Hi, guys! Man, it's been a while since I kept going in the proper order these stories needed...
Anyway, this is the 6th entry in the Maria's Adventure's series. It's going to be a three-shot, though, so it's certainly not going to be as long as everything else that I'm working on right now.
Here's the first chapter!
Chapter 1
Recently, Maria "Flare-Up" Carlsdale (known as "Maria White" on certain worlds at this time), has assisted in defending a world-cross of Hasbro and DC characters - specifically, those of the Transformers and Justice League franchises. Upon discovering that she and four others - two siblings and two friends - had voices in their minds that were, in fact, Cybertronians themselves, it was suggested to the World Jumper that she travel extremely close to the Nexus region of the Multiverse, as it was possible to find someone there who might be able to remove the Cybertronians from their minds and return them to their former state of separate beings.
And so, Maria, her friends Khrista and Joshua Langstrom, and her siblings Matthew, Collin, and Liz arrive in the Axiom Nexus dimension, on Axiom Earth...
Line Break
It was early evening on the planet when a group of six visitors suddenly appeared on a gravel road in a bright blue flash.
One of the six figures - a teenage boy with brown hair and blue eyes - glanced up at the purple-red sky above their heads and frowned. "Looks like we must be near a city or something, if the sky is looking like that."
Another figure - a young boy with bright blond hair covered his ears in order to block out the pure noise that was around them. "Why is it so loud?"
*Yeah, what is it with this place?* growled a feminine voice in annoyance.
A third figure - a teenage girl with shoulder-length brown hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to glow slightly - frowned a little. "It looks like the sound is coming from over there." She pointed down the gravel path they were standing on towards what looked like a brightly-lit fairgrounds. "We should probably check it out. What do you guys think?" She turned to look at the other five figures.
"Seems like the best option," noted a boy with indigo eyes as he nodded in agreement. "We might be able to find our answers there."
The others nodded in agreement, and the teenage girl who had spoken turned and started walking towards what looked like a main gate.
Wildfire, the bright-eyed teen thought, what do you think?
*What do I think?* the feminine voice from before responded. *I don't know what to think. We were told by Vector Prime to come here, remember? I don't know what it is that he's planning, so don't ask me questions*
The bright-eyed teen - Maria - scowled at the response she had received from the Cybertronian trapped in her mind, and she instead sighed irritably and looked over at the teenage boy who had been looking at the sky earlier. "What do you think of all this, Matt?"
"I'm wondering who's going to be able to help us here in order to get our friends back to their proper selves," came the response. "Carnivals like this normally have some kind of fortune teller, right? Is some psychic going to pull them out of our heads?"
There came a snort from a teenage girl with light brown hair and dark blue eyes. "Doubt it. If that was true, all we would have to do is find Mewtwo."
Maria sent the girl a look. "His name is Chaos, Khrista, remember?"
Khrista sighed in response. "Yeah, I know. It's just...I kinda had a rough time when I went off-world before you left, okay? Kinda ran into a few similarities, but..." The Pokehuman shrugged.
Maria blinked in confusion at Khrista's comment, but then remembered that Joshua had said that Khrista didn't want to talk about wherever-it-was that she had been. Maria decided to mentally drop the question and force it out of her mind before it really started to bug her.
"It kinda sounds like some kind of music festival," commented a younger teenage girl with light brown hair and averagely-shaded blue eyes. A frown crossed her face. "I can't tell what's being played, though. It all sounds like a jumbled mess."
"I noticed that, too," commented the indigo-eyed boy, nodding in agreement.
"Maybe it's because none of the songs are your themes."
The group of six came to a stop at the open entrance into the fairgrounds, and they turned their heads to look at the figure who had spoken - an older man with slightly graying hair, sitting in a folding chair and smoking an old-fashioned pipe that reminded Maria of Sherlock somehow.
"Theme?" repeated the as-of-yet unnamed teenage girl. "What do you mean?"
"You came here and you didn't know anything about Axiom Earth's special ability?" The man made a sound that made him seem like he was disappointed.
"We just arrived here," responded the indigo-eyed boy. "And only because we needed to; we don't know anything about the planet."
"Joshua's right," Maria agreed. "Is there anything that you might be able to tell us about what's going on here?"
The man eyed them for a moment, then smirked around his pipe. "Maybe we should get introductions out of the way first, hmm? They call me Gale. I check everybody who comes through."
Maria gave a slight nod. "All right. These are my siblings Matthew, or Matt, Liz, and Collin, my two friends Khrista and Joshua, and I'm Maria."
Gale's dark eyes widened slightly. "Maria? Well, isn't this a surprise. I didn't think some rookie World Jumper would come out here so early."
