Ultimatum 3: Trance Trauma, chapters 12-14. Chapter titles are as follows:

12. The Great Equalizer? The Push to Trance!
13. Dimension's End: Ultimanium, the First Jumper?!
14. Magic Soldier, Craymel Knight Shaun Garin









Chapter 12: The Great Equalizer? The Push to Trance!






(A/N - Hello, everybody. Been a long time comin' :P Three weeks for a
chapter, even if it WAS a huge-ass one. Well, the officials indicate that
GCW (Giant-Chapter Withdrawl) has passed, and my shrink even lets me out of
the house now. ^o^ Well, onto more pressing matters. Welcome back to Trance
Trauma.

First off, if anyone wanted to know -_- the lyrics last chapter were from
Godsmack's Moonbaby. Hell if the lyrics mean anything, I needed hard rock
SOMEWHERE for this to make an impact. And if you listen, everything speeds
up right as Omnimanium and Millenial make their attacks. Mission
accomplished.

Another little announcement, the next couple chapters are going to act a bit
slow compared to the last couple. I have backstories to flesh out, you know.
Shaun's would be the easiest to stretch out over a chapter.. so I'll save it
until last! ^_^ Right before then, however, Ulty's got some past doubts
about the J technology... why? Well, that's another story for another
chapter.

But I'm getting too far ahead of myself here.

Oh, and before we go any further, I look at myself as an ass. o_o At least
as far as crowd interaction. So, thanks to everybody so far that's reviewed,
special thanks to Eric Cloud and Shaun Garin for putting their humiliation
in my hands, ^_^' and Shaun for also lending me some webspace on his site
for the Ultimatum series. If anyone's interested, you can find it at
omnipheonixmon.tripod.com. Among other things, it also holds a few
Slayers/Ranma/Pokemon fics if you're willing to dig. Okay, disabling suck-up
mode. Oh, and Rakugo, if it takes ten people to screw in a lightbulb, you
can sure as hell have more cooks making stew. It's all in the coordination.
~_^ Give me another ring in about a month or two, I might have plans for a
character of yours if I plan things right.

DAISUKE - Trance Trauma starts now. (whops Ultimanium over the head with his
railgun. Suddenly, a large klaxon starts blaring)

PLOT HOLE!! I REPEAT, PLOT HOLE!!


Okay, something to clear up... I'll attempt to cover myself up right
now. -_- Balkan's huge rant about his plans with the Van Eltia and the 'I'll
take over the f*cking universe!!!!!' speech totally contradicts his later
speeches about the uses of the Trances. Well, to make things a bit clearer,
he was simply speaking of a passive takeover, simply using the threat of the
Trances as he did with the J. Judging by his attitude towards Antimagnus,
chances are if he actually had to attack Magnopolis at some point or defend
Gaia's Isle, he would've crumpled on the spot due to his reluctance to use
the Trances.

(Story segments with asteriks are fully explained at the bottom of the
chapter. In case you DON'T know the subject matter.)















GLENN (VO)



Last time on Trance Trauma, things took a turn for the worse when Xaeros and
Millenial started threatening to smack each other down. While that alone
could have destroyed the world, just the Ki waves being given off by
Millenial were kicking up a high-scale hurricane closer to home. Atlantic
cities were being evacuated, as was Magnopolis. That only left us one thing
to do, head to the joint and bust down on him.

We came, a fight ensued, and every ship for kilometers around was tossed
into the stratosphere. As well, Gaia's Isle itself was obliterated, and in
the end, so were we.

We came to on Gaia's Isle, having been saved by Dante Sparda, the Star Fox
task force, the Bonne family, and... Xaeros? Yeah, that's right,
Prospector-man. He insists he had nothing to do with the Trances attacking
the mainland, and going after Ulty, it was all Servant, or Antimagnus',
doing. He's letting us into the catacombs of Gaia's Isle, and give us a tour
of the place, and give us a first-person education of the principles of
Trance. Everybody else seems pretty freaked by the offer, but I myself wanna
see how this entire thing works...
















********




Xaeros motioned the rest of his spectators over, twisting a large wheel on
the ground. He struggled with the first several cranks, but backed off as a
hiss left the edges of the entrance, and the plated door swung straight up
from the ground. Giving another look to Ultimanium, he sunk down into the
hole, scaling down a long ladder embedded in the dirt walls. Everybody
followed, one by one, until they were all in a large, metal walled chamber
at the bottom. A thick, white mist funneled through the air, painting the
steel-reinforced halls a light blue.

"It's damn COLD down here!" Glenn wrapped his arms around himself. He was
still outfitted in his light dress shirt and jeans, similar to Ultimanium.
However, it was safe to say he was the least bulkiest dressed out of the
group.

"We always store our computers in this manner, these things overheat
virtually instantaneously," Xaeros hummed. "We ARE dealing with
supercomputers, here. We get these machines to analyze the brain waves of...
gods, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Come, there is much more to this
compound than appears." Xaeros again lead the movement, as the entire group
made their way down a snaking corridor leading downwards. The temperature
remained around zero Celsius the entire trip.

"This guy's a loony." Tron pouted.

"YOU think so." Armadillomon sighed.

Everybody came out onto a wide catwalk, suspended about twenty feet above
another smaller chamber, with large, box-like computers reaching up to the
celing around them. Dials and needles across the surface twitched wildly.

"These computers might look primitive..." Xaeros moaned. "...but these are
completely rebuilt with the most powerful parts the Unity could afford. This
is the actual backup storage for the Trance readings. Further on there is
another chamber, for the actual current readings. We also use that chamber
in the creation of Trances."

Crono lifted an eyebrow.

Xaeros turned back, frowning. "Oh, wouldn't YOU love to know. Come along,
there is much more that needs to be learned..." Xaeros reached over to a
near wall, turning another crank that made a gate next to him slide open
slowly. Beyond it, a faint purple glow could be seen. "The floors the next
couple flights down are where the major Trance processes take place. It is a
hazardous place. I suggest you all don't come down here."

Eric nodded. "Fair enough. Me, Glenn, and that... other chick.. we'll go."
Tron blinked, edging closer to the opening as Xaeros, Eric and Glenn ducked
out of the hallway. She rolled her eyes as a bulky, white-gloved hand
latched onto her shoulder.

"Tron, ARE YOU INSANE?!" Teisel screeched.

"Cut the act, Teisel," Tron scoffed. "We're still headed back to the shore,
I just wanna see exactly what these guys are talking about, the 'Trances'
and all."

"You heard what he said, Tron!" Teisel cried. "There's no telling what could
be down there!"

Tron sighed, reaching up with a metal-plated hand and tossing Teisel's hand
away. Teisel stared at Tron's arm in shock.

"What's the deal?" Tron glanced down at her hand. While her other had a
short sleeve further up the arm, this one had a long, heavy black-silver
glove, with buttons down the side of the arm, and various green and blue
wires sticking out from the top and replanting themselves further down. "I'm
not gonna get in too much pain with this thing on. I can crush a boulder
with this thing." Tron chuckled lowly as she clenched her fist, allowing a
soft hiss of working hydralics to escape. Teisel just sat, his eye twitching
as Tron dashed off into the sidepassage.

Dante sat up. "Anyone mind if I head down too? I wouldn't mind checking this
out."

Ultimanium shrugged. "Knock yourself out."

Fox and Peppy sat in the background. Peppy slowly rolled his eyes over. "Um,
Fox, should we really be taking part in this? And what about Slippy?"

"I'm interested in this as well.." Fox grunted. "If this guy can very well
CREATE monsters like that, then it would be best to investigate. As for
Slippy, I already talked to ROB, the Great Fox's already detatched from the
Argetlahm and headed ahead of it. Slippy's escape pod was already scooped
up, so he should be aboard the Great Fox."

Shaun felt himself stopping as he started to edge toward the door, behind
Dante. "... they have things under control, Shaun, they do.. just sit
tight.."




********



Dante, Eric, Tron, Glenn, and Xaeros all found themselves on a small lift,
that unlocked itself with a click and began lowering itself down. As the
platform began to head deep, the walls began to show more signs of
development, with the lower levels' barriers pulsing with blue-tinted
circuitry.

"Some place you've got here," Eric chuckled.

"Ah, it's not much of a spectacle," Xaeros coughed. "At least anywhere
outside of the computer core. Right in the center of the computer we have an
anti-dimensional field set up, so the third dimension cannot affect my men
when they first Trance."

The elevator clicked to a halt, which soon followed by the monontonous hum
of hydralic-assisted doors as they shifted open. The group marched out onto
a wide catwalk, suspended over the floor of a spherical room. Its walls'
circuitry beated with a purple light. Everybody made their way across the
long catwalk to a large, cylindrical chamber at the center of the room.

"I haven't seen anything like this.." Dante's pace seemed to slow as he
entered the room.

Eric blinked. "Hey, Prospector, what's with the... huh?!" As Eric shouted, a
giant flash filled the room. When the light cleared, the group found
themselves in a giant white space. The air around them took on a distinct
cold crispness, but remained blank.

"What the.." Tron looked around.

"We've entered the anti-dimensional field," Xaeros said. "Here, both
everything and nothing is possible. Using the J, I was able to make many of
the same discoveries Ultimanium did and was able to craft this place. The
entire principle behind anti-dimensional fields is, literally, taking your
home with you. Using the destructive forces involved in dimensionjumping, it
is possible to virtually rip a giant part of any certain dimension out of
continuity and paste it anywhere else. Right now we are standing in a
heavily-modified section of sixth-dimensional space."

Glenn shrugged. "What's THAT supposed to mean?"

Xaeros pivoted toward the group. "Technically, we aren't in the third
dimension anymore. All the 6D forces are acting on us, so time has begun
taking effect on your very being and reality editation is now possible, at
least within this constraint."

Eric glanced around. "Well, this kind of sucks. How the hell are you
supposed to make a Trance out of this?"

Xaeros looked up. "Computer, access the J. Execute program trancesetup.exe."

A loud, electronic thrum echoed through the space, making everyone jump.
Looking back up to Xaeros, they could see, in his hand, a sphere with
alternating white-black layers. "THIS is how you Trance. Trances are created
entirely through the fusion of each of a person's extradimensional life
forces, which you should know is six if you're an Argetlahm member. The J is
simply used as a catalyst, warping each dimension's entity's Ki over each
other to violently smash their power levels and physical structure together.
The reaction is often quite explosive, more along the lines of
universal-destruction-explosive, that's why we have the anti-dimensional
field in place, to absorb the energy output."

Tron grimaced. "Are you kidding?! If you were to screw up ONCE the
dimensional structure would be blown apart!"

"As well, the process can be triggered by other Trances without use of the
machinery. The very power wielded by them can cause the collision of
dimensions on the point, or person, of their choosing."

Eric blinked. "Are you saying that Trances can jump dimensions on their
own?"

"Well, most of them don't really have control over the ability, but we were
looking into domesticating it."

Dante rubbed his chin. "Still, sounds kind of disasterous..."

Xaeros' eyes dimmed. "Indeed, the technology is still highly unstable, but
it can be absolutely devastating in the right hands. Unfortunately,
Antimagnus' hands are working just fine. You might not know it by looking at
him, but Antimagnus is the sixth-dimensional incarnation of Magnus. He is
part of the same person as Magnus and Ultramagnus."

Eric's eyes went wide. "You're kidding!"

"I'm afraid not."

"But you said that Antimagnus was a Trance," Eric mumbled, scratching the
back of his head. "When he Trances, what kind of an effect would that have
on Magnus? And how the hell does he Trance in the first place if Ultramagnus
is flat-out dead? Don't you need all six dimensional figures to Trance?"

Xaeros shook his head. "As for your first inquiry, whenever Antimagnus now
Trances, he leeches Ki straight from Magnus himself, so that would drop his
power level to near nothing. As for Antimagnus actually Trancing.." Xaeros
paused. "..you don't particularly have to have all your dimensional forms
alive to Trance, but missing a link would make your total power level far
less than someone who could Trance fully. Still, how Antimagnus can maintain
such a powerful Trance even though he's missing one of his 'links' is beyond
me."

"What's with the actual Trance process...?" Glenn sighed. "This might kind
of sound off-topic, but how do you actually choose who to Trance? Isn't
there some kind of 'quirk' that you have to possess to hit that kind of
power level?"

Xaeros shrugged. "We draw straws."

Everybody else facefaulted.

Dante blinked. "What the hell are you trying to say, that ANYONE possessing
a Trance could turn into a THING like THAT?"

"Well, not really. A powerful Trance form would take years upon years to
perfect. However, as far as actual candidate selection goes, we don't really
have a process. We were originally planning on running the entire Unity
through a process such as this."

Everybody looked at each other.

Tron sighed. "What did I tell you, he's wacko."

Glenn attempted to speak, but was cut off by Xaeros. "After Trancing, a
person must grow accustomed to the extremely high power level. At this point
they fall into a temporary coma, while they soak up the excess Ki. Absorbing
the Ki would normally take centuries, however, since the energy in question
has the same 'signature' as the Trancer, it only takes a matter of days. The
person awakes from the coma, with no negative lifesigns at all, and has
near-full possession of the Trance's power."

"That must've been what happened to Ultimanium," Eric grumbled. "but if
Antimagnus knew that Ultimanium would simply wake a while later, why did he
make James and Din Trance him, so he could come back later and fight him?"

Xaeros shrugged. "Error in judgement. I presume he was just thinking that
Ultimanium might've not been able to handle the power."

"Seriously, though, we were wondering how you chose the Trance
candidates..."

Xaeros tilted his head. "Okay, perhaps it is a bit more complicated than
drawing straws, but not much. Given that you are adequately educated in the
functioning of the dimensions, you should know that all higher-dimensional
lifeforms need their lower levels to exist."

Eric shrugged. "Uh huh, so?"

"Extensive research has identified a much easier method of keeping track of
something like this... one gene in the medula oblonga near the back of the
brain modifies itself to reflect on the state of the person's
lower-dimensional figures. Given that the lower-dimensional figures in
question are in some sense part of those higher-D forms, this is logical.
It's sort of nature's way of keeping watch on the dimensions, keeping a DNA
record of a person's multidimensional physical exploits. Whether it's death,
injury, sexual output, whatever - it's all marked down on that gene."

Tron rubbed her chin. "So, if you can check all of this through a simple
gene.. don't you keep records of the readings of all the people that
Trance?"

"I've only told you three times."

"Did you actually confirm that Antimagnus HAD all his dimensional forms when
he was imbued with Trance?"

Glenn shoved inbetween Xaeros and Tron. "Whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on. Tron,
are you actually insisting that Antimagnus might still have his
fifth-dimensional form? That Ultramagnus might be.. alive?"

"I have a hard time believing that someone could have that kind of power
level and NOT have their 5D form," Tron scoffed. "Where do you keep the
database in this place? I want to look for myself."

Xaeros straightened. "I am absolutely sure that Antimagnus was missing his
fifth-dimensional form, solely on the fact that Ultramagnus is dead.
...however, he DID Trance without my consent and supervision, so I haven't
had a chance to check the readings..."

"What the hell is this?" Dante scowled. "You actually believe this chick?"

"If you were the big heroes you guys insisted you were, you would get the
facts." Tron shot.

Eric, Dante and Glenn all stared at each other.

"The actual data storage is at the bottom of the facility. It's about a
20-minute trek, if we hurry." Xaeros said. "Do you all wish to look into the
database?"

"I'm guessing we don't have a choice." Dante mumbled, glancing over to the
impatient Bonne.




********




Fox and Peppy sat, leaning themselves against what remained of a mess hall
in the open flats of Gaia's Isle. They were both in the process of polishing
two objects that appeared like large, lensed tubes. Fox looked up from his
point to see the three Arwings parked off in the distance, with a large burn
mark on the ground where the fourth ship would have been placed.

Heero slipped out from behind a building. "They look awfully advanced for
fighters... are those class-B blasters?"

Fox held up his tube. "Sure are. They cost Corneria a fortune, but they use
practically zero power and they're some of the most powerful in the entire
military."

"Are you some kind of special forces unit?"

Peppy nodded. "Best of the best. Well, at least by Corneria popular
opinion..."

