Simone insisted. She's also being sparing with her inventor skills. That would make this too easy.

And suddenly there is someone sitting on a nearby lamp-post. "Yo, weirdos, what'cha'doin?"

Simone startles. "Don't sneak up on a girl with a ray gun like that!"

And now he's on Simone's other side. "You couldn't hit me anyway."

Then he appears near the little girl with the portal. "Hail, fellow mover!"

And then he's on the lamp again, chuckling.

And now he's trapped in primeval darkness. "That shut him up."

He taps the darkness generator on her shoulder. "Careful. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. You wouldn't know what hit you."

And now he's being tapped on the shoulder by a naked blonde girl. "Neither will you!"

He jumps- He's sitting on a car now. "Okay that was genuinely surprising, good job."

"I could meddle with your insides, you know."

"Try it. See what happens. I dare you."

"Don't murder him, Aether."

"And not just 'cause it wouldn't work. Murder's bad, mmkay?"

"I might reconsider..."

He has acquired a coyboy hat from somewhere. "Now I reckon y'all are considerin' knockin' over one of mah buildings. Do ye have yer demolition permits?"

"We tried getting one, but all the clerks had been dead for years."

"Fair enough. Want some help?"

"More the merrier!"

"Well there's only so many of these things. A lot, admittedly, but a finite amount. So, let's record it all for posterity!"

"You have a camera or something?"

"Be right back!"

A few seconds later, with a grin and some - flickering - a few big cameras, one of those movie lights on a stand, one of those long-stick microphones, and one of those blackboards that go snap appear. It takes a few seconds. And the stranger is now wearing a fedora and dark sunglasses. "A lonely guy like me is allowed to have hobbies, dahling. I raided this place that was, like, mini-hollywood at some point. I forget exactly when."

"So you're a teleporter?"

"A good magician never reveals his secrets."

"Magician and Miracle are not synonymous."

"I can be both. Do any of you uncultured rabble know anything about cinematography? Oh, sorry, kidding about the rabble part, you seem kinda organized."

"I think once you get a boat flying you're disqualified as rabble."

"Exactly. I'm going to make a little movie out of this. Do you all want to cooperate so it could be an actiony drama flick instead of a boring documentary? It won't take more than the rest of today."

"That sounds fun! Just need to find the wolves, though."

Mysterious Guy disappears and starts flickering around in an increasing circle looking for extra Miracles. The search pattern is a bit boring, but it gives him time to think.

Two wolves are tussling in a parking structure.

"Yo, wolves, your friends are looking for you."

They change into small redhead children. "And who are you?"

"Just someone who can walk really fast. We're making a movie. Come to the old bank if you want speaking parts when we knock it down."

"Howling parts?"

"Could work. It's that way." Point.

Flicker back to the others.

"I found 'em and told them where we are. And I realized I never introduced myself. Kronos."

"Corundum."

"Simone."

"Zeke."

"Tabby. Or Shadowswell."

The small girl identifies herself as Portal.

"Welcome one, welcome all. As for my - our - little film's plot, best to go with something short and simple. What do you think of this? Two sides both want to loot the tower, so we fight for a while, and then, uh, and then the wolves show up and howl and look cool, and the wolves are the neutral party that could turn the tide of battle... So both sides try to convince them to join forces, and in the valiant final stand the tower comes down."

"Seems narratively plausible."

"And it's simple enough that we can probably do it in a day. But is it cool enough?"

"We could always lure in the others."

"No, no, they'll just spoil everything--"

"I don't know, could be fun."

"I vote no. Stupidly overpowered characters like the triplets make a boring narrative most of the time."

"Wait, you know the triplets?"

He just shrugs.

"Okay, no, I'm not settling for a--" She shrugs in imitation of Kronos.

"It's a power thing, would take waaaay too long to explain."

"How do we know they didn't send you?"

"I guess you don't. But I'm not fighting you or going to summon them to mess with you. I just wanna make a movie. That's the fire that has gripped my imagination today, mateys."

"Look, either way, that building's coming down, so I say don't worry. How should we start?"

"Decide how to split the groups. You know you better than I do."

"I thought you know all."

"Eh, just most. Knowing all things all the time is too much a bother."

"Could I try borrowing your power? Sounds fun."

"I bet you couldn't figure out how to use it even if I'd ever let you."

"Could so!"

Kronos flickers near Zeke and holds out one hand in a bow, smirking.

Zeke takes his hand, giggling. His Miracle tastes like strawberries. He copies it.

The power is... Confusing, to say the least.

There are many Zekes. Or there is one Zeke doing many things at once. "So how's it feel?" asks Kronos, smirking. "Hard to grasp isn't it?" He asks at the same time. Dozens of other conversations are happening all at once - one where Aether speaks up, some where Simone asks him a question, or where Tabby reaches for Kronos only for him to back off. He will drop the power. Or has he already dropped the power? No, it hasn't happened yet. Has he had this conversation before? He could go back to the moment he touched Kronos's hand. But that already happened, didn't it?

The only constant is Kronos. He's smirking. Will smirk. Has always smirked.

Zeke stops using the Miracle. "GAHAHAHH!"

"Told ya so."

"It was like I split, but everything was in different places... but they were the same!"

"That's being me for you. You get used to it. Eventually."

"Must be confusing."

"And thus it is the mark of a superior and not insane, I repeat not insane, intellect that I deal with it with such aplomb."

"First or second gen?"

