A Word from the Author:
As the title of this chapter implies, this is a rough-draft of the first chapter which will explain why exactly whatever is happening is happening. As to what exactly IS happening, I'm not sure myself, but hey. I'm sure in between being the diligent school-worker that I am and the slacking homework-worker that I am, I'll come up with something :p
The Milky Way. Via Lactea. Specifically, a version of the Galaxy that was home to the Orks, Eldar, their darker Cousins, the forces of Chaos, the Necrons, the Tyranids, the Tau, and of course, another branch of the beings without whom he would not have ever been born, died, become reborn into his viral shell, and have eventually garnered the shear level of power he now possessed. Humans. More specifically, the Imperium of the Man and its hundreds of thousands of worlds numbering at about one-million. This particular Universe was parallel to the very same one where he was first humbled in his long, arduous, but very rewarding quest so long ago…
"Hmmm," he huffed quietly to himself, humored.
Out of all of the Universes he had traversed since first setting off from Eden-Alpha, the particular set of Universes the one he was viewing belonged to was definitely up there as one of his more interesting and preferred bundles. Sure it was often violent, barbaric, crazy, insane, unhinged, compellingly simple and simply compelling, and was one of the more bleaker and pessimistic of the Universal he had traversed, but where those qualities would have repelled quite a few beings away from it, Alex found himself liking those qualities quite a bit and he genuinely enjoyed searching for gems and shreds of actual decency and goodness within them (of which, there were actually quite a few, if you knew where to look).
For quite some time during the hourly actions he occupied himself with, he often thought that quite a few other Universes could learn from this set and said set could learn from quite a few other Universes. That of course was why he was floating in the Dark Space 'above' this version of the Milky Way, whose Universe he was now inside of.
Behind him, a Warp portal (not of the same 'Warp' underlying this and other Universes cut from the same clothe mind you) opened up. From its cyan glow, a man in a black and white business suite with dark shades and an ear piece extending down into the pocket of the right side of his jacket, black shoes, and combed down hazel brown hair was deposited, floating straight before coming to a stop at Alex's left side.
"Agent Smith," he said with a hint of excitement. "I'm assuming everything went well with the Vasari Emperor."
"That depends: do you really have to ask?" Smith queried rhetorically.
"No," the viral monstrosity admitted honestly, "but I find it rude to wantonly and unnecessarily take the information from those under my employ and breach their trust without due cause. I'm not like the American government circa the time frame inside of that virtual reality simulator you used to patrol on your earth or on mine. Well...twenty-five percent of the time at least." A threatening edge was in his voice.
Mr. Smith gulped slightly.
"Well then, in that case: yes. Everything occurred as you said it would and as I agreed with. Emperor Sul and the elements of his people still loyal to him have been sent to Universe ME—1111 and should begin their conquest of the Terminus Systems within the next few weeks of that Universe's time-scale. With any luck, the Vasari will conquer the new version of their home Galaxy that they've been dumped in well within the time you allotted them."
"Good. Now how go Hitler, Stalin, and Jaws's—"
Before Alex could finish that sentence, another Warp portal opened up, depositing a familiar man clad in slightly dented red and gold armor who floated up to Alex's right side.
"Ah. Mr. Fegelein," said Agent Smith. "Glad to see you're still lacking in punctuality."
"Agent Smith," said the former adjutant and apprentice to high-ranking Nazi general, Heinrich Himmler. "Glad to see you're still lacking the common courtesy of NOT being on my ass every time I'm even the tiniest bit late."
"Well, Mr. Mercer did say you were supposed to arrive in this point in space and time EXACTLY three hundred nano-seconds ago. Forgive me for trying to instill a sense of timeliness within you before Mr. Mercer decides he has had enough of your… antics and shenanigans."
Without warning, Fegelein brought up repulsor-beam emitters built into the gauntlets of his suit and blasted Agent Smith a good thirty meters across Dark Space.
