Two Steps Forward - One Step Back

[Maharg67]

0085: Of the OmniObserver and the Observed

 

The OmniObserver observed Tammy Tompkins giving over some minor power artifacts to the PaleLords and then she added some other items. The PaleLords thanked her and departed in their own Beta TransCube. They were in haste to leave, fearing that the TwistedGod would strike at Ayers Rock City in rage at the loss of the TwistedDemigod. They did not understand the TwistedGod who would cease to have interest in that place, would be seeking to recover damage, to gain new resources. At least for the 'moment' it would not bother with striking at Ayers Rock City or the PaleLords or at Tammy Tomkins. Tammy called for the TT-TransCube and went into it along with the quasiliving artifact-entity and its elemental entities. Tammy managed to get hold of the others who had come to Ayers Rock City with her and they were joined by Paddy Jackson, who brought his compressed TransCube with him.

 

Thus Tammy Tomkins joined Tommy Tomkins and others in the TT-TransCube.

 

While the True Illuminati Complex was transformed into a TransBaseCube, so was Robertville and Cobber Paddy. The Unity of Robertville were taken by surprise but soon realized that this was a good way of helping ensure their survival. Marshal Nelson was also surprised but, being Unity, also accepted. Other people varied in their responses, of course. Alan Pale was very pleased as a young False Eternal. He wanted to meet Tammy-Tommy Tomkins, wanted them to meet his family. Somehow people were being drawn to Robertville and Cobber Paddy not as hurried refugees but more slowly, carefully and bringing much with them as possible. Salvage teams went out not just to gain for the whole community but to regain private property. Unity was rising slowly and steadily on that world, having its effects even as there were some counter effects.

 

Tammy-Tommy Tomkins now both worked on the special project that Tommy had been working on alone.

 

The UtopianLords began to take over the AlternateEarth of the 1950s as they were doing to one of the AlternateEarths of the 2030s. Conflicts broke out over the world as Unity and other NonUnity forces opposed the UtopianLords. What soon became clear was that, on both worlds, the UtopianLords were gaining many valuable resources from a third party of some kind. Flying-saucers were glimpsed flying through UtopianLord dominated skies, always coming in semidarkness or darkness. Some video and film recordings were captured. Other stories spoke of great big canisters appearing out of mid air, with sparkling shimmer effects. The UtopianLords used more advanced technologies on the 2030s world than on the 1950s world because it was easier for them to do it that way for they still relied mainly on more conventional forces of those worlds. Another reason was they simply did not have the resources to upgrade their forces on the AlternateEarth of the 1950s and doing so to a 2030s level was an impossible idea.

 

The DystopianLords were trying to conquer the other AlternateEarth of the 2030s, the one on which the Observer had assisted three unityfolk to escape with their lives.

 

Graham Maharg was in Jack's Hill carrying out some tasks for the LittleFatFamily, was assisting Professor Walter Bishop who was recently granted the title by the Union of American Government.

 

The two Olivias, Peter, Jacko and others continued towards Boston, New England as the UtopianLords' treachery became evident around them as new fighting broke out. Once they glimpsed a strange saucerboat, smaller flying-saucer, dart through the sky above them as they went through another distorted part of what had been the USA. Elemental entities were busy around them, seemed to be cultivating globe-bushes and other exotic plants along with quasiliving silicon based entities. They were friendly but not overly so. They spoke of taking advantage of the local natural conditions to grow useful resources for the mysterious Aeiou but also freely assisting local peoples in various ways.

 

Professor Chronos, of the TimeLords, assisted the locals of London of the AlternateEarth he had appeared on of 1900AD as the calendar changed, the 19^th Century coming to an end. That is he helped against the zombie plague and assisted Unity to upgrade its knowledge, its technologies, in some ways while also teaching them something of the nature of Unity. He revealed that his people were a loose form of Unity.

 

In the Great Sphere, SamWaSam (Sammy Tomkins) ran with his new companion, now entering strange parts of HarmonyUndercity that were on no official 3Dmaps. He was soon to learn that there was in fact more than one Living Goddess Baby in the Great Sphere but that the other one was of a most unusual nature.

 

There was also the AlternateEarth of the 2050s, the one that Frank Mulder and Diana Scully had come from, that was trying to put itself back together after a fourth world war and a third big alien invasion. There were some odd changes happening there and some new forces arising from there that would take many by surprise.

 

The Eternal Empress, inside the 13of13, was still carrying out her secretive investigations but already was coming up with some unpleasant surprises.

 

Only SamWaSam and the group moving towards Boston were actively in danger.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0086: 0f SamWaSam and Others

 

SamWaSam had begun to sense strongly that he had made a false assumption, that the Living Baby Goddess he had helped to rescue was indeed the one linked to the exotic neobaby who he had glimpsed briefly, the one called SpeediEe. No, there was another powerful living god like entity out there.

 

SamWaSam and SihiSihiLo stopped in a great domechamber with a bowl shaped floor with a great big bowl shaped lake in the center. Great statues dotted the exterior of elegant humans in robes or armor or other outfits. They held exotic devices of many kinds, some of which were like swords or guns or other more known items but some of which were very strange to look upon. Between each two massive statues ran a large water channel from the wall down to the bowl shaped lake of crystal clear water where huge Lilly-pads and clumps of strange weed filled up much of the waters.

 

Creatures dwelt there that were hairless humans of orange-brown skin who wore robes of much the same color, animal-humans of varied kinds such as dog-humans and cat-humans along with wildfolk wozzles of the same kind that also dwelt on the continent of Australia on the AlternateEarth of the 1980s where Tammy Tomkin had grown up. The animal-humans wore different garbs, some them have saffron robes as the humans did. The furry wozzles only wore webbings of pouch dotted belts that also held other items. The great lake was at least a kilometre wide and at its edges floated boat-houses, platforms, walkways and other structures.

