The Scattered Archives

"Right this way." Legionnaire Imperatrix said after she opened meeting room door. The door opened, and the elite officers and the two new recruits stepped into the hallway.

She led while Monica walked beside her. Christina and Lily walked behind them, followed by the two new recruits; Chelsea and Claudia. While they listened to what they were being told, they looked in awe at the floral and swirling patterns of gold and stucco that decorated each panel of the walls. Gold swirling patterns curved around each of the round mirrors and paintings on the walls and framed them.

Claudia noticed that Roberta was also looking at something. Roberta's head swiveled directions to scan the hallways.

"Are you looking for something?" Claudia asked her.

"I am assessing for any threats." Roberta said.

"Threats?" Claudia nervously said.

"Couldn't some of my family in this time help us?" Chelsea cheerfully said. "They're some of the best mages, and aren't you friends with the king and queen?" She asked Imperatrix.

"You could say that, but I suspect some of their guards are the threats." Imperatrix said. She briefly stopped in the hallway, turning towards everyone behind her with a serious expression. She noticed Chelsea's and Claudia's nervous expressions, and sought to reassure them.

"I have a lot of combat experience of my own and have trained others in a style that those guards might not be familiar with, and I engineered an elaborate security system!" Monica said reassuringly.

"We have the power of one of the most powerful magic weapons on our side, which I can wield with ease! Our raw power can blast them away if push comes to shove!" Imperatrix boasted. "Hmmph. Do you know how aristocrats are?" She asked the group.

"Of course! Even before I had an official title, I still have a legacy I need to carry. My parents scolded me so much about doing my best and trying not to be an embarrassment to it." Chelsea briefly explained and then sighed.

"A legacy of destruction and robbing people. Other than King Gareth, Queen Etheldreda and the so-called traitor princess Ainslie, nearly everyone else were awful and I'm not confident they'll be better in this timeline." Christina snarked. These words bit Chelsea as she struggled to respond. "I'm sorry if that was too harsh or if I'm implying you're as bad as them. We're teammates now." She said more sympathetically towards Chelsea.

"It's alright." Chelsea said. She quietly thought about Christina's words, and the conflicting words from her own parents.

"The guards and their military are also subcontractors for us as part of a deal with the king and queen!" Imperatrix cheerfully said.

"Don't they have to follow all of the social rules that any aristocrat would?" Chelsea asked. "All of the staff had to follow those rules at my house."

"Absolutely! The higher-ranked guards earn titles of nobility, but for any of them to cause a *diplomatic incident* would cause them so much shame!" Imperatrix said.

"Good... I helped build several of the security features here!" Christina boasted.

"They're great. I could show you the one that Christina built for my rooms!" Imperatrix offered.

She opened the door to her bedroom first, and everyone stepped into it, but nothing looked like it was out of the ordinary for a rococo-style bedroom until someone got too close! The bedroom lights turned red, and a large flat screen monitor on a long robot arm emerged from under the bed flashing "**INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!**" on its screen! Moments afterwards, more robotic arms emerged from under the bed; they were flexible and had electrically-charged claws on their ends.

"Eeeek!" Chelsea screamed and jumped back, just barely avoiding the grasp of the electrified robotic arms!

"My apologies for this!" Imperatrix said, scrambling to the nightstand by her bed, reaching into one of the compartments to press a button on a remote. The robot arms with grabbing claws on them stoped sparking, the monitor turned off, and all of the robot arms retreated under the bed. "You and Claudia haven't been here before so I'll need to program the system to recognize that you're not intruders!"

"Nooooooooooooooo!" Chelsea let out a very loud and anguished scream! The mirror in front of her and Roberta began to crack!

"That was not the intended reaction. Was there an error in my hair cutting procedure?" Roberta asked. She stood behind the chair that Chelsea was seated. Chelsea had a black smock over her outfit. Light green locks and strands of her hair fell on her shoulders or the neckline area of the smock, and she looked in horror and grief over the bad haircut she was given.

Roberta was introduced as a combat robot with many other talents. She offered Chelsea haircut, but it turned out that hair cutting wasn't one of those talents.

"It's not easy being this awesome!" Ima boasted. Where was this? It could've been at her own palace, at the Mallory Family's palace, some public assembly... Wherever she was, she boasted about her achievements, with a swollen ego!

