Dominion of Everything Redux

Zac started to polish the salvaged armor, seeing how he hadn't had any action after the peace treaty with the Lites, life was generally boring, with the exception of the rogue jackals and grunts that some times invalid earth homes. Other than that, he had missed the war, at least he had some action.

"What I wouldn't give for some action," Zac said as he finished polishing his armor. He placed it in his locker and get dressed in his normal atire, getting ready to go to his room and relax a bit. Just as he was placing on his leather dress shoes, a soldier dressed in white clothes came in panting, "Salvager!", he exclaimed,

"You can just call me Zac y'know?" Zac said sighing, "What's up?"

"Your presence is needed,"

"By who?" Zac asked,

"The commander,"

Zac sighed and followed the soldier to the main deck, currently, he was on the Infinity, a large ship that the new Spartan IVs lived on, Zac was one of the best there.

 

A portal filled with darkness and the void appeared strangely in a forest that is currently covered in fog. Electricity was spewing from it as sparks and a strange figure with large, purple wings came out of the portal with a fiery mask. As he stepped out, he was wondering as to where he is residing right now. "This place. Very interesting. Another world to play." He realizes that this forest has a lot of animals still making eerie sounds in the night. "I think I shall, heat things up." As he turned back to the portal, he had an army of orange-colored humanoid reptiles with scales come out of the portal. "Now for us to go and take over this puny planet." the reptiles lifted up their swords and shields and end up spewing flames from their mouths, starting a forest fire.

"The fire has no end in its anger and rage... The Seer should be here."

__________________________________________________ _________________________

A cold wind was blowing very hard as one of the elders was telling a story of the Ice Goddess. However, the elder told of an untold story that gave more on the Ice Goddess. "What do you mean sir?" "Well, after Skadi bound Loki and left to be with her husband, she went back to grieving once again. She somehow had evil come into her heart and have her have devious thoughts to revenge her father. The other god, Ull, tried to comfort her but Skadi struggled with her marriage." "What happens next?" "Well, the Ice Goddess injured Ull and went on to the thrones of the gods, slaying them. Her vengeance and power were greater than the gods but when her husband came back to soothe her soul, he bound her into a crystal of ice and she was trapped in there... or that is how the legend goes."

"But what kind of evil?" "Some say it was from Loki, whispering doubts and acts of hatred in her mind after being released, others say that it was from grieving over the thoughts of spending time with her father but we may never know."

As everyone stopped telling stories, the wind becomes too much outside and a blizzard came. "It looks terrible outside. Time for bed." One of the maidens opened the door to check outside and saw that it was very cold but as she looked, she saw one lady outside with a crown and her hair standing up...

 

The wooden sculpture leant slowly forward, before falling into the mound of training dummies before Tsubasa's feet. Then he slashed at another, and it fell, seemingly unscathed, into the pile.
"That's enough for now." Tsubasa gasped out. Leaving the abundance of dummies scattered across the tiled floor, he opened the door and left his room, walking into the inn's reception. It was empty, save for the staff, as usual. Most of the people staying there were either tourists or homeless, and none of them used the inn until they had to sleep.

"Tsubasa! Come here for a second." one of the workers of the inn called to him. They'd all become well acquainted over the past few years; it was as if they'd formed a sort of damaged family. "Erick wanted to talk to you. He'd probably be in room 22 right about now." the worker said.
"Alright then. Thanks, seeya." Tsubasa smiled.

Making his way to room 22, he wondered why Erick would want to talk to him in private. He knocked on the door and waited for Erick to answer.

"Come in." Erick called, and Tsubasa walked in, curiosity etched onto his countenance.

