Post by redsycorax on Sept 11, 2019 0:10:55 GMT
Once, Status Quorum had guarded Earth-52 from cosmos-shaking threats and chaos, on an alternate Earth where Alan Turing had lived into his eighties, revolutionising technological momentum on that fortunate world and ushering in an eventual Singularity that led to the transcendence and transition of that Earth from everyday multiversal reality into godhood and existence beyond consensual frames of reference or comprehension. And then, in the solitude of that deserted universe, a vortex began to form as familiar outlines rematerialised. It was not the first Status Quorum, because apart from the deceased Secret Original, its surviving five metahumans had left their former existence behind after they embraced the Singularity.
Nevertheless, the Hypereloi that inhabited Alpha Sapiens evolved cranium recognised the absence of spatiotemporal parameters. He nodded to Zur-Vann, now an avatar of the Eldest Gods, who raised a spatiotemporal envelope around the quintet as they came back to awareness:
"None of us is who we once were." Zur-Vann intoned.
"Nor is this universe still extant. Is it possible for us to recreate something like it?"
"But what if it simply recapitulates the chain of events that led to its initial Singularity?"
"I concur. Hunger, sickness and mortality are gone from the universe that was here. I may appear almost identical to the Ultra-Humanitarian that was, but I am a different boddhisatva. As are the inhabitants of Alpha Sapiens cranium, as is the origin of Zur-Vann, the manufacture of Womanite and the chain of events that led to the appearance of Machine Woman. Bryce?"
Dark Stranger nodded: "There can only be one reason why a new incarnation of Status Quorum has been birthed..."
Around them, the lineaments of Earth-52B firmed into coherence and authenticity, as they became aware of a familiar form looking at them. The aged features of Alan Turing broke into a broad smile as he stepped forward to greet them:
"Welcome back to awareness, Status Quorum."
"Alan? Is this some reiteration of our predecessors former Earth of origin, then?"
"Correct, Bryce. As you can see, I still survived a troublesome minor incident in 1952 when the Crown invoked national security and defended me from its consequences, dismissing all charges against me. I still constructed the sentient AI Colossus and achieved global government and the end of famine, war, poverty, ignorance and other maladies and Status Quorum still formed to defend our Earth from the malignancy of transhuman threats. However, something has struck at the strategy towards the attainment of Singularity that I am unfolding on this reiteration of our Earth. I fear that it may be beyond my capacity to defeat alone, so I quantum engineered a reiteration of Status Quorum alongside me."
"Who are our opponents, Alan? And where's Adam- Secret Original?"
Alan Turing turned to a holographier stand: "Their names are the Theocracy. They inhabit a primordial realm called Wonderworld.They may be the end of us all."
"But I thought Wonderworld, or Mammord, was supposed to be situated outside the quotidian multiverse in one of the Higher Dimensions."
"They appear to inhabit an Omnitropolis akin to the city of London on our Earth, and like ours, it is the seat of a planetary government. The beings that inhabit it are all apparently immortal entities, humanoid in form, but the resemblance is only visual. The Theocracy is led by Adam One, a Superman analogue, and its members include a microscopic realm adventurer, The Mote, a speedster named The Glimmer, a sole female designated The Goddess, an incarnation of fear named Nightmare with a sidekick called Nemo, with a technologist named Blacksmith and an AI called "The Robot" rounding out the group's membership."
"The Theocracy were supposed to be long-lost and long-dead primordial avatars of metahumanity throughout the multiverse. Why have they suddenly returned to existence, why is there a new iteration of Earth-52 and Status Quorum ourselves?"
"Because Earth-52 is a metaverse, akin to Earth-0 in the Core Multiverse. We have specific significance and capabilities due to that. It means that whatever ultimately happens to earlier iterations, there will always be an Earth-52 in the Greater Multiverse. As for the Theocracy, it appears to inhabit an alternate universe we designate Earth-1000. On that Earth, Atlantis never sank and established a planetary empire. However, for reasons unknown, it never evolved to the point where it attained Singularity, as do other Earths that transcend the crisis points of nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and interstellar travel."
