Turin, New York…
Thunder roared through the night sky as raindrops fell heavily to the ground. Heavy panting can be heard as somewhere deep in a forest a shadowy figure ran as fast as possible while carrying something in their arms. The person looked behind them as if they were keeping their eyes peeled for something, or someone, as indeed not that far behind multiple metallic footsteps rushed through the forest. Their boots splashing through the puddles of mud and water across the ground as another flash from a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.
From their landing point Chief looked up as the lightning bolt reflected off his faceplate, the rain pattering against his armor. Behind him Shepard and the others waited for the Doctor as after a few seconds the Time Lord came, still in his usual suit leaving the group slightly confused as he closed the doors behind him and locked the TARDIS up. All he had to compensate for the rain was a blue umbrella which he opened up, taking a sigh of relief he looked around to notice everyone looking at him "What?" he asks.
"Nothing weird about wearing a fancy-ass suit and tie in the rain?" James questions.
"No, not really." the Doctor replies.
Shepard shakes his head clear of the strange sight before signaling Garrus and Javik who walk over to the TARDIS with a woodland camo tarp, which they toss over covering it.
"Your device is waterproof, right?" Tsukasa asks already transformed like Troy and Marvelous.
"Of course it is! You know who you are talking to right?" the Doctor asks in a humored tone, looking around until he sets his eyes on Chief, as he then hands the SPARTAN-II his umbrella to hold taking Chief slightly off guard as he pulls out his hero tracker. Flipping the switch to turn the device on, all the Doctor gets is a dark screen. The Doctor flips the switch off thinking it must have been a glitch and flips it back on, still the same result. Shepard and the other heroes watch as the Doctor repeats the process a few more times, even hitting, and shaking it on occasion until eventually…
The Doctor looks up "Well what do you know? I forgot to waterproof it…" he says slightly surprised.
Shepard rolls his eyes while some of the others audible voice their disbeliefs with a groan, throwing up their arms, or shaking their heads. "So what's the plan now?" Troy asks.
"Ooh! Ooh! I got an idea!" Po excitedly bursts out while raising his left hand.
"We're doomed." Marvelous says.
"What you got?" Shepard asks.
"Well, it is a longshot. But if we were to scale one of these trees and get a view of the surrounding area. Maybe we could spot a potential hiding place this hero could be hiding at?" Po suggests.
The others become slightly confused by this since, well, considering things at the current moment with the weather…
"Uhm, Po. The idea's good, not a bad one but-"
"Wow Po, for once I'm actually impressed. In fact, since it's your idea. Why don't you be the one to climb the trees and scout things out for us?" Marvelous says cutting off Shepard, the sarcasm in his voice very clear, all except to Po it seems like.
"I think you give me too much credit Marvelous, but if that is the case, then don't worry everyone. With his Incredible Eyes of Justice! The Dragon Warrior shall find out where the hero is!" Po states in a semi-boastful manner, as he then jumps upwards into the trees.
"Marvelous, may I ask why you did that?" Tigress asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, you do realize with this weather that-" James is cut off by the sudden roar of thunder just above the group. Followed by Po's body landing right in the center of all of them, nearly burnt to a crisp.
"'Cause I thought it would be funny." Marvelous answers before looking down at Po and letting out a light chuckle "And it was."
"He is going to be alright...right?" Tali questions.
Tigress shrugs her shoulders "He's been hit with worse."
Po shoots up with a "WHOO!" and a crazed look in his eyes. He begins looking around at everyone "What happened? I blinked and then I was on the ground. Also," Po sniffs the air "Why do I smell burnt dumplings?"
"A branch hit you on the head, and Garrus forgot to spray himself before we left." Marvelous quickly says.
"Wait, what?" Garrus says taken completely off guard by what he just said.
"Oh...What was I doing again?" Po asks looking at Marvelous.
"You were going to climb up the trees and scout out the area." Marvelous says.
"Oh right." Po says as he gets to his feet "Be back in a jiff guys!" he says before jumping back up into the trees.
"Uhm...Skip?" Ashley says to Shepard.
"Yeah~, I honestly don't know why I let that happen." he replies.
"But isn't it true that Earth saying? That "lightning doesn't strike the same place twice"?" Liara asks.
Not even a few seconds go by before another lightning bolt hits the top of the tree, Po falling right back down to the ground in the same position and even more burnt up.
"Actually that myth is a lie. Lightning does indeed strike twice in the same location. The meaning behind that saying is more for one's misfortunes, one would say that so as to try and bring up someone's hopes. As when that phrase is said it is said for meaning that the same misfortune cannot occur again in the same place, to the same person." EDI says.
Po lifts his head forward with an annoyed look in his eyes "Nope, I remember everything now." he says.
Marvelous can't help but laugh at this "Ah~, now that, was hilarious." he says.
Troy walks over and helps Po back to his feet, as then Javik seems to notice something and looks around "Where is the Master Chief?" he asks.
Hearing this everyone looks around, and takes notice how Chief was actually gone. A second later though Chief drops down from the trees and stands back up "Got some mountains far to the north, other than that mostly just trees in every direction. Did spot a large open area to the east with some cliffs, could be a lake or something there." Chief says.
Shepard turns and looks at the others, most of them a bit dumbfounded by what just happened. Shepard looks back at Chief "Alright. Let's start there." he simply says before the two begin walking off.
Ashley and Tsukasa exchange looks with one another, both of them shrug their shoulders and begin following after them. "Po gets struck twice, the dude in the big suit of metallic armor, nothing. Sure, why not." James says in a nonchalant voice before he begins following.
The rest of the group is right behind with Garrus and Tali bringing up the back "I don't smell that bad, do I?" he asks Tali sounding a bit concerned.
Tali chuckles "Well, if you want, maybe we could both use a quick shower when we get back." she says in a slightly suggestive tone.
Garrus takes in a quick sharp breath, his eyes widened, and Tali could swear she could see him slightly blushing on the cheeks as he looked away. She couldn't help but once again chuckle. As manly as Garrus was in a lot of situations, Tali had seemed to notice how nervous he could get sometimes around her on other occasions. She found that, cute. But at the same time she was a bit curious as to why? After all they had known each other for a long time, so why was it now when they got into an actual relationship that he suddenly got so nervous around her sometimes?
The group of heroes trekked their way through the mud and water. Chief at the front with his helmet lights on while Shepard and the others scanned around using the flashlights on their guns.
Somewhere close by the shadowy figure from before continued running through the forest. Chief looked over to his right scanning through the treeline with his lights but didn't see anything. The shadowy figure kept running, Tigress kept her eyes peeled for any signs of movement, in front of her Liara raised her pistol and scanned in an arc to her right. The shadowy figure slipped and fell forward to the ground, dropping what they were carrying as various items scattered across the muddy ground, the figure gasped in shock and looked back. Flashlights were quickly approaching them and so with haste the figure dove into the cover of a nearby bush.
The figure began to catch their breath, but when footsteps could be heard approaching the person covered their mouth to silence themselves. The footsteps got really close and eventually a few even ran by the bush they were hiding in. The large group that had been pursuing the figure continued running by, the person keeping quiet as much as they could hoping that they would soon pass allowing them to make their escape. Just as it seemed like they were all going to pass, one of the last pursuers seems to catch sight of the spilt items all over the ground, their flashlight shining down on them as the figure's eyes widened. The pursuer knelt down and looked at all the items scattered across the ground, suddenly they looked up into the trees, then to their right, and finally the left. The light illuminating the bush as the shadows of the leaves danced across the face of a young woman with short, black hair.
The woman could only stare in horror as the shadowy figure before them reached for the bush she was hiding in, it was unknown if they had seen her or if they were just about to check it out, either way the woman knew she was in trouble. That is, until an arm wrapped itself around the figure's neck, the person struggling only for a split second until they took a sharp breath, and went limp. The woman was taken aback by this as the body was tossed aside revealing another shadowy figure, deciding it was now or never the woman attempted to make a break for it jumping out of the bush away from the newcomer. Turning around to run the woman immediately finds herself running into someone else's arms as her mouth is immediately covered causing her to scream out, though only for the screams to come out muffled due to the hand.
"Sh~! It's alright! It's alright! We're not here to hurt you!" a male voice speaks to her.
Hearing this the woman opens her eyes and looks up at the person holding her, Shepard looks down at the woman before looking over behind her as Chief is seen raising the body of the dead Cerberus soldier towards the trees. On the above branch Tigress grabs a hold of the body before jumping higher into the trees with it "Hey! Heads up people, they're coming back!" James quietly yells out from a nearby bush off to Shepard's side.
Still holding onto the woman and covering her mouth, Shepard ducks down with her while Chief, turning around looks to his right and dives behind some bushes. Around them the rest of Shepard's teammates and the heroes hide behind trees and bushes as rapid footsteps approach them. The group of Cerberus troops that had been chasing the woman come to a stop on the pathway as they begin looking around "Private Mesh! Where are you!" the Cerberus Centurion of the group yells out in anger.
"Maybe he found something sir."
"If he found something he should have stopped us immediately! He better hope we can find that woman again, or better yet that Grand Temple where she and that hero she's with is supposed to be. Private Mesh, get out here this instant!" the Centurion shouts.
Suddenly another flash of lightning brightens up the sky, this one just above the group of Cerberus soldiers causing a few of them to even flinch in fright, when suddenly from out of nowhere something falls right in the center of them all. Causing quite a few of the Cerberus soldiers to jump back and cry out in panic while the others turn towards whatever it was that fell, only to find themselves looking upon the burnt up remains of the very Cerberus trooper they were looking for.
"I...think we found him sir." one of the troopers speak up.
"That idiot, climbing to the top of a tree during a thunderstorm. Come on, there's nothing more we can do for him now." the Centurion says as the group of Cerberus troops begin to run off back in the same direction.
The group of heroes wait a minute or two until finally emerging from their hiding spots, from the trees Tigress and Tsukasa, as Kamen Rider Stronger, drop down as he then reverts back to his Decade form "Nice work Tsukasa. That oughta get them off our backs and out of this area for a while." Shepard says.
Um," the heroes turn towards the person the voice belongs to, which is the woman they saved as she stands behind them still a bit on edge "Thanks for the help. Whoever and...whatever you guys are." she says.
Shepard walks up to the woman "I'm Commander Shepard. This is Ashley, James, Garrus, Tali, Javik, EDI, Liara, Chief, Tigress, Po, Troy, Marvelous, Tsukasa, and the Doctor. We're looking for someone, and, based off what we heard those Cerberus soldiers say, you might know who it is?" he asks.
"We're not here to cause trouble. Unlike those guys who are searching for you and your friend to kill, we're here to protect you from them, and also, seek some help." Troy speaks up as he steps forward.
"It looks like it hasn't happened yet, but we're here because your world is in danger." Liara says.
"Psh, yeah, no need to tell me about it." the woman says.
Some of the heroes exchange looks with one another, confused by what she meant by that unless there was something she knew about the Reapers. "You know about the Reapers?" Po decides to ask.
"The Reapers? No idea what you're talking about...talking panda, dude? But the world is kind of close to coming to an end." the woman says, once again leaving the heroes confused by what she was talking about.
The woman sighs "I don't know why, but I get the feeling I can trust you guys so. Name's Rebecca, I don't know anything about Cerberus, or Reapers, but I can tell you that the Earth is on the brink of ending. Some really complicated stuff, if those guys, and you were looking for me because you were searching for someone I know, then yes, I might know who that is. So, I can lead you to him, just, really hope you guys are good people." Rebecca says.
"I can assure you we are ma'am." Chief says.
"Says the seven foot tall, intimidating looking...robot? Person in armor?" Rebecca says unsure of who or what Chief was.
"He's a human." Shepard says.
"Yeah, well either way, still kind of intimidating in that armor of yours. Come on, follow me." Rebecca says throwing her head to the right as she turns and begins to walk off. Shepard and the others exchanging looks with one another before following after her.
The rain continues pouring down all around "Don't suppose you can give me a little explanation to what's going on Commander? 'Cause I can already tell by the looks of you people and those guys back there that you definitely aren't from around here. Hell, not even from Earth. What are you guys like aliens or something, human aliens from another world?" Rebecca questions.
"Something along those lines. Ever heard of the multiverse theory?" Shepard asks.
"Yeah? Wait, don't tell me, are you guys from like an alternate universe or something? Cause if so that's cool, like beyond cool! Literally something straight out of a sci-fi movie and if you say yes, then yep, that's awesome!" Rebecca says.
"Well, yeah actually. That's pretty much it." Shepard replies.
"Oh man, is Shaun gonna be pissed. Fifty bucks here I come!" Rebecca says in a joyous tone.
Shepard raises an eyebrow at Rebecca's changed behavior, from scared to all but excited now at the aspect that they were from alternate universes. Let alone the fact she believed him right off the bat. "Sorry, you were saying." she says.
"Well yeah. But pretty much put it, like we said before, your world is in danger. In fact it's not the only one. There's a massive war going on, one that was at first confide to just my universe. But recently, it's begun spreading across the multiverse. Following this me and my team began working with our friend the Doctor here, in traveling across the multiverse in search of armies that fight for good, and not just them, but special people called Heroes as well." Shepard explains.
"Ah, so it's like one of those big good versus evil type things huh?" Rebecca asks.
