Something, no, someone was screaming inside Alexa’s head, distracting her ever so slightly. Alexa presumed that it was Resonance, who had finally reached the limit of train-station-management. She ignored the insane-sounding hero, focusing on the Bobbies who were spreading out across the station and pointing objects of various shapes at passengers.

"What are those?" Alexa whispered.

"Wizard Implements," her gun replied.

The Bobbies themselves, upon closer inspection, appeared less like people and more like vaguely people-shaped entities that were wearing similar, dark uniforms and black helmets with an embossed silver letter M on them wrapped by a ring of wings with eyes on them.

“Why are the Bobbies wearing those British-esque uniforms with a touch of biblical archangels to them?” Alexa asked her companion.

“They’re not,” the liminal gun answered. “They’re wearing nothing so particular.”

“So they’re naked, the deviant bastards?” Alexa smirked.

“No, they’re wearing liminal outfits that are arranging themselves into whatever your mind wants to see,” the Conductor explained. “The outfits simply define them as figures of local authority, aka the Bobbies.”

“Is their name liminal too?” Alexa asked.

“Yes,” the Conductor answered. “It is. You simply hear Bobbies when I say their real name uttered in Omnicode.”

“I see,” Alexa said. “What’s Omnicode?”

“Omnicode or omnilanguage is the liminal language spoken and utilised by System Wizards,” the Conductor explained. "One that requires no translation."

Alexa nodded, her eyes busy tracking the patterns of moving Bobbies.

“Can they go into the train?” She asked.

“No,” the Conductor answered. “The train’s interior is a different liminal space. The Bobbies do not have a ticket to enter it. They can only enter spaces defined as 'public'.”

“So I can do whatever I want inside the train, is that what you’re saying?” Alexa grinned.

“There will be a lawful entity inside of the train checking tickets,” the Conductor answered.

“What, like you?” She asked.

“Yes,” the Conductor said. “A liminal entity like me, the Ticket Inspector.”

“Can I bamboozle them into being my best friend?” Alexa asked.

“Unlikely,” the conductor replied. “The Ticket Inspector is married to the Engine and has children. He is a lot more lawful and grounded into his liminal space than I ever was.”

“I see,” the supervillain girl pursed her lips.

She set one foot against the back of the wall. Seeing a small gap in the line of Bobbies, Alexa leapt forward into the crowd. Weaving between a variety of odd, multi-limbed beings Alexa made a series of increasingly large leaps towards the open door of the train.

“Halt!” One of the nearby Bobbies barked and Alexa froze in the air. In fact, everyone in the vicinity of her froze, as if suspended in time. The passengers grumbled angrily in languages that Alexa failed to recognize. Presumably, they were objecting to being delayed from entering the train.

The Bobby walked right through the crowd as if it wasn't even there and cautiously approached Alexa.

His face appeared to be made entirely from metal, constantly shifting cubes.

“Where are you in the rush off to, Miss?” The Bobby asked, cubes forming a smile-like expression.

“Just late for my train,” Alexa replied, vainly attempting to struggle out of the air that seemed as thick as concrete. She felt that the answer had been pried from her lips as if something about the Bobby was making her extra obedient.

“You’re out of place, Miss Conductor,” the Bobby said.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“A dastardly villain blew up my ticket booth!” Alexa declared focusing on her pretend-Conductor persona, mentally plowing through the thick obedience to authority fog that was enveloping, halting, twisting her thoughts. “You have to stop her! Somebody needs to stop that no good villain!”

Other Bobbies were walking towards them. In another moment one of them would get close enough to spot the [Murderer] tag and then she’d be booked by them and sent to the doomsphere or whatever. Not wishing her educational adventure to be derailed so quickly, Alexa dove into the depths of her brain with all of her will, kicking the screaming Resonance out of it to the forefront of her mind.

Just as she had expected, or perhaps simply hoped, the [Murderer] tag traveled inwards with her, attached to her consciousness and awareness of self, not to her physical body.

The Bobby was thus left confronted with the inexplicably screaming, less than sane conductor Resonance on the outside while Alexa settled in the deep nooks within her own mind, waiting for the situation to resolve itself.

“AaaaaahhhHHHGHGHGHhhhhh,” Resonance wailed, finding herself inexplicably transported to an entirely new, far less infinite place.

“Silence!” The Bobby barked and all noise in the terrain surrounding him vanished.