 

SamWaSam and SihiSihiLo both 'sensed' quite strong Unity with the entities there. They shouldered their weapons and removed their power armor helmets to show they were friendly. A small delegation approached them, of the locals, and browsed in a friendly way though the humans radiated hidden powers and both the wozzles and animal-humans carried guns and blades.

 

A wozzle matriarch spoke first. "We have not met Outsiders for many centuries, that is any who have managed to reach us here through the craziness that hides this realm of ours, that stops us from leaving it, except for muties wandering in from HarmonyUndercity. There are no muties dwelling here for here is not their kind of settlement. Here we quietly meditate in different ways, study the teachings of the Nine Gurus and grow resources not just for ourselves but to give away and sell."

 

SamWaSam smiled. "I come from HarmonyCity. My name is SamWaSam! This is my comrade friend SihiSihiLo. We are HarmonyGuardians serving the HarmonyLords. We seek knowledge and will be happy to pay for it."

 

The wozzle matriarch smiled, with out showing too many teeth. "Too much power to be just normal humans. Just like Saffron People you conceal special abilities. You especially, SamWaSam, you smell of long existence and much power but also much fear, pain and violence. You seek the Little Living Goddess Baby who seeks her big-little sister, the Living Goddess Baby. She is not here but GrabbiEo is here to pick up some water clump grass and some yellow splash water lilies."

 

SamWaSam sighed. "I am Sammy Tomkins, False Eternal, and am working with the Living Gods-Goddesses of Timespace to rescue the Living Goddess Baby. They did not mention the Little Living Goddess Baby. The Living Goddess Baby went into my TransCube and vanished with it and a few others. I assume that she has taken control of the TransCube because I have been unable to summon it forth. This place is of the AncientLords and I wonder how it came to be here."

 

A youthful, but elderly, woman spoke. Her left breast was bare of robe but covered with a whirling pattern of body paint. "This is an AncientLords' TransCity named, in common ways, AnscentisRoma. It was trapped in Limbo, along with many peoples, when it was drawn out of there and incorporated into the Great Sphere when it was created. The Great Sphere could not exist with out the TransCity being part of it. The TwistedGod did this but also the DeathlessLords and other forces unknown to us."

 

"The Omegusa Family of our Home AlternateEarth!" SamWaSam spoke. "I am Sammy Tomkins, one of those betrayed by the Omegusa Family to become the False Eternals, powerful artifact-entities."

 

The woman responded solemnly. "We know of no such family. If you speak of the world where the Great Sphere was recreated, we know little of it."

 

SamWaSam did not bother to show his surprise, his puzzlement. "Recreation? We thought the Great Sphere was created there."

 

"The Great Sphere existed in the last Greater Multiversal Cycle before this one but disintegrated at the end of that cycle, as it should have done, as was natural for it to do." The woman frowned very softly but gave the impression that, for her, this was a heavy frown. "Create, recreate, the important point is that the Great Sphere should not exist here, now, in this current Greater Multiversal Cycle. The Great Sphere is intrinsically linked with the Great Sanctuary, the 13of13 and other Great Structures. We actually know little of real detail and only have a general view of such matters. A TransCity was utilized in the creation of each of the Great Structures. This was no accident but was planned."

 

"By the TwistedGod?" SamWaSam frowned softly. "The TwistedGod does not really work with plans or at least not with 'plans' as the grand majority would know them."

 

"There is something else involved, something more subtle and yet, it is own way, more powerful than the TwistedGod." The woman gave a long sigh. "We only know one name for it and that is Retirweth."

 

SamWaSam felt a strange surge of surprise and also frustration. The hearing of the name had almost triggered something very important as buried very deeply in his mind. He spoke. "Something almost came to me; perhaps it will come to me later. Where is this GrabbiEo, perhaps I can talk with it?"

 

The wozzle matriarch sighed. "No, she is gone! SpeediEe is here. He is sleeping in my hut. You may meet him if he wishes to meet you." Then she smiled. "I think he has decided to meet with you."

 

SpeedEe had done so and was standing on SamWaSam's left armored shoulder and was lightly clutching his left ear with a small right hand. SamWaSam smiled and the small one smiled back at him and the others. Then he spoke in a soft voice that they all heard clearly, anyway. "She Who Must Be Fussed Over, she is not happy at the flowing of events that led her to be trapped in this Great Sphere. Big-Little Sister came to save her and this makes for happy sadness. Big-Little Sister fought the TwistedGod briefly and drove it off but was made tired and sick from the big fight. TwistedGod, inside the Great Sphere, is tired and sick from being cut off from rest of the TwistedGod and now is more so after fight with big-little sister. Desperation, frustration, anger all around. Silly FactionLords doing silly things and now poor unhappy False Eternals come to play. Puzzles must be solved, games must be won, wars must be fought and all must be saved, even the TwistedGod."

 

Which was when SamWaSam felt very strange, overwhelming sensations go through himself and he sank down into a swirling pattern of fragmented memories and other thoughts, feelings. Then he blanked out.

Edited July 13, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0087: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

Bobby quietly watched the group moving through the tangled swamp-forests towards her, an environment once impossible to be found in that area. Bobby was shapeformed as a beautiful black haired, pale white young woman in black leathers and blue denims with a large pair of revolver pistols holstered at her sides, gunslinger style. With her were three young women, triplets by the look of them, in the same type gear and also with revolver-pistols but each had a odd weapon like a combination lever-action rifle and shotgun. They were BobbyLee, BobbyJane and BobbyJo. There were nine others but they remained invisible for the moment.

