The Story of Ultima

(20) Light and Darkness...

2006-07-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

"Great. I don't believe this." Michael started to complain. "We've gone through numerous battles; destroyed countless enemies; almost got our butt kicked how many times; go through that nightmare of a battle back in our time; try to find a way to get our hands on the Oracle; get it snatched from us not once, but twice; finally get it back; gain the power to manipulate time; come all the way back here in this godforsaken wasteland; and just when we're finally, FINALLY, able to win one," Michael glares at Jay, who is looking extremely embarrassed. "This..." Michael stops and takes a deep breath to calm himself down. "This guy coincidentally gets a powerful ability and ironically starts the whole turn of events that caused the whole bloody evil in the first place! And all I wanted to do was go to the beach with my friends and see Rachel's new..."

"That's enough." Rachel cuts him off. "We didn't know this was going to happen. And Michael," she says looking at him batting her eyelashes, "don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to gawk at my body after this is all over. Right now we've got more important things to worry about."

"Yeah, we weren't able to beat this thing before, and we had everyone on our teams helping each other out." Lara said. "I say we blast the thing before it fully forms."

"DK, Rachel and Lara hold that thing off." Michael says still looking at Jay, but out of curiousity not anger. "I've got to talk with Jay for a moment."

"Who made you boss?" Lara quips. But DK and Rachel figured out what was going on and dragged Lara toward the lake.

"Jay, what was that attack you just used called?" Michael asks after the others were out of earshot.

"I...I don't know. The word 'Ultima' just popped into my head and all of a sudden..."

"'Ultima, huh?" Michael pursed his lips together in thought. "I thought that looked familiar."

"What?"

"Do you think you can use it again?" Michael asked.

"I don't know." Jay repeats. "All I can remember is that when I felt all this hatred toward that creature..."

"...you felt this power surge through you. I know."

"You know?"

"The power of Ultima is triggered through a type of emotional trigger. Yours must be an adrenaline rush of anger. Mine..." Michael smirks as he holds up one of his hands which is giving out a greenish aura. "...is the strength of friendship I have for my friends."

"But why now? Why haven't I been able to use it before?"

"You've never went up against a creature of pure darkness... until now. The presence of darkness must trigger your ability. So if the darkness were finally eradicated, you'd never be able to use it again."

"Uh, Jay, Michael?" Mason interrupts. "Not wanting to spoil this little pow-wow right now, but..." Michael and Jay turn toward the direction of where Mason is pointing. The darkness had finally grown large enough to block what light the sun could filter through the snowy sky. Rachel, DK and Lara were doing their best to keep out of reach of its tentacles.

"Oh, snap," was all that Jay could say.

"The only way we're going to be able to beat this thing is with that stupid Ankh." Michael says. He turns to Rufus. "Rufus, you're the last person who had it. Where is it?"

Rufus, still a little shaky from having his entire body taken over, tried to remember. His eyes widened. "The Ultima Warpgate... I... the Darkness hid it in the void."

"Then let's go back through, and snatch the artifact on our way out," Jay suggested.

"Not a problem." Michael said. "I should be able to open up a backdoor to the warpgate. But, I need the full focus of my powers to do it."

Meanwhile, Rachel, Lara and DK were having a tough time just getting near their opposition.

DK fired shot after shot from his Buster, but kept getting deflected. Rachel and Lara displayed some almost impossible gymnastics - jumping, dodging and parrying their way through the tentacles that were trying to pierce them - slowly making their way to the center.

"You okay back there Rachel?" Lara shouted, nimbly sidestepping an incoming projectile.

"Are you kidding me?" Rachel laughed. "I haven't felt such an adrenaline rush since we got here!"

The girls euphoria was interrupted by a couple of thrown trees that blasted them outside the frenzy and right into DK, who was not expecting a couple of girls to be flung into him. The impact sent all three tumbling to the ground. They quickly got up and braced for more defense.

"We've got to retreat and regroup!" DK said, clutching his side.

Lara and Rachel nodded and headed back to the rest of the group.

"How are we supposed to fight this thing?" Lara shouted with impatience.

"There's only one way." DK said. "Lara and I will enter the Warpgate, find the artifact and return here while Rachel and Michael stay back and see what they can do in the homefront."

"Uh-uh." Michael argued. "As much as I don't want to, I think Rachel and Jay should go with DK."

"Why me?" Rachel asked.

"First off, I'd rather not have to worry about you. Second, I think Jay needs a bodyguard. Thirdly, I need Lara's firepower out here."

"Wait, why am I going?" Jay asked.

"Because other than Rufus, you're the only other person here that knows what it looks like."

"Oh." Jay nodded.

"Hey! Quit talking about me like I'm dead," Rufus interjected weakly, "I can go with you guys too."

Mason put a hand on Rufus's shoulder. "Son, you're not going anywhere without me."

Michael nodded. "You guys should go anyway. It's too dangerous here."

"What do you mean you don't want to worry about me? I can take care of myself," Rachel piped in.

"That's enough, Rachel." Lara says. "As much as I don't agree with the arrangement, we're wasting time arguing."

"Alright," DK nods. "Rachel, Jay, Rufus, Mason and I in the Warpgate, Lara and Michael holding off ol' big and ugly."

"Wait!" Everyone turns to Rufus's outburst. "You're not going to be able to breathe in there. There's no air."

"But if there was no air," Jay wondered, "how'd me and Mason go through without suffocating?"

"Maybe, because you're "The Jay", you can survive." Rachel teased, "and Mason told me earlier that his passage was instanteous, so he probably held his breath."

"Either way, it's not best to push our luck," Mason insisted.

"My lungs are half cybernetic, so I'll be okay," DK says, "but, I don't know about the others though."

"Maybe..." Michael begins. "There is a way." The group looked at him warily.

"I can share my oxygen with Rachel, Jay, Rufus, and you, Mason, via Elemental."

"Elemental?" Mason repeats, confused.

"Long story. It's best you don't worry about the details." Michael continues. "Basically, you four will be able to breathe the air that I intake while you're in the Warpgate."

"You can do that?" Jay asks. Michael nods.

"But I'm only doing it if you guys trust me."

"Of course we trust you." Rachel says without hesitating. Michael walks up to Rachel.

"Okay, I need you all to close your eyes." Michael says to Rachel. She complies without hesistation.

Michael leans forward and has his lips meet Rachel's, in a long and passionate kiss. After he breaks off, Rachel opens her eyes and blushes slightly. "Now Rachel's sharing my air."

"Um, you're not going to do that to me, are you?" Jay asked, horrified by the thought.

"Heck, no." Michael said with a smirk. "I've just been wanting to do that for a while." Rachel playfully smacks Michael on the arm, still grinning. Michael waved his hand across Jay's face.

Instantly Jay started to feel a comfortable pressure over his nostrils and lips as if there were an invisible gas mask being placed on his face. "Whoa..."
Michael repeated the wave against Rufus and Mason, who reacted with as much surprise as Jay.

"Done," Michael confirmed, "But we have to go back to the warpgate's exit point. I can utilize any lingering energy to re-open the portal much faster."

Minutes later, the group reached the trampled clearing where the exit point seemed to have been.

"Brace yourselves people!" And with that, Michael focused his energies to tear open the fabric of time and space. A shining portal of light opened out of thin air.

"Okay, before you guys go, keeping the portal open takes a lot of energy; so when you've all passed through, I'm going to close it again. When you need to exit, just tell me. You guys should still be capable of making sound while I'm still connected to you via oxygen line."

"That's assuming we know when to get out," Jay pointed out, "but I have a feeling it won't be an issue."

"Not to be the bearer of bad news, but how are you guys planning on returning?" Mason yelled to overpower the sound of air being sucked into the portal.

Jay shrugged, "I honestly don't know. But, we'll worry about that when the time comes..."
"Guys..." Michael grunted, teeth gritted. He was obviously straining to keep the portal alive.

"Alright, there's no more time to lose. Let's do it!" Rachel shouted.

DK, Jay, Rufus, Mason and Rachel plunged into the unknown abyss, after which Michael swiftly closed the portal behind them, then turned with Lara to face the problem at hand.
A giant black tentacle finally found the duo, but hit the ground under their feet as they flipped backward to dodge.

"Let's shine some light." Michael said with a maniacal look in his eyes.

(19) Disaster...

2006-07-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

An earth-shattering shockwave knocked the creature sideways, into a small mound of snow and mud. Looking upward, he saw the source of the energy weapon that had just struck him: a female humanoid, enhanced with cybernetics and a steaming arm cannon.

"Rachel, I don't think he, err... it, is dead yet."

"Get outta here, guys!" As Rachel yelled this to Mason and Jay, both men broke into a sprint in the opposite direction. She turned to face the creature, weapons drawn. "Lara, I think we can take him."

The Darkness yanked itself upright with some outstreched tentacles.

"Don't be so sure," the Darkness hissed, eyeing both women with disgust.
The Jay isn't far... I can deal with him momentarily.

Acting by sheer instinct, the Darkness shot out several well-placed tentacles at both women.

They reacted instantaneously.

Firing a bolt of energy from her arm cannon again, Lara watched with dissapointment as the tentacles she disentigrated were replaced with twice as many as before. She dodged right, then left, then right again. "Rachel, attack!"

"Eat this...Fury of the Ancients!" Rachel finished, launching her twin swords into a vertical spin that emulated the motion of a chainsaw. The Darkness screamed in surprise as chunks of dark matter sprayed in every direction, the remnants of relentless swarms of tentacles chopped to bits by Rachel's technique.

But before she could actually get her blades into its torso, the Darkness swung a massively muscular dark matter fist into Rachel's stomach, sending her a couple hundred feet backwards into a thicket of leaves and snow.

Shaking away what she thought was the sound of ribs cracking, Lara took aim and unleashed a more powerful attack. "Obsidian Blade!"

The Darkness attempted to dodge but winced as Lara landed a massive blade of energy on its shoulder. It recovered quickly and, in an attempt to avoid more damage, it countered her move with a flurry of hardened tentacles. Twisting its extremeties around her arms, the Darkness tightened its grip as much as Lara's tough exterior would allow. Before Lara could do or say anything, the Darkness unraveled itself in the opposite direction with a superhuman amount of force. At that moment, the Darkness released its grip, sending the female fighter spiraling backwards into a tree. She slumped downward in a shocked state of exhaustion.

No time to plague these wretches with their worst fears, the Darkness decided, though that will be quite pleasurable, AFTER I take care of the Jay.

The creature of darkness dove forward into a full on sprint, then fell down into an animalistic four-legged gallop. It spotted the fleeing duo a couple thousand feet away, swiftly making their way around the perimeter of Winter Lake. Inhaling the frozen air, the Darkness felt a certain strength within itself, seemingly fueled by the cold temperatures of this place. It neared Jay within the minute, catching up with him rapidly.

"Dear God! It's behind us!" the other man shrieked, looking back. "Jay, don't stop!"

Seconds later, the older man tripped on a snow-covered tree stump and skidded to halt in the mud. Jay heard the crash, but continued running - he knew Mason would've killed him had he stopped to aid the man. He was after all the key to this whole thing, even though he still didn't really understand it.

Glancing back, Jay saw the Darkness leap over Mason's shuddering form without stopping.
"Good. Mason is safe..." Jay's voice trailed off as he saw a shadow overtake his own.

He hit the ground with an agonizing crunch, and was almost certain that the Darkness had broken at least one bone in his body. A multitude of hand-shaped extremeties siezed his waist and flipped him 180 degrees. Facing the ugliest creature he'd ever seen, Jay tried not to dwell on his impending death. Instead, he closed his eyes and focused on the sound of the water in the lake, which was less than twenty feet away.

"Your mind games will not prevent me from enjoying this-"
The creature's voice cut off as a loud clang echoed above Jay's head. The creature grunted.
Opening his eyes, Jay saw with awkward relief that the creature had backed away, and was now focusing on Mason, who'd apparently recovered in time to knock the creature upside the head with a large, steel pipe.
Mason grinned mischeviously, though it was apparent that he was about to wet his pants.

The Darkness took a step toward him, as if preparing to strike, then stopped suddenly, its head shaking.
Jay squinted, confused. "What the...?"

"Dad?" the creature suddenly blurted out. Mason stared ahead, eyes wide. "Son?"
Jay nearly collapsed as he witnessed the creature's dark head fade away to reveal a human head.
The sweat-mopped face was easily recognizable.

"Rufus?" Jay swallowed hard. The creature remained focused on Mason. "FATHER, HELP ME!"

