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Timelines and Where-Realms

Part 2

for Taiko and studley-destiny

by Draconicon

The night passed with a series of questions running through Studley's head. Technically, he didn't need to sleep - that was more of a well-indulged luxury these days rather than a necessity, since there were parts of him (here, there, and everywhere, and probably nowhere, too) that barely knew what the concept of sleep meant - but it was something that he preferred to do rather than getting lost in his head with a question that he couldn't do anything more than noodle around. Lack of answers, and lack of information to get those answers, were some of the few things still capable of utterly stymying him, and he didn't particularly enjoy the feeling of puzzling at things. That was more the work of normal people, and he had left normal behind a long time ago.

Nonetheless, the going-silver wolf leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling, indulging in that normality if for no other reason than for a change of pace. He tried to convince himself that it was good for him to stay in touch with more 'normal' concerns, and he half-way succeeded. Enough to keep thinking on the puzzles and not drive himself to distraction, anyway.

Folding both hands behind his head, he took a deep breath and asked the obvious question. If there was a super that was capable of moving up and down along the time stream, why hadn't Taiko warned him about that guy?

Either he didn't know, or the guy's a friend and likes his privacy.

He imagined that it was more the former than the latter. Taiko was a good guy, but when he was trying to hide something, it was obvious to all and sundry that there was something being danced around, something being avoided. So, more likely that this tiger was someone that Taiko didn't actually know about. Considering that he flitted around with his TARDIS and - to the best of Studley's knowledge - wasn't in Novus Ager as much as the melon dragon would like, that implied that the tiger was someone that knew about Taiko, but not the other way around.

So, there was a time-manipulating tiger living in a city that liked to move around. Did that mean that the tiger had been responsible for bringing him here? Much as he wanted to blame the new outsider for the act, it didn't feel right. Time and space were two very different things, and there hadn't been that lingering feeling of shifting the way that the tiger had left him with when he had tried fucking with his timeline.

Studley smirked slightly. He wondered if that had felt as odd to the strange feline as it had for him. He imagined that digging into that particular vein had been very different for the tiger compared to any of his other victims.

Getting off topic, man...focus...

Studley nodded in agreement with himself, thinking it through. The tiger hadn't been best pleased to be noticed, so that probably meant that he had expected to go undetected. That didn't make sense, though, since he had been standing in the open, on the sidewalk, looking out at the crime scene rather than looking at anything else. There hadn't been another power going at that point, so how was he supposed to go unnoticed?

Either he was crazy, or he had been using another power that just didn't work on the wolf. That wouldn't be the first time that something like that had happened, that was for sure.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead as he continued noodling the puzzle from different angles. There were all sorts of weird things in this city, and he still didn't know all the variables. He didn't need to control them, but considering that his best asset was how chaos tended to slide in various ways around him, it was useful to know what the chaos was affecting, what sort of things might change in his presence.

There was little more that he could puzzle out about the tiger, though. Motivation-wise, the fact that he had been staring at the crime scene and had called that there would be something else happening, that he had said it was 'too late', meant that he had been involved to some sideways degree, at the very least. Whether that was as a hero or a villain that was trying to horn in on the action, though, was unknown. As was his purpose, and why he called Novus Ager his city. Too many itty bitty pieces that didn't have any connections just yet.

As he had expected, the feeling of puzzling at the pieces too early was giving him a headache of frustration. Studley sighed, rolled onto his side, and stared at the wall. He almost wished that he had a way of daring the tiger to just appear. That way, at least, they could have solved part of this with a quick fight. There were few things that you couldn 't pick up with a quick sparring match.

Yet, there was nothing. He shook his head, closed his eyes, and with all the knowledge and experience an age beyond his looks gained, he made himself go to sleep. It took slightly more effort than usual.

The morning came with a ringing phone and a blaring alarm almost at the exact same time. Studley reached for a nightstand that was no longer there, and then sat up when he realized that there was a different feeling to the gravity in the room. As soon as he did, he felt his back slide along the bed as several realizations hit him at once.

The nightstand was on the ceiling.

His bed was against the wall.

