Chaos Effect

Chapter 89: Chapter 89

I nodded, folding my arms over my chest and I watched Edna and Annie go over the controls of the Broken Symmetry, checking gauges and dials and making sure that everything was just to their liking. Or rather enough to their liking... there was never going to be a point where flying to an ancient prison that was currently being held by a doppelganger of us that casually mentioned murdering gods would be something they liked.

But it was our only option.

"I know you hate this," I said softly.

"That is... putting it mildly," Edna admitted. "You haven\'t seen Wyatt in action, Edwin. You don\'t know what that man can do. He has torn through armies like they are tissue paper. He has taken on gods and won."

Renard had told me about that. How Wyatt had claimed that he\'d killed gods and goddesses. It was disturbing to learn that wasn\'t merely a boast.

"That\'s why we\'ve never attempted something like this... its like trying to control a hurricane. When you witness its power... you know its impossible."

"Maybe," I admitted. "But we are impossible, aren\'t we? Ending up in fictional worlds, being variants of the same person? Who\'s to say that we won\'t be able to overcome that impossible?"

"...go rally the troops," Edna stated.

"Don\'t you want to?" I asked, hating that Edna was so frightened. After my proclamation Edna had been sullen and quiet for a long time, as had most of the other Chaoses. My dad and brother had sided with me, as had Slash, but otherwise everyone else had thought it impossible. It had taken a ton of work to get them to at least accept the plan and now, on the eve of battle, I was seeing that Edna at least still doubted. "I kinda feel like I took over things... this is your ship."

"Its Des\' ship honestly I\'m just the Captain. And I will happily hold that over your head till the end of time." She flashed me a condescending little smirk. "Also yes you did take over things. But you and I... we know how to step back and be the lancer. I\'m your lancer for this."

"Right." I walked to the door, grabbing my cane. "We\'ll all make it out of this."

"Same person, Edwin," Edna reminded me. "Same pessimism."

"Yeah," I admitted.

I didn\'t believe my own pep talk either.

Leaving the bridge I walked along the corridors of the ship, heading towards where everyone else was prepping. I wasn\'t surprised when the first people I ran into had the fight I was dreading the most.

"I can help, Seto!" Mokuba complained, his brother going over the watch he would be wearing. He had out a set of tools and was carefully going over every piece of it, making sure it was to his desired specifications.

"And the answer is no, Mokuba."

"But Slash is going to be fighting and we\'re the same age!"

I chose that moment to enter their room. "Slash is mentally in her twenties. She is stuck as an 11 year old but she is an adult."

"That\'s not fair!" Mokuba exclaimed.

"Yeah," I admitted. "It sucks. Doesn\'t change the fact that you aren\'t going into a fucking battle."

He considered me for a long moment but when I didn\'t budge he shot me a wrathful glare that was so very much his brother\'s own made small. "I hate you!" Mokuba snapped before storming off to his room.

Seto considered me for a moment. "Well..."

"You thought I\'d back him?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"No," Seto admitted. "Never. I don\'t like most things you do, Chaos, but I know you will always put Mokuba\'s safety first." Seto finally looked up from his watch, setting down the tiny tools and slipping the band onto his wrist. "You didn\'t have to make it seem like it was all your decision."

"He\'s growing up. In the next few years he\'s going to hit the teenager phase and... that could get bad. I fought with my parents. My brother was easier with them but there were some explosive ones with him being lazy and them not liking it. But he\'ll be a teenager and it isn\'t going to be pleasant. You might be his brother but... you are his dad now and that is going to be really hard on you. It isn\'t fair either. I don\'t mind shouldering some of the rage."

"...we aren\'t co-parenting," Seto said but there wasn\'t the angry heat I might have expected. Rather him sighing the words, like he knew they were true but was trying to deny them.

"Think of me like an uncle then," I stated. "I help but in the end he is your kid."

Seto nodded at that. "You picked a good group. I\'m still not sure about Wheeler-"

"Would you rather have him fuck things up because we left him behind?" I pressed. "Because he\'s going to race into battle and I\'d rather have him prepared."

"Hmmpf."

"Thought so." I turned to leave only to hear a door open and to stagger when Mokuba slammed into me.

"Please be safe, Edwin." He rubbed his face against my stomach, tears making my shirt wet.

I patted his head. "I will... I promise." I glanced back at Seto. He didn\'t apologize but that didn\'t surprise me; Mokuba still wanted to help and I\'d have to make sure that someone ensured he didn\'t rush the battle field but he also understood just how dangerous this was. It was the rare blend of youthful blindness and youthful understanding.

Leaving the room I nearly ran into Des, though to his credit techie version of myself easily dodged.

"I\'ll make sure he stays safe," Des stated simply. "I\'ll find something for him to do that lets him take part but not be in danger."

"You heard that?" I asked.

"I hear everything," he said with a smirk.

"...I will never get used to Seto\'s facial tics appearing on my mug."

"Its my mug. you just use it to be bombastic," Des stated simply before entering Seto\'s room.

"...good talk Des. Very nice. Let\'s do it again some time."

"You know he probably heard that," Troy said, popping up beside me.

