The team stood in silence after dispatching NSLICE-00P, until Voidspeaker decided to speak.
“So, um, how do we know if it worked…”
Just as he was speaking, everyone's vision went white. The team found themselves in a massive stream of light just as before.
“Answer: Like that.”
The teens began to scream, and clutch at their heads. All of them except Elise began to flicker. Wonder Knight and Pink Star kept flickering between their NSLICE versions and their normal selves, Pink Star in particular appearing as an entire building-sized pillar. The two Saydaas flickered alternatively, appearing as if Saydaa was jumping between two locations. Arvid kept shifting between his normal appearance and a hagard one, as if he had been living in a cave.
Kiyosuke, Nana, Chronolock, and Voidspeaker were flickering in and out of existence entirely.
Roxanne winced and held her head, though she didn’t seem to be in as much pain as the others.
“Observation: It seems the universe is oscillating between the two destabilized timelines. Friendlies seem to be shifting between their alternate versions.”
“We…noticed…you…dumb…bot!”
“Speculation: It seems that this unit’s alternate is no longer present within her universe or timeline, and so this unit is not impacted. Fascinating.”
“Screw…you…bot!”
“Shut…up…and…help…killer…robot…girl!”
“Insincere Apology: I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t do that. After all, said directive belongs to another unit…”
There was a flash of golden light and the Temporal Arbiter appeared. His eyes widened as he rushed about in the air, waving a glowing staff around the stream of light.
“What is this? What’s going on?!”
Eventually he laid eyes on Elise.
“You…what have you done?!”
“Innocent Query: Whatever does the jerk mean? This unit has not done anything in particular.”
He swung his staff forward.
“You…you’ve broken the laws of time…broken the universe…but if I drive you from time…”
He fired a time banishment beam. Elise flickered away, reappearing a few feet in the distance, the Chrono-Shifter active on her wrist.
“Hold still!”
“Smug Answer: No, this unit does not believe she will.”
He sent out a wave of golden light, intending to freeze her in time, but she flickered and vanished entirely. The Temporal Arbiter began to shift his own time, chasing after her.
But there was a problem.
Time was completely destabilized now. He could move a few moments forward or backward but if he tried anything beyond that, he couldn’t lock onto a target, couldn’t see where he was headed. And he couldn’t lock onto the girl’s temporal aura or the distortions from her Chrono-Shifter to trace her either.
That applied to Elise’s Chrono-Shifter as well but it didn’t matter to the cyborg. She was simply activating the Chrono-Shifter as quickly as possible, jumping randomly all over the timeline.
He knew how long it took to track down an evasive time traveler even in a stable timeline. In this case? The only thing the Temporal Arbiter could do was hope he could somehow get lucky and randomly jump to the exact same moment as her across all of time.
The universe would collapse before he caught her.
“Fine, if I can’t remove the wound, I’ll have to amputate the limb!”
He grit his teeth and swung his staff forward. He lifted it high, glowing as bright as he could, and then swung it down on the ground.
The ground trembled. The torrent of light began to split, two rivers of light moving apart from one another, revealing an endless rocky plateau in between them. Above them was a dark void, filled with countless lines of light in the distance criss-crossing through space.
The teens gasped and fell to the ground as they stopped flickering, returning to their original selves. They appeared closer to one of the rivers as Roxanne and alternate Saydaa shifted closer to the other. Elise reappeared as well.
And they weren’t the only ones.
Different supers and notable figures from both timelines began to flicker and appear in front of their respective timeline, those most impacted by the changes in reality.
Which meant...
“Ugh…just what is going on?”
Londyn Green reappeared, holding her head. She had but a moment before she was tackled by Aurora Legion.
“Director!”
“You’re alive!”
“Thank goodness…”
“Ow! What are you kids doing?! Ow…less hugging, more explaining please!”
And…
Xiong Huang landed in front of Elise with a slam, shaking the ground. She crossed her arms.
