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The first thing I noticed upon regaining consciousness was that things were dark. Like, pitch black. I couldn't even see a millimeter in front of me.

My second thought: where was I? And who had caught me?

The third thing I noticed was that I could hear someone talking. IT was rather feint, but still decipherable.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" asked a mechanical voice. Despite its mechanical tone, though, I was pretty sure that it was female in nature. "This plan does not offer a high chance of success."

"And the alternative, due to our devotion to this plan, has a negative probability of succeeding," replied a second mechanical voice. This one was distinctly masculine, yet, somehow, sounded almost totally emotionless."

"Besides, this was part of our deal with Steve," remarked a third voice, this one soft and unnerving. It, too, was distinctly masculine in nature."

Wait, so Steve was involved with this? Intriguing. Also rather worrisome.

"And, overall, this one has the most potential to benefit the largest amount of others besides ourselves. Our empire may have fallen long ago, but through this plan, our legacy will become immortal," replied a much deeper voice. No way that was anything other than masculine.

"And with it, our memory as the caretakers we strove to be, not the monsters that the remainder of our kind have become," replied a fifth voice, this one soft and caring in tone. It too was masculine.

"All great points," remarked one final voice, this one ethereal in nature, and distinctly feminine in tone, "but I believe that we should finish this conversation soon."

"Why?" asked the deep voice.

"Because our guest has woken up."

"...oh."

I got the feeling that they were embarrassed about this.

"So, should I do the honors?" asked the female voice.

"No, I will," remarked the deep voice.

Then, darkness gave way to light.

Or, rather, six lights: a blue one, a purple one, a green one, an orangish red one, a yellow one, and a white one. Though they had nothing on them that resembled eyes, I got the feeling that they were watching me.

"...Um, hello," I began, unsure how to continue.

"Hello," replied the booming voice I had heard earlier. As it boomed into my ears, I noticed that the blue light glowed brighter. It appeared that the blue light was the owner of the deep voice.

"...Who-" I began, only to quickly find myself cut off by the deep voice.

"Are we?" it replied, seemingly aware that I was going to ask the question. "We are many things: geneticists, scientists, visionaries, legends. But I believe you wish to know what species we are, which is a far easier question to answer: we are the crogenitors, and I am Zelem."

My response was, well, rather blunt.

"You're lying."

"Now I'm sure that you have many questions to ask, and we have plenty of answers to...wait, what?"

"You. Are. Lying."

"...And what makes you thing I'm lying?"

"Um, let me see... maybe its the fact that 'Zelem' is, I don't know, DEAD right now."

"And you really think that would be a problem?" responded the soft, unnerving voice I'd heard earlier. The purple light glowed as the voice spoke, giving me a good idea of who that voice belonged to. "I invented necrogenesis and shattered the barriers between life and death. My creations can cause uncontrollable terror and rend the souls of their foes from their bodies. So, with all of that considered, is it truly unbelievable that we could persist beyond death in some way?"

"...Fair point. So, I assume that you are Ingto?"

"Indeed."

I turned to the green light. "You must be Astra."

"Correct," replied the green light in the feminine voice I'd heard earlier.

Then I turned to the reed/orange one. "You're Ptyrron."

"The one and only," came the reply, this one in the soft and calming tone I'd heard earlier.

My attention soon fell upon the yellow light. "Which mean that you must be Suzu."

"Your assumption is valid," responded the light in the masculine mechanical voice I'd heard earlier.

Then I turned toward the white light. As there were only five crogenitors left in existence, this one clearly wasn't a member of them.

"I can introduce myself if you cannot determine my identity," it began in the feminine mechanical voice I'd heard earlier.

Luckily, I remembered that voice.

"That will be unnecessary. You're HELIX, aren't you?"

"...You are correct. I am impressed with your knowledge of who we are."

"Thanks. Though seriously, I have one question: How did all of you know I was coming?"

The five crogenitors looked at each other for a moment (or at least looked like it, given that they didn't have any eyes in those forms) before turning toward HELIX, who sighed.

"I will explain:"

"As you are aware, the crogenitor empire spanned thousands of worlds. They shepherded many civlizations toward greatness, and crushed those that were dangers to galactic peace. Eventually, they were undone by the corrupting power of E-DNA."

"I know all of that."

"Correct. But here is something that you didn't: prior to the fall of the crogenitor empire, they discovered a being beyond their comprehension. One that had abilities that put it on a level of godhood. Despite many ears of examination in the perceptory, they were unable to comprehend his might."

"Okay, why is this important?"

"Because you have met this entity before."

"I have?"

"Yes," answered Suzu, "we designated it the Space-Time Entity of Vacuum Energy."

"Space-Time Entity of...Vacuum...Energy... STEVE."

"Correct. That was the abbreviation we used, as well as its public name."

"...You've met him."

"We just said that we did, please try to keep up," replied Zelem.

"Okay, so, what's so important about him?"

"Following the fall of Perceptum, we decided to go into hiding using Ingto's research to exist as entities that are best described as ghosts. Unfortunately, though, only the five of us were able to escape the planet, and there was no time to search for others of our kind among the stars. We were alone.

"That was when he me with us and offered a solution: he claimed that other random omnipotent beings like him were sending out people on journeys that spanned existence itself, across any number of parallel universes. Most of those sent out had been ripped from all that they cherished, which offended STEVE's sensibilities, which is why he offered us an agreement: he would send the first of these beings to wander into his domain to help us if, in exchange, we offered our technology to that being as a gift if and when they defeated the Darkspore. He appears to upheld his end of the bargain, so we wish to uphold ours."

"...Interesting. So, he wanted me to help save you guys, right?"

"Correct."

"And in exchange, I get your technology."

"The rest of it, yes," replied Suzu.

"Rest?"

"We were the ones who designed the planet buster missile. Just because we are peaceful does not mean we did not prepare for war."

"So," spoke Ingto, "will you help us?"

I thought for a moment: did I really want to do this? I really despised being used as a pawn, even if the intetions of the people using me were pure. But, at the same time, the crogenitors really did need the help.

"Very well, I'll help you."

I heard a massive sigh resound through the room when I said that.

"But first, answer me one question: why did you need to knock me out?"

Astra was the one who answered that question.

"All of our technology is modified only to function for crogenitors. We knocked you out so that we could hybridize your body with our genetics, to ensure that the technology works for you."

"...Thank you."

"You are welcome. Now awaken."

With that, I passed out again.

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The next thing I new, I woke up in the chair I had fallen asleep in. The firs thing I did was slap myself in the face, both to wake up and faster and prove that I was not in a dream. At that point, I honestly thought that the conversation I'd had was a dream.

"Genetic hero reanimation complete," chimed in the voice of HELIX.

Turing toward the rest of the chamber, I noticed 25 different beings inside glass tanks, their bodies twitching uncomfortably. Looks like someone had decided to get them into fighting condition.

"So, ready to help?" asked HELIX.

Well, looks like I wasn't dreaming.

"...yes."

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AN: READ AND REVIEW (it's the only way this story will get better). I will clarify on any points you found confusing.

THIS IS FLAMEAL15k, SIGNING OFF!