By: M Monroe Casey
Part One
“Lenna-Anna Nicole!! What are you talking about? What’s a DOOM TREE?” Hollered the startled Baleigh. After literally just defending the entire world from its near untimely end multiple times this last year or so, this was probably the last news she wanted to hear as the youngest Goddess answered with a normal vocal pattern and voice finally.
“Sorry, that feeling was incredible… But I heard legends of a city called Crowpolis. It was once a part of Tirado but to contain its great and dark secret, it had to find a way to escape. Seal off the monster it housed. Brinay Narneke or later known as the Doom Tree. So, they took to the skies and became a floating city so the tree may never root itself across all the Cosmos. So, I guess the legends were true… and I guess they couldn’t contain it…”
CJ and Monica peered at each other with a grave look in their eyes as the next line continued in the conversation.
“Umm… that’s not good but what’s Tirado?” Questioned the equally concerned Jessica Maddy.
“Yeah… and it’s one of the planets of the Far Reaches of the Cosmos. I can’t explain why but I think our complete history might be in the process of being rewritten so Brinay Narneke is making its move amidst the chaos…”
“How is that even possible?” asked Vittoria Ivonee.
“Like I said, I don’t know… but all the pulses told me is that it is coming and we might be able to prep our allies…”
“Allies? How?” asked Baleigh.
“Yeah. With the Eyeglass of the Cosmos… But it hasn’t been seen in over a hundred years…”
A smirk rested on the young Star. “Well… we’ve done crazier things together. I guess we need to find some books and see if we can’t track down this Eyeglass, so… who’s in?”
Meeting her smirk with one of her own, Jessica replied, “Let’s get it.”
With all four of them following suit of the other two, they walked onto the street then swelled away in four pillars of nearly equal immense power. Leaving only the clean-up crew left at the completely finished dance now.
Click.
Back on Mt. Couch after the repairs have been done following the attack of Accessories on their homeworld, CJ and Monica began to unpack what they just heard.
“Ummm… C… that’s bad.”
“Totes… Do you think history is really being rewritten? How did we not notice this? Are we bad at our roles?”
“Probably. I think we were distracted and a bit too focused on Baleigh and the Luisa family so we missed it…”
“Yeah… well, what’s done is done. We need to check this now.”
“Agreed babe.”
Grabbing the remote, Monica Dancer began to flip through the files. One by one.
“Wait… Mon, go into the recently updated ones only…”
“Genius move babe.”
“It says the 1666 Pyroclastia was the only one updated recently, besides what we just literally watched…”
“1666? What do you think happened?”
“Let’s find out…”
Tuning the Windowsill to watch Marche Tadala’s “recent” teleportation inside of the shockwave, acquiring of Freezecry and storming of the fortress in full, they both gasped simultaneously as he finished it off by heaving the cracked and battered throne through the mural and leapt through another portal.
“Well… that answers our question.” The High Goddess commented.
“Yep… so… where do you think he’s going?”
“I don’t know but I guess we’ll find out. Do you think we should stop him?”
“Ummm… I don’t know but he didn’t go and declare himself a king or anything… He easily could have done much much worse as a time-traveling warrior.”
“What do you mean?”
“C, he slapped around and tried to change a complete jerk but didn’t kill him, or anyone in the fortress for that matter, then literally jumped away. I think he means good. At least somewhat.”
“You make a good point, as usual, my beautiful Monica,” as she kissed her shoulder.
“Ha, thanks, love you. So, I guess we just start pulling the ‘video string of 1666’ here and see how the sweater unravels?”
“Okay, deal and love you too.”
Starting with the video they just watched, they began to track Marche’s rewrites as he progressed on and on.
Part Two
“Well C… let’s see… Marche broke Shata’s ridiculous ‘Hellfire Inferno’ persona in 1666 so I guess, we just label it as that?”
“Deal, it’s now known as ‘the 1666 timeline,’ so that’s one thing down. Actually, I think we can literally label it now like that. The Windowsill got updated.”
“Seriously?” Questioned the Arizona native.
“Yep babe.”
“Huh. And wait… why is it the 1666 timeline? Shouldn’t it just be the past?”
“I wish it was that easy but it’s not… since Marche made a wish when he acquired Freezecry, it froze off Pyroclastia’s history from everyone else’s.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Yeah but I don’t think he understands how ripples work. What happened in Pyroclastia in any given year still affects the rest of the Cosmos, independent of any wish he could have made. So, my love, all we can do now is track and see… The Windowsill has the 1666 timeline, the old past and the current Goddess story each recorded and labeled as real and valid.”
