“Look alive guys,” the bold voice of Razi commanded, causing Flynn’s sleeping eyes to awaken at once, his pupils gleaming sky blue for a moment with miniature streaks crawling out of the pupil and gliding into the iris before vanishing in a constant stream.

Jolted with an immediate burst of energy after his crash, Flynn zoomed in a blur next to the couch that he was previously laying on, now standing. He turned around as the streaks stopped generating in his pupils, which dimmed back to black. Now fully awake, he faced Razi at the front, who stood up and turned to face him. Behind him the view showcased the depths of black space sprinkled with stars, and in the center of the view was another planetary body that perfectly mirrored Earth with blue oceans and lands green and brown under swirls of white. In the far distance to the right of the planet was the smaller gray moon that orbited it, just like the one from their home world.

As Juno also got up from the seat, Razi approached Flynn while elaborating, “We’re approaching Earth 59 and will be deploying in minutes, so it is time to do a quick brief.”

He then turned to notice that he didn’t have the whole group’s attention, specifically the ally who sat at the dining table, whose attention instead was on the window as he continued to stargaze in awe. Across from him sat Calypso still, who was watching him, also not seeming to have noticed the announcement that so instantly awoke Flynn.

“Calypso, Meditat!” bellowed Razi in heavy volume, calling to them as his attention had to be set on them for the moment.

Being snatched from their tranquil voids, Calypso and Meditat both shiver from being startled and swerve to face Razi. Calypso’s eyes were wide in embarrassment at having been detached as her cheeks were still red which she attempted to conceal by nodding her head swiftly while Meditat behind her blinked rapidly a few times before shaking his head to warp his mind back to the matter at hand.

His eyes then dilated too upon noticing the planet behind Razi, to which he stood up promptly and began slowly taking steps towards the three. He slowly queried, “Is that…-” as Calypso stood up, seeing what looked just like the planet he’s lived on his whole life.

“Yes, Earth 59, now I know this is a lot for you to take in but I’m going to need you to focus on the mission, Meditat,” interjected Razi, verbally gripping Meditat’s shoulders to hold him steady as he was floating off into the eternal horizon.

Meditat nodded his head promptly before complying in a bold, resolved tone, “Yes, I understand! I apologize, I will set my concentration straight.”

Razi nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement as Calypso stepped forth into the circle to listen clearly as he briefed authoritatively to the four, “Prior reconnosaiance indicates that the emperor’s palace is constantly guarded by his royal army who are consistently shielding the sky from what can be assumed to be aerial bombardments. Due to their protection, a direct attack from the ground will be the only possible tactic as the entire palace is well guarded and it would not be safe to try slipping through to reach the emperor without dismantling the guards. However, if we succeed at putting down the emperor’s security, he should reveal himself. It should be noted that he wants us in the first place, so we are bringing the fight to him. We’ll be deploying from the floor as we are likely to be spotted once we are near the palace and will start taking fire, so we will need to drop and have the Box collect us when we are finished. Prepare yourselves for immediate fire and instant intensity, there will not be a warm up here.”

He then positioned his hands over the back of his head, which was then promptly concealed by the appearance of the nanite cloud which then materialized his helmet, manifesting the white crusader mask which gleamed through its red visor.

While Flynn placed his hands over the sides of his head beside his eyes which were then covered by the black visor as the rest of his helmet manifested, Meditat tilted his head in befuddlement to Razi before imploring clarity, “From the floor?”

Behind him stepped Calypso, who answered, “Just follow what they do, it’s kind of fun actually,” as she grabbed the back of her hood and threw it over her head. From under the top of the hood two purple curving streams rained down to her neck, and from the streaks the black material crawled out, covering the remainder of her face.

Meditat swayed his head from right to left before muttering, “And to think I finally had the world figured out,” before grabbing his black hood and throwing it over his head. Both of his eyes flashed azure and the gleam’s shape was refined into parallelograms, and streaming up from the lenses were the streaks that rose up to beneath the hood to which the streaks rose up the hood and around as if being poured from the mask.

At the same time white liquid spilled off the eyes, wrapping around his face in a movement similar to magma, covering his entire face except for the defined vent on the left side of his face which curved similar to a headset microphone. The liquid then hardened into a metallic composite, and the vent lightened azure.