"How do we know that the Theocracy is going to be a threat?" Womanite asked
"They're the oldest known group of metahumans anywhere in the multiverse. Mammord was supposed to have been destroyed, but their avatars were transposed to Earth-1000 instead. Moreover, the alternate universe cluster where that Earth is situated is negative in valence. It may have been contaminated by proximity to the Dark Multiverse."
"Do we have any hard evidence that this is the case?" Womanite persisted.
"Earlier, Dark Stranger asked where Secret Original was. He was abducted to Earth-1000 before he could be reiterated here. He only knows himself as Adam One."
"What if that were just a random effect of Bleedspace turbulence, though?" Machine Woman argued
"That degree of turbulence is unprecedented. Moreover, the Atlantean Empire has operatives throughout the multiverse, located on technologically inferior Earths that cannot challenge it, engineering their eventual collapse or downfall. Only hyper-evolved Earths like Earth-476, where the Roman Empire never collapsed because of early steam engine development, Earth-334, where Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire never fell or Earth-800, where Sunni Islam's Abbasid Caliphate never collapsed, are immune to Earth-1000's subversion attempts."
"What about our own Earth?"
"Alan was more of a prodigy than anyone realised. Collaborating with Werner Heisenberg and Albert Einstein, he worked out an alternate universe filter that screened out intrusion from technologically advanced alternate Earths as early as the 1950s." Dark Stranger explained.
"Which doesn't explain why Earth-52 has been reiterated, or why we've been recalled to existence. Colossus still exists here, doesn't it, Alan?"
"Yes, and we have a stable global government. Omnitropolis is still our global capital. Apart from your lives and careers, Earth-52B is almost identical to Earth-52A."
"Then it must be our existence that causes Earth-52B to diverge from the Singularity causality. But how? Our careers all began in the sixties or seventies, and Alan's influence on our Earth's technological development was well in effect by then?"
Earth-1000.
It had never experienced the submergence of Atlantis in 15,000 BC and consequently, there was uninterrupeted technological development throughout the ensuing period instead. However, when this world evolved metahumans, its technological and social development halted. Each of them were immortal entities, but the Theocracy seemed to have difficulties in mission and scope of intervention. On Earth-1000, health, economic and social inequalities were minimal and society was utopian. Gradually, though, through consent, births dwindled to zero in the wake of eternal life and youth. Without social inequality or psychopathology (due to early genetic intervention), crime was unknown. With accessible rapid interstellar travel, most of humanity left Earth, rarely returning to its sentinel cities and communities. The Theocracy defended their alternate Earth against hostile alien incursions and threats to widely-dispersed human existence. One day, however, it found that it had extinguished and neutralised all such threats within its own universe and decided to look further afield. And then, it discovered Earth-52B...
"The problem is that this Status Quorum includes at least three posthominids, Zur-Vann, Ultra-Humanitarian and Alpha Sapiens. One of them, Dark Stranger, is a prosocial psychopath. Womanite is a coherent energy sentience. Machine Woman is made of flexible inertron, impervious to harm and destruction. These beings appear to be impregnable to harm and the human known as Alan Turing has had a revolutionary effect on this world's technology, social development and ethical progress. Status Quorum may represent a irresolvable threat to our Earth should it decide to traverse Bleedspace and confront us." The Glimmer stated.
"Isn't this an overly pessimistic assessment, Glimmer? There is no evidence that Earth-52 represents a tangible threat to the sanctity and security of our Earth and its universe."
"Wait, Goddess, I agree with Glimmer. The potential threat is there, however." Nightmare objected.
"You do tend to see the surrounding world in shades of black, Briareus. I am unsure that intervention is neccessary against this phantom insurgency."
"Blacksmith?"
