[Akira]

       “Come on!” I yelled at TyRant and Howler, gazing back for a moment as I saw Miyu jump into the portal and the portal closed behind her.
       TyRant ran up to me to attack but I jumped to the side right before he slashed at me to dodge his attack.
       “So it’s just you and me now,” Joseph said.
       “Yep,” I said, while turning into a Lizian for the tail blade.
       “There is no use in resisting us, you will lose,” Howler said.
       TyRant thrusted his claw at me again, but this time I grabbed him by the wrist and flipped him around onto his back.
       “Why are you fighting us? You’re part human, so why not join us?” I asked TyRant.
       “Never! My mission is to terminate you,” TyRant said, standing up.
       “Well then, what about you Howler? You used to be human yourself. Shaun just changed you all into monsters,” I said.
       “You lie, I was never human,” Howler said, rushing to me.
       I stood there with Wayfarer behind me, and stepped aside at the last minute causing Howler to run into Wayfarer’s outer hull and fall backward.
       “Look at yourself Akira. You are human and part of everything else,” a oddly familiar voice said. “Why don’t you join us?”
       “Who’s there?” Joseph asked.
       Then a guy that looked exactly like my human self except with different clothing and an evil look on his face standing appeared before me.
       “Vince?!” I asked, slightly surprised
       “No, I am not Vince. The name is Matthew, you may call me Matt,” the guy said. “I am a part of you, I’m surprised you didn’t even know me.”
       “A part of me? You are lying,” I said.
       “Am I now? Well I can see that it is hard to believe, after all this is our first meeting,” Matt said. “Just ask you Delveloid, I believe his name is Seeker. He should be able to tell you.”
       “Excuse me, Akira, but um...” Joseph said.
       “Sorry Joseph, I’m busy right now,” I said, swiping at Matt with my tail blade as I said that.
       Matt quickly dodged every single swipe of my tail blade. I slashed at him with my tail blade in a downward motion, yet he dodged to the side and I ended up cutting vertically through TyRant’s skull.
       “Nice try,” Matt said. “Howler, grab him.”
       “Yes sir,” Howler said, and then began howling.
       “So that’s how you got your name,” I said.
       “You are the second person to just notice that,” Howler said.
       Howler opened her mouth wide and I looked at her mouth. I noticed light glowing in her throat, and wondered what that was about. Then she began shooting balls of fire from her mouth at me. I didn’t have enough time to respond and dodge the fireballs, and I knew I was doomed.

[TyRant]

       My head had been sliced in half vertically and yet for some odd reason I was still alive. I was on the ground bleeding a lot from my head and began to black out. It was then that memories of things I couldn’t remember before flashed before my eyes.

Date: August 12, 1204
Place: (Unknown)

       “He’s almost done,” a male voice said. “I just need to tweak this here...and...there, done.”
       Everything was all black and I couldn’t see a thing.
       “Let’s wake him up,” a different male voice said. “Wait, his eyes are opening.”
       I slowly opened my eyes, and saw two males, one next to my left side and one next to my right side, looking down at me. I turned my head to one side and then the other, noticing I was in some odd looking place.
       “Where am I?” I asked, while sitting up.
       “You are in my lab,” the male to my right said. “I’m glad that I was able to successfully revive you. My name is Nathaniel.”
       “Who am I? What happened to me?” I asked looking at myself and noticing hard, shiny silver colored material on parts of my body. “And what is this stuff on me?”
       “Well you were killed in a battle, but I revived you using those cybernetic parts on you. I don’t know your name sadly, but since you can’t remember your own name I could give you a name if you’d like,” Nathaniel said.
       “I wouldn’t mind that at all, Nathaniel,” I said.
       “Please call me Nathan, and how does Ty sound?” Nathaniel asked.
       “I like it, thank you,” I said.
       “Don’t mention it,” Nathan said.
       Then suddenly the lab shook violently and I heard a loud booming noise coming from close by.
       “Nathan, the lab is under attack,” the person to my left said.
       “By who or what, Joseph?” Nathan asked.
       I don’t know, we must evacuate,” the person that Nathan called Joseph said.
       Then the wall collapsed inward and several different creatures starting pouring in from the crumbled wall.
       “Demons! What is going on?” Nathan asked.
       “Ha ha ha, you had no idea of what was going on did you? I have always been and always will be your sword rival, no matter how many times you are reborn or how many different names you use. I will get rid of you and Akira,” Joseph said, turning to face Nathan.
       “What the heck are you talking about?” Nathan asked. “Are you controlling these demons?”
       “Well, you obviously are smart after all, I thought you were dumb as a doorknob,” Joseph said sarcastically.
       “Why are you doing this? We worked together so we could introduce technology to humans very early,” Nathan said.
       “I’ve got to stop you from completing you destiny,” Joseph said, turning to the demons now behind him. “GET HIM!”
       The demons ran toward Nathan, one reached it’s claw up and hit his head, knocking him out, and dragged him back to where the wall collapsed in.
       “Master!” I said, standing up and knocking a couple demons across the room.
       Then I felt something hard hit me at the base of my neck, whatever it was caused me to fall to the ground face first.
       “You are strong, you can be very valuable,” Joseph said. “I’ll change your name to TyRant.”
       Then something large came down on me and knocked me out.