Mason stifled a welling up of tears. "Son... wha- what happened to you?"
The dark Rufus remained silent, then began to vibrate intensely, as if having a siezure.
When the spasms finally ended, the darkness fell away from Rufus and reshaped into a seperate humanoid form, about the size and stature of a gorilla. The Darkness cackled as Rufus slumped down onto the ground, collapsing from extreme physical and emotional exhaustion. "Pathetic..."

Jay felt an anger boiling up inside himself. The Darkness had used Rufus as a transport, and now was laughing at him because he was weak. It was a terrible thing to do, and now Jay felt the utmost hatred for this creature.

It has to be dealt with, Jay realized, and now's my chance.
Unsure what he was actually going to do, Jay stood up to face the Darkness. As if on cue, the Darkness turned around, glaring at Jay.

"The Jay!" the creature hissed, "it is time to end your wretched existence."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" Jay responded without missing a beat. He cracked his knuckles.

The Darkness flexed its massive arms, then reshaped its humanoid hands. Now brandishing razor-sharp, porcupine-needle shaped claws on each of its palms, the creature lunged forward without remorse.

As Jay's life flashed before his eyes, a single word entered his thoughts.

ULTIMA.

At that very instant, Jay shot his hands forward involuntarily, which were now glowing an ethereal white.
In front of him, a comet-shaped matrix of white energy materialized out of thin air, and slammed full force into the creature of darkness, sending it careening to the right - straight into the icy cold depths of Winter Lake. The nearly motionless waters began to gurgle intensely as the creature faded into its depths.

Having arrived just in time to see this happen, Michael and Delta Knight landed softly next to Jay, remaining speechless for what seemed like eternity. DK tried to speak, "Jay... wha- did you- I...?"

Michael, lost in thought, said nothing.
There cannot be darkness without light... Michael reminded himself, and Jay must be the light.

In the distance, the group saw Rachel and Lara painfully trudging through the snow towards them. Though both still awestruck, Michael and DK quickly soared off to aid the women.

Jay sighed a great sigh of relief as he saw Rufus sit up next to Mason, who hugged his weak form with sincere concern. "Sorry about all of this, son."

They both looked over at Jay. "You alright?"
Jay nodded. "I'm tired, but I think I'll manage."

"You sure?" Mason reiterated, obviously concerned after having seen Jay's massive offense against the creature of darkness.

"Yeah." Jay responded, lying back down for a second. A few moments later, Michael and DK walked back up to him. "In case you were wondering, the girls are okay," Michael affirmed, "although bruised up a bit."

"But... I wouldn't get too comfortable," DK asserted.

"Huh?" Jay sat up quickly.

"I don't know how you did what you just did," DK admitted, "but you couldn't have had a worse aim."

"What?" Jay blinked in disbelief, "I hit that creature dead-on!"

"And it landed in the lake," Michael finished, "which is just what we were trying to prevent."

"Wait... what?!" Jay was now genuinely confused, "you mean it-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the ground began to shake. A few hundred feet away, some trees uprooted and toppled over, sending plumes of snow and dirt into the air. Then the lake began to gurgle. Or rather the entire lake began to gurgle, all at once.

The whole group stood up and watched in horror as Winter Lake began to darken.

(18) A Fight to the Finish...

2006-06-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Across the lake...

Michael charged up his blade and cycloned through the darkness with a Whirling Blade Attack, until he was face to face with his other self.

"Heya jerk." Michael growled and smacked his elbow alongside the skull of his twin. He responded in turn with a knee to the gut, knocking the wind out of Michael. Without warning, Michael was flung back into the darkness fray.

"Come on, Michael! You're making this too easy!"

"Mike!" DK shouted between energy blasts. "How'd you defeat this guy last time?"

"We..." Michael grunted as he swung a boot into another creature. "We didn't."

DK did not need to hear that. "What do you mean you didn't?"

"He means," the evil one cackled, "that if it weren't for our so-called father, I would've finished him and all his friends. Face it, Michael. You couldn't destroy me with those three party members of yours. What makes you think you'll have any better luck with just this loser?"

The insult had been delivered and the gauntlet was thrown. DK tightened his jaw, then activated his arm cannon special mode: a massive energy saber. As his built-in sword reached full-power, DK's body radiated with fury.

"What did you call me, you..." he roared, followed by some future curse words that don't exist in the English language yet.

Michael, not one to let a friend of his get disrespected, charged up his own blade. Together they flew above the fray and soared where their target was waiting.

DK reached him first, letting out a berserk series of hacks and slashes. Unfortunately, the monstrosity was ready and easily parried every attack that came its way. For every one attack, it was able to attack back eight of its own. Without any real effort, its elbow rammed into DK with a sickening crack, sending DK plummeting toward the darkness.

Michael seeing DK fall knew it was his turn to attack. He channeled his energy into the blade that spurt out beams of flaming white-hot light. He cocked back his blade and swung his sword, letting out the biggest sonic boom that he was capable of. Most of the creatures of darkness were unable to stand the recoil from the energy backflash and dissolved into oblivion from whence they came.

DK shielded his eyes from the light which grew more intense, until...

As soon as the light faded, he saw Michael on his knees, sword arm hanging limply by his side. And the evil creature was still standing. DK used his more superior than average intelligence to react without a second to lose. He knew what he had to do.

Before Michael could raise his sword, the doppleganger had his own sword tip aimed at Michael's throat. "Any last words?"

Michael grinned. "'Ninja Assassin', say hello to fellow tribe warrior 'Kickin' Crotch.'" The evil one had a split second before DK, who had been able to sneak behind, rammed his fist upward into "where the sun don't shine."

Michael let out a warrior's cry, and swung his sword in an arc and pierced the heart of the shadow.

"But...but that was a cheap shot..." his shadow self complained weakly.

"There was an advantage and he took it." Michael said in a heroic voice. "'Cause that's what heroes do."

Michael withdrew his sword from the being. DK and Michael backflipped on opposite sides of the creature and charged up their weapons. Then with uncanny accuracy, maximum agility, and ultimate strength, they performed their Team Attack: "Omega Justice."

Unable to withstand the combined force of both warriors energies, the shadow was ripped apart into the void.
Michael and DK both fell onto one knee, using their weapons to keep them steady. "Go back into oblivion where you came from, monster." DK huffed.

The other darkness entities faded back into the shadows from whence they came, until Michael and DK were left alone.

"Nice shot." Michael commented.

"Hey, it's not every day I get to crack you in the family jewels."

"Ha ha. Very funny." Michael looked out toward the horizon. "I hope the others are okay."

Giving themselves a few moments to recover from their finishing attack, DK and Michael levitated into the air and sped off toward their friends, hoping that they weren't in any trouble themselves. Seconds after they left the rickety old building, it collapsed on itself, leaving it into a pile of rubble.

Michael and DK glanced back toward the ruins of the building.

"Think they had insurance?" DK asked.

Michael let out a snort of disbelief. "It's a secret government facility. If no one knew about it, it never existed."
...

Meanwhile, Rachel, Lara, Mason and Jay were sprinting as fast as possible. Actually, it was more like Rachel and Lara were running with Mason and Jay on their backs.

"Why are we carrying you two again?" Lara huffed.

"Mason's too heavy to carry and you can run faster than we can." Jay explained.

"Uh-uh." Rachel and Lara stopped and unceremoniously dumped their two pieces of baggage. "We are not chauffeurs. You two start running on your own."

"Do you guys feel that?" Lara spoke suddenly.

"Feel what?" They stood absolutely still, wondering what was going on.

Everything seemed quiet enough. But there was an uneasiness in the air. It was as if something was waiting for the right moment to pounce. Lara and Rachel had their weapons at the ready, straining their ears for even the slightest motion. Mason was shuddering as if he knew it was coming. Jay almost forgot to breathe; he was trying to keep as still as possible and didn't want to disturb their guardian's concentration.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lara and Rachel lowered their weapons slightly. Seeing this, Jay let out a sigh of relief.

Big mistake.

A creature of darkness burst out of the snowy landscape, its tentacles targeting Jay.

"The Jay!" it screamed in a primal howl of hostility.

(17) Shortcut...

2006-06-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, in Eltemu...

The Darkness arrived a shortwhile later, severely disenchanted.
His energy was almost completely extinguished.

As the dark Rufus approached the ruins, Rufus himself experienced a brief moment of reclamation from his captor's control. Staring ahead at the abandoned dig site, his mind raced.

What is wrong with me? he thought, I cannot control myself. Am I dead?
The events of the past day flooded back into his mind with an aching subtlety.

The Darkness, it took over my body...
His thoughts blurred again, as the Darkness regained its hold on him.

No...

The Darkness shook off this momentarily lapse in control. It had to focus on the task at hand. That task was to get to the Jay. But it has no choice but to do that which it feared most - reenter the warpgate of its own will.

As it neared the pedestal, the Darkness detected a familiar energy source lurking nearby.

"The artifact..." it hissed, scanning the ground for the item. He saw it near the second building.

Right where he dropped it, the Darkness realized, accessing Rufus's memories at will.
Rufus had, in fact, dropped the artifact when he saw the Darkness in its disguise as a deceased Jay.

This object must never again see the light of day, the Darkness swore to itself, wedging the artifact deep inside its own dark matter exterior.

It was then that the Darkness recalled another of Rufus's memories. This specific memory reminded him that the warpgate would only activate at a certain time of day, when the sun was at a specific angle.

I will have to compensate, it sighed, because I must use it as a means to an end... the end of the Jay.

Shooting three gigantic tentacles of dark matter at each of the ruined buildings, the Darkness concentrated hard. After a few seconds, it successfully reflected sunlight off of its slick extremeties, down into all three glass panels, which immediately sparked to life with an eerie sizzle. The three beams of light met, and instantaneously the warpgate was visible, humming with energy.

"It is time!" the Darkness screeched, plunging into the void, its outstretched extremeties following it inside.
The glass panels fizzled out immediately, and the warpgate vanished into a literal puff of smoke as the Darkness dissapeared within.

...

Now hurtling through the void which he despised, the Darkness attempted a scream of anguish, but with no oxygen to carry the sound of its voice, the scream remained silent.

I shall never enter this place again, it swore to itself.

Shaking off its disgust, the Darkness yanked the artifact from its dark torso and pitched it with every ounce of force it had into the darkness behind it.

Finally, the artifact is gone, the Darkness thought with glee. Now and forever.

Moments later, it did a face plant into the icy cold whiteness of a snow covered field. Instinctively, it countered the impact with a plethora of well placed tentacles. After regaining its bearings, the dark Rufus stood, grinning mischeviously at its surroundings.

The Jay... He is close... Very close...

(16) The Source...

2006-06-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, in Winter Lake...

"Uh...question." Jay suddenly said. The group had been travelling toward the source of the mysterious noise, which strangely didn't seem to be getting any stronger. "Can't we just fly to where we're going?"

"For the seventh time," Rachel grumbled. "Only Michael and DK can fly. They'd probably be able to carry me and Lara, but I don't think they could hold all three of us."

"Besides," DK stated, "it's better off that we walk so we don't miss anything important on the ground."

"Well, why is Lara leading?"

"Because she's the only one at the moment that can hear the signal." Michael explained.

"At the moment?"

"I could probably hear it if I concentrated my power, but I'd rather not have to use it." Michael continued.

"Either that or you're just lazy." Rachel smirked.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Michael replied.

"Will both of you shut up? I think we're getting close." Lara snapped.

Suddenly Lara stopped. "The signal's coming from right here." They looked around at their surroundings. They seemed to be in a deserted area of a city. In front of them was what looked like an old burnt-out factory.

"What the heck is this?" DK wondered. Rachel pointed to a blackened piece of metal. They were barely able to make out the words: "Area 52-B. Experimental Legends Facility."

"'Area 52-B?' E.L.F.?" DK said.

"What's it say below that?" Jay said pointing at some fine print on the sign.

"'You are here. We are not.'" Rachel read. "Well, that's original."

"Shush!" Lara suddenly exclaimed. Everyone stood quiet for a minute and heard a clanging noise inside. "Do you hear that?"

They looked around for the source of the sound. Jay finally pinpointed the source next to one of the far walls. "It's coming from under this rubble." Working together, they move the debris and find a hidden compartment in the wall.

"Yup, it's most definitely coming from in there. I'm sure of it." Lara said.

CLANG! A door swings open, revealing...

"Mason Biggs!" The disassembled spelunker gasped from the sudden intake of fresh air.

