Protectors of Existence

The Grand Elders of existence gathered in the The Cortex of Creation as they saw a couple worlds being erased from existence, all its inhabitants, history and potential future gone forever- it never existed, never will. Every time a world disappears from the radar of all there is, it endangers the existence of the rest. The Grand Elders agreed to put a stop to this, but even with their powerful abilities they were but spectators, they could end this for once, but they are forbidden to interfere- directly that is.

And so one of the Elders suggested the formation of a team of heroes from various worlds to end the catastrophic decay of all there is. The team members are to be selected based on their actions and history, candidates worthy of the task, capable of handling the responsibility. And so it was decided, they shall be called the 'Protectors of Existence'. I know, it sounds 'cheesy', but it was Elder Krakon's doing, he fancies his humor. Don't blame me, I'm just the Lore Elder!

The Elders left the main chamber of The Cortex of Creation and went back to the All Viewing Room outside of the Cortex, the hassle of communicating with the team members and guiding them was handed to the unfortunate sob, Elder Naghum. He wasn't chosen randomly, but rather as a way to make up for his past crimes against the moral code of the Grand Elders, he endangered his celestial sobriety by imbibing unknown substances, known in Earth - J43k as 'Ale'.

The members were contacted by Elder Naghum in his human form in their respective worlds, and then transported to the Cortex to meet the other members and be ready to be briefed of their task and first mission. The Elders and I are spectating all this, hoping they are worthy. And capable.

---

Elder Naghum stood in the middle of the Main Chamber of the Cortex of Creation, fixing his beard and inspecting his human form.
"Damn Grand Elders, why couldn't I have assumed the form of a much handsome and lustful woman? How is an old man's form appropriate to approach various humans from various infinite worlds? This is mad, I need my ale."


The Elder motioned both his hands and waived them around as he created a portal that would take him to the worlds' of the chosen members. He would approach them all simultaneously and bring them back to the Cortex.

Marcus was outside Jurgenville, near a platform that overlooked the horizon, and the waterfall below it, with a mill that used the water flow to power the steam engines. The sun was getting in Germana, it was a beautiful sight, one Marcus enjoys everyday. He sat on the protective fence, his feet swung back and forth above a hundred foot tall fall. It was a not so eventful week for him, no important anecdotes to be mentioned, no encounters with moonshine smugglers or deranged prison escapees. It was a quiet week, his birthday by midnight.

Marcus stared into the horizon as the sun hid and casted purple shades into the skies, the distant neighboring counties lit up, steam coming out from homes and factories. The steam engine below sounded a horn, signifying it has started to generate more power, the people here enjoyed the luxury of steam-powered tech, so they didn't mind the noise. Marcus found it annoying that it should be left unresolved, he had ideas in his head to fix the noise- until he was interrupted.

A figure approached him, he was dressed in fading robes, and had a warm yet old face, red nose, and an impressive beard. Both hands behind his back as he approached Marcus.

"Nice beard!" Marcus remarked, turning his body towards the old man, and jumping down on two feet.
"Aye, so it is." The old man said, running his fingers through his beard.
"Can I help you? I have never seen you around? You visiting Jurgenville?"
"Aye, I am a visitor from the beyond. You are needed young one. You are destined for great a many feats." The old man approached closer.
"Destined? That's interesting. Keep talking." Marcus said, sitting down, his back against the fence, knees to his chest.
"I am Grand Elder Naghum, I have come to offer you to join a team that is tasked of great things." The Elder said.

Marcus paused for a while, pondering, staring at the Elder. He looked out of place, out of time. But the offer was upbeat, it promises excitement, something Marcus longs for. Maybe meaning, something grander he yearns to achieve.
"You from the government of Euboria?"
The Elder took out a tiny pouch and drank from its tip, he wiped his beard and put the pouch in his robe. "Oh no no my boy, I am from the beyond. Come with me, it will make things easier."

"You want me to come with you? There is a 'don't take candy from strangers' joke to be made here," Marcus chuckled.
"I did not offer candy, but what comes next should impress you."

The Grand Elder motioned his hands as he created a colorful portal that channeled the image of a golden hall of some sort. "The Cortex of Creation, come now."
"Wait, what is this about? I wanna know more before I jump there- wherever there is."

"You are to join a team of other peers from alternate and parallel universes, the team is to prevent the fallout of all there is by traveling into multiple worlds and preventing certain things from happening. The rewards are lucrative, such as preserving existence. The team is formed by celestial beings that watch over all there is, called the Grand Elders, I am the Elder tasked to guide the team. The Protectors of Existence."

"Woah, that's super cool, and meaningful. Do I get to say goodbye-" Marcus was interrupted by the sudden shift in reality as he phased through worlds and timelines and finally finding himself standing in a huge golden hall. He looked around, groggy, the Grand Elder he spoke to was in the distance, attending some sort of beverages platform. Marcus look around again and found three other people, the rest of the team.

"Gateway is coming around the back side can she make it? She only has forty seconds left and neither Speedster nor Torch are letting up."

"I don't know Riv, I don't think Emilio can defend the base for long. Emilio's out of juice and while Lamia's dynamic duo has some great potential Emilio's got a bad habit of falling off if the games run for too long. They have less than ten minutes and-"

"Holy shit! Gateway has opened up a portal and pulled the Speedster inside! Where did he go? There's only person on the Yggdrasa team on the map! Do we have a portal cam? Can we get a portal cam?"

The screen switched to the infrared camera pinned on Liana's shirt, showing the Yggdrasian zipping around the Nullspace, dodging each creature's attempting to bite him.

"Getting animals to do your dirty work? You've really fallen from your throne Li," the Speedster laughed, "oh wait that's right. The only thing you've ever been queen of is 'potential™'."