Date: August 22, 1999
Place: Ultima, Real World

       I slowly woke up and found myself back in present time. I figured I had a flashback while I fell unconscious. I looked around slowly and saw balls of fire flying towards Akira. My eyes widened and I stood up as quickly as I could in my current groggy state and rushed over and stood in between the fireballs and Akira. The fireballs hit be directly which is what I had intended to happen and I fell to my knees. Then Akira turned back into his human form and came over to me to see if I was okay.
       “Darn it, maybe next time Akira,” Matt said.
       Shortly after that Matt and Howler disappeared without any light or smoke.
       “Looks like TyRant remembers his past,” Joseph said.
       “What do you mean?” Akira asked.
       “Well, it’s a long story, I’ll tell you some other time, but first let’s help TyRant here,” Joseph said.
       “Okay let’s help him into Wayfarer,” Akira said.
       I looked at Joseph angrily, remembering what he had done so long ago. Akira looking just like Nathan did must have been the reincarnation of my master Nathan, or at least that’s what I thought. I wondered what Joseph was planning to do and why he was seeming all chummy with Akira. As I thought all this I felt woozy and my eye lids felt heavy, and I slowly fell unconscious again, possibly with the current condition of my head.

       When I woke up I found myself lying on some sort of medical bed. I thought for a moment that I might be having another flashback but then noticed my surroundings and figured out that I was in the medical bay on the Wayfarer. I reached my hand to touch my head and noticed my head was not split open anymore. Then I sat up and saw Akira looking at me at the foot of the medical bed.
       “Are you okay?” Akira asked.
       “Yes, thank you,” I said.
       Then the door to the outer corridor slide open automatically and Joseph walked in.
       “So is he okay?” Joseph asked Akira, while avoiding eye contact with me as I looked at him angrily.
       “Yes I’m fine,” I answered him.
       “Good,” Joseph said looking to me briefly then back to Akira. “What should we do now?”
       “Well, Seeker has the D.R.G. -” Akira said.
       “It is called the D.R.R. now. The D.R.G. broke and was upgraded into the D.R.R.,” Joseph corrected.
       “Anyway, Seeker has it , and he is in another dimension as far as I know,” Akira said.
       “So we’re basically stranded here?” Joseph asked.
       “I’ll have to make something that can open dimensional portals,” Akira said.
       “What should I do?” I asked.
       “For the moment, stay here until you are fully recovered,” Akira said.
       Then Akira left the room leaving me alone with Joseph. I decided I might as well just ask Joseph about the past and what he was up to.
       “Why did you try to get rid of Nathan, my creator?” I asked.
       “It’s complicated,” Joseph said, walking toward the wall and leaning his back against it with his arms crossed over his chest.
       “Explain it to me, I have all day,” I said.
       I noticed Joseph sigh and roll his eyes, apparently seeing that I wasn’t going to drop the subject until he told me.
       “I was, and I still am, trying to prevent them from completing their destiny,” Joseph said.
       “Them?” I asked.
       “Nathan and Akira,” Joseph said.
       I wondered for a moment there. Joseph was speaking of Nathan and Akira as they were two completely different entities, yet I thought Akira was the reincarnation of Nathan. I wasn’t sure what to make of what Joseph had said.
       “Why are you trying to prevent them from completing their destiny? What is their destiny?” I asked.
       “I can’t tell you now, not yet,” Joseph said, while pushing against the wall to stand back up and then walked out of the room.
       “Not yet? What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, but Joseph was no longer in the room to answer.
       I then laid back down on the medical bed and drifted off to sleep.

