The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 12, 2399

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Aldona is getting a call. It’s Winona. She’s pretty busy right now, but the Honeycutts don’t like to be kept waiting, and both Winona and her father have been excellent advocates for the global defense program that she was working on. “Hi, Win.”

Winona appears as a hologram. “Leona got her powers back, did you know that? She didn’t give me any details, but she called me about something unrelated, and she looked like herself. I wasn’t sure if I should trust her, but she sounded legit.”

“We’ve kept in touch, so I knew that as well. I didn’t do as much due diligence to make sure she wasn’t an impostor, though.”

“Does that mean we’re back online too?”

“What do you mean?”

“The defense satellites. Can you continue working on them? I’m sorry, I’ve not had time to read any of these reports lately.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’ve been online this whole time.”

“But...that omega thing the others are always talking about. I thought that suppressed special abilities, and advanced alien technology.”

“It does, but that doesn’t affect my stuff.”

“Why not?”

“I’m from the future,” Winona. “I knew this was going to happen.”

“You didn’t warn anybody?”

Aldona rests her chin on the palm of her hand, and exhales as she’s gazing through the window to the launch tube. “This is necessary. Trust me, you want that gyroscope up and running for the next few weeks.”

“What does that mean?” Winona questions. “What are you not telling us?”

Aldona can’t help but chuckle. “There are so many things that I’m not telling you, but there’s nothing you don’t know that you ought to.”

“Do the Matics know everything that they ought to?”

“Goodbye, Miss Honeycutt.” Aldona reaches over to sever the link.

“Wait.” She takes a beat. “If we’re online, does that also mean we’re on track?”

“You’ll have your satellites up and running in plenty of time, as long as we don’t run into any unforeseen circumstances. Have a nice day.” She hangs up.

Alyssa steps forward, having stepped away to make sure that Winona didn’t see her in frame. “Unforeseen circumstances, like me?”

“No, Miss McIver, I saw you comin’ a mile away.”

“Is that true, what you told her, that the Omega Gyroscope is necessary?”

“For now, yes. But as soon as we clear the incursion, I’ll make you turn it off.”

“Oh? And how do you suppose you’ll do that?” Alyssa questions.

“If I told you that, it wouldn’t work.”

Alyssa just narrows her eyes at her, probably reconsidering helping her with this.

Aldona detects her apprehension. “We had a deal.”

“And you promise not to use any of these things?”

“I promise,” Aldona replies. “I couldn’t use them, even if I wanted to. They’ll stop working. I just want to get them out of the hands of the people who will use them. ”

Alyssa slides over to the special console by the viewport. “And you’re sure this thing can, like, read your database?”

“I could scribble the shopping list on the back of a receipt, and it will know what to find, where to find it, and how to bring it here. It will work.”

Alyssa nods. “Okay. What do I do, just stick it in this slot?”

“It’s that easy. I’ll activate it from here. You can do it at any time, I have to make sure we’re drawing the power that we need first.”

“The power that you need,” Alyssa contends. “This is your thing. You just asked me for help pulling it off.”

“Do you have a general love for mankind? Do you believe in the value of human and human-originating life?”

“Yes.”

“Then you want this to happen too.”

“Very well then.”

Aldona gets back to preparing for the big event.

“Wait!” Alyssa shouts, even though she hasn’t inserted the Dilara Cane yet anyway. “They’re gonna get mad when they find out what you stole, won’t they?”

Aldona shrugs. “Sure, but what are they gonna do about it?”

“They might attack harder. They won’t have the best weapons anymore, but they won’t be helpless either, will they?”

“They won’t be able to track any of this back here, to either of us, or to that cane. That’s what black holes do; they destroy information.”

Alyssa is still wary of this whole thing, but she believes that Team Matic would want this, if they weren’t preoccupied with other—equally important—issues. She still wants to help them, she just can’t let them get in the way of her other objectives. She sets the cane into the slot on the floor and lets go. “Do your worst.”

“Plugging the surge protector into itself,” Aldona declares. She hits EXECUTE.

