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Nova hit the ground with a roll. Regained her bearings. Bolted. Grandpa was still getting back to his feet, but she was right on the target’s heels.
“Are we really doing this? Really,” she called, dialing the Omnitrix.
“I can’t help myself!”
“Can’t help-” A flash of pink light left Feedback running in her place. “It’s kidnapping, Liam!”
Darting to one side as he kept running, she let off a blast of electricity. Liam squawked, one handle of the cart he pulled shattering in his hand. The other he dropped without slowing. Catching a rolling egg with one hand, Feedback steadied the cart to a stop with the other. Another blast from her antennae sent the Sonnaratii flying into a nearby stand.
“What were you even going to do with them?” Shaking her head with a huff, she rolled her shoulders and stepped forward-
“Cool!” -only to stop midstep. Throwing a look over her shoulder, she couldn’t help a smile at seeing a Kineceleran teen stood there filming her. The kid was practically vibrating with excitement. Well, it wasn’t like Liam was a real threat, and the eggs had been saved already…
“Nova 10, shining again,” she called brightly, flashing a peace sign before pushing the eggs over by the kid with care. “Hey, stay a safe distance, okay?” They nodded, taking a long step back and pulling the eggs with them. “Thanks!”
For a moment the kid grinned widely, her heart warming and pride preening at the sight, before concern dropped onto their face. Feedback blinked, turning to look behind herself. Liam was up and armed- a weapons stand, of course they had those in Undertown- aiming a blaster her way. As if that was going to do him any good against Feedback of all aliens. Pivoting, she took a solid stance and pulled the electricity from her antennae and arms. The vacuum left behind drew in the blast like it was nothing. Just a moment she let it circulate, charge, before letting go in a strong counterattack, blasting him right back into the wreckage.
Turning back to her audience, she heaved a sigh and shook her head again with a ‘what can you do’ look.
“Nova, what are you doing,” Max asked as he caught up, keeping a leisurely pace. Immediately he headed to check over the eggs.
“Handling Liam, making a fan’s day,” she answered, waving one antenna as he tried to slip away. He froze.
“If you have him down,” Max said, frowning as he rounded the cart and walked past her, “then arrest him. Work first, fans later.” Changing back, Nova rolled her eyes.
“I know what I’m doing, Grandpa. Everything was under control.”
“I know-” Liam grunted as Max shoved him against the wreckage, put a pair of cuffs on him. “-but it should’ve been done with. You’re a grown woman, wearing the most powerful weapon-”
“Not a weapon.”
“You know what I mean. It’s passed time you started acting like a responsible working adult-”
“Really,” Nova groaned, “this again? How many times am I going to hear this from you?” Max turned a stern look on her. Behind her, she could hear the awkward shuffling away of the kid.
“As many as it takes for you to focus on the job.” Because she took the time out of her day to make someone happy, when she knew everything was under control. Yeah, sure. Huffing, she turned on her heel and started walking.
“If you’ve got this, I have other places to be.”
~~~
“Blukic, Driba, meet me in the garage. It’s time.”
Chuckling fondly at the echoes of excited blenching down the hall as she headed for her motorcycle, Nova forced the muscles in her shoulders to relax.
If anything was going to get rid of this new bad mood, it would be mystery ice cream.
~~~
“Hm, this could be a wild omnivoracious chase,” Driba said as the three of them came to a stop at a red light. “The Milk Pop website doesn’t list any stores besides the ones we’ve already visited.”
“And there’s no number for one either,” Blukic added. Nose crinkling, Nova’s head tilted to one side.
“We know there’s another one,” she said, “we’ve seen it on your GPS.”
“On and off, here and there” Driba pointed out. “It’s rarely in the same place twice and most of the time it doesn’t show up at all. Maybe it’s a roach coach?” That didn’t sound right. If nothing else if there was a Milk Pop roach coach one would think she’d have heard about it, but no mention had ever crossed her feed. Still, she couldn’t think of another option that made sense. As she pondered this, the Omnitrix went off. “Um, you have a call.” She stole a glance at it, just knowing who it was, and shook her head.
“Voicemial’ll get it.” The two Galvan’s shared a look, then turned back to the GPS.
