The destroyed city that used to house what looked like millions: Centerpoint. It was something out of a disaster movie: cars empty and some flipped, shattered windows, and dust blowing around the sidewalks. Lamp posts were bent, lights were out, and most of all it was quiet. Utterly silent. Not even the wind made a sound as light patches of dust and dirt levitated into the air and glided only a few inches. Buildings soaring into the sky and far-off buildings had some holes blown out of the side, surprising everyone that they were still standing. The concrete below them was cracking up with no maintenance and the paint was slowly ripping off. The texture of the whole place was something out of a 2D cartoon except cranking up the production value tenfold. The paint crackled under Felix's boot as he and Sean led the way through the deserted streets, listening to the directions from Tracer as they tried to navigate the area. Sean looked around then to Felix.
"This place is such a mess," he said, trying to start a conversation. Felix nodded as he turned back to the rest of the group, as well as Tails and Fox.
"Yeah, I guess," Felix said, returning his focus on the street ahead rather than the words from Sean.
Sean sighed, "This better be good. Or else I'm gonna-"
His words were cut off as he felt something under his boot shift strangely as if he had stepped on something other than flat ground. He looked down and lifted his boot to find something he didn't expect: a stuffed animal. It was a small brown giraffe plush with deep brown or black spots and its dead marble eyes. Stuffing leaked out of a small hole in its neck like a bleeding wound. Sean then looked around, its owner nowhere in sight. He hesitantly bent over and grabbed it, making sure the stuffing didn't leak out anymore. He held it up and stared at it, now seeing one side was charred like a steak on a grill. Its dead eyes now seemed to have a new meaning: behind them now sat the last moments of a young person's life. He couldn't tell the gender, but he could tell that they were young as he turned and dropped at the surprise of a small untouched part of the plush in the shape of a hand surrounded by the charred animal. Whoever was holding it was now most likely a pile of ashes.
"Jesus Christ," Sean whispered under his breath. He sighed and kept walking, realizing he had fallen behind a bit. He jogged up to Felix again and he tried to speak, but the words caught something in his throat, causing him to only leave his mouth open as if he was shocked. Felix saw and looked at him.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Sean closed his mouth and nodded.
"Yeah, just…" he paused for a moment, "Thinking."
Felix nodded, "Anything else we need to know, Tracer?"
"Not quite." Felix jumped at the sound of her voice which now came from beside him. He looked to see her casually dangling her legs down from a large pile of debris. The group stopped and she waved over the group. She hopped down to Sean, who took a step back in response and seemingly gleefully spun on her foot.
"You guys should seriously see this," she said, leading them past a pile of debris. Then, they came across a sight that everyone couldn't take their eyes off of.
Down a long street of bricks, like something out of a street, led up to a large structure that resembled something of a circular hawker center. A large entryway opened up into a huge room in the distance, but it was too far for them to see. The building seemed to be pretty sturdy for how damaged it was: multiple chunks are blown out, a small fire burning outside the big arch and piles of debris everywhere. Tails, who had hesitantly joined the expedition, spoke first.
"This seems pretty big not to find," he said, referring to the city as a whole. Tracer nodded.
"Yeah," she said, "I'm gonna have to agree with the two-tailed fox here."
Mat nodded, "All of this would be pretty hard to hide with a coat of paint or even a sonar jammer."
"And yet it seems to not be in their control," Tails said. Tracer shrugged.
"No green bots anywhere here," she said. The attention then shifted to the multiple buildings down the street. Each was a big building, something resembling a mixture of a food street or a small marketplace with a brick road leading up to it. They were colored similar to normal bricks and the concrete in between them sat sturdy. Dust once again coated the ground in a gray and brown mist. They were built into a semicircle pattern, each with a line down the middle of each and a half brick at the middle. It was an interesting pattern, but something most had seen before. Brian knelt and stared at the bricks, intrigued by something: each of the middle bricks had a deep red marking that resembled some kind of Japanese character. He stared at it for a moment before Evan tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, you alright?" he asked. Brian looked at him.
"Can you not see it?" he questioned, referring to the symbol. Evan shrugged at him as Brian turned back to the symbol.
"It's some type of symbol on the bricks," he said, extending a hand to touch it before retracting it. He knew that if only he could see it, that he probably shouldn't touch it. Plenty of movies and games had taught him that. But that didn't mean the world was on his side as he felt a hand grab his shoulder while also pushing him forward. Just enough for his still extended hand to touch the symbol. He gasped as he felt a chill run up his arm and then a sensation into his left eye. It felt as if his eye suddenly turned dry and he couldn't close his eyelid. It felt uncomfortable enough that he groaned softly in pain. Finally, he blinked and was blinded as his eyes were shown a blinding red tint.
He looked around, suddenly seeing the world was different. It was older, some buildings weren't even there that he had seen before, and instead, he saw blurred people working on grabbing bricks and moving them, except they did it in still frames. It was like rewatching a crime scene, he knew something was going to happen, he just didn't know what. When he blinked next, causing the image to change. It now showed the buildings all now complete and people roaming around as if nothing was happening. Again, it was a still image. He could see hundreds of people, some children playing some kind of sport while their parents watched from some type of coffee shop. There were more spots, such as restaurants and bars. He then turned his attention to a large building just outside the brick street: a building with spotlights and a humongous glass ceiling pointing up in a half-spherical shape. He blinked again to the final still image: an image of the buildings around him up in flames and people running for their lives. He spun around, taking in the amount of chaos and destruction. He then turned around to where the large hawker area was and saw a figure in the distance raising some type of energy ball above its head and it seemed like it was screaming something inaudible. Then he blinked again and the image finally moved as the person threw the energy ball at the ground, causing a huge shock wave that when he felt. It was large that he felt himself fall back and then he blinked once more. Finally, he was back and his friend's voices ringed in his ears.
"Brian, you alright?!" Evans' voice finally echoed in his mind. Brian nodded and extended a hand which Evan and Delirious quickly took.
"Yeah, I'm good," he said, rubbing his eye in hopes to make it less dry. He saw Mat sit in front of him, trying to help him. He then backed up when he opened both eyes.
"B-brian," he said, "Your eye."
"Yeah? What's wrong with my eye?" he questioned slightly agitated. Mat stumbled over his words.
"Y-your eye. It's… red."
The Irish stood at the statement, thinking he was joking, only for him to turn to Tracer and look into her goggles and see that he wasn't lying. In a quick glimpse, he could see that his eye was red. Not bloodshot red. It was red like something from a painted window out of a church. At the sight, he jumped back and his eye suddenly became moist again, meaning that it was disappearing. Finally, he stood again and Mat stared at his face for a moment before finally nodding to Evan.
"What happened?" Mat asked. Brian shrugged.
"Can't say," he said, "But I think something's telling me something."
Krystal couldn't help but think about what was going on outside the walls of her cell. Her mind raced with questions. What were they doing? Why were they taking so long? Were they dead? The questions nearly paralyzed her, and thinking about Fox made them even worse. The thought that he was involved in all this scared her. The team had faced plenty of foes, but nothing like the Crystalites. This was a different story altogether. The Crystalites seemed stronger, smarter, and more advanced in every way. What stood in their way?
"Those damn system breakers, I tell you," a familiar voice came, "They are fucking everything up!"
It was the Crystal King. He was shouting. But it wasn't in the same room. It took her a minute to realize what was happening: her powers were working again. She closed her eyes and focused on the conversation as if she were in the same room as them. Then, another voice came.
"Sir, we have the advantage several times over," the voice said, most likely another Crystalite.
"And how is that?" the Crystal King asked.
"Well, um…" the voice trailed off for a moment, "We have the prisoners, and they seem to deeply care for what we do to them."
"But which ones?" the King questioned, "Do I have to purge every single life in this prison for them to care?"
"N-no, sir?"
The king sighed, "I don't care who is helping them. Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives. I DON'T CARE!"
His shout caused her to jump in her bed, she sighed and returned to the conversation.
"Where the hell is Markus?" he asked.
"We believe he is with his family," the Crystalite said.
"Get him back here, now," the Crystal King growled, "Any means necessary."
"Should we use his daughter?"
"Any means necessary."
The Crystalite left her presence and the Crystal King wandered over to another Crystalite.
"Any signs of them?" he asked.
"No, sir," the Crystalite said, "Nothing about them recently."
"Good," he said, "What about their helpers?"
"Nothing so far," it said, "We have no signs of abnormality, meaning they haven't had any contact with them."
"Alright," the King said, "Find them. We have a small window of opportunity to keep them out of my life for good."
"What about Centerpoint?" the Crystalite asked, "What if they found that?"
