Pandora's Box: A Multiverse RP: IC

[The V O I D]

Conference Room
The Hub Station
Unknown Space

Vader listened to Padme's response. Vader ground his teeth slightly; every word fueling his rage. He clenched his fists, and unleashed a terrible scream in the Force. The scream would be felt most strongly by anyone Force inclined, or who happened to be in the vicinity - even if they weren't force inclined. Vader's droids suddenly began getting crushed into balls of metal, sparking and crunching loudly until he dropped them. Vader put his hand to his face, rubbing his fingers against the bridge of his nose with one hand; frustrated, angry, and just downright wanting to curse at the Force itself. Vader almost scoffed after a moment, realizing she had said Sidious wasn't that vile of a man.

“You seem to be lacking a realization here. Whatever happened that brought us all here... we aren't just out of our galaxies, we are out of our respective universes!”, he growled out, in frustration mostly; “In your universe, I don't exist because I was never brought in by Sidious and Maul. I probably wasn't even discovered on that useless rock Tatooine. In mine, Sidious and Maul took me from my mother and I was their apprentice since... well, I'll say also very young. Barely even a child. I, of course, killed Maul eventually, as well as Sidious. And, once, I almost achieved absolute power over my galaxy. And then it was taken away... and then... well, this happened. However it happened.” Vader stopped talking, grinding his teeth; seething in rage still. The Darkness around him flickered like a roaring flame, as if he wanted to immediately find something - or someone - to maim. To make suffer.

Vader began trying to calm himself down; it was rare for him to do such a thing, but having the Jedi here couldn't be so bad. She could be of use to him... and besides, she was the most familiar thing in this room, to him; let alone probably in this universe. He wondered how those from the Maria would react to this once he informed them later on. He had to; after all, they could be useful allies or tools to him as well. And having their trust and such in this little... event could prove most valuable. Vader glared at the wall of the station. Why had the Force brought him here, of all places? And with a Jedi? What was even going on?

[The Republic of Atria]

The Command Center

The Skeleton man, who called himself Gaster, understandably went into a defensive posture at his kicking open the door. "To be completely honest I wasn't expecting a young girl and a skeleton man. I've seen weirder shit in my time, but this is definitely top... five." Jason started and was about to introduce Rift, but the boorish man had already done that himself. "As my loud friend, if you can call him that, said he was attacked by some people called the Descendants, and my best friend was, presumably, kidnapped by them or something." He explained. "Sorry for kicking down the door. We didn't know if there were combatants in here. Alright. Now that we've confirmed we will not be killing each other at the moment, My name is Jason Tassiter, Collective Elite. Kicker of Rift's ass and general ass kicker. Was there anyone else here when you guys got here..." And he trailed off looking at the equation. "Looks like the equation to making... Portals. Extra universal portals."

He almost jumped when a man who seemed vaguely familiar just poofed into the room. "Monarch... That name dooooooes ring a bell. Some technology manipulator. Collective wanted you to join, give you a special body with the lump of grey matter that gives you your unique brain function, ala me. You said no. Went off to do your own thing. Plus or minus a few details. Didn't think you were that obsessed with the color blue though."

[Parcia]

Uzgrod
Hub, Corridors

Uzgrod was waiting around for the humans to finish talking, he was looking around when he heard the one in the blue-shirt say that he would follow them.
He was getting ready to walk towards the command center when Snum began to growl in the opposite direction."What's wrong with ua runt", he looked over towards the direction the snotling was growling at. He walked over readying his shoota and klaw.

He saw her the fancy hat at least, a commissar, "Hey hummies we got us sume more hummies." "How do ya like to handle this comissar, this other hummies are boring why not have us sume fun." He lifted his power klaw and pointed his shoota in their direction he shouted "WAAAGH!" and charged.

Sean

He drew the pistol as the green hulk as the beast flew past him, the Hazard team diving to the sides as green hulk flashed by. He dropped to one knee and yelled out. "Stop, or this is going to put you down!" He leveled the pistol on his head and switched it to stun.

[Kassaran]

LEGION

He'd been on the run for the last three months. Countless nights being unable to rest, unable to sleep even. His eyes would snap open to every sound, every creaking beam and barrier and bulkhead in the vessel, his head running his calculations amongst ten others on the supposed safety he had sought amongst the layered skin of the Freighter he'd hijacked all that while ago. The sub-light freighter was on its last legs and it was slowly beginning to enter the drift-point of its approach to the location he'd been warned of. It was a place beyond the red-line for space exploration of any manned device... for good reason. All of the other vessels that had been sent in automated, had lost contact with his home planet Terra. Now here he was risking life and limb on a hunch, a certain sneaking suspicion that something, if not someone had taken up residence there.

Ultimately though, he didn't care about the end result of his patience, of his waiting. No, he just wanted out of the trouble he'd caused himself, the end to the other dimensional versions of himself he'd ripped from their home dimensions to create the monster he'd now become. He'd come to terms with the nature of his ability, now given to him by the AUGIR and the IPAAS. He was aware of the pains he'd taken to cover up his real objective in escaping, and now as he approached the dark zone -the one point in space where all contact ceased- hurtling at thousands of kilometers per second he also approached what he hoped to salvation... or at least an end. Any moment now, as he stared at the barren and bleak walls of the inside of the freighter control room, he'd begin to experience the wake wash of the gravitational anomaly that all of the other probes had reported. He'd begin to feel his stomach fall towards the outside of his body, pushing against the front of his abdominal wall and pressing his muscles flat as he began to feel ripped from the back of his seat.

Tremors. His body tightened and a surge of adrenaline ran through his body, lighting up his neural receptors and bringing on the waves of energy he'd thought he'd lost, back in those first few days running from the local galactic authorities. He hadn't ever expected to be driven to these extents, he'd never wanted this, never asked for this. He'd simply been an inventor, simply a man wanting to make that next big thing that would save or change the world. He'd been the most brilliant in his classes, he'd grown up to graduate everything at the top of his class to prove his mental superiority. He'd tried so hard to be liked, to be approved of by everyone. What happened to all of that though, were had his intentions, his good, his bad, his greedy and selfish ambitions all run now? Where were they? Somewhere in the sanitation facility back at the prison base on the third moon of his home planet? Washed down the drain with the bits of dimensional ash that was him as much as he was present now. The versions of him last assimilated, they'd been the first to go and now the last one in line, the one first to go if he took fatal damage again was pressing back against everything and everyone else.

This idea was a gamble, it was a hopeless, chanced gamble and it was screaming for him to turn back, to turn himself in so the authorities could figure out what to do to fix the problem he'd started, but the others knew what had happened. They'd all acted in concert, even if they hadn't wanted to. He was the one running the body sure, but it was all their body too. Everything he'd done, they too would have done and they'd be caught in the technicalities of the details regardless. The liability that was leaving him to brainstorm amongst himself ten times over was too much of a liability. The gauntlet on his right arm slowly hummed and vibrated in place, ticking the hairs upon his arm as the small light-wafer plates in place displayed the various running system diagnostics of what was happening. It could detect there was some sort of interdimensional entity or anomaly getting closer at speeds much faster than it should ever have. The ship now had begun to shake more violently. The world as LEGION knew it began to feel like it was vibrating apart at the very core and the vibrations had grown in such violence it was now even becoming painful to breath.

Through the open view port in the command bridge, he could begin to make it out, the point of no return. It was a possible rift in time and space, it was no black hole, he'd seen the pictures they'd collected of light being pulled into the dark event horizons. No, this was something new, it was completely absorbing all of space and leaving nothingness. There was just a void, a blank area in space and it was quickly expanding to fill up everything around him. In less than ten seconds it had completely consumed the point of view of the front of the ship to the furthest extent. He was feeling pain in his very skin, his bones, his muscles. Something was very wrong and almost instinctively he reached up and in the intense shaking that had now completely consumed every fiber of his being, undid the latch securing him to the seat. In an instant, he was flung from the seat and into the ceiling as a shrieking and groaning sound akin to a whale dying filled his ears. Metal ripped apart and the sudden rushing of air and atmosphere past him were the last things that he heard as his body was tugged violently from its position and pinned against the overhanging displays as the bridge was emptied of everything into the abyss of nothingness.

Somewhere, out there, maybe he'd survive this. He didn't have much hope though, it never helped to do so.

---

Seven months earlier...

"Mister Bastion?"

The voice was different than what he'd expected from the man dressed smartly in the blue business suit. The red blazer he wore complimenting the ruby-red loafers and the crimson-framed sunglasses. The style of these scholarly men was rather odd to the inventor, but he'd never truly cared for fashion, so what did he know. All he knew was that they posited interesting thesis and theories and he proved or disproved them through experimentation and tinkering. In the man's hands, the item in question sat alone. It was a small and thin rod, perhaps no more than thirty span long by twelve span wide. He smiled. It was a little shorter than a Territe child. It would be no small thing to pry it open and inspect its contents, but he took the box in its entirety for what it was. A container. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a container. The real interests he held would be sated by the discovery of the objects within. The small paper draped lazily over the front of it though gave him pause. It was a Non-Disclosure Agreement. It went against every fiber of his being to even approach someone holding one of those, much less actually entertain the thought of signing one. The promise of revolutionary new alien technology to be reverse engineered was something far too sweet to be given up for the sake of his ideals, his morals, right? Was it truly worth it?

"I need your answer or else I have to move on. We need someone to try and figure out exactly how the artifact works and to reverse engineer it. Chances are, it could revolutionize everything we know about the world, about Terra and every Territe on its surface. What is your answer?"

