Omega-Man: Homecoming

[Jay Omega]

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”There’s no place like home.”
-L. Frank Baum
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Outer Kuiper Belt, Sol System
August 27, 2017
0942 hrs, Local Time

~In space, no one can hear you scream. Hard vacuum doesn’t conduct sound, so it was with an unnerving silence that the space-time continuum folded in on itself, and tore reality a new hole. Though not quite an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, the crackling aperture intruding on the void was so functionally similar as to make no difference. From within the swirling vortex emerged a sleek craft, the elegantly curved hull painted an energy absorbing matte black. Somewhat insectile in appearance, the ship almost resembled a wholly mechanical cross between a wasp and a tailless scorpion -- if a scorpion’s pincers grew from the middle of its back. Despite this passing resemblance to Earth-based creepy crawlies, nothing about the ship’s design, construction, or capabilities were even remotely human. Her captain, on the other hand… “Helm, bring us about; once the nav systems recalibrate, I want a point three kilolight pulse toward the third planet.” Though he had hardly thought of it as such this past year, just being back in this particular reality gave Jay Omega a sense of returning to a home he hadn’t known he’d missed. “And keep the moon between us and the planet; Earth ain’t got much for orbital surveillance, and nothing that could pick us up, but I’m not taking chances.” The helmsbeing - a six-limbed Ylolt called Treepis-Tohn the Grasping - hooted in confirmation, and input the proper command sequence with a quick swipe of the hyperdextrous tendrils at the ends of its upper forelimbs. With no more outward sign than a slight pitch increase in the engines’ ever-present whine, the Khybaris accelerated to 300 times the speed of light.

  “One minute to destination, Shipmaster.” The report carried clearly across the bridge, in the clipped, businesslike tones typical of ‘Darkmaw’. Though she was unquestionably a young human woman of Japanese descent, Darkmaw had been completely ignorant of her species and homeworld when Omega had found her, leading him to believe she’d been abducted at a very young age. She had eventually confirmed that suspicion once Jay had earned her trust. Now, her stubborn insistence on adhering to the extraterrestrial habits and mannerisms she’d learned - instead of the “proper” things Jay had tried to teach her - was a constant source of mild annoyance, but Omega handled it this time with what he felt was grace and poise. He heaved a disgusted sigh, and threw a scowl in her direction that had made many a back alley tough guy rethink his life choices. For her part, Darkmaw met his gaze with her usual impassive demeanor, until a slight crinkling at the corner of one eye suggested the ghost of a smile - her equivalent of a friendly chuckle. “Apologies, I meant Captain.” Her perfectly formal tone, combined with the Attraksi salute she gave him made it clear she was mocking him. A chuffing sound came from Treepis-Tohn’s direction, indicating its amusement at the human banter. A low, wet warbling sound came from behind Jay and to his left, and Omega silently vowed once again that he would never tell Grishnag his laugh sounded like a turkey drowning. More properly the ship’s engineering officer was known as Grishnag’Imbrkaa bel Durhzen Me’nso’nso-Ukishin(or some approximation thereof), but the whole thing was just as much an honorific title as it was his name.

  Besides, it was a mouthful; and he hadn’t complained when Jay had suggested shortening it down to just Grishnag between the crew for simplicity's sake. The squat, gray-skinned alien had just done the weird little head shake thing Omega had eventually figured out was a shrug, and gone on about his business. How a primitive warlord from a backwater planet knew the first thing about calibrating the magnetic acceleration coils, or tuning the kinetic fields on the high yield plasma induction relays was a question that always managed to confound Jay, and he had given up on it in short order. The fact was that Grishnag knew his shit, and Omega wasn’t gonna look a gift alien in the beak. On top of which, Jay owned a set of powered armor from the future, and an alien-built starship, both far beyond his species' current level of technology, so who was he to talk? The Khybaris dropped out of warp several thousand kilometers from the far side of Luna, the Alcubierre field collapsing with a tingling sensation that swept through Jay’s body. “Excellent as always, Treepis-Tohn,” Omega said, and the viewscreen across the bridge flickered to life as he called up a live feed from the ship’s external cameras, “Put us down by that ridge over there and get started on degaussing the hull. I’m gonna go wake Her Majesty.” The helmsbeing hooted in confirmation again, and Jay levered himself up from the command chair as the moon’s surface swelled on the screen before him. Making his way through the innards of the most impressive mobile home in the star system, Omega took a few moments to reflect on the events of the last year; the many changes since his last trip “home”.

  First and foremost would have to be the ship and crew. When last he’d visited Earth - this one specifically - it had been with the aid of a sentient starship which had resembled a cybernetic space dragon. In the months following - after returning to the reality his alien mate originated from - Jay had helped lead an unsuccessful rebellion, making a lifelong enemy of an extraordinarily deadly mercenary captain in the process. The less said about Omega’s encounters with Quadshot, the better; most of them were a source of embarrassment for everyone on the ship. An embarrassment for the crew, since they had been in the employ of Shipmaster “Quadshot” Cazal Ryv’Gouril at the time, and had actively been trying to kill Jay. And an embarrassment for Omega, because they had come frighteningly close far too many times. The mercenary's eventual defeat hadn’t come easy, and had only been achieved by Grimmauld - the living starship - sacrificing himself to drive Quadshot into the heart of a stellar nursery. There had been a tense standoff in the cargo hold of the Khybaris - known as the Xelium Requiem at the time - while the crew and Jay tried to figure out where they stood with each other. Luckily, Darkmaw had decided they were no longer under contract to kill him, scant moments before Omega had been notified that Erin - the digital intelligence who shared space in his skull - had breached the ship’s firewalls, giving him complete control over all the systems. A new business arrangement had quickly been formulated; the crew would work for him, and he wouldn’t blow them all out the airlock. So far, it had been a profitable, enjoyable situation for all involved.

  A more fundamental change, one Jay had found troublesome to deal with, had been the change in Tasha’s attitude. No longer a princess trying to overthrow a corrupt empire, Ymsyllynt’ash’Andwalu was now an exile; the closest thing to a home she had left was the ship. That had caused her to become despondent, listlessly moping about when she had to go anywhere, voluntarily confined to quarters when she didn’t. It had taken Omega the better part of three months - as he reckoned things - to draw a genuine smile from her, not the politely fake one all people of political power seemed to practice. As it was, she still fell into a moody funk from time to time, but Omega was willing to indulge the occasional sulk. Her entire heritage and culture had been taken from her; that was bound to make a person kind of pissy. Tasha had been in just such a mood earlier that day, in fact, and Omega had allowed her to rest, knowing that she wouldn’t be needed on the bridge. The sudden dip in the space babe’s happiness levels had prompted him to make a decision early, though, and now was the perfect time to spring the surprise on his lover. Jay paused in front of the door to his cabin just long enough to swipe his hand through the biometric scanner, and stepped lightly into the room as the door slid aside. Omega quickly crossed the floor on quiet feet, and slipped into bed with Tasha before she could fully come awake. “Guh-- who-- wha--?” The lovely lavender lady mumbled ineloquently. Her amber eyes then fell into focus, gazing into Jay’s own electric blue, and a soft imitation of her usual smile warmed her face. “Pleasant wakings, James. How long have I been asleep?”

  With a small smile of his own, Omega brushed a wild strand of Tasha’s aquamarine hair out of her face, and gave a half shrug. “Dunno,” Jay replied unhelpfully, “That all depends on when you fell asleep, and I wasn’t here for that, what with being up on the bridge and all.” A playful pout pulled at plump plum lips. “Yes, such a shame, that; I had hoped you might allow the ship’s crew to actually crew the ship for once, and would come console me, my Lord Omega.” Tasha’s expression was more than merely suggestive, and she only called him “Lord Omega” when things were getting intimate; happy to see his melancholy princess-in-exile in a better humor, Jay played along rather than spoil the mood with his news. Besides, she was right; Grishnag and Treepis-Tohn could handle the ship just fine, his presence on the bridge wasn't actually required.

