The Scattered Archives

At the Magic Gatekeepers' tower, at least one of the Gatekeepers is tasked with viewing the main console of their magical supercomputer at any given time. It was Aiko's turn this time, and she was viewing a real-time report on the state of space-time when she received an email from the tech support person they consulted who could fulfill their extremely niche and expensive needs for replacement computer parts.

The email read "The replacement parts you ordered are here, and ready to be picked up."

Aiko replied "Thank you. We will be over in a few minutes, and we'll try not to warp space-time around us."

The price for the parts wasn't too much of a shock, because they already spent a fortune on building their computer which they based off of one of the most expensive mainframes ever made. The Gatekeepers' computer had some upgrades though which included holographic projections from the screen, and a CPU powerful enough to process space-time!

"Oh no! Not now!" Alicia thought as the thunder began to rumble. This day was supposed to have been perfect to go to the beach. Her parasol was designed to keep out the Sun's rays, not the rain!

The forecast didn't mention any chance of rain, nor storms, so what's going on with this? It couldn't be the ghost pirates rumored to inhabit the beach, could it? Alicia didn't have the time to think about that rumor and left the beach as the rain was starting to come down.

While Kayla was at a rummage sale, she spotted a pocketwatch. It was shiny and silver, and had an insignia that looked familiar, a stylized smiling face with star-shaped eyes, but it looked a little different. When she picked it up, she sensed magical energy from it, and looked very curious.

"Were you formerly a member of the Magical Renegades?" Kayla asked the person running the rummage sale.

"I wasn't, but the person who donated this must have been."

"Wow... Donating this for anyone to buy instead of handing it back to the group after quitting is soooo responsible." Kayla snarked. "Their recklessness is my gain! I'll buy it!" She eagerly said.

"Sure. That'll be 19 doubloons and 7 pieces of eight."

Kayla handed over the money to purchase the pocketwatch, and looked in excitement when it was handed to her. "This person could've thought the Magical Renegades' initiation requirements are too strict. I would've had to be in the right place at the right time to meet one of its members to be initiated."

She examined the pocketwatch, which had instructions on the inside lid to activate its powers. She silently read the incantation "The form of a Magical Revolutionary, tis the form for me!"

"Magical Revolutionary?" She thought to herself. "This is a bootleg... That makes this better!" Realizing that the pocketwatch she bought was a bootleg startup device didn't make her feel deceived at all. There was no need to go back and demand a refund!

She said the incantation out loud, and transformed. Her hair was longer and layered, and turned light blue with dark blue tips. Her right eye turned gold, and her left eye turned silver. She was not wearing goggles, but wore an eyepatch over her left eye. Her uniform had a light blue vest with a white blouse, and a white skirt with gold trim. Around her neck, she had a gold ascot with a round brass brooch that resembled an off-brand version of the Magical Renegades insignia.

She wore strapped boots, and wore a darker blue overcoat over her outfit. The pocketwatch transformed into a cutlass, but alas, it was a fake weapon, and all sales were final. It was fake as in being a bootleg. It was functional, but it started emitting smoke.

"On second thought I wish I could get a refund." She sighed.

Magic isn't supposed to be that cheap, in money or effort, but she had some friends who were "Magical Revolutionaries" who could help her.

Event date: Unspecified

This was just a small sample of the magic bottles on display. Some bottles contained healing potions that could restore strength, and heal various kinds of magically-caused ailments, and other bottles contained concentrated elemental magic. Crafted and sold by classical mages, these potions and spells were valued by non-mages as tools to defend or heal themselves from harmful magic.

Katt looked at the stack of large, rectangular white cards in front of her. The stack was in the middle of a hallway, and laid undisturbed by anyone who walked past it. How it got there was a mystery. She only knew that it wasn't there the day before, but approached it, and picked it up. She felt the cards in her hands. They were very light and thin, but she couldn't fold them.

She tried to look at the cards individually, starting with the bottom of the stack but the stack seemed to have a will of its own and didn't let her. She had to draw the card from the top. The first card had pictures and text on it and directed her to draw the next card. The next card was clearly part of a sequence. As Katt kept reading through the cards in the sequence, she looked more unnerved.

One card instructed her to make a choice, and select a specific numbered card ahead in the stack. And another... And another. She started to tremble. The cards presented many choices. They depicted her current trajectory and claimed to depict the outcomes of her choices. She was taken aback when the stack levitated, and it was beckoning to her. Was there no going back? Could she try to change fate using the power of these cards?

When Aurora went back in time, she went back to the early 1880's to join the Magical Renegades and became their recruiter. Her teammates included Avogadro, a lonely inventor who was from a noble family but left since he was alienated as an inventor among a family of warriors. He was her instructor, and told her of the difficult and lonely start that he had when the Magical Renegades was founded. Gradually there were more members, and each of them were underdogs in their own ways. Aurora would fit in nicely as a rogue time traveler whose stance on time travel went against The Academy's official stance! She was accepted to be initiated. As a member of the Magical Renegades, she became Renegade Midnight Conductor!

When she first arrived at the headquarters, she looked like she saw a ghost, but she saw one! The ghost introduced herself as Ainslie. Aurora didn't recognize this name, but immediately recognized her appearance; she had long light green hair and pale blue eyes, and wore a gown that was tattered at the edges. The ghost was a princess who supported the Magical Renegades when her family and their military cracked down on them. She paid the ultimate price for it in 1879 in a rebellion that shook up the court!

