Chapters Prologue: One's Imagination
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will, no truer words had ever been spoken by those who have taken pride and show love for what they write and draw. As I'm sure most, if not all of you readers out there have seen, there have been many stories and characters that have been brought to life through the medium of Film, Television, Video Games, and yes, even from the written word, in fact in many cases that was where it all started. And with every character brought to life, the inspiration only grew to create more, nowadays you can't pass by any shop window without seeing some popular character created by those who put in all their time and effort into making them. Over the years characters Like Bugs Bunny and Mickey mouse had taken the world by storm, inspiring many other creators to come up with their own characters and their own stories. However what creators don't realise half the time, perhaps even most of the time, is that with every stroke of the pencil or the type of the keyboard, one creates more than just a form of entertainment, they are also creating life.
…And in the world I live in that is in the literal sense.
You see I'm not what you call a "normal" guy, because I'm a character myself, oh sure, my creator is putting the words into my mouth for this Prologue but the point is that for at least this particular chapter of the story, I have the chance to go into a little detail about who I am and my role in this whole thing. But first let me tell you about the world I live in… or better yet, let me tell you about the MULTIVERSE I live in.
For me, the characters everyone has ever created are quite real, as are the worlds that were made for them. You see I'm what you readers out there call a dimensional jumper, is that the right word? Oh who cares? The point is that I have the ability to jump into any story I desire and interact with those who live in it so long as I take the form of that particular species, and believe me when I say that a good chunk of those places always had some kind of entertainment for me. And It's not just the "Canon" places I've been to, like I said before, creation inspires creation, so I took the liberty of jumping in some of the "fan-based" stories too. You name it, I've been there, I was there when Princess Twilight was coroneted in Canterlot, I was a guest at King Joffrey Baratheon's wedding, boy was THAT a nightmare. Hell, I even auditioned to be on the first Season of Total Drama, but nope, that position to that bitch, Heather! For crying out loud, she didn't even TRY with that Audition tape!
…
(Coughs) Okay, sorry about that, got a little worked up there. Anyway, let me tell you more about myself, remember when I said I wasn't a "normal" guy, well the truth is that I'm as far from normal as you can get. You know how characters like Frankenstein and Discord are all a bunch of other things all jumbled up together, well I'm a little like that, perhaps even a little bit weirder than those two combined given the fact that I'm a mash of every form of genre in existence. Confused? I would be too, so allow me to elaborate. As may already know, every story in existence is categorised in some form of genre, Action, Fantasy, Horror, all that jazz, and every body part I have represents each one. For example, my entire left arm, nothing but bones, therefore representing the Horror Genre, while my right arm is completely cybernetic, thus representing the Science-Fiction Genre. Even my clothes are all designed in the same manner, my vest were covered in Musical notes, while the two legs of my pants represented the army pants of Action and the jester bells of Comedy. As you've probably guessed, I'm an extremely weird character even by my own standards, which is probably why my creator gave me the ability to change form to blend into whatever world I'm in. And believe me when I say that REALLY helped me out, trust me, you would NOT have wanted to be around when I revealed my true form back in Geneva, that lynching mob made Frankenstein's look like a tea party.
But back on topic, now you know a little about me, what I can do and the types of places I've been to, perhaps now would be a good time to talk about something else. After all, I've pretty much summed up the purpose of the Prologue, so why don't I allow the author of this story to continue on after this? This is a tale of how one stupid mistake almost ruined everything in the realms of one's imagination, and THIS is where our story begins…
Chapter 1: The World of Genre
There are many kinds of worlds one can create with their imagination, some can be as happy and colourful as Equestria, or as dark and gritty as Freddy Kruger’s boiler room, to begin this story we shall be going to one of the darker ones, though not as horrible to look as you might think. This is the City of Aku a metropolis-based realm that is ruled by the retired, but none the less still fearful demon Aku. However it was not Aku that a certain creature had come to see, no one in any realm had any idea what his real name is, if he even HAS one, so he insisted every simply calls him G. He was not a creature like anything in any realm for he was a mash of every genre in the medium of storytelling. His right arm was cybernetic, and thus Science-Fiction, his left, bare bones of Horror, his tail, that of a stegosaurs and thus representing Historical fact, his chest pulsated with the glowing Heart of Romance, and his face was as weird and jumbled up and the Fantasy is represented, though his right eye still bore the Jolly Roger of adventure instead of a normal pupil like his left. Even the clothes this creature wore represented a genre, he wore a cowboy hat of the Westerns, a vest bedazzled with Musical notes, and finally a pair of pants that were Action-based army ants for his right leg, and a set of jester’s Comedy bells for the left. If any normal human would have seen him they would have ran away in terror, but since this living Genre could jump from one world to another, and in turn could transform into any creature to blend into said world, he had little to no fear of being discovered. Though in this particular world, g didn’t feel the need to change since everything here was just as weird as he was, even if it did focus too much of its effort on product placement with their Princess. And speaking of which…
“For the last time G, I am NOT going roller-skating, I have plans!” another figure said, never taking her eyes of her cell phone while she texted.
This was Princess Chi, daughter of Aku, out of all the inhabitants of this particular realm of creation, G seemed to like her the most, mainly because she was one of the few people he had encountered who didn’t run away or try to kill him when he accidently revealed his true form. She was a pretty 10-year-old Demon-Girl with a jet black body except for her pale white face, fiery red hair that flowed down to her knees, four black spikes protruding out of both sides of her head, and bright green eyes with black, almost gear like surroundings, her eyebrows aflame with orange fire. She may not have been the nicest of kids, but at least she found G tolerable, in many aspects she did consider him the closest thing to a friend she had.
“Oh come on Chi!” G moaned. “I’m bored! Do you have any idea how hard it is to actually get into the place!?!”
G did have a point, being the ruler of this realm, Aku had the highest security surrounding his palace. And while G was able to jump into any world he wanted, he could only arrive at a certain place in that particular realm, in this case it was in an alleyway at least three blocks away from where Chi lived, so every time he came here, he always had to avoid the guards and break into the palace every time he wanted to pay Chi a visit. Oh sure he could have just told the guards that he was a friend of the Princess…
“… But where’s the fun in that!?!” G chuckled.
G, I told you, no Fourth-Wall-Breaking!!! I gave you the Prologue, so PLEASE keep your comments to yourself!
“But…” G tried to say.
I mean it, G! We don’t want to ruin the story with constant backchat, it may work for Deadpool but nobody even know you that well yet, hell, you were only introduced in the last chapter, so…
“Okay! Okay! I get!” G snapped. “I’ll keep the Fourth-Wall stuff to a minimum, perhaps now we can get back to the story?”
Yes, lets. Okay, now where was I? Oh yeah! It was just another typical day of breaking into Aku’s palace to try and see Chi, oh sure G had no trouble doing so given his talents but on this particular day, his efforts were in vain.
“I’m sorry, G, but Mimi’s supposed to be coming over and I have plans for when she arrives.” Chi explained.
“Mimi?” G repeated, raising an eyebrow. “The quiet one?”
That was certainly one way to describe Mimi, aside from G, she was pretty much Chi’s only real friend. She was a demon the same age as Chi was, but unlike Chi was had red skin, jet black hair, fiery red eyes, two crustacean-like claws in place of hands, a long, spiked tail, and two small horns upon her head along with a gold pendant burnt into her forehead. G had met Mimi before during one of his many visits here, and to say that she was quiet was an understatement, in fact she was a stoic as stone most of the time. Mimi wasn’t what you would call “open” with her emotions, at least not vocally, never even cracked a smile any time G ever saw her. However in this case, it was clear that Chi wanted to have some alone time with her visiting friend.
“Yes, the quiet one,” Chi retorted unassumingly. “And I doubt she’ll want to see you here after what happened last time.”
“The last time, she BIT me!” G countered.
However Chi merely rolled her eyes at that.
“Well it’s your own fault for pissing her off,” she said. “Honestly there is only so much joking around a girl can take.”
Now it was G’s turn to roll his eyes, of course Chi would take Mimi’s side in the matter, she ALWAYS did. Still, G knew when he was beat, so with a heavy sigh he smiled.
“Alright,” he said. “I know when I’m not wanted, I’ll see you around okay?”
And on that final note, G then made his way towards the window.
“Yareyare,” Chi exclaimed in her Japanese language. “Can’t you EVER use the door?”
At first G looked as though he were thinking hard on the question, but in reality he knew the answer straight away.
“Hmm… nope!” he said jokingly before opening the widow and taking a swan dive outside. “WOOHOO!!!”
Upon seeing yet another one of G’s dramatic exists, Chi couldn’t help but face-palm.
“Why do I even let him in here?” she asked herself dramatically.
It wasn’t TOO much trouble escaping from Aku’s guards again, in fact at this point G was basically dancing as he dodged the flaming spears being thrown at him. Eventually G finally found himself back in the alleyway where he had arrived, having lost the guards at least an hour ago, if anything they probably gave up after the first city block just like they always do, G could only guess that it was because he had made his visits so often that the guards just couldn’t be bothered anymore. Finally finding himself alone, G looked all around him before making his next move just in case someone walked past the alley while he did what he needed to. Suddenly he thrust his cybernetic arm through the nearby wall with a forceful punch, pulling his metallic fist back, G stared in awe at the hole he had made. However this was no ordinary hole, where you would expect to find broken debris was instead a luminous purple hole that floated a couple of inches away from the brick structure.
“Ha! I never get tired of that!” G chuckled as he stretched out the rim of the vortex so that it was big enough for him to fit through, which was pretty easy since he was only about four feet tall.
As soon as he was satisfied, all it took was one quick leap and G had disappeared into the hole, which in turn disappeared from sight in bright flash afterward. Now if any bystander had been walking by the alleyway at the time, then they would have been seriously freaked out by the sudden disappearance of the strange creature, however if they jumped into the vortex with G then they would have probably passed out from shock and awe. This was one of G’s many talents of jumping through to other stories, of course he would never let anyone he ever encountered KNOW that they were merely characters in a story, if that ever happened then there would be serious consequences afterward that he really didn’t want to happen… EVER. Thus he always made sure to stay out of sight whenever he made a jump, especially if there was a risk of them seeing where he jumps to. In this case, it was a realm that he called home.
“Okay, so Chi was a bust,” he sighed as he walked through the dark halls of his home. “No problem, I still have other places I can go.”
At those words G clicked his bony fingers and in an instant the whole room was lit up in a bright light, at first it seemed like he was in an ordinary mansion, but as the living Genre continued walking up the stairs, the reality of his personal world began to form. As jumbled up as his own body was, G lived in a strange surrealistic world that looked like it was designed by M. C. Escher, not only where there many staircases, but each and every one of the went off in a different direction that defied the laws of gravity, at one point, G walked up a spiral staircase, only to come back down it again upside-down after he had learned of the edge of the top step. However as strange as the staircases were, it was the walls, or rather what was upon them that peaked G’s interest. Just like how many old mansions decorated their halls with numerous paintings, G’s halls were decorated with a great number of artwork that appeared to be moving all by themselves.
“Yo author!” G snapped.
Yes G?
“Look, I know you said NO Fourth-Wall stuff, but perhaps you should explain this in further detail so the readers don’t get confused?” G pointed out.
I was just getting to that actually. Anyway, the artwork upon G’s walls are not just your standard pieces of visual talent, to him they were the gateways to other worlds. Basically, whenever a creator writes a new story, or designs a new character for a game or cartoon, their image appears on a canvas upon the living Genre’s wall. With them he is able to watch and sometimes become a part of the story that is being told, not as a main character obviously since it would more than likely ruin the intended story the creator wanted, thus creating more consequences that G wanted to avoid. But G still liked to be part of the action, so every time there is a new story, he would slap on a new disguise to blend into the background and take a little jump, only ever interacting with the main characters if they were “off screen”. And even after the story ends, the worlds still exist, allowing the creations to live out their lives as they wanted since their intended purpose was over, which was all the better for G since then he could now have a bit more freedom in that particular realm. What made them all the better was the fact that like the branches of a tree, a great many of these ideas inspired many pieces of fan-based material, thus creating the same realm but with a different story and in many cases new characters to interact with, hell, even the crossovers were fun to be a part of in G’s Opinion, even some of the weirder ones like crossing over characters from “Frozen” and “The Walking Dead”. Of course there were always a few issues with these gateways, mainly due to what everyone likes to call “Breaking-the-Fourth-Wall”, a term in which the characters KNOW they’re in a comic or TV show…
“Like me!” G pointed out.
Not the point! This in turn caused trouble for G whenever he tried jumping into certain places, he actually lost count of how many times he had to avoid looking Deadpool in the eye whenever he passed by one of HIS artworks. However that was not going to be a problem for G today, for he had decided to take a gander at a few stories that DIDN’T have such characters in them.
“Okay, where to go…” he pondered, while scanning the wall closest to him. “I haven’t been to visit Edward Scissorhands in a while. No, wait, yes I did, I saw him yesterday!”
Suddenly a sudden flash of light erupted from the ceiling, upon seeing this a huge smile appeared upon G’s face.
“Ooh Goodie!” he squealed happily. “Another new one!”
Having a new story added to the walls always gave G the jitters, it always meant the there was a new world to visit and more characters to interact with. Jumping with excitement, he then climbed the nearest spiral staircase and dived off the springboard at the top, once again defying the laws of gravity, G then fell upward, landing on the ceiling upside down at his feet and picking himself up to take a look at the newest image.
“Okay, let’s see…” he said, looking down at the title just beneath the new picture. “Ooh another Fanfiction! Better yet, it’s another sequel! The Little Pony Legend? Wow, that series really is getting popular, you gotta love the Bronies.”
Though this particular story was interesting, G couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed for he was hoping to get some original stuff today. Granted he liked roaming through Fanfiction, hell, he loved it, but there was something about the original stuff that made his day all the better. Giving off a small shrug, G then decided to keep browsing, after climbing up and in some cases sliding down the many other stairs in his realm, finally he found the gateway that satisfied him.
“Alright!” he chuckled. “I haven’t been to the Grand Line in months, I wonder if Water 7 still has all those Water-candy shops.”
With his excitement building up inside of him, G put on a wide, toothy smile, before long he was bouncing about all over the place and singing to himself.
“Oh I LOVE musical numbers!” he squealed.
What do you expect? It’s on your vest, anyway, please carry on.
“Gladly…” G replied, clearing his throat, reading himself for his song:
This is living! This is style!
This is magical by the mile!!!
Oh the vast, vast traveling life, the traveling life for me,
Pirates in space? A cat with a mace? Whatever will I see?
Whenever I'm bored, I travel abroad, but ever so magically,
Look out! Here I come! Vast with a capital V-A-S-T, vast!
With every note sung, G couldn’t help but dance with joy, every time he went to a different realm of creation, he always felt so alive, before long he began to gather a few materials from different areas of the realm and setting them up in front of his desired image as he continued.
I’ve been to many lands, to many worlds, and to very many towns,
They say I’m weird, and to be feared, but they'll never bring me down,
Cause I’m on my way to far away, bye-bye and toodle-oo,
And fare thee well, and Bon Voyage, arrivederci too,
Oh the vast, vast traveling life, the traveling life for me,
To far off lands, could join a band, be all that I can be,
I’ve earned the trust, of the upper crust, can join the queen of tea,
Look out! Here I come! Vast with a capital V-A-S-T, vast!
With all the materials gathered, G then began assemble them into something else in front of his desired image. If anyone were witnessing this then they would have instantly became confused with the display, however as it was, it was only G still singing to himself.
In every place I go they always love to meet me,
No doubt there’s danger, it is no stranger, but the villains never beat me,
Oh they may try, until they die, or at least until I fall,
Last month I pissed off Chucky, well guess you can't win them all,
Oh the vast vast traveling life, the traveling life for me,
With every world, new truths unfurl, I never felt so free,
When I'm at the helm, and see new realms, I do it so stylishly…
At those words, G then adjusted hit hat in a suave manner. As the final words of his song drew ever near, G’s creation was finally ready, a makeshift catapult made up out of all sorts of junk, including a garbage can and several springs. Facing his creation towards his chosen image, G then hopped into the cushioned loading bucket and placed his cybernetic hand on the level. Finally the final words came.
Look out! Here I come! Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast,
With a capital V-A-S-T, V-A-S-T, V-A-S-T...
Vast!
With one quick pull G then triggered the catapult, which launched him straight forward into the image on the wall, and just like how he punched his way back from the City of Aku, another purple vortex burst into the wall and closed in another flash of light just as quickly. Now normally he could simply just punch his way through again, but in this case he seemed to feel the need for dramatic flair. Either way, now the living Genre was once again on his way to yet another adventure in the realms of creation, however little did he realise at the time, that this particular trip was one that he would soon regret taking.
The City of Water 7 was always a nice place to visit, at least during the better time of the year when Aqua Laguna didn’t flood the place. As far as everything else goes G loved coming here, in a way it was like a better version of Venice, meaning that there were water-ways and canals that were used for transportation, almost like roads, often surrounded by sidewalks on the canals. However it was mostly the food that G usually came for, particular the Water-Water candy that he had developed quite the appetite for.
“Thanks for the candy, Joe,” he said, gratefully giving the shop vender what was owed for his purchase.
“No problem G,” the shop vender replied with a smile. “You look after yourself you hear?”
Of course Joe didn’t know G really was, at this point in time G was once again donning a magical disguise in order to blend into the world he was in. In this case, he was disguised a young, tanned-skinned human with jet black hair and wore a pair of scruffy jeans, an open vest over a bare chest and a fedora hat, along with an eyepatch covering his right eye. The reason for this was because while the magic of his disguise was almost flawless, there was always a certain body part that simply refused to be hidden, in this case it was the Jolly Roger in place of his right pupil. He didn’t know WHY this always happened but one theory G had was the genre that particular body part represented was always the strongest when he was in a story that was mostly themed in that genre, thus the Adventure themed Jolly Roger would always stick out whenever he came to the “One Piece” worlds. Sometimes this little setback would usually cause him to end up being spotted through his disguise by the public, luckily after a few such incidents, G soon learnt how to take precautions, as such he would always bring an eyepatch whenever he came to Water 7. As he downed his Water-Water Candy, G couldn’t help but think that this particular day wasn’t going to be so bad, sure Chi turned down his offer, but that didn’t mean that he had to sit down and do nothing, after all he had an entire Multiverse of stories to go through, more and more appearing every day.
“Now then…” he pondered to himself. “What shall I do tomorrow?”
Meanwhile at one of the lower docks, a ship was just making port, a ship known as the Sexy Foxy, It’s Captain, the sly tactician and cheater of games, Silver Fox Foxy. Just like his name implies, he was a close to a fox and a human could get, he was a stout man with skinny arms and legs, a unique hairstyle, with his hair split into two spikes pointing upwards to look like ears, and a long pointed, red nose. He also wore a pair of orange pants held up by suspenders, along with a fur-rimmed, purple coat over a bare chest, a wardrobe choice that he was graciously proud of, though in many case he has been known to prefer a silver coat from time to time.
“Fehfefefefefe!” he laughed. “Water 7! I like this place, there is good food here.”
It was then that he was joined by another voice.
“Not only that but it’s the best place to go to resupply,” it said.
The one who spoke was Foxy’s second in command, Porche. She was a slender young woman with an hourglass figure, dark blue hair and blue eyes. She wore a pink jumpsuit with puffed pant-legs, which was unzipped on the top to reveal a bikini top beneath it, an outfit which was adorned by several large, white puff-balls, the most notable one being the one hanging from her hat. Next to her was Foxy’s second lieutenant, Hamburg, a huge gorilla-like human with tanned skin, bulky arms that bore blue, long-sleeved gloves, and a leopard patterned scarf. They may have been different in looks but what these two had in common was the fact that both of them were severely loyal to their Captain, Foxy, a fact that was clearly shown by both of them wearing the standard Foxy Pirate Mask that was required by all members of the crew upon joining.
“Ready the crew Porche,” Foxy ordered. “I want the ship resupplied by sunset!”
“Sure thing Boss,” Porche replied gleefully, before turning around and calling towards the rest of the crew. “Okay boys, you know the plan! We are here to resupply only, so NO roughhousing! Remember this is one of the few Cities that allow Pirates and we don’t want to overstay our welcome okay?”
“Aye-Aye!” the crowd cheered.
At those words, at least half the entire crew walked down the gangplank and began making their way into the streets of Water 7. However before they joined they’re comrades, Foxy wanted to have a word with Porche and Hamburg first.
“And you two remember YOUR assignment, correct?” he asked them, receiving a nod from both pirates in response. “While the others resupply the ship, you know go ashore and pick up some new ‘recruits’ for the crew. Remember, Davy Back Fights may be fun, but it is also nice to snatch a few just to spice a few things up.”
“You can count on us Boss!” Porche replied, happily giving him a salute.
“No problem!” Hamburg added.
However that particular task was not as easy as Porche and Hamburg first thought, after about an hour of searching the city, neither one of them found any potential candidate that Foxy would consider worthy members of the crew.
