Unity 1: The Reality Drive - Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Hey folks. Got kind of a big announcement this week - see the accompanying status post for details.

But that doesn't change that it is story time! So here, at long last, a continuation of Unity: The Reality Drive. Apologies for the wait! 

-

I’ll be honest. Creeping my way across a penthouse suite trying to avoid disturbing the exhausted pile of blondes who’d clearly been spending an evening enjoying themselves in a very vigorous manner was not really where I’d expected my day to lead. Yes, I’d still had expectations, even by then. I’m a fast runner, but a slow learner, you know?

Honestly, it’s getting kind of embarrassing how much of this story is me breaking and entering – but that’s just how things work in this business! The important crimes rarely hide themselves in obvious volcano lairs, sometimes you’ve got to be willing to take a look around on the wild side of the law. I mean, being a vigilante is already skirting things pretty badly as is, even if everyone was used to it.

… Okay, maybe half the crimes are in the obvious volcano lair. A lot of villains feel pretty cheated if they can’t get one of those at some point in their careers. Even after things changed over the years… But I’ll get to that eventually. Whatever.

So there I was, in – Well, I shouldn’t name names, even now. I mean, I think he’d be okay with it, but, uh, I did rob this guy’s house. To save the world! But, I mean, people get antsy about that kind of thing, and what I took was pretty important.

Right, yeah, I should explain…

So, Merry – Digi-Merry – had a plan, and that plan was the Unity Reserve. Essentially, the task force of brave men and women, heroes all, who, in the event of Unity being defeated or killed or whatever, you know, stopped from being heroes during an emergency, could step in to take their place. The people that Unity itself could call on when the cards were down. The ‘Smash glass in case of emergency’ team. You get the picture.

Merry… Well, okay, Doctor Braun, she was one of those people, that was the only reason we knew the Reserve even existed. She was a woman of renown, often trusted by the big guys when the chips were down, so she was a pretty good pick for them – and I say that as someone who’s had to spend extended periods of time with the woman. Even after that… Yeah. Yeah, she was the right choice.

Unfortunately, as you might have already guessed by now, the problem with that Reserve team was they were all heroes. Known heroes. Digi-Merry had already checked their names, or at least the ones she knew of. All of them had already been hit by Princess Becky’s bimbo wave. They hadn’t even known there was a threat before they’d been taken out.

But if someone were to take their place, then maybe we’d be able to access the Unity Satellite – and more importantly, we could get to the teleportation system it contained. From there we could hopefully get to Becky’s castle on the moon… Yes I know how ridiculous it sounds, it still happened!... And then take her out before she noticed we were even there. Once we had the Reality Drive, we could put everything back where it was supposed to be.

In theory, anyway.

Of course it wasn’t as simple as just wanting to take the Reserve team’s place. There wasn’t, like, a waiting list to sign up on or anything. The Team consisted of seven members, so six names, in addition to Merry. Each had been given a key, and instructions on how to use it. If all seven came together, of their own free will, and used those keys, then they’d be recognised as Unity, and given access to their resources. Presumably, the original team would be alerted to them doing so, I… Well, I never got to ask them how it all worked. Doesn’t really matter anyway.

Thankfully, Digi-Merry knew what to do with her Key, and where it was – buried under a pile of junk in the bottom drawer of her desk, as I recall – so we weren’t just starting from nothing here. If we could get the other six keys, then maybe, just maybe, we could work out what to do with them.

Yeah, hell of a long shot, but we had like two hours before Reginald King potentially got his hands on a device that would warp reality into whatever he desired. Even back then I knew that was going to be bad.

And so, there I was, creeping through that penthouse apartment, trying desperately not to disturb the bimbos on or around the bed. I mean, in hindsight I could have sped through the entire floor, searched it top to bottom, and been out the door before any of them could even snore, but I just wasn’t as confident in my powers back then, and I had a habit of accidentally causing sonic booms whenever I tried not to disturb people. It’s probably for the best that I didn’t attempt it. No one wants one of those happening in their home.

“Strike? How’s it going?” Of course, just because I was being stealthy didn’t mean everyone else was. I nearly jumped out of my skin when my communicator went off, Digi-Merry’s face flashing up on the holographic display I’d been convinced into wearing around my wrist. I shushed her, head whipping around to check on the pile. None of the bimbos stirred.

“It’s… going,” I muttered quietly, still waving at her to be quiet. “I’m searching [Redacted]’s place for the key. It should be pretty easy to recognise, right?”

