Felix laid down on the couch in the lounge, near mentally exhausted from the day. It had been just four hours since Anahella had shown up at the lab and completely changed what was happening. She basically was their memory charm, recovering more and more memories. As he thought more and mroe, more and more people began to file into the room with him and while nothing was exchanged, the air was palpable and rigid with a sense of loss. No one knew what to say or do, just sit there and try to get a good night's rest. It felt like the least they could do at the time. When everyone made it in, the door closed as Ex finally sat down at the end of the couch next to Joe. More silence insured that the discomfort and uneasiness was rising. Finally, Felix sat up and sighed.

"So, what now?" he questioned. The silence only persisted for mere seconds before conversations blew up around the room. People began talking, some shouting over others while Vanoss had gotten into an argument with Terroriser. Felix didn't mean to start this as he tried to calm everyone down with that. He looked around and saw Ex sitting back trying to seemingly concentrate on a thought that he had had but couldn't keep. In reality, he knew that he was trying to stop something as his fists began to clench and his teeth were gritting.

"Everyone, let's calm down," Felix tried to calmly say. But no one seemed to listen or notice. Ex sighed and stood up to meet him.

"This isn't your fault," he said, "I'm gonna get some fresh air, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," Felix said. Ex nodded, gave a small smile, and left the room. Felix didn't mind that, the loud noises probably giving him a headache when all he wanted to do was to relax and try to feel better. Suddenly, Stampy got up as well and followed him out of the room. He sighed as the room became a little more quiet and he decided to instead talk about something other than what was happening that evening.

"Hey guys, can we not fight?" he shouted over everyone. The conversations died down a little bit as some others kept talking. He didn't stop them as he felt he didn't have any reason to.

"Well, what are we going to do?" he asked everyone. A small silence rolled over before Ian replied.

"Well, let's go over what has happened," he started, "We have risked out lives how many times now?"

"Once or twice?" David questioned.

Ian nodded, "Around that. And after that, what do we hear?"

"That we do that for a living," Gijian said.

"Exactly!" he said, "We are normal people! Not...superheroes."

"He's right," Mark said, "We're just us, not what they said. Not superhuman."

Felix sighed, "I know. But what I'm asking is what are we going to tell them? What are we going to say to this sensei lady that will make her change her mind?"

"That is true," a voice said. Everyone turned to see Anahella in the doorway. She looked around the room and she smiled.
"I don't remember the last time I ever saw this time period in a world," she quietly stated, "So long ago."

"Look, Ana," Felix said. She stopped him immediately.

"Anahella, Felix. Not Ana," she said. Felix sighed.

"Okay, Anahella," he groaned, "I know you think that we are some type of hero icon or something, but we're not."

"Oh I know that," she said, catching Felix off guard, "You aren't right now, but you were back then. That really doesn't make sense now, does it?"

"Well, no," Felix said, confused about the question, "But that still doesn't mean that we know exactly what to do when it comes to those types of situations."

Anahella sighed, "Felix, walk with me, will you?"

He turned to Mark who only shrugged and he shrugged back. She walked out as Felix followed her into the hallway and they walked away from the lounge and labs and to what seemed like a balcony opening. She spoke to him during the walk.

"You know, I have seen many things happen in this world," she said, "But I have yet to meet someone like you people."

He looked at him, "What are you talking about?"

"When you first approached me," she paused to think, then continued, "You were all so eager to learn. Learn about this culture and how you all were up to the challenge when…"

Felix immediately took concern when she stopped talking.

"When what?" he asked. She turned to him and sighed.

"You are not the first," she said, "You are one of many that have fought against these beings. You call them Crystalites. Me, I just took your name because it worked better."

Felix chuckled at this, "I thought you were some type of grandmaster person in your world."

"Oh, I am," she smiled, "It's just I act more normal and unwise than others of my kind. I admit, I'm not all wise or powerful. And yet, I am considered one of the greatest masters of the whole world I was in. I could do things that scientists would have to call magic, like heal illnesses with no cure and still, I felt like people were to greedy with what they wanted."

"Usually they are," another voice said. Behind them, Skye quickly approached them and she walked with Anahella and Felix.

"I didn't see you back there," Felix said.

"I was talking to Colinne," she said.

Anahella spoke, "You seem distressed when it comes to people. Why is that?"

"That is none of your business," she said, her tone becoming a little more defensive.

Felix then spoke to her, "Well, what did you and Colinne talk about?"

"Technology and such," she said, "I came looking for you, miss."

"Yes?" she asked.

"What is a world where I would fit in?" Skye asked. Anahella hummed in thought.

"I'm afraid I don't know," she said, "But I do believe that Excavious knows something about that. He went for a walk to the city with Joe."

Skye walked up, nodded, and quickly ran ahead to find Ex. Anahella chuckled.

"She is growing more and more to like you people," she said. Felix looked at her and then back down the hall.

"Well, it's hard to see," he said, then he had a thought, "Wait, I thought he was only going to get fresh air."

"Don't be hard on either of them," Anahella said. Felix turned to face her and stopped. She stopped with him and sighed.

"Look, let's get back to what we were talking about…" he didn't finish before she stopped him.

"I know you all think that you are just normal people," she said, "But let me see if what I see is true. If so, it may decrease the time it will take for you all to get home. If it doesn't work, I will leave you be but help you research any paths that lead to getting you home."

Felix smiled, "Thank you. I don't think there is any other way that I can think of, so for now I'll just go back and tell the group."

"Yes, please do. Also, talk to Colinne," she said, "She seems like someone to trust closely."

Felix nodded and turned back to head to the lounge. Anahella didn't stop him, and had no intention of doing so. He was beginning to see what was happening and what may lead them back to World Zero. She imagined what it would be like: similar to her world, except more people, less magic, and solely corrupt. She couldn't quite grasp the idea yet, but she knew she was close. She walked the opposite way of Felix and into the outside world, not knowing what was going to happen tomorrow.

As Felix entered the lounge, Mat, Steph, and Gijian decided to go down to the lab. Felix quickly stopped him for a second as they passed by.

"I have some news that you might want to hear," Felix said. Steph was about to reply when Mat cut her off.

"We'll hear it later," he said, "Right now, we're going down to see if we can help with Colinne."

"Actually, I want to hear this," Gaijin said, "I'll meet with you guys when he is finished."

Felix nodded and walked into the lounge while leaving Mat and Steph outside. Mat waited a second before he walked to the doors and down into the labs. There, he and Steph found Colinne looking through the laptop letters and drinking a glass of water. When she saw Mat and Steph approaching she sighed and waved them over.

"Is everything alright?" Steph asked. Colinne didn't respond for a second.

"Everything is fine," she replied, "Kinda great actually."

"Really?" Mat said, "Then why do you sound like that."

She smiled and looked up to him, "Exhausted. Couldn't really sleep the past couple of nights."

"What do you mean?" Steph asked.

"I've been thinking about a lot of things that have been happening recently," she said, "Not just you guys, but some personal things."

"Oh, then just go home and get some rest," Steph replied.

"It's not that easy," she said, "I've had a bit of a rough couple of weeks lately and I feel like this place is my safe spot."

Mat looked to Steph and then back, "What do you mean?"

Colinne sighed, "Family issues. My brother is deciding to fly in and stay with me because he wants to live closer to this place he said he heard about."
"That doesn't seem bad," he said. Colinne shook her head.

"No, I mean literally stay here," she said, "Like crash at my place forever."

"Oh, well," Steph said, "Why don't you tell him to leave?"

She sighed, "It's a long story."

Mat sat on the desk and listened, "Tell us, if you want."

She sighed again, "Not right now. Maybe another time."

"Alright, that's fine," Mat said, "Do you need any help?"

She chuckled, "No, I'm just excited for what is happening. I'm discovering something that Andy could've only dreamed of. New worlds, big creatures of destruction, I mean, yeah it's scary. But man, is it going to help me tons."

"Well then, let us explain it to you," Mat said. Colinne smiled and asked them to sit, but it wouldn't be for long. As they began to talk, a familiar face shot down the stairs quickly and shouted for the trio. The three looked to see Sean running to them.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Mat asked.

"Have you seen Ex and Joe?" he asked. The three looked at each other and then shrugged.

"No, why?" Steph asked, with a little concern in their voice.

"They haven't said anything in the coms and everyone is getting worried," he said. Mat nodded and stood.

"Where did they say they were going?"


A little ways away, Joe and Ex were strolling through the brightly lit streets of this city they later learned was an alternate version of a coastal city in the US. The city was much brighter, the cars driving by were much more luxurious, but there were little to no people walking around the city other than the cars driving by and the blurred faces of them driving by. Ex and Joe kept walking through the streets, hoping to find something that they could use. Ex then felt his stomach growl as he hadn't finished the food that the others had gotten. Joe looked at him and he looked back.

"Are ya hungry?" he asked. Ex nodded.

"Yeah, wanna see if there is anything here?"

"Alright, but how are we going to pay?"

Ex thought for a second before his watch buzzed. He brought it up and saw it flashing green. He smiled and looked at Joe.

"I swear, dude," he said. Before Joe could say anything, he flicked his wrist to the side and then, in his hand, was what seemed to be a credit card of some sorts. It was blank and had wires flowing around its center, conveying that it wasn't finished or that it was blank of a cover. Joe and Ex looked at it with curiosity for a second before it pixelated back into his hand. Ex looked at his hand and then back to Joe. They both didn't know what to say at that moment before they silently turned ahead and kept walking.

Ex looked at Joe, "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, "Just trying to adapt properly."

"Same," he replied, "I really don't understand this right now."

"Really?" Joe retorted, "You've single-handedly helped take down one large Crystalite, managed to stop that fox girl from killing you…"
"Actually she might be a wolf," Ex pointed out in thought, but Joe didn't stop.

"Nevermind that," he said, "And you, by yourself, took on one of those things after saving a video game icon. How in the world are you not understanding this?"

Ex thought for a moment and then laughed, "I guess you're right. But I think that we should get something to eat before we head back."

Joe sighed as they kept walking to find a good place to eat. They turned a corner and saw a little convenience store. They looked at each other and shrugged as they entered. They walked in and saw the cash register with a man behind the counter. He wasn't paying attention as they entered and he only glanced at the two quickly before returning to his device. Joe split from Ex as he looked around the drink section for water and a drink that could help hydrate him. Even though the world was strangely different, the drinks like Sprite and Dasani were still the same. He grabbed a bottle of water as he looked to Ex, who was grabbing what seemed to be an instant ramen cup. Joe shrugged to him and he shrugged back. They approached each other and walked to the opposite side of the store.

As they stood at the back, staring at random items, they heard the bell ring meaning someone entered. They turned to see a group of four or five enter the store as they turned to the cashier and his desk. They didn't bat an eye for a moment before they heard them talk to the cashier giving only a quick hello.

"So, what do you want now?" the cashier asked. A trio of guys stepped forward to look at the guy. Ex leaned closer to Joe.

"This can't be good," he whispered. Joe nodded in agreement. The trio that stepped forward chuckled at each other and then one jumped the counter to the guy. He didn't get a chance to say something or scream as they heard him be being brought to the ground behind the counter. Ex immediately ducked down and pointed to a back door close next to them. They bent down and walked to the door as quietly as they could.

"Hey!" A voice shouted to them. Joe, without hesitation, ran for the door and Ex followed closely. They reached the door, opened it, and quickly shut it. They both looked at each other and continued to run.

"This is stressful!" Joe exclaimed, near breathless.

"You think?!" Ex asked rhetorically. Before he could say anything else, they both stopped and saw the group of five standing at the mouth of the road behind the store. It merged right into an alleyway and only one light kept the two groups visible. The thieves were covered head to toe in black, making them almost unrecognizable in any sense.

Ex and Joe quickly brought up their masks, Ex sliding his balaclava-like bandana up his face and Joe moving his mask, which was a simple face mask. They both brought it up as the thieves approached them.

"What do you want with us?" Joe asked.

"For you to shut up," one of the thieves said. It seemed like it came from the head of them, a taller guy wearing a purge-style mask that covered his whole face. It was a white drama mask contorted in a smile while streaks of ink and fake blood rolled down parts of the face.