Heero faced away, running his hand along one of the blue plates on the left
Arwing. "How much training you need to operate one of these things?"

"Four years, aeronautical college education and ground school. And upwards
of 200 hours of airtime." Fox murmured.

"Anything else?"

Peppy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, they got some stupid credit-system in place in
the actual Cornerian forces... in plain English, people can jump between
elements as they please... the engineers said that the mobile suit division
for Corneria would be the second-best qualified for flying their
spacecraft... it's all a bunch of crap if you ask me, though."

Heero frowned. "...really. Anyways, mind if I take a look? I'm a
certified.."

"No!" Fox and Peppy chorused.

"Keep it down you guys, I'm trying to fit this i.. god DAMN it!!" Slippy
leapt out into the open in a well-cheoreographed dance of rage, throwing
wrenches in both hands to the ground. "If you guys keep SCREAMING I'll never
get this thing fixed!"

"Face the music," Fox sang, tilting his head back. "Your Arwing's toast."

"Slippy," Peppy sighed. "you have neither of the wings, the G-Diffuser's
torn to shreds, the entire left side of the cockpit is missing and the
stereo doesn't tune in to any good stations anymore. Just forget about it."

Slippy stamped the ground again. "But if I don't fly, I feel useless!"

"That would be me talking," Fox mumbled. "Admit it, you're the only person
aboard the Great Fox with enough work ethic to actually repair the Arwings
whenever they're banged up. Trust me, you'll have your hands full for a
while."

Everybody's heads creaked to the right as a loud hiss erupted from the
cockpit of the farthest Arwing. The darkened plate glass lifted up quickly,
with Falco poking his head out. "Do you people mind? I'm trying to sleep
here."

"Oh, it's just Slippy bitching."

"I AM NOT BITCHING!!"

Falco scratched his head. "What's the big deal? I'd give a hell of a lot to
skip out on missions."

Slippy turned. "So you'd lend..."

"No!" Fox, Peppy and Falco shouted in unison.

Heero shrugged. "So why don't you just have him running the Great Fox
totally for you guys?"

"No!" Fox, Peppy and Falco all turned and screamed at Heero.

"Slippy, just use the spare Arwing and quit your bitching." Falco muttered.

"I SAID, I AM NOT BI.. spare Arwing?"

"The one that Pepper gave us after the Venom incidient, in case we wanted to
'draft' someone, doofus!" Falco growled. "GOD! I can't BELIEVE you people!"
Falco lowered his head again, scowling out obscenities to himself as the
glass plating clicked shut.

Fox and Peppy exchanged stares. "We have a spare?"

"No!" Slippy screeched. He stopped his triumphant advance when he noticed no
one else had said anything. "...do we?"

"Ah, I remember now," Peppy sighed. "The one in the cargo hold we haven't
even TOUCHED for three years."

"No!" Slippy scowled.

"Is redundancy an 'in' thing nowdays?" Heero coughed.

Slippy seemed to shrink. "Everytime I THINK about that thing, I think about
getting in it and flying. And when I'm in it and flying, I always have this
weird feeling that the entire thing's going to collapse on me! It just feels
like a disaster of engineering!"

Fox shrugged. "Hey, you're not alone."

Peppy nodded. "Blue Marine."*

"GO TO HELL!" Slippy bellowed.

Heero glanced between the seething Slippy and the remainder of the group,
still happily polishing away their blaster lenses. ".. hey, I'm uselessness
incarnate over here as far as combat is concerned... if you aren't going to
be doing anything with that Arwing, maybe I could use it?"

"Falco wanted it to be a present for a 'friend' of his, some chick called
Katt," Fox said, not looking from his blaster. "He probably forgot about it
months ago. Chances are if he noticed it now he pawn it before any of us
could blink. None of the rest of us want it, so go ahead and give it a
whirl. I'll tell ROB to give you access."

Heero nodded, a smile beginning to crack. "I'll try to make a good
impression."



********



"Holy crap, how much further does this tunnel go?"

Xaeros let out a rusted groan. "Will someone tell Tron to shut up?"

Tron held her arms folded in front of her, taking up the rear in the line.
"Seriously, though, how far down does this place go? We've been heading
straight down for ages!"

"The bottom bunkers can withstand a Kamehameha from the surface, if that
answers your question." Xaeros huffed.

Everybody else groaned.

"Well, we've already headed down that far. It should only be a short
distance from here..." as everybody marched on, the walls seemed to take
more of a dull grey appearance, a vast contrast from the pulsing-computer
walls of the corridors above them. Xaeros led the walk down through a
parkade-like substructure before coming up to a single metal door. Xaeros
gently grasped the doorknob and twisted it, throwing the door open. Inside
was a small line of server computers, with one smaller console seated on a
desk. "Ladies and Gentlemen, everything you wanted to know about Trance but
were too confused to ask."

Dante immediately leant himself against the nearest wall, while Xaeros
seated himself down in front of the computer. "So, what exactly are we
supposed to do with Antimagnus' readings?"

Xaeros kept quiet, instead punching several keys on the interface with his
bulky, plated fingers. "Just reading up on his dimensional status. You may
be up against something far worse than a Master Trance, you may be dealing
with Ultramagnus to the next degree."

Eric knelt down. "So this is basically telling us whether we're
automatically screwed?"

"In a primitive sense, yes."

Xaeros' head bobbed as he pressed the enter key. Bizarre instructions and
coding scrolled down the screen. The entire group gathered around the
computer as Xaeros quickly scanned through the writing.

"...hmm? ... this isn't right.. this isn't right at all.. wait.."

Glenn stood up. "Well, what's going on?"

".. I'm not entirely sure." Xaeros' chair rolled slowly back from the
computer. "Antimagnus indeed left his genetic imprint in the Trance
server... but there is nothing right with what the system displays it as..
look closer.." Xaeros pressed a key, making the display zoom in on a small
circular molecule structure. "...the information in the gene says that
Antimagnus does, in fact, possess a fifth-dimensional form.. but.. this is
impossible!"

Tron seemed fairly unimpressed. "..what?"

"The fifth-dimensional information is CLEARLY not his own! This sure as hell
isn't Ultramagnus here... this has to be someone else's Tra.. damn it!"
everybody quickly backed away as Xaeros slammed his fists against the desk,
nearly splitting the hardwood in half. "Antimagnus is a god damned Fusion
Trance!!"

Eric slunked forward. "...Fusion Trance?"

Xaero's head sunk. "It was an experimental process we had in R&D for a while
before we began Trancing our soldiers... it was designed to offer the
ability of Trance to those who were missing certain dimensional figures...
we had martyrs of the Unity that were willing to sacrifice their own
dimensional stability to seal up the missing links in the structure of those
that wished to Trance. We literally ripped the martyr's dimensional figure
out of continuity that the Trancee lacked and pasted it into place in its
subject. This would last as long as the Trancee remained in Trance, then the
dimension structure would attempt to heal itself by returning the
dimensional figures to their proper place. It worked for the most part...
but it remained in the archives while Antimagnus infiltrated the Unity! And
now that it's in his hands.. he's more powerful than I could ever have
imagined!"

Dante nudged his foot out, kicking up a small cloud of dirt. "So exactly
what are we supposed to do if this Antimagnus is a 'Fusion Trance'?"

"My course of action would be to get you all Tranced as fast as possible so
you can stand up to this threat."

Eric shook his head. "Nuh uh. We all saw what happened to both Ulty and
Takato the first time they Tranced..."

Xaeros gave out a small cough. His armor lit up in a flash of light as it
warped out of control, eventually fading out back into Balkan's usual
leathered clothing. At that point, he was able to turn around and stare
straight onto Eric with disturbingly cold eyes. "Boy, you have no IDEA how
powerful a Trance is in these hands. You and Ultimanium's little band have
to get over your little fear of this ability. It will be the only way you
will be able to stand up to Antimagnus and survive." Balkan remained silent
as the chair swiveled around, returning to the computer. "I have the
resources to imbue one more Fusion Trance. You sound like just the right
candidate."

"We're all afraid of the effects of the Trance..." Glenn mumbled.




---------


Takato slumped his hand against the ground, struggling to keep himself up.
His hands padded the ground, searching for something. "...I...
d-d-d-d-d-don'tttt.. neeeed the power-r-r-r-r-r-r... I know exac-c-c-c-ctly
what I wanna... ugh..." Takato plunged facefirst into the deep dirt ahead of
him, his hand movements slowing to a crawl.

"Takato!!" Takeru cried.

"Crap... well, maybe Shaun here isn't Tranced, but, regardless, your little
friend here is ready to suffer the full brunt of Trance's effects. He isn't
particularly desensitized to the power level, so his head'll probably
explode in about a minute if he can't discharge that power."


---------




"...hell, even I'M afraid." Glenn finished. He flinched as he spat out the
last word.

"Come now, this occurs only to the uninitiated," Balkan sighed. "Being a
Trance myself, I can sense your power.. Eric Power, you had to go through
countless battles to obtain SSJ4, and to get this far, to reach the
Argetlahm. Any normal person wouldn't have been able to do this... but you
are sufficient enough to handle the Trance, as was Ultimanium."

Eric bowed his head. "..I guess you're right."

Dante and Tron both glanced back up, blinking. Eric was stopped as Glenn
latched onto his shoulders. "What the hell are you thinking? You're going to
take a risk like THAT to match up with Antimagnus? Besides, look at
yourself, you're stooping to his level, the dimensions get a little less
stable every time..."

"I'm RISING to his level!" Eric spat. "Look, ever since that we've been
running into the Trances, they've nearly gotten us each and every single
time! We're never going to get rid of Antimagnus if we attack his front
every single time! We've got to set our sights higher, and beat him at his
own game! We've got to turn ourselves into Trance fighting machines if we
ever want to set things right!"

Dante lowered his head, shrouding it in darkness as he chuckled. "Hey, you
have to admit, he's got a point there. You guys weren't exactly star
performers taking care of Millenial out there..."

Glenn rubbed a bruise on his elbow. "...well, still... do you know what
you're getting yourself into?"

"Not really," Eric scoffed. "But there's not much of a choice... we're all
going to have to get used to this if we want to get Antimagnus."

Balkan stood up from his chair. "So it is decided?"

Eric straightened himself, gesturing towards the door. "Ready as I'm ever
gonna be."

Balkan nodded. "Alright then. Follow me."



********


Fox felt himself jolt, making him drop his shined blaster in the dirt. He
scowled to himself as he scooped the piece of machinery out of the mud, its
surface already covered with a think layer of gunk. "Aw, crap, I just spent
the last two hours on this thing...! What the hell was that just now?"

Peppy's ears perked up. Off in the distance an echoing roar could be made
out. "Sound barrier's been busted. We were on the receiving end of a sonic
boom."

"Wait a minute..." Fox grumbled to himself. He reached down and tapped a
small button on his wristwatch, causing a halve of the screen to split off
and show a display of the main console of the Great Fox. ROB's face filled
the screen as usual. "...did you happen to get a scan on the ship that just
buzzed us?"

"Affirmative. The backup Arwing has just hit terminal velocity, all systems
functional. No system or external malfunctions have occured since liftoff."

Fox looked up uneasily as the Arwing off in the distance performed a loop,
pulling up only to skim just over thirty feet off the ground. A small upkick
of mud was generated. "...really." Almost immediately, Fox felt himself
lurch as the fighter banked suddenly and came on a collision course with the
other parked Arwings. However, the ship lurched to a halt a good distance
away, and the canopy slid open as Heero slid out of the Arwing. He tossed
the small-sized receiver helm linked to the cockpit back into the opening
before turning to the group.

"Am I in?"

Fox and Peppy glared at each other, shrugging. Fox felt his vest droop as a
mechanical arm tugged on it. Glanced down, he found what looked like a
sentinet Lego man yanking on his jacket. "...uh.. who the hell are you?"

The little robot bobbed its head, swinging its arms back and forth. "We're
the mechanical geniuses on call 24/7! Miss Tron asked us to look around the
island for anyone that might be needing any assistance with their mechanics!
There's quite a few people that crashed on this island, you know!"

Heero blinked. "..a Servbot?"

Fox glanced back up. "A whatschmaza?"

"That really IS her," Heero sighed. "You guys probably wouldn't have known
it on your way into the Terran galaxy, but we've got our own selection of
space pirates. You see that weird chick with the black hair, short pink
skirt?"

Peppy nodded.

"Tron Bonne, ringleader of a bunch of minor trespasses at scattered poitns
throughout the local space. Nothing too serious, but enough to get them
noticed. Treasury robberies, vandalism, stuff of the sort. Her family backs
her up. The only real reason she's known is for her partners in training,
the Servbots. The Bonnes constructed forty of these Servbots to do dirty
work for the Bonnes, the project headed up by Tron herself. Though they're
most often used for dirty work behind lines, they supposedly have some of
the most advanced artificial intelligence created."

Fox rested his head on one of his palms. "...really."



********



Eric clenched his fists as he walked out into the open space of the chamber,
its surroundings suddenly plunging into an abyss of white around him as the
antidimensional field activated. Balkan appeared out of thin air behind him,
walking forward. "...are you ready?"

"...Balkan," Eric finally spoke. "If I go through with this I'll undoubtedly
wind up in a coma like Ultimanium did and Takato avoided. Is there any
indication of how long I'll be conked out?"

Balkan's eyes glinted. "Antimagnus didn't count on it, but I've worked
around it." His hand rose, with a large needle wedged inbetween his fingers.
"With the right... 'mental conditioning', we'll be able to cut down the
recovery time to mere hours. However, you're going to have to trust me...
this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."

Eric would have come up with a witty remark at the time, but it's rather
hard to do so when you have a spike of metal drilled straight through your
head.

Eric screamed for a short few milliseconds. The noise hadn't even left his
lips before he was standing still, wondering exactly what the hell he was
screaming at. Balkan had removed the needle already. "...what the..."

"I gave you some industrial-strength depressant," Balkan said. "It'll keep
your Ki emissions down to a bare minimum while we conduct the Trance.
Throughout the remainder of the procedure, you will do as you are told,
regardless of how strange it may sound. We wouldn't want a needle like that
'missing' its mark, now, would we?"

Eric laughed nervously. "...well..."

Balkan tossed his head back. "Computer, activate the J, start up
trancesetup.exe." he commanded. A large beam of purple light tore down from
the celing and encased Eric, the barrier stretching off into infinity in
both directions vertically. Eric felt his heart begin to race, when off in
the distance... formed another Eric. First a line, than a flat, 2D figure,
than a larger SSJ form of himself, and finally a Saiyan with black hair,
seething red eyes, and the Saiyan's long monkey tail drooping down from his
rear.**

"Meet your extradimensional figures." Balkan droned.

"...what the hell..." Eric's eyes widened as he looked between the four
figures, all returning the stare. "...these.. are me?"

"I think you should be able to identify them," Balkan responded. "Line,
first dimension, flat, second dimension, SSJ, fourth dimension, and the
highest SSJ the sixth dimension."

"Third dimension?"

"You, you moron." Balkan said flatly.

Eric grinned weakly. "...my bad. Hey... where's my fifth dimensional form?"

Balkan turned back to the group, with mock surprise. "...oh, hey, what's
this? Eric doesn't HAVE a fifth-dimensional form! Boy, your
fifth-dimensional form was killed during its seperate trip to the Argetlahm
in search of the Power. Remember, all these events are happening seperately
in each dimension. As a Trance, when I first scanned you I KNEW you were
missing your 5D form, that's why I chose you for the Fusion Trance."

"That's all fine, bu... AUGH!!" Eric bellowed in shock as a purple beam of
energy crackled out of the artificial sky and struck him dead on, sending
him reeling back and eventually falling flat on his back.

"Eric Power, you are a Trance."

Eric blinked, grasping himself as he quickly pushed himself to his feet.
"What.. that's it? I don't feel any sort of power increase..."

"For the last freaking time, you are a FUSION Trance. In order to activate
your powers, you will have to fuse with an entity of similar power level."
Balkan tossed Eric a small pager-sized console, which he caught. "This is a
small mental stimulator. Latch it onto your head and switch it on when you
want to Trance. Think about the person you want to Trance with and the
device will trigger it. And one more thing..."

