[Ranma]

Meanwhile...

       “What’s going on? They just fell to the ground into comatose state,” I said, still hurting a bit after Akira punched me a million times or so times.
       When I had became conscious a little while ago, Akira, Alan, and Maurice fell to the ground in a comatose state.
       “If only Alundra or Meia were around here, they could enter their dreams and see what’s going on,” I said, rubbing my arm.
       “You mean us?” a voice coming from nearby asked.
       I looked up and found a boy and girl push through the others to get to Akira, Alan, and Maurice. The boy has Asian human, just like me, and the girl looked Asian, except that she had pointy ears, which I believe is a trait of Newmen. The singular of Newmen is Newman, which is kind of an odd name for an alien race if you ask me. The boy was named Alundra and the girl Meia, which were odd names themselves, in my point of view.
       “Hmm...Interesting,” Shaun said.
       “What?” I asked, wondering what he was talking about.
       “Nothing, just thinking about something,” Shaun said.
       “Anyway, do you have a list of everyone in the Destined so far Dan?” I asked.
       “Why, yes I do...here,” Dan said handing me a flat device after typing something on it real quick.
       “Okay, lets see here,” I said looking at the device.
       Displayed on the device’s screen was a long list of names. I scrolled down to the bottom of the list and found a number that said “Total” beside it which said 52. I scrolled back to the top of the list and looked at the first name and saw “Aaron”. I scrolled down bit by bit and saw that the list was in alphabetical order by everyone’s first name, the last names of everyone weren’t even listed, so I assumed that it wasn’t important to Dan.
       From the top to bottom of the list the names were: Aaron - Deceased, Akane - Alive, Akira - Alive, Alan - Alive, Albert - Deceased, Alundra - Alive, Ash - Alive, Brandon - Alive, Daniel “Dan” - Alive, Doug - Alive, Euan - Deceased, Flint - Alive, Gohgei - Alive, Jackie - Alive, Joshua “Josh” - Alive, Kari - Alive, Kiri - Alive, Koushiro - Alive, Luna - Alive, Maurice - Alive, Meia - Alive, Michael - Deceased, Mimi - Alive, Miroku - Alive, Miyu - Alive, Moose - Alive, Nabiki - Alive, Nene - Alive, Nicolai “Nikki” - Alive, Nina - Alive, Ranma - Alive, Robert - Alive, Roy - Deceased, Royce - Alive, Rutee - Alive, Ryudo - Alive, Ryvjha “Ry” - Alive, Sam - Alive, Scott - Alive, Seeker “Seek” - Alive, Sora - Alive, Stahn - Alive, Taichi - Alive, Takeru - Alive, Tara - Alive, Thomas - Alive, Tobias - Alive, Toni - Alive, Ukyo - Alive, Ursula - Alive, Vahn - Alive, Yamato - Alive.
       I wondered why Shaun’s name wasn’t on here, and who this Ryvjha “Ry” and Seeker “Seek” were. Then I just figured that I misread the list and missed his name, but since the list was so long, I decided not to read it again.
       “We are missing Thomas and Sam,” Chris said, turning his head back and forth from left to right, with a worried look on his face.
       That’s when the others started to panic, and I tried handing the list back to Dan, who just put his hand up motioning for me to hold onto it, so I put it into my left pants pocket.
       “Wh-wh-where did they go?”Brandon asked, stuttering as he talked.
       “Hah ha hah, you can’t even begin to comprehend,” Shaun said. “You are all going to die.”
       He grabbed the D.R.G. from the comatose Akira and held it in his left hand. Then he pulled the trigger and opened up a portal. Zombies, zombie dogs, and other types of monsters started coming out of the portal and stopped in front of Shaun facing in our direction. Then a being appeared standing in between us and the monsters.
       “Seeker!” Shaun said surprised. “It’s to late now. Kill them.”
       The monsters began coming in our direction obeying Shaun’s order. Then Shaun jumped into the portal as it closed, and I caught a glimpse of something fall to the ground as he jumped in.
       “So  Shaun’s  the one controlling these monsters, I should have figured it out sooner,” Seeker said.
       “We’ve got to run for shelter,” I said, twisting my head from right to left and back, looking around for some sort of exit.
