Streets thick with humans appeared before Cell as the kaleidoscope of colours cleared from his eyes – a side effect of using the portal into this new dimension. Looming buildings surrounded him on all sizes, their burnished windows glinting with light. Cars without wheels descended from the streams up high, floated to a stop at the curb, and zipped down the needless bitumen of the streets. Cell’s keen eye spotted the white armoured soldiers that mingled with the crowds and stood flagrantly on street corners, gripping sleek ebony rifles and scanning the area at all times.
 
A police state with impeccable sanitation and the technology to back it all up. Cell thought a human with a sword was going to be a thorn in his side. He had to stay low and stay out of sight until he could ascertain whether Android 17 or 18 were here. At least this massive metropolis felt more like the cities of the Earth he knew.
 
Cell’s first instinct was to scamper to a shadowed crook but he saw plenty of humanoid creatures that were not human and the larger population of humans didn’t seem to react at all. In his world, the very sight of a green skinned bug-man would send them screaming in the opposite direction. Here it appeared Cell was just part of the scenery.
 
At least he felt like he was, until a boggle-eyed man staggered up to him, his red hair messy and unkempt.
 
“It ... it can’t be ... Cell?“ he mumbled, stopping right before the bio-android, his back crooked but his head craned up at Cell’s. He laughed in an empty, mocking tone. “W-what are the odds of me running into you?”
 
Cell gazed at the human with intrigue. “Odd. You know my name and yet you don’t seem terrified of me. Explain yourself.”
 
“Where did all your ads go?” the human said, his eyes scanning Cell’s flesh. “Did Gero let you off the hook or something?”
 
Cell’s eyes widened.
 
He grabbed the human by the cuff of his shirt and lifted him so his feet were dangling. “You’re using an awful lot of words that you shouldn’t know.” Cell’s tail hovered above his shoulder, the barbed tip angled at the red head. “You’re going to stop talking and tell me how you know my name and how you know about Gero ... or else I’m going to absorb you. And if you know as much as I’m betting you do, you already know what ‘absorbing’ means.”
 
“No! Wait!” the human pleaded, gripping Cell’s wrist. His eyes flicked away. “Those soldiers – they’re stormtroopers. If you do anything to me, they’ll turn you into swiss cheese with their laser rifles. The Empire isn't a fan of acts of random violence, even if it's committed on a nobody.”
 
Cell’s cat eyes followed the human’s gaze. Indeed, a number of white-plated guards turned their attention from the streets and watched Cell intently, as if deciding whether to move on him or not.
 
“Talk!” Cell rasped, releasing his hold on the human’s shirt roughly.
 
“OK, OK,” the human said. “Look, can we go somewhere that isn’t on the street? There’s really no reason to be so angry about-“
 
“I’ll decide how to feel,” Cell said, leaning in. He spotted a stormtrooper walking closer to them, stopping on the other side of the road. “Fine. If it will cease this useless time-wasting, then lead me somewhere.”
 
They darted through the crowds. Cell kept a sense of the stormtroopers, being aware that they still watched and tracked their movements, though they didn’t move to attack or apprehend them. The human shrugged his shoulders, sinking his head down, occasionally shifting his gaze as if he was expecting to be assaulted.
 
Eventually the human brought the bio-android to a bustling coffee shop where they sat outside at a table beneath a parasol. The waiter took the human’s order and nonchalantly turned to Cell, who blew him off. He left as if Cell was a human himself; no fear, no disgust, no outrage. This was all very alien to him. He felt so exposed and yet seemed completely safe.
 
“You got your way,” Cell said, leaning forward on the table. “Now tell me everything.”
 
“Just one question – what happened to all the advertisements?”
 
“What are you blabbering on about?”
 
The red haired human pointed to Cell’s skin. “The ads. Dr. Gero had you covered in them ... huh.”
 
Cell frowned. “What?!”
 
“You don’t remember the advertisements, do you?”
 
