Life of a Nobody

by Xinrick

Joy start's the War

Joy was sorting papers. A boring task but not without reason. General Krott and the new Nexus Templar had been reconning all sorts of still functional Nexus bases, picking the best one to strike first. Removing the enemy from the home front would ensure safety. “God there are a lot…” Joy muttered while sifting through more pages. “There has to be one here that we can hit without it being too much of a hassle…”

As Joy sorted them out his mind began wandering. Now that they are like Ben and all them, gender wise and appearance, Though Joy had to admit the advantages this from had were, for reasons, mostly for self enjoyment. They could not stop thinking about their kids. It had only been a week since they had them, and already they hated being away. They were not a Den Mother like Ben, but the sadness was there. Jenny was due in another month and the others sooner. Joy knew his life would be interesting, and never normal, but at least they had their family. 

"And family is important…" Joy muttered to himself as he sifted through some papers. "Hmm?" Joy hummed, seeing something about Full Metal Alchemist in the papers.

A Nexus Storage base is located on the world Amestris. 

This storage base primarily holds old files on discontinued projects and supply caches for use later. The base itself is located in a region the locals refer to as Ishval, once a warzone now once again a thriving desert nation.

The files it holds contain data on discontinued C.A.T. projects as well as the short lived D.R.E.A.M project.

The supplies are largely food based with some older artillery and mech-assault suits.

“Well...I know Ven is there with his family hopefully…” Joy muttered. “Well, I know where I’m going now.”

Getting up, Joy called General Krott to his office. The general arrived within half an hour. "Yes Joy? Oh, and congratulations on the babies. Didn't expect to become a mother before you became a father huh?"

He wasn't wrong. Body wise Joy was a much smaller version of how Mom-Den was then they first came into his and Ben's life. The other difference aside from size was that Joy only had four breasts, not six. Yet Jenny did have six now… they can not understand why that made them envious...

“That’s besides the point.” Joy shook his head, not wanting to get distracted. “Anyways, Amestris, has a pretty big supply base, know anything about it?” Joy asked while handing him the paper specifying the place. “Like what all the discontinued things are?”

"Hmmm… the C.A.T projects. Critically Accurate Target Takedown. They were meant to be a one person takedown of high profile enemies. They worked but they craved more, and eventually killed high profile Nexus members. They were destroyed, and discontinued."

“And now we’re going to fix that bug and then send them out to kill our enemies.” Joy said honestly. “Also, did you know that if you had Ben have literally all of Cript’s power and went all out it’s scary and traumatizing as shit?”

"It's the power of the one who is to become the Mother. Nothing is stronger, but to anyone other than Cript that power is all consuming, Cript is built to handle it, Ben is not."

“Except they literally have the same body.” Joy said. “Did you completely miss their wedding ceremony?”

"Yes, body, not their mind."

“Then why did Cript mention that it sucks for him as well to go full out?” Joy asked curiously.

"Cript and Zeke share many things, the want for challenge in a fight and a wish to be normal, to have the same restrictions and problems as everyone around them."

“Me and Ben share memories, Cript specifically stated that, even for him, you lose yourself to that power. So how is Cript exempt from this suddenly when he himself said going full out was bad even for his health?” Joy brought up.

"He has not yet… evolved, to become the mother, for lack of a better word. Once they have though, they will be able to use it without fear. It will just take some time."

“Cause of course it’s ‘their not ready’.” Joy rolled his eyes. “So anyways, before I do a Ben and complain about how the wonder children, what’s this Dream thing?” Joy asked curiously.

"D.R.E.A.M… that was… a dark, dark project. It was hell."

“And why is that?” Joy asked.

"Where to begin? It started off as a form of… elevation. We wanted to know, is there a state of existence and being above that of the Mother's? What is there passed her? In short… yes… yes there is…"

“Oh boy, and you immediately scraped it cause it was even more horrifying than what terrible shit Nexus was doing at the time.” Joy rolled his eyes, already knowing where that’s going.

