Chapter 2
Where Are We?

Everyone present is safe in the community center in the ghost town of Rhineburg as the fireplace and wood stove are blazing to keep everyone warm as the blizzard rage outside. Ruby is warming up by the fireplace with the man in yellow gives her a blanket. Everyone settles in as they form a circle.

"Who are you guys?" Superman asks, "And where are we? What exactly is going on?"

Arend stands up, "Let's do the first question. I'm Arend. Arend Arcanum. The guy in yellow is my father, Doraleous Arcanum."

"Hello."

"But you two don't look anything alike." Wolverine points out.

"Because I was adopted."

"Oh." Ruby went, "That makes sense."

"Over there is Uncle Neebs."

"Howdy." Neebs greets the three.

"And the short guy in blue is Uncle Appsro."

"Hey, what's up."

"The big guy with the pink hair and blue mustache is Uncle Simon."

"Hello."

"The guy with the purple mohawk and viking look is Uncle Thick."

"Hiya!"

Ruby leans to Wolverine and whispers, "What's a viking?"

Arend continues as he introduces the second person with blue hair, "And this is Cousin Noggin, Uncle Appsro's son."

"Sup y'all." Noggin speaks in the same manner as Appsro.

Then Arend introduces the man with dark purple short messy hair along with a goatee, "And this is Cousin Cooter, Uncle Thick's son."

"How are ya warriors doin'!?" Cooter is a bit more excited to met everyone, "But call me Co for short."

Then he introduces the last man with pink hair, "And this is Cousin Fuzz, Uncle Simon's son."

Fuzz pulls out a bag of chips, "Want some chips?" He does sound similar to Simon but a little less New Yorker Italian.

Wolverine takes a sniff, "Is that sour cream and onion?"

"Yeah."

"I'll have some." Wolverine takes a few chips from the bag.

Superman is looking up in the sky and can see things with both his x-ray vision and telescopic vision.

"So where are we exactly?" he asks, "I can see another planet that has life and we are definitely not on Earth."

"We're on planet Zarcy." Appsro replies, "This planet was originally called, Genesis. Back when they did all sorts of experiments on creating life."

Thick pulls out a can of root beer, "Things were great until the Pokemon started to use their weather moves that caused a lot of problems to the planet's ecosystems."

"So people made a device that was meant to mitigate it." Co is holding a can of cola, "But something bad happened 250 years ago." He takes a sip.

"Now the planet is preventing any ships from entering or leaving." Doraleous also has a can of cola, "Luckily the stargates still work so we have some contact. But no satellites."

Wolverine, Superman and Ruby are now even more confused on where they are and what is going on.

"You bubs are gonna have to start from the beginning."

Appsro stands up, "I'll do it!" His hand is raised as he volunteers. He sits back down and goes storyteller mode, "It all started 1383 years ago, which is the year of the new calendar. A wormhole has appeared between Sol and Alpha Centauri on the year, 2130. Hundreds of ships went into the wormhole where they enter into this new galaxy we are standing in today. A sphere-shaped galaxy full of wonder. However, not everything went as planned as the wormhole collapsed with over three billion people lost. Some appeared in the distant past and others appeared on year zero. And there are even legends that some that will appear in the future."

"Oooo." Ruby is invested in the story.

Doraleous than continues the story, "Yeah, but not everything was peachy. Some ships had their equipment destroyed and were forced to land with whatever they had on them. Which forced a lot of people to adopt some medieval-esque style of living in order to survive with some remnant of technology they still had. Life continued with some civilizations started to rise and rebuilt what little they could until they managed to develop space travel again."

"No shit." Simon then continues, "But traveling from star to star by ship didn't go so well. You see, there are these strange particles we have all over space and worlds that have been interfering with navigations." He demonstrates with his fingers pointing in different directions, "Like you try to go here, right? But your ship ends up here, or here, or here, never reaching to the destination. Even if you do jump from the same system, you just end up going somewhere else entirely. So, as a result, we use stargates instead. Those ancient gateways to other systems that was left behind by previous humans that just up and disappeared."

Thick continues, "The particles are called, magicules. Strange and mysterious particles that can give people magic, superpowers, energy sources and all sort of shit. Scientists have been using it for all kinds of experiments with more primitive cultures learning how to wield magic. If you can call it that."