"...Finally. I never thought you would find me."

"Sir, what happened?" Jay quickly asked.

"I'll explain later." Mason groaned. "Right now we need to get out of this area before they return."

"Before who returns?"

"Now you wouldn't be thinking of leaving just yet, would you?" a sinister, but oddly familiar voice rang out behind the group.

Slowly turning around, they find themselves facing a group of the same creatures they fought earlier. And in front of the pack was...

"Michael, I didn't know you had a twin." Jay commented.

Michael glared at the doppleganger. "I thought I banished you to the realms of oblivion, creep."

The evil twin smirked. "You should know by now. The closer you get to the light, the larger your shadow becomes. There cannot be light without darkness, matter without anti-matter, a pure heart of good..." he says.

"...without the impurity of evil." Michael finished. "I knew this seemed too easy." He drew his weapon, Destiny's Force, while the others did the same.

"Rachel and Lara, go with Jay and get Mason out of here. DK and I will handle this." Rachel was about to argue, but Lara tugged her arm.

Lara looked at her and shook her head. "They know what they're doing."

"Don't let them escape!" The evil creatures of darkness flew toward Jay, but DK destroyed them in one swipe.

"Get going!" Jay half-carried Mason with Rachel and Lara as escorts and ran like the wind out of the building and the battle area.

Michael tried to get to his shadow self, but more creatures were spawning left and right.

DK and Michael kept hacking and slashing until it was undeniably clear: they were surrounded.

"I guess we brought back more dark matter with us than we thought," Michael groaned through gritted teeth, "or at least enough to bring back my doppleganger and his pals."

They stood back to back, weapons drawn, waiting for the oncoming attack. "Just like old times, huh?," DK asked.

"If I remember correctly, I destroyed twenty more than you did last time," Michael replied.

"Then you miscounted," DK said with a bemused smirk. "Because I beat you by thirty." Michael grinned.

"If anyone actually wrote about this, now would be a good time to go with a 'To Be Continued...'"

"If only we were that lucky." DK sighed.

(15) Escape...

2006-05-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

As the dark Rufus pushed itself across the landscape, it heaved huge breaths of exhaustion. Each inhalation seemed to absorb the exuberance of the landscape surrounding it. Each preceeding exhalation reverberated across the desert, whisking up dust all around its darkened form.

The agony of hunger was pushing the dark Rufus to take desperate measure. He'd consumed the fear from two yaks, a small furry creature, and one very skinny horse. Of course, they'd all killed over instantly, something the Darkness could not explain. Although it was apparent that when an animal lost its fear to consumption thereof, it could not maintain the beating of its heart. But now, there seemed to be no animals within detection.

If they have a beating heart, I will be able to hear it, the dark Rufus assured himself.

The Darkness only wished it could find a human from which to extract the delecious taste of fear. These puny animals provided not nearly enough fear to even substantially satiate its unsatiable appetite. The need for humans was great, as their infinitely complicated brains yielded far more fear than the average yak.

But this barren landscape provided no signs whatsoever of any human life.
Just then, something comparable made itself available. In the distance, the faint heart beat of camel echoed through the chasms of the dark Rufus's black exterior. It immediately veered left towards the source, practically hydroplaning across the sandy earth.

Camels were an oddity amongst the animals of Earth, as they were far smarter than most other animals of their calibur. As such, their fear was much more complex, although still minscule in comparison to that of humans. But the Darkness had no room to be picky; without more fear, it would surely parish.

The camel fell quietly, seconds after the Darkness made contact. It made no sound, but stare blankly up at its predator, coldy contemplating the existence of this abomination, but falling short of any coherent thought. A few seconds later, all signs of life vanished from its eyes.

Although he continued his travels, the dark Rufus howled in frustration. That camel was a decent appetizer, but the Darkness craved a main course. Having a human host allowed for quicker transportation to its target, but it could not maintain its control over that host without the energy that Fear provided for it. And that fear was painstakingly absent right now.

Then he felt it. A lone human in the distance, moving at a high rate of speed by most standards.

I can get to him in time, the Darkness realized, pushing itself into an accelerated sprint. It hit about eighty miles per hour and reached the human within seconds.

A middle aged, middle eastern male, he was cruising through the wide open desert in a beat up jeep. As he neared, the dark Rufus could hear the man yelling at himself in a thick accent.

"Why couldn't they have left it alone? They knew Mr. Biggs had stumbled upon something... dangerous. But they had to go and mess with it. Now Mr. Biggs counterpart has... dissapeared himself, and I have fled like a coward. Oh, what shall I do?"

Glancing in his rearview mirror, the man gasped at the sight of Jay, bruised and bloody, in his backseat.

"How in the...?!"

The man could only react by slamming on the brakes. Half a second later, he realized he was not wearing a seat belt. The man plummeted through the windshield, coming to a stop at the edge of the hood.

Only half conscious and sprawled on the hood of his jeep, the man could only groan as the Darkness feasted on his Fear invisibly. He stared through the broken windshield, only wondering why Jay was no longer in the backseat. Quickly thereafter, he drifted off into complete unconsciousness.

After his meal, the Darkness assessed his state of being.

Even this wealth of energy is not enough, the dark Rufus sighed in frustration. I still cannot make it to the enemy, to the Jay...

Seconds later, it realized what it neeeded to do.

At least not by literal travel...
Screeching at itself, it took off back toward the ruins.

(14) Recovery...

2006-05-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

Winter Lake, seven hours ahead...

"Well, what's our next move?" DK repeated, crossing his arms.

Michael went into one of his "heroic thinking poses." "If I remember my ancient history correctly, all of the chaos that started in our time was because of some type of artifact."

Lara nodded. "Yeah, the Ankh of the Ancients."

Jay's eyes lit up. "Did you say Ankh of the Ancients?"

Michael shrugged. "Yeah, why?"

"I...I think I've seen it before," Jay replied, feeling awkward as the group stared at him with heightened interest.

"You have? What'd it look like?" DK questioned.

"It sorta looked like...wait. Why do you ask?" Jay replied.

"No one's ever actually seen the Ankh. There's no pictures or any type of visual information on it at all. Even in our time." Michael said.

"Well, I did. I had it in my hand right before I came here."

"Wait a sec... how did you say you got here again?" DK questioned.

"Uh, I didn't." Jay struggled to find the words to describe what it was that had transported him 3,000 miles in less than half a minute.

"I guess you could say it was some sort of light-energy portal, triggered by the ancient technology Rufus and I found."

Michael's jaw dropped. "You're joking, right?"

A confused smirk spread across Jay's face. "No, I... why?"

"Where was the Ankh when you traveled through this portal?" Michael queried without another breath.

Jay scratched his chin in thought. "Well, it was in my hand, but Rufus pulled it away as I entered the portal. He... he must still have it, back where I came from."

Michael shook his head. "That's just great. Things just got a bit more complicated."

"You don't have to tell me that," DK started, "The Oracle told me something like this would happen."

Rachel frowned. "Hey, Lara and I never spoke with the Oracle. Would you mind bringing us up to speed?"

Michael let out a sigh. "We were told that to prevent all that dark matter from being released, we had to destroy the Ankh before it was exposed to that portal, known as the Ultima Warpgate."

"But apparently," DK continued, "we're too late. If that Ankh got anywhere near the warpgate when it was open, then that exposure has already occurred..."

"So what you're saying is-" Lara began.

"- It has been released," Rachel finished, "and it's all because of Jay."

"Um... yeah. That about sums it up." Michael sighed, massaging his temple.

"Hey, Mike, the Oracle also said that Jay was the key to stopping this thing," DK let out hesitantly, knowing that bit of information was supposed to be a secret. Michael raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, you mean, I'm..." Jay began. But Rachel interrupted with, "-the chosen one, the hero, the key to success - whatever you call it, don't let it go to your head."

Michael glared over at Rachel. "What she means to say is that you are the only person - according to the Oracle - who can put a stop to this thing. And I'm assuming - well, hoping - this means you can stop it before or after it is released."

"But that's only speculation...?" Lara questioned for clarification's sake.

"Well, we're about to find out, aren't we?" Michael said with a tinge of impatience in his voice.. An awkward silence broke in.

Finally, Jay piped up, "Well, there has to be some way to beat this thing, right? Uh... maybe if we find Mason, he can help us."

"Who?"

"Mason Biggs. Father of Rufus Biggs. He's the guy who Rufus and I were looking for before. He's the reason I went through that portal. I think Mason may have gone through it himself."

"How would finding him be advantageous to us?" Michael asked curiously.

"Well for starters, he knows more about that dig site (where I came from) than me and Rufus combined."

"Maybe his knowledge of the Ancients can help us," Lara finished, realizing the connection.

"Possibly," DK admitted, "but do we even know where to start looking?"

Suddenly Lara cocked her head. "Sshh... I hear something."

"What is it?" Michael said, quite louder than neccessary. Everybody glared at him.
"Sorry, my bad." Michael breathed out, quieting down.

Everybody froze. The rest of the group only heard the droning of a mild wind that was starting to pick up again. But Lara's bionic ears - a cybernetic modification which she had chosen to install in the recent past - picked up something else entirely.

Bzt, Bzt, Bzt... Bzzzzt, Bzzt... Bzt, Bzt, Bzt...

"Morse code... It's a call for help," she finally responded, "a S-O-S, but it's weakening rapidly."

"I guess it could be Mason," Jay suggested, "but I have a bad feeling about it."

Michael stepped forward. "Probably just motion sickness from your ride through the warpgate. C'mon already. Let's find the source before it fades out."

And they were off...

(13) Transformation...

2006-03-28T00:31:00.000-08:00

Eltemu, Seven hours prior...

"What the hell could be happening now?" Rufus yelled out as the anger within him rose again.

Coming out into the open, Rufus immediately cringed as the smell of burnt flesh carried past via elevated winds, propelled by a light smoke that clouded the air. Following the origin of the smoke, Rufus planted his gaze on the center pedestal between the trio of buildings. Lying atop it, the blackened remains of a human figure were distinctly visible. Shocked and confused, Rufus slowly neared the smoldering corpse.

As he came within a few feet, he realized he was staring at the lifeless cadaver of Jay Spader, sprawled on its back, staring with lifeless eyes at the now empty sky.

"Dear God..." Rufus sputtered, stumbling backwards. Horrible emotions flooded his synapses, unleashing a horrible migraine unlike any he'd had before.

The portal spit Jay back out, but his body was ravaged beyond repair in the process...

The pain of the migraine - combined with the pain of his anguish - permeated every part of his body, becoming almost unbearable. Then, on the brink of tears Rufus cried out, "What have I done?"

Rufus was overcome with guilt as he realized that Jay's death had been a direct result of his inability to keep Jay from entering the portal. He fell onto his knees, and let out a roar of anguish that echoed off the buildings surrounding him. The rage within him had finally broken loose.

As he looked up at the sky in distraught fury, Rufus suddenly found himself unable to breathe. He looked downward, and found himself face to face with the burnt skull of Jay's corpse. In a state of shock, Rufus could not fathom how Jay was now standing up. Nor could he fathom how Jay was strangling him with arms of dead muscle. However, he didn't have to wonder for long.

Eyes wide, Rufus could only gag and sputter as Jay's corpse opened its mouth wide, then wider, and wider. Jay's jaw split apart from his skull and from within the darkness of his mouth came a flurry of pencil-thin tentacles that engulfed the bottom half of Rufus's head. The black matter of the tentacles pushed itself into his mouth and Rufus suddenly fell limp.

Rufus stared ahead in this paralyzed state, with only his thoughts to keep him company.

What is this thing?
What is it doing to me?
Am I going to die?
I'm afraid.

At that exact moment, Rufus felt a surge of energy exit his body. With this energy his fears also vanished.

Wha... what has happened?
Why am I no longer afraid?

It was then that Rufus knew that corpse was not Jay, but something else entirely. It was something sinister. Something pure evil.

But yet, I am still not afraid...?

Rufus watched as the mock corpse recomposed itself at will, the charred remains melting into a skinny, humanoid shape. Its dark, liquidy exterior glistened in the sunlight. A voice piped into Rufus's head.

Vrees, Crainte, Furcht, Timore, Miedo...
It is known by many names, in many languages.
My dark matter craves your illest of emotions-
Your FEAR is now mine for the feasting, mortal.

The creature's face permeated with two red slits that Rufus assumed were eyes. It "squinted"
for a few seconds, as if in thought, then spoke again.

