Three days ago.

A lone woman sped across the sea on her sky runner, trying to evade her persuer just long enough to get to the Saharah. She looked back at the gargantuan airship that was slowly closing in on her. She sighed to herself.

"This does nae bode well for me. By our ancestors Cyrus, what has posessed ye?"

That was when she saw the land she was looking for.

Cyrus VanGuard, alias "The (\/)ajin," looked at his opponent, a female who looked very much like him. He felt driven like he never had before, driven to make her return what she had stolen from the DreamCatcher R&D lab.

"Well now sis," he began, readying himself, "Are you going to give me the plans, or do we have to do this like we always do?"

Sasha replied in a hurt and conserned tone. "Like we all ways do? I am ye're kin. I still be baring the mark of my guardian spirit." The young woman showed the reddish-orange symbol of a pheonix in a circle on back of her right hand. "I do nae understand what has gotten in to ye, brother."

(\/)ajin, who looked like he had not eaten or slept in weeks, held his broadsword at the ready, clearly desiring a fight. "I don't know what you mean dear sister."

Sasha gimmaced and drew her own sword. "I guess ye are as determined to fight me as ye are daft."

They charged at each other, their swords clashing in a magnificent yet deadly dance. Cyrus leapt back and high into the air and exended his right hand. "RAZORLINE!"

Thin wires with blades strung along them extended from his hand towards his twin. Sasha back flipped, and the wires impacted just before her feet. When she landed, she gave him a two finger salute. "FIVE!"

Sasha pulled her hand to the left side of her face in a clenched fist. "POINT!"

She then brought her hand around in a slanted J form, opening it as she went. "SALUTE!"

Five glowing ninja stars shot from the hand. They exploded as they hit the (\/)ajin, knocking him to the ground. Before he could get back up, she had started her next attack. "SWORD WHIP!"

She spun her sword around in a circle, keeping it tethered to an energy line that was now in her hand. (\/) advanced towards her, dodging most of the attack, but still sustaining a fair amount of damage. As he got with in sword's reach of Sasha, he started a series of intricate sword swings. Then, as he continued, he started circling her, his speed increasing rapidly. He suddenly broke off in midslash, gasping for air as his sister had interrupted with a gut-punch with the pommel of her sword.

"We'll finish this later, Cyrus," Sasha sneered. Then, in solomn silence, she got back on her vehical and drove away. The young man collapsed to the ground... and then start chuckling as he pulled a disk from his vest pocket.

He laughed to himself. "Let's see how much Douglas will enjoy finding out that you returned to him without these pla..."

He then lapsed into unconciousness, leaving his companions to come and retrieve him.

NeoVid was deep in meditation. He was focused, he was calm...

...He wasn't even fooling himself.

"ARGGGH! I can't figure out this stuff!"

His much-abused (but more powerful) sidekick, e X ! l e, probably got a disapproving expression on his face. It was hard to tell, since his hood covered it. "I've explained it to you a billion times by now. If you still don't get it..."

"I get it, but it still won't work! Man, I wish I could figure out your powers... I could really kick butt if I had TWO ways to control reality!"

e X ! l e bonked him with the Staff of Enlightenment. "I told you, Z'piism is a discipline; a way of thinking. You have no discipline, and I can't tell if you think." e X ! l e took a deep breath. "Z'piism works by affecting consensual reality. Though Z'piism can't be used directly against other intelligent minds, it has the most effect when used to control others' perceptions. An expert can change the structure of reality by changing the appearance of reality, and using the difference in perception to make an actual change. Understand?"

"Zzzzzzzz..."

e X ! l e proceeded to enlighten NeoVid again. This time in the side of the head. "It works by changing reality through changing perceptions of reality, OK?"

NeoVid rubbed his head. "What if you hit someone in the back with it?"

"Um, er..."

"Eh, forget it. I've got something important to do, anyway."

e X ! l e instantly cheered up. "You're leaving? It'd be... really... sad... if you had to leave the island."