Liana struggled to dodge Speedster's hits, stumbling at every punch or kick. As much as she would have liked to say that the man was all speed, he also had the strength to go with it. She crawled on the ground, quickly regretting her decision to pull the man with super speed rather than the one who smelled like barbeque.

"Looks like Gateway's not doing such a hot job with the camera work."

"Well it comes with her power. Speedster's moving slower now that he has to work through the Rift, but Yggdrasians are known for their physical talent. They actually have the highest win rate of all the poor countries since they have the highest chance of mutation."

I'm betting Gateway wishes she were born there now."

"Sorry I'm not you Speedster," Liana mocked, looking up at the Yggdrasian, "I still have room to grow."

With a sweep of her hand, a portal tore open under her, leading back to Yggdrasa's base.

"No! Get back here!"

Speedster dived into the portal only to find himself stuck between the two spaces and Liana standing tall.

"You should say potential with such disdain," Liana murmured, grabbing the flag, "it means that there are still mountains to climb, GBUs to win."

"N-now don't be hasty. I was kidding. Please I have a fami-"

The gate closed above her, leaving the upper half of the athlete on the floor while she walked away with the flag.

"Emilio!" she shouted, looking around.

Where was he? For that matter, why wasn't he headed toward her. She picked up her pace, running toward the middle of the field to find Torch with Lamia's flag.

"So it's come to this, dueling in the middle of the field. Aren't we past this? Aren't you tired? Just give up and drop the flag."

"You think I'm going to give up so easily after ripping Speedster to pieces?" Liana's voice cracked. "I don't care how many mouths you have to feed Mother Torch but I'm taking this thing back to base."

"I'm sorry to hear that Gateway. I didn't want to hurt you."

"And with that Torch is sending one-no two-no three-it's a trinity of fire balls to make Lamian kebabs using our favorite Lamian."

"But it's not without opposition. Gateway's going with her tried and true Portal-Fu, delivering a barrage of punches and kicks through each portal. Is that a scorpion?"

"She's sending them one after and-Oh! I do not believe it. Torch is hurling them back on fire. Who knew those buggers were flammable?"

"Probably not Gateway. She's going to have to think of a better way to end this match unless she wants Lamia to have to play the loser's bracket. She's made another portal all that's doing is buying time. One wrong move and Torch can just zip past her."

"Gateway's backing off, she's trying to run no-there's the leap! There's the scorpion and there's the fire and she's turning! She goes for the sting. Torch tries to ring around the rosie but she rips the gates open and they flood her! She goes down and I do not believe it. With a double K.O. we have a winner."

Liana exited the field, heading back to the locker room in order to clean up. It was her only match for the day so after a nice shower she could relax and pretend that she didn't just kill another man...or so she thought. When she actually entered the shower, robe on body and comfortable but gross clothes in hand there was an old man, an old and short man. Given that he was wearing clothes far out of date and that he had a beard she might have thought him a crazy hobo, but the fact that there was a rather sizable rip behind him. She hadn't opened a portal there before (she didn't see any reason to given that everyone knew about her powers) so that meant that either Null had entered through here or someone else had.

"Secur-"

"Wait, wait! Please wait! These were not the circumstances I imagined meeting you. Let me explain."

Liana crossed her arms, but cocked her head to show that he could go on.

"Aye so I am a visitor from the beyond. You are needed young one. You are destined for great a many feats."

He attempted to walk closer, but the appearance of a spider-like creature discouraged him.

"You may not know this but your universe isn't the only one. It is but one of many in this great brain we call existence. Every nerd, every neurobe, and every court-ex is but a parallel universe. We are all connected, but-" he raised a finger off of his staff "-this connection is not always so safe. We need people, people like you to fight."

"Literally none of the things you listed are actually part of a brain, human or otherwise, and secondly, how can anything parallel intersect?"

She took one of the complimentary towels and started feeding it to the spider as the Grand Elder reiterated his statements, sighing when she realized that this man was being serious.

"We are the Grand Elders we don't have to follow the laws of physics."

"Why should I believe you? How do I know that this isn't a trick by one of the other nations to poach a team."

"That is true but," he paused, thinking for a minute, "do you have any more alcohol?"

"Top shelf of the refrigerator," Liana sighed.

He really was a hobo wasn't he?

After a long shower and examination of the tear she'd seen she came to the conclusion that it was similar to The Rift (with a capital "The") in Killaka but it was cut of a different cloth. She could use it for sure, it didn't appear to be anything of this world.

"Alright Grand Elder..."

"Naghum."

"Naghum, what does being a part of your team entail?"

"You are to join a team of other peers from other universes and prevent the fallout of all there is by traveling into multiple worlds and preventing certain things from happening."

"If I'm right, you are asking me who you know hates everything about this world to protect the existence of this universe. This universe. The one where kids are engineered by the thousands in hopes of winning some stupid war? The one where I had my childhood taken away to fight for a country that colonized my home country? The one where they're trying to make animal-human hybrids now because being able to shoot fireballs isn't enough? What use is it saving a place like this?"

"Oh you are over thinking this," Naghum shrugged, "good or bad this is still a world with people on it wouldn't you agree? And there are many worlds better than this that equally worth saving."

He let out a burp before tossing the bottle into a trash bin.

"Besides, if you weren't considering this offer you would have already ousted me aye?"

Liana stared at the old man before looking out the window of the Uni landscape. Athletes in body bags, amputees walking out as cyborgs, and the broken hearts of families who were told they would no longer be living in luxury, no this world wasn't worth a damn.

And yet...

Yet she'd gotten dressed in her favorite battle gear and combed her hair.

