless!”

‘Murphy’: “Verde, I suggest you compose yourself. Abigale Quinlan is en route and should arrive in approximately 40 seconds.”

Verde: “Oh shit, really? Well, then you can go. It’s been fun dunking on you and your world, but you’re a swell guy, Murphy. Now make like a truck and get the hell out of this Scenario. Your purpose is over and you’re not going to have any more scenes. And don’t let that get you discouraged. Just be glad that you got a name.”

The Machi named Murphy then looked at Verde like she was speaking a dead language before stepping out of the booth seat with her, walking out of the diner, and passing by a group on the way out. The group was none other than the trio of Abigale Quinlan, Raiyne Underwood, and Terra Flare, all of whom immediately locked eyes with Verde as she stacked a mountain of plates and pushed them to the side of her boot seat table.

Verde: “Hey guys! C’mon over, take a seat, because we’ve got a lot of shit to talk about!”

The three looked at each other with uncertain expressions before Abigale led the pack by walking toward Verde, sitting right beside her in the booth seat while Terra and Raiyne sat across from the two.

Abigale: “So, Verde Dusk, you learned much of this world’s history from the Constable Machi you spoke to earlier. Would you please enlighten us as to who you are and how you happened to arrive on this planet.”

Verde: “Yeah, I figured that this is how things would begin. Alright ladies! Strap yourselves in! Because this is gonna be a doozy! But where to start, where the heck to start… eh, I guess I’ll just start with the simple version. So, basically, I’m the God of the known universe and everything beyond that.”

Terra: “Well, that’s certainly an introduction.”

Verde: “Yeah, I know. It’s the best introduction. But I prolly should give you my life’s story so my schtick is more believable!”

Verde: “In short, I was born as Danny Verres back in 1998. I had loads of developmental issues, was rather ornery, and after a while my parents got sick of me acting out, so they started neglecting me, stopped talking to me, and acted like they didn’t want me any more. Without my parent’s support and with my school not knowing how to accommodate my disabilities, I lived a very sad childhood that was only made better by my friend Terry Tanaka and my teacher Claire Williams. Both of whom left my life within less than a year. However, they gave me the study skills and confidence needed to make my way through school, at least until eighth grade.”

Verde: “In eighth grade, I was bullied extensively, and because my school didn’t follow up with the obvious warning signs, I panicked and took care of the problem the only way I could think of. By assaulting my abusers and beating them to near death. I was expelled for this, and my parents were not happy about this. They wanted to send me away, get me out of their life for good, and ranted about how they wished I was dead. It was then that I lost all hope of living a happy life and embraced despair with a good old murder-suicide. Meaning I killed my parents and killed myself.”

Verde: “Normally that’s the end of things, but that was not the case for me. Instead, my death was followed by a re;birth, and I, as I said, basically became God. I could will anything into existence, do whatever I want, create new universes and compartmentalize them, yada yada, whatever. I could do anything I wanted, but instead of doing all the work in my head, I made a program called VDVerse that could do everything I could do, but as a piece of software. This made changing things, creating new universes, or worlds, or Scenarios as I liked to call them, super easy.”

Verde: “With my new powers, I made myself a new body, started calling myself Vincent Dawn, took the only woman who was ever kind to me, Claire Williams, and modified her mind and body into the perfect partner for me, who I named Abigale Quinlan. Or for the sake of simplicity, Shin Abigale Quinlan, as she is the true, real, and original one. Everything else is just a second or third generation imitation. You included, other Abigale. With my wife and my new body, I proceeded to enjoy several years of happy divinity, creating Scenarios, playing games, doing sex times with the wife, watching anime— the sort of shit you would expect a 14-year-old murder kid to do after they got divinity. But then I tried to reconnect with my best friend Terry Tanaka and fucked up so badly that I wound up torturing her again and again until she begged for death via nonexistence, and I gave it to her.”