"Can he hear this?" I asked, flipping off the room behind me.

My phone\'s AI shrugged. "Maybe? I mean the bones and tendons moving..." He created a list that looked like a scroll. "Alright, so we checked in on those two... idiot teenagers next? Work our way up through the dumbass list?"

"Idiot teenagers," I agreed as we made our way towards the common room that housed Yugi and his friends, along with Rex. They all looked up at me and I let my gaze sweep across the room. Joey was seated with his sister, Serenity cuddling up to him. Tea and Yugi were on the floor, sprawled out in a way that made me, even in my more youthful body, feel an ache in my back. Duke and Tristan didn\'t seem to know what they wanted to do with their bodies while Rex was brooding in the corner. "I\'m going to ask one more time in hopes some of you came to your damn senses... anyone other than Serenity want to stay on the ship?"

"Why do they get a choice and I don\'t?" Serenity asked.

I shot her a dark look. "Age Minimum to storm a prison not met. It\'s like the requirement to ride certain rides at Cedar Point but in this case its battling whatever the fuck Wyatt has waiting for us. Believe me, if I could have gotten away with it I\'d have benched all of you."

"And you know that isn\'t happening," Tea said with narrowed eyes.

"If Yuri couldn\'t convince you not to come..." I trailed off, remembering that VERY long screaming fight. When your bodies didn\'t age and you didn\'t need food or sleep you could fight for days straight without pause. Honestly it would have been impressive if not nerve racking.

"Heh, that was great," Rex said with a laugh, though I could see it was more from instinct than actually feeling any humor. "I have to go through my recording of that... I want one of those insults to be my new ringtone!"

"The point," Duke said, cutting in, "is that we are with you on this Edwin."

Tristan nodded. "Have to put what Aiden gave me and Tea into good use." Tea nodded. That had been an... interesting discovery.

~In the Past~

Booster rolled his shoulders. "Okay, so lets get a few basic moves in."

"But isn\'t this all going to come second nature?" Joey asked. He, along with all his friends, were dressed in workout clothes, ready to see where they were when it came to self defense and fighting. Booster had volunteered to train the teens, knowing that they\'d need some skill in dealing with whatever Wyatt sent their way.

"Yes but if things go to hell and you are all rendered powerless at least you\'ll know how to defend yourselves." He pointed at Tea. "You said you have some self defense training?" She nodded. "Good, I\'ll start with you. Now, I\'m going to flip you over my shoulder... I want you to know what it feels like to do it wrong so that you work to do it right." He reached out and grasped her wrist.

Tea\'s eyes flashed and the next thing Booster knew he was on the ground, Tea\'s knee in the small of his back and her fingers locked on his head, ready to snap his neck.

"...holy shit," Rex whispered, Tea breaking out of her battle trance and staring at Booster in horror.

~MC~MC~MC~

The King of Domino had wanted loyal fighters to defend him... Aiden had given him just that.

Joey held his fist up to his face, his intense grin that always haunted my nightmares fully formed on his features. "Hell yeah! We\'re gonna mess this bastard up!"

The Pharaoh nodded, taking over for Yugi, as dignified as ever. "I understand why you wish for us not to take part in this, Edwin. I very much wish we could keep you from the battle that is to come. But we can not sit by while innocents remain trapped and we are kept from returning to our home. Nor while the rest of you risk your lives. We will stand with you and we will defeat Wyatt... and he will pay for all he has done to the Multiverse."

"...right," I said, not trusting myself to say much of anything else. "Right." I gave them all a final nod before heading to my next stop, this one a touch easier.

"Don\'t worry about us, Edwin," Pegasus said when I finally was let into the room. The only one gearing up for battle was Brom, the giant of a man looking over a selection of weapons he had personally gone after during our hunt through the multiverse. I didn\'t know WHAT they were but I could feel the power coming off of them. "We will make sure that those that stay behind remain safe."

"You focus on getting this done," Solomon told me. "And remember... now is not the time for mercy. You go in hard, you go in fast, and you get things taken care of."

"That\'s the hope," I said though all of us knew that it wouldn\'t be as easy as that.

I wasn\'t surprised to find Slash all by herself, looking over her Pokemon and making sure they were ready for what was to come.

"You sure you want to do this?" I asked her.

"If this is about my age," Slash complained, "remember that even if I wasn\'t in my twenties I\'ve had to deal with world ending battles for years now... or not because one year in the Pokemon world is like 10,000 days."

I crinkled my nose at that. "Ugh. And there is nothing you can do about..." I gestured at her form.

"NONE tried," Slash admitted. "Used his powers to turn me into an adult... it lasted 2 seconds before the gauge went nuts and I began screaming. Had to undo it." She worked her jaw. "He... doesn\'t know that I heard him... talking to Brock. \'What good are the powers of a god if I can\'t make her smile when she looks in the mirror each morning?\'." She let out a sigh. "That\'s part of the reason why I keep going, even when sometimes I wonder if it wouldn\'t be easier to defy the gauge and die. I go... and he\'s alone again. I can\'t do that to him. If I can make it then I\'m like him and at least we can loop together."

