Nexus HWR 11.4 First Clue:
Somewhere in Southern Aebrith
"Hey Killua. Killua, Kil wake up," Dash urged the boy on his back. He was running with Killua's body draped over his back so the older boy's chin was resting on Dash's right shoulder. The speedster was holding onto Kil's legs to keep him up while sprinting at incredible speeds south. It had been a full day since he ran away from the monsters hurting him and his friends. He had been running south when he saw what looked like a sun appear behind him which made him pick up his speed even more. The sun separated him from his friends but he figured he needed to save Killua over getting back to them anyway.
When night fell it was too hard for him to find out where he was, so he tried to rest, but monsters came at him in the dark. He had to fight them but too many swarmed his position and he picked Kil up and ran away. Now he was sleep-deprived, hungry, thirsty, and he had no idea if his friends survived that giant sun and the dragon beneath it. The suns were up again so that was a positive, but he had no idea where he was in relation to anything. He was without a doubt, lost.
"Just keep running Dash," he mumbled to himself. "You gotta get Killua to a doctor." He looked at the head on his right shoulder but Killua's eyes were still closed. The white haired teen had been unresponsive for days now, and Dash was losing hope fast. Dash darted his eyes around looking for something that could help him find- As he was looking around he was still running over three hundred miles per hour. He thought he was fine doing it since he could process things pretty fast even if they came out of nowhere, but the thing that appeared in front of him shocked him way too much for him to come to a sudden stop.
Dash ran straight over a hill and down the other side, and while he was looking around he ran straight through an invisible forcefield. He did not even know he had until he reached the other side of it and a building previously hidden to him became visible. It was like the empty field he was running on suddenly had a building on it, actually several buildings all inside a long and tall steel wall that ran around the entire front and sides of the base. Dash slammed his feet on the ground hard to skid to a stop, but his feet dragged into the floor and he kept going for several yards until he reached the building's wall.
He was still moving too fast, so as soon as Dash hit the wall he shouted, "Going up!" He picked back up his feet and ran forward, picking back up speed again before jumping towards the wall, and then instantly running straight up once he touched down. The wall was only twenty meters high and Dash sprinted up it in seconds. At one point he ran past a line of windows and spotted people inside who screamed in shock at the blur racing up their wall. Hope these people are friendly, Dash thought as he got up to the top of the wall. He landed on top of it and looked to his left and right, to see several men running towards him.
"Help!" Dash called out. The guys running his way with weapons raised heard his voice and saw his appearance and their threatening looks started to fade. Dash put Killua down and he looked towards the man who ran towards him the fastest of the guards. "Please, do you have a doctor?"
"How did you find this place?" the man in front of him asked.
"I, just, was running around," Dash said nervously. The guy did not look like he believed him but Dash continued, "Please, my friend. I think he's dying."
The guard and the others with him looked at the older boy with spiky white hair not moving on the ground. "Are you sure he's even alive?" One of them questioned grimly. "He doesn't look-"
"He's alive," Dash shouted. "I know he is." He looked back at the other boy on the ground and thought back to the day they separated. Killua put his nails up to Natsu's throat, and Dash grabbed his wrist to stop him. He did not trust Killua enough back then, and the first time he saw him in weeks, the older boy had just died after saving Natsu's life. Please Killua, I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I'll make sure you get better.
"What's going on here?" someone asked in a deep voice behind some of the guards. They spun around in surprise not having heard the man approach and they moved apart at the sight of who it was standing there.
"Sir! This boy showed up out of nowhere. We saw a dot on the radar moving over three hundred miles per hour in our direction. We think it was him," the guard on Dash's left reported.
Dash looked at the dark-haired man wearing a ninja headband and he looked at him with pleading eyes. "I'm begging you. Help my friend. If you have a doctor, help him."
"Why should we? Who are you? Who are you loyal to?" The man who seemed to be in charge questioned.
"I'm," Dash looked a little nervous but he made himself look assured. He continued, "I'm an ally of the Resistance. My name is Dash. And you should help me because if you don't," he narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him, and rose up his right hand that a ball of white light formed in. "I'll destroy this place in a second." The ball of ki doubled in size and the others all around Dash backed away fast.
The ninja looking at Dash narrowed his eyes, then said in a calm voice, "Alright. If you are an ally of the Resistance, we'll help you." Dash's face lit up and the ball of energy in it disappeared. "Lancelot will bring you to our doctor," he continued, and motioned to the guard who ran fastest of the others up to Dash when he arrived.
Lancelot nodded at their leader who then vanished from sight a second later. The knight with long black hair and a sword on his back but also a beam rifle in his hands nodded down at Dash. "Follow me kid," he said and reached down for Killua. Before he could grab the unconscious kid, Dash picked up his own friend and looked at the guard cautiously. Lancelot held up his hands defensively. "Whoa there Dash," he said, using the boy's name to try and sound friendly. Dash looked at him with a hesitant gaze and the friendly guard continued, "We're all on the same side. No need to feel nervous here. You're safe now."
Dash nodded his head slowly and he started walking forward. His guide nodded back at him and then started walking as well to lead Dash over the wall. As they walked, Dash eased closer to the edge and he looked off at the inside of the wall. From the front of the base he could not see how long the side walls went back for, but from the inner part of the wall he could see it and the sight made him drop his jaw in awe.