"I was lucky to avoid being sealed away... I do not quite know how I did it, but the court was not going to let the ghost of a dissenter, a royal dissenter fly away and join the rebellion!" Ainslie explained how she joined the Magical Renegades.

Aurora was briefly taken aback by the explanation, but was happy that the Magical Renegades saved Ainslie. Her situation was still precarious, but her chances of survival as a ghost and not being sealed away were better than they had been alone!

When Aurora looked in awe of the architecture in the headquarters, the instructor noticed and said "We have our architect to thank for these designs!"

"Is there any chance of meeting this architect?" Aurora asked excitedly.

"She's on the team, and she should return soon."

"I wasn't told we'd be having any guests!" The architect nervously said when she entered the headquarters, immediately wary of the newcomer.

"We're sorry we didn't tell you. This was on short notice, but she quickly proved herself and will be initiated." The instructor said.

"We are going to have a new member to the team!" The ghostly princess said.

These were enough to assure the architect, who smiled and introduced herself to Aurora. The architect explained that she was a magical artist from a famous family of classical architects.

"I recognize you from the Fontaine Family! How did you join the Magical Renegades?" Aurora asked her.

"I made the choice to stray away from the classical architecture that they designed. Nobles and royals loved it. They commissioned many pieces, but their style wasn't mine. I sought out the obscure works of art that were very different." The architect said before she walked away to a cabinet in the front room.

"She might want to show you what she found." The instructor said.

The architect walked back to Aurora and the other Renegades with a folder in hand. She opened the folder to show several pieces of art that were abstract, colorful, and exaggerated paintings, and other pieces that were surreal photography. Aurora looked closely at each piece with interest, and curiously looked at the signatures on the bottom.

"Are these the originals or prints?" Aurora asked.

"These are prints, but so few of them were made. I bought some of these when the artists were still around selling them in their only print runs, but others were difficult finds on the secondhand market. I'd be delighted to buy the originals if they can be found!" The architect said. "I should introduce myself. I'm Felicity." She said.

"I recognize a few of these artists from my research into history!" Aurora said excitedly. She chuckled for a moment; one of the academic research projects at The Academy proved to be useful in saving some art and literature.

"The works of these artists that the nobles didn't like spoke to me a lot more and I wanted to follow in these artists' footsteps despite the risks." Felicity somberly explained, and she put the obscure pieces of art back in the folder. She looked somber for a moment, but then smiled. "I got my luckiest break when the instructor met me at an art fair, invited me to join the Magical Renegades, and offered to commission the interior design of the headquarters!" She cheerfully said.

"My intuition was right that a mage who wasn't interested in classical architecture also wouldn't be interested in following all of the rules of classical magic." Avogadro said.

"Did you design those cool weapons too?" Aurora asked.

"Oh no!" Felicity chuckled. "Avogadro designed them and our engineer, Christina, built them. Christina would be enthusiastic to give you a demonstration before your initiation!"

"Ooh! Would she be ready for this now?"

"She should be in the workshop. We'll lead you there!

Going back in time and meeting the Magical Renegades led to the creation of a new timeline, but the start of this new timeline kicked off a few years later when she went to 1884 to meet Susana!

Susana was a human who liked to read, but grew up in a rural village area where only about half of the population could read, and even then, there wasn't always time for it when there was so much else to be done, or not enough money in the family budget to buy more books! Getting more chances was one of the perks that joining the Magical Renegades offered, but the deciding factors for her to join were what would've been, and what could've been if the trajectory changed!

"What?! That is an extremely loaded question, and you have no tact! And how do you know my name when we never met?!" Susana initially asked Aurora. It was a rocky first meeting! Although Susana was annoyed and had no tolerance for nonsense, she looked at the pages of the history book that Aurora brought with her, and everything would change. There was no turning back! She was terrified of what she would become. She saw it in one of the photos. A somber portrait of her in uniform. A high-ranking officer for the Minions of Nemesis who'd make history, but at a terrible cost! Pangs of desperation could be felt by her; were these the feelings that were going to compel her to join?

Aurora told her that this can be prevented, and confidently offered another option to become a mage. Susana wanted to believe this was possible, and that the deal that Aurora offered was legitimate. An easier initiation than the classical mage path? She still worried about if it was legitimate and if she'd be up for it, but the thoughts that she could avoid the path the history book warned her about were enticing. She thought "...If I can do this right and live up to what she's saying, and believes in me, I can do better by stopping those events she warned about! What extraordinary things could be done in a better future?"

"Okay! I'm fired up! What do I do to become a mage, and the best candidate for this?!" Susana took her chances and took up the offer!

"That's the spirit! I'll show you how!" Aurora said with a big smile.

Yet another timeline would be created. It wasn't of Renegade Midnight Conductor's making, but of another rogue time traveler who was a rival! In this new timeline, the stakes were raised! A turning point in their country's history is still is, but the fate of the space-time continuum is also at stake, and the time traveler holding it hostage wields one of the most powerful magical weapons of them all!

Renegade Midnight Conductor seeks to set right what went wrong again, and is on the lookout for more recruits to the Magical Renegades!

The class that got stranded in this new timeline when they were on a field trip are underdogs trying to survive; some of them are just trying to survive and wait it out until space-time can be restored, but others are seeking out opportunities for wealth or to become a mage! Their paths will cross...