New World Order
A Convergence Story
---
Part One
“They say that the truth is stranger than fiction...but we may never really know the truth about what’s been going on this year.”
The pretty blonde smiled sadly, invoking the pathos needed for such a delicate subject. Good. He nodded his approval, his hand holding his chin in contemplation. The show continued on, the television providing the only light in the small room he sat in. The scene changed, a map of the world, and the only thing left of the blonde was her voice narrating.
“It all began one year ago.” Two faces appeared on the screen. “On the exact same day, at the exact same time, two men went missing. A real estate agent from Hong Kong, and a hotel tycoon from the United States. This would seem intentional, as both men were prominent martial artists, and had in the past participated in an international tournament together. However, seven months later, when only one of them was found, it appeared to be nothing more than a mere coincidence.”
The screen changed again, this time to a press conference with the one who had returned, Lee, only days after his return home. “It was Nguuhao,” he said. “Some leftover crazies kidnapped me while I was out on a morning walk! Took me to who knows where...locked me up and wanted me to become the next F.A.N.G! I’m grateful it was me and not some poor kids like it was before, but come on! You honestly think some old man is gonna withstand that poison? I was able to outsmart them, though...convince them that one of THEM should be the next F.A.N.G since they were already part of Nguuhao in the first place. After that they turned on each other, killed themselves off one by one with that nasty poison of theirs, and I finally got out of there and returned home.”
“And what about Ken Masters?” An offscreen reporter asked. “Did you see or hear anything about him?”
“Ken Masters? You mean the Ken Masters from that tournament way back when? What, did something happen to him, too?” He paused then, rewinded to when the question was asked. Paused again right before Lee answered the question. He was lying. He was good at it, and had been doing it the whole time, but he was still lying nonetheless. That split second, that flash of sadness in his eyes...he knew what really happened to Ken Masters. And whatever it was...it wasn’t good.
He resumed the documentary. The audio died out, replaced by the narrator. “Naturally, there was speculation that the two events had been connected,” she said, as the clip faded off the screen. “But Lee had last been seen by his nephews at ten in the morning, which was nine at night in Eastern Time. Ken had been last seen by his wife Eliza at that time as they had gone to sleep together. She’d woken up an hour later to find him gone.”
The video now shifted to a news report, where Ken’s wife stood outside the Masters estate. Behind her was a candlelight vigil for her husband, attended by hundreds. “Nothing was disturbed or stolen...he was just...gone,” she said. He noted that Eliza was composed, but still distraught. As expected of a poor woman who had no idea where her husband and father of her child had gone. “Ken had always been reckless when he was younger, running off without telling me where...but he’d changed when we got married and had Mel. I don’t know why he left or where he’s gone…I…” Eliza sobbed, overcome. Poor thing.
The reporter had the decency to turn the camera on herself at that point. “If anyone has any information on Ken Masters’ whereabouts, please call the number below.” A number flashed on screen, and the narrator cut in as the video itself froze.
“At the time of filming, the reward has gone up to fifty thousand dollars,” she said. “Please, if you have any information on Ken Masters, share it now.” He nodded approvingly. A good call, a sign that they cared. And they did care, really, even though they knew that nothing would turn up. No one would ever know the truth of what really happened to Ken Masters.
Once again, the screen changed, to a scene of police footage. “A few weeks after Lee’s return, an empty warehouse in Yunnan, China made headlines as it contained the remains of a Nguuhao base.” The officers on screen illuminated a cell where the door had been busted open. One of them cried out offscreen, and the camera turned to the floor, where the floor had been corroded. “A telltale sign of Nguuhao’s signature poison,” the narrator continued. “Lee’s alibi was confirmed. Save for the disappearance of Ken Masters, it appeared this situation was resolved...but what we didn’t know was that this was only the beginning.”