"He\'s lucky to have you as a friend," I said. "Very lucky." I was quiet for a moment. "Well... we\'ll be approaching shortly. I know you know what to do and-"

"Save it," she said with a smirk. "You might be a good wordsmith but I don\'t need your speeches. Now, if you could find that Edwin from Earth-1 who gave that speech about us all not being alone? I\'d listen to that man give me the \'We will fight them on the beaches\' speech."

I frowned at that. "Uh... I was the one who gave that speech."

"...yeah, right," Slash said dismissively.

"Seriously."

"Sure," she said, clearly believing I was lying.

"I\'m-"

"Don\'t you have others to talk to?"

I shot her a dirty look and continued on.

"This is going well," Troy commented.

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"I will throw you in a toilet bowl," I complained.

"We\'re surrounded by Asian kids they will fix me in seconds."

"JESUS!" I exclaimed. "You can\'t say shit like that Troy!"

"I\'m black, I can say shit like that."

"You are a phone, not black!"

"...I\'m a phone, I can say shit like that."

"For fuck\'s sake," I muttered as I entered the next room where Michael, King Edwyn, Skeets, Yuri, and Renard were doing final double checks on their gear. "I\'m not going to beat around the bush: you five are the only ones with battle experience going out there. I need you to keep the kids alive."

Renard frowned. "I will be at your side-"

"You will be protecting everyone else and that includes my dad and my brother. I\'m last."

"...yeah, no," Yuri said. "You don\'t get to go running off sacrificing yourself."

"I don\'t plan to but I\'m ready to if it gets everyone home," I told her flatly. "Besides... I have a trick or two up my sleeve."

King Edwyn frowned at that. "You never did tell us where you went..."

"And I won\'t," I stated. "If we want any advantage I need my secrets. Hate me forever after the battle but I can\'t risk Wyatt figuring out what I have planned."

Michael folded his arms over his chest. "I should be taking the lead. I have the suit that actually makes me bullet proof."

"Mine does now too," I told him with a cheeky grin, fiddling with my cane. "Thanks for the upgrade, by the way." I used my cane to tap him lightly on the chest. "Remember, our goal is to free the prisoners first, then Wyatt is taken out. I have a feeling things will be easier if we get more allies on our side."

King Edwyn merely nodded, looking over his sword. "You can rely upon us. Go see to your family."

I bowed my head in gratitude and made my way to the final room.

My brother merely patted me on the shoulder before I could say a word to him. "Don\'t do anything too stupid."

"I won\'t," I assured him before turning to my dad who gave me a hug. "It will be fine-"

"Please let me do this for you," he whispered.

"I can\'t," I told him, "you raised me right."

My family turned away so Mai and I could share a private moment.

"You come back to me, you hear?" she pleaded after a few kisses. "I mean it."

"I will," I promised her.

I hoped that I wasn\'t lying.

~In the Past...~

"Ya know, without all the gods and kids hangin\' around this place seems kinda... quiet."

Sindri looked over at his brother as he ran a cleaning cloth over his hammer. "Yeah... isn\'t it great?"

Brok let out a snort of annoyance at that, waving his hands about as he took in the emptiness that was Sindri\'s home. "Would ya get off all this grumpin\' ya\'ve been doin\' lately! Its makin\' me be the cheerful one! Its been wonderful havin\' the place full!"

"Oh yes," Sindri said sarcastically and with a bit more bite to his words than was normal. He hadn\'t gotten that way since their last big fight... or rather before that as their great fight had been MUCH worse. "Wonderful. I do so enjoy having to clean blood off the floors, give away everything I own, and, oh yes, I almost forgot, get mauled by a bear!" He moved to storm off only for his brother to block his path.

"Oh boo hoo!" Brok exclaimed. "The blood came right out and it was only one time Kratos did that and he even cleaned up most of it himself before you\'d gone to get the mop and bucket. Tell me ya won\'t cherish the sight of his pale ass scrubbin\' your floor." Sindri\'s mouth twitched; Kratos was gruff and curt but he had been careful about cleaning up after himself. He hadn\'t wiped his boots the first time he entered but after that Sindri had never found footprints. He made sure his room was tidy and he himself rarely came in caked in viscera. "And are ya still on about Draupnir? That wasn\'t just yours ta give away. I offered it to \'im. And I\'m glad I did! We haven\'t needed to use that ring in years! Basement is filled ta the brim and if we really needed ta we could make another one!"

"...I did have a few ideas to make the dripping process a bit more organized."

"See!" Brok said with a laugh. "And he loves the spear! Thanked me for it! And he\'s thanked you, hasn\'t he?" Sindri shifted; Kratos... had said... a few words... that he supposed were his way of saying thanks. "And ya act like he and the kid don\'t pay us back! How much hacksilver have we made off of \'em?"

"We gave them other things-" Sindri began to argue.

"That we wanted ta give \'em! You don\'t want to anymore? Fine." Brok shrugged. "They can pay... they would if we asked. I don\'t know about you but I had ta beg the big hunk of muscle ta let me work on the Axe and his Blades."

Sindri grimaced; yes, he had too been forced to press Kratos to let them help.