It was a hard sale and the professor standing before him, claiming to be with some university on some far-flung corner of the continent had known it. He, Mordecai Ezrah Bastion, was notorious for his anti-censorship and full-disclosure policies. He was a man of academic freedom and action and he felt that the world should be free to know exactly how and why he came to every conclusion he'd ever approached. He needed to prove his mental superiority, he needed to not only prove it, but parade it and be praised for it. He needed to be remembered. It wasn't as though the man had an ego problem. If you talked to him he'd be humble enough to come across a nice enough man, and the boisterous personality which dominated every conversation was one of constant questioning. It was socratical in nature and often many found it refreshing to meet him and find that they were never looked down upon for expressing a view different from his own. No, instead he'd engage them at their level, a skill carefully honed through countless years of trial and error.

Here though, this man sat on his front porch, just beyond the door, holding out what promised to be his greatest challenge yet, and possibly the crowning achievement of his life. All it would take, would be the ultimate fall from his high horse. The sacrificing of whom he'd made himself out to be in order to gain the ultimate knowledge if this was the case. He eyed the man suspiciously, from behind shades Mordecai couldn't tell if he was being toyed with. The small corners of the man's lips lay still, untucked or curled so as to represent a tell of any sort. Nothing that could prove the man to be a liar, dishonest, a fibber, or even a jokester. His garish attire was truly that of a man who stayed up to date with the times and the verbiage he'd used was accurate enough for the subject at hand to inspire Mordecai's imagination. Now he just needed to know if what lay in the box was worth it and the pen being held out to him from the professor's assistant, a young woman perhaps three or four years Mordecai's junior, beckoned to him softly. It was a sweet song of promise and hope and mystery. A mystery he'd never solve, and that just couldn't be allowed to happen.

Fingers gripping the cold steel of the pen's outer layer as he picked it up, he was almost surprised by the weight of the writing utensil. Pressing the pen to the paper, a slight pricking of his fingertip informed as to the nature of the ink that he now saw being drawn in a crimson thread across the signature line by his own hand. It was blood-ink. The only allowable ink to be used on documents of this magnitude if not importance. This was serious and goose-flesh broke out across Mordecai's body as he imagined what sort of forbidden fruits lay within the box as he finished his signature and returned the pen to its rightful owner. The girl looked at it closely and dropped the long tube back into a small plastic baggie, likely to be disposed of, if not used to replicate some aspects of his body the government likely was curious about. Just what had caused him so much trouble though, that he'd needed to turn his back on everything he'd worked on so far? What had happened? What did this professor have that he needed to go to Mordecai to fix it? Sure, ever since grand declassification decades ago, Mordecai had proven himself to be an overall expert in the art of repairing and reverse engineering the technology brought to him, but he wasn't the best at every piece, just the important ones dealing with gravitational manipulation and whatnot.

No, now this was more serious, and he knew it from the onset as the professor before him opened up his mouth to speak.

"Very well mister Bastion. Mind if I come inside, it's best that this doesn't remain out here, too many prying eyes, too many listening ears. All that fun and joy you know."

The press was a relentless force and constantly surveying all to try and get their brand-new scoop, if whatever was in this box was seen, if it could cause a riot-storm in the press then he'd be likely facing civil disturbance and endangerment fines already, but it didn't matter now. No, he needed this more than anything before. Without further thought, he entered his home, motioning for the man at the door to enter. The world outside was calm, everything at rest and as it should have been. If only he'd known what he was doing when he'd brought that man into his home, his life, his place of safety and abandoned everything from before. When you lose yourself entirely, you become something else, and deep within him, the stirring depths of his soul seemed to be slowly twisting and contorting at the presence of this new device.

The couches he owned were not the brand new Teyrani brand, their name indeed came from a manufacturer more than thirty years old and well out of touch with the current tastes in culture society had developed, but they still remained in good tastes within the more academic circles for their practicality and usefulness. The sight of the bio-printer to the edge of his kitchenette turned workshop indicated the presence of a few dozen or so biological cultures he'd managed to source from the socionet. The world's greatest connection beyond your house, the socionet had simply started as an experimental method of data intensive communication and it had ultimately replaced the intranet system before it. In fact, all who used the intranet now were the poorest of the world. It wasn't even all that bad given the socionet had architecture centered on allowing maximum compatibility with presocionet devices. The man with the gaudy apparel behind him seemed to make all of the expected measured and calculated observances that this world so centered on image and intellect had instilled within him. He slowly was coming to the starting realization that the man before him, a trend-setter and a legend in and of himself was indeed that which was surprisingly rare nowadays.

"I didn't realize that hipster-cliques still existed, nor that you were one of their occultist subscriptionaries Mister Bastion."

The words came so far out of left field for the man whom rarely invited so much as even a delivery person indoors during a snowstorm that he turned with a look of mixed confusion and apprehension towards the vermilion and cyan-hued man. An eyebrow cocked up and back, like the hammer of a gun as he quickly considered his responses, it came down and out fired his quick response, hastily prepared but enough to place the lines in the sand that needed to be drawn. A quick breath was all the warning the professor received of the impending warning," I'd hardly consider myself to be a hipster, nor that in and of itself I remain within a 'clique' as you called it. I'm simply a man whom found and retained a taste he particularly liked for its aestheticism and shared functionality. If it is hardly acceptable by the society as a whole anymore to appreciate the beauty found in functionality, then it is hardly a society worth having. It becomes almost superfluous and without meaning because nothing it does can ever truly lead to fruition, no?"

A hard response to the shallow question meant simply to be an icebreaker within his home, the professor visibly recoiled at the barely withheld verbal tongue-lashing he'd received for his notation on the fashions of one of the most profoundly intelligent men on the planet. If he was trying to get upon Mordecai's good side, commenting on his tastes would do no one no good. What then could he say as he simply moved towards one of the larger love-seats and took up his place reclining in the comfortable sofa. Th world indeed had become a new place for all and yet everything was so decidedly familiar here in this home Mordecai had built, the professor could only help but fall back into old habits thrown away at the original cessation of this fashion. A leg slung up and over the left arm of the seat as his back pressed into the far caddy-corner of the chair, he felt himself sinking into the soft Goriljite leather and pressed to try and keep himself from entirely disappearing within its soft and cool embrace.

The arms of the chair served to work as a sort of brace for the ill-prepared professor as the man of intellect across from him chose to use the entirety of the sofa he'd obtained to lay upon. Indeed, the softness of the leather and the firmness of the furniture's architecture proved to make for a better futon than anything and watching with eyes closely analyzing the professor, Mordecai rolled over to his side and cast a dour look upon the box still clasped within the man's hands. The assistant could be heard walking back up the way, but she never entered the house as the professor slowly leaned forward and placed the auspicious yet so incidentally conspicuous package upon the coffee table. Just what was it that could be lying inside was the question never asked, it didn't need to be asked, for the professor quickly revealed as he did the contents of the box, its purpose and origin. The topmost flaps of the contained quickly becoming evident as the bio-seal gave way to the professor's prodding and within moments it sat there. Pristine and cleaned, yet unable to be divined in usage due to its apparent lack of cooperation with the men back at the professor's university. Just why was this small strip of metallic circuitry so important? Ah yes, the professor was talking now, Mordecai should probably be listening.

"...it was really quite a surprise to us to find something in such pristine condition. We couldn't have imagined why it was left here but that it might be a relic from the ancient times, during the Idiru Period when the Lynvas was still a thing. The fact that a gate as powerful as Lynvas was being used to protect the very presence of this artifact makes us believe it may have slight bearing on interdimensional travel of a sort. We need to know if you can fix this?"

It really didn't look all that hard, and knowing the Idiru Period's penchant for placing puzzle locks of increasing sophistication upon their equipment and technology, that's probably exactly what this circuit-board was, an Idiru logic-lock. A fun, but ultimately non-time consuming puzzle. Nodding as he threw his hands up into the air over him, using the light streaming in from glass windows around the room to inspect the veins upon the backs of his hands, he couldn't help but agree. If this is it, if this was all, it better be a lock to something good, because puzzle locks were usually much, much smaller than this band of computer circuitry. If indeed he used it for the purposes of truly being accepted into the rank and file of the academic halls of fame, he'd need to use whatever technology lay in the decryption of the puzzle lock to revolutionize the world. As it had been, most and if not all of his inventions had never truly been his, but rather just improvements sold off to the companies they'd come from for increased profit margins. He never asked for much and thus always had work from the various corporations and companies that wanted to employ him. Many had offered him lucrative contracts, but that wasn't what he wanted from life. No, he wanted something far greater and this had the possibility to be it.

"I'll take the band off of your hands, but when do you want it solved by? If it's protected by and Idiru puzzle lock, then I can't guarantee that it'll be back by the end of th-"

"Oh, you mistake me and my words Mister Bastion. We've already solved that much using your very formula. In fact, all thirteen locks on the band were solved within a single hour by putting them through a local logic circuit," as the words came from the professor's mouth, Mordecai's head snapped towards him and he rocketed to his feet, the upright sitting position coming nigh-naturally for the man as he leaned forward in his seat to take a closer look at the band. Indeed, he could see where the thirteen small puzzle lock holes on the artifact had once been secured and he looked back up at the professor before observing the band closely once more. Reaching out, he withdrew the circuitry delicately, not wanting to instigate a potential safety feature. The professor continued, a small smile appearing upon his face as he did so, aware of just the amount of interest he'd piqued in the mind of the brilliant inventor before him. Indeed, this was no tinkering job he needed, it was a repair job," We can't quite much figure out anything beyond the first few lines of code belonging to the primary processing chip within the band, it appears that they encrypted everything past the base U.I. It's all we could unlock, everything else has been hidden behind wall after wall of encryption that not even the best petabyte processors could decrypt. We believe you, however, could do it with some brute force thought-processing, no?"