"Scrap? We couldn't even go near the lab when things got out of hand. It was genocide what happened there. Six thousand scientists, fifty thousand guards, fourteen thousand employees there in total… all slaughtered, mutated and… ascended. It was one of the few times we were happy to learn that Cript went there and managed to destroy it. That place changed them. Whatever they saw there, I can tell you this, it was something no one should have learned."

“So how much you want to bet their trying to bring it back?” Joy asked honestly.

"Ha! My brother is insane but not stupid. That project put a fear in him, I've never seen before. Trust me when I saw everyone involved with the D.R.E.A.M project wants to forget it ever happened, Vincent included."

“Yeah well Void Mother doesn’t give a rats ass, or any of her more insane devotees.” Joy pointed out. “So, how likely is it some crazy assholes would sooner reopen that project for Void Mother even if Vincent was heavily against it?”

"If they didn't know what he and I do… it's a likelihood. We need to capture that base and destroy all those records. That damned nightmare can't happen again."

“Either way.” Joy said honestly. “So, anything else there from that base I should know about?”

"Just old arms really. Weapons and food supplies."

“Alrighty then.” Joy nodded. “Well, we better get going then.”

"I'll gather the forces. I'll meet you there. It's coordinates are in the file."

“Alright.” Joy nodded while double checking the coordinates. “I’ll be off then.” Joy said while opening a DTN and heading off to the compound.

The first thing Joy did was evacuate the people, this place was barely United with the Grand Crown, so there was confusion. Abled bodied people stayed to fight. Many of the Grand Crowns soldiers were here. After a bit Krott showed up with the Nexus Templar soldiers. "They should know we are here."

“Wouldn’t be too surprising.” Joy said honestly as he summoned Lindworm. “So, how many entrances and exits are there to this place?”

"One." Krott said, taking out a sword. "Time to declare war." He said, waving his arm as the sky lit up with symbols. The symbols glowing and forming a massive circle, the energy it built up finally shooting down into the sandy earth. When the light faded the base was visible, and the hole showing it was walked by newly made glass. "Ready?"

“I’m always ready.” Joy said while preparing for the oncoming fight. “So let’s get going.”

"Charge!" Krott commanded as everyone began the charge.

The Nexus base began shifting, flying out were Nexus soldiers and even piloted robots climbing out from the hole. Bullets, magic, and missiles began flying. Joy was in their first war.

And Joy barely noticed the difference as the very wind itself cut through his enemies, the young dire wolf kneeling down as energy pulsated around him. After a moment he vanished high into the air, above the fliers as hundreds of wind spears appeared around him. “Dragon’s Descent!” Joy shouted as he and all his spears fell from the sky, impaling each one of his enemies with pinpoint accuracy. “This is going to be fun.” Joy growled, the air dispersing as Joy donned a brand new set of Nothingness Armor, the entire set was designed as the Dragoon Nobody and it looked sleek and cool as hell. “Time to give this baby a test drive.” He grinned, dashing into the fray.

Flying through the sky, Joy landed several kills on the enemy. It was a strange sensation, his predator side enjoyed the sight of the blood, but this was not the same as hunting a prey, this was a conflict, internally, but one Joy knew mattered not. This war was unavoidable, and blood was to be spilled. As they were targeting Nexus Ranged shooters, suddenly Joy was slammed into, the impact hurt, and regaining their balance in the air showed them their attacker. They were a Mech pilot, their machine a large version of something from a Power Rangers show, though the colors were far more plain. It’s design was so much more streamlined yet judging from the built in firepower, was meant to dish out and tank damage. 

“Well then.” Joy said while rolling his shoulders as he grabbed two spears. “Ready for me to tear apart that tin can of yours?”

Their right arm opened slightly, showing panels that released a blade of dark energy, the other morphed into a rapidly spinning shooter.

“Well then…” Joy started. “Good thing I brought my armor…” The wolf muttered as a sphere of bladed wind surrounded him as he flew forward fast as hell and tried to stab at it.

Using their energy blade, the Nexus tanker clashed with Joy, pounding their shooter arm into Joy’s arm then kneeing them. The pilot then latched their arm around Joy, trying to raise the blade to Joy’s neck as they were resisting.