 

Zac made it to the main deck where the commander was and several officers where as well, sitting on a table. The commander turned and saw Zac as he saluted,

"At ease Todd," the commander said, referring to Zac by his last name, and gestured him to sit down. As Zac sat down, the commander began to speak,

"Recently, we have discovered there is another version of earth, along with many other versions, as well as different dimensions and universes. Now one earth seems to know of these other dimensions and universes, but that world knows it as fiction rather than truth. Now we also discovered that there is some sort of a virus of sorts, or however you would discribe this, is currently a threat to our world, and many others. Not many know about this threat, however very few do. So we decided to perform a small mission that must be kept secret to prevent more worry and chaos. Which is why I requested you, Zac Todd, or Salvager to join us in this meeting,"

"What's my role in this?" Zac asked,

"We are sending you and several ODST soldiers to one of the worlds through our new worm hole. We have configured it and calculated to a specific world for to start off on. It's coordinates are set to a different version of London, we aren't sure what version it is, but we are sending you into the field parts to start off with, you will not enter any city or town areas unless it is necessary, understood?"

"Understood,"

"We have your troops, weapons, amo, and vehicles set up at the docking bay, with the "worm hole" ready for use. Good luck,"

 

The sky was a grey, soot-strewn cloud with sparks and heat waves painted across it. The ground below was craggy and cracked; lava flowed in molten rivers cutting between sharp, barren terrain. In the distance, on the top of a high mountain, rested a grey castle that stretched into the smoky air, it's top obscured in smog. A single, black cloaked individual could be seen in the wastes approaching the castle. Using the tops of small crags to hop over boiling rivers and occasionally casting a blizzard spell to keep themselves from burning up, the cloaked one finally stood at the grey-black gates that they sought. They threw a look to a guard stationed at an outpost at the top of the outer wall, and the gates opened up to them.

The cloaked one walked through a series of battlements and into the body of the grand castle, going through corridors, up flights of stairs, across grand halls and dens. They finally reached a set of large doors with a statue of an Invisible Heartless on each side. They waited for a moment and the door opened itself, shadows warping on the ground to push it. The cloaked one promptly stepped inside. The doors closed behind them.

The room was large with very tall ceilings, adorned with more statues of Heartless. There was a large furnace to one side fashioned like a fireplace, and it gave the room an oppressive orange glow. The cloaked one approached the throne in the back, where a large man in black and grey armor sat with a wide smile on his face.

The black cloaked person got down on a knee and bowed their head.

"At ease, Asiila," Exlius said to the black cloaked woman, one of the Keyblade wielders left over from the war on Boundless Horizon. "What information have you brought me?" Asilla stood up and removed her hood. A shock of purple hair was revealed over a sharp-featured but beautiful face.

"I have information on the other universes, Lord Exilus," Asiila answered. "More are becoming aware of our presence. It is likely one of them is going to mount a counter-attack against us soon."

"Hmm. An interesting observation," Exilus admitted. His smile hadn't waned at all during the conversation. "The end time is near for many worlds. I will crush them under my heel." Exilus stood from his throne. Asilla took a half-step back, recoiling as if Exilus had threatened to hit her; that was the terror that the man invoked with even a simple motion.

"M...my Lord?" She stuttered. Exilus walked past her, putting a hand on her shoulder as he did so. Asilla jumped. Exilus's smile grew larger and a small chuckle escaped him.

"Just keep up the good work, Asiila. Though, you could improve in one area..." Exilus mused.

"What area would that be, my Lord?"

Exilus threw a crazed grin back at her without breaking his stride.

"Cause more chaos!"

 

The door swung open and Erick gestured for Tsubasa to come inside.
"You wanted to talk to me?" Tsubasa asked tentatively.

Erick took in a deep breath. "Let's skip the conversation. It's no secret that for the past four and a half years or so, you've done nothing but train, eat, wash and sleep. So then, if you train so often, then you must be quite good with... Whatever it is that you train with."
Tsubasa nodded slowly. Where was Erick going with this?
"Well," Erick continued, "Something is worrying me. It keeps appearing everywhere... But only in this inn. And only around you. Whenever you leave to buy food, it stops appearing. I want to know what this is, and what it has to do with you."

"Whatever you're talking about, I probably have nothing to do with it. You're just being paranoid." Tsubasa assured him. He'd known from the start that he had powers- that he could do things that nobody else in the world could do. Deep down, he knew that whatever Erick was talking about may be something to do with him.

