Nexus HWR 13.0 When Going South:
Southernmost Resistance Outpost
At a point along the Great Wall in southern Aebrith where the wall dipped farther south than anywhere else along it, there stood a Resistance base. The base used to be over a mile north of the Great Wall, which led the Resistance to realize that the Wizard King was magically encroaching his wall little by little. They pretended not to notice since they did not want to start a confrontation with him while already fighting a war on their three other sides. Yet even though they most often used a strategy of appeasement on the Wizard King, Sasuke Uchiha stood in a room with five people who he was explaining the dangers of the south to, because they were going to be heading after the Wizard King in only an hour.
Robin and Sanji were listening closely to Sasuke's explanation, but the others were less focused. Usopp kept snapping his head to the side to look at a window when the ground shook. There were only occasional aftershocks now, smaller tremors than the constant world-shaking events that transpired earlier, but since there was still no information on what was causing all these earthquakes, the sniper could not shake off his anxiety that easily. He felt like something could still be coming. The fourth person and last member of the Straw Hats in front of Sasuke could not stand still. Nami kept pacing while Sasuke talked about the distance it would take them to reach the Wizard King's palace that they knew the location of over ten thousand miles away. "Is the truck ready to go yet?" Nami asked, interrupting Sasuke mid-sentence about the erratic weather conditions that often occurred in the south without warning.
Sasuke glared at the woman through his right eye only as his left was covered by his long black hair. "No," he said. Before Nami could complain, he continued, "My people are working as fast as they can. The Great Wall has no gates. It was not meant to be gone through." He explained in a condescending tone to the woman who did not understand what she was asking for. "The Wizard King made it appear one day from coast to coast. It's a hundred meters thick and eighty meters tall. Not only do we have to get a vehicle capable of traversing the Southern Wastes to this base, we have to get it up the wall, and we need to set up a ramp so that you can drive the truck off the wall and into the wastelands of the south."
"Couldn't you just lower us over the other side the same way you get us up the wall?" The fifth person in the room asked. He had been distracted for a while like Usopp, thinking too hard on the tremors. The black haired teen who only recently arrived at this base and heard what was going on, was still lost in thought about his closest friends. The occasional tremors were not making it easy to distract himself with this task. Kirito shook the pessimistic thoughts about Goku and Sora out of his head though, and he focused on the task at hand.
Sasuke shook his head and looked less annoyed by Kirito's question than Nami's, though it was hard for them to read his expression. Sasuke's lip was flat and he did not look happy about this, but he did not look upset about it either. Since he ok-ed the mission the group thought he would be a little more energetic or optimistic, but Sasuke was dealing with too much at the moment to be focused on this single mission alone. Villages all around here were damaged by those earthquakes, and I don't have enough men here to go to them all and help this strange group prepare to go after the Wizard. I sent the Capsules out west as soon as they got back, despite the complaints of a few of them. He thought about the member of that gang who looked oddly similar to someone else at this base, then rid his head of the thought as it did not matter at the moment. Their motorcycles mean they can get all around, but I'll have the remnants of Beta go out to hit the towns in the east when they arrive with the last of these people.
"Lowering you on the other side of the wall," Sasuke began to respond to Kirito's question. "Would be the same as lowering a piece of meat into a river full of piranhas." The image that appeared in their heads was not a pleasant one, and Kirito grimaced as he wondered what that meant about the other side of the Great Wall. He did not have to wonder for long though, as Sasuke continued, "The Great Wall has powerful magic imbued in it that stops monsters of all kinds from coming over to this side. Because of that though, and because no one lives on the other side for thousands of miles, no one ever kills the monsters to the south. Monsters still plague almost all of Aebrith with their scattered presence, but in the south, the monsters have long since won. Right on the other side of the Great Wall, there are thousands of powerful monsters gathered."
Sanji grimaced, Robin hummed in a bit of hesitation, Usopp shook his head 'no,' and even Kirito frowned and shook his head as this was not sounding like a good idea to him. "It doesn't matter," the others all looked to Nami as she spoke. "We'll crush thousands of them, tens of thousands, we'll crush millions if we need to! We are getting Timmy back. No matter what." When she said those last three words, she looked around at the others with her to see if they were still hesitant after that. They all remembered the pact they made, and though Timmy was not there at the time, Nami had claimed that she spoke for Timmy as his guardian and that he was a part of it as well. They all agreed to go to each other's aid when the time came, and Nami was calling the rest of them to action right now. She was pulling the 'No Matter What' card, and the others all nodded at her to show that despite their reluctance, they would not back down.
Inside the hospital of the Resistance outpost, in one of the rooms on the third floor, Riku stood at the side of a bed that Ben was sitting on. Ben still had an i.v. in his arm, keeping himself attached to a metal post next to his bed with a bag of liquid antibiotics on it. They were meant to fight off infection that could have come from his injuries, even though Ben's wounds had long healed. In fact, the i.v. drip had been turned off without the boy's knowledge, as his persistence to keeping the i.v. connected was accepted by his doctors.
Riku was the only one who knew about the condition of the boy in front of him other than the doctors. He told his friends that most of Ben's physical injuries were healed, but he told the doctors not to tell anyone else what they told him as the one who brought Ben in in the first place.
"You saw, right?" Riku asked.
Ben did not reply to the silver-haired man in front of him. The young boy with brown hair hunched his body forward and looked down off the side of his bed as he spoke. He stared between his legs and said, "The Doctor T. who they said got called to an emergency situation in the east is not back yet." It was not an answer to what Riku said, but Ben continued, "They said to wait until he came back to properly check up on-"
"Are you coming?" Riku asked. Ben's eyes grew wide but he kept staring straight down at the floor below his feet. Ben did not answer, and Riku asked, "You know what I'm talking about?"
"I saw Timmy out the window," Ben answered. He lifted his head a little and looked up into Riku's bright green ones with his own that seemed darker than Riku could remember seeing them before.