It was terrifying to the two, especially Ex, who was breathing heavily. Finally, out of nowhere Ex and Joe felt themselves lose control of his legs and fall. They fainted on the down.

Skye sprinted on the roofs, approaching where she thought they might have gone. She stopped and looked down into another empty small alleyway and gritted her teeth in frustration. She looked up and jumped over the small gap between the buildings effortlessly and she continued to run. The wind against her fur felt nice every once and a while, but this felt different. She was in a rush for a different reason now. Trying to possibly save someone, for information about a good place to live. That's all she wanted. She didn't care if they lived or died, she just needed them now, but probably not later. That was almost on every one of their mindsets: expendability. Everyone was expendable to someone. Not needed and could be put down if they are no longer useful. That was her opinion on how humans thought.

She grimaced as she hopped over another gap and continued to run until she knew she was over a convenience store and a hotel. She quickly checked the gap just in time to see a masked guy charge at Ex and Stampy. She immediately felt herself want to jump, but she didn't because she felt something about the situation was off. Ex and Stampy didn't look right, as in something about them was not normal. As the guy came in to punch Ex, she spectated him as he sidestepped, grabbed the guy in the arm, then proceed to bring his arm into a grappling move behind his body. She heard him scream before Ex chopped him in the side of the neck, causing him to fall down unconscious. He slowly stood up and looked at the rest of the group, whose stance changed from confident to more cautious. He opened his mouth to ask.

"Anyone else?" Another guy came up with a bat and tried to hit him. Ex quickly rolled beneath the bat and as the thief turned to find Ex, he turned just in time to see a shoe hit him square in the nose. Stampy then spun around as he brought his knee over for a round-house kick. It landed and sent the guy to the ground unconscious next to the other guy. The two looked at the rest of the guys as they all turned and ran off down the street.

Skye finally jumped down to meet the two, who didn't seem winded at all. She walked over to Ex who turned to face her.

"What the hell was that?" she questioned. Ex only stared at her blankly, as if he didn't understand her. She felt her blood boil before she looked closer at Ex, realizing something was different.

"Wait a second," she said, "Aren't your eyes brown and not blue?"

She was right. His eyes, instead of a normal hazel brown, were now an abnormal dark neon blue. His white eyes were replaced by what looked like a blue sheet metal surrounding his eyes, creating an illusion that his eyes were mechanical. She backed away in horror.

She then turned to Stampy, whose eyes had a similar form to his. Except, his eyes were a deep yellow, and the whites around his eyes were still there. The closer she looked, she could make outlines moving around the iris at speeds that made it seem like it was a normal color. Lightning. Underneath, she could still see his normal colored eyes. Skye shook her head, thinking she was delusional.

"What the…" she didn't finish as the blue in his eye faded and returned to the normal hazel color she remembered. Ex looked around with sudden confusion before he looked to Stampy, who was in a similar dilemma as he did nearly the same thing as Ex. They both looked at each other and then at Skye.

"Um, what happened?" Joe asked, his voice shaky and confused.

"I dunno," Ex replied, "You tell me."

Skye rubbed her brows as she tried to nullify a headache of misunderstanding, not seeing the two looking at her in even more confusion. She looked at the two for a second before she sighed and waved her hand.

"Come on, let's get back to…" she didn't finish as headlights approached through the alleyway. Before Skye could speak again, a hand grabbed her arm and dragged her back. She turned to see Ex as he brought his arm to his chest and then swung as they began to pixelate. She turned back to the car as it raced at them, not choosing to stop. She faced forward and stood defensively in case she had to jump over the car, even if that meant letting Ex and Joe get run over. Her vision then tunneled into a white light that she doesn't turn away from. As it clears away, she feels herself lying on the ground on her back, looking up into a dark blue sky above her. It was night, but she didn't know where it was. She sat upright and looked around, only to see that she was in front of the lab with Ex holding her arm and Joe right next to them. She looked up to see the lab ahead and above them.

She looked again at Ex with a more calm expression as he looked to her for a second before he felt his grip leave her arm. In a split second, Colinne came out to see them as Ex winced in pain. He shook his arm before he turned to see his watch with smoke coming from it. He quickly grabbed the leather bounding the watch to him and he unstrapped it. It dropped off his wrist and he held the watch by the strap while he looked at his wrist, which was now red from it being burned. He turned to Skye and then to Colinne and smiled painfully.

"Bad night, huh?"


It had already been around half an hour since Ex and Joe had beat those criminals and his wrist still hurt from earlier. He tried to massage his but it resulted in a sharp pain afterward. He stopped touching it, leaving behind a more dull pain. He tried not to wince whenever he moved his wrist, but it was more difficult to do so as Colinne bandaged his wrist. He sighed as she gave him ibuprofen and he instantly swallowed it. He saw Colinne grab something off the counter and she walked to him with a cup of water.

"Drink. You'll feel better," she said. He took the cup and drank the whole thing in four gulps. He sighed as he placed the cup on a counter next to him. He looked at Colinne.

"So, I was talking with Mat earlier," he said, "I heard that your brother was coming to stay with you."

She sighed, "Well, I didn't tell him not to say otherwise anyway."

"What is this feud?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said. She looked at him before responding, "What about you?"

"My family's pretty normal," he said, "Pretty good jobs, great education, amazing friends. I have it pretty easy right now. What about you?"

She looked at him and smiled, "Something isn't right about it. I can tell, and teens don't tend to tell the truth."

Ex chuckled, "And you are avoiding my question."

"Is that a problem?" she asked defensively. Ex raised his hands in a surrender position.

"Just an observation I made," he said. She sighed and the room fell silent as they didn't talk. Ex looked at her before he stood up.

"I'm not like the 'normal' type of teens," he said, "The ones you're thinking of, anyway."

"You're just a different version of it. You'll grow into it."

Ex chuckled, "Welp, I'm gonna get some sleep."

Colinne nodded but remained silent. Ex looked at her for a moment before he kept walking to the exit. He looked at her once more and spoke.

"Sorry about that," he said, "That's my bad."

Colinne raised her hand to talk to him again, but he had already left the room and the door closed behind him. She was confused because he took that pretty harshly to most other people she had met. Yes, he was right, he may have pushed a little harder than they both thought, but he didn't have to take it that seriously, did he? She didn't understand and didn't want to since she was already tired from the day at hand. She had more stress piling up than normal due to the Crystalite stuff, her brother coming to stay, and her having to deal with the idea that she can't fix the communications device that she had worked on for years, now gone. But she knew that she could get it fixed sooner or later, maybe even upgrade it with other engineers in different worlds.

The door creaked as she left and she saw the hooded Anahella walk past and in the same direction as the lab. Colinne walked next to her and tried to start a conversation.

"Where are you going?" she asked her.

"Back to my world," she said, "My home."

"Oh, alright then," she said, "Will someone accompany you?"

"Yes, in fact, I've decided that you need some time away from these people," she stated happily, "They'll be in my home for the night, then they will return here."

Colinne felt herself smile, "That's great!"

"Also," she said, "I heard about the communications device thing that you made. Amazing work, but with their help, you can improve upon that design."

Colinne tilted her head, "Excuse me?"

Anahella chuckled, "Ask them about engineers tomorrow when they come. I guarantee that one will know someone that could help."

Colinne nodded, "Alright, can do."
"Now go," she said, "Get rest and come back tomorrow fresh and excited. I know that you'll find something entertaining."

Colinne nodded and walked to the parking lot to get her car. She smiled at the thought of both tomorrow and how everything was going to be fixed, most likely in a matter of days.

Anahella took a deep breath and released it as she looked around her home, humble and simple home, and yet it was seemingly safer than most other places she had heard in Colinne's world. She looked back to the group as they blankly stared at their surroundings in awe. She chuckled and turned back to face forward.

"You will all be staying upstairs for the night," she said, "Not too cold, but just enough for you not to sweat in your sleep."

Felix nodded, "Anything before we sleep?"

Anahella looked up and to the moon above. She turned back at them.

"Maybe one more thing before it gets too late," she said, "One of you, get on the sparring ground."

Ex didn't like the sound of it, but he didn't question it because of almost everything he had seen since he had got there. He didn't raise his hand for obvious reasons, like how untrained he was and his burned wrist. Or his previously burned wrist. He looked at it and saw his bandaged wrist, but felt no more pain. He felt himself tilt his head in confusion as he remembered burns and pain lasting quite a while after the incident. He looked to the group before he slowly reached for the bandage cover and began to unwrap his wrist. Before long, a sigh emerged from the back of his thoughts.

"Hurry this up already," the voice requested. Ex sighed back and quickly unwrapped the bandage as he saw someone out of the corner of his eye reach for him to stop. Before they could though, he had already removed the bandage and found his skin to be completely intact and normal, like the burn had never occurred. He looked at it and neglected to realize he had dropped the bandage wrap to his feet. He slowly spun his wrist just in time to see more red on the top of his wrist. Just as he was about to sigh, he watched as the red on it slowly dissipated and the skin that was flaking off then relaxed back onto his wrist as it healed to a point where there seemed to be no sign of injury. He felt his heartbeat rise as his thoughts raced on how this could've happened or what was going on. The voice began to speak again.

"Stay calm," it said, "More information will come later."

He looked up and realized that all of the thought that he had been experiencing had happened in mere seconds, without anyone noticing. He turned to face front and pretended to hear what she said before. She looked at him for a moment and smiled before returning to talk about what they were doing. Ex was shocked. Questions raced through his head. Does she know about this voice? Why hasn't she told us? What the hell is going on?

She looked to Sean, who had been looking down at his feet for almost the whole interaction. She looks at him and simply smiles.

"Sean, please step forward," she said. Sean straightened and he cautiously walked forward to meet her. She kept her smile as he approached her and he stood in front of her. She looked at the group behind him.

"All of you spread out around the sparring mat," she commanded. Everyone obliged and spread out into their respective friend groups, the teens standing around one of the closer pillars and Felix and Mark standing close enough to still reach or see Sean.

"This is safe, right?" Sean asked.

"Under the right circumstances, yes," she replied, "Now, Ex, you and Joe blacked out in that fight, right?"

"Um, yes?" Joe questioned. Ex then continued onto the question.

"Well," he stated, "It was like I suddenly lost control of everything and then fell asleep, but instead we blacked out."

She nodded, "That is strangely familiar."

"What are you…" before he could finish, he felt himself blackout too as his senses kicked into a higher gear.

Anahella swung at the knees and successfully was able to knock him off of his feet. Felix and Mark took one step onto the mat as Sean stood up again. She held her staff up and tried to do the same thing again, instead this time, Sean turned his leg out and grabbed the staff as it bounced off his shin. He looked at her, this time not with ocean blue eyes, but instead with a light green colored pair. He grinned and Anahella grinned back.

"Same old tricks, Ana," he said. His voice was completely different from before, having a mildly deeper tone and it was more ominous as she knew who and where that voice belonged to. Before she could reply, he took the staff and held it at her throat as his grin persisted.

"Nice body, extreme charisma," he said as he looked over Sean's body, "Good fit."

His body limped as his legs caught him mid-fall and he fell onto his knees and looked up to Anahella. He was confused instead of hurt like what happened just moments ago.

"What the fuck," he said. Anahella looked at him and only grinned.

"Welp, that was all I needed to see," she said, "Unless anyone else is willing to face me."

"Nah," Ex sighed, "I'm good."

Everyone else on the outside nodded in agreement and she chuckled at them. She then nodded and pointed to a set of stairs next to the mat.

"Go up there and sleep," she said, "More will happen tomorrow."


The snoring was growing more and more annoying to Mat as he couldn't sleep due to the snoring of most of the group. He wasn't annoyed at the people, just the fact of how loud the snoring was in this room. Each one echoed off the rafters above him, only deepening and adding to the sound. He finally sighed and sat up, looking around the small room he was in with Steph, and then looked up at the open ceiling, being the reason he was still awake. He yawned as he stood. He quietly stood up and made sure not to wake her up as he slowly walked to the exit. He opened the door, which was almost as thin as paper, and peeked his head out. He saw down both sides of the hallway and saw no one anywhere. He took a step out and closed the door behind him before he took off walking to the stairs when he heard what sounded like taps coming from below. As he reached the middle of the floor, he looked to see Ex, Cheshapeek, Crystal, Skye, Sean, and Felix on the sparring mat talking. He sighed and walked to them.

