Pultine and the Queen Rowen knew of one another, but they had never actually met before. They both had participated in the Dance of Hysteria, and both were friends of Maxx the Superguardian after spending substantial time with him on his home planet, Bludon, but Pultine spent time with Maxx after the presumed death of the Queen Rowen, who had given her life to safe the life of a child infected by the very same taint that they battle in the Une-verse. She recovered from the infection because of her immense abilities to heal, but it took her a long time in sleep to be up on her feet again. She eagerly volunteered to join the Vodun’s forces when she was at full strength, even traveling to the Disc of Agê to train her mental abilities, until the surprise appearance of Unea.
Before the explosion of Xêvioso’s Cube, Rowen had been with members of the Death Witch Coven who were impressed by her mastery of the Green and teaching her how the Green overlaps with the Violet, and when she came to in the eerie atmosphere of the Une-verse after the explosion, she used her telepathy to gently propel herself through space, not expending too much energy for fear that she might exhaust herself. She could feel the minds of her compatriots in the distance, but it was hard to really hone in and follow them because of the psychic din that the tendrils created, almost like a mental static that made it difficult for Rowen to truly focus and lock in. She navigated the Une-verse this way for what felt like a long time before she saw the beacon of yellow light and she decided to follow it because there was something familiar about the mental signature. She discovered Maxx as still as a statue and balanced on his head, presumably by accident. The beacon of the light that issued from his body intensified as she drew closer so she stood a distance, squinting her eyes as she telepathically flipped him over so he stood right-side up.
“Maxx!” she yelled from a distance. “Superguardian! Are you alright?” Maxx never answered. This made the Queen panic as she looked around them. The tendrils weren’t advancing on them, but hanging across the cosmos as they did made her keenly aware that she was in enemy territory and she lifted Maxx with her mind to a location that might obscure his very bright beacon. Then the most implausible thing happened, amidst all of the tangles of wild tendrils, a planet moved slowly across space in the distance. At first, she thought it must be a roving planet that was just wandering in the absence of the gravity of something else, but then it stopped and changed direction, and it advanced on her for long enough that Rowen chose to take cover and evade, but it eventually stopped, still at a distance before it changed direction. It was a planet-sized ship, like the one the mmoatia Llorv navigated in Rowen’s home universe, Prime 5. Rowen stared at it, hoping that it wasn’t looking for the source of Maxx’s light that was well hidden from it by that point.
She sent out the mental projection so that she could keep an eye on Maxx and eventually Pultine and Alia arrived, all of them happy to see one another.
“I believe that we have cause for concern,” the Queen Rowen says to Pultine and Alia, “I spied a ship like the one your mmoatia sister navigates through Prime 5. Is that part of the Vodun’s forces that I didn’t know about?”
“You saw Lorv’s ship, Top? Here?” Pultine looks at the Queen with confusion. “That is not possible. Wielar commands that ship and he is still in Prime 5 on look out for the Pito there. Lorv is on the Disc of Agê.”
“Then we should definitely be concerned,” Rowen says and points in the direction the ship had gone. “It looked like a planet, but it was not. I recognized it when I remembered that I had seen something very much like it before. And if it didn’t come with us…”
“Then it was already here,” Alia says with dread. “Do y’all think there’s a mmoatia ship here, too?”
“Who knows?” Pultine says. “It might be a version of Top but devised by whoever constructed it here.”
“Haven’t we heard of another Top before?” Alia asks. “When we went to Paradise, that other universe. The Ascendant lived in a city called Top. What if it’s their ship but they are Une’s Ascendant.”
“Descendant,” Pultine mutters. It is disturbing to think that the Ascendant they’d met in Paradise could be corrupted to do Une’s bidding. The Ascendant of Paradise are a race of humanoid, deer-like beings who are almost twice the size of humans with elaborate horns and large wings, and they traveled from the future of their original existence to the past. By some trick of arcana that Pultine doesn’t fully understand, countless copies of their ship Top were created when they jumped to the past and as a result, they exist across the multiversal structure. It is possible that a version of the Ascendant had arrived here in the Une-verse and been corrupted, though maybe they had somehow survived without being corrupted. But if they really occupy a ship as large as the ship that Lorv piloted in Prime 5, then it is much bigger than the arcane cube Xêvioso had used to transport their forces, surely it would have been detected and accosted by the tendrils if they are not corrupted. Unless the ship’s technology allows them to evade detection.
