Chapter One: Spirited Away

Part Two

His name was Kal-El, otherwise known as Clark Kent. When he had fully recovered, Superman told them how he, too, had been ambushed by the ninjas along with his comrade, whom he called Batman.

"He's not going to be happy when he wakes up and realizes his belt and mask are gone," Superman said, glancing at him.

"Mask? Then his identity is supposed to be kept secret." Carin deduced.

Superman nodded.

"Then I hope we're not being watched." She turned her eyes towards the ceiling.

Superman did too, and narrowed his eyes as if he were trying to see through it. His mouth hardened into a frown. "Lead paneling…" he said quietly. He glanced back at them. Seeing Goku's confused expression, he explained, "I have x-ray vision. I can normally see through walls…lead is the only material I can't penetrate."

"Whoever planned this thought everything out…." Trunks said grimly. "Energy cuffs, because they knew we'd be strong enough to break out of normal ones…magic so we can't create ki blasts…and now lead paneling so you can't see through the walls. I wonder what else they've thought of, and for what reason…" he gazed around the room.

"I assume you've tried to escape," a new gravelly deep voice said.

"Batman!" Superman knelt at his comrade's side. "Are you—"

"Fine. I've been listening. Sounds like they've got everything covered."

"To answer your question, rii, we—"

"'rii'?" Batman interrupted.

Carin frowned in confusion. "Er…it means…I suppose the word "sir" is the closet translation."

"And you are?"

"Carin Vekina Darkstar," she replied, bowing slightly. "This is Son Goku and Trunks Briefs."

"Hi." Goku smiled and raised a manacled hand.

Batman inclined his head to them, then turned back to Carin. "You were answering my question, Ms. Darkstar."

"Mrs. We tried to think of routes of escape, but there are none." Carin watched Batman's blue eyes scan the room as she spoke; they took in every last detail. This man knew the ropes, and knew them well. From his expression, he had been in situations like this numerous times, and knew exactly what to look for. "There are no cameras, no speakers," Carin continued. "There are two doors – one leads to a bathroom, where there are no possible means of escape, and nothing that could be used as a weapon."

At this word, Batman glanced down at his waist. He swore, then clenched his fists and got to his feet, refusing any help. "The other door?" he asked gruffly.

"We don't really know where it goes," Goku admitted, "But the ninjas come in through that door, usually to bring someone new in. Don't touch it—it's booby trapped with electricity."

"'Ninjas'?" Batman echoed.

"The men who brought you here."

"And we're the 'someone new'."

"Yeah. I was the first one here," Goku said, "then Trunks and Carin, then you two."

"What are they gathering us together for?" Superman wondered aloud. "Do we have any connection to each other? Where are you all from?"

"I am from the Alvarunus Universe; I usually reside on the planet Layor. It's quite a distance from Earth."

"I'm originally from the planet Vegeta, but I was shipped off to Earth when I was a baby, and the planet Vegeta was destroyed."

"I've lived on Earth all my life," Trunks said. "But if you're from Earth too, it's probably not the same one we're from. I think you would have heard of us."

Goku nodded. "Yeah…we're not like other Humans."

Superman opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly turned towards the hallway door instead. "Footsteps. Someone's coming."

"Get against the walls," Carin said, walking fast towards one. "Quickly, unless you want to get thrown against them."

"What are you—"

"Just do what the lady says, Kal." Batman said.

And no sooner had they all lined up against the walls than their arms flew above their heads as the energy cuffs stuck against the lead paneling.

The transparent door slid open as the man in yellow and the blond haired man entered, carrying another man between them.

The newcomer, they could see, was not old, but battle worn. His hair was brown, and looked as if it may have been long at one time but was now cropped into a sort of military haircut. He wore a uniform that looked definitely Earthen; green, with four stars on each shoulder and a patch over one pocket that read "Connor."

After the ninja-men had laid him on the floor, they turned to leave. The one in yellow reached and passed through the doorway, but the blond haired man fell back, and made his way toward Carin.

She recognized him as the man she had smashed against the glass wall when she had first arrived. He had had sunglasses then.

