Interlude

Interlude is the twenty-sixth episode of Tech 10: Star Spirit. It takes place between Seasons 2 and 3.

Episode
[Open to evening inside of Plumber Base UT1. Alpha is monitoring the computer system, as per usual, as Herc, Pyros, and Reaper are talking amongst themselves. Nova and Napoleon are standing near the platform elevator, impatiently waiting for someone to arrive. After a few moments, the elevator activates, bringing Theo, Isaac, and Moranna down into the base. Theo, wearing a white outfit instead of his usual purple, casually steps off the elevator as Isaac and Moranna examine their surroundings.]

[Theo]: “Welcome to Plumber Base UT1.”

[Isaac]: “So, this is where you’ve been running off to for the past year, huh?”

[Nova]: (Impatiently) “What took you guys so long? We’ve been waiting for ages!”

[Napoleon]: “It’s been twenty minutes. But, considering you three were supposed to get here about fifteen minutes ago...”

[Moranna]: “Isaac forgot about Temportal. Again.”

[Napoleon]: “Good God, man! Do we need to put a sticky note on the SpecTrix or something?!”

[Isaac]: “Hey, I never said I was smart. Getting down to business, I think there’s someone here I need to talk to.”

Isaac’s gaze turned to focus on Reaper, who noticed his presence and broke away from his own conversation, walking over to speak with him.

[Reaper]: “Tech-”

[Isaac]: “Isaac.”

[Reaper]: “Isaac, then. I’m sure you must have many questions, especially after my identity was revealed in such an...” (Glances towards Herc) “Informal manner.”

[Isaac]: “First off, could you take off the mask? What is with you and masks?”

[Reaper]: “What do you mean?”

[Isaac]: “Literally every time I talk to you, you’re wearing a mask.”

[Reaper]: “...I suppose I never thought about that.”

Reaper pulled off his hood and took off his mask, revealing his rather weary-looking face.

[Reaper]: “I feel as if we should have had this conversation sooner.”

[Isaac]: “For the record, I’ve been bogged down with work over the past few months. Do you have any idea how busy a tourism enterprise gets around the holidays?”

[Reaper]: “Not in the slightest, but I’ll take your word for it.”

[Isaac]: “Oh, right, you’re from like Ancient Egypt or whatever, right?”

[Theo]: “He’s from what now?”

[Isaac]: “It’s a long story. A story that left off with him blowing up. Considering the fact that he’s standing right here, I feel like some sort of explanation is in order.”

[Reaper]: “I’m afraid the story of my recovery from that is rather lengthy in and of itself.”

[Isaac]: “Recovery from what, being disintegrated?!”

[Reaper]: “Like I said, long story.”

[Theo]: “I think I’m just going to sit this conversation out. You guys clearly have a lot to catch up on.”

[Isaac]: (Shoots Reaper a glare) “That we do.”

Theo gestured for Nova to follow him away from the group. The two moved to a corner of the main room, away from the others.

[Theo]: “I’ve been meaning to ask. How’s everyone dealing with...well, you know.”

Nova nodded, her expression taking on a more somber tone.

[Nova]: “F3. Herc and Reaper are fairly stoic about the whole thing, but I know they end up missing him him every once in a while.”

[Theo]: “And Pyros?”

[Nova]: “He’s...not been doing that great. He probably got along with F3 better than anyone, and he tries not to talk about it, but he’s been a lot more introverted since it happened.”

[Theo]: “And what about you?”

[Nova]: “I...I don’t know. It’s weird to talk about. I knew him, but I didn’t really...know him, you know? I’m sad he’s gone, but I don’t really know how to react to it.”

[Theo]: “Yeah, I get where you’re coming from.”

There was a brief lull in the conversation, as neither of them really knew what to say next.

[Nova]: “So, uh...what’s been going on on your end lately?”

[Theo]: “Not much has changed, unfortunately. I’m still not having any luck trying to catch Aeron.”

[Nova]: “Are you sure you don’t want help with that? I mean, we could turn into Technova again and probably kick his ass.”

[Theo]: “I can kick his ass just fine, the problem is keeping him from running away after the fact.”

[Nova]: “Well, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

[Theo]: “Yeah...”

There was another pause.

