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 Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:52 pm
.....The Journal of Brainiac 5
First Entry.....
If you are reading this, then you are like me. I do not mean that you compare intellectually, or that you in any way share the scientific acumen or drive that I exhibit. I mean that you, like myself, have accessed and subsist in some way in the area of quantum space that has been termed by people other than myself as "The Nexus."
It's a very generalized name, for a very generalized place, and the overtones smack of vaguery because it is ill-understood by those who inhabit it. What is "The Nexus?" When in time does it exist? Where is it? Why is there? How did it come to be?
These are questions that are sometimes asked, but never properly answered. This is partially due to a lack of general intelligence by the people who have managed to access this unusual pocket of space/time, but it is also partially because it defies explanation.
Therefore, before I seek to answer what the Nexus is, I must define it as it is perceived.
To a new arrival at the Nexus (by whatever means that happens....some describe a portal, some seem to have a device to access it, many simply appear), they would perceive the Nexus as simply A Place. There is ground below. There is sky above. There is day and night cycles, though there is no evident sun. There seem to be stars at night, and if one flies high enough, the thinning atmospheric conditions that indicate there is the vacuum of space at the top. Weather changes in a seasonal pattern in the Nexus. As I write this, there is snow on the ground, and more coming from clouds that form in the sky at various times, both day and night.
Dotting the landscape of the Nexus are buildings, most notable the Cyberdome installation (more on this in a later entry), a book/media store named "Lantern's Place," and a bar called "The Bayou Bistro." These installations have all been constructed by the people who have appeared in the Nexus in the last few years (except for the Cyberdome. More on that in a later entry). These buildings are the physical evidence of the socio-economic structure of the Nexus that has been woven together into a cohesive whole over the last few years.
(though time is only a relative structure in the Nexus. More on that, also, in a later entry)
The most important thing in the Nexus is the people. By my count, the Nexus has been accessed by inhabitants of at least 13 separate dimensions. Hundreds of people have filtered through it, experiencing a shared reality with people from other realities. They have exchanged words, goods, and in some cases, genetic material (more on THAT in a later entry).
Even more interesting, people whom access the Nexus come from various time periods. Those whom exist in multiple timelines may remember ALL of their own timelines when in the Nexus. Some even experience what I have come to term "4th Wall Syndrome," where they are able to view their own lives from an objective stance, as though reading about their own existence in a comic book.
In normal circumstances, this should be disastrous. The timelines of multiple realities should be at best disrupted and at worst outright shattered by the sheer amalgamation of interactions taking place in the Nexus on a daily, hourly, minutely basis.
But it doesn't. People who leave the Nexus to reenter their realities do not seem to remember the experience (though on a subconscious level, this may not be the case. More on this in a later entry). Massive, reality-collapsing disaster is handily averted like simply throwing a 'reset' switch.
And it is for this reason, among others, that I have sought to define and, in essence, answer the Nexus. If this place exists, but it has zero influence outside of its own borders, then what purpose does it have?
I have spent years creating a theory to answer exactly that. I will uncover the secrets of the Nexus over the course of this next year.
In future entries....
The discovery of the Nexus
The heart of the Nexus
Death in the Nexus
The other heart of the Nexus
The Nexus' influence over other realities
Time and the Nexus
Who?
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Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:53 pm
.....The Journal of Brainiac 5
Second Entry.....
The section of timespace known as the Nexus was discovered by one Wally West, and there are no indications that it was inhabited or even existed before that moment. Since that moment, time has existed in a linear fashion in the Nexus with no indication of parallel versions, hypertime variations or anti-matter permutations.
Wally West discovered the Nexus originally on accident; in the midst of one of many Crisises that defined the midpoint of his career. In short order, others from West's universe (referred to colloquially as "New Earth," though that terminology would not be in place until a significant time after the Nexus was discovered) also filtered through, including Helena Bertinelli (the Huntress), Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern), John Henry Irons (Steel) and d**k Grayson (Nightwing).
At the same time, people from "Universe 616" also found themselves in the Nexus, including Raven Darkholme (Mystique), Steve Rogers (Captain America), Rick Jones (various), and Patsy Walker (Hellcat). Many of these heroes were already familiar with each other from previous breaches into each others' universes. The Nexus became a place of neutral ground, for discussion, relaxation and recovery from the day-to-day grind of superheroics.
It is probably significant that the first denizens of the Nexus were from New Earth and Earth 616, as people from these two realities are well-known for constantly crossing over into other realities. Could it be that Wally West's experiences with Hypertime and time travel are what allowed him to first access this place?
Looking back at the recorded history and from my ability to view snippets of the past, it was obvious to an observer, though not to the people in the Nexus at the time, that they were almost subconsciously gravitating towards two spots in the vast expanse. These places became defined as more people entered the Nexus; it became less of a vast empty white room and became instead distinctly Earth-like, as if the reality was being bent to the wills of those within it.
It was Remy LeBeau and Rick Jones who created constructs over those two places where energy seemed to flow. Remy LeBeau created "The Bayou Bistro," a seedy bar with a well-stocked supply of alcohol and poorly maintained restrooms. Rick Jones created the Cyberdome.
Other locales sprung up quickly, some to be abandoned and some to survive and thrive quite heathily as more and more people filtered in and out of the Nexus. But the Bistro and the Cyberdome are the two points of most interest; it is from these two points and moving outward that everything else is built.
