From Accct Wiki

Contents 1 The Hitchhiker's Guide 2 Story 2.1 Outline 2.2 Prologue 2.3 Preface 2.4 Chapter 1

[edit] The Hitchhiker's Guide

N+n*10^n*N years ago (which most authorities agree was a little less than figuratively forever ago) Something happened that caused incomprehensible damage to the world-tree/cosmic-supercomputer called Yggdrasil, which is responsible for running the underlying applications, algorithms, and subroutines that keep the Multiverse going. In layman's terms, reality itself took a really bad blow to its everything. In order to prevent Yggdrasil from suffering further degradation by trying to compute causality progression for the infinite timelines of the Multiverse, the world-tree's systems administrators (Admins for short. We know them better as the mythical deities of Earth.) put each and every universe into temporal stasis. The only problem with this was that temporal stagnation was almost as bad for Yggdrasil's recovery process as trying to keep the Multiverse running as it was supposed to. So instead, the Admins put Yggdrasil's Branches (the universes making up the Multiverse) into infinite-recursion simulations. Or time loops, for short. Most of these Loops are normal repetitions of that universe's main timeline, known as Baseline, but because Yggdrasil is damaged it often forgets how things are supposed to happen, causing Variant Loops. These can be as mild as someone's name being different, as severe as everyone's personality inverting, or so bizarre that the Variant bears little-to-no resemblance to Baseline at all.

To prevent "random causality variation decay" (Variants getting more and more frequent and random until Yggdrasil completely forgets what a universe's Baseline was, which would be the opposite of Yggdrasil getting better), the Admins pick a person (usually one, at least) to serve as an Anchor for each Branch. This means they remember the Loops, so their soul can serve as a recovery index to prevent their reality from decaying. This means that, so long as they remain fairly stable, so does their reality. This means the stability of each universe depends on someone trapped in seemingly infinite time loops not losing it completely. This can be a great strain on anyone, so before long the people closest to the Anchor(s) are "Activated" as "Loopers", non-Anchors who also remember the loops and can provide their Anchor(s) with direly needed socialization. Still, every Looper that's "Awake" (in possession of their memories of the Loops) in a given Loop puts an additional strain on Yggdrasil, whereas an Anchor must always be Awake, unless another Anchor visits their Branch, in which case they could spend a Loop Unawake, so the Anchors still have to endure many, many consecutive Loops alone.

All Loopers, Anchor or otherwise, inevitably gets a serious case of "cabin fever" from being trapped in the infinite repetitions of time. There is no way to completely avoid this. It can, however, be mitigated by variations. To this end, Admins allow the occasional Variant Loop to happen, as well as Fused Loops between different Branches, and Loopers visiting other Branches. Another unavoidable complication of the Time Loops Protocol is the gradual build-up of power in a Looper's soul, as the Looper's soul is the part of them that doesn't regress when the Loop resets. Left unchecked, this accumulation of power would result in spontaneous apotheosis to a higher plane of existence, eventually to the highest plane of existence: that of the Admins themselves. This phenomenon is called Ascension; before Yggdrasil was damaged it was a big deal, but generally not a problem. Now, however, it's a VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM. The first, last, and thankfully only time a Looper Ascended, it almost undid Yggdrasil's recovery. Another Ascension, if it ever happens, might very well be The Actual Literal Very Last Thing That Absolutely Ever Happens Anywhere And Anywhen. So, to prevent this from happening, a Looper's unused soul-energy is shunted into a "subspace pocket plane of existence", or Pocket for short. Beside eventually becoming a virtually-inexhaustible reserve of power, the Pocket serves Loopers as the only means of carrying material objects between Loop resets, even objects from other universes. It also serves as a personal databank for lines of augmenting code to a Looper's soul that allows them to retain special abilities and powers they acquire in other realities, including those that require changes to a Looper's body or even environmental factors that don't exist in all realities. The longer a Looper has been Looping, the bigger their Pocket gets. The more powerful their soul is in their Baseline reality, the more rapidly their Pocket grows. All Loopers eventually learn how to send out a signal that vibrates on the same wavelength of existence as the Pocket; thus, only other Loopers who have learned to form their Pocket can receive this signal. It's called the Ping, and the one and only thing it does is let any other Loopers in a Loop know that someone else is Awake. All Pings are exactly the same and traverse the entire Branch fast enough to be considered functionally instantaneous. A Ping cannot convey the identity, location, or even the general direction or relative proximity of a Looper, so don't even try it. Certain loop iterations, called Null Loops, restrict a Looper's access to their Pocket. Some Null Loops only prevent a Looper from using powers from other Loops. Some Null Loops only prevent a Looper from withdrawing anything from their Pocket, and some even stop them from putting things into their Pocket. Naturally, there are also Null Loops that prevent all of these things. The most serious Null Loops even prevent Loopers from using the Ping.