"Well, it's a fighting tournament... I think. It's not exactly clear... but it's been way too long since I've been home," He then gave e X ! l e a LOOK. "And since you still know nothing about fighting, bringing you along isn't going to do any good."

e X ! l e thought for a minute. Hmm. I'm supposed to make sure he doesn't run around loose... but he's already done about as much damage as it's possible to do there... and I never want to see a world that could produce HIM if I can help it. Out loud, he replied, "Well, if I have to stay here... I guess I can... cope... But I'll still be trying to find proof that you drew this line on my face."

"... That's a scar, man. Don't you even remember where you got it? Eh, forget it," NeoVid said cheerily. "Weelll, I'm outta here. I'll be back in no time!" NeoVid jumped off the edge of the floating island, into a big grey portal which handily appeared below.

e X ! l e realized this would be his one chance to move the island so NeoVid couldn't find it again. I'd better do that RIGHT NOW... once I feel like it.

That, everyone, was a look into the mind of the multiverse's only procrastinating/compulsive.

In a reality far away, Souther was busy trancing. His thoughts, rendered understandable to humans, went approximately like this: Hmm. Artificial methods of transport... and heavily used. Professional dimensional explorers, interesting. A coincidental mechanical failure should be all it takes, along with a little stirring of their leader's curiosity. Now... ah, there it goes. Still in his trance, a hint of a smirk appeared on his face.

Andrea looked at her friend and companion floating in the nutrient tank and sighed. The readouts to the side of the tank told her what she already knew: Cyrus had, for some reason, refused to eat or sleep for the past four weeks.

"Damn it, Cyrus, what did you think you were doing? You know you don't have your sister's metabolism."

She was so absorbed in her reverie that she didn't hear the massive, shadowy form of the deamon approach behind her.

"Perhaps, Andi, he was being influenced by something wanting him to go into Dream Slip."

Andrea turned with a start, but relaxed when she saw it was her other companion, the shadow daemon, Barrigostin. Then she registered exactly what he said and was puzzled.

"Why do you say that, Barri?"

The daemon frowned, "Because we are warping between realities right now."

That took her by surprise. "I... guess I better get ready to initiate Deaf Blind-mode when we get to wherever we're going..."

Cyrus opened his eyes. What he saw wasn't quite what he expected. He was in a lush forest like the one he used to play in when he was growing up. But for some reason he couldn't put his finger on it was different.

"Where am I?" Cyrus groaned as he sat up holding the side of his head. Fortunately the answer was soon coming.

Out of the trees walked a large gryphon that seemed to be made of pure fire. At once Cyrus realised that he was in the Spirit World of Dreams. Although he had been to the deamworld of the guardian spirits many times he usually appeared in a grassy field somewhere.

Cyrus, the creature spoke, I am glad I was able to reach you. Events have transpired around you that, We are sure, you have no knowledge of.

Talking with his guardian spirit had always felt weird. "What are you talking about? What's happened?"

For the past few weeks someone or something has been influencing you. However, it didn't realize that it was doing so.

"What are you talking about?! How can someone control me without knowingly doing so."

This being is from another reality and as such doesn't fully understand the nature of a Sleeper's mind. Its intention was to implant a suggestion in your mind to summon you to its reality.

"Why? Is it in some kind of trouble?"

Not as far as We can tell. From what We gather it is more of an invitation. To what, We do not know. We believe, however, that you should be careful what you agree to in this world for you may well get more than what you bargain for.

As the world around him faded away, Cyrus pondered what the gryphon told him.

NeoVid had just popped out of the first step of his interdimensional trip, and was flying along at a pretty good clip when he saw a large object coming towards him. Well, large would be a bit of an understatement, but there are few things that would be able to describe the size of the airship. Perhaps the best description would be that it could probably cast a shadow over most of New York City if it were over it.

"Huh. Where'd that come fr-?" was all he had time to say before he slammed straight into the hull of the enormous airship, which, at the same time, rippled, shimmered, and folded in upon itself causing it to disappear.

Andrea and Barri stumbled a little as something caused the airship to rock. Both decided to rush to the bridge to find out what happened.

