"Hey there everyone, Drago3511 here with another fanfic update. Sorry that I keep doing this where I start the beginning of a Story and leave it for a while. But doing this helps me keep my place so that I don't lose any of my ideas. So please bear with me."

Teddie: "Hey, you said 'bear'! I like you already."

"What the... Teddie? How the hell did you get in here?!"

Teddie: "A bear never kisses and tells."

"Bears don't get kisses at all, especially not you."

Teddie: "You're bear-y mean, you know that?"

"I'll apologize if you do the disclaimer for me."

Teddie: "Hm, a tempting offer. You've got yourself a deal! Drago3511 does not own the Persona series or the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, meaning he also doesn't own any of the characters, like Sensei and myself. He DOES own his OC's and anything that he came up with all on his own."

"Thanks Teddie, now get back out there so we can start this thing already."

Teddie: "Yes sir, Mister Author!"


Once again, three of the four Multiverse Warriors were lounging around in the Pocket Dimension belonging to Sean Sky-Uchiha. They were the brunette demi-Saiyan himself, the shorter brunette Lucas Typhoon, and the sandy-blond Elias Frost. They were just lazing around the living room of the Pocket Dimension as usual when there was nothing to do.

"I'm so bored." Elias whined. He was sitting upside down on the sofa with a half-eaten orange in his hand. He was wearing a loose light blue t-shirt with a yellow wristband on his right wrist, dark blue pants with zippers going vertically from the cuffs up to his mid-calf, and white boots with orange decals on both sides of the boots.

"Well we ARE in a place isolated from the Space-Time continuum. We've already done all of our training for the day." Lucas replied. He was sitting in a chair next to the coffee table with his head resting on his hand. He was wearing an orange t-shirt with black sleeves, light tan pants with a light green sash holding them up, dark green fingerless gloves on his hands, and wide-rimmed black sneakers with white soles and a vertical green stripe going from the toe to the rim. His orange Ultimatrix was also on his left forearm.

"But he's right though. Once you do everything there is to do, you'll get bored to tears." Sean threw in his two cents. He was leaning up against the wall connecting the living room to the kitchen with his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a high-collared red vest over it, his usual black fingerless gloves, his usual cargo pants, and white boots with red soles and laces.

"That's true. By the way, I've been meaning to ask you something." Lucas said.

"What is it?" Sean asked, his eyes focused on one of his oldest friends.

"You seem to be throwing black into your attire more often, why is that?" Elias lifted himself up and sat up properly on the couch.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that too." Sean hasn't told his friends yet about his trip to the Super Sentai universe and helping out the Gokaigers with Zangyack, let alone telling them that he became Gokai Black. But of course, Lucas already knew this but didn't show any signs of it in front of Elias.

"I'll tell you guys someday soon." He replied. Lucas and Elias looked at each other and just shrugged their shoulders. They both knew that Sean wasn't the type to keep something important from them. Lucas went along with the act as expected.

"So where's Doran?" Sean asked. Lucas sighed at the question and that got the other two occupants of the room very curious.

"He got himself grounded again."

"Do we want to know?" Elias asked. Lucas just shook his head slowly. Sean just got up from leaning on the wall and walked over to the door and formed an energy key.

"To think, with all that power that he has, he still has the ability to get grounded by his mother." He slid the key into the door and turned it, turning the door into an opening to the Multiverse Pathway.

"Hey, his mom's a scary lady when she's mad. Sure, she's not on the Hulk's level, but she's pretty darn close." Lucas said. All three boys shivered a bit.

"Alright then guys, let's get going." Sean pumped a fist in the air. Lucas and Elias followed his example and pumped both of their fists as well. The three put their arms down and walked out of the door and onto the Path. Sean closed the door behind them as soon as they all filed out and locked it with another key, making the door disappear.

The three traversed the Pathway a little and looked at all of the places that they've been to, literally walking down Memory Lane.