[Joseph]

       I had left TyRant in the medical bay and went to check how Akira was doing on the device to open dimensional portals. I knew Akira should be smart enough to make something like that. I walked down the hall and into a room labeled ‘Weaponry’. Inside there, hunched over a cannon of some sort, was Akira, hard at work and seemingly unaware of my entering the room.
       “You need something in particular, Joseph? Or do you really just want to see how I’m doing on the device?” Akira asked, still working with his back facing me, somehow knowing I had come to check on him.
       “How did you know I was here?” I asked in return.
       “It is you we’re talking about,” Akira said.
       “You never cease to amaze me,” I said, complimenting him.
       “Well...thanks,” Akira said.
       “You already know why I’m here, so how is it coming along?” I asked, trying to look over his shoulders at the device in making.
       “I need a few parts before it is completed,” Akira said.
       “Like?” I asked.
       “I’ll tell you tomorrow, for now let’s get some sleep,” Akira said, getting up and turned to face me.
       “Good idea,” I said.
       “Take any of the rooms or sleeping quarters that you like,” Akira said.
       “Thanks,” I said.
       I went into the hall, walked all the way to where the sleeping quarters were located, and just entered one. There were dozens of sleeping quarters, with the size of this ship, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more. It took me a while to get to the area of the ship that the sleeping quarters were located. There were so many levels on this ship, and I wondered how many people it took to build such a craft as this. I lied down on the bed and quickly fell asleep. I was exhausted with having to walk so long. Luckily for me there were onboard maps of the ship every hundred feet or so.
       The next morning I woke up to the sound of what seemed like some Ultimarians training outside of the ship. A quick look around I found that the sleeping quarters I chose came with a window view. I looked out the window to see the Ultimarian castle in the distance, and no Ultimarians nearby. I also figured with this being a space craft that the windows were most likely sound proof, due to the thickness to keep people safe inside the ship. I began to wonder what that noise was and went to look out in the hall. In the hall I found two Ultimarians battling with swords in hand.
       “So that sound was coming from inside,” I thought to myself.
       I stepped out into the hall, with the Ultimarians noticing me, and rushed off down the hall as quietly as possible. I went back into my new room, so to speak and went into the connected bathroom. I figured each of the sleeping quarters on this ship were supplied with a bathroom as well for more convenience. I splashed some water onto my face to help wake me up then dried my face off with a towel hanging in the bathroom. I decided to go look for Akira and walked out of the room with that decision. I walked over to a nearby onboard ship map display, and with some time figured out how to use it to locate Akira on the ship. According to the display, Akira was in the Weaponry, probably working on the device some more. I walked all the way to the Weaponry, finding the shortest way from the sleeping quarters and entered. Inside I found TyRant, up and perfectly well, talking to Akira.
       “Where can we find the materials you need?” TyRant asked Akira, while not noticing I had just walked into the room.
       Akira didn’t answer because he noticed me standing there. TyRant turned around to see what Akira was looking at and saw me.
       “Good morning,” Akira greeted me.
       “Good morning,” I said back while yawning. “What were you two talking about just now?”
       “The materials needed to complete the Dimensional Cannon,” Akira said.
       “Oh, nice name, and what are the materials you need?” I asked.
       “I need a strong metal alloy for the outer shell, some sort of power source, a large prism for concentrating the beam, and a data disk to store the program for it,” Akira said.
       “Where can we find the needed materials or parts?” TyRant repeated.
       “We’ll have to search around the nearest solar system, or perhaps the entire universe in this dimension,” Akira said.
       “Great how long will it take to get to the nearest solar system?” I asked.
       “At least a few days,” Akira said. “So we best start searching.”
       “To the bridge!” TyRant said.
       I looked to TyRant funny with what he said. Apparently he was trying to be funny cause he was smiling. Then we all hurried to the bridge, or where everything was controlled from. Akira typed the coordinates to the nearest solar system into the ship computer and Wayfarer took off in that direction.
       “Before I forget, do you two want to join the Destined?” Akira asked.
       “Sure I’ll join,” TyRant said.
       “This should be fun,” I said sarcastically.

