The Plothole
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Pan Post 133 sees the forces of Mega Jonestown Prime on the backfoot against the High Empire but their leader, Imeryn Hypericum, merely sips her cocoa from her balcony atop Mount Tall. Ameryl Hypericum, Imeryn's sister, arrives first and confesses admiration for Chimaat but Imeryn tells her to back off and reminds her of the choice she made to abort her own child. Peasant Girl then arrives and the three of them battle each other to a stalemate until Highemperor, the man between them all, arrives. Ameryl criticises him for mass destruction but he blames her for the deaths of two of his daughters; Kimleigh and the unborn child Ameryl aborted. Imeryn then summons the thirteen hedrons from Earth and uses their power against Highemperor, however they do nothing as he has placed safeguards upon them when he created them. The three women, seeing him as the greater threat, then unite against him and begin to overcome him despite his strength.

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Girl Talk[]

Without Minos' horn to bolster her own forces or the God-Killer Machine keeping balance to both sides, the High Empire is pushing Imeryn's fleet back. Mega Jonestown Prime, while large and powerful, does not have the multiverse-spanning empire that Highemp does, and furthermore, he is launching his assault from the very heart of his domain, where his forces are strongest and most numerous.

Imeryn is calmly sipping hot cocoa, however. She is not attached to Mega Jonestown Prime after all. It has always only ever been a means to an end. A rustle of motion signals someone landing on the balcony beside her.

Ameryl: How curious. None of your sentries attempted to shoot me down as I approached. Perhaps they think I am you.

Imeryn: Hello, dear sister. I suppose the technical terms of your exile forbid you only from our home galaxy, so I will allow this brief visit to my new home.

Ameryl knows the remark is designed to incite ire from her, but she is too weary of the old conflict, the old hates. She has moved on long ago, yet the past keeps coming back to haunt her.

Ameryl: Your daughter doesn't seem a bad sort. I hope you haven't... disciplined...her too harshly.

Imeryn chortles.

Imeryn: She is a fine sort, despite her rebellious streak. Don't be thinking of trying to steal her now. You had your chance, and you offed it of your own volition.

Ameryl's gaze grows dark despite herself, but she successfully bites off a scathing reply. Her sister is only baiting her.

Peasant Girl: Well, she is a pretty young lady! Look at her, so cute in her sleep! One would certainly hope that nothing happens to her.

Imeryn takes another sip of her cocoa before setting the mug down.

Imeryn: Hello, my darling consort. Do be polite, and leave Chimaat out of our...discourse.

Peasant Girl erupts in peals of laughter.

Peasant Girl: You're ever so proper, my once and never queen. Very well, I will not accost her until you are no longer around to miss her.

Imeryn smiles tightly, and stands up. The three powerful women regard each other one final time.

And then they fight.

Peasant Girl's channeled Nothing shatters on Ameryl's anti-power ring and is absorbed harmlessly by Imeryn's invulnerability. Ameryl's spells are swallowed by Peasant Girl's Nothing and glance off Imeryn ineffectually. Imeryn's powers likewise shatter on Ameryl's anti-power ring, but they possess just enough force to knock Peasant Girl back slightly even though her Nothing shield.

Peasant Girl: Well, that just isn't fair.

Imeryn: You were born a peasant. Leave the warring to your betters.

Ameryl: You are no better than she. And I have not been royalty for a long time.

Imeryn: Such backtalk. There was a time when you did everything I told you.

Ameryl: We were children then. I looked up to once upon a time.

Imeryn: Does your little bauble give you brashness enough to defy me? Tell me, dear sister, do you really think that tiny spark of anti-power is enough to protect all there is of you?

Power lashes at Ameryl from all sides, and she cannot deflect it all fast enough with her ring, grunting as she takes damage.

Peasant Girl: Whoa, Ameryl's mine to punish!

Imeryn: Yours? Whatever did she do to you?

Peasant Girl: We met again, after I left you. We rekindled our passion...and then she rejected me!

Imeryn: Ameryl dear, you astonish me.

Ameryl: I was moving on. Despite a moment of weakness.

