《The Crawford's Multiverse of Madness》Prologue 4 - Escape from The End
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*Beep*
*Beep*
Alarms were blaring in The Crawford's Secret Research Facility.
This Facility was usually in an entirely different Dimension, to hide all the secrets it contained from the prying eyes of The Races. However, in times of extreme danger, the dimension would be forced to expel the Research Facility.
Currently, in Universe 0, the atmosphere was heavy and many Races tried and failed to leave the universe. The Spatial Barriers of The Universe had been strengthened trillions of times. It was not impossible to leave Universe 0, it was just highly improbable.
Maybe one in every couple of trillion could escape the Universe with severe injury to themselves.
The moment the facility appeared, Zeel was made aware. That was the site where Zeel had privately funded prior to his attending Academy, hiding his projects from world governments, intergalactic communities, and especially the Homo-Superior Council.
In the facility, countless workers were panicking as their movements turned erratic. Homo-Superior Researchers had the tendency to focus solely on their work, but other Races were panicking at the blaring alarms.
Researchers were attempting to save their life's work, Utility workers were abandoning the maintenance duty to escape home, janitors were stealing computer parts along with anything that seemed to be worth any money.
It was hard to blame The Races for this action, it was well-known that any piece of Homo-Superior technology could be worth billions of crystals in the Black Market.
Still, the scene was one of pure pandemonium, with only flashes of sanity within the chaos presented when someone fell and would be helped by another employee of the facility.
(5 hours earlier)
"Earlier today a cosmic storm of epic proportions was detected near Planet Alpha in the Andromeda Galaxy and is propagating outwards through countless galaxies.
Though Researchers estimate that it will diminish by the time it encroaches upon the milky way galaxy, we are still very doubtful of this.
Sources say that the energy disabled all Homo-Superior defenses in an instant. The rest of the Universe is panicking at this revelation.
Andromeda is the sister Galaxy to the Milkyway galaxy and that leads us to suspect everything the Intergalactic Council is telling relaying to the public may be false.
However, there is no need to worry. The Daily News will definitely get to the bottom of this issue and bring you constant updates during this trying time,"
Zeel was feeling unsure at the current moment.
Despite his major lack of emotions, in the past years, he had been constantly trying to channel his emotions in any possible way to get a response.
Zeel came to the conclusion that he would require a sufficiently strong impetus to evolve emotionally. Zeel found that his emotional tendencies could be erratic, so in order to aid with the fluctuations, he created new nanites with his own signature.
The nanites Zeel created could be termed an accident. It used the rarest materials of Universe 0, and some classified material from The Crawford Family's Dimension.
Zeel coined the nanites 'Self Replicating Nanite Technology' or SRNT.
SRNT was made specifically for Zeel. The nanites were able to evolve with respect to rare metals used as their replication supplements. This was no doubt the pinnacle of nanites technology of Zeel's world.
Zeel was filled with uncertainty about using nanites he was not completely sure of. However, it was already too late at this point. He had already integrated the nanites with heirlooms from the Crawford Family's Dimension.
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Zeel had more to worry about, so he tossed the thoughts to the back of his mind. Zeel barged into the smart-house on the floating island.
"Leave everything behind we need to go now!" Zeel yelled at his now 20-year-old sister, Catherine.
"Why such a buzzkill?" Catherine replied feistily as she was just about to start her daily Kalog (Most flexible race in Universe 0) stretching.
Catherine mainly did this to showoff for Zeel. Catherine had grown up extremely dependent on Zeel; her dependency got so bad at one point that she would get panic attacks whenever Zeel was not around.
Tom did little to stop Catherine's attachment because it was the side-effect of the removal of INT when she was younger. Catherine felt too much, while Zeel felt too little, so they balanced each other in a strange way.
Zeel grabbed Catherine by her collar and said with a growl apparent in his panic-stricken voice "When I speak you listen! I am not playing."
This yell made Catherine's attitude shift 180 degrees, though she liked being spoilt, it was key to note that Zeel was a dysfunctional individual due to his time of forced training by the Asheborns.
Catherine knew that Zeel was just a shell, but she liked him that way. Zeel was so logical, that she could control him easily through his naivety.
Due to his past experiences, Zeel would often treat his sister in a no-nonsense type of way, it was as if every walk she took could be a risk to her own life and the family – of course, inclusive of himself.
Catherine's mentality, while the majority was dependent, began to warp heavily into a 'defend the family by any means necessary'.
There were even incidents in the past where Catherine would stalk the ex-girlfriends of Zeel and inevitable some would even go missing.
Zeel and Tom turned a blind eye to these incidents as they preferred the outer shell Catherine would show them, but they were both knowledgeable of the demon at its core.
"Let's go!" Tom yelled as he grabbed Zeel and Catherine by their collars dragging them out the door and into the Anti-gravity ship on the sand.
Tom was extremely strong, and Zeel knew not to argue with his father. Tom was once known to be the fiercest warrior of The Homo-Superior Race.
Just before they were about to take off, a stasis chamber was fastened to the bottom of the ship.
Tom's emotions were slightly uncontrolled at seeing the stasis pod.
Seeing her father's state, Catherine was confused about the value of the stasis pod. It wasn't even the most advanced stasis pod in universe 0.
(30 Minutes Later)
Upon arriving at the facility, Zeel could see everything was in absolute chaos, professionals had become rioters, workers had become frantic psychopaths.
This was an expected outcome, working in such a facility, they could access Galactic readings.
This meant they were able to determine that a cosmic storm of this magnitude was not coincidental by any means.