As the crevices sunk in the mask to form ridges by his nose, he turned to the demonically distorted voice across from him which rectified, “You did have your world figured out, now you’re delving into the other ninety nine.”

Now covering the entire front windshield was the Earth, which grew larger and larger as the Box sped into its atmosphere. The clouds were growing, and the engine’s hum was becoming progressively quieter as it was slowing down upon reentry, no longer needing speeds to pass planets as it was now entering one.

Soon the entire view of outside was covered by the thick white clouds over the Earth, and the interface model of the pod was recalibrated to be rotated straight downwards as it took reference of the new destination.

Razi swiveled to face the front of the Box and took a step back beside Juno. He faced the windshield as behind him Flynn was shadow boxing with blurry arms as if hyping himself up, and behind him and Calypso Meditat watched in intrigue.

From the sight of the windshield the Box passed through the clouds, passing the white blanket as now a massive green and brown continent faced the group, as they were soaring straight down into Asia without any sense of inclining, plummeting down like a meteor.

Dropping deeper down towards the surface, sierras became distinguishable as the world was taking on more detail, a whole new world the same size and complexity as all the others, another world in a mass collection orbiting in the same system.

Razi placed his feet side by side and stared down at the wooden floor. He crossed his arms over his chest, staring through the red visor of his crusader helmet. Behind him, streams of sky blue energy began to emerge out of Flynn’s body before curling around like an aura, wrapping around his battery as he built up excessive energy.

The streams flowed out like plasma tendrils, and Flynn’s body was the electrode. He was silent as if deeply concentrating, his head lowered as the tendrils coiled around his arms and legs to continue building up.

Small at first, there appeared to be networks of brown squares and rectangles on the ground connected by gray paths, resembling the layout of a town or city all placed in proximity with each other.

Green light radiated off of the emerald eyes of Juno who opened her hands by her waist as strands of her brown hair and flags of her white skirt began waving as if hit by a breeze which there was none of. Behind her, Calypso’s body began to vibrate constantly, fluctuating as her body seemed to become translucent with a purple hue as though fading out of existence.

She had her head lowered too as her body declined in opacity, as Meditat was visible through her, standing behind the group as advised as they all prepared themselves.

More detail was present in the windshield’s view as several brown squares were connected by networks into a self-contained construct, and around that construct was a swarm of specs on an open gray field. Over the squares was a gentle hue, like a roof, protecting the construct in the center of the field. The field continued to grow as the Box drew closer, and the specs noticeably began to move.

Suddenly the view was shifted drastically to the blue sky and distant mountains, and the model of the pod in the interface was tilted to be leveled with the horizontal axis at once. There was no shove inside the Box, however soon after blurs began appearing in front of the arrows like projectiles being hurled from below.

Without warning, a square hole was hollowed out of the floor in front of Razi’s feet, inviting the heavy roars of wind and the sound of flying projectiles in the near distance. A chunk of the wooden floor seemingly vanished into the opening several feet long, to which Razi commanded, “NOW!” before he stepped forward, and fell through the hole, his arms still crossed over his chest as he plummeted in an instant.

Following first, Juno leaped off the ground and into the hole, dropping down as her wide hands stayed by her side. Behind her, Flynn took a step forward and jumped towards the hole, bending his knees and wrapping it around his arms like a cannonball before sinking into the aperture.

Left onboard were Meditat and Calypso, who by judging the pattern was next to jump. She began taking steps forwards like the others and even stepped off the ground and over the hole, but before she could fall her entire body faded into pure transparency, vanishing instead without a visible fall.

Now the last one in the Box was Meditat, who stepped forward and peered over the hole. He sighed to himself, not having received much instruction, but choosing to follow his one piece of advice. As his feet lingered at the very edge by the opening, his body leaned towards into a fall, and through his perspective he went through the hole, able to see the gray field below and the horde of soldiers shouting.

Pushing off his feet, Meditat allowed himself to plunge down into the Earth below, diving straight as he watched the green streak soar down to the ground and the blue glowing ball drop down not too far above. He began accelerating himself both from the natural tug but also as his body hummed from boosting. He flew past the streak and ball, and saw the dropping body of the leader whose arms remained over his chest.

