Foundation of All

They were all clean and had been joined by Emily and Ash after relaxing for a bit in one of the plush entertainment rooms, having casual conversation after the long day of starting forest fires.

Ash had been in Asuta’s library and reading all the digital and physical books that she had accumulated over the years. He could assimilate information quickly, but there was just so much of it piled up in the estate library and digital storage that Ash hadn’t even made a dent in the whole thing according to his progress reports to the group.

Sean wasn’t sure what Emily had been doing.

With all of them together, Emily seemed to have taken the chance to start explaining to Asuta the reason that they had come there and their mission to break Lira, and reluctantly, Nyx, out of the Immortus Station prison. Asuta sat there for a second taking it all in after Emily finished speaking, looking thoughtful.

“So?” Roger asked, “Will you help us?”

Asuta looked up, “Huh? What was that?”

“Will you help us break them out?” Sean said.

“Oh, yeah yeah,” Asuta said absentmindedly, “I’m trying to think if I want to use antimatter bombs or fix up the ship with the superlaser in it. Laser would be so much cooler, but it will take a while to get everything working and run tests…”

“I’ll help out,” Emily said, “She’s talking about the weapon we used to blow up those planets. Did you keep that old thing in the system, Asuta?”

“Yep,” Asuta said, “I hollowed out a special cave in the planet just to preserve it. On the planet itself actually.”

She straightened up, “Wait! You told them about that? Did you show them the recordings? That was my best performance!“

Emily laughed and shot a side eye at the boys, “Nope. They were shocked enough when I gave a basic description. Plus I was on their ship, I didn’t have them.”

“Gaaah. I can’t leave it like this! I’m getting movies we made so we had an excuse to use that thing!”

“Wait, no!”

But Asuta was already gone, jumping up from the chair she was sitting on and sprinting out of the room.

“Oh my god. This is going to be so embarrassing…” Emily groaned as they waited.

“Movie?” Sean asked in confusion, “What was she talking about?”

Emily rubbed her temples and looked tempted not to answer, before glancing at the door Asuta had disappeared through. She leaned back on her end of the large couch and sank slightly into the cushions.

“Yeah. We were all costumed up because Asuta wanted to make a whole movie and story about it and use the real footage in it. She insisted that we ‘stay in character’ the whole time. We even wore our makeup and costumes when we slept. You have no idea how much those face paints smear around until you try sleeping in them… I was her second in command and she was the evil queen of the galaxy… Sort of. Well, you’ll see!”

Roger raised his eyebrow at her as Emily flushed and looked embarrassed about the whole thing.

“Who else was in the movie?” Sean asked curiously, “Surely it couldn’t have just been the two of you?”

“Yes… There’s the big hero Peter Rose. He's even older than me, so we go way back. A few of our other friends at the time. It’ll be nice to see them all again…”

Emily sounded almost wistful as she trailed off at the end.

“What happened to them?” Sean asked softly, “Weren’t they Immortal, surely they didn’t…”

“No, no,” Emily said, “They’re still out there somewhere. But all of them moved on, traveling across the universe to far flung galaxies. Even if they’re alive out there somewhere I’ll never see any of them ever again I don’t think. Even reliably finding people in this galaxy alone is nearly impossible let alone through the whole universe. Except Peter. He just came back recently, he’s been gone from the Human Galaxy for a long while.”

“Why didn’t you?” Sean blurted out, “Leave? What made you stay despite how Immortus Station treats you?”

“I don’t know, I guess I just feel responsible or something… I couldn’t just leave… And there’s Asuta here too.” Emily mused with her eyes distant. Everyone refocused when Asuta burst back through the door with a palm sized device in her hands.

“Got it!” She said, “Let’s get it booted up, it’s been a while since we’ve watched it…”

Asuta slid the palm sized device into a nearby device embedded in the wall below a wooden beam and it slid inside a hole that received it. A holographic display popped up above the wooden beam and the wall itself darkened to create a higher contrast screen than you would normally see. The holographic screen slid back in midair until it was flush with the wall and it started to play after Asuta pressed a few buttons.

