Awesome Land VI: Dawn of a New Era

[Monika]

"Of course they'd still go through the barrier," Emperor Awesome huffed, resignedly stepping away from the telescope and back to his desk. "Honestly, I don't know why I should even bother with etiquette if-"

"Emperor! Empeeeroooor!" Leslie came tumbling out of the elevator right onto the floor of Emperor Awesome's office. After gracelessly picking herself up and dusting herself off with her standard issue feather duster, she ran up to the emperor's desk, emphatically hitting the surface with both hands. "Emperor!"

"I'm right here, Leslie," he said. "What is it? And did you finish cleaning the first floor?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure, sure. But there are more important things going on! Have you seen outside?"

"I just saw two people pass through my barrier as if it were child's play, but that hardly warrants your reaction. Now, tell me what is going on. And please, don't let this be an excuse to shirk more of your cleaning responsibilities."

"Man, there are over nine thousand floors in this tower and they're all so huge! You can't blame the staff for wanting to take a break every once in a while...but never mind that! Look! Outside!" Leslie gestured to the window behind the emperor's desk, through which barely anything could be seen.

Emperor Awesome peered through the glass. "Did it get...darker?"

"Shadow beings everywhere!" Leslie explained. "Invading Dynasty City!"

"Didn't Aurora take all of those Shadow creatures with her before she left the country?"

"No, no, these are coming from that floating fortress! I think they belong to that old Homeland Security guy, um, what was his name?"

"Zais." Emperor Awesome calmly grabbed his Imperial Scepter and pointed to the elevator. "Leslie, I want you to go find all of the servants and take them to the tower safe room. You are not to leave it until this situation has been dealt with."

"Yes, sir!" Leslie spun on her heel and was about to dash toward the elevator when she stopped to ask, "Which floor had the safe room, again?"

"One thousand three hundred thirty-seventh. Just go in the elevator and press the button that says 'Oh, fiz!' and you'll be taken straight there. Hurry."

"Understood!" And so Leslie ran off into the elevator and disappeared behind the closed doors, leaving the emperor to devise a plan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Artemis was just about to use her powers to banish the ever-growing ball of darkness in Super Land to another dimension when a tall, winged, shirtless man casually strode in through the library doors. Unaware of (or unconcerned by) the glances he was getting from the Immortals, he placed both hands around the orb of darkness and squeezed it, compacting it to the size of a cherry. He looked over the travel-sized orb and whistled. "This is some legitimate darkness!" he said once he finished the examination. "Much higher quality than the darkness in the Fallen Paradise. This has got to belong to Zais. Haven't seen him in ages. Haven't fought with him in even longer. Good times..."

Scern decided to voice the question that was probably on everyone's minds. "Yo, demon guy! Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm Clyde," the man answered after reminiscing for a few more seconds. "And I'm more of a 'Demon King' than a 'demon guy'. Not that I'm royalty or anything. Anyway, this place was my home before it crashed into the ground, so of course the first thing I was going to do after being freed from my prison was come visit!" Clyde glared at the Immortals and shook his head disapprovingly. "And it's a good thing I did. You haven't even had this island back in the skies for a full day, and you're already wrecking the place."

"To be fair, Clyde, it wasn't really our fault," Scern replied. "We told Zais we had to get rid of him, and then he just exploded into darkness!"

"And is now attacking Dynasty City." Artemis took a closer look at Heimrall's phone and wasn't at all surprised when her badge began ringing. She clicked the badge and maintained her neutral tone as she answered, "Hello, Emperor Awesome."

"Artemis, how exactly did your council meeting go?" His own tone sounded forced, as if he were trying to mask his anger and concern with an air of coolness. It was a stark contrast to Artemis and her seemingly genuine nonchalance.

"After a discussion between the Immortals concerning what to do with Zais, he expressed surprise that no one had thought to deal with him sooner and told us that he was not going to go peacefully."

"And he wasn't kidding! He just showed up in Dynasty City and is now invading with his army of Shadow creatures. We literally just got done dealing with Leon's, and now we've got to fend them off again!"

"I am aware, Emperor," Artemis responded. "The Immortal of Earth is showing a live update of the events in Dynasty City right now. We will be discussing our next course of action momentarily. This problem will be resolved."

"Well, see to it that it is. In a timely manner, preferably."

"You have my word." The connection dropped, and Artemis placed the badge back into her robe pocket. "Now that the matter of Zais has been discussed, are there any other issues that anyone here feels the need to bring up? If not, then I ask all members of the council opposed to the decision of eliminating Zais to leave. The remaining Immortals can then discuss the plans privately."

"I'll wait my turn, since I'm not on the council," Clyde said, taking up the seat that Zais had left. "But when you guys are finished I'd like to discuss the matter of returning Super Land back into the hands of its people...or person. Or demon."

"Shouldn't we have a 'no shoes, no shirt, no service' policy here?" Galro asked, disdainfully glaring at the uninvited guest. "This is supposed to be a dignified meeting of demigods!"

"Should we put a vote on it?" Clyde laughed.

Galro froze his own hands to the table to prevent himself from attacking the intruder.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amelia breathed a sigh of relief as the two ninja released her. Crisis averted! "Well, I'm not really dressed for a party, Your Majesty, but I'd be happy to join in the festivities. We can discuss the Emperor's dinner plans later."

[Mizagium]

The Mambutoo O’Malleys

Francine glanced ahead to see if the way was clear; Julia was nowhere in sight. “Then if you would please?” She lead the way, Veritaz and the other Thundercougerfalconbirds fading into the night, but still flanking them.

-

“You might want to sit down,” Anhura offered. Johnny, Cassandra, and King Randolph remained standing, implacable. “Right then. We’re from the future.”

“So we’ve gathered,” Cassandra said dryly.

“Right, well – “

“Hey!” Adakais shouted over her. “Mind letting me down?” He was still stopped in the air, about to strike Xeltyr.

She wheeled on him, completely forgetting about her other family. “Not likely, you cotton-headed ninny-muggins! Did you see what you did to poor Ahrima?” She indicated the boy in the wheelchair. “You know what using his power does to him!”

“I didn’t ask him to – “

“You might as well have, running off as soon as we get here, chasing down and attempting to kill your cousin!”

“He isn’t our cousin!”

Anhura shook her head, evidently having had this conversation before. “I don’t believe you, Addy. After all these years.”

Adakais bristled at the nickname. “He’s a fake, Annie! Come on, think about it. Those memories aren’t real.”

“I’m right here,” Xeltyr eked out.

Anhura gave the small boy a regretful look. “If I release his Stop, will you stop trying to kill him?”

Adakais didn’t answer, so Anhura went over to Xeltyr and touched his shoulder. “Stop – release!” Suddenly, Xeltyr could move again, falling back with the suddenness. She waited for him to scramble over to Johnny and Cassandra both of whom put a protective hand on his shoulder. Satisfied, Anhura reached out and touched her brother’s leg. “Stop – release!”

“What, no Slow – hey!” Adakais carried forward with the unspent momentum, crashing into the ground with no chance to react. “That wasn’t cool,” he muttered, getting to his feet.

“Neither is trying to - oh!” The boy in the wheelchair stirred.

“Annie…Addy?”

“Hey, Ahrima,” they said together. Then Anhura nudged him. “Yeah…sorry, Arry, didn’t mean to make you have to do that again.”

The boy scrunched up his face. “I just didn’t want you and Xel to hurt each other.”

King Randolph raised his hands. “If you don’t mind,” he said, sounding the mostly kingly he had in a while, “I would like to take this inside, and perhaps discuss it with the Queen?”

Ahrima’s face lit up. “Granny?”

Randolph let his hands fall and sighed. “Just…just follow me.”

-

Sarah wasn’t able to speak to Aunt Julia before she was shuffled off to her room. Then she turned back to Leon. “It’s not that I’m not pleased. He said…he said Uncle Knox when he called me Aunt Sarah. You know what that means?” She couldn’t help but blush. “I just sometimes wish time wasn’t always on the verge of collapsing back on itself, you know? It’s the whole Oblivion Queen mess all over again.” The last sentence wasn’t supposed to be said aloud.

The Council

Ollie yawned rather theatrically. “Yeah yeah, Darkness, demon guy, whatever. You gonna leave, Woody?” She directed the question at Roewk. If so I’ll leave ya. Too stuffy in here.”

Bill, Gallen Kah, and Karzem waited patiently for the meeting to begin. Vespi’s flames had become a bright white as she struggled to maintain her composure (and muttering something about everyone being an idiot but her), while the Air Immortal restrung his bow and Knox tried to shut out the fierce buzzing in his head.

Rick Thunder

Rick slumped against the railing of the Sea Slater and began flicking cigarettes (some lit) at gawking citizens as the ship trudged through solid ground. He felt Petra’s mind touch his briefly, she telling him that she had also arrived inside the barrier. Not a moment later, a squirming duffle bag plopped down next to him. Excitedly, he began rummaging through it; the sounds of tiny lizards floated out into the midday air.

“Easy, Tiki,” he muttered, shoving the head of a compsognathus back inside the bag and zipped it shut. He produced the comb he had been looking for and began absently fixing his hair.

“So Captain, where you plan on taking this ship? We gonna go bust some heads? Like those of the goons who tried to keep us out?” He still hadn’t forgiven the quasi-anthropomorphic barrier for smacking him.

Spaaaaaace

The White Zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only rang the mechanical female voice as Captain Uggo pulled the Monstrosity into an empty berth and allowed the gravitronic stabilizers to take effect before he disengaged the engines.

“Alright,” he announced to the Germans. “Let’s get your friend up and attem. Mayweather, would you mind locating a medic?”

The octomercenary glared at him.

“Er, alright. Albert, Cozaltene, can you get Gabe up, then? I’ll find a medic.” He staggered down the gangplank on his two peglegs and cast his head this way and that, engaging the boosters just enough to see over the heads of the crowd. “You there, medbot!”

A clunky-looking robot on wheels whirred through the crowd and to Captain Uggo. “I have an injured passenger on board. See to him at once.”

The medbot chirped and beeped before riding over to where the German pirates were. “HoW mAy I aSiSt YoU tOdAy?”

[Myrdraxxis]

"Yeah that..isn't good." Leske stated the obvious, watching in horrified fascination as the Army of Darkness descended upon the land. THe citizens reacted with panic and screams of course...but Leske couldn't help but feel that it was a sort of...practiced panicking. As if this part of the daily routine for these poor citizens.

Maybe Magnus was right about this place.


"Okay, I wasn't going to do this, but I'm NOT going to get caught up in that." Leske declared He grabbed Kayla's arm. "Hold on!"

Leske didn't have much magic left in him these days, but there was enough to perform the crucial spell that made all Travelers (or at least those taught by Magnus) what they are. Usually the spell required a lengthy incantation to set up, but Leske had an advantage this time.

