Road Trip of the Heart

by ultima-owner

A unforgettable journey of crazy times, at least for the person doing it. It's a SIOC fic so if you don't like those, please don't flame.

36. EPM

Welcome! As I said the last chapter, the ending of Union X is mind blowing but makes sense for the plot of Kingdom Hearts. Spoilers for: Kingdom Hearts, Johnny Test, Worm (web serial), The Monsters of Morley Manor, Welcome to Night Vale, Ratchet and Clank, rising of the shield hero, Monster Hunter, Yugioh, South Park, Power Rangers, Ben 10, SCP Universe, The Little Mermaid, Addams Family, Tenchi Muyo!, Lilo and Stitch, Gravity Falls, Disney Descendants

Disclaimer: I only own my stuff.

Chapter 29: E.P.M.

Johnny Test universe

Porkbelly, Washington USA

Test Family household

"It's so nice of you to help with dinner." Lila Test, an auburn-haired smartly dressed businesswoman who is the mother of the Test kids, said as she watches Zane selvage dinner as her husband, Hugh, was crying over a meatloaf charcoal for the past hour. "The government says I have to stay here until the all testing is completed but the girls have to finish their current project first. It's for school." Zane told her as he sliced and diced a salad as something was in the oven and a soup pot was bubbling away on the stove top. "Cheer up. I can put that poor meatloaf to good use." He says soothingly to Hugh, stopping his crying fit. "Really?" Hugh asked, voice shaking. "Yep. I can use it to add an interesting smokey flavor to a meal." Zane said. He planned to offer it to Lady Hestia because she would mind it being charcoal with all the love in the dad put into cooking it, but he wasn't going to say that.

An hour later

The dinner was done. Lamb chops, vegetable and potato stew and a light sauce. "How did a biker like you learn to cook like this?" Johnny asked, as his knife glided through the lamb like butter. "Learned it from my mother, bless her soul, and life only improved my cooking skills." Zane said. "This is amazing!" Hugh said, melting in his seat from the taste of the stew. "You used the lamb juices to make the stew bloom." He praises. "Not quite but close enough. Everyone one has their secrets." Zane comments. "I think we have an idea to fix the Taser bomb." Mary said. "Have part of the electrical energy convert to light and the shock will be less fatal overall." Johnny, confused, asked "So, you are going to make it into a flashbang that shocks too?"

They look at him shocked, "Did Johnny say something smart for once?" Susan asked. "Girls, everyone has their smart moments, even Johnny." Lila scolded. "Is that safe? What have you been testing it on?" the twins exchange looks before answering, "Rodents no one will miss. The largest was a possum the antitheft trash can-bot caught three days ago." The parents shiver. "Thank you, girls, for keeping the house rodent free." Hugh says with a twitching eye. He had to be OCD about cleaning. Zane wondered how bad he was.

A few days later

Johnny Test universe

Porkbelly, Washington USA

Test Family household

Zane stood on a platform, in circuit covered white clothing, as arms with technical instruments scanned from all angles. "How long is this going to take?" Johnny asked annoyed and playing with a bouncy ball. "This is just a basic scan to input his dimensions into the computer." Susan said as she calibrated a syringe tipped device. "Once we get this data, we can really start testing his limits." The way she said this made Johnny and Dukey happy they weren't going to do those tests on them. Zane's mind drifted to the 'dream' he had last night.

Flash back to the 'Dream'

Zane watched a white cloaked, with the symbol of the Dream Eater Spirits on the back, figure watching the dreams of a dark-haired girl, just in her teens from the looks of it, suffering a nightmare or maybe it was memory that was haunting her. Tears ran down her cheeks as the cloaked figure hung over her protectively. Zane drifted closer in the hazy gray place. "You will not come any closer." The figure stated in a voice of motherly steel. She didn't shout or yell. It was an even tone. It was then that Zane realized he was in Daemon (Cloaked mode). "I apologize if I startled you. I approached to see if I can gather information to ascertain if I am having a 'Demi-God Dream' or is it that my mind has drifted into the Realm of Sleep again." Zane asked politely.

The woman didn't have a weapon, but it could be she was hiding it for now. "The Realm of Sleep?" She asked putting herself between him and girl. "Did you not know where you are or what you currently are?" Zane asked. The woman's silence was telling. "Dream Eaters are Spirits that normally drive away bad dreams and spread nicer ones. If a Dream Eater falls to darkness, they try to 'free' dreamers from connects that would cause them harm even if it's an extremely remote possibility." Zane shrugged as he said, "Why would anyone call being cut off from any connection 'living' at all. It would hollow and bland. Maybe even hurt more in the end."

"You didn't tell me what the Realm of Sleep is?" the cloaked woman asked, "Is it connected to Earth Bet or Earth Aleph?" Zane laughed at this question. "All those and more. The Realm of Sleep runs parallel to the afterlife, depending on what you believe in, and dreamers catch glimpse of that place all the time." Zane appears behind the woman in a burst of speed and looks at the girl. "Dream energy and it's strong, even in its dormant state. Strong enough to make you, a fresh death, into a Dream eater. You must be an impressive parent to foster a belief this strong." Zane comments, heedless of book floating above the woman's hand.

"Stay away from Taylor!" She said as a swarm of insects, mainly bees and hornets bearing the Dream Eater tenancy to be bright colors and the symbol somewhere on their bodies, rushed Zane who jumped away. The insects followed but were burned away with a Firaga. "Interesting ability but not enough to stop me." Zane said as the girl stated to 'wake up' to what's going on around her. Zane got a look at the book. It was a soft green with tree on one cover and an owl with outspread wings on the other. "What's going on?" The girl asked looking a around dazed and afraid. "Everything thing is alright, Little Owl." The woman said as she snapped the book shut and dismissed it, hugging the girl close.

"Where did you go?" the girl babbled crying a river, literally because it was a dream like place, "your car was empty, and they only found a little blood." Zane adds this to what he knew and came to an interesting conclusion. She almost died but someone took her and there it was, a connection from the woman to her body somewhere else. "Congratulations! You aren't dead." He said cheerfully. It's all the good news I've got right now." He was rewarded with the book being resummoned and bashing his skull hard. "That's nice to know but what about the weird coffin I was put in?" the woman asked annoyed.

"Mom, can tell me anything about where you are?" Taylor asked, she still wasn't totally lucid, and her sense of logic wasn't in play, or she would be freaking out at this moment. "There was a giant warehouse room with coffins lined up. I remember a glowing doorway then a sphere in the middle of the warehouse with a giant hazy crystal in it. Then I was here." This was interesting. Someone kidnapped a close to dying person and put them in what might be a machine powered by crystalized Dream Energy. That would explain the touch of death on the woman. It's something everyone picks up after being at death's door, even if you survive the event.

Flashback end

A week later

Johnny Test universe

Porkbelly, Washington USA

Test Family household

After a week of tests, they hit a major snag. "Mary, the general wants a full spectrum of DNA tests and Dad will lock us out of the lab if we do any of the more 'in detail' tests." Susan says worried. The General had been impressed by the initial test and was paying handsomely them to go 'all the yards in all the football fields', his words exactly. "Not even all the money we will get will make Dad lift his ban on DNA experiments." Mary says before getting an idea. "Susan, I have an idea." Susan knows what she's thinking. "Anyone but him! I am not asking Eugene for help." She refuses fiercely.

An hour later

Johnny Test universe

Bling Bling Boy's Volcano Island Lair

"Could you please do a full spectrum of DNA tests on his blood?" Susan asked as she reluctantly brought Zane to Eugene, better known as Bling Bling Boy, who was a rich persistent kid on the chunky side with gem encrusted gold jewelry on. "Anything for you, Susan." Eugene said swooning that his crush was asking him a favor. "It will be ready in two weeks." He promises as his scientist lead Zane away.

Two weeks later

Meanwhile in Area 51.1

"What do you mean he doesn't exist!" The General yelled at a technician. "There is not information of him nor his clan existing in this dimension." The technician stammered, sweating bullets. "We believe that the alien ray we recovered opened a portal to his dimension and he drove through." The general glared at him through his black shades. "Then we need to send him back home! His country needs a loyal soldier like him." The General bellowed, making his own conclusions without all the facts. "Right away sir!" the technician runs off.

A week later

Unknown world

Zane looked around at the world he had been sent to by the barely working alien tech. It was the right universe, but Zane had no idea where he was. Purple chest high spiked grass as far as the eye can see and trees that were just too weird to be one earth. Zane looked at the hill he was on, and it was 'off'. Walking around the hill he stopped at more worn spot. Many feet had walked here then it just stops. On whim he sung and did the hand gestures to open a means of transport to worlds in an instant, called the Starry Door. It was used by the Coalition of Civilized Worlds (CCW). Where once was empty air was a black void of a door with a circle of stars clustered together. A sea of stars appeared in the door before him after touching the stars in the right order.

The Wentar, a job that had a little bit of everything to it, had traded the secrets of the Starry Door and some other information. That alien race, he never found out the name, used information as money and Zane had plenty of things to trade with. He surveyed the glowing points the door showed him, each a planet with a Starry Door and apart of the CCW. He preferred not going near Flinduvia, a harsh planet with uncaring aliens with the ability to 'see red' and go berserk. The Creatures of the Red Haze idealized him, even if they had no idea what he looked like, in an unhealthy way last he checked. Those snorted, muscular, tentacle fingered. scaly alien with their bulging eyes and long flexible hooved feet wanted to 'master' the 'red haze' as Zane had, by any means, even if it meant experimenting on Zane. It didn't help they were extremely militant.

Zane's eyes landed on a star. It was the Earth the CCW allowed a Starry Door, 10 of any races, the limit of how many living creatures could use the Starry Door at a time, couldn't invade a planet under normal circumstances, so there was a Starry Door in Owl's Roost Nebraska. The last time he been there was decades ago according to the current date of that Earth. Another star was Zentaraza, a planet where changing form was easy as changing your clothes. Zane almost touched a star that was a planet for a planet of giant frog like aliens and the mother of all of them, who had billons of children already, but something stopped him. It was his wayfinder, glowing faintly.

"Alright, charm. Where should I be going?" Zane asked it rhetorically. It hovered on his palm and spun before pointing like an arrow at 'Earth Morley', named after the American last name of clan, who's manor held the Starry Door, making Zane give it look. "I don't want to just 'appear' in their home unannounced after not talking to them for 60 years. It'd be rude and the CCW has rules about not revealing certain secrets." He argued, but the choice was unchanging. "Fine! I will trust you again." He muttered before touching the star and saying, "I want to go there."

A few days later

Earth Morley

Owl's Roost Nebraska

Morley Manor

Zane looked at the house picked clean because for a time the state thought all the Morleys were dead. They had an estate sale because a dead clone of Martin Morley had been found. He learned this from reports hidden in the upper floor's hidden hallway. The Flinduvian were responsible to the 'disappearance' of the Morleys over fifty years ago, he could smell their brand of weaponry in the house. "At least they didn't find this." Zane said opening a hidden panel behind a wall mounted crest plaque of Family Morleskievich, their name before moving to the US. Inside was a red fez hat. "Just like I described." Zane says to himself putting it. He finds a note addressed to him. "Payment for what you have done for those who know the forgotten paths." On the page was instructions where a cache of magical items was hidden by a Flinduvian who snuck them off Flinduvia at some point.

A few hours later

Earth Morley

Owl's Roost Nebraska

The woods

He looked in the freshly unburied 'normal' looking trunk. "I guess that trip to Flinduvia a century ago was worth it. I half expected that group I save would subscribe to the ego of the rest and become cold heartless warmongers. The keypad he found after deactivating the cloaking on the metal trunk was in Flinduvian alphabet, but he just disabled the digital locking mechanism. "The lock isn't Digimon-proof, is it?" Daemon commented. The trunk spring open and trays of items were lifted out like a sewing box.

It was mainly magical items but there was a coded message in a crystal. "The poisoned branches will be purged." Zane translated. The meaning hit him in an instant. He had planted the seeds of a revolution to end the endless war mind set the Flinduvians had since forever. He'd tell the CCW later after the dust settled. A less war like Flinduvia is just what the universe needs. He turns as a note leaves a glowing doorway that closed just as fast as it appeared. It was in English. It had a location to be at within the hour with all his stuff. It had an upside-down Omega symbol and the bottom corner with the name Caldron next to it. "Time to spring the trap." Zane said, sure that it will lead him to answers about the 'Dream Gate' problem.

An hour later

2005, local time

Earth Bet

Somewhere Montana

"Really? That Fedora wearing woman pulled a double portal on me." Zane yelled after he displaced the group of murderers he had been dropped in the middle of. The town was destroyed down to the foundation and there was a lot of bodies. The hardest to kill was some adapting haling monster with an extremely redundant body that kept egging Zane on to do more ways of injuring him. "You must have a bounty you smug asshat." He told the head of the man who appeared to be the leader. The head had a short black hair and mustache and trimmed beard with a playful yet argent smile frozen on. Zane had killed him first to hopefully save the young girl he seemed to be torturing.

Said girl was covered in blood not her own and passed out on the ground next to who had to be her parents. The bodies looked like they were systematical injured then operated on with shaky hands, most likely the girl. She looked to be six years old and had tear tracks washing a clear path through the blood that stained her face. "I'll bag up the heads for their possible bounty." Zane told the girl, not knowing if she could hear him. He wrapped each head in an oiled cloth bag then put it in a large sack carefully. Seeing as she wasn't waking yet and this was no place for her to stay, he found a place to pitch a tent and carry her over. He'd deal with sheer number of bodies, easily thousand if the marly legible population consensus document he found were the townhall once stood.

An hour later

2005, local time

Earth Bet

Somewhere Montana

Zane dialed the number for the PRT, Parahuman Response Team, from a pamphlet he salvaged. It had been the bank lobby along with the numbers for emergency services. "Hello, I'd like to inquire about a band of parahuman murderers who may have a bounty and some aid for the other survivor I found." Zane said when he got a real person on the line. "We're somewhere in Montana but there are no names I can find." He gives a description of the people he killed and had to point phone away as he gets yelled at for a 'sick prank'. "Look lady, I have thousand plus bodies cooking in the middle of summer in Montana. Do you have an email I can send a video to prove it? I even cut off the murderers heads for proof of kill." There was thump and a long silence before someone male gives him a secure email and the call ends.