Gravity felt weird because he had sat up and leaned forward, and that meant he was falling rather than sitting up.

"ACK!"

Studley threw himself into a roll as he hit the ground, somersaulting over to the far side of the bedroom. He blinked as he turned around, looking at the various bits and bobs that had changed. Somehow, the window had gone to the floor, looking down at a layer of concrete, while the door out of the bedroom was under the nightstand on the ceiling. The bed was against the wall, almost like one of those folding beds that used to disappear into the wall, and the rest of his furniture had been arrayed in various points along the walls and ceiling and...well, anywhere but the floor, apparently.

"What...the hell..."

Studley shook his head, reaching for the phone still ringing away in his vest pocket. He pulled it out and flipped it open - a personal affectation for the feel and look, even if it was still a smart phone - and pressed it to his ear.

"Yeah, this is Studley."

"Studley, you got a minute?"

"I think I got a few, once I figure out how to get out of my house again..."

"First time in Novus Ager?"

"First time being here long enough to see a house change its shape."

"It's still got a front door. It'll just be on a different wall."

"Or a ceiling..."

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Just thinking about what chaos does to something that's already weird as hell..."

"Well, anyway, you got time, I'd like some help. Bigger supervillain on the loose, and he's already got back-up."

"Got? I thought that you either had minions or you don't. Oh, wait. Is he one of those with hypnosis powers or something?"

"Try possession and necromancy."

"Ugh..." He rubbed his forehead. It had been a little while since he'd had to deal with one of them. Not a good time last time, and probably not a good time this time, either. "Alright. I'll be...where do you need me?"

"Main freeway heading through Novus Ager."

He noticed that Nor didn't give him a more specific location than that, and considering the little bit that he'd already seen about the city moving around, that was probably for the best. He'd find it.

"South side or north side?"

"The way that he's going - ooof!"

"Nor?"

"Ugh. Police cruiser, sudden stop, ow. South side."

Studley stared at his phone for a moment, but shut it down shortly after. If there were police already involved, then that meant that this was probably already a little over-complicated. If they were running into Nor, that was probably a worse thing.

"Alright, so...let's do this the easy way."

Shortly afterwards, Studley was surfing the freeway alongside Nor. They had managed to grab a ride with a pair of cops that weren't officially on-duty, and thus weren't part of the fleet that were chasing after two other cars right in front of them. The feeling of the wind stroking through his fur was almost as good as the feeling of flying, but it was the sensation of being on the hunt that really got to him.

"So, who's in charge of this car fleet?" he shouted to the mule to his right.

"Necromiter," Nor shouted back, the mule crouched down and staring straight ahead, more laser-focused and less relaxed than Studley was. "He's probably got all of them possessed at this point."

"You said something about necromancy. What's he doing, ramming ghosts down their throats or something?"

"Probably. That's what he was doing last time."

They paused, grabbing the sides of the police cars carrying them as they took a sudden turn on the freeway. The fleet of cars was catching up to the two that were just ahead, and Studley winced as he imagined what the cops at the front of the chase were feeling right now. Probably a whole lot of WTF and a fair bit of fear as to what their fellow cops would do when they finally caught up.

"Think he's part of the fleet?"

"Nah. Not the way he works," Nor shouted, clinging to the top of his cop car with one hand and both hooves. "He likes to flaunt from the background."

"Then why are we chasing them?"

"Because he's gonna show up when they catch the cars in front."

"Right. A sacrifice."

"Not if I can help it."

So serious. Studley hadn't meant that they were just going to hand the cops over to Necromiter, whoever that happened to be, but that they were using the cops as bait. He wasn't cruel enough to think that it was just a good idea to give a villain what they wanted; hell, that was the route of appeasement, and that was one policy that Studley had never, ever believed would work. No evil worked that way.

But that didn't mean that you couldn't let them think that they were going to get what they wanted. That little bit of bait and switch was more than allowed.

They crouched a bit lower on the hoods of their respective cars, barely keeping pace with the fleet of cop cruisers. They were well ahead of the wolf and mule, and the best that could be said was that they weren't getting any further ahead. That was something.

