Open When the Worlds Need Us

A wind blew softly over the green plain, making the grass sway slowly.

And then there was a tree.
It was a big tree, easily over five metres tall. What many did not know was that the tree was the exact middle of all worlds. From there, the entrance to all worlds were equally far from each other.

The tree wasn't very significant aside from that fact, so there were rarely anyone there.
But right now, there was actually someone there.
Leaning against the tree was a scrawny young man. An ash grey hood covered his head, and his stomach was covered by a large metal plate, with a pair of large leather straps holding it in place, and a big shoulder plate covered in spikes. next to him was a big sack, filled with bones, as evident by a skeletal hand sticking out of the bag.
Next to him sat a white, canine-like creature, with a black face and a sickle seemingly attached to it's head. It's red eyes stared into the distance.

"I told them we'd meet here", he silently said. "I wonder how many will come. The more, the better, and we won't manage this ourselves."

A tiny girl wandered through the plain, the prisms that made up the wings on her back clinking gently against each other in the wind.

She was struck by just how big this place was. She still didn't remember exactly how her sister's mansion was destroyed and how she managed to escape and end up here, but she soon realized that everything was much wider...and exciting...and kind of scary...outside the basement she'd spent most of her life in.

It wasn't long before she saw a....tree, was it called? The tree where the weird man said he'd meet them. She smiled and ran for it, and before long she lifted off the ground, zooming along the grass and screeching to a halt right before she hit it.

She gave the man a sweet smile. "Hi!"

Human. A human was standing by a tree. Clara was sure he was the one that summoned her. Beside him was an... absol, maybe? Which meant he was a trainer! He must have summoned her here to challenge her! She would beat him! But he doesn't have any pokeballs. He can't be a trainer. That stupid little voice called reason interjected.Maybe he's one of those weird trainers who only has one pokemon. Clara replied. Oh well, no way to know without seeing for myself. She thought. She ran through the plain and never stopped until she was there. There was a weird demonic fairy person there too, which made no sense considering that he was a trainer and he summoned her here to battle. No, see he's definately not a trainer. There's no pokeballs on the demon fairy either. The voice of reason said.

Oh, be quiet. Clara replied.

Rendezvous at center tree.
Destroy the device.
Terminate all responsible.

The orders were clear, they needed to be for KOS-MOS to understand them. They ran through her mind as she made her way to the designated meeting place, where those working in the same interest as Vector Corporation, anyone who sought to destroy the dimension collapsing machine, would meet. Shion was quite apprehensive about sending KOS-MOS out on her own to meet with others, but that's how important this task was.


"Stop! Stop! STOP!", Caeda shouted at her pegasus, who seemed hellbent of charging a blue-haired girl down below.

And it did, with a light twack. The blue-haired girl was knocked down, but immediately got up. Caeda hopped off.

"I'm so sorry! So sorry!", Caeda said, bowing deeply.

KOS-MOS took a moment to piece together the proper response, "That impact had a 0% chance of damaging any onboard systems."

"Uh... OK then.", Caeda replied, confused by her wording, then she turned towards the pegasus, "Hey! You can't just tackle people out of the blue! It's not nice!"

The pegasus responded with a horsey noise that seemed to indicate indifference. Then Caeda noticed the big tree in front of them.

"Were you also heading towards that tree?", Caeda asked KOS-MOS.

"Yes. My orders are to meet a certain group at the exact center, as indicated by that tree.", KOS-MOS answered as she continued onward.

"Same here. Something about a doomsday machine?", Caeda asked KOS-MOS, who didn't reply, "Well... see you there?", she said, again KOS-MOS seemingly ignored her, as she mounted her pegasus again and flew towards the tree.

Identifying... Human. Near-human. Not human. Not human.

The lone human under the tree matched the description of whomever KOS-MOS was ordered to meet.

She approached the man, "Are you the person I have been ordered to meet?"

Caeda swooped down behind KOS-MOS, "Uhh... This is it, right?"

A twinkle appeared in the sky, and soon after, a small, teenaged black-haired boy showed himself. He flew at high speeds, the aura around him making him more aerodynamic. I should be there soon he thought. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw a tree arise in the distance as he approached. Gohan could sense five very strong power levels coming from the tree. He got about ten feet from the tree, he realized that the creatures might be a threat to him. He subtly said "Hello. My name's Gohan, nice to meet you." while extending his hand forward.

