January 12, 2020

Today was an odd day. Most everyone in the Plutonian government felt like something big was gonna happen, but all that happened was a volcanic eruption in the Philippines... But that was it. And it threw everyone off. Plutonian Intelligence monitoring the world also showed nothing unusual. But concerns were growing about a rapidly spreading virus discovered in China, with Plutonian Intelligence noting that it has heen circulating for a few months already before the rest of world discovered the virus.

At the Capitol, the day was mostly pretty boring. Karyssa had already proposed to King Gene the night before in a simple, romantic dinner date at a nearby diner, and so they were already making preparations for a small wedding ceremony on the 15th, which will take place in the press room at the Plutonian Capitol. Karyssa was looking forward to it, especially since she knew the world will be quite outraged by her... looks. And she enjoyed pissing off prudes whenever she can.

"Karyssa..." Nucleina sighed, momentarily facepalming.

"Can't you just wait a few more months or years or some shit? This literally Vegas bullshit." Naturally, Nucleina was referring to Las Vegas' notoriety for it's quickie marriages. They were in the cafeteria for lunch, along with Gene and Lilly. The rest of the small cafeteria was half full, mainly Belle Hadeans and mortal supernaturals on lunch break, with the capitol closed to the public, which was already booming in population thanks to the Plutonian Empire's nigh-unprecedented immigration policy. Unprecedented in the sense that, anyone with non-violent (or otherwise genuinely reformed to be non-violent) and/or non-hateful histories can say out loud three times "I want to move to the Plutonian Empire!" to thin air, and a circle of yellow pillars will surround them and they will be "lifted" (teleported) into an immigrant intake facility within at most 5 minutes of saying so, or some variant of the statement; after which they are granted a short interview with a questionaire, a citizenship form, and a pledge to the Plutonian Empire before finally being confirmed as a Plutonian citizen. At which point they can seek assistance on finding a place to live that best suits their interests and/or desires, on their way out of the facility, which is not too far from the Capitol. The city's population had already gained an extra 10,000 people, mostly young adults and older youths escaping abusive or tragic life situations, with gradually fewer older generations increasing with age.

"Joke's on you, that's my favorite kind of wedding. I don't have the patience for long, drawn out bullshit like on 'Bridezilla' or some shit." Karyssa retorted as Nucleina dropped and shook her head. This was going to be a very long ride for Nucleina.

"Use more swear words than just 'shit,' you guys!" Lilly moaned, exasperated, sitting next to Karyssa to her right. Gene, sitting across from Karyssa next to Nucleina to her right, snickered. He was getting a kick out of this mini-drama, and so was Karyssa. A few moments passed in silence as they took a bite of their food. After finally finishing masticating, Karyssa spoke again.

"Oh hey! You guys!" She perked up, grabbing everyone's attention. "I made my own pocket dimension this morning!" Lilly gasped as she sipped her drink, causing her to cough and spill parts of her drink. Nucleina eye's widened as well. Gene nodded, smiled, and said "Niiiiice." before taking another bite of his sandwich. Lilly stared left at Karyssa, after regaining her composure.

"Excuse me?" Lilly was shocked. What the fuck was going on with Karyssa? Nucleina was also surprised.

"How in the hell can you already be doing that?" Nucleina asked, incredulous.

"Wh- What do you mean?" Karyssa was confused, raising an eyebrow at Nucleina.

"You've only had your magic powers for what...? Two weeks? Three weeks?"

"Mhm!" Karyssa nodded.

"That's way too fast, girl! You shouldn't be able to do that for another few centuries at most."

"... Oh." She responded, dejectedly, and slouching. Lilly suddenly remembered when she had to help Karyssa summon Gene's romantic snowstorm.

"How's your weather control?"

Just one second after Lilly finished speaking, a bright flash briefly flooded the room from the other side of the cafeteria window, followed by the loudest crack/boom most folks in the room has ever heard, as lightning struck the lawn directly in front of the window, and an inch outside the concrete porch. Everyone in the cafeteria, jumped out of their seats, exclaiming their "Oh my god!" equivalents, along with half the city. Curiously, except Karyssa, who only mildly flinched. As the light and earth shattering rumble finally faded away, she grew the most devilish smirk on her face, as she slowly, partially faced Lilly.