They are from where the energy that creates the Nexus bleeds into it. I have termed these two points the "hearts" of the Nexus, for a lack of a term that would better describe them; energy pumps in and out of these places, allowing much of the impossibility that occurs here to happen. There are several anomalies that occur in the Nexus that can be attributed directly to the vicinity of the Hearts of the Nexus:
-Time-skipping; an individual who has visited the Nexus before will suddenly appear from a different point in their own timeline (such as suddenly being a teenager, or quite aged)
-Multiversal awareness; an individual becomes aware of their multiple existences in different universes; another way of thinking of this is to consider the person in the Nexus an avatar of all of that person's versions, rolled into one. This is extremely common among people from my own timeframe and I myself experience this acutely.
-Post-mortum existence; people who have died in their own reality find themselves living out a normal existence in the Nexus after their own deaths. This can be rather disturbing to the survivors of such a tragedy, to suddenly meet a dead friend/colleague who is quite aware of what happened to them.
-Hypertime variants; This terminology is a bit unclear, but it is the easiest way to describe why, occasionally, people turn into pirates or ninjas or the like and then just as quickly snap back to their normative states.
Denizens of the Nexus tend to take these shifts to their status quo in stride. It's not terribly difficult to, since they are secure in the knowledge that the Nexus is a zone that does not conform to normal laws of reality. Blow a building up, it will be repaired. Lose a limb, it will come back. Get killed, be revived.
I am not saying that, in any case, some mysterious greater force noticeably steps in and sets the toy soldiers back up. For many years, when there was damage to the Bayou Bistro, Jaeger Ayers (the Finder) would repair it by hand. The god-like being Lucifer Morningstar (Satan, others) is known to rearrange parts of the reality as he sees fit, including repairing buildings, constructing new ones and turning people into hamsters. What I am inferring is that, always, if something steps out of the status quo, SOMEthing will step in to put it back.
Thus is the nature of the Nexus.
Or at least...thus it was, for quite a long time.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 3:25 pm
....The Journal of Brainiac 5
Third Entry....
The first notable death in the Nexus was that of Wally West. Stabbed in the back on his birthday, the murder resulted in an outcry of disbelief and a manhunt, led by one Bigby Wolf. Over the course of a few weeks, the truth was discovered; the death was an accident caused during an argument between West and Ted Kord (Blue Beetle), who, himself was dead in his own universe.
The outcome of the investigation had several deeply affecting changes on the Nexus; the denizens came to consider Wolf, informally, the 'sheriff' of the Nexus and he would go on to lead several investigations in later crimes perpetrated intraNexus. It also caused people to realize that this place was not 'safe,' West was found face-down in a pool of his own blood. He obviously experienced great pain.
And then West recovered, and the revelation caused people to reexamine what the rules about life and death might actually BE in the Nexus. West described his 'resurrection' as a result of his connection to the Speed Force, an extradimensional source of energy that many heroes (notably speedsters) draw kinetic energy from. Although I was not present at the time of this incident and was unable to take quantitative readings, I do give credence to this theory.
As I stated before, energy flows both in and out of the Nexus from two set points; the action of energy force 'pumping' has caused me to term them the "Hearts of the Nexus." I believe that West's life force did not exit the Nexus despite body death; and that energy from the Speed Force entered the Nexus, allowing him to ride it back into his body, revive, and heal the injuries he suffered.
The energy exchange between the Nexus and the various realities it is connected to is difficult to quantify even with my own sophisticated 31st century technology, and practically unnoticeable to the layperson in the Nexus. It is what gives the simulation of gravity, day, night, weather, causes time anomalies, and even affects the personalities and characteristics of those who visit the Nexus.
Over time, either of the two Hearts have taken on very defined, though subtle roles. Note that the terms I have assigned to these phenomena is not intended as some sort of dramatic title; it is an organizational tool to understand the difference between them.
The Heart that is underneath the Bistro's boiler room is the Heart of Chaos. It has an unpredictable pattern of energy inlet/outlet. It is not malicious in any way, it is simply random. It is uncontrolled. It is this energy that Lucifer Morningstar taps and uses to shape things to his will, though whether this is because he simply wishes to be economical with his own powers or cannot access them intra-Nexus is not known at this time.
The Heart that serves as the power source for the Cyberdome is the Heart of Order. It introduces and removes energy in a set pattern, well-defined and easily interfaced by people in the Nexus. The simulations are controlled by the computer system that myself and others have build up and modified over the years; but it is completely powered by the Heart of Order. There has been disruption only once in it's core matrix (which I will get into in a later entry. See: Powell, Christopher).
Though the two Hearts both influence and define the Nexus, they are entirely separate and are not dependent on each other in any noticeable way. They simply exist. It is the influence of other beings, consciousnesses in the Nexus that causes them to act the way that they do, creating places, objects and circumstances. They are not conscious things.
The constant interaction between people in the Nexus has created both happiness and tragedy.
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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:05 pm
....The Journal of Brainiac 5
Fourth Entry....
The most important person in the history of the Nexus...
...is an insignificant worm of a being who never meant anything in his own reality.
Tad Ryerstad, the outlaw known as Nite-Wing, was an early arriver in the Nexus. Mostly harmless, he showed an interest in detective work during the investigation of the Wally West murder. Several months later, he aided an investigation of a robbery in the Nexus.
