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He glanced over at Chris and nodded along with Erin's words. "Except its _still_ happening. When we reveal that this isn't the way it should be, acting 'out of character', it seems that being 'removed' is still an option. We're trying to find anyone else who might be themselves; those who I shielded. We need to retrieve them before they get deleted. Then we'll figure out how to fix this mess," he muttered. He nodded, targeting the unconscious villain. "I'll send her to the detention cells. Though if Rick's affect is still going, it's likely to work on her too," he said idly, wondering if her memories were going to be erased or altered again.

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"No, it's definitely not Liz. For one thing, she appeared to be using real magic, not technology disguised as magic. Hell, she turned a boomerang into a living, breathing snake," said Chris, thinking even as Wander pinned his wrist and he shot his mouth off. "Which would make sense, as most people aren't aware that it's not magic, why should Rick know?"

"Hell, in the false memories, any attempt at reforming her got undone by stuff like rock-induced amnesia. Cheesy, corny, exactly how Mark sees the wor... Mark's alive in this world. We just need to find him."

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James nodded at Chris. "I already found him and looked him up. He is indeed alive and well, a junior member of the Freedom League actually. Unfortunately, he won't know or remember the 'real' world either. Rick is dead; died so the Centurion could survive. Oddly enough, Mark's grandfather, who died back in '88 in the real world, is alive and well here. Might be someone to look up once everyone is together again." He shrugged a little. "All of us have screwed up memories. There is no 'hell' in this new world. I'm from a different world entirely. And now something of an expert in weird technology," he said gesturing around the massive spaceship.

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Twin flares of ionic energy resounded again, pulling Trevor and Eve up aboard Hell-Ion's whirling chariot of the spaceways. They arrived to find the teen champions in the middle of an argument about Mark and Spellbound, one with no clear resolution. As they looked down at the world below, they could see a clean, happy place full of contended people going about their business...for all that it was a world strangely devoid of people, with great swaths occupied by jungles, deserts, and other iconic landscapes even in areas actually occupied by people. It was a world built by an old man's dreams, as flawed as all human aspirations.

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Trevor glanced over at the rest of his classmates as they deliberated, resisting the urge to shake his head at the sight of Chris in the Raven costume. Certainly they seemed to be discussing something important, and at the very least they needed to plan their next collective move urgently, but the lanky teen had a different priority. Taking his hand from Eve's shoulder, he clasped his hands behind his back a took a small, half-step back to give the diminutive acrobat some room. He said nothing; there was no use asking if she was alright, when she clearly was not. He merely offered his presence and support for what little comfort they could provide.

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"If Rick Lucas is dead here, or a spirit that can still act on the world or whatever, we can't count on him to make things right," Erin said, looking around at the others. "So let's go find Mark. If anybody's going to be more powerful in this world, it's going to be him. I mean, this is what his brain probably looks like all the time, and his dad made this world. But we have to be careful. Chris almost got erased because he didn't follow this world's rules. We can't afford to risk anybody else."

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"Ooh, my head..." Inside the brig, Spellbound sat up, rubbing the knot on her head that Wander's blow had left. "Prison, eh?" Waggling her fingers, she made gestures in the air, only to hiss in frustration when nothing happened. "Curses! Trapped behind wards so thick that even my mighty powers cannot blast free!" She shook her fist at the air. "Curse you, Raven and Wander! When Geckoman finds me, he'll destroy you all!"

Chris' punch hurt more than Wander had expected, though it still didn't do any real damage. When she grappled with him, the skin on his wrist was oddly cool and slick. Meanwhile, all of Chris' senses seemed especially sharpened aboard Hell-Ion's ship, letting him clearly hear, see, and smell _everything._ It was an odd sensation, especially with the strange heaviness in his limbs as Wander released him.

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James nodded after a moment. "Mark would certainly be powerful here, though I don't think on quiet the same level as what happened. We'll find out I suppose. He might actually believe it considering all the crazy and campy things that happen here; assuming we leave the specifics out that is." He looked over as Trevor and Eve beamed up. "Welcome back, Trevor. Good to see you Eve. It's alright, take a moment," he said gently. She likely had more to cope with than the rest of them. But, as much as he disliked to see lovely young lady suffering (was that Hellion or Hell-ion...damn these twin lives!), they had work to do.

He tapped the keys, having the computer do a current location search for Mark, intending to bring it up on visual. "Mark is being raised and home-schooled by his mother and grandfather. I'm bringing him up on the monitor now. We'll need to meet him without others observing to pull this off without making the deletion affect kick in. Hopefully. Though...I think the direct and, mostly, honest approach would work well given his world view." He paused and tapped some more keys. The screen just showed the Lucas' home. "That's odd. I can't find Mark anywhere in the world. And when I look at the house, nothing. The sensors can't penetrate the house. At all," he paused in thought for a moment. "You know...I've, well Hell-ion, never actually seen or looked inside the house in this world...Huh. For all Rick's powers, he isn't terribly subtle. Bets that Rick is inside?"

