BraneWorldsBraneWorlds logo.Episode 4: To Midgard and Beyond

There were many strange and wonderful worlds in the Multiverse, but strangest of all were the borderworlds, worlds that showed signs of engineering, like they were created for a specific purpose, but seemed unfinished, as if their creators were interrupted in their work. Borderworlds all had flaws in their design, some small and unnoticeable, others so implausible they break the Laws of Physics. 27 was sent on a mission to a membrane missing several wavelengths of light, leading to the world having a gritty brown hue. Explorers had nicknamed it Gravel, a name that 27 thought certainly suited it. Most borderworlds were capable of supporting human life and, depending on the conditions, some were prime candidates for colonization; unfortunately, there were those who would take advantage of the Orderless nature of these worlds to steal and kill without fear of repercussion. A group of armored thugs trekked through the desert, one of them dragging a cart full of supplies. The grunt dragging the cart complained that it was heavy and asked someone else to take over. Another told him to quit being a pussy and noted that that last group of farmers barely had enough food and water to last them a week. One of the grunts noted sarcastically that maybe if a certain retard hadn't smashed their ripper over a peasant's head they wouldn't be in that mess. The accused grunt turned and asked how he was supposed to know that piece of shit would break so easy, then added that it was fucking hilarious seeing his skull crack open like that. The leader of the gang told all of them to shut the fuck up and noted that the next one of them to speak would get to be dinner. The leader then noticed a figure up ahead and asked what the fuck that was. Valkyrie Unit 27 stood in their path. The leader of the gang asked her if she got a problem, calling her a bitch. 27 didn't acknowledge the insult, simply stating she was Valkyrie 27 of the braneworld Midgard and that she was placing them all under arrest for disruption of Order. The leader asked if she was fucked in the head or something and retorted that there was no Order there and no Angels were gonna come and screw with them. Notwithstanding, 27 replied that the world and its inhabitants were under their protection and they had violated their laws, so they answered to Midgard. A grunt approached their leader and whispered that he'd heard about the Valkyries, saying that apparently they were some kind of badass supersoldiers or something. The leader replied no fucking way, calling 27 a little girl, but reasoned she might have a ripper. Turning back to 27 and once again calling her a bitch, the leader told her to hand over her dimension ripped or else her laws weren't gonna be the only thing that would get violated. 27 calmly asked if she could assume that meant they were unwilling to surrender, to which the leader gave her the finger and told her fuck you. Immediately, 27 called forth her arm cannon and shot the leader in the chest with it. A grunt shouted fuck and the rest opened fire on 27, who leapt over their fire and shot at them through the air, hitting two more. As she landed, she shot another that stood behind her without looking at him. A grunt wielding a gun with a chainsaw embedded in it revved the chainsaw threateningly, but was quickly shot by 27. The final grunt kept firing at 27, but she protected her face with the cannon and calmly walked towards him, his bullets bouncing off her armor. She smacked his gun away and grabbed him up by the chest. 27 said she'd like him to answer a question, then ignored his screams to put him down and asked if he had seen a man wearing a long coat and a trilby hat. Confused, the grunt replied what the fuck, then told her he hadn't seen anyone like that. 27 replied that's a shame and coldly shot him through the chest. Standing over the corpses of the gang, 27 declared mission complete, returning to Midgard. Midgard, her home membrane, was a world without a sun or stars but not a dark place, the permanent night illuminated by the lights of their planet-wide city. 27 had actually never set foot on its surface, all she knew of it was what she saw through the windows of the Bifrost building and the historic records all Valkyries had downloaded into their brain at birth. At a landing pad within Biforst, a dimension rip appeared and Valkyrie 27 returned to base, deactivating combat armor in the process. 27 walked over to her commander, Rothgar Odeen, who asked for a mission report. Saluting him, 27 reported that she encountered the raiding party that had been attacking settlers on Gravel and offered them the chance to surrender but they refused, so she was forced to eliminate them. Odeen replied that was probably for the best and said that kind of scum deserved to be eradicated. 27 then asked him what he was doing up there, noting that surely her report could not have been important enough for him to come receive it in person. Odeen answered that he came up there to look at the cloning tanks from time to time, calling the Valkyries their ultimate achievement, the pinnacle of their science and technology, and saying that coming there served to remind him of the responsibility to the Multiverse that power placed on them. Grabbing her arm, 27 awkwardly said there was something else she'd like to ask him, a personal request. Odeen asked if this was about that mid-worlder and told 27 they had been over that before, stating he understood she may have felt partly responsible for what happened to him, but she knew he couldn't divert resources to a search for a man who may never have escaped from the Void. Looking down, 27 replied she understood and left.