"Wow! Cool..." Eric reached over and switched the device on, sticking it to
his head. Balkan's eyes went wide.

"Damn it! Not now!"



********
TRANCE...
********


Eric threw his arms out as purple energy bolted up the left half of his
body. In a blur, unknown forces hurled Eric straight at Balkan, the normal
half of his body merging in a strange rippling display with Balkan. Balkan
sighed as his skin began to fragment, showing properties of Eric's as it
began to split off.

"Eric!... Fusion Trance!!"
"...Balkan, Fusion Trance... this once, and never again..."

The shards of light forced themselves off of the newly created figure with a
shatter, exposing Eric, though with greyed hair, one half of his body
loosely armored in a pitch-black metal plate, the other bare-chested and in
loose gi pants. In the arm opposite the armor, the Trance held a
white-one-side, black-the-other four-foot axeblade at the end of a long
pole. The Trance gripped the weapon just below the gigantic blade.



********
The Fusion Trance of Eric and Balkan! Combining the greatest darkness and
greatest motive, the ultimate axe Messerschmidt's Reaver has been crafted!
While Balkan's passiveness forges the defenses of the Trance, Eric heads
forward to wield the weapon with no mercy! The attack Great Divide will
leave anything in pieces!
********


GIMLI - Fusion Trance (Earth/Darkness)




Gimli twisted the giant axe around in the air, with accompanying swishes.
"Not too shabby."

"As I was GOING to say," Gimli groaned. "You always have to make sure you
clear your mind before attempting a Fusion Trance. Any fleeting memories of
a person, and, bam - if they're anywheres near you, they'll get dragged into
the mix and you'll get the wrong combination for the situation." Gimli
paused. "...can we turn back now?"

"Hell no!" Gimli giggled, leaping around and swinging the massive axe in
different directions, before making one giant leap and slamming the sharp
edge of the blade into the ground. "...okay, I'm done."

Gimli glowed flare-white for a short moment before splitting apart down the
middle and reforming themselves back into Eric and Balkan. Balkan looked
down, dusting himself off. "That is all I have to show you. One thing to
keep in mind with Fusion Trances is that while the same people can Fuse, the
end result is different depending on who initiates the Trance."

"...huh? That's it?" Eric glared as Balkan as he began to walk off into the
distance. "What about everyone else? How are they supposed to Trance?"

Balkan turned. "You know how Millenial's 'influence' was spreading during
the storm?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, you could just say that the storm closest to Gaia's Isle was
contaminated. Don't tell anyone I said this, mostly because they have
already expressed quite freely that they don't WANT to Trance, but everyone
in Millenial's presence has already technically soaked up a small portion of
his Trance energy. Put blankly, your entire crew, those who AREN'T Trances,
are now as we speak partially Tranced. However, it will take the right chain
of events to push them all the way."

"...really."

Balkan paused for a short second before looking back to Eric. "This is the
last thing I'll tell you, I'm obviously boring you all out of your minds. To
defeat Antimagnus, you will most likely have to Trance at some given point.
Let it come freely, and it will aid you when you need it the most. Resist
it... and it will resist you."




********




The Argetlahm lied on the moist soil in one of the vast valleys of the
island, where several dozen small figures, the crew, could be seen wading
through the mud. Balkan took up the rear.

"You understand our situation now?" Balkan sighed. "No matter what, you
people may not be able to avoid Trancing..."

"Then we'll avoid it UNTIL we can't." Ultimanium shot back. He looked up the
side of the cruiser, spotting the Great Fox as it lumbered through the air
alongside the ship, as it latched with a loud clunk on the secondary hangar
opening.

"Interstellar travel..." Takato chuckled. "Kind of makes you wonder what
everyone else would say, huh buddy?"

"Where's the Stell?" Guilmon frowned.

"Say, do you guys mind if we go with you?" Tron mumbled.

Everybody paused.

"Do we ever manage to think of a reason to NOT let anyone come?" Raynor
muttered.

**We see everything firsthand, and we're the first ones to report it! We'll
be celebrities!** Tron grimaced.




********



A good portion of the passengers who hadn't returned to their bunks marched
onwards toward the bridge, where Minonim had righted himself up (and in
accordance gave Ultimanium a disgruntled stare) and was right at work
monitoring the various comm channels on one half of the bridge control
panel.

"This is quite the ship you have here... what year model is this?" Balkan
bent down, examining the translucent floor plating.

"Something old." Fox got a stare from the others. "...what?"

"It IS pretty old," Ultimanium tapped several small buttons on the far left
surface. "We got it upgraded twice, Magnus did it himself four years ago and
we just got new parts before we departed for Gaia's Isle." He turned back to
Minonim. "Hey, did we get any transmissions?"

"Did we ever!" Minonim tossed his thin arms up in a mock scoff. "Everybody
seems to have gotten the message about who 'got rid' of Millenial, because
we're getting thank yous from all over Magnopolis! I had to clue them in
that Millenial wasn't truly gone... and that got me even MORE feedback! At
least a dozen private government agencies are offering to sponsor our trip
to the Van Eltia!"

Teisel grinned. "Money money money."

"We're making one last stop in Magnopolis, then," Shaun said. "We're heading
in to fully stock the Argetlahm for a deep-space voyage."

Peppy tugged his collar. "Um.. peoples, we've been talking all the time
since Millenial about heading out to the Van Eltia, but we've never actually
made plans about getting there... you know, he left hours before us and he's
a high-and-mighty Trance, chances are he'd be faster than us, and he has a
head start! Even the specs on the Chronoshifters show that we're still
slower than most of the Magnopolitan ships!"

Eric smiled uneasily. "...um, Shaun, where exactly IS the Van Eltia?"

Shaun folded his arms, watching out the window as the Argetlahm slowly began
to lift off the ground. "...Exodus System."

Fox blinked. "EXODUS system?! Are you insane? That's galaxies away! It'd
take you YEARS using Chronoshifters! Can Millenial beat us there? Balkan,
how fast could Antimagnus be going?"

"He is moving faster than Chronoshifters, I know that at least."

"Well, how are we supposed to get there faster then?" Dante asked. "Our
engines can't cut it... can't we get an upgrade for that?"

"Not in the time we have." Cody replied.

Everybody sat in silence for a short moment.

Slippy grinned. "Guys, are you totally forgetting how we got here?"

Falco growled at Slippy. "Well, as a matter of fact..." he instantly shrunk.
"...well... yeah."

Everybody else sweatdropped.

"The Lylat System is about three-quarters the distance from here as it is
from here to Exodus," Slippy spoke. "You gettin' the picture?"

Fox snapped his fingers. "That's it! We'll have to use it!"

"Use what?" Locke asked.

"Everybody, let's head to the war room," Fox said. "Ulty, you still have
your projector set up?"

"Sure do."

"Great. Slippy, upload the Great Fox's nav charts to the Argetlahm, we need
some visual aids."



********



Everybody waited patiently in the soft, dust-covered seats of the war room
while Fox and Slippy darted around onstage, disconnecting large wires from
the base of the projector. "Okay, that should be about it." Fox reached up
and turned on the projector, using buttons on the base of the contraption to
scroll through various menus. Finally, Fox centered the display on a
celestial map, similar to the charts already installed in the Argetlahm.

Ultimanium folded his arms. "Go on."

The display blinked out again, lighting up with what appeared to be a circle
divided down the middle horizontally. A large circle sat at the very center,
a smaller one just to the right of it, and an even smaller one in constant
orbit around the circle.

Fox nodded. "This is our system. Or both of them."

Eric tilted his head. "BOTH of them?"

"There's a giant asteroid belt right down the middle here, on the line,"
Slippy drew his fingers along the dividing line. "Many people don't make the
cross at anywhere but the middle, so we regard each half as a seperate
system - Lylat, and Hybrid. The asteroid field is most commonly referred to
as the Lylat-Hybrid Dateline."

"At one point in the field..." Fox pointed to the smaller circle to the
right. "...there's a wormhole. Corneria has military beacons set up there,
sort of a sanctuary... that merchant and interuniversal-military ships use
to leave the system undetected. It's sort of a back-door exit. The actual
wormhole is known as the Cannon - it's a compression in space-time that can
launch any ship across space in mere seconds, with no negative effects to
the passengers or cargo."

Ultimanium nodded. "So that's our ticket. Still, tell me more about
Lylat-Hybrid."

Slippy grinned. "For anyone else who wants to leave or exit the system, they
have to wait a full Exit Revolution - the time it takes for our exterior
spaceport... here..." Slippy pointed to the revolving dot. "...to get around
to their system. THAT'S called Station Square. However, they tightened up
security a bit since some whacko calling himself Eggman let loose a monster
called Chaos on the place. There's not much I can tell you about that."

Raynor rubbed his chin. "Well, Lylat's where Corneria is and it's where your
forces operate, but what about Hybrid? What's that like?"

"Hybrid is only about 50% mapped," Fox replied. "Because so few people go
there, it's a haven for space pirates, which drops the population even more.
It's made up of several other planets, many of which don't have space-travel
facilities in place yet. I think so far they've documented a couple
planets... Mobius, Popstar and Spira."

"...that's... great," V2 murmured. "But what's the deal with the BIG dot?"

Both Fox and Slippy turned to the display.


"THAT... is Mute City."


V2 blinked. "...Mute City?"

"THAT... is the offical port between Lylat and Hybrid," Fox sighed. "The
largest city in both systems, capping off at about two billion. We go there
a lot on business. An insane amount of traffic gets pushed through there
each day, over double that of Station Square. As well, it's the Lylat-Hybrid
capitol of the Lylat-Hybrid Competition Council..."

Shaun straightened up in his seat.

"...they have a bunch of weird competitions that go on there, mostly
exclusive to Mute City." Slippy finished.

Shaun rolled his fist. "Liiiiiike..."

"The FIRST one is a sort of racing league that they have going on in and
around Mute City, as well as several artificial moons. It's racing in
compact G-Diffuser vehicles, like standard Indy racing on speed. Actual
velocities hang around 900 klicks, and it's not unusual for the tracks to
twist in any conceivable direction. Upside down, vertical, whatever - the
speeds support the vehicle. Peppy here's really into that, he modified his
Arwing and installed collision shielding to take it into a couple qualifying
laps. The entire shebang is called the F-Zero Grand Prix."

Everybody looked over to Peppy, who returned a weak grin.

"And the OTHER thing... THIS is truly whacked out. It's a melee fighting
competition, on several predesigned arenas scattered around the city, and on
several of the abeforementioned moons."

Gohan smirked. "What's the catch?"

"The entire premise is behind the machinery they use," Slippy responded.
"However, since it's based on that machinery, it has a power level limit of
200."

"...damn."

Takato leant forward. "Go on."

"...how it works... you get yourself a shield belt... and a Kinetic
Magnifier Belt..."

"Kinetic Magnifier?"

Slippy frowned. He put up a fist, flicked it with his other hand, and threw
his clenched hand away with force.

"...ohhhhhh. So?"

"These people.. they put the shield generator on their chest, the Kinetic
belt on the front, and a battery beneath the generator, linked to both. How
it works is as you beat at the shield generator, it begins to get damaged.
And when the power can't go to the shield generator..."

Takato nodded. "You begin to fly."

"Yep. Ring Out, you're gone. Fox and Falco are in that, they're pretty high
in the standings as far as I've seen.*** Anyways, it happens to be the most
heavily populated event at Mute City, and it's the new brainchild of its
income. It's the partnership of the kinetics and the shielding that give it
its name, and the intensity of the matches."



Fox nodded toward a confused Takato.


"Super.. Smash.. Bros."




Tron glanced back over to the group. "So what's the deal then, are we
stopping at Mute City before heading to the Cannon?"

"If we start here and don't stop anywhere else..." Slippy counted on his
fingers. "...the boosters on this ship'll take approximately six days to
reach Lylat-mapped space... we'll probably have to stop either at Corneria
or Mute City to restock our current supplies, Mute City if we want maximum
efficiency."

"...yeah. I mean..." Ultimanium paused. "...on second thought, we really
shouldn't head back to Magnopolis at this point..."

"Why not?" V2 said. "I mean, the place is in shambles, and..."

"They wouldn't be ABLE to restock us." Cody finished. Crono rolled his eyes,
slumping himself down onto the control panel.

"It's not that..." Ultimanium murmured. "It's the fact..."

"I'M here." Balkan groaned.

"What's the big deal?" Locke pouted.

Balkan shook his head. "Asides from the fact that every single resident of
Magnopolis wants to tear my head off personally, let alone the world,
billion-dollar bounties are on my hide, and the factor that Magnus would
tear me a new one, not much. And if the crew of the Argetlahm was seen to be
siding with me, you would have literally the world against you. Ultimanium,
if you seriously wish to work with me, you must conceal our alliance until
we leave Terran space."

Dante shrugged. "He's got a point there."

"...when did you get here?" Ultimanium asked. "Who are you?"

"Dante Sparda, your new... ah, forget it. Just a..." air quote.
"..spectator. If you people don't mind, I'd like to make myself useful and
hitch a ride too. This is a one time offer."

Ultimanium looked over Dante. "Do you have any special..."

Dante ripped the Murasame from Cody's hands and drove it through his own
chest, letting the blood sheet down his overcoat and undershirt. He glanced
back up and tossed his hands up, leaving the blade embedded deep in his
chest. "Alright, how many of you can do this? Huh?"

Takato twitched. "Doesn't that kind of sting?..."****

Everybody else shrugged.


Fox glanced around. "Well, I see we've got our little posse together. So,
tell me, what time were you guys thinking of heading for Lylat?"

"We can head it right now if that's your fancy." Eric said monotonously.

Minonim blinked, reaching forward and latching onto a joystick. "Onwards it
is, then... everybody... onwards to Lylat..."



"And onwards to Antimagnus."







********


Now!!!! For those little annoying asterik-comments...



* - As any true-blue Star Fox master will tell you, the Blue Marine was used
by the Star Fox team to investigate a bio-weapon being mutated on the sea
floor of the aquatic planet Aquas during Star Fox 64. The Blue Marine was a
full-out combat submarine used for the situation. It was co-engineered by
Slippy, however, which was enough to make any pilot steer clear of the thing
thereafter. (My little theory on how the Blue Marine got one mission while
the Landmaster Tank got two. I'm sure you agree with me.)

** - Black hair, red eyes, and a questionably-regrown Saiyan tail are all
symptoms of true SSJ4, as demonstrated in Dragon Ball GT. If you ask me,
though, it's STILL retarded as far as SSJ goes.

*** - Fox and Falco are both playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
And they rock. ^_^'

**** - For anyone out there who HASN'T played Devil May Cry... don't worry,
the guy's been impaled enough already as to be desensitized to it.
Seriously. o_<


********





NEXT TIME ON TRANCE TRAUMA....

Chapter 13: Dimension's End - Ultimanium, the First Jumper?!




In this next cha... hey, you know what? I'm not even going to tell you. Why?
Because I have a really crappy tendency to totally turn things upside down
from the plan I establish at the end of each chapter for the next. Like LAST
chapter... "Where's the anticlimatic fight scene?"

Well, now you know.

Next chapter's comin' soon, though. Same time, same station, kiddies. Later.













Chapter 13: Dimension's End: Ultimanium, the First Jumper?!





(A/N - NO ANNOUNCMENTS!!... I'm probably going to think of something to say
just as I post this chapter up, though. Ugh. Anyways, we need at LEAST one
pointless thing to say. Okay... if you haven't played Sonic Adventure 2 yet,
do so now. You will. You know, Davis still has his brick here. And the
railgun. And... I'm BLABBING again, let's just get on with this before my
face falls off.)

(But that wouldn't be my style. ^_^ This chapter is a bit short for its
production time, but it's not my fault. It's the INFERNAL GAMECUBE. Having
it sit a couple feet from the computer here isn't the most motivational
force towards productive work. Just another round of Smash Bros, if you
don't mind...)