“Rude.” Joy groaned as he willed the wind into the mech’s arm joint as it started to rip apart the delicate instruments that kept it actually working. When Joy felt it start to let go Joy teleported away from the mech and looked it over. “Hmm…” Joy frowned, bringing up one spear as it glowed a bright green. “Gungnir.” Joy muttered as he twirled it in his fingers before grabbing it, Nothingness pouring from the spear as he chucked it as hard as he could, the spear speeding towards the mech with a crap ton of force.

Their bladed arm, broken and barely functional, the pilot dodged barely, using their shooter. The bullets were magic, and would curve and turn towards Joy as they tried to avoid. 

“Magic bullets eh?” Joy said. “Well let’s do this. Reflectja!” The wolf said as a sphere of scale like mirror’s appeared around him as they blocked all the bullets. “Alright...so let’s see how to break this thing open…” Joy muttered as he casted Scan on the thing to see if there was any other weaknesses besides the joints. “Thing hurts like a truck though…”

Assistant Scan Assist Spell activated.

 

Joy saw flash across his vision. 

“What?” Joy asked, wondering what that meant.

Quickly gazing at his arm, he saw his Assistant was glowing… looking around, he saw everyone here who had an Assistant also had theirs glowing. The flash was fast, and no longer was the Assistant on his arm, rather a tattoo symbol was imprinted on their wrist. Also in their field of vision was a small Icon. Focusing on it, Joy was Text Appear.

Welcome to the Assistant V 9.5784 Final Upgrade!

Features include:

With that closed, Joy saw his own stats. Displayed as several bars in the top left corner. Health, MP, Stamina. On the bottom right he saw Lindworms Name, it’s Durability a red bar, showing it was actually a quarter of the way down. It also has a small green bar under it. Looking back at his own stats, the same small green bar was under all his stats. ”Experience?” They pondered, also seeing Lindworm was only Level one, which confused them. Looking back at their stats, Joy’s HP was halfway, their MP still high and stamina regenerating from a quarter of the way gone to full. 

“Well...that’s really cool.” Joy said with a growing grin, the wind around him sparkling as he glowed green, the young wolf seeing his HP goes up. “Thank god for Silver Wind…” Joy muttered as he grabbed two Spears. “Alright, after that, let’s get going.” Joy said before bolting forward and stabbing both spears into the mech powerfully.

The Pilot’s stats appeared.

Nexus combat Mech Model X7Y3 V.5.6

Durability 5,634/6,000

Att:8,500

Def:10,000

MP: 4,000

Pilot:

Level 255

Att:97

Def:103

MP: 305

“Well then…” Joy muttered. “That’s really good to know.” Joy muttered as he stabbed the mech quickly and strongly.



The mech Durability dropped a hundred points, emerging from the Mechs arm, a small shooter fired off into my thrusting arm, Joy’s Hp dropped into the yellow, and his armor durability also fell.

Joy growled, backing away quickly as he raised a hand, the air his armor was producing due to his MP started to siphon off as green spears appeared around the mech. “Hell’s Impalement.” Joy growled as he closed his hand into a fist, all the spears shooting down into the mech from all directions.

The impalements dropped it’s durability down greatly, two thousand points, bit it crackled with Electricity, shocking Joy hardly and making his Hp drop to orange. 

“Ow…” Joy muttered as he healed himself again quickly. “Rude…” Joy muttered as he noticed pieces of it were either cracked or small holes were made in it’s armor. “That’s good.” Joy muttered, seeing some spots he can attack when the time was right.

Backing up some, the mech pilot shifted it’s shooter arm back into a hand, and began tearing off some of the broken ones paneling, rewiring it from the inside. It’s bladed arm moving easier now, then it raised it, the blade came back out, now easily three times as large and was pulsating.

“Well...if you wanted to compensate for something that’s one way to do it.” Joy said honestly, preparing himself for the things attack as he healed himself again, going back into the green.

The mech stilled for a bit, suddenly it’s boosters glowing fast as they suddenly charged Joy, seeing this, Joy raised to defend, the clash sent a shockwave out around the two.