Resonance found herself muted. Her eyes filled with tears. She stared in catatonic shock at the world around her, not even sure of what she even was or where she was. One moment she was managing a infinite ticket sales booth and then terrible things happened and now she was elsewhere.

“Explain yourself, Conductor!” The Bobby growled.

“I… I was managing the infinite… station,” Resonance stammered as the answer was pried from her lips. “And then there was this hole, a hole that appeared across every instance of the station. It began to devour reality. I… I did my best to save as many passengers as I could observe, to pull them out, to rescue them, to help.”

“Ah,” the Bobby said. “That is a rather sensible course of lawful action, well done. Now, what were you saying about an evil villain that needs to be stopped?”

“Alexa Terror Nova!” the half-brain-dead Resonance replied. “She’s done this to me, I’m certain of it! That damn insane supervillain girl. You have to stop her!”

“Ah, so our terminal-murdering suspect has a name,” the Bobby muttered. “Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Conductor. You may proceed to your destination.”

“You have to capture her,” Resonance insisted. “She’s going to destroy everything she touches. Everything!”

“We will,” the Bobby said. “Not to worry, we absolutely will.”

“Thank you, kind entity,” Resonance drawled with Alexa’s lips, weeping and drooling.

“Unfreeze,” the Bobby waved his implement and the crowd around Resonance/Alexa began to move back towards the train.

Resonance didn’t resist as her body was pulled and pushed forward by a multitude of annoyed passenger-entities. She had no will to fight anymore. In another five minutes, she was at the threshold of the door and then her mind sunk into itself, becoming once again replaced with the sharp-focused Alexa.

“Idiots,” Alexa wiped her wet face with her conductor’s sleeve as she glanced back at the Bobbies and leapt up into the train via the unfolded stairs.

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

The doorway sent her mind careening sideways as the two spaces weren’t exactly correctly spatially connected.

Blinking dancing stars out of her eyes, Alexa looked around the train. There were far fewer passengers inside than had initially boarded it. Perhaps their tickets had taken them elsewhere, onto other conceptual trains or something.

Ignoring this inconsistency, Alexa chose to walk forward, to investigate every nook and cranny of this train. The train proved itself to be needlessly long as she passed from one car to the other with ease.

Various passenger-like entities kept themselves at a distance from her upon spotting her [Murderer] tag, choosing to ignore her if she attempted to ensnare them with a conversation or simply replying in language she failed to understand.

Having given up in her attempts at first contact, Alexa grew tired of walking and settled into an otherwise empty compartment. The compartment looked vaguely Victorian as per usual, featuring a marble table for dining purposes and four coach beds for resting purposes, two below at the level of the table and two above.

“You awake, Mr. Conductor?” Alexa asked, sinking onto the leather seat.

“I am,” the liminal entity replied. “How did you do that?”

“What?” Alexa yawned.

“Conceptually become someone else, hide the tag?”

“Ah that,” Alexa said. “I’ve got a lovely hero stuck in my head, remember? Sometimes I let her out.”

“I see,” the gun replied. “She sounded less than sane. Had it not been for the Bobbies observing her and suspending me, I would have devoured her and taken her place.”

“What are the Bobbies exactly?” Alexa asked curiously. “Are they System Wizards or…?”

“They’re a lesser type of System Wizards, ones skewered more towards syntropy,” the Conductor replied.

“Meaning what?”

“They don’t create new things, they simply enforce existing law and order,” the Conductor said. “From what I overheard, they’re copies of existing System Wizards, bound to a specific purpose. If you reach Manchester and study there you will likely be asked to make a Bobby duplicate to contribute to Syntropic enforcement of System Wizard law.”

“You sure know a lot for someone who’s never been to Manchester,” Alexa said.

“My knowledge comes from those who went to Manchester passing through my terminal,” the liminal entity replied with a sigh. “Infinity is a very long time to learn many curious things and some passengers are rather chatty.”

“Was I seriously the first person across all of infinity to offer you a ticket?” Alexa asked.

“Oh there have certainly been others who considered it,” the liminal gun said. “But my attitude of consuming them and taking their place scared them away. There is something wrong with you, wizardling. Something terribly wrong.”

“Pffff, tell me ‘bout it,” Alexa smirked.

“You’re broken,” the Conductor said. “In some horrific, inconceivable way.”

“Why thank you,” Alexa said, brushing her silver-white locks back and blushing ever so slightly. “That is a rather lovely compliment. I do try my best.”

“That wasn’t a compliment,” the gun deadpanned.

“I choose to believe that it was!” Alexa shot back.