Zero was calmly walking across the plain. Man this place is huge, am I going the right way? he thought to himself. He remembered someone telling him about an important mission, and if this mission failed, all life would be, in short, doomed. He also remebered something about a tree, and to head there to receive further information. Just when Zero thought he was totally lost, he saw a very tall tree in the distance. And there were some people there already. Well, that must be it

Zero walked up to the group. "Well, I'm Zero, if you're wondering. So enlighten me. Exactly, what is this "mission" you speak of?"

A lone figure was racing through a forest, armed with a shotgun. It looked like a man, but when it exited and entered the light, it was revealed to be hidden behind a mask and Asbestos suit.

Hudda. The human spoke-err...-tried to speak. It was a Pyro. a RED Pyro. Torn from the world of Team Fortress 2. It was armed with a shotgun. And it had a rubber glove on its head. It quickly switched it to an axe. The Axtinguisher. It raced through a field, looking for something. It found its objective, a lone tree in a fieldish place. A few people were gathered around it. Hudda hudda huddamphahudda hudda hud. A rough estimate might be 'I hope I'm not late'. It raced up to tree, now carrying a homemade Flamethrower. As it reached the group, it began to call out, "Hudda hudda mphmph mphahudda hud. Dahudda mphamph hu da. HUDDA!"

In the vastness of the plains, two others brought up the rear of the group. One was a purple, animal-like being that treaded along on two feet in a hunched fashion. Squarely in the center of its horn-shaped ears perched a small, round, pink creature, its eyes glowing with childlike excitement as it stared ahead.

"Tree!" DORUmon heard Tokomon's voice call atop his head. Looking beyond the group of strangers before him, there was indeed a large tree. The strange humanoid that spoke of the apocalyptic machine had told them to meet at a certain tree; that must be the one.

"This is it!" he confirmed, picking up his pace. Soon they arrived at the center tree's base, where the messenger was there as he had promised.

Clara noticed the newcomers, and gave an odd stare at the man with the mask. She also paid attention to the two unknown pokemon, as she never heard of them before. They might have been challenged too. She then looked at the humans. One human with the long black hair had a chance of being a trainer. The other, with the spiky hair, didn't look like one at all. He didn't dress like one, act like one, and he got here by flying. He had no wings and he wasn't even riding anything. That was extremely weird. Maybe some psychic pokemon were helping him float, but she didn't see any. The human must be extremely powerful. She then realized that the human that looked like a trainer had spoken.

'Well, I'm Zero, if you're wondering. So enlighten me. Exactly, what is this "mission" you speak of?"

Zero. Odd name. Well, she had little idea of the 'mission', but she could tell him her theory.

"Well, hello Zero. I'm Clara. To be honest I don't really know what the 'mission' is either, but I interpreted it as a challlenge. I'm a very strong charmeleon, and I defeated almost all of the other charmeleons back home. Tell me, are you a trainer? With those odd new pokemon that just arrived, perhaps this is a competition. I've been looking for a trainer for a long time."

"That's a big tree," X stated, staring in slight wonderment.

Now, if this was any other situation where X had made an out-of-character stupid comment, Zero would've commented on it.

But he didn't, because he was slightly amazed by it too. It had been a while since they had seen real trees that large. So instead he added a rather inelegant, "Yeah."

X and Zero seemed to snap out of their amazement and the two Reploids continued on their way. X raised his hand in greeting. "Ah, hello?" he said, staring a the strange group that was forming.

In the plain, a huge tan vehicle rolled forward with a destination in mind.

"Have you spotted them?"

Had the vehicle been able, it would have looked up at the jet-like object streaking across the sky. A voice issued from the radio's speakers:

"No, Ravage I haven't spotted them. I didn't see them when you asked me five minutes ago, and chances are I won't have spotted them five minutes from now."

"But the info he gave us-"

The vehicle abruptly stopped, then folded upwards upon itself until it was now a huge, tan robot.