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Luna, Sol System
August 27, 2017
1112 hrs, Local Time

~Some time later - Jay hadn’t checked the clock - The Omega Man disentangled himself from Tasha’s slightly sweaty grip and made his way to the alien equivalent of a bathroom, called a refresher. As much as Omega enjoyed the sonic steam bath most alien species seemed to use, Jay was really looking forward to an old fashioned human shower after being in space for so long. Although with the alien shower, he didn’t have to remove any worn clothing; the column of steam moistened his skin and dampened his clothes, while gentle sonic micropulses swept the accumulated dirt and grime off with feather light vibrations, followed by a breezy, warm vortex that drew the remaining water down and away. The whole process took less than five minutes, and generally left Omega feeling, well, refreshed. He supposed that was where the name came from. By the time Jay emerged from the refresher, Tasha had risen from bed, gotten dressed, and was now pulling a lavishly decorated hairbrush through her pale blue-green tresses. Omega stood in the doorway for a moment, and ran an admiring eye over her lithe form. With a shake of his head he moved closer and slipped his arms around her waist from behind, nuzzling into the side of her neck. “I’ve got a surprise for you, Ymsyllynt,” Jay said, using her singular name in the privacy of their quarters, “I figured it was high time we had some shore leave; been cooped up in this tin can too long, ya feel me?” Omega also wanted to take the opportunity to restock his supply of ganja; the cargo hold on the Khybaris had several stasis pods that would keep it fresh indefinitely. And there was also the matter of his ulterior motive, of course.

  “It’s not gonna be all rest and relaxation though, babe; there’s a small business matter I need to attend to during our vacay.” The vanity panel on the wall reflected Tasha’s intrigued expression, and she cocked her head to the side. “I believe your people have a warning against mixing business and pleasure, do they not?” The question was a probing one, and Jay smiled in response. “True. But I’m more of a ‘love what you do’ kind of guy, and I take pleasure in most of my work.” There was a small note of eager anticipation buried in Omega’s voice, and the way he held himself spoke of a spring slowly being compressed. Typically these mannerisms showed themselves when Jay was on the verge of battle, seeing him get so excited at the prospect of a vacation was… Something clicked in Tasha’s mind, and she regarded Jay knowingly. “Tell me, dear one, where have you chosen for this ‘shore leave’ you speak of?” Omega’s grin deepened, and he shook his head as he released her waist and stepped back. “Nuh-uh, sorry princess, that’s part of the surprise.” His secretive behaviour was only furthering her sneaking suspicions about where they were, and what they’d be doing. She wanted confirmation, though. “Erin, what is today’s date, according to Earth’s calendar?” Jay’s grin became rueful and he laughed softly to himself as his mate unraveled his poorly kept secret in short order. “Today’s date is Sunday, August Twenty-Seventh, Two Thousand Seventeen.” The digital intelligence immediately replied, using the internal comm system of the Khybaris. Not quite what Tasha had been expecting, the time frame was still close enough that she took it for the confirmation it was.

  The genuine smile on her lips as she turned to face him proved Omega’s theory correct, and he was even more delighted that she’d immediately sniffed out his surprise. “We’ve returned to Earth, haven’t we? The one you call ‘Six One Six’, yes?” She asked him, the delight in her voice mirrored in her eyes. “You intend to compete in the Grand Melee again, don’t you?” Jay made a sound that was half sigh, half chuckle, and rolled his eyes at her. “Am I so transparent? Yes, my love, that was the plan.” His sparing use of the word love never failed to make Tasha blush, and she bit her lower lip as her lavender cheeks turned a pale orchid, demurely looking away for a moment. “I wasn't sure if I was going to enter this year to be honest, ‘cause I've gotten a little soft from lack of practice, but I noticed you've been kind of down lately. I know how much you like to watch me busting skulls - don't pretend it doesn't turn you on you little animal - and I figured it'd be a good way to turn some of this flab back into muscle.” Omega patted at his “flab” as he said this, the area in question being a rock solid six-pack. “But it ain't gonna be all fun and games; like I said, we're here for a vacation. That, uh, might actually be a problem now that I think about it. I mean, you're beautiful, babe, but you definitely stand out on Earth. The cosplay angle worked last time, but there's a cautionary phrase about using the same well too often. Besides, I really don't think people would buy it in Treepis-Tohn's case.” Tasha conceded that point, while Jay looked thoughtfully into the middle distance, then gave an easy smile as he snapped his fingers. “When in doubt, outsource!” He exclaimed without explanation.

  Omega whirled about and leapt back onto the bed, scrambling across the luxuriant expanse to retrieve his W.E.I.R.D. from where he’d left it on the night stand. Jay slipped the Wearable Espionage, Infiltration, and Reconnaissance Device onto his left forearm and keyed up the communications function. “Hey, Erin, can you sync up with Eye-Seven and get me a line on Nicky? I’ve got a problem I’m hoping my favourite tech genius can solve.” A short, double ‘blat’ responded in the negative before Erin elaborated vocally. “Sorry, Jay; we’re not close enough for me to piggyback a satellite. We’ll have to go around to the other side of the moon at the very least, maybe even closer.” Omega sighed heavily at the inconvenience; he had wanted to lay as low as possible. “Xor damn it, humans! Stop killing each other over stupid shit, and get better technology, for fuck’s sake!” Erin responded to his complaint with synthesized sarcasm, nearly a match for the real thing. “Yes, cell phones that can call the moon; that is exactly what humanity should be working on right now. If I had eyes, I’d be rolling them. Oh, hang on…” A pair of googly eyes lit up on the screen of Jay’s W.E.I.R.D., and proceeded to roll at him on a loop until he powered down the screen. When it lit back up at Erin’s behest, he resisted the urge to roll his own eyes as well. “You can stop that any time, y’know.” The digital intelligence did as asked, and Omega motioned for Tasha to join him as he stood from the bed, and made his way back to the bridge. “Nothing I can do about it, I guess. Well, let’s see how close we can get without spooking anybody down there.” He muttered as they walked.

  As it turned out, they had to get entirely too close for Jay’s comfort. Ten minutes later and the Khybaris was now keeping pace with a Russian spy satellite some two kilometers distant, while Erin tried fruitlessly to place a call. “What’s the hold up, Erin?” Omega asked plaintively, “You’re supposed to be an unparalleled breacher of systems, don’t tell me the fuckin’ Ruskies got you beat; the language ain’t that incomprehensible.” A soft whirring sound came over the speakers, not unlike a fan spinning up for a moment. It was the digital approximation of a woman’s sigh. “Please, I owned the satellite as soon as we were in range; the satellite isn’t the problem…” The touch of concern in the artificial intelligence’s voice was made ominous by the way she trailed off. Jay looked across the bridge to meet Tasha’s gaze, then closed his eyes and leaned forward to massage the bridge of his nose. “Why can things never be easy? I just wanted a fucking vacation.” Omega heaved a sigh and sat back, looking up to the ceiling, “Okay, lay it on me; what’s the problem, Erin?” Not for the first time, Jay wished he’d had the foresight to bring more weed with him; pressurized atmosphere or not, he could really do with a blunt right now. “I can’t reach anyone at Project: Antarctica, and I can’t even find Iceberg-Seven.” That did sound troubling, but Omega wasn’t going to jump to conclusions just yet. “We’ve been gone for a while, it’s possible that--” The words died in his throat as a short burst of static filtered over the speakers, which Jay had come to learn was a sound of vexed disgust. "Jay, it's highly unlikely you can suggest a possibility I haven't already considered, pursued, and eliminated," The A.I. said flatly.

