Nuttiness In the Nexus
"Not so easy is it?" Mimic mocked as they all entered another dimension. "Going from one dimension to another, trying not to cause chaos?"
"Or in your case, not trying," Nocturne remarked.
"You don't have to rub it in," Scott grumbled.
"Oh yes we do," Sunfire grinned. "Especially after the hard time you gave us!"
"How did you know where we were?" Hank asked.
"It was easy to find you guys," Morph snickered. "All we had to do was follow the destruction. Well that and your sisters sold you out."
"When I find them I'm going to kill them," Althea said. She looked around at all the strange doors and crystal walls. "Wherever here is."
"It's the last place I'd thought I'd find you people," A familiar black man with an M tattoo over one eye and body armor walked up to them.
"Bishop?" Jean blinked. "What are you doing here?"
"Never mind that, where is here?" Lance looked around.
"This is the Nexus, center of all time, space and dimensions…" Bishop sighed. "And I've been stuck here ever since I left your dimension."
"OH BOY! NEW FRIENDS!" A strange little man with wild brown hair and a beard in green overalls and big brown boots appeared in a poof of smoke. "I love meeting new people!"
"Who is that?" Todd asked.
"Well aren't you going to introduce me to your pals, Bishy? Come on! Introduce me!" The strange little man jumped onto Bishop's back.
"This is Bender," Bishop growled through his teeth. "A TOTAL NUT JOB!" He tried to hit him but Bender teleported away. "ONE OF THESE DAYS I AM GOING TO GET YOU SUCKER!"
"Okay and why is this Bender guy here?" Todd scratched his head. "And why is he named after a Futurama character?"
"Let's just say he's like the janitor of the Nexus and leave it at that," The Timebroker appeared.
"The what?" Kurt asked.
"Where you're standing right now," Bender told him as he reappeared. "Or sitting or chilling…Or you can do the Hokey Pokey and turn it all around…"
"It's a very long story," The Timebroker sighed. "Actually the Nexus is part of the center of all reality called the Panotichron. It was hijacked for a brief time by some one posing as me from another center of reality."
"Don't ask for the whole story," Blink sighed. "It's really complicated, and I mean really complicated."
"Okay we won't…" Scott blinked. "So simple version, we're all in the center of reality."
"All realties everywhere," Bender corrected. "Here there and everywhere!" He threw some confetti and danced around. "It's a party! Yay! I love parties! Of course I never had a party before being the only one here usually. And after a bazillion centuries it does get a little dull now and then."
"Bender's job to put it simply is to look after the center of the Nexus," Timebroker explained. "A rather solitary position since he is normally the only one allowed to work here."
"And you don't visit him that often am I right?" Pietro looked at Timebroker.
"Can you blame me?" Timebroker groaned.
"So I get a little stir crazy!" Bender threw up his hands. "I usually have no one to talk to except for Mr. and Mrs. Wall. Hello Mr. and Mrs. Wall!" He waved to no one. "You're both looking so lovely and flat today!"
"So you can imagine what I've been through ever since I landed here through a crack in reality," Bishop's eye twitched. "I've been stuck with a Jim Carrey clone on crack. That's been over a year in your world! Do you have any idea what that's like?"
"Ever since then it's been Ol' Brown eyes and me," Bender pinched Bishop's cheek. "Me and my shadow…"
"Somebody do me a favor," Bishop had a pained look on his face. "Shoot me. Please for the love of God somebody shoot me!"
"Couldn't you just take him out of the Nexus?" Jean asked Timebroker.
"I would have if I had known he was in there in the first place," Timebroker confessed. "I just recently discovered his existence there."
"I told you that you should really schedule those performance reviews annually," Bender said in a sing song voice. "I wrote it down in the suggestion box. Well actually I would have if there was a suggestion box. I should make a suggestion box! That's a fun project for a rainy day! Not that it ever rains around here…"
"Shoot me," Bishop begged. "Please shoot me! Kill me! Anything to put me out of my misery!"
"Can't you just send him back to his future reality?" Scott asked.
"No point, his future reality is gone," Timebroker sighed. "It's completely messed up."
"It's not messed up. I'm messed up!" Bender huffed. "Pay attention will ya?"
"You have no idea what it's like to be tormented day and night by a raving lunatic!" Bishop shouted.
"How about being tormented by a raving lunatic imaginary coyote?" Lance asked. "Is that close enough?"
"Wait how did that crack in reality appear in the first place?" Hank thought aloud.
"That's kind of what I wanted to speak to you about," Timebroker sighed. "Magnus if you don't mind…?"
"All right I need all of you to go into that room there," Magnus pointed to a door. "Wait with the others."
"Others?" Hank asked. "What others?"
"These others," Magnus opened the door.
"Oh my…" Hank blinked as they entered.
"Oh no…" Pietro gulped. "My worst nightmare!"
Inside the room were dozens of people. Most of them appeared to be variations of Wanda. "Just what we need," A female Whippet in a red outfit folded her paws. "More humans."