       “I know a place, follow me,” Moose said, running down the hall.
       I picked up Akira, while Daniel picked up Maurice and Scott picked up Alan, and then ran after Moose, with the rest following close behind. We followed Moose into a large room, and as we entered I placed Akira down on the floor. Moose barricaded the door we entered through, while Daniel placed Maurice down and Scott placed Alan down. We all hung near the middle of the room, staring at the barricaded door.
       “What’s going on?” I heard someone ask.
       I looked in the direction of the voice and saw Sam and Thomas standing there, with puzzled looks on their faces.
       “Where have you two been?” I asked.
       “We decided to explore the castle,” Thomas answered.
       “Guys, we have lost Alan and Maurice, something terrible must be happening in the dream world,” Alundra said.
       “Lost them? You don’t mean?” Brandon asked.
       “They’re dead,” Alundra said.
       “Alundra, Meia, you tow have got to enter Akira’s dream before the same thing happens to him,” I said. “I don’t want the person who beat me to die, and my brother.”
       “Brother?” Jackie asked surprised.
       “This isn’t quite the time, but yes Ranma and Akira are brothers,” Seeker said.
       “Come on Meia,” Alundra said, touching Akira’s forehead and disappeared shortly after into Akira’s dreams.
       “Wait Alundra,” Meia said angrily, and touched Akira’s forehead and disappeared just the same.
       “I hope they stop whatever happened to Alan and Maurice from happening to Akira,” I said.

[Akira]

A few moments earlier back in the Dream World...

       “What planet do I rule?” I asked Wayfarer. “You gave Alan a planet called Monstero, and Maurice a planet called Plasmario.”
       “It is called Ultima, formally known as Mysterio, and before that it was known as Alleron,” Wayfarer said.
       “Why did it’s name change like that?” I asked.
       “The planet evolved,” Wayfarer said.
       “How can a planet evolve?” I asked.
       “I don’t know the details myself, but technically it isn’t a planet at all, it is a star,” Wayfarer said.
       “A star? Really? That’s so cool,” I said.
       “We’ll be arriving at Ultima soon,” Wayfarer said.
       Then I heard the engines rev up and felt the ship jolt a bit as it moved quickly through space at near light speed. Before I knew it we arrived at Ultima and were landing. I saw through the front screen a large castle, much bigger than any city on Earth has ever been. There was a space port connected to the castle, which could explain it’s size. I was astonished by the size of it, much so that my jaw dropped without my noticing. I thought that Wayfarer was huge, and this castle was even bigger. I wondered how long it took to make this castle, and why me of all people was chosen to rule it. Wayfarer docked at the far end of the space port, as the only thought that ran though my brain was “Why me?”
       “The sentient race here call themselves Ultimarians,” Wayfarer said. “I will stay docked here until your return.”
       Just then I heard the control room door open and someone walk in. I turned to see a centaur-like creature standing there calmly with blueish flames all over it’s body, as if the flames were growing out of it’s skin.
       “Is that creature on fire?” I asked Wayfarer.
       “No, since Ultimarians live on a star they have adapted by growing flames out of their skin,” Wayfarer said.
       “Hello, my name is McCaro,” the Ultimarian said, walking up to me and reaching it’s hand out for me to shake.
       I hesitated for a bit, and then finally shook it’s hand. After I pulled my hand away, I examined it and was amazed to see that I wasn’t burned at all.
       “Our flames are harmless to most people, it is like hair to us,” McCaro said, as if reading my mind.
       “How did you -” I began to ask.
       “We get the same expression from other visitors to our planet, so it is nothing new,” McCaro said. “Now please, follow me.”
       I followed McCaro all the way out of the ship that I named Wayfarer, through the space port, and down the hall into a laboratory by the looks of it. McCaro walked up to a female Ultimarian, I could tell by the breasts sticking out, who was wearing a white lab coat. It was odd seeing a creature, similar in shape to that of a centaur in mythological Earth stories, to be wearing a lab coat.
       “This is our new leader,” McCaro said to the female Ultimarian, as I turned my gaze around the room.
       “Okay, I shall prepare him,” the female Ultimarian said, and looked to me. “This way please.”