He continued to push himself towards the surface, where he could now discern the specs to be men dressed in thin leather and lamellae similar to the invaders in the city, many of whom held bows and crossbows aimed up at the sky firing with flashes of orange light replenishing their ammunition.

Last to leave but first to land, Meditat threw his fist forward right before he struck the ground, releasing a burst of frosty energy omnidirectionally and causing men around him to shout and grunt. He lifted his head up and stood to find himself facing a horde of men in armor, many of whom also held battleaxes and lances. He lifted his fists up, ready to take on the guards as behind them was a large red building designed like an ancient Chinese palace composed of several individual buildings connected by halls, several of those buildings having multiple roofs on various levels. It was what they were guarding, and he needed to get through them.

Before he could take a step forward, a purple flash appeared in front of him with a short vibrational hum, and standing where the flash transpired was the body of Eidolon, reappearing on the surface. She waved her right arm forward, causing a massive streak of air to vibrate with a purple hair and strike a handful of soldiers, causing their bodies to fly back in yells.

In front of both of them, Meditat watched as the blue ball plunged straight into the ground, releasing a great explosion of energy that shoved hordes of soldiers in all directions. The discharge of energy cleared a spot, and where that opening was flashes of blue began zooming around at surrounding soldiers, as Tachyon was already in battle.

Meditat began charging forward as he then saw the green streak descend from the sky into view, but rather than landing on the ground it abruptly stopped about ten feet in the air, and as the green light dissipated it revealed Intrepid hovering in the air. She then began waving her hands, and masses of soldiers suddenly were lifted off the ground and were thrashed around by an invisible force.

Continuing forward as he held his arm out in front of him, Meditat saw several small black pellets fall from the sky, and following it was the leader. The balls landed on the ground before igniting into fiery explosions, and landing down after it was Furchifer over the chaos. He watched as Furchifer then held his right arm out as on each of his shoulder slim compartments shaped as parallelogram prisms extended out, only a few feet in height. The cannon on his left shoulder had a silver face with two slits that glowed crimson red, and the cannon on his right shoulder had a vent with six slim parallelogram-shaped apertures stacked along each other.

In his arm flashed a blue light, and as it faded it revealed a lengthy dark gray device held in his hand which resembled a double barreled shotgun which he held by the handle. He then jerked his wrist up as a flash of red light appeared over the barrels, discharging large orange bolts which strike soldiers in front of him, shoving them backwards off their feet as he continued to aim at the next group charging him.

On his left shoulder cannon, concentrated red beams fired out of the two slits while on his right shoulder cannon multiple darts encased in red radiating energy fired out of the barrels, which danced in the air in red streaks before honing in on a target and striking them, resulting in an explosion that swept surrounding crowds too.

Joining the counterattack no longer alone, blue flames were exerted off of Meditat’s body, which lifted a few feet off the ground before his vision was temporarily covered by fire. Not soon after however, the flames dissipated to reveal a transparent window with a holographic interface with numbers and gauges along the side, and in the bottom right corner was a small model depicting a mech similar to the one he manifested in the previous encounter, although there were extended units mounted on the shoulders with the left shoulder appearing to have what resembled a form fitting missile launcher with an array of barrels and the right shoulder carrying a similarly multi barrel weapon albeit with longer barrels that better resembled a machine gun turret.

Strengthened inside the machine, he lunged forward and threw the white enlarged fist forward with several frosty crystal bracelets around its arm. It struck a batch of soldiers before then grabbing one of them and tossing them aside, continuing its charge as rapid barrages of blue bolts fired from his right shoulder.

Rapid streams of red bolts fired out of a large firearm the size of a light machine gun held by Furchifer in one hand, with a thick barrel which vibrated upon every shot. He mowed down soldiers charging with swords as other soldiers behind them aimed their crossbows and fired a volley at him, but they all stopped several feet short of the target as they’re suspended in midair. Behind him levitated Intrepid several feet off the ground, her hand stretched out. She then bent her arm back before thrusting it forward again, to which all the arrows launched in the opposite direction from which they came.

Parallel to them, constant purple flashes appeared around another cluster of guards, and in one of those flashes Eidolon appeared above one of the archeres, to which she kicked them in the face due to her being off the ground. However, the momentary pause to follow through with her strike put her off guard, allowing a spear to fly straight for the side of her head. The spear sped through the air, about to pierce her skull, only to vanish as a blue blur zoomed through it and continued in the direction of the sender. At the head of the blur ran Tachyon at speeds imperceivable to a human at real time, amongst the blue streams of energy sprouting off his back stood afterimages of himself with every step as though he was duplicating himself forwards rather than running as a singular being.