"Codex! Do it!"

Right~o!" Having Codex there to sync with let him cast the spell almost instantaneously.

With a burst of magic, the pair was gone from Awesome Land....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

....And reappeared in the middle of a busy spaceport. In front of Captain Uggo and his crew.

"Well...I actually think this is relatively closer to where I wanted to go." Leske observed. "So that's good I guess." he looked around for a minute. "Wait...where are we?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Very Well." Roewk stood and began to leave the room. He shook his head. "Ridiculous." he muttered. "While those fools bicker, Xaian moves unopposed."

He left the chambers, pausing outside. "Not if I can help it."

[Calefrun]

Cozaltene continued lounging, and Al eyed the robot suspiciously before responding, "Our friend here," he indicated Gabe, "is badly injured. He needs to be treated as quickly as possible." He furrowed his brow, not certain about allowing a machine to care for one of his closest friends.

Suddenly, Kayla and Leske appeared in front of Uggo. The younger Traveler quickly looked around, examining her surroundings and taking a moment to gather her bearings. She had gotten used to abruptly showing up somewhere completely different than where she'd been mere moments ago, but she was unfamiliar with the place in which she now found herself.

Responding to her former master's question, she said, "In space, apparently. This brings back... unpleasant memories." She turned to face Leske with an urgent expression and asked, "Master, what about the Rift? And also... I kinda got the feeling you didn't believe us when my brother and I brought it up in the past, but... Awesome Land is our home. Or, the closest thing to a home either of us ever had, at least." With a glance at the pirates she added, "Err... Hello."

[Monika]

Leon's eyes widened slightly at the mention of such an unfamiliar term. He'd been on many an adventure and had encountered countless monarchs, but this one was completely new. "Oblivion Queen?" he asked. "Well, now it looks like we have a lot discussing to do." With a snap of his fingers, he conjured up a glass of Shadow Lemonade for each of them and motioned for Sarah to sit at a nearby table. "Now with 20% less Shadow," he said as he handed her a glass. "So, let's start from the top, Sarah..."

Meanwhile, Amelia was walking alongside Queen Francine, keenly aware of the ninja surrounding them. Opting not to pay them any mind for the sake of maintaining her cover, she decided to make small talk. "So, this is a really nice kingdom, Queen! I haven't been here too long, but I'm already in love with this country. It's really peaceful, especially considering your next door neighbor."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once Roewk and Ollie had departed, Artemis closed the library doors and began pacing around the room. "As you have all just seen, Zais has already begun to attack Awesome Land's capital. The most obvious response would be to engage him there directly, but we cannot be sure that he will stay there once we arrive. Moreover, most of you do not hold allegiance to the country, so I can imagine your reluctance to fight there. Still, I believe it to be an appropriate course of action, though I am open to other suggestions."

"How close is Dynasty City to that pizza place you took us to?" Scern asked. "They had some killer cheese pizza there, and the chef was pretty good at her job!" He gave a quick thumbs-up to Heimrall.

"The pizza parlor in question is approximately 40 Verals from the Second Imperial Tower. It is within driving distance," Artemis answered.

"You think the damage from the battle could spill over into the pizza joint? Because that would be a total waste." He looked visibly concerned about the fate of the pizzeria; he developed an attachment to any place that fed him and let him put on an impromptu performance.

"Metro City has generally been isolated from the chaos that occurs in central Awesome Land, though I cannot make any guarantee. Zais has made his intention to expand his empire rather clear, so the rest of Awesome Land would likely fall victim to his advances after Dynasty City."

"Well, I'm not taking that chance!" Scern grabbed his guitar and strummed a few power chords. "I vote that we go straight to Awesome Land and kick Mr. Darkness back to where he came from!"

"I don't know of any other place that Zais frequents outside of Random World, so I'll leave the scouting to you, Artemis," Galro said. His rage subsided, he unfroze his hands from the table and ran one through his hair. "What I do know is that I'm in no mood to go back there after waking up from our nap. So I'll go to Awesome Land and fight, if the rest of the Council agrees."

"I would not advise all of us to go to Dynasty City, as Zais still has forces in other dimensions we need to take care of. Would anyone here like to offer any input?" Her eyes fixed themselves on Knox for a brief moment; with or without her borderline psychic powers, she could clearly see that something was wrong with him. She decided it would be best to bring it up after the meeting, however, and continued waiting for one of the other Immortals to speak.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of the two missions Alastor had been assigned, starting a space program seemed to take the most precedence. After all, Awesome Land had just recovered from a conflict, so what were the chances of their needing a robotic army right away? And then the darkness came. Of course, by that time, it was a bit too late to double back, so Alastor continued his journey to find the Space Ninja that had moved to the city. It didn't take too much time to find them; the average everyday citizens of Awesome Land were all too happy to point out the whereabouts of the latest superpowered additions to the country, so before Alastor knew it he was standing at the door to Blanche's home.

"Hello?" He knocked on the door a few times, eager to make his way inside to escape the deluge of Shadow creatures. "Reports indicate that a few ninjas from space live here. I am Alastor, one of Awesome Land's Guardians and overseer of the Magic and Technology departments. I would like to come in and speak with you, if it is not too much trouble."

[Mizagium]

The Mambutoo O’Malleys

Queen Francine grimaced. “It really is a wonder, isn’t it Amelia,” she muttered.

Sarah had taken the Shadow Lemonade from Leon and was about to launch into the quite riveting tale of how she had once had a vision of the future after kissing Knox in which she was a tyrannical dictator, when she spotted her mother with Amelia in tow. “Excuse me, Leon,” she said and rushed off to the Queen.

“Mother! You had better prepare yourself because any minute now Johnny and dad are going to – “

“Too late,” Johnny broke in, sheepishly. He and King Francine stood there with Cassandra and four other kids, two seeming to be not much younger than themselves, one a child, and the fourth actually appeared older than them.

The Royal Family shuffled off to a side room with as much difficulty as an entire family of Royals trying to sneak off could generate. “Leon,” Sarah hissed. “Keep these people entertained and I promise I’ll tell you the whole story!”

---

When they were alone, the children were introduced to much groaning and temple-rubbing from everyone involved. Johnny and Cassandra still kept apart from each other, although they stole glances at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking. Evidently, the three A children were Sarah and Knox’s, each possessing a mild form of Time Adakais, Haste, Anhura, Slow, and Ahrima Stop. This affected their growth: Adakais aged faster, Anhura slower, and Ahruma stopped completely. Although they were triplets of about 19 years, they appeared to be something like 29, 15, and 10 respectively.

Finally, Sarah asked the most important question. “So why are you all here?”

At first, they all tried to talk over each other until Xeltyr was given the floor. “I came back to avert an apocalyptic future.” Mutterings of ‘of course’ floated through the room. “The time I come from is ravaged by the Four Demon Lords…one of which I am a host to.” That made the room tense. “But! But I’ve got him under control. I can release him at will or keep him locked away. So I was sent back with one of those time travel watches in order to stop it from happening…”

“But…” Cassandra urged.

“I…I went to where I was told it would happen, but that was just the ruins of Super Land. I was lied to or…or…I don’t know anymore.”

“Because you’re a fake!” Adakais wasn’t able to control himself anymore. “You’re not our cousin! Uncle Johnny and Aunt Cassandra never had a son named Xeltyr. You had us all fooled for a long time, but it doesn’t add up. Think about it, you two!”

Anhura and Ahrima furrowed their brows. “It…does become hazy,” Anhura conceded. “Like I’m trying to remember a dream.”

“Exactly.”

“But I remember…” Xeltyr muttered. “Don’t I?”

“Then what,” Francine said sharply, “are you three doing here? If he isn’t here to avert an apocalyptic future, then what are any of you doing here?”

Adakais frowned. “You heard him, Grandma, he has a Demon Lord inside him. Xeltyr isn’t here to avert any apocalypse. He’s here to see it through.”

---

The Council

Ollie quickened her pace to catch up to Roewk without looking like that’s what she was doing at all because she was clearly too cool for running after someone. “What was that you muttered back there? Something about a Zildjan?”

---

Gallen Kah cleared his throat. “The dimension…the world I call home, Cardinalos, has been recently infested with Zais’ particular brand of Darkness.” The Immortal of Order seemed to be choosing his words carefully, unsure of how much to reveal to the others. “There was an…incident recently, after which Zais’ shadow soldiers began pouring into the land of Centros. They seem to have come from the north…what I am getting at here is that Zais seems firmly engrained in Cardinalos. Maybe not as recently as Random World, nor as widespread but certainly more deeply. And he isn’t the only one.” The last came out as barely more than a whisper, but he glared at Karzem in spite of himself.

“Now, Gallen,” Karzem said with a placating tone. “You’ll find there have been no sightings of me or any of my Banshees in Cardinalos.” He shrugged. “I have heard these reports of Chaos machines in Sourhryos…but I’m afraid Chaos isn’t a power confined to me alone, nor are any of our powers.” Let Artemis try to mind-read that; it wasn’t technically a lie.

Bill raised his hands soothingly. “One issue at a time, fellow Immortals. Zais is the immediate threat. Gallen, since you are familiar with the world…perhaps he should lead some of us in a campaign to remove Zais’ forces from Cardinalos?”

“Long as I don’t have to go back to Random World,” Vespi snapped.

“We will have to eventually,” Bill noted. “But perhaps not right away.” He addressed the rest of the council. “For those of you that aren’t aware, Random World is a small dimension consisting of but a single world, created millennia ago by the Dimension Sorcerer, Astleas. Evidently, he wanted a world where Immortals held no sway over things. Either he lured some in, or they pursued him, but Vespi and the other Concrete Immortals – Galro, Gale, Heimrall, Roewk, Noores, and Scern (and Llenchi for some reason) – were imprisoned there for over a millennium. It’s a world where our powers, our Immortal powers are less than half as effective as in this dimension.”

“Isn’t Johnny still there?” Gale fussed with his braid, uncertain of keeping it or not. “He could do something. He is absurdly powerful, after all.”

“No,” Vespi said. “He went home not too long ago, although you’re right: he IS absurdly powerful and apparently unaffected by the dampening effects of Random World. Well, Brave New World, now.” She grimaced, finding that name just as silly. “Although…Zais’ power is just as affected. Maybe…”

Bill raised an eyebrow. “Vespi?”

“While he and I were there recently, fixing problems and being heroes, he…sort of cultivated a local group of superpowered hero-types.” She shrugged. “They aren’t the best but maybe they can keep Zais’ forces occupied while we work elsewhere?”

“And then when we all go there,” Bill mused, “We’ll be able to simply overwhelm him.”