“This sucks!” Porche moaned. “We’ve been traipsing this whole darn city for ages and we STILL can’t find anyone worth recruiting.”
“Yeah Pupupupupupu,” Hamburg chuckled in response, as usual he found something to laugh about even in the worst conditions.
“This isn’t a laughing matter!” Porche snapped angrily. “If we go back to the ship empty-handed then the Boss is gonna…”
Suddenly Porche found herself cut off mid-sentence by a loud noise coming from the alley behind them.
“What the…?” she said with a raised eyebrow, quickly passing by Hamburg to take a peek into the alley.
Peering their heads around the corner, both Hamburg and Porche’s eye widened upon seeing the circumstances happening in the alley. There, with his back up against the wall was a short, tanned-skinned man with a glare in his left eye and his hand covering his right. What he was glaring at were a pair of brutish looking thugs wearing tank-tops and both brandishing a knife in their hands, both of whom seemed to be sneering at the man named G with a sinister grin.
“Dude, did you check out this guy’s eye?” one of them mocked. “What a freak!”
However G merely growled in response.
“I’m warning you two right here and now…” he snarled. “Just walk away!”
However the thugs merely laughed at that.
“Oh yeah,” the second thug retorted. “And what are you gonna do about it shorty?”
That was a big mistake on the thug’s part, the only other part of G’s magical disguise was always seemed to be a problem was the fact that no matter what form he takes, he still remains only four feet tall, thus making him a subject of ridicule. Needless to say, G’s anger built up so much upon hearing that remark that he felt like he was going to pop a blood vessel. Watching everything from the side-lines, both Porche and Hamburg couldn’t help but feel intrigued.
“Well this certainly took and interesting turn,” Porche commented.
“Mini-man pancake,” Hamburg chuckled in addition. “Pupupupupupu.”
However Hamburg’s giggles soon became silent, the reason being the fact that he and Porche had just witnessed something extraordinary. Within moment of his insult, G had jumped at least four feet into the air and delivered a double-uppercut kick to both the thugs’ chins, sending them flying back into the wall behind them.
“Whoa,” Porche exclaimed, impressed by the strange man’s amazing feat of agility. “He’s good,”
Meanwhile, while one thug was knocked out from the kick, the second thug looked back at the strange man with a fierce glare.
“You’re gonna pay for that!” he snapped, holding up his knife.
However G remained unfazed by the thug’s words, in fact upon hearing them he merely chuckled.
“Have you ever heard of the Face of Horror boy?” he said, instantly confusing the thug along with the two pirates watching the whole thing. “Well here is the HAND of horror!”
At those words, G raised his left hand, it’s flesh suddenly melting away like butter to reveal nothing but bone. Upon seeing this the thug dropped hi knife and back up against the wall, his whole body trembling with fear. Needless to say, the whole display was catching Porche and Hamburg by surprise too.
“Hamburg, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Porche gasped.
“Yep,” Hamburg gulped in response.
G’s skeletal, claw-like hand had to have been merely a few inched away from the thug’s face at this point, his face sweating with terror as he looked into the glowing Jolly Roger in G’s eye.
“Now be a good boy…” G mocked, his voice suddenly turning deep and resonating with ghostly echoes. “… AND GIVE ME YOUR SOUL!!!”
With that the Thug then wet himself and screamed like a ten-year-old girl, it didn’t even take him more than a few seconds for him to run out of the alley with his tail between his legs… right into Hamburg’s waiting club. As it turned out, while the whole situation may have been terrifying to even witness, Porche’s ambition outweighed her fear and she saw this a great opportunity. Once both she and Hamburg were sure that the thug was out cold, they once again turned their attention towards G, who at this point was re-donning his disguise on his skeletal hand.
“Ha! Works every time,” he snickered, his gaze searching the ground for his missing eyepatch. “Now I better get out of here before…”
“FLOWER HYPNOSIS!”
Those were the last word G ever heard before he suddenly felt all woozy, within moment the living Genre soon found himself falling face-first to the ground. As the two pirates stood over the unconscious form of their catch, both Porche and Hamburg couldn’t help but smile with delight.
“Well, the Boss is certainly going to be pleased to meet you,” Porche commented with a smirk.
“No doubt about it,” Hamburg added. “Pupupupupupupu.”
However the reaction they received when they got back to the ship was far less positive than what they were hoping for.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!” Foxy snapped angrily, peering down at the less than impressive catch that Hamburg had set on the deck beneath his feet.
“Oh Boss, please let us explain…” Porche tried to say, only to be cut off by Foxy’s angry voice again.
“Explain what, Porche!?!” he retorted. “I need STRONG recruits for my crew, and this whelp looks like he can’t even lift a spoon.”
Porche sighed at that, even she had to admit that from a first glance, G didn’t look like much, from a distance he probably looked more like a kid than an adult. However Porche was NOT going to give up so easily.
“But Boss, we think he might have Devil Fruit Powers,” she argued.
“Yeah, check out his right eye,” Hamburg added in the same nervous manner.
Foxy raised an eyebrow at that, curious as to what his two lieutenants are talking about he then kneeled down and opened up G’s right eye, much to his surprise, in place of a pupil, he found a red Jolly Roger on a blanket of light green where it should be white. Seeing this, Foxy’s expression changed from an angry scowl to an intrigued smile, it’s not every day that he sees something like this, so perhaps there was some truth to what Porche and Hamburg was telling him.
“Hmm, perhaps he could be useful after all,” he thought allowed, much to Porche and Hamburg’s delight.
“What shall we do with him Boss?” Hamburg asked eagerly.
“We shall put him in the brig for now,” Foxy answered, rising to his feet. “Perhaps a few days at sea might make him a bit more compliant to our request.”
At those words Porche and Hamburg beamed at their Captain, glad that he had finally considered their catch worth the effort.
“Oh Boss, that’s brilliant!” Porche replied happily.
However while Foxy and his crew cheered in celebration, they all failed to notice the grin spreading across G’s face as he stood up and dusted himself off.
“Yeah… sorry to tell you this but I’m not planning on sticking around,” he said, his usual toothy grin spreading across his face.
Needless to say, the sudden awaking of the strange young man shocked all of the pirates on deck.
“What the…!?!” Porche gasped.
“I thought you said he was knocked out!” Foxy snapped angrily.
“He was, Boss! I swear!” Porche pleaded, clearly confused at what was going on.
What Porche, nor anyone else for that matter, failed to realise, was the fact while Porche’s attack would have easily knocked anyone out for as long as she needed to, G, even while disguised, has somewhat of an immunity against such things. Sure he was knocked out for the first 10 minutes, but the truth of the matter is that he had been awake long before Hamburg had dumped him on the Sexy Foxy. Sure it was risky, perhaps even stupid to allow the pirates to take them, but in G’s opinion it was also a chance to have some fun.
“Oh come now Sweet-cheeks,” he said playfully. “If you wanted me so badly, all you had to do was ask. Perhaps we can go on a date sometime, eh?”
At those words Porche couldn’t help but cringe as G winked at her, granted she was used to being admired by many men on her own crew, but there was just something about this particular person that made her want to run for the hills with every suave word that came out of his mouth.
“Alright, enough banter!” Foxy snapped, once again bringing focus to the conversation. “Do you have any idea who I am, boy!?!”
Indeed he DID know him, after all it was in G’s nature to know the name and backstory of every character of the stories he travels to. If any normal human had this ability they would had been driven mad with so much information, but to G’s credit, not only was he not human, but chances are he was already slightly insane. And thanks to all the information he had of Silver Fox Foxy, G knew exactly what to say next to get out of this situation.
“Yeah, I know you…” he said, his large grin growing ever more so across his face. “You’re that Split-Brain who couldn’t even win a fight against a kid!”
Sure enough, just as G expected, Foxy’s sensitive ego caused him to go wide-eyed with despair, finally forcing him to his hands and knees in a slump of depression.
“He called me Split-Brain,” he sobbed, dramatically. “I swear I’m gonna cry.”
Then right on cue, as g had expected, Porche rushed to her Captain’s side to comfort him, all the while Hamburg giggled to himself.
“Oh Boss, don’t listen to him,” Porche pleaded, patting her Captain’s back. “He’s just being mean.”
“Actually, I think he was right on the money,” Hamburg comment sly, placing a hand over his mouth to stifle the giggles. “Pupupupupupu.”
“Shut up Hamburg!” Porche snapped angrily.
This was the chance G needed, while all the pirates were distracted by their Captain’s dramatic depression, he knew that this was the exact moment to escape.
“Well, hate to insult and run…” he said, suddenly grabbing everyone’s attention. “Oh who am I Kidding? It’s what I live for! Sayonara Losers!”
Suddenly, just as everyone turned their heads towards him, G then jumped 10 feet into the air and over the edge of the railing, before anyone even knew it, G had jumped clean off the Silver Foxy and back onto the port below before dashing back towards the city. Needless to say, Foxy was truly ticked about that sudden form of trickery.
“Get after him!” he shouted angrily. “I want his head on a spike!!!”
“Aye-Aye Boss!” his crew cried in response.
In a matter of moments, almost the entire crew had jumped ship and began flooding into the city after G. However Foxy had two particular pirates stay behind.
“Porche, Hamburg, do you remember where you found that runt?” he asked.
At first both of them seemed confused upon hearing the question but indulged their Captain none the less.
“Yeah Boss,” Porche answered. “Why?”
Hearing this Foxy’s sly grin returned to his face.
“Well if my theory is correct then chances are that he will probably return to that area,” he explained. “Perhaps he lives there or was meeting someone, either way it’s worth a look.”
Both Porche and Hamburg couldn’t help but smile at that.
“Oh Boss, You’re a genius!” Porche said happily.
And just as anyone would come to expect, Foxy’s ego caused him to put on a smug face upon hearing that.
“Yeah, I know,” he said with a smirk
It took about another hour before G managed to lose the Foxy pirates perusing him, luckily he has been exposed and chased so many time that he always managed to find a way to avoid capture. In this case all it took was a little dive into the canal and some navigating to make his way back to where he was taken. Finally after what felt like ages, G finally broke out of the water and climbed out onto the street.
“Finally!” he gasped. “I thought I’d never lose them!”
It was only lucky that G was able to hold his breath for so long, if there was one thing that his mismatched body could have used it was gills.
“I blame YOU for that!” G commented.
Silence while the author is talking, please! Now where was I? Oh yes, after G shook himself dry, he then made his way back into the alley where he had encountered the thugs, both have whom had regained consciousness and have long since gone. However what G failed to realise at the time, was while the thugs may be gone, he was FAR from safe. Peering over the edge of the nearby roof, eyeing their target with fierce determination was none other than the trio of pirates led by Foxy.
“See?” Foxy said smugly. “What did I tell you?”
“Once again Boss, you’re the best!” Porche replied gleefully, happy in the knowledge that today wasn’t going to end up so bad after all.
With G in his sights, Foxy glared down with his sly grin, a terrible punishment brewing up in his head for the one who made a fool out of him.
“The fool,” he snarled with a sneer. “He’s only got himself cornered
“Trapped like a rat,” Hamburg added, stifling a giggle. “Pupupupupupu.”
While it may have been true that the alley he was in did in fact end with a brick wall, and thus a dead-end, G didn’ seem phased in the slightest. Before he made his next move he then looked back out of the alley to once again make sure no one was going to watch what happened next. However G’s big mistake was the fact he didn’t look up, if he had then he would have spotted Foxy, Porche and Hamburg readying themselves to strike from above. Confident he was alone, G then gave the pirates the biggest surprise of their lives and shed away his disguise. Like melting butter sliding off a piece of toast, G’s human form oozed away, leaving his true mismatched body in its place, needless to say all three of the Foxy Pirates’ jaws dropped upon seeing this.
“What the hell!?!” Foxy gasped.
“What the heck is he?” Hamburg added, sharing the same dumbfounded look his Captain had.
This was indeed a good question, at least for those who didn’t know that they were in fact characters in a story. But confusion aside, a more important question remained, just what was this creature doing now? Suddenly, just like he did in the City of Aku, he then thrust his cybernetic arm through the nearby wall with a forceful punch, and after pulling his metallic fist back, he smiled upon seeing the portal home.
“Whoa!” Porche gasped, completely amazed at what she was seeing.
Foxy on the other hand managed to get over his awe long enough to realise that whatever was going on, it meant that this creature was severely close to being lost forever, and Foxy was not going to let such a catch slip through his fingers so easily.
“We can’t let that freak escape!” he declared, quickly standing up and readying his fingers for his special technique. “SLOW-SLOW BEAM!!!”
At those words, Foxy’s Devi Fruit Power activated, as such rings of pink light burst from Foxy’s fingers and headed straight towards G as he entered the portal. However G proved to be either too quick, or perhaps the beams were too slow, either way, they missed G completely and hit the portal itself instead. Of course G didn’t realise what had happened in the slightest since he never bothered to look behind him, in fact he had just assumed the portal closed just as quickly as it normally would, however thanks to Foxy’s power it remained open due to losing its original speed because like G it was bound to the laws of physics of the particular world it was in. Though dismayed that he didn’t get to hit G with his Devil Fruit Powers, Foxy was stilled determined to catch the strange creature, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise of the idea that had entered his mind next.
“Hurry! Before it closes!” he shouted.
Though clearly confused at Foxy’s request, Porche and Hamburg followed his command regardless. After both Foxy and Porche had jumped onto his back, Hamburg then jumped off the roof and ran towards to portal, which was slowly beginning to pick up velocity again, luckily due to his size, Hamburg wasn’t really hurt and picked up plenty of speed during his dash, at least enough to jump through the portal just as Foxy’s beam wore off. But where they ended up next would have never have crossed their minds in a million years.
To say that the three pirates made it just by a hair would have been quiet accurate given the fact that the closing portal almost took a piece of Porche’s head clean off as it swiftly closed, luckily it was a narrow escape and only the tip of her long hair was sliced instead. Once the initial shock of the whole ordeal had finally passed, Porche and Hamburg looked over their new surroundings, their eyes completely wide upon seeing the number of staircases that defied the laws of gravity. Suddenly their gaze turned to their Captain, who at this point was standing with his arms crossed and a large grin spread across his face.
“Um… Boss?” Hamburg said nervously.
“Where are we?” Porche asked, sharing in Hamburg’s fear.
At those words Foxy then turned towards his two crewmates, his eyes filled with delight upon realising what a great find this was.
“I don’t know,” he said flatly. “But wherever we are, one thing is for sure. This day has suddenly became… interesting.”
Chapter 3: Tearing Down Walls
As Foxy, Porche and Hamburg wondered around aimlessly through the endless series of staircases, all three of them were all at once completely filled with questions. Where we they? How will they get back? CAN they get back? And more importantly just where and what was the creature that led them here? However while Porche and Hamburg both shared looks of fear, Foxy on the other hand seemed to be enjoying himself.
“Fehfefefefefe! Can you believe this shipmates!” he laughed. “Not only did we find a potential new crewmate, but he’s led us to his very home! Perhaps there are more just like him.”
“Uh… I don’t know boss, it looks weird here,” Porche said nervously, much to Foxy’s chagrin. “Plus we don’t even know where HERE is, or even if we can get back.”
Foxy rolled his eyes at that.
“There is nothing to fear Porche,” he said reassuringly. “As soon as we find that weirdo, then it’s just a matter of catching him and forcing him to spill all his secrets.”
Though their Captain’s idea was pretty straight forward there was still the issue of actually FINDING the creature in this maze of staircases, which was no easy task, given the fact that they had absolutely no idea whether they were going up or down each staircase. As they continued to walk, all three pirates couldn’t help but take notice of all the images on the walls, all of them different and strange in their own way, they may have been unaware of their true nature but they seem to catch the Foxy Pirates’ interest regardless. That is until one of the Deadpool images begin banging his fist against the images, attempting to break out during one of his Fourth-Wall moments.
“Hey Beautiful!” Deadpool’s image cried. “How about coming over here and hanging out with a REAL man!?!”
Upon seeing this Porche couldn’t help but squeal in fright and run away from the image.
“Geez, why am I being hit on by all the weirdos today!?!” she moaned.
“Quiet Porche!” Foxy snapped. “I think we’re getting close.”
At first, neither Porche nor Hamburg had any idea what foxy was talking about, however upon seeing where he was pointing, they began to understand. At the top of the stairs they were climbing was a corridor that began with a right angle turn, a corridor that seemed to be emanating a luminous light that seemed to be from a candle, however it was the shadow being cast within it that was catching the pirate’s attention, a shadow belonging to none other than G himself.
“We got him now,” Hamburg giggled. “Pupupupupupu.”
“Quiet Hamburg!” Foxy snapped in a quiet whispered. “Do you want to give us away!?!”
Hamburg turned silent at that.
“Sorry Boss,” he said sheepishly.
Following their Captain’s lead, all three Foxy Pirates then started slowly making their way up the stairs, with every step they took, they made sure not to make another sound in case their target caught wind of their presence. However that was when the shadow disappeared from sight, indicating that he had moved from where he was, seeing this Foxy and his two comrades hastened their pace and speed up into a small run. As they reached the end of the stairs and turned the corner, they were sure that they would at least get a better glimpse of their target, only to find an empty room when they arrived.
“Damn it!” Foxy snapped angrily. “We lost him!”
This was indeed true, apart from the three pirates there was absolutely no sign of life inside the room they had entered. However despite this little setback, the room itself seemed to perk Foxy’s interest due to the fact that it was somewhat different to the rest of the place. To be more precise, it was a massive round room that actually kept its own law of gravity, meaning there wasn’t a single staircase in sight despite its size, and unlike the rest of the area, there were no pictures on the walls, instead they were lined several tall filing cabinets that reached as high as the mile high ceiling. The only other piece of furniture was a small work desk in the centre of the room, upon it were several pieces of paper and a candle that served as the only source of light. With Curiosity getting the better of them, Foxy and his two comrades approached the table.
“What’s this?” He thought aloud, picking up one of the piece of paper.
As Foxy examined the writing, most likely done by the very creature he and his crewmates were looking for, his eyes widened with awe upon seeing what it was describing. What Foxy held in his hands were none other than a detailed record of what had happened upon the Silver Foxy before he and the others gave chase, along with some information about what happened beforehand. Placing down the piece of paper and picking up another one to read, Foxy’s interests peeked, much like the last one this paper had a detailed description of what the creature has done the previous day, only this one seemed to have a different set of events, some of which shouldn’t be possible even on the Grand Line. Suddenly upon seeing the small photo paper-clipped to the paper, Foxy’s mind suddenly began to make sense of everything, mainly due to the fact that he had just seen the very same image speaking to Porche a short while ago.
“I see,” Foxy finally said, his gaze suddenly turning back to the tall filing cabinets around him. “This must be some kind of filing room.”
“A LARGE filing room,” Hamburg commented.
“But to file what exactly?” Porche asked, raising an eyebrow.
Foxy scratched his chin at that.
“It seems to me that these papers are a written record of all those images outside,” he explained. “Every image on those walls was given hand written notes, based on locations, characters, and all sorts!”
Neither Porche nor Hamburg really understood what their Captain was saying, but none the less they tried their hardest to do so as they too looked over the papers on the desk.
“Check out this one,” Porche said, before reading aloud. “It’s called… What a Dinosaucerific Experience. A decent story as far as Crossovers go, but I always prefer a different blend if you know what I mean.”
“It’s like this guy is writing review for a book or something,” Hamburg commented with a goofy grin.
At those words Foxy once again began to think. Why did this creature write such a thing in his notes? Now that he looked at the others again, he noticed that all of them were written in the same way. Perhaps to him that’s what all these worlds are, stories that need to be told, perhaps he thought of himself a god or something traveling between each one. With the gears turning in his head, Foxy once again grinned.
“Well perhaps OUR story is about to get an interesting twist,” he said.
Both Porche and Hamburg scratched their heads at that.
“What do you mean Boss?” Porche asked curiously.
“We wanted crewmembers did we not?” Foxy responded smugly. “Well, now we have an entire arsenal of them, and we get to take our pick of the biggest and baddest of the lot!”
However that explanation didn’t seem to go through Porche and Hamburg’s heads as easily as Foxy hoped since both of them only looked back at him with a dumbfounded look, after a dramatic face-palm, foxy then decided to emphasise.
“The Pictures on those walls!” he snapped. “They’re obviously portals to other worlds, how else do you explain how we got here!?!”
At first Porche was about to retort, however she couldn’t think of an alternative answer, thus she decided to let her Captain finish speaking.
“Think about it,” Foxy continued. “We came here by following that creature through some weird portal, after which we arrived in an entire gallery, therefore it only stands to reason that we came here through one of them. And if we came HERE through one of those pictures, then we can go to other worlds the very same way, and by doing so we can find the greatest candidates for crewmembers to bring back with us. Heck, we could build an entire armada if we like!”