Verde: “So, distraught over how I FUCKING MURDERED my childhood friend, I decided to do some self-introspection with the help of Shin Abigale Quinlan. In short, I realized that I was a callous and angry little bastard, and decided to transition, physically and mentally, into Verde Dusk. I wanted to be a kinder and better person, tried it out, but then I fucked up and traumatized someone so badly that they wanted nothing to do with me ever again. Then, being a bitch, I decided that now was a good time to kill myself by initiating Cataclysm.exe. Which is not the same as your Cataclysm, but… well, maybe it is. Your Scenario probably only came into existence because of the Cataclysm, or was heavily based on the idea— actually, I don’t care, next paragraph!”

Verde: “Now, Cataclysm.exe was supposed to erase me and erase all of reality. Except, for whatever reason, that did not happen. But what did happen was that I lost my God powers, and the VDVerse went rogue, generating an untold number of Scenarios, this one included. For the past 8 years I have been haplessly going from world to world, Scenario to Scenario, Shifting into a different body each time, hoping that each Shift would bring me back to my divine domain and my wife. All of which led up to my 256th Shift, where I found myself in a space rock, heading straight to Earth. I directed my meteor away from Yggdraz, because I am not down when it comes to killing innocents. So I used an explosion to offset the impact of the meteor, landed in some treehouse, you folks heard about me from one of your Machi buddies, and then I started gorging myself because… being a trash monster is fun sometimes, ya dig?”

Verde then grabbed a bundle of napkins from the table and Real Booted them into a corn muffin that she awkwardly, and crudely, rammed into her face, shoving as much as she could down her throat, before swallowing. As she shut her mouth, 25% of the muffin crumpled into little bits that stuck to her face and scattered across the diner booth.

Abigale: “…Verde, you are the most absurd individual I have ever encountered in my life. However, I believe you completely.”

Verde: “Dope! …But why? Why would you believe some random jagoff with your face when she’s clearly crazy with a box of fries?”

Terra: “Because even she cannot think of another explanation. Here I thought I was the queen of fucked up origins stories, but you… you are something else Verde. And I can tell that you are completely genuine, as I have the ability to sense the emotions flowing through a person, to see the origins of the joy, trauma, or—”

Verde: “I get it, you’re an empath. It’s a pretty common ability, and I guess it makes sense, considering how fucked up your background was and how you isolated yourself, both internally and externally, for so long. Again, this sort of thing is by no means new to me. You are literally the fourth empath I have met since I kicked off this odd odyssey.”

Raiyne: “…With every passing hour, this world feels more and more like a dream.”

Verde: “Tell me about it, sister. My entire life has felt like a dream since I stuck that stainless steel through my frontal lobe. I mean, there have been some nightmarish points, but… nightmares are still dreams, and you’re a narc if you say otherwise. Anyway! Raiyne, I want to check a few things with you. You’re originally from Rainy Woods, the year 2003, and your last memory involves being in the Rift World before Wisp took your body. Is that all correct?”

Raiyne: “Yes. …But I haven’t said Wisp’s name since I came into this world, so how did you—”

Verde: “Okay, NOW things are getting weird.”

Abigale: “You just explained that I was a ‘second generation’ version of your wife, who was a modified version of your third-grade teacher, before a computer program took my very self and created this world, my history, and everything I have ever known. Yet only now are you saying that things are ‘getting weird’” 

Verde: “Okay, so you know how I mentioned that I made Scenarios? Well, Raiyne is actually from one of my first Scenarios, Raiyne’s Whimsy. Meaning that Raiyne is somebody I created— Okay, so Scenarios are composed of various files and loose scripts. I created the characters, the locations, and the overall story. And then I watched everything play out before my eyes. However! All the characters I created are fully formed persons with their own personality, sense of self, and free will. Meaning that even if I created Raiyne and… I’m pretty sure you’re Zen Abigale Quinlan. Because, unlike most Abigale Quinlan variants, you’re virtuous as fuck.”

Terra: “Wait, did you also create me?”