“Of course not! I’ve never been a walking billboard for anything but terror! Nor have I ever met Gero.”
 
“I think I understand,” the human said as his coffee arrived. He blew on the steaming beverage and took a sip. “Let’s start from the beginning.”
 
“Yes. It would be nice to start from somewhere.” Cell felt his eye twitch.
 
“A previous incarnation of you must have encountered Gero,” the human said. “It’s not widely documented so it’s not proven, but there’s been a theory that some people who arrive in the Omniverse don’t always stay here. At least, not the same version of that person. One returns with their memories wiped, or their powers severely altered.”
 
“Gero is in this Corsucant?” Cell said. “I must see him! He will know how to track down the other androids, and then –“
 
“I’m afraid that’s not an option,” the human replied, taking another draught of his coffee.
 
“You will make it an option, or I’ll –“
 
“He has no interest in seeing you, Cell. Since he came to be in this place, he has much more ‘important’ projects to be working on. You were lucky you even got to see him last time. He’ll flat out refuse an audience with you now.”
 
“What?” Cell said in a high register. “I am his greatest creation! The distillation of perfection in living form! You will take me to him, and-“
 
The human shook his head. “It’s not going to happen. Even if I still had the same clearance as I did, which I don’t, all you’ll get for busting into his laboratory is an indefinite stint in prison. Maybe you’ll get experimented on if Gero gets bored, but trust me – you won’t be his pet project.”
 
“I ... I don’t believe this,” Cell muttered. “You must be lying!”
 
“No!” the human said, holding up his open hands. “I’m not! I’m telling you the truth! I risked so much for you!”
 
“I won’t believe your filthy lies any longer! Take me to Gero so he can help me find the androids, or-“
 
“Wait! Please, hear me out! I’ll tell you everything! How I know you and Gero, and why I even care to be seen with you!”
 
Cell restrained himself. This fiery headed human couldn’t have stumbled upon Gero’s name, or his own, by accident. If he was lying, he was mixing it with truth expertly; Cell couldn’t spot a tell.
 
“Speak, then.”
 
The human sipped nervously from his coffee cup. Although he may have been taking comfort in the warm brew, the caffeine would be doing the opposite to his nerves.
 
“My name is Davin. I work – I worked – for Dr. Gero. He is one of the most powerful and influential scientists in Coruscant, if not the whole Omniverse. He’s been working on top secret experiments the likes of which I could never have dreamed of in my world. He truly is a genius.”
 
“In any case, I learned of your arrival a few months back. When Gero told me about you, I found myself fascinated with you. While he may have moved on from you, I thought the idea of gene splicing multiple alien species together into a powerful, cohesive whole to be absolutely revolutionary. I had always dreamt of doing something like that myself but I was never successful. Yet here was Gero dismissing the goal of my life’s work as if it was an afternoon project he was bored with by the next day.”
 
The human ordered another drink. Knowledge of Cell’s creation was not common knowledge. Even if he had been from Cell’s reality, the only way he could’ve known about him was through the campaign of fear he waged when still in his imperfect state, absorbing cities of humans in order to absorb the androids. To know he was the result of the fusion of cells was proof he must have had some form of contact with Gero.
 
“Pop quiz,” Cell said. “What species comprise my being?”
 
“Ah ... from memory ... human, namekian, saiyan and something labelled ‘Frieza’s Race.’ The human and saiyan genome are surprisingly similar ... I doubt Gero had any trouble splicing the DNA of those two species. The other two were much more complex.”
 
“It seems you might not be the crackpot I took you for in the first place,” Cell said. “Go on with your story.”
 