"Can't sleep?" he called over. They looked at him and then Ex stood to greet him.

"Yep, still have a bit of an adrenaline rush," he said. He turned back to the group and then back to him, motioning for him to join them.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Trying to figure out what the fuck is going on," Cheshapeek said, his voice sounding more deep and agitated. Mat stood in the group as Ex looked around, a little more awake than the rest of them. He didn't seem tired nor wanting to sleep, instead preferring to talk.

"Well, now what?" he asked. Felix inhaled deeply before replying.

"I want to find out what all of this is," he replied, motioning to the room around them.

"Then sleeping should help," another voice cut in. They turned to see Anahella approaching them. Crystal groaned.

"Seems like wherever we go, you follow," he commented.

"Don't flatter me," she retorted, "What are you all doing up?"

"We were wondering what the hell we are doing here," Sean said. She sighed and tried to turn away.

"Hey, wait a second," Ex said, trying to be more polite, "I know we seem like we are pushy and all, but we just want to get home."

She looked at him and sighed, "I don't know how well I can help you with that."

Immediately, Felix shouted, "But you said you knew how to get us home!"

"I know I said that," she said, "What I meant to say was I was going to help you guys remember how to get home."

"Oh, for fucks sake!" Cheshapeek said. He stood up and walked to the stairs before Anahella could say anything else. Felix and Crystal followed, leaving Sean, Ex, Mat, and Skye with Anahella. Ex sighed and began to walk away.

"If you are willing…" before she finished, Ex cut in.

"I'm just going outside," he said, "I'm not tired."

He walked away and up the stairs as they watched him and they left Sean and Mat down with Anahella, only to then realize that Skye had disappeared. Mat sighed.

"She is giving me red flags," he said. Sean nodded.

"I can't seem to blame her," Anahella said, "We still don't know her at all."

Sean sighed, "Look, Anahella, you need to tell us how to get home."

Finally, she sighed and looked at him, not in a calm look, but a more disgruntled and angered look.

"I understand your concerns," she said, "But you are all talking about knowledge only you would know."

To emphasize that point, she poked at his chest, making a small sense of fear run through him. Her eyes were stern and serious, leaving no room for error in misconception. Nothing was out of place for the emotion, showing her mouth drawn into a frown and her brow bending downwards in an angered state. It stayed like that for a minute before she backed away and sighed.

"Here, let me show you something," she said. She walked over, staff in hand, and walked over to the altar setup. Mat and Sean followed behind her quickly as they stopped in front of the altar and they saw her reach for something and then turn back to them. They looked in her hand and saw a small stone, barely even larger than a quarter in the palm of her hand. It was a clear stone, with reflections tinted throughout its center. She slid it down into her thumb and pointer finger and held it up to her eye.

"What is that?" Mat said.

"This is a normal crystal," she said, "It won't help you in this situation."

"So, what's the point?" Sean asked. She sighed.

"It is to show you that you may not be too unfamiliar in an uncomfortable world," she said, "This crystal doesn't seem to have a place in the world physically, but it can have a mental or emotional connection to many people."

"That… makes a little sense," Sean said, trying to twist his mind into understanding the situation. Mat sighed and looked at his watch.

"June 20," he whispered and sighed, "We've been here for 5 days."

"Jesus," Sean said. Anahella sighed and placed the crystal onto the altar again before turning to Mat and held out her hand.

"Give me your hand," she said. Mat sighed.

"How is this supposed to he-" He was cut off as her arm swiftly grabbed him and muttered something under her breath. Her eyes shone a bright yellow and Mat fell to a knee in shock for a moment. He looked at her, her eyes fading in color as she exhaled a breath of struggle. Mat then stood, a sudden boost of energy reinvigorating him. He looked around for a moment before bouncing on his feet like an energetic rabbit. He felt himself jump and saw that he missed the floor, causing him to jump down the stairs. He felt his body rotate and he landed swiftly onto the large mat in the center of the room, to his surprise. His shock lasted for a moment before he looked up to Anahella and Sean, who both watched attentively. He chuckled nervously.

"This mat is considerably softer than normal," he commented to Ana. She smiled at him and then tapped her staff onto the floor twice as the noise vibrated through the floor and happened to wake Mat up even more. Before he could look at her, he saw what seemed to be a white blob of matter arise from in between the weaved mat. Mat was at first taken aback by this, but then felt a great sense of confidence flow through him as he felt an idea pop into his head.

"Bio-organic matter beast," he said, "Not the worst training exercise animal I've seen."

"Yes!" Anahella asked, "How do you know all of this?"

"I have no idea!" Mat exclaimed, a laugh emanating from him. The beast gave a weird roar, a mix of what sounded like feedback and a deep whale call. The sound was recognizable to Mat as the sound he heard when he was brought into this world. Before he could question it, the thing lunged at him, arms extended ready to grab him. He instinctively ducked down as it flew over him and he bounced on his bent knees. He stood up straight and watched the thing rebound on its hind legs and try to lunge at him again. This time, however, Mat quickly typed something into his watch as he spun around in a quick motion as something pixelated onto his arm. He jumped up, feeling his body rotate sideways until he finally saw the thing below him, and then he finally pushed down on an object he brought to him and then felt gravity bring him down on the being. He felt the weight of himself significantly greater due to a gravitational force pulling him down.

The thing on his arm was a round shield-like metal that was light enough to swing around at will. It was a dark grey color and it shined in the light above him. He finally felt the shield hit the ground as the white goo dissipated back under the mat. He lightly panted as he looked to Anahella with both excitement and confusion.

"Interesting," she said as if she was testing him. Sean looked at her as if she were insane.

"Alright," he said, "I'm gonna try to get some sleep. You two should as well."

"Okay, Sean," Mat said. Sean walked past him and stopped right next to him. He looked at him and smiled.

"That was fucking badass," he whispered. Mat nodded. Mat then had a thought pop into his head.

"Wait, what about Ex?"


Ex wasn't used to the cold, as he had lived almost a third of his life in hot and humid places and only a small portion was ever dedicated to cold weather. He shivered as he climbed up onto the roof of the home and he felt his hands and fingers begin to freeze a little more. He quickly climbed back down to the second floor and crossed his arms across his chest, creating a warm sensation through his body. He looked at his watch and decided to mess around with the settings as he leaned against the wall.

"What can you do?" he whispered to himself. He tapped on the upper touch screen and the whole screen lit up in a dark blue glow. At the bottom, a small keypad appeared, taking up a small portion of the lower screen. He tapped it and it spread across the whole screen, showing all of the letters and numbers in bigger print. He stared for a moment and then swiped from the top to the bottom causing the keypad to shrink with it.

The now opened screen had multiple icons on the screen, unknown to him what each was. He looked at the icons, each resembling a certain setting that it could do. Of course, it could type into what worlds it wanted to go to, it had motion sensors on it, and it also had some weird ones. Without thought, he blindly tapped one with checking what it was. The screen then turned black and then it lit up in a dark grey or white color that then had a slideshow group of images of certain clothes. He smiled and looked at the left top corner of the screen and he chuckled to himself as he read it.

"'Cosmetic Disguises'," he whispered sarcastically, "I must've had great creative writing."

He scrolled through each, seeing things like fancy suits, casual clothes, and finally jackets for cold environments. He tapped on that and the screen went black with white text blinked on the curved screen. Awaiting Motion… is what it said. So, following its instructions, he brought his arms up and he swung it to his side. An immediate chain reaction occurred as his clothes began flaking into the same white ashes that occur when he teleports to another world. As it did, he lifted his arms and saw underneath the white was new thicker clothing that wasn't there previously. It all disintegrated and it left behind a thick winter coat, pants, hunting boots, and thick gloves. His balaclava type mask was replaced by a winter hoodie and a thick ski mask. He smiled, sighed, and looked back to the roof ladder as he approached and climbed up.

He was treated to a mildly cold air surrounding him as he felt breezes push him from all sides. He looked around, seeing the roof had a flat roof that led to a slant down the side of the building. He stood up on the roof and looked around the house, seeing forest and snow stretch out for miles on end. The green leaves were covered in patches of snow, leaving parts of the brown stem and bark exposed. He then turned his attention to the sky above him, which was clear and the stars visible. He walked towards the center of the roof before he sat down, the cold shivering up his body as he did. He didn't mind as he stared up into the starry night above, his thoughts now being able to manifest clearer. His thoughts were made up of questions and ideas of how they could get out of there. Before he could deeply think of questions, the voice appeared again in his head.

"Thoughts are dangerous," it said, "They give you ideas that could get you killed."

Ex sighed, irritated, "Maybe you could've told me before or sometime earlier. You know, before I got shot!"

"Keep it quiet," it said, "You don't want to be thought of as crazy, right? Just internally think your words."

Ex chuckled, "What the fuck does that mean?"

"Just think about what you are saying," it said.

He sighed again. He then thought of his sentence only to hear his words echo in his head.

"Is this better?" he mentally asked. His eyes widened slightly with the sudden echo of his own voice.

"Yep, this is fine," it said, "Now, let's talk."

"Alright," his mind said, "Who the fuck are you?"

"I was thinking of you doing it first," it said. Ex sighed.

"Fine, if you have to know," he said, beginning to explain who he was. Before he could get past his age and personality, he saw out of the corner of his eye a figure on the top of the ladder leading to the roof. He looked there and saw the figure climb up and saw the familiar face of Skye. He sighed as most of his tensions were disengaged, but not all.

"Hello," he said. She looked at him and sighed.

"Seems like wherever I go, you follow," she groaned.

"Well, it seems like I got here first."

"Ha ha, funny."

"I'm serious."

"Yeah, okay," she said. She walked up and sat a couple of feet away from him. Ex saw that she had left behind the face disguise for a more open head approach, revealing all of her fur and snout. She wore a mildly thick coat with long jean pants and boots with her tail swishing from beneath her. She also wore a small scarf over her neck that stretched out and down to her waistband. Finally, Ex saw her eyes were a piercing emerald green unlike any he had rarely seen. She looked him down, taking in his appearance as well, and she chuckled.

"You look like a bear after hibernation," she said. Ex didn't know what to say as he was daydreaming looking up to the stars. He snapped out of it and asked.

"What?" he asked. Skye didn't speak for a second, so Ex returned his attention to the starry sky above. He stared up at each of the stars, taking in each and every sparkle into the sky, he noticed most of the constellations that spread throughout the sky above, and he tried to find any different colors that didn't match the rest of the sky. He saw white, blue, some red and orange, and one or two green glows that peppered the sky. He knew he looked stupid, but he didn't really care much. Only one person was watching.

Skye cleared her throat, "Excuse me? Is anyone there?"

He snapped out of his thought, "Oh, sorry. Just remembering these stars look nothing like the ones in World Zero."

"You could say that," Skye said, "Everywhere I've gone, the stars don't seem to change."

"Then you must've been to a lot of places "

"It's a perk that comes with the job."

"And that job is?"

"Surviving."

Ex looked at her, trying to decipher the meaning of that statement. Before he could ask, she sighed.

"Oh, you would definitely not get it," she said, "With that silver spoon up yours, you live a near-perfect life."

Ex looked at her before he sighed.

"Maybe you're right," he said, "I can't understand what you mean. I mean, you are a completely different species than I am, and I am probably an entitled shit-head to you. We are probably nothing alike."

"Nice observation, Exlax," she responded. Ex chuckled.

"That isn't the right quote," he said, "It's 'smooth moves, Exlax'."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, simultaneously rolling her eyes. Ex gave a small sigh before he continued.

"But that doesn't mean we can't get along," he said. She laughed.

"Really?" she questioned, " Me and you guys? Nope."

"Judging a book by its cover," Ex muttered. She glanced at him then laid back.

"Fine," she said, Ex turned to her, "If you must know, it isn't you people, it's everyone." Ex thought for a second then understood.

"Oh, I think I understand," he said, "You think all humans are the same, right?

"Yep, they are all the same," she said, "Entitled, rude, psychotic pieces of shit."

Ex shook his head as he laid back too, "Well, that is a bit of an overstatement to most people."