He smiled, so the man did know whom he was dealing with and they' done their homework, in fact they'd done more than that. The vast majority of people he'd charge for handing him items like this he'd simply have applied a simple work load to, finished in a matter of hours, and then sat on the results for a few days as he milked the artifact for answers. These professors and their undergraduate research partners likely had thrown everything in and out of the books at them. From the educational to the posited and theorized, no, this was indeed a job for a tinkerer and inventor. It was a job for Mordecai Ezrah Bastion, man of the century, and ideally the millennium. Nodding as he slowly rotated the circuit board over in his hand, the Idiru logic locking mechanisms serving as small hold points so as to not get his bodily oils upon what certainly might be fragile and sensitive electronics, he looked questioningly towards the professor.

"Any risk of damage from initial archaeologists or dig-site personnel? Any known microbials or viruses planted on this? Anything, anyone, that might have come in contact with this board, I need to know who, what, when, where, why, and how. Any and all cataloged, filmed, and recorded information on this artifact, start sending it to my-"

"You take us for amateur researchers and scholars sir? We've done more than record this item's existence in detail, we've included the files with the package." The professor leaned forward to remove the small case inside the container which had withheld the artifact. Indeed, nestled beneath the artifice for the transport of the artifact was a small UDB data drive. From the lettering stenciled upon it, it was evident that this was no small series of files either. The 28TB key was no doubt needed to record all of the environmental data, everywhere the device had traveled, how it had reacted. If this thing was in motion, save for the last little ride here to Bastion's own laboratory and home, it was logged and recorded. Everything from it being brought here, to him handling it now, was off the logbooks. This artifact now no longer existed and wouldn't exist until he brought it back. The simple thought of the sheer amount of data had tingles running up Mordecai's spine as he posited just the extent to what this object might signify for the Territe race, for all Territes. Something the Professor had said further brought on another wave of intrigue and interest.

"You mentioned interdimensional travel? Surely you don't mean to posit that interacting with alternative timelines would be possible. You're talking confirmation of the Titor Paradox and the inherent issues with infinite opportunities that are borne. Do you even have the readings to in-"

"-dicate, yes, yes we do Mister Bastion. Everything is on the files. We have further information regarding our discoveries on certain eddies and temporal anomalies we suspect are also responsible for disturbances in the local cluster. If we're right, the artifact here, should let users travel through without suffering from any sort of temporal splitting. This device would make it possible-"

"-to return to one's home timeline..." Bastion looked down at the band of circuitry in his hand and then back up at the professor, slowly placing the band back into its case and smiled. It was as plain as day he'd take the job, and he'd do everything he could to ensure that he discovered this item's power, its abilities, its purpose, and its meaning. The Idiruan artifacts left here on Terra were indeed something of great importance to all scientists and no doubt all information he uncovered he could posit from parallel discoveries made using the source information. Through it he could confirm various theories and put them into the scientific community. The world would never be none the wiser that he'd done it all to circumvent the NDA he'd signed only minutes before. Hands flew up to the sides of his head, pressing up and back on his long locks of dark brown hair as he let out a sigh of elation. Feeling his fingers join and clasp together behind the base of his skull, he stretched himself backwards onto the couch again, letting his lungs expand and contract with the motion. Before he sprang forward and to a standing position.

"Thank you very much sir for then lending this artifact to me. I pray that it shall only take me as long as every other job to solve, but I've got a feeling about this one I've not had for a long time... not for a very long time." It was an academic excitement, it sent rushes of energy and excitement into his fingers and his toes and his face felt flushed. Heat and a lack thereof pulsating through his body as he sat there taking in the emotions of wonder and awe he'd not felt in a long while. A true mystery. The man quietly got up, nodded, and made for the door. The case lay in its place atop the coffee table and Bastion couldn't help but immediately pounce upon the vessel the moment the professor left. There was no drawn out discussions nor agreements. It was all just the world as he knew it, soft and straightforward. There were no hard decisions, no curveballs, no loopholes needed. He just could play his games as he wanted and no one would be any the wiser. Damn it felt good to be the smartest man in the world, if not the universe.

---

Four months earlier

The white light radiating off of the band, now adapted into a gauntlet of holo-wire and projected via his own natural bio-electricity using hypersensitive luminous diodes, gave him the chills to look at. It was a bone-white color, nothing even slighted in the hue nor the grade and quality. It was light, pure and simple and yet the last three months of slaving away, pushing himself and his mind to countless extremes had brought him entirely to the brink. This was the brainchild of his own building and it finally was here, it was finally complete. No help, no comment, no method to the madness. Just plain and simple hard work and science. Technology's newest addition to the Territe collection, as soon as he could figure out how to work it he'd be golden man of the century if not the millennium and he'd finally have his place in the scientific hall of discovery and fame. He'd be there with all the greats in science and research. His name a new household name, the man whom brought interdimensional travel to the world of Terra. It was not his responsibility to choose how everyone used it, simply just to provide it as a choice, an option.

Would that be what he told himself if the world came to an end over this? The fears and doubts tugged at the corner of his mind, like a child wishing for someone to step away from the ledge of a building's rooftop. He could feel it, trying to beckon him away before he stepped off into the abyss, the unknown. What if he floated, or flew instead of fell though? Would he be remembered as the man who took off and disappeared into the sun forever, be the one pivotal point in the whole of the Terran race as they grew to recognize his single contribution as being the one that finally let them take off. To control the multiverse beyond the expanse. Would this indeed be his truest contribution to the Territe race, or would it all come crashing back down on him? There was only one way to be sure.

"H.A.R.O.L.D., bring the main house reactor online. Start directing everything you can into the capacitance circuits located in lab four-two-one-bravo. We're going to have ourselves a little field test of Artifact Delta-Tackett-two-nine."

A slight humming could be heard beneath the resounding thumping of the main reactor switch-board kicked over house excess energy into the super-capacitors located on the far end of the laboratory. There was no way that whatever was about to happen wouldn't require more energy than usual. Most Idiruan artifacts required an entire school laboratory's funding in power for a month to work. Thankfully for the genius inventor, jobs paid well enough on average for him to afford to run more than an order of magnitude more energy than those labs could ever hope to use in all of their experiments, never mind one. Looking around, the house seemed to chirp in agreement that the request seemed a little much, confirming some of the underlying doubts he held about using the technology in the first place. The plug was suitably close to his skin and powering this gauntlet wasn't going to be cheap, never mind the sheer amount of energy that'd be required to get it to function properly. If all else failed, the diodes would indicate the intensity or over-intensity of the power running through the band and glow so white-hot they'd practically become small stars upon his arm... god he didn't want to think about the consequences of that.

"Reactor output approaching 100%, directing house non-essential stores to Super-Capacitors Alpha and Bravo. Excess Power being directed to Capacitor Banks Two and Four. External overload input and diode backup capacitance being designated to Bank Three, Super-capacitors Echo and Foxtrot."

"Thank you H.A.R.O.L.D., mind telling my wife I love her before I end up disappearing from the surface of the planet for eternity?"

"You don't have a wife. You are telling me a joke. It isn't very funny. You could die doing this. I'm not technically supposed to enable Territe death according to the Artificial Intelligence Accords."

The inventor slowly began to approach the laboratory room in questions as he began to thumb over hidden buttons hidden beneath the main tactile response and imaging plates. Final quick-tuning adjustments to make the display seem all that more professional for when he demoed it in front of others. It wasn't like he was expecting to actually go anywhere, but his house's objections were duly noted with a dismissive nod of his head and a wave of the hand as he nonchalantly stepped into the room with enough power to keep a city's lights on for an entire day. Here he was, using it to turn on some alien wristwatch. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on the inventor who couldn't help but laugh at himself and the ridiculousness of all of this. Most wouldn't have even dreamed of turning the thing on, let alone wear it or do live test trials until they were entirely sure it would work. Bastion didn't have time for that stuff. He had patient enough already, now was his turn to have his fun, to be the first Territe to travel through space and time, to become the man Territe history would remember forever.

The small charging cable he'd hand made for the job, looked almost too small to suitably supply the power he'd likely need for this technological wonder now glued to his arm, but he didn't care. He could always use a more rugged design, but if all of his projections were spot on, then travel wouldn't take all that much for him to utilize. In fact, he'd probably be better off trying to design something more lightweight in the first place, he'd no idea how any of this trans-dimensional travel stuff work. The cord, snapping into place, quickly became a pointed final note in the song he'd been singing for the last three months. Today, after so much work, so many sleepless nights, so many days spent working on trying to figure out just how each and every little sub-molecular logic circuit worked with each atom involved, he would see the fruits of his labor. He, would join the men of history, forever. Well, if he could make it back that was, but it was okay. He'd set his anchor to this timeline. If all else worked, he could immediately jump back to this spot and resume business as normal. He'd possibly get stuck in a time-loop where he didn't know if it was working or not, but that was a risk he was willing to take.