Digi-Merry looked annoyed at me, because of course she did, it’s practically Merry’s default expression. “Both Sonicheart and Kitsune have found their keys already – they need delivering to their next objectives. You’re supposed to be the fastest one, how are you slowing us down? There’s no time for this!”

I twitched. “I’m going as fast as I can!” Technically that was not true. “I just can’t risk hurting any of these… people. And the key wasn’t in his desk, I checked twice!”

“Well it has to be here somewhere!” She hissed. “[Redacted] isn’t the type to just leave it lying around. If I know him, he’d keep it on him at all times. It can’t be far.”

I paused. I’d had a horrible thought. “At all times?”

“Yeah. Of course! Don’t you know how important these keys are, Strike?!”

“No, I mean…” I was looking at the bimbo pile. “All times…?”

“… Oh.” Now Digi-Merry was blushing. “Um. Maybe.”

We both stared at the pile. It snored, and someone within it giggled.

“How the hell am I meant to get it out of that?” I asked, my eyes wide. I mean, quite frankly this is embarrassing to remember. How green can you be? It’s not hard to search a pile of bodies. Ugh, rookies – I needed proper training with my powers pronto. But at the time, I was still terrified of even going near them.

“I mean…” Not that Merry – or her digital self – was any better. “I guess you… need to get your hands dirty?” I really wished she wouldn’t put it like that. “I mean, the world is at stake here! You can’t be getting squeamish, you know?”

“I know, I know!” I groused. “I just… I need to be careful. If I touch them at speed…”

God, that really was my excuse back then, wasn’t it? Let me tell you a secret – as a speedster, I can start and stop on a dime. I can go from zero to a million to zero in the beat of a bee’s wing. With the bare minimum of concentration I can pick people up, move them all over the place, and set them back safely. It’s speedster 101. But I guess I didn’t know that at the time.

Or I was just looking for excuses not to touch them.

“Well… Well… Well work something out!” Digi-Merry stumbled, and then got bossy. “We don’t have time to wait!” The connection cut out.

I swallowed. Okay then. One way or another, I was going to have to do something I was certain I’d regret. But this was about saving the world – I couldn’t just let someone else handle it anymore. I couldn’t just stand back and let things sort themselves out. Right now, it was just me. And I needed to do whatever it took.

It was the first time I felt that way. It wouldn’t be the last.

I stepped forward, taking a breath.

And then I looked down. I’d stepped on something. There, shining underneath a kicked aside pair of denim shorts, was the key. Unmistakable.

I didn’t waste time thanking my luck. I grabbed it and got the hell out of there, vanishing through the window over the balcony and running down the side of the building. “I got it,” I grumbled into my communicator.

“Already?” She sounded surprised. “That was-”

“Fast. Yeah. Obviously.”

I never did tell her where the key had been, come to think of it.

-

“And that’s seven.” We were back at Merry’s base – the real Merry had been quietly secreted away in the storage closet she had apparently been using as a bedroom (Digi-Merry said she only used it in emergencies when she couldn’t step away from her work to go home, but judging by the state of the place she had more emergencies than she had nights in her own bed) – and all the keys had been gathered. None of the three of us were all that keen to look at each other, or explain the steps we’d gone through to retrieve our prizes, so I guess their retrievals had all gone roughly as well as mine. “What do we do now?”

“Now we save the day, obviously!” Digi-Merry looked far too proud of herself for someone who hadn’t actually done any of the work. “With these, we can unlock the Unity Reserve emergency bunker and activate the reserve system, getting all of you fine ladies registered as members of Unity.” She nodded and puffed up her chest. “With that, you can access all Unity related privileges, including the satellite and the teleporter, beat King to the moon, and reclaim the reality drive from the airhead who turned the other me into an airhead! Simple!”

I looked at Sonicheart. Sonicheart looked at Kitsune. Kitsune looked at me. We had our first real team bonding moment as each of mentally repeated that “Simple!” in a very different tone of voice.

“Alright,” I said, looking back to the oblivious kind-of-AI with a nod before addressing the others. “Once we get up there, there’s not really much we can do to plan for what we’ll be facing. If we’re lucky, I’ll be able to grab the stupid thing before Becky can use it against us, and we can teleport back and work on fixing all of this. I know this is a long shot, and we’re firing blind, but this is our best shot. Are we in?”

