Everybody Loves Caleb

Summary: What do you get when you throw five Calebs from different universes, including the comics and TV series, on a team to fight an insane super powered Caleb in another universe? Adventure and craziness of course.

"This is weird" Caleb muttered to himself as he walked into the room in Candracar. The room was white like the rest of Candracar was and there was nothing but a table in it. Around it there were two other figures. Him and him.

"Hey" one of them greeted, "I'm Caleb" He was wearing his rebel outfit: brown pants, black shirt and long brown coat. He had what looked like a large watch on one wrist.

"Um, yeah, me too" the other said, with a shyer wave. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, jeans and sneakers.

The Caleb that just came through the door turned around worriedly to see that there was no door anymore. He was donning his rebel outfit as well, sans coat.

"First universe hop?" the first Caleb asked him, indicating to an unoccupied chair. The third one nodded as he sat down cautiously next to the second Caleb.

The first Caleb crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back explaining cooly, "This would be my thirty-something so I basically know the lowdown on these things. I'll walk you through it"

"Thirty something?" the second Caleb asked, "When I asked you said twenty something!"

"Did I?" he asked, casually leaning further back in his chair. "Lets see…" he started counting off. "there was Avatar, Phantom of the Opera, Naruto, X-Men, Buffy…"

The second Caleb shook his head in disbelief, and turned to the third Caleb. "According to superstar here, basically there's supposedly a big problem in another universe that only 'Caleb' can solve. However, it's so big that there have to be more than one of us. Understand?"

"Um, sort of" the third Caleb said. The second one laughed, "My thoughts exactly"

"Hey, Superstar" the third Caleb addressed the first teasingly. He stopped counting.

"Wazzup?"

"What are we waiting here for?" he asked.

"The others, of course" he said matter-of-factly. The second and third Calebs looked at each other, more confused than before. Superstar rolled his eyes.

"Something this huge is going to take more than three of us, obviously" he clarified in an annoyed voice.

"Oh, so how many are we waiting for then?" the second Caleb asked.

"Dunno, Stripes, maybe one or two more" Superstar said as the second's hands darted to the green stripes on his cheeks.

"I was about two seconds away from asking what those tattoos meant" the third Caleb stated, inspecting the second's face. He pulled away.

"They're not tattoos. They're what are left from when I converted from being a Murmurer"

"A what now?" the other two asked.

Stripes shook his head, "A Murmurer? Magically transformed flowers? Mindless servants of Phobos?"

What he got were two I have no idea what he's talking about sideways glances.

"Nevermind" he grumbled.

"We have Whisperers in the universe I come from" Caleb number three said. "But they're very tiny and they live in roses"

"Hey, my universe too!" Superstar exclaimed, leaning towards the third Caleb. "Our universes aren't so unalike. Say, who you dating, C3?"

"Um, yeah, the nicknames gotta stop" C3 said, not enjoying what he had been dubbed. Stripes snickered.

"What am I supposed to call you all? Caleb?"

"Well…point. Um, I'm dating Cornelia"

He got a raised eyebrow from Superstar. "Really? Weird"

"Well me too" Stripes chimed, "At least I was until a while ago. I'm kinda seeing Elyon now"

Superstar snorted. "That's just too funny"

Now the raised eyebrow came from C3. "Why?"

"Well in my home universe they're dating each other"

Stripes' gagged and C3's eyebrows looked about to shoot off his face. "Good grief" was all he said though.

Now laughing, Superstar went on. "Yeah, they're both out in the open now. Interesting to watch…anyway, I'm personally dating Will"

"Will?" C3 asked.

"Oh, like you've never looked at her ass in Guardian form" he retorted.

"Who's dating Matt then?" C3 went on, hoping his cheeks weren't as hot as they felt.

"My sister"

"You…he…we…ugh, Superstar's got a sister?" Stripes asked after utterly confusing himself.

"In my home universe I have several. In some others I've been to, I have an evil twin but mostly I have sisters. In one I was actually a Siamese twin with Phobos"

"Well I have no family" Stripes commented after throwing out a very disturbing mental image. "Being a flower and all"

"I think I win the prize for dysfunctional family of the year" C3 groaned laying his head in his arms on top of the table. "I'm an only child but my mother is Nerissa"

Superstar nodded knowingly not looking that surprised. "Join the club. We'll make T-Shirts"

"Nerissa?" Stripes choked. "That phrelictortured me to within an inch of my life!"