Gallen Kah frowned, not enjoying the idea of the other Immortal meddling in Cardinalos, a world traditionally his. “Well? Does anyone else have a better idea or are we all going traipsing to my home? Are we just to leave Dynasty City undefended?”

Even in his distracted state of mind, Knox snorted. “Please. There are so many people with powers in this world that I’m sure Zais is already finding resistance. Not to mention the Imperial Army itself.” Only then did it occur to him that the Army wasn’t exactly up to snuff since Aurora’s takeover. And now it was controlled by Emperor Awesome… “Well. Maybe someone should do something.”

Unable to stand the buzzing in his head, he finally brought the time around Super Land to a halt, pausing the Council. He quickly produced a scrap of paper and scribbled on it before timewarping off to Fun Land and his Clock Tower.

Artemis,

Something dire is happening with the Timestream, but I’m not sure exactly what yet, so I must return to the Clock Tower. Please carry on the meeting and know that you have my full support in whatever action you take. Show them this note if you must.

I promise to tell you everything when I return.

Knox, Immortal of Time

---

In Spaaaaaace…

The medbot beeped and booped some more. A few lights flashed without any real meaning. “FeAr NoT sQuIsHy HuMaN mEaT sAc, MeDbOt QT3.14 wIlL fIx ThIs YoUnG hUmAn MaLe TyPe AcOrRdInG tO eNiGmA cOrPoRaTiOn StAnDaRdS oF fReE hEaLtHcArE fOr SpAcE vAgRaNtS.”

A compartment on MEDBOT QT3.14 opened and out popped what looked like a turkey baster. “PlEaSe PrEp ThE fIlThY sPaCe VaGrAnT fOr EnIgMa CoRp. EmErGeNcY sPaCoNiUm EnEmA.”

---

Uggo looked Leske and Kayla up and down once. “You’re on Station Granbelle,” he said flatly, unable to keep from overhearing their conversation. “In orbit around the planet Boundless.”

The Crusaders

Blanche let the wait a long moment before answering.

“You know we have to,” she said to Daar Lorra, the other occupant.

“Do not,” the other woman sniffed.

“We kind of live in their country now. And they offered us sanctuary.” Daar Lorra glanced away. “From FORD and Space Land. They kind of want all of us dead.”

“Since when were you so reasonable?”

Blanche gritted her teeth. “I’m trying a new thing.”

“It doesn’t suit you.”

Rolling her eyes, Blanche opened the door to face Alastor. “Ah, yes? How can I…we help you?” Daar Lorra was right. Being polite was hard. Then she noticed the scene developing behind the Guardian. “Uh. Does it have anything to do with that?” She pointed at the darkness.

---

Samuel Anarr had been taking a lonely walk through Dynasty City, getting a feel for the town, and looking for a job, when the darkness descended upon the city. He gaped. “No. No no no no. Not here. Please, we just got settled!”

Why have you turned away?

“I didn’t want this anymore,” he whispered to the voice in his head.

This is your fate.

“I refuse.”

Your destiny.

“I choose…”

You are my Moon Blade. This is who you are.

“No! I…” The shadow army flooded the city.

Can you ignore that which is right before you?

Celea and Luana, his twin Lunar Sword appeared in his hands, each in a quick shimmer. They felt right in his grip. And then he was running, screaming – whether in frustration or determination, he couldn’t say, but he had taken down three shadow soldiers before he became fully aware again.

“This doesn’t change anything,” he muttered, a pale white blur among the darkness, ash-gray hair and sky-blue eyes. He hadn’t had time to buy any new clothes, so he was still wearing his white clothes and long coat.

Samuel wasn’t going to admit it out loud, but the fighting felt good.

[Monika]

"Heheheh. It's the part I was born to play!" Leon snapped his fingers, opening a dimensional rift in the ceiling. Sand poured forth from the tear in space, coating the floor. "Now, let's see...We'll need one of these!" He clapped his hands twice, and a grapefruit-sized sphere of darkness came from the rift and situated itself in a corner of the room. "That's a Shadow Orb!" he explained to the understandably concerned party guests. "That's a unique little product in the Shadow Realm; it absorbs all the darkness in a room!"

As if on cue, what little darkness there might have been in the well-lit palace room was siphoned into the orb, giving the area the same brightness one might see outside on a nice summer's day. Pleased with his handiwork, he conjured up a few more things from the Shadow Realm: a Shadow Net, a Shadow Tower, and a multicolored Shadow Beach Ball, each of the colors being a different shade of black. With a final snap of his fingers, all of the women in the room were pulled out of their fancy dresses and put into skimpy bikinis, Kid Leon's face stamped in the middle of the breast and crotch areas.

"Now, all we need is a little theme music..." He disappeared, reappearing a few moments later with a Swedish woman in tow.

"What in the...Where am I!? I was just in the recording studio!" the woman shouted, frantically looking around to find herself in a sandy palace. Once her eyes fell upon Leon and she deduced that she had been kidnapped, she opened her mouth to shriek, only to be stopped when Leon pressed his finger against her lips.

"Shhh. If you want to go back, you'll keep singing, alright?" He gave her a somewhat reassuring grin, one that didn't say 'Everything will be fine,' so much as it said 'Do as you're told and no one gets hurt.'

Receiving the message loud and clear, the woman - apparently a pop star back in her home country and dimension - started singing a smooth melody that had been used in some video game.

"Ah, it's been ages since I've done this! Ladies, if you would please stand on either side of the net!" The scantily clad women did as instructed, dividing themselves into equal groups on each side of the net. "And gentlemen, if you would take a seat, since no one wants to watch you..." Rows of Shadow Bleachers appeared to line the walls; shadowy tendrils burst forth from the bleachers and wrapped themselves around the men, forcibly strapping the guests to their seats.

"Now, you all know what to do next!" Leon warped himself up to the top of the miniature Shadow Tower and pressed a Shadow Megaphone up against his lips. "It's time for everyone's favorite game!" he shouted. Suit wearing men and bikini clad women alike all joined in to give the proper response:

EXTREME! BEACH! VOLLEYBALL!"

And lo, did the first ever Veralice Indoor Extreme Beach Volleyball Tournament^TM begin...much to Amelia's dismay. Having been abandoned by the Queen (who was trying a little too hard to sneak away), she found herself in the middle of a volleyball game, dressed in perhaps the most ridiculous costume she had ever worn. While she was always up for an outfit change, this was the first time one had happened against her will. Her innate ninjaness would usually prevent such a thing from happening. None of this made any sense until she finally made the connection.

"Leon," Amelia whispered to herself. She withdrew a folded up sheet of paper from her bikini and creaselessly unfolded it. "Leon...Number 25," she read. "He's over forty spots higher! That's why my senses didn't go off." With a sigh, she shoved the paper back into her bikini (neatly folding it beforehand, of course), and took a position near the center of her side of the makeshift volleyball court. "Might as well..." With nothing better to do until the Queen returned, Amelia grabbed the Shadow Volleyball and served it rather forcefully to the other side of the net.

---

Artemis was not at all surprised when Knox seemed to have instantaneously disappeared. She quickly scanned the note he had given her before she started speaking again. "Knox had to tend to matters concerning the Timestream. With his departure, there are ten of us left. For now, we can assume that Johnny's allies can defend Brave New World. This means that we should split into two groups of five. One group will take care of the problems in Cardinalos, should Gallen Kah not mind, while the other group defends Dynasty City and the rest of Awesome Land from Zais' forces. I believe that the most effective division would place two Abstract Immortals and three Concrete Immortals on each team. Karzem, Galro, Scern, Heimrall and I can be on the Dynasty City team. Bill, Gallen, Vespi, Noores, and Gale can go to Cardinalos. This provides a roughly even distribution of power and ensures that all of the Immortals who might otherwise prove to be incompatible with one another are placed on different teams."

She took a deep breath and added, "Of course, I am open to other suggestions. This is supposed to be a democratic body. Contrary to what some of you may believe, I have little interest in being the 'leader' of this council. With all of that said, however, I will point out that if no one has any other suggestions or issues to bring up, we can adjourn this meeting and proceed with our mission. Time is of the essence."

---

Alastor shook his head. "Although the shadows are definitely a concern, I'm actually here to enlist your help with starting a space program. Emperor Awesome told me-" Before he could finish the sentence, his badge began to ring. "Pardon me, ladies." He tapped the badge twice and spoke. "Hello?"

"Alastor," Emperor Awesome replied, "have you made contact with Blanche?"

"Assuming you are referring to the Space Ninja, then I believe so. I am at her residence right now."

"Good. Am I on speaker badge?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then I can give them the message directly." Emperor Awesome loudly cleared his throat and spoke through the badge on Alastor's chest. "Blanche, Daar Lorra, and Samuel Anarr are hereby conscripted into the Awesome Land Imperial Army, effective immediately. They may begin fighting at once."

Alastor was about to say something, but the emperor dropped the connection before he could formulate a response. "Well," he sighed, "I suppose this is about the shadows. But you all heard Emperor Awesome. The space program can come after we deal with our more pressing concern." He stared at the budding chaos in Dynasty City and added as an afterthought, "Sorry to drag you both into this."

[Myrdraxxis]

Ollie's voice snapped Roewk out of his thoughts. He was momentarily surprised that we wasn't the only one to walk out of that meeting, but put that aside when he registered Ollie's question.

"Xavian." He corrected. "Zais', predecessor, the previous Immortal of Darkness. When I was first freed from imprisonment, I began to strike out on my own, searching for the farthest, most unexplored places." he began explaining. "And it was in one of these places that I became aware of something: Xavian is still very much alive. Nt nearly as powerful as he used to be, but still alive. I learned all I could about this man, tracing records back as far as I could untilt he man's defeat on the lost world of Isla Umbra." Roewk began pacing. "By all accounts Xavian was malicious, cruel and power-hungry." Roewk hesitated, "In some cases, moreso than Zais."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Boundless?" Leske murmured,hearing Uggo. He tapped a button on his sleeve and a small holographic star map appeared on his wrist.He waited a moment for the program to get its bearings then scanned it for a moment. "That's...not very far from where I needed to go, actually." He sounded surprised. "Only two systems away."

'You should have let me make the first jump. We wuld have gotten it right ont he first try." Codex said smugly.

Leske just snorted.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THe day had started off so nicely. Dace woke up, and there wasn't forty urgent calls awaiting him to report that disaster had befallen the land yet again. He got to have breakfast, enjoy his morning and was juuuust trying to decide what to do today when he began to hear the screams.

The familiar, panicked screams of citizens in distress.

"Everything was going so well too." Dace muttered, setting down his coffee and strolling over to the window. His apartment was on the fifth floor on the building, overlooking main street. Which was now covered in Shadow soldiers.

Dace stared.

"...called it."

Which was when his doorbell rang. Dace answered the door and blinked in surprise, seeing who was standing there. "Sindri?"