“Ah, there we go.” He said, using one of his armor’s special abilities and moving like a Dragoon Nobody would, as he slithered up it’s arm like a snake as he tried to stab and slash at the thing quickly.

As Joy was stabbing at the pilot, they slashed off their helmet… a woman?! “Damned Wolf!” She cursed, shoving her shooter back into his chest and firing a hale of exploding bullets.

“You know...it’s not nice for a lady to swear.” Joy said while the explosions were also hitting the mech due to how close she was to it.

“You’re one to talk bitch.” She huffed.

“At least I get some while you’re signing your own death wish.” Joy countered.

“Like you’d care.” She muttered, the shooter arm glowing as she took aim. “Echo Shot!” Her shooter fired, the bullets fired glowed blue as they emitted sonic explosion, causing the wolf's ears to bleed. 

“You could always stop fighting and join our side…” Joy said as he packed off and drank an Elixir quickly, having all his HP and MP get back to full as his ears healed thankfully.

“Ever hear the phrase ‘you were born with a purpose?’ We know ours from birth, you may despise Nexus but it’s my home and family, I am not betraying that like Krott did.”

“Do you even know what your fighting for?” Joy asked honestly. “Honestly, do you know what your ‘family’ is fighting for?”

“Destruction. The destruction of creation itself. All of them.”

“And your just okay with that? To blindly head towards a goal that would lead to you basically killing yourself?” Joy asked honestly.

She smirked. “Look around. Look at this battle. Look at all the dramatically different power scaling all around us. I’m weaker than you, yet this machine I wear keeps me equal to you, if not just under. This world, all of them are uneven and broken, unstable yet keeps existing. To erase it all is to finally level the playing field. To begin again, in a new world that makes itself without any fragment of the old!”

“I mean...that could have happened before but with your answer…” He said while he took an idea from what Ben did as while she was talking bladed winds went into her. “Sadly your kind of done.” The wolf said as the lady felt like her entire insides were thrown into a blender on the highest setting.

As she was coughing up the gallons of blood, she suddenly smirked. “Bloody echo bombs.” She said, splattering blood onto Joy as the explosion happened. Her blood exploded in a cloud of red smoke, blasting off the armor on Joy’s right arm and deeply gashing his arm. His HP was in the red, and the Assistant gave a warning.

“Ow…” Joy muttered while pulling out a special potion that he found in his spare time, an even better version of the Elixir named Gaea’s Tears. As he downed it he felt his arm healed up, his blood that was still on his arm flow back into his body and produce a bit more as his health maxed out again. “Thank...god I found this.” Joy muttered. “Ten million Rem well spent…” He muttered, seeing it was half full as he put it away quickly. “Little sad that my armor’s broke...but thankfully…” Joy said as he looked down, seeing nothingness thorns slowly reform the armor. ”Sadly takes a bit, even for an arm this would take about...maybe five ten minutes? Better than it not being able to regen at all…” Joy thought to himself as he flexed his healed right arm. “Alright...so there’s probably someone else here that I should worry about…” Joy muttered as he looked around carefully for anyone of interest.

As they flew around, helping those struggling and taking out from heavy hitters,  As they soared above they felt a sudden shift in the wind… a familiar shift- “Gah!” Joy hacked as something sliced through their leg. “Bitch!” Joy shouted as his leg healed up as he looked around for who just attacked him.

Soaring some distance from them was someone wielding… Lindworm. The coloring was a purple red blend but the design was the exact same still. This person was dressed in something like Combat armor but designed like a Samurai. 

“Okay...so we have a copy cat here…” Joy frowned as he prepared himself. “That’s good to know.” Joy muttered as he checked the bastards stats and the like to make sure what he’s getting into.

Nexus Agent: Tony Andrews.

HP: 64,573

MP: 18,547

DEF: 9,300

Weapon Equipped: Lindworm V-71.5
Weapon Level: Max
Weapon Upgrades: 20
Weapon Skill: Par.

Att: 5,324

“Good to know…” Joy muttered as he rolled his shoulders, his armor back in top form as he prepared himself. “Alright faker, show me what you got.”