"We're going south to find him," Riku said. Ben had to look away from Riku's eyes when his older friend said it. "That Wizard King brainwashed Timmy." Ben clenched his eyes shut but kept facing away at a wall near him.
Riku felt like telling Ben to get over it. He was always tough on him, and on Dash, but he could not find it in him to tell Ben to just shake it off this time. He's at his breaking point, Riku thought. Ben did not seem to care about his pride. He did not look at all embarrassed that he was acting this way in front of Riku. Riku could see Ben wanted to answer differently, but the boy's lips pursed and his eyes clenched even harder. Ben lifted a hand to his own stomach where he felt phantom pain, but even clenching his hand over the spot in his stomach caused pain in that hand where a spike had gone through as well.
"Out there," Ben whispered, "I'll just be dead weight." His eyes opened because with them closed, the darkness of the backs of his eyelids reminded him of Bloodman's face. He could hear the Spriggan's deep voice as it crucified him, and it made him shiver.
Riku could see the goosebumps all over Ben's arms, and the older boy took a step forward. "It's better," Ben said, "if you just go without me."
Riku sat down on the bed next to Ben, and Ben spun the other way from where he was looking to see Riku on his side. The taller man sat there in a yellow tank top with a black 'X' over the front of it. He had on jeans, and he had left a yellow sweatshirt hanging over a chair near the door after he had walked in. Riku's arms had much larger muscles than Ben, and the boy who looked his way felt even more like he would just be getting in the way considering how small he felt in the moment and how big Riku looked to him.
Ben clenched his eyes shut painfully. He felt so much regret, so much frustration from what he was saying. Riku could see this, and the older boy took a deep breath. "What happened sucked," Riku started. He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "Facing off against a High Lord all on your own. I know it's not what you want to hear, but you're lucky you lost only your Omnitrix, and not your life." Riku looked back down and saw Ben staring at the floor again. "As for Bloodman, he was a monster. For your first fight after losing your main weapon, it wasn't fair that you had to go up against some-thing like that."
"I couldn't touch him," Ben gasped out. "None of my other attacks. The Keyblade, the Kamehameha Wave, nothing worked. I lost completely."
"It's not your fault Ben," Riku said. "It was too much for you to handle alone. We should have been watching your back. I, should have been watching your back. You're only thirteen, but I-"
"Fourteen," Ben said. Riku paused mid-sentence, and he looked at Ben in confusion. "I'm not thirteen," Ben whispered. He turned to look Riku in the eyes, "I turned fourteen a few weeks ago. I just, never told anyone."
Riku was confused. He kept looking at Ben with lifted eyebrows, and after a few seconds of silence Riku asked, "Why?"
Ben's eyes clenched shut. "What's the point? It's not like I really knew when my birthday was anyway. The first year here, my Grandpa threw me and Gwen a surprise party. Our birthdays are on the same day. All I could think about though, was how he knocked me out, and let you get taken." Riku's eyes darkened as Ben shook his head with his eyes still clenched. "I know it wasn't his fault, but even a year later, in Pao when he threw us another one, all the memories of the birthday before reminded me how angry I was at him. I stormed out again."
"But this time," Riku began. "Now that you know it wasn't your Grandpa's fault. Ben, you're surrounded by your friends. We would have celebrated-"
"I didn't want to celebrate," Ben whispered, his voice hoarse, "after I had just left everyone die." Riku's eyes grew huge, and Ben looked him in the eyes with teary ones of his own. "You all tried to make me feel better, and I did. I wasn't as depressed, I didn't see your dead bodies every time I looked at you, but, how could I celebrate my birthday after that? After only days before, I watched every single one of my friends die in front of me, and I couldn't stop it. I didn't want to celebrate then, because there was nothing to celebrate. And now, I let my Omnitrix get taken. I let myself get, crucified. I'm not, good enough…"
Riku put an arm around Ben's shoulder. Ben's head lifted up and he sniffled a few times as Riku gave him a half hug, less even. The two had been friends for years, but they did not normally get emotional. The occasional moment, but it would feel awkward between the two proud boys to act too sentimental. Riku gave Ben a tight squeeze on the opposite shoulder as the one he was sitting next to, and he looked ahead while Ben did at the wall in front of them. "I'll watch out for you this time," Riku said, his voice soft but firm. "I won't let you go through that again, but I want you to come with us." Ben's teeth clenched and he shut his eyes hard again, his best method to prevent them from getting too watery. "You might not think so Ben, but I know that you'll be able to help us on our trip. You'll be able to help Timmy."
Ben's eyes snapped open and stared straight ahead again wider-eyed than before. Timmy, Ben thought.
"He's saved our lives, all of our lives, a hundred times over," Riku continued. He let go of the arm around Ben's back, as Ben turned his head and looked up at Riku's face. Ben had a determined gaze on his face, and Riku finished, "It's time for us to repay the favor."
The two kept eye contact, and Ben nodded up once at his older friend. He then reached to his left elbow with his right hand, and he pulled the needle in his arm out. Ben pressed his hands down on the mattress below him, and he hopped off the bed and landed on both feet. He balanced himself, and he took a deep breath as he readied his mind for what was coming. Timmy. Riku's right. You've saved me so many times. So I'm going to save you, but don't think that means I'll forgive you. Ben's serious expression was what Riku was looking for after giving Ben that pep talk, but he did not know the details of what Ben was thinking as the boy's face got dark once again. I let everyone die, but you let them die too. You and Goku left us by choice. Even if you are under his control now, the Wizard King did not make you do that. You two were my greatest heroes. But you aren't the heroes I thought you were, just like I'm not the hero I thought I was.
Two floors down from Ben and Riku, in a long examination room with dozens of beds in it, two doctors were examining patients not far from each other separated only by a curtain that was drawn for some privacy. Closer to the door out into the hallway where the front doors of the hospital were, there was one more bed with a patient currently occupying it. Not far from him, a pink haired man sat on the side of his bed with an annoyed look on his face.