"I guess that got the gears moving." Zane shrugged as he recorded himself as he finished gathering the bodies, inside of body bags he got from the police station and hospital morgue, in neat rows. When the body bags ran out, He made body bags from other things. When he finished in about ten minutes, he sent the file to the PRT. Speeding from the south a dark cloaked black masked man appeached at extreme speeds. He stopped at the edge of town and brickly walked to where the murderers' bodies were. He looked at them critically then teleported, with weird static aftereffect, next to Zane, just feed his ego. Zane could feel that egomania rolling off him like toxic fumes you can't see but are nasty all the same.

"Where are the heads?" He demanded as if Zane was beneath him. "I need information first. Your name and why you feel the need to send a powerhouse to pick up a bounty?" Zane asked, he had included his name in the email he sent. "Eidolon of the Houston Protectorate. You killed Slaughterhouse Nine, an S-rank threat with kill orders on all members." He stated annoyed. Was it the fact Zane had killed someone he failed too? Or was it because they had a use for some reason later. "Just got to this Earth today. Someone pulled a 'double portal' on me and dropped me in town." Zane explained. Eidolon's body language changed to great frustration, well hidden, and Zane heard Eidolon jaw tightening. "I see. We will have all the paperwork and a bank account set up for you filled with the bounties." He uses the teleporting power to disappear with a sack of heads Zane handed over.

A week later

2005, local time

Earth Bet

Boston, Massachusetts

"I apologized how my college treated you." A man in a skintight sky blue and white suit, that looked a little like Green Lantern's but not the same, said giving Zane a pile of forms mostly filled out. He was Legend, a Parahuman that was head of the New York Protectorate Branch, had bent over backwards to smooth things over with Zane and Riley, the girl he saved, for a few days now. "He's got complexes and a thirst for a good fight no matter the cost." Zane commented, flipping through the papers. "All you need to do is sign on the marked lines and we will streamline any issue you two have getting settled on the east coast." Legend said. "Should Riley want to come in for power testing, we can help her use her powers safely."

Apparently, people on Earth Bet, and adjacent versions of earth, had 'trigger events' that granted them powers, most of the time ironic and sometimes cruel reminders of that day. There was no knew source as far they could find, Legend lied about that, but they were researching it for decades. One of the Think Tank he met had told him the same in a more technical way, but she hadn't lied, making Legend one of the ones 'in the know'. He filed it away for when he had more pieces of the mystery. The powers were divided into 'classes' and each ranked with a number with baseline humans being 0.

Mover was movement powers. Shaker affected an area like an AOE. Brutes were harder to put out of a fight. Breaker was an alternate form. Master was controlling something or one else, like constructs or mind control. Tinker was making stuff that didn't make sense anytime soon. Blaster was self-explanatory. Thinker was information gathering. Striker was odd but it boiled down to effect powers that require contact to active. Changer was powers that let one change shape at will, some more limited than others. Trump was power that 'reacts' to other powers and screws with it. Stranger was powers that 'hide' things from notice. There were protocols for Master/Stranger Parahumans that included being in a containment cell for a time to prove there weren't sleeper agent commands hidden in your mind or body. Riley had Thinker/Tinker powers and a little trump in mix too.

Three years later

September 25, 2008, local time

Earth Bet

Boston, Massachusetts

The Laskaris house

Zane sighed as he returned hold from a long three days of solving deaths. Using the Memento Mortem, he had started a business of solving how people or creatures died. There were laws that limited parahumans running a business, but it was manageable. It prohibited anything that was a war crime or could 'breed' in out of control. They were much looser than the first draft Zane had dug up in his research. It would have tripled the 'Cape', powered heroes and villains, villainous population in the US alone. Zane looked at the 'cat' that greeted him. It was an 8-month-old black cat with white paws, spine ridges down its back and a tail that ended with a stinger. Its, at least, four eyes blinked back at him as it purred in an eldritch fashion.

"Riley! What did I tell you about biotinkering on animals?" Zane yelled as he closed and locked the door. Riley ran up to him and hugged him around the middle. "I didn't mean to make him." She said, her eyes apologetically. "Tinker Fatigue?" Zane asked, referring to a state where a tinker zones out and focuses on a task so hard they are on autopilot until it was done, even if it's days later. "Why did you make the unnamed pet like that of all things?" Zane asked after they reached the living room couch.

Riley had the 'cat' in her lap and stroked its back unharmed. The spine ridges were acting like they were willow branches. "Khoshekh guided me." Riley said innocently as Zane froze at the mention of the 'cat' that floated in the men's bathroom at the Night Vale radio station. "It doesn't have anything thing else I need to worry about, right?" Zane asked the girl he adopted three years ago. Riley set the cat on the coffee table where it showed off no less than 21 eyes over its body, not all of them cat like, unfurling fuzzy tentacles from its sides that secreted an ooze that hardened into a set of wing-like membranes between the tentacles. "And what name have you settled on?" He asked praying it was a normal name.

"His name is Loki." Riley beamed as the cat showed off flight abilities at her request. "You are grounded for a week." Zane said. "Even if it was your power at fault, you still broke a rule, and the punishment stands." Riley looked sad but nodded. She was only nine and she was almost never breaking rules unless it was a bad idea not too. "You need to be careful with that place." Zane warned, "Night Vale is a place where, well it's not the safest place to live." Zane explained without going into detail. Riley seemed to understand but her next words were troubling, "My agent is afraid of that place too." She taps her head. She then launched into an explanation of the Corona Pollentia and Corona Gemma inside of parahumans were a means for the 'agent' to grant powers after a trigger event.

"How did you find this out?" Zane asked, when she finished. She didn't answer as Zane added two more weeks for 'self-experimenting on her own brain again'. She took the punishment with grace and walked to her room in shame. "I can't help but feel that she is trying too hard to grow up too fast. The therapist says she's getting better but then she does this." Zane told Loki who returned to mostly cat looking and in Zane lap. "She blames herself after what happened to her hometown and family" Zane explained as he examined the cat. The spine ridges seem to become harder than steel when Loki was feeling threatened, and his stinger wasn't the only way to deliver a toxin. He peered into Loki's mouth and counted six sets of teeth and fangs, likely connected to venom sacks, like a snake. "Do you think these 'Agents' are behind the 'Dream Gates' I've been tracking down?" Zane asked the cat, who yawned before nodding firmly. "Because you are clearly smarter now, I have some rules and a job for you." Zane told the cat what to do and what not to do then added rules for how he could protect the family from danger. Loki memorized every detail.

Loki then pawed at that day's paper. Knowing how cats loved to make you do all the heavy lifting, Zane unfolded it. The front cover had him in his 'cape persona' with the headline, 'Spirit Caller solves another murder.'. Just another day for Zane as he worked on things. He is told to turn the page by Loki batting at the edge. Rolling his eyes, he opens it up and froze as in black and white on page three was missing poster. "Annette Rose Hebert, English teacher and married mother from Brockton Bay declared missing after car crash." He read. The article showed the husband, Danny, who was a member of Dockworkers Association, and her daughter who matched the girl from that odd dream or trip to the Realm of Sleep. He was leaning toward demigod dream with a twist at this point.

"After a crash with a drunk driver, who barely survived, Annette disappeared from the crime scene with a trail that went cold a few meters away. This is just one of many kidnappings following a mover power mo. IT has been two weeks and no sign of her appearance as a Case 53, see page 15, as many of the other victims in the past have done." Zane flipped to page 15 without finding the rest of the article. "Case 53 is the PRT classification of parahumans who appear as a 'Dream Eater' after being put in a metal coffin connected to a glowing crystal 'somewhere else' by a woman in a fedora. All have mark somewhere on their projected bodies and typically bare 'magical' or 'dream-like' abilities when compared to other parahumans." Zane read out loud.

"Why do they give so much information yet be so lacking in vital information?" Zane ranted at the empty answers he finally found. "Wait! I've been working with them for three years and this is the first time I hear about Case 53!" He swore he would pull all the other things they 'neglected' to tell him about out of them. He grinned with a malicious smile. Nor would he do that, he would use their own laws against them to do it. That's why Lawyers are called the vilest demon in existence when they are against you.

later

October 15, 2008, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Dock area

"Well? What is it?" The dark-haired man asked Zane, who face was hidden beneath a simple looking hooded robe. "Mr. Hebert, this is a chunk of crystal not native to this universe." Zane said as he examined a giant shard of blue crystal spearing a warehouse. It stood at least five stories and was as wide as man at its thickest point. "Was anyone one hurt?" Zane asked. Danny Hebert rubbed his glasses annoyed and pulled a tarp from the head of a homeless person, the body missing. "He was a squatter that we've ran off more than enough times. Now he died crushed by that thing." He does a sweeping gesture at the shard.

Zane held the Memento Mortem as it shook violently, skull on its face. "Care to join me?" Zane asked. Danny nodded slowly and gripped Zane's arm as the Memento Mortem's lid was flipped open. The world faded away and the scene of death was revealed.

Scene of death

"He was so drunk he felt nothing." Zane said as he walked around the cloud of gore as the shard hung in the air. It was at least a third longer than what was visible in the current time. Danny was looking up through the roof and pointed out something. "Look! There's a hole in sky like a broken window." Zane ran up the shard and peered at the hole. "A Lombax and robot fighting another robot?" Zane tried to understand why the Ratchet and Clank Universe was damaged enough to send a shard that size here.

Back to reality

"Safe to say, it's beyond your paygrade." Zane told Danny as he brainstormed how he was going to remove the shard. "Is it heavy?" Danny asked, standing next to him. "Depends on what kind of crystal it is. I'm guessing it's fairly heavy but nothing I can handle with the right method." Zane guessed. They look to the door of the warehouse as the roar of motorcycle is heard. In came a pair of tinkers, Armsmaster and Hero, the first 'tinker' parahuman. Armsmaster wore a blue with silver trimmed power armor and used several Halberds full of miniaturized components. His tinker power was making tech smaller yet doing the same thing.

Hero on the other hand, wore less armor, a silver winged shield prominently on his shoulder, and had more gold orange to his tech. He specialized in wavelength tech. "Spirit Caller, who's your crystal brother?" Hero asked, vizier slinking in the sunlight. Zane turned and saw the crystal was gone and in its place was a doppelganger that looked like Zane's current attire but no features. It was mimicking his actions. "I think that crystal is alive." Danny said, rather calmly. There was a local phrase that came to mind 'Powers were BS', and this was just proof.

"You were sent across many dimensions?" Zane interpreted what the crystal being 'sung' in a wordless collecting of hums and chimes. "But was imprisoned by an emperor who was mostly nonorganic." The being nodded. "Then a Lombax with a little robot knocked you through a portal and that's how you got here." Zane could not translate the message perfectly and had to substitute some words the being didn't know. "Why were you traveling?" Hero asked. Zane listened to the melodic answer that stretched for a good five minutes. "What is he saying?" Armsmaster asked. "His race leave home from a place deep in a realm that madness runs rampant. As seeds, they go through dimensions, until they find an 'ideal template' and then collect knowledge before becoming 'what is expected' and return to the source." Zane summarized. "He's an eldritch being."

Hero stiffened as Armsmaster zoned out. "I don't think the PRT has protocol for that." Danny joked, sweating and eyeing the being. "Would this fall under foreign diplomat?" Armsmaster asked Hero. "I guess." Hero said, caught flatfooted. "He wishes to meet the one talking to you via your helmet." Zane translated, looking at Armsmaster. "I'm sure Dragon will want to meet someone like him." The being had adopted a male pronoun because his choice of 'temple'.

Later

Dream

Zane was in a demigod dream for sure. A paper tiger with a wispy black aura, a person that looked flat, and a cracked doll, standing in a school hallway, laughing at a fowl smelling locker door where someone pleaded to be let out as she banged on the door. "You are prey, Hebert. A lowly worm to wallow in the mud." The tiger preached as the others laughed hollowly as if they didn't believe it like the tiger.

The cracked doll's laugh was desperate as if something was pulling her strings in a cloud of negativity. Zane looked at the hallway and memorized every detail, even the gang tags sprayed on the walls. He had been meeting with Danny and his daughter over the past few years and she had admitted to school troubles with her former friend, who she swore had a dark aura about her.

later

January 7, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Winslow High

"You can't just break in!" the lazy school cop said a Zane busted down the school doors and ran down the halls of lockers. It didn't take long for the stench to lead him to Taylor's locker. "Taylor! If you are wake, brace yourself." Zane called out as he melted the lock off, uncaring of his 'Parahuman Identity being uncovered', he tossed aside the molten slag and opened the locker. Taylor fell out covered in bugs and biohazard. Zane caught her and ripped the radio off the cop and called in what was going on as Students came out to see like mindless tourists, complete with cellphones recording.

"Blackwell! You can't hide this like all the other incidents." Zane glared at the crowd as he vowed to tear the school to the ground to bring justice. The crowd parted like the red sea as he carried Taylor outside to meet the medics there.

Days later

Dream

Taylor was in place she never been, yet it felt familiar like a forgotten memory. It was lake amid a crystal formation as far as the eye could see. A fisherman cast out a line not paying her mind. She ventured over, complied to ask, "Where is this?" he looked at her and past her at the same time. "a home, abandoned for a voyage never to return. You carry a shard who dreams of this despite never being here in 'her' life." He said, sounding wise beyond words. "They had grand plans that would interfere with my work." He continued, "for that future crime, I altered them on a fundamental level. Do you hate me?" the question was not for her as hot but controlled anger, not her own, burned in her mind.

"Queen Administrator? What a lofting title for a shard so young. Then again you are all infants compared to me." The man chuckled. "Child, you nearly didn't in that death trap you were shoved in if Zane didn't get the Demigod dream, I sent him. Tell him 'An old face will return but be innocent of all past crimes', it is imperative that the wording is exact." He told Taylor with a tone that made her think of a general, no, an emperor, ordering a soldier. She stumbled a little as a coldness creeped into her. "He better act fast, or you will die for real." The man said, calm as a placid pool. She felt dread as QA fettered over her. I felt nice to have someone other than family worry about her.

She gasped as the coldness was driven away by something that felt like QA. "Shaper?" Tayler guessed from the message QA sent her. It was alien yet she could feel that QA knew this 'Shaper'. "Another shard." The man commented, "QA orders and Shaper makes arts." He explained vaguely. "When you wake, try not to scream." Before she could question him, she woke.

In the waking world

January 12, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Brockton Bay General hospital

"Where's my arm!" was Taylor's panicked wheeze as her dry throat prevented screaming. Her right arm was missing from the just before the elbow and what was there was bandaged. "You contracted something non-biological that I couldn't deal with." A robed Cape said as she looked at chart. "Luckily, it was only reaching the elbow when we caught it." She commented with a slight snark that seemed her normal. Taylor realized that she could see without her glasses and the cape was the infamous 'Red Queen', resident villain/independent parahuman that toed the line by working at all hospitals in bay area.