"Language" Superstar said idly. C3, who had no idea what a phrelic was, continued on. "She hasn't really fought me or anything but it's still pretty freaky if you ask me"

Suddenly, another deeper voice spoke up. "Twenty bucks I've seen freakier"

Stripes and C3 were surprised at the sudden appearance of a fourth Caleb but Superstar seemed un-phased.

The fourth Caleb was leaning back on his chair so that his feet were on the table and he looked as cool and relaxed as if he were at the beach. He had dark jet black hair that hit just about his shoulders and dark purple eyes. His rebel outfit was all in black.

"I take that bet and raise you ten" Superstar responded mischievously, pulling out a wallet from seemingly thin air.

"You're on," he said, taking money out of his own wallet. Stripes and C3 looked at the new Caleb with some dissatisfaction.

"And who might you be?" C3 asked.

"More presently," Stripes hissed with a suspicious glare, "what might you be?"

New Caleb found his thirty dollars while addressing the pair. "Not the smartest fish in the sea, huh? Name's Caleb, Einsteins. Since you didn't already catch the tall, dark and bad ass vibe, I'm a vamp"

"Vamp?" Stripes asked, eyes wide, "As in Vamp-ire?"

The vampire looked at Stripes with a raised eyebrow and then back at Superstar who was still going through his wallet looking for money. "Where'd you pick up Brain Dead 1 and Brain Dead 2?"

"I didn't pick up anything, Vamp" he responded, "For your fourth hop, you seem to have forgotten that Candracar picks the players not me"

At that precise moment, a being from Candracar appeared in the center of the table, almost like a hologram. "Greetings Calebs"

"Fah!" C3 exclaimed, jumping back and almost falling out of his chair. Vamp rolled his eyes and Superstar made his wallet disappear with a flick of his wrist before the being could turn to him. Stripes was still staring at Vamp through the projection.

"Hey, Tadoo" Superstar addressed him with a playful smile, "About time you showed up"

Tadoo sighed and spoke with controlled calm. "Hello, Caleb. Have you all found a manner of telling each other apart?"

"Sure thing boss-man" he responded, which made Tadoo clench his teeth. He started pointing out Calebs pretending he didn't notice how much he annoyed Tadoo. "That's Stripes, C3, Vamp, and I'm going as Superstar which I found completely appropriate and very humbling"

"And your fifth?" the creature asked. All four Calebs looked puzzled. "Our fifth?" Superstar asked, "I thought you said—"

"Excuse me?" came a voice, "Is this the, quote un-quote, 'Caleb Convention'?"

Five heads turned to the sound of the voice and four sets of eyebrows shot up simultaneously. The Caleb standing there was wearing baggy beige cargo pants, a tight, brown long sleeved shirt, and had lower-back length brown hair.

And breasts.

"Well," Superstar said, the first to speak after blinking a couple of times, "this would be a first"

"Actually," Tadoo corrected, not missing a beat, "that would be your fifth. Please sit down, Ms. Caleb"

The girl eyed the table and the boys distrustfully. "Do I have to?"

"We don't bite" Superstar said as a flirtatious glint came to his eyes.

"Well, Vamp does…" Stripes commented, tearing his gaze from the girl and back to Vamp. The group chose to ignore his comment as the girl sat down in the last unoccupied chair between Vamp and C3.

"I will inform the Oracle that you are all present" Tadoo informed Superstar.

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure" was his offhanded response. He was eyeing the new Ms. Caleb as she sat down. Tadoo vanished again with a 'what did I do to deserve this?' expression.

"So, um, Ms. Caleb" C3 began, after a cough "since you missed the explina—"

"Please," she cut him off mid word, "I go by Caylee" With another disdainful look around the table she continued with, "And I suppose that you're all inter-universal male counterparts of myself?"