[Nova]: (Sighs) “Why does this feel so awkward now? Didn’t we used to like, you know, really get along?”

[Theo]: “It’s been a long year.”

[Nova]: “No kidding. This time last year we were still just a couple of normal teenagers sitting in the park and shooting the shit.”

[Theo]: “Yeah. A lot’s happened since then.”

[Nova]: “...You wanna go do that?”

[Theo]: “Do what?”

[Nova]: “Just sit in the park and shoot the shit. Act like we don’t have massively traumatizing bullshit breathing down our necks for like five minutes and just...be normal.”

Theo paused for a moment to think.

[Theo]: “That...that would be nice.”

The two nodded in agreement and walked over the platform elevator and leaving the base. Napoleon watched as they left, his expression suddenly becoming a lot more weary as soon as they left his sight. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder and turned to find Herc looking at him with a concerned expression.

[Herc]: “You’re worried about Nova, right?”

[Napoleon]: (Nods) “This is exactly why I tried to keep her away from all this stuff. Teenagers have enough to deal with without inter-dimensional serial killers and fake gods and...”

Napoleon trailed off, but Herc recognized exactly what he was going to say.

[Herc]: “And worrying about losing their parent.”

[Napoleon]: “...You know, sometimes I forget that Swarm 1 is capable of destroying entire timelines. I’ve never been able to use it in any way close to that. I feel like if I was stronger, I could just do something with Swarm 1 to fix all this, but...I’m not stronger. I’m past my prime, Herc, and even when I was in my prime, I couldn’t use Swarm 1 very well. It kills me that I can’t do anything about this, but I...I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Herc paused for a few moments.

[Herc]: “To be completely honest, seeing you as a responsible adult has been really strange for me, and seeing you worry so much is even weirder. You’ve always managed to pull something out of your ass at the last second. I’m sure you’ll be able to do something just as stupid to get yourself out of this mess.”

Napoleon shot Herc a weak grin.

[Napoleon]: “You know, hearing you shoot passive-aggressive encouragement at me is somehow really nostalgic.”

[Herc]: “It damn well should be. That was ninety percent of our conversations back in the day.”

[Napoleon]: (Chuckles) “Well, you’re not wrong.”

[Herc]: “Now that sentence is a first.”

The two began laughing together at this statement. Nearby, Isaac and Moranna were still engaged in their conversation with Reaper.

[Isaac]: (Incredulously) “Jesus Christ, and I thought my method of coming back from the dead was convoluted.”

[Moranna]: “Yours is convoluted because it’s just a pileup of bullshit luck.”

[Isaac]: “Oh, whatever.”

[Reaper]: “You seem oddly clam about this situation, especially given our...past encounters.”

[Isaac]: “That was twenty-five years ago. I know you didn’t actually experience most of that, but it’s a long-ass time for the rest of us. I’ve got more important things on my mind these days. Besides, at least you had the decency to be a good guy again after coming back. Xenon just started wrecking shit like an asshole.”

[Reaper]: “Xenon? The Puppet Master? The one who created the mech?”

[Isaac]: “Yeah, that asshole.”

[Reaper]: “He’s alive?”

[Isaac]: “Apparently he’s in one of the cells here.”

[Reaper]: “...I suppose I should check the cell blocks more often.”

[Isaac]: “Come to think of it, did we ever actually find out his backstory? I seem to remember accidentally disintegrating him before I could ask.”

[Reaper]: “Not that I know of.”

[Isaac]: “Remind me to ask him about that. I want some answers out of that goddamn crab.”

[Cut to an alleyway in the city. The overhangs of the buildings on each side of the alley keep it mostly protected from the snow drifting softly to the ground. Scorpio is seen sitting against one of the brick walls, seemingly unaffected by the cold despite his clothes being completely unsuited for the weather. After a few moments, a woman wearing a white and blue sailor’s outfit enters the alleyway, walking towards Scorpio.]

[Scorpio]: (Glances up in surprise) “Aquarius?”

[Aquarius]: “Were you expecting someone else?”

[Scorpio]: “I wasn’t really expecting anyone, if you couldn’t figure that out from the whole “hiding in an alleyway” thing.”

[Aquarius]: “Ah.”