 

Bobby had set up a well secured and hidden encampment in a cave chamber but the entrance was fairly well hidden. The encampment was mainly for the approaching group who were hungry, exhausted and frustrated. They had become lost in the swamp-forests more than once, had fought swamp-forest monsters and ever crazy swampfolk. They were confused and not sure they were on the same world any more. Truth was they were in a fringe zone, a martial merging of that AlternateEarth and another reality, a Reflected Alternate Reality that was not quite an AlternateEarth in its own right.

 

They came into view as they walked along a clear area, following a fast flowing stream that gurgled over rocks and small drops. When one of the Olivias saw him, she sort of raised her autrorifle but not quite. Then the others saw Bobby and her three companions, staring in wonder at the dangerous, exotic figures with their huge pistols and odd lever-guns. Bobby smiled. It had been decided that Olivia, from that world, would be called Olivia and the other Olivia would be called Olivia-H, using the H of her middle name that she shared with the other Olivia; the name was Helana. She was not greatly pleased but it made sense. Olivia saw things in Bobby that were exotic, surprising, and Peter saw odd energies around her.

 

Bobby smiled warmly and spoke. "I am Tommy Tomkin's sister. I knew you were coming and though I did not bake a cake, I set up an encampment in the cave. The entrance is over there, hidden by fake bushes. Kate, you and the other supersoldier can come out of hiding. Very clever but I know where you are."

 

Kate, cloned daughter of Olivia and Peter, did come out and she brought her supersoldier comrade with her who was named Barnet. The two supersoldiers moved with quiet lethalness in special body-armor and holding special weapons.

 

Olivia spoke. "You have come recently to this AlternateEarth. I am Olivia Dunham and this is Peter Bishop. This is also Olivia Dunham but we are using our middle name, Helena, for her so she is now Olivia-H. This is Jacko and here are Vanita, a local from what was Maryland and Tralish, a man from Washington DC who has done field work for Fringe of this world. There were others but they departed from us rather than enter these damned swamp-forests and who can blame them? It is as if this is no longer our world."

 

Bobby nodded. "It isn't quite the world you know but is partly merged with a Reflected Alternate Reality, that in this case might be accurately known as a QuasiAlternateEarth. This is a mild reflection of the savagery that is that QuasiAlternateEarth proper. You were heading towards a point where you would have passed totally into that QuasiAlternateEarth; that would have been extremely dangerous for you. After you have fed, washed, rested and we have talked, then I will guide you back fully into the AlternateEarth that you should be in. The Great Sphere is causing disturbances in the alternates, in timespace, in... in a whole lot of things."

 

The group slept and Bobby, along with her followers, staid on guard. Twice radghouls moved across the swamp-forests in the distance. The radghouls were mostly humans long ago ghoulified by a combination of Forced Evolutionary Virus, FEV, and big doses of very high radiation along with some other elements. Two GlowingOnes moved with one group of radghouls. Their nature was created by some extra special elements that regular radghouls did not have. They were all from the QuasiAlternateEarth. So far there was only a small danger that they, swampfolk or any other such threats would cross into the AlternateEarth and make it their home.

 

The group woke, had a meal, washed as best they could with jugs and bowls of water as provided by Bobby, drank good hot coffee or tea and gained from small bits of equipment and some vital supplies from Bobby. Then she took up a backpack of gear, as did her three primary followers, and prepared to set out.

 

Peter Bishop frowned softly. "Are you going to just abandon all the stuff left in the cave?"

 

"Abandon, no!" Bobby sighed. "But give it over to the hiding tribal scouts and warriors who have helped keep you safe. It is best if you do not meet them. It would strengthen the links between the AlternateEarth and the QuasiAlternateEarth, making more solid this bridging zone and making crossing over much easier."

 

Human scouts and warriors emerged into the open, tough in hornlizard leather body-armor, carrying an odd range of weapons from powerful crossbows to autorifles that were similar to those known by the group members but not identical. They carried guns that looked like rugged, basic hybrids of M16 and AK74 assault-rifles. They were called AK16 assault-rifles. Bobby frowned softly but then he smiled at the tribals. "So you want to risk living in the AlternateEarth."

 

A woman spoke. Her name was Jenaqua. "Yes, we want to take many with us also and we need your help. We having something to offer in return, perhaps more than just one something. You told us that the AlternateEarth we would go to would need to be our home for at least twenty years for us to adjust from quasireality to full reality; we accept that. You told us that we would need to leave that world before the Great Sphere engulfs, and absorbs it. We accept that. We have passed the word on as, I suspect, you hoped we would. We have many exotic sciences and technologies to offer, strange artifacts and much else. The peoples of the AlternateEarth would greatly gain from many of them. Anyway we fear that our QuasiAlternateEarth is dying, is fading away. Wait while we grab up everything from the cave and then we will take you, and your new compatriots, deeper into our world. There we already have some gifts for you."

 

The group chose to go along with this. They could see the need for new technologies, special knowledge, to help fight the UtopianLords with and to help deal with other challenges.

 

Bobby turned to OliviaH with an expression of concern on his face. "The Great Sphere has begun to emerge on your AlternateEarth. As yet it is only just over a metre wide but is growing steadily."

 

OliviaH frowned. "It will be emerging in the middle of Australia so hopefully Americans will be able to do something about it."

 

Bobby shook his head. "Not this time, not on your AlternateEarth. It has appeared, roughly, in the center of the US Mainland and will expand out from there."