At such speeds even those afterimages were imperceptible, constantly generating with every step as he snapped the wooden pole of the spear in half before continuing his sprint at a soldier who had his arm out in the followthrough of a throw. Before the soldier could recoil his arm, Tachyon stood beside him, and he gently grabbed the soldier’s extended arm, bending it casually and bringing it below the soldier’s exposed chin. After curling the soldier’s fingers into a fist, he lightly nudged the elbow upwards, and ran off as the contact between the soldier’s own fist and chin generated ripples that spread up his head.

While one of the soldiers behind the blue trail flew up into the air tens of feet, Tachyon continued weaving through crowds, and across from him charged the white mech which threw his arms at clusters of guards as silver rockets fired out of its left shoulder cannon, which danced in the air carried by a blue energy trail before honing on an area and flying straight into it. Blue explosions discharged around the mech as it also fired volleys of blue bolts from its right cannon, which rotated rapidly while firing.

It then lunged forward and grabbed two soldiers around the body, picking them up to toss them. Before it could, another soldier ran a lance straight into the mech’s left shoulder, disabling it as he released a vengeful roar.

Unable to throw, the mech stood still taking the lance that seamlessly pierced its shell. Once again caught in a trap, it attempted to grab the attacker with its left arm, first tossing the soldier it held before reaching out for the one carrying the lance. Curling its fingers around the lance wielder, it picked the wielder off the ground, and it pulled its arm back to throw the body. It threw its arm forward, but instead of tossing the body its entire arm flew off the shoulder, still holding the target.

Through the casing of the torso stood Meditat, who turned his head perplexed by the unintentional action. He saw through the transparent screen from within that his arm was clean off, causing sparks on the shoulder joint. He then faced ahead of himself, and through the screen he saw three soldiers, one of them with their arm extended out in the followthrough of a toss and the other two wielding battle axes.

Acting quickly to rebound from the damaging hit, the mech charged at the three, and fired two rockets from its shoulder mounted launcher. Both of the armed soldiers threw their battleaxes at the same time only for both of them to then be struck by rockets individually, blasting them away and leaving the one unarmed soldier remaining in the trio.

Both of the battle axes continued to soar however, and one flew straight through the mech’s left arm and another flew through the mech’s right leg, slicing through both perfectly. The two axes hit the ground behind the mech, both of them having the symbol ‘刺’ etched on their blades in the orange glow. On the wooden handles, they also had the symbol ‘家’ written in a blue font, right where one would grip it.

One limb remaining, the mech staggered back badly beaten, staring at the remaining unarmed soldier. The mounted turret on its right shoulder began to spin, preparing to fire after it was noted that the mech was in critical danger. As the turret whirred up to fire, the mech’s final leg was unexpectedly sliced off, as a third battleaxe flew in from behind into the legs.

Continuing its flight, the battleaxe spun in the air before being caught in the hand of the final remaining soldier, gripping it over the blue symbol before glaring at his target.

Completely limbless, the remaining torso of the mech fell backwards with only its shoulder guns remaining.

Inside the mech, Meditat breathed heavily, having been caught off guard yet again from the flood of enemies he was still being overwhelmed with. He found himself continuously falling on this day as a man who nearly never lost his footing, but now he was on the ground, a man with the abilities of total creation defeated by a few men with ancient weaponry.

He watched through the transparent screen inside the mech as the final battleaxe wielder approached him, holding the axe with one hand as he stepped onto the remains of the machine, standing over Meditat’s body on the mech’s surface.

Right in front of the guard were two primed weapon systems, a launcher capable of firing multiple missiles that’d explode upon impact with enough force to concuss armored targets as well as a machine gun proficient in grinding mobs in seconds. Sitting at Meditat’s disposal were two weapons designed for far more than a single man in decent foot soldier armor, providing a perfect opportunity to cast him down with a single thought.

However, that wasn’t what happened.

Inside the ruined mech, Meditat laid frozen, his muscles locked and his chest stiff. He breathed heavily and rapidly, as even though the threat was minimal compared to his arsenal, he seemed petrified as though he was watching the sun explode.