       I followed her up to a large, clear capsule.
       “Get in. Don’t worry, it will not hurt at all,” the female Ultimarian said.
       “Okay,” I said, hesitated for a second, and then stepped into the capsule. “I’m ready.”
       Then the female Ultimarian pressed the palm of her hand on a panel beside the capsule, closing the door to the capsule. Then a white steam-like substance poured into the capsule, and all I could see was myself, and nothing outside of the capsule. I looked down at myself and saw, mot to mention felt, my feet change into hooves. The I felt my waist down stretch backward into a body of a centaur. Then the blueish flames starting growing out of my skin like fast growing hair, and I noticed my clothes just disappeared. I had become an Ultimarian..
       “Uh, oh, the capsule is starting to malfunction,” I heard the female Ultimarian say, but I still couldn’t see anything outside of the capsule.
       “Fix it, or shut it off,” I heard McCaro say.
       “I can’t, it’s not responding,” I heard the female Ultimarian say.
       Then my body started changing again, this time into a lizard with silver skin except for the chest which was gold colored with a black symbol of some sort in the middle of my chest, two green colored blades coming out of the elbows, and one green blade attached to the tip of a long tail that grew from my spine. I stood on two legs, very much like I did, when I was human, unlike the four centaur legs.
       “He’s turned into a Lizian,” I heard the female Ultimarian say.
       I touched my head with my scaley hands and felt how reptilian it was. I figured that what I had become was called a Lizian. Then I began changing again, this time into a creature that was part dragon from Earth mythological stories and part human. Having a tail felt kind of odd still. I looked down at myself again and saw my blood red skin over a small percentage of my body. The only difference from human and what I was now, is that I had a blood red colored tail of a dragon, and dragon-like head that was the same size as the Lizian head. The rest of my body was human, noticing that I was standing there naked I instantly covered myself up with my hands. I stood there, completely embarrassed and hoping that no one could see me from outside, like I couldn’t see them from the inside.
       “Now he’s a Dragoon,” I heard the female Ultimarian say.
       I figured this form was called a Dragoon. Then I started changing again, and this time the tail changed into a cat tail, my head changed back into human-like head. I felt the top of my head and felt cat-like ears. Then I looked down at myself again and saw that I had become a female.
       “Wait a minute,” I thought to myself, while panicking that I was now female.
       “And now he is a Catkerion,” I heard the female Ultimarian say.
       I then figured that this form was called a Catkerion. Then I began to change yet again, this time the tail disappeared and so did the ears, so for a moment I was a human female. Then my waist down, became like a long snake body, while I still remained female.
       “Okay, now he’s an Ekidona,” I heard the female Ultimarian say.
       “What isss going on?” I yelled, with a hissing sound, because of my forked snake tongue.
       “We are trying to fix this, Akira, hold on,” I heard McCaro say.
       Then my waist down became human again, and I was still female So at the moment I was a human female again, and standing there naked. I felt really awkward, I hoped that sometime soon I would change back to male. Then large two white wings grew out of my back.
       “He has become a Skyling,” I heard the female Ultimarian say. “Oh no!”
       I heard a noise that sounded like the panel beside the capsule, had short-circuited. Then a bright white light filled the capsule and I suddenly felt sleepy.

       “Are you okay?” I heard a voice ask.
       I slowly opened my eyes and saw someone who looked like me, except four years older, staring back at me.
       “Are you okay, Akira?” the person who looked like me asked.
       “You called me Akira,” I said, getting up and seeing that I was back to my human male self.
       “Yeah, that is your name, and mine is Nathan, do you remember?” he asked.
       I recognized that name Nathan, it was the same name Jackie and Jeremy called me.
       “I’m sorry about the visions you’ve been had,” Nathan said.
       “Visions?” I asked, wondering what he meant by that.
       “The odd dreams you’ve been having, they are visions, and those were visions of me,” Nathan said.
       “Why?” I asked him.
       “You will find out soon enough,” Nathan said and disappeared.

       Then I awoke finding McCaro and two female Ultimarians, the same one in the lap coat and the other one wearing a crown on her head, looking down at me. I tried to stand up, but I had difficult and fell back to the ground. I looked down and noticed I was a male Ultimarian.