He reached for her and grabbed her neck line, pulling her towards him.

"Let her go!"

"Leave her alone!"

Goku and Trunks yelled at the man, but he took no notice.

Carin swung one of her legs up to kick him, but he caught her ankle. "You broke my shades," the man spat. He released her shirt and reared his fist back. "Those were four hundred dollar sunglasses, you—"

"Enough." A quiet male voice commanded.

The blow never came, and Carin's foot was released hastily.

A young man stood holding the blond haired man's wrist. With a casual turn of his hand, the young man sent the ninja flying across the room, where he slid against one of the walls.

The man in yellow came tearing back into view at the noise, but came to a stop at the doorway.

The young man turned coolly towards him. "You could do better to keep your men under control, Scorpion."

"It will not happen again," Scorpion promised in a deep scratchy voice, bowing. He turned to the blond-haired man. "Johnny Cage," he snarled, "Get up and GET OVER HERE!" With the last words, he flung out his arm, and once again a rope with a barbed end flew from his wrist to coil tightly around Johnny Cage, who had only just stumbled to his feet. Scorpion yanked his arm back and Cage was swept off his feet toward him.

Scorpion's yellow eyes flashed angrily, and with Cage in tow, he left the room.

The young man watched them go, his face the very picture of indifference, then turned to Carin. He could not be more than twenty – in fact, he was most likely younger. His hair was the green-brownish colour of seaweed, and fell to his chin. His eyes, which were a brighter shade of the same colour, were framed by his bangs, which fell just short of his eyebrows. He was dressed in a simple blue suit with a white top, and wore sandals on his feet. "Are you alright, Mrs. Darkstar?" he asked.

"I—Yes, thank you." She was quite lost for words, which was not something that happened often. This boy had appeared literally out of nowhere.

"Why are we here?" Batman questioned when Carin did not speak.

The young man's eyes flicked towards him. "That I cannot say yet, Dark Knight. But all will be revealed in due time, I assure you."

"That's not good enough—"

"I see you found the cloths," the boy observed, ignoring Batman and pointing to Carin's bandaged hands. "I hope they are healing well."

"You left those!" Trunks exclaimed.

The boy nodded. "I did."

A small groan broke the momentary silence. The young man turned to look at the newcomer on the floor. "I must leave you now," he said, and began to walk towards the opposite wall.

"Wait!" Carin cried, and he halted. "Who are you?"

"All in due time," he repeated. As he reached the wall, he did not slow or stop, but continued through it, and was gone.

They were instantly freed of the wall, and while Carin and Goku ran to the wall the young man had just phased through, the others examined the new arrival.

But the wall was solid, and they could make no sense of the boy's arrival or departure.

Meanwhile….

"They're everywhere!"

"I KNOW!" the Marine roared. He aimed a punch at the B.O.B. as he ran by, swinging his shotgun into his other hand. The B.O.B. slammed into the wall with the full impact of the punch. The Marine shook his head as he left the battered B.O.B. behind. He really shouldn't punish them, he knew. The Born On Board crew, otherwise known as B.O.B.s, had had their ship, the United Earth Space Council's Marathon overtaken by the P'fhor, a race of Alien slave traders…which he, the Marine, had been called in to fight against. The B.O.B.s were basically defenseless.

And they never refrained from telling him that "they were everywhere!" He KNEW they were everywhere!

Still running, he shifted his shotgun back into his right hand and checked his ammunition. The WSTE-M Combat shotgun had plenty of shots left.

He glanced down at his thighs to make sure both of his .44 magnums were still strapped there, and cocked the shotgun. From the reading on his helmet visor's radar, there were P'fhor right around the next corner.

He pressed himself against the wall and edged along the side in order to get a glimpse inside the room. He ducked his head inside the doorway just long enough to see what kind of P'fhor he was dealing with, and ducked right back out.

It was a Juggernaut.

This gigantic hovering P'fhor was robotic and armed with two sets of rocket launchers and machine guns.

There were several ways to kill a Juggernaut, but the other ways involved getting closer to the P'fhor than he wanted. Shoving the shotgun back into its holster, he reached behind him and from the magnetic plate on the back of his Mjolnir mark-v armour, dislodged the SPNKR-X18 SSM Rocket Launcher.

