//------------------------------// // Under Construction // Story: WDU: Crossover Chronicles // by Turbo the Brony //------------------------------// (Note: Takes place following the Prologue and during most of the events of the first six chapters) Vision Flashback In the far off parts of the rift, through the eyes of one, he looks towards the abyss, then back to what he was looking at. A beautiful young woman, who almost looked a bit plant-like, humanoid being, more closely resembling a plant, being mostly slender and having what looked like petals sprouting from the waist and blooming flowers on both sides on the top of her head. The young woman looked to the being, as she had a sad, apologetic look on her face, a small tear slowly appearing. Both the being and the woman were seemingly starting to slip away from each other, as the woman was slowly accepting the fate, the other was reaching, refusing to be apart. “No!” he cried out, “Don’t you leave me!!” As they drifted even further, a bright light was starting to envelope over them. “Take me with you! TAKE ME!!!” the being cried out one last time, as while he still tried to reach out, his final words echoed through the wormhole as he and the different directions of the rifts pull then forcibly pulled him and the female away from each other. And then everything went white… Palace at the Centre of Everything Foundation Prime As his palace was growing by the second it was being built, Vortech took a small good look at his hand with a small sense of sadness, as it seemed like it was once normal sometime ago, before anger slowly took hold as his hand scrunched into a fist. “You shall pay for this, my dear…” he muttered to himself, before, from the top of his lungs, shouted out to the heavens as his words then echoed, “YOU SHALL PAY!!” He then looked around the temple that was becoming his base of operations as he looked around the view of Foundation Prime, the very centre of the Multiverse that he seemed to seek for so long. “We could be doing this together, you and I,” Vortech then said with a sigh, “we could be ruling all of this right now.” His voice then grew dark as he added, “But instead, you abandon me and leave me to rule over this lonely planet!” However, as he said that, a stone gargoyle, that was right next him from his newly made throne, suddenly opened his eyes in confusion as he looked to Vortech. “Lonely, Master?” it said, “You’re forgetting me.” “Grimzy,” Vortech said as he turned to the gargoyle, Grimzy, his voice then filled a bit with venom, “It’s the thought of spending eternity here with you that holds a very special torment in my cold, dark heart!” Grimzy seemed a little hurt, and baffled, as he said, “Uh, gee, thanks… I think?” “Oh don’t feel so downy,” another voice said, as a jester in a red and yellow striped, tattered jester’s outfit appeared before them with his usual creepy grin, “if you and I aren’t here, then our boss would be quite so lonesome now, wouldn’t he?” “Perhaps.” a feminine voice spoke, as the two looked to see a woman stand before them. She was a tall, snow-white skinned woman, with pale blue hair curled inward, wearing a hair ornament and a dress of black accented in gold and silver. With vine-like ornaments ascend upon her body, entangled around her arms, with a few blue gems hanging from her sleeves, and her dark red heels accented with gold. “But if it were just the two of you he only had, then he would have quite migraine from your idiocy.” She said with sly, smirk on her lips, as she then approached Lord Vortech as she then acted sweet. “And you wouldn’t have someone to compliment on for their most decent beauty, and, perhaps, her cunning,” she said, as she playfully made small little trails on Vortech’s shoulder pads, “wouldn’t you agree, your Lordship?” Lord Vortech turned to her, as he eyed on her saying, “I suppose so,” he said, before sternly said, “but do tread on the next words you speak carefully, Northa, if I brought you back to life, I can simply take it back from you once more, if there are any signs of betrayal from you, knowing your cunning.” Not showing signs of fear or any deceptive negativity to him, Northa looked to her master with a wicked smile, as she said, “You are good.” “Enough of sorting out the company I would have,” Vortech said, “besides the point, all that matters is that now that Foundation Prime is now under new management, the Foundation Elements will soon be in the palm of my hands.” Just then, two more figures arrived, one was the gorilla-like brute with a sleeveless jacket and roman helmet, while the other looked like a big clockwork, steam punk-like robot, the key on top it’s head, it’s body was black, his hands having large, red cannons, with the glass on his chest being red, matching his eyes. His features also had metallic eyebrows and a red grill plate. “Master Vortech,” the robot said, “sorry if I am a bit late, I was just