“Great… So, everything is real…” Muttered the moderately confused but determined Monica.
“Kind of. Eventually, The 1666 Timeline will become the only past we have which will change the present undoubtedly but we don’t know exactly when that new reality sets in. Not until we get caught up and see where it all merges again…”
“We are soooo going to need some more caramel mochas…”
“On it babe.”
As CJ walked outside then pointed her freshly painted sunshine yellow nails at the tranquil oceans ahead, she opened a portal to Earth on a coffee run while Monica clicked on the most recent file in the Goddess storyline. Tuning in to see the four of them sitting in front of a very old and dusty book in a classically abandoned and creepy library. Catching the end of the live stream of it, all she heard them say was “Tasmania” before they were off again. Swelled away once more.
Deciding to play it back to catch how they landed on Tasmania in their quest, she got caught up as the three of them now arrived in the city center of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Part Three
With a short discussion that eventually reached the conclusion that this city looked “super duper cool,” they wanted to adventure their way to the shrine. Slowly making their way through the city on buses and their own feet, they stopped for a short coffee and scone break at what Vittoria described as “the cutest dang coffee shop on this beautiful planet.”
Continuing on while Monica watched on with some support from afar, they made their way to the southwest of the city and then promptly into the countryside. Reaching a slowly trickling river in Sandfly, they followed the roadside signs to Judbury.
With Lenna-Anna leading the way with her aura pulses connecting her the most to the treasure ahead, it came Vittoria then Jessica after. Three people who wanted nothing to do with “saving the world” before that “pushy in the best possible way” teenager entered their lives. Now, they were literally climbing mountains to save a world that basically rejected them seemingly a thousand times before. Literally whistling a folk song as a chorus that they heard back at a store in Hobart.
Leaving Baleigh Sofía Luisa behind back in Edmonton, she made the choice to prepare herself with some new training instead. In her optimistic green eyes, the three of them can find it all on their own. She had a brand new card game to learn while they were gone anyways.
Continuing on in the southwest direction, they reached Southwest National Park as Lenna-Anna’s powers served as their compass still, even further southwest. Reaching the end of the treeline where they formed a semi-circle, they saw a small shrine ahead in nature’s neighborhood. At the heart of the naturally occurring cul-de-sac, there was a golden rock and on top of it, a pair of golden eyeglasses. Squeezing through the tight entrance of the thick and dark brush, they entered one by one into the bright and distinctively different clearing ahead.
Click.
Pausing the image as the three of them walked inside, Monica asked a simple question to her beloved as she arrived home from the coffee run.
“Hey CJ?”
“Yeah?” She sat their two drinks on the kitchen table as she took her shoes off and walked over.
“I was just wondering why you can’t tell the future… can’t you just use Tadala’s powers and go there?”
Kissing the top of Monica’s head, she sat again with her on the couch, handing her daily drink to her beloved as well.
“Good question and you are right, I absolutely can but it’s tricky,” she took a sip of mocha.
“Why?” Monica copied the sipping action.
“So, you know how you had to think more WAY back when I asked if you wanted to move into my place? Like when we had that epic kiss in Calgary?”
“Ha, yeah. That was an amazing kiss…” Monica played with her hair and flipped around the curls she had in her barky brown hair today, “… anyways, yeah?”
“I am the love of your life but you still had to decide then. Even when you know something, it doesn’t mean it’s always going to happen.”
“I don’t understand… Are you saying that even if you went to the future and saw it, it still might not be accurate?”
“Pretty much.” They both took another sip.
“Huh… because people still make choices and that can’t be predicted 100%?”
“Yep. We literally have two past timelines right now.”
“Good point… wait… so, you were worried I was going to say no?”
“Nah. I’m the best.”
Giving her a playful shove, Monica responded, “Ok the best… but wow… I never knew that.”
“Yep.”
They both took another sip.
“Well, I was just wondering. Thanks C. Do you want some popcorn?”
“Oh!!!! Good call, yes my love.”
Returning in a few moments with a bowl of “lightly salted heaven” as Monica calls it, they began to resume the scene at hand, their notebook at the ready for notes to be taken throughout.
Click.
Walking further into the clearing which housed sparkles of reflective rocks throughout like the nightsky, they continued on towards this hidden wonder of the world. Unbeknownst to anyone who wasn’t brave enough to traverse the trek here. The three of them walked up to the eyeglasses and each read the inscription on the clear stone casing that protected them from the elements of the rough terrain.