Verde: “…No, you were definitely created by the VDVerse, not me. If I had to say… you are a combination of the Terra Flare from Verde’s Doohickey mixed with my personal experience, as there is some major overlap between our backgrounds. The parents murdering, neglect, being trans, initiating a Cataclysm, traveling a ‘vast world’ for years, the works.”

Raiyne: “…I’m completely lost. Why are you here? Why am I here? What does all of this mean? What the hell is going on?

Verde: “Those are all excellent questions, and while I don’t have answers, I do have some theories. There is no obvious reason you or I were brought here, Raiyne. But I do know that the VDVerse should not be able to mix and match characters from other Scenarios. I never did that, so it would not be part of its procedural generated playbook. Meaning that something is up. Something is wrong, because this should not be happening. Someone, or something, has brought you and I into this world, and they hold the answers.”

Abigale: “Do you have any idea how we can find this ‘someone or something’?”

Verde: “There are two options. Either we need to wait until they make their presence known or we go searching for them by investigating any and every disturbance in this world. Personally, I prefer the former approach, as it’s entirely possible that they are not here yet.”

Terra: “Not here yet?”

Verde: “Raiyne appeared at 02:22 UTC— also, mad props for abolishing time zones. I always hated those things. We are one planet, so we may as well use one clock. Fuck the idea of midnight, of getting up at 7, and all that ish. …And then I appeared around 9:00 or something. Based on that information, it appears that a ‘staggered entry’ is in effect, and it is entirely possible that there could be more people like us coming into this world… or they could be here already.”

Raiyne: “What do you mean, ‘people like us?’ People who are not originally from this world.?”

Verde: “Yes. We are both people not from this world, however there is something else. Something more. There needs to be a broader link because there is nothing that inherently ties us together, no criteria that we call under… at least none that come to mind, but if I can check the variable viewer.”

Abigale: “Variable viewer sounds like an ability that only a ‘God’ would have access to.”

Verde: “You might think so, but all you need to do is issue a verbal command in order to bring things up. Let’s see, it was some incredibly stupid 80s gaming bullcrap, um… Zxkuqyb Ivdvre Voyzrize!”

As a mangled mesh of syllables and difficult to articulate mouth noises escaped Verde’s lips, a palpable wave pulsated throughout every object in a 5 meter radius, capturing the four seated patrons, along with a few onlookers located outside. All within this field froze as this happened, and when they regained their composure a second later, they found a semi-transparent square, 15 centimeters in length,floating in front of their faces. 

These squares displayed an array of terms followed by a value represented via a string of numbers or characters. Sometimes a simple number or word, sometimes a color hex code, and sometimes what looked like complete gibberish. Raiyne and Terra both recoiled at the sight of these objects, Abigale furrowed her brow as she read what hers and others said, while Verde chuckled, satisfied that her command worked. 

Verde: “Alright everybody, read up on what you can, and if you need to, feel free to move these boxes around, scroll through them. Just make sure you read as much as you can and then we will discuss things. They only last for about a minute, so you’ve got 40 seconds.”

As Verde said this, she read on through her list of variables, the first ‘screen’ of which read as as follows:

ScenarioName = “Psycho Bullet Festival 2222”
ScenarioID = 222222222
FileID = Verde_Dusk.char
CharHash = 100001_03
UserType = “Character”
NameFirst = “Verde”
NameLast = “Dusk”
BodyBase = 0
BodyAge = 22
BodyModifier = 46C7C79214E4
BodyOccupant = “Self”
Gender = “Female”
Sex = “NeoFutanari”
Species = “Homo Quinlan”
Abilities = “Critical Adaptation,” “Immortality”, “Rapid Regeneration”, “Real Booting”, “Snap Burst”, “Enhanced Body”, “Enhanced Intellect”, “Divine Insight,” “*RESTRICTED*”

The other three did as Verde asked, using their infallible memories to absorb the information before them as quickly as possible before, as foretold, the squares all vanished, disappearing from the four assembled, and also the onlookers outside, who were slower on the uptake.