The other two nodded without a moment’s hesitation. “Yeah, we’re in.”

“I have my doubts, but I admit I can’t come up with a better plan…” Kitsune smiled apologetically. “Let’s do this.”

“Right.” I nodded, and I felt the three of us click for the first time. The plan was insane, but we were going to do it, and we were going to pull it off, because we were heroes. That was what we did. I looked back to our guiding AI. “Where do we take these keys?”

“Oh.” The digital genius blinked at us, and then looked nervous. “Ah, right. About that…”

-

“Are y’sure this is the place?” Sonicheart looked out across the tropical beach with scepticism, her eyes flicking towards me disbelievingly.

But all I could do was shrug. “These are the coordinates,” I said, not exactly sure myself. “I checked at least three maps. This is where she said to go.”

“Um. It’s lovely…” Kit was biting her lip. “But I don’t see any keyholes…”

I wasn’t seeing anything, period. The directions I’d been given led to an empty, uninhabited island in the south Pacific Ocean, with no sign of civilization to be seen from horizon to horizon. It was a pretty small place, and I’d searched over it from top to bottom in the second I had spent here before rushing back to pick up the others. There was nothing there, not even a resort. Sand, a hill, a couple of trees…

“But this is the place!” Merry’s voice insisted from the device wrapped around my wrist. “Definitely, absolutely – this is the location I was instructed to come to with the others when the reserve was needed. There has to be something here!”

The problem, of course, was that no member of the Reserve had been given all the information needed to activate it. Some of them had been given the location. Some of them had been given how to activate the lock. Compartmentalised instructions, meant to keep the Reserve locked down until everyone came together to pool what they knew – Unity, as it turned out, was pretty big on working together. And since we only had one of the seven minds chosen to pick, we were left in the dark as to what to do now that we had arrived – it wasn’t as though we could ask the other six.

So here we were – on a deserted island, the seven stolen keys to saving the world in our hands, and nowhere to put them.

“Well there’s nothing here,” I said, glaring at the empty scenery, before my eyes drifted up towards the peaceful, cloudless summer sky. Somewhere up there, beyond the limits of what I could see, a rocket was streaking towards the moon, carrying a cargo that would spell a fate worse than death if it reached its destination before we did, according to Merry (and fiercely supported by Sonicheart). And even if it never made it, an idiot giggling away in her crystal palace was pulling our world apart at the seams… “How long do we have?”

“Impossible to know,” Digi-Merry replied glumly. “I’m monitoring the ship through a few satellite networks, and everything seems normal for now. At their current speed they should be days away from their destination, but…”

But, obviously, we couldn’t take that for granted. “Alright. At least King hasn’t pulled out his trump card yet, then. We have time. Just… What the hell should we do with it?”

“Well, the nature spirits here think we should check the strange place that humans built beneath the waves out in the cove.”

I blinked. Digi-Merry blinked. Together, we turned – Okay, I turned, and I carried the screen on my wrist with me – to look at Kitsune, who was standing on the beach, holding her wooden staff out, one end planted in the ground, her whole body glowing with what I would later learn to describe as blue foxfire.

“Wh-what are you doing?” I had to ask.

“I’m communing,” she answered simply, as if that explained everything. But my complete lack of understanding must have been obvious, because she continued with, “it’s just a bit of magic I know.”

I was stunned. I had never seen actual, honest to god magic before, or at least never such a blatant display of it. I hadn’t even really believed it was real. I mean, we’d all heard of ‘magical’ heroes, but it was generally thought that that was trickery or illusions. Hey, everyone had their gimmick. Again, this was pre-Chicago Incident, so… Well, that wasn’t an uncommon attitude.

Look, I know some people think I should be less sceptical, given my speed and everything, but there’s a difference. I’m just fast, I can’t sling spells about or anything. Actual magic is… different. And dangerous. I’d learn that well soon enough.

Kit, though, she was the real deal. A nature mage, able to tap into the land’s ambient mana to cast magical rituals or… something. Like I said, I’m not a spell caster, if you want an actual explanation of how it all works you’ve got the wrong girl. All I can tell you is that it does work. And it had gotten us a lead.

“Huh.” Sonicheart seemed to take her trick in stride a lot easier than I did. “Neat. Under the waves, y’said?” She looked towards the shoreline, her red mask fluttering in the sudden breeze. “Can ya’ point me in a rough direction?”

