He sat on this throne, overlooking the afterlife of Egypt, feeling a little depressed. He had accomplished many great things in life and even more in the afterlife but out of everything he had done he failed to accomplish one thing.
He had failed to find a queen for himself.
In life many women had presented themselves to him but all had been lacking in certain qualities he was looking for.
Strength
Knowledge
Kindness
Perhaps a bit of humor to lighten his days.
Alas, none of the women he had been offered had shown even an inkling of these qualities and after all this time it was leaving him slightly depressed.
If that wasn't enough he had sensed his slab being stolen which angered him greatly.
That slab was his connection to the mortal world and allowed him to protect Egypt from the Grimm. It was taken from his tomb and half way around the world before he finally went after it.
The thieves had paid with their lives but he was unable to return the slab himself.
A mortal must return it.
And so far there were no mortals with the heart or drive to do so.
"Aw…." He sighed, leaning back on his throne. "Come on."
Xxx
"Love is not just an emotion, it's an instinct, a sudden reaction where you know something is different. You don't understand it at first but you know it's lurking in the back of your head. You can't force it out or make it go away but you can learn to live with it and wait to see if it grows or goes away on its own." TOM said wisely. "Until then, work it out and see what might come from it."
Xxx
Xxx
"So, I just jump now?"
Johnny Bravo stood at the top of the cliff, dressed in Asgardian armor and Mjolnir in hand.
"Essentially, yes." Rossweisse nodded. "Spin Mjolnir in hand to build up speed and it will take you straight to the Cluster."
Now there were plenty of reasons one would be hesitant to do this.
Too bad Johnny couldn't thank of any. "All right."
Stepping forward, Johnny did a few poses which caused lightning to flash from Mjolnir as he began spinning it in one hand.
"And away I gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Johnny said before Rossweisse gave him a small push over the edge.
The momentum built up from Mjolnir increased Johnny's speed to the point that when he hit the ground he did not stop with the power of the mighty hammer blasting through the ground and allowing the reincarnation of the Asgardian God of Thunder to tunnel his way deep into the Earth.
Rossweisse sighed. "He has a long way to go…"
It didn't help that the curse of immortality that Odin had given to Baldur had been destroyed. The All-Father had not reacted well and the thought of Ragnarok concerned him despite all he had done to prevent it.
Baldur's immortality was one.
Rossweisse wondered if Odin had cursed Mjolnir to reincarnate Thor as another way to stop Ragnarok…Or simply to try to save his favorite son.
Xxx
Pardus followed Van Kleiss into the main briefing room, spotting a number of people already at the table along with…Van Kleiss?!
He turned to the one who had guided him here, only to watch him melt away. "…A duplicate?"
"Yes. Convincing, wasn't it?" Van Kleiss said, a golden aura surrounding him as he grinned.
Pardus snarled as he glared but his Faunus instincts were telling him that the real Van Kleiss was much more dangerous than the copy…
Dangerous enough to make his hairs stand up.
"Now that we are all assembled, we can talk about what we plan to do. Take over this world and the worlds we come from." Van Kleiss started, just as the door behind him opened up.
In walked Biowulf, carrying some sort of slab. "This is what I found outside. I smelt blood and death near it."
Van Kleiss took the slab from Biowulf, seeing the drawings of a man dressed in pharaoh's robes, a locust and a very old style record player. "Hmph…Interesting."
He could easily place its origins back to ancient Egypt but had no time and did not care for further study. With a simple portal he placed it in a storage room so he could determine it's worth later.
"Now then…shall we begin?"
Xxx
Several Days Ago
With the windmill destroyed Eustace and Muriel had to make best with what they had. Luckily Eustace had saved up to have a generator installed to give them a moderate supply of power until the windmill was restored.
But that wasn't the craziest thing to happen yet.
Just as Eustace was finished some work on the engine of his truck he looked up to see a dark shadow descend from the sky. "…At least it's not those neighborhood kids again."