"Yeah pretty much like that." the Doctor agrees.
"Well, that sounds cool and all. But if these Reapers are as dangerous as they sound, I'm kind of worried for my friend. He's not exactly super-powered person, he's a good fighter but that's about it." Rebecca says.
"No need to worry, not all the heroes we've recruited are people with superpowers. There are some heroes who just have their skills in combat to back themselves up." Tsukasa says.
Just then the group took notice of the rain begin to slow "Looks like the storm's letting up." Tigress says.
"Is this place we're going to much farther?" Shepard asks.
"Yeah shouldn't be much. Went out to get my friends some supplies…" Rebecca then realized something "Which I completely forgot back there…But anyways, on my way back I ran into one of those guys, managed to knock him out which is when the rest of his buddies showed up and started chasing me. Had to lead them away from our hiding place, just glad you people showed up when you did. Otherwise I probably would have been screwed back there."
"Heh, wouldn't be the first time we arrived just in time to help someone." James says.
"It's down over this cliff." Rebecca says jogging a few feet forward, stopping at the edge of a cliff and looking down as Shepard and the others walk up around her and also look down. It wasn't a big drop but still, from the height they were at if one weren't careful the fall could hurt them quite a bit.
"Oh that doesn't look so bad." Po says as the rain finally comes to an end.
"Don't go jinxing yourself Po." Troy says.
"Oh come on, my luck isn't that bad. Sure I got struck by lightning two times in the course of a few minutes, but look the storm's letting up. Besides, I'm pretty sure the same thing can't happen three times." Po says with confidence.
Just as then a bolt of lightning comes from out of nowhere striking Po, catching nearly everyone off guard "Huh, well what do you know." Marvelous says.
"Oh come on…" Po whimpers before falling over the side of the cliff.
Everyone watches over the side as Po begins to hit rock after rock on the way down "Ow, ow, ow, ouchy! Ah! Ooh! Eeh! AH!"
Silence for a few seconds…
"It's okay...my head broke my fall!" Po could be heard calling back up to them.
"And, how is he still alive?" Ashley questions looking over at Tigress who just shrugs her shoulders.
"Hey, kid. Let's make things easier shall we?" Marvelous asks Troy as he takes out a Ranger Key.
"Gokai Change."
"GOSEIGER!"
Transforming into Gosei Red as he now looks exactly identical to Troy "Whoa, that's cool." Rebecca says.
"I got yah." Troy says understanding what Marvelous was doing as both of them take out a Card, Troy placing his into his Morpher while Marvelous places his into the Tensouder "Tensou!" Marvelous yells as the two close their respective devices.
"Windrive!"
"Splash! Skick Power!"
The group of Heroes and Rebecca are suddenly enveloped by a large red whirlwind and disappear, the whirlwind travels over the cliff to the ground below as Po is seen recovering, the whirlwind touching down behind him before disappearing as the others reappear. Po turns and looks at them as he finishes dusting the dirt off him "Hey uh Shepard, permission to speak?" Po asks.
"Go ahead." Shepard replies.
"Can I return to the TARDIS?" Po asks in a pleading voice.
"Sure, if you want to climb back up there and make sure to avoid the Cerberus troops searching the area. And then wait outside since, well, no offense but, I can't exactly trust you not to screw the TARDIS up." Shepard replies with some humor in his tone.
"I concur with that last part." the Doctor adds in.
Po closes his eyes halfway, an annoyed look on his face "Fine, but if I get hit by lightning one more time I'm gonna have to request time off." he says.
"And I will say request denied, since we are fighting a war." Shepard says as he and the others walk past Po, Shepard patting him on the shoulder as he passes him.
"It's in here." Rebecca says as she leads the heroes into a nearby cave.
The heroes follow Rebecca as she leads them deeper into the cavern, the place was pitch black making Shepard and some of his team turn their flashlights on. The group soon came across what appeared to be a dead end, a wall with nothing more than some graffiti drawings on it, until they noticed Rebecca duck down and go underneath the wall, a part of it slightly raised up at the bottom. One by one the heroes follow going under the wall, Chief being the last one to enter as he ducked under the wall and walked through joining the others. Standing back up he noticed everyone was drawn towards something, walking past some of them to see what it was, he spotted what appeared to definitely be some sort of man-made structure, it looked like a big square, metallic building with the majority of it being dug deep into the dirt.
Luckily there did seem to be an opening just in front of the group as they already saw Rebecca casually walking in. Shepard motioned for the group to follow her in and as they approached the door they could hear some voices coming from inside "Ah, it's about time you returned. What took you so long, and more importantly where are our supplies?"
"Long story short I got chased. Lost the supplies." Rebecca could be heard saying.
"Abstergo?"
"Nope. Which leads me to something super important that I'm about to tell you." Rebecca says.
"What could be more important than our food supplies? We don't have much more left you know."
"Easy Shaun, I'm sure Rebecca didn't want to leave our supplies behind. But if she was getting chased you can't exactly blame her. And I'm sure what she's about to say is important."
"Eh, I'm pretty sure I can Desmond. Just a little bit. You could have tried harder to make sure we didn't lose our supplies. So, what is this important thing you have to tell us about?" a man with dark brown hair wearing glasses questions Rebecca. Around him were two more men, one of them a bit of an older gentleman with gray hair and a beard, the other around the glass wearing man's age with military shaved brown hair.
Just then the three men take notice of Commander Shepard and the other heroes as Rebecca looks back at them, the heroes coming to a stop "Hey Shaun, I think you owe me some money. Cause your mind is about to be blown." Rebecca says.
"You know, here I was thinking I had dealt with enough crazy shit as it is. And now, we have so called "heroes" and "alternate universes" and some big multiversal war going on and potentially coming to us. Man I really can't have a normal life can I?" Desmond Miles sarcastically remarks.
"You know, even after dealing with machines that can access the memories of our ancestors, and waging a secret war. Still can't accept the fact that the theory about there being a multiverse is true...nope. Won't, I can't accept it. It's...it's...it just can't be possible." Shaun Hastings says still in utter disbelief at everything he has just heard.
"Accept it, and pay me my fifty bucks already. Man I knew I should have raised the stakes!" Rebecca says.
Meanwhile Desmond's father, William Miles had his right hand to his chin in a thinking pose, he like everyone else taking in what had just been explained to them by the Commander and his group of heroes. "As if we didn't have enough to deal with. Now we have two possible end of the world scenarios coming our way." he says.
"Two end of the world scenarios?" Shepard questions, remembering how Rebecca saying the same thing when they first told her about the Reapers.
"You see Commander, this place you're standing in right now. Well, you're advanced enough to know that with this current century's level of technology we could never really build something like this." William says.
"I was going to question you about this place when we had finished our discussion. What exactly is all of this? It really does seem too advanced for humans of the 21st century." Liara says.
"Ah, well this place here is known as the Grand Temple. It belonged to an ancient and highly advanced humanoid race that we like to call the First Civilization." Shaun explains.
"The First Civilization?" EDI asks feeling like she had heard that name somewhere before.
"Yeah, though, they're actually known as the Isu just a heads up. In fact all of you have even met one of them already." the Doctor says.
"We have?" Garrus says confused.
"Yeah, Minerva." the Doctor says in a nonchalant way.
"..."
"WHAT!?" Everyone shouts at the same time in complete shock.
The Doctor looks at everyone slightly confused, until he realizes it "Oh~ yeah she never told you the name of her race. And based on your reactions" the Doctor says looking towards the Assassins "When Shepard and the others mentioned the name you probably didn't realize it was your Minerva. Yeah well it is." the Doctor then looks at Shepard and the other heroes "And for all of you, yes, this is actually Minerva's universe. And she and her people did live on Earth."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait...You're telling me. That this is ghost ladies home universe? And we're in one of her places right now?" James asks.
"Yeah." the Doctor says nodding his head "You can trust Shaun when he says that they are ancient, but man, man oh man were they really advance in terms of technology. In fact, believe it or not in this universe, the Isu were the ones who created the Human race itself."
"Really?" Troy asks in disbelief.
"Yep. The Isu, they were something. Unfortunately, as you already know, their creations, is what led to their undoing… Both in this universe, and when they tried to escape to an alternate universe." the Doctor says.
"Wait, so the First Civilization, they were able to create a device to transport themselves to an alternate universe?" Rebecca asks.
"That's right. When their human slaves rebelled, and the Isu started losing, escaping to an alternate universe was their only means of surviving when they discovered the theory of the multiverse was true. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong universe to travel to, during a horrible time…" the Doctor says.
"The Reapers cycle during my time." Javik says.
"That's right. The Isu really could have been something more had they just been careful with their creations." the Doctor says.
"But what does this have to do with this other world ending event?" Chief asks.
"...During the Human-Isu War, The Great Catastrophe occurred. Earth was hit by a coronal mass ejection, a solar flare. A significant release of plasma and magnetic field that affected the Earth's own magnetic field, flipping it and exposing the Earth to the Sun's deadly radiation. For weeks the Earth burned, earthquakes and other catastrophic blazes ravaged what remained of the planet. The surface of the Earth was rendered barren, and less than seventy-thousand humans, and even fewer Isu who had at this point made peace with each other to deal with this deadly disaster, survived. With their world seemingly ending, the Isu created their portal to another universe so they and the remaining Humans could find a new home. What they found instead, was something even more worse. By the time the Time Lords decided to intervene to set things straight, only ten-thousand humans remained, and the Isu who had slow reproduction rates, with those who remained it was an unfortunate fact that they weren't going to survive."
"With some help from us Time Lords, we set the Isu and this Humanity on the right path, the path they were supposed to go on until they decided out of nowhere to crack through the barriers of space and time. We helped put an end to the Great Catastrophe, and helped to rebuild the planet. We then helped the Isu in preparing this universe's humanity for a second Great Catastrophe, one that is to come on December twenty-first, twenty-twelve."
"The Mayan Calendar." Troy says having recognized that date from one of his history classes.
"That's right. Although unlike most other Earth's, in this universe, that date is actually true for something that could very well end the world." the Doctor continues.
"Something of which we are trying to prevent at the moment. But if these Reapers are coming, then even if we do prevent this Second Catastrophe it will still come in the form of them. If they are as powerful as you say they are." William says.
"So what does this place have to do with any of that?" Tigress asks.
"Supposedly the answers we are looking for that could save the Earth are located somewhere in this temple. Problem is getting to them. This place is like a maze, and that includes solving some puzzles, and getting keys to gain access to parts of the place. One of which is a key that leads to the device we're looking for, but we have absolutely no idea where said key is. Which is where my baby over there comes in." Rebecca says as she gestures over towards a strange looking contraption nearby.
"What's that supposed to be?" Tali asks.
"The Animus, or more precisely the Animus version 3.0." Rebecca says.
"The Animus?" Po asks.
"It's a virtual reality machine, one that allows the user to read a subject's genetic memory." Shaun explains.
"I don't understand a word of that but it sounds cool." Po says.
"To put it simple, it's a machine people can use to look at the memories of someone's ancestors that are passed down into the following generations through their DNA." Desmond says.
"So it's like a history viewing machine? Anyone that gets strapped up to that thing people can look at what their exact ancestors went through?" Troy asks.
"Precisely. Past events, anything that could have been lied about through history, any hidden information we don't know about. It can all be discovered through this machine." Shaun says.
"Incredible." Liara says in awe, already thinking about how such a device could literally change history, or add onto it. Just like Shaun said.
"Yeah, if only it were used for such purposes. But unfortunately, it hasn't been. There's a secret war going on in our world. One for the weapons left behind by the First Civilization, weapons that could change the world entirely in the wrong hands. And our people are trying to prevent that, though, in recent years, we've taken a huge loss in our numbers. There are us, the Assassins of the Assassin Brotherhood, and our enemy, the Templar Order." William begins to explain.
"Assassins?" Shepard questions.
"If you know what an assassin is, then there's no need to explain what it is we do. We do exactly that, we assassinate people, but only those who are members of our enemy, or those who assist them. We seek the weapons of the First Civilization, so that humanity can remain as they are now, individuals of their own free will. The Templars, they seek to create a new world order, one where all of humanity is shepherded by an enlightened society of people, them. They wish to take away all the free will of humanity." William says.
"One side trying to protect freedom, another side seeking to take freedom away. Sounds simple, and can tell who the good guys and the bad guys are." James says.
"Again, we're assassins though, so, you know. I wouldn't exactly consider us, heroic or good, or anything like that. We're just doing what's necessary to ensure everyone isn't enslaved by the Templars. If anything I would consider us somewhere in the lines between good and evil, a little gray area." Shaun says.
"You may not consider yourselves such, but in our eyes. What you're doing sounds like something the forces of good would fight for. Trust me, we literally have a group of pirates, no, scratch that, twogroups of pirates who don't really consider themselves heroes. But, their actions say otherwise." Shepard says.
"Nah, I'm just in it to kick these Reapers' ass'. Besides, can't be a pirate if there's no universe left to search for treasure." Marvelous speaks up.
"So, I'm the person you're searching for? Your "hero"?" Desmond asks.
As he says this none of the others notice the look on the Doctor's face as he looks at Desmond "I mean, hey, that must be a cool title to have and all but. Trust me, one I'm not a hero, and two, I know you've told me that you have guys who don't have powers who are heroes, they rely on their skills and all that. But I'm even that skilled in combat. I'm good, but not like insane good."
