Ricky's body was atomised leaving only his soul behind. His soul began to deteriorate immediately. A wormhole through space and time was formed linking to the one moment in all history that time travel was possible. The machine shoved his soul through to the other side and activated the 'atom yanker'.

His soul appeared in the parking lot of the Chook's Creek post office. Countless atoms were pulled from the surroundings towards the soul. The buildings, the street, the dozens of people brawling, all had atoms pulled from them. It wasn't enough to cause any damage or noticable difference to any individual person or thing, just a little from each.

These atoms came together to form Ricky's new body. The soul deterioration stopped once the body was formed but his soul had already taken damage, he was now living on borrowed time. The wormhole snapped shut behind him, time travel ceased to be possible, and would never ever be so ever again.

Ricky was crouched down naked in a classic terminator time travel pose. Fun fact: Terminator 2 still held up as a classic even thousands of years in the future. He opened his eyes and saw on the ground in front there was a pair of sunglasses. Someone had accidentally dropped them from their car without noticing and driven off, leaving them behind.

"Perrrfect." He purred as he grabbed them, put them on, and stood up.

'Lucky find', the spell Destiny Fish had cast on him just before departing, burned away after Ricky got his lucky find. It seemed 2000 years of war hadn't made future Destiny Fish's spells any less useless. What 2000 years of war had changed however was the human physique.

Ricky stood 2.2 metres tall and weighed just over 150kg. He was a mountain of muscles that would put any body builder to shame. His new body didn't have any hair yet so it was hard to tell, but he was very handsome in a Hollywood action star, kind of way. He was stark naked except for the sunglasses which covered his dazzlingly blue eyes; his evenly tanned skin was on full display. We will not be describing his Johnson, today or ever, please don't ask. Any other place or time he would have been the unmistakable centre of attention, however everyone in Chook's Creek was too busy with the brawl to notice the hulking super soldier.

Ricky had arrived just in time to see the Matriarch step down from her truck. She was much smaller now than in the future and had visible wounds on her body already left over from the lighting.

"You don't look so tough now." He quipped with a smirk. Feeling like he looked awesome even when talking to himself like a crazy person; The power of sunglasses. He charged down the street to do battle.

The Matriach hopped down off her truck and strolled forward into the crowd. She casually back handed a police officer who was flown away by the blow and bowled over two cultists and a cricketer. Her eyes were locked onto her target: Edison in his Battle suit.

The suit stood 2 metres tall. Edison was only 180cm but the computers helped him compensate his stride for the height difference. His was a more Melee combat oriented version than Einstein's. It was heavier and enhanced both his strength and toughness several times over. It was colored in a fantastic blue on Ivory, very stylized to look sleek and intimidating.

Edison saw her coming and readied himself. She marched through the crowd, knocking aside anyone in her path regardless of affiliation. People had noticed her and were trying to move away.

"Hooweee, that's a big one! Check it out! We should abduct this one too! Haha!" Exclaimed Edison.

The people between them fled and they both charged towards each other. The Matriarch leapt the last few metres, arms raised. Edison brought both arms up above his head to defend the incoming blow. There was an immense thump as clawed hands smashed down into his forearms. The asphalt below Edison's feet cracked. Yellow warning lights lit up in his helmet's display.

"Whoa. Tough one aren't you?" Mocked Edison confidently.

He shoved up explosively, forcing her arms off, then twisted and brought his arm back to line up a heavy straight punch. She tried to dodge back, last second, but the blow still hit her. She was a full metre taller than him so the blow hit at chest height. She was knocked back but swung her claws down, catching him in the arm, digging the claws into the suit. She dragged him towards her a little before he managed to shake free of the claws. Both of their momentum stopped and the Matriarch twisted and swiped out to shove him off balance. Edison wasn't pushed much but she followed it up by crouching down on all fours and launching herself forward, tackling him with her shoulder. Her superior size and weight sent him tumbling backwards.

