The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 14, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

Imani Pettis is a Compliance Enforcer in the Church of Daltomism. Unlike most Daltomists at her level, she began in a starter house where she could have easily been lost in the crowd. People who have risen up the ranks to be where she is today have done so after being born into more elite status. There’s a downside to this, because while it’s impossible to begin in the uppermost levels, those who start at the upper levels just under those are not always considered worthy by the general Daltomistic population. Imani garners a lot of respect, because she started at nothing, and earned her place. She belongs to what is called a Singularity Church, which basically means that she operates autonomously, and at the behest of the Primary Church. The paradox is complicated, but even though there are thousands of members of the Primary Church, they each technically belong to their own church. That is what gives them the highest elite status.

Imani attends services all over her region, which encompasses the majority of Northeast United States. She is there to ensure that the local chapters are following the Word of Dalton faithfully, and that no one in the congregation strays from the path too significantly. The point of starter houses is to determine who is worthy to move up to smaller meeting houses, which means that technically, people here don’t have to do anything The Word says. But she will still instruct the local leadership on how to guide the wandering flock towards the Mountain of Truth. It’s unclear why she has requested a meeting with Leona Matic, but Heath wanted to impress her because of what she can do for their mission, so he set it up right away.

“Madam Pettis,” Leona says with her hand outstretched. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” She shakes her hand. “You may call me Imani.”

“Thank you, Imani. How can I help you today?”

Imani looks around, and walks forward a little. “What is the purpose of this building?”

“We hope to turn it into a refugee sanctuary. It’s not quite ready. We need to inspect all of the rooms, and there are many.”

Imani nods. “How did you come to create it? Or did someone create it for you?”

Leona looks to Heath for guidance, but he isn’t giving anything away. Okay, so a building appeared out of nowhere in the middle of downtown, which threw out the whole secrecy thing. For now, Leona has been able to remain quiet about how she’s not stunned that this happened, but it may be time to change that. If she were freaking out, she would probably be telling people, and asking the public how the hell it happened. She doesn’t know how it happened, but she knows that they can’t help her. “Someone appears to have created it for us. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, and this building fits those parameters. I’ve taken it as a gift from an anonymous donor.”

Imani laughs. “An anonymous donor builds an invisible building for you, and then just suddenly makes it visible? I would like to meet the person with such power.”

She probably doesn’t need to know about the Omega Gyroscope. Whoever built it may not have known that it would be activated, and was intending to keep the Superscraper hidden for longer. Unless that person was Dalton himself, which is a plausible theory. “There are things in this world that most would not understand.”

“Yet you understand it?” Imani prods.

“Some things I know, some things I don’t,” Leona quotes a TV show.

“Quite,” Imani replies. She looks around some more, and steps a bit deeper in. “A Dark Citadel will fall from the heavens, and make its mark in the Center of World Power. The Watchers who come out of it will change the world forever, and the people shall know the Life of God.”

“Ma’am?” Heath asks vaguely.

“Word of Dalton, Book Two, Chapter Thirty-One.” She grins at him. “Yes, dear, there is a second Word of Dalton book. You have not learned enough to know it.” Pretty impressive, keeping the existence of a whole prooftext out of public knowledge, especially in this advanced informational age. She goes on, “tell me, do either of you recall the date that this building appeared?”

“March 1,” Heath replied.

“March 1, 2399.” She holds up a tablet, and navigates to the chapter in question. “Chapter 31...month three, day one. Page two,” she says as she swipes to the second page. “Paragraph three, words 99 through 137. March 1, 2399,” she repeats. Numerology: the fool’s excuse for being late.

“Interesting,” Leona says, trying not to scoff at the absurdity, knowing in the back of her mind that it’s possible that the book is telling the truth, and this has all been orchestrated to turn out exactly as Dalton wished.

“Tell me,” she repeats herself, “would you consider New York City to be the Center of World Power?”

“One could argue that,” Heath says.

“One could also argue that it’s Kansas. Perhaps the whole country is the world power, and Kansas is literally in the middle of it.”