As crazy as that plan sounded, to Porche and Hamburg it seemed to be one of Foxy’s greatest ideas yet, the facts seem plausible and needless to say both of their curiosity’s perked upon the initiative.
“And perhaps these notes might give us an inkling of who to look for?” Porche queried, causing Foxy’s grin to spread even wider.
“Exactly!” he replied with smirk. “So what do you say my friends? Shall we create the greatest pirate crew or what?”
However before either pirate could respond, another voice echoed above their heads.
“That DOES sound like an interesting idea,” it said. “However I’m afraid you three won’t be able to get the chance to get it past the planning stages.”
Upon hearing that, all three pirates looked up to see something drop down from the ceiling. Startled upon this sudden occurrence, all three of them scrambled to get out of the way, and just in the nick of time since whatever it was, came crashing down onto the desk, smashing it into splinters and creating a crater in the floor. When the dust finally settled, Foxy and his two crewmates once again found themselves face to face with their target, only this time G was wearing his REAL face.
“Didn’t anyone tell you that it was rude to enter someone’s home without permission?” the living Genre said playfully, though still keeping a stern glare.
However still in shock from the sudden drop, Foxy could only utter a single word.
“YOU!!!” he growled.
“ME!!!” G yelled in response, mainly just because he found it fun to mock Foxy even further. “Okay now that we’ve got that out of the way… HOW IN THE HELL DID YOU THREE GET INTO MY HOUSE!?!”
Needless to say the sudden raise of volume startled the three pirates, especially since it was so loud that G’s voice blew all three of them up against one of the filing cabinets. After quickly getting over yet another shock, Foxy couldn’t help but chuckle.
“It’s quite simple my boy,” he said, trying desperately to force back his laughter and pointing towards G accusingly. “YOU led us right to the front door!”
At first G was going to retort with another snarky remark, however no that he thought about it, the more Foxy’s answer seemed to make sense, which in turn meant that he had officially screwed up big-time.
“Oh… bugger,” he said embarrassedly, not really knowing else what else to say.
Seeing that their enemy has been dumbfounded by the sudden realisation, both Porche and Hamburg decided to pour some salt into the wound and gloat at G’s expense.
“And now your mistake is gonna cost you dearly,” Porche said slyly.
“Time to pay the piper, freak,” Hamburg added. “Pupupupupupupu.”
That was when G really began to lose his temper, it was bad enough that these three have found a way to follow him back to his own home, rummaged through his things, and now they’re making things all the worse by insulting him!?! At this point he was becoming so angry that fire was literally spurting from his nostrils.
“Well you three seem to be forgetting one thing,” he growled, his eyes suddenly glowing red from his fury, which in turn started to scare the three pirates. “You’re in MY world now, and here… I’M the Captain!!!”
With those final words, G inhales a deep breath and released a large stream of blue fire from his mouth. In a fit of panic, all three pirates ducked from the flames and made a break for it back down the stairs, after which G quickly gave chase. True it was a stupid idea on G’s part but his fury did have the habit of clouding his judgement at times, even if these three were characters he needed to put back in their own world, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t rough them up a bit first, and thanks to the Fantasy-based dragon fire he possessed, he had the ability to do so.
“When I get my hands on you three, I’m gonna make you wish you never came here!!!” he screamed as he chased the three pirates through the series of staircases that made up his home.
With every twist and turn all three pirates grew more and more scared, especially now that G seemed to be moving the gravity-defying staircase to lead back to him. Finally things became so frustrating for Foxy and all of a sudden he stopped and turned to face his pursuer.
“What the heck am I running for!?!” he snarled. “I’m Silver Fox Foxy, what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine as well! And I ain’t gonna be pushed around by some four-foot freak in a hat!”
At those words Foxy then readied himself and raised his fingers in his signature pose.
“SLOW-SLOW BEAM!!!” he screamed.
At those words, Foxy’s Devil Fruit Power activated and once again the pink light burst from his fingers, only this time it hit it’s intended target. Before G could get three feet from Foxy and let out another stream of fire, he found himself getting caught in the pirate’s attack and floating in the air during mid-jump in slow-motion. Upon seeing their Captain’s accomplishment, Porch and Hamburg finally stopped themselves and decided to join in on the action.
“Fehfefefefefefefefe!!!” Foxy laughed. “Not so tough now, are ya? Hamburg, time for some batting practise!”
Hamburg grinned evilly at that, after which he then pulled out one of his iron clubs out of his pants and quickly readied himself for a massive swing.
“Pupupupupupu, batter up!” he chuckled.
Those were the last words G heard before Hamburg’s club impacted with the side of his body, of course thanks to Foxy’s Devil Fruit Powers it didn’t really effect G’s floating form at first, all of a sudden his 30 seconds were up and g quickly regain his velocity. In a matter of seconds G was sent flying across the vast amount of staircases, straight into one of the walls, causing damge to both the wall and G’s body and pride.
“Okay,” G groaned. “Guess I should have seen that one coming.”
Upon saying that, G then slid down the wall and collapsed onto the floor beneath him.
“You... are so… gonna pay for…” G tried to say before being cut off midsentence by a loud crack from behind him.
Turning his head towards the noise, G gasped in horror upon seeing what had happened to the wall. Upon the very spot where his body had made impact with the wall was a large fissure, one of which that seemed to be continuing to crack along the very stone and spreading to every wall it was connected to. As each crack grew longer and longer, a luminous purple glow emanated from each of its depths, soon enough each crack, no matter how small soon began to spread across the images themselves.
“You idiots!” G screamed fearfully as each of his precious windows into new worlds began to fall victim to the fractures. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!”
As it turned out, the walls where the pictures had been placed were what was known as the walls of creation, a strong yet sensitive barrier between each image specifically made so that no story or character ever merges with any that wasn’t intended to be a crossover. A wall that at this very moment had been damaged by the sudden impact G had caused when Hamburg had attacked him, and getting worse by the second, and what’s worse, G knew for a fact that each story the crack had touched would be affected in such terrible ways.
One of the realms in particular was none other than a magical land known as Equestria, though no one had noticed at first, the small crack in the wall of a certain Crystal Castle, a wall that served as the structure for a certain young Alicorn’s bedroom.
“Oh come on, mom,” the little filly pleaded. “Just a little longer.”
This was Nyx, a sweet Alicorn Filly with a regal black coat, a long, rich purple mane and tail, the mane topped with a light-green hairband, and a pair of deep green eyes like-catlike pupils. She also had an image of a night-blue kite shield upon her flank, thus being her Cutie Mark, a trait which many ponies like her share, though of course with a different image for each one.
“Now Nyx,” said another, older Alicorn who had just entered the room. “I now you love this book but you know you have school tomorrow, and you know how upset Miss Cheerilee would be if you accidently slept in again.”
This was of course, Nyx’s mother, Twilight Sparkle. She was a beautiful purple Alicorn with a lavender coat, a straight, dark purple mane with lighter purple highlights, along with a loving smile that always gave her daughter the encouragement she needed to succeed in her day to day life. Of course Nyx was only her adoptive daughter, but regardless she still loved her as her own, especially after everything they both went through during the first few months after they first met, but that is another story altogether. In THIS story however, Nyx was once again in a bit of bother during the late hours of a Sunday evening, specifically her need to finish her favourite book. Nyx always loved to read, a trait that she gladly shared with Twilight, however in this particular case it was getting in the way of allowing her to get a decent night’s sleep before she went to school in the morning, and Celestia knows how much her teacher was going to be cross with her if she was late for a third time for the same reason.
“I don’t have that much more to go,” Nyx said desperately. “Come on, just one more page?”
“I said no, Nyx,” Twilight said sternly, though still keeping her smile. “Come on, go to sleep.”
Sighing with defeat, Nyx based a mark upon the page she was on, close the book and placed it upon her bedside table, before curling up beneath the covers. However even though she knew that this was for her own good, Twilight still couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy for her daughter, after all she has been guilty of enjoying a good book too much herself, therefore she walked up towards the bed and gave the little filly a kiss upon the forehead.
“We can finish the book tomorrow, okay?” she said sweetly, reassuring the young filly. “Goodnight Nyx.”
“Goodnight Mom,” Nyx replied with her own smile, before closing her eyes to drift off to sleep.
However as sweet as the moment was, that was when tragedy struck. Just as Twilight had turned away to walk out of the bedroom door, a loud crack began to echo from behind Nyx’s bed. Turning their heads towards the noise, both Alicorn’s were shocked to see a luminous purple crack etching its way across the wall, eventually causing the very wall to split in two. As both mother and daughter gasped in horror at the sight before them, both of them tried to back away from the gaping void in Nyx’s wall, however since the young filly was closer to the luminous crack, she was the more unfortunate one. Within seconds, a sudden gust of wind began to burst from the crack and suck everything in that was close enough to it, and unfortunately that meant it had a grip on Nyx too.
“MOM!!!” the poor filly screamed tearfully as she tried desperately to hang onto her bedpost for dear life.
Naturally Twilight’s first instinct was to save her daughter, no matter the cost, however with the force of the wind pulling harder and harder, Nyx was quickly losing her grip. Despite her struggle against the wind, Twilight tried desperately to walk towards Nyx whilst also avoiding getting swept up herself, soon enough she was only a few inches away from her daughter. She was just about to grab her daughter’s hoof and pull her back toward her but it was too late, Nyx had lost her grip on the bedpost and was sucked into the void. Before Twilight could do anything else, the crack had sealed itself as quickly as it opened and Nyx, her sweet little girl, was gone.
“NYX!!!!” Twilight screamed, tears streaming down her face with terror for her filly.
Meanwhile across the plains of creation, the same thing was happening to every other realm. To be more precise, whilst carrying out their Master Shredder’s orders to obtain some less than legal materials from the docks of New York, three mutated humans were met with the same strange crack in the concrete beneath their feat.
“Bebop! Rocksteady!” yelled the large skeletal wolf, who was in fact the leader of the operation. “Check this out!”
At those words, the second mutant, a skinny warthog with a purple Mohawk and energy lines fused into his skin growled with anger.
“Dang it Zombie-wolf, I told you my name is not Bebop!” he snapped, earning himself a snarl from the large beast.
“I don’t care if your name is Porky Pig!” he growled. “And it’s commander Rahzar to you!”
Hearing this the large rhino mutant wearing army pants and golden spikes in his shoulders couldn’t help but smirk.
“I see you have taken pride in your new name, da?” he said in his Russian accent.
At those words Rahzar once again growled.
“Don’t push your luck!” he said. “I may be a mutant for now, but I’ll be human again one day. Now both of you get your hides over here and look at this!”
Not wanting to push Rahzar’s anger any further, both mutants rushed toward the wolf and looked down at the crack.
“What do you make of it?” Rahzar asked.
“Beats me, yo,” Bebop responded, analysing the crack through his visor. “I never seen a reading this this before.”
“Whatever strange crack is, it seems to be growing.” Rocksteady added, taking notice of what the strange purple glow was doing.
Suddenly, before either mutant could say another word, the crack had split open revealing a large swirling vortex in the middle of the concrete, and just like what happened in Equestria, a burst of wind began to suck up everything near it, in this case it was the three mutants.
“What the…!?!” Rahzar yelped before being the first to fall through.
“Not good, yo!” Bebop screamed as he hung onto Rocksteady for dear life.
“Hold me close comrade!” Rocksteady cried reassuringly, trying desperately to keep his cohort from being sucked in.
However his efforts were in vain, within moments all three mutants had been sucked into the vortex and the crack had sealed itself behind them.
And much like the other realms, the City of Aku too fell victim to the damaged walls of creation. Here Chi was desperately trying to hang onto Mimi’s spiked tail whilst anchoring herself to her bedroom door to stop her from being sucked into the vortex that had burst into her ceiling.
“HANG ON MIMI!!!” Chi screamed.
However all it took was a crappy door handle to snap off the door and both Chi and Mimi were too sucked into the portal before it sealed itself back into a small crack.
This chain events continued throughout the entirety of all creation, and while many of cracks had already began to repair themselves as per the magical failsafe within the very stone, the damage has already been done, and G’s home had been desecrated to an extent that every idea in existence had been affected. With angry fire once again spurting out of his nostrils, G then turned back towards Foxy and his goons, who merely watched everything that was happening from a few staircase away.
“Do you have any idea, what you three have done!?!” he screamed, the purple light glowing ever brighter behind him. “The walls of creation have cracked! Everything’s seeping into…”
However G never got to finish his sentence, because much like every other world the crack had affected, G’s HQ was no exception, and at this point G was the only one who stood too close.
“WAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” he screamed before being sucked up into the original fracture.
He may have tried to fight it, even hung onto the edges to keep himself from being evicted from his home, but even they began to break apart. Before long, G had disappeared into the purple light and the fracture began to repair itself, however not without leaving any residual damage in the form of a few noticeable slivers along every wall, which in turn meant that whatever had happened was not going to be fixed without help. However the only creature in existence who even had any knowledge of how to do so had just been sent to who knows where.
“Porche, Hamburg, let’s head back to the filing room,” Foxy said, forcibly brushing off what had just happened. “We got us some recruiting to do.”
It certainly was a complete disaster, Foxy and his two cronies had taken control of G’s home, and thus every piece of information he had on every world he had ever seen and experienced, and what’s worse G, wasn’t even there to stop them. However it wasn’t just G’s home that had suffered, for now many characters from different stories had now been sucked up into the cracks in the walls of creation, and thus have been forced into others before the cracks had sealed themselves. One such unfortunate was none other than a helpless Alicorn filly, aimlessly wandering about on an empty street during the cold night.
“Hello?” Nyx whimpered fearfully. “Is anyone here?”
But there was no sign of life anywhere, the only sounds Nyx could here onto that empty street were cats screeching in the alleys and the cold wind whistling through her ears. Needless to say she was terrified, granted she wasn’t the bravest of fillies even back home but being lost in a strange place in the middle of the night would put even the bravest of people on edge, especially if they were all alone. With only the dim light of the rows of street lamps as her sole source of illumination, Nyx was becoming more scared by the minute, first she was sucked out of her bedroom by a strange glowing crack in her wall, after which she was chucked out into a strange place, straight into a garbage can, by very same crack, and now she was lost and frightened out of her mind. At this point all she could do was wonder around aimlessly through the streets near a local park hoping to find someone who could help her, suddenly her ears perked up upon hearing a rustling from the bush next to her.
“Hello?” she said, nervously turning her head towards the bush. “Is… is someone there?”
Suddenly whoever it was came out of the bush, however it was NOT someone who was willing to help. Much to Nyx’s horror, a large Irish Wolfhound had emerged from the foliage of the bush, his jaws dripping with saliva as he eyed the shivering filly, which to him looked little more than live prey.
“N…nice doggy,” Nyx whimpered, her eyes beginning to well up with tears as she tried to calm the large dog down. “Now I’m sure we can work something out.”
However Nyx was certainly not as good with animals as her Auntie Fluttershy was and this dog was obviously in no mood to talk. Within moments, Nyx turned and ran, after which the dog gave chase. As the ferocious Wolfhound chased her down the pavement, all Nyx could do was run for life whilst screaming, however despite her pleas for help no one appeared to be stirring from their beds, much less taking notice of the noise outside their homes. Finally a small ray of hope appeared for Nyx, a ray of hope that came in the form of an alleyway blocked up by a wire-frame fence, a fence with a rust-hole in the bottom which was big enough for Nyx to fit through whilst. Seizing the moment, Nyx dove towards the hole and tried squeezing through, it took some effort but thankfully Nyx manged to clumber through the hole just before the dog managed to bite down on her tail, thankfully only the dog’s head was able to fit through the hole after Nyx and the only injuries the little filly had managed to obtain were a few small scratches caused by the sharp pieces of wire. However injuries aside Nyx was safe, at least for now, thanks to that fence the dog couldn’t get here and she could catch her breath.
“That was way too close,” she muttered with a heavy sigh as the dog continued to bark at her from the other side of the fence. “By Celestia can this night get any worse?”
All of a sudden, as though receiving an ironic answer to her question, Nyx then felt a drop of water fall onto her muzzle, which was then swiftly followed by another, in a matter of moments the Alicorn filly was caught up in a heavy downpour of rain. Groaning with despair, Nyx ran further into the alley, hoping to find some form of shelter, however the only thing she could find was an empty cardboard box. Seeing no other option Nyx pushed the box closer towards the wall of the alley, right next to a nearby garbage can, hoping to at least minimize the amount of water it could be doused with. Tilting the box onto its side Nyx then clambered into it and curled herself into a ball underneath a scrap of newspaper to keep herself warm. Frightened at of her mind, all she could do now was cry.
“Mommy!” she sobbed, her face drenched with both the rain and her tears.
Soon, after what felt like hours, the rain finally began to cease and Nyx had cried herself to sleep.
Meanwhile back at the cracked remains of the living Genre’s home, three more characters that were taken from their own stories were searching for something, however in their case it was a way out of the endless assortment of mind-boggling staircases.
“Eeheee!!!” Bebop yelled as he glided over the staircases with his energy beam- powered boots, quickly landing onto a railing, where Rocksteady and Rahzar were waiting for him.
“Anything?” Rahzar growled impatiently.
“Nah man,” Bebop sighed disappointedly. “Nothing but more pictures and cracks on the wall.”
Rahzar and Rocksteady snarled at that.
“This is ridiculous!” Rahzar yelled, slamming his foot to the floor. “We have been wondering about this place for hours and we STILL have no idea where we are!”
“Da, it is like surreal painting here,” Rocksteady added, much to Rahzar’s annoyance. “Come to think of it, I think I might have such painting in my collection.”
However Rahzar wasn’t in the mood for stupid comments, in a fit of rage he simply shoved the large rhino aside and took a slash at the wall with his claws out of frustration. Luckily Rocksteady was always one to know how to calm things down.
“Hey, let us not be too quick to act rashly,” he said steadily. “Surely there must be someone who knows what this place is.”
It may not have been much for words of reassurance, but regardless Rahzar and Bebop seem to nod upon hearing them.
“You’re right Big S,” Bebop stated, once again using one of his many nicknames for his comrades. “Whatever this place is, some fool must be in charge. I say we comb the guy’s wig back, flip it and comb the wig back again!”
“Agreed,” Rahzar growled, nodding his head again.
“Then I suggest we all slits up,” Rocksteady proposed. “After which, we track them down and force them to reverse whatever they have done to bring us here.”
With all three of them nodding their heads in agreement, the three mutants proceeded to make their way towards a different set of stairs.
“Bet I can find em before you wolf-man,” Bebop joked, once again climbing up onto one of the railings and earning another snarl from Rahzar for his trouble.
“Keep dreaming pork-chop!” he snapped.
However Bebo merely laughed at that.
“You forget zombie-wolf,” he said. “My piggy-nose is better than a bloodhound’s.”
At those words Bebop suddenly stuck his nose into the air and inhaled several times, snorting in between sniffs, after which he jumped into the air and activated his boots. Within moments the beams of energy shot out and the warthog mutant glided down between the staircases in a dramatic manner as though he were sliding down two glowing railings.
“Eeeheeee!!!” Bebop cried. “I just need to catch a whiff!”
With that, Bebop then disappeared from the wolf mutant’s line of vision.
“Geez, why in heaven’s name did I get lumbered here with THESE two?” he muttered to himself, feeling the need to face-palm.
As Bebop continued to glide between the staircases he kept his nose in the air, trying desperately to catch any scents of whoever had brought them to this strange place, after all with something as odd as this, there was no possible way that this could have been an accident. Suddenly he picked up on something and deactivated his boots, allowing him to land safely onto one of the staircases, Sniffing the air once again, he grinned.
“Oh snap!” he said happily. “I definitely smell some poor sap about to get his butt whopped. Oohooo!!!”
As Bebop continued to sniff the air around him, his gaze soon becoming affixed with a certain corner at the top of the stairs, he was completely unaware that someone else was there. Watching him from the staircase just above him, hanging upside down like a bat even though to them it merely looked as though HE was the one hanging upside down, were a pair of teenage girls, a pair of ODD teenage girls. They both had red skin, yellow eyes and both wore a plan beige uniform, complete with a mini-beige skirt, suit, and dark red ties, however similarities aside, these two did have their own unique appearances too. One of the girls, assumingly the oldest, had pale green spiky hair that reached down to her waist and resembled flames, with two small red horns sticking out on either side, while the other girl had a light blue ponytail, square-shaped glasses, white knee-length socks and a single horn on her fore head. This was Scanty and Kneesocks, a pair of demon siblings and another pair of characters who had been taken from their own story and brought here to G’s home dimension. Needless to say, they found Bebop’s sudden appearance rather intriguing, given their situation.
“What do you make of this sister?” The blue-haired demon asked, now known as Kneesocks, making sure she wasn’t heard by the mutant above their heads.
“A vulgar example of a Sus Scrofa if I’ve ever seen one, Kneesocks,” Scanty replied just as qietly, looking at Bebop as though he were an insect that needed to be squashed quickly.
