As Anisa stepped into the coliseum, she was surprised at how quiet it was. The ancient stone cold and the arena seats empty of all life. Despite that, she could feel it in the air. The battles that had happened here, remembered by its unrelenting surface. Taking a deep breath as she felt the emotional energy that saturated the air, she was surprised to see birds made of blue light flying into the arena perching around the place, an anticipating audience for what she was about to do. When she reached into her pocket to produce the Dragon Gem, she noticed something else and her blood ran cold. The Phoenixian Crystal was missing. Checking her pockets multiple times, she tried to collect herself. One thing at a time. Pulling out the Dragon Gem, she did as she had with the Geo Stone when this all began. Holding it out and following its resonance to the place it was needed. As she got to where it was needed, it repelled her with a burst of blinding energy. Rolling to her feet with relative ease, she watched in awe as the energy slowly condensed and lessened… and Douglas returned to the world. The man had a very different build than Dean. His structure more lean and his movements more precise. He looked around the arena with sad eyes as he gripped the Dragon Gem.
“The Birds of Heaven bear truth to the willing.” He laughed to himself, “So, someone’s been busy if these are here.” He held out the gem his eyes flashing orange before a sword hilt formed around it in the shape of a dragon’s head. Shortly afterwards, a grip sprung from the back and eventually a two foot single edged blade. She wondered if this was manifesting but this felt… different. Different than the blade of darkness she had been using before. She was about to ask when he said, “I will explain better when I finish cleaning up.” Before she could even process, he had disappeared. No fanfare. No flashy effects. Just gone, and the blue birds seemed to fly away in response. She looked around one last time at the ancient arena and found herself promising herself to one day return. Her departure from the arena took less time than her arrival, the hallway apparently only twenty or so feet long when one wasn’t being put to the test. When she stepped out, the scene was one of chaos, or at least the aftermath of it. The many Falos lieutenants that had been there when she was thrown into the arena were all either dead or restrained. Bright blue pillars of light seemed to be showing the actions of her friends like giant screens.
Her sister was being hit from multiple angles from one of the Falos natives and his blade. Narine smiled softly as she seemed to be giving a speech to Zwei. Pine was fighting what looked like local wildlife but so clean it looked almost humane… but where was Gavin? Where was Sai? As she scanned the battlefield, she saw something that chilled her. Sai’s robotic body broken and shredded. And over him was a face she was all too familiar with. The colors were off, long charcoal hair and crimson eyes, but that expression. The way he held himself. There could be no doubt. As Shawn locked eyes with her, a hollow guilt was clear in his eyes as he stood over the remains of the man who was his replica… no, his brother.
Douglas approached Shawn with his blade drawn and scathing confusion on his face, “What the hell did you do, you old bastard!?!” It was clear from his tone and expression he saw what she had, but there was something else as well. A shadow of doubt.
Shawn laughed with false bravado as he asked Douglas, “What I had to. Now if you’ll ex-”
“No! Not today! I’m bringing you in!” There was no room for misinterpretation in Douglas’ voice. A level of determination that only a true hero would shout… a tone she had heard from Shawn himself once upon a time.
Shawn leaned back confidently in his pose, “Kid, you can’t even touch me anymore.” A moment later Doug seemed to grow nervous. She couldn’t see it but she could feel it. There was an entire exchange just then. But Shawn hadn’t moved even slightly. The older fighter shrugged, “See? The key is just knowing when not to be there.”
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Douglas growled, “Are you kidding me? Another bullshit power? I’m tired of this, fossil! I don’t know what you are doing but you will have a hard time not being there…” He ran his fingers along his sword, changing into a rather sleek uniform for the cosmic patrol, his badge well maintained but clearly weathered, his attire orange and white, his helmet shaped like a dragon’s head. “When there no longer exists. I was saving this for an emergency, but you aren’t someone I can hold back on, Leithan or Shawn.” His form changed again, the coat denoting his station turning into a literal cloak of stars, the space behind his visor almost like looking into the heart of the universe itself, “Gingaryu!”
Shawn shrugged, “A new form? Please… Cyrus over here gave me more trouble than this.” Anisa wanted to correct him, but… he didn’t seem to be mocking her friend. How much had she missed while she was…
Her thought was cut off when the space where Shawn had been turned into a network of gashes in reality before she could even blink, galaxies living and dying before her eyes and yet also the very space the man was once in no longer held a grip on reality itself. She could see the seam where the portions of the land had fused in its absence as though they had always been this way. Shawn was missing, but as the form melted away, Douglas face didn’t seem as certain.
He sighed, “I don’t know how he got away… He couldn’t have quantum snapped against me. Teleportation is impossible against Gingaryu. I didn’t even see him get even a little nervous. Whatever that replica did winded him though.”
She walked up to the remains of the machinery, sifting through the parts for the one that mattered. The crystal that contained her friend. Even if she could find shards it would be enough to give him a proper burial. Instead she found nothing but metal and wires. She found this oddly encouraging. Shawn used to say that if there isn’t a body then you can’t be sure someone is dead. And given how her life has gone lately, she hoped he was right.
Douglas looked at the mess and decided not to comment on it. Instead his tone grew sharp and professional, “Looks like your friends are being played. I don’t know who broke reality like this, but the truth that’s being shown is likely going to be used by Visto to paint you all as the face of the insurrection.” Without having left her side visibly, she saw small shifts in all of their fights. Things that couldn’t be explained by anything but intervention. He sighed, “That should be enough. I’m going to take these ones back to Cosmic Patrol Headquarters. When this is done, I’ll bring you all back to HQ for a debrief while we figure out what’s going on.”
She nodded before she remembered again that the Phoenixian Crystal was missing. Patting herself down she saw him shake his head, “Don’t bother. I heard him say it to the replica. He stole it from you before he threw you into the arena. If that’s Shawn, I’m sure he has a plan… and if it isn’t…” He trailed off. Moments later she saw mass quantities of the surviving officers disappearing as though they had never been there. Even started noticing the dead bodies being properly arranged into a line and various notes appearing on them. Seeing her surprise, he explained, “Dean is The Man Unbroken. Shawn is easily the most terrifyingly powerful man I’ve ever met. But me? I prefer to refine my skills. My talents. Quantum snapping is an art anyone can do if they dedicate themselves to it. I’ve refined it to impossible levels. Pair that up with a few other principles of our power set and you get me. The man who can walk every inch of the universe in a fraction of a second.” He gripped his sword tightly, “Which is why I don’t know how the hell the old goat managed to avoid all my attacks… but we can discuss that back at HQ. For now, believe in your friends and-” He was cut off by the landing of a drop pod. Inside was a figure Anisa had only ever heard rumors of back when she was Sculptura. The chaotic laughter that escaped as one of the panels flew off gave her chills. Douglas said without concern, “that… Believe in your friends and take care of that. Visto’s present.”