The King was silent for a minute, leaving Krystal to question what was happening. His presence was there, but no noise came from him. It was as if he was pondering something until finally, he gasped as if he was holding his breath the whole time. Then, she heard it: screams. Loud enough that everyone could hear it. But at that moment, something changed. It felt as if something was off about the man: he didn't feel as alive as before. Something about him felt… familiar.
"I think it's working," he said, "Those lives down there are worth something after all."
"Um, in what way, sir?" the Crystalite shakily asked. The Crystal King chuckled.
"I mean in the battery sense," he said, visibly confusing the Crystalite and the vixen, "I mean this: combining the Vortex peoples powers and a bit of energy synthesis from the World Zero folks, something in my blood is re-emerging. My powers."
Krystal felt herself gulp. The Crystal King had powers. At first, she was shocked but then realized that she most likely should've seen that coming. A King without power isn't a true king, after all. She could feel something getting increasingly clear: Fox and the gang may be underpowered. Incredibly underpowered. Then, the Crystalite spoke again.
"O-oh, well then," the Crystalite said, "Th-that i-is wonderful news! Now those system breakers don't stand a chance!"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about them right now," he said, "I'd worry about getting more power into my blood and more of my abilities unlocked. Oh, and one more thing."
"Yes sir?"
"Find the one intruding on our conversation."
The doors burst open, sending dust and dirt particles flying everywhere as Ex slowly entered the room, gun drawn and darting around. He didn't know why he was first, but the adrenaline kept the scared feeling in his gut out of his mind long enough for him to realize nothing was there. He sighed with relief and spun around.
"The coast is clear," he said, his voice echoing through the huge empty building. The rest of the group slowly entered the building, taking in the surroundings of the building. The place was dead silent and dust kept flying into Ex's eyes, even though he wore glasses. He sighed as he saw that the place had no electricity and no lights turning on.
"Hey, Joe?" he asked. Joe jogged up to him.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think you could quickly run around here and-"
"Find the power? Was thinking the same thing." He finished the sentence and ran off in a burst of speed that almost knocked Ex over. He chuckled and waited as streaks of yellow lightning flashed around the room and even on the walls. Then, he heard a loud thud followed by what sounded like cloth scraping against the ground. Ex gritted his teeth, knowing what it was. Then, a voice echoed.
"I'm alright!"
Ex sighed in relief and then laughed. He turned to Tracer, who came up behind the group after talking with the Rangers.
"They're on their way," she said. Ex nodded.
"Good," Ex said, "I dunno what the plan is right now."
Tracer nodded, "Let's look around for now. Then we can find out what to do next."
The group waited for only a minute longer until the lights suddenly hummed to life, causing spotlights and floor lights to illuminate. It was blinding for all but a second as they began to adjust to the brightness. The room now made sense as they saw a receptionist desk just to their right and a huge statue of some kind in the center of the room, three holes drilled around it, meaning the building was about three stories in height. His mind wasted no time thinking about it as he and Felix took the lead. The two lead the group to a place filled with displays of weapons and images, some being levitated by holographic projectors. The images were of people, places, and events that have occurred. Each image slowly spun and had depth as if it was real and in the room with them. The images, too, had depth. It was like staring into a portal leading to a different dimension, which threw Felix off.
"This is trippy," he said. Ex nodded.
"Yeah, gonna get sick 'cause of this," he said, trying to make a joke out of it. Felix gave a soft chuckle and continued through the room. The room then opened up to a humongous hangar-like structure, vehicles, and planes strewn about in a display. Ex felt his jaw drop at the sight.
"It's like the Air and Space Museum in DC!" he said. He saw hundreds of different vehicles: jeeps, helicopters, jets, and even spacecraft from familiar media. Halo, Alien, and even Star Trek had an appearance with a decently large holographic projection of the Enterprise. To everyone, it was surreal and overwhelming, to say the least. Ex looked up, seeing a balcony surrounding the upper part of the hangar, knowing that it was the second floor. His attention was then brought to the sound of a loud hiss. He turned around and saw Tracer aimlessly opening a door to a very familiar car. A car whose doors opened up instead of out and its back had what looked like two boosters on the back. Ex immediately ran over to stop her from removing the plutonium from the Delorean.
"Woah, Woah, Woah," he said, stopping her from accidentally hurting herself, "That's plutonium in there."
"Understood," she said, disregarding his warning, "I'm just staring at this antique from-"
"The nineteen-eighties?" he finished, "It's called a Delorean. It was used in a very famous movie that I don't know you'd know about."
"I know it," she said, "Back To The Future."
Ex tilted his head in surprise, "Well then, ok. Then you know what you're doing. My bad."
She chuckled, "It's fine."
Ex sighed and kept walking around until Felix shouted, "Alright, this is cool and all, but I don't think this is a tour session. Let's get going."
Ex complied, jogging up to where Felix was before and turning around to see the group slowly following. He turned around, seeing Felix walking down the hall and making a sharp right. He jogged up and caught him attempting to enter another room, this one sealed by a door. From the looks of it, it seemed like something out of a bank vault, and above it sat a sign that read: For groups of up to 10 only! Ex titled his head in confusion for a moment before running up to Felix, who sighed as he tried again in vain to pull the door open. Ex ran up next to him and grabbed the door and, the two together pulling it, caused it to swing open. Behind it was a small room with TVs like something out of a laser tag starting area. The room was blacked out completely except for a small floor light at their ankle height. The two stood for a minute before the doors suddenly shut behind them, hissing as it did. Felix and Ex hurriedly tried to push the door open, but now it seemed to be locked shut. Ex then turned around and saw a small curtain at the other end of the room that had suddenly appeared. He slowly approached it and pushed them apart to a sight.
On the other side was a huge room filled with images, objects, and statues of people. Each image was two-dimensional again, like something out of an art museum. The room was huge compared to the rest of the museum as if a portal opened up and took them to a different dimension. Before all of it, a transparent holographic sign was plastered in front of the group.
Hall Of The Vortex
Ex stood and watched for a moment before he heard footsteps slowly walk by him. He turned and saw Felix walk away past the sign. Ex snapped out of his train of thought and followed the Swede. The two walked for a moment before coming up on a small description of a picture. The picture was of hands surrounding a symbol: four boxes, each representing something different. The box on the left had a feather, the one on the right had a stone, the one on the top had a small plant sprouting out of the ground, and finally, the bottom box had a human skull. The description had small paragraphs describing each picture. The descriptions read as follows:
The history of this image is rich with millennia of culture, ideas, and much more of these people of the Vortex. According to the lore, the boxes are meant to symbolize balance in the four subjects of power.
The feather symbolizes good, dropped from the pet dove of Mendilza, the Divine of good ideals and life.
The stone symbolizes evil, a particular stone used to defeat an enemy of Decoza, the Divine of evil ideals and death.
Of course, the skull and the plant symbolize life and death of the same two brothers.
The paintings here were drawn by an unknown scholar who learned of these people that supported the culture of the Divines, a group of people they believed created the universe and has a hand at one thing in life. It is unknown if this has influenced other cultures, as it was described that similar people were inspired by different beliefs. It is said that certain people could have resembled high religious figures, but texts have been noted to be incomplete.
Ex stood and read it for a second, constantly switching between the words and the picture. He then looked to Felix, who was somewhat confused about the text, and the two exchanged looks of confusion and awe. Ex then spoke.
"Well, this is interesting."
"Yeah," Felix replied quickly, "Is there an explanation for all this?"
"Um, maybe over this way," Ex pointed out as he walked in the direction of another large painting. This one was different in the fact that it showed faces of what looked like hundreds of people, each in a different colored tint. Some were holding weapons while others were waving their hands around with water, fire, earth, even plants encircling them. They looked at the description below and read the following:
According to legend, a group of remarkably powerful people called the Divines were the first being to roam our universe. Their goal was to create a perfect world for life and death. A perfect world for balance. The sculptor, Maratoris, had tried and failed multiple times to create a world suitable for the Divines to survive. That was, until his greatest creation was made: a planet with vast mountains, deep oceans, and changing seasons. He decided to name it after their word for balance: Eathe. That would later be changed to Earth under the guidance of others.
Ex tilted his head in confusion, not understanding parts of it. Who are these 'Divines'? Were they gods? What is going on here? He looked to Felix, who was most likely equally confused about it, and softly spoke.
"Do you understand this?" Ex asked. Felix shook his head.
"Not in the slightest," he replied. Ex sighed.
"Me neither." and attempted to continue walking before something caught his attention: a whisper around him. It was quiet, not too quiet that it was inaudible, but not enough for him to understand. It wasn't stationary either. It moved around him and he could hear what sounded like footsteps softly squeaking against the tile floor. He reached over his shoulder and grabbed his rifle, waiting for the voice to surprise him again. Then, it came to his left, to which he spun on his heel and watched a black smokey figure standing in front of him. Without thinking, he raised his rifle up and aimed it at the thing, before suddenly the smoke dissipated and someone else was standing there screaming at him.
