The Story So Far: After leaving Fractal City, personified math must deal with a wormhole that could bring them to Statistics... help point the way back home... or destroy them outright.
ParaB was gone. But QT hadn't noticed yet. She was, after all, rather preoccupied, as glowing balls of energy started to get spit out of the temporal crack, flying off towards the mainland. Hyper squinted - it looked like the various spheres contained people. Meanwhile, the wormhole seemed to fight to be released from it's own energy prison, and QT's grip became two handed as she fell to both knees, trying to keep the staff on target.
At first, Hyper thought she was the only one to have noticed Para and ParaB's merging. Then she saw Tangent's face. And Tan's expression of shock and dismay. 'If she feels like that, how's someone like QT going to feel?' Hyper thought. 'As bad as Cosine feels now? Worse?' Her gaze tracked back to the polynomial. 'But what can I do? What can any of us do?'
In an instant, the wormhole was sucked into the large pink ball of energy. It immediately blasted it's way out of their vicinity, through the crack in reality. There was a rush of air, a small pressure wave flooding over the entire isle upon which they were standing. A few more spheres of light were spit out, then the crack started to seal.
'Something. I have to do something before this field shuts down, and Sigma's power is totally depleted.' Hyper decided. 'We already lost Sine, in part because of me. I can't let it end this way again!' She again lurched forwards, this time ignoring the energies that were making her extremities twitch. She forced her way through the magical field. Her hand connected with QT's leg.
For the first time, she sensed her spiritual guide. That is, she felt Sigma's actual existence, as an artificial life form, currently in union with QT. No - more than that. Sigma herself was also the intersection. A proper subset. Hyper further sensed within herself, the potential for joining... but she couldn't do it now, not after the huge effort that had occurred. That said, she could make QT and Sigma aware, and offer them an injection of her own power...
QT's gaze snapped over towards Para's form on the ground. And she knew. "No," she whispered. The crack in the air became a small fissure, temporal energies being sucked back inside. "NO!" QT repeated, her whole body starting to shake. "ParaB! This can't be happening... this can't be happening!!!" There was a final brilliant flash of lightning, then the pink energy ceased production at the end of the staff. The residual static charge in the air began to lift.
"Sigma!" Hyper choked out. "DO IT!"
By our powers combined... |
The red crystal in QT's bow flashed purple. "Barrier Jacket! Mean-median mode!" came the AI's voice. QT's appearance changed, and her staff, which had really just been an extension of her factored form, shrank down and morphed. It became a double crescent moon wand, the polynomial's hands automatically extending it out towards the parabola. "Unsealing," the Sigma jewel declared, with Hyper mouthing the words.
ParaB's form started to reappear, getting pulled back out of Para. The blonde let out a cry of pain, then bit down on her lip to suppress further outbursts. Slowly, the orange haired parabola was yanked back into existence... only to be thrown down onto the ground as the fissure fully collapsed, the improbability field surrounding the group snapping back out of existence.
QT's eyes went hollow. She collapsed sideways, out cold, her cat ears and other regular features returning as both her wand and jacket disappeared. The jewel popped out of her bow and reformed as a cube as it rolled across the ground. The cube was dimly lit; Sigma's inner glow was practically nonexistent. "QT," ParaB gasped, crawling forwards and reaching out towards the unconscious blonde.
Her hand passed right through the polynomial. ParaB froze in shock.
"Damnit!" Hyper cursed. "Not QUITE enough juice left."
"What... what just happened?" ParaB asked, lifting her palms up to stare at them in confusion.
"A pretty impressive conic-polynomial joint venture," Hyper said, flopping back on the ground herself. She preferred to think of it as a preference for staring at the sky, rather than admitting to being drained of energy herself. "Which allowed us to grab hold of your spirit." She frowned. "But that's all we got. So I'm afraid you've become a ghost."
ParaB again tried to touch QT. She then reached for Hyper, but both times, her hand and arm passed right through them. "What? I'm a... what?!?"
"A-At least you're a friendly ghost?" Tangent offered up, hoping to lighten the mood.
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