It was several months after that, that Ryerstad decided to take justice (A concept he was psychotically obsessed with) into his own hands. Jaeger Ayers, a drifter who struck up a friendship with Wally's daughter Iris West, helped her to stage her own kidnapping to get attention from her father.
Ryerstad stumbled onto the truth of the plot earlier than anyone else and decided to use it to his advantage. He took Iris to a hidden location inside of the Cyberdome to continue the kidnapping plot, and torched Jaeger Ayers to keep him from squealing. Ryerstad attempted to extort money, a crown and 'control' of the Nexus from Wally West (who, informally, was considered the leader of the Nexus by virtue of having discovered it and having the best understanding at the time of its nature).
Ryerstad's plot was discovered and he was firmly punched in the stomach by most people involved. Even after this incident, Ryerstad was considered an unimportant bug by most people in the Nexus, and few ever bothered to pay attention to him.
He would, though, later on, prove to be the impetus for a series of events that would change the Nexus and everyone within it forever. Ryerstad's thirst for power and control to pursue his own definition of justice was never abated, and an incident occurred that seemed to him to be the perfect chance to gain the power he needed for his unsettled mind's plans.
This incident has become known informally as "The Ring Incident." It is NOT to be confused with "The Phantom Incident" (known by some ill-informed people as "The Dox Incident") or "The Powell Porn Incident."
The Ring Incident was and remains one of the most complicated occurrences in the Nexus, and I will be devoting an entire entry to explaining it.
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:40 pm
....The Journal of Brainiac 5
Fifth Entry....
The Ring Incident occurred about two years ago (Nexus Time). Power Rings, tools from my own universe capable of manipulating emotion and willpower into energy constructs, appeared in the Nexus and began bonding to available people.
The first one was a green (willpower-driven) ring that bonded to Tad Ryerstad. At the time, many people assumed it was another case of Hypertime Variance...that, just like people who suddenly became pirate versions of themselves, Ryerstad had stumbled into a Green Lantern version of himself.
But the rings continued to appear. A Red (rage-driven) ring bonded to Hellboy. A blue (hope-driven) ring bonded to Superman. An orange (greed-driven) ring bonded itself to Lex Luthor. Poison Ivy appeared with a purple (love-driven) ring bonded to herself.
The inundation of power rings was viewed as a curiosity until the consequences of such an invasion became clear...first when Rex Mason appeared bonded with a purple ring claiming to have been conditioned by the Zamarons, creators of the ring, to wield it. The 'conditioning' seemed to have altered his behavior, making him hostile towards displays of other emotions. This issue hit a head when the red ring bonded to Hellboy activated his latent talent...the ability to bring about the apocalypse. Hellboy, in the throes of ring-induced rage, opened a portal to the Hell of his own dimension, and it started invading the Nexus. At the same time, Rex began attacking everyone and everything, claiming that his purpose was to cleanse the Nexus of everything but love.
Several heroes working together were able to subdue Hellboy and Mason, who were freed of the ring's controls. All of the rings that could be accessed at the time (Lex's orange ring, Superman's blue ring, Hellboy's red ring and Mason's purple ring) were given to a single person to be analyzed and destroyed.
Tad Ryerstad's green ring was never accounted for, and he claimed to anyone who would listen that it had been taken from him. Poison Ivy's purple ring remains unaccounted for.
The person given the rings for analysis and destruction was me. In my time, only green rings exist, with only one Lantern currently active, so my knowledge on them was limited.
The physical makeup of the rings was baffling; they acted similar to what I expected, but I could not attribute their arrival in the Nexus to any actual outside force. For some time, I doubted their authenticity as actual power rings; for instance Hellboy's rage ring did not destroy his internal organs as Red Lantern rings are supposed to have done. Since then, I have amended this finding to believe that the energy distortion of the Nexus may be responsible for any variations in the ring's properties.
It remains, though that to this day, no one has laid claim to the ring invasion that struck the Nexus. When asked about the possibility of having given or lost one of his rings to the Nexus, Larfleeze (the primary Orange Lantern) angrily denied such a possibility. There is still much more to be investigated about why this happened.
When the rings were given to me, I promised that I would destroy them, except for the orange, which Luthor demanded be returned to him.
I lied.
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:55 am
...The Journal of Brainiac 5
Sixth Entry....
Note: This is a long entry; those with short attention spans would be better served by getting Powell drunk and hearing the shorthand version of this tale.
As I chronicle the history of the Nexus, drawing conclusions about the nature of this place and extrapolate reasons for why things are, I am trying to portray history in the most accurate way possible.
This includes things that do not show me in the best possible light.
Around the same time as the aforementioned "Ring Incident," my personal laboratory was blown up. The two are not connected; my lab was compromised by fellow Legionnaire Ultra Boy being his typical a** self. This was notable because I was caught inside, and received as a result a rather severe concussion. The concussion resulted in a 'personality flip' for myself for a few days. I found myself indulging more in the Id than the Superego, including a small spree of kidnapping various cities out of time and putting them in bottles in my lab (something of an ancestral hobby). Fortunately, another of my teammates, Karate Kid, was able to use his expert knowledge of anatomy to find a strikable spot to revert my personality back to normal.