"You should tell them the factions." Arend suggests.

"I'm getting to there. So there are three factions. The Federal Union of Constellations on one side, the Confederation of Allied Worlds, and the Neutral Zone. The Federal Union of Constellations is kinda like the Federation from Star Trek. Equality, liberty, justice, progress, and peaceful co-existence and all that bullshit. In actuality, it may be democratic, but it is more of a fascist state with a strong military, seizing news media and forcing primitive civilizations to join against their will. Hence the FUC are offensively called-"

"Fuckers." Wolverine takes a guess.

Ruby covers her mouth when Wolverine said that.

"Wolverine!" Superman scolds him.

"That's actually true! Now the CAW is an actual alliance under one banner as it is way more libertarian than the phony FUC. Everyone's personal freedoms and individuality is respected as the confederation supports full autonomy. Even leaving primitive cultures alone rather than forcing them as they wait for the day they have achieved space flight or discovered a stargate."

Fuzz then speaks, "Both sides really want to destroy each other. But given how vast space is and how big the galaxy is with its humongous number of systems, they decided to make a big border between the two that we call, the Neutral Zone. Which is where we are right now. Here on planet Zarcy of the Juxen System. But there is a cold war going on with each side wanting to gain the upper hand."

"But they clearly underestimated how people are in the Neutral Zone." Noggin adds, "The Neutral Zone got populated by various kinds of folks. Pilgrims, corporations, frontier people, maniacs, explorers, empire builders and all kinds of crazy people! Thus why the Neutral Zone stays as the Neutral Zone!" Noggin is getting pretty excited as he is proud to be in the Neutral Zone.

"And that's the gist of it." Cooter ends it.

"But what are we?" Superman asks. "I mean, for some reason, I just don't feel..."

"Like yourself?"

"Yeah."

"I have that feeling, too" Ruby also has the same feeling.

"Yeah." same with Wolverine, "I do feel like myself, but I don't feel...like myself."

"That's normal." Neebs says as he poke his head out from the kitchen.

Superman, Wolverine and Ruby are confused on what exactly does Neebs mean, 'normal'.

"Oh boy." Thick sits closer to them, "You may wanna brace yourselves for this one."

The three brace themselves for whatever truth is gonna happen.

"You guys aren't...real."

The three look at each other and are even more confused than they were before.

"Confusing, I know. But its the truth."

Cooter scooch closer, "You see, you guys are what we call, fic-clones. Short for fictional clones. Clones based-on fictional characters from various media franchises." He points at the three, "You are from an X-Men comic series by Marvel Comics. You are from your own comics series by DC Comics. And you are from a web animation show from a company that got bought up and shutdown by the same guys that own DC Comics."

"So...we're not real?" Ruby is on the verge of freaking out.

"Calm down." Arend tries to calm Ruby down, "Let's not-"

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" Ruby now freaks out, "I'M NOT REAL! WHY AM I ALIVE?! WHY DO I EXIST!?"

Noggin slaps Ruby in the face to get her to stop. But Ruby punches Noggin in the face that cause him to be knocked onto the floor.

Arend leans at Noggin, "You had that coming."

Ruby is in fetal position as she is freaking out. Superman is trying to process everything that is being said to him. Wolverine, on the other hand...

"Listen here, bub!" he is getting angry as he stands with his claws out, "I am not a fucking clone!" He growls at everyone with a threatening glare.

"Nothing wrong with that." Thick isn't afraid of Wolverine's threats, "At least your control devices are gone. And you guys aren't being used for...'population' reasons."

"Population reasons?" Superman asks.

"Let's just say that some fic-clones are used for-"

"Making babies, oh yeah." Appsro bluntly put it.

Then he gets a wack on the head.

"Yeah." Dorealeous shrugs, "Mostly. Others are used for other things like making movies and shows, sporting events, defense against monsters, and other stuff."

Ruby is still rocking back and forth in a fetal position and still freaking out that she isn't real.

"DINNER!" Neebs shout from the kitchen. "I got grilled cheese and venison sandwiches, some cooked fish, steamed potato fries and prepper's pies. And I found some boba in the cabinet!"

