element_wizard | (no subject)

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Continuing from this conversation.

Alec's thoughts were racing fast as he ran through HQ to his own response center. He had teleported into the middle of the cafeteria, which was a good three levels... on a good day, away from his response center. The blasted geography of the place seemed to be working against him right then. He didn't want to risk another teleports cause gods only knew where that would cause him to end up. Skittering past agents, flowers and minis he made his way ino 3b where Marc-C was sitting reading a manual for a new gun she had bought.

"Where's the Portal Device?" he blurted out. His partner looked at him with that same annoyed look that she always had when it came to him.

"Where it always is," she said, starting for snarky but ending up sounding a bit worried at Alec's franticness. "What's going on Troven?"

"Don't know exactly. Have to pull family away for a bit. Universe Auditors or something notreallysure want me and kids dead... probably Verra too."

Marc-C stared at him blankly. He had slipped into his native tongue in his excitment, which she didn't understand. Not realizing this he waves and set the portal device for home, early evening, when everyone should be home. Fortunately the portal devices were designed for the technology impaired and the shiny button lover, so it worked and he dropped right on the front lawn of his house.

"Verra!" he called out as he stormed into the house, "Grab the kids we've got to get out of here!"

Verra was in the middle of fixing dinner when he came in. She looked at him. And worry dashed across her face. "What's going on?"

"Auditors...somethinglike that. Want me dead. Possibly the kids..." he said. That was really all she needed.

"Sari's taking a nap before dinner, Braxious is in his room doing homework. I'll get the kids you get supplies."

The two darted off into seperate directions. Supplies were kept in the back room. Alec had been thinking about this and figured that it would be best to get stuff only avalible from his home world. He didn't want to prove his stuishness any more than he already had. Into a duffle bag he threw knives, hunting snares, and two cross bows with bolts. In his pockets went his theives tools and a few other knives. As a second thought he grabbed rations and some first aid. He wish he could have taken a Mordikian's Magnificant Mansion with him, but that was definately not from his world. He had his sword. He had his armor. Verra was a killing machine in her own right. Every thing was going to be fine. It had to be.

The only thing he took that wasn't from his world was the Neuralizer. He didn't have the ability normally to erase memories.

He went back to the kitchen, and after a moments hesitation grabed a small bottle marked "Elf's Bane" from the cupboard. It was for Sari, though he didn't want to use it on her. It dampened magical abilities, and he hoped that it would stop her from teleporting accidently. They really didn't need to loose track of her. They hadn't used it before because she was too young. She still was too young. He bit his lip in worry as he slipped it into a pouch. She hadn't been doing much teleporting lately. Just kinda of sitting. Which was also worrysome. But not for now.

Verra handed him Sari, and she took the duffle bag with the weapons, adding with it the baby bag. It looked rather odd, the four of them, he supposed. One bag of weapons, one bag of baby things, a boy in a t-shirt and jeans and a man dressed in ratty chainmail and leather armor. Not to mention the housewife with the baby.

"Now where?"

"Portal device." He fumbled for the sheet of paper and handed it to her. "There."

"That's the Slider's verse!" she said punching in the coordinates. "What do we want there?"

"Mallory's device."

She looked at him, but punched open the device. Verra, unlike her husband, was handy with technology. The portal let them out right infront of Quinn Mallory's house. They stepped through. "Now what?" she asked, Braxious clinging to her arm, looking wide eyed and rather frightened. He hadn't said a single thing, but clung to his mother.

"Send it to Marvel 616, the portal device."

Again, she looked at him, but did as she was told. He could see the questions wanting to be asked smoldering in her eyes. Thankfully she trusted him enough to know what he was doing.

He just hoped he did know.

The Mallory's house was an easy pick for Alec. The slipped into the silent house. People were still sleeping. Up until there was a triumphant yell from the basement. Husband and wife looked at each other and baby was swapped to mother and Braxious was picked up by his father as they made their way to the basement. "Brax, I'm gonna need you to do me a favor. The neuralizer is in my pocket...yeah, set it for three minutes."

"What about sunglasses?" he asked.

"What about sunglasses?" Quinn Mallory asked looking rather surprised to see the four of them on the bottom of his basement stairs. With a rather lovely snarl, and exhuding a deadly menace Verra snaped at him.

"Sliding device. Now." Three words with all the meaning of 'if you don't give it to me right this second, I will do unpleasent things to you and you will reget the day your ancestors left the trees.' Mallory handed over the Timer, almost before his brain had a chance to process exactly what he was doing. "Thank you."