“Wait!” Driba perked. “We’ve got it!”
“Where?!”
“It’s-! Gone again…”
“It’s alright,” Blukic said, “I saw the cross streets- corner of Puggsley and Klein!”
“Awesome!” Anticipation flowing through her, Nova’s leg bounced as she waited for the light to change and headed north. “Time for some ice cream, boys!”
~~~
They found the store. It vanished as soon as they pulled up, leaving behind a generic brick building, but they did find it.
“What,” Nova said, “the fuck.” Parking, they hopped off the bike, heading for where there had, not twenty seconds ago, been a door. She laid a hand on the bare wall.
“Clearly,” Driba said, “this is no ordinary Milk Pop.”
“Clearly.” As she said it, she gave the wall a shove, like maybe it was a secret door.
At that exact instant the store came back, sending her stumbling inside. Her ears popped as she crossed the threshold. The Galvan’s walked in after her, shaking and knocking their heads as theirs presumably did the same. A quick look around showed what appeared to be a perfectly ordinary Milk Pop, excepting the opalescent glowing void outside the windows and door. At the counter stood a bovine and an avian alien, repeatedly striking the sharp-toned service bell.
“Will nobody come out and serve us,” the bovine griped more than asked, turning to their companion.
“Sister, you said a mouthful of something,” the other huffed, following her to the door. “I’m out of here.”
Rather the understatement, given that as soon as it opened both were sucked out into the void in a flash of light and a scream. For a heartbeat Nova almost went after them, hero instincts kicking in, before the door slammed shut again.
“That was a cross-dimensional sunburst aurora,” Driba said with audible concern.
“No, it wasn’t,” Blukic countered, and received a glare in return.
“Yes, it was!”
“Not a sunburst,” Blukic shook his head as he said it, “more of a pinwheel shape.” Driba gasped.
“A pinwheel aurora?! That’s worse!”
“Can I ask why,” Nova cut in. The two shared a look again, then shook their heads.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Uh-huh...” Shaking her own head, Nova set about exploring the seemingly empty, perfectly normal, store, finding herself drawn to muted banging and grumbles in the back. A quick look showed-
“Professor Hokestar?” He started as she pushed open the door, the plaps of the Galvans running to catch up echoing behind her. “What have you got there?” The ‘what’ in question being some sort’ve large machine, nestled in the middle of the absolute wreck of a backroom. Hokestar had been waving a wrench at it menacingly.
“Nova! My dear girl!” But he perked right up to see her. “Welcome to my place of business!”
“You opened a Milk Pop,” she asked as she stepped inside, Blukic and Driba weaving around her feet and jumping up onto the machine.
“Not a Milk Pop, the Milk Pop,” he said with a flourish. “This is a warp-field generator, and with it I have opened a Milk Pop that exists in every dimension at once! Or will, if I can get the damn thing to work properly.” Nova and the Galvans nodded, them more excitedly than her.
“That’s why this place was always moving,” Driba cried, “dimensions have been moving around it, and normal shifting of space and time caused minor locational differences!”
“Exactly!” Hokestar turned back to fiddling with the machine. “Such things should be accounted for but, again, it’s not working properly.” Nova nodded again.
“Should you really be fixing that yourself,” she asked. “I mean, I can get Kevin out to do it, knowing him he’s probably built like three of these things already.”
“I assure you, my girl, I have things completely in hand.”
As if on cue there was a small bang, purple smoke billowing from inside the machine. There was a crackle outside.
“Well,” Hokestar said awkwardly as the four of them stared. “Let’s just leave this for a few minutes and find out where it dropped us, hm?”
“Yeaaah,” Nova said, waving the smoke from her face and feeling very disinclined to try to figure out what he fucked up. “Lets.”
~~~
Outside looked, normal. If it weren’t for the fact her bike was nowhere to be seen Nova would’ve thought they hadn’t even moved. It was the same buildings, same train line, almost the same street names. She didn’t know who ‘Pubert’ was, but, good on them for the honor.
