1x1 Breaking Down Barriers

[Yun Lee]

(Originally a 1x1 written by @Minerva and Mighty Roman.)

Part One

Aaron prepared for his jump. He stood in front of the scanner, looking for any anomalies. They found none. Aaron wore his suit. "I'm ready." He said to his secretary. "If I am not back after three weeks our time, do not come looking. Continue operations. I will return at some point." Aaron put on his helmet. "Commence Jump in three, two, one." He fell from the airlock, into space, and he disappeared.

Rallen was searching across the ruins of 'The Town'. Logan barked merrily by his side. Rallen pressed his scanner. A blue circle appeared around him. There were no signs of life in the nearby area. However, his Prizmod buzzed. There was someone in the sky, someone falling from space. He detected where this stranger would appear, and ran towards that part of the street. 'Honki De Iku Ze!'

Aaron saw the ground approaching. "Gotta slow down! Gotta slow down!" He hit the parachute on his suit in time, He crashed into what was once a house. "Ow." He shouted. He pushed his way up. "Gotta find some evidence of survivors." He said limping out of the wreckage.

Rallen stared at the newcomer. Logan continued to wag his tail merrily, despite Rallen's suspicions.
'I am Officer Rallen of the Nanairo Planetary Patrol. Do you remember who you are?'

This better not have been another plot by The Reapers... thought Rallen. He had seen little of their activity in the previous months.

Aaron coughed and took off his helmet. "M-my name *cough* is Aaron White, but please, call me Arc." Aaron put his helmet on the ground. "I am from a group known as the Dragoons. We are dedicated to protecting the Multiverse." Aaron coughed again.

'Some kind of resistance force?! Well, you've taken your time. Is Arc some kind of codename or something?'

Rallen paused.

'I've been here, in The Town for 6 months now. Looking for Reapers,and searching for, and trying to stop other Illusion Games. Where have you been? Were you that resistance that those teens told us about?'

Aaron raised his eyebrows. "Arc is my original name, before the Illusion Game. I was trapped in a school, and forced to vote. We killed each other. I started the Dragoons to track the Dark Presence, and to prevent these Illusions from happening. I sometimes make jumps into various universes to check out the situation there." Aaron shrugged. "I sent out a transmission to every universe about it a while back."

'I remember picking it up...but that was months ago for me! But time has always been pretty weird in The Town. In the Illusion, we were there for 1 week real time, although it felt like I'd been there for months. Apparently back in some of the home dimensions, years had passed.

I'm sorry that I couldn't stop your game in time. I had some...professional assistance, but they betrayed me.'

Aaron sighed. "Yeah. It's been years for me. I started the Dragoons, became a Quantum Physicist, all that jazz. The Game was hell. We at least found out who the Overseer and his agent were. We had a man in a Diving Suit help us at the end." Aaron shrugged. "You ready to leave? I'm not detecting any sign of The Dark Presence, or Umeko here. We can talk on my Space Station."

Rallen picked up Logan. 'Yep, I'm ready. I've packed up all of my stuff as you can see. Shall I take my Jetpack, or do you have some Transmat tech?'

"Take the jetpack just in case. The Station is in a whole other dimension." Aaron said. He put his helmet back on. "Ready? Grab on to the suit!" He said through the suit.

Rallen pressed a button on his Prizmod. The Jetpack wings shot out from his back. He grabbed onto the suit, but activated his Omega Gauntlet, just incase it was a Trap. He grabbed onto the suit, and nodded.

Aaron pulled out what looked like an iPad, and typed some coordinates into it. "We have a minute before we can go. So, what's your motive for fighting the Illusion Games?"

'I was needed. The war with The Krawl was ending, and nobody deserved the fate that we suffered here. Perhaps my skills as a Junior Planetary Patrol Officer outside of Nanairo. Why did you choose to fight, assuming that you were given the same options as me?'

Aaron sighed. "Our options were merge with the other form of ourself, create your own life, Stay with the diver and fight the darkness, or remain in the darkness and let it take you." Aaron said. "I chose the second option. I enter to dig more into it, so I could learn the enemy better. And therefore fight it better."

'And to find Umeko?'

Rallen smiled.

'We could either go home, or stay and fight. I stayed. I haven't heard about this Diver guy. Sounds like a weird kind of Spectrobe Master.'