Finishing it off last, Vittoria’s calm voice danced along the soft breeze of the tranquil landscape, “Let the present find the present.”
Looking around at each other after a short, polite debate, Lenna-Anna then agreed she would do it first. Reaching out her well-manicured left hand, she opened the casing and put them on.
Waiting for a second, she then opened her newly fierce golden eyes.
Part Four
“Woah…. Coooooooooool…”
“What do you see?” Asked Vittoria.
“I see… some moments…”
“What do you mean?” Questioned Jessica.
“Like I can see some key moments laid out in front of me. All the possibilities…”
“Woah…” responded them both.
“Can you describe it?” Said Jessica.
“I can try…” As she was traversing through multitudes of time and space simultaneously, she began to talk about what she could see.
“Thanks. We’ll be here supporting your power throughout…” Mentioned Vittoria.
“Thanks…”
“So, I can see the beginning of the Goddesses. I see the pearls being created, the first champions and the inevitable betrayal of Beauty by the others. All like Baleigh and Nathaly talked about. All of it is true and accurate…”
“Okay… what else?” Asked Jessica.
“Well… I see Pyroclastia and the gods ruling it. The Dark and the Light Collossi then I see the creation of the super-swords. Freezecry the sword of time, DarkFlame the sword of death and LightBlaze the sword of life. Freezecry corrupted the one who forged it. He’s now King Freezecry and he declared war on the kingdoms of the south…”
“Okay…”
“He attacked them all and Hagro decided to get even. He took on the power of some liquid called brukev. It was the magic byproduct leftover from the formation of those swords. He lost himself but gained all the power he could ever want… Woah…”
Moving onto describing other events that Monica remembered witnessing back when she painted some stuff for their guest room, she took some refresher notes as the Goddess of Design continued her description.
“He then became Lord Jadix and decided that he should be the one to rule all. Him and his two brothers. Bnonoa or Bone King and Marche. Oh… no… Marche Tadala was lied too and hurt by their other brother, the real king. He then drove a sword through the chest of King Udo on top of some plateau. No…” Lenna-Anna winced as she moved on to see all the other possibilities too.
“Wow…”
“Ok, Marche had a son named Augustin but it seems that Udo raised him. Up until the time he died so Augustin grew up hating his own actual father. Then, he also grew up to fight crime and stuff. There is some “mob-boss-looking-man” with metallic gloves standing next to a vat of different evil looking gas, a giant horned monster destroying a whole canyon, a massive pyramid crashing from the heavens above onto a red burning mountain, a giant space monster known as the Planet Killer, a merman and some mind-controlling man. But oh no… That same Augustin man was fighting multiple versions of himself then met the same end as Udo before. This time at the hands of a metallic robot man. But he’s back and then fought his Uncle on top of the same plateau where Udo died…”
Taking off the glasses and putting them down gently, Lenna-Anna looked over with normal tired brown eyes.
“Wow… who’s next?”
As Monica and CJ finished adding to their notebook about each of the stories she just described outloud, it was Vittoria’s turn to continue.
“Well… now… I see the same as the start of Lenna-Anna’s sight but it’s somehow different now… after the death of Udo, there is a tower with a being known as the Painting Creeper. That mob boss, horned monster and mind-controlling man are there but not as much. Now, there is a Planet Killer monster and those different versions of Augustin are now taking over robots to attack him… then, the robot man is there too and later, there is an intergalactic sports tournament… Huh.”
“What do you mean? How was yours different?” Asked Lenna-Anna as Monica paused it once more.
Click.
“Ummm… C… that second one was basically the same one as the Windowsill I watched before. Besides the whole sports tournament part. So… what was the first one then?”
“I don’t know…”
“Hmmm…” Writing down a giant question mark next to the written version of the question she just asked her love, Monica resumed it.
Click.
“I don’t know…”
“Okay… my turn.”
Donning the eyeglasses last, Jesscia’s now golden eyes saw only a little bit but what she saw was short, faded and mostly indescribable.
“Jessica… what do you see?” Asked Lenna-Anna.
“Just a scientist in some penthouse warehouse in a place called Nuevas Amigas. He has yellow hair, yellow eyes and yellow glasses. It’s blurry but I think his name tag says Chuck Smith… He’s just typing away on a computer and muttering about a Voice in the Deep…”
“What?” Questioned them both in sync.
“I know… Weird…”
Taking off the artifact with her eyes returning to the normal color once more, they began to shake in her hands. Softly setting them down as quickly as she could back onto the shrine, the three of them looked around at each other as they began to shake even more intensely on their own.
