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Chapter 173 - The Day of Sorrow
🕑 Added 2022-10-03 20:16:00 +0000 UTCSilence hung in the room, save for the quiet sobs of two ninjas. Wonder Knight was the first to recover.
“Ok…so I guess that’s out there now. First question then, what exactly is the Day of Sorrow?”
Everyone from the current timeline looked grim. Eventually the Necrosaurus sighed.
“The nuclear apocalypse. A villain called the Atomic Herald launched nuclear attacks against the major nuclear powers, triggering a global nuclear exchange. In the aftermath, the Atomic Herald gathered an army of mutants, launching an assault on everyone left, intending to either mutate us…or wipe us out.”
Aurora Legion all gasped at that, looking at one another with wide, trembling eyes. Admiral Faulkner nodded.
“A group rose up and organized the survivors to oppose him. They named it the Day of Sorrow, and called themselves the Concordat of Sorrow, dedicated to preventing any further disasters and restoring peace. Or so they claimed. But at the time, they were the only organized force left, so everyone who didn’t follow that monster answered their call. Myself included. We couldn’t hold the line in Europe or Africa but we managed to stop him from crossing the Atlantic. It was once things settled into a stalemate that we started to understand the Concordat’s true nature.”
Dr. Iwalani frowned.
“So like, when we like go scrap with the Herald, the Concordat brought all da kine robots, yeah? And we were like, shoots, brah! We wen need all the help we can get, yeah? But we no like realize where da kine robots wen come from. Then some supers like go missing, yeah? We were sad, but we no question it, cause choke kine people go missing those days. But then, some of da kine robots wen get damaged, and we find out there’s like, people inside? That’s like, ok, brah, we a bit worried, but Concordat say they volunteers, so it's good, yeah?”
Icy Falcon frowned.
“It was only when we found one of them with a missing super inside that we realized they were not volunteers.”
The Necrosaurus crossed his arms and nodded.
“I, of course, had realized their true nature from the start, and formed a Resistance long ago. But once everyone else realized the truth, they flocked to the cause. We’ve been fighting ever since.”
“Wasn’t it because the Concordat rejected you since they were worried about openly employing a necromancer?”
“Shut up, Carl! No one asked you!”
Admiral Faulkner sighed.
“And that’s about it. The Concordat and the Atomic Cult are battling it out, with the rest of us caught in between the genocidal mutants and the cyborg fascists. I’m guessing that’s not how it went down with you all, if what the little…”
Admiral Faulkner winced and held his head.
“Ouch! Sorry, if what our great psychic over there says is true?”
Aurora Legion glanced at each other and started fidgeting. Arvid chuckled and shook his head.
“Well, they’re a bit embarrassed since these ones here were directly involved. In our timeline, a group of supers were organized into a mighty band called the International League of Superheroes, of which half our number here were a part of. Their first major victory was putting a stop to the Atomic Herald’s plot.”
The room went silent once more. Admiral Faulkner rubbed his chin.
“So, the Concordat never rose either, then?”
Arvid glanced over at Elise.
“Well, not exactly.”
“Explanation: The Concordat existed as a secret society long before the Atomic Herald’s plot. This unit would assume that was also the case here. For example, the NSLICE program was started nearly a decade beforehand. This unit was the first successful prototype.”
The air froze. Icy Falcon and the Necrosaurus tensed. Admiral Faulkner eyed Elise warily as he spoke.
“So…you were Concordat in your timeline?”
Elise powered down her robotic eye, putting her cybernetic half on standby. She held her head and frowned, but grit her teeth.
“I…am NOT…Concordat.”
She reactivated her other half and her face went back to normal.
The Resistance leaders glanced at each other, and then relaxed.
“Continued Explanation: The Concordat of Sorrow was destroyed just before this unit’s activation. This unit was thus freed from Concordat control, and has been independent ever since. This unit has no love for those who wanted a mindless weapon.”
“...And just who destroyed the Concordat?”
“Answer: The Eternal Night Sect.”
“Eternal Night? They survived in your time, then?”
It was at this point that Amano Bin rejoined the conversation. Saydaa raised an eyebrow.
“Well, yeah. We didn’t have a nuclear apocalypse, not that that demon would’ve been bothered by one even if we did. Can't imagine anything actually killing her...”
Amano Bin shook her head.
“No, the Eternal Night Sect was destroyed long before the Day of Sorrow.”
“Wait, seriously?! What happened to that demon…um…I mean, Great Mistress Xiong Huang?!”
“Xiong Huang? The young mistress of the sect?”
“Yeah, who else?!”
Amano Bin tilted her head.
“Well, I wasn’t there myself, but I assume she died as well? I can't imagine she survived whatever took down the Ten Slaughters. No one has seen her since then, at the very least. I heard rumors there’s some terrible monster stalking the ruins of the sect, but our scouts didn’t get close enough to confirm.”
Nemesis all looked at each other with wide eyes.
“...I don’t know whether to be relieved…or terrified.”
The Necrosaurus heaved a sigh.
“Well this is all very interesting, but it’s purely theoretical. It would certainly be nice to live in a time without the Day of Sorrow, but unfortunately we don’t.”
Roxane crossed her arms and smirked.
“But we could.”
“...what did you say, Roxanne?”
“They know a way to change things back.”
Silence hung in the air once more. Wonder Knight nodded.
“Some sort of time god removed a key person from time, changing the timeline into the current state. We’re trying to return that person, and restore the original timeline.”
Admiral Faulkner rubbed his head.