As this Tony person soared around Joy, they noticed the air around then suddenly grow thin as suddenly ten Spears of his appeared, three struck Joy, the others missed, but they had a purple aura that gave Joy a sudden Poison status effect that was eating his health fast.

“Poison?” Joy frowned as he used the air bubble his armor produced to cast Silver Wind on himself, healing him and the poison was going as well. “That’s not fair, I don’t have status ailments.” Joy said as he dashed swiftly towards Tony and put two spears together for extra range as he swung at him quickly.

Tony raised a single finger, a Spear flying to meet Joy's attack. "Impact Shatter." Tony said, the tip of his spear glowing a bit struck between the two blades, breaking them back into two and slicing off Joy's left pinkie finger. Tony then moved their hand fast in seemingly random directions, their Spears forming a circle as magic symbols and matrixes filled it. "Dragons Wrath." They said, a spear shooting through the spell and emerging as a dragon, nearly biting off Joy's leg. 

Joy teleported away and panted. “Jeez...for a copy he’s kind of good.” Joy muttered as he saw his pinkie reform and his leg slowly heal. “Alright...let’s do something nifty.” Joy said as the air around the two seemed to get colder. “Four Winds: Boreas of the North.” Joy said, his Lindworm seeming to shift from it’s normal green glow to a harsh blue, Tony and his Dragon feeling as if the very air around them were freezing. “Icicle Crash.” Joy raised a hand as what would normally be bladed wind’s were actually paper thin ice shards flowing very fast towards him and the dragon, Tony noticing one of the ice shards passed right through his arm like it was nothing as cold pain shot into him and his dragon as more were on the way to meet him.

"Is this your best wolf man?" Tony said, gripping him hand into a fist on his injured arm. "By the right of my Bloodline I order thee, slumbering Dragon, awaken." His dragon's body started becoming less magic and more physical. It's head now flesh it breathed out a bright blue fire that warmed the air to boiling and melted all of Joy's ice shards. "You think I'm the copy cat here? My family has been using Spears since before even your King existed. You have firepower, I'll give you that, but in terms of knowledge I outclass you." They said, their dragon now completely flesh. "These Copy Nothingness Spears are new to me, but their ancestors I know all too well. A spear is a spear, as is any weapon the same as you and your Kings council's weapons."

“Sounds about right.” Joy said as his body seemed to...shift. “Four Winds, Eurus of the East.” Joy said as all his spears seemed to shrink and look more dagger like, the wind around the three seeming...off somehow as Joy moved in very weird ways. “Come on buddy, show me what you got.” Joy said with a grin.

Raising a spear, Tony stood atop their dragon as it flew fast towards Joy, the Dragon’s mouth began to glow as blue fire made its way from its gullet.

“Oh no you don’t.” Joy said as he bolted towards the dragon, Tony seeing Joy looked more like a drunk in his movements as he kicked the dragon’s jaw up to close it before the fire could escape.

“Drunken Style combat? Is that your counter?” Tony asked, the Dragon opening its wings as a large Spell Matrix formed in front of them. It flapped, and spit it’s fire, the wind from the flap fueled the fire more and spread it out wide before Joy.

“You apparently don’t know who Eurus is.” Joy said in a laid back tone, the air around them acting weirdly, the wind not spreading out like it should be and seeming to act like it was drunk itself. “He’s the God of the East Wind in Greek’s Realm...but in Greece, that apparently means bad luck.” Joy said as his fire ‘accidentally’ hit Tony and the Dragon as the spell tried to make heads or tails where to go as Joy leaped up and swung his shorter spears at Tony swiftly.

“Luck? Is that the dragon god inside your spears?” Tony asked, deflecting the spear, but a slice across his cheek still.

“No, it’s someone much older.” Joy said while he continued to swing in very awkward ways. “I can do a thing and show you if you want.” Joy said before floating away. “Too late.” He laughed before his armor seemed to glow. “Alright Old Man, have some fun.” Joy said as the armor seemed to fuse with Joy’s body, his entire body growing in size and mass, Joy’s body turning more into a dragon covered in Nothingness Armor.