There were a few moments of silence.

[Aquarius]: “Well, in any case, I’ve been looking for you for a while.”

[Scorpio]: (Scoffs) “Why? Does Orion think I’ll come back to his stupid theme club?”

[Aquarius]: “It’s not like that.”

Scorpio rolled his eyes and pulled himself up to look at Aquarius directly.

[Scorpio]: “Really? Then what is “it” like then?”

[Aquarius]: “Scorpio, the Zodiac Organization is over.”

[Scorpio]: “I- wait, what?”

[Aquarius]: “Orion’s been arrested, and everyone’s just sort of been going home. There’s nothing left for us to do.”

[Scorpio]: “Seriously? The Zodiac Organization was a bunch of nutjobs. Did they really give up that easily?”

[Aquarius]: “Sagittarius is still in the city as far as I know, but I haven’t heard anything specific about him since Libra died. As for everyone else...they don’t know what else they can do.”

[Scorpio]: “The hell do you mean they don’t know what to do? If I was them...which, thank God I'm not, by the way...I’d just work on trying to break Orion out!”

[Aquarius]: “It’s not that simple.”

[Scorpio]: “What do you mean?”

[Aquarius]: “Orion won.”

[Scorpio]: “Excuse me?”

[Aquarius]: “Orion actually achieved his goal. He finally gained the power to destroy the Plumbers.”

[Scorpio]: “What are you...oh, right, you don’t know about that.”

[Aquarius]: “Know about what?”

[Scorpio]: “Nothing important. Anyways, judging from the fact that I haven’t heard him giving a long-winded diatribe of bullshit on national TV, I’m going to go ahead and assume he fucked something up.”

[Aquarius]: (Shakes her head) “From what I’ve heard, he didn’t. He did everything he could, but...he still couldn’t win.”

[Scorpio]: (Huffs) “Guess it must run in the family.”

[Aquarius]: “All that aside, what are you doing in some random alley? What’s your plan?”

[Scorpio]: “See, that’s a funny question because it assumes I have any idea what I’m doing with my life.”

[Aquarius]: “You’ve just been wandering around the valley since September?”

[Scorpio]: (Shrugs) “Basically. I should probably get a job or something, but I don’t really feel like settling down here. Maybe I’ll just hitchhike outta town or whatever. Real question is, what are you still doing here? You seem like you’d have something better to do.”

[Aquarius]: “I was in the valley before joining the organization, actually. I was working on a research project about the alien water fauna that have been introduced into the Great Salt Lake over the past few decades.”

[Scorpio]: “Gee, sounds fascinating.”

[Aquarius]: “The ecosystem of the lake is surprisingly complex. It’s not thrilling, I’ll admit, but it’ll look good on a college application. After the organization disbanded, I went back to working on it. I’ll be staying here for a few more months at least.”

[Scorpio]: “Huh. Must be nice knowing what you’re doing, at the very least.”

Scorpio turned from Aquarius and began walking away.

[Scorpio]: “Well, thanks for letting me know, at any rate. As much as I really don’t care about Orion’s batshit insane plot, it’s good to know he won’t be getting anyone hurt for the moment.”

Aquarius watched as Scorpio was walking away for a few moments. After seeming to think something over, she sighed and walked a few feet after him.

[Aquarius]: “Hold on a second.”

Scorpio paused and turned back to look at her with a confused look on his face.

[Scorpio]: “What? Something you forgot to tell me?”

[Aquarius]: “You don’t really have anywhere to go, right?”

[Scorpio]: “...No, I don’t. Why?”

[Aquarius]: “I’m staying in a hotel downtown for the next few months. If you want, I can get you a room.”

Scorpio raised an eyebrow at this.

[Scorpio]: “...Why?”

[Aquarius]: “Well, you’re not exactly doing yourself any favors by wandering around on the streets. Maybe if you had somewhere to stay, you could actually start doing something productive.”

[Scorpio]: “No, I mean, why are you offering to help me? Why do you care about what happens to me?”

Aquarius paused for a moment to consider her answer before replying.

[Aquarius]: “...Someone has to.”

There was a pause in the conversation as the two quietly looked at each other.

[Scorpio]: (Sighs) “Eh, why not? I’ll take you up on that.”

