My back is to the wall, in a worldwide sense. I now take pride whenever
three of us do a five-person job in a warehouse. That happens more often
than I would like.
...
Our Earth is well into its Global Cooling crisis. This started when the Infrared Sunbreaker Choir crashed one of the moons of Jupiter into Earth
in 2009. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2009/trillions.htm#iv ) We and some friendly aliens put the Earth into stasis for that, so the planet and
the population survived. But the Earth was still thrown out of orbit
toward Mars.
This was eleven years ago. Nine years ago, evil mages blew up
Yellowstone. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/page.php?fn=endgame2.txt )
The Powernaut responded; he "raptured" half the Earth's population to
some alternate Earth that he cosmically created. (www.eilertech.com/stories/powernaut/2011c.htm) Presumably he picked
"ideal" people. People like me were left behind.
Our Earth has just gotten colder since then.
The surviving population of the United States has congregated around the Yellowstone crater which is one of the warmest places on Earth. The Presidential train is at West Yellowstone-Idaho, as close as trains can
get. My brother is with the President. My sister is in Jackson
Hole-Wyoming, 'cause it has the best climate and she knows people who
can keep things running even off the tracks. I am usually in Livingston-Montana. It is cold but it still has a Trainville. Amazon
still operates a depot there, plus two other places (Cody-Wyoming and
Idaho Falls) on train lines near Yellowstone. Somehow I have become an
Amazon facilitator. So I get around.
Wildlife roams the human settlements freely. Bears are with them. My
sister's tamed one. I walked through Jackson Hole with them once. Be
sure to show no fear!
I've buried my friends Adu, Pam, and Karla (junior members of the
Balance) - three times apiece! You see, in addition to everything else,
there's been a plague. As the world's remaining superheroes, they
volunteered to get infected - and produce superhuman antibodies.
Naturally they were cloned after that, to produce more.
Senior members of the Balance aren't around. Laura (Morningstar) left
with the Powernaut Rapture in 2011. Ellipsis is said to be on one Planet
Polona in our galaxy. No one knows about the Mighty Tim.
There's another superhuman team, Total Conversion. They didn't leave
with the Powernaut. But no one is quite sure about them either.
The Yellowstone crater is the warmest part of the Northern Hemisphere,
due to volcanic outflow. Now the rest of the world is sending an
immigration force. In Montana, the defenders are U.S. Cavalry
reenactors. The young ladies of Amazon are interested enough to hook up
with them, before they go off to war. I would go to lunch alongside them
and the young men of Amazon, except it's still the morning and I want a
shower first.
I was here once before. (www.eilertech.com/stories/neverwas.htm) This is
about when I leave for the past. I know this because I once saw myself
leaving for the past. I'll know for sure, when the Trainville kids start playing Teenagers from Outer Space. I saw that end myself, when I came
from the past after the time I left for the past. Really.
But what about my relatives? We're all too stubborn to just give up.
And what about Doom Creatures? This might be their time.
(1-2 April 2020)
I've directed one night of two for a community musical I wrote about super-magic practicioners. By the end of that night, four of us have had
an adventure with those powers off stage. (12 Aug 2020)
- The musical is about Auge von Shaitan (and Vesper and the Doom Bear)
vs. the Magic Fishhook of Tongafusifonua! Jenn from Body Up has
performed with me before, and she's helping put on the musical. Pam
Brown (Bride of the Ultimate Darkness) and Dr. Joseph Biggby-Fisher (mad mystic-scientist from another universe) have shown up. That last one
knew me as Higher Power; the final time I had Engines of Reality, I
helped separate his universe from our own.
- Dr. Joseph has in real life thrown out the Magic Fishhook to find
another Earth that might save his from its own Global Cooling Crisis. Unfortunately, he hooked his Earth to ours where we have the same
crisis. What he needs, is the Powernauts' Earth. With the Bride of the
Ultimate Darkness around, he can hook any Earth he needs. He just needs
his hook back.
- The Fishhook once had a limit put upon it by the Realm of Dreams -
provided that one believes Ellipsis can speak for that realm. Wielded by
the maniacal Bishop Eric X, it was only able to raise a bit of land
then. In the hands of Dr. Joseph, it has connected one Earth to another!
- I am currently the Champion of Death for my Earth. Its rightful fate
is to die. But my stubborn relatives should get one more chance for
life. So should Jenn and her stubborn family. (They're from
Massachusetts. Of course they're stubborn.)
So, Dr. Joseph and Jenn and Pam and I bring our dying Earths together.
There's now room for all us survivors here, for the moment. And now Dr.
Joseph has his Fishhook back.
As I understand it, Ordered Realities considers our two Earths to be
SW10 and SW11. I suppose it's all SW10 now. The Powernauts' Earth is
SW12. It's next.
Then...
- Thor's avatar (yeah, we still have those) and I prepare to go into
exile and save the Earth; he's going to occupy some farmland in
Massachusetts of another Earth for six years or so. But our
time-traveling enemies including the Aga Khan will win if we do. (4 Sep)
- Unless I do go, I shall meet my earlier self Wyatt Ferguson soon or
very soon. I already know of the Trainville he visited. (Near my own.) I
also recall when he arrived. And Kristi Halstead the Animal Girl is
there - for Past Wyatt to bring back to Earth 2002. I know this
because... she works at my warehouse! Past Wyatt will take her back, two
years from now in 2022! (8 Nov)
- Vesper wants to actually invade my mind as I decide this interaction!
He's an ancient spirit of vengeance, so he can totally do that. But it's
my mind, so I can make him solve a MathDoku puzzle I solved today. But
he's Arabian, and he can claim to have invented Arabic numerals! Imagine
if he were the Spectre and he had to find someone else to solve the
puzzle... But still, I've made my point. I win this time. (20 Sep)
... In short, we've put off the Fate of the Earth for a bit, but we
might decide stuff next year. The End is still scheduled for 2023.
---
Author's Notes: I'm in a fine mood to consider the end of the world
right now.
I can't yet figure when I determined the U.S. survivors would congregate
around the Yellowstone crater. But that is what they're doing.
(to be continued, in 2021)
(signed) Scott Eiler, 1 May 2020.
... It's 2021 now. I still don't have a lot of hope for my world. The
Real World, some more, but not much. But the next annual might actually
spin off into a new series. I'm contemplating that now.
(signed) Scott Eiler, 30 May 2021.
... It's 2022 now. I'm confident enough in this story line to start
publishing it now. Three more stories will follow, and more are likely.
(signed) Scott Eiler, 7 Dec 2021.
--
--
http://www.eilertech.com/ -------
"Your Royal Highness, instead of devoting yourself exclusively
to Minerva, should, instead, rather offer sacrifice at the altars
of Bacchus, Orpheus, Venus, and Morpheus."
- Advice to Prince Duarte of Portugal. From "The golden age of
Prince Henry the