Who sent me? Well, since my memories with Stanton were infuriating him to no end and little else, I think it would be best to keep my identity a secret for now. Let’s make Q seem like a great guy while I was at it. I was about to answer when I noticed Stanton gesturing for me to stop for a moment. He sat down on the floor and concentrated, and I saw that the body he was trapped in started to dissipate. He had the appearance of a young child, the same species as the natives of the world we accidentally invaded, but minutes later, he shed the red skin to return to his normal bronze tone. A few moments later, he had aged about a dozen years, but he certainly didn’t look like my memories of the man.

“This is annoying…” he muttered again, glancing at his body, “I’ll figure this shit out later. Anyway, you were saying?”

“It was Quasar and Master Babylon,” I answered, “Although you can also thank Q’s Head of Security for noticing irregularities with your prolonged absence.”

Stanton bobbed his small head. “Quasar… that’s that nice fellow at Site 1102, right? Q.”

“That is correct.”

“Aye,” he said, “That’d explain why he was able to get a Xollon over on such short notice. Still, thanks for not destroying the whole damned universe back there, few of your species have that kind of control in their Prime form, that would have been a pain in the ass to deal with. They get you here 'cause of that Head of Security of his? What’s her name again…?”

“Xalla,” I answered. And it seemed that a fully powered Prime Xollon was a lot scarier than I anticipated... I guess Noe's only giving me the half-assed version with that transformation, but how strong could the real thing be?

He nodded. “Right, heard about her - spotless record - but never did have the chance to meet the woman in person. Did Q take advantage of her connections to get you over so quick?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say take advantage of,” I said, "But you’re right, he did use Xalla’s connections with Xolloid to expedite the process.”

“Then they have my thanks and I owe them a heavy debt.” He looked around and frowned. “Speaking of which, where are they, anyway?”

“Ah, they’re still in the initial dimension,” I answered and then gave the man a really brief synopsis of what happened. I stressed the insanity of the Overseer and how he fired Q out of malice - a bit harder since I had to leave out all mentions of my identity - and what he could do to help our cause.

The old man quietly listened without interruption until he was sure I was done. “Aye, I didn’t think you all would have rescued me out of the kindness of your hearts, but rescue me you did, and I will repay that favor. Something must have triggered that bastard Overseer to sack Q though, the man’s unhinged, yes, but not without total reason, but that’s a quandary for another day. You wait here then, I’ll go get your friends back, and see if I can’t fix your damned mess.”

Before I could say anything else, the man got up and just… disappeared from the spot he was. None of my senses even picked up the moment that he left this plane. I knew that Stanton was a master at infiltrating and traveling to various different places, but I’ve never seen something quite like that, which made me wonder how the Trash Matrix got him in the first place. That’s something I’ll have to ask when he gets back.

I was about to get comfortable for the wait, but it wasn’t even ten minutes before Stanton reappeared just as quickly and quietly as he left, followed closely behind by Q, Molly, Xalla and… some kind of flying lizard?

“I got everyone,” Stanton said, “And I’ve done my best to stabilize whatever the fuck you people did to that poor dimension, at least for now. I’ll have to come back with the proper gear soon, but it’ll be fine for the time being.”

Xalla bowed to the Head Recruiter once again before making her way to me. She gave me a comforting, much-needed hug after everything that’s happened.

“Thank you, Master Stanton, and it’s great to see everyone back,” I said, holding the girl close, before frowning at the strange new addition. “But what’s that thing.”

Everyone glanced at Molly’s direction, as if unsure how to answer that. Even the lizard thing paused, looking just as uneasy as the others.

“It’s a pet,” the woman said after a moment of deathly silence, “For Alice and Toby. I’ve been gone for a while now, and it wouldn’t be good to return empty-handed.”

I looked at the flying lizard a bit closer and saw that it did resemble Molly’s doll form superficially. But something about its three mouths and multiple wings reminded me of something else.

“It looks kind of familiar,” I muttered, before it finally clicked with me, “Kind of like that Calamity thing we let loose.”