"Woah, Woah, Woah!" Delirious shouted, trying to stop him. Ex sighed in relief and lifted the rifle over his shoulder.
"Jeez, man," he said, "You scared the shit outta me."
"Sorry, sorry," he said, the blood under his skin returning to his veins. Ex turned around to Felix, who had jumped just as much as him, was now calming down. Ex then chuckled.
"So that's what you can do, huh?" Ex asked. Delirious shrugged.
"If I knew how to control it," he said, seeming near breathless, "It would be great."
Felix then spoke, "Where's everyone else?"
"Oh, they'll be here in a second," Delirious said, "What do you need?"
Ex looked to Felix and then back to Delirious.
"Could you get Anahella on a call?"
"Um, alright," Delirious said, somewhat confused about the question. Ex nodded in appreciation and continued to walk in the direction of something that caught his eye: a large hallway filled with strange artifacts. The voices of his friends behind him drowned out as he focused on each object, each seeming to have a purpose. The hallway ended with a semicircle, making the end of the hallway look like a pill to Ex. In the center of the semicircle, there was a plaque of bronze. The description carved into it read:
The artifacts here are symbolic references to the legend of the Divines. After Omiteksiu, one of the five brothers of the group, was banished to the mortal worlds, he swore revenge upon his now once family. At first, the Divines paid no mind to him, seeing him as something they could deal with later. But when the issue pressed on, it became evident that they must do something about it. So, to combat it, they created weapons of godly proportions and gave them to only the best of hearts. Hundreds of weapons were made and given, but only these remain as the rest were either destroyed or stowed away. The remaining weapons now sit in this museum, waiting for whoever would come to take them.
Ex tilted his head and then turned around to look at the artifacts. Each was contained in a glass box, some paired up with others for convenience while others were placed very intentionally. Even though the place had been empty for who knows how long, each one still seemed to be in pristine condition: no rust or rotting, no dust, no dirt or bugs, and no signs of decay of any sort. He slowly walked past each one, observing each one closely. He was able to walk past about four before the group slowly caught up to him. Ex sighed in confusion at the situation.
"There is so much stuff here," he said, "And darn do I miss having a tour guide."
"I concur," Felix said, stepping forward, "What now?"
Ex shrugged, 'I guess we wait for Anahella."
Felix sighed as people began to disperse around the room. Ex met up with Chesh and Crystal, who started to talk to each other. Felix, however, could see some discomfort in between Chesh and Ex. But before he could think about it more, something caught his attention: a small, melodic humming. He spun around, trying to find the direction of the sound. He walked backward, the sound becoming softer and softer, then forward, causing the sound to strengthen in volume. Finally, he walked past some artifacts, and then the sound began to decrease in volume. He stopped and retraced his steps until the volume hit its peak and he looked around until he found the source: a small box containing a long rectangle that resembled a bandage cloth. The cloth was a clean pair of bandages about a foot long and colored in a light blue aesthetic. He tilted his head as suddenly, the humming stopped, replaced by a soft whispering voice giving commands.
"Take the ribbon."
The three words echoed in his mind as suddenly other voices started to whisper as well, like the first one called upon them. Then, they began to repeat those words, chanting them silently. Before long, they then began to increase their volume, like something out of a football stadium. He tried to cover his ears to the noise but to no avail as they only strengthened their resolve until finally, Felix felt his body move on its own. He raised a hand up and brought it down on the glass exhibit, causing it to shatter to the ground. The voices suddenly stopped and he turned around, showing that he had little control over what happened. Then, he felt something add pressure from his palms down a little ways past his wrists. He looked back and saw the bands suddenly levitating and wrapping around his arms all the way down to his bent arm. It then began to shift around like a snake constricting its prey. It felt somewhat painful for Felix up until the pressure lifted and the bands stayed in place. Finally, it gave a small hum as it slowly switched from a light blue to a red similar to a pink and black from his wrists up. Then it stopped, the bands now seemingly molded onto his skin. The panic finally began to sink in as he grabbed the bandage and attempted to rip it off his skin, but to no avail.
"Why won't these come off?!" he said, the panic finally starting to take over him as he felt his heart rate increase dramatically. Sean ran over and grabbed the thing, but quickly had the same problem.
"They won't budge," he said, trying one last time to pull the bandage off, only for it to return to its normal place and flinging Sean backward into another exhibit, causing it to tip over and shatter like the last one. This one, however, was slightly bigger than the last one: the one he knocked over was a tall staff and a pair of leather gloves. Though the staff gave off a bright yellow glow and the gloves gave off a deep purple glow. The gloves then levitated, as if possessed by a spirit, and then flew towards the three teens, who all raised their hands to protect their faces. The gloves then stopped and quickly slipped onto Chesh's hands. He looked at them for a moment before gripping his left wrist in pain, shouting something unintelligible.
Meanwhile, the staff shot towards Beth, who instinctively grabbed it, not anticipating the force behind it, however. She felt her arm be pushed backward and then her body flung backward into another display, causing it to topple over and send down another object: this time two pairs of bracelets. One had a yellow and black glow while the other had a dark black tint. At the same moment, the bracelets Anahella had given Mark appeared back on his wrists, only for them to unlock and fall off and the other bracelets locked onto his wrists, causing him to swing his arms back and then forward, holding them in front of him in shock. Finally, the other pair latched onto Evan's bare wrists and slid him back a little bit, slightly pushing the thing over. Immediately, Crystal ran over and grabbed it, stopping it from toppling over. The group stood in silence for a moment before all of a sudden, Chesh softly spoke, cutting the silence out.
"What. The fuck. Was. That?" he asked.
"If I knew," Sean said, standing begrudgingly, "I would tell you."
Beth looked at them and dropped the staff, "Alright. Can we please get out of here?"
The group silently concurred and they all began to walk out the same way they entered. But it was stopped as Chesh tried and failed to take off his gloves. The gloves suddenly pulsated on his hand, causing him to look at them and realize something: they were changing. The glove on his left hand suddenly began to mold around his palm and fingers, the fingers of the glove folding off of his fingers and onto his knuckles. The right glove, however, stayed nearly the same as before. Both then grew small crevasses leading up the front and back of his hand and up to his fingertips. He couldn't help but believe that the gloves were doing something, and he would soon find out what as the gloves began to shove his hands into different directions, meaning his arms followed. This caused him to spin around and lose his balance, causing him to tip over three other containers containing artifacts. He quickly apologized as another round of pulsing began. Sean was the first to comment.
"You've gotta be fuckin' kidding me."
Skye intently waited at the coms, waiting for a response from the group. After the Crystal King message, she knew something was different and happening as the group. The atmosphere was different: Ex was quiet, OBIS was quiet, the group had left on such short notice that it resembles clowns jumping into a clown car. She couldn't help but feel something familiar as if this had happened before. Then, her inner mind kicked in. No, they don't. They only want to get home. They don't care about you or the people here.
"No they do," she whispered to herself, trying to keep it quiet. She couldn't think straight now. Something was changing her, for better or for worse, she didn't know. It was all a blur of the moment, her thoughts melding together and confusing her. For a moment, it seemed like the world just stopped and simultaneously sped up as she tried to clear her mind. But then, OBIS dragged her out of it.
"Skylar," he said. She suddenly felt herself perk up at the name. She turned to the table.
"Please, OBIS," she said, "Skye is better for me."
"Very well," he said, "As I was saying, this might be something that interests you."
Skye approached the table and watched as a large city structure came up and a single red dot in the middle of the street. Above it, four other green dots sat just above it. She watched for a moment as if the things we're gonna do something, but instead they stayed near perfectly still. Skye then had only one question.
"Who is the red dot?" she questioned OBIS, "Because it's pretty obvious that the green dots are Crystalites."
OBIS sat quietly for a moment, "The red dot would be Admiral Markus."
Skye froze at the words, "Wha-what do you mean?"
"According to orders from Sean," he said, "The admiral may have information that could benefit us, such as schematics for the island prison, and, according to Mat and Stephanie, he may be doing the things he has done against his will."
Skye shook her head in disbelief, "No! If he's doing bad, he deserves to be punished! Let him be captured and taken! Killed for all I care!"
"But Skylar," OBIS said, suddenly realizing the error but knew it was too late to fix it.
"It's Skye you stupid robot!" she screamed. OBIS was silent for a moment before Skye sighed, holding back tears and an apology she was not willing to give.
"Skye," OBIS said, "I understand your troubles with the admiral, but he could be a key in returning them home. But what I can also see is that they do care about you, and are willing to assist you in any ways possible."
