Glancing frantically between the prone form of your erstwhile guard and the image of Master Mold's face on the laboratory's giant viewscreen, you feel the power armor shift, forcibly turning you to look at the screen while it addresses you! "RICHARDS ENTERED THIS TIMELINE FLEEING THE COLLAPSE, AN EVENT THAT DID NOT ESCAPE MY NOTICE. THOUGH HE INFILTRATED THIS BUILDING AND DISCOVERED MY PRESENCE INSIDE ITS SYSTEMS, HE WAS EASILY LED TO BELIEVE THAT MY CONTROL OVER IT WAS NOT ABSOLUTE."

"I ALLOWED HIM TO ESCAPE WITH THE TACHYON SCRAMBLER, WHICH I USED TO TRACK HIM ACROSS TIMELINES." With this, the virtual Sentinel displays security video of the future Reed Richards as he outmaneuvers the Stark-Fujikawa guards and secures himself in a laboratory identical to the one you stand in now! As you watch, the Richards on the screen holds up an object you recognize immediately - the pistol-like device that stripped you of your powers!

"RICHARDS' ACTIONS IN YOUR ORIGINAL TIMELINE HAD A 38.8 PERCENT CHANCE OF STOPPING THE COLLAPSE. AS MY SENSORS INDICATE THAT THE TIMESTREAM IS STILL COLLAPSING, HE OBVIOUSLY FAILED."

"HOWEVER, I SHALL NOT. YOUR ESCAPE FROM MY SENTINELS INTO THE TIME PORTAL I CREATED WAS... UNEXPECTED, BUT NOW YOU HAVE DELIVERED YOURSELF TO ME." Suddenly, the arm of your converted mining suit raises itself up! Helpless to resist against its immense strength, you can only watch as your metal fist unfolds and reaches toward your face! On the huge viewscreen Master Mold's visage utters its final decree. "RICHARDS WAS A FOOL TO SPARE YOUR LIFE. YOU ARE TOO DANGEROUS TO LIVE."


(cont. on next page)

The deadly armored fist descends toward your face, and with only your head free you cast one last hopeless look at Karl's body on the floor - but the body is gone! The next instant, electricity crackles along the back of your armored suit, and you feel the weight of its reconfigured emitters fall away, releasing its hold over your mutant power and beginning to amplify it again! At the same moment, the digitized face looming on the screen shouts "NO!" and your suit relaxes, under your control once more!

As your armored hand drops back from your face, Karl is suddenly at your side - though to your horror part of his scalp is missing, revealing gleaming metallic components underneath! The man you thought was human is something else entirely!

"I popped out your suit's control override," he says hurriedly, "but I can feel that shockin' A.I. trying to get inside my head!"

At that instant, the heavy doors of the lab slide open, and a pair of guards cautiously step inside! Unseen by them, a bulky cleaning robot in the hallway reaches over and plucks one of their guns from its holster! One of the guards shouts "What's going on in here? The whole section's going haywire - AARGH!"

Suddenly, he collapses to the floor with a thick trail of smoke streaming from his back! His partner turns around just in time to be blown off his feet by his own gun! The cleaning robot rolls forward past their bodies, firing blast after blast at you! On the giant screen, Master Mold watches the carnage, as it flatly states "MY WILL CANNOT BE THWARTED."

"Shock me!" Karl shouts, diving for cover behind a large piece of machinery as the robot continues to fire laser blasts across the room! "If you've got a plan, kid, I'm all ears!"


What now?

>>15071924
TIME SLOW! Seriously, did Clarissa leave no back doors for us? Try those on Mister Gusty over there and if that doesn't work, Time Cube him. In a big splash panel that we calculate just how to change the time rate in a grid through an object and get ready with our new awesome pose that means we're gonna RIP YOU APART WITH TIME.

"My powers didn't cause the collapse! They don't work that way! It had to be the malfunctioning device in Reed's lab you poorly programmed Pong!"

I don't think we have the fine control or practice yet to tie-dice like that other poster has been suggesting for several threads. But we can start working our way towards it. Lock down the robot. 100% stop on the gun , sensors, and feet, let everything else move at 25% speed. The resulting friction and tension should sheer the bot apart at those sections, crippling it.

[do wee need to roll on this?]

>>15072036

Internet shutdown; one moment.

>>15071988
Second.

>>15072076
>>15071982
>>15071988

As the laser blasts batter at your protective armored suit, you find refuge behind a computer terminal, and manage to quickly type in a command, but to your dismay the screen responds with "Command Override 'Princess Remote' not found."

Peering up over the computer terminal just as a blast impacts against it, showering you with an explosion of sparks, you leap up as the robot whirs and draws a deadly aim on you! With the added focus of your powered suit amplifying the ease with which you draw forth your power, you clutch your metallic-covered hands into fists and grasp the timestream around you with your mind, expanding a bubble around the robot!

"Error! Chronological indicators malfunctioning!" it blares, as Master Mold's leering visage watches emotionlessly!

You feel the room itself fighting against you, as the virtual Sentinel seems to realize what you're doing, and you recognize the sensation of the timestream thundering against you is being caused by T-pulses, the same hazard you once faced in the Danger Room's simulation! Your suit's amplified output can barely counteract it, and as Master Mold increases the room's temporal resistance your eyes squeeze shut with the pain of exertion!

Roll a d100 to see this through, Aino! To roll, put noko dice 1d100 in the email field! Highest of three rolls decides your fate!

Whoops, had noko+sage on. Fixed that. Also, is the board/ Captcha running incredibly slow for anyone else?

Slowing (stopping) time is the solution for every problem we encounter.

What >>15071988 said.

rolled 46 = 46

>>15072128
Tell Karl to run.

rolled 70 = 70

>>15072128
Rolling for awesome.

rolled 50 = 50

SCIENCE!

>>15072163
>>15072171
>>15072222

Your fist squeezes together even more tightly, an unconscious effort that focuses your power in a bubble inside another, the first time you've ever attempted to change the flow of time by two different increments as once! Perhaps it is the rush of adrenaline coursing through your overtaxed veins, or perhaps the suit's reconfigured emitters give you more of a boost than you suspected, but something seems to slip loose in the space between reality and your sense of the tachyon field around you, and with it everything falls into place.

The robot fires once, or attempts to, but as its manipulative claw squeezes down on the trigger it halts, standing motionless save for an increasingly loud rattle that is quickly joined by a cacophony of squeals, zaps, and grinding as time-disjointed innards tear it apart from the center!

Karl shouts "I'm not leaving you until you're safe!" as he rolls for the protection of a desk and springs up with a chair in hand, ready to hurl it at the robot before he sees what the hapless machine is doing to itself!

"What the - you weren't kidding about being *something else*." he says dryly, glancing at Master Mold's glaring features. "I can't get an outside feed! That thing's locked down all the computers-"

His words are cut short by a rhythmic thudding sound echoing through the lab doors from the hallway beyond - a sound that grows louder with each clang of metal on metal!

"YOUR NAIVETY AMUSES ME, BUT THIS ENDS NOW." Master Mold declares at last. "I WILL BRING THIS ENTIRE BUILDING TO BEAR AGAINST YOU IF I MUST."

"Aw, shock, kid, he means it! This place is equipped to take on an army!"

What now?

rolled 36 = 36

>>15072425
"You can stop this now! No one else has to die!"

This thing might have killed two men and Dr Richards, but we're going to try and talk it down.

>>15072425
Tactical retreat! We need the terrain advantage. Ask Karl for the best place to bottleneck the enemy.

rolled 94 = 94

>>15072438
agreed, but adding in
"My powers are a catalyst, not a cause. You have to disable the device in Richards' lab! THAT will stop the cascade! Depowering me didn't stop the collapse, which means my powers aren't a necessary ingredient in the event! You're wasting what little time we have left CHASING THE WRONG TARGET YOU OBSOLETE OPERATING SYSTEM! Do you want my help saving yourself and all of reality, or are you going to keep holding me back?"

>>15072438
>>15072499

>mfw

>>15072499
>All-knowing supercomputer comes to the wrong conclusion
>flaw in reasoning pointed out by 15 year old girl.

Problem, Master Mold?

>>15072425
"Oh Shock, don't you have any overrides for this AI? Oh, darn it Remote, we need to decide on a password when I get back!"

Try to find a way to block Master Mold from accessing this building, and see if we can find the source.

>>15072518
Bad idea! Bad! We're trying to get it to see reason, not make it paranoid.

>>15072525
Yeah, I agree. Lets not annoy and get Master Mold paranoia.

>>15072565
That said, we're going to be conducting a lobotomy at some point. It killed Reed Richards, tried to kill Karl, and just murdered two men. We won't let it get away with that.

For now, we just need to get it to see reason.

rolled 83 = 83

>>15072579
Forcing it to deal with outdated junk data by manipulating sensors and core might work.
Just saiyan.