“Perhaps it might be best if we keep our eyes on him,” Kneesocks suggested. “After all he seems to be tracking something, it may be possible that it seeks the individual who owns this ghastly place.”
Scanty grinned evilly at that.
“A marvellous suggestion dear sister,” she said sinisterly. “Let’s just see where pig-boy leads us, shall we?”
While things continued to get worse in G’s home, things were finally seeming to get better for Nyx. After what felt like the worst night’s sleep in her short life, the young filly was finally able to open her eyes and stretch herself out. Needless to say, she quickly became startled upon hearing the now busy street just outside the alley, for a moment her first reaction was to go out there and ask someone for help. However upon seeing just what kind of individuals had inhabited this strange place, she quickly stepped back into the alley, what she saw were masses of large bipedal creatures with peachy skin, tuffs of hair atop their heads, all of which seem to be in shades of gold, brown and orange, and all of them wore different assortments of clothes perfectly suited to the cold. Nyx may not have seen these creatures before but she certainly heard about them from her mother’s stories about her magical travels, however these humans, as she called them, weren’t like the ones her mother have seen, for one thing they weren’t so colourful as she had described. However there was no time to recall stories now, Nyx had to find a way to get back home and fast. Thankfully the newspaper and box Nyx slept in did their job easily enough and she avoided getting sick during the night, however being the smart filly she was, Nyx knew she couldn’t last another night like this and decided to get a move on before she was spotted. Granted, her mother’s experience with humans was somewhat pleasant, but Nyx didn’t want to take her chances until she at least came up with a plan of action first. Suddenly hr ears perked up at another sound from behind her, instantly reacting she turned her head back towards the garbage can that stood next to her box, with curiosity welling up inside her the young Alicorn couldn’t help but investigate. Slowly trotting towards the can, Nyx heard the noise again, only this time she saw the can move with it, something was definitely inside, was it a rat? Something else entirely? Either way she was about to find out. Finding herself stopped in her tracks with fear Nyx looked up at the lid of the can, which seemed to be moving and eventually was thrown off from the inside.
“Ugh…” said a rough sounding voice as something poked its head out of the garbage can. “That had to have been the worst night of my…”
Suddenly the creature turned its head towards Nyx and the sudden surprise of seeing another living creature his both of them hard.
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” the creature yelled.
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Nyx screamed in response, startled by the creature’s sudden scream.
Within seconds the creature dove back into the garbage can in terror while Nyx stumbled back into her box, after which she nervously poked her head out to see that the entire can seem to be shaking, whatever was inside seemed to be just as scared as she was, if not more. Once again taking a slow pace towards the garbage can, Nyx gulped as she gave it a small push emptying its contents onto the ground, including the strange creature. Now that Nyx good a good look at what had scared her, she had to admit that she had never seen such a thing in her entire life, it looked like the monkeys her Auntie Fluttershy looked after in her cottage but it was different in so many ways, for one thing it’s fur was a gentle shade of blue, topped with a patch of ruby red hair on its head, not only that but it had a strange golden orb at the tip of its tail, two small buck teeth producing from its top lip plus it wore a small purple vest along with a pair of dark green goggles on top of its head. Whatever this creature was, it was curled up into a ball shivering with terror, and from what Nyx could tell he had his eye hidden in his paws so he hadn’t really gotten a good look at her either. Mustering up whatever courage she had, Nyx lifted a hoof towards the monkey.
“Um… hello?” she said, nervously poking it and earning another scream for her trouble.
“Wah!” the monkey yelped, quickly jumping into the air and landing on his back. “Take my tools, take whatever you want! Just don’t hurt me!”
Nyx was of course taken aback by this reaction, no one has ever been this scared of her for a while now, however previous experiences may not have been the case at this point since the monkey’s fear quickly turned to curiosity.
“Wait a sec,” he said, staggering to his feet. “You ain’t a mugger… You’re a Pony! HAHA!! I’m saved!”
Needless to say Nyx was confused by the monkey’s sudden change of reaction, he seemed to know what she was but he obviously didn’t know WHO she was, either way he seemed to be familiar with her species so it might be worth getting a few answers from him.
“Uh, excuse me sir?” she said, nervously trying to be as polite as possible. “But um… who are you?”
At those words, the monkey stopped jumping like a happy lunatic and straightened himself out, trying his best to behave somewhat decently to the clearly nervous filly.
“Oh, do pardon my little outburst,” he said with a smile. “It’s just I’ve already spent the night sleeping in the garbage in a strange land and it’s something I do NOT want to do again, so you can understand if I should feel a little excited to see a familiar species. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Professor Goggles, Inventor Extraordinaire, devilishly cute Tea Connoisseur and the best Gizmonk a pony could ever know. And you are?”
At first Nyx didn’t know how to respond, she didn’t really know what a Gizmonk was or if that this particular one was a typical example of one, but he seemed nice enough, and more importantly he was familiar with Ponies so it was definitely worth making friends with him.
“N… Nyx,” she answered, allowing the Gizmonk to shake her hoof. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh believe me, little miss the pleasure is all mine,” Goggles replied with a smile. “So where’s your guardian? I doubt any rescue party would simply let a filly wonder about on her own.”
Nyx’s face fell at that.
“I… I’m not part of any rescue party,” she said, much to Goggles’ dismay. “I’m lost too.”
Soon Goggles’ smile turned upside down and he let out a heavy sigh.
“Figures,” he said. “So much for high hopes. Well, no point crying over spilled milk as they say, I take it you were brought here the same way I was? Big crack in the wall?”
At last, the first useful thing Nyx had heard for the past several hours, this Gizmonk DID know something, or at the very least have experience the same thing she did.
“Yes, that’s right!” she said impatiently. “Do you know what it was? I mean you’re a Professor, right?”
At first Goggles didn’t know the proper words to say to the filly, after all he didn’t want to upset her by saying something that would dash her hopes of getting home.
“Well I admit, that sort of thing is Not part of my certification,” he explained, Nyx hanging onto every word he said in hopes of hearing something useful. “But judging from what I can see and also from what I had experienced with the crack, it occurs to me that we may have been transported to another world via a tear in the time-space continuum. I know that sort of thing sounds like something you read about in comics but it’s the best sort of explanation I have given the situation, then again stranger things have happened in Equestria have they not?”
Nyx’s eyes widened at that.
“How did you know I was from Equestria?” she asked.
“Lucky guess,” Goggles replied playfully. “Plus the wings are kind of a giveaway.”
At those word Nyx couldn’t help but blush with embarrassment and tucked her wings into her body, which at this point were now ruffled from the rough night she had in her box.
“Look, I’m not gonna sugar-coat anything by saying everything is gonna be okay,” Goggles said bluntly. “Because as far as I know we could be stuck here. However that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to find a way home, after all I’m sure you have someone waiting for you back home right?
Nyx nodded at that.
“My mom,” she said sadly.
Seeing the poor filly’s sorrow, Goggles knew exactly what to do next.
“Well then, in that case we had better get going,” he said, turning back towards the garbage can.
“Going?” Nyx asked, raising an eyebrow. “Where?”
“Well we can’t stay here in this alley forever, can we?” Goggles responded, not taking his eyes of the garbage can as he continued to examine each and every inch of it. “Besides, I don’t know about you but I am not willing to have rotten fruit for breakfast.”
Nyx couldn’t help but stick her tongue out and cringe at those words, after all, she was getting hungry and she hadn’t eaten since dinner the previous night, it may have been a risky move since she only just met this so-called Gizmonk, but partnering up with him for the time being seemed to be the best option right now. Raising an eyebrow, Nyx watched in awe as Goggles began rummaging through the vast amounts from garbage that littered the alley, smiling inanely every time he found something that caught his interest.
“Ah yes,” he said, holding up a broken alarm clock. “These should do the trick quite nicely.”
“Uh… Do the trick for what?” Nyx asked curiously.
Goggles grinned at that.
“Behold young filly,” he said, proudly lowering his goggles over his eyes. “Behold the mighty brain-power of a Gizmonk.”
At first Nyx had absolutely no idea what the Gizmonk was talking about, however not two seconds later, Goggles grabbed all of his gathered material and attacked his garbage can with the ferocity of a Tasmanian-devil. Within a matter of minutes Nyx’s jaw had dropped to the floor as she witnessed the Gizmonk turn a regular garbage can into a fully automated vehicle with three wheels at the base and a control panel just above it, all done with only his bare paws and a few small tools he had in his vest. What made this device all the more impressive was the fact that it still looked like a regular old garbage can when sealed up, thus making it the perfect camouflage for anyone who doesn’t want to be seen.
“It’s not much, but it’ll keep us out of sight while we go about the streets,” Goggles explained as he opened the hatch. “And as luck would have it, there is plenty of room for the two of us.”
Nyx’s eyes widened at that.
“Y… you want to go out there?” she asked, nervously pointing towards the flocks of humans just outside the alley.
“It’s better than staying here,” Goggles pointed out. “Now come on, the lady’s chariot awaits.”
At those words, he then jumped into the driver’s seat and ushered Nyx into the seat behind him. Needless to say, Nyx was sceptical about the strange monkey, more specifically his eagerness to help her. Just why was Goggles helping her? Did he not know who Nyx used to be? It would make sense, after all she had never heard of a Gizmonk before, perhaps he didn’t even know anything about anyone called Nightmare Moon, though in all honesty that was a name she would rather forget herself. Either way Goggles did have a crucial point, anything was better than staying where she was, and any help would be most appreciated. Sighing in defeat, she then climbed into the Gizmonk’s makeshift vehicle and closed the hatch behind her.
“Hang onto your wings kiddo,” Goggles said with a smirk, his paws quickly taking the steering wheel. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
Suddenly he pushed his foot against the pedal and the vehicle roared into action, carefully gazing at his surroundings through the small holes he drilled into the sides, Goggles slowly drove the garbage like a car through the crowds of humans, stopping every so often in case one of the decided to turn their heads. It may have been a slow trip but eventually Nyx and Goggles had finally managed to shift through the crowd and into the park across the street, an area of which there was less people to worry about.
“Alright so what do you fancy?” Goggles asked as he eyes the nearby market. “Fruit or cereal?”
However Nyx’s mind only came with another question rather than an answer to Goggles’ own.
“What did you mean by a tear in the time-space continuum anyway?” she asked, her curiosity over what the Gizmonk said still looming over her.
“Well like told you before,” Goggles explained, his eyes never diverting from the market. “It’s a shot in the dark, but… I think we’re in an alternate world.”
Well if her suspicions weren’t confirmed by the humans, then Goggles own suspicions on the matter certainly did, this WAS a different world, just like the one her mother had visited. However in Nyx’s case, she felt things were going to be far more difficult, so much so that she felt herself singing to herself in her own mind:
I've never seen a place
That's quite like this
Everything is turned around
This crazy world is upside-down
Getting on my feet
It's the hand that I was dealt
But whatever time I have with them
I’ve got to learn all that I can
With every verse she sung inside her head, Nyx peeked through the holes of Goggles’ vessel, gazing every so intensely at the number of humans in the park walking their dogs or playing with their children. As her cat-like eyes focused on every detail of what was happening outside the garbage can, her mind soon fixed upon the next verse of the song that still played in her head.
They don't use any magic or fly with any wings
I don't get these funny clothes, skinny legs or tiny nose
Everything's confusing when it seems so new
But no matter happens now, I have to figure out just what to do
Finally Goggles had managed to drive his makeshift vehicle into the market, right next to an apple stand. Carefully lifting the lid, he took two gold coins from his pocket and grabbed two apples quickly replacing them with the coins without the shop vender noticed. As Nyx ate her breakfast in silence, the final verse of her song played in her head.
What a strange new world
(What a strange new world)
I'm trying to make heads or tails of this strange new world
(What a strange new world)
Sorting through the small details of this strange new world
What a strange new world
Indeed it was a strange new world, but that strangeness was nothing compared to what else was happening between the walls of creation, something that she has yet to realise.
Chapter 5: Song of the Irish
When G finally managed to wake up after being knocked out upon his arrival, his vision remained blurred for a few moments as he struggled to sit himself upright.
“Ugh… did anyone get that licence plate for that truck?” he said dizzily, the Jolly Roger in his right eye pulling a sick face just as he was.
Suddenly with a shake of his head, G quickly recovered his senses and looked over his surroundings. At the moment, he seemed to be sitting waist-deep in a small duck-pond leaning over the bank like he was in a hot tub, luckily no one was around so he was able to quickly climb up into the foliage of a nearby tree before anyone came walking by, after all he was in no condition to transform at the moment. As he observed his surroundings from the tree, G noticed that the inhabitants seemed to be human judging from looks alone, however since he didn’t come here by choice G had to rely on the one sense he had that he never thought he would have to use.
“Smells like… Ireland?” he said, breathing in the air through his nostrils “1987 by the smell of it, I must be in one of the Tomm Moore stories.”
As it turned out G’s sense of smell was somewhat more miraculous than any common creature. To be more specific, due to his unique ability to jump through numerous creations, he developed a unique since that will allow him to tell what story he was in by smell alone. However the only time ever needed to use it was to try and find the location of the portal home, something of which he desperately needed to find right now since he needed to fix whatever damage was done ASAP. Thankfully the one he was looking for wasn’t far, in fact it was the very base of the tree he was hiding in, quickly jumping down from his perch he quickly tried his usual technique of punching his way through the portal. However when he tried punching his way back, all he hit was the solide wood of the tree.
“What the…?” he gasped, trying again but getting the same result.
After several attempts of getting the portal, G soon found himself pulling at his air with frustration. Suddenly the realisation hit him.
“I’M LOCKED OUT!?!” he screamed, almost blowing his cover as he quickly turned himself into a dog to avoid being spotted by a passing human. “Oh great, the damage must have been worse than I thought.”
Indeed it was, he may not have had much experience in the matter but the sad truth is that the damage to the walls of creation were so bad, that any attempt to go back to his home realm was quite impossible. This is if he tried using only his OLD methods.
“Now what the heck is that supposed to mean!?!” he asked the Author impatiently. “Come on Author, any ideas you can give me here?”
Sorry G but I’m afraid this is where your Fourth-wall breaking stops, this is YOUR story now.
“Wait, what!?!” G gasped, not liking what he was here in the slightest. “Oh come on you can’t leave me high and dry here!”
It’s time to show some initiative G, I’m afraid that crack in Creation has already began to disperse your ability to talk to me, I only have enough time to give you one last piece of advice before you’re cut off from me completely.
“Oh yeah?” G said stressfully. “And what exactly is that?”
Take care of who you encounter from here on out, those lost Creations out there need your help. Be sure to give it to them no matter the cost.
“…That’s it?” G asked, clearly not liking the answer his creator gave him. Nothing else you can give me?
…
“Author?” G called out, receiving no answer. “Hello? Oh great!!!”
And with that G then proceeded to bang his head against the trunk of the tree in frustration, granted a couple of humans couldn’t help but look curiously at the strange dog doing something weird, but luckily all of them merely shrugged and continued walking by. And as much as it pains me to see my character suffer so much, I’m afraid the best I can do now is chronicle his tale as he lives it.
“Well this is just PEACHY!” he moaned. “First I lose my home to pirates, and now I lose my…”
Suddenly G stopped banging his head against the tree, his mind suddenly turning to what the Author said.
“Lost characters?” he puzzled, raising an eyebrow as the message finally hit him. “The cracks in the walls! I remember now, everything was seeping into each other! Oh sweet Celestia, there’s got to be thousands of characters all out of place across the plains of creation.”
At that moment G knew exactly what he must do, sticking his nose high into the air, he tried picking up the scents of any unfortunate characters lost in this particular world.
“Okay, so far I’m picking up… two.” he said to himself. “Equestrians by what I can gather, and they’re close!”
With that, G then put his nose to the ground and started walking towards the scent, with his canine disguise he was able to pass through the crowd with ease as looked for the lost characters.
Meanwhile the characters G was looking for continued to hide in their makeshift vehicle, searching desperately for a safe place to hide so they could figure out a plan of action. As Goggles continued to drive through the streets and in between alleys to avoid being detected by any passing humans, Nyx couldn’t help but star in awe at the strange creature, as such her mind began to burn with questions. How is it that she never heard of a Gizmonk before? Were they a species located in a different part of Equestria? If Nyx was going to be partnering up with this inventive monkey then she needed some more info.
“So Goggles,” she said nervously. “Do you have anyone back home?”
At those words Goggles couldn’t help but smirk, he always did find the curiosity of the young somewhat intriguing, after all it always meant that he was able to pass down at least a small fraction of his knowledge.
“Sure do,” he said. “Got myself a lab and a family of country folk waiting for me. One day, a large crack of light appeared in the wall of my lab while I was working and I was sucked up into it, after that I woke up and found myself on someone’s roof a few blocks from here.”
“That sounds horrible,” Nyx said sympathetically, knowing exactly what Goggles had gone through. “I’m sure your family misses you terribly.”
Goggles gave the filly a gentle look upon hearing that.
“And I’m sure your mother misses you,” he said, sharing Nyx’s sympathy. “Don’t worry kiddo, we’ll find a way back, I guarantee it.”
“How can you be so sure?” Nyx asked, confused by Goggles’ confidence.
“Because I learnt a long time ago that no matter how much a situation seems dire, there will always be a sliver of hope for those who need it,” Goggles explained. “If that fact weren’t true, I probably wouldn’t even be alive today.”
Nyx couldn’t help but feel intrigued by that, just what did happen to the Gizmonk to make him feel so inspired? She must remember to ask him at some point. However right now there was a more pressing issue.
“Uh… Goggles?” she said fearfully. “What does that flashing light mean?”
At those words Goggles looked at the part of the dashboard where Nyx was pointing, Needless to say he too was nervous at the flashing red lightbulb.
“Um, well it means that something’s up with the breaks,” he said nervously.
“And that would be what exactly?” Nyx asked, her fear ever growing.
Goggles then gulped and answered.
“We no longer have any,”
Hearing this Nyx obtained a fit of pure panic, she didn’t need to know much about inventing to know that no breaks always meant disaster.
“What do we do now!?!” she demanded.
“Okay there’s no need to panic,” Goggles said, trying desperately to remain calm as he turned his head towards the filly. “We’re on a flat surface and we aren’t going that fast, all we have to do is wait it out until we coast to a stop.
However Nyx’s expression of fear didn’t change in the slightest, in fact it only became worse when she saw what was ahead of them.
“Uh… Goggles?” she said, nervously pointing towards the pavement.
When Goggles once again placed his eyes on the road, they too turned wide with fear, of all the things they could have encountered at this point, a steep hill had to have been the worst.
“Oh Scrap-bunnies,” Goggles gulped.
Those were the last words uttered before the garbage can and the two individuals inside came speeding down the steep hill. Screaming their heads off, both Nyx and Goggles clung to each other for dear life as they flailed about helplessly inside the garbage can, which at this point had rolled onto its side after one of the wheels had broken off half way down the hill. Finally after a sickening ride for the two, the Garbage can finally made it to the bottom of the hill and rolled across the road, into the grassy island in the centre of a roundabout. Luckily neither one of them suffered any injuries apart from some minor bruising and a lot of nausea.
“Ugh… Goggles?” Nyx said, staggering out of the can and trying desperately not to puke. “Are you okay?”
“I… I think so,” Goggles said, his eyes still spinning in his head. “Guess that’s what I get for making something out of garbage, eh?”
However Nyx couldn’t even let a word out for she felt too sick to even move, in fact after wobbling about for a few seconds she collapsed under her own hoofs and laid down on the grass for a minute to ease her stomach. Finally, after a few minutes of rest Nyx finally stood up and looked at her surroundings, specifically the now destroyed garbage can.
“Now what do we do? She asked woefully.
“I don’t know, but this thing sure isn’t going anywhere,” Goggles answered shamefully, aggravatingly giving the can a kick. “Even I’m not that good of a miracle worker.”
Nyx sighed at that.
“Where are we anyway?” she asked.
“We seem to be in the centre of some kind of human road,” Goggles replied, gazing at the road just beyond the foliage they were standing in. “And without any suitable materials I doubt I can make anything that’ll get us over there in one piece, much less being seen.”
At those words Nyx felt like she was about to cry for the bad news just seems to be coming and coming, however Goggles wasn’t willing to give up yet.
“Come on!” he said, walking deeper into the shrubbery. “There’s got to be something we can use, a tree-trunk maybe.”
As much as Nyx admired Goggles enthusiasm, she still couldn’t help but sigh in despair even after following the Gizmonk in his endeavour. Luckily neither of them had to walk very far for them to find something interesting.
“Hey, check this out!” Goggles called, ushering Nyx closer to him.
Upon seeing what was ahead Nyx’s eyes grew wide, before them was a small round door at the end of a large stone piping leading to who knows where and surrounded by several small stone statues of elderly humans, whoever lives in this place one thing was for sure, they had to be quite small in order to fit, perhaps only a foot or two taller than Nyx. However while the door itself was interesting enough, it was the words written on it that caught Goggles’ attention.