"Yes, yes. The dreaded daughter of Marquis, the crime lord of Brockton Bay, is using her time to heal you innocent civilians." Her snark was on full bore. "She's still in shock, Red Queen. Please cut her a little slake." Zane said as he entered with jar of glowing liquid. In it was a withered arm surrounded with an aura wrongness. He sets in on the rolling table at the foot of the bed. "This is your arm, Taylor." This made no sense to her. It looked mummified and wrong. The wrongness was stomach churning. "I am currently working on the details, but you got cursed." Zane said. "It would have left you a husk in two weeks, slowly and painfully."

As Taylors thoughts whirled and spiraled in on themselves, an interruption in the form of Loki plopping himself on her stomach forced her to stop. "Hello Loki, what are you doing here?" Taylor asked as she automatically pet him with her left arm. Loki's 'features' were a little freaky, but she had got used to it after a year. "Who is that beauty of creature?" Red Queen asked enamored by the too many eyes and other features Loki had. "That's Loki. I'm not sure what happened but a Biotinker Zane knows turned a normal cat into this." Taylor avoided names. "You need to hook me up with this Biotinker so we can trade notes." Red Queen requested to Zane.

"Can we focus on Taylor's missing arm?" Zane asked. "I have a replacement limb but it's not a 'normal' one." He didn't want to explain how he got said replacement but would try if asked to. "What? Is it a demonic arm or something?" Red Queen asked with anticipation and glee. "It's a made of something, not sure what but I've been told it's harmless to the host it's attached to." Zane pulled a long box into view and started removing the locks on it. Taylor counted over dozen locks as a box was opened. Laying on velvet was a bleached white arm with black 'cracks' running along it. "Once it's attached it will match your skin tone the eyes tracks will remain." Zane stated as a yellow eye moved along the 'cracks' to get a better look. "What I do know is that it is similar to a few races of ghost like aliens I met."

Zane put on a pair armored gloves that reached his shoulders. Loki took flight as Zane removed the arm from the box. "Please remove the bandages, Red Queen." Zane ordered. She did so then had Taylor brace her stump to line up with arm. When the arm was a few inches from her stump, things went mad. The arm jumped from Zane's grasp and fused with the stump, painfully. The eye on the arm had an unholy glee to its stare and QA was just as joyful as Taylor blacked out from the pain.

An hour later

January 12, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Brockton Bay General hospital

Taylor looked confused at the sight of her mother, in the same robe she had seen in that dream, putting Zane in a painful headlock and berating him for putting 'that unholy abomination of arm on my Little Owl'. "Somehow you opened something called a 'Dream Gate' and your missing mother has joined the ranks of Case 53s." Red Queen explained animatedly. "Her biology is odd but closer to human that most 53s I'm scanned." She then looked at Taylor with a hungry look. "Your biology after the arm attachment is much more interesting. We will be great friends." The way she said that made Taylor realize there was no refusal option to the offer.

That night

January 13, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Brockton Bay General hospital

It was past midnight and Taylor felt a nagging from her new arm. Still not awake she grabbed something smooth and wooden not far from her face. She woke up quickly and stared at the broad tipped hunting bolt in her hand. Once again, the arm sensed something she couldn't and dropped the bolt on the bed as shadow figure with a pair of knifes ready to plunge them into Taylor's chest. The urban camo black cloak, feminine yet fierce mask, and crossbows lead Taylor to wonder why a hero was trying to kill her. The arm had no such distractions as sped up to grab choke Shadow Stalker, who should be untouchable in her breaker state (other than electricity), as she descended.

It was a tense five minute as the arm persisted its grip as Shadow Stalker slashed at it, her breaker state flickering on and off as her struggles slowed to a stop. "Why did you do that!" Taylor demanded glaring at the eye that was on the back of the hand at that moment. The arm let go of Shadow Stalker but hooked fingers under the mask as the body crimpled to the floor. "Sophia Hess is a Ward?" Taylor couldn't believe it as the arm threw the mask it removed aside before it hit the call nurse button. The nurse didn't even stay in the room for minute before running back to call the PRT.

Around noon

January 13, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Brockton Bay PRT Headquarters

Director's office

Director Emily Piggot, a no-nonsense woman who disliked capes but was in charge of Protectorate East-North-East, was so happy she caved and let herself get parahuman healing as she hit the hard liquor after the latest screw up that fell into her lap. "Armsmaster, why was a broad tipped arrow found on Shadow Stalker's person?" She asked harshly. "And why was she trying to murder someone of interest?" Armsmaster stood in shame at his failure. Before he could answer she continued. "She in on probation for crucifying gang members. You recommended we try to redeem her. How much do you want to bet that she has been breaking other rules? We are washing our hands of her." She declared.

"I make no excuse for my bad judgement on this front but there is something I found disturbing." Armsmaster said. "Dragon, start the surveillance footage." The Canadian cape's digital avatar on screen was relace by a play back of Shadow Stalker's failed attack. "Shadow Stalker was in her breaker state, same as the bolt. That," He used a laser pointer to indicate the replacement arm, "grabbed as if there was no breaker state. We need to find a way for her to let use test its capabilities." He requested. She narrowed her eyes at Taylor's face and sighed. "If you can get Zane Laskaris to agree to it. He's got a vested interest in the case 53s and her mother is the latest one."

Armsmaster grimaced at the name that had been giving them trouble for the recent years. Zane had forced them to share information by ruling of the Supreme Court after someone thought it was a bright idea to not follow through with the contract he had signed. "His insight has been extremely helpful in many cases as Spirit Caller." He said trying to be positive. He remembered how effective a lawyer Zane was, especially with contracts. "If we be honest about Shadow Stalker, he may be willing to be reasonable." He offered.

A few days later

January 16, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Brockton Bay PRT Headquarters

Director's office

"Shadow Stalker is not guilty of the attack at the hospital." Zane informed Director Piggot. "But she's guilty of all the almost two-year bullying campaign she took apart in, including the Locker Incident." Director Emily Piggot seemed to grow resigned yet relieved. "She will be in juvie for her crimes, but tell me why you believe she didn't try to murder someone in the hospital?" She stated signing a document that sat on her desk, waiting for this information. "She's been cursed recently, maybe a few days after the Locker Incident, forcing her to believe it was a 'good idea' to go for a second chance at murder." Zane said showing her a cloud of wrongness in a jar.

"Pulled this off her and it has a strong enough match to the withering curse on Tayler's arm I cut off." Zane said showing her a graph comparison. "You contacted Professor Haywire?" She almost demanded. "Yes, I contacted the parahuman who was crazy enough to see if that was alternate earths in 1988. And good thing I did." Zane showed her more graphs. "The energy readings are a perfect match for things from 'Earth Magic' just like this ring." He holds up the finger with ring connected to the sun he tossed cursed objects. "Something came from that earth and is throwing around curses, not just here but other cities as well." He pulls out a map with 'hot spots' dating back a few years. "The oldest he tracked happened in an alloy in this city. Can you guess what happened on that day?" Zane asks.

"Armsmaster found a dozen members of the Azn Bad Boys gang in a critical state but was too late to provide enough medical aid." She stated. "They died from some parahuman attack that left them dried up husks." She trailed off as she made the connection. "That's the same thing at happened to the arm." She said dread and fury creeping into her voice. "Yes, someone willing to throw around mind control, withering curses, and other nasty things, is causing trouble. Lung has this person at the top of his 'to be charcoal' list." Zane stated. Lung was a powerful parahuman that was from Japan, but his gang had a branch in the states. "It's little off topic but something came up I need confirmation about." Zane placing a file on the desk. It was stamped with 'top secret' and labeled 'Ellisburg'. "Where did you get this?" She asked, pale and shaking. "From the PRT Chief Deputy Director herself, Rebecca Costa-Brown."

Zane's tone goes flat as he leans in. "This was something I wanted to know about when I warned you people about the 'Dream Gates' years ago. The parahuman who triggered at the exact moment the 'gate' opened was, for lack of better words, was shattered by the dream energy. The town, now ruled by whatever is left of him, was drenched in dream energy and can no longer be called the Realm of Sleep or waking world. Why was I not informed until yesterday of its existence?" Director Piggot felt like she was facing down a dragon and her tongue refused to work right. "We'll come back to this at the later date." Zane said, the pressure vanishing as he took the file back and left the office.

Later

February 3, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Lord Street Market

Fugly Bob's

"I have contacted Earth Magic as you requested." Myrddin, a parahuman with a wizard theme with robes and staves, said as he watched Zane eat a greasy dripping burger. "As leader of the Chicago Protectorate team I had an easier time than someone else, but they didn't trust me with whatever information they sent." He places a scroll bound by glowing thread. "Something about me being a gimmicky spell caster." He grumbled. "So, what if I can only cast cantrip spells. If I met them face to face, I'd cast Fist." Zane coughed and laughed as he struggled to swallow his bite. Myrddin was lucky enough to have some talent for magic but couldn't throw around high end spells. He was stuck with a wide range of the 'simplest' of spells, but he pushed it to the creativity limit. Take Acid Spray for example. It was a sixty feet spray of an unknown acid. It wasn't strong acid, but Myrddin had found if he narrowed the range, it made it easier to herd thugs he was leading to a trap.

Zane used magic to push the grease off his hands and opens the scroll with tug of the string. The first thing he found was a magical wanted poster. "That's a lot of heinous crimes." Zane says as multiple murders among other crimes rolled under the picture. said picture was a creature with shifting features and it changed to show all known forms the being was known to use. "Thing got around before they jumped through a 'Dream Gate'." Zane comments. "Blacklisted and wanted in every town and city on Earth Magic. Not even the worst wanted to shelter them for moment." The words 'Kill on Sight' was underlined many times to drive the point this being was not to be given the chance to live.

The being's name was Emma Barnes, daughter of a duke on Earth Magic before she found her talent for curses and other painful magics. Zane read a series of letters between Duke Barnes and a non-human spell castor whose talent was in healing mental problems. Emma's Earth Magic counter part was a born sociopath who got off on suffering and desperation. She had tortured animals, working her way up until she found that boring and upgraded to beings that could beg and plead in a tangible language she could understand. The more Zane read, the more he lost any pity for his target. She was a monster with power and was intent on destroying any life she felt like. He rolled up the scroll and stated, "She's a monster that makes any of the Slaughterhouse Nine look the lesser evil."

What was visible of Myrddin face took a shade of bad porridge. "And how are you going to stop her?" He asked. "Hunt her down and put her down, hard." Zane said with steely resolve.

A week later

February 10, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Docks

"Who is the Deal Maker?" Taylor asked as Zane met her at the pier, fog that seemed to swallow them and the conversation swirling. "You've tapped into one of the arm's many abilities. Fog of War, a fog that hides the user from being spied on or found by means other than line of sight." Zane commented calmly. "I saw a demon being summoned by medieval kings. They wanted to deal with the 'Wave'. Then it got fragmented." She tried to explain the dreams that were plaguing her since the arm was attached. "Something went sour years later. Four were summoned by one king instead of one. Chaos, destruction, devastation that seemed to be targeting groups." She was shaking as she finished her most recent dream. "You found the arm at the sight of the demon summoning after everything went wrong. What is this thing?" She was angry, confused and in over her head.

"The arm is what was born after the Breach of Contract happened in that land. The Waves were worlds grinding against each other, The kingdoms agreed to summoning one of the 'Four Heroes' chosen by the 'holy weapons' as the stabilizing force and those that would defeat the 'monsters' that came each Wave." Zane explained. Taylor tried to interrupt but the arm shushed her. "Contract Magic once cast, cannot be undone easily or without cost." Zane continued. "Not even gods can avoid backlash if they breach the terms of an ironclad Contract. The Deal Maker's Contract Magic gets stronger proportional to the deals he makes, even if they are 'Breached'."

Taylor looked horrified at the dangerous of Contract Magic but could not voice it because of the arm holding her jaw closed. "All individuals, even the gods, that willing helped this the 'breach' that you dreamed were punished by the Contract Magic itself. The Deal Maker words his Contracts in a way that limits accidental 'Breaches'. Even so, all I know is that your arm was created by Contract Magic and bares many abilities of that world if you train hard enough to access them." Noticing her questioning look, he admits, "I only found out after doing a scan on you when you were meeting the Undersiders. Didn't peg you for joining an independent gang." He pauses, "then again, the arm's ability to open rifts helps immensely with travel."

A month later

March 20, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Undersider's hideout

"You grabbed an egg?" Alec, a dark-haired teen with 'muted' emotional responses and a passion for gaming, sitting on a couch playing a shooter game. He was known as Regent, a para human who screws with nerve signals and used a taser fitted in a Victorian style scepter. Brian Laborn, an African American teen that was tall and muscular enough to pass as an adult, leaned over the egg sitting under a heat lamp at the table. He was known as Grue, a cape that released black smoke that blocked senses and power usage if you were in it. His sister, Aisha, was barely a teen but triggered with the power to 'not be noticed' unless she wanted to be. Her cape name was Imp, because of her pranking habits. She 'popped into existence' near the table and poke the egg but hissed in pain as if burned. "How hot is that thing? It's like a fireplace." Taylor used one of her new spelled the arm gave her to heal the burn in a green glow. "No idea, I saw some crazy monsters when I was waiting for the recharge time to finish. There were some humans with oversized weapons too." Taylor said as she watched the egg. "Strange thing is that when I first touched it, I felt a bond form with it. Like it's now my familiar or pet."

"You mean Like a creature to fight alongside the heroes? Sounds about right after how you explained your string of abilities being unlocked." Alec nodded as he continued to play. Rachel Lindt, a gruff auburn haired muscular teen with a mentality that was more dog-like because of her powers, eyed the egg from a distance as her dogs, all recused from dog fighting rings and other places that were not pet friendly, did the same. Her cape name was the word for a female dog, even if the PRT tried to force her to use Hellhound, and she could make 'monster armor' around a dog. It the dog would be wrapped in an organic power armor that made it look monstrous. "Smells like a reptile." She stated, getting to the point.

Lisa Wilbourn, the super sherlock cape known as Tattletale, was a blonde teen with a foxy smirk on display most of the time. "Fanged Wyvern, not reptile." Lisa said rubbing her temples as she got a tinker headache. "It needs to be hotter to hatch. Where did you find the egg?" She asked. "In pool of magma. I grabbed it because I didn't want some egg thief to crack it open for breakfast." A dinging from a giant clear pot in the stove made Taylor look up then use her right hand carry the egg to the pot that released extreme heat as she set it in the sealed it up. "A tinkertech incubator?" Lisa asked then winced as her headache worsened. "Not Tinkertech, made with magic runes to stimulate ideal heat to hatch any egg. Not made on this earth and not breakable."