"Yep, can agree on that. Desmond is alright in combat but not exactly a professional assassin, and as for an army you're searching for you won't find one here. Like we said, our brotherhood is barely hanging on as it is, and we're more of the fighters from the shadows. We would probably get annihilated going into open combat against these Reapers." Shaun adds in.
"Right I probably should, step in now and tell you all what's really going on." the Doctor speaks up catching everyone's attention. "We're not here for Desmond."
"Wait, what?" Shepard says with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, I was going to tell all of you but, then decided it would save time telling everyone when we got here and all that. That way I wouldn't need to explain it two times. We're actually here, for Desmond's ancestors. The Assassin of the Medieval Crusades Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, the Assassin of the Italian Renaissance Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and the Assassin of the American Revolutionary War Ratonhnhake:ton, or, more easily known as Connor." the Doctor answers.
"Don't know why, but I had the strangest feeling you were going to say that." Tsukasa says.
"Wait, you're here for my ancestors?" Desmond questions.
"We're here for his ancestors?" Chief asks.
"Yeah~." the Doctor replies "I know, I know, you are all wondering why we are here in the present instead of traveling back in time to the time periods of which these three people lived in. And I can tell you I got an explanation for that...though it involves a lot of complex words so I will try to shorten and simplify it down to the best of my abilities."
Everyone turns their attention towards the Doctor "Time and Space is already in a wibbly wobbly bad state, with the Reapers attacking across the multiverse and what not. They're attacking every universe that they were never supposed to exist in, destroying places that were never supposed to be destroyed, killing people that shouldn't have been killed this early. By the time this is all over, and if we win, the grandfather paradoxes, which is when the past is changed causing problems in the future, are going to be tremendous. Obviously it won't be as bad as if the Reapers emerge victorious but, either way there's going to be a lot of bad fluctuations throughout time and space by the time this is all over. We're lucky that their attacks are restricted to just one part of time in each universe otherwise it would be worse."
"The reason we're coming here to the twenty-first century instead of picking up our assassin friends from their respective timelines like what we have been doing. Is because if we were to do such a thing, and with how much of an important role those three play through history even if it is relatively unknown to the public. Picking those three up from their timelines could cause even more paradoxes in this universe, with Cerberus here its obvious the Reapers won't be far behind and will attack this time otherwise things would already have changed when we got here. So picking those three up, and the Reapers attacking this part of this Earth's timeline, it could cause so much fluctuations that this entire universe. It would just go poof, and be no more."
"Poof?" Po says confused.
"Poof, just, gone." the Doctor says.
"But we've been to universes just before the Reapers attack." James says.
"Like I said, it's complicated. Put it simple we've been able to do what we have because we arrive just around the same time if not sometime after or even before the Reapers' arrival. There's that little piece of time where we won't cause too much damage to time and space in another universe because that piece also contains the arrival of the Reapers. But, if we go further back in time where everything is on track, well put it simple that's a different story. We go plucking people out from their time when everything is on track, killing people that shouldn't have been killed, and we're causing even more paradoxes. Cause too many paradoxes and time and space gets too bad that the universe just implodes on itself because of all the confusion and changes." the Doctor says.
"Yeah I literally didn't understand the majority of that. All I got is, picking up assassins from the past long before the Reapers arrive changing this universes timeline in the future, would be bad." Po says.
Tigress raises her eyebrows with a surprised look on her face as she looks at Po "I'm actually a bit surprised you got that out of what he said." she says.
"So, if we're not here for Desmond, but his ancestors. And if we can't go back in time picking them up from their respective timelines cause it could cause even more problems for this universe, then how do we recruit them?" Shepard asks.
"Well, luckily I came prepared. Remember those tubes that your Clone used to create the Clones of your friends?" the Doctor asks.
"Yeah?" Shepard says with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, during the whole battle after bringing in the Sentai for help. I snuck into the place and managed to get the schematics, and, well pretty much the whole workings of how those tube things worked." the Doctor answers.
"So, your plan is to create clones of the assassins?" Chief asks.
The Doctor takes in a breath "Yes, and no." he says as he begins making his way over to the Animus.
The answer nevertheless of course leaves everyone confused once more "Yes, in that they would be clones. But no, as at the same time they would not be."
"Could you try scrambling our brains anymore Doctor?" Garrus sarcastically questions.
"Obviously we don't have the time nor the stuff to create any sort of tube-like devices. Also, unlike the clones of Shepard's teammates I want these clones to retain the personality of these people, and not just their personality but their minds as well. I want these clones to be the real assassins." the Doctor says.
"Could you be any more cryptic Doctor?" Shepard questions.
"Actually yeah I could be but I'm not. I want these clones to actually feel like they are the real assassins and not just some clones. The same memories, personalities, skills, everything. Weapons, we would need to work on as well when we get back to the Infinity but save that for later of course. We're not going to give them robotic bodies or anything like that, rather, the plan is to do some tampering with the Animus and then using their DNA we create digital replicas of them." the Doctor says.
"Digital replicas? You mean Avatars, much like one of the Go-Busters friends, as well as their enemies?" Marvelous questions getting an idea as for what the Doctor was going for.
"Exactly! Thank you! Think of them as the avatars, except the majority of you don't know what the avatars are except Marvelous. Well, just that, data-based artificial lifeforms. Though at the same time more than just simple digital constructs. Like I said very confusing." the Doctor says.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on, I don't know if I should trust you with tampering with my animus. And even then would you really be able to use the animus as a, digital clone creating machine?" Rebecca says.
"With some tampering I can make it work. Then, there would just need to be one more thing we need. And that would be their DNA." the Doctor says.
"So, like my DNA?" Desmond asks.
"Ah, no. Sure while they are your ancestors, if I were to use your DNA it wouldn't make the clones one-hundred percent them. No, in order to create these digital clones of your assassin ancestors, we're gonna need their actual DNA. Like from the real-deal assassins." the Doctor answers.
"I guess that's where we come in?" Chief questions.
"Precisely Chief! I've already come up with the plan, using the TARDIS' portal gun, and doing some linking up with the Animus so I can send all of you to the right place. Three teams will enter the portals that will lead to one of the years our assassin friends were in their prime. Once there, the teams will then search for our assassin friends, find them and for the best result we are going to need a blood sample, so I'll give you lot a container for that drop of blood. Once you have that drop of blood, just, return through the portal. Hopefully by then I will have the animus all ready to go, and we can create our real-looking and feeling assassin clones, complete with their full memories of their times, their full set of skills, and their real personalities." the Doctor explains.
"Ah, yes. Also, humans or, at the least human-looking aliens only. Sorry but, people in medieval times, the renaissance, and the American revolutionary war, wouldn't really be accustomed to seeing non-human looking aliens from other worlds. Could cause a stir that we don't need. In fact either way, best situation when the teams get to their destinations would be to find some cloaks to hide your futuristic looking armor, again don't want to cause a stir." the Doctor says.
"Alright, then me, James, and Ashley will be one team. Chief, Tsukasa, you'll be team two; Troy, Marvelous team three." Shepard quickly says.
"Oh, and one more thing. Unless the enemy is being engaged by our assassins try not to kill anyone. Again messing up space and time, killing people that shouldn't have died too early, and all of that." the Doctor says.
"So find our assassins, try not to kill anyone unless its people already being attacked by them since that means they would have died anyways, and then get their blood samples. Doesn't sound tough, especially since we won't be encountering any Reapers or Cerberus during the search." Marvelous says.
"You know, if we're going to need their blood it would probably make sense to show them that we're friendly and also explain to them the situation. Make things easier, and if they do retain their memories then when they're brought to life, or the clones are, then they'll know what's going on." Troy suggests.
"Good idea." Ashley says.
"Alright, anymore questions?!" The Doctor shouts clapping his hands together.
Po raises his hand "Yeah, what about the rest of us?"
"Keep on lookout, Cerberus is still out there after all looking for this place. And the last thing we need is one of them getting through any of the portals. One Cerberus trooper alone can cause damage in the past with their armor and weapons." Chief says.
"Sounds like a plan." Garrus says.
"Guess we really don't have a lot to say in this. But, hey, if we can help in anyway just ask us. We may not be able to help much in your war, but here, we can do something at the least." Desmond says.
After calling the TARDIS to the Grand Temple, the Doctor works fast to get things set up, setting up a more portable version of his Portal Cannon beside the TARDIS and hooking it up to the Animus to get the precise coordinates he needs. Rebecca set the coordinates in while the Doctor explained to the traveling human or human-like heroes where they were going to be going.
"Shepard, you and your team will be sent to the Medieval ages, year 1195. The assassin you're looking for is Altair Ibn-La'Ahad. You should be arriving at the outskirts of the coastal city of Acre, according to the database Altair was in the city searching for a Templar Commander who was attempting to flee with some valuable information." the Doctor says.
"Chief, you and Tsukasa are going after Ezio, the Italian Renaissance assassin, I would have suggested against you going, but, you may be able to get passed off as one of those big brute soldiers just with some weird looking armor so we're good. Plus, if you wear a cloak you'll hide the majority of your armor anyway. So back to the point at hand, you're going to be getting dropped off near the city of Valencia in Spain in 1507. Ezio is searching for a target and overhears about a Templar Commander who might know where he is and seeks him out for the information he holds. Thing is, he's held up in a heavily guarded base so, perhaps you two might be able to lend him some help."
"Finally Troy, and Marvelous, that leaves you two with the Native American assassin who helps the Continental Army during the American Revolution, Connor. You're going to be landing in the winter of 1780 near New York, around this time Connor is working with the Continental Army to take a massive British fort, he needs help clearing the forest area around it and then assistance in helping secure the fort for the Continental Army as well as his search for someone with information regarding one of his targets. Like I said, don't kill anyone unless our assassin friends are there, don't cause a stir since we don't need people remembering any of you, find the assassins, get their drops of blood and come back here." the Doctor finishes explaining.
"Sounds like a plan." Shepard says.
"How will we know who we're looking for?" Troy asks.
"Ah, right. Here you go." the Doctor says handing three small photographs to the three teams, each of them having a picture of the assassin they were looking for.
"So, look for guys wearing white robes for the most part. Alright, shouldn't be hard." James says.
"You know, us assassins are really good at blending into our surroundings." Desmond says.
"How? You guys practically stand out wearing those white robes, in our times you would look super suspicious. Only way you're blending in is if there's a place filled with people wearing white robes." James says.
"Alright, coordinates are set. Let's fire that baby of yours up." Rebecca says.
The Doctor walks over to the Portal Cannon, after confirming the following coordinates he presses a button causing the machine to fire three small orbs. The three orbs travel apart from each other and float a few feet forward before forming into three portals "Alright Shepard you and your team, your portal is the left, Chief and Tsukasa center, Troy and Marvelous right."
"Alright people, try and make this quick. Find your assassin, gain his trust, explain everything, get the blood sample and return. Remember, no unnecessary casualties. Don't want to mess this universe's timeline up more than it's already about to be." Shepard says.
With this the three teams head towards their respective portals and enter them. "Well," Garrus speaks up taking in a breath "Now to just wait. So who wants first guard duty?"
"I'll take it. And if anything happens, you'll know." Tigress says.
"Alright. We'll rotate every hour, Po." Garrus says looking at him, but then hesitates for a second "On second thought, never mind. Javik, you'll take guard duty next." he says as Javik nods his head.
"Doctor, make sure your contraption doesn't get messed up. Last thing we need is Shepard and the others getting stuck in these different time periods." Garrus says.
"You got it." the Doctor replies.
Troy and Marvelous exit the other side of their portal. Coming to a stop the two take a look at their surroundings to find themselves in another forest covered with snow that reaches up halfway to their knees. "So, where to?" Troy asks Marvelous.
Suddenly gunshots ring out into the air catching their attention "There's our start." Marvelous says as the two head off.
After trudging through the snow for a few minutes, the two Red's spot a group of people up ahead and quickly duck behind a knocked over tree for cover. The two slowly peek their heads out over their cover "Reload!" a man shouts as a group of British Redcoats begin to reload their muskets.
"British soldiers." Troy quietly says to Marvelous.
"Looks like we found a camp." Marvelous says.
Sure enough before the two was a medium-sized British camp, a few tents pitched up, some training dummies, along with a few firepits going to keep the soldiers warm as the place was swarming with British troops. Some who were sitting or standing around the campfires, others who were just walking around the place "If what the Doctor said was true, our assassin is helping your American soldiers to take a fort. And if he sent us to the right place we should be close by." Marvelous says.
"Thing is, which way is it from here?" Troy questions.
"Hmph," Marvelous grunts with a smirk "Perhaps these fellas can point us in the right direction." he says as he stands up.
Troy however pulls him back down before he can do anything "What are you doing?!" he questions.
Marvelous looks at Troy with an annoyed look on his face "One, don't ever touch me again. Two, getting information." he states.
"And how were you going to do that? Remember what the Doctor said? Don't cause a stir, and don't kill unless the assassin is here. We have to try our best and make sure we don't change history anymore then it's about to be when the Reapers arrive in the modern day." Troy says.
"What are you talking about, the Doctor said this assassin guy was going to clear out the area around this fort anyways. We'd be helping him with the process." Marvelous says.
