The Fourth Quadrant: Hard as a Rock (Part I)

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In the beginning, there was one gargoyle named Oliver Spout. But then his pattern spread to three others. For the four of them, every day at sunrise, their bodies would slip into a stasis bubble, which essentially sent them forwards in time however long was necessary to reach sunset. For the rest of the world, hours would pass, but for them, only seconds. The length of daylight shifted throughout the year, so they always hated winter more than summer. Things got a bit wonky when their, Kansas City, was copied into the Fourth Quadrant parallel reality, leaving two of them on the original nighttime schedule, while the other two ended up only experiencing daytime. They eventually became the Presidents and Vice Presidents of this new world, sharing responsibilities across the diurnal cycle. Half a century ago, a team of heroes came to their reality, and gave them the technology they would need to break out of their patterns. Their consciousnesses were transferred to new clone bodies, freeing them to live at all times of the day. It was after this that Andrei was born to Skyler Spout and Kostya Orlov.

They all assumed that Andrei would be born completely normal. After all, he was the product of two clones whose pattern had been supposedly successfully stripped of them after they were downloaded into new bodies. Unfortunately, some of his mother’s gargoyleness seems to have been hardcoded into her DNA. While she never fell back onto her old pattern, Andrei grew up to experience one of his own. He has some choice in the matter, but not always. While his family’s perceptions of time were being slowed down to a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of what it should be, his perception is altered by a very minute amount. It only slows him down to about 99% of realtime. But during this time, Andrei is as hard as a rock. He can’t move, he can’t be moved, and if he’s not lying down when it happens, he’ll become incredibly fatigued while he’s waiting to return to the fray. Unless someone is there to help him out.

Selma Eriksen is the Vice President of the Fourth Quadrant Earth. After Princess Honeypea transports them from their neighbor’s penthouse on a planet called Hockstep, she looks over to find that Andrei has become stuck in one of his bubbles again. This can happen when he travels to a new world, but not always. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict when he’ll get stuck, or for how long. They’re standing on the manicured grass next to a fast-moving stream or river. Boats are tied to the bank, but she doesn’t know what kind they are. They kind of look like old, wooden motorboats, except there’s no motor. They’re surrounded by flowering plants, non-flowering plants, shrubs, and short trees. From what they’ve been told, this is a nature preserve of some kind, so this whole place could be designed with intentional obsolescence to protect the wildlife. “Nuadu, can you help me?” Selma requests.

“What’s wrong with him?” Nuadu asks.

“He’s stuck in a bubble. It’s not good for him to be standing up like this.”

“Put him in one of the broads,” Honeypea offers. “I thought you might like to take the scenic route to the Citrus Inn. I didn’t know this would happen to him.”

“Why would we go to an inn?” Cosette questions. “We’re not staying.” 

“You’re not speaking with the Magnolia until he’s ready...and he’s not ready,” Honeypea explains. “Everyone into the broadfloats. Four per. One on each needs to steer the rudder in the back. It’s pretty intuitive.”

Selma and Nuadu lay Andrei down on the floor of the boat. Since he can’t sit up, no one else joins them. Selma keeps an eye on him while Naudu steers. The steering section is raised up a little, so he can see where they’re going while still seated on his little perch. The river takes them in the right direction, but he has to navigate around rocks, limbs, and little whirlpools. The two rows of seats before him could probably fit six additional people total, but there may be a weight issue. If this thing has a rudder, it can’t sit too deep in the water.

The inn is wooden and rustic, with no electricity, but it at least has running water. It has no apparent means of climate control, but no one feels that this is necessary. The whole world seems to be sitting at the perfect temperature. The beds are simple in design too, but the mattresses are modern and comfortable. They’re not animals. Princess Honeypea tells everyone to get settled, because it could be a while. The Pryce Tree is a unique lifeform, the origins of which no one here knows much about. Trying to understand his motivations and sense of time would be a waste of their time. Fortunately, they have been assured that they are not wasting it just by being here. The garden is located, not only in another spatial dimension, but also temporal. They should be able to pick up right where they left off when they return to the Sixth Key.

Selma wishes they could have just spent a few nights here before, back when they were being isolated to protect the timeline, and then gone back several months later after the danger had passed. No one else is bringing that up, though, so she’s not going to rock the boat. Something strange is going on here. The magical tree’s power is awe-inspiring, and if there’s some other entity out there that rivals its might, that could be a real bad thing, and they could be in real big trouble, as could all of reality. They just have to hope that something can be done about it.

They reluctantly retire to their respective new rooms, and try to get some sleep. Selma is sharing one with Andrei. He doesn’t like to come out of his time bubble alone. It’s not typically she who has to wait on him, but she’s all he has right now. His relationship with Ayata is still too new for them to spend the night together, even though there’s nothing romantic going on here at any rate as Selma chose this particular room for its two beds. When she wakes up to use the restroom, she passes by him again, and sees that the bubble popped at some point, but he’s still asleep. If he’s in the right position, he can sleep while he’s in there, but it’s reportedly agitating, and he prefers to be able to change positions, and get comfortable. She takes care of business, then goes back to bed, waking up with the eastern sun a few hours later.

Andrei is hovering over her with a cup of tea. “Get any rest?”

She’s still groggy. “I should be asking you that.”

“The answer’s yes. Thanks for taking care of me. I should have liked to see the sights on the way down the river, though.”

“I’ll remember that next time,” Selma replies. They have a decent rapport, but they actually don’t know each other all that well. In the Fourth Quadrant, the President and Vice President run for office separately, and once the election is over, they operate independently, living and working on distant islands. This is done for practical reasons. If something should happen to the President, the VP shouldn’t be there to suffer the same fate. The whole point is that she’s the backup. This is the most time they’ve ever spent together.

Andrei takes a sip. “The princess thinks that the tree’s about to talk. Best get dressed, and grab something to eat. They have citrus here.” Citrus didn’t exist in their reality, and that’s because it didn’t start out as a full-fledged reality of its own. It was a pocket dimension at first, and citrus fruits can’t travel between the dimensions. All the lemons, limes, and oranges exploded every time a new region was expelled to it, both on the trees, and elsewhere. Grocery stores were a mess. That was their biggest concern when they were negotiating for their interests during the Rock Meetings. The other civilizations had citrus because they were really just from another timeline that ran concurrently with the main sequence. Selma and Andrei were not super satisfied with the results, but they had little to offer their opponents. But if there’s a way to get what they need from here, without the help of the rest of the Sixth Key, they might end up in a better position moving forward.