“What’s this?” he pondered, soon reading the writing aloud. “KEEP OUT, FEIC OFF, NO HUMANS.”
Upon hearing this Nyx couldn’t help but feel slightly more nervous, whoever lived here obviously didn’t want any visitors. Goggles on the other hand simply shrugged with contentment.
“Well then, good thing we’re not human,” he said with a light smile as he reached for the doorknob.
Needless to say, Nyx was shocked by this action.
“Are you crazy!?!” she gasped. “You can’t just barge into someone’s home!”
“You got any better ideas?” Goggles retorted, opening the door. “Besides, if the message says no humans then maybe the creatures that DO live inside might be able to help us.”
Goggles did have a point, whoever did live here couldn’t have been human, the size of the door and the message upon it were proof of that. Still, was it possible that whoever does live here could help? It’ll be a real shame if it were true and they didn’t try, maybe whoever it is might just be like them, lost in a world that’s no their own. Sighing in defeat, the Alicorn filly then followed the Gizmonk inside, closing the door behind her.
“It’s spooky in here,” she said nervously as the darkness enveloped her.
“Hang on,” she heard Goggles say amongst the darkness.
Suddenly the tunnel Nyx and Goggles were in was filled with a dim light, a light which emanated from the orb at the end of Goggles’ tail.
“How did you do that?” Nyx asked, her jaw dropping with awe.
“Oh this? Just a little trick we Gizmonks can do,” Goggles answered proudly. “Normally this thing only lights up whenever I get an idea, but I can use it a flashlight whenever I…”
However Goggles didn’t get to finish his sentence, all of a sudden something grabbed him from behind, hidden amongst the shadows where his tail didn’t give any light. Within moments Goggles had disappeared from Nyx’s sight, once again leaving her alone in darkness.
“GOGGLES!!!” she screamed fearfully.
However Nyx received no answer, instead she too found herself being swept off her hooves and being pulled to who knows where.
The sudden shock of what had happened must have made Nyx faint, if only for a few moments. Once she awoke, she found herself sprawled against the centre of a stone floor, around her were several more of the stone statues covered in ivy, along with many entrances to more tunnels. Sitting next to her was Goggles, who had only just awoken himself, however it was the trio of new individuals talking amongst themselves that drew both their attentions. They may have appeared like elderly humans but they all had greyish skin and as Nyx and Goggles had suspected earlier, these three were way smaller, perhaps only three foot tall, two in the shortest one’s case. The first one, the tallest and skinniest of the three, had a balding head with only a ring of pure white hair to match his moustache and goatee and wore a green tunic with an orange cloak. The second individual was a little shorter but also much wider and had a full beard of darker grey hair, he also wore a maroon cloak over a bright red tunic. The last and shortest of the three, was the only one without facial hair, thus allowing all to see the wrinkles around his mouth, and he wore a yellow tunic with an emerald green cloak. Upon seeing them neither Nyx nor Goggles had any idea of what to do next, luckily they didn’t have to do anything once their involuntary hosts noticed their presence.
“What do ye suppose we…? Oh hush-buckets, they’re awake!” The tallest one gasped.
The second the three men turned towards Nyx and Goggles, both of them froze with fear, neither one of them knowing what to do now. After a few minutes of awkward silence, only Goggles seemed to gain some form of courage to speak.
“Uh… hi?” he said nervously.
With the ice finally broken, the shortest out of the three smiled and walked closer towards Goggles and Nyx with a light smile.
“Well hello there, little ones,” he said gently. “I say now, what manner of creatures are ye?”
“Whisht Spud!” the tallest stranger snapped, pulling the short one, now known as Spud back. “They could be dangerous.”
The bearded one rolled his eyes at that.
“Aw Lug, don’t be such an idiot,” he said sceptically. “Any fool can tell these wee creatures are no threat, I mean look at them.
“You too Mossy?” Lug said astonishingly.
As the three elderlies argued amongst themselves about the situation, Goggles couldn’t help but feel somewhat insulted, granted he may have been smaller than Nyx in terms of height but he still didn’t like being underestimated because of it.
“You know I AM standing right here!” He growled.
At those words Lug, Mossy and Spud once again turned their attention towards the Gizmonk.
“Oh and what exactly are ye?” Lug asked defensively. “Cause I have never seen anything you before,”
“Likewise buddy,” Goggles retorted. “But that doesn’t give you the right to make fun of my size!”
“I didn’t say anything of the sort!” Lug snapped.
They would have argued further but another voice stepped in before either Lug or Goggles could say another word.
“STOP IT!!!” Nyx screamed.
Instantly turning their heads, Lug and Goggles were taken aback to see tears welling up in Nyx’s eyes. At this point Goggles couldn’t help but feel terrible, obliviously everything about the past 24 hours had been a terrible ordeal for the poor filly, and now here she was listening to a pair of creatures she didn’t know argue. What made it worse was the fact that Nyx continued to yell at them.
“I can’t take it anymore!” she snapped tearfully. “First I get taken away from my mom, spend last night in the rain, and then I crash after taking a joyride in the garbage, and now I’m listening to you lot arguing!”
Now both Goggles, and the three elderly creatures with them really felt guilty, they could see the clear signs of stress from the poor Alicorn with every tear that streamed down her face. In Goggles opinion, he was actually impressed that she managed to hold it together for this long before she snapped. However despite that he still felt horrible about letting her stay in this situation and making it worse by causing her stress.
“Please,” Nyx pleaded, hanging her head in despair. “I… I just want to go home.”
With that Goggles let out a heavy sigh, if there was one thing he hated it was to see a little girl cry.
“We’ve…had a rough day.” He told the three elderlies before walking over to Nyx to try and comfort her.
Seeing the two creatures in the state they were in, Lug, Mossy and Spud felt incredibly stupid, none more so than Lug. After so many years of hiding from humans, the paranoia must have developed so much that they saw anything as a threat. Granted Nyx and Goggles may have snuck into their home, but obviously they were no threat, they were only a pair of lost souls with nowhere else to go, and it wouldn’t be right for any Daoine Sidhe to turn away such desperation.
“Nice going Lug,” Mossy grumbled, feeling the need to blame someone but no less feeling just as bad himself.
“Aye,” Lug sighed, not even bothering to argue. “Now I really do feel like some idiot.”
After a few moments of awkward silence, Lug’s face suddenly perked up as an idea appeared in his head.
“Hey lads,” he said, ushering Spud and Mossy into a small huddle. “A thought just popped into my head here, how’s about we cheer up our guests with a few of our lovely melodies, eh?”
Spud and Mossy smiled at that.
“Good idea Lug,” Mossy said.
“Aye, no one could resist one of our tunes,” Spud said in agreement.
Nodding their heads in agreement, Mossy, Lug and Spud then pulled out their instruments from within their cloaks, Spud pulled out a Banjo, Mossy a Bodhrán Drum and Lug, a Fiddle. Gathering themselves up into their stance, Lug cleared his throat and drew in Goggles and Nyx’s attention.
“Please, accept this little song as a token of our deepest apologises for our rudeness and a gesture of our Irish hospitality for the wandering travellers,” Lug said, much to both their bewilderment. “Right lads, who’ll get us started?”
“Here Lug, I’ll sing,” Spud said excitedly.
Lug rolled his eyes at that.
“No Spud, we want to bring the mood up for our guests,” he said before turning his head towards Nyx. “Isn’t that right lassie?”
However before Nyx could even respond, Spud once again spoke and cut her off.
“I’ll do my best, I promise,” he pleaded.
At those words, Lug merely sighed
“Give Mossy a go first, will ye?” he said finally.
And with that, Lug proceeded to play his fiddle, quickly followed by the other two playing their own instruments. It may have been a sudden and unexpected turn of events but both Nyx and Goggles had to admit that the melody the three were playing was somewhat nice to listen to. Soon enough, Mossy began the first verse of the song:
MOSSY:
The selkie song is bright
To waken all who follow.
Manannan will lead
and Tír na nÓg will follow.
LUG, MOSSY + SPUD:
Dúlamán na binne buí,
Dúlamán Gaelach.
Dúlamán na farraige,
B'fhearr a bhí in Éirinn.
As they both listened to the song, Nyx and Goggles couldn’t help but feel intrigued, granted they had no idea what kind of language they were speaking for the chorus, but still it was invigorating, so much so that they couldn’t help but smile.
“Lovely job, Mossy,” Lug said excitedly. “Right, who’s next?”
Spud grinned at that.
“Here Lug, here, I’ll sing.” He said excitedly.
“Ugh, go on so,” Lug finally sighed in defeat.
At those words, Spud then walked up to Nyx and Goggles and spoke
“Tell us your names my friends,” he said “So we could sing this song for you properly.
At first, neither Nyx nor Goggles could find their voice upon the sudden question, however after a few brief moments they brought up their courage and answered.
“M.. my name is Nyx,” the filly answered. “And this is Goggles.”
Satisfied with the answer, Spud then proceeded to sing the next verse, completely made up on the spot.
SPUD:
Goggles and Nyxie
Their tears will wash away.
The Daoine Sídhe who befriends them
Shall sing and save the day.
LUG, MOSSY + SPUD:
Dúlamán na binne buí,
Dúlamán Gaelach.
Dúlamán na farraige,
B'fhearr a bhí in Éirinn.
At this point, Nyx couldn’t help but giggle, it was the first time Goggles saw the filly give a genuine smile all day, whatever these three guys were doing it seemed to be working. Suddenly Goggles’ face as well as his tail lit up, meaning that he had an idea.
“Hey, mind if I take a verse?” he asked, much to Lug’s surprise
After a few brief moments of silence, Lug smiled and asnwered.
“I don’t see why not,” he said.
“Aye, go on so,” Spud added with his own grin.
With Mossy nodding in agreement, Goggles’ smile widened and he once again turned towards Nyx, who at this point looked at him with confusion as he too made up the next verse on the spot.
Long, have I prayed
to meet some folks like you.
You’re every shape and size,
And like me, you’re bonkers too.
With that one verse, Nyx couldn’t help but burst out laughing, especially since Goggles added his own little dance into the mix for the filly’s enjoyment. Seeing that the filly was finally enjoying herself, Lug cheered at Goggles’ involvement.
“Aha!” he cried. “A natural-born artist! Keep the crack going, lads!”
And with that, Lug and his two friends played the final chorus of the song, only this time Goggles and Nyx decided to join in too.
ALL:
Dúlamán na binne buí,
Dúlamán Gaelach.
Dúlamán na farraige,
B'fhearr a bhí in Éirinn.
With the final words sung and the last chord of fiddle strings echoing in the air, the atmosphere finally managed to calm and Nyx finally felt relieved, mainly due to the fact that she now had some decent friends to help her out in this strange world.
Chapter 6: Demonic Conflict
They didn’t know whether it had been hours or even days since they had arrived in this strange world, but either way Foxy and his two cronies had been looking through all of G’s personal belongings for ages. To be more specific, they had been rummaging through all of his files on every character he had encountered in his lifetime, which luckily enough were categorised within their own cabinet in the filing room.
“Hey, this guy looks interesting,” Hamburg stated, holding up one of the papers. “Captain Korwin…”
However Foxy merely slapped the paper out of Hamburg’s hand before he could finish reading.
“NO!” he snapped. “No Captains! The only captain around here is gonna be me! Got it!?!”
“Y… yes sir,” Hamburg replied nervously, not daring to push his Captain’s anger further.
Needless to say it has been a stressful time for all three of them, more so for Foxy since he was the only one who refused to get any sleep while they worked, and the fact that no one could tell whether it was night or day in this world only made things worse.
“What about this one?” Porche suggested with another paper, hoping to lighten up the mood. “Someone called… Machine Queen. A very skilled engineer, able to build nearly and device, including parts of her own body…”
However Foxy only repeated his rejection process upon hearing that.
“Nah, I don’t like anyone who thinks they’re royalty, even if it is merely by name,” he said, much to Porche’s disappointment, “Besides I think we should start small, I mean check out the star rating.”
“Star rating?” Porche repeated, raising an eyebrow and looking closer at the paper.
As it turned out, G had his own method of categorising the characters he encounters, specifically a five-star rating system. In a nutshell, the more dangerous a character is, the more red stars they get underneath the picture. However from Foxy’s idiotic perspective the more stars a character gets, the higher the chance for a new potential crewmate, and frankly he considered anything two stars or lower not even worth his time. Suddenly one particular document caught Porche’s eye.
“Hey, boss this is your file!” she gasped, pulling the document.
Needless to say, Foxy’s ego quickly reacted upon hearing that and snatched the paper out of Porche’s hands.
“Oh really?” He said with an evil smirk. “Well let’s just see how I raaaaaaa….”
However the star-rating was not what Foxy was hoping for, in fact it couldn’t have been a worse rating as far as anything goes.
“One… s… star?” Foxy gasped, reading the document aloud.
Then, just like every other time Foxy’s sensitive ego was insulted, the Pirate Captain collapsed to the floor in a deep depression, after which Porche quickly tried to comfort him and Hamburg giggled to himself.
“The Boss is as dangerous as a box full of kittens,” he muttered. “Pupupupupupupu.”
However the large pirate made no effort to conceal his comment, making Porche scowl at him with anger in her eyes.
“You’re gonna make him cry, Hamburg!” she snapped.
However soon enough, Foxy and his two comrades gained a much bigger problem than a crappy rating, a problem that seemed to literally kick Foxy in the rear without being seen, forcing him to slide on his belly into the table.
“Boss!” Porche gasped as she and Hamburg ran to his aid. “Are you okay?”
But Foxy never got to give his answer, within a matter of seconds he felt another powerful kick to his gut, the bombarded him upward and sent him flying across the room, his was soon followed by an inane laughter that echoed in everyone’s ears. However the laugh was the only thing that could be noticed since no one could see who it was, suddenly that laughter was joined by a mocking voice.
“So you’re the ones we’ve been dying to meet,” it said, “Gotta say, you’re a funny looking bunch, and that’s rich coming from me.”
Suddenly several piles of paper came flying off the work desk as if someone had tossed them into the air, some even hovered for a moment before floating to the ground.
“So you guys have been trying to do some recruiting huh?” the voice continued. “Well sorry to tell ya this boyo, but this swinger don’t take orders from any stumpy, big-nose, fox-headed… OW!”
Bebop may have been able to help it, but thanks to his big mouth, it didn’t take long for Porche to figure out where the invisible warthog was and follow his voice long enough to deliver a punch to his gut, thus forcing his invisibility field to drop.
“Aw man, how’d you find me?” he asked, confused as to how he was discovered so quickly.
“Cause you don’t shut up!” Porche snapped, a deadpanned look spread across her face at the Pig-man’s stupidity. “And just who are you anyway?”
Bebop smirked at that.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he mocked, raising both his eyebrows in a seductive manner. “Though in all honesty I wouldn’t mind getting to KNOW you.”
At those words Porche cringed and turned pale, every syllable Bebop said making her sick to her stomach.
“Oh come on, now a pig-boy too!?!” she yelled. “Am I ever NOT gonna get hit on by some weirdo any time soon!?!”
However those were the wrong choice of words on Porche’s part, since Bebop was now growling with anger upon hearing them.
“Okay, you chose the wrong day to insult me girl!” he snarled, the energy lines in his skin glowing more ferociously than ever.
“Oh and just what are you gonna do about it?” Porche retorted, a sly grin spreading across her face.
Hearing this, Bebop grinned too, much to everyone’s confusion.
“Not me,” he said bluntly. “I would never hit a lady … but THEY will.”
At first neither Porche, Foxy, nor Hamburg had any idea as to what the warthog was talking about, however after hearing a ferocious growl from behind them, all three of them turned to see the fierce faces of Rahzar and Rocksteady, edging their way towards them. Needless to say, all three pirates couldn’t help but jump back in fright and Rahzar’s yellow eyes glows with pure ferocity.
“Break every bone if you have to,” he instructed with a deep growl in his throat. “Just make sure they’re able to talk afterward.”
Rocksteady chuckled at that.
“Is no problem,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “Just as long as Rocksteady gets to pop fox-boy’s head like blueberry.”
Foxy froze in fear upon hearing that, he didn’t like the way the giant talking rhino was looking at him in the slightest. However that didn’t mean that he was going to go down without a fight, after all he was Silver Fox Foxy, one of the greatest pirates on the Grand Line, and there was no way he was going to let some zoo-animals get the better of him.
“Fehfefefefefefefefefe!!!” he laughed, putting a brave grin. “Tough talk for someone about to die. Porche, Hamburg, show these filthy beasts who’s the most powerful shall we.”
Both giving an understanding nod, Porch and Hamburg ran to their captain’s side and readied their weapons. However Rahzar merely chuckled at Foxy’s statement.
“Oh, this is gonna be fun,” he said, before giving off a loud howl.
The second the howl left Rahzar’s bony jaw, the battle commenced. With a loud roar, Rocksteady blew steam from his nostrils and charged directly at Foxy like the rhino he was, however before he could impale his horn through the grinning pirate, he soon became the victim of one of Foxy’s greatest traps.
“SLOW-SLOW BEAM!!!” he cried.
Within moments Rocksteady was caught in Foxy’s power and his speedy charge turned into nothing more than a slow crawl.
“What the…!?!” Rahzar gasped, completely astounded at what he was seeing.
“Hamburg, if you please,” Foxy instructed, his grin spreading even wider.
Grinning upon hearing his Captain’s order, Hamburg drew back his club and swung it with all of his might into Rocksteady’s face. After a short time of know reactions, soon the 30 seconds we up and Rocksteady was sent flying across the room and crashed into one of the nearby cabinets, luckily thanks to his thick rhino hide the impact didn’t do much damage.
“Hehehe, Wolf-man is right,” he said, dusting himself off. “This IS going to be fun.”
And so the battle between the pirates and the mutants went into full swing, with Rocksteady rumbling with Hamburg, Porche duking it out with Rahzar and Foxy going up against Bebop. With Hamburg and Rocksteady it was a battle of power, while Hamburg was able to land a few blows with his metal clubs, Rocksteady’s brute strength and thick hide provided the perfect defence, plus with his golden sickle and hammer, he was able to counter almost every single blow save for a few lucky shots to the face and stomach.
“FLOWER SHURIKEN!!!” Porche screamed as she delivered her attack upon Rahzar.
However while some of the flower-concealed blades did manage to strike a few spots on the wolf-mutants body, his nerves were so badly impaired by his mutation that they felt little more like a tickle.
“Cute,” he chuckled, brushing off the blades and readying his claws. “But I’m afraid that’s not gonna be enough to save you.”
Then with a loud roar Rahzar launched himself towards the screaming pirate, who in response ran for the exit as quickly as she could. Meanwhile, even is Porche and Hamburg’s loosing battles seem to be one-sided, Foxy was certainly having more luck while fighting Bebop, mostly due to the fact that he kept using his Devil Fruit Power to slow him down.
“Dang it!” the warthog snapped after once again recovering from the attack. “Would you stop…”
But before bebop could finish speaking, Foxy delivered a cheap punt to his snout and ran for the exit.
“OW! My Piggy-nose!” Bebop squealed, gasping his snout in pain. “Why the hell do they always go for that!?!”
However Bebop’s pitiful squeals were of no concern for the other fighters, because at the very same time Rocksteady threw Hamburg out of the room and went out after him along with Rahzar, within moments the fight between pirate and mutant had escalated to the gravity-defying staircases outside. Watching everything from one of these staircases, Scanty and Kneesocks couldn’t help but smirk at the display.
“This has turned into quite the show, wouldn’t you agree Scanty?” Kneesocks asked.
“Oh absolutely darling,” Scanty answered, nodding her head in agreement. “But we can’t let those inbred monsters have all the fun, can we?”
“Indeed not,” Kneesocks replied. “After all we don’t want them destroying each other before we get our answers.”
“Then let’s get to it!” Scanty declared before jumping off the railing of the staircases, quickly followed by her sister.
Meanwhile as the fight moved from the filing room to the many staircases that made up G’s home, all six fighters somehow managed to find a battleground in the form of a large balcony in the front of one of the large pictures on the many walls. At this point, everyone seemed to be at an impasse, mainly due to the mutants’ strength and Foxy’s constant interference with his Devil Fruit Power, however this all changed when Foxy and Rahzar felt an impact to the back of their skulls. As the two skidded across the floor and slammed into the wall, everyone then turned to see their leaders’ attackers. As it turned out, Scanty and Kneesocks used both Foxy and Rahzar’s heads as a landing pad after making their jump, after which they jumped onto the railing of the current balcony to make a grand entrance.
“Now what!?!” Rocksteady snapped.
“Who are these clowns?” Porche added, sharing in the rhino-man’s fury.
However scanty merely chuckled at that enquiry.
“Clowns?” she repeated mockingly. “Now is that any way to treat a pair of high-class citizens such as us?”
“I think this bitch needs some schooling in respect,” Kneesocks added. “Shall we Scanty?”