 

OliviaH, understandably enough, was not too happy about this. "How did you find it out?"

 

It had been the 'Voice' who had informed him but Bobby only smiled and OliviaH got the point.

Edited July 13, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0088: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

The tribal people were named the Leathernecks, their ancestors had been largely from a US Marine Base including service families. Their QuasiAlternateEarth had experienced Doomsday that had decimated large areas of the world, creating the Wastelands. The Thirteen Commonwealths, of that version of the USA, had been destroyed. The Leathernecks spoke of such half remembered things as the TekCorporations, the Chinese Invasion of Alaska and then Washington DC, of holotapes, stimpaks, protectron robots and much else. Many things were half known, were part guesswork. There were radghouls, radhuman swampfolk, great mutated creatures, rogue robots and much else to deal with. The Leathernecks dwelt in the north of an region known as Point Lookout for reasons they did not know for sure.

 

When Peter Bishop went to tell the Leathernecks that their world was just like that in a popular series of computer games of his adopted AlternateEarth, Bobby stopped him from doing so, stating quietly he would explain why but later. Peter Bishop was the only one in the group who knew about the Fallout3D Games, including Sequels and Expansions. He had helped develop some of the programming, had created some mods, just out of boredom but also for money when it came to the programming. The 'Leathernecks' came from one of his mods, in a reflective fashion, and even had come with two quests and a large underground base.

 

The swamp-forests became swamp-jungles as they moved into the gameworld based QuasiAlternateEarth and into the swampy Wastelands of Point Lookout. After a while they came to where other Leathernecks waited with some lightly armored-armed, very agile and speedy, electric fanboats. That is shallow hulled swamp-boats pushed by big electric powered propellers at the back. Electric powered fanboats were far less noisy than older internal combustion engine driven kinds. Out in the swamp-jungles it was better not to attract too much attention. Radghouls, radhuman swampfolk, rogue robots, cannibal tribals and others threats like them were not the worst for they were scattered and rarely in great numbers. No, the infamous mutant hating Enclaven was sending expeditions into the area of their clonehuman Stormtroopers in power-armor, powered mecha machines, antigrav boosted vertibird flying machines and with other threatening technologies. The Enclaven also used local type technologies like electric swamp-buggies, wheeled ATVs, fanboats and even hovercraft. Even the Enclaven had to often use what it could in that devastated world with its shortages of so many important, even vital, resources.

 

There was something about Bobby Tomkins that kept the swamplurks, giant swamp ants and other such creatures away. The convoy of electric fanboats soon reached the settlement of CanDoTown. This was officially the home of the Leathernecks but hidden well beneath it was a great big bunker complex. The swamp-boats remained in the surface settlement that had once been a fortified mansion estate. Long ago the family there had joined with the ancestors of the Leathernecks and had informed them about the great base. The family had not known much about the bunker complex except it was some kind of privately owned secret research and development site for highly illegal experimentation of different kinds.

 

They went down into the amazingly big base, only a small part of which the Leathernecks had fully explored, let alone used. Bobby knew what they entered as soon as they did. It was no mere human base but a very old, much developed TransBaseCubeCluster, all of them much bigger inside than outside and of many multidimensional zones. A FactionLord Faction had made it out of Beta Class TransBaseCubes and other elements that could be found. Yet the final structure was well made, was well designed. Bobby soon made it clear to the Leathernecks that they were best not to abandon but to seal off part of the complex for their own but they had already attempted this. Bobby helped them seal off their sector even more, making it more secure.

 

*********

 

Bobby studied protectron robots, gracefully clumsy humanoid robots, along with holotape projectors, mainframe centered computer network-systems, and much else. He talked, in private, with Peter Bishop about what seemed to be a computer 3D gameworld made real but with some changes, both more obvious and subtle. They were in a large metallic chamber, a kind of basic display of PreDD (PreDoomsday) devices and other items. Each was placed on a metal table or in its own space against a wall. The biggest was an atomic motorized army truck, lightly armored, with the 'atomic motor' removed. In truth the name was a falsehood but a lot easier to remember than the longer, more complicated, scientific term. The atomic motors could, and did, become unstable if not given regular services, being at least once a decade. The big truck was designed to use rough roads but did not suit conditions in the swamp-jungles that had overtaken the once forest covered Point Lookout region.

 

Olivia and OliviaH came into the room as Peter was speaking, with Jacko soon following. "These are mostly original game items. One of the protectrons is a changed type as I modded. It is a super-protectron with improved intelligence, stability, speed, armor, weapons and instrumentalities. The other protectrons are typical RobCo manufactured machines that could use a lot of enhancing."

 

Olivia spoke. "Peter told us about the gameworld come to life concept. It is most amazing."

 

Bobby nodded. "QuasiAlternateEarths often come into existence from mass belief, or suspended disbelief, arising from AlternateEarths. Thus a very popular computer game might generate enough belief to do so. You created this bunker complex but I doubt you did so as a set of TransBaseCubes. No, some other force came along later and changed that."

 

"The bunker complex seems more 'solid', more as one unit than the one that I designed for the game. Yet much of it is much the same. The big cafeteria we had a meal in. The way we came down using the big, shallow sloping spiral rampway." He looked around at smiled at the atomic motorized sedan car in one corner that was clearly modeled on a Thunderbird. "An altered classic complete with atomic motor, at least until it was removed. There are at least a hundred multiplied more people than I wrote into the mod. These Leathernecks have power armor, which mine did not have."

 

Bobby nodded. "There has been another, earlier link formed between this QuasiAlternateEarth and another AlternateEarth. That would help to explain the TransBaseCubes. Tell me more about the 3D gameworld and this mod?"