Suddenly, the cars up front must have hit a roadblock or something, because they came to a screeching halt. The other cars surrounded them, doors flinging open like barricades and forming a large circle that the two cop cars in the center couldn't escape. Studley narrowed his eyes, peering down the road to see the other cops hopping out, aiming what he hoped were tasers at their fellow law enforcement officers.

The two cars in the middle idled, looking like they were trapped. They probably were.

A roaring engine caught his ears, and as their rides slowed, he watched as a new cop car came up one of the off-ramps from the freeway. He cocked his head to the side, looking over at Nor.

"Is that him?"

"Probably."

The car came to a stop at the outside of the circle. Studley waved for his driver to slow down, and did the same to Nor's. They came to a stop about four hundred feet off, just far enough away to be harder to see. Nor whipped his head around.

"Why are we stopping?"

"I want to see this," Studley said.

"He's going to possess them."

"Maybe, but I doubt that we're going to take down fifty cops by ourselves."

Well, that was a lie. He could do that, and he could do it more easily than he had taken down the various cat burglars the day before. It was less a matter of capability and more of a feeling that something was going to happen if he waited just a little bit. The idea of seeing what this necromancer could do appealed to him, particularly for finding a long-term solution rather than just a 'throw the bastard in jail' solution. After all, if he was one of those that could cast his spells with bare hands and simple words, then a simple jail cell wasn't going to -

The car door opened, and a stallion stepped out. Studley took one look and slapped a hand across his forehead.

"Please...please tell me that's not him," he muttered.

"Nope. That's him."

"You could have told me that he was the "I'm a rich schmuck that learned it through the mail" type."

He hadn't seen a necromancer that decked out with accessories since his time in the Lovecraftian realms, and even they would have struggled to give this guy a run for his money. The stallion was dressed in a robe that had to have cost him about a thousand dollars, judging by the layers of thread creating different designs on it, and how it was tailored to be flowing and fitted at the same time. The stallion didn't so much look around as he did sneer at things, and he carried skulls, talismans, and - oh, lord, he had a helmet that was shaped like a skull. Badly shaped like a skull, for that matter, the sort that was more like a B movie prop rather than a proper bit of anatomy.

Studley rubbed his forehead, sighing. This was going to be far less interesting than he hoped, but probably less problematic. At least there was that.

"Alright, let's get this -"

Then, the world shifted.

Even from four hundred feet away, Studley felt the pull and tug in the currents of energy around him. Not merely magic, this, but something that called through the various levels of this world, something that screamed in the dark, something that shouted and called with a voice that was so close to some of his relatives that he honestly wondered if some idiot had dug up someone that he had buried.

And as that 'sound' in the air rippled through him, he felt something respond. There were spirits around, little roaming things that had long since given up finding their way to the afterlife. They were called by that voice, pulled through. He couldn't see the ghosts themselves, not properly, but the wolf could see the little lights that marked their passage through the concrete under the cars. They moved quickly, fluttering and swimming like tadpoles towards the necromancer.

"...That's new..." Studley muttered.

The ghosts flew to a miniature skull that Necromiter held aloft. No mystery where he was getting the power from, but at least it was something big, something that was easy to make out.

Another pulse rocked him, another scream through the world for the dead. Studley realized, then, that Nor wasn't hearing that, that it was coming from a different place than the world of the living. He was only hearing it due to all the different connections and power that he had pulled together for himself over the years.

Nor did, however, notice that he was getting knocked around from all the screaming, and the mule arched an eyebrow.

"What are you getting, Studley?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that something's happening. Something you're getting that I'm not."

"He's got something that calls ghosts. No, wait, scratch that. Not calls. Commands. And it's loud."

Loud enough that he was getting a headache, and loud enough that he knew for a fact that the ghosts wouldn't be able to ignore it. Whatever spirits heard that call were going to come quickly, and they were going to be as obedient as charmed fools at a county fair.

The cops had already been possessed by the time that he relayed that information, two muscled men getting out of each car and standing with eyes of emptiness, faces slack and obviously no longer quite there. Necromiter said something to them, and then they got back in their cars. The fleet of cop cars departed down the off-ramp, going in the right direction this time, and they were soon moving out of sight.