[Aquarius]: “One condition.”

[Scorpio]: “What?”

[Aquarius]: “First thing you do when you get there is take a shower. You smell like shit.”

[Scorpio]: (Scoffs) “Yeah, whatever. It’s a deal.”

[Cut to a wasteland of abandoned buildings and unused roads. Walking through this ghost town are Aeron and Clockwork, who are wandering through an industrial district in silence. Reddish clouds cover the sky, giving the area a slightly dark red tint. After a few moments, the two stop in front of what appears to be Xr. Nullamor’s shop, which seems to have been completely abandoned.]

[Clockwork]: “You sure you want to do this?”

[Aeron]: “Not in the slightest, but fuck it.”

Aeron threw open the doors to the small shop, stepping inside with a slight grimace.

[Aeron]: “Man, it’s been...hell if I know how long since I was here last time.”

[Clockwork]: “About three years.”

[Aeron]: “Woah, really? How old am I?”

[Clockwork]: “Due to the effects of temporal warping, still biologically 15. Technically speaking, on the other hand, you’ve been alive for around nineteen years.”

[Aeron]: “Huh. Neat.”

The two made their way to the back of the shop, finding a large machine of some kind with a rectangular monitor and keyboard setup mounted on the side. Next to the monitor was a slot holding what appeared to be a DNA Card.

[Aeron]: “Jackpot.”

[Clockwork]: “Jackpot? It’s just some random DNA Card. You don’t even know if it’s loaded.”

[Aeron]: “I have a pretty good hunch that it is. I don’t know how much of our memory you have, but before the splitting incident, I overheard Nullamor mention that he had a DNA Card ready to go at his shop that could stop me in my tracks. Considering I was in the middle of destroying an entire city, I doubted it, but I killed him before he could escape the scene anyways. With the benefit of hindsight, the dude was psychic, so he was probably right about it.”

Aeron grabbed onto the exposed part of the DNA Card, pulling it out of the slot and examining it for a few moments.

[Clockwork]: “Do you have any idea what kind of alien it is?”

[Aeron]: “Not a clue. I don’t really care at this point. Before that ass from Dimension 2 came around, I never met anyone who could stop us, so any alien with the power to do that might just have the power to take him out once and for all.”

[Clockwork]: “You’re a vampire now. Why do you need this?”

[Aeron]: “Gee, I don’t know, it’s almost like his favorite transformation literally shoots sunlight at people.”

[Clockwork]: “That’s...actually a fairly good point. Also fairly unexpected, coming from you.”

[Aeron]: “Bite me.”

[Clockwork]: “Isn’t that your gimmick now?”

[Aeron]: “Clockwork, I swear to god!”

[Clockwork]: “Just put the DNA Card in. I’m actually curious to see what it is.”

[Aeron]: (Grumbles something under his breath) “Alright, here goes nothing.”

Aeron pulled up the InverTrix and twisted the dial off, exposing the lineup of DNA Cards that made up his available aliens.

[Clockwork]: “Who are you replacing?”

[Aeron]: “Wither. Definitely Wither.”

[Clockwork]: “Are you sure? I’d say Murder Incorporated is the least useful.”

[Aeron]: (Snapping) “It’s not about how useful he is, Clockwork!”

There were a few moments of silence.

[Clockwork]: “...You have to let it go one of these days. You know that, right?”

[Aeron]: “I think we both know that’s not happening. We’re way beyond the point of no return.”

Clockwork stared at Aeron with concern.

[Clockwork]: “What’s going on with you? You’re actually thinking your responses through for once.”

[Aeron]: “Look, I just...I really don’t like coming back here, okay?”

[Clockwork]: “To the shop?”

[Aeron]: “To Dimension 4! I got purged of just about every last bit of doubt and self-reflection during the splitting incident, but in spite of all that, there’s still one thing I regret. One. Thing. For most people, a single regret wouldn’t be so bad, but for me? It feels unnatural as hell, and coming back here, to this empty city full of empty streets and empty houses, does nothing but remind me of it!”

[Clockwork]: “And Wither?”

[Aeron] “Basically a portable representation of that regret. The sooner I can get him off my roster, the better.”