[Nina]

Meanwhile...

       “Where are we?” I asked Seeker, after noticing we were underground.
       “It appears that we are lost,” Seeker said.
       “You mean you have no idea where we are? Oh, this is just great,” Miyu said sarcastically.
       “First thing’s first, we have to find Akira,” Daniel said.
       “He’s stuck in the previous dimension, how are we supposed to get back there?” Ash asked.
       “And I know where we are, we are back in the Antan dimension,” Jackie said.
       “What?” I asked, and turned to look around, noticing that we were surrounded by hungry looking ant-people. “Who are they?”
       “They are Antans,” Jackie said.
       “We have no choice but to change into Antans ourselves,” Seeker said.
       “I can’t change into any Antan,” I said.
       “Oh, I forgot that some of you don’t have that ability,” Seeker said. “And Akira is the only one who can give the rest of you that ability.”
       “I’ll fend off these Antans,” Ash said, while forming a fireball a foot in diameter in his hand. “I sure hope Antans like barbecue.”
       “No, wait! They’re backing off,” Seeker said.
       I noticed what Seeker said was right, the Antans were stepping back and away from us. Ash then extinguished his fireball by closing his hand around it.
       “What’s going on?” I asked.
       Then I noticed one Antan step forward as if responding to my question, and I prepared for it to attack.
       “Welcome back Seeker and friends, it has been a long time,” the Antan said.
       I was stunned, I didn’t know Antans could speak human.
       “Ry!” Jackie said in surprise.
       “Ry?” I asked, still stunned.
       “She is a friend, and princess of the Antans,” Seeker said.
       “It is queen now, and I see that you have made many more friends since last we met,” Ry said. “Where is Akira though? I do not see him with you.”
       “He was left behind in the previous dimension,” Miyu said, clearly leaving out the fact that Akira told us to go without him.
       I sighed at remembering we left Akira behind, at his own request, and felt really bad.
       “What’s the matter, Nina?” Jackie asked.
       “Come on, you should know Jackie,” Ranma said.
       “Oh,” Jackie said as he realized something.
       “What? What is it?” I asked.
       “We know you like Akira,” Daniel said abruptly.
       “Her too?” Nicolai asked.
       I looked around, slightly confused, noticing that just about every girl in the group was looking at me angrily. They appeared to be upset that I had feelings for Akira, but how did Ranma and Daniel know? I thought I hid my feelings fairly well. Then I remembered that I sighed after Miyu mentioned we left him behind in the previous dimension and figured that must have been what gave me away.
       “Girls, girls, let’s work this out, we don’t need any fighting here,” Jackie said.
       “Why does Akira get all the girls?” Ranma asked, with obvious jealousy in his tone of voice.
       “Not his sisters,” Seeker said, correcting Ranma.
       “Oh wow!” Ranma said sarcastically. “That leaves Miyu, Nene, and Kari.”
       Then I looked at Vince, remembering that he is Akira’s clone. I started to wonder if Vince was like Akira in other ways then just appearance. That was when Vince noticed me staring at him.
       “What?” Vince asked defensively.
       I turned away and said nothing. I knew Akira wouldn’t have asked that, with that much attitude. It appears that Vince has developed a personality different to Akira’s own.
       “Is something wrong?” Vince asked, nicely this time.
       “You just remind me of Akira,” I said.
       “Sorry,” Vince said sadly.
       “I believe Akira will find a way to get here, so it is best that we stay put for the time being,” Seeker said.
       “Here?” Rutee asked surprised.
       “Yes, do you have a problem with that?” Seeker asked.
       “No,” Rutee said.
       “What have you guys been doing these last three-hundred years?” Ry asked. “You obviously haven’t aged since we last met.”
       “That’s impossible, we just met you yesterday,” Jackie said.
       “This dimension must be three-hundred years after we met Ry and before we had more people join us,” Seeker said.
       “Well, obviously,” I said.
       “This is bad,” Seeker said. “It is bad enough with the different dimensions, but now with time too. Shaun can use this against us, that is, if he knows.”
       “I do know,” a very familiar voice said just as Shaun himself appeared before us.