Everyone had fled from their fight now, giving them plenty of open Street to fight in. They watched in awe, Edison and the Matriarch took centre stage. More yellow warning lights were lightning up on Edison's helmet.

"Edison, is everything okay?! I'm taking out my laser, get me a clear shot. " Einstein sent over coms. A laser pistol unfolding from her suit's gauntlet into her hand.

"No need, I can take it alone." Edison said, standing back up to face the Matriarch.

She was on all fours now, back hunched, growling. Her body was coiled ready to leap. Edison raised his fists up and gestured with one hand for her to come.

She leapt forward arms and claws out front, jaw wide, trying to knock him down. His suit made a metallic whirring sound at the intense exertion used to crouch down diagonally then leap sideways out of the way. He twisted and rolled in one smooth motion on the street and came up facing her direction. Without stopping he crouched down again, reversing his momentum, and back towards her. The pavement shattered under his feet again from the pressure. His fist connected hard with her side, something made a cracking sound inside her. He followed that punch with another and then another.

Her front arm swung back along the ground and swept out, catching one of his legs. The claws left a deep gouge in the suit's leg and twisted him off balance a little. He quickly righted himself towards her but he was too slow. She was already there towering up over him following up her attack. She came down upon him and her jaw snapped over his entire shoulder. She bit down. His suit cracked where teeth started to pierce the metal.

Einstein saw a chance and opened fire, taking two shots at the Matriarch. Both hit, one in her back, one in her thigh. They left bleeding wounds but did surprisingly less damage than expected. Einstein was lining up to shoot again when the Matriarch started shaking Edison with her mouth. He was spun and shook about between them so Einstein couldn't get a clear shot. The Matriarch kept shaking him and started slamming him into the pavement over and over.

Einstein could see him trying to summon his pistol from the suit but he was being shook too hard to get a hold of it. The Matriarch was completely overwhelming him, he couldn't defend at all. Einstein was trying to circle around and get another clear shot but the Matriarch was wary of her and kept Edison between them.

The fight had taken them close to the cultist's bus. A huge new monster leapt off the top of the bus and onto the Matriarch's back.

It wasn't the large gang fight. It wasn't the police joining them. It wasn't the arrival of aliens. Nor was it the wolf monster. It was the arrival of the giant naked man that convinced Wally it was time to arm himself.

Ricky leapt off the bus onto the Matriarch. He bounced and scrambled and finally managed to snake his arms around her neck in a chokehold. The fact that he could, blew his mind. In the future, she was so big he wouldn't even hope to get his arms even a quarter of the way around.

He squeezed and held on as best he could as she bucks and twisted. She tossed the mangled alien aside and leapt back first into the bus, sandwiching Ricky between. He was forced to let go as the air was crushed out of his body. The bus rocked back and forth and from the large dent in the side Ricky fell down to the ground.

Einstein opened fire again, hitting again and again. The Matriarch winced in pain and raised an arm to defend her head. She rushed forward, scooped up Edison and with a spin hurled him at Einstein like a rag doll.

Einstein was taken by surprise and had to retract her pistol to catch him. They were knocked back and tangled up together.

The Matriarch had already turned back to Ricky. She had turned in time to see him dash behind the bus. She ran forward on all fours and leapt up on top of the bus. She looked over the edge of the other side to aim her descent on the other side right in front of Ricky.

Ricky saw her coming down, planted one foot down, and spun into a devastating kick with his whole body behind it. His leg connected perfectly with her head and whipped it sideways into the bus. There was a satisfying crunch sound and another huge dent put into the bus.

The Matriarch snapped her jaws at him and shook her head to recover. Ricky was already running away back the way he came around the bus again. She dashed around the bus in the opposite direction, planning to not get caught off guard again. She got around and saw him dashing out into the open towards the aliens. She started to give chase but the smaller alien opened fire again. She growled and retreated back.

Ricky ran over to the Scientists, hands raised. "Give me a laser pistol!. She’s weak, now's our chance!” he urged.