"This Earth-52 almost has technological parity with our own world. Think what that implies for a moment. Our technology has developed over fifteen millennia, yet this world has advanced from dawn thermonuclear weapons and civilian reactors to sentient AI, immortality, interstellar travel through antimatter coalescence and reaction control, all in the matter of two decades. I agree with the Goddess that this is currently only a potential threat, but a threat it still is."
"Mote?"
"Something's going to happen. There's definite Planck scale turbulence in the microverse. That means that an event of significant magnitude is causing spatiotemporal disturbance, even here in its past."
"I don't like this. I think we are being precipitated into a foolhardy intervention that abuses our capabilities and potential." The Goddess countered
"Robot?"
"I can confirm what the Mote has stated. There is large scale gravitmetric and electromagnetic disturbance from uptime."
"You're outvoted, Sybylla."
"I am sorry at this news, Adam. I thought you would provide a voice of wisdom in this context. I see I was wrong."
"I am this world's apex sentinel, Sybylla. If there is even a potential threat, I must take note of it." In Adam One's hand was an unfamiliar blue fruit. Utilising her interface with the organic world around them, the Goddess sought information about whether her Theocracy colleagues were subject to external domination. Much to her shock, her preternatural inquiry illuminated the blue fruit, with the texture of an orange, but whose biochemical composition was far more complex- and, she realised, hallucinogenic and sedative, and deliberately tailored to Adam One's metaphysiology. She sought similar insights about the others, and was disturbed at what she saw. Nightmare's complex neurochemistry had been distorted. The Mote had been subjected to a covert cognitive intervention when he had last enlarged. The Glimmer's perceptions were distorted by a coherent tachyon field and the same applied to the Blacksmith and the Robot.
"My friends, you have been subjected to hallucinogenic and cognitive impairment and interference. Something is manipulating-" At that moment, Blacksmith activated a null-time continuum captor device and the Goddess froze into immobility as Adam One rose:
"You were right, Nightmare. She would have prevented an obstacle to our plans."
"We need to make a pre-emptive strike against this potential threat, Adam. I move thus."
"All in favour?" Adam One, Nightmare, the Glimmer, the Mote, Blacksmith and the Robot raised their hands. And thus, fate was set.
But then, something else intervened. In a corner of a contingent microverse, Miami Nil looked up:
"It's bad, Ned. We're facing an incursion by the primordial metahuman organisation known as "The Theocracy."
"That's Adam Cadmon, The Secret Original, isn't it? Or was." Commander Ned Slade nodded.
"He's been suborned by The Theocracy. They've been manipulated into assuming our Earth represents a mortal threat to their existence."
"By who, or what? What could have the hallucinogenic capabilities of that magnitude?" Miami asked
"Ah caen see theyr point, though. Luik et Alpha Sapiens or Ultra-Humanitarian, or Zur-Vann 2.0. They all have potential in thet area." Carmen Spector interjected, frowning.
"What then? Do we disclose our existence?" Miami asked
"We may have no option. Moog, Miami, Carmen, into the Crab. We need to inject ourselves into this confrontation."
"Adam? Adam Cadmon?"
He turned as the Theocracy materialised in the Omnitropolis Concepticon. Nightmare furrowed his brow as he caught sight of Dark Stranger, who utilised his housefly metabolism and in microseconds, time telescoped. Nightmare should have been aware of Dark Stranger's time distortion isomorphic technology, but his consciousness was impaired by the unknown aberration that had taken the Theocracy into confrontation with Status Quorum. Nightmare's animal skull careered off his body, which slumped to the floor. Womanite was next, blurring into a similar intermediate spatial trajectory, ready for the Glimmer as he careened toward the assembled members of her organisation. The Mote tried to contract sufficiently to enter Ultra-Humanitarian's Eloyoi microcity, but the guardians of his neuronic space detected his intrusion and raked the area of the incursion with a particle beam. Blacksmith smiled levelly at Machinewoman, who abruptly turned on her heel as the Robot and Blacksmith moved to intercept her. Then they froze into immobility as Machinewoman activated her tactical contingency options, as quantum indeterminacy overloaded their capabilities to counter her projected retaliatory measures. Adam One was gazing at another figure altogether:
"Eve? Eve Uppahsytm? You're al-"
"I am truly sorry, Adam. But you were always weak and manipulable, bound by the hubris of your power and knowledge. I loved you. I really did. But Status Q cannot permit you, or the Theocracy, to endanger this Earth or its universe any further. Goodbye, my love." Eve- Secret Original II -raised her atomvolver and fired it at the man she had once loved, her eyes full of tears. The tracery of blue fire and light erupted around the startled figure, crisping his skin and stifling a cry of pain in a moment. He collapsed to the floor and she looked up at the others as they left the Crab, as Commander Ned Slade held up his hand:
"We mean no harm. We're from the Finger, an ultraterrestrial intervention agency."