Selma gets up and dressed in a tunic that she found in one of the dresser drawers. Wearing it isn’t a requirement, but most everyone else in the group made the same decision, because they’re soft and convenient. General Medley is still wearing his IMS. He says it’s versatile, but it looks restricting and itchy. She’s never worn one before. Again, the Fourth Quadrant was once only a collection of pocket dimensions. By the time it was upgraded to full reality status, space travel was too much trouble with no projected rewards.

While Selma and Andrei, and a few others, are still eating breakfast, Princess Honeypea walks into the communal area. “The Magnolia will see you now. I will escort you upriver to the Confluence.”

“Can those broadfloat things do that?” Kalea Akopa of the Parallel asks.

“We’ll take the airboats,” the princess clarifies.

They climb in, and speed back up the river, past where they first appeared, and into what has to be what Honeypea was talking about. It’s this big open area of water, where even from their low vantage point, they can see other rivers moving off in other directions. In the center is an island of roots underneath a giant tree. They really weren’t kidding when they kept calling him that. They have only ever seen him in his human form. Mysterious blue glowing fruits are hanging down from the blue leafed branches. At the base is a gravestone where monarch butterflies are fluttering about. They stop by a flat and level part of the arboreal island, and step out one by one.

As soon as the last person gets out, the boat drives away on its own, and the human form of the Magnolia appears. Tamerlane Pryce wasn’t a good guy when he was just a regular person, but this is just what the tree chooses to look like, for whatever reason. It’s not really him, though...not anymore. They were never given a whole lot of details. He steps forward. “I apologize for the delay, but I was seeking information. I know what our issue is now, but I don’t know how to solve it.”

“Is season two of our unauthorized reality show moving forward?” Andrei asks.

“I hope not,” Pryce replies, “but as it stands, I can’t stop it.”

“Who’s doing this to us?” Cosette demands to know.

“She calls herself The First Explorer. She claims to have witnessed the big bang, and while she did so through some form of time travel, I believe that she sees herself as the first being to exist in the whole universe. This universe, that is; not Fort Underhill.”

“What does she want?” Selma presses.

Pryce Tree takes a moment to respond. “She’s convinced that she’s at war with Fort Underhill and the Sixth Key. She perceives you as a threat. She’s more powerful than I am, I’ll admit that...but she’s not more powerful than me and The Nucleus.”

“The Nucleus is a place, not a person,” Nuadu insists.

“That’s what you think.” Pryce sighs. “Still, we won’t be able to do this alone. We need human agents to accomplish some of our goals. Any volunteers?”

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Microstory 2231: Back to Life

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I can’t believe that I’m writing this. Something truly miraculous happened, which all but proves that Nick was telling the truth the whole time about being an immortal time traveler. I guess I better start at the beginning of the story. At exactly 8:15 this morning, which is reportedly Nick’s favorite time, the nurse switched off his life support machines, and let him pass on to the end of his life. I was there with him, as was his former assistant at the jail, Jasmine. We were crying, and telling him that it was okay for him to leave, that we would be able to go on without him. And with those words, his vitals dropped to zero, and he was gone. Not five seconds later, a guy I used to know came in through a door near Nick’s isolation bubble—which is supposed to lead to a supply closet—brought forth by a spread of colorful light. Those who saw it at the right angle report seeing some kind of tropical beach on the other side of the threshold. Months ago, just as Nick was starting his job at the nursery where I worked, a coworker named Dutch Haines mysteriously disappeared. Nick was convinced that there was a supernatural explanation for it, and of course, no one believed it, because they had no reason to. But now we do. Dutch has told me that he was on another world, though we have not had enough time for any specifics, because his reëmergence was not the most impressive part of the story. Not at all.

Nick suddenly came back to life. The monitors started beeping again as he was arching his back. Color returned to his skin, and his eyes opened. He pulled the intubator out of his throat with ease, and sat up. For a moment, he sat there, strong and proud. He was not just back to his old self, but a powerful, more confident version. He looked younger than he did the day I met him earlier this year. He pulled the IV needle out of his arm just as Dutch’s door was falling closed. Someone tried to open it again, but found only the supply closet on the other side. I remember Nick positing that his health could be rejuvenated if a link to the multiverse was created, even if only for a few seconds, and he was so right about that. For those few seconds when Dutch returned to us, Nick was immortal once more. He has seemingly gone back to normal since that door closed, but it’s too late for the prion. Apparently, Nick’s immortality came in multiple layers, even though some may seem to cancel out the others, and those layers are there for a situation such as this. In that one moment, the prion disease was cured, and Nick was restored to health. He was invincible and ageless for only that short period of time, but that’s all he needed. He now looks like a normal twentysomething guy, free from all disease, or other medical problems. He can now surely suffer from something new again, but at least he’s not terminal anymore. Now we just need to convince the world that this hasn’t been one big lie. People will say that it never happened—that it was just a prank, or maybe even a long con. But it’s real. Dozens of people witnessed it in person, and millions more watched the livestream. Plus, several doctors diagnosed his condition before the miracle. He was definitely on his deathbed, and there was no way for him to get out of it unless something like this occurred. The doctors are frantically examining and testing him now, but we all already know the truth, don’t we? Nick is meant to be immortal, and he’s not meant to be in this universe. Now more than ever, he must find a way back home, and I for one, am ecstatic for the opportunity to help him

Microstory 2230: How Bad It Can Get

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A pattern has presented itself. His body has a new parasite now too, and it’s going after his organs. The doctors are desperately trying to stop it, but it’s gotten its grubby little appendages in everything; his heart, kidney, liver, and especially his lungs. You name it, it’s being attacked. He’s unresponsive at this point, but he managed to say one final thing. He basically wants to be put on display, to raise awareness for prion infections. The hospital board is currently weighing the issue. They’re not sure if he’s in his right mind, though. He’s still being kept alive, because he’s still full code, but at some point, that is not going to matter. His body will continue to decay, regardless of how they try to treat the problems. We still have no clue where these damn things are coming from. They must have been hiding in there before he went into the bubble, and the decline in health from the prion allowed them to rise up all at once. They will all be very surprised if he makes it through the next weekend. I’ll let you know via social if we begin to display him on a video feed, or something. It might sound unsettling, but I do believe that it’s what he wants. He wants you to see how bad it can get, so you can be more careful.