finishing up the first lessons with most of our protégés. What is it that you need us for?” “Right now, Maltruant,” Vortech said to the robot, revealed to be named Maltruant, “we are starting off with finding the Foundation Elements, as well as the dimensions where they come from. Once we find them, all the pieces will be in place.” “But boss,” Bruiser spoke, getting Vortech’s attention, “are you certain the robots can find them?” “He’s right,” Presto added, “after all, you only had enough strength to make enough of them to form quite a good marching band, especially as the Multiverse is quite gigantic for them to patrol all together.” “I know,” Vortech said as he explained, “that is basically part of my little idea, as there is help from others… from other worlds, much like Northa and Maltruant here.” As he spoke, Vortech then sensed something as he looked onward, as he said, “I believe we’re about to get company.” Vortech then raised his hand, as he started to open up a rift, but as it started to open, it slowly withered a little, as the inter-dimensional being noticed something amiss. “What is it, master?” Grimzy asked. “I’m sensing something in the rift, it seems like something is trying to fight back and-” Vortech was suddenly cut off, as a sudden flash of light brightened the throne room for a second, until suddenly, several unexpected visitors landed in front of him. One was a human with a glasses and a brown mustache, accompanied by three robots, two of them being small, one the shape of a ball, the other cube shaped, while the third had an anthropomorphic hedgehog look, another bunch were two giant turtles with spiky shells, one big and the other was small, almost like a child. While most of the group came to, Vortech noticed two objects on the floor, and instantly recognized them. One looked like an emerald, only the color was different being red instead of green and the other was a jewel in the shape of a 6-pointed star. Vortech also noticed two of the droids made it back in one peace, one holding in it’s robotic hand a six-pointed star gem, and the other holding what looked like four capsules containing some strange data. “Ooh,” Grimzy said, as he looked to the latter with interest, “love that star jewel-thingy.” “That ‘star jewel-thing’ is the Element of Magic, one of the six Elements of Harmony, each of them a Foundation Element of Equestria,” Vortech said, though interested, he looked quite unimpressed, “however, I thought that my robotic scouts had acquired all six of the Elements, how did only one get here? As well as only one of the Emeralds?!” “So it that robotic bozo was yours, huh?” an annoyed and angry voice caught Vortech’s attention, as Bowser and Bowser Jr. were those first to get up, and boy was the daddy koopa in a bad mood. “Just giving you a big head’s up that if anyone does princess kidnapping around here, it’s me!” he said as he approached Vortech. As he was about to let out a fire blast at him, another voice spoke up, one that the King of the Koopas recognized. “Steady there, Bowser,” Dr. Eggman said, as he and his robot lackeys (minus Metal Sonic), got up and approached Eggman’s villainous buddy, “I like to have a word with this fellow too.” “Eggman?” Bowser in surprise, “What are you doing here?” Eggman was about to respond until Vortech beat him to it. “The reason you and Eggman are here is because I have a special deal for you.” He said, “To make up for the detailed moments either of you had back home, such as escaping with your hated nemesis following another failed battle or the usual Princess kidnapping routine.” “How did you know about what we’ve been up?” Dr. Eggman asked, before raising an eyebrow as he then said, “Wait, a deal? After whatever that stunt was back there you did, as well as it cost me my Emeralds?” “Not all of them, sir.” Orbot stated, as the villains looked to him and Cubot, pointing to what looked like a damaged capsule, and inside, a large green emerald was rolled out, still intact. “Ah, the Master Emerald,” Vortech said, “besides the Chaos Emerald and this sole Element of Harmony, at least we have one of the Foundation Elements of Eggman’s world, as well as one of the Elements of the Mushroom Kingdom.” “Foundation Elements?” Bowser asked. “What do you mean by one of them?” Eggman added, “Where are we? And just who are you suppose to be, for that matter?” “Allow me to introduce myself,” the inter-dimensional lord said, as he made a small bow, “I am Lord Vortech, and I welcome you to the center of the entire Multiverse: Foundation Prime!” “Foundation Prime?” Eggman and Bowser asked. “Center of the Multiverse?” Bowser added. Villain Society Summoning “Indeed, my friends,” Vortech said, as he showed a small imagery of a large constellation of universes, “as you know, the two of you are from two separate universes, the world where Eggman and his enemy Sonic come from, and the dimension where exists the Mushroom