"Do you know why Zane left you a pile of ore?" Brian asked as he kicked the crate in the corner. "He just said this creature snacks on it. He refused to say what it was." Taylor said staring at the slowly twitching egg. "It's going to take three-ish hours for it to hatch." Lisa said before going upstairs to sleep off the headache.

Three hours later

March 20, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Brockton Bay, USA

Undersider's hideout

The egg, now rocking back and forth on the floor like a bag of angry cats, was watched by everyone behind cover other than Taylor who was cooing encouragement to the beasty fighting to hatch. As it cracked, streams of extremely hot gas escaped. With one final push a chubby iguana/salmander monster with the top half of the egg still on its head looked around confused. It had a blue upper body that bleed to yellow then orange on it back half. Its chunky belly was cream, and its stomach was making a load roar and it looked at Tayler. Taylor lifted the egg 'helmet' and was greeted by a large frog like jaw with the state of hard scale protection and an adorably 'derpy' gaze from its small eyes.

"Someone is hungry." Taylor cooed rolling a softball sized chunk of ore to the monster. It snapped it up and just sat there as Lisa measured it from afar. "It's size of a Saint Bernard puppy." Rachal said eyeballing it as Lisa comes to the same conclusion. "For now. It's going to be too big for the hideout before it's even half grown." She said pale as her power feed her answers. "Wait, I've seen that before." Alec said with narrowed eyes. "that's from the Monster Hunter Franchise from Earth Alpha. I think it was called a 'Dodogama' or something." Taylor picked it up with a grunt of effort smiled at it. It wasn't the strongest of things she saw in that world she 'rifted' to, but he was as some would say about their pets, the 'Best Boi' and must be protected. He was needed after the trio were now no longer in her life.

April 28, 2011, local time

Earth Bet

Grand Canyon

Zane was in the shade of a shelf of rock as he worked on the sliding puzzle that he had final tracked down the week prier. All 99 titles collected and with great anticipation he found quiet place to solve it. Just as he was about to start, he was interrupted by the appearance of the 'first' parahumans, Eden and Zion (people know him as Scion because of a mishearing). Zion was a golden humanoid with a white toga, flowing long locks of hair and white glowing eyes. He seemed to go around save cats more than anything. Eden on the other hand was a beautiful 'woman' with a teal skin and wore a dress woven from some unknown material. She was the long-term problem solver and seemed to be off the radar 90% of the time. They were never humans, no matter how hard Eden tries to blend them in. Zane could sense it the first time he met them.

"What does Chaos want now?" Zane asked, annoyed. "Zion confronted the curse user, but she removed herself from this time to yours." Eden said showing a diagram that was extremely Non-Euclidean (Shapes and angles are warped and bend in ways that are not normal) in nature. "What do you mean 'my time'?" Zane asked. "You are wearing a Band of the Sun. it is a 'key' to enter this exponential set of worlds." Eden said, "It operates much faster than outside to meet our needs." Zane fingered the finger that he used to deal with cursed objects. There were countless worlds linked to Earth Bet because of these Entities touched by Chaos before their multiplanetary genocide planet got past the drawing board. The Monster Hunter world was outside of their reach so Taylor could 'rift' out of the 'experiment zone at any time.

"You are lacking tile 100." Zion stated. Zane looked from the entity to the sliding puzzle and glared at empty air. "What's he doing?" Zion asked confused. "He is thinking profanities at a 'Master of Masters' for losing so many tiles to a puzzle. I know who has the piece, but it will require completion of Cauldron's mission." Zane looked at her. "I commissioned a group of humans to study 'Dream energy' and found an echo of an being known as 'Bill Cipher', do not worry. It will be a 'new' version of him that is created." Eden stated. "Bill Cipher hid it in the Realm of Sleep? That thing taunts me from the grave even now." Zane grumbled. "Wait! You are putting people in metal coffins, letting them wake around in 'dream bodies' just to revive a copy of that cyclopic Dorito?"

"It is necessary to make the research safer. One 'Ellisburg' is proof enough that humans are ineffective at what we need without 'modifications' that are not yet known to exist." Eden said. Zane got the picture. They had a task from Chaos, and they lacked the means to complete it to the parameters set out. "What in Tartarus is going on?" Zane yelled as wave of 'pressure' passed by, the entities' avatars flickered briefly as the wave passed. "The wave originated from the northeast coastal area." Eden stated, "Shard Prototype Host's tech malfunctioned sending bystanders off world. Adjusting time dilation ratio to give you time to find them."

Uber and Leet were a pair of parahumans that did videogame themed public stunts that didn't always follow the law. Uber's power was being perfectly skilled at anything and Leet could make any tech, but it was prototypes, not finished products. His tech tended to fail is extreme ways. "Give me a few days to talk to the right people then leave before you flip the time Dilation ratio." Zane said before Zion 'helped' by teleporting Zane back home without asking. Eden gave him a flat look. "You should stick to helping those that were shuffled within the experiment zone." Zion zoomed off as ordered.

Elsewhere

Dual Spirit World

Cyber City

Armsmaster looked at the futuric city around him and gripped his halberd tightly as a mechanical hydra dragon (Cyber End Dragon) stared at him with six eyes and three mows glowing with energy. "Uber and Leet are going to be my test dummies for my tech when I find them." Eh said in an uncharacteristically annoyed tone. He would later blame it on the dimensional jetlag and splitting headache he was suffering at that time. Cyber End Dragon paused and powered down its attack, "Intruder, will you come quietly. We are interested in your minimizing technology." Three cold voices said at once. Armsmaster let himself be taken into custody, at least he would live long enough to plan something, and they seemed to be a logical race.

Elsewhere

South Park world

South Park, Colorado

Uber looked at Leet and started shaking him rapidly into a wakeful state. "We look like paper puppets! What kind of world did you send us to?" He yelled as Leet looked at the 'Welcome to South Park' sign. "South Park." He answered paling. "Colorado? But that doesn't explain the change of appearance." Uber said not understanding. "No! The show South Park! That alpha adult cartoon where Kenny is always dying, and the fat kid is racist and crude." Leet yells back as angry looking turkeys start to invade the town. They share a look as they realize they were stuck in South Park. "We're Screwed!" they yell as one.

Elsewhere

Galvan Prime

Azmuth's lab

Azmuth and Zennith consoled the frightened girl who appeared in the galvan head scientist lab unexpectedly. "You are safe here. What is your name, human?" Azmuth asked the young human girl with dark brown hair, and her eyes were puffy and red. "Dinah Alcott." She said as she rocked back and forth, absolutely, positively, terrified by what she saw before she was found. "What are the Chances this is some cruel prank, Honey?" Zennith asked. "15.985%" Dinah answered without realizing it. The gelvans exchange looks and Azmuth scans the girl who looked barely over 7 years old. "She's got a pair of nodes in her brain that seem to be connected to a power giving source." Azmuth figures out from looking at the scans for moment.

"Have you seen something like this before?" Zennith asked. "28.4567%" Dinah said as her power compels her to answer the question. She clutched her head in pain as a faint headache spiked. "No more probability questions. It hurts!" She said, whimpering. "It's clear that she can give a percentage of a possibility happening when framed as a question. Help me get her something at will help reduce the pain." Zennith said concerned as Azmuth was giving orders for a room to be prepared for the girl. He would not return her without providing much needed aid after being shifted across time and space in such a traumatic fashion.

Elsewhere

Lost World

Resort of the Lost

Lisa looked at not human but human looking staff member at the front desk. She looked average, forgettable and nice enough to make you trust her. Her powers were telling her that it was façade. All the workers here were dangerous when angry. Do not break the rules! It pleaded to her. "Welcome to the Resort of the Lost. It looks like you were blown from your world by a foolish mortal messing with untested technology." The staff member said with a smile. "Shall I give you the explanation for all new guests?" Lisa just nodded as she took the pen she was given and signed in the guest log.

"This is a 'Safe Haven' for those that lose their way, be it by magic, science, eldritch, or other means. We aren't the only place, but we don't mind the competition. You leave at any time, but I don't think you can 'lose your way' back home like the Laskaris Clan does. They are a frequent last name to fill the guest log." The staff member gave list of rules that seemed to be normal but there were many and were meant for non-human guests or interacting with said guests. "A bell boy will take you to your room shortly." The Staff Member said as someone that looked like Zane walked up. Lisa had run into him, and they talked briefly.

"Lucas Laskaris, it's good to see you alive." The Staff member greeted as the fluffy bearded man. "I'm sure you have a plaque with my name on it and how I always get here by Fairy Ring." He laughed as he signed in. "You look like it your first time here." He tells Lisa who is still processing things. "You heard my name already, but I'm an expert on all things fungus and molds. I hope we can chat latter." Lisa lets the Bell Hop guide her to away to her room. She just wanted to sleep and them deal with things when the 'jet lag' was gone.

Unknown time

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood (somewhere in the US)

Tayler was woken up by her scaly friend's nudges. She was on the edge of a forest near city she didn't recognize. For some reason she was holding a lead that was attached to collar around her familiar's neck, like a dog. The tag on it read 'Aevnass the rock of serenity'. Taylor laughed at the title of the Dodogama because she had named him Aevnass, which meant 'gentle heart' and he, as far as she could tell, never got angry. He was currently up to her neck in height and was and had a nose to tip length twice her height, half of it his tail. "I think we survived that Stargate stunt screw up Uber and Leet did." Taylor said as her arm's eye was staring into space. "My arm got a worse concussion than I did." She pulled out a roll of bandages Zane gave her to hide her arm from public eye. It took getting used to, but she could bandage it one handed and was ready to tell anyone her arm was 'severely burned' if asked. Even on Earth Bet, people believed it more than the possibility she was her Cape persona with an arm that watched her blind spots for her in battle.

"Now, that lab coat guy in the 'Event Horizon' said this was the best spot for my landing." She didn't see anyone else on the way here, so they had to be elsewhere if they were caught in the kaleidoscopic blast. "You there, with the amazing reptile!" a frazzle haired man in Hawaiian shirt yelled as he ran up to her. "I run The Rock Porium, a record shop." He pauses at the blank look from both Taylor and Aevnass. "Are new in town?" He asks, getting his bearings, "You must be because I would know if you had the perfect mascot pet I have ever seen!" He praised Aevnass but not touching him yet.

"I forgot to say my name. Toby Slambrook." He sticks out his left hand. She takes it and says, "Taylor Hebert, I was ditched here by someone I know. They really went all out with it this time." She lied in a roundabout way. "Sounds like someone I knew from college." Toby comments, "a friend of his got drunk and woke up five states over." He gets an idea. "Tell you what, you two come and work at my shop and I can get you a place to crash." He looks at the pile of bags near her. "Maybe hook you up with some nice stuff until your ride comes back for you." She looks at Aevnass who just stared back. "You talking to him without talking?" Toby asked. "He doesn't seem to mind you." Taylor said, without answering his question, agreeing to the deal.

Same world different time

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Space Patrol Delta (S.P.D.) HQ

Interrogation room

"The year is 2025 not, 2011." Anubis Cruger, a blue scaled jackal looking bipedal alien said as he stared at Brian, who is handcuffed to his chair arms and legs with wall mounted blasters pointed at him if a speck of black fog is spotted. "Well doggo, let me know where my sister is, and we will hop on the soonest time machine back home." Brian snarked to hide his worry as he looked at his helmet on the table with Cruger looking at it with interest. "She is being questioned as we speak. If you tell me how you bypassed security so well. We may let you off with a slap on the wrist at worst." Cruger said with a tone that was not a suggestion.

"I told you! I don't know. Uber and Leet were doing a Stargate related stunt and then a rainbow blast knocked me out and I wake up to blasters pointed at my sister." Brian's explanation didn't include the chaos as his black fog blocked all senses and the cameras before he picked up his sister, who was still out cold, and injured people on his way out the place. "You broke five arms, two legs, a jaw, and bruised dozens of limbs on the people to bulldozed through in you failed escape. Most of them caused by that black fog you produced and your mad dash down the halls and stairs." Cruger stated with a cold look that hide his current state of mind. "It took you less than a second to react then you had a plan that would have worked if not for the outside doors being sealed in the ten minutes it took you to reach them."

"This place is a maze and I've never been here before." Brian said, cursing the fact the cuffs were not key locked. "And yet you got your sister out of danger at a pace that would earn you praise from me if you were one of my officers." Cruger said. "From the archives, I know that Stargate was an Earth TV show about gates that would make intergalactic travel easier. How did this 'Uber and Leet' make such a gate?" Brian was confused at the rapid change of subjects. "Leet's parahuman power is to make prototypes of whatever tech he wants." Cruger looked up sharply at the word 'Parahuman'. "Uber's ability to have any skill helps them safely pull off their stunts but Leet's tech fails more often than not in explosive fashion."

"Are you from Earth Bet?" Cruger asked. Brian stopped cold at the intense look that was sent his way. "Your silence is all I need to hear." Cruger stands up and as he leaves, he says, "If you are interested, we could use some one of your skill, even if you attitude could use work." The doors hissed shut and locked behind him. "What I would give for Tatts to be here." Brian said.

In different interrogation room

"You saw someone 'mess with the geek ring'?" Dr. Kat Manx, a bipedal alien that looked like a human with cat features, asked Aisha as she took notes. "Uber and Leet said something about it being just short-range teleporter to a ring elsewhere, but I saw Bakuda's mooks planting devices on the back the ring. I think the ring was from a TV show or something." Aisha commented munching chips. "Who is Bakuda? A criminal or monster?" Dr. Kat asked. "She's some new Tinker that joined a local gang. No idea was her specialty is." Aisha thought about it, adding, "Maybe something that screws with tech? because that was beeping then the ring sparked like crazy then we were here in a rainbow blast."

Dr. Kat looked at Aisha with pity. "What's with the look?" Aisha demanded before 'vanishing' from sight. The crunching of chips was the only sign she hadn't move from her chair. "There was a report of someone back in 2006 that talked about Uber and Leet's stunt in in lesser detail." Dr. Kat said, "It seems you were sent in time and space to different times from your home world Earth Bet. But we can't be sure until we do some harmless tests, if you are willing to give your consent." Aisha 'reappeared' and balled up the empty chip bag. "Let me have free rein of as much of this place as you are willing, and I'll think about it." She says with smirk that Dr. Kat translated to 'let me prank some people when I get bored'. "Nice try but the most I can do is let you shadow me or my assistant in the Gadget Testing Lab." Dr. Kat counters, "and there will be plenty of snacks if you refrain from too much mischief." Aisha mulls it over before agreeing to those terms.