“Ah, that’s better.” The dragon’s voice hummed, it’s voice echoing with power as it stared at both Tony and his Dragon. “Well, a Blue Fire Dragon God...wait…” The dragon moved over to the young dragon. “You're the First...even though your a Third Generation Dragon…” The ancient wyrm chuckled. “Well, try to hit me. I want to see how well you and your new rider work.”

“Big talk for a drake so old. How many parasites reside under your scales before you were shoved into your weapon?” Tony’s drake spoke in a low tone of voice, but it echoed with a deep seeded hatred. “I was known as Karseal, first born Dragon of Blue fire and hatred, first son of the sin of wrath.”

The ancient dragon clapped. “I’m impressed, they actually gave you a name.” The old dragon taunted with a cheeky grin. “But given we’re introducing ourselves, I might as well tell you mine.” The dragon said. “I am Tempest, the First Wind Dragon, Born from the Admin of Breath and Admin of the Wind.” The dragon said simply. “And you two…” The dragon said as the air, even the air inside their own bodies, trembled as he bared his fangs. “Are fucked.”

As Tony and Karseal struggled for air, Tony began to slice his hand, his blood hitting the drake as both of them seemed to have stopped breathing, making Joy raise an eyebrow.

”Okay so Ben and the Admin of Breath should be the only two that should be able to do that…” Joy mentally brought up.

“Eh, would have been too easy.” Tempest said simply as he rolled his shoulders. “Alright, come at me, show me what the son of Wrath can do.”

”We’ll do one better.” Both Tony and Karseal spoke in the Psychopaths voice. ”My my, how much you have changed, little pup.”

”Wow, you people actually still exist.” Joy said in honest surprise. ”It’s been forever.”

“Psychopaths huh?” Tempest hummed. “Well this’ll be interesting.” The dragon said simply.

”It’s been a while, since any of us got to make a move. Host after host, corpse after corpse. We’ve been getting transcended. After all, Vincent still upholds his deals.” They said, blood oozing out from both of it’s hosts as blood portals formed. ”So, let’s see just how much blood, stained those ancient claws.” Flooded out the portals was a melting pot of bloody covered beings, all whom Tempest remembered from prior battles. Friends, and Foe alike came at the old drake. 

The dragon looked around, seeing all the people that he killed and only shook his head. “I mean...if you want to see what I can do.” He said simply. “But shockingly, I’m stronger than in my Prime, thanks to my many wielders.” The dragon said simply as the dragon raised his claws at the ready.

As the blood covered enemies charged at Tempest, the very ancient dragon stood there as several of them were cut to pieces from the very air around him, the dragon pouncing quickly and grabbing one of his old enemies, ripping it in half as he went straight for the Psychopaths, having learned from Joy and some personal experience that their blood constructs will keep coming if the main psychopath’s lived. Many tried to push him away from their spawner, some even managing to get hits in but with the First Generation Dragon’s power amplified by Joy’s and Nothingness, he shrugged it off quickly and continued to shred through his old friends and foes.

“I haven’t had this much fun in years.” The dragon laughed, whipping his tail and cleaving through dozens of his enemies. “Let’s take a page out of Joy’s book. Njord’s Raging Storm.”  The dragon said while a massive storm suddenly rippled across the dragon’s battle field, creating a sphere of bladed winds, soccer ball sized hail going at Force Five Tornado speeds, and other very terrifying storm like conditions ravaged everyone but Tempest inside. As the attack shredded or beaten several of his ancient enemies he rushed towards the two Psychopaths who were being shielded by others so they wouldn’t die as a translucent green mist formed in the dragon’s mouth, before he opened his mouth and a massive beam shot out and punched through the wall of constructs and hitting the Psychopath’s hard. “Come on, enough of your petty tricks, fight me yourselves, unless Psychopaths became cowards after these many many eon’s.” He said, looking over to see if Tony and his young Drake were still alive from his breath attack and the oncoming bladed winds and hail hammering into them.