"Ravage, did you forget who we got that info from?! Soundwave still isn't happy about the fact that we're not completely on his side. Knowing him, he probably gave us bad coordinates."

"That's true, but what about-?"

"Look, why don't you scout ahead and see if you can find them. You're better at long distance movement in that guise anyway. If you can't find them, then we'll radio Soundwave and ask for the coordinates again. Does that sound fair?"

Without a response, the jet-shape flew forward. As Bonecrusher watched Ravage fly on ahead, if he could have been grinning, he would have been.

After all, Ravage had forgotten about the bio-scanners that they both could easily access, and said scanners told Bonecrusher that the coordinates Soundwave had given them were correct. Their soon to be allies were only a short ways away, and the meeting would certainly be an interesting one.

With that in mind, Bonecrusher began to move forward. It would not be long now.

Hey, a talking Charmeleon. Neat. This Charmeleon was speaking with him.

"I am indeed a trainer. And I don't think this a just a challenge or competition. I think we've been gathered here for a greater purpose. I recall the person who called me out here mentioning an important mission, a mission so important that failure meant the apocalypse."

Zero surveyed the group. There were some real characters gathering, like this weird thing (it looked like a human) in a red jumpsuit with a gasmask, a small girl with wings, and a boy who flies. I can already tell that this will be interesting

Flandre smiled widely. She'd never seen anything like this before, so many different people and...things she didn't even have names for. It was a bit intimidating to her, but she just couldn't help herself.

"Wow!" she blurted, "You're all so weird! Nothing like my sister...and her maid...and the librarian..."

She hovered in the air. "Hello to everyone!" she tittered happily. She sniffed the air and smelled humans. It reminded her of how hungry she was, but she was too excited to pay the urge much mind. "Do any of you have any tea and cakes?"

She noticed the teen boy who called himself "Gohan" holding out his hand. Gohan? Rice? What a weird name...Handshake! I know what that is! she thought giddily as she glided over to him, taking his hand and shaking it madly up and down, squeezing it kind of hard. She had forgotten her own strength...

Bonecrusher had nearly reached the tree at the given coordinates when the jet-thing from before flew down and shifted into what resembled an alien metal panther.

"You'll never guess what I just discovered!"

"Good to see you too, Ravage," Bonecrusher said, "What did you find?"

Ravage turned around and began running toward the tree, saying: "I found the place, as you said, but only after ten Earth minutes of flying before I remembered the bio-scanners that you had all along."

"And?"

Ravage turned his head to face Bonecrusher, "I think we all realize that since you also had a bio-scanner, you too would know that there are multiple fleshlings and other mechanical beings - though might I add that they seem inferior to us in their technology - gathered around the tree."

"Well, if that is the case, then you'll be the one speaking for us," Bonecrusher said, "I prefer not to be the one speaking with them."

"And that's because?"

Ravage expected a response, but all Bonecrusher did was move forward and mutter something about not getting to know the drones you send to die. Ravage gave the mechanical equivalent of a sigh and leaped forward until he was in front of Bonecrusher, and was facing the ones at the tree.

"I send my greetings to you, fleshlings and others," he said, "Who among you speaks Cybertronian?"

((I do love me a good deja vu))

If anyone cared to look down at the plain, they would notice a little blue blur racing towards the tree. Said little blue blur, on closer inspection, would turn out to be a young man, running as fast as he could. He was holding the baseball cap tossed haphazardly over his hair down with one hand, the other holding a wooden bat. He quickly made his way to the tree, skidding to a halt at the edge of the gathering, dropping his hat to the grass. He quickly snatched it up and jammed it over his brown hair, where it sat a bit crookedly.

"Hey! What a buncha freaks we got here, huh? Hah! Well, don't worry, the man has arrived! No need ta applaud or nothin', I'm a modest guy. So hey! When we gunna do...whatever it is we're doin'. Whatevs, I bet it'll be a breeze with me helpin' ya!" He announced loudly, waving the bat in his hand around as he spoke.

He bounced back and forth on his feet in place, a wide grin on his face. The black backpack he wore was clanking as if there were several metal things inside, and something inside it was rattling. Adjusting his headset so the mic was over the brim of his hat, he started to speak loudly again.

