Reclining on one of the chains of her Golden Net, Shady cast her gaze over the Earth and Thrae, to see which of her many hapless Playthings she might add to her tease-torture realm. As she hummed to herself, the mortals closest to her gasped and writhed in agonizing ecstasy, her mere presence enough to inflame their lusts to madness-inducing levels, her little hum vibrating their very souls. Their chorus of cries and moans, and the psychic feedback of their sensual torment, soothed her own body quite nicely, filling her with happy warmth.
Okay, so she wasn’t exactly a songstress on par with her daughter, but whatever.
Thoughts of Opal turned to thoughts of Jax. Both her Descended had opted to move away, and Shady briefly wondered if she should feel more bad about it than she did. Not that she ever felt that bad about much, but their combined absence was noticeable. She was at least used to feeling Jax’s presence, but the shut door between the Primary and Secondary Omnyverses made for a telling mental silence.
She really had intended to move to the Second at least part time, treat it as a summer home, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to leave the Primary Omnyverse for too long. Even when the rest of the “Dark Omnys” migrated over, Shady’s visits were more weekend flings than seasonal sojourns.
It wasn’t difficult to get in touch, of course. The difference now was that it just took a conscious effort to connect, instead of simply not blocking the connection out.
She pushed a mental signal through the divide, her thoughts grazing her Splinter-brother’s mind. He sent back a friendly signal, assuring her things were going fine. His presence had done a lot to help rebalance things more in the Second Omnyverse. She missed him a little, but she was also a little glad for him. Despite being one of the “good guys” of the Omnys, he hadn’t had much chance to stretch his own wings in that role. As probably the goodest guy actually living in the whole Second Omnyverse, he was able to realize that role better.
Mostly by way of being a lightning rod for the Dark Omny’s femdom impulses when they started to get too wound up. A lightning rod that could actually blast back if needed, something Shady had to admit was an important part of the mixture.
While she was at it, she sent a little psychic signal to Opal to remind her daughter she hadn’t forgotten about her. A sarcastic signal back assured Shady her girl hadn’t lost her sass! She made the usual promise-with-caveats to visit again soon. Opal responded that if she rainchecked one more time, she was going to drag Shady into her own Golden Net and let her have it!
Both Omnys laughed it off before breaking the connection, but there was a tinge of seriousness to it. Shady was almost tempted to stall and see if her daughter would actually do it, but a little spark of maternal instinct told her maybe she should cut her some slack at least once in a while. Shady told that spark she’d think about it.
Even with that bit of reassurance, Shady still felt something was a little off. As she glanced across the Omnyverse (idly flicking the libidos of hundreds of scattered Playthings into erotic frenzy while she was at it), she realized part of the absence she felt ran deeper than just her Descended having moved. She furrowed her brow as she scanned the Primary Omnyverse once more, this time in full, and it suddenly struck her: This was the first time since the Primary Omnyverse got made that it was housing so few Omnys!
She took a quick appraisal. Domina, Megan, Illia, RoseGold, Opal, and Jax had all moved the Second Omnyverse. Osha was doing an extended visit there at the moment. Cyl, Reignbeau, and Kat were all presently on a Beyond dive.
That left only herself, Devi, Whitney, Lettie, Demi, and Wyllow present in the original Omnyverse. And right now, Demi and Wyllow were very distracted, fucking like jackrabbits in the Planar Void after an especially arousing Realplay. They’d already been at it for a week, and didn’t look like they were planning on stopping soon.
Shady sat up, a grin forming on her lips as she realized the opportunity presented to her. If there was ever a time to pull some grand mischief, it was now!
***
She approached Lettie first, finding the wily woman playing around on Earth, currently robbing several college freshmen of their virginities, in classic acid-trip shape-shifter sex! The poor little mortals were going to be absolutely ruined for all other partners afterwards, but Lettie would figure out something to compensate them for it later. Maybe. If she could be bothered to remember.
Lettie noticed her approach, and popped out an extra body just to talk. The two met atop the roof of a nearby dorm. As the two got closer, their Erotic Energies resonated, causing everyone inside the dorm to suddenly feel a powerful swell of arousal!
Lettie jumped into Shady’s arms, giving her a quick kiss. Below them, clothes were ripped away as the horny co-eds hit their limits, hands racing to the sudden need between their legs! A few even started making out with their roommates! Almost on reflex, Shady set orgasm blocks on all the boys, to last until every girl in the dorm had cum at least thrice first! To be slightly fair to the boys, they weren’t going to have long to wait. But they were going to edge their brains out in the meantime!
Lettie gave Shady her usual winning smile. “Howdy, hot stuff! What’s up?”
“Notice a sudden lack of overbearing oversight?” said Shady.
Lettie tapped her chin, glancing around for a moment, before her grin widened. “Oh my! The cats are away, huh?”
“You wanna stir some shit?” said Shady, grinning slyly.
“I’d be down!” said Lettie, laughing. She rubbed her hands together fiendishly. “What do you have in mind?”
Shady held up her hands, holding them apart in front her in a dramatic gesture. “I’m thinkin’… aliens!”
***
Conveniently, they found Whitney and Devi together in Aztlazon. Whitney was currently posing in elaborate Aztlazonian goddess garb as Devi painted her portrait, telekinetically brushing the globs of paint on the canvas as she leaned back in her chair. Neither flinched as Shady and Lettie popped into the room without warning.
Lettie gave Devi a hug from behind, with a quick kiss on the cheek. “Hey, baby! Oh, that’s a nice one!”
Devi grew an extra arm to pat Lettie on the head. “Hello, pet. What hairbrained scheme are you up to this time?”
“It’s Shady’s scheme, actually!”
Shady grinned as she put a hand on her hips and pointed dramatically upwards. “Listen up, ladies! The wardens are at less than half-strength right now, so if ever there was a time to pull some shenanigans, this would be it! Things have been too quiet around here since the Second Omnyverse came about, and I think we need to shake things up a bit!”
