On each of their chest was a four in a
circle. Each of their belts was buckled with a crystal,
likewise with a four carved in it.
As if to add to the weirdness, an alarm goes off. "It's
our alarm! Mean's the Vile Four are in the city. We'll take
the Pogo-Star!" says UA, stretching toward a door. Zelda
rides on a solid wave of water, while Nity bursts into flames
and flies after them. Ganthet just lumbers along.
The plane lands in front of five beings. The heroes step
out. "Well," snaps Nity, "if it isn't Doctor Avenger and
the Vile Four." One was wearing armor in what would be UA's
costume colors. The others were equally interesting.
"Yes," says Doctor Avenger, "I've allied myself with
them. I believe you're familiar with the Pyro-Wizard, (he
too was wearing armor of a different kind, and looked like
Pyro.) The Sand-Krakken,(he looked like Krakken, save that he
was made out of sand), Emerald (she looked like Eme, but her
hair seemed alive), and Trap-Master (who looked too much
like Entropy. Ganthet hated the irony.)"
"We'll never yield to you, Doctor!" cries UA. Ganthet and
the others nod in agreement. Even if this wasn't his world,
he'd fight for justice.
"Do you really think you-Morph, Aqua, Blaze, and Crystal
could stop me?" mocks Doctor Avenger. "It was fate that
lead you to invent a rocket, bring friends with you into
space. You crashed to Earth, but exposure to the crystal
alloy of your ship, made radioactive by cosmic rays, changed
you. Made you more than human. But now...you die."
Universe 5
Entropy awoke to the sound of Tala mumbling something in
her sleep. Opening his eyes, he got out of bed, looked at
her for a moment, then headed down to the synthesizer to get
some food. As he ate the bland, freshly created food, he
went back over to the cockpit, pulling up the same
schematics he was working on earlier. Tala, now awake,
walked over to him, sitting in the nearby pilot's chair
while he went over the simulations.
"What're you working on?"
"Just some more schematics. I remember hearing about a
way to get out of null space, I just don't remember exactly
what it was."
"So it would seem. Anyway, I'll be right back, gotta take
a shower."
"Help yourself." Entropy said. He enjoyed a good soak as
much as the next person, but he wanted to keep her out of
his mind for as long as possible. He had to concentrate,
and that was one thing he was horrific at when Tala was in
the room. She kissed him again as she walked off, and
Entropy tried to ignore the feeling of her tongue in his
mouth. As soon as she left, he shook his head. "No, don't
think about her. Gotta concentrate. Gotta think here.
Gotta-" He could hear the water running, and Tala gently
humming an old tune from her homeworld. Entropy took a deep
breath, then tried to keep his mind on the simulations.
"Okay, I'm okay. I'm just fine, nothing can affect me when
I'm like this." He listened a little more, and slammed his
hand down on the panel, shutting the simulations down.
"Like hell I am." With that, he rushed down the hallway to
the bathroom.
"He's falling for it." Nokomis smiled as she observed the
images. "I love it when a plan comes together. Not only do
I get my sister, but I get one of the most powerful Crystal
fighters there is, too! Even so, they are quite the couple.
Pity I'll have to kill them." Nokomis smiled as her hand
snaked up the side of the Dragonstar's main hatchway to the
control panel.
Reality 0
Zelda woke up and looked around, everything looked strange. But
then, she was used to that. After..McTorn... she tended to hallucinate.
"Rupay? Nity?" she called, hoping that they'd be able to bring her out of it
before it got much weirder. "Zelda! I can't see!" Rupay exclaimed. Zelda
turned toward the voice, Rupay's eyes looked strange almost opal in color.
She stood up and went over to Rupay. "Calm down love, I'll see what I can
do.." Zelda said, leading Rupay to a nearby chair after kissing her
passionately. "Zelda..Rupay....What are you doing?!" Entropy exclaimed,
looking over at them in surprise. What were they doing here? They weren't
supposed to be here in null space with Tala and him! Not only that but
they were..kissing?!? So far as he knew they weren't lesbians... Nearby
he heard a familiar rumble, "Ganthet?" he asked as he turned around.
"TRAP-MASTER!" Ganthet exclaimed loudly, rushing towards Entropy. "Whoa,
whoa, whoa, WHO?" Entropy said holding up a hand, but it was clear Ganthet
wasn't about to veer off so he quickly moved out of the way. There was
something wrong with the world.
A miniscule Pyro ran across the floor, what had happened to
everything? And where was his nemesis Godzilla?
Reality 13
A good cry was all Tala needed, she supposed. Everything
seemed much clearer now. This was not her home. This was not
her time. Someone else was queen here, someone else would
have to stop what was happening. She had to get back. But
how?