"I'm a firstie. I think. It can be hard to remember things sometimes. But I'm pretty sure I'm a firstie."

"Good. Second gens can be so full of themselves."

"Hey!"

"You know it's true!"

He summarizes the "script" to the newly-arrived wolves. "So, I was thinking, me, Portal, and Corundum, versus the copycat twins and Simone, and then the wolves get to choose which side they join on the fly when it's time for that."

"Sounds good, but Zeke's the copy cat. The darkness is all mine."

"Huh. I assumed- twins- doubled up on powers." Shrug. "I can be gaffer and cameraman mostly at the same time as fighting. It will be tough but I am not afraid to make sacrifices for my art."

Simone can't resist a science lecture. "Tabby and Zeke are fraternal. They don't share any more genes than you would with a random sibling."

"Well, that explains it. Anyway! Let's get on with the movie!" Flicker, he attached a car battery to the spotlight. "Lights!" Flicker, he messes with the camera, "Camera! Places everybody, argue and then fight in the streets! After a while we move inside and smash some walls and stuff."

They move into position. "Fools! You could never make use of the professor's death engine!"

"It is ours by right, usurpers!"

Flickerflickercameraflicker- "You would put it to crueler use than we ever could, mad Inventor. It's our duty to keep the device in good hands."

"Suffer not the crab-people to live!"

"CUT! No no, crab people? What? That's not relevant. Movie's got to have conservation of detail. Everything we say has to do something."

"The idea is we want to murder the crap-people and they're crab-sympathizers!" 

Kronos does a dramatic sigh. "Sure fine whatever not like I'm paying you lot, we'll let this movie be a random monstrosity instead of a carefully crafted story..." He turns the camera back on.

"Okay, okay, what do you suggest?"

"No no no you're fine, we'll roll with it. Spontanaeity can work."

"Where'd you learn so much about film theory? Not many cinemas still running in burnt out cities."

"I find a lot of random things. Books and old VHS tapes. People's notes and paperwork on things. Lampshades hanging randomly."

"...Okay."

"The crab-people have as much a right to live in peace as any sentient being!"

"-Ooh now draw your weapon and brandish it dramatically!"

"We will defend them. Our honor will allow nothing else!"

Corundum telekinetically summons a variety of dull grey, scary looking implements.

Simone draws a slapped together ray gun.

"That thing have a 'stun' setting? I can maybe stop bad injuries from happening, power secret, but it's annoying to do and I'd rather not do it more than like half a dozen times in one day."

"It affects the brain. Got it set to 'tickle'."

"Let the battle resume!"

He flickers around the battlefield dramatically, steadily approaching the other team.

A portal suddenly opens under Kronos, and now he's in an abandoned takeout resturaunt.

No he's not. He's still filming in between flickers, after all. But he hangs out off to the side obligingly, for now.

Then makes a dramatic re-entrance and tries to knock away Simone's ray gun!

She gets a shot off.

A hit! He makes his arm go limp, giggling.

The action scene continues, with Kronos calling 'cut' long enough to move the lights and camera around once or twice.

Zeke seems to have copied Simone's Miracle. Especially the lightning part.

It nearly fries the camera once or twice. But they get some pretty good footage!

"Time for the next bit, I think. The wolves show up and we each try to convince them to join our side!"

Dramatic wolf entrance!

Clumsy, cute dramatic wolf entrance!

"Wolves? No, these are no ordinary wolves... They're Miracles! If you two noble Miracles wish to stand for the cause of peace and equality for all creature-people, join us and defeat this mad Inventor!"

Joey returns to human form. Hopefully Kronos wasn't planning on distributing the film in more conservative markets. "Creature people? Hmm."

Aether already ruined that. "The crab-people do not deserve extermination. We only seek to destroy the Professor's lost device so it could never be used for evil."

"But what is evil?"

"If we have a philosophical conversation that Inventor will just sneak off and use the device while we're arguing. I don't think I can afford that. Sorry."

"Of course you have no answer!"

"Fine. Evil is placing your own merest whims above the rights of others! Evil is slaughtering an entire race simply because they live somewhere you want for yourself! Evil is inflicting a painful fate on those who did nothing wrong!"

Angie cackles. "Sounds fun!"

"Don't be mean, sis!" He walks over to Kronos. "I will fight for yucky crab people!"

Kronos bows. "You have made the right choice. What's your name, new comrade?"

"Joey!"

"Welcome to the good fight! Nothing to say to this rejection of your plot, eh, Simone?"

"It's okay, I got the best wolf."

"Hey!"

"I am disappointed in you, stranger. Willst thou not follow your brother, your own kin? Must this conflict tear apart a family as well as decide the fate of innocents?"

"It's okay, we'll brainwash him afterwards."

"She's my cousin-sister, anyway."

"We return to the fight! Comrades, CHARGE!"

The wolves lunge at each other!

And the fight continues until Kronos thinks it's time to start doing big, destructive scenes. These need to be at least minimally planned so they look cool on camera!

"I've got some explosives in the boat."

"Eeeexcellent. Mwahahaha."

"I'm really hoping you haven't been there yet."

"Nah. That'd be rude. Plus it's still being all floaty, too much of a pain."

"So you can't fly, interesting."

"I could get up there if I wanted to. It's just that it'd be too much of a pain."

"Sure, sure."

Shrug. "So, explodey things?"

She leads him to the boat. Or more specifically, the converted shipping pallet she uses to ferry people up and down from it. "Going up!"