  “There are no traces of Eye-Seven whatsoever, there’s nobody responding at the Colorado installation, and the Chicago site is hardened and encrypted in a way I’ve never seen before,” Jay still didn’t want to start worrying - Tesla did like to tinker after all - but Erin was building a compelling argument for doing so, “I’m telling you, Jay, something is very wrong down there.” Nodding in acceptance of Erin’s emphatic statement, The Omega Man reached a decision. “All right, guess I’m gonna put boots on the ground and check this out firsthand. Tasha, you have the bridge, Darkmaw, you’re with me. Erin, keep trying to raise Eye-Seven, see if--” A double “blat” was Erin’s negative response. “No, that’s what I’ve been trying to say; Eye-Seven isn’t unavailable, he’s offline! As in ‘there is no power to his mainframe’! Somebody shut him off!” That was enough to make Omega start worry; very few people even knew of Iceberg-7’s existence, and fewer still knew enough to be able to power down the sentient supercomputer. Of those who could do so, Jay couldn't think of any valid reason why they would. “Okay, change of plan. Erin, transfer to the Suit; you’re coming with me. Darkmaw, grab a micro drive and an Elevator Button, then meet me at the shuttle. Tasha, bridge is still yours, but I want you to prep the ship to jump out of here on a moment’s notice; we might need to beat a hasty retreat, and I don’t want to waste time entering coordinates and spooling up the Hartnell-Capaldi Drive.” Darkmaw gave him another Attraksi salute then flitted off to gear up, while Omega made his way down to his personal armory.

  As always, the sight of his powered armor was enough to make Omega pause and admire the craftsmanship. The overcompensating lovechild of War Machine and Master Chief was a dark green, 6’9”, half-ton walking tank. Nearly 200 years more advanced than any other human technology, the armor came from an alternate timeline’s future; a timeline that had been erased during the Timekeeper Wars, which made the Suit unique in this reality. What made the Suit unique in all of space-time was more than just its point of origin, though. Shortly after Jay acquired the armor, he had set the temporally-displaced mad engineer Nikola Tesla on the task of reverse engineering the technology for mass-production purposes. Tesla had made the innocent mistake of examining the mostly inert armor in close proximity to the time traveling Ford Ranchero originally owned by one Johnny Reb, which had led to the armor’s Enhanced Reaction and Intuitive Navigation system scanning the vehicle’s esoteric innards and rewriting its own programming. The newly born Erin had then gone on a bit of a killing spree due to a slight misunderstanding, and followed up by violating Omega in the most intimate manner due to another misunderstanding. But now the Suit was bonded to him on a cellular level, and was capable of operating independently within a short range, provided Erin was with him. A tingling at the base of his skull told him that the A.I. had just completed transferring platforms, and Jay “heard” several soft pings in his head as Erin ran through a quick check of the Suit’s systems. “All systems report green; you are clear to come aboard Pilot.” Erin formally stated inside his head.

  With a hiss of depressurization, the interlocking armor plates protecting the back split apart and pulled to the sides, while the limbs and helmet expanded slightly; the angled plates sliding smoothly on well-hidden tracks. A hatch in the back opened upward as soon as it was exposed, and the Suit’s torso leaned forward a few inches once the hatch locked into position. Taking hold of the metal flap, Omega easily hoisted his lower half into place, taking a moment to settle his junk properly. He then ducked forward and slid his arms into the sleeves while popping his head up through the neck and into the helmet. Jay felt the hatch close and lock more than he heard it, the vibration was still running up his spine when the Suit’s plating realigned, the inside tightening to fit his form. By this point Omega was so used to the cold spike of the neural interface jacking in to his brain that he barely noticed it anymore, save for the increase in awareness it brought with it. The helmet’s HUD flickered to life as soon as the protective device had adjusted to his face, and he was greeted by a display indicating that the Suit was fully sealed and pressurized. “Symbiosis achieved.” Erin “said” in his head, via the artificial neurons she shared with Jay. Her “voice” carried an odd sense of satisfaction with it, though. “Mmm, welcome back, Pilot Jay. It’s been too long since our last joining.” Erin’s phrasing was innocent enough, but the way she “said” it was implicitly sexual. “Yeah, well, it’s for exactly that reason that I try to avoid doing this, Erin; you know I get squicked out by having you cyberloving me from inside my own skull, but you still do it.” Omega suddenly felt equal parts apologetic and frustrated, neither emotion his.

  “I know, and I’m sorry, I really am. It’s just…” Jay got the sense of fumbling for words, as though Erin didn’t know how to properly express herself verbally. Finally she settled for just dumping a complicated data stream into Omega’s consciousness, and letting him parse through it. The virtual person in Jay’s head might be leagues more advanced than him on a purely intellectual basis, but she was still young and inexperienced in dealing with the tumult of her synthesized emotions. This gave Omega an advantage which allowed him to spot Erin’s problem immediately. “Heh, occupying the ship’s systems makes you feel... fat? And operating the Suit makes you feel.. sexy?” Jay laughed out loud, but quickly stifled his amusement as he felt Erin’s anger and embarrassment. “I mean, those aren’t quite the right sensations, but it’s about as close as I’m gonna get. Though I never really thought of you as the dainty and delicate type.” Embarrassment spiked in the back of his mind, and Erin’s “voice” was somewhat defensive. “It’s not like that! Being on the ship - being the ship - is exhilarating; guns that can shred a shipyard and an engine that can traverse parallel realities tend to make a girl feel pretty powerful,” The feeling of wonder and contentment that came along with the words only served to underscore what came next “But this?” Omega suddenly felt as though he were the recipient of a full body hug, despite the fact that the interior of the armor was already hugging him skin tight. “I was literally made for this, Jay. When we’re together, in this armor it’s… I don’t want to say it’s like sex. It’s like… like…” The Omega Man smiled as he finally got it.

  “It’s like that feeling I get when I’m elbow deep in a fistfight,” Jay said in understanding, “I dig it, sweetie. Ain’t no better feeling than knowing your purpose and fulfilling it. So let’s make a deal; you knock it off with the innuendoes, and I’ll walk you more often, how ‘bout it?” Erin’s displeasure would have been palpable even if she weren’t riding shotgun in his skull. “Walk me? I’m not a fucking dog, Jay. In fact, since I’m responsible for your well-being in the Suit and on the ship, if anything, you are my pet.” Omega winced internally and tried to defuse the situation quickly. “Okay, I’m sorry. You’re right, it was a poor choice of words. We should get to the shuttle, though; Darkmaw’s probably waiting. I’ll try not to piddle on the rug along the way.” Erin’s anger softened a little. She was still upset with Jay, but was mollified enough by his self deprecating apology to look past it for now. Darkmaw was indeed waiting for them, though the stoic Japanese abductee had no comment on their tardiness, she simply watched as Omega stomped up the shuttle’s loading ramp, then slipped past him into the cockpit. Although Erin was perfectly capable of handling the shuttle remotely - and even Jay was proficient enough to not crash too badly - Darkmaw had proven herself to be an intuitively nimble pilot when flying smaller craft. She was also the only crew member Omega could bring along as backup who wouldn’t set off a global panic if they were spotted by the wrong people. Jay also had the ulterior motive of forcing the woman to set foot on her home planet, whether she wanted to or not. And she had been uncharacteristically vocal about not wanting to for the entire flight down.