The screen now flashed multiple images of multiple news articles and people, all with her narrating over it. “Just five months ago, renowned sumo wrestler Edmond Honda vanished without a trace. One of the former Shadaloo Dolls who had been staying with him, Little Eagle of the Thunderfoot tribe, had said she’d last seen him set off to visit an old friend. Not too long after, she came home to collect her personal belongings before setting out on her own, claiming she had found a new place to belong. No one has heard from her since.”
“She saw Edmond as a father figure,” another Doll, Julia, said in an interview. “I think his disappearance really messed with her. I mean, all of us are worried about him. He looked out for us, y’know?” Naturally there had been rumors about Edmond when Little Eagle had left. It was important this documentary continued to clear his name as they’d worked so hard to do themselves.
The next clip, from a press release held by a Turkish oil tycoon further aided in that. “Edmond, he is the godfather of my little girls! I’ve left them with him for weeks while on business trips...all of them are so worried about their dear Uncle Eddie! He’s a brother to me, to my wife! I want to know that he’s okay, that he’s safe. Please, tell us if you know anything!” Another number, another mention of a cash reward. Indeed. It was important Edmond remain in good standing with the populace. This would be important later.
The narrator took over again. “Metro City Mayor Cody Travers went missing for a week shortly after. He hasn’t gone into much detail since his return, which means that this may be personal and unrelated to the other disappearances. What could this all mean? Is someone targeting former World Warriors? We may never know. All we know is--”
Click. He turned the television off, the room now completely dark save for the light peeking out from the door. He sighed, standing up and moving to his desk, turning the lights on as he did so. Once he was seated, he pressed a button on his intercom. “Are you there?”
A voice piped up on the other end, the same voice he had been listening to for the past forty minutes. The pretty blonde narrator. “I am, yes.”
“Please come to my office. I would like to discuss some things with you.”
---
It had only been a few months since Kolin had been blessed by her emperor with knowledge of the Multiverse. The existence of other worlds, of realities different than their own...it was a secret known only to the Society’s elite, and even then it was selective in who knew. Urien had known, and Gill was able to dispatch him to Multiversal missions on the Society’s behalf, in order to both improve the Society’s standings within the outer worlds and also get him away from their own for long periods of time. And, now that it had started affecting their world directly, Kolin had been trusted with the information, as well.
It had been overwhelming, at first, learning it all. Arch Demons? Murder Games? It was like something out of a fantasy book. But Gill had spoken of it, so it had to have been true. And he had the support of documented evidence of other worlds, evidence collected as far back as a few centuries. How could she not believe?
“It started two years ago,” He’d told her. “The very first Murder Game ran on a Multiversal scale, in some research facility. From there it moved to an apocalyptic Las Vegas, to a crime-ridden place called Gotham City, and so on, up until the death of the Arch Demon. We had thought that was the end...but a priest involved in his rituals had other plans. It is thanks to him that our world had finally gotten involved.”
“Had we not been prior to that?” She had asked.
Gill had nodded. “The Society has had knowledge of the Multiverse for centuries, but never had we allowed our world to get involved with external affairs. When the Arch Demon struck, we monitored the situation, as we would have if any Multiversal threat came to light. Once our world had gotten involved, it became our job to ensure that as little of the Multiverse was public knowledge as possible. And that is where you come in, Kolin.”
She was tasked with propaganda. Posing as an independent filmmaker, she created a documentary that was meant to dispel public suspicions about the possibility that everything was connected. The reality was that it both was and was not; everyone listed in her film had in fact been involved with a Multiversal incident, but it seemed only the ones the sumo and Doll had been involved with had been connected in any way. And there were others, too, not mentioned in the film: the warrior Akuma had been abducted with Lee and Ken, an American wrestling manager had been in the first incident involving the sumo while a British bodyguard had been in the first involving the Doll. and some young man in France had been involved in the same disappearance as Cody. But the less the general public knew, the better. The film had only just been finished and submitted to the higher-ups for approval, so it was no surprise Gill wanted to speak with her.
She entered his office, bowing as she did so. “Lord Gill,” she greeted formally, as always.