Your father is the root of my redemption.

Rufus's mind was filled with a vision. He saw his father studying in the second building... then entering the portal...

Your father's entrance to the other realm awoke me from a great slumber.

The voice paused, then continued.

But he is also the recruiter of thine nemesis...

Another vision struck Rufus. He could see the artifact in Jay's hand... Jay entering the portal, as Rufus pulled the artifact away...

My enemy held the wretched device- which was the catalyst for my imprisonment in the other realm so long ago - as he entered that place. I sensed it and it led me out of that realm of nothingness.

The voice paused again, but resumed quickly.

You, as your father's son, shall be my collateral.

The creature's voice subsided at last, but Rufus could only tense up again as the dark figure shot forth, like a spider to its prey, engulfing Rufus and plastering itself around his entire twitching body. The matter of which it was constructed coated Rufus like a liquid.

After a few moments, the darkened form of Rufus stopped twitching. The dark matter, which had appeared to be liquid when it moved, was now hardened around him like a second skin. Rufus was still conscious within, but the will of the dark matter overruled any of his own. The dark Rufus stood up swiftly, propelled by the dark matter at his command, and groaned.

But this was like no groan that man has ever uttered. It came from another realm, where man sounds like monster, and monster sounds like many monsters uttering in a slightly off-sync unison. In this respect, it was more of a growl than a groan, but if this tainted Rufus had done more than groan, the terrain around him would have trembled.

"The Jay must... cease... to exist..." the dark Rufus hissed. Its unnatural voice reverberated across the barren landscape, which it took off across in an accelerated sprint.

(12) Gathering...

2006-02-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

Winter Lake, eight hours ahead...

"I'm Jay."

Jay didn't understand why his new acquaintances were now staring at him as if he were some sort of freak. "Wait a minute. You're Jay? The 'Jay'?"

"Uh, I guess." Jay was starting to feel a tad bit doubtful of these people's sanities.

"Finally!" The blonde girl hugged him, almost crushing his ribs.

"You don't know how great it is to finally meet you!"

"It is?"

"Oh, sorry we haven't introduced ourselves. My name is Rachel. The brunette cyborg over there, you've met already. The buffed up cyborg next to her is Delta Knight or DK as he likes to be called. And the semi-conscious drunk over there is Michael."

"I'm not drunk!" Michael exclaims. "I'm just not fully charged yet."

"See?" Rachel said smirking. "Drunk."

"Okay. I see." was all Jay could say. "I don't suppose you could tell me where we are?"

"To be sure, we're standing in the middle of Blizz...er, I mean, Winter Lake."

"Winter Lake? Wait a minute..." Jay rubbed his temples in disbelief. "That's, like, 3,000 miles from where I started."

"You mean, you were at Ultima?"

"Where?"

"Um...never mind. Anyway, how'd you get here?"

"I don't know, last thing I remember I was with Rufus and..." Jay's short-term memory finally came back into play. "Oh no! Rufus! I've got to get back there!" He tries to stand up too fast and ends up sitting back down due to the inertia of blood flow. "Don't worry," Rachel says. "We'll..."

"DK," Michael whispers while Rachel calms down Jay. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

DK looks at Michael curious. "Yeah, sure. You fully powered up yet?"

Michael nods. "I've got enough."

Michael activates his "Matrix Flight" ability and vanishes into the sky. DK follows with a boost from his hover-capable boots. After ending up above the cloud layers and into the direct sunlight, Michael waits for DK to catch up. "Took you long enough."

"Hey, I was taking it easy because I thought you were still weakened."

"Yeah, right." Michael smirks.

"So, what's on your mind that's so private we have to fly out of earshot?" DK asks.

Michael's face becomes a somber expression. "Do you really believe this is the Jay we're looking for?"

DK raises an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

Michael crosses his arms and sighs. "After all the adventures up to this point, I've learned never to take situations for granted. If this is Jay, then we've got nothing to worry about. But if it isn't..."

DK nods. "Yeah, I know. We all have to stay on our guard."

"I'm just saying that this seemed a little too easy. We're barely here for an hour or so, and the first human being we end up running into is the one we're looking for. That doesn't seem like too much of a coincidence to you?"

"Well, didn't the Oracle say we'd meet Jay soon after we arrived?"

Michael threw a side-glance in consideration. "True... but then again, the Oracle has made mistakes. It thought we could defeat the enemy in our time period, but then it changed its mind and we ended up here..."

"But what we're doing now is our best chance at survival, or at least our best chance at saving the planet."

"Still, I think we should be careful." Michael crosses his arms again.

"Well, hopefully you're just being paranoid." DK smiles. "It wouldn't be the first time."

Before Michael can retort DK flies back to the group.

"Heh. Cute." Michael says. He closes his eyes and absorbs as much energy from the sunlight as possible. With his solar battery and his backup battery fully charged, he returns to the group.
...
"Where'd you say you guys were from again?" Jay asks the girls.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you." Lara replies.

"I've been through a lot of crazy stuff so far. Try me."

Lara and Rachel glance at each other. "We're from the future."

"The future, huh?" Jay says rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "That would explain your appearance."

"What's wrong with our appearance?" Rachel asks with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Well, you don't look like you're from around here. I mean at least Lara doesn't."

"Why me and not DK?" Lara says with a slight growl.

"Uh," Jay starts to wish he hadn't said anything at all. "DK looks almost normal, except for that body armor of his. You however..."

"So let me get this straight. He can blend in, but I can't?" Lara looks at Rachel. "Are guys stupid in this era too or is it just him?"

"Never mind! I'm sorry I said anything. But I've got to know. What's the future like?"

Lara still a little steamed at the disrespect remained silent. Rachel rolled her eyes in thinking of a way to explain. "Well, you know how back in the 1990's, people were expecting flying cars and neon lights at the turn of the millennium?"

"Yeah?"

"Pretty much the same thing. I mean sure, there have been some technological advancements, but not as much as you'd think."

"A disappointment, when you think about it," DK says, landing beside the group. Glancing at Lara's expression, DK knew better than to ask what happened.
"So, what's our next move?"

(11) Revealed...

2006-01-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

Back in Eltemu, eight hours prior...

Wiping sweat from his brow, Rufus walked up and stared at the artifact, which was shining brightly in the afternoon sunlight, still nestled firmly in the pedestal. Eying the dark purple orb in it's center, Rufus couldn't help but note the striking, liquidy resemblance it had to the portal he had just witnessed opening and closing. As he touched the cold, glassy surface of the orb, Rufus knew he would need to hold on to this artifact. It obviously played a role in opening the portal through which Jay had vanished.

But how can I open this portal again? How did it open up in the first place?
Maybe I missed something in my father's notes - something that will explain how to use this artifact...

With that in mind, Rufus headed back into the second building, where he'd found his father's documents. Exasperated, he cranked his head back to stretch his neck muscles, and noticed the small window behind the wall containing the glass panel, which allowed light to enter into the room and onto the glass panel itself. A small set of mirrors set into the windows frame flashed a sudden glare into his eyes as Rufus froze in mid stretch. Then it occurred to him:

Those panels activated when the light hit them from behind just right. I doubt that happens more than once a day... so these things are probably aligned to reflect the light just right at a certain time of day....
Great... That means I may have to wait until tomorrow to get that portal open again...

"I guess I'll just have to wait this thing out," Rufus sighed, pulling out his cellular phone to call the driver and get some things to tide him over. But the phone was no longer working. He took it outside in hopes of getting reception. No luck. It was then that the phone shut off completely. The battery had died or short-circuited.
"I thought I just charged this thing," Rufus thought out loud, puzzled. "Damn."
He tossed the phone onto the ground in frustration.

His next thought was to get back to the car, but looking between the buildings, Rufus could not see the driver or his vehicle. In all the craziness it seemed the driver had abandoned him.

"I guess that I'll have to... rough it, until tomorrow," Rufus concluded with solemn hesitation, heading back into the second building. "Might as well keep looking for more information..."

Inside, Rufus scanned the remnants of his father's notes carefully. The beam of light from that room had caused such an intense heat that the papers inside had been severely burned or singed, and many of the smaller pens on the table had literally melted into the woodwork below them.
Regardless, Rufus study the papers intently.

After a few minutes, his stomach began to growl. "I need food..." His shoulder also ached, probably bruised from the failed attempt at tackling Jay away from the portal. Within himself, Rufus could feel an anger at the situation boiling up.

Then something caught his eye that scattered everything else from his thoughts. Underneath the table, in the corner of an open cardboard box, was a cassette recorder, visually unscathed. Without hesitation, Rufus snapped it up, rewound the tape and played it back.

"Testing 1...2....3.... Testing... Okay."

It was his father's voice, as expected.

"The date is, well actually, I don't know the exact date, but I know I've been studying in this area alone, for at least a week," his voice pauses, then continues, "The days seem to melt together."
Another pause, follow by a barely audible cough.

"Please excuse me. I'm running low on supplies, and I'm a bit dehydrated."
Another cough.

"In summary, two days ago, I successfully pinpointed the time of day that this portal will open. Yesterday, I was able to send a GPS tracking device through the anomaly in attempt to find its exit point. According to the data broadcast by the GPS, it is just over three thousand miles from my location, in the vicinity of Winter Lake, Mongolia."

A pause.

"However, I still can't quite figure out how the artifact is linked to this 'warp-gate' as I've named it."

A break in recorded audio led to static, then another recording followed.

"This is incredible. The technological ramifications of this discovery are preposterous but true."
A deep breath.

"Somehow, the ancients who developed this Ankh hard-coded it's orb to respond only to the touch of any descendant of its creators. I don't know if this is some sort of DNA recognition system or what else it could be, but I know that I now need to retrieve a living descendant of these ancients. This person is crucial to unlocking the artifact's true potential, as described in the ancients' very vague writings. However, one obstacle remains. I do not have any way of finding that descendant."

A brief bout of static then an abrupt pickup.

"After studying the ancients' historical documentation I have mapped a lineage of their people to a small close-knit group of individuals... Back soon."

Another cut-off, quickly followed by a loud resume.
"Yes! Of that group I narrowed down, it seems there is only one living relative remaining whom I could realistically convince to take on this course of action. Thankfully, he is more than suitable for this... experiment. His name is Jay Spader, and he resides in New Detroit, Michigan."

A brief bout of static.
"I am flying out today, to try and 'recruit' him to help me."
More static. Some clicks as the tape rolled over, and then a final audio blurb.

"I attempted to get Mr. Spader to join me, but he was rather ignorant. But my great mind has saved me once again. Details aside, I have ensured that Jay can reach this location smoothly once he comes to his senses - I know he will. However, to seal the deal, I must take an unplanned course of action."
An intentional pause, and a deep breath.

"I am going to enter the warp-gate myself. If it indeed transports me to Mongolia, I will remain there long enough to prompt Jay and my son, Rufus, to begin a rescue operation. And in case there is any doubt by whoever will listen to this tape, I saw something in Jay's eyes. Perhaps it was a look of determination, somewhat clouded by his reservations. Whatever the case, that look - it told me that he will come... I know... The time is near. I must prepare."

Then static, and only static.

Rufus set down the tape recorder slowly, as his fathers words slowly sunk in.

"I cannot believe he did that!" Rufus finally blurted out into the empty room. His voice echoed slightly.
"And how did he get all that information from three sym-"

Before he could finish his question, a loud noise erupted from outside the building. It was like the loud crackling of a fire, but only lasted for a moment.

"What the...?" He bolted back outside to see who or what had made the noise.

(10) Upon Arrival...

2006-01-07T01:15:00.000-08:00

Icy hot.
Those were the only words Jay could think of that could accurately describe how his body felt as he fell out of nowhere into a freezing pile of snow. Immediately his senses hit him full power, and the intense cold around him sunk in.

"Whoa!!" Jay pushed himself upright, patting down his now ice-reddened forearms.
"Brrr..." He shivered, "Where am I?"

All around him, as far as he could see, were pine trees and bushes, not to mention lots of snow, both on the ground and steadily falling from the gray sky above. Wiping a few flakes from his cheek, Jay could not think to do anything except walk forward in a random direction. So he started forward, trudging through the thick, ankle-deep snow at a sluggish but steady pace.

After about ten steps, Jay felt a tinge of oddness in his mind. Something was missing. Then it hit him, rather painstakingly: Rufus!

Whirling around, Jay scanned the clearing for any other signs of life. A fox was running into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, but no other signs of life seemed to exist. Suddenly the altercation before his transportation flooded back into his memory.