"Did you say boba!?" Ruby snaps out of it.

And thus everyone gets to enjoy a good dinner. Although Ruby, Superman and Wolverine are still a bit shaken by the fact they aren't real.

"Do you guys have any more fic-clones?" Wolverine asks.

"We do." Neebs rolls his eyes. "We have a lot of them back home."

"Some of us even married them." Arend has a big smile on his face, "I married three and have four little ones back home."

"That doesn't add up." Ruby looks at Arend.

"One of them gave birth to twins."

"Okay, that makes sense." Ruby eats her sandwich.

"Yeah, some of them are from gacha games." Noggin does a big smile. "Games like Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, Fate/Grand Order, Arknights, Honkai: Star Rail, Wuthering Waves, Isekai: Slow Life, and Nike: Goddess of Victory. And a few other game-based ones like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade. There are also a few Vtubers as well in our town. All thanks to a treasure trove we found some years back."

Simon chuckles a little, "Yup. So our town is now populated and the population has grown. Same with our family."

"Speaking of," Superman look at everyone, "are you guys on vacation or something?"

"Family hunt, actually." Cooter takes a sip before continuing, "Our annual family hunt that we do during springtime. Although not everyone is here to take part because they are too busy with everything else back home. Like Aunt Adahop is working on some new computer programs for our defenses. Uncle Drak the Dwarf is busy with his mining, Uncle Mirdon the Wizard is doing...something."

"That guy is always doing something." Fuzz takes a bite of his prepper's pie.

"No shit." Doraleous put his fork down, "He is always working on some spell or getting high off his ass on something."

"And there is Uncle Walken who is always off doing errands. There is Uncle Broof, who is busy doing one of his own hunts further south. There is Uncle Thesaurus, Uncle Anthony, Aunt Zephyr, Uncle Colonel, Uncle Cooper, Uncle Phil, Uncle Cameron, Uncle Lyle, Uncle Marcus, Uncle Geigh, Aunt Twitch, Aunt Aleena, Aunt Olga, and my mom, Hyleria. Lots of other relatives. Oh, and there is also Old Timer. The guy never reveal his name for some reason but we do call him, Gramps. And our family got bigger."

Noggin chuckles, "Hahaha. Yeah, we got busy."

Wolverine snickers a little because he knows what Noggin means.

"This guy knows what I'm talking about!"

Many laugh as they know exactly what Noggin is talking about. Except for Ruby, who has no idea on what the men are talking about.

"Speaking of," Fuzz lays down, "Uncle Colonel is busy doing mercenary work on various battlefields like a dumb virgin he is."

"Who's turn is it for dishes?!" Neebs asked with his dirty plate raised.

"NOT IT!" almost everyone went.

"Not it, fuck!" Fuzz was late.

"Not me, ah shit." Doraleous was a little slow.

"Not it, ah fuck me." Appsro reacted way too slow and spilled his drink on his lap.

"Haha!" Neebs laughed, "You get to do it!"

"That was immature." Superman says about Neebs.

"Hey, I cooked. So, everyone else get to clean-up."

Appsro, Doraleous and Fuzz head to the kitchen with all the dirty dishes as prepare to do dishes.

Superman walks in, "Can I help?"

"Interested to know about our town?" Arend asks Wolverine and Ruby.

"Sure." Ruby smiles and sits criss-cross, "Wonder what it will be like."

"Fine." Wolverine sits back a little.

Arend scooch a little closer, "Well, the place is called, Haphaz."

"Haphaz?" Wolverine raises an eyebrow. "As in...haphazard?"

"Yeah. We use whatever we can use to make our town. All sorts of junk, whatever we can recycle, and use all sort of derelicts to make our town. Despite the name, we make sure everything is safe for everyone. The town's name was more or less a democratic decision. That, and it is a good way to keep bandits away as they think that the place is unsafe as everything is a death trap. And yes, there are some bandits. Good news is that most of them have been removed from our region. Most of them. Hence why Aunt Ada is working on the defense program. Again."

"Sounds like the bandits are getting smarter." Ruby adds.

"No kidding. Some of them have started to use probes to do research on our home. But with the stuff we set up and how few there are, they won't be much of a problem. Not to mention all the firepower we have."