"Hard to believe that we've already been to so many places." Lucas spoke. Elias nodded while Sean kept on walking in the direction that he wanted.

"Why don't we chalk up another? A new portal opened up on the pathway recently." Sean said. Lucas and Elias perked their heads up at this and followed him in the direction. They kept walking for a while until they passed the one that lead to the Super Sentai-verse. Lucas and Elias looked at the portal and then back to Sean.

"Where does this one lead?" Elias asked. Sean stared at the portal for a moment before giving it a soft look and gazing back to his friends.

"That's a little place that I visited recently. I'll tell you guys about it later."

"Does it have to do with you adding black to your look?" Lucas asked with a knowing smirk.

"Like I said, I'll tell you guys about it later." That was all the answer that Lucas needed. He smirked and then all three walked on for a little while longer until they came up on the new portal. The three stared at it for a while, feeling an ominous aura emitting from it. Lucas especially felt a little off.

'I am thou...'

Lucas widened his eyes a little and looked around.

'Thou art I...'

His heartbeat picked up a little and he felt himself breathing a little heavier, but only slightly.

'Thou shalt open the door to new bonds, and new beginnings...'

"Guys, let's go." Lucas said. Determination etched into his words, his fists gripped tightly. Sean and Elias stared at him for a moment and nodded their heads.

"Yeah, let's." Sean said. All three walked into the portal, ready to face the challenges ahead.


(Unknown area)

A portal opened up in the sky and three warriors fell out of it. They were only twelve feet from a roof though, so they landed safely on that in crouches. When they stood up, they all noticed that it was a bit foggy, correction, make that REALLY foggy where they were standing. They could still see, but it was difficult to see further than eight feet in front of them.

Sean activated his Sharingan to see if that would help, but he didn't see any change in the area. In fact, it seemed to be worse with his Sharingan activated, like static on a television screen. So he deactivated his dojutsu and turned back to his friends.

"This is weird. Even my Sharingan can't see through this fog. When I tried to see, it was even worse than seeing through it with my normal eyes. Like this fog was made of ultra-dense chakra, or something like it anyway." That didn't fill Lucas and Elias with much confidence, but it couldn't be helped. That's when Lucas got an idea. He looked down at his Ultimatrix and turned the dial so that the button popped up and an orange hologram or a bird popped up. It's exactly what Lucas needed and he slammed the faceplate down.

An orange light lit the fog up for a moment and then it died down revealing...

"Pelipper!" Yes, Lucas did indeed turn into a Pelipper. It had the Ultimatrix symbol on the underside of its bill and its eyes were orange instead of black. Sean and Elias just stared at him for a moment in confusion. Sean just smacked his forehead and gave Lucas/Pelipper a death glare.

"Lucas, I'm not even going to ask why you have that in your Ultimatrix or even if you have more Pokémon in there, but can you at least use Defog?" Sean asked. Pelipper just flapped its wings harshly in response. He did this for twenty seconds, but there was no noticeable change in their surroundings. There was another flash of orange light and Lucas was back to normal.

"That's strange. I was using the Defog move, but it didn't lift in the slightest." Lucas muttered.

"Whatever the case may be, this is clearly no ordinary fog. C'mon, let's check this place out." Sean said. Lucas and Elias nodded. Sean turned to the edge of the building and sprinted off very close to it before jumping into the air. The other two followed suit. It was roughly a three story building, because it wasn't as much of a drop as they thought. All three warriors landed in a crouch, kicking up a little dirt as they did so. They got up and brushed off their pants, before noticing something really odd that they didn't before.

"Hey guys, where are all the people?" Elias asked. The entire street was abandoned... it gave the place a 'ghost town' vibe, and that made the guys a bad feeling about the place along with the already creepy fog.

"I don't know. But check out that sky." Lucas pointed out. Even with the crazy fog, the three of them could make out the freaky red and black striped sky.

"Okay, now that's definitely not normal." Sean stated. His two friends agreed with him with nodding heads. It was then that really squeaky footprints were echoing through the fog, putting the teenage warriors on guard.