She shook her head, "I won't help a murderer if all he'll do is commit more murders."
Suddenly, the unexpected happened: OBIS snapped.
"Please stop," he shouted, "It's time for you to grow up and become the bigger person. If he is a killer, so be it. He will be brought to justice sometime in the future, but now, he can be an ally. So, and I cannot state this enough, GROW UP!"
Skye was silent for a moment, taking in what he said and how this was possible, "Um, how did you get mad?"
OBIS sighed, "It's a part of my programming to consistently improve upon my emotions and my software. I am a learning AI after all."
Skye sighed and thought for a moment, pondering the idea that OBIS was proposing. Would it really be that beneficial to them? Or would Markus just slow them down? She couldn't think properly now after OBIS' speech and the thoughts of the group. Finally, she sighed and turned to OBIS.
"Where is he?" she asked.
"The same city," he replied, "An alley down in Chinatown."
Skye nodded and ran up the stairs, flicking her wrist, and being engulfed by white light, and then she was gone. The room was silent without her presence again as OBIS brought up a taskbar, now reaching one hundred percent. The whole building lost power for a moment, but only for a moment, as OBIS returned the lights to normal and the table shot on. Now it portrayed a large building in the middle of a huge city: it was a large octagonal prism with elongated edges and the diagonals were much shorter. The roof was normal, except for the large circular shape on the top of the roof, almost like a sunroof. OBIS was silent before it hit him.
"The way home."
Sean reeled back from a headache as the group sat on a bunch of rubble outside the museum, contemplating what to do next. After another five minutes of flying artifacts and much longer expletive conversations, the group had decided to exit the building and wait outside for anything to do. Sean sighed as he grabbed the weapon he was given: a large war hammer with an iron head and a wooden staff. The head had a circle in the middle of the rectangle and a line twisting downwards until the carving stopped at the staff. He stared for a moment longer, then jammed it into the ground and landed off the large piece of rubble. Standing by him, Joe stood and watched as the group explored around the large building they had seen previously. From the looks, they had predicted it looked like some type of large octagonal prism, the diagonal corners being much shorter than the vertical and horizontal sides.
In the building itself, there were two stories of what looked like a mixture of quick food areas and guard stations. The place itself was filled with off lights and strange sail-looking objects strewn about the ceiling. But that all paled in comparison to the huge hole in the center of the room. The hole let in light from the sky but also burrowed down into what looked like the center of the Earth, though, it probably wasn't that deep.
Felix and Dave stared down the deep hole, trying to see what was down there, but to no avail. It was too dark, and they couldn't see anything. Felix leaned back and away while Dave turned his attention to the open sky roof.
"This is strange," Felix said, "It looks like they dropped a bomb through this place."
"I disagree," Dave said, looking to him and then to the roof, "The roof doesn't look damaged at all, it looks like it was carved there purposely."
Felix and Dave traded spots as he looked up to see that he was right: the hole in the roof was carved out of smooth cement, no signs of damage or anything. He sighed and stepped back.
"Well, that's interesting," he said, turning around and the two walking away. Suddenly, Felix tripped and fell onto the floor, catching himself just before he hit the ground. He turned around and saw that his foot was caught in some type of concrete hole. He tried to pull it out but to no avail. He sighed, trying to keep himself calm. Then, Dave knelt down next to him.
"Need a hand?" He grabbed something off his back and showed it to Felix: a pair of sharp circles with a small leather grip on the side. Both sides of the circle were sharp, almost like a scalpel. The metal shone a bright silver and the leather was a deep blue and with yellow stoppers to make sure his hand didn't slip and cut him. He inhaled deeply and looked at Felix. Both nodded and Dave brought his hand up and then cut the cement with a blue glow emitting off the outer blade. The cement cut into a near-perfect cut except for some small loose pieces in the material. Felix moved his foot and smiled.
"Thanks," he said. Dave nodded and put the weapon back over his shoulder. He extended a hand for Felix, who took it and stood. Then, a deep humming caught their attention as the two spun around to find the noise, realizing it was coming from outside the building. The two looked at each other and then ran outside to a sight: Mark chuckling with Ex. As he was holding a truck over his head. Felix felt his jaw drop at the sight and stood there for a moment. Ex saw and laughed, waving the two over.
"You two gonna get your jaws off the floor and chat or nah?" he asked. Felix and Dave came over and watched in awe as Mark near effortlessly lifted the truck over his head. Mark tried his best to hide his excitement with a facade of confidence but failed miserably as he laughed more and more at the situation. Finally, he placed the truck down behind him and Ex, trying not to crush anyone or anything. Mark then near gleefully celebrated his actions.
"That was fucking insane!" he shouted. Ex was about to speak when he was interrupted by a loud thud followed by a softer crunch of paint. The group looked to see Crystal and Beth walking towards the group, Beth with a look of defeat on her face.
"How can you go so fast?" she questioned him. Crystal shrugged.
"I dunno," he said, "Must be a part of my powers."
Felix chuckled, "Were you guys racing?"
"Yep!" another voice chimed in. They all turned and saw Tails floating down to the group with a gleeful look on his face.
"This is gonna sound crazy," he said, "But Crystal was flying at near Mach two speeds while Beth was just short of Mach one point nine."
Ex made a sound similar to someone spitting out a drink in surprise, Beth simply gasped, and Felix and Mark looked at each other in shock. Dave and Crystal stayed silent, though their shock was clear. Tails then flew down to Ex.
"You know," he said, "You may need to make some adjustments to the suit if that's the case."
Ex looked at him, "Me? Make that suit? I'd fu- I mean mess it up and get him killed."
"I don't think so." Ex turned around and saw… nothing? He looked around again before-
"BOO!"
Ex jumped forward and extended a blade from his wrist, the blade is made of blue metal filled with glowing wires. It extended from the end of his fingers and grew what looked like three feet before stopping just before a hockey-masked figure. Ex sighed in relief.
"Don't scare me like that!" he said, trying to defuse the inevitable shit storm he got himself in.
"Don't worry," Delirious said, "That was fucking awesome!"
"Fucking?" Tails repeated. The group looked at him before Felix, Mark, and Crystal began to snicker. Ex quickly knelt down next to him.
"Don't say that," Ex said, finding it difficult to hold back his own soft laughter, "That is not something a kid your age should be saying."
Tails tilted his head, "That is interesting. Why is that?"
"Because it is a very bad word," Ex said.
"Then why do you say it?"
Ex thought for a moment, wondering the same question. Felix couldn't help but begin to snicker again.
"Because… because it is a sudden reaction of fear or anger. Alright?" Ex said quickly.
Tails nodded and Ex chuckled, "Also if you say it and anyone asks, say you learned it from a random adult on the street."
Delirious burst out laughing, "No, say that it was from a-"
Ex disregarded what Delirious was saying, "Just… don't say it, will you?"
Tails nodded, "I won't Ex."
He said it with a puff in his chest as he spun his tails and floated away. Ex sighed and turned to the group before Felix looked at him.
"What was that you did?" he said, imitating his move he did to send a metal blade to Delirious's face. Ex shrugged.
"Dunno," he said, "But it became a lot better to control after I got this."
He grabbed something from his pocket: the artifact that flew to him. It looked like a wooded hilt surrounded by loosely put-on leather. The bottom of the hilt was a small spherical pommel and the guard was a flat circle that was between the hilt and where the blade was. Except there was no blade. The guard was flat, and there were no signs of a blade ever being there in the first place. Ex twirled the hilt around for a moment before stopping.
"I don't know what this is," he said, "But I really like it."
Felix sighed, "Can we get info on what that thing is?"
He was referring to the large octagonal building in the center of the city. Ex took a glance at it and shrugged, looking to the rest of the group for answers. No one else seemed to know anything about it either. Then, another group of people came running towards them. Tracer led them as they stopped just before the group. The group was pretty much filled with everyone else, but with another addition: Fox. Felix sighed.
"Where's Anahella?" he questioned. Fox chuckled.
"What? You're not happy to see me?" Fox quipped back. Mark chuckled.
"Nah, it's just," he said, "We're in a bit of a pickle here."
Fox nodded, "Well, your buddy Tails seems to know what is going on."
Felix tilted his head in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Come on," he said, walking past them and to the big building, "Let's see how we can help him."
The group entered the building to see Tails floating above the ground on the second level of the building. Ex watched the small fox as he kept typing something in and then nearly broke the enter key as he spun around and leaned over the railing to the group.
"What did you do up there?" Felix questioned.
"Simply put," a loud familiar voice boomed through the room, "He uploaded me into the mainframe of the building."
At first, it caused a small panic through the group, causing Ex to grab his gun and everyone else to jump into a ready position. They stood for a moment before Ex sighed in relief.