"Anything else we should know about the town?" Ruby asks, "Like any customs, or what to expect? We know about the way things are built so far and it has a large number of fic-clones. Anything else?"

"Nah, its pretty chill. Although you'll be surprise by the trains we have going around."

"What are they like?" Wolverine asks.

"You're gonna have to wait and see. Especially when we meet-up with Skarloey."

"Who?" Ruby tilts her head.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Wolverine tries to remember the name, 'Skarloey', as he had heard it before.

"You'll have to wait until the blizzard clears up and when we head home."

"Speaking of..." Wolverine look at the chest, "Perhaps we should get Storm out and have her deal with the weather."

Arend looks at the same chest, "I wouldn't."

"Why?" he looks back at Arend.

Arend looks back at Wolverine, "Because none of those are labeled and we could end-up with a super crowded community center. Finding Storm among all the other characters is pretty low."

"Shame." Ruby lays back on her bedroll, "I really want to see my friends and sister. At least Yang is my sister. Is she? Hard to tell after learning for the fact we're just clones based-on fictional characters." She is starting to have doubts about her existence.

"Hey. Whether you're a clone or not, no matter what reality or planet or whatever; Yang is still your sister through and through. So don't worry about it as Yang is still your sister as she always have been. Real or not."

"Good to know." Ruby does take some comfort in that knowledge as she rolls and smile.

Arend gets up, "Well, I'm getting ready for bed. Got a long road ahead." He heads on over to where the bathroom is and ready himself for bed.

Wolverine gets up, "I'll get ready for bed as well." He look at Noggin, "Got any spare toothbrushes?"

"Check the storage room."

"Thanks."

Everyone is ready for bed as they try to sleep with the sound of the blizzard roaring outside and the fire crackling. The fire is kept going so everyone can stay warm and they won't have to freeze to death. Doraleous is awake as he does keep the fire going. But he taps Thick to let him know that it's his turn to watch the fire. It is hard to sleep with the white noise of the blizzard getting louder that deafens the sound of the fireplace. Even deafening the sound of snoring coming from some of the guys. Ruby covers her head with a pillow to block out the sound in order to get some sleep. It is a rough night.

By next morning, the blizzard has stopped. Everyone gets up and start to eat breakfast around six or seven-o-clock. Mostly pancakes made from acorns and some canned peaches with a side of coffee.

"Don't you think we're up too early?" Ruby asks.

"Nah, perfect time." Fuzz takes a sip from his coffee, "Have to get up early before anymore blizzards show-up."

"Make sense." Superman take a sip from his coffee, "Never know when another storm hits."

After breakfast (and cleaning the dishes), everyone heads on out after Superman heat vision the snow that was blocking the exit. Some members of the Arcanium family went over to the abandoned gas station and pack-up the meat they had frozen in there in order to preserve it. They packed-up some venison from moose and deer they hunted some days ago along with some rabbits and ptarmigan. There is also some strange meat that still have some reptilian scales on it with the scales being white. Other family members seal-up the community center to prevent any wild animals from getting in.

Superman carries the chest with all the fic-clones as they head southeast with Arend, Noggin and Fuzz talking about Haphaz to Ruby, Wolverine and Superman. Some of the others are keeping an eye out for wolves and other predators that could be lurking in the snow.

"Hey look!" Thick pointed, "Some Cubchoo and Beartics!"

They can see five Cubchoo and two Beartics with the Cubchoo playing in the snow and the Beartic parents watching them with one of them noticing the party.

"Aww!" Ruby went, "They're so cute! Especially the little droplets on their noses. So that's a Pokemon."

"It is." Simon walk past Ruby, "And there are plenty more species out there as well."

"Anymore at your town?"

"A few, but not much. So don't have any high hopes of finding the ones you want."

Doraleous walks past Ruby, "There are a few grass-types, flying-types, bug-types and some water-types. There are even some normal-types, too."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, there are plenty of types with each based-on certain elements. Like a fire-type uses a fire element. It's a bit more complicated, especially with a few fan-created ones that got mingled with official Pokemon."

"You guys Pokemon ranchers or something?"

