
"Sir, I've just found a clean universe." It was a sentence that
Jack never thought he would utter. Clean universes did not exist.
Every known universe was occupied by *someone* significant weather
it be Mind Flayers, The Imperium of Time, The Justice Leauge, The Void,
The Terran Empire, The Avengers, or the Mad Titan. As a Cristal Ball
tech for the Consortium of Technomages, Jack's main job was to
watch out for impending attacks from the CoT's many enemies and
find weaknesses that the Technomages could exploit.

"Show me." Said Warlock Pierce as he walked over to Jack.

Jack's fingers flew over his keyboard and the magical crystal
in front of him projected its contents into the large holo-tank
in the center of the observation room. Scenes of ordinary 21st
century life swam thought the tank. Of course no one really knew
what ordinary 21st century life was, but it could be extrapolated
from the common thread that wove its way though all the universes.
Despite its infinite size, the multiverse was heavily weighted
towards a common theme. Over 98% of universes mapped had an Earth,
and humans or variations on humans made up close to 70% of sapient
life in the known multiverse. The multiverse was a proper multiverse.
You could still find anything if you looked long enough, but if you
wanted anything but an earth taken over by one of inter-dimensional
empires, you would have to look for a long time. It was why it was
so hard to find a clean universe.

Everyone in the observation chamber looked up at the alien scenes
playing out in front of them. Here a mother and daughter went into
an ice cream shop which was staffed by humans rather than
anthropomorphic elephants. There a man rode a subway all the way
home from work without once communing with one of the Great Old
Ones. The magical scanner detected no dopplegangers at all in
the whole universe. A detailed examination of both Las Vegas
and Los Angeles failed to turn up even a single incarnation of
the Devil running a trendy nightclub. There did not even appear
to be a reel of dreams woven into the fabric of the odd universe's
space-time. Nothing at all was strange about it. It looked like
one of the fantastical worlds described by literary realism.

"So, we invade right?" Said one of the techs.

"Yeah. I suppose we do." said Warlock Pierce. "Wait. First check
to see if this is a zoo world." Certain universes were sometimes set
aside as observation worlds where no major power was allowed to
intervene, usually when two empires could not agree on who got the universe
in question and did not want to start a war.

"Uhhh, no sir. The balls are configured to skip zoo worlds. I just
double checked and this is not on any lists." Said Jack a moment
later.

"Huh." Said Pierce. Then he conjured a communicator and spoke into it,
"This is Crow's Nest Three-Nine-Four-Oh, I have a confirmed clean universe.
Mobilize The Eye. I'm transmitting coordinates now."

================================================================================

Vanessa Hughes, agent of the Eye, slipped through the tiniest dimensional rift
she could forge and onto the streets of a pristine Manhattan. The seasoned
magical infiltrator kept beating back the urge to pinch herself. It was so
improbably *normal*. She walked a few blocks to the MET and slipped one of
the 9 pylons she carried with her out of her backpack. She spelled herself
unnoticeable and slipped deep into the museum basement until she found a
suitable archive room. A moment later she had enchanted the pylon to look
like a carved bronze plate and placed in behind a shelf.

When she turned to go she was surprised to see a tall red head
standing in the doorway. She was by far the most beautiful woman that
Vanessa had ever seen, and she had gone undercover in a succubus world
for a few years. Her hair fell in thick curls around her shoulders and
pooled between her breasts. Her plump red lips and peaches and cream skin
looked softer than anything that Vanessa had ever seen. The cream fabric of her
low cut blouse was pulled tight over a pair of massive firm breasts, and 
almost a foot of deep cleavage was exposed by the garment. Her waist was
tight and thin compared with the massive swell of her breasts or the flare
of her hips. Her legs looked almost impossibly long in the tight jeans she wore.
Vanessa had never been attracted to a woman before, not even
when she watched the Succubus Queen disrobe. In fact she had been selected
for the succubus mission for that very reason. Yet now she felt herself
rapidly soaking through her panties at the sight of the woman before her.
She managed a brief psychic warning to her Eye handlers, then she
over-clocked her mana reserves and released her death curse. Or at least,
she tried to. Her magic seemed to have stopped working.

"Trying to erect a mystical shield, are we?" The woman asked. Her voice
was the most wonderful sound that Vanessa had ever heard. "I suppose you
aren't as bad as most of the invaders I have to deal with. Usually when
people catch wind of my little universe, they come in guns blazing and
I have to move fast to prevent any loss of life or property damage.
Don't bother trying to hex me. I've already drained you magic, and
you couldn't touch me even if you were a billion time more powerful
than you normally are."

"W-who are you? Are you a new Avenger? Are you a God?" Vanessa asked.

"Oh no, nothing like that." Said the vision before her, "I'm just Sarah.
Now you seem like a decent person Vanessa, but unfortunately once I've
started draining a person, I can't stop, and I won't tolerate any meta
human abilities. I'm afraid you've been a dead woman since you cast that
little unnoticeable spell of yours."

"What are you doing to me?" Vanessa asked. She could feel herself getting
weaker.

"I'm just doing what I always do. I'm taking away what makes you special,
and then some." Said Sarah. As she spoke Vanessa became visibly weaker,
her muscles loosing definition. She seemed to rapidly age and shrink
until there was nothing left but a husk. As she dwindled, Sarah's power
grew, but the change was so small compared with Sarah's existing power
that it was hardly noticeable.

================================================================================

Magister Ramona Weet chewed the inside of her lip as she watched the
infiltrators she had sent into the clean universe lose contact one by
one. Apparently it was not such a clean universe after all. In that case
there was no reason to be subtle. She had originally wanted to avoid anything
flashy so that the CoT could study an unblemished world, but if the world
had a defender powerful enough to find and disable the magical infiltrators,
there was no point in being subtle.

"Mobilize the 301st fleet." She said to the Samson, her command AI.

<<Yes Ma'am>> He replied telepathically.

Thousands of dreadnoughts crewed by mage circles rose from the surface of
the Earth that Ramona stood on. Lesser ships swarmed around the great
behemoths to provide a protective screen. This was one of the CoT's forward
operating bases, so it was heavily garrisoned. The forces arrayed here
could destroy a star a million times over in under ten minutes.

Romona's broom came hurdling up from under the balcony she stood on, and
she launched herself into the air to swing up onto its handle. She poured
mana into its bristles and rocketed up to her flagship. Within an hour
the fleet was ready to rip a hole in the universe and travel through.

================================================================================

The 301st tore a hole in reality and poured through the gash in a long
streamer of death. First the breaching ships went through, braced for
hellish fire, then the screening elements of the fleet followed, and
finally the great wall of battle sailed through, ready to meet the
enemy in fiery embrace. Yet, no matter how they strained their sensors,
they could not detect anything of note.