Alpha Sapiens frowned: "A previous incarnation remembers two of you. You broke into the prior incarnation of our Earth and stole AtomAvenger's atomgun. You killed Ultra-Humanitarian and I was obliterated against a dimensional barrier after I tried to pursue you."
"He was punished fuir thet." Carmen said, glaring at Moog.
"We're sorry about what happened to Adam as well. We only detected his subversion a couple of minutes ago."
"Adam was always misguided." Eve said quietly.
"Leaving the question, what do we do about the rest of the Theocracy?"
"We can take care of that. We have the capability to transform Earth-1000's environs into a closed universe. They won't be able to exit it again after they're returned there."
"Who was responsible for this?" Machinewoman asked.
However, in Bleedspace, there was a despairing wail as the entity responsible confronted the disruption of its planned future, in which it had come into existence. It then cried in agony as temporal recursions and dispersal of energy tore it apart, for it had now never coalesced into being, the causality that had led to its presence aborted from time and space. And with that, Earth-52B's causality resumed its course. Technology, culture and civilisation brought about a second Singularity and in five years, with the rest of the human species, Zur-Vann, Secret Original II, Dark Stranger, Machinewoman, Alpha Sapiens and Ultra-Humanitarian once more ascended to transconsciousness and para-presence. Once again, the cadaver of Adam Cadmon was left behind. And on distant Earth-1000, the Theocracy awoke with no memory of what had happened to them, or why their Earth was still denied Singularity. One day, they would discover it, however...
THE END
Nevertheless, the Hypereloi that inhabited Alpha Sapiens evolved cranium recognised the absence of spatiotemporal parameters. He nodded to Zur-Vann, now an avatar of the Eldest Gods, who raised a spatiotemporal envelope around the quintet as they came back to awareness:
"None of us is who we once were." Zur-Vann intoned.
"Nor is this universe still extant. Is it possible for us to recreate something like it?"
"But what if it simply recapitulates the chain of events that led to its initial Singularity?"
"I concur. Hunger, sickness and mortality are gone from the universe that was here. I may appear almost identical to the Ultra-Humanitarian that was, but I am a different boddhisatva. As are the inhabitants of Alpha Sapiens cranium, as is the origin of Zur-Vann, the manufacture of Womanite and the chain of events that led to the appearance of Machine Woman. Bryce?"
Dark Stranger nodded: "There can only be one reason why a new incarnation of Status Quorum has been birthed..."
Around them, the lineaments of Earth-52B firmed into coherence and authenticity, as they became aware of a familiar form looking at them. The aged features of Alan Turing broke into a broad smile as he stepped forward to greet them:
"Welcome back to awareness, Status Quorum."
"Alan? Is this some reiteration of our predecessors former Earth of origin, then?"
"Correct, Bryce. As you can see, I still survived a troublesome minor incident in 1952 when the Crown invoked national security and defended me from its consequences, dismissing all charges against me. I still constructed the sentient AI Colossus and achieved global government and the end of famine, war, poverty, ignorance and other maladies and Status Quorum still formed to defend our Earth from the malignancy of transhuman threats. However, something has struck at the strategy towards the attainment of Singularity that I am unfolding on this reiteration of our Earth. I fear that it may be beyond my capacity to defeat alone, so I quantum engineered a reiteration of Status Quorum alongside me."