“After this, I found myself consumed with the idea of an ultimate being. I had been working happily beneath Doctor Gero, but to know that the key to my greatest dream was inside that belligerent old man’s head was too much for me to bear. I ‘acquired’ a number of files about you from Gero’s data stores and started studying you. I went through his gene splicing techniques, his mental conditioning, the incubation process ... so much he did was jaw-dropping to me. Anyway, Gero found out about what I did. Even though you might not even be a blip on his radar anymore, he was absolutely incensed that I had stolen data from him. He attempted to apprehend me but I managed to escape.” He fished out a small data chip from his breast pocket. “Everything I pilfered from him I saved to this backup. Now he has the Empire looking out for me.”
 
“And I take it the Empire is enforced by these stormtroopers you warned me about earlier,” Cell said. “If that’s true, why are you still in the open with me right now? Why not flee this place for a quieter location?”
 
“Because that would draw undue attention,” Davin said. “After you grabbed me by the collar, they had us in their sights. If we did something too suspicious, my cover could have been easily blown.”

“Surely Gero would have circulated your photo.”

“I’m certain he has,” Davin said. “That’s why I’m disguised. This isn’t my real face.”

Cell examined the streets. The stormtroopers had largely left them alone, though one or two loitered around.
 
“So now you’ve met your hero,” Cell said. “What are you going to do about it? As far as I can tell, you’re useless to me. If you can’t help me find the androids, I have no reason to waste any more time on you. I’ve already tasted perfection and I can’t bear to be in this form any longer than I have to be.”
 
Davin stood up suddenly. “Wait. Are you saying that ... you’ve already become perfect before? In your reality?”
 
“Right until the moment I woke up here,” Cell said. “Why? What does it matter?”
 
The human’s face lit up like a burning building. He seized Cell by the arm. “I have something very exciting I want to try out!”
 
“And that is?”
 
“You don’t need the androids, Cell. The power is still inside you. And if my prediction is correct, I can bring it back to the surface. Cell ... I can make you perfect again.”

Upon having taken them home to the Fortress they called him, Fort Zimmer-Rothchild, Warren Zimmer had not slept a wink. To be exact he had not had any shuteye or rest as some might call it, at all the previous night. Of course with all the projects he had to do in order to make sure he was ready for what the future might hold, that was to be expected. Most of the night had been spent practicing with a new weapon he had developed because he knew he needed greater firepower. The item in question was an explosive of a sort, that appeared to be like a football and was one of Warren's more formidable weapons, in his opinion anyway  At about 7 AM, Warren was up and in the kitchen. The night before after he had finished the Foot Bomb which was a powerful explosive he had created to add more to his arsenal, Warren had cleaned the entire kitchen from top to bottom. As she was staying with him for an indeterminate amount of time, the least he could do was cook her a breakfast she would enjoy and one that he'd personally enjoy as well anyway. What breakfast would be the ideal one to prepare though? There were many dishes, and he didn't know which ones she'd honestly like the best. A decision was at last made by him. 

A Chicken Karage, and Rice with transforming seasoning had been prepared by him. While it was a dish from another country, both dishes could be enjoyable, and might be a change from whatever food she had enjoyed in the past. At least, if she didn't eat it, his stomach would allow him most certainly to devour it, because he hadn't eaten in days. His bruises from the beating given to him by the Storm Troopers were fading, and probably would be healed soon. At some point they were going to need to upgrade the base they called home. A Garrison of Guards might be useful or several garrisons of guards, perhaps. Some traps outside might be useful as well. 

"Did you sleep well?" asked Warren.

The past few days had been rather uneventful. Ever since he had lost his home, it was like a gray cloud had been hanging over Matthew. Really nothing he had done had felt right to him ever since he had lost his home. What was a man, without a place to call home? Homeless. Yet he also felt out of sorts without the place. Of course, given the amount of effort he had spent in building the place, that was no surprise there. In truth he knew he needed a team. People he could rely on that could also have his back when the chips were down. What he needed was a family like the one he had known back home. Sadly that was not likely to happen because of several reasons. One of these was the most obvious. There was no way out of the Omniverse for Matthew, and thus no way to get anyone he could rely on to back him up really. His mansion was gone and there was nothing he could do about it sadly. All of the gadgets that he had developed, and every piece of equipment was lost to him.