Imani points at her. “Exactly, my child. Because that’s how Dalton’s words often go. He frequently means something literally that most would take metaphorically, or culturally. And while Daltomism began in Africa, many competing religions were started somewhere in the land which would become North America. Some believe that Kansas holds a plethora of sacred secrets. Besides, look around...would you consider this place to be a dark citadel? Why, it’s so white, I was nearly blinded by the façade when I pulled up.” She’s right. Normal arcological megastructures are painted a gray base, which can alter its tint automagically to reflect or absorb sunlight, depending on the regional climate, and current weather where it’s built. The Superscraper is shockingly white, making it stand out even more amongst all the puny little skyscrapers below, and it doesn’t appear to change colors at all. Plus, it shouldn’t really be described as a citadel.

“So this is not the structure as foretold in your...little book,” Leona says, knowing that it’s a pretty disrespectful way to word it, especially considering it may all be real.

“That was why I wanted to come here, and why I appreciate your accommodation, despite the line of others ahead of me.” It’s true, the number of people who have asked to cross the border has grown exponentially, and that is showing no signs of slowing down. Most of them likely don’t have any particular reason they want to come. They’re curious more than anything, but as soon as they find out that she was invited without any sort of waiting list, or whatever, others might start to feel a little ticked off. Hopefully Imani does not intend to ask for more than just a few answers.

“So we’re agreed that this is not the Dark Citadel?” Leona presses.

“It’s not, but that does not mean that it is not something else. Mr. Walton, tell me what you know of the False Watchers of the Other Worlds.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 13, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

Leona was still hesitant to let Heath go undercover in the Church of Daltomism alone, but he’s finally doing it today. Daltomists meet every day of the week, but Fridays are the biggest. At first, he thought that that would be the best day to go, but if he’s trying to establish himself in the community, Saturday may be the better choice. He may be able to stand out more here, which is what he really needs. Of course, this is such a large congregation that a smaller service is still pretty big, but he has other ways of getting noticed. They practiced strategies yesterday.

He’s not going to start right away. He has to get his bearings first, and find out who here has the power to help him infiltrate. In Daltomism, just because someone is up on stage, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone in the audience who is more important than them. He’s looking for someone who all of the other congregants are avoiding, but not like they smell, because they respect and fear them. They’re more than likely too high ranked to be worshiping here as a normal person, and are here to make sure that this particular location is following the teachings of Dalton, and not straying from The Word. This person won’t know that Dalton is alive, but they may know someone who knows someone, who knows someone, ad infinitum.

There. That’s her. She’s holding herself with a strong sense of entitlement and superiority. She’s disgusted by the size of this place. In other faiths, the larger group of followers you have in one place, the more clout you have amongst the other chapters. Daltomism is different. The smaller the meeting house, the more elite you are, which is why this place is so gargantuan. It’s a starter house, and doesn’t require an invitation. He doesn’t really have time to prove himself, though. He has to move up the ranks fast...or else. That’s why he needs to get in the good graces of whoever this woman is, because she’s his ticket into something greater.

He won’t approach her right away. In fact, he’ll probably never try to speak with her at all. He’ll have to find some way to get himself noticed. He doesn’t want her to know that he’s targeting her, after all. God, he sounds like such a creep. This is important, though. Knowing that Dalton is just a man with access to special powers makes him seem a lot less mystical. Heath was never a huge believer, especially since he was taught to believe that he would never amount to much, but the truth has pushed him over the edge. He doesn’t feel bad about doing this, and doesn’t consider these his people anymore. Let’s see, he needs to get himself on stage. He doesn’t have to be the center of attention, but they sometimes bring people up to sing. They usually pick from the front, and he didn’t get here early enough for a good seat, but maybe he can swing it.

While he’s thinking about that, the woman he was eying suddenly approaches. “I know who you are,” she says to him, almost accusatorily.

“You do?” he questions. He’s not famous, in any circles. She shouldn’t recognize him in the least, especially not since they’re a thousand miles from Kansas City.

“I saw you on the news. You weren’t featured, but you were there, being led into that woman’s crime hole.”

“Oh. It’s not a crime hole. She’s trying to change all that.”

“Yeah, I don’t need to hear the pitch. I just need you to get me in the building.”

“That I can do,” he says with a smile. “Hi, I’m Heath Walton.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 12, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

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

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

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

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

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

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

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

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

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

« < » > Table of Contents

Generated by Canva text-to-image AI software

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?”