Chapter Text
Prologue
"It's been years, eh Ludaquis?" said a tall man wearing a black trench coat that reached his knees. The man had spiky dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. Strapped to his back was a medium length katana and a scoped rifle that was abnormally long.
"No shit Marcus. Last time you were trying to kill me." replied the other man currently occupying the room. The other man was sitting lazily across from Marcus, he had short spiky hair with a single long strand curling down just next to his left eye. His eyes were strange though in that both were purple and rippled all the way to the edges.
"You went mad an were trying to destroy the Arcany and their home planet."
"You put some holes in my chest!"
"Only two."
"They were as thick as my arm!" as Ludaquis said this he launched at Marcus and hit him in the chest and sent him flying across the room. As Marcus was about to hit the wall he flipped and kicked off flying back at Ludaquis and drew the sword that was strapped to his back opposite the strange looking bolt action sniper. As Marcus charged Ludaquis, Ludaquis launched at Marcus. However Ludaquis' fist was now glowing orange and radiated intense heat. Fortunately for the building and a third person, he was wearing a long dirty white hooded coat over a black leather jacket on his belt was a(to normal people) strange looking metal handle or hilt and he also wore heavenly worn traveling boots, materialized out of the shadows at the other end of the room and upon seeing the other two in the room completely vanished in a burst of pure speed, the re-appeared between the two blocking Marcus' sword with what looked like a katana the size of a dagger that had materialized in his hand wile hitting Ludaquis' wrist with the palm of his hand.
"Again? Can't you two just quit it?" said the new comer with an irritated tone,"This is an important meeting and I don't want to have to reschedule because you two twats can't get along for more than twenty seconds!"
"Fine! But AC can't you make him apologize for blasting a fucking hole into my chest!"
"When did you do this?"
"About twenty years ago. And from what I saw you bloody deserved it Ludaquis." said newcomer who had arrived in in a bright flash of light. The newcomer was wearing black Assassin style robes with the hood up and hiding most of his face strapped to his back was a key shaped blade and on his left hip was an elegant version of the handle on AC's belt. Then as he walked forwards pulling off his hood, "I wonder how long until the rest arrive?"
"Wow Jak I thought you would be the first one here. What kept you?"
"Politics. And some last minute paper work."
"And you did it first? You do know this meeting should take top priority as it concerns them."
"I know, but it wasn't a lot of paper work so leave it."
"Fine.Well I only knew where Rick was or is. Last I saw of him he was trying to hike the whole of the north end of Praxis."
"Isn't that planet deadly to pretty much anything in Reality?"
"It pretty much is. The creatures there are close to indestructible and are irritating as hell."
"So we only know where Rick is? Where are the two girls then?" asked Marcus with an extremely bored voice.
"I got here two minutes ago Marcus." said a blond haired girl dusting a small piece of magma off her shoulder. She was wearing traveling boots similar to AC only slightly less worn. She was wearing loose black traveling pants and a long cream coloured hooded coat over a purple shirt. Her long blond hair cascaded down her shoulders to rest over her breasts. She looked at Marcus with her sapphire blue eyes, "You always were pathetic at sensing people. I have been living in a spirit world, but I have no idea what happened to Max. Has anyone seen her since Marcus' last birthday?"
"Nope, Max went poof." said Ludaquis motioning with his hands making an exploding action, "Nice to see you again Linda." The last part was spoken in an almost flat tone.
"Ludaquis I am here!" Shouted a voice from behind him. Then a fist made of ice appeared over his head then just dropped onto his head. "How could you miss me? I've got the third strongest spiritual presence here." Then everyone looked around Ludaquis. Behind him they saw a tall girl with platinum blond hair and almost golden eyes grinning at them.
"MAXIE!! You're back!" shouted Ludaquis from under the giant fist of ice before it blasted upwards and flew into the roof shattering into a million shards.
"You are completely insane. And very stupid in the case of Marcus" a mysterious voice boomed, the voice had a noticeable reverberation that could have the voice counted as a bass voice. But the voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. The Ludiquis froze in place. Marcus stood up and reached for his sword. AC and Linda sweat dropped wile Max and Jak walked to the conference table talking or rather wondering about the mission that they had been called for.
"Who's there?" Marcus said, "Show yourself!"
"Relax, Marcus" Linda said, "A Praetoromorph can change a lot when they reach their 50 000th year"
"Thank you, Linda. Nice to know some people are still understanding" said the voice.
"Puberty. It happens." Linda said with a small smile.
"Eren? Why can't we see you?" Max asked looking around trying to find the source of her friends voice.
"As Linda said: a lot can change when a Praetoromorph turns 50 000." Eren answered.
"Human years?" Ludaquis asked.
"if I recall" Linda said, "Praetoromorphs work on similar years to those of Celestial Dragons."
"That is correct." Eren said, "50 000 years for me is well near on 4000 000 human years."
"How did you end up so old? Last I saw you, you were only 18 000 human years." Marcus asked.
"Well, this is what happens when an idiot by the name of Marcus sends me off to help a friend fix a broken, sentient time machine. Damn thing decided to play a prank on me and "broke down". So, Marcus, I'll save your punishment for another time. As we haven't had to gather like this since the last great war. So what's going on? Is there a situation report or briefing I could read?"
"I wish I could give you one now, but I just got here as well. Just answer me this question: why are you invisible?" Max asked.
"Comes with the age, I'll sort it out later."
Then, out of nowhere, someone fell out of the steel ceiling and onto of Eren, causing the Praetoromorph to become visible.
"Ah, seems like that fixed it." Eren said.
Eren looked like a humanoid dinosaur, with massive jaws - each jaw had three rows of razor sharp, serrated teeth - his claws were just as sharp as his teeth, his tail ended in something of a paddle shape with sharp spines (presumably venomous as well), he had four wings on his back - all of which folded up neatly on his back, making them completely unnoticeable to any who hadn't known they were there - and he had thick, scaly skin - no surprise, considering he was a reptile.
"Well you took your fucking time!"
"Sorry about that I was actually enjoying myself hiking." said the man standing up and wiping the metal coating off himself revealing a brown suit under a light grey trench coat. He was wearing a leather cowboy hat over some scarily curly hair.
"Ricky boy!" shouted Ludaquis finally deciding to unfreeze and tackle hugging his friend. Unfortunately the tackle went a bit far and the two crashed into the door, which opened and a man wearing a blue coat over a dark-blue suit walked into the room.
"Matt please don't let your friends go wild in here you are using my facilities to conduct these meetings."
"Sorry Artemis. Everyone gather round. Artemis is going to give you the mission brief, well the notes and he is going to explain it to you lot. I'm going to take a nap."
"Really?"
"Eren when you have three kids you can sleep through a briefing."
"Aaaaah fair point."
"I'm about to start. Listen up!"