Of course, not all Branches were affected to the same degree by The Event. There are certain Branches that were relatively unharmed, for example. They're more stable than other Branches, and some of them are so stable they don't need an Anchor to Loop. These are called "Safe-Mode" Loops. Despite not needing Loopers, Loopers can still visit Safe-Mode Loops. Depending on whether the Loop's stability is of the pleasant or mind-numbingly boring variety, the Admins implement them as vacation options for Loopers who have had a rough time lately, or as Punishment Loops for Loopers who have been naughty. No physical damage a Looper suffers will last beyond a single Loop, and in the infinite abyss of time even the worst of mental and emotional traumas can be resolved. The one thing that all Loopers truly dread is boredom. Why might a Looper need to be punished so, you ask? Usually for causing Loop Crashes. A loop crashes either when all Anchors present in a loop are killed, or when someone does something that whatever reality they were in literally couldn't handle; on computer terms, it's the same thing as a system crash. Most loop crashes merely cause the loop to reset prematurely, and any punishments are given to discourage it from happening again. More serious crashes, on the other hand, can cause harm to Yggdrasil's systems, which is precisely why such crashes have to be discouraged. On the other hand, some Branches were more severely damaged by The Event than others. Some are so unstable that they're potentially dangerous to visiting Loopers, or even to the rest of Yggdrasil. To contain such threats, these Branches are Quarantined. Some Branches are Quarantined not because they're dangerous, but simply because none of their inhabitants are stable enough to serve as an Anchor, while the Branch itself is not stable enough to be a Safe-Mode Loop. Relatedly, there are certain objects and powers that may potentially have a destabilizing influence on other Branches; such things are designated Read-Only, and cannot be carried out of their Branch of origin by Loopers.

Finally, going back to Safe-Mode Branches, the most stable of all Branches is the one known among Loopers as the Hub. If every other universe is one of Yggdrasil's Branches, this universe is its trunk. This is the one reality in all of Yggdrasil that doesn't need to Loop at all. Instead, it progresses at a regular pace. Because of its unparalleled stability, the Hub serves as a back-up database for all of Yggdrasil's recorded data on the other universes. This data manifests as the Hub's "fiction". The Hub is, of course, the universe that you and I inhabit. Thus, everything we know as fiction is a reflection of one of Yggdrasil's many Branches. This, of course, includes the "fiction" of the Infinite Loops themselves. Because the Hub is so vital, and because it's too stable to Loop at all, it is functionally Quarantined; Loopers never visit the True Hub. They do, however, on occasion experience "near-Hub" Loops. The main distinction between the True Hub and near-Hub loops being, of course, that the True Hub isn't Looping, and near-Hub loops do not contain records of the Infinite Loops Project. Thus, while Loopers can experience the Hub's fictional works that record their own and each other's Baselines and more prominent Variants, and even the fanfiction records of other Variants, they can never read the fanfiction records of their own exploits in the Loops. Good thing, too, because that level of recursive paradox might be more than Yggdrasil could handle in its present state.

[edit] Story

[edit] Outline

• Chapter 1: Tony Stark invites three of the most iconic Supers that the 90s has to offer in order to reintegrate legal status of Supers. Tony Stark offers recording armor to Elastigirl first as she has proven to cause the least amount of Collateral Damage.
• Chapter 2: After stopping a runaway train, Elastigirl spots the Screenslaver looking from afar, she gives chase only to find that Screenslaver is able to fly, indicating that 'he' was a Super 'himself'.
• Chapter 3: Helen dials up whatever Supers were left alive in her generation and what new Supers were fetched by DevTech to figure out just who was the Screenslaver, (Or at least, the puppet playing the Screenslaver this Loop.)
• Chapter 4: After an uneventful date at Whataburger with Pepper, Tony gets a call from Bob about the recent expansion and how Tony deals with the scorely ones he gets in his Variant Feige Baseline.
• Chapter 5: Elastigirl catches Screenslaver falling for the trap that she and Evelyn set up with the interview and unmasked him to reveal that 'he' was a revived(!) and hypnotized Stratogale.
• Chapter 6: Helen looks up Doctor Alan Grant whose mere existence confirms the fact that Jurassic Park's part of the fused Loop as well, then grills him for information on inGen's cloning program, leading them to the recently-opened Jurassic World.
• Chapter 7: Roxanne Hammond welcomes the lot of them to Isla Nebular, Bob, Helen, and the kids join Tony, Ian and Alan on their trip through Jurassic World where they meet other children and some charitable guests on behalf of the Konishi Toy Museum.
• Chapter 8: A good chunk of Supers are mind-controled by Screenslaver Goggles and 'Helping Hats' that are helmed by Evelyn who has revived the Pestalence Greeed (Really the ___ Zodiarts) that acts as one of the twelve pillars.
• Chapter 9: Violet protects a group of children only to find that they can transform into Dinosaurs to help hasten their escape to warn Roxanne of the situation at hand and the foes they're facing.
• Chapter 10: Tony suits up with Rhodey to protect the children from Evelyn and the mind slaves she had gathered from the Dinosaur Pens and the Invited Supers. Then things get dicey upon the arrival of... the rest of the Greeed.
• Chapter 11: Andy, Bonnie and Dash run over to Doctor Henry Wu who had reverse-engineered the seal of OOO to create the CombOOO Driver to latch onto one of the five Greeed enslaved by Bedrilyss to act as a shock collar of sorts.
• Chapter 12: Iron Man and War Machine face armies of Yummies armed with copies of the very powers of each Super, Roxxanne decides to join with her quirk: transforming herself into a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• Chapter 13: Roxy helps Helen up to the pilot's chair and oxygen helmet and then tears up Evelyn's TV Guide which turns out to be a Future Diary, guess what happens with Evelyn after that silly little adventure.

