Chapter 6: Blockbuster

If you wanted to speak to someone nowadays, you could just call them, or text them, or send them a message on Facebook. If all else fails then you could do something crazy like mail them a letter. It's not normal anymore to be completely cut off from someone you want or need to speak to. This can cause a real anxiety, and this is a kind of anxiety that people generally aren't good at dealing with anymore. And the situation becomes so much worse when that person is in a bad way – they might need help, but they just can't be reached.
All you can do is wait and hope they're okay. It's maddening.
Right now, Marc couldn't contact Icelus – not just because she didn't have a cell phone or Facebook, but also because they were currently in separate universes. The methods of travel between those universes were too arcane and confusing for Marc to get a grip on – he had tried to make sense of them when Icelus was whisking him back and forth, but it hadn't really stuck. And he was worried about her now – not because her car was broken down or she was lost, but because the last time he had seen her, they were being confronted by men with rifles who probably hated and feared her. So she had taken one for the team and used her powers to warp Marc away, either because she couldn't bear to see Marc's face anymore or because she didn't want him to be in danger.
Either way, he wanted to see her very much. He wanted to apologize, at least.
It had been two days since Marc had been warped back to his home. He'd found himself only a few blocks from his grandmother's house. Icelus must have been considerate enough to aim him in the general vicinity. But that was the last he had seen of her – the last he had seen of Oniron at all. Everything here in “the human universe,” as she had always called it, seemed so quiet.
He missed Icelus. She'd probably be amused by the way he was thinking – his universe wasn't “home,” and it wasn't “the world,” it was “the human's world.” It wasn't the whole thing anymore – it was part of a bigger thing, and there were other parts that were just as big and just as important.
He missed Remont, too. He missed Lya and he even missed Osette. He had been whisked away in front of all of them without ever getting a chance to explain why. He wondered what they had thought of that.
Marc heard a vibrating noise and crossed the living room to get his phone. His friend Austin was calling? Weird. He answered it. “What's up, dude?”
“Hey, man, you doing anything tonight?” Austin's voice came out the other end.
Marc's feet couldn't help but drifting towards the empty fireplace. “No,” he said.
“Great! Well, hey, listen, we got tickets to Not the Same at midnight tonight, but my sister's really sick and she can't go, and my mom asked if I wanted to invite someone, so...”
“Uh, well, I'm at my grandma's house, it's a bit of a drive...” Marc lingered near the fireplace for a second or two, but then turned away. “You know what, fuck it, I'll come. Sounds good.”
“Oh, you sure, man?”
“Yeah, I haven't seen anyone all week anyway. Just been, uh, hanging out house-sitting...” Marc hesitated. “Alone. Nothing special.”
“Well, great! Sounds like a good time! You know where my house is?”
“I think so, uh – I'll call you if I need help finding it. When are we meeting?”
“How about ten?”
“Sounds good.”
“Okay, great. See you then, man!”
“See ya.”
Click.
Boy, it would be really weird to see his friend again after all that had happened. It felt like a whirlwind. Maybe if I see Austin, he thought, it'll help me get out of this mood. Put it in the past.
Maybe.

Marc only realized this right before he got to the movie, but he hadn't actually seen any of the other films in this series, so he was going to be totally lost.
Apparently this was the last in the series – the Not Okay Saga. And what he was sitting down to see was Not the Same, Part II, which was based on the second half of the last book in a trilogy of novels, all of which had been really popular.
“You know what's really crazy about it?” Austin asked him.
Marc looked over at him. They were waiting at the concession stands. “No, what?”
“The author of the movies – or not the author of the movies, but the guy who wrote the books they were based on – did you hear about this? Gordon Terrell?”
“No, I didn't. What about him?”
“Well,” said Austin, “he just died a few days ago.”
“Did he really?”
“Yeah. It was a drug overdose.” Austin shook his head. “I mean, he finished his books, but he never really got to see the movie series finish.”
“That's a shame,” said Marc.
“It really is. Maybe if he hadn't died,” Austin said, squeezing by someone to get to the front of the line, “this placed wouldn't be so packed.”
“Look at the people here, man,” said Marc. “All the cosplaying teenagers around here lining up. There are probably tons of people who'd be dying to get to the midnight premiere and here I am – oh, sorry,” Marc turned to the haggard concession stand worker, “I'll have a large Mountain Dew. And here I am,” he turned back to Austin, “just gonna waltz in to this movie without knowing anything. No appreciation for the lore of, uh... what's the series called?”
“Not Okay.”
Marc chuckled. “See? No appreciation. Thank you,” he grabbed his drink and slid off with Austin to find some seats.
“Well, I'm glad you could come, dude,” Austin said.
“No problem,” Marc replied. “Maybe there'll be something in this movie I think is interesting.”