"We don't know that. Unless we see this Connor guy himself, no, killing!" Troy states with a serious tone in his voice.
"Fine then, I'll just knock them out while asking for information, one of them has to say something eventually." Marvelous says.
"And if these guys recover before the attack on the fort, or one of them slips away without us knowing, they warn the fort and they'll be ready for the Continental Army's attack and Connor's because they'll think we're spies. Connor's target could get away, and the American Army could lose the battle." Troy says.
"So what do you suggest we do? Huh?" Marvelous questions him.
Troy looks back at the camp, he scans through the place for a few seconds before spotting what he was searching for "There." he says pointing as Marvelous follows this to see a tent with a wooden table inside.
"A command tent, surely there's got to be some maps in there or some kind of information. We sneak in, get a quick peek at the map, and get out without anyone noticing." Troy says.
"Tch, fine. Do it the boring way." Marvelous says, scoffing with displeasure in his voice.
Troy shakes his head a little, slightly annoyed by Marvelous' attitude before beginning to make his way to the left.
Two British Redcoats walk by the entrance to the command tent, behind the tent beside it Troy peeks his head out and seeing the cost clear, walks up to the side of the command tent. Behind him Marvelous casually walks on out with his arms crossed as Troy places his head up to the tent to listen in on if anyone's inside, not hearing anything Troy lifts the flap up and gets inside. Sure enough, right in front of him was a wooden table along with various papers, letters, and a map of the area. Troy walks up to the table and turns the map around as he quickly begins studying it, meanwhile Marvelous just casually walks in through the front of the tent, his arms still crossed.
Troy notices this and looks at him "Did you just walk in through the front?" he asks.
"Yeah, what about it?" Marvelous says.
Troy rolls his eyes and shakes his head before getting back to looking at the map "Alright, well this'll make things easy. Looks like they built their fort right next to a river a few miles northeast of here." he says.
Marvelous walks over to the table and begins looking over some of the other paperwork "If there's an attack they'll be expecting it from the land. So if we swim in from the river and scale up their wall from the back, there probably won't be a lot of guards to deal with." Troy says.
"May want to rethink that." Marvelous speaks up catching Troy's attention.
"According to this paper looks like they're going to have two ships in the river as support. Just in case they are attacked by the Continental Army. So even if we do sneak in your army is gonna have some trouble attacking the place since they'll get bombarded from the fort and the river."
"It's gonna be a massacre… There has to be something we can do." Troy says.
"Wouldn't that be messing with time?" Marvelous questions with a hint of quipping in his words.
Troy looks at Marvelous with anger in his eyes, Marvelous is unfazed by this and eventually Troy looks away taking in deep breath before releasing. He was unfortunately right…"I got the location of the other nearby camps. Connor should be at one of them so let's head out." Troy says.
Just then a shot rings out, both Red's turn their heads as the British Redcoats begin yelling various things and more shots ring out. "Sounds like they got company." Marvelous says as Troy rushes towards the entrance and looks outside.
The British troops were all rushing towards one particular location as the sounds of weapons clashing could be heard. Troy and Marvelous walk out of the tent and quietly sneak closer to the fight that was going on, until finally they are able to get eyes on exactly what was going on. A Native American man in a dress uniform with the upper body featuring a hood with a beaked tip, the hood was connected to the robes, which featured blue lining along the torso. The lower part of the robes were layered at the back, around the waist was a thin red sash fastened with an Assassin insignia, as well as a belt holding two pistol holsters and a pouch; footwear consisted of brown boots with leggings that extended past the man's knees. Was engaging the British soldiers with what looked like a Tomahawk in close quarters.
"Think that's our guy." Marvelous says.
The assassin known as Ratonhnhake:ton, or more easily Connor, used his Tomahawk to push away a British soldier's bayonet, allowing him to then drive his dagger into the side of his head killing the soldier before kicking his body away. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's help him out." Marvelous says as he rushes forward.
"No wait!" Troy yells but is too late.
This attracts the attention of the closest British soldiers who turn around to see a man in strange clothing charging towards them "To our rear!" one of them yells.
"Gokai Change!" Marvelous yells.
A group of British soldiers fire their muskets at Marvelous "GOKAIGER!"
Using his saber Marvelous blocks the majority of the shots while a few of the musket balls hit him, but he barely even feels them.
"What black magic?!" One of the British soldiers yell out in absolute shock as Marvelous engages them, one of the soldiers throwing his bayonet forward as Marvelous knocks it aside with his sword and sidekicks him in the stomach.
Troy stands up, a worried look on his face as behind him another group of British soldiers appear "A spy!" one of them yell catching Troy's attention.
"Take aim!" the officer yells as the soldiers form up in a line and take aim at Troy.
Troy's eyes widen as he quickly takes out his morpher and card "Fire!" the British fire.
"Go, Go, Megaforce!"
At the last second Troy morphs into his suit as the rounds hit, like Marvelous the shots not even affecting him in the slightest as he rolls forward and jumps into the air, extending his right leg as he comes down and kicks one of the British soldiers in the chest knocking him back. The British soldiers spread out around Troy as one of them jabs at him with his bayonet, Troy spins around grabbing the front of the rifle as he dodges the blade and drops to the ground pulling the British soldier over him. Troy lifts and spins his feet around keeping the British soldiers back and allowing him to jump back onto his feet and follow with a back kick to a British soldier behind him. Another Redcoat charges him from the front prompting Troy to kick him in the knee, knocking him to the ground face forward.
Connor knocks away a Redcoat's bayonet, hearing the sounds of combat behind him he turns around to spot two strangers in strange red garb fighting more British soldiers. He is only able to get a quick glance in before he is forced to look back forward to dodge an officer's sword.
Marvelous swings his saber sweeping a Redcoat off his feet, turning around he raises his weapon blocking an officer's saber as Marvelous takes out and spins his gun before firing it a few times into the officer's stomach taking him out. As the officer falls Marvelous raises his weapon and fires again taking out two charging soldiers.
Troy vaults over a British officer's sword rolling onto his back, a British grenadier greets him with a raised axe as Troy quickly rolls to his left to dodge the weapon as the grenadier brings it down hitting the snow. Troy swings his left leg kicking the grenadier in the back sending him flying into the snow, Troy gets onto his knees and takes out his blaster as he takes aim and fires taking out multiple Redcoats. A British soldier charges him from behind, but Troy turns around and kicks his bayonet away before driving his Dragon Sword right into the soldier's chest making him take in a sharp breath. As Troy catches his breath, he looks at the face of the British redcoat, and is taken aback as inside his helmet his eyes widen.
Blood dripped out from the sides of the young British soldier's mouth, the soldier looking to be around Troy's age, a look of fear in his eyes as Troy continues to look on at the face of the soldier before he finally falls over and dies. Troy takes two steps back as he looks down at the lifeless corpse of the soldier, going completely still while the fighting continues to happen behind him. Marvelous strikes down another British soldier before taking notice of Troy's frozen state "Hey! Kid!" he calls out, but Troy doesn't respond or even move.
Marvelous then spots a grenadier and officer charging Troy while he is frozen and quickly blasts them with his gun taking them out and finally catching Troy's attention as he spins around. Unfortunately doing this causes Marvelous to let his guard down as an officer suddenly rushes up to Marvelous from behind and fire his pistol point blank into the back of Marvelous' head. Marvelous cries out in pain and clutches the back of his head as he stumbles forward falling onto his knees "Marvelous!" Troy calls out.
"Why you!" Marvelous says in anger as he retaliates and without looking shoots the officer a few times while still holding his head. The shot may not have penetrated his helmet, but from that close it still hurt quite a bit.
Meanwhile Connor drives his tomahawk right into the head of the final British soldier, kicking the lifeless body to the ground Connor looks around as everything goes silent, the bodies of the dead British soldiers littering the grounds of the entire campsite. Troy rushes over to Marvelous and crouches down beside him "Marvelous, you alright?" he asks.
"Yeah. Damn bastard shot me at point blank, hurt like a son of a bitch. No thanks to you by the way." Marvelous says rubbing the back of his head as he looks at Troy.
Troy looks away "Sorry about that."
Marvelous stands up "Whatever." he says as Troy stands up with him.
Just then the two hear the sounds of flintlock pistols being cocked and turn to see the assassin Connor aiming two flintlock pistols at them "Speak of who you are, and what it is you are doing here." he demands.
Marvelous sighs "Go ahead and shoot us all you want. You're just going to end up like these poor bastards if you do so."
"You're not helping the situation." Troy says looking at Marvelous before turning towards Connor raising his arms "Look, we're not here to hurt you. We're here to help."
1195…
Everywhere they looked, it was almost like the color had been drained from this time in the world. The sky, the buildings, all grey; the civilian clothing no matter if it was red, yellow, all of them looked like the brightness had been drained from them leaving everyone's clothing to be very dull-looking. Then there was the people, almost everywhere they looked the people looked like they were in misery, the streets were crowded with people and soldiers walking all over the place, the sick and injured lined up alongside the buildings where barely anybody seemed to care for them.
"God, seeing all of this makes me sick. Poor people." Ashley says.
"Nothing we can do for them Ash. This is how things were back then, still is back home but luckily not this bad." Shepard says.
Garbed in brown robes Shepard, Ashley, and James silently made their way through the crowds of the city of Acre in their search for their assassin, Altair Ibn-La'Ahad. "This place is huge, how are we supposed to find our guy?" James questions.
"According to the Doctor his target was attempting to flee with information. What better way to flee then by across the ocean. Which means his target has to go to the docks." Shepard says.
"Yeah, problem is, a city this big there's going to be a lot of boats out there Skipper. How do we know which one he's going to take?" Ashley asks.
"Look for any big ship with a lot of armed guards. I don't think these people really know the meaning of being discreet. We find the boat, we find the Templar target, we find the target, we find our assassin." Shepard answers.
Unbeknownst to the three, from a nearby rooftop a figure in a white robe with the hood shaped like an eagle's beak in the center, a red sash around the waist with pouches and a sword sheath, and scabbards containing knives on the right shoulder, stood. His eyes following the three as they made their way through the crowd, in his eyes seeing the three surrounded by a blue glowing aura.
1507…
In contrast to Acre, the city of Valencia was full of color and life. The sun shined brightly onto the city bringing to life the colors of the city, the citizens of Valencia, Spain, were all full of life as they went about their daily lives. Standing next to a shadowy alleyway appeared to be a doctor, clad in the normal black cloak with a beak-shaped mask, his arms crossed as he casually looked around "So, what'd you learn?" Chief asks from the shadows of the alleyway.
The doctor lifts his mask revealing Tsukasa in the getup "Doctor wasn't wrong, the area's heavily guarded. Archers on all the rooftops, heavy soldiers backed up by two regular soldiers guarded each and every entrance. The whole area could be considered a fortress with the number of soldiers guarding the place. If the Templar target for Ezio is at the center of the place, getting to him won't be easy." Tsukasa says.
"I just hope what we're doing doesn't really mess up the timeline like the Doctor said." Chief says.
"As long as we don't do anything too big, the timeline should be fine. Besides, what other choice do we have, I'm sure not even the Doctor knows exactly who's supposed to die and who's supposed to live unless it's a recorded event in history. As long as we don't end up getting plastered onto wanted posters or a newspaper report sometime in the future. We should be fine." Tsukasa says.
"Let's hope so." Chief says.
"So, now what?" Tsukasa asks.
"Simple, we wait. Once he shows up, we make our move." Chief replies.
"Got yah. But how do you know he's going to come from this direction exactly?" Tsukasa says.
"If he's smart, he'll attack the weakest point in their defenses. Which would be here, no ground troops to see him coming, and only two archers on the rooftop. What's more, the two archers seem to have a certain route they make when walking back and forth up there. One that leaves them looking away from each other. If he's smart and good, the moment they look away is when he can strike, take one of them out, and then quickly take the other out before he notices it." Chief explains.
"Well, you are the soldier so. If you say so." Tsukasa says.
1780…
"What you two speak sounds like a bunch of nonsense, if not crazy." Connor says with his arms crossed as he leans against a tree.
In front of him Troy sits against a tree while Marvelous leans back against another with his arms crossed, the two de-morphed "I bet it does to your primitive mind. No offense, but it is true since you haven't seen anything yet." Marvelous says.
Connor turns slightly towards him while Troy is already looking at him before looking back at Connor and rolling his eyes "To put it in a more nicer way, I can understand. A lot of the stuff we've talked about, for someone from your time sounds, insane, since a lot of what we've said are of things that you've never even heard of. Or anyone for that matter. Concepts that have yet to be fully explored, and probably not for another number of years. But we're telling the truth."
Connor turns towards Troy, using his Eagle Vision Connor could see both the strange man and young boy were surrounded by a light blue aura, usually this colored aura signified to him that they were both friendly. However what these two were spouting was complete and utter nonsense, unless they were telling the truth and what they were saying really was something he could just not comprehend. Still, nowadays Connor found it quite difficult to trust anyone except those very close to him, he had to be careful and this would not be an exception. If they truly were seeking to be allies with him, he had to make sure first.
"Alright. Tell you what. You want to earn my trust, make me believe all of this crazy nonsense you speak of? If you're truly on my side, then you wouldn't mind helping me in an upcoming battle." Connor says.