 

OliviaH looked fascinated. "We had protectron robots show up on our world as manufactured by the MassDynamic Corporation through its daughter corporation of MassRobotic. They were used mainly for show and some were altered to sell to theme parks as character creatures. None had weapons because such were banned all around the world by international agreements. When the 'destructive singularities' began to appear on our world, MassRobotic gave up on the protectrons, and other such projects, to focus on specialized robots to assist with the crisis. Then their whole main complex, including administration, research and development along with manufacturing plant, became covered in amberite along with most of their people. As far as I know the complex, and its people, are still in amberite."

 

Peter was thoughtful. "I created the mod to have the Leathernecks take over the main administration, accommodation, people service-support sector along with technical service-support for that sector. It seems that this is what they have done only this bunker complex seems to be over a hundred times bigger than the one I modded and that was very big by game standards. They have replicators, duplicators, regenerators, rejuvenators, wire-teleportation, minimonorails, the same set of robots, the same set of turrets and yet..." He looked thoughtful. "Some of the technologies I have seen look like they come from your world, OliviaH, the AlternateEarth that I was born on."

 

OliviaH spoke. "I must agree! A strange mixture of 3Dgameworld devices and things of my world though all of it at least ten years old as hitech goes. Old type 3DTVs, the ones that need the goggles to work properly, video-telephones, roboremote trolleys, body-armor, those AK16A2 assault-rifles that were not common in my USA anyway, that robot over there that is half hidden in the corner, the MassRobotic prototype that was much hyped but never manufactured..."

 

Bobby broke in, firmly but not harshly. "Do you know who invented the prototype?"

 

OliviaH shrugged. "Professor Lex Luthor, supposed super genius. He was responsible for many of the breakthroughs that caused our AlternateEarth to be more advanced than that of the AlternateEarth that Peter was abducted to."

 

At that moment alarms began to chime through out the bunker complex.

Edited July 13, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/62.jpg

[Maharg67]

0089: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

Enclaven Stormtroopers, with Stormtrooper like robots called Robotroopers, struck at the base through a cave system. The attack was well planned, cunning and well prepared but failed because the attackers did not know that the base had been transformed with the use of TransBaseCubes and could not get through the new outer hull of the base. Their shaped plastic explosives, high powered laser cutters and other devices failed miserably. The whole taskforce turned and made a fast but orderly retreat back through the cave system. The Leathernecks were pleased but none considered that the Enclaven threat was over, far from it.

 

The Leatherneck leader, Colonel Patterblade, came to Bobby and met with him in private, sitting across from him at a small metal desk. The leader wore a stylized old fashioned type steel US Marine helmet but otherwise wore typical Leatherneck gear. He spoke. "We were visited over a decade ago by one Professor Lex Luthor, and his people. We did not fully trust them but they did make the bunker complex somehow much stronger, more stable, more useful and larger. In return we gathered many mutated genetic samples for him from the swamp-jungles along with PreDD mechanisms such as robots, laserguns, atomic motors, stimpaks and much else. Still, we came out better with the bargain. That is until he made some extra demands."

 

Bobby frowned softly. "I fear I know who Professor Lex Luthor really is. The name is based on a fictional character of some worlds being an evil super genius villain."

 

"The name more than suits him." Patterblade scowled. "Lex Luthor stated that he had done far more for us than we had done for him. He wanted us to capture live prisoners of many kinds be they swampfolk or radghouls or tribals or settlers or even rarities like vaultfolk or those damned Enclavers. We told him to go to hell! Basically we can not afford to start some kind of conflict with other tribals, with the settlers in their New Point Lookout Republic or any vaultfolk. As for the Enclavers, we would rather just stay away from them. He was very angry but then chose a compromise. He said he would be happy if we captured the strange cannibal tribals known as the BloodFangs and bring them to him otherwise he would close down our bunker complex. He did so for just one hour to prove that he could do so. Though we did not like the idea, even though the BloodFangs were a monstrous people who were almost swampfolk in their nature, but we had to go along with it. It was a difficult operation and we ended up hiring other tribal warriors. The BloodFangs fought like crazy and there were more of them than anybody had guessed. The BloodFangs had prisoners in pens, in filthy conditions, and we were happy to free them. At the time it almost justified the operation. We handed over the BloodFangs to Lex Luthor and his people. Then the experimentation began on the captive BloodFangs."

 

Bobby frowned harder. "If this 'Professor Lex Luthor' was who I suspect he was, then the experimentation would have been most horrific in nature."

 

Patterblade looked troubled by his memories despite being a much experienced fighter in violent local conflicts. "We tried to intervene and stop the experiments but it was too late. Professor Lex Luthor had gained what he wanted; he and his people vanished as quickly as they had appeared in the first place. They left us a rather nasty surprise in the form of BloodFang zombies. Only a very small number of the BloodFangs physically survived and many of those were damaged of mind, body and spirit. The zombies were almost mindless and we killed them off, burned the bodies in furnaces and carefully cleaned up everything. One of the surviving BloodFangs overhead some of Lex Luthor’s people speaking together. They spoke of him as being the NecroSage Ovantarisa of the NecroLords."

 

Bobby looked very surprised. "That is not the title or name that I assumed, foolishly it seems, that you would come up with. I have never heard of something called a NecroSage or a NecroLord. I should not be too surprised since many FactionLord Factions have emerged, split, merged and much else. Names, and titles, come and go. DeathLords, UndeathLords, DeadLords, UndeadLords, those are FactionLord Factions that I have heard of. It is time that you, and your people, gained much important information. You can tell me why the Enclaven would try to invade your home."