Aeron grabbed the Wither DNA Card and yanked it out of the InverTrix, casually tossing it aside. He slid the new DNA Card into place and closed up the dial.

[Aeron]: “You ready to see what this baby can do?”

[Clockwork]: “Hold on a second, I want to try something.”

[Aeron]: “Try what?”

Clockwork stepped over to the large machine’s keyboard, tapping the power button. To his surprise, the machine actually turned on, whirring to life almost instantly.

[Clockwork]: “Hm. Computers are generally way more sensitive after about three years of dust buildup.”

[Aeron]: “What are you doing?”

Clockwork examined what had popped up on the monitor, typing in a few commands on the keyboard. After a few moments, a small hissing noise sounded as a drive filled with dozens of DNA Cards ejected itself from the machine. A few rows to the right, a separate drive opened to reveal a device similar to the Star Driver Gauntlet.

[Clockwork]: “I think you might just be replacing Murder Incorporated after all.”

Aeron’s face took on a sly grin.

[Aeron]: “Well, would you look at that? I guess I used the phrase “jackpot” a bit too early.”

[Cut to a large park covered in snow. The occasional person can be seen walking through the park grounds, but it seems to be empty for the most part. Theo and Nova are sitting underneath a tree in the corner of the park, having cleared out a patch of snowless ground to rest on. They sit in silence for a bit, the quiet atmosphere of winter weighing heavy over the area.]

[Nova]: “...Theo?”

[Theo]: “Hm?”

[Nova]: “Do you miss...being normal?”

[Theo]: (Sighs) “Well, as it turns out, I was never actually normal.”

Theo punctuated his statement by absentmindedly summoning a small dagger made of light and tossing it against a nearby tree. The weakness of the spell caused the dagger to shatter upon impact instead of cutting into the tree.

[Theo]: “But thinking I was? Yeah, that was nice.”

[Nova]: “Do you...regret getting involved in all this?”

[Theo]: “Hard to say. I’ve gone through a lot of shit, but I’ve grown a lot because of it. If I could throw out all the bad crap and just keep the character building, that would be nice, but that’s not really how life works.”

[Nova]: “I guess that makes sense.”

[Theo]: “What about you?”

[Nova]: “I...I don’t know. I always wanted to use Swarm 2 to kick some ass, but I was just thinking along the lines of some light-hearted superhero action. Not all this politically motivated, overly-complicated bullshit that gets people killed for no good reason.”

[Theo]: “Yeah...”

There was a period of silence.

[Nova]: “You think we’ll ever just be able to have normal lives?”

[Theo]: “I wish I knew.”

More silence.

[Nova]: “I guess now we know what our parents were trying to protect us from.”

[Theo]: “Yep.”

[Nova]: “...Do you think it was worth it?”

[Theo]: “Nope.”

Another pause.

[Theo]: “Would we even want normal lives?”

[Nova]: “What do you mean?”

[Theo]: “We’ve been hit with the same ruts of bullshit over and over all year, right?”

[Nova]: “Right.”

[Theo]: “Would normal life be any different? It’s just a different type of rut.”

[Nova]: (Snapping) “Yeah, but I’d rather have the rut that doesn’t kill the people I care about.”

Theo stopped talking, having no real reply to this.

[Nova]: “Doesn’t look like we’ll be getting that anytime soon, though. Every time we stop some wackjob from blowing people up or whatever, another one just pops up in the queue.”

[Theo]: “I know what you mean.”

[Nova]: “You ever wish we could just, like, fight one big evil thing and be done with it? Doing this over and over and over...I feel like we’re just going to get whittled down one by one while new assholes just keep popping up.”

[Theo]: “Probably. But there isn’t really a shortage of new people able to do what we do either.”

[Nova]: “What do you mean?”

[Theo]: “Most people just want a normal life, and most people get that, relatively speaking. Even people who really want to fight crime or whatever have to worry about bills and taxes more than the one in a million chance of a supervillain breaking into their house.”

[Nova]: “Where are you going with this?”

[Theo]: “Well, we started out like that, right? Normal people with normal lives? If someone had tried mugging us before all this started, we’d probably be as useless as anyone else. We just happened to get caught up in something that made us adapt. You could replace us with just about anyone and put them through what happened to us and things would probably turn out roughly the same.”