"You were saying?" Karyssa again retorted. Lilly, still panting, was legitimately terrified of the future Queen for the first time. And it wouldn't be the last. Once everyone else settled down, they all shot Karyssa the nastiest glare, once they realized it was her. Gene was more conflicted, with annoyance mixed in with awe, fascination, and glee. Nucleina was plain old in shock for a minute as Lilly continued panting and gasping, looking forward before beginning to hyperventilate. She got up and went back to her secretarial station in the lounge as fast as possible to calm down. The silence was deafening as everyone slowly went back to their lunch. A minute passed before Nucleina slowly snapped out of it, finally noticing Lilly was gone. Gene and Karyssa just slowly took bites out of their lunch, affected the least by her lightning stunt.

"Shit." Nucleina mumbled as she got up to look for Lilly, finding her immediately after opening the cafeteria doors, at her usual station, crying and hyperventilating, breathing into a bag. Nucleina rushed to Lilly's side to help. After a few minutes, Lilly's hyperventilating finally subsided enough to be more coherent. She immediately hugged Nucleina to her side, still sobbing uncontrollably.

"Please! Please! I don't want her to become my Queen! Please!" Her voice was faint from sobbing, dragging out and prolonging the sentence. This was one of the few times in their friendship Nucleina had to maternally comfort Lilly, despite being utterly unrelated in every way, shape or form. Unbeknownst to them, Karyssa was psychically eavesdropping on them, and smirked -- again -- about having triggered Lilly so strongly.

"We still live on Belle Hades, Lilly. Its okay." Nucleina hugged back, trying to soothe her friend. Lilly was originally hired to help with Gene, but they became fast friends. It took another several minutes before Lilly calmed down enough to be able to come back in, switching seats with Nucleina at the table, and eating and finishing their meals in awkward silence.

"So." Nucleina finally began, prompting the trio to look at her. "I don't have to say how fucking unprecedented it is, that your powers are developing this fast." She continued, looking at Karyssa.

"Yes, I think I can tell, but I don't know how much or by what measurement." Karyssa finally admitted.

"Let's see. First, Gene didn't get his powers on his own. He needed help from Lilly." Nucleina nodded towards her.

"Okay." Karyssa nodded.

"Secondly, there is absolutely no previous record or instance anywhere in the entire Universe of a human having ever developed visual magical abilities on their own."

"Okay." Karyssa nodded again.

"And thirdly, among the species that DO have such history, both sapient and non sapient alike, not one, single individual, has had their powers develop as fast as yours."

"Interesting."

"You asked how fast, but..." Nucleina hesitated, knowing where this was gonna go. "Only way to measure that is to have another witch like Lilly scan you." Lilly physically cringed hearing that, despite anticipating this development.

"And for me scanning myself? What about that?" Karyssa asked. Nucleina hated whataboutism, but relented.

"Internal, mental, and spiritual biases. Even the most powerful magicians suffer from these."

"Ah. Fair." Karyssa admitted.

"And Lilly," Nucleina continued, not really wanting to single her out. "You know how this goes down, given your skill level." Lilly only meekly nodded, half staring into space.

Gene knew what Lilly and Nucleina were talking about it, having had Lilly "scan" him once or twice back on Belle Hades, but wondered something.

"Can this be done via proxy? Like, you hold my hand and I hold hers?" He asked, after taking a few moments to take in all of this.

"Yes, thankfully." Lilly sighed in relief. "Accuracy is slightly lower, but still quite acceptable."

But finally, Gene rested his fist in front of him on the table, before Karyssa held Gene's fist, resting her left hand on it. He then rested his other fist on the table, but Lilly was understandably quite ****.

"I won't hurt him. I love my Gene. I won't use him to pull pranks on people." Karyssa interjected, fully, sincerely honest about it. Her eyes momentarily lit up when she glanced at Gene. She was rapidly falling in love with him.

Lilly was only slightly more at ease, but still reluctantly rested her hand on Gene's other fist, and closed her eyes. First thing she could tell, Karyssa was holding something back. Not some sinister information out of malice, but supernatural impulses just as powerful as Karyssa. Impules full of hate. Rage. So much rage. Lilly looked at her.

"How long have had these impulses?" She asked. Nucleina raised an eyebrow.