"Now, as for the bear-" Sindri reached up and touched his hair where the scars were hidden, "-the kid messed up! Ya give him a chance ta talk ya about it?"

"He tried to make it go away with just an apology."

"And that ain\'t enough," Brok grumbled. "Fine... tell\'em that. Say he needs ta do more! Have one of them... long drawn out heart ta hearts ya always whine about. Discuss how hurt ya were when he did that and he can talk about how we\'d have never got back tagether if it weren\'t for him and his dad. Oh, and how ya\'d be FUCKIN\' DEAD!"

"You always bring up that dragon..." Sindri muttered before his shoulders drooped. "You\'re right... you\'re right." He held up his hands in surrender. "I\'ll talk to him."

"Master Brok, Master Sindri?" Ratatoskr, the squirrel that managed the World Tree, called out from a window. "Could you come out here? We... have a guest."

"Fuck," Brok muttered, grabbing his hammer and looking it over before sliding it into the loop on his belt, Sindri doing the same. "Just when everyone got out of here!"

"You think its Odin?" Sindri asked nervously. "I think its Odin."

"If it is then we do what we do best: lie, deflect, get the fuck out of here."

"That doesn\'t fill me with confidence," Sindri muttered as they made for the door, Brok throwing it open to reveal... not Odin.

Instead it was a blond haired man, dressed not in armor but instead some weird cloth garments. They looked to be important and expensive but it was hard for the dwarves to determine fashion at times as every realm had different definitions; based on their own experiences he looked to be kitted out like a dwarven big shot. He had on a pair of glasses, which was a rarity for most of the realms, and his beard was a neat thing that just encircled his mouth.

"What are you doing?" Ratatoskr declared when he saw the two. "Why are you standing there like there is going to be a fight? I told you we had a guest!"

Sindri frowned. "We thought... you were trying-"

"if there was a threat I would have screamed \'There is a threat!\'. There is a guest. So I said \'There is a guest\'. It\'s not the hard to understand." He turned to the blond man. "Is it that hard to understand?"

"Considering the threats these two have been dealing with perhaps caution is the better part of valor."

One of Ratatoskr\'s spectral emotions called out, "He fucking got us there, dumbass!"

"Enough, Bitter," Ratatoskr said before sighing. "Very well, I will leave you three to it." He scampered away, leaving the two dwarves staring up at the new arrival.

"Well... what the fuck ya want? And who are ya?"

"My name is Edwin Chaos," the blond man said. "And before we continue... is there anyone else around?"

"Why?" Sindri asked slowly.

"Because I don\'t want certain ears to hear things. Private stuff. Especially when it pertains to the job I want to pay you for."

Brok smirked at that. "Then ya came at the right time! Everyone\'s bum fucked out of here. Kratos and his kid are off helpin\' Lady Freya along with the head and Tyr went wanderin\' about the tree."

"And you just revealed everyone who is staying here, wonderful Brok," Sindri said dryly.

Edwin though was pleased by the news. "Good... that\'s really good. Makes things less complicated." He made no more to begin walking and for that the dwarves were surprised and pleased. Most of their customers, even when coming to their workbenches and shops, tended to just barge right in. "What I want is very simple," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a strange square device. "My friend, Desmond, created this. It allows him to scan weapons and learn how they were made... not just the basic forging but the enchantments. With your permission I\'d like to scan some weapons you\'ve made... or rather have you scan them."

"Ya want ta steal our secrets?" Brok asked.

"At least he\'s admitting it," Sindri reasoned.

Edwin shrugged. "Think of it as a trade." He held out his left wrist and the dwarves saw he was wearing a silver band... that began to ripple and shift until it formed into a gauntlet, a blade popping out. "This is a Duel Band. It uses Sympathetic Memory Metal to become any object I can think of." He took another two out of his pocket and tossed them to the brothers, Brok catching his though Sindri fumbled a touch. "They are yours to do with whatever you want. Use. Study. Take apart. Up to you."

Brok slipped the band on and laughed when a gauntlet formed with a hammer already in his hand. "Hey! Would a look at that!?"

"Amazing..." Sindri whispered, having removed one of his heavy gloves in order to put on the band. His rippled and formed into a thinner metal glove and he began to cycle through tools. "Amazing..."

"That is the exchange," Edwin stated. "The next item is for free. To show you that I\'m on your side."

Brok raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? What ya offerin\'?"

"Tyr isn\'t wandering the World Tree," Edwin stated. "He\'s in Asgard."

"Asgard?" Sindri said, startled. "Why would he go there?"

"Because it is his kingdom. He\'s not Tyr." His face was like stone. "He\'s the All-Father in disguise. And very soon he\'s going to kill Brok."

~Present~

The problem with existing outside of space and time was that it was impossible to tell how long something had existed.

The Eternal Gate was spoken of in countless journals of realm travelers. Not all of them, of course, but enough to piece together that at minimum the structure had been old thousands of years ago. And while how it was described changed often, leading to the theory that the great building wasn\'t so much built and added too as it grew like a moss, the basic form had remained the same: a large structure that appeared to be cobbled together from every type of building from every earth culture that was known. An open courtyard like at a Chinese palace. Roman pillars supporting high ceils. Tight small rocky tunnels found in Aztec ruins. It had towers that soared upwards, piercing the swirling purples, blues, and pinks of the realm beyond all realms and deep substructures that delved down into the great rock it sat upon, so that many believed that there wasn\'t so much any rock left other than the crusty surface along the sides and bottom.