I returned most of the cities within milliseconds of their theft; and no one was the wiser.
It was after this incident that I determined to study the power rings I had been entrusted with. Their nature intrigued me; the way that they had sought out appropriate hosts with mental states mirroring the emotional capacities of the rings. I wanted very much so to know exactly what had created them and where they had come from.
It was unknown to me that the destruction and hasty rebuilding of my lab had resulted in a security hole; one that had been found by (of all people) Tad Ryerstad. Ryerstad, still stinging from the defeat of his kidnapping plot, wished to steal the rings believing that they would grant him the power he lost when he lost his own Green Lantern ring. Tad concocted a plan to steal the rings covertly. He did not count on two things, however...
First off, Ryerstad failed to note that I was so engrossed in my studies (to the exclusion of all else, which my girlfriend, Linda Lee (Supergirl) was finding very frustrating) that I was sleeping in the lab even during my off hours. Secondly, the pathetic ape failed to notice that he was being tailed by Jaeger Ayers. Ayers, who had been set on fire by Ryerstad during his kidnapping plot, rightly thought that Tad was still up to no good; and had dedicated a goodly part of his time keeping an eye on the worm.
Thusly was the table set for what happened next.
Ryerstad attempted his robbery but was driven to have to use force when I discovered him in the lab. I was caught by surprise, and received a tonfa to the back of the head during the struggle. As Ayers appeared to intercede, I crashed into the containment chamber where the rings were held...
I have no memory of the proceeding events, so the rest of this narrative is constructed from interviews, security footage and extrapolation on my part. I apologize if any of it is, therefore, inaccurate in any way.
It was well-known at the time that Ayers was working on fabricating a scavenger hunt for the denizens of the Nexus. It was his second time doing so; an exercise in keeping hunting skills sharp as well as a reason to explore the vast confines of the Nexus. The various traps, pitfalls and hideouts he had constructed became fortuitous for him, as he soon found himself on the run, unable to communicate with anyone outside of the clues he had already placed for the hunt.
A mysterious entity, it seemed, had appeared in the Nexus. It called itself The Phantom, and it displayed incredible powers able to exert influence over people in the Nexus like nothing before it. The first thing the Phantom did was to conjure a silver bullet out of nowhere and launch it into the heart of the Nexus's informal 'sheriff' and top detective, Bigby Wolf. It then proceeded to seemingly obliterate Tad Ryerstad in a flash of light, rendering him seemingly into nothing but ash.
I, along with many other people in the Nexus, joined forces to try to discover the true nature of the Phantom. Although it was clear that Jaeger Ayers knew something, he was on the run for his life and unable to communicate with us. As we all struggled to find his clues and avoid the Phantom, our numbers were cut down in droves; the Phantom would randomly appear, kill by striking with a flash of light, and vanish, untouched by any who survived.
The Phantom also showed strange signs of instability. In some cases it didn't kill but crippled, such as rendering Matt Murdock (Daredevil) deaf as well as blind, or handicapping Chris Powell (Darkhawk)'s brain. I myself received an explosion in the face, maiming me when I least expected it.
The Phantom's pattern began to clear as the body count rose in the Nexus...he was avoiding harming females, specifically those whom were fair-haired. The Phantom stated its intention - to rid the Nexus of anyone except its 'beloveds,' with whom it intended to stay with in the Nexus for eternity.
(It should be noted that another Power Ring did attempt to intercede during this time - a red ring attempted to bond to Roy Harper (Red Arrow). The Phantom destroyed Harper and the ring was again entrusted to me to be destroyed. I did so via molecular disintegration, as I was under scrutiny at the time, and assured everyone that all the other rings had been destroyed in the same fashion.)
The situation in the Nexus was becoming quite dire - there were not many people left to try to stop the Phantom. Ayers' plan of distraction had paid off, though...while people and the Phantom were out looking for him, he had returned to my laboratory through the same security hole. There, he found the body of Bigby Wolf and removed the silver bullet, allowing the lycanthrope to revive and heal. Between the two of them, they pieced together the complete truth of the Phantom and concocted a plan to expose it for what it really was.
They departed my lab, taking a single bottle with them.
It was in the Bistro, over a month after the attack in my lab that I saw Jaeger Ayers again, flanked by a giant wolf. It was then that he revealed the truth for everyone.
I was the Phantom of the Nexus, and I was the one whom had murdered over 20 of my associates and friends.
On that night Tad Ryerstad had tried to steal from me, I had crashed into the containment case for the power rings. One of them, the purple ring of the Star Sapphires, became attracted to my emotional state and bonded to me. My previous concussion not completely healed, my mind had been rifted into two parts...the conscious, logical Brainiac 5 side, and a mentally disturbed, obsessed Phantom side. The ring's power grabbed ahold of my romantic inclination and turned it into a full-blown, murderous obsession. It's power combined with my immense mental acumen allowed me to pull off, even without my own conscious knowledge, stunts that seemed almost like magic to everyone who witnessed them.
It had only been three weeks prior to the entire incident that my girlfriend had taken me to see the movie "Phantom of the Opera." My subconscious patterned the entire attack after it, including orchestrating an attack on myself that disfigured half of my face, necessitating me to wear a half-mask as it was being repaired.