       “Has he turned against you all?” Ry asked rhetorically. “Then I shall join and help you.”
       “But your majesty,” one Antan said.
       “I’ll be fine, I have been given the ability to change too, three-hundred years ago,” Ry said.
       “You don’t look even a day older,” Seeker complimented.
       “Thank you,” Ry said. “Antans can live for thousands of years.”
       “Why do you guys keep ignoring me?” Shaun asked angrily. “I want to show you all my newest creation.”
       “What is it? Another monster of yours?” I asked.
       “No,” Shaun said, pulling out a small handheld weapon-like device to show us all.
       It looked very similar to what the D.R.G. looked like, that is before it was destroyed. The only difference was that the infinity symbol was circled and crossed out plus the initials M and C were on it.
       “What is that?” I asked, mocking at how ridiculous it looked.
       “It’s called the Monster Creator,” Shaun said.
       “Very original,” Jeffrey said mockingly. “What does it do? Create monsters?”
       “Not just that,” Shaun said defensively. “It also allows me to travel between dimensions. So wherever you go I’ll be right behind you.”
       After that Shaun disappeared in a bright flash of light.
       “Okay, now that was weird,” I thought to myself.
       “Well, maybe we should split into smaller groups. That way to prevent Shaun from getting all of us at once, and following us all to where Akira might be whenever we find him that is,” Jackie suggested.
       “Not a bad idea,” Seeker complimented. “So that was the device he had earlier.”
       “But before you split into smaller groups, I know of a way to give the rest of you the ability to change,” Ry said.
       “Really? How?” Miyu asked excitedly.
       “Follow me,” Ry said.
       Ry lead us to a room with a large diamond-shaped crystal, that shined like a prism, in the center of the room. There was also a large hole in the ceiling above the crystal , showing a glimpse of the sky and atmosphere above ground.
       “Where are we?” Roy asked.
       “This is where we store all the treasure of my people,” Ry said.
       “A treasure room?” I thought to myself as I looked around.
       I walked around the room, and noticed the room was covered with lots of valuables, such as gold, jewels, and the sort. There was some ancient jewelry and other accessories made of gold and jewels that caught my eye. I started trying some of them on and admired my reflection in a large, well-polished, gold shield.
       “Put that back,” Scott said to me.
       “Let me try them on just a little longer, please?” I asked, pleadingly.
       “Fine, but if you get arrested or something by the Antans for touching their valuables, don’t blame me,” Scott said.
       “Okay,” I said.
       “Is this what I think it is?” Seeker asked Ry, talking about the large crystal.
       “This is the Crystal of Power,” Ry said.
       “As I thought,” Seeker said. “How long have you had it?”
       “The Crystal of Power as been the Antan’s treasure for trillions of years now,” Ry answered.
       “Amazing, is this how we get our ability to change?” Moose asked Ry.
       “Yes,” Seeker answered instead.
       “Then what we waiting for?” Ursula asked.
       “You mean ‘what are we waiting for’, you forgot ‘are’ there Ursula,” Doug said.
       “Whatever, stop fun making of way I talk,” Ursula said.
       “Well, we have to figure out how it works first of all,” Ryoga said.
       “You just have to touch it,” Ry said. “All of you together that is.”
       The rest of the group took places around the Crystal of Power, forming a large circle around the crystal. I took off all the jewelry and other accessories off, put them back where they were, and took a place in the circle around the Crystal of Power. I noticed along with all the others, Algor, Ayeka, Astrid, and Ry took places around the crystal.
       “On the count of three,” Jackie said. “One...Two...”
       I prepared to touch the crystal as Jackie said ‘Two’ and noticed the others did just the same.
       “Three,” Jackie said.
       All at the same time, each one of us touched the crystal and held our hands against the crystal.
       The Crystal of Power began glowing brightly and I felt a tingling sensation throughout my body. I figured that all the other were feeling the same tingling sensation at the moment and didn’t think too much of it.
       “Okay, you can all pull your hands away now,” Ry said.