Imeryn's eyes harden, but before she can attack Ameryl again, Peasant Girl strikes the God-Monarch with more channeled Nothing. The battle blazes up anew, the three women hurling challenges and bolts alike at each other, whirling around in the air until they rise high above Mount Tall, with the grand palace of the God-Monarchs below them.

In their battle, they don't at first notice the new arrival.

Highemp: Hello, darlings. I see you've started without me.

All three women whirl to face him. He has arrived in his greatest state of grandeur: glowing, with accompanying music and wind gusting his cloak behind him.

Peasant Girl: Such an entrance. My heart is all aflutter.

Her words are mocking, an echo of the time when her world was much smaller, and she was easily impressed.

Imeryn: Dear, you're late.

Highemp: Traffic was terrible.

Behind him is the wreckage of millions of starships, from all four factions. Only a few stragglers, of any loyalty, survive, limping through space and nursing their wounds.

Ameryl: You three are terrible. All this senseless death and destruction, all wrought by your obsessive refusal to let go of the past...and you banter?

Highemp swivels his gaze to her, and anger flares up in his eyes.

Highemp: If you want to be serious...let's start by pointing out that, with Kimleigh's death, that's TWO of my daughters you've murdered now.

Ameryl's eyes blaze with old sorrow and regret, and new anger that Highemp would use this against her.

Ameryl: You left me no choice! I was alone! I was--

Peasant Girl: Looks like someone hit a nerve!

Peasant Girl's statement is delivered in a singsong tone, and Ameryl bites off her words, assuming control of herself once more.

Imeryn: This reunion is lovely and all, but first, I have a welcome-home present for you, Highemp, love.

Highemp: Do tell.

Imeryn's eyes blaze white and her hair blows in an unfelt wind. In thirteen pops of displaced air, the hedrons appear below them, salt water sprinkling from them down to Mega Jonestown Prime below. On Earth, the hurricane above the Pacific Ocean dissipates almost instantly, the disruption from the hedrons gone now that the hedrons themselves are teleported away at Imeryn's call.

Imeryn: DOMINATION!

Power shoots up from Mega Jonestown Prime below into the thirteen hedrons, and through the hedrons up into Imeryn. Imeryn thrusts her hands out into joined fists before her, towards Highemperor, and all that gathered, concentrated power slashes through the air to her onetime love.

Highemp: Is that what that is? It tickles.

Imeryn frowns at the lack of effect on Highemp, who chuckles before continuing.

Highemp: Did you ever think I would allow my hedrons ever to be used against me? Yes, there were safeguards that a powerplayer could get past, but there other hidden protections: my very will, laced into their framework.

Ameryl can't help but roll her eyes at all these convoluted mechanisms employed by her sister and onetime lover.

Highemp: You did exactly what I knew you would. You - and Chimaat - are cut from the same cloth I am, after all. I taught you everything you know about powerplaying. You gathered all that power, all those artifacts, and concentrated it together. Just as I wanted.

Peasant Girl: Nothing does not bore me, but this rambling prattle certainly does!

Imeryn: Agreed. Sister, my queen consort, let us unite to take down this false man who names himself Highemperor!

Peasant Girl: Ooh! A team-up! Sounds wicked fun!

Ameryl silently concedes that Highemp is likely the most dangerous of her three adversaries, and accepts the temporary truce against him with a nod.

Then all three launch onslaughts of energy and power and spellwork - even anti-power from Ameryl's ring - at him. He resists it easily - at first. Bringing his own power to bear, he retaliates in kind.

But the three women are united in their defiance of him, and are all perhaps the most powerful being he has ever faced. Slowly Highemp is wearied, and pushed back. He growls and thrusts back, the force of his power rocking the three women in its gale.

They redouble their assault, striking blow after blow on his body and spirit and finally, with a simultaneous employment of their greatest powers, break through his barriers and send him sprawling through the air.

Imeryn: I told you would bow to me.

Ameryl: I did not want this. But there is no other way.

Peasant Girl: Nothing pleases me more than this!

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