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Loyal Customer is a veteran badge, not the login badge. ~ AGGE talk/cons 06:10, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

Anniversary Invasion Teaser Story

A Matter of Consequence

Editor's Note: The following story appeared on the CoH website here: http://web.archive.org/web/20110507054206/http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/news_archive/prepare_for_the_praetorian_inv.html?utm_source=newsletter_coh&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email_na_20110428_in&utm_content=event

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The dark skies of Galaxy City did little to illuminate the room that Dr. Raymond Keyes was working in. Only the soft glow of several computer monitors added to the room's overall ambiance. His fingers danced across the keyboard of a hyper-advanced computer of his own design. While constructing this computer, he had contemplated one of the more modern touch and gesture-based interfaces, but the fact of the matter was that he could use the computer at a 17.6% greater capacity with a standard keyboard and mouse layout.

Sweat beaded on his brow as the final calculations poured forth on the monitor. Instinctively he glanced into the upper right of his field of vision to see what time it was. It was only then he realized he wasn't wearing the Positron armor and had no Heads Up Display. He checked his wrist and read the watch given to him last year on his birthday.

"Damn," he muttered to himself. He continued the thought internally, "this is not good." "Ray?" the cool woman's voice spoke as to not startle him out of his concentration. Like that was going to happen. As Positron he was a battle-hardened superhero, and was well aware of her presence before she even entered the room. "How does the data look?" she queried. Tammy Arcanus spoke the word "data" almost like it was from another language and to her it practically was. As the Freedom Phalanx member known as Numina, Tammy's world was that of the mystic and magical, not the high-tech world that Positron lived in. It was those magicks that started the pair down the path of discovery they were now on. Her divinations pointed to something big, but was unable to pinpoint exactly what. Something was interfering with her magic.

"Tammy, I took that info you gave me and tried to break it down, scientifically," Positron said. "It was harder than I thought. Magic and science share a lot of symbology at times, only used for completely different things. It was a good primer on what it must have been like to be an alchemist back in the day." Positron swung his chair around to face her now that he'd finished what he was working on.

"Remember the Omega Team?" Positron asked her. Of course she did, they were the fifty magic-based heroes (and some villains) that travelled to the Rikti homeworld to seal off their world from ours for good and prevent further invasions. It was a suicide mission, and the letters recovered from the time-capsule opened in 2009 let the world know that the members of the Omega Team knew they were never coming back before even going in.

"Of course, but what does that have to do with Praetoria?" she asked.

"It seems that traveling to the Rikti homeworld through one of Dr. Webb's dimensional portals did more than just transport the Omega Team. That single act of science mixing with magic altered the fabric of reality itself."

"I like the idea of science mixing with magic." She teased in an inappropriate voice. Positron did his best to ignore that, but a smirk still moved across his lips.

"As I was saying... that act seems to wreak havoc on the dimensional barriers at times. Strengthening them in parts of the year, and weakening them in others. Almost like phases of the moon. When the barriers are weak, that's when we see the most incursions from other dimensions. If someone like Emperor Cole were to figure this out, he'd be able to send a massive amount of troops from his world to ours, but only at specific times of the year." He punched a button. One of the large monitors opposite the room's only window sparked to life. A small glare from the window's reflection faded away as the window's LCD panels switched themselves on, obfuscating light from entering the room. Numina was bemused that instead of complex formulae and scientific theorems appearing on the monitor there was but a simple calendar.

"Based on my data and your divinations, I calculate that during this time period here..." he stabbed at another button, a row of dates were highlighted. "May 9th to May 27th this year. That's when the barrier of dimensions will be weak around our universe. And on May 27th, they'll be at their very weakest. If Tyrant figures this out, I expect a massive invasion to occur on that date, on the scale of which we've never seen before."

"If the barriers are weak, does that limit the threat to just Praetoria?" she quizzed.

"I don't know. The Rikti could possibly use it to their advantage as well," he retorted.

"We'll need to alert the heroes of the city to be on their highest alert during that time period." Numina said. With business taken care of, she moved onto another avenue of questioning. "So, are we going out on 'patrol' again this evening?" "Of course, but I need to send an email first." "Another woman?" she teased. He blushed, but didn't let it show. "Just a colleague, someone who needs this information as much as we do." Positron wrote a hasty email.

In an underground laboratory hidden somewhere in the Rogue Isles, Dr. Rebecca Colston was working on an experiment. Racks of beakers, tubes, and flasks piped liquids of various colors and viscosity to and fro. One of her fire imp constructs was busy playing the part of Bunsen burner, keeping two beakers of liquid at a rapid boil. The other two imps were off playing in the corner, doing their best to not distract their mistress while entertaining themselves by making steam out of the water dripping from the ceiling that betrayed the location of her secret lair.