“I wondered how long it would take you to notice,” said Whitney, a bemused smile on her lips. She maintained her pose, glancing to Devi.
Devi tapped her chin, looking at the portrait, then glancing back to Whitney, then over to Shady, then back to Whitney. The elegant blonde gave her a wink, and Devi nodded, letting the paint globs vanish. As Whitney shifted into a casual sitting position, Devi floated the canvas to the side to resume work on later.
Shady stepped up with a conspiratorial air. “So, what I’m thinkin’ is, it’s time we implement my idea for an alien invasion! Give Earth something to really think about!”
“Gosh, I don’t know,” said Whitney, resting her chin on her hands. “The Reforms already did a lot to alter Earth from the standard.”
Shady made a dismissive wave. “Yeah, and now they’re getting’ all soft, with their cheap housing and universal health care and livable wages and not-poisonous food! Everyone’s takin’ their good shit for granted! Besides, I been thinkin’ it for a while now, but who says we even need ‘Earth as we know it’ anymore? Let’s be real, the more Earth advances its technology, especially if we’re not letting progress get roadblocked by corrupted officials anymore, there’s gunna come a point where humans can start exploring space in earnest. Someone’s gunna figure out a warp drive or a worm hole generator or something. And then we’re going to have to figure out what to do when they start zippin’ around the whole galaxy.”
“The Masquerade isn’t going to hold forever, either,” Devi pointed out. “Not with surveillance technology continuously evolving. At some point, there will be too many instances of an Empowered being spotted by enough people; exponentially increasing memory wipes and recording failures are going to add up to being evidence of something unto itself.” She shrugged. “We could just keep resetting things, of course. Let Earth level off to a certain standard and keep it there.”
“Aw, that’s kinda boring, though,” said Lettie. “Frankly, I think it’s high time we turned off the Masquerade!”
Devi frowned. “Would that not just make Thrae redundant?”
“Well, I don’t mean, like, turn Earth all magical or whatever, just say, you know, let the Empowered act openly, start allowing open travel at least to Thrae.”
“I don’t think introducing Earth to the Multiverse would work so well,” said Whitney. “Earth as a whole finding out about the rest of the Omnyverse might lead to Earthlings en masse actively trying to colonize and exploit them. We’ve kept intermingling between our Worlds to a minimum for a reason. Even most of Thrae doesn’t know about the rest of the Omyverse.”
“So we limit it to interactions between Thrae and Earth!” said Lettie.
“What about using Bleed Spaces?” said Devi. “Open temporary portal zones between the two, enough to stir some trouble in both, but not enough that they couldn’t be managed by local authorities in either World. Arrange it so governments could reasonably cover up.”
“There is still the matter of Earth isn’t supposed to be inflicted with active magic,” said Whitney.
“Magic could still not function on Earth normally,” said Lettie. “This would give the invaders a big handicap if they’re coming from Thrae. But then, by contrast, Thrae’s magical defenses mean Earth ain’t gunna be able to invade them back very well. And if the Bleed Spaces are temporary and random, and it only happens for a short bit, then there’s no way either side can really take advantage.”
“Yes, that would be ideal,” said Devi.
Shady shook her head and waved them off. “Yeah, okay, something to consider, but we can put a pin in that for later. I’m talking about actual aliens! From another planet in the Fundament! Or several, even!”
“So, what would they be invading for?” said Whitney.
“What else?” said Shady, grinning. “For booty!” She spread her hands in a grand gesture. “Imagine it. Out there in the universe, there is a civilization of incredibly sexy alien hotties, but their planet has a 1-to-10,000 male to female ratio, for some reason we can figure out later. Normally, with a few million members of the species, that should be enough men to repopulate back up to speed in a couple generations. But the tyrannical elites of Planet Babelon have horded all the men! So now, rebel factions are scouring the galaxy to find compatible intelligent species to breed with and seize their independence, possibly on a closer planet! And Earthlings just so happen to be perfect!”
“Babe-alon?” said Lettie with a smirk.
Shady waved her off. “We’ll work shop it. But yes, it will be a whole species of busty warrior babes.” She gestured vaguely to the distance, indicating the rest of Devi’s World. “Like, you know, Space Aztlazons. Except, like, twelve feet tall and bisexual.”
Devi cocked on unamused eyebrow at her.
Shady shrugged. “Alright we can color them blue so they’re more legally distinct.”
Devi sighed. “We’ll work shop it.”
“Do they have any weird sex powers?” said Lettie.
Shady thought it over. “I mean, not everything needs to also include Sex Magic.”
Lettie grinned. “That’s rich, coming from you. But nah, I’m just thinkin’, like, entrancing pheromones or somethin’.”
Shady nodded. “That could work. Also paralyzing venom in their nails, just to be extra sexy-scary.”
“Oh! Why not make them, like, spider-women? Natural bondage powers!”
“Nah, I mean, they’re a space-faring race, they probably already got, like, portable tractor beam tech and stuff.”
“So, what do they need paralyzing venom for?”
“The venom also induces wicked-hard boners!”
Lettie laughed. “Now we’re talkin’!”
Whitney hummed in thought. “I’m guessing you’re not planning something as simple as having some hidden Babe scouts secretly abducting a handful of random guys to take home.”
Shady smirked. “Of course not! This would be a full-scale, femdom invasion! The Babes will step on Earth and make humanity their simps! Then, once everything’s settled down, Earth can become a protected planet by that Babe faction.”
Whitney frowned. “That is entirely too much change, Shadia. Especially so suddenly. Earthlings still haven’t even sent a person to Mars yet, or back to the Moon in decades. Throwing technologically far advanced aliens at them would be exactly the sudden shock we should avoid.”
“Human technological advancements have changed society practically overnight sometimes,” said Shady.
