Feb 9 - The End of the World as we Know It.

[Rick Ferguson]

"This began well before she punched you", Rick pointed out, slowly heading over to the table...but not to Dr. Tomorrow.

[Robert West]

"Oh, it's magnificent," the doctor confirmed. "Don't skip the mushrooms, they're absolutely perfect. And of course this all started long before, but that's when the insulting started. Before that, I was just trying to get dinner ready. Have you ever been hurled through reality? You don't want to do it on an empty stomach, trust me."

[Janice Gilbertson]

Janice once again righted herself, fuming.

Right. Two devices. Probably more than two devices. How many?

Sitting down, she didn't touch her food but racked her brain for what she could affect around her, casting her eyes about.

[Gideon Rede]

Gideon took a seat at the table looking down at his steak, but not wanting to eat it. Instead he picked up his silverware and poked at his meal trying to find a grip with his telepathy if he could.

[Veronica Freud]

"Oh no, I'm going the entire Stark-route. Multi-billionaire superhero scientist sex-symbol."

Veronica sat down. She needed time to think, time to come up with a plan. And being unconscious from trying to do something stupid wasn't going to give her that time.

"That'd be pretty generous, but pointless since you intend on destroying this universe. Goggles included."

Veronica's dish was... well, rather hideous looking to most. But Poutine was like that. And the robots had even baked french fries on top of the pizza.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal sat down at his place next to Janice and, not seeing a reason not to at the moment, picked up his burger (which was as perfectly made as it had been when he'd gotten his internship) and started eating.

[Rick Ferguson]

"Oh, it's magnificent," the doctor confirmed. "Don't skip the mushrooms, they're absolutely perfect. And of course this all started long before, but that's when the insulting started. Before that, I was just trying to get dinner ready. Have you ever been hurled through reality? You don't want to do it on an empty stomach, trust me."

"Speaking of which, why do you do this? What could be worth wiping out a whole universe over?," Rick asked, almost idly, trying to force himself to calm down for the moment by busying his mind.

[Robert West]

"Well, obviously I wouldn't leave you here," Tomorrow said. "You're small, I'm sure I could fit you in with me when I gate out of here."

"And I'm just doing the same thing you'd all be doing if you'd been stuck world-hopping fairly aimlessly for a few years. I'm just trying to get home."

[Gideon Rede]

"You'd end billions of lives just so you can go home?" Gideon asked while glaring at Dr. Tomorrow.

[Byrna Cooper]

"Well, trying to get home seems perfectly understandable. It's just the collateral damage that is the sticking point, after all."

[Rick Ferguson]

"They took the words right out of my mouth." Rick tried a bit of the Lebanese kafta. It really was good.

[Veronica Freud]

"Well that's pretty generous of you. What makes me so special?" Veronica shoved a forkful of french fries, cheese curds and duck gravy into her mouth.

"Home's what you make it." She muttered. "Gotta move out sometime."

[Robert West]

"Billions of lives that have lived out almost exactly like dozens of other worlds I've been to. Really, a lot of the time it seems more like photocopies than anything. Minor differences in each due to how much ink is left, spots on the glass, things like that, but essentially the same."

"Really, you have your little friend Malaika to thank. I could've gotten home all by myself, and even taken her with me, but she had to go and wreck the dimensional anchor I kept on me for that exact purpose. Once she did that, I needed to find my world again, among the millions of alternate realities there are, and breach that particular barrier to get there. It's not as simple as it sounds, and definitely not as easy as just punching into a random world, ready to pull yourself back on your dimensional tether."

[Byrna Cooper]

"So, finding the solution of getting home without killing billions is beyond your abilities?"

Bear speared an onion petal with one of her chopsticks, chewing on it leisurely.

[Rick Ferguson]

"Then why not just set up shop and ruin lives in a new home universe? What's so important about yours that you have to go back to it when it's that much trouble? I'd expect a villain who'd put out such a good dinner for us to at least have that much decency."

[Will Stanton]

Will, finally, sat down.

"Dr. West, this can't be the only way. I refuse to believe that. We're talking infinite knowledge of infinite universes; SOMEHOW you should be able to find your way home without killing anyone.''

[Robert West]

"Why not set up sh- Because that's my home, of course. That's where my wife and my lab and my minions are all waiting patiently for me. And people don't have to die. I've made reality tears open all over the planet. Do people need me to put up giant 'escape here' signs at all of them, too?"