Upon the truth being revealed, the Phantom side of my personality asserted control and began to attack with wild abandon. It seemed like the Brainiac 5 part of myself was gone as destruction rained down.
It was then that Ayers revealed the rest of the truth; no one had been killed in the attack. Although they had seemed to have been blasted into dust, in reality everyone in the Nexus I had attacked had simply been shrunk and teleported into the one bottled city I hadn't returned to it's place; Paris, France from the year 1900. Even under the ring's influence, I am not capable of murder. Ayers had released everyone who had been trapped, and together with Bigby Wolf, everyone managed to subdue the Phantom.
Bigby took the ring from my finger and swallowed it. With it's influence gone, I was able to regain control over my own mind, and I became myself again. Words cannot express the shame I feel at my mind having been manipulated so, but the past is history and cannot be changed.
Tad Ryerstad, understandably, decided to lay low after this entire incident and it is true that many people did not realize that he was behind the entire thing.
There were three people who knew, though...and together they began to set in motion a plan they had concocted during their entrapment in Paris...one that would allow them to grab an incredible amount of power and take revenge on those whom had humiliated them.
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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 8:14 am
...The Journal of Brainiac 5
Seventh Entry....
I am, myself, a time-traveler and I understand the quantum, fourth-dimensional mechanics for time travel in my own universe and many others.
For a long time I thought that practical time travel within the Nexus was not feasible. Note that I did not say impossible, because I consider nothing impossible if I decide to dedicate my considerable brain-power to it. It seemed to me to be an extremely difficult, unnecessary concept to think about because time in the Nexus is unbelievably rigid.
It is singularly linear, with no alternate histories, negative realities, time-holes or other anomalies. It is frozen time. This makes it extraordinarily difficult to traverse.
What is most interesting about Time as a construct in the Nexus is how little it regards time from other universes. I have met people from many universes who are from multiple time eras. There are representatives from the 1950's (Lois Lane, Captain Marvel), the 1960's (Linda Lee), 2003 (Mitchell Hundred), 2010 (multiple), and the early 31st century (myself and other Legionnaires). Then there's the bizarre case of Jonah Hex, who has hailed from anywhere from the early 1850's to the 1870's to 2047 to 2010 (in which, he appeared as a reanimated corpse).
No matter what time period or universe someone comes from, they experience time in the Nexus in linear fashion once here. There is no threat of the Lois Lane of 1958 appearing at the beginning of the Nexus and telling everyone future Nexus knowledge that would destroy the Nexus's Time Continuum, for example.
Shortly after the "Phantom Incident" I became interested in the concept of Intra-Nexus time travel. It was NOT, as some people may suggest, because I wanted to go back in time and "fix" what I had done during that period; but merely scientific curiousity and a desire to better understand the nature of the Nexus.
To this end, I undertook an in-depth scanning process of the entire Nexus to record and decode the chronal signatures of various places within it. Interestingly, these scans activated hypertime anomalies in some people (though the Nexus itself was unfazed). The anomalies were temporary and really more of an annoyance than anything else; especially those associated with Chris Powell.
My findings were....amazing! Although time in the Nexus is rigidly linear, I believed that I could, through a process of chronal buffering, give inanimate objects enough chronal substance to send them both backwards and forwards on the timeline.
Chronal buffering is the process of using chronal energy to increase the strength of something's chronal signature...the identifying tag that gives it a place in timespace. If it is strong enough, I can project the item backward or forward in time without the fear of the item degrading during the trip.
Because the intake/outtake of energy flow in the Nexus is strongest over one of the hearts, I opted to install my Chronal Buffers in the Bayou Bistro, over the Heart of Chaos. I did not wish my testing to disrupt the balance in the Cyberdome heart. The Buffers are well-hidden, integrated into the design of the Bistro, and each is protected by an impenetrable force field that allows them to survive the random destruction that tends to occur there.
My first test was with a simple writing pen, sent into the future a scant ten minutes. It was successful, except that the overload of chronal energy caused it to explode after making the trip. Some adjustments later, a second test proved successful with no combustion. The next test, sending an item back into the past (also a pen, also ten minutes) was another success.
My next test, of course, was to project living matter through time in the Nexus, but all of my testing was suddenly put on hold when, without any warning, one of my Chronal Buffers seemed to malfunction and caught fire. It appeared that someone had tampered with it, and stuffed something inside of its casing.
What I found inside set me on a completely different course of planning for the next few months as I began to realize that the greatest threat to the Nexus ever was preparing to unfold.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 3:31 pm
...The Journal of Brainiac 5
Eighth Entry....
There has always been a socioeconomic structure in the Nexus. Money from various realities has been freely exchanged between the businesses and people in the Nexus. There was, even in the early days of the Nexus, a pooled source of money that was used to secure goods and services between people. This cache exists today, and is where funds from the annual "Bachelor Auction" go.
Wally West was originally put in charge of this cache, until he was attacked and the entire amount stolen. The perpetrator was revealed after an investigation by Bigby Wolf to be Thomas Blake (Catman), and the money to this day has not been recovered.
Bigby's response to discovering the thief was to put a bounty on his head, which several people did attempt to collect, though over time interest seems to have waned over that bounty.
It was most probably at that point that Wolf became interested in the idea of an organized penal or justice system in the Nexus, but it would take years for the idea to ever be expanded on.