"Pretty amazing huh?" Lancelot asked back to the boy he heard let out an audible gasp of amazement. "Stretches four miles south, but only two hundred meters wide."
"Why?" Dash questioned.
"Haha, actually it used to be a square base, but when someone wanted to make an addition they knocked down one wall and extended it north. Every time they've made an addition since, they knock down the newly rebuilt wall and push it farther," Lancelot explained. Dash looked at him like that was stupid and Lancelot laughed some more, "Hey kid, it's easier to knock down a two hundred meter wall than either of the longer ones, and it's not like we can go any farther south."
"Huh? Why's that?" Dash asked.
"Don't you know how far south you are kid?" Lancelot asked, actually stopping this time to turn and look at the boy. Dash shook his head no and the guard in front of him sighed. "Any farther south, and you get into the Wizard's territory. Everything south of here from east to west coast is all his. And the Wizard's land is just about the most dangerous place you can find on this planet."
"Is the Wizard that strong?" Dash wondered.
"He calls himself the Wizard King," Lancelot said. "Though it's not like he has any subjects. The entire south from here to the southern coast, ten thousand miles, is nothing but wasteland."
"What? Why?!" Dash shouted. "Did people used to live there?" He asked nervously.
"Yeah," Lancelot said, his voice darker. "All those who didn't escape north, didn't make it out at all."
Dash opened his eyes wide and he gulped. He found himself shaking and he understood why Gray was always so grim when talking about Aebrith. Everyone for ten thousand miles? That's horrible. What could have killed them all? Dash's train of thought derailed as Lancelot reached a point on the wall that looked like a guard post. There were some other men over here, and it was a wider section of the wall than the rest. Lancelot walked right into the middle of the thicker area and Dash followed him. "Send us down," the guard announced, and one of the others near him tapped on a panel sticking out of the inner railing of the wall.
Chr-Clank! Dash stumbled and almost fell as the floor beneath his feet jerked under him. The platform they were apparently on started to descend into the wall and Dash looked around amazed to find himself in some sort of elevator. "Where are we going?" Dash asked the man next to him.
"The Commander said to take you to the doctor," Lancelot replied. "So that's just what I'm going to do." The elevator clanked to a stop and Dash looked at a wall that had a crack in the middle of it. The vertical crack opened up and both sides of it pushed into the walls. Lancelot walked out so Dash followed behind. He heard a quiet moan and darted his eyes to his right shoulder, but Killua was not moving at all. Did I imagine it? Dash thought.
The guard led him out of the elevator and into a hallway that must have gone through the bottom of the wall. They did not walk to the sides in the hall though, instead just walked across the hall from the elevator's opening and part of the inner wall opened up just like the elevator's doors. The door slid open and Dash walked out of the wall into the inside part of the fort. He shielded his eyes for a second from the bright suns, then looked around the inside of the fort with amazed eyes. From up on the high wall he did not get such a great look, but down here he could see that the inside of the fort looked more like a town than anything. It was a heavily fortified town, with everyone walking around in armor and armed to the teeth.
There were steel buildings close to the walls, most of which were not as tall as the walls around them. The buildings were all square or rectangle-shaped, so as to fit inside the walls of this long, thin fort. Lancelot led Dash down the main path in between the two sides of buildings pretty far. The guard explained how a hospital was one of the first buildings necessary in a base like this, so it was farther south. As they went south, Dash started to notice something and he lifted his gaze to look at it. "What is that?" Dash muttered as he saw the very end of the fort in the southern direction. There was a large building at the very southernmost point that was taller than the walls around most of the fort, but it was still only as tall as the southern wall was high.
Lancelot stopped for a second to let Dash take it all in. Dash stared at the tall southern wall and then turned his head left and right to follow the wall in both directions away from the fort. The wall did not just go horizontally against the back of the fort, but on the sides it seemed to curve around north as if to protect from anything that was coming from the south, southeast, or southwest. There were guards all over the walls normally, but that southern wall Dash could see twice the number of guards as the rest of the walls had.
"Again, you don't want to go south," the guard repeated. Lancelot motioned towards a building on the western side of the fort that had a red cross symbol on the front of it. "This is it," he said, and they turned down a smaller path off of the main one to head towards the hospital. The hospital was a long building, and it looked three stories tall. There were two medical tents outside the front of it, but Lancelot walked between them towards the front doors. "It doesn't look like your friend needs this simple type of treatment," Lancelot stated with a glance back at the unmoving boy on Dash's back. "I'll take you to our best doctor. He might know what to do."
"Are you sure?" Dash asked with wide eyes.
"I said 'might,' so don't get your hopes up too high kid," Lancelot warned him. The guard had long curly black hair and fair skin, a beard of light stubble on his cheeks and chin, and what looked like three claw marks down the left side of his face. The scars were partially hidden by his beard, but it looked like a tiger or some other ferocious animal had done it to him. Lancelot continued as he walked up to the front doors, "Dr. T's really great. Got mauled by an Ursa a couple months back, he patched me up good as new." As they entered the building, Lancelot lifted up his uniform around the waist a little and showed Dash his left side. Most of the skin there was scar tissue, but Lancelot smiled as Dash winced, "Didn't think I was going to survive it. No one did."
