Episode 1: A Long Way From Earth

[Darius Hardy]

The young boy gasped when he saw Noland's face. His pupils became starry, and his smile widened more than the gap in Gunz's teeth.

"Daddy!" the young boy screamed for joy. He immediately clung to Noland like the lost child he was. "I thought you and Mommy were gone for good, but you came to Earth instead!"

"..." Montai was at a loss for words. Based on what she was told, this means that the kid believes that Noland and Alana are his parents. In what reality is that possible? She really didn't know...

"So...what did you two do?" Horridian wondered.

[Noland Hardy]

"..." Noland was still and speechless. He had to process what was just said to him a few times before he got a grip on what was really happening. Despite that, he still had to ask...

"...What did he just call me?" Noland asked in disbelief.

"Hydranoid..." Drago called out.

"Look, man. I don't know what to tell you. We just walked into her room, and there he was," Hydranoid briefly explained. "I'm almost too afraid to ask why he thinks Noland and Alana are his parents, but I'll bite. Hey, kid! Is there something you want to tell the class?"

"Yeah...I could really use some explaining right about now..."

[Darius Hardy]

The kid hopped off of his 'father' so he could properly explain how he got to Earth and why Noland and Alana are his parents. He stood on top of the desk in the middle of the room so everyone could see him...as if everyone wasn't already looking at him.

"The seal is weakening, so some very bad guys are going to be out of the Doom Dimension soon. They want me to do some very bad things," the kid revealed. "So I asked the Sacred Orb to bring me out early so I could find help, but I found my Mommy and Daddy instead after not seeing them for a long time!"

To make his point clearer, he pulled out a photo from his pocket and laid it out for everyone's viewing pleasure. On it, they could see the kid being held by a man and a woman. One could see that they looked exactly like Noland and Alana. The only differences was that the man had black hair and the woman had white hair.

"I knew you'd change your looks to hide from Fury and Betadron, but you can't fool me!"

[Markus Hederick]

"..." Markus didn't know what to say. What the kid was saying at first sounded really important, and they should probably be concerned about that. The picture though... That was some damning evidence at face value...

"So...um...yeah...I'll just...mind my business with that one..." Markus smartly conceded. "Congratulations...?"

"...How will this be explained to that Angel?" Gargulion wondered. He was talking about Petra, Noland's girlfriend. She's definitely not gonna be happy about this...

"This whole cataclysm thing really messed things up, huh? Sucks to be you two right now..."

[Alana Cortese]

"Oh my God..." Alana was utterly flabbergasted to see what she had just seen. This was a nightmare...

"Well...that looks...convincing..." Hydranoid remarked. "So...did you do anything with anyone while you were in the Doom Dimension?"

"I. Did. Nothing!" Alana irritably responded.

"To be fair, neither you or I were in our right state of minds at the time. You never know. Some things could've happened that we don't know about..."

"I think I would remember having a child if it ever happened!"

"We're gonna find out. I think you should take a DNA test, and by saying that, I mean we're going to resolve this right now," Montai notified them.

"You've got to be kidding me... Noland and I are just friends! We didn't do anything!"

"We're gonna find out. Believe me. And if either of you did what I think you did...then shame on you."

[Noland Hardy]

"What!? What do you mean!? I'm innocent here!" Noland objected.

"So it was consensual?" Drago asked. He couldn't stop himself from laughing after he said it.

"No - I mean, no as in nothing happened!"

"Hehehehe..."

"Alright. You know what? I think that most of us aren't thinking clearly. Based on what he just said, he was under some sort of seal. When have I ever been sealed somewhere? Think about it. I don't know about Alana since...you know."

[Alana Cortese]

"Hey!" Alana interrupted. "What are you trying to say about me!? And I wasn't sealed!"

"...Shouldn't have said that..." Hydranoid grieved.

"Alright... Let's not get too rowdy in here... There are some things I'd like to talk about before we start arguing..." Montai stopped.

"Anyway, I think it's good that we started off that way. In addition to this strange occurrence, we now know that certain beings are trying to escape the Doom Dimension. It seems that the old household name - Fury - is being brought up again in addition to someone else we know nothing about, so we could all be in for some trouble soon. That's why we need to find out where everyone went so we can recover them and do something about this seal before something comes out that shouldn't be released."

"Too late..." Hydranoid replied, pointing to the kid as proof.

"Be nice," Montai urged. "Anyway, we do have a lead on Kendrick right now. Noland, if you would, could you search for the others?"