Suddenly, both of the red skinned girls became enveloped in a fiery red aura, both of them sprouting a pair of luminous bat wings and an arrow-tipped tail as they began their chant.
Break, oh Earth,
Dry up, oh sea,
Burn out, oh sun,
Grant us power, Earthly leaders and Gatekeepers of Hell!
Guide us, makers of the underworld!
We are high-class Demon Commanders!!!
As both girls chanted both of them removed an article of clothing from their person, Scanty two pairs of black thongs, and Kneesocks stripped off both her white socks. What made this display all the more weird was the fact that these pieces of clothing became shrouded in the same magical aura and transformed into weapons, with Scanty her thongs turned into a pair of black and gold revolvers, and Kneesocks had her sock transform into a pair of black and gold scythes. When they were done, the two Demon Sisters presented their weapons and introduced themselves in an opposing manner.
“I'm Scanty!” the eldest declared, brandishing her guns.
“And I'm her darling little sister, Kneesocks!” the youngest added, raising one scythe to Hamburg’s neck.
Needless to say, the sudden appearance and magical abilities of the two new arrivals instantly gave both the mutants and the pirates a great deal of chills down all their spines.
“You’re shitting me, they’re frigging DEMONS!?!” Porche screamed fearfully, her stature shrinking under the sisters’ evil gaze.
Rahzar on the other hand merely chuckled after dusting himself off from the impact.
“Oh this gets more and more interesting by the minute,” he growled readying himself for another attack.
However before he could take a single step, Rahzar felt a sharp pain in his foot where Scanty had just shot him, his nerves may have been almost dead but bullets made from the flames of hell and fired from a demonic pistol would cause even the most hardened creatures to writhe in pain. As Rahzar sat there, clutching his foot in agony, everyone else raised their hands in fear, not wanting to push the demonic girl any further.
“Now you’re going to be as quiet as possible, or the next one is going into your stomach, understood?” Scanty demanded, earning a painful nod from the wolf.
“Now who do we have to speak to about this accused place?” Kneesocks demanded before turning towards Bebop. “Speak vile creature!”
Bebop narrowed his eyes at that.
“Okay, that was just rude!” he snapped, suddenly shrinking back as Kneesocks narrowed her gazed. “Uh… I mean, I don’t know what’s going on, Yo! Ask split-head over there, he’s the brains of the outfit!”
At those words, Kneesocks and Scanty turned their heads towards Foxy, who at this point had once again collapsed with depression upon hearing Bebop’s hurtful comment. Upon seeing this pitiful display neither sister was impressed.
“Yeah, I seriously find that hard to believe,” Scanty scoffed, aiming her revolvers at Bebop’s snout. “You want to lie to me again?”
“I AIN’T LYING, I SWEAR!” Bebop pleaded, desperately not wanting to get shot by this scary woman. “I saw the papers up in that filing room! He and his two cronies are planning some recruitment job or something!”
Both Scanty and Kneesocks raised an eyebrow at that and jumped off the railing, after edging their way towards the snivelling Pirate Captain, Kneesocks placed one of her scythes to his throat while Scanty kept Porche and Hamburg at bay with her guns. At any other time Foxy would have used his Devil Fruit Power to escape this situation, however as her looked up into the Demon Sisters’ piercing yellow eyes, he felt too scared to move since he knew that they would most likely blow his brains out if he did anything stupid.
“Alright, needle-nose!” Scanty growled. “You are going to tell us exactly what’s going on here, or I’m gonna blow so many holes in you, your guts will be leaking demonic lead!”
Foxy gulped at that.
“Calm yourself sister!” Kneesocks calmly said. “Let the man explain before you go shooting anything.”
However the answer Foxy gave the two sisters wasn’t what they wanted at all.
“I swear I’m not up to anything!” he whimpered. “I don’t even know who you weirdos are, much less how you got here. I don’t even know how WE got here, really!”
He may have been telling the truth for the most part, but unfortunately Scanty was not the most rational of demons when her blood begins to boil.
“Oh you are just begging to be blown away aren’t you!?!” she snapped, pointing both her guns directly at Foxy’s face, who in turn screamed in terror.
“Honestly, must everything always end in violence?” Kneesocks complained with a deadpanned expression, which quickly turned into a smirk. “Not that I mind gutting a few low-lives now and then, it has become somewhat of an interesting piece of entertainment for us, hasn’t it?”
“Exactly,” Scanty replied. “And in truth, we only need ONE of you alive to tell us what we need to know, so we’re just going to end this right here and know!”
At those words, Scanty pointed her guns and Bebop and Rocksteady while Kneesocks aimed her scythes towards Porche and Hamburg. Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to attack, Foxy then stood up and attempted to use his Devil Fruit Power.
“SLOW-SLOW…” he began, his fingers already beginning to glow.
However before he could launch his magical light, another voice distract him enough to make him stop in his tracks.
“ENOUGH!!!” the voice screamed.
The voice was loud enough that it echoed throughout the entire area, thus grabbing everyone’s attention and making turn towards the nearest setoff staircases, the top of which was occupied by another, much younger red-skinned girl with crab-claws and a tail, along with a pale-faced girl wearing a pink kimono.
“Yo, who invited the kids?” Bebop asked openly, earning himself a shrug from rocksteady and an iron to the face, complements of Mimi.
“Thank you Mimi,” Chi complimented, ever so enjoying her friend’s ability to pull objects out of thin air. “Now perhaps we can all just calm down so we can get to the bottom of this.”
However no one seemed to be interested in what the Daughter of Aku had to say.
“Stay out of this child!” Kneesocks demanded. “This has nothing to do with... WAHH!!!”
Suddenly Kneesocks was cut off by another attack from Mimi, this time in the form of a harpoon that was shot from a gun Mimi had pulled out her dress, which narrowly missed her head by inches.
“Next time Mimi won’t miss!” Chi yelled, clearly not liking being interrupted. “Look, clearly this is confusing for all of us, and Fox-boy here clearly knows more than he’s saying…”
“I don’t, I swear!” Foxy lied, only to be struck across the head by Rocksteady for both his whimpering and Rocksteady’s amusement.
Needless to say, no one was buying any of Foxy’s lies, for each and every one of them has had some form of experience in the matter that was clearly much better than this pathetic example of a Captain. During the whole situation Mimi remained silent as always and kept the stoic expression on her face.
“We all came here by the same means if I’m not mistaken,” Chi continued. “A large glowing crack right?”
At those words, Chi received a hesitant nod from everyone except Foxy, Porche and Hamburg, which in turn only confirmed her suspicions about the Pirate.
“I may have a rough idea about where we are,” Chi announced, quickly grabbing everyone’s attention. “After all, I have heard many stories about this place but was never allowed to come here. But perhaps we should also listen to what that stubby weirdo has to say and save the fighting until we learn what in the hell if going on… then maybe we can kill each other later.”
Sighing in defeat, everyone then dropped their guard towards each other, though they still kept a close eye on Foxy and his two crewmates, knowing full well that what Chi suggesting was made the most sense.
“Da, pale-faced girl makes good point,” Rocksteady commented, lowering his hammer.
“Agreed,” Scanty added, keeping one gun on Foxy. “After all we cannot establish a solution if we don’t have a way of civilised communication, there ARE rules to this sort of thing.”
Hearing this Rahzar growled and struggled to pull himself up, after limping his way towards Foxy, he then grabbed the Captain by the throat and slammed him into the nearby wall, forming another small sliver in the already damaged wall behind him.
“Boss!!!” Porche yelled worriedly.
However before either she nor Hamburg could do something to save their Captain, Scanty aimed both of her revolvers at them, freezing them in place. Leaving the zombie-wolf to snarl in Foxy’s face.
“Alright, Needle-nose,” he growled. “I’m willing to play this game, now start talking…”
Chapter 7 - Hands of Steel
After what felt like hours of searching for the missing characters, G was finally able to reach the spot where Nyx had spent the night after her arrival. The scent may have been faint from the damp but it was still somewhat fresh enough to make out a decent trail, and what made it all the better was when G discovered a single black feather caught on the hole of a nearby wire fence, a feather which without a doubt belonged to an Equestrian Pegasus/Alicorn Filly.
“Finally we’re getting somewhere,” G said happily as her took a good long whiff of the feather whilst still in his dog disguise. “I doubt their even a few blocks from here.”
Suddenly G sensed something, a faint rumble in the air, a sense that he only ever felt once while he was being pulled from his home and forced into this new world.
“Oh no,” he gasped, knowing full well what was coming.
Jumping up over the fence, G then looked up at the sky to his right and to his expected horror, he saw the tiny crack slowly growing just below the cloudy sky. And what’s worse was the fact that the smell of the two Equestrians seemed to be coming from the same direction, and that meant that things were only going to turn from bad to worse.
It had been an hour since Nyx and Goggles had been welcomed into Lug, Mossy and Spud’s home, and so far things were taking a turn for the better. Not only have goggles and Nyx finally managed to find a better place to spend their nights while working on a way home, but they had also made three new friends in the process. At the moment, all of them were enjoying spot of lunch in the form of Mashed Potato Cookies and a pot of Irish Tea, the latter being something that Goggles fiercely enjoyed.
“Ah yes,” he sighed tranquilly. “Nothing like a nice cup of tea to calm the nerves, by Celestia, I have missed you.”
With that he took another long sip, savouring every drop as it poured down his throat. Seeing this Nyx couldn’t help but giggle.
“Wow you really like tea, don’t you?” she asked with an amused smile.
“Can’t live without it,” Goggles chuckled. “In fact a few months ago, one of my adopted family members cut me off from my supply as punishment for some crazy thing I did, and I went crazy after the first week. You had to pry me off the kitchen cupboard just to stop me from attempting to pick the lock.”
At those words, both the Gizmonk and the Filly couldn’t help but burst out laughing, even Lug, Mossy and Spud couldn’t help but let of a chuckle upon hearing of the strange monkey’s obsession.
“Oh ‘eck, I haven’t laughed that hard in years,” Lug said, catching his breath. “You two really are a hoot!”
“Aye, I’ll drink to that!” Spud added, taking a gulp out of his own gulp of tea.
“So what’s your story anyway?” Mossy asked, grabbing everyone’s attention. “I know we’ve asked this already, but you must realise that we’ve never seen anything like you before.”
Upon hearing this the laughter quickly stopped, granted these three weren’t human but how were Goggles and Nyx going to explain that they came from another world. Luckily Goggles knew exactly how to swing this conversation.
“Okay,” he said calmly, “But first things first, you see I consider myself a bit of a business guy back at home so I believe in fair trade. You tell us what you are first, then we shall tell you our species, after which we shall both shoot back a series of even questions. That way we all know enough about each other to make this new arrangement work until we find a way home, sound fair?”
Goggles may have given off a vague notion of cheekiness when he said that, but luckily both Nyx and their three hosts seemed to brush it off, mainly due to the belief that it was in Goggles’ nature due to being a monkey and everything.
“Aye it does sound fair,” Lug said finally. “You wish to know what we are, eh? Well you may call us…”
“The Good Neighbours!” Spud interrupted.
“The Other Crowd!” Mossy added.
“The Daoine Sidhe,” Lug finished, sighing after being so rudely interrupted by the other two.
However that answer wasn’t exactly something either Nyx or Goggles could understand, but regardless they nodded their heads to at least pretend to know what the Daoine Sidhe were, after all they didn’t want to be rude to their new friends.
“Alright then, fair is fair,” Goggles said in response. “You wish to know what I am, yes? I tell you, I am Professor Goggles, Inventor Extraordinaire and you’re friendly neighbourhood Gizmonk.”
While Nyx couldn’t help but giggle at Goggles’ comical intro, the Daoine Sidhe repeated the process of not understanding what the creature before them is even though he had TOLD them exactly that. But like Nyx and Goggles, they merely nodded their nods so it didn’t seem like they were being rude. Seeing that it was her turn, Nyx then spoke up.
“And I’m Nyx,” she said. “An Alicorn from Equestria and Daughter of Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
However while her attempt to recreate Goggles’ theatrical introduction, the very words she spoke only made the Gizmonk widen his eyes with shock, so much so that he spat out the tea he was drinking.
“Daughter of WHO!?!” he yelled in surprise.
However before Nyx could respond, a loud thundering rumble echoed above everyone’s head, a noise that was so loud that is practically shook the stone beneath everyone’s feet/hooves.
“What the flaming eck!?!” Lug exclaimed, quickly shooting his head upward.
The next few minutes must have been the most terrifying moment of everyone’s lives, mainly for Nyx and Goggles because the second they saw what was forming above their heads, they instantly knew what it meant.
“Oh Scrap-bunnies!” Goggles screamed, pulling at his hair in terror upon seeing the glowing crack above the group. “Not again!!!”
But no matter how many times Nyx and Goggles pleaded or prayed, it didn’t stop whatever was happening from being true, the crack had returned, only this time more powerful than either of them had ever seen. Within moments it had grown large enough to cover the entire canopy of leaves that made of the ceiling and just like before anything close enough was sucked in, in this case it was everyone who was directly below it.
“Hang on Spud!” Lug screamed as he and Mossy anchored themselves to one of the stone statues while keeping grips on their friends’ cloak.
Goggles too tried to anchor himself to one of the statue, only it was with his tail and he was using all four of his remaining limbs to hang onto Nyx to stop her from being sucked in. However despite their efforts, neither one of them could hang onto their anchors for long, soon enough the force became so strong that Goggles’ tail lost its grip, thus he and Nyx flew towards the crack. Luckily Spud was able to grab onto Goggles’ tail at the last minute, thus creating a living chain of creatures as they hung onto dear life.
“What is that thing!?!” Spud screamed, through the gusts of wind pulling at everyone’s form.
“I don’t know!!!” Goggles yelled in response.
Suddenly, even Lug and Mossy’s grip couldn’t hold on long enough for the crack to diminish, soon enough the force of the winds pulled them from their anchor and proceeded to pull them into the glowing abyss. Nyx and Goggles could see it coming all too clearly, and they along with their three new friend were about to suffer another world jump, but then something happened that neither one of them had ever come to expect. Just before they all disappeared into the blinding light of the crack, Mossy felt something grab onto his leg, thus halting everyone, looking down everyone then saw the most bizarre creature they had ever seen.
“Don’t worry guys!” G Screamed as his cybernetic arm held onto Mossy, while his bony arm anchored him to another statue. “I got you!”
As it turned out, G was able to find his way into the roundabout just in the nick of time, and seeing that the others were in trouble we was able to use his Sci-Fi themed arm to shoot out his hand like a grabbling hook and latch onto the others while the attached cable kept them from going anywhere as long as G himself could keep himself from being sucked in too. No one knew just what exactly G was but at the moment they didn’t really care just as long as he was saving their asses.
“The crack should stabilise soon!” he shouted, trying desperately not to let go. “Just hold on a little longer!”
But that was a task easier said than done, for soon the crack’s power seemed to be growing in might, so much so that even the statues seem to be lifting off the ground. Finally G couldn’t hold on any longer, with one snap of ivy and a stumble, G lost his grip on the statue and the entire chain of creatures were sucked into the glowing abyss of the crack, and just like before it sealed shut behind them.
By the time Nyx woke up, her head was spinning if the first dimensional jump of rough then this had to have been far worse, mainly because the first time didn’t knock her out from the impact. Quickly turning her head in all directions she could clearly see that she was indeed somewhere else, more specifically she seemed to be in someone’s back garden, around her being a small treehouse, two hedges shaped like a dinosaur and a group of humans, and of course the back of the house. Fortunately Nyx wasn’t alone this time, laying to her right was Goggles, and to her left were Lug, Mossy and Spud all sprawled up in groaning dogpile.
“Guys? Are you okay?” Nyx asked uneasily.
“Ugh… I think I may have lost my lunch on that ride,” Goggles responded, covering his mouth so he could stop himself from being sick. “But I’ll live, what about you guys?”
“Aye, we’re okay,” Mossy answered, sitting up and clutching his head in pain. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Nyx admitted. “But that was the second one me and Goggles had seen in the last two days.”
Suddenly everyone was joined by another voice.
“It was a crack in the walls of creation,” it said. “And quite frankly I’m surprised you guys were able to handle a second ride so quickly.”
Hearing this everyone’s heads shot up to look up at the source of the voice, upon which they saw none other than G looking down at them from the small door of the treehouse.
“What the hell!?!” Goggles gasped. “Who are you?”
However while Goggles may have been surprised at this strange creature, Nyx recognised him immediately.
“Wait, you’re that guy who tried so save us aren’t you?” she asked.
G smiled at that.
“Indeed I am,” he answered. “And don’t let my appearance make you nervous, I’m as harmless as they come.”
At least that was SOME good news, but that didn’t really answer Goggles’ question as to WHO their attempted rescuer was.
“Oh dear, where are my manners? I haven’t properly introduced myself,” G continued as he jumped from the treehouse and landed in a dramatic pose. “I am… the Living Genre!!!”
However despite his theatrical introduction, everyone merely looked at him as if he were crazy, though in all honesty that might have actually been the case with the way G acts most of the time.
“The what?” Lug asked, raising an eyebrow.
G sighed and palmed himself in the face upon hearing that.
“Just call me G,” he replied with a deadpanned look. “Everybody does.”
Finally there was a name to go with, but now there was the question as to what G was and where exactly did he come from, from Nyx’s perspective he looked like he may have been related to Discord based on his appearance, but even she had to admit that might not be a possibility, granted he was just as bizarre in appearance and behaviour but he still seemed to have some form of seriousness about him that Discord certainly didn’t. And what about his origin? During the attempted rescue there was something he said that made it seem like he knew something about the cracks, was HE the one responsible for creating them? Nyx would have asked herself had Goggles not beat her to the punch whilst sharing her suspicions.
“Okay G,” he said sternly. “Then maybe you can tell us what the hell is going on!”
“Aye,” Lug added. “Cause we don’t like being dragged off from our home by some strange crack in the sky and YOU seemed to know something about it.”
G rubbed his temples at that, this was certainly going to take a lot of explaining. But explanations would have to wait for the moment, for this was neither the time nor the place for such things.
“I’ll discuss that later,” G explained. “But right now we gotta move, it’s not safe here.”
At those words, G then walked away from the group, much to their confusion.
“Well come on then!” he called out. “Unless you want to get caught by the locals and locked up in some zoo!”
Needless to say the other were more than hesitant about the new arrival, but then again they WERE all lost together in a strange world and he seemed to be the only one who knows anything about it.
“Can we trust him?” Spud asked sceptically.
“Do we have a choice?” Nyx asked sarcastically, quickly standing up and running after G.
Soon enough, everyone else saw that the young filly had a point and followed suit, eventually everyone was following the mismatched creature.
An hour had passed and so far things were going smoothly, for a while they had all been jumping from one back garden to the next, trying desperately to avoid being out in the open.
“You sure about all of this?” Mossy asked as he helped Lug over the 23rd fence. “What if someone’s home?”
G smirked at that.
“What’s the matter mate? Never taken a shortcut before?” he chuckled, causing everyone to roll their eyes. “Besides the only people who would be home around this time are the local housewives, and they’re all on the street corner gossiping around this time of the day.”
“How do you know that?” Goggles asked curiously.
“Because I’ve been here before,” G replied bluntly.
It wasn’t much of an answer but it was enough to satisfy everyone for the moment. However Goggles still had something else on his mind, something that had been picking at his brain ever since Nyx said who her mother was.
“Nyx?” he said, gaining the filly’s attention. “What did you mean by you being the Daughter of Princess Twilight?”
“Well exactly that,” Nyx replied confusingly. “Granted she’s actually my adoptive mom, has been for over three years now, but still she’s my mother regardless. Why do you ask?”
Goggles gulped nervously at that, the confusion in his mind quickly escalating into a frenzy of panic as his suspicions were turning into reality. He then quickly put a paw into one of his vest pockets and pulled out a small folded up piece of paper.
“Take a look,” he said, unfolding the paper and showing Nyx the photograph. “This is me and MY family and friends after we finished rebuilding my lab a few months ago.”
Upon seeing the photo Nyx couldn’t believe her eyes, everyone she knew was in this photo. First there was Goggles in front, next to him was her friend Apple Bloom, and behind them was Applejack and the entire Apple family along with Silver Spoon, the Great and Powerful Trixie, three Diamond Dogs, her Aunties Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash with Nyx’s other friend Scootaloo, Rarity and her sister Sweetie Belle, Pinkie Pie, and of course…
“My mom!?!” Nyx gasped, her eyes watering as she saw the beautiful image of Twilight Sparkle’s face.
“I’ve known Twilight ever since I came to Ponyville a year ago and I have never even heard of you,” Goggles explained, taking back the photo. “But I can also tell when ponies are lying to me, and you’re certainly no liar, Applejack taught me well on that particular subject.”
Nyx couldn’t believe what she was hearing, nor what she had just seen, Goggles lives in Ponyville? And with the Apple Family too judging from the background in the photo, there just had to have been an explanation.