He sat at his desk, wearing a simple red robe over a green tunic. While others in the Society dressed in modern clothing, Urien and herself included, Gill never dressed in anything but clothes of the ancients. It was tradition for each Emperor to do so, to maintain an air of timelessness and stability as the world went on changing around them. As the planets revolved around the Sun, so it appeared that the Earth revolved around the Emperor. Upon her entrance, he smiled. “Kolin,” he said, motioning to the chair before him. “Please, take a seat.”
The chair was perpendicular to his own, something Kolin found unusual until she spotted the television. Ah, so this was about the documentary. She sat, and he continued. “I have just finished watching your documentary. I must applaud you for how well done it is. Surely it will aid our endeavors to keep the Multiverse a secret.”
Kolin couldn’t help but smile at that. “It was no problem at all with the resources available to me thanks to our Society. I am sure it could even win awards from the masses.”
“Society-funded films have already done so, many times over.” The smile faded from his face, as he picked up his remote. “But I fear a different piece of media will cause us more trouble than it’s worth.” He turned the television on, and on screen was not the documentary, but a man Kolin didn’t recognize. Wild orange hair, a white suit, a maniacal grin…
“Who is this?” But pressing play answered the question for her.
"Now, you're probably thinking to yourselves 'What's the name of this Badass Boogeyman with a lava elevator?' I've got a crisp hundred dollar bill for anyone who guessed... Arcade!” He was surrounded by pillars of lava, which encased young people from the neck down. The cameras would cut to them as he spoke, and two faces in particular Kolin swore were familiar…
Gill paused the video. “This is an outer world broadcast that we just recently intercepted ,” he said. “From what we gathered, it’s being shown throughout different worlds, and was intended to be broadcast in ours before we prevented it.”
“Was this...an attempt to reveal the Multiverse to the masses?”
“I do not know for sure, but it seems unlikely that was the primary goal here. There is no doubt that there is more to this than it appears, but that is not our concern for the time being. What is our concern, however, are these two.” The video resumed until the camera stopped on the familiar faces, at which point Gill paused again. “Those girls are from our world,” he said. “Twins that were former Dolls of Shadaloo. I assume you have your Book of Miraha on you?”
Kolin produced it from her person. “I am never without it…” Truly, her Emperor and her had a close bond, if he could anticipate this. That, or he could very well be all-knowing…
Gill nodded. “Read aloud the passage from Chapter Seventeen. Starting at Verse Twelve.”
Turning to where he directed, she cleared her throat and did as requested. “‘On the dawn of adulthood, twins shall be cast into the river of fire. As one drowns, the other shall emerge a phoenix, born again with moon-white hair. Twins a day older shall be cast at a later time, one suffering deep corruption before resurrection. Those who suffer will be the older siblings.’” She looked up from the holy book. “Do you mean to tell me…”
Gill nodded, fast-forwarding to a tragic scene between the two sisters. Trapped within a river, one let go, sacrificing herself to the raging river. As her body rushed right over a waterfall Kolin closed her eyes, grimacing at what was no doubt an exploitative shot of the poor girl’s death. “Her death awakens latent Psycho Power in the younger sister,” Gill said, pausing again when the camera was off the grisly scene. “She goes on to not only utilize it, but master it without ever needing to shed her humanity. I believe she is the only user of Psycho Power ever recorded to do so.”
“And one of the effects of Psycho Power on the body is the change of hair color…” She looked to Gill. “Lord Gill...Are you suggesting that our prophecies are intertwined with the Multiverse?”
He was silent a moment. “I need you to undertake a mission for me,” he said. “That real estate agent from Hong Kong. Lee. I need you to meet with him immediately. Details will be provided upon arrival in Hong Kong.”
Kolin knew better than to question a direct order. “Understood. I will make the arrangements at once.”
“Thank you. You are dismissed.” Bowing, she left the room, headed to her own office in order to make arrangements. There was more to this mission, she knew it. But what could Gill want her to do? Whatever it was, it had to be important. The Society’s involvement with the Multiverse was nowhere near over.
In fact, this was only the beginning.