"The assault on the British fort." Troy says realizing where he was going with this.
"Yes. Help me, and I will give you what you want and help you." Connor says.
Marvelous shrugs his shoulders "Sure, sounds easy enough." he says straightening himself as he takes a few steps to his right "So when do we get started?"
"First I will need to deliver the information from that command tent to the Continental Army. They need to know what is in store for them should they attack. And knowing them, they will ask me for help in dealing with those ships, which is where the two of you can come in so I can deal with my target." Connor says.
"Alright. We can do that." Troy says.
"Just make sure you don't get in my way." Connor says before straightening himself, turning and walking off.
"I can tell we're all going to be great friends." Marvelous sarcastically says before he and Troy begin to follow after him.
Back in the Grand Temple…
Javik leans against the wall close to the doorway as he patiently waits for his turn to take guard duty, Liara and EDI are seen with Shaun looking at some of the scripting of the First Civilization on some walls, Po is fast asleep sitting against a giant cube while Desmond appears to be speaking to his father. The Doctor and Rebecca talk around her Animus.
With nothing much else interesting to do Garrus found a spot for himself and went about simply disassembling, cleaning, and then reassembling his weapons "Doing some "recalibrations" over here Vakarian?"
Garrus looks up to see Tali walking towards him "Don't see why not. Not much else to do around here until Shepard and the others get back. Liara and EDI are talking with Shaun about the First Civilization, sounded boring, Po's asleep and I'm not tired, Javik is being himself and Tigress is on guard duty." he says as Tali stops in front of him.
"Okay." Tali says putting a hand to her hip "And what about me?"
"Well, I mean, you are here now aren't you? Which is what I figured would happen so, save me the energy." Garrus says with some humor in his tone.
"Wow, what a gentleman. Instead of walking over to your girl to make sure she is okay, you make the girl walk over to you." Tali says acting like she was annoyed.
"Ah~ I see, so you don't want the cool, badass Garrus. You want the gentleman Garrus. Well, I can do that." Garrus says putting his reassembled sniper aside and getting onto one knee as he grabs Tali's other hand "M'lady, what is it you desire of me?" Garrus says trying to act all gentleman like.
Tali can't help but chuckle though at how ridiculous he sounded and looked right now "Alright, alright the "cool", and "badass" Garrus can come back." she says.
"Ah, thank you I don't know how much longer I would have been able to go on with that act." Garrus says acting relieved as he sits back down against the pillar.
Tali follows and sits down right next to him taking in a deep breath before releasing it audibly "How in the world did we get here?" Tali asks.
Garrus look at her "Well, we came here in the TARDIS, and then-"
"No, no, not that. Smartass. I'm talking about...you know." Tali says.
Garrus narrows his eyes a bit confused by what she was talking about "Hm?" until it finally hit him "Oh! That...well...I mean…" Garrus scratched the back of his head while slowly looking around. That question taking him a bit off guard.
"I remember going into the main battery to talk to you about the upcoming battle, you know before this whole multiversal thing started...and the next thing I know you're throwing yourself on me." Tali says.
"Wait what? Oh no, no, no, I specifically remember it was you throwing yourself on me." Garrus retorts.
"Hm~, no, I remember it going my way." Tali says.
"You and I both know this is going to just keep going back and forth until one of us finally admits to the truth. And I can do this all day so, just give up now while you're ahead." Garrus humorously says.
"Fine, fine. Still though, how'd it all come to that?" Tali questions.
"W-Well, I mean. You and I had been through a lot, and call me crazy but I'm pretty sure we're both the only ones to have been with Shepard through, well everything in recent times. I would say all that time working together did bring us close to one another, and then we started those talks in between missions and...well...yeah." Garrus says.
"Yeah, I guess." Tali agrees.
Both Garrus and Tali go silent, both looking around, Garrus clearing his throat while Tali tweedles with her thumbs "Do you think, all of this happened because, you know the big final battle was coming and we both just wanted to...I don't know maybe have something just in case everything went sideways?" Tali says breaking the silence.
"I mean...maybe?" Garrus says.
"We...we really have been through a lot together that's for sure. Fighting Saren, the Collectors, the Reapers, and now "the forces of evil" across the multiverse. And I would say you and me make a really good team, a good duo. You got the skills at long range, I can cover you when things get close." Tali says.
"Oh yeah, I mean you've saved my ass plenty times, quite literally too when I'm on the sniper." Garrus says.
"And, you've really saved me a lot to, especially as of recent. Thank you for all those times you've put yourself in harm's way for me." Tali says.
"Hehe, we're teammates, friends, it's what we do for each other." Garrus says.
"Yeah, of course." Tali says letting out a nervous chuckle at the end.
Once again silence from the two of them for a few seconds.
"Hey Garrus. Is this...is this…"thing" we have really just a fling? Or...do you think there could be something, more. Between us?" Tali asks.
Garrus looks at Tali, the two remain silent as they just stare at each other "I'm, not really an expert to these sort of things but. I feel that, maybe with the possibility of death at the door, you know before the whole final battle when we were about to go all in and whatnot. Maybe that whole thing, the possibility of what could happen, maybe it gave our hearts that little spark to go do something maybe deep down we've...always wanted to do?"
"You think?" Tali asks.
"Like I said, not an expert when it comes to these things. Not like I've done it before or anything." Garrus says.
"Yeah, hehe, same here so. Maybe. But, that doesn't really answer the question. What you said back there in the Forbidden Forest, about how nothing can keep you from protecting me. Did you mean that in a teammate, friend sort of thing or…" Tali says.
"I think…I think we should just. Let things play out, see how they go. I believe that's how these sort of things work. What do you think?" Garrus asks.
Tali looks away lowering her head "I think...I think that's a great idea. Yeah. Let's see how things go." she agrees. Garrus looks down, Tali's right hand was planted on the ground right next to her. After a few seconds Garrus slowly moves his left hand towards it, he hesitates for a second before finally moving forward and placing his hand on her's, catching Tali's attention "Alright. Sounds like a plan." Garrus says.
Garrus looks away, trying to hide the small hint of blush that was slowly appearing on his cheeks. Tali looks down at Garrus's hand, she kind of liked the feeling that was slowly coursing through her body, her heart was pumping quite quickly and if it wasn't for her mask hiding the blush that was now appearing on her cheeks would have been quite difficult. Just then Tali decided to scoot closer to Garrus, and lean her head on his shoulder, she could feel him tense up a bit but then relax after a few seconds "Yeah. And you know what, I kind of like what I've experienced so far."
1195…
A large boat was indeed docked at the far end of the harbor, a large number of heavily armed guards patrolling around it and on deck. "Looks like we found the boat." Ashley says as she, Shepard, and James stood in a circle close to the harbor trying to act like they were having a normal conversation whilst looking around.
"Like the Doctor said, all the soldiers around it are free to kill. Still, last thing we need is spooking these people with our gunshots. So silenced pistols only." Shepard says.
"Think we'll find our guy there?" James asks.
"We don't have much else to go on other then what the Doctor told us. If his target is there, then he'll be there as well." Shepard answers.
"So, how do we approach this? Just walk up and start gunning them down or~?" Ashley asks.
"Let's try and get close, and if you spot our guy give the signal and weapons free." Shepard says.
"What'll the signal be?" James asks.
"When guys start dropping what else?" Ashley says.
1507…
Tsukasa still in the doctor get-up continued looking around, his eyes scanning the rooftops for any signs of their assassin friend, Chief meanwhile kept his eyes close to the ground, darting from one person to another, especially at anyone in white as he kept to the shadows of the alley. Tsukasa's eyes darted to the right as he spotted a white-robed figure, but it was an elderly man walking away, Chief looked to the left and spotted a large group of people in robes, none of them matching the description of their assassin.
Tsukasa looked back at the rooftop with the archers, and they were both gone "Chief." he calls to him.
Chief immediately looks at the rooftop, and for a split second he could swear he saw someone drop down onto the other side "Looks like he's already in." Chief says as he starts moving.
"He's good." Tsukasa says slightly impressed as he begins walking towards the building as well.
A Templar soldier wandered near a haystack piled into wooden cart, without warning he was grabbed, stabbed in the throat and pulled in without anyone noticing. Ezio Auditore da Firenze emerged from the cart and looked around, not spotting anymore Templar troops he silently made his way forward.
"So how should we begin helping him?" Tsukasa, already henshined asks as he and Chief watch him head off from the rooftop.
"Take out the archers, if the situation goes south that'll lessen the load on him." Chief says.
"And when it does we'll jump down and give him some assist?" Tsukasa asks.
"Obviously." Chief replies.
"And what if things don't go wrong?" Tsukasa asks.
"Assassino!" a male voice cries out in terror.
"Take care of the archers, I'll help our assassin friend out." Chief says as he drops down to the ground, taking out his M6C/SOCOM pistol and rushing off.
"Well I ain't complaining." Tsukasa says as he takes out two cards.
"Kamen Ride: Kabuto!"
Chief slowly moves alongside a wall "Just as predicted Assassino, you fell right for my double. And now, you are surrounded." Chief peeks out around the corner of the building to see Ezio surrounded on all sides by Templar soldiers, and heavies, one of the soldiers was a bit further from Ezio and didn't have his sword out.
"When I deliver your head to Cesare, he will reward me greatly." the Templar Commander says in delight "Now, off with his head!" he yells as Ezio quickly draws his sword.
"Attack Ride: Clock Up!"
Before the archers can release their arrows, every single one of them finds themselves knocked up into the air by an invisible, and powerful force, the screams of them catching everyone else's attention as all they see are the archers flying in the air before dropping right back down onto the ground.
"What trickery is-" the Templar Commander is then cut off by the sounds of his men dying, as he turns to see multiple of them begin dropping without warning as a massively cloaked figure emerges from the shadows. A strange item that almost looked like a pistol in his right hand, but instead of one this gun seemed to firing off multiple shots with no signs of ending.
A Templar soldier attacks Ezio while he is distracted by this, Ezio however hears him coming and turns around in time to block his sword, push it around in a circle and recover fast enough to then drive his blade into the soldier's stomach. Another soldier charges him forcing Ezio to push the dead body away and knock the attacking soldier's sword away allowing him to follow-up with slicing his throat with one of his hidden blades.
The Templar Commander turns to run away, when Decade appears in front of him still as Kabuto, before reverting back to his normal form "Hello." Tsukasa says.
"Protect me you fools!" the Templar yells while backing up in a panic, as two soldiers rush in from behind him towards Tsukasa.
The first soldier reaches Tsukasa and swings his sword only for Tsukasa to easily block it and kick the soldier away while the second brings his sword back to bring down on the strange armored foe. Tsukasa simply blocks it as the sword comes down and pushes it back as he then slashes the soldier across the chest and without looking drives his sword with both hands to his right into the first soldier sending the blade right through his stomach.
One of the Brutes attack Chief bringing his heavy, two-sided battle axe down on the Spartan. With one hand though Chief easily stops it catching the blade in his hand, as he puts his pistol to the brute's stomach and fires the remaining five bullets into him, easily penetrating through the heavy armor. Chief kicks the brute's body sending him flying into a group of soldiers while also managing to take the axe from his hand; another soldier comes up from behind Chief and brings his sword down. Only for the blade to break upon coming into contact with Chief's back taking the soldier aback as he raises what's left of his sword to his face in shock, Chief then backhands him with his arm sending him right into a nearby wall.
With the axe Chief looks over at Ezio to see a brute coming at him from his left side, grabbing the axe by the handle Chief throws it right at the brute sending right into the side of his head. Ezio cuts down another Templar soldier as he turns and sees the brute ready to counter, only for the brute to drop to the ground as he notices the axe and looks over at Chief. Tsukasa approaches the Templar Commander as he backs up against a wall "Who, who are you people?!" he questions out of fear.
"Just a passing through Kamen Rider...plus one Spartan. Remember that." Tsukasa replies.
Chief reaches under his cloak and brings out his Suppressed SMG "Get down!" he calls out to Ezio who looks back at him. After a second the Master Assassin listens and drops to the ground as Chief brings his gun up, and opens fire on full auto. The Templar soldiers stand no chance against the barrage of .197 caliber rounds as they tear right through any piece of clothing and armor they have on, Chief fires into the group of Templar soldiers to his left leaving the ones on his right in a state of utter shock and terror. His magazine running dry Chief pulls it out and quickly reloads turning his attention to the soldiers on the right, none of them barely able to say a thing as Chief unloads on them, cutting every single one of them down in just a few seconds.
Once the gunfire dies down, Ezio lifts his head and looks around, all the Templar soldiers before him were now lying in pools of their own blood.
"What manner of a weapon…" Ezio quietly says to himself in complete shock.
"You alright?" Ezio turns around to see the giant hooded figure standing over him, a hand held down towards him. With the sun to the figure's back Ezio could see inside the hood, and saw a strange helmet of sorts with what appeared to be a large golden visor covering the man's face.
Ezio hesitated at first, but then decided to accept the strange, large man's help as he grabbed his hand and found himself quickly lifted onto his feet "I am alright. I thank you for assisting me, whoever or...whatever you people are." Ezio says.
Chief lowers his hood allowing Ezio to get a good look at his helmet "Call me Master Chief, that over there is Tsukasa Kadoya." Chief says nodding over at Tsukasa upon mentioning his name.