Crack.
Literally breaking apart into dust in front of them, their last hope was officially gone.
Breaking the silence first, Vittoria commented, “Let the present find the present… What do you think that means? We literally all saw different things… We found no answers…”
“Or did we?” Asked Jessica.
Looking at each other’s gazes, brown eyes met red as they both replied, “… ummm… what?”
“Besides mine, which was seemingly random, your two visions had the same start… So, what if…”
“No… don’t even say it…” They shook their heads in disbelief.
“… this isn’t the first time that this has happened… what if the rewrites happened before?”
The soft breeze in the meadow began to pick up into a stronger current of air now.
“Meaning?… Wait… no… yes?” They responded together.
“Something or someone wanted all of this to happen… Just like it has…”
“CJ?” Still talking in unison, the best friends replied.
CJ looked over at Monica with an alarmed look in her eyes as her darling grabbed another handful of popcorn.
“No. Not her, Baleigh or anyone we know. Not even those ‘Pyroclastian fools’ as Delanie calls them.”
“Then who?! Jessica tell us!” Lenna-Anna began to show her current brain age now as she was growing more and more impatient.
“Well… this is where it gets really crazy… I think it was that guy in my vision… Chuck Smith.”
“Ummm… Who?” Asked Vittoria.
“Dr. Chuck Smith. Portal and Inter-Planetary Expert. Cosmos Explorer and Researcher. Time enthusiast and the creator of the Eyeglass of the Cosmos. I knew he seemed familiar!”
“No way…” Muttered Lenna-Anna.
“So… those yellow glasses and those yellow eyes?” Asked Vittoria.
“Really gold. I just couldn’t see it in the blurred vision. Now, I think we need to ask… why?”
Pondering the question together as they looked around at each other and the shrine ahead, they stopped for a second in even more disbelief as the dust itself began to reformulate into a small, pocket-sized golden whistle.
Waiting to be left alone or used.
Part Five
Looking around at each other, Vittoria cracked the vocal silence first. The landscape has become anything but as a thunderstorm has officially set in now all around them. The soft rain was beginning to pick up more and more into a downpour now.
“Ummm… Jessica, what else do you know about this Chuck Smith guy?”
“I’ll tell you what I know…”
“Yeah?” Asked Lenna-Anna as they felt the rains slowly soaking into their brown coats.
“Yeah. He was a brilliant scientist who wanted to discover what has never been discovered before. So, he started to progress beyond what was known and talked about in the scientific community. Believing the Cosmos would be better if it were connected, he began to research beyond his home on Atala City on the Catalina Sea and because of that, they labeled him as ‘a weirdo’ and ‘a freak. So, he then began to push beyond even more. Find a place that accepted him and his ‘out there ideas.’ Then… all the rumors say he heard a voice one day in his research. One he described as ‘A Voice in the Deep.’ Like I said in my vision…”
“A voice?”
“Yeah… So, that became his new sole focus. Find the voice in the cavern… and prove them all wrong…”
“Huh. Do you know if that voice was real or was he just crazy?”
“No idea but he must have found a way in his research to bend or influence time and space, at least a little bit…”
As the small group began to solve this even more, the two on the couch scribbled along.
“Woah… so… he did all of that… because?” Muttered Lenna-Anna.
“To become powerful?” Offered Vittoria.
“I don’t think so… he wouldn’t have adjusted only Pyroclastia’s history to make himself more powerful. He’s not even from there… maybe, it’s like an experiment? He is a scientist after all…”
In unison, they replied to Jessica, “An experiment?”
“Yeah. Think about it, he studies portals and the whole Cosmos… I imagine it’s all some sort of way to test how things interact with each other. Before he tries to make some big play or something.”
“Bigger than messing with the history of a whole planet?!” Exclaimed the Goddess of Lighting.
“I hope not but probably.”
“Not good…” Muttered Lenna-Anna.
Looking across at the others, the Goddess of Acting is now piecing it all together completely. “Yeah… So, I guess those ‘Pyroclastian fools’ don’t know that their reality is going to change and they could have a ‘second chance,’ so… maybe that’s why there is the whistle…”
“We have to decide that? That’s too much for us to decide…” She sunk her head down in the social pressure rising amongst the literal air pressure now.
“We would be… like an actual whistleblower…” Vittoria walked over and put her thin and boney hands on Lenna-Anna’s shoulder to comfort her young friend.
“Yeah but I don’t think anyone blew it the first time…”
“Jess, why do you say that?” Asked the older one.