"Then you should already know where to take me."

With a tap of his staff, the Grand Elder brought Liana to the Cortex of Creation. It was a strange feeling, but nothing that Liana's portal days wouldn't give her immunity to. The more important thing was the fact that there were others in the room.

"Be warned," he whispered, "we will know if your resolve has weakened."

Liana turned back, but found the Grand Elder tending to some drinks.

"HIME," his voice ripped across the bloody battlefield as he moved with uncanny speed toward the woman whose body was mere inches from death. Eyes fixated on her form, his body shifted, altering from that of a seemingly normal man to that of a man with robotic body augments and unusual powers. He was unlike anything else, a new bred of man. No, a new bred of SFA-agents.

Hand melting into the golden gun in his palm, the connection was made. In a glowing, burning, raging light, a man whose arm became the gun appeared. His metal stomach and torso shifted to reveal a chest plate much to what those of Earth would identify as Iron Man's suit. His shoes became metal boots with rocket boosters, which propelled him forward all the faster. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that would stop him from saving the woman he loved.

Teeth grit, he charged forward to collide with the forces that dared disrupt the peace that ceased to exist. As his body hit the large, feral monster, he let out a disgruntled scream.

"FUCK YOU," he shouted before stuffing his gun-hand into the overly large snake's mouth. The venom in the saliva would have killed a normal man, but not him. This golden-eyed man known was Reino, clad in a fancy-ass tuxedo, was unlike most. His body was half-man, half-machine -- the spoils of fighting monsters that were god-like in power and appearance. And no, the mechanical parts weren't by choice. They were by near-death experiences.

Hailing from a time far in the future where thoughts altered appearance and science was on the forefront of the world, Reino's life was far from easy. As glamorous as it might sound, chaos was always around the corner. Threat Levels, the mental state of the mind that determined ones ability to commit crimes, might have been at an all time low, but the threat of monsters from another world were at an all time high.

The SFA, Special Force Agency, was created to deal with crime. Then, when the monsters came, they were tasked with stopping the monsters. They had come a long way -- a very long way. However, in the mist of their soon-to-be-success, a dark truth was revealed. Those who held the most power fell corrupt to said power. They wanted to prove their worth and turn the monsters against those who didn't bend to their reign. Uninterested in the politics, a select team of the SFA broke free to fight the monsters -- both literal and those of man. They were to eradicate the monsters that crossed into their world from another AND they were to bring about the end of the dictatorship. They were to forge peace. They were to forge freedom. They were to break the rules and start an empire anew.

BANG BANG, went his gun as it fired into the mouth of the snake. It probably didn't look effective, but it was. Rolling from the monster, he landed squarely beside Hime. "You okay," he said with sympathy in his eyes.

The place was a bloody mess. Death was everywhere. Loli, Mozilla, Cias -- all dead. Discord -- buried. Artemis, Shadow, Volkov, Ashes -- all wounded. Sai, Sycom, Vex -- all on their last legs as they tried to defend their fallen and injured friends.

Was this really the fate of his friends? The air around him seemed calm, almost still. Then, out of nowhere, a blinding white light came. Squinting his eyes, a short form appeared before him. Without hesitation, he spoke.

"Ashes, if you've been holding back, I'm going to rip you a new one."

"I am not the cat-man you speak of." The white light dimmed and the short man, old man, became visible.

"Oh god, don't ever tell Ashes I mistook you for him. He would be so pissed. Although," he turned to look at the grizzled man he called Ashes, "I do see some similarities."

"What? Please don't lump me in with that bag of fleas!" For being old and obviously not of their world (seriously, why dress like that when you can alter your looks on a whim), he sure was a testy one. Reino quirked a brow before moving his attention to the war around him. Everything was... everything was... moving in slow motion?

"Who are you," he swung his gun-hand around and pointed at the old-geezer. As he did such, the weapon-hand morphed from a rocket-launcher to a pistol.

"I am Elder Naghum. I come to you with a mission to save your world and may other wor-"

"I'm in." Holstering his gun, his hand transformed back into a hand. Extending it forward, he stared at Naghum until he finally stuck his hand out.

"But you know nothing about the mission?" Naghum had yet to meet someone so willing to get on-board with such an outlandish, seemingly insane idea. Why was Reino so willing to accept it and without even knowing all the fine details?

"I don't care. I don't need to know the mission. If helping you saves my world, saves Hime, I'll do whatever I can. I won't let those I love fall from my hands again. I already lost my mother. I won't lose the woman I love."

Reino's gaze softened as he stepped from the white light and moved to Hime. Placing a kiss on her lips, he stroked her cheek before whispering, "I will be back. Just keep fighting and I'll do the same." Another kiss was dropped on her nose. "I love you."

Moving back into the light that surrounded Naghum, Reino fixed his posture so he stood tall and proud. "Ready whenever you are, Sir." And, like that, Reino took the first step toward his new mission. Whatever was in store for him, he didn't care. He would win. He would succeed. And when it was all said and done, he would come back here and ask Hime to marry him.

"I'm so bored!" Danny cried out, exasperated. He had his head on the desk, his left cheek pressed flat against the surface. "Why is my life so boring?"

It was Monday, which meant school, which meant walking into an exam completely unprepared yet again. It was a true miracle that Danny, at seventeen, was still on track for graduation. Of course, it should go without saying that Danny wasn't going to be graduating with any sort of honors or distinctions. No one was going to offer him any scholarships for college, but, as Danny was prone to say, he didn't plan on going to college anyway. He hated school; he wasn't about to sign up for another four years of it.

"Mr. Hayashida, if you're going to be disruptive, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Is that a promise?" He asked, his face still planted squarely on the desk. His exam sat closed in front of him, his name hastily scrawled across the lines in what can only be described as chicken-scratchings.