“Mm.” Kit closed her eyes for a moment before nodding. “Yes, just over there,” she said, pointing out towards the ocean.

“Alrighty.” She nodded, her copper-brown hair rippling over her shoulders as she steadied herself on the sands, raising her hands to both face the water, palms out. “Y’all may want to cover your ears a moment here…”

The sonic boom wasn’t as loud as you would have expected, but that was only because Lori aimed it away from us – a blasted line of sand and water shooting away from her as the sonic cannons in her palms fired at full power, creating a tunnel of sound that burrowed through the earth and ocean both. Sonicheart’s ability to control soundwaves was magnificent, even back then, and seeing her go all out made me really glad that she had had held back during our first meeting. She wasn’t just making a splash, she was literally parting the waves right in front of us, carving a deep trench into the ocean just from sound alone.

It was like watching a painting being stripped one layer at a time, watching the sound push back the sand and the sea in waves, each vibration revealing more and more of the environment beneath the surface. Deeper and deeper the cleft went, Sonicheart pushing the world back so far she’d practically created a canyon before this small tropical island…

… And in the middle of it, white as a pearl, was our destination. A pod, round and smooth, about the size of a small house. Unity’s last resort, hidden away down here from the entire world. A secret chamber that held everything we’d need to save the world.

It didn’t seem to have any doors.

“Great!” I yelled, because even if most of the sound was being directed away from us, Sonicheart’s sonic blast was still goddamned loud. “We found it! Now how do we get in?”

“Uh…” Kitsune looked as unsure as I felt, rubbing her chin and causing her hood to wobble around her ears. “I don’t think I have any spells that will crack that open…”

“It’s a mighty strong pod, is what it is,” Sonicheart’s voice reached my ears somehow – probably thanks to her sound manipulation powers. “My blast ain’t even putting a dent in it. But there’s gotta be a way in there somehow…”

“Merry? How about you?” I asked my arm. Surely the team genius would have an idea.

“Don’t call me Merry,” was the answer I got – but it was half hearted. My digital companion was studying the pod with an intense expression on her face, clearly thinking deep about it. “Can you get me closer?”

Hm. I looked at the bay, which was currently being serenaded with enough force to strip a house from its foundations. “Yeah. Gimme a sec.”

Look, here’s the thing – I am fast. I didn’t really know how fast I was at the time, and honestly I still don’t have a proper number on it, but trust me, nothing you’ve heard me do in this story so far comes close to my full potential.

The sound barrier is nothing to me. I run at speeds that leave the Mach numbers behind. If I couldn’t cut through a little air resistance, I would have been torn apart a long time ago. And cutting through air that is actively trying to rip your atoms to pieces is only a little added challenge.

I dropped into the cleft in the soundwaves behind the pod – where it was still loud, but not overwhelmingly so, I guess because the walls were designed to resist sonic attacks, as well as a bunch of others. The thing was pretty close to invincible, honestly. Unity had not been messing around with their backup plan. I looked down to Digi-Merry again, hoping this would do the trick. “Alright,” I said, “This is about as close as I can get. Got any ideas?”

“Maybe,” my communicator answered. “I think I can hook into their wireless network from here. Let me just…

“Intruder detected.”

“Uh.” I looked up. From the smooth surface of the white pod, three gun turrets had raised up, all three of them aimed directly at me. “Oh.”

“Unauthorised presence, be advised. This is protected property – leave, or be destroyed.”

“… Merry?”

“Mmhm. Mhhm…” She was not listening. “Gimme a bit, I’ve got to work on these calibrations…”

The turrets started to whine as they powered up.

“H-how long is this going to take, exactly?” I was starting to sweat.

“Eh, not too long. Just hold still, alright?”

AI or not, Merry was going to Merry. She had an interesting puzzle in front of her, so anything I had to say could wait until after she was done. This was my first introduction to a pattern of behaviour that was going to cause me so much trouble in life, one that I would quickly come to dread.

And to be honest, staring down multiple gun barrels with the instruction ‘hold still’? I wasn’t that fond of it then, either.

Now, some of you may be thinking ahead here. I’m a speedster, right? I was just bragging about how fast I am, yeah? So a bunch of gun turrets shouldn’t be that big a deal for me, obviously! Well, two things about that – one, the more I moved, the less Digi-Merry could do to open this egg up. And two… Look, I’m fast, but I’m not… I mean…

Look, I’m not light speed fast, okay? Are you happy? I’m close, I’m really, really close, people bitch about me achieving fractions of c on foot, whatever that means, but I can’t actually break the light speed barrier. I mean, what would that even look like? Doesn’t time start going backwards or something when you do that? I may treat physics as a punching bag, but even I can’t go that far.