Panic overwhelmed him, as from his perspective, the man above him was no more than a silhouette hovering over him, and waving behind the silhouette was a perceived cape that flew against the breeze. The silhouette held the battleaxe in one hand, but instead of being silver it was made of a black metal, and its edges were far sharper as the head resembled a viking axe more with a slimmer blade. The blades of the axe themselves were torched with red flames which rose in the air, burning eternally as the silhouette hovered over Meditat.

Hyperventilating intensely, Meditat could not move a single inch of his being, flooded with intense thoughts as his ears were ringing and his vision was blurring as the world around him dimmed. All he could do was watch as the silhouette raised its flaming axe, primed to bring it down right on him.

Bringing the axe down over his head, the silhouette’s body was then shoved onto the ground as its face was struck by the sole of a boot. The body slammed against the stone ground past the mech, collapsed on the ground as the cape vanished and the silhouette was recolored and refined to reveal itself as the soldier in the garnishes same as all the others in the blazing battlefield filled with shouting and whooshes of projectiles.

Standing on the face of the fallen soldier was the man in the crimson suit, Furchifer, who turned around to face the mech after having perfectly deescalated the intense situation. Leaving his foot on the soldier’s face as each hand gripped a decently sized firearm resembling an assault rifle with a thick body he faced the remains of the mech before shouting, “Meditat, are you awake in there?”

In response the center of the mech burst into blue flames before spreading to the entire torso, pulling the central component apart as the flames evaporated in the air. Sitting up from inside the burning mech was Meditat as the disembodied limbs of the mech also burst into flames and were incinerated, being erased after falling into an unusable state.

Meditat stood up from the fiery mech as the limbs vanished, and he nodded his head before excusing, “Sorry, I’m still feeling out of it.”

Staring at him with his foot on the soldier, Furchifer requisitioned, “Then I need you in it now, this isn’t the time to linger around. Meditat, I understand that what you’re experiencing is new and is a challenge you may not be familiar with, but I also understand that your name means something to many people, people who look up to you as a hero. And as someone who’s traveled the worlds for so long, I can tell you that those people aren’t exclusive to just your world. You are still you, this is still a fight, don’t struggle with being something different because I specifically wanted to ally with you, Meditat. So I want to see that Meditat doing what he does best, and I know full well you can bring it out. Now come on, we should be closing in on the palace,” before he faced forward again, and stepped off the guard. He ran a few steps before leaping high up off the ground, firing red barrages from both assault rifles in different directions as he pounced on another collection of guards, nearing the palace entrance as the surrounding field was being cleared of the soldiers.

Staggering forward as the blue blur passed his left and stones were lifted off the ground throwing distant crowds in the air, Meditat placed his hand on his lowered head, shaking his head as he tried to pull himself together, understanding the gravity of the situation and the need for his performance to be better than what he was offering at the moment.

He lowered his arm and took in a deep breath, temporarily tuning out the distant shouting, explosions, flinging, all the action that blazed the battlefield. As purple streaks slashed the sky as battalions of men in ancient Chinese military uniform fired endless hails of arrows generated mystically through mechanisms that weren’t even fully understood, Meditat tried to tune out the extreme insanity of the entire situation, calming himself down to his core.

What was happening? This was a fight.

Who was he? He was Meditat.

What can he do? He can fight.

Meditat let out the breath, and raised his head. This might be a new adventure on a new world, but in essence, it was the same mission. To protect his home.

Hordes of soldiers remained by the palace, and behind them was a wall of guards all holding up shields, all of which projected a green translucent wall which they had moved down to shield the palace from the ground. Soldiers at the front held swords and lances as soldiers further back wielded spears and crossbows. A sharp arrowhead-eesc weapon pierced the chest of one of the soldiers in the front, connected to a gray cable from the sky. Several black pellets rained from the sky before exploding in the air, erupting the horde in fiery galore, and following the pellets, Furchifer who landed on the soldier made an anchor, who fell to the ground.

Furchifer then aimed a massive machine gun by a handle on top of the gun itself, with a cluster of barrels packed together at the far end. The barrels began to rotate before firing an intense battery of purple bolts out of what resembled a minigun, held one handed as he shredded the soldiers at the front of the remaining field with a sound similar to a lawnmower emitted off the massive weapon.