It was quite a shock to see that it was someone who had been able to leave a human-shaped hole in an armored hull. And his head embedded in a titanium-steel floor. The someone in question pulled his face out of the hole and drag himself to his feet, saying, "Woooo... that was sorta..." He then proceeded to fall on his face again.

"...What is this guy?"

"Someone tough enough to stand-" the guy got back up again, staggered, and keeled over sideways. Barri winced. "-sometimes, after crashing through an airship hull."

This time, the guy looked like he could stay vertical for at least... oh, 40 seconds. "...hhhhhey everyone..." he mumbled. "I didn't expect to run into twenty-five people here..." He wobbled one more time, then started to whap himself in the side of the head. His eyes abruptly started pointing in the same direction, and he got an expression that was nearly ten percent saner than the one he'd had before.

Barrigostin leaned over to his friend, whispering, "I'm begining to think that this guy would be better off as my dinner tonight. I mean he doesn't smell of hellfire, so he must be OK to eat..."

"Behave, Barri. Hello, I'm Andrea Quo-Fae. And this old grouch is Barrigostin, The Shadow Deamon. Welcome to the ship Ultima."

"Oh, groovy! I'm NeoVid! I came here..." he looked around. "Well, not HERE exactly, but this world, cuz I heard about this tournament thing, and I intend to WIN!" He made a creditable attempt at looking rugged and ultra-powerful. Barri and Andi looked unimpressed.

"A tournament, huh? sounds fun," a tired, weak voice called from inside the doorway.

"(\/)ajin, you're out of the tank already?"

"Yeah, I heal quick you know. Now I just need some food and a little rest and I should be a-ok in a little bit." (\/)ajin shook his head, trying to clear it. After some of the green swirly things in front of his eyes faded, he noticed that there was one more person in the room then there should have been. "...Wait. Who's that guy?"

NeoVid got to work trying to give a short explaination of himself.

(\/)ajin tried to fit his brain around the flood of disjointed information this NeoVid guy had given them. Quickly concluding that he'd rather not give himself an aneurysm, he concentrated on what made sense. "So... they want impressive fighters for an interdimensional tournament?"

"Looks like. At least as far as I can tell. My brain isn't exactly reliable, yknow."

"Really? We never would have notice-" Andrea elbowed Barrigostin to shut him up.

(\/)ajin considered the possibilities. "We've never been to this universe before, and that's enough reason to stay. And there's no reason not to join the tournament as long as we'd be here anyway..."

NeoVid pointed straight up, and exclaimed, "Then it's decided!"

"HUH? It's-"

Vid didn't stop for a moment. "I've got an easy way to get us to the tournament HQ... so let's GO!" He opened a shimmering grey portal, and hopped through.

Andrea blinked. "Grey doesn't shimmer..."

(\/)ajin shrugged. "...Why not." He stepped into it.

The portal ended up leaving them up in the cheap seat section of a stadium. A guy in white was looking over the edge, away from them.

(\/)ajin spoke up. "Hey there!"

"AUGH!!" The guy who looked like a janitor nearly stumbled off the wall. He spun around, pointing angrily. "Unknown, if this is... how..." He froze when he saw the new arrivals, then nervously said, "Hey! No one's supposed to get here for two more days! And we're supposed to bring YOU here!" as he pointed at the five high-tech rings in the center of the complex.

NeoVid just shrugged. "Well, since we could get here on our own, we decided we weren't gonna wait."

Charnel was almost stricken. He had been told to expect nearly anything, since most of the people who were likely to respond were powerful and unstable... but they could at least give some thought to the schedule! "Hell, there's nothing I can do about it now," he sighed. "Now that you're here, you'll have to hear the introduction all the outsiders will get: Welcome to our dimension. If you want someone to show you around... um, actually, that's not my job, so you'll have to ask someone else..." That statement was there to remind him that he'd have to act like he was really more than one person to avoid blowing his cover. "Anyway, you should already know we're holding a fighting tournament, and you'll get to read the actual rules of combat in a minute. While in our universe, you'll have to remember all this:

One, no leaving the mountains. You can go almost wherever you want in the sportsplex, but people coming in from other universes isn't that common, and we don't want any trouble starting.

