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GM

 

Around the gathered heroes, several of the simulacrums that had been previously hurt and dazed had recovered and were getting themselves back to their feet.  Up in the air, the dark clad simulacrum steadied itself, then aimed a hand at Zhu.  A bolt of electricity shot forth, heading straight towards the Chinese teen, but at the last moment, Seresk’s large form stepped into the path of the attack and the lightning bolt glanced harmlessly off his thick scales.

 

Up on the nearby rooftop, the robed figure considered Paradigm as the paragon hovered in front of it.  "It appears I must take more direct action."  It stated as it raised one hand, which was still lost within the tattered sleeve of its robe.  A powerful blast of energy streaked out towards Paradigm, but the Naram managed to dodge aside and the blast shot off into the distance before dissipating.

 

Down on the main plaza level, the reptilian simulacrum that had shot Magnetar came rushing over next to Lawrence, but no sooner did it appear near the ten year old, than Seresk's spiked tail club came whipping over to strike the simulacrum from one side.  The impact knocked the simulacrum flying, but it did not travel very far before it disappeared. 

 

Lawrence seemed to ready himself for any other incoming attacks as he nodded at Zhu's question.  "Yeah, I can try to keep up."  He replied.

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Rev

 

"What's going on? Apart from a lot of stuff all around me! Wow! Its like an action movie!" said Rev, turning her head this way and that. 

 

"Except we are in it!" she concluded. 

 

She shuffled her feet a little, then, with a few hops, jumped into the air on a burst of fuel. 

 

"Wheeee!" she screamed in excitement as she hurtled through the air. 

 

Some serious Gs!

 

She opened up one hand and ignited a burst of white hot plasma, like a sabre, from it. As she landed, she swung up her long arm and the plasma stream boiling from the tip at one of the mysterious figures. He was good looking. That meant he needed to be punched hard....

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Paradigm

 

Paradigm saw Galvanic fly up into position and get ready to attack.  The Naram then turned back toward the robed figure as she pulled her right hand back.  "I would say you waited a bit too long to take any direct action."  She said as she swung her right fist forward, focusing all her strength into the blow.

 

*WHAM*  Paradigm's fist slammed into the invisible barrier, the sound of the impact echoing over the battlefield.  The space between her and the robed figure seemed to distort and bend for a brief moment, then almost shatter before everything returned to normal.

 

Not feeling the barrier in front of her any longer, Paradigm focused her gaze on the robed figure, as her eyes turned red and a concentrated beam of heat flashed out to strike the figure squarely, knocking it over.

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As soon as Paradigm shattered through the barrier, Galvanic raised both hands in front of her. Her eyes sparked blue as she quickly threw one bolt of lightning underhand, colliding with the roof a foot away from the hooded figure, doing nothing but leave scorch marks and a stench of burned metal and ozone. She followed up with a second bolt, this one on target, catching the hooded figure in the chest just had Paradigm's laser vision cause him to stumble. A burst of blue light and sparks exploded from the site of impact, like letting off a firework in a small space.

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SFX

Sometimes things have a way of working out.  As she fought through restoring connectivity to the botnet, she turned to see Not!Sai coming back from the blow that she had taken before.  As the rest of the group was focused on the robed villain and the remaining Not people in front of them, she wasn't sure who was looking out for their back.  She watched the damaged woman float towards them and checked the progress over and over.

 

Why did it take so long to reboot electronics?

 

She scooched Lawrence behind her, vowing to take whatever hit the woman dished out as she got closer and closer.  Then just as she was getting ready to steel herself to an attack, the happy chime of the botnet reestablishing itself chimed in her mind.  There was no time for fancy, no time for sophisticated, she just reached forward and dictated as many units as she could to lance out and smash the woman in front of her.  Columns of ground and chunks of building grew and twisted as they struck the floating woman again sending her reeling backwards, giving her some times to ready for a hopefully final assault.

 

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GM

 

The combined onslaught of Paradigm's heat vision and Galvanic's electrical blast knocked the robed figure off its feet, sending it down onto the rooftop dazed and hurt.  Over away from building, Seresk looked at Zhu and Lawrence a moment, "I shall be back momentarily little ones, we need to try to defeat the one that appears behind all this."  The large reptilian humanoid stated, before taking a couple of running steps and then leaping into the air, arching up towards the rooftop where the robed figure lay. 