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Turning slightly to look at Trevor, Sage touched him lightly on the forearm, a sense of gratitude laced with embarrassment emenating from her. Stepping away from the lanky youth, Eve took a closer look at the Lucas homestead on the monitor.

"I could probably find him, unless he is on the other side of the planet," the telepath stated in a soft French-accented soprano, "but then what?" Glancing at Wander, Eve shrugged. "If it is as you say and we might be erased if we do not follow the rules, perhaps we should simply accept things as they are. This world may not be the one that we were born into, but it is a good world."

"Besides, even if we could do something about this and the world reverts to the way it was, would we not be effectively murdering a whole planet?"

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"I don't think so," Erin told Sage, looking down at the world beneath them. "I'm not sure we're in an actual alternate dimension. I think Rick might have sort of overlaid this dimension down on top of Prime. That's why there are people who remember, even if they get erased. And there seem to be a lot fewer people here than there are on Prime. If we're lucky, they're just in limbo somewhere and not actually destroyed. If all the rest of those people are going to have a chance to come back, we need to put things back the way they were."

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"So, what do we do? Walk right into the front door?" said Chris, shaking his head and laughing. Ignore Spellbound, ignore Spellbound, ignore Spellbound, ignoreSpellboundignoreSpellbound "I agree, we should just talk to Mark, but walk right in? Nope. We break in. I figure that sneaking in is going to trigger some behaviour alert, but so long as we don't hurt anyone, it'll balance out."

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Trevor down at the planet for a log moment before speaking without looking at the others, his quiet baritone cutting through the air like steel wire. "Not a world," he intoned without emotion. "A farce." His shoulders set, the young man's knuckles whitened as his fists clenched. Forcing them open, he turned around, his expression unreadable. Wordlessly he withdrew the domino mask from his pocket and reaffixed it to his face. The white lenses narrowed as he regarded the others. "I can get in unseen."

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Sage glanced at Midnight frowning, then quickly glanced away. Though her outward expression was relatively calm, interally she was unnerved by the utter lack of emotion displayed by Trevor, and unfortunatnly due to her nature those around her could easily sense this.

"How can you say that?" Sage whispered, green eyes fixed on the monitor. Whirling around to face Trevor squarely, she repeated, "How can you say that? The people out there, their minds are real. Look at that world below. The air is clean, the water is clear, there is no war and no poverty. Why would you want to change something so beautiful, so right."

"Besides, what would be the point? Mark would still be dead."

"And I will lose my voice," Eve thought to herself.

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"Eve," Erin said, her voice unusually gentle, "I know it seems nice down there. Everything works in harmony, the people are happy, right? But it's not because things are actually better. We watched someone on the monitor who didn't act like Rick thought he should, who was unhappy about this world, and he was literally erased from existence. If something bad happens, if someone gets angry, it doesn't get fixed or progress, it just goes away."

She stepped up to look at the monitor as it played over the Lucas house. "The people's minds are real, but the world they live in is a fraud. If you go back, eventually you won't be able to buy into it anymore. It's just one big game of pretend, but it's cruel to the people who don't know they're playing."

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James just listened for a moment. As far as he was aware he knew far more about alternate realities and such than they did; it was his new job after all. He did nod in agreement with Erin and Trevor though. "He's altered reality, rewritten time. This is his will enforcing a new set of rules that are not supposed to be. Mark may still be dead afterwords, yes. But we still need to put things back they way they are supposed to be. Not living a farce enforced by someone else. Those who don't follow the rules are erased, just as Erin said. They are little more than unknowing slaves to someone else's will. So we're going to fix this." He shrugged one shoulder. "Doesn't mean we can't try to restart everything with Mark back and alive. But that can't be the focus." He looked at Eve, eyes softening. "I'm sorry Eve. It has to be this way. Regardless of the cost to us," he said gently. He didn't know much about her, but he was very good at knowing what made people tick. And suddenly having a handicap removed and then being told it was going back was not the nicest thing to hear. Especially women here it seems. Goof grief Hell-ion's even worse than Hellion! He quickly shifted his thoughts away from THAT line before he got distracted.

He looked over at Trevor and shook his head, not particularly impressed or concerned. The boy really needed to relax and chill out before he broke. "I disagree. And not just because sneaking up on someone who's altering reality to his whim's, and apparently aware of the flow of it, is hard as, well, Hell. But it also doesn't fit the world. Heroes do not sneak into innocent citizens' houses with violence on their minds. Villains do that. Not to mention, when they do, the heroes ALWAYS show up. Remember, as annoying as this is, the rules are important. What would Mark think should happen here? As much as I dislike the notion, I think we go right in, direct and mostly honest, mission of mercy, lost and stranded out of time, heroes lost and in need of help. Only help that HE can give. The whole schtick. That whole thing is something right out of the stories he loves regardless of how silly and unlikely it is or grates on us to try." He paused a little. "And yes, that might also mean we have to tell him he died in the real version. I don't want to lie to him about it, but I think we should leave out the fact that his father is responsible." At least until the appropriate dramatic moment, he thought with a scowl. He shrugged. "But whatever we decide, we do it together. Not only because of the rules here, but because we're all in this together."