Microstory 2229: So Let Go

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I’m so distraught. We all are. I don’t know that I really wanna say anything here. Nick is currently fighting a war on three fronts. It was bad enough that he contracted a virus due to his weakened immune system, but now a bacterium has found its way into his body too. It probably happened at around the same time, because the odds of it happening after we took him back to the hospital are staggeringly low. He was placed in an isolation room, where only certain people could enter after being thoroughly processed, but that might not have been enough. Now he’s also in a plastic bubble as an added layer. So you still have to clean up to enter the room in the first place, but even then, you can’t touch him unless you use the glove ports on the sides. Anyway, this bacterial infection is just as bad, though it comes with new symptoms, which of course, makes it so much worse. Nausea, vomiting, and everything else that could go wrong with your stomach; that’s what’s happening to him right now. That’s on top of the fever, cough, and dizziness that he has from the virus. Honestly, I can’t believe that he’s still alive. It’s a miracle that he’s able to survive all this. The machines should only be able to do so much for him. At some point, your body just can’t take any more. But his is. He’s holding on for dear life. It’s almost like he’s waiting for something specific. You hear about that, where terminal patients won’t let go, because they have unfinished business, or they’re worried about their survivors. This should not be a problem for him, because everyone is going to be okay without him. He did a lot to start a new department in his company, a new project for the county, and maybe even a new movement. The world will keep turning without him, driven if only partially by the contributions that he has already made. I see him as a spark that will light the fire, and it will be up to the rest of us to keep the flames going. So Nick, this post is to you. You can go now. You don’t have to suffer anymore. Go find out what’s on the other side of the veil. We’ll miss you, and we wish that you could stay, but the pain must have reached the point of being unbearable. So let go, and finally rest in peace. I promise to keep this site going at least through your memorial services.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 12, 2403

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Moray McIver was one of the first students accepted into an experimental time school that existed inside of a time bubble, which accelerated the age of everyone within by several years for every year outside. While this was happening, legislation was passed to ban such use of these new time powers that people were suddenly experiencing. Most countries created entirely new branches of law enforcement in order to regulate the salmon and choosing ones of the Third Rail Earth, but the only one that really mattered was the Temporal Police Force in the United States. It wasn’t a particularly original name, and its mandate was different than what one may find in stories, but the majority of people with abilities lived in and around Arvazna. The U.S. and Arvaznian governments worked closely together to allow passage back and forth between the border since the Superscraper was nowhere near self-reliant. To make this work, the TPF had to enjoy the same freedom of movement in a jurisdictional sense.

Right now, Moray was leading Mateo, Angela, and Marie up to the ship that was going to take them to the planet of Violkomin, which was a corruption of the German word for welcome. The group was not invisible, per se, but they could not be seen as they wandered through the crowd. They were passing through a special spatial dimension that Moray created for them. Or rather he opened it, because it was always there, just beyond the reach of normal man. As far as parallel dimensions went, it could be considered the closest one to normal space. Slipping into it was trivially easy if you knew that it was there, and where specifically it was. Slipping out of it was also easy to do accidentally, which is why they had to stay with Moray at all times. Only he could see the exact pathway that they needed to take in order to stay within bounds.

“They’re working on technology to detect things like this,” Adult!Moray explained to them as they were snaking their way forward. “They’re...struggling with it.”

Mateo laughed. “Yeah, what you’re talking about is a disturbance detector, and only a few temporal objects can do it, like the Compass of Disturbance, and the HG Goggles. Whoever is looking into it is probably severely underestimating how difficult it is. If it were easy, we would have tons of them already.”

“Good,” Moray replied. “It’s an invasion of privacy. Most citizens are against.”

“Can people hear us?” Angela asked. “Because we can hear them. Sort of.”

“Under standard circumstances,” Moray began, “yes. Sound freely passes through the dimensional barrier, almost completely unencumbered, in both directions. However, I’m actively shunting the soundwaves elsewhere. If someone were underwater in the middle of a particular spot in the ocean, they might be able to hear us. The downside is the sound from the people around us is muffled. Maybe nothing to be done about that. It’s a tradeoff. A friend of mine is working on a workaround for me, though. She’s a temporal inventor, and she’s trying to design what’s basically a fancy hearing aid so I can spy on people from inside.”

“Oh,” Mateo said. “Her name wouldn’t happen to be Holly Blue, would it?” Perhaps they never really knew her origins.

“No,” Moray answered laughing. “Why? Who is that?”

“She’s the only inventor we know whose time power is inventing, instead of just being smart enough to do it.”

“Ah, I see. No, her name is Iona.”

“Is there something between you and this little inventor?” Marie asked, smiling. “It looks like you’re blushing.”

“No, I turned out to be gay,” Moray clarified. “I may or may not be blushing about her brother, Thurstan, who may or may not be a little too old for me.” That’s why I’ve been trying to get back into that time bubble.”

“Don’t do that,” Mateo suggested. “Just let time pass as it’s meant to. I’ve been in a few bubbles myself. No matter whether it’s slower or faster, you always come out feeling like you’ve missed something important.”

“That’s true. We’re here,” Moray said. The instruction on the door said to pull it, but he pushed, and moved it out of the way. Physical obstructions in the main dimension did have some kind of effect on the pocket dimension, but not always in the way they should, which was why they weren’t constantly bumping into people who couldn’t see that they were on the sidewalk with them. This was why Moray spent so much time in the bubble school, so he could learn to see a brand new geometry that a normal person couldn’t even fathom. Evidently, there was more he could do with this besides sneaking around. They snuck up to the launchpad.

They climbed the stairs to get all the way to the top, because Moray said that elevators were complicated. They decided to watch the launch in secret from the bridge. The crew was well-organized, but a little unpolished in their duties. It was understandable as all of this technology came as a giant leap in advancement, rather than a natural progression. These people had to learn their jobs in a short time frame. A few of them might have been part of their own time school bubble, but if these rumors were true, it was a different bubble than the one that Moray studied in.