He had skimmed through the test, answered only what he knew, which was about four questions, and doodled Napoleon on a horse for the rest of the questions. He hated history and the only thing he had learned from the class was that Napoleon wasn't actually short, which was extremely disappointing. He rather liked the story of Napoleon being a shorty.

"Leave, already!"

---

"Again? You were disciplined again?" Director Rick Curry asked as he stormed into the room, his one good eye glaring at Danny. Rick Curry—or "Ricky," as Danny preferred—was a tall, imposing man with a habit of talking too loudly and keeping too many secrets. He also wore an eyepatch, which Danny figured was more for effect than practicality. "If you keep this shit up, I'm going to have to suspend you from training!"

"Are you serious? Is that really going to happen? Please say yes!"

Gritting his teeth together and resisting the urge the strangle the boy (an accomplishment that deserves praise), the director walked over to the outlet and ripped the power plug from the wall, effectively ending Danny's time with the Stop Station. "Either get your shit together or I'll get your shit together for you. Now get your ass over to the training room!"

---

"Heard you got reamed again for being trash," the blond smirked as he flew past the turret, spiraling left to avoid the storm of rockets on his tail.

"Heard your mom got reamed last night," Danny shot back, always quick on the come-back. He weaved around the array of machines, running fast enough that the robots, in an attempt to gun him down, accidentally took each other down. Without looking back, the redhead raced ahead, grabbing the first of four keys needed to finish the program.

"Oh snaps!" A boy with a giant scar crowed as he charged forward, ramming his entire body against the ten-foot tall turret. The tower shook from the impact, but stayed standing, still trying to gun down the blond. "You gonna take that Davide?"

"Dave always takes it," Danny laughed as he dodged oncoming spikes. "Takes it up the butt, hahaha."

"Fuck you!" The blond suddenly dropped at a steep angle before turning around and firing back at the tower. The guns mounted on shorted and, seconds later, the ten-foot tall machine was nothing more than blown up scrap metal. "Bite me, Danny!"

"No thanks, homes. I don't got that kinda fetish. Ask Val, she's into kinky stuff." The three laughed, giving each other high-fives and props.

"Will you guys stop messing around already?" A girl shouted as she jumped on top of another robot—one that had been waiting to ambush the boys—and sliced off its shoulder joints before severing the power circuits in the back. "Can't even take care of simple shit."

"Aw, Val, it's 'coz we know you got our back!" Danny swung an arm around her neck, pulling her into a one-sided hug. But the hug was short-lived. Val—Valerie Esteves—elbowed Danny in the chest and walked ahead, her blades still drawn to attack.

"Let's hurry up and finish this. I have a calculus test to study for."

---

"We're all in this together, once we know that we are, we're all stars and we see that!" Danny belted out as he showered, enthusiastically massaging the shampoo into his hair. He was so into his private musical number that he hadn't noticed the flash of light and he certainly didn't notice the elderly man now standing on the other side of the sliding door. "We're all in this together and it shows when we stand, hand in hand!"

"I should hope not. I'd rather 'we' not be in anything together. Also, none of this naked hand holding."

Everything happened in a second. Danny, looked over, saw the bearded man, and screamed. He tried to run and he ended up running into the wall before falling flat on his butt—still naked, still in the shower. He hadn't stopped screaming.

"Will you knock it off? You're giving me a headache and where's the ale? Here?"

"The—The—The what?" Danny was slowly coming back to his senses. He realized that he was naked and there was a man standing in the bathroom with him, who, at a glance, looked like Randolph the White, the wisest mage of the world and a trusted counsel for APEX. Of course, Randolph the White would never be in his bathroom, much less trying to look for alcohol among ammonia-based solutions. 'Unless, of course, good ol' Randy is actually an alcoholic,' Danny thought as he watched the elderly man scrounge through bathroom's cleaning supplies. 'It's possible, right?'

"Danny?" A voice called out to him from outside. "Is everything okay? Is there a spider in the shower?"

"Shit," Danny cursed as he looked over at the old man, who might actually be Randolph the White. "Look, you have to leave. My aunt is home and I can't explain why there's an old man in the showers with me. I can't even explain it to myself."

"But I can't," the Randolph lookalike said, rather matter-of-factly. He even had the nerve to sniff, as if Danny was the one being unreasonable.

"Uh, yes, you can. Just teleport back. Beam it up, Scotty. I don't know. Do something. You can't be here," the redhead hissed before shouting back, "Ah, no, obasan! I'm fine. The shower was just a bit too hot! Sorry!"

"I'm here to take you back with me. You're being summoned to protect the worlds. If you care for your own, you will come with me," the man said, somewhat sullenly, as he gave up any hopes of finding ale in the bathroom. He gripped onto his cane a little more tightly as if he meant to use it some time soon.

"Can this wait?" Danny asked. The summon sounded serious, but he was also in the middle of a shower and it wasn't like he could just fight crime naked! He had to protect his identity! He had to protect certain parts of himself!

"No."

"Randolph, please, I'm—"

"I'm not Randolph," the man interrupted, wrinkling his nose at the name. It was as if he thought it was an insult or something. "I am Elder Naghum and you'll need to come with me if you don't want to see your world perish."

"Right, I know. I'm going to get dressed and then I'll meet you at HQ. I just need you to leave—"

Suddenly the shower was gone, the hot water was gone, and Danny was standing—still dripping wet, some soap suds still clinging onto him—in the middle of a room with three other people who were not his usual teammates. The first thing he did was move his hands to cover some rather choice spots, but, luckily, he was now wearing clothes.