Aaron smiled. "Yes, and to find Umeko." He tapped the iPad again. "The Diver is... Unknown. All we know is, he saved us. He showed everyone the light. Including Simon." Aaron shrugged. "He's an anomaly I guess."

'Who's Umeko? And I assume that this Anomaly has something to do. With Elliot, the outsider, who seemed to know about the game while it was being played?'

"Umeko... She was my girlfriend. We were locked in the prom together. We only kissed twice, and then... She left." Aaron sighed. "I don't know who Elliot is. The Diver was considered an Outsider, though. Even though he protected everyone."

'Sorry about what happened to your girl, pal. Do you have any idea about her real name, or her Universe Designate?'

'Perhaps Elliot and The Diver are connected in some way?'

Aaron nodded. "Her name was Chase. I forget where she came from. As for Elliot and the Diver, well... Maybe. I don't know Elliot, so I can't tell you about it, but the Diver saved us." Aaron sighed again. "Twenty seconds until return."

'Who were you while you were in the Illusion?'

But Elliot was a monster. A murderer. Definetely not the Saviour types. So you were trapped in a school?'

Aaron looked up. "My name was the same one I use now. Aaron White. I was trapped in a school, yes. We endured various forms of torture. We even had to find a man known as the Overseer, who ran everything." Aaron shrugged. "As well as his Agent. Maybe they have a relation to Elliot."

'I was a Conspiracy Theorist called David. We were trapped in a town, in this town, during a zombie apocalypse. Who was this Agent? We had some saviours to drag us out of our nightmares, but I don't remember catching an Agent.'

Aaron laughed. "Zombies? Wow... Sounds tough. The Agent tried to kill the Saviors. Ours was boy named Simon Black. He turned into a thing called Skaar." Aaron looked at the watch "Ten seconds."

'Sounds weird. Most of us got our memories back at the last minute, after experiencing these horrible nightmare world's-did you experience anything like that?'

"Nah. I got my memories back around halfway through. Various people regained memories throughout it at different times, though some did gain them at the end." Aaron shrugged. "It was a weird system. Five seconds."

'Not all of us made it back. But that nightmare...it was horrible. For both of us. What kind of challenges were you put through?'

Aaron sighed. "We were forced to endure torture. Some got it easy, others got it hard. I almost always accidentally hit hard. One, we burned our arms to save someone's life, the other, we had to sacrifice blood to get what's called BP, which was needed to escape." Aaron looked up. "I accidentally killed someone. Slit their wrist, though I wasn't considered the one at fault."

'Things were harder for you guys. We had the nightmare worlds, but then again, we didn't know what happened to the rest of the world. As far as we were concerned, the whole world was taken over by the Zombies. First time I ever saw a man die that day. I've killed loads of Krawl, but...it was pretty scary.'

"Yeah. I've destroyed a bunch of Skeletons and zombies, and even an evil cloud, but never an innocent person. We kept waiting for the Cops to show up." Aaron sighed. "Ready?"

'As I'll ever be.'

And they disappeared.​

 

[Yun Lee]

Part Two

They arrived on a clean white room. The floor was made of glass, and they could see California at night. Aaron took off his helmet. "Madison, we have a visitor." Aaron said into his mic. "Welcome, to the Paladin."

'Nice place you've got here! Reminds me of my old Battlecruiser. How'd you get this place?' Rallen put Logan back onto the ground, where he barked merrily. Meanwhile, he pressed a button on his Prizmod, and Komainu appeared beside him. This was certainly the most High-Tech place the 3 of them had been to in a long while.

Aaron looked at Rallen. "I own it. We built it from scratch back down there on Earth." He pointed downwards. "Sent it up piece by piece, and put it together. It's much safer than our original Place." Aaron sighed, and started taking off the Spacesuit.

'No offense pal, but considering that you look like you're familiar with Level 2 planetary culture, how did you get the resources, material and know-how to build this place?'

Aaron was confused for a moment. "As I said, living in the Illusion, I tried to become a Quantum Physicist. As I said, I travelled through the Multiverse, learning more and more." He tapped some buttons on his tablet. "I eventually found this world as a home base, and became the CEO (unintentionally) of a corporation with the resources to do this." He brushed off his robe. "We built The Paladin using those resources."

'Damn. You've got some serious tech in here. Where's your next destination?'

Aaron shrugged. "I don't know. I just tell my workers to set it, and then... I, or someone else, jump. We used to do that from a skyscraper."