“Not instantly, and not jumping from iPads to Star Trek technology,” said Whitney.
“Star Trek had iPads,” Lettie said. “Basically.”
Whitney pursed her lips. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, yeah, but look. Like we said, humans’ll probably get up there technologically eventually anyway,” said Shady. “And if we’re going to make aliens when they start exploring past their solar system, we may as well give it a head start.” She shrugged. “I mean, if Thrae can be the magical fantasy Earth, why can’t Earth be the science fiction Earth? It’s a tried-and-true duality in some stories.”
Whitney let out a breath as she mulled it over. “I don’t know, Shadia. Even stretching into science fiction themes, it’s going to alter things so far, Earth will be fundamentally changed to the point our Worlds won’t juxtapose, like was supposed to be the point.”
“I mean, plenty of sci-fi still has a ton of just regular, everyday living going on,” said Shady. “We’re not talking about turning everyone into a space-jockey super cyborg. Just making it so exploration star ships and cyborgs aren’t fictional for them anymore.”
“Hmmm.” Whitney frowned slight. “And with an alien invasion, you have the excuse to introduce such technologies quickly. But we know doing things too fast tends not to go well.”
“Well,” said Shady. “We could say Earth scientists invent a warp drive first. Then the alien Babes notice them testing it and decide to investigate. Or, maybe some kind of phenomenon happens in space near Earth, maybe some Space Babe tech got warped into orbit. Scientists send out a probe, and that’s what gets the Babes’ attention, but humanity has a little warning to prepare or something.”
“Ooh!” said Lettie, raising her hand like the eager kid in class. “And then! We can use the alien invasion as an excuse to reveal the Empowered! Say that, like, some exposure the Space Babe’s technology or whatever caused a surge of powers! Then, at least the Empowered on Earth can have an excuse to show their abilities.”
“Perhaps the Space Babe’s technology could cause a bit of dimensional bleed into Thrae,” said Devi. “I rather feel the Empowered’s abilities would be better explained by magical forces. The dimensional flux might not cause a crossing right then, but it could foreshadow the Bleed Spaces and the eventual reveal of Thrae to Earth.”
Whitney frowned. “Then we have to worry about how humans will react to genuine superhumans running around. You might have superheroes and villains getting into fights, governments trying to capture and study them. Earth doesn’t have Thrae’s long history of magic to even things out. And that’s on top of technology acquired from the Space Babes probably lending to more super powered chaos.”
“Aw,” said Lettie, pouting a bit. “I guess.”
Shady sighed. “Whit, you’re really being the buzzkill here.”
Whitny shrugged. “I’m just reluctant to disrupt everything so thoroughly.” Her frown deepened. “Point of fact: when you say invasion, how destructive are we talking? Are we looking at an actual death toll?”
Shady paused, then frowned. “Well, of course, we could try to mitigate as much damage as possible, but it wouldn’t be very impactful if there weren’t any casualties, huh?”
Whitney scowled and stood. “Then I refuse to participate.”
“Come on, Whit,” said Shady, rolling her eyes. “Mortals are mortals. We made them for us to play with, however much we like to pretend Earth is entirely independent of our touch. Decisions we’ve made about Earth have already had knock-on effects of who knows how many otherwise avoidable deaths or diverted births. Just because this idea is more upfront doesn’t mean it’s any more disastrous than us allowing plagues to happen throughout history, or allowing organized crime to keep happening, or letting dictators keep oppressing people. Even the Reforms have taken millions of potential lives off the timeline, and not all of those got compensated by alternative couplings.”
Whitney gave her a piercing look. “Letting a World’s natural proclivities play out is one thing. You brutalizing the populations of your personal Worlds is one thing. Deliberately unleashing a conquering horde on the World that is supposed to be our common neutral ground is quite another. This is a far harsher violation of the Etiquette than anything we’ve done yet. Just because your fellow Dark Omnys all left you behind doesn’t mean you need to overcompensate for their absence.”
“Oh, I’m overcompensating, am I?” Shady stepped towards her, scowling at her in annoyance. “I know you’re trying oh-so-hard to be one of the Good Girls now, and it’s very cute, but I remember your darker years. So don’t wag your little finger at me, when you’ve—”
Whitney slapped her hard across the face, hard enough to rattle the walls of the room. “Don’t you dare, Shadia! That was then! We’ve all changed since those times, and they don’t apply to the life we have now! And I will not let you use those memories to bully me around!”
Lettie and Devi were on their feet, Devi putting a hand on Whitney’s shoulder, while Lettie positioned herself next to Shady, ready to intercede.
Shady frowned, hand on her cheek, looking almost sheepish. “Sorry, Whit. I got caught up.”
“You always get caught up,” said Whitney with a huff.
“Yeah, I know,” said Shady, dropping her hand. “It’s what I do.”
“It would behoove you to finally learn when to bite your tongue, Shadia,” said Devi sternly.
Whitney turned to glare at Devi. “It would behoove you not to encourage her on an idea this crazy.”
Devi gazed impassively right back. “I was simply going along with the thought experiment.” She looked to Shady. “Rest assured I would vote down an actual invasion initiative.”
Shady sneered. “Aw, you cunts are too squeamish.”
Whitney glared at her.
Lettie grinned. “Jeez, she’s actually really ticked! When’s the last time someone actually pissed you off, Whit?”
“Probably the last time she pestered me with a really stupid idea,” said the normally elegant and composed blonde. Regaining her calm, she pursed her lips. “Shady, if you want to cause some real chaos, go ask the Second Omnyverse. I’m sure your fellow troublemakers would love the idea. But not here, not with our Earth.” She gestured to the side, and a faintly glowing miniature of the Earth, no larger than a softball, shimmered into view. “If, on the other hand, you wanted to run a closed timeline simulation in its own dimension, I would take no quarrel with it.”