A slight jolt of energy was all he felt before it seemed like the ground beneath his very feet fell off into the nothingness. He was willing to end it all for a moment of fame, was this just his mind perceiving the jump, or was he truly feeling something- ah. That, was unexpected. It was him, or was it him? It was a him that he knew not to be himself, but all the same was truly the same person and his insatiable curiosity drew him closer to the version of him hunched over the workbench in frustration, trying to actuate the primary band servos to flex and fit his arm. This had been something he'd only just been dealing with a few moments ago, why was he seeing this again? Had he traveled back in time? Could he create a time loop or paradox by interacting with himself? He didn't even feel like he was actually there, and in fact it felt as though his skin, his body, his soul had a massive bungee glued to it, pulling him away, but not quite enough to take him off his feet. If he focused on holding the feeling he had now, he could just barely manage to hold out. Why here? Why now?

It was almost though as if the simple thought of there being a moment in time he could change, he watched himself turn around, and then their eyes met and Bastion knew he’d been found out. But there was no fear, no individual sense of apprehension, it would be exactly how he would have reacted in finding out that it somehow had worked out and that he was the one to discover it. He felt a strange sense of relief wash over him and reaching out to shake his hand, it took less than a second for it all to happen. There it was, his gauntlet shining brightly and as he made contact with himself, the other Bastion wanting to inspect the instrument as his mouth opened to say something, the bungee seemed to rip up and across his right forearm. Pain lanced out across the room in a way he’d never expected before.

The white, hot light from the artifact in a millisecond managed to close the distance between the two persons in the room, and with a quick flashing of the gauntlet, everything went dark in a second. The emptiness behind and around and beneath Mordecai swallowed them up again, and they felt crowded. They noticed their presence at once together in the darkness, but in the momentary lapse in conscious thought the two became one and the world came back. Entities seemed too separate to truly combine became a mixture of confusion as they brought a hand up to their head. He pulled it away, watching the after shadow of his dimensional twin, caught just a little behind in the thought process.

“Why-“ the thought managed to bring together the variety of the two back into one as they both recognized the occupational hazard forming in the lapse in memory and thought. Mordecai looked around themselves, trying to find anything, something to latch onto. The world seemed to be pitching and turning violently at the corners of their vision and their balance seemed to be holding up to that of a newborn calf.

“What hap-pened?”

Questions only led to answers that forced more questions as the undeniable response of two Mordecai in one body emerged. The sound was the same, but the thoughts were jumbled, as if someone was using a speech jamming device on him. A simple thought put an end to it though as he proved there was indeed some parallelism here. They could communicate without speech and that might just prove to be vital to retaining some form of sanity here. There was far too much to be considered and the workload on his brain was slowly beginning to give him a headache, perhaps a first in his entire life as they found purchase in grabbing the edge of his work desk in the laboratory.

Just- just be silent for a second while I work this out. I think you’re stuck in my body and thus I’m the one going to be paying for this in the morning if everything goes wrong.

What do you mean if everything goes wrong? Everything has gone wrong already, hasn’t it? Why can’t I control my body, this is my body, right? What did you do to me? Why can’t I move?

Mordecai was barely suppressing their panic, their fear. Was there some sort of difference between the two Mordecai that had put alternate reality him into his body? Had they simply melded? Or was there another- the gauntlet. It had to be the gauntlet, but why? Was it because he had finished it first? Was his ownership of the gauntlet the sole reason he’d been determined to be the arbiter in all paradox resolutions? It had to be, right?

That has to be it. Yes, I read your thoughts, or moreover had them too as you did. You must be the one determined to be the host. Host?

My word, not yours. Stop worrying about it. Just, keep thinking, see if you can-

Arrive at separate conclusions or thought processes- I’m trying, but you’re really overpowering the process. Just…

Try concentrating. Alright, meditation on the subject matter and nothing but silence which should be easy enough right-

“It appears you’re suffering from some form of excessive radiation falloff from the device. Power capacitor banks one through three suffered overload of backwash and have crashed. Excessive radiation levels detected coming from reactor coolant chambers one and two. Reverting to house backup-“

“H.A.R.O.L.D., volume off!”

Glad to see we’re at least that much in sync.

Indeed. In fact, there had to be a reason why I ended up in your universe in the first place, right?

Perhaps I was the one-

-closest to finishing the gauntlet next. So it-

-dragged you to me. It’d-

Make sense in the end to Mordecai that they’d end up paired first. They were the two instances closest to the same revelation, but why would the gauntlet have been drawn to it? Worlds pushed along into the same end by this device, this troublesome little artifact now linked to him. What would happen though if he removed it, if he turned it off? It wasn’t worth it. He didn’t care to remove it. There was something new though, information they’d not known before as two became one and two separate lines of research, to a different extent, became one. How did one know the other except but through the creation of quantum-linked memories? Was that even a thing? It was now.

Lives and memories shared along the fabric of the universe, the quantum foam that upon which all matter rested its existence in. Multiverse or not, wherein lay the real problem was the determination of how far the quantum entanglement stretched. Did it consume the whole body? They shared sensations and feelings and thoughts to an extent, but not control? The gauntlet was the reason why, the band and the anchoring process created this instance’s domination over the others. The gauntlet would always be drawn to an instance nearing that moment. They needed to be sure though.

“H.A.R.O.L.D., prepare to dump capacitors into section three. Recycle all household power to the lab and prep for backwash in thirty seconds. I’m going back in.”

“I’d really not recommend that Master Bastion, the house reactors are still near critical overtempt, if they go over I’ll have no choice but to utilize the-“

“Do it H.A.R.O.L.D., trust me, I don’t want to jeopardize your existence, but I did just travel between dimensions. Don’t you think you could just give me this for a moment?”

“Understood Master Bastion. Reinitializing experiment to within requested parameters. Methodology will be crude, but enough. Bringing on the house surge capacitor banks. Redirecting excess heat into the waste areas of the house. Cutting all non-critical programs. Prepping nitrogen coolant for emergency reactor suppression. Ready when you are.”

Is he moving slower than-”

-usual? No. We’re thinking faster, but I can’t-

measure by how much… right. We need to do a diagnostic-

That would come after they returned from their second trip. If this was indeed the idea, that the gauntlet would guide them to the next most intelligent or far along member of this potential fraternity of Mordecai that existed in the multiverse. The pain was less, it spread amongst the members of the body experiencing it, though the effects were no less severe and the view unfolded before them faster this time. They were adapting perhaps? Or maybe they were processing everything faster. Less of their conscious mind had to be devoted to each second, and they proceeded. Same lab, same hall. There he was. Mordecai, and as they approached he too felt something and turned. It was almost habit to reach out and make a connection in spite of the last time and a moment too soon they caught themselves as the three became one once more.

Flashes of light this time as they reemerged and arcs of pain lanced through all of them. Immense pain beyond what could have, what should have, been possible. Why, why did it have to hurt like this and what damage was being done? Was there going to be nervous damage for this all? Did he have to look forward to travelling through dimensions like this in shorts spans, ended by meeting himself? How far could Mordecai travel from the focal point? What was his own personal best to be?

He wouldn’t know for another week.

How do we-

-know that?

We’re processing faster. Much faster than intended. If we keep this up-

-Nothing would truly be the same again, they could perhaps solve this problem on their own. Turning his head to the side, he waited for the read off of the house stats, as the red emergency lights dimly lit the underground laboratory. There was some blaring alarm in the distance, somewhere above ground perhaps and sitting in the wallow and mire of his own experimental failure, he couldn’t help but brace his head with hands. What was even the reason for all of this? Why had he gone in the second time? Did he even need to? He should have realized he wouldn’t gather anything he didn’t already know, or did he? Had he picked up anything new? He and Mordecai from the first parallel had already recognized some discrepancies, but almost all were topical. There were a few formulas in there deeper than the rest. It was interesting, it was all so interesting to the three in one that they almost didn’t catch the voice speaking into their ears.

“Master Bastion, the Tir Civil Authority Agency has come to speak with you regarding your emergency reactor purge. I’ve informed them of a slight nuclear incident in the laboratory and have recommended maintaining the one kilometer quarantine currently in place until I can verify your safety… and perhaps sanity. I’m detecting some radiation fall-off and physical instabilities in your own spectral readings. Thermal output is two degrees above average, heart-rate is heightened and your body is pulsating huge amounts of quanta radiation, but I’m not registering any damage from it.”

“Good H.A.R.O.L.D., I’ll be right up. Any major thing that they want me to know over that?”

“You have been slapped with a whopping fine of thirteen billion local. I’ve put it on your tab. I assume you’ll pay that off with the proceeds of Visiontek sales?”

“Do it.”

---

LEGION

The sound of the metal blast doors to the command bridge sealing shut let LEGION’s body fall limply to the floor. The feeling of his face slamming into the unforgiving metal surface and likewise his nose breaking, sending a fresh spurt of blood over the console he was near, gave rise to a flurry of curses in a language he had thought he’d forgotten. Gripping the edge of the terminal, he looked up. The world was a brutal place indeed, but the various trials he’d been through made it all worth it as he looked now into the view screens in place. Holo-projectors painted a scene from one of those science fiction films he’d seen plenty of from before. Massive dreadnaughts of hundreds of Li, not counting the massive one in the center which he guessed was some sort of hub, lay scattered in the space around here. He, however, was without steering, without power, and most worryingly, without shielding.

“Oh fuck, AUGIR!”