"The thing that I'm talking about isn't a thing, exactly. It's more of an oval shaped patch that brightens everything that you can see through it. Just wait, and I'm certain it will appear."

So they did. They both waited in silence for a few seconds more, and gradually, an oval of brightness began to appear. Tsubasa held out his hand to touch it, and its brilliance intensified to the point of hurting the eyes to look at. Erick gasped and Tsubasa quickly took a step back. It dulled, becoming no more radiant than a bright pane of glass. Tsubasa's and Erick's suspicions were confirmed; the strange oval was related to him.

Tsubasa dared to step as close as possible to the oval, and from it, he could strange sounds, almost like different languages that didn't exist on his world. But between the gibberish, he could hear little snippets which he could understand being spoken.

"troops, weapons, amo... is NOT Chicago... Loki, whispering doubts...

"Erick... I'm going to walk in." Tsubasa said quietly as he stepped closer to the oval. Erick gave him a mortified look.

"Are you suicidal?" he asked frantically.

"No, I'm not. But you saw what just happened; the oval is definitely something to do with me. Besides, you said it yourself. All I do here is wash, eat, sleep and train." Tsubasa stepped closer still to the oval, which he suspected was a portal, and its radiance brightened the room. "If something should happen to me, I want you to tell the others that I left the inn. Thank you." he said sincerely.

Then, he gave a smile to Erick and prepared to step into the portal and be whisked away.

 

Zac walked down to the docking bay, placing on his helmet, with a few ODST soldiers behind him. The entered the docking bay and headed for the vehicles. Zac looked and saw one of them climb into a tank,
"TOM', Zac exclaimed taking off his helmet to project his voice more, "This is a undercover mission! Not fire fight!"

"Aw...damn it..." the soldier name Tom said as he climbed out of it and went to one of the Warthogs. Zac shook his head and headed for a red warthog, which was his own personal one. He modified it to have an extra seat, for shooting in the back when the turret couldn't. He got into the driver's seat, with other ODST soldiers getting into their warthogs and mongooses, with Zac having a captain ranked ODST member climb into his passenger seat.

"Sir," the captain said, "Our weapons and amo will be sent in after we step foot through the portal,"

"Alrig-whoa whoa whoa whoa HEY!" Zac yelled at the techy messing with the worm hole, "GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Commander said we had to change coordinates! I don't have time to explain just be sure to stay warm!" The techy said as he ran off. Zac shrugged as he turned on the jeep and drove into the warm hole, the rest of his small fleet following behind him.

Zac's drove into a snowy forest, and looked around...what was this place?

"Status report," Zac requested. The captain pulled out a tablet and showed the spartan, "We are on the planet earth we were intending to go to, but we are somewhere in Europe I'm afraid," he said to Zac.

"Alright let's roll out,"

 

Exilus strode through his castle, taking pleasure in his servants and lesser Syneptophy members bowing and recoiling at his presence. Soon, he reached a circular room with a tall ceiling. There were several cloaked people in throne-like seats sitting in a circle around the room; they were Exilus's specially selected advisers that kept the Syneptophy running so that Exlius could concern himself with greater matters. They stood and bowed at their master's arrival.

"Lord Exilus, you grace us with your presence. What can we do for you?"

"Snaedis. Seraphin. Where are they?" Exilus asked, not wasting any time.

"One moment, my Lord," one of the cloaked people replied. A spell circle appeared in the air in front of him, slowly spinning and revealing pictures of Snaedis and Seraphin. "It appears they are on one of the many parallel versions of earth, one in Rome, the other in the Amazon rain forest. Universe 2.1A, to be exact."

"Very well," Exilus said. He put his hand up and a corridor of darkness appeared in front of him. The portals were somewhat random, and the fact that he hadn't visited 2.1A very often only compounded the issue. Exilus walked through the portal, the sign for the cloaked ones to sit back down and resume their work.