 

As Seresk came down, he swung the spiked club end of his long tail at the robed figure, the powerful blow striking true. But somehow the robed figure managed to withstand the blow with no further effect.

 

Down on the plaza concourse, the female simulacrum encased in a rocky covering started toward Rev, but did not quite reach the teen.  Meanwhile the short squat simulacrum fired another blast of energy at Paradigm, but just missed the Naram paragon.

 

Up in the air, the dark clad simulacrum that Rev had attacked managed to recover from her attack.

 

Up on the rooftop, the robed figure managed to recover from being stunned and smoothly rose back to its feet, the black void of its hood turning to regard the three Praetorians that had managed to bring it to the ground.  "I…..unprepared for…..this battle….." It stated in partially halting words, as if there were some sort of static or gaps in a recording.  "Must….quick end….......recover key." It finished, as it waved one of its sleeve covered hands out in front of itself.

 

As it did so, a visible distortion of time and space flowed outward, washing over Seresk, Paradigm and Galvanic.  All three Praetorians felt as if time around them slowed down, could feel their bodies wanting to freeze and come to a halt.  Each resisted the feeling as best as they could.

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Rev

 

"Hey, you must be the master! Or boss! Or something! Anyway, you are wearing a robe and look all mysterious and act all bossy, so that count's for something!" shouted Rev at the robed figure, her attention now distracted. 

 

These other mooks go down pretty easy...bar the bleeding scratch marks...she told herself confidently. 

 

Lets have a crack at the boss!

 

She launched herself into the air firing her jets to full speed, and pulling some sickening Gs'. She pulled back an elongated arm for a whipping haymaker, but overshot her mark by a figurative mile. 

 

"Hey! Hey! That was just a practice run!" she bluffed as she continued to hurtle through the air. 

 

Ain't so easy to fly with my arms all long! Need to practice!

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Galvanic gritted her teeth, feeling her limbs lock in place, eyes darting from side to side as the field washed over her. She tried to take a step forward, but couldn't move a fraction of an inch, even moving with all her strength. Leaning into the field, mustering all her strength, sparks crackling and bursting around her, she managed to slowly, painfully force her arm up, exerting herself the whole time as if she was lifting a starship.

 

Blue light pulsed down her arm, growing and growing into intensity before finally ripping out of the strange field, a loud kraaaKKKOOOOOOOM of force lancing into the hooded figure like a train. 

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Paradigm

 

Like Galvanic, the unusual field generated by the robed figure made Paradigm feel as if she were suddenly weighed down, every movement an effort.  But the Naram paragon fought against the feeling with all her strength.  Just at Galvanic's electrical blast struck the robed figure, knocking it off its feet, Paradigm managed to surge forward, covering the distance between her and the figure as she swung her right hand as hard as she could.

 

The two combination of the two powerful attacks slammed the figure down onto the rooftop.  The figure tried to push itself back up, but was unable to, the dark emptiness of the hood looking up at the nearby Praetorians.  "I….did…..not….focus….enough…power…for…this…battle…..next….time…I….shall…be…better...prepared."  And with that the figure crumbed into dust.

 

As the robed figure disappeared, the remaining Simulacrums that were starting to close back in on Lawerence all faded away as well, bringing the battle to a sudden end.  Paradigm and Galvanic felt the effect of the robed figure’s last attack fade as well.

 

Letting out a slight breath, Paradigm activated her communicator.  <"Elite, notify the station peacekeepers that the situation has been resolved.  There is a bit of cleanup to be done, as we made a bit of a mess.">  She stated in Gal Standard.  She then looked over at Galvanic.  <"Could you please go check on Magnetar.  I will see to our young Terran allies.">

 

The Naram paragon then drifted over to where Zhu and Lawrence were standing, landing a short distance away.  "Greetings," she stated in English with an accent unlike any either of the two had heard before.  "I am Paradigm, leader of the Praetorians.  You handled yourselves well.  Tell me, what was all this about and how did you come to be here on Coalition Victory Station?"