He quickly loaded it, made it ready to fire, and passed inside the doorway once more. From his rocket launcher he fired several shots, straight into the three eyes of the P'fhor Juggernaut.

He dropped to the floor as the Juggernaut's own rockets exploded overhead, then looked up to see the damage he had caused his foe.

Sure enough, it had slowed in its constant hovering. He hesitated for another moment, waiting.

And there it was: the monotonous, droning beep of a self-destructing Juggernaut.

When a Juggernaut was damaged beyond repair, it self-destructed, hoping to engulf its enemy in its explosion. The beeping was to warn off fellow P'fhor.

Fortunately, it also warned the Marine.

Sizing up the space between the ground and the slowly sinking Juggernaut, the Marine jumped to his feet and as he raced out the door, made a few swift calculations. The blast would come in…eight seconds.

He swung the SSM-launcher onto his back as he flew down the hall, gathering speed at every turn.

Seven…six…

He nearly collided with a screaming B.O.B., but grabbed the crewman's shirt and flung him through a nearby doorway.

Five…four…

The blast would be heard all around the ship, and the impact would be felt in the surrounding areas.

Three…two…

He made one last turn and threw himself down on the floor.

One.

A resounding crash shook the room, and blinding white light flooded his vision. He squinted; the light didn't last long.

But just as he was getting to his feet, another, equally bright light exploded in front of him. He instinctively flinched, waiting for the simultaneous crash, but it never came.

Instead, he felt someone rip off his helmet and several sharp piercings in his neck. He reached for his shotgun, but suddenly felt sick and disoriented. To make matters worse, his vision was blurring.

As someone came near him, he swung out with his brass-knuckled left fist. He caught the stranger unaware, and he went down.

Something heavy hit the back of his head, and he sank to the floor. As his vision darkened, he saw several people above him. He didn't recognize any of them, but one thing was certain.

They weren't P'fhor.

"My name is Connor. John Connor, Colonel/Tech-Com, DN38417." The newcomer reported when he awoke. "Who am I addressing? Where am I?"

"We don't know any more than you, John," Goku said. "I'm sorry. We were brought here the same as you. I'm Son Goku," he added, reaching to shake a manacled hand.

"I'm Trunks Briefs."

"Superman."

"Batman."

Goku waited for Carin's voice, but it didn't come.

She was standing near the transparent wall, looking out through it, deep in thought.

"Carin?" Goku asked.

Carin stirred and turned to face them, glancing at Goku questioningly.

"This is Colonel John Connor," he said.

"Carin Darkstar." She bowed her head; he, from his seated position, nodded back.

Batman studied her. She was distracted; she had been ever since the mysterious boy had disappeared through the wall. However, her distraction seemed to dissipate for the time being. "You are Human, I assume." she said.

"What?" John asked, startled. "Yes…of course…" He eyed Superman, and glanced at Goku's gravity-defying spiky hair. "Of course I am….aren't you?"

"Only partially. Only Batman here is completely Human; the others are not." Carin turned briefly to stare him in the face. Her glance ignored his astonishment, but took in his haggard, young face, his tired, sharp eyes. She didn't know how many times she'd seen that look before. "You've seen war," she observed.

John sighed and lowered his eyes. "You don't know the half of it," he murmured. He raised his hands to run his fingers through his hair, but gave up the action upon seeing the energy-cuffs. He looked back at Carin, who was still staring at him. Her gaze was unnerving.

She seemed to sense this, and turned away.

Goku watched as Carin walked to the nearest wall and after a moment, rested her forehead against it.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently.

To his surprise, she quietly laughed. "Goku, are you married?"

Goku felt himself blush. "Erm-yes, why?"

"My husband is always asking if I'm alright." She lifted her head. "You just reminded me of him. What is your wife's name?"

"Chi-Chi," he answered. He felt a sudden pang in his heart as he spoke her name.

Carin nodded and smiled. But the smile soon disappeared. "Why are we here? Why us? What is so special about we few?" She turned to the rest of them. "Do you have enemies?"