The film opened with a panning shot through an underground bunker, switching between a group of characters – ragtag freedom fighters, it looked like to Marc. They obviously knew each other and probably had been through hell together. Definitely acted like it. There was the fierce and determined leader. There was her second-in-command and – if Marc's guess was right – her love interest. There was another guy there – it looked like he could possibly threaten their budding relationship and form a love triangle. But he would probably end up with one of the two other women who were just kind of there in the background.
All of a sudden someone bursts in to their base. Momentary shock. Weapons drawn. But then they get lowered. The group recognizes this person – he's supposed to be dead. He stumbles over, injured, collides with a table and falls on the floor. They to help him and get him water.
Later, he's rested up and in bed. He seems to be asleep, and there's a brief conversation about his health. Then he turns over and speaks to the heroes. “I stole this blueprint,” he says. “It's a weapon. This is what they're planning to use to drill through the underground city.”
Marc thought about asking Austin which underground city this guy was talking about, but he thought better of it. And then he saw the blueprint on display.
The injured man had pulled a scroll out from his boot and unwrapped it. He showed it to everyone.
It was the same shape as Icelus's sigil.
That couldn't be a coincidence, could it? He squinted. Was that what Icelus's sigil had looked like? It was tough to say. He didn't really trust himself to remember right – but it definitely looked like it...
“We need to stop this,” said the main character. “We need to break into the capital and put an end to Icelus – for good this time.”
Marc's heart skipped a beat.
He leaned over to Austin. “Hey, who... who's Icelus?”
Austin nonchalantly answered, “The bad guy.”
Marc apprehensively looked back at the screen. “Bad guy?”
“Well, girl. Just watch,” Austin prompted him, and they returned to watching the movie.
But Marc couldn't focus on the movie now. He remembered what Icelus had been saying.
The plan failed... He must have a new one now. One that's working.
Slowly, apprehensively, Marc gazed at the gathered heads of the crowd packed into the movie theater. There wasn't an empty seat to be found.
This was it... This was the plan. It was just like Scary Monster in the Night writ large, and this time it was popular. This time it had gripped the imagination of a whole country. This time it would work.
Thousands of people were about to see a machine that looked like Icelus's sigil destroyed. A villain named after her defeated. The climax of a whole hyped-up media franchise.
The Shieldwork was doomed.

