The Cartoon Continuum
Chapter 2:
Return to the Past Now! Part 1
Kenneth's POV:
"Come on guys we can't be late again!" I shout, tapping my foot impatiently against the concrete floor of the garage. My three teammates scramble out of the door with their backpacks slung sloppily over their shoulders. "Seriously guys, Dexter's gonna have bust a brain cell when he sees us we'll be lucky if Ben, Finn, Jeremy and Octus haven't left yet!"
A blue light enveloped the room and there stood a man in a brown vest, beige trousers, and goggles hanging around his neck above all this was an unbuttoned lab coat. "Professor Paradox?" Liv asked.
"Ah yes, hello again Liv Hex Braten and fellow Cartoon Network Universe Defenders."
"You know him?" I questioned my friend.
"We meet a couple times in the future and on other occasions." Liv explains.
"Yes, some quite personal occasions." He agreed.
"What do you mean?" Epic asks.
"Well I'd love to tell you Mr. Man but if I were to do so it would unravel time and space itself, you'll learn when the time is right."
"Wait he said again…" Ace pointed out. "I haven't met him before I think Liv is the only one you've meet before."
"Brilliant analysis Acenio! Yes I suppose this is the first time on your span of time but of course I've known you in your twenties your teens and even as an old man in many different universes and time streams including your own."
"What…" Epic scratches his head.
"What do you want time walker?" Liv asks annoyed and completely ignoring Epic.
"It's quite simple really. You four chosen heroes with your grand and glorious future should've been there twenty minutes ago. Sadly Dexter got feed up and sent the Golden Explorers in your place."
"Crap!" I yell. "Now what?"
"Calm down my dear boy." Paradox chides in. "We'll still be able to get there on time."
"But how," Ace asks. "If they left twenty minutes ago then how are we supposed to make it?"
"As mentioned before Ace, Liv here mentioned that I'm a time walker," Paradox starts. "Though his tone was that of a celestapian's… The point is it's quite true."
"Huh?" Epic asks.
Paradox sighs and takes out a pocket watch he turns one of the dials and we're all enveloped in a blue light. We appear in tech square right in front of DexLabs. "How did you do that?" I ask, flabbergasted.
"Oh it's quite simple really once you get past the dimensional flux, and get a basic grasp on the field of time then it's quite easy!" He smiles.
"Fascinating professor…" Liv chides in "but we have to go." He then pushes us through the doors of Dex Labs where we find a man reading a newspaper.
The man puts down the newspaper to reveal Professor Paradox. "Hello again, fancy meeting you four here!"
"Does he always do that?" Epic asks.
"Yes." Liv bluntly replies.
"I was just going to tell you that when you go on this mission you should watch out for claws."
"Huh?" I ask confused.
"It'll come to you." He smiles and teleports away.
"That guy's weird…" Epic sighs.
"You get used to it." Liv informs us. "Trust me you do eventually."
We shrug and walk into the time capsule room of Dex Labs. Before walking into the room I sigh remembering the fateful day that changed my life forever.
*Flashback*
Little do people know Fusions appeared before the first public sightings. I had just had my first run in with my own fusion, I was foolish to run away, I was scared but of course regretting it wouldn't bring back Inderpal and Cashmere.
The sun was up and the birds were chirping as far as anyone was concerned it was the perfect day and looking down at the flyer the Dexbot had given me I was eager to help out with whatever experiment Dexter needed so many of us for. Walking down the roads of the science district I was unsure of where to go. Walking down the street was a middle aged man who had a bald spot right on top of his head but still managed to have his chestnut hair on the back and sides of his head, he wore khaki pants, a cream sweater with a brown jacket over it, I would later get to know this man as Octus. "Um… excuse me sir?" I ask tugging on the back of his jacket.
He turns, eyes darting straight to mine but quickly smiles. "Why hello there young man. How may I assist you?" He asks me in a strangely monotonous voice.
"I was wondering if you could direct me to Dex Labs?" I respond.
"Interesting. What would an adolescent homosapien be doing in a place like that?" He asks me.