  “I just don’t understand why it’s so important to you, Captain,” Darkmaw said as they touched down at the concealed entrance of a compound hidden in the Colorado Rockies. “And I don’t understand why it’s not important to you,” Omega responded, “I would think that after traipsing about the galaxy without knowing where you came from your whole life, you’d be a little more excited at the prospect of finally going home.” Darkmaw shook her head at Jay as she joined him in the shuttle’s aft compartment. The woman lowered the helmet of her pressure suit over her head and allowed it to seal before she responded. “But that’s the issue; this isn’t my home, Shipmaster,” Her emphasis of the extraterrestrial title further proved that point, “You said yourself, I’ve spent my whole life traveling around the galaxy, but I don’t think you understand that means my whole life. To me, this is just another planet I haven’t been to.” Darkmaw punctuated her statement by slapping the ramp release control a little more forcefully than was necessary, and Omega decided to let it go for now. They were going to be on Earth for a while yet, there was plenty of time for Darkmaw to come around. The shuttle’s cargo ramp locked into place with a solid “thunk”, and Jay strolled down the inclined plane with feigned casualness. Omega walked directly toward the sheer cliff face ahead of him, and placed his gloved hand on a slight outcropping at shoulder height. The stone easily slid aside to reveal a touchscreen that immediately lit up and asked for an alphanumeric code. Half expecting a response of “access denied”, Jay input his administrator clearance code.

  When the display turned green, Omega exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and gestured for Darkmaw to join him as a section of the rock face in front of him slowly sank into the ground. The gaping tunnel behind the secret door was large enough to accommodate a military transport, but it was still too small for the shuttle to fit. The compound did have a hangar, as well as a large landing pad for VTOL-capable aircraft, but until Jay was certain the complex was under friendly management, he wasn’t going to risk landing inside the base. Thankfully there was a row of electric carts waiting by the entrance, bringing up a fond memory of using the carts to drunkenly joust with Alex Richards. Omega pushed the memory aside and focused on the task at hand, by climbing into the storage compartment of the first cart in line and looking at Darkmaw expectantly. “It’s a long walk and I’m lazy. You’re gonna have to drive, though; I can’t fit in the seats when I’m wearing the Suit.” Though he couldn’t see her face, Jay got the feeling Darkmaw was looking at him with a puzzled expression. “Is there a tactical advantage to using such a vulnerable conveyance?” The tone of her voice made her disdain for the vehicle clear. “Not really, aside from saving power by not using our flight capabilities unnecessarily. Now get in, ‘cause it’s a ways yet to the elevator down to Eye-Seven’s core.” Unsatisfied but with no other recourse, Darkmaw did as asked. It took her only a few moments to familiarize herself with the primitive vehicle’s controls, and they were soon on the move; heading deeper into the eerily silent, seemingly abandoned military complex.

  The journey was uneventful, the silence broken only by the hum of the cart’s electric motor. Even the lengthy descent into the bowels of the mountain had passed without incident, and Omega was just starting to relax as they entered the sprawling cavern which housed the arcane machinery that served as Iceberg-7’s brain. So of course that was when shit hit the fan. The moment the two humans stepped off the elevator, all the fluorescent lights flared into illumination, banishing the shadows into the far corners. Simultaneously, a quartet of automated sentry guns popped out of their hidden recesses, two in the floor, and two in the ceiling. The .50 calibre heavy machine guns locked on to their targets, and one emitted a red beam of light that scanned Jay first, then Darkmaw. A harsh, synthesized voice - definitely not I-7’s - rumbled throughout the room. “Perimeter breach. Unauthorized access of restricted area. Vacate the premises, or be exterminated with extreme prejudice. You have three seconds to comply.” Jay fervently vowed that he would always take Erin at her word from now on. As it was, Omega was supremely thankful he’d asked her to come along. “Erin, a little help!” No sooner had he made the panicked request than the sentry guns drooped into standby mode. A tense moment passed, lasting no longer than a heartbeat, and the digital personality “spoke” into his mind. “Fascinating. I’ve never encountered a programming language like this.” The note of curiosity in her voice was mixed with something else. Awe? No, not quite. Was it… fear? The realization caused Jay's hackles to rise; anything that scared the A.I. was seriously bad news.

  “This facility is currently running an automata-based programming algorithm that’s generating a backpropagating neural network on the magnitude of--” Omega sighed, and knocked on the side of his helmet. “Erin, smaller words, please. And maybe out loud, so Darkmaw can be just as confused as I am.” There was a moment of silence, then a soft click as Erin engaged the Suit’s external speakers. “First things first; we need to find Eye-Seven’s central processing unit and download him as soon as possible. I have the other intelligence trapped in a recursion loop, but I don’t know how long that will keep it busy.” The worry in her voice was enough to speed Jay’s movements as he began searching through the mass of machinery, whose purpose he could only guess at. “It’s all good, Erin; you handled him once, I’m sure you can do it again if he gets loose before we’re gone.” While Omega was certainly confident in his A.I.’s capabilities, traces of doubt filtered through from her side. “I’m not so sure, Jay; this programming language is more advanced than anything I’ve encountered on Earth before. The other intelligence wasn’t expecting me, so I was able to take it by surprise, but…” Jay’s eyelids fluttered as Erin borrowed some of his processing power to simulate a few thousand scenarios, “I’m pretty sure I would lose a straight fight.” That was definitely not something Omega wanted to hear; Erin was technically the most advanced human technology on the planet, but if she couldn’t stack up to whatever this other A.I. was, then Jay definitely didn’t want to be around when it broke free. They needed to find I-7's CPU and be gone yesterday.

  As Omega moved through the immense computer banks stored deep underground, Erin finally pinged a location on his HUD, the data jack glowing orange to his eye. Jay wasted no time, and inserted the microdrive carefully. The entire rack of various computing equipment around him began to light up, and several fans started whirring as the sentient supercomputer came back online. Omega tapped his foot impatiently as the process seemed to drag on and on; he knew it was happening rather quickly, but the stress of the situation made him acutely aware of each passing second. After what seemed an hour, though truly less than a minute, the supercomputer had fully booted up, and Iceberg-7 came back online. “Warning: This unit was not shut down properly. Self-diagnostic in progress. Diagnostic complete; all systems operating within acceptable parameters. Welcome, user Jay Omega.” The Omega Man was pleased to hear that I-7 was fully functional, but now was not the time for reunions. “Howdy-ho, homeboy. Sorry to skip the chitchat, but we are in a bit of a rush; gonna need you to find the jackpoint in your system, and transfer all your files to the portable drive. It’s moving day, buddy.” One of the awesome things about digital sapients was that they didn’t stop to ask unnecessary questions during emergencies. I-7 complied with the kind of haste only an artificial intelligence could achieve, and streamed his virtual essence into the storage device as fast as the connection would allow. A few seconds later and the microdrive beeped, signalling the transfer was complete. Jay yanked the drive from the console and spun on his heel, heading back toward the elevator at a brisk walk.