Remaining frontliners charged at Furcifer with raised swords and angled lances before being tossed backwards by a directed tunnel of wind blasting straight into them. The tunnel was generated by the speedily spinning arm of Tachyon, who ran into the horde, weaving through fighters and dropping their bodies.

As the two moved farther up to the palace, one of the men by the back flung a spear into the air, which flew straight at the floating body of Eidolon. She turned to the spear, and her body became translucent with a purple hue, her body exuding a pseudo vibrational effect. She watched as the spear flew straight through her, but as it passed her there was no apparent wound nor did she seem injured. Instead she pointed her hand towards the caster, and a purple streak of air vibrated in that direction, exploding a cluster of soldiers on the ground.

Moving closer to the back where the shields were held, Tachyon dodged arrows and struck their casters below the flying body of Intrepid, who approached the back of the man wall, and aimed her hand at the men in the back holding shields.

Far down at the end of the army, the soldiers only gripping their shields aimed at those carrying the siege stood their ground, but they all noticed as their copper shields began cracking from the center out without any visible force damaging it. Before they could understand what was even occurring, all of their shields shattered with copper fragments on the ground, and the green wall dissipated from the synchronic destruction of its generators.

All the men began panicking visibly as they shouted amongst themselves, and in their team of fear a being steadily walked down the steps behind them. The men did not notice at first as they continued to fret while the being draped in luxurious red robes approached them from the staircase to the palace, but the ignorance was put at an end by a bold Chinese voice that hollored, “Chénmò, wǒ de rénmín.”

At once all the men silenced, following the command: ‘Silence, my people,’ before they all responded in a unified, “Shì de!,” acknowledging with a ‘Yes.’

Stopping just at the last step, the man in the robes stared at the battlefield, his keen eyes below a yù zǎo that sat on his head as he stroked his chin above a large bushy beard, perfectly resembling the leader depicted in the portrait.

Watching the four attackers dismantle his army, he calmly extended his open hand at them, revealing the symbol ‘帝’ engraved in his palm in a crimson glow as though carved out of his own skin.

In a profuse voice, he commanded, “Xià guì!”

Racing through the dwindling soldiers, the blue blur abruptly stopped as Tachyon fell on his knees, crashing several feet forward unable to move himself. He groaned in resistance, yet he somehow found himself unable to stand. Behind him, Furchifer’s hellfire was stopped as he also fell on his knees as though his legs were pulled by an invisible force.

Above the two, both Intrepid and Eidolon fall from the sky with yelps and shrieks, as they both crash on the ground on their knees without warning, all forced to heed the command: ‘Kneel!’

All four of the heroes of The Shield kneeled on the ground, attempting to resist but to no success as the final four remaining soldiers left standing approached each of them. Neither Intrepid nor Eidolon seemed able to take hold of the situation, and Furchifer was unable to pull the trigger on his minigun.

Tachyon tried to pull himself up, but nothing worked, and he could only watch as in front of him stood a soldier wielding a spear over his head, ready to plunge it down on him.

Qin Shi Huang watched as he held the four attackers down, watching his men prepare to casually defeat them with no difficulty. His hand still held out, he watched as all of the men threw their spears down at the enemies, only for all of their spearheads to suddenly be pulled upwards by an invisible force, causing the men wielding them to panic as they tried to hold on.

Confused, Qin Shi Huang raised his head to see that in the air above the four kneeling heroes flew the man in the blue suit, and in his hands he held a chain connected to a large ball at the right end, although all of the metal spearheads seemed to drag themselves towards the ball, indicating a magnetic property.

All four of the spears flew into the magnetic ball on their side, causing the four men who were about to pierce the group to be stranded without weapons. They could only watch as the man in the sky jerked the chain, causing all of the spears to be sent flying away off the ball, free as the man then thrashed the chain forwards and slammed the ball into the soldiers on the ground, throwing them backwards concussed.

He then primed his arm back before throwing it forward, throwing the ball straight at the emperor with the long chain still gripped in his white and black gloves.

Watching the ball fly straight for his head, the emperor had no choice but to duck, crossing his arms over his head instinctively to protect himself.