Two, we don't use money in this universe, so if you were expecting to make a ton of it, you'll be pretty disappointed. You can make some if you're popular enough, since you'll get merchandised in some other dimensions we have a presence in.

Three, no trying to take anything from here back home with you. Technology, especially. Feel free to use whatever you want while you're here, though. The reason we don't need money is because we have pretty much infinite amounts of everything, thanks to the Duplicators." He motioned toward a panel on the wall. "They're user friendly and voice activated, so you shouldn't have any trouble with them. Over there is where all of you guests'll be staying." This time, he pointed toward a cube-shaped building.

"Four, if you don't want to fight, drone drone blah blah blah blah..."

NeoVid tuned him out. Yeesh. Don't wanna fight? Is he kiddin' me? Rules, yawn. Hm hm hmm hm mmhmm... As the spiel went on, NeoVid's teeny brain went on standby, in case something important did come up.

"Five, we'll have matches every other day. It'll give you time to recover between rounds. You don't have to worry about injuries, though. Our medical science is unbelievable." Like I'll ever have to worry about that... Vid thought.

"Finally, if you can't follow the rules, you're out of the tournament, and this universe." Aww... I have to follow rules? Oh well.

The tech thought for a minute. "I'm pretty sure that's all of them. There could be something I'm forgetting. Well, if you can agree to all that and the actual tournament rules--here they are, by the way," as he handed them an e-pad, "then you'll officially be in the running for the grand prize, which is Whatever You Ask For, as soon as you sign."

That NeoVid noticed. "Anything at all? No kidding?"

"Well, anything it's in our sponsor's power to give... he has a lot of power, though."

(\/) looked very unimpressed with this. "Well, whatever. Where do we sign up?"

"We gotta do WHAT!?" Cyrus sounded panicked.

"You have to register what moves you will use in this tournament and sign this contract," repeated the administrator.

NeoVid looked at him funny. "You're talking to someone who's ripped off attacks from thousands of people here..."

The administrator smiled. "That's exactly why this is necessary."

A shadowy hand snatched the papers (the people who weren't used to all the high-tech stuff got hard copy) from the desk. "I'll take a look at those."

"Excuse me, those are for the fighters only. Who do you think you are?"

"I'm the (\/)ajin's manager and agent," Barrigostin said flatly.

"So, Barri, what did you change on that contract?"

The deamon chuckled a little, "I just added some stipulations and a little hell binding to ensure that they held up their end of the contract. What about you? What did you put down for your fighting techniques?"

"Oh, some spells, sword attacks and that I am using the Zero Hour."

Barrigostin stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the (\/)ajin. "You do remember that you suck at spell casting and can't swing the ZH fast enough to be effective, don't you? Why the hell didn't you use the Kajaraman techniques?"

Cyrus suddenly got serious, "Two reasons: One, I'm not going to be back to full form by the time of the first match, so I'm going to be less effective with Kajaraman than the others. Two, we don't know if there are any Guardians or allies of the Night Terrors hanging around here, so we needn't draw attention to the fact that I am a Sleeper. OK? Now, I need to go check out my room and you and Andi need to start getting ready to do some investigation into this universe."

"Right."

"Oh, and Barri, thank you for watching my back with that whole contract thing."

"Yeesh, Jeen," NeoVid said, "It's not like they're after our souls or something."

"Yeah, well you don't have a guardian spirit that gives you ominous warnings now do you?" Cyrus asked, hypothetically.

NeoVid looked nervous for a second. "...Uh. I dunno. Do I?"

Cyrus started to get that sinking feeling that exposure to NeoVid tends to cause.

After the early arrivals had settled in a bit, the time went by fast.

Well, fast for them. For Charnel, who had to put up with them, it seemed to slow to a crawl.

"Hey, when is there going to be a t-shirt based on me?" NeoVid asked for the thirty zillionth time.

One of the techs looked dully at him. "Eventually."

"How long is that?"