To be fair, to carry out a time travel gambit that created a new timeline and allowed herself to rule it while she avoided prosecution by the authorities on time travel and space-time for the misuse of her powers, and for stealing one of their superweapons is an incredible feat! But did she need to boast about everything so often?

"Your highness, your picture is finished!"

Aliverti smiled and her eyes widened with excitement. "Can I see it now?" She asked.

"Of course, your highness." The painter nodded and confirmed before he stepped off to the side of the painting. Aliverti could finally step away from the wall in the studio she was standing against for hours. She rested the hilt of her trusty greatsword against the wall and walked forward to see the painting.

"Thank you! It is most beautiful and true to my character. You captured my determination and resolve with utmost style! Once the paint is finished drying, I am ready for it to be framed!" She cheered and complimented the painter. She was excited but kept a regal calmness to her voice.

"Thank you, your highness." The painter smiled. Aliverti took several moments to look at the painting and its details. Her long purple hair was worn in a loose ponytail, and she was wearing her full military dress. A green jacket with gold trim, gold buttons and tasseled epaulettes was worn over a light blue robe and tunic with black boots. Her green hat matched the hue of her jacket, but with the addition of black and light gray trim. She wore a white sash with a large black gem over her jacket, and her jacket had a purple cape. The insignia on her sleeves and epaulettes showed that she is a 3-star general. Her greatsword had the floral emblem of her original family, the Gagliardi family, at the base of the blade; the red portions in the middle of the petals provided a striking contrast.

"I hope that holding the sword for that pose was not too tiring, and I say this with no intent to insult your mighty strength, your highness." The painter said.

"No offense taken. Posing was of great ease. Wielding it feels effortless!" Aliverti chuckled. She told the painter that she's ready for the painting to be framed as soon as the paint was all dry.

The painter carefully captured each of the swirls and twists of gold baroque decorations that were situated on the upper panels on the wall. They amplified the subject's commanding presence in the painting!

She was a little annoyed that she had to miss supervising some training sessions for her squad and for her children's classes for the picture that she briefly second-guessed the decision halfway through the painting of the picture. For a few moments she considered if she should've just posed for a photo which could've been done in 10 minutes, but she was so satisfied with the result that the time spent on the painting was well worth it to her!

After the painting was framed, she was ready to see her husband and their children. The children, Nicholas and Rita, were led by an attendant to the studio. Aliverti's husband, Carraway would soon follow and enter the studio.

"Mama! We were wanting to talk with you earlier." Rita said excitedly, but with a bit of sadness.

"Oh dear, I am most sorry I kept you both worrying." Aliverti apologized to her children. She asked them about their training as mages.

"I cleared more goals today!" Nicholas said, celebrating the goals he completed in his beginner class. Rita was a few years older and a few years ahead. She celebrated completing a complex magic spell.

"Both of you did wonderfully in class." Carraway said.

"You're both making wonderful strides! I was too busy but I would've loved to see them. Would you like to show me what you learned after this talk?"

Both children cheered. "We have a guest here today." Aliverti began to explain her absence. The painter waved and introduced himself. Rita and Nicholas greeted him. The painter looked towards the picture.

"I painted this for her." He said.

"Wooooow! It shows how strong and regal you are!" Rita cheered.

"I want to catch up and be as strong as you!" Nicholas said in amazement, but with a little bit of frustration since his training had only started at the beginning of the year.

"You are just starting out, my son. We all have to start there." Aliverti said to assure him. "Keep following your training and you will both grow up to be as strong as me though I must also catch up on the time I missed."

Rita was thinking about how to ask the question she wanted. She and her brother were told it was improper to insult their elders, but would it have been okay to ask why their mother wanted a painted portrait when it took so much longer than a photo? Would asking have been rude to the painter? Royal etiquette could get so complicated, and growing up in it doesn't always make it easier! Their mother's side of the family didn't, but their mother most of her extended family took well to it. Their mother said she took to it effortlessly!

"That is my fault though." Aliverti calmly said. "A photograph would have been much quicker, and we used them for portraits before, but I fear relying on this gimmick too much. They are important for quickly capturing events as they happen, but too many people relying on them portraits too much will lead to the unparalleled techniques and style of painted portraits becoming a lost art!"

"That'd be sad." Nicholas said. He and his sister were told tales about lost arts. Some of these tales taught different lessons, but he and his sister were curious about each of them. Sometimes what they were told about "dangerous arts that need to be driven away" seemed incomplete, but some knowledge about them was lost to history so their parents could only tell them so much, or was it?