"Hmm, so this place looks exactly like somewhere where Sensei and Yosuke know? That's bear-y peculiar." A high voice said. The guys turned their heads in the direction of the voice. All they saw was a rounded silhouette with stubby arms and legs... and rounded ears? As the creature stepped closer, they could make out what it was. It was a red and blue bear suit with a peach colored face and huge onyx eyes. There was a zipper around what could be the creature's neck. It took notice of the three and suddenly freaked out.

"GAH! What? There are more people in here other than Sensei and Yosuke? But bear did they come from?" The bear-thing was freaking out and that just confused the three Multiverse Warriors.

"Um, excuse me? Do you know where we are?" Sean asked the bear. It's little ears twitched and it looked directly at the demi-Saiyan.

"Huh? You mean you guys don't know that you're in a TV right now? That's bear-y strange. Bear-y strange indeed. But if that's the case, then you guys couldn't be the ones who have been dropping people in here either. But you do seem bear-y suspicious." The bear ranted.

'WE look suspicious? At least we're not walking around in a tiny and stuffy bear costume.' Elias thought. While the bear was going on its tirade, some black looking coop started rising up from the ground, drawing the attention of the teens and bear. The gunk started to materialize into black spheres with blue masks. And those flipped around to show giant grotesque mouths with huge tongues.

"What the hell are these things?!" Elias asked in a panic.

"They're Shadows. But they shouldn't be agitated until the fog goes away. What in bear's name is going on here? And to make things worse, Sensei and Yosuke aren't here to fight them with their Personas!" The word 'Persona' triggered something within Lucas and made his Ultimatrix pulse.

"And what in the hell is a Persona?" Elias asked.

"Basically, if someone faces and accepts their own Shadow, the dark part of themselves that they don't want to acknowledge, it becomes a Persona. It's the only thing that can combat the Shadows." The bear explained. Sean smirked at this.

"Well then, if it's about accepting your inner darkness, then I've got this covered." He pulled out his Gokai Sabre and put it in front of him, point first. Sean closed his eyes and focused. He looked deep inside himself until he came face-to-face with him.

(Inside Sean's heart)

"So, you need my help again?" The voice belonged to Xenas, Sean's inner darkness. In the past, they had a quarrel and Xenas was separated from his original body, and Sean lost the ability to use any of his powers that derived from that darkness. He was the manifestation of all of Sean's darkest thoughts and emotions. Eventually, after a long time of fighting, they came to a mutual understanding and acceptance of one another. Now Xenas can manifest himself on Sean's command if necessary.

It's funny how he looks exactly like Sean too, only with black hair and red eyes.

"Yeah. I think that you might be able to manifest into this Persona thing. Wanna give it a try?" Sean asked, his hand stretched out to his darkness. Xenas had his arms crossed, but he smirked nonetheless.

"Why not? I felt a change in my power the moment we got here anyway. But while I'm this Persona thing, you won't be able to access any of your dark-based abilities. That includes summoning Oblivion." Sean nodded his head in understanding and Xenas took the hand of his original self. There was a glow of blue fire around Xenas and he manifested into a card of some sort.

"Alright then, let's do this thing."

(Back outside)

Sean started to glow with the same eerie blue fire that surrounded Xenas, and the card materialized over the tip of the Gokai Sabre. It rotated and hovered in place. On the back was a blue mask, and the front is what looked like a sun with a face and the roman numerals for the number 19.

"Per..." Sean tightened the grip on his sword.

"So..." He tilted the weapon so that the blade would swing horizontally to the right.

"Na!" Sean swung his arm with full force, the blade slashing through and shattering the card on impact. Then a giant silhouette formed behind the demi-Saiyan that slowly became a solid form.