"Really? What about greed, corruption, and just flat-out bullshitery?"

"Ehh…" Ex didn't have a response for that and he stayed quiet for a minute as she rattled out a couple more things about humans. He listened to some bits, and other times he just ignored or laughed at the statements. After that, he just turned to look at him, and then he looked up back to the stars, deciding to change the topic.

"You never realize how beautiful something is until that something…" he thought for a second, "...is taken from you. Like this: I get up, plan on having a good day of playing games and hanging out with friends, then I hear that they are opening up the country in the upcoming days, which gets me more excited. But then, just as I get on, my computer freezes, and I don't understand as it worked the previous night. I take the steps to find the problem and after I restart it, it gives me a white screen, I blackout, and, when I wake up, I'm in a fucking port in some random-ass city and I'm now learning that I have an alternate life where I kick ass and chew bubble gum, minus the bubble gum part."

"It seems like you've had a bad week," Skye responded unamused. Ex finally felt himself snap as he looked at her sternly.

"No fucking shit, Sherlock," he said, his voice a mix between stern and a small grimace in his tone. She sat up and looked at him.

"Wow," she said.

Ex calmed himself, "Sorry, I snapped a little there."

"Well, there could be reasons why."

"You're right. Me being here and not with my family scares me 'cause anything could happen to them while I'm here and I want to get back there ASAP. Back to my normal life where the most I have to worry about are my computer crashing and any work my parents have for me."

Skye listened and then turned her attention to the wood below them in deep thought.

"What's wrong?" Ex noticed this and quickly picked up on it. Her tail kept swinging around as he spectated her look to him with a more upset look before going back to her normal look.

"Nothing," she said.

"Bullshit, even I can tell," Ex replied, his annoyed tone poking through.

"It's nothing, alright? Stay outta my business."

Before he could respond, the voice appeared in his head again.

"She's cute. Where'd you find her?"

Ex turned away and mentally talked to him once again, "Shut up."

Skye didn't bat an eye at this, however, "What do you see in the sky?"

Ex snapped out of the conversation with the voice, "I'm sorry?"

"Up there." She pointed upwards to the clear and starry night. Ex looked up as well and then turned to her to respond.

"Well, what I see…" He paused to think for a moment. "Well, I see an open universe that we have yet to explore or develop an understanding. Its purpose is to simply remind us of how small we are here and that life is fast."

"You're philosophical," she giggled. Ex chuckled at the response.

"I know," he said, "But that is who I am. A kid lost in a world of choices and directions that I don't know where to simply place myself. Am I philosophical? Or am I nerdy?"

"Nerdy, definitely," she said, laughing at it. Ex laughed in response.

"But I'm serious," he said through his laughs, "Think about it: in World Zero, we thought that the unknown was the deep oceans and the stars above. Now, it's hundreds of different worlds, universes, and dimensions to explore and discover. It would scare most people."

"Maybe you're right," she said solemnly. She then sat up in what seemed to be in shock.

"What am I doing?" she asked quietly. Ex sat up with her.

"Is everything alright?" he asked. Skye turned to him.

"I guess you're right," she said, "You guys are different from the rest. Because I never talk to people for this long before either running away or knocking them out."

"Okay…" Ex replied uncomfortably before yawning, "Welp, this is my cue for sleep I guess."

Skye looked at him as he stood and walked to the ladder to climb down before he stopped and he turned around to face her.

"Also, I talked to Anahella," he said, "If you still want, I can help you find someplace good to settle down. The least I can do."

He turned and climbed down quietly as the winds began to pick up again. He covered his face as he waved to her to come down as well. She obliged and climbed down after him just as what seemed to be a blizzard approached. Skye turned around just in time to see Ex enter his room and close his door behind him. She looked down and gave a small smile as she did the same to her room.

Ex was hyperventilating, not from the stress of being with her to his surprise, but that he felt sick, with the voice in his head still begging him to sleep and that everything will be fine. He sat down and tried to take deep breaths and to calm himself. Finally, he felt himself blackout into sleep, his muscles in his body relaxing.

He woke to see nothing around him, nothing but a black void with him floating in it. There was no light but he could see himself as if he was under a lamp. Before long, it felt like he could fly as the air around him materialized. Though, this realization was cut off by another sound.

"Enjoying this?"

He looked around for where that came from, feeling his body shiver slightly. Finally, he saw a blue glow emanate from behind him as he straightened his body to see it easier. It was nothing but that: a blue light that didn't have a shape at all, only blinking as it spoke.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"Your unconsciousness," the light said, "This is a place you go to when you sleep at times of deep thought. More or less, I brought you here or something in your mind brought us here."

"What are you?"

"I'm a light due to nothing to base my appearance on. You have no physical appearance to give me."

"Alright," Ex said uncomfortably, "What do I do here?"

"Think of an environment," it said, "Something new or something that makes you comfortable. I'll work on my appearance."

As it said that, the light dimmed into the black void around him, leaving him in silence and black. So, Ex decided to get to work by thinking of an environment that he felt comfortable in his room. As he did, he felt the gravity around him kick in as he began to fall. The room below him began to form and he felt it catch him as it kept on forming around him. It took some time before he realized the room around him was his own. He sighed and stood up, looking around his bedroom that was now empty in World Zero.

The emptiness prompted him to think about many things, like sleep, home, and family. That thought hurt him the most as he didn't know what was happening up there. What were they doing? We're they trying to find him? Are they alright? The questions began to haunt him as he sat on his bed, another feeling of home. The sheets were cold, just the way he liked them in his more hot and humid climate home. He felt his thoughts rush in and voices clouded his mind, some encouraging and others more discouraging. He held his head in his hands as he tried to comfort the words and thoughts in his head to no avail. Finally, after minutes of torture, the door to his room opened and the voices stopped. He looked to see a different figure entering his room and closing the door behind it. He sighed and just looked back down.

"Well that was quick," he commented, knowing that it was the voice in his head. The figure was a man, maybe a couple of inchies taller than him. His face was clean-shaven and his hair was a dark black color. His eyes were a milky white, no iris or pupil in the sea of white. His body was covered in what looked like neon lights, each streaming a different path up to his neck where they stopped. He wore a pair of boots and long pants as well as a comfy coat and a pair of fingerless gloves. Ex watched for a moment before commenting.

"So, this is you?" Ex asked.

"No, I can't fully reform yet," he said, "So I'm borrowing one of your masks."

As he said that, a mask pixelated onto his face: a white dog mask similar if not exactly the one worn by Drift. Ex didn't judge, as what he said before seemed plausible to him.

"What are you going to do to me?" Ex asked.

"I can't do anything," he said, "My consciousness is linked to yours, meaning if you die, I die with you."

"Alright. Better question: who are you?"

He sighed, "I am a projection of a past hero. I'm here to assess you."

Ex chuckled, "Assess me? For what, a-a supporting role next to a famous actor?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" he said, "I am a past hero here to assess you."

Ex shook his head, "I understand what you're saying, and the answer is nope. I'm not qualified for that! I just want to get this over with and get back to my normal life."

"It isn't that simple..." he said.

"Plus, you didn't even answer my question, who the hell are you?"

He thought for a moment before he sighed, "My name is Alexi Joesefe. I am… well, I was a hero that fought for the sake of life itself. I was sent down after my death to inhabit the next hero after the next and the next."

"What type of Mjolner bullshit is this?" Ex asked. Alexi ignored him and continued.

"What you are asking is impossible for me to answer. For now, I'm going to help you by reading the files that Felix has found."

Ex looked at him for a moment before sighing, "Well, I can't stop you, can I?"

"Sleep. We'll talk more in the morning." As he said it, he blinked away in dim blue light, leaving only Ex in his room to ponder what to do. He sighed as he tucked into his once normal bed and tried to fall asleep. His eyes fluttered to a close and he slept without any thought or hesitation.


Colinne joyfully hopped out of her car and walked towards the door to the lab. She felt herself smile in happiness as she felt that today was going to be an important day for not just her career, but for hundreds of worlds around them. She imagined world tech that could help them all: space stations to help with overpopulation, robots to help them cure horrible diseases, and the ability to give help to all others in need, no matter the circumstances. She reached into her pocket to grab her card to enter the facility but was met to an unlocked door at the lab. She went from gleeful and excited to afraid and anxious in the span of less than a second. She opened the door and saw her security guard, Phil, walking down the hallway to the door, seemingly uncomfortable and awkwardly.

"What's happening?" she asked him. He looked at her and stopped for a second to respond.

"I think this is your can of worms you need to deal with," he said before he continued to walk through the door. She grabbed him and he looked at her.

"Is everything alright, Phil?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Ever since Andy died," he said, "I guess this place hasn't been the same."

Colinne nodded, "Well, you go and take the week off then. It's probably best for you."

He shook his head, "I ain't leaving for long. I'll be back tomorrow. Just watch your back with those guys out there."

She nodded and swiftly walked to the lab. Once she made it to the labs, she realized that the doors were now fixed back onto the frame once again. She touched the door handles and inhaled before pushing through into the labs. In front of her, was something she had hoped wouldn't happen. Around her stations were soldiers, prodding and grabbing things on her desks. She quickly ran to stop them as she grabbed things and replaced them back onto the desk. She looked at him panicky.

"First of all, this is all delicate equipment," she said to the soldiers, whose attention shifted to her, "And second of all, who are you, and what are you all doing here?"

"Stand down, Dr. Eden." She turned around to see a man in a tan and orange outfit and military badges on his shoulder and chest. He was just a slight bit taller than Colinne, standing straight and bold. He approached her, his short black hair barely bouncing to each step he took. Once he reached her, he extended his arm in a polite manner.

"Sorry to barge in unannounced," he calmly said, "I am…"

Colinne interjected as she shook his hand, "Admiral Markus. I've heard of you. You're the leader of the…"

Markus cut her off, "The 7094th division. The one who helped to protect this city in its time of need."

"Alright," Colinne said, trying to fake a smile, "Then what are you doing here?"

"Just investigating an anomaly," he said calmly, "Have you heard about a group of people who could travel through the Vortex?" Colinne felt her back straighten, but she tried to hide it as much as possible.

"Oh?" she asked, "You mean those vigilantes?"

"Yes," he replied, "Those vigilantes are highly dangerous beings as they have the technology we have yet to comprehend."

She smirked, "And what we can't understand is dangerous."

"Well, someone of your intellect would know about this."

"And why would you say that?"

He sighed, "I remember you and Andy told us about this situation..."

She turned to him, now more in a stern look, "I thought he told you to stay out of this."

"Imagine it," he said, ignoring her, "A way to protect our world and way of life."

"By destroying others," Colinne grimaced. Markus tilted his head as he rubbed his fingers across one of her desks.

"I didn't say that," he said.

"But you imply it," she said. Finally, she saw him lose his calm face and turn it into a more stern and serious look.

"Colinne," he said, his voice much deeper now, "It's time to stop playing this children's game and it's time to start acting now before everyone else does."

He looked at her and she looked at him back with equal amounts of ferocity and coolness. Finally, Markus sighed.

"I'm only going to ask this once," he said, raising a hand signaling his men, "Where is the communication tower?"

She mentally sighed, knowing that they didn't know she knew where they were.

"I don't know," she said calmly, catching the Admiral by surprise, "There was a break-in last week and they stole that and other items of reference."

"Bullshit," Markus said, approaching the scientist, "Now you are going to cooperate or we are going to have problems."

Markus grabbed her arm and, without hesitation, Colinne raised her hand up and smacked it across the admiral's face, sending him down to a knee. She sighed and grabbed some papers that had been misarranged. She looked at him and rolled her eyes.

"I've told you already," she said, "I don't know where it is."

Markus grimaced for a moment before he waved his hand above his head. The soldiers and Markus all filed out of the lab in suit and class, like every military showing of dominance. Before they left though, Markus turned to her and pointed at her.

"This isn't the last time?" Colinne smirked. Markus was silent for a second before he spun on his heel and left. The doors closed behind him and she immediately sighed and leaned back onto a desk in relief. She massaged her brow to try and calm herself in the aftermath. She suddenly stood up and walked around to see if they had broken anything that they picked up and possibly slammed against the desks. She shuffled through papers before she felt a feeling crawl up her back, as if she was being watched. She sighed and she turned around to see a figure standing at the desk behind her. She yelped and jumped back to the desk. The figure turned around and she saw that it was just Ex. She sighed in relief.