Shady sighed and waved her off. “Ah, that wouldn’t be the same.”
Whitney dismissed the vision. “Then I’m afraid I must veto your idea.”
“Wellll…” said Lettie. “All the stuff we said earlier about Earth eventually figuring stuff out is gunna be true, unless we do something drastic to suppress it. I don’t think it would be too out of pocket to just nudge things a little further along. We did it with the Reforms, why not this?”
Whitney gave her a stern look. “Lettie, this isn’t a game we should seriously consider playing. Especially not without the others here to discuss it.”
“We can just fix whatever we break,” said Lettie. “If we screw it up too bad, we’ll reset.” She grinned. “I mean, Cyl will probably spank us really bad for it, but it won’t be a permanent wreck.”
“I know. That’s why it’s so goddamned tempting.” She glanced to Shady. “Is there a way to do it without slaughtering millions of people?”
Shady shrugged. “Look, I’m not tryin’ to be all blood-thirsty or nothin’ but even making this whole thing a bit of a porn parody, there needs to be stakes to this thing!”
“We could just make sure all the people who actually get killed are, like, Pantomimes,” said Lettie. “You know, plant a bunch of fakes so they take all the bullets, but no one currently on Earth actually gets killed, but it looks like some people did to sell it.”
“Hey, that’ll work!” said Shady.
“Hmmm,” said Devi, who looked to be mulling it over.
Whitney scowled at the two, then furrowed her brow looking at Devi. “You are not seriously considering it for real now, are you?”
Devi glanced at her, then the other two. “We don’t get bored, but sometimes it’s fun to shake up the paradigm. Human progress into the wider universe of the Fundament is inevitable; we created a world where it’s possible, and as long as we help humanity continue on through all the Great Filters, they are going to figure it out. When they do, there will be other life for them to encounter, and just as inevitably, fuck. Better to arrange a chaperoned encounter, where we can supervise the action.” She smiled coyly. “And how better to supervise than to join the fun ourselves.”
“Haha, yeah!” said Lettie. “Leave it to Alpha Domme to stay focused on the important details!”
“Funny how little our series does,” said Devi curtly.
“See, Whit? It’ll be just like one of your sex parties, just, across a planet and with considerably more explosions,” said Shady with a grin.
The elegant blonde glanced between the three of them. She quickly glanced towards Demi and Wyllow, seeing they were still indisposed, but knowing they would be here in an instant if she called them. Her better judgement told her to do so immediately.
And then Devi was suddenly behind her, grabbing her by the wrists and pinning her against her mighty body. And then Shady was pressing herself against Whitney’s front, grinning wickedly at her.
“Come on, Whit,” she said huskily, her fingers sliding between the blonde’s legs. “It’ll be fun. I promise.”
Whitney churned it in her head. It had been a long time… too long… since they’d done something this ambitious at this scale. For all she wanted to keep the peace, there was, indeed, that little niggling djinn in her that stirred at such a sweet opportunity to make mischief. She knew Cyl would be furious.
But Cyl wasn’t here. She so often wasn’t here.
And maybe, just maybe, even after all they’d talked it out and come to their understanding, she did still occasionally feel a little sting over that.
As Shady worked her fingers inside her in that perfect rhythm, as Devi kissed her neck and caressed her breasts with just the right pressure, Whitney let herself ride the pleasure and listen to the little femdom devil inside each and every one of them.
“I want to… be very… very careful… but…”
“Of course, of course,” said Shady, leaning closer, her voice a serpent’s kiss.
“Our daughters are going to… interfere… immediately…”
Lettie was pressing herself into the mix, ghosting her body through the others to hug Whitney from the side, and kiss her.
“You leave them to me,” said Lettie. “I’ll keep ‘em occupied.”
Whitney moaned, becoming more and more convinced. “Damn it… damn you bitches…” She sobered herself up long enough to say, “When this blows up in our face, Shadia, you’re taking brunt of the discipline for it.”
Shady grinned as she lowered herself to let her mouth do more than talk. “I’ll take full responsibility, except for everything I can get out of!”
Whitney opened her mouth to retort, but then gasped as Shady’s tongue went to work, while Lettie and Devi kissed her into silence. Whitney’s climax shook the World of Aztlazon, her euphoric vibrations sending the inhabitants of the realm into dizzying orgasms of their own.
***
Two weeks later, and the scientific community of Earth was astonished to make contact with an alien probe drifting into the solar system. They were even more astonished when attempts to communicate activated a beacon on the probe that seemed to vanish into a wormhole.
They had three weeks from there to shore up defenses before the Azurites rocked up on the planet, locked and loaded for a protracted siege war. Shady wanted to keep calling them Space Babes officially, but Whitney and Devi insisted on at least a little dignity to the game. The Azurites’ technology was sufficiently advanced that the armies of Earth posed little threat, outside of full nuclear retaliation, which the invaders managed to quickly lock down.
Now, one might think that Earth would be willing to parlay with a race of twelve-foot-tall blue amazonian space babes looking for booty, but while it was clear the Azurites could very easily get volunteers for their breeding program, humanity was understandably less enthusiastic about being completely subjugated as a servant species to the alien invaders. For the Azurites weren’t just there for procreation! Earth, they decreed, would be an ideal home planet from which to stage their rebellion against the tyrant queens of their home world! And if humanity had a problem with that, they would be smashed under the Azurites’ heels! And not in the fun way!
And so the war began!
Whitney, Devi, and Shady inserted themselves as various figures among the human populace and the invaders, influencing military, media, and scientific responses to nudge things along. A few suggestions here, a little sabotage there, some data breaches all around, kept both sides from gaining any real footing after the initial skirmishes. Planted Pantomime people took all the fatal hits, on either side, while the actual native mortals got off with survivable, non-crippling injuries.