“On it now, rear door. Follow the hall,” the commands came as quickly as LEGION could follow them and getting to his feet, he was in a mad scramble to make his way to the safest place on the ship, the lifeboats. Hundreds of kilometers were all that separated him from the space station now hurtling towards him at speeds he didn’t want to think about. He’d obviously slowed down in the transition between what he could only guess was universes as he recalled the feelings in his stomach being the same as before. This was an entirely new method of course, but the same end result. He was in deep space and in a new dimension, somewhere where no one from his home dimension would ever find him. All he had to do now was survive. Pushing on though, he couldn’t help but survive. It had become second nature now for him.

“Give me the next bit man, c’mon!”

“Tube to your right, take i- never mind, keep running. Thirteen seconds to impact. Odds of survival approaching zero. Increase speed by three faran.”

“Fuuuuck!” he was pumping his arms now like he’d never had before, he was practically springing like a professional runner. There was a spring in his step he didn’t realize he still had, he thought he’d lost it hours if not days or weeks ago. There was little to complain about now, he needed to survive this, there was no guarantee he could recover from the catastrophe about to happen. The lifeboats were his only hope. Collision warning lights began to blare and the sounds of systems trying to reboot themselves against the emergency and auxiliary systems resounded through the ship in a violent cacophony of noise. The vessel’s navigational computer was desperately venting excess atmosphere and material, tryin to slow itself to survivable speeds to no avail.

“Eight seconds.”

Come on, come on, just nineteen more meters. He could do this, he could make it, he just needed to go a little faster, pump a little more. HE needed to survive this, not only for himself, but for anyone that was relying on all of him. LEGION wasn’t just the Mordecai of his home dimension, he was ten other Mordecai, and all of them were pushing now, egging on the one physical body to do the work to save the whole of the eleven.

“Five seconds.”

He could see the doors to the lifeboat. His hands gripping the handles as he flung himself into the capsule, his head slamming on the bulkhead and violently pitching his equilibrium as he struggled to maintain consciousness, fighting the warm rushing feeling of the blood streaming down his forehead, his eyes quickly being stained with the crimson ichor from the wound. Hands fumbled over the door emergency lock and seal, the simple triggering of which would lead to the lifeboat’s immediate ejection. He needed to escape, the space outside the ship was beginning to fill with images of countless vessels all slowly coming into view and the lifeboat hadn’t very long to separate before it too would become a part of the collision.

“Three, two-“

The handle flipped down and the world pitched as LEGION found his body slammed into the door as it shut, and then rocked back into the window again. A spray, if not a misting, of blood cast itself across the inside of the capsule, painting several of the nicely padded walls red. The lifeboat wasn’t safe enough, but it would serve its purpose faithfully as he felt himself slowly beginning to lose consciousness. Whatever would happen now, it was out of his hands, panic and fear overtook the tenth Mordecai as he wondered as to his fate. Would he too be lost to the endless tides of death he’d watched two of his brothers go into? Would he feel the pain of being quantumly ripped apart as his existence failed to substantiate itself and he was simply erased from ever having been? The resolution of a paradox so intrinsically beautiful to science, and yet lethal for Territes?

“Let me drift, beyond the great divide. Let my soul, find in you the divine.”

The ancient proverb and prayer left Mordecai’s lips in a hushed whisper as his eyes, heavy from the pain and exhaustion once again rolled up into his head and the lids slipped shut. Darkness overtook his thoughts and again he was left to the whims of space and time.

The pod he’d launched in rocketed at an oblique from the vessel, it was a terrifically high speed at which it did and narrowly missed the Station’s arm, into which the freighter slammed and disintegrated against with surprising speed. A stray antenna however caught the edge of one of the pod’s restraining hooks, left partially extended in the rushed ejection and a sudden pitching of the pod as it changed directory seemed to so fortuitously place it on a collision course with an old, desolate hangar. Atmosphere now spewed from the pod though, the door having failed to seal right. There was something off about how the door had locked, something not quite right and internal atmospheric pressure was dropping greatly.

Plumes of white mist, the Oxygen and Nitrogen mix that gave LEGION his lungs’ functionality, trailed behind the rocketing lifeboat in tight spirals and twists, looking like a missile fired from some sort of loopy space cannon. Had not the sight been one of such dire circumstance, it might have actually been entertaining. The pod pitched end over end and disappeared behind plumes of white only to burst through them as the Oxygen slowly began to run out and the plume became less thick. There was nothing to be done for the poor soul within but simply to pray for his safety. What could be done as the empty hangar now seemed to open wide up and engulf the entirety of his tiny vessel in an almost afterthought before the main doors shut closed, shields came up over the area, and the pod was halted mid-flight by some unknown gravitational pull, sending it slamming into the ground and skidding across the hangar floor with great speed.

Lights around the lifeboat came on, highlighting its trajectory and warning lights slowly engaged warning the vacant hangar of the potential danger the stray transport was. The hangar was perfectly empty, void of all true life save for the few automated systems and lights now trying to keep up with the wildly careening escape capsule. The sound of reverse pressurization as a backflow of Nitrogen and Oxygen whistled in through the cracked seals of the lifeboat door gave way to the door’s complete failure. The Lifeboat, detecting the failure did what it could to inflate the sealable bladder, but it was negligible the effect, it popped almost immediately. The dual-purpose inflatable bladder had somehow suffered from too many micro-strikes and fractures of the elastic bands within the door.

The irony in situation? That the very blood that had been shed by LEGION, very well might have saved his life, the wet liquid forcing the seal to remain closed a little longer.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Conference Room
The Hub Station
Unknown Space

Vader listened to Padme's response. Vader ground his teeth slightly; every word fueling his rage. He clenched his fists, and unleashed a terrible scream in the Force. The scream would be felt most strongly by anyone Force inclined, or who happened to be in the vicinity - even if they weren't force inclined. Vader's droids suddenly began getting crushed into balls of metal, sparking and crunching loudly until he dropped them. Vader put his hand to his face, rubbing his fingers against the bridge of his nose with one hand; frustrated, angry, and just downright wanting to curse at the Force itself. Vader almost scoffed after a moment, realizing she had said Sidious wasn't that vile of a man.

“You seem to be lacking a realization here. Whatever happened that brought us all here... we aren't just out of our galaxies, we are out of our respective universes!”, he growled out, in frustration mostly; “In your universe, I don't exist because I was never brought in by Sidious and Maul. I probably wasn't even discovered on that useless rock Tatooine. In mine, Sidious and Maul took me from my mother and I was their apprentice since... well, I'll say also very young. Barely even a child. I, of course, killed Maul eventually, as well as Sidious. And, once, I almost achieved absolute power over my galaxy. And then it was taken away... and then... well, this happened. However it happened.” Vader stopped talking, grinding his teeth; seething in rage still. The Darkness around him flickered like a roaring flame, as if he wanted to immediately find something - or someone - to maim. To make suffer.

Vader began trying to calm himself down; it was rare for him to do such a thing, but having the Jedi here couldn't be so bad. She could be of use to him... and besides, she was the most familiar thing in this room, to him; let alone probably in this universe. He wondered how those from the Maria would react to this once he informed them later on. He had to; after all, they could be useful allies or tools to him as well. And having their trust and such in this little... event could prove most valuable. Vader glared at the wall of the station. Why had the Force brought him here, of all places? And with a Jedi? What was even going on?

Padme suddenly fell to her knees. She couldn't believe the amount of power rolling off of Vader. The darkness was overwhelming. Padme could feel it calling to her, drawing her in. She assumed meditation position and closed her eyes, floating up into the air. Suddenly, the light within her flared, shining brighter than the Darkness in Vader. She screamed mentally once more YOU DO NOT SCARE ME SITH LORD. I HAVE FOUGHT AND SLAIN THE MOST POWERFUL OF YOUR KIND, PLAGEUIS, MAUL, AND I ALMOST EVEN SLEW SIDEOUS. YOU MAY NOT BE FROM MY UNIVERSE, BUT YOUR DARKNESS SPEAKS TRUE.
CALL OFF YOUR ATTACK FOR THE SAKE OF ALL.

[Zhaas123]

Sean

He drew the pistol as the green hulk as the beast flew past him, the Hazard team diving to the sides as green hulk flashed by. He dropped to one knee and yelled out. "Stop, or this is going to put you down!" He leveled the pistol on his head and switched it to stun.

Uzgrod
Hub, Corridors
Uzgrod slowed slightly and turned around "Yous want to go too hummie, your littla zppa gun isn't going to hurt me!"
He turned back around and began to charge once more at the imperials.

[Rupudska]

Uzgrod slowed slightly and turned around "Yous want to go to hummie, your littla zppa gun is going to hurt me!"
He turned back around and began to charge once more at the imperials.

While Boone and Cuddles skidded to a halt (they were better off from the rear anyway), Raege didn't hesitate. She raised her power fist, its entire form crackling with energy, in order to give the filthy greenskinned xeno a reason for its jaw to constantly be hanging at an angle. And she charged. And she roared a fiery roar, not unlike that one might expect to come from an ork. The 'Starfleet' or whatever's officer didn't stop her - she didn't even slow down. She didn't slow down to acknowledge the screaming in her head from Vader, she assumed it was her own. She sent her fist via priority mail right towards the ork's jaw.