'So lucky guesses 'til you find your girl or a game? Plus, what happens if your equipment stops working? After you jump off of a building?'

Aaron scratched the back of his head. "We don't jump randomly. We pick a bunch of worlds that have evidence of The Dark Presence, and we jump. We don't know into which one we're going to, though." He tapped a few more buttons. "If the equipment fails, we have parachutes, and our suits withstand the heat of reentry."

'So now we're rolling the dice for the next world you're going to check? Like the Nanairo portals?'

Aaron raised his eyebrow. "Nanairo portal?" He shrugged. "Yes, essentially. It could be an Earthlike planet, or a barren wasteland."

'The Nanairo Portals sprang up all over the galaxy a couple of years ago. They took us to new and distant galaxies, with worlds which were strange and different. One was full of Ice, it's people long dead. Another was a swamp where everything was Dark and existed in reverse. Strange...and sometimes terrible places indeed.'

Aaron nodded. "Then yes, exactly like those, except these are controlled. Now, let me show you to my office." He typed some things into a keypad by the door, and said something in Chinese to a woman outside of it. "I've taken a few languages as well." He said. They walked down several hallways until they came to an Oak door, out of place with its surroundings. "Here it is." He said.

'Nice place you've got here. It's nice to have a proper home between missions. It's been years since I've returned home to Kollin. I've mainly lived on either my Hypercruiser or in The Town. Where was your home, Aaron?'

Aaron sighed. "A town called Ur. I was bullied there, and I was an orphan. I didn't have it very good until I became a warrior of Light." He opened the door, showing an office with a glass floor, and a large glass window at the back, with a desk piled with papers on it, and a computer array on one wall. "This is just a temporary space. I come here every few months, stay here for a few weeks and work, then return to my home in Virginia."

'Virginia...I'm not familiar with that planet.' Rallen pressed a button on his Prizmod, and a circle, almost like a tracking radar, appeared around him and Aaron. The singular scanning line rotated a couple of times, until a pillar of white holographic sand appeared in front of Aaron before vanishing. 'Sorry about that. Just a quick scan. You're definetely fully human, and there's no Krawl presence here. I just thought that a 'Warrior of Light' was a High Krawl thing.'

Aaron laughed. "Virginia is a state, in the country of the United States of America, on that planet just below you." He took off the space suit's glove, showing a burn or scar do some sort. He ran his finger up and down it.

"Remember how I told you I got burned in the Illusion? I still have scars from it. Anyway, A Warrior of Light is a Crystal thing. That's a bit hard to explain." He sat down at his desk, and opened a mini fridge. "Need anything?" He asked.

'Some Dog Food, and some minerals if you have them. And some human food which hasn't come out of a can would be nice.'
Rallen briefly grimaced while he looked at Aaron's scar, but soon regained his composure.

Aaron nodded. "Alright." He spoke some Japanese, Chinese, and Latin into his tablet, and soon two women, and a man walked in carrying platters. The Chinese Woman laid her platter on the floor, and opened it up to see Dog Food, and the Japanese woman opened a Steak. "Now, what do you want to talk about? How we should stop these games?"

Rallen ate the steak ravenously, as if he hadn't eaten in days. Meanwhile, Logan ate the Dog Food, merrily. After finishing half of the Steak, Rallen said. 'Yep. Let's talk about stopping the games. Made any progress on that front?'

Aaron watched as the steak was eaten. He dismissed the women and man. "Well, yes and no. We think that our two games are the only two that have happened so far. We had the idea... For a simulation training agents for these things. It would be based in Ancient Rome, which I will explain what that is later, and train various agents for their jobs in these Illusion Games, in case they end up in one."

Rallen continued to violently devour the steak. 'Hologram Simulators in Ancient Anywhere doesn't sound like a great idea. Which agents have you got in mind?'

"We have some troops who volunteered to do anything that involves risk. They will do anything. We could test it on them, and then try people who are actually likely to be trapped in an Illusion. People from the Multiverse." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I have all the Calculations correct, and we would have a Failsafe."

Rallen glared at Aaron, mid-chew. 'And that fail-safe would be?' He expected the worst. He put a hand on his Prizmod, almost instinctively. If this was a trick or a trap, or if Aaron planned to kill as part of his 'fail-safe', he'd make sure that his host would taste Musageki's steel!