“There’s even an alien causing trouble,” Driba said and sure enough when Nova turned her head back to the left there was an alien on the train tracks. And in a worryingly familiar looking outfit. They all watched, tense, as they leapt from the tracks- crushing two parked cars on the way down and tossing another into the path of an oncoming bus. The wreck was dodged, just barely, in a squeal of rubber and tires.
Nova was in motion before the second car left their hands, only faltering when the alien dropped their helmet.
“Nova Tennyson!” He was facing away, but she’d have known Tetrax any day or night and as a raging fire built in her gut something wrong crept up her spine.
“What the fuck are you doing,” she demanded as she stormed over, freezing when he turned around.
“Who are you,” he asked in a perfect mirror of her own thoughts. If there’d been any doubt this was a different dimension, seeing him stand there with a beard he hadn’t had when they’d grabbed breakfast that morning, not recognizing her, would do it.
“Stand back, pleb!”
Shaking confusion away, Nova leaned to see around Not-Tetrax as he turned and dropped into a fighting stance. There was another person stood there, hands on hips, scowling at him.
“How many times do I have to tell you to get off my planet and stay off,” they demanded. Not-Tetrax said nothing, launching a silent attack. As a flash of teal enveloped the other human, Nova backed up to the Milk Pop, collapsing against a wall.
“This really is another dimension,” she muttered, watching as this other person- who looked so much like a younger her in pigtail buns, who seemed to have her name- began fighting the Petrosapien who looked and sounded like but wasn’t her Tetrax in the form of Articguana. Between all that and the crowd swarming over, chattering something about ‘Neptuna’, it was a lot to take in.
“Yeeep,” Blukic said, reaching out to pat her shoulder. Driba was muttering something about zoos beside him, but she wasn’t much listening. The whole situation was overwhelming, uncomfortable, and-
“Why ‘Neptuna’? It’s a lizard.” The others shared a look, then shrugged in unison.
They all stayed at the door and watched the fight go down. It was a good back and forth, fast, with each dodging and attacking in turn. Eventually though, it moved onto the rooftops, ending quickly from there. Turned out a watertower to the face was enough to ground this, Other-Tetrax?, which didn’t feel right to Nova. She couldn’t imagine her Tetrax going down that easily, and her heart kicked up when the crowd surged in to gather around the debris. And right there in the middle, turning back into themself with a cry of “And there’s one more buffa-loser down”, was this Other-Nova, crowd cheering their victory.
She bit back the urge to ask if she’d said shit like that when she was younger. Only the fear of somebody saying ‘yes’ stopped her tongue.
“Okay,” Nova said, pushing herself back to her feet. That couldn’t be safe over there. “You three stay here and fix that warp-field generator, I’m going to go investigate this.”
“No need to rush,” Hokestar asked. “We should at least do some business while we’re here.” Pausing, Nova turned and dropped a hand on his shoulder.
“Professor, we’re leaving as soon as possible. Get to work.” With that and a pat, she was off again, leaving them to hopefully manage themselves.
“Alright, alright,” the Other-Nova was saying as she approached, turning their back on the crowd and holding up their phone for a selfie, “say it with me, ‘Come through, 82’!” Nova cringed as the crowd chimed along, working her way to the front with practiced ease. Being a hero taught you these skills. “Don’t forget, my latest poster line is out next week, and you’ll be able to get a random one free with every five points on your Star Club card! The perfect décor for your bedroom, living room, or office! Collect them all befo-”
The water tank began to rip down the center. Automatically Nova shoved the people nearest her back, starting the crowd running to safety as the Other-Nova turned to watch Other-Tetrax chuck the wreckage. Maybe they were dialing up their Omnitrix, she couldn’t tell, but on instinct she did so herself. In a flash of pink she was XLR8, diving for the Petrosapien, only for him to vanish in a flare of light. Figured.
“Alien!” Turning, she faced the Other-Nova, their hand on their own Omnitrix. “Did the Intellectuary send you too?!” The who?
“Never heard of them, but,” she said and tapped the Omnitrix, changing back to herself and giving a little wave. “Hi, I’m Nova.” The Other-Nova’s jaw dropped. They blinked rapidly. Finally, their eyes lit up and a grin split their face. They waved back enthusiastically.
“Hi!”