"Actually," Superstar informed her as his lips curved in charming smile, "for thirty universe hops, you're the first She-Caleb I've seen. It appears you're a female counterpart of us"

"Greeeaaat" she muttered, placing her chin in the palm of her hand, "So I'm stuck on another testosterone team"

"Oh, we're not as bad as we seem" Stripes tried to amend.

"Though Stripes seems convinced that some of us are" Vamp said in an icy cool voice with an even icier look at Stripes. Stripes took his attention of Caylee and glared right back.

"Excuse me," C3 asked, addressing her earlier statement, "another testosterone team?"

"What? You don't have Guardians of the Veil in your universes?" Caylee said sarcastically.

"The Guardians are boysin your universe?"

"They're girls in yours?" she responded her defensive exterior slightly giving away to equal curiosity.

C3 filled in, "Yeah: Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin"

"Huh" she said in contemplation, "Try William, Ivan, Tarno, Cory, and Han Lin"

"So everyone's gender in swapped?" C3 asked. Then he laughed, "That's freaking awesome!"

Caylee shrugged her shoulders. She gave the boys to her left a sideways glance and noticed that Vamp had broken out of his staring contest with Stripes. He and Superstar were staring in a different direction entirely.

She glared at them. "My eyes are up here"

Superstar looked away innocently. Vamp did the complete opposite. "Oh, I'm fully aware of that, sweety" he said with a devilish smile.

She leaned foreword towards him, matching his smile and spoke through her teeth. "Try anything, Vamp, and the stake won't be going through your heart"

Stripes raised his hand up in the air with a smile. "Anyone else like the new Caleb?"

Just then, another holographic image appeared in the middle of the table. This time, C3 managed not to jump but Vamp still threw him a smirk as he flinched. This time, it was an image of the Oracle addressing them.

"Greeting and good tidings to you all" he said formally.

The Calebs surprised each other by all inclining their heads at the same time and replying, "And as is due to you, Great Oracle"

Vamp and Caylee muttered their responses but were still amused at the timing of it all as were C3 and Stripes. Superstar merely smiled and shrugged in a 'you get used to it' fashion as he addressed the Oracle's projection.

"We're all present. Do you wish to proceed with the crisis stats?"

The Oracle nodded and Superstar stood up. The other Calebs watched as he seemingly rotated the ring of his watch in multiple directions like a safe's lock.

"Universe 56288" Superstar said aloud. Suddenly the white room seemed to fade away to what appeared to be a desolate Meridian landscape. The only thing that remained of the room was the table where the Calebs sat and the Oracle was transmitting from.

Suddenly from over head could be heard a battle cry as Will in Guardian form seemingly materialized along with the four other Guardians, Caleb and a very threatening Phobos.

"Do not worry, this is merely a memory," the Oracle explained upon seeing Stripes' face blanch at Taranee's fireball-filled hands approaching, "We are intangible to everything in here

"Now, for the crisis in this universe," the Oracle began as the battle raged around them, "In the normal order of things when a Guardian is lost, their soul moves on and their powers return to the Heart of Candracar"

A powerful shock blast made Irma fall from the sky and hit the ground with a sickening thunk.

Stripes' pyro-phobia was temporarily quenched as he turned around to glare at Superstar who had pulled a bowl of popcorn out of the air and was munching noisily. He shrugged off his fierce look and offered him some. Stripes sighed and turned back to the battle as Vamp grabbed some from Superstar's other side.

"There was a dilemma, however" the Oracle said gravely as the image now showed Irma's body dissolving from Hay Lin's arms. "The Veil of this universe had been so reinforced to keep Phobos inside, it kept everything and everyone locked inside as well. The Guardian souls had nowhere to go but return to the Heart with the elemental powers"

"But why was the Veil so reinforced?" C3 asked as a grief stricken Hay Lin was now hit with another burst of power. "In my universe, passage through the Veil was fairly easy with the Seal of Phobos"

"In this universe, Phobos had fully absorbed all of Elyon's powers as well as life force," the Oracle explained. "The Guardians knew we were going to fully strengthen the Veil once they crossed and agreed to do so anyway to take Phobos out once and for all"

Around them, the Guardians had been diminished to Will and Taranee alone. The Caleb belonging to the universe depicted in the images was cradling the dissolving body of Cornelia in a distance.