"Who are our opponents, Alan? And where's Adam- Secret Original?"
Alan Turing turned to a holographier stand: "Their names are the Theocracy. They inhabit a primordial realm called Wonderworld.They may be the end of us all."
"But I thought Wonderworld, or Mammord, was supposed to be situated outside the quotidian multiverse in one of the Higher Dimensions."
"They appear to inhabit an Omnitropolis akin to the city of London on our Earth, and like ours, it is the seat of a planetary government. The beings that inhabit it are all apparently immortal entities, humanoid in form, but the resemblance is only visual. The Theocracy is led by Adam One, a Superman analogue, and its members include a microscopic realm adventurer, The Mote, a speedster named The Glimmer, a sole female designated The Goddess, an incarnation of fear named Nightmare with a sidekick called Nemo, with a technologist named Blacksmith and an AI called "The Robot" rounding out the group's membership."
"The Theocracy were supposed to be long-lost and long-dead primordial avatars of metahumanity throughout the multiverse. Why have they suddenly returned to existence, why is there a new iteration of Earth-52 and Status Quorum ourselves?"
"Because Earth-52 is a metaverse, akin to Earth-0 in the Core Multiverse. We have specific significance and capabilities due to that. It means that whatever ultimately happens to earlier iterations, there will always be an Earth-52 in the Greater Multiverse. As for the Theocracy, it appears to inhabit an alternate universe we designate Earth-1000. On that Earth, Atlantis never sank and established a planetary empire. However, for reasons unknown, it never evolved to the point where it attained Singularity, as do other Earths that transcend the crisis points of nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and interstellar travel."
"How do we know that the Theocracy is going to be a threat?" Womanite asked
"They're the oldest known group of metahumans anywhere in the multiverse. Mammord was supposed to have been destroyed, but their avatars were transposed to Earth-1000 instead. Moreover, the alternate universe cluster where that Earth is situated is negative in valence. It may have been contaminated by proximity to the Dark Multiverse."
"Do we have any hard evidence that this is the case?" Womanite persisted.
"Earlier, Dark Stranger asked where Secret Original was. He was abducted to Earth-1000 before he could be reiterated here. He only knows himself as Adam One."
"What if that were just a random effect of Bleedspace turbulence, though?" Machine Woman argued
"That degree of turbulence is unprecedented. Moreover, the Atlantean Empire has operatives throughout the multiverse, located on technologically inferior Earths that cannot challenge it, engineering their eventual collapse or downfall. Only hyper-evolved Earths like Earth-476, where the Roman Empire never collapsed because of early steam engine development, Earth-334, where Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire never fell or Earth-800, where Sunni Islam's Abbasid Caliphate never collapsed, are immune to Earth-1000's subversion attempts."
"What about our own Earth?"
"Alan was more of a prodigy than anyone realised. Collaborating with Werner Heisenberg and Albert Einstein, he worked out an alternate universe filter that screened out intrusion from technologically advanced alternate Earths as early as the 1950s." Dark Stranger explained.
"Which doesn't explain why Earth-52 has been reiterated, or why we've been recalled to existence. Colossus still exists here, doesn't it, Alan?"
"Yes, and we have a stable global government. Omnitropolis is still our global capital. Apart from your lives and careers, Earth-52B is almost identical to Earth-52A."
"Then it must be our existence that causes Earth-52B to diverge from the Singularity causality. But how? Our careers all began in the sixties or seventies, and Alan's influence on our Earth's technological development was well in effect by then?"
Earth-1000.