"Rookie?" Maria looked at the man in surprise. She frowned for a moment, then shook her head. "Nevermind, I'll probably figure it out later."
"So, what was that about themes?" the indigo-eyed boy - Joshua - asked.
Gale's smirk widened into a grin around his pipe. "A 'theme,' Joshua, is a song that best represents you at a certain moment. People usually have multiple, but there's usually one or two songs that they're really close to. Some songs even overlap with people, but that's as rare as a World Jumper getting involved in things on her own world."
Maria and her siblings and friends exchanged glances when they heard this, sharing knowing looks that clearly said they were wondering otherwise.
"We'll keep that in mind," Maria promised, nodding. "Thanks, Gale."
"No problem. By the way, I'd suggest going to Max if you want to get your themes sorted out. She may not get all that many, but she's much easier to deal with than some of these other bozos that are looking for World Jumpers to mooch off of."
Maria blinked a couple times. "Uh...sure."
"How will we know what she looks like?" the blond-haired boy - Collin - piped up.
"Oh, you'll know." Gale waved them on, and Maria took this as a sign to move on into the fairgrounds.
The fairgrounds looked a lot like what are usually expected: booths with games and souvenirs were scattered throughout the area, and music was being blasted all over the place. However, it was all still indecipherable to the six's ears.
"I wonder where we're going to find that 'Max' Gale mentioned," Maria commented, looking around. "I don't see anything that looks like a music stage, and he did say that there were others in the area..."
"It shouldn't take us too long to find Max, I don't think," Matt commented. "I mean, this place doesn't necessarily look that big."
Maria gave a thoughtful hum in response, frowning slightly.
The group of six made it a point to stick together as they walked through the fairground, eyeing the booths, but not going anywhere near them. At the same time, Maria couldn't help but notice that there were a lot of different people here - possibly from other worlds. The Reploid couldn't help but wonder if she thought she saw a couple versions of Sonic zipping from booth to booth with what looked like a Flash...
"It looks like there's a big crowd around that stage over there," Liz spoke up, pointing to a group of people ahead of them. "Maybe Max is over there?"
Maria blinked, then looked over in the direction that her sister was pointing. Sure enough, there was a large crowd of people starting to gather around an empty stage that had a drum set and a few amps scattered about - pretty modest compared to other stages that Maria had seen for other concerts.
Curious, the Reploid started after the crowd, the others following after her. "Let's check it out."
The group quickly reached the crowded area and moved in as best they could while also sticking together.
"Let's see if those morons will be able to get anyone tonight!" someone called out with a laugh, causing the heads of the group to turn. "Delta Max shouldn't have gotten into this gig."
"The kid's smart," a second voice argued. "She's the one who helped to find the man who wrote the theme for the leader of the Autobots, remember? Optimus Prime from Axiom Cybertron approves of what she's doing - Megatron, too!"
"Those robots don't know a thing about Earth music," the first scoffed.
Wildfire growled at the back of Maria's mind. *It seems that every universe has to have it own brand of jerks*
We have to ignore them for now, Maria replied. She glanced at the others and saw varying looks of annoyance on their faces, as well.
"Whoever that guy is, he hasn't met Jazz," Khrista noted. "That's what SC just said." A confused look crossed her face. "Who is Jazz?"
Maria and Matthew exchanged looks, remembering the white mech they had met some time ago.
"We'll explain later," Matthew stated, giving Khrista a knowing smirk. He turned his attention to the stage. "I kind of want to find out more about this Delta Max, though."
"Do you think that's the name of the band?" Liz asked. "Gale just said that we should look for Max."
"She's called Delta Max when she's on-stage," commented a figure who was in front of them. He turned around, allowing Maria to take note of the dark blue hair and bright blue eyes that almost seemed to glow. "And she's one of the few musicians on Axiom Earth who is close to the Autobots and the Decepticons."
"Really?" Khrista's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Is she an ally to both sides?" Matthew asked.
"They're not at war here," the man stated, as though knowing what it was that Matthew was asking. "No one really knows where and when the factions were started, though. If anything, the factions are political more than they are sides of a warring conflict, like it is on other worlds."
"You're aware of other worlds?" Maria asked, surprised.
"Axiom Nexus has visitors from other places and times nearly constantly. Considering that Axiom Cybertron is much more vigorous with who is allowed on and off the planet, Axiom Earth is the one that gains much more by way of passing travelers."
"Really?" Joshua looked intrigued. "And why is that?"
"Earth seems to have always been a melting pot. I suppose that they never really thought to change it."
"Good evening, Axiom Nexus!"