Raiyne: “I don’t think I understood… any of that.”

Verde: “Oh please Raiyne, you’re not a dumb person. I know that ‘cos I’m you and your momma’s momma. Now then, the first listed variable would have been ScenarioName and the seventh variable would have been BodyBase. Tell me, all of you, what was the ‘ScenarioName’ variable?”

Abigale, Raiyne, and Terra: “Psycho Bullet Festival 2222.”

Verde: “…And what about the BodyBase? Mine was 0. I’m assuming the same was true for Raiyne and Abigale, but what about you, Terra?”

Terra: “Mine was 0 as well, and what followed that was was—”

Verde: “Not important at the moment. …But all of us had a BodyBase of 0. BodyBase is what determines the core of your appearance, and any additional details are determined using BodyAge and BodyModifier. BodyBase being equal to 0 is remarkable, as that is the BodyBase of Abigale Quinlan— She was the first character of my creation, so her BodyBase took the value of 0. Because you start counting at 0 if you do stuff on the computer— But what makes this alarming and noteworthy to me is that no Scenario should have a repeated Body Base value. Hell, I even made a new BodyBase for the Raiyne Underwood in The Malice of Abigale Quinlan to avoid this issue.”

Raiyne: “…Was I supposed to hear that last part, or were you just thinking out loud?”

Verde: “The latter. But if there are 4 of us with a BodyBase of 0, and the Scenario is called Psycho Bullet Festival 2222… then there have to be four more. Because if it is 2222, then that is 8. 8 with a BodyBase of 0. Let’s see, who would have that value… Raiyne Underwood from Raiyne’s Whimsy. Jad Spencer from My Life As Abigale Quinlan. Punky from Punky’s Post-Apocalyptic Adventure— it’s a different Punky than your child, Abigale. There are both the Abigale and Terra Flare before me. That’s 5, I make 6, but we need two more. One would be from The Malice of Abigale Quinlan, but it cannot be Jad Novus, as their BodyBase would no longer be 0. I changed that variable after the Scenario. I know I did. So it would be Peatrice. …But that still leaves one more…”

Abigale: “So, what you are saying, Verde, is that there are going to be four more individuals who have the same ‘BodyBase’ as the four of us? And you are inferring this based on the Scenario Name?”

Verde: “Yep! I’m predictable like that. I can tell what a Scenario will be about based on tangential information. And I know that 2 has to be at the core of this one. Hell, the ID is…. What the fuck, how was it 222,222,222? Cripes, has the VDVerse been creating TENS of MILLIONS of Scenarios? I didn’t even make one hundred! No wonder Shin Abigale can’t seem to find me! I’m a needle in a barn overflowing with hay!”

Terra: “Not to rain on your crisis, but we really need to focus, Verde. Based on what you told us, we should expect to see… Jad Spencer, Punky, and Peatrice?”

Verde: “…Almost definitely. And that’s gonna be a problem. Punky is a total sweetheart, dumb as a sack of wet bricks, but this is a utopia, so she should be a non-issue so long as she is not recruited by a psychopath. Jad Spencer is… broken. He is a grade S terrorist and profoundly dangerous. Then there is Peatrice, who is… basically a digital devil. He loves torture, terrorism, and being a little fuck. Abigale, for the good of your people, put out an APB for anybody who resembles you running around the world. They need to be found and reported ASAP, and we need to… to… Oh shit. I can see the ending. So this is what the ‘Divine Insight’ ability meant? Noice!”

Raiyne: “I feel like all I’ve been doing this entire conversation is saying, ‘I’m confused’ and asking clarifying questions.”

Abigale: “Raiyne, what we are being told is complicated and loaded. Verde is claiming everything we assumed we knew about the universe is ultimately false, and even with Enhanced Intellect, it is difficult to comprehend a foundational revelation like this. And thank you for the warning, Verde. I have relayed this information to the authorities. A public service announcement will be relayed shortly.”