Kingdom.” “Well, we kinda already know that part.” Said Bowser. Eggman, arms crossed, nodded as he said, “Why not tells us something that we don’t know?” “I’m getting to that,” said Vortech, “for what if I told you that your worlds are basically one of the many worlds that are existing? And at the center if it all, exists Foundation Prime, where we are on right now. For many years ago, when the Multiverse was created, the powers of space, time, reality and the powerful source of all, imagination, helped bring your worlds to being, and the endless remaining power formed this world, at the center of all things. It has exist in myth and legend, but I can assure that where we are now is indeed a reality.” “And what was it about these ‘Foundation Elements’ you mentioned, especially calling the Emeralds, as well as these… Elements of Harmony, as you say there are… that?” Eggman then asked. “For as your universes were formed, so were the Foundation Elements, they were created on your respective worlds, and each of them hold an important role to every world they are from, and each of them is basically a key to this universe, as the elemental essence of Foundation Prime linger through their molecules of existence.” Vortech explained. “So… anything can be a Foundation Element that is found in any dimensions?” Bowser asked, as he and Eggman both grew curious with interest. “Indeed,” Vortech said, “anything that could be an everyday object or a ancient, powerful artifact can be labeled as a Foundation Element. And once all the Elements are brought together here, it will finally unlock the deep secret of this, and every other universe.” “Which will be?” Eggman asked, rolling his hand as a sign to carry on. “The infinite power through the Foundation of all Dimensions!” Vortech said. Eggman and Bowser looked to each other in interest, while Bowser Jr. whistled in the same interest as his dad and his pal, and the grown ups had a small thought before looking back to Vortech. “So, tell me, your Lordship,” Dr. Eggman said, “what’s in it for us, since we’re a little surprised about you knowing what we do.” “Oh, I know lots of things about each of you,” Vortech said, “as well as every other hero and villain across the Multiverse.” “Okay,” Bowser said, “but like my buddy said, what do we get in return?” “Since you have difficulties at times on ruling your respective worlds,” Vortech said in a cunning persuasive voice, “what if I told you that if you help me, I would gladly help you all in your act of conquest, you will be able to rule over any number of worlds at your choice on interests, so you can take it over, conquer and even study the said worlds, anything you’d like to do and choose beyond your wildest dreams.” Eggman and Bowser had a very good thought on it, as two sinister grins grew on their faces, “That sounds quite intrigging,” Eggman said, “any worlds for us to conquer with ease, and then we can even return to our home dimensions afterwards and use what we gained to get the upper hand.” “Now that is something I like to do, having learned from you that you’ve been trying to do some multi-world conquest of sorts.” Bowser said with a grin. “And I suppose, if you like,” Vortech then added, “I’ll even let you in a part of my new Multiversal order I would do when all the Foundation Elements are found.” “You drive a hard, yet interesting bargain, Lord Vortech,” Eggman said, as he and Bowser looked to each other and then nodded in agreement, before looking back to their dealer, “count us in on the fun!” “Brilliant.” Vortech grinned. “Right now, though,” Bowser spoke, “if I recall, my minions were suppose to be with me when we were sucked up in that hole-thingy.” “As well as that two-tailed trouble maker, Tails,” Eggman added, “where are they exactly?” “Do not worry, you two,” Vortech said, and from a wave of his hand, another rift opened up, gaining the two villains’ attention, as the inter-dimensional ruler explained, “you see, I have the absolute power of controlling the rifts, which I have mastered for so many years, allowing me to open up rifts beyond space/time, thus can send and bring forth anything and anyone through the fabrics of time and space. Examples include those who were once deceased, like Northa,” he said as he gestured to the evil woman who was part of his minions, “or even call up an alternate being from a different point of space/time, like Maltruant.” He then gestured to the clockwork villain, who too, was among the group. “Also, here in Foundation Prime, as well as most of the Multiverse, it is almost out of sync from everything else,” he continued, “for an example, any second here could be a minute, hour, day, week, month or even a year in any other universe, especially when in the rifts, as we speak, your minions, the princess and that two-tailed vermin, as well as anyone else who could’ve been sucked in too, are currently still inside the rift, allowing