They were his clothes from training, but they could have been worse. He could have been wearing that potato sack the man called clothes. "Alright, so, here to save the world. I don't know who you guys are. Are you some secret Alpha-team Director Curry called up? Oh man, this is so sick! Can't wait to let Davide know that I'm on an alpha squad!"

Danny turned to his side, held out his fist, expecting the other man to return the gesture.

There were two other guys, and a purple haired girl. One of the guys was in a black suit, and had a golden gun, he looked intimidating and far from friendly. Marcus shifted his eye contact to the Grand Elder, he was still occupied pouring unholy liquids into his beard. The golden hall had high ceilings, and high golden pillars that was seemingly lined up to infinity. The hall's golden hues was contrasted by the premium red carpet in the middle, it ran parallel between two sets of pillars to infinity. At the ceiling there was shimmering mist that reflected the view of the cosmos and starts outside the Cortex.

Marcus's attention was rattled by the voice of a redheaded, foxy young male. He was tall and handsome, looked carefree but resilient. The foxy guy extended his arm and expected Marcus to fist bump him. Marcus smiled and did the honor of fist bumping. He smiled and opened his mouth to answer the guy.

"I've never met a Curry, but I am pretty sure I heard a similar name in Germana's archives of the old world's figures," Marcus fixed his scarf and stepped away and walked around, "but nevermind that. I believe that funny old man sold you the same promise of glory and saving all there is? I was sold when he mentioned me- us being destined for this. So you are probably one of the team's members, my teammate." Marcus walked back to face Danny.

"I am Marcus by the way, I'm from Jurgenville, Germana." Marcus extended his open palm, and favored a formal re-introduction, smiling.

Blinking, Reino stood unamused by the antics that played out before his eyes. He did his best to keep his face straight-laced and focused, for succumbing to their level of foolishness would ruin his acute reputation. And besides, he was the oldest, aside from the drunken man who acted like a sixteen-year-old, which dictated being the stiffest. Right?

Rolling his shoulders back, Reino bobbed his head from side to side to loosen the strain in his neck. The toils of the previous battle were still taking his toll on him. In fact, Reino whipped his wrist up and around so he could gaze at his less than clean hands.

"Really," he muttered under his breath when he spied a single drop of blood on the white cuffs of the oxford he wore below the tux. This was not his day. Not only was his interrupted mid-bow-chica-wow-wow by Flynn and Quincy, but now he also had blood on his perfect uniform. Oh, and did he forget to mention that he left his friends back on his home plant to fend for themselves. Nearly dead comrades. You know, the ones that needed him more than ever and he up and left without second thought. Maybe he should have declined?

With a grimace, he pulled his attention off the blood-spotted sleeve and back at the comments at hand.

Yup. He should have declined.

Introductions. Yuck. Rolling his golden orbs, Reino found himself admiring the ceiling; it was far more entertaining. Yes, he could live here, he decided. The colors were perfect. Just the right amount of gold. It would suit him nicely. Who owned this place? And how could he get his hands on it? Eyeballing the old geezer, he smirked. If killing that old guy got him this sweet place, he would murder without hesitation.

In a dry, haughty voice, he plainly stated, "Not that I want to be that guy but let's get on with things already. I have worlds to save and people to see. Let's cut the pointless chit-chat and get to work."

He was definitely in a cheerful mood. Not.

To say that Danny was ecstatic would have been an understatement; he was free-flying his way past cloud nine with every word coming out of the other boy's mouth.

Destiny.

He rather liked the sound of that. No, he really like the sound of it—gave the whole thing a nice ring to it.

But, of course, someone had to come along and crush everything with a certain kind of stink. The man was much older than either of the boys and Danny could tell because the brunette gave off that kind of "old-people" feeling he usually noticed around unnecessarily stuffy adults. He also gave off a vibe that said: I'd murder you in your sleep if you look at me wrong right now, boy. In a way, the man reminded him of his own brother, who, while not a would-be serial killer, was accustomed to having a stick shoved up his ass twenty-four-seven.

"Well, Marcus," the teen said, blatantly ignoring the much taller man as he took the proffered hand. "I'm Danny or Dash, I'm your residential speed master. I cook a mean pasta, like long walks on the beach, and I'm currently single. I also have the time to actually get to know my new teammates. Unlike, you know, some people."

Yeah, if the guy turned out to be a psycho killer, Danny was going to have to sleep somewhere far, far away. And probably not sleep at all.

Liana let out a giggle when she noticed Danny's colorful appearance, but it turned into a full-blown chuckle seeing Marcus, Mr. Steampunk-Aesthetic bump him back. Well, technically his costume wasn't all that strange, but it didn't look like anything that one would find in her world unless they went to a niche convention. In fact, he seemed to be the one that stuck out amongst the stuffy suit and soulless ginger. No, this wasn't the time for taunts. Those were for her opponents, whoever they would be.

Still, he was a bit dense.

"Unless you mean the East Hijran dish then there's no 'curry' here," she said, "or well...I guess Hijran could be forming a team, but they don't have nearly enough resources to put plants in other countries..."

Damn now he had her questioning the legitimacy of the operation. No, Hijrans have more honor than this, she thought, shaking her head. She would trust Naghum for now since it got her out of further competition.

From the looks of him he was too incompetent to do anything other than bring them to this room anyway. When he visited all he had done was drink her alcohol and attempt to peep her in the shower (at least that's how she thought of their meeting seeing as he had the power to appear practically anywhere). She was sure that there were others behind the team's assembly and behind the creation of the room given how Null-proof it was. In her journey here, her NullSpider had died and she didn't dare summon anymore lest they suffer the same fate. The room itself was gold in color with red carpeting and windows with swirls of galactic dust decorating whatever space existed outside.