---
End Part One
A Convergence Story
---
Part One
“They say that the truth is stranger than fiction...but we may never really know the truth about what’s been going on this year.”
The pretty blonde smiled sadly, invoking the pathos needed for such a delicate subject. Good. He nodded his approval, his hand holding his chin in contemplation. The show continued on, the television providing the only light in the small room he sat in. The scene changed, a map of the world, and the only thing left of the blonde was her voice narrating.
“It all began one year ago.” Two faces appeared on the screen. “On the exact same day, at the exact same time, two men went missing. A real estate agent from Hong Kong, and a hotel tycoon from the United States. This would seem intentional, as both men were prominent martial artists, and had in the past participated in an international tournament together. However, seven months later, when only one of them was found, it appeared to be nothing more than a mere coincidence.”
The screen changed again, this time to a press conference with the one who had returned, Lee, only days after his return home. “It was Nguuhao,” he said. “Some leftover crazies kidnapped me while I was out on a morning walk! Took me to who knows where...locked me up and wanted me to become the next F.A.N.G! I’m grateful it was me and not some poor kids like it was before, but come on! You honestly think some old man is gonna withstand that poison? I was able to outsmart them, though...convince them that one of THEM should be the next F.A.N.G since they were already part of Nguuhao in the first place. After that they turned on each other, killed themselves off one by one with that nasty poison of theirs, and I finally got out of there and returned home.”
“And what about Ken Masters?” An offscreen reporter asked. “Did you see or hear anything about him?”
“Ken Masters? You mean the Ken Masters from that tournament way back when? What, did something happen to him, too?” He paused then, rewinded to when the question was asked. Paused again right before Lee answered the question. He was lying. He was good at it, and had been doing it the whole time, but he was still lying nonetheless. That split second, that flash of sadness in his eyes...he knew what really happened to Ken Masters. And whatever it was...it wasn’t good.
He resumed the documentary. The audio died out, replaced by the narrator. “Naturally, there was speculation that the two events had been connected,” she said, as the clip faded off the screen. “But Lee had last been seen by his nephews at ten in the morning, which was nine at night in Eastern Time. Ken had been last seen by his wife Eliza at that time as they had gone to sleep together. She’d woken up an hour later to find him gone.”
The video now shifted to a news report, where Ken’s wife stood outside the Masters estate. Behind her was a candlelight vigil for her husband, attended by hundreds. “Nothing was disturbed or stolen...he was just...gone,” she said. He noted that Eliza was composed, but still distraught. As expected of a poor woman who had no idea where her husband and father of her child had gone. “Ken had always been reckless when he was younger, running off without telling me where...but he’d changed when we got married and had Mel. I don’t know why he left or where he’s gone…I…” Eliza sobbed, overcome. Poor thing.
The reporter had the decency to turn the camera on herself at that point. “If anyone has any information on Ken Masters’ whereabouts, please call the number below.” A number flashed on screen, and the narrator cut in as the video itself froze.
“At the time of filming, the reward has gone up to fifty thousand dollars,” she said. “Please, if you have any information on Ken Masters, share it now.” He nodded approvingly. A good call, a sign that they cared. And they did care, really, even though they knew that nothing would turn up. No one would ever know the truth of what really happened to Ken Masters.
Once again, the screen changed, to a scene of police footage. “A few weeks after Lee’s return, an empty warehouse in Yunnan, China made headlines as it contained the remains of a Nguuhao base.” The officers on screen illuminated a cell where the door had been busted open. One of them cried out offscreen, and the camera turned to the floor, where the floor had been corroded. “A telltale sign of Nguuhao’s signature poison,” the narrator continued. “Lee’s alibi was confirmed. Save for the disappearance of Ken Masters, it appeared this situation was resolved...but what we didn’t know was that this was only the beginning.”