"OBIS?" he asked.
"That would be me, Ex," he said. A collective sigh was heard as everyone stopped tensing. Then, the soft sound of footsteps was heard as they turned around to see Evan running towards them before suddenly flipping over a waist-high piece of debris. He landed and laughed out loud in joy. Then, a loud rush of air was heard as Crainer and Ian landed next to Evan, Ian still in a trench coat, and Crainer now changed into a bright blue and green coat and jeans. Evan was in the same coat and riot vest he had been wearing for the past few days. Then, a more dramatic whoosh of air blew throughout the building as a scream of terror also ended. The group then saw Joe carrying Chesh on his back and Chesh near death, his face pale and full of fear. He jumped off his back and Joe sighed in relief as the rest of the group filed in, some with food in their hands. Ex chuckled.
"Save anything for us?" he shouted. Dan, who led the group, chuckled.
"Should've given us your order," he retorted. Tails jumped down from the second floor.
"Alright, everyone," he said, "OBIS is currently uploaded to the mainframe and is right now doing… something."
"If you must know," OBIS replied, "I am currently working my way into the electrical grid to see if I am able to give the city the power it had previously."
"Well," Brian said, "This is gonna be a while."
"Hey," Evan said, "We still have some things to do while we're here."
"Which is?" Brian asked.
"We still have to find out what the hell those artifacts do," he said, referring to the ones that had almost killed them earlier. Brian groaned.
"Tanks for the reminder, Evan," he said.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Evan asked, his tone now turning into a sort of mocking tone.
"I said tanks for the-" His mind finally caught up with him and he groaned as Evan burst out into a chuckle. He groaned at the joke Evan was playing and tried to ignore it. Before he could, however, Delirious began to chuckle which only brought on more and more soft chuckling. Brian sighed.
"Alright, alright," he said, "Let's get it outta the way."
Before any more words could be exchanged, a sudden thud was heard as the ground below them shook. The group silenced as the thud then was replaced by a deep whirring noise that seemed to be coming from below them. Then, the vibrations of the ground began to simmer, and a familiar voice came on.
"Sorry for that, everyone," OBIS said, "I just had to start up the main generators to get most of the electricity flowing."
As he said it, the lights around them began to brighten to their maximum brightness before finally adjusting to the room's light levels. Before long, the room was at a level to where the group could see the room around them fully. Dust particles that collected on the ground now flew aimlessly through the air around them. Brian waved a handful of it away from his face as others began to cough from the sheer amount of it. Then, OBIS spoke again.
"Now, the electricity should be running smoothly now," he said, "And we should be able to see something soon."
"What is this thing we will be seeing?" Gaijin inquired. OBIS chuckled as a loud thud was heard.
"We will witness something that no one has seen in decades."
The group followed the noise to the huge hole in the center of the building. While Tails was held back by Fox, the group was able to approach the hole and watch as deep below, a sudden gust of wind pushed upwards after a loud noise was heard resembling a T-shirt cannon. This sent something rocketing upwards: a cube-like prism that had square pieces of glass on all sides and the edges covered in steel. It flew upwards into the sky, leaving nothing else except the empty ground below them. Then, a voice shouted over the group.
"STAND BACK!"
It was OBIS. Commanding them to do so as Dan looked down into the hole and saw a bright flash of light and a hand gripped him and pulled him backward, saving him just in time. The room was blinded by a bright white light and the sound around them was replaced by a ringing noise. Dan turned back and felt his jaw drop as his vision quickly adjusted.
The hole was no longer empty. Now, a huge surge of white energy shot upwards into the sky. The sound was near deafening, like something out of a rock concert. Then, it sounded like the sky exploded as the group looked up and saw the energy flowing in multiple directions, five to be exact. One for each side of the cube and up into the sky to an unknown destination. The four sprouts of energy flying what looked to be north, south, east, and west, again, to unknown destinations. To the group, it was incredible.
Anahella tried her hardest to enjoy the silence of the forest around her. Of course, the bugs and the constant noise of cicadas were not helping. Also, the mossy rock was uncomfortable to the point where her aching legs were less painful. But it wasn't just that. Something in her stomach told her something was wrong. Something so big that she couldn't concentrate. It felt like something was happening at that-
BOOM!
Her eyes shot open as the explosion happened and she jumped up from the rock she was sitting on. Her eyes shot around her and then to the sky, spotting what she that she heard was the origin of the sound. A huge streak of white energy flying across the sky at high speeds. She stood for a moment and watched as a smile grew on her face, only for her thoughts to cut that short as she sighed.
"It's time, isn't it?"
Skye watched as the energy streak continued across the night sky and washed the city around her in bright light. Soon after, however, the light disappeared and the city went back to normal. She kept her eyes in the sky for a moment before continuing to run to where OBIS said Markus was. Her fur was now back to the way it was before: to the group somewhat 'realistic' yet still 'cartoony'. She ran down the sidewalk of the old world they used to reside in. She knew she needed to get to Markus before the Crystalites got him, but she also had another want: the lab. She wanted to see what was left of it at least. She sighed at the thought but quickly stopped at a sight.
She looked and saw Markus, standing outside of a police station. With a woman. The woman had bright white streak hair falling over her right ear along with her brown hair and green eyes. She was slim, but also looked pretty fit. She also looked worried. Really worried. The two stood as a police officer talked to them. Skye quickly ran to the closest corner and listened in.
"...And I'm sorry again, Mrs. Young," the officer said, not sharing Markus' distinct smoothness of voice, "But she is nowhere to be found."
A soft sobbing was heard as Markus spoke, "But… she has to be somewhere!"
Skye could hear it in his voice: the lie. He was lying about something, and to Skye, it was obvious. But it did sound like he was a good liar, so it flew over his wife's and the officer's head.
"Sir," he said, "We've questioned murders, kidnappers, even talked to foreign police officers for help. You told us about your friends in Japan, your relatives in England, even your brother in Malaysia, but no. Nothing of the sorts, Admiral."
He sighed loudly, "Alright. Angi, I don't know how much longer I can pay for this search."
He said that as the officer walked back into the police station with the door closing behind him. Angi sniffled.
"Markus," she sobbed out, "I… I want to find our daughter."
Skye heard the two pairs of clothing interact as the two embraced, "I know, I know. I-I just don't know how else we can do that. We're running out of funds, the police are coming up empty-handed, and I am right now working twenty-four seven."
She sighed, "Then why don't you sleep?"
"Because my beautiful wife deserves it more than I do," he said, the clinging of keys now being heard, "Take the car. Go home. I'll be right behind ya."
"Okay," she said as a car door opened and closed. Then, the rumbling of an engine was heard before it slowly faded away. Skye now decided it would be best to make her move and stepped out from the corner. Markus saw her and sighed.
"Why, out of all of the people, did you have to come?" he questioned. Skye took another step closer.
"Let's just say we have our hands full," she said. Markus backed up.
"What do you want?" he asked, walking away from the police station. Skye gave pursuit.
"We need you," she said begrudgingly. He chuckled.
"For what?" he said, "To use me? Like the Crystalites are doing to me?"
Skye felt her steel facade droop because of the words, "Excuse me?"
Markus chuckled again, "Isn't it obvious yet? They are using me to finish their conquest. Once the Crystal King guy gets enough power, he'll take over these worlds and World Zero. Ex was right, I'm nothing but a pawn."
Skye suddenly felt something in her heart that she hadn't felt in a long time: guilt and sorrow. She felt her humanity begin to resurface as she remembered something Colinne had talked about. Her family did not believe in her until she suddenly became famous. She didn't know how those two connected until it hit her: he was trying at least while her family wasn't. She felt a tear form in her eye but she quickly wiped it away before chuckling.
"I thought you thought of yourself like a queen or bishop," she said confidently, "Which means you have something to do with them."
Markus sighed, "All I have is a small bit of info on where they're keeping the prisoners."
Then, a thought hit him and he smiled, "But I do know a little bit about how we can get more."
Skye smiled at this, "Then we need to get you back to the base. Come on, I know a place where they won't find us."
After a long jog, they finally made it to the destination: the old Eden lab site. Markus was at first confused but didn't question Skye as the two ran through the now deserted hallways and into the main lab where she saw that the fire had consumed most of the place. Markus remembered this place and sighed.
"You know," he said, "I never meant to kill her. It was a last resort."
"Then why did you pull the trigger?" Skye growled.
Markus sighed, "Your right. I knew that if I didn't at least shoot one of you, I was gonna get in trouble. I meant to shoot above you guys, but after that hit from Ex, I was disoriented. Couldn't think straight. Couldn't see straight. Was forced to guess what was high and what was low. Guess I aimed too low."