Although Lancelot told him not to get his hopes up, Dash was getting excited at how good of a doctor Lancelot was making this Dr. T out to be. "Hey Doc!" Lancelot called out. He looked left and right down the main hall of the first floor, and a female nurse came out of a door and looked over to them.
"The doctor is upstairs," she told them. She spotted the boy on Dash's back and her eyes widened, "Hurry, he's on the third floor."
"Alright!" Dash said. Lancelot turned to tell Dash to follow him, but by the time he had turned, Dash had sprinted towards the staircase and ran up to the second floor. He heard Lancelot call out to wait for him, but he was already on the third floor by that point. Dash spun back and forth as he reached the third floor's hall and he called out, "Dr. T! I need help!"
"Who is that?" a high-pitched voice called out. Dash thought Lancelot said the doctor was a 'he' but that voice did not sound like a man's. He ran towards it right as a figure was stepping out of a door and Dash skid to a stop. His eyes widened at the sight of the figure in front of him, an eight foot tall man with wide shoulders covered in dark brown fur. He was very muscular but his face looked young, even if it was covered in fur. He had on a light blue hat with a pink rim and a pink semi-circle on the front of it with a white 'X' in the middle. The furry man in front of him had huge abs, pecs, arms, and even his neck was surrounded in a thicker coat of fur that looked strong. He was wearing only a pair of orange shorts along with the hat he had on, but he did not really look like a man at all, despite his clothes and the fact that he was standing upright on two legs.
Before Dash could ask any questions, the huge guy jogged towards him. "What's wrong with him?" The big man asked in a strange voice that sounded manly but also young. Dash was blanking as he looked at this strange figure but the man looked at him and shouted, "Do you know?"
"Oh, uh," Dash shook his head around. He looked the furry guy in the eyes, "Are, are you the doctor?"
"I'm Doctor Tony, but everyone calls me Dr. T," the guy covered in fur replied. He reached down and plucked the older boy off of Dash's back and rested Killua in his comfortable-looking arms like a baby.
Dr. T started running off and Dash ran right behind him. The doctor asked what was wrong again and Dash replied, "This guy, um, the Fire Lord. He hit Kil with a bolt of lightning right in his chest. Killua could control lightning, but, Natsu said it was a condensed bolt or something."
Dr. Tony ran into an empty operating room and he put the boy with white spiky hair down on a table. He examined the wound on Killua's chest that had sealed somehow, but in a strange way he had never seen before. The placement of the wound too and how bad it looked, it made Dr. T shake his head in stunned amazement. "How, did he survive this?" The doctor asked.
"Is it bad?" Dash asked.
"Bad?" Dr. T repeated. He put on a stethoscope and put the end part on Kil's chest. "He's breathing, but, only barely. I need to operate immediately."
"What? What's wrong with him?" Dash asked, getting louder.
The furry doctor called for a nurse and Dash kept shouting questions at him. Dr. T finally snapped his head down, "Please, I'll help your friend. You need to leave the room though." Two nurses ran into the room and Lancelot came in behind them. The doctor put an i.v. into Killua's arm and a few seconds later a heart rate monitor started beeping. The beeps came every three seconds, and the nurses and the doctor shared a look that did not make Dash feel reassured.
"What's going to happen to him? You'll help him right?!"
"Please, I have to ask you to leave," one of the nurses, another animal creature though a female deer with a slimmer form, said.
Dr. T looked over the shorter woman's head. "I'll do everything I can," he said while making eye contact with the blond boy.
Lancelot ushered a reluctant Dash out of the room, and one of the nurses closed the door behind them. Dash raked his hands through his hair, I knew it was bad, but they make it seem like, like he's really going to… "Why can't I watch what's going on?" Dash asked, turning to the guard who led him to the building who looked slightly out of breath.
"You can," Lancelot assured him. He motioned over towards a turn in the hallway and led Dash over to it. They walked around the operating room and Lancelot turned to look inside a window. Dash was too short but there was a bench across the hall from the window. He grabbed the bench, lifted it up with one hand, and put it closer to the operating room's window before getting up on it and looking through. "Sure are strong kid," Lancelot complimented him.
"Thanks," Dash mumbled, not really caring about the praise at the moment. He looked into the room and watched as the furry doctor got to work on the boy on the operating table. A few minutes in, the tall muscular doctor transformed into a tiny creature only a foot or two tall. Dash was surprised but he kept watching as the smaller creature had hooves for hands now, but his hands were smaller and he was able to stand on the operating table and have his head much closer to Killua's injury.
"Come on," Lancelot began once he saw the doctor pulling out a scalpel. "You don't need to see this." Dash made to keep watching but the guard put an arm in front of him and nudged the kid off the bench. "Let's go to the waiting room," Lancelot said. Dash looked up at him with complaining eyes but Lancelot kept a hand down on the boy's shoulder and led him away from the OR. "How did your friend get so hurt anyway?" Lancelot asked.
"Fighting the Fire Lord," Dash replied.