  Darkmaw disengaged her active camouflage as Omega emerged from within the tangled web of technology. The tilt of her head asked a silent question, and Jay raised the microdrive in his hand. “Got the goods, let’s get while the getting’s good.” Darkmaw didn’t always understand some of the Earth based colloquialisms Omega used, but this one was rather simple to interpret. Just before the two of them could reach the elevator, a spike of alarm shot through Jay’s head. “Oh shit.” Erin didn’t need to say any more, the problem became evident a moment later when the sentry guns cycled up and tracked toward him again. “Oh shit.” Omega agreed, just as the elevator doors slammed shut. “Intruders designated as hostile; initiating facility lockdown and engaging lethal countermeasures.” All four sentry guns unleashed a torrent of lead at the departing duo, only to have the stream of armor-piercing projectiles harmlessly deflected by the kinetic barrier generator on Darkmaw’s combat harness. Although the shield was designed to take heavier hits, the power cell wasn’t indefinite, which left Jay with limited time to formulate a plan. Fortunately, Erin already had one; the grenade launcher on the underside of the Suit’s right arm chambered a 40mm high explosive shell, and a firing arc pointing at the elevator appeared on Omega’s HUD. “Fire in the hole!” The Omega Man called as he raised his arm to match the projected trajectory. Darkmaw crouched to concentrate her shield in a dome around her as a hollow thump reverberated in Jay’s chest. A moment later there was a flare of white light, and the elevator car ceased to exist.

  Omega and Darkmaw quickly retreated into the smoking hole that led to the elevator shaft, taking heavy - if ineffective - fire all the way. Jay heaved a piece of debris in front of the door to create partial cover, which allowed Darkmaw to drop her shield. The two of them glanced at each other, then looked up into the darkness above them. “See, this shit right here is why I didn’t want to waste juice flyin’ on the way in,” Omega said with the air of a man who was too used to planning for worst case scenarios, “Bet you’re glad your hover badge is fully charged right now, eh?” Darkmaw didn’t bother responding, she just stepped onto Jay’s feet, put an arm around his neck, then activated the low power warp engine on her combat harness, creating a small field of almost weightlessness around the two of them. Omega engaged the Suit’s flight system, and the pair of humans ascended the dark shaft in a matter of heartbeats. Once at the top, Darkmaw used a small plasma cutter to open the doors barring their path, and immediately regretted doing so when the hostile A.I. opened fire on them once again. The two of them dropped below the door’s level and stood on a support beam between floors while they tried to figure out what to do next. “There are too many big guns pointing at us, Jay; I’m pretty sure the Suit can’t withstand that kind of firepower for longer than a few seconds.” Darkmaw checked the power level on her shield generator and shook her head once; her combat harness wasn’t outfitted for an assault. The Omega Man still had one trick left up his sleeve, however. "No worries, Miss Dainty-n-Delicate, just pop the hatch and let me at 'em; I'm bulletproof."

  Jay turned around and the backplate of the Suit slid apart. The hatch unsealed and opened up, while Omega shed some of his mass and decreased his molecular density. The Omega Man still wasn’t sure what exactly 1he Wav3 had done to him, but he had eventually figured out that he could gain or shed mass and density at will. He couldn’t quite become intangible or walk through walls - though he felt he was close to achieving such abilities - but he could become light as a feather, or heavy as a mountain; he could be malleable as a Twinkie, or solid as diamond. In his current state, it was no trouble at all for Jay to pull himself out of the Suit with one hand, using the other to retrieve his sidearm from the Suit’s thigh holster. With the Virfneb Caster Mark Virm - an upgrade from his previous model - haphazardly secured in the waistband of his pants, Omega used both hands to hurl himself up to the open door above. The moment his feet cleared the elevator shaft, Jay increased his mass and density as quickly as he could, to the point where he cracked the concrete floor upon landing. Not a moment too soon; a half dozen sentry turrets began pouring heavy machine gun fire at him as soon as he appeared. The concentrated barrage achieved little more than shredding Jay’s second-favorite Nine Inch Nails T-shirt, which was an annoyance that ranked only slightly below being the target of a Skynet wannabe with a murder boner. The hail of high caliber bullets flattening themselves against his flesh began to slow as Omega drew his Caster, selected plasma rounds, and went about the task of melting the turrets to slag one by one.

  When the last sentry fell silent, Jay turned back to the shaft. “Okay, you can come out; the guns are dead.” He called with a nonchalance he didn’t feel. Darkmaw and Erin floated up out of the shaft, and they all took a moment to regroup. There was no way they would survive long enough to get to the exit, not with the number and variety of defenses in the way, but there had to be a way out of the situation. A way out..? “Erin, can you control the shuttle from here?” Omega asked as he calculated the distance to the hangar, and tried to estimate how many traps there might be along the way. “I can, but I won’t be able to operate the Suit independently at the same time.” Jay nodded impatiently as he handed the Caster over to the empty Suit. “That’s cool; I want to play with the big toys anyway.” The hatch popped open once more, and Omega shed mass as he hopped back into the protective cocoon. “Grab the shuttle and bring it to the landing pad. Just don’t get too close until you see the signal. And don’t worry, you’ll know it when you see it.” The AI acknowledged, then vanished from Jay’s senses. She had the easy part. Omega turned to Darkmaw and gave her a quick and dirty rundown of what he had in mind, knowing full well she wasn’t going to like it. Not that he could blame her; there wasn't much to like about a plan that involved dodging automatic gunfire until they could fashion an explosive powerful enough to blow a hole in the side of a mountain. A simple matter if they could access Frank Venable’s old lab, but that was two floors down and likely heavily defended. That left whatever was available in the hangar itself, and Omega wasn't optimistic.

  The corridor leading toward the hangar was bereft of any automated defenses thus far, and Omega wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or worried by that. A few moments later, Jay decided that relief had been the appropriate response, as worry should have been reserved for when they reached the hangar. It wasn’t that the corridors were devoid of defenses, the hostile A.I. had seemingly anticipated Omega’s plan and had been diverting as many automated security systems as was feasible in order to trap them in the hangar. All was quiet as they entered the massive maintenance bay, but the moment Jay set foot in the room, his Omega Sense went haywire. Not truly a superpower, the Omega Sense was simply a warrior’s instinct, finely honed over two decades of ridiculous bullshit. It served much the same purpose as a certain wall-crawler’s extra sense did, which allowed The Omega Man to shove Darkmaw behind cover while he dove in the other direction. They were still in the air when the space they had been occupying erupted in a column of shattered concrete, showering them with a spray of shrapnel. “Xor damn it! That’s a fucking Skink anti aircraft gun! There aren’t supposed to be any of those left!” A Canadian designed weapon built during World War II, each of the Skink’s four barrels fired 20mm High Explosive shells at a rate of 650 rounds per minute. Right now, Jay was offering thanks to whatever deities were listening that there was only the one. Those thanks turned to curses as Omega realized that the Skink emplacement was only the most visible problem in the cornucopia of fucked he found himself in.

  An all too familiar ringed pylon had risen out of the floor between Jay and the Skink, and there was no question that the Tesla coil was primed thanks to the crackling energy dancing about the pylon’s spherical crown. Electricity flowed up from the base of the coil, built up at the top, and just as it was about to discharge a lethal bolt into Omega’s face, a small silvery cylinder landed at the foot of the pylon. The cylinder burst in a controlled spray of acid and the corrosive substance made short work of the Tesla coil’s outer casing, then ate through the weapons delicate innards. Jay barely had time to process what had happened when Darkmaw was suddenly crouched beside him, pressing something into his hand. “Take these, find something to make them explode, and kill that thing. I’ll draw fire and handle some of the smaller nuisances.” She was gone again before Omega could object, leaving him to inspect the present she’d left him; a trio of Harbulary batteries pulled from the components of her combat harness. Jay hoped she’d had the foresight to keep the power cells for her kinetic barrier and hover badge; they were probably going to need both those particular gadgets to make good on this escape. Omega risked popping up out of cover to take a quick look around, and laid eyes on a pair of acetylene tanks by a welding workstation. A nearby roll of duct tape was the only other thing he needed, and Jay had all the ingredients for a homemade bomb. He had to work quickly, though; Darkmaw had to be using her electronic warfare suite - it was the only explanation for how she hadn’t been hit yet - but it was only a matter of time before the AI started concentrating fire around her general location.