Edisonn lay on the ground by Einstein. He was badly wounded and his suit was trashed. His suits display told him most systems were offline, but not the laser pistol dispenser luckily. The gun formed in his hand easily now that he wasn't fighting off the monster. He couldn't even raise his hand to pass it over and his communicator wasn't working either. Ricky got the hunt anyway, grabbed the gun and held it like he knew how to use it. He turned to aim it at the Matriarch. She had already ducked out behind the truck she had arrived in.

Einstein turned and saw the hulking muscle-bound Ricky holding Edison's gun. She was very wary of him. He was an Ally against the monster they were fighting but he was also an unknown threat. She'd have to do something about him.

She opened up communication to the spaceship. "Fred, where in the name of science are those stun drones I ordered you to send?!"

Fred was looking into the machine bay in disbelief when Einstein finally reopened communication. He had been trying to page her for a while but the AI had denied him. Apparently there had been orders left to not let him touch anything. He was so done.

Speaking about the AI, it had no idea what it was doing. It added stunner after stunner to the repair drones and then launched them at the floor directly towards where Einstein and Edison were on Earth. The drones that could Still move now had over 50 stunners attached to them and looked like a ridiculous floating pile of.. well, floating stunners.

Again Fred had been locked out of all systems so he couldn't do anything to fix it.

"Fred, where in the name of science are those stun drones I ordered you to send?!" Einstein's voice came over the communicator

Fred looked at the communicator tiredly.

"Fred? Can you hear me Fred? You aren't taking a nap are you?! This is an emergency!"

Fred sighed. "Einstein," he started, "you didn't happen to order the AI to lock me out of all of the ship's system's before you left did you?"

"Ahh, oh.. um..." Einstein fumbled over her reply.

"Follow up question while I've got you: The AI on the..." He paused to sigh again, "The AI on the xX_fishkilla_Xx," he said the name slowly, pronouncing every syllable. " The AI is something you've made yourself, right? Did you perhaps forget to program instructions for ATTACHING A STUNNER TO DRONES AND FLYING THEM OUT THE EXIT OF THE DRONE BAY INSTEAD OF INTO THE FLOOR?!" Fred started calm enough but ended with a scream. All of his frustrations bubbling out.

A few seconds passed and a quiet voice answered "it's still in development, there are a few kinks to iron out. Fred I need you to... "

"I quit." Said Fred calmly, his voice returned to normal.

"Hold on Fred. Hey! Wait, where are you going? You can't take that, it doesn't belong to you. Gaah... Come back! What did you say Fred?!" Was Einstein's reply.

Fred just walked away.

Einstein was panicking. The big muscle alien stalked off with Edison's gun chasing after the big hairy alien. Edison was hurt and Fred was acting weird. She had fix this. Time to work! She passed her gun down into Edison's open hand trusting him to defend her while she focused.

She opened up communication with the ship's AI. "Computer, gosh, unattached all the stunners from the drones and start fresh. Attach a single stunner to a single unmodified repair drone. Do this 7 for seven different drones then fly them out the exit of the drone bay, and to my location. Ensure that they don't crash into any physical object on the way as this will damage them. We don't want to damage the drones, computer. Have them stun and retrieve these three targets." She entered hairy alien, muscly alien and Fishy alien in. "Take the targets back to the ship alive, again don't crash into anything. Put them inside a containment cell. Not the same one mind, different containment cells for each one. And then close the cell with them inside. Oh, and make sure the muscly one doesn't have Edison's laser pistol. We will depart once they're all on board" Phew she sighed that was the most Captaining she had done all trip.

Now to deal with the Fred problem, "Computer reinstate Fred's access to all systems. Actually, he seemed really angry, you know how emotional greens get. Let's give him full access to all systems until I'm back on board." She prayed to all that is scientific that the ship would still be in one piece when she got there.

"FULL ACCESS IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO INDIVIDUALS WITH CAPTAIN PRIVILEGE. GIVE CREWMAN FRED CAPTAIN PRIVILEGE Y/N?"