"My whole life. I can't really explain it." Karyssa began. "Like, back in grade school, I cracked a same-age boy's skull just from sucker punching him in the nose when we were simply having a chat on something we both got along well with about, because something overcame me almost supernaturally."

The trio was startled by Karyssa's confession. They realised there might be a malevolent intelligence at play here, ancient almost beyond all their concept of time and utterly alien. With Karyssa seemingly it's chosen pawn. Gene shifted uncomfortably, suddenly reminded of his dream from weeks ago.

"Yyyyeeeeeees?" Nucleina asked Gene, noticing his movements. Gene shifted uncomfortably again. It took him a few moments to finally speak up.

"Reminds me of my dream from the night Karyssa and I met." Gene began, shifting uncomfortably a 3rd time. "Somehow I saw myself, like, 12 billion years ago, in another universe, but with a family, and a different wife, and Karyssa was there too, but more middle aged or something." This time Karyssa shifted uncomfortably. She hated the idea of looking older.

"And this tall girl was holding her hand out trying to magically supress something or some shit." Gene continued. "I could feel tense in real life somehow, even though I was sleeping. All of a sudden blood blew out of her hand and everything went white." Gene sent chills up everyone's spine upon saying that. "And then I started seeing planets forming--"

"That's us." Lilly interrupted. "Not the other family thing but the white flash and planets."

"Wait. Lilly." Nucleina began, incredulous. "Are you saying Gene saw the birth of our universe?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"That's what I figured I saw." Gene admitted. "But why the girl with the exploding hand? What was she trying to stop?"

"Don't." Karyssa said sternly, in a deep pitch. Lilly immediately took her hand off Gene's fist, anticipating the worst, and looked at Karyssa. Somehow, Karyssa's energies didn't feel like Karyssa to Lilly. Karyssa's facial expression was that of annoyance mixed with anger, glaring at Gene, but something about it seemed off. Almost supernatural and beyond Karyssa's control.

"Leave it alone." She finished. And suddenly snapped out of it. "What the hell?!" Karyssa exclaimed, looking back and forth between Gene, Lilly, and Nucleina, back in her normal voice, and realizing she blacked out. Karyssa's energies suddenly felt like Karyssa again to Lilly. For the first time, Lilly saw pure terror in Karyssa's face. She was legitimately terrified, and had to stop herself from entering the fetal position.

"Okay let's finish this shit up before it happens again." Lilly rested her hand back on Gene's fist, rolling her eyes. Karyssa loosened her grip on Gene's hand upon realizing she was somehow gripping him iron hard. Lilly closed her eyes again and went straight to observing the intensity of Karyssa's powers via proxy. Lilly began counting in an ancient Belle Hadean dialect. She momentarily timewarped herself to do the arithmetic and conversions, and saw 53200 AD as an important year on Earth's calendar, and used that as a frame of reference. A few moments pass.

"Holy shit." Lilly finished, opening her eyes again and taking her hand off Gene. "Girl," Lilly began addressing Karyssa. "Your powers are strengthening about 234,375 times faster than normal."

"Wow." Karyssa exhaled.

"And the year 53200 showed up to me."

"Yeah? What about it?"

"By that year, your powers will be equivalent to that of a witch..."

"Uh huh?"

"...Who has been alive for twelve billion years. The exact same number from Gene's dream."

"Oh wow." Karyssa had to stop herself from nodding her head and saying "Niiiiiiiiice," since she knew Lilly wouldn't appreciate it. She took her hand off Gene, giving him free use of his hands again. Lilly rested her forehead in her palms for a moment. Gene looked around. The cafeteria had mostly emptied out now, save for them, the cook, and a Belle Hadean succubus who also looked vaguely like Karyssa, but with blue skin, elf ears, and brown hair, and who winked at Gene. He blushed, smiled and nodded at the succubus before turning back forward again. But it was too late, he already had her attention, for the succubus got up, grabbed a chair, and joined them at the end of the table, sitting between Nucleina and Lilly.

"Hello there, Anni." Lilly greeted her rather scornfully. Nucleina just slowly and lightly shook her head at Anni for a few moments in disapproval. Clearly Lilly has met Anni at some point in the past. Gene continued to blush while Karyssa smiled, pretty pleased to meet an alien who looked like her.