Who created this room? she wondered, turning back to her team.

The black-suited man wanted to cut to the chase, which was annoying but understandable given their position. Still, Liana wasn't in much of a hurry to head back to her universe.

"What's your rush? We haven't even been given a mission by Naghum," she asked with a hint of irritation, "the least you could do is give us your name."

She paused for a second, realizing her possible hypocrisy.

"For example, my name is Liana but most people call me 'Gatekeeper'."

Danny seemed quite upbeat and fresh, a good contrast to the other less cheerful and kept-to-himself guy. Marcus smiled when the redhead mentioned cooking pasta, there was a certain joy in guys that cooked, it told something of their character. "Awesome, I make cupcakes, party cupcakes."

Their little conversation was interrupted by one of the team members, a girl in a cute outfit and interesting choice of hair color. Marcus really liked both of them so far and felt like he could work well with them, good first impressions. When Liana was done commenting on Hijran dishes, Marcus added. "Back in Germana, Curry was the favorite food of the steam-engines engineers, they said it gave them certain strength to handle their daunting tasks. I tried it once, never again though." Marcus chuckled.

The guy in the black suit expressed his impatience, he seemed ready to begin the mission, the mission that Naghum has yet to explain anything about, too busy getting intoxicated. The girl introduced herself sarcastically to the suited guy, Marcus took the initiative to bring him into the team.

"And I am Marcus, you are?" Marcus smiled with a big grin that stretched his face, quite the naive and innocent smile as he extended his hand to greet the well suited gentleman.

Yup. It was official. He should have rejected the offer.

As all eyes fell on him, Reino found himself wishing he could roll his eyes at the situation. Granted, for as boring as this was, at least he wasn't on the verge of death. He didn't hear the crying screams of his teammates nor the ceaseless droning thuds of the blades of a helicopter. There were no ravenous snarls from monsters nor the thunderous boom of weapons meeting bone. The peace was almost welcoming -- perhaps too welcoming?

His gaze shifted down to his teammates and, for a brief moment, he felt relieved that none of their young eyes nor bodies looked as weathered and war-torn as his. Perhaps their worlds were softer on them? Perhaps they had a chance to live, whereas he was cursed to die?

Shaking off the looming feeling of abandoning him teammates, he sighed and let his lids snuff out his golden orbs. When they reopened, sharply and with a bit of dramatic flair, Reino's heels clicked together while he uttered, "Recently reinstated SFA Division One Senior Field Agent, Reino." As the words rolled off his tongue like water off a roof during a downpour, his golden pistol swiftly yet gently rose to kiss his lower lip.

Was he striking a pose? Perhaps. Or maybe it was his form of saluting.

Equipping a subtle smile on his face, he tried to follow suit with what the others shared. "Never heard of curry. I'm more a carne (meat) and tuberosum (potato) kind of guy. Not overly fond of spicy or sweet."

Check, he spoke about food he liked. What else did they talk about? Oh, a hobby or skill!

"Er, I like felidae." Not wanting to confuse them, he tried to curl his lips and mimicked the creature by adding, "Meow, meow purrr" to the end of his comment.

Hoping that introduction sufficed, he turned to the old guy that he assumed to be the "boss." Frankly, he hardly seemed suited for he was still too busy ignoring them. Seriously, his reckless antics were pissing him off. Why wasn't this guy giving them direction?! WHY WAS HE DOING NOTHING?!

Perhaps he should. No, that was too callus. No, it was very Reino-like.

BANG!

A single shot rang out. As the bullet lodged into the wall after just missing the old man, Reino holstered the weapon and coyly chided, "Sorry, I was just trying to get your attention. I know you old folk can't hear all the time." Malice look in his eyes, he bore down his annoyed gaze at Naghum hoping that maybe, just maybe, they would begin their mission before he had to babysit the kiddies a second longer!

These people don't know who Curry was.

That was his first thought. His second thought was interrupted by a gunshot. Apparently, this was how people greeted each other according to the would-be ax murderer. Or, rather, it's how he would greet the elderly.

"Bro," Danny said as soon as he had recovered from his shock, "That's how you give someone a heart attack."

Without any sort of warning, the teen was suddenly invading the other man's personal space. He was moving a mile a minute, his hands everywhere—touching this, touching that. He may have, at one point, touched something he shouldn't have. Of course, it was all accidental. That brush against the butt? Totally an accident. Blame it on the guy for having a butt, Danny hadn't been expecting anything there.

"Do you even have a permit for this thing?" Danny grabbed the holstered weapon, tossed it around, and attempted to spin the gun using only his index finger (that, by the way, did not go well. Do not attempt). He was suddenly reminded of the old west—cowboys, rodeos, and outlaws. He glanced over at Reino's face; he man definitely had the "surly" and "I've been 'round the block" look. "It's pretty clunky. Kind of ugly. Kind of big. And you know what they say about men with big guns." His face was now centimeters away from Reino's, so close that he could see the other man's pores. "They have big holsters. Betcha thought I was going to say 'small dicks,' didn't you?" He grinned as he returned the gun and, wisely, moved away.

Or, rather, moved everywhere.

He was running around, admiring the building, telling everyone that there was too much gold and the whole place reeked of "rich grandmother." He pointed to a corner and then appeared in the opposite corner, shouting about how the ceiling was way too high. He literally ran circles around the crew before stopping beside Liana with an arm around her shoulder, not caring that they've only just met.

