Core Fusion

Alex and Morcai stood in the military strategy room. There were white boards and TV's with satellite imaging on them. They were standing near a light up table that you could set maps on. And there was a couch in the corner that no one ever really used that felt out of place.

"There's something else we need to discuss," Alex said.

"What's that?" Morcai said.

"The alien situation. What's with the colors? They all seem to have different powers," Alex said.

"Yes. They do," Morcai said.

"What are they?" Alex said.

"Do you really want me to give it to you in one big info dump, or do you want to find out for yourself?" Morcai said.

"I guess not. But then I get hit in the face with something I don't expect and almost die," Alex said.

"Isn't it more exciting that way?" Morcai said.

"Yeah, I guess. But it's more work though," Alex said.

"No one said this was going to be easy," Morcai said.

"You're starting to sound like Ludos," Alex said.

"Sometimes she's right about things," Morcai said.

"I know," Alex said. "I just don't like to admit it because it brings her joy."

"You'll survive," Morcai said. "You two are like brother and sister."

"We are, aren't we?" Alex said, acknowledging the comparison "So what's next then?"

"You want another mission already? Aren't you tired?" Morcai said.

"One more mission. Then I'll sleep," Alex said, yawning.

"So before your next mission, there's something I want to figure out about the cores," Morcai said, furrowing her brow.

"Ok," Alex said. "What's that."

"I'm thinking the cores aren't going to give their armies more firepower. It's going to do something else. There's something I need to test first before I know for sure," Morcai said.

"Ok," Alex said. He pulled one core out of his pocket and handed it to Morcai and then he pulled the other out of his dimensional pocket.

He hadn't really looked at them before. They were really beautiful. The one Morcai held was a glass-like sphere with the symbol of a leaf inside it, with green sparkles swirling around it.

The one he held was also a glass-like sphere but his had no such sparkles. In the center was the image of a skull that kept changing into the skull of a different animal. It had a cloud of inky black smoke surrounding it.

Despite its morbid nature, it was still impressive to look at. "What do you think they do?" Alex said.

"I'll show you. Slowly bring yours closer to mine," Morcai said.

Alex did as she said and slowly brought his core closer to hers. He started to feel something like a magnetic pull, a trembling in his hands, until suddenly both cores flew out of their hands and slammed into each other.

There was a flash of green and black and then the cores, or more accurately, core, fell to the ground. Alex reached down and picked it up. It was one core now. The cores had fused together.

Inside, you could see the green sparkles mixed in with the black smoke and the skull and leaf symbols were now one. In the center was the changing skull, surrounded by vibrant green leaves.

"It's as I thought," Morcai said. "They aren't powering up a weapon."

"Then what are they doing?" Alex said, still staring at the mesmerizing new core.

"They're trying to create a new home for themselves. Well that's not entirely accurate," Morcai said. "They're trying to create more space and resources for them to conquer and take for themselves."

"If my theory is correct, when they have enough cores the dimensions will fuse into one giant dimension, allowing them to spread throughout a much denser space and take over resources and planets from their native peoples."

"That's horrific," Alex said, looking disgusted. "This is going to sound cliche, but we have to stop them."

"You're right. This experiment should be the only instance of core fusion that happens from now on. This may cause some minor glitches, but we needed to do this to confirm my theory," Morcai said.

"If they're gathering cores from other dimensions, how are they going to connect the giant dimension to this one? Wouldn't they need a core from this dimension as well?" Alex said.

"Yes. They would. Oh no," Morcai said. "How could I have overlooked that? Maybe the attacks on cities weren't random. Maybe they were looking for Earth's dimensional core. And since the attacks on cities have stopped, that must mean they found it."

"Oh, shit," Alex said. "Well, as long as they don't have any other cores, we're safe, right? Right? Morcai?"

Morcai had an anguished look on her face. "But they do. While you went on your mission to retrieve the core and were successful, the other two teams sent to the other two portals were not. Now they have three cores. And I have no way of knowing how many cores it takes for dimensional fusion to occur."

"Short of just fucking around and finding out, of course," Alex said.

"True, but obviously we can't do that. What if the process isn't reversible?" Morcai said.

"Right. Well, I guess all we can do is keep playing keep away with the cores, and hope we're lucky enough that they don't get the required amount. Oh, and we need to keep the cores we do find away from each other so we don't accidentally cause the fusion ourselves," Alex said.

"I'm already working on that. Hephaestus is building core containment units so they don't accidentally fuse. And we're not keeping them in the same room either, just in case," Morcai said.

"What are we going to do about the speed problem though?" Alex said.

"You mean the fact that portals are opening faster than you retrieve the cores from them?" Morcai said.

"Yes, that," Alex said.

"I don't know. We have a couple options. Get more chosen and send larger teams to each portal, or find a way for you to be in more than one location at once," Morcai said laughing.

"Who knows, that may eventually become an option, but it hasn't come up in any of my level ups yet," Alex said.

"Let's start with recruiting more chosen. Having you in two or more locations at once might be stretching you too thin, literally," Morcai said. "We'll have to recruit more gods to the cause first. Can't create chosen without gods to give them their powers."

"Would my time be better used if I helped with recruiting gods instead of getting one core for every three portals that open up?" Alex said.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. We had Hermes on that, but he's been only marginally successful. He only gets one or two gods per pantheon. But that's because he's just been trying to persuade them," Morcai said.

"What if there was a way for you to force the gods to participate?" Morcai said. "Like a trick or something."

"Like a wager?" Alex said.

"Exactly like that," Morcai said. "But what would you wager on that you could beat the gods at?"

"What about a game?" Alex said. "I'm good at those. Maybe we can get them to choose champions instead of participating in the games themselves. That would give me a better chance.

"What if we bring Ludos along and threaten to make them play her in a game if they want to participate so badly? Play someone your own size kind of thing."

"I think you're on to something. Which pantheon would we start with though? I'm not as familiar with them as you are. I only really know the ones I've met in person," Morcai said.

"What about the Mayans or the Aztecs? They have that famous ball game pok-ta-pok I think it's called. I don't think that's the original name, but I don't think historians know either," Alex said. "Or I could do hoop and pole games with the native american gods. Or I could do arm wrestling with the remaining Norse gods. Maybe I could arm wrestle Loki!"

"It appears there are a lot of options. How many gods are you trying to recruit?" Morcai said.

"I'm not sure. We'll see who even agrees to the wager idea and then go from there," Alex said. Since we have two Norse gods already, let's see if we can start with them."

"That sounds smart," Morcai said, smiling her cute little smile.