An hour later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

S.P.D. HQ

Mission Control

"Was the sister more willing to talk?" Cruger asked Dr. Kat as security footage and the interrogations were being searched with fine tooth comb. "She was reasonable once I bribed her." Dr. Kat commented. "It seems that the event that sent them here was because of a possible sabotage of gate stunt they were near." Cruger nodded, adding, "It was meant to be small scale Stargate jump. The range was only a few states over according to the account given by a." he pauses to read the name of the 2006 report. "Tayler Hebert, who was teleported with her pet reptile to a city called Briarwood." They look at the photo of the pet and exchange looks. "That is not native to earth." Dr. Kat said. "It's clearly a Dodogama from that planet marked off limits to off world visitors because of 'Elder Dragons'."

Cruger arches a brow questioningly at her. "In 2020 a group was sent to investigate the planet but of the ten sent, only the emergence data return pod came back. They were massacred by what the locals call 'Nergigante the Extinction Dragon', a creature in the top ten deadliest on the planet but not the highest." Dr. Kat explained. "We sent a research team of three to ask the locals for information and hit a gold mine of information from the 'Hunter's Guild'. We keep anyone off world from landing there and they will keep us updated as they pursue their ecosystem preservation goals."

"Any information that can solve the mysterious malfunction?" Cruger inquired. "Just one, a parahuman named Bakuda sent 'goons' to plant devices on the Star Gate. The Gate 'sparked' then exploded 'like a bag of skittles' as Aisha helpfully put it." Dr. Kat stated, looking through her notes. Cruger sighed as he was reminded how children can be at describing stuff. "Did she make the Taste the rainbow joke?" He asked tiredly. Dr. Kat's suppressed smile was answer enough. "Based on the cape name we have. I'm guessing she was or is a bomb tinker." Cruger stated, "bakudan, is Japanese for 'bomb' and there are traces of an unknown substance on the girl. Any idea what it is?" Dr. Kat brought up a holo-display on the center table in the room. It was frequencies of the unknown traces. "It's some kind of quantum radiation that is theorized to from time traveling but is currently unproven." Dr. Kat reported.

Elsewhere

SCP Universe

Earth

SCP Site-17 (somewhere in California, USA)

SCP-5257 Containment Unit

"5257 can you explain who your tech works?" A researcher as an annoyed Bakuda, a girl in her late teens wearing full hazmat suit and heavy-duty gasmask, as she constructed a cylinder device. "As I told you freaks the last five times. My tech can take in energy, contain it, then release it later. Let me work on this." She growled as the armed guards fingered their assault rifles. "You mean a bomb?" The researcher asked for clarification. "No, you narrow minded twat! Think wider! A battery does those things. A TV does those things! My specialty is to make any tech that does those three steps. Bombs were the first tier. After my requirement by my Boss, I rose through the ranks until I tried to make a devise that could boost the power output of powered tech." Bakuda's voice took a far-off tone.

"I'm conflicted on that fact my underlings tried to impress me by placing it on a short-range teleportation gate without telling me." She sighs. "The gate overloaded and teleported many people in the city to different earths at different time periods." The researcher took notes. "Is there any reason for your 'immortality'?" he asked. "I'm no expert but exotic elements may have, what was the term your colleague used, 'Time Locked' me until I get back home, if that ever happens." She states. "It's been," she tries to remember how long it been by couldn't. "The oldest read of you was 150 years ago and you were found by the SCP Federation after your extraction of SCP-610 a month ago. A feat that was deemed 'unrealistic to attempt'." The Researcher said evenly.

"I was testing a bomb I mad long time ago that I didn't feel safe using anywhere else." Bakuda said cagily. "Please elaborate." The researcher pressed. "I have plans for devices that can turn things to glass, make blackholes, cause a person's nerves to send bloody murder level pain signals all at once, but that bomb was an extinction event focused on the entirety of whatever race it hits." The researcher looks alarmed. "You mean it could have wiped out humanity if you used on a human?" Bakuda shook with fear for her own creation. "I was going through a bad time, worse than when I first got my powers." The Researcher concluded the interview as the guards were handed the finished device, placed inside a case.

Main Universe

Atlantica

Off the coast of Denmark

Zane, in shark form, was resting as the ocean currents rocked him gently, soothing the 'jet lag' he had. he was sure he was in the past, but it was at least a decade since Sora had been to this world. Ariel was married to Prince Eric and for some reason, they had walled of the beach with thick walls half as tall as the castle it protected. It would take an extremely fast fish to jump that wall or a small one to slip through the grates underwater. He had never been to this world, but the sea welcomed him all the same, like an old friend. "Sebastian? Isn't that Gummy Shark?" a yellow with blue stripes and fins asked a red crab who was quaking like an earthquake. "Shoo, Mon! Their kind eat little crabs! I'm too old to be eaten!" Zane shot them a look before ignoring them. He preferred heartier prey.

An hour later

"Sorry!" a black-haired girl, around 11 or 12 years old, said as she accidentally kicked Zane's side. "Watch it! I'm resting and don't need a human, a quaking crab past his prime, or a guppy interrupting it." Zane snapped, flashing his teeth. The human looked amazed instead of afraid. "What sea are you from?" She asked, sitting on an outcrop of rocks near Zane. "a far off one. Warmer than this one but it's home all the same." Zane said eyeing her. She looked human but had this feel of being 'at home' in the sea. "I'm Melody." She said, white underclothes were soaked, yet she didn't shiver from the cold. "Zane. What brings a land dweller to the salty sea?" Zane asked.

"Looking for shells." Melody said. "The sea can be dangerous, but I'll watch for danger if you don't mind having me join you." He pauses as an angry lionfish swam by almost striking her feet in the water just because he could. "On second thought, you should avoid swimming deeper. There's a fight brewing." Melody was annoyed but smiled as she got an idea. "You've seen a lot, haven't you? Can you tell me about it? I've got a few hours before they notice me gone." Zane smiled as she gave him a pleading look. "The sunlit layer of the sea the easiest to see but it has equal parts beauty and danger on display." Zane began what would be the start many story sessions. Melody would come from beyond the wall to collect shells and hear tales of the sea and it wonders.

A few months later

Atlantica

Off the coast of Denmark

"Going somewhere?" Zane asked as Melody paddled a rowboat out to sea with a stormy expression. "She lied to me for years!" A golden shell locket was around her neck with her name on it as she ranted. Zane followed her to get to the bottom of this juice mystery. "Parents do things that they believe to be right, even if they aren't in the end." He quipped. "She knew about Atlantica and the merfolk and hid it from me." Melody argued. Melody had told him about her mother, Ariel, forbidding her from going into the sea. "If you are going to run away, please be safe. Danger and present itself in many forms." He warned. "May your Heart be your Guiding Key." Zane let her leave, praying that she found answers without too great a cost.

The next day

Atlantica

Near Antarctica

Zane swim past ice floes following the aura of King Triton's Trident. He had seen Melody, with a mermaid tail, taking it from the underwater city. King Trident had been less than pleased that an 'off-worlder' was 'meddling' but had backed off when he realized how little Zane had been 'meddling'. Zane left out the fact he had a Keyblade but reports of a shark wielding magic was enough to get that silver haired king to order Zane to come to his Throne room. He was told he was going to stay around someone of his blood or someone he trusted until he can find a punishment for not going to him the day he arrived on this world.

Zane agreed to the rules, but Melody was Ariel's daughter, so he was following the rules as he followed her as she was led by a shrunken tiger shark, no bigger than Sebastian, to some place. She seemed to have befriended a penguin and a walrus, good for her, but they had a miner falling out. What bugged him was how did she become a mermaid? Ursula, the sea witch, was dead by impalement but not all her bottled magic was destroyed in Sora's fight in her leir. Ariel, as a mermaid blitzed past him with a rush of water. "This will be an awkward argument." Zane realized as he decided to watch things play out but watch Melody's back as he offered when they first met.

Ten minutes later

Atlantica

Near Antarctica

Sea Witch's lair

"Ursula has a sister?" Zane asked as Tip, the penguin, and Dash, the walrus, filled him in on the adventure Melody had the past day. How strong was the current to take her boat past Africa to this ice place in hours at most? Morgana, Ursula's much thinner sister was having a power trip atop her ice spire throne as the entered the lair to save Melody. She was trapped behind ice with Flounder and whatever gave her the mermaid form was running out. "If we don't get her out, she will drown." Zane stated before turning around to face the now over sized tiger shark. "And who are you?" Zane asked. "We'll deal with Undertow. You find her and free her." Dash yelled before jumping and grabbing on to the tiger shark's back.

Zane navigated his way through the leir as a battle was happened on more than one front. "Melody! You alive in there!" Zane yelled as he fired magic as the ice, but it did little. "Stupid Magic Trident! Why did that sea god make it so powerful?" Zane yelled as he tried to break the ice without cooking the two beyond it. Melody, now human again, was just floating there as Flounder had concussed himself. "Coming through!" Dash yelled as he tricked Undertow to smash through the ice by covering his eyes. Zane swam in and used magic to keep her alive. The four of them surface worried for her.

When she coughed out the water everyone was relived but was reminded that the Sea Witch was facing Prince Eric and the merfolk army plus some animal friends of Ariel. Melody started to climb ice as 'all with fins' were forced to bow down because of the Trident's magic. "If it wasn't unbreakable, I would melt that thing." Zane grumbled. Just like her sister, Morgana's pride got the better of her and Melody got the Trident to her grandfather. As the icy leir crumbled, Morgana was trapped in a block of ice sinking to unknown depths for a long time.

A few days later

Atlantica

Off the coast of Denmark

Melody was sitting on the rock waiting for Zane. "I saw that you had quite an adventure. Did you find what you were looking for?" Zane asked as she surfaced. The wall was vanished by her use of the Trident and the sea and land were allowed to interact again. "I was being selfish." She began. "But I wanted to learn the truth so bad I didn't think things through." Zane listened as she explained the complexities of her problem. Ariel had put up walls and lies out of love, but Melody didn't understand. Melody had been tricked by Morgona, who was quite the actor, and that's how things happened as they did. "Would have done it differently?" Zane asked. "No. What's done is done." Melody said firmly. "I do miss swimming for so long without going up for air." She admitted. "I can handle that request without your grandfather being too annoyed." Zane stated, weaving a spell that settled on Melody's skin. "It's a simple magic to let you benefit from your merfolk heritage without having said tail. I layered a water breathing spell as a bonus, but you may suffer the side effect of your hair being a little 'unruly'." Zane warned, amused. "For 'the Sea cannot be contained'."

Melody laughed before asking, "Are you really from another world?" Zane knew she heard this from her grandfather or mother. "Yes, I am and no this is not my 'real form'. I am traveling to find people that were cast from their world because of an 'incident'. Before you ask, everything I told you is true. I hope you find your life to be a full one." He said, preparing to swim off to leave the world. "Thank you for giving me the tools to enjoy the sea." She said hugging as much of his neck as she could. "May your Heart be your Guiding Key." Zane said fondly. She repeated it back as she let him go. "Even if this the last time we meet, I will cherish the memories for an eternity." She said as Zane sunk under the water and vanished from sight.

Elsewhere

Addams Family World

Addams manor

"Loki?" Gomez Addams asked as he looked at the many eyed cat that was standing on a shelf. "If you are here, then the ever-youthful Riley is visiting." He exclaims. "I remember when I was just a boy and asking her how she hasn't aged in decades." He reminisces. "She had this look on her face as she scolded be about being more tactful with such comments." He looks around but can't find her in the area. Loki meows something that translated to 'She's in a tinker fugue'. How the Addams understood Loki was chalked up to 'a family secret'. "Ah, she is upgrading someone or thing. Best to make sure she has a good meal ready for her. Grandmama will love to make something special for her. She may be 'time-locked' for the past century, but she needs a wonderful homecooked meal." Loki had 'aged' to maturity, but his aging was 'different' because of the modifications he received. The Addams were not normal, but Loki had seen to it that Riley was of good emotional health after the trip through that Event Horizon.

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Rock Porium

Taylor put on the purple short sleeve jacket uniform Toby had all staff members wore. She walked to the front and flipped the sign to open and tossed a chuck of ore to Aevnass, had sat outside with a mini billboard over him, advertising the store and a cartoon version of him as the mascot in the middle of it. "It's been a month and no troubles other than disorderly customers." She said as she patted his head. Aevnass looked at her with an almost knowing by still dopey look. "Yes, I know trouble will come in some form, but we need to enjoy the peace when we can." Taylor said with a roll of her eyes. "Play nice with the fragile humans." She stated. He gave a groaning grumble as he crunched the ore. "Even the children that don't understand you are a living creature to be respected." She added as people came down the street with young children who pointed at Aevnass gleefully. Chip, his nickname, was an 'expert' on vampires and believed that magic was real as trees, even if he hadn't found enough proof. "Hello there my scaly friend." The sandy blonde-haired teen said to Aevnass as he passed by. "You're up early." Taylor said to Chip. "Have to get to the bookstore! A new book on magical beasts is going to available. First come first serve." He said as he jogged down the street. Taylor went back into the shop and sat behind the cash register. "Something is in the air today." She says to herself. "Something magical."

The next day

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Rock Porium

Taylor was confused as she found five new employees had hired, one of them being Chip. There was the local black haired 'pretty boy' Xander, who was on the vain side but wasn't too bad at skateboarding. He was Australian and had been bullied when he first moved to town. He will stick up for the loners and those that are bullied. She would soon learn he was lazy when it came to the job. Next was the Rocca sisters. Vida, or as her DJ name 'V', had short black hair with highlights and was all about music. It wasn't a surprise that she got a job here. Her sister, Maddie, had long black hair and was always filming or taking photos. Taylor refused to call her by her real name, Madison, because it was still too soon.

She looked at the last new employee. A black-haired teen (she wasn't sure on that) with a guarded look to him. Smelled like motor oil, must work on a car or something, and had an odd feel to him. In fact, all of them had an odd feel that wasn't there before but his was deeper. "Nick Russell, I drove into town yesterday." He said offering a hand. "Taylor Hebert. What do you work on?" Taylor asked, feeling the warn hands of someone that worked with tools. "A motorcycle." Nick answered. "Is it alright if I ask what happed to your arm?" he asked looking at her bandaged arm briefly before return the gaze to her face.