She stepped out of the doorway, and smacked into something
hard. As she started to stumble, and fall backwards, she
felt arms encircling her.
Coloring, she looked up. "Ahh, Entropy..good..good morning.
Everything is well, I hope?" "yes, My Queen..everything is
well..except your brother has disappeared."
"What?! How?"
"The shadows..it appears Nokomis is still active with her
magic, although without her Crystal..you can defeat her,
finally."
She frowned. This was a problem..but she needed to get back
home. What in the world was she to do? If only someone was
here.. someone to help..that was it. Perhaps..there was a
way she could contact the others. The real others..whom she
fully remembered now.
"My Queen...?"
The voice seemed to be coming from a million miles away.
"Huh..what?" "Breakfast is ready..if you will, ahem, dress?"
Oh great..this had to look cozy, her and him standing
together, right outside of her room. She looked up at
Entropy, and saw only gentle amusement in his eyes.
"I'll be there in ten minutes..I need to ask Entropy
something."
The man nodded, and walked off.
"What do you need to ask me?"
"What ranges do out commutations systems have?"
She began to walk down the hallway, as he answered, not
caring that everyone had knowing looks on their faces as
they walked by together.
Reality 18
His veins bulging in his neck, Krakken ran towards
the man with rage burning a hole through his chest, "You did
this to me! You made me a murderer!"
The other blue-skinned man glared at him, "You murdered
ME! What kind of a son are you?"
"You MOLESTED me!" Krakken felt bile build up in his
throat and felt tension clench his shoulders, "You should be
dead! I'll kill you again if I have to, but by all that is
holy, you will die."
A shadow crossing his brow, Krakken's father stormily
replied, "You will do NO SUCH THING. Men! Take the prince
to the dungeons. I want him burned at the stake by dawn."
'No; never again will I let his foul hands touch me.'
Krakken called forth the powers of his Crystal and
received... nothing.
He was helpless to do anything as the ruffians clamped
his arms in hands like iron.
Reality 20
Zealen woke up. He looked around and saw a place where there
was a large amount of Spider webs. Just then he saw a large
spider come down. "I hate spiders!" He said as his psi
translator cackled with energy. Just as he turned on his Psi
blades, the world turned into a volcanic surface in just 5
seconds! What the hell is wrong with this place? "I was
sleeping and something happened?" He used his Psychic Energy
to contact Zelda and ask her what happened.
Reality 14
UA comes to, this time, inside the Dragon Star.
"Whaddaya know? That old Ninja Mind Cleansing trick actually
worked." He looks around. The CFs lie around the Dragon
Star in the sleeping quarters. He moves over to Zelda, the
closest one. He checks her pulse, then opens her eye lid.
"Rapid eye movement. They're dreaming. But who could be
powerful enough to take out some pretty powerful psis?"
Suddenly, the ship rocks violently. UA runs to the cockpit
where Pyro is hunched over the controls. He sees the ship
flying over a mountainous region.
"Pyro must've been moving us to safety when he fell under."
Another hit. UA picks Pyro up and sets him in the
co-pilot's seat. He grabs the stick and pulls up over the
mountains as the ship flies. He looks around at some of the
unmarked switches. "Which one of these is the landing gear
and kill switch? Hope Pyro's got some kinda instruction
manual."
Reality 0
Nity looked around, "Mom?" he asked, wondering where she was. Had the
Vile gotten past their defenses? Was he in the mines? "Maia, Kisutsu!"
he exclaimed. Last he'd heard of them they were in the mines, but here
they were, alive! They had just walked into the room, each looking
relieved but also a bit confused. "Nity?" Maia asked, "Were are we? Is
this some kind of new trick of the Vile?" "Yeah, give us hope and snatch it
away..they've done it before." Nity shook his head, "I don't know, but
let's see what we can find around here.
Reality 84
"Mom?" asked Nity looking at the old woman.
"Yes dear?" asked the woman.
"What is going on? How did I get here?"
"What do you mean, are you feeling all right sweetie?" the
woman, who looked to be the mother he left so many years ago,
reached up and touched his forehead.
He moved back "Yeah I'm alright." he said avoiding her touch
~Of course I'm not all right! What the hell is going on
here?!~ "Just tell me how I got back here and when." his head
hurt as he tried to recover the information that wasn't
there.
"Sweetie, you hate that story though--"
"Tell me!" Nity demanded.
"Oh okay, well it was that day when the Vile had finally
overpowered you Crystal Fighters, you knew there was no hope
at defeating them so you made a deal that you would capture
the Crystal Fighters and in return they would let you come
back to Tenlion and unharmed." his mother told him.