Rufus knocked me toward the orb, tried to grab my hand, to no avail.
He fell backward, and... He must've not made it through!
I... what do I do now?

The dull pain of confusion made his temples throb with a kind of soreness. He quickly shook off the subtle emotional response and thought out loud.

"I have to figure out where I am. Then I have to get out of here."

He continued walking and, after pushing through several thickets of small pine trees, he came upon a gigantic lake. It stretched out farther than the whistling blankets of snow would allow him to see. In the distance, right about where the landscape faded into white, he could see some semi-truck sized icebergs bobbing violently in the nearly frozen water.

"I'm not going to last long in this weather," Jay said to himself, pushing forward. He shoved his hands in his pockets and felt the left connect with his cell phone. He pulled it out, crossed his fingers and flipped it open.

It was powered off. Restarting it, the words 'NO SIGNAL' blinked in bright red letters, before the phone died again with a hiss from an electrical surge. "Weird..." Jay closed the phone in dismay, trying to think of the positive in the situation. "At least I know where I am - in the middle of nowhere."

This notion did little to brighten his spirits, but he kept walking forward. Eventually the snow thinned out a bit, but he was so tired from the walking that he'd done already that walking at all was exhausting. He shook off the pain in his aching leg muscles and continued forward.

It seemed like an eternity that Jay walked, sloshing through the disheveled snow-coated landscape, which was like walking through quicksand that didn't want to pull you down. Jay's entire body ached with a vehemence, but somehow he was able to ignore the frost developing on his face and press onward.

Thirty minutes later, Jay found himself almost half way around the lake, and on the brink of collapsing. His limbs were almost completely numb from the cold, and he was about to give up when, ahead of him, he saw a relieving sight - a group of people. They were shuffling in his general direction, slowly at first. Then, as one of the posse apparently spotted him, the whole group shot forward with a burst of speed.

Jay lost control of his legs and collapsed to his knees; it was an uncontrolled response to seeing his possible rescuers. As the group neared him, Jay stared at these individuals with a combination of awe and caution. Two looked like a normal guy and girl, about his age, except the blond-haired girl was dressed in clothing fit for a ninja, and the guy sported the attire of an army jock. The other two were a male and female, but they had bodies that were a combination of human physiology and robotic components like armor and weaponry.

Is this some sort of crazy hallucination? Jay wondered, struggling internally against his exhaustion.

"Quickly, we need to warm him up!" the robotic girl hollered, rushing to his position.
"Got it covered," the blond girl replied, kneeling down in front of Jay, just before he passed out.
...

When Jay awoke, the group was hovering around him. They had lain him on a large, fallen tree trunk and somehow warmed him up significantly. Even his legs felt substantially less strained than before. Regardless of the help they'd given him, Jay kept a weary eye on this out of place group of individuals.

"Hey! He's up." Jay recognized the blond girl's voice.
"It's about time," he heard another voice say, "he's been asleep for almost eight hours."

But before he could say anything, the robotic girl stepped up to his side.
"Hey, you're alright. That's awesome! By the way, the name's Lara. Who might you be?"

(9) Awaking the Transport...

2006-01-06T02:29:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, back in Kazakhstan...

"Great," Jay replied, hoping for good news, "and hopefully this will this help."
He held up the artifact for Rufus to see.

"Nice," Rufus replied, "one less thing to worry about. But I don't know how it fits into this puzzle."

"Puzzle? What do you mean?"

"Well..." Rufus paused, "It's complicated."

Jay frowned. "Uh, uncomplicate it then."

"Well..." Rufus paused again. "I noticed that the bizarre writing in my father's notes carried a sort of pattern. The entire string of symbols were just three separate symbols written over and over again. I've seen my father use a similar technique when learning other languages. He found that repeating the characters in a word helped him decode it somehow."

"So..." Jay replied, "I still don't follow."

Rufus began rubbing his temple. "From the looks of things, I don't think he figured out the language. But I think that's because it wasn't a language at all."

"Then... what was it?"

"It dawned on me that I'd seen two of the symbols elsewhere."
Rufus began walking towards the third ruined building. Jay followed.

"Each of these buildings have one thing in common. It's something we've seen in the first two already."

Rufus entered the third building through its barren doorway, then pointed to yet another black tarp covering a wall that looked almost exactly like those in the first two buildings.

"The glass panels?" Jay raised an eyebrow intriguingly. The realization hit him quickly as he stepped up to the tarp.

Rufus nodded. "I think my father may have figured out the secret of these antiquated panels. Whatever it was..."

Jay pulled the tarp away, revealing the final glass panel, which glistened in the low light behind it. This particular panel resembled a triangle, except that its corners were rounded and a small blob of thickened glass was spread across its center, resulting in a liquidy texture.

Rufus stared at the symbol, realizing it matched the third symbol he'd seen in his father's notes.

"...it caused him to disappear."

Jay looked down at his watch. It was off by a significant amount, as he hadn't reset it after traveling across multiple time zones. But he quickly did the math, and came to the conclusion that it was nearly six o'clock.

The sun should be at just the right point, Jay thought.
Then it dawned on him that he had no idea what that meant.

"Wait a sec..." Rufus started, "Glass panels... they... glass reflects... or... refracts light. But these things are too big to be refractors, right? So..."

Before Jay could stop it, a sudden urgency flooded his senses, causing him to involuntarily tackle Rufus the ground. Rufus grunted from the blunt force of the fall, but froze as the glass panel began to glow brighter.

Behind the wall, Jay could see sunlight shining in full force through an opening he could've predicted would be there. The window angled the light into the glass panel which glowed at first, then refracted a gigantic, triangular beam of light right over their heads, through the doorway, and beyond. The glass panel darkened in color, and soon a sweltering red filtered itself into the beam. Then Jay noticed the room began to get very warm.

As droplets of sweat poured down his face, Jay motioned for Rufus to roll to the side. He complied and they both scrambled to their feet, standing adjacent to the sweltering beam of light, which now took on that liquidy look inherent in the glass panel itself.

"How are we going to get out?" Rufus hollered frantically, backing against the wall. It fell apart behind him, creating an opening just big enough for them to duck through. Once outside, they spotted the beam of light, easily visible, vibrantly roasting the pedestal centered between the buildings. Oddly, the pedestal seemed resistant to the heat, and Jay quickly realized it was made of some sort of hardened metal. As the dirt and grime atop the pedestal melted away, a shiny surface was revealed, which instantly reflected the beam skyward.

To avoid the heat of the red beam, the duo headed towards the first building. To their left, the second building began to hum as light invaded its glass panel. From their position, they saw the panel's crossed lines illuminate through the doorway. Light shot forth into two, crossed flat beams, which quickly fluctuated into a luminescent green color, and jetted out to meet the center pedestal as well. When that beam collided with the first, both beams reacted with a flurry of sparks, then refracted upward at a slightly different angle.

Turning away, Jay and Rufus continued towards the first building, both in the same mindset:

We either cover up that last panel with the tarp, or wait and see what happens.

But it was too late to make a decision. An ear-splitting hiss erupted from the first building, followed by the eruption of a third beam of light, in the shape of a circle. This one was larger than the first two, and darkened to an aquamarine color as it touched down with the pedestal.

Time fell into slow motion as Jay found himself running full force towards the pedestal. A single string of thoughts repeated over and over in his head.

The artifact is the key; It will unite the beams...

From far back, Rufus stared in horror as Jay made contact with the focal point of the infernal beams of light. The artifact in Jay's now outstretched hand shot out a bubble of pulsing violet energy, which forced back the sweltering heat of the three colliding beams of light. Thrusting downward, Jay forced the screw shaped end of the artifact into a small slot in the center of the pedestal.

A magnificent explosion knocked Jay backward as the purple energy disappeared. As the beams of light regained their hold on the now decorated pedestal, a series of blinding white flashes erupted. A noise followed unlike any Jay or Rufus had ever heard. This indescribable noise overtook all other noises.
Then reality hit the brakes.

Sparks erupting from the pedestal seemed to phase in and out of a state of slow motion. The beams jetting into the sky vanished, but only because they were pressing together now, wrapped around the artifact in a swirling vortex. In an instant, the vortex became a translucent orb of swirling matter. It made no noise, but inherited the colors of the beams invoking it, turning a liquidy, white luminous color after a few seconds.

As time caught up with reality, Jay met the ground and rolled over groaning. Miraculously unscathed, Jay pulled himself up and both he and Rufus stared at the swirling orb in overdue awe.

Enter without haste!
It won't last much longer!

Jay had no idea from where he was gaining these insightful thoughts, but accepted them instinctively. He took a cautious step towards the vibrantly lucent orb, which had now grown to about ten feet high, and was at least as wide.

"Jay...!" Rufus interjected. But Jay couldn't be stopped. Truth be told, Jay couldn't stop himself either. Something was drawing him towards the radiant, energetic orb. It was like an intolerable itch he could not scratch - without this orb. He took another step forward, and an unexplicable wind ruffled his unkept hair.

Rufus stared in bewilderment as Jay stepped forward, a mere few inches from the raging ball of energy. "Jay!"

Jay looked back quickly. "Don't worry, Rufus. It'll take us where we want to go."

"How do you know?" Rufus yelled back. But Jay ignored him, turning back to the glowing orb, which began to rattle as Jay neared, as if anticipating his entrance.

Rufus wasn't sure what they were looking at, even though Jay seemed confident that it was some s0rt of portal to another place... But he couldn't allow himself to let Jay risk his life testing this assumption. Commanding all his energy, Rufus lunged forward in attempt to tackle Jay to the ground.

This bold move backfired severely. In a flurry of movements, Jay fell forward into the orb. Rufus grabbed Jay's hand in an attempt to pull him out, but the pull of the now pulsing orb was too much. The ball of energy swirled violently as Jay dissapeared within, then at all once the beams of light faded away, shattering the focal orb into nothingness.

A mild shock wave sent Rufus reeling backward, skidding on his back for a few feet from the force of the entire movement. It took him a few seconds to regain his bearings, and stand upright. Then he drooped in disbelief. Jay was really gone, and Rufus was the only person who knew how it had happened. He knew to find his father, he would now also have to find Jay.

(8) Residual evil...

2005-12-22T23:59:00.000-08:00

Elsewhere...

"Wait a second!" Lara blurted out mid stride. "Why would there be a native tribe like this in Mongolia in this time period?"

"I don't follow," DK called back, dodging a fallen tree trunk protruding from the snow.

"Mongolia was-" Lara started, then dived into a roll as several spears sizzle past her head. She elegantly popped back up into her run full sprint, "-civilized by at least a hundred years ago."

"Are you sure?" Michael answered quizzically.

"Idiot, they're wearing loin-cloths in the snow!" Rachel added peeved, "what more evidence do you need that these guy don't belong somehow?"

"Okay, everybody freeze!" The party stopped altogether with the wildly ranting tribesmen closing in behind them. "You're right." Michael said calmly, despite the fact everybody's adrenaline was pumping. He raised his arm and formed an ice barrier between them and the onslaught of spears.
"A technique I learned back in Blizzard Lake... that should hold off the attack temporarily." But the look of sweat and paleness on his face showed that his energy was severely depleted.

"But if what you're saying is true, then where'd they come from?" DK asked, throwing Lara a skeptical glance.

"I think I know," Rachel suddenly piped in. She pointed toward Michael's head. "Does that look familiar?"

"Huh?" Michael reached for the top of his head, feeling something slimy. "Shampoo?"
Then it began to burn his hand. "Ow! I guess not."

"That looks like black slime from that tentacle that DK sliced off of you, back in our time," Lara noted. "It's part of their source."

"Their source?" Michael repeated.

"Remember? Their energy source was the hatred and doubt in people's hearts. They captured and transformed it into that tangible energy source that's on Michael's head right now." Rachel said.

"That's what spawned those monsters we fought in our time," DK piped in, stating the obvious.

"Great, liquid darkness. Something we don't need right now." Michael said with a humph.

At that moment, the barrier shattered, shocking everyone into remembering what was going on in the first place.

"Whoops, almost forgot about those guys." DK glanced at the others as they started to run full speed again.

"So are these people for real or not?"

Just then, one of the tribes people tripped on a snow-covered tree branch and fell flat on its face. However, to the shock of the party, when face met floor, the being instantly burst into the same liquid darkness it had formed out of and evaporated without a trace.