Asuta jumped onto Emily’s lap on the couch with a flying jump, driving the air from her chest with a surprised *oof*. Asuta squirmed on top of Emily so she was between her and the arm rest after a second and Emily recovered from the blow.

“Claim!” Asuta shouted as she planted her butt on the cushions.

“Hey, hey!” Emily protested, “Corner’s mine!”

“Not anymore, I didn’t hear you claim it yet!” Asuta proclaimed after wriggling her way enough that she had stolen half of the cushion Emily had been sitting on, “I guess you’ll just have to sit on my lap if you want it!”

Emily eyed Asuta for a second before scoffing.

“Fine. But I'll get dibs next time.”

“No way, babe,” Asuta said while still prodding and shifting to slowly edge Emily out of the seat, “You just gotta call it faster next time. Whoever calls it first gets it, that’s the rules.”

“Next time, she says,” Emily grumbled, “Damn cheater leaping through the door before I can say anything…”

“Shhhhh, movie’s starting,” Asuta scolded as Emily finally gave up and shifted to one of the center cushions instead of continuing to fight over the corner.

Emily grumbled again but was quiet as the black screen changed to show a handsome man meditating cross legged with his eyes closed with a waterfall roaring behind him…

“That’s Peter Rose…” Emily whispered to Sean and Roger.

“Sush!” Asuta said, “We can give them director's notes and trivia after. Just watch the movie!”

There was only the sound of crashing water and the amplified sound of the man’s slow breathing as the camera slowly zoomed in on his face.

Just as the tension reached the breaking point, there was a crunch like a boot on gravel and suddenly Peter’s eyes opened wide, the pair of eyeballs covering the whole screen as his eyes quickly darted to the side.

The camera cut to a wider angle revealing a man standing there with a large gun pointed at Peter.

“Peter Rose. I’ve come a long way for your head. Queen Violet sends her regards. You won’t escape me this time!”

Peter slowly made his way to his feet and picked up a large wooden staff from the ground and hit on the ground once with a large crack before going into a fighting stance.

“I will have no need to escape this time,” Peter said calmly, “Without hiding behind those hostages you stand no chance against my skill. May the Shadow watch over you.”

The man scoffed, “The Shadow? What a bunch of hogwa…”

Peter exploded into motion and the battle began. Peter absolutely thrashed the bounty hunter even with only the wooden staff, beating him unconscious before taking his gun from the ground.

Peter picked up the gun and inspected it for a moment before throwing it deep into the lake beneath the waterfall behind him.

“I suppose that’s a good end to my meditation session,” Peter muttered.

The movie continued, escalating as the hermit like Peter went to a nearby town and gradually got into bigger and bigger battles with ‘Queen Violet’s’ forces.

Eventually the Peter in the movie discovered the location of Queen Violet’s ship, and its purpose in destroying planets that would ‘resist her vision’ and fought his way onto it. There standing in the control room was Asuta ‘Queen Violet’, and Emily standing behind her trying to look menacing. Both of them were wearing all black with long red capes and deep black eyeshadow around both of their eyes.

“BWA HA HA HA!” Queen Violet laughed dramatically, “PETER ROSE! I knew you would come to stop us! But you stand no chance against the two of us! Surprise, Bzzzzt! Take some lightning, foul hero!”

The Asuta on the screen said the words even as blue lightning bolts suddenly appeared out of her hands and zapped Peter who fell to the ground dramatically twitching and groaning despite looking completely unharmed. Emily stood in the background with her arms crossed and hip cocked to the side, looking like she was resisting the urge to laugh as she stood there. She was even biting her lip slightly as Asuta kept cackling and giving a wildly over the top monologue at the Peter who was on the ground loudly groaning.

“BWA HA HA HA. You see the use of your morals in your fight, Peter! Sneak attack for the win. Sinestra, fire the weapon on the moon of the planet! A little test before the grand finale for the people below!”

“No!” Peter shouted dramatically, “They are innocent! You can’t do this!”