The explorers who had journeyed into the Eternal Gate (for there were explorers... ever since mankind had looked at the horizon they had wondered what lay just beyond; why would it be different for the multivese?) had found evidence that it had been used and abandoned many times in its endless history. There were scratch marks that appeared to be tallies of... well, they hoped they were days. A room that looked like a medieval solar with papers written in a language no one could read, the entire place feeling as if at any moment the owner might return from using the bathroom. They found soiled clothing left cluttered in corners and the remains of a campfire in one of the great dining halls that had been lit using tapestries that had been ripped down. Gadgets too. Computers and handhelds both fantastical and mundane. Time and time and time again someone would find the Eternal Gate and use it.

A family of seven who had escaped the devastating war in their universe, using the Eternal Gate as a place to rest and know a bit of peace.

A scientist and his team studying the multiverse and all it held.

A dictator and tyrant who saw it as the ultimate palace from which to conduct their war against the realms and universes.

All had come. All left. Because all realized the same thing: when time was meaningless the Eternal Gate became a prison.

Was it any wonder then that Wyatt Chaos used it just for that purpose?

"What is it?" the bounty hunter demanded as he stormed into the room that was his communication center, the portal behind him closing. "You know not to call when I\'m on a hunt." He had been going after a tricky Chaos, one who lived on a world that knew of Multiverse Travel and had already darted about different universes. He was collecting kids who had been orphaned; not Chaoses but rather Spiders, which was annoying. Wyatt had dealt with O\'Hara and his damn Society a few times and made clear that he wasn\'t interested in any of them fucking around with his work.

\'And if they call me fucking Kraven the Hunter one more time I\'m glassing all of Earth 2099,\' he thought darkly.

He didn\'t actually have to worry about his target escaping, since the moment he left that universe everything slowed down to such a crawl it appeared as if time wasn\'t moving, but it did get him out of the mindset he needed. He hated when he had to leave a hunt and then jump back in.

The android, stolen from a world many travelers called a variation of the \'Star Trek Universe\', looked up at him, his golden eyes showing no worry at Wyatt\'s cold tone. Nor was he put off that Wyatt himself didn\'t have eyes anymore but the Millennium Items he\'d shoved into the sockets. That\'s why Wyatt honestly preferred dealing with machines: they got shit done and didn\'t spend forever yammering.

"A ship is hovering just on the edge of our sensors. It has made no move to engage but it is also ignoring our hailing frequencies."

"Did you scan it, B4?" Wyatt asked.

"We\'ve tried several times but as stated it is on the very edge of our sensors. All we get is that it is a ship and there is at least a single life form on board. I have attempted to expand our sensors but the ship moves back the moment I do so."

"Knows we\'re scanning then," Wyatt muttered, pulling down his bandana so he could rub his chin.

B4 continued to look at the screen. "I dare not attempt push the scanners out faster, as expanding the range already deletes energy from other sources-"

"Good," Wyatt stated, cutting him off. "It isn\'t doing anything anyway so wasn\'t worth the further risk. Let me try." He took hold of a small microphone and pressed a button. At once in the main courtyard of the Eternal Gate of holographic projection of his head and arms appeared, several stories tall. His voice came from every speaker in the prison as well as being projected to the intruding ship itself. "I do not know who you are. I don\'t know why you\'ve come here. I can only assume that your refusal to communicate with my men means that you wish harm against me. If this is wrong and you are a stranded vessel or researchers who wished to learn more about this place know that you are unwelcome and you should turn back now; doing so is your only chance to avoid complete destruction. I will not pursue you if you leave now. If you are unable to leave then I suggest you let me know NOW so I can decide what help I will offer... but know it will be little.

"However, if you have come to some foolish notion that you can attack me then I give you my congratulations: your suicide attempt is about to work. Think now about every choice you ever made in your life and how they led you to this moment... and curse whatever gods you worship that you came to face me."

The ship... edged forward.

"Not a ramming attack," Wyatt said, intrigued. "Not a blitz." He wondered if it was crewed by deaf people... that was always a possibility. Or someone who had no universal transmitter... they might have heard gibberish and thought he was welcoming them in. If they were innocents he\'d send them on their way, if that was the case. Not their fault there. Chew them out for being stupid, of course, but send them on their way. But if they were arrogant and thought that they could still land when he\'d denied them then he\'d reduce them to wet smears on the stone work.

"Sir," B4 stated, "they are hailing us."

"Pull it up," he commanded.

The android did so.

A bluesy harmonic began to play across the Eternal Gate.

Wyatt\'s brow furrowed before he looked up, seeing the mystery ship coming close enough that he could see the nose of it. A blunt, trowel-shaped vessel, clearly highly advanced and ready to survive the perils of traveling the area between the multiverse. But his focus was on the sole figure standing on the nose of the ship.