In a mere step, Exilus was in the now flaming Amazon rain forest. He looked around at the chaotic orange flames and was quite pleased with the scene. Seraphin could be seen in the distance, partially obscured by a swarm of fire-orange lizard people. Exilus walked over to the fire mage. Without saying anything, he cast a Firaga spell into the treetop canopy. He let out an amused laugh, then turned to Seraphin.

"Finish up here and return to base. Be quick about it," Exilus said to the fire mage. He then opened another portal of darkness and appeared in Rome. He was in the middle of an icy plain, and Snaedis could be seen in the distance, her crown allowing Exilus to identify her. Exilus approached her quickly, though the harsh blizzard slowed him somewhat.

"Snaedis, report back to Ashen Crater. I wish to meet with all of the most promising members of the Syneptophy. I trust you wont make me wait." Exilus wasted no time and immediately created another dark corridor back to the castle. This time, he appeared exactly where he wanted to be, in a room similar to the one that housed his advisers. Exilus went and sat in the largest and most ornate of the thrones. Finally, he put his hand in front of him and enveloped it in darkness. Wherever the pirate Kurao Teri was, a dark corridor would appear, beckoning him to come back to the castle. Now, all Exilus had to do was sit and wait.

 

Zac heard the worm hole open up again, sending out several crates, and were tossed in front of the squad. Zac got out of his jeep and walked up to the crates with the captain and two other ODST soldiers and opened them up to find weapons, amo, health packs and more vital things.

Then, the sound of a aircraft could be heard, as all the soldiers looked behind them to see three pelicans, driven by regular soldiers. They parked them and exited the vehicles and saluted to Zac, with the one who drove the front pelican saying, "Godspeed Salavger sir!" and went back into the worm hole with the other soldiers. Zac nodded and gestured to the Spartans to load up the supplies and mongooses into the pelicans, and got into the front one.

Everyone loaded up and packed up, with the warthogs being carried by the back ends of the pelican hovercrafts and took off. On Zac's radar, he saw that a worm hole of sorts had opened up and just recently closed. He locked onto the coordinates and flew over to that direction and spoke into the mic, "Men, I'm heading towards where this portal was created, go comb everything that is roughly a mile away from our current location," Zac said as he flew off towards the source of the portal, as the two other pelicans flew off to follow the Spartan's commands.

 

Before Tsubasa could step into the portal, he was dragged in. The warm inn disappeared, transformed into a vertiginous blue tunnel. At first, it felt to Tsubasa as if he was hovering, suspended in the portal. Then, he realised that he was falling headfirst. He closed his eyes tight, as if he'd stop his deescent if he couldn't see himself falling. Suddenly, he regretted his decision to go into the portal.

A few agonising seconds later, Tsubasa felt something solid against his face. He opened his eyes and realised that he'd landed ever so gracefully on the floor at the end of the portal. In a secluded area. In London. He let out a groan. Had he really ended up in the place he'd started?

After getting up, he could confirm that he was still in London. He searched around London, looking for the Inn, but something was amiss. The city had a different air to the London he knew, and the spot that the Inn had been was now a small, empty park. Perhaps he hadn't landed in the same place, after all.

He wandered aimlessly, looking for someone on their own, preferably in a quiet place, to question them about this new London.

 

The pelican flew through the Icy cold region, flying through the now active blizzard. Strange. Zac check the radar, he was reaching the location of the portal but took note that it vanished. He landed the plain and brought two soldiers out of the pelican and the warthog as they drove off. The kept driving and encountered a small cavern, where the blizzard was stronger. Luckily, their helmets prevented the snow from getting in their eyes, so Zac switched to night vision to see better.

There was a woman with a crown...spiky, reminded him of a certain movie. The spartan cocked his shotgun and slowly started to walk towards the woman, she could be a threat, with the two other soldiers following their leader.