"Soon..."

"How soon?"

Charnel restrained an impulse to slug the little freak. "I DON'T KNOW, DAMMIT!!!" After a moment of deep breathing, and waiting for the red to go out of his face, the tech grated out, "I'm supposed to ask what your team will be called."

Hearing that, (\/)ajin looked over. "We didn't think about that yet..."

NeoVid waved one finger, and smiled. "I know! The Jobber World Order!"

The tech looked at him, eyes half-lidded. "We were hoping you'd take this seriously."

"In that case how about The Loon World Order?" (\/)ajin suggested.

Barrigostin glared at him, "That's been done, you twit. I suggest Team Barrigostin, since I am your manager."

NeoVid did the Avatar's Eyebrow at him. "...Naaahhhh. What about..." He glanced at Zero Hour and smiled. "...The Guys With Big Weapons?"

The closet door opened and Andrea stepted out. "No, you don't have a weapon, you wanking dolt! How about the Balanced?"

The tech sighed. "You aren't going to settle on anything now, are you?"

"Nope."

"All right, fine! You're unofficially known as the Jobber World Order until you decide!" Hope you like the rooms I've picked out for you... Charnel thought.

The young mage looked at the room with disgust. This was not his idea of what he wanted for accommadations, but that could be easily remedied. He touched a button on his watch and a holographic image of Andrea appeared.

"What's up, boss?"

(\/)ajin grinned, "I think I have a idea of how to use some of the stuff that you decoded from disk of the plans that we confiscated from my sister."

NeoVid wasn't paying attention, having dedicated this time to intellectual pursuits.

He was taking a bit of time relaxing, watching movies he KNEW had to have been made, when a knock on the door distracted him from 'Rambo vs. Terminator.' "Ehyesss?" he called. It turned out to be one of the tournament staff.

"Here it is," the tech crew member who never remembered his name tag began, "Your first bit of merchandise. Now STOP BOTHERING ME ABOUT IT!" The guy tossed something cute at NeoVid and left.

NeoVid held it up. "Hey, this is great!! A ChibiVid Plushie!" Sure enough, it was a little stuffed SD NeoVid. Like the original, it looked slightly disturbed. "Everyone's gonna want one... and everyone's gonna have the chance!" He tossed the plushie in the Duplicator, and set it on 'A heck of a lot.' A few seconds later, a small avalanche of plushies poured into the room. "Cool," NeoVid said from underneath the pile. He started shoveling plushies into his jacket. After clearing the room, he remembered the original plushie was still in the machine.

"OK," Vid started, "I'll have to do something to show this is the ORIGINAL bit of NeoVid merchandise!" After a moment, he smiled like a maniac. "I've got it!!" Holding the plushie face-to-face with himself, Chaos Energy started to pour from him.

(\/)ajin dove for cover.

After waiting long enough to decide he was as safe as he was ever going to be, (\/)ajin slowly looked back out. All there was was NeoVid setting the plushie on a table. Nothing at all had changed except for the plushie now having "#1" on its shirt. "That's the first time I've seen your powers do anything that made sense..." (\/)ajin said, not hiding his surprise.

"Hey! My powers do whatever I want them to! You think a little thing like making a special plushie would be problem?" he retorted, pointing at (\/)ajin.

With the plushie copying every move he made.

Seeing (\/)ajin staring, he said, "Oh, that? It's just stuffed with 100% real Chaos! Now THAT'S authentic NeoVid!"

"Uh.... great." He twitched. "Could you put it away now?"

Time flew by. For everyone who didn't have to put up with NeoVid for long, anyway.

Even when it was closing in on the first round, people hadn't stopped arriving. NeoVid hadn't paid much attention. Or cared. But there were some people he'd want to meet...

"Hey, wait a minute..." NeoVid said to himself. "There's only an infinite number of guys in the multiverse that wear blood-red tuxedos... and that's him! The MultiMediocre Knight!"

(\/) looked blank. "The who?"