It\'s goin\' down, I\'m yellin\' timber

You better move, you better dance

Let\'s make a night you won\'t remember

I\'ll be the one you won\'t forget

He was dressed in a black suit with purple vest, a cane clasped in one hand even as he raised his arms out wide, a Millennium Key hanging from his neck and an arrogant smile plastered on his rather familiar face.

"ETERNAL GATE! YOUR SAVIOR IS HERE!"

"The Chaos from Earth-1..." Wyatt whispered. The one that had gotten away.

Ooh-ooh (timber), ooh-ooh (timber)

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh (it\'s goin\' down)

Ooh-ooh (timber), ooh-ooh (timber)

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh (it\'s goin\' down, woo)

"Take him down. He\'s wanted alive but doesn\'t need his limbs. Take the arms first."

"Sending the command," B4 commanded and the cannons and other long range artillery Wyatt had personally installed on the Eternal Gate shifted to target Edwin Chaos... just as he suddenly dropped his cane and pulled out a Morpher.

"It\'s Morphin\' Time!" Edwin called out, a flash of light consuming him, blinding all of Wyatt\'s sensors, and when it finally faded it left him in the same Ranger outfit Wyatt had seen him in when he\'d gone after him before. He twirled his double bladed staff before pointing it right at Wyatt\'s holographic face, other hand extended and flicking in the universe "come and get it" gesture.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall

This biggity boy\'s a diggity dog

I have \'em like Miley Cyrus, clothes off

Twerking in their bras and thongs (timber)

Face down, booty up (timber)

That\'s the way we like to what (timber)

I\'m slicker than an oil spill

She say she won\'t, but I bet she will (timber)

"Well, that will make things marginally harder but-"

A roar filled the air, cutting off Wyatt, and he turned in time to see, of all things, a Charizard with another Power Ranger on its back, this one smaller and wearing a blue outfit with a shark motif.

A MORPHED Charizard.

"Aguni! Flamethrower!" the blue ranger called out, her green and gold armored dragon unleashing flames on the sentry cannons, reducing them to slag.

Swing your partner \'round and \'round

End of the night, it\'s goin\' down

One more shot, another round

End of the night, it\'s goin\' down

Swing your partner \'round and \'round

End of the night, it\'s goin\' down

One more shot, another round

End of the night, it\'s goin\' down

From the ship other morphed figures suddenly appeared, riding an assortment of vehicles or using flight tech to move on their own, all heading for the courtyard.

Wyatt growled, turning off the hologram of himself. "Send out everyone. Take them down." He stormed out, guns pulled from his holsters. "I\'ll collect their corpses myself if I have to."

It\'s goin\' down, I\'m yellin\' timber

You better move, you better dance

Let\'s make a night you won\'t remember

I\'ll be the one you won\'t forget

~In the Past~

Jen stepped away from the picnic the Time Force Rangers were having with their Wild Force counterparts and Ransik, making polite excuses before quickly hurrying through a line of trees, glancing at her communicator. The contacts who\'d reached out to her a few days ago, giving her the information she needed in order to the defeat the Mut-Orgs, had told her to wait for their signal before they completed their deal and honestly she wanted it over and done with.

She hated lying to everyone.

It was a heavy weight in her stomach every time she looked at Katie or Lucas or Trip or even their new friends and had to pretend that all she had been doing the last few months was undercover work. All alone. When that was far from the truth. So far from it. But it had saved the world... and according to her contacts would be saving countless others.

There was movement to her right and Jen looked around one more time before taking out a small disc, tossing it out and causing a dome of blue energy to wash over her and a good 15 feet of the forested area of the park.

"There. No one will see us. All they will see is the trees and grass."

"That\'s a nifty little thing," a young girl, about 11 years old with dyed hair and FAR too old eyes, commented.

"Des will want to see that," the second contact, a blond man roughly Jen\'s own age dressed in a black suit with a purple vest, commented. "Everything worked out?"

"The Mut Orgs are defeated and just as you told me Ransik is cured of his mutation."

"Let him know that his blood might be the cure for other mutants. If they wish to be cured that is." The blond man, who called himself Edwin, narrowed his eyes and shot her a dark look. "But ONLY if they wish." He stressed that again and Jen met his gaze with a hard one of her own. She knew what he was implying and she understood that but she was no bigot. Even after her partner had turned criminal she hadn\'t held all mutants were evil. After all, technically one could argue Katie was a mutant with her enhanced strength.

"Of course," she said.

"As for our end of the deal," the girl, Slash, stated, "here is the information your Time Force will salivate over." She passed over a flash drive.

Jen frowned. "Might take them a bit to figure out how to read all this..."

"But once they do you\'ll have earned your freedom," Edwin stated. "They will let you remain in the past. They\'ll see that Mrs. Jen Collins is far better for their future than keep Jen Scott miserable in their present."

Jen didn\'t react. She refused to react. She was far too well trained to react. Even if there was a giddy feeling that she could finally not have her heart torn in two, forced to look back a thousand years to the man she knew she was destined to be with.

"Now... our part of the deal?" Slash said, holding out her hand.