"Freeze!" Zac said as he was now five feet away from the woman, "If you are in possession of any weapons, relieve them, now,"

 

Fire, blazing through the forest. Everything look as though it is Hades all lit up. All of the critters were desperate to escape with their lives as they ran to hide in the deepest parts of the forest. The Fire Mage laughed through his metal mask and opened a portal, preparing himself to return back to the mysterious base to meet up with his allies. The forest was doomed to extinction as the Fire Mage looked at his army destroying nature.

__________________________________________________ ______________________________

The Ice Queen gently turned back around and stared at the Spartan soldier with a furious look in her eyes as it changed into a darker purple. Her hair stood up, reacting to the weather. The woman who was witnessing everything inside the house was scared as she saw three soldiers targeting the woman with the tiara. The weather got heavier and heavier to the point to where she screamed, causing a Hailstorm to blow and damage the soldiers. The weather was great that it even knocked down the door of the lady who was viewing.

 

Zac gestured to the soldiers to head inside and keep guard for the civilians safe. He aimed his shotgun at the woman and took note of her hair sticking up and her eyes changing. He looked and saw the weather became worse, which was then he lowered his shotgunl, "oh...shit..." He muttered as he put the pieces together to realize she was the cause for the blizzard.

He withdrawed his shotgun and pulled out his knife from the torso armor and spun it in his hand and then threw it at her, and then placed his right hand on his waist, grasping onto a frag attached to the belt, along with several other grenades, and waited for her move.

 

The Ice Queen was in a shock, shrieking as she used Artic Blast to shatter the dagger. Looking at the soldiers who were trying to run, she used Ice Coffin and entrapped them in crystallized ice, trapped for a long long time. She then aimed at the Spartan and shot another Artic Blast. She decided to leave and she used Ice Coffin once more, making it a wide range attack and explodes back to the mysterious base. The attack was so wide that it the woman who witnessed the event suffered a miserable fate, a crystallized statue.

 

Luckiy, Zac went into armor lock mode as the blast hit. After several minutes of silence, the armor lock deactivated and sent a shock was which brook through the ice Zac was stuck in. He got out and used a rock and the remaining shardenals of his knife to crack them free from the ice coffin. When they were free, they fell to the ground unconscious, and then Zac went over to the woman who was also trapped as well, and repeated the process.

~117! Come in Spatarn 117~

"This is Spartan 117, talk to me," Zac said as he kept working,

~Do you need medical attention? Over?~

"No I'm fine, but I have two men down and a civilian trapped in ice," Zac said,

~Status on the target?~

"Fled, she is powerful, I need you guys here stat, we will have to go to our original destitinstion, London," Zac said as he finally cracked the ice and watched her fall down to the snow, "Are you okay?" He asked as he picked her body up.

 

Exilus watched as the underlings heeded his call, one by one. The first to come was Kurao Teri, a man from a world of pirates who could take on the form of a cat; actually, three cats, to be exact. Lion, tiger, and cheetah, Kurao had access to all of these forms, bringing both power and flexibility to the table. Exilus was pleased to see him step through the dark corridor.

"You rang, admiral?"

"'Admiral,'" Exilus repeated with a chuckle. "I prefer 'Lord.' The siege went well, I trust?"

A second portal opened up and a metal masked mage stepped through. Exilus knew him to be Seraphin, a fire specialist who hails from a medieval world. Exilus had witnessed his power first hand many times in the past and enjoyed the frivolous destruction that Seraphin was capable of.

"Ah, Seraphin. I can still smell the burning flora from when we last met. That forest will be barren soon enough..." Exilus laughed at the thought. "Now, the only one we're waiting on is Snaedis."

Several minutes passed and Exilus began to grow impatient. His normally cruel smile was replaced with a look of utter irritability. Then, out of nowhere, the air in the room grew cold. Next to Seraphin and Kurao, a spiral of ice began to manifest. The magic grew more intense until it exploded, leaving Snaedis and a blanket of snowflakes in its wake. Snaedis looked flustered, as if she had come from a tense situation.

"Snaedis, explain yourself," Exilus said in a stern voice. After hearing about the other worlds gearing up for a counter-attack, he wasn't about to take any chances; if something had happened to Snaedis, he wanted to know.