If Homo-Superior technology could not stop the storm, then everything on any planet would no doubt die.
There would be no exception because Homo-Superior technology was the only thing keeping that 'particular energy' at bay.
Zeel had long expected something to occur, though he underestimated the threat level drastically.
After some brief scans and investigations into the cause of the cosmic storm, Zeel was appalled at what he found – it almost seemed as if the cosmic storm was a cleansing sentient life of Humanoid Origins.
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However, this was a mistake. Destroying the Homo-Superior Race was akin to destroying the entirety of Universe 0. whoever, or whatever did this, was clearly not knowledgable about the situation of Universe 0.
Zeel hopped out of the helicopter before it could land, followed closely by his sister Catherine and his father Tom.
Catherine and Tom were at a loss for the exact details of their visit to the facility. The urgency displayed by Zeel left little chance to question his motives.
Not long after Zeel, Catherine and Tom reached the lowest floor of the Secret Facility, everyone had calmed down somewhat. Even if it was the end of the world, The Crawford Family still deserved their due respect.
Everyone watched as a platform floated from below ground.
Catherine was slightly panicking, she could feel the air becoming heavier. Obviously, whatever attack was coming rendered Homo-Superior Technology useless.
That meant that Homo-Superiors were powerless at this time. She could not feel her surroundings, she felt essentially human for the first time in her life.
Zeel was busy performing a complex sequence of actions to start the machine in the underground facility.
The Machine were three gates, surrounded by a film of plasma that flickered with several colors faintly – almost as if the world itself was struggling to supply power to the enormous gates, which ironically was the case.
Catherine could see her father's face going pale for a moment.
Tom asked, "How would you power something of that magnitude?"
Tom feared the answer he would receive from Zeel, as even though he wasn't a genius like his son and late wife, he could still dabble a bit in the physics of space-time.
"Massive amounts of Computronium and everything else..." Zeel answered without any hesitation, turning on the three gates of varying sizes.
"The big one has a 10% chance of success, middle one 5% chance and small one 3% chance of success.
The big one is for me, the middle for Catherine, and the small one is for you and mom. I know this is selfish but I still lack the emotional response to actually care so… let's make it work" Zeel said pointing to the stasis chamber that held his mother Clara.
Her brain was partially jelly, and essentially she was dead, but Zeel did not fully kill his mom either. As long as a Homo-Superior brain was not fully dissolved, there would be a way to save them.
"Let's go!" Zeel said as he led his family towards the gates as quickly as possible.
Each gate would only stabilize for a limited period of time. Luckily, the planetary core would supply enough energy for the gate to open twice.
"There! There! Once you go through you can survive!" A worker shouted leading all other workers to turn towards the gate with hungry eyes.
The Homo-Superiors still continued their research, they didn't really care about escaping. They knew that they would not survive anywhere outside universe 0. The Homo-Superior Race had offended too many people outside this Universe.
However, members of The Races were not the same.
"Please Mr. Zeel I have a family!"
"Take my wife!"
"My daughter please!"
The noise became more prominent as many workers dashed towards the warp gates, but Zeel couldn't take the risk. The warp gates would destabilize if anyone entered.
Hence much to the chagrin of his family, Zeel pulled out a light-sword and without any prior warning, began cutting down the employees left and right.
Unlike other Homo-Superiors, Zeel was trained to kill without technology if necessary.
Employees rushed towards Zeel but his precision with a sword was topnotch.
Still, like beasts without a sense of danger, those who could not walk crawled, and those who could crawl frantically hung onto the legs of those who could.
Catherine looked at the desperate crowd, barely stifling a vomit at the blood and gore.
She managed to hold it in end, but a small smile still graced her face. It seemed bitter and happy all at once.
Not paying attention to the blood bath left in his wake, Zeel ordered his family towards their own warp gates before giving the stasis pod to his father.
"Mother is inside and she is technically dead, but the beam only targeted an unnecessary part of the brain.
If you survive, depending on where you end up, maybe you can help her. Though you already know this, your watch acts as a beacon so use it when it is safe though I doubt it would work!"
"Over the years you have been consuming something I made, so if you survive remember to take off your watch but don't lose it, It can protect you and mother in an emergency.
You are a warrior so I don't have any worries, but I need you to live. I cannot access The Crawford Family Dimension without you, and I need something from it.
But if you are about to die, destroy the watch before it self-destructs, we can't have anyone knowing our traveling method and frequency!" Zeel said as clear as possible before pushing his father into the gates.
Tom knew that Zeel kept him alive for a reason, but he would have still preferred Zeel to lie about actually caring for his father.
After warning Catherine of the same thing, Zeel pushed her through the warp gate as well.
However, Zeel failed to notice that a chunk of his memory also departed with the shy girl.
Zeel then proceeds to his own warp gate.
Still, he required more people to escape for his next plans.
"After I leave, another gate will activate at this location and remain for 3 hours so you have 3 hours to get your family and bring them here. The chances of dying are very high for those who are not employees or the family of the employees.
I don't care about any of you but in the end, I did this since I will be sucking this planet dry anyway. Good luck!"
Zeel then proceeded to jump into the warp gate, not bothering to pay attention to the negative comments that were yelled at him before his departure.
Though nobody was aware, Zeel's body seemed to glitch for a moment before he entered the cosmic wormhole.
Zeel's view then distorted and he felt as if his body and soul were being pulled apart – which was a clear indication of how dangerous Mjumping was.
Zeel felt as if his body was being torn apart for countless years until finally, with a loud collapsing sound, Zeel exited the cosmic wormhole on a huge trash heap in an unknown junkyard.
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