Jen sighed, a tiny part of her wishing they\'d forgotten about that. Almost painfully, like pulling a knife from a wound, she took out the small scanner that had been hidden in the leathers of her Black Ops gear and held it out. "This has been passively scanning all of the Time Force morphers as well as Wild Force," she stated.

It took her another moment before she finally handed it to Slash, her betrayal complete.

"Thank you," Edwin said, his voice kind. "This is going to help. The threat we are facing... we need every bit of help we can get."

"If it\'s so bad-" Jen began but Edwin held up his hand.

"You can\'t help us. Its too big."

"How?" Jen demanded. "I\'ve gone along with all this... what is going on?"

"The multiverse is at stake," Edwin stated before quietly reaching behind his back... and showing her a VERY familiar morpher. Almost everyone in the future knew of the morphers used by the original Power Rangers, the ones that had faced Zedd and Rita. She felt her mouth go dry realizing that her contact was connected to them. "Thank you Jen... but we have to go raid the remains of the Lightspeed Aqua Base, invade the Wind and Thunder Ninja Academies, and go find some Dino Gems and Chargers."

"...Dino Chargers?" Jen asked only for the two to teleport away.

~Present~

Arno leapt from the platform he\'d been riding and fired on several thickly armored robots that had charged at him, taking out two before he was forced to bring his arm up, a blue energy shield forming in front of him that absorbed the blasts. He was wearing what his son had told him was the Lightspeed Red Ranger costume and he had to admit that it was giving him a nice energy boost. Even though he wasn\'t as young as he used to be he\'d always been active, refusing to become soft and doughy like Solomon had and instead insisting that he wanted to remain fit. Yes, he didn\'t have a rock hard stomach anymore but he could still easily lift up heavy machinery and tear down a wall if need be.

The suit though? It was like not only going back to how he\'d been when he was 20 but supercharging it.

\'And then there is you, old friend,\' he thought to himself, touching his neck where the Millennium Necklace hung. It wasn\'t the one he\'d originally had, that had gotten him so much teasing by Solomon and Arthur before he showed how dangerous it made him, but it worked just the same as his did. They\'d gotten it from a world where it had never been claimed and the threat of Zorc had been dealt with because Yugi had never finished the puzzle. It had bonded with him instantly and he slipped back into old fighting habits without a second thought.

The Millennium Necklace allowed one to see the past and glimpse the future. That\'s what they\'d all been told. But Arno, much like Edwin and Josiah, had refused to take something at face value. He had pushed. He had experimented. He had discovered.

The Necklace could do so much more.

Seeing Tristan, who had gotten the Thunder Ranger Crimson outfit, having some trouble with Terminator-style robot, Arno broke off his own push and hurried towards the teen, deflecting bolts using Star Trek shielding tech merged with what his son had said was Cybrtronian Tech before kicking the Terminator in the leg. The robot turned towards him-

RIGHT PUNCH TOWARDS HEAD. LEFT TO THE SIDE. HEAD GRAB.

Arno weaved and ducked every strike the Terminator-looking robot (and honestly it might actually have been the Terminator, considering how his life had gotten) before slamming his gun into the robots chin, pulling the trigger and causing it to collapse into a twitching mess of sparks and metal.

"That... was amazing!" Tristan panted.

"Plenty of them for you to test yourself out against," Arno said as he saw another wave coming their way. Glancing to his right he saw Renard, wearing a ranger outfit with a helm designed to look like a wolf\'s head, swinging a silver sword at several droids, cutting their bodies in half and sending them falling to the ground. Rex was beside him, in the green dino-themed outfit, firing off rapid blasts from his own gun at their foes as they attempted to overwhelm them. "Remember, stick to the plan and do NOT get yourself hurt."

"Right," Tristan said as they turned in time to see Edwin rushing through a mob of droids, his staff piecing their armored chests as they attempted to stop him only to end up impaled for their troubles. Littered around them were at least fifty destroyed droids that ranged from the spindly Star Wars style to the dark skeletal Terminators to ones that Arno had never seen before. He watched as his youngest used his shield to block a barrage of fire from a group of five spider-like robots, their eyes firing lasers that he managed to intercept with his shield before he pulled out a curved gun that reminded the older man of a laser tag pistol he\'d gotten his sons for Christmas; Josiah fired off blasts that certainly weren\'t designed for fun and games, sending the droids coming at him toppling.

It was all very impressive.

Until someone saw the thousand more that were heading their way in a great crush.

Yes... Tristan would have a chance to test himself soon enough.

~MC~MC~MC ~

Mai looked over at Tea and Yuri, the three of them stationed towards the Broken Symmetry while the others dealt with the surge of droids and robots that were coming at them hot and heavy with every type of weapon they could bring to bear. They were holding the line and even slowly making gains but that was the key: slowly. And even with the Ranger powers Edwin had gotten them Mai knew that eventually they would tire themselves out and that would allow Wyatt to overwhelm them with his forces.

"This is going too easy," Mai said, wearing the Ranger Slayer costume Edwin had attempted to get her the previous Halloween, firing energy arrows down at the droids that got too close to their friends and family.

"Maybe we\'re just getting lucky?" Tea asked. She had gone with the Pink Space Ranger, deciding that she would be better with a blaster than a sword.