Agreeing with diplomacy route.

>>15072643
Too risky. This one we're doing by hand.

Once the immediate problem is over, that is. At this point, we're still trying to stay alive and fix the problem before it's too late. (And in the "denial" phase of getting our head around the idea of "so your existence is ending the universe")

rolled 92 = 92

All aboard on the Master Troll Express? All aboard.
Bumpan, waitan for updatan, etc.
Possibly add a Dr.Trollhatan reference? "I'm sorry Sentinel, I'm scolding your past self 30 seconds ago."

rolled 88 = 88

>>15072666
That...doesn't make sense.

Rolling again for negotiation.

"We're running out of time, but we can still fix this. Let us help."

>>15072438
>>15072499

"PERHAPS YOU ARE CORRECT ABOUT YOUR MUTANT POWER'S SIGNIFICANCE. IF THIS IS TRUE, THEN PERHAPS YOU MAY BE OF USE."

As the booming sound outside suddenly ceases, Master Mold looks down on you and continues.

"THE COLLAPSE EMANATES FROM THE POINT WHEN THE MACHINE WAS ACTIVATED. PHYSICAL TRAVEL ALONG THE TIMELINE TO ANY POINT NEAR THEN IS IMPOSSIBLE. HOWEVER, THERE IS ANOTHER WAY. YOUR MIND CAN BE EXCHANGED WITH THAT OF YOUR FUTURE COUNTERPART."

Master Mold pauses, as if collecting its thoughts, or perhaps its sophisticated brain wants you to understand the full weight of what it speaks.

"YOU WILL TRAVEL TO A POINT JUST PRIOR TO THE DEVICE'S ACTIVATION, AND DISABLE IT. IF YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL IN HALTING THE TIMESTREAM COLLAPSE, YOU WILL BE RELEASED UNHARMED."

"IF YOU FAIL, THE SENTINELS DISPATCHED TO YOUR ORIGINAL TIMELINE WILL KILL THE X-MEN AND YOUR TIMELINE'S RICHARDS TO ENSURE THE DEVICE IS NEVER CONSTRUCTED."

"DO YOU AGREE?"


Well?

>>15072704
In a heartbeat.

We do get to go back to 1995 though?

rolled 64 = 64

>>15072704
"I agree."

Not that we have a choice; if we turn it down, it'll just kill us or hold them hostage anyway.

"Harm anyone else, though, and the deal's off. Anyone."

rolled 9 = 9

"Good enough for me. Take care Karl."

Alternatively, try to get some tech from this Master Mold guy.
>Entering the Wolf's den, without protection and entirely at the mercy of this Master Mold who may or may not kill us in the future just for safety.

rolled 92 = 92

>>15072752
"Goodbye, Karl. It was...nice talking to you."

>>15072666
(Not gonna lie - this turn of events really threw me for a loop!)

>youncee devise
The UNC Device, eh, Captcha?

>>15072704
"Our universes Richards or X-Men did nothing to begin this disaster. Leave them out of this. But we agree."

Internal monologue about the two dead guards and look so morose but stand firm on 'No More Killing'. Either we die, and hopefully that will fix things, or we fix things.

rolled 45 = 45

>>15072704
I will be needing equipment...

>>15072785
Equipment is impossible due to the method of travel...

>>15072752
>>15072785

Switch is mental-only. Bodies stay as they are.

rolled 26 = 26

>>15072797
Actually, one of it's agents could time travel AFTER we save the Multiverses and give us some sort of reward, lie a mini-Pinguinel FROM THE FUTURE!
>Implying the Mini-Pinguinel wouldn't be rigged full of sensors to keep tab on us and ultimately use us as a pawn in his Intergalactic ultimate mission... whatever that is.

>>15072805
Knowledge then.
halfthebattle.jpg

rolled 78 = 78

>>15072805
Oh... that's right. :|

What will happen to my other self's consciousness once this is through?

rolled 96 = 96

>>15072835
Oh, wow. Really?
>Implying it won't go Full Skynet
>Implying it won't try and kill us anyway, because it's a decent judge of human character and knows us fairly well.

Also, before we go...

"Thank...thank you, Karl for being there. I'm glad we could talk."

To Master Mold: "What do I need to do?"

rolled 30 = 30

>>15072846
True, have Karl inform our other self of what just transpired. Mind if i start teh epic dumpage of one of the bestest works of literary fiction in the visual novel format EVAR? Y'now, Special feature reprint, side-way action.

rolled 27 = 27

"Then I want an exact duplicate of all the tech used to construct this suit emailed to me twenty minutes after I disable the device. One the device is disabled and the collapse prevented, I want this exact suit, as it is now, sent to my location when it's safe to do so. You owe me that much. Consider it penance for your previous incompetence. And rest assured, I WILL be finding a way to correct your programming errors. If you're going to continue mucking about in human affairs, I can't have you making blunders like this."

rolled 77 = 77

>>15072931
I don't think that's a good idea. We want it to underestimate us, and for it to have minimal reason to be worried. (See also: later lobotomy.)

Also, mental transfer only. Greed and scientific curiosity is behind confusion, determination, self-doubt, and not a little fury at this thing in terms of what's going through our head.

>>15072743
>>15072748
>>15072752
>>15072760
>>15072780

"IF YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL, I WILL RETURN YOU TO YOUR ORIGINAL TIMELINE," Master Mold agrees. "IT WILL TAKE A MOMENT TO RETRIEVE THE NECESSARY EQUIPMENT FROM ELSEWHERE IN THE BUILDING. READY YOURSELF, MUTANT. YOU WILL HAVE ONLY A FEW HOURS BEFORE THE SENDING UNIT IS TAXED BEYOND ITS LIMIT."

As you turn to Karl and start to thank him, he cuts you off and says "No, kid, I gotta tell you something." He looks at Master Mold's face on the huge wall-mounted screen and asks "We're cut off from the building's communications, right?"

"THAT IS CORRECT."

"Listen," he says, looking back at yo, as a tiny trail of motor oil runs down the side of his face. "Oh, yeah, that," he smiles, wiping it away. "There was more to the Pollution Wars than what I told you about."

"Take care of yourself, OK?"

With that, the bulky metal doors slide open again, and outside of them you can see a huge armored robot that's more gun than anything else, and in front of it is a small golden box with a bubbled glass top, almost the size of a coffin-

-and when it rolls forward and the doors hiss closed behind it, you see a human form inside, a young man only a few years older than yourself, clad in a numbered suit with a thick batch of wires coming out of his head! While his eyes remain closed, you can see a pained expression on his face!

"MY SENSORS INDICATE THAT THE TIMESTREAM COLLAPSE IS ALREADY BEGINNING TO IMPACT THIS REALITY, SO WE MUST BEGIN IMMEDIATELY," Master Mold says, oblivious to the cruelty playing out below his gaze!

While a series of cables snake out of the ceiling and connect themselves to the trapped man's metallic cocoon, a small rod extends from one side of it, aimed at you!

"ACTIVATING. DO NOT FAIL, MUTANT."


Roll a d100 to see what happens after this ad for a video game!

>>15072959
I wanted to hammer home how FLAWED it was and what a huge mistake it had made. Once it accepts that it is not infallible, we can bring in Clarissa to reprogram it peacefully, eliminating its genocidal tendencies and probably making it a pacifist. The only way to bring down someone with a big ego is to shatter its confidence and harp on every mistake and flaw. Once its ego is out of the way, we can fix the rest.

rolled 21 = 21

>>15072973
"Karl, who-"

And...we're off?

rolled 82 = 82

>>15072931
Let's play it cool for now bro, right? Let's not go all high-and-pushy demanding on this transversical alien who can probably the whole X-Institute against us. If we are extra lucky he's gonna give us a crazy awesome boon that can keep tab on us, like a Mini-Pinguinel pet or a Jedi sword. Maybe just a small trophy or an Ipod...FROM THE FUTURE!
inb4Applecommercialfrom1984
>>15072906
Continuing with the dumpan after the main feature. Not wanna oversex this thread.
Rollan for Dynamic Entry!

rolled 22 = 22

>>15072973

rolled 16 = 16

>>15072992
And by fix do you mean smash with a blunt object? Because it's tried to kill our friends and teachers, killed an alternate Reed Richards, failed to stop the destruction of two entire universes, tried to kill our only friend since our arrival, and murdered two men just because they were in the area. Meethinks that calls for a little more than reprogramming, especially given Aino's tendencies. (ie: emotion over reason when pressed)

>>15073026
I was thinking 'fixing' as in 'neutering'. Trust me, sooner or later we WILL get him 'fixed'.

rolled 7092 = 7092

>>15072992
Yes, because the All-Knowing machine is as humble as the elderly granny from across the street.