Suddenly Furcifer managed to stand up, and by noticing his ability the other three followed too, finding themselves also now free. Tachyon vanished in a blur, dashing straight to the stairs before the emperor could regain himself. He zoomed straight past the emperor, but the result was that the emperor staggered backwards, shouting in pain as a bruise appeared on his cheek. He attempted to stabilize himself before getting struck by a purple streak which blew him back even more, throwing him against the staircase with a groaning pain.

He immediately attempted to get back up to retaliate as the only men remaining were unarmed shielders, leaving him alone. He tried to push himself off the ground, but to surprisingly no avail, as he felt his body restrained to the ground, now unable to move an inch of his body besides his head. He lowered his head to see Intrepid in the sky, aiming her hand at him as she held him down against the stairs, keeping his arms on the ground.

First getting a running start, Furcifer leaped in the air, and aimed his right arm at the emperor. He projected his grapple straight at, firing the sharp anchor into the emperor’s chest before reeling himself straight towards him through the wire. He pulled his arm back, and from the side of his right gauntlet a black blade extended out, and he swung it right before impact.

One swift slash upon landing, and Furcifer reached the body as the neck split open in a red burst, and the head flew off the body.

Flung in the air, the head of the emperor flew up several feet before landing back on the staircase, the expression petrified in the immortal emperor’s final moments. It watched back as its body stopped struggling, laid to rest swiftly.

Meditat landed on the ground as Furcifer stood up, wiping the crimson liquid off his black blade before it retracted back into his gauntlet. Meditat peered at the result of the battle as the surrounding shielded men shrieked and shouted before falling on their knees and covering their faces in cowardice, surrendering after watching the impossible.

Intrepid and Eidolon landed back on the ground as the blue blur returned back to the group, stopping as Tachyon observed the surroundings to see that the battle had ended. Meditat stared at the body of the emperor before quietly inquiring, “Wait…is he…gone?”

Turning around, Furcifer began walking down the steps as he clarified, “I realize your missions usually end brighter with the enemy alive, but unfortunately the missions out here aren’t always so clean. Since Qin Shi Huang here wasn’t particularly wanted by the EGA, there was nowhere to send him, and due to the mysterious nature of his alchemic abilities attempting to neutralize him would require more research which would end him enough time to cause more havoc. Sorry you had to see that, but sometimes missions end that way.”

A deep sigh released out of Meditat who lowered his head, understanding that he still lacked experience and understanding of the expansive Superverse, and that there was a great chance not all conflicts could end as peacefully as he would wish. It was an unlikable truth, but even the one who ended the life seemed understanding of the discontent, thus berating would be of no good. It wasn’t his mission in truth, so regardless of if he wished it had a different resolution, that wasn’t his call to make no matter how reluctant he was to follow it. Instead, he raised his head back up and gave a slight nod.

He watched as Furcifer approached the group on the ground before Meditat then glanced at the surrendered shield wielders before querying, “So…what’ll happen to them? Didn’t that emperor rule this entire planet? Doesn’t this…cause problems in…the entire community of this world?”

“Then they will need to undergo the same change the other worlds had to go through, a new dynasty, a new ruler, a new system. A shift in power was overdue eventually, civilization needs evolution to develop, and even if it takes time they’ll figure it out eventually. Whether or not they form a single planetary government and use it to attempt to join the EGA is beyond my concern, but our job here is done,” answered Furcifer, who stopped by the group.

He then raised his head as a hum became audible in the far distance, and he saw the black rectangular pod fly down from the clouds, approaching them as requested. He watched the Box approach the team to pick them up, sighing with relief at the completed mission.

“I see, well hopefully they don’t get some grudge against you guys and make this problem far worse,” concerned Meditat before he too noticed the approaching Box, understanding that the mission was over and they were soon to depart.

Furcifer shook his head before confidently assessing, “Well, most of this Earth wasn’t truly loyal to the empire, they were conquered violently, and even to this day many people here harbor ill feelings towards them but simply have no means of a realistic rebellion. Even if there is a small faction of loyalists unhappy with what we did, the majority population will be relieved to live their own free lives. Besides, don’t worry too much about it, if they come for us then that’ll be our problem, you won’t need to deal with it. We’ll be back here in a day or two with the right equipment for an extraction mission, now that there is no current empire this is our window to discover the source of their alchemy. Maybe we’ll find some people who understand it better willing to share, but that’s a problem for another day.”