The guard stopped where he was and looked down at Dash in shock. "No way," the man muttered, but Dash nodded his head. He looked back at the room behind him, "So, he's the one who took down High Lord Sozin?"
"No," Dash said softly. "He failed, and my friends Natsu and Luffy took him down afterwards."
"That's still amazing though," Lancelot said. Dash looked at the older man confusedly and Lancelot continued, "Surviving a fight with a High Lord, I know I could never do that. Not in a million years. You must have some really powerful friends." Lancelot scratched his chin for a few seconds, "Though, you said you were allies of the Resistance. Does that mean taking down the Fire Lord was not a Resistance mission?" Lancelot questioned. "Because I could have sworn-"
"It was," Dash began, "kind of." He started explaining how Hiei told them to try and take him down, but their own reasons for fighting Sozin came more from their own goals and the kind of people they were. The two of them were talking while walking around the hospital, as Lancelot led Dash down to the second floor and then down the hall to a door at the end. There was a bridge on the other side of the door leading to a thicker building across an open-air section inside the base. They walked across the steel bridge and into the next building down which was a lot more open. There were less rooms on the sides of the hall and more just large open areas.
Lancelot led Dash over to a section where there was a comfy couch, a television on the corner of the wall, and a few recliner chairs. He sat down on one of the chairs but Dash could not sit. He kept glancing behind him and pacing even though Lancelot continuously tried distracting him with conversation. At one point Lancelot ran out of conversation ideas, and it had been quite a while since they left Killua. Dash kept asking to go back but Lancelot told him that he would be notified if anything happened.
Dash grumbled in anxious anticipation and he kept pacing across the small section. On occasion people would walk by but he overall ignored them while he kept worrying about his friend's condition. The looks on those nurses and the doctor's faces when they saw Killua's wound snuck into his mind and he clenched his sweaty fists nervously. He stopped walking and thought about what he was going to do, but while his thoughts were pretty loud, he could still hear people in the outside world, and there were three men walking down the hall in his direction.
"So I told him, 'Hell no I'm not going in there!' Damn Echo Leader thinks all of us are as indestructible as he is!"
The others with him murmured in agreement, while the boy down the hall a little lost his train of thought completely. His face scrunched up and he looked confused. Lancelot had been watching him amusedly from a chair nearby, but this was a new expression Dash had not been showing for the past hour. It was recognition. Really confused recognition, but a recognizing look nonetheless. "What?" Dash mumbled under his breath, almost like he was asking himself why he was tensing up, why he was acting so weird.
He tried getting back to thinking about Killua, but he heard laughter down the hall the opposite direction as where he was waiting. "So how about it guys? Want to go check out this kid they brought into the infirmary? Word is he actually took down the Fire Lord."
"I heard he's the one who destroyed all of Pyraxas too," another man's voice added on.
"Come on guys," the same voice that Dash recognized spoke up again. "There's a kid in the hospital, let's save the rumors for when he gets out. Okay?" The voice was getting closer and Dash turned around to look at the hallway near their open area where footsteps were approaching. "For now, I wanna get me an evaluation from Nurse Joy." Some hoots and hollers sounded next to the man, and then he stepped through the opening into the wider area that he had to go through to get to the other end of the hall and the door leading to the hospital.
The tall, thin, black man who stepped into the room looked left as he spotted some people out the corner of his eye. There were white men walking on either side of him, both of whom were wearing costumes like him. One of the lighter-skinned guys had on a red suit of spandex with a red cape flapping behind him and a large yellow letter 'M' on the front of his suit. The other had on a dark blue spandex suit that was lighter blue on his boots, gloves, and around his neck area. The white guy wearing blue also had a tight black mask over the top of his head and a weird visor over his eyes. The visor was similar to the black man in the middle's, who had a tight white mask over the top of his head instead of black. Most of his spandex costume was teal blue, with only white highlights near the top of his torso, his gloves, and his boots.
The tall black man stopped in place as he glanced to his left. He looked back forward, then did a double-take to his left. The other two with him turned as well and looked at the young boy who the man between them was gawking at. The tallest of the three, the dark-skinned man, reached up to his visor and lifted it up above his eyes to show how huge they really were as he stared at the kid standing there. "Hey Lucius, what's up?" the guy with an 'M' on his costume asked.
"Mr. Best?" Dash muttered, still somewhat in shock at the sight of the man who just strolled down the hall.
"You know this kid?" the guy in a darker blue suit than Lucius Best asked.
"Y-Yeah," Lucius began. His eyes were still huge but his lips curled up into a smile. The hero better known by his alias, Frozone, grinned at the kid in front of him, and said, "This is Dash. He's Mr. Incredible's son."
The other two heroes next to Frozone looked shocked by that bit of knowledge. "Hey kid, me and your dad go way back," the guy with the 'M' on his super suit began. "He ever talk about me? Meta Man!" The guy flexed his arms and Dash's eyes went wide in shock.
"He did!" Dash exclaimed. "He said you were the strongest hero of your time."
"What about Gazerbeam?" the guy in blue asked and he flexed his arms too.