us time now to sort out our plans.” The villains were quite intrigued, especially Eggman, as he was in deep thought as Metal Sonic finally raised up and approached the group. “Most interesting,” he said, “though, I don’t suppose I could have a nice bit of research on one of these rifts of your?” Vortech looked to Eggman, as he seemed to eye him with a glare… until it settled as he did another wave of his hand, resulting a small rift to appear. “But of course, Doctor,” Vortech said, “And until we sort out perhaps a small base of operations for you, you’re welcome to study on this rift as you please.” “Why, thank you.” Dr. Eggman, as the small rift was contained and handed to the scientist. “Nothing to it,” said Vortech. “Yeah, but hold on a second,” Cubot then spoke up, “if you have this power to control rifts and, I suppose, travel between worlds, why don’t you collect these Foundation Elements?” “Because, little robot,” Vortech said as he eyed him, “my dedication and all my hard work on learning the secrets of the Multiverse and finding Foundation Prime has started to take a good toll on me.” He grunted a little as his left hand started to slowly swell and stretch before bouncing back to normal, “And I fear that I no longer can be able to dimension travel is I searched for the Elements myself, I may end up out of Foundation Prime forever or worse, and all the hard work would be for nothing.” “I see…” Eggman murmered, before looking to Vortech as he said, “maybe, I could see on working on few things for this multi-world conquest thing, and perhaps, maybe find a solution to sorting out your condition?” “But of course, my dear doctor,” Vortech then said, “and I can assure you three that we would get along well.” “Yeah, that fo-wait…” Bowser said, as he suddenly retraced what Vortech said, as did Eggman as he raised an eyebrow as the Koopa continued, “Us three? But there is only two of us, besides Eggman’s goons and my boy!” “Oh, I think it’s you who should recount our gathered forces, as I have about three accounted for, right, Sigma?” Vortech said with a chuckle. “Sigma?” Eggman and Bowser asked as they looked to each other. “He’s speaking about me.” The two villains, as well as the Koopa Heir and henchbots turned around, only to be shocked as they looked to Metal Sonic, who had responded but in a different voice. The other thing that caught them off guard was that the mechanical hedgehog had glowing purple eyes. “What the-who or what are you?!” Eggman yelled, “And how dare you possess one of my greatest creations!!” “Dr. Eggman and Bowser, I presume,” the robot said snarky, before looking to Lord Vortech, “and you must be the one who summoned me here.” “Indeed,” Vortech said, before looking back to the Sigma-controlled Metal Sonic and the other startled villains, “like these two here, I’ve been studying you for as long as I remember, so I’ll be needing your rare skills and intellect in order for my goals to sucsseced.” “Well first off, Sigma (if that’s your name),” Eggman then spoke as he turned to the virus who was controlling Metal Sonic, “you need to get your own body! I don’t want anyone controlling my great creation, and I am certain that he doesn’t like being hacked and/or controlled by something like you either!” “Funny you should say that,” said Vortech, “because one of the first things to do would be to prepare Sigma a new, more suitable body for him.” “Well, I do remember having an Egg Bot that he could use,” Eggman said in thought, “though, I’m afraid that Sonic and his pals ruined it during that Nocturnas Clan fiasco (he was such a handsome devil, too).” “Actually, Doctor,” Vortech spoke, “I believe that Sigma would need a body that would is based off his original design from his world and time of advance technology.” “Are you certain,” Eggman asked, raising an eyebrow, “I mean, I know that I’m great at building things, but if you say that the tech of his world is advance as you claim it to be, how am I suppose to learn most of these new designs?” “A small, valid point there, Doctor,” Vortech said, “and I believe there is just the man who can help you, as he too, is from the same world as Sigma, one that he might have met or not, as confusing time would be to mere beings like yourselves. Still no time like the present.” “Really? Uh… who?” Eggman asked (though he was annoyed about being called a mere being). Vortech opened a rift to his left, and then turned his head in that direction as he peered into it. “Ah, yes, just the scientist we need…” he said, as he reached with his left hand, it then grew as it went through, and seconds later… pulled out a terrified Dr. Wily, who, to the rest of his world, was suppose to be dead! “No! Shadow Man! Help! Help me! Somebody help meeeeeeeeeeeeee!” he cried as he was pulled out of the rift and landed between Vortech and the summoned villains. Seconds later, Shadow Man followed out of the rift, and landed by his