Chapter 79: The Travelers.
"Do I know you?" Noelle asked, confused.
"No. But I do know a bit about you." I said, "Noelle Meinhardt. Resident of Madison, Wisconsin, on Earth Aleph. Brought here by the portal Simurgh ripped between this and your reality alongside your school's gaming club. You drank a half of the Cauldron vials that grant people powers, sharing it with one Oliver. Stranded on this world you decided to become mercenaries and try to find a way back home. Or earn enough money to buy it. How am I doing so far?"
"You know a lot.... How?" Noelle asked, suspicion dripping in her tone.
"How I know doesn't matter. What matters is what I can do for you." I said, pulling out the portal gun.
"This is a portal gun. With this, I can open a way back home for you and your friends."
"This... it's hard to believe.... " She said, hesitant.
"Oh I don't expect you to believe me. I expect you to believe your own eyes!" I said, opening a portal beside her head.
She flinched and withdrew away from it, afraid, as she cast dirty looks my way.
"No need to be scared. Poke your head in and see. It's a portal to your hometown in Earth Aleph. Then you tell me if I am trustworthy or not." I laughed, beaming a confident smile.
She looked at me for a moment as if scrying my features for any deceit before nodding.
Carefully, she hulked her body to the little portal, and gingerly poked her head into it, letting out ooh and aahs from within, as she shook with joy, her tentacles thumping happily on the floor like a dog wagging it's tail.
She pulled back, her eyes moist as she bowed to me.
"Thank you!" She said, wiping her tears, "I'm so happy to see my home again, one last time. But I can't go back anymore. Not ...not like this.... I'm a monster!"
"You're a little girl who's been dealt a bad hand. And honestly, the fact that you're still here instead of giving in to your power, out there devouring people like a hungry hungry eldritch hippo is proof that you're not.
You're not a monster Noelle. You're just an average little girl who needs help. Help that I can provide if you come with me."
"You have a very skewed perception of what an average little girl is like." Noelle joked, cheering up.
"Do I? Maybe I should hold back on watching so much hentai then!" I joked back, causing her to dive into little snorts of laughter, grasping at her stomach.
"Thank you. I ....you don't know how much I needed that. It's been a rough couple of years." She said.
"I know. That's why I am here to help. Come with me. Let's get you and your friends back home!" I said.
"That is... I'm sorry. I can't do that. Coil said he had a cure for me. He told me to stay here, for everyone's safety. We just need a little more time and then ... he'll...cure..m." She replied, as she realized something, and her eyes went wide.
"He doesn't have a cure for me, does he?" She asked.
"Nope. Never did. He was planning on using your as counterweight to make your friends help him take over the city. Then, he would have killed you and let the lower half of you rampage across the city till the heroes took care of it." I explained.
"That son of a bitch! I'll kill him!" She growled, her tentacles slapping the floor hard in an uneven tempo.
"Too late. I already did." I said, calming her down.
Now with her fires sputtered, she stuttered.
"Then....what do I do now? I can't go home, I can't stay here, I...I..."
"Who said you can't go home?" I asked.
"But I'm a mon-" she said, earning a glare from me, causing her to change her tone, "...like this. And there is no cure!"
"I didn't say there was no cure either." I replied.
"But you said Coil lied to me?"
"Coil doesn't have a cure. He never had one. Doesn't mean I don't!" I smiled, removing a thick disc from my labcoat, and pushed a button the side, as the device popped out into the form of a vial propped up by three hook like tripod legs.
"This is a device I made. It can extract your shard, the brain parasite thing that made you into....this." I explained.
"It can change me back?" She perked up and asked, hopefully.
"Unfortunately, no. It can only take away your powers and stop you from hurting people." I said, shaking my head.
"Then...I can't go back after all...." She said, eyes downcast.
"I didn't say that, now did I?" I said.
"I can just remove the rest of you with an operation. Easy peasy."
"You asshole! Why didn't you say that from the start?" She cried, "Don't jerk me around like that!"
"Eh? But where's the fun in that?" I laughed, doubling back over.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue, pouting, even as the tension in her tentacles relieved.
"Well then, clock's ticking. You coming with us?" I asked.
"Ye-"
"No." Came an authoritative voice that seemed to want more respect than it actually held.
I turned to see a man in a domino mask and jean jacket walking down the hall towards us.
Behind him, followed a conventionally attractive boy, pushing a cart of groceries.
In the distance, another few kids walked in, lagging behind, one in a wheelchair, huffing and panting.
The Travelers.
Their leader was Krouse in the jean jacket, with the item swap teleportation powers.
Behind him, the boy with the eerily handsome face must be Oliver, the shapshifter.
Then there was the tan girl in the group behind.
Sundancer, with the power to summon a miniature sun that burns everything away.
Beside her was the hulking guy with Gambit powers, able to imbue items with kinetic energy, throwing them at targets as an offensive ability
He pushed around in a wheelchair his disabled teammate, Genesis. A sickly thin girl with a lonely look about her.
She had the power to create the projection of any creature she desires, but only when she is asleep.
"How can we trust you? What's to say you don't have ill intent. How do we know you won't just lead us on?" He asked.
"You don't." I said, "You never do. Take my advice, don't trust anyone except yourself. Always trust but verify."
"If I wanted hollow dime quotes I'd have gone to the church. What do you want in return?" He asked.
"Krouse, Krouse, Krouse. Ever the pessimist aren't you?" I shook my head.
"What did this scam artist promise you?" He asked, walking up to Noelle.
"He's not a scam artist. He's real. He said he can get us home. He showed me!" She said, turning to me.
"Show him, please!" She requested.
"Sure." I said, opening a portal beside him.