Unsurprisingly, the off-duty cops didn't want to carry them any further. Studley shook his head as he stepped down, intentionally leaving one light claw mark as he did.

"Any idea where he's going?" Studley asked. "Does he have a base or something around here?"

"No, not since his mansion burned down, but..."

Nor glanced off into the distance, and Studley could tell that the mule was doing that whole 'thinking it through' thing that he did when he was on the case. It wasn't a Sherlock Holmes style of thinking, but rather something that was more like taking everything and sifting through it. There was no quick deduction, but rather a grinding down of the different things that didn't feel right.

It wasn't as impressive as a string of deductions, but he'd been with detectives that did that very thing and came to better conclusions than the active deducters. He leaned against the railing that blocked cars from falling off the freeway, crossing his arms as he waited.

"The graveyard," Nor said after half a minute. "He'll be going for the graveyard."

"Surprised that he didn't start there."

"Hallowed ground, and statues that keep it that way," the mule said, already making his way over the railing. "Any chance that you can take a long fall?"

"I think I can do a hero's landing."

"Good. We want to move."

"Heh. See you there."

Rather than climbing over the barrier and dropping, Studley decided to show off. The wolf kicked himself up and over in a backflip, and howled with laughter as he went down. He had just enough time to see a wide-eyed Nor staring down at him before he flipped over to gauge his landing.

Of course, he hadn't expected to see a swimming pool change places with a tall office building. That...led to a howl of an entirely different sort after belly-flopping.

A soaking-wet wolf and a rather sweaty mule made their way to the Sopitos Agri graveyard, where the cop cars were parked eight deep and required climbing over to actually reach the graveyard gates. Studley grumbled as he walked over them, dripping from head to toe, his leather already taking some effects from the chlorine from the pool.

"That's just not fair."

"Things move. It's part of the charm," Nor muttered, huffing softly.

"Yeah, well, stained leather is not charming."

At least he hadn't lost anything from that, and he had already gotten rid of the discomfort of hitting the surface of water from that high up. He could have turned that into some sort of non-lethal dive if he'd had a moment to realize what was going on, but he had been too intent on showing off that time. Annoying, but he understood how it had happened.

Shaking his head, he pushed on the gate to the graveyard. The echoing thumps and thuds of cracking statues in the distance hid the creaking groan of the iron gate swinging open.

"Sounds like they're already here," he said.

"Yeah...Really not what I wanted to hear."

"Has he tried something like this before?"

"Once, but his powers weren't strong enough to reach through the hallowed-ground thing. The statues were enough of a barrier to keep his necromancy on the other side, and they made it so that anyone possessed crossing the lines got de-possessed. Kinda how I got my mind back that time."

"Huh. Handy."

"But if he's got all these cops, then they can start breaking the statues down one by one, opening holes in that protective barrier. If he gets through with whatever that skull is, he'll have a goldmine of souls to play with."

"...He's one of those necromancers that can get more magic with more souls, isn't he?"

"Unfortunately? Yes."

"Let's get to this, then. You said that if you go through the barrier, you can be de-possessed?"

"That's what happened last time."

"Then let's try that. You take one side, I'll take the other."

Nor nodded, and they split up. Studley winced as another pulse of command rocked the air, feeling the sheer thunder in that voice echoing in his skull, rattling it around. Sometimes, sensitivity to the universe was a real bitch and a half.

He snuck through the outer layers of the graveyard, making his way past the standing stones. As he made his way forward, he realized that there was an empty feeling to the graveyard that he wasn't familiar with. It took him a few seconds to realize that it meant that the ghosts outside the center of the graveyard had already been taken. The mild haunting feeling that he usually felt when walking through places like this was gone, replaced with something empty and vaguely thin, almost wrong.

Studley shook his head, reaching through an endless pocket in his pants. His fingers tapped different weapons, from guns to clubs, but he eventually settled for a pool cue. A rather special pool cue, for that matter, one that he had taken up from an otter that he'd met a long time ago. He pulled it out, whipped it about, and then rubbed his thumb along the green tip.