"I heard about Dexter's experiment and was wondering if I could help out." I half lied. Though it was true that I wanted to help out with the experiment but my motivation for doing so was due to my guilt for the events of my meeting with my Fusion, I felt if I did a bunch of nice things then I could make it up for Inderpal and Cashmere.
He nods. "Very well. I can tell you that Dex Labs is North by Northwest of here at approximately 24°."
I look at him strangely. "Huh?"
"I apologize if I may have confused you. I simply mean that way." He says pointing behind me.
"Thank you sir." I reply leaving him to continue along where he was going.
"You are quite welcome citizen." He replies.
My first encounter with Octus was quite strange but knowing who he is now I don't really mind the strange banter that he speaks with. Heeding his instructions I calmly headed off in the direction he pointed off in. Shortly I arrive at Technology Square (Tech Square for short) where I find Dex Labs stationed. Across a small park I see the menacing looking Mandark Industries.
This area of the world is known as the Technology District. Here in the Technology District everything is composed of metal and you've got every little futuristic piece of tech found here with flying cars, the gravitrain system station, the great machine, etc, etc, etc. With all these technological advances it's no wonder that the world's richest people live in this district; the worlds scientist like Elissa Mannsfield; musical geniuses like Sunny Bridges; economical tyrants like Butch Morbucks; television slime balls like Will Harangue; Celebrity super divas like Jennifer Nocturne and of course political bastards like Bruce Spicer their all found here due to the advancements the area makes on their individual businesses. But the most interesting part of tech square does not lie in the technological advances or the various celebrities that live here but the districts origins. Dexter Kliensman and Susan 'Mandark' Astronomonov at just the ages of fifteen and sixteen had started their businesses subsequently in what at the time was part of the suburbs. With the success of their companies rising technological advances the city quickly followed suit making it become more and more like the concrete jungle it is today. The two businesses have their primary base of operations in the same area known as technological square right across the street from each other which of course gives slime balls like Will Harangue the ability to claim fraud between the two.
Stepping into Dex Labs I am greeted by a Dex Labs attendant. "Welcome to Dex Labs how may I help you?"
"I'm here about Dexter's experiment the one advertised on this flyer." I tell the man showing him the slightly crumpled flyer in my hands.
"Ah, ok." He smiles. "Please follow me." He then leads me through the winding halls of the building making me realize it's bigger on the inside then outside. He opens the door and goes away for a bit. I stand there awkwardly looking at all the people in the room surprisingly a lot of them are just kids. The attendant comes back with a small blue electronic wrist watch. "Here is your nanocom. Dexter says you'll need it for this experiment." I nod and he smiles. "Dexter will be with you shortly." He then walks out of the room and I am left with all these people.
Another boy with dark skin and wavy black hair about my age taps me on the shoulder. "Hi, what's your name?"
I shrug. "Kenneth."
"Cool. My name's Liv." He smiles.
"That's cool. Why'd you sign up for the experiment?" I ask, wondering why anyone else would want to.
He gives me another warm smile. "I just love to help people. When Dexter announced the experiment on TV a couple weeks ago I of course wanted to help out. It took some time convincing my parents to let me but they finally did."
I nod. "Wow, that's really nice of you."
"It's no big deal really." Liv shrugs.
"Greetings!" A voice shouts and we all look up to see Dexter, also known as the original boy genius, on a screen. "As all of you may know, you have decided to assist with a little experiment. I wish for you all to travel through time." He smiles at this and this of course lets out some murmurs from the group. "If you do not wish to partake in this then please calmly exit the room and return your nanocoms to the attendants waiting outside the room." At this point a lot of people exit the room unwilling to do the experiment Dexter wanted us to do.
Liv still stands next to me. He whispers in my ear. "Time travel? That sounds incredibly cool!"
"Ya it does. I can't wait to go." I tell him.
"I wonder wher- or when we'll be heading to?" He asks.
Dexter then speaks again. "Now that those of you who still wish to partake in this please follow the Dexbots to the time capsule room where I will speak to you all personally."
"Come on!" Liv smiles while dragging me through the streaming crowd of people. He continues lightly brushing people away until we are directly in tow of the two Dexbots leading us. We abruptly stop as Liv runs into a Dexbot out of obliviousness. He falls to the cold metallic floor due to this surprise.