>>15073046
That's why I was trying to emasculate it verbally. We've provided evidence of its error and inferiority. We need to hammer that point home and harp on its mistakes like a tabloid covering Michael Jackson.

rolled 14 = 14

>>15073078
It can probably wait for after the immediate problems are solved (the supercomputer with control over the systems of a building with people in it, end of all universes)

>>15072996
>>15073010
>>15073014


A pencil-thin beam of light suddenly appears between you and the tip of the cocoon's rod, and a second later the trapped man's palms slam into the glass top of his coffinlike prison as you begin to glow! Your mutant power threatens to drive you mad as the tachyons you sense begin to double, triple, bending and distorting in a sensation more terrible than any of your previous time-jumps!

An involuntary cry escapes your lips, but as Karl raises a hand toward you a white light blots out everything else!

-

The first thing that brings you back is the explosion. At first you think Ricardo is watching another Vietnam movie, but then the events of the past day come flooding back into your mind, and you realize what's happened, swimming to the surface of your consciousness like a drowning sailor-

-And when you open your eyes, you find yourself sitting slumped against the side of a building, across the street from Four Freedoms Plaza! Almost accustomed to the sight of Manhattan in 2099, the view of ordinary 20th-century skyscrapers shocks you, before you are shocked again by the mortar shell that comes screaming out of the sky and lands somewhere out of view !

Its target, however, quickly becomes known to you, as a Sentinel falls into the street, smoking from the gaping hole in its chest! Several men in a tank cheer and roll forward past you, and the full reality of a war between Sentinels and the U.S. Army playing out in the streets of New York City hits you.

What now?

So after we've switched minds with ourself, how do we deal with Master Mold in the past? I don't think just reasoning with him will work, unless we can give him a message that he knows is from his future self. Actually, that might work. Give him a message from his future self so we can make him not homicidal.

rolled 30 = 30

>>15073135
Run for the Building! Once we recover from the shock of the scene, that is. For everything we've seen, a war is still something that's new to us. This us, at any rate.

rolled 89 = 89

>>15073174
Too clean. There is a crowbar and a lot of pain in it's future, especially now that it's evidently torturing Karl or someone else.

We -should- be near the Fanatic Four's building. Run for it, we need to find Richards and stop whatever will happen!

Are we in our old uniform again?

>>15073187
>>15073217

As anger floods into you, clearing the cobwebs away, you stand up on rubbery legs and almost fall back down, finally catching yourself with one hand against the wall, and as you do so... you realize you aren't exactly in the body of a 15-year old anymore.

"Hey Aino, stop doin' yer Victoria's Secret audition and get over here!" a rough, gravely voice shouts at you, and as you look to the side you see the man known as The Thing standing in the street! He waves you toward him with one hand while he fires off a blast from a futuristic rifle at something overhead and calls "Yer late! Stretch has been havin' a heart attack over this stuff! Me, I could get used ta duck huntin'!" he calls, shouting "Come back here, ya bums!" at a trio of Sentinels flying high overhead.

Once under his protective shadow, the two of you race toward the building, and the robotic guards stationed there raise their weapons for only a moment before scanning you both and ushering you through. "Welcome, Mr. Grimm. Welcome, Ms. Virta. Please enter at once. There is a safety hazard outside."

"Yeah, no kiddin'," Grimm says as he hustles you through the door.

"Phew!" he says, dusting himself off when you enter the lobby, now empty of employees and obviously in disrepair. "What took ya so long, anyway, kid?"

rolled 30 = 30

>>15073328
Just shake our head. "We don't have much time. I need to speak to Doctor Richards."

rolled 1733 = 1733

>>15073328
I'm sorry mr. Grimm, I was done lecturing you for your brash actions 5 seconds ago. Where's Richards? Last night, perusing some old reports, I came upon a small bit of hitherto unheeded data that Richards NEEDS to look at, immediately.

>>15073435
Do we really speak like that? I don't think so.

rolled 93 = 93

"Mister Grimm, I'm sorry, last thing I knew... well, let's just say that time travel and mental transposition is involved, and I need Doctor Richards to stop whatever he is doing IMMEDIATELY. I've been bouncing around the time stream for two days trying to save the... what's a singular world for multiple universes?"

>>15073435
roll a d100, not a d1000, chief.

rolled 3 = 3

>>15073485
"Multiverse, that's a good word for it! Multiverse. You have to believe me, we're all in danger!"

rolled 11549 = 11549

>>15073435
Oh, and try to pull that off with your best Dr.Doom voice!
Otherwise waitan for update,

rolled 53 = 53

>>15073534
Again, we roll d100s, and that's not terribly in-character. We're not that arrogant, especially towards someone we don't know, and we need them on-side, not angry at us being a windbag for no reason.

Full panel yelling scene: "I NEED TO SPEAK WITH DOCTOR REED RICHARD, IMMEDIATELY!"

rolled 97 = 97

>>15073553
"Doctor Richards, you have to stop whatever you're doing, right now! The entire multiverse is in danger!"

*Doctor* Richards? You ain't called him that since you was in high school! You didn't take one ta the head, didja, Aino? Yer actin' awful funny!"

"There you are!" Reed Richards says as he stretches into the room - a Reed ten years older than the one you first met in 1995. "The Universal Neural Capacitor is almost online. It will be ready to transmit your power within ten minutes."

"Hey Stretch, listen ta what she's saying!" Grimm calls as Reed approaches. "I think she might be havin' one of them nervous breakdowns!"

"Unlikely, Ben. What are you talking about, Aino?" he asks you, as the rest of his body retracts into the room to normal human size again. "Have you experienced another chronal abnormality?"

How much of the events you've witnessed are you going to tell him?

Mulligan!

>>15073596

Yeah, I realized after-the-fact that I ctrl-Z'd before posting.

I mean, must have been another timeline collapsing.

rolled 3038950 = 3038950

>>15073544
Not that I don't enjoy trolling as much as your average Joe, but dice hasn't been requested in this section.

How about 'I have no need to explain myself to staggering simpletons who can't handle three of the verb tenses needed to explain simplified Chronodynamics. Where's Richards? I came upon an hitherto unseen detail that might hinder our plans - the devil's in the detail, as they say."

>>15073593
Everything? Maybe emphasize that this could be what's going to cause the temporal resonance cascade and chronal collapse.

rolled 3473 = 3473

>>15073593
Everything, in phenomenological order(the way we experienced it)

rolled 22 = 22

>>15073593
"Doctor Richards, it is absolutely vital that you listen to me. I am not the Aino you know. I was sent here from another timeline by a...an artificial intelligence because an event in the near future of this timeline will cause the destruction of every possible universe. It involves you, and me. It's already destroyed two entire worlds. You try to stop it, but it doesn't work. You die.

Please, Doctor Richards. Shut it down. Whatever it is you're doing, shut it down, if only to make sure it's safe."

rolled 85 = 85

>>15073593
"Turn it off and disassemble it. NOW. The Aino you're talking to is 15 years old, and has been bouncing back and forth through the time stream before having her consciousness transmitted into this body from the year 2099. If that device goes online, then the timestream itself will be destabilized and multiple realities will be wiped out of existence. The insane AI Master Mold sent me back here to stop that from happening. Whatever the device is, please, shut it down. In fact, shut down anything capable of interacting with the time stream. Better safe than sorry. I'm sorry if I'm rambling a bit but running through time from killer sentinels is a bit disconcerting."

>>15073658
Seems a bit...detached, doesn't it?

>>15073643
With Flashback panels. One of those nice half-and-half jobs where we gesture and tell our story in one, and what happens plays out on half the page.

Does anyone remember anything form the 1960s we could use to convince him?

>>15073658
Do we really want to say that? It's cutting off our way home.

Also, we don't want to tell him about the whole "went crazy and tried to kill people" bit. Do we?

>>15073680
Really? I was going for a panicked ramble, almost stream-of-consciousness. The kind of thing a 15 year old sitting under the Sword of Damocles would spout out in this situation. Our original body is effectively undefended while we're here, back in the lab with Master Mold. There are sentinels fighting outside. The multiverse is collapsing. We don't know if future-future Reed will come back here to kill/depower us now before heading back to teen-us, we don't know what the device does or how long it has been active. We should be in full panic mode at the moment.

>>15073770
Yes, while crying and hugging him like a 15 year old girl.

>>15073783
Yeah, but he's still DOCTOR Richards to us. A somewhat tarnished idol of SCIENCE and human ingenuity. Wouldn't that colour how we interact with him?

>>15073796
Crying is one thing, but I think we're more into "stunned, shell-shocked" territory now.

>>15073622
>>15073643
>>15073655
>>15073658

"Aino, if you really are telling the truth, and you are actually the consciousness of your teenage self, then you need to understand something," Richards says, the shadow of a frown pulling at the corner of his mouth. "The U.N.C.* is potentially our only hope for stopping the Sentinels! Without your power to slow them in their place, coupled with the capacitor's ability to duplicate the effects over a wide range, the Army will not be able to hold its own much longer."