I think.

Anyway, so yeah, I’m not light speed compatible, which is a shame, because those turrets were of the laser blaster variety – and despite what you’ve seen on TV, lasers tend to be pretty light-speedy. So that sucked. I hadn’t actually dealt with lasers before – again, this wasn’t TV, and unlike Saturday morning cartoon show villains, most people couldn’t afford laser guns (the power requirements get stupidly intense, too, they burn through batteries like nobody’s business). But now I was dealing with Unity tech, stuff that was so far beyond top of the line that it was basically magic to me. And I’ve mentioned how bad I am with magic.

Needless to say, these things could – and did! – give my trouble. But, you know, Merry wanted to play electro-wizard, so I had to play laser tag with my limbs on the line. The first shot nearly gave me a haircut, while the second aimed for doing something similar to my neck, and the third… Well, I’m really glad that one missed, that’s all I’ll say. The only reason I didn’t die outright there and then is I could move faster than they could aim, so I was just desperately trying to guess when the next shot would come and move out of the way before I got eviscerated.

“Stop moving around!”

“Work faster!!!” This is embarrassing. Obviously, I was panicking. These days that kind of exercise is barely a light workout (not to mention I know enough about my powers now that I don’t think those lasers could have even hurt me) but, you know, I was a rookie, and a nervous one at that. I’d been carried this far by super speed – now I was actually facing challenges I couldn’t just breeze past. Ultimately, it was a good thing, something that pushed me into working harder to become a better hero…

… But I’m pretty glad Kit showed up with her shield when she did. It’s hard to become a better hero when you get your legs shot off.

“Protection!” She cried, an aura of blue flame surrounding me as she landed on my other side. The laser blasts vanished as they collided with her magic, blue sparks splashing out through the air with each snuffed shot. “I’m sorry! I can’t keep this up for long!” She grunted, both hands out to power the spell.

“How did you get over here?!” It wasn’t that I was ungrateful or anything, but Kit definitely didn’t look hardy enough to take Sonicheart’s blast full on. Even back then I felt pretty protective of her.

“I flew!” She seemed pretty proud of herself, before blushing. “W-well, I mean, I was thrown. Sonicheart has pretty fine control, so we worked together to make a path over for me! I even used a spell to make myself lighter, t-though she did all of the work!”

“Oh.” I blinked and nodded, struck by the lesson that was staring me in the face – that my teammates had worked together to pull off something difficult and save my idiot ass from getting zapped. I don’t think Kit really realised it, but it was a pretty defining moment for me – the instant I realised that I wasn’t alone, for once. That this time I was working with other people, and I should have gotten their opinions before I rushed in and tried to handle everything myself.

Yes, I am dense enough that it took nearly being killed by a barrage of laser fire in the middle of a sonic storm beneath local sea level for that lesson to sink in. I have mentioned I was a moron, right?

“Well awesome!” Naturally, my recovery was quick. “Great, just keep us shielded a little longer, and-“

“I said hold still!” My wrist beeped angrily at me, and I rolled my eyes. I’d been holding my arm steady the entire time, even while laser blasts were raining down around me. Do you have any idea how hard that is to do when you perceive time in slow motion? “I almost have it…”

“Um…” Kit was sweating. “If- if you could go just, um, just a little faster, please?” Her smile was strained. Another wave of laser shots exploded against her shield, and she shook slightly. The ordeal was clearly taking its toll on her.

I winced. Yeah, hopefully we could give the poor girl a break. “Merry, could you-“

“Don’t rush me,” she cut me off without a second thought, angry bleeps shushing me while she continued to work. “I’ve almost…”

Sudden silence. The rain of fire had ceased. The gun turrets slid away, folding back into the walls of the pod so smoothly you couldn’t even feel the seams. “Authorised User Accepted. Welcome, Miss Braun.”

In front of us, a door slid open.

“There, see?” My wrist could not have sounded any more smug. “Voila. We’re in.”

Phew. I lowered my arm, and patted Kit on the shoulder as she let her shield drop, the girl pretty clearly exhausted by the effort. “Thanks,” I said with a grateful sigh, before nodding. “Now, do you think you can close it once we get in?”

