Chapter 1-Origins

A few thousand years later

Suit? Check.

Tie? Check.

Looking all nice and neat? Absolutely.

And with that, Jones thought, it's time to get to work.

Here Jones lived, right in the heart of the Imagined Orders' headquarters, and here he's lived for the past few thousand years. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Open up Jones, it's time to get to work!"

And there was his boss Slone, right on schedule.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Let me guess, another meeting? What's it this time, HR complaints? Bad cafeteria food?"

He opened the door just in time to have a paper slammed into his chest.

"For once, no meetings. You're to head to the Zero Chamber immediately. You have ten minutes."

"Any details you'd care to share?"

"You'll find out soon. Patience is key."

And now there was no time for morning coffee. Then again, he never knew if it was morning, as the IO didn't exactly work with a day and night cycle. It's hard to tell if the sun is up when you're in an underground facility. Whatever time he woke up he started to work, and that's how it'd always been.

Jones walked down the hallways he'd seen a million times before. All the guards were stationed, wearing their bulky armor. He could never tell who was who under those masks, as they never spoke. And Jones had tried. The IO was a very secure place, but no room was more secure than the Zero Chamber. Many guards are stationed outside, with plenty of security clearances and cameras watching your every move. Most members of the Order weren't allowed through those doors, but Jones had earned himself the privilege. Some called him their most dedicated Agent, though he himself didn't believe it. But he took pride in his work, and maybe that was enough.

He scanned his ID card, and those big metal doors slid open, revealing a dome-shaped chamber that seemed to reach for the sky. But that was hardly the most important aspect.

"Welcome, Jones. Right on time. I assume you're familiar with this?"

And with that, Slone gestured to the centerpiece of the chamber. This was the reason for the Imagined Orders' existence. In fact, it was the entire reason for all of reality, though even Jones thought that was a hard fact to grasp sometimes. They called it the Zero Point, a giant floating orb which held the most immense power to ever exist. The Zero Point was responsible for the birth of the known multiverse.

As Jones commonly explained it, at the birth of the universe, there was the Zero Point. From there, there became a multiverse that exploded out from the Zero Point, where each of those universes in the multiverse were separated, but contained within that multiverse. They were all the same and followed the same timeline, same planets, same people, but every universe in that multiverse had something slightly different. Whether it be someone taking a different step or an asteroid on a different path, any divergence of anything existed in its own universe, therefore making the multiverse infinite. But now imagine Infinite Multiverses. Each Multiverse was different, with its own set of rules, planets, and people, if any at all. Infinite universes and infinite multiverses made up what was commonly called the Omniverse, a collection of all there is and all there could be. And the Zero Point was the creator of all of that, and with it all those multiverses were accessible through it. In essence, the Zero Point contained all Reality, and it was the IO's job to manage that reality and research it.

"If I wasn't familiar, I wouldn't have a job. Is something wrong with the Point?"

"In fact, no. You remember the Island, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course. Great place, really family friendly. Why, are we planning a vacation?"

"No. We're planning a revamping. Geno wants to try something new."

The IO was formed by Geno, a man that Jones knew next to nothing about. In fact, no one did. All he knew was the Island was his creation, and he used it to host experiments and tests of his. When Jones had gone to the Island, he was able to retain his speech, memories, and everything else that was normal. That wasn't always the case.

Geno had used the Zero Point to create what was called the Loop. Cadets, if they lost on the Island, were stored until the Storm closed in completely, and then it started all over again. Then they didn't retain memories and couldn't speak, but knew they had to fight. Each time they lost and the storm reset, so would their memories. Whenever someone were to be the last standing, they would be transferred to the IO to become either a guard or an Agent. Whenever they left, though, there would be a copy of themselves left on the Island. This is what the IO called a "snapshot", essentially a clone of the original person. All of the original people Jones had fought had gotten escaped the loop, but over time there had been copies left over, and those snapshots typically became guards if they won.

The Loop always lasted for 22 minutes, and that's when the storm would close in completely. When it resets, all the destruction, all the damage, gets reset for the next wave of fights. No trace ever remains of the last loop, meaning each time the actions in the loop would be completely different. And because it resets each time, the Island has never changed. Even though it'd been thousands of years, Jones could walk through the Island exactly how he did before.

"Really? I've been here for, what, more than 5,000 years? Nothing's ever changed on the Island. Nothing with the Loop, nothing with the 'Loopers', not even the weapons!"

Slone looked at him, arms crossed, with a hint of excitement in her eyes.

"We're not going to be the ones changing anything. Geno is implementing a new scenario for people who escape the loop. They won't be serving us anymore."