Boone and Cuddles, meanwhile, focused on assisting her in their own way, the former grimacing as she tried to mentally block out the incessant screaming, the blood-curdling screaming coming from inside. She couldn't do much, but perhaps a psychic flashbang would work. Just a moment's concentration would do - a moment's concentration was all it took. From directly in front of the girl, a flash of blinding white light shot out and filled the corridor, backlighting Raege as she charged. Cuddles decided to do the same - two flashbangs were much better and more blinding than one, and Raege was more than capable of handling this herself.

[Parcia]

Sean.

He held his breath and emptied his lungs and fired a bolt at the max stun setting in to the creature head...


Emryn Erye

Her annoyance grew as the children squabbled as they did so, and so she held her energy with in her self as the two fought. Finally she let it loose, watching as he body writhed on the bed.

Both of you silence! Your sqaubling does nothing more then anger me and threaten to wake me from my sleep, if either of you let out so much as a peep in the immaterial realm I will find you and bring the wrath of the gods down upon you!

She paused for a moment, letting the seething rage in her own mental wave wash over the two before she continued. You both want to know what true power is? Let me show you. She conjured up an image for ever burned in to her mind for the rest of eternity, the towering form of a Blood Thirstier, a greater Demon of Khorn and one of the most powerful demons to walk the ruined halls of her craft world.

Behold, the Blood Theirster, a greater demon of Khorn, this particular one ravaged my craft world before I fell it with nothing but a sword!
Now do me the favor of, how do you mong-keigh say it, shut the fuck up!

[The Fallen Jedi]

- Snip -

- Snip -

- Snip -

"Name's Rift, Warden of Malice, most despised and hated being in the Nightverse, Taker of Ten Trillion Souls, and Falon's Judgement."

Doctor W.D Gaster
Hub Conference Room

Gaster smiled slightly "Honestly your reaction is expected, I mean the only robot that I've had the liberty to meet is someone named Mettaton, and he really isn't as heavily armed as you." Meeting such diverse people was a rarity for Gaster since he spent most of his life in both the Void and the Underground, being lonely in the first one, and only meeting monsters in the Underground. The Ex-Royal Scientist had been confused by the mentioning of the Descendants, he had never encountered a group by this name but he began to deduce that perhaps this was the reason why so many people were popping up at one location. Upon the mentioning of the equations that Gaster had been writing down, he glanced back towards the screen which was still showing a mass of equations "So that is what the equations were based on? Universal Portals?" Gaster entertained the fact of Multiverse Theory, but never believed it to be true! Was this what happened to result with him being brought aboard this station?! "I didn't know that Multiverse Theory was actually real, this actually answers a lot of questions for me." Gaster's eyes had been opened to the reality of his situation, he was in a different Universe!

It was at this moment that a multitude of things happened at once: first, Gaster witnessed multiple Droids being crushed by the Dark Lord who had been confronting a floating and meditating woman and then second the Ex-Royal Scientist could feel the ground beneath him shake. While he should have been concerned for the shaking, he dismissed this over the safety of the woman who had been known as Padme. Acting defensively, Gaster switched from his normal SOUL Hand Magic to his family's signature Bone Magic, Gaster erected a wall of bones between the Dark Lord and the Jedi "Let us try not to resort to violence shall we?" Gaster remarked flatly to Vader, his clasped hands separating from each other in preparation to either defend himself or the startled Jedi. While he sought to avoid violence from breaking out due to both the value he could get from the data of this room and a desire to help others if they were in danger, even if they had been strangers to him.

He really didn't expect violence to break out so early in this little adventure, usually he expected it to be slow and non-eventful but the sheer amount of activity following a majority of the people gathering within the Conference Room was something that the Royal Scientist should have expected "I really should learn to keep my guard up longer." Gaster mentally noted to himself, his red and blue eyes staring down the Dark Lord, scanning for any signs of aggression.

Upon Rift introducing himself as the Taker of Ten Trillion Souls, Gaster's eyes widened, a vision of himself holding the Soul of Frisk flashing through his psyche. There was no way that this man known as Rift originated from his Universe, no one, not even King Asgore or Chara Dreemurr combined could obtain such a massive amount of souls, the population on Earth was way too small to accommodate that number! Turning his head towards Rift, Gaster's red eye burned bright in intensity, an expression of both Horror and Anger being present on his face "Would you care to repeat that?" Gaster remarked lowly.

[Brusia]

Revan and Bastila
The Hub

Revan and Bastila quietly made their way towards the presence of the unknown Jedi, which they soon learned was at some sort of conference room in the station after the Jedi reached out to communicate her position through the Force. They took pains to avoid contact with others as they made their way towards the conference room, uncertain of who was friendly and who was hostile, but as they sensed the Dark presence of the Sith nearing the Jedi's position, they picked up their pace in an attempt to rendezvous with the Jedi before the Sith had a chance to find her. As they continued drawing closer to the conference room, and to the Sith, they could more strongly feel the darkness emanating from the Sith. In many ways it reminded Revan of his apprentice, Darth Malak, and if that were the case it was all the more critical that they hurry to the Jedi's position before the Sith had a chance to kill her.

When they finally arrived at the conference room they made their way past a handful of rather odd looking characters towards the Jedi, though they were stopped for a moment as the Sith unleashed a loud Force scream. When they finally reached the Jedi, she had entered some sort of meditative trance, and was communicating to the Sith through the Force. Hoping to wake her from the trance, Bastila, also devoted to the Light Side, approached the levitating Jedi and put her hand on the Jedi's shoulder while informing her:

"It's alright, you're among fellow Jedi now; you're safe, the Sith cannot hope to harm us all."

[Zhaas123]

Uzgrod
Hub, Corridors

Uzgrod had gone back to charging, now everything was white noise he just focused on what was infront of him, he lifted his power klaw and opened it ready to swing it down. His shotta began to fire shoots off rounds, he doesn't see the psykers in the back preparing for something, he wouldn't of cared if he did.

Then it hit him two flashes of light and noise impacted him, blinded him he flailed around waving his power klaw and shoota firing blindly. At that moment he heard the noise in his head that had been their since the start exploded into shouting.

Both of you silence! Your sqaubling does nothing more then anger me and threaten to wake me from my sleep, if either of you let out so much as a peep in the immaterial realm I will find you and bring the wrath of the gods down upon you!

You both want to know what true power is? Let me show you.

(Image)

Behold, the Blood Theirster, a greater demon of Khorn, this particular one ravaged my craft world before I fell it with nothing but a sword!
Now do me the favor of, how do you mong-keigh say it, shut the fuck up!

Uzgrod scream his battle cry WAAAGH! he didn't know what he was fighting anymore and it didn't matter this was the time of his life. Maybe he had died this seemed more like a paradise then anything else.

[The Dark Brotherhood of Deros]

The Hub - Conference Room
What was even going on?!

Jane received no answer to her question, and now some guy in a black cape was screaming and crushing things with some sort of telepathic power. Marcus concidered becoming visable, but decided to stay out of sight for now, just in case things went sour. The skeleton man, Gaster if Jane remembered correctly, managed to stop the caped man, but he was now glaring at some other person claiming to be a soul-taker or whatever.

Jane had finally had enough.

"Could someone please tell me what's going on?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, glaring at the group savagely... Well, as savagely as her 15-year-old face would allow of course.

[New Neros]

-Jason-

Monarch
The Conference Room

The technologist looked down at his wardrobe choice, but hand waved Jason's comment. "What better to hold my gadgets, or something along those lines." But, he continued on with more important matters. "Collective Elite, though? Yes, I've met a man like you in several universes, we've been at odds here and there specifically because of my reluctance to give up this fleshy form." Monarch explained, paying only slight attention to the intense on-goings around him. "I figure that we can figure out our purpose here and where to go from here together, no? Even though I have issues with joining, it's always a pleasure to work alongside the Collective."

As Monarch stood before Jason, he made sure to watch the events unfold between the skeleton, Gaster, and Rift, the edge lord, who Jason said to have defeated previously. Not only that, but just the flurry of activity with the greenish facially challenged creature and the armored humans, as well as the stand off between other telekinetic humanoids further on. "Seems to me like we're the only ones not offering to throw some hands at this exact moment."

[Multiversal Venn-Copard]

Enari
Hub Conference Room

With no real idea of what was actually going on in and around the conference room, as new arrivals turned on each other, firing stun weapons and psychically screaming at one another, the only thing Enari realized she could do was just to take cover. Diving down under a table, and grabbing her digital pad in the process, she kept watch over the hostilities in the room, preparing to put up a nonspacial sheet to protect herself if anything ended up flying in her direction.

She silently cursed. Did things really have to get this bad right away? If people got dragged in here between universes, why couldn't everyone just work together to return? Was there something stopping them?

All she wanted was to get Razan back. She thought desperately, probably hopelessly, about how she might try to get that accomplished. It didn't look like anybody could help her right now.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

-Snip-

Rift looked at Gaster. "Ummm, sure there Boner. I'm Rift, Warden of Malice, Most hated being in the nightverse, Taker of Ten Trillion Souls, Falon's Judgement, Death, Destroyer of Worlds, The Oncoming Storm? I'm the 3,000 year old physical manifestation of everything that is evil within an infinite being, I've destroyed entire solar systems, fought off eldritch monsters beyond comprehempsion, killed false gods and emporers for a rush, and now I'm apparently a multiversal traveler. I'm the scourge of life, the ender of days, the reckoning of Calia. I'm the one responsible for the Grondrian Slaughter, and the Manalorn Genocide. Not ringing any bells?"