They immediately stopped running and glared at their artificial attackers. "Well, that explains a lot."
"So can I...?" Rachel said, reaching for her swords. DK nodded, charging up his arm cannon. Rachel grinned, unsheathing her weapons. "Okay boys. Gather around. There's plenty of me to go around." Then with a warrior's cry, she propelled upward into the air and dived into the fray, causing dark slime to splatter all over the white landscape.

DK blasted a few of the tribesmen into shreds. Lara casually stood back, realizing there was no real need for her assistance this time.

Michael took a step forward, then collapsed.

After the dust and snow settled, all that was left of the battle was the residual goo on everyone's weapons.

Lara and Rachel shook their weapons clean.
"Puh! Gak!" DK coughed, wiping grime from his face, "Well, that was fun, if not a bit messy."

Rachel and Lara giggled at the lame joke. Then they noticed Michael, doubled over in pain.

"Michael! Are you alright?"

Michael smiled weakly. "I just need some time to recharge." he said before passing out.

"Michael?" Rachel attempted to shake him awake. "Michael!"

Instinctively, she used the tip of her sword to fling the liquid darkness residue on Michael head away, which DK incinerated midair with a small blast from his arm cannon. Then he quickly blasted the remaining globules of slime that remained from their fallen foes.

"We need to get him to some type of shelter, quickly!" she said, concern etched all over her face.

"But where are we going to find..." DK began.

"Hey, guys" Lara interrupted. "is that what I think it is?"

The group looked in the direction she was pointing.
Sure enough, Winter Lake loomed in front of them, large, icy, and frozen over.

(7) Treading deeper...

2005-12-21T00:25:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan...

As he emerged from the vehicle, Jay noted the unsettling silence that captured the landscape.

"It's so... quiet," he thought out loud. The driver stepped out of the vehicle and nodded. "Since that incident I informed you about, no wildlife has dared near this area. I find it ironic that we have chosen to do just that."

"Irony is irrelevant," Rufus replied, pocketing his PDA and closing the door to the jeep.

Jay took off his jacket. "It's a bit warm here too." The afternoon sun blazed from an odd direction, reflecting off of some clouds in the distance. The light cast haphazard shadows off the three ruined buildings ahead of them.

"Here." Rufus took Jay's jacket and threw it in the jeep, then put on a pair of aviator sunglasses.

"I will wait here," the driver suddenly offered, "I am curious, but I value my sanity. No offenses to you two of course."

"Of course," Rufus retorted satirically, starting off towards the ruins a few thousand feet ahead. Jay followed quickly.

The sights to behold quickly made Jay forget about the eerie silence. In the distance, the hills were quite striking, clashing severely with the ruins in front of them. A slightly overcast sky blew past them gracefully.
At about a hundred feet from the ruins, the plant life that had been scattered about on the ground around them suddenly disappeared.

"That's strange..." Jay said quietly, "It's as if something is keeping the plants from growing any closer to the ruins." Rufus shrugged, but didn't respond.

Ahead of them, the closest of the three ruined buildings rose up to meet them. It seemed to be the most complete of the three buildings as well. The outside wall was made of a dark gray stone, intricately stacked in a brick-like fashion. Except for a small hole near the top of the building, no point of entry was visible.

Suddenly, Rufus slowed his pace.
"Jay. There is something else you should know." He continued to walk, but eyed Jay warily.

"Until recently, nobody knew these ruins existed. About a year ago, a lengthy storm bombarded this valley; a storm unlike any the locals had ever experienced. Harsh rains, heavy winds, and massive hail stones tore up the ground, totally reshaping the landscape. In the process, these ruins were revealed. Or at least parts of them were uncovered. It was not too long after when my father and his original excavation team came to investigate. As it turned out, the ruins had been pretty well preserved, so digging them up was a piece of cake. A few months later, they were ready to study what they'd found."

Rufus paused as they reached the building, then finished up by saying, "We need to figure out what they discovered... and if it relates to my father's disappearance."

Jay put a hand on the rough bricks of the building's exterior, expecting it to be warm from the heat of the sun bathing it. Oddly, it was cold to the touch.
Next to him, Rufus spoke, "I think the entrance is on the other side."
Jay nodded, then backed up to look at the hole he'd seen earlier. At this range he could make out its spherical shape easily, which was about the size of a softball. "Weird," Jay muttered, "What's the point of a window that small?"

It was then that Jay realized Rufus had disappeared. He quickly made his way around the side of the building and walked its length to the other side. Along the way, he was able to gauge exactly how big this structure measured. In this case, it appeared to be about a hundred yards long. Jay guessed the back side had been about half that length. Above he noticed chunks of stone missing from various places about the wall. As he rounded the corner to face what Rufus maintained was the front of the building, Jay noticed a pointed stone overhang that jutted from the face of the building, essentially an extension of the roof. Just under that, but above the main entrance, was a aquamarine blue circle, etched into the stone of the building's exterior.

"Weird, eh?" Rufus hollered from behind Jay, who whirled around, slightly startled.

Rufus pointed to the other two buildings which also carried the same pointed overhangs. He scratched his head, and then pointed to a dirt speckled circular pedestal which stood at about an equal distance from all three buildings, about three feet high and wide enough for someone to lay down across.

"They all seem to point at this pedestal, which strikes me as the focal point of this whole establishment."

Jay shrugged. "It must serve some purpose, but what?"

Jay also noted that the other two buildings had circles etched above their doorways, but they were forest green and crimson red alternatively.

"I don't know," Rufus started, "but I'm going to find out." He walked past Jay into the first building, through an opening that appeared to have once held a door of some sort. From inside he heard Rufus's voice echo. "I'm sure we can find some notes and things in here somewhere. Maybe they will help us."

Jay nodded, walking into the building. "We can only hope."
No more than ten feet in the door, Jay met a wall covered by large black tarp. To his side, Jay noticed a opening leading farther back into the building. "Rufus?"
No response. "Rufus?"

"Sorry." Rufus reappeared through the same opening, shrugging. "I didn't find anything back there, but I got distracted by the writings on some of the walls."
He pointed back at them. "But I have no idea what they mean."

Jay glanced through the doorway, although realistically uninterested. "It's a history of this village."

Rufus blinked, surprised. "And... how would you know that?"

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Know what?"

"What that writing says?" Rufus eyed him curiously.

"I-" Jay stuttered, "I... I honestly, I don't know. It... it just came to me."

Rufus was at a loss for words, but he broke an odd silence quickly.
"Okay. This is no time for jokes."

Jay shrugged, leaning against the black tarp on the wall. "Whatever."

Rufus turned to exit the building and heard Jay yelp as he lost his balance. Whirling around, he witnessed Jay tripping and grabbing for something to keep himself upright. In this case, the tarp had to suffice. But it was not hung securely and easily separated from the wall. Jay cried out as he hit the floor and was covered with a mass of black. As Jay struggled to pull himself out from under the tarp, Rufus could only stare in awe at what had been revealed.

Glistening in the light being projected through it from behind, a large crystal panel stood before him, high up on the wall. It was not huge - maybe four feet by four feet - but the vibrance of the light shimmering through it made it seem larger.

"Wow." Jay finally pushed away the remainder of the tarp blocking his view, "It's... wow..."

Rufus noticed the refracted light aiming to and fro in multiple directions. He also noticed that the square panel of glass carried a woven oval shape in its center. "I wonder what this thing does..."

"Maybe this was a church of some sort," Jay suggested.

"Nah," Rufus responded, "This building seems too small."

Jay shrugged. "Then I give up." He headed back towards the entrance.
"Where do you suppose we'll find that artifact anyway?"

Rufus answered as they walked back outside. "I don't know where the artifact is, but I'm assuming it is around here somewhere, because my father never brought it back with him - he was supposed to send it somewhere to be re-dated if you recall - but I checked with them. They never received it."

Jay suspected that the artifact had disappeared along with Mason, but said nothing of this theory.
It was after all, only a theory.

They reached the second building quickly, which was in even greater disarray than the first. The entrance was almost twice the size, due to the fact that a large chunk of the wall had been knocked out, including the door. They could immediately see another tarp covered wall, along with a portable table and a couple of foldable chairs. Rufus first went to the table, which was covered with dirt, papers, and some archaeological tools. He began reading the papers as Jay pulled off the second tarp to reveal another glass panel, although it bared a woven center that resembled the letter "X", made up of two crossed lines.

"These papers are records of the dig," Rufus explained, pausing to read more of them.

"It looks like they stopped digging right after they found the artifact in question, but..." A confused smirk spread across his face. "The only records taken after that date are written in some bizarre language. It doesn't even look native, like Arabic or anything... Odd..."

Jay checked his watch. More time had passed than he realized. "We need to find that artifact."

Rufus looked back at him. "You don't have to remind me, Jay. Are you on a schedule or something?"

Jay shrugged. "No... I..." He let his voice fade , then bolted out of the building impatiently.

Jay eyed the third building as he neared it.

Rufus will be reading those papers for awhile, he thought. I can save us time by checking the third building right away.

Halfway to the third building Jay stopped, then cocked his head.
What was that noise?

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a blemish in the dirt, off to the left, away from the third building. From that same direction came a low pitched hum, barely audible.

"That's odd."

Jay walked towards the inconsistency to get a better look, the hum still ringing in his ears. He found a small dirt mound, freshly created.

"Too small to be a grave."

He approached it without hesitation, then began digging away at the dirt. Less than a minute later he pulled out a shiny piece of silver, shaped like a cross with a loop on top. Jay would've assumed it was an Egyptian Ankh except that it had a large, dark violet crystal orb set in the center of its loop. Also, the bottom ended in a point, treaded with grooves in a screw like fashion. When he saw the bizarre inscriptions on its side, he realized he was holding the artifact they had been looking for all along. For some odd reason, the inscriptions seemed familiar, though Jay couldn't reason why.

As he stood up, Jay realized the hum had faded away.

"Weird..." he shrugged, turning to face an approaching Rufus.

"Jay... I think I figured out what happened to my father."

(6) An Unwelcoming Committee...

2005-12-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile...

"Ugh." Rachel found her head buried faced down in a pile of snow. She righted herself up, still disoriented from the time jump. She shook and patted the ice out of her naturally blond hair. Blinking a few times, she found that she was in some sort of snowdrift. She immediately looked around for her comrades.

"D.K!" she called. "Lara! Michael! Where are you guys?"

"Here." D.K. and Lara were trudging up behind her, brushing off snow from their bodies.

"Where's Michael?" D.K. asked. Rachel shrugged. Then she let out a quick shriek and immediately jumped up. She had felt something moving directly underneath her butt.

"What the..." Rachel peered closer and saw that she was sitting on Michael's face. Michael let out a moan of anguish.

"Pain...crushing...warm...soft..." he babbled in delirium.

"Sorry Michael! I didn't see you there!" Rachel and the others dug him out of the ice and propped him up.

Michael shook his head clearing out any cobwebs left in his head. "I thought you were on a diet," he mumbled.

Rachel looked at him for a split-second before smacking the back of his head. "I am, you jerk."

"So this is Blizzard Lake." D.K. said. "I've only heard of it, but never actually seen it."

"You mean, Winter Lake." Rachel replied. "It doesn't become Blizzard Lake until..." She looked around with a puzzled expression. "Actually, nobody knows exactly when this place becomes Blizzard Lake."

"Man, look at this place." Michael said, rubbing the back of his head. "It looks completely different than from the last time we were here." He grinned. "It's also a whole lot warmer."

"You call this warm?" Lara said through chattering teeth.

"Hey, it could be worse." Michael said. "At least we don't have to worry about being attacked."

Of course, the moment he said that, a spear thunked right between his legs. The party looked up and saw a native tribe charging at them, weapons flailing, shouting in their native tongue.

Rachel started to whip out her weapons when D.K. shouted "No! We don't know what it'll do to our time line!"

"Then what do you suggest?!" It didn't take them two seconds to figure out the answer to that.

"Run!" The party ran in the opposite direction.

Rachel glared at Michael. "You had to freakin' say it. 'It could be worse.' Why didn't you just keep your mouth shut?"

(5) Back to the Present...

2005-12-12T00:35:00.000-08:00

It was no mystery what these coordinates implied, and Jay knew exactly what had to be done.
As they left the coffee shop, Rufus discussed Jay's participation in finding Mason Biggs.

"It's apparent that you're inexplicably connected to my father's disappearance, and according to his last communication, you are the only person who can find him. If you help me find my father, I will pay you what he had agreed to pay you for your services, only in this case it will be for helping find him."
Jay zipped up his coat, staring out at the gray skies above. "Actually, I was already planning on helping you. Although I can't explain why, somehow I feel I need to do this..."

