Chapter 1
It was the dead of night, and inside of Bellwood's Museum of Science and Culture, in the mystic exhibit, a security guard walked around carelessly. He was flashing his flashlight left and right, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but the room looked like it did yesterday and the days before that. He was bored, and the more he walked through the lifeless halls, the more he felt his brain going numb. Of course both feelings beat a sudden break in any day and a gun to his head any day, but knowing that didn't reduce the numbing at all.
'Just gotta go through one more day and then its Bahamas for a whole week!' He sighed, just thinking about the fun he was planning on having. The guard started whistling as he turned and walked into a room. As he walked through the room and shun his flashlight on all the artifacts close to him, He thought about how he had been saving up for this trip for years, his head in the clouds.
He stopped in front of a mirror with a lapis lazuli on the back.
"Man, if I could have just one of these things I would've gone on this trip along time ago." He said dreamily.
"Fool." The guard jumped, before turning to see a man near the entrance of the exhibit room.
"Wh-what the?" The man had long silver spiky hair. He wore all black. He had boots, leather pants, and a trench coat.
"You cannot even comprehend the artifacts in this room." He looked around with a bored expression. "The items here could make you ruler of this pitiful world, yet you keep them behind glass."
"H-hey, stay where you are. Who a-are you?!" The man ignored the guard, and walked forward, still looking around the room.
"If I was another man I would take them, but none of them interest me. My goals- go beyond this world, this universe."
The security guard took out his gun and aimed it at the still walking man. "I-I'm serious, don't mo…" The stranger waved his hand, and the gun was yanked out of his grasp and thrown to the side by some force. The stranger then beckoned the guard to come to him, and the poor man was pulled by the same force.
The stranger caught the guard by the throat, and immediately started to choke him.
"The best thing you can do is get out of my way." The stranger snapped the man's neck, and threw his body aside, before walking forward. The stranger stopped in front of a big case, which held a large green emerald. The man looked at the emerald, before smiling. "All this time searching- after so long I was starting to think it was a myth, but just being across from it. He, the rumors really are true."
The stranger snapped his fingers, and the glass shattered. With a wave of his hand, glyphs drew themselves, forming a circle around the emerald. He then reached into his coat, and took out a purple and gold amulet. He threw it above the emerald. The amulet stopped midair, and the stranger closed his eyes, before beginning an incantation.
Dark energy started to surround the amulet. The stranger made a downwards hand motion forcing the energy to slowly leak towards the emerald. Before it could touch, a coughing noise came from behind him. The stranger quickly spun around and aimed a hand surrounded by dark energy at the source of the sound.
On the other side of the room, a dark-skinned boy in his twenties, wearing green slacks and vest, the latter was over a white collared buttoned down shirt which was tucked in, stood with one of his hands in his pocket, while the other one was by his side.
The hand out had a green arm gauntlet with an hourglass symbol over his wrist and a part of his arm (Ultimatrix design). The newcomer raised an eyebrow.
"You sure know how to make noise, making up for the gothic look?" The boy had a British accent; it was quick paced, and at the moment laced with a mocking tone. The man raised an eyebrow.
"One cockroach or two, it doesn't matter to me."
"You're telling me someone else had the pleasure of your company?" The boy looked around before spotting a lifeless body, ungraciously lying on the ground. The boy looked at the body, before turning his head back towards the stranger, his mouth twitched, but he kept his composure. "Oh, right. Well you're obviously someone who doesn't like to waste time, so I think I'll just skip the banter and get to introducing. I am a Paladin of the Omniverse, name Richard. You my friend have the attention of some very cross people, and I'm here to see what's up."
He stated with a more serious tone.
"Paladin?" The stranger answered with a wave of his free hand, the amulet above the emerald teleported back into his coat. He focused his attention back towards the boy and fired a wave of dark energy with a wave of his hand. Richie ducked under the wave, before waving his hand over his watch, which automatically activated. The hourglass symbol popped up and a symbol appeared on it.
