Meeting my eyes, she continued, “That’s not all. A new owner has the option of flushing everyone who’s entered in between owners from the system or selectively allowing specific entries.”

  “Oh,” I said, realizing as I said it what that meant. “So, if Magnus were to gain control, he could wipe everything that’s happened in the meantime, but he could also allow the specific entries that led to him controlling the system.”

  In this case, that meant that Magnus might be able to remove the original team, and we’d be forced to find out what would have happened if they’d never entered while keeping Lee and Nataw’s respective entries that accidentally allowed him in.

  I checked my CDPS status out of curiosity, noting they only showed errors. Then I checked my implant for the moment, I thought I’d gone through the portal, but actually went to Govan. Had I seen myself behind me, or had I changed something already?

  My implant showed that the cameras had recorded me appearing the first time, but presumably I’d been too busy to pay attention. I checked the CDPS logs, and according to them, I’d come back to the same time and same universe I’d left, if only for an instant.

  Spark said, “You caught my meaning.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I can’t even guess at the side effects of allowing Magnus access to that.”

  Her smile flickered, but she said, “I can. My systems include programs for predicting effects enough to get a specific outcome within this space. They do not predict past a certain point, but I can tell you this. Even Artificers would feel the effects, especially Lee and Nataw, but also anyone and anything they would have interacted with if they hadn’t been in here.”

  We could have used Lee when fighting the mushroom zombies, but I had a bad feeling the effects wouldn’t be that simple or, necessarily positive.

  I rolled all of it over in my head. I needed to get moving. While I theoretically had all the time in the world in here, so did Magnus, and he had a head start, along with what was effectively access to the device’s administrator account.

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  “Okay,” I said. “Unless there’s more information you think I should know, there are a few things that I want to know. First, I need to know any allies he has in here. Second, I’m going to need to know where Magnus could take control from and how to get there. Third, do I have any way to get help from Lee, Nataw, or the original League? Finally, is there any way to communicate with people outside of this place?”

  The representations of the original League vanished, and the two of us, me in the Rocket suit and a female faun in the upper half of a suit, stood facing each other next to the lamp post.

  That conversation may have been the most relaxing thing I’d done all day, but Spark ruined it by answering my questions. First of all, more transparent images appeared, many of which were people I recognized.

  “Those are his allies?” I stared at the group. “It’s like he was trying to make this as messy as possible. A bunch of them are dead, and the ones that aren’t matter. If I were to kill them or worse, give away information they could use, my own personal history could change for the worse.

  My eyes lingered on Ray, leader of the Executioners, a group that existed to kill superheroes and their families for money. Still shorter than average with a thin face that you wouldn’t look twice at, Ray’s narrow eyes hinted at the careful assassin I remembered. He still wore his Rolex watch.

  If he learned anything here, he might survive to finish killing off all of our families.

  I would have liked to think I’d be able to handle him now, but he’d killed a lot of people before he got powers of his own, the ability to copy anyone’s powers. Noticing Magnus’ other allies, I didn’t want to see any duplicates. If I were lucky, maybe he’d arrived before Vaughn’s Uncle Russ ran him through the power impregnator.

  I did not plan to count on that. Besides, he’d be devastatingly effective without powers.

  Another face brought up different thoughts, the chief among them was, “Again?” I’d seen the guy before. This was Prentkos, the Polish speedster that Dr. Mind must have cloned a few times, because I’d fought him in Rook’s fortress when rescuing Cassie. Jaclyn had found him on the edge of Grand Lake around a week ago, but that clone had been around our age.

  This guy appeared to be in his 40s or 50s, mustached with a square, solid face, and wore a red and white costume with a small eagle pictured on his chest. If this were another clone, he was around the same age as the speedster currently serving on one of the EU’s more visible teams.

  He might even be the original.

  “Yes,” Spark said, “he’s brought several people here over the years, even though he only achieved any real control recently. He experimented with using individuals he thought had the potential to grow into Artificers to see if they could get further. These didn’t die.”