It was a creature covered in a red hooded cloak with gold trim and a red jumpsuit with crimson boots. A studded leather band was around the ankle of the right boot that had a plume of orange and black feathers. Sprouting from its back were humongous fiery wings and an orange and red stripped monkey tail, but it was forked and split into two. Underneath the hood was a yellow beak and orange bird eyes surrounded by a humanoid face of red. Its hands were also bird talons.

"Hōō-Saru..." Sean muttered. The creature's eyes glowed for a moment before it arched its back and took off in the direction of the Shadows. A veil of fire surrounded it and it pierced right through one of the dark beings, making it explode into a black mist. Teddie and the guys just looked at the display that Sean was putting on in awe.

"No way, he can use a Persona just like Sensei and Yosuke! But I didn't sense a Shadow around here at all before these ones showed up. Could he have summoned it without facing his Shadow like Sensei?" If only Teddie knew. While the others were watching the action, Sean was kicking some major sphere! He used his Gokai Sabre to slash through some of the Shadows and actually did some damage to them. Hōō-Saru bared its talon hands and sliced through some of the Shadows as well, causing them to burst into flames and dissipate into black mist. Sean bat the last one away with his Gokai Sabre, staggering it.

"Alright, let's finish this." Sean pulled out his Gokai Black Ranger Key and flipped it up. The cylinder popped out of the blade and he inserted the Key and twisted it. He then folded the cylinder back into place.

"FIIIINAL WAAAAVE!"

"Gokai Slash!"

Sean reared his weapon back and brought it in a downward slash, creating a purple energy arc that shot out of the blade and straight through the Shadow. The creature exploded into more black mist and finally everything was calm again. Sean pulled the Ranger Key out of his Gokai Sabre and put both objects away. He turned back to his Persona and gave a mock salute.

"Thanks for the help, I appreciate it." Hōō-Saru nodded and disappeared into blue light. Sean once again turned around, but this time to face Teddie and his friends. All three of them had stunned looks on their faces at what just happened.

"What, do I have something on my face?" Sean asked.

"It's nothing." Lucas said. During the entire fight, he kinda spaced out and only saw what happened at the end. He was subconsciously transported to a place called the Velvet Room where he met a man named Igor and a woman named Margaret. He didn't remember much except something about a contract, a Wild Card, having already formed a couple of bonds, and something about the Ultimatrix.

"That was amazing! I just thought it had something to do with being friends with Sensei, but you can use a Persona too!" Teddie ran/waddled his way over to Sean with a pair of black rimmed glasses in his paw. "These are for you." Sean took the glasses and put them on his face, not questioning the bear. He was glad he didn't, because when he put them on, it was as if the fog didn't exist at all. He could see everything clearly!

"Hey, do you have some for my friends?" Sean asked. Teddie nodded his (head?) and reached past his zipper and pulled out two extra pairs of glasses, light orange and blue in color respectively. Of course Lucas took the orange ones, leaving the blue ones for Elias to take. They both put on the new glasses and noticed the same thing Sean did.

"Wow, it's like the fog isn't even there!" Elias exclaimed. Lucas nodded in agreement with his friend. For some reason, he was grasping the Ultimatrix in his right hand.

"Well, now that you can see well enough, I'll lead you guys to the exit. After seeing how you guys really don't know anything about this world, you can't be the ones throwing people in here." Teddie said with a smile. Upon hearing the word 'exit' the three warriors were relieved and started walking with Teddie leading the way.


(Studio/Entrance)

"Here we are." Teddie proclaimed. He led them to a large studio-like area that had a stack of TV's on a large target area. There were body shaped outlines on the target, showing how some people may have fallen in here.

"Thanks for your help Teddie. If we find the guy who's been throwing people into this world, we'll give him an extra beating for you." Sean said with a smile. Elias slammed his fist into his palm and Lucas had his arms crossed over his chest. Teddie smiled at his new friends.

"Thanks, and if you see Sensei and Yosuke, tell them I said hi." Just as Teddie said that, a sinister chuckle echoed across the area. It sent chills down the spines of everyone present. The chuckling seemed to come from over where the TV's were and a figure walked out behind them. But the person who walked out shocked the Multiverse Warriors to the core. It was...