(One BIG suggestion, however... you might notice that the Argetlahm itself
has never been described. When I envision it, I wind up with a big black box
flying through space. o_o So, perhaps someone out there would like to make
an exterior design? That's right, I want someone out there to make me a
draft of the Argetlahm! Fun for the entire family! Ship 'em in, and I'll
perhaps pick out the best one and give its author a one-shot fic courtesy of
me in compensation.

- Text descriptions... bleh. If you intend on submitting something, make it
fancy. Just make it visual, at the least - scan it, use Photoshop, 3D Studio
Max, whatever - just make it look presentable. Submissions can be sent to
ultimanium@hotmail.com <mailto:ultimanium@hotmail.com>.

- Try to keep it under 100k. I am using a freaking 56k here, people. o_O

That's about all I have from the peanut gallery. Happy reading!)










Vegeta (VO)

Last time on Trance Trauma, Balkan got down on his knees and begged for
forgiveness. As much as everyone sees otherwise, well... no one WILL see
otherwise anymore if I have anything to say about it. After some pathetic
pleading from Balkan, we entered his compound with resident whiner in tow to
dig up what information we could about the the Trances and their origins.
Everything went along smoothly and Eric even Tranced himself. If it's easy
enough for that loudmouthed imbecile to perform perfectly on the first try,
then I sure as hell will have to look into powering myself up.

Armed with what info we dug up, Ultimanium and the rest of the crew set out
their final direction - to pilot the Argetlahm deep into space to the Exodus
system, where the Van Eltia lied. If we can get there before Antimagnus,
great. If we can't... well... anyways, several suspicious characters calling
themselves Star Fox insisted that we stop off at the halfway point near a
port colony called Mute City. Well, I can't argue, apparently this is set in
stone judging from everybody's reaction.













********



Trunks gave one last look unto the lush landscape of grass beneath him,
heaving out a sigh as the Argetlahm slowly began to rise off the ground. It
had been two hours since leaving Gaia's Isle, and the perfect launch pad,
far away from Magnopolitian influence and hilly, was discovered on the
Argetlahm's nav charts. The bridge had since been evacuated while the
remainder of the crew escaped into the bowels of the ship to make last
minute adjustments and plans for the great voyage, leaving Trunks, and Goten
spinning around in Ultimanium's swivel chair.

Trunks turned as a loud beep chimed from across the room, and the doors
quickly parted. There was a sizable pause before Gohan stuck his head in.
"...uh... hey, Trunks. Is Goten here? I need to talk to both of you."

Trunks frowned. "Uh huh. We're both here. What's the deal?"

Gohan slowly shuffled in, twiddling his thumbs. "...well, it's mostly about
your entire being here. To make a long story short... well, neither me or
Vegeta were entirely thinking that the situation with the Trances would be
stretching out this long... we're ready to entirely LEAVE Earth for a long
time... and..."

Vegeta darted out from behind Gohan. "We would think it best that you
involve yourselves in this battle no longer."

Goten blinked. "What's the big deal?"

"We've been constantly having to pull you out of harm's way, and the nagging
problem that you haven't actually DONE ANYTHING since you got here..." Gohan
mumbled. "...you have to understand, we're beginning to get worried about
you. Do you have any idea what kind of total crap I'd be in if I let you get
killed...?"

"The same goes for you, Trunks," Vegeta continued. "If I had have known
about this in advance, I possibly could have trained you... perhaps let you
be a little more on guard... but I can't risk anything in this situation.
We've already arranged with Ultimanium to escort you two home using the J3."

Trunks stamped his foot. "Nuts. I was beginning to enjoy this place. Promise
me I'll be able to come back sometime?"

"This is the Argetlahm, SOMETHING'S going to have to go wrong eventually."
Vegeta scowled. "Now, come along, we have to head home to that godawful
hovel your mother calls a home..."

Gohan turned to Vegeta as Goten scrambled towards him. "Are you coming back
after you drop off Trunks?"

Vegeta nodded. "You?"

"Okay, it's set. C'mon, let's get moving."



********



The hallways remained empty for a brief moment, before people began plowing
down it and tossing open doors. People were quickly digging through their
belongings, several crewmembers dashing back up to the bridge and other
orifices of the ship with cameras and camcorders in tow.

"Primary ascent begun," Minonim bleeped out. "Estimated time until breach of
mesosphere... twelve minutes."

Shaun frowned. "Yeah, thing sure as hell isn't the fastest in creation,
huh..."

Locke grinned as he leant over, peering out the window over the landscape as
it slowly fell below the view of the bridge. "Holy crap... I don't think
I've ever been this high before..."

Crono nodded in agreement.

Cody squinted as the first traces of cloud cover began to fall past the
ship. "Actually, come to think of it, we didn't actually leave Earth during
the Ultramagnus campaign... guess I have no reason NOT to get all giddy..."

"I guess this is the next step towards the end..." Eric slumped down into
one of the nearby command stations, sinking down into the chair.

Takato accordingly sat himself down in front of one of the computers
opposite Eric. "Hey, did anyone see Ulty since the countdown started?"

Gohan shrugged. "I talked to him a bit about half an hour ago... but since
then I haven't heard a word. Did anyone else happen to notice him?"
Everybody exchanged stares. "...or.. did anyone happen to see Charmy for
that matter?"



********



"Wooohooo! Someone answer me!" The morbid silence of the hallway was pierced
suddenly by a loud call, and the uncerimonious scraping of Charmy's
rollerblades against the hard-plated floor. Charmy shoved herself forward
again, ducking underneath an outstretch of pipe as the bunks scrolled by
her. She slid to a sudden stop to a door at the far edge of the hall, and
shoved it open slightly. "Hey, what's the big idea? Everyone else's up on
the bridge, why aren't you there? The view's great."

Ultimanium sat with his feet propped up on his computer terminal, arms
folded and staring down at the ground. Various posters from video games and
several music groups were posted above both the terminal and his dresser,
but asides from that the room was far more plain than anyone else in the
hall. "...It's not that spectactular... when you see it as much as I do,
you'd agree."

"SOMEONE'S bummed out about something." Charmy pouted. Ultimanium glanced up
to Charmy, an agitated frown showing through. "...what's the big deal
lately? Ever since we went through Millenial you've been so... bleh. C'mon,
we have the people we need, we should be able to do this, we just need an
oppritunity..."

"It's not that." Ultimanium said flatly.

"Then what's the problem? C'mon, give me a sign here."

Ultimanium sat still for a brief moment. He turned back to Charmy. "I don't
believe I've gotten this far into a conversation on this subject before...
come to think of it, no one has even asked me that before..."

Charmy smiled. "Well, it can't be as bad as you make it sound."

Ultimanium's eyes seemed to dim briefly. He remained silent for a second,
lowering his head again. "... I don't want to talk about it... and I'll
never want to talk about it." Ultimanium muttered to himself, his voice
deepening out of recognition.

"So many people... DAMN it, I wish she hadn't brought this up..."

"Earth to... huh?" Charmy waved her hand in front of Ultimanium, making his
concentration snap. He suddenly looked back up, shocked, staring straight at
Charmy's wide grin. "What's the deal? Hey, I'm not leaving before I get some
talk out of you..."

Ultimanium remained still before looking up. "...no one's really asked me
that question before, you know that? I was really hoping I wouldn't have to
answer it again..."

"Again?" Charmy blinked. "So you'll tell me?"

Ultimanium sighed. "I don't have much of a choice, I'm guessing. For the
last time, I am REALLY against telling someone like you because I know
perfectly well you're the kind of person that would toss this around if we
manage to get home as gossip. Soon, I would die out of public opinion... the
Magnopolitian government knows everything about me... that's why the
Argetlahm is where it is now."

Charmy leant down. "Go on."

Ultimanium scowled to himself.







--------






Cherryburg, New York
March 30, 1998





Keyvan sighed as he let his head lower, suddenly stopping as to not plant
his face in a large puddle of spilt coffee, not even half an hour old by his
watch. "...crap."

The rest of the small roadside diner around him was indulged in what people
in small roadside diners usually partake in, either small travelling
families struggling to keep their kids quiet while they decided whether to
order fries or onion rings, large-built truckers laughing over large mugs of
coffee, the constant ringing of the cash register at the far end of the
room, and the shouts from behind the counter as part/full-time chefs threw
prepared dishes around the restaraunt.

Keyvan slowly glanced behind himself, drumming the fingers of his hand not
on the counter on his gun holster hanging off his belt. He turned back in
time to see the familiar chime of the news update ring out of the small
television supported from the celing.

"Tonight on News 8... an amazing find just miles outside of Cherryburg in
New York state is currently being investigated by many of the world's finest
qualified archeologists, in what many leading experts have termed the
greatest technological advance of the century."

Keyvan frowned. No one else around him would have known it by looking at
him, but he was right on top of history - or at least as far as you could
get with a partial-post-secondary education, anyways. He was instructed
firmly not to let the information out that he was a security officer,
otherwise any unlikeables would target him first for information on exactly
what was going on at the dig site.

The truth was, Keyvan had no idea what was happening.

His directions didn't go far beyond "see something, shoot it". In fact,
though he was one of the highest ranked guards there, he didn't even have
access to over a quarter of the compound. Sometime that was going to change.
He was going to head in with a hacked security card and figure out exactly
what the hell went on behind closed doors at Sherheim Excavations, and let
himself be the judge.



********



Sherheim Mobile Compound
Day X, 2:12 AM



"Security door breach, level 1. All MP forces please report to sectors F
through K for retaliation."

A single squeal of a siren ripped through the large campsite of the minor
fortress. Keyvan grit his teeth as several heavily-armed officers ran about
him. "This is..." He gasped, as he quickly dodged to the side as a cloaked
figure brought down the butt of an AK-47 in a preemptive strike. Keyvan
winced as he reached over and began to fight for control of the assault
rifle. As Keyvan kicked the man in the groin and seized the gun, the
intercom blared:

"Intruders repelled. However, several of their men have escaped into the
facility. Find them, dead or alive!"

Keyvan growled as he slapped the back end of the gun viciously across the
shrouded man's face several times, before knocking him to the ground below.
Almost imediately, several soldiers charged up and picked up the man,
kicking and screaming, and drug him off into the distance. As Keyvan swept
his forehead, a larger man tossed open a manhole in the background. "Hey,
everything safe now?"

Keyvan turned back. He stared for a while. "...Perry, what are you doing in
the sewer?"

"...well, they told the scientists to take cover, and... never mind, it
isn't important. Are they gone?"

Keyvan leant on the AK-47 in his hands, pointing the barrel into the moist
dirt at his feet. "Yeah. Hey, I was on leave for the past week. When did all
this start?"

"Two nights ago," Perry reached up and adjusted his glasses. "Sherheim
Excavations got a funny unmarked letter, making threats unless they stopped
the digs in Cherryburg. Some wacko cult, I heard... what were they, the
Unity?"

Keyvan sulked. "Why would they want to stop the dig...? Especially when no
one knows... what's... down there? Maybe they have some sort of idea?"

Perry shrugged. "Beats me. If they do then they probably have a better idea
than I ever will..."

"Oh yeah, I was getting to that..." Keyvan dug in his dress shirt pocket,
taking out a small silver-lined slip. "...I had my security card modded by
some of the other camp workers. They said they wanted someone to head down
to Level Delta and see exactly what the hell Sherheim was scraping up here.
If the officials figure out what's going on, though... it could be a 20-year
sentence for me."

"Are you sure going down there's the best idea in the world?" Perry scoffed.
"You know what kind of credentials you have... the least they can do is kick
you out, and there's not much else you're qualified for..."

"I'll watch my step..." Keyvan paused as a small shower started overhead,
gradually beginning to bead the ground in front of him with moisture.
"...I'll probably be heading down later tonight, while maximum-security
level is a bit lighter."

Perry nodded. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Only if you're content with being thrown in the slammer."

"And you're any different?"

"I am security elite, Perry..." Keyvan glanced off towards the large winch
seated above the 50-foot wide hole in the distance. "If they see me down
there, I can just say the Unity was escaping down there. They'll see
security having more reason to go down than an archaeologist."

"I don't know about everything..." Perry spat. "It just seems logical that I
head down there as well... I don't know, it's something driving me..."


---
That was my first, and greatest, mistake.
---


"...I guess..."



********



Two hours later, with the rest of the camp under the watchful eyes of
military police and curfew crew, Keyvan and Perry found themselves trudging
through the dank caverns underneath the Sherheim compound, Keyvan leading
slowly through the darkness with flashlight in hand. Perry crept along at a
snail's pace behind him. A long trek downwards through a maze of mine
elevators led them to the checkpoint - where the tunnel would normally have
continued was blocked by a large, steel wall, with a small door at its base,
and a corresponding card scanner.

Keyvan looked upwards at the vast maze of pipes, pumps and control
computers. "...well, I guess this is it..." As Perry slid backwards, Keyvan
advanced on the door, stopping at the card scanner ejected itself from the
wall, latched onto a small mechanical arm.

"Please provide your Sherheim ID number."

Keyvan grit his teeth as he quickly swiped the card through the scanner,
causing it to bleep and whirr as the recorded number slid across the screen.
"...c'mon.. c'mon.."

"...ID check successful. Please proceed." The small door suddenly slid up,
revealing another tunnel beyond, that began curving downwards near the
horizon.

Keyvan glanced back to Perry, tilting his head toward the opening. Both men
slid towards the small opening and through it. "I guess this is it... say,
who exactly are the people who have access to these parts of the mines
normally?"

"Sherheim's shareholders," Keyvan responded. "I don't know why the hell
they'd be the ones permitted down here, though... the person I got this card
from said they found one that was left in the break room, so they made a
copy of it."

As the tunnels burrowed through the earth further, the surroundings around
the two workers began to change gradually from the plain,
compressed-dirt-walls to catwalks, with giant pistons and energy tubes
situated beneath them. A long half-hour trek finally placed themselves at
another entrance. Perry and Keyvan leant themselves against the wall on
opposite sides of the opening.

"Ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"To see the heart of Sherheim."

"Better late than never."

Both of the subjects hopped forward and hurled themselves through the door.
Both their eyes' went wide.

They stood in a great, vacant chamber. At the very center, admist what
seemed like hundreds of smaller computers, was a small laser scanner on an
arm, sweeping up and down over a large green tablet suspended from the
celing. Bizarre, ancient writing was sprawled across the artifact.

"What the..." Keyvan slowly began to slide forward. "What is this?"

"Hell if I know," Perry said, raising his glasses. "but take a careful
look... that language... is Zeal. The absolute oldest recorded civilization
on the face of the earth. They had the rights to many of the most bizarre
inventions of their time... they say that the original designs for the
government-run test time machines were from original Zeal blueprints..."

"All that and a bag of chips, poindexter."

Keyvan quickly looked up. "What the hell...? Is that?"

Up on another catwalk high above the computers stood a tall, built man in a
business suit. He had his hand high, twirling his mustache. He stopped for a
moment, letting out a deep chuckle before leaping completely over the guard
rails, and performing a flip before landing on his feet on the ground below
with an echoing clang.

Perry's pupils shrunk. "Mr... Mr. Sherheim!!"

"Well met, Keyvan Chandonnet... Perry Owen... you know, I must commend you
for being able to make it down here in one piece. If that stupid government
official never lost his keycard... even if you got down here and were caught
by a single guard, you would have been shot on the spot. But since you're
already here... that's not an issue. Take a look ahead, fellows... maybe
you're at a loss as to what this contraption is?"

Keyvan sulked. "All I know is that it could make one hell of a espresso. Is
this one of your world monopoly plots again?"

"Oh, I assure you, this one is a bit more... on MY behalf than my company.
You set your eyes upon the greatest technological achievement mankind has
ever dug out of the ground... keep in mind, the Zeal themselves never even
bothered to make a valid use of it because of it's 'danger' factor... but
that makes it all that better. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pround to present
the Dimensionsplitter."

Keyvan shrunk. "Dimensionsplitter? Okay, I'm taking that as a BAD thing.
Tell me, Sherheim, exactly how much reading did you do on this subject?"

Sherheim let out a deep laugh. "Keyvan, you might not have known it being a
late bloomer on the site, but this archive of the Zeal was found two days
after we started digging here. For the past two months, we've been running
closed experiments on this technology. We kept the 'mining' going to not
attract attention. Regardless, you two have impeccable timing. With the
Unity watching us at every turn, we've decided to push the clock forward a
bit... we are going to begin the first field test of our prototype
dimensionsplitter, the "J", in the next two hours."