"Just sit there for a few more seconds," Doctor Dorian told Natsu. John Dorian, or J.D., stood next to Natsu's bed while the nurse in front of Natsu bent down and unwrapped up his right hand that still had bandages around it. Natsu felt pain but kept himself from wincing or even showing that he had felt it at all. The nurse who unwrapped Natsu's hand looked at it with some unease though as she got the white bandages off. The woman wore white scrubs like the doctor's, but unlike the white man behind her, she was shorter and covered in brown fur.
The woman was of the Mink tribe, a tribe of animals with human properties. She looked very much like a squirrel with long light blue hair, though her tall stature and large breasts showed she was more humanoid than small rodent. Tristan fully took off Natsu's bandages, and then she said, "As we thought." She stood up straight while Natsu looked down at his hand.
While Natsu curled his fingers in a few times, J.D. began to the more muscular man, "Although most of your wounds have healed up nicely, the bones in your right hand were shattered in your fight. Your Phalanges, Metacarpals, your Trapezoid was like dust. As much as your friend's healing magic is amazing, and it really is- I've never seen anything like it." J.D. shook his head and got back to the point, "There is going to be some pain when you curl your fists now. If you're not going to give it time to heal properly, you're going to have big problems down the line."
"But right now, it'll hold together?" Natsu asked. He opened his right hand up and looked at the back of it. He looked at the lines all over it that were not there before, across his knuckles, fingers, and the back of his hand.
"Yes, thanks to your strength. If you have your friend heal you a few times a day, I'm hoping the magic and your body will work together to fix the remaining pain you are feeling." Natsu frowned at the doctor's words as apparently he was not able to hide the pain from him. "As for those scars," J.D. continued. He hesitated, then he said, "Because of the surgeries to re-set your bones between your friend's healing magic, it seems we kept certain wounds open too long. After closing them, the lines remained." Natsu stared closer at the scars, and J.D. finished, "You'll have those for the rest of your life."
Down the room a few beds, past a curtain and a couple of beds after it, Luffy stood next to a mattress while the doctor did her final check-up on him too. They had called the two back inside after hearing that they would be leaving, ordering them to undergo another physical before they left. Luffy and Natsu would have argued, but Sasuke agreed with the doctors and said that they had time anyway, (considering he doubted they would listen to his explanations about the south and needed something for them to do during that time). In front of Luffy stood a woman around his height with long blonde hair that got curly near the bottom below her shoulders. Doctor Elliot Dorian, formerly Elliot Reid, examined Luffy's body and hummed in satisfaction while she did.
"It seems like all your wounds have fully healed," Elliot told him. Luffy lifted his hands and looked at his palms. Elliot hummed and continued while Luffy stared at them, "That's not going to heal, but it's not like anything's wrong with it." She waved a hand in the air while trying to come up with the right words. Luffy's palms did not have scars on them, but the skin was darker than the skin on the rest of his arms and even the backs of his hands. "There is a procedure we could do," Elliot mentioned, "where we change the skin coloration. It would not be that hard to do-"
Luffy shook his head. His hands clenched into fists and he said, "It's fine." Elliot nodded at him, not going to argue with the patient's decision.
The pirate turned to walk away, and Elliot began as she walked after him, "You really should stay until Dr. T comes back. The magic that man Riku hit you with is powerful, but Dr. T is the best doctor we have. He catches things we don't see sometimes. I'd feel terrible if you rushed off to another fight and an injury catches up with you." Elliot frowned as Luffy just kept walking, "Your body's composition is like nothing I've seen before. I don't even know how to treat a man whose bones are made of rubber."
"Shishi, I'm all better already," Luffy said, laughing to himself. He curled his hands into fists a few times, and he cracked his neck to either side, somehow making cracking noises despite what Elliot just mentioned about his bones. As Luffy walked past the curtain in the center of the room, Natsu had just stood up as well. The two of them glanced towards each other, and they thought about what the doctors just told them. Then Luffy turned back for the door and kept walking, and Natsu walked over and headed that way as well. They each stopped as they got in front of the bed nearest to the door where one other patient lay unconscious. His heart rate monitor next to him was steady, but his heart rate was slow, or at least the doctors kept telling them it was.
Natsu frowned as he looked at the younger boy lying on the bed with his eyes closed. I'm sorry, Natsu thought. In his head he saw the kid with spiky white hair pressing his fingernails up against his own neck, drawing blood. He remembered leaving the Boar's Hat bar, saying goodbye to almost all of his friends. Then he remembered the boy lunging towards him with his arms outstretched. He saw himself flying off of Killua's hands moments before the kid got hit with an attack meant for him.
"Tell that Doctor T. guy thanks for saving Killua," Luffy said while turning right, grinning again. The doctors and nurse in the room with them nodded back at Luffy, then the pirate turned and headed for the door.
Natsu stayed behind for a few more seconds. "We'll be back," he told the kid. "You better be awake by then. I don't like, not being able to thank you." Natsu turned his head and took a step towards the doors, then he stopped. He clenched his teeth, then said without turning back, "Your our nakama Kil. Survive this."
J.D. watched as Natsu walked out the door into the hallway. Those two beat the Fire Lord? It's hard to imagine that they were stupid enough to almost kill each other. Now they're heading south of the Great Wall, and they don't look afraid at all. I wonder what it's like to live like they do? As the doctor started to daydream, his wife hummed to herself and watched their patients leave. She was sad to see them leave, but at the same time Elliot knew. She glanced over at Killua, and she knew they would be back soon.
Out in the hallway, Natsu turned from the doors to the large room they came from to the front doors, but Luffy was standing inside of them instead of walking out. Natsu felt strange, since Luffy had stopped and turned back towards him instead of leaving. What was worse was that the pirate was smiling ear to ear at him. "What?" Natsu asked.