Dash stared at him for a few seconds and then shook his head 'no.' Gazerbeam bowed his head while the other two heroes laughed. Dash's face was lighting up and he sprinted away for a second and reappeared holding a cup of water that he got from somewhere close by. "Look out!" Dash shouted and he squeezed the cup, squirting all the water out.
Frozone grinned and he ran forward, sliding under the water and breathing at it. The water froze mid-flight and dropped to the ground as an icicle. "Haha! It is you!" Dash shouted. The man who got their long-time tradition right grinned as well that Dash remembered it after so long.
"Wow! Look how big you've gotten," Frozone said as he walked towards the boy. He looked down and laughed, "Well, maybe not that big."
"Hey!" Dash shouted.
The heroes all laughed, and then Meta Man spoke up, "So how are your parents doing kid?"
Dash smiled, "They're doing great. Unlike you the last I heard," Dash chided and the hero who passed away on their world looked surprised for a second before bursting into laughter with the others. They all remembered Meta Man's death via freak-cape-accident, and as sad as it was, it was also pretty funny now that they could laugh about it.
Frozone slowed down his laughter and he gained a more serious look on his face. Dash saw that look and he looked at Frozone confusedly. The hero with ice powers began, "Actually, there is something important I need to talk to your parents' about. They around Dash?"
Dash looked at his Godfather hesitantly, wondering why the man seemed all serious all of a sudden. "Why?"
"It's important," Frozone emphasized.
"Why? What is it?" Dash asked.
"Come on kid, is your dad here, or not?" Frozone asked, getting a little impatient.
"I'd guess he's not," the man who got up behind Dash began. The heroes looked towards the guard who they did not think was with Dash until now. Lancelot walked forward and motioned down at the kid, "He came running this way at a few hundred miles per hour. Had a kid on his back he was trying to save."
"You're the one who-" Meta Man began, but Dash interrupted them all.
"What do you need to tell my parents?" Dash snapped. Frozone looked hesitant and Dash added, "They're on the opposite side of the world. Not even on Aebrith." The other men looked surprised, especially that this meant that Dash had been around pretty much this entire world. "Whatever it is, you can tell me," Dash assured the older man.
Frozone hummed to himself for a few seconds before nodding. He looked at the other two heroes, "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up in a few."
They nodded at him and told Dash it was nice to meet him and to tell his father they said 'hi' if he ran into them any time soon. As they walked off, Lancelot asked Frozone if he was okay taking Dash off his hands. Frozone accepted and Lancelot left to head back to his post on the wall, while Frozone turned the other way and told Dash to follow him. Dash was getting impatient again as the man still was not talking, but as he opened his mouth to complain, Lucius spoke first. "Your family? Are they all together? Your dad, mom, and Violet?" The superhuman questioned him.
Dash felt strange at the sound of that question, almost like Frozone worded it oddly. "Yeah, we were all together on Awul. Another huge continent like Aebrith, but smaller," Dash explained. "The only one who wasn't-"
"I know," Frozone said. He came to a sudden stop and looked down at Dash, "Your little brother right?"
Dash's eyes went wide, "How, did you know?"
"Because I found little JackJack," Frozone replied, and Dash almost jumped out of his shoes at that answer.
"What? Where? When? Where is he now?!"
"Whoa whoa, hold your horses little man," Frozone said. He knocked on a door twice and then pushed it open so he and Dash could go into the empty room. There were maps all over the walls of this room and a long rectangular table in the center of it. Frozone walked over to the table and continued talking to Dash, "As for where I found him, I have no idea. But the when, it was the First Day. Kid nearly fell on top of me after I showed up here." Frozone laughed a little and he said, "You know, your pops never told me how strong that baby was."
"Strong?" Dash wondered, distracted from all his other questions for a second.
"You didn't know?" Frozone asked. "Man, that baby's got more powers than I can count. Sure was a handful to handle."
"Where is he now?" Dash asked. "Is he here? In this base?" The blond boy was getting more excited by the second.
Frozone saw how excited Dash was and he sighed, "Sorry, but no."
"What? Why would you… oh no," Dash looked horrified but Frozone threw his hands up in front of him.
"Hold on there, stop what you're thinking," Lucius yelled at him. Dash's distraught look became more confused and Lucius continued, "I watched after him for a while, but I got caught up in this whole Resistance thing. I didn't want to drag my best friend's son into it too. I knew it was going to be dangerous going up against the King-"
"So you left him alone?!" Dash exclaimed.
"Will you let me finish child?!" Frozone snapped and Dash closed his mouth. The older hero from Dash's world took a deep breath and said, "Sorry. Didn't mean to yell like that. Just listen for a second though." Dash nodded his head at the man to continue so he did, "I left JackJack with some friends. Really nice people who I trusted a lot. And they're also in one of the only safe places on all of Aebrith, so your brother is as safe as he can be."
"Safe places, here?" Dash asked. From what he had seen so far, and all of what Gray and others had told him, there was nowhere safe on the entire continent. "How do you know?"
"This place," Frozone began. "It has no monsters, no wars, and the King himself can not go there."
Dash's eyes went wide as he imagined the terrifying King. What could possibly stop something like that from going where it pleases? "Where is this place?" He asked.