"Highschool drama that went too far." Taylor said cagily. She was always asked that question but worded much ruder by the younger teens. "She doesn't talk about it." Chip said. "Also, don't grab that arm unexpectedly, she will slug you, hard." He warned. "I'm sensing a personal experience in that statement." Xander said amused. Chip waves his hands dismissively. "Not me but I saw her punch a grabby drunk clear of his feet. Landed in heap five feet away from just a punch." Nick nods impressed. "Must be from caring for your pet reptile outside." Nick guessed. Taylor laughed, remembering all the times she had to resort to pushing Aevnass just get at something he was stepping on. "When he doesn't want to move, you have a better chance pushing a boulder." Taylor told them.

A few days later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Park

Taylor was walking Aevnass when a what looked like female demon appeared. "You are the source of the curse energy I sensed." The black demon said as she floated with assistance of the sets of bat wings at her hips and back of her head. "Oh? What's this? Bandages that can hide your arm from even my senses?" She said with interest. Aevnass hissed and rumbled with distrust. "I have reason to waste any more time on you." The demon said dismissively. "Leave with this name engraved on your mind. I am Necrolai, Dark Mistress of the Underworld, Queen of the Vampires. Until I find you again." Aevnass lumbered away with Taylor memorizing her voice and features.

A few weeks later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Root Core

Taylor had heard about the 'power rangers' for weeks now and had wanted to find out more but not like this. She was stoned by lobster/chicken/lizard man monster yesterday but was 'saved' by a spell gone wrong by this blonde spellcaster named Clare. "A statue? That not what I wanted to happen!" Clare said confused. She was in a workshop or lair with a tree over it, the roots held up the roof. She couldn't move or talk but she had resisted the 'stoning' enough to see and hear things around her. "Let's try this again." Clare said as she waved a hand over the cauldron. Taylor learned she could taste and smell in a limited fashion as an acidotic blast of smoke filled the room. "Why am I a fish? Udonna will be so mad." Clare's voice came from the goldfish inside of the fishbowl that replaced her. Taylor hoped Aevnass was doing ok.

A few hours later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Root Core

"Taylor?" Chip asked as Nick, Vida, and Xander followed him from what had to be the entrance/exit. "You know her?" Udonna, a woman in white robes said as she looked up from her research. She had found Clare's fishy fate and returned her with a wave and was mildly amused that the screw up, not angry. "She works with us." Chip said as he looked at the frozen determined stare Taylor had. "She tried to fight." Chip pointed out the stance Taylor was stuck in. "look where that got her." Nick said frustrated. "She was no better than Maddie right now." Clare was using a damp cloth to clean of the scorch marks on Taylor's stone form. "What can you tell me about her?" Udonna asked.

"Well, she got ditched near the edge of the forest with only her pet and some bags as a joke or something." Xander said. Taylor had missed it, but Maddie's stone form was set next her from outside of her eyesight. "Any mention of misfortune that left a mark on her?" Udonna asked. "There were traces of something, but the stone curse is muddling my spell." They exchange looks. "It's not our place to pry but she has her arm bandaged at all times and said she had a nasty surprise from an incident at her high school. She won't say word, but it may have to do with someone else named Madison." Vida said. "She refuses to call Maddie by that name and had this look of, I don't know what, but it worries me."

"Maybe Madison's camera will give insight?" Udonna states. They watch a video of what Maddie though of her friends, Taylor and Aevnass included. "Everyone expresses themselves differently. Taylor watched as they got a new 'spell code' in a large tome on a lectern and was looked like a a table with something like a scrying orb in middle warning them of a monster attack. She couldn't see because of how she was angled. But she did see them grab brooms and pull out some handheld device to transform into the mysterious color-coded superheroes, the Power Rangers. She was friends with the power rangers, oh how did she miss them leaving the store lining up with the Power Ranger and Monster sightings so perfectly. Maybe a subtle magic to distract those not in the know?

She wasn't sure how long it was, but the stone curse broke not long after the power rangers had left. Her gasp of air made Udonna rush from a side room and to her side. "Careful. I don't know if the curse had negative effects on you." She said, guiding Taylor to the round table as Maddie, went over to watch the scrying orb. "They need my help." She said before doing what her friends did and revealing herself as the blue ranger.

An hour later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Root Core

The rangers had left Taylor and Maddie to Udonna's tender care. "Drink this. It should clear any lingering stiffness." She hands them clay cups filled with a potion that smelled like overripe berries and herbs. Taylor downed it in one gulp and shuddered at the taste. Maddie looked at her then tried the same but gaged as the taste. "It tastes like an old smelly sock stained with bad wine then stuffed with potpourri." She wheezes nauseous as she fights to keep it down. Udonna arches a brow as the description but looks at Taylor. "Would you tell me why a withering cruse was placed on you in the past?" her question made Maddie forget about the bad taste. "A what curse?" She wheezes.

"I will explain later when the other rangers came back. For now, all I will say is it's a curse that is cruel as it is deadly." Udonna said in disgusted voice. Taylor clenched her fist, accidentally shattering the cup. "An attempt on my life that failed for the most part. The perpetrator sent an assassin when they learned of my lack of painful death she craved." Taylor ignored the clay shards that made her left hand, the one that was still human, bleed. "She didn't even do it in person." Taylor spat, "She uses people like toys to use then break for her sick joy. If I ever find her, I will snuff out that blackened heart of hers for good of all worlds."

Udonna nodded gravely. "I see, I was correct. Show me your hand." Taylor let her magic the shards out and pour a syrupy potion into the wounds. It spread over the hand and hardened into a cast. "It will crumble on its own in an hour." Udonna stated. Maddie was speechless at what she had just witnessed. Someone had tried to murder Taylor, twice, and Taylor was willing to hunt said person and kill them. Just how evil could this unnamed female be? Udonna was explaining the potion was for mending flesh and bone while protecting it in a resin like shell. She had to use it on Clare many times when she fell to hard and possibly broke bones.

A few days later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Root Core

"Where's Taylor?" Nick asked as he looked up from the 'required reading' on fire magic. Now that she was in on the secret, they took her with them after work to the giant tree Root Core was under. "She said she was going to tell us her secret, but I didn't see her at the dragon head entrance." Chip said just as confused. Xander was caring for a plant with Udonna pointing out, "If you can keep this plant alive, you will understand you magic better." Vida looked as her chair confused as she felt the arm rests. "A memory stick, sis is this one of yours?" She asks pulling the lump she felt off the armrest.

Maddie looked at it and was froze. "She couldn't tell us in person after all." Maddie said with a sigh. She took the memory stick and plugged into the tv. The screen flickered as they focus on it. "Hello whoever found this recording. I am Taylor Hebert, and you get to learn of the two years of hell orchestrated by a cutout of girl more interested in her 'image', a paper tiger who thinks she is an apex predator, and broken doll I called my friend before the paper tiger and a monster from another earth made her their tool." The team watched in silence as the bullying campaign, and what started it, was explained and ended with the 'Locker incident', and the loss of Taylor's arm. The rangers and Clare ran from the room to hurl. Udonna stood there, white as a sheet but blazing with fury. Never had she heard of a person so sick that they would cast the Withering Curse hundreds of times and enjoy it.

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Underworld

Throne room

Morticon, Cyborg general of the Morlock army, was sitting on his throne planning the next attack on the rangers when Necrolai came into with dusty scroll. "What are you interrupting me for now, Hag?" he snarled, the mechanical horn on his head whistled as the piston sped up. "I have found what the odd curse trace I detected was." He swung the heavy sword, called Fang of the Master, at her but was blocked by the blade carried by Koragg, The Knight Wolf. "Let the Hag speak. I too have detected this curse." He stated coldly, pushing the blade away and pinned it to the ground. "Right. After much searching, I found a passage that hinted at the existence of the curse, but it was the Master that told me of a hidden scroll he knew was hidden in this lair." Necrolai said opening the scroll. "The Withering Curse is a lost spell that not even the foulest of beings will use if they don't have to."

"That Curse?" Koragg roared in disgust. "It is an honor less tactic only a sadistic being would resort to." Morticon shuddered, even as a blue skinned undead cyborg, he remembered the feeling of the curse that forced him to cut his on flesh off. "I made sure to destroy the instruction to the curse and slain all that knew how to cast it long ago. How can a human have traces of that on them?" he demanded with absolute hatred. "That I do not know but her right arm is not her own." Necrolai reported, "It must have been a 'lesser evil' for her to lose an arm." Morticon ordered a squadron Styxoid, an undead solider that wielded a bladed staff capable of firing lasers, to find her and drag the truth out of her. He would not have a that curse returning. "Hey!" Necrolai yelled as one of them takes the scroll from her before Koragg sends them topside.

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Forest Clearing

"So, you had the worst day of your life and you got bit of creature shoved in your brain, who is a queen and wants to help you?" Phineas, the Troblin, said as Taylor sat on a stump across the campfire from him. "Would it be wrong to ask if I sell worse than your old locker?" He asked. "Compared to that." She shudders before pressing on, "you smell fine. A bath wouldn't hurt but I can't complain after unloading my woes on you." Taylor sighs. "You feel bad because you couldn't tell your friends." He guessed. "I have no idea why you told me, but it seems like you have been bottling it up." He shrugged.

Taylor unwrapped the bandages and Phineas looked at the inhuman arm. "Well, I haven't seen many limb replacements but that has some crazy magic to it. It even has a cool eye giving you better vision than the rest of us two eyed beings." He joked. They stop talking and look around as shuffling of leaves and twigs from around the trees echoed in all directions. "Did you can for compony?" Phineas asked as the Styxoids surrounded the clearing. "Oh boy. Styxiods." Taylor gives him a questioning look. "Undead foot soldiers and labors that work for the Supreme Master of the Underworld. Used to be a lot more but the last mystic war wiped out a large chuck of the vast army." Phineas explained, proving he was more knowledgeable than he looked.

One of them threw a scroll at Taylor and demanded, "Is this the curse used on you? We will get answers." He had a tone that made Taylor think of Hass after pulling off one of her 'pranks' on Taylor or some other 'pray' at school. Taylor looked at the scroll her anger spiked. "Yes. But you caught me at a bad time." She actives a 'blind' spell on the lot of them and starts taking them out with melee and basic elemental spells she had unlocked.

At the same time

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Root Core

"The Withering Curse is a dark magic of unbelievable cruelty." Udonna stated gravely as the Rangers and Clare listened. "The victim will be left in a mummified state after a painful time. The Curse will keep the victim alive as long as possible to extend the pain. Body mass is a main factor in how long they take." Chip raised a hand as if it was class. "Yes Chip?" Udonna asked. "Taylor said she had her arm amputated. Is that because the curse starts on the limbs first?" Chip asked, curiously despite horror of this lesson. "No, the curse attack wherever it is cast first. Taylor was lucky it was her hand it was cast on." Udonna stated, "The curse is all but lost because of the Underworld General destroying any means of learning how to cast it. That is one of the times that the forces of good have ever agreed with the actions of the Underworld."

"You said all curses have some cost to them, what's the case of the Withering Curse?" Clare asked, "Every moment of pain from the victim suffers from the curse in engraved into the castor's mind forever." Udonna stated, "This can cause psychological issues including incurable insanity even after one casting of the curse." Nick changed the subject by asking about Taylor's arm. Udonna was thoughtful for a minute. "The entity that is replacing her lost arm is unusual as it seems to be the result some grand scale magical disaster." The rangers exchanged looks as they hadn't realized it was alive. "It's not a fake arm?" Chip asked. Udonna laughed. "It is most certainly alive and can think on its own when it wants to. After great disasters of magical origin, the magic sometimes is drawn to one spot and pools into a new object or being. How it got to be her new arm I have no idea as Taylor did not include that in her explanation."

"I tried a divining spell on it, but I think it backfired again." Clare said quietly. "Why do you think that?" Udonna said patiently. Chare showed her a lengthy scroll. "All I got was an image of a scroll and I somehow copied it word for word. I didn't even know most of these words existed." Udonna gingerly picks up the scroll and almost drops it as it burns with magic. "Contract Magic and an unbelievably powerful one at that." She says as the scroll unrolls to show thousands of names, many had a sinister red glow to them. "So, this is the disaster that created the arm." She said with awe.

"I remember that lesson!" Xander said, "That is a Breached Contract." He pales as along with the rest of the Rangers as they see the number of 'red' names. "Yes, and it was foolish to do." Udonna's eyes landed on a title. "The Deal Maker? I have heard whispers of this being. Rumors of a man claiming to have traveled from a different universe where one can summon a demon that offers a Contract for almost any wish." She rolled it up and stated, "That will be all that is said on this subject. Contract Demons are not something we should be inviting to our conflict."

Three weeks later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Root Core

Taylor had been placed on 'V Watch' as the other Rangers were hunting the Vampire Queen who made Vida a vampire. Only thing keeping her from running to the hag was circles of special chalk. "Let me out! Please?" Vida pleaded as she had for the past hour using more than one tactic. "Do you want to hear something interesting this arm of mine can do?" Taylor asked in response. Before Vida could respond Taylor's arm was reaching 'inside her' via a spell circle. She then pulled out a sickly chain and broke as thread leading elsewhere was in existence briefly before disappearing. "Your need to obey has bebroken down and absorbed." Taylor said as she got an angry red eyed fanged snarl from Vida. "But the Vampire Queen doesn't know that yet." Taylor said as she flashed a smirk. Her arm glowed as it added the spell components to unlock a weak 'Confusion' spell.

A few days later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Taylor and Aevnass tread a path between pools of water that could boil a person like an egg if they fell in. "We are looking for rocks to line the Fire Heart's nest, not for eating." Taylor warned. Aevnass grumbled but followed her. The Rangers had found a dragon egg the size of a beanbag chair and were clueless how to hatch it. After a week of brainstorming, Taylor had got the idea to keep it warm with smooth rocks and that was why she was near the stream vests, hot springs and other hot things that are near a volcanic hotspot. She peered into the steaming pools and found the rocks she needed. "Can you get them out and hold on to them in your mouth without melting them?" She asks pointing out the glowing red stones. Aevnass shoves his head in the almost evaporating hot water and scoops up the rocks soil and everything. Taylor laughed as he imitated a fountain spout spitting out was the water.

Later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

Root Core

She returned to the rangers looking at a magic lamp. When she reached the table, the Arm grabbed a cloth off the table and rubbed. "Hey! We don't know what kind of Djinn (another name for Genie) is in the lamp." She said annoyed. The lamp rattled as a Djinn that looked like a humanoid white cat appeared. "Well, mistress. I am Jenji and I will grant you one wish. Standard rules apply. I may be powerful but there are lines will not cross." He said bowing to her as Aevnass drops the mouthful of soil and rocks. "Hold that thought." Taylor said as she used tongs to remove the glowing red rocks and put them in the dragon egg nest. "Smart plan mistress. Those stones are full of fire magic. The tongs not so much." Jenji says as the thongs became limp in her hands.