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Before Zhu replied she stepped to the alien woman and give her a hug, later she would wonder if that broke any alien taboo's, but for now her profound relief and appreciation for the woman taking blows that had been meant for her overcame her as nearly bounced as she did.  While the woman looked normal size, she didn't move a millimeter as Zhu hugged her, "thank you!  I don't know if I would have caught that energy blast at all..."

 

Letting go of the heroine, she even moved over to the reptilian hero and without a second thought repeated the gesture, thanking him as well.

 

Then stepping back and taking a deep breath, she said, "I'm sorry... it's just... that was a bit much to take in.  I'm Alexa... or I mean SFX... and we're supposed to be babysitting.  But these people that looked like Lawrence's parents came into the house to capture him... and we couldn't let them.  So we followed them and ended up here.  Wherever here is.  My friend's name is Rev... she's better at this than I am."

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Paradigm

If Paradigm was somehow insulted by Zhu's impromptu hug she did not show it, instead she gave the teen a warm smile and a small hug in return with one arm.  Seresk, who had hopped down off the rooftop and followed Paradigm over, also did not seem offended, giving her a gentle pat on the head with his large four fingered hand.  "You are most welcome little one," he replied in his gravely voice, "I am just sorry I was not able to fully protect each of you."  He glanced over at Rev as the other teen came back over to the group.

 

Lawrence also offered his thanks, looking up at the towering Seresk with a smile and fascinated curiosity.  Paradigm listened to Zhu's summary before replying.  "This is Coalition Victory Station, more commonly referred to as CoVic Station.  We are in a solar system over twenty thousand light years away from your home system."  Paradigm replied, holding up a hand to cut off anticipated reactions to the distance they were from Earth.  "But, the station is also located next to a wormhole that connects to one that lies at the outer edge of your solar system, which greatly reduces the time to travel from here to Terra."

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Rev

 

Rev gave another blast of her jets and landed by Lawrence and SFX, retracting her arms back to normal position. She looked a bit of a state. Most of her gel skin and peeled or burned off, her t shirt was torn, and she was bleeding from that scratch to her collarbone, a good old red ooze that stained her t shirt. 

 

She smiled though. That was the important thing. 

 

"Yeah it was a wormhole thing. And then things happened and we he ended up in this thing" she said, breezily. "Twenty thousand light years, huh? That's pretty far, I guess. Going to be a long return journey. Unless we use that worm hole thing..." she offered. 

 

"I'm Rev. I got jets and stuff" she added, by way of explanation. "But I can't fly in space. And I would probably try to turn myself inside out I guess. So I guess we are your guests!"

 

Better guests than prisoners!

 

"Who were those kidnappers?"

Edited by Supercape
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SFX

As Rev spoke, Zhu checked to make sure that Lawrence was safe.  She mothered over him as she made sure there was no injury to the young man, "by the fates, I'm so glad you're all right."  She finally said after checking him over.  "At least you're all right and all we have to worry about is... well... 20,000 light years and a few million miles of vacuum."

 

With Lawrence settled, she looked over to Rev and gave her an alarmed expression, "Rev!  Are you all right?"  Moving swiftly over to the girl, she began to mother over her friend as well, cleaning the wound and designing and creating a bandage with the bot net she did her best to make the scrape better, although she was no doctor at all.  Still, it didn't take much in the way of rudimentary first aid to clean and bandage a wound.  She looked at her friend, "are you all right?  I mean really all right?  You were totally amazing with the fire and the flying and all that!"

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Paradigm

 

As the group was talking, several beings in the uniforms like those worn by the two individuals Zhu and Lexa had first encountered when they had arrived at the station arrived on the scene and began cordoning off sections of the area that were damaged in the fight.  Several bystanders began to come closer to the scene now as well, as things started to go back to the normal routine.

 

Lawrence tried to brush off Zhu's attempts to mother him as he responded, "yeah, thanks Zhu, I am fine.  Nothing ever touched me."