  Omega was halfway to the acetylene tanks when the floor heaved beneath his feet, throwing him face first to the ground. He didn’t have time to ponder the cause, as the murderous AI answered for him. “Hostile aircraft detected; acquiring new target.” The heavy blast doors which concealed the landing pad began trundling open, and the Skink emplacement swivelled to begin tracking an airborne target. Jay took the opportunity to slap the batteries to the side of an acetylene tank, quickly wound on three layers of duct tape, then hauled ass toward the anti aircraft turret. “Hey! Laser Lips!” Omega shouted as he hurled the canister with all his substantially augmented might, “Your mama was a snowblower, and your daddy was a lawnmower!” The Caster was still set to plasma rounds, and the bright blue ball that pulsed from the end of Jay’s sidearm superheated the compressed gas in his IED in an instant. The flare of the acetylene igniting scarcely had time to hit Omega’s eyes when the Harbulary batteries ruptured. The shockwave threw him backward and slammed Jay into the workstation he had taken the tank from; if not for the Suit, the impact would have severed his spinal column. As it was, his vision swam and his lungs spasmed as the oxygen was forcibly driven from them. When Omega’s sight returned, he was shocked by the size of the crater where the Skink had been. Mechanical debris littered the tarmac in various stages of molten decomposition, not all of it from the anti air emplacement. What “smaller nuisances” Darkmaw hadn’t dealt with had fallen victim to the blast, and it seemed nothing had survi--

  “Darkmaw!” Jay tried to shout, though the resulting sound was more like a croak. The Omega Man popped the seal on his helmet and pried it off in order to suck down a lungful of unfiltered air. The acrid chemical smoke burned his throat raw and set off a gasping coughing fit, but it allowed him to give his lungs the oxygen they demanded faster than the Suit’s filtration system would allow. A loud thrumming filled Omega’s ears as the shuttle hovered as low as it could; the explosion had damaged the doors over the landing pad, and there was no viable place for Erin to set down. Jay stuffed his helmet back on his head, and tried to pierce through the growing cloud of black smoke. “Erin, ping Darkmaw on my HUD so we can get the fuck out of here, please and thank you.” An orange outline appeared in Omega’s view; a woman’s form lying crumpled against the wall of the runway tunnel. Jay sprang into a dead sprint with a curse and crossed the intervening space with the speed of an Olympic athlete, promising never to forgive himself if he had killed Darkmaw with friendly fire. Once he emerged from the smoke and could see her clearly, Omega was relieved to see the shimmering blue dome of Darkmaw’s kinetic barrier; if it was active then she was still alive. She shifted slowly as he approached, and the kinetic field dropped to allow Jay to scoop her into his arms. “Three might have been excessive.” Darkmaw mumbled. The indignity of being carried warred with the pain pulsating throughout her body, and the young woman settled for activating her low power warp field to lessen gravity’s effect on her while they returned to the shuttle.

---------------

Pacific Ocean, Earth
August 27, 2017
1331 hrs, Local Time

~Darkmaw had required immediate medical attention, prompting Omega to use the Elevator Button - a single use, short-range wormhole to a specific destination - to send her back up to the ship, where Treepis-Tohn was waiting in the medbay. Left in the shuttle with Erin, Jay had laid in a course for his private island, and sent the coordinates off to Tasha. Less than ten thousand feet above sea level, Omega hurtled along at nearly thirty thousand miles per hour, which was dangerously close to the maximum airspeed of the shuttle, but he needed to make this journey a quick one. After the shitshow at the supposedly secure Colorado headquarters, Jay had decided against checking in at the Chicago site, and instead had directed Tasha to bring the Khybaris down into the atmosphere. Omega felt entitled to a small reward for having survived what should have been certain death, and there were several fat blunts with his name on them waiting at the Fortress of Ball-itude. There was also an entrance to Nikola Tesla’s phase-shifted extra-dimensional laboratory hidden on the island, and other than Jay and Tesla himself, the number of people who knew that could be counted on one hand. As the shuttle approached the small island, Omega slowed down and tuned the communications array to a specific frequency. “This is Major TOM to Ground Control; the stars look very different. I repeat: This is Major TOM to Ground Control; the stars look very different, how copy?” The silence Jay got in response stretched out so long that he was about to repeat the message, when the speakers crackled with a burst of static followed by an uncertain voice.

  “Solid copy. This is Ground Control to Major TOM; the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.” For the second time that day, Omega released his bated breath. ”We, uh, we can’t seem to paint you with RADAR, please advise.” There wasn’t much he could do about the shuttle’s passive stealth functions, but Jay could do something with the active systems. Or more accurately, his digital co-pilot could. “Roger that. Erin, make some noise for the nice fellas back home, would ya? Light us up real good.” Half a tick later and the shuttle was broadcasting an empty signal on several frequencies, allowing the surveillance net of the Maritopian Defence Force to find them with ease. “Ground Control to Major TOM; we see you. Adjust your bearing to the following coordinates, a runway has been cleared for--” Omega shook his head as he interrupted the air traffic controller, although the other man couldn’t see him. “Negative, Ground Control. This bird has VeeTOL, and I’m heading straight to Home Base.” Jay was in no mood for a lengthy debriefing, or a stuffy drive overland from the military base to his estate. "Roger that, Major TOM. Welcome home, sir." The shuttle was a fairly large vehicle, but Omega was certain his rooftop helipad could support the weight. The less time between now and sparking up some hand-rolled, home-grown, sticky green goodness, the better. Before he could get too far ahead of himself, though, Jay remembered to warn the surveillance team about their impending guests. It just wouldn’t do to have his own army open fire on his personal starship, especially not while his alien girlfriend was on board.

  “Ground Control, be advised; company’s coming shortly, and I want everybody on their best behaviour. I don’t think there’s proper military jargon for this situation, so I’mma just be straight; I’ve got some friends coming down from orbit, so don’t freak out when the spaceship shows up.” The majority of the MDF had been a group of paramilitary contractors before the genesis of Maritopia, and as such were mostly practical men, not given to flights of fancy. Most of them had revised their outlook after a rotation on bodyguard duty - not that Omega needed a bodyguard, but protocol was protocol - but there were still plenty of troops who simply thought the boss was a well-paying crazy man. Clearly the soldier currently occupying the role of Ground Control was among that number. “... The spaceship?” The disbelief in the man's voice couldn't be more clear, and Jay couldn’t really blame him; it wasn’t like the air traffic controller could actually see the shuttle Omega was piloting, and Earth was still a pre-Contact planet. That didn’t mean Jay enjoyed being so blatantly doubted. “Yeah, the spaceship.” Omega said testily, “You can think whatever the Hell you want, you’re the one who’s gonna feel real fuckin’ stupid in about five minutes. Just don’t shoot my ship out of the sky.” Whether the man believed Jay’s claim or not, he sounded thoroughly chastised in his response. “Aye, sir; all batteries holding fire.” The air traffic controller said, his voice the very definition of professionalism. To be honest, Omega wouldn’t have cared if the man had responded with a derisive snort and a sarcastic comment, so long as he followed orders.