"In any case," Biggs Jr. insisted, "I will pay you for your assistance."

Jay nodded in agreement. "So where do we begin?"

"We need to find out where those coordinates from my father's business card point. I already have my suspicions we're looking at someplace in Kazakhstan, although I want to be absolutely certain."

Jay raised an eyebrow. "So...?"

"Get some sleep," Rufus suggested, stifling a yawn, "you'll need it. I'll send my driver over to pick you up first thing in the morning. Then, we'll meet at the airport." Jay nodded.

Rufus flagged down a taxi cab. "In the meantime, I have to get back to my hotel and make some calls to arrange everything. Also, I have some connections in the Pentagon. We can get recent aerial photographs and maps of the area before we head over there."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jay replied, looking down at his watch.
One AM. Definitely time to get some shut-eye.

Rufus stepped up to the taxi as it eased up to the curb, then turned back. "Thank you, Jay."
Jay waved off the comment. "Don't thank me yet. Your father is still missing."

...

Jay hurled the alarm clock across his bedroom as it blared a local radio station's rock and roll music. It shut off mid-air as the momentum unplugged it from the wall, then rebounded off the bathroom door and into a pile of dirty clothes. Luckily, Jay had glanced at the display before practicing his shot put technique. It was just after 9 o'clock. No sooner had he gotten out of bed, then he heard a car horn blare from outside. Checking the window, he spotted a dark silver limousine, apparently converted from an Ashton Martin sports car.

"He has good tastes. I'll give him that," Jay muttered to himself, throwing on some jeans and a t-shirt. He grabbed a small suitcase he packed and set it next to the door. Running into the bathroom, he quickly cleaned himself up.
Once outside, Jay eyed the limousine, hoping it actually was the driver Rufus was supposed to have sent.
The driver side door swung open and a clean shaven, gray haired, neatly dressed man stepped out.

"Are you Jay?" he queried in a worn British accent.

"That would be me," Jay answered stepping up to the vehicle.

"Excellent. I was instructed to take you to the airport by my employer, Rufus Biggs."

...

Ten minutes later, the limousine pulled up to the city airport's international terminal.
Jay stepped from the passenger's door, as the driver opened it for him, then reached for his suitcase.

"Jay! Just in time," Biggs Jr. walked hurriedly from the terminal entrance to the limo, "Our plane leaves in fifteen minutes." He slipped the driver a couple twenty dollar bills. "Gas money. Fill her up, if you could. Then take a few days off." The driver nodded, then got back in the vehicle.

As the limousine pulled out of the drop off zone, Jay and Rufus hurried through the entrance.
"I have a private jet which will take us directly to the where we need to go," Rufus explained, directing Jay to a hallway far off to the side, "One of the perks of running a business like mine."

...

In just a half hour, the duo was airborne, comfortably resting in plush seats that were part of Rufus's private jet, aptly named the Bigg One. Jay sipped a cola as Rufus restlessly typed away at a laptop in front of him.
Abruptly, he stopped.
"Here we go," Rufus swiveled the laptop so Jay could see the screen, "what you're seeing is a bird's eye view of Winter Lake, Mongolia. This is where those coordinates pointed." He pointed in the general vicinity, then punched a few keys, which zoomed out the shot to show more land area.
"My father was last seen at this site, near Eltemu, Kazakhstan." Rufus pointed to an area west, and just slightly south, from the area of Winter Lake. As Jay scanned the map, he realized that Eltemu was over 200 miles away from Winter Lake.
"You're positive this where those coordinates point?" Jay questioned.
"I got this information from my friend at the Pentagon, and they typically know what they're talking about."
Jay shrugged. "Good point. Although it seems unlikely that we'd find your dad 200 miles from where he disappeared, right?"
"I honestly do not know what to believe at this point," Rufus replied with a strained tone of voice, "but I know my father is an decent man. I know he wouldn't give you information that would lead us astray."
Jay nodded. "Fair enough."
"On that note," Rufus continued, "we are going to land at an airstrip near Eltemu, then investigate the site where my father disappeared for any additional information. Afterwards, we will head to this Winter Lake in Mongolia."
Rufus closed the laptop, which then powered off automatically.
"According to my contacts, he did not bring a whole lot with him for his trip to Eltemu, so it probably won't take that long for us to check things out."

...

"You weren't far off," Jay sighed, staring out at the barren landscape in front of him. A mud stained field, it contained some scattered shrubbery and three collapsed structures that could have been houses or small buildings of some sort. To be frank, Jay hadn't seen much of anything since he left the airstrip.
"This place looks deserted."

As their jeep near the location, the driver spoke in a thick accent.
"You are not mistaken, sir. After your friend disappeared, the locals that were assisting him in this dig refused to come back. They believe that something unnatural has occurred here, so it would be extremely bad luck to return here again."

"So...," Jay had to know, "why would you risk coming here?"

The driver paused, a stricken look on his face. "I suppose you could say my curiosity outweighs my fear."

Their vehicle hit a dip in the road and bobbed violently.
"Sorry," the driver spit out, compensating by thrusting the wheel quickly.

Rufus waved it off, shifting in his uncomfortably unpadded seat. "No big deal, we're almost there anyway."
He plucked a personal digital assistant from his coat pocket and tapped a few keys. "Jay, I have a copy of my father's most recently published report of findings from this site on my PDA here. It seems that they stopped the digs about three weeks ago. This after finding an "unidentified" artifact dated to over three centuries ago. From what I read, it seems they encountered some confusion about its origins. Although it dated to about 350 years ago, the inscriptions on its surface matched those of some artifacts from another site that dated to about 1500 years ago. I guess this discrepancy halted the dig, because my father wrote that the artifact was to be re-dated at another location."

Jay contemplated this as the jeep slowed to a halt. "This artifact may be of some importance to us."
Rufus nodded. "I agree."
Then the driver cleared his throat. "There is something else you should know, sirs."
He looked at Rufus. "I was told something very disturbing by a local who worked for your father..."
He paused, as if struggling to continue.
Jay leaned forward. "Go on."
The driver nodded.
"He told me that an artifact, quite possibly the one of which you speak, was causing disease among those who came too near it. Not disease you can see, but disease in the mind... disease of the soul."
The driver squeezed his eyes shut, as if trying to recall the conversation more accurately.
"At first, it was only minor outbursts. Panics. They subsided quickly. But then workers began to break out in screaming tantrums. They began to pull out their hair in unrooted angst. Many were taken to local hospitals for help. The few that remained quickly thought up any excuse to leave."
The driver cocked his head. "But... for some reason Mr. Biggs was immune to its effects. He continued to study it until he went back to the Americas unannounced. I know this because I drove him here and back almost everyday."

Rufus stuttered at the news. "S-so, do you know how he disappeared?"

The driver slumped down in his chair. "When he returned from the 'States I took him back just once. I usually wait to see if he needs me to pick up anything from the market in town for his day's meals. But he told me just to take the day off and pick him up in the morning. I returned the next day... but he was nowhere to be found."
The driver sent the car into motion once again. "That, sirs, is everything I know."

A dead silence pervaded as Jay and Rufus took this all in. The driver broke it quickly.
"We have arrived, sirs."

(4) Transcending Reflection...

2005-11-11T00:56:00.000-08:00

Streaks of blinding light clouded the vision of Michael McMann and his allies as time pulled them backwards. Their limbs flew through space helplessly, their body functions completely stopping. There was no need to breathe, no need to blink. They were at the mercy of the time stream's current. As they transcended the fourth dimension, this über-powerful posse glimpsed their entire lives in an instant. Unformed words seemed to literally become summaries of their entire memories...

Delta Knight; Half-man, half-cyborg; Born in 3056, a creation of genius inventor, Professor Mokto. Delta Knight (commonly referred to as 'DK') was a hugely successful result of the Professor's life's work in cybernetics (aka techno-organics). One of the first self-aware cyborgs (the first being a certain, well-known blue boy), Delta Knight set out to help the world become a better place using his techno-organic abilities like enhanced strength, natural forest-green body armor, and powerful arm cannon weapon to fight crime. To boot, Delta Knight's father designed him with the ability to upgrade his hardware - for his arm cannon to deploy more powerful firepower and is some cases, for his physical structure to gain new abilities - via preprogrammed data chips he could upload into his system at will.
Following in the footsteps of his other siblings (the Professor's other cyborg successes), Delta Knight sought to take down big wig crime lords and other evils that plagued the planet.
One particular escapade involved the insidious ASA Corporation that attempted to create a super-powered cyborg based on Professor Mokto's cybernetic technologies. Successfully taking down the ASA's ringleader and a couple prototype ASA cyborg soldiers, Delta Knight thought the worst of the world's evils had been laid to rest... until recently...

Michael McMann; His true name is Rocky Xavier Light. Years ago his step-sister, Rebecca, (then 10) was playing in the woods one morning, when a swarm of robot rogues attacked her. She would've died if it weren't for a mysterious cloaked figure who came to her rescue, saving her. Without a word, he gave her a bundle of blankets and disappeared without a trace. Inside the blankets was a newborn infant, hardly breathing, beaten and seemingly unconscious. Rebecca ran as fast as she could back home. Her father was an 8th generation biotechnorganic medical researcher. Seeing the baby almost on the brink of death, he performed a very rarely done procedure that's only been successful once in history. Miraculously, the procedure went without a hitch and the infant was saved. The only downside was, his body was now techno-organic - half biological, half mechanical. The boy seemed to have a rapid aging rate due to the procedure and in just 5 years, he grew up from infant to a healthy, athletic built, 18 year old. His aging process evened out, leaving him to grow at a normal rate. Unlike most young adults his age, his strength and agility is almost unmatched. Over the years, he has unleashed dormant abilities and powers within himself, enhancing himself even further with the occasional upgrade. With a close group of friends and family he realized that an event in his past was about to make an unexpected change to his future, leading up to the variable present...

Lara; half-woman, half-cyborg; Another of Professor Mokto's successes, Lara left her creator's home to take on the masses of thugs inhabiting a nearby crime-ridden city. She became well-known for her quick reflexes and tendency to "over-punish" criminals that were unlucky enough to receive her version of justice. Sporting a dark shade of metallic pink armor, Lara donned the code name "MegaChic" for a brief few years. However, Lara ended up a test subject in the ASA Corporation's sinister hidden laboratories after she haphazardly underestimated a powerful drug lord. By extreme luck, Delta Knight accidentally discovered and freed her during his mission to rescue another cybernetic sibling. She aided Delta Knight in his mission and, along with a few other good crime fighters, they were able to complete his mission and take down the evil ASA Corporation in the process.
Content with her successes, Lara was shocked soon afterwards, when she encountered an enemy she could have never anticipated...

Rachel; Passionate, beautiful, and ruthless. These are just some of the qualities that this hot blond commands. Rachel was a princess from a distant land, Garden of Eden. However, a forced marriage drove her away to the city of Ultima to live as a normal teenage girl. She had met Michael through his sister, Rebecca. An incident occurred with Michael saving her from being beaten into a coma. Ever since then, they've had a strange and kinky relationship throughout the years. Her expert sense of fashion was paired off with her expert gymnastic skills. She was one of the brightest and the most athletic of girls her age, having mastered a rare form of capoeria by age 12. To boot, she also became skilled with a multitude of weaponry, including her weapon of choice: a deadly energy whip.
Over the years, she and Michael have gotten ever closer to becoming a couple. Due to a series of unfortunate events, though, it's been a struggle for both of them. But now, an event that neither of them could have predicted brought them closer together than ever before...

Delta Knight and the group winced as other bits and pieces of their lives seemed to physically slice at them from all sides. Events throughout history, known and unknown flashed faster and faster. And just when everything seemed to overwhelm their fragile minds...

Time stood still.

Catching up to their present's past, the group was "hiccuped" from the momentum of time flow to their destination: Winter Lake, Mongolia - one thousand years earlier.

(3) A Millenium in the Future...

2005-10-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

In the blink of an eye, centuries pass.

Humankind progresses, builds and grows…and continues to fight wars.

The more things change…

However, an even greater threat has risen not only determined to destroy humans, but all of reality itself!
They are enemies from the ancient past…with powers that were locked away, never to be unleashed ever again...

Only one force can stand against them…

But they can only do so much against such overwhelming odds!

“YA-HAAAA! We got you now!”

