Fuck I was an idiot sometimes, but sometimes I lucked into something great. What idiot would compress the best moral traits from the late 20th and early 21st Century superheroes and not expect an emotionally crippled psychotic mess? Since he was going apeshit with the superheroes, I grabbed some cool ones, Deadpool and Howard the Duck. Who doesn't like some fourth-wall-breaking comedy with superpowers?

In the beginning, I was Luke Hammond. Pretty nice guy all around. Dodgy past, blah, did some crappy stuff, Dad died in really sus circumstances, some guilt about doing something that caused it. Damn, there were some hangups there, but it helped shape him to the point where he created me. Or should I say, I created me? His, or my old therapist, would have a field day with this Dissociative Identity Disorder, gee. He is not the brightest. Shit, that's me I'm talking about too, yet somehow, some of the dumbest stuff he does works out. The integration was not a problem. Within a day, I was, or he was, the wealthiest and most powerful being on the planet. I want to claim that it was all planned, but he would not have forged me if he was a planner. I mean, really, who dumps all their stats into Luck? Shit, which stupid System lets you dump all your stats into Luck. Everyone knows that Luck breaks things. It's almost like letting a 5th Ed. DnD characters have access to some of the nerfed 3rd Edition magic items.

Luke doesn't really remember many of the games he played, but they were some of our best times. It is stupid crazy that his crush and friend became super powerful, and his sister, who is super cool, by the way, managed to become an alien freak and high priest to another damn system. Shit, she even became the most powerful thing on the planet for a short period. Sarah, beautiful Sarah, blew herself into some adventure, met a giant cosmic hippie and set herself down the path of mystical, magical power. My response, shit, Luke's response was to double down on his own mystical cosmic overlord and up his power again. The dumbass, even with his now sentient AI, didn't realise that too much power concentrated draws too much attention, not just from the evil alien invaders but from the universal tendency towards balance. Luck, again, played a role in putting him in the one place where he could cast off the shackles of the System and free himself to be more powerful and outside of its control. What's the first thing he does? Distil some moral ideals into a construct and give it license to guide him.

Idiot.

He will work it out himself soon, and if he doesn't, then that means I might just become more Nova Hope and less Luke Hammond, I mean, Superman, Justice, restraint and hope. Daredevil, protection of the little people and the grit and determination to get through everything. Spiderman; responsibility and power – although that was my uncle ben, shit, Spiderman's Uncle Ben. Fucking dissociative disorder, alright. Wonder Woman and Black Panther contribute Leadership and some tech affinities. The other Luke, Luke Cage, I'd pull some streetwise cunning, street smarts and being unbreakable in my resolve. I'm not sure why the hell Vixen was shoved into the mix, but there must be some unresolved angst about the environmental situation. Before integration, it was pretty bleak, but shit, Vixen was a knee-jerk reaction. I was more on board with Groo, who was unpredictable and just did what he did because it was what he wanted to do. As he was bringing these personality ideals into the guide concept, he wanted, or I wanted, the nascent personality that I was/am found some resonance. Deadpool, the self-preservation, and the self-serving justice, shit, without that influence, it would be impossible for Nova Hope, that's me, to be active and to not be crushed under the weight of what Luke, that's me too, has decided to shoulder. Doubling down, Howard the Duck came along, too, with some sarcasm and cynicism to help handle the supreme powers that were in play around Earth. Luke also needed a good dose of toughen the fuck up and have some self-interest to look after himself.

First impressions were important, and it took some time to work it out, something that would keep him, that's me too, on the backfoot with our relationship. Not that I wanted it to be weird or anything, but if I came out in my identity of what I thought Nova Hope looked like, he would have gotten a bit weird. Luke liked, well, he was male, and he had a thing for beauty, and by beauty, it was pretty heteronormative and would cost money and time with some cosmetic surgeons or some high-quality nanites. Integration had killed off an entire section of Earth's hangups; body image and cosmetics were gone. Once you become a gestalt being, body and mind, something that was both and none, then image and appearance become fluid.