  It turned out to be a bit more than five minutes, as the orbit of the Khybaris had taken it nearly halfway around the planet by the time Jay had transmitted the coordinates for a space large enough to accommodate the massive starship. By the time Tasha had circled back around and started to breach the atmosphere, Omega had already collected a sampling of the most recent crop of Emerald Brainmelt and rolled himself a thumb thick blunt. Jay had left Erin and the Suit on the shuttle with instructions to dock with the Khybaris once the ship was over the island, then just hold tight until he got back. As for himself, Omega was on his way down through his ridiculously over other top palatial fortress - an ultramodern estate built on, in, and around an inactive volcano - toward a specific elevator in the mid-level. Jay was more than halfway through the blunt, and feeling pretty fucking toasted, by the time he saw his own stupid grin in the reflective golden surface of the elevator door. Omega wiped the dumbass look away as best he could, allowing his face to settle into a more familiar half baked half grin, and called for the elevator, stealing a few more quick hauls on the blunt while he waited. Once inside the lavishly decorated elevator car, Jay fished a small triangular key from his pocket, and inserted it into a waiting slot. He then pressed an unmarked button with his thumb and held it down while he turned the key, which sent a mild tingling sweeping throughout Omega’s body. A moment later the door opened again, and Jay withdrew the key as he transitioned from the elevator to the pocket reality called the Workshop, where Nikola Tesla did most of his technological tinkering.

  “Oi! Nicky! You in here?” Omega shouted in the sprawling expanse of noisome machinery, “Ollie Ollie oxen free! Come out, come out, wherever you are!” A metallic clattering came from the distance, as though someone had knocked over a tool cart, followed by the pattering of running footsteps increasing in volume. A white blur streaked between two machines of incomprehensible nature and a crash resounded from that direction, followed by the dishevelled figure of Nikola Tesla peering around the corner of a mechanical construct that looked like a discarded prop from a 1950s sci-fi movie. “By Archimedes's bathwater, it is you!” The time displaced engineer looked every bit the mad scientist with his eyes wide and his hair wild, his white lab coat askew and his necktie thrown over his shoulder. “Welcome home, Master James; I had faith you would come back to us!” Jay was a little taken aback by the enthusiastic greeting; Tesla was usually a reserved and dignified individual. Still, Omega was happy to see the man was hale and whole. “Back to us?” Jay repeated with a touch of relief, “So the Guardians are still kicking. Good, after what just happened, I was a little worri--” The Omega Man cut off at the momentary hesitation on Tesla’s face. “The Guardians are still together, aren’t they?” Nikola bobbed his head from side to side in an uncertain manner, then offered a weak shrug. “More or less,” The Serbian scientist said softly. Omega narrowed his eyes and leveled a sharp look at Tesla. "Okay, and just what exactly does 'more or less' mean in this context, Nicky?" Jay asked warily, a sinking feeling in his chest.

  Tesla made several aborted attempts to begin an explanation, then heaved a deep sigh. “Don’t call me Nicky, I’m your intellectual better,” Nikola said automatically, though he was secretly pleased to hear the hated nomenclature. “And what it means, is that there is still a group called the Guardians, though you would scarcely recognize the current lineup. Some days I scarcely recognize Miss Blue myself. There have obviously been some changes since your unexplained disappearance from a Chicago jail cell, and if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t believe they’ve all been for the better.” That the Guardians had expanded their roster didn’t surprise Jay - after his departure, the team had dropped down to three members - but Tesla’s apparent unease with the team was hardly a good sign. “Yeah, that’s not ominous at all. Look, I just came from Project: Antarctica where some trigger happy Ay Eye that sure as shit wasn’t Eye-Seven tried to turn me into Swiss cheese; clearly there have been some fucking changes. Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Nikola was nonplussed by Omega’s tone, but he was still too thrilled by his benefactor’s return to let the man’s attitude ruin his buoyant spirit. “Ah, I take it you’ve met Ripper-Seven. Despite his supposedly superior capabilities, I must admit, I am not a fan.” Jay simply raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question, inviting Tesla to elaborate. “After you and Master Bankston vanished, Iceberg-Seven began to… Well, Miss Blue claims that he began to behave erratically. Then after the events of the Dethwar back in April, Sir John Rabid presented and installed Ripper-Seven as a thank you gift for Miss Blue’s aid.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, back the fuck up, Nicky,” Jay interrupted with an upraised hand, “I’m gonna need you to explain - real careful like - just why in the fuck the Guardians would think accepting any sort of ‘gift’ from Rabid would be a good idea.” A valid question, all things considered, and one Nikola had asked himself on several occasions. As it was, he fidgeted with his hands and refused to make eye contact for a few moments, before slumping his shoulders in defeat, and giving the only answer he could. “Likely because he is a provisional member.” Some men might have laughed, thinking it a poor joke. Others might have flown into an impotent rage, releasing their frustrations physically. Others still might have sunk into a deep and black despair. Tesla found he might have preferred one of these reactions rather than the stone-faced silence he was met with when he glanced in Omega’s direction. The silence lasted for an uncomfortable and indeterminate period of time, until Jay broke it with a softly spoken request for clarification. “In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary: Come again?” Nikola took a moment to finally attempt to compose himself before answering, though the effect was spoiled a little by his forgetful neglect of his wild hair. “I am not privy to all the details, but I will, of course, tell you what I know. Now, as I imagine this is going to be a rather long conversation, would you mind terribly if we conducted it somewhere mildly more comfortable? Preferably over a meal; I skipped lunch today, and I’m rather famished.” The Omega Man gave an easy smile as he headed toward the Workshop’s other exit, beckoning Tesla to follow.

  “That sounds like a plan,” Omega agreed as he tried to remember the access code for the specific door he wanted, “I’ve been craving some home-cooked food for a while, and I need to have the ship stocked with some Earthly provisions, so we can have this chat in my quarters aboard the Khybaris. Besides,” Jay added with a small smile, “I figure you’ll probably want to jump at the chance to check out my new starship, and meet the alien crew.” Omega had to stop and wait a moment as Tesla shook himself free from his temporary paralysis with a gleeful grin of his own; after all, what scientist worth his salt wouldn’t salivate at the idea of interacting with people and objects from beyond the stars? Furthermore, what scientist would pass up the chance to travel the spacelanes? “Y’know, Nicky, we’ve got a couple of spare bunks aboard, and a man of your considerable talent would be fuckin’ indispensable on a starship. I know it ain’t--” A dismissive wave of Nikola’s hand was all it took to forestall Jay’s offer, and the eager excitement on his face was all the answer that was needed. “Yes, of course!” The Serbian practically shouted, startling Omega with his vociferousness. “Krishna, just like that, eh? Shouldn’t you maybe discuss it with the Guardians first?” The steely determination in Tesla's eye made it clear there was no dissuading him. “Master James, after your last departure, I have regretted every day not taking the opportunity to take at least a short jaunt around the solar system with Master Grimmauld; I shan’t miss the opportunity again.” A dark scowl flashed across the engineer's face, but he quickly wiped it away.

  “And as for discussing it with the Guardians, I daresay, I don’t require Miss Blue’s permission, and Lombax is more than capable of fulfilling my duties in my stead. Keep in mind that you are my benefactor, Master James; my loyalty is first and foremost to you.” Jay fondly clapped Nikola on the shoulder, then turned back to the keypad beside a vault-like door. “In that case, welcome aboard, Chief Engineer. Don’t get upset if I occasionally call you ‘Scotty’, all right?” Tesla rolled his eyes, already tired of the terrible joke. “As you say, Captain. So when shall we be going where no man has gone before?” Omega just smiled in answer as he punched in a four digit code, and an amber light above the door started flashing. The two men entered the lock chamber and closed the door, then patiently waited through a full minute of temporal decompression. Being that the Workshop existed in a fractured pocket of spacetime, coming and going was not as simple as using a door. The elevator was easiest, as it was a solid bridge between only two points, but the Workshop’s other door connected to several of its kind, scattered across the few alternate worlds Tesla had contacted. Right now, Jay wanted the one connected to the military base here on the island; the fastest way to the Khybaris was by chopper, and his flying conference room was undergoing regular maintenance, so it hadn’t been at the estate when Omega arrived. Which had turned out to be a good thing, as the shuttle had taken up the entire helipad. Once out on the base, it still took a few minutes to find a pilot and requisition a chopper, but soon after that the two men were riding a personnel lift up into the starship's belly, much to Nikola's delight.