Terra: “I’m sorry, but are you seriously saying that we’re going to need to deal with a ‘terrorist’ and a ‘devil’ with Abigale’s powers?”

Verde: “…All of you, tell me what your non-standard power is. Meaning not the usual ensemble of Immortality, Rapid Regeneration, Snap Burst, Real Booting, Enhanced Body, and Enhanced Intellect. Abigale, I already know that you have Nature Manifest, but what about you, Raiyne and Terra?”

Raiyne: “Terra called it Rift Walker, and in the square, it… was also called Rift Walker. It allows me to open Rifts between two locations, but the range is limited to 10 kilometers.”

Terra: “I never had a true name for my empath ability, but the square said that it was called Aura Seer, which sounds about right.”

Verde: “Okay, so every permutation with a BodyBase of 0 has an additional ability. Meaning we need to be prepared for literally… anything!”

Silence then settled across the vibrant interior of CapCap. Abigale’s face warped into a scowl, Raiyne wore a look of desperation, while Terra’s face was full of dread. The three all looked at Verde for further insight. She clenched her hands in front of her mouth, closing her eyes as she pontificated the next course of action. All before she slammed her palms on the dinner table and stood up.

Verde: “You there, wonderful staff members of this lovely eatery! I need four servings of paella, nasi goreng, schnitzel, yukgaejang, borscht, and tom kha gai, and a screen displaying the 1995 cult classic Japanese animated film, Slayers Perfect!”

Abigale: “What the HELL are you doing? Now is not the time to gorge yourself and watch anime!”

Verde: “Nah, it totally is. Look, I know how this creed of genre fiction works. We are the good guys, the protagonist faction of this Scenario. But Jad, Peatrice, and Punky, they are part of the antagonist faction, and they are going to go through their own parallel secondary team up story, just like how we all went through ours. Once that happens, and after they raise the stakes by causing some massive mayhem that winds up murdering millions, then we will gather together for our final battle, where we will square off one to one before we win. Once defeated, the mastermind behind all of this will take their fallen allies and then will adopt a super form, forcing us to combine our powers for a final battle IN SPACE!!!”

Verde: “Also, I JUST realized who the mastermind is… I completely forgot that dude even existed and… oh shit, no wonder he did this! Dude probably wants to kill me! Ahahahahaha! Of all the things that could crawl out the toilet and bite me in the dick.”

Raiyne: “It’s strange to reference having a penis like that… and didn’t you say you used to go by a man’s name?”

Terra: “I’m pretty sure that Verde’s transgender— Do you know what that means?”

Raiyne: “Yes. I may be from a rural community, but I am quite well read. I do not know all that much about the community, but I know enough that they should be respected and treated with basic human rights they were denied back in my world.”

Verde: “Yeah, I’m trans. Nothing all that special about it. It’s just who I am. Took me longer than I would have liked to realize it, but I did, and that’s cool. But that’s not what I meant by referencing my dick. In case you didn’t know Raiyne, while your new body looks a lot like your own, you now have a retractable dick.”

Raiyne: “I… I what?”

Terra: “Is it really any weirder than any of your seven inhuman super powers?”

Raiyne: “Well, no, but I… how does that even work? How can I—”

Verde: “Ahahahahaha! This is gonna be a blast! Come with me, Raiyne. I’m gonna teach you the joys of a penis.”

Verde then slid over Abigale’s legs as she escaped the inner booth seat before grabbing Raiyne from her seat. Though Raiyne flailed and stammered words or resistance, this did not stop Verde from dragging her to the customer water closet of the CapCap diner. Verde slammed the door shut, but even through the thick wood, the clamoring of the two could be heard as clothes were taken off and bodies were thrust around in the small room for one. Abigale and Terra continued to stare at the door as these awkward noises continued, until Verde opened the door, topless, with her unhooked bra resting on her shoulders.

