Kahli gasped for air as Taubitha clutched her neck tightly, her dreadful purple electricity charging around and crawling forward like wicked spider's webs.

Froufrou squelched with fear and leapt from her purse to aid her tauman - only, she noticed that she didn't. That is to say that she tried to leap from the purse, but she couldn't. It was like the force from her tendrils that would normally have propelled her up and towards Kahli and Taubitha was instead only but a meager fraction of what was needed to allow her to move through space. It was like the laws of physics themself had suddenly changed and warped. And then so it was that Froufrou caught a glimpse of a sinister glare from the sparkly eyes of none other than Taubitha's evil little pet, Princess. With this, she knew irrevocably that the sinister, fony-like creature was up to no good.

But Froufrou scarcely had but an instant to conceptualize of all of this. Because then, it happened.

----------------------------------------

Kahli and Froufrou were there in the void, the all-too-familiar void that Kahli so often visited in order to enact her [checkpoint] function of her [Seismic Sense] [skill]. The Supreme Time Protector floated in the void before them in their splendid, white robes, as always. However, something was incredibly different about this specific [checkpoint].

"Like, oh my gods! What the fuck is going on?!" Taubitha said with a gasp. She immediately dropped Kahli from her grasp and released her burst of purple power out into the void, where it immediately dissolved into nothingness and shadow. Taubitha looked around with wide, confused eyes to Kahli, to Froufrou, and then to the Supreme Time Protector. "Seriously, what the hell is going on? Did we just get fucking, like, totally captured by someone or some shit? Why the fuck is this freak in the cloak just floating here next to us? Why is their whole face covered? And, like, who the fuck are they?!"

"Wow, rude," said the Supreme Time Protector. Then, they raised a gloved hand and flicked their wrist. With a flash of white sparkles, a beam of light shot out and encased Taubitha. "Alright, now that she's frozen, I can talk to you. Kahli, this is going to be a serious problem. You see-"

"What the fuck did you, like, just fucking try to do to me?!" asked Taubitha with a gasp and a scowl at the Supreme Time Protector. She had no idea what it was that was happening, or what the Supreme Time Protector had attempted to do with their powers, but what she had been able to do was to utilize her increased awareness of all systems to recognize the attack and indeed to repel it with a bit of reality management. Taubitha, while not fully accustomed to her new [class], was getting better every moment - and strange situations such as this only served to teach her more about what she could and couldn't do.

"This is going to be an even more serious problem," said the Supreme Time Protector as they held out both of their gloved hands and shot swirls of twirling golden energy at Taubitha that soon coiled around her and then, ever so quickly, swarmed into her small earholes and over her glowing eyes. The rest of the energy hardened around Taubitha's wrist and ankles so as to bind her in her present spot in the void. The Supreme Time Protector held their hands out and groaned loudly - in a manner that almost sounded constipated - as they continued to charge up their energy. Finally, they sighed in relief and lowered their hands, turning to address Kahli and Froufrou. "This is a grim situation you've found yourselves in, there's no way around it. At least, for now, I'm able to bind her and blot out her senses with my energy so that she can't intrude on our conversation."

Kahli looked at Froufrou, who was squelching quite stinkily with nervousness. "What do you mean? How is Taubitha even here?"

"How?" The Supreme Time Protector only sighed. "She's here because you're here, Kahli. She found some way - I'm still, at least presently, unsure how - to tap into your system and manipulate reality itself based on the same functions that your system uses. I... wasn't fully aware it was even possibly for taumans to do such a thing."

"Reality itself?" Kahli looked confused. "Are you saying that there's another manipulation component? One other than time?"

"Well, of course there are other dimensional components to reality than time," said the Supreme Time Protector. "It just so happens that time is what allows the regulation and determination of al the other aspects of reality, in one way or another, and as thus is a quite powerful thing to control and manipulate. However, there are beings that have learned of other ways to gain what are, admittedly, some of the most powerful [skills] and [classes] known to the universe. And, unless I'm completely misinterpreting what has become of this... strange tauman woman, here, is that she has been a recipient of such... meddling."

"Meddling?" Kahli felt even more confused, and indeed a great bit uncomfortable. "Look, Supreme Time Protector, what does all this mean? How is this [checkpoint] going to work? Is she going to intrude on all my scenarios?"

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Froufrou squelched as such to agree with her [paired] companion. They needed answers, and fast - it seemed that with every moment, the Supreme Time Protector's ability to hold back Taubitha with energy was somewhat faltering.