"Me?" Elias asked in confusion. It was indeed Elias standing there while laughing. But something was off. This 'Elias' had an ominous aura around him and his eyes were a creepy gold color. He even had a twisted grin on his face that didn't belong there.

"A Shadow? But that's impossible! No Shadow has ever come here before." Teddie panicked and hid behind Sean.

"Poor pitiful me." The way the Shadow talked made Elias cringe.

"Sean and Lucas are so amazing. They have cool powers and get all the girls, especially Sean. I could never amount to their level."

"Why are you saying this stuff?" Elias stammered. His Shadow raised its eyebrow.

"What do you mean? I'm only saying what you really feel." The Shadow then continued with its rant.

"Sean's half-Saiyan, Lucas has the Ultimatrix, and even Doran is from a powerful clan of Multiverse protectors. But me? All I can do is turn into chains! How lame is that?"

"Shut up, just shut up!" Elias yelled.

"My only real use was on Lyoko, but even then I wasn't all that important. Just a substitute for the others. I bet they don't even consider me their friend since they don't take me on all of their adventures. I couldn't even get a Keyblade."

"No, these aren't my thoughts! You..." Elias started. The Shadow smirked as if expecting something.

"YOU AREN'T ME!" That sudden outburst from Elias caused his Shadow to laugh uncontrollably.

"That's right, I'm not you. I'm me now!" The Shadow then got enveloped in a whirlwind of ice and snow. When it subsided, in place of the shadow was a giant Ice skeleton with jagged icicle wings, a black hooded cloak, dark blue pants, a human bone mask covering its eyes and right jaw, and wielding a giant ice scythe.

"Teddie, Lucas, Elias, get back! I'll handle this!" As Sean pulled out his Gokai Sabre and was ready to summon his Persona, Lucas stepped in front of him.

"Lucas..." He only looked at Sean and smirked.

"Elias is my friend too. If you're gonna fight this thing, then so am I." Sean looked at his friend for a moment and gave him a determined smirk. Lucas was about to activate the dial on his Ultimatrix when it suddenly flashed blue.

"Dangerous Shadow detected. Activating anti-Shadow counter measures. Persona mode engaged: Code 0-0-0-Persona-0" Then the dial shot up and a spinning hologram of a card appeared. Lucas only glanced at it once before slamming the dial down.

"Persona!"

A giant blue silhouette appeared behind Lucas that took the form of a humanoid with a black body without a face, but it had some sort of white marking in place of it. It had black and orange metal pieces sticking out of its head, looking like some sort of crown. It had on an open orange trench coat with black sleeves and pointed shoulders. Orange circuit looking decals ran down the sleeves. Its hands were black with silver fingers. Its legs were white and metallic and ended in orange metal boots.

"Rakurai-Ikidōri." Lucas pronounced. Sean smirked and materialized the card above his Gokai Sabre.

"Let's light 'em up, Hōō-Saru!" Once again, Sean slashed through the card and summoned his Persona. Just as they were about to engage the enemy, the Ultimatrix went off again.

"Transformation still available in Persona mode. Furthermore, Emperor, Sun, and Star Arcanas are available for Persona use. All other Arcanas have been temporarily locked." Lucas just shrugged and cycled through his transformations until he brought up one that he thought was suitable for the fight and slammed it down. An orange flash of light occurred and the being he transformed into was...

"NRG!"

A distinct Russian accent filled the name. Lucas transformed into the Prypiatosian-B, encased in the walking heater-like armor.

"Alright then, let's do this!" NRG fired a radiation blast from the vent in its armor. It made contact with the Shadow and caused a mass amount of steam to emit from the frozen creature. It screeched out in pain and hissed at the alien.

"Hope you didn't forget about me!" Sean called. He was on his Persona's back, flying directly at his friend's Shadow. Hōō-Saru rushed by and struck the Shadow with its fiery wing, causing further pain to the monstrosity. Then Sean sliced at it with his sabre, causing a crack in one of its ribs.