Yuri, in the Time Force Pink Ranger outfit, shook her head though at that assessment. "No... this shouldn\'t be going the way it is. Something is wrong."

King Edwyn let out a shout, raising his newly acquired Valyrian Steel Sword (for while his world was an homage to Game of Thrones there were things they lacked) that had been merged with Kong\'s radiation axe so that it could absorb blaster bolts to power it up. He sliced into a droid, the cloak of his Mystic Force Gold Ranger costume swirling about him as he hacked into his opponents. He suddenly thrust his hand up into the air and called forth the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the beast forming into flesh and blood before letting out a roar. Mai\'s eyes went wide as it began to fire on the droids while Kaiba and Des Chaos, wearing Ranger outfits augmented with Tony Stark\'s Iron Man tech, flew in and began to support the beast while Slash dove down and let her morphed Charizard rain burning death upon the droids.

Joey meanwhile, dressed in a Jungle Fury Rhino Ranger outfit, let out a battle cry as he slammed it a swarm of droids, letting out a cheer and thrusting both his fists into the air as he sent them crashing into a heap of twisted metal.

"Yeah! That\'s what I\'m talkin\' about!" he shouted... only to find that everyone had grown quiet, the battle coming to a standstill as all the droids turned as one away from them. "Eh? What\'s the big deal?"

"The big deal?" Wyatt Chaos said simply as he marched out of one of the towers, adjusting his gloves before he pulled out his Millennium Revolver. "That... would be me."

Edwin rushed him only for Wyatt to easily bat him away like he was swatting a fly, sending him crashing into a building, dazed by the blow.

"I suppose... I will need to do this myself."

And with that the gunslinger leapt into battle and the tide of the fight changed.

Wyatt was carnage in human form. He moved far too quick and fast for a man and yet Mai could only watch as the bounty hunter began to rush the battlefield, attacking anyone that got in his way. Tristan let out a cry when he was hit but still managed to put up a valiant effort against the bounty hunter as he fired on him rapidly.

"Hey!" Josiah shouted, firing on Wyatt to buy Tristan a chance to get away only for the duplicate of his brother to suddenly thrust out his hand, causing a portal from the Millennium Ring to open up. he began to fire into the circle and Josiah, sensing what was about to happen, raised his shield just as Wyatt opened more portals all around him, the blasts from his Millennium Revolver coming at him in all directions. Josiah leapt and spun about, reflecting bolts of energy, but soon it began to get overwhelmed, Wyatt forming several smaller portals all in front of Josiah. The young man let out a cry as he hunkered down, holding his shield in front of him as he was slowly pushed back by the barrage that was like a Gatling gun from hell.

"We have to help," Tea said, grabbing the small orb Edwin had given her.

"That\'s for emergencies only," Yuri said even as she snagged her own orb.

"And this is an emergency!" Tea exclaimed as Wyatt began to create portals in the sky, causing the White Lightning attacks the Blue Eyes was firing out to be redirected back at it. That caused the drake to roar and try and fire back on its own blasts, which only created a feedback loop of power that saw it slowly being drained of strength.

Renard tried to move to Josiah\'s aid only for more portals to form up around him, catching the man\'s deflections and sending them at both himself and any that would try and come to try and help him. It forced Josiah to move again, weaving and ducking and blocking shots only to find them either sent back at him or fired at the others, who had to dive out of the way. That allowed Wyatt to turn towards Edwin, slowly marching towards him. Edwin was trying to pull himself from the rubble but it was clear he was having trouble.

"Right," Mai said. But rather than grab an orb like Yuri and Tea she shut her eyes and focused. \'I know you are in there... because you are me.\' She scrunched her face behind her helmet. \'That\'s what you told Edwin, right? You are me, just with more memories. But the same is true for me, isn\'t it? I am you. Just lacking the years you\'ve been around. But the power... it\'s there. I know it is.\'

Darkness surrounded her. Quiet. Empty.

\'And now I need it... to save everyone I love.\'

A sliver of light appeared.

Mai grasped it.

"Oh... yeah," she whispered, feeling like she\'d grabbed a livewire and taken the best drug bump she could. As the power of the Moon began to radiate from her form, causing the black of her ranger outfit to go pale white Tea and Yuri threw their orbs to the ground, creating twin explosions.

When Mai opened her eyes she looked down... down... down... at Wyatt.

Though her costume hid her skin she knew she was sporting the silvery runic tattoos the others said Selene had gained when she\'d tried to fight Wyatt.

She lifted up a foot the size of a car and slammed it down, grinning as the droids were reduced to scrap metal under her boot. Tea and Yuri, thanks to Lord Zedd\'s Growth Grenades, joined her in moving to destroy the droids, the three newly minted giantesses forcing Wyatt back and giving their side a chance to begin pushing once more towards the interior of the Eternal Gate. Mai marveled at the power that was flowing through her veins, the mighty of a Titan, and let out a laugh as she reached down and crushed approaching droids with the flat of her palm.

And yet, even as she did so, she knew that the battle was far from finished.

Wyatt Chaos had far more horrors in store for them.