All the while, Lettie concentrated her efforts on hiding the whole affair from their daughters’ senses while the two love-birds kept at themselves in the Planar Void. Subtly Bending the flow of time and camouflaging the events with the cosmic equivalent to a smokescreen, Lettie managed to stall things for two weeks into the invasion before the two Guardians finally detected something was amiss.
***
“Un-fucking-believable!” No one had actually seen Wyllow genuinely mad before, but her crimson eyes burned with fury as she stared down her own mother and aunts. Her hands clenched, and they could all tell she only wasn’t manifesting weapons into her fists because she couldn’t decide yet which ones would be the best for tearing any of them a new asshole.
She’d already violently ripped them away from Earth, reaching across dimensions to snag them in their mortal guises and hauling them into the Planar Void. The Progenitors could have resisted her effort, but they all had been waiting for this moment of confrontation anyway.
Demi, meanwhile, had made sure Lettie couldn’t stop them further, getting into an actual fist fight with her. Her training had been paying off more than she’d given herself credit before. Lettie was having to make an actual effort not to get floored by her pissed off daughter, who was as upset over Lettie tricking them as she was over the invasion itself.
Now seeing Wyllow had gathered the others, Demi hauled Lettie over and threw her into them. Lettie just laughed it off as Devi caught her.
“What in God’s name made you think this was okay?!” said Wyllow, glowering at all of them.
“Now, honey, we—” began Whitney, looking the most guilty of all of them.
“You especially, mother!” Wyllow glared at her. “You of all people ought to know better!”
Whitney frowned at her. “I did. I do.” She sighed. “I don’t have any excuse. I was hard against it at first, but—”
“But then I got between her legs, and you know how that goes!” said Shady, grinning as she imposed herself between the Mingles and her fellow Progenitors.
“I should have known,” said Wyllow, increasing her height to match Shady’s and burning her gaze into hers. “It’s always either you or Lettie, and even Lettie has more sense.”
“Hey!” said Lettie. “I’m supposed to be the senseless one! Don’t give Shady my crown!”
“Shut up, mom,” said Demi, giving Lettie such a withering glare that it actually got the goofball trickster to listen.
Shady sneered, and her body morphed into her Devil Queen form, wings and horns and devil tail emerging as her eyes glowed with sinful light. She leaned forward over Wyllow, not in the least bit intimidated by her. “When the Angels are away, the Devils will play. And sorry, honey, but you’re too damned cute to be the resident stick in the mud.”
A sickle flashed in Wyllow’s hand and was hooked around Shady’s neck before she could blink. “Do you actually want me to kick your ass, Aunt Shady? Because I could easily do it, and make it very embarrassing for you.”
Shady neither blinked, nor dropped her shit-eating grin. “Maybe you could. Maybe you’d be surprised. And maybe you’ll remember we can fix this at any time, so you really don’t gotta be such a pissy little prude about it.”
“Yes, yes, sure, we can fix it all, whatever,” said Wyllow. “That’s not the point! The point is that Earth is our shared neutral ground. Shared! If you wanted to make a big change, you should have consulted all of us first!” She shook her head. “You know, I wouldn’t have even totally vetoed the idea. It’s the fact you all went behind our backs is why I’m so pissed!”
“Aw, but that was the fun part!” said Lettie. “Seein’ how long we could get away with it!”
“You’re not helping your case, mom,” said Demi, still glaring at her.
“Gods, no wonder Cyl felt the need to make me,” muttered Wyllow.
Shady sneered at her, “Yeah, and you’re doin’ real a bang-up job, fillin’ her shoes.”
Wyllow expression went icy calm, until even Shady’s grin almost faltered. Almost.
Behind her, Whitney hissed, “Shadia. If you push it one more inch, you are not going to like the consequences. From them, or from me.”
Shady could feel the sheer venom in her fellow Progenitors’ voice. Before she could retort, Wyllow’s expression became a sneer to match her devilish aunt’s. She leaned closer and said in a calm voice, “You needn’t defend my honor, mother. It’s just weak sass from someone still bitter no other Progenitor wanted to Mingle with her.” Shady only barely managed to hold back a flinch, but Wyllow caught the mental effort and gave a biting smirk. “I can hit below the belt, too, bitch.”
Shady’s grin widened a bit more as she put her hand on Wyllow’s, slowly pushing the sickle off her neck. “Good. Means you got some devil in you, too. So, you may as well join the fun.”
Wyllow took a breath and made a prim smile. “I usually prefer some vampire, but whatever gets the job done.” She vanished the weapon and stepped back. “Alright. Well. Damage is done. So, we can do a timeline rollback and erase this whole thing from happening—”
“Aw, come on!” said Lettie. “Look, aliens are inevitable, we may as well have fun with the first contact!”
“—or, we can make doubly sure this whole event runs as smooth as possible.” Wyllow, composure fully regained, looked the four Progenitors over.
Demi looked to her fellow Mingle with a small frown. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? A reset would be much easier, and then we can do a meeting about it when the others return.”
“A meeting that will no doubt result in a similar scenario playing out,” said Wyllow, glancing back at her. “As I said, I’m not entirely opposed to the idea. So, since the damage is done, let’s wrap this up as clean as possible before they get back, then we can present the situation as-is for peer review. If it’s a total disaster, we can still reset the timeline and vote on a better solution. If, however, we prove we can get things done properly, then we won’t need to complicate things further, and this whole mess can be canonized so we can move on to the next phase for Earth, whatever we decide that is.”
“Well, I guess,” said Demi. “Although either way, Cyl’s still going to be livid over this.”
Wyllow smirked humorlessly. “Yes, well. Notice how she isn’t here. Again.” She looked to the others, putting her hands on her hips, and nodding confidently to herself. “She put me in place as Chief Etiquette Enforcer in her absence, so I’m making the call, on behalf of those of us who actually stick around full time.”
