[STORY THREAD] Manifest Destiny

[Nina]

"Yes, you are." Temple turned to face Grace, "As Ryan thought," everyone hears Ryan's voice coming from all around them, "Ok, so now the machine is God, and Temple it's Prophet.  Now we all get to question them." "Incorrectly I might add. I am Temple and I am the Machine. God is a human concept but lets run with it. If I am god then all is within my power. I could take away all struggle, all strife. I could end death. But then what would be left?

 

I exist everywhere. I have seen all that is was and will be. But it is the will be that I am concerned with. Humanity has such great potential but it must be allowed to mature on it's own merit.

 

You are no longer Human. Unlike the Psions who had their evolution advanced by the storm, the Novus were mutated by it and are no longer the same species. This is not a condemnation it is merely fact. 

 

To humanity you are gods. They will turn to you and even with all good intentions, how long do you think it will be before you succumb to that desire to be worshipped as gods? "

[Shameless]

Ryan's eyes narrowed at Temple broadcasting his thoughts, the only outward sign his anger and annoyance.   "All things Strive, Temple."
 

"You can't take that away, or at the very least, you shouldn't."

"You're saying you can see it all, that you have seen it all, past present and future.  You already know what is going to happen, how it all plays out.   That sounds boring as hell, not to mention a burden no one should have to shoulder."
 

"You Think that one day we'll want to be worshiped as Gods?"  he chuckled.   "No goddamn way.  Not me, or Deezy, Grace, Sean or Bridget.   Some of us want to Protect humanity, All of us want to help them.   We're in a unique position to do so.  If you know everything, then you know all that."
 

"If your goal was truly to prevent Novas being worshiped as Gods, why would you create a situation that let us be the ones to save everyone else?   Even though you used novas as the antagonists in your plot, they were stopped and policed by novas too.   Putting on displays of power isn't anything new to the world at this point, so that can't be it either.  Making them fear us would only have worked if they were allowed to persist." Ryan looked at her, and sighed.
 

He shook his head. "What's coming, it's going to be beyond anything and everything we currently have now.   We have to help, because Earth is our home too, despite your claims to us not being human anymore."
 

"If you're asking what you should do, you should help too.   Don't solve all the problems but provide the tools for them to be solved.  Or not, that's your choice, none of us can make you do anything, or decide anything."
 

"It comes down to what you want to do as well Temple.  You can go anywhere, do anything.  I told you that years ago, and it holds true even now."   She had betrayed his trust, had used him, and still, there was a part of him that wanted to believe Temple wasn't just going to arbitrarily decide things for everyone else herself. 
 

[Nina]

"Strangely enough, Ryan, the Temple you knew would have done just that. Used you, used anyone, everyone, she... I... was doing that even back then.  No, I won't make you do anything."

 

Temple turns in place once again looking at each of you. "It is your destiny, you five were changed to a greater degree than any of the others perhaps due to proximity" She shrugs. "All but a hand full of psions have left Earth for a new world where they will hopefully flourish. Several thousand humans whom would otherwise be dead have joined them. A new life for them.

 

Those that remain have been hidden their psionic natures erased from history. They are only here to watch."

 

"Watch?" Brigit, who had been listening while leaning against Sean, suddenly stood straight and took a step forward. "What? And report back to you should we step out of line?"

 

"No, only to record. Other than that they are free to do as they wish also. As for myself, I will be leaving. Even I would be tempted if I were to stay, to take a hand in things. 

 

There is a place for you, for any of you should you decide to go in the future. Those whom we called Utopians are already there. In the depths of the cavern the Machine once filled is a platform of white substance. it is a one way transported that will take anyone who steps upon it to the world set aside for the Novas."

 

 

[Asarasa]

Grace with her golden penumbra wasn't the only one who had changed from pushing past their limits during the battle. Sean, while having always been beyond human levels of attractiveness, she was now something uncanny and fey, her limbs long and supple, intensely amethyst eyes large and canted, ears tapering into distinct points. When her lush lips parted, her pearly canines seemed slightly longer than they should be, suggesting vaguely sinister but enticing fangs. With her long, mirror bright rose-gold hair, Sean seemed more sidhe, faerie, than human. Still in her little black dress and heels and hosiery, she made it seem natural rather than incongruous.