[Nova]: “So...we’re expendable?”

[Theo]: “That’s not really what I meant, but...yeah, to a point.”

Nova went silent for a bit. Theo turned to look at her, finding that she was wiping her eyes.

[Nova]: (Sniffs) “Agh, shit...sorry, I just...I think everything’s just sort of catching up to me right now.”

[Theo]: “It’s fine. Why are you apologizing?”

[Nova]: “I don’t want people worrying about me. Everyone has a lot on their plate already. That’s why I keep acting like such a dork, y’know? I just want to keep everyone happy, but...shit, I can’t even do that anymore.”

[Theo]: “At the end of the day, it’s just out of our hands.”

[Nova]: (Angrily) “Goddammit, everything is out of our hands! We’ve got enough firepower to take out a fucking planet, but what good is it?! Shit keeps happening, everyone feels like shit, and we can’t do anything about it! I can’t stop bad guys from popping up, I can’t keep people happy, and I can’t even stop my dad from-”

Nova cut herself off, trying to pull it together.

[Theo]: “Nova...”

[Nova]: “I just...I just want things to go back to how they were.”

[Theo]: (Sighs) “I don’t think that’s ever going to happen, but...maybe someday we will be able to live normally. Not like how we used to, but...not like this, either.”

[Nova]: “I really hope you’re right about that.”

[Theo]: “I do too.”

The two of them fell silent, having nothing more to say. After a few moments, Nova moved closer to Theo and wordlessly rested her head on his shoulder. Theo glanced at her and let out a deep breath, allowing his head to lean back against the tree and closing his eyes. Season suddenly manifested from the StarTrix, seemingly unnoticed by either Theo or Nova. Its skin shimmered and turned a calming blue, as it created a field of some kind around the two that protected them from the cold outside.

Everything was quiet.

[Cut to inside the room of an upscale hotel. Scorpio is seen stepping out of the steamed-up bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He turns to the right and sees Aquarius down a set of clothing on the room’s bed.]

[Scorpio]: (Jumps) “Gah! What are you doing in here?!”

[Aquarius]: “It looked like you needed a new set of clothes. You’ve been wearing the same outfit for a year.”

[Scorpio]: “Literally everyone I know does that!”

[Aquarius]: “Most people at least have multiples of the same outfit so they can change into clean clothing. Now get some clothes on.”

Scorpio grabbed the outfit lying on the bed and went back into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. After a few minutes, he emerged from the bathroom wearing the new clothing.

[Scorpio]: (Rolling his shoulders experimentally) “Geez, this stuff ain’t cheap. How are you affording all this?”

[Aquarius]: “My parents are rich.”

[Scorpio]: (Confused) “Your parents are-...you said you came from a small Alaskan fishing town!”

[Aquarius]: “I do. My family essentially owns the place.”

[Scorpio]: “Seriously?! Then what were you doing joining a criminal organization for college money?!”

[Aquarius]: “My parents want me to pay through college myself. They’re willing to pay for my research project, but they want me to learn proper budget management before they hand over the family fortune.”

[Scorpio]: (Raises an eyebrow) “And your brilliant plan for money management was criminal activity?”

[Aquarius]: “It wasn’t just about money, you know. I felt like the organization could really make a difference.”

[Scorpio]: “...Really?”

[Aquarius]: “It felt good standing for a cause, even if I didn’t really understand it. I wanted to do something good for the world, but...I just ended up hurting people instead of helping anyone.”

There was a brief pause in the conversation.

[Scorpio]: “I mean, as much as I hate to admit it...you helped me.”

Aquarius cracked a small, barely visible grin.

[Aquarius]: “I don’t know if I should take that as thanks or a backhanded compliment.”

[Scorpio]: (Shrugs) “Honestly, I don’t know how I meant it.”

[Aquarius]: (Rolls her eyes) “That figures.”

[Cut to one of the hidden rooms of the Archives of Oberon. Divara is reading one of the archived files as she lies in the air, resting on it as if there was an invisible plane of some sort underneath her. Zetium is performing maintenance on a machine hooked up to a large green vat, as Prelude is standing silently in the corner.]