The screen now flashed multiple images of multiple news articles and people, all with her narrating over it. “Just five months ago, renowned sumo wrestler Edmond Honda vanished without a trace. One of the former Shadaloo Dolls who had been staying with him, Little Eagle of the Thunderfoot tribe, had said she’d last seen him set off to visit an old friend. Not too long after, she came home to collect her personal belongings before setting out on her own, claiming she had found a new place to belong. No one has heard from her since.”
“She saw Edmond as a father figure,” another Doll, Julia, said in an interview. “I think his disappearance really messed with her. I mean, all of us are worried about him. He looked out for us, y’know?” Naturally there had been rumors about Edmond when Little Eagle had left. It was important this documentary continued to clear his name as they’d worked so hard to do themselves.
The next clip, from a press release held by a Turkish oil tycoon further aided in that. “Edmond, he is the godfather of my little girls! I’ve left them with him for weeks while on business trips...all of them are so worried about their dear Uncle Eddie! He’s a brother to me, to my wife! I want to know that he’s okay, that he’s safe. Please, tell us if you know anything!” Another number, another mention of a cash reward. Indeed. It was important Edmond remain in good standing with the populace. This would be important later.
The narrator took over again. “Metro City Mayor Cody Travers went missing for a week shortly after. He hasn’t gone into much detail since his return, which means that this may be personal and unrelated to the other disappearances. What could this all mean? Is someone targeting former World Warriors? We may never know. All we know is--”
Click. He turned the television off, the room now completely dark save for the light peeking out from the door. He sighed, standing up and moving to his desk, turning the lights on as he did so. Once he was seated, he pressed a button on his intercom. “Are you there?”
A voice piped up on the other end, the same voice he had been listening to for the past forty minutes. The pretty blonde narrator. “I am, yes.”
“Please come to my office. I would like to discuss some things with you.”
---
It had only been a few months since Kolin had been blessed by her emperor with knowledge of the Multiverse. The existence of other worlds, of realities different than their own...it was a secret known only to the Society’s elite, and even then it was selective in who knew. Urien had known, and Gill was able to dispatch him to Multiversal missions on the Society’s behalf, in order to both improve the Society’s standings within the outer worlds and also get him away from their own for long periods of time. And, now that it had started affecting their world directly, Kolin had been trusted with the information, as well.
It had been overwhelming, at first, learning it all. Arch Demons? Murder Games? It was like something out of a fantasy book. But Gill had spoken of it, so it had to have been true. And he had the support of documented evidence of other worlds, evidence collected as far back as a few centuries. How could she not believe?
“It started two years ago,” He’d told her. “The very first Murder Game ran on a Multiversal scale, in some research facility. From there it moved to an apocalyptic Las Vegas, to a crime-ridden place called Gotham City, and so on, up until the death of the Arch Demon. We had thought that was the end...but a priest involved in his rituals had other plans. It is thanks to him that our world had finally gotten involved.”
“Had we not been prior to that?” She had asked.
Gill had nodded. “The Society has had knowledge of the Multiverse for centuries, but never had we allowed our world to get involved with external affairs. When the Arch Demon struck, we monitored the situation, as we would have if any Multiversal threat came to light. Once our world had gotten involved, it became our job to ensure that as little of the Multiverse was public knowledge as possible. And that is where you come in, Kolin.”
She was tasked with propaganda. Posing as an independent filmmaker, she created a documentary that was meant to dispel public suspicions about the possibility that everything was connected. The reality was that it both was and was not; everyone listed in her film had in fact been involved with a Multiversal incident, but it seemed only the ones the sumo and Doll had been involved with had been connected in any way. And there were others, too, not mentioned in the film: the warrior Akuma had been abducted with Lee and Ken, an American wrestling manager had been in the first incident involving the sumo while a British bodyguard had been in the first involving the Doll. and some young man in France had been involved in the same disappearance as Cody. But the less the general public knew, the better. The film had only just been finished and submitted to the higher-ups for approval, so it was no surprise Gill wanted to speak with her.
She entered his office, bowing as she did so. “Lord Gill,” she greeted formally, as always.