“But how is that even possible?” she thought aloud.
Goggles may have not known for sure but he did have a theory.
“Parallel worlds, parallel Equestrias?” he replied, giving a small shrug and not having the slightest idea of a better way to put it.
At first Nyx would have argued that it would have been a silly idea, however her mother DID go to a world where she found counterparts to her own friends, maybe it wasn’t impossible in this case. However that was when G stepped in.
“Right on the money there Monkey-boy,” he said, having overheard everything the two had just said. “I’m surprised it took you THIS long to figure it out.”
Hearing this both Nyx and Goggles shot their gaze towards G with a look of shock in their eyes, he DID know something and he had literally just confirmed their suspicions. However question will have to wait till later since everyone had jumped the last set of fences and was now met with a large mass of forest on the other side of the last garden.
“Now what?” Lug asked, looking back towards G.
Luckily G knew exactly what to do from here. Ushering everyone to follow him, he then lead the group to the side gate that lead from the back garden to the front, which was of course recklessly unlocked and easy to open. Peering around the corner of the house, G saw that he and the group were exactly where they needed to be, just a few feet away was the end of a small Cul-de-sac, which lead to a large, busted up iron gate with a dirt path just beyond its border.
“You see that gate over there?” he asked, pointing towards the gate and earning a nod from everyone in response. “Beyond that is a pathway that leads up to a mansion up on top of the mountain, if we can get to it we’re golden. I know someone here who can help us out.”
No one had any idea who this supposed person could possibly be, but as stated by Nyx earlier, they didn’t have any other choice but to trust G at this point. After counting down from three, they all then ran towards the gate without being seen by anyone and started trekking up the dirt path, with G constantly looking back every few minutes to make sure they weren’t followed. After what felt like ages of walking, the group finally made it up to another gate shrouded in ivy.
“Here we are,” G said with a smirk, pushing open the gate and looking towards the group. “Ladies first.”
Nyx’s eyes widened upon hearing that, it was clear that she didn’t like being the one to go first, especially since it’s a place she didn’t know. However when she finally DID build up enough courage to go through the gate, she was met with a wondrous sight. It was as though she had entered a different world again, stepping onto the well-kept gravel path Nyx saw that she was the first to enter a magnificent garden, each one of the bushes completely transformed into a beautiful art display simply by being trimmed to a certain shape and surrounded by flowers. There was a stag, a cat, a crane, a serpent that appeared as though he were diving in and out of the ground, and perhaps the most interesting garden sculpture of all, in the centre of the entire garden, emerging from a flowerbed completely in bloom was a large hand, the fingers splayed out as though it were reaching towards the sky.
“Oh my goodness,” Nyx gasped. “It’s so beautiful.”
After everyone else followed the young filly into the garden, they too shared her opinion.
“Aye, my compliments to the gardener,” Lug said with a smile his gaze fixated upon the giant hand.
However the only one who didn’t seemed to be phased by the garden’s beauty was g, who simply walked passed the sculptures without a second glace and made his way to the large door at the very back of the garden. It was only then that the others finally noticed the mansion itself, unlike its garden which was gorgeous and well-kept, the old building was in shambles, the grey stone completely aged and decayed, windows were shattered, and a massive hole was in the roof, if anything it looked like a haunted house. Upon finally seeing it, Nyx and Goggles couldn’t help but gulp with fear, this house was the complete opposite of the garden and yet G was simply giving the door a loud knock.
“Edward!” he called out, opening the door slightly. “Ed, are you there!?!”
Whoever G was calling it was clear that he knew him enough to at least get on a first name basis, however whoever it was, Nyx and the others certainly felt like they needed some info before they go traipsing into this house.
“Who’s Edward?” Goggles asked curiously.
G didn’t even bother to turn his head upon hearing that, instead he only walked inside and ushered the others in.
“Let’s just say he’s a friend,” he finally said, closing the door behind the last person to enter.
As expected, the inside of the mansion was just as dark and gloomy as the outside, and this time there wasn’t even so much as a potted plant to spruce things up. The entire floor was grey concrete, which spread throughout the entirely spacious room, on the far end was a stone staircase and beyond that a large conveyor belt with several metal objects attached to it, making the entire room look like it was from a horror movie.
“Wait here,” G instructed the others, much to their distain. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
And with that G then left the group and made his way up the stairs, most likely in search of this Edward person.
“Oh yeah, sure just leave us alone in a spooky house eh?” Lug Asked sarcastically. “Not like we needed any explanations or anything!”
“Wait, where’s Goggles!?!” Nyx asked fearfully, quickly realising that a certain Gizmonk wasn’t with them at the time.
Luckily no one needed to search for him.
“Hey, check out all this!” he called out from the other side of the room, his gaze fixated upon the strange contraptions as he drooled with delight. “Whoever lives here must be a great inventor.”
Nyx rolled her eyes upon hearing that, of course Goggles would go gaga over someone’s invention, after all he was an inventor himself. Responding to the Gizmonk’s request, everyone then joined him at the conveyor belt.
“But not one for maintaining such devices judging from the dust and cobwebs,” Mossy pointed out, wiping off some of the dust.
Goggles merely scoffed at that.
Still, everything seems to be in working order,” he argued, eyeing every single detail with passion in his eyes. “Just needs a bit of oiling up and a jump start by the looks of things.”
“What is this thing anyway?” Spud asked, looking at the device all confused.
However while Goggles explained his theory to everyone, nobody seemed to be aware that another figure was watching them from the shadows, a figure that seemed to be eyeing them both with curiosity and fear. He could have kept himself hidden a little longer had it not been for the fact that a certain piece of his body made a noise that gave him away. With her ear twitching upon hearing the sound of metal scraping against each other, Nyx quickly turned her head towards the stairs, where she saw a shape crouching underneath it as though it were trying to hide, albeit very badly.
“Hello?” she said gently, quickly grabbing everyone’s attention, including the figure under the stairs. “Why are you hiding back there?”
“Careful lass,” Lug said quickly, placing a hand in front of her so she couldn’t go near. “We don’t know who that is.”
“Perhaps it is our host?” Spud pointed out.
That was when the figure started coming out of the shadows, and when everyone saw the silhouette of the sharp objects in his hands, upon which they all stepped back in fear.
“I think it’s time to leave,” G muttered, earning a nod from everyone else.
But the figure heard that quite clearly.
“Don’t go,” he said, his full form now emerging from the shadows.
Upon seeing the figure, everyone dropped their jaws in shock and awe, he appeared to be a human man with a pale face riddled in scars, a mess of black hair and wore a full body, black leather suit with numerous belts strapped along the chest, legs and arms. However the strangest part of this new figure was what was in his hands, or rather what WAS his hands, for each one of his fingers was made up of a pair of scissors.
“By Celestia,” Nyx gasped, her heart both welling up with fear and pity for this new arrival.
“Who are you lad?” Mossy asked, not having any idea what else to say.
It was then that G reappeared from behind the strange man with a solemn look on his face, much to everyone’s surprise.
“Everyone,” he said in a gentle tone. “Allow me to introduce a dear friend of mine… his name is Edward.”
Now for those who are confused as to why a live-action character isn’t at all phased that and animated character is in the same room as him and vice versa, allow me to explain a few things. While me, you readers and of course G sees everyone in their own style in this story, to the characters themselves they only see everyone else in the same style as they are. Still confused? Well let me put it more simply, live action characters see everyone else as live action and the animated characters see everyone as animated, most likely in the same style as them. The only down side is the fact that while the styles are different to each character, the species will stay the same throughout all of creation, meaning that no matter what style they are in, everyone will always see the group as the bunch of misfits they are. Luckily, Edward seemed to be a big of a misfit as everyone else, thus he was able to look past their appearance.
“It’s good to see you again Edward,” G said, giving his friend a tap on the shoulder. “I hope things have been well with you?”
“They have,” Edward replied with a light smile. “Who are…?”
“They’re people who need help Edward,” G replied quickly, knowing exactly what the scissor-handed person was going to ask. “Trust me when I say they’ve been through a lot during the past couple of days.”
“Well that’s putting it lightly,” Lug commented sarcastically.
Suddenly, before anyone else could speak, another voice echoed in the mansion.
“Edward?” said a gentle voice from the top of the stairs. “Is… is someone else there?”
G’s eyes widened at that.
“Who is that?” Nyx asked, hearing the voice loud and clear.
“Edward?” G added, wanting to know himself.
At those words Edward looked at his strange friend with a hint of fear in his eyes.
“She came here yesterday,” he finally said.
Edward then looked up towards the stairs and called up, albeit as best as he could muster given his naturally soft voice.
“It’s okay,” he said. “They are friends.”
It was then that everyone heard the footsteps of someone walking down the stone staircase, even though it were softened by the pads on her feet. Who, or rather what came down the stairs was nothing anyone bar G had ever seen in their lifetime, for she was a fox in both beauty and in literal physiology. She was a fox that stood over 5 feet tall much like a human would, and even though she wore an assortment of human clothes and had a head of chestnut hair that flowed down to her waist, there was no mistaking the lovely red fur that covered her from her fox ears and tail save for a few black patches that covered her hands and feet, along with the tips of her ears and tail. To say that this creature was shy would have been an understatement, in fact judging from the look in her baby blue eyes, she looked absolutely terrified.
“Who… who are you?” she asked nervously.
However while everyone else gave a formal introduction, G was beside himself.
“Oh crap,” he muttered under his breath.
Of course there was a reason for G’s distress, even though he had travelled to different worlds at different points in time, he had always been sure to keep to that certain story’s timeline to make sure he didn’t backtrack himself. Due to this G knew for a fact that THIS particular character shouldn’t even be alive at this point. It could have been possible that she came from a different reality where she had survived her ordeal, but judging from the smell of her, she definitely came from the canon piece. This in turn could only mean that the damage to the walls of creation must have been so bad that it’s now leaking raw ideas which in turn is bringing back characters that had already had their lives written to an end. This of course only made things harder for G in his mission, and what’s worse is the fact that he had rarely made a start yet.
“And who are you if I may ask, lass?” Lug asked politely, giving a small bow after making his own introduction.
“M… my name is Laura,” The fox-girl answered nervously. “And you are…?”
At this point Laura was looking directly at G, who at this point seemed to be staring into space in thought until Goggles slapped him out of it.
“Aye,” Mossy said. “I think we are ALL due an explanation lad.”
At this point everyone was looking at G with a stern gaze, all except for Edward and Laura who only looked in confusion. Sighing in defeat, G finally began to spill the beans.
“Well first thing’s first,” he said. “Edward, would you mind telling me how Laura came here. Was there a large crack somewhere?”
“Yes,” Edward said simply pointing a scissor towards the door. “Just outside the front gate.”
G nodded at that, expecting as much before looking towards Laura.
“And would you mind telling me what you remember miss?” he asked, much to Laura’s surprise. “Anything at all before you came here?”
Laura’s nerves seemed to take a beating upon hearing that, she had to had been one of the most timid creatures anyone had ever seen, still she tried her best to answer.
“N… Not much,” she admitted. “A… all I remember is a huge explosion, after that I woke up in front of this place.”
It wasn’t much of an answer but it was enough to give G a better understanding of the situation at hand.
“Thank you Laura,” he said gently, earning himself a small smile from the fox-girl. “Now, explanations… you might want to sit down for this.”
Neither one of them liked where this was going but still they were finally about to get some much needed explanations and were obliged to acquiesce the strange being’s request, some found some comfort sitting on the conveyor belt, other were fine with the floor, and Lug simply grabbed a nearby stool and sat down. With everyone seated, G began his story.
“Okay, how do I explain this?” he said, trying to find the right words to say. “Have either of you ever heard of the theory of alternate worlds?”
This earned him many confused looks and some angry gazes, G would have to become a bit more serious if he had any hope of convincing this crowd that he was trying to help them.
“Well I’m what’s known as a Dimensional Jumper,” he continued, earning himself more raised eyebrows. “Basically I spend my days jumping from one world to the next, seeking out all kinds of adventures and meeting new people like Edward here.”
At those words everyone looked at Edward, who only looked back at them with an awkward smile.
“Wait, have you ever been to MY world?” Nyx asked, her curiosity peeking.
“Or mine?” Goggles added, wising to know himself.
G couldn’t help but smile at this.
“Yes and yes,” he answered. “Of course given my appearance I couldn’t let anyone see me, so I have this built in disguise magic that helps me bland into the background. Edward here is one of the few beings in existence who knows my true form.”
“That’s all well and good lad, but I think we need some info as to why we’ve taken a little trip through those cracks!” Lug pointed out, everyone nodding in agreement as he said it.
“It would be nice to have some closure as to why this is happening,” Laura added nervously.
G couldn’t help but gulp upon hearing that, he knew he had to say something but he couldn’t exactly blurt out the fact that everyone here is a character in a story, so he thought it best to twist the truth just a little.
“Well that’s where things get a bit more complex,” he admitted. “You see, I live in my own dimension between worlds, call it a Dimensional Station if you will, a place where I can travel to any world any time I want. Now normally my methods of coming and going between these planes is one of my most well-kept secrets but… well… I screwed up.”
Goggles narrowed his eyes at that.
“Explain,” he demanded bluntly.
“Uh… well I…” he stuttered, nervously tugging at his vest before sighing in defeat. “Alright, normally I’m supposed to check every angle around me, but unfortunately in one particular case I didn’t and… I was followed.”
Nyx couldn’t help but gasp at that.
“Followed by who?” she asked.
“Pirates,” G replied with a heavy sigh. “Somehow they followed me into my home dimension, when I confronted them and tried to send them back, a fight broke out. I tried as best as I could but the fight caused some damage to my home, and because by realm is in the centre of all creation it caused a ripple effect that spread to every world in existence, which came in the form of those cracks you all saw.”
It was then that everyone seemed to gain some form of understanding as to what was going on, granted they were sceptical and didn’t understand it fully save for Goggles given the fact that he had the biggest brain in the room, but at least they were getting more information than they did before they met G.
“The cracks, as you can probably already figure out, are the reason you all got swallowed up into different dimensions,” G continued. “And as such they seal up as quickly as they open up due to a failsafe in my home world, but that can only do so much. If I don’t find a way back home to fix the damage properly, the cracks will continue to appear across the multiverse and suck in everything and everyone close to them, sending them to different worlds in the process.”
“So why haven’t you done it already?” Mossy asked sceptically.
“Because I’ve been locked out!” G retorted. “Another part of the failsafe is that whenever a crack appears and seals itself, it also closes off the dimension to anyone in order to prevent any more losses to it. In other words a being can LEAVE their world but no one can go back to it afterward.”
However that had to have been the worst possible choice of words anyone could ever say in this situation, especially when there was a young child in the room.
“Y… you mean I… I won’t be able to see my mom again,” Nyx whimpered, her cheek now streaming with tears.
Needless to say, G felt horrible once he realised that what he said had hit the filly hard, in fact he couldn’t help but bite his tongue in shame. Seeing the young girl’s distress Laura quickly ran over to her and gave her a gentle embrace.
“It’s okay little one,” she said, soon upon the verge of tears herself. “Th… there has to be a way we can fix this, right?”
“Didn’t ya hear what the lad said!?!” Lug yelled in response. “Even HE can’t get back home, we’re stuck!”
However that statement only earned him a smack across the head from Goggles.
“That’s NOT helping!” he snapped.
“I may not be able to get back home now but I can figure something out!” G added.
“How?” Spud asked sceptically.
G once again gulped at that.
“I… I don’t know yet,” he admitted. “But I swear to all of you, I WILL make this right.”
However nobody seemed to be convinced in the slightest, in fact G’s very words only made them feel worse. Eventually G eventually gave up trying to explain himself and made his way to the door.
“Where are you going now?” Goggles demanded, his concern shared by everyone in the room.
“To get some food,” G responded bluntly. “I have a feeling that we’re gonna be here a while and I doubt there’s anything decent to eat in this place. No offence Edward.”
Edward merely shrugged at that remark.
“Oh and just how are you supposed to get around like that?” Mossy asked sceptically, taking note of how everyone had to sneak through a number of back gardens earlier.
Hearing this, G smirked and spun around like a tornado, suddenly stopping as he transformed into a typical looking human in a woolly jacket and a trucker hat, the only giveaway to his true appearance being the glowing heart in his chest that the jacket easily concealed.
“I have my methods,” he responded smugly. “Keep an eye on them Edward, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
And with that, G then walked out the front door, leaving everyone else alone in the mansion. As he walked down the path back down the mountain, G’s mind soon turned back to the memories of his home and the fears he carried, wondering what sort of devastation those pirates have done while he was gone.
Meanwhile, the said pirates had their own problems. After being struck both with fear and Rahzar’s multiple punches, Foxy was finally spilling everything he knew about where everyone was and how they got there. At this point everyone was surrounding the beaten up body of Foxy in the file room, he entire body covered in bruises and trickles of blood.
“So you’re saying that this ‘G’ character is the one responsible for us being here?” Rahzar growled inquisitively.
“Yeah,” Foxy whimpered “He’s the one you want, I swear.”
Of course Foxy would deny his involvement in this situation no matter how much pressure he was under, after all he was a natural born liar. What he actually told them was that G had kidnapped him and his two comrades for his own amusement, and when they tried to fight back he damaged the walls in desperation, thus causing all of the cracks that brought them to this world. Of course nobody believed him at first given what Bebop discovered in the filing room, however Foxy was able to talk his way around it by saying that after G was caught up by his own attack and sucked away, Foxy took the opportunity to gather some potential crewmates by their own choice, the latter part of that statement being completely false of course.
“What do you think Miss Chi?” Kneesocks asked the Demon Princess. “You seem to be the expert on this creature, perhaps you can give us some perspective.”
Chi couldn’t help but scowl at those words, granted she didn’t like being stuck in some strange realm but she didn’t like selling out her friend either, however if there was any truth to Foxy’s words and if any information she divulged would help in getting her home then she had no choice but to talk.
“Well I wouldn’t say I’m an expert,” she admitted. “But I have met G multiple times whenever he came into my world, and I never would have expected him to do something like this. However G is also somewhat unpredictable, so there could be some truth to this whelp’s story.”
“Do you have any better explanations!?!”Porche snapped, trying to defend her Captain’s honour.
However all that earned her was a series of fierce growls from all of the mutants.
“Look none of this matters yo!” Bebop snapped, much to everyone’s surprise. “Even if what split-head said was true, we’re still stuck here.”
“Comrade Bebop is right,” Rocksteady pointed out. “As far as we can tell, this G person is only one who knows how to travel to other worlds.”
Everyone sighed at that, no matter how much they hated to admit it to themselves, the fact still remained, G WAS the only one that truly knew how this place worked and without him, there might not be any way for any of them to get home. However that was when Foxy’s sly, twisted mind began plotting and a grin appeared on his face.
“Who says we do need him?” he asked, much to everyone’s surprise.
“What are you talking about, fool?” Scanty asked with a deathly glare.
Despite Foxy’s fearful gulp, he tried his best to answer the demon girl.
“Well, think about it,” he said, trying to regain his composure. “If this G person left behind details of all the different worlds, then it would stand to reason that he had instructions somewhere in this filing room. As such, he would have written down how he travelled to each world and how he comes back, which means that if my hunch is correct then we have the power all to ourselves.”
This idea certainly caught everyone’s interest, however there was one flaw that Foxy failed to recognise.
“And just what is stopping G from coming back?” Scanty asked.
“Yeah, I know G pretty well and he’s not exactly one to take things lying down,” Chi added. “Especially when you try to take his things, right Mimi?”
Mimi nodded at that, though still kept her stoic expression and remained silent. Foxy only the other hand, merely chuckle.
“Fehefefefefefefefe! What’s stopping him you say?” he laughed. “Why US of course, even if he does find a way back then we will be here waiting for him when he does. And if he causes us any trouble then all we need do is… dispose of him.”
Everyone gasped upon hearing that, and while Chi and Mimi still looked shocked at answer, most of the other’s faces obtained an evil grin.
“So what do you say, my friends?” Foxy continued, his stature now strengthening as he tried to stand up. “Will you simply try to find your way home, or will you aid me and my crewmates in mastering this realm, perhaps you can even find a few good warriors to bring back home with you eh?”
It was then that everyone began to think on the situation. While Porche and Hamburg were with their Captain every step of the way, the mutants were sceptical, the demon sisters were analysing every possible outcome if they considered the idea, and Chi and Mimi merely looked at each other with concern, after all G was Chi’s friend and neither one of them liked the idea of possibly killing him. Finally a decision was made.
“It would be interesting to see what kinds of ghosts we can create from beings from other worlds,” Kneesocks said, Scanty nodding in agreement.
“And Master Shredder will definitely be interested in expanding his empire,” Rahzar added, much to Bebop and Rocksteady’s delight.
However there was one voice that wasn’t so keen.
“I still think we should at least try to find G first,” she suggested. “After all he might still have some information that we might find useful.”