"NO!" he stared at the woman he didn't believe a word she
said "You expect me to believe I betrayed my friends like
that?" Nity stormed away from the woman, he stopped by the
window see a Vile outside. Nity jumped back, surprised.
"Celestial Razis Crystal POWER!!!" nothing happened.
"Oh dear," the woman came up to him "..you know that hasn't
worked for years, since they extracted your Crystal." she
brushed her hand against the huge scar that ran across his
forehead.
Nity reached up and touched it "What the HELL is going on
around here??!?!?!" he reached for the front door and whipped it open.
"No stay back, they will take you to the mines as their
slave if you try to leave, stay back!!" the woman pleaded.
"I will take my chances." Nity stepped out there door and he
was suddenly hit by a barrage of specialized laser fire that
paralyzed him instantly.
The Vile came up to him and lifted him into the air "I have
been waiting a long time for you to try that." the Vile said triumphantly
and carried him off.
THE VILE LAIR
The Vile carried him into the Vile Lair. Up ahead Nity could
see a thrown, in it sat Dolomite and to his side stood two
guards, Kisutsu and Lavaz. The Vile dropped Nity onto the
floor in front of Dolomite.
"I caught him breaking the agreement." said the Vile, bowing deeply.
Dolomite nodded, "Take him away to the labor camp." he pronounced.
"Yes sir." said Kisutsu, he walked over to Nity who was
slowly regaining some movement in his limbs. Kisutsu pulled
Nity up and walked him off.
Reality 18
"Hey. Kid, you alright?" Krakken opened his dry
eyes to find himself chained to a damp wall next to a man
that looked suspiciously like UA. The first thing he
remembered was that he was going to die.
Reality 1
"Ok, I just did a mind scan on both of us..I can't find
anything wrong." Rupay said. ''Any other suggestions on what
is going on Zelda?" she asked.
Suddenly Zelda got an odd look on her face, "What is it
Zelda?" Rupay asked. "I..I think it's Zealen, though I'm
not sure if he's our Zealen or a crazy Zealen like the rest
of the people here..." Zelda did her best to reply, though
sending something across such a distance took its toll, +I'm
not sure..Rupay and I are by a cabin instead of on one of
the space ships with the others & Nity is acting really
strangely..plus there's a little girl that thinks I'm her
mother! I have no idea what's happening!+
Reality 0
Maia, Kisutsu and Nity entered another room of the ship and found Ganthet
trying to attack Entropy. They got him to stop, barely. Just afterwards
a voice called, "NITY!" and suddenly he got a heated kiss right on the
lips. Nity pulled back in surprise, "Who...? Rupay? ALIVE? You survived the mines??" "Of course
I am! and..mines..? What, did you forget our marriage as well? Your getting to be as bad
as Zelda!" "Umm...marriage?" Nity asked in shock. "Zelda and I don't
leave you out of all the fun." she said teasingly. Nity looked over to see
yet another one of the friends he had thought were dead, "Zelda!" he
exclaimed. Just then Entropy cut in, "You don't know her, believe me.
Not of you don't remember Rupay umm..being that way.." "What do you mean?"
Nity, Zelda, and Rupay chorused. "I think I'm beginning to understand
something here. I don't know what's up exactly but it seems that our
memories aren't totally wrong. Rupay and Zelda have the same memories
and it seems so do Nity, Kisutsu and Maia." "You mean...we're all from
different dimensions or something?" "Sure looks that way.."
Rya'u'sa (This is supposed to be out of sync, its the "Place Beyond Time
and Space" time has no meaning there really)
Ziyaluah was nervous, they were ready to perform the rites that
Rydia had dictated, Karansha. It would be a dangerous endeavor for all
concerned, especially the Crystal Fighters. If the rite succeeded then
they would be scattered through dimensions and would probably be lost
forever. It was too late now to stop them, she should have
stopped them somehow. Now the Ritka, Knife that
Loves Blood, was being passed around. As it moved from one hand to
another, each member impassively made a slit in either hand in the shape
of a crescent. Sometime during their stay in this ageless place they had
learned to go beyond pain. Ziyaluah hesitantly took the Ritka, she had
thought it too late, but if she refused to help now the Circle would be
useless. It needed each and every member to summon enough power to perform
Karansha. But with a glance at her mother, she changed her mind, they had
always taken their cues from the Sacred Scrying Glass and now it led them
to do this.
Once the Ritka had gone to every Circle member Rydia started the rite
by touching her crescent necklace to one hand, turning it a deep shade of
red. Then everyone clasped hands, crescent cut to crescent cut. Now they
were fully connected through their own blood. One by one the Circle
members muttered a syllable of Karansha, once done with the word they
would start again, the word going around the circle faster and faster.
