|
“From Here to Alternity”
(With Alternity Convoy)
[World ID: Primax 109.0 Beta]
The time is 2009. The place is another Earth. There the robot life forms
called Cybertrons and humanity live peacefully together. However, a quarter
century after they first met, an unknown threat endangers the world. On the
four outer planets of the solar system, large marks resembling the claws of
a beast have simultaneously appeared.
On Earth, following the appearance of the marks, a mysterious ring of light
appeared in the skies above Vancouver, America. When the Cybertron army
deployed there, the ring of light floated above their heads in the shape of
a closed racetrack, and around it was racing something that appeared to be a
silver sports car. When Commander Convoy saw this strange sight, he
whispered, “The promised time has arrived,” and he stopped his compatriots
as they prepared for battle. “That visitor is our friend. To be more
precise, that is the me of another world. It is Convoy.”
Two years before, he had met a messenger from another world and made a
secret promise. In the year 2009, the evil Megatron would bring the
terrifying Beast of Time and come to destroy the Earth. The beast
“Hytherion” was a super-dimensional life form and a powerful enemy that
those on Earth could not even touch. The only thing that could act against
this threat was the power of the multi-dimensional space protectors called “Alternity.”
Convoy agreed that when the danger appeared, he would become a member of
Alternity and fight alongside them.
In the centre of the ring, a space time window opened and a shining metallic
frame appeared from within. Convoy fused with the frame, and before the
Cybertrons’ eyes, he was reshaped and transformed into a form matching that
of the silver visitor. In that instant, he was reborn as a manifestation of
the Alternity super-beings. As Convoy raised his hand into the skies and
cast aside the veil of the dimensions, the row of Hytherion’s giant fangs
became visible covering the heavens. And so, with modern Earth as its stage,
an unimaginable battle began.
"To Mega Therion" (With
Alternity Megatron)
It was the year 2009 when Super-Dimensional life form Hytherion had begun
its attack on Earth and Alternity Convoy "Auto Avatars" had gathered from
various worlds to launch the offence against it.
Megatron observed the battle from his battleship hidden inside trans-warp
space, and his mind traced back the problems he had encountered. He had been
compromised to a frozen status during a battle in his original BT world, and
when he awoke, he discovered that the balance of the power had changed
completely and Destrons were near extermination. While many Cybertrons were
on the path to some supreme being called "Alternity", the Destrons were left
behind. The difference of their technical advancement was already several
hundred thousand years' worth. Furious, Megatron embarked on a long journey
over the time and space to find a way to reverse the situation. In search of
the power mighty enough to counter Alternity, he researched, refined his
scientific technology and strengthened his mind. He gathered force with
other Megatrons from different worlds, and finally came to one scheme after
a long, long time.
The moment the Convoy Troop delivered the final shot to Hytherion, Megatron
activated the gigantic Chaotiser machine inside his battleship. He turned
into "Identity Code" and wrote himself onto the beast (Hytherion)'s nerve
centre. It enabled Megatron to fuse with the Beast of Time and control its
body.
"To achieve the fusion, Hytherion had to be in the state of apparent death.
I have had an emitter giving out a time-signal which the beast favours, and
it was drawn to this unprotected world. I lead it to a battle against
Alternity, to turn it into a raw material I needed."
The gigantic form of Hytherion gradually shifted to something more
human-like, then finally vanished to the higher world. Right at the same
time, two sports cars which were parked on the street suddenly changed their
forms to Megatrons! They were newly activated Megatron Auto Avatars which
had been set up in advance.
"Hytherion is an Alternium-based lifeform like you Alternity beings, and
now, we have the equal power to you!"
Megatron drew his swords and slashed at Convoy.
"This is the end of your peaceful reign. Now I will show you the devastation
and destruction of the infinite galaxy, again and again."
“The World is Flat”
(With Alternity Bumble)
One fact had been confirmed from the number of avatar battles to date:
Megatron had stopped somewhere in the vicinity of the year 2009 with some
purpose in mind. To discover his objective, Bumble, the Alternity's
intelligence expert, and Elita-Seven, a member of the Protectors support
organization, headed for a certain dimensional world in the "2009 line".
Their destination was the Shikoku region of Japan on Primax 905.0 Beta,
popularly known as the "Binaltech Asterisk" world.
"This is the approximate timeline of the 'BT World'. No readings of native
Transformers within a 100 km circumference." As Elita-Seven, in a synthetic
human body resembling an Earthling, scanned their surroundings, Bumble
floated next to her at about her eye level, peering at the scanner readout.
"Well, this world's a happier place than others. We don't want to cause a
big fuss."
"Agreed. I...hey! Quit following me like a fly with that frame of
yours--it's unnerving!
"Aw, come on, a fly? At least say I'm like a bee or a fairy!"
Despite the minimal clues, Bumblebee had reached a general view regarding
Megatron's purpose. "At some point in 2009--it could be today, tomorrow, or
five minutes from now--a new type of dimensional flux will occur. Megatron
is trying to get hold of whatever's its source."
"A new type? What kind of--" But the instant Elita began to pose the
question, the phenomenon commenced! The first anomaly occurred at a certain
art museum not far from their landing point. This institute possessed
reproductions of masterpieces made with the "touhenga" (ceramic tile art)
technique, and a number of the masterpieces began distorting all at once,
changing as if their images were being stirred about. With this as its
starting point, the phenomenon propagated all over the world almost
instantly. Around the world, all "icons" were disrupted and rendered
meaningless, from all sorts of printed matter, including pictures, text, and
paper money, even to computer screen displays.