“Sure,” the AI nodded, looking a touch confused. “I have root access – why, though?”

I raised my arm to point at the wall of water looking to rush in over us at a moment’s notice.

“Oh right,” she said. “That breathing thing you need to do. Tch. Meatbags.”

Still not sure she was joking, actually.

-

Inside the now sealed (and thankfully, yes, waterproof) pod, we found ourselves… No, disappointed isn’t quite the right word. It was just…

“You know I kind of expected something… more?”

The other two nodded, right there with me. This place was a special Unity-designed bunker, a ‘break glass in case of end of world’ emergency shelter where the best of humanity was supposed to come together to fight back for salvation. This was where we’d come to get the tools to save our world from the bimpocalypse. It was big, bold, practically invincible from the outside.

And it was empty.

“T’be honest Ah was kind of expecting something period.” She was looking around, her mask doing little to hide her annoyance. The pod’s interior was as smooth as its exterior, but blue instead of white, and just as devoid of features. “But Ah’m guessing that’ll be what comes after we sort those out.”

She pointed at the far wall – at the only blemish in an otherwise featureless environment. Well, blemishes. Dotted around the edge of the pod were seven panels, flat, simple surfaces with small, symmetrically flat holes in their centre. Keyholes.

We’d found what to do with the Reserve force keys.

“Okay!” Digi-Merry cheered, still interfacing with the pod’s weird systems. “We’re almost there! Now we just need to insert the keys – but be careful, they all need to be turned at once.” She rubbed her chin, thinking deep. “If you can all stretch out, then maybe-“

Click.

“Done.” I dusted my hands as the locks all opened together. Because speedster. Duh. To this day I’m not entirely sure how everything was supposed to go down on that island for the real reserve team – we cheated our way through pretty much every part of the process. We stole the keys, brute forced our way to the location, hacked our way in and had one person perform what was supposed to be an exercise (and probably test) of unity. But in the end, it worked. Lights flickered on, shining from the roof without any visible bulbs, and there was a rumble in the floor. A high-pitched whine rang out.

And in the centre of the room, right in front of all of us, a portal opened, like a tunnel in the air. It was weird to look at, in a way that I never really got used to – like looking at a flat image in 3D, just, the same from every angle, framed at the edges by blinding white light. On the other side, we could see what looked like a well-lit, white tiled room – though our view wasn’t exactly the best.

“That’s it?” Kitsune asked, staring with open curiosity.

Sonicheart just nodded, already stepping forward. “Ah’m guessin’ so. Alright – let’s go see what Unity’s done left us.”

“Heh heh~” Digi-Merry sounded downright gleeful. “Finally! Everything’s going completely according to plan!”

Well I wasn’t too sure about that – but things were finally on track. At last, the path ahead was clear – there was only one place this portal could lead. The haven of heroes, the dream of people across the world, the sanctum of the extraordinary.

We were heading straight to Unity Station.

I admit it – I ran to make sure I reached the portal first. I really had no idea what kind of life was waiting for me on the other side.

-

There are stories – myths, legends, I don’t know how true they are, about mortals who venture into the realm of the gods. Those stories never manage to capture the, the awe, the heavy weight of the experience, of stepping foot somewhere that you were never meant to tread. I don’t know how to describe it – how to convey the experience of…

… Yeah, nevermind. I’m being sappy. Forget it.

I stepped from the portal onto the main deck of Unity Station. It’s a huge place, you could fit a city block in it, hell, you could fit an entire town on it. I have no idea how the place was built, how they got it up there – but, I mean, you get some amazing people with amazing powers and I guess not even the sky is the limit, right?

Everything was white – I guess that was the design template – with cool plastic tiles lining the floor, golden light leaking out between the cracks from below. I was standing on a platform, a small one, in a circle of other platforms just like it, arranged like spokes on a wheel around an inner pathway that led over towards a distant building. It looked… kinda like a town hall? No, like what you imagine a town hall would look like, instead of what they actually look like, you know?

It was hard to focus on that, though. Because above me – above us, as Kit and Sonicheart stepped through the portal behind me – was a clear glass dome, covering the entire place. I mean, it wasn’t- it wasn’t clear glass, actually I think it’s some kind of metal… stuff? That’s transparent on one side or- look, ask someone else for the details, they’re really not my area, and they’re really not important, because beyond that barrier, so clear I couldn’t even tell it was there, was… space.