Shady smirked to herself as she saw Wyllow fall so easily into her bait. Despite supposedly having double the wisdom of their parents, the younger-at-heart Omnys were still easier to goad than they thought, if one knew where exactly to prod.
Whitney caught the sly look in Shady’s eye and frowned. She looked to her daughter, saying, “Please don’t make decisions out of bitterness. And please don’t be bitter with your other mother.”
Wyllow closed her eyes, took another calming breath, and opened them again, saying, “I am not. I perhaps spoke a little too heatedly. But I meant what I said. Cyl left me here to oversee things in her absence, and so I shall.” She turned to Shady. “So. How were you planning to work things out from here?”
Shady’s grin came back in full force. “So glad you asked!”
***
And so, after two weeks of stalemate, the Azurites made their move to crush humanity, launching an all-out offensive to capture most major cities.
But they met far stronger resistance than they expected! With the help of a beautiful mad scientist (played by Whitney in a new nerd-hot guise), stolen Azurite technology was re-adapted into power armors and war-machine enhancements. Meanwhile, Empowered across the globe emerged as costumed champions to strike back against the invaders, many rallying behind the heroic Pyre Girl (Demi in her favorite superhero persona). Just as vexing for the invaders, their attempts to set down strategic bases and facilities in more isolated locations were consistently thwarted by attacks from cryptic creatures that somehow always managed to evade capture (played by Lettie in various guises).
And then, just because things weren’t complicated enough, another alien race emerged to help stop the Azurites. Golden-skinned and empowered with psionic gifts, the Eydolanni represented members of a Galactic Federation, stepping in to keep Earth from being subsumed by the Azurite Empire. The Eydolanni Ambassador (played by Devi) had come to broker a peace treaty between the two planets, but their ship was armed for war if threatened.
The Azurites, however, were not interested in peace! The Azurite Rebel Queen (played by Shady, of course), spurred the warrior space babes to double-down on their efforts of conquest, challenging the Eydolanni as well!
But, as per the agreement of the game, the conflict wasn’t to be dragged out. By the end of the invasion’s third week, a full battalion of Empowered champions and power-armored soldiers, backed by an Eydolanni fighter squadron, managed to breach the Azurite mothership and challenge the Rebel Queen!
All still might have been lost, as the Queen herself was armed with the most advanced of the Azurite’s hyper-tech armor, granting her overwhelming, seemingly supernatural gifts! But before the Queen could deal the final blow against her opponents, she was oh-so-inconveniently betrayed by her own trusted Vizier! The Vizier (played by Wyllow to keep a firm eye on Shady) had apparently always felt some compassion for Earth, and having fallen for Pyre Girl behind the scenes, their star-crossed romance spurred the Vizier to help Earth in the end!
With the Rebel Mothership captured and the Rebel Queen deposed, the Eydolanni oversaw the Azurite surrender. Earth, unfortunately was still in a state of chaos and upheaval. The pile-on of multiple revelations both extraterrestrial and supernatural had deeply shaken human civilization. What’s more, myriad skirmishes were still on-going across the globe, between Azurite splinter-groups that refused to give up, and opportunistic humans immediately using their new resources to fight amongst themselves.
And that was the state Earth was in when Cyl, Reignbeau, and Kat returned from the Beyond.
***
It took Cyl all of a second to glimpse what had happened, and exactly who had been holding the matches that started this fire. She immediately tore Shady out of her Rebel Queen guise, through the dimensional veil, and into the Planar Void, where she grappled the Dark Omny into a chokehold.
“You unconscionable bitch!” Cyl hissed.
Shady grinned back at her, and with a speed Cyl didn’t expect, swung her fists up to box Cyl’s ears with a strike that would have shattered a galaxy! Cyl was actually staggered, and Shady took advantage of the moment to flip around, grab the other Omny by the neck, and yank her back into the Fundament, to smash her face-first against a super-massive black hole!
“Welcome home, lover-girl!” said Shady with a gleeful hiss. She loomed over her, holding her face to the rock, shifting to her Devil Queen form with her wings spread wide. “You got back a little earlier than we thought. We were hoping to have this all gift-wrapped before you got here. You ruined the surprise, you naughty thing!”
Cyl grit her teeth, and for a second, just a flicker, her eyes took an icy blue sheen. Then her arm shot out, her fingers extending into long blades to stab Shady right through the chest. Shady gasped, more at the sheer viciousness of the strike than actual pain, though she could feel an icy chill try to grip her from the inside.
Cyl glared at her as she forced Shady back, her blades keeping her pinned as she got to her feet and loomed over the troublemaking Omny in turn. “You picked a real bad time to push it, Shady.”
Shady’s brow furrowed, even as she grinned through grit teeth. “Heh. Guess it was a rough trip this time, huh?”
“I’ll tell you about it after we clean up this damn mess you made,” she said. She glanced across the Fundament to the Earth, now galaxies away. She could see their fellow Progenitors, and their Descended, explaining the situation the Kat and Reignbeau. “You and the others.”
Shady shook her head, and tried to pull herself off Cyl’s blade-fingers. “Naw, leave ‘em alone. They helped, but this was my idea, and I’m the one who pushed it. Whitney, especially, we had to seduce her into it.” She gave Cyl’s arm a mighty wrench, and still couldn’t dislodge herself. “Goddamn, girl, let go already!”
Cyl focused back on Shady, staring at her long enough for the latter to start feeling uncomfortable. Then she took a calming breath and finally released her. Cyl backed up as Shady caught her breath and shook off the chill.
Cyl glared at her, but not as intensely as Shady might have expected. “I’m mad, yes. I’m disappointed. But I also have to ask myself if I’m really so surprised. If anything, I think I’m more surprised it took this long for you to pull a stunt like this.”
Shady smirked at her. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” She braced herself for Cyl’s next move, shifting into a ready stance.