"So, if the plan is to show off our abilities, I just want to say that I am obviously so much cooler than him"—he gestured at Reino, grinning widely as he did—"I mean, he's got a gun and an okay butt—alright, I won't lie, it's pretty nice. You should grab it when you can—but big deal right? I can carry you in my arms to Paris in under an hour. How about it? Sounds like a date? Friday any good? How about Saturday, then? I'm very flexible." He smiled at her, absolutely confident that he was "winning it."

"Also, does anyone have anything to eat? I'm freaking starved. I could eat, like, five large pizzas, easy."

One more thing about Danny, he will chatter away until the end of the days unless, well, unless nothing.

Naghum was enjoying himself quite merrily over at the little bar he has set up behind the massive columns. The bar had all sort of bottles and jars from various universes, all for the pleasure of quenching the Elder's drunkard needs.
His fingers fiddled and tapped a bottle by bottle, as he inspected them,

Johansons' Fine Ale 1859.
Budweiser classic root beer.
Lord Agathonson bloody marry, 1918.
St. Peter Spirits, mint and lemon, 1870.
Sherwerber mead, 1300.
King's Amnesty Ale est. 1450.

His wrinkled fingers kept searching for a better bottle, "Ah! There it is!"

Lord Vlad's Company, seasoned white Ale and berry. 1850.

He has found the perfect drink for the occasion, as he extended his arm to grab it a thundering sound and a beam of light went through the bottle, shattering it into million hundred pieces. The liquid evaporated from the heat, what was left stained the Elder's beard, and faded robes.

One of the heroes holstered his weapon, calling out to begin the mission. He was despicable, but Naghum wasn't allowed feelings of bias towards his own team. He shrugged off the anger he wanted to hail on the suited man, instead he smiled, ignored him and kept looking for a better drink.

"We begin when the fifth member arrives, my visit to them (I'm actually with them now) is not over yet. The fifth member should be here soon. I believe you are in need of nourishment, there is some Pizza over there. I love those-"

He snapped his finger and a counter appeared behind one of the columns, the counter had all sort of pizza, numerous with variant exotic and dull toppings. There were ale in mugs, quite the contrasting meal.

Danny, Marcus, Reino. She could remember that.

With introductions over the four were left to awkwardly talk about what they did for fun, the things they ate, and unintentionally, the disparities between worlds.

Carne, like meat. Tuberosum, like tubers, like potatoes? Wow this man had quite the bland palette. Liana couldn't imagine limiting her favorite (or even preferred) foods to such a small pool and without spices or sweets? She was pretty sure she was speaking to a robot of some sort. The guy answered the question monotonously and had a precise enough aim that he barely missed Naghum. [color=#C45AEC]It's possible that he's augmented like some of the contestants she thought with a pursed lip. She was over thinking this.

"Yes cats we know," Liana replied with a roll of her eyes, "our worlds are different but not stupid."

She considered walking to the refreshments when Danny began to zip around the room, effectively putting her on edge. His power reminded her too much of the late Speedster and it unnerved her. Granted, the Speedster appeared to be less careless with his power's usage, but that didn't make her feel any better.

The Speedster was also less talkative.

"Put that down" she commanded, "oh no don't spin it, please." He's going to hurt himself isn't he?

Not that it mattered, by the time that her voice had registered, he had already moved onto another subject. He was nearly psychic in echoing Liana's thoughts about the powers of the people in the room, but probably anti-psychic in that he thought it wise to touch her. Instead of the usual "feed him to the Null tactic" (as she realized she would be working with him) she crossed her arms.

"One hour is pretty fast," she said, more joking than serious, "but I can be anywhere in three seconds so I'll have to pass."

Okay well that wasn't totally true, but Liana wasn't going to lose her composure, especially not around a comparatively attractive charismatic boy (good God was he in high school or something? She knew she looked young for her age and well he was tall but still!). She'd been asked out plenty of times before! Even if he was the first that she didn't try to kill this was no different a situation. She would just get some pizza and ale and let that be all.

Silence. Complete silence would fill the tranquility that the day offer. The trees would sway in the gentle breeze of Zoastria as it was the month of autumn where the leaves would decay in hues of red, orange, yellow, and brown. The creatures of Sylleth would all begin storing for food and start their hibernation while the villagers gathered together to celebrate "Lutiva", a festival dedicated to the moon that provided light in the night and to also bless their beloved child, Genesis, the goddess of the moon. The festival would only begin when the moon was at its highest and everyone was preparing for the great feast for Citlali's blessed powers.

While all were busy for the festival, far deep in the woods away from the village was a large meadow hidden away from the world. Only one knew of its existence, the maiden sitting under a widow tree that stood in the middle of the meadow. Genesis, was the only one who knew of this secret spot besides her spouse. In her lap, laid a crown made of flowers she had picked and tied together to place on her lover's grave, a stone with craved words stood beside the widow tree as Genesis placed the flower crown over the stone. Dried tears strained her cheeks from crying earlier that afternoon while more tears began to flow from her night-sky orbs to replace the old,"Why are you crying, child?" A voice spoke, breaking the silence. Flinching from the sudden question, Genesis quickly wiped away her tears, turning around to see an old fellow dressed in a brown robe alone and his beard so long that it looked as if a bird could live in it,"W-who are you?""I am Grand Elder Naghum, I have come to offer you to join a team that is tasked of great things.""A task? What is this 'task'?""A task to join a team of peers from multiple universes, just like yours, to save other worlds from certain events that will cause unbalances to life."

With that said, with a wave of his hand, a portal to "The Cortex of Creation" was created, a hall made of gold shown through the portal with a few other objects too blurry for Genesis to see clearly,"Come, they await for your arrival." Naghum spoke awaiting for Genesis's resolve. Standing up from her spot, Genesis glanced back at her beloved's grave,"If it is to do justice, I will do it in your name." Genesis whispered towards the gravestone before placing a kiss onto the petals of the crown. With that, Genesis would soon arrived into what looked like a feast with four other unfamiliar faces - her guess, the team she would work with - along with the Grand Elder sitting at the dining table filled with food and drinks for everyone,"Is this perhaps, the team, Grand Elder?" Genesis said unsure if she was in the right place seeing all these new faces dressed in unusual clothing.