Frozone stared at the boy, looked him up and down a few times wondering what to do. Dash looked back at him seriously and Frozone finally nodded his head. "Alright, com'ere," he motioned with his head to his side of the table. Dash ran around it and hopped up on a chair next to his dad's best friend. He looked down at the table and at a map on it that appeared to show all of Aebrith. Frozone pointed down at a red dot near the bottom of the map, and he said, "This is us." Dash looked at the dot and it was right on this black line that cut across the bottom of the map, splitting the rest of the continent south of it from everything above. There was only one other line similar and it was labeled, 'Cataclysm,' which was much further to the north. Dash was also surprised by how far to the west he still was even after heading east for so long after landing.
There were entire sections of the map blacked-out, other sections had red lines around them, some with green borders. There were a few large islands drawn on the map, one near the southeast corner that was as large as Australia. This island had a green outline on it like many other areas in the south, unlike the north that had no green to speak of. Scattering the south were also red-bordered countries, and there were actually more of those scattered around below the Cataclysm than the green ones. Dash examined this entire map in a little under a second with eyes that darted around insanely fast. Frozone kept talking, not knowing that Dash had already taken everything in, "There are very few safe zones," he said. Frozone dragged his finger up from their red dot to a point in the far east, close to the eastern coast and still south of the Cataclysm Line. That spot had an 'X' mark in black marker over it, and that was it. "This is one," Frozone explained, and then he started dragging his finger across the map to the northwest.
Dash followed his finger across the Cataclysm line and then a little farther to a few triangle shapes drawn on the western edge of the map. There was an 'X' drawn over the biggest triangle, and a small black circle going around the 'X' with it perfectly in the center. "What is that place?" Dash asked.
"That, is where I left your brother," Frozone replied. Dash's eyes widened and he kept staring at the map while his old family friend continued, "That mountain below the X, is commonly known as Mount Vegeta." Dash's face scrunched up in confusion and he lifted his eyes to Frozone with a look that said, 'Huh?' Frozone missed the look though as he was still staring at the point on the map carefully, "The Saiyan King declared that any towns within a hundred mile radius of the base of Mount Vegeta were under his protection. After he declared that, everyone for thousands of miles left for the Saiyan Mountains to set up residence."
"Saiyan Mountains, Mount Vegeta, Saiyan King?" Dash shook his head as he repeated all of this out loud.
"What is it?" Frozone asked the confused child.
Goku said he felt other Saiyans, is this what he meant? Are there a bunch of Saiyans up there, protecting people? "Wait, so if the King can't go to this place," Dash began as he realized something. "Does that mean the Saiyans are stronger than him?" His eyes were wide and he waited for an answer.
Frozone shook his head, "I wouldn't say 'Saiyans' plural, but the Saiyan King can definitely hold his own. I left JackJack in a town on the eastern side of the second biggest of the Saiyan Mountains."
"Where?" Dash asked, motioning at the map.
"Hey kid, you aren't planning on-" Lucius was cut off by a stern look from Dash.
"I'm going to find my brother," Dash said. "It's the whole reason I'm on this continent. I came here to find him, and to bring him back to my parents." Dash looked back at the map and his face stayed serious but he whispered, "If he's still there, I could get him, and bring him home in a few days. If I run as fast as I can, I know I can do it." Dash's fists clenched at his sides. Mom, Dad, Violet, I'm bringing him back. I'm bringing my baby brother home.
"If you're sure about that," Frozone began, "then I won't try to stop you kid. Is the place the rest of your family is at safer than what I just described though?" Frozone questioned. "Maybe you should get them and bring them to him," he suggested.
"No," Dash said and shook his head. "Pao Town's as safe as anywhere on this planet. The mayor of the town is Son Goku."
"The Super Saiyan?" Frozone asked in surprise. "I would'a thought he lived on top of Mount Vegeta with the rest of 'em."
"That's where the rest of the Saiyans are?" Dash asked, looking back at the map. That means, I could get JackJack and then find Goku too! Everyone's been looking for him, so leaving them all for a little to help my brother won't be so bad. Ben, Luffy, everyone, I'll come back. I promise. Dash grabbed the map on the table in front of him and he crumpled it up before shoving it in his pocket.
"Hey! You can't do-"
"Thanks Mr. Best! I'll tell my parents you say 'hi,'" Dash shouted, already running for the door.
"Hold up!" Frozone waved his hand at the door to try and freeze it shut, but Dash saw it coming and picked up his speed before Frozone could stop him. He chuckled as he heard the man shouting behind him, but he stopped laughing after a second and steadied his expression. He ran out of the building and down the path in the middle of the fort. Lancelot was halfway back to his post when a blur raced by him and he almost fell to the ground at how fast the boy was moving. He snapped his head forward and watched as the blur leapt up in the air and cleared the northern wall in one single leap.
Dash landed outside of the fort and never once looked back. Even if he had, it would have become invisible after a few seconds. He ran up and down hills and across plains of blue grass, followed by green, followed by red. He never stopped. The men at the base who recorded him coming towards them dropped their jaws at how much faster he left than he approached. Every second until he disappeared from their radar their mouths continued to drop at his constantly increasing speed. I'm going to do it! Out of everyone, I'm going to accomplish my goal first! The boy started smiling as he ran, and he jumped up in the air and fist-pumped just for the heck of it. I can't wait to see the look on Violet's face when I bring back JackJack. Everyone's going to be so surprised.