As Smith recovered from that 'light' attack, Fegelein calmly stated, "For your information there Smith, I probably completed my task DAYS before you did. The only reason I was late was because on my way through Warp Space here, I decided I had enough time to take a little trip down to Earth-617. That world's Superhero Civil War period to be exact. Me and ol' yeller here—" he said, pointing to the long-sword he had in a sheathe behind his back, "gutted ourselves quite a few pretentious super-powered whacko's and I even walked right up to ol' Anthony Stark, punched him in the genitalia, read his mind, hi-jacked one of his sets of Power Armor, and went on a city wide rampage. It only took me so long because I had a little…trouble with that fake cloned version of Thor. But I was able to escape non-the-less and arrive here just the same."
The Antic Master crossed his armored arms over his chest with a smug smile on his face. "Now ask yourself if you could do all that in the same time-frame Mr. Pencil-Push-Over."
A scowl deeper than the flaming pits of Mordor formed on Smith's face, and he prepared with a reprisal comprising of some energy beams of his own when Alex put one of his hands up and yelled out, "ENOUGH!"
Suddenly, the two found themselves encased in solid light constructs made out of Green, Purple, Blue, Orange, Red, Yellow, Indigo, Sapphire, Black, and White Lantern energy resembling large bug-jars that not even their Titanic might could allow them to break free from.
"Under normal circumstances, I'd either let you two go on with your little cat-fight till your hearts are content or pick apart both of your faults, but today, that word being a relative term, I'm really not interested in either."
Alex telekinetically moved both multi-colored jars to his front.
"You know what I am interested in though?" he asked rhetorically. "I'm interested in knowing whether the transplantation of the Lich King and his forces from Azeroth to Thedas has gone swimmingly. The same thing can be said for the German Genocidal Dictator, the Russian Genocidal Dictator, and the Terror of the Deep that fed me with a primal fear of the ocean when I was still human. Mr. Smith, you have the floor first."
The Agent tugged at his collar uncomfortably and said, with sweat beginning to form on his face, "Everything is going exactly as planned so far Mr. Mercer sir."
"Good. Hermann?"
"Ol' Arthas and his undead hordes are busy at work making Thedas an even worse place to live on then it already is as we speak," the Antic Master replied enthusiastically. "With any luck, it may reach the same levels of crazy as the Galaxy right below us."
"One can only hope," Alex said with an unnaturally wide smirk. With a flick of his wrist, the bug jars disappeared into the aether. "Now that those progress reports are out of the way, do return to your regularly scheduled duties until such a time when I require you again. I wish to be left alone while I unleash what will quite possibly be the largest wave of telepathic psychic energy not warp based that this Via Lactea has ever seen, if not the largest wave of telepathic psychic energy period this Via Lactea has ever seen."
The two looked angrily at each other for a few tense moments before swiftly turning away and opening a Warp Gate to whatever their day-job, as Alex liked to call it, entailed. Before they did, Mercer sent a telepathic message to the two of them that went something like:
"Oh! Before I forget: please don't fail me. I'm still picking out bits and pieces of the soul belonging to the last G-Man who didn't follow my instructions."
With that, the two left the Universe Alex was currently in, and he took in a deep breath of air he had willed into being around him. From one of the pockets on his jeans, he pulled out a blindingly white cube. A cube whose immense power he had never really needed to utilize, and probably still didn't. Still, considering the shear vast scale of what he was about to do, and the cautiousness his humbling had instilled upon him whenever he dealt with such a Universe, it couldn't hurt to have insurance that his plan went off without the Chaos Gods or any other great power in the Galaxy taking notice and trying to devour him. Again.
"Oh great Cosmic Cube," he began in the best needlessly epic and dramatic voice he could muster. "grant me my wish and act as a Psionic amplifier for my mental abilities so great that even the Dark Gods of the Warp will do as I command!"
A brilliant white-light enveloped him and the surrounding space for dozens of Kilometers before receding back into the confines of the cube, which now glowed a combination of bright gold, dark purple, and dark red.
"Good. Let it begin."