Instead of attacking her again, Cyl gazed at her own reflection on the gleaming blades of her hand for a moment. In the reflection, her eyes briefly shone a curious icy blue. “I’ve realized I’ve taken a little too much pride in myself about how I’m the girl scout keeping all you imps in check.”
“Well, you have done a good job of it,” said Shady, her expression turning a bit curious at Cyl’s behavior.
“Yes,” said Cyl. “But I’m hardly the purest soul out there, myself. An Omnymphotent is a troublemaker by nature. Even me, sometimes.”
Shady cocked an eyebrow at her. “What the hell happened to you out there this time?”
Cyl shrugged, retracting her blades back into a normal hand. “I guess I gained a little more perspective.” She turned and gazed at the aftermath of the invasion, and sighed. “I really, really, really wish you’d just waited for me for this one. If you all really wanted to change things like this, I would have deferred to your majority vote, albeit with conditions.”
“Yeah,” said Shady. “But then I would have missed the look on your face.”
“True,” said Cyl. She gave the situation another thorough glance-over. “Still, for all the mess you made, I can see the lot of you did actually mitigate as much damage as you could, for as clean a wrap up as you could manage. So maybe you don’t need me supervising you all as hard as I’ve felt I need to. Not in this life.”
Shady frowned. She’d been fully prepared for a furious Cyl, exploding on her in another apocalyptic fight. Instead, the Angel of the Omnys seemed coldly pensive. Shady floated up and hugged her from behind. “Hey, now. Don’t start talkin’ like you’re thinkin’ of ditching us full time.”
Cyl turned and hugged her back, though it was obvious she was not in the mood to get cozy. “No. I couldn’t do that. I’m just wondering if maybe I’ve been the real thorn in the balance here.”
Shady smiled sincerely at her for once. “Naw, come on, now. You can be a buzzkill sometimes, but you can still be a lot of fun. We all love you. We want you here. We need our little Angel to keep us anchored, even if we act out sometimes. Especially then.” Her lips brushed Cyl’s teasingly. “It’s part of that whole balance. Ain’t no fun being an imp if there ain’t a goody-good to rile up.” She kissed her sweetly. “So, we loosen you up when you get too uptight. You smack us when we go too far. All in good fun, yeah?” She started trailing kisses down Cyl’s neck.
The simmering tension in Cyl’s body eased just a bit, and she couldn’t fully stop the corner of her lip from twitching into a bemused smirk. “So, this whole thing was just a ploy to get me so mad, I’d really discipline you this time?”
“Maaaaaybe!” said Shady with her Chesire grin. “Your lash has such sweet sting to it.”
“You are such a little brat,” Cyl said with an exasperated sigh. She pulled Shady up for another kiss on the lips, but didn’t linger on the gesture. Before their erotic energies could get sparking, she pushed Shady off her and gave her a stern glare. “Rest assured, I am still very fucking mad about this. But let’s get this cleaned up before I start lecturing and throwing punches.”
“I’m all a tremble in anticipation!” said Shady with a laugh. Then she sobered herself as Cyl looked back at her, the Mark of Temael gleaming in that tell-tale way that signified she was just one more smart remark from punching her straight into the Beyond. Shady pursed her lips and said, “Right. Let’s break out the mops.”
The two teleported across the universe to join the others in the clean-up.
***
In the end, Earth was put on a probationary membership with the Galactic Federation, with the Eydolanni as their liaison species. This was mostly to allow them a little more time to figure out what the Galactic Federation actually consisted of, and to accordingly create and retroactively populate various planets across the Milky Way Galaxy. This was also to give Earth some time to settle down in the wake of the revelation of the Empowered, and for the authorities to wrangle as much of the loose alien tech as could be managed.
The rebel Azurites agreed to an armistice, and were allowed to set up a colony on Venus. Over the next few decades, alien terraformer technology would be able to make the hot-house planet habitable for the Azurites. The Eydolanni, meanwhile, set up a colony on Mars, beginning a similar terraformation project. And thus, soon enough, both worlds would likewise become hospitable for Earthly life.
Consequently, as those worlds were inhabited, they would develop their own mystical echoes in the Shadow, joining Thrae in the local Shadow system as Suven and Rams. So, too, would it turn out the other inhabited worlds of the Fundament had their own Shadows. And perhaps the veil between the two dimensions could even hold the secret of warp travel! But we shall save further worldbuilding on that for another story.
In the meantime, the four trouble-making Progenitors were all given a thorough not-the-fun-kind tongue-lashing by Cyl. The Mingles insisted on sharing some of the blame for their lapse in vigil. In the end, however, Shady actually did claim full responsibility, somewhat to everyone’s surprise. Rather than their usual discipline sessions, however, Cyl wanted to make sure Shady really felt the punishment this time.
A decade of exile from the Omnyverse, both Primary and Secondary. An actual decade, for both her and the Omnyverse; she couldn’t simply jump into the future and come back in a subjective instant. Shady, who’d been expecting something more along the lines of a decade-long BDSM punishment session, almost didn’t agree to it. After some heated negotiation, she only acquiesced after making Cyl agree to not leave on another Beyond Dive until Shady returned.
***
Shady frowned as she hovered in the Beyond, giving the glowing binary star of the Omnyverse the last look she’d get for a while. Then she turned and cast her gaze across Salamando’s Megaverse. She knew enough about the whole of her Author’s works to have some reasonable knowledge of what to expect, and where she might best spend her time. She also knew that if she tried stirring shit up elsewhere, there were any number of cosmic entities willing to put her down if she pushed it too far. Or even just a little. Or at all. It occurred to her only just then how much she’d been taking Cyl’s loving discipline for granted.