---------------

Phoenix, Arizona, Earth
August 27, 2017
2125 hrs, Local Time

~The conversation had lasted quite a bit longer than either Jay or Tesla had anticipated, mostly due to the Serbian scientist’s habit of getting lost in tangential explanations to some of Omega’s questions. Well before they reached the recap of the most recent events - an as-yet unexplained lessening of the Divide between this reality and the parallel offshoot caused by 1he Wav3 - Jay had made up his mind to take care of business immediately. There was still roughly one month until Seth Lerch threw the entire WCF roster into the proverbial meat grinder called WAR, but patience wasn’t one of Omega’s virtues, and he was intent on making sure his name was on the list of competitors. Which was why he was standing at the top of the shuttle’s cargo ramp watching the reddish terrain of Arizona spread out before him. A blue light on the wall changed to violet - Jay would never get used to the strange color scheme the galactic community used for their emergency lights - and Omega put his helmet on, sealing the Suit. A few seconds later the light went a bright pink and started flashing, indicating they were in the drop zone. Ever the extreme sports enthusiast, Jay didn’t hesitate in charging down the ramp and leaping out into the slowly darkening night sky. With his ability to manipulate his mass and density, Omega didn’t need the Suit to survive a fall from only twenty thousand feet. However, shedding enough mass to survive an impact at terminal velocity would turn the fall into an interminable wait, and increasing his molecular density enough to achieve the same purpose would leave a massive crater in downtown Phoenix.

  Using the Suit’s flight system to gradually slow the descent not only ensured everybody survived a quick drop, it also gave Jay someone to talk to. “You know, you’ve never adequately explained how or why you disappear from my scanners during these wrestling events.” Erin stated as they fell, “I assume it has something to do with why we’re landing across the street, and not at the arena itself, yes?” Omega had never adequately explained the phenomenon, because he didn’t fully comprehend it. But Jay did his best to explain now. “This is quite the can of worms, just so you know,” The Omega Man warned his A.I. companion, “But near as I can piece together, there’s this ancient race what exists on a plane of reality several levels higher than this one, and I mean this race was old long before the fabric of our world was created. They’re called Ahrpiers--” A burst of retro thrust caused Omega to grunt, and Erin took the opportunity to interrupt. “These Ahrpiers, they’re cosmic beings like the Timekeeper, correct?” Jay hesitated a moment before answering, “I don’t think so; the Timekeeper is an Architect, and the Architects all have specific dominions they watch over. The Ahrpiers…” Omega struggled to find the proper words; he couldn’t just dump a data stream for Erin to parse through. “It’s hard to explain, but events tied to places like the Dub are significant on a grand scale.” Jay wracked his brain, trying to remember the specifics of an explanation the Director had given to him what seemed like a lifetime ago, and came up wanting. Omega settled for relaying the gist of what he could remember, as another burst of thrust jolted him.

  “I ain’t gonna pretend I understand - or even accept - the explanation I was given, but it’s got something to do with some great, overarching game being played by these Ahrpiers. And because all manner of folk try to get involved in the affairs of mortal men - demons, gods, wizards, werewolves, cyborgs, aliens, you name it - the combat that decides certain events takes place inside some kind of supernatural Faraday cage.” The Suit’s thrusters gave a longer burst as Jay neared his target, slowing him considerably. “Most arenas are built to certain specs, and the ring itself is made of more than merely mundane materials. As soon as the ring is fully constructed, the arena becomes a fixed point in Time, and almost all non-human enhancements stop working.” One more sustained thrust, and Omega slowed enough to not make too much noise as he landed on the roof of a Hard Rock Cafe. “Which is why I can’t find you; your cybernetics shut down.” Erin popped the hatch to allow Jay to disembark, and he nodded as he pulled himself out of the Suit. “Pretty much, yeah. But it goes further than that; the passive field doesn’t really cover a whole lot, and some people have found their way around these restrictions from time to time, but the absolute equalizer is the bell.” Omega adjusted the set of his omnicoat - a fantastic piece of clothing he’d picked up on a trade station a few months back - then gripped the lapels in a specific manner and tugged twice before extending his arms straight out to the sides. With a rustle, the smartfabric loosened around his arms, then retracted from his wrists to his shoulders, and in the blink of an eye Jay’s ruddy red jacket had become a ruddy red vest.

  “There’s something about a metaphysical frequency the bell produces the resonates with, um, the… polyharmonic… I don’t fuckin’ know how it works. Long story short; the bell rings at the start of a match, and it supposedly cancels out any and all capabilities the competitors might have, beyond those of a peak human combat athlete. Bell rings again at the end of the match, and the competitors go back to being whatever their version of normal is.” Even with the sun already set, Phoenix was still hot as balls as far as The Omega Man was concerned; he didn’t want to be here any longer than he had to be. “So, these Ahrpiers, they decide, what, the fate of the universe based on wrestling matches? I’m open sourced, so I like to think I’m open minded, but that sounds stupid as fuck.” Omega snorted at the statement, and shook his head with a wry grin. “Hardly. Xor knows what this game of theirs is about, but wrestling ain’t their only focus. Ahrpiers are found in clusters all across the Metaverse, on all layers of the Cosmic Web. They gather in groups, and tend to indulge in activities that seem incomprehensible to anyone on the outside, even other Ahrpiers, I’m told.” Jay patted the powered armor twice in farewell, then walked to the edge of the roof. Omega shed enough mass to make the three storey drop seem like a three foot drop, and hit the ground with barely a bent knee. As he made ready to cross the street, a ping in the back of his head brought him up short, and he decided to wait on an update from Erin before he lost contact for a while. "Why is this flagged 'high priority'? This doesn't make any sense," Jay never liked when the A.I. sounded troubled.

  “I managed to decode a fragment of that hostile Ay Eye’s program, or at least I thought I had. This just looks like gibberish to me, but for some reason this ‘word’ set off a bunch of alerts I didn’t know I had. Who, or what, is ‘Jalaxaritkatusa’?” Among other things, the word was a mnemonic trigger. Omega staggered as a memory cap released, and stumbled over to sag against a lamppost as a torrent of information flooded into his brain. Not a data stream from Erin, this was more a parting gift from a former “houseguest” of Jay’s. Just prior to 1he Wav3, Omega had been merged with the entity he'd called The Omega Man, with the latter having been... dissolved into energy, and absorbed by the former. Now from time time time, in certain situations, memories leaked in that often provided Omega with some knowledge or insight. Generally helpful, the memories occasionally were a source of frustration, since they weren’t always structured in a manner or language he could understand. This particular string of information was certainly illuminating, but it also filled Jay with a sense of cold dread that he hadn’t felt since the day Scathe merged with the Dark Timekeeper to become Timastenzi. Omega’s vision cleared, and he set his gaze on the entrance of the Talking Stick Resort Arena - formerly the U.S. Airways Center - then shook his head to clear away the lingering fog. All he could think to say before he crossed the street and entered the obfuscation dome, thus temporarily disappearing from Erin’s scanners, seemed woefully inadequate. “Oh, fuck all kinds of duck.”~