"Terribly sorry sir," The Dexbot replies in its monotone voice. "This unit did not sense you approaching, quite sorry."
Liv grumbles a bit. I look at him strangely due to the sudden change in personality. "I mean… that's ok, no harm done right?" Looking back I know enough to understand the sudden change. I can't help but feel bad for Liv now that I know some portions of the truth. Of course I can't blame him for withholding some I mean I am guilty enough of that myself.
"Welcome my candidates." The famed boy genius calls from atop a floating platform. "I am quite pleased to see that so many of you wish to partake in this experiment. As I had mentioned before this experiment is going to allow you travel though time. As you know many have attempted time travel before such as Mandark industries and many other companies including such off worldly companies like Omni-industrious founded by Azmuth Proleethenus of the Galvan." Images of the aforementioned inventors show on the screen. "But recently I have made a breakthrough after the kind involvement of the alien super hero and personal friend of mine Benjamin Kirby Tennyson," A picture of the famed superhero showed on the screen with his casual smirk and holding up the Ultimatrix towards the screen. "And one of his alien transformations. This transformation is known as a Chronosapien publically known as clockwork." With that said alien form appears on the screen and although I didn't care much about Ben Tennyson and his alien heroics at the time (despite Inderpal and Cashmere's great obsession with the hero I just didn't find much interest in him until I and meet him on the field of battle) I still look up at the screen to see the bulky bronze alien that had a clear hull/chest that allows you to see the black and green gears and other mechanical intricacies inside above said hull was the plumbers badge/ultimatrix symbol on top of it.Despite the current disinterest in the guy it was still kinda cool looking. "I was able to study this alien's connection to the space-time continuum and study its ability to manipulate and travel across the stream of time."
"Wow…" Liv is struck with utter amazement at Dexter's ingenuousness. "That's amazing!"
"You actually understand some of that stuff?" I ask him.
"Sure," Liv smiles. "I mean it's really a bit of common sense and following the fabric of the exponential rate of time." I just stare at him. "What didn't get any of that?"
"I lost Dexter at partake in the experiment and you at fabric." I reply. "How'd you follow that?"
"Um… I pay attention in school." Liv sighs.
At that moment in time I didn't know how smart Liv was or the fact that the future would make him reach his breaking point. From what I know Liv was bullied for most of his childhood by Gus Test and a lot of the other kids in this school. Personally from what Gus had put him through I'd tear him limb from limb. Maybe after the war… But despite the fact that he was bullied for so long yet he still managed to be nice to people and kept his grades up though that didn't keep the inner depression deriving from those who hurt him from surfacing. Liv had fallen into deep depression but masked it beneath his kind personality and had distracted himself by learning as much as he could. When he got to the future he finally stood up for himself but made sure to keep himself, fortunately for every one the Fusions get the blunt of it. Eventually when Dexter started putting the two of us together as a team, he also did the same with Ice and Gus, and we got to know each other better until we reached a point where we became really close and became the best duo tied with Ice and Gus, then there was returning to the past with sadly Ice and Gus. Upon returning to the past Liv's knowledge only increased due to Dexter's slight companionship with Liv in the future and eventually they reacquainted in the present day (Dexter doesn't really hate us he just hates the way we do our missions). Liv says having access to Dex Labs has opened up so much for him. Going to the future improved a lot for Liv making him stronger, faster, smarter and better in every way, shape and form the future may have scarred Liv in more ways than one it also managed to mend some of the older wounds left by Gus and his friends.
"That is where I was able to create these capsules which you will use to travel to just a week in the future! Your nanocoms will be used as a homing device for me to pick you up. The thing I haven't been able to perfect is location. So once again you are able to refrain from the experiment as this is your final chance." At this point a couple hundred people left the room leaving about a hundred of us.
"Very well let the experiment commence!" Dexter announces as his floating platform descends to the ground. There's a large hissing sound heard behind us. We turn to see giant capsules rise out of the ground with steam rising about. The big bulky machines have the usual Dex Labs color scheme with the famed 'D' with electrons swirling around it on the glass hull. We turn back to Dexter in awe of the amazing machinery. The famed Genius who is now at a console begins typing rapidly. The capsules then slide open with the capsules hulls moving up. We then step towards our capsules.