Ziyaluah was now too caught up in the rite to notice how chaotic
and violent it was. All hope of stopping was now completely lost as the
muttering became a chant which increased in intensity to almost a yell.
Then as the word starting going around the Circle yet again it traveled
with a reddish light that glowed through one person then through their
arm and hand to the next person. The light made them look demonic as it
seemed to come from beneath their skin. Once the light and the word, also
the title of the rite, reached the last circle member it stopped abruptly
and so did the chant. As soon as they stopped, the Circle broke apart as
if it had exploded outward, throwing the members away from the center of
the circle.
Reality 5
~Here we go again~ Entropy thinks as he continues his
simulations. The Null space was like a little endless
bottle, nothing ever changes but time always passes. There
was just one more variable he had to work out, and the two
of them would be free, and possibly able to contact the
other CFs, the ones he actually knew. Or thought he did,
anyway. Tala was sitting nearby, running some repairs on
one of the trickier systems onboard. Over the 2 years she'd
been here, she'd apparently become quite the mechanic.
"Hmm.." He mumbled, before a giant THUD rocked the ship.
Entropy was thrown from his seat, the control panels
sparking and shorting out as the feedback registered on
them. He landed a couple feet back, and groaned as he got
up. The power was down, he noted as he checked the few
working panels, the ship was running on emergency life
support even. ~Uh oh...~ He thought for a moment, looking
over at Tala, who was slumped over in her chair. "Tala!"
He ran to her side, sitting her up and checking her pulse.
It was faint, but there. Her eyes slowly opened, her vision
slightly clouded due to the blood from the cut in her
forehead. "Ow..." She said weakly.
"Are you all right?"
Reality 0
The miniature Pyro disappeared to be replaced by a full size one. "Pikachu? Where are you?" he
asked, looking around. How was he ever going to win without Pikachu? "Pyro!" Entropy
exclaimed. "Who are you and how do you know my name?" he asked, getting in a defensive
position, normally Pikachu defended him..but now he was alone. "I'm Entropy and apparently
you're not from my reality either..." he sighed and yet again went through his explanation of the
realities as the others worked on a solution.
Reality 5
"Just...fine." She said, trying to snap out of it. "What
did we hit?"
"I think I can answer that, sister dear." A picture of
Nokomis suddenly appeared on the main screen. "Meet the
Quarren. It's a lovely ship, don't you think? I'd love it
if you came for a visit. Even so, can't talk now. Bye."
As her image disappeared, the shape of an enormous,
alien-looking ship appeared before them, bigger than even
the omicron had been.
"Wow." Entropy said, looking wide-eyed at the ship.
"This is definitely one of her worse plans." Tala said.
"All we have to do is just keep on going and we won't even
have to deal with her."
"I wouldn't count on it, Tala." Entropy said, looking at
the controls. "As there's no light here, she's a god in
this space. Not only that, but that ship has enough
firepower to destroy the Omicron without even thinking, I'll
bet. And to make it even worse, we have to evacuate anyway.
The emergency life support will only support us for another
10 hours. After that, we'd be dead for sure."
"How did she get in here, anyway?"
"She's your sister, you tell me." Tala gave him a
nasty look, and then began quickly working at
the controls. "What're you doing?" Entropy asked.
"Downloading all the data off the computers. We might
need it." Entropy took a seat at the other chair and began
doing the same with his simulations. Soon all the data was
collected, and the two of them had all their necessary gear
packed.
"Ready?" Entropy asked.
"As ever." Tala replied, a twinge of hate in her voice.
Taking a deep breath, the two steered the ship in to dock,
and entered the apparently long-dead Quarren.
Reality 0
"UA love? Kids? Where are you?" Eme asked looking groggily around.
Nothing looked familiar, suddenly she heard a noise, there was someone on
the other side of the room. Quickly she got up, "Who's there?" she asked,
wondering if it was one of her children playing a joke. "Here lover."
"UA, where're the kids?" Eme said, a bit relieved that she wasn't alone
anymore. UA stared appraisingly at Eme as he came into the light, where
was her leather? He winced, and her whip? "Umm..what kids exactly?" He
wasn't about to spurn her, he knew her temper. "Ours of course." Quickly
he hid a quizzical expression, kids? What was she talking about?
"So what are we going to do about it? Personally, I'd rather not go
back to my own universe.." Maia said. Entropy shrugged, "Well--"
then Tala entered the room. "Commander Entropy, what's happening here?"
she asked with a hint of regal command in her voice. "Umm..commander?