The fifth member of the Protectors finally arrived through a portal, just in time for the first briefing. Naghum took a longer time with Genesis because her world was fractured, and his careless appearance there would endanger it. Nevertheless the final member was here, he finished drinking and snapped his fingers, the bar was gone. The members all sat around chair by the food filled table.

Reino, Marcus, Liana, Danny and Genesis all sat down waiting for the Elder to speak, instead he grabbed a slice of pizza and ate it rather savagely, enjoying the well baked topping, the cheese was simply perfect.

Marcus looked at his fellow members, some of them were dead-impatient. Some of them wanted to get up and smack the elders into dozen wrinkled pieces.

"Err... Elder sir? Elder Naghum?"
"hmm?"
"I think we are all ready to finally know why we are here, and what are we going to do next?"
"Oh yes yes," he wiped his mouth, snapped his fingers and the food was off the table, instead bowls of fruit salad and cups of ice cream appeared, "Gentlemen, and dear ladies, you have been chosen as the best candidates from all over the multi-universe, from all over the worlds. You all -together- have the power and will to maintain the stability and existence of fragile worlds on the verge of oblivion. You are Protectors of Existence."

One of the members shooted a sarcastic comment, that they already know why they are gathered, Naghum chuckled and nodded.

"Okay, your first mission is to save World-34J008. It is a world very similar to the default world. The only difference is that in this world animals are able to speak in human tongue, nothing that will come in the way of your mission.
"Your mission is to stop a certain event from taking place, should it happen, this world will collapse on itself and get erased from the books."

Naghum then paused as he started eating from his ice-cream cup, moaning out load to the awkward faces of the team members, then he put down the dessert and continued,

"The event you should stop from happening is... World War II. Yes, there will be a global war in this world, you will have to stop it from happening, take out the seeds early.
"your objective are:
Assassinate an Austrian art student, he goes by the name Adolf Hitler. Currently at this time period he is known as 'Delfy. You need to end 'Delfy before his second term in 2 days. You may find other ways to do so, other than taking his life, but I leave that to you."

Naghum sighed, he wasn't keen on taking lives, but if one life could save a universe, he was more than willing to discuss it, now he seems more serious than playful.

"Also be very careful not to reveal to anyone that you are from other worlds. And in this world use your powers subtly. We can't ruin their potential yet. That is it, your portal should be ready to take you to 'Delfy's college in an hour. Any questions? Also please feel free to ask for any supplies or morale pushes. It is my job to help you do your job"

When the debriefing was one, it left a bad taste in Reino's mouth. It probably didn't help that the old geezer was macing so hard on his pizza that it sprayed his way. Regardless, something just wasn't adding up. That and he had a question, unrelated and irrelevant to the first issue.

"So you're telling me that we're tasked to assassinate one man, Delfy. Why do we need a five-man team for an assassination hit. Not that my past needs bringing up, but I can tell you from personal experience that the larger the team, the greater the outcome for error. Wouldn't it be easier to send one man in and then extract he or she with the rest of the team?" Looking from his pistol to Naghum, he smirked. Maybe there was a reason he was brought in. After all, he was a damn good marksmen and he was even better at making people and things disappear.

"I assume you'll have some long, contorted, unjustifiable answer to that question, so I'll retract it and replace my questioning with... what are the foreign policies on theft? More so... kidnapping." Eyes pulling from the faces, he tried not to smile at the ceiling. "I have always wanted a cat. And if I find a talking cat, I'm taking it."

Sure, the whole thing made sense. In and out, no showing off. Kill a man in two days. Return her and move on to the next mission. Easy as pie. Still, if his hunch was right, and they did 'fuck up,' what would happen. He didn't dare ask the question, for he hated self-doubt and he hated self-fulfilling prophecies even more.

"You don't happen to have images of what this world and its people look like?" Reino's golden orbs shifted to Danny and, within seconds, his entire look from clothing to eyes to hair, mimicked that of the spunky boy. "On my world, our clothing and eyes change. You wish it, and the neurons in the brain relay a message to the receptive clothing and lens. Clothing, where I'm from, also includes skin color and hair style." Shifting back to his true form, he rolled back his shoulders before adjusting his posture.

"You want us to blend in? Give us some examples."

Liana tilted her head at the elder's debriefing. The fact that there were other worlds in existence was enough to throw her head in a spin, but the fact that there was something known as a "default world" confused her even more. World-34J008 implied that there were at least thirty four worlds with twenty six sub-variations and then another eight variations of the "J" category (likely more given that he put two zeroes in front of that).

During the time they traveled to this plane of existence, Naghum had referred to her universe as "forty-seven" without any extra numbers or letters which made her assume that her world was just another universe but now she knew it was a simplification.

How many variations are there of my own world?

In retrospect she accepted what he told her far too easily. At best, he gave her a half-assed explanation of how every universe intersected and at worst was a deranged, meddlesome man bent on "fixing" these other worlds to fit his own image.

She'd barely heard Reino's words before speaking up. Something about cats she assumed.

Of all things why would you want to bring back a talking cat? It's not going to get much out of eating pizza and beer.

She knew better than to spout petty nonsense, particularly when he had a few good points.

"For that matter, not all of us are going to blend in to this world as is," she continued,
"why not divide the party and send the rest of us to worlds that better suit our skill sets?"