"Your highness, the painting is dry. Are you ready for it to be framed?" The painter asked her. Aliverti cheered up to the painter's question and was ready to frame the painting. He took the painting off of the easel and put it on a nearby table that had a large picture frame on it. Aliverti, Carraway, Nicholas and Rita watched the process. They celebrated when it was on the wall, and the painter left to say goodbye.

When they looked at the painting on the wall, they smiled, but then Aliverti looked serious about something. "Is something the matter, mama?" Nicholas asked.

Aliverti turned towards her husband and their children. "Today is the anniversary of when the Minions of Nemesis tried to overthrow and..." Aliverti said with a pause. The other people could fill in the blank. Although the entire family was spared in the second and third timelines and got to see an era of cooperation in the second, the idea that the mages who stopped the overthrow were practitioners of the dangerous arts that she warned her children against was still hard to accept. In the second timeline she felt out of place in the new era. She didn't know how dangerous the nova-class mage weaponry from the Magical Renegades really was, but the ideas that their styles of magic with their quicker casting times could render the styles of the classical mages obsolete and to eventually be forgotten that got under her skin the most.

"They're a disgrace-- They are a disgrace..." Aliverti mumbled to herself. "This new leader is not part of those Renegades, but she and her League are hardly any better! In some ways they are worse! Her "deal" with our family and our military is humiliating!" She blurted out! Her husband and children recognized this rage; her sister in-law Mildred, also shared it! Carraway felt very displeased when he thought about it, and it was one of the few things that could make him angry if he thought about it enough. Aliverti was embarrassed when she realized she said this in front of their children and apologized to them.

"I'm sorry you heard mama say that. The League are not any better than the Renegades. They are both a threat even when they claim to be on opposing sides, but they are no more trustworthy than the Minions of Nemesis." She calmly explained.

"Mama, we're not tempted by any of their offers!" Rita cheerfully said.

"I'll keep training the way I am!" Nicholas added.

Aliverti and Carraway smiled at their children's determined words. "I feel like the events ahead will be stranger yet and soon." Aliverti said ominously. After a pause, she smiled and said in a hopeful tone "We'll be better prepared this time against everything!"

There were cheers of agreement!

It was just a feeling that she had about how events would soon get stranger, but she was correct! A few days later, an incident crashed the space-time continuum and it was rebooted, leading to a strange new timeline with people stranded from the future!

Renegade Liberty leaped into the air by more than 100 feet while wielding her weapon, Pistol Star, in its supercharged form, Sweet Bazooka of Mine - Pistol Star Supercharge! She pointed it carefully at her enemies, and unleashed her attack immediately after she shouted her incantation "ISTOLPAY TARSAY UPERCHARGESAY! INALFAY MPACTINAY!"

A golden-orange magic fireball surrounded by stars in different colors launched out of the bazooka, and blazed with a rainbow trail. Renegade Liberty's enemies had only a split second to look in horror as it hit.

...

The smoke cleared, and she floated back to the ground. Her weapon had changed back to its normal form. She looked down, and saw a crater caused by her blast! She confidently looked down, but gasped.

"No way! How the blazes did you survive that?!"

The enemies barely survived, but gloated about their survival and that they would fight again before they teleported away.

She turned around and saw the king and queen, two of the residents of the palace she was defending rushing out the front door. They were dressed in their mage outfits, and wielding their staves.

"Oh, they must be here to thank me, and the time traveler who helped." Renegade Liberty thought. "No worries! I would've rather stopped them once and for all, but your would've-been assassins are out of here!"

The expressions on their faces were not gratitude. The queen exclaimed "What the heck?! So you're the ones who ruined our pathway, and incinerated our yard?!

Renegade Liberty looked around. The yard in front of palace she was defending was scorched! The surrounding trees were burnt to a crisp, the grass burnt away. The trees slightly further out were on fire, and illuminated the early morning sky with a deep orange color.

Whoops.

This served as an important lesson on mitigating and avoiding collateral damage. Magical barriers are now set up with mages fight to prevent this from happening!

Claudia wistfully looked at the photo in her hand. It was one of the photos she took in the second timeline before her disappearance. She always kept her collection with her when she was on the go. When she was stranded in the 2010's, that collection and her memories remained as her only reminders of the past.