There was a curious smoky haze of pink and blue in the skies above Coruscant, highlighting the artificial sun hanging in the air above the gleaming spires. He nodded to the troopers manning the check-in station, his identity recognized and flashing an all-clear to the border guards. It was one of the most highly guarded gates in the Omniverse, and aside from a few high-profile slip-ups (most likely due to bureaucratic issues), it continued to remain so. Just walking onto the streets of the Tiered City made him feel safe and at home.

Maybe not safe, employmentally speaking, but the place he was heading to would address that minor issue .

Quote:An apartment complex. Valtheim Towers. Tier 2 of Coruscant. Central Avenue. Apartment 5-E. Drop by at your earliest convenience. If I am not there, or...otherwise indisposed, ask for Joline. She will pass the sword to you.

Whether you're an artist wanting to offer your services to the Omniversian community, or a player wanting to commission someone, post here! Artists are also welcome to post links to their Tumblr, Twitter, DA or wherever else you store your amazing art!

Also, remember that this is an OOC forum: you can edit your post if you're opening/closing your commissions or if the request you had has been taken care of.

(permission sought and granted by Omni)

I hadn't spoken for like 20 minutes and clicked back to find I've been banned. Any reason why?

In the operation room of Pokute Palace, Mega Man X sat with solidarity on the cot he's previously been laid out upon. The sustained damage to his frame had long since been repaired- rather excellently so, to the android's surprise and satisfaction. Even afterwards, he still flexed and rolled the joint motors in his arm and hand out of some certain marvel. The injuries were no longer X's concern, safe to say.

The void of concern, however, instead filled itself with thoughts of Nebula as a whole. News reports confirmed that the dark organization's operations only yet persisted in the Vasty Deeps, and that expert teams were already working to destroy the stronghold. Given the apparently present nature of time dilation within Nebula Space, X couldn't be sure how long the mission would take. As much as he wanted to help, his training as a Maverick Hunter spoke otherwise, knowing better than to barge in on a fellow agent's work without warrant.

Another present issue came from the other side, regarding Dr. Regal. Ever since X had first received that message regarding Nebula, the android had obtained no other word from the doctor, not even in response of the news that the Greens had been liberated. Perhaps there were some complex circumstances behind this, or perhaps not- X had no way to know for sure.

The android's pondering took him back to some interesting new data he had acquired after being ejected from Nebula Space. There were two sets of files, apparently corresponding to Hornet Man and Plant Man- the living programs encountered in the forest stronghold. A brief virtual examination of the files revealed mostly weapon data relevant to those Darkloids. That explained why the machine now possessed this information: it was probably acquired by the Variable Weapons System when activated.

Any other data beyond these weapons, however, seemed to be corrupted, essentially useless. So, with a bit of work, X could probably reconfigure these files into weapon data he could use. However, this raised a curious question in the hunter's mind; could these animated programs such as Plant Man possibly contain valuable information regarding Nebula?

It seemed like a plausible guess, but it couldn't be confirmed with what X possessed at the moment. Moreover, considering that last mission in the Deeps seemed to be in it's final stages, there was no telling if such information could even be helpful in the present or future. Nevertheless, X found himself compelled to try- this idea could have the potential to prevent future invasions from Nebula, or whatever else might follow in their image.

According to travel services, in each Verse supposedly stood Gates likes the ones in the Nexus, which instead opened into adjacent Verses. Not considering any odd space-time implications, this meant X could theoretically travel around the gated Verses together in a cycle. With one Nebula site in each Verse, X could obtain data from each site, and at the same time observe more of the Omniverse as a whole.

It would be just like making a really big loop around the world, except the world in this case was actually eight or so worlds stapled together with dimensional gateways.