 

Paradigm glanced around a moment then looked back at the teenagers and Lawrence.  "Of course you are welcome as our guests until we can arrange for you to get returned to Terra."  She stated.  "We should make our way back to our headquarters, it is not far, just on the other side of the Main Plaza."

 

As they began walking, the paragon responded to Lexa’s question about who the kidnappers were.  "The various simulacrums that we were facing were copies of a group of super-criminals the Praetorians faced a few cycles ago when the seized control of a Lor colony after escaping a prison ship they were being transported on.  As for the robed figure, I am afraid I do not know who, or what that was."

 

"As for getting you home, we can contact your Freedom League.  I assume they should be able to help locate your families."

 

Lawrence had been walking near Seresk and brightened up slightly at this comment.  "That should be easy," he began, "my mom is a member of the Freedom League."

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Rev

 

"I'm fine. Fire and Jets, thats me!" she said, thumbs up. Zhu could detect the faintest hint of - not quite shame, or sadness - but that little bit of awkward self consciousness that came out when her unusual nature was on display. 

 

And thus, Rev totally appreciated Zhu for making her awesome. 

 

"Never mind the jets or the blood" she added. "We need to figure how to get home with Lawrence in once piece. Or we are all in big trouble. So put on your smart hat and get thinking!" she grinned. 

 

She stopped, and thought. 

 

"But...there's a bigger picture here, isn't there? Even back on Earth, even with the Freedom League, Lawrence won't be truly safe, will he? Not until we know whats happening?"

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"...and you say that I have the big brain.  That's a great idea!" Zhu said with a smile.

 

Then paused completely, "did you say that your parents were members of the Freedom League?!!"  Her mouth hung open slightly as Lawrence's words resonated in her mind.  "Rev!  We are so dead!  We've lost the son of members of the Freedom League!  He was supposed to be in bed... we weren't supposed to leave the house... this is going to be a black spot on our transcripts isn't it?  I'm going to get denied to MIT and probably grounded for the rest of eternity!  Do you think the Better Business Bureau will get wind of this?  We'll get blackballed from babysitting!"

 

The young heroine was working herself up to a state and beginning to hyperventilate as she considered all of the ramifications that angered parents from the Freedom League could bring down upon them.

Edited by BlazingCoconut
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Rev

 

"Relax, relax! I am sure you won't be grounded for more than a thousand years. Two thousand, absolute tops!" replied Rev. 

 

"Seriously, I don't think we will end up in trouble. They will probably be glad we were there at all" she reasoned, fairly confidently. 

 

Not total confidence, but fair confidence. They were the Freedom league after all, not the unreasonable league. 

 

"I'm more worried about Lawrence, to be honest. Those spooks seem to know exactly where he is, like they can sense him, or something. It was pure luck that he wasn't whisked away this time. What about next? or the time after the next?"

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Paradigm

 

"No, not my dad, just my mom, she's Velocity."  Lawrence replied as Zhu asked about what he had just said and started to freak out.  The teen year old looked a bit concerned that Zhu was working herself up so much about things and added to Lexa's reassuring comments.  "I am sure both my parents will totally understand Zhu. You two followed after me, even though you had no idea where it might take you.  I am certain they will be glad you were here."

 

"I have never met your mother," Paradigm then replied, "but I have heard of her from other Freedom League members I have met."  She then looked over to Zhu and Lexa.  "And if it could help, I would be happy to, I believe the phrase is, 'put in a good word' for both of you."  Paradigm then activated her comm. once again, "Elite, we are returning to headquarters with the three young Terrans, could you please contact Daedalus and have him meet us there."

 

"Uncle Daedalus is here?"  Lawrence asked after hearing Paradigm’s transmission.

 

"The Freedom League has begun rotating members here on CoVic station from time-to-time."  Paradigm replied.  "Daedalus happens to be the current member residing here."

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SFX

Logic and panic rarely had much to do with each other, and truth be told, there was probably an element of shock that she was dealing with.  However, the irony of her younger charge trying to reassure her and Rev's ever steadfast confidence made her slowly let her reasoning return.  With a deep breath she finally nodded and gave them all a smile, "I'm sorry... that... was probably a bit much."