This is the first ship that Aldona started building when she came here. This was before she approached the Global Council about designing a defense system for them. If they had rejected their offer, she still would have done this part. It’s the most important mission she’ll go on, and if she dies after it, at least it will be complete. The semi-public operation is about protecting this Earth from the upcoming war. This is about preventing the war from getting as bloody as it did the first time around. Rather, there was no blood. They destroyed entire planets. The Fifth Division had tossed most of their stars into a black hole, effectively altering the physical properties of the individual particles. They owned the resulting mass, but not the original stars, so the people of the Parallel felt entitled to maintain control over them instead, and they had the armory to back up their claims. This is a heist. Aldona is stealing all of their weapons, at least all of the worst ones. Alyssa’s new Dilara Cane is bringing it all here. This process is being powered by the black hole, Gaia BH1. In turn, the mass that they steal is being dumped into BH1, which is kind of why it’s like plugging a surge protector into itself. Except that that wouldn’t work, and this is working. They’re gonna end the war before it starts.

“Is it doing what it’s supposed to do?” Alyssa asks.

Aldona smiles at the data. “Yeah. We better get to the escape pod.”

“What? What about the cane?”

“Sorry, love. That’s gotta be destroyed too.” Aldona pulls out a gun, and aims it at her. “Either you leave it where it is, or you stay here with it when the ship gets pulled in too. We’re 1500 light years from home. There’s nowhere to teleport.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 11, 2399

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A thing that Leona and Mateo found out is that they can’t really go to the Daltomism church. Well, it’s not called a church, but a Forum, where ideas are shared, and issues are resolved. You don’t have to have dark skin to join or attend services, but lighter skinned people are a minority, and they stand out, which would make it more difficult for them to gather information to find the real Dalton, and maybe Alyssa. A couple of newbies showing up and asking a lot of questions is not the best way to complete this mission.

“I’ll do it,” Heath volunteers.

“No, we can’t ask you to do that.” The Matics knew that he would offer as soon as he started explaining the situation to them. They didn’t have to discuss with each other for both to know that they were going to decline. It’s not that they don't trust him to handle it, but not too long ago, he was trying to get out. He had his problems with Marie, yes, but he seemed tired of the whole time traveler thing in general. He never really died, so what has changed since then? Why is he so interested in helping with this?

“No, I want to, and I’m the only person you know with any hope of getting anywhere with this investigation.”

“That’s not...entirely true,” Leona points out.

“What do you mean?” Mateo asks. They’re not automatically on the same page for whatever this part is, though.

“I could...create an illusion of being someone who fits in there better.”

Mateo takes a beat before responding. “You wanna go in black face?”

“That’s—no, Mateo! Jesus, that’s not how I would put it!”

“Lee-Lee, just because you use fancy powers to do it, doesn’t mean that’s not what you’re doing. It’s in very poor taste.”

“Well, we can’t let him do it. He is not trained, he is not experienced, and this isn’t his fight.”

“Yes, it is,” Heath argues. “I care about you, and Marie, and all of your friends. Besides, if this threatens my whole world, then I say it is my fight regardless. You can always just leave. I have family and friends here.”

Leona sighs, and thinks about it. He’s right, he’s their only option. Dalton has never shown up on any of their satellite scans, which aren’t working right now anyway. This is probably a dumb idea. If this were a decent route to finding him, someone else in the faith probably would have by now. Or maybe members have, and everytime they do, they get recruited or killed to silence them. Either way, it’s dangerous. “Okay, but you’re not going in tomorrow. We need to prep you, and you need to tell us everything you know about it first.”

“There’s a forum meeting tomorrow,” Heath says. “I should establish myself in the community. I haven’t been to a meeting in a long time, and no one in New York knows me. I promise, I won’t sneak around the Meeting House, or ask a bunch of questions. I’ll just get people used to seeing me around.”

“All right, but I do wanna strategize before you make any decisions. If this mission doesn’t get dangerous, it probably also doesn’t get us anywhere.”

“Great,” Mateo decides. “I assume there’s a dress code? Let’s go shopping.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 10, 2399

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Leona sent a message to Alyssa yesterday, but she hasn’t responded. She could be busy running around with her brainwashed brain, or just chilling on a beach in Tahiti. What would one of the only two people in the whole world with time powers do with their day? Does she have an agenda? It sure seems like she’s reached her goal by now. Rather, she’s reached Dalton Hawk’s apparent goal. Or maybe this was just the beginning. Maybe temporal energy was getting in the way of some other objective, and now the real work starts. If only he would come talk to them, they would know whether they should try to stop him, or help. He presumably sent them here accidentally, and then arrived himself in an attempt to remedy the issue. How that ended up leading him to creating a religion with multiple branches thousands of years ago is anyone’s guess, but they have met him a few times, and he didn’t seem evil before. They’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt until he gives them a solid reason not to.