"Hi, King Gene! I'm Anni!" She almost startled the royal couple, and extending her hand, which Gene promptly shook. Anni and Karyssa greeted and shook hands afterwards as well. Anni's eagerness to greet Karyssa was especially infuriating for Lilly, despite knowing Anni was just trolling her. Anni always enjoyed making Lilly's life difficult, due to resenting Lilly for having been assigned to Eugene on Belle Hades instead of her like she was hoping.

"Gee, it's such a beautiful day out, isn't it?" Anni trolled Lilly, who responded with a flipped bird.

"Knock it off! Both of you." Nucleina sternly interrupted. She was still President of Belle Hades, so naturally Lilly and Anni had to oblige. "Anyways. What do you wan't?" She asked Anni.

"It's still a while before my lunch break ends, and I got nothing better to do, so..."

Nucleina checked the time; it checked out. Anni was one of the more problematic succubi on her staff, so Nucleina had to stay on edge. This time Anni was right. This time.

"Well it's almost over for us, but nothing much is happening and we're mostly done with shit for the day, so we might as well fuck around a bit." Nucleina rolled her eyes.

The quintet hung out and chatted for a few minutes, with Anni and the royal couple getting to know each other a bit. After several minutes, Gene got up to stretch and walk around when they eventually pretty much dropped him from the convos. Gene eventually drifted to the window, just looking out and observing passerbys. Karyssa got up to stretch and join him too when the Belle Hadeans moved on to catching up on their homeworld's topics. Karyssa got up to Gene's left, momentarily rested her head on his shoulder, and held his hand, observing the passerbys too now. Gene was totally savoring the moment.

Just when the alien girls arrived at a small pause in their convo, Karyssa began whispering, quietly, but just barely loud enough for the girls behind them to hear.

"Myyyyyyy little playthings..." She possessively imagined toying with the citizenry for shits and giggles once she becomes Queen properly. Just then a loud noise occurred, distracting them. Lilly had scooted her chair back, and was getting up and leaving, as loudly as possible, going back to her station. Needless to say she knew what Karyssa said.

"Wha...?" Nucleina exclaimed, confused. Obviously she was too focused on the convo and didn't hear what Karyssa whispered. Karyssa snickering gave herself away.

"Damn it, Karyssa." Nucleina got up and got nose to nose with her the best she could, huffing and puffing, as Karyssa let go of her hand hold with Gene to face her fully. Gene was suddenly rather anxiously uncomfortable, and instinctively backed away. Karyssa was half a foot taller than Nucleina, so nose to nose was a bit difficult. Karyssa had the most snobbish look on her face with a mild smirk, further infuriating Nucleina.

"Mrs. President, no!" Anni hastily teleported out of her seat, reappearing standing next to the two women, to try to separate the two. "Its not worth it, its NOT worth it! Trust me!"

"Why. Should I listen. To you?" Nucleina slowly looked at Anni with equal ferocity, muttering through her clenched teeth.

"Do you wanna die? Because that's how you die."

"Damnit. Of course she referenced my favorite Earthling meme..." Nucleina thought. She glanced at Karyssa, finding her smirk even bigger, now with a raised eyebrow, giving her the most smuggest look Nucleina has seen in a long time.

"Fine." Nucleina finally admitted. "But I still oughta fucking clock you one. Bitch." She finished, pointing aggressively at Karyssa and poking her once in the chest, before finally walking away and storming out of the cafeteria. The cafeteria cook was awkwardly trying to keep herself busy, trying to distract herself from the drama. There were a few moments of awkward silence.

"So how 'bout a threesome?!" Anni all too eagarly asked, as if nothing happened.

"Nop! Not me!" Karyssa waved her hand to gesture she wasn't interested, as she got out from in between Gene and Anni. "I like to keep my eyes, tits, and vajayjay on my man. You can have him at the moment though." Karyssa finished as she led herself out of the cafeteria. Anni bit her lip as she looked lustfully at the King, already wet as fuck. Gene momentarily glanced at the cafeteria girl. The look on her face just screamed "Oh god, please don't! Not in here!" Gene stretched out his hand for Anni.

"Lets go to my offic--" Anni yanked Gene in libidinous excitement, pulling him out of the cafeteria too, much to cafeteria girl's relief.