After thanking the Chansey for their work, X dismissed himself from the operating room, and began making his way out of Pokute Palace. As grateful as the android was for the expert repairs, he held no other real purpose to be here in Ambrosia now- at least, not currently. For the benefit of the Omniverse, the Maverick Hunter would move along, to try and uncover the secrets behind Nebula. If his information were accurate, the closest gate to the next Verse would be a small journey west of the city.

Then again, that journey would be smaller yet if X had a ride of some sort...

So everyone has been asking: "Croc, baby... You're the baddest cat around and I want to have your babies, but how exactly are you gonna make the Dunes great again? What exactly does that mean, anyway?"

Well, first off: I know I'm sexy. You can stop flattering me now. Secondly, I have a 4 phase plan to bring new wealth into the Dunes and make it truly independent of Imperial influence, while leaving its current history and charm intact. See, once the Dunes was the richest Verse in the OV. So rich, in fact, that the Empire literally strip-mined it to its current state. And while some of you might think returning the Dunes to its savannah-like roots is my plan, nothing could be further from the truth. In order to make the Dunes truly great, it needs to be the way it is now. It needs its beautiful sunsets over the sands and its plethora of exotic desert creatures. It needs its mystery and and forgotten ruins. The only things that need to change is the lawlessness and threat of the Empire.

So, I'ma lay it out for ya. Step by step, so even the simplest of ya can keep up.

Phase 1: We gotta do something bout these bandits, bruh. Plain and simple. It's simply too dangerous in the Dunes to make anyone but the most foolhardy peeps come this way. We need the wealthy and affluent to spend their OM here. But I'm not talking about killing them all off. No no. I ain't even trying to put em in prison. I got a better idea. See, all we gotta do is make it more lucrative to work for US than to steal from peeps. Sure, we're gonna hafta beat down some fools early on, and maybe some of the obstinate groups will need to be eradicated. But we gonna give these guys a job. And that's where Phase 2 comes in.

Phase 2: With it being safer in the Dunes, now we work on making folks WANT to come here. How, you ask? Simple. We make the Dunes into a tourist trap. It all starts with restoring Ganon's Keep and turning it into a casino. The highest class casino in the Omniverse. We have our former bandits run the tables, obviously. They know how to swindle a sucker. Maybe we even gather up them Gerudo chicks and set them out as waitresses. Nothing says "I'm too drunk to realize I'm losing all my money" more than a set of sun-darkened titties pushing a twelfth margarita into your hand. But that's just the beginning. Soon, we start offering guided tours of the desert, treasure hunts in various ruins, safari hikes to hunt dangerous desert creatures, menageries of exotic animals, and even sponsored Void trips to Omni by peeps who've done the Endless Dunes Void Quest (I'm looking at YOU, Enel.) With all this wealth pouring into the Dunes, the Empire is gonna start wanting a cut too. And that's where we start Phase 3. (Bonus goal in this phase: Capture and tame Jhen Mohran, a threefold benefit which makes the Void Gate safer, gives us a new attraction, and is a trump card in case some unsavory folks start to knocking).

Phase 3: Ideally, this is the most violent phase of the whole thing. It'd be better if we could pull this off without any actual bloodshed, but the Empire ain't known for letting go of the things it considers their's. Here's the deal: as long as Carrefore is there, the Dunes will remain under the constant threat of Imperial takeover. This will become blatantly apparent if they so much as smell that there's any sort of value in the Dunes. So, we gotta get rid of that threat. We push the Empire out of the Dunes, and make Carrefore into a base to repulse any invasions Palpatine might send our way. This will be the most difficult phase of the whole plan, but also the shortest. Unfortunately, this is also the phase where any other parties in the Dunes will need to either get on board with the program, or be repulsed. I'm a pretty lenient guy. You do your thing, s'long as it doesn't interfere with my plans. But, if you get in the way of the beautiful resurrection of this Verse, I will bury you in a pile of giant lizard poop on a cold desert night.