"We...might have a situation on our hands." The Shadow sorcerer sounded like he'd rather be anywhere else than here. "I think its finally happening."

Dace didn't understand for a moment, but when he did his blood froze. "Oh."

"The other Immortals are gathering, and Zais..I think Zais has finally deteriorated too far."

It was a fact that both of them knew would happen eventually. Well, Sindri always knew, but Dace had only learned recently in his trip to the past. Dace was surprised that he didn't feel more happiness. Zais was finally going down. But he didn't.

"I'll...get my coat."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So is this..okay?" Corr asked, casually batting a car aside with his level 90 Dragonite MurderGauntlet.

"Its our orders." Taler answered, spraying a clip of ammunition into the crowd before them. It was the most inaccurate Corr had ever seen the man shoot, yet Taler didn't even seem to care. Or care when one oft he few Imperial Army soldiers on the scene shot him in the shoulder.

"I...guess...er are you alright?"

"Perfectly, why?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I reeeaaally don't care where I go honestly." Noores sighed, tuxking away his earbuds. "Honestly I'm only here because I get to zap stuff."

And annoying Roewk is kind of fun, he thought silently.

[Monika]

With his characteristic explosion of light, Antitheon reappeared inside the church, Arabella and Archibald at his sides. He all-too-eagerly let go of their hands, dusting his own off as he waited for one of the priests to speak.

Arabella took in a deep breath, the fresh, nonoppressive air welcome in her lungs. She was the first to say something, since her mentor was preoccupied with gazing wide-eyed into space. "Oh. My. Goddess. That was incredible!" She ran over to Antitheon and grabbed his hands, jumping up and down. "You literally did everything that I thought an angel would do! Fight demons? Check! Bring people to salvation? Check! Spread the message of Sera, um, Her Divinity? Check! And all at the same time, too!"

"I am...glad you appreciate my efforts," the angel forced through clenched teeth. "Now, if you would let go of me..." Antitheon pointed at one of the pews, and Arabella suddenly found herself floating away from him and into the seat. Dusting himself off again, he said, "Hopefully I have done enough to prove my claims."

Arabella grinned. "And you can make people float, too! You've done more than enough for me to believe! How about you, Gramps?" She walked over to where Archibald was absently staring and waved her hands in his face. "Grampa?"

He blinked twice. "I...I have no idea what to believe anymore." He couldn't deny that Antitheon's feats were spectacular and by Arabella's standards, at least, angelic. But nothing he had ever read in his half-century of work suggested the existence of any such beings.

"I will leave you to contemplate, Archibald. If my Mother blessed you creatures with even a shred of Knowledge, you will come to the right conclusion in your own time." Antitheon smiled, slowly ascending into the air and through the chapel roof.

"Wait! Wait!" Arabella ran over and grabbed his ankle before he escaped. "Where are you going, Antitheon? You can't just leave!"

Were Arabella not a clergywoman, she may very well have experienced Antitheon's full wrath. Ever the consummate emotion-hider, however, Antitheon merely said to her in his soft, soothing voice, "Please, stop touching me. Surely you would want me to continue spreading the message of the goddess to all those creatures who need it?"

"Well, I mean..." She let out an exasperated sigh. "Don't guilt trip me! It's just, you have no idea how exciting that was to a normal teenage girl like me! I live in Retro City! The good side of town, too! We never get to see all of the cool things that happen here in Dynasty City!"

"Listen, Arabella. You have school in the morning. Mother would disapprove if I took you away from your education. But I promise I will return to take you on another mission when the opportunity presents itself. And should you ever need to speak with me, simply say a prayer and it shall be answered."

"If you say so!" Placated, Arabella let go of Antitheon's ankle. "Don't keep me waiting too long, okay?"

Antitheon nodded. "And as a parting gift to you, I will send you both to your homes. That foolish Immortal of Darkness is attacking the city." He gently tapped one of the chapel walls and muttered "Negation: Space." Through the infinite power of antiphysics, the light from the outside was able to pass through the church, giving everyone a clear view of what was going on in the world beyond.

"What in the world?" The sight of shadows swarming Dynasty City broke Archibald from his trance. "We just recovered from disaster! Oh, the church membership is going to drop to nothing at this rate!" He ran over to Antitheon and pleaded, "If you truly are an angel, you have to do something! Get rid of Zais like you did with that demon! Save the town from doom!"

The angel smiled. "While I would love nothing more than to rid the world of these false deities, Mother has forbidden me from doing so. She wants to give you creatures another chance to solve your own problems before she employs divine intervention. She truly is forgiving." Antitheon pointed at Arabella and Archibald, surrounding them each with a glowing white sphere. "Remember, if you ever need me, I am just a prayer away." And the two disappeared in a burst of light.

"'If we give one Force to a different person, perhaps there will be a sense of balance.' Those are the words you said to Uncle Delmerith many millennia ago, Mother." Antitheon stepped through a wall of the church and into the battlefield that was Dynasty City. "At the time, you were talking about creating the Orbs of Nature. You had no idea the universe itself would conspire against you and give birth to the Immortals, did you?" As he walked the city streets, dozens of Zais' Shadow Soldiers came to attack him, each one exploding before it could so much as draw a weapon. "But - Orbs or Immortals - you now realize that these wretched creatures cannot be trusted to handle power. Not as long as they are allowed to use it indiscriminately."

His eyes fixed themselves on the fortress hovering above the Second Imperial Tower as he continued absently delivering psychokinetic thrashings to Shadow Soldiers. "But do not worry, Mother. We shall wipe them out. One by one. And only then will we achieve balance." With that, he rose into the air and disappeared in another explosion of light, the scattering beams taking out a sizable portion of Zais' forces.

[Mizagium]

Dynasty City

GOLDBEZ

AND LO WAS DARKNESS VISITED UPON THE CITY THAT WOULD FOUND THE DYNASTY OF PEACE. AND IT WAS TOTES UNCOOL, BRO. AND THUS DID THE SPHINX TAKE NOTICE AND SAYETH, “Eh? That ain’t cool.” AND SO HE SUMMONED HIS FAVORITE SON AND SPOKE THUSLY. “Hey, you should probably check that out.”

AND YEA, DID THE SKIES ABOVE DYNASTY PART AND DOWN DESCENED HE WHO COMES IN THE NIGHT, AND THE DAY, AND WHEREVER YOU FEEL LIKE DOING IT, MAN, HE ISN’T A STICKLER,WITH THE PSUEDO-MAGICAL AND QUASI-SCIENTIFIC POWER OF THE ALL-CAPS, BATHED IN THE SLIPPERY LIGHT OF ALL THAT IS HOT AND ATTRACTIVE, AND FLANKED BY A SEXTANT OF SIX-WINGED LADIES WHO HAD FORGOTTEN THEIR GARMENTS IN THEIR HURRY TO SEE THEIR LORD, MASTER, HERO AND ALL AROUND LOVE-MACHINE OFF SAFELY.

HE HARDLY TOOK NOTICE, OF COURSE, AND DISMISSED THEM LIKE THE CHEAP, DAYTIME HOOKERS THAT THEY WERE AND TOOK IN THE SCENE OF THE BATTLE AS HE DESCENDED. MAN, DESCENDING DRAMATICALLY TAKES FOREVER WHEN THE VERY LIGHT IS KIND OF THICK AND GROSS. FED UP WITH THE DISGUSTING SEX-LIGHT, HE RENT HIMSELF FORTH AND FELL UPON THE BASE WORLD, SHATTERING THE GROUND AROUND HIM, THE WINDOWS OF NEARBY BUILDINGS, THE MINDS OF SOLDIERS OF DARKNESS AROUND HIM, AND THE HYMENS OF ANY LUCKY LADY VIRGIN WHO HAPPENED TO BE WITHIN THE EXTENDED VISCINITY. NO COMMENT ON VIRGIN MALES.

AND SAYETH HE, “LET’S GET JIGGY WITH IT.”

GURD YOUR LOINS, PEOPLE. GOLDBEZ IS BACK AND ‘DAWN OF THE NEW ERA-IER’ THAN EVER.

HALFWAY TO GRABBING HIS CROTCH, GOLDBEZ NOTICED TALER AND CORR DOING THEIR THANG SO HE COMPLETED THE ACTION WITH BOTH HANDS, YANKING HIMSELF FORWARD TO LAND BEFORE THE HAVOC SQUAD SOLDIERS IN A PERFECT SPLIT.

“I JUST FLEW IN FROM INCREDILAND AND BOY IS MY GROIN TIRED.” THEN HE WAS UP, SNAPPING HIS MAGNIFICENTLY ARMORED LEGS TOGETHER WITH IMPOSSIBLE GRACE, TANSITIONING INTO A PERFECT PIROUTETTE THAT JUST DIDN’T STOP. IT DIDN’T EVEN LOOK LIKE HE WAS EVEN MOVING HIS BODY. HE SIMPLY SPUN AND SPUN AND SPUN.

THE AIR AROUND HIM QUIVERED, CRACKLED WITH GREAT MOANING ARCS OF SEXLECTRICITY. THEN SPINNING TOP-BEZ BEGAN TO MOVE, TAKING THE SEXLIGHTING AND MOANING AIR WITH HIM AND HEADING STRAIGHT FOR HAVOC SQUAD.

“DON’T LOOK DIRECTLY AT ME, LADIES,” HE WARNED. “I’VE BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE BLINDNESS, LEAVING A PERFECT IMAGE OF ME BURNED INTO YOUR RETINAS FOREVER. ACTUALLY THAT MIGHT NOT BE SO BAD.”

ONE LEG SHOT OUT, ALTERING THE GENTLE SPINNING TO TERRIFYING SEX-TOP DEATH SPIRAL. AND IT WAS HEADED RIGHT FOR CORR AND TALER.

---

Moon Blade

Samuel Anarr drove his glowing lunar blades into the Shadow Soldier who subsequently disappeared into a poof of darkness. Evidently, Lunar light was effective enough to do real damage to those things, although, he decided ruefully, Alaizable’s Solar Fire would be even more effective.

“Maybe not,” he muttered. “This is Elemental Darkness. This stuff is strong.” He glanced around. “Is he…or whatever is causing this being serious? Or is he playing with us right now?” Taking down two more Shadow Soldiers served to demonstrate his point. It seemed like testing the waters to him.

---

Blackbody and Pulsar

Blanche and Daar Lorra exchanged a look, then turned to face Alastor. Both of them appeared to be on the edge of speaking, but both stopped and let it become a sigh.

“We aren’t getting out of this one, are we?” Blanche muttered.

“Doesn’t look like it.” The other already had her beam rifle out. “Isn’t this why we stayed here? So that we weren’t part of some army we didn’t want to fight with?”