Meditat lowered his head again after the reminder that this mission was a temporary alliance, and now that it was complete he would be returning back home to continue his life soloistically. He faced the Box as it slowed down and hovered over the field about ten feet from the group, landing itself as Tachyon and Intrepid turned to face it.

Furcifer began walking towards the Box, passing Meditat who brought his head back down, able to hear Tachyon’s passing comment: “Well, for what it’s worth I enjoyed that crossover. I wonder if we’ll do any others out of Earth 50 again, imagine if we went to the dinosaur world with him, that’d be so Exgsta! Oh well, maybe someday if we have an excuse.”

That was right, it was just one crossover mission, and he’d be lucky to even see them again this year. But until then, he’d need to return back to his city, his home, and continue the same life he’s lived for all these years, the same life that hardly ever saw change. The same life of a solo hero who spent everyday waiting for the same mission against a dwindling problem, the same life of a man mining out an empty quarry.

But that was his life, that was his purpose. That was his mission, and it would remain that way. It was who he was.

Docked on the ground, the Box opened a doorway on the side of the wall, and projected a complementary ramp that allowed for entry. Furcifer approached the ramp along with Intrepid and Tachyon. Standing in place, Calypso stared at Meditat for a few moments, her expression masked but her lingering still at least partially telling of her thoughts.

After noticing no action however, she turned around as well, and began walking towards the Box with the rest of the team, ready to depart and conclude the mission.

“Wait!” shouted Meditat, to which Furcifer stopped in place as well as the other three members. Perplexed by the sudden cry, Furcifer rotated his head to face Meditat, and pivoted his body sideways to better look at him.

Staring at Meditat, who now stood alone amongst the battlefield with his hand extended out desperately, all four of the members of The Shield watched Meditat, who awkwardly lingered in place as though finding it difficult to word the message he prematurely tried to announce.

Now the center of attention, he stammered to conjure his thoughts into an understandable speech. He lowered his arm and head, and softly confessed “When I go back home, and return back to my old routine, I’m just going to be returning back to the same mission of standing against occasional Exhuman terrorists or deliquent organizations. The same job I’ve spent so many years on, years spent making that job more efficient: collaborating with my Earth’s defensive agencies to research and manufacture tools for them to fend for themselves and working on rehabilitation programs that better prevented more attacks from being planned. I’ve gotten good at this job…so good in fact that regardless of what the public thinks of me, I’m really only ever useful for the very few Exhumans who are still highly difficult to handle, and I just took out part of that dwindling minority today. I didn’t realize it until now, but for years now I’ve been letting my abilities go to waste, telling myself that I’m making a difference but in reality I already made the difference and now I was just basking in the aftermath. But now seeing how much there is outside my world, not just possibilities but also conflicts that need a resolution, seeing how you four always put yourself in those front lines beyond our world, I realize that there’s so much more good I could be doing. I don’t admit it to myself because to be honest the thought of me being obsolete is one I don’t like, but my world hardly needs me anymore, I’m more of an icon than an actual hero in action. I mean, world-ending disasters only happen every other year, but you all are constantly saving multiple worlds at a time.”

He then raised his head, and in a voice that was more explicitly desperate and yet paradoxically immensely more confident, he asserted, “You four are real heroes, something I’m really not regardless of what little you’ve seen! But I…I want to be more of a hero like you! I want to help as many people as I can, even if I get knocked down way more. Even if it hurts, I want to take that next step. So…I realize I’ve been rejecting this for years now…but are there any spots open in The Shield?”

Intrepid’s eyes widened as her face fell into an expression of shock. Tachyon and Calypso immediately glanced at each other, and then at Meditat, and Furcifer completely pivoted to face Meditat.

As Meditat gazed forward through azureus lenses, he was approached by Furcifer, who stopped a few feet in front of him. He watched as Furcifer stared back at him for a few moments, and then extended his open hand out to him.

“I never closed yours,” he offered in a delighted tone noticeable even through the demonic modulator, his gloved hand open and inviting.

That hand was then met by the black and white gloved hand of the recipient which shook it tightly, accepting the invitation at last. The two hands shook in the middle of the battlefield, as on that day, their lives would be forever changed together.

Set on a path they would’ve never anticipated.