The Shadow attempted to swing its scythe at the demi-Saiyan, but he and his Persona narrowly avoided it by changing direction and flying into the air.

"You're both so annoying! Why don't you just chill out!" Another icy whirlwind kicked up around the Shadow, but it expanded this time and surrounded the studio area and lowering the temperature. Both NRG and Sean were able to keep themselves at normal temperatures though, thanks to NRG being living radiation and Sean having his pyro-kinesis.

All the while, Elias was watching the entire thing unfurl with Teddie standing by. He looked directly at his Shadow ever since it transformed.

"Is that... really how I feel?" Elias asked himself.

"It is." Teddie spoke. Elias looked at the bear with a sunken look in his eyes.

"Like I said bear-fore, the Shadow is a manifestation of all the things that you kept bottled up inside, not wanting to acknowledge that they're there. I know it's a paw-ful thing to say, but it's true." Teddie's words struck Elias like a hot iron, which is ironic because of the current situation.

Elias looked once more at his friends, fighting against, well, him. Lucas' Persona struck it with a bolt of lightning, dealing very little damage. NRG fired another radiation blast, but the Shadow cut it in half with the scythe in its hands, which surprisingly didn't melt. Hōō-Saru launched a phoenix-shaped fire at it and watched it disperse in the icy wind.

"Sean, Lucas..." Elias trailed off. His friends were fighting that thing for him. They were fighting while he was cowering in a corner, afraid to face his own problems. The chain-boy clenched his fists and a fire burned in his eyes. He got to his feet and walked toward the fighting.

The other two Warriors were about to counterattack again, but Elias walked past them. The Shadow noticed this and raised its scythe in the air.

"You! It's time to end this, here and now!" The icy weapon was swung down at an alarming speed. Everything was about to end for the young Frost boy in an instant...

"You're right."

Elias felt a chill run down his spine. The scythe stopped a mere two centimeters above his head, the Shadow paralyzed by his words.

"You're right. I am jealous of my friends. That they have all the cool powers, that they go on all the adventures, that I feel useless."

"Elias..." Sean breathed out. NRG was at a loss for words. He reverted back to Lucas and the whirlwind died down, returning the temperature to normal.

"But I realized that it doesn't matter that I'm useless. I'm happy with who I am and what I can do. When push comes to shove, me and my chains don't back down so easily." Elias looked up at his Shadow with a determined look. The Shadow had no words as it cracked all over its body as static enveloped it. The static shrunk back down to human size, and there stood Elias' Shadow, back to normal. He put a hand on the shoulder of his double and looked into the saddened golden orbs.

"You should know this quite well. Because, you're me after all. And I'm you." The Shadow's eyes went wide for a moment, but they settled into a happy look and the Shadow nodded. It's body glowed in a blue fire before turning into another giant.

This giant had a yellow metallic body. Its lower body was covered in baggy blue pants and ice colored snow boots, a chain keeping the pants wrapped in place. Blue gems stuck out of its wrists and snowflake-like wings extended out of its back. A silver metal battle mask covered its mouth and a white bone mask with curving upwards horns covered the entire upper part of its face. The horns had blue stripes on them and there was an ice chunk sticking out of the forehead of the mask. The eye-holes were empty black voids and had blue tear marks underneath them.

The being glowed blue again and turned into a card with a star on it and the roman numerals for 17. Elias caught the card as it faded and a blue glow surrounded him.

"Now I'll use this new power to help my friends out when they need it the most." Elias said. He turned back to his friends with a smirk, their Personas already gone.

"Let's get going guys."


"Thank you all for reading my first chapter of Powerful Bonds, Powerful Darkness."

Teddie: "We hope you had a bear-al full of fun while reading this!"

"I am already tired of the bear puns. Thanks for reading, again. I'll see you all next time for chapter 2. Feel free to review; it's always appreciated."