Maria turned her head upon hearing the voice suddenly resound out over the crowd. She caught sight of a group of humans standing on the stage, only one of them standing close enough to a microphone to be the one who had called out.
"I'm Delta Max," continued the figure - a teenage girl with light blue hair and bright purple eyes, clothed in a black T-shirt, jeans, and black shoes with three neon-pink stripes. "And these are the other members of my band. Kyla-"
The teenage girl with red-orange hair behind the keyboard glanced up and nodded before looking back at the keys.
"-Mike-"
The young man on the drumset raised a stick and grinned.
"-Justin-"
The other young man raised a fist, then went back to messing with the tuning on his bass guitar.
"-and Lea."
The spiky redhead with the electric guitar gave the crowd a mock salute.
"And tonight we're-"
Delta suddenly cut herself off and held a hand to her head, closing one purple eye as a shudder rippled down her body. From where Maria was standing, it looked like her open eye was flashing.
"She got one tonight?" someone asked in surprise.
"It's probably just a part of the act."
"I dunno. Every time it's happened -"
"What's happening?" Collin asked, sounding somewhat annoyed. "It looks like she's having a vision like Maria does."
The dark-blue-haired young man looked down at the blond boy with an expression of curiosity. "Maria?"
"That would be me," Maria stated, raising a hand. "And yes, I do have visions sometimes. Is that what is happening to Max now?"
The man frowned slightly, then shook his head. "Not that I am aware of. It's been said that Max has connections to others, but that has never been truly proven, and she hasn't told anyone but a select few of where she gains her knowledge from."
"Are you sure?" Delta suddenly asked, a look of shock coming across her face. "There are six Doubles in the crowd tonight?"
That got the crowd to stop muttering.
Maria frowned. "Doubles?"
"Overlapping themes," the man explained, surprised. "One Double is rare, considering how many styles of music and songs that exist, but to have six in the crowd in one night..."
"...All right." A grin spread across Delta's face, and she lowered her hand and looked at the crowd. "I was going to say that tonight that we were going to play already claimed themes, but as you probably heard, we've got some people in the crowd who need to find theirs." Delta turned to look at the band group behind her and held up a fist. The others gave various nods.
Facing the crowd again, Delta declared, "Let's start this off with a bang!"
As if that was their cue, the drumset, keyboard, bass and electric guitars broke into a frenzy of noise that caused most of the crowd to flinch back a step.
"What are they doing?" Maria demanded. "That isn't music!"
"Yes, it is!"
Everyone in the group turned to look at Khrista, whose eyes were locked on the stage.
"I can barely hear it, though...I'm going in closer." Khrista started to force her way through the crowd before breaking out into the circle of untouched grass in front of the stage.
It was at that exact same moment that the song became clear to their ears.
"Now the dark begins to rise.
Save your breath - it's far from over!
Leave the lost and dead behind
Now's your chance to run for cover.
"I don't want to change the world -
I just want to leave it colder
Light the fuse and burn it up
Take the path that leads to nowhere.
"All is lost again...but I'm not givin' in!
"I will not bow!
I will not break!
I will shut the world away.
I will not fall!
I will not fade!
I will take your breath away...
"Fall!"
Max pulled away from the microphone for a moment and jammed out a bit to the beat that was being laid down by her drummer. Maria started to bounce a bit herself to the beat, but then paused when she noticed what Khrista was doing.
The PokeHuman was swaying at a strangely gentle pace - considering the song was a little faster than a person's average walking pace - and her shirt had changed from the dull red it had been to a bright gold. It almost seemed like the air around her was...shimmering.
Maria frowned and was about to ask Joshua what he thought was going on when Max started singing again.
"Watch the end through dying eyes - now the dark is taking over.
Show me where forever dies!
Take the fall and run to heaven.
"All is lost again...but I'm not givin' in!
"I will not bow!
I will not break!
I will shut the world away.
I will not fall
I will not fade.
I will tear your breath away.
"And I'll survive - paranoid.
I have lost the will to change.
And I'm not proud, cold-blooded hate.
I will shut the world away.
"Open your eyes!"
The electric guitarist promptly took over at this point, playing a strangely haunting guitar solo that sent shivers down Maria's spine.
"What connects Khrista with that?" Liz asked, surprised at the minor keys. "It sounds like a bad guy's theme or something."
Maria got a vision of a giant silver robot with blood-red optics sneering at her, and she shook the vision away. "Something probably happened."
"Probably?" Matthew repeated dryly. "Seems more like a definite to me."
There came a loud gasp from someone near them. "What in Chaos is that thing?!"