 

Folding her hands in front of her she stepped behind the young boy as he realized that his uncle was here.  Not just an Uncle, but Daedalus.  It was enough to make her heart flutter again, but she managed to keep it under wraps as she nodded.  Instead, she was finally able to look around.  She was on another world, or station and she wanted to make sure to absorb as much of it as possible.  

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Rev

 

"That sounds good" said Rev, actually quite excited to meet Daedelus. Or at least, she hoped to meet him. And if that was how she felt, she could only imagine how much Zhu would relish the experience. 

 

"How about that Zhu! the Lord of inventors! Don't get all tongue tied on me when we meet him!" she said, realising - after she had spoken the words - that the suggestion not to get tongue tied would probably have quite the reverse effect. 

 

"It would be good to get his angle on this. As far as I can see, until we know what is hunting Lawrence, we can't keep him safe" she said, trying to muffle the last words out of Lawrences earshot. 

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GM

 

"I mean, he's not my real uncle," Lawrence corrected, "I just have gotten used to calling him that, as I have known him since I was little.”"

 

Now that Zhu felt free to take in some of her surroundings saw the wide variety of aliens that seemed to habit the space station.  The area they were in consisted of wide open plazas that ran between spaced out buildings.  Paradigm explained that this section of the station, referred to as the Main Plaza, was just a portion of the central habited section of the station and that there were multiple other sections.  She explained that the Main Plaza consisted of many embassies from various worlds, corporate offices and other similar buildings. 

 

Out beyond the high ceiling, there was the colorful gas clouds of a nearby nebula, which glittered and shown against a dark backdrop filled with stars.

 

It was a short while later that the group arrived at the Praetorian's headquarters.  Located along one edge of the Main Plaza, it was part of the outer wall of the level.  A plaza with several fountains sat out in front of the headquarters.  A small crowd of various beings were gathered there, cheering as they saw Paradigm and the other Praetorians arrive with Zhu, Lawrence and Lexa.

 

As the group made their way into the entry way of the Praetorian headquarters, the familiar figure of Daedalus was there waiting.  "You contacted me Paradigm?"  He began before glancing at who was accompanying the Naram.  "Lawrence?  What in the world are you doing here?"

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After eventually managing to revive Magnetar and bring him back to the group, he and Galvanic finally caught up with them. It was a good thing too, as she couldn't speak these aliens' language at all. With the Freedom League having members on board now, she'd tried to learn, but she wasn't an amazing linguist.

 

Not saying much to avoid having him translate too much, she slipped to the back of the group, trying to keep between the crowds gathered outside Praetorian headquarters and Lawrence, just in case. She nodded at the armoured figure of the one they called 'Daedalus' as they entered, but left it to Amara to do the talking.

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SFX

There were many times that Zhu wished she was more mature and the distinctly fan girl squeak that escaped from her mouth definitely made this one of them.  She covered her mouth and looked around embarrassed, "sorry... um... there was a mouse over there."

 

While she wished she could sink into the floor, that was tempered by the sheer awesomeness of meeting Daedalus in person.  She gripped Rev's hand and squeezed trying to contain her excitement as she fidgeted behind Lawrence, waiting for him to greet his uncle.  She loved her parents, but why couldn't they be on the Freedom League too?

 

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GM

 

"Hi Uncle Deadalus."  Lawrence replied with a small smile and a wave.  "This is Zhu and Lexa, they are from Claremont and were babysitting me.  It is something of a long story on how we ended up here."  He then added, indicating the two teenage girls behind him.

 

"Perhaps we should move to somewhere a bit more out of the way for a full recounting of those events."  Paradigm replied with a small smile.  Soon she and the other Praetorians had led the small group of Terrans out of the entry hall of their headquarters and up into the command center.

 

The command center was a large circular room that was filled with workstations and holoscreens displaying images from all over the station as well as what appeared to be other worlds.  A number of beings were busy at work within the room, and in the center was a large round table.

 

Paradigm led them into a large conference room off from the command center, where they were joined by a human looking woman with long wavy blonde hair who was dressed in a well-tailored military looking uniform, a wide bladed sword in a sheath on her back.  Paradigm introduced the woman as "Elite," and she set out three cups of hot chocolate for Zhu, Lexa and Lawrence, commenting that some of the Praetorian’s Terran members had indicated it to be something of a comfort drink.  Elite then took a seat at the table to listen to what the three young Terrans had to say as well.