Phase 4: Franchising, baby! We start putting tourist attractions in ALL the Verses. "Ser Croc's Whack a Zombie" in the Moors. "Enel's Electric Beach Party" in the Deeps. "(Insert Name Here)'s Winter Wonderland" in the Fields. Once the Dunes have become wealthy, it's time to spread that around to everywhere else. At a marginal cut of the profits, of course. 


Now, for this plan to work, I need all parties in the Dunes to be on board and working TOWARDS this goal. I don't need New New Babe's off sponsoring bandits while I'm trying to rehabilitate them. I don't need Cirno tearing down Gilgamesh's palace (which, by the way, would be a cash cow trap) while I'm working to make Nippur into a fantastic vacation destination. We gotta get together and work together. Like I said above, so long as you're on board and ain't interfering, you do you, baby. Obviously, I'd prefer your organization to merge into this wholesale, but I can deal with ya so long as you ain't cribbing on my style. Which means two things. First: Don't you be putting any competition to my business operations anywhere near the Dunes, capiche? Second: don't do nothing that hinders my business. So long as you don't do those two things, you're welcome to come enjoy the new grandeur of what will be known as the "Golden Sands" when I'm done with it.

"No really. It wasn't a bother. Not at all. You know, just saving your entire realm from subsumption by the forces of darkness. Please, by all means, keep giving me shitty looks."

Hiro walked out of the Camelot gate to be greeted by surly scouts in armor, jeering him and hissing him and calling him an Imperialist. Not a shred of gratitude. It's not like his clothes were literally still smoking from the collapse of the Black Knight's castle, right.

He shook his slightly singed dreadlocks in exasperation and kept walking, even as the medieval insults bounced off his figurative mental armor. The whiteness of the Nexus was refreshing after ceaseless rolling green hills, straw thatch cottages, and the everpresent hint of cow shit that pervaded the Camelot landscape. He'd be more than happy to see the towering spires of glass and chrome Coruscant was known for. Although his apartment had probably lapsed. Shit. Oh well, first things first. Get home. Then deal with other problems.

He brought up a newsfeed on his goggles and scrolled through any recent news on the Dataverse. "Nebula forces withdrawing...brace Liberators triumphant...gang war on Tier 5...stirrings in the Deeps....eh. Nothing new." God, it had felt like months, but apparently it had only been a few weeks of battle and travel. Time was still fucky as ever in the Omniverse, and the hacker-ronin had resigned himself to that fact.

Breet breet! Breet breet!

He was getting a call. Answering, he clicked on the goggle's transparency feature so he could walk and talk across the vast expanse of whiteness. The face of Commander Kinya Caasjuun, someone he hadn't talked to in a while, flickered into view. Hiro immediately felt his stomach drop. "Oh...ohh, shit. Hey, Commander. My, uh....vacation probably ended a while ago. Do I still have a job with the EPD?" 

Her blank expression belied no hints or consequences, until she spoke. "That depends. Did you recieve a missive from a Prime known as Colonel?" 

Checking his notes, he nodded. "Yeah, here it is...uhh....blah blah blah....yadda yadda.....GIVE ME THE WHAT?!?" 

His commander made a wry grin. "Yes. You still have a job, Hiro. If you retrieve that "gift", bring it into the Research department for study, and submit to a....let's call it an efficiency upgrade. Nothing serious or punitive. You'll still be a fully active EPD Prime Agent. But those are the conditions for your continued relationship with the Empire. Unless you want to be kicked out on your ass and go live somewhere much less safe."

Hiro rolled his eyes. "It's always something with you people...but sure. Over and out, acknowledged. I'll do just that. But first?"

"Yes, Hiro?" She asked him with a hint of exasperation.

"I need a fucking shower."

And the silicon samurai continued across the Nexus, towards home.

Amaterasu stepped out of the portal, into the white expanse that formed the Nexus’s ground. No sooner had the last strands of her hair passed out of the black into the white than that the portal closed behind her back as if it had never existed. Even when she turned around and waved her hand through the space where it had been, she touched only air.
 