“Maybe we should have shopped around.” Blanche was back in her ninja bard with pouches of kunai and shuriken. Her katana was ready to come when summoned, existing as dark energy just beyond awareness. “I wasn’t here for very long, but I did get a feel for this place.”

“Oh yeah?” The two women shoved past Alastor without a word to him. “And what kind of feel was it?” She blasted the nearest Shadow Soldier with the barest of aim.

“The kind where,” Blanche grumbled, disappearing in a cloud of dark energy and reappearing behind a Shadow Soldier, “a besieging army of darkness wouldn’t be that weird.” The Soldier fell with a knife in his back. “In fact, hey, it’s weird if it doesn’t happen!”

Daar shot another soldier. “So let us move to a place where we could just randomly be conscripted into the army to fight an equally random city-destroying force like this at any time during the day? And you decided that this would be a great place to live?”

“Well, I mean…we were going to get bored eventually.” Blanche had her katana out and began dark-hopping around the street, decapitating any soldier in sight, detouring slightly to kiss Daar Lorra on the cheek.

“That’s why I love you.” Daar switched her rifle for a pair of laser pistols and began spraying the area.

---

General Clara Lux

Clara Lux watched as the Darkness parted around her thanks to the wards of Fulbrenth, her shield. Between that and Belaneir, she appeared a bright speck amidst the ever-expanding wave of Darkness. Once the Light Magic began to fill her, she stood out as the Sun in the void of space. She hadn’t even drawn upon Belaneir’s power when she began lashing out at the Darkness around her. Not the Soldiers, although they were certainly caught in her wrath, but the wave itself.

“An affront to the Goddess,” she spat. The Light spread horizontally out from her, reaching from building to building, creating a wall of light that advanced with her. Behind her, her squad had stopped, terrified at the encroaching, looked to their General with amazement. She glanced back over her shoulder without breaking stride. “Do not fear, soldiers, for you walk in the Light of the Goddess.”

Timidly, one soldier stepped forth and, finding confidence, quickened his pace to match that of General Lux. Reassured, the others followed suit. Clara bent the Light around them, shielding them from the Darkness while also serving to burn away a wider area of it. She couldn’t say for the other Generals or branches of the ALIA, but this one was thrusting as deep into the evil as possible.

The Dark Fortress loomed over the heart of the city. “Do you see that, men?” She pointed. “There is the heart of darkness, the source of this evil.” She lifted Belaneir and drew on the Light within it. “I will take this Lance and I will run it through whoever has brought this upon Dynasty City. Will you stand with me? With the Emperor? With the Goddess?”

At first no one answered, but then the first soldier who had followed her spoke. “We will follow you, General Lux, into the deepest Darkness.” The others nodded or spoke their agreement.

“I knew you would.” She broke rank suddenly, driving Belaneir into the heart of the nearest Shadow Soldier. Light filled the dark form until it burst like a brilliant bubble of glitter and smoke. “See how the burst like ash bubbles? We are stronger than they! We walk with Light!” She thrust Belaneir into the air. “For the Emperor!”

“For the Emperor!” the echoed, weapons drawn and charged.

[Sariel of Tevet]

Captain Albert Alexander watched Rick Thunder toss cigarettes at pedestrians, who seemed to be avoiding the cancer sticks more than the shadows descending upon the land. A citizen even ran straight into a shadow rather than being touched by the butt, and promptly disappeared/probably died.

"I suppose second hand smoke really does kill."

Captain Albert Alexander walked up to Rick Thunder and began to ponder his next move.

"I am headed to speak with the Emperor of this land. As I am getting on in years, it seems that this is the only land that I have yet to adventure in. My nautical prowess is known across many worlds, and even universes. This ship and I have seen things you couldn't even imagine. And it seems like I arrived just in time for a fight! Ah! Here we are."

The Sea Slater was stopped in front of the tower doors, which slowly began to open as the bow touched the weight detecting rubber pad in front of the entrance. It pushed its way into lobby, and being quite a large ship, blocked Captain Albert Alexander's view of the help desk. He simply continued sailing on towards the nearest elevator and allowed the doors to close.

"Hmmm. I suppose an Emperor would be placed at the top of his tower...but in times of turmoil such as this...perhaps he is situated on another floor. I suppose I have no choice!"

Captain Albert Alexander pulled his sword from its scabbard, and slid it all the way up each of the 9,002 buttons.

"Onward!"

The elevator slowly crawled upwards and the digital readout changed to a bright read "2". The doors opened and Captain Albert Alexander poked his head through the opening doors from over the bow.

"Hmm. Erotic Pony Fanfiction Arobics Club Floor, nope. No Emperor here."

*quite a long...long...long..and unnecessarily long time later*

"Floor number 9002! Last chance!"

The doors opened and The Sea Slater made its way into Emperor Awesome's office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heimrall beat her fist into her rock hard armor.

"Aye! In the interest of all the pizza in the universe, I shall protect this land for the pepperonis that cannot defend themselves! The crust that wishes to rise in a free world! I parmesan't let this injustice go any further!"

[Calefrun]

Kayla sighed. "Master, I... oh nevermind." For reasons that she had never been able to determine, people had a tendency to just forget that she was around. She had always just attributed this to being a part of her inherited ninja abilities. Deciding to try again she asked, "So, momentarily ignoring the multiple threats currently endangering my homeworld... what brings you to this dimension, Master Leske? I would think that Awesome Land would be the sort of place that you would try to avoid at all costs."

Cozaltene showed no reaction to the medbot's "preparations," but Al eyed the turkey baster-looking device nervously. "I... I'm not so sure that this is really what he needs right now," he protested. He cast a pleading glance towards Captain Uggo and the newcomers, and managed to catch Kayla's attention.

She walked over, knelt beside Gabe, and looked him over before looking at Al and saying, "He looks pretty bad, but... I might be able to help him."

"Y-you can?" Al gaped at the ninja mage. He wasn't keen on trusting a complete stranger- especially one that had somehow teleported aboard a space station, but he didn't think that she could be any worse than the machine. "Well, if you can do something- preferably without any sort of enema- we would appreciate it."

Still kneeling, Kayla pressed her palms together and closed her eyes. Moments later, a green aura began to surround each of her hands. She opened her eyes and outstretched her arms so that her palms were inches above Gabe's chest, and shortly afterwards his entire body became surrounded by the strange light. As Al and Cozaltene watched, the wounds on their friend's body slowly disappeared. Once he appeared healed, she returned her hands to her sides and stood, allowing the aura to fade away.

"Unfortunately my skill doesn't extend to the more fine details," she said in a friendly tone, "so he still has some minor injuries, but his life is no longer in danger. With rest, he should be fully recovered before long."

Al gaped. "That was incredible! I can't believe somebody who looks to be around my age could be so skilled at healing!" With an awkward chuckle he added, "It makes me feel a little bad about my own abilities."

Kayla smiled. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about it. Trust me, I'm older than I look. Just keep at it, and I'm sure you'll improve!"

As they talked, Gabe's eyes slowly opened. His gaze drifted from Leske to Uggo, then to Cozaltene and Al, and finally to Kayla. He said hoarsely, "Helloooo nurse."

---

Within Dynasty City, a figured leaned against the exterior of the Second Imperial Tower, wearing a black hooded cloak which concealed everything except his chin, upon which was a thin silver beard. As shadow soldiers continued to descend from the sky, the figure grinned. "My my, this is... unexpected. It might make finding the girl a bit difficult, but... I suppose it couldn't hurt to have a little fun while I'm here."

He started walking away from the tower, towards a nearby city block. It appeared that the citizens were attempting to fight back against the invaders. They were still being overrun, of course, but it wasn't the absolute slaughter that the figure had been expecting. Then again, from what he knew about Awesome Land, it was little surprise that its citizens had at least some idea about how to defend themselves. That, or the one behind this attack was holding back.

The figure took a deep breath, savoring the smell of the burning buildings and fresh corpses that were beginning to pile up. A meal for later, perhaps, he thought as he continued advancing towards the relatively one-sided combat. He outstretched his right arm, and a blade appeared in his hand with a flash of light. It was a longsword, with an ornate hilt and jagged blade.

He reached the location where a cluster of shadow soldiers were gathered, and a few, detecting his presence, turned to face him. One raised a rife and started shooting, but the figure used his sword to swat the bullets out of the air as though they were insects. When he finally reached the now-terrified soldier, he cut the being in half with a single horizontal swing of his sword. An invisible wave of energy shot out from the arc of his attack, cutting down the other soldiers. After they had all fallen, several of the City's inhabitants stood up from behind their cover and approached the figure.

"That was incredible!" One of them cheered.

"You really saved us, mister! Thanks a bundle!" Shouted another.

The figure raised his left hand into the air and fanned out his fingers. Twenty more swords appeared over the heads of the citizens. He saw several faces change their expressions from appreciation to confusion, then to shocked realization. When he closed his hand into a fist the blades rained down, killing all but one person. The human, too afraid to move, sank to her knees with tears in her eyes as the figure walked up to her. All of the swords disappeared and he knelt as well, his face inches from hers. At this distance she was able to see the face under the hood, and her eyes met a pair that were more full of malice than she had ever imagined possible. The figure smiled at her, then leaned forward and plunged two fangs into her neck.

After his meal, the figure stood and looked around, searching for more fools to devour. I really shouldn't be thinking about food at a time like this. Hearing more fighting a few blocks away, he began walking in that direction. But there wouldn't be any sense hunting on an empty stomach, would there?

[Mizagium]

The Clock Tower

Knox had expected to find some solace from the interminable buzzing in his head in the Clock Tower, some kind of relief by being surrounded with others who shared his ability, by being at the apparent epicenter of Time. Alas, the buzzing erupted into a roaring torrent the instant he materialized within the walls of the Clock Tower. Such a sudden and drastic change drove him to his knees and he was shouting over the inaudible cacophony before he realized what he was doing.

The noise cut off abruptly and he found himself face to face with a set of brown eyes magnified by a pair of large glasses that easily covered half a face that was framed by ringlets of brunette hair. Miki Nahlani, the former King of the New Organization (and former Ace of Diamonds) pressed a solid object into his hands, which she had pried from his ears. “Here,” she said. “Found these in one of the basement storerooms once the flux began.”

“The flux?” Knox was able to think straighter now, although he was still a bit hazy. He felt as if he had just gotten off a particularly twisty roller coaster. “You all heard it, too?”

“Yeah, although, apparently not as badly as you did.”

“Proximity to the timestream and all that,” he offered with a shrug. “I’m the Immortal so whatever is affecting it will affect me the most probably.”

Miki nodded. “We all heard a faint buzz at different times. Franz and I happened to be in the basement for…uh…” she blushed. “Taking inventory, and we stumbled upon these.”