[edit] Prologue

The first time it happens is a huge shock, such that it barely even registers until afterwards, when Gail is standing still and watching everyone staring at her.

One moment, she's standing at the edge of the playground, and then there's a panicked shout from the birds and a moment later she's twenty feet to the left, heaving a huge broken-off bough out of the way just before it can connect with the boy from her math class with the dark hair, lying oblivious under the tree.

The bough is lying some feet away, a splintered dent in the side. Gail is floating down, shocked, to the ground. A couple of the younger kids are staring openly, but it all happened far too fast for the majority to notice - not that that matters, because a moment later those few are raising up a loud, chanting chorus of "Gail's a Super!", and shouting again, and again.

Gail panics, runs because there's nothing else she can do, leaps the high fence around the school without a second thought. Sparrows fly as a cloud surrounding her, a shield of soft brown feathers and fierce, protective beaks and claws, and they call out encouragements and reassurances to her as she runs.

(She'd always spoken with the birds. It had never occurred to her that this was unusual.)

She is nearly twelve. She arrives home gasping too hard to speak, just sobs out confusion and fear. Her mother holds on to her tightly, and waits until she's ready to talk.

The news would have spread around the whole school by now. It's so unfair, Gail reflects later, that they all knew about it as soon as she did, and before she could even get used to the idea. Her parents are calm: Supers aren't uncommon even out in their little town. The three of them talk it over together later that night, curled up close on the sofas with hot chocolate in hand.

They decide they'll move to the suburbs of Metroville: some of the Supers have just opened up an organisation there, and Gail will be able to start at a new middle school with the freedom to decide whether to tell people. They won't miss this town, her mother reassures her: it's always felt a little too small.

One of the local sparrow flocks moves out with them. They fly with the car, dappled shadows falling over the road as the family drives, and they're already waiting in the old apple tree outside Gail's window when they arrive at the new house. She stays up late that evening, listening to the birds chatter excitedly over each other to tell her all about the surrounding area, sipping hot chocolate out on her windowsill.

Some of her sparrows come with Gail to school for the first few days, and sit out on the windowsill to chirp occasional encouragements. She insists that she's fine, and then smiles at them from behind a hand, feeling glad of the company.

She decides to keep her head down at school: she studies, and stays quiet, and hope that no-one will notice the way that the local crows and swallows fly a little closer to her end of the classroom when wheeling circles out on the soccer pitch.

The first time Gail flies, it's just her and the sparrows. She starts out on the lawn, and concentrates hard as they fly around her, squawking excited encouragement. Peeking through scrunched-up eyes, she sees she's already gone three feet up, and drops immediately to the ground, heart thudding. She tries again, slow and careful, short bursts up into the air until finally she can reach a tree branch with her fingertips and pull herself up.

It's later that evening, when she's on her windowsill, animatedly telling the sparrows about science classes with Apogee, that she catches her empty cocoa mug with a foot. It drops straight down towards the paving slabs two floors below, and before she's had time to think, she's off after it. She comes back up slowly, mug in hand, to hoots and cheers from the birds, and she laughs with joy as they fly in triumphant spirals around her.

She is thirteen, and she flies out with the birds most nights, waiting until dark before wrapping up warm and exploring the city in all directions. Her mother makes her an eye mask, and she wears it just in case: she still hasn't told anyone at school, and there are rumours at the Academy that anti-Super feeling is on the rise in Metroville.