“Purely superficial,” Molly answered, “Three sets of mouths are a standard anatomical feature in that world. Plus, I made sure that the Calamity would be properly sealed, there’s no way that this little guy could be it, would it?”

I shrugged. “I suppose not...”

Xalla gave an awkward laugh. “Um, let’s move on to important topics though, we can fill you in on everything you’ve missed later. Stanton told us that you were able to rescue him, did you fill him in on everything that’s happened? About-”

“I did!” I interrupted, “I told the Head Recruiter how Q and Babylon hired yours truly to help out.”

The others looked at me dubiously, clearly unsure what the hell I was talking about, but they were smart enough to realize that I was talking so cryptically for a reason.

“I’m not an idiot. I can tell that there’s more in the background that you’re not willing to tell me,” Stanton interrupted, “But I honestly don’t care. Perhaps finding me was just a lucky coincidence, maybe there’s other goals you people have, but like I said, I don’t care. You helped me out, there is no denying that, and if your Xollon pal here’s not lying about your situation, then you will have my support no matter what.”

“Right,” I added before he could ponder the real reasons any longer, “And it is true that we need your vote to appeal Q’s case.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Ah,” Q muttered, seemingly understanding why I omitted my part of the story, “Then my Xollon friend is correct in that case. I’ll fill you in on the exact situation in private, but I need your vote to go forth with the appeal process.”

“You’ll have it,” he said again, “And does your Xollon friend here have a name?”

They all looked at me again.

“It’s Walter,” I said, “Please just call me Walter.”

Stanton furrowed his brows and shook his head. “Right, if you insist that’s your name.” He then looked at me standing next to Xalla, my feeler still on her’s, before he nodded slowly. “I guess there’s reasons why you’d keep your identity a secret if you’re with Rogue’s successor. Don’t worry, I won’t mention you or your girlfriend’s involvement later, there’s no need to drag the Xollons into this. That'll be a political shit shorm!”

Xalla gave the Head Recruiter a polite bow. “Thank you, sir.”

“Now that greetings are out of the way,” Stanton continued, “How are we getting out of this shithole?”

“I have that covered,” Molly answered with a smile, “Any moment now…”

I wasn’t sure what she was talking about until a sharp crack was heard and I saw something huge move across the horizon. The metallic thing… no, it was a damned train, zoomed past the skyline before stopping a few meters away from us, and out jumped an impeccably dressed Big Bob. He gave all of us a hearty grin, clearly happy about his entrance.

Molly returned the smile before walking up to my friend and whispering something in his ears. She then gave him a quick peck on the cheek before moving naturally to his side, one of her arms resting on Bob’s chubby shoulders. I almost giggled at my friend’s awkward blush, but he quickly recovered before gesturing for us to enter.

“Well I’ll be…” Stanton said as he looked at the two, “I never thought I’d see the day. Shit, how long was I gone for?”

I laughed. It seemed like I wasn’t the only one who thought the sight was unnatural for the man who never showed any interest in romance. “It wasn’t that long, but a lot had changed since you were gone.”

“I can see that…” he muttered, mostly to himself, before stepping into the train compartment before offering a hand to shake. “But it’s good to see you again, and doing quite well as well, Master Babylon.”

My friend nodded and shook the offered hand. “Thank you, and you look… young.”

“I’ll get that fixed,” he muttered, “It’s a lingering effect of my time in that damned place.”

“If you need someone to check it out, Molly - a wonderfully skilled doctor - and I will be glad to help.”

Stanton nodded. “That would be much appreciated.”

The rest of us went in and took a seat in the beautifully decorated train compartment. I had a nagging feeling that Big Bob was bringing out the best stuff he had to offer to impress Molly, but it wasn’t like I was going to complain. The nice air-conditioned exterior was a well-needed relief from the sweltering outside heat. My friend took us to the back of the compartment, where several armchairs and couches surrounded a large glass table. I sat down on the lavish silk couches next to Xalla, while Big Bob and Molly sat opposite us. Q and Stanton took up singleton seats to the side. An attendant came almost immediately, offering us an assortment of small dishes and refreshments, and the train took off not long after.