She was about to move onto the next phase of her experiment when she noticed the "You have a new message" alert pop-up on the stolen laptop she was using to take notes on. Try as she might, she couldn't help but see who it was from.

"Damn," she muttered to herself. She continued the thought internally, "this is not good." She resisted the urge to open the email for a full sixty seconds before resigning to the fact that it must be important if HE was mailing her. She brushed back her flaming red hair and straightened her round glasses so she could better read the slightly cracked LCD screen of the laptop.

My Colleague,

Dimensional barriers at their weakest May 9th to May 27th this year. Praetorian Invasion should be expected in the Rogue Isles and elsewhere. Emperor Cole's seer network likely obfuscating that fact from Arachnos precognition. Suggest you use this information to defend the Rogue Isles from Tyrant's forces.

-Your Colleague

The villainous scientist sighed. She'd been undercover for nearly five years now. Worked her way up the Arachnos organization, swore to Scirocco as her Patron, all that. A message like this could get a lot of unwanted attention pointed her way... still...

She had made a handful of allies in her time here in the Rogue Isles. She could possibly use that to her advantage. She quickly typed out a similar email to the one she received and then contemplated who to send it to.

"Ah yes, her," she said out loud in a Eureka-like moment. Dr. Colston knew a soldier of Arachnos, a Widow, named Mindspider. She would be the perfect recipient. Mindspider should be able to pass along that message into the Arachnos organization as something generated by one of Lord Recluse's precognitive Fortunatas.

That would keep her own hands clean of this as well as give Mindspider a promotion within the organization. After all, Mindspider had saved her life just last week in that bank robbery gone awry, to which Dr. Colston was begrudgingly grateful.

In an alternate dimension, Positron's doppelganger looked at his own computer screen. Former Praetor Raymond Keyes was known in this universe as Anti-Matter, but he'd long since fell out of favor with Emperor Cole. Above him a huge window showed the Earth rotating slowly outside. He didn't care. This was his personal orbiting space station and he'd seen that view a million times before. What interested him right now was the data staring him back on his computer screen.

"Damn," he muttered to himself. He continued the thought internally, "this is great." Had he done it? Had he finally gathered information that Emperor Cole could use to his advantage? Would he finally catch the eye of Praetor Duncan, so she could see him as the genius he is?

Primal Earth, as their natives called it, was subjected to a scarring event in its recent past. The Rikti were invading from an alternate dimension so they sent fifty of their most powerful magicians through a technological portal to that universe. That act caused permanent damage to the barriers between alternate universes and Primal Earth. At certain points in the year the barrier would be a shell of what it should be, and that would be the most opportune time for Emperor Cole to move his troops in.

He hastily punched up the communication codes for the Magisterium tower. He was actually a little surprised when Emperor Cole answered the video call. "I have little time for you today, Keyes," the ruler of Praetoria spat out. Cole reached for the button to terminate the call.

"Wait, wait! I have information! Information you need!" Anti-Matter quickly blurted.

"What could you possibly give me that I can't get elsewhere, from more competent people?" the Emperor asked.

"I know... I know when you should strike Primal Earth. When the barriers will be-" he was cut off.

"May 9th to May 27th," Emperor Cole said nonchalantly.

"How...?" Anti-Matter was dumbfounded.

"I figured it out yesterday," a voice from off-camera spoke. Anti-Matter knew that voice. His rival. The man who stole his job.

"Neuron," Anti-matter muttered under his breath, clenching his fist.

Neuron came into the view of the video call. "Seems that once more your incompetence has shown through. I take it you have nothing further to add to the information?"

"No," Anti-Matter gritted through clenched teeth. The video call ended abruptly.

Anti-Matter was irrational at this point, not exactly sure what to do. He decided that if Emperor Cole and Neuron were going to play this way, he would do his best to play spoiler... but he had to do it in secret.

"I'll just send her a friendly message... she'll get the word out," he thought to himself as he fired up an email program and started to establish a dimensional uplink to Primal Earth.

Keep your eyes peeled for more details in the coming days.

Notes

• This mini story was taken from The Official Website (posted April 28th, 2011) and reposted here to preserve it due to past instances of data loss when NCsoft has previously had the website overhauled. Please do not change any of the above content to fit with any later retcons .

• Migrated over by Sleepykitty 15:59, 10 September 2011 (UTC)