“Ah, hero. Can’t I? It’s what these people deserve after selling unlicensed merchandise and plushies of yours truly and my lovable assistant Sinestra! They deserve nothing less! Hit it, Sinestra!”

“Alright, Boss,” Emily said as she walked up to the console and hit the button. The ship in the movie thrummed up to a fever pitch before there was a clunk and suddenly it stopped.

“Sinestra! What happened?”

“Dunno. Ship’s busted,” Sinestra replied.

“GAAAH! Sinestra, give me something to break!”

Sinestra leaned down and after opening a cabinet lugged out a table that snapped open. Sinestra quickly placed it next to Queen Violet and took a step back.

Queen Violet body slammed the table, cracking it in half. She stood and started kicking it into splinters.

“Yeah! That’s what you get, table! You caused this! If only I’d spent less on you and your brothers then I could have paid those engineers to finish this thing in time!”

Suddenly the movie ship loudly started groaning and shuddering.

“Uh oh,” Queen Violet paused and looked around at the noise.

Peter reappeared at the door of the room after having snuck off during Queen Violet’s rampage.

“Queen Violet! Your evil ends today!” He shouted, “I’ve set the ship engines to self-destruct. I won’t let you keep both of your adorable plushies from the people of the galaxy!”

Queen Violet went to blast Peter with some lightning, but he revealed that he had wrapped a coil of wire to the top of his wooden staff so the lightning diverted and hit it instead of his body.

“Drat! He’s discovered metal, Sinestra!” Queen Violet shouted, “To the escape pods!”

The two of them darted to a nearby door and Peter quickly followed leading to a running chase through the hallways. Over the course of a few seconds the two women somehow managed to outrun Peter, dodging into side hallways several times to throw him off. After running for another second they emerged again on one of the larger hallways and spotted a man standing at the far end, looking down at a holopad in front of him.

The man, One of Queen Violet’s minions in their signature black helmets, perked up as she and Sinestra appeared from the end of the hallway and started running towards him.

“Ah, Queen Violet. I have a question about these expense reports!” He shouted as the two women were about to run past him.

Queen Violet paused and snatched the holopad from the man and inspected it before throwing it to the ground and smashing it into pieces after a moment. Sinestra came to a screeching stop and started running back to the stationary Queen Violet.

“Idiot! Sinestra’s boots were supposed to be blue #4 not #8 for our newest product line! Why did you order the wrong dye? The incompetence…”

Sinestra leaned down and picked up Queen Violet, slinging her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Queen Violet didn’t even seem to notice, still berating the poor worker who was staring forlornly down at his shattered holopad. Despite him wearing a helmet you could just read it in his body language and slumped shoulders how depressed he was. Queen Violet’s legs were being held by Sinestra while Queen Violet’s head stuck backwards behind them so she could face and yell at the minion even as Sinestra carried her off.

Sinestra kept moving and Queen Violet wrapped up her tirade to the worker just as Peter rounded the corner of the hallway in the distance, his wooden staff held at the ready.

“Go and fix your mistake now, minion!” Queen Violet finished and the minion nodded and quickly scurried off.

“The ship’s about to blow up, boss,” Sinestra said as she kept carrying Queen Violet forward, “He’s not getting much work done until then.”

“Oh, right,” Queen Violet said looking rather stumped as Sinestra kept carrying her through the hallways over her shoulder. Queen Violet’s face shifted to resolve, “But at least he might be able to fix his massive mistake before he explodes along with the ship. Honestly, to think they’d dare put blue #8 paired with eyes as beautiful as yours…”

“We can fix it later,” Sinestra said, “First I’ve got to outrun the pest.”

Queen Violet blinked and seemed to notice Peter again after getting distracted.

“Oh right. Him. Bzzzzzt!”

Queen Violet raised her hands, bouncing up and down as Sinestra kept running and launched several wildly off course lighting bolts roughly in Peter’s direction.

The pair rounded another corner and revealed a room lined with small doors. Sinestra leaned down and dropped Queen Violet unceremoniously onto the floor of one of those escape pods.