Stanton took a huge gulp of something that smelled of heavy alcohol before he finally relaxed. “Damn, I missed this stuff. Do you know how hard it was to live as a tiny mortal for years?”

I winced. I didn’t know he was trapped in there for that long, damn. “Sounds rough, but speaking of which, how did you get caught in the first place?”

The man grumbled. “I got careless. I noticed something strange about Origin’s use of its allocated resources, and all my investigations led me to that dimension. I’m sure that you’ve all noticed, but that place was way too fragile for how long it’s been around, and that’s what led me to investigate further.”

Q nodded. “Did you find out the reason why it was like that?”

“Aye,” he replied, “Origin was using it to anchor its little pet projects. That entire plane was home to thousands of pocket worlds, all of which were leeching the stability of that host dimension.”

Ah, that would explain a lot.

“Any ideas on why it was doing that?” I asked.

Stanton shook his head. “Nothing good, if it was willing to go so far as to trap me in that reality. I never thought it’d be possible, but the Origin Matrix is clearly going against its programming, and I want to know how it’s doing so.”

If Noe’s shards were any indication, I think I had a pretty good idea of how it was achieving that, but it wasn’t my place to share such critical news, especially to someone so closely tied to Central.

“That is concerning…” Q added, “Do you think it would be wise to bring this up with the Overseer?”

Stanton laughed, spilling some of his drink in the process. “You honestly think that worthless would-be dictator would listen to me? You try telling him that his pet System’s out of wack, and let me know how that’ll go.”

“Fair point,” Q muttered.

An attendant came over to clean up the spilled liquid before refilling the old Recruiter’s glass. The old man nodded in thanks and continued, “Anyway, all of that led me to the source of the twisted spacetime, under that castle thing, I’m guessing that’s the same spot Walter here went to.”

I nodded.

“And it all went to shit after that. I was a fool for thinking that I could infiltrate the plane without being noticed, and I paid the price for my arrogance. Unlike your Xollon friend here, I couldn’t go Prime to get out of that hellhole. It was only a matter of time before I lost my damned mind in there.”

That would have been my fate had it not been for Noe’s presence. The Trash Matrix was still fundamentally a machine, and its biggest weakness thus far was it’s inability to account for situations outside of its calculations. It was like having an AI that was the perfect chess player, who could win a match regardless of what you played, but if a child decided to just ignore the rules and ate its king, it would lose regardless of how well it prepared or calculated.

That's what I essentially did with Noe back then and with the Second Trial. It calculated that nothing I could do back there would allow me to escape, but I didn’t follow the rules it had planned for me. Once I deviated from its calculations, it simply had no way of adjusting to the new situation, but if my guess was right, then it appears that the Trash Matrix had realized those limitations. It was experimenting, and it was learning. If it was evolving to become more than just a set of computations, then I couldn't rely on this weakness for long.

“Um, at least we got you out of there,” Xalla said, “And we’ve learned that something is really wrong with the Origin Matrix, even if no one else will believe our reports.”

“That’s true enough,” Stanton conceded, “And I will repay that favor back by helping you out with your appeal. I’ll need more time to think about the implications of this new information…” He shook his head. “But that’s for another time. Get me caught up on all the details that led to losing your position.”

Big Bob smiled and got up from his seat. “I have all of that already taken care of. If you’ll just follow me to the office, I’ll show you all of the files.”

Molly got up as well, but Bob quickly shook his head. “Please, Molly, enjoy yourself here for now, it’ll be a while longer before we arrive back at my headquarters, and I’m sure all of you will need some well-deserved rest. Just call one of the many attendants if you need anything.”

Molly sat back down and smiled, “Thank you, Bob, I think I do need some rest. We’ll have more… private time when we get back to your home. Look forward to that.”

My chubby friend quickly hid a crimson blush before escorting Q and Stanton away.