~~~
“-I mean, I’ve got other endorsements I’m doing, like with Stitche, they made the jacket- Hey! How’s it going? -but this is the big one- Just one picture! -you’re going to love this-”
Nova nodded along as she followed her interdimensional counterpart up to the counter of this ‘Bucketo Wings’. It seemed like everyone the two of them passed was wild about them, waving, saying hello, going for pictures. She hadn’t been through that since she became a household name, eventually they’d moved on to the next big thing and left her a good eighty percent in peace. Apparently, that wasn’t something Other-Nova had, or seemingly wanted- lavishing in the positive attention.
“We’re going to need two large buckets, themed, with nova sauce,” Other-Nova said once they reached the counter, the people parting in front of them. The man at the register nodded happily and started punching in the order. “And get my friend here set up with a club card too.” Oh no no no.
“It’s okay, I don’t need-”
“No, listen,” they grinned at her as she waved off a form, “with five points on the card- one point per ten likes on any of my videos or per purchase at any Bucketo Wings- then you get a free random poster, fifteen gets you a free small bucket and soda, and with thirty you can even get the copyright Nova 82 Aquarium Kit!” Aquarium-? If it was ‘Neptuna’ themed-
“I’m not going to be here that long,” Nova pointed out as two buckets of chicken wings were placed on the counter, both plastered with her counterpart’s visage. One got shoved her way, the other Other-Nova snatched up themself, leading her to a table.
“Oh. That sucks…” they said, face falling for a moment before they pulled themself back together. “Anyway, what about you, what deals have you got going?” She processed the question as she sat down.
“I mean, I did a promotion with Milk Pop once,” she said. “Only the once though.”
“Never heard of it.” Of course not.
“It’s an ice cream shop back home.”
“Oh,” Other-Nova said with a scoff. Nova gave them a sharp look they didn’t seem to notice. “Ice cream is so 2012. May as well wear buckle shoes.”
“Because wings are the perfect food,” Nova countered, taking a bite and resisting the urge to cough. Damn, how did people survive eating here- her tongue was burning off already!
“Exactly,” came the response. “You really should do more endorsements though,” they said, “it’ll seriously help your brand.”
“My brand doesn’t need help. Besides, what happens if you’re busy with all these endorsements and someone like Vilgax shows up.” Other-Nova took a bite of chicken, seeming- annoyingly- to have no trouble with it.
“Never heard of him either,” they said.
Nova froze. Blinked. That answered a lot, actually. Of course somebody who never had to deal with Vilgax would be so blasé about letting civilians that close to a villain they hadn’t confirmed was done for the day. And would fill their time with business stuff. Didn’t explain the ‘buffa-loser’ pun earlier, but she was trying to pretend it didn’t happen.
“Oh, you sweet summer child.”
They just laughed.
~~~
The billboard was massive. But then it had to be to fit even a little of Waybig- or, as it was apparently called around here, ‘Whopper’- alongside the image of a pick-up truck and a proclamation of the ‘whopping great’ savings you could get at the dealership listed.
“See,” Other-Nova said, spreading their arms in a flourish, “you can use different aliens to promote different things! It’s a win-win- they get eyes on their products, I get people checking my videos, and the fans love it! Nova 82, Guardian of Earth, everywhere they look, always keeping them safe!”
“Mm-hm.” It had been half an hour and Nova was tired. This other her wasn’t a bad person but, everything had been about how awesome they were, or promoting a brand, and- And she’d been a hero for years- while the ego boost was nice, the fame a bonus, none of them were what it was about. To hear somebody almost sounding like it was was-
Tiring.
Idly, she fiddled with the Omnitrix, bringing up her voicemail more out of force of habit than anything. Hearing her grandpa’s voice was, well.
‘Nova, call me when you get this.’ Easier said than done. That scene from earlier, how close the crowd had come to being hurt, kept repeating in her head too. Along with a little voice saying maybe he’d had a bit of a point. Maybe.
“Was that Grandpa Max? Haven’t heard his voice in years.” She looked up to see Other-Nova staring at the Omnitrix, not quite like they’d seen a ghost but, not too far off either. Nova blinked, frowning.