The team had completely forgotten that the only reason they sent Angela on a relativistic journey in the first place is because her alternate self, Marie was terminally ill. As Angela had already taken some of the immortality waters, they figured it was their only shot to retroactively save her sister. It appeared to have worked, but time is a fickle thing, and their success in this pursuit is not necessarily inevitable. They have to actually find the rest of the waters, and give them to her in the right order. The hardest to get will be Activator, which can be found anywhere on Earth, but only at the end of its life. That won’t happen for billions of years. They should have been focused on this for the last few months. Now it may be too late. It may be pointless while they’re still under the rule of the Omega Gyroscope, which is suppressing temporal energy. If the restrictions are even tighter than before, then none of the waters will do what they’re meant to do anyway. To get this done, they’re going to need more exceptions, and barring finding Dalton, there’s only one person they can talk to about that. Why isn’t she answering?

“Argh!” Leona huffs. “How hard is it to reply to a text? It takes two seconds to say, get back to you soon. Love ya!”

“Maybe she doesn’t have cell service,” Mateo offers, trying to stay positive. “It hasn’t really been that long, when you really think about it.”

“Nowhere in the world does not have cell service. The Global Council made it illegal to manufacture a phone without satellite capabilities for emergencies. Every satellite data provider agrees to eat the cost of such calls.”

“If she’s not responding...” He decides not to finish that sentence.

“Yes, Mateo, go on.”

Okay, he’ll say it. “If she doesn’t respond, then we have to find Dalton. We were probably always going to do that anyway. He is the last piece of the puzzle that we’ve been trying to put together for the last year. He’s at least a piece.”

“Great,” Leona says sarcastically. “Where do you suggest we start looking? Do you want to try to find the Constant again? That always works out so well for us.”

Mateo sighs, and holds up a pamphlet for Daltomism. “If you wanna climb to the top, you gotta start at the bottom.”

Leona looks at her husband with a look of repulsion. “It looks like we’re going to church. Can’t wait, I love those kinds of people. They’re always so rational.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 9, 2399

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The locksmith, Evander Martinez told Mateo and Leona about a family who has just lost their home to money issues. They could use a place to stay, at least until they get back on their feet. They will not be able to pay, but they’re willing to keep the place clean, and help out around the building. They decide to take them up on that offer. What they really need is for someone to check every single unit, and every single other room, in The Superscraper. A flying drone could scan them, but it wouldn’t be able to open the doors, and that’s the bulk of the work. Plus, a drone doesn’t need and bed and a roof over its head. The family only requests that they be allowed to retain their citizenship in the United States, and to not vow any sort of fealty to Leona’s nation. Of course, that’s not something they would ever consider asking of anyone, so it won’t be a problem. As long as the U.S. doesn’t have a problem with people crossing the border, they don’t either. They might need to think about hiring some security, though. Once the world learns that they’re open to refugees, it could get chaotic, and they can’t expect the International Relations Bureau to protect them from all threats. It’s really not their job.

“Am I the only one getting the feeling that this is going to grow really quickly?”

“No, I’m feeling it too,” Leona agrees. “We’ve been here for three days, and we already have tenants.”

“I have zero problem helping them out, but we cannot manage this whole building by ourselves. Maybe we should call Heath and Tarboda.”

“Maybe. Maybe we need to start thinking about branching out beyond that...well beyond. I’m picturing welcoming people from all over the world, and Tarboda could be responsible for transport. Heath’s a teacher, he could make sure the kids are getting the resources that they need to keep their minds engaged. Like we said earlier, we’ll want our own form of security. The U.S. government is keeping people away from the border, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any risk from within. I mean, does Mexico not have their own border management system? What about food? The IRB has agreed to let people go back and forth, but what happens when that becomes more complicated? These things are called arcologies because they’re self-sustaining, but someone has to start the sustenance, which means that someone has to plant the seeds in the grow rooms. Do we know anyone who knows anything about that? What kind of technology does the Third Rail have in regards to that. We haven’t even begun to discuss—”

“Leona. You’re spiraling just a little bit. Look at yourself. I mean that literally. Look at your face in a mirror.”

Leona steps over to an aluminum encased support column. It’s not as reflective as a mirror, but it’s good enough. She looks like her sixth grade art teacher, who was—for some reason—responsible for the school’s community garden. He would have loved to see this place, and work on the plant life project. Mateo is right. What they’re talking about is a city, which is obviously what arcologies are designed for. They can’t start with looking for help. They need help finding the help. It’s a daunting task, and it feels like they’re forgetting an unrelated pressing matter. “I’m moving too fast. I’m missing something. Someone made this to keep us busy. It’s a distraction. But from what?”