"You can also call me Decade, Kamen Rider Decade." Tsukasa adds in while walking over to the two, the Templar Commander in his right hand as he throws him onto his knees.
"Who are you people?! What are you?! Demons?! I will pay you whatever you want if you are not with this assassino!" the Templar pleads in absolute terror.
"Strange names you both possess. Who are you people, really? While I thank you for helping me, at the same time I still need some explanation if I am to trust you. It is obvious you are here for a reason, and that would be me." Ezio says.
"You could say that. But I suggest we take this out of the open, don't want to risk anymore soldiers coming by for a surprise visit." Chief suggests.
1780…
While Connor went to the camp of the Continental Army to deliver the stolen documents on the defensive strength of the fort, Troy and Marvelous waited near the outskirts some distance away, keeping out of sight and off the path so as to not catch any unwanted attention. Ever since Connor left the two had said absolutely nothing to one another, they just sat or stood around in complete silence. Troy had found some berries from a nearby bush and after confirming they were safe to eat had a few, a few still leftover Troy looked over at Marvelous who was standing a few feet away looking in another direction with his arms crossed "You want what's left?" Troy asks holding his hand with the berries out.
Marvelous looks over his shoulder, and then immediately turns away without saying a word "Suit yourself." Troy says as he eats another one.
Looking off to his left while chewing he notices two squirrels peeking around the tree he was sitting against, the two of them completely still while looking right at him. Troy looks down at the remaining berries in his hand and after a few seconds, tosses them over in the general direction of the squirrels, the berries landing on the snow near them as the squirrels immediately run over and begin eating away.
"So what was up with you back there, huh?" Marvelous suddenly asks.
"What?" Troy says, unsure of what he was talking about.
Marvelous looks over his shoulder "Don't what me, you know exactly what I'm talking about."
"Asking me what happened with me back there isn't exactly being specific. So if you want an answer, try being more descriptive of what you're trying to ask." Troy says.
Marvelous fully turns around dropping his arms "What the hell do you think I'm talking about? I'm talking about literally what just happened at that damn British camp where you froze up!" Marvelous says, the annoyance and anger in his voice rising.
Troy looks away "I don't know." is all he says.
"Bullshit. You know, and so do I. You may have the guts to fight and protect your planet from monsters, but you don't have the guts to take the life of another human being!" Marvelous states.
Troy curls his hands up into fists and closes his eyes "Admit it. After all, every single one of those British soldiers that you fought only ended up getting knocked out or wounded, and when me and Connor had to finish them off so they couldn't wake up and warn their pals you stood off to the side and did nothing. Only one of them was killed, I saw the face of that soldier you killed, and I immediately knew why you froze."
Troy gets up and looks at Marvelous with anger in his eyes "When I became a Power Ranger I swore an oath to protect the planet and all its people. I swore to protect them from those that wished to bring harm to it, I swore to protect humanity!"
"And what about Cerberus, and some of their other allies, they're humans as well, are they not?" Marvelous questions.
"That's a different story. They gave up their humanity and decided to become the monsters they are." Troy says.
"So what makes these guys special?" Marvelous asks.
"These people aren't monsters, maybe some of them are. But there are also many who are just caught up in this war because they are fighting for what they believe is right, for a country they fight to protect. That man back there, every single one of them were fighting for what they believe in, they don't know any better." Troy says.
"News flash kid, but this is war. People both good and bad die, nothing you can do but end it before it ends you and those you care about. Either that soldier died, or you did. And if it wasn't for my helmet I could have been killed back there because of your stupidity, what would you have done if that had been one of your teammates? Huh? What if you froze like that, and one of your pals had to save your ass and they weren't in their power suit? The British may not be our main enemy, but right now they currently are and if you try holding back on them because they're humans...your actions will cost many more lives."
Marvelous walks up to Troy and gets up in his face, Troy doesn't flinch and remains unwavered "Start growing up kid, you're dealing with some big league shit right now. I don't know what kind of war you did when you faced off against those Zangyack wannabes calling themselves the Armada. But this is a real war, not some stupid kiddy show like you want it to be."
The sound of approaching footsteps catches both of their attentions as they turn to see Connor walk from around the tree "We're moving."
Modern Day…
Liara exited the Grand Temple and made her way towards the mouth of the cave, as much as she wanted to keep exploring the Grand Temple and trying to learn more about the Isu it was now her turn to guard the entrance and make sure Cerberus didn't suddenly appear. She truly was left with more answers then questions, much like the Protheans she had spent years studying, at least now with Javik she could get a lot more insight into his people. The main problem she experienced at the moment was of course breaking through the language barrier of the Isu, and then there was also the fact that most of the temple was sealed off, requiring certain keys to open them which was something that the team of Assassins were trying to accomplish in acquiring.
Still to learn more about one of the two civilizations that broke through the barriers of time and space would be quite fascinating, not to mention all the other things they had accomplished in their time. Liara could only wish she could spend some years studying them, but there were more pressing things to attend to at the moment. Oh well, just another thing to add onto her list of civilizations to learn about from another universe, a list that had been growing quite steadily since each and every universe the heroes went to brought more and more things to Liara's attention that she found fascinating. And with the library on the Doctor's TARDIS that seemed to have knowledge on basically all of them that was definitely a helpful tool to have. But the amount of time she would need to learn about all of them the war would probably be over already and she would not have even gotten halfway through learning about the various civilizations, species, groups, and who knows what else from the various alternate universes.
Near the entrance of the cave Javik sat atop a flat rock, his eyes constantly glued to the opening of the cave as the sun illuminated the outside world, the storm having passed some time ago. His rifle in hand the Prothean continued to watch the mouth of the cave when a familiar voice called out to him "You can return to the temple now Javik."
Turning Javik saw his Asari comrade approach him "Very well, do keep your eyes peeled Asari. With the sun out, Cerberus might have an easier opportunity of spotting the entrance of the cave from even farther away." he says.
"I know what I need to do. Just go back and get some rest, everyone else is using this opportunity for it while we wait for Shepard and the others." Liara says.
Javik stands up and walks past Liara as she takes his spot on the rock "Hey look at this, it's a cave!"
Javik immediately turns around while Liara shoots back up to her feet, Javik prepares his rifle but Liara holds her right arm out stopping him "Quickly hide!" she quietly says.
Javik listens and the two quickly rush behind some big rocks for cover, a few seconds later two Cerberus Assault troopers enter the cave and turn on their helmet lights "Think we might find anything in here?" one of them ask.
"Who knows, we've been searching all night and haven't found a single trace of where these people could be. All we know is that they're in the area, what better place to possibly hide then a cave." the other replies as they start walking.
"What are we waiting for? We should kill them now?" Javik questions Liara.
"Wait, if they don't find anything they might move on. We should try and avoid a confrontation if possible." Liara replies.
The two slowly move their way around the rock as the Cerberus troops walk right by, looking around and shining their flashlights in all directions, both of them look over towards the wall at the far end, Liara and Javik wait silently to see what happens.
"Looks like a dead end. Not seeing any other place to go, let's head back." one of them says as he turns and starts walking away.
Liara and Javik both breathe internally a sigh of relief "Wait a second." the other calls back as he lowered himself for some reason.
Getting a bad feeling both of them ready their weapons, the other Cerberus trooper walks back to his comrade "What's up?"
"Looks like there's a crack at the bottom, might be able to crouch our way under."
Liara and Javik silently move out from behind the rock and start walking towards the two Cerberus troopers "Might just be nothing."
"Or there could be something. Captain wants us to search every crack and crevice we find, that's what we're going to do."
"Should probably call in some backup, who knows what might be back there." In an instant Liara powers up her biotics and wraps her arms around one of the Cerberus troopers' neck pulling him back while falling to the ground, Javik doing the same but using his rifle. The two duos roll from side to side on the ground as Liara and Javik attempt to silently take out the two Cerberus troops so as to not alert their comrades who could be nearby.
Liara groans as she struggles to restrain the Cerberus trooper, Javik having a much easier time as his Cerberus trooper attempts grabbing at his face but to no avail. The Cerberus trooper Liara is dealing with instead begins reaching for something on his side, Javik pulls harder and eventually the Cerberus trooper in his grasp goes limp after a few seconds, his arms dropping to the ground. The other Cerberus trooper pulls out his shock baton and extends it, activating the weapon he swings and manages to hit Liara in the side of her head causing her to cry out in pain and release her hold on him.
"Liara!" Javik calls out as he pushes the dead trooper's body aside and gets back to his feet.
Liara lies on her side holding the side of her head in pain as the other Cerberus soldier gets back to his feet and pulls out his pistol, aiming it right at her head when he hears Javik coming and turns just as the Prothean charges right into him. Javik rams the assault trooper right against the wall and then attempts to go for the gun, the two begin wrestling for control of the pistol as Javik attempts pulling it from the firm grasp of the Cerberus soldier. Feeling his grasp slowly begin to slip the Cerberus trooper does what seems to be his best option, and fires off a few rounds.
The shots echo throughout the cave as outside a flock of birds fly off from some nearby trees, a Cerberus Centurion turns his head at hearing the sounds. Inside the Grand Temple everyone inside is alerted to the shots, Tigress who was resting along with Po immediately wake and sit up in alarm, EDI who was with the Doctor and Rebecca near the Animus look towards the doorway. Garrus who is still with Tali immediately gets to his feet taking out his Vindicator "I'll go check it out." he says.
Javik elbows the Cerberus soldier's arm causing him to release his hold on the pistol, the soldier however takes his shock baton out with his other hand and slams it into Javik's back sending high voltage coursing through his body as he cries out in pain. Suddenly a burst of shots ring out and the shock baton falls to the ground, Javik falls to his knees and the Cerberus soldier slowly slides down the wall. Garrus lowers his rifle "You two alright?" he asks rushing over to Liara first.
"We'll recover." Liara replies still in some slight pain as she sits up.
Garrus activates his communicator "EDI, I need you and Tigress out here, Liara and Javik need some help."
"We're on our way." EDI replies.
"Came from this way!"
Garrus looks towards the entrance hearing this and stands back up "Great, just what we needed." heading over to some nearby rocks for cover Garrus gets down behind them and aims his weapon towards the mouth of the cave. The first Cerberus soldier, a Centurion, pops into view. Garrus fires immediately taking him out as two more assault troopers rush into view. Garrus fires again taking one of them down as the other moves to cover, immediately more Cerberus soldiers appear behind him low to the ground as they begin entering the cave. Garrus fires away taking another trooper down and an engineer. Meanwhile EDI and Tigress come out from underneath the hidden entrance and rush over, EDI with her pistol out fires a few shots but they are blocked by a guardian.
"Get those two back to the temple. Tell the others to ready up for a fight, and see if we can close that door behind us to try and buy some time." Garrus says.
Tigress picks up Liara and carries her away while EDI puts her pistol away and begins dragging Javik back. Garrus primes a frag grenade and tosses it, the grenade goes off a few seconds later sending two assault troopers flying. "What a bad time for these guys to appear. Could be worse, at least the Reapers and Collectors look like they'll be a no-show." Garrus says reloading his weapon before popping back up over the rock and firing again, taking down an advancing Phantom.
A guardian gets out from cover and with his shield held forward begins moving towards Garrus, to counter this Garrus fires a concussive shot which impacts directly into the shield, knocking the guardian off his feet and giving Garrus the opening he needs to deliver a clean headshot.
Tigress and EDI return to the Grand Temple with Liara and Javik, setting them aside against the wall to recover "What's happening?" Tali asks as she and the others rush over.
"Cerberus has found us." EDI answers.
"Is there a way to close that wall so we can buy some time?" Tigress asks the assassins.
1195…
Shepard leaned against a stone fence as he peered out into the harbor, there had still been no sighting of the assassin nor any signs of conflict on the dock. Ashley leaned on a nearby wall, and James sat on a bench close to her, both of them looking around as the civilians of the city continued going about their normal day. Shepard looked to the sky, an eagle soared high over before landing on a nearby rooftop, the bird turned and in a way, almost seemed to be staring right at Shepard.
"You seem like interesting people."
Shepard's eyes widened slightly in shock "No need to be afraid. I've been listening to you and your friends, you speak strange things. I can also tell based on your looks, and the little pieces of armor I have seen beneath your robes, that you are not from here. Tell me, why do you seek me?" Altair Ibn-La'Ahad asks as he stands beside Shepard, also leaning on the stone fence looking out into the harbor.
Shepard realizing who it is he's talking to, calms down a little as he turns back forward while looking at Altair out of the corner of his eyes "It's a lot. I'll tell you that much. But let's just say there's a war going on, and we need your help."
"A war you say? Yet if you seek me, then you must know who I am, and what I am a part of." Altair says.
"You could say that. Like I said, there's a lot to tell you, and a lot of it might sound crazy." Shepard says.
"How long?" Altair asks.
"Well, your target would probably be gone by then. Long gone. So let us help you out, and then we can discuss this later." Shepard suggests.
1507…
"You seem to have quite a way with your "words" Mister Chief. I have never seen anyone squeal that quickly, and give up as much information as you made him." Ezio says impressed.