The infinite black, lit up by distant, sparkling points of light. It’s so much darker up there, above the atmosphere, with nothing to get in the way of the view. But that wasn’t what held my attention – because there, hanging over us, framed against the vast and empty universe, was Earth. Blue, vibrant, magnificent. I’d travelled so many miles over its surface, but seeing it like this, whole and complete, was… It was…

… I might have gotten a bit teary. Just for a moment.

And there, behind it, smaller and in white, our goal. The moon. I couldn’t see the mad princess’s castle from where I was, though I know I squinted and tried. I mean, as big and splendid as that palace was bound to be, I still wasn’t going to see it from all the way up there, was I?

But the attempt did remind me I was here for a reason. This was no time to be lost in the scenery – that big blue ball up there was counting on us to save it, lest it be turned permanently pink. We couldn’t let that happen.

Yes I know how ridiculous that sounds.

I looked around. There was a glowing path – that golden light was leaking stronger around some tiles than others. I glanced to my companions, and we shared a nod – none of us really trusted ourselves to speak, the magnitude of what we were about to do slowly dawning on us – before we started walking. For once in my life, I made myself slow down and walk with them, fighting down the urge to run ahead, to zoom off and explore while they didn’t even know I was gone.

This was something we had to do together. I felt that more keenly than anything I’d ever felt in my life.

The path led us along raised walkways, into the big building – the council chamber. Unity Station is a complex, a massive multi-layered structure filled with the highest levels of tech and discovery. This place wasn’t just a bastion for superheroes – it was a repository of wealth, of knowledge, of wisdom beyond anything I’d ever dreamed. But in the centre of it all, the big building at its heart, is the council chamber, where every member of Unity has a place, has a voice, has a hand in the way Unity works.

You can’t miss it, it’s the one with the big Unity logo hanging over it – the circle made of three colours, blue, yellow and- Why am I getting stuck on this stuff? This isn’t important.

Right. Sorry. Long story short, we were led down a corridor lined with memorials – plaques, photos, statues, costume displays, that kind of thing - tributes to the various members of Unity’s past. Sixshot. Icefloe. The Phantom Mask. Even to heroes who, I’m pretty certain, had never been members of Unity exactly, just ones whose heroism had managed to leave its mark on the world for all of time – Strongman, Ivyline, James Sorrow… Look, I’m not here to give a history lesson, alright? At least, not about those guys. The only has been under discussion is yours truly.

Look, the point is, the eyes of heroes past watched us as we marched to take their place, and I’m pretty sure that feeling of judgement was deliberate. I definitely felt heavier by the time I’d gotten to the end of that path, walking under the gaze of Miracle Maiden’s statue and stepping out into the main hall.

Kind of a dick move, I feel? You know? Just, sorta… I mean we were already under a ton of pressure…

Well, whatever. Anyway, the main council chamber was practically a cavern, and that choice in design I am all too happy to attribute to ego. It gives you one hell of a buzz to be arguing world affairs in that place, voice echoing around… It’s not even as cold as it looks, honestly, though that could just be good central heating.

It was all designed to focus around the table – a round table, just like out of old stories of chivalry. Everyone had a place there, everyone had equal standing. In theory. It was made of white metal, while the seats looked like weird science fair sculptures – surprisingly comfortable, but very weird to look at. Overhead, the Unity logo was carved into the ceiling, a reminder of what this place was, and who the people who worked here were.

When we arrived, it had seven seats. All of them were empty, and had been for some time.

I think something broke in me at that moment, when we finally entered the chamber and saw those empty chairs. I… Maybe I’d still believed, deep down, that they’d be back, that by coming to this place we’d find a way to call them home, to save us all once again. But they weren’t there. They were gone. The chamber was empty.

There was just us.

The three of us – the four of us, sorry – didn’t speak until we’d circled the table. We formed a triangle around it, each equidistant from each other. I think it was just unconscious instinct – it felt right, like it was what we were supposed to do. Even Merry didn’t say a word, and believe me, that takes a miracle.

“So…” I finally broke the silence, and almost winced at the way the word carried around the whole room. “We’re here.” I paused. “What do we do now?”