“Right, from what?” Mateo echoes. “What do we need to do besides this?”

They frown, then look at each other at the same time. “The immortality waters.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 8, 2399

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What Leona and Mateo learned when they tried to explore the upper levels was that all ways up were locked. Alyssa was gone by then, so they couldn’t ask her if she had anything to do with that, and if not, if she could transport them up just to see. They’ll have to get a professional to help them break through, because Alyssa granted Leona temporal energy. This should give her the ability to generate illusions, but it also means that they can’t teleport. Is Alyssa becoming an antagonist, like the Cleanser and so many others before? Different enemies have had different motivations, and different tactics, but one thing they’ve had in common is that they like to come up with arbitrary rules and limitations only to make the team’s lives harder, not usually because of any inherent unbreakable law of the universe. They hope to get her back on their side one day, but they’re prepared for the possibility that it may never happen. They are under the impression that they’ll work together on a permanent basis in the future, but time is in constant flux, and perhaps they were mistaken about the truth of that the entire time.

The doorbell rings, sending an alert to their phones, despite the fact that they never set up any sort of smarthome connections. The couple found a furnished bedroom near the back of the building to sleep in. It was the only one of its kind, leading them to believe that it was made that way specifically for them. Someone constructed this place, and they did so while it was both invisible and soundproof to the rest of New York. Friend or foe, it’s not random. They know what Leona was planning.

As they’re walking through the lobby, they can see two people through the glass doors. One is an IRB agent—or whatever it is they’re called—and the other is an oldish man holding a black bag that kind of makes him look like an old-fashioned doctor making a housecall. It must be the locksmith. Leona answers with a smile. “Hello.”

“Hi, ma’am, I’m Evander Martinez from Evandoor Locksmiths. I was called to get you into some rooms?”

“Floors, more like it,” Leona replies.

“Ma’am, where is Leona Matic?” the IRB agent asks.

“She’s busy with another project.”

“I would really rather speak with her, so I can be sure that this operation is authorized,” the agent requests.

Leona and Mateo exchange a worried look, then Leona sighs. I will go see if I can find her. It may take a little time.”

“We’ll wait.”

“Are you sure?” Mateo asks his wife. If she’s going to attempt to create an illusion mere millimeters from her skin for the first time, she may need, or want, some help.

“I’ll be all right,” she says.

Evander holds up his passport as Leona is walking away.

“We don’t need to see that,” Mateo says to him.

“I promise, I’m all up to code,” Evander says.

“I’m sure you are.”

“I’m willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement,” he continues.

“That will not be...” Leona hears Mateo say as she’s leaving the area. She assumes that his last word was necessary, and she’s wondering if Mr. Evander has some more things to say about this situation. He seems curious and interested, and nonjudgmental.

She rounds the last corner, enters the bathroom, and takes a breath in front of the mirror. She tries to shake the nerves and anxiety out of her body. “Okay, Leona, you can do this. It’s you. All you have to do is make yourself look like you. You know exactly what you look like, right? Who knows your face better than you? No one, that’s who.” She shakes some more, and jumps up and down like an athlete pumping themselves up before the big game. “All right, here we go.” Nothing happens. She doesn’t feel a thing, causing her to worry that Alyssa just shot some pretty lights into her chest, and didn’t give her any temporal energy at all. It was all just a weird joke. She’ll never know unless this works, at least a little bit. “I see now, that was asking a lot. Don’t change your whole body, or even your face. Hair color. You have red hair. Change your hair to red. Do it. Do it. Change your hair. Make it red.” She rolls her eyes, and turns away in frustration. “Here I am, trying to wiggle my big toe like Beatrix Kiddo.”

Leona glances back at the mirror, sure that nothing’s changed, and who should be staring back at her, but none other than Uma Thurman. She jumps back in fright, not because she’s afraid of Uma Thurman, but because she didn’t expect it to happen. It didn’t feel like she was changing. Though, that’s the thing, this isn’t shapeshifting. A perfect hologram of someone else has been wrapped around her body, but you can’t touch light, so it shouldn’t feel like anything. “Well, that sure is something, isn’t it? Problem is, I don’t think these people have seen Kill Bill. I need to look like Leona Matic.” She turns away again. “Here I am, trying to look like Leona Matic like...like Alyssa McIver.” She faces the mirror again, but she’s still Uma Thurman. “So those aren’t the magic words, it’s something else.”

Mateo enters the bathroom, startling her again. “How is it going, honey?”

“Why are you here?”