Knox examined the object in his hand. It looked like a pocket watch, but the clock face was painted over with a red negation sign. “Dampens the feedback from the timestream,” he said in wonder. “I can’t feel the stream as much, but I also can’t hear the…the flux, you called it?”

“Jace called it that, I seem to recall. It’s really the best thing to call it.” She paused thoughtfully. “Want to see it?”

The room Miki brought Knox to was one near the top of the tower, one he had discovered during his thorough inspection of the structure some time ago. It was spacious enough to accommodate all thirteen semi-permanent residents of the tower with room to spare. One wall was taken up by a large monitor with a control panel beneath it. It displayed various aspect of the timestream, he had discovered, although what all of the various buttons and levers did, he had left to the others, who had taken up the moniker the Watchers, which he initially found silly—although upon closer examination, he decided Organization XXI was even sillier.

Morgan, Trahern, and Walwyn (formerly of the New Organization, although Knox only remembered them as the Ace, King, and Jack of Spades, respectively) had become the more or less permanent members on the monitor. They glanced back at Knox when he entered briefly before turning back to their console.

All three were fairly young, Trahern being the eldest at seventeen. Morgan was something like fifteen, he recalled, and Walwyn might have been twelve or thirteen. The Spades had been the newest team put together. He remembered being surprised at Morgan being given the Ace position, despite Tristana beating him by about five years. But the positions had been assigned based upon skill level, not age. He wondered if that contributed to Tristana’s betrayal. The details of the Organization Civil War were still sketchy to him, but he had heard that Tristana and Ephraim (and new recruit, as demonstrated by his low rank of 2) had betrayed the New Organization. No one seemed willing to talk about how exactly.

“It’s calmed down somewhat,” Trahern announced. He was fairly lanky with shaggy black hair and a perpetual scowl. A teenager, if Knox ever saw one. “But we’ll bring up the recording from earlier.”

Morgan, was quite a bit shorter than Trahern and wore his dirty blond hair slicked back, which only brought attention to his pockmarked face. While not overly optimistic, the fact that chronic acne would apparently plague him into his twenties didn’t seem to cause any sort of teen angst in him. It would though, Knox thought with amusement. And when it did, it would hit hard.

Walwyn was frequently described as ‘adorable’ by the female members with his curly chestnut hair and squeaky voice. He was much shorter than anyone else, having not hit his rapid growth yet. They liked to tease him about that, saying he would always be short, which only brought about voice-cracking indignation and stifled giggles from the offending parties.

“Here we go.” Trahern gestured to the screen. Displayed now was what appeared to be a raging river of crimson and gold with flecks of black. The timestream in all its metaphysical glory. Of course it wasn’t a place most people could go, but the few times Knox had visited it, it manifested as such a display. “About twenty minutes ago it started to fluctuate. We we’re recording immediately, but we got it going before the bad stuff happened.” A little x2 in the corner indicated it was being played at twice the normal speed.

“Here,” he said, “it started to go wrong.” Suddenly the stream, which had been flowing from left to right, appeared to start jumping around. It reminded Knox of depictions of soundwaves he had seen in books before, great undulating arcs of increasingly hectic frequencies. And then the stream wasn’t even recognizable as such anymore, just a chaotic mess of energy. Some of it appeared to even be flowing backwards. “It calmed down a bit, but it hasn’t corrected itself. It – “

The buzz returned. Even with the feedback dampeners, it pierced Knox’s ears and sent him staggering into Miki, who in turn clung to him. The three on the monitor held onto their seats and the console until the racket passed.

“It’s coming in waves,” Morgan groaned. “I thought that’s what would happen. The flux is still increasing, but the great waves of it are going to come like that until…”

“Until what?” Knox knew the answer before he even asked.

“Until whatever is coming down the stream gets here.”

---

The Mambutoo O'Malleys

Everyone in the room sat in silence for a long, tense moment. Johnny was close to laughing, and not a panicked, insane laugh, either. He genuinely though it was funny that his possible future son would cause and apocalypse. And that was telling enough. Not THE apocalypse. AN apocalypse. One of several potential end-of-the-world scenarios.

“Figures, doesn’t it?” He nudged Cassandra. “Of course our kid’s going to destroy the world.”

“This is serious,” she snapped.

“Is it? I really don’t find this much more pressing than, say, CHRONO RIDLEY, which actually did almost destroy the world.” He remained steadfast under his family’s collective withering stare. “What? We’ve handled ish like this before.” Not to mention Astleas and Random World, which he hadn’t relayed to his family yet.

“He isn’t your son,” Adakais growled before Anhura punched him in the arm.

“We’ve past that, Addy. We’ve moved on to more pressing matters.”

Randolph raised his hands to preemptively quell any in-fighting. “Ok. What kind of apocalypse is Xeltyr supposed to cause?”

“Its name,” Ahrima said curtly, “is the Time Eater. And he is one of its heralds.” To his credit, Ahrima didn’t glance at Xeltyr and kept his eyes firmly on his grandfather. Everyone else, however, turned to stare directly at him. “There are four, one for each of the classical elements: Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water, each representing a different aspect of Time.”

Anhura continued when her brother began to become winded. “Our time was ravaged by the Time Eater, the world was ripped apart and cast aside.” She became visibly upset. “The heralds…the Demon Lords prepare a time for their master’s arrival, eliminating anything that might slow the consumption process. They arrived at once, without warning, laid siege to the world, destroyed everything…we…we fought. We fought for so long.” Tears welled up and ran down her face. “We saw so many die…until there was only us left.” She evidently didn’t mean just the three of them. “When he arrived, the Demon Lords – that’s what they called themselves – fled into the timestream, leaving us to our fate.”

“So we followed the bastards!” Adakais broke in. “We had enough Time powers from dad and chased him back to here!” He pointed an accusing finger at Xeltyr, who had curled up and placed his head in his hands, rocking back and forth. “But we got here in time; we got here before they destroyed everything. We can stop this before it happens again.”

“No,” Xeltyr sobbed. “No you can’t. Don’t you understand? He’s stronger now.”

Everyone shared an uneasy look. “Xeltyr,” Sarah said slowly. “What do you mean?”

“He gets stronger and stronger with each feeding. The more time he eats…the more he…”

Suddenly Johnny stood up, a strange look in his eyes. “Guys.” He looked around frantically. “What is that?”

“What’s what?”

“That…that buzzing? No, more like a whine. There’s something—can’t you hear that?”

The Time Triplets shared a look. “We can,” Anhura said. “How can you?”

“What is it?” he demanded.

“That’s the sound it makes. That’s the sound of the timestream in flux, raging out of control. It’s coming disrupts the normal flow of time because it…it eats time. There’s nothing after the Time Eater. Our time doesn’t exist anymore. We can hear it because he have our dad’s power. How can you?”

“I…I have it, too,” Johnny admitted, which drew surprised looks from his family. “I haven’t really had time to explain to everyone where I’ve been, but the short version is I have a lot more power than before. Powers, really. And one of those is Time.”

“That wasn’t in our time,” Anhura muttered. “Something changed.”

“When you said, there’s nothing after the Time Eater,” Cassandra began slowly, “what did you mean?”

“I mean that the Time Eater literally eats Time. It consumes Time as it moves backwards along the timestream. I don’t really know how it began, but it entered the timestream from somewhere beyond and began to move against the flow, consuming it as it went. When I say there’s nothing behind it, I mean Time doesn’t exist once the Time Eater comes. Eventually, I can only assume, it will have eaten all of this timeline.”

“And…then what?”

Anhura shrugged. “Then it moves on to another timeline. The only one who might know is Xeltyr, and he doesn’t appear to remember.”

Xeltyr chuckled, a low maddened chuckle. “It’s all over. He’s here. The Time Eater has finally arrived.” He stood up. No, more like he unfurled. Holographic wings appeared from his back; holographic claws over his hands and feet; his eyes changed to something deep and dark. Ehecatl, the Demon Lord of the Winds manifested within Xeltyr’s body and shoved the boy’s mind somewhere else, to the furthest corners of his psyche.

“I must greet my master.”

---

The Demon Lords

Elsewhere on the fields beyond Really Cool Land, in that empty plains where no one seemed to ever call home, three figures appeared out of separate portals, two of them rather elegantly. Those were Ephraim and Holdin Restin, the Demon Lords Xiuhtecuhtli and Tlaltecuhtli, the Flames and the Stones respectively. Those two had been the first two arrive in this time and find suitable hosts. Xiuhtecuhtli and Tlaltecuhtli had long ago destroyed any remnant of the personas they had usurped, rending them in complete control.

Chalchiuhlicue, the Waters, hadn’t found a host so quickly. His, Llenchi, had apparently been the Immortal of Ice before being locked in some sort of ill-defined stasis for a millennium. The scattered psyche combined with Llenchi’s general annoying determination, made his hold a bit more tenuous. But as long as he held on until their master arrived, it didn’t matter.

“Finally found your host, eh Chalchiuhlicue?” Xiuhtecuhtli raised an eyebrow at the staggering walk of the Demon Lord of Water.

“Eat it up,” he growled. “This one’s a fighter. And I didn’t exactly have the easiest time finding him either. Yours,” he pointed at both of the other Demons, “were all prepped and ready for taking.”

“Excuses.” Tlaltecuhtli harrumphed and glanced skyward. Although the sun was rising in the east, the sky above them had turned pitch black and blood red clouds were gathering. “This is the location. The time approaches.”

Chalchiuhlicue sniffed. “A little hasty, isn’t he? We haven’t had time to really prepare this time.”

“It is not our place to question his will.”

“And we’ve acquired quite the following of…what are they calling themselves?” Xiuhtecuhtli smirked. “Anachronisms? They’ll be very useful for future feedings.”

A larger portal opened up some distance away, revealing a small crowd of hooded figures, the Anachronisms, all anxious to see the arrival of their new lord and master, the one who would grant them functional immortality: freedom from the tyranny of time.

“Fools,” Chalchiuhlicue muttered. Then, “Ah, the prodigal son returns.”

Ehecatl arrived a few moments later and took up his position, forming the fourth corner of their Demonic square. “My apologies, brothers,” Ehecatl said gruffly. “This one ran into some…family issues.”

“Are you in control?” Xiuhtecuhtli demanded.

“Of course. This one thought he had suppressed me, but his confused mental state has allowed me to assume complete control.”

“So what’s your excuse, Chalchiuhlicue?”

Chalchiuhlicue made a face before Tlaltecuhtli shouted, “Enough! Our lord comes to us!”

The sky above them seemed to split with red lightning that did not dissipate, but hung there, bright red scars that oozed Time itself. The scars cracked and spread, bright spiderwebs that covered the sky from horizon to horizon. Something behind them pulsed, a low rumble that shook the very foundations of reality and resonated within those gathered, down to their very souls.