"So what's with all youse guys? Lookin' so serious? No problem, no problem! As I said, ya got me! So don't fret. 'Specially you, babe!" He said, winking at Caeda.

---

The plain was big. Really big. It took so long to walk across it...she wished daddy was here. A small girl wandered over to the tree, before sitting in the grass, staying quiet. There were lots of funny people here, and funny animals...would any of them be friends and play with her? She hoped so, but said nothing, just turning the huge needle in her hands over and watching the group.

((Scout what are you doing stop that))

It took Gohan a moment to realize that the hand he had earlier outstretched was being shaken. Quite hard, actually. "Quite a grip you've got there. What's your name? Cool.... wing.... things." Gohan felt less threatened, although this girl's power level was quite high. Actually, all of them were. He sensed a few power levels out in the distance, which came closer and said something in some odd language. He also noticed someone with a bat, and a small girl who hardly looked like a fighter. Then again, neither did half the people there.

Lucidia was at a fairly slow jogging pace across the grass. Everything seemed the same, but she used the sun's light to determine north and south (or at least roughly where they were) . She was no good at navigation, but she knew a very rough direction in which she had to travel to arrive at the ... big tree ...? It seemed like an odd purpose, and she had no idea whether the person who had told her to come here [grammar?] was crazy or not, but she was going this way anyway, just in case.

But to other eyes, she would seem like more than a simple explorer. Stepping casually behind her was a chicken. At first this would seem confusing, but it was much more than just a chicken - he was a slim white rooster standing at about twelve feet (three meters?) tall, but he lacked wings. Instead he had broad shoulders and featherless arms which held a longsword in their hands. Upon his right shoulder was a spiked bowl-shaped piece of armor, while a sheath for his sword rested on his right hip. He looked wary (whatever that looked like for a chicken), as he was looking around cautiously while gripping the hilt of his sword with both ... er, chicken hands.

These two weren't alone, though. Not only was there a girl and her "pet" chicken, but a cool-colored, dark, levitating sun about six feet in diameter with a big smile on his face and a little comet orbiting the main star. On Lucidia's other side was also a levitating creature, but she was considerably smaller than the spiky star, and appeared to be made of five yellow heads with blue eyes and mouths attached to each other in a wisp-like formation.

It was quite an odd sight for another person, unless they had somehow become familiar with Lucidia and her battle-ready monsters.

Lucidia still pondered next to nothing out of the ordinary when the tree finally came into sight. She slowed to a walk and stopped when she was about seven feet away from its trunk. Somehow there were already others here, but then again she wasn't exactly an extremely early riser.

Her three companions stood considerably farther away out on the steppe, huddled in a small group and trying not to intimidate the others too much.

((I'm going to cheat a little...))

"Hehe.", Caeda giggled at the loud young man, then indicated her spear, "I, ah, think I can take care of myself. I suppose we're all serious because, you know, this is about some sort of doomsday machine, if I recall correctly. Nothing wrong with lightening up a bit, though, nothing's happened yet."

Mechanical beings detected. flashed through KOS-MOS's mind. She turned to face a pair of giant robots. They spoke in a machine-like tongue. Reading language...
...
...
Language... Cybertronian?
Searching... Found.
Downloading... Done.

"I am now capable of interfacing in 'Cybertronian'", KOS-MOS answered the smaller of the two robots, "Identify yourselves."

"I am indeed a trainer. And I don't think this a just a challenge or competition. I think we've been gathered here for a greater purpose. I recall the person who called me out here mentioning an important mission, a mission so important that failure meant the apocalypse."

The apocalypse? The end of the world? That's... a lot to handle. Clara thought. I guess I'll have to train more! Clara resolved, smiling. She then saw a new group of people coming towards the group. How many people are there? She wondered.

She then decided to answer the cocky young boy. He had been a little bit enthusiastic about his power. Perhaps this would take him down a notch.

"I'm pretty tough too. I can take care of myself. You're not the only strong one here." Clara interjected at the young man.

"Flandre!" she answered Gohan, "My name's Flandre Scarlet!"

But just as soon as she had said that, she buzzed away again, floating around the newcomers, rambling about their various features and introducing herself. She gasped a bit as she noticed the two huge robots, landing and staring up at them in wonder.