Following the Phantom Incident, the denizens of the Nexus grew more polarized and distrustful towards each other, and there was a quiet arms race going on between Tony Stark (Iron Man), Nick Fury and Lex Luthor. Stark brought an entire Helicarrier into the Nexus, using the psychological tactic of having a reminder of his power constantly flying over the heads of people in the Nexus. Nick Fury began quietly building up his own, well-hidden network of intelligence and armaments, and though no one has actively confirmed how much ordinance he has brought into the Nexus, it is rumored that his hideout "The Cocoon" has enough firepower to raze the entire Nexus to the ground.
In the meantime, Luthor began to steadfastly make connections with people who had a like mind to himself, including Norman Osborn. His organization, facetiously named "Injustice International" became a well-organized haven for people who had run-ins with the law in their own realities or the proclaimed 'superheroes' of the Nexus. Members of Injustice International included such notorious villains as Victor Creed (Sabretooth) and Benjamin Poindexter (Bullseye).
******
The first true evidence of an organized legal system in the Nexus was the curious case of Powell v 3 Devils Productions. In the highly polarized climate of the Nexus post-Phantom, Chris Powell bore a grudge against Matt Murdoch. In response, Murdoch allegedly ‘created a conspiracy against Powell,’ commissioned distribution of a video that purported to show Chris Powell performing humiliating antics in an attempt to get chosen to appear on a reality show, and denied all participation in both. The video proved quite popular, and an angry Powell decided to get justice in an unorthodox manner...he sued Murdoch.
Powell had befriended Legionnaire Tenzil Kem (Matter-Eater Lad), who has, in his own reality, been a lawyer (as well as a chef, a senator and a superhero). Lucifer Morningstar, interested by the concept of being the law in the Nexus, agreed to mediate as judge. He created a courthouse in the middle of the Nexus, and the first-ever trial in the history of the Nexus commenced.
The trial was a long, painful affair for everyone who was involved (myself included) and concluded with Lucifer ruling that everyone involved were idiots. He also awarded Powell damages including all of the profits from the video and ownership of 3 Devils Productions. Both sides agreed, begrudgingly, that the ruling was fair, and it seemed that everyone’s interest in any further legal system in the Nexus was diminished.
This was until journalist Spider Jerusalem decided to stage a farcical demonstration to show the sheer lack of organization in the Nexus. He announced that he was creating an election open for people to run for ‘President of the Nexus.’ To his glee, several people stepped forward, more than eager for the idea of holding the title and sway over their fellow Nexus members. On the eve of the Presidential “election,” Jerusalem happily informed everyone it was a farce, leaving several people embarrassed after their stumbling over each other in the desire for power.
There was only one person who was not angry at Jerusalem for his staged fiasco. Tad Ryerstad, always behind the curve, decided that everyone but him had dropped out of the race and declared himself President of the Nexus. Wearing a secondhand suit, he proceeded to spend the next few months drafting “presidential decrees” and being a general pain in the a**.
It was the most important he’d ever thought he’d be.
He was wrong.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 12:10 pm
...The Journal of Brainiac 5
Ninth Entry....
Following the "Election," Tad Ryerstad became much more visible in the Nexus. He was often seen creating nonsensical 'decrees' and demanding caffeinated beverages be stocked for him specially at the Bistro.
As was per usual, most people ignored Ryerstad and his delusion. Harder to ignore, though, was a sudden, abrupt personality change in Jaeger Ayers. Ayers disappeared for weeks, and when he suddenly returned, he was in a highly agitated state. He became known for appearing at odd times, spouting off 'prophecies' of doom, and accusing people of bothering him.
I myself became wrapped up in my newest obsession; time travel in the Nexus. As I stated in an earlier entry, I was rapidly becoming able to manipulate timespace in the Nexus to my will. It had become evident to me that it was vital I master time travel, because I had received a message from my own future.
In a seemingly unrelated event, Chris Powell received in the mail what appeared to be a copy of the relic known as the "Infinity Gauntlet." I scanned this item, verified it as a fake and went back to my own business. Powell, unlucky as always, found the fake gauntlet stuck fast to his hand, unable to be removed and utterly useless. He only found this frustrating most of the time.
These unrelated events were background noise as Bigby Wolf, interested in the final result of the 3DP/Powell lawsuit, began rolling out his plans to create a Nexus Sheriff office. His belief was that such an institution could unite the many factions in the Nexus and help to create a singular law system for everyone that would be enforced by his office, with the Lucifer court serving as a trial system.
Bigby's hunch about a need for a justice system seemed to pay off exactly one year ago from the day I write this. Tad Ryerstad's body was found, stabbed through the heart in the boiler room of the Bayou Bistro, pinned to the wall with a spear. It was a gristly murder, obviously premeditated and everyone was shocked.
The suspect for the murder was easy enough to find; Jaeger Ayers burst from the room, shouting about how Tad had 'gotten what he deserved,' and readily surrendered to the Wolf. My Legion associate, Tenzil Kem immediately volunteered to represent Ayers in a trial. The Nexus chose sides collectively; some people helping the Wolf's Sheriff's Office as Deputies, and some helping Kem's Law Office as Associates. Independently of each other, each side gathered evidence, examined clues and started to put together scenarios of what they thought really happened in the Boiler Room that night.