Oh, well! Everything worked out for the best, really. She’d get to avoid the awkwardness of her fellow Omnys cooling off their sour moods, and she wouldn’t be around to keep salting the wounds with her presence. She wouldn’t have to worry about the Five watching her like a hawk while things were still heated. Hey, after a decade of absence, she was sure they’d all be missing her dearly! When she came back, they could all laugh it off, and have a big welcome back orgy!
In the meantime, Devi, Whitney, and Lettie got off light, and the Mingles got to prove they could handle a crisis just fine on their own. Earth, and the Fundament at large, got to advance into a much more interesting setting, finally.
And Shady could still take a little sadistic pride in knowing she still had what it took to dig under Cyl’s skin, both in aggravation and affection! She was still their Angel’s favorite nuisance!
Yep! Everything worked out fine! Maybe not exactly according to plan, but this would do! Yep! This would all work out! The Omnyverse could cool off for a bit, and meanwhile, the Megaverse was her oyster! Just because there were real cosmic cops on patrol out in the other Multiverses, didn’t mean she couldn’t still find some fun to be had! Hell, maybe she’d been missing out, not doing some Beyond Dives of her own, and this was her chance to embrace some new fun!
She hovered there for a while, her back to the Omnyverse, just staring ahead, trying not to acknowledge the pang in her chest.
Alright. Maybe, just this once, she’d gone a little too far. It was ridiculous to think so, considering they were all goddesses that could edit reality on whim. The consequences, if any, should be light and dismissible. But that was the irony, wasn’t it? They could alter their own universes into anything their hearts desired. They only thing they couldn’t alter was the heart itself, not without annihilating themselves in the process. And so, the one consequence they couldn’t just erase was the emotional impact their actions had on one another.
Shady felt her eyes moisten a bit as she started floating, away from her home. It only just then occurred to her that she wouldn’t be keeping her promise to visit Opal any time soon. And that finally broke the dam.
“Damn,” she said, wiping her eyes before the tears could spill. “Guess I actually kinda fucked up this time.” She sniffled back her grief. “You better edit this paragraph out of the final draft, Sal!”
“You know, technically, Cyl’s decree doesn’t apply to our Omnyverse.” Speak of the blue-haired devil. Shady turned to see Opal, and Jax, hovering behind her.
Shady made a final swipe at her eyes, before the presence of others, even her own offspring, made her compose herself. “Hey,” she said. “Come to see me off?”
“Since you were apparently gunna just leave without saying anything, how else were we supposed to say good-bye,” said Opal with a scowl.
“Ah, ten years ain’t that long for us,” said Shady. “I’ll be back before you can miss me.”
“Any more than we already do, you mean,” said Opal.
“Jeez, kid, break my balls some more why don’t ya?”
“Grow some, and I’ll be glad to!”
“She is right, though,” said Jax. “The point of the Secondary Omnyverse is that we aren’t beholden to the dictates of the First, barring spillover troubles. So, if you want, you’re welcome to crash with us until your time is up. RoseGold will accept it.”
“Hell, she’d probably be all for it, just as a power move,” muttered Opal.
“I don’t think encouraging more infighting is the move right now,” said Shady.
Opal smirked. “Well look at you, being all mature.”
“I’ve been known to dabble,” said Shady, forcing a matching smirk.
“That aside, the offer is still on the table,” said Jax. “I’ll parley to smooth over any disturbances it causes.”
Shady sighed. “Pretty sure that wouldn’t be in the spirit of things.”
“And since when have you let that hold you back?” said Opal.
“Maybe I just don’t wanna tick Cyl off any more than I already have this time,” said Shady. “I owe her that much.”
Opal smirked at her again. “Aw. Love sure is a pain in the ass sometimes, huh?”
“Tell me about it,” said Shady. She held out her arms, and telekinetically yanked the two into a hug. “Sorry. I guess not saying good-bye was a last attempt to deny the reality of being kicked out.” They lingered in the hug for a bit, before pulling apart. “But, yeah. I’ll see you later. Be good and all that.”
“Unlike you, that’s not difficult for us,” said Opal. She glanced at Jax for a second, then at herself, then grinned. “Well, not difficult for him at all. Not as difficult for me.”
“Yeah, yeah, yer a real coupla Girl Scouts.” She waved them off with a slight scowl. “Oh, and while I’m gone, fuck Megan extra hard for me. She’s probably gunna be mad I’m leaving right when we were finally gettin’ busy.”
“I dunno, she just laughed when I told her what happened.” Jax winked. “I’m pretty sure it was so she didn’t cry, though. But be ready for her to cold-shoulder you for another decade when you get back.”
“Ah, she’ll miss me so much, she’ll be humping my leg when I get back!” said Shady.
Jax chuckled. “Whatever you gotta tell yourself.”
“That’s right! And now, I’m tellin’ myself it’s time to stop weepin’ and get goin’!” She started floating off away from them, waving good-bye.
“Don’t get yourself killed out there!” called Opal.
“Don’t come back even more evil after forming an alliance with actual Devils!” called Jax.
“I’m taking both of those a challenge!” Shady called back with a laugh. “Later, kiddos!” She turned and flew off before things could get any sappier, hopping into one of the cosmic jet streams to race right out of the Erotic Multiverse cluster.
Opal and Jax watched her go. “Oh, boy,” said Opal. “I give her a week before she gets her teeth kicked in and gets dropped right back on our doorstep.”
“You never know,” said Jax. “She might actually learn a thing or two out there.”
“Think she’ll get strong enough to truly rival Cyl?” said Opal.
“Nah, she’s too lazy for that,” said Jax. “I just hope she doesn’t end up running with a bad crowd.”
“We could try having a little faith, and maybe our good vibes will subconsciously help her stay out of trouble,” said Opal.
“Pretty sure if anything, that’ll just provoke her to get into more trouble,” said Jax.
“Probably,” said Opal. “Well, all we can do now is keep a light on for her.” They headed back to the Secondary Omnyverse, just imagining what new mischief their Progenitor would be getting up to!
END
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