Getting the information he needed from his target and killing him, Ezio, along with Chief and Tsukasa returned to his Assassin hideout, the place all but quiet since Ezio had sent his fellow assassins on their own missions. Tsukasa de-henshined while Chief removed his cloak, needless to say seeing Tsukasa changing out of his armor in a second, and to see the massive, and strange armor of the Chief, he was both amazed, and confused at the same time.
"Yeah, Chief can have quite a way with his enemy when seeking information." Tsukasa says.
"Also don't call me Mister Chief. It's just Chief." Chief adds in.
"Very well." Ezio says, turning he walks over to his desk and leans against it crossing his arms "So, why don't you tell me your story. It is clearly obvious you are not from here. Your armor, your weapons, what you can do, they are unlike anything I have ever seen before. Nor anyone I believe for that matter."
Modern Day…
An explosion erupts sending a Cerberus trooper flying into a rock, Garrus fires another concussive shot hitting another assault trooper before firing off another burst from his rifle taking out a nemesis.
"Toss some smoke grenades!" A Centurion yells out as a few Cerberus soldiers take out, prime, and toss out said grenades.
A few seconds after hitting the ground smoke begins to get produced from the grenades and it doesn't take long for large clouds of smoke to obscure Garrus' view of the Cerberus forces "Time for a retreat." he says to himself knowing they were probably swarming towards him now.
Getting up Garrus quickly begins making his way towards the large door leading to the Grand Temple, after getting a few feet two assault troopers emerge from the smoke and fire at Garrus hitting him a few times as his barriers flash. Garrus spins around and returns fire taking both of them out before turning back around and continuing on his way.
More Cerberus troops emerge from the smoke almost immediately as Garrus sprints to the door, the Cerberus soldiers open fire just as Garrus drops to the ground and slides beneath the door as slugs impact into the door and ground all around him. Garrus slides out the other side "He's through!" Po calls out.
"Fire in the hole!" Tali yells out, a detonator in her hand as she presses the button.
The explosives set on the ceiling above the door go off, the door is blasted to pieces with the shockwave sending pieces of it flying into the Cerberus troops on the other side. Meanwhile a large amount of rocks fall from above, piling up and effectively sealing the entire entrance with rubble. Garrus gets back up, looking at the pile of rubble as Po, Tali, and Desmond run up to him "You set up explosives and didn't tell me?" Garrus asks looking back at them.
"Figured you'd get out just fine." Tali says shrugging her shoulders.
Garrus remains silent about this but shakes it off for now, though a bit shaken of course at the thought that he could have been crushed potentially, or blown to bits had those explosives been set any lower "Anyways how are things?"
"None of your friends have returned yet. The Doctor and Rebecca finished setting up that whole cloning thing into the Animus so once we get the DNA from my ancestors we can create the clones of them." Desmond replies.
"Well hopefully they finish things up soon. Though I'd say that rubble will buy us some time, I highly doubt it'll hold these guys off for long." Garrus says.
1507…
"Well that certainly is...quite a story." Ezio says slightly in awe.
"Yeah, we know." Tsukasa says.
"So let me get this straight… You need a drop of my blood. To create another me, in the future, to help you fight in this massive...interplanetary-sort of...war?" Ezio asks for clarification.
"That's right." Chief says.
"You cannot take me out of this time because you are searching for assassins that are a part of Desmond's ancestors, which includes me, Altair, and one named Connor? And if you were to take us out of the timeline of this world, it could mess it up tremendously. Hence why you are creating...copies of us?"
"Bingo." Tsukasa says.
"Hehe, honestly. If it hadn't been for the fact I have already seen and heard of some strange things before. I would be calling you crazy, insane right about now. But, this feeling at the back of my heart is telling me otherwise. That you really do need some help, and me and my fellow Assassins of the past, and the future, are going to be needed to help you." Ezio says.
"We could use every one we can muster for this war." Chief says.
Ezio nods his head "Alright. I will help you then." standing up Ezio takes out his dagger. Chief takes out a small vial the Doctor had given to him, Troy, and Shepard for the blood samples they were going to acquire from one of his suits compartments. Holding his left hand out, Ezio puts the tip of the dagger to his index finger and gives himself a small cut; Chief holds his vial out as Ezio turns his hand around and hovers his finger over the vial. A drop of his blood falls right in.
Chief brings it back and puts the top on "Thank you for your help." Chief says.
"Yes well, the least I can do since you helped me. So this copy, it will retain all of my memories? From my childhood to my death?" Ezio asks.
"According to our guy, yes supposedly." Tsukasa answers.
"Hm, interesting. Well, until we meet again I suppose. In another lifetime. Master Chief, Kamen Rider Decade, a presto." Ezio says.
1195…
A line of soldiers stood guard at the part of the dock leading up to the massive ship that the Templar Commander was located on, the ship had finished loading up and once the rest of their men had arrived the ship and Templars would leave and get as far away as they could from these lands. Just then the group of soldiers spotted something strange, and suspicious coming towards them, two figures in brown robes, one who was a large man, the other a woman.
"Halt and state your business!" the lead soldier yells taking a few steps towards them while his men keep their hands close to their weapons just in case.
"We're just here for a friendly visit." James says as both he and Ashley pull out their M-11 Suppressor pistols and open fire cutting all of the soldiers down before they can even react.
A soldier on the boat spots this and quickly yells out "We are under attack! We are under attack!" hearing this the other soldiers rush over to engage the attackers. Leaving the other side of the boat wide open as Shepard and Altair peek their heads over "Looks like we're clear." Shepard says as he and Altair hop onto the boat.
Shepard kicks the door to the captain's quarters open, two heavily armored brutes charge forward with battle cries only to be met by Shepard's silenced pistol as he puts them down with a couple shots each. The heavily armored soldiers collapse to the ground and Altair begins calmly walking forward "What-what sorcery is this?!" the Templar Commander cowers at the back of the room.
"No! No! No~!" Altair unsheathes his hidden blade.
The last Templar soldier falls as Ashley and James lower their hoods "Wow, not exactly smart these guys." James says as they look at the high number of bodies strewn before them. The Templar soldiers getting nowhere close to reaching them save for a few "Well it's not like they understand how guns work. Even then I'm surprised there weren't any archers, they all just tried charging us." Ashley says.
The two look up at the boat just to see Shepard and Altair walk down the plank "We're done here. Time to move before any more of their pals arrive." Shepard says.
Altair takes the three to the Assassin hideout in Acre, once seated at a rectangular wooden table Altair speaks up "Thanks for the assistance. Now, it is time for you to explain yourselves." Altair says.
Back in Modern Day…
Chief and Tsukasa appear from the portal that brought them to Italy "We're back!" Tsukasa calls out.
The Doctor and Assassins look over at them, Chief takes notice that none of the others were in the room "Where is everyone?" he asks.
"Your friends from Cerberus found us." Rebecca says as they walk over to the heroes.
"Shepard and the others?" Chief asks.
"Haven't returned yet, you're the first two. You got the blood sample?" the Doctor asks.
Chief brings out the vial with Ezio's blood in it as the Doctor quickly takes it "Thank you. I'll start working on this, right after I close that portal of course."
"Guess we should go help the others out." Tsukasa says taking out his Decade card again to henshin.
"We collapsed the entrance to buy you guys some time. Though it probably won't be long until they get through." Desmond says.
Chief takes out his silenced SMG "Just stay here and wait for the others to return."
Just then a flash of light appears behind Chief and Tsukasa "We miss anything?" the two turn around while the others look past to see Shepard, Ashley, and James.
"Just in time, looks like Cerberus found us." Chief says.
"Of course they did." Shepard says not surprised by this sort of thing anymore.
"So what happened with Altair?" William questions.
Shepard brings up a vial with a drop of blood in it "He's agreed to assist us, allow his "other self" to continue the fight to protect the innocent and this world."
The Doctor quickly rushes over and takes the vial "Perfect! That's two Assassins down, one to go."
"The two Red's ain't back yet? I thought they would have beat us for sure." James says surprised.
"Might have ran into some difficulties. Both in terms of their mission...and their teamwork." Tsukasa says.
Shepard, James, Ashley, and Chief look at him confused by this statement "I know Marvelous, trust me, he can be a bit difficult to work with. Troy may be a good leader to his team, and may be smart, but Marvelous can have an ego sometimes. And trust me, you really think he's going to take orders from someone as young as Troy? Even if Troy suggests a good idea." Tsukasa explains.
"Well let's hope you're wrong on that. Let's go help the others out." Shepard says bringing out his M-8 Avenger, the others bringing their weapons out while Tsukasa henshins.
The group of heroes rush outside and join Garrus and the others who have taken cover behind some rocks spread throughout the cavern "Glad you could join the party." Garrus says as Shepard and Chief take cover behind the same rock as him and Tali.
"What's the situation so far?" Shepard asks.
"Held them back, when they started pushing retreated and blew the hidden entrance to buy you guys some time. Probably won't be long now until they blow their way through. You guys got your stuff done right?" Garrus asks.
"Still waiting on Troy and Marvelous." Chief says.
"Really? Those two haven't finished yet, what they run into a problem or something?" Garrus wonders.
Just then the pile of rubble explodes outwards with rocks being sent flying everywhere, three Atlas mechs crashing through with shoulder rams "Well hopefully they finish up soon in case we need their help!" Garrus says.
"Open fire!" Shepard yells as the heroes begin firing their weapons.
1780…
Troy, Marvelous, both of whom are already morphed, along with Connor crawl their way to the edge of a cliff, one that gives them a view of the British fort the Continental Army would be attacking.
"There's the fort." Connor points out, a massive fort made of wood where British soldiers stood vigilant on the walls ready for an attack, their cannons at the ready.
"And the two support ships." Troy says pointing out the two British ships in the river, the flags of the British Empire flapping around from the wind.
"Alright, the plan is this. I will sneak into the fort and find my target, I need to interrogate him for some information. You two will work your powers and destroy those two ships, once they are dealt with the Continental Army will attack." Connor explains.
"Sounds easy enough." Marvelous says.
"Good, I will see you after the battle." Connor says as he gets up and runs off.
Marvelous looks at Troy, and even though he had a helmet on he could tell he was still unsure about going through with this since that meant he would have to kill those soldiers on board "Moment of truth kid. Either shed that innocent skin of yours, or deal with the repercussions of not killing those guys." Marvelous states as he gets up and jumps off the cliff.
Troy remains motionless, after a few seconds he clenches his fists tightly and closes his eyes. Taking a deep breath he stands up and takes out his Legendary Morpher "Super Mega Mode." he says as he drops off the cliff after Marvelous.
On one of the British ships the crew casually wander or stand about, waiting for orders or something to happen as for now there was really not much else to do. At the top two British soldiers stand with their rifles out on the crow's nest platform, one of them looks to the sky and seems to spot something, back at the bottom the rest of the soldiers are still walking or standing around. When suddenly the bodies of both lookouts come crashing down onto the deck catching everyone by surprise as they all become alarmed by what has just happened.
Just then Marvelous, as Red Hawk, lands on the deck next to the bodies as he stands back up "What trickery! Men to arms!" the British officer yells as everyone grabs their weapons and aims or points it at Marvelous.
"Gokai Change!" Marvelous says.
"KAKURANGER!"
"Wakemi no Jutsu!" Marvelous yells performing the hand gesture as he charges towards the British officer, summoning his clones as they split off from him and charge towards the remaining British soldiers who are all taken aback by this in complete shock. The British attempt to engage Marvelous and his clones but the fight barely lasts a minute as the Red Sentai and his clones are far more superior in terms of skills taking all the British soldiers down quite quickly.
The British officer and his men on the other ship hear the commotion and wonder what is going on, before they can do anything a red blur begins hopping around the ship striking down each and every soldier before they even realize what is going on. The red blur strikes down the British officer, as Troy in the form of the Red Ninja Storm Ranger comes to a stop and reverts back to his basic form. He remains silent as he turns and makes his way down the stairs, making his way into the storage room of the ship Troy looks at the massive gathering of barrels containing gunpowder. Looking to his right he spots a crate containing some fuse-lit grenades and immediately gets an idea as he takes out his blaster and walks over to it, putting the barrel of his blaster against the fuse and pointing away from the explosives Troy fires a shot igniting them.
Troy immediately heads back up top, but along the way a British soldier who seemed to survive his assault suddenly appears in his way and swings his sword. Troy ducks beneath it and slashes him across the chest with his Dragon Sword without a second though. Far off in the distance, a Continental soldier looks through a monocular at the British ships in the river, he suddenly sees both of them explode at the same time "Sir! The British ships are destroyed!" the Continental soldier reports.
"Excellent! ATTACK!" the Continental Officer shouts as his men let out a battle cry and begin moving forward towards the fort.
Some Time Later…
Connor stands back atop the cliff overlooking the battle below as the Continental Army attacks the British fort, he could see the British defenses begin to crumble and he knew it would not take much longer for them to break through and take the fort. Both Troy and Marvelous suddenly appear behind him "You get your guy?" Marvelous asks.
"Yes, and the information he carries. You two performed well. A deal is a deal." Connor says turning to face them, he then takes out a dagger.
"I hope this "other me" can be of great help to your cause. I wish I myself could be there to fight these monsters, but if what you said is true, then I must stay here in my own time if I am to keep this world safe." Connor says.