"Move it loser!" A young boy with sky blue eyes and blonde hair at the roots that rises into wisps of its fiery red shoves Liv out of the way of the capsule of his choice.
"S-sorry, Gus…" Liv stutters.
I glare at the flame haired boy in question "Hey dude leave him alone!"
"Oh look, the nerdling has a little bodyguard? What are you gonna do stare me to death?"
I rear my fist back to take that smirk off the guys face. But I feel a hang clamp onto my arm. I look to see Liv holding me back. "Don't-"
"But, he deserves it!" I shouted back.
"Just don't!" Liv shouts back.
"But-"
"No violence isn't the answer, we can deal with jerks like him in other ways." Liv insists. It's kinda funny how a little time in the future blew that mentality out of the water.
"Whatever losers," Gus smirks as his capsule closes. "Just remember that you're about to witness the coolest time traveler around."
"Man somebody needs to bring that guy down a peg or two…" I grumble as Liv and I step into the remaining capsules.
Our capsules close shut with us inside. We see Dexter typing away on his capsule before a blonde girl in a ballerina outfit sneaks behind Dexter's console. She then proceeds to rip out several wires. I start to feel severely uncomfortable as she begins to wreck most of the machinery without arousing Dexter's attention yet. The capsules begin glowing white. "Yes, yes it's working!" Dexter shouts in his German accent.
"Critical Systems Failure. Repeat. Critical Systems Failure." A feminine electronic voice announces.
"What?" Dexter asks surprised. "Computress, abort Chronotravel program."
"Aborting…" The same voice starts. "Aborting… Unable to abort Chronotravel program."
"But-but how?!" Dexter asks.
"Lalalalala…" A high pitched voice hums.
Dexter immediately turns to the girl in the ballerina costume with immediate fury in his eyes. "DEE-DEE!"
"Huh?" The girl Dee-Dee looks to the famed scientist. "Oh hi Dexter!"
"DEE-DEE YOU STUPID GIRL! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Dexter shouts at her.
The girl startled stutters. "But-but- Dexter I'm sorry…"
"DEE-DEE YOU HAVE RUINED COUNTLESS EXPERIMENTS AND ENDANGERED MY OWN LIFE MANY TIMES! BUT THIS CROSSES THE LINE! NOW YOU ARE SENDING A HUNDRED PEOPLE TO WHO KNOWS WHEN AND WHERE! I CAN'T DO A THING TO STOP IT AND THEY COULD FACE ANY SORT OF DANGER!"
"D-Dexter I'm sorry…" The girl stammered still insisting the boy genius's forgiveness.
The glow of the time machine intensifies to the point where we can't see. Shouts of horror ring out through the laboratory as the situation finally dawns on everyone. The last thing I hear is Dexter shouting five words with even more blistering furry. "GET OUT OF MY LABORATORY!" At that point the light turned to black.
*End Flashback*
*Present Day*
"Kenneth?" I shake off my daze and look into the eyes of Liv. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine just…"
"Ya I get it. I remember too." Liv replied.
"We've come so far haven't we?" I ask him.
"Yeah when we were just a couple of stupid kids who first meet and were having little arguments with Gus. " Liv sadly smiled.
"Ya good times." I agree with my own sad smile.
We both walk into the room to find Ace and Epic talking with Finn, Ben sitting behind Dexter and Jeremy scrolling through his Ultimatrix, Ben and Jeremy sitting discussing blueprints together while Octus stares into space in his true form.
We walk over to Finn, Ace and Epic. "Hey guys." I hold up my hand in a welcoming gesture.
"Hi." Finn says.
"What were you guys talking about?" Liv asked.
"Ace, Finn and I made a three way bet of who would kill the most fusions." Epic explained.
"Cool." Kenneth replied.
Liv smiled. "There's no way any of you would win that…"
Finn smirked. "Oh and why's that?"
"Well it's obvious that I'll win." Liv smirked back.
"Woah, woah, woah…" Ace over exaggerated. "What makes you think that you'll win?"