“Because most of their history was the same… the villains were still villains… the violent revolution, the mistakes, all of it. But this time, I don’t think it was his doing because Lenna-Anna’s pulses would have been different…”
“Yeah… I felt a natural presence did this. Brinay Narneke reacted to something not-human made. So, it wasn’t like a device or something…”
Reacting to her best friend, Vittoria commented, “It must have been something else… Something like… ”
All in unison they deduced what Monica and CJ only “recently” saw on the Windowsill, confirming it outloud.
“The fight between Baleigh and Delanie!!!”
The three of them started slowly walking in a circle around the shrine and looking at each other as they began to solve the riddle even further. A smile grew on each of their faces as they began to understand it deeper. Who said what was becoming lost in the storm and flurry of commentary.
“Their ridiculous levels of power collided and this happened… wait… Baleigh said that she wished to be okay during it…
“And… Delanie wished to see Harold again…”
“Wait… a wish? They had their wishes come true. Do you think?”
“Yep. Someone else wished then. On Pyroclastia… They wanted to change something so they did it. They broke their history once more… For one more chance.”
“Who?”
“Marche.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You saw his history. He was lied too and abandoned. No family, no friends, no power or support. It had to be him.”
“So… a villain is shattering all of space and time now?!”
“I don’t think he is a villain… I think he just wanted a second chance…”
“He’s a villain… He murdered a member of his own family…”
“The old version of him did… Maybe he can stop that and he can stop all that bloodshed we saw… Maybe that’s why he wanted a second chance…”
“But what if it isn’t?”
“Well… what if it is?
“Then we should definitely use the whistle and others might help him… Like that horned monster and the robot man…”
“Or maybe if we use it, it could be worse… for example, we could give that gloved madman and the mind-controller a chance to fix their miscalculations and try again…”
The storm was beginning to lighten up as they finished their debate.
“But team, look at us… we were all just like they were. Self-absorbed, willing to destroy or lie to get what we want. How were we better than they were? Bales stood up for each of us. She saw the best in us and I think we need to do the same. They deserve to know… One more chance.”
With no more rain or dark clouds, a thick rainbow stretched across the heavens above them as they all agreed in the calm air once more. Then, nodding towards Jessica who defended the “best possible possibility” throughout their debate, the Goddess of Acting grabbed the golden whistle and announced the auditory beacon to all of creation.
Part Six
With Jessica, Lenna-Anna and Vittoria splitting off in the Melbourne airport after their adventure to the shrine, it was all-in-all a long journey well-trekked. It seems that they may finally go home and rest after these massive few days and preceding years of the “War of the Goddesses” officially ending in Tasmania. They were all split off now but ready to join back up if and when they were needed or wanted again. But for a few others, the rare moments one has to change everything about themselves was only just beginning.
Sitting on Mt. Couch and finishing the set-up for the new Marche project, the happy couple held hands and wrote with their other as even more events continued in front of them.
Click.
Much like the shockwave effect which started this off to begin with, most of creation throughout the Cosmos had no idea that Jessica Maddy blew a golden whistle on the edge of Australia. In fact, according to the statistics, over 99% that hear it will literally think it’s just a dream. Going about their lives once more and doing the best with their circumstances but for those with a direct connection to the brukev and the near endless powers it possesses, that trilling sound will become something they can never unhear.
Back in 1966 of “The 1666 Timeline,” Jealous Doenca stood completely frozen in place. He was walking back from the kitchen of his small cave when he felt a shutter across his whole body. In the strong moonlight of their isolation, it was sudden and unexpected. First, the sound of a whistle then a feeling. One that was felt by all of his kind that day. Walter, Smart, Teacher, Writer, Evander, Honorable, etc. Their blonde hair was a mess but they couldn’t fix it and their blue eyes were unable to see anything but the vision at hand.
Hopeful Doenca was the same in his cave, two hundred kilometers to the west.
Peaceful Doenca as well to the east.
Every single one, all identical, were frozen in place and were seeing their individual “fate.”
Then, like the horror movie monster they seemed to be, they all commented simultaneously in a quiet hushed voice to the emptiness.
“One Doenca to rule them all… and it’s me.”
As all of them returned to their personal tasks, the moment ended as quickly as it came. A devious smile and plan amongst the majority. But for three of the most determined, and some of the originals of their species, they each offered one more comment as they gazed at the same stars and full moon above “Planet Doenca.”
“So, I must bring the realest peace…”
“Therefore, I can save them all…”
“… and I will burn the heavens.”
The End
Castle Johnson Publishings 