master’s side, as the scared scientist looked with mixture of worry, fear and confusion. “W-where am I? Who are you!? What is that?! WHAT’S GOING ON?!?!?” Dr. Wily said, as he scampered to sit up straight, looking at the beings around him. “I don’t know where we are for certain, master,” Shadow Man said, as he looked around, before bringing out his star blades in battle formation as he said with a glare, “but one of these things better start explaining on why they have brought us here!” While this was happening, Bowser and his son had a good look on Shadow Man, until the latter whispered to his father, “Dad, that ninja bot looks just like…” “I know.” Bowser said as he nodded in agreement. “What’s up, Doc?” Presto said with a grin, until Vortech looked upon the scientist. “I demand to know what’s happening here!?!” Wily said, angrily, though felt a little scared upon seeing most of the strange beings among the masses. “Welcome, Dr. Wily,” Vortech said with open arms, “allow me to be the first to welcome you to this sanctuary.” “Welcome me?! You kidnapped me!!” Wily cried out. “That doesn’t matter now, for it is in the past.” Vortech said, brushing it off, “For now, we must work on the future.” As they were talking, Bowser looked to Eggman as he said, “Hey, Eggman, I think I may have heard of that name before!” “Really?” Eggman asked. “Yeah,” Bowser said as he explained, “back during the latest Smash Bros fighting games, we had a few newcomers, such as Junior here, but there was one of them callin’ himself ‘Mega Man’, he had a heck of a lot of dang custom weapons on him. Anyway, during one of our fights with him, and perhaps outside the ring, I heard a bit of talks from him about dealing with this there ‘Wily’ fella. I bet this must be the guy he meant!” “You don’t say…” said Eggman, who got intrigued from the info his pal had given him. “So I think that since this Dr. Wily and I know about Mega Man, as we both know about our own enemies, I think he might make a perfect partner for this plan.” Bowser said. Hearing this, Eggman shared the cunning grin that was plastered on Bowser’s face, before looking back to the doctor that was brought here. “You expect me to do forced labor for you?!” Dr. Wily said angrily to Vortech, having been told that the doctor was to work for him, “I was on the start on the good plan until you had to barge in and interrupt!” “Well, what if we’re to say that we could help you by combining your scheme with ours,” Bowser spoke up, “and together, we can final defeat anyone that stands in our way and Mega Man!” This, suddenly, got Wily’s attention, as he looked to the duo behind him and Shadow Man, they have known Mega Man, but he had never heard of them before when facing the Blue Bomber. “You know about Mega Man?” Wily asked with curiosity. “Steady, doctor,” Shadow Man said, being on guard, “we don’t have anything about these two from our history records.” “True,” Bowser nodded in agreement, “but we know quite a little bit about you, Dr. Wily. Tell us, where and when are you from?” “I’m from Earth, of the year 20XX, why?” Dr. Wily said, raising an eyebrow. “Well, allow us to introduce ourselves.” Dr. Eggman said, as he then nodded to Bowser to go first, who nodded back in reply. “Firstly, I am Bowser Koopa, King of Koopas,” the king said, as he introduced himself, then gestured to his son, “and this is my proud son and heir to the throne, Bowser Jr.” “Hi!” Bowser Jr. waved hello. “And I am Doctor Eggman!” Eggman said as he gestured to himself, “The scientific genius of my world!” “Your world?” said Wily, curiously, “You don’t look like a space alien (not how I pictured one, anyway, though the koopa fellow does seem to fit a little…).” Eggman chuckled at that, “Ah, no, this is your first time dealing with alternate realities, isn’t it.” “I think we shall give you a good explanation,” Bowser added, before looking to Orbot and Cubot, “you too, do your… you know, your screen thing.” “Certainly.” Orbot said, as he and Cubot activated their visionaries, showing a screen from each robot. “As you can see,” Eggman said, pointing to Orbot’s screen, showing to different earths, “there are infinite variations of worlds. Some are very similar, while others are vastly different. Entire universes existing separate from each other.” “So we’re from parallel universes?” Wily said, looking quite intrigued, “fascinating…” “And I guess that you know anything about bringing order and a better way of thinking to the world, especially through your machines, doctor?” Eggman asked, a grin on his face. Wily had his own grin grew on his face as he said, “Oh, indeed. And I don’t suppose either of you have some young upstart gets in your way and ruins everything, do you, doctor?” “Oh, you can’t begin to imagine!... Or perhaps you do!” Eggman smiled evilly, along with Bowser. “And like you said, we have enemies of our own,” Bowser said, as he showed Dr. Wily Cubot’s screen, showing