"The worst thing about all this, Kahli, is that I don't know," replied the Supreme Time Protector with a sigh. "I have had limited to noencounters with other individuals using a [class] that in any way approached the power of [Time Manipulator], to be honest with you. It is, generally speaking, a very powerful [class] - and yet, at the same time, it indeed seems that other such [classes], including ones that allow people such as this tauman to intrude on your [skills] and system operations, are very much afoot in the world."

Kahli looked at her big left foot and frowned at the Supreme Time Protector. "Afoot? Is that supposed to be a joke or something?"

"What? No!" said the Supreme Time Protector, raising both of their hands defensively before immediately returning them to their prior position on noticing a slight change in how tightly Taubitha was restricted. "By the gods, I feel like a dam ready to break loose. It's a wretched feeling, because something like your [checkpoints], Kahli, are intrinsically tied to your consciousness. This means that this tauman has, somehow, found herself a manner in which to effectively access your psyche through her own system [class]. This is more than just, say, simple mind reading - although, ironically enough, she doesn't seem to be able to do something such as that, at least upon me inspecting her [attributes], [skills] and abilities to the best of my knowledge - no, this is something else entirely. She's got a [class] known as..." Suddenly, the Supreme Time Protector fell silent.

Froufrou was wondering just what in the fresh hell was going on. It was one thing for Kahli to bring her into the [checkpoints] - first of all, it made sense considering how they shared the system and especially after Kahli learned the [skill] that allowed full access of systems and [skills] between the two of them - but it was another thing entirely to bring an enemy. How had this foe managed to bore their way into Kahli's systemic existence? And why did Froufrou feel so suddenly, for lack of a better word that she could ascertain, jealous about it? Regardless, the whole thing was sending her into a real squelching fit.

"What?!" said Kahli frantically. "Tell us, already, Supreme Time Protector! What [class] does Taubitha have?"

"Well, first of all, Kahli, you really ought to learn to do this yourself. It's kind of hilarious to me that, through your [Tale Teller] [skill], you can obfuscate your system better than some folks that are level 50, and yet cannot read other peoples' unobfuscated character sheets."

"Okay?" said Kahli, failing to see the relevance of this lecture at this inopportune time. "And? What is her [class]?"

"She's a [Dimensional Wizard], Kahli."

Kahli felt a little let down. It didn't sound as evil and foreboding, and yet, at the same time, Taubitha's [class] did sound quite cool. Which was a bit of a bummer in its own right, because for a second it made Kahli wonder if it sounded cooler than [Time Manipulator]. And in the next second, it was an even bigger bummer, because in that second Kahli decided that yes, [Dimensional Wizard] did sound notably cooler than [Time Manipulator].

"Okay, so her [class] sounds cool," said Kahli, trying not to betray all her feelings at once. "So, what exactly does that mean, oh Supreme one?"

"Please don't call me Supreme One," said the Supreme Time Protector with a sigh. "That said, I'm not altogether certain what all her [class] does. All that I can viably ascertain is that it is through this [class] that she was able to join us here in this [checkpoint], and that it has granted her a number of [attributes] that I am presently unable to fully analyze due to my divided energy being spent keeping her bound to her present location. That being said, this is beyond serious. From the paltry amount that I can gather, her system now affords her the ability to manage and tweak things that other peoples' systems do - and while this seems to be limited to a bit of a radius of proximity, it is still gravely dangerous. Worse still, with her being here alongside us, she will most likely learn what it is that your system is able to do, which is a grave disadvantage that, played out incorrectly, could easily get you killed."

Kahli looked at Froufrou, who squelched back at her sadly. Then, she felt herself brimming with determination.

"You know what, Supreme Time Protector?" Kahli asked.

"What?"

"I'm not afraid of Taubitha," said Kahli.

"What do you mean? She's incredibly powerful!"

"So what?" said Kahli with a shake of her head and a roll of her glowing eyes. "Here's the other thing about Taubitha. See those huge wings she has?"

"Yes?"

"She has no idea how to use them. She spent a [skill] slot earning those wings and still hasn't figured out how to fly with them properly."

"What are you getting at, Kahli?"

"What I'm saying is that yes, Taubitha might be super powerful or whatever. But I don't think it matters, because Taubitha's a fucking idiot."

The Supreme Time Protector snorted. "Ouch."

Froufrou squelched in agreeance.

"All that said," started the Supreme Time Protector, "How are you going to make sure you mitigate her abilities as you march through your scenarios? While I don't know rightly what will happen when you view a scenario, as Taubitha is here, I would assume she'd see them with you."

"Easy," said Kahli. "I've got [Tale Teller], right? I'll just lie to her. Maybe I'll even convince her that the scenarios were all her own doing.Something to do with her super powerful [class]."

"You really think that would work, Kahli?"

Kahli sighed and laughed. "Watch me."