---CONTINUING TRANSMISSION---

---PAX IMPERIA, PT V---
Survival Horror

THE CITY OF ACRE
UNKNOWN LOCATION
UNKNOWN TIME

Damn it, he thought to himself.

What was left in life when you had lost everything? For Leon, that question seemed to haunt him every passing hour. He'd grown up here, in this now fetid hellhole of a town that was Acre. He remembered spending days in the park as a boy, swinging on the now-mangled swing sets, playing hopscotch with Dennis, his best friend...ah, such memories.

Then, there was Julianne.

His one true love...God, he still remembered his wedding day, when Dennis made the little crack about the “cherry bomb” incident from his childhood. He and Dennis decided it would be a good idea to use one to “help mommy's gardening,” which ended with the destruction of her flower bed. And his three children, Jonathan, Claire, and Timothy. They were his whole life to him.

Then came...the mist.

Leon didn't know how exactly it happened; at noon, it seemed like all of Hell itself decided to open its diseased jaws and suck the town inside. An inky red mist suddenly began spreading throughout the town, and the inhabitants who inhaled it were suddenly transformed into horrible abominations...ghouls. They had lost all their humanity, and had no desire except to kill and destroy anything that was not their kind.

All Leon Roderick had ever loved was now gone. His family, wiped out by the Swarm...God, he hated the Swarm. Eyeless, but by no means helpless. They could smell the faintest drop of blood, and would pounce on you given the chance.

“...Blood!”

Leon returned his attention to his wound. He patched himself up best he could using the torn sleeve of his shirt. It wasn't as good as a real bandage, but it would do for now. If the Swarm had caught a whiff of his blood, he was finished. If only he'd paid a bit more attention, he wouldn't have snagged his arm on the splintered wood that now stuck out menacingly from the ruined door frame. If he'd been a little more careful, his foot wouldn't be in such a mess as it was now, caught under some collapsing rubble and freed roughly 30 minutes ago. There were so many “if onlys” that now ran through his head.

He looked at the splinter. Throwing sanitation to the wind, he looked at the point where he'd scratched himself, wrapped his fingers around it, and sucked whatever blood might have been on there. He wanted to be damn sure the Swarm didn't find him.

It'd been roughly 10 hours since everything had transpired. He'd met many comrades as the day went on...most of which had either been killed, or turned into ghouls themselves. Most of them had been good friends for a few minutes before striking off on their own or fate intervened in some form or another. A rough day, for sure, but it was definitely a day of experience. Frankly, he was amazed he'd lasted this long. The rest of his family didn't even last past the second hour.

He ran his hand down his body, before it snagged on a necklace around his neck. He pulled it up, and remembered...

“The Cross...” he said to himself quietly.

It was given to him by his father on his twelfth birthday. As part of a Christian family, he was a very firm believer in the Lord. It was a simple wooden thing, but there was more reason than that why he still held to it. Only a week after his father gave it to him, dad got into an accident. The driver was drunk, and when they got him to the hospital, the docs said he wouldn't live. Leon remembered praying to his Father that night, in the hopes that he'd live.

And he did.

However, it was not without cost. The crash had disabled all mobility below the waist, and so his dad was confined to a wheelchair. Ever since then, he wore that necklace, in remembrance of his father, and the Lord's answering his prayer. He decided now was as good a time as any.

“Father, I come before you now in need,” he began. “I ask that you guide me to your path and security as I go about my activities this day. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.”

*insert horrible, grotesque shrieks here*

The Swarm...they were coming. He levered himself up, and started walking. The Market district was about the only place left that was safe anymore, and if he was to beat the demons that possessed this town, he'd have to get moving...

Meanwhile...

Futuna, national capital of the Phoenix Dominion
Cerine
Yenin

As the lights casted by Tiana's protective energies dimmed and a certain silence fell over everything around, it became clear that at least this battle had ended. A few moments later, cheers arose from all over the half-ruined capital, indicating that perhaps more than this battle had been won. Varus, Zeradar, and Tiana, glanced at each other, the latter grinning.

“That's it?” Varus asked, “No, I'm serious. We're already done? For a planetary invasion, that was pretty short. I thought these things went on for months.”

“Lowry!” Zeradar called to the sergeant, “What's going on?”

The man returned a few words into his communicator before returning the former emperor's gaze, “Milord, they've... they've retreated. The invaders fled not long after some other, unknown force showed up and assisted us.”