Dash threw both arms up in the air and he ran up a hill and leapt over it, making him soar through the air like a rocket. The boy's face was getting pushed back by the wind but he did not care. He just opened up his flapping lips and let loose, "WOOHOOO!"
Capital
"Your Majesty," Shaiapouf began, anxiety clear in his voice. "As your Royal Guard I feel it is my duty to tell you that this is a terrible idea!" The skinny, butterfly-winged Chimera Ant wearing a button down white shirt and long blue pants had sweat all over his face. Pouf ran in front of the marching King and walked backwards so as not to slow down Meruem's strides while being able to talk to him face to face. "In the last half year you have not absorbed the designated goal we made at the end of the Third War of the Gods. If you go now-"
"It is likely I will fail," Meruem said, though his lips curled up as he did. Pouf's expression only became more scared and the Ant King continued, "In that case, it is up to you, my Royal Guards, to ensure that I do not. I am putting more trust in you than ever before. Do not let me down, Shaiapouf," Meruem said, stopping for a second to look in his Royal Guard's eyes and show he really meant it.
Pouf almost fell down as he felt his heart thump so hard from those words. "King!" He exclaimed in pure ecstasy. Hearing the King had so much faith in him made even him, the most cautious of the three Royal Guards, believe that he would be able to protect Meruem in this upcoming mission.
"Even with all three of us guarding you," Menthuthuyoupi, or Youpi, began. The largest of the Royal Guards, Youpi was a ten foot tall monster covered in bulging reddish-purple muscles that were darker only around his waist and thighs. "There will be nothing we can do when he shows up."
Pitou sped up on the King's left side, opposite where Youpi was walking. The cat-like Chimera Ant had a small smile on her face but even she could not hide her anxiety at the aspect of this venture. "Last time, he spared our lives. But…"
"I remember," The King said, as there was no need to remind him of anything with his perfect memory. "He said that the next time I tried something, he would not hesitate to kill me." Meruem's purple irises shrank, his eyes narrowed, and his mouth curled up into a bloodthirsty smirk. "I am ready though. There can only be one King."
The three Royal Guards of the Ant King all nodded their heads as this was something they one hundred percent agreed with their King on. Ever since arriving on this planet, the idea that there were beings stronger than their King has plagued them, but they never once faltered in their loyalty to Meruem. "It has been months since I last faced the Saiyan King, I know I will win now. I doubt he used his full power against me last time, but still, I have faith that this time I will defeat him."
The King swung his green-and-black-striped tail behind him, and a dark purple aura surrounded his body. The air around him started to distort a darker color that made the three Royal Guards smirk or grin along with him as his confidence spread into their bodies. His emotions flooded into them and their fears and anxieties over the King's possible defeat were alleviated. "The world has become complacent ever since the Third War of the Gods. I have grown bored," his mouth continued to curve up as he said these things despite what he was saying. "Countless tournaments and minor wars have been fought since then, but none have given me the entertainment I know the Saiyan King will provide." Meruem glared at the double doors at the end of the hall and they swung open so hard they ripped off their hinges.
Over four dozen figures stood or sat around a huge room on the other side of the doors. The doors were at the top of fifty stairs, leading down into an enormous room full of giant purple pillars that stretched hundreds of feet into the air before hitting the dark ceiling high above. Lights floated around in bubbles, and chairs with lights coming out the bottoms of them allowed those sitting on them to float around with ease. Those who were standing, some of whom were standing in midair as if the air they were on was a floor in itself, turned towards the door and knelt where they were. All of those in seats around the room got out of their chairs as fast as possible when they saw that dark purple aura seeping out of the double doors up above and into the room. They all knelt before the King of the Chimera Ants, the King of the Cooperative, of most of Aebrith. If anyone asked, every one of them would say that he was the King of the world, but Meruem knew that they would be lying if they said that. Even if they said it to his face, he would know that a part of them felt that it was not true, because the knowledge that he could not defeat the Saiyan King was well known, even if not one person would ever bring it up in fear for their lives.
As Meruem stepped into the huge hall that he could not see the end of from the double doors leading into his personal quarters, he was thinking about all of these things. His eyes quickly darted around to look at everyone in the room and he thought about how none of them would dare mention his defeat to the Saiyan leader over five months before. Only two have been so daring. Satan, whom I know will still oppose me even if I am to succeed. And Zeref, the immortal. He has my respect more than the demon, but after I defeat the Saiyan King, I will no longer have to worry about either of them. He hummed to himself, Actually, that is not true. When I obtain that power, I will feel even more confident, but be sure to remember this moment. Remember all the moments after coming to this world and before where you were too confident. And remember him, he thought, and his gaze lowered to the center of his grand hall where a human figure with white hair tied back in a ponytail and a very muscular figure knelt before him. Meruem grinned at the body of Isaac Netero down below, even if he knew that the figure he was looking at was not the same as the man who killed him on his own world.