"Still good..."

The wolf eventually reached the center ring, and he was glad to see that all the statues were still standing. He counted a total of thirty-two, each one a different species, each one standing with pride and devotion to their duty. However, at least ten of them were showing cracks from the beatings that they were taking, and some of them had been outright shot, bullet holes starting to take shape along heads and chests among the statues. Not a good look for them, and not a good thing for the barrier, either.

He ducked behind one of the gravestones as Necromiter circled around his side of the barrier, the stallion all but floating on his hooves. When the up-himself necromancer turned his back, he poked his head out from behind the grave again.

The ghosts were being used almost like a series of attendants, lifting him from under his arms, carrying him around like they were little more than slaves. They supported him like platforms beneath his hooves, too, carrying him this way and that, allowing him to dart about as if he had the power of flight.

This close, though, he could feel the magic that the necromancer had. Though it was strongest with that strange artifact that had commanded the ghosts so loudly, he could feel that Necromiter had more than just that. Though the robe and accessories were as gaudy as one could imagine, they were still enchanted in some way, and there was an obvious comfort that the stallion had with the ghosts around him. Obviously, he had done this before, and he wasn't quite so inexperienced as a mail-order necromancer might have been.

But that doesn't mean that you know what you have there...

He didn't like the skull, and he didn't like the 'voice' that it had to command the ghosts. It felt like something overpowered, particularly for this city, and he wanted to get it out of here as fast as possible.

First, those minions...

As soon as Necromiter floated off to another part of the ring - following a cartoonish scream of someone falling forward, almost like something from a canned recording - Studley took aim with the pool cue. He laid it over the top of the gravestone, took aim at the bull just in front of him, and then tapped the bottom of the cue.

Without warning, it extended at rapid speed. The tip poked the bull right in the base of the spine, and just like smacking into a cluster of billiard balls, the bull went flying forward, rolling past the barrier and into the center. There was a hiss and another scream, the ghost inside flying out of the possessed body, and the bull came to a stop with almost literal cartoon birds flying around his head.

His partner met the same fate, rolling through the barrier and landing among the other ghosts. Studley chuckled, ducking down again and sneaking around the line.

Between him and Nor, they managed to get about half of the police officers - just under thirty - knocked through the barrier before Necromiter realized that there was something besides just raw minion stupidity going on. Studley was just about to line up his shot for his twentieth minion removal when the air pulsed with a different voice. Grand, low, and...well, as typical for a monologuing villain as you could get.

" Heroes...I know you're out there...I praise you for your grand effort...but nothing will stop my schemes for the great darkness..."

Did this guy learn his villain monologues from a comic book? Studley wondered, lowering himself just a bit further as he crawled to the next gravestone. There were still a decent number of police officers that had to be freed from possession, and just as many that needed to be fished out of the center of the graveyard when this was all said and done. He didn't have time to deal with someone grandstanding right at that moment, particularly not with -

" You may deal with my mortal minions, but the ghosts are still here, still awaiting my commands. And what is a necromancer who cannot grow stronger with the power of the spirits?"

...Oh, you son of a bitch...

Studley rubbed his forehead. That was a moment of not entirely thinking things through. First leaping off a freeway and belly-flopping into a pool, and then forgetting that particular nugget of information? He was really off his game today, and that was not making him feel any better about the situation.

Another pulse, another sucking feeling. This time, he felt more than just a few ghosts moving through the air, but dozens, all of them being pulled towards Necromiter. He gritted his teeth, feeling more than just the formerly living go, but something else, like there were dead things, dead concepts being pulled through the world, old things, old ideas that had been put by the wayside.

That skull was far, far more powerful than it should be if it could start collecting those. He gritted his teeth, slowly pulling himself up -

And there was Necromiter, standing with his back to the wolf just ten feet away. His arms were held aloft, and the dead spirits were slowly rotating around him. He would gesture to them, calling them to his mouth and then consume them. They filled him, and he would swell, his arms, legs, and more stiffening with muscle. The aura of power that came from the skull glowed brighter, and so did the glow of the dead.