He sat at his desk, wearing a simple red robe over a green tunic. While others in the Society dressed in modern clothing, Urien and herself included, Gill never dressed in anything but clothes of the ancients. It was tradition for each Emperor to do so, to maintain an air of timelessness and stability as the world went on changing around them. As the planets revolved around the Sun, so it appeared that the Earth revolved around the Emperor. Upon her entrance, he smiled. “Kolin,” he said, motioning to the chair before him. “Please, take a seat.”
The chair was perpendicular to his own, something Kolin found unusual until she spotted the television. Ah, so this was about the documentary. She sat, and he continued. “I have just finished watching your documentary. I must applaud you for how well done it is. Surely it will aid our endeavors to keep the Multiverse a secret.”
Kolin couldn’t help but smile at that. “It was no problem at all with the resources available to me thanks to our Society. I am sure it could even win awards from the masses.”
“Society-funded films have already done so, many times over.” The smile faded from his face, as he picked up his remote. “But I fear a different piece of media will cause us more trouble than it’s worth.” He turned the television on, and on screen was not the documentary, but a man Kolin didn’t recognize. Wild orange hair, a white suit, a maniacal grin…
“Who is this?” But pressing play answered the question for her.
"Now, you're probably thinking to yourselves 'What's the name of this Badass Boogeyman with a lava elevator?' I've got a crisp hundred dollar bill for anyone who guessed... Arcade!” He was surrounded by pillars of lava, which encased young people from the neck down. The cameras would cut to them as he spoke, and two faces in particular Kolin swore were familiar…
Gill paused the video. “This is an outer world broadcast that we just recently intercepted ,” he said. “From what we gathered, it’s being shown throughout different worlds, and was intended to be broadcast in ours before we prevented it.”
“Was this...an attempt to reveal the Multiverse to the masses?”
“I do not know for sure, but it seems unlikely that was the primary goal here. There is no doubt that there is more to this than it appears, but that is not our concern for the time being. What is our concern, however, are these two.” The video resumed until the camera stopped on the familiar faces, at which point Gill paused again. “Those girls are from our world,” he said. “Twins that were former Dolls of Shadaloo. I assume you have your Book of Miraha on you?”
Kolin produced it from her person. “I am never without it…” Truly, her Emperor and her had a close bond, if he could anticipate this. That, or he could very well be all-knowing…
Gill nodded. “Read aloud the passage from Chapter Seventeen. Starting at Verse Twelve.”
Turning to where he directed, she cleared her throat and did as requested. “‘On the dawn of adulthood, twins shall be cast into the river of fire. As one drowns, the other shall emerge a phoenix, born again with moon-white hair. Twins a day older shall be cast at a later time, one suffering deep corruption before resurrection. Those who suffer will be the older siblings.’” She looked up from the holy book. “Do you mean to tell me…”
Gill nodded, fast-forwarding to a tragic scene between the two sisters. Trapped within a river, one let go, sacrificing herself to the raging river. As her body rushed right over a waterfall Kolin closed her eyes, grimacing at what was no doubt an exploitative shot of the poor girl’s death. “Her death awakens latent Psycho Power in the younger sister,” Gill said, pausing again when the camera was off the grisly scene. “She goes on to not only utilize it, but master it without ever needing to shed her humanity. I believe she is the only user of Psycho Power ever recorded to do so.”
“And one of the effects of Psycho Power on the body is the change of hair color…” She looked to Gill. “Lord Gill...Are you suggesting that our prophecies are intertwined with the Multiverse?”
He was silent a moment. “I need you to undertake a mission for me,” he said. “That real estate agent from Hong Kong. Lee. I need you to meet with him immediately. Details will be provided upon arrival in Hong Kong.”
Kolin knew better than to question a direct order. “Understood. I will make the arrangements at once.”
“Thank you. You are dismissed.” Bowing, she left the room, headed to her own office in order to make arrangements. There was more to this mission, she knew it. But what could Gill want her to do? Whatever it was, it had to be important. The Society’s involvement with the Multiverse was nowhere near over.
In fact, this was only the beginning.
---
End Part One