"YOW!" A voice yelled behind the Dragon Slayer, making Natsu jump and spin towards the staircase. He realized now why Luffy was smiling, as a robot ten feet tall stood behind him with its huge blue forearms slammed together above its head. He glistened after posing with a fresh new paint job, and he had on a new black Hawaiian shirt that Natsu wondered how he got it over his giant round red shoulders. Franky smiled wide at Luffy who yelled his name out, and Franky pushed up on the center of his sunglasses with a big red finger, "How's it going Captain?"
"When'd you get here?" Natsu asked the cyborg shipwright.
Franky looked down at the mage closer to him than Luffy. He stared into Natsu's eyes and lost his grin, and both of the others caught a weird shift in Franky's expression. This is the Natsu I know all right. No goggles, bigger muscles, but man they look Super alike! Franky opened his mouth, and then both Natsu and Luffy looked behind him with wide eyes again.
Luffy had been so focused on his shipwright's appearance that he had stopped focusing on Haki which was the reason he knew Franky was coming down the stairs in the first place. Without it, he was as surprised as Natsu by the two people heading down the stairs towards them. Franky turned, and he smiled wide at the two who stopped on the stairs at his appearance. "SUPER! Ben and Riku are here too!"
"Franky?" Ben wondered aloud. "When did you get here?"
"Just now!" Franky exclaimed.
Down the hall, a doctor popped their head out of the door and glared towards the men near the front door. "Yow," Franky called over in a whisper, "sorry about that."
"Let's go outside," Riku said. Although he was on the steps and did not see who Franky said that to, he could figure out the reason for it.
Riku walked down the rest of the stairs and headed for the front doors. Franky turned to follow him, walking past Natsu who waited for Ben then started walking next to the younger boy. Natsu had gotten there late, like Luffy, and neither of them had seen Ben since they had arrived even though they found out he was in the same infirmary they had spent most of their time in. Luffy glanced behind him as Franky walked up to him, but as Franky was going to ask why Luffy glanced back, Riku turned to the cyborg and said, "Do you know the situation, Franky?"
"I heard some weird stuff after I got back with Kirito-bro," Franky said, and Luffy and Riku smiled to hear that Kirito was there as well. "The doc and mechanic I met upstairs had some more information for me. Is that guy they talked about-"
"It's Timmy," Riku said, confirming the cyborg's thoughts.
Franky grimaced. He turned to Luffy who walked up on his right while Riku walked on his left. "How's Nami-sis doing?" He asked.
"Nami will feel better after we save Timmy," Luffy replied, mentioning how his navigator was feeling in an optimistic tone despite the undertones that at the moment she was not doing well.
Franky glanced over his shoulder where he could see Natsu and Ben had fallen back a little while the pink haired mage was talking to the younger boy. What they were discussing looked serious, and Ben winced after Natsu mentioned something. He shifted his gaze back to Luffy, and he saw his Captain losing the optimistic look on his face that he kept even mentioning how Nami was sad. Franky looked the other way and saw Riku staring forward with a determined expression. Riku began when he saw Franky's gaze shift to him, speaking in a whisper without turning his head so that it did not look like he was talking at all from behind, "Ben lost bad against one of the Spriggan 12. The monster crucified him. Don't look," Riku continued quickly as Franky almost turned back in surprise. Franky turned his head forward as he realized why Riku was speaking like that. Riku continued, "We've got to look after him better. He's not as strong as he was with the Omnitrix, we can't pretend that he is. I need you guys to help me."
Franky hummed to himself, and he felt like rubbing his forehead but did not want to give away anything to the boy not walking far behind them, even though Ben was talking about the same thing with Natsu right now. "How can we do that?" Franky asked. He was the one who always called Dash and Ben the cabin boys on their ship. At first it was as a joke, but the two really felt like members of the crew to him. They had sailed on the Thousand Sunny he built, and they were always so amazed by all the inventions he showed them. Little bro, Franky thought, wishing he could go give the kid a hug right now without making it obvious that they had been talking about him.
"Make him laugh," Riku said. "You're a giant robot, and Ben's always thought you were hilarious, Luffy." Riku smiled softly, "It's one of the reasons, he suggested we start traveling with you and Usopp, all those years ago."
Franky glanced next to him in surprise at the silver haired teen. He had heard a few things about the start of his Captain's journey on Nexus, but Luffy never talked about his past. Usually someone else would bring it up, like just then. Riku added, "He told me that it was because you were strong and it would be smart, but that's just what he told me so that I'd go along with it."
Ben was the one? I don't really remember, why we started traveling together, Luffy thought.
"And you're a robot, so I mean," Riku added, as if that carried the same weight as what he just told Luffy.
The five of them were heading south towards the tallest wall of the Resistance fort. Eighty meters tall sounded shorter than it was, and the wall got more daunting the closer they got to it. "I'm fine, Natsu," Ben repeated to the man next to him. He sped up to get closer to the backs of the men in front of him so that Natsu would stop with the questions already. Natsu frowned at the back of Ben's head, wishing the kid would talk to him. Ben could not do it though. Natsu, I can't- You can't- Ben's eyes clenched in frustration, and Natsu's fists curled behind him as the Dragon Slayer thought he knew what Ben was thinking about. Natsu had no idea what was really on Ben's mind though. Zeref, he told me. When he took my watch, he told me the truth. I don't think he expected Riku to save me, I didn't even expect Riku to save me. Now I know though, now I have to keep this secret, because I don't want you to know.
"I bet that's our vehicle over there," Riku said, and Natsu and Ben lifted their gazes to see that Riku had stopped. He was pointing to the left side of the base from the direction they were walking, which meant to the east. They all looked over the smaller walls on the side of the base, down the much taller one where they could now see some pulley systems at the top of it. Those metal machines were extended off of the inner part of the wall, and they were raising up the long thick cables that came off of them. Far down those cables was a vehicle with wheels so massive they were as tall as some buildings around them. The bottom of the truck itself was over fifty feet up from the bottom of the tires.