"The Failsafe would shut down the system. It would be pulling the plug, essentially returning memories, and ejecting the user." He typed something into his tablet. "The Failsafe would be disguised as say... Something in a tent, or a torch." He continued typing. "We would install a program that would allow certain people to retain their memories, and to return others to the world. And one where we could log in, with our memories." He sighed. "It's in beta right now."

'So you could eject your agents....why not use the same technology to eject everybody? I'm sure that it doesn't work that way, but I'm sure that Aldous or one of the other NPP Technicians could rig something up. Can you predict where the next game's gonna be?'

Aaron shook his head. "No, that's what we're working up to. And we do plan to eject everyone. The Failsafe is something that will stay in the program indefinitely." Aaron filed some papers, and stood up. Aaron walked to the computer array. "Let me show you."​

 

[Yun Lee]

Part Three

Rallen was still slightly wary of Aaron's plans, but still said: 'Alright. Show me. Have you got a Simulator testing room, or are you planning something a bit more practical?'

"We don't have a room. We have a device that essentially puts you in a coma. It takes your mind, and makes what you think is real. IT uploads the real memories into a Server mainframe, and implants false memories." He turned on the cameras, to show a girl lying in a bed.

"She is in Stasis. anything she does in the world, eats, sleeps, uses the bathroom, the body thinks it has done that in real life. There is no loss of anything, no issues with the body, nothing. In fact, some test subjects were shown to gain weight." He turned off the display. "Right now, we have several simulations. The one she's in is called Tranquility Lane. It's a town simulation. We also have Roma Imperious, Within a dream, and Quest for the Grail." He pointed to a microphone next to the computer array. "We can also talk to them. The people in there think that I'm the Voice of God or whatever, but it works."

Rallen knew why Aaron was doing this, but he was still disgusted. 'But that's monstrous! You're manipulating her mind! Throwing her into an Illusion-does she even know what's real, or if she volunteered?'
He flipped a switch on his gauntlet, releasing a blue light, as a black and purple samurai appeared in front of him.

'I don't want to hurt you, Aaron, but I think that there are some questions you need to answer.'

Aaron tossed up a crystal, turning him into a knight. "They volunteered. The only way to fully understand the Illusion, is to create one." He tossed a spear in between his hands. "This is only a beta test. Of course they know they're in an Illusion. They have their true memories. The server removing their memories isn't up yet, and I doubt it will ever be! It was an example for how Illusions might work! There. Is. No. Such. Technology."

'Yet you know how to create one? Or at least had the intention of doing so? I've tried utilising some of the Multiverse's greatest minds in trying to break the Illusions-and most of them weren't very helpful. I'm just wondering how a knight could build this technology, and more importantly, how it could be misused in the wrong hands.'
Aaron would notice an almost 'Dark Aura' emanating from the Samurai-it cast a shadow, and everything seemed...darker.

Riley looked at the Samurai. "Crystals. Like the one I tossed up. It's all powered by two crystals. One I carried with me into the Illusion, the other was found on a body of mine. The crystals carry infinite energy. I learned that when I came to this universe. I solved the energy crisis on it." He put his spear on his back. "We found that they produced endless energy. I became a CEO, and built all of this." He sighed. "You can not, I repeat, can not upload a soul, or memories to a hard drive. No matter the technology. The memories are part of you." He sighed. "I suppose if you were in the program long enough, your brain would think that the memories made in the Illusion were true, but we prevent that from happening." Aaron hit a button, waking up all the people in stasis. "Unless... this Elliot you mentioned found some way, or used Magic of some sort."

'I have a feeling that he did.' Rallen sighed. 'He had no form of technology that I could see to build our nightmare pocket realities. Whatever it was, it worked on a psychic subconscious level, knowing not only what our Illusions feared, but what we ourselves feared.' It appeared that he'd at least picked up some technical know-how from his many hours spent with Jeena and Aldous, in the Kollin Docking Bay where his ship had had to be repaired many times.

Aaron looked at the computer array. "What if Elliot is using The Dark Presence? What if, Elliot and the Dark Presence have some relationship to one another. I'd have to know more about this Elliot to be sure, but what if..."

'I'm afraid that there's not much I know. He was blonde, wearing a waistcoat, and knew about the 'memory-benders'. That's it. After he killed one of the survivors we never saw him again. But Megumi and I knew that he was still pulling the strings behind the scenes. This may sound strange, but do you have any minerals in here? Not Mineral Water, but actual minerals.'