Maria's head shot over to look in the direction of the voice, wondering for a second if she had seen Sonic in the crowd. She shook that thought off, however, when she heard other gasps as people looked at the open expanse of grass in front of the stage. The Reploid turned her head in order to see what was going on...and her eyes widened in shock.
There was a large, glowing figure standing in between the stage and Khrista, clearly towering over everyone who was present. Max, seemingly oblivious to what was going on in front of her, moved up to the microphone and started singing again...just as the light scattered in a bright flash, revealing the figure underneath.
"I will not bow!
I will not break!
I will shut the world away.
I will not fall!
I will not fade!
I will tear your breath away.
"And I'll survive - paranoid.
I have lost the will to change.
And I'm not proud, cold-blooded hate!
I will shut the world away.
"Fall!"
As the last note died in the air, Khrista finally seemed to come to her senses as she looked down at her gold shirt in confusion. There was a momentary flash as the gold faded back to a dull red, and Khrista looked at what was in front of her...and tilted her head back to look at the head of the mostly-gray femme that happened to be standing there, a slight smirk on her face.
Max let out a yelp of surprise as she came to her senses. "W-wait a sec - you were hiding in her? I didn't think that was possible!"
The gray femme turned her helm and looked down at the stage. "Anything is possible when Vector Prime is involved."
"V-Vector Prime..."
"There are five others like me here, if your exclamation earlier means anything. I am aware of four. If you managed to release me, you will release the others."
With that, the femme turned and moved to the edge of the circle and sat down with a shake of the earth.
Cautiously, Khrista made her way over to the giant Cybertronian and stopped by one of her feet. "Shape-Change? I didn't think you'd get this big."
"You have yet to meet the leader of our faction," the gray femme replied with a slight smile. "He is much taller than I."
"Whoa..."
SC held out a servo, and Khrista clambered on, then climbed up to the femme's shoulder. Maria watched the two of them, wondering if she was going to be able to see Wildfire face-to-face next.
"Let's move on to the next song!" Delta called out, raising an open hand. As soon as she dropped it, the group started up with the noise once again, but this time it was softer - the drum beat seemed to be less, and the keyboard's chaos was louder than anything else.
Maria strained her ears. "I'm not recognizing this one..."
"Neither am I," Matthew agreed.
"But I know it."
Matthew, Collin, Liz, and Maria turned their heads and looked at Joshua, who was already starting to move forward. At the same time, Justin (the lead guitarist) started singing back and forth with Max.
J: "I'm at war with the world cause they
Are trying to pull me into he dark.
A struggle to find my faith
As I'm slipping from your arms."
M: "It's getting harder to stay awake
As my strength is fading fast!
You breathe into me at last..."
J: "I'm awake! I'm alive!
Now I know what I believe inside.
Now, it's my time.
I'll do what I want, cause this is my life.
Here-"
M: "Right here."
J: "Right now-"
M: "Right now.
I know now to never back down."
J: "I know what I believe inside.
M&J: "I'm awake and I'm alive!"
Maria blinked a couple times as she watched Joshua, eyes closed, caused his blue-themed clothes to vanish, revealing his cobalt armor. The shocked gasps that came from the crowd made Maria grin like an idiot.
J: "I'm at war with the world cause I
Ain't never gonna sell my soul.
I already made up my mind -
No matter what, I can't be bought or sold."
M: "When my faith is getting weak,
And I feel like giving in,
You breathe into me again..."
J: "I'm awake! I'm alive!
Now I know what I believe inside.
Now it's my time.
I'll do what I want, cause this is my life!
Here-"
M:"Right here!"
J: "Right now!"
M: "Right now!
I'll stand my ground and never back down."
J: "I know what I believe inside."
M&J: "I'm awake and I'm alive!"
As the duo started singing what Maria supposed was the bridge, the Reploid thought she saw sparks start to fly from Joshua's arms.
M&J: "In the dark, I can feel you in my sleep.
In your arms I feel you breath into me.
Forever hold this heart that I will give to you
Forever I will live for you!
Forever I will live for you!"
It was at this point that the drums suddenly came on in a crescendo, and the sparks flying off Joshua did the exact same thing, increasing in number and size until it almost seemed like they were jumping off Joshua and forming something there in front of him.
M&J: "I'm awake! I'm alive!
Now I know what I believe inside.
Now, it's my time!
I'll do what I want, cause this is my life.
Here (right here), right now (right now)!
I'll stand my ground and never back down.
I know what I believe inside.
I'm awake and I'm alive!"
Right when the song ended in that crescendo of noise, the sparks suddenly condensed and scattered in bright orbs of light, revealing a large figure who happened to be standing there, bright blue paint reflecting the light in such a way that it almost seemed to be made of electricity.