“Oof! Careful, Sinestra! Or I won’t let you wear that fashionable and totally amazing cape anymore.”

Sinestra shot Queen Violet a flat look.

“Okay, too far,” Queen Violet admitted, “I wouldn’t do that. I’ll think of something less serious in a moment. But enough talk, let’s go before that dashing hero arrives!”

Peter rounded the corner and charged towards the open door of the escape pod, wooden staff and slightly melted coil of wire on its end held ahead of him.

Sinestra gave an understated little wave before slamming her fist into a big red button to her right on the wall. The doors to the escape pod shut just as Peter was about to get through and with a blast of thrusters the escape pod launched and quickly started flying away through space to fall on the nearby planet.

Peter stared after the escape pod for a moment navigating towards the nearby planet before the ship rumbled again.

“Dang!” Peter said dramatically, “They got away. Well, at least I’m near the escape pods… I’ll have to track them down on the planet itself before they can find another ship to the wider galaxy.”

He climbed inside and launched his pod as well. A few seconds later the whole larger ship exploded into pieces behind him with a series of other escape pods also launching presumably of all the other minions of Queen Violet.

“Queen Violet!” Peter said dramatically to the ceiling as the explosion shrunk into the distance behind them, “Sinestra! I will find you and make you understand that those plushies are for all people, not just the wealthy few. I’ll see both of you soon. Soon…”

And with that the screen cut to black and the credits started rolling and listed the names of all the people in the film.

“I’ll see you soon?” Roger said in confusion, “Isn’t he a hero? What’s up with the villain line at the end?”

“He’s an anti-hero,” Asuta countered, “He’d hurt or even kill his biggest idols in the world for his ideals of merchandise for the people! Sinestra and Queen Violet are the real heroes of the movie. They were the ones making the merch that everyone was enjoying even if they made it really expensive.”

“Not biased at all,” Emily said, although she looked pleased at Asuta’s statement.

“Weren’t they about to blow up a planet for not paying royalties?” Sean wondered out loud.

“Hey, it's a cutthroat business,” Emily said casually, “Have to enforce contracts somehow. Merch is no laughing matter.”

Asuta giggled and pawed at Emily’s arm, “Yeah. See, she gets it.”

“It was pretty good,” Roger said, “Goofy and the lines were over the top, but the action scenes and locations were amazing.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Emily said, “We destroyed and rebuilt those fake towns so many times while shooting this movie. There’s some digital effects, but almost all of it was real. With all of us together, well we were all really good fighters so the battles came out good too.”

“What about the lightning? Was that real?” Sean asked.

“No unfortunately,” Asuta said, “The real thing just didn’t look amazing enough so we had to add it digitally. Also it kept burning my sleeves, which was no fun at all.”

They just sat around and watched the credits roll to the end.

“So, are you guys ready for more?” Asuta said as the screen went black, “We made… how many were there Emily?”

Emily tapped her cheek and thought about it. “Was it fourteen or fifteen total?”

“No, it was nine of the main plot, and I think the rest were spin-offs. Right? Yeah, I think that was it,” Asuta said, “I want to say fourteen total. So guys, do you want to watch more or take a break?”

“I don’t need a break,” Roger said.

“Yeah, I could keep going,” Sean added.

“Why don’t we get some snacks?” Emily suggested after shooting Asuta a shifty glance, “Could be fun to eat and watch.”

“Sure, sounds good,” Asuta agreed. She stood up and took a step and Emily dived to the side to the corner seat and immediately curled into a ball as Asuta tried to reclaim it.

“Claim! Ooooh, and you warmed it up for me, Asuta. Thank you.”

Asuta stepped back as it became clear that Emily was too firmly entrenched to dislodge now, “Meh. Fine. But I’m hoarding the snacks. I’ll think of something to get the seat back…”

A little while later Asuta returned with something called ‘popcorn’ for everybody and they sat down to relax and enjoy the next movie. Peter Rose was on the planet, on the hunt for Queen Violet and Sinestra…