"Don't scare me like that," she said.

"My bad," he said, "I saw you were in deep thought so I didn't want to disturb you."

Then, Skye came in out of nowhere, "That was a gnarly slap back there."

Colinne chuckled, "Thanks. It really did feel good as well."

Ex tilted his head, "What?"

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, taking the conversation off the topic. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Just came to get some intel," he said, "What about you."

She looked around before stepping closer and whispering to him, "I just had military personnel searching my lab and asking me about you guys."

Ex looked at her, "Military?"

"Yep," she said, "I don't know what to do. You can't stay here and risk getting hurt or captured."

"It's fine. We'll be staying with Anahella for the time being and when we can find a suitable home, we go home."

She nodded as she walked next to him on his left. As she did, she accidentally bumped into Ex and he stumbled to the side and he stood up straight. Colinne turned to apologize to him but as she did, she saw that his expression had changed. It was like he had seen a ghost as he just passed her. She stopped and approached him as he slammed his hand into his pocket, his eyes widening more as he did.

"What's wrong?" Colinne asked as she saw him pull out a small white case, encased in what seemed to be a blue sticker. She didn't know what the big deal about it was to her.

"What?" she said. Before he spoke, he began to hop backward and then stopped and calmly inhaled and exhaled.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked her. She looked at it for a moment before she shrugged.

"Wireless headphones," she said. Ex nodded.

"Exactly." He typed into his watch and he quickly raised his arm and prepared to leave. Before he could, Colinne stopped him.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm going to find a way home," he said, "I'll be back."

He then brought his arms down and in a matter of seconds, he disappeared. Colinne was left in her lab and she sighed at how fast he came and left. She stood and walked around the messy lab cleaning up and waiting for the rest to return.


He immediately began to run through the dojo and found that everyone was on the mat waiting. He jumped onto it, lost his balance, and fell right into the middle of the group, and grunted as he lost all the air in his chest. He turned around to see everyone else staring at him. He smiled.

"Hello," he said.

"What's wrong?" Sean asked. He extended his arm and Ex took it as he stood.

"I just found something out," he grunted, "Take a look at this."

He reached then into his pocket and then pulled out a case of white and blue. He showed it to the group, who was confused at first.

"It's just an AirPods case," Mark said. Ex nodded with a smile on his face.

"Exactly," he said, "These are special because they are from World Zero."

Mat caught on, "And where there are wireless headphones…"

"There's a phone," Ex said. They suddenly understood what he was saying. He stood up straight and put the case back into his pocket.

"That's where both good news and bad news come in," he said, "Good news: my phone is in some world."

"That's great!" Felix exclaimed. Ex shook his head, his personality changing quickly.

"Which leads to the bad news. The bad news? I had my phone. It must've dropped out of my pocket sometime earlier."

"You're kidding me," Cheshapeek said. Ex shook his head. Felix grabbed Ex's shoulders.

"When do you last remember having it?" he asked his voice calm but mixing with bits of fear and rage.

"I don't know," Ex replied, trying to remain calm. He jolted as he had just remembered something.

"Also," he said, "Colinne told me that military personnel came to her lab. Looking for us."

"Aw shit," Crystal murmured. The group silently exploded into murmurs as they began talking about what to do next. Anahella and Skye watched over quietly and said nothing of the matter.

"This is chaotic," Skye finally commented.

"You know why, right?" Anahella asked her. Skye looked at her and shrugged.

"Because they don't understand what this is?" she guessed.

"That may be correct," she said, "But it is more likely they are scared. This is very different from who they usually are."

"Yeah, still doesn't excuse them from their misdeeds."

Anahella looked at her, "You're traumatized. You've witnessed something bad about them."

"Not witnessed," she said, "Something worse."

Anahella didn't know what to respond to first. She knew what she meant, but didn't know how to wisely reply. Skye chuckled before she could speak.

"But they are different," she said, "Something is different about them."

"They learn fast," Anahella said. Then, a shout was heard in the crowd.

"Alright!" Ex shouted, "Let's decide what we need to do before we start thinking too far ahead."

"He's right," Joe said, "The longer we think about this, the less time we have for action."

The group began to simmer and they turned into a more complete group. Skye jumped down to join them. She bounced across the mat to reach them as they all began to talk.

"Well, now it's game time," Ex sighed, "Let's talk about where to go and who to see." The group nodded and he continued to speak.

"Well, we got one name that we are going to have to see later tonight. You see, we are going to a party hosted by a rich businessman named Louis Marxis."

He threw down a small object in the shape and size of a quarter. It then sprouted into a hologram projector. It showed an image of a man, shrunk so everyone could see and understand who he was. His face was engraved with what seemed to be wires and his eyes had a more deep purple tint. He wore a dark suit with a blue and purple striped tie. He had a full head of silver tinted hair and his face was clean-shaven. He looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.

"This looks like something out of Cyberpunk," Felix commented. Ex nodded.

"Well, you wouldn't be wrong," he said, "This is the world that is derived off of the game, though not the game exactly."

"Huh." They stared for a moment before Ex picked up the object and slipped it into his coat pocket silently.

"Tonight, you said?" Sean asked. Ex nodded.

"Next up," he said, "We are going to have to find some things we left behind in a container company in World 7603. I can't tell the name, don't tell me to explain, I don't know. According to the pages, we left some things behind in a container labeled 709. The code is written down on there, and I'll give it to who goes."

"Okay, what about your phone?" Steph asked. Ex shrugged.

"I don't know," he said, "I want to try and find it, but I don't think that is time productive."

"What do you mean?" Sean asked. Skye stepped in.

"What he probably means is that you won't be able to find that phone if you're dead."

Ex inhaled and pointed to her, "Ding ding."

"Alright, alright. Anything else?" Felix asked.

"Simple things," he said, "Find an engineer to help Colinne with her labs."

"Easier said than done," Stephanie said.

"And second, we need to get more of that memory bring back with Anahella. With that, we can speed up the process of memory retrieval easier."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mark asked, "Let's find our way home!"

"Here here!" Ex exclaimed. The group began to split and Ex walked to the entrance, bouncing on his feet, and dreaming of what was going to happen next. As he thought, Alex's voice pierced his thoughts.

"Now that's the spirit!" he said.

"What do you have in store for me?" Ex asked mentally.

"Well, you're going to have to wait and see."

"So, are all of us similar in this world, or are we different?"

"Power-wise? Different."

"'Power-wise?" Ex asked.

"Can't explain," he said as he heard his voice echo into silence. He sighed in temporary confusion before he stood up tall and smiled.


Half an hour later, a white flash shot through the dark alleyway of a futuristic planet. Sitting on his knee, Brian looked around in the near pitch-black alley, only illuminated by a single light above. He looked up as he heard thuds behind him, seeing bits of sunlight emitting from the blue sky above. He turned to see Ian, Joe, Squaishy, Dan, and Crainer. They stepped forward to meet him and look around in the near pitch-black night, seeing neon glows emanate from the end of the alley. They approached the exit and watched as figures strolled past them and their faces were blurred by the motion. Before they could step out, Crainer pulled them back.

"Wait, shouldn't we have disguises or something?" he questioned. Brian nodded in agreement.

"Alrighty then…" He thought, "What do we do?"

"Our watches," Joe said, "I have a feeling they got something more than they seem."

As he said it, he looked at his single screened watches and he pressed on the cosmetic icon. He showed the others how and they quickly turned their more winter cosmetics into casual everyday cosmetics. Mostly hoodies, long pants, sneakers, and glasses. They quickly walked into a crowd of people that were passing by and they walked down the street eastward. Looking up, they could see smaller ships flying above them and glimpses at larger ships. The lights were crosses of bright and dim and the streets were cracked and cut in certain areas, conveying crashes and repairs. They passed by tons of homes, some beaten and bruised while others were new and clean. Some windows were broken while others were normal and fixed. They kept their guard up as the city lights got brighter and brighter.

It seemed to change quicker than they thought. They started in a rural town that then merged into some type of super-city. The apartment-like buildings turned into sky-scrapers and the dim street lights were replaced by bright neon lights. Bricks replaced with glass, asphalt replaced by clean concrete, and such. Brian's HUD kept blinking on and off of figures, signs, and buildings. Each had a small description box underneath the name, giving information and history about either the person, building, or corporation. He didn't read enough as the information appeared on the screen for a split second before disappearing again. He tried not to stare at anyone or anything for too long as he kept walking through the crowds, only then realizing that most of the group wasn't human. He looked at his hands, seeing that they were a different texture than before. They were a mix of detail and cartoony, resonating some bit of familiarity. He could've sworn he had seen this before. He looked back to the rest of his group, who was also taking in the surroundings and he pointed towards a small bar building that they could use to find out where they were supposed to go.

He grabbed one of their arms and dragged them to the pub and the rest followed. The door opened and quickly closed behind them as they then stumbled to find a place to sit. The place wasn't very populated, with about four people including the bartender. They quickly took a seat at a table far away from the bar itself. Across the room was a band stage and it was filled with a drum set, two guitars, and a microphone on a stand. It was relatively quiet as the bartender began to approach the group for their order. Brian quickly whispered to them.

"What do we do?" he asked. The most he got was a strained shrug from Crainer.

"Ask the others," Ian proposed. Brian nodded and smiled as the bartender approached. He looked at his watch under the table and quickly flicked his wrist, bringing what seemed to be a communicator. He placed it in his ear and talked to whoever he could.

"Hello?" he asked. Silence, then, static.

"Yeah, what's up?" It was Mark. He smiled as the bartender spoke to the group. Brian shook his head, claiming he didn't want anything for now as he returned to his conversation with Mark.

"Where are we supposed to go again?" he asked.

"Well, if I remember correctly," Mark trailed off in thought for a moment, "You don't do much. He said that you need to walk around to find a familiar face or sign."

"Well that's bloody helpful," Brian said sarcastically. He looked up at the rest of the group and he then tried to talk.

"What world are we in?" he questioned, only now taking the time to think about the topic.

"You know, it reminds me of Ratchet and Clank." The group looked to Joe, who had made the claim, and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right," Ian said, "I've seen videos on the game and this definitely reminds me of it."

"Well, I didn't play the game," Brian said, "So I know little to nothing about any of this."

Brian sighed and leaned back into his chair and looked around the room. The place had an older aesthetic and above them were pictures. All of them, surprisingly, was in color. Back in World Zero, usually, the pictures were black and white. He looked at each, seeing things like space ships and buildings in progress. They were old photos, but not like 1960s old pictures. Each one had faces that vaguely made sense to him until he looked at a picture above a window to the right of the door. The picture was of some creature standing with what looked like a younger bartender. In the background lay a mixture of ships, what looked like guards, and a large landmass behind them.

Brian felt an ache in his forehead grow into a searing pain like his brain was being cooked on a frying pan. Sudden flashes of images and moments began to pop into his mind. Though quick, they left noticeable memories in him as he brought his head into his hands to think a little bit longer. It was only a mere second before he raised his head in time to see the bartender returning with a single drink: a glass of water. He set it on the table and turned to leave. Before he could, he stood up to see the bartender clearer.

"Excuse me," he said. The bartender turned around and looked at him, waiting for a response.

"Um, I was wondering what that picture is?" he asked, pointing to the picture above the window. The bartender looked for a moment then turned back to him.

"An old friend of mine," he replied, "Well, we used to until he moved on to greater things. I chose to stay in a more traditional lifestyle."

"Oh," Brian said, "Sorry."

"No, it's fine. I'm going to meet him sometime this week. He chose to be a tech billionaire while I chose to stay here and with my family."

"Where is he?" Brian asked, his voice calm and unwavering.

"What?" the bartender asked, "Beef? Well, he owns a place on the outskirts of the city."

Brian nodded, "Thank you. I'm sorry if any of this offends you."

"Well," he said with a smile, "If you see him, let him know his old pal Teddy said hi."

Brian smiled and nodded as they turned to leave, but before they could, Joe walked to Teddy and reached into his pocket to pay. He quickly was stopped and Teddy smiled.