Ben's eyes opened wide at the look of the truck. Monster truck, he thought, finding it hard to stop the smile from forming on his face. The vehicle looked like a monster truck with its four giant wheels, only its body was much larger than any monster truck Ben had seen before. The top of it curved like the cabin of other cars and trucks, but considering the size of the vehicle, that curve looked like it was the size of a whole extra floor in the vehicle.
Franky let out a whistle at the sight of a vehicle even he was impressed with. "Looks like it's got three floors," he said, spotting a few windows scattered on the sides, camouflaged well with the outside of the vehicle but not well enough that he did not spot the glass panes.
"Hey guys!" The group of five boys turned around at the sound of Nami's voice calling from behind them. Their eyes opened wide and smiles spread on all of their faces as Nami stepped to the side with a smirk on her own face. "Look who we found," she said, and the others started running back at the sight of the three walking in the middle of Nami's group. Nami, Kirito, Sanji, Usopp, and Robin were joined by three others who smiled back at their friends who called their names as they ran over.
"Gray!" Natsu called out in surprise.
"Juvia!" Ben yelled with a smile. After losing her once, he could not take it happening a second time, a third if he counted the time with Nox. Part of his depression was over the fact that so many of their friends were missing and he had no idea what was happening to them.
"Rin!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly. Rin lifted his eyebrows up in a little surprise at Luffy's excited shout to see him, but then he just smiled too at the rubberman and gave him a little wave.
Kuro's head popped out of Rin's bag, and Franky laughed and called out, "Kuro too!" He thought maybe the cat was feeling left out that no one called out its name, and telling by the big smile that appeared on the cat's face after Franky shouted, he figured he was right.
Riku let out a sigh as his friends ran ahead of him to greet the others. He lifted his gaze over them all to the distant north where the sky was still so full of dark swirling colors. Though it does seem like whatever was going on is over now. I haven't felt anything for a while, and… The sky in the distance flashed bright blue and Riku's thoughts stopped short. The others were too focused on each other that they did not notice the flash, but Riku got a bad feeling in his gut at the sight of its color. It looks, a little like… His thoughts once again stopped short as the sky lost its blue color, turning instead to a pitch black which made Riku's entire body tense up. As soon as the black filled the sky, it was replaced by a dark purple that matched much closer to what the color of that northern sky was. Did I imagine it? Riku thought, though his heart beat was speeding so fast that he found it hard to imagine he had not really seen that. What was that, darkness? It was so powerful, like nothing I've ever felt before.
"Riku?" The tall, silver-haired teen lowered his nervous gaze to the woman in front of him almost a head shorter than he was. Most of the group was still behind her, but Nami spotted Riku's sweaty face and worried expression and decided to talk to him. She was terrified for Timmy, but with the arrivals of not only Kirito and Franky, but Gray, Juvia, and Rin too, she was optimistic about their odds. Riku did not seem to share the sentiment though. "Are you alright?" She asked him.
"Did you see-" Riku began, but then he shook his head as he knew the answer to that question. If she had, she would not be this calm. Riku looked past Nami's head and spotted two of the group there who were facing the north since they were circled up. He wondered if they saw it, but Ben was looking left at Juvia and speaking in a happier tone than Riku expected to hear from him anytime soon. Luffy on the other hand though, was staring above Rin's head while the half-demon talked about their arrival at the base. Luffy might have seen it. He looks oddly serious for a moment like this. After Riku thought it, he sighed as Luffy's serious expression reverted and he just started smiling and talking with Rin and Franky again.
"If you're worried about Sora," Nami began, and Riku looked down into her bright brown eyes to see a soft look to them. "Don't be," she said. "He said he was looking for Goku after all. I'm sure they'll protect each other."
"Yeah," Riku said and nodded, trying to make it look like that made him feel better. Nami smiled that she got through to him, but Riku started thinking on those tremors and violent quakes they had felt the entire day. Goku's strong, Sora too, but to make the world shake like that, do you know how strong they would have had to be? No Nami, I'm not sure even they could protect each other from that. If those are the enemies we'll come to face on this continent, then, it's a good thing we're going to get Timmy back right now.
"We're heading south of Great Wall?" Gray questioned in a low voice. He and the other two with him were just caught up on what was going on, and he looked up the wall and to the east a little where he saw a vehicle being brought up on top of it. "Looks like we made it just in time," he added, though his tone was dark and his eyes darker.
"Timmy is-" Usopp began.
"I get it, and we have to save him," Gray said, showing he agreed with them even though he seemed to know what lay beyond that wall he mentioned. "But to go south… it's something I never wanted to do twice." Gray clenched his only fist at his side, then continued in a soft voice to the others around him. "From the wall south, we won't find towns or anything like that." He paused and then added, "Everything we see beneath the wall we should kill on sight."
Usopp gulped, suddenly no longer feeling like defending their idiotic plan of action. "You lot," a voice said behind the sniper, and Usopp almost jumped at how close it sounded. Those farthest north spun around to see Sasuke standing right behind them, almost like he appeared out of thin air. "The truck will be ready in a couple of minutes. Time to get up the wall." After he said it, he noticed a man who turned to face him with widening eyes. He had been in the middle of a call with other Resistance commanders, and after that he had to give out orders to Beta Squad when their remnants showed up in front of him, but he finally got a look at the man in front of him and muttered, "Gray?"
"Sasuke," Gray said, and then he nodded respectfully at the base commander. "It's been a long time," he said.
"I heard you disappeared," Sasuke said.
"I did," Gray replied, even though Sasuke did not really ask a question. "But I'm back now, and I brought friends," he said it and Sasuke glanced around at the others with him.