“What happened?” Other-Nova bit their lip.
“He…” They shook their head and stepped back into the street, throwing on a smile. “It doesn’t matter.” Pulling out their phone, they turned away and started walking at a fair clip, Nova rushing to keep up. “Hey, how about we do a team-up? Wouldn’t do much on your end, but my fans would eat it up- two Novas, working together to chase off all those damn aliens, it’d be a serious hit!”
The phrasing did not shit well. It was too close to what she’d heard from Forever Knights, and alongside how many aliens she knew in her own family? Their own family, presumably? It set off an alarm bell. All the things she never would have learned had it not been for Grandpa running through her head, she stopped Other-Nova with a hand clapped on their shoulder.
“You do know not all aliens are bad, right?” Other-Nova stared at her, blinking and not saying anything. “Back home they’re just, around. A few are assholes, yes, but most of them are just hanging out. Living life. I’m dating one.” Not mentioning which alien she was dating, for obvious reasons. Still, Other-Nova stared, slack-jawed.
“Wow,” they said. “Seriously?” She nodded.
“Seriously.” Slowly, they turned and started walking again, eyes wide, chewing a cheek.
“Wow.” Was it a good response, bad, neutral? Nova couldn’t have told you, but clearly she’d made some sort’ve impression with the- to her- simple statement that, essentially, people are people. Whatever happened with Max, he obviously, if nothing else, hadn’t gotten to impart this wisdom on them.
Still, it was a better response than it could have been, and the two walked in silence for several minutes before the Tennyson luck struck again.
A whistling whoosh, a flash of metal-
Boom!!
And they were dealing with an issue.
As she climbed back to her feet, Nova looked from the scorch mark on the pavement towards the direction the fucking missile had come from and bit back a groan. She knew it wasn’t SevenSeven, or at least not her SevenSeven, but they likely weren’t any less trouble when they were working. At least there wasn’t a crowd to worry about this time.
Already Canno- “What do you call that one?” “Armordi.” “Okay, that’s a name I can get behind.”- Armordi, the Other-Nova heaved a sigh and charged into the fray as Other-SevenSeven flew down and opened fire. They didn’t really stand much of a chance. Other-SevenSeven dodged, shot, pivoted off of them like they’d been trained from birth. Probably had been, actually. It wasn’t long before Armordi was splayed out on the road, groaning, and Nova couldn’t just stand there. Quickly she dialed up XLR8 again, sending the mercenary flying in just a few quick blows. Easy-peasy. Which, thinking about it, was rarely a good sign.
“Fuckfuckfuckfuck-” Yep, there it was. She bolted to Other-Nova’s side as they panicked, eyes going wide less at the band around their left arm than at the countdown on its screen.
Fuckfuckfuck indeed.
“I’m gonna blow up I’m gonna blow up-” They were trying to shove it off, tears in their eyes, and XLR8 batted their hands aside.
“I’ve got this!” Thankfully her life and social circle meant she could figure out an access code, and Kineceleran speed made up for a lack of time. Other-Nova collapsed to the ground as she yanked the band off with a cheer, bolting back to Other-SevenSeven and dropping it beside them before returning.
There was something almost cathartic about that explosion, she had to admit.
“Thank you so much,” Other-Nova said as she turned back and helped them to their feet.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “That’s what heroes do, right?”
Other-Nova grinned at her, only for their face to fall, and she got a strong sense of déjà vu. Again, she turned, and again a downed opponent was up again. What was that day? As she groaned, another two shapes stepped out of the fading smoke in flashes of light- Other-Tetrax and a third party.
“The Intellectuary,” Other-Nova said beside her, reaching for their watch. She hovered her hand over theirs to stop them.
“Can I at least know what the fuck is going on here,” she called out to them. Nobody was attacking yet, and if basics held true across dimensions, Other-Nova’s ‘did the Intellectuary send you’ meant anything, then two out of three were being paid for this. The other was an unknown.
Was.
“I’m here to retrieve my Omnitrix.” Which could’ve been villain talk, but she recognized the voice and immediately relaxed.