"On me," he said. Joe nodded and he turned to exit the bar. They opened to a flurry of noise, as cars and people passed in the daylight. Joe looked up into the now much clearer sky above, seeing many more ships and clouds. He looked back to the group and down around at the bustling city, waiting on their next move.

"Where to?" Joe asked.

"Let's just walk until we find out." Brian's voice was drowned out by the passing cars as he began to walk to the closest crosswalk. Joe didn't object and just followed him. He then heard a soft voice chuckle in the background of the noise. He turned around quickly and realized that it was still the same voice he had been hearing recently. He sighed and continued on his way, paying no attention to a short figure behind them with long and pointed ears.

After a long walk through the city, crossing many faces and vehicles, they finally stood in front of a large building that overlooked a cliffside ship port. They looked at each other and felt the inhale of fear begin as they approached the doors. They walked through them to a soft bustling of people. They looked at each other and then approached what was a reception desk. They stopped at the front and waited as the receptionist kept typing on a computer. Finally, Mark stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Hi," he said, giving a friendly smile afterward. The receptionist looked at him and then back to her computer.

"What are you looking for?" she asked with little to no enthusiasm. He thought for a moment, remembering what Ex had said.

"Um, a place containing the numbers 709?" His voice was shaky and fearful. The receptionist looked at him and sighed.

"Finally, someone going in there," she said, reaching under the desk and grabbing some type of keycard. She brought it up and handed it to Mark.

"Take the elevators to where you need to go." She returned to her business as nothing had happened. Mark stood for a moment before motioning for the rest to follow. They walked down a small hallway that led to a trio of elevators. They took the elevator closest and took the keycard and scanned it against the touchpad. The elevator dinged and it began to descend downwards. It was fast, yet comfortable, unlike other fast-falling elevators. Mark sighed, feeling like something was wrong with the situation at hand. He turned to the rest, who had a similar expression plastered on their faces. Confusion and anxiety. They didn't talk due to the somewhat serious situation they were in. Finally, the elevator came to a slow halt.

The bell dinged as the doors opened to a dim hallway, leading to their left and right. They stretched for what seemed to be miles on end. Brian stepped to the right and let the rest exit as he thought aloud.

"What is this place?" he asked. The group was silent for a minute before Mark approached him and looked around.

"This is a large storage unit using highly sophisticated technology that we don't understand yet," he said plainly. Brian looked at him weirdly for a moment before he shrugged back at him.

"Let's just get this over with," Joe sighed. They began to walk in the direction of container 709. This was then overwhelmed by Brian's thoughts of the situation.

"Wait…" he paused, "Why does a tech company have this here?"

Mark looked at him, his eyes now a pinkish red, "Holding facility. A place where certain inventions come to die or be saved for later."

"So then we stole one of these?"

"Technically, one of us owned it before this whole tech business happened."

"How do you know?" Brian's question was immediately answered as Mark turned and his pinkish-red eyes stared at him, giving him a simple note: don't question it. He quickly turned back and watched the hallway grow longer and longer as the numbers went higher and higher. They walked for a few minutes until they came across the number 709.

"This is it," Brian said. He grabbed the keycard from Mark and scanned it against a pad next to the door. It blinked twice then the light turned green and the door opened with a mechanical hiss. Inside, only dim lights lit the room and a small light from the door illuminated a cone leading into the room. Inside, there were tarps covering objects, crates of metal and wood, and what seemed to be a carpet underneath the things. The room wasn't very big, about the size of a semi-truck load, and the payload didn't help with space either. They shuffled into the room and as they did, the room began to feel more like a sardine can than a storage container. They didn't have much to do except look around and see what they could find.

Lifting up tarps, pushing crates out of the way, this room was a mess. They couldn't find anything that was sparking memories. Either it was old and rusty or something they found was a machine that they couldn't understand at the slightest. The group quickly deteriorated from a confident state to a more disgruntled and angered at the fact that they couldn't find anything that they could remember. Finally, Brian shot up his hands in defeat.

"I give up!" he shouted in anger. He walked through the things, carefully not touching anything until he felt his foot get caught on something below him and he fell over, catching himself on his hands. He looked down angrily at what he tripped on, and it caught his attention. It was an open wire, a type of wire that was used in electrical work, leading underneath two crates and behind a clothed crate. He waved someone over.

"Can someone give me a hand?" He grabs the tarp with Ian and Dan as they yank it away to reveal a larger crate than the rest, except on the side facing down the way, there was what seemed to be a control panel that reflected the light of the outside light against the wall behind it. Brian tilted his head to get a better view of the thing as he extended his hand to touch it. Squaishy quickly tried to stop him but to no avail. He felt only one finger touch the device before he heard a loud thud followed by him screaming as his vision distorted.

As if he had jumped in a hurricane, Brian suddenly disappeared in a flash. Just like their watches except for something about it was odd: the particles didn't flake off of like they usually did. Instead, he teleported in just a solid flash. Immediately, Mark stepped forward, hoping for a response from him.

"Brian, are you alright?" he almost shouted into the coms. It took a second, but a voice shouted back.

"You guys need to see this!" Brian exclaimed. Mark sighed in relief. Before he could look up, he felt two more bright flashes as Joe and Squaishy followed behind Brian. He looked to Crainer and Ian who shrugged and Dan sighed as he held his arm out and touched the control pad and teleported away. Ian and Crainer stood hesitantly before Mark sighed and followed suit behind Dan. He pressed his hand and he saw only a distorted image for a second and then the room became clearer to him. Instead of a crate this time, however, he saw in front of him a wall with a similar contraption to the one before, except facing him this time. He quickly turned around and felt his jaw drop as he looked around.

Instead of being in a semi-truck-sized room, now they were in a room that was nearly the size of a hangar. The roof was raised high above them, making them seem smaller than ants in a giants cave. He saw hundreds of tarps and crates now, each looking more new and futuristic. The floor was a metal-like marble with Long light strips sliding across the floor and the color around was white and blue. Mark felt his jaw and quickly closed his mouth and looked to the rest of the group for answers he knew none of them had. Where were they? Why were they here? Why was this theirs?

"This is really cool," Brian chuckled, spinning on his heel and looking around. Along with the others, he kept exploring the room, trying to find if there was anything else they needed to find. Looking around, Mark saw multiple tarps covering what looked like vehicles. One was a large car while the other was a smaller yet elongated cycle. He nodded and moved to walk with Brian.

Brian walked down a small opening of crates and looked at each one, each one having a different trait from the rest. One crate was blank while the others around it were marked. He looked at a trio of crates, each about the size of a double couch. One was a masked figure with what seemed to be a lens flare emitting from one eye, one was a large X symbol made from a bullet and what looked like a katana. Finally, the last symbol was an eye with a line leading downwards, making it look like some type of spear or battle hammer. He slowly reached for the one that looked the most familiar to him: the Terminator.

He quickly took it and opened the top, revealing multiple items sitting atop a foam bottom. Sitting closest to him, there was what looked like a pair of sunglasses with a limo window-like tint: unable to see through them from this angle. He picked them up and rotated them in his fingers. They were made of some type of sturdy plastic and the lens was pretty thin with the supports holding them being thick with probably a projector for a HUD and it was a little heavier than normal ones. He put them on and looked around the room as they began to power on and he sighed as he continued through the things. Before he could though, another hand grabbed another pair of objects: gloves.

"What are these?" Squaishy asked. Brian could only shrug.

"Honestly, I don't know," he replied. She glanced around at the other two unopened crates next to Brian. She pointed to the eye symbol.

"Is that Sean's logo?"

"My prediction? Yes."

"Ex?" she questioned as she pointed to the Ex symbol. Brian nodded. They looked around for a moment before Brian made another prediction.

"If me, Sean, and Ex have one," he thought, "Then everyone has one."

Before he could stand, his glasses began to blink in alerts as it stated on the screen: Incoming Port. Immediately, he looked to where they had entered from and he pointed to it.

"I think we have some company," he said. The room was lit up suddenly with a bright light as they heard a scream coming from where they previously were. They then saw the light fade and something fall forwards onto the floor. Brian and Squaishy instantly stood in a ready stance. They saw a pair of guns raise just above the crates there and then the figure stood up. It was short, its head just making it over the two crates stacked on the floor. His ears were perked up in a large triangular shape and his breathing heavily implied stress and fatigue. He looked at each one of the group and tried to calmly speak.

"L-let's not get too messy or we shouldn't do this at all," he said, trying to be heroic in his words but failing due to fatigue and low energy reserves. Brian sighed, knowing that an explanation would be coming soon.


Meanwhile, in a much more sandy environment, another group lands just beside a road leading to what seemed to be nowhere. The group was of the teens, choosing to be together except for Skye, who only chose to come due to the extreme heat. Crystal looked at his watch and hesitantly typed in directions, hoping to find their way to their destination. Skye grew impatient quickly.

"Where are we going again?" she questioned.

"A fucking Burger King," Cheshapeek replied sarcastically. Ex sighed and looked down the road, pointing to a clear opening in the desert.

"There it is," he said calmly. He pointed to a fenced-off area that, though too far away to recognize, was still largely based on two colors: red and blue.

They trekked over to the area and as they approached, Skye could make out two buildings separated by a moat and bridge. Each building was made of wood and some bits of metal, seemingly at random. Below the bridge is what seemed to be a sewer and its water leaking out into the water. Around the whole perimeter was a metal barbed wire fence, giving a very poor impression to her, but not to the others. To them, something was exciting about this situation, which freaked her out. Ex immediately flicked his wrist and an object the size of a baseball appeared in his hand. He threw it over the fence and when it hit the ground, a loud swoosh sound occurred as he teleported from the original spot and across the fence. Skye sighed as she climbed up and followed the trio into what seemed to be an abandoned building.

They entered the red one through what looked like two garage doors split apart by a tower in the middle. Above them was a second story, with a balcony, and a basement, which they didn't know what was there. As they walked through the maze of a building, they came across an opening to the sky above, where clouds seemed to stand near idle in the sky.

"This looks just like the game," Cheshapeek commented.

"Only there's one thing missing," Crystal added, "The guys."

"The guys," Cheshapeek chuckled. Skye groaned before she looked at Ex, whose expression was of an eerie tone.

"What's wrong?" Skye asked puzzled. Everyone's attention turned to him as they then realized that he was shaking.

"We definitely aren't alone," he said as a sound was heard and a figure appeared behind him, holding a revolver to his head. His appearance was old-looking, slightly taller than Ex, and he looked classy. He wore a suit, pants, dress shoes, and a ski mask, all in the color of red. He cleared his throat.

"Gentlemen," he said, his accent being French, "Might I ask what a bunch of children are doing here?"

"We're just taking a look around," Skye said. Ex held up his hand, motioning that he knew what he was doing.

"So, you're the Spy, huh?" he questioned. The figure chuckled.

"Who else would I be?"

"Of course," Cheshapeek said, "Your cloak watch."

Immediately he pointed the gun to him, "How do you know about that?"

"Now now, French Fry," a calm and deeper voice said with a southern American accent. They turned to see a man walking down a flight of stairs to meet them. He was just a bit shorter than the rest of the group but wore overalls, boots, and a yellow hard hat. He carried what looked like a shotgun with him and pointed it at Ex.

"That isn't how we treat guests," he said as he pulled the trigger, narrowly missing Ex's head and hitting the Spy in the shoulder. They turned around just in time to see the being's outfit completely change from red to blue in a smoke cloud. Ex sighed and looked at the guy with the shotgun.

"And you must be…" he was cut off.

"Yes buddy," he said, "I'm the engineer. And I'm engihere."

He chuckled at the joke he made and walked up the stairs, waving the group up with him. They followed closely behind as they followed them to where their spawn was. They were told to wait outside for a moment as the doors opened to a cacophony of noise only for it to shut and the noises to cease. Skye took the time to rest and think.

"That was interesting," she commented.

"Yeah," Ex said, sitting on a small hill of hay a short bit away.

"Who are they?" she asked, "'Cause you seem to know damn well who they are."

"They're mercenaries," Chesh replied, "Hired guns."

Crystal nodded, "They are mildly dangerous, but two of them have some great knowledge we can use."