Even with the issues, they launched the ship successfully, and kept everyone safe during the trip to Violkomin. From this region of space, traveling the long way around, using this vessel’s engine, was threatening to take a matter of years. Fortunately, the less violent majority of the Parallel decided to place supernexa near each version of Earth for shortcuts. These were not as large as the meganexa that they were still keeping to themselves, but more than enough for this diplomatic ship. What they could really use was the regular Nexus in Antarctica, but internal Third Rail sociopolitics prevented any one country from even stepping foot on Antarctican snow until the Global Council could renegotiate the treaties that dictated its usage.

For now, the supernexus was the only option for interplanetary travel for Third Railers and Fourth Quadrant dwellers, but it was not convenient. The Parallel didn’t place it near Earth. It was orbiting inside of the Oort Cloud, about 10,000 astronomical units away. At maximum speed, it would have taken them two hours to arrive. Out of fear, they didn’t push the ship that hard, so it took six hours. But once they were there, they were pretty much at Violkomin, because the supernexus of egress was built by the literal architects of the planet, who felt no need to make this whole thing a game.

“We’re close enough, we can take it from here,” Mateo said, now that they were well within teleporter range.

Captain Stefan Holland perked up. “Who was that?”

“Oh, shit,” Moray whispered. It was weird to hear him curse, but he was an adult now. He waved his arms around. “I forgot to hold the sonic dampener.”

A random crewmember reached over, and pressed a big mauve button near the exit. The door dropped down, the lights also turned mauve, and everyone got into defensive positions.

“Who is here?” Captain Holland asked again.

Moray held his finger against his lips to keep everyone quiet.

“No,” Mateo said. “Get me out of here.”

“It should be fine now. Just be extra quiet,” Moray continued to whisper.

“I need an exit,” Mateo maintained.

Moray sighed, and reached over to pull back the invisible curtain that separated the pocket dimension from everything else. Mateo ducked through it, and held up his hands. “It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt anyone.”

“A stowaway,” the Captain noted. “Put him in hock.”

“No, you can’t do that,” Mateo told them. “We have to get to Violkomin, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

“We? Where are the others?”

Moray dropped the barrier, and revealed the other three.

I was going to tell them I meant the royal we.”

“We can talk about toilet kings another day, Moray reasoned, unwittingly confused. “We stick together.”

“Take them all to hock,” Holland decided.

“Wait,” Mateo stopped the guards from approaching. “Do you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Captain Holland.

“Not you.”

“Yes,” Angela agreed. “It’s her.”

“I feel her too,” Marie said.

“She’s not on the planet.”

“No, but she’s close.”

“Whatever you’re talking about, you can continue talking about it from the other side of a cell. No more delays. No more resisting.” The Captain had had enough.

“I do too,” Moray claimed.

“You what? You feel Olimpia?”

“I feel...a disturbance in the force. She’s not out here. She’s in another dimension. Not my dimension, but similar.”

“Can you get her out?” Mateo asked.

“Not from here. But we can work together. One of you teleport me to her, and I’ll free her. But I’ll need a vacuum suit.”

“Yes. Sir, where are your vacuum suits?”

“We are not accommodating you,” Captain Holland argued.

“Right. I’ll find them myself.” Mateo took Moray by the hand, and started jumping around the ship until he found the airlock. Every time someone came up to stop them from getting what they needed, he would transport them to the other side of the vessel. Angela and Marie showed up soon to do the same. They kept working until Moray was protected and ready. They focused on the location of the empathic bond they shared with Olimpia, and made another jump, this time to the middle of space. She was floating there in a translucent cocoon of folded space, eyes closed, and trapped in the pocket dimension.

Moray reached for her, and pulled her all the way through to empty space. She woke up and tried to breathe, but found herself unable to. Fortunately, the few seconds she spent out in the black was nowhere enough to kill her. Mateo grabbed her in relief, and jumped the both of them down to the planet. Angela and Marie followed closely with Moray.

Once Mateo was sure that Olimpia wasn’t hurt, and wouldn’t need any medical attention, he hugged her again, and then started kissing her all over her face. “Mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah!”

Angela and Marie did the same. “Oh my God,” Olimpia exclaimed. How long has it been for you?”

“Over a year,” Angela answered.

“Four years for me,” Marie spoke for herself.

“Aww.” Olimpia gave her an extra hug. “It’s only been a couple days for me,” she explained when it was over. And they were awful. I think I was unconscious for the few days after that, though.”

“We had no idea where you were” Mateo began, “until we heard of the Sixth Key, but even then, it was a long time before we had an opportunity to come here. We’re so lucky to have found you when we did.”

“Score one for Ramses and his empathy upgrade,” Marie mused.

“Yeah, where’s he? Where’s Leona?”

“He has a mission, she has a meeting. They’ll find their way back to us later. We’ll explain everything, but first, what about you? How have you been?”

They heard someone approaching from around the corner. They hadn’t paid much attention to where they were. It was just kind of a big open room; maybe a hotel ballroom. It was Lowell Benton who appeared from the hallway. “Oh. Are you part of the diplomatic team?”

“Lowell?” Angela asked, shocked to see him here. “Are you in charge of this whole place? All by yourself?”

Well...Hogarth is supposed to be back from her little meeting, but she’s not returned yet, and I don’t know why. Ellie’s there too. I’ve been holding down the fort, but you know...I’m not great at diplomacy. I really shouldn’t be the only one here, but funny enough, the other meeting people didn’t want a serial killer crashing their party.”

“What?” Moray asked.

“He’s reformed.”

“I’m powerless,” Lowell said. “I died and was resurrected without my ability to witness past evil deeds. You have no idea how good that feels. You take your ignorance for granted. And who is this, by the way?”

“A new friend.” Mateo pointed accordingly. “Lowell Benton, this is Olimpia Sangster, and this is Moray McIver. Moray, Olimpia, this is Lowell.”

“I see. And why are there two Angelas now?”

“I’m Marie. It’s a long story.”

“I see again. I do not have time for it. I have to figure out what I’m gonna do about these diplomatic officials coming from the Third Rail.”

“I’m afraid we can’t help. We’re back on our pattern, so we’ll disappear tonight.”

“Plus, the bridge crew doesn’t like us,” Moray pointed out.

“Can you get us to the Nexus?” Mateo asked.

“I can’t do that.” He turned his face to stare ominously over at the wall. “It’s on the other side,” he said in an eerily quiet voice. “It’s on the other side,” he said even quieter.