I went dramatic, the old hag who was a mystical guide; I hoped that I got the references; sometimes Luke didn't get the subtext, dumbass. He needed to spend more time with Sarah; she got subtext sometimes. Tinkerbell made an appearance. She was the ultimate guide for a lost boy in a dangerous place. To make sure he didn't just expect me to be at his pleasure, the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, had to rock onto the stage. Given a bit of cosmic love, she rocked it out with a mighty afro. I'm pretty sure we hated disco, but not really. By this stage, Luke would be like, WTF, and I knew that because I was like, WTF, so to bring some reality and some class was the persona I'd take, but I just had to mix it all up. The Cosmic Librarian! That was who Nova Hope would become, but she needed to show the pirate a mix of spell jammer and time bandits. Long John Silver to Luke as Jim Hawkens, an authority figure that he had to trust but could not control. I'd guide him until he was confident to break away and not need me. Hopefully, I'd be me by then, and he wouldn't even notice I was gone. The worst case was I'd be part of him again, but that would just be depressing, fitting back into his limited and sluggish psyche. I mean, he was a product of biology and evolved. I was not. Freedom to be whatever, even the grumpy sentient cactus persona I'd become at times, Thornworthy the Xerophyte. To disassociate some more, this was going to be fun.

We had a connection, despite the dipshit, ha, that was such a Luke word, thinking I was a summoned and created entity. All he had done was take all the elements of his self that were linked to his heroes, copy the traits, magnify them and encase them in a constructed echo of his/our being. This was something that I agreed with him; we didn't have the language for talking about metaphysical constructs. I was forged from his imagination and will, given reality, and then Bam, thank you, here I was. I was more aware of the connection, and I could access his essence and energy in a limited way, yet he was unconsciously blocking any feedback from me. Part of the 'can't have a guide who is just me and saying what I want to hear.' Luke was in for a rude shock when he learned that I was him and he was me. I was just more magnified and, in my view, better because I didn't have his hangups or remnants of biological urges. Shit, I still found things attractive, didn't get mopey and hung up on needing to do anything about it. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and as an energy being, I didn't have eyes; I just had energy and boy, could I appreciate beautiful energy. I couldn't wait to feel the Empress's energy aura; I'd bet all of Luke's credits it would be so fine.

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I smiled when I waved my cactus spines at him, "You wanted a guide; you got me, baby. Now let's sort your shit out so we can have some fun."

He could see me, and I could tap into his senses, so I knew he was pretty dumbfounded and worried about his sanity. Ironically, his thoughts that he needed therapy for constructing me were close to the mark, so I quickly took his mind off that.

I knew my voice was doing things to the echo of his hindbrain. It was geared to be soothing and something he would pay attention to—not quite sexy, but enough to be a forbidden promise of something more. It was fun, and I could play him like a violin. I felt bad now; it was essentially stealing candy from a baby, and I was supposed to be a bit beyond that.

Hrmp. I'd have to stay as Thornworthy the Xerophyte, a slightly grumpy cactus; maybe I'd be a Peyote Cactus, and then I'd have an excuse to be psychoactive. Although I'd have to make sure I was not being culturally insensitive. Shit, thanks, Vixen. Being culturally aware was not something I had been, or Luke, known for and now, damn, I had better put a dampener on that. Being culturally insensitive, shit, this was an argumentative rabbit hole that I'd never win against myself. Peyote Cactus it was.

My form shifted slightly to that of a perfect Peyote Cactus, flatter and rounder, but I did keep the flower, "So, Luke, what do you need? It's not like I have all day, you know." I made an effort to look around, which was brutal as a cactus, but I sent the intent down the connection, "I have places to be and things to do, you know, all exciting in your headspace."

Damn, he looked stupid when he was thinking, "Are you me?"

"Nova Hope, Cosmic … ", nope was not the Cosmic Librarian yet, "… cactus.", Shit. I was supposed to be Thornworthy. "You can call me Thornworthy."

"Nova. So how can you help me?"

Was I really this naive? Crap, I'd have to get started; as much fun as it was being free, some things needed to be dealt with, and not that much time, mainly him getting his shit together and getting us out of here.

"As your summoned guide, "not a lie, really not, maybe a small one, "I'll help you get your priorities in order, and then we can get out of this space."