"What does that mean?" Skye asked.

"Well, the one we just found could help with Colinnes problem," Ex said, "And, with some of their tools and gadgets, we could turn the tides of plenty of fights."

Skye shrugged as she didn't care about anything at the moment, preferring to wait until something interesting happened. They didn't talk much until the Engineer walked out of the spawn room followed by a couple of other mercenaries. Some were similarly sized like the Spy they had seen before while others were taller, bigger, smaller, and stronger than the others. Noticeably, the one standing adjacent to the Engineer. He was a hulking figure compared to Engie, taller and stronger than everyone around him. He had no facial hair at all, nor any hair at all. He looked at Ex and Skye and immediately pointed at them.

"Which one of you asked for him?" he asked in a Russian accent. He pointed to Engie and Ex shakily raised his hand.

"That would be me," he said, his attitude completely changing from confident to shakier.

"Alright," he softly said, "I am Heavy weapons guy. And this…"

He suddenly pulled up a large seven-barreled machine gun and aimed it at Ex, who immediately stood up in response.

"...is my weapon."

He instantly revved his gum up with an electric whirl. He pointed it up to the sky and he stopped instantly. He began to laugh as the gun was laid down on the wood below. Ex sighed in relief, knowing he was safe as Heavy was just toying with him.

"What the shit?!" Skye said, "What was that for?!"

"Just a joke, lad," a mother mercenary said, this one Scottish, "Take it easy."
"Now, again, who are you?" Engie asked. Ex groaned as he stood up in slight pain.

"My name…" he paused to think, wondering if they were either Spies or Crystalites. He just was confused about who to trust at the moment. He continued, "...Call me Ex."

"That's a heaping pile o' piss, mate," the Australian said. He wore a swamp-style hat and he carried a long-barreled sniper rifle.

"I'm Crystal and this is Cheshapeek," he said.

"And why don't you reveal your name now, son?" Engie asked. Chesh stood up to Engie and smiled.

"And how do we know you aren't spies?" Chesh asked confidently. Engineer stood there for a moment before chuckling.

"You fellas are good," he said, "Fine, we'll keep it this way. Why have you come to our humble abode here in 2Fort?"

"We're looking for someone with your expertise," Ex said, "Plus, we would like to ask for your assistance against a common threat."

"What? Robots?" a shorter guy asked, approaching Ex, "We do that for a livin'! How do you even try to…"

He didn't finish as Ex reeled back and punched him in the jaw, knocking him off of his feet and having him land on his back, holding his lower face in pain. He rolled on the ground for a moment and then stood up as he stumbled backward. Spy softly chuckled and Heavy and Demoman began laughing loudly.

"You got some spirit, bud," Engie said, giving his hand to shake, "What do you need?"

As if on cue, a loud stomping sound approached from outside the base, around the bridge area. Immediately, Sniper races out to the balcony without a single remark. Engie and Ex stopped shaking hands and they walked out just in time to hear Sniper scream and him to be slid across the floor in front of them.

"Incoming!" he shouted as he ran behind them. They looked out to see a larger Crystalite beast that hand jumped at Sniper, trying to kill him. It was just a bit taller than heavy and it had a green tint and Crystal look to it. Its hands were claw-like and its face was filled with sharp outward facing teeth.

Immediately, Ex tried to run back as Engie used his shotgun to fend the thing off. He ultimately failed as the thing swung at him, knocking him to where Heavy was. Heavy then cried out as he revved his gun and began firing at the thing. The wood behind it splattered in black ooze and it flinched backward trying to stop the bullets, only managing to jump into the balcony and what sounded like a thud leading to the other base. Engie felt himself go full quiet as Ex ran up to meet him.

"That's our pest problem," Ex said in between breaths. Engie looked at his group, who were all smiling, and then back to Ex.

"When do we start?"


Colinne has been getting calls left and right about what had happened, from reporters to friends to police and military personnel. She felt the stress of it all weighing in on her, but she had experienced this type of thing before, as she had been under this large amount of stress before. She sighed as she laid her head down to rest. She felt herself doze off to sleep as the world around her faded to black.

She woke up sometime later to the sound of beeping. She drowsily looked over to see the laptop screen slowly flashing green. She hoisted herself onto her arms and legs as she walked over to the computer. Her mind felt blank and numb due to her overworking herself in almost every single way she could see. She sighed as she brought the computer in front of her only to see a full bar of what looked like data being uploaded to the laptop. She quickly turned around to see a figure standing at her desk, seemingly looking something over. She was hesitant to scream until she saw multiple things happening around her, from objects flying to curtains being pulled and even sparks from welding. As she stood up, a hand planted itself on her shoulder. She spun around to see Ex and May standing behind her, smiling.

"What is happening?" she asked.

"Simply put?" Ex said, "We are helping you put this all back together."

She looked around for a moment then back to the duo, "How?"

"We got some engineering pros to help," Mat said, "Not bad, huh?"

She couldn't help but smile, "Yeah. Not bad."

They were quiet for a moment before Colinne realized something.

"Wait, you all did this while I was asleep?" she asked.

"Yeah, you slept for like twelve hours or something," Ex said as he paced around looking at his watch.

"Jeez," she said, "Haven't slept like that for a while."

"Well, after all of this, I'm going to look for something," Ex said, "Something that belongs to me."

"Wait, where's everyone else?" she asked Mat. He shrugged.

"You just missed them," he said, "They went up to the lounge to rest. Most of us have been working around the clock."

"Well then," she said, "Let's see how their days went."

"Alright, Ex," Mat shouted over the sudden loud noises, "How long and who are you taking?"

"Well, I need to do some research first," he shouted back, "Then I'll start thinking about that!"

Mat and Colinne walked through the lab, talking over the loud noises and the screeching of metal. The conversations shifted from thanks to what they were building and introductions. They were talking to most of the people as they approached where the lounge was, which didn't seem to have changed a bit. She saw most of the group there all except for Mark and Ian, who were making sure that everyone and everything was working smoothly. The room was bustling as she arrived, almost everyone was there plus some new faces. She smiled at all of them and sat down with Mat and Steph. She was near speechless, as she saw that her life was not just being rebuilt, but restructured in some of the best ways possible.

"So, how are you?" Steph asked.

"Great, you?" she replied. Steph sighed.

"Fine, just learning new things every minute," she said, "A tutorial would be nice right now."

Mat chuckled, "You're telling me."

"What did you find out?" Colinne asked curiously.

Mat sighed, "Well, there was a letter that I found on the laptop Ex has right now. Well, it wasn't a letter, more like a scientific document. It had research evidence from multiple worlds, talking about their cultures and abilities. For example, there is, well, there was a culture of people that relied on a form of teleportation they called sado wakr. People translated it to the shadow waltz, where the being basically turns themselves into a shadow form to teleport to a selected location. The practice, however, ended when their tribe suddenly disappeared and was never seen again."

"If that isn't enough, how about this: a group of mutated beings that had increased muscle density, giving them a strength boost unlike anything else we've seen. It was said that the gene was lost years ago, and only a few know who is the last bearer of the gene."

"Well," she said, "That is interesting."

"Yeah…" He paused as Ex walked into the room with a small smile on his face. Mat stood to greet him as he began talking to Vanoss and Crystal. They laughed about something happening downstairs while he approached them and they quieted down as he approached.

"Any news?" Mat asked. Ex nodded.

"For some reason, I didn't recall my steps enough," Ex said, "Because it turns out, in Zootopia while I was chasing the Crystalite, I did have my phone before then. The thing is, I never checked afterward."

"Maybe it was because you had a bullet in your shoulder," Skye said as she walked down the hall. Ex chuckled and Mat smiled.

"Made friends?" Mat asked. Ex nodded.

"Yeah," he said, "It's kinda weird but nice to meet these people and, you know, converse."

"I can see that." Mat turned on his heel as he spoke and walked over to the counter to get some water. He watched as Ex walked over to Sean and Engie to talk and Colinne followed behind Mat. He quickly filled a foam cup with water and drank from it as he looked to Colinne then suddenly to his watch. He looked up and to Ex again.

"Wait," he said, "Ex, when does that party start?"

Colinne was confused and so was Ex, "The one for the Cyberpunk guy?"

"Yep."

"It should start at around…" He didn't finish as he looked at his watch and then back to Mat.

"Half an hour," he said. Mat placed his cup on the counter and looked to the group and Colinne.

"Sorry if this is too fast for you," he told her. She shook her head chuckling.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked, "This is great! This is the equivalent of everything I've been working for and more! I'll be glad to help you guys."

Mat smiled and nodded, "Well then, it's showtime."


The night sky was lit up with city lights and spotlights beamed up like light cones into the starless night. The city was celebrating something that resembled their independence day, though it was a lot more complicated. They didn't need information about that, however, they just needed info on one guy. A one, Louis Marxis, head, and creator of StimTech, where they create things like vaccines, medical supplies, and military support machines, which was out of the ordinary in most people's eyes. But, they didn't question it, although they should've.

They approached from behind the building, where there was a miniature park-like area, with grass, pathways, and ponds of clean-looking water. People crowded around the seats and tables strewn about the park and the talking was so loud, it was nearly impossible to hear themselves speak just outside. Surrounding it was a large Roman-style archway circling around the park. Behind it was the twenty-story building shining in the lights of the party.

Felix, Mark, and Evan approached the first trio, having a tech-noir-style look to them. Felix and Mark wore dark black trench coats and classy shoes and pants. Evan, on the other hand, went for a more classy look. He wore a classy vest with a clip-on tie and pants that went down to his ankles. Finally, to complete the look, he wore casual shoes that matched his attire. They all wore a type of makeup to look like wires crawled up their faces and lit up like neon lights. The guards quickly let them through as more and more people kept coming.

Behind them, as they quickly followed were Ex, Joe, and Mat. Each of them wore similar-looking suits and similar face makeup to the others. They talked with each other, pretending to be relatives visiting the party. They just as quickly led it and they met with the others to talk.

"What's the plan now?" Joe asked.

"We get to Marxis. Plan and hopefully simple," Ex said, his voice a soft shout in the ocean of voices. Felix nodded and brought a fake phone up to his ear, hiding his coms.

"Everyone in position?" he asked, waiting for replies.

"How do we look?" Ian's voice came through. They looked up at the building across the street and saw a glimmer of light bounce down at them. Up there, Ian, Skye, Gaijin, and Steph stood there for overwatch and would try to help them get to the building.

"Colinne?" Mat asked.

"Present," she said confidently. She was going to be helping to move guards out of the way and leading them to a good spot to meet Marxis, hopefully. The stress was palpable and they knew it. This was their first step to getting home. They missed this, it was going to go all downhill from there.

"Alright, let's motivate." Ex led the group through the folly of people, pushing a scrambling to make sure they didn't separate themselves or make themselves noticeable. To the rest, they were just your average group of video gamers at a party.

Meanwhile, Ian focused on the group through binoculars and tried whenever possible to push them in the right direction and not put them in danger. Though, at the moment, they weren't in much trouble. He placed the binoculars down on the building wall and asked OBIS to watch and notify him when something happened. He sighed and he looked to everyone else beside him and gave a thumbs up. He sat beside the binoculars to make sure he can be ready for everything. Gaijin sat beside him while Skye and Steph sat across from them. They were quiet for a moment, letting the waves of noise wash over them for a few moments before Skye broke the silence.

"So, you're military personnel?" she asked, motioning to Ian. Ian sighed.

"Yes, Air Force," he said simply. Skye nodded.

"So you know what hardship is?" she asked.

Ian shook his head in confusion, "No. I never fought. Why are you asking this?"

"Curiosity," she said, "You people are a little different than the rest."

"Why do you say that?" Gaijin asked in a tone of anger and confusion, "Plus, how do you know that anyway?"

"Ex told me," she said, noticing their attention shifting at that comment.

Ian chuckled, "He watched my videos."

"He watches most of your guys' videos," she said.

"You seem to trust him a lot," Steph said, her voice instead calmer than the rest, "What's the deal?"

"Tried to convince me that you guys weren't as bad as I thought you were," she said, "We're currently testing that."

"Well, hope this helps," Steph said, smiling a bit and trying to seem friendly.