It turned out to be Rex Salazar and in his arms was an unconscious girl.
Buttercup Utonium of the Powerpuff Girls.
Xxx
Present Day
"Seems we're playing hotel to a lot of people these days." That was all Eustace had to say as Muriel checked the girl's temperature. "How is she?"
"The poor dearie's still cold." Muriel said, pulling the covers over her. "That Rex boy said she was held up in the mountains…Much like Raven."
"Sounds like I need to get my mallet and go over there." Eustace muttered but that was not the surprise of the day.
"I agree." That was.
Muriel was not one for violence but the number of kidnappings by the bad guys hiding in the mountains was becoming concerning and Muriel was especially upset by the number of children who were being abducted.
Just as Muriel was about to say something else there was a flash of light in the room and in stepped none other than Scotty Blake. "MURIEL BAG-"
"SHHHHHH!" Muriel shushed the Scotsman harshly and pointed to the sleeping Buttercup. "Someone is sleeping!"
"Oh…sorry." Scotty said sheepishly and stepped out of the way. "We have guests."
Out of the portal stepped Keanu, Extor and Rino followed by Raven and…
"Alexis!" Eustace and Muriel smiled as they rushed up and hugged their daughter who happily hugged them back.
Courage happily ran up and hugged Alexis around the legs. "Yay!"
Alexis was equally happy to see the pink fur dog as shown when she picked him up and hugged him. "Courage!"
Raven raised an eyebrow at that, having not expected this reaction. "She's their daughter?"
"Aye, Alexis Bagge." Scotty said happily as the family pulled apart. "Surprising, huh?"
Alexis looked around the attic. "Hasn't changed a single bit. Seriously, Dad. Why don't you just renovate this whole dump?"
"Costs money, you know. I ain't on a Hunter's salary no more." Eustace jokingly retorted. "So what brings you all here?"
"Well, we're here because we're finally ready on the mission to Nowhere Mountains." Extor explained. "We kind of figured this would be our starting ground and we were hoping you would consider temporarily lea-"
"Nope." Eustace shook his head. "Ain't going."
"Dad…" Alexis groaned. "It's too dangerous for you and Mom to be living here right now. Four undead vandals could be back any moment."
"Still ain't going, Alex." Eustace said stubbornly. "I was born in this rotten house; I'll die in this rotten house. At the very least I can try one last time to clean up me idiot brother's mess. Now, shut up about moving us out and we can make some eggs like the good old days."
Alexis sighed in frustration and shook her head as her father left the room. "How did you ever talk him into doing anything, Mom?"
"A great deal of patience, dearie but I agree. We want to stay." Muriel said, pouring a cup of tea for her daughter.
"So," Raven cut in, trying to end the argument. "You never told me you had a daughter when I was here."
"Sorry about that. Alexis has been off doing her own thing, hosting charities and the likes." Muriel sipped her tea. "She has the brains of her grandparents but thankfully none of their nastiness."
"Nastiness?" Raven wasn't sure what to make of that.
Alexis rolled her eyes. "My grandmother is a cut throat CEO for a company that makes wigs and my grandfather was a thief and a con artist. Neither of them really liked Dad and favored Uncle Horst over him so I use the word 'grand' to describe them in only the genealogical sense. They only liked me because they hoped I got their talents and considered me the one good thing Dad ever did. Funny they'd think that and yet Dad's still here and living fine while Grandpa Ickett and Uncle Horst have been dead for years."
"Now Alexis," Muriel put her tea down. "Don't let bitterness drag you down."
"Yeah, yeah." Alexis sighed and followed her father downstairs.
"I…take it there are some issues." Raven slowly said once she was gone.
"Is one of the greatest kung-fu huntsmen in the world a chicken?" Keanu asked rhetorically. "Or is the Pope a lizard Faunus?"
Raven wasn't sure how to answer that.