"Let's see…" Liv thought. "Since I come back from the future I've bested a bunch of Fusions in combat, gone on more missions than you can count and not to mention that many of the worlds heroes usually want me around due to my well roundedness and quick thinking as well as Will Harangue mentioned me a lot during our little feature story."
Of course Liv is forgetting that Harangue mentioned him so much due to his friendship with Dexter and his slight temper against bastards like him. Not only that but many of the worlds heroes like us due to our high status (of course the same is for the Golden Explorers too); for me it's due to my leadership roll making people like Gwen Tennyson, Robin and Yumi Ishiyama; for Epic it's his ability to be laid back and have fun even during missions like Ben Tennyson and Cody Anderson and Geoff Baker of Total Drama; Liv for well the reasons he said; and of course Ace's ability to look danger in the face and handle it quite well which attracts Rex, Buttercup and Johnny Test.
"Oh ya…" Finn thought back. "I remember that… That Harangue guy is seriously jacked up."
"No kidding." A voice said from behind us. We turn to see the green clad alien superhero smirk at us. "The guys been hassling me and a bunch of other heroes for various conspiracies. You know he still blames me, the Teen Titans and various others for the Fusion Invasion!"
We all laugh at that. "Ya the guy's a bastard." I agree.
"By the way," Ben continued. "There's a slight problem with your little bet."
"Oh ya and what's that?" Ace asked.
"You forgot to consider me into that equation." Ben smirked.
"Alright so looks like Liv and Ben are in on the bet." Epic agreed.
"Yeah and I'm gonna win." Liv and Ben boasted simultaneously.
Finn laughed. "Hey Kenny, you want in on this?"
"No thanks." I decline.
"You sure dude?" Ace asked.
"Nah…"
"Leave him." Ben said. "I mean the guy can't help it if he's too scared of losing to me."
"I couldn't have helped but overheard your bet." Another voice said. We turn to see Jeremy Belpois.
"You want in on it Einstein?" Ben asked.
"Um… no…" Jeremy replied. "Besides I'm not coming to fight off Fusions."
"We know Jer, you're going to get XANA or whatever…" Finn replied.
"Precisely. But I can implement my stats program into your nanocoms."
"Sure." Ace, Finn, Epic and Liv agree.
"What about me Jer? I don't have a nanocom just my Ultimatrix." Ben asked.
"Not to worry Ben the Ultimatrix has many of the same functions as the nanocom I'm sure it'll be just fine." Jeremy explained.
"Cool." Ben stated.
The five of them line up as Jeremy then clicks a couple of buttons on their nanocoms.
"There we go." Jeremy smiled as he finished with Ace's nanocom. "Kenneth would you like me to do it on yours?"
"No thanks Jeremy." I decline.
"Fair enough." He replies.
"Now that the four of you are through with your personal vendettas and wagers," Dexter says annoyed.
"Hey it wasn't me it was them!" I defend.
"We can get some real work done." Dexter continues completely ignoring me. "Now as you are aware we are traveling to Kadic Accademy the Suburbs precisely one hour before the creation of the Renault Factory Infected Zone."
"Ya, ya we know Dex." Ben says.
"We travel back in time," Epic says.
"Meet Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, Jeremy, Aelita, William and Laura." Ace continues.
"Convince them to work with us." Liv continues.
"Protect the factory from Fusion monsters while Jeremy gets XANA and Franz out," I continue as well.
"And smite Evil!" Finn finishes with glee.
"How simple is that?" We all ask at the same time excluding Jeremy and Octus.
"You'd be geniuses, if you could apply such knowledge to the real problems in this existence." Dexter sighs. "No more get in the capsules!"
We all follow the lab coat clad geniuses orders and get into our individual capsules which are stylized exactly like last time giving me a small shudder. "Anything we should know about time travel before we go?" Epic asks from within his capsule.
"You'll feel a little disoriented." Liv replies.
"Try not to throw up…" Ben laughs.
Dexter goes to his console and begins typing in the coding that will send us back.
"So ready for a Return to the Past guys?" Jeremy asks. And just like that we are enveloped in a bright light and vanish.