“The Time Eater,” they intoned. “He Who Walks Against the Flow. Mouth of the Abyss. Lord of the Outer Realms. He comes to feed. Nothing will remain. We stand here, humble disciples of our great, all-consuming master. Come to us; show our new disciples your true power that they may be inspired to take up arms and spread the word of your coming to the past.”

Pulse.

“Oh great lord of the abyss…we await your judgment.”

[Mizagium]

The Council

Gallen examined the new members of his team. Bill, the Knowledge Immortal and a longtime friend. He was someone Gallen didn’t mind taking to Cardinalos as he was less likely than most to interfere where he wasn’t wanted. Recent events in Awesome Land notwithstanding.

Vespi, the Fire Immortal. She seemed quick to anger and very likely to act without warning and endanger the mission. However, she seemed genuinely interested in being part of the Council and stopping Zais. Perhaps he would reassess her worth on this mission.

Noores, the Lightning Immortal. Lazy. Uninterested. A slacker. He would likely be a liability, but not one to directly endanger a mission.

Gale, the Air Immortal. Of this group, Gale was the wild card. Already since joining the Council he had displayed a penchant for childishness in cosplaying as Katniss Everdeen and acting seemingly without forethought. The Air Immortal would not help this mission and in fact might endanger it.

And yet. “If it is alright with those assembled, I would like to go ahead to take everyone to Cardinalos.” Without another word, he conjured barriers around his team and drew them closer to himself, opening a portal to Cardinalos. “Keep in contact via your telepathy, Artemis,” he said curtly and disappeared with everyone.

Karzem snorted. “I really don’t like that guy.”

-

“Come with me.” Gallen didn’t give anyone much time to recover before marching into the chrome tower before them. “I have someone with whom I must speak.”

---

Rick Thunder

“Whoa man,” Rick Thunder whistled as the ship drug its way through Emperor Awesome’s office. “Nice digs. Hey, check out the walking suit of armor.” He snickered and pointed at the Emperor himself.

“What a square.”

---

Station Granbelle

Medbot QT3.14 lowered his turkey baster dejectedly. “ThAt WaS mY lAsT cHaNcE. YoU sEe, My HaRdWaRe IsN’t CoMpAtIbLe WiTh ThE mOsT rEcEnT sEcUrItY uPdAtEs. If I cAn’T pRoVe My UsEfUlNeSs, I wIlL bE…DECOMISSIONED.”

Captain Uggo shrugged. “We seem to be picking up strays by the bucketful. You’re welcome to join us, especially considering you’re a medbot and all.”

QT3.14’s face projection lit up slightly. Uggo thought it once might have been brighter, but it had evidently been quite some time since then.

“Oh ThAnK yOu, KiNd NeW mAsTeR! MeDbOt QT3.14 wIlL dO tHe BeSt JoB cArInG fOr FiLtHy SpAcE vAgRaNtS.”

“Yes, well. You’re all fixed now, right, Gabe? Let’s pack it up and get back to it.” He started for his ship again.

---

Xavian Cultists

Deep in the forgotten mines of Really Cool Land, Lolandas Raymar meditated. The Blackblade and Nocturne, powerful artifacts of the Dark God Xavian, lay at her side. She held the Eye of Xavian to her face. At first, she only say her own reflected in it: dyed-black hair and false-black eyes with black lipstick. Her hood had been thrown back in preparation for communication; it would not do to wear a hood in the presence of the dark lord.

“My lord,” she whispered. “I have heard your call in my dreams. Speak to me once more and command me, for I am your most loyal servant.” She had styled herself the Bride of Xavian to her cult followers.

“Arise,” came the hoarse whisper, like oily darkness. “The time of Zais…is at an end…awaken the world…to my return…”

[Monika]

"And the score is now 50 to 3, with Team B in the lead by an overwhelming number of points, all thanks to their MVP!" Leon had actually been doing his job as referee of this indoor beach volleyball game, keeping score to maintain the event's legitimacy. Of course, if he had really been serious, he would have declared Amelia's team the winner twice already, but he didn't want the game to end just yet. Sarah still needed the party guests to be entertained, and Amelia was too much fun to watch. She demonstrated such grace and precision on the volleyball court that Leon might have suspected that she were secretly a ninja, were she not obviously just an ordinary party guest.

"Super...Escape...Velocity...Punch!" As the Shadow Volleyball made its way to her side of the net, Amelia jumped high into the air and flipped forward, delivering her fist straight into the ball's center. The volleyball instantaneously reached the speed necessary to escape the Earth's gravitational pull...but since Amelia had hit it downward, it instead came flying down onto the opposing team's side of the net. The impact was great enough to blast away all of the arena's sand, cloaking the room in a veritable sandstorm.

After a few minutes, the sand settled back onto the floor, and all of the men in the audience could be seen holding scorecards that read "10".

---

"That's why I didn't put you two on the same team," Artemis replied to Karzem. She opened up a portal in front of her and motioned for the remaining Immortals to follow. "Gallen did not seem to mind our arrangement, so that means you all are with me. Let's go take care of the problems in Dynasty City."

Scern and Galro quickly jumped from their seats, eager to make their way out of the cold, stuffy library.

"Hey!" Clyde yelled, none too pleased with having been ignored. "What about my concerns, huh?"

"You are not a member of this council," Artemis answered matter-of-factly. "Watch over Super Land while we are away. We can discuss your grievances once we return." Without another word, Artemis stepped through the portal and back into Awesome Land.

---

Emperor Awesome turned to Rick Thunder, who was in no position to comment on someone's clothing, and Captain Albert Alexander. "You have sixty seconds," he began, "to explain why the two of you are in my office with a giant ship. You may or may not have noticed outside, but my country is in a bit of a crisis right now. I have neither the time nor the inclination to put up with the antics of you newcomers."

The emperor reached into one of the drawers under his desk, rummaging around until he found an expensive-looking golden clock. Setting it on his desk with the face towards the intruders, he started counting down. "Fifty-nine...Fifty-eight...Fifty-seven..."

---

Artemis, Galro, and Scern (and presumably Heimrall and Karzem) all arrived a block or so away from the Second Imperial Tower and were greeted by the exact same scene that Heimrall had shown on her phone. Shadow Soldiers everywhere, terrorizing Awesome Land's capital and its citizens. The Immortal of Space surveyed the battlefield for a brief moment before saying, "Preliminary analysis suggests that these are the lowest ranking members of Zais' forces. Numerous citizens and Imperial Army soldiers are fighting back. I estimate a 92% chance of their victory. 99% if you all join them. The four of you alone should be more than capable of handling the remaining enemies. I will take this opportunity to alert Emperor Awesome of the current state of affairs."

"Honestly, I alone am more than enough to take care of these things," Galro said, demonstrating his abilities by summoning a rainstorm. Thousands of raindrops collected around the Shadow Soldiers and turned into ice, changing each of Zais' army members into a popsicle. "Piece of cake."

Artemis had not been paying attention, however, having been drawn to a group of corpses a few blocks away. She looked at one in particular and muttered, "This one has bite marks on her neck. This is not consistent with the weaponry used by Shadow Soldiers. Hmm..." She looked over into the distance and saw a suspicious hooded figure walking away. He didn't appear to be an ordinary citizen, and he wasn't wearing the clothes of the ALIA, so it didn't take long for Artemis to connect the dots. "Emperor Awesome will have to wait..." With a sigh, she quickly walked in the direction of the hooded figure, ready to accept her responsibility as Minister of Homeland Security.

[Myrdraxxis]

Taler and Corr, through their own experiences, had been convinced that by now they had seen everything that this crazy universe had to offer.

They were wrong.

"Sweet mother of-" Corr was cut off as GOLDBEZ's struck him full in the face, sending the Shadow soldier flying int a nearby building. Taler, however, stood his ground when hit, just laughing.

"Hah! Is that all you got?" the sergeant roared and fired his weapon at GOLDBEZ with little forethought or control. Yes, his blood was up now.

"I'm rather worried about the sarge, these days." Vin muttered from his place of hiding nearby. He considered stepping in to help...but this was GOLDBEZ. "I'll..just wait for an opening."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'We're losing men, sire!" a random mook yelled to Zais, who still hadn't moved from his castle. For a while now Zais had just been staring at seemingly nothing. He blinked, hearing the words.

"Oh, I suppose so." He muttered to himself. Zais was...distracted. He could feel something not right in the realm of Darkness. Something was moving. Something very familiar.

"Sire?"

"Man you're annoying." Zais said, reaching over and crushing the minion's head without a second thought. After a moment he began conjuring. Several large portals began to open.

Zais had conquered several worlds in his time, always making sure to garrison armies there. he never really stopped to wonder why he did this, he just sort of did things on a whim.

Thousands more soldiers began to pour forth from long consumed worlds: Umbra Isla, Random World, K'orla, The Cowboy Planet, and others.

"Lord Zais!" A long unseen figure approached. Dedrick Vasburg, House Lord of the Shadow Beings bowed. It actually took Zais a moment to remeber who this guy was.

"Oh yeah...you...Er, Vasber. Where are the others?"

"Awaiting your word in Random World, sire." Dedrick responded, grinning widely. FInally some action after so long! Zais nodded.

"Well tell them to get over here. Actually, tell Hyltir that he's in charge of the Random World forces. Everyone else, I want with me. We have...work to do." Zais grinned.

"Work, sire?"

"Oh yes." Zais stretched, conjuring a smaller, personal portal. "I think its time to really make a lasting impression on this place."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sindri and Dace ran into the street just in time to see a wave of Shadow Soldiers approaching. Dace looked over at Sindri and frowned. "What exactly is the plan here? We can't just fight our way to Zais' fortress."

Sindri sighed. "No, I suppose not. In fact it would be better to not attract attention."

"THen what are we doing here?" Dace said, eyeing the approaching Shadows nervously.

"I will,,,I will teleport us there. A moment." Sindri muttered, conjuring his own shadow portal. "This wasn't how it was supposed to end." Sindri said quietly, to himself. Dace heard anyway, frowning.

"We were both there at Umbra Isla. We knew this was coming." He replied.

"Yes. But..." Sindri didn't finish the thought. A moment later the portal was finished. Both he and Dace stepped through and were suddenly in Zais' quarters.

It only took a quick moment to see that the Darkness Immortal wasn't there. "Damnit." Dace swore.

"He was here but a moment ago." Sindri confirmed, sensing the Darkness in the area. "he's gone..." Sindri would have frowned if he had any visible features. "North? To the northern border of Awesome Land. Curious..."

"Can we follow him?" Dace asked, absently scanning the various items Zais had mounted on his walls. He stopped when he noticed the Hero Sword hanging on the wall. When Dace had been here before, back before he and Sindri had gone on their time-space adventure, Dace had thought nothing of the blade. But now...