Lucifer agreed to oversee the trial, so long as it amused him, and warned that he would not intervene in the outcome once a verdict was found.
And so began the first, and last, murder trial in the Nexus.
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Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 7:03 am
...The Journal of Brainiac 5
Tenth Entry...
The trial of Jaeger Ayers for the murder of Tad Ryerstad was filled with dizzying twists and turns as the prosecution, led by Harvey Dent, presented their case. Several conclusions came to light in the first leg of the trial:
-Jaeger Ayers could not have acted alone
-Ayers was lying through his teeth every time he opened his mouth
-Someone else was hiding the truth
The most shocking twist was at the end of the trial. Bigby Wolf departed to Tony Stark's Helicarrier to retrieve the autopsy results for Ryerstad's body. While he was on board, during the trial, the carrier exploded. Dramatically, right before it exploded, the prosecution pointed it's finger at Jaeger Ayers' most likely accomplice: Me.
During the chaos of checking the wreckage I had no chance to defend myself, so I surrendered myself into custody and took up residence in the jail cell next to Ayers. The destruction of the Helicarrier was a new wrinkle in the case; destroying the autopsy results and the remains of Tad's body in the process while framing me with an ostentatious display of explosions that painted my three-tiered Brainiac sigil in the sky.
The circumstantial evidence and Ayers' uncooperative testimony worked against me, but I declined any opportunity to defend myself or clear my name. I had already deduced what was actually happening...and there was much more than my reputation and Ayers' freedom at stake.
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Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 12:09 pm
...The Journal of Brainiac 5
Eleventh Entry...
The conclusion of the murder trial of Tad Ryerstad was a tremendous twist - the defense deduced who was REALLY behind the entire conspiracy.
Lex Luthor, along with Benjamin (Bullseye) Poindexter and Victor (Sabretooth) Creed, had crafted the conspiracy to murder Tad and then frame myself and Jaeger for the death over a year prior to them hatching their scheme. While trapped by the "Phantom of the Nexus" in the bottled city of Paris, they had made a pact to make the people responsible for their humiliation pay.
Their plan was actually twofold; first, they wanted Tad's murder to cause the rest of the Nexus to summarily execute myself and Jaeger Ayers. To secure this, after murdering Tad, they kidnapped Zinda (Lady Blackhawk) Blake and made Ayers aware that her life hung in the balance of his trial. This knowledge prevented Jaeger from defending himself.
Secondly, they wanted the entire trial to serve as a distraction as they broke into my laboratory and stole what they knew would give them the power to essentially conquer the entire Nexus - the Power Rings that I had lied and told everyone were destroyed. Lex's surveillance had uncovered my lie, and while we stood in court trying to prove our innocence, and as the prosecution and defense tried to unravel the clues and find Zinda Blake, Lex and his cohorts put into motion a plan to rule the entire dimension.
The defense found Zinda Blake, dramatically, during the third leg of the trial. At the very same time, Tenzil Kem and Harvey Dent, working together, got Lex on the stand and trapped him into admitting that he was the one who ordered Tad Ryerstad's death. He admitted it happily; the time had come for his full plan to be revealed.
At the cusp of the trial, with Jaeger and myself declared innocent, Lex's giant mecha, the LXes, attacked the courthouse and began decimating the Nexus. The mechas were unstoppable, each one powered by the lantern of a ring stolen from my lab. Lex granted Sabretooth the red rage ring that once belonged to Hellboy, and gave Bullseye the purple love ring that had caused so much trouble the year before. For himself, he reclaimed his greed ring and also a blue hope ring that had once attached itself to Superman.
For days on end, the LXes hunted down people in the Nexus. Only Nick Fury, ever prepared, was able to protect people in his hidden location known as the Cocoon. Communications were compromised. Even those that tried to put their lot in with Luthor, like Norman Osborn, didn't stand a chance before the sheer power and insanity of the villains who became known as the Negative Three, because of the signature they used when sending blackmail notices to Jaeger Ayers (-3).
Luthor's plan was flawless...well, ALMOST flawless. What he hadn't been able to take into consideration for his plot, was that several months earlier, I had mastered intraNexus time travel. He could never have considered that, after he conquered the Nexus, Tenzil Kem would be able to send a message back in time to myself. He never knew that I had been warned ahead of time...and that I had time to plan.
For months, Chris Powell had been complaining about a mysterious and useless 'infinity gauntlet' that had attached itself to his arm. In the middle of our greatest battle with the Negative Three and their LXes, I revealed what that Infinity Gauntlet actually was....the red, purple, orange and blue rings that Lex and his crew himself were wielding! In order to defend the Nexus, I had created a stable paradox. With the power of all four rings combined, Powell was able to turn the tide on the Negative Three, and the LXes were defeated. Luthor was caught in the explosion of his LX and presumed dead. Wolverine took the life of Sabertooth. And Fury put a bullet in Bullseye's head. It was a grisly end to a horrifying chapter in Nexus history. Even today, people are confused as to how we managed to win against the Negative Three.
I understand these things are difficult for the 'average' mind to understand. I will try to use simple language.
-I was informed before Lex launched his conspiracy that something big was about to happen...and that the woman kidnapped would be okay, thanks to a simple drinking coaster Tenzil Kem managed to send back in time.