 

Patterblade sighed. "One can only guess but there are four strong possibilities. They could be after the PreDD knowledge and other special resources in this place. They could be on the trail of Professor Lex Luthor and his people. They could be trying to take over the bunker complex to use as a forward base of operations. The last option is the oddest. About three and a half months after Professor Lex Luthor, NecroSage Ovantarisa, vanished with his people, we discovered that he had been searching for something special in the bunker complex and had failed to find it even with the changes he made to our home. Somehow he left behind a list of discoveries that he, and his people, had made along with 3Dmaps and other useful data on the transformed bunker complex. So we Leathernecks decided to take advantage of this knowledge. That was when we discovered the horrific truth that this base had been used for some truly evil research and development projects, before Doomsday. Yet it is better to show you than to try to explain. I can not take you there as I will be commanding an operation to strengthen security in the area and to try to learn if there are any more dangerous Enclavers near us."

 

Bobby 'sensed' that Patterblade was hiding something important, perhaps more than one thing, but he made no fuss. Instead he exchanged some general information and then went back to where the rest of the group were sharing the same dormitory area. The others were not happy for they had been given a quick tour of a small part of the bunker complex before being locked into the big chamber. That is Bobby's three prime followers and the Fringe group that had been making its way to Boston. Bobby had not revealed the existence of the nine phantomic, more than invisible, secondary followers. Those followers, in three groups of three, were busy spying their way through the big bunker complex.

 

Bobby told the others about the visit of Professor Lex Luthor, NecroSage Ovantarisa, and those that had come with him. The story was a disturbing one. He did not speak about his suspicions that the story was not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth because the dormitory area was under surveillance in a number of ways. Yet he was soon working out ways to secretly communicate with most of the others. He did not have to do so with his prime or secondary followers for they were always linked with each other.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0090: Of the OmniObserver and the Observed

 

Tammy-Tommy Tomkins went on with the special project in the TT-TransCube while the fake Tommy Tomkins continued to function in the fake TT-TransCube in Robertville. Why the deception? Tommy could not have explained it except to say that he had learned to trust his gut instincts, his more 'subtle sense' of things. As it was the fake TT-TransCube was heavily fortified and secured, the fake Tommy Tomkins made as ready for trouble as was possible. He was not considered expendable, far from it.

 

Paddy Jackson, the False Eternal, joined in with the project but not in a central fashion; he did not have the needed abilities or experience but, more importantly, the Tomkins did not quite trust him. Paddy Jackson did good work inside his own TransCube as he went through the vast amount of data and items he had gathered, a very eclectic collection with some exotic features to it.

 

Graham Maharg managed to rebuild the AlternateGate, in the True Illuminati Complex that he was in, and form a stable gateway with the True Illuminati Complex that the Tomkins were then based in. It took some convincing but soon Walter Bishop, Astrid and many others were going from one of the AlternateEarths of the 2030s to the AlternateEarth of the 1950s. Equipment and supplies went with them. They took everything they could including livestock, pets and seedlings. Graham Maharg assisted by bringing forth special resources like androids, robots and special vehicles to help with the actual shift.

 

As for the fake Nina Sharp, and others like her, they remained in status confinement.

 

SamWaSam (Sammy Tomkins) floated in warm darkness and dreamed fleeting, sharply vivid dreams; some were troubling, some were calming but most he seemed indifferent to. He 'sensed' he was in some kind of trap and yet he could 'sense' no threat.

 

Bobby Tomkins did not quite trust the Leathernecks but he 'sensed' that they were not the real threat. Something lurked in the background, something very dangerous and yet there was a hint that Bobby had the real identity of this one. The secondary followers had become aware that there were other hidden observers in the bunker complex made up of TransBaseCubes; they became more cautious in their movements and other actions. Despite this they picked up some interesting information, some vital clues to what was really going on. The others, the Fringe people, were also careful as he managed to communicate with them what was really going on.

 

Professor Chronos kept on assisting the Unity of the British Empire of the AlternateEarth of the turn of the 19^th and 20 ^th Centuries. He researched the Martian Invaders and what he could of the undeath, the spread of the zombies and other undead.

 

The Eternal Empress discovered that at the core of the 13of13 was a TransCity of the AncientLords and that it was critical to the existence of the 13of13. Yet there were other secrets linked to the TransCity being there and a few of them seemed to be very dark.

 

The TwistedGod kept on trying to invade the Great Sphere, in which one aspect of it was trapped and largely isolated from its other aspects. As much as it wanted conquest, the trapped aspect also wanted freedom from the Great Sphere.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0091: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

Peter Bishop spoke out even as he investigated a line of metal big, basic wall-lockers in the main dormitory chamber. “It should be about here.”

 

Bobby had managed to trick the various forms of surveillance but the 'trickery' would not work for very long. Realistic illusionary copies of the group were apparently quietly waiting for something to happen, were doing routine activities. The real group members were gathered near the lockers with their equipment and other items.

 

Peter opened one locker, then another to its right and then another one to the left of the first locker he had opened. “If opened in the right sequence, and left open, the locker doors unlock a secret door at the back of the middle locker.” He reached out and pushed the locker wall.

 

It opened and there was a simple hallway tunnel. The group moved into it and then Peter closed both the locker door and the secret door behind them. Bobby reached out, with his special abilities, and closed the other locker doors.

 

At the end of the short hallway was a basic metal door that led into a room where four Leatherneck Soldiers waited patiently, non-threateningly.