Her heart ached. They had won, but the cost had been great. Chicago might be relatively unscathed, but other communities had not been. And she was not without fault in that. With the fury and need to defeat Titan's followers, she had not been as discriminate as she could have been. She hadn't really thought about how powerful she was, just took it for granted, most times. But Titan, and Deezy's and Ryan's defeat of the monstrous woman had disabused her of her notions.

The silence was a palpable thing, the ambient noise reduced to ghost of what it once was, even to Sean's sharp ears.

She hadn't wanted the responsibility of saving the world. Defending Chicago alongside Brigit and Grace had sufficed for her. But when all the novas arrived, including most of the Canadian Novas, which she had a hand persuading most of working with the Canadian Government, Sean had suffered a pang of regret. Many were young. A pair of twins, one with power of ice, the other over fire, had been one of the first through the portals. And Craig, the Iceman, had been one of the first to die, vaporized by an Abberant of pure light. Sean's right arm was pocked with cauterized, angry red wounds that were still healing, but she had brought the photonic bastard down, but it had been an empty victory when she smelled the pain emanating from Craig's brother.

And now it seemed, they were among the last left.

She had visited Ryan and Deezy more than once at their company compound, but she wasn't up on all they had done. She certainly didn't know all about Temple and this Machine and whatnot. But what Temple said, the way she spoke, it reminded her of an old Sci-Fi series she had enjoyed. Sean followed Brigit with a step of her own, kneading one of Brigit's big shoulders with a long-fingered hand.

"I hope you find worthy company when you walk out beyond the Rim, Temple." Sean said, her honeyed soprano having an odd, almost echoing quality to it. "But with the Psions and Novas gone - or the majority of them, at least - one the supposed natural evolution of humanity and the other a... mistake, what is the future of humanity? And the ones who made the Machine in the first place, or the ones they fought against, is there a possibility they'll be back?

Edited November 20, 2023 by Asarasa

[Nina]

Temple smiles at Sean then sighs. "Those that created the machine are no more as are those who opposed them. Their descendants however, do still exist in diminished form. Both in their own way are threats to humanity, but neither will come in contact with earth in the foreseeable future."

 

She walks among the heroes. "I will not force my will upon you. I will not explain what I foresee, but humanity will only grow when it is forced to and at its own pace. Your presence here will delay and possible even forestall that development. But I suppose you must learn yourselves.

 

Travel between the universes has been closed off for now. And I shall take my leave.  Goodbye."

 

Temple vanishes and time moves again.

 

 

[Shameless]

Ryan looked to the other novas gathered there, and sighed.  "I know you have questions.   I do too, and I'm not likely to get answers to them.   Here and now isn't the place for that though, and we've still got work to do to help people, and eventually, i'm gonna have to send everyone home."

He rose into the air.  "Come on.  There's people who are counting on all of us, and I'm not going to let them down.  I'm going to show Temple that she was wrong about us, wrong about humanity."   He spoke with a resolve that hadn't surfaced in a long time.  He'd always been proud to be a soldier, to serve his country, to Protect the People, and today, he'd done that.   What they had to fight for now, though, was something more.  Deezy and Ryan had formed Novastar with an eye to the future, and now, moreso than when they'd done so, he wanted to fight to protect that future, of a brighter world, for everyone.   Perhaps it was idealistic, foolish, or even silly, but hearing Temple's pronouncement against them, It stirred a strong desire to prove her wrong.  To make a better future for everyone, something that even in her omniscience, she couldn't see or envision.

Perhaps, he thought,  she'd said all of that, knowing how he would react.  She knew him, and he'd been shown, he didn't really know her.   Still  She knew against such words, he'd dig in his heels and fight, that this was worth doing, and even if it began as something to prove her wrong, her words would spark action, action that would lead to something better for everyone.