       “Careful, you’re not used to being an Ultimarian quite yet,” the female Ultimarian wearing the crown said, grabbing around my torso and helping me stand.
       It was easier to stand in place since I had four legs instead of two but it still felt odd having more than two legs. I tried walking but my hind legs tripped over my front legs and I fell to the ground again. Then McCaro reached out his hand to assist me up, but instead I got stood up by myself.
       “There you go, you are now starting to get used to being an Ultimarian,” McCaro said, in his own way of complimenting me.
       “Thanks,” I said, looking at the rest of my surrounding.
       I was back in the control room of the Wayfarer.
       “Why are we here?” I asked McCaro.
       “We were going to ask Wayfarer what went wrong, but you awoke when we were about to ask,” McCaro said.
       “Wait, that reminds me, I just had another vision,” I told Wayfarer.
       “What was this one about?” Wayfarer asked, interested.
       “Well I saw Nathan himself, and he looked exactly like me, well except that he looked about four years older and that he looked like me when I was human,” I said. “Do you know what that means?”
       “I don’t really know for certain, but it might mean that everything that has happened to you up to this point also happened to Nathan,” Wayfarer said.
       “Who is Nathan anyway?” I asked.
       “He could be your descendent or ancestor, or even neither of those, I don’t really know,” Wayfarer said.
       “Well how can we find out?” I asked.
       “Sadly, I do not know the answer to that, I wish I knew,” Wayfarer said. “You may find out eventually though.”
       “Here Akira, these are for you,” the female Ultimarian wearing the crown said, stepping up to me, and handing me a different shaped crown and a dark grey amulet. “Put these on.”
       First I put the amulet around my neck, and then I put the crown on top of my head. Then the amulet turned from dark grey to a bright clear red, and flame ignited from the inside of the bright clear red amulet.
       “Good, you are the perfect one,” the female Ultimarian wearing the crown said.
       “The perfect one?” I asked.
       “My perfect mate,” the female Ultimarian said proudly.
       “Wh-what?” I asked in surprise. “I never agreed to this. Who are you?”
       “My name is Ayeka, and I am princess of the Ultimarians,” she said.
       “Well I’m honored, but I never agreed to be your mate,” I said.
       “Please, I’m begging you. My people need a better leader than me alone, and I need to marry a prince to become a queen, and also for him to become king,” Ayeka said. “Astrid, help me please.”
       “Her highness is right,” the female Ultimarian in the lab coat said.
       “Your name is Astrid?” I asked her.
       “Yes it is,” she answered.
       “Just what happened to me back at the lab?” I asked.
       “The capsule malfunctioned, which spliced you with every single creature in the universe, but you were unconscious for most of the different species,” Astrid said. “I apologize, but please don’t blame Princess Ayeka. Please be Princess Ayeka’s mate.”
       “Fine, I guess,” I said.
       “Oh, thank you so much,” Ayeka said, hugged me, and kissed me on the cheek.
       With that, I felt my face blush, and was completely embarasssed. So I decided to change the subject.
       “So what is this?” I asked, holding the amulet in my right hand while it was still around my neck.
       “It is the Fire Amulet,” Ayeka said with a smile.
       “Oh, I see,” I said staring at the amulet, trying to avoid eye contact with Ayeka.
       “Princess Ayeka, why don’t you take Akira to the courtyard while we prepare the marriage ceremony?” Astrid asked in a suggestive tone.
       “Good idea, come on Akira,” Ayeka said happily, grabbing my hand, and pulling me to follow her.
       After she let go of my hand and galloped ahead, I galloped after her. I followed her all the way to the courtyard. I was utterly amazed that I hadn’t lost my breath with all the running, I mean galloping.
       “Ultimarians are also adapted to gallop very fast for long periods of time,” Ayeka said reading the expression of surprise on my face.
       “What do Ultimarians eat?” I asked curiously.
       “Well we don’t actually eat, our diet only consists of water,” Ayeka said. “I know it may sound weird since we have flames growing out of our skin and that we live on a star. We have a water supply on this star, that is constantly being cooled down so it doesn’t evaporate.”
       “Just water huh? That is weird, it doesn’t make any sense,” I said.
       “I know, I don’t understand it myself either,” Ayeka said.