"Jolt!" Maria and Matthew exclaimed together. The two of them looked at each other and grinned.
Jolt looked down at his servos, clenching and unclenching them as Joshua looked up at the mech.
"It's good to be in control of myself again," Jolt stated. "Now I might be of more help." He gave Joshua a grin, and the teenage Reploid gave a thumbs-up in return.
"Whoo!" Max rubbed her throat as the two stepped off the grass circle. "What a rush! I'm going to need to give my voice a break." She grinned, purple eyes flashing. "Which actually works for this next song! Kyla, take it away!"
And take it away Kyla did. As Max stepped back away from the microphone and sat down next to the drumset, grabbing a bottle of water, what sounded like it could be a jazz group suddenly came blasting out of the speakers.
"Cool!" Collin suddenly became a blur as he dashed out onto the open grass. He circled the area in smaller and smaller circles before he ended up smack-dab in the middle, dancing to the jazz tune.
Maria couldn't help but giggle at her younger brother's antics as he dashed around the circle of grass, arms out almost as though he was a plane of some kind. Occasionally, he'd stop moving for a moment and do a little dance, getting some people in the crowd to laugh at his antics.
A good minute in, though, and what looked like a shadow of some kind was seen running around with Collin on the grass. Occasionally, small sparks were seen shooting off the shadowy figure, causing the figure to flicker and become a little bit more solid. By a minute and a half, it was clear that the figure behind Collin was about twice as tall than he was...with what looked like a set of jet wings. It was soon after that the figure's color started to solidify - mainly yellow, with bright blue circuit lines running all over his form in strangely intricate ways.
Maria blinked a couple times before frowning. A moment later, however, a brightened expression came across her face, and she elbowed her brother. "Looks like he's a flier of some kind."
Matthew looked down at his sister before giving a slight nod in agreement. "Yeah. Seer's wondering how that's possible, considering where he came from...but I'm not exactly sure what he means by that."
"Hmm...Wildfire?"
*That's his and Jolt's business. I gotta say, though, I'm not expecting the wings, either*
Maria relayed the statement to her brother, who nodded thoughtfully.
"We'll have to ask them later, then," Matthew commented.
The song continued to play, and the figure beside Collin started to become more solid, becoming less of a ghost and more of an actual solid figure. The two of them actually started to release sparks on and off in time with the music, bringing a surprised noise out of Jolt and causing the others to look up at the blue Cybertronian in confusion.
"That's...so he does have it..." Jolt murmured. He noticed the stares and gave everyone a look that said he would explain things later.
It was at this point that the jazz tune ended with a trumpet cadence, and Collin and the yellow, winged robot stood side by side, grinning and with their hands in the air while the audience applauded. Then they turned to look at each other, Collin's eyes practically lighting up with amazement.
Maria frowned at the small wheels that were embedded into the yellow Cybertronian's legs. "How big is his jet form if he has wheels like that?"
Wildfire let out a gasp. *Coil's a triplechanger!*
Maria blinked in confusion. "Triplechanger? What's that?"
*A Cybertronian with both a ground and an aerial form. We're lucky to have him*
"Ground and aerial?"
Collin and Coil ran back to the others, and Coil instantly climbed up into Jolt's lap with a delighted expression.
"You've gotten pretty big, Coil," Jolt commented, looking down at the smaller Cybertronian.
"Yeah!" Coil grinned, his wings twitching delightedly. "Cool, right?"
"I wonder what you can transform into!" Collin called up, climbing up onto Jolt to join his friend.
"I wanna see, too," Coil responded brightly. "I wasn't able to transform before. I was too little."
"And you are still too small to handle the transformation we are capable of," Shape-Change chided, gaining a disappointed expression from the little yellow Cybertronian.
Max let out a laugh from the stage, causing the group to look back in her direction. "You're a pretty cute kid. I bet you're glad to be able to interact with things in the real world now, right?"
"Yup!" Coil gave Max a thumbs-up and a grin.
"Well, this next song should bring another one of them." Max nodded back to her band. "Let's rock!"
Themes:
"I Will Not Bow" - Breaking Benjamin (Khrista/Shape-Change)
"Awake and Alive" (Remix version) - Skillet (Joshua/Jolt)
"Birdland" - Maynard Fergusen (Collin/Coil)
...I forgot to mention this is going to involve a lot of singing on the part of the characters.
Trust me, guys, this thing's important for me to be able to keep going with the series. If none of you know what's going on, read "Wildfire: Origins" to know who the Cybertronians are...and have a look at some of my other "Maria's Adventures" stories - except for the One Piece ones. That actually happens a long time after this one.
Aaanyway...I'll see you the next time that I post here!