Look..Tala I'm not who you think I am..." he said, then began to explain.
Reality 13
Everything was ready now. Tala glanced down at the outfit
she had to wear, hating it. Long robes had never been her
thing. she sat in the throne, waiting for a report from one
of the few spies she had left. She had to know if Nokomis
had her brother, or if he had learned magic on his own.
Sighing, she closed her eyes. She must have dozed off,
because she saw...something. Magic? Red magic? What was
this? A sudden sound startled her back to her normal..or so
she supposed, surroundings.
"My Queen..." It was Entropy, and this wasn't going to be
good news. What now?
"It appears...that Nokomis has been very busy. She bonded
with your brother..making his crystal..her's. She now has
teleporting abilities, along with her own dark magic. I do
not know how you will stop her."
Tala growled, her anger growing. She allowed herself to
feel pure rage for a few moments, and then, calmed herself
down. One could not think when they were angry.
"Very well. Entropy, gather ten men. we are going to go to
her, and finish this now."
He nodded, then left to do her orders.
Reality 14
UA guided the ship to a landing. Soon afterwards, the rest of the CFs
woke up. "UA what are you doing?!" Zelda exclaimed. Strange, her eyes
were red. He looked at the rest of the CFS, so were theirs. Apparently
he was NOT in his own universe or reality or whatever. "Err..landing."
UA said managing a grin. "Landing why?" Nity asked, "You know the ship'll
do that automatically." Then he got it, someone their REM sleep was
connected to the transportation of the ship, they literally worked in
their sleep. "We miscalculated." UA covered, "Went off course." Ganthet
shrugged, he hadn't noticed it, but UA was their resident engineer just as
he was the resident ships captain.
Rya'u'sa
Secretly Ziyaluah took out her personal scrying glass, as soon as the
rite was over and everyone had recovered she had realized what had been
done and a wave of guilt had washed over her. She desperately wanted to
dispel the guilt that pressed against her like a weight. She looked at her
glass, it was just an ordinary scrying glass, not like the Sacred
Scrying Glass which would point out what she should do, it would only show
her where and when she wished to see. As an effect of the rite Karansha,
that had been directed only to the Crystal Fighters of a certain universe,
she had a bit of a link to those specific Fighters, she would recognize
their 'dimensional signature' if she saw or met them.
She brushed her hand across the glass and reached out toward the
Crystal Fighters. Suddenly she was lost in a wave of feelings and images,
there were so many that instead of showing up in the glass they had gone
directly to her mind. After a few seconds she figured out how to sort
through the chaos. Once she had identified the dimensions they
were trapped in she decided what she was going to do.
Reality 9,999,999,999,999,991
"That was not a good idea lover." Eme said, glaring darkly at UA after
coming to. UA looked around, confused for a second. He had just been
talking to Eme before...her leather was back... but that was all he was
able to think before he felt the familiar lash of her whip. He winced this
was not a good day.
Reality 4
Suddenly a dark-robed figure appeared in front of Ganthet.
The others were oblivious to the new figure,
they were too busy fighting anyway. "Who are you?" rumbles
Ganthet. "Did you put me here, in this world that makes no
sense?" He tensed what would be his muscles, were he a
human. He had to be ready to fight, this being could be
friend or foe.
Reality 18
Something seemed to ripple through Krakken's mind, but
he shrugged it off without a thought. Straining his neck,
he looked over at the UA-esque man to his left. This man
was a lot older than he looked, gray hair sticking out of
holes in his mask.
"Hey," Krakken replied, "Why are you here?"
"Well, Stranger, since you're dying to know: It's not as
dramatic as I wanted it to be. One night I was just walking
along in New York City, but this ripple thing happened, and
I ended up here. The natives-- you're one of them, right?--
didn't seem to like me, something about being of the wrong
race. I couldn't put up much of a fight in my old age, and
my powers didn't seem to work. The next thing I knew, I was
here. I think I'm gonna be executed at midnight." The old
man didn't seem suspicious when Krakken didn't ask about his
"powers."
"Sorry to hear that. I'm going to be burned alive at
dawn."
"A shame for someone as young as you to go now... Hey,
I don't suppose you have an escape plan, do you?
"No... why, um, why would I have one? Hey, when is
midnight?"
The UA-esque man replied wearily, "That's the worst
part: I don't know when I'm going to get the axe. There's
no way of telling time in h..." The lock on the door
clicked a few times. "Apparently, it's midnight now."
"Shut up!" A guard struck him across the face as he
unlocked his shackles.
Main Island
Previous StoryCF#18: Dissintion Within
NextPart III
Next StoryCF#20: Darkest Hour