[Noland Hardy]

"Tsk...fine..." Noland surrendered. He used Genesis Display one more time to search for the whereabouts of the missing Resistors. In order to prevent sensory overload, he only looked at enough information to deduce if they were still alive and where they were. He whistled when he had seen enough. He didn't look entertained about any of this either.

"So...Tank is on some world with a purple sky. Don't know what that is," Noland started off. Interestingly, he wasn't aware that the Dharaknoid and Naga were on their way to Equilibria to blow them up. That's going to be fun...

"Allen's chilling out with some human-looking people on a planet that - again - I know nothing about." Specifically, Allen was on Olympia.

"Tracy's with some people that look like Gundalians, and Nero's about to get eaten by plant people. Anything else you want me to look for?"

"I'm assuming we have other ways of getting them aside from relying on our powers? We can only do so much without overloading ourselves. The distances we're searching for is starting to add up," Drago mentioned.

[Markus Hederick]

"I have a slower method of getting to them, but yes, there are other ways," Markus spoke up. "Our bond with each other is how we're gonna get to them. As a byproduct of Tracy and Skystar giving us that telepathic link, we all synchronized a little bit. I can get to them just off of that."

"Also, the soul always has a connection to the origin of its race. Just by you being a Gundalian, Noland, Gargulion and I could commune with your soul and get us to Gundalia without any hassle. Obviously, that method can't be used to locate the others unless I find out what these new races are and where they come from."

"Does that sound like a plan to everyone?" Gargulion posed.

"Sure," Montai accepted. "That'll give Noland the rest that he needs. Plus, it does make more sense to go to Gundalia since we know for sure one of our own is there now. We can address the others when Noland feels up to it, but at least we know everyone is still alive."

"Cool. Let's go," Markus signaled.

"Wait. You mean right now?" Montai gasped.

"Um, yeah?"

"Okay. At least make sure you don't arrive there into immediate trouble then? You all are undoubtedly strong, but the Gundalians took Kendrick in almost an instant. Who knows if that could to happen to either of you?"

"Eh, I'm not really worried about that. There's a couple of Markus' on this planet right now anyway, so I have backups."

"That's not making me feel any better, Markus."

"Relax. We'll be fiiiinnne. We'll just pick Kendrick up and check back in once we're done. If anything happens to us, a Markus will come here to tell you all, and then we'll go from there. Alright? Cool. Noland, you ready?"

[Noland Hardy]

"Alright. Let's go," Noland accepted.

"Hey, uh...if you see...you know who..." Montai started.

"I'll keep a lookout," Noland accepted. "If any of you see anything that's not supposed to be here, you know what to do."

"Especially if it's a Gundalian," Drago added in.

"Yes! I'm on board with that! I'll tear them to shreds!" Horridian agreed.

"I didn't mean kill them..."

"I did."

"Okay."

Noland took a deep breath to calm himself down a bit. What Drago probably didn't know was that he sorta agreed with Horridian here. They scooped up Kendrick like he was an animal. There were zero provocative actions from Kendrick, so it was unwarranted. If Noland sees one of the bastards responsible for his capture...there may be hell on Gundalia.

"Shall we?" Noland signaled for Gargulion to hurry up and get the process over with.

[Markus Hederick]

Gargulion - in his robed form - walked up to Noland and placed a palm against his chest. Noland's soul trembled for about five seconds, and then a wormhole opened up right behind him. Their presence on Gundalia was only about five small steps away now.

"Please TRY to stay calm over there, would ya?" Markus requested, afraid of what Noland might do if someone on Gundalia looks at him funny.

"You too," Montai warned Markus, knowing how he can get.

"Right, right... We're moving." Markus, Noland, Drago, and Gargulion got the stepping. When they stepped into the wormhole, their surroundings became blank. Time froze for them only for a brief moment, and then everything became clear again. When it did, their surroundings were a lot darker, and the sky had a noticeable green hue to it than what they're normally used to seeing.

"..." Markus looked around to see that they were in some kind of building. There were very decorative lights all around. There was also some food and drink in the room they were in as well. It smelled really good too. Markus was so busy taking this in that he didn't feel Gargulion tapping his shoulder to tell him that they were interrupting a gathering...

"Oh..." Markus and Noland had spawned right in front of the whole party. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to look at the Resistor duo. Noland was also looking at Markus with a 'Really, dude?' type of look.