"What's going on...?! If this keeps up, civilization will be destroyed!"
"Yeah, this happy world's gonna be ruined. First things first--let's head
for the source."
Stepping into the museum where it began, the two of them spotted three
figures who clearly stood apart from the other visitors. On the floor which
was apparently the epicenter of the incident, they were heading for an
enormous display piece which no longer kept its original form, holding up a
strange, tablet-shaped device.
"So they're the ones behind the anomaly?"
"Nope, those are investigators, like us."
"Minions of Megatron! Which means he's also started gathering agents like
the Protectors!"
The two of them leapt into action. Elita blew on a whistle, getting the
men's attention. "No photography allowed on this floor!"
"Who are you?"
"We've been found out!" Glaring at her, the three men deactivated their
"Pretender camouflage". "Reflector, attack!"
"Are you serious?" Bumble appeared above their heads, snatched up the
tablet, then turned to face the trio and snapped his fingers. Reflector's
"Z-axis" value went to near zero, and the three of them became nearly as
flat as film and collapsed. "That's a fitting form for characters like you,
don't you think?"
"You fools!!" Just then, Megatron's angry roar echoed from the heavens like
a clap of thunder. A dimension-spanning slash attack grazed Bumble, tearing
up the entire building among friend and foe alike!
By the time the attack was over and the dust had settled, Reflector had
already vanished. The tablet was completely destroyed, and at the same time,
it appeared that the anomalies all over the world returned to normal.
"So, just what happened here?" Elita asked as she wiped off the dust.
"An invasion from Flatworld...that is, a two-dimensional world."
"T-two-dimensional?!"
"That tablet was a device for seizing "Flatworlders". I saw these
splotch-like...or crest-like moving, living beings captured within it." It
might have been his imagination, but...when he saw them, the "moving crests"
seemed to take the shape of symbols that were somehow familiar.
Just as Alternium, the super-dimensional substance, was created on the BT
World, it seemed that even lower-dimensional worlds were on the verge of a
similar techonological explosion. Even the Flatworlders were aiming to
evolve into dimensionally transcendent beings. In their case, they
apparently encroached on this world by making the "icons" on this Earth into
windows.
"So that's what caused the disaster we had today. And that's why Megatron is
after it."
"He's bound to have spotted some greater value to it. We can't let down our
guard-we have to be ready for the next invasion!"
"Hold it a sec. Before you go back to the land of the fairies, let's fix all
the damage done to this world first."
“Ace of Swords”
(With Alternity Cliff)
Protectors team member Cliff's current assignment was aiding the suppression
of Hytherion in a world to which the Alternity couldn't travel directly, in
the past beyond the "2007 Line".
Having arrived at coordinates some 2.4 billion years ago, where a distant,
nameless galaxy spread out before him, he sat down on a drifting rock to
await the monster's appearance. A being that devoured time, Hytherion would
be coming to consume this galaxy's star formation stage--the "beginning
moment" stage at which vast numbers of fixed stars were created. If this
attack were permitted to happen, then the countless billions of life-bearing
worlds that would surely later be born in this galaxy would be lost. To
protect the future from this threat--this was truly the Protectors' job.
Cliff seemed proud that there were roles only they could serve, even though
they did not have the Alternity's level of power. It was not yet time to go
to "the other side".
Then, as if a silver liquid were oozing onto the black fabric of space,
Hytherion, the Beast of Time, appeared in the third dimension! Normal
optical senses would have needed millions of years to view the spectacle,
but with the super-senses he'd borrowed from the Alternity, Cliff was able
to catch sight of his enemy's form in realtime.
Its ultra-gigantic body masked an entire quadrant of the galaxy, vastly
greater than any "beast" he'd encountered before. Yet even as he locked up
in fear, Cliff recalled the advice he'd received from the Alternity: "He is
strong even when small." In other words, Hytherion's "size" changed
depending on its permeation level into three-dimensional space, but its
strength was fixed, no matter how great or small that level was.
"Don't glitch yourself just 'cause he's stupidly huge...! There's someone
down here too that's strong despite bein' small!" Even as he was buffeted by
the dimensional vibrations, he trained his dual wave-functional pointer-guns
on Hytherion. Naturally, these pistols weren't nearly powerful enough to
bring down the "Beast of Time". However, their irradiated wave-functional
markers, which could travel over an extraordinary spatial range, transmitted
Hytherion's absolute coordinates to the awaiting "Alternity main body".
Cliff's role was to guide the fearsome remote space-time weapon they were to
fire accurately to its target.
"Now!!"
At Cliff's signal, the Alternity main body unleashed an all-out assault. A
nebula-like collection of light and gases appeared to take the form of a
gargantuan blade. This sword of the heavens flashed like a knife slicing
apart a galaxy, piercing deeply into the vital points on Hytherion where
Cliff had guided it!
The beast raised a scream that shook even the soundless reaches of outer
space and was made to bend back deeply on itself. The great sword changed
into a black pillar of the heavens, wrapped around the beast writhing it its
death throes, and condensed down and vanished in a twinkling.
Even as Cliff leapt about, shaking in delight, he let out a disgusted
thought: "The Alternity are totally full of it."
He then reported the completion of his mission to Protector Central and,
glancing back on the galaxy he had returned to silence, muttered, "'Course,
if I could pull that trigger, I get the feelin' I'd be full of it too."
|