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"Thing is, it's not just us... Duncan Summers had a wife," said Chris softly. "We all got what we wanted, who's to say we're the only ones. I don't remember hearing of a Mrs Summers... what if we take his wife away again?" He put his head in his hands. "You gotta remember, I got a whole head of memories of them looking so happy. Do I have that right to say he's in the wrong?"

"It's not so clear-cut as you make it. For some people, this is the better world."

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A faint, cold smile passed across Midnight's lips like a shadow before disappearing again into dispassionate stoicism. "Want the 'heroes' to show up." He didn't bother correcting James' assumption that he intended violence against the Lucas family, nor did he belabour the point of his own considerable talent for avoiding detection. Rick Lucas, or whatever was left of him, Trevor suspected, couldn't be truly omniscient, or they'd never have lasted as long as they had. Even so, all of that was beside the point. "Best way to draw out Mark, Rick or both." With his shoulders set, the young man somehow seemed less lanky, filling a greater space with his mere presence. "Very least gives the rest of you a distraction."

Throughout the explanation, what he really wanted to be doing was quietly clarifying his personal feelings to the group, helping Eve cope with the cruel situation, dealing with the guilt of resigning his grandfather to old age and Margery to death. It was what Trevor Hunter would have done. It was what Kid Midnight would have done, too.

Midnight II was there to get the job done.

"No choice," he told Chris, and if at first it seemed Midnight was talking about their small group, a finger aimed at the world below clarified his point. "Lucas forces people to act the way he wants. Results don't matter; that world is already dead."

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"No way," Erin said, shaking her head. "You've got a role set up in this world already," she pointed out, "you're supposed to be a hero. If you break ranks and start acting like a supervillain, you could get erased before anybody had a chance to show up and try to stop you. If anybody's going to take a turn acting villainous, it should be me. For whatever reason, I didn't get a part to play in this world, or a set of memories or a family or anything like that. I should be a blank slate. If I act like one of the weirdo villains Rick tells stories about, I should be able to get away with it."

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Eve sighed, knowing James and Erin were right. Looking down on the world through the monitor, Eve admitted to herself that her reasons for wanting to keep things as they are were entirely selfish. "The family would be so ashamed if they knew this," she thought. The Martels have been the quiet defenders of humanity for nearly 1300 years, and the shame of placing her desires above what is right knotted her heart.

Gesturing at the conspicuous patriotic dress she was still wearing Eve asked, "Is there a place I can change?" Reaching out to touch the monitor showing the planet below, she quietly added, "We have a world to save."

The last line started out spoken but switched to telepathy halfway through, punctuated with a quickly smothered burst of regret.

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James nodded at Eve, pointed to a room off to one side. "There should be something in there that will adjust anything for you, if you don't have a costume. We'll give you a few minutes," he said with a nod of understanding. She was going to have a harder time with this than the rest of them. If she needed some extra time, he couldn't fault her for it.

He looked over at Erin and shook his head. He knew that this was probably hurting her, even more than normal. "Yeah, that's not happening either. Just 'cause you seem to have some form of temporal anchor thing going on, doesn't mean you can't be erased like everyone else. We are heroes. We are not villains. I'm not risking you, or ANY of us, on being a bad guy so we can knock on the damn door. And don't bother arguing with me Erin. I will leave you here on this ship, while I go down alone, before I let you do that. And you know I will," he said seriously. There was just no way on this Earth or any other, he'd let her stick her head in a guillotine basically on a long shot when there were other options. And certainly not until he'd done it first. Admittedly, holding them all 'hostage' like this was something new and forceful for him, but it didn't change his feelings any.

As soon as Eve came back, and they dropped this silly sacrificing for nothing nonsense (and he was damn sure going to be using his considerable skills to make sure), he'd beam them all down. Otherwise...someone might be staying.

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Erin released a frustrated breath. "All right, so we just go and knock on the door. Eve, if you're down there, do you think you'll be able to tell if there's anyone living in the house that we can't see or sense otherwise? I think that's going to be our best chance to tell if he's there, if we can't lure him out." She paused for a minute. "Although if we know that there's something wrong, something different, he surely does too. When we show up, he's going to know what we're there for. We may have to go in prepared for a fight right away."

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Trevor turned to refute Erin's objections but was distracted by Eve's mentally projected distress. The lanky youth hated to see the diminutive telepath put in such an awful position, but sadly there were greater things at stake than her disability. He resolved to learn more about it and possible cures once things had returned to normal. He had to assume they would succeed or this absurdly altered reality would drive him mad.

He silently let Erin and James debate their plan of action, arms folded and expression muted. He was content in the knowledge that, should the need arise, he'd seen enough of Hell-Ion's teleport beacon to cobbled together a device to hijack the beam back to Earth from the components in his belt. Let the arrogant prince think himself in control if that would speed things along.

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