Aaron shrugged. "Damn. We called these memory-benders 'Agents' Mainly because that's what the Overseer made us call them. I still remember two of them." He typed something into a computer. "What kinds of Minerals? Iron? Diamond? What?"

'Elliot insisted that they were 'Memory-Benders'. There didn't seem to be anyone with an agenda or agency of any sort.' he paused. 'Some of those will do. Coronium, Aurorium and Flashium are the usual ones, but I imagine that Diamond and Iron must be some sortof counterpart for those.'

Aaron had never heard of those ores. "Diamond is a bluish crystal. It's the hardest substance. Iron is what the walls are made of. Typically it's a gray. There's a list of various ores on a computer. Go through them, see which ones you like."

'It's not for me. It's for Komainu and Musageki. They eat minerals to survive. Diamond kind of sounds like Flashium, based on your description, and as Musageki is a Dark Flash Spectrobe, I think that I could use some of that, if you have any to spare.'

Aaron nodded. "Yeah. We do... I think." He typed something into the catalog. "Uh... We have about a pound or so of it leftover. Will that work?"

Rallen raised his fist.

'Yeah! Definitely! You seem to have one of everything up here!'

"We are always prepared. If something goes wrong, it takes about a week to get the supplies from Earth, so we make sure to have stuff stocked." He shrugged. "Speaking of which, day after tomorrow is the next Jump Day."

'Your next mission. Feeling lucky?' Rallen paused, thinking. He then said: 'Got a spare suit-mind if I come? Perhaps we could even find your girl if we're lucky?'

"We have plenty of suits. Every person you see here is a jumper. We even have Unused suits." Aaron began to tear up a bit. "Yes... Perhaps."

Rallen frowned. He had no idea to deal with human emotion. Especially consdiering that his only company for the past 6 months were Komainu and Logan. 'Hey, there's always a chance. How many of your staff regularly jump out with you?'

Aaron looked up. "11 other members, 12 total. each with various coordinates set. Typically we go to the same place in twos. My last jump..." Aaron sighed. "That was a special case."

'You mean the one to The Town? What was so special about it?'

"I had just finished a speech." He said. "I intended it to be my last jump. At least for a while. The scientists were so sure they had cracked the code."

'The code? To find Elliot? Or the source of the games?' Rallen almost leapt out of his chair at the prospect. Meanwhile, Logan barked happily at the hope that was shining in his master's eyes.

"Both."
Was all Aaron said. He thee a few commands into a computer. "The minerals will be here soon."

Rallen leapt out of his chair. 'But how? How close were you? Did you find anything important?'

"We don't know. The only comparison we have is to worlds without illusions, and of course our program. I'm trying to find the source of the Illusion I was trapped in so that we have information to compare it to."

'My scanner tech could be pretty useful on that cause. All I need is some form of reference. If we can find a part of that Dark Presence and cross-reference it, the Spectrobes Database could find almost all sources of it in the mapped Multiverse.'

"I do have some reference. A picture on my desk came from the Illusion. It is tainted with it. I also still have a bracelet we were given to vote on." He picked up a watch like thing with a 999 still imprinted on it. "Just... The whole Multiverse? The universes are infinite! It would take too much time, and the server size you would need." He shook his head. "We could find a way to do it."

Rallen pressed a button on his gauntlet. A circle radar span around, until it latched onto the watch. Rallen waited expectantly. A small hologram came from the gauntlet:
001 Vilamasta
'That's strange...'
Then, both the numbers and the lettters span wildly, to every possible combination. Other results span out to-Planet names, dates, but they were ever-changing. Except one.
'It probably won't be there but....Have you ever heard of the planet Darkmos?'

Aaron raised his eyebrow. "No, I haven't. Why, is it important?" Aaron grabbed his suit's helmet, and the suit itself.

'Very. It's a planet which can only be accessed through Portal 3. An entire planet made from Dark Energy. A word where everything is in reverse. Humanity has been virtually wiped out. Only Krawl Storms exist there. But that isn't all. There are inverse...reverse versions of all of the Spectrobes. Musageki was from there. It's full of other reverse Spectrobes as well. It may hold some key to the Dark Presence came from.
If not there, we can check the Hakaba System. An evil place, where the Krawl devoured half of the planet Nox, while the planet Malik, a home of portals....and true evil resides.'