She was standing in the same block of her home city that was in the photo. "That's them..." She thought when she glanced at the buildings, and back at the photo. Old boutiques, a general store, and a saloon were within sight.

The styles of the buildings were unmistakable. They were the same scale, and their walls were the same colors as she remembered, but their windows glowed brightly with lights coming from inside. Most of the old wooden signs were replaced by light-up signs, and neon tube lights lined many of the windows. Familiar but unfamiliar.

This was her home town and her home time period, but she didn't quite feel at home. So much had changed without her.

"Showtime is about to begin!" McCool announced to his colleague, Catherine. They eagerly waited in the hallway outside of the auditorium. A flat screen TV on the wall showed the time, and the audience in the auditorium applauding. This was almost their cue!

It was the first night in months that the Stranded Inn Time hotel had any guests! That's not to say that the hotel was empty or abandoned during that time. Staff remained at the hotel to maintain it. A very bored receptionist sometimes remained at the front desk where she could type up a research paper without it being likely that she'd be interrupted, but the presence of guests was the highlight of this job in months!

The ghostly duo of stand-up comedians waited for the right moment. McCool was wearing a tuxedo and Catherine was wearing a Victorian-style dress with long ribbons that floated at the ends. A ghostly trail instead of legs peeked from her long skirt.

"You know what they say, break a leg!" McCool added before he headed towards the auditorium about to phase through the walls.

"That won't be an issue!" Catherine laughed, and she soon followed McCool to the stage...

When Katt caught the magical pocketwatch that Renegade Midnight Conductor threw to her, they both assumed that Katt would use its power just long enough to defend herself. Katt saw flashes of light in the sky before they crossed paths with each other. Renegade Midnight Conductor was flying away from a fleet of robotic enemies that wanted to capture her, and the extra magical device that she had with her. It had to be kept out of their hands at all costs!

She took a leap of faith when she threw the pocketwatch to Katt, and Katt took a leap of faith when she leapt up to catch it!

Moments after Katt caught it, the device emitted a jolt of power with a stunning flash. After the initial jolt, it kept emitting a surge of power that made it painful, overwhelming and disorienting to hold. She knew she had to defend it holding on for just a while, going against the instinct to throw it on the ground.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know this would happen!" Renegade Midnight shouted. "I need you to keep it out of their hands!" She saw that Katt could barely stand up as the power surge from the device continued. Renegade Midnight was prepared to finish her fight against the robots as quickly as possible when what she saw and heard next also surprised her.

"I won't let this thing...OVERPOWER ME!!" Katt shouted. She stood up straight, with the magical power flowing in a much more controlled manner.

The mage in red among the Magical Renegades was ready for combat... Very ready...

"Are you sure recruiting her was the best idea?" Avogadro whispered to Renegade Midnight Conductor. "I went along with it, but..." He added, sounding more hesitant.

"Those warnings remind me of the warnings before the boss fights in many shoot-em-up games, but I assumed she wanted to make a dramatic debut..." Renegade Midnight Conductor whispered back.

Susana stepped outside of the saloon. The sky was purplish, and illuminated by a brilliant sunset that splashed the sky in hues of pink and orange. A breeze blew, enough for Susana's overcoat to flutter to her side. Her fashion sense changed in the new timeline. She was wearing a light pink overcoat with matching pants, a pink shirt. Around her shirt collar, she wore a neon-pink neckerchief as a tie that was secured with a round, gold and white pin.

She briefly contemplated her life in the new timeline. Fleeting feelings of joy as she was able to meet her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents again were washed away with sadness over not seeing her younger sister who had went missing in the previous timeline.

Little did she know that her younger sister had returned, but the prospect of finding her felt like trying to find a needle in a haystack. She sighed and had to put this sadness aside. Reaching into her overcoat pocket, she took out her pocketwatch, and looked at the insignia on the front.

She reached into her other pocket and took out a pair of sunglasses, and put them on.

"It's time for action..." She said as she pressed the button on the top of her pocketwatch, and before she said an incantation, and as her alter-ego, she took off to the scene of a conflict...

"Why do you look confused?" Renegade Threat Level Red Alert asked. Renegade Midnight Conductor looked visibly confused and concerned.

"Umm... That's not your mage outfit." She said.

Red Alert looked down at her outfit and looked shocked for a few moments. "What happened?! How did I change into the wrong outfit?! I followed all of the steps!"