"Aye, Eustace was the runt of the Bagge family litter and by litter I mean a box of rotten haggis. Nearly the entire family is rotten to the core with Eustace being the black sheep and that's actually a good thing. You'd think we'd have let him marry sweet Muriel here if he wasn't somewhat decent?" Scotty asked, patting Muriel on the back.
"I'm afraid Scotty's bluntness rings true. Eustace's mother has been charged with violation of mistreatment of animal, Faunus and Mobian hair in her wig company." Extor explains.
"Wig company?" Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Don't joke; it'd offend the real workers." Rino cut in.
"Yes, Eustace's mother Agnes Bagge runs a wig company, mostly because she's gone bald herself." Extor chuckled. "How's that for karma?"
"Not enough if you ask me." Scotty rolled his eyes.
"I daresay I agree." Muriel said, having never been fond of her mother-in-law. "She never liked Eustace, never encouraged him and it was bad he ran away and became a Hunter on his own. Even now she never calls, writes or makes any form of contact with him. The only time she was positive around him was when she tried to make Alexis into the spitting image of her…Which led us to literally throw her out and get a restraining order to keep her away from Alexis."
"I know a thing or two about family issues." Raven said, accepting a cup of tea from Muriel. "What about his father and brother?"
"Ickett Bagge was a swindler and a scoundrel and not the good kind you would see in movies. He made a habit out of cheating while gambling and stealing the prized possession of others." Extor explained. "A gang of whale Mobians came after him and he tried to take them out. They never found the body but Ickett Bagge has been labelled dead for years with only Agnes mourning him."
"And that idiot Horst was Eustace's older brother and like all siblings they had their rivalries but it was a rather one side rivalry. Horst never really encouraged Eustace in anything and the only time it was ever positive for them was with me and Alexis." Muriel said sadly. "Unfortunately Horst's ego matched his skill and he was killed by a deer Mobian that had stolen his gun. As it turned out Horst liked to hunt but he never could tell Mobians apart from the animals they resembled and it eventually caught up with him."
Rino and Keanu snickered at that. "…Stupid idiot."
Downstairs Alexis followed her father into the kitchen. "It's just temporary and why do you care so much about this dump anyway? Grandma didn't even leave it to you out of the goodness of her non-existent heart. She just did it because it was cheaper to live in a trailer park."
"Maybe so but it's my house now." Eustace said, getting out some eggs. "It may not be filled with the trophies my bum of a brother liked to put on the walls but it still mine and I can still be proud of that. And I ain't letting some undead freaks chase me away."
Alexis shook her head. "I don't know to think you are being stubborn or brave. To think grandma said you lacked a spine. She'd have booked it long ago."
"And then some." Eustace chuckled.
"Look, Dad. I know you don't want to give up your home like this but come on. It's not worth yours or Mom's lives." Alexis said, getting back on topic. "I mean, do you hope one day to find Uncle Horst's money he hid away? Or any lost treasure maps he might have left?"
"Give me some, credit kid." Eustace started cooking the eggs. "Look, it's nice you came around to see us but come on. It's not really safe anywhere these days. We heard about that Golden Castle nonsense, the crazy blizzard and all the other stuff. We managed to stay clear of that. Where would have us go? The North Pole?"
Alexis sighed as she just dropped the subject all together.
Why did her dad have to be so stubborn?
Xxx
"Is he going to be all right?"
Artemis watched as Dr. Princess applied some White Dust to Superboy's wounds and watched as they began to heal fast. She sped up the process by applying Aura to the Dust, causing the wounds to immediately close.
"Your friend is already healing fast from what I can see. He should be all healed by tomorrow morning." The doctor said with a confident smile.
The wounds were caused by Pardus' red claws and no one had expected that Superboy would be the one to get as badly wounded.
How did this happen?