Aaron paced back and forth. "We could also check my world, though, we'd have to lay low. Make sure my other version doesn't find me." He continued pacing. "We fought an enemy known as Dark Cloud."

'Of course. Spacio-Temporal disturbance could easily result in a cataclysmic paradox. Tell me about this Dark Cloud.'
It seemed like he did pick up at least some techno-babble from Jeena and Aldous.

"It lives in its own realm, and wants to destroy the realm of the light, but I thought that I, and the other three defeated it." He continued pacing. "It killed us, but we were brought back by the Crystal, the same ones that power the energy keeping us afloat, to slay it."

'Just like the light weapons we used to take down the Darkfield around the Kagero System..So you've died before? Dare I ask...what was it like?'

Aaron thought for a moment. "Quiet... Dark... Lonely." He stood there pondering for a moment. "Anyway, Umeko, before she left for her world, also said something about a black Mage. So, could all of these forces, put together, be part of the Dark Presence?"

'Krux.' The single word still sent shivers down his spine. His arch-nemesis was dead..or so he hoped. But he had a feeling that that wouldn't stop him. The battle between could potentially never end. 'He sort of fits that description. A Spectrobes Master...once. Since then, he created and ruled the Krawl. No-One knows how. The Cloud, The Mage, The presence. They sound like some kind of group..or council. Or even more High Krawl-lieutenants to Krux himself.'

"But... Why would this Krux send his council, or troops into the Multiverse? To conquer more worlds?" Aaron bit his lip, causing blood to drip out. "What if, Krux is a part of this Dark Presence, and the Dark Presence sends out these troops of darkness to take worlds. What if these people are part of a council led by The Dark Presence, which is controlled by Elliot?"

'Seems plausible. But remember this...Krux isn't after conquering worlds. He's after devouring them. There's a world in the Kagero System with a literal bite out of it where his armies of Krawl have eaten it. Have you seen any worlds like that?'

"So... Krux eats planets? He must eat worlds, and then take them to the Dark Presence/Elliot." Aaron said drumming his fingers on his desk. "Like a black hole. From hell."

'Well, the Krawl obviously eat the planets for him, but all I'm saying is that it's a definite possibility....in fact, are you familiar with a Krawlnado? A vortex of death, almost a transport for the Krawl. Sort of looks like a tornado with spiked barbs. Usually green, red, or purple.'
he sighed.
'Now I'm really starting to sound like a crazy person, aren't I?'

"If I have seen them, I don't remember them. At all." Aaron said. "So, it's likely that I haven't seen them."

'We just seem to be dancing in circles here. It's time for action. How long 'till the next jump?'

"I don't know. Depends on how fast the crew can get the room ready." Aaron drummed his fingers on the desk. "There were others before you that came. My favorite one, a man named Riley. No older than 19. He wanted to join me as a medic, but I couldn't take him because he didn't have a degree. I wish I knew his home world, or current Location so I could tell him to return."

'Yeah, we'll, I'm many things. but 'Action Man' and 'Survivor' are the two I'm most proud of. The sci-tech stuff mainly came from Jeena and Aldous. I hate to be realistic here, but if there are like, billions of universes, how are you going to run into the same Riley twice? There could be a billion Rileys, and another billion Umekos.'

"Oh yes, but most of them are cellular divergent, meaning the only change is one cell splitting rather than another. Our machines work with those." Riley continued drumming the table. "Oh, I'm not all that familiar with the tech either. The scientists run it, I just work out equations."

'Wouldn't it disturb you though? Settling down with a girl who's only Cellularlly Divergent by 1 Cell, but still knowing that she's not...'your' girl? I find it kind of...I don't know, wrong. Mildly immoral on an interdimensional scale, considering that your continued present alters that Divergent universes' future to the point of creating another universe, merely by existing.'

"That's why I'm waiting until we can perfect the machine to detect perfect matches." Aaron sighed. "So far, none of my algorithms seem to be working. No matter what, I don't know what number I'm off by!" Aaron crumpled a piece of paper on his desk. "I've also run into another anomaly. A being like Death itself. A Reaper of Souls if you will. They call him Malthael. I do not know his purpose yet."

'I assume that you've stopped talking about your Maths homework?' Rallen switched his weapons to his Omega Blaster. 'Let's go out there and say Hello to him. Iku Ze!'