[Gideon Rede]

"They don't want to leave for the same reason you want to go home," Gideon said.

[Will Stanton]

"Dr. West; you're not going home when this machine sets off. Shut it down and we can discuss ways to get you home."

[Rick Ferguson]

"Also, some pretty nasty things have come out of those tears. You'd have to be out of your mind to go through them. I mean, zombies?"

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear nodded, agreeing with her teammates.

"On another note, the mushrooms really are excellent. Thank you!"

[Robert West]

"See, we were having such a nice dinner, too. Then you had to start with the threats again. See, I have what you call 'the upper hand.' So that doesn't exactly lead to me shutting down my ticket home. I'll make you all an offer, though." He held up a little device, no bigger than a calculator. "You take this, you go back to your little school, and you all get away. Hell, as many people as you can fit into your school grounds can get away. Maybe a little bit outside your gates, too, the measurements aren't that exact. But you take it, you leave, and you have a few hours to gather everyone you want to get away from this world. And you can do a lot in those hours, too, you have the teleport tech. Well, you mostly have it. I know I wouldn't use a system like that, but my standards are a bit... well, refined."

"You push this button, it pulls your whole school through to another world. Might be better, might be worse, but it's not like you can't just warp again if you don't like where you land. You can take this, right now, and save everything you care about. Or you can turn it down, fight me, lose, and everyone takes their chances with this reality unraveling. Who knows, maybe you can survive that. I'm not going to stick around to find out, but maybe."

[Rick Ferguson]

"You just don't understand, do you?" Rick puts down his fork, exasperated. "And he calls us dense," Rick muttered. "What an ass."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"And you say I'm uncreative." Janice muttered.

[Will Stanton]

"Why try this now? Why THIS time?"

[Robert West]

"Because this was the first time I managed to catch that little snot Malaika. Her power gives her a stronger connection to the specific energy signature of our universe, so I can use her to home in on my home to get to it. And of course I get it. 'Oh no, the mad genius doesn't understand that the reason he'll destroy our world to get to his specific home is the same reason we don't want to leave ours.' Of course I get it, I just don't care. Do you think I'm trying to be some wonderful humanitarian here? Hello, I'm about to destroy a world. I think we're a bit beyond that. A convenient way out is about the extent of the charity you'll get from me. And don't try talking to me about being dense, I wouldn't be offering it if some people in this room weren't inclined to consider it."

[Will Stanton]

"What did you do to her, anyway."

[Robert West]

"Oh, last time I checked on her, she was still wired into the machine, cursing the day I was born and yelling a bunch of urdu swear words at the room in general."

[Will Stanton]

"I imagine this will kill her, yes? I mean, what's one more body on the pile, right?"

[Rick Ferguson]

"Negotiating with terrorists is usually seen as a no-no," Rick pointed out, glaring at Dr. Tomorrow.

[Robert West]

"True, but the other 'yous' that I've met have always liked getting the world to negotiate with them," Tomorrow answered. "And on the up side, I'll actually deliver what I say I will."

[Will Stanton]

"Why would we trust you on that, anyway? How do we know that box wouldn't just vaporize us?"

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear surreptitiously looked around, trying to get a fix on Malaika's location with her X-Ray vision.

"It.. It is tempting," she said, sighing.

"Cutting our losses.. it might be worth considering.."

[Rick Ferguson]

A new world just with mutants...almost tempting in a way, but...

His eyes narrowed at Dr. Tomorrow further. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

[Robert West]

"Because any idiot could vaporize you. Why would I bother doing that? And stop with that rubbish, Closer. Your bluffs are never convincing. That wall, over there, and a little under this floor, attached to the central spire." If Bear followed his directions, she would, indeed, see Malaika attached to a great pillar-shaped machine, and she appeared to be angrily shouting at nothing in particular.

"What's what supposed to mean?"

[Will Stanton]

"And it takes a special idiot to vaporize a world?"

[Robert West]

"It won't be vaporized. It'll just cease to be. Never created. Undone. And yes, it takes a very special idiot to undo creation, even a small part of it."

[Will Stanton]

"So, it will be as if this world never existed? Like, ever?

So, where would your machine be working from, in that case?"

[Rick Ferguson]

"About the other 'me's...never mind. You're probably just lying anyway," Rick replied, eating some pita bread half-heartedly.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear feigned embarrassment, but continued to sweep the area with her X-Ray vision after noting Malaika's condition.