27 entered the Valkyrie sleeping area, noticing that most of her sisters were away on missions, it being a rare occurrence for a large number of Valkyries to be there at the same time. Nearby, a clone wearing sunglasses was standing with another identical Valkyrie, the first being Valkyrie 01, the eldest and effective leader of them who had a very professional demeanor, sometimes making her seem cold to the younger clones, and the other Valkyrie 02, the next most senior and 01's second-in-command, easier to approach but, like the rest of the 01 to 10 batch, she too had been through a lot of hardships. A Valkyrie with a face tattoo waved at 27 and welcomed her back. She was Valkyrie 26, 27's best friend, though they couldn't be more different in terms of personality. Bifrost scientists had noticed that the sixth and seventh units in each batch always developed a close bond. 27 asked 26 if she had just come back from a mission too, which 26 confirmed, saying she had just finished a Scourge hunt on Volcania. Though the scientists had yet to work out why the bond developed, to 27 it just felt natural that they should be friends. The first case had been between units 06 and 07, 06 being like a protective elder sister until 07 died in the Great Worlds War, which led 06 to become emotionally unstable and prone to outbursts of violence. Noticing 27's demeanor, 26 asked her what was up, saying she looked kinda down. 27 told her she asked Commander Odeen about Lewton again. Behind her, two other Valkyries were kissing. They were 16 and 17, which made no attempt to hide the fact that they were lovers, something the rest of the Valkyries found quite unsettling. 27 considered that, compared to them, the friendship between 26 and herself seemed fairly normal. Putting her hands together with a glint in her eyes and a small smile, 26 called Lewton the handsome detective and noted that it had been two months since that incident and 27 was still thinking about him. 26 teased her by asking if it could be that little 27 was finally taking an interest in men. 27 blushed and complained that wasn't fair and she was being serious there, noting she felt bad about it and that, if she hadn't gotten him involved, he wouldn't have fallen into the Void. 26 told her not to let it get to her and that things happened in the Multiverse that they couldn't change, then suggested they watch a movie later to cheer 27 up, revealing she had picked up another one recently called the Magnificent Seven. 26 had a hobby of collecting old films, most of which seemed to take place on a world they had never heard of called Earth, 26's theory being that those films were relics of the RootWorld. A public announcement then called Valkyries 26 and 27 to report to nanotechnician Loke for post-mission diagnostics. 26 smiled and said now for the best part of her day. Because of the complexity of their nanomachines, Valkyries were required to undergo regular diagnostics to ensure their systems functioned correctly. 26 enjoyed those sessions, as they gave her an opportunity to tease the technician. As 26 and 27 made their way to a laboratory, a bespectacled young man waved and awkwardly greeted them. Putting her hands on her hips, 26 greeted him as Erik and asked if he missed her. She grabbed his arm and suggested she go first, stating it had been a while since she'd gotten to spend time with him, as Erik Loke blushed. 27 knew 26 genuinely liked Loke but couldn't really approve of the way she expressed herself; he came across as quite a sensitive person and the way she tormented him seemed cruel to 27. 27 watched as Loke ran the diagnostic, then watched as 26 left, sighing with a smile that that was over way too quickly. She told 27 it was her turn and joked to not to make her jealous. As Loke ran the diagnostics on 27's nanomachine armor, she apologized for the way 26 acted and told Loke she really did like him. Loke told her not to worry about it and smiled, stating he only acted embarrassed because he knew she liked teasing him. Elsewhere in Bifrost, Commander Odeen walked towards a door labelled employees only. He checked for a moment to see if he wasn't being followed, then entered the room. Inside was a hi-tech room with an advanced computer and Professor Varrick Hemdall himself. In a flashback, it is revealed that Hemdall was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment and that his research data would be disposed of, posing too great a danger to the stability of the Multiverse, but Odeen met him in his cell and told him he didn't agree with the way Baldur was handling it and he believed if Hemdall's research could do any good at that point, he believed it should be used. Hemdall had revealed that the mid-worlder who interfered provided the final piece of the puzzle: Scourge psychic brainwaves could never be properly controlled by a machine, but a living mind had far greater potential and by imprinting the brainwave pattern into a host, Hemdall believed they would be able to control the Scourge with their very thoughts. Odeen had used his authority to save some of Hemdall's research and proposed to suspend Hemdall's sentence, possibly indefinitely, if he agreed to do this. In the present, Odeen asked the Professor how the work went. Hemdall replied that he had reconfigured the machine, but replicating the brainwave was proving difficult and a neural scan of the mid-worlder would be useful. Odeen noted that the man had fallen into the Void and without a dimension ripper he would be trapped there forever, but Hemdall handwaved that possibility as unlikely, as, with control of the Scourge, escaping the Void would be a simple task. Hemdall noted the real problem would be locating him, as he could have ripped-out in any membrane in the Multiverse. Odeen stated matter-of-factly that, in that case, they had a Valkyrie who would be happy to take up the task. As 26 and 27 headed back to their sleeping quarters, Odeen intercepted them and ordered 26 to return to quarters as he had something to discuss with 27. 26 acquiesced and left, after which 27 asked Odeen what it was he wished to talk to her about. Odeen lied that new information had arisen in the investigation of Professor Hemdall's actions and it seemed the mid-worlder who accompanied her might have been imprinted with a psychic brainwave that would allow him to control Scourge creatures. Thus, Lewton Slade had been classified as a living superweapon and locating him as soon as possible was imperative. 27 retorted that Lewton was someone who believed in justice and wouldn't misuse that power, which Odeen replied was why they would like Lewton to join them. Odeen stated the power to stop the Scourge infesting membranes could save millions of lives and 27 had familiarity with Mr. Slade, so they believed she should be the one to find him and extend to him their offer of friendship. Odeen asked if they could count on her for this, to which she gave an enthusiastic yes, sir and a smile. She was happy that she might get to meet Lewton again and it seemed like it was the best possible scenario that could have occurred. Although she had been unofficially searching for the past two months, 27 felt new confidence that she could find him. 27 went back to Lewton's home membrane, not really expecting to find anything, but there was a chance Lewton might have been able to return home. However, when she got to his dimension, someone was waiting for her: the mysterious self-titled wizard, who greeted her by name. 27 asked who he was and the man told her she could call him Merlin and that he was there to take her to her friend. 27 asked if he knew where Lewton was. Merlin explained that some acquaintances of his had been keeping an eye on him and the membrane he was in was one he was very familiar with. Merlin offered to take her there right away if she liked. 27 asked why he was helping her, but the man simply shrugged and replied it was just what he did. Opening a door between dimensions to a Western-style membrane with a simple click of the fingers, Merlin asked 27 shall we go. End of episode four.

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