The outfit was in a similar color scheme as her mage outfit, but with pastel shades, but had many more bows and frills. She was wearing a rococo gown with a frilled neckline, large draped sleeves lined with frills, the bodice of her gown was lined with bows, and several more bows were lined along one of the layers of her skirt.

"It looks awesome though." She said more contemplatively. "It must be my upgrade!" She cheered. "Whoa!" She exclaimed before she fell to the ground after she took a few steps. "An upgrade I'll have to get used to."

"Sorry to be a buzzkill, but the magic we use isn't entirely stable. The transformation sequence doesn't always go how it's supposed to." Midnight explained.

"Awww... This isn't my upgrade?"

"No and there are sometimes unintended consequences." Renegade Midnight Conductor began to explain. "I was changed into the wrong outfit a couple of times, but neither of them were as cool as that." She added, sounding slightly embarrassed.

Renegade Red Alert stood up and looked curious.

"You want to know..." Midnight sighed. "The first time it happened, my transformation put me in a train conductor uniform."

"That doesn't sound too bad. What about the second time?"

Midnight paused for a few moments. "It put me in a cheeseburger costume, and had to fight that way because it wasn't safe to change to my regular form and back." She said hesitantly.

Red Alert let out a laugh before offering her sympathy. "That must've sucked!"

"The reporters had a field day with writing the headlines." Midnight said, sounding dejected and annoyed but Red Alert immediately laughed.

"I saw one of them! The reporter described it as the cheesiest battle yet!!"

"Owww... Renegade Threat Level Red Alert said as she went against commonsense, and put her hand on the very prickly cactus.

"You can do this! This is a test of endurance!" Renegade Midnight Conductor cheered. "You're at one second now, two... The goal is 10 seconds and later we'll move it to 20!"

"I'm honored that she recruited me and saw my potential as a Magical Renegade, but this is making me second-guess my life choices..." Red Alert thought to herself.

Fortunately not all of the training was that extreme. In between those more extreme forms of training, were simple stretching exercises.

"This is so tough-- you're making it look easy!" McCool lamented. Although as a ghost he could just float enough to make hanging onto the bar effortless, he'd feel that'd be cheating and he wanted to become physically stronger; his abilities to catch stronger ghosts and demons off guard and use the element of surprise to his advantage helped him survive, but he didn't want to rely on just those. Next to him was Renegade Threat Level Red Alert, who was eagerly pulling herself up and below the bar.

"Hang in there!" Renegade Midnight Conductor cheered while she was watching.

"I was already a stunt performer before I joined the Magical Renegades, but these exercises didn't all come easy to me!" Red Alert said, trying to assure McCool. "When I joined the Magical Renegades, I needed to do some endurance tests."

"Were they hard?" McCool asked.

"...One of them is that I had to put my hand on a cactus. Without gloves."

"I'm lucky then because I'm a ghost!" McCool nervously chuckled.

Camelia was at a themed karaoke event. The theme? Animal costumes! She was dressed in a chameleon costume, was next to sing on stage. When it was her turn, she walked onto the stage and looked through the list of songs she chose from. Her eyes widened in excitement when she saw the song she was looking for... Karma Chameleon!

McCool stepped up on a stage decorated with an Art Deco setting, a very angular style. The spotlight was on him, and this time, he was confident that his performance will start off right. He was more prepared this time! He was so confident he was blissfully unaware that he was holding the microphone upside down!

Chelsea was in a studio room. Her newly-recognized royal status and princess title attracted the eyes of several advertising agencies. She smiled at the attention she was given and exchanged jokes and banter with the photography staff.

A few minutes until her photoshoot... Her hair was untied, decorated by a gold tiara. She was wearing a yellow and white gown, in a contemporary late 1880's style. Her gown had a large bright yellow bow on the front collar with a large, oval green brooch. The collar was decorated with a belladonna flower brooch on her right side, and a daisy brooch on her left side, and she wore pieces of gold jewelry decorated with pearls.

The staff walked away out of the camera view.

"5 seconds until we begin!" The cameraperson said, counting down the seconds in one hand. It was Chelsea's cue to hold up the product she was going to promote. She held a pair of gold, diamond-encrusted spoons, and the camera began rolling. It was the beginning of a product line she was launching.The starting price will be 30,000 doubloons a piece!