"What are you guys?" she asked Steph and Gaijin. They chuckled.

"Online Teachers basically," Gaijin chuckled.

"You're not wrong," Ian and Steph said simultaneously.

"By the way," Ian said, changing the topic, "Have you learned any of their names?"

Skye shook her head, "Didn't say and chose not to ask."

"Hey, guys," Evan's voice pierced through the coms, "We need some help."

Ian quickly grabbed the binoculars and looked through the crowd in search of the rest. After searching for a couple of seconds, he saw Ex and Joe standing at the entrance to the building while Evan and Brian were to the left side of the park and Mark and Felix have split apart in the middle. Mark was being pulled in one direction by random people while Felix was blindly avoiding him. Ian groaned as he made a choice.

"Evan, you and Brian go assist Mark and Felix," he said, "Cause a distraction to take their eyes off of Ex and Joe. You guys get in there and Colinne will help you through the building."

"Got it," Ex said as he and Joe stealthily slid past the guards and into the building.

"Wait," Ian said as he saw Mark began to get beaten, "You guys might wanna hurry."

"Welp," Skye said, looking down, "Let's start a ruckus."

Evan pushed through the crowd, who had now surrounded the helpless Mark and another random suited guy who had grabbed him and started a fight. Instead of fighting, Evan could hear him trying to reason with him but to no avail. Brian had split off to try and find Felix, who was also close by. Evan finally pushed out into the crowd and saw Mark being pelted with punches from two other guys. Evans' heartbeat kept on rising as he felt himself approach the fight ready. Then, all of a sudden, he blacked out without any warning.

Mark was already sore and the fight had just started as he kept on trying to talk his way out of it. He looked around at everyone, who seemed to be either drunk or high just staring, laughing, and having a grand old time. Suddenly, two figures walked out of the crowd to meet them. He immediately realized it was Evan and Felix and sighed in relief. One of his perpetrators approached them.

"We're in the middle of something," he said, motioning for them to back up. Evan tilted his head and kept walking towards them while Felix hesitantly stood back. Looking closely, Mark could see the difference between Evan and Felix: Evan's eyes were now a bright yellow or brown while Felix still had his normal-looking eyes. The perp clenched his fist and walked closer. He grabbed Evans' suit.

"I said back up, dumbass," he said. Evan looked down and back to the guy. His hand seemingly teleported as he grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. The guy screamed in pain and Evan then kicked him in the back, sending him flying forwards landing on his back. The crowd of people went silent. Then, another guy got off of Mark and approached him. He pulled back and swung at Evan, who effortlessly leaned away and dodged his punch. Evan then chopped him at his neck, hitting the side of his throat. The guy suddenly jerked and then fell down face-first to the ground. He chuckled and spoke.

"You know," he started, his voice different than normal, "I've always hated people like you. Bullies."

"We're just doing this for fun," a deep voice stated. A larger guy walked out of the crowd to meet him.

"That's exactly what a bully would say," he grimaced as the larger guy reeled back. Evan jumped and, with a dodging somersault, kicked him in the jaw as he landed neatly back on his feet. The guy stumbled backward as he brought his hand up to his somewhat bleeding jaw. Before he could do anything else, Mark came up and punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. They looked at each other and Evan smiled.

"You can have your friend back," the voice said as Evan crumpled for a moment before regaining his composure. Mark looked at him smiling and he looked back to him for a moment in confusion, then smiled.

"That was badass," Mark cheered. The crowd went nuts and the two laughed at the absurdity of what was happening. Then, Evan remembered something.

"Wait," he said over the cheering and celebrating, "What about Joe and Ex?"

Ex's heartbeat was rising with excitement and nervousness. He looked over to Joe and then back to the elevator screen, showing that they were just on the 5th floor. He chuckled in both nervousness and increased excitement. Joe looked to him and then back to the screen.

"So, what's so funny?" he asked. Ex looked at him in sudden seriousness.

"Sorry," he said, "I'm just nervous."

"No problem, I am as well."

"Checking in, how's it going?" Mat's voice came through the coms.

"Everything is fine right now," Joe said. Ex nodded.

"Alright," Colinne said as she took the headset from Mat, "You should stop one floor below and then take the stairs."

"What's up?" Ex asked.

"Let's see," she replied. She was quiet for a moment before she came back, "Guards waiting at the elevator door, security checks, and x-rays, plus multiple cameras. But, the stairs aren't as heavily guarded. I'm sending you some outfits now."

As she said that, a picture appeared on their HUDs, appearing to be a classy version of a guards uniform. Ex quickly looked to his watch, typed in a few words, then flicked his wrist quickly. As they reached the 14th floor, their disguises finally began to materialize as the elevator stopped and dinged. The doors opened to an area filled with three other elevators and to their right was office space, dim and empty. They didn't have time to see any details, though.

The two walked to the left of the elevators and found the door to the stairs. It opened with an echoing creak as they began a short trek up the stairs. They then heard a pair of steps approaching from above and saw a guard look down at the two of them and then came down to meet them. He stared at them menacingly for a moment before speaking.

"Are you the guys replacing me and Dobrik?" he asked. Before Joe could speak, Ex spoke.

"Yes! Yes, we are," he said, giving a cautious smile. The guard nodded and walked past them and down the stairs to probably join the party or to stop the ruckus happening downstairs. The two looked at each other and just quietly continued to their positions.

They stood outside a pair of large wooden doors with dragons flying across the woodwork. They were almost two times taller than Ex was, but also seemingly as light as paper as they pushed it open. Around them was a neon liquid flowing into a river underneath a glass pathway below them. As they walked, podiums with metallic artifacts hovered above their flat surfaces, which reflected their underside. Ex looked at his watch, which he had tinkered with earlier to make it more comfortable and safe on his wrist. Its display showed a blueprint-style map of the room, starting with a long corridor and now entering the main office.

The room was big, about the size of a small movie theater. On the ground was a big black and red circular rug. The neon colors changed to a dim-lit warm color, leaving the room in a red and black haze. At the back sat a large panoramic window, giving a full view out into the park below. Ahead of the reflective glass was a large wooden desk and chair, in what looked like a charred black wood fashion, with cracks running down to the floor. They kept their distance from the desk while Ex kept glancing at his watch from time to time.

Suddenly, the watch began to ping something coming from their left. Ex looked up to see what looked like an ancient helmet of some kind, floating aimlessly above the podium. He motioned Joe behind him to follow him as he approached the helmet. The helmet was a mix of brown and green rust all over the front and back. It had the appearance of an ancient Aztec helmet. They stared at it for a moment before Joe gingerly grabbed it and rotated it in his hands. He looked inside and found something familiar: a clear white crystal. Ex smiled.

"What is this?" he said.

"A very rare diamond," a deep voice cut in. Ex and Joe immediately turned around, Joe holding the helmet closer to him and Ex reaching for his gun. The voice chuckled menacingly.

"Why the violence?" he asked, snapping his fingers. Ex knew that probably meant guards were on the way, so there was no time to think about what to do.

"Sit." The chair behind the desk spun around to reveal a large man sitting at the desk. He extended his arm and motioned for the two to sit down at the desk with him. Joe quickly obliged and Ex followed as they took a seat to two rising chairs from the floor.

"So," Ex said as he sat down, "You must be Marxis."

"Indeed I am," he said, "I believe that you are trying to steal something from me."

"Oh, no no," Joe said, his voice shaky, "This is just a misunderstanding."

Ex looked at him, fear in both of their eyes except Ex seemed to have that under control while Joe seemed like he was pissing himself. He sighed and looked back at Louis.

"Look," he said, "We just need one thing from this, find it, get it, and then we will be out of your hair."

Louis was silent in thought for a moment before leaning forward, "Who do you think you are?"

Ex smiled, "I'm Ex, this is J- I mean Stampy."

"Well then, Ex," Marxis said, "What do you want?"

"We're just looking for something," Joe said shakily.

He smiled, "Well consider yourselves lucky. I'm in a good mood today."

They sighed as Marxis talked again, "Whatever you are looking for, you can use it for a limited time. But, if anything is stolen, I will reign hell and fire upon you. Is that clear?"

Ex looked to Joe in mild shock, "Yep. Yep, can guarantee that."

Joe and Ex nodded as they looked at each other than at the helmet. They turned it over and grabbed the baseball-sized crystal and stuffed it in their pocket. They looked to Marxis and they gingerly put the helmet on the desk as they stood and walked out. They were silent on the way out until they reached the door when Marxis spoke again.

"Also," he said as Ex turned to see him standing up and cracking his knuckles. Ex sighed and looked to Joe for a moment before he looked at Marxis. He then saw his eyes and his heart stopped. Dark green eyes and a black iris. He felt his breathing intensify.

"You didn't think I'd let a boy and his friend up here without consequences, right?"

Joe looked back in confusion then to Ex.

"Run," Ex whispered. Joe looked at him confused for a moment and then Ex screamed.

"Run!" he screamed as he and Joe bolted to the door. A roar came from behind them as they slammed the doors shut and they bolted down the stairs.

"You got all that, Mat?" Joe asked.

"Yep, guess we shoulda done more research,'' Mat said stressfully, "Turns out Marxis is out on vacation right now."

"Well, shit," Ex panted out loud as they kept running down the stairs and into the elevator room they arrived in. Ex bent over to catch his breath and Joe quickly joined him.

"What now?" Joe said. Ex shrugged.

"I don't know," he sighed, trying to piece more words together. Before he could, though, loud thuds above them began to echo into where they were. Ex looked to where the office space was and pointed there as the two went to hide. Ex watched Joe split off from him and run to one side of the room while he ran to the other side. He quickly slid underneath a desk and hid behind a cabinet, watching blinking lights and colorful lights fly across the room. He kept panting but tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down as his adrenaline spiked higher. He quickly brought his hand to his ear.

"Hey, Mark, guys?" he quietly stressed into the coms.

"Yeah, a little busy right now," Evan said through what sounded like gritted teeth.

"Everything good?" he asked.

"Nope got one of those things down here with us."

"How convenient. There's a big one here as well."

"Wait, what?"

"What's yours? We think ours is a really big one."

"Um, take a look," Evan said. Ex shook his head.

"I would say send me a picture," he said, "But we don't have phones."

"Haha," Mark said breathless, "Where are you."

A sudden loud thud came through the upper floor as he stopped for a second and peeked his head out from under the desk. Then, a loud crash came from right beside him and he immediately ducked back behind the desk, keeping himself as quiet as he could. Finally, he broke.

"Help me," he whispered into the coms. He peeked his head out of the desk as the lights outside kept flashing in and out. Then, a large thud just beside him made him bring his neck back like a turtle. He felt himself get more and more hyped up as the thuds approached him. He kept breathing heavily trying not to be loud and noticeable. He kept himself planted against the small wall he trapped himself in. He felt his heart try to get the better of him, and it almost did, as tears began to flow down his face. Then, a loud clanking noise came from away from him, and then the thudding walked away from him. He immediately looked out to see nothing except the lights flashing through the window. He slowly crawled out and then heard the beast roar in what sounded like pain after a loud smack was heard. He stood up slowly to see Stampy kicking the thing just as it lunged at him. The thing was probably a foot or so taller than him, so this caught Ex off guard. This was ballsy, so ballsy that he wasn't surprised to see that his eyes had changed colors. They locked eyes for a moment and then Ex, without thinking, grabbed a chair, lifted it over his head, and threw it at the beast, gaining its attention. It reared back and roared before it stared at him for a moment. It was only a moment before a crack pierced the air around them. The thing shuddered, then fell to the ground dead from a headshot. Ex looked at the window for a moment then smiled as a voice came through the coms.
"You're welcome," Ssundee said. Ex smiled.

"Thanks," he said. He felt so relieved to have that thing gone. Then, he realized something.

"You guys realize what this means, right?" he said. The coms were silent then Ian answered his question.
"We have a chance at beating these things and getting home."


A/N: Another two chapters! Still working on the whole revising and continuing the story and, in my opinion, it's coming along pretty well. The part I'm writing (Part 11) is almost finished. Hope you all are enjoying the story so far and I hope that I can finish this before the end of this year or else it is going to kill me. Anyways, until next time, enjoy!