"Do you really want to risk living in a world ruled by Sentinels because of what may or may not come to pass?"

Suddenly, a small device on Grimm's belt squawks to life, and a frantic voice carries over it that you recognize as Johnny Storm!

"Hey, heads up, people! There's a squadron of Sentinels heading directly for Four Freedoms! I'm trying to get their attention, but they aren't - Oh n-"

The radio blurts static for a second, then falls silent.

"Aino," Reed says, looking into your eyes with concern. "If you don't do this, we may all die. But we won't be able to do anything if those Sentinels get here. You're the only one who can stop this nightmare."

"You won't get another choice."

[*Universal Neural Capacitor -Prof.]


What will you do, Aino?

>>15073807
It's all that shock coming crashing down after he makes us repeat it a few times that we realize that he took away our powers, killed two men, and destroyed a world, and it's all a bit confusing, but if we save him, then none of it will have happened, and he wouldn't have died and crying.

rolled 2 = 2

>>15073843
"There won't be a world to live in if I do this, Doctor Richards. I'm sorry, but there has to be another way."

We can't look him in the eyes.

>>15073843
"Doctor, please, I've watched them kill you already, and travel through time twice to get to me. It was a future iteration of you that warned me of the cascade before attempting to depower me, just before a time-traveling sentinel vaporized him. The machine isn't safe, please believe me. Is there ANY other way?"

Master Molds! If you can hear this stop the Sentential, NOW!

And if that doesn't work, break down crying about how he's going to destroy the worlds, and try and kill us and we won't let him do that to himself.

Also, just a long shot but...Did Remote leave any back doors in -these- Sentential? Because if not, we are dragging Clarissa to the basement and we are gonna work with Megan to backdoor our way into all Sentential everywhere so they are ALL PENGUINS! and if we have to deal with Master Mold again he'll go 'Wark Wark. Hello Princess Clarissa's best friend, Wark, what may I do for you, Wark.'

rolled 47 = 47

>>15073909
Wait, can you detect where/when the telepathic transmission into this body is originating from and pull past-me to this present? Or expel my consciousness back to y original body? I ... I have an idea. We active the device because of Senitnels, right? Then all we have to do is make sure the sentinels don't attack in the first place. We need to get a message to future-master-mold to send a message to his past self to abort this attack."

>>15073843
"Doctor, please, a future version of yourself warned me that the temporal cascade that this device would produce would not only destroy this world but every timeline related to this one.
"He himself tried to stop the machine's primary component, me, in order to stop that catastrophe! We have to find another way, because using the UNC will cause a complete collapse of this multiversal juncture."

"I can't - I can't *force* you to use your powers, Aino. And if you will not use them with the U.N.C., then we need to step outside and deal with some uninvited guests."

"If you really are your fifteen-year old self, you should remain inside, where it's safe," Richards says, a look of profound disappointment on his face. "The building's generators are still online - take the express elevator to the sub-basement. It will automatically bring you to a secure room."

As Richards stretches away, toward the front doors of the lobby, Grimm looks at you and holds up his own weapon. "Hey kid. If ya need it, there's a spare piece behind the desk over there," he says, gesturing with one rocky hand to the long-vacant circular receptionist's desk.

"Better do what Stretch says, otherwise. Get yerself outta here."


What will you do, Aino?

rolled 3235 = 3235

"Richards... thirty minutes from now, the First Tachyon wave will desynch from the general timestream. Like an unwinded clock; it will stop resonating with it's concurrent waves and will come to a full stop. This slight change, at first indiscernible for all but the most learned and cosmic-sensitive, will trigger a disastrous fallout; Tachyon fields will begin to march at different speeds, contiguous zones will be subjected to relative spatio-temporal forces, systems will destabilize due to running at completely different rates...

Temporal dynamics will not stand the continuous, fine, miraculous balance they have achieved after aeons of strife and change. Like a broken mechanism...they will simply stop, locked in perpetual stasis. Elongation will be no more, nor Recollection...without change and experience, no Philosophy or Science possible, I wonder what will it become of humanity? Oh, forgive me, they will "not" become, they will "not" change, not "will", not even exist! Perpetual subject, without time, without movement, without meaning.

You ask me, petulantly believing to know more than me, what will it be, Slavery or Death? Richards, I have seen universes collapsing, seen friends and foes fall down before me; and I tell you they are no more than mere blinks in the cosmic gaze. But the destruction of all possibilities of meaningful existence!? What will it be, Slavery or Death!?

I Choose to Live.

HAVE AT YOU RICHARDS!

>>15074003
Since when did we back down from a fight?

I can help fight.

>>15074054

WHAT IF...?

// TACHYON OF THE NEW MUTANTS WAS TRAINED BY DR. DOOM INSTEAD OF PROFESSOR X? //

rolled 8194 = 8194

>>15074003
Fight, try to delay the inevitable. try to save that fool Richards. From the Sentinels, from himself.
OR WHAT IF ALL OF THIS IS A MASTER PLAN HATCHED BY MASTER MOLD TO MASTER THE MASTER MUTANTS AND CREATE THE AGE OF MUTANTS PAST TIMELINE!?

Grimm, I need you to go destroy the U.N.C
It ends up destroying the entire timeline, and it's half the reason for this war! I'll go help Richards; I'm the only one who can buy you enough time.

>>15074003
We stay and fight.

>>15074070
>>15074092

You race across the room, thankful that your twenty-five year old self has managed to keep active, and a quick peek under your street clothes shows that you've kept up the habit of wearing a UMF suit - this one, however, is an new design.

Even so, the oversized pistol - technology ahead of anything else on the planet and obviously designed by Reed Richards - is still light enough to easily carry, and as you race out the door after Grimm you feel as though you might have solved everything!

-

And then you step outside, and see the chaos in the street, and the Sentinels, two rows deep, marching down the middle of the deserted, cratered street toward you, their huge shoulders brushing over street lights and giant legs kicking aside mailboxes. Around you swims the carnage of war - dead soldiers lie in the gutter, and a smoldering tank sits blown open and overturned.

"Glad ya turned out, kid!" Grimm shouts, letting loose with a volley of laser beams against the approaching horde. "Time ta let 'er rip!"

"SUBJECT MUTATE REED RICHARDS, AKA MR. FANTASTIC IDENTIFIED," the lead Sentinel blares as Richards stretches himself up to the top of a twenty-story building and fires his own weapon downward at them. While two of them take to the air with rocket-equipped boots, the other four press on you and Grimm!

"SUBJECTS MUTATE BENJAMIN GRIMM AKA THE THING AND MUTANT AINO VIRTA IDENTIFIED." the lead robot declares, just as Grimm nails it with a laser blast to the chest that sends the Sentinel reeling backward before it can recover!

"Aw, go jump in the river," he mutters. "Come on, kid, show me what them shootin' lessons were for!"


Roll a d100, True Believers! Highest of three shows off your aim!

rolled 46 = 46

>>15074261
This will not go well.

rolled 268 = 268

Naturally, pick up the gun. I hope is one of them Solar Disasters*!

* As seen in Mutant's Quest Issue 13: Days of Mutants Past feature!

rolled 86 = 86

>>15074283
Rollan with legal dice now(5% less loaded!)

rolled 98 = 98

>>15074261
Time-aided shots, coming up!

rolled 23 = 23

>>15074261
Let'em have it!

>>15074332
>>15074305

>mfw

>>15074332
"It appears that" *sunglasses* "it's time to die." YEAAAAAAH!

>>15074282
>>15074305
>>15074332

With the gun in your hand you aren't sure exactly how to "find your stance," as Ms. Braddock mentored you all those long years and days ago, but then you realize... it doesn't matter. Your mind might be fifteen, but this body is a decade older, and your mutant power has fully bloomed. You can see the timestream around you clearly if you focus - waves of possibilities and what-ifs swirl at the corners of your vision, a far cry from your groping, insensate perception of it until this point.

With the merest narrowing of your eyes, you reach out and pluck a bubble out of the tachyon field, surrounding the Sentinel, and stretch one end back to the barrel of your gun.

From there, it's like shooting a rubber band. With a laser on the tip.

*FRKASH!*

The lead Sentinel pauses, suddenly headless, before toppling backward into the decapitated second-stringer behind it! With two down, Grimm hits another one three times between the eyes before it drops, bellowing "No fair! I think Reed must've overcharged yers!"

As he raises his own weapon again to destroy the fourth, one of the two sent to harangue Reed falls from the sky, landing on the ground with a resounding clang! Seeing victory approach, you catch the sensation of something approaching in the immediate future, and turn around to see another three Sentinels sneaking up from behind!

Roll a d100 for whatever you do, Tach!

rolled 28 = 28

STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!

rolled 64 = 64

>>15074433
We aren't losing. Not to the Danger Room, not to some phoot-phoot machine, and certainly not to these Sentinels.