“I was worried about you.”

“I’ve been gone for, like, two minutes. It’s a big building, and we have access to a few floors.”

“Leona, you’ve been gone for more like twenty minutes.”

What? “Crap!” She realizes something as she’s looking at her watch. He didn’t seem to notice that he was talking to Uma Thurman. That’s because she doesn’t look like her anymore. She’s back to being Alyssa. Cool, so she can look like anyone but herself. “Are they pissed?”

“I let them in.” He shows her the security feed from his phone, which also just magically appeared when he needed it. “They’re sitting comfortably in the lobby.”

Leona nods, but she doesn’t really care. She’s not having a good time. “I don’t know if I can do this, Matty.”

He smiles kindly at her, and leans forward, planting a soft but passionate kiss upon her lips. When he separates from her, he’s looking at his wife. He smiles again.

Leona sees herself in the mirror. “How did you know that would work?”

“You’ve always disliked being affectionate with me in other people’s bodies. And hey, if it didn’t work, at least I would have gotten to feel what it’s like to smooch Alyssa McIver.”

“We are not using this power for roleplay.”

“No, ma’am,” he says with a faux serious face. He’s not so sure about that.

They leave the bathroom, and return to the lobby where they find the agent and locksmith unperturbed by the amount of time that took. Leona reintroduces herself, and assures the agent that he is free to go. They’ll be fine. If Evander the Locksmith turns out to be Evander the Assassin, she’ll just make herself look like a rageing gorilla, or something.

Once the agent leaves, they lead Evander up the stairs to the locked door that should take them to the residential levels. The first few levels are an assortment of offices, and similar spaces, and they combine to span the entire width and length of the plot of land. The upper levels are called spokes, but they could be thought of as wings. There are six of these spokes, in between which is open space. On top of the bottom levels is a roof that could be used for a garden, or short walking paths. This is very similar to main sequence architecture for standard megastructure arcologies, except half the size. Those are two kilometers tall, with twelve extra long spokes. The first levels are larger too, of course, and serve as communal areas for eating, socializing, and their form of shopping, which obviously doesn’t involve the exchange of money for goods.

It takes the man a good hour to break through. The lock was reportedly extremely complicated, and he apparently only kept going this far, because Leona is the king of the whole country. She tried to correct his perception, but he’s just one person. If that’s what people think of her, then she has an image problem, and she may need to think about hiring a publicist. Evander tried to step away to give them some privacy, but they ask him to press on, in case there are any more unruly doors they need through. They don’t need privacy anyway. All of this is going to become public knowledge at some point, as long as they clear any other hurdles standing in Leona’s way of doing with the building as she wants. If it doesn’t work out, then it really doesn’t matter what’s behind these doors.

They step through cautiously, and walk down the hallway. Everything appears as they expected except for the inside of each room. They’re of the refugee model, which is exactly what Leona was thinking for her goals, but main sequence arcologies have never really needed them. A basic rule of thumb is that a cuboid unit accommodates a single person. Now, that may mean that a hypothetical individual lives alone in a studio apartment layout, or it could be a family of five with a kitchen, a living room, a master bedroom, two bedrooms and a turfed lawn for a dog. That adds up to six units, but couples could also fit in a studio, or a family of six may only need four units. It’s the average that counts, and for the most part, the math works out pretty well, which is why estimating residential capacity is generally pretty accurate for these structures, even though they’re so customizable. Each unit is exactly the same size and shape.

The bottom floors were mostly not furnished, except for a few places here and there, like that little bedroom, one bathroom, and enough of the lobby to get by. The first unit they walk into is fully stocked with enough bunk beds for eight people. If they’re all like this, then we’re talking well over 600,000 potential residents. The bottom floors could be used for services, socializing, and recreation, but any unused rooms could be fitted with bunks as well to house even more people. They haven’t even checked for a basement.  Leona doesn’t know who might need to live in these units one day, but it may not be long before they can move in. The three of them spread out down the hallway, and check other rooms. They’re bunked up too. They manage to get the elevator working, and choose random levels to explore as well. All bunked up. All of them.

“Someone put a lot of effort into this,” Leona notes. “That’s either really good, or it’s really bad.”

“Perfect,” Mateo says sarcastically. “Another mystery. Add it to the pile.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 7, 2399

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About a week ago, a building in the middle of Manhattan, New York City, New York appeared out of nowhere that the people are calling The Superscraper. It was national news, but no one on the team—nor anyone affiliated with them—was paying attention to anything going on in the world. Their own concerns overshadowed anything in the public view. Not even Winona was apprised of the situation, though her father has been closely monitoring this development. The government is not allowed to go in, though, because while the building is located within the borders of the United States, it’s not technically a part of it. It is a Microsovereignty. It is Leona’s Microsovereignty.