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 3, 2399

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Leona asked Alyssa for help with a new special project, and told her about how someone had stolen every weapon from the Parallel, at which point Alyssa admitted that she was involved in the major heist, at the behest of Aldona, who was apparently trying to prevent the devastating Reality Wars of the future. She evidently didn’t think that the Parallel would be able to retaliate against this clear act of aggression, but she was wrong. There is no such thing as a ship without any weapons, for the ship itself is a weapon. At high enough speeds, any object can wreak havoc on another, and according to Parallel!Ramses, that is precisely what an army of angry militants are intending to do. They will be here tomorrow.

“I’m sorry,” Aldona says. “We had it all planned out. This was supposed to save us. There’s more than one reason it took me as long as it did to carry out that mission. We didn’t think they would be able to find me, and even if they did, we didn’t think they could amass a contingency that fast, and even if they did, they’re aware of the Reconvergence as well, and we assumed they would be too busy preparing for that.”

“Who is we?” Leona asks. “Who are you working with?”

Aldona shakes her head. “You don’t know them. They weren’t originally in the time traveling world. We got together because we thought we could change things.”

“Change things, you did,” Leona notes. “Our orbital defense grid. How close is it to being finished?”

“It’s finished, as is the one here in the Fourth Quadrant” Aldona says. “But neither would be enough. It can’t handle the onslaught that Mister Abdulrashid is claiming to be headed to the Third Rail. I really am sorry.” She means it.

“However big their fleet is, we’ll just have to be twice as big,” Leona says, looking at Alyssa as if she can do anything to help this situation.

Alyssa nods, but only because she’s listening intently, and expecting Leona to elaborate on her plan. She doesn’t actually know how they’ll accomplish such a thing. “Wait, me? Am I meant to do something? Oh, I have no idea. Where do you get an army on such short notice? Can the main sequence help us?”

“No, the two of us can,” Leona tells her, just as vague about it as before.

“I don’t understand.”

“We don’t have an army, but we can make it look like we do. We’ll make it seem as though all of their efforts will be futile. I’ve seen it done on TV before.”

Long pause. Alyssa is half-grimacing. “We don't have enough power between us to pull that off.”

“'We don’t draw temporal energy from ourselves; we draw it from other sources, and what does this world happen to have a whole hell of a lot of right now?” Leona poses. They may even be able to siphon the temporal energy from all the new people.

“That’s a crazy idea,” Aldona says, hoping this doesn’t make Leona more mad.

The truth is, Leona isn’t all that mad. They did what they thought they had to do to make the universe safer. They didn’t have all the variables. No one but someone like Bhulan Cargill can see the timeline branches like that, and she’s had every chance to use her powers for good, but she’s wasted most of them. Leona also wants the Reality Wars to be stopped before they begin. They’ll get through this. Leona’s plan is crazy, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work.

“It won’t work.” A young woman is approaching from inside the Kansas City bubble. Voices don’t normally pass through the dimensional barrier, but for her, it’s like it’s not even there. She proves as much when she steps through it without issue. “Hello, all, my name is Kyra Torosia. I’m glad to finally be meeting you, Mrs. Matic. You and your husband played a significant role in the history of my planet.”

“Durus,” Leona acknowledges. “How did you get it changed?”

Kyra laughs. “Most of the residents escaped to Dardius when Durus was finally deemed uninhabitable. Time powers were gone, and there seemed to be no hope. But a few of us stayed. A Nexus explosion imbued me with a great and terrible power. I have been fighting many wars on many fronts ever since. This is only my latest. Your plan is very creative, and I commend you on that, but I have a better one.”

“I sure hope so,” Aldona begins, “because if we can’t find a way to save every single Third Railer, I won’t be able to live with myself.”

Kyra nods. She’s very regal for her age, probably as the result of being treated like a god by whoever renamed a whole planet after her. Not that she doesn’t deserve it; what does Leona know about it? Kyra smiles at the small group. “How would you feel about initiating a little convergence of our own?”

“How would we do that?” Alyssa questions.

Kyra breathes in. “You’ve heard that I belong to a bloodline of Keys, but have you ever considered why the bloodline has anything to do with anything? Sure, any child of a  Preston is going to be immensely powerful, but Arcadia is not even a Key; she’s the Keyholder. Curtis is a Keyholder too. So why? Why us?”

“Is it because of you?” Leona guesses.

“I can move planets,” Kyra explains. “I can move them through the bulk, and by extension, across realities within a single braine. The Reconvergence will be difficult, and my biggest feat ever, what with the trillions of worlds I’ll be expected to move, but it’s doable, thanks to my family. Transporting your one planet to another reality ahead of schedule is practically nothing compared to that. If there weren’t already another version of Earth here, the residents of Earth!Three wouldn’t even notice.”

“Are we really talking about doing this?” Aldona asks. “Are we going to move the planet? What will the other Keys and Keyholders say about that?”

“They’ll say, thank you...more please,” Kyra replies.

Just then, they hear a rustle in the bushes. A man rounds the bend. Kyra reaches out to help him through the barrier. “Ah, Ansel. Come meet my new friends. Leona, Aldona, Alyssa, this is Ansel Haywood.” Vearden’s father.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, sir.”

“Likewise,” he replies. He seems rather shy.

Another rustle, and then a woman about Kyra’s age appears. “And this is our daughter, Allison. Don’t let our similar ages fool you, she’s my little baby.”

“Mo-om,” Allison complains.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Leona says, “though I’m not sure how accurate Vearden’s stories are, since I’ve known multiple versions of him.”

“Speaking of which,” Kyra goes on, we were all hoping to meet our granddaughter-slash niece. Could you transition us to the Third Rail? I could technically do it myself, but I think I ought to save my energy.”

“Certainly!” Leona agrees. She takes out her device. “Everyone take an arm.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 2, 2399

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Leona is in the Third Rail, knowing full well that Trina is not going to like it. Well, they didn’t give her a way to contact the Keys and Keyholders that are living in that white pocket dimension, so if they want to file a formal complaint, they can figure out how to do it, and let her know. As it turns out, Mithridates was completely right. After the initial shock of millions of people all over the world suddenly developing time powers, patterns, and afflictions wore off, the Global Council held an emergency meeting. It was decided that everyone exhibiting temporally unusual signs and symptoms would need to report to their local government offices. It wasn’t a done deal yet, but it was looking like they were intending to round everybody up, and stick them in protective custody somewhere until they could figure out what to do with them. Leona’s independent nation of Arvazna may indeed have a very specific purpose. The refugees already living in the Superscraper could find the place to be pretty crowded soon.