Skye felt her fist clench, "But-but… then whose fault is it? Yours for pulling the trigger? Or Ex for hitting you too hard."
Markus sighed, "I'll take the brunt of that hit, kid. Ex was doing something that was right, but I got myself into this situation."
Skye looked at him, "You mean with your daughter?"
Markus sighed before walking around the lab, "Alright, here's the long story. I was set on an assignment by my commanders. The assignment was right after I had stopped a massive invasion of a pandemic from the outer countries. Took in huge amounts of vaccines, strategized hundreds of events that saved this city, and eventually led to me becoming a hero. An idol. Four medals, hundreds of awards, and the cherry on top: the accomplishment of meeting my partner, Angilina. My angel."
"We had a daughter, named her Celina, and the rest is history in my mind. One night, I heard glass breaking and my daughter screaming. Of course, I ran down to help her in any way I could. Only to meet that Crystalite. That one Crystalite with a strange outcrop on his head. They called it Hawk, and in his hands, my daughter was crying for me to help her away from the monster, saying that it came from under her bed. It looked at me and told me simply… he was taking my daughter 'off my hands' for a few days. Then those days turned into weeks, and now I don't know what to do now."
Skye listened intently as he continued, "Then, the Crystal King came to me with an ultimatum: do some dirty work for him, and my family and I are spared when he takes over. I've tried to hold up my part of the deal, but of course, that fucktard keeps denying me time to see her. So I've been trying to keep out of it, trying to stop all of this, but with your help, I could actually stop this from happening. Get my daughter back."
Skye sighed and watched from a distance as Markus slowly began to break down again. She typed in coordinates to her watch and grabbed Markus on the shoulder.
"Then let's go get this son of a-" She didn't finish as the roof above came crashing down above them and a group of Crystalites dropped from the sky. They then hovered over the two as Skye had a moment of humanity and stupidity. She did the only thing she could think of: grab her watch and undo it, slamming it into Markus' chest. She watched him disappear and he shouted to her.
"What are you doing?!"
She smiled at him, "Redeeming myself."
Ex stood, his legs barely able to hold his weight after the sudden wave of energy and he tried his hardest to gain a sense of balance. He stumbled over to the closest body to him: Felix. He bent down and extended a hand to the fallen friend. Felix begrudgingly took it as he held his head in pain. The two stood and looked around, seeing everyone else slowly standing in pain. Then, they looked to the source of the blast: the energy beam. It was now concentrated and being launched into the sky. The sound was now no longer deafening and the brightness was no longer overwhelming. It was like they were now looking at a huge television screen. The group now stood in awe of what was happening at that moment. Then, Dan spoke.
"Whoever saved me," he said, "I thank you for that."
"No problem," Crainer said, a few feet behind him. Dan stood and grabbed him off the ground. The rest of the group was in a small shock at the time. Then, Ex spoke.
"Why does this feel familiar?" he questioned. The group murmured in a sudden agreement. Sean spoke next.
"Yeah," he said intrigued, "That is one way to put it."
"Where the actual fu-" Brian cut himself off after seeing Tails begin to stand, "Where is Anahella? We need some damn info."
OBIS then interrupted, "It looks like the generator is also generating a small signal. It's getting to World Zero."
On cue, Ex felt his pocket vibrate once. Then, it began to shake uncontrollably as if a mini earthquake was occurring in his pants. He reached in and realized that his phone had tried to tell him about the notifications he had. He looked at the number of notifications: three hundred messages in total from multiple people, nearly a hundred missed calls from one person alone, and many more notifications from YouTube, Twitch, and Gmail. He sighed and read multiple messages quickly, all of which with the same idea: Where are you? Are you alright? Ex felt his heart sink at the sight. Felix stepped over and looked at the messages. He was about to respond when the screen turned back with a red and green button and a name at the top: Mom. Ex looked to Felix before looking back to his phone before hitting the green button and pacing.
"Hey, mom," he said shakily, starting off the call. The group's attention immediately turned to him as they heard the response from a woman at the other end of the line. Ex began to smile and tear up as he spoke again.
"Yeah, mom, I'm fine," he said, already on the verge of a breakdown. He continued, "Yeah, they're with me. We're all doing fine. Yeah, yeah. How's dad?" He nodded at the answer. "Oh, that's great! Is Lucas there with you?" His face turned grim at the response. "What? What happened?" He paused for a moment. "Yeah, got it. I will… I dunno." He then heard her say something that made him droop in what looked like sadness. "Yeah, what is it?" His body suddenly jerked in surprise before rising to confidence. "I will. You can count on it." Then, the line went off. She'd hung up. Ex sighed before Felix put a hand on his shoulder.
"Is Lucas your…?"
"Brother? Yeah," Ex said, his tears and shaky voice now being uncontrollable. Felix sighed. Then, OBIS spoke.
"I believe I can control this stream enough," he said, "To where I can teleport you to World Zero. But-"
Fox cut him off, "Welp, looks like it's time for you guys to call it here: take that strange Crystal guy's offer or risk your lives again."
Before anyone could speak, Mat spoke first, "I think we should vote on it. You know so that we aren't jumping in and leaving everyone else here."
The group circled around and looked at each other before Mat initiated the vote.
"Those in favor of staying here and helping, raise your hand." Surprisingly, Mat raised his hand first along with Ex. The two were then followed by Steph and Evan, but that didn't matter. They were woefully outnumbered. Mat sighed.
"Leaving here and going home, raise your hand." The rest of the group quickly shot their hands up and Mat sighed. But Ex was seemingly frustrated with this.
"Alright then," he said, "Guess I'm gonna have to go save my brother myself then, huh?"
"Ex, you're being irrational," Chesh tried to say, but Ex shook his head.
"They have your brother, too!" he shouted, "And I'm sorry that I want to put myself in harm's way for my own damn brother!"
Chesh shouted back, "Oh, I'm sorry that I actually have a brain and realize that we are outnumbered a thousand to one! We are woefully unprepared, we have no backup, and we don't even know where the fuck they are!"
"That doesn't mean we can't find out," he shouted. Felix ran in between them and stared at Ex.
"Dude," he said, "We just wait for the government to help us out and find them and we can-"
Ex cut him off, "But they can't! Why? Because it will be too late! By the time the government deciphers the way to use this thing, they'll most likely be fucking dead!"
The shouting match continued and they all tried their hardest to win in one way or another. Fox and some of the group join Ex while the others keep to the idea of heading home. The shouting match continued for a moment before Mark stepped in between.
"Alright! Alright!" he shouted, "Break it up! This is exactly what the Crystal King wants! Us to be separated and helpless."
The group was silent for a moment, letting all the thoughts of the argument seep in.
Then, Fox thought out loud, "Wait, what if the reason why there are no Crystalites here…"
Then, Tracer, who had joined during the shouting match, finished his sentence.
"Is because they wanted us to be here."
Then, the sound of what sounded like a jetpack came. The group looked out and saw the figure of Crystalite diving downwards towards the building. The group dispersed and watched as the thing flies into the huge energy beam and it disintegrated. The group watched as the thing seemingly was teleported to World Zero and, almost instinctively, Brian ran after. Then, OBIS stopped him.
"I can't track where the Crystalite went," OBIS said, "I wouldn't follow it if you want to stay with us."
"I'd rather be at home," Brian said. Ex stepped forward.
"I think he means the realm of the living," he said, trying to keep his eyes off the pillar of energy. Brian looked to it and then back to Ex before groaning.
"Shit!" he yelled. OBIS then spoke over the loudspeakers.
"I'm afraid…" he stopped to process his next words wisely, "The energy is not controlled enough for you all to use it. Yet, that is."
Tails nodded, "With a bit of tweaking, it could work."
Mark nodded, "How long do you need?"
"By myself?" Tails said, "It would take forever because I would need to reread the blueprints of this place and I'd have to be careful not to stress anything."
"But with help?" Mat inquired. Tails shrugged.
"Short answer?" Tails said, "A few weeks."
Ex sighed, "Welp, I guess that could get us in time to get back to school."
Felix stepped in and sighed, "Well then, let's go."
One by one, the group filed out of Centerpoint and back to the base. Only for a surprise to greet them.
Admiral Markus was standing at the table with OBIS.
Immediately, Ex grabbed his rifle and aimed it at him while the group jumped and tried to grab Markus, who scurried under a part of the table.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" he shouted. He looked around, suddenly realizing something else.
"Where's Skye?" he asked. Markus stood with his hands behind his head. Then, something dropped onto the table: Skye's black watch. That was enough for Ex to jump over the table and pin him to said table.
"Answer. The. QUESTION!" Ex shouted.
"Alright! Alright! Calm down, everyone," he said, his voice stressed out beyond belief.