"Oh like a sub-captain. Cool yeah I bet he'll love that. That shouldn't be a problem, at least until I'm back. Yes, give Fred the permission."

"AFFIRMATIVE. INSTATING FRED AS CAPTAIN, REMOVING EINSTEIN FROM CAPTAIN."

"Wait, no computer you misunderstood..."

Something hit her in the face of her suit. She looked down and saw a hard red ball rolling in front of her. Looking up she saw all around her the crowd moving back in to resume their brawl.

The Matriarch limped away towards Wanda's house. She hurt all over, those lasers had really done a number on her. But all was not lost. She could smell Tomas close now. The front door of the house opened and he stepped out.

He looked odd. He was wearing mismatched clothes and a pair of gumboots which appeared to have a bunch of kitchen knives strapped on by Saran wrap. In his hands he swung a rope with a hooked hand rake for gardening tied to one end. The biggest shock though was the cigarette in his mouth. She didn't know he smoked!

Tomas spoke up, "Not another step you pubic hair covered mutt. You wanna get in here, you'll have to get through me. Noone threatens Wanda! I'm gonna tear your guts out and play around with your intestines like a kitten with a string. I'll punch my hand so far up your butt that I'll be able to control your mouth like a hand puppet. Get back, I say!

His words stopped her in her tracks. She opened and closed her mouth a few times but nothing came out. No one spoke to her like that. She was the Matriarch! And who the heck is Wanda?! Was she Tomas' girlfriend?! Why hadn't she been introduced?! She hadn't even heard of her before?!

Finally her fury boiled over and her voice came out. A furious bestial voice. "How dare you speak to your mother like that?!?!?!"

Anyone within hearing range gasped and flinched away in pure fear as their survival instincts told them to run from this predator or die. Inside the house behind Tomas, the Matriarch heard a woman scream.

But not Tomas. He stood firm and looked her straight into the eyes. One Apex predator to another. "You are not my mother." He said with venom on his tongue.

These words broke her heart into pieces. Deep down she knew she should have been a better mother to her children over the centuries. She should have spent more time, been more nurturing, and refrained from eating them. She had let the power get to her head. She didn't deserve the name Matriarch. Hearing Tomas' words gave her the ultimate reality check. She vowed to change her ways, to be a better mother from this day forth. She raised her head to the sky and howled in sorrow.

'Thank the goddess I went before this all started or I'd have wet me Daks 10 times over by now' thought Wally as he stared at the howling wolf monster who claimed to be his mother.

"Oh bugger me sideways, what's this now?" He moaned as the giant naked guy was making his way over. He was still wearing the sunglasses that had somehow survived his fight with the wolf monster. He had a fancy sci-fi pistol pointed at her as he made his way over giving her a wide circle.

"Are you coming to give us grief mate?" Wally called out to the man.

"No, I'm friendly. May I approach?" He replied.

"Yeah alright I spose."

The man came over and smiled handsomely. "from the way you look, you must be Tomas. Boy am I glad I made it in time to rescue you." He gestured to the Matriarch. Who was now bent over weeping "If anyone deserves the opportunity to put her down, it's you. Here lemme show you how to use this." He passed the laser pistol over and explained how to fire it.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I haven't much time and I have important business with Madame Wanda." The handsome pile of muscles beamed and strode off onto Wanda's house.

Wally stayed to stand guard. He watched Ricky leave a bit shell shocked at how charming that bloke had been. He pulled a fresh cigarette from his pocket from a pack he had looted the fella he kicked in the neck way back from the first team who invaded Madame Wanda's. He stuck it in his mouth and lit it with the laser pistol.

"Oh that's nifty," he said, firing off several shots into the sky. He looked at his dark skinned hand holding the pistol. "Did he call me Tomas?"

Love at first sight is a powerful feeling. Ask Destiny Fish about the first time he laid eyes on the Goddess of Creation, or ask Wally about when he first laid eyes on Wanda, or ask Wanda about the time she first laid eyes on the giant naked man who had just entered her house.