"Pardus' clawed gauntlets are based on a theoretical technology called high-frequency. It works by emitting a high frequency vibration through the blades as they cut, weakening the target on the molecular level." White Tiger explained outside the room. "I heard Satyra had technology more advanced than they should have but this was unexpected."
"Sure was." Artemis muttered, seeing the bandages wrapped around Connor's chest. "And we didn't capture him either."
"Yeah…Sorry." Kazemon apologized.
"Don't apologize. You managed to send him packing. He'll be licking his wounds for a while after that." White Tiger replied. "I'd like to track him down but with our mission to Van Kleiss we'll have to put it on hold for the time being. If we're lucky, Pardus won't be coming back any time soon."
In the hospital room Superboy's eyes flashed open as the image of a familiar girl flashed in his mind.
She didn't know where she was, only that she was in some sort of lab.
Trapped in a capsule.
So she gathered as much power to as she could to send a single message to anyone who might recognize her. "Help me."
"M'gann!"
Xxx
'Dear Mom and Dad, we've been in Gravity Falls for a few months and so much has happened! Just yesterday gravity reversed itself, almost destroying the universe and totally wrecking the whole town!'
Mabel looked up at the TV, where Lazy Susan was standing in front of a crane attempting to pick up Greasy's Diner.
"Well, they say it was an earthquake, but you know what I think? I think I'm gonna have to start serving pineapple right-side up cake! Haha! Am I right? Am I right?" Greasy's Diner fell down from the crane, seemingly answering Susan's questioned.
It then cut to Mayor Befufftlefumpter on a stage in front of the town. "Let the rebuilding of the town begin! Wrecking ball, start wrecking things! Hahaha!"
A wrecking ball destroyed a radio tower, making the television losing the signal.
"But the coolest part of the summer was when Grunkle Stan's twin brother came out of this portal-thingy. Now we have two grunkles for the price of one! And they are adorable together!" Mabel stopped writing to take the picture of Stan and Ford holding hands she had drawn on the letter and folded them together as she spoke in a loud voice. "We love each other so much!" She then made kissing noises.
"Ah-hem."
Mabel turned and saw Frida standing there with a smile on her face. "You know real siblings don't that, right?"
"Oh don't be prude, Frida. Trying to spread some love." Mabel pouted, making Frida laugh.
Dipper ran in with a box. "Mabel, Frida! You'll never guess what I found at the store today!"
"Dogs! Dogs with hats!" Mabel guessed immediately.
"A pet tiger! With a sweet guitar it sets on fire!" Frida added her two technos.
"No, it's my favorite fantasy-talking, level-counting, statistics and graph paper-involving game of all time:" Dipper said, holding it up. "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons! You wanna play it with me?"
"…A board game?" Frida groaned. "Really?"
"Well, I do like unicorns, and that hot elf looks promising. How do you play?" Mabel asked, looking at the box.
"The rules are simple." Dipper opened the game book. "First, you roll a 38-sided die to determine the level of each player's statistical analysis poweroid. These orbs relate directly to the amount of quadrants that your team has dominion over, which is inverse to the anti-quadrants in your quadrant satchel."
Mabel just stared and waved her hand. "And then we ride unicorns?"
"Yes!"
Mabel gasped.
"And no."
Mabel frowned and Frida patted her on the back.
"First, we make a graph." Dipper held up a graph paper.
Mabel groaned. "This is like Homework: The Game."
"Come on, you two, I need at least two people to play." Dipper retorted.
Soos walked in, seemingly just in time as Mabel backed out. "Oh, wow, would you look at that: two people! Three if you count-"
"No-ope!" Frida backed out.
"Huh." Dipper then spotted Soos. "Hey, Soos, up for a little game of D&D&MoreD?"
"Aw, sorry, Dipper, I don't go in for that pen and paper kind of stuff. I'm more of an FCLORPer." Soos answered.
"A wha-?"