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Revan and Bastila
The Hub

Revan and Bastila quietly made their way towards the presence of the unknown Jedi, which they soon learned was at some sort of conference room in the station after the Jedi reached out to communicate her position through the Force. They took pains to avoid contact with others as they made their way towards the conference room, uncertain of who was friendly and who was hostile, but as they sensed the Dark presence of the Sith nearing the Jedi's position, they picked up their pace in an attempt to rendezvous with the Jedi before the Sith had a chance to find her. As they continued drawing closer to the conference room, and to the Sith, they could more strongly feel the darkness emanating from the Sith. In many ways it reminded Revan of his apprentice, Darth Malak, and if that were the case it was all the more critical that they hurry to the Jedi's position before the Sith had a chance to kill her.

When they finally arrived at the conference room they made their way past a handful of rather odd looking characters towards the Jedi, though they were stopped for a moment as the Sith unleashed a loud Force scream. When they finally reached the Jedi, she had entered some sort of meditative trance, and was communicating to the Sith through the Force. Hoping to wake her from the trance, Bastila, also devoted to the Light Side, approached the levitating Jedi and put her hand on the Jedi's shoulder while informing her:

"It's alright, you're among fellow Jedi now; you're safe, the Sith cannot hope to harm us all."

Padme remained in her trance, stuck both because of the terror of the Demon summoned by the other strong psychic present, and her seeing inability to stand the darkness rolling off of Vader. She spoke with her mind to her fellow Jedi, I cannot leave this state for now. I am unable to stand his darkness.
The atrocities he must have commited, the horrors and atrocities on his name. They are two much for me. He is too strong. Padme continued to hover, while with her minds eye she watched Vader, the darkness rolling off of him in waaves. She willed herself into partial conciousness, allowing her to speak normally, and see with her own eyes, although she was blind except for force signatures. Her eyes glowed white as they opened and looked around the room.

[The Fallen Jedi]

- Snip -

- Snip -

Doctor W.D Gaster
Hub Conference Room
Vantablack

It was by this point that the Royal Scientist grew irritated by the hostilities within the room, his anger beginning to rise as the Dark Lord and the Jedi stood against each other in conflict, people fearing for their lives and the potential for the situation to grow worse. Gaster closed his eyes and breathing in before his eyes shot open, copious amounts of blue and red energy pouring out of his left and right eye respectively before he let out a shout that echoed within the room "ENOUGH!!!" The Royal Scientist yelled, the wall of bones that divided Vader and the Jedi from each other dissipated, and all seven of Gaster's floating hands materializing over him like an arch, the Green hand beginning to glow, enveloping the Doctor in a field of energy protecting him from any form of attack. In his anger, Gaster's body began to float ominously above the group, his eyes staring daggers into the Dark Lord's form as all seven of the colors that glowed in the holes of their palms began to intensify rapidly.

"You all continue to squabble on like children when we aren't even fully aware of our gravity of this situation. Not only do we have an idea where we are at, but you dark lord..." Gaster pointed an accusatory finger at Vader "You are causing more trouble than what I prefer." Gaster was exceptionally pissed with Vader for being the spark that was about to ignite the flame within the Conference Room. Refusing to deviate from his threatening pose, Gaster addressed everyone within the room "If we could all stop acting like children and work together to find out why we are all here on this day of all things, the grown ups in this room would appreciate it." The Man who Spoke In Hands was obviously angered by many things by this point, especially where people who he perceived to be mature individuals were squabbling like children, It was a disgrace to the eyes of the Royal Scientist.

[Torsiedelle]

Tora

Tora had followed along, alright. She'd followed along right up until everyone had lost their collective shit. She was neither caring nor able to help regardless, both from the sheer stupidity of the others, and from the shock she was experiencing. The ugly big green man had gone barreling in, and then there was a skeleton...? And a floating woman, spacemen...

She needed to lie down. She sat back, just in the corridor, arms crossed. She had to close her eyes and take several long breaths, or else she'd probably faint.

Torii

The other girl had snapped the moment she heard a loud noise. She didn't know it was happening; she just "flipped", and in one sudden, snappy move, she had her rifle drawn and aimed towards a target. The next few bangs and shaking caused her to bolt, lunging into cover, weapon at the ready in case she needed to fight; she heard a lot of broken English, and saw quite a number of odd figures. It wasn't until relative peace had been established that she slinked back out, weapon still gripped tightly in her hands.

She slipped behind Jane, peering down at the girl. She'd calmed down, though her happy smile had given way to an icy stare. As she relaxed, she looked more tired, until she grinned once more.

"You confused as well?", She asked. Her eyes twitched, as she quickly looked behind the girl at the others in the room. She was keeping her guard up still.

"Apparently, a lot of people got pulled here. Portals. Weird multiverse stuff."

[The V O I D]

Conference Room
The Hub Station
Unknown Space

Vader glared at Gaster, somewhat surprised as the events before him unfolded. Realizing that he would be outmatched if he were to cause a fight, Vader reined in his rage and the Darkness around him; trying to regain control. It took a moment, but soon, Vader seemed... calm; his face somewhat expressionless. Well, aside from his semi-obvious scowl. But perhaps he always scowled. Vader looked over at the Jedi, and the two beings with her... they claimed to be Jedi as well. If this was true, he was the mistake the Force brought here for... some reason. Not the Jedi. Vader kept control over his anger, but this made him focus on Padme. What was so special about her anyway? Vader unclenched his fists; relaxing his hands. Vader stared back at Gaster.

“You're... right. We should stop this fighting to... figure out our situation. I am Darth Vader, otherwise known as Lord Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith.” He paused, for a moment, and then continued; “She is Padme Naberrie. A... Jedi from her universe and a Senator in mine. As for the other two Jedi, they are not from my universe, and if they aren't from Padme's universe, then there is a third universe's victims sent to this station for... whatever purpose we are to serve here.” Vader finished his introductions, and during such he growled the word Jedi as if it were poison on his tongue. Vader looked over at Padme and the other two Jedi had arrived. Their force presences weren't exactly as in the Light as normal Jedi. Vader had heard rumors of Grey Jedi, and although as far as he knew, they never existed in his universe, perhaps they existed in Padme's. Or whoever these Jedi were.

Ancient Sith Lore, as well as some Jedi holocrons Vader had stolen, had told him of the ancient Schism which had broken the Sith and the Jedi apart; at first, they were Jedi and Dark Jedi, before this Dark Side users had existed, but they had predominantly been Dark Jedi. At least, in his universe. The Dark Jedi won this Schism and, to differentiate themselves further, joined the Sith Empire; an empire ruled by a species known as the Sith who opposed the Galactic Republic. Eventually, the Dark Jedi were called 'Sith' by those of the Jedi Order... and the rest was history. Or so the tale goes. Vader wondered how true this tale really was. If it was true, at least in one universe... could it be possible the Jedi Order existed still as a unifying force of all Force sensitives? One with Light and Dark side users, or at least, grey users who were darker than what was considered the norm in both his and Padme's universes? Quite possible. Vader began to ask.

“What are you? You feel too Light to be Sith, and despite it being small, there is Darkness within you. And the Jedi Order... at least, the one I know, purges Darkness without hesitation.”, Vader stated, almost bluntly. Vader kept his eyes focused on the male figure of the two; his orange-yellow eyes seemingly trying to read the man's soul. Vader sent out a probe. He did not trust a normal Jedi, let alone a slightly dark Jedi. Vader's mindprobe was non-invasive... for the most part. It was to determine if the Jedi before him told the truth in his answer. Vader had no time for mindgames, nor any time for Jedi lies.

[Immensia]

Vice Admiral Kerensky
Bridge
U.S.S. Elysium Field
Unknown Space

“Sir, picking up multiple contacts, unknown type” Patterson announced hurriedly.

“Location?” Captain Romanov looked tense as he looked between LCmdr Patterson and VAdm Kerensky.
“It appears that its just beyond a local planetoid. I’m reading something that resembles a station and multiple vessels.” Patterson’s fingers tapped furiously at her consul again, “I’m sorry Sir, I can’t get a better reading with the interference from the planet.”

Kerensky stood, “very well, three quarter impulse power- let’s move to a better location and figure out what we are looking at.”

“Energy spike,” Patterson announced, “it’s the gateway that brought us here, something else is coming through. No contacts.”

“Sir! Hailing contacts, receiving friend or foe transmission from Rear Admiral Cain, Task Force Epsilon is coming through.” Lieutenant Vega continued to read the transmission, “ships are running dark, they have exited the gate.”

“Open a channel to the Apocrypha, get me Cain.” Kerensky turned to face the main view screen as Rear Admiral Cain’s face appeared. Her short chopped brunette hair brushed the edge of her collar, trimmed just enough to keep it above her insignia.

“Vice Admiral,” she began, “we received your message but when we arrived the Tactical Fusion Cube was gone. We followed through into the wormhole or gate, whatever this is. Where are we?”

“I wish I knew.” Kerensky couldn’t hide his bewilderment to their situation, “we have contacts that we can’t discern but I’m ordering the fleet to remain cloaked, we are moving three quarter impulse to get a better look.”

“I’m picking up the same” Cain responded. “You have command again, Sir. We will follow your lead.”

“Very good. Standby for coordinates and maneuver instructions- Kerensky out.” The channel closed and Kerensky resumed his seat. “Send coordinating instructions and fleet formation code Epsilon One. Move the fleet into position to scan the contacts. I want friend or foe transmissions broadcasting but run full countermeasures so they don’t pinpoint where we are broadcasting from. Keep working astrometrics to figure out where we are.”