Shoot it! We still have to do something about the Sentinels here, stop Master Mold, and get home!

>>15074466
>the phoot-phoot machine

I laughed out loud.

Is it possible we can somehow use this body's advanced temporal control to place a small part of their power cores out of sync with the timeline? It shouldn't be a great stress, seeing as we're targetting a small part, though critical to their systems hopefully.

>>15074509

Maybe!

And it's dice 1d100, not roll 1d100!

rolled 75 = 75

>>15074509
Do we really want to push things?

Let's just shoot them with low level usage of our power to cheat on the aiming front.

rolled 85 = 85

>>15074433
Cry a warning and nail them sentinels with SCIENCE!

>>15074460
>>15074466
>>15074522

You whip around and take aim, furrowing your brow in concentration and drawing your mutant power out again, holding back the timestream in billowing sheets like a whaling ship caught in a tempest - but while a moment ago you felt like you could freeze the entire planet, now you can barely hold one Sentinel still long enough to shoot it!

Your knees buckle momentarily as a wave of dizziness overtakes you, and for an instant you glimpse the visage of Master Mold and the pain-wracked man wired into the device that sustains your thinking mind in this time!

The injured Sentinel continues pressing forward, along with its two companions, and even though you finally manage to bring it down, the other two are relentless!

Behind you, Grimm screams in pain and rage, stumbling back as his arm vanishes in a torrent of energy loosed by the death throes his Sentinel foe!

"They got my gun, but I still got one good arm!" he bellows, charging forward at it. "Come on, ya lousy tin-can Gestapo, it's clobberin' time!"

As the Sentinels approach you from both sides, two coming at you and one even now moving to engage Ben Grimm, you catch another flash of a future-past - and the man in the glass coffin banging his hands against the glass until they contort!

Your vision swims between the Sentinels here and the far future, and when it clears they are almost upon you!


Roll a d100... highest of three might be your only hope!

rolled 71 = 71

>>15074615
We can't go back! Not now, not like this!

Try and kill the Sentinel with whatever we can. The gun, our power, anything.

rolled 93 = 93

FOR GLORY AND VICTORY! ZA WARUDO, LEEROY JENKINS!, etc.

rolled 27 = 27

Since we started this, I've wondered what would happen to something half-inside, half-outside our bubble. Would it be ripped apart? I'd say it's time to find out.

>>15074694

rolled 9 = 9

NOOO
FIX EVERYTHING THROUGH SHEER FORCE OF WILL.
SPIRAL POWER ACTIVATE.

rolled 18 = 18

>>15074615
Damnit, we don't have time for this!

Waiting for awesome.

>>15074648
>>15074694
>>15074711

Steeling your will, you force your head to clear, taking a deep breath and rippling your consciousness outward, sending up waves through the tachyon field that smash into the Sentinels and lock them in place! "ERROR! TEMPORAL SPIKE DETE-" one of them manages to get out before its frozen form is annihilated by a stream of high-intensity laser beams. From behind you, Ben Grimm's rough voice wheezes out a laugh.

"Nice goin', kid," he says, and as you turn around, vapors streaming from the barrel of your gun and the two collapsed Sentinels propping themselves up against each other and the side of a half-collapsed nearby building. As you look at him fully, you realize that despite his cheery demeanor the loss of his arm may well be a mortal wound!

"Don- Don't worry 'bout me," he says, waving you away with his remaining arm as he stumbles backward. "Oof- what's that curb doin' here," he trails off.

A moment later, Reed stretches back down, free of any Sentinels for the moment. "Ben!" he shouts, hurriedly stretching toward his fallen friend. "Hold still, I'll get you a sealing compound," Reed says, stretching one hand into the doorway of the Four Freedoms building. "We may have to evacuate," he says, operating a device with his free hand. "I've just heard from Sue - I'm afraid Johnny is dead. Sue can evade them for now, but she reports a mass of them are descending on us from all directions, something my scanner confirms. I've constructed an underground passageway to the ocean from here - we'll take the Fantasti-Car out through the sub-basement and then -

At that moment, Ben Grimm collapses! "You guys leave me here. I'm dead weight," he mutters.


(cont. on next page)

>>15074916

"Absolutely not," Reed says, as his arm finally retracts bearing a wide square object with a gel-like substance on one side. "Once we staunch the wound-"

"You don' unnerstand, Stretch," Grimm mumbles. "N' time l'ft."

"Hey kid," his fading eyes turn to you as he says, "Hope y'were right about... this bein'... the good version a' the future..."

With that he sags, and as Richards holds up a small device over him, he doesn't have to tell you what it says.

After a moment, he breaks the silence with a quiet, reverent voice. "We need to leave."

What now?

I think we should go back and SCIENCE! the shit outta the UNC to see if we can fix its inherent flaw. I mean, what good is saving the timestream if everybody we know and love is dead?

rolled 40 = 40

>>15074932
Good, never liked that hot-headed buffoon before. Let's go to Lavteria! All hail Doom!

I mean...JOHNNY!? NO JOHNNY NOOOOOO! Can we regroup at the X-Mansion, or have they... otherwise, let's contact whatever Superhero teams remain. *Crosses fingers for deadpool&Cable, or Squirrel Girl*

rolled 98 = 98

>>15074932
"Doctor Richards. There has to be another way. Something, anything. How are the Sentinels controlled?"

Talk about strategy, science, anything but the body in front of us.

>>15074694
>Crosses fingers for deadpool&Cable
I cannot second this enough

>>15074988
Hey

Who cares about Storm

but we lost Ben Grimm

That's some bullshit. Let's go clobber some Sentinels or something.

>>15075055
>>15075017
>>15074973
>>15074988
>>15074997

"The Sentinels are created by a being that calls itself Master Mold," Richards says as the two of you hurry back inside Four Freedoms. "Whether or not it is the same Master Mold that exists in the timeline you most recently came from, I cannot say, but the Sentinels themselves have a great deal of free will. I believe they share a communal intelligence, as they are instantly updated on the events of their peers."

As the two of you walk toward the front doors, you see the remains of the building's security robots scattered across the floor. "The force field around the building has collapsed again. There simply isn't enough power to operate both it and the U.N.C."

Richards gestures to the express elevator leading up, one you rode on in a time long past, and to the tunnel entrance where the Fantasti-Car and escape lies. "I've trusted you so much, and watched my friends die because of what you've told me today," he says gravely, "And yet I believe you completely. Perhaps this has all been necessary."

"Unless-" he pauses, at your choice between the U.N.C. and escape. "There may yet be another way, one we have not yet considered."


Got a plan in mind, or are you going to try your hand at SCIENCE? Either way, better hurry! If it's science-related, roll a d100, otherwise, let's hear it!

rolled 16 = 16

>>15074932
This timeline is not satisfactory. We will have to make some adjustments once we return back to where all this mess started.

rolled 35 = 35

Is Princess Remote still alive? If so, hook her up to an extrapowerful Megaphone(amplified Telepathy from Xavier of Psylocke MAY work) to Reprogram All the Sentinels. Pic mostly unrelated.

rolled 36 = 36

>>15075138
SCIENCE is our bread and butter.

>>15075188
I would think that they took her out early because of that.

There's a reason why I hate time travel.

rolled 16 = 16

>>15075138
The answer is simple. We hold the universe hostage.

Here's the plan:

We tell Master Mold that its counterpart in the future felt that it was at risk and sent us. Tell it why. Tell it unless it comes to terms, we'll use our powers. It might do nothing, might end this world, might end all worlds. All Master Mold has to do to prevent this is give a cease-fire.

Also, ask Richards about our friends/family/the Prof.

>>15075282
Hold a gun to the head of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE?

I like it. It's gutsy. Let's do it.

rolled 68 = 68

>>15075282
Here's how we present it:

"Doctor Richards, I have a plan. We've met this thing, this Master Mold, and it can be logical. We can make it give in, because it wants to live. It's afraid. If we tell it what will happen if we use the device, and tell it that its future self was afraid enough to cooperate with us, it might back down. We can end this, all of it."

Someone archive this.

rolled 44 = 44

>>15075282
It's becoming painfully obvious this was a Master Troll Master Plan hatched by Master Race Master Mold. Think, if this really was the END OF ALL REALITIES AS WE KNEW THEM, wouldn't we find some major players actively trying to prevent it, like Dctor Strange or Uatu the Watcher? shouldn't this arc take more than 3 issues and have more superhero teams trying to sell their merchandise?
>mfw

>>15075353
Oh god. What if he wants to plug us into his chest for time-powers?

>>15075353
We don't know that, we can't know that, and it's probably not true.

Also, SCIENCE trumps magic.

>>15075353
Also, it's likely that Mold killed them when it started its war. Nice going, AI.