Alec handed her the next set of coordinates and she punched them in. The vortex opened in a swirling soothing blue. "I hate these." She muttered, as she fiddled with the device, wiping out where they were going. "See you in a minute?"

"Of course." He then turned to Quinn, "If you'd excuse me, I can explain what's going on." Braxious, having seen Men In Black far too many times than is good for a small boy - dragonic or human - knew exactly when to flashy him. "Which is absolutely nothing. We weren't here. Enjoy your toy." He placed it on the table and followed his wife.

Blinking the spots out of his eyes Quinn looked around and vaguely wondered how the timer got on the table.

On the other side, Verra snaked around in her dragonic form. They had found a quiet place and she was watching the perimeter as Alec settled the children in, explaining in hushed tones that it was just for a little while and nothing bad was going to happen to them. Very few bad things could happen with a very cranky dragon protecting her hatchlings. At least to the hatchlings. To other people was a different story all together. A very bad and painful one.

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*It was three days before Caretaker showed up. He didn't look hurt or anything, just exhausted. Without a word, he sinks onto a seat and just sits there, looking more tired and miserable then a comsic being should.*

Where upon Verra immediately tried to eat him. Quicker than thought the maw of the large angery and VERY cranky dragon snaked down and snaped on him.

*His voice can be heard from inside her mouth in a dry, sort of "If I don't laugh, I'll cry tone"* I take it you told her.

"Actually, I didn't," Alec said, "If I had she wouldn't be trying to just eat you. This is her Protetive Mother Dragon Response." He then turned his attention to the dragon, "Verra love... let the guy go, he's here to help. And if he's not you can eat him."

Verra spat him out, and not very gentely. Or cleanly.

*A snap of the fingers, and he's clean again, but no less tired and miserable* Sorry I took so long to show up. *Rubas his eyes with hands, and for a moment, there seems to be two people overlapping each other. One is Caretaker, the other a boy, who is either fourteen or a very young sixteen. Then the boy vanishes. It's been a long three days.

Verra rounded on him again, eyes glowing molten red. She growled out, "Are you the one who's going to tell me why my husband running scared like a rabbit?" Her tail twitched, sweeping back and forth like a deadly cat's tail.

Behind her could be seen a sleeping Braxious with his arm around his sister.

"Um... right. So um Verra this is... Dale. Dale's the one who's going to explain everything to you."
He gives the Caretaker a sort of 'sorry about the name, you never gave me yours and it's the first one that came to mind' look.

*Is amused by the name*

I suppose. In a sense, its my fault. Sit down, both of you.

*Takes a deep breath.*

We call ourselves the Caretakers. It's who we are, what we are, and what we do. Our main purpose is the hunting and extermination of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, though really, that's more of a case of cleaning up our mess as we created them to begin with. *Holds up a hand to forestall questions* That's a story by itself and there's no time for that.

Three days ago, orders came down from the Elders that all Sues or Stus were to be captured, interred, and if they resisted, they were to be killed. Some of the more notorious ones, like you, Alec, are to be killed on sight.

Obviously, I'm disobeying those orders. With me, so far?

Alec glances back at the kids, checking the sleeping status of the older one. Children are notorious for waking up and hearing things that you don't want them to. Verra just glowers steadily at 'Dale'.

"Yeah." Alec said when he was sure that Braxious was in fact asleep.

All right.

Our other job is to keep the Multiverse balanced. Snip off a timeline here, make a change there, keep an eye on things.

For the past few months, I've been seeing some . . . irregularities. Nothing I can prove, nothing I can take to the bank, as it were, just a strong, instinct that something is wrong and it's not some quirk of dimensional physics. Something is mucking around with the Multiverse.

And finally, there's the fact that aside from myself, as best I can tell, none of the Caretakers are questioning the new Orders. At all.

Verra glared at Alec, who held up his hands, "Look the only mucking I did was in my home 'verse. And I reverted that." She glared at him a while longer before turning it back to Dale.

"Do they usually question Orders?" Verra then asked.

Not question, the Elders don't like defiance. But there should be something. Complaining, grumping about the time and trouble we have to take, anything. But no, everyone is cheerful and gung-ho.

Which means either I'm abnormal, or the Caretakers are being controlled and for some reason, it missed me.

Verra snorted. "So they're rounding everyone up. Won't they notice he's missing? What about the hatchlings?" Her tail curled affectionately around Alec, who stroked it gently.

"And how safe are you?" Alec added.

Of course they will. Which is why I had him throw the demension jumper into 616 and erase the coords from Mallory's device. With any luck, they'll spend ages poking around 616 and its offshoots . If we're really lucky, they'll go into Superman's universe. That's even more convoluted. Hypertime is a merry hell.