"Ex," OBIS said, "Markus has agreed to help us in exchange for assistance in his problem."
Ex stopped for a moment and sighed, his finger achingly twitching at the trigger, "Fine! What do you want?"
Markus then spent the next few minutes explaining what he was doing in their base, why he was there, and, more importantly, why he worked with the Crystalites. He was sobbing in between and retold the events that had occurred just before he arrived. Ex looked to the group with doubt.
"I dunno," he said, "Seems like he's waiting for the right opportunity to tell us he has a tracker on him."
Markus chuckled, "Ex if that were the case, you'd all be dead by now."
Ex grumbled, "Fair point."
Joe stepped in, "Then where is Skye?"
"Most likely?" Markus said, "She is currently being transported to a pickup point."
"What's that?" Evan barged in.
"After they capture their target," he said, "In order not to create a scene of a huge green monster carrying someone away, they take the person via an undercover prisoner transport. They usually hide in large container trucks as I've heard most of their personal movements are near large bodies of water."
"Alright," Ex said, "What do we do?"
"Find their shipping label," he said, typing into the table, "They usually go under a pseudonym. Something like… aha! Everworth."
The container was a sizable one, about the size of three elevators side by side. They all watched as Markus typed in something else, causing the container to become transparent and show multiple figures sitting down inside.
"These things," Markus said, referring to the Crystalites, "Once they make it to the dock, it goes from a search to a lost cause."
"What about the place they take them to?" Evan asked. Markus shrugged.
"I only know what goes on there, not where it is," he said. Ex sighed before a thought popped into his head.
"Wait, what about extracting that information?" he asked, "Isn't there a way to do it?"
Markus nodded, "There is, but there is a specific code needed to access that information."
"Alright," Ex said, "Give me ten minutes and a batch of blueprints and I'll see what I can do."
"No need," Markus said, holding up a strange device similar to the screwdriver from Doctor Who. Markus chuckled.
"They gave this to me in case I needed to… well," he stopped to think for a moment, "Take some information for myself."
Ex sighed, "Where are they now?"
"If my thoughts are correct," he said, typing into the table, "Here."
Skye still felt her eyelids were heavy, causing her not to be able to look up. Then, something below her caused a sudden ripple to go through her body, causing her to finally look up and around. She saw multiple other people in the place with her, the light just barely illuminating them. She saw that it looked extremely dirty and gritty in style. This must be what Ex considers realistic, she thought. She tried to shout but felt something stop her mouth from moving. She looked and saw some type of muzzle keeping her mouth shut. She tried to move but felt her body restrained heavily as her wrists and legs were handcuffed together. She felt weak like her skull was the weight of a small car. After a minute or so, she felt something click in the muzzle she was wearing, followed by a sudden shock to her side. Finally, she was able to scream in pain at how tight it all was on her skin. Then, she heard more electric shocks and more screams of pain before finally a much deeper voice began to speak.
"You are all in the hands of the Crystal King now," it said, "Rejoice, and be glad you will be given an honorable death from this life and be brought into the new light of-"
Skye cut in sharply, "Yeah, sorry buddy, not interested in what you have to offer. You can just drop me off here and I'll be on my way."
Another, not as deep, voice cut in, "Yeah, same here, bud."
The Crystalite walked over to her, "You don't have a choice now, dear Skylar."
"Call me that again," she growled, "And I'll tear both of your eyes out."
"I'm not afraid, bitch," it said, "You're here, and no one is coming to save you."
Then, as if on cue, a sudden thud was heard. The Crystalite looked up and back to the driver.
"The hell was that?" it asked. The driver shrugged.
"Nothing seems different up here," it replied. Then, there was a knock at the door to the container. The Crystalite looked to the door and then to Skye, who smiled.
"You were saying?" she inquired. The Crystalite walked up the door, a rifle in its hand, and slowly peeked out the door, seeing the surroundings were basically the same. Before it could sigh in relief, a shout came.
"HOLD ON TO SOMETHING, BITCH!"
Skye felt the force just close to her back as suddenly the truck was flung from the road. For a moment, it felt as if she were in zero gravity, floating in the air. That was before she suddenly felt the truck hit something and began to roll over and over and over again until it came to a stop, leaving her dizzy and near vomiting. She could still hear one of the people in the container screaming from the ordeal and sighed.
"We stopped rolling," she shouted, "You can stop screaming now!"
The screaming stopped and the screaming person started breathing heavily before he spoke.
"W-w-we aren't dead?" he questioned. Skye sighed in frustration before the Crystalite came stumbling in.
"Stay out!" it shouted to whatever was out there, "Stay out or I bust a cap in these bitches! Don't try me mother-"
He was cut off by a flurry of bullets hitting him and constantly knocking back before black splotches began to squirt out of its body and it hit the floor. The screaming guy gasped.
"Oh my goodness!" he shouted, "You killed him."
"He was threatening you, buddy. You would've done the same." Skye recognized the voice even through the voice changer as she turned and saw Ex. But not in the way she thought. He was now wearing a suit that he was making: a blue, black, and white suit. The torso was covered in a vest underneath what looked like a mixture of a sleeveless hooded jacket and a bomber jacket. His shoulders had paddings and the suit kept running down his arms to his gloves. His legs and helmet were the only part that looked somewhat futuristic. His legs had metal plates surrounding a strange cloth-like material with blue combat boots and black and white accents. His helmet was similar to a tactical helmet she had heard of. Something called a ronin helmet. But the mask part was similar to what he had before: something that covered his nose and mouth, surrounding his ears in what looked like earmuffs, and finally had two vents at the front of his mask. He stood over Skye and grabbed the handcuffs and, with little effort, crunched them in his hand.
"Easy," she heard him murmur. She chuckled as she reached behind her head and fumbled a little bit before something hissed and the muzzle fell off her face. She smiled.
"You're late," she said. Ex chuckled.
"Had to revise some things," he said as he moved over to the three others in the car. The first one was at about his waist height as he stood. He wore a similar warm jacket like Ex but instead had a white tank top. His legs were slim and he wore slippers. She sighed as she turned to the next one he released. Before he could, however, another figure stood in the doorway.
"Move your ass!" Brian shouted. Skye watched him and saw that he had a suit as well, but it wasn't like Ex. He just wore a black jacket, black-armored jeans, and black stylish shoes along with a pair of sunglasses. Ex sighed.
"Skye," he said, "Go with Brian, get as far away from here as possible. More forces should be here any minute."
"Please hurry up then," a soft voice spoke. Ex looked to the man for a moment before releasing the female quiet female prisoner. Before long, Skye realized that the female was actually a dog. A hellhound to be exact. She watched as the white dog stood and stretched. She wore minimal clothing, only a strange top, and short shorts. She didn't say anything as she grabbed something and growled at the group.
"Got the portals ready, Joe?" he asked. A soft response was heard as freed the last prisoner. The guy stood and jumped around gleefully. But Skye couldn't see how his legs didn't bend. He was just a large square person with a cylindrical head.
"You guys are real heroes," he said, running out of the container. Ex ran up to Skye and helped her up. Then, Ex looked up, his eyes shooting around in his helmet.
"What are you-" he cut her off.
"They're here, come on!" he shouted, grabbing Skye by the arm and leading her out into their new environment. The bus crashed into a mall after someone pushed it with such force that it flew off the highway and into a decently large mall. There was a small fire, but it wasn't that big of a problem with the huge amounts of debris, dirt, and dust in the air. There were also glass shards scattered everywhere, meaning that it would be easier for the Crystalites to see them. Surely enough, she looked up and saw a group of Crystalites hovering above where the glass used to sit. They dropped down and stood menacingly, facing the prisoners.
"Those are dangerous people you have there," one Crystalite said. It jerked suddenly as a machete blade pierced through its shoulder. Then, a hockey mask-wearing figure appeared.
"Then you should be scared of us." His high-pitched voice began to cackle as the Crystalites turned and attempted to shoot at where Delirious was. But he was gone, leaving a small puff of smoke. The Crystalites tried to tend to their wounded soldier but were stopped by a sudden crash as a circular object hit them all, bouncing in between them, and then it flew past Ex and an arm caught it.
Mat stood up, shield by his side. His suit consisted of an iconic red jacket and a pair of armored blue jeans. He wore fingerless gloves and a black undershirt. His head was covered in an army helmet and a black and red balaclava that covered his face except for his eyes and ears. He breathed heavily though he didn't look remotely tired.
"You good?" Ex asked. Mat shrugged.
"Never better," he said. Delirious suddenly dropped from the top floor and to the group, his suit noticeably missing. Ex sighed.