[Zetium]: “Yo, couldn’t Prelude help out with this? He ain’t doing shit.”

[Divara]: (Chuckles) “You kidding? He’d probably break it. Them big ‘ol grabby hands were made for punching people in their stupid faces and destroying universes, not doing delicate maintenance.”

[Prelude]: “How do you know so much about my creation?”

[Divara]: (Shrugs sarcastically) “Gee, I don’t know, it’s almost as if your home planet is a fucking library or something.”

[Zetium]: “I don’t think the library takes up the whole planet.”

Zetium’s claim was met only with silence.

[Zetium]: “Oh, goddammit. Really?”

[Prelude]: “The hidden rooms of the archives are all located underground. This planet was created to house the information of potentially infinite timelines, so the archives make up a significant part of it.”

[Zetium]: “And nobody else has managed to figure this out how?”

[Prelude]: “The crust of the planet, along with certain ravines extending to the planet’s core, are filled with Dark Mana, which both spawns Animam Creari and makes detecting anything underneath the crust practically impossible.”

[Zetium]: “Well alrighty then. I assume this means we’re not in any danger of being found by the outside world anytime soon.”

[Divara]: “Right on! That’s why I put our nice little base of operations here.”

[Zetium]: “Whatever. To be completely honest, I’m fine with any setup that keeps us out of trouble and gets me paid.”

[Prelude]: “I must say I’m not sure why. Once the Entity is returned to life, you won’t be alive to use that payment.”

[Zetium]: (Rolls her eyes) “Yeah, because the gazillion-year-old screw-up that got his ass kicked by a teenager will totally get the job done this time around.”

[Prelude]: (Threateningly) “I would recommend watching what you say.”

[Zetium]: “Yeah, see, you’re more threatening than the idea of this thing coming back. If you think about it, both of us fought the exact same kid this guy did. Difference is that we’re still around, and he isn’t. You think that might be saying something about him?”

[Prelude]: “I’m warning you-”

[Divara]: (Laughs) “Ladies, ladies! Calm your alien tits! The Entity might’ve gone down like a bitch, but that’s just because he got cocky. If he stops being fucking retarded, he’ll basically be able to speedrun destroying the universe.”

[Prelude]: “What is “speedrun”?”

[Divara]: “Eh, forget it. Point is, it’ll be fine. Well, for Prelude, at any rate. Erryone else is gonna die.”

[Zetium]: “...You realize that includes you, right?”

[Divara]: “Yep~!”

[Zetium]: (Baffled) “And you’re not bothered by the whole “not being alive anymore” thing?”

[Divara]: “Now who told you I wanted to be alive in the first place?”

[Prelude]: “Excuse me?”

[Divara]: “Think about it, dum-dum!”

Divara twirled her index ringer around in a “screwball” motion.

[Divara]: “Why would I by trying to resurrect something called the Anti-Life Entity if I wanted to live? That just doesn’t make any sense!”

[Zetium]: “You mean you’re bringing this unholy whatever it is back just for some stupidly convoluted suicide plot?!”

[Divara]: “That’s right~!”

Zetium stared at Divara in stunned disbelief for a few moments.

[Zetium]: “WHY?!”

[Divara]: “Someone clearly hasn’t been taking advantage of the fact that they’re basically working in a library.”

Divara clapped her hands, transforming the room around them into a small classroom and teleporting Zetium and Prelude into almost comically large desks. She reached up and pulled down a projector screen from seemingly nowhere and flicked off the lights, snapping a remote into existence and using it to start some sort of slideshow.

[Divara]: “First thing’s first, Celestialsapiens!”

[Zetium]: “Wait, what?”

The slideshow switched from a blank page to a picture of a star-covered humanoid alien with black skin floating through space.

[Divara]: “A bunch of really old assholes who think they can control everything just because they can control everything. You probably know about all their boring reality warping powers and multiple personality disorder and blah blah blah already, so I’ll just skip to something you probably don’t know: Celestialsapiens aren’t allowed to die!”

[Zetium]: “Again...what?”

[Divara]: (Cheerfully) “Yep! Celestialsapiens aren’t allowed to die! As it turns out, Celestialsapiens reproduce so little that any of them dying could seriously impact the species! Them suckers are worse than pandas!”