"Hey! Not all of us are humans!" A tall red watch with a human face snapped.
"Who are you?" Kitty asked.
"I'm the Scarlet Watch," The watch told her.
"This is just getting weirder and weirder…" Wanda groaned.
A tall man with black hair and a red uniform looked at them. "Did you get kidnapped from your reality too?"
"Actually we were already lost," Wanda explained. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Scarlet Warlock," He explained. "And it appears you're another Scarlet Witch. Wait a moment, is your group the idiots responsible for outing the X-Women and having the Sentinels attack their home?"
"That would be us, yes," Todd nodded.
"I recognize them!" A Scarlet Witch in a dancer's costume yelled. "They're the ones who burned down my circus!"
"Hey!" Another teenage Scarlet Witch spoke out. "My brother told me that somehow he and the X-Men got outed at school as mutants! That some other mutants posing as them framed them by using their powers all over the place! That was you?"
"You're not in a mental institution?" Lance blinked.
"No, I live with my father," That Scarlet Witch growled. "And now thanks to you now I live with those idiots from the Brotherhood too!"
"That's nothing!" Another Scarlet Witch said, "These nuts and a hero named Kid Razor trashed all of Cleveland with Polka music!"
"Oh yeah?" AGU Wanda spoke up. "They got me and my friends expelled from school and we ended up with several lawsuits!"
"I was supposed to go on a cruise with Cobra Cruises!" Another Scarlet Witch snapped. "These idiots sank the ship! And I still can't get a refund on my money!"
"They're the ones with these little maniacs!" Another Scarlet Witch snapped. Her outfit was covered in whipped cream. "LOOK WHAT THEY DID TO ME!"
"Hi sis!" Daria waved. Quinn and Brittany were there too trying to look innocent despite the whipped cream cans in their hands.
"This is getting to be a little awkward," Kurt gulped.
"Not to mention dangerous," Pietro gulped at all the angry stares.
"Will somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?" An adult Scarlet Witch dressed in a low cut black and red uniform yelled. "And what this convention is all about?"
"I'm afraid this is all my doing," The Timebroker sighed as he addressed the group. "For those of you who do not know who I am, I am the Timebroker, well actually one of several Timebrokers. I am responsible for this side of the line of realities."
"This side?" The Scarlet Warlock asked.
"Yes there are literally millions of realties and each group of dimensions are clustered together in different sections," The Timebroker explained. "You know like the United States of America has different states?"
"You guys are all from New Jersey," Magnus called out. "Comparatively."
"Well that explains a lot," Scott groaned.
"It does?" Todd scratched his head.
"The Nexus is the control center of all these realties. Think of it as the Washington DC of the universe. Normally our job requires as much non interference as much as possible," Timebroker sighed. "But a crisis has occurred which is forcing us to take drastic action."
"In other words one of the counties in the state of Florida is screwing up the whole country and changing everything!" Morph called out.
"Okay that I understand," Todd nodded.
"Yeah especially since we've been doing a little screwing up ourselves," Kitty admitted with a groan.
"A little screwing up?" The Scarlet Warlock glared at them. "You people are a menace!"
"Trust me," Magnus glared at them. "As bad as those lunatics are, the mayhem those guys create doesn't even come close to Dimension 616!"
"Six One Six?" Scott asked.
"Observe," Timebroker pointed to the air and several monitors appeared. "Witness the chaos that has unfolded…"
Several images appeared on the images. "It's a very long and complicated tale of the Scarlet Witch of Universe 616 but I'll keep it brief," Timebroker explained. "Simply put the Scarlet Witch of that universe married an android named the Vision and created fake children using her powers. Alas it was not meant to be. The false children disappeared and her marriage to the Vision was dissolved. That and several other personal problems led her to a huge mental breakdown where her powers went out of control. So out of control they created an alternate reality within her reality. A world where mutants were the majority and humans the minority."
"That's a bad thing?" One Scarlet Witch asked. "I mean nearly everyone in my reality is a mutant."
"Yes but your reality is natural, not made up of another person's whims," Timebroker told her. "Well actually it is if you look at it one way…But I'm getting off track here. Long story short…"
"Too late," Pietro quipped.
"That Scarlet Witch caused another chaotic switch which depowered nearly all mutants in that reality," Timebroker explained.
"You mean nearly all the mutants lost their powers?" Scarlet Warlock asked.
"Yes and that's how the chaos really started!" Magnus groaned.
"What do you mean?" Hank asked.
"You see there's a little more to mutant powers than an X-Gene," Magnus said.
"There are?" Pietro asked.
"Mutant powers and mystical energy are connected to the life force of an entire universe," Timebroker explained. "Without a proper anchor that energy can escape and cause chaos."
"You see according to the rules," Bender popped out with a huge pink book with the letters DA RULES on them. "If a mutant or mystic is killed those powers can be reabsorbed into the cosmos of that particular universe. But if a mutant or mystic's powers are mystically severed before they die…Well it can get a little messy."
"And that's just with one or two mutants," Mimic told them. "Imagine that happening to millions, at the same time!"