Bringing her attention back to the place she was in… she could see the figures in the distance, near the fountain, but now that she was not looking through a portal anymore she could see that they were not her friends. Had they already departed for the Frozen Fields? In this case she needed to hurry if she was to catch up to them! The possibility of a much longer time having passed… she refused to consider that one.
 
Instead of rushing things through however, she focused. Running to the next Gate and from there seeking out the Frozen Fields one would not work out in the long run. She needed something to move along fast, and it had to be bigger than a horse so that Oki and the others could ride with her. But that could not just be a bigger horse, it wouldn’t fit through the gates… she sighed, sat, closed her eyes and focused.
 
The Omnilium came out of her very easily, almost as if it was pressured – come to think of it, she had used very little of her reserves. Mostly that was about saving them up for the right time… though she had no idea when that would be. And it was hard getting used to this idea of just summoning items out of nowhere, too. Back to the matters at hand, she focused onto the raw Omnilium that had poured out of her and formed it. A Nimbus cloud was what they needed, a big floating surface for them all to sit on. She visualized it before her mental eye, a cloud just small enough to fit through a gate, yet big enough for them all to be able to ride comfortably. She imagined before her eyes its fluffy surface, its speed when moving, its easy control by anyone linked to it…
 
And she stopped when a thud before her snapped her out of her concentration. That shouldn’t happen… unless someone had landed before her? She opened her eyes. No, there wasn’t anyone before her, only the Nimbus cloud. It was sitting on the ground, not floating. Was that a defect? No, she had visualized it floating all that time. Tentatively she climbed on. It held her just fine, and it was the same proportions that she had imagined. It should fit through the gates without a problem. But why was it not flying? She had no answer for that.
 
“Let’s see… Nimbus, let’s see. Move forward!” And the cloud reacted. Rather than taking off and flying however, it began to move forward as if on rolls. Slow at first, but picking up speed. Amaterasu leant over the edge and eyed the underside of the cloud, curious to find out how it was moving. It was touching the ground indeed, but for the lack of a better word it was… crawling. A layer of the cloudy material that composed the Nimbus was touching the ground and slid backwards as the rest of the cloud advanced, then on the back it rolled up and was reabsorbed into the cloud, while more of the material was pushed out at the front to form the layer. Someone with modern-day knowledge would have compared it to the caterpillar tracks of Bulldozers or similar vehicles.
 
It did not take long to get close enough to the nearest Gate to find that it was not the one she was looking for: an archway covered in vines and small plants. And even from this distance she could see the people by that Gate she had passed through long ago, the one that led to Coruscant, so triangulating those two points and thinking back to when she had originally entered the Fields… she was a good ways off. Well then. She sat down cross-legged on the Nimbus cloud and pointed it to their new destination, almost on the other side of this verse, and waited.
 
Little time was spent idle though: soon a group of people came into view, their backs turned to her as they were advancing towards the same destination as her, and this time there was no doubt: these were her friends. They were outside of hearing range, but one of them – Fiara, as she would later be able to tell – looked around after a while and noticed the incoming cloud. They stopped in their tracks and waited until Amaterasu came into hearing range, and called out to her. All three were there: Urist, Fiara and Oki. Still carrying with them the heavy coats in which they must have been sweating their skin off and the climbing equipment they had used to scale the mountain.
 
“Guys! Oh, I’m so happy that I didn’t get caught in some time dilation! Oh, come here!” As soon as they were close enough she hopped off the Nimbus and grabbed all three of them for a bear-hug. She got sceptic, however, when they didn’t return it immediately. “Is something the matter?”
 
“Not at all”, said a startled Oki. “We’re surprised to see you so… well!”
 
“Yer glowin’, and ah en’t sayin’ it figuratively”, added Urist.
 
“Like a tiny sun”, confirmed Fiara. “Has something happened while you were gone?”
 
