Journey of Legacy is ready to kick off. The first arc in this awesome story is kinda short, but is meant to be an introduction to the major action. Disclaimer: The only characters I own are Martin and Steven. All other characters belong to their respective copyrights.

Chapter 1: Two Heroes, One Path

Steve woke up abruptly inside a long metal hallway, with multiple hatches lining the walls. He realized he must have blacked out shortly after passing through the dimensional portal, he briefly wondered how much time had passed since then, but pushed it aside as he was in unfriendly territory. Walking down the corridor, he soon heard voices from one of the adjacent rooms. Peering into the window on the hatch, he saw what looked like Doctor Doom talking to a computer monitor hovering in mid-air.

"Explain to me again this device you have created Victor," the monitor spoke. As it spoke, green audio waves flashed on the monitor's screen. Its voice sounded like it came from a old audio synthesizer, no emotion in its words. "It's quite simple Hivus," Doom said as arrogant as ever. Steve then realized Doom was talking to the floating monitor. Doom then walked over to a swirling vortex of black mist, most likely another dimensional portal. "This portal," Doom explained, "Leads to an alternate world known as the Shadow Realm. As I was receiving probes containing data from this world, my Doombots came back with these." He pointed to two objects which Steve recognized as his and Martin's deck boxes.

'One of the Doombots must have grabbed them in the confusion back at the hotel,' Steve thought. "Though the cards themselves are little more than paper and ink," Doom continued, "It didn't take me long to notice a connection between these cards and the Shadow Realm. I was able to use that energy, plus more cards such as these, to develop a new weapon system." Steve then saw the mannequin in the center of the room. Attached to it was what looked like a belt with multiple deck boxes around it, and a gauntlet with an iPod-like screen strapped to the left arm.

"This hologram-based system," Doom continued, indicating the mannequin, "Has a sophisticated device that turns energy from the Shadow Realm into solid matter. Basically, whatever card is selected on this device," here he indicated the gauntlet, "Is what appears near the wearer. Or in certain cases it can make the wearer become or control the creature selected. For example..." Doom then scrolled down the screens card list a bit before lightly tapping on it. Suddenly in a bright flash the mannequin appeared similar to Martin's Machina Gearframe. The computer, or Hivus as Doom had called it, extended two claws from beneath its screen face to test the mannequin's new appearance.

"I see," Hivus said, "It is no mere hologram, but shadow energy converted into solid matter, very ingenious. Now if you will excuse me, I must speak with Wesker regarding his work on Mr. Tiller." With that the flying screen drifted out a different door. Doom soon followed suit, shortly after shutting the portal and returning the mannequin back to normal. Steven's mind was on overdrive, and threatening to shut down on him. He just saw, in the flesh, what his mind said was impossible. However he was able to just barely focus on Hivus's last words and a chill ran up and down his spine. If this was the same Albert Wesker that he remembered hearing about, he knew whatever was happening, or going to happen, to Martin wasn't good. That is, assuming he was the "Mr. Tiller" Hivus had mentioned.

Taking one last look around the hall and through the window, Steven quietly snuck into the room and went over to the mannequin. The glove and belt slid off the dummy very easily. However while the gauntlet fit like a... well you know, the belt was a different story, until it suddenly self adjusted to fit him. 'If this device works the way Doom said it does,' Steve thought to himself, 'It could come in handy. I just hope Doom didn't arm whatever it uses as a security system.' As Steve was about to preview the active card index, he heard a deep and unfriendly voice behind him, "Who the heck are you?!" Steve twirled around and actually did a double take as he saw the green skin, wrinkled chin, and pointy ears. It was a real live Skrull, and judging from the orange rock like arm he was sporting, it was most likely Super-Skrull. The Skrull then sent his fist flying toward him on a rubber-like arm, driving that fact home.

Without thinking, Steve brought his arm into an x-block and closed his eyes on a reflex. When he opened them again, he saw Super-Skrull's fist had been blocked by the Scrap-Iron Scarecrow trap card. Bringing his arms together into that block, Steven had accidentally activated the card. Quickly flipping through the cards again, he realized they were all cards from Yusei Fudo's deck from Yu-Gi-Oh 5d's. Tapping the gauntlet again on Junk Warrior, he charged at Super-Skrull.


Hivus floated into Wesker's lab station where Martin was inside a hibernation capsule. Wesker was checking and, apparently, double-checking the monitors that were displaying Martin's vitals. "And what have we here?" Hivus asked as the floating screen approached Wesker. "Take a look at this," Wesker answered. Hivus activated his optical sensors and was impressed by the view. "It appears you have stumbled upon a natural host for the Uroboros," Hivus proclaimed. "I thought as much as well," Wesker replied, "It seems to have molded him into a being of physical perfection. I've been monitoring him during the reprogramming process. Even his brain activity has been increased exponentially, making the reprogramming process that much easier."