Studley saw Nor poke his head up from the other side of the statue ring, the mule gritting his teeth. He lifted an unconscious policeman from the far side of the ring, holding him almost like one might have held a football, but Studley held up his hand.

Not yet...

Something was shifting in the ghost ring that had been called to the stallion. Sure, Necromiter was getting bigger, stiffer, thicker in the shoulders. Sure, he was getting stronger, filling out that robe more than he had been, looking more imposing even from behind...

But the ghosts were aware, now. They had been stirred to wakefulness, and they did not like the idea of being eaten.

The first counter strike came from a ghost that was being sucked down like a noodle. Necromiter looked almost like he was savoring a dish of spaghetti when the ghost's tail flicked around and slapped him across the face. The stallion gasped, his eyes going wide at the sudden impact, and the ghost wriggled free.

That was only the first. Those already consumed started rippling around inside of Necromiter, and Studley winced at some of the body-stretching shenanigans that the ghosts were pulling off. He saw the horse's head swell to four times its natural size, then shrink down again. He saw the stallion's stomach bulge out with a cartoonish bend, almost like something had kicked him from inside. The ghosts that had been lifting him up, that had been subservient to him, were suddenly fighting back with everything that they had.

Offering someone a body is one thing. Telling them that they're going to be your next meal? That's something else...

Studley watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the ghosts started beating the crap out of Necromiter. He deserved all that and more, and the wolf honestly was happy to let the ghosts have the satisfaction of doing it. There was something right in giving that to him, something right in allowing them to deal out punishment. After all, they were the ones that had gotten disturbed, and they -

A familiar stretching, cramped feeling hit him, and he whipped his head around. There, standing against one of the most damaged statues, was that tiger again. This time, he was dressed up - no, dressed down - no, in a pair of sparkling stripper shorts - no, in a suit again. The dizzying array of different attire was constantly shifting, and he shook his head, turning back to the tiger's face. The shifting stripes, the different patterns, the different colors of eyes and mouth and more, were easier to take than the differences in clothing.

He walked up, half-expecting the tiger to dismiss him, but again, the feline didn't even seem to notice him until Studley reached out and poked him in the leg. The tiger blinked, looking down at him, only to grit his teeth.

"You? Again?"

"Yes, me. I think we need to talk."

"No, we don't."

"Actually, we do. And I'm feeling like I need to insist on this one."

"You will not. I have -"

The tiger whipped his head up, and Studley did the same. For a split-second, Nor was flying through the air, a missile of living proportions heading straight for the twisting, turning necromancer. Then the tiger blinked, and Nor was back on the other side of the circle, staring at a gravestone as if measuring it for a launching ramp and deciding against it.

Studley blinked, realizing that he had just seen time altered, that something had happened in the past to change what would have happened. Rather than jumping off a fallen gravestone, Nor had been stymied by a well-maintained one, unable to tackle Necromiter, after all. Something had been changed so that it wouldn't happen, that it would go this way instead. And it had happened instantly, without anyone actually knowing it had happened other than him.

This tiger knows what he's doing...

"Let go of me," the tiger whispered as he gripped the feline's leg. "I have business here."

"Yeah, and I have questions."

"They will have to go unanswered. I have to -"

A hissing sound interrupted the feline, and like air leaving a balloon, the ghosts started flooding out of the necromancer. Studley braced himself against the statue's plinth, holding it as tightly as he did the tiger. When the flood of ghosts was over, they looked back...

And the skull was gone.

"...That's twice now, wolf. Twice. Get in my way a third time, and we will have more than words."

"You know, words are all that I -"

The tiger disappeared, leaving him gripping empty air. Studley stared at the space that the feline had occupied, then gritted his teeth in a low growl.

"Okay, that's really starting to piss me off..."

The End

Summary: Studley's questions about the mysterious tiger continue to grow, and so too do the issues in Novus Ager. This time, they have to deal with a necromancer.

Tags: No sex, Wolf, Mule, Supers, Superhero, Supervillain, Necromancy, Magic, Undead, Possession, Miniseries, Novus Ager, Tiger, Mystery, Annoyance, Time Play,