“Ah, I… yes, actually. A lot has happened”, Amaterasu said. “Oki, first of all… don’t worry about that orb you got from Omni. It ended in my hands somehow, but I only noticed when I was in the Void.”
 
“Oh, you have it?” the warrior asked, looking relieved. “I was thinking I had dropped it somewhere, or forgotten it in Omni’s throne room.”
 
“I got it right here”, said Amaterasu and pulled the orb out of her sleeve. “Listen… I need you guys to keep mum about this, okay? Do not tell anyone about it. Promise me.”
 
“We do”, all three of them said almost simultaneously.
 
“Good. Now climb on, we have to get back to the Fields… oh god, I have so much to tell you. Fiara, you know how to control a Nimbus, right?”
 
“What do you take me for? I’ve controlled those before I grew my first plumage”, Fiara said, putting on a pouty face but then grinning. “Oh man, you look so much better, you know that? As opposed to the frustrated, glum Amaterasu that strutted out of Omni’s throne room, I mean.”
 
“Hah. You guys won’t believe what’s happened.” She put the orb back into its hiding place and sat down as the others climbed onto the Nimbus as well. Fiara took the helm, and they resumed their advance towards the Frozen Fields gate.
 
“What’s the big hurry, anyway?” asked Oki.
 
“We have a project to start. One that will be bigger than anything we’ve gone through in Nippon”, she said with a look at Oki. “Back then we helped a country. Here, the entire Omniverse could be at stake.”
 
“Woah now”, intervened Urist. “Ye sure ye didn’ hit yer head somewhere out there, Ama?”
 
“I’m completely lucid, trust me. This orb… let me put things short. It holds the memories of someone very knowledgeable of the Omniverse. And it gave me a peek of an evil so great that it overshadows Yami by a… very large margin. It’s an evil that may extend its tendrils out to grasp at the Omniverse at any time, if it isn’t already doing so right now, as we speak. I can’t hope to go up against it myself. So I need to gather help and spread the message.”
 
“Yer talkin’ about Diablo, aren’t ye? … what are ye all lookin’ at me fer?””
 
“You KNEW about him?” asked Amaterasu.
 
“Well o’course! Diablo’s the biggest threat the Omniverse has ever faced, ye know. Ah was there when it happened. Camelot sacrificed one o’ its strongest Primes to seal ‘im away in the Underverse. Bu’ ‘is agents are still runnin’ around, an’ it’s said that some o’ them might try ta break the Seal. We don’ know what’s been goin’ on in the Underverse bu’ ah doubt that Diablo’s been twiddlin’ thumbs all that time.” He sighed. “Ain’t much we can do though. Diablo’s a Prime, jus’ like ye are, Ama. Ye can’t kill ‘im or stick ‘im in a prison even if somehow ye were able ta defeat ‘im. An’ it’s said tha’ he’s the strongest Prime o’ them all. Stronger than King Aragorn an’ Emperor Palpatine.”
 
“I see… well, the man whose memories are contained in this orb, he was in the Underverse, it appears. He was able to escape... somehow. And if he could, who’s to say that others couldn’t too? Others with less benevolent intentions?”
 
“So… yer project is ta spread tha warnin’ tha’ Diablo might be comin’ back at some point? An’ why are we goin’ into tha Fields fer this exactly?”
 
“No. It’s far grander than that. We can’t go into the big cities and start shouting our warning like a Doom prophet. People won’t listen to us. Besides, I cannot warn people without revealing where I know that information from, and this orb… needs to be kept a secret for as long as possible. If it were to fall into the hands of this Diablo, the consequences could be catastrophic.”
 
“Right”, murmured Urist and stroked his beard. “So. What’s yer plan?”
 
“It’s a very long story. I will tell it to you while we navigate to… around where the mountains border the sea of the Fields. Fiara, just fly us forward until the evening. You are all well-equipped for the cold, right?”
 
But before Fiara could give her a snappy reply, they passed through the Gate, and vanished off into the Frozen Fields.