"And how goes the reprogramming itself?" Hivus asked. Wesker checked the monitor. "It's just finishing uploading the combat data." he said, as a cruel smile graced his features. "Next will come the loyalty program-" Suddenly an explosion rocked the whole compound, throwing Wesker off his feet and into the console, hard. "What now!?" Wesker said angrily as he picked himself up and stormed out, Hivus following after him. Neither of them had noticed that the computer feeding information into Martin's brain had shut down by Wesker's fall, preventing Martin from becoming his perfect puppet.

A few minutes later, Martin awoke to the sound of muffled voices. He opened his eyes to look around, but his vision was severely blurred, as if he was experiencing hibernation sickness. He was aware of four figures standing outside the pod, three dressed in white and one in black. Placing his hand on the glass around him, he balled his fist and slammed it hard against the glass. He was surprised to see it crack so easily. Another hit and the glass exploded like a cheap window pain. Stumbling out, he was relieved to see he was at least wearing pants at that moment.

"Hey," one of the figures in white said, "You okay?" Judging from the voice, it was a middle-aged man. Martin blinked several times, and with each blink his vision cleared just a little more until he could start making out their features. Another of the white figures, who Martin recognized as a young woman, looked around before motioning for the others to get moving. The third white figure seemed to be a man similar to Martin's own age, while the figure in black looked to be a young adult. Martin saw a nearby locker with his name on it. Inside were his sneakers, one of his shirts, and a black coat. Martin put them all on while following his apparent rescuers.

"Where are we?" Martin asked as the five of them moved down the hallways trying to find an exit. "You don't know either?," the one in black said, "Just great." "Quiet Emil, we don't want anyone else to know we've escaped," the woman quipped. After ducking through several different metal corridors, they suddenly found their progress impeded by a small squad of massive human-shaped creatures. They had the physical proportions of a powerful ape, but their fingers ended with razor sharp claws on each hand. Their skin had the resemblance of raw exposed muscles, and their gaping maws revealed rows of knife-like teeth. None of the others seemed to recognize them, but their names briefly flashed in the back of Martin's mind. Alpha Tyrants.

As the first one moved to attack, Martin's new fighting instincts suddenly kicked in. He grabbed the creature by the wrist and twisted its arm around with a wet crack, causing the Tyrant to howl in pain before he pushed it back. Another one tried a stabbing attack, but Martin hooked the creatures arm before delivering a brutal chop to the beast's chest with a deep thump as he felt something give. A third caught Martin off guard and slashed him across his chest. The pain was there, but it felt dulled somehow. Putting a few feet between himself and the beast Martin looked at the damage. The shirt was torn open but the claw marks were almost gone with just a couple small trails of blood coming from the wounds. In retaliation, he charged forward and brought both hands down on the crown of the Tyrant's head, bursting it like a watermelon at a Gallagher show. One by one Martin found himself tearing apart the so-called super weapons until all that was left were a pile of mangled bodies. Martin stared at his hands, covered in tyrant's blood, his emotions a mix of admiration and fear. On one hand he'd ripped apart these monsters with his bare hands, on the other was the dreaded question. What had been done to him?

As the group moved on they came through a hatch that lead out into a huge chamber, the bottom was shrouded in darkness and couldn't be seen. The only way across was a thin catwalk. Just as they were reaching the other side, a disturbing voice sounded, "Where do you think you're going, Mr. Tiller?" Martin new that voice. He slowly turned to see both a familiar and unwanted face. Just like the alpha tyrants, only Martin recognized this man, Albert Wesker. "Don't think you can just walk on out of here," Wesker said as he slowly and deliberately walked to the center of the catwalk. "Now recapture the specimens so we may continue with the project."

Martin didn't fully hear him because his brain was trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Albert Wesker was standing right in front of him, in the flesh. Martin then remembered that the catwalk was stretched over a deep pit and a lever labeled "support clamp release", was a little too conveniently placed right next to him. 'Well here goes.' he thought. "You didn't say please." Before Wesker could react, Martin pulled the lever and dropped him into the pit. 'Wow it actually worked.' When Martin turned around to face the others he noticed they had backed away from him. Wesker's supposed familiarity with Martin apparently caused some mistrust to develop. "I don't suppose any of you know what he was talking about?"

This seemed to calm them down, if just a little bit. But just as the other four walked through the next bulkhead a massive explosion rocked the compound, closing the hatch and sealing the bulkhead. Martin looked back the way they had come to see the far wall explode out into a tsunami of flame and twisted metal before it washed over him. The intense heat was an eternity of pain in an instant, and then there was only the cool embrace of darkness.

To be continued...

Things are going to get interesting as the story progresses, believe me. Read and review.