"FCLORP:" Soos proudly held up a wristband with 'FCLORP' written on it. "Foam and Cardboard Legitimate Outdoor Role Play. It is where a passionate brethren of craftsman, bring their dreams to magical reality."
"Well, thanks anyway, Soos."
Stan walked in with Zoe. "Say, is this that game that's mostly math and writing and isn't anything like the picture on the box?"
"Yes! It is! You wanna play with me, Grunkle Stan? Zoe?"
"Ha! Look, kid, I prefer to do my dice rolling in Vegas. Besides, only a game designed by nerds would have 'charisma' as a fantasy power. Heh. Check this out:" Stan read from the book. "When facing yon adversaries, shield thyself, under an elfin buttress."
"Haha, say it again!" Mabel giggled.
"Buttress." Stan said as he, Frida and Mabel laughed.
"Hey!" Dipper took the book from Stan. "Laugh all you want. You guys just aren't smart enough to understand it."
"Heheh. Sorry, dude, but it is kinda nerdy. Well, I'm off to lay siege to a goblin fortress." Soos put on a cardboard helmet and took out cardboard sword. "To my grandma's backYARD!"
With that, Soos was out the door.
Dipper sighed and looked Zoe. "I don't suppose you-"
Zoe just shook her head.
Xxx
Dipper moved out into the backyard with Gompers, choosing to play with him as he rolled the dice. "Oh, nice! You rolled a seventeen!"
Gompers just bleated.
"Aaannd this is sad." Dipper sighed. "Maybe I should start obsessing over Wendy again."
The problem was he was trying not to since Wendy had run after Tambry who left the Mystery Shack in a huff, followed by Hoagie and Sky. It was depressing enough that Dipper decided to try Mabel's approach and just not worry about it for the time being.
Gompers took the dice and Dipper grabbed at it and tried to pull it out of Gompers' mouth. "Hey, give it back! Come on, Gompers, let go!" He pulled it out and fell backwards, dropping the die under the porch on front of a hole. "Aw, man, my 38-sided die!"
Dipper crawled under the porch and the ground fell out from underneath him.
"Whoa, what AAAAAHHHH! " He landed on the floor of the basement; looking up to see the die next to the cycloptopus who picked it up.
"Dipper! Stop!" Ford's voice shouted.
"Great uncle Ford!"
"What did I say about coming down here? My work is far too dangerous for a single living soul to spend even one second i- wait!" Ford stopped and picked up the dice. "Is that a 38-sided die from Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons?!"
"Yeah! Y-you know that game?" Dipper asked.
"With pen and paper, shield and sword..."
Dipper and Ford spoke as one. "Our quest shall be our sweet reward!"
They both shared a laugh with Ford smiling in nostalgia. "This is my favorite game in the whole multiverse! I can't believe they still make it!"
"They do! And I've been looking all day for someone to play it with me!" Dipper exclaimed in excitement.
"My boy, do you know what this means? We must stop everything I've been working on at once... and PLAY!" Ford said before the Cycloptopus grabbed his face. He pulled it off and his face was covered in welts. "That's... going to leave a mark."
Xxx
BAM!
SMASH!
The doors to the Northwest Mansion were smashed open and in stepped Double D, Miss Spell and Phan-Tone.
Armed and ready.
"Preston Northwest!" Double D shouted in his Armatae armor. "Where are my parents?!"
Preston Northwest stood confidently at the top of the stairs, looking down at the three intruders. "Back so soon?"
"You can't escape. We've alerted the police and they'll have the entire mansion surrounded." Miss Spell stated. "Come quietly."
"Oh, I am not too worried." Preston replied as he held up a small bell. "Just as it happens, I had some work done to this mansion."
DING-DING!
With a simply ringing of the smell bell, the walls and floors of the Northwest Mansion split open, even flipping so that up was now down, causing the three to fall as the mansion began splitting itself apart and remaking itself with the rooms moving themselves all around.
"Let's play a game." Preston Northwest grinned as he rung his bell again.