“If you’re going to take something, it’s best to ensure it doesn’t already belong to someone,” Ms. Sharp said. The woman in a white suit stood before the world summit with dozens of armed guards surrounding her. She wasn’t scheduled to speak; she emerged from a black portal at the podium, followed by her assistant Melody. A shorter woman in a black suit.
World leaders convened to discuss their success. They found clean water, nutritious soil and a plentiful source of precious metals on the alternate Earth. They’d begun the process of importing supplies by the time the world congress met.
“We sectioned off a hundred square miles,” one of the representatives replied. “Our groups saw no property signs posted or any other indication that section of land was owned.”
“I own the Earth you’ve been dumping your prisoners on for a century. I’ve let that slide, but now I see you’re just horrible neighbors.”
“The Earth?” another delegate chuckled. “No one can own Earth!”
“Melody?” Ms. Sharp asked her assistant.
“15 owned, 529 where we have a presence and almost 5000 unofficial servers,” the short woman replied.
“At a moment’s notice, I can take ownership of almost 5550 Earths. You’re stealing from one of the 15 that I hold very dear. I’m willing to drop the matter and forget about it as long as you stop. And find something else to do with your criminals,” Ms. Sharp said.
“That’s.. that’s impossible!” someone shouted. “There’s no way you can enforce your claim on an entire Earth!”
“That almost sounds like you want proof that I can,” Ms. Sharp replied with a smile. “Oren?” she called for someone. Another black portal appeared next to her, a pale teenager wearing all black walked out.
“I’m assuming there are delegates from all over the world in this room right now,” Ms. Sharp said. “Oren, convince them,” she added. A red crown glowed in the center of Oren’s pale forehead while everyone watched. The most vocal delegate chuckled when nothing happened after a minute of silence. Then, his phone rang. Then, every phone in the room started to ring.
“Go ahead, answer them,” Ms. Sharp said. The rings quieted down as the delegates each answered their phones. The room filled with chatter for almost five minutes while Ms. Sharp stood at the podium patiently. Then, the delegates started hanging up the phones, but the chatter continued as they talked between themselves.
“How’d you do it?” the mouthy delegate shouted his question angrily.
“Oren,” Ms. Sharp replied. The delegate immediately hopped into the aisle and ran down the stairs screaming wildly and flailing his arms. He stopped in the center of the floor, then calmly turned around to face all the delegates; then he cleared his throat.
“My little buttercup has the sweetest smile…,” he started to sing, then stopped.
“As you can see, Oren can convince anyone to do anything. Like, say, sing a song….”
“I WOULD WALK 500 MILES!” the delegate shouted.
“… or maybe, call their parents, siblings, aunts, cousins at work. Go on and on about how much it would mean to them if the Earth were signed over to me.” The vocal delegate walked to the closest armed guard and leaned down to wrap his mouth around the barrel. Then he smiled around it and gave the guard two enthusiastic thumbs up.
The guard tried to pull away, but the delegate grabbed his arms to keep him in place.
“There’s no limit to what he can make someone do, or where he can make them do it from,” Ms. Sharp grinned. “I wonder how many of you that got a call have guns at home.”
“Does that answer your question?” She turned and asked the suicidal delegate. He immediately pulled away from the barrel sobbing, but nodding his head in understanding.
“Are you going to stop stealing from my Earth now?” she asked. The delegate nodded, but she also heard several positive responses from the rest of the congress.
“Thank you,” Ms. Sharp nodded, then turned around to step into a black portal that Melody created.
“Wait! Don’t you want our Earth?”
“Of course not,” Ms. Sharp turned to say. “You throw people away like garbage instead of helping them. You waltz into the multiverse and take whatever you feel like because of some pitiful sense of entitlement. Your Earth is full of assholes and I want nothing to do with you.” She turned around again and stepped into the portal, followed by Oren then Melody. Then, the black hole disappeared.