Aaron laughed a bit. "I know exactly where he is. Somehow, he was killed, and his body sent into the Multiverse. He now drifts, collecting souls to bring back his power to destroy all demons, which in his universe include demons." Aaron ran a hand through his hair. "I know his exact location, that's where we're jumping."

'He sounds like a real charmer.' said Rallen, sarcastically. Meanwhile, Musageki raised it's claws, threateningly. 'I'm ready. Point me.'

"Yes. We are going to his last known location." Aaron shifted his shoulders. "I would go very armed. He is death after all, so don't expect to stop him." Aaron shuffled some papers. "Let's take you to see Robin. He's our Chief Planner, Tactician, and Scientist." Aaron stood up and began to walk to the door.

'I'm always armed. In my left gauntlet alone I have the Omega Sword, Omega Blaster and Omega Fist. Plus 3 armour energy types, and a couple of Spectrobes. I was born ready. Let's get the paperwork over and done with and meet the death god.'
However, Rallen still followed Aaron regardless of this.

"Good to know." Aaron said. "He's not a Death God, he's just an angel, mutated from various souls he has taken." Aaron typed some things into his tablet, unlocking several doors. At the end of one, a man who looked to be slightly younger than Aaron stood. He wore a lab coat, and was carrying a book. He looked up. "Hello. I am Robin Aquilus. You must be Rallen." he stuck out his hand.

Rallen shook his hand. The grip was rough, and tight, and not just because of his metal gauntlet. 'I am Rallen, formerly of the Nanairo Planetary Patrol. Will you be accompanying us on our mission to confront this creature?' Musageki stood behind him, eyeing up the newcomer. However, it's steely gaze still had a strange ability to never reveal what the Dark Spectrobe Samurai was thinking. After all, any true Samurai would not let his emotions betray him.

Robin shook his head. "No. I'm a strategist, and a scientist. I look over the jump environment, and then send plans relating to that environment." Robin said.

Rallen smiled. 'Seems like everyone has their own Aldous. But I'm tired of the paperwork! Let's jump!'
Because if there were three things that Rallen hated more than anything, it was injustice, paperwork, and waiting.
Musageki was quite the opposite-he was a master strategist, who, unlike his companion, would attack from afar with his deadly dark shruikens. In his younger days, as a Musamurai, he would be just as eager and impetous as Rallen. But perhaps the young NPP Cadet would indeed grow older and wiser with the years, as he had since his revival.

"He's very eager." Robin said to Aaron. "Reminds me of when I found you." The Tactician said. He brushed his cloak off, and turned to Rallen.
"It's just some stuff for the United Nations. Nothing much. It just states that all research must also be handed over to them, so they can better protect Earth." Robin said. "I've uploaded some maps and strategies to your device, by the way." He said.
Aaron nodded. "Is the other project online? The Reset? I know Desmond is waiting to see if you cracked that code. They're expecting it by tomorrow, or at least what yopu have so far."
The tactician shook his head. "I-I'm sorry, sir. Falchion contains something our scientists can't crack. We don't know what it is. Perhaps you'll find it in your quest?" Robin handed Rallen a clipboard and pen. "Fill this out real quickly."

Rallen stared at the pen in bewilderment for a while, as if he'd never seen one before in his life, before reluctantly putting the pen to paper and start filling out the paperwork. It had been years since he'd done this-usually Jeena would fill out his paperwork, or he just wouldn't bother doing it. He remembered, during his early years in the NPP, how much he hated the endless paperwork, often only skip-reading it or filling it out quickly and messily so he could get to field work as quickly as possible.
Fill it out quickly, they said. 'Trust me,' he thought 'I will.' He hastily shoved the clipboard back at Robin after he'd finished, eagerly awaiting the battle ahead.

Robin looked over the paper. "Everything looks good...Let me just..." He tapped something into a computer.
Aaron laughed. "Don't like paperwork, eh?" He laughed. "Robin, don't forget to finish that part of the Deus Ex Machina while we're gone." Aaron began putting a set of padded gloves on. "Time to suit up."

'Yeah. Paperwork is the real threat to the Galaxy.' said Rallen, laughing. He looked down at his armour. He wasn't sure that he'd need anything else, but it was better off to check.

'I think I'm ready!' he pressed a button on his right gauntlet, and the white parts of his armour became blue. [Flash Mode Online]
'OK, now I think I'm ready. Do I need any more armour, or will this be enough?'
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