It's procedure that I should take him in for questioning, find out more about his disappearance. If he brought these people to us though, looking over his absence isn't very unreasonable. "Are you going south with them?" Sasuke asked. Gray nodded. Sasuke frowned as this still seemed like a bad idea to him, but the thought of the Timmy Turner they mentioned joining the Resistance's side was too compelling an opportunity to pass up. "Alright then, let's go," Sasuke said, and he moved forward so fast that he was at Riku's side in a moment. Although the others all had to spin around to the south with wide eyes at how fast he moved, Sasuke's eyes darted to his right as the silver haired teen next to him had turned his head with Sasuke's movements.
Another Keybearer, Sasuke thought, reminding himself that he should not be surprised by Riku's ability to track him. Thinking about him being a Keybearer only annoyed him more though, as he thought about the teen with spiky brown hair who turned him into a chicken at their first meeting. He started walking south as he thought about that, and Riku walked next to him farthest in front of their group. Nami followed behind Riku, though she glanced over her shoulder and called out that Timmy was waiting, making the rest of them pick up their feet too and head after the Resistance commander.
"So why were you guys in Pyraxas anyway?" Sanji asked the man next to him as they walked south. He never got to the question back in the city or while they were escaping from it, and so much had been happening the past few days that he forgot he still did not really know why the other group had come back north after heading south. "What made you decide to take on the Fire Lord?"
Gray hummed while looking forward at Natsu's back. The Dragon Slayer was smiling and talkative, excited thanks to most of their friends gathering together again. "A Resistance commander at Pon-Gatso, Hiei, when he found out what Natsu could do," Gray trailed off as it was not necessary to finish the sentence. Sanji nodded as he understood that, and it seemed like the commander's plans worked out considering Sozin's demise at their Dragon Slayer's hands.
They were nearing the wall, but Gray continued to the man next to him and the dark haired woman on Sanji's left who was also listening to what he said. "We did go south with the intention of going much farther, but, after Juvia was killed," he lowered his voice as he said that, not wanting the blue-haired girl on Natsu's right to hear what he said. Although Natsu was smiling and talking to her excitedly, Juvia's lips were flat and she kept darting her eyes around at the others with her that she did not look as happy to see as Natsu did. Gray continued while Sanji fumed in anger and Robin looked at Juvia's back sadly too, "We decided to stay and help out against the Fire Nation, League of Assassins, and the Sith. It felt like we were winning, and Sokka even mentioned setting up a base farther north than Pon-Gatso, but by the time we reached the tree after the war, it was already-"
"Excuse me, Gray-san," Robin interrupted. Sanji had a confused look on his face, his swirly eyebrow lifted up and his lip twisted like he was trying to put his finger on something. Robin had more of a look of recognition on her face though, and she said, "Did you just say, Sokka?"
Sanji's eyes bulged as he realized why he felt so strange after what Gray just said. Franky was walking behind them and had not been listening to most of the conversation, but when he heard Robin's question he leaned forward. "Sokka? Isn't that the guy Toph said to-"
"Ah!" Sanji exclaimed in revelation. The others looked to him as they wondered what was so shocking, since his eyes bulging already made it seem like he remembered. "If I'm the one to tell Toph, she'll fall in love with me!" Sanji called out, doing a spin as he thought about the good news he wanted to break to her the next time they saw her. And she'll let me call her Toph-chan! Sanji thought as his eyes turned into hearts.
"Tell Toph what?" Natsu asked while looking back.
Gray looked pretty confused as well, and Robin explained to them and the others who did not know what the pirates were talking about, "Toph asked us to look out for friends of hers on our travels. Sokka was one of them, and I believe he was the one she wanted us to locate the most."
"Huh," Natsu muttered. "You know, he was from the fire benders' world, and Aang and the others are elemental benders too."
"Guess it makes sense they're all from the same world then," Ben added.
"Not only that," Robin said, and she smiled in a soft way. "But I do believe she said that this Sokka is Katara-san's brother."
"Aha!" Natsu snapped his fingers then started laughing. "I thought the guy looked familiar, and he totally does look like Katara."
"They do bear a resemblance," Juvia whispered.
Robin turned to the younger woman who just spoke up, and she smiled at Juvia. The blue-haired girl looked away after Robin smiled though, and Robin's smile lowered down in a confused way at the look Juvia just gave her. Juvia? Robin thought, and a sad look started to form on the older woman's face. Are you, angry?
At the wall was an elevator-kind-of contraption that looked similar to the pulley system outside of the base that was used to bring their vehicle to the top. The truck was fully on top of the wall now so they were not able to see it as they rose up the side, but the trip in the flat platform with thin railings on the sides was a quick one. They reached the top of the wall and looked left to see their truck rolling slowly across the stone surface. The wall was a hundred meters thick, and the truck was moving to the other side of it where several soldiers were gathered and aiming weapons down over the other side. There was another truck in front of their huge one, but this one was just extending a long ramp down towards the floor to the south.
They were unable to see off the other side of the wall well from where they were standing, but they could see a mountain range to the southwest. They walked forward and a river far in the distance that cut north and south, just a little to the east of them, came into view. A closer look at the river made those who saw it feel their stomachs turn over. The water, or whatever the liquid in the river was, was a blackish red color. On both sides of the river, and the ground in every direction that they could see was black. The entire landscape was black, bleak, even though the sky over it was bright blue the farther south they looked.
The group headed farther south, until they neared the guards at the edge of the wall who were staring over with nervous looks, spinning their rifles around to aim all over the place. It looked like they could not decide one single spot to keep their weapons focused on. Luffy ran ahead of his friends to get a look over the side first, but unlike outside of Dressrosa when he did the same thing, the pirate did not start smiling at the landscape he saw to the south. Luffy's eyes grew wide, and his bottom lip lowered. "Whoa," he whispered.