Without looking, Richie slammed it back down and a green flash covered his whole body. When it cleared standing where he once did was Elemental Hero Voltic, the omnitrix symbol in the center of his chest. The transformed Paladin charged his fist before firing a beam of electricity at the sorcerer, who just floated a few inches off the ground and waved his arm. A purple shield appeared, blocking the beam of electricity easily and surprising Richie.
The Paladin, realizing his attack was doing nothing, stopped and decided to go for the direct approach. He charged the stranger and jumped in the air with his fist cocked. He slammed his electricity covered fist into another quickly made shield, before jumping back and launching again. Each punch and kick he swung were either dodged by the stranger, who glided out of the way, or he blocked it with small shields he'd create.
After some failed attempts, Richie jumped back and threw a ball of electricity. The attack went right for the stranger who fired a beam of dark energy, making the ball explode midair. Richie landed on his feet and got into a fighting position.
"Alright, so you can do more than just kill some innocent civilians, but I wouldn't be a Paladin if I didn't have more tricks." He hit the hourglass symbol that was on his chest and transformed into Elemental Hero Avian, on his right bicep was the watch's symbol. He spread his wings and flew into the air. The man snarled, before waving one of his hands.
Rock arms shot out of the ground and went straight for Richie who dodged them.
"Barely have enough room to fly, this is not helping." He muttered. Richie moved out of the way of one of the arms before firing a cloud of iron feathers from his wings. The stranger surrounded himself with a purple aura before launching left towards a wall. He smashed into the wall and went right through it like glass. Iron feathers littered the ground around where the stranger once stood, above Richie flew towards the hole, but before he could reach it, the stranger appeared above Richie, still covered in purple energy, and slammed into him, sending him into the ground.
Richie groaned, as he got to his knees. The stranger crossed his arms and floated down until he was over the Paladin, who looked up.
"Paladin of the Omniverse? I've met Paladins before. You used to be like gods to me." Richie widened his eyes and the stranger raised an arm, his hand covered in dark energy. Richie quickly hit the symbol again transforming into Elemental hero Necroshade.
Richie covered both his arms with dark energy and raised them both over his face. The stranger fired a blast of darkness which collided with Richie's darkness, creating chaos. The Earth rumbled as the darkness collided. Richie and the darkness started to emit dark lightning bolts that fired everywhere. One bolt collided with the emerald with a horrible amount of power.
The blast seemed to be attracted to the emerald because it didn't stop, it didn't dissipate, it just kept pouring more and more dark energy into the emerald. The stranger showed concern when he turned back to see what the darkness was doing to the emerald. He turned back towards Richie and shouted,
"Stop, you'll destroy it!"
"I-agh-can't!" If he let go the attack would destroy him. The gem glowed brighter and brighter, until…Crack! Cracks began to form around the gem, more and more before the it suddenly shattered. A force made out of pure power pushed both Richie and the stranger.
Richie was forced back into his original form before hitting the ground on his backs, the stranger, who was hit with the same amount of force; put a shield in front of him. The shield shattered because of the force, but the man was fine. Richie groaned as he tried to pick himself up. His body felt heavy, so getting up felt like lifting a large corpse. A big percent of his strength was gone thanks to that blast. He still felt he could fight thou. Richie sat up, before looking up and widening his eyes.
In the air were seven emeralds, each different color, and radiating insane amounts of raw power. The stranger just glared at the emeralds, before seven portals appeared. The emeralds all went in one portal, which closed a second afterwards. Richie had no idea what was going on, but the stranger seemed to understand. Richie growled, and painfully got to his feet.
"Hey! What the hell just happened?!" The man sighed. He just stood there for a second before letting out a yell and suddenly sending a bolt of energy at the wall, destroying it.
"What happened was, you just made my mission harder Paladin." He opened a portal and was about to step in when suddenly, Richie shouted for him to wait. The man stopped, before turning. Richie narrowed his eyes. He was bewildered at the man, this was one of those rare times he had no idea was going on.
"Just- who are you?" The man stared at the boy, before turning. "My name is not important. It is only my mission that matters to me. I suggest you do not interfere with it.
With that, the man entered the portal, and it closed, leaving the Paladin alone in a broken room, with a broken display case, which once held a now broken emerald.
