Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rala De blinked at the grey... creature cheerfully chewing a salad. True, the galaxy he had come from was filled with strange forms of life, and the pokemon also at the table were even stranger than most, but he'd never before witnessed a sapient creature that lacked any sort of hands or other grasping appendage. Although, perhaps the wings could serve--they were certainly too small to be anything but vestigial.

Shiarlett met his eyes with a tired smile. "Everyone, meet Derpy Hooves, the pony that got summoned to my bedroom yesterday evening. Derpy, this is Rala De, Latias, Latios, Meloetta, Deoxys, and Smeargle."

"Hello!" Derpy chirped brightly, waving a foreleg.

"Ah... hello." Rala De waved a hand back. "A pleasure to meet you." His statement was echoed by various chants of names from the pokemon--an odd form of communication, to be sure.

"You all got summoned by the magic phone as well, right?"

"Well, I don't know if it's magic--"

"It might as well be," Shiarlett grumbled, stabbing her fork into some meat. "Aliens, ponies, and mysterious skills. I'm supposed to be building a jousting arena later, and I'm pretty sure some of the stuff I asked Armsmaster to order isn't for jousting... but for some reason I felt it might be vital." She bit the meat off her fork with some irritation. "Apparently 'powers are mysterious' and Armsmaster ordered the stuff anyway."

"Ah, yes, that was one of your most recent injections," Rala De recalled. "Jousting... I must admit I'm unfamiliar with it."

"Historical sport. Two people in plate armor ride horses and try to knock each other off with lances."

"Horses?"

"Domesticated beasts of burden. Been around since our pre-history..." Shiarlett snorted. "Actually, there's a breed of horse called 'ponies', if you can believe it."

"There are ponies on this world?" Derpy asked.

"Not like you," Shiarlett explained quickly. "Animals. Different facial structure, no wings... I'd show you a picture if I had my phone--"

As if on cue, the object itself vvvworped into existence in front of her.

"Oh, right," she groaned. "The phone teleports to me whenever the autoinject timer hits zero."

"Convenient," Rala De noted.

"Sure, but Armsmaster is probably going to be very upset..." Shiarlett sighed, picking up the device. "Let's see what I got this time..."

20-7: The August 11, 2022 Patch is a minor post-beta patch, reverting the changes for Moira in July 11, 2022 Patch. As it is a 'power tweaking' roll, Charlotte can now modify the powers of a parahuman... once. As in, she can only do it one time, to one parahuman, and then she can never do it again (unless she gets a very similar injection). Maybe if she'd rolled higher than a seven, she'd get to keep the power, but...

"Power patch: A one-time adjustment of a singular... powered individual's... abilities." The girl's eyes widened as she read the label. "Can only be used once."

"...That sounds... potent," Rala De mused.

Shiarlett put the phone down. "Yeah. Wow. That's... Armsmaster's probably going to freak out when he hears about that one."

"Loett mel ta?"

Shiarlett looked at the small humanoid for a moment. "...We have got to get you guys some sort of translator." With a sigh, she turned back to her meal. "I'm just... going to finish this up. Before Armsmaster calls me in for more tests..."

"Is there an issue?" Rala De asked, concerned.

"My entire schedule is being upended because of random interversal additions to reality," Shiarlett explained dryly, "and I am a teenager."

"Ah. Of course." Rala De gave her a wry smile. "Well, I wish you the best of luck."

Just as Charlotte had predicted, Armsmaster was more than significantly concerned with the latest injection. "If properly applied, this could change... many things," he admitted. "I think this information will need to be handed off to my superiors for consideration."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Charlotte agreed. "Is there anything else?"

"You did agree to demonstrate your ability to build a jousting arena. To that end, we'll be driving you to a nearby location, with the materials you said would be necessary."

"Right. Um." Charlotte glanced behind her. "...What's... going to happen to everybody I... summoned?"

"We're calling in a medical expert to examine them. After that... well, Rala De is certainly going to take some assessment tests, to see how his education stacks up to modern standards, and is likely to be given a civilian identity once that's done. The others... I'd like to say they would go through a similar process, but that depends on whether they are interested."

Charlotte quirked a brow. "Interested? I thought it'd be mandatory."

"The pokemon don't seem to have such concerns," Armsmaster pointed out.

"...right." Charlotte shook her head. "I... guess that's a good point. Sorry, I'm just... actual aliens, and law regarding their treatment... I've just been thinking."

"It is a pertinent and intriguing subject. In any event..." Armsmaster gestured for her to follow. "We should be heading off to test your jousting-related skills."

"Right, right. Just let me check in with my parents and then I'll be ready to go..."