Icelus had thought over every possible course of action, and she wasn't happy with the one she had picked.
She pressed her paw against the iron bars of her cell, testing their strength for the millionth time. Had enough power returned to her that she could try to break them? It didn't feel like it. Even just transporting Marc back had wiped her out and left her vulnerable to being taken and dragged off to a dungeon. In her own castle. Humiliating.
It had been about a week now, for her. A week alone in this small, cramped cell, the only thing in the entire castle that seemed sturdy and well-built. And she still couldn't think of a better course of action than “wait here.” She was after Piper, and with no way to track him, it was best to wait. The Nexus was right there – if his goal was still to destroy it, then he needed to be here some time.
Icelus heard a rattling and a murmur of voices at the end of the hallway. The guards were changing shifts. Footsteps were heard.
She sighed. Waiting felt like giving up to her, especially with no working plan to break free. Could she overpower or sneak past the guards? Probably, but there was no point in it. The Nexus was the only place to be, and if she made a beeline for it then the guards would find her easily and just drag her back here. Best to bide her time, only break out when she was sure something would happen. Hope her powers actually were enough to break out when the time came.
The footsteps kept coming closer. Was someone visiting her?
“Hello, Icelus.”
Icelus looked at the wall and stepped back in shock. It was Piper – he was here!
Icelus ran up to the bars and tried to lunge through them. She wanted to bite him, rip at him, tear him up. But all he had to do was back away and he was safe. There was nothing she could do.
She lowered herself to a striking position. “What are you doing here?” she said, bile spewing out of every syllable.
“Just checking that they've got you locked up securely.” Piper flicked the metal bar and it made a ringing sound. “Looks good. We wouldn't want you getting out and ruining everything.”
“How did you sneak by the guards?”
Piper smiled. “I am a guard, silly. I volunteered. Nobody wants guard duty here, and it's not like anybody saw me last time I tried to break in. If they did, it still would've been seventy years ago now.”
Icelus growled. “Seventy years?”
“Oh, you were in the other world. Probably not quite that long for you.” Piper shrugged. “But yeah. About seventy years over here. Seventy years I've been planning this. And it's all gonna pay off tonight.”
“What happens tonight?”
“Tonight is blockbuster night!” he said, twirling around. “I gave one man the idea to write a book series, and then they turned those books into movies, and now the last one's going out tonight, and everyone will be watching as the evil Icelus is defeated forever! You can see where I got the inspiration, of course. It's gonna be huge. I even helped out with the publicity when I could,” he mused. “Poor Gordon. But it'll all be worth it. I think that be a big enough blow to the Shieldwork to shatter it forever.”
“Why?!” Icelus roared. “Why do you want to do this?!”
Piper stopped cold and looked at her. “The same reason I've always had,” he said. “To help my friend.”
Icelus snarled. “Canis.”
“Yes,” said Piper. “But more importantly, everyone like Canis. Nightmares who are weak and hopeless because of the Nexus. Because of a situation out of their control.”
“You would doom both worlds to endless stasis for them?”
“But it's not stasis, Icelus!” Piper wheeled around. “It's independence! Without the Nexus, both worlds will start to develop on their own. They won't be subjected to the whims of the other one. Everybody on both sides can grow, without having to worry about anything else besides themselves. The world won't come and shackle them down – the great can be truly great! The weak can become great!”
“You're a fool if you think that's what will happen,” growled Icelus.
“And you're a cynic,” said Piper. “More importantly, you're the loser. Now if you don't mind, I should go. We're probably about to get to the climax.”
And with that Piper turned and left the room. Icelus lunged out one more time in anger and frustration, but it was useless.
The door closed.
She had to summon up whatever power she could and break out of here. It was now or never.
Standing incredibly still, she reached inside herself and visualized a barrier, slowly pulsating. It began to expand, and to rupture, and then it burst, and all the energy inside spilled out -
Icelus lunged forward once more and slashed her claws.
Her paw bounced off the metal bars harmlessly.
Icelus collapsed onto the floor in despair. She didn't even have enough power to break out. And now her paw was sore. Whatever power she had mustered, it was only because Marc was there to amplify it. Without Marc, she was useless.
Icelus really wanted to see Marc. She at least wanted to apologize.

Marc was frozen to his seat.
Almost two hours and he really hadn't absorbed what was happening in this movie. His train of thought had been wrecked pretty early on. He had excused to go to the bathroom and remained in there for twenty minutes, thoughts wracking his head.
“Hey, man, you okay?” Austin had whispered to him when he got back and took his seat.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” Marc had replied.
There was no stopping this. Marc had had a crazy idea to run into the projectionist's booth and knock over the whole thing, stop the movie. But it would be pointless. There were other theaters showing Not the Same, Part II, not just in this building but all over the city, all over the country. It would be a drop in the bucket.
And now he was stuck here in a darkened room full of people who were paying rapt attention to the movie. He couldn't get out, he couldn't leave, and he really couldn't talk to anybody about why this was a horrible tragedy.
What could he possibly do?
The film was nearly over. It was the final action sequence. A giant, hulking CGI machine that was shaped like Icelus's sigil was burrowing into an underground city. It had gotten pretty far. Broken through the top, at least. Scenes of action and fighting aboveground interspersed with shots of other characters in this underground city fleeing in terror.
The heroine's love interest was among them. He was busy evacuating people when the drill crashed through the ceiling of the building he was in. Rocks fell. His leg was trapped. The drill began to bear down on him.
The heroine and main villain – Icelus was her name – were locked in a hand-to-hand fight on the deck of an aircraft. They hit each other and ducked into other rooms and used their environment. It was good fight choreography, really, but Marc wasn't in the mood to appreciate it.
What did hit him was when the heroine got up, looked out of the nearest window, and dived out of it – safely onto a nearby giant bird that as being flown by her companion.
Icelus, the villain, looked around and saw, with sudden horror dawning on her face, that her aircraft was on a collision course with the drill and she was too late to stop it.
And that was the climax of the movie's action – a huge crash as the drill exploded. It stopped working, and the heroine's love interest was safe. It was a relief to the audience and to the characters in the movie, but Marc saw the lavish spectacle and knew what it really was: the final act of violence against Icelus's sigil.
It was too late now.