It had never experienced the submergence of Atlantis in 15,000 BC and consequently, there was uninterrupeted technological development throughout the ensuing period instead. However, when this world evolved metahumans, its technological and social development halted. Each of them were immortal entities, but the Theocracy seemed to have difficulties in mission and scope of intervention. On Earth-1000, health, economic and social inequalities were minimal and society was utopian. Gradually, though, through consent, births dwindled to zero in the wake of eternal life and youth. Without social inequality or psychopathology (due to early genetic intervention), crime was unknown. With accessible rapid interstellar travel, most of humanity left Earth, rarely returning to its sentinel cities and communities. The Theocracy defended their alternate Earth against hostile alien incursions and threats to widely-dispersed human existence. One day, however, it found that it had extinguished and neutralised all such threats within its own universe and decided to look further afield. And then, it discovered Earth-52B...
"The problem is that this Status Quorum includes at least three posthominids, Zur-Vann, Ultra-Humanitarian and Alpha Sapiens. One of them, Dark Stranger, is a prosocial psychopath. Womanite is a coherent energy sentience. Machine Woman is made of flexible inertron, impervious to harm and destruction. These beings appear to be impregnable to harm and the human known as Alan Turing has had a revolutionary effect on this world's technology, social development and ethical progress. Status Quorum may represent a irresolvable threat to our Earth should it decide to traverse Bleedspace and confront us." The Glimmer stated.
"Isn't this an overly pessimistic assessment, Glimmer? There is no evidence that Earth-52 represents a tangible threat to the sanctity and security of our Earth and its universe."
"Wait, Goddess, I agree with Glimmer. The potential threat is there, however." Nightmare objected.
"You do tend to see the surrounding world in shades of black, Briareus. I am unsure that intervention is neccessary against this phantom insurgency."
"Blacksmith?"
"This Earth-52 almost has technological parity with our own world. Think what that implies for a moment. Our technology has developed over fifteen millennia, yet this world has advanced from dawn thermonuclear weapons and civilian reactors to sentient AI, immortality, interstellar travel through antimatter coalescence and reaction control, all in the matter of two decades. I agree with the Goddess that this is currently only a potential threat, but a threat it still is."
"Mote?"
"Something's going to happen. There's definite Planck scale turbulence in the microverse. That means that an event of significant magnitude is causing spatiotemporal disturbance, even here in its past."
"I don't like this. I think we are being precipitated into a foolhardy intervention that abuses our capabilities and potential." The Goddess countered
"Robot?"
"I can confirm what the Mote has stated. There is large scale gravitmetric and electromagnetic disturbance from uptime."
"You're outvoted, Sybylla."
"I am sorry at this news, Adam. I thought you would provide a voice of wisdom in this context. I see I was wrong."
"I am this world's apex sentinel, Sybylla. If there is even a potential threat, I must take note of it." In Adam One's hand was an unfamiliar blue fruit. Utilising her interface with the organic world around them, the Goddess sought information about whether her Theocracy colleagues were subject to external domination. Much to her shock, her preternatural inquiry illuminated the blue fruit, with the texture of an orange, but whose biochemical composition was far more complex- and, she realised, hallucinogenic and sedative, and deliberately tailored to Adam One's metaphysiology. She sought similar insights about the others, and was disturbed at what she saw. Nightmare's complex neurochemistry had been distorted. The Mote had been subjected to a covert cognitive intervention when he had last enlarged. The Glimmer's perceptions were distorted by a coherent tachyon field and the same applied to the Blacksmith and the Robot.
"My friends, you have been subjected to hallucinogenic and cognitive impairment and interference. Something is manipulating-" At that moment, Blacksmith activated a null-time continuum captor device and the Goddess froze into immobility as Adam One rose:
"You were right, Nightmare. She would have prevented an obstacle to our plans."
"We need to make a pre-emptive strike against this potential threat, Adam. I move thus."
"All in favour?" Adam One, Nightmare, the Glimmer, the Mote, Blacksmith and the Robot raised their hands. And thus, fate was set.
But then, something else intervened. In a corner of a contingent microverse, Miami Nil looked up:
"It's bad, Ned. We're facing an incursion by the primordial metahuman organisation known as "The Theocracy."