"Why does she get the wish? We were the ones to get you out of the that cave." Xander asked. "Ah, ah, ah! She was the one to summon me and I can tell you would be a little short sighted with your wish." Jenji tutted, wagging a finger. He stopped short as if he smelled something familiar. "Mistress! Tell my senses deceive me! You aren't 'Time Locked'?" He asked worried. Taylor looked confused. "You mean she isn't aging at all?" Chip asked. "Worse. She will never age until she gets back to the place where she was afflicted with this curse. For now, eating, drinking and sleeping is a formality, but I recommend doing it for your mental health." Jenji said as he fretted over Taylor.

Aevnass grumbled something and Jenji looks at him. "Well, you keep interesting companions. Also afflicted with the same curse, must been near you when it happened." Taylor was thinking of wish when though occurred to her. "Everyone in the city must have been effected by the blast." Jenji nodded, "That sounds about right. This curse happens when you get caught in otherworldly power interaction mishaps. I remember a past Mistress named Elle who has a similar curse. Not much of talker but had a talent for dimensional magic. Said she got the curse when she entered a sparking 'Star Gate' then a rainbow explosion swallowed her." Jenji said in a tangent.

"She wished for map to find anyone caught in the blast." He paused remembering something. "She said her cape name was Labyrinth and to say hello to the Armed Knight." Taylor froze at the mention of her Cape name that the public had forced her to take. The pieces were clicking into place. The girl she had met that day, Elle, was a mercenary Cape with reality warping shaker powers had gone through the malfunctioning Star Gate and 'bad power interaction' happened. She still didn't know why the Star Gate malfunctioned, but it was unlikely for it to be because of a design flaw. It had barely been used and something was telling her outside forces were at work. "Jenji, I know what to wish for." She stated.

Jenji flashed gold teeth as he rubbed his hands together. "Anything you want, as long as it's not breaking rules, and it yours. Just say the words, Mistress." He said, waiting for her wish. "I wish for you to make me an armor." Taylor said. Jenji clapped his hands and said, "Wish granted!" A flash of light and a yelp from Xander who didn't cover his eyes in time, and Taylor stood garbed in regal yet simple armor. It had only one armored glove on her human arm and the other and bands of a flexible metal making a loose weave of other the other, letting the eye's vision not be blocked. "Hard to believe you've been fighting without proper armor for who know how long, Mistress." Jenji said dusting himself off.

Months later

Power Rangers Universe

Earth

Briarwood

Magical Realm

"You are leaving?" Itassis, a bipedal sphinx, asked as she watched Taylor opening a rift in the air. She was a former enemy but was among others who survived the final battle of the year long clash the Master of all Evil had with the Rangers, by switching sides. "Yes. I have to find my friends and anyone else that were scattered across worlds and maybe even universes." Taylor said as remembers how little she could do against the monsters sent to attack the city. The grunts were not too much trouble but soon as something strong appeared, she was forced to let the Power Rangers take them out. "Yes, I know your frustrations." Itassis said, putting a few things in the bags Aevnass was carrying.

"You are still too untrained to stand on your own. Your traumas are still giving you doubt." Itassis deduced wisely. "But there is 'Peace' of sorts, and you need to face challenge to shake off the chains dragging you down." The rift sparked and groaned as it breached the walls blocking it. "Why is it harder to make a rift?" Taylor complained as it stabilized but not to where she had been tying to go. Itassis listened as a conversation was happening, but she only heard Taylor's part in it. "Why can't I bypass my way to there?" A pause then annoyance. "Fine We do it your way QA, but if I get arrested when I land in some Head Quarters, I blame you." Taylor jumps into the rift and Aevnass lets it suck him in.

Not long later

Tenchi Universe

Space

Royal Treeship Ryu-Oh

"Space Pirate! Tell me who sent you!" A plum haired female with amber eyes in a royal looking outfit demanded as two log robots, each had some script painted on their front (one red one blue), held Taylor upside by her limbs. "One, I'm not a space pirate. And two, I was using a rift gate to get somewhere but it didn't reach far enough." Taylor said bracing for the shock, which came on cue as the brat refused to listen to her for the tenth time in an hour. "Azaka and Kamidake put her in a holding cell until we deal with Ryoko." She ordered with a huff. "Yes Princess." They say before hovering away.

On the way to the holding cells, Taylor asked a couple questions, "Who is she and where is my reptile friend?" The blue, Azaka, answered. "She is Princess Ayeka of Planet Juri." Taylor's bland expression much have been a clue because the red one, Kamidake, commented, "I think she was telling the truth. Practically every planet even the backwater ones know about Juri and the Imperial Family. By the way, where is that reptile?" They reached a wooden cell and threw her in as the bars 'grew' back into place. "Last I know is that Lady Sasami took it to her room." Taylor had enough and yelled, "His name is Aevnass! He is not an 'it'!" The bars were just wide enough for them to shock her again before leaving her alone.

Dream

Taylor looked at the haze around her and knew it was another dream that wasn't a dream. For once it wasn't scenes of death and terror. She was sitting in the air watching a timelapse of the four summoned heroes helping rebuild the kingdom as much as they could after earthquakes, volcanoes, and other calamities swept through killing all that 'breached' the contract. She witnessed their rise to godhood. She looked at the arm and it answered the unsaid question of it being able to 'evolve' as the four holy weapons could with thumbs up and a feeling of aspiration and encouragement.

It took the holy weapon wielders a long time and powerful diverse foes to become powerful. She would do the same, but not for greedy reasons. On Earth Bet, the powerful Capes 'ruled' by their ability to defend their territory. A seed had been planted in her mind that if she didn't rule her city, how could she trust anyone to protect it enough? The Government capes were traded with other cities like baseball cards whenever someone else makes a good argument for the trade. She looked on as the four heroes, the Shield Hero seemed to have a harder time but at the same time the most rational, enjoyed their new life after being summoned with a one-way ritual.

"Have you found your conviction?" A voice made of many voices asked as she felt the dream fading with an earth-shattering blast and rattling.

Tenchi Universe

Upper atmosphere of Earth

Royal Treeship Ryu-Oh

Taylor grips the bars of her cell as the ship was shaking and alarms were going off. "She better not have left me here!" Taylor yelled as the ship lurched and descended too fast to be safe. Taylor was slammed about her cell as the ship crashed. She welcomed the blackness as she was knocked out. She wouldn't found for hours.

Tenchi Universe

Earth

Okayama Prefecture, Japan

Masaki Shrine

"Nice of you to wake from your watery nap." A wild blue haired woman said as she floated over Taylor even as Taylor punched her square in the face with her human arm. "And a solid strike that would knock out the average space pirate." She said unfazed. "Where's that brat that let me in a cell?" Taylor asked, noting the traditional Japanese style of the room she was resting in. "The brat Princess forgot about you until I retrieved my ship." She holds up an adorable Cabbit. She had brown fur, long ears with white fluff in them and a red gem on her forehead. Her amber eyes were watering. And mewled an apology. "I'm not angry for you crashing the royal brat's spaceship." Taylor said patting the Cabbit's head.

"But I'm shocked that a ship could hide in such and adorable body." Taylor cooed tickling the Cabbit's belly. "I am Ryoko, feared Space Pirate, currently not arrestable because my warrant expired." The woman said smugly. "This little one is my ship, Ryo-Ohki." Taylor checked her head and winced. "You were banged up and your left leg was broken in two places." Ryoko commented, pulling the blanket of to show the cast on her leg. "The ship's gravity systems failed in the fire fight but you somehow survived." Taylor wasn't amused. "Lovely, as my plans weren't derailed enough as it is."

"Don't worry I've got this handled." Ryoko said picked her up from behind by the armpits and carrying her out of the room.

Ten minutes later

Taylor sat at the table and ate the simple Japanese meal with a little difficulty regarding the chopsticks. "So, you teleported into her ship, and she shocked even after telling the truth?" Tenchi, black haired human who was fighting with the Cabbit for the steamed carrots, asked. "That's not the whole story but yeah." Taylor trailed off before her inhuman arm intersected the Cabbit as she leaped across the table to steal her carrots. "Ryo-Ohki I can tell you love carrots but I'm hungry." Taylor scolded firmly. Everyone was staring at her, or more specifically the eye that was looking back at them. "This is awkward." Taylor said as the bratty princess was speechless. Her younger teal haired sister just stared in wonder. Tenchi's grandfather, Katsuhito, pushed up his glasses and leaned. "What surprise this is?" He commented. "You have a creature as an arm. Is it a youkai or maybe Kami?" He asked.

"Given the circumstances of its creation," Taylor shutters as memories flash before her eyes, "It could be called a 'divine entity' born of an unspeakable tragedy." The gray-haired man nodded sagely. "Yes, kami and youkai have been born of joy and tragedy, but their origin only does not decide if they are good or evil." He gave the Cabbit, who slipped from Taylor's grip, a stern look as she stole all the carrots from his bowl. The Cabbit shoveled the carrots into her mouth and ran from the room. "You and your scaly companion may stay as long as you need."

Elsewhere

Unknown time

Deep Space

Galactic Federation Prison

Containment Planet DC143C

The Grand Councilwoman's transport pod floated along the 'safe' path of the planet prison that held one prisoner, Red Queen. A 'human' prisoner who had been 'contained to this massive, and at the time lifeless, planet for one hundred earth years. What was her crimes that the United Galactic Federation left her stranded on a planet with little anything to survive on? Illegal biological experiments by the hundreds. Mostly harmless plants but then one tried to eat an intellectual being. "This is most unusual." She commented. The Grand Councilwoman was a tall thin bold alien with pale blue-green skin, three fingered hands, a thin mouth and eyes that with unhuman yet intelligent.

"In hundred years, she revived a planet that was destroyed by life end weapons of mass destruction." Her pod stopped as tree unfolded to reveal a monstrous land octopus with thorny hooks in its tentacles. "No! You eat birds, not humanoids!" Red Queen herself yelled from an organic giant hornet looking drone with a stinger that vibrated worse than nail on a chalkboard. the tree mimic retired to the dense forest to catch something feathery. "Sorry about that, he's still learning how to hunt proper prey." The drone echoed as the pod continued to the vine covered 'temple' made of a red matter. It wasn't sandstone but mimicked it well.

Ten minutes later

Deep Space

Galactic Federation Prison

Containment Planet DC143C

Temple of the Red Queen

Meeting hall

The Grand Councilwoman's calm mask didn't break, but she was shocked the Red Queen hadn't aged. Red Queen seemed to know she wanted an answer. "Been working on theories why I haven't aged but not enough to learn anything concrete." Red Queen said as an older human that looked like her came in with bone cups that had the Grand Councilwoman's favorite hot drink. "I wasn't aware that anyone else was here?" She asked coolly. "My father, Marquis, appeared here twenty earth years ago, give or take ten months." Red Queen said. Made the skeleton of this temple." Red Queen smirked, which was mirrored by her father. "And she does mean skeleton, not framework." He makes a calcium rich staff appear in his hand.

"I see. I have come to tell you that your sentence is over. You may leave whenever you please." the Grand Councilwoman politely drank the offered drink, then left to get away from the madness of the Red Queen and her menagerie of unnatural creations. Her taste in drinks were spot on, but it didn't make her madness any easier to deal with. The shipment of medical supplies was a bonus for letting her make this planet a self-sustaining 'factory' for organic trade materials.

Somewhere unknown

Spatial Warped Castle

Master Study

Vista, real name Missy, threw the book she was reading at the entity that claimed to be her 'shard' power source. "I don't see how throwing a tantrum with aid in your escape from this spatial prison." The being that mirrored her appearance stated catching the mathematical book as the barely teen girl glared. "I tried to bend space to send the blast upward and I get suck in a castle where time is wonky." The blonde-haired cape angerly bushed her frazzled hair. "How long you've been here doesn't matter. You are unhooked from the march of time until you return to your place at ground zero." The Shard Doppelganger stated. "Your limited grasp over your spatial manipulations hinders this plan greatly."

The Shard returned the book and opened it to the section on the basics of non-Euclidean math and its applications. "And who was this prison meant for?" Vista argued. "Unknown but you are the only living being within the parameters of the prison. Logic conclusion is that the prisoner has long since died, lacking the pseudo-immortality the 'Event' granted all caught in the blast." Vista was about to ask something, but the Shard stated, "I am unaware of the status of those caught in the blast. We are outside of the testing zone. Something never been done before Queen Administrator's current Host."

"Wait, Earth Bet is just an experiment for your kind?" Vista yelled, furious at being viewed as something to shuffle about. Her parents had divorced and fought over who got her, this was her Trigger Event. "Your understanding is too limited in scope at this time." The shard said as Vista grabbed a flail off a suit of armor and tried to attack her doppelganger but found her own power being used to do things that violated the laws of physics to absurd degrees even for Vita's current standards. "We were tasked to learn as we aided lesser civilizations. Experimenting is a means to the end. Surely you see the fruits of it in how I am applying the very power you use?" The Shard said without moving. The Flail's chain was extended as the spike ball sailed past the Shard's avatar harmlessly.

Vista dropped the flail and panted as her arms protested further action. "How is adding dimensions to something going to get me out of here?" Vista asked, remembering something from the book. The shard smiled. "We will be putting the castle itself back to proper dimensions." The shard revealed. "How many dimensions does the castle have?" Vista asked. The Shard tried to find the right wording. "It seems to have suffered an 'event' to fold the space in a way that trapped it on a two-dimensional plane yet keeping the inside three dimensional." Vista groaned and returned to the math. It was the only way she would get straight answers. The last comment from the Shard was a little off putting, "But the fancy gold frame is tasteful."

Elsewhere

Unknown dimension

Paige Mcabee was a Case 53 who could hide her nonhumanness, a skill not all Case 53s were blessed with, but had the luck of being dropped in a place that was currently giving reality the finger. If she had to guess, it was like the Distortion World from the Pokemon Games. She didn't find a ghost dragon to open a way out. Instead, she found something else. "Hey there blondie! Be pal and shake my hand!" a chained statue of a one-eyed brick triangle being with a top hat, bowtie, and cane, said out of nowhere. "No way! You could be an evil demon or something." Paige said cross her arms in an x as she refused. "Come on! I'm just the parts of Bill Cypher that didn't want to do Weirdmagedden." The Statue retorted.