The King had not said anything for several seconds, and the people kneeling all over the air and floor of the room lifted up their heads to look at him. Standing on his left were Pouf and Pitou, and on his right taking up more space than the other two was Youpi. Isaac Netero, the man directly in front of the King at the bottom of the stairs, lifted his head and curled his lips up at the King. The body of the strongest human to live on Meruem's world smirked in a way that Netero never would have, and the alien in control of his body made eye contact with Meruem. "Ginyu," Meruem said, glad the figure made eye contact with him. "Would you accompany me as well?"
The rumors going around the room were confirmed by this one statement and everyone started looking around at each other. Some of them felt like whispering in hushed voices to their neighbors, but the King's dark purple aura suddenly expanded to cover the entire hall and no one said a word. No one, except for High Commander Ginyu who un-knelt and stood before the King. He slammed a fist into his chest so fast that most figures in the room could not see him move. "I would be honored Your Majesty!"
Meruem looked around the rest of the room and he called out, "Who else would risk their lives to subjugate the Saiyans?" In an instant, every figure in the room got up off their knees. The King could see hesitant and nervous looks on many faces, but not one stayed on their knees. He knew, that they knew, they could have stayed down as well. Each one of them knew the King would not have punished them for staying down, as he asked the question instead of just demanding their help. He did not do things for no reason, he did not ask questions solely to kill them because of a wrong answer. They were loyal, which was why they were in the Capital and not somewhere else on Aebrith serving some other High Lord with great ambitions and goals.
Pouf saw the King smirk, and the Royal Guard stepped forward. The fifty beings throughout the lower portion of the room: demons, aliens, humans, Chimera Ants, and all sorts of various creatures alike, stared up at the top of the stairs at one of the four beings at the top of the Cooperative. The King was in charge, and High Lords were supposedly the next step down, but an order from a Royal Guard would supersede that of a High Lord. A Royal Guard's order was the same thing as an order from the King, their words were the same as the King's words, he trusted them explicitly and they would never do anything against Meruem's interests so he never had to worry. They all looked up at Shaiapouf, who was known by the moniker- The King's Voice. "In that case," he called out, his voice higher pitched than the King's. "Gather only your most elite forces! Be ready at a moment's notice! The King has made his summons and you have responded! Follow him into battle and be prepared to give your life for our Majesty!"
Pitou and Youpi smirked at Pouf's back as he was always so dramatic with his speeches, though they had to admit he was the best at giving them. He had nothing on the King of course, but Meruem often had better things to do than address his people. Meruem continued to look around the room at all the incredibly powerful figures he had gathered around him. Pouf continued to shout out inspirational things for a few more moments until the powerful warriors around the room were feeling riled up.
Youpi glanced to his left at the King and asked, "How are we going to go about hitting the Saiyans?"
Pitou looked past the King at her comrade in the Royal Guards. "We have to get the Saiyan King's attention somehow. And I have a great idea for how to make him come out."
Meruem looked at the shorter woman on his left and he saw her smirk devilishly at him. He nodded his head as he could see what she was thinking and then looked back forward into his hall. He held up a hand and Pouf quieted down instantly. He stepped forward while Shaiapouf stepped back, and Meruem rose up his right hand that his entire aura condensed around at once. His eyes narrowed at his purple fist and he opened it up so that the aura burst out in every direction and spread past the outside walls of the hall so that it expanded to cover much of the city. Gladiators resealed in their cages below the Colosseum tensed up and shivered at the feeling going down their spines, and their guards covered in sweat as they wondered what the King was doing that he would need to expel so much aura. Organization members walking down the streets of the Capital stopped and turned towards the Northern/Command Quarter where the aura was originating from. Even a couple of robots and Androids to the southeast of the largest city in Aebrith looked that way and opened their mechanical eyes wide as their power sensors could not quantify the energy they sensed as it was too much for Meruem's Power Blocker to keep hidden.
The Ant King closed his hand back into a fist but his aura stayed expanded around his city. He wanted everyone to know that he was about to make his move, make them all afraid, nervous, because they were right to be. I remember every single action you made in our previous battle. I know your patterns, and even if you are stronger, I will not lose to you a second time. You are going to regret showing me mercy, Saiyan King.
A/N Hope you enjoyed! Dash sprints nonstop south and stumbles upon a Resistance Base where he leaves Killua to receive treatment. He not only finds Frozone at the base, his Godfather, but he also discovers the whereabouts of his little brother. JackJack is somewhere near the Saiyan Mountains. Sora and Goku are at the top of Mount Vegeta. Meruem is mobilizing his armies, and his goal is to defeat the Saiyan King who beat him once already. The First Third of the Aebrith Saga is coming to its conclusion. Get ready...
Merlin: Lancelot
Incredibles: Dash, JackJack, Frozone, Meta Man, Gazerbeam, Mr. Incredible (Bob Parr), Elastigirl (Helen), Violet
Hunter x Hunter: Killua, Pitou, Pouf, Youpi, Meruem
Avatar the Last Airbender: Sozin
DBZ: Saiyans, Ginyu
Fairy Tail: Natsu
Ben 10: Ben
One Piece: Luffy... (and Dr. T if I didn't make that clear enough XD )