The building is unlike any other in the world. It’s more like something one might find in the main sequence, or the Parallel. The Fifth Division doesn’t really do planetary structure as most everyone lives in space, but they would be capable of such an architectural feat. It’s a thousand meters high, and 180 meters wide, which is about half the size of a standard main sequence arcology. Depending on how high the floors are, you could serve hundreds of thousands of people here, or more. Who built this, and why? Leona had the idea to do something like it at some point, but a whole lot of other stuff got in the way, particularly all of her death threats, so she abandoned the idea, and the Microsovereignty itself.

Mateo and Leona only know now that anything happened to this place because it’s where Alyssa wants to meet. The whole area has been cordoned off by the International Relations Bureau, which normally wouldn’t be responsible for such matters, but it’s one of few exceptions. The two of them were placed on a list, because Leona no longer looks like herself. If she had access to temporal energy, she might be able to create the illusion of her real face, but as it stands, Alyssa appears to be the only one with such power. That’s why she didn’t need to put herself on the list, because she’s made herself look like Leona.

The outside is incredibly impressive, and the inside is just as, though still barebones, unfurnished. Alyssa, who still looks like Leona, greets them in the lobby. “Thank you for coming.”

“Hm.” Leona has interacted with people who look exactly like her before. One of them, Arcadia isn’t even an alternate version of her. She’s not sure why she’s so unsettled by it, but she would prefer it if Alyssa turned it off.

Alyssa seems to sense this. “Oh, sorry about that.” She drops the illusion, and goes back to her own face, which is weird too, what with Leona also looking like that. Everything and everyone needs to go back to the way they were.

“Are you feeling any better, or are you still against us?” Mateo asks her.

“I was never against you,” Alyssa tries to argue. “I’m brainwashed. Now, I know what you’re gonna say, if I’m aware of that, why can’t I just counteract it?”

“Neither of us thinks it should be so easy,” Leona tells her. “The mind is complicated, and space and time travel adds an extra dimension to it, because who knows where the technology that did this to you comes from?”

“I certainly don’t,” Alyssa promises.

“What’s changed then? Why are we here?”

“I would like to make a proposal,” Alyssa begins. “If you agree to cease all attempts at bringing temporal energy back to this world, I will bestow one of you access to your bodily alterations so that you may use them at your discretion. I don’t care which, though I know which one of you I would choose.”

“We weren’t trying to bring back temporal energy,” Mateo contends. I had to get out of range so I could bring my wife back.”

“Yes, I understand that,” Alyssa says. “I sensed your escape, and I sensed the bubble rushing out to keep up with you. Before you get mad, I did not personally make that happen. I am the Gyroscope’s caretaker, not its master. It works as long as I don’t leave for 50,000 years. No, I’m not talking about that, you were poking at the bubble before, and you still are. It has nothing to do with your little space excursion.”

Mateo and Leona exchange a look to see if the other has any idea. “We have no clue what you’re talking about. All we’re doing is observing it.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Alyssa requests.

“We’re not lying. We came to this world without powers. Our only concerns are Angela and Marie, and what happens to them when they get back.”

“They will be afforded exceptions as well,” Alyssa says. “I want them both to live as much as you do.”

“If you can make an exception for them—” Mateo begins before Leona hushes him up with a short shake of her head.

“So you are poking the bubble?” Alyssa presses.

“No, we are not,” Leona explains. “He just likes to poke holes in people’s arguments. If you’ll make an exception for Angela and Marie, and do whatever you could to help Arcadia, we would be grateful.”

“What’s wrong with Arcadia has nothing to do with me,” Alyssa reveals. “I’m afraid I can’t help her, though I would. You’re all my friends. I still want to be part of the team. I just have other loyalties now.”

“We understand.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, we do. We’ve been doing this a lot longer.”

Alyssa nods, agreeing to disagree. “Have you decided which of you will get their abilities back?”

“You’re still going to give that to us, even though we’re not...poking the bubble?”

Alyssa laughs. “I promised a gift, I’ll give you a gift. I suppose I should ask you to not poke the bubble, whether you have been doing it already or not.”

“Give it to her,” Mateo says of his wife. “She needs to look like herself.”

Alyssa regards Leona. “Is this amenable to you? You won’t be able to teleport.”

