Shattered

Perhaps the biggest paradox I can think of regarding the Multiverse is, once those paths have begun to fracture and form their own trajectories, great care must be given to let them move freely without interference. It has been in a state of great flux for eons, and meddling too much in trying to “fix” things may only make them worse. When something is that cracked, trying too hard to put it back together will only leave it shattered. ~ A.K. Freeman, The Multiverse: A Compendium

03.03.25 Vladivostok, Russia We find ourselves deep in the midst of the Red Army’s festivities aboard the RFS Pyotr Velikiy, with the Masters of the Moscowverse watching their fearless leader deliver his impassioned speech to the people in attendance. Kenny Freeman and Randall Schwartz join in the applause for the Starshy Praporshchik as he finally wraps things up, though the mood changes slightly when the Entertainer leans over to Kenny with his face quickly dropping the facade of a grin. “So what exactly are we gonna do about--” Randall is cut off by the sight of Kenny just shaking his head, letting out a sigh in the process. “Alexei won’t hear me out about it, and Ivan wants me to focus on my PRIME career,” Kenny finally replies, taking a look at Stanislav as he speaks with some of the dignitaries on hand for the occasion. “What am I supposed to do? They think I’m crazy for suggesting that something’s wrong, even after what Ivan himself witnessed.” The battleship begins sending out its ceremonial shots to the delight of the crowd. “I mean…nothing else has gone weird since that earthquake,” remarks Randall, pondering if the natural disaster signaled a stop to whatever cosmic calamity might ensue. “Those three hanging around the base notwithstanding, we haven’t seen anything go down.” Kenny nods before replying. “Yeah, but WE have also been busy bodies the past several weeks. Ivan essentially asked us to fall in line with what needed doing for the Army, did he not?” Randall nods in agreement. “So that’s what we’ve been doing,” Kenny adds before pressing on. “Doing the busy work. If anything has gone down, we haven’t been able to keep tabs on it…and if you ask me, it’s probably for the better.” “What’d you mean by that?” asks the Entertainer, his brow furrowed in confusion. Kenny turns his full attention toward his friend, giving a slight glare before responding. “When you and I first joined PRIME, it was in part to be Aeon’s watchful eye, or did you forget? It was very, very weird…and very grating for someone actually trying to do something for himself. For well over a year I floundered in the rankings, singles and tag team, and all for the sake of balancing the pro wrestling career and being someone’s space cop or whatever.” Kenny lets out a much heavier sigh, shaking his head before continuing. “We don’t HAVE to do that anymore, Randall. Aeon hasn’t been around in months. As weird as it is to see more doppelgangers in our midst, if there was that much of an issue he’d BE here by now, surely?” “I dunno, man,” Randall responds with a shrug. “Just seems weird to me that we got two more Kennys and a Randall running around unchecked.” “A little bit, yeah,” Kenny says, conceding as much with a nod. “But I gotta focus on me, ya know? The Kenny Freeman of this Earth. The one and only. Especially with the Manhunt on the horizon. There’s too much at stake for me to lose focus. Winning that cluster of a match could strap a rocket on me, sending me right to the top of the food chain, man.” “Yeah, but it also puts you against HIM,” Randall notes, pointing at Stanislav continuing to mingle with the very important people. “Once he takes down Cecilworth Farthington, Ivan will look to keep whoever his next challenger is at bay. What if that’s you?” Kenny can’t help but give a slight smirk as he thinks about the inquiry. “Between me and you, bud? I’m counting on it. Hell of a fight that’d be.” The remark seems to go south of what Kenny expected, a look of fear growing on Randall’s face forcing him to add on in passing. “I mean, I’m sure he’d be proud to defend the title against a rising upstart from his own Army, don’t ya think?” The fearful expression quickly fades as Randall considers this, eventually nodding in agreement. As the Entertainer turns away to greet someone nearby with a smile and a handshake, Kenny lets out a small sigh of relief before looking over at Stanislav, whose attention is focused on the ongoing airshow above. Kenny looks up at the sky as well, noting the trails of red and yellow that cloud the area, reminding him of the situation he’s found himself in. A man whose very career has branched off from where it began, leaving him shattered from all the different directions he’s been pulled in. Meanwhile… Red Army Base “So when do they let us out of here, ol’ chap?” Inside one of the many visitation quarters sits the duo of Kenneth Freeman, Esquire, and “Wild” Randall Schwartz, with Kenneth looking at the feline Kitty Freeman as the gentleman’s inquiry echoes against the walls. After a moment of silence, the kitten looks up to respond. “Beats me, bud,” it replies rather sharply. “Seems no one likes a talking cat here in Moscow, and they sure didn’t like our savage pal Randy here trying to square up with the guards.” This gets a curiously sharp grunt from the animalistic Randall, to which the cat seemingly nods. “Yeah yeah, you don’t like being called Randy. I don’t like being told to wait for my food either, but you can’t always get what you want.” “But if you try sometimes,” remarks Kenneth in a sing-song fashion. “You just might f--” A glare from both Kitty and Randy--er, Randall--stops the esquire from reciting his favorite Rolling Stones classic. Suddenly, a loud bang can be heard from outside, forcing Randall to look out the window to survey the scene. He starts screeching, either in fear or confusion, which causes Kitty to leap off Kenneth’s lap and request to be air-lifted by the wildman to get a look for itself. The feline focuses closely on what appears to be a spaceship crash-landing right in the middle of a field, with an outer door opening to reveal a group of figures that are indistinguishable to our eye…but it manages to draw a bit of a purr from the cat. “They found me,” states the feline with the closest thing one can imagine to a sigh. “I don’t know how, but they found me.” “Who?” asks Kenneth, rising from his seat to get a look outside…where the figures finally come into better view, revealing several familiar faces. Specifically, Kenny’s face…across many, many different bodies of all sorts of shapes and sizes. “The Council,” replies Kitty. “The Council…of Concerned Kennys.” Outside, the Council converses amongst themselves before proceeding toward one of the entrances…where a pack of guards meet them. Yet, our attention does not linger on the confrontation between the two groups…it shifts instead to the fissure miles away, where another figure can be seen crawling out. Upon closer inspection, we discover that is yet another Kenny…with, inexplicably, a glowing red eye. The laser-focused Kenny brushes some dirt off his black leather jacket and denim jeans, looking down at the fissure he’s escaped before turning his attention to the Red Army Base off in the distance. He reaches into his jacket pocket, pulling out a pair of sunglasses that he puts on his head to disguise the conspicuous ocular discrepancy before appearing to talk to himself in a vaguely European-esque accent. “War is here.” Indeed, this Kenny proceeds to walk in a militaristic fashion, as if marching toward a battlefield. Back at the base itself, the Council can be seen arguing with the guards about getting to the trio stuck inside when a ferocious BANG halts the discussion entirely. Everyone outside looks up to the sky, where one bright light after enough suddenly enters the Russian air space. Inside the quarters, Kitty mutters with a purr at the sight. “Oooh boy, that’s not good.” “What’s that, then?” asks Kenneth. “The cavalry,” replies the feline. “Things just went to hell in a handbasket, and we’re stuck in the middle of it.”

Putting the broken pieces of the mirror back together only leaves you with a shattered image of what the Multiverse once was. When it gets to that point, who knows what could happen? ~ A.K. Freeman, The Multiverse: A Compendium