Leona is trying to keep in the loop with what’s going on with everything, but so far, the U.S. is the only government cooperating with her and her requests, because she has a preexisting relationship with them. While Senator Morton awaits further orders, he’s actually been incredibly helpful in this regard. He’s outed himself to the world as just another one of these weird time people, and no one has had the time to investigate his claims in particular since there are so many others to deal with.

She’s getting a call from one of the other parallel realities. It’s from the Parallel. “Hello? Can you hear me?” Tarboda asks. “Is this thing working?”

“It’s working. I read you five by five,” Leona answers. “Is this important? I’m a little busy at the moment.”

“I assure you that it’s vastly more important than whatever it is you’re doing. I have someone here who says he knows you, and he also says that if you don’t come talk to him, my whole planet is going to be destroyed.”

Argh! Leona actually doesn’t know too many people from the Parallel, but she can’t say she’s a fan of that reality, as a general rule. “Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.” She turns the dial on her device accordingly, and transitions over.

Ramses is standing next to Tarboda and Fairpoint. “Thank you for coming.”

“Report,” Leona says plainly.

“I’m the Ramses that lives here, in case you didn’t realize,” he begins. “I’m a powerful leader here, but I am not omnipotent, nor universally revered. I experience political opposition, and other obstacles.”

“Cool story, bro. Get to the point,” Leona urges.

“A vast army is planning an assault on your reality, the Third Rail.”

“Why?” she asks.

“Because you stole every single weapon in the entire universe capable of killing more than a few dozen people,” Parallel!Ramses explains.

Leona just stares at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“We don’t know how you did it, but you did it,” Parallel!Ramses goes on, “and various scientific groups were able to trace the destination. You probably thought they wouldn’t be able to, which was not a crazy notion. It took them a long time to figure out, but now that they know, there is no stopping them. Not even I can prevent the attack.”

“Ramses, I can honestly say that I have no clue what happened to your weapons. It wasn’t me, and if they were anywhere near Earth, I would know about it. There are quadrillions and quadrillions of people living here, which I imagine amounts to an unholy amount of weaponry. That’s not exactly something I could hide in my basement.”

“There were fewer weapons than you may have guessed,” Parallel!Ramses says. “We do not fight with each other. We only prepare for outside attacks.”

“If there weren’t too many, then why don’t you just manufacture more?” she asks.

“They’ve tried,” he clarifies. “They get stolen too. Time, right?”

Leona takes a deep breath in, and holds it there for a moment before letting it out. “If the weapons are gone, how do they intend to attack?”

“They’ll dispatch unmanned ships to act as relativistic kill missiles,” Parallel!Ramses answers. “They’re not technically weapons, which is why whatever you used to accomplish this feat did not take them as well.”

“I told you, I had nothing to do with this. Wait.” Leona looks down and away to think. “There may be an answer to this.” She looks at her transitioning device. “He can’t hide from me anymore.” She looks back up to Parallel!Ramses. “Can you stall them?”

He nods. “I’m already doing it. There are some legal hurdles before they can transition to other realities, but those will not stop them forever.”

“I just need to find some answers. I promise you, Ramses, I have far too much on my plate to even consider executing a plan to take your wee guns away. But I’ll tell you this—and you can relay it to your little buddies—the Third Rail will defend itself, and I’ll serve as the spearhead, if I have to. I’m certain that this vast army is severely underestimating the forces at my disposal.”

“Are you just posturing?”

Leona turns the dial. “No.” She jumps back to the Third Rail.

She’s standing before Dalton Hawk, who is sitting on a hammock, enjoying a bowl of fruit, like a cliché. “Madam Matic! How did you find me?”

She waved her hands in front of her chest, and whispered, “magic.”

“Want some raspberries? They’re really good for you.”

“I would have thought that you would be freaking out right now. All time powers have been unleashed in the Third Rail.”

He laughs. “I know. It’s great, right?”

“This is what you wanted all along?”

“All part of the plan.”

“Everything you’ve done up until this point has been in opposition to this situation. You’ve been suppressing temporal manipulation in all its forms.”

“Or is that just what I wanted you to think?”

“Explain,” Leona demands.

Dalton struggles to get out of the hammock, and set his bowl down on the table at the same time. He notices that she doesn’t budge to help him. “No, it’s all right.”

She just clears her throat.

He makes it back down to the ground, and adjusts his clothes. “Let me tell you a little story.”

Leona can practically feel the flashback trying to take over. “No, I don’t wanna hear your life story. Just tell me what you want, and why it appears to be the opposite from what you wanted before.”

“You’re bossy.”

“I’m the boss.”

“Fair enough. But this will require some background information, or nothing I say will make any sense.” He waits for her to protest, and when she doesn’t, he goes on. “As you know, temporal energy explains why some people have time powers, patterns, or whatever. The thing is, though, everyone has access to temporal energy. If they didn’t they literally wouldn’t exist. When you met Alyssa, you discovered that she was born with her ability to generate illusions, but she had spent all of her life without the ability to tap into that gift. You changed that when you gave her the energy to process. There was a reason you were able to do that. Danica could have turned off all special temporal energy, and left just what people needed to exist from one second to another. Instead, she left certain sources available, like the immortality waters, to relieve the pressure.

“If she had stopped it all up, and the Omega Gyroscope failed, what happened the other day would have happened without my help, and of course, she didn’t want that. I did. Well, I mean, I didn’t want all that death, destruction, mayhem, but it was a necessary evil. The Gyroscope is good at bending, but it does have a breaking point, and I had to reach that, so I employed Alyssa to modify it to halt all special temporal energy, and when Cheyenne was born, she released it all at once with a force so powerful, the dam burst. Now not even the Gyroscope can put things back as they were.”

“And why do you want people with powers?” Leona asked.

“Why did you come to me today?”

“The Parallel. They’re coming to attack this planet.”

“That’s why.”

“Why, what? You want people with powers to fight against them?”

“If that’s what it takes. Someone, or someones out there can protect this version of Earth. Aldona’s orbital defense grid will be great for the Reality Wars, but not this. These people aren’t ready. The world needs heroes. Over.”

“They won’t have time to figure out what they are. They won’t have time to train,” Leona argues. “You took too long.”