When they finally arrived at the warehouse, Charlotte headed to the supplies gathered around the center of the room. She'd never been the most craft-oriented of girls, and she knew for a fact that she had not once touched a saw, but somehow the moment she touched the toolbox everything... clicked, in her head. In less than an hour the jousting arena was constructed, and a suit of armor had been set aside for her to wear once she was done finishing up...

...the...

Charlotte blinked in shock, managing to complete her current task before backing up. "Uh... Armsmaster? Did I just build a horse?"

"You did," Armsmaster confirmed as the magnificent beast reared up in triumph. "Or at least, a very convincing animatronic. And the remaining materials, I would assume, are for constructing the horse armor."

"Uh, yeah. I should... I feel like I should finish that up," Charlotte admitted. "I mean it's there, and I don't want to waste it..."

"We are testing the full scope of this injection. If you would do so, we can run you through a few test jousts."

"Er... right."

It wasn't long before she'd properly armored the horse, and putting on her own armor was... not nearly as difficult as she would have thought it would be. She mounted the horse with ease born of practice she'd never had, quickly picking up the lance. "Uh... who am I going to be facing?" she asked in sudden realization.

Armsmaster, in answer, mounted his own horse.

Charlotte, suddenly nervous, cleared her throat. "I, uh, okay, this is safe, right? I mean, uh..."

"I have one of my practice halberds," Armsmaster assured her. "Blunted, even."

"And you can ride a horse?"

"Yes."

"...Should I even ask where you got the horse?"

"The PRT has connections with local stableries on the off chance that motorized vehicles are disabled."

"...Ooooooookay then." Swallowing her nerves, Charlotte lowered her lance. "...En garde...?"

A few minutes later, Charlotte took off her helmet with a few heavy pants. "So," she asked, "how did I do?"

"Surprisingly well," Armsmaster replied. "Admittedly, you were slightly hampered by your lack of physical conditioning, but your actual skills are roughly equivalent to a show knight's."

"Show knight, as opposed to an actual knight?" she clarified, dismounting as he did.

"I doubt you could face armed thugs in combat, let alone slay a dragon, but you could certainly impress a crowd." Armsmaster led his horse aside. "That said, showfighting can be a decent base for actual combat training."

"Like I'm actually going to mount up and go against the bad guys in the Bay," Charlotte muttered. "That's your job, isn't it?"

"Part of it, yes. If you were a member of the Wards, I could train you."

Charlotte huffed. "I'm not even a parahuman. I'm just a girl with a possibly magical phone." She put the helmet on a nearby bench. "Speaking of, do you think I should top off the autoinject?"

"How many injections would you need to do so?"

"Let me check... Two would get me to almost eight hours, three would cap it."

"Two, then."

"Alright, here goes..."

16-11: Sister 3 Part 1 - Legacy: Comic for Wednesday Jul 6 2016: The start of the Sisters III arc, which elucidates on the origin of the Immortal known as Pandora. While she spends a good portion of her life offering secrets in return for 'tasks' that mostly amount to nonsense, she does start to wonder about her legacy when her time to 'reset' approaches.

Charlotte gains the essence of early Pandora, making her a Mischievous Mystic. She will learn secrets in relation to the level of entertaining chaos that she causes, either by power or by request. The knowledge she gains are always connected to the participants of the chaos, which means if somebody wants to learn a critical piece of information they can opt to perform a ridiculous task at Charlotte's behest, and she will have an answer when they finish said ridiculous task.

"Mischievous Mystic," Charlotte read. "Through the entertainment of chaos comes the hidden wisdom of the world." She shook her head. "I have no idea what that means."

"It sounds like a thinker power of some sort," Armsmaster offered. "We may need to have further tests..."

"Maybe I should just join the Wards so I can have power testing on the regular," Charlotte groused.

"It would be unusual, but I suppose it could be arranged."

"I--" The girl blinked. "I wasn't serious."

"We'd have to talke with your parents about it first, of course," Armsmaster stated.

"Uh... m-maybe. Uh, I'm..." Charlotte waggled the phone. "I'm just gonna... do another press, right quick."

4-11: Spring Stadium Zone is the third zone in Sonic 3D Blast, an old isometric sonic game. The zone is characterized by springs, bumpers, and spike traps. The warehouse that Charlotte is currently in is now also characterized by springs, bumpers, and spike traps, in a colorful obstacle course that is hard to traverse.

Armsmaster and Charlotte managed barely to keep their balance as the building around them rippled and shifted, solidifying into a colorful grid of green and blue floor pannels interspaced with red and white checkered walls and random orange and yellow objects scattered around.