Zeradar let the no-longer-necessary title be excused has he nodded, “Well, that was short.”

“The battle's over! Why aren't you two cheering with everyone else?” the Selune cheerfully asked.

“Think for a second, Tiana,” Varus replied, “This attack was from somewhere else. Think about the last threat like that and what it meant.”

“Oh, right. That could be a problem,” she replied, her ears drooping a bit as realization overcame her.

“Milord,” Lowry called, “I just got a message from the ambassador. The other force that helped us is wanting to open diplomatic negotiations. Since Lord Starus is in hiding, he'd like you to be there for your expert input.”

“And here I thought I was done with politics,” Zeradar muttered, “Well, I will be there, I do want to meet whoever it is that showed up and scared the attackers off. And by the way sergeant, please stop addressing me as if I was in power. It's no longer my title to bear.”

“Yes mi... errr.... yes sir.”

“I can settle for that.”

Fringes of the Yenin

At first, the monitor simply indicated that everything about the Yenin system was perfectly normal. And it never did indicate anything different either, at least for the moment. It was the one next to it, a unique piece of technology designed to detect changes like this, that started to go crazy. At first, it said there was one Cerine. Then two. Then four. And so on. Each one was different from the others, whether that be imperceptibly or dramatically. Some experience similar outcomes, others had been reduced to blasted waste lands. Some were never home to the Phoenix Dominion, a few had never had intelligent life. In a couple of instances, the planet never existed to began with.

“It's finished,” JoshTigerheart copy informed, “You have your reality fracture.”

TwilightPhoenix nodded, “I have to admit, that was a clever was of triggering it. But this will let us do what we need to do without breaking anything. For being so incredibly difficult to destroy, it is easy to mess up a universe when you have the tools to create them at your disposal.”

“Yeah, I'm glad I don't have that responsibility set on my shoulders,” JTHc paused for a moment, “By the way, will this just be a wild goose chase in addition to what I need them for?”

“No, there will be something for them to seek to make things right again here. I feel we may be under close scrutiny, so quite some time ago I gave it to someone I know to hide in that universe. I know not where it is and that may be for the better. There are some who are able to learn things they should not with little difficulty.”

“Alright. They should be meeting with Mike's crew for diplomacy right now. I'll go make a dramatic appearance and get my choices to where they need to be.”

Fort Samuel, secure underground bunker
Cerine
Yenin

“I'm sorry, but they are not authorized to be here,” the Knight-ranked Dominion Guard at the door to the meeting room informed.

“They are coming in with me or I am not going in at all,” Zeradar replied, “They are my guests today and I'm not going to use an inconvenient planetary invasion as an excuse to be a bad host.”

The Knight paused, seeming to consider the words of the former ruler and considering the weight of not only his status but those of his companions as well. After a few moments, he relented and admitted the trio into the room. With only a table and chairs as furniture and a few standards on the walls as decoration, this war room likely hadn't been meant for diplomacy. But, considering circumstances and the damage to the palace, it would have to make do.

“Good to see you in good health my lord,” a man declared as they entered, standing up to meet them, “I hope the invasion wasn't too much of an inconvenience.”

“Nothing too different from anything I've been through before, Maddison,” Zeradar replied to the ambassador, “So, who are our guests?”

“They call themselves the Commandarians. This is their leader, Commander, and two of his subordinates: Brigadier Chief Commander Thompson and Chief Technician Bowser.”

Commander bowed slightly, “Greetings to you.”

“And to you as well. I am Zeradar, formerly the emperor of this nation until I resigned the office. Unfortunately in these circumstances, that means I have no authority to negotiate any treaties, but rather just serve as an advisor for the meeting. With me are Varus and Tiana, my guests.”

“Commander Commander of the Commandarians?” Tiana asked herself in the meantime - so quietly that only her sensitive ears could detect her words.

“Please, have a seat everyone,” Ambassador Maddison asked, “Normally I'd offer you some of our finest wines, but I'm afraid this bunker wasn't stocked. I hope you understand.”

“That's fine. I'd like to get straight to business if you don't mind,” Commander asked.

Maddison nodded, “That's fine. Please proceed.”

“The ones who attacked you today are the Joint Renegade/Voinian Alliance, led by Akasi, servant of Satan himself. They are a major threat back in our home galaxy and they seek nothing but conquest. Believe me when I say that this retreat won't be the last you see of them. They will be back, I can promise you. You'll want to be prepared for when they arrive.”