At the base of the wall there were thousands of zombies pushing into each other and scratching at the wall. There were so many rotting corpses that they were piling up on top of each other, but they were not getting as high as the giant spiders that were climbing up the walls only to run into some sort of strange forcefield that knocked them off. The spiders fell far, but they did not splat on the ground considering there were just too many monsters to land on first. They fell on top of Kabane, and Stone Men, slow and fast zombies, skeletons and wights. In the sky to the distant southeast, a pack of fifty or so dragons shot over the landscape only a few hundred feet off the ground. Behind them were just as many Grimm Nevermores and Griffons. Wyverns, dragon-like creatures that had more reptilian-like bodies and only two legs with claws on the end were fighting other Wyverns that looked so similar but had black wisps coming out of their bodies and the beady yellow eyes of the Heartless.
Giant trolls stomped towards the wall with clubs in hand and dumb looks on their faces. As one of them stepped over a patch of lighter-than-black ground, the floor beneath it crumbled and the beast fell inside. Blood splashed out of the pit a second later as whatever was inside shredded the troll in moments. Titans wandered aimlessly around in the far distance, but a few of the fifteen meter ones turned towards the wall right as most of the group was getting there after Luffy. Those fleshy beasts that looked like humans without skin started walking their way, though one of them dropped onto all fours and started sprinting towards them like a dog. It sprinted straight into and then through a small house on the outskirts of what looked like it was once a town twenty miles south of them.
"I thought, there were no settlements, south of here," Ben whispered, as he realized that town was not the only cluster of buildings he saw. He spotted a tower much farther away, and a knocked down windmill near it that looked overgrown with black vines. There were ruins of a castle on the closest mountain he could see, and he shook his head before whispering, "Is the entire south, like this?"
Gray turned his head left and saw their truck rolling up close. It came to a stop and he saw Sasuke turn to him and nod his head. The base commander was a busy man, but he wanted to see this through. Gray nodded back then turned to his friends who were taking in the horrors to the south with wide eyes. There were more monsters than they could count, and right off of the wall were so many that the floor became impossible to see. The ramps that extended from the top of the wall to the south reached out a half a mile from the base of the wall before touching the ground, but as soon as it touched, monsters started climbing up on it and marching up the path towards the wall. The soldiers around them started firing their beam rifles at the monsters getting in the path of the truck, and someone called out from the top of their truck, "It won't take long for them to fill your path! You're not going to have a smooth trip over them, it's gonna be bumpy for sure, but this baby goes fast enough that it'll smash through even fifteen-meter-class Titans with ease." The man who drove the truck to the base dropped down over a hundred feet from on top of it, and he nodded towards the group and said, "I left the keys in the ignition. Try not to scratch it up too badly."
Gray looked back at his friends as they were thanking the man for bringing it for them. "Guys," he said, his most serious voice possible. They all turned to him, and Gray continued after a deep breath, "We're going to go save Timmy, but there's one thing you all need to know." Gray turned his head and looked out past the wall again, and he said in a deeper tone, "No matter what, if I yell 'Flood!' We need to run as fast as we can."
"What's so bad about a flood?" Luffy asked.
After he said it, the guards all around them looked in like he was an idiot. Nami decided not to ask a similar question after seeing all their looks. Gray's expression just got darker though, and he whispered, "Not a flood, the Flood. It's what took out all the towns that used to be past here. Entire countries," he finished softly, and his friends turned back to look south again with more nervous expressions. "Just, trust me on this one. We can handle anything else the far south throws at us, but if I yell 'Flood…'"
"We'll run," Ben finished for him. Gray nodded down at the boy in a serious way, wondering if Ben was trying to be sarcastic as he did not think Ben would be the first one to say that. As he looked down at Ben though, Gray's eyes opened huge at the sight of his left wrist. Ben put his other hand over his naked wrist when Gray looked at it, and the kid turned away wincing. Gray turned away as well as he felt like everyone else started glaring at him for that. I'll ask someone about it later, he told himself.
"Yosh!" Luffy called out, as it seemed like there was nothing left to discuss. "Let's get going!" He turned to the truck and lifted a fist that he was going to throw up to the top to get himself up there, even though a rope ladder was hanging off of the ship for them to climb up. Luffy froze with his right bicep in his hand though, and he lowered his right fist while turning his head around. A few of the others turned around too, and then the rest of them spun at the looks on their comrades' faces.
Sasuke moved around the side of the group and they all looked west down the wall thirty feet where a figure was standing. He had on a brown cloak over his whole body and was short, shorter than anyone else on the wall. "I would like to join you," the figure said, lifting his head a little so only the top half of his light-skinned face was shadowed by his hood.
"Huh?" Luffy wondered, and his guard lowered a bit. He did not know why it went up when he felt the presence behind him, especially from a kid like this. Kirito eyed the boy suspiciously as he had felt something similar to Luffy, as did Sanji who lifted his swirly eyebrow at the boy.
"Who are you?" Nami asked the child. His voice was high-pitched so she did not think he was just a short man or something, and she kept her tone soft because of that.
"You don't know him?" Sasuke muttered, looking at the group next to him in a confused way. He thought this was someone else from their strange group who was just making his appearance at the last second. He turned to the kid and frowned more as the boy was not there when they arrived, yet the elevator was still at the top where he left it and it had not gone back down yet to pick anyone else up. "Who are you?" Sasuke asked, keeping a threatening tone to his voice to let the boy know he did not belong there.
The kid reached his hands up and grabbed the sides of his hood. He pulled his hood back and revealed his face. Some of them thought him taking his hood off would be a revelation to someone else, but they looked around and just saw confused looks on all their comrades' faces. No one recognized the strange boy wearing a blue hat that had half of a red poof-ball sticking off the top of it. He had a vertical scar going over his right eye, over his eyelid and above and below the socket. Other than the scar though, he looked like a normal boy of twelve years old. "I think, I can help you save Timmy Turner," he told the people in front of him who opened their eyes wide at what he was saying.