All three of them opened their mouths to respond, but it was the obvious party who beat the other two to the punch. “Well, I-“

“Welcome!” That said, she didn’t hold the floor for long. As if my words had been some kind of trigger, lines of light lit up all around us, flowing through the walls, the floor, the table, the roof… And in front of us, hovering over the centre of the table, a hologram shimmered into existence, the image of a smiling woman in tight spandex and a cape. Long white hair hung down to the small of her back, despite her moderately youthful face making her look no older than twenty-five. Miracle Maiden. “If you’re seeing this message, then you have been chosen to form the ranks of the newest incarnation of Unity…”

Chosen was a bit strong of a word there, really.

“I fear to wonder what must have happened to your predecessors,” she continued, oblivious to our uncomfortable looks because, again, she was a hologram, “but by now if any of them remained, they would have responded to the confirmation signal that was sent the moment you set foot upon this station.” She bowed her head sombrely. “Whatever the case, it appears that the worst has indeed happened.”

Yes. Yes, that was accurate. The worst had indeed happened. There was absolutely no way she could have been imagining all of this when she made the recording, though. Who could have?

“But the fact that this message is playing at all…” She looked up, a smile on her face. “… Must mean that heroes have risen to the call! My friends, just by making the journey here, you have proven yourselves worthy to take our place. I rejoice, knowing that the world is still in safe hands, even without our protection!”

“She’s, um…” I rubbed the back of my head nervously. “She’s exactly like she is on TV, huh?”

“Oh yeah.” Digi-Merry nodded. “MM was always the straightforward sort. Giving these kinds of speeches just came naturally to her.”

We all fell silent for a moment, feeling the pang of her mysterious loss.

“Of course, safeguarding the world is no small burden, and I- we understand if you are nervous. There is no shame in not wanting such a large responsibility.” There was a shift to her expression, something I couldn’t define, and suddenly I could feel the weariness of the woman speaking, I could see the distant look in her eyes. What kinds of things had she seen, what kind of horror shows had she gone into, in order to protect people?

It was weird, looking at someone you’d always felt was invincible, and realising they were wounded far more deeply than you could ever have imagined. It was a warning I really should have heeded.

At each seat at the table, small hand-size plinths rose, each one with a handprint raised at its top. “Before you now lies no more and no less than Unity itself,” Miricle Maiden continued. “If you will join us, if you will carry our name forward into the future, if you will inherit our legacy and swear to protect the innocent, the weak, and the helpless, no matter where they may be, no matter how hard you must fight… Then simply place your hand in the imprint, and be inducted into our ranks. From this moment on, Unity rests with you.”

The three of us there in the flesh looked at one another, and then at the indents. I bit my lip. Could it be that easy?

But she wasn’t done. “You have come far, but understand – there is no turning back from this point. If you are to take our place, you must do so fully. The name and resources of Unity will be yours, but also the responsibility. Please, my friends…” There was a kindness in her voice that I don’t think I’ve ever heard from anyone before or since. “… Only do this if you believe it truly necessary.”

With that, she flickered and vanished. The room fell silent once again.

The name of Unity… The responsibility… It was more than just a symbol, more than just a team. Unity had saved our world so many times we’d lost count. They were our guardians, our saviours, our heroes. To take on the mantle was to become that – to become the world’s saviour, to give yourself for others no matter what it cost you. That was what she was trying to tell us that day. That was the warning she was giving.

I was just too dense to hear it.

“Well,” I said with a sigh, raising my hand. “Reality is coming apart at the seams. I’d say this is pretty necessary.”

“Mm.” Kit nodded, raising her hand as well. “As long as that woman holds the Reality Drive, no one is safe. The world needs Unity.”

“An’ Unity needs us.” Sonicheart raised her hand also, completing the trifecta. “Let’s do this.”

As one, we nodded. As one, we pressed down our hands. As one, the scanners brightened, and scanned us over. Three seats lit up, and we sat down, taking our places on the council.

Around us, the buildings were starting to light up – machinery turning on, power starting to flow. Life was returning to Unity Station, all in honour of us. Even the round table was getting in on the act, projecting holographic menus and screens for each of use to peruse. And as it did so, the computer spoke – no longer using the voice of Miracle Maiden, but a more generic, simple voice – the voice of the machine alone.

“Welcome, Unity. How will you save the world today?”

That was it. We looked at each other – each of us feeling the mantle settling on our shoulders. We were Unity now, as far as this station – and soon, the world below it – was concerned. The guardianship of Earth belonged to us.

The weight settled on us in silence for a moment, until…

“Well!” I said, clapping my hands and slapping a smile on my face. “That was easy! On to the moon next?”

I really wasn’t great with silences.