"If the Veil is so reinforced, how are we getting in?" C3 asked, eyeing the scene with a queasy feeling in his stomach.

"The Veil is a divider for dimensions, not universes," Superstar said smugly.

They watched as Taranee picked up the Heart of Candracar from the ground as Will began to vanish. Only to have a blast hit her as her back was turned for one second. The Heart was left unguarded.

With another handful of popcorn en route to his mouth, Vamp asked. "So what happened after all the Guardians were gone?"

"What do you think happened?" the Oracle asked grimly as Phobos, dazzled by the fact that the Heart of Candracar was finally his, slowly and tentatively reached for the magical object.

Suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, the Caleb belonging to the images appeared and threw his arms foreword. Green magic shot out of them and knocked Phobos back long enough for that Caleb to reach the Heart first.

"Cornelia broke one of the greatest laws of Candracar by transferring her powers to Caleb," the Oracle explained as the Heart, recognizing Caleb as the last Guardian, gave him access to all five elemental powers which he used all at once to obliterate Phobos.

For reasons the others didn't understand, Stripes shuddered.

"And the power went to his head," the Oracle finished. When he dust around them settled, they saw Caleb standing on a crater in the middle of the landscape with his eyes glowing with power. He let out a short laugh and held up the Heart of Candracar to the sky which turned blinding white.

Suddenly, it was all gone and they were once again sitting in the white room in Candracar. Superstar shoved some more popcorn in his mouth and then made the bowl disappear. He then began to fish around the seemingly endless pockets in his coat for something as the Oracle resumed speaking.

"Your mission, Calebs, is to travel here and stop him in any way you can," he said shortly. Superstar finally found what he was looking for and pulled out four large, black-rimmed watches identical to the one he was wearing.

"These are Candracar Operated Reality Energizers also known as C.O.R.E.s," he explained as he began handing them out. "The only feature you guys need to be concerned about is the fact that they allow identical energy signatures to co-exist in the same universe outside of Candracar. In other words, we won't be sucked into each other upon skin contact because our bodies recognize each other as part of themselves. Unless you find that appealing, DO NOT TAKE THESE OFF."

After this explanation, the Calebs strapped on the watches as quickly as possible. The Oracle nodded approvingly.

"Very well, then. Good luck to you all."

And with a wave of his hand, the Calebs were elsewhere.


Been working on this for a few weeks and I like how it's coming so far. If it blows your mind, I'll be happy to explain. Here's a quick explanation on the Calebs:

Superstar: This Caleb is the only experienced universe hopper in the group (why will be revealed later) and he's the one who jumps from crazy fan-fiction plot (including cross-overs) to another which explains the non-canon pairings in his universe and the multiple sisters. It was funny at the time I thought of it anyway... :) He's dating Will and has an ego a few sizes to big for him.

Stripes: This Caleb is from the comics/books. Dumped Cornelia and kind of flirting with Elyon, he's a warrior but lacks the sharp wit of Superstar and Vamp, the latter which he seriously dislikes. He sees him as evil and can't understand Superstar's airtight trust of him. He also isn't as open-minded to accept the existance of multiple universes as C3 and Caylee were.

C3: This Caleb is from the TV series. His mother is Nerissa and he's human (and sisterless). Dating Cornelia in the terms of 'serving' her which the others find quite funny. Having dealt with the Guardians in the closest relationship, he's about ready for anything and just goes with the general flow of things. His history is most similar to Superstar's.

Vamp: This Caleb is basically Edward meets Angel. The origin of his vampirism is to be revealed in the next chapter as well as who he's dating. His original personality changed with the infection so he's haughty and sarcastic. He's friends with Superstar which he's done other universe-hops with and has a dislikes Stripes for not accepting him.

Caylee: This Caleb is from a universe where all the genders of the characters are switched therefore giving her male Guardians. As opposed to the original series, she lives in a male dominated world which has given her a hard protective shell around boys (for more reasons than one). She sees sexism as the ultimate form of insult seeing that she accomplished just as much as her Caleb counterparts in her universe. She is single.

The Plot wasborn out of the comics The Exiles and a storyline in Ultimate Spiderman titled 'The Clone Saga'. I, of course, made it all my own :)