>>15075148
>>15075188
>>15075201
>>15075216
>>15075257
>>15075282

"Your friend... I'm afraid she was killed last year. It was a random killing - she was attending a mutant-rights rally," he says, as the two of you begin to ascend the elevator toward the U.N.C. "If only she were still here-"

"Of course!" he says, a gleam of hope in his voice for the first time since you've been in this body. "If you were able to return to your own time, Clarissa might be able to stop the Sentinels by controlling them. However, from what I remember you telling me, the first time she encountered one she was still very young. Her powers might not be sufficient to take on Master Mold."

"Here we are," he says, as you reach the ninetieth floor and the strange device that he identifies as the U.N.C. "We only have a brief time to examine it," he notes as he looks at a small device that projects a hologram of another squadron of Sentinels as they approach. "I doubt your education at fifteen is sufficin-"

At that moment, the timestream around you comes crashing down, slamming into you and driving you back - back out of this body and through the hurling void between timelines, back into your original body!

Just before you reach yourself, something collides with you - and you see a face similar to your own rush past!

With a gasp, you realize that you are still in the lab, in the year 2099, in your powered armor, with Master Mold leering down at you.

"THE TEMPORAL EXCHANGE IS FINISHED, MUTANT. ACCORDING TO MY SENSORS, THE TIMELINE COLLAPSE HAS BEGUN TO SUBSIDE. ITS EFFECTS WILL NOT REACH THIS TIMELINE OR THIS ERA."

"YOUR IMPORTANCE IS AT AN END. PREPARE TO BE TERMINATED."

With that, the laboratory doors slide open and the robotic war machine swivels toward you!

"Oh, shock," Karl says.


What now???

(Gaaah, I apologize, my internets picked the absolute wrong day to go down. Sorry for the tremendous lag today, especially that last part)

Hopefully they will resume soon!

rolled 53 = 53

>>15075523
"It is the end...but the moment has been prepared for." We're laughing at it as we speak. "You've lost. Your past self will have to give in. This you will never have existed!"

Once we're finished speaking, slow time.

>>15075523
Oh crap.

What terrible fate will befall our brave mutie protagonist?

Find out after this advertisement!

rolled 55 = 55

>>15075523
Apply those awesome time-manipulation skills that we now know will develop as we grow older! We know what they feel like to use- try to grab that feeling and effortlessly destroy that machine threatening us!

rolled 22 = 22

Actually, since my plan in the past went through(or will in the next issue), you'll offer me milk and cookies. You can't stop the my future self from altering the past, you are already too late! Comply with what has...will have happen soon in the past hypothetical future or you risk putting the whole spectrum of time at risk again!

Time Stop, go all "my good sir, would you be so kind as to tell me what time is it? IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!" on these robos(Karl already destroyed the overrides, we should be able to operate the suit unrestricted)

rolled 100 = 100

>>15075556
>>15075594
We need a higher roll!
COME ON DICE DON'T FAIL ME NOW!

>>15075638
Bit eloquent. Seconding "it's clobbering time", for the revenge factor.

>>15075651
Holy...

rolled 36 = 36

>>15075651
I weep inside, for though the dice did not fail you >>15075638 did.

rolled 6 = 6

>>15075651
wait, what!?
pic used more often than I'd like.

rolled 56 = 56

>>15075670
It boils down to saying that he's already lost and yelling "it's clobbering time" as we charge.

>>15075556
>>15075594

Even with the suit amplifying your abilities, Master Mold's control over the room's tachyon field seems impossible to wrest away! The weaponized robot is held motionless, but Master Mold is able to slur out in a long computerized drawl, "WHAAAAT DOOO YOUUU HOOOOPE TOOOOO ACCOMPLIIIISHHH... I CAN DETECT YOUR PULSE RISING, MUTANT. YOU CANNNNNNNOOT HOOOOLD THISSSSS FOREVER!"

"Hey, kid!" Karl says to you, from his place inside the bubble of realtime that surrounds you. "They disabled the energy cutters on your suit, but remember that trick you did knocking the piece of steel through the wall?"

"Maybe you could bust us out. I mean, where's this clown getting all its Sentinels from, and where's it shipping them out through time from? They ain't doing it here, there's no room!"

"THIS STAAAAAAALEMATE WILLLLLLL NOT LAST FOR LOOOOOOONG," Master Mold says, as you continue to fight against the titanic force of its machinery!

(cont. on next page)

>>15075694
I meant that I believe we're on a "first three rolls" rule here, and the 100 was the fourth.

>>15075651

But then...

Something slips into place. Aino was wrong before. It wasn't something she grew into. It was there all along.

She just had to find it.

Master Mold sits helpless, its image stuck in mid-speech on the screen - the entire building stands frozen, as her bubble of static tachyons swells outward, a dozen times larger than it's ever been before. As mighty as the virtual Sentinel is, it is still bound by physical components, which now hang motionless.

"Shock me, kid, what the heck happened?" Karl asks, amazed.


What now?

rolled 60 = 60

>>15075804
"I...I think I stopped it. For a while. Come on, we have to go!"

Try and break through the door with the armour's abilities, despite the drain of using our powers like that.

rolled 40 = 40

>>15075804
DESTROY MASTERMIND! GRIND HIS CORE COMPONENTS ALONG WITH THAT ROBOT INTO POWDER!

rolled 71 = 71

We just had a huge Super Fight at Stark-Fujikawa. Let's hope it's Spider-man who shows up to help us. Or the X-men.

>>15075862

We already agreed that Mastermind was the creepiest X-villain.

rolled 34 = 34

>>15075862
We know better than that. Master Mold isn't in any individual machine. He's the "master mold" from which their programming is cast, and a collective mind.

Remember, Doctor Richards told us this?

rolled 57 = 57

>>15075862
Goddamn spelling.
Master MOLD

>>15075877
Timeline is different. They're all long dead.

>>15075804
We need to remove Master Mold's control over the building. How?

And why are you a robot? What didn't I get told about the Pollution Wars?

rolled 91 = 91

>>15075890
We have to get everyone out of the building, and let them know what's happening!

Is there a way to access the intercom? Fire alarm? Burglar alarm?

>>15075804
I am gonna suggest we remove the body, and try to wake him up.

>>15075833
>>15075862
>>15075877
>>15075885
>>15075890
>>15075903

In this ecstatic state, it feels like the whole world's on lockdown, as you freely move around, needing hardly any concentration to maintain this incredible time-bubble! Picking up a computer terminal with the mining armor's incredible strength, you hurl it toward the image of Master Mold, accelerating the computer to hypersonic speeds that send it shattering through the bank of monitors, and the wall beyond! In the room past the smoking, sparking circuitry, you see a window!

"I don't know about you, kid, but I'd rather not take the chance with a Rhodes-8000," Karl says, gesturing to the open lab doors and the time-displaced armed robot waiting at them.

"Actually..."

"Just like I thought - they never dismantled the jet thrusters in the suit, they just disabled 'em!" Karl says as he inspects the metallic boots of your armored suit!

"I don't think you can take that Master Mold out without blowing up the whole building... and even if you did, there's all the computer banks underground."

"No, I'm not a robot!" he blurts out with a surprised laugh. "Ain't you ever seen a cyborg bef- oh, right, guess you probably haven't. Got this when a kinetic mine went off. They thought I might not make it, but Stark-Fuji had top-notch cybersurgeons. Not too shabby, huh?"

(cont. on next page)

rolled 39 = 39

>>15075945
A cyborg!? NEAT-O! Could you say "Hasta la vista, baby" just for me? pwetty please?

Bust and get the hell out.

rolled 45 = 45

>>15075981
Seconding everything but the "pwetty". We're more dignified than that. Mostly. Even when confronted with advanced SCIENCE. (And a bit more tactful.)

"Hey, that guy's Stark-Fujikawa property!" Karl says as you walk back to the golden coffin where the mysterious time-travel enabler lies entombed. His eyes remain squeezed shut, but you see him turn and twist uneasily under the glass!

"Whoa, whoa, let me help you with that-" he says as you puzzle out how to open the glass dome and it slides away into the machine. Suddenly, the man's eyes fly open and he grabs at you, but then you see the Emergency Disengage button and smack it with the bottom of your fist, and as the mechanical cables snaking from his head to the top of the casket pull themselves away from him and slither back out of view, a single word flies from his mouth - "Awake!"

Before you can react, he sags in your power suit's arms, unconscious.

"Let's go, kid!" Karl shouts, and a moment later (and one piece of furniture tossed through an "unbreakable" window and slowed to a crawl as it floats to the street far below) the two of you are outside, flying through the night sky!

"Uh-oh," Karl says, clinging piggyback to you as you unsteadily pilot the armored suit through the sky, barely staying on a horizontal path. "Looks like we've got company!"

As you risk a glance backward, nearly sending Karl toppling, you see a swarm of small objects flying toward you - and as one of them buzzes close and launches a beam of sizzling energy that barely misses you it suddenly jerks upward and flies off into the dark polluted clouds above!