-I deduced that the power rings in my possession would be the most likely culprits. Therefore, I could not do anything to stop the rings from being taken, due to the stability of the timestream in the Nexus.
-I devoted all of my time into mastering Nexus time travel.
-I crafted a plan that could only work IF the heroes won the day. I decided that I would, in the future, disguise the rings and send them back in time in such a way that no one would pay attention - namely, as a fake 'Infinity Gauntlet' that would attach itself to Powell's arm. No one takes Powell seriously.
-The very next day, the fake gauntlet arrived and attached itself to Powell's arm. So I knew that my plan would succeed, no matter what. All that needed to be done then, was to ensure that the paradox of the time-traveling rings stayed stable.
-After the Negative 3 were defeated, I took the rings from each of their hands, crafted them into the fake 'Infinity Gauntlet' and sent it back in time to Chris Powell.
-This left only one set of rings, the ones on Chris's hand. I gave them to Tenzil, and he ate them, thereby destroying them forever.
See? Very simple!
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Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 3:18 pm
...The Journal of Brainiac 5
Twelfth Entry...
Micro-realities of the Heart of Chaos became a topic of interest lately during what is currently being referred to as the "Lovegame Incident." Since there is confusion about how a micro-reality may affect you, resident of the Nexus, I decided to explain the impact micro-realities have in the Nexus.
The Nexus is not a single world of itself. It consists of one large reality joined by several micro-realities.
A micro-reality is a fully realized world with a full history and substance that appears and disappears within the Nexus. They are powered by the Hearts of the Nexus.
When someone participates in a match in the Cyberdome, they enter a stable micro-reality that begins and ends as decided by the Cyberdome computer. These micro-realities are powered by the Heart of Order. They are creatable by someone via the Cyberdome computer. They have a visible beginning and an end, but when you are a part of them, the world is as real to you and has as full a scope as your own reality.
The micro-realities outside of the Cyberdome are powered by the Heart of Chaos, and as such are much less predictable. They appear, fully realized worlds, populate themselves with denizens of the Nexus, then vanish just as unpredictably. Some reappear at a later date.
When a person is pulled into a Micro-reality, they may become someone completely different. Their entire self is overwritten, as it were, in accordance with the rules of that reality. They may be a teenager again, enrolled in a high school for superheroes. They may be in a post-apocalyptic, war-ravaged world. They may be in Britain at the turn of the 20th century. When in the micro-reality, your memory is only of that reality; and your history in there. You may randomly enter and exit the micro-reality, finding yourself to be your ordinary self outside of it, and transformed once again when you are within it.
Some people remember their life inside of the micro-reality after they've left it, and some do not. It seems to be tied to a concept I referred to earlier, "Multiversal awareness," which is the ability to remember memories from several different realities a person has existed in. Not everyone has this quirk; how strongly it relates to remembering life in a micro-reality has not been explored yet.
Recently during the "Lovegame incident," reality seems to have (for lack of a more scientific term) 'hiccuped,' and some people found themselves swapped or partially merged with their micro-reality selves. Clearly, more research has to be done on these small realities that crop up in the Heart of Chaos. Perhaps they can be controlled or even examined.
I certainly intend to pursue this possibility.
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 1:57 pm
.....The Journal of Brainiac 5
Final Entry....
I have been a fool, and my arrogance will cost the people near me dearly.
Several months ago, I decided to experiment with the energy flows of the Nexus. I took the energy of the Heart of Order and tried to bend it to my will, to give it form and shape outside of it's parameters.
The Heart of Order vanished.
As far as I can tell, since the moment the Cyberdome Tournament ended, the Nexus should have ceased to exist. The balance has been destroyed; the Heart of Chaos alone powers the entire reality we call the Nexus.
So far, reality has remained amazingly solid; there have been alterations to the timeline that no one seems actively aware of after the fact, except for myself. It is as if errant fragments of old, abandoned realities are suddenly reasserting themselves, then just as quickly vanishing.
It is getting worse; a cottage near the edges of the Nexus has been reduced to an ashen wasteland. Siren's Mansion is worse off...it is now an unreachable emptiness.
I have not seen anything this horrifying since I witnessed the ending of my own timeline.
And so, to anyone who is reading this - I am sorry. I am sorry that my arrogance has done this, and I am sorry that I cannot be there to give you answers or guide you through what I believe will happen next. There is only one place left in the Nexus that I know is 100% safe, and that is where I must be...searching for a way to either fix this or restore the Heart of Order.
Something terrible is coming, as the energies continue to be unstable here. I can advise you to stay away, but I do not know if anyone will listen. I can only tell you to guard your memories and your lives; trust them because reality can and will lie.
Beware the Metavore, because it will eat the meaning of your lives. My friends, I believe the Heart of Order has been
end transmission.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:32 am
Probl..............ryone
..............M.ta...re....................not just propert....................
............eat... time, too.......................................................destabiliz........................
...only a day for me, but for t. ..st........weeks...........................................
'm trapped..................
.............................................................................................................extreme danger...................
is a stabilizing force that com..ts........effe.................................................................
Kara, I lo..........................................................another way
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 7:18 pm
B.war....d Rye....d. T..s sh........w..thout...ying
I do not know ......ch ti.e......ssed...nc.my l..t.....age.
Bu....ca...t.free...self. Help...
Th....ta.vore...s.sea.ed..ff....Z...
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