“What are you proposing, Commander?”

“An alliance between our nations. With our strength combined, Akasi won't stand a chance.”

The ambassador closed his eyes for a moment and leaned back in his chair, “I'm afraid, at present, that can't be done.”

“Why not?” Mike asked, looking quite surprised by the answer.

“It's complicated, but the primary reason is I presently don't have that capability.”

“Why would an ambassador not have that power?” Commander asked.

“It would be a bit of a stretch at the very least for you to understand the inner workings of our government after being on the surface for a few hours at best,” Zeradar interjected before Maddison replied. “Normally, the ambassador has power to simply make treaties, since the Emperor and the planetary council are around to make alliances. In order for an ambassador to be able to do that, both of them must explicitly grant that power first. Likely, Emperor Starus nor the council were anticipating any diplomacy out of this, just conflict, so they didn't assign those powers for the duration of their absence.”

“And it gets more complicated,” Maddison added. “Even if I had that power, it'd only be a temporary treaty. In effect on signing, but once the Emperor and the council return, they can cancel or modify it immediately. There are a lot of politics involved in these things, perhaps too much. And I hope none of the media were around to get footage of those super weapons I heard you used. That could complicate things even more if the conspiracy theorists on the council learned about that. Furthermore, we already are in an alliance with three other groups: the United Federation of Earth, the Nor'Ree'De, and the Liberation Army. The terms of our treaty state that all members must agree on the admittance of a new ally. To ally with you right now, we'd be excluding our other allies.”

Commander slowly nodded, looking as if he didn't entirely like all the reasons behind the rejection, “I see...”

“However,” the Ambassador continued, “I do have alternatives that can be employed at this moment. I think it is the closest thing to what you're seeking and, should you accept it, would help you in the long term in negotiating an alliance once we've restored our government. Commander, I'd like to offer you a pact of mutual non-aggression.”

“What would the terms of that be?” the leader of the Imperials asked.

“About ten pages long,” Maddison replied with a small chuckle. “But, to summarize, it essentially says that we don't attack each other and gives limited permission for military vessels to travel in each other's territory.”

Commander smiled, “If that's what you can provide for the moment, I'll accept.”

“Excellent, I'll have the documents drafted immediately and...”

Maddison stopped suddenly. “Does anyone else feel that?”

The three Imperials looked at each other, confused, but everyone else in the room did seem to feel the strange sensation. After a few moments, it faded as if nothing had happened. It was also then that he decided to finally disable his personal phase cloaking device and show himself. After all, he had something to do still.

“In b4 Checotah...” JoshTigerheart copy said to himself as he suddenly appeared in the room, causing everyone except Maddison to reach for weapons, “Whoa, that wasn't me! I'm here to tell you what that was and why it's important to you.”

“Who are you, and how did you get in here?” one of the Dominion Guard demanded.

“A copy of JoshTigerheart, no, not the one you fought alongside with Mike, and I came through the door. Now put your weapons away, I'm not against you.”

Nobody seemed obliged to comply.

“Ok, fine, don't put away your weapons. I still have something important to relay regarding inter-dimensional threats and what not. None of you can sense it right now, but this universe's reality has just been fractured. That's what all of you native to it just felt. The Imperials here, being foreigners like myself, are completely unaffected, at least at the moment. Should it be allowed to progress, well, too many weird things could happen, so it's tough to say. But, you three incarnates, Zeradar, Varus, and Tiana, I've chosen you three of the seven to try to stop it.”

“Wait, you mean a Nexus Storm?” Bowser asked.

JTHc shook his head, “No, that thing is merely a candle compared to this fire. Essentially, what's happening is the universe just got split into countless alternate timelines. In the short term, nothing happens beyond that weird feeling. But, left unchecked, and they'll begin to mix. Strange things, potentially and likely bad, could happen. The thing that triggered it was a contradiction.”

“A... contradiction? What do you mean?” Zeradar asked.

The copy of the plug-in developer suddenly produced two orbs of very similar looking metal, one in each hand. There were some subtle, yet obvious differences between them.

“That's Adamantius!” Mike exclaimed.