Verde: “I’VE GOT IT! We’re gonna call ourselves The Righteous! If you don’t like it, stop being a bitch and learn to accept greatness when it’s staring you in the face!”

Shortly after this outburst, a Machi brought over a cornucopious amount of food to the booth where Terra and Abigale sat, while wheeling out a screen showing a still image of the back of an anime swordsman with long blue hair.

Abigale: “It’s amazing just how much my sense of the universe shattered over the span of an hour.”

Terra: “…How much do you really believe in Verde?”

Abigale: “Completely.”

Terra: “Even though she has far too many psychological issues and quirks to be an even remotely competent deity figure?”

Abigale: “Yes. I would like to propose an alternative theory, but I cannot think of one. I know she is entirely truthful in her words and, while that scares me, there is an incredible degree of comfort with relying on another and knowing they are correct. So I shall heed her desires until I become doubtful in their legitimacy. And if that means eating food while watching anime, then so be it.”

Terra: “Are you even capable of laying back and relaxing for an hour or two?”

Abigale: “It has been decades since I pursued leisure time, but if I wish to remain with Verde, I do not have much of a choice.”

Raiyne: “KYAAAAAAAH!”

Verde: “That’s what I like to hear! Ain’tcha glad you’ve got a dick?”

Raiyne: “Ehehehe… yes, it does feel quite nice, Verde. Especially when you put it in between your— oooooh my goodness!”

Verde and Raiyne continued to have sloppy toilet room sex for an additional 30 minutes. By the time they finished, the food had gotten cold, inspiring Verde to Real Boot it all into a pile of potatoes, before demanding that the restaurant staff prepare the meal again. Once the food was prepared a second time, they finally began watching the film Verde had requested, and a merry time was had, even by those who wanted to focus on the prophesied threats of terrorism and mass murder.

---

Date: February 22, 2222
Time: 13:33 UTC – 15:33 LT
Coordinates: 45°N 34°E (Crimea, Europe)

Verde: “And this is why anime peaked in the 1990s! Because you never got shit like that ever again! The goal of anime is to take manga and give it more! To make the images move, to colorize them, to turn the dialogue balloons into voices, to take the onomatopoeia and replace them with real man’s sound design! But the most important part of all that is the color! And they lost their way! They lost their damn way! People got wind’s disease of the brain and also the ass. They stopped being able to see things in color and started imitating reality. They started murdering stuff in orange and navy and gray filters to indicate a time of day, sun bleached the hell out of things during the summer, and it looks like SHIT! It looks like SHIT from the COCK!”

Terra: “Verde, for the love of god, shut the fuck up! Nobody cares about what you thought about the anime of the 2010s. In this reality, anime stopped in 2015 and did not start again until the late 2030s. We are in a different timeline!”

Verde: “Eh? You think I don’t know about that? Because I do! I know about more alternate timelines than you can even imagine, you dinkus!”

Abigale: “Then why are you complaining about something so irrelevant?”

Verde: “Because complaining about stuff is fun. Just like eating a meme meal.”

Raiyne: “A meme meal? I’m sorry, but how was that culturally diverse selection of food a ‘meme’ I might be misremembering the definition, but isn’t a meme an idea or behavior that spreads within a culture, similar to a cultural gene?”

Verde: “…Oh, you sweet autumnal child. You know not what the core and soul of the human race looks like. Hold on to your innocence and it will lead you through a life of happiness.” 

As Verde continued to be boisterous and overbearing to those around her, Terra brought her hand into her suit pocket where she pulled out a handheld tablet computer, where she began scrolling through a news feed. In 2222, the majority of publications were think pieces, human interest stories, or reports of mechanical accidents that resulted in the rare injury or death of others. Crime was something the vast majority of citizens went their entire lives without witnessing firsthand, and the news was positively tepid compared to anything seen during even the Reconstruction Era. 