"Not really." Cooter replies. "Uncle Neebs runs his own farm. Uncle Doraleous and Uncle Simon run a ranch. My dad makes t-shirts for various shops. Noggin runs a small factory that makes all sorts of goods such as canned food, weapons, ammo, whatever. Fuzz also work as a farmhand and ranch-hand for everyone at the town along with me. Uncle Appsro... Let's just say Uncle Appsro does some things every now and then. Arend does all kind of odd jobs here and there. Even help one of his wives with slime ranching."

"Slime ranching? Gross."

"They're adorable, actually."

"I'll see it to believe it." Ruby doesn't find anything slimy adorable.

They continue down until they come across an old train tunnel.

"Hey, Skarloey!" Neebs shouts, "You still there!"

"Aye!" says someone with a British accent, "Glad you showed-up! Was getting super cold here. Gonna need some fire crystals to unfreeze my old boiler."

"On it!" Arend volunteers to help.

Superman, Wolverine and Ruby take a closer look in the tunnel and were startled by what they see. They see a red narrow gauge saddle train engine with white linings while having a red and gold name plate on it. What surprise them is that the engine has a face with eyes, a nose and a mouth and it can also talk.

"HOLY COW!" Wolverine is freaking out, "There's a train with a face! And it talks!"

"Oi there!" Skarloey smiles, "Never seen you lot before."

Superman then realizes, "Oh! Now I remember! Skarloey, from Thomas the Tank Engine!"

Skarloey laughs, "At least someone remembers the old show me and the other lads are from!"

Ruby states, "I've seen talking toys before, but never a talking train."

"Well hop aboard!" Skarloey whistles twice, "Next stop, Haphaz!"

Everyone got onboard in the two coaches (passenger cars) with some of them loading the meat into a freezer car from all their hunts. Arend loads up some fire crystals with some coal to get a fire started as Skarloey's boiler starts to melt from the inside as he slowly starts to move. Skarloey is overjoyed to be moving again as his the ice in his boiler melt away and full of water. Skarloey blows his whistle as he signals for his departure as he slowly exit the tunnel. After a few minutes, Skarloey picks up some speed and heads on out at a fast pace.

While on the way, the three fic-clones ask about what their families are like.

"What can you tell us about your family?" Ruby asks Appsro.

"Oh boy." Doraleous went.

Appsro explains, "I have many wives and husbands back home with many kids."

Superman raises an eyebrow, "Say what?"

"Yeah. There's Hot Dick Rick, Rekt, Jen, Bob, Hugh, Joel, Bobbi-Joe, Tammy, Shi'thead, and Joe-Bobby. We always have bi-sexual orgies at my place."

Superman and Wolverine are understandably disturbed while Ruby is confused.

"What're orgies?" she asks.

"DON'T!" everyone else say to Ruby.

Superman then asks Simon, "What about your family, Simon?"

"I'm married to Ada with three kids." he replies.

The train goes pass a mountain tunnel as there is a lake to the left side where Duckletts, Swannas, geese, ducks and other waterfowl are resting before a stoneback dugbog uses its tongue to eat one of those creatures. Skarloey saw that and picks-up a little more speed. Disturbed by what he saw. While doing so, they start to pass by a meadow full of spring flowers that are in bloom. Not all of them, but many with bees and bee-like creatures already hard at work collecting nectar and pollen with other pollen and nectar eating species. This help calm Skarloey a little as the fragrant of the flowers enter into his nostrils.

"Doing okay?" Arend asks.

"I am now." he replies.

"Almost there."

The train takes a left on the tracks as they now enter into a valley. The valley has forests of dozens of different tree species and some open plains where some structures can be visible. There is a train yard where there are many coaches hooked-up together and converted into houses with some having porches. There is a small factory not too far from another train station that can be seen on the other side of the valley, a few hobbit-style houses, a few livestock creatures can be seen roaming, a few container homes, and so much more.

"Wow." Ruby went as she look out the window.

"Gentlemen. And lady." Neebs speak, "Welcome to Haphaz."

AN: Hey everyone! Hope you enjoy the new chapter of this really bizarre story. Also, I am also working on the Voxcast for TTS Crusade and it is gonna take a little longer than I thought. In the meantime, hope you enjoy whatever else I will upload while working on that. Later!