"Then what? Are we gonna kill them? Firing squad, death rays maybe?"

"Nothing so harsh, Jones. Geno wants to try a new experiment. You know we exist outside of the loops' effects. We don't reset."

"Uh huh."

"Geno is in the final stages of making an Island outside of the loop. We're right underneath the looping island right now, but Genos' making it so that there'll be an Island that works in real time like us. Whatever happens on this non-looped Island will change the loop. Geno watched the same experiments for thousands of years, and frankly, he's grown bored. It's time for change, however long that may take."

"So why are we down here? We can't manipulate the Island."

"Our combatants are made entirely of snapshots, Jones. It's been this way for thousands of years, since before you joined, since before I joined. It's time to change that." She gestured at the Zero Point. "We have all of reality at our fingertips, and Geno wants us to make use of it."

"So you're saying we'll finally get some change around here?"

"That's right. Let me show you. We've found a perfect first candidate."

Slone pressed a button on the control console, and the panels surrounding the Zero Point all shifter into a certain alignment, and when Jones looked into the Zero Point he could make out images. Some biplanes, flying over a desert battlefield, and a woman in a brown, no-sleeved outfit, with black stripes under her eyes piloting the lead plane. Evidently the squadron leader.

"This is a world that's full of terrible things. A world filled with nothing but starvation, psychos, and dust. What you're seeing now is the leader of the Raider Squadron leading a charge against a local warlord."

"So I'm just going to take a wild swing here: we're going to bring her to the Island."

"That's right. We call it Reality Ripping."

And with that, Slone flipped a lever, and the Zero Point surged with energy. Through the Zero Point Jones could see a portal rip open in front of the Raider's biplane and she flew right into it, and as soon as she did it closed immediately after.

"So what happens now?"

"She's now been sent into the loop. According to our research department's calculations, she shows high promise. Want to see if they were right?" Just as Slone said that, a holographic video showed up in front of them, and it showed Raider waking up and attempting to get her bearings. As per usual, the survival instinct kicked in she went off to fight.

But is this right? Jones thought to himself. Taking people from other realities seemed wrong, but he reminded himself what they did here, they did for reality. The Zero Point was the birth of the universe, and it could very well be the end of it. The Imagined Order had to know its capabilities and limitations in order to keep it stable. And he took comfort in the fact that they wouldn't remember what they had left, and maybe, just maybe, he could be looking at the start of a brand-new civilization that could start on the new Island. That was exciting, to him at least.

Chapter 1-Epilouge

On the hilltop to her right. That's where they were hiding. She knew it.

Her rifle had only three rounds left. She was badly hurt, and one more bullet would be the death of her. A tree was her only source of protection, and that weird storm was closing in on their location. There wasn't any choice. She had to run to them.

As she poked her head out, she could see the man carefully watching below him, scanning all of the ground below. There was no way she could win this.

Unless she tricked him.

There were branches laying on the ground around her, and she had a bundle of string on her belt. Where it came from, she didn't know, or more accurately, didn't remember. But that didn't matter. She took one of the stronger branches and stuck it where in the trigger hole, right where her finger would be. Then she took the string and tied the two together very, very carefully. And then she threw it to the bundle of trees on her left, and the gun landed in such a way that the stick was pushed back and the gun opened fire.

Perfect.

The man on the hill's direction was quickly diverted. That's where the last person had to be. And that's when Raider made a run for the right side of the hill. She was thankful that she couldn't make any sound from her mouth, because it gave her that much of an edge. The path she took led straight up the hill and right to where the enemy was standing, and there he was, laying prone on his stomach, intent on finding where she was.

There was no better opportunity. She crouched and slowly, silently crept over to where he laid. Then she stood up, brought her leg back, and kicked with all her force right between his. He writhed in agony, and she was able to grab his gun from his hand and open fire.

Dead in an instant. She felt sorry for using such a tactic, but she didn't regret it. The storm was about to engulf her, and she was ready to accept her fate when suddenly there was a bright light from the sky that engulfed her instead. What the hell? Was her last thought before she was whished away.

"Ohhhh damn."

She could feel grass in between her fingers. Her body pressed against the ground. She didn't remember a place like this.

Come to think of it, she didn't remember anything at all.

She sprung up, more out of an unknown reflex, and was ready to fight, but there was nothing except the sounds of nature around her and trees towering over her.

And that's when the memories came flooding back; the memories of the time she was stuck fighting, of the battle she just won. But nothing beyond that.

That can't be my whole life, can it?

There she was, on the same hilltop where she killed the last man, and from that hill she was able to see an island, full on towns and grass greener than anything she could imagine. But where there others in the same predicament she was in? Only one way to find out.