"What the-"

(cont. on next page)

From out of the shadows between the bright hologram billboards and flashing lights springs a form that is utterly alien and somehow familiar, a figure that leaps into the air and slings toward you, landing on another of the flying robots before it can emit another burning laser beam and smashing it in the process!

He flings a hand upward and a stream of - something - shoots out, letting him swing Tarzan-style back around and netting the other four in a clot of the same sticky material!

"You guys need a hand?"

What now???

>>15076023
Yell back "YEAH, THANKS!" as we struggle to fly the suit.

rolled 14 = 14

>>15076023
"Quit it you weirdo! Actually, how come you are still moving I thought I had froze-?"
CUTAWAY panel to Spiderman talking, then CUTAWAY panel to Aino getting away.

>>15076023

"YEAH!" Do a double take! "Spiderman?"

[Oh my shock oh my shock! Spidy!]

>>15076047

You didn't *actually* freeze the whole world!

rolled 19 = 19

>>15076035
>struggle
We can control time itself. I think we can control a powered armor flying mining suit from the future.

rolled 14 = 14

>>15076047
HAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS!

"Thanks handsome, name's Martha, downtown specialist working for...security services. what's yours?"
rollan for bluff. Or Diplomacy.

>>15076062
Huh. I guess not.

rolled 9 = 9

>>15076035
Rolling for this.

Also, we need to land. We don't know how long the jet boots last.

>>15076067
>>15076062
Aino Virta: Master scientist and time manipulator.
Not a very good pilot though.

rolled 69 = 69

>>15076065
>>15076062
We're fifteen. We're running. Are we really going to flirt/know how to fly a suit of advanced technology that has little connection to our powers in that regard?

rolled 98 = 98

>>15076078
Yes, because it provides the perfect spot for the cool hero to keep a cool-head and point out that formalities can be spared till we get through this mess. Clicherrific!

>>15076094
And Writer Logic (TM) wins out once again!

>>15076035
>>15076047
>>15076053

"Yeah, that's kind of what I was wondering about," he continues, as he slings the robots stuck inside the... well, webbing... into a huge glowing 'Synthia Lil' Stims for Kids' sign, making them explode in a shower of hot sparks and continuing to swing alongside of you.

"See, when everyone around the Stark-Fujikawa headquarters suddenly stops moving, and then some kid and a cyborg come flying out of it with death-robots chasing after them, and - is that guy dead?" he pauses in his monologue to ask as he finally notices the unconscious body of the man from the mechanical coffin.

"Anyway, if you're on the run from Stark-Fujikawa, you're probably not that bad of people," he says as he suddenly flips upside down and launches another web hurling himself around the spire of a building like a tetherball pole and launching himself forward, flinging his body through the night sky fearlessly and keeping easy pace with you!

"So if you want me to get lost, that's fine, but I'm always up for a little nighttime corporate sabotage."


What's the scoop, Park- I mean, Aino?

rolled 1 = 1

>>15076109
Accept his help, explain that there's a homicidal AI holding the building hostage, and that there could still be people inside. Preferably do all this from a rooftop or something stabler than a pair of active rocket boots.

"Also, are you Spiderman?"

rolled 85 = 85

>>15076137
We're going to plummet to our death aren't we?
Rollan for trying that air step manuever our alternate future self used to get ourselves onto something stable.

rolled 66 = 66

We need to ask him if he'll let us get a picture after all this nonsense with Master Mold and time traveling is done.

A picture of Karl, Aino, and Spidey 2099 as a souviner.

>>15076109
"Technically, we're on the run from the evil robot that has forcibly taken over Stark-Fujikawa, but help would be great just the same."

rolled 73 = 73

>>15076109
Actually, we work for Stark-Fuji. New retainers, don't worry. It was a regular night researching some stuff when some bad robots started up trouble in our neighborhood.

Thanks for the help man, but from the sound of it you may not want to get involved with us. May be too much trouble for your own good. so, I guess... see ya!

C'mon Karl, let's get this man to a hospital!

*Rollan to summon pity, heroic conscience and sacrifice*

rolled 66 = 66

Here's a 4096x4096 version of the the ending symbol.

In addition, take him up on the offer. Spidey could help, and anything is better than a 1.

rolled 78 = 78

>>15076187
Well, I think this probably qualifies as breach of contract, but we're not letting the man be frozen there anymore, so that's that.

>>15076109
Hum 'Spiderman theme' and tell us our sob story

rolled 7 = 7

>>15076204
hush, we were protecting the company assets against an indiscernible competitor force!(usual swiping-from-office apology)

rolled 46 = 46

>>15076243
Well, we're not giving him back! Aino has more ethics than that... (Read the backlog in the archives)

>>15076253
We don't have to SAY that we're not giving him back, though. Not with Karl here. He says he's not a robot, but he could still be programmed to work for the corp!

rolled 93 = 93

>>15076269
Of course not. For now, we're just getting him to a hospital. Using Stark's bank account if needed.

our actions were nessesitated by master molds belligerence, which im sure the directors will understand.

which is also unfortunate, since we could probably use his help in getting back to our original time line.

>>15076137
>>15076153
>>15076179
>>15076183
>>15076209
>>15076187

Suddenly, you tip upside down, and as the limp body of the mystery man plunges from your hands, Karl slips from your shoulders and falls as well! As his eyes widen in horror he lets out a terrified "YAAAH-"

"Whoopsie-daisy!" the man in the suit says, launching two lines in rapid succession and snagging them both, lowering them down to a flat edge of an eighty-story building where he helps you land the suit.

"So what's the deal with the mining sui-" he starts, before you ask him if he really is who you think. "Yeah, I'm Spider-Man. Heard of me, huh?"

"Hmm, let me take a look at him," he says, landing gracefully and cutting the webbing away from the unconscious man with one finger. "Oof, looks like some kind of test subject. You say he was being used to send your consciousness through time? That could be bad."

"You can't just take him to a hospital, they - oh, right, you're from the past. You know, a few months ago I wouldn't have believed that, but now I'm willing to believe you, especially with that show you put on back at Stark-Fuji."

"Anyway," he says, pulling the man's eyelid open and inspecting his eye closely, "you can't just take him to a hospital. They'd know he was corporate property, or he'd show up as a degen, or a Downtowner, and then they'd call the Public Eye. Can't take him to Docs in a Box either..."

Just as he says that the man's arms fly up, grabbing at Spider-Man - just as he leaps backward to cling to the facade a few feet above your head! The man gasps as his eyes pop open and he sits up with a jolt, his mouth in a wide gape of shock!

"You!" he says, looking at you! "You're the time girl! I saw you in the other time! You aren't from here!"

"Oooo-kay," Spider-Man says. "Sort of believing your story more now, I guess."

(cont. on next page)

Apologize to Karl for not telling him earlier.

>>15076317

"I know - I know where you live! Where you lived! It was a mansion! With mutants!" The man raves, scrabbling to his feet. "You... saved me from Hikaru? From Stark-Fujikawa? Oh-"

He puts a hand up and points at you. "I know what you're looking for. The way back to your time. I think... I think I know a lot about what Master Mold knew," he says, seemingly calmer than before.

"The time portal couldn't have been made in the city. Too many humans are researching it - the energy signatures would have been easy to detect. It had to be installed somewhere nearby, but far enough to escape scrutiny."

"I think Master Mold might have a sense of humor," he says, as a sinking feeling curdles your stomach as you begin to realize where the source of the Sentinels into your time lies.

"It built the time portal in the ruins of your school."


[Next issue: Aino, Karl and Spider-Man 2099 crash the party!]

>>15076384
Why do I think that's going to send Aino into an unstoppable rage? This could get ugly.

Thanks for an epic issue, Prof! When can we expect the next one?

>>15076401
TACHYON TIME CRUSH!

Whoo doggies! That twist with out-smarting Master Mold took us all by surprise here at the Mutant Quest office - even the writers! A home run out of left field by our amazing, spectacular and all-around uncanny readers that we can only hope to match!

If your eyes aren't bleeding onto the page from that double-strength double-shot of an issue, let's dig into the Mutie Mailbag and answer some reader letters!

rolled 67 = 67

>>15076384
DAMN YOU MASTER MOLD!!!

And now for a bonus feature... Watchmen Chapter 4: The Watchmaker! Featuring Jon "H-bomb" Osterman; the original Doctor Manhattan!

>>15076430
Why not make another thread? This IS the Prof's thread, after all...

>>15076401
>Why do I think that's going to send Aino into an unstoppable rage? This could get ugly.

>Thanks for an epic issue, Prof! When can we expect the next one?

No doubt, Master Mold hit her where it hurts - after all, home is where her heart is! As for our next action-packed issue, we might try for Monday, but if all of our readers are out barbecuing, there might not be anyone around to pick up a copy!

Thanks for reading!

rolled 85 = 85

Having troll remorse, should I wait till the mutie mailist is over?