Canis was just where Piper had left him – in a dark corner of the throne room. When Piper passed through the threshold, Canis slowly got up and started walking alongside him. His friend was weak and Piper had to keep an eye out for him as they walked toward the Shieldwork.
“It is done?” asked Canis.
“Yes,” said Piper. “Can't be more than a few minutes now.”
Sure enough, as they approached the Shieldwork, the criss-crossing lattice of shallow scars started to expand and deepen themselves, gouging more and more into the structure.
“It's happening,” Canis said. “It's finally... happening.”
“This can't be nicefor Icelus,” remarked Piper. “This is her spell – all of her power. She's probably suffering down there in her cell.”
“She is not our concern. It will pass.”
“It will,” said Piper. “The entire world is about to change.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the Shieldwork collapsed – slowly at first, then more rapidly, as the scars bore deep down and attacked the wall. It was a mental assault – the sum total of all the psychic energy of the theatergoers worldwide, their relief as the good guys won in the end.
“This really worked out well for everybody,” Piper said. “We get what we want, and the humans get a good time at the movies.”
“The fools,” Canis rattled. “They know nothing.”
“Oh, don't be too hard on them,” Piper smirked. “They just don't know the power of a good story when they see it.”
The Shieldwork was well and truly destroyed now. As chunks of it fell, they disappeared, vanishing into the ether. There was a large hole through which Piper and Canis could walk through, and they did so, Piper helping Canis up in his delicate state.
All that was left was to open the door into the Nexus.
It was exactly as Piper had remembered it – a gigantic bridge, adorned with complex architecture and spanning over a void so deep and so wide that it couldn't be comprehended. There was a considerable sense of disorientation when they moved from the finite space of the throne room to the infinite space of the void.
Piper walked to the beginning of the bridge and traced his spell circle patiently – he had time to do this. He noticed, bent down as he was, the half-scratched-out remnants of a spell circle a few feet away. It must have been the old one. Icelus hadn't even finished rubbing it out when she was exiled. Piper chuckled.
The final spell circle was a simple pattern of overlapping circles and crosses. Piper stood up, double- and triple-checked his handiwork, and concentrated.
He felt a crack, deep in the foundation of the Nexus. Good. He concentrated harder, and felt the crack spread. It splintered and shot forward, and dust billowed up, but Piper didn't break his concentration.
Now the great roars of collapsing earth were heard – crushing, smashing sounds. Piper allowed himself a brief look and found that a section of the bridge had simply fallen off, disappearing into the void, likely to never return.
And he closed his eyes again and set his jaw and mentally pushed even harder. The crashing and smacking noises multiplied tenfold, becoming unbearably loud – and then a final smash, louder than all the others put together, louder than anything Piper had ever heard, spread across the void.
Piper looked up.
The void was still. Where before there had been thoughtforms rushing across and dissipating into Oniron, now only stasis and silence remained. The bridge was gone, except for a small remaining portion on this end. It barely suggested the grandeur that had once occupied the space.
Ears still ringing, Piper let out a whoop.
“It's done!”
He had succeeded, after seventy years – the worlds were truly separate now. The Nexus had been destroyed.


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