“Oh, they’ll have time,” Dalton replies confidently. “They’ll have more than enough time.”

“How? A time bubble?”

“You get them all into that giant ship of yours, and I’ll teach them everything they need to know, and I’ll take however long I need.”

“So, you built it?”

He shakes his head. “No, I don’t know where it came from, but it’s yours, ain’t it? So let’s use it to do some good.”

Leona scowls at him and seethes. For the most part, they don’t want to give the antagonist what they want. If the team can find another way, they should. She once again has to take a detour from her work, but it must be different than the other times she broke Trina’s rule to only focus on the Keys. This has to qualify. The Reality Wars are supposed to start after the Reconvergence. And that will never happen if these rogue Parallelers kill everyone in the Third Reality first, including Cheyenne. Let's just say that that’s who Leona is protecting. And hey, a whole planet gets to reap the benefits. Bonus. “I’m not going to help you do anything. You could have brought me and my team on this, and made things a whole lot easier. Now I have to clean up this mess myself, like I always do. You can choke on those grapes for all I care.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 31, 2399

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An interesting thing that Aldona and Erlendr learned is that they are capable of traversing the boundary between the domed over Kansas City, and the rest of the Fourth Quadrant. The only thing is that they have to do it together. They have to be touching each other in order to pass through the dimensional barrier. It’s sort of weird, after all this time, with so many people working on the problem, that the barrier remains. The man who built it is pretty powerful, and maybe only he can one day bring it down. He’s reportedly not been involved in any of this since he did it as a favor for a friend, and they don’t have time to try to find him now. It’s great that Aldona and Erlendr can do it, but that doesn’t help Leona. They can’t take anyone else through with them.

Leona originally assumed that the reality dial that Trina gave her would always jump her to the alternate version of wherever she happened to be at the time, but it seems that she can go wherever she wants...as long as it’s not the Kansas City bubble in the Fourth Quadrant. Anywhere in the galaxy but there. She may even be able to travel anywhere in the universe, but there has been no need for it so far. What she really needs is a way for her new task force to be able to reach out to her, and maybe even to each other. She wishes she had asked Trina about that, though she probably would have said that Leona is just meant to hop between realities regularly so nothing falls through the cracks. Team Keshida doesn’t have a solution for this either. The special bi-fold and tri-fold mirrors can do it, but that’s not enough to go around.

“Talk to my son.” Erlendr is on the other side of the barrier, while Aldona is discussing matters with the presidents. He can’t come back through to Leona’s side, but they can communicate using the interdimensional radios that Ramses designed. They only work between the Third Rail and Fourth Quadrant since they’re so close together.

“Zeferino? Do you know where he is in the main sequence?”

Erlendr shakes his head slowly. “Not him. My other son, I know you met him.”

“You mean Jupiter? You can’t call him your son.”

“No.” He sighs. “The other, other one.”

“Mithridates.” Leona didn’t want to say anything that she wasn’t supposed to.

“He has a way to reach across realities. I don’t know how, but he knows things.”

“Yeah. He can reach further than that.” Leona takes her reality transitioner out.

“One more thing,” Erlendr says when he sees her prepare to leave. “I know that you and I don’t get along, but we’re on the same page here. I wanted to create a perfect reality, and now it’s happening.”

“The Sixth Key is not perfect,” she argues. “Even if I knew absolutely nothing about it other than that it existed, I would know that. There is no such thing. You should understand that better than anyone. Either way, do your job.” She turns the dial.

She thought it was going to take some time to find the long-lost Preston, but Mithri happens to be hanging out with Winona and the Fifth Divisioner by Earth’s one oasis. They’re enjoying each other’s company. Well, the two of them are. Winona looks uncomfortable as hell, but she’s trying not to rock the boat.

“Thank god,” she mutters under her breath. She stands up, and places her lips against Leona’s ear as they hug. “Can you get me out of here?”

“I really can’t. I think it’ll be a lot worse if you try to leave. I may be able to bring someone else here to sort of...make this easier to deal with, however.”

“Enough hugging!” Mithri exclaims. “Come have a drink with me and Hamilton!”

“Hamilton?” Leona questions. “Your name is Hamilton? Surname, or given?”

The man who tried to kill her not two months ago stands up, and presents his hand to shake. “Hamilton Burr, Madame. What are your orders?”

“Oh my God, this reality is so weird.” She shakes off the bit of silly trivia. “I don’t need to talk to you. I need him.” She points to Mithri.

“What can I do for ya?”

“Number one...what is your stake in this? Do you know what’s happening?”

Mithri smiles, and looks around behind him as if there’s something to see but barren desert. “Why do you think I was building that Hyperalpha Collapsis?”

“I don’t think you can take it with you into the Sixth Key.”

Mithri smirks at her. “Yeah, I can.”

“Bottom line it for me. Are you going to help us, or hurt us?”

“Oh, I’ll definitely help,” he assures her.

“Great. Then I need inter-reality communication technology. Your father thinks you have it, and you’ve mentioned things you know regarding other universes.”

Mithri scowls now. “Don’t ever listen to what my father tries to tell you.”

“Answer the question,” Leona demands.

He sighs. “In this case, he’s right. I do have such technology, but it’s not what you think. You can’t chat with whomever you want. They need their own devices, or it’s only one way. And unfortunately, I only have the one. I can spy on anyone, but they can’t talk back. I’ve never needed them to.”

“Give it to me. I’ll make it work,” she tells him.

“I believe it.” Mithri turns around, and enters his little hut.

Leona looks over at Winona, then at Hamilton Burr. “You there. I also need to communicate across vast distances within this reality as well.”

Hamilton pulls a device out of his pocket, and tosses it to her. “Call the operator, and tell it who you want to talk to, and which habitat they’re on.”

“I know how this works, thank you.”

“Leona!” Mithri calls out from inside. “You might wanna come look at this!”

Leona steps into the hut, and crosses to the other corner. She’s never been in here, but she would have expected this place to be bigger on the outside. He doesn’t live luxuriously, which is odd for a Preston. He’s got his hand on top of a box television set with all sorts of funky dials and buttons on the side. It’s retro-futuristic, and it seems to be showing the news. The reporter on it is discussing a mysterious bubble that spread all over the globe, and started making people disappear. “Which reality is this?”

“It’s the Third Rail,” Mithri says. “I think we’ve figured out the true purpose of that ship that someone built for you in New York.”