"How?" Kirito asked in surprise.
"You can?!" Nami exclaimed. She sounded more than willing to let the boy come along from those words alone.
"And who are you?" Sanji repeated the question already asked a few times.
The kid took a deep breath and then said with a flat lip, "My name is, Stan." Stan Marsh then turned from Sanji to Kirito, and he continued, "And I think I can help you save Timmy Turner, because I know the Wizard King. I know who, he really is."
A/N Stan?! Haven't seen him since he arrived on Aebrith on Leol's slave ship, and he killed Leol and his whole crew. But before that, last we saw he was in Metropolis after the battle, saying goodbye to Mysterion and Bart as he had a mission he had to get to. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Starting off the second Third with the reintroduction of a main character who's been missing for a while. What has Stan been up to? Find out next chapter in 13.1 Stan, which I'm going to try to get up tomorrow. 3 parts in 3 days?! What is this, chapter 11? XD I quit my job the other day since I'm going to be studying abroad soon and won't be able to keep making smoothies while in Tokyo, but that means the next 5 days are all for getting ready to leave... and writing Nexus! I've got a lot written out in the next chapter already, just as I did with this one (only had to write 1 or 2 thousand words before editing today), so after finishing up the next chapter I'll get it right out for you guys. The team's finally back together... mostly! Killua's still in a coma, and Goku, Sora, and Dash have yet to reappear thanks to the weird time distortion in heaven and the realm of the Gods, oh yeah, and Kairi's still kidnapped, but other than that, the team's back together! 13 is the Wizard King chapter, will this unlucky number spell doom for our heroes, or are superstitions bullshit? Find out soon!
Limit-Breaking chapter 101 . 14h ago
I for sure say meruem vs goku rematch should happen but meruem should fight goku black he probably won't be able to tell the difference at first. Also It would be pretty damn awesome seeing him in this story and meruem getting even more confused about goku would also be enjoyable. Though my question about goku vs meruem is would it be soon or much much later.
Since it's pretty much a very bad ending with meruem winning and aebirth slavery still continues. Also am i the only one who kept thinking that raditz had super saiyan blue up his sleave or something. The dude seemed to overconfident.
Also don't worry hit just train yourself for a minute and you won't be worried about meruem for long, Hopefully. Also where was jiren when luthor and saitama and majin buu were training he would have made that scene perfect. Though i am starting to wonder if you are going to the summit as well since that left off in a big cliffhanger.
Also you may have posted this chapter onto the wrong story, though i do wonder if you are just going to have goku go blue through training and anger. Besides that i still have more to say but i will leave it off here incase you repost this onto the other story.
Goku Black would be fun to add, but not much room for Zamasu to work his plan into action on a single world, in a single universe, with the Originals watching everyone's every move. Raditz looked like he had a master plan... which just turned out to be giving up, though he does get to be the King this way. With Jiren it woulda been Strong Bald Guy Mania! All they would of needed was Krillin to finish the picture XD. I totally did post on the wrong story, worked a little late into the night and tired me flopped. Thanks for posting this quick though, 'cause as soon as I woke up I switched it over to Heroes Will Rise. So thanks double for the review this time! And I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
joebob323 chapter 87 . 6h ago
Okay. This chapter threw in way to many game changers... First, Buu is alive?! Next, Saitama is too?! And finally, WTF IS LEX LUTHOR DOING?! Is he going to become one of the good guys?
XD Lol I actually named the chapter Game Changer then changed it at the last moment to The King of the Saiyans 'cause of the flashback. I was laughing a few chapters back because someone reviewed that they really wanted to see Majin Buu, and Saitama, and I was like "oh man, they're coming very soon!" though I couldn't actually comment that to the review :/ Anyway, Luthor's training up, but we'll see what his plans are... sooner or later, once he's got his powers mastered and reminds the world he's there. Thanks for the review!
Jokering chapter 87 . 5h ago
An epilogue chapter, well i suppose its nice to know what happened after the fight. So radish bent the knee, kinda unexpected but it WILL have consequences since he is now Meruem's new lap dog and its pretty clear that the Lords and High Lords are just waiting to jump on each other's throats . To bad that prologue bit lasted only a short while. would be nice to see Bardock vs King Vegeta and Zodd vs the Kryptonian King ( whose identity i am curious about). After seeing gameplay from Hokuto ga Gotoku i am wondering if you might add Fist of the North Star characters, although some of them are very difficult to balance power wise, there are a lot of great characters in there.
So i stopped and thought, and thought, and thought, and then it hit me. This is just to confirm it so i'll keep it vague, but is the Wizard King that fat ass that some people love and others love to see suffer? If so, then thats actually a nice counter to Timmy. And dont worry, Saint Seiya is hard to get into, specially if you are marathoning, i suggest you watch two or three eps at best per day if you find yourself struggling with it. Just keep in mind that the power excaling is mostly centered around dialogue than action, so if someone says they can casually fight at the speed of light and have a power that can equal the Big Bang, dont take it with a grain of salt just because thats not properly shown, some characters over hype themselves but their statements about themselves IS cannon.
Well i wasnt expecting another chapter this soon but did help with keeping the hype in check, so where are only one third into story? Nice.
Raditz runs the Saiyans now, though he has bent the knee to Meruem. I almost decided to make the prologue longer, but it would have included the fight between Meruem and his allies against the Saiyans and Kryptonians instead. I figured the explanations they gave during that meeting of what was going to happen with the Kings of the other races gave away how those things were going to end up, considering the plan worked in the end since we knew Bardock became the Saiyan King. We may see more flashbacks of that time later on, as well as other important flashbacks that are on their way in this second third. And yes, we're only 1/3 into Heroes Will Rise, so we've still got a long ways to go! Thanks for the review! And thanks again everyone for reviewing, reading, faving, and following! 'Till next time!