 

Jenaqua, the leader of the group, a woman they had met in the swamp-forests, frowned softly. “You took a risk contacting us through one of your secondary followers, Bobby, so we took a risk in trusting you. Professor Lex Luther did not leave. He took a large group of our people as hostages, including many of our children. With problems of fertility, and survivability, our children are not just precious to us in the normal way but... their loss will mean the end of us.”

 

She turned to Peter Bishop. “How did you know the secret exit was there? It took us a very long time to find it for it is very well hidden and tricky to open.”

 

Peter sighed. “Your QuasiAlternateEarth is a 'solid reflection' of a very popular computer 3Dgame known as Fallout3D that is played both on line and off line. Point Lookout is part of the 3Dgameworld but I added a faction called the Leathernecks, and their bunker complex, along with other features. I still have a 3Dmap of the bunker complex, as it was before the TransBaseCubes were used to transform it.”

 

Jenaqua sighed. “If we had not realized, as a people, that the world was changing, that somehow everything was becoming steadily 'more real', than perhaps I might not believe you or even be offended. Professor Lex Luther hinted strongly that this world is but a reflection of some kind of fiction though not itself fictional. I have a 3Dmap of the bunker complex to show you. Much of it is blank and too much of it is part guesswork at least but it is all that we have. Since the TransBaseCubes were melded into the bunker complex there is far more we do not know.”

 

The 3Dmap came with a 3Dmaptablet, a hand held device designed just to show such things. Peter studied the 3Dmap closely.

 

OliviaH spoke. “Such 3Dmaptablets were popular on my world about ten years ago but were replaced by more efficient multiple function devices.”

 

Peter gave a mild grin. “Very interesting, OliviaH, and here is something just as interesting.”

 

Olivia frowned softly. OliviaH had once pretended to be Olivia and had tricked Peter. The two had been lovers and together had a child. That child was grown up on the other AlternateEarth of the 2030s and he was named Terry. Terry was in the resistance forces fighting against President Walter Bishop and his DystopianLord allies. Olivia had never quite forgiven the other Olivia for pretending to be her, for seducing Peter though she had forgiven Peter with some difficulty.

 

Peter gave Olivia a quick, warm smile and then looked back to the 3Dmaptablet. “Close to here, just here, is a secret chamber with hidden resources. There is a wire-teleportation hub with three wire-teleportation booths, androids in special storage, robots in special storage, lockers of equipment and supplies, suits of power armor, battlerifles and... yes some extras that I can not quite remember. The chamber leads to other secret passages and even three secret elevators. Aaahhh, yes, there are three super virtual reality capsulechairs and fifteen status-capsules.”

 

Peter turned to Bobby Tomkins. “In the real 3Dgameworld a player could access a special programming interface and, using that, utilize various cheat codes. Would the equivalent of such exist here?”

 

“Very good question and I wish I had a straight forward reply.” Bobby responded. “I have been to QuasiAlternateEarths but never before to one base reflected on a computer game. How did you access the special programming interface?”

 

Peter frowned. “Through the 3Dcomputer keyboard but there are no handy keyboards around here, at least none of.....”

 

Bobby smiled. “Close your eyes and focus, visualizing as strongly as you can a device that you could use as such a special programming interface.”

 

Peter did so and with a soft sparkling shimmer a chunky bracelet appeared around his left wrist being a VaultTek Pipboy200AB Special. It had a compact fold out keyboard, a 3Dscreen, some other controls and some built in extras.

 

Peter smiled. “I modded this kind of pipboy into the game of Fallout3D. It was a very popular mod but all my mods were, of course.”

 

Bobby snorted softly. “What was your secret agenda behind creating the Fallout3D Mods?”

 

Peter tried to look offended but then he gave a mild grin. “Coded messages through the on-line gaming part of Fallout3D. It was a handy way of doing covert business with geeks who did far more than just play and make mods for computer games. That is not really important!”

 

“Then why are you trying to hide something from us?” Bobby frowned softly at Peter. “Please lead us to the special chamber. I am sure the Leathernecks could use the resources here if the chamber has not been discovered by others.”

 

Peter smiled charmingly and both Olivias gave him a look of suspicion.

 

Peter shrugged. “The chamber was designed as a meeting place, of sorts, on-line and I invited male geeks there so I designed it to please them.”

 

Olivia sighed. “I can imagine, unfortunately, what that means but we need to go there anyway.”

 

So they went there.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0092: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

The chamber was exceedingly well hidden and very large with many antechambers leading off it, some with doors and some with out, along with many alcoves.

 

The androids were all beautiful, slimly voluptuous young looking women in skimpy versions of maid, nurse, waitress, stewardess, cowgirl and others. There were thirty-five of them in special capsule like rest-recharge bays.

 

There were large 'erotic' statues of naked and seminaked women, great big padded armchairs, padded couches, great fur rugs, wall tapestries showing more naked, or seminaked, women in various costumed scenes, big 3Dwallscreens now blank and much else.

 

Peter Bishop smiled. “The big fancy bar in the corner serves more than alcohol. There are snacks, meals and non-alcoholic drinks including tea and coffee. I designed replicators that make things out of energy and atomic motors to power them. Organic replicators are there to create proper nutritional food and drinks, not the real thing but authentic enough and highly nutritional.”

 

Jenaqua frowned. “This all belongs to the Leathernecks! We will slave-implant the androids.”

 

“No, you will not!” Bobby looked very hard at the Leatherneck leader so that Jenaqua stepped back in surprise. “If you have any enslaved androids you will free them now and give them over to my care. You will be more than fairly compensated. You need me more than I need you. I need a quiet place to sit and meditate for a moment. There is something that I must do, something that has come up and something that I can not explain.”