That may have been what Chi had said out loud but Mimi knew her friend too well to know that it wasn’t entirely why she said it. In truth Chi simply wanted to find G too make sure that he was okay, however she couldn’t let these mongrels know her true intentions otherwise they might go for HER instead of Foxy, and her powers hadn’t been fully developed yet so she couldn’t exactly defend herself even with Mimi’s abilities, especially against Scanty and Kneesocks. Luckily everyone else seemed to agree with her suggestion.
“Da, I would very much like to meet this G,” Rocksteady said.
Foxy on the other hand merely scoffed.
“You would be wasting your time,” he said, trying to sound as pompous as ever. “There are many windows on those walls, there is no telling which one he’s in.”
At those words, Kneesocks raised an eyebrow, there was definitely something off about the way Foxy said that, as if he were trying to hide something. However that was when her look of concern turned into a sly grin.
“But it’s just like you said needle-nose,” she pointed out. “If this G person has information about how the portals work…”
“… then there may be some information written down about how we can find a specific person.” Scanty finished, knowing exactly where her little sister was going with the conversation.
That made Foxy more nervous than ever before, with his own words turned against him he began to panic, if G WAS found and he revealed the truth about what truly happened in his home then Foxy would have been screwed big time. He needed a plan, and he needed quick.
When G finally came back with the food for everyone, he was of course met with the same hateful glares he received before he left. He felt so unwanted that he felt the need to distance himself from the others in order to give them some space, after giving them most of the food he brought back, the then waited outside, sitting by himself in the hand-shaped garden sculpture as he gazed up into the night sky. It was at least 8 o’clock in the evening at this point, and the stars had already began to fill the autumn sky, for a while G felt himself being lost in their beauty as his mind tortured itself with questions. What’s happening back home? How will he fix this mistake? And more importantly, will he even be able to keep his promise to the others inside the mansion? He was mulling this over when he heard a snipping sound to his right, turning his head, he saw that Edward was tending his garden, snipping off any stray pieces of bush that stuck out of his sculptures.
“Oh hey Edward,” he said, grabbing the strange man’s attention. “Late night gardening again?”
Edward merely nodded at that and took another snip at one of the sculptures.
“Nice to see someone here has calmed down a bit,” G continued with a heavy sigh. “How’s everyone doing?”
“Tired,” Edward replied, taking another snip.
At those words, G sighed again and laid back on the hand.
“Can’t say that I blame them,” he admitted, mostly to himself. “They did have a rough couple of days.”
“Can you really help them?” Edward asked, not turning his head away from his work.
“I’m gonna try,” G replied honestly, once again looking up at the stars. “Though I have to admit I don’t know how just yet.”
“You will,” Edward replied, catching G off guard as he looked toward his friend.
Hearing this G couldn’t help but smile, Edward always was a good friend, ever since they met all those years ago G and Edward had always shared some form of kinship, after both of them weren’t exactly normal compared to most beings so they had a common bond. During each visit he made to this particular world G always looked forward to coming here, mostly because Edward was someone he could talk to, someone who would never judge him for what he looked like. As he once again stared up into the night sky, G’s mind calmed, perhaps he CAN make things right…. At least he hopes he can.
The next morning everyone seemed to have calmed down a bit, Nyx was no longer crying and Laura seemed to be interacting with everyone more easily as she helped with breakfast. After giving Lug his plate of toast, Laura quickly noticed that a few individuals weren’t with everyone else, G was of course still outside and Edward was spending the morning in the attic. Goggles on the other hand, Laura had no idea where he was, just then she heard a clank behind her and turned towards the conveyor belt, where she saw the Gizmonk messing around with the large metal cube with air pumps on its sides, at the end of the belt.
“Um… excuse me?” she said nervously, trying to get the Gizmonk’s attention.
However Goggles seemed to be too caught up in his work to even acknowledge the fox-girl’s quite voice. It was then that Laura then walked over to him and gave him a small tap on the shoulder.
“Pardon me, Mister Goggles…” she said, just as Goggles looked over his shoulder.
Suddenly Goggles screamed and jumped several feet into the air, startling Laura in the process.
“Don’t you EVER do that again!!!” Goggles snapped as he hung from the chandelier.
“I…I’m so sorry,” Laura whimpered, almost on the verge of tears. “I… I didn’t mean to…”
However seeing that he had caused the fix-girl a bit of distress, Goggles instantly felt guilty about snapping at her and decided to calm her down.
“Hey relax missy,” he interrupted, climbing down from the chandelier and jumping back onto the conveyor belt. “There’s no harm done, just got a few issues with foxes is all.”
“Oh?” Laura replied, somewhat hurt by that statement.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with YOU that is,” Goggles quickly said, realising his bad choice of words. “If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of fox are you anyway? I have to admit I never seen one like you before, and certainly not nearly as pretty.”
Laura couldn’t help but blush at that, flattered by the Gizmonk’s curiosity, Goggles certainly knew how to give a good compliment when he wanted to.
“Well actually I’m what’s called a Keidran,” she answered with a gentle smile. “We come in many shapes and sizes, Tigers, Large Cats, Dogs, Wolves, and of course Foxes. I’m just one of many in my home country.”
“Wow,” Goggles gasped. “Sounds like you have quite the family group.”
“Well most Keidran species keep to their own kind,” Laura admitted, her face suddenly turning sad. “Others are kept as slaves by humans.”
Goggles looked at Laura in horror upon hearing that, the very thought of a creature such as this being kept as a slave is just sickening.
“Were you…?” he asked, almost afraid of the answer.
Luckily that’s when Laura’s smile returned and she gave the Gizmonk a ruffle in his hair.
“No, not me,” she said gently. “I guess I was one of the lucky ones, although… well, maybe I’m not so lucky given that fact that I’m here and all.”
At those words Laura’s face once again fell and she took a seat next to Goggles, who only looked up at her with deep sorrow.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, placing a paw on her arm, his face suddenly turning serious. “But since we’re now on the subject, this G character, what do think about him?”
Laura was quickly taken aback by that question, but regardless she tried her best to answer.
“Well I’m not quite sure to be honest,” she said truthfully. “He seems nice enough, and Edward has told me good things about him, when I first came here he told me that G will know exactly what to do.”
“And you believe that?” Goggles asked sceptically.
“Well Edward doesn’t really seem the type to lie,” Laura argued. “And if HE trusts him, I don’t see any reason why we can’t.”
Seeing that this particular conversation is turning into something bitter Laura then proceeded to try to change the subject.
“So… what were you doing when I interrupted you exactly?” she asked, much to the Gizmonk’s surprise.
“Well if you must know, I’ve been doing a little tinkering,” Goggles replied smugly. “From what I can tell, this machine is quite the accomplishment. I figured if I fiddled around with it, I could get it working again.”
Laura raised an eyebrow at that.
“Why would you want to do that?” she asked, earning herself a shrug from the Gizmonk.
“I was bored,” Goggles responded with a comical shrug. “And this sort of thing is fun for me, you may not believe this but I actually have my own laboratory back home.”
“Really?” Laura asked, intrigued by the Gizmonk’s statement.
“Oh yeah,” Goggles chuckled, standing up and walking along the conveyor belt, lost in a train of thought. “But I have to admit this piece of junk is vexing to me, I’ve been tinkering with it for about an hour now and I still can’t get the damn thing working!”
It was then that Goggles gave the box at the end of the belt a good kick out of frustration, however that turned out to be a mistake since the second his foot touch it, the entire structure began to roar with life. Easily startled, Laura quickly jumped off just as the conveyor belt began to move, Goggles on the other hands wasn’t so lucky, after comically running up the belt like a sprint machine, moving and inch because of it, his tail got sucked up into the box at the end and thus he ended up getting swallowed up by the large beast of a machine.
“Goggles!” Laura screamed, grabbing everyone’s attention.
Within moments everyone had come running, fear stricken about the panic in Laura’s voice.
“What happened!?!” Nyx asked fearfully.
“I… I don’t know what happened,” Laura replied, fighting back her tears. “He just kicked the… the thing and he…”
However before she could finish her sentence, something had smashed down the front door and zoomed past the others.
“Hang on Goggles, I’m coming!” G yelled as he punched through the metal box with his cybernetic arm.
After digging through the hot machine like a lucky dip for a few brief moments, G then retracted his arm, pulling out a charred, yet still alive Gizmonk by his tail, who at this point was wide-eyed with shock.
“Are you okay lad!?!” Lug asked fearfully.
“Speak to us!” Nyx added, her heart pounding in her chest in fear for Goggles’ health.
At first the Gizmonk said nothing, however after about a minute he then coughed up a bit of smoke and chuckled.
“Holy smoke!” he laughed. “What a rush!”
Though relieved that Goggles was alright, everyone couldn’t help but sigh and roll their eyes upon seeing the Gizmonk’s unphased, yet terrible sense humour. Upon seeing that Goggles was okay G then sighed with relief and carelessly dropped him to the floor.
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to mess around with ovens?” he asked with a deadpanned look.
“That was an oven?” Goggles asked dizzily before passing out.
While most people would be concerned at this point, as of course most who were in the room were, G merely shrugged Goggles’ sudden knock out off.
“Eh, he’ll be fine,” he said, casually walking away.
However before G could take another step towards the door, he saw Edward standing at the foot of the stairs, his face saddened by the destruction of the oven. Realising his mistake, G smacked himself across the head.
“Oh Edward I am so sorry,” he pleaded to the scissor-handed man. “I’ll fix this right up.”
All of a sudden G then walked back towards the punctured oven and placed his cybernetic hand upon it, needless to say everyone watching was confused by this display at first, however soon their jaws dropped in awe as they witnessed G’s eyes glow a brilliant white and the energy lines in his Sci-Fi arm pulsated a luminescent green. What happened next send everyone’s minds’ reeling, all of a sudden the green energy in G’s arm left its metallic frame and flowed towards the damaged piece of machinery, within moments the energy converted into a magical aura and the once damaged oven began to repair itself. No one in the room knew about this but this particular skill is another one of G’s abilities in regards to being a living genre, just like how the strongest genre in his body always shows whenever he is disguised, G can also manipulate something in the realm he is in with that certain body part as long as it is related. In other words, G can use his Science-Fiction themed arm to repair the Science-fiction based machine simply by manipulating its realty. However G wouldn’t normally do this since this particular skill takes up too much of his energy and he always ends up on the floor because of it, but given the fact that this machine is one of the few things left behind by Edward’s father after he died, g couldn’t stand G loosing such a treasured item. After about 5 minutes of repair work, G finally removed his hand from the oven, which once again roared with life, as did the rest of the machine, after which G then slumped down to the floor with exhaustion.
“Holy Scrap,” G gasped, finally recovering from his near-cooked experience.
“How did you do that?” Mossy asked in awe.
“Just… another one of my tricks,” G replied with a smirk, gasping for breath as he turned towards Edward, who in turned smiled back.
“Thank you,” he said simply, earning a small chuckle from his friend.
“Don’t mention it,” G replied, his mechanical arm giving off a slight spark before he walked away towards the front door. “Oh and Goggles? Next time you feel bored, do us all a favour and read a book.”
After they all stared in awe at G as he left, the group then turned back towards the conveyor belt, which at this point was now running perfectly enough for everyone to understand what it did. From what they could muster, everyone soon realized that it was a device for mixing and baking cookies, something of which Nyx was happy to see especially.
“Oh wow,” she gasped.
However while everyone else was admiring the machine itself Goggles was taking G’s advice into account, perhaps it would be better if he studied this particular science before attempting to fiddle around with it, luckily enough there seemed to be plenty of books on the nearby windowsill. Giving off a small shrug, the Gizmonk then jumped up onto the sill and grabbed the first book.
“The Journal of Professor Vincent Rattigan,” he read aloud as he opened the cover, before turning the first page. “It is no secret that I am proud of all my creations, yet I believe that my latest one shall be my greatest yet…”
Meanwhile back in G’s filing room, things had gotten from bad to completely insane. After another bunch of what felt like hours given there was no clock, the assembled villains were getting more and more frustrated given that they were unable to find anything useful in understanding how dimensional travel worked. However not only were their efforts not going so well, but Foxy and his two cronies were constantly slipping away to either concoct a plan to make sure Foxy stays on the other’s good side, or continue their search for new recruits.
“What about this Zodiac guy?” Porche whispered, making sure Rahzar wasn’t looking at them.
“No gods!” Foxy snapped. “That’s the last thing we need right now!”
“You’re right,” Porche whimpered, cringing under Foxy’s gaze. “My mistake.”
Luckily no one else seemed to be taking notice of Foxy or Porche and continued to focus on rummaging through G’s files, however after another few minute of shifting through numerous papers, Scanty was finally pulling at her hair and screaming with frustration.
“Ugh this makes absolutely no sense!!!” she screamed, tossing several papers into the air.
“Please calm down sister,” Kneesocks pleaded, gripping on Scanty’s shoulders gently. “Stress isn’t good for your complexion.”
“I DON’T CARE!!!” Scanty snapped in response. “This filing system is just as jumbled as the rest of the forsaken place!!!”
“I’m with you sister, I can’t even find the fool’s name under this all this crap!” Bebop growled, tossing more papers under. “It’ll take us years to go through all of this!”
“There is also the fact that I’m starting!” Chi added, Mimi nodding in agreement.
And they weren’t the only ones, while they haven’t realised it at first each and every one of the villains were starving, for none of them had eaten since before coming here. The only reason they hadn’t realised it sooner was because of the confrontation and the dire search for answers had set their minds away from their hunger, but now it was becoming too much.
“If I don’t get something to eat soon, then Fox is gonna be on the menu!” Rahzar snarled, looking towards Foxy who in turn looked back at him with fear. “Heck, I might just eat you just to shut you up.”
Needless to say, Foxy almost peed his pants when Rahzar said that, however if he had to be honest he can’t say that he blamed the wolf, after all everyone was starving to death.
“Ugh, what I wouldn’t give for an AFC right now,” Chi moaned, her mouth salivating as she thought of the delicious pieces of deep-fried chicken from home.
Suddenly as though it were responding to Chi’s wish, the smell of delicious chicken filled the air, quickly turning their heads, everyone then looked towards Mimi who at this point had a massive bucket of deep-fried chicken in her claws and munching down on a drumstick.
“Where’d you get that!?!” Kneesocks demanded, her gaze staring down the stoic girl with the ferocity of a predator ready to pounce.
In response to the demon’s question, Mimi lowered the drumstick from her mouth and pointed it towards the massive AFC stand that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They had no idea where the source of food came from, but at the moment they didn’t care, the second they saw the food everyone surrounded it like a swarm of piranhas, desperately trying to clamber over each other for the tender pieces of chicken. Within moments, everyone was stuffing their faces from their own buckets.
“Oh baby I’ve missed you!” Chi moaned, tearing away at the bundle of wings in her hand.
Needless to say, everyone shared in Chi’s excitement as they all gobbled up their own food, however as they ate hey couldn’t help but wonder where this food came from.
“It is a little odd don’t you think?” Porche thought aloud. “How this food just appeared out of nowhere?”
“It certainly is a mystery,” Kneesocks said in agreement.
“Da, is very mysterious,” Rocksteady added.
“I swear this place gets stranger by the minute!” Scanty her temper quickly starting to boil over. “Why can’t this place make sense!?!”
Suddenly, everyone felt a rumble beneath their feet, for a few brief moments the entire room shook as though it were part of an earthquake. Finally the shaking stopped and everyone scrambled to their feet and ran towards the filing room’s exit, what they saw next caused all of their jaws to drop. They had no idea how it happened but G’s entire realm had changed, the staircases nor the paintings were no longer there but instead, it was a single large circular room with several doors lining the high walls, a single circle of deep purple light smack dab in the centre of the floor with many cracks all around it like a mosaic pattern.
“What the…!?!” Foxy gasped, not having the slightest clue how else to respond to such a drastic change.
Kneesocks however couldn’t help but scratch her chin with thought, her mind riddled with questions upon seeing what was before her, suddenly she smiled.
“Astounding,” she said, grabbing everyone’s attention. “If I’m not mistaken, this entire realm must be subject to the imagination of those who occupy it.”
However that theory was quickly but with unconvinced chuckles and scoffs.
“Yeah, right!” Rahzar laughed
“Da, that makes no sense whatsoever,” Rocksteady added, trying to hold back his own laughter.
However that statement didn’t seem to phase Kneesocks in the slightest, in fact she was more determined to prove her point.
“Tell me sister,” she said, grabbing Scanty’s attention. “What were you thinking when you said your last statement?”
At first Scanty was confused to why her sister would ask such a question, but regardless she answered her.
“Mostly about my living quarters back home,” she admitted. “Comparing it to this place seemed therapeutic to me at the time.”
“And you Miss Chi,” Kneesocks continued, now grabbing the paled-faced girl’s attention. “That food we had only appeared once you began thinking of one of your favourite delicacies correct?”
“Well, yeah?” Chi answered hesitantly.
At those words, Kneesocks’ grin widened.
“I rest my case,” she said proudly.
It may have been hard to believe by Kneesocks did make a convincing argument, in fact the more Foxy, Porch and Hamburg thought about it, they did recall something similar happening when G was chasing them through his home, more specifically when the stairs seemed to move by themselves. Now that the idea had been placed in their heads, everyone was eager to try it out.
“So say if I were to open one of these doors…” Bebop quickly said, running towards one of the nearby doors and opening it with a clear idea in his head. “WOOHOO! OH YEAH, PARTY TIME YO!!!”
Just as Bebop had imagined, what awaited inside the room was in was a neon lit dance studio with roaring disco music and a disco ball glittering from the ceiling. It was as though the music-loving pig had entered his own fantasy world that he loved so much, that he spare no time in rushing in and getting jiggy the beat. Seeing Kneesocks’ theory become a reality, everyone quickly raced to another door, each of them opened to reveal a room filled with a certain being’s imagined desires.
“Zamechatel'nyy!!!” Rocksteady screamed, running into one room that was now full to the brim with all kinds of golden weapons. “Rocksteady is VERY happy!!!”
That was but one of the many reactions from everyone as the entered a certain room, however while everyone else seemed to relish at the new discovery Chi and Mimi couldn’t help but scowl at them.
“While this is all well and good, we still need to find G and bring him back here for interrogation!” she said grabbing everyone’s attention.
However this sudden new development gave Foxy the biggest grin he could ever muster as a another idea popped into his head, no one else knew it but the Pirate Captain’s luck now seemed to be changing in a positive way.
“Interrogation!?!” he laughed. “Don’t you get it? We no longer NEED him anymore, whatever we require will come to us with just a click of a finger!”
While this statement merely confused the others, Porche and Hamburg quickly understood their Captain’s intention and decided to add their piece.
“In other words, the only option left is to get rid of G before he decided to come back and take it away from us,” Porche stated.
“Time to plunder our loot,” Hamburg added with his usual goofy grin. “Pupupupupupu.”
Needless to say Chi was shocked to hear this, however she carefully made sure she didn’t show it, after all she and Mimi were still in the snake pit with all these unsavoury characters. Meanwhile Foxy’s mind was still somewhat riddled with fear, for he was desperately hoping that everyone would go along with his scheme so that he could presently silence G before he could reveal the truth about what happened.
“Bah, what’s the whelp gonna do?” Rahzar scoffed. “He can’t take us all on.”
“Need I remind you that this was originally HIS realm!?!” Foxy argued. “If he comes back, then his twisted mind will make this entire world tear us apart if he wanted.”
While Chi may have seriously doubt that her friend would actually do such a thing, she couldn’t help but gulp in fear upon hearing that, after all she said herself that G was unpredictable. Seemingly enough, everyone seemed to share the same fear.
“I’m afraid Foxy has a point,” Kneesocks said finally, adjusting her glasses. “As much as we have learnt from only a day here, I’m afraid there are only so many answers we can answer on our own during a small amount of time. We need to eradicate this threat before it becomes one.”
Upon hearing this Foxy smiled again, as did Kneesocks’ sister.
“Perhaps it is time to imagine way to find this G character then,” Scanty said with a smirk as she brandished one of her guns. “Miss Chi? You’re the only one of us that has actually seen him other than the Jolly Roger Three here, perhaps you can help us with this one?”
While Foxy, Porche and Hamburg couldn’t help but pout at Scanty’s comment, Chi on the other hand became riddled with fear. While it was true that she wanted to make sure her friend was okay, but she also didn’t want to give anyone the means of locating him, granted G has amazing powers but even he had his limits and if these villains now possessed the power of his own realm then maybe G’s luck could eventually run out. Suddenly much to the surprise of the Japanese demon, the light in the centre of the floor shot up another beam of light directly upward, displaying G’s face as though it were a giant monitor. Chi couldn’t help but gasp at this, granted she thought of G a few seconds ago but she didn’t wish for any means to find him. Suddenly that was when she realised something important, while Chi thought of Chi’s face alone, it was the combined desires of all the other villains that made the location method come into realty. As every other villain stared at their target, Chi merely muttered to herself.
“Oh G, where are you?”