"You will do great things for these people Connor, for this land. Don't ever give up fighting to protect the innocent, protecting what is good in this world. As long as people like you exist, the Templars who seek to take away the freedom of humanity will never win." Troy says as he takes out a small vial and walks towards Connor.
Taking the top off he holds it forward as Connor holds his index finger over the vial and gives himself a small cut from which a drop of blood falls into the vial.
Modern Day…
The third and final Atlas Mech falls as the sounds of gunfire continue to erupt all around. Tigress kicks a Cerberus trooper across the face sending him spiraling to the ground, Po jump flips forward into the air and performs a split kick into two more Cerberus troopers' faces. Tsukasa knocks a phantoms blade upwards before bringing his sword back down striking her down as he turns and drives his sword into a Centurion's stomach.
Chief kicks an engineer back sending him crashing into the wall, Shepard slams the butt end of his rifle into a centurion's face before turning to his right and firing taking out two more assault troopers. Ashley pulls the face of a nemesis down while bringing her knee up slamming it into her chin while James throws an assault trooper against a rock and punches him across the face. Garrus reloads his sniper while Tali fires her pistol, spotting a centurion attempting to escape Garrus quickly aims after him and fires taking him out. EDI strikes an engineer in the neck collapsing his throat as he begins choking on his blood, Liara biotically backarms a centurion sending him flying back while Javik throws a frag grenade taking a group of enemy soldiers out.
Shepard drives his omni-blade into a centurion while Chief rips the shield out of the arm of a guardian who turns and begins to run out of fear, only to be clotheslined by Po "Ooh! Get Dragon Warrior clotheslined!"
Tigress sweep kicks a phantom off her feet, knocking her to the ground as James rushes in and finishes her off with his pistol.
"Attack Ride: Blast!" Tsukasa and EDI fire their guns cutting down a group of Cerberus soldiers.
Garrus sees another Cerberus soldier attempting to escape and shoots him down as well, Tali shoulder rams an engineer knocking him to the ground as she aims her pistol and fires a few times. Shepard punches a centurion with his biotics as Chief turns around looking in his direction "Shepard!" he calls catching his attention as he brings out his combat knife.
Shepard immediately ducks as Chief throws it right over his head, and right into the face of a nemesis taking cover behind a rock behind him. Shepard stands back up seeing this "Thanks." he says as Chief nods his head.
Everything dies down as the two look around, along with everyone else to see no more Cerberus troops standing "Wow, that was it? I was kind of ready for more." James says.
"Must not have sent a lot of their men here, and with the Reapers still a no show they probably won't be sending anymore for a while." Chief deduces.
"Well that's good for these guys. Looks like they can stay here until they either finish what they're doing, or need to relocate if and when the Reapers do attack." Shepard says.
"Hey Shepard!" everyone turns to see Desmond jogging towards them as he stops "Rest of your friends are back." he says.
Everything is dark "I got a pulse. He's alive! He's-"
"Doctor you don't need to go all mad scientist every time these guys wake up. It's already annoying after the second time you did it." James says.
An eye opens up "Hey Connor, welcome to the future." Troy says.
The Native American Assassin, more rather his clone, opens both of his eyes and groans. His head felt groggy, his brain like mush as he tried gathering in what exactly was going on as he then remembered that voice "I remember that voice...Troy...right?"
Troy smiles "That's right." he replies.
Connor slowly picks himself up from the Animus, getting back onto his feet he looks at the gathered group of people before him consisting of Troy, Marvelous, Shepard, and the other heroes "I take it...I'm…"
"Like he said, welcome to the twenty-first century of Earth pal." Marvelous says.
"So...I am...me...but not me?" Connor asks.
"Yeah, I have a feeling it can feel a bit confusing." Troy says.
"It'll take some time, but soon all your memories, your skills, everything about the real you will come flooding back into your new body. You aren't the real Connor, but soon you will feel just exactly like him. So...in a way yes you are still Connor in a technical way. Oh by the way I'm the Doctor, nice to meet you." the Doctor says.
Connor nods his head to acknowledge him "I take it you are Commander Shepard." he says.
"That I am, welcome to the fight Connor." Shepard says extending his right hand out which Connor shakes.
"So…" a voice speaks up from behind Connor as he turns.
"You are a descendent of ours, and a fellow assassin. Very interesting." Ezio says as he and Altair approach him.
"You two, you are my ancestors, correct?" Connor asks.
"Apparently so, I am Altair Ibn-La'Ahad." Altair introduces himself.
"And I am Ezio, Ezio Auditore da Firenze." Ezio says.
"My name is Ratonhnhake:ton...but you can call me Connor." Connor says.
"That would be very nice, that...real name of yours is...well an interesting one I will say that much." Ezio says.
Meanwhile the modern day assassins approach the three ancient assassins, Desmond, William, Shaun, Rebecca, all of them were in complete awe at what they were seeing "Amazing…" Shaun says.
"Awesome!" Rebecca says.
"I never thought I'd be seeing such a thing." William says.
The three ancient assassins turn to face them "And who are you?" Connor asks.
"This, is Desmond Miles. He is our far future descendent. Very, very, far future that is. For us." Ezio says.
"Desmond...I have dreams sometimes where I would hear your name. Never knew why, but perhaps I do now." Altair says.
"So. This is the person that succeeds us in our fight against the Templars. Could have been worse perhaps." Connor says.
Desmond raises an eyebrow "Did I just get dissed by one of my own ancestors?" he asks looking back at the others.
Shepard approaches the three assassins "Altair, Ezio, Connor" he says catching their attentions "Thank you for deciding to assist us in this conflict. Every hero we gather, brings our chances of victory over the Reapers and their allies higher." Shepard says.
"To imagine that there would ever be a threat far greater than even the Templars. It is unimaginable." Altair says.
"After everything we did, I would hate to see it go to waste because of these bastardos. I will teach them a thing or two." Ezio says.
"To protect the innocent, and good of this world. We will fight, even beyond our death. We will show these Reapers, just what we assassins are capable of." Connor says.
"Alright that all exciting and whatnot. But what happens now?" Shaun asks.
"I guess you guys can continue going about your previous mission. Just be ready though, in case the Reapers ever arrive. Who knows if those Cerberus troops were able to get out a message or something transmitting your location? They, or more Cerberus troops could appear at any moment so you'll need to be ready." Shepard says.
"It would be best to send word of this impending attack to the rest of our people, that way they are prepared." William says.
"Hey maybe this attack can be used to our advantage, we keep to the shadows like we normally do. Templars would probably have to fight the Reapers when they arrive if they're gonna protect their stuff. Let the Reapers do our work and decrease their numbers so we can get back on an even playing field." Desmond says.
"That could work. Still I think its best we definitely listen to the Commander and be ready for when the Reapers do come." William says.
"And us?" Altair asks.
"We'll take you back to where we're gathering the rest of our allies." Chief answers.
"And don't worry you'll be getting your weapons soon since, well you're going to need your weapons to fight and whatnot. I already contacted Captain Lasky, and Admiral Hackett, having some of their boys working on recreating the weapons of our assassin friends." the Doctor says.
"Then I guess it's time to head out." Garrus says.
"Thank you for your help, good luck with your war." Shepard says.
"And you as well, Commander. You'll be needing it more than even we do." William says.
With their new assassin friends in tow, Shepard and the others board the TARDIS and begin their travel back to the Normandy as the modern day assassins watch the TARDIS vanish into thin air. Inside the ship Altair, Ezio, and Connor look around in complete shock and awe at the size of the inside compared to the outside, Garrus and Tali lean on the railing as then while everyone else is distracted Tali grabs Garrus's right hand in her left and wraps her fingers around his. Garrus looking down at this as he looks back up at her face, if it wasn't for the helmet he could swear she was probably blushing, and smiling right at him, something he returns as he smiles right back while tightening his hold on her a little bit.
Troy sits on the outer platform as he appears to be deep in thought about something, he fails to notice Marvelous approaching him as the Space Pirate walks right up behind him "You finally growing some balls kid?" Troy turns his head and looks up at him. Marvelous looks down at him with a smirk and arms crossed, Troy remains silent.
"Hmph, whatever. Like I said, it's either kill or be killed, it's all up to you and if you want to actually save people or not. At least you took your first big step, keep growing up and maybe I might start respecting you...maybe." Marvelous says with a smirk as he turns and walks away.
Troy continues to stay silent as he watches him walk away "He may not look like it" Troy looks forward at Tsukasa who sits on a crate a few feet away "But he means well. He is right, sometimes you need to go beyond what you're used to, get out of your comfort zone. Times change, and you either go with it, or fall behind which can lead to bad things happening. Outside of war…" Tsukasa shrugs his shoulders "Maybe you might have the chance at saving lives and not taking any, but in war. It's the opposite, you can't save lives, without taking some. Look at it this way, you killed people who were going to die anyways. And since you've already come to the mind that all our human enemies that are allied with the Reapers gave up their humanity and became monsters themselves. Keep that in mind, and you'll get through this with no more problems."
"They may have been destined to die by history, but that doesn't mean taking the life of a human being was any easier." Troy says looking at the palm of his right hand "But...I know that if I did hold back...that battle could have ended differently and it would have been my fault. I don't like it, but at this point, I'll do what I must. If it means protecting my Earth, my friends, and all the good people of the multiverse." Troy closes his hand into a fist and clenches it tightly.
Meanwhile, in an Alternate Universe…
The lights of Tokyo, Japan light up the dark night of the city. Spotlights dance around in the sky, and the sounds of life reverberate throughout the city as a shadowy, lone figure can be seen standing atop a tall skyscraper.
The muscular built figure garbed in a black, sleeveless, skin-tight jumpsuit with minor padding and straps towards the sides; kunai on the legs, arms, and shin guards, fingerless gloves, a scarf that flaps around in the wind, and a hood that obscure most of the face, and a forehead protector bearing the insignia of a peregrine falcon and tabi boots. The figure looked to the sky, his vibrant green eyes with a slight golden hue reflected the full moon as the figure narrowed their eyes.
The figure leaped off the building, and a few seconds later a falcon can be seen flying off into the distance.
Q&A…
To Guest - Sorry I have never played Horizon Zero Dawn so don't expect to be seeing that in this story as one of the Universes.
To Guest - I have played the other God of War games, not the 4th one yet though. And I really don't see that sort of universe working since, well no offense I don't see Kratos really getting along well with any of the heroes. Plus as for if it were to happen, when? Between God of War 1 and 2 Kratos is a God, in fact he probably wouldn't even "waste his time" with working with the Heroes to fight against the Reapers, and between 2 and 3 there wouldn't be anytime since he's attacking Olympus.
To Guest - Never heard of Mortal Instruments, and only ever saw the Percy Jackson films so don't have enough knowledge on that universe.
To AzYuuki - Never heard of Nasuverse.
To lovecrazyhedgehog - Never seen that series so sorry can't.
To Nuva7999 - Never played that game series so no can do for both Deus Ex and Wolfenstein.
To Anon - I DO have a plan for the ending already, I know what I'm doing there but you'll have to wait and see what it is.
To TheDidactsHand - Well the way I see it, it does come back to one of those one guy is bigger (this case Chief) and the other is agile (Kai Leng). Yes I know Chief isn't THAT big of brute and he can be agile, but at the same time I feel like Kai Leng just (might) be a little more agile so it would be a pretty even fight. Well I am re-working on the past chapters so maybe I might include a scene or two of that...could have sworn I did but I could be wrong, maybe might try adding them into future chapters if it works well with what's going on. Well Spartan Red Team is with the Spirit of Fire which they have yet to return to Earth yet so no for them. As for Blue, you'll have to wait and see. I will say this when the Final Battle comes, it's going to be THE FINAL BATTLE so expect a lot of insane stuff to happen, space and air battles, special forces, the big ground battle, lots of stuff of course since it is the final battle to decide all. No Forerunner tech or ships to be included, And as far as I remember all he got was a gene that made him immune to the Composer, I know it's said to contain many other abilities but we don't exactly know what they are so that would be difficult to include them if I don't know what they are.
To CT7567Rules - No spoilers for the first two questions, and the heroes you see as part of "The Team" will be the "Main Characters". It would be difficult to include too many heroes and give all of them an equal amount of screen time. So the heroes who are a part of the team traveling throughout the multiverse are them...but that's not to say that there may be more heroes joining them soon… Also no Gears or RWBY universes. Haven't played all the Gears games so not much knowledge on them, and also RWBY would be a bit difficult to include since I don't want them to be still in school thus not giving them much experience, nor after school since...well you know why.
To Guest - Never played any of the Elder Scrolls games.
To rancorlover - Never seen Fist of the North Star, and I've only just started watching Overlord so I don't have enough knowledge on the series to include it.
To Clare Prime of Ultra - Doing Destiny would be difficult since we don't have a certain Guardian that stands out as the lone hero or heroes of that universe. It's more of all the Guardians are heroes, if anything all the Guardians would be just an army and no heroes or something along the lines of that. Loving the new Sentai series so far, then again I've loved all of the ones I've watched, never hated a single one of them.
To rmarcano321 - Watched Terminator but just don't see it working with everything going on in that universe, never seen Buffy, Star Trek (only ever saw the 2009 film), Ash vs Evil Dead, Zelda, and only played a bit of Final Fantasy X.
To Knight5946 - Never heard of Vandread.