 

Jenaqua frowned. “The only androids we have are remote-androids too dumb to even guide their own more complicated tasks. We only have about a hundred of them and have them working with toxins and other dangerous materials that they are much more immune to than we humans are. They bring the stuff in from the swamps, guarded by our people, and then help to process them into useful products. Professor Lex Luther has enslaved advanced androids, being duplicants and replicants but we do not know how many. We do not know where he is now based, do not know where he has the Leatherneck hostages. We really do not know much about him at all, nor about his followers.”

 

Bobby turned to Peter. “What cheat codes do you remember and what can they do?”

 

Peter Bishop shrugged. “I could summon forth non-player characters of the game or safe duplicates of them. I could summon safe duplicates of a big list of game items, some being safer to summon forth than others. I could summon forth friendly versions of monsters and bad NPCs.”

 

Jenaqua nodded. “We play games with the computer terminals with their 3Dscreens and, when we can, in super virtual reality. We know what player characters and NPCs are. I suppose I am one of your non player characters.”

 

“Not that I remember.” Peter shook his head. “What is your surname?”

 

“Bacigalupi!” Jenaqua responded a little sharply. “I thought you would remember such a name.”

 

“Yes but the NPCs I created were Paolo and Nina Bacigalupi!” Peter responded. “He was a nurse and she was a doctor of general medicine.”

 

“They are my parents. They are of the older generations who seem to have more basic personalities than we of the newer generations.” The woman looked around. “What are we to do with these android s***s of yours.”

 

Peter frowned in anger. “Do not call them that! They have multiple programming and can function as skilled workers, fighters, medics and with some other specializations. They can pole dance, massage, strip dance, please in many ways but also program computers, kill in many ways, use power armor, fix up wounds and have excellent survival program-training.”

 

Bobby frowned at Jenaqua. “Why did you betray your people? That is you and the other Leathernecks that we have met so far? No, that is not it at all! You are copies of the originals. The NecroLord created you using cheat codes.”

 

Jenaqua shrugged. “He may have done so but we still want to get rid of him and his followers. He killed the originals and when he did so, their life essences, perhaps their very souls, passed to us. We became the originals and we lost the deep need, desire, to serve the NecroSage Ovantarisa. Until the originals died we were 'empty' and did not know just how much until we were 'filled'. Soon after the originals died, their bodies vanished but only the other Leathernecks witnessed this. We want to strike at Ovantarisa before he realizes what has happened.”

 

Bobby looked thoughtful. “I suggest you fully activate all of the androids and get them into practical, more modest gear. See what is functioning of the special utilities. Wait until I cease meditation before you try messing around with cheat codes as such. I suspect they may be dangerous to utilize.”

Edited July 14, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0093: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

Bobby began to do sitting meditation but Olivia 'sensed' it was more than such and Peter 'saw' strange energy patterns arise up around him. What was Bobby Tomkins doing?

 

Peter activated the androids, who at once decided to take his orders until Bobby came out of meditation. They got into more practical and modest gear, took up body-armor, weapons and other equipment along with supplies. They took over the chamber before the Leathernecks could even begin to really try to do so, much to the chagrin of Jenaqua.

 

More Leathernecks arrived, also transformed duplicates who had become the originals, somehow, after their deaths. At last Patterblade, himself, showed up and looked around with a strong frown on his face. He clearly did not like the fact that the newcomers, and the android women, clearly dominated the chamber and yet he was mollified to some extent when equipment and supplies began to be handed over. There were also extras like bottles of good quality wine, movie holotapes, a holotape projector, and the promise that the Leathernecks could be served in the big chamber.

 

One of the Leatherneck men made a crude remark about 'special service' from the android women and Jenaqua struck him, hard, across the face. None of the Leatherneck men did such a thing again but the struck man would scowl at Jenaqua sometimes.

 

Time passed and Bobby did not cease sitting meditation. When Olivia tried, carefully, to touch him she found that she could not reach him. A kind of energy field was surrounding him that kept him safe but imprisoned him somehow.

 

Jenaqua frowned. “What is he up to?”

 

Kate, the cloned supersoldier, frowned. “I have the 'sense' he is not 'up to anything'. He was taken by surprise by something, has been drawn into something. I have inherited both Peter and Olivia's special abilities through my cloning birth but they are weaker.”

 

Olivia smiled at Kate, had found she was getting to love her clone-daughter more than she had feared she would. “They will grow stronger the older you get.”

 

Jenaqua frowned. “We will have to work with out his help. We will send the androids out. They are expendable.”

 

OliviaH frowned hard at Jenaqua. “What do you have against androids?”

 

Jenaqua frowned right back. “Androidia is hidden roughly west of here. Androidia is made up of angry, human hating androids, smart-robots and stationary super smart computer network-systems. Five years back they sent a large force of androids, many in special power armor, roboremotes and robots. We joined in an alliance against them. They killed anything living from radhuman swampfolk to giant swamp ants to tribals like us and even the defensive aggressive only settlers. We drove them off but only at heavy cost. They seemed to be searching for something but we do not know if they found it or not. If a large Brotherhood of Steel detachment had not arrived we may have easily lost that battle. The Brothers of Steel also seemed to be looking for something special as are the Enclaven and that damned NecroSage. Something called an artifact-entity or was there more than one; we do not know.”

 

Peter frowned. “I modded Androidia but it was supposed to be a defensive aggressive only society, largely harmonious and welcoming to android friendly humans. Not all androids are evil just as not all humans are evil. These androids are not expendable. They will wait here and serve this complex, will help protect Bobby Tomkins. I suggest we start seeking out the hiding place of the hostages.”