"Everyone has enemies," Batman said darkly.

"Can you think of anyone who has command of…what did you call them? Ninjas?"

"Ninjas?" John Connor asked, bewildered.

"The men who attacked you and brought you here. You don't remember them?"

"No—they got me from behind. I thought it might have been one of the—" He stopped himself.

"One of the what?" Superman asked.

John hesitated for a moment, looking carefully at each of them in turn, then said, "One of the machines. One of the Terminators."

"Terminators?" Batman echoed.

"I take it you're not from the same planet I am either."

"We're from Earth like you – but you're living in an alternate reality to ours."

"This is deep…." John shook his head in disbelief.

"But go on." Carin said. "The Terminators?"

"Terminators…in…in my world, the machines have gotten smart. They've taken over. They've created cybernetic organisms to kill the Humans: Terminators. The 600 series had rubber skin. We could spot them a mile away. But the T-800s are new. Hard to identify. They look Human…sweat, blood, bad breath…."

Trunks had been pacing throughout John's explanation, but now froze and exchanged looks with Goku.

John noticed. "What? What is it?"

"That sounds like my world," said Trunks. "At least the way it used to be…when I was a baby, two killer Androids created by the scientist Dr. Gero were unleashed. First they killed their creator, then set out to kill everyone else." Trunks turned away, an undercurrent of anger making his voice tremble. "They killed all the fighters that could have stopped them if they had had time to prepare…my father was killed and finally…and finally my master and best friend, Gohan…Goku's son." He nodded towards Goku.

"You two lived." John said.

"No," Trunks said, and John's eyes widened. Carin turned in surprise.

"What?"

"Goku died before he got a chance to even see the Androids." Trunks gestured to himself. "I'm from an alternate future than Goku. I went back to his time to warn them about the Androids."

"So in my time, we had time to prepare," Goku said.

"And you defeated the Androids." Carin surmised.

Goku paused, then nodded slowly. "It's a bit more complicated than that, but in the end, yes, we won."

"And I went back to my time and defeated the Androids there, also. I was able to destroy them because when I went into the past, I was able to become more powerful." Trunks finished.

"I can't wait for the day we destroy the machines," said John Connor. "It'll be a great day for the Resistance. I've lost a lot of friends and good soldiers to the Terminators."

"I'm sorry. I know how that feels."

"So do I," Carin whispered, turning back to the transparent wall.

"You've lost loved ones," Batman said. His voice had a familiar, harsh edge.

"So have you," Carin realized, turning. Her own voice often had that edge when she spoke of her past.

Superman glanced at Batman as he paused, then spoke. "I…My parents were gunned down by a mugger when I was a child."

"My parents were murdered before me when I was eight," Carin said softly, dropping her eyes to the floor.

"I never knew my real parents," Goku said, slumping against one of the walls.

"Looks like we're all in the same boat," John said.

"So it would seem."

Over the next hour or two that Goku, Trunks, Carin, Superman, Batman and John sat talking, two more arrivals were brought in by the ninjas. The first arrival was a woman. She was Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, formerly of the USCSS spaceship Nostromo. The second was a marine. He was very quiet and was trained to be more or less a weapon of war. The first thing he did when he awoke was to roll into a crouch, reaching for weapons, then balling his hands into fists when he realized his weapons were gone. He didn't speak to them at all, and hid his dog tags under his green tank top so they could not identify him.

He finally did speak, but only when a third person arrived. It was another marine.

He was slowly coming to. He felt someone shake his shoulder roughly. "Come on, soldier." A deep voice said. It sounded a million miles away. "Shake it off, marine!" The voice sounded closer now. It was as if he were rising from a deep pool of water to the surface. Everything was sounding clearer, looking brighter. His eyes flew open, then shut again quickly on account of the bright light. He opened them more slowly the second time around, and saw a blurry shape above him.

He blinked a few times until his vision cleared. Kneeling over him was another marine, tall and dark-haired. He was ghostly pale, with a sort of permanent blank, sorrowful expression, and looked extremely familiar.

For a few moments, he could not work out where he knew the man. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. "You're the Master Chief!"