"ZZZZ! BLAM! SIZZLE!" Bender shouted. "KABOOM! In other words it's not a good thing!"
"As in the principle that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," Hank thought. "That energy released had to go somewhere."
"Correct, and energy like that released that fast that quickly…" Daria spoke up.
"It could be very powerful," Quinn whistled.
"Powerful enough to break the barriers of other dimensions?" Brittany thought.
"Bingo!" Bender threw up his hands. "Give the little lady a prize!"
"That is why more mutants are appearing in your worlds," Timebroker explained. "The energy from Dimension 616 is out of control. To put it simply, the more depowered mutants that die in that world, the more energy cannot be returned. So it wanders…"
"Until it affects another world," The Scarlet Warlock continued.
"Precisely," Timebroker nodded.
"Oh my God," Jean put her hand to her mouth at the sight of Sentinels surrounding the Xavier Institute. "This is awful!"
"Observe well," Timebroker called out to the crowd. "Should your reality altering powers get out of control; this could be your fate and the fate of all mutants."
The crowd reacted in horror to the images. De-powered mutants were being hunted and killed by riots. Remaining mutants were being hunted. The Xavier Institute had become little more than a prison with overcrowding and Sentinels watching their every move. The back yard of the Institute had become a graveyard with dozens of graves of students littering the field. Legislation was being passed on all super powered individuals, mutant and otherwise. Metahuman and mutant detention facilites were being set up so that anyone with powers was being imprisoned.
"We can't allow this nightmare to ever happen in our worlds," The Scarlet Warlock spoke out.
"And that's the reason we're all here for this little chat," Mimic told them. "To make sure it doesn't!"
"Because if it does," Magnus said. "Then it could start a real chain reaction that could cause several universes to explode."
"KABOOOM!" Bender cried out and slammed a pair of cymbals together.
"So please all the Scarlet Witches and Warlocks assembled here," Timebroker called out. "Pay attention to the following…Don't use your powers to create alternate dimensions where mutants are in charge. Don't ever say no more mutants when using your powers. Don't ever create fake children for yourself. And…What was the last one?"
"Don't marry an android?" Wanda volunteered.
"You've heard this before?" Timebroker blinked.
"I have yeah," Wanda nodded.
"I think we've got the message," The Scarlet Whippet groaned.
"Now that we have had this little discussion it's time to return you all to your respective dimensions," Bender waved. "Good bye! Buh-bye! Y'all come back now, ya hear?"
"Wait one more question," AGU Scarlet Witch called out. She pointed to the X-Men and Misfits. "Can we kill them first?"
"No," Timebroker sighed. "Sorry for the inconvenience."
"Not half as sorry as they're going to be if we ever find these idiots in our home dimensions again!" Another Scarlet Witch snapped.
"Okay time to get you all out of here before we call in the Riot Squad!" Bender mocked. With a snap of his fingers all the other Scarlet Witches and Warlocks disappeared, leaving only the Exiles, X-Men, Misfits, Bishop and the Timebroker.
"He sent them home? Just like that?" Kurt gasped.
"Yeah," Bender said proudly rubbing his fist on his lapel. "Comes in real handy for taking care of those pesky dust bunnies!"
"I guess it's our turn to go back home now huh?" Lance asked.
"Well there is one other little thing…" Timebroker coughed. "We have a slight…problem."
"We need your help," Morph said. "And since you lot are responsible for a lot of chaos going on you are not in a position to say no!"
"With what?" Hank asked.
"Do you remember when the X-Men sent Apocalypse away from your world using the Eye of Ages?" Mimic asked. "You know the big metal thing Rogue shut him up in?"
"Yeah…" Scott nodded.
"Guess where he ended up?" Mimic groaned as he pointed to the monitor. To their horror they saw Apocalypse stalking in a strange room filled with levers and doors.
"Oh no…" Kurt gasped.
"Oh yeah," Morph sighed.
"How did he get out?" Jean asked.
"One of the other Apocalypses let him out," Magnus told her.
"Sorry I didn't hear that right," Hank held up his hand. "Did you say, other Apocalypses?"
"Yes," Magnus told him. "Other Apocalypses. Thirteen in all."
"I'm sorry I didn't hear that correctly," Hank shook his head. "I could have sworn you said thirteen Apocalypses."
"I did," Magnus said.
"Thirteen?" Scott gasped. "You actually said thirteen?"
"Yes thirteen," Timebroker sighed. "And they all want to take control of the Nexus. So if you all don't mind stopping them we'd be very grateful."
"Stop them?" Scott blinked. "You want us to stop thirteen Apocalypses?"
"Yes," Timebroker nodded.
"Thirteen?" Kitty's jaw dropped. "We had like the hardest time with one! And you want us to take on thirteen of them?"
"Yes," Timebroker nodded. "You can help the Exiles deal with them."
"And I wanna help too!" Bender said cheerfully. "Yippie! I'm a big boy now!"
"Oh dear," Hank gulped. "We're in trouble."