The Elysium Fields and Task Force Epsilon moved slowly towards the source of the contacts broadcasting friend or foe in hopes of gaining some sort of contact that could answer their query of where they were and how they got here. The broadcast repeated itself: "This is the U.S.S. Elysium Fields on all channels, we are requesting contact. We mean no harm. Requesting anyone recieving this identify themselves and initiate contact."

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

-Snip-

Padme began to read the signatures given off by the rest of the species on board. This Jason creature wasn't alive, while Monarch radiated grey to her, perhaps leaning towards the dark. Gaster as well only gave off a weak signature, while the two people pulling her back were immensly force sensitive. There were a few other strong psychic signatures, but in particular there was a strong one next to the girl yelling at everyone, though it was invisible from the normal eye. Finally, the being known as Rift, for she could clearly feel he wasn't human now, was out of sight. The Darkness radiating off of him was a maelstrom, an uncontrolable void containing the blood of worlds and species on his hands. Padme thanked the force that he couldn't use it. Feeling vader calm down, Padme returned to normal.

Now looking at the other two jedi, she recoiled from them in shock. She did recognize the two, but not from around the temple. The last time she had seen their faces, it was within a holocron. She looked at the two of them and said "You two shouldn't be here. You should be dead. You've been dead for thousands of years. How are you here now. Especially you." She pointed at Bastilla. "Revan came back once before, but you should be dead, long dead. Most of the order doesn't even know your name"

[Osnil Returns]

Golbatman
Pewter City Police Station Roof
"Where is he?" murmured Officer Jenny to herself.

"Right behind you." Officer Jenny didn't even turn around to see Golbatman emerge from the shadows. "What seems to be the problem? Did the Mimer escape?"

"No, nothing like that. There's this black rift that showed up out of nowhere. We don't know what it is or where it came from. I sent my sister to put a barrier around it, but she hasn't radioed back yet. She was supposed to do that an hour ago," Jenny replied. "Something must be wrong. Do you think you could-" Before she could say anymore, Golbatman was gone. "Okay, it looks like he's doing it."

And right she was. He went back to the Golbatmobile. "Alfred, I need you to get me the coordinates for the rift Officer Jenny mentioned."

"It's near the Pokemon Center, Sir."

If it was nearby the Pokemon Center, then why would Jenny go missing? Unless . . . Golbatman turned the car around. "Sir, I can't help but notice that you're going towards the warehouse district, not the Pokemon Center."

"Team Rocket has a warehouse. They kidnapped Nurse Joy to prevent her from healing their Pokemon so they could take over the city. Jenny must have seen what happened, then followed them. They must have captured her," Golbatman replied, stepping on the gas pedal.

Warehouse

Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny were both tied to chairs. Butch and Cassidy were guarding them. "Don't worry, Joy, we're not going to hurt you. The boss just wants you out of the way. He's tired of Team Rocket losing to ten year old children."

"You'll never get away with this!" shouted Officer Jenny.

"When is our contact going to get here?" whined Cassidy. "I can't stand this anymore."

"I don't know, but the Boss didn't give instructions as to how to take care of Jenny," Butch replied. "I'd hate to have a stool Pidgey tellin' what our plans are."

"So what do you propose?" asked Cassidy.

Butch looked around the room. "I thought I saw somethin'."

"It's probably just Rattatas again," replied Cassidy. "The Boss isn't really into maintenance."

"No, it ain't a Rattata," Butch insisted. He gripped his Pokeballs and added, "We've got a Golbat problem." He then shouted, "Where are you?"

"Right here." Butch turned around to see Golbatman hanging upside down. Butch screamed like a little girl just before Golbatman punched him hard.

Letting go of the line, Golbatman landed on his feet. Cassidy was about to throw her Pokeballs, but Golbatman threw a Golbatarang at her hand, forcing her to drop them. "How did you figure us out?" she demanded.

"Because I'm Golbatman."

Rift
After leaving Butch and Cassidy tied up for Jenny to arrest, Golbatman made his way to the rift. In the air, he saw the infamous Team Rocket Meowth Balloon. He pressed a button on the Golbatmobile's controls and a missile flew straight through the balloon. "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again," he smiled to himself. He got out of the car to look at the dark rift. He reached out to touch it, but it pulled him inside.

[The Fallen Jedi]

- Snip -

Doctor W.D Gaster
Hub Conference Room

Gaster let out a sigh as he landed back down on the ground with a light thud, the green barrier around him dissipating, but all Seven of his Hands still arched over his head in anticipation for any hostilities to flare back up once more. As Darth Vader glared at the skeletal scientist, Gaster returned it in kind with a stern expression on his face "Well Vader, my name is Doctor W.D. Gaster in case you neglected to notice." The Scientist replied with less than normal enthusiasm. Although it was a rough start, Gaster had no intentions to start a fight with someone who he had no idea was capable of, as much as he knew this Darth Vader character had the potential to defeat and possibly kill him. "As long as we can have a sense of civility in here it will be easier to ascertain our current situation." Allowing himself to fall back on a nearby chair, Gaster decided to once more address everyone in the room. "Now that things have slightly calmed down, does anyone have any sort of inkling as to why we have been brought here?"

Usually it would be Gaster who would be coming up with a hypothesis for this certain situation, but he was one of the unfortunate majority who had virtually known no reason as to why they had been brought here to wherever this location was in the galaxy. The Royal Scientist thought for a moment "Perhaps this station can at least partially answer our question?" Gaster reasoned that if they had been brought to such a mysterious station that they would get their questions here, but since no one knew what this place was in particular, Gaster decided it was best to wait for someone to speak up.

[Brusia]

Revan and Bastila
The Hub
Conference Room

As Bastila was trying to comfort the other Jedi, Revan suddenly heard a young girl scream at the rest of the group, like so many others it seemed she wanted to know what was going on. Revan turned to address her, but another woman was already speaking with her. Another one of the people in the room made what at first seemed like a juvenile display of power, but proceeded to wisely inform the others that they should stop fighting and work together to figure out why they were all...wherever they were. Fortunately, this seemed to work, as the Sith began to calm down and introduced himself to the others as Darth Vader. A few moments later, Vader proceeded to ask Revan:

“What are you? You feel too Light to be Sith, and despite it being small, there is Darkness within you. And the Jedi Order... at least, the one I know, purges Darkness without hesitation.”

Revan could also sense Vader's Force probe, and while he would normally block such a probe from a Sith, this time he allowed it so that Vader would know he was telling the truth when he replied:

"I am a Master with the Jedi Order, but not so long ago I was the Dark Lord of the Sith who led the Sith Empire against the Republic. I was redeemed by the Order not long after my apprentice betrayed me, and I proceeded to defeat my old Empire, saving the Republic for the second time since the Mandalorian Wars. Normally our Jedi Order has little tolerance for Darkness either, but it seems that twice saving the Republic earns one a little leeway." Revan then walked towards a large computer terminal at the back of the room and approached one of the consoles. As he looked the strange console over, he turned back towards Vader and the rest of the group, saying "Name's Revan by the way. Now than, so long as we aren't trying to kill each other, how about giving me a hand getting these computer systems online; might give us an idea of where we are and how we got here."

Meanwhile, Padme had slipped out of her trance and returned to normal, but Bastila was quite surprised (and a little offended) when Padme informed her:

"You two shouldn't be here. You should be dead. You've been dead for thousands of years. How are you here now. Especially you." She pointed at Bastilla. "Revan came back once before, but you should be dead, long dead. Most of the order doesn't even know your name"

Bastila replied "Well, as you can see we are both very much alive. I'm not sure why you would think we've been dead for thousands of years, or why the Order would forget that I was instrumental in saving them, and Revan, from the Sith, but then very little is making much sense right now. Why don't we assist Revan in getting those computers back online; perhaps the answers to what is going on here lie in this station's databanks."

[The Republic of Atria]

Jason listened to Monarch and nodded. "Well, I've personally never met you. So hopefully whatever beef you've got with the other me is between that me and you. If you don't wanna join that Collective, that's on you amigo. I can understand not wanting to ditch the body. Sentimental value. Fear. What have you. They were nice enough to keep the little lump of gray matter that makes me special, and you know... Cancer is a bitch." He said and shrugged. He'd only vaguely heard of the Monarch. Either the Collective in Monarchs universe was hellbent on assimilating everyone that would give them value. Or Monarch had wronged them somehow and they had it out for him. Regardless, it didn't concern him at the moment. Next he turned his attention to the skeleton scientist. Which was definitely an odd combination if he ever saw one. Where did he keep his brain?

"If my math is right, and it is." He said with some pride in his voice. "Basically it's the energy frequency required to punch a hole in reality. My ship uses something similar, but it wasn't meant to cross between universes. Just the one. Multiverse theory is... Or I guess at this point, was, science fiction in my universe. Guess it's just science now." He explained. He would have to make some modifications at some point. Shouldn't be too hard to allow it to actually move between universe. Meanwhile a large green monster thing was yelling and slobbering at a group of humans, who weren't being that different. With another human who was clearly not from either of their universes taking aim at both sides. "I almost want to get involved." But there were other humans afoot. A large tall, pale, and ugly man with extensive cybernetic augments and a younger rather attractive looking woman were having it out until Gaster scolded them.

He was actually impressed with the skeletons handling of the situation. And half expected the large cyborg man to attack, but both of them seemed to calm down. "Alright. Now that we've almost normalized. Is there someone in charge around here?"