Dace walked over and Took the Sword off of the wall and flourished it. It was a blade of simple design. Almost generic, really. Yet it seemed to glow with a such a sense of good and heroism that it was utterly out of place on Zais' wall. Sindri didn't comment on Dace taking the blade.

"We can follow." Sindri agreed. "But I don't think we can stop lord Zais on our own."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leske considered Kayla's question. "I honestly never expected to end up there." He said. "I didn't really believe the place existed." He admitted sheepishly. "But I'm...looking for someone."

Leske scolwed a bit. "My old master, Magnus."

"He's in trouble!" Codex piped up, using Leske's wrist computer gadget whatever to speak up. "I had to go find little Leske here and get him to help find Magnus."

"And that's Codex." Leske introduced dryly. "An...well a sort of artificial intelligence that Magnus created."

"Hiiii~"

"Anyway, yes. Magnus is in trouble." Leske paused, wondering how much he should say before sighing. Ah the hell with it. "It clearly hasn't been that long since you saw me, Kayla. But for me it's been about a century. And even longer than that since I last saw Magnus."

[Mizagium]

Dynasty City

GOLDBEZ

TALER’S BULLETS RICOCHETED OFF GOLDBEZ’S SEX-TOP DEATH-TWIRL, BUT NOT BEFORE ABSORBING SOME OF THE ENERGY HE WAS GIVING OFF, AS WELL AS SOME OF THE ALL-CAPS. THE BULLET SWELLED TO SEVERAL TIMES IT’S SIZE AND SPROUTED A FACE.

THE FACE-BULLET SWIRLED AROUND AND AROUND UNTIL IT HAD BECOME THE SIZE OF A CANNONBALL – ONLY THEN DID IT FLY AWAY TOWARDS ZAIS’S DARK FORTRESS. ON THE FLIGHT OVER, THE CANNONBULLET ACHIEVED SENTIENCE AND ADOPTED THE NAME ‘GOLDBULLET’.

“FOR GOLDBEZ!” GOLDBULLET SHOUTED OVER THE BESIEGED CITY. “FOR MY FATHER.” AND THEN GOLDBULLET IMPACTED THE SIDE OF THE FORTRESS, EXPLODING LIKE A HUNDRED SHIMMERING, DANCING MEN IN BRILLIANT GOLDEN ARMOR.

GOLDBEZ ABRUPTLY STOPER HIS DEATH SPIRAL, BUT THE ENERGY CONTINUED ONWARD TOWARDS TALER. HOWEVER, HE WASN’T PAYING ATTENTION ANYMORE. HE WAS STARING UP AT THE EXPLOSION AND SALUTING.

“REST EASY, MY SON.”

---

Rick Thunder

Before the Emperor reached fifty-five, Rick had leapt from the ship to the desk, sending papers and other knick-knacks scattering. “Mister Emperor, we’re all men here, so let me break it down for you. I just flew from Dino Land. No big deal. Punched some guys. Saved a city. Got chased out. You know how it goes.”

He scratched his head, unsure of exactly where he had been going with all that. “Er…” he began rummaging through his duffle bag. “How about if you let me stay for a while, I’ll give you this!” He held out a squirming dinosaur. “You’re very own compsagnatus! Meet Tiki!”

He edged the dinosaur closer and closer to Emperor Awesome until the lizard was pressed right against the Emperor’s faceplate. “Dinosaaaauuuuurrrr…”

---

Clara Lux

As her soldiers fanned out through the city, protected and empowered by the Light of Seraphina, Clara let her gaze be drawn upward to the Dark Fortress. Darkness seemed to be spilling forth from the fortress. No matter how many of the dark soldiers they destroyed here on the ground, there would always be more.

“And lo, was the torrent of Darkness stoppered by the Goddess,” she intoned, “and thus did Light begin to bloom from within.”

She let Light fill her – not the magical light that she had been born with – no, this was Light straight from the Goddess herself. The Holy Light filled her and she left the ground. Although she couldn’t see them, wings of light seemed to carry her upwards, shimmering just on the edge of seeing. But her men did see it, and they all watched their angelic general ascend to the Dark Fortress.

Clara entered the Fortress through the hole that the GOLDBULLET had created seconds before. She exhaled sharply, partly from the exertion of flying, and partly from the sheer concentration of Darkness that greeted her.

Brandishing Belaneir, she said, “And so I go to strike at the heart.” And she charged into the Dark Fortress.

---

Karzem

“Oh ok,” Kazem called after Artemis. “Just leave us here – whatever.”

Then, glancing around, he scoffed. “Ah Darkness, such sloppy work. Expand, expand, expand with no thought to what comes after. Well, I suppose I’m one to talk, eh?” He posed the question to Scern without expecting an answer.

He casually trapped a nearby shadow soldier in a web of chaos energy and looked him over. He tutted to himself as he circled around the figure (and as the chaos web tightened) before snorting. “Sloppy work,” he announced. “Zais has produced much finer work than this.” The web snapped closed and the mangled shadow soldier form vanished into the air.

[Calefrun]

"Magnus..." Kayla muttered as she rubbed her chin, deep in thought. "Yeah, I think I remember you mentioning him before. And... I had guessed that it had been a long time since you last saw me, but... a century? That's... well to be honest, I'm a little surprised that you remembered me. That just seems like such a long time..." She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "So what's the plan, Master Leske?"

Gabe sighed, disappointed that Kayla had ignored him, then responded to Captain Uggo. "I... yeah, I think I'm good. Errr... Captain." When he had lost consciousness, he and his friends had only been temporarily working with Uggo. Now it seemed that he was in charge. Captain Danielle was nowhere to be seen, and it wouldn't be the first time that the trio had suddenly come under new management, so he decided to just go with it. He tried to stand, but found that he lacked the strength and wound up falling back onto the cold, metallic ground of Station Granbelle.

Kayla shot a look at him out of the corner of her eye. "Like I said, you're not completely healed yet. Try to take it easy for a bit."

Al and Cozaltene moved to either side of their friend and helped him up, each supporting part of his massive weight. With a strained voice, the former asked, "Alright, what next, Captain?"

---

The figure sensed someone approaching from behind him, and stopped walking. Slowly, he turned around to face Artemis. Ahhhhh... here comes a tasty looking one. He grinned and licked his lips, then inhaled deeply through his nose. His eyes widened, and his mouth watered. "Such power! It's... delicious." He felt an urge to pounce the newcomer and drain her seemingly limitless magical energy, but managed- with no small amount of effort- to suppress it. After all, someone with this much power was unlikely to be helpless.

Still, the fact that one who looked so frail could give off such a strong aura... As she grew closer, he conjured a multitude of swords in the air above his head, all pointed at Artemis. Deciding it would be more wise to not attack her immediately, he instead called out, "Hello there! What brings a fair maiden such as yourself to a place like this? It's rather dangerous around here, as I'm sure you're probably aware." For emphasis, he made a sword appear in each of his hands and flashed a toothy grin, showing off his pointed fangs. I've got a bad feeling about this.

[Monika]

"Politicians usually don't start accepting bribes until at least day two on the job," Emperor Awesome sighed, conjuring up a small gust of wind to push his papers back onto his desk. He carefully regarded the man in front of him, this greaser with an affinity for dinosaurs. Surely he had seen all the chaos in Dynasty City as he infiltrated the Second Imperial Tower, but he still seemed eager to stay in the country. On the one hand, a man that crazy would probably be a liability to keep around. On the other hand, who wasn't? Besides, it might be useful to have a person with city saving experience out there on the battle field.

A long while later, Emperor Awesome finally answered, "Very well, Mr...I'm afraid I didn't catch your name. In any case, I'll allow you to stay within the borders of my country if you're willing to join the Imperial Army and fight off the invading Shadow Soldiers." After a brief pause, he added, "I'll still be keeping the dinosaur. It will liven up the office." He pointed at the floor in front of him, upon which appeared a moderately sized steel cage, a metallic arm attached on either end. The cage's arms grabbed Tiki and placed the reptile inside before closing itself. "The offer applies to you, too, Captain," the emperor added, taking his best guess as to the other man's title. "Join the army and you're free to stay."

---

"Expand, expand, expand..." Scern repeated, watching Karzem's Chaos powers in action, briefly wondering if they would one day have to fight him, too. Dismissing the thought from his mind, he laughed and said, "None of you guys' powers really make any sense, if you ask me." He summoned his guitar and strummed a few notes. "Not like Fire or Water. Or Metal. A shield when you need to protect and a sword when you need to attack. There's nothing like it, you know?" Scern played a short melody on his guitar, each note causing an iron blade to shoot up from the ground and impale the nearest Shadow Soldier. "Beautiful..."

---

For a split second, Artemis' eyes flashed a bright white as she quickly took in all of the hooded figure's physical features (and some of his mental ones, too). "I am Artemis, this country's Minister of Homeland Security," she said, flashing her badge. "You have committed a serious offense by turning your swords against me. Even worse, you were audacious enough to attack and kill innocent civilians during a time of crisis. I will give you one opportunity to come peacefully with me to prison. If you refuse, then I have sufficient reason to subdue you by force. Deadly, if necessary." She clasped her hands together and muttered, "Spatial Seal!", using her Elemental power to create an anti-warp zone around them. She wasn't sure if this man could teleport, but it was such a common power that she wasn't going to risk letting him escape.

[Calefrun]

The figure's mouth took on an exaggerated frown. "Prison, you say? Oh no, that won't do at all. You see, I'm looking for someone, and I'm in a bit of a hurry. I can't afford to sit around in a jail cell while she's running about." He tried invoking teleportation magic, but found that it was no use. The vampire furrowed his brow, though this went unseen by the Immortal. Or at least, he hoped it did. If she could cancel out transportation magic so easily... just how powerful was this girl? I suppose I'm about to find out.

ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE

Not wanting to give his opponent the chance to unleash a powerful attack before he had the chance to strike, he decided that he would have to take the first move. He held an open palm directed at Artemis, then closed his hand into a fist. Instantly, all of the blades in the air shot straight for her at relativistic speeds, causing clouds of dust and debris to explode out from the point of impact.

The figure grimaced. "Fighting with this thing on is going to be a pain." He reached up and lowered his hood, allowing his long, silver hair to tumble out from inside the cloak. Though his skin had a ghostly pallor and his steely blue eyes were partially hidden behind his long bangs, his face bore an uncanny resemblance to that of Cale Efrun, the Illusive Squid. "Ah, that's much better."

Before Artemis had the chance to counterattack (he was fairly certain she wouldn't have been finished off with a single strike), the Cale look-alike dashed towards the point where his blades had converged, keeping the swords in his hands held out to his sides. "Since you gave me the courtesy of an introduction, I shall do the same!" He leaped into the air and brought them both down towards the Immortal while yelling, "I am the destroyer of civilizations; the lord of all vampires! I AM SARK!!"