“Azmuth?!” Thank fuck. This could help so much. She turned briefly to Other-Nova. “He’s one of the good ones! I’m Nova 10! My dimension’s Azmuth and I work together!” The mercenaries turned to Other-Azmuth. There was a brief silence.
“Your being from another dimension is logical,” he said, “there has been strange hyper-dimensional activity recently. But working with my alternate self will take proving.” Ah, there was a rub. Nova wracked her brain for a moment.
“If this dimension is like mine,” she eventually said, “then you built the Omnitrix so people could learn to relate more to each other. There’s also the Unitrix, who I really hope is safe and sound here. Your apprentices were Myaxx and Albedo, your ex’s name was Zennith, and-”
“Alright!” One hand came up. “I accept that you know my alternate self. But that does not change the fact that they-” He pointed at Other-Nova. “-have my Omnitrix. I will see it returned.” They clapped a hand around their watch with a glare.
“It’s mine!”
“It was meant for your grandfather,” he said sternly. “We came to retrieve it on word of his death, only for you to already be using it to menace travelers and earn riches.” Other-Nova froze, eyes going wide.
“You knew Grandpa,” they asked quietly. Other-Azmuth sighed.
“Only second-hand. By all reports he was a very good person. The galaxy is lesser for having lost him.” Almost frozen in place, Other-Nova shut their eyes, breathing heavily. Their shoulders trembled.
“If he’d got it,” they whispered to themself, “maybe he wouldn’t have-” They shook their head. Opening their eyes, they glared best they could through tears. “Well, he’s dead and the watch is mine so fuck off-!”
“Hey!” Nova reached out for their shoulder. “Deep breathes. It’s okay.” They stared at her a moment then slumped into her grip.
“I miss him,” they said quietly, voice breaking on the words.
“Of course you do,” Other-Azmuth said, walking over. “But that does not give you leave to be irresponsible, or to blame all others for the acts of one.” They hiccuped.
“I’m a hero,” they said, “I want to be a hero. To be better. The best.” Suddenly, the need to have everyone see and approve them, to keep any aliens they didn’t have full control over away, made a lot more sense. She dropped another hand on their other shoulder, squeezed, and smiled when they met her eyes, pink to blue.
“Trust me, you don’t need a fanbase for that.”
~~~
“-and chill out with the advertisements some,” Nova said, leaned against the counter in Milk Pop. The others were in the back, Other-Azmuth instructing Blukic and Driba in repairing the warp-field generator. He was good at it, better than her Azmuth, and she had high hopes. “I don’t want for Vilgax or whoever your dimension’s heavy hitter is to show up and you be caught off-guard because you were focusing on endorsements.”
“Okay, okay,” Other-Nova chuckled wetly, smiling around a mouthful of actual-grasshopper ice cream- take that ‘so 2012’. “I get it. Talk to aliens before I try to run them out of town, make sure an opponent actually isn’t a threat anymore before I have fun with my fanbase, and do less promoting and more heroing. Okay, mom?”
“Okay.” Laughing herself, Nova ruffled her alternate self’s hair affectionately. “And listen to Azmuth, alright? I know your grandpa is gone but, I think he’ll make a good substitute. And Tetrax really is a good guy, I promise.”
“Alright.” Other-Nova lapsed into quiet for a long moment, staring into their pint, before setting it aside and hopping down off the counter to wrap Nova in a hug. “Thank you. I don’t know how I could repay you for the help.” Nova squeezed them back.
“Well, you could never say ‘buffa-loser’ again, for one-”
~~~
Home dimension sweet home dimension. Blukic and Driba had wanted to just bask in the store for a little while- or more, safely outside the store with enough ice cream to sink a boat- but Nova couldn’t bring herself to. There was something that needed doing, needed saying.
“Grandpa,” she called out as they burst back into the base, gaze eagerly searching him out. He stepped out from behind a desk, cracking a fond smile, clearly despite himself.
“Nova, the parents of those eggs wanted- Oof!” He faltered back a step as she collided with him, clasping her arms around him in the tightest hug she’d given him in what felt then like years.
“Thank you, for everything.” He was quiet a few moments, then chuckled, bringing his arms up around her.
“You’re welcome, kiddo.”