Keyvan lifted an eyebrow. "Perhaps we don't WANT to be guinea pigs."

CL-CLI-CL-CLIC-CL-CLI-CL-CLI-CLICK

Perry sweatdropped. In the period of two seconds, at least forty armed
guards had leapt out of the open and held the two at gunpoint. "...can it be
that bad?"

Sherheim chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Tsk, tsk. I was thinking
you two would ENJOY being basked in your fifteen minutes of fame, but I
guess I was wrong. I mean, it beats paying people to do it. Guards, take
these two away somewhere safe. I want them to be full of vim and vigor for
the First Jump."



********



Sherheim Mobile Compound
Day X, 3:46 AM



Keyvan struggled to keep his head straight. As it stood, he and Perry had
been awake all night, something Sherheim would never have allowed his labor
workers to do. However, he had his own plans for Keyvan and Perry. Being
swapped across the nose with a nightstick and having it sit still nearly
broken didn't necessarily help, either.

"C'mon, this way." A guard dressed in a bright orange hazard suit stepped
into the cell, ushering the two subordinates out of the chamber and down the
hall. They were handcuffed on the way there and brought back out into the
same chamber in which they had entered the futuristic research facility.
There were stairs set up that climbed up to the overhead catwalk. Lined up
on the thin walkway were another ten identifiable excavators from the site.
Out in open air... hovered the J. Keyvan and Perry were shoved into place at
the very end of the line, and forced to face the front.

Sherheim plodded in front of the line, arms behind his back. "Well. Welcome
to the heart of Sherheim, fellows. Now, I bet you are all wondering what
you're doing here. As it stands, my friends, we are moments away from
another great mark in human history. I am proud to present to you... the
dimensionsplitter, J! Now, I hear from many of you that you FEAR this great
new step. Well, you can stop, because using this great device, you will be
able to head to a world beyond your wildest dreams! It isn't all bad,
either. Upon returning, you will all be promoted and paid like kings! Now,
is that such a bummer?"

Sherheim walked over to a large man on the end, with hands behind him as he
picked the handcuffs. "I bet you would like that, Harbring, maybe you'd like
to keep your family out of welfare. You'll be one of the richest men in
Cherryburg, or New York for that matter!"

Sherheim paused, a devious grin forming on his face as Harbring broke the
lock and threw his hands together at the man, roaring in anger. Sherheim
caught the assault effortlessly, bending around and twisting the arm back.
Harbring let out a cry of pain as he began to crumple. Sherheim's face
rapidly deteriorated into a growl. "Just what I thought."

"You ain't gettin' away with this!!" Harbring cried.

"You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye." Sherheim sighed as he threw his arm
out, toppling Harbring over the catwalk guardrail, letting him plummet at
least forty feet to the hard, metal floor with a sickening clang. Harbring
let out a gasp before his head fell back down, blood seeping from his mouth.
"...well, then. We've gotten the disbeliever out of the way, so why don't we
get this party started... begin the First Jump."



********



I don't exactly remember what happened after that point. Before Sherheim
left the catwalk, another worker jumped him with a knife. Meanwhile, in the
background, the countdown for the First Jump started at 30 seconds. I stood
by and watched desperately as Sherheim and the other excavators fought, with
security forces on both sides of us trying to break up the fight. Perry
didn't appear any different.

Workers at control panels on the other side of the room were frantically
pulling levers and pushing buttons, manipulating the J.

"Destination set at maximum frequency. Stand by for primary dimensional
breach."

Sherheim threw the remaining four people off of him with a bellow, each of
them landing at different points on the catwalk. "Hah! Do what you want, you
aren't stopping me now!!"

"20 seconds!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the panel operators staring
at the display blankly. He shook his head and went back to work.

"15 seconds!"

"Do you happen to have a reasonable idea where we're going...?" Perry
murmured.

"Couldn't tell ya the least." I responded.

"10 seconds..."

Sherheim finally turned back towards the J, pulsing a purple glow. "Aha!
Onwards to the next dimension!! Engage all systems!"

"9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2..."

Sherheim's eyes went wide.



********



"MAYDAY!! MAYDAY!! GROUND CREW, PROJECT J HAS EXPERIENCED A LEVEL 8
DISRUPTION FIELD!! REQUESTING ALL ELECTRICAL FORCE NECESSARY TO PIERCE..."

Keyvan raised his head from the ground. "What the hell... what's going on?..
why are we on the ground?"

"We fell..." Perry sighed. "I think my arm's gone, I can't feel it
though..."

"Project J, you have been sent an EMP. Use it the best you can."

"Engaging EMP!"

Keyvan and Perry shrieked, as did Sherheim, as a shockwave of nova-white
light sent them all rolling across the floor of the compound, and slamming
them against the far wall. As the light settled, the entire chamber could be
seen dumped in what looked like a purple smoke, being blown around by
catastrophic winds.

"Field breached! Keep an eye on the readings... I have a feeling this isn't
over ye... OH... SHIT!! LEVEL 12 DISRUPTION FIELD, INCOMING!! We need
another burst here, god damn it!!"

"We don't have any juice left! We've just blacked out all of Cherryburg!"

"Well, what the hell DO we do?!"

Sherheim fell forward onto his knees, grasping his head before reeling back
and letting out a bloodcurdling scream. Keyvan and Perry both winced as what
could only be described as a 'force' pierced through them and delivered a
sting all over their body.

"The turbulence is tearing us apart!! Where the hell are we?!"

"We're at the maximum level!! That's it, just turn us around!! Turn off the
J, damn it, the dimensional bending should slingshot us back!"

"We'll have no idea where we're going, though!!"

"DO IT!!"




The last thing Keyvan saw was white.



********






"Whoa..."

Keyvan shook his head. In that brief second, it felt like the very air
around him was being torn apart. He could hear the cries and noise of a city
around him seconds before it was overshadowed by a massive blast of air. As
soon as the storm had started, reality itself in front of him stretched back
into place. Keyvan was standing in the middle of a vast field of grass.
"...what the hell? Where did the J take us...?" He waited for a response. He
got none.

The first impulse was to cup his hands to his mouth and call. "HEY!! ANYONE
HERE?!" he let the shout resound over the plains. Still nothing. Keyvan
began to walk forward, but found his foot impacting against something solid.
He looked down... and found a immobile body at his feet. It was one of the
workers. His face was torn apart, and his chest was gouged beyond
recognition. One of his legs was completely missing. "...oh... damn."

Keyvan turned quickly as Perry slumped over the hill, grasping his left arm
as he limped forwards. "What the hell... where are we?"



------






Ultimanium lowered his head. "We were in the Fourth Dimension. Lost, thrown
across the dimensional spectrum. The First Jump was initiated in the Fifth
Dimension. The J managed to breach into 6D, but couldn't go any further.
That's basic Zeal Dimensional Theory in action. The J had already caused
massive damage to the barrier between 5D and 6D, so the command to let the
dimensional turbulence throw it backwards sent it through backwards,
rupturing the field even more. Paranormal events began occuring in both
dimensions with greater frequency in the time we were gone."

"Meanwhile, we were stuck in 4D with no means of escape. We found a small
town shortly after... and Sherheim's scattered remains. We survived on what
we had though, and we soon got a job at a security firm in a nearby city. We
were thankful that 4D and 5D were similar, save for the time-travel
technology, otherwise we would have been completely lost. Time went on.. and
on.. and on. I left 5D when I was nineteen years old, and we remained in 4D
for about a year. In the meanwhile, me and Perry managed to scrape up funds
for a small apartment, and that was where we made our home."

Charmy leant forward. "Then what?"

"That was when... Ultimanium came into play."





------



January 2, 1999





A small radio played soft rock in the background while Keyvan stumbled into
the kitchenette, quickly slipping on a pair of oven mitts. He bent down,
opening the small oven door and removing a sheet of chocolate-chip cookies,
which he placed on the counter. He removed the gloves, sweeping them off.
Perry, meanwhile, sat several feet away at the table, not moving his eyes
from the television. Keyvan kept his eyes on the TV for a brief second...
before the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Keyvan grumbled. He made his way over to the small door,
still in his apron, and looked through the viewglass. Outside was standing a
heavily robed man.

"...blind fundraising? Hell if I know..." Keyvan slid the door unlocked, and
opened the door. "..uh, hey."

The man slowly raised his head, pushing back his brown hood. "...Keyvan...
is that you?"

Keyvan blinked. "...do I know you?"

"Keyvan.. so it is you. I bring you tidings..."

"..sir, what's your business here..."

"... I remember it. I remember the J."

Keyvan stepped back. "Huzzah? What do you know about the J?"

"It is a long story." The man finally removed his hood, exposing a head and
beard of silver hair. The man couldn't have even been in his fifties,
however. "I am the government planner of sciences and mechanics, Narrin
Aldur. I wish to speak to you, about the J. It is of the utmost importance."

"Disappeared in the crash. Good day." Keyvan attempted to shut the door but
found Narrin holding it open.

"That's not my purpose here," Narrin sighed, forcing the door back all the
way with surprising strength. "You are survivors of the J.. you may be able
to provide us with help... you have both encountered an extremely dangerous
situation upon interacting with the J... however, you have no idea how bad
it is."

Perry looked over Keyvan's shoulder. "Ah, hell, let 'im in, we haven't had
visitors for a week."

Both stepped out of the way as Narrin slid in. "The J... it is following its
course just like we anticipated."

"Wha?"

"We had prophosized about this event outside of our dimension for years now.
And it has just occured. The J has been activated, which spells the end of
perfect dimensional stability within the Six Dimensions. Through Sherheim's
tampering with the forbidden technologies with the Zeal, they have set
Creation up for a greater struggle than has ever been dreamed of." Narrin
seated himself slowly in a large recliner in the living room.

"..." Keyvan and Perry exchanged stares. "...okay, could you just get down
to the point?"

Narrin looked up, his cold blue eyes piercing into both Keyvan and Perry's
minds. "With the advent of J, nothing is held sacred anymore. If Sherheim is
allowed to go on with the J any further... who knows what could happen."

"The J was destroyed in the First Jump," Keyvan responded. "We found pieces
of the J after we'd touched down."

"Don't you get it?" Narrin shot back. "Information of this event stands the
risk of being released to the public. If this regulation goes unchecked,
dimensionjumping may be in the minds of the public, and it may be used as a
weapon... and the stability of the dimensions will begin to cease. We need a
force, a unit, to return to the Fifth Dimension and keep these thoughts and
influences out of the public's eye until we can do away with the technology.
That unit... shall be you two."

"Whoa, hold on a second," Perry spat. "I'm sure we'd love to be part of your
little commando squad, here, but the truth of the matter is, we can barely
defend ourselves. I mean, all Keyvan's got to his credit is his custom
handgun..."

"...I'll tell you what YOU have going for yourself, bucko, a pile of LARD to
absorb hits for you!" Keyvan scowled.

"Not now." Narrin murmured. Both his audience immediately loosened up.
"Should you accept this mission, you will be provided powers to aid you in
your quest. In the period of a short while, I will be on hand to teach you
to fight, sneak and kill... in the Fourth Dimension, our methods of defense
and attack are quite different from your home dimension... and far
different. And it's not just limited to supersoldiers, either..."




------




"Two weeks went by," Ultimanium muttered. He turned to face the wall,
examining one of his posters. "As hard as it is to believe, I started at a
power level of 15. However, Narrin saw a possible scholar in me for his Ki
fighting style, Regen."

Charmy twitched. "Regen?"

"Most Ki arts are based around the idea of experience. Basically, blow more
stuff up, win more fights, use special techniques more often. Regen, on the
other hand, is a sort of self-spreading Ki, building up inside a person to
high levels based entirely on how often you can avoid confrontation and
remain at peace. Consequently, when the case subject is placed in a
do-or-die situation after a good forty or so years of this meditation, they
can literally create Hell on Earth. However, each time someone does this,
they take a small hit to their total power level."

Charmy nodded. "So you grow your own Ki. THAT'S why we never find you
training."

"You should know me as a pretty mellow guy, and that's why Narrin
immediately took a liking to me. I soaked up Ki extremely well, and in under
those two weeks I had already boosted my power level up to 50,000."

"What about Perry?"

Ultimanium shook his head. "Perry... Perry, on the other hand, was extremely
aggravated over Narrin's subtle means. At the mere mentioning of power from
Narrin's announcment, he could hardly keep his patience with the slow going
of Regen. Him and Narrin would constantly get into fights, until Perry
decided he would leave Narrin's eye and receive training somewhere else. He
got normal training somewhere down the street. In the end, his power level
growth was extremely retarded, ending the training at 4,500."




------




Perry walked across the living room, dressed in a large-fitting yellow
karate Gi. "'ello, losers. Get any more sitting around done while I was
gone?"

Narrin sighed, passing Keyvan the remote. "Sure as hell did."

"It has been two weeks since I first started training you. We cannot waste
any more time. We shall make plans of your leave some time during the next
two days."

Keyvan nodded. "Alright, then. But there's just one thing that's bugging me
about this entire situation..."

"Then ask."

Keyvan turned to Narrin. "Well, I don't really want to sound like an idiot,
but it's just that... well... I don't exactly know how just two of us are
going to keep watch on the dimensions. I mean, it just sounds like an
undercrew to me. Is there anything direct that we have to watch out for?"

Narrin prepared to speak, but his eyes could be seen dimming.

Keyvan blinked. "Was it something I said?"

"...the prophecies spoke of one threat to your cause, as well as the root of
the entire situation... those who will use the dimensionsplitters to their
advantage in an attempt to rule Creation... listen well, for this is the
only time I will tell you. There is one constant force spanning across the
Six Dimensions that will hinder you..."

"Go on."

"They are... Magnusi."

"Magnus?"

"Six seperate beings, one on each dimension. They will rise up to take
control of the dimensionsplitters, and to destroy you. They must all be
destroyed for dimensional stability to ever return, or so it says in the
scripture."

Perry scratched the back of his head. "We can take 'em."

"Don't be so cocky, boy. The higher Magnusi have the power levels to take
out entire galaxies with their pinky."

Keyvan leant back in his chair. "Well, so, now what? We've been sitting
around here, building up Ki... but what do we do?"

Narrin nodded. "We have reclaimed the parts from the destroyed J, and have
been studying it for the past two weeks. I'm proud to say that our engineers
have been able to rebuild it from the ground up with notable improvements...
like NOT nearly destroying dimensions. It will be a safe passage between the
dimensions... the J2. But listen close - whenever your mission is complete,
return to your home dimension and DESTROY the J2 before anyone else can get
their hands on it!"

Perry nodded. "Uh huh."

"For the effort, I have also secured you a medium-size destroyer-class
cruiser for you to use in your adventures - U.S.S. Argetlahm."

Jaws dropped.

"We have a fucking FLAGSHIP?!" Perry exclaimed.

"You will need the room. I intend you to find allies on your adventures,
build them into a force that can stop the influence of the J from
spreading... you will go out and find these Chosen, get them on your side.
Then you shall be ready for the task of finding the Magnusi."

Keyvan and Perry exchanged stares.

"Then let's do this."

"Hey, wait a minute, we're superheroes now!" Perry chimed.

"Get rid of the Magnusi and perhaps I'll give you the credit." Narrin
muttered.

"Hey, Magnus, no Magnus, I'm stronger than 'em all! Hell, I'm better than
the Magnusi itself! And whoever says anything else..." Perry laughed as he
spun around, delivering a roundhouse kick into the air. "..can speak with
me! I'm not a Magnus, no..."



-----




Charmy waited for a response.

Ultimanium bowed his head. "No. He was FAR worse..."




-----



"... I'm Ultramagnus!!"




-----




Charmy's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. "YOU were training with
ULTRAMAGNUS?!"

"He was an ally during the first phase of our operation. We spent a year
cruising around the multiverse before we got down to work. The very first
thing we did was attract combatants. We returned to the Fifth Dimension, and
started a fighting tournament in New York, entitled the Ultimatum. It all
went downhill from there..."