“Right,” JTHc replied, tossing the right orb to indicate the one Mike pointed out, “On the left is Adamantium. There's more than a letter difference here. But that's not the problem. The issue is, they're different, even though they're the same thing! Same chemical make-up, same molecular structure, and more. However, the differences are a contradiction. And bringing that contradiction screwed things up. Strange how a simple thing such as the armored hull of a ridiculously large space ship can fracture an entire reality.

“And before you ask, yes, you can fix this. You three are chosen to go and fix this. The key lays in a galaxy commonly returned to the Novaverse. I don't know what they is or where it's at, but if you can find that, you can fix the problems here. Go with the Imperials when they leave, they can get you to the Novaverse pretty easily. And don't worry about the other four, they're assigned with watching things at home while you're gone. Now, if you excuse me, I just purchased a new game called Survival Horror. I'm going to go try it out.”

With that, JTHc vanished just as suddenly as he appeared, leaving few questions answered, but many more unanswered. The Imperials, deciding it would be for the best, escorted Zeradar, Varus, and Tiana to the Imperial Fleet, and dropped them off in the Novaverse. Mike tossed them a trans-dimensional communicator in the event they needed to call the Imperials for something.

THE SHAKEDOWN GRILL
PLANET EARTH, SOL SYSTEM, IMPERIAL UNIVERSE
2134 HOURS, JANUARY 29, 3037 A.D.

*insert party music here*

There was a great feeling of joy at the Shakedown. Numerous Imperial figures had come to celebrate the victory over Cerine as music played in the background. Everyone was having a good time.

...All except one.

Mike was off in a corner, in his wolf form, staring dismally into his plastic cup of punch, swirling it every once in a while. His ears were folded down, clearly not happy. Bowser noticed this, and decided to see what was wrong with his good friend.

“Mike, what's up?”
He looked up. “Huh? Oh. Hi, Bowser.”
“Come on, Mike, we're here to party. And yet I find you here sulking in a corner. What's gotten into you?”

Mike sighed.

“I don't know. It's just...Akasi's departure was just so sudden. Ever since then, I haven't been able to sleep so well. We may have won on Cerine, but I can't shake the feeling that our victory was a gimme.”
“So...what are you saying?” Bowser asked, confused.
“I got a feeling that while the battle may be over...”

Mike looked this way and that before staring off into space.

“...the real war is about to begin.”

Across the Universe...

INNER SANCTUM
THE CITADEL OF DARKNESS, PLANET NEW ALCATRAZ, PARIAH SYSTEM
2141 HOURS, JANUARY 29, 3037 A.D.

Akasi and his followers knelt before their master once again, this time including Stukov.

“It is done, Akasi,” Satan stated.
“Yes, my lord,” Akasi replied. “At long last, all six hundred and sixty-six rulers have been sacrificed to your cause.”

The number “666” soon began etching itself into the palms of those present with a deep crimson glow.

“We await your return...with great anticipation.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

---

NOTES N' STUFF:

Even in defeat, it seems Akasi has won. The final leader Satan needs to free him was sacrificed at last.

However, there is still one event that remains before he is truly freed, which will form most of the plot for Book II.

Leon has nothing to do with the main storyline – he's part of this ongoing survival horror game that takes place in a city on a Federation Planet. Which one and at what time is unknown, but it's too late to join if you're interested.

Anywhere that uses lowercase letters for the destination was done by the person I collaborated this post and the others with. I did, however, put my own spin on things and edited their posts as well.

If the treaty had indeed gone as planned, I'd had a scene in mind taking place in Times Square featuring the two songs from yesterday. The Top Brass would walk in at about mid- to 3/4ths the way through Olympic Fanfare.

So, for the Shakedown Grill, here's a few songs I'd suggest for the music (NOTE: Remember to RIGHT-CLICK and open in a new tab):

Bryan Adams: Summer of '69
MxPx: Heard that sound
The Sugarhill Gang: Rapper's Delight
Lite version (7 mins.) Full Song (14:31)
Just about anything by AC/DC
Def Leppard: Photograph
Black-Eyed Peas: Let's Get it Started
Genesis: Invisible Touch
Billy Squier: The Stroke
Usher: Yeah
3 Doors Down: Kryptonite

That ought to be an extensive enough playlist. =P

Well, that said, I'll see y'all tomorrow w/the start of Book II!

The Cerine Universe, JoshTigerHeart copy, Twilight Phoenix, and all charcters w/in are © their creator
Bowser is © Nintendo
The Empire, JR/VA, and all characters w/in are © me