[Zetium]: “Aren’t they reality warpers? Couldn’t they just bring back anyone who dies?”

Divara’s left eye twitched slightly.

[Divara]: “Nope~! Souls are tricky things, you know! As it turns out, even a reality warper can’t bring back a soul that’s moved on to the next world! They’re not really a part of our reality at that point, so there’s absolutely nothing they can do!”

Prelude and Zetium exchanged a quick glance, both having noticed Divara’s odd shift from genuine cheerfulness to somewhat having to fake it.

[Divara]: “Anyways, any Celestialsapiens who somehow get into a situation where they’re going to die will either subconsciously save themselves or be rescued by another Celestialsapien if things get really bad. Since they can’t die, some Celestialsapiens decide to pass the time by wandering around and exploring the reality they’re so famous for manipulating.”

Divara hit a button on the remote she held, switching to a slide displaying a shot of the Milky Way Galaxy.

[Divara]: “Most of these Celestialsapiens will just sort of wander forever, which is kinda understandable given the whole “infinite universe” thing. Some of them, on the other hand, happen to find particular places in the universe they really, really like.”

Divara pressed the button again, switching to a slide showing a picture of the Earth from space.

[Divara]: “Some Celestialsapiens might even get so attached the these places that they halfway turn themselves into the native species to blend in better! Crazy, right?”

Zetium opened her mouth to reply, but Divara continued talking before she could say anything.

[Divara]: “And if that wasn’t weird enough, some of these Celestialsapiens can get so attached to one native in particular that they start a relationship with them! How’s that for a silly mental image?”

Divara began speaking faster, slowly but noticeably becoming more and more unhinged as she went on.

[Divara]: “But the problem with Celestialsapiens is that they’re just Omnipotent, not Omnipresent! And because of that, sometimes really bad things can happen that the Celestialsapiens don’t find out about in time to fix!”

Divara’s voice started to crack, which she unsuccessfully attempted to mask by speaking even faster.

[Divara]: (Desperately trying to stay in-character) “And sometimes when they do find out about it and manage to get there, it turns out the really bad thing happened a while before they found out about it, and they’re left holding onto the cold, dead-”

The classroom setting suddenly disappeared as Divara quickly turned away and snapped her fingers, cutting herself off and returning everything to normal. Prelude and Zetium stood in silence for a bit, unsure of how to react to this sudden outburst. The silence carried on for a good few minutes before Divara started talking again.

[Divara]: (Shakily) “So, to skip to the end of our little presentation, sometimes a Celestialsapien really, really wants to die, but as discussed beforehand, they can’t. No. Matter. What.”

There was another period of silence.

[Divara]: “...Class dismissed.”

Divara snapped her fingers again, disappearing from view. As Prelude and Zetium were left standing alone in the hidden rooms of the Archives, the silent halls surrounding them suddenly seemed to be much emptier than usual.

Everything was quiet.

Nova groggily opened her eyes, noting with some surprise that she was still sitting underneath the tree in the park. She spotted Theo standing a few feet away, looking off into the distance with an unreadable expression. Not a single living thing seemed to stir, and the only noise audible in the area was the faint grumble of car engines in the distance.

“Ugh...Theo?” Nova asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “Dude, did we sleep here last night?”

“Yeah.”

Nova took a moment to process his short answer, still trying to shake the drowsiness from her mind.

“So...what do we do now?”

Theo stood silently for a few moments before replying. His white coat began to wave gently in the cold winter breeze that blew through the area.

“It’s a new day.” He finally replied, maintaining his gaze into the distance. “Whether we like it or not...we should try to make the best of it.”

Major Events

 * Aeron gains access to his own Star Driver Gauntlet and new DNA Cards for the InverTrix.
 * Star Spirit switches back from the Script format to the paragraph format used in Reboot.

Aliens Used

 * Season

Characters

 * Theodore Logical
 * Isaac Logical
 * Moranna Ceres
 * Nova Eldridge
 * Napoleon Eldridge
 * Herc
 * Reaper
 * Aquarius
 * Scorpio
 * Aeron
 * Ego
 * Divara
 * Prelude
 * Zetium

Trivia

 * This episode was released on Star Spirit's one-year anniversary.