She was already envisioning their future together: a large house in a nice neighbourhood, surrounded by a muscular white picket fence. Their ten... No, eleven children joining them around the breakfast table. She'd buy him a necktie to go with the sunglasses and kiss him on the cheek before spending him off to work. Then following him to work because she never wanted to be apart from him ever again.

She shook her head and snapped out of it disappointed with herself. She was far too strong and independent to be a weak stereotype like that.

The sound of a laser pistol being fired repeatedly came from outside and the man's face lit up in a broad joyful smile.

That's the same smile he'll have on our wedding day when I'm feeding him cake at the ceremony and dab some on his nose... No! Noooo come back Wanda

.

"Hello Madame, my name is Ricky. Sorry for the tumultuous nature of my visit," the man spoke "and sorry about this stupid grin on my face. That sound outside is the sound of my mission being completed."

"That's ok, you don't ever have to stop smiling." Wanda assured the man. His voice was like warm chocolate on a winter's night.

"Haha ok but I've actually come here for a serious reason. I desperately need your help."

"Anything, for you."

"Great! In my briefing, I was told that you were a soul extraction expert, years ahead of your time. I was also told that on this day you came across a great stray soul. Am I right?"

"Yes, you're perfect for me." Wanda snapped out it and looked at the jar on the table. "Erm... Yes the soul is in the jar over there. Why?"

"Ok well don't fret, but my soul is severely damaged and I will die soon." He started.

Tears welled up in Wanda's eye's as the man continued.

"I have already changed the future for the better by completing my mission outside. But I can continue to help this timeline by helping my bro meet his bro. I need you to take out my soul and put his soul into this body."

"But Ricky, we've only just met." A tear rolled down her face.

"And it has been my greatest pleasure. Please Madame, I beg you."

"Ok, I'll do it." Wanda resolved.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

They sat down and Wanda retrieved her tools and put on her sunglasses.

"Goodbye Wanda, who knows, perhaps someday we'll meet again. If there's one thing I learned from Destiny, it's that destiny is unpredictable and powerful."

"Goodbye, Sweet Ricky. I have no idea what you are talking about."

She plunged the forceps into his hulking chest and retrieved his soul. Upon exiting his body, despite Madame Wanda's specialised soul extraction technique, his soul faded away and disappeared in moments. She then retrieved the soul from the jar on the table and inserted it into the body. He roused.

"How'd it go? Can you cure my curse?" He asked "Why am I wearing sunglasses too? Whoa! Why am I naked?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY BODY!?!?!?!"

There was something about the way a man held himself. It was like when a farmer's ducks laid the biggest eggs in town but he wasn't self conscious about it or anything. There was just an air of confidence around him that his duck's eggs could fill you up and satisfy your hunger. Big duck energy Wanda called it.

Ricky had it in droves; Tomas had none.

Thankfully Wally chose this moment to walk in. He had decided that the hairy monster outside wasn't going to attack anymore.

Tomas bolted up right and pointed at Wally. "THAT'S... YOU..."

"Ah there you are, mate. I wanted to ask: earlier you called me Tomas right? I think you made a mistake. My name's actually..."

Stunning lasers blasted through the windows and doors hitting both Wally and Tomas. 4 high tech alien drones flew in and began blasting them. They fired again and again until both men were unconscious. Outside 3 drones were doing the same to the Matriarch. The drones then shot bubbles of energy around the 3 and whisked them off into the sky.

Down the street, Einstein was too busy fighting in the brawl to notice them fly off. She had lost sight of Edison in the confusion.

"Edison! Where are you?! Why aren't you shooting?!"

There's a horrible stereotype about green Scientists that says that they like to take naps and miss all of the important science going on around them. This was untrue as they napped no more,no less than blue Scientists.

Fred was taking an afternoon nap with his headphones on in his quarters. He didn't want to hear any more from Einstein until he cooled his head. He didn't hear the AI make several announcements, he slept through the gentle rocking as the ship left orbit and flew into space towards home.