She doesn't let the rumours worry her: she's too busy. She goes flying, sometimes, with Dynaguy and Apogee, while Thunderhead stands on the roof of the Academy, directing sunbeams towards Apogee and pulling in low-lying clouds to shield them from civilian cameras. Dynaguy is still a little clumsy with his rockets, and Gail and Apogee fly circles around him, then shoot off to race each other to distant trees.

She finds her name, one day, in geography class: they're learning the layers in air, their properties and temperatures and it's their names, most of all, that entrance her. She whispers the idea of it to Thunderhead that evening, heart pounding, and he doesn't laugh and he doesn't question it. He does give her a tight hug, and offers to use it when it's just them alone, sparring or studying, so she can get used to it.

It sits awkwardly for the first few weeks, and she blushes a little as she and Thunderhead tell the other Supers, one by one. She grows into it slowly, she thinks, learning and inhabiting the shape of it, every syllable, letting it settle onto her until it finally fits comfortably. Stratogale.

She is fourteen, and she and Dynaguy go together to pull two civilian helicopters out of the sea, where a megalomaniac supervillain is blasting them with lasers from a newly-built robotic shark. Dynaguy blasts holes into the sides of the helicopters, then turns to take on the shark, while Stratogale pries the holes wider and reaches in to carry out the pilots.

They fly back with Stratogale holding the pilots' belts, and land on Metroville's main pier and into a storm of flashbulbs. Journalists are shouting her name, and firing questions at the both of them; people are bringing small children close to her to say hello, and touching her without asking; there are so many of them, and it's far too much. She glances at Dynaguy, who is calm and professional and already balancing two babies in his arms - he gives her a nod, and she takes off in relief, flying back out to sea.

Stratogale is fifteen, and occasionally goes on rescue missions alone. Sparrows cover her head and shoulders when she addresses the press, and the little ones adore playing with them. She's heard that a few Supers in the next city over have had trouble from the media and the courts, and she's noticed Metaman speaking with Mode in hushed, concerned tones after some press conferences, but she has more urgent things on her mind.

Namely: there's this girl. Okay, so, she's seen her around in the library for ages, and every lunchtime that week, she'd caught Stratogale's eyes and smiled at her. Yesterday she'd come over to chat about English class, and they'd ended up talking about the volunteering Stratogale did at the zoo, and look, she's not sure where she's going with this, but she thinks that maybe she should ask her if she'd like to grab coffee this weekend? Maybe?

She explains it all to Thunderhead, and he laughs and claps her on the shoulder, pointing out that she's vanquished over a dozen mega-villains in the last year, not to mention foiling an exploding volcano and an imminent earthquake just last month: how scary could this be?

Stratogale thinks it over while she's streaking through freshly-cleared skies towards an airliner that had gone into freefall - what if she isn't into girls? oh, heck, what if she is? - a nearby eagle's squawk brings her back to herself, and she dives neatly under the airplane's nose and gives it a careful nudge upwards.

There: easy, and from here Stratogale can see passengers cheering and waving from the windows in relief. One kid presses their stuffed owl up against the glass, and she flies up, smiling, to say hello. She's in the airstream now, close to the window and still smiling and waving, when just behind her she feels this sharp and sudden tug -

[edit] Preface

Yggdrasil is broken. No one can say for sure why, but it is. All universes are stuck in time loops. People who remember the loops are called Loopers. Loopers are Awake when they remember the Loops, and Unawake when they don't. The first and most important Looper in each universe is the Anchor. The gods that run the multiverse are called Admins. When Anchors dies or when Loopers do something reality-breaking, loops crash, and Admins hate that, so they throw them in super-boring loops as punishment. Loops that are stable enough that they don't need Loopers are Safe-Mode; some are nice and Loopers use them for vacations, and some are the boring ones that Admins use for punishments. Universes and people that are too unstable to Loop are Quarantined. Powers and objects that harmful to outside realities are designated Read-Only. Read-Only things can't be kept in a Looper's Pocket, which is their own personal subspace in their souls that they use to carry items and cool powers through loop resets. Loopers who have learned the Pocket can also use the Ping. The only thing the Ping does is let other Loopers know that a Looper is Awake; it cannot tell who they are and it provides no clues to their location. A Null Loop is a loop where Loopers either A) can't use powers they don't have in Baseline, B) can't pull things out of their Pocket and/or put things in their Pocket, C) can't do any of those things, or D) can't do any of those things or send out a Ping. Baseline is the "true" timeline for a Loop. Variants are Loops that aren't Baseline. Loopers can appear in other Loops, sometimes by Replacing someone from that Loop, and multiple universe can also be joined together for Fused Loops.

[edit] Chapter 1

Tony Stark did not expect to be sharing his private jet with Supers, let alone Professional Supers from the 90s