 

Daedalus and the gathered Praetorians listened as the three recounted what had happened since the initial two simulacrums resembling Lawrence’s parents had appeared at his parents' home.  Daedalus waited until they had finished recounting the events before he asked any questions, his first was directed at Lawrence.  "Did this robed figure seem to be connected to Collapse?"

 

Lawrence shook his head.  "No, I don't think so.  I mean whatever that robed figure was, it clearly had time based powers.  Those simulacrums it used were some sort of temporal shade or something of who they were supposed to be.  But it did not feel anything quite like my powers."

 

"Daedalus, you know we are happy to offer whatever help we can, but without more information it may be difficult to know how much that could be."  Paradigm then interjected.  "Do you know who that robed figure was?  And, who, or what, is Collapse?"

 

Daedalus was silent for a moment, looking over at the gathered Praetorians before focusing his gaze on Zhu and Lexa.  Finally he responded.  "Alright, but I have to stress that this information is only known to members of the Freedom League and a small group of other heroes on Earth."  He particularly focused on Zhu and Lexa as he said these words.  "It needs to be kept that way."

 

"Five years ago, pretty much to the day, Velocity was on a business trip in Europe and found herself caught up in something of a temporal incursion centered around herself and Lord Robert Harrow, Lawrence's father.  Velocity met an older version of Lord Harrow from an alternate future, one where she had married him and they had a son.  That son came to possess incredible power over time, so much so, that it apparently drove him insane and he became the being known as Collapse.  Collapse's power allowed him to ignore the normal rules of space/time and tear through the boundaries separating alternate timelines and 'collapse' the timelines together."

 

"Refugees from some of the destroyed timelines, along with the older Lord Harrow, were working to try to stop or contain Collapse.  They had a working belief that the more versions of Collapse that existed in other timelines, the stronger all of them where, or even that all were just one and the same.  In any event, they tried to do what they could to stop Collapse from existing in as many timelines as they could.  But, at the same time, it appeared that Collapse was trying to make as many versions of himself come to be as he could.  To that end it appears he set back in time a device that end up in the hands of Lawrence's father, the device provided him time control powers and driving him to try to get back together with Velocity, as they had been apart for about a year after a relationship while in college in England."

 

"Velocity and another hero, Fenris, managed to get the device away from Lawrence's father and return him to his normal self.  But that was not quite the end of things and eventually those working against Collapse from the future kidnapped Lawrence's father and Velocity followed them to a Null Time, an extra dimensional space located outside the time stream.  It was there, less than five years ago, that Lawrence was born, created from genetic samples of both Velocity and Robert Harrow.  The group that created him hoped that by being born in the Null Time, Lawrence would be cut off from connection to Collapse, but might also sever as a means of stopping him.  Velocity and Robert Harrow spent the first six years of Lawrence's life in the Null Time, where he aged while they did not.  Then, when he was chronologically six years old, they came back to our timeline, returning the day after they had left it.  That will be five years ago in October."

 

"Since that time we have carefully monitored Lawrence and the emergence of his powers, which had already started by the time he was introduced into our timeline.  He and his parents have also made short return visits to the Null Time to for other testing.  So far, there is no indication that he might be connected to Collapse.  But based on the statements of this robed figure, it appears there is at least one other that is aware of Collapse, and sees Lawrence as the means of doing something about him."

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Rev

 

Her head was spinning. 

 

"That sounds pretty - errr....awesome? amazing? terrifying. Heck, it sounds a lot of things" replied Rev, bamboozled by the enormity of it. She widened her eyes and looked at Zhu for help. Her head was bigger, maybe she could absorb it. 

 

"But if thats the case, are these the bad guys? I mean, if Lawrence can save the everythingverse...I mean, is that what it is?" she asked, looking at Lawrence with a completely new set of eyes. 

 

"Maybe his mum and dad should like go with him, and see if we cant all stop....collapse. Wow, that's a chilling name..." she shuddered. 

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