"Since you introduced yourself, I'll do the same." Paige said, sitting on a sideways rock. "My Stage name is Bad Canary and one of the unlucky people to be kidnapped and thrown in a metal coffin hooked up to a giant crystal." The statue made a humming sound and commented, "Sounds like a dream harmonizer. But you'd need at least a hundred humans to get anything from the dream crystal and it has to be a massive one to handle the strain." The statue's theory was enough to make Paige's control to slip and her human form shifted to an almost humanoid exotic bird but in garb of a bard.

"Damnit! This place it hard enough to traverse when I'm not dealing with these stupid bird legs." Paige said crossly. "Interesting dream-self you've got." Bill said, "What would you say to a deal?" Paige looked at him shrewdly. "What are your terms?" She said, ready to flee. "You let me hang out in your head and I will help you get wherever you need to be." Bill says, a blue flame forming on the statue's hand. "I mean, it's not like you can return to your world 20 years from now." Paige brandishes the harp threateningly and demands answers. "Calm down! I felt the blast that carried you here. I've had nothing but time for at least the last few centuries and calculated when you came from." Bill stated, "Just to warn you, I think that the main Bill Cypher got splatted, because my power is too low to make the jump to your world."

Paige looked at the statue and asked questions. After an hour of questions and answers she said, "No funny business, no stuff that the 'evil' Bill got off on and you get me back to Earth Bet, at the exact spot I was before that rainbow blast hit me." Bill agrees and when she shook the statue's hand, color returned to it. the yellow triangle snapped the chains away and said, "Oh boy! The rest of 'me' got shattered. The 'evil' Bill Cypher is super dead. Time for Trickster Dream Demon Bill Cypher to take over!" Paige wondered if she made a mistake as Bill told her about a crocked deal her had made when he had been 'whole'. "This guy wanted a picturesque mansion. So, I turned the mansion into a painting with a nice frame of gold and hints of blue gold ascents to make it look nice." Paige was horrified by the implications of this. "Don't worry, I left books on how to escape the pocket dimension, house and all. It's just math that could melt your brain If you forget to carry a 1." Bill said, not making it better.

He then shoved a black marble into her beck, she swallows on instinct. "That is the 'door' to my vault. Keep it safe for me." He said before she could say anything. He grabbed a 'handle' in the air and opened a door. "Not good, Evil me left traps if I ever escaped. Even used his short-lived usurped time powers, that makes things trickier but even if we somehow end up in a time where he's still around, he can see us." Bill said cracking his knuckles. "For all the power he, and by extension myself, had, he can't perceive himself in the rare chance time travel happens. Time Baby did it and Evil Bill never undid it after killing the time god. What a moron!" Bill laughed as he willed glowing strings this way and that, affecting the color and chaotic swirling of the place beyond the exit door.

"What happened to your shoulder?" Bill asked as he worked. She knew what he was asking about. A jagged patch of white going from her right shoulder to above her heart. "Wait! Let me guess. You that was a wound you got before you got kidnapped." He says, ignoring the glare she was giving him. "The scar looks like it was caused by someone drunk, high, or both, with a serrated kitchen knife, at least ten inches long." She put a wing over her scar that was reflected on her Dream Self. "Judging by your sore expression, someone you lost trust in. A lover?" Paige whispered, "Ex-Boyfriend." Bill whistled. "You have bad luck with men. What was the reason for this attempted murder?"

Paige explained her ex-boyfriend had put her down when she started her music career, so she dumped him on the spot. Flash forward to one of her major concerts, totally sold out in the first hour of ticket sales starting. He comes backstage demanding 'his cut' because he was the 'real reason' she got so good. She told him off and security dragged his drunk self to the local police to sober up in the drunk tank. She had to explain it was a cell they threw all the drunks in to cool off for a day. "Not seeing where he attacked you yet." Bill commented. Paige shuddered as she said the next part. "He somehow got into my house without tripping the alarms, high on some tinkertech drug and smelling of cheap booze, waving around a knife." She started hyperventilating but pressed on, for reasons she couldn't fathom, "Next thing I know, I'm bleed out on the floor, never saw the attack coming, and some fedora woman with a gun shoots him and carries me off to be placed the dream harmonizer machine."

"You were set up. They needed more people to power it, and nudged things to happen for that goal." Bill concluded. "Just took a quick peek at your memories and there are around 2000 'coffins' connected to that unbelievably huge Dream crystal. That much power could create beings of impressive power, like myself at more full power." Bill said a little smugly as the door rattled then sucked them in, slamming shut behind them.

Descendants Universe

United States of Auradon (not even a week old as a country at this point)

Beast Castle

"That was a trip." Paige said as she bounced off a polished ball room floor and stopped at the feet of a woman in blue with a wand in hand. "Well, a dreamer who's lost their way." She says looking at Paige's bird like form as her harp drops into her hand. "I will smooth things over with King Adam if you agree to help us out with a project for this new country we are planning." She offers the harp to Paige, who had gotten to her feet quickly. "Can't help you with much, but I know a thing or two about music." The woman waved her wand and Paige found herself looking human but still wearing the bard outfit. An ornate ring was on her right thumb.

"I am the Fairy Godmother, yes that one." The woman said as if she had been asked that too many times. "This ring will keep you looking 'human' without need for constant focus. But you must bath it in moonlight whenever possible or the magic will fade." Fairy Godmother warned. "You came at the right time. We need someone who can read people. I'm sure a minstrel worth their salt can do a simple task like that." Paige was being 'conned' by one of the 'nicest' fae to exist in literature. For the goodness the Fairy Godmother had, she was a fae and were tricksters at heart. "Do keep that dream demon on a short leash please." Fairy Godmother said and Bill Cypher felt a chill from his hiding spot int her mind. "Come along, much to do, so little time."

Elsewhere

Descendants Universe

Deserted island (soon to be Isle of the Lost)

Hive of the Insect Queen

Annette looked up from her book as her spying bees found 'intruders' on her island hideout. "It had better not be that Trio of fairies again." She saved her place and went over to large full body wall mirror with amber glass and an ornate insect themed frame. "Five hundred years since I landed on this island and nothing but interruptions. I can't store up enough magic to get to my little Owl, wherever she is." She ranted as the mirror glowed and her reflection was replaced by a jungle beach. "Looks like royalty." Annette muttered, switching view to a closer insect summon. "King Adam and Queen Belle? Last time they were here was just before their wedding." Annette opened her spell book and summoned a swarm of 'tongue beetles' to talk to the royal visitors at a distance.

At the beach

"Must you come here?" a swarm of beetles in the rough shape of a human asked from the edge of the tree line. "Insect Queen we have a request." King Adam said bowing slightly. His tone was respectful, and he was ready to protect his wife at a moment's notice. "If it gets you off my island, speak." The bugs say with a buzzing annoyance. "We need a place to hold the villains who might try to prevent the success of the united country we are trying to create." There was not even a moment before the Insect Queen's answer came in the form of a flat 'no.' the auburn-haired queen stepped up and said, "I know about magic can't be used here and why you need said magic. Among the villains are, Hades, The Evil Queen, the Dark Fairy. Surely their magic will speed up your stockpiling?" the dark-haired king looked from the insects to his wife, then back to the insects that were silent for a time.

"My island, my rules. And I expect you will send supplies at least two a month." The Insect Queen's verdict gave Belle a knowing smile. "I will bring you the latest books if you let us make a town form them to live in." She bargained. "Bring me news of what's going on and I will let you use a third of the island for this town." The buzzing mass stated as a scribe on the ship was writing out the encounter. "Also let gods visit, their magic is much more potent and cuts the collecting time down." The Insect Queen's request was odd, but King Adam let his wife finalize the treaty with the unseen mistress of the Island, who scared off invaders with hordes of multilegged critters of many sizes, when they overstayed their welcome.

15 years later

Descendants Universe

Isle of the Lost

Deep in the Jungle

Mal, daughter of the Dark fairy Maleficent and Hades, Lord of the Underworld, crept her way to cave she had followed the Insect Queen's summons to. It was just one of the many openings the bugs came from, but this one was large enough for the cart sized spiders to come and go in groups of at least three at a time. She may be only eleven, her birthday was today, but she would be the first to see what the Insect Queen looked like in over five hundred years. She pushed her purple hair out of her face and slipped into the cave. Before she could do anything man sized fire breathing ants pick her up and carry her off. "Great. I'm never going to live this down if the boys hear about this, especially Jay."

An hour later

Descendants Universe

Isle of the Lost

Hive of Insect Queen

Annette looked at VK (villain Kid), as the mainlanders unhelpfully labeled, and said, "How did you see past that barrier? It should stop any, even the Dark Fairy from seeing the openings without the use of spell." She walked around Mal, who was confused and voice the reasons, "Where are your bugginess? Legend says you are a giant bee or Praying mantis Kaiju. Not a reasonable if mysterious looking mom." Annette blinded for a moment as she stopped to process this question. "Am I really that scary?" She asked more herself than Mal. Mal snorted in an 'unlady-like' fashion and said, "The teachers at the Dragon's Den swear up and down that you the only thing that keeps this collection of evil from ripping itself apart. You've got, literally giant fire ants, Plague sized swarms of many insects." Mal paused for dramatic effect, "You scared one someone to the point that they have a phobia of butterflies for life."

"No one knows why or how you even did it." Mal said hoping for answers but didn't press the issue from the terrifyingly angry look on Annette's face at the mention of that victim. "Anyways, your spiders are scary as their silk is useful." Mal watched the being she had been looking for go to the kitchen and put a small honey glazed cake in front of her. "I keep tabs on everyone one on the island. Not constantly but enough to know when some foal plan is in the works." Mal was listening as she did the poison testing her 'mother' drilled in her head. Annette rolled her eyes and waved a wooden spoon at her annoyed. "I'd never poison food, defeats the purpose of it."

Mal sniffs it, then takes a bite. "What kind of floor is this? It has a 'nuttiness' to it." Mal asks, "Cricket Flour. You need more protein in your diet." Annette answered. Mal looked at the cake then just shrugged. She had eaten weirder things. "You've got a name?" She asked instead. "Annette, an unfortunate human that got kidnapped for some grand scheme." Annette said sitting in her comfy armchair. "No idea why but I got placed in a coffin in a room full of coffins connected to a giant 'dream' crystal from what I've been told." Mal looked at her with an obvious question. "This isn't my real body. IT's an immortal dream I am inhabiting. When I was a young girl, I had this dream of being a mage that could enlist the power of insects. Life happened and I never learned how to use magic." Annette said with a fond smile. "Fell in with a radical group in my high school years and was on the 'villainous side' as the mainlanders would say."

"What changed?" Mal asked, enwrapped by the story. "I met my husband and left the group before it crossed too many lines. We married had a wonderful daughter then I got kidnapped and separated from my family's life for years." Mal could feel the raising anger as Annette continued, "Then it took some fiend cursing my daughter at the same time she was shoved into a waste filled locker for my return to be allowed to happen!" The room shock with her angry as she ranted about her daughter's arm looking like a withered husk after it was amputated and replaced with some arm shaped creature. Mal ducked under the table with her plate as the dust fell. "I'm sorry for that outburst." Annette said now calmer. Mal would ask her 'mother' about that curse. Maybe her teachers at Dragon Hall would know about it.

"Where does all the magic go? You rule the island, my mother rules the town, but not even she contradicts your requests and rules, so you must know." Mal asked. "That is a secret." Annette said amused. "What I can tell you is that this I had to seal off the area where 'evil' collects for safety reasons." Mal remembered a 'lesson' her 'mother taught her when she was 8. "Magic on its own is nether 'good' nor 'evil'. Just as this rope dangling you over the water is. Intent changes how something is viewed. Learn to use this perception to your advantage." She had said as Mal had a rope around her waist for 'swimming lesson' as she called it. the lesson was not fun.

A few days later

Descendants Universe

Isle of the Lost

Dragon Hall

Weird Science Classroom

Yen Sid was at the point in today's lesson where he let the students ask a question that wasn't directly related to the topic. Mal hand rose and nodded at her. "Professor, what would the purpose of a 'Dream Crystal' be in a machine with a metal coffin component to it?" She asked. Yen Sid stroked his beard in deep thought. "Interesting question, young lady. That description can mean a handful of devices but the one that comes to mind first is a Dream Harmonizer Device. Part magic, part science, but all trouble when a large enough set up is used." He said gravely. "But why would you want to use one?" Mal pressed for answers. "To understand you will need to understand the 'Dream', a place that connects to all life, artificial and organic. It is infinitely deep as it is wide and has layers for an eternity and then some. Dream Crystals connect to this place and lets the subjects in the capsules to 'dream' for as long at the device is running but this is merely as side effect."

Carlos De Vil, son of the woman who almost skin a bunch of puppies for a coat, raised his hand. When he was called on, he asked, "What do you mean by them 'Dreaming'? Are they sleeping like the Dark Fairy's modified death curse?" Yen Sid collected his thoughts before asking, "Do you have dream stronger than anything else? If so, then you would take on the form of that dream. It would be called your 'Dream Self'. It is just one power the 'Dream' can exercise. In that place, nothing is impossible if you believe in it and can imagine it with clarity." His voice dropped into a low but stern voice as he finished with, "Even creating nightmarish beings none can even dream of controlling." The class watched him silent as the grave. "The good news is that such devices remind an idea on paper because of the lack of quality Dream Crystals. Remember, just because you can do something, doesn't mean it's an avenue that should be persuaded to the end." With that the class knew that matter was closed.

An hour later

Descendants Universe

Isle of the Lost

Dragon Hall

Dr. Facilier's office

"So, why is it that the librarian felt the need to send you to my office?" Dr. Facilier, the headmaster of the tomb turned school, asked as Mal sat in front of his desk. "I may have asked about curses that are lesser known." Mal said. He looked at her and used his cane to push his hat higher on his bald head. "And what curse were you looking up?" He asked sweetly, daring her to ask for a forbidden one so he could throw her into detention on grounds of trying something stupid. "don't know its name, but it writhers the flesh of the victim." Mal said. "Someone I talked to, said their daughter almost died to it but was saved when her arm was cut off." Dr. Facilier mouth dropped open and his cane clattered to the floor. "The Withering Curse? The vilest curse whispered from the deepest nightmarish corners of the Dream! What madness are you planning?" He was all but yelling. "Nothing! I just wanted to know how bad it was." Mal said quickly. Dr. Facilier collected himself and picked up his cane. "In light of this new development, you will see me after the last class of the day so I can teach you of how dangerous the can of nightmare worms you just opened is. I'm a bit of an expert after my stay in the 'Other Side' for an overdue payment." He said, "you mother will be informed of this, I'm sure she will be proud."

Author's Note: A lot happened, and some interesting twists will be explained as we go. I will be switching up the chapter titles source from Dragonforce to another one. See you next time!