       Ayeka walked up to a strange-looking tree that was growing right from the plasma of the star, and folded her legs under herself to sit down.
       “Come sit down,” Ayeka said, using her hand to pat the groung, or what you could call the ground, beside her, signaling for me to sit down next to her.
       I hesitated and then walked up to her and sat like she had did, noticing how comfortable it was.
       “So what was it like to be Human?” Ayeka asked me, looking up at space.
       “Well, Humans are very social creatures, they are violent, and -” I started.
       “That’s not what I meant,” Ayeka interrupted and looked at me.
       “What do you mean?” I asked.
       “Oh, I don’t know, I was just trying to make small talk,” Ayeka said, looking back to space.
       “Oh, I said,” looking down.
       “How old are you?” Ayeka asked, still looking up at space.
       “Fifteen, you?” I asked, looking at her.
       “Fourteen, I’ll be fifteen in a few months. As a human, did you have any girlfriends?” Ayeka asked.
       “No, but there is this Asian girl, who claimed I was her new fiancé though,” I said, looking up to space.
       “What’s her name?” Ayeka asked.
       “Ursula,” I said.
       “Do you have feeling for her?” Ayeka asked.
       “Not really, she just started saying that after I beat her previous fiance in a fight,” I said.
       “I see, how about your family? Do you miss them?” Ayeka asked.
       “I found out recently that the parents that raised me aren’t my real parents. I don’t know what my real parents were like, they died when I was three years old,” I said. “My aunt and uncle raised me, but they were killed by some zombies.”
       “I’m sorry for asking,” Ayeka said, looking down at the ground as I looked at her.
       “Don’t worry about it,” I told her.
       “Now about your friends. Do you miss them?” Ayeka asked.
       “A little, I haven’t seen them for a while now,” I said. “I thought this was a dream at first but it feels so real.”
       “Well this is a parallel universe that all people come to when they fall asleep,” Ayeka said, staring me in the eyes this time. “People call it the Dream World.”
       “You mean this isn’t real?” I asked.
       “Well, actually it is real. Everything that happens here, happens in what people call the Real World as well. When someone wakes up they are where they last fell asleep, and not where they were in the Dream World. So people often think it isn’t real, when it actually did happen,” Ayeka said.
       “So you’re asleep somewhere?” I asked her.
       “Yes, on Ultima in the Real World,” Ayeka said.
       “Well, I had a dream inside this dream, what’s with that?” I asked.
       “Oh, yes that. That is another parallel universe that not many people go to,” Ayeka said. “There is no name for that parallel universe.”
       “How can you tell which parallel universe you’re in?” I asked.
       “I don’t know,” Ayeka said, as she looked at me lovingly. “Thanks a lot for dealing with all of this, and for telling me some about yourself.”
       “You’re very welcome,” I said.
       “You’re very handsome,” Ayeka said unexpectedly.
       “You think so? I always thought that all women thought I was ugly. I think you are very pretty,” I said.
       “Thanks,” Ayeka said, blushing. “Not all women think you are ugly.”
       Then as we leaned in to kiss, a male Ultimarian dressed in gold and silver armor, interrupted.
       “Prince Akira, Princess Ayeka, McCaro sent me here to tell you that the marriage ceremony is ready,” the male Ultimarian dressed in armor said.
        “Thank you Algor, you may take your leave,” Ayeka said. “We’ll be there in a minute.”
       Then Ayeka stood up, I did the same, and we noticed Algor still standing there.
       “Is there something else?” Ayeka asked him.
       “I have some devastating news for Prince Akira,” Algor said.
       “What is it?” I asked.
       “Plasmario and Monstero were attacked by an unknown enemy,” Algor said.
       “Any survivors?” I asked.
       “Yes, there are many, but sadly King Maurice and King Alan are not among them,” Algor said.
       “They could still be alive. Prevent any in-coming spacecrafts from landing and search them. I have a feeling that whoever it was, I’ll be next,” I said. “Dismissed Algor.”
       “Let’s get to the marriage ceremony,” Ayeka said.
       “Okay,” I said.
       Then I galloped side-by-side with Ayeka to the far end of the courtyard where the marriage ceremony was set up.