-----




He began pacing. "Anyone who knows me would know me as a fan of mainstream
anime. Stuff on YTV, Fox, Cartoon Network,
yadda, yadda. My comrades believe that a massive crossover episode between
some of these shows are far overdue."

He stopped, and pointed out into the crowd. "New York shall be the site of
this crossover. As I speak, formal invitations
have been made out to casts of several primetime animes, and they will find
their way here, New York, to conduct a massive
battle royal between episodes."

I stood and spoke. "So you mean one massive fight?"

"Correct. I wish only to film this and present it to the world. Which is why
I present a message to the people of
New York - defend yourselves, for in the case any of you interfere with my
grand plan, these people may be forced to
kill you."

An elderly man in a military uniform stood. "So we'll kill them first."

Ultimanium's eyes shot into a deep red glow. He punched his hand, sending a
small gust of wind through the floor aisles.
"NO! Know if that you manage to destroy any participants, I will be forced
to bring you down by my hand. And if I can't..."

A deep voice spoke up. "Then I will!!!"

Another figure dove out of the sky and landed on the stage with a shudder.
This person was slightly more rotund than
Ultimanium, but at least he had proper clothing on. His hair glowed a
pulsating yellow-gold not the likes I have seen.

Ultimanium glanced over. "Hey, Perry. Glad you could make it."

Perry gave a hats-off motion. "Glad to be of service."

"This is my fellow warrior, Ultramagnus," Ultimanium announced. "He is of a
long line of Super Saiyan, superhumans with
great physical and psychic powers."



-----


"...Ultramagnus attempted to kill the combatants later during the actual
tournament. I don't know why, I don't know how, but luckily the Chosen
managed to repel the attack."


-----



"Can it!" Ultramagnus yelled. "This was a stupid plan from the start! I have
no idea what the 'purpose' of bringing everyone here was! Especially the
Daikari! That just FREAKS ME OUT!!"

Everybody in the audience oooohed.

Tai turned to Davis. "Hey, do you know what a Dakari is?"

Davis shrugged. "Beats me. I heard Kari though."

Tai slapped himself in the forehead.

"You can do what you want with the survivors!!" Ultramagnus said. "Until
then, I unveil my wrath!!"

Ultramagnus lunged at Davis.

Davis froze. "Why do I NOT like this..."

"SPIRIT SURGE!!!"

A massive blue beam of light tore straight forward and enveloped
Ultramagnus.

Ultramagnus -865 HP

"SHADOW SURGE!!!"

Another beam shot forward, even larger, black, and laced with purple
lightning.

Ultramagnus -900 HP

"What's going on?!" Tai yelled.

Everybody remained still as the dust ahead of the group cleared. Ahead of
them stood a near-dead Ultramagnus. He didn't look ... well.. good.

"Eeeewwww!!" Mimi winced. "His arm got blown off!!"

Ultramagnus dropped to the ground. "I ... can't believe this! What did I do
for this?!"

Everybody looked up to the stage. Ultimanium's finger was outstretched and
still crackling with energy. "Ultramagnus. You do not understand the
tranquil struggle that is associated with my crusade. I'm afraid you're just
not the right partner for me. Until you can learn to put aside your warrior
ways and find your way to the Light - and fight only when truly necessary,
you cannot pose a threat to me. You end here.

"Now... my last attacks... unleashed when one side of equilibrium upsets the
other... when they are perfectly equal... that will be the eliminator of
anything upsetting either end of the scale."

"...I don't think I'm going to like this." Cloud sighed.



SHATTERED REALITY!!!




-----


"Ultramagnus was tossed back. However, he seized control of the J2 and
headed straight for the third dimension. That was the great war that
eventually destroyed the third dimension."

Ultimanium sighed as he sat down. Charmy slowly lowered herself down to his
level. "I knew you had some sort of influence on these events, but I never
knew it would have been this deep..."

Ultimanium growled, throwing his fist down on the desk. The metal beneath
his hands cracked into fissures, with Charmy instantly leapt back. "But look
where we are now, Charmy! I'm right back where I started, with the earth...
EVERYTHING being threatened by the last Magnus! If I had stopped Sherheim
while I could, NONE OF THIS WOULD EVER HAVE HAPPENED!!"

Charmy grinned uneasily. "...c'mon, Ulty, it had to happen sooner or
later..."

Ultimanium lifted his sore hand to eyesight, his lips beginning to waver.
"I.. don't like dwelling on the past... mostly because I had so much
influence on it... if I had even killed Ultramagnus while I had the chance,
none of this would ever have to be my responsibility... billions of people
wouldn'tve had to die at the bloody hands of Ultramagnus... and Antimagnus
wouldn't have another dimensional form to draw life force off of... hell, he
probably wouldn't have even Tranced!! I'm a fucking idiot for letting this
all happen..." Ultimanium lowered his head, ending with a soft clunk on his
metal desk. "...that's all there is to say. I would like to say I could...
change... the p.. ast, but all that time-travel bullshit is long go..ne.. I
guess I just have to leave things to the next generation.. you guys..."

Charmy's eyes dropped as Ultimanium's soft sobs began to break through.
"....Ulty..."

"GET OUT!!" Ultimanium screamed, he brought up his palm, blasting a lancing
beam of Ki at Charmy. Charmy shrieked as she brought up her wrist..
deflecting the blast.

Ultimanium lowered his hand, trembling. "..h-how..."

Charmy coughed. "..I-... I don't know... I absorbed some of your energy
while you were in that coma, and... I don't know, it feels like I'm getting
more powerful by the second..."

Ultimanium instantly broke down. "...no! Don't tell me you... CHARMY, NOW
*YOU'RE* GOING TO TRANCE!! NO... NOO! HOW CAN I LET EVERYBODY AROUND ME GO
THROUGH THIS... WHY?!" Ultimanium cried, slamming his head down against the
desk again, this time leaving it there. "...why... why?...whyyyy..."

There was no more said on the subject. Charmy ran. She ran until the though
escaped her mind.




"...this'll be over soon, Ultimanium," Charmy mumbled. "I'll make sure of
it."








-----
NEXT TIME ON TRANCE TRAUMA...
Chapter 14: Magic Soldier, Craymel Knight Shaun Garin


We've all had our shares of memory lane in Ultimanium's monologue... but
when no one seems to be taking the threat ahead of them seriously, it's
Shaun himself that clues them in on exactly how dangerous the Van Eltia can
be... first hand.



(A/N - More words of caution - the next chapter's going to be another slow
one, but the one after that, I assure you, is going to have plenty of
Smashing good fun ^_^ Just hang in there!)














Chapter 14: Magic Soldier, Craymel Knight Shaun Garin



(If you haven't noticed yet from the strange font, I HAVE MADE MY TRIUMPHANT
RETURN TO HTML!!! YAY!!!!! However, that means exactly squat for you asides
from the big, shiny bold-and-italic writing, but it's a step up from
Wordpad. If everything goes well, I should be able to upload in this format
from now on. Of course, I'm too damn comfortable in Wordpad now. So now
things get cut-pasted into Netscape Composer and only the most serious
things get big fancy text effects.

...wait a minute, when I post this up... this fic'll be over 100,000
words!!!!! AAAHHH!!!

There's not much else to be said here, except the fact that this may be the
shortest chapter of Trance Trauma second to the prologue. I'm working simply
off of about three pages of background provided by Shaun Garin, and I'll try
to do my best to weave that into a substory.

However, if that fails, I can always make the Official Ultimanium Nonsense
Chapter going on in the background for some cheap thrills. ^_~)




------



Charmy (VO)

Last time on Trance Trauma, the crew began to settle down as the Argetlahm
began its ascent to space. However, for the safety of Goten and Trunks, they
were removed from the crew and sent home, a decision made by Gohan and
Vegeta. While everyone else oohed over the view from the bridge, I decided
to head down into the catacombs and figure out where Ulty was hiding.

Worse came to worse, and Ultimanium's past was revealed, right up to his
partnership with Ultramagnus, of all people! Ulty seemed pretty shaken up by
the experience of having to retell the situation word for word, and I
wouldn'tve blamed him! Anyways, with THAT over with we can finally begin the
voyage - hopefully...






*******




"Exiting mesosphere. Beginning final ascent." Minonim reached forward and
yanked on a large lever, making the floor beneath the bridge rattle
violently. The shake stopped as fast as it had started. Outside the
Argetlahm, the blue glow of the mid-atmosphere began to die down, revealing
the beginning of space. The interference quickly died down, and stars began
to dot the sky. Immediately the crew began rushing to the windows, peering
down upon the utopian Earth beneath them.

Takato and Locke were the most googly-eyed out of the group, totally fawning
over the display of special effects in front of them. The earth began to
face the window as the Argetlahm literally turned on its side, thrusting
itself forward into Earth's orbit. Locke grinned as, beneath them, a small
desk-sized meteorite was tugged into Earth's gravity field and burst into a
red aura as it began to plummet toward the ground.

Eric chuckled. "I remember getting all hyper like that the first time I got
hauled into orbit..."

Dante heaved a sigh as he lumbered over to the vast glass plating, standing
behind Takato. "...you know, I wouldn't normally find myself saying this,
but it actually is quite a sight... I mean, for someone who hasn't even been
at 20,000 feet."

Falco kicked back in Ultimanium's chair, resting his light boots on the
control panel. "Hell, you'll get sick of it in a couple of days... I tell
you, if you haven't been in the air a whole lot throughout your life, you'll
know it when you go into space. After a while, you'll forget which way is
up."

Cody shrugged. "Look at us! We're pitiful. We had every oppritunity in the
world to visit the Argetlahm for the past nine years, and we haven't even
BEEN at commercial-aircraft-level for the entire time! I feel disgraced..."

Glenn simply stood with his hands in his pockets, looking upwards at the
planet as the Argetlahm tilted upside down. "It reminds me a whole lot of my
other trips..."

Locke held his arms above his head, stretching. "Yeah, I kind of
wondering... what exactly DID you do as part of that Galaxian air-ground
jump trooper thingy?"

Glenn kicked distractingly at the ground. "Ah, we're basically peacekeepers
in the Bravo sector of the Milky Way. It's nothing too fancy, just shoot
carefully hand-picked targets so other people don't have to."

"Regardless, we're headed somewhere," Raynor interjected. "Somewhere where I
don't believe any little bit of military training or what-not is going to
help us. Actually, I don't even remember ever hearing about Lylat-Hybrid,
seeing any maps or otherwise... actually, I haven't even heard of Exodus
system anywhere. Hey, Shaun, what kind of stuff hangs around Exodus?"

"The Van Eltia always sticks around Exodus, and the pirates don't seem to be
breaking the tradition," Shaun replied. He sat leant against the window,
rubbing residue off the barrel of the Mega Launcher with a facecloth.

"Doesn't it go anywhere else?" Teisel said. "I mean, the way you make it
sound, it's pretty boring around those parts."

Balkan stepped forward. "Don't mind me for asking, but Shaun, it seems that
you know quite a bit about the Van Eltia, more than I was able to find,
anyways. I can TELL clearly that you are a Celestian/Inferian, but how are
you tied in with the Van Eltia?"

"I lived aboard it."

Everybody looked at each other. "...LIVED aboard it?"

"Haven't any of you been listening YET?" Shaun lent forward, leaning on the
cannon. "The Van Eltia's just a giant cruiser, Eternia's flagship. It's a
sacred item to all its inhabitants, though..."

"I'm aware of that," Balkan responded. "But passage to the Van Eltia is only
reserved for the greatest of leaders of either Inferia or Celestia... tell
me, how did you manage to board it, let alone spend much of your early life
there?"

"...I'll start taking this all seriously as soon as I figure out what all
these big words are." Rika scoffed. Crono gave Shaun a "you're beat" shrug.



*******



"Alright. You wanna know about Exodus? I can give you everything you need.
Exodus system is home to a smaller system, Eternia. Eternia is simply made
up of the two planets Inferia and Celestia, kept in an alternating orbit by
a giant unidentifiable magnetic field, called the Orbus Barrier.
Essentially, Inferia and Celestia live side by side, linked to each other
through space travel, and some interesting means of teleportation using the
properties of the Orbus Barrier.

Both planets share many of the same legends and stories, mostly based around
the forces Nereid, the God of Destruction, and Seyfert, the God of Creation,
and the great conflict that occured eons ago between the two. Both sides
have slightly differing views on the subject, but they are for the most part
consistent.

Inferia and Celestia themselves have been involved in a functional alliance
throughout the last couple thousand years, with the import and export of
goods from both worlds essential for the survival of each other. Most
government projects are usually conducted with the other keeping a close eye
on progress. For the most part, this has been beneficial to both sides.

Inferia's society is a relatively low-tech, though functioning, one. Most of
their daily lives are centered around the basic elements, which power most
of their machines. With the lack of corruption affecting the ecosystem, it
is known to be one of the most beautiful places in Exodus and beyond.
Inferia itself is based around a constitutional monarchy, which elects a new
king every 50 years that rules over the entire world."

Takeru blinked. "One person ruling the entire world?"

"Most outsiders see the system as archaic, though the formula works out
surprisingly well. I believe the last revolt occured around 800 years ago.

Celestia, on the other hand, bases its economics and power around the fusion
of magic and vast technology, as regulated by a republic democracy. It's a
planet of industry, using the forces of that planet's governing Craymel,
elemented accordingly..."

Serge rested his head on his hands. "Craymel, Craymel... what's Craymel? I
don't know why, it just sounds familiar for some reason..."



********



"The Craymel... the Craymel are classified as minor deities by the populace
of Eternia. Old stories say that when evolution was beginning on both
worlds, mysterious figures appeared out of the mist, stronger and more
intelligent than the others. It was them that kick-started development on
Inferia and Celestia, exposing discoveries to them. It was soon theorized
that these spirits, the Craymel, were of different elemental alignments.
Both worlds had different Craymel that assisted in their development. No one
actually noticed the physical form of the Craymel until they were summoned
momentarily by Meredy and Keele. You'll hear about them in a couple of
minutes. The Craymel exist to this very day."

"So these things are eons old, and still kicking?" Eric asked.

"Uh-huh. The Craymel of Inferia were spread across the basic elements, Fire,
Water and Wind, leading to that planet's ecological awareness. Meanwhile,
Celestia worked with the planet's governing Craymel, Lightning, Ice, and
Earth, to turn it into the megalopolitian giant it is today.

Before the alliances had formed millenia ago, it was believed that a large
group of Celestians had invaded Inferia, generally going on a rampage
through the planet's major settlements. Several major cities were destroyed
before the attacking Celestians retreated. It was later revealed that the
Celestians were chasing the assassin of their previous monarch, a sort of
double-agent Inferian named Balir. This was the event that eventually forced
Celestia to convert to a republic."

"But why were they chasing Balir in the first place?" Gohan questioned.

"They wanted information on Balir's wife's whereabouts. It seemed that
Balir's wife, Shizel, held with her the sealed form of Nereid. She was
possessed by the god, and, with a mortal form to focus through, he used a
form of extremely powerful dark magic in an attempt to overcharge the Orbus
Barrier and slam Inferia and Celestia together. A group of adventurers,
Reid, Farah, Meredy and Keele, were able to combat Shizel and eventually
defeat her, and ancient scriptures with the spells of Seyfert were
immediately thrown into action, casting a counterspell on a large ship
graveyard near the Orbus Barrier. The spell negated the effects, and fused
the wreckage together into a giant countermagnet, known to this day as
Seyfert's Nexus.

With everything finally at peace again, time went on. Fifteen years from the
heroes' ascension, diplomacy between Inferia and Celestia were at an
all-time high. The idea was soon passed around, and approved, that a
flagship for both worlds was to be constructed, sort of the last sign that
Inferia and Celestia were allied for life. Rather, Celestia made the
proposition that the capship used by the adventurers to shuttle them between
worlds would be undergo massive renovations and be reoutfitted into a
functioning warship. That ship was known as the Van Eltia.