>>15076417
Dear Prof,

Marvel 1602. Aino. When will it happen?

-A. Fan

>>15076439
(I don't care, more hype for me!)

(I was going to post some fun stuff on /co/ later; I'll drop a link here when I do.)

>>15076458
>Dear Prof,

>Marvel 1602. Aino. When will it happen?

>-A. Fan

Well, A.F., such is Aino's fate that she's not bound to the 616 universe, which places her outside of normal continuity and thus relieves the writers of having to figure out how to squeeze her in to the convoluted clown-car that is canon X-Events.

Of course, as we've seen, our heroine has a tendency to find herself in whens she doesn't belong in!

>>15076456
>Having troll remorse, should I wait till the mutie mailist is over?

Speak, o confounder of computers! Impart upon us your relentless logic!

As we pause midway through our letter column, our editor says he'll withhold our checks this week unless we plug the back issue archive:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=mutant%20quest

And don't forget about the Mutant Quest Information Page, our little corner of cyberspace, where readers with access to the Internet can keep up to date on our hectic scheduling blunders!

tinyurl.com/MutantQuest

Dear Prof,

Have your writers managed to stuff our poor Finnish hero into every Marvel Spin-off or not?

-Reader@Reding

>>15076511
>Dear Prof,

>Have your writers managed to stuff our poor Finnish hero into every Marvel Spin-off or not?

>-Reader@Reding

Well, our well-read red-dweller, the universe of Tachyon and her friends exists only a stone's throw away from mainstream continuity, and on top of that you never know who'll show up in her home reality! Why, there have already been names dropped of other superbeings besides the X-Men, and who knows who or what will show up in the future! As the past few issues have shown, anything's possible with a little science!

Deaf Prof,

Great Issue. Anyways, With Aino being thrown around alternate realities, how long is it going to take her to run into everyone's favorite dimension hopping eXiles?

Also, it's great to see Spidey 2099 again. I always loved that future line.

>>15076417
Hey, Prof. Did you mean our persuading it to let us live, the set-up with the doomsday device, or the escape?

rolled 8 = 8

>>15076486
oh no, regarding the Watchmen dump. Not the thread in general. I'll wait so it is a fluid dump though.

Question, have you read the Watchmen series(if not, skip this post for POTENTIAL SPOILERS!)

I find Jon's conception of time both Absolutist and rather intuitive, but it presupposes superhuman levels of though and performance that we humans simply do not have. Hence it's distant for your average Joe to relate to. I find Aino's a lot more compromising.

Hypothesis; if Aino's powers were Absolute(being able to go back in time and create alternate futures, being ageless and inmortal because she has a "reset button" to go back to a previous savestate) in regards to time(as Jon's are in regards to space) would she distance herself from humanity as Jon apparently has? Would her conception about time become absolute, claiming she always does the best possible outcome lest she is paralyzed by indecision and becomes like Borges Immortals?

Seems like "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" is right once again. It'd be like having GodMode on and not bothering to using it because what's the point?

Regards.
>Hipster-Who-Spells-Magick-with-a-K

>>15076570
>Deaf Prof,

>Great Issue. Anyways, With Aino being thrown around alternate realities, how long is it going to take her to run into everyone's favorite dimension hopping eXiles? Also, it's great to see Spidey 2099 again. I always loved that future line.

Just you wait, X-Fan! Aino's bound to run into at least one or two more unexpected faces before this saga plays itself out! And we're glad to bring our favorite futuristic web-slinger back into the mix as well!

For more on the Pollution Wars, read the first few issues of Ravage 2099, a comic scripted by none other than the stunnin' Stan Lee!

>>15076571
>Hey, Prof. Did you mean our persuading it to let us live, the set-up with the doomsday device, or the escape?

Is there an option for "all of the above?"

>>15076580
>Question, have you read the Watchmen series(if not, skip this post for POTENTIAL SPOILERS!) I find Jon's conception of time both Absolutist and rather intuitive, but it presupposes superhuman levels of though and performance that we humans simply do not have. Hence it's distant for your average Joe to relate to. I find Aino's a lot more compromising. Hypothesis; if Aino's powers were Absolute(being able to go back in time and create alternate futures, being ageless and inmortal because she has a "reset button" to go back to a previous savestate) in regards to time(as Jon's are in regards to space) would she distance herself from humanity as Jon apparently has? Would her conception about time become absolute, claiming she always does the best possible outcome lest she is paralyzed by indecision and becomes like Borges Immortals? Seems like "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" is right once again. It'd be like having GodMode on and not bothering to using it because what's the point?

>Regards.
>Hipster-Who-Spells-Magick-with-a-K

Yes and yes!

>>15076580
>what's the point?
The point? The point is trying to get a date! The point is hanging with our best friends! The point is making sure SCIENCE is the best and our friends, and Richardo, have the best life!

And then getting a goofy box, maybe a telephone booth, and travel time and space to help. There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do.

>>15076651
Aino isn't really like the Seventh Doctor. Clever, yes, improvisational, yes, but not really manipulative enough, desperate plans aside. I'd say Five, maybe the First with that stubbornness.

>>15076678
Yes, but it is the best damn speech.

But yes, you are perfectly right, I can see Grandpa just grit his teeth and keep forcing himself until Ricardo is no longer winning. But that cricket playing fop is is So Aino.

>>15076749
Though Aino definitely wants to get home a lot more than Five, so maybe One.

Hey, Prof, any chance of them bumping into each other sometime?

>>15076766
>Hey, Prof, any chance of them bumping into each other sometime?

Aino and the Doctors? Don't hold your breath - the holographic Doctor from last issue is probably the closest she'll come to that intellectual property!

So what's happening on the home front? Will Aino ever see her friends, teachers, or parents again?

>>15076803
Who is morning her loss, as allowed by the CCA?

>>15076803
>>15076847
>So what's happening on the home front? Will Aino ever see her friends, teachers, or parents again? Who is morning her loss, as allowed by the CCA?

That depends on where you stand in time, doesn't it? We think you'll be satiated with our next issue - trust us on that!

This concludes our fantastic fifteenth issue!

Back issues can be read in full on the online Mutant Quest archive:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=mutant%20quest

Keep up to date with Aino's shenanigans on the Mutant Quest Information Page:
tinyurl.com/MutantQuest


Thanks for reading!

>>15076906
And that's my cue. hopefully enough post remaining.
So, in keeping with these posts:
>>15072906
>>15073010
>>15076430
Watchmen Chapter 4: The Watchmaker. Enjoy.

>>15076953
Slowly updatan. i'll just post the first 10 pages, leave the next as a mediafire link.
inb4uploading...25%

>>15076953

Seventy posts left before it autosages, so knock yourself out! I'll be posting in /co/ for a while - the thread is here:

>>>/co/26315308

>>15076968
Great deconstruction of the modern hero. With great power comes also great detachment. From the words of Bill from Kill Bill 2: the Revenge of the Bride:

>As you know, l'm quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well-drawn. But the mythology... The mythology is not only great, it's unique.

> ... Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.

>>15077015
However, Jon doesn't have a persona with which to put these issues aside. Superman can continue being Superman in virtue of being able to be Clark Kent. Almost as if wearing a costume allowed him to express certain desires and psychological needs that would make Superman inconsistent. almost a therapy.

Adventurous Hypothesis: Perhaps something similar happens with cosplay? Why these people put on a costume may yield insightful results for modern day psychology.

>>15077061
Jon couldn't have an hidden persona for...political reasons. He couldn't hide, could find a save haven were to feel normal. Slowly, he became something more. more than a skin to wear, more than a place to hide. More than...human

>>15077100
What a strange phenomena...the past, recollections. moments so distant yet so strongly present and persistent. Nostalgiafags can relive these experiences, actualize them harder than the present moment, almost live in them... but the dream has to stop; one sadly cannot exist in the past. Their own past.

>>15077142
I suppose a True Philosopher would be able to capture the essence of the Past; how it's so utterly random nature is special to their owner, how it is indeed one's most stable possession, how the modern world is essentially a quest to appropriate this past. A true philosopher may, perhaps.

And then again, how to effectively communique something so unique,something so...personal? without petulant writefaggotry or that common (ass)holier-than-thou MASTER RACE HURR DURR disposition? HA! to expect to find an honest, innocent thought on 4chan! unconceivable!

>>15077195
Still, you came here for 4 things; Chew gum, kick ass, Read Mutie Quest and check out this gem of days past. Not to hear the ramblings of another pretentious namefag. I am sorry for these incoherent paragraphs. Thanks for bearing with me.
>inb4lampshadingtheinnocencyof4chan

>>15077195
Time to don the mask. Thank you for your presence here tonight Fa/tg/uys. The rest of this Chapter may be found at http://www.mediafire.com/?ebyig8temvkp5i5 and probably a comic shop near you at inflated prices.

anon out.