Michael McMann (Codename: Triple M) was trapped. He didn't think this would ever happen. Despite the numerous battles and experiences he and his friends went through to get here, he never would've expected the threat that was facing him now.

As he gripped his energy sword, he ran over what had just happened. He started this journey to undo a mistake of the past. Along the way, friends, old and new have joined the fight in order to save not just their time line, but to save their very existence from never happening!

In the split-second of peace he had before diving back into the fray, he watched his companions fighting with everything they had.

His girlfriend, Rachel: beautiful, blond warrior, master of the twin swords was thrashing everything, left and right.

His best friend, Duke: sunglasses wearing, smack-talking dude, equipped with only his fists and gloves capable of energy bursts.

His half-sister, Rebecca: quiet, brunette mechanic, ex-novice of the bo staff, whacking and poking any enemy that got in her way.

Rachel's cousin: Natalia: animal-shifting, meta morph, currently in a wolf morph, chewing off the leg of an attacker.

And his rival, Zack: enemy turned ally, responsible for this entire mess, but events went out of his control and was now trying to redeem himself by fighting alongside the side of good.

The split-second it took him to process all that, a metal tentacle burst out of nowhere and coils itself around his throat! Adrenaline rushing through his veins, he desperately tries to slice through it, but he can't get a good angle. His vision blurs as he starts to black out...

“Let him go, you walking trashcans!" A beam of light slices through the air and dismembers Michael's captor. Michael throws off the limp piece of metal with disgust. He looks up at his savior as he equips his Plasma Cannon.

“DK! It’s about time!” Delta Knight (Codename: DK) was a recently acquired ally who had his own agenda but was all eager to destroy anything that would corrupt the world. Along side him was Lara, a young brunette android with a smoking arm cannon equipped.

DK smirks. “It’s always about time!” He stabs an evil entity attempting to sucker punch him from behind. “And time is always running out!”

Michael glances toward the source of all of the rapidly spreading darkness. Not a real good morale builder.

“I don't believe it! It's still gaining ground--?!" he exclaims.

"Ya don't say?!" An enemy rips aparts at the atomic level as Nova Fighter (Codename: Nova) slams into it with a Nucleo-Tackle. Nova wipes powdered enemy particles from his metallic armor, grinning. "But you gotta admit this is kind of fun!"

DK frowns, then blows an enemy to bits with blast of his smoking arm cannon. "You're kidding right?"
Nova shrugs innocently. "Maybe, maybe not."

Lara frowns, then socks another enemy square in the chest, sending it spiraling a couple yards away.

Rachel blows some hair out of her sweat-drenched face. “These guys have us outnumbered at least a hundred-to-one!” With a warrior's cry she slices through ten of her opposition in one fluid movement. At first it looked like it didn't do anything. But after a delayed reaction, they all explode into nothingness. “Not that I mind the odds" she says with a grin.

Rebecca shakes her head. "The city can’t take much more of these attacks! We need help!”

Duke and Lara both attack at once. She fires off one of her attacks, Pulse Vortex. Duke charges up for a split-second, blitzes and smashes his fist into an enemy with a Techno Smash.

Delta Knight and Triple M stand back to back, bracing themselves for other contenders.

“Did you get to the Oracle?!" DK asks. "Does it have any ideas?”"

Michael nods grimly. “Just one—the one we already thought!”

DK sighs. "Great. That’s what I was afraid of."

Michael checks his Weapon NRG. "I only have enough power to take back myself and three other people…" He fires off an energy blast from his Buster. "We both know you're coming DK That leaves two others. Who's coming?" He glances toward Rachel. "Hey, Rachel!"

Rachel sighs. "Why am I always your first choice?"

Zack flips a shotgun wielding attacker into the air and blasts him with Dark Lightning. "Of course, he would choose his girlfriend. He never gives it a second thought." He smirks. "How do you think this happened so easily?"

Michael glares at Zack. "Don't you start." He turns back to Rachel. "So you don't want to?"

Rachel laughs as she whirl-kicks and stabs. "Of course I want to come! It'll take more than these jerks to keep me from the past."

"That leaves one other person."

Nova nods away. "I don't mind letting my atoms get rewound through time, but count me out. I really am enjoying beating these jerks to a bloody pulp. Besides, I'm keeping score." He fires a shot from his buster cannon, obliterating another incoming enemy. "That's dead enemy number one-hundred-one."

Lara gracefully does a backward flip and does a head stomp. "Okay, then. You can count me in!" She shrugs. "Besides I've always wanted to see some history."

Rebecca pole-vaults into another group of enemies. "Don't worry about us, we can hold the fort until then!" she yells.

"Okay! DK, Rachel and Lara! Grab onto me!" He looks at his sister, one last time, knowing it might be the last time he'll ever see her.

“We’ll be back.” Activating his newfound ability, Time Force, he feels his body start to dissipate into the fabric of time.

He has two last thoughts before he leaves his time line:

1. Parallel-time theory: No matter how much time you take in one time line, the flow of time is normal so spending an hour in the past, an hour in the future is taking place as well.

2. He was going to meet Jay, the one who started it all.

And with that, he and his fellow time-travelers are gone. Rebecca looks at the now empty spot of where her brother's form once stood. "Good luck," she whispers before diving back into the fray...

(2) Unveiled...

2005-10-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Rufus Biggs nodded, taking a seat across from Jay.
"My father went missing three days ago, after arriving at the location of his most recent expedition. In this case, a remote location in north-eastern Kazakhstan. He was helping progress an excavation of some rather mysterious ruins found less than a month ago."
Rufus pulled an envelope from his pocket.
"He disappeared the same day this letter arrived at my home."
Pulling a slightly wrinkled piece of paper from the envelope, Rufus unfolded and straightened out the type-written letter for Jay to read.

Rufus, my son,
If you have received this letter, then I am already gone.
My expeditions have led me to a place that I feared I could not escape.
For your safety, I cannot divulge my specific whereabouts.
However, there is someone who can lead you in the right direction.
Although, even he does not know this is the case.
Find this man - then you will know what to do.
Make haste, Rufus. My fate rests upon your actions.
Sincerely,
Mason Biggs.

Rufus pulled another small piece of paper from the envelope. Scrawled in hand writing, Jay's full name and address stood out, along with a brief note to first look for him in this coffee shop.

"This explains how you found me, but..." Jay shook his head, "I don't know why he thought I'd be able to track him down. In fact, I've been trying to do just that for a larger part of the last two days with no luck."
Rufus sighed, "Are you sure you don't know anything? Is there anything from his conversation with you that stood out?"
Jay took a deep breath, then a sip of his coffee as the waitress set it down in front of him.
"It all seemed fairly straight forward. He offered me a job as his assistant during the expeditions he would be taking. He said he needed someone to do the things he didn't want to have to worry about. Finances, booking plane tickets, and an allotment of other minor activities. Nothing considerably unusual. Although, he was very specific about what he would pay me."
Rufus raised an eyebrow. "How do you mean?"
"Well," Jay took another sip of coffee, "He said if I started right away he'd pay me a lump sum of about 20 thousand dollars for the first trip, and if I proved to be a decent assistant I'd get around 25 grand per trip. Although I don't remember the exact numbers off hand."
"Sounds plausible," Rufus put the notes back into the envelope, "my father believes in the dollar incentive wholeheartedly. Mostly due to the fact that he has no shortage of money. My great-grandparents left him a small fortune after they died in a tragic train crash, so he's been putting those funds to good use by paying for most of the costs associated with his expeditions. He also helped me start the multi-million dollar airplane construction business I'm currently operating. So as I said, he is very generous."
Rufus paused, then asked, "Speaking of which, did he give you anything?"

Jay thought for a moment. "I know he paid for our coffees, if that counts."
A cold draft permeated the coffee shop. Shivering slightly, Jay put his hands in his jacket pockets. Then he felt it. Cold against the palm of his hand, he pulled out a silver-colored business card.

Rufus's eyes opened wide. "Is that what I think it is?"

Jay eyed the card surprisingly. "I didn't even know I had it."

On the front of it, Mason's name, phone number and address were printed neatly, as in a generic business card fashion. Flipping it over, Jay found a set of hand-written latitude and longitude numbers.
Rufus eyed the card excitedly.
"Bingo."

(1) And so it begins...

2005-09-24T01:13:00.000-07:00

The Story of Ultima...
It started with a phone call...

*Ring*
"Hello. How may I assist you?"
"Operator? Um... yeah, I need the number for one Mason Biggs."
"Please hold."
Seconds later, "I'm sorry, but I cannot find that name in my database."
"Can you check again?"
"Sir, I already told you, that name is not in my records."
"You're positive?"
"Sir, I cannot assist you further. I'm going to transfer you to my supervisor."
"But I-"
*Click* The sound of a connection change was barely audible.
*Click, click*
A pause permeated, followed by a hissing revitalization of a dial tone.
Cursing under his breath, Jay slammed down the reciever.

He needed to get ahold of this Mason Biggs. But he'd tried everything with no luck. If only he'd asked for Mr. Biggs' phone number. Or maybe an email address. Anything would have sufficed. But Jay just had to keep true to his trust-no-one philosophy on life and turn down the job offered to him by this stranger.
When Mr. Biggs had offered him the job on a stormy Thursday afternoon at the street corner coffee shop a block down from his apartment, Jay thought it a gracious but suspicious offer. Seemingly at random, Mason Biggs had offered to hire Jay on as an assistant to Mason, who revealed himself to be an anthropologist of sorts. Mr. Biggs was looking for a companion to take care of finances and such as he trekked the globe in search of important geological and historical artifacts. However, he required that Jay start the job immediately, as Mason was preparing to leave on another expedition in less than two days.

At first, Jay was flattered, especially after Mason told him what he'd be paid. But with so many variables, like never knowing when he would get to go home for awhile, Jay concluded that this job would not be stable enough for him. Ultimately, he declined the offer, leaving him with his current desk job. Mason had made a good offer, but not worth throwing away a career that had guaranteed paychecks and opportunities for advancement.
Two days later, Jay was laid off. Now he needed a source of income and he needed it fast. He had rent to pay, food to buy, and a recently purchased car that would not pay for itself.

And now he was desperate, looking for any source of a worthwhile income.
Mason Biggs seemed to be the answer, but he was nowhere to be found.
But Jay had to keep looking. It had almost been a week since his encounter with Mason Biggs, but Jay was determined to find him.
Then Jay realized he was getting tired. With a yawn, he checked the clock on the wall across from him.

11:15 pm. Not too late, but then again, he'd barely slept since his lay-off a few days back.

But he needed to stay awake and continue the search for Mr. Biggs. He needed some coffee.
Throwing on his worn leather jacket, Jay locked his apartment door behind him. Then he headed to the coffee shop where this had all started.

---

Five minutes later, Jay entered the shop and ordered a triple shot espresso with extra creme. The attending waitress nodded and went to the counter to relay the order. As Jay stared out the windows of the shop, he noticed thick rain drops begin to slap against the glass.

Good thing I wore my jacket, he thought, letting out an exasperated sigh.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Jay saw a man in a long trench coat walking hurriedly toward the shop. Jay could not make out the man's features with the now heavy rain obstructing his view. But when the man stepped inside the shop, Jay immediately noticed the man's resemblance to Mason Biggs.

The man in the trench coat gave the shop a once-over as he removed his coat. The waitress took it from him and placed it on a nearby rack. The man was about to order, when he noticed Jay's gaze in his direction. He gave the waitress a silencing finger and walked up to Jay.

"Do you know Mason Biggs?" the man blurted out.

Jay was taken back by the outright questioning, but replied, "Yes."

"How?" the man responded impatiently.

"Who wants to know?" Jay countered.
"His son, Rufus Biggs." The sternness in the man's voice echoed throughout the shop, turning a few heads.

Decidedly with nothing to lose, Jay replied, "He offered me a job."

"Did you take it?" Rufus Biggs pressed on.

"No, " Jay paused, "and now I am regretting it."
Rufus Biggs' face displayed a mixture of confusion and relief.
"You should consider yourself lucky." Rufus began to massage his left temple.
Jay assumed Biggs Junior was stressing about something, and he was right.

"Jay... my father disappeared three days ago."

Caught off guard, Jay's mind raced.
Mason Biggs is missing? How could this happen?
Does Rufus think I'm responsible? How does he know I knew Mason?
It finally dawned on him.
"How do you know my name?"
"I...," Rufus paused, as if debating whether to answer, "...it's complicated."
Jay raised a brow intriguingly, beckoning an explanation.

"Enlighten me."