“Hm, so you destabilized the new timeline so reality would be caught in between them. That jerk is forced to try and fix this so we can find Bob while he’s distracted?”
“Affirmative.”
“Hmph. Well you didn’t rescue Bob but you brought me back to do it myself, huh? I’ll give you a passing grade but just that. Barely.”
“Grateful Response: This unit thanks the Great Mistress for her kind words.”
“...we’re sparring after this.”
“Grateful Refusal: N-No. This unit couldn’t possibly monopolize the Great Mistress’s time. This unit is honored but she will have to politely decline. I-It would be the height of dishonor for her to presume upon…”
“I was not asking you.”
“...Despairing Acknowledgement: A-As the Great Mistress commands…”
Meanwhile the Temporal Arbiter turned to the newer timeline.
“I am the Temporal Arbiter, he who oversees all of time. I come to you with grim tidings. The imposters you see across from you have broken your timeline and seek to destroy your entire reality! Now your realities are colliding and the universe cannot decide which to follow. I have brought you here, all of you who were affected by this deviation, to the space between time. I call upon you as the guardian of your reality! Defeat your imposter and you will weaken their false reality, strengthening your own. You must tip the balance! Fight! Fight against them! Save your universe!”
Xiong Huang grinned and slammed her fist into her palm. She spoke calmly but everyone from her timeline could hear it clearly.
“You heard the jerk! Unless you idiots want our entire timeline erased, start beating the crap out of yourselves!”
There was a screech. Alternate Xiong Huang rushed forward, swinging her blade. Original Xiong Huang’s eyes narrowed.
“Pathetic. You are not me.”
She grabbed her alternate by the neck and tossed her into the air. She pulled back a fist, qi blazing around it like a star, and then obliterated the other Xiong Huang in a huge blast.
She looked up as the blast faded and whispered to herself.
“...I’m sorry. But I will make things right. I will become happy, for both of us.”
Londyn held her head and groaned.
One moment, she had been on a jet onroute to Bob’s location with all the heroes she could muster after he kidnapped Voidspeaker of all things.
The next thing she knew she was surrounded in some massive stream of light, her head on fire as bits and pieces of a second life streamed into her head.
And then she found herself here…whatever this place was, surrounded by space and glowing rivers, and getting tackled by a team of hysterical super-teens.
Chronolock had somehow stopped time for her and all of Aurora Legion without breaking a sweat, only for Aurora Legion to explain to her a tale that beggared belief.
Alternate realities, some time god banishing Bob from time itself, herself being dead.
Londyn could only clutch her head and groan.
The bits and pieces of memory she got in that stream of light seemed to confirm their story. A dream about a life…without Bob.
One that came to an abrupt and sudden end.
Somehow, she knew they were telling the truth.
Which meant…
Londyn nodded at Chronolock, who allowed time to resume. Londyn listened as some ‘Temporal Arbiter’ gave a speech and Xiong Huang went and killed a horrid version of herself.
She looked around, surrounded by confused heroes of the International League of Superheroes, each clutching at their head and groaning. Captain Hot Devil had tears streaming down his face.
She nodded at them.
“You heard the lady! Looks like someone messed with time and now it’s up to us to set things right! Everyone get ready for a fight!”
One by one, the confused heroes looked towards Londyn’s voice. One by one, their confusion faded, replaced by grim determination. An aura of flame grew around Captain Hot Devil as he realized the situation. Aurora Legion had tears in their eyes but huge smiles on their faces as they looked up at her once again.
Londyn turned to face their opponents as the heroes began to cheer and take up positions behind her.
She heaved a sigh, whispering to herself
“So you get removed then I die and the entire world breaks, huh? And now I have to fix all of time. Bob…you’re so annoying!”
As she spoke, she saw the Atomic Herald finishing a speech to an army of glowing mutants. They let out a ferocious roar and began to charge across the field.
Londyn raised her hand.
“International League of Superheroes, attack!”
The heroes matched their opponent’s cry and charged forward as well.
And so the Battle of Time began.