"That's Adam Cadmon, The Secret Original, isn't it? Or was." Commander Ned Slade nodded.
"He's been suborned by The Theocracy. They've been manipulated into assuming our Earth represents a mortal threat to their existence."
"By who, or what? What could have the hallucinogenic capabilities of that magnitude?" Miami asked
"Ah caen see theyr point, though. Luik et Alpha Sapiens or Ultra-Humanitarian, or Zur-Vann 2.0. They all have potential in thet area." Carmen Spector interjected, frowning.
"What then? Do we disclose our existence?" Miami asked
"We may have no option. Moog, Miami, Carmen, into the Crab. We need to inject ourselves into this confrontation."
"Adam? Adam Cadmon?"
He turned as the Theocracy materialised in the Omnitropolis Concepticon. Nightmare furrowed his brow as he caught sight of Dark Stranger, who utilised his housefly metabolism and in microseconds, time telescoped. Nightmare should have been aware of Dark Stranger's time distortion isomorphic technology, but his consciousness was impaired by the unknown aberration that had taken the Theocracy into confrontation with Status Quorum. Nightmare's animal skull careered off his body, which slumped to the floor. Womanite was next, blurring into a similar intermediate spatial trajectory, ready for the Glimmer as he careened toward the assembled members of her organisation. The Mote tried to contract sufficiently to enter Ultra-Humanitarian's Eloyoi microcity, but the guardians of his neuronic space detected his intrusion and raked the area of the incursion with a particle beam. Blacksmith smiled levelly at Machinewoman, who abruptly turned on her heel as the Robot and Blacksmith moved to intercept her. Then they froze into immobility as Machinewoman activated her tactical contingency options, as quantum indeterminacy overloaded their capabilities to counter her projected retaliatory measures. Adam One was gazing at another figure altogether:
"Eve? Eve Uppahsytm? You're al-"
"I am truly sorry, Adam. But you were always weak and manipulable, bound by the hubris of your power and knowledge. I loved you. I really did. But Status Q cannot permit you, or the Theocracy, to endanger this Earth or its universe any further. Goodbye, my love." Eve- Secret Original II -raised her atomvolver and fired it at the man she had once loved, her eyes full of tears. The tracery of blue fire and light erupted around the startled figure, crisping his skin and stifling a cry of pain in a moment. He collapsed to the floor and she looked up at the others as they left the Crab, as Commander Ned Slade held up his hand:
"We mean no harm. We're from the Finger, an ultraterrestrial intervention agency."
Alpha Sapiens frowned: "A previous incarnation remembers two of you. You broke into the prior incarnation of our Earth and stole AtomAvenger's atomgun. You killed Ultra-Humanitarian and I was obliterated against a dimensional barrier after I tried to pursue you."
"He was punished fuir thet." Carmen said, glaring at Moog.
"We're sorry about what happened to Adam as well. We only detected his subversion a couple of minutes ago."
"Adam was always misguided." Eve said quietly.
"Leaving the question, what do we do about the rest of the Theocracy?"
"We can take care of that. We have the capability to transform Earth-1000's environs into a closed universe. They won't be able to exit it again after they're returned there."
"Who was responsible for this?" Machinewoman asked.
However, in Bleedspace, there was a despairing wail as the entity responsible confronted the disruption of its planned future, in which it had come into existence. It then cried in agony as temporal recursions and dispersal of energy tore it apart, for it had now never coalesced into being, the causality that had led to its presence aborted from time and space. And with that, Earth-52B's causality resumed its course. Technology, culture and civilisation brought about a second Singularity and in five years, with the rest of the human species, Zur-Vann, Secret Original II, Dark Stranger, Machinewoman, Alpha Sapiens and Ultra-Humanitarian once more ascended to transconsciousness and para-presence. Once again, the cadaver of Adam Cadmon was left behind. And on distant Earth-1000, the Theocracy awoke with no memory of what had happened to them, or why their Earth was still denied Singularity. One day, they would discover it, however...
THE END