A pirate, Chat, took upon the responsibility of remodeling the great ship.
Soon, the Craymel themselves appeared in a physical form for the first time
in millenia, offering to reside aboard the Van Eltia to both to further seal
the deal and get a wider view on their respective worlds. The Craymel linked
themselves to the engine, giving off a small amount of their energy to keep
the Van Eltia powered. The presence of the Craymel coupled with the further
enhancements made to the ship began to turn it into an unstoppable force. A
massive energy cannon was mounted on front, and hundreds upon hundreds of
Craymel-powered elemental turrets began to sprout all over the capship.
Later it was said that for their actions years before, Meredy and Keele's
only son would be the one biologically engineered to fully unlock the Van
Eltia's power."

Dante just smirked. "Let me take a wild guess."

Shaun nodded. "Uh huh. I was shipped off immediately to the Van Eltia and
kept under tight surveillance, with many of my friends coming as well. I was
left to my business, being guarded day and night, while I trained under
several of Inferia and Celestia's greatest combat masters in an effort to be
commissioned to Royal Knighthood in the meantime. This cannon here..." Shaun
tapped the large barrel. "...is from one of my teachers, a gunwarrior named
Max. Max was the one who told me about the functioning of the Miacas, and
told me to seek them out should I or the Van Eltia run into trouble. Max was
like a second father to me. We ate together, we trained together, we blew
stuff up together. Soon, I had mastered most of the elemental gun attacks of
his and, after, quickly advanced through the lessons of everyone else,
including Chat herself. Chat taught me the pirate's ancient defense
techniques, the Hammer skills. Soon, going through every single master
between both worlds, I could kill with literally anything.

On command, I could fuse with the ship and be blessed with the Craymel's
power, turning the ship itself into the giant mech Ark. Ark was undoubtedly
the ultimate weapon, having torn apart entire invading capships with a
single burst of its multi-Craymel cannon. Realizing the power being
unleashed, an additional failsafe was installed against Ark - five special
cards would have to be used to transform the ship to Ark. Of course, this
now meant that ANYONE could use the Ark, but only for a short time, around
ten minutes, before the power would destroy their mind. However, if I were
to use the cards, having already been desensitized to Ark, then it would be
even more powerful than before."

Slippy scratched his head. "Fruity."

Shaun sulked. "Our little powerhouse wouldn't have enough time in the sun,
though... are any of you familar with the old Grappler Pirate Guilds?"

Tron snapped her fingers. "Grappler... grappler.. grappler.. oh... yeah, I
remember now, Teisel's ran into 'em a bunch of times. Aren't there supposed
to be only a couple of groups of Grapplers remaining? They're supposed to be
the longest lasting organized crime group in existance or something."

"They've been going for over a THOUSAND YEARS," Shaun winced. "Each
generation gets stronger, faster, and more dangerous. The entire premise
behind the Grappler guilds is looting. Not very original, but unlike normal
space pirates, they don't go for destroying ships or disabling their
systems. They go at ships with Grappler arms, tearing into them and docking
right there. This is the start of many dangerous, not to mention the hardest
to detect, raids.

As fate would have it, at an outpost near Celestia, the inner ring space
forces were testing out a new model of fighter, based entirely on the
Grappler style of ships, that would be used for infiltrating larger cruisers
and frigates. The Grapplers noticed this ship to be far beyond their
firepower, and led a raid on the compound, stealing thirty prototypes of the
Celestian grappler-craft, codename Einhander, and issued a threat to the Van
Eltia to surrender the great ship or have it taken over. Celestia quickly
issued a counterstrike, but the Einhanders were able to weave through
Celestia's own intricate defense networks and even the defense grid of the
Van Eltia. They docked, unloaded thirty armed pirates, and marched straight
to the bridge where Chat was held at gunpoint and threatened unless the
defense systems would be deactivated. The attacking force was ambushed by a
group of the Van Eltia's guards, and in the chaos Chat locked the Van
Eltia's defense systems and escaped the ship. As well, Meredy, Keele and I
made our escape. However, we went our own ways. They knew that if I was
caught by the Grapplers they could force Ark under their control. As I left
to my own Aibird, Meredy gave me the last token of my previous life - my old
yo-yo, from when I was five."





---------



Shaun growled as he charged down the expansive hallway, its translucent
floors and walls pulsing with their circuits' lights - red. The sign of an
emergency. He got up to a run, his long tan pants dragging on the floor as
he attempted to escape, carrying the Mega Launcher in both hands. He froze
in fear as, around the corner, jumped three gruff men, draped in heavy
tungsten armor.

"Stop that little twerp!!"

Shaun winced as he supported the Mega Launcher on his shoulder, the
Grapplers advancing on him. Shaun yelled out as he yanked on the trigger,
hurling an explosive shell at the group. The projectile impacted with an
echoing blast, sending the Grapplers in different directions. At ground
zero, the clear floor had a large chunk blasted out of it, and clear liquid
leaked out of the circuitry. Shaun cradled the massive cannon back in his
arms, and charged down the hall alongside the immobile bodies. Alongside him
on the walls were inscribed dozens of other bullet holes, with computer
coolant that spurted from one or two of the crevices.

"Psst. Over here."

Shaun glanced around him, nearly jumping out of his boots at the voice. He
finally turned and sidestepped into a small storage room. Several small,
wheeled shelves stocked with electronics equipment were lined up. The walls
around Shaun were simple white-shaded metal, a stark contrast from the
futuristic space-age see-through walls of the main halls. Shaun's face
straightened as he turned into the corner. Huddled against the wall was a
tall, blond man, draped in a long, purple embroidered overcoat with a
matching cape. Along his left arm, he grasped a hand cannon similar to
Shaun's, though slightly shorter.

"Max!" Shaun scowled.

"Hey, about time I found you. How's the Mega Launcher holding out?"

"Great, so far. The Grapplers are here in full force.. what the hell are we
supposed to do?"

"Good, you're safe," Max gasped. "As it stands, Grapplers are pouring in
from every entrance. The Van Eltia's defenses are weakened, so there's no
telling how much reinforcement those bastards are going to send... Chat
managed to get away safely, Meredy and Keele are waiting for us."

"Waiting for us?"

"There's at least 60 heavily-armed Grapplers keeping a tight watch on the
bridge. They've got all their officers prowling the place, trying to figure
out how to work the Van Eltia. However, Chat locked down the systems, and
they should be reactivating in the next ten minutes. The Grapplers'll never
figure it out, though. It'll take them a good while to crack the code, so
that should give us some time to get a message back to Celestia. First of
all... we gotta find a way out of here."

Shaun twitched as a loud bang came at the door. "Any suggestions?"

"Meredy and Keele managed to secure your Aibird, we also managed to scrape
up a couple of the non-armed models that we can use. Shaun, we need to get
back to Celestia as fast as possible, they'll have a solution!.."


********


"Aibirds are small personal space vehicles developed early on by the
Celestians, just to clear things up. Normally built for speed. They seemed
to be the choice for joyriders at that point, but there's special
high-endurance models built for evac situations involving high-ranking
officials. They normally have them tucked away in secret compartments on
large offical ships, but you can pick up a basic model just about anywhere
in Exodus at this point. The Aibirds that Max spoke about... I had to use
one of them to eventually escape the Van Eltia, but I had to hide it as soon
as I entered your system, because I knew it wasn't properly registered. The
shuttle I came here in... I have mine stored in the back."


********


Shaun growled as another clang erupted from the entrance. He promptly turned
around and blew apart the door and its audience. "I'm outta shells. You have
any?"

Max frowned. "On my last one."

"What's the fastest way we can take down to the main export hangar?"

"We can cut across the main ventalation chambers and follow the supply line
through Sector Gamma. It isn't the safest route in the world, but I can
guarantee it'll be the most scenic."

Shaun nodded as Max began a dash towards the collapsed doorframe. "Let's
go." He darted out the door in pursuit, but found himself ducking under a
hail of gunfire. At least another four Grapplers were sweeping down the hall
in the chase. Shaun drug the tallest rack out of the chamber adjacent to him
and dumped it on the ground, covering a good portion of the ground ahead of
him with various microcomputers, as well as some maintenance instruments
that broke with a liberal hail of ball bearings. Shaun pivoted and headed
down the hall in a windsprint while the armored thugs behind him stumbled to
keep up with him. More shots rang out around him, resulting in him keeling
forward in an effort to dodge the hail of lead. Ahead the circuited hall
began to turn downwards in a coil-type array. In a display of acrobatics
that Max would generally not have approved of, Shaun leapt up and slung the
Launcher up and around a pipe hanging from the celing, quickly adjusting his
hands to grab the barrel and main compartment of the gun with each hand.
Supported by the cannon, Shaun began to quickly grind down the length of
pipe, rapidly picking up speed as he slid further down the corkscrew.

As he had done seemingly hundreds of times before to travel around the ship,
Shaun quickly detached the gun from the rail and launched himself into an
open corridor on the side of the hall, flipping sideways and pressing
himself off the wall. Shaun landed on the ground on one knee, bracing
himself with one hand while holding the Mega Launcher in the other. He
quickly rose to his feet and began running again, clamping the cannon onto
his back again before picking up speed. Shaun banked to the right as the
hall slowly began twisting to the right, slowing down only to allow the
large steel door ahead of him to slide open with an accompanying bleep.

He continued his dash across a catwalk suspended high over a pair of lazily
turning fanblades. Further ahead, Max could be seen, watching the fans
pivot. "That was slow, Shaun. Even for you."

Shaun sweatdropped. "Could we save the competition until we're in a more..
safer position?"

"What's not safe about the vent shafts?"

Max was interrupted by a sickening crunch to his side. Both him and Shaun
shielded themselves as a giant 20-foot long mechanical pincer tore through
the wall off in the distance, starting up a howl as air began to be syphoned
out of the chamber. The wall crumpled as a pair of machineguns and a larger
cannon above them punched through the metal plating, immediately firing. The
machinegun fire strafed the catwalk on one side of them, while the cannon
blew a massive section of the catwalk out from the other. The metal cage
plummeted into the abyss, getting knocked lower into the turbines by the
massive fanblades.

"The fact that they're on the SIDE of the Van Eltia!"

"Then let's go! Sector Gamma, you know the way?" Max's voice began to fade
as he started running ahead of Shaun.

"Sure do!" Shaun took the right path on a intersection further up, while Max
went straight. Shaun dashed down the walkway as another sliding door opened
up in front of him. The halls' circuitry began to glow a deeper red as he
began to lower in altitude. The hall abruptly stopped at the end, with a
long, wide tube crossing perpendicular to it. Shaun strided over to a
console nearby, and slapped a large red button on it. Shaun hopped back as
the speakerphone next to the panel crackled with life.

"Nice try!"

Shaun looked back up with a frown. A oblong, hovering passenger car docked
into the wall with a clank, with four armored Grapplers filing out. They all
raised their gauss rifles in formation as Shaun quickly swung his cannon in
front of him as he rolled to the side. A hail of gunfire traced him on the
ground, with several shells being deflected off the Mega Launcher's barrel.
Shaun smashed through the door of the transport maintenance office, quickly
getting up and running to the other side of the room. He kicked down another
door, and leapt off the five-foot drop into the empty tunnel.

"What the hell?! After him!!"

Shaun scrambled up against the wall. The area around him was inky blackness,
which would only have been reasonably lit if the Van Eltia's emergency
systems hadn't been enabled by Chat. It was only a matter of time before
the Grapplers would come lumbering down the tunnel... if they had a source
of light, that is.

"I'm WAITING!! GO!!"

"Uh oh." Shaun mumbled.

"...uh... what the hell..."
"I TOLD you, change your batteries before you go on a raid!"
"What's the problem?"

"...my floodlight's dead."
"...just.. fucking.. DANDY!!"
"Damn it! Isn't your's working?!"

"Yeah!"
"...well... I didn't bring mine."
"Neither did I! You guys are damn useless!! All of you!!"

Shaun sighed as sounds of the Grapplers smacking each other floated across
the air. Shaun quickly turned on a light on his watch and began guiding
himself further down the tunnel. About ten minutes later, he came across a
maintenance vent, which he slid himself down into. He spent the ten minutes
after flipping a coin to guide himself through the air vents. Shaun soon
kicked off a grate, lowering himself down into the lower halls.

"Sector Delta..." Shaun grunted, brushing himself off. "...just a short run
from here." He blinked as Max sprinted by.

"C'mon!!"


********


The exterior of the Van Eltia could been seen rushing by. About five
smaller, hornet-like fighters were latched firmly onto the one side of the
capship while a pair of smaller one-man ships streaked out of a small
opening on the side of the ship, sealing up behind them.

Shaun looked around him, in the Aibird. "Where're Meredy and Keele? They
already split?"

"Th' records already show three Aibirds docked off in the past hour. Meredy,
Keele, Chat. Looks like we weren't exactly fast enough for their tastes."

"Hang on, I'm picking up a transmission."

"Yeah, me too. It's a private frequency between Inferia and Celestia.
Whatever it is, it's pretty damn important. And it's directed right at us."
Max could be seen drumming away on the tiny control panel in front of him in
the already-crowded cockpit. "...you should be picking it up too.. right
about.. now."

Shaun leant down to pick up the scratchy noise radiating from the
minispeaker in front of him. Nearby on a small three-inch monitor a
blue-haired man could be seen, adjusting his lenses. "...hey, Keele, what's
going on? Did you get back to Celestia alright?"

"...yes, that was quite a rush. I'm glad to see that you and Max were able
to escape unharmed. The Grapplers seem to have gotten hold of some new type
of insertion-ship... it's far more mobile and compact than their earlier
models. Anyways... they have the Van Eltia for the time being, and that is
that. We've been talking to Chat, and she said that the lockdown coding she
used was kept for absolute emergencies such as these. With the resources the
Grapplers have at their disposal, it'll take them months to break the
encryption. Until then, we need you to follow Max."

"...follow Max? What's going on here?"

"Shaun, you need to listen to me. The Grapplers are as good as trapped on
the Van Eltia, but we're having difficulties getting either Inferian or
Celestian forces to launch an attack on the Van Eltia! You know full well
that the place is sacred ground to all of us, and no one seems to be set on
desecrating the ship any more than it has been by the Grapplers. This entire
situation is going to have to be forced through the Celestian Republic and
kept under observation by the Inferian monarchy, and that's time we don't
have!"

Max's voice could be heard crackling through the background. "So what's that
mean for us?"

"Max, I need you to escort Shaun to the edge of Eternia, and get him out of
Exodus system as fast as you can. Shaun, I managed to talk to the officals
and get you 50,000 Gald transferred to your account. Once you leave Exodus,
we need you to stay as far away from Eternia as you can, until we get some
sort of notification on the standpoint on the Van Eltia issue."

"Wha?" Max grunted. "What's the deal with booting Shaun out of here?"

"At this rate, the Grapplers stand a small chance of breaking the code
before we get a solution set in stone. Once the Grapplers manage to hack
into the Van Eltia's database, they'll quickly figure out that Shaun's the
one that is needed to fully unlock Ark, and with their kind of influence
it'll be child's play for them to obtain the five cards. The key to this
universe NOT falling apart is to deny the Grapplers of Shaun's power as long
as we can."

"...well, I mean, isn't that a bit harsh? Shaun hasn't even seen, or HEARD,
of the outside of Exodus, or Eternia, for that matter. Even I haven't!"

"Just go!" Keele shouted. "Get out of there before the Gra... uh oh."

"Uh oh what?" Shaun growled.

"Those ships they're using... they look like hornets or something?"

"Well... yeah."

"Damn it! We got word half an hour ago that a minor spaceport was attacked
by the Grapplers an hour before, and seized a fleet of some prototype
fighters that we had stored there... Einhanders. They were designed to
counter the Grapplers' attempts, so that must've attracted them to the
place! But how did the information leak?... listen, that's not the matter
right now. The big thing that you should be worrying about right now is the
Einhander that's broken off from its docking position... and it's heading
straight for y..." Shaun grimaced as the transmission suddenly burst into
static. The screen remained a flurry while a deep voice reverberated in the
background. "...all right, we have you. Turn those ships around right now
before I have to get nasty."

"We're helpless!" Max scowled.