As for me, no clue. I've been playing the good soldier and I'm pretty sure I'm clear as long as I don't draw attention to myself.

The big question is Why, and How? Why Intern the Sues, and how did the Caretakers get taken over like that, and why aren't I taken over as well?

"If I was the sort to intern a buncha sues, I'd do it as a power source. Can you imagine the sheer ability to warp reality in one place with all those Sues? I mean just one Sue has the ability to do that in a localized area, effecting canons. But canons can usually resist. You get a bunch of them together..." Alec trailed off and shook his head.

That's the thing. All the ones ordered killed on sight are the notorious ones. Marissa Picard, Oscar Alias, and . . . *trails off, thinking* Unless . . . but that's . . . *stands up, begins to pace*

"I don't know about Oscar, never had to deal with him, but Marrissa she's got brains. The rest of them they're all teenagers, with all the intelligence of Sheep," Alec said, as Verra snorted.

"They are easier to control. Show them Legolas and they'll do whatever you want," she added. "Marrissa she doesn't have that. Alec, he's got his own canon pratically. The others. Like he said, Sheep."

*Stops pacing and looks at Alec* You said you have a self in every universe, right? And you're all connected in a sort of hive mind?

Alec blinked. "Something like that, yeah."

Then . . . maybe . . . *Starts pacing again* But that doesn't make sense with the kill order . . . unless . . .

*Stops*

I have a theory. I think. But it's shaky as hell.

Alec isn't like most Stus. They tend to be driven by appetites, easily predictable, quickly killed if they get out of line. They like acclaim, mostly. Praise. They want to be the center. Alec was never liked that. You don't really seek fame, fortune or adventure, which was why we've been keeping such a close eye on you.

But then you started changing, and all your selves changed with you. You were becoming something other than a Stu, and that's never happened before. You stopped registering as a Stu.

My theory is that they're looking to use your other selves as an army to combine with the Caretakers. But to do that, they can't have the others changing. So, take you out and the change stops.

*Sinks down onto the rock, head in hands, eyes wide in shock* My God . . . if that's true and I'd followed orders . . .

"Because he's the Prime so to speak?" Verra asked. "But could you kill him permantely... because he's died before and always come back."

"I reincarnate as myself. Or something."

Like I said, it's shaky as hell, but it also the only thing I can think of that fits all the facts.

Alec's eyes fluttered shut for a moment, "They've got 616 ... poor guy, he was just a pencil pusher, really not even a mutant. Got... that poofter version on B5. Got some guy named Allen Troven... They haven't hit DC yet... they took 616 alive... they haven't hit my home verse either."

We need . . . a base . . . shit.

I know the perfect place, and I think they're after it as well, but the inhabitants aren't exactly friends of mine, and one of them doesn't like me. At all.

Verra looked at him sweetly. Which is a rather disturbing look on a dragon's face, especailly one that just tried to eat you a few minutes ago. "I'm certain I could talk to them and convince them that helping you is a good idea."

"Most people find agreeing with Verra is better than the alternative," Alec added. "They got one of my real old ones... didn't even think he was still around any more."

The inhabitants in question are Samus Aran and Tak the Irken.

"I know Tak, we've talked in the Sanctuary once or twice," Alec said eyes fluttering open finally. "I think she's scared of Verra."

Verra smirked. This was a compliment to a dragon.

That helps. I guess. All right. I'll set up a meeting if I can. I owe them a few explanations as it is.

*Pulls out a rolled up tent* It's a Wizarding tent from the Potter universe. You know how they are. Best I could sneak out on short notice. The icebox inside is pretty well stocked. *Sets it on the ground*

I'm really sorry to put you through this.

Alec and Verra looked at each other for a moment. "Sari... she teleports sometimes. We haven't been able to stop her from doing this, she gets it from me. They... if she, I couldn't go after her, could I...?" Alec asked.

You can, but be discrete if at all possible. They'll be looking for a teleport signature. That's why I had you use machines.

"She uses the same power-source as I do, I think the signatures would be pretty similar," Alec said, chewing on his lip. "They wouldn't hurt her, would they? She hasn't done anything."

She's your child. Presumably, whatever you're becoming, she has it too.

X seems to be methodical about things like this

Alec and Verra slip into their native tongue and have a rather quick arguement. It sounds something like this:

"What about the-?"

"It's too dangerous, it could kill her."

"We can't have her..."

"There has to be some other way."

"You can't use your powers!"

"I won't use that on her!"

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