Pultine and the others say much of this aloud to each other as they decide what to do next.
“We have to figure out what is wrong with Maxx,” Rowen says. “My powers have no effect on him.”
“Maybe you can try to help Pultine and I will see if I can do anything for Maxx,” Alia offers and she leaves the two of them to stand before Maxx in the large crevice of a space rock. She assumes her Hyperion form because of the intensity of the light off of Maxx and she stands before him. His eyes are open and he has a look of surprise on his face that shines like gold under very intense light, or if gold can be lit from within. There is a thin layer of violet all around his body, but the light issuing from him is golden and it overpowers the presence of the violet from a distance, she can only see it as close as she is now.
“Maxx,” she whispers and she feels herself drawn into his mind, into a golden realm that is a vast ocean of sparkling waters with golden islands under a golden sun in a light blue sky that is dominated by the vibrant golden light. She descends to hover just over the surface of the gleaming ocean and she surveys the pristine and empty view around her before she screams, “Maxx!” The sound carries over the waters and is swallowed by the distance.
“The lean has set,” Alia hears loudly. A hard male voice returns to her from the distance. “Maxx has attained Superconsciousness. Maxx will self-destruct in time remaining: four hours, when transference of consciousness is complete. Please cease all functions.”
Alia is confused. “Maxx? Is that you? We need you to come back to yourself. The Vodun’s forces are scattered across the Une-verse. Things don’t look good for us at the moment. Pultine is here, and the Queen Rowen. Please come back to us.”
“Self-destruct has been initiated and Maxx will attain Superconsciousness in time remaining: 3 hours 57 minutes, at which time, the Superguardian will detonate. Do you wish to stop the self-destruct sequence?”
“Yes!” Alia yells. “Maxx, do not detonate. We need you alive and you will only kill your friends. Stop the self-destruct sequence!”
“Authorization is denied,” the voice responds. It is cold and distant and Alia realizes that she is talking to an automaton. Apparently the disruption in the cube and the arcane scattering across the Une-verse had triggered Maxx’s self-destruct sequence. “Voice command not recognized. Maxx will attain Superconsciousness in time remaining: 3 hours 49 minutes, at which time, the Superguardian will detonate.”
Alia is frustrated and she leaves Maxx’s mind to return to her own, then she rejoins Pultine and the Queen Rowen. Pultine looks better than she had been, she has managed to retract her wings which she hadn’t been able to do before.
“How do you feel?” she asks Pultine.
“It is not enough, still,” Pultine answers with frustration. “I need more time to recuperate my light. If I can reunite with Tracia or Agê I will likely be heald faster, but I can’t ask you Rowen to keep expending your energy for me. We need your other abilities now more than ever.”
The Queen nods and looks to Alia. “Good news about Maxx, I hope?”
“If you call a time bomb good news,” Alia responds glibly. “Maxx is in self-destruct, probably an accident from the cube explosion, and we have to figure out how to cancel it before he explodes.”
“How were you able to reach his mind?” the Queen asks with astonishment.
“I imagine that the glow made it hard for you,” Alia says, thinking aloud. “It’s the Superconsciousness, so it’s not just energy exuding from him, it’s a mind and it’s dense and Maxx’s consciousness is being uploaded to it. Once that is done, his body explodes.”
“How is that even possible?” Pultine says, also mystified by the news. “The source of the Superconsciousness is on Bludon. If he is uploading, or leaving his body, can he make it back to Bludon from this existence?”
“He cannot,” the Queen Rowen says with confidence. “If we don’t stop this, not only will he explode, but he will be cut off from his family, from the other guardians, even in his death and that will be devastating for him. We cannot let that happen.”
“We won’t,” Pultine says. “Alia, we can’t let that happen.”
“I tried to stop the self-destruct, but I wasn’t authorized to. I think that only Maxx can stop the sequence, but I didn’t see him inside of his mind. It is beautiful ocean and islands, and a distant voice that sounded like it was programmed to respond. I don’t know how we can get Maxx back inside of himself to stop what is happening.”
“Can you take us all inside of Maxx’s mind?” Pultine asks and when Alia agrees to try, the three of them sit on the large space rock.
PRL Serials 