"Naw, that's a band. But... MAN! The MMK! I gotta... uh, gee, I don't know what I gotta do when I meet someone I look up to." NeoVid's eyes darted around as he thought hard. "Damn. It's never happened before. Well... HEY MMK!!!"

The (\/)ajin ignored his partner, muttering, "Yeah whatever..." He then heard a beep come from his watch. He pressed a button on it and spoke. "What is it Andrea?"

The Fae crossbreed responded in a crackle through the speaker on the watch, "I've got the modifications to the room done. Now you can enter and leave The Ultima whenever you want by going through the closet door. If any one but you, Barrigostin or myself open the door it will open to the closet. What do you think?"

"To be honest, it reminds me of a clichÈ from an anime..."

The MMK was taken by surprise to see someone with a "Y2MMK" logo on his shirt bounding over. He was completely bowled over by the shock, and by NeoVid running into him. As he tried to get back to a more vertical stance, a flood of "TheMMKhere! Ican'tbelieveit! I'vebeenabigfaneversincetheOctagonRumble! HowbaddidjawannahurtMysterio?" started up.

Something like a thought miraculously managed to get through those words, and into the Loonie's brain. "Wait... you're a fan?"

An only slightly insane smile came with the answer. "Oh, hell yeah! I even saw the Mystery Octagon Theater MSTs! And I signed the MultiMediocre Guestbook!"

Not realizing he probably had just heard the explanation for why the MMG had exploded, MMK reacted with delirious glee. "I have fans in other universes? COOOOL!! Hey, what's your name?"

"I'm NeoV-"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!"

NeoVid commenced with the 'wai'ish jumping up and down. "Man! You've really gotten good at that! I've been trying to learn the Looniesault, but I'm not that good..."

MMK reached into his Interdimensional Hyperstorage Sleeves and got out a copy of 'The Official Church of Kaphwan Information-Type Thingy' booklet. "What do you think of the Man We Can All Look Up To, Kim Kaphwan?"

"Kaphwan's groovy! I only beat KoF because of him!" NeoVid's mind decided to switch gears. "Hey, did 'Vok and Burghy come along? Wait a minute... I wouldn't wanna take on the lWo..."

MMK slapped his forehead.

NeoVid blinked. "What?"

"In retrospect... I should have told them where I was going. And I'm not going to get to do any fighting, since they were out of slots by the time I got here. Now I am..." MMK PowerPosed(tm). "...AN ANNOUNCER! And I'm teamed with..."

A very VERY insistent woman's voice shrilled, "MMK!! I KNOW you're around here!!"

MMK looked up nervously. "Uh... that. You know a good place to hide?"

NeoVid pointed at the apartment building. "There's more rooms in there than anyone can keep track of."

"OK! Thanks, Envy!" He took off at ludicrous speed.

NeoVid was left thinking, Whoa. Now I've met the MultiMediocre Knight. I'm gonna be glad I joined this thing...

"Scuse me," the Tech With No Name Tag interjected, "but the matchup announcements are being made. You two are in the second match."

NeoVid jumped up and watched the scoreboard through the window. "It's about time! I was really getting bored..."

(\/)ajin and Vid ignored the first match announcement. They weren't in it, so it was sure to suck. Then the name of the first team in Match 2 appeared... "S n' L."

"Where's the rest of their name?" NeoVid wondered.

"Great," (\/)ajin began, "we've gotta fight the Snivelin' Losers? The Jedi pirate guy might have better sword skills than me..."

"Yeah. We have to get him and his mad Force powurz out of the way, so we don't have to worry about a Caineing. Then we can get Sean. For some reason, guys who blow themselves up half the time don't scare me..."

"Don't you do the same th-"

"Don't start."

(\/)ajin almost answered anyway, then stopped and thought. "Wait, I just remembered something. When we were coming up with all those names for our team... did we get around to deciding on one?"

In the control room, one of Charnel smiled. "Let's see how those little bastards like this."

The scoreboard showed the team name he had decided on for NeoVid and (\/)ajin in horribly clear letters, for the world to see.

(\/)ajin and NeoVid stared. "The Two Stooges..." they said simultaneously. "...I like it!"