“How do you know about that? Ya know what, never mind. I can’t do anything to help with this. I’m meant to focus on the Keys, and nothing else.”

He smiles knowingly at her, but doesn’t speak.

His face says everything, though, and he’s right. Who decides what pertains to the Reconvergence, and what doesn’t? Trina and her band of Keys and Keyholders took people from her that she needs to help her get shit done. Then she remembers that she’s never followed the rules before, so why start now? She tosses him Hamilton’s communicator. “Ask Dilara Cassano to come here. I have to go.” She picks up the TV.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 30, 2399

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Vearden is sitting next to Arcadia, as he does all day every day. He doesn’t even go to bed anymore. He just reclines the chair, and stays there, only getting up to get food, or get rid of it. In this reality, the vital sign monitor keeps track of all the usual suspects, like heart rate and oxygen levels, but it also logs the weight. The doctors didn’t explain why, but it’s apparently what first alerted them to the fact that the baby was gone. Now it seems to be back. Arcadia’s weight has just suddenly gone up by eight pounds, seven ounces, which Vearden noticed, because they programmed the system to alert them to any further changes in weight. Just as he’s calling for help, she starts to tremble, then shake, then scream. She’s awake.

“Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia. Shhhh. Shh, my darling, it’s okay. It’s okay. You’re okay. You’re back, everything is gonna be fine.” 

She pulls the oxygen tube out of her nose. “I’m back? Where did I go? Where was I? Tell me! Tell me what happened! Did I jump through time!”

He keeps trying to reply, but she’s not really letting him. She’s hyperventilating. A nurse steps into the room. “Put the oxygen back on, please,” he asks of her.

“No!” Arcadia cries. She starts ripping out the other medical things attached to her. That’s when she seems to first notice her belly. “Wha—what the hell happened? She looks up to her love, tears in her eyes. “Vearden? How long have I been away?”

“You haven’t been away, dear. You’ve been in a coma. At least that’s the best diagnosis that the government doctors could provide.”

“How. Long.”

He frowns at her. “Two and a half months.”

“The baby? How’s Kendra?”

“She’s perfect. She’ll be coming soon, Dr. Best thinks.” No need to mention the part where the baby disappeared for a week.

Arcadia nods. “What happened to Mateo? Where is he? He’s dangerous. There is something wrong with his mind.”

“That’s all been dealt with,” Vearden assures her. “You don’t have to worry about anything except taking care of yourself, and our little girl.”

She nods again. “Hey, Vearden.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s happening.”

“What’s happening?”

“The baby. She’s coming.”

“Now?”

“Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaargh, right now!”

Vearden reaches up and pushes the big mauve button, which indicates an emergency, and sounds an alarm to wake everybody up. More nurses flood into the room. “She’s going into labor!”

They all move to their stations, and start getting things ready. One of them checks under Arcadia’s gown. Another handles the IV bag and monitor. A third leaves again to retrieve the doctor. It takes a really long time for him to return. When he does, Dr. Best is not the one following him. It’s a doctor that they’ve never met.

“Where is Dr. Best?” Arcadia demands to know.

“I’m afraid Dr. Best is trapped in an elevator, and won’t be able to help you. It’s my first day at this facility, but I’ve been a gyniatrician for eighteen years, I have full clearance, and I’ve been fully briefed on your situation.”

“Someone needs to teleport to Dr. Best,” Arcadia begs Vearden.

“That’s not possible,” Vearden replies apologetically. “Not these days.” He looks back up at the new doctor. “What’s your name? It’s important.”

“I’m Dr. Suggitt. Dr. Cheyenne Suggitt.”

Vearden and Arcadia share a look. “You see?” he begins. “This was always meant to happen. Our child has a future, and while we know her life won’t be easy, we also know that she survives at least into her thirties, and becomes a beautiful, powerful woman. “We have nothing to worry about.”

Arcadia has been listening, but she’s also clearly in an incredible amount of pain. It takes everything she has to nod her head at him between contractions.

Dr. Suggitt takes her stethoscope out of her ears. “Okay, this is happening, and it’s happening now. I’ve never seen someone in labor for such a short period of time. Sorry, no time for drugs. Dad, if you want to stay here, I’m going to need you to clean yourself up, and put on that set of scrubs.” She jerks her head towards one of the nurses.

The nurse shakes the scrubs to show that he’s ready to help Vearden put them on.

Vearden leaves for a moment to wash his hands and arms. By the time he gets back, little Cheyenne is already crowning. Arcadia no longer seems to be in any pain. She’s resting her head against the pillow, and appears to only be experiencing a little bit of pressure while the head slips out. In under a minute, their baby girl is out and in the world. She’s cooing, and not crying. At first, she looks pretty normal, but then she begins to glow. The nurses exchange nervous looks. They obviously know that there’s something special about the girl, but they weren’t warned about this. Probably because no one else was aware that it was going to happen.

The glow intensifies, and spreads beyond her tiny body. As it grows like a bubble, the light fades, but a strange visual distortion remains, like the heat shimmer from a flame. Once it passes through Vearden’s body, he begins to feel a calmness, and a strong sense of relief. It reminds him of what it feels like to teleport or travel through time. No, it feels like it does once the pinch from doing so is over, and he’s reached his destination. He watches through the window as the bubble accelerates, and starts to roll over the lands, so far into the distance that it disappears over the horizon. 

The nurse in charge of tracking Arcadia’s vitals disappears, but only her. Her clothes remain, suspended in the air for a split second before collapsing to the floor. They hear a crash outside. Two cars have collided with each other in the parking lot. One of them starts to slip over the edge of a dark hole that appeared out of nowhere. People are screaming down the hallway. It starts to snow over a small area down the street.

Vearden looks down at his precious girls. Back in the main sequence, when he was resisting finding a partner to settle down with, people would tell him that a baby changes everything, as if telling him a scary story would somehow convince him to go for it. They had no idea how right they were. “This is her. This is Cheyenne’s doing.”

“No.” It’s his supposed future son-in-law, Curtis Duvall. “People are getting hurt, and that’s sad, but this is not your fault, and it’s certainly not Cheyenne’s. It’s Danica’s. She didn’t stop time powers from existing, she just pent them up, and now they’re coming out all at once. Chickens. Roosting.” He pauses for effect. “Temporary.”