They shredded Tony and Karseal, even as Psychopaths the impact held enough force to tear apart their host bodies. Karseal faded back into their spear, the weapon cracked and breaking. After a bit, it broke, and Tony fell to the earth below.


”Well...I...didn’t know you were that strong…” Joy said worriedly.

“There’s a lot you still don’t know about me young wolf.” The dragon said while staring down at the fallen enemy. “But your going to learn from this one battle...war isn’t going to be pretty.” He said while flying off towards where Krot is.

With the battle finally over The survivors were split into groups, mainly one entering the base and the other picking up the bodies of their fallen comrades. Joy and Krot stood overviewing it all. “I have seen and been in many battles in my lifetime. This one holds a particular bittersweetness for me.”

“What do you mean?” Joy asked, having reverted back from his shared form.

“I hated what Nexus had become, hated what Vincent had twisted it into, but on the other hand it was my home, where I was born, my family. I can’t tell you how many former friends I saw on this battlefield alone today, killed by our troops or myself. The realness of this conflict has finally hit me, and I know now, I’ve lived just too long. To live long enough for my friends and family to become my enemies. What cruel fate.” 

“Time can do that to anyone.” Joy sighed out while looking at all the injured. “How...many did we lose?”

“Roughly three forths.” Krott said. “A large loss, but this battle was won.”

Joy sighed out. “It...should have been less…” Joy muttered sadly. “The dead should be respected at least...even our enemies.” Joy said. “To show that...if there’s any of your friends on their side see’s we actively give a damn about them...maybe they can side with us?”

“I doubt it. Loyalty runs deep in Nexus. But thank you Joy. Now then, Let’s head inside, see the spoils of victory.”

“Let’s hope they didn’t turn on that Dream thing…” Joy said nervously. “So...lead the way my friend, since you know the lay out and stuff.”

Following Krott inside the building, they searched the archives room, finally finding the D.R.E.A.M Project files. “Here it is... “ Krott said, plopping four large boxes of papers and audio logs onto the table Joy was at. “What should we do?”

“Well I’m going to take a gander at what all this H.P. Lovecraft crap is going on with this from what you explained.” Joys aid while going through some of the papers and reading them to figure out what went wrong.

Entery Number: [REDACTED]

Subject six shows early signs of the metamorphosis. Their flesh has begun to molt, replaced with the unknown substance of Subjects four, two, and one. Subject six so far still holds their identity in hand, though memories have begun fading rapidly, their name and family members have already been forgotten.

Subject six has has their skeleton replaced with Code infused crystalized Plasma, this seems to have at least given their body a frame to move with the new substance replacing their flesh.

Subject six has spoken of seeing the other side, seeing the same as the others, white walls and a single door. They speak of this other place as looking like that described in insane asylums. They speak of the person whose eyes they see though screaming at them, threatening them to leave their body and never return. Communication of this degree is so far, normal.

Subject six’s diet has also changed, once a race that ate mainly omnivore diets, they now have the same cannibalistic desires as the other subjects. Subject six alone eats Ten fully grown humans a day.

When exposed to more of the serum, Subject six embraced it, stating the burning calmed them.

“I mean...what?” Joy asked, making sure he read that right. “Okay so...blank walls and one door, while a crazy man is screaming at them...uh...”

“I told you, what data was collected is all nonsense.” Krott said. “The whole thing was a loss and a nightmare.”

“Well...let me ask, were the subjects anything special? Like any powers or status? Or were they just normal people?” Joy asked curiously.

“They all had one thing in common. Their ancestors. You see, there was a group long ago who roamed creation, discovering everything this reality had to offer. They often spoke of their home, a place above this reality. They vanished as suddenly as they arrived, but left behind families and children. Their names were never known, not even time travel has revealed that.”

“Hmm...ancient travelers…” Joy hummed. “So...wait, Nexus tried to go to their Creation?” Joy asked with a frown. “I mean...this is sounding more like the Beyonders from Marvel at this point…”

“Wherever it was, it’s unreachable to us.”

Joy took a moment. “But...you haven’t had someone like Ben or me go there.” Joy brought up.