Shaun hopped in his seat as the high-pitched wail of turbolaser fire pierced
through the cockpit. "What the hell?!" Shaun turned to a mirror as it
contracted from the roof, watching as the Einhander plunged out of the way
in a spinning dive. A large, T-shaped fighter traced the Einhander's path
perfectly, spraying more shots from the left, right and bottom wings of the
bizarre craft.

Another voice rattled through the speaker. "You have to get out of here! Get
moving, NOW! I'll cover you!"

Max's head pivoted left and right. "Who in the hell are you?"

"Does it matter?!" Shaun cried. "If we want to get out of here... hopefully,
that... ship should be able to guard us long enough... beginning
calculations for light-speed jump!"

Max gave one last look behind him. "I hope you're right. Beginning
calculations for light-speed jump." Both the Aibirds straightened their
flight, flying side by side. This, however, made the misses from the
pursuing Einhander that much closer.

"Calculations at 10%." Shaun droned.

Max winced as a large blast of energy whisked by his ship, not even three
feet. "...if this is intended to improve my faith..."

A short distance behind them, the Einhander finally straightened itself up
behind the two Aibirds, it's back engine nacelles flaring open with a small
shower of blue sparks in an effort to keep up with the rapidly accelerating
Aibirds. The bulky fighter scorched upwards again, accompanied by another
hail of laser fire. The Einhander banked to its left, narrowly dodging the
blast. As the fighter tore away from the hornet-like interceptor, its wings
folded inwards, essentially turning the craft into a giant flying block of
metal. It turned vertically, and began a slow, wide turn back towards the
assailing Einhander - and was picking up speed faster than both the
interceptor OR the Aibirds.

"40%!" Max shouted through his comm. Shaun nodded. He nearly fell backwards
into his seat as large surges of energy flew by him on both sides.
"...crap!"

The Einhander began to slowly swerve back and forth, not losing speed,
hoping that the mysterious pursuer would take the same manouver and bleed
off enough speed to be left in the dust. However, it remained flying
straight. As it began to catch up, the wings folded back out again. A squeal
erupted from the cockpit, an orb on the top of the T, as a torpedo on the
left wing clicked into place. Sensing that its chase would be cut short, the
Einhander rushed forth with a stream of its main cannon fire. Both Max and
Shaun could see it on each side of their ship, and it slowly beginning to
narrow closer to the individual pods.

"80%..." Shaun quickly flipped several dials on the control panel in front
of him. "Almost there... just keep him busy a little longer..."

"95%!" Max shouted back.

As the Einhander began to charge up its main cannon, the torpedo was let
loose on the other craft, shrieking through the empty space ahead of it and
quickly catching up to the Einhander. The interceptor rolled out of the
way...

"98%!" Shaun yelled, shortly before the torpedo scorched alongside his ship,
passing it. Ahead of him, the bomb itself banked and flew back around the
Aibird, effectively hiding it until it came back within sight of the
Einhander. By then, it was too late. As the Grappler scrambled to evade the
torpedo, the projectile slammed hard into the left-front of the ship,
exploding in a giant fireball. The left engine nacelle blasted apart,
sending shards of blue-tinted metal off in random directions. The ship
quickly fell over to its side before shattering in a shuddering wave of
fire.

"100%, all present and accounted for!" Max slammed a lever on his side,
causing him to slam back into his seat. Shaun twitched as his partner's ship
blinked by him... and acted accordingly. He reached forward and tossed the
switch away from him, causing his vision to go white. Shaun's Aibird was
long gone.


********


Falco drummed what would have been his fingers against the glass plating. "A
B-Wing. You don't see too many of those around anymore. I thought they
scrapped that design at least 50 years ago."

"But what was it doing that far away, in Exodus system?" Eric asked.

Shaun shrugged. "I could never figure that part out. I never even managed to
pick up the ship's radio comm, so I couldn't even figure out who the pilot
was. Just one of life's little mysteries, I guess. Anyways, after that point
everything was rather quiet. Me and Max managed to get to the edge of
Exodus, and we said our goodbyes. Max returned to Eternia and Celestia,
trying to speed up the legislative debate over the Van Eltia. So basically
that left me to cruise aimlessly through the nearby galaxies, trying to pass
the time. However, after several months I began to lose touch with Celestia.
Nothing had been mentioned yet, and Chat was hopping mad in the mindset that
nothing WOULD be done. Max told me years ago, during my childhood, about the
legend of the Pink Miacas, cat statues that were supposedly scattered by the
early worshippers of the Craymel. They possessed the knowledge of the early
Craymel, which in laymans' terms means they were essentially different
volumes of Craymel magicks. I spent the next several years touring the Outer
Rim galaxies, hoping to find some sort of indication of the presence of any
Miacas. I was going to make sure to find those abilities, then return and
take back the Van Eltia myself.

"I'd made a vow to myself... to get back the Van Eltia, for Celestia's sake,
before my 21st birthday. Right at the point I found the Argetlahm, I was
just under two months of my deadline. I was hoping that Ultimanium's
mercenary band would be able to assist me in learning the location of the
Miacas, and the state of the Van Eltia, and so far the Argetlahm's
delivered."

Balkan tilted his head. "You mean to tell us that you lived as a nomad for
your entire adolescency? I figure these parts to be extremely dangerous, let
alone the neighboring galaxies. And 50,000 Gald isn't a lot, either."

"Upon leaving Exodus, I found my Gald to be decreasing fast. As I got
further out, the exchange rate began to drop lower and lower. Eventually, I
converted whatever I had left and used it to enter an extreme sports
olympics competition on Hellena, a planet in Optimus system. As I began to
win, I took on more and more games, raising my funds as I neared the Outer
Rim systems. However, I didn't want all the fame to slow my journey down, so
I just crafted an alter-ego for myself, sort of a helmet to be my
appearance."

Crono seemed to pause, thinking. He tapped Raynor on the shoulder. When
Raynor turned, Crono quickly gave him several numbers on his fingers.

"...2009... 2009, 2009, what about that sounds so familiar... yeah, that's
when they broadcasted the first extreme sports competition on universal
television! And I think it WAS from Hellena, too! What title did you go
under?"

Shaun shrugged. "Ah, I forget. It was a long time ago. I was overshadowed by
some guy calling himself Alex Mann." He gave Gohan and V2 a threatening
stare.

Silence.

Shaun hopped up from his chair. "Well, what can I say. It's been a long road
here, and I'm headed back right where I'm started. I really want to see what
'improvements' the Grapplers made to the place. And I'll feel more at home
beating the crap out of Antimagnus there."

Renamon squinted. "Sounds like fun. Well, for you, anyways."

Takato turned back from the glass plating. "Hey, what time is it, anyways?"

Peppy lifted his jacket sleeve, glancing at his watch. "...it's... 22:00.
Hey, Wheel of Fortune's on!"

Dante lifted an eyebrow. "Wheel of Fortune was three hours ago, dumbass.
It's Jeopardy now."

"Heeey!" Tron chuckled. "Mr. Badass here watches Jeopardy to unwind?"

"I'm a civilized guy." Dante scoffed.

"Even when he gets disgruntled and turns into a giant freaking demon." V2
replied. "Hey, I don't even think it's Jeopardy right now... if it's
Survivor someone is going to die."

Vegeta lifted himself up as a good portion of the crew plodded off the
bridge, talking about their recreation plans for tonight. "Well, I imagine
you know where I'll be."

Serge tossed his fist out. "I'm up for a good workout."

Heero shrugged. "I gotta touch up the Arwing. Be back in a while."

Shaun watched, blinking, as the entire bridge seemed to vacate around him.
The lights around the bridge dimmed slightly. He stood for a second before
stretching, and seating himself back down in the captain's chair.
Meanwhile...

"Care for some coffee?" Minonim asked. Shaun turned the chair over to the
other side of the control panel, where Minonim was changing the filter in a
coffee machine stood convieniently on the other side of the control station.
Minonim focused his lit eyes on Shaun, waiting for an answer.

"...uh... sure." Shaun reached over and took a mug of coffee as Minonim
handed it to him. "...so this is what Ultimanium's life is all about.
Working around other people... making a difference... heh, I guess I'll be
part of this big dream soon, won't I?"

"As far as I'm concerned," Minonim replied. "Even if it is making fresh brew
for breakfast."



And so, the Argetlahm continued to lumber through space. Light after light
on the side of the ship dulled out into a black, camoflauging with the space
around them. The only evidence that the Argetlahm was still there was the
near-silent hum of the brand new Chronoshifters.

The ship was on its path to Destiny...








********


The bridge is completely quiet. All of a sudden, crashes and bangs echo out
from across the room, while the main lights flicker on. "THIS IS
BULLSHIT!!!"

Minonim slowly raises himself. "...now what?"

"Look at this!" Ultimanium yells. "This chapter was right at 40k! That's
pitiful! God, this is starting to really suck, given that I still somehow
manage to take several weeks to write!"

"Well, we're going to need more content, then."

"..." Ultimanium stares at Minonim for a second. "...what is wrong with you?
More content can wait for another chapter, this is an emergency!" Ultimanium
runs up to the main control panel and hits a excessively large glowing red
button labelled OMAKE, and everything goes black.


********



"OMAKE!!!" yelled Mel Gibson, as the rest of the Scottish army charged into
battle.

The Power Rangers rallied outside of... wherever that diner is.
"It's OMAKE time!!" whoever the hell was the Red Ranger at that time yelled.

"Try yelling OMAKE sometime. It has bite." a street vendor grunted as handed
a fat, bald guy a can reading OMAKE. The fat bald guy takes a sip.
"...ouch."

"You can't be told what OMAKE means," Morpheus said to the perplexed Neo.
"You have to just look the damn word up."

"Humor me, or humor me not. There is no OMAKE."
Luke sat blinking for a second. "...but what are we doing right now then?"
"You shall pull the weeds from my potato garden," Yoda said. "Otherwise a
new one I shall tear you."

*zzzzzt*




Ultimanium seats himself down in front of a window, looking out into space.
"...uh, hi. First of all, I really want to apologize for the lack of actual
writing I've been able to accomplish this chapter. Which is why I want to
make this announcement before you break my shins - next chapter is going to
be another extra-long SPECIAL, set in Mute City!" Ultimanium air-guitars for
the next two minutes, after which his shins are kicked in.

Ultimanium slumps himself over the chair. "...ow... anyways.... ow...
someone get the ambulence ready, I expect a hasty ride once this stupid
OMAKE is over. Okay, so now, as promised, you are entering the Official
Ultimanium Nonsense sector of the Ultimatum. During the Argetlahm
Adventures, actual plot advancement occured every three days. How can we
work that into a pop culture cliche? Hmm..."


********





Magnus stepped forward to the hologram projector as it began to light up,
showing a map of the Argetlahm. "I will be giving you a series of tasks to
accomplish aboard the Argetlahm throughout the day. I've collaberated with
our friend Lord Raul here and his weapon business and he's willing to offer
discounts and some other... ahem... services for each group that can win
these challenges. Everyone game?"

Everyone nodded.

"First dibs on benefits are granted to those who win. Losers will vote one
person to throw out of the nearest airlock. Understood? Good. Form your
teams, then come to me. That is all."

As people began to leave their seats to discuss, Davis leapt across the
room, driving the Ragnarok through Tai's chest. "HAHAH!! YOU HAVE BEEN
BACKSTABBED!! YOUR PLOTS END HERE, TAI KAMIYA!! I SHALL TAKE HOME THE
MILLION AND MAKE YOU ALL MY SLAVES!!!"

Cloud kicked Tai's bludgeoned corpse. "...well, that's fine and all, but we
haven't even made teams yet."

"Oi? Are my ears hearing me right?" Kid scowled. "You were thinking of
making a TEAM? What about our secret alliance?!"

"WHAT secret alliance?!?" Cloud screeched.

"Oi! I'll kick your arse so hard..." Kid charged at Cloud, driving her
dagger through Cloud's chest, unfortunately Kid accidently impaled herself
on Cloud's Rune Tooth in the process. Both bodies jittered like fleas on
crack for a good minute, with blood pouring out of their chest wounds,
before Kid finally bit it.

Ultimanium blew a whistle. "The competition is over! Kid has won immunity!"

"WHAT THE HELL?!?" Cloud bellowed.

"Well, think about it. She's immune now, 'cause throwing her out the airlock
wouldn't do anything!"

"Well, who gets voted off then?" Gohan asked.

"Cody," Magnus continued. "You are the weakest link. Goodbye."

"Why me?!" Cody fumed.

"Because you're small, shrimpy, you haven't even gotten your Murasame yet
and I won't need help to knock you out before we cast you out into the abyss
of space."

"You can't vote me off!!" Cody screamed. "You didn't even VOTE!!"

"Magnopolis is a monarchy, so I'm the voter! YAY!!" Magnus did a happy-dance
for several minutes while Ultimanium and Raul just stared at him funny.
"...okay, anyways... I mean, you're the youngest one here, too, so c'mon..."

"GOHAN'S younger than me!!"

"Yeah, but that's SUPER SAIYAN Gohan, the one that can blow up entire
galaxies with his pinky."

"That has nothing to do with his age though!!"

"Of course not. But if I say he's younger he'll blow all our heads off
because he is THE BOMB AND HE IS SO DAMN COOL UNLIKE THAT FAT RETARD GOKU
WHO GETS ALL THE ATTENTION AND HAS SAVED THE WORLD LIKE 879 TIMES WHILE
GOHAN DID IT ONCE AND THAT WAS BECAUSE THAT SAME FAT RETARD GOKU IS A LUCKY
SON OF A BITCH AND SOMEHOW CANNOT DIE."

Goku blinked. "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an
insult. Hey, a penny..." Goku bent down in his chair and picked the coin off
the floor, barely dodging a Tomahawk missile as it scorched by where his
head used to be and blew apart the Fourth Wall.

Magnus lit Cody's hair on fire. "The tribe has spoken." He immediately
slapped a salad bowl down on the same spot, extinguishing the flames. Heero
and Duo loaded Cody into a stretcher and hopped up the aisle and out of the
war room.

"Hut hut hut hut hut..." Heero and Duo grunted.

"That is all," Magnus announced. "Now, be happy you didn't have to let your
blood boil in the inky darkness of space and return to your bunks before I
find some reason to boot anyone else off the ship."


(Meanwhile, we interview the person that got booted, just like they do in
every freaking reality TV show...)

"I don't exactly get the entire point of this stupid little excuse for OMAKE
that Ultimanium slapped in here. If he wants me to respect him when he calls
me back in nine years, then he's going to have to kick Magnus' ass for me! I
mean, c'mon, if I'm dead, that means I can't even BE summoned at that time,
THEN who beats down James, huh?!"

"Aw, shut up already, before you destroy the newcomers with..."

"DUO!" Heero called out. "Get down! Incoming plot hole!"

"Huh?" Duo said stupidly, shortly before a disc of darkness flew through the
air and hit him, causing him to disintegrate in a puff of smoke.

"...shit, Cody, NOW look what you did!" Heero sighed. "I hope you're happy,
you little bastard!"

"HELL yes!!" Cody hopped off the stretcher and skipped merrily to his bunk,
whistling.



********



Ultimanium yanks on a large lever, causing the blackness around him to
brighten, and the OMAKE button to stick back out. "Well, see? Now, that
wasn't that bad."

"Maybe so," Minonim replies. "But you do realize that this tampering with
the past caused Duo to be killed and Cody to be sent in his place for Trance
Trauma?"

"...FUCK!!"

"The truth hurts, doesn't it." Minonim turns back to fixing his coffee
machine. And Duo was never spoken of again.








NEXT TIME, ON TRANCE TRAUMA...

Chapter 15: TRANCE TRAUMA SPECIAL - Competition


Friends and foes alike gather in the vincinity of Mute City, alongside the
Argetlahm, preparing for the annual F-Zero Grand Prix... maybe some
aquaintances of the Argetlahm might be there as well? The Smash Bros.
Fighting Tournament also draws a crowd, but when a mysterious Trance arrives
and seizes the competitions in a deathgrip, only the best of the best will
be able to fight through the ranks and secure a battle against this
threat... and what does this all have to do with Eric and Shaun? And why is
Fox eager to jump into action? Find out next time, on Trance Trauma!