"Sorry again, Delirious," Ex said, "Still gonna need to to a couple of check-ups on-"
He was cut off as Delirious grabbed him and pulled him to the floor, just in time for a bunch of bullets to fly overhead. Mat stepped in front as most of the people ran behind cover. Skye looked at the group, and only the brick guy seemed to be panicking like crazy. The shorter one seemed to just sit there sleeping while the other one sat there on her phone texting or something. She looked to Ex.
"Do you think they'll be alright over there?" she asked. Ex looked at them and sighed, grabbing her by the shoulder.
"Cover me!" he shouted to Mat as he burst out sprinting towards the cover, taking Skye with him. He bent down and Skye watched as they got closer and sighed with relief. That was until Ex grabbed her tightly and threw her towards the cover. She grunted in pain as she watched as Ex stood there almost stupidly. For only a split second. After that, he turned and braced himself as he was hit by what looked like a rocket. He was sent flying backward into a wall. She watched in horror as a small inhale of air was heard. She turned around to see the short guy standing just shy of her and he smiled. A toothy smile. Because he had no lips to hide his teeth. He was a skeleton.
"That looks like that hurt," he said. He smiled at Skye as he extended a hand.
"Sans," he said, "Sans the skeleton."
"Skye," she said, hesitantly taking his hand, "Skye the… whatever I am."
Ex groaned in pain as the rubble around him fell. OBIS quickly assessed the damages.
"I detect several contusions to your torso area, Ex," OBIS said. Ex grunted as he stood.
"Yep," he said, mimicking Iron Man, "I detected those too."
He stood fully and sighed as he felt the warm fuzziness of his extreme healing. Then, he saw the Crystalite load another rocket over his shoulder and grin as he did so. Ex clenched his fist.
"Oh," he said as the rocket came flying towards him, "Not this time. ALEXI!"
"Kid?" Alexi was just as surprised as Ex was when he extended his hand and another being entirely formed just in front of him. The being was a foot taller than Ex and was an exact clone of him as the eyes glowed a deep blue. It looked at its hands before chuckling and then sighed.
"Thanks, kid," Alexi says as he steps forward and grabs the rocket mid-air, "I needed this."
With minimal effort, Alexi threw the rocket like a spear back at the Crystalites and it exploded on impact. The fire grew for a moment before three of the five Crystalites stepped out. Though, Ex and Alexi took no mind to this as they were busy mentally cheering about what was happening.
"That was fucking insane, Ex!" Alexi shouted, "How did you do that?"
"I dunno!" Ex shouted back, "I just thought of you and what you would do in this situation."
Alexi chuckled, "You're way more powerful than the previous guys. Keep that up and they won't stand a chance."
Ex looked back to the Crystalites, who were now seemingly more pissed than they were before. Ex ran up to Mat and Delicious, who sighed in relief.
"Are you okay?" Mat asked.
"Never better," Ex replied quickly. Delirious commented in the conversation.
"Sorry to say this," he said, "But I feel naked without a suit."
Ex chuckled, "Sorry man. The only ones I was confident about wearing were mine, Mats, Brians, and-"
He was cut off by a loud explosion in the sky, something similar to a sonic boom. They all looked up, Crystalites included, as a red streak could be seen across the sky before something effortlessly fell to the ground and touched the floor. Ex chuckled as he finished his sentence.
"Crystal."
Crystal levitated above the ground like Superman, menacingly looking at the Crystalite group. His suit consisted of four things: a business suit in a deep red color, the following suit was his pants, his shoes, and gloves, a black color enough to rival the edgiest of teens, a pair of extremely reflective sunglasses, and finally, a red fedora covering his head with a black brim surrounding his head. Then, Ex chuckled.
"You excited?" he questioned. Crystal nodded.
"You bet your ass," he said. However, in the panic, Ex didn't see that the cover that once protected the four prisoners fell apart due to the close and sudden sonic boom. One of the Crystalites, however, saw this and took full advantage of it. It charged at Crystal, who effortlessly dodged him, but the thing charged at the four prisoners. The block man, now known as Emmet, screamed in fear as he backed away. Sans quickly moved out of the way, grabbing Skye and the hellhound in the process. But, it was able to grab onto his jacket and drag him along with it. Sans was quick enough to let go of both of them as the Crystalite smashed him into the wall. Or so it thought. When it hit the wall, he was shocked to see that Sans was gone. A soft chuckle escaped from the skeleton as he appeared behind the large Crystalite.
"You know," he said, "If you wanted to kill me…"
He didn't finish as he brought his hand out of his coat pocket and held it to the ground for a moment. Then, he shot his arm up, causing a huge white spear-like object through the Crystalite, killing it. He then looked back to the other two Crystalites, a blue glow in one of his eyes.
"You should really try harder."
Ex ran over and grabbed Skye and the hellhound, who both reluctantly followed. Before long, Ex looked over and saw Mat and Delirious trying to beat the ever-loving crap out of one Crystalite. But the other one jumped over and ran towards the three. Ex looked to the hellhound and sighed.
"Sorry, what's your name?" he asked. The hellhound grunted.
"Loona," she said. Ex sighed.
"Well, Loona," he said, "Hold on to your lunch."
Before she could even question what he was saying, he flicked his wrist and grabbed her by the shoulder and she quickly disappeared in a white burst of light. He sighed in relief, only to feel the sudden push of a Crystalite. He skidded across the floor and groaned in winded pain. But that all changed when he looked up and saw the Crystalite grabbed Skye and began to fly away. He jumped up and hit his ear.
"Crystal, they have Skye!" he shouted.
Without hesitation, Crystal jumped up and flew after the Crystalite. He caught up easily and grabbed Skye, trying to wrestle her out of the Crystalites hands. Before he could, however, the Crystalite wrapped something around Skye's neck before dropping her. Crystal immediately followed her before she hit the ground. Crystal sighed in relief, only to realize what the Crystalite did: it wrapped a rift bomb around her neck. Crystal knew that it would go off but still tried in vain to remove it. A thud was heard as a Crystalite was sent flying backward a few blocks away. Crystal sighed as he saw Ex approaching the two, running.
"Great, nice going," he said, congratulating Crystal on getting her back. But Crystal shook his head.
"It put a rift bomb on her," he said, causing Ex to stiffen, "It'll go off any minute now."
Ex sighed and patted Crystal on the shoulder, "What do we do now?"
Skye was the first to speak, "Let it go off. I can help from the inside."
Ex shook his head, "He's going to start killing people. I don't think this is a good time to-"
"Shut up," Skye said, "We need to find out more about this base and if Markus can get the info from the Crystalites, we will be able to know more about how to approach it."
Crystal shrugged, "I think we don't have a choice due to that."
He referred to the rift bomb and Ex sighed. Skye perked up and grabbed Ex on the shoulders.
"How can I trust you will come to find us?" she questioned Ex. Ex looked to Crystal, before back to Skye.
"Here's how," he said, taking his helmet off and revealing himself to Skye, "The name's Kegan. I trust you won't give this info to the Crystalites."
Crystal caught on and made himself visible before removing the glasses, "I'm Noah. I also trust that you won't do that."
Skye looked at the two before the bomb started to beep rapidly, "Fine. Just, be quick abo-"
She didn't finish as the bomb finally went off and she was teleported away to wherever the prison was. Kegan looked to Noah for a moment before Noah chuckled.
"You were as red as a cherry," he said. Kegan slightly blushed.
"Shut the fuck up," he replied. Noah tilted his head.
"Don't tell me you're falling for a furry," he said. Kegan shook his head.
"I'm not!" he said defensively, "That just caught me off guard."
Then, a thought hit him, "You tell anyone about this, especially Bill, I will kill you."
Noah chuckled, "I know, I know. I was joking about it."
Kegan sighed, "Okay."
"Socially awkward gang?" Noah said, extending a hand. Kegan nodded and put on his helmet.
"Socially awkward gang." The two shook and began to run towards the fighting. However before the two could join in, a familiar sound of a gaster blaster charging up was heard as the Crystalite was sent flying backward into a wall. It stood and chuckled.
"It's going to take more than tha-" It was cut off as it jerked forward and fell to the ground limply. Behind it, Markus stood, spinning the strange screwdriver device in his hand.
"How's that?" Markus quipped. He smiled as he walked to Crystal and Ex, handing them the device. But, instead, Ex cupped the device back into Markus' hand.
"Hey," he said, "I'll let you do the honors."
Markus smiled, not a mischievous smile, but a smile of confidence and pure joy. He turned around and sighed.
"Let's go get my daughter back."
A/N: Holy shit. This took a crap ton of time to write and revise. I don't know why I chose to make this so long, but I guess there was a lot of info I needed to add. Again, I hope you don't mind the wordiness of it, and you guys can still enjoy this. Thanks for the reads and enjoy the story!