"Sup, guys," Markus greeted. "We come in peace."

Gundalian Battle

"How'd they get here? We didn't even detect that!" one of them realized, which spoke well of Markus' abilities in the first place.

"I don't care how! Blast them, but leave them alive! Emperor's orders!" another one said.

"Um...can you please not do that?" Markus requested, even though he knew it wasn't going to work.

"What are those two robed guys with them!?"

"Hi," Gargulion greeted and bowed.

[Noland Hardy]

The quartet were immediately targeted by the Gundalians' bio-electricity. Everyone stood there and took it thanks to Noland and Drago supplying special Switch Code shielding that made this attack virtually useless.

"Hmph..." Uninterested, Noland hung his head down and was prepared to fall asleep. On cue with that action, the Gundalians ceased their attack altogether.

"Wow...our bad, guys. We don't know where that behavior came from..." one of the Gundalians apologized.

"Yeah...we'll just go back to partying...and we never saw you guys...ever," another said.

"That's what we thought you said," Noland confirmed. He then looked back at Markus with a stern look of disapproval. "I'm guessing this is why you told me to stay calm?"

"I have to say...this was a really bad entrance..." Drago commented.

[Markus Hederick]

"Okay... That was a mistake... A really bad mistake..." Markus admitted. "I mean...considering they bagged Kendrick quickly, we were probably gonna be detected anyway. Now, we can see what's going on here while I have control over these brutes."

Markus started fishing for information from these guys. It didn't take him too long to fully decipher the situation. Well, that depends if ten seconds of silence was deemed too long.

"It seems they started rounding people up as a precaution against potential villains. I'm guessing there have been some bad people here," Markus deduced.

"Like Barodius," Gargulion added.

"No... Some nutjob called Gallagher is what has these guys on edge... They're probably not trying to see someone like that anymore, so they're very proactive about people from all over showing up here without warning. Now it all makes sense."

[Noland Hardy]

Noland walked on over to some pizza and grabbed himself three slices. He still heard what Markus and Gargulion were going on about though, but he was hungry.

"Cool. I'm a little less pissed off now," Noland confirmed with his mouth full. "Have any of them seen our peeps?"

"Nope," Gargulion denied. "Aside from Kendrick, we're the only ones who are known to them. There is some talk about them capturing someone from...the 'Castle Knights'... From...Neathia?"

"...There's more of them..." Noland sighed. "Alright. Let's find this Neathian and see what he or she knows. I can sense Kendrick's energy, so we'll see if he or she is around him. Also, we may be attacked soon, so enjoy the party while you can."

[Markus Hederick]

"So we're holding down the fort instead of going out there? Gotcha," Markus understood. "I would make sure you can safely eat that... You're Gundalian. Nevermind... Wow...I really almost said something racist..."

"We're all thinking it," Gargulion noted.

"I'm not," Drago disagreed.

"Okay."

"...That's not funny."

"Honestly, this is a bit refreshing seeing them being all celebratory. We don't have any instances of Gundalians being nice to anyone. I'm actually enjoying the setting for once. Of course, inb4 we're in a full-scale battle with them again."

"I'm surprised no one said anything about there being an Emperor Barodius again. Does that not bother anyone?" Gargulion mentioned.

"Eh, I'll meet the man himself before I start casting judgment; however, if we're going by what almost happened to us and what happened to Kendrick, I'd say we keep our expectations low. These guys seem to think that the Emperor is a good man, but who knows if anyone in the past thought the same about you know who."

"What else do they know about the Emperor?" Drago curiously wondered.

"Well...he's the son of Barodius, the one you and Noland beat back then... And guess what? He has a Dharak...a very powerful one at that. They say he's the strongest here."

"...A Dharak... It has been a long time since I've heard that name..."

"I'm looking at some of their memories, and this guy isn't bad at all. Maybe even a challenge for us based on what I'm seeing. I'm guessing we should approach this more carefully now."

"Hmph..." Drago started eyeing his surroundings. He was definitely feeling the presence of multiple individuals. "Get us out of here, unless you want some exercise?"

"Yeah... Not yet." Gargulion used his power on himself and friends so they could phase through the floor and leave the area without anyone being able to see them through the naked eye. There may be some beings on Gundalia who could still see them. No one knew just yet, but for now, this was their best option to avoid confrontation.

"Alright, Noland and Drago. Lead the way," Gargulion called out since they knew where they were going.