“I want this building,” Leona clarifies. Powers are great, but something tells her that this tiny little nation will soon be far more valuable than being able to jump around the globe a few hours faster. “Give me back my face.”

“Very well.” Alyssa reaches behind her back, and pulls out a cane with a giant-ass diamond at the top. It’s the Dilara Cane.

“Where the hell did you get that?” Leona questions.

“Dalton Hawke let me borrow it.”

“That is what sent us to this reality, did you know that?” Mateo asks.

“Hmm.” Alyssa examines the object. “He taught me how to make exceptions with it, and to maintain myself as an exception. He didn’t say anything about other realities.” She points it at Mateo. “Do you want I should send you back?”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 6, 2399

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Mateo brought one of Ramses and Leona’s little leechcraft up into space, thinking that it could be of some use to them, and he turned out to be right. Leona deployed it from the vacuum tent, leaving it in their then-orbit before they went back towards Earth in Mangrove Rocket Eleven. It is capable of a little station-keeping on its own, but it works best when latched onto some other satellite. It immediately fell into a decaying orbit, which means that it will eventually burn up in the atmosphere, but it will probably be years before that happens. They don’t need it to stay up there forever. They just want to get an idea of how this mysterious Omega bubble works.

“Anything?” Mateo asks. It’s late, and they’re back in the Kansas City lab with Tarboda and Heath, who are both asleep.

Leona takes a sip of her tea. “So far, so good. The bubble has not yet reached the leechcraft.”

“What does that mean?” he presses. “Did it shrink, or just stay where it is?”

She takes another sip. “There’s no way to know. If and when the bubble reaches it, there will be a split second before it shuts off where I might be able to tell that the bubble is the reason that this happened, and I didn’t just lose contact with it because of a micrometeoroid, or interference, or something. We may never be sure where the bubble is, and where it isn’t. By its very nature, it blocks such observation.” She takes another sip, and doesn’t even give herself enough time to set the cup down before she needs yet another.

“What I’m observing right now,” Mateo begins, “is that you need to go to bed.”

“No, I’m fine. I’m working.”

He points at one of the other screens. “What does this mean here?”

Leona peers at it. “Well, that—that means the big satellite we have up there is detecting temporal energy. The bubble must be receding. How did I miss that?”

“Because it’s like I said, you’re too tired.” He kind of paws at her.

“Bzzz!” she exclaims, trying to swat him away like a fly, then takes another sip.

“What exactly is this you’re drinking?” Mateo picks it up himself, and takes a tiny sip. “Whoa, this is black tea. If you take any more of this, you’ll be up all night. Come on.” He gently tries to pull her away from the machine. “It's time for bed.” He pulls a little harder when she resists.

“Mateo, this development means that I have to stay!”

“The computer is monitoring the bubble’s progress, right? You don’t have to be here to watch it. You’ve had a long day, and a long few weeks before that, and a long few months before that, and I could go back to the beginning of the first timeline you remember, couldn’t I? I know you want to keep on this, but you could make more mistakes. You don’t want that, do you?”

“No,” she replies in a nervous little girl voice.

“Go on upstairs,” Mateo urges softly. He starts waving his hand at the computer like a philistine. “I’ll call you if I see something happen on the thing.”

Leona nods, and turns away. Just then, the computer beeps. She spins right back around. “What was that?”

Mateo leans in to read it. “It’s a message...from Alyssa. She wants to meet.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 5, 2399

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Their new rocket pilot, Hemi has been trying to get as far away from Earth as possible, but they can’t seem to get far enough. Leona keeps resurfacing in Mateo’s brain, but then disappears again within minutes. He’s glad to know that she’s still there and alive, but he can’t hold onto her consciousness. She can’t say much while she’s active, but she’s been able to deduce that the Omega Gyroscope’s range is growing. It’s not doing so spontaneously, though. The math doesn’t work out. Based on how long Alyssa has been the Gyroscope’s new little keeper, it should have spread far beyond the current orbit by now if it had been moving outwards at the same pace that it is exhibiting now. Her conclusion is that it moves as the ship moves into higher orbits. Or rather, it’s Mateo. As he moves outwards himself, the bubble expands to compensate. He will never get far enough away from Earth to escape it; not permanently, anyway.

“Stop!” Leona orders upon her next return. “Don’t go into a higher orbit!”

“We’ve already stopped,” Mateo informs her. He’s speaking out loud for the both of us. He drops his sunglasses down every time that she’s in the driver’s seat.