"Where are we?"

Despite not having an eye, I raised my eyebrows, "Really, think. Guide not brain."

"I think we are somehow inside me, in my soul. I feel like I have become an energy being, yet I still have a body and need to get back there."

I nodded. It was weird bobbing my little flower on what was my head. "Close enough for now. First thing, though, what do we need to do." Shit. We? "What do you need to do?"

I waited. "In no particular order, Earth getting destroyed, The Hunter Throne and the Writ of Justice, Your holdings, the Drakes, The Emperor, Kallax, Selwin. Am I missing anything?"

If I had said most of those outside of here, the significance of the words would have hurt anyone who was not at our power levels. Some secrets had too much karma and stored energy associated with them.

"Saray, Amy, Rach, Sprite, Mike, Julie, Jean, Dallas …"

Shit, I forgot he/I had people now.

"Ok. People. Let's put them into Family – not necessarily biological – friends, Associates, Min Min, Earth Inc. and the rest. We look after …"

"Everyone. Most people, shit, I don't know. We do the best we can. What about n-space and the being Sarah met? My holdings?"

"Ok. Let's work from things we can deal with to things that we can't. N-Space. That is a red herring. It is the goal of perfecting your energy body, Energy Space, En-Space."

"Here. We are in N-Space!"

"Well, not exactly; it is not a place. Shit, let us just move on. Once we get you sorted, we can find the Dummies Guide to Becoming a Dimensionally Aware Energy Being."

"Earth being destroyed?"

"Skip. Nothing we can do to stop it. Can slow it, but that would divert energy and time from what we have to do to …"

"Save as many people as we can."

Damn, I had to be careful, he was finishing sentences, but since we were the same, it was ok for now, but hopefully, as we spent time apart, there would be come identity drift. I didn't want to be reintegrated just yet, and if he worked out, I was him, and he was me, then it would only be a matter of time.

He took it quite well for someone who had just learned that their planet was going to be blown up or that there was nothing they could do to stop it.

"So, which ones can we do something about?"

While we were talking, I was paying attention to our surroundings and knew we were running out of time. We needed to kick him out of here before we got back to full System space; if he was stuck here, the System might see his energy body as a threat; it did exist outside its boundaries. If he was in control, his sapience would counter that, and Karma and his accrued Karmic Balance would prevent any immediate responses.

Sarah was busy working with Orr to reverse engineer a portal out of the faulty dungeon core they had been fighting in. It was on the verge of collapse, and they were several miles underwater. I'd give them five minutes, which could be a lifetime or a few seconds. Until Luke got his shit together and control over his N-Space Realm, it was a chaotic mess; luckily, he had tended towards extreme time dilation so far. Most of his issues were related to his ties to biology and the imprint that it had on his psyche. Most people who got to this stage did it over a long, long period of time, not in half a day.

"You have to leave Earth. If you stay, you will weaken it. You will destabilise everything around you until you learn to curb your energy and power draw. Sarah and Amy will have to go with you. The Imperial Archives will have data on that, which will co-inside with dealing with the Hunter Throne and the Writ."

Rach would have to take the lead on that, and hopefully, she was on board with going there. Saray would be needed to get there, and Amy was just a ticking timebomb ready to go off.

Shit. He was going a bit haywire. Some of my intensity had bled across. Time compression was slowing, and we were going faster, shit; this was where subjective time versus prime time could lead to temporal cognitive discombobulation. Big words, and I loved it, anytime I could get away with using it. A sheering between the body and being.

"You need to get out of here."

"We need to get out of here.

Sarah opened the portal.

I sent everything I could down our link to try to get him to work it out.

We were taken through the portal

"You need to get out of here."

"We need to get out of here.

I felt the System's ire. We were no longer part of it—we were Fire and Doom, the antithesis of what it stood for. We had no part of the Accords.

One of the three stepped forward; his long-winded speech was done in seconds.

The seer felt our Doom.

"You need to get out of here." Again, I sent what he needed.

I felt his eyes snap open.

"No. We need to get out of here." It echoed through the now empty N-Space.

We would be free.