“Hmm.” Krott huffed, searching through files before finding something and handing Joy this file. “That’s what happens after injection one.” Joy looked at the photo… and threw up… a lot...

“The fuck!” Joy barked in disgust. “The fuck is that!?”

“That was Subject six. Twenty four year old male, human, average across the board.”

“Average...that’s what I’m kind of getting at here.” Joy coughed. “Me and Ben aren’t normal, or average in anyway shape or form...so something different can happen.” Joy brought up.

“Either way, not risking it.” Krott said, sparking fire magic in his hand then igniting the boxes. “The only remnant of that project was Subject Zero, and she’s been missing for twelve years.” He said, making sure it all caught fire.

“Who’s...Subject Zero?” Joy asked. “I’m just...curious.”

“Subject Zero was a skitsofrenic female, age fourteen, and the best one of results. She broke out and, well, not long after the project was scrapped. All photos of her were erased, no name was ever recorded, she’s just… gone.”

“And yet you know her name.” Joy said. “So please...what’s her name? Cause for some dumbass reason...either me, Ben, or one of our merry band of Keybladers know who she is.”

“The only name I knew her by the one time I was at that Mother-Forsaken place was Sandra.”

Joy thought for a bit, wondering if he heard that name before. “Well...I don’t know the name, but I’m sure someone would know.” He said honestly. “Or something’s cause ancient item’s could just ignore ‘destroyed knowledge’.” Joy brought up. "So...let's check everything else out."

“On your own time. Right now we need to catalogue the rest of the stuff.”

Before Krott could take his leave one of the Templars came running in. “Krott! Sir! There’s something you need to see!”

“Oh boy, wonder what that’ll be.” Joy said. “Nothing can go wrong from hearing that.’

Krott and Joy rushed following the Templar down to the storage area. Here they found what the fuss was about. It was a small dark chest, special locks covered it all around. “By the Mother…” Krott said, walking over towards the chest. “How?”

“Okay so...a smaller black box…” Joy started. “Yeah that doesn’t bode well if history has shown what black boxes can hold.”

“This could be very, very useful.” Krott said, looking it over. “We just need to figure out which one it’s linked too so they can open it…”

“Okay so I don’t know what this is, all I know is that this is probably something very important.” Joy said. “And who’s linked to this?”

“This, is a blueprint box for one of the C.R.I.P.T. projects. Once one is made the blueprints are locked and linked to the project person, and only they can open it. These should all largely be in Base Majesty.” Krott said.

“And yet someone…” Joy took a moment and smelled someone...familiar. “Wait…” Joy moved over and sniffed the box. “Ben?” Joy blinked in surprise. “But that’s...wait…” Joy muttered, bringing up his new Assistant and showing a new hologram window for everyone as he tried to write down what the scent...seemed to tell him. It showed four weapons, a spear, a bow, a sword, and a shield. “Shield Hero?” Joy asked. “Huh...I mean, I heard the new seasons are coming out…” Joy said, one of his many mates were really into Anime and Manga so he heard about it at least. “Well...we might have a general area, but time and position is beyond me.”

“This was left here on purpose. How and who we can talk about later, right now all I know for certain is that this must be one of the more powerful projects. This box is very similar to Cript’s.”

“Well...we better not make it too obvious we have some info our enemies don’t want us to know.” Joy said. “So I suppose this might be a solo mission unless you already have super spies already searching that planet?”

“First we have to figure out which. Once we hack into this bases computers I can run a DNA scan across all those worlds versions. We’ll get a world and general location based on the DNA signature that chest is giving off. After that it’s a matter of searching on foot.”

“Sounds good.” Joy said while looking at the box again. “Why is Ben’s scent on this?” He muttered.

“Huh…” Krott said, feeling along the box. “Nothingness has been left here, it’s Ben’s but… older, stronger.”

“Future Ben?” Joy wondered. “I mean...I learned some weird things from his own memories but…” Joy scratched the back of his head, so confused on why this was a thing.

"Question is, are they an ally or enemy?"

“Well we better find them before the bad guys do to make sure he’s a good guy.” Joy said simply as he headed off to find Ben to help him search.

To be continued...