“Ok, you’re trying to save John Connor, got it. Clearly he got terminated this time though. You have a time machine or something?”
“We don’t, but we know who does…apparently.”
Wonder Knight glanced over at Elise.
“Answer: This unit does in fact know the identity of the person in question but would prefer to keep said intel confidential. Said time traveler has a vested interest in remaining incognito so it is mission-critical they are not made aware their identity is compromised.”
The Resistance leaders glanced at each other once more. The Necrosaurus nodded.
“Well, you’ve certainly had a long day. Why don’t you take a rest, and we can discuss this later. Carl, can you show them to the guest rooms?”
“Yes sir.”
They stayed silent as the group left the room. Amano Bin gave Kiyosuke one last hug before he left. The Necrosaurus heaved a sigh.
“So, what do you all think?”
Admiral Faulker crossed his arms.
“Honest? If it wasn’t for our…great psychic here, I’d call it nonsense.”
“It’s like, whoa brah. That’s one big kine’ story, yeah? But like, somehow, I don’t tink they lie, yeah?”
“Well, Roxanne has already screened them and confirmed. What I’m wondering is, what are we going to do about it?”
Amano Bin crossed her arms.
“Help them, of course.”
“You serious?”
“Are you? We have a chance to undo the Day of Sorrow! What choice is there?”
“Look…Bin…I get it, yeah? I lost people too. But this is…time travel. Changing the past. There could be huge consequences. Yeah, maybe they stopped the Day of Sorrow. But there’s no guarantee things turn out for the better in the end, right? In a way, all of us would be gone, different. So we really need to think this through before we let some kids mess with time itself.”
She glared at the admiral.
“Kiyosuke is alive in that timeline. That’s all I need to know.”
“I say we go! Gotta go help Bin’s ‘ohana, yeah? And we could like, go fix da ocean, you know?”
The Necrosaurus rubbed his chin.
“There’s another option, too.”
“Which is?”
“Maybe we don’t want to let some kids mess with time…but that doesn’t mean time shouldn’t be messed with.”
“...what?”
“They mentioned someone has a time machine? If we can find that person…then we could stop the Day of Sorrow ourselves.”
The group went silent for a long moment.
“Well, something to think about, at least. Perhaps it’s safer to go for the other timeline we know exists. Or maybe it’s best just to focus on the present. I think either way, this bunch presents us with some opportunities.”
“Such as?”
The Necrosaurus smiled.
“We just got a bunch of new supers the Concordat has no intel on, including the first ever functional NSLICE bot not under their control. And we’re about to need all the help we can get, so this could be the break we need.”
Everyone’s eyes went wide as they started to think through the implications of that.
—————————————————————————————————————
“And that’s what they’re talking about.”
Aurora Legion and Nemesis just stared at Roxanne, who had promptly made her way to the team’s room.
“Acknowledgement: That is why this unit kept intel regarding the mission confidential. Unlike some people.”
Wonder Knight averted his gaze.
“Sorry.”
“Resigned Statement: It is fine. A certain degree of compromise is necessary to build trust. The critical intel remains confidential, at the very least.”
Chronolock raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.
“Does it? She hasn’t just pulled it from your mind already?”
“Answer: She has, but she is a friendly. We negotiated before making contact with Resistance personnel.”
Everyone turned to Roxanne. She nodded.
“The me in your time is kind of weird, but I think I like her. She looks a lot happier. And she gets to do more than scan for infiltrator androids in some underwater dungeon. Things go better for pretty much everyone else too. So I figure I’ll help you.”
The team glanced at one another. Wonder Knight sighed.
“Ok PSI…um, Roxanne.”
“You can call me PSI Omega if you want. It’s weird but I’m ok with it.”
She frowned.
“NOT the other name though. Don’t ever call me that one.”
Wonder Knight gulped.
“Right, ok Roxanne, what do we do next, then?”
“They’re planning to attack the Concordat. They’ll probably ask you to help. You should agree.”
Voidspeaker crossed her arms.
“Hey, um, don’t the Concordat control, like, the entire continent right now? And have an army of killer robots? What are the ten of us going to do?”
Roxanne just pointed at Elise.
“But she can just hack them, right? Whatever they have planned, they won’t expect an unshackled NSLICE unit upgraded with alien tech coming for them.”
“Affirmative. This unit still has access to Concordat networks via NSLICE-00P Beta. ”
“Oh, right.”
“And more importantly, the Concordat is planning something big. I’ve been catching wind of it, but I didn’t know what exactly until I scanned your memories. Weirdly, it seems like someone built something similar in your timeline. Something called the Mental Unifier?”
Everyone in the room went dead silent at that.
“So…we need to stop them either way.”
Roxanne shrugged.
“Probably. But also, apparently I used that thing in your timeline? So, if you brought me to it, I could probably use it again? Except, instead of controlling people, I could search all the minds in the world for your time traveler guy?”
Everyone’s eyes went wide at that. Wonder Knight nodded.
“I guess we know what we need to do then. Looks like we’re going to war with the Concordat.”
Author’s Note:
And that’s what happened. The changes without Bob are a bit quiet (at least on the surface, there are some major differences in the background) up until the time of the Aurora Legion quest against the Atomic Herald, at which point the entire thing explodes. Literally. And with no ILS there’s only one group left to oppose him.
Welp, time to go blow them up some more!
Anyways!
Can the Resistance and our team take on the Concordat and their army of NSLICE units? Which NSLICE reigns supreme? Will any variant of Roxanne reach above average height? Tune in next time, to find out!