However, as Terra scrolled and scrolled through stories, she soon found a story about an unidentified aircraft found in Brazil a few hours earlier, traveling at roughly 2,500 kmph. Terra leered at this story, wondering if it was worth bringing up, only for a notification to push through, calling her to the latest story in the feed. What she saw was a ground-level photograph looking up at the sky, showing a being that towered over buildings and whose body partially blocked out the sun. 

Before Terra could read the title of the article, Abigale slammed her hands on the table and the wheeled screen before the four changed from the final frame of Slayers Perfect to show a news broadcast, capturing the attention of both Verde and Raiyne. 

Following a moment of panic and confusion, the four realized what was going on. The Central American island of Puerto Rico was being attacked by a creature the likes of this world had never seen. A being reminiscent of the most horrific lifeforms located at the lowest parts of the Earth, hidden within the deepest trenches of the sea. It was both disgusting and wretched… but it also left a mind dazed as one tried to look at it or determine what it was. 

The being was no less than 500 meters tall. Its body paved the Earth as it lurched forward, and when trying to describe it, reporters struggled to come up with a word more descriptive than thing, monster, or abomination. Though the best way to articulate this being would be to describe it as a homunculus of no less than 50 species. It was a creature whose biology went against both nature and reason. A creature with dozens of mouths of varying sizes across its body, eyes darted across its hide. A creature with fins, tentacles, and limbs that flopped haphazardly from its frame, and what appeared to be one humanoid arm, large and powerful enough to rip skyscrapers from their foundation in a single motion. 

The creature wailed in agony as it existed, deafening those around it from the sheer volume of its moans, and just when this monster seemed like an indomitable threat, one of its hundreds of limbs began to pulsate with a wave of yellow light, before it unleashed a beam of energy that struck with enough force and power to decimate several city blocks. Just as the wreckage began to settle, the creature began charging yet another limb to continue this wave of destruction, while it continued to lurk further and further onto the mainland. 

Verde: “Wow. That’s actually worse than what I was imagining… Puerto Rico ho!”

Verde then grabbed her dazed allies and started rushing out of the diner, where the four began running across the streets of Yggdraz. Streets that bustled anew as people began seeing the unthinkable destruction happening from across the Atlantic.

Verde: “Abigale, we are not doing the plane this time. It’s faster if we all just fly with you!”

Abigale: “Agreed. I will Real Boot bodysuits for all of you. We will strap them together as we travel and communicate via a private channel.”

Abigale then stopped by a random lawn and began Real Booting the dirt and grass before her to fashion pressure resistant jumpsuits and helmets like the one she was wearing. It only took her four seconds before she prepared a forest green bodysuit for Verde, a bodysuit for Raiyne, and an indigo bodysuit for Terra. The four then rushed into the home connected to this lawn, where they rushed into an empty bedroom and rapidly tore away their clothes and donned on their bodysuits. Once secure, and after deploying their retractable helmets, the four then ran out of the household, leaving behind one perplexed Machi gawking at the scene, while a child casually worked on their homework, completely oblivious of what was going on in the world.

With the four dressed for traveling through the sky at 6,000 kmph, Abigale Real Booted a harness to connect the four tightly and securely, using the most durable material imaginable. Once the four were bound by their waist, and their bodies clumped together in a four-person hug, Abigale shot her body up to the sky with such intensity that it shattered the concrete below.

The citizens of Yggdraz looked on with awe as the four shot off into the sky, shimmering for a moment before vanishing from view. Worry and dread filled the hearts of all these people and those around the world. But as the image of the four shooting through the sky circulated across the planet, the citizens of Earth remembered that they were in the best hands imaginable. And that their protector, Abigale Quinlan, would stop at nothing to preserve their safety and way of life.

Unfortunately, she was still more than an 1.5 hours away from her destination, and all she could do was hope. Hope that the limited military forces of the world could contain this threat before she arrived. Hope that this monster’s destruction was isolated or limited. And hope that this was the worst in store for her. Sadly, as she would find out, this was only the first phase in a saga of destruction, and the seeds for another were being planted with every passing second.