Leona breathes a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. We can’t let this thing get out any farther. People could die.”

“We need you,” Mateo isn’t arguing that it’s not risky to keep going, but they have to go at least a little higher, or they may never get Leona back. He understands that other people’s lives are at stake here, but it’s worth it. He thinks so anyway.

“I’m sorry, it’s just not going to happen. I’m about to lose you, but I wanted to tell you one last time...were I you.”

“Were I you,” Mateo echoes. “Hello? Hello?” He closes his eyes in sadness. She’s already gone. That wasn’t much time. It was the shortest moment yet.

“Forgive my ignorance,” Hemi pries, “but what is the danger in continuing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to get you to do it. I think I just don’t have all the facts.”

“The...superpower blocker—I guess I’ll call it—is reacting to me. It doesn’t matter how far out we go, it will always catch up. Now, I may be able to teleport away from it, and give myself more time, but then what am I gonna do? Besides, that could place us too close to our friends, who are already out here.” This hypothetical bubble will eventually reach the AOC, which could have terrible consequences. Marie is Angela's duplicate, and she may pop out of existence, for all they know. If they’re the cause, they have to minimize the damage as much as possible. “We can’t let that happen.”

“Maybe if we go back towards Earth, the bubble will shrink?” Heath suggests, not sure if it makes him sound like a total idiot, or not.

“It’s not entirely implausible,” Mateo replies, channeling Leona’s spirit without actually being able to communicate with her at the moment. “I suppose I could imagine that the Gyroscope wants to conserve energy, and really only wants to focus on where there are people to control.”

“Hmm,” Tarboda utters.

“What?” Mateo asks.

“No, nothing. It’s not a solution. I just thought of something. Go on.”

“You can teleport yourself?” Hemi asks. “Like all on your own?”

“Yes, as long as I’m not in this stupid bubble,” Mateo replies.

Hemi starts thinking about it. “How much can you take with you? Can you do it with a vacuum suit? Can you take a whole ship?”

“Definitely not the whole rocket. Yeah, I could take a suit, but I couldn’t take both me, and Leona’s suit, and the equipment I’ll need to transfer her mind out of me.”

“What about a tent? It’s thin and light.”

“Do you have a tent, because yeah, one of the first things we learned when we became time travelers is that tents will jump with us.”

“Of course I do.” He reaches under the command console, and pulls out a large pack. He tears something off the back of it. “This will protect you in the vacuum. Normally, you wouldn’t have long to open it up, and get in, then inject yourself with medicine before your eyes pop out, but we can set it up in here, right?”

“Yeah. That will fit me and my wife’s new body?” Mateo asks.

“Sure will. Not too much else, but absolutely,” Hemi replies.

It was an overstatement to say that they were going to set it up. He just releases the tent. It opens on its own, and seals itself up. They reopen it, and place what they needed inside, including Alyssa’s vacant body, the Insulator of Life, and the Livewire. Mateo doesn’t really know how to operate these things, but none of this works unless Leona is awake anyway.

Against Leona’s orders, Hemi navigates the rocket into a higher orbit. As soon as Mateo senses that his temporal abilities and bioenhancements have returned, he tells him to stop. Despite Leona’s protests, Mateo teleports himself as far as he can without risking getting too close to the location of the AOC, the distance of which he only has a rough idea of.

“What are you doing?” Leona questions.

“I’m trying to save your life,” Mateo replies as he’s getting the Insulator and Livewire ready, though he doesn’t think they have any use for the former in this situation. “Now, you can either make this work while we still have time, or we can argue about it, and waste this opportunity.”

Leona growls. “Let me drive.”

“Are you gonna get into Alyssa’s body?”

“Yes, now let me drive.”

“Okay.” Mateo relinquishes control of his body.

Leona places one end of the Livewire in Alyssa’s hand, and takes hold of the other. She reaches over to the portable power source, and prepares to plug it in. “It might try to take hold of you. Don’t let it. Fight it, Mateo. Only my consciousness is meant to transmit down the wire. Fight it.”

“Okay.”

She plugs it in.

She was right. He can feel electricity surge through his body, and also somehow his mind, like he’s also imagining it at the same time. To combat the pull, he decides to imagine himself holding onto the railing of a balcony, desperately trying not to fall into the void below.

Leona appears next to him, also holding onto the railing. She’s not putting as much effort into it, though. “See you on the other side.” She lets go, and falls. It works.

They float there in the middle of interlunar space for a bit until Hemi comes by to pick them up. Before they enter the rocket, they leave a little present outside.