"That portal, leads to your hometown in your own reality, on Earth Aleph. Go in, check it out." I said.
Krouse looked at me skeptical, before he walked in, and water splashed out of the portal, along with his curses.
Shortly after, he walked out, drenched and grumpy, but convinced.
"How did you enjoy the town pool?" I asked, closing the portal behind him.
"I should kill you, fucker!" He cursed.
"Don't be such a wet cat. Oh wait..." I teased.
"Don't tempt me!" He growled, taking off his jacket, holding it in his hand, "The only reason I'm not doing anything is cuz I know you aren't lying. But...."
He swiped his free hand at me, as the portal gun disappeared from my hands and was replaced by his wet jacket.
"...I think we'll be just fine without you."
He gave this impossibly smug look that made me want to punch his teeth out, clearly trying to provoke me.
But I remained unfazed, just smiling serenely.
"Go ahead. But I wouldn't advise it." I said, gesturing at the portal gun, amused.
He raised an eyebrow, still smug as he pressed the trigger opening a portal.
He turned to me, giving me the middle finger, and walked in shoulder first only to cry out in pain as his shoulder turned to ground chuck, and he fell to floor bloody and missing an arm.
The blender dimension!
I had learnt from the last time someone had stolen my portal gun and installed another button on it that auto locked the gun onto the blender dimension.
Knowing Krouse's powers, I had pressed it soon after I closed the portal to his dimension, anticipating his actions.
And like an idiot, he did exactly what I expected.
"Sorry..." Noelle apologized on his behalf.
"Told you." I replied, walking over and snatched back my portal gun, closing the portal and turned the lock off.
"Maybe that will teach you not to steal tinker tech." I said, kneeling down beside him, pinching his cheek demeaningly, before I pulled out my lightsaber and cauterized his wound, to his horrid screaming, leaving him with a stump for a left arm.
I dropped the wet jacket onto his stump and stood back up
"And if any of you are thinking of avenging his left arm, let that stump be a warning. I came here out of good will, and you spat in the face of my kindness. Disgusting, really." I added, returning to Paige's side.
"What do you want?" Sundancer came forward and asked, her gaze shifting between me and Krouse cautiously.
"From you? Nothing except your shards. I'll even send you lot back home for free of charge. No fuss, no muss. But from Noelle and Oliver? I want a favor. Consider it payment for the ferry back. And the operation. But we can discuss that later. Now is not the time. Your friend there is going into shock and needs medical attention. He won't die, but....."
"I understand." Sundancer swallowed, heavily, and awkwardly looking at the girl in the wheelchair.
The girl nodded and fell into her chair unconcious, as a four armed alien appeared before her, trudging over to Krouse, picking him up and dragging him out of the room.
"Oh and here." I said handing Sundancer an injector.
"What's this?" She asked.
"This is a cure for your friends disability. One hit of it and she'll be walking on her own two legs. After a fashion and therapy, of course. Not with those atrophied chopsticks." I joked.
"This.... I don't know what to say?" She said.
"A thank you is generally accepted. And if you can't even do that, no worries. I didn't do this to be thanked." I said.
"Of course! Thank you...and uh... she'll be thankful too, I'm sure once she wakes up." Sundancer said, flustered.
"Sure." I smiled, "Just make sure to give me your shards, before you leave."
"I have been meaning to ask but what are shards?" She asked.
"Shards are those brain parasite things that give you your powers and drive you to be more violent than usual. You must have drunk them from vials when you first came here?" I explained.
"Those things were brain parasites?" She gasped.
She wasn't the only one paying attention though.
The others turned to look at me too.
"What? You thought powers just drop out of the sky because you're such special snowflakes? Of course not!" I said, "I mean yes they do, for natural triggers. But not for you. You didn't trigger naturally, did you?
But hey, look at the bright side, at least you got the choice to take in the parasite. Naturally triggered parahumans don't even get to choose. One moment they are having the worst day of their lives and the next a brain parasite drops form the sky and enters their bodies. You're lucky that way."
They all paled at the explanation.
"You did know you were drinking a parasite, didn't you?" I asked, cautiously. Of course I knew that they didn't know.
But I wanted to have some fun messing with them.
"The papers didn't mention anything about parasites." Sundancer said.
"The papers that came with the vials? Why would they? Nestle doesn't tell you their chocolate comes from slave farms in Africa, and they are a legitimate corporate entity.
Why would a superpower selling illuminati group tell you that their power serum is actually made of extradimensional brain parasites?"
"That makes a disturbing amount of sense." Tattletale remarked, walking out from behind the bend.
"Oh hey! You guys done with the thing?" I asked.
"Yes. Coil's accounts are drained. And the base is collapsing in 3 minutes so maybe we should hurry?" Tattletale suggested.
"Oh yeah, of course. Hey Travelers, wanna come with? Better that you guys stick together." I said.
"But you said Krouse needs to see a doctor..." Sundancer replied.
"Oh that. No. I was just angry at him for trying to steal my portal gun. I can administer his treatment just fine. Cone on." I said, opening a portal to one of my ship's many quarantine zones.
As the rest entered the portal, Noelle remained back, hesitant.
"Everyone includes you too, Noelle. Come on. We ain't got all day here." I called out to her.
"But I-"
"No ifs, no buts. Come on. Let's get out of here." I ordered and finally she came out of her dark cellar, entering the portal behind me, as the hideout began to collapse all around us.
I closed the portal behind me and stretched my arms wide, watching the others take in the ship around them with awe.
"Everyone! Welcome to my Multiverse class colony ship, The Saraswati!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
GoldFinger
GoldFinger here's the extra chaoter for 400 powerstones.
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next chapter a bit later in the evening
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