two windows of pictures of Eggman and Bowser’s enemies, “these merry bunch are no doubt the thorns on our sides, the blue spiky guy is Sonic the Hedgehog, enemy number one of Eggman, while mine is that pesky plumber, Mario, together with their pathetic friends, they always had a way of foiling our schemes and ruining everything at the 11th hour, much like your enemy Mega Man and his friends do.” “And let me guess,” Dr. Wily said, as he suspected what was up, “we’ve been gathered here together to work together and beat our enemies once and for all?” “You better believe it!” Bowser replied. “And the best bit,” Dr. Eggman added, “is that if we help our benefactor here, Lord Vortech, as what he calls himself, in his plans, we can be able to take over not just our worlds, but every other world in our liking!” Dr. Wily had a good thought about this, then turned to Vortech, and then back to the villainous duo as he said, “Tell me everything about this ‘plan’ of Vortech’s, and count me in.” The two doctors instantly shook hands, while Bowser added his claws over the two, as they all shared a sinister grin together. “So, when do we begin?” Dr. Wily asked, as he and the others looked to Vortech. “When ether you are ready.” Lord Vortech replied. “I take that there are others that we’ll be working with?” Bowser asked. “Indeed, my dear koopa,” the inter-dimensional lord said, as he showed holographic portals of images of different beings, basically other villains from other worlds, some human while others were various types of creatures, be it animal, alien or even robotic, “for now, you lot get to know each other, make yourselves comfortable, while I sort out on recruiting the rest of our get-together group.” “Of course, Lord Vortech.” Eggman said, as he and the others headed into the palace that Vortech was creating, Shadow Man meanwhile, looked to Vortech for a moment with a suspicious and curious look, before heading off to join the others. Coming of the Storm “Oh, Eggman?” Vortech said, calling Eggman to him. “Here.” He said, handing the scientific madman the containers with the odd data. “May I ask what this is?” Eggman asked. “Just a bit of data energy that few of my robots collected from the dimension known as Gamindustri (I suppose that one of them managed to keep all four containers protected until returned here),” Vortech explained, “I hope you put that to good use for some of your experiments.” Eggman looked to the containers, and then back to the being that summoned him and his allies, before saying, “I suppose so…” He then looked back to Vortech saying, “While you’re at it, do open up a rift and let Tails and our other ‘guests’ in, they will be needing the welcoming committee here for when they arrive.” “Certainly.” Vortech said, before lightly shooing Eggman away. As he headed of to join the others, Dr. Eggman looked to the container that held the rift inside, then a small grin same up, ‘Many thanks for giving me this rift, Vortech,’ he thought, ‘once I have learned of it’s abilities and help you out, I’ll just put it to use with my friends, you may already know, but I’ve been working with all powerful beings before, and I know the outcome many times… so I suppose I’ll play along… for now…’ As the villains left, Grimzy looked to his master as he said, “That was quite generous of you, master, letting them be a part of your conquest like that. I sure would like to see what they will be doing during your rule.” “The one thing they will be doing would be to witness the triumph… MY triumph, over the Multiverse once I have the Foundation Elements!” Lord Vortech said to the winged gargoyle. “But still,” Vortech said calmly, as he and the other minions watched the group leave, “we’ll let them enjoy themselves for now, for while the Multiverse would be theirs, in the end, all of creation will be mine, and these so-called heroes and villains, what can they do… but burn?” Vortech let out a good laugh as the looked to their master, and to each other, with wicked glee, while Grimzy acted a little skittish at what was to come. Soon, Lord Vortech opened up another rift, and in seconds, several beings tumbled out of the portal with a thud, all confused, worried and scared for where they were. One of them, a fox with two tails, was the first to kneel up, as he looked around with worry and confusion, “What the-? Where am I? “What is this place?” “Tails?!” a female voice spoke, one that Tails recognized as he looked to his right. “Princess Peach?!” Tails said in surprise, “what are you doing here?” “Why she’s invited to stay at our little ‘inter-dimensional hotel’, my dear two-tailed fox.” The voice caught the two’s attention, as Tails looked with caution, while Peach looked worried, as Vortech and his minions looked down at them. “I am Lord Vortech,” the inter-dimensional lord spoke with an evil cackle, “and I welcome you all the centre of the Multiverse… MY Multiverse!!”