       I pulled my hand away from the crystal slowly, and noticed the others doing the same. After we all pulled out hands away from the Crystal of Power, the crystal started to spin in place and blink slowly. Then the crystal sped up spinning and blinking, faster and faster.
       “What’s going on?” I asked Seeker.
       “I don’t know, but it is not supposed to do this,” Seeker said.
       I didn’t like the sound of that, I had a feeling something was wrong. Then suddenly the crystal shattered into trillions of little shards and scattered everywhere. I flinched and by reflex covered by face with my hands as shards flew all around the room. As I slowly uncovered my face I noticed that I, along with everyone else, didn’t have a single cut or scratch on them. I figured the crystal shards just flew around all of us, and we were very lucky that they missed everyone.
       “The Crystal of Power has been shattered,” Ry said, breaking the silence. “This is terrible.”
       I looked around the room and saw some of the crystal shards flying through the large hole in the ceiling, as if they were being sucked out through that hole. Then I noticed that each shard flew off in separate directions after they got passed the hole.
       “Well, it looks like we have to search for each shard now,” Scott said.
       “Separating into groups like we agreed just earlier, would help narrow down the search as well,” Seeker said.
       “Okay, but I do believe that we should join you on this journey of yours,” Astrid said.
       “So then it looks like Algor, Astrid, Ayeka, and Ry are the newest members of the Destined,” I said.
       “With that there is a total of forty-eight here, so let’s separate into six groups of eight people,” Seeker said.
       “Good idea, but who will go with whom?” I asked.
       “How about we choose temporary leaders for each group first?” Ash asked, giving a suggestion.
       “I’ll be a leader,” Nikki said.
       “Okay, that is one down, now we need five more,” Vince said.
       “How about five of Akira’s siblings as leaders?” Nabiki asked.
       “Well, we could do that, but which ones?” Seeker asked.
       “I’ll be a leader,” Miyu said.
       “I want Ranma a leader too,” Ursula said.
       “I shall also be a leader,” Ryudo said.
       “I’ll be one too,” Taichi said.
       “I will be one also,” Vahn said.
       “Four brothers, and a sister of Akira’s, that’s perfect. Now we have temporary leaders for each group, all we need is to choose who will go with whom,” Daniel said.
       “Alundra and I will go with Nikki,” Meia said.
       “Ry, Tara, Scott, and I will go with Nikki also,” Doug said.
       “I’ll go with Nikki’s group,” Miroku said.
       “I’m definitely going with Ranma,” Ursula said.
       “I will also go with Ranma,” Moose said.
       “Brandon, Sam, Goghei, Luna, and I will join Ranma,” Ayeka said.
       “Ash, Tobias, Astrid, Akane, Robert, Ukyo, and I all agree to go with Miyu,” Royce said.
       “Josh, Thomas, Koushiro, Takeru, Yamato, Mimi, and I have decided to join Vahn,” Sora said.
       “Daniel, Nene, Algor, Nina, Jackie, Nabiki, and I will go with Taichi,” Toni said.
       “Okay, that leaves Kari, Kiri, Vince, Seeker, Flint, Stahn and I to go with Ryudo,” Rutee said, upset at the fact that she had to be in the same group as Stahn, cause she didn’t get along with him.
       “You don’t have to join my group if you don’t want to,” Ryudo said. “I’m sure someone would switch groups with you if you asked or we could just have seven people while another group has nine if that would make you happy, Rutee.”
       “Hmph,” Rutee said, and crossed her arms across her chest.
       “Well, we have our groups now, so let’s start looking around,” Ry said. “But make sure you all change into an Antan so you don’t get eaten by any real Antan.”
       “What? Eaten?” I asked in surprise.
       “Yes, my people eat humans, but I wouldn’t risk these three either,” Ry said, looking towards Ayeka, Astrid, and Algor.
       Then the other five groups went their own separate way through the tunnels on this world, leaving Taichi, Daniel, Nene, Algor, Toni, Jackie, Nabiki, and myself in the room where the Crystal of Power was just moments ago.
       “I sure hope Akira is alright,” I thought to myself, staring up through the hole in the ceiling.
       “Nina, are you okay?” Jackie asked.
       “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “I’m just thinking about Akira.”