Another Dimension: Demonic Tempest

[Shadow Dragon]

"You can't escape it!" shouted the robed one, "You may have claimed to have changed for the better, but you still cling to those memories of yours; memories you swore you'd throw away! You went back to your original self even after that grand speech of 'being different'! You lied to everyone, including yourself!" the cloaked one then turns to the clone, "And then we have this one; fighting for a man once bent on taking over the world!"

"You don't know me," hissed the clone, "and you don't know what the hell we're doing or what we're fighting for!"

"And obviously-" the cloaked one stepped forward, "YOU YOURSELF don't know either."

That caused the clone to freeze, proving the stranger was right.

"You don't know who you are, what you're doing, or why you're doing it!" spoke the robed one, "No purpose, no control; just a puppet! You're just a nameless dog blindly following the orders of his master! Sound familiar, Luke?"

"Shut up!" Luke yelled, getting nervous.

"I alone chose this!" the clone countered about staying with Neutron and his team, "and I'm determined to find myself all on my own!"

[ganondorf2]

Neutron smiles and nods saying, to the man, "He is no puppet. Granted I made him, but he is free to choose his path, be it with me or against, he has the right to choose!"

Dark fire appears in the dark clone's hand as he continued at the stranger, "Like right now...if you continue this nonsense. Get this over with!"

"Funny..." Nova starts, "This feels familiar...Remember D!ckson, Luke? He was puppet...but he changed. Keep that in mind."

[Shadow Dragon]

"I remember the name," said Luke, "and I remember what he said... Yeah, he once served a higher being, but changed for the better after..."

"Fine, I'll cut to the chase," said the stranger, "though I don't like to acknowledge it anymore than you," he charges and clashes his blade against Luke's who was quick to counter with his own, "but you and that clone need a serious wakeup call!"

Luke manages to block another attack, right before he was sent to his knees, dropping his sword and holding his head as he yells out in pain.

"Luke?!" the clone shouted at him, "What's wrong?!"

Gritting his teeth in a failed attempt to bite back screams, memories of his past began to flash in his head.

"No, d*mn it!" he hissed, "Not now! Not yet!"

"Luke!" the clone continues to try and snap him out of it, but his voice fell on deaf ears, and said memories appeared out of his head, visible to everyone.

Memories of being locked away in a manor for an entire 7 years learning how to walk, write, everything that lead up to this point. Times where he had to fight and kill to survive, the fall of another country; everything about his past up to now flashed in his head.

Including the words he thought he would never hear again...

"Foolish...REPLICA...Luke!"

[ganondorf2]

"Replica?" I wondered

"He's a...clone?" Nova asked, "Small world."

Ganondorf said nothing, least not yet. Replica of an evil person...been done already with Nova and Neutron, but he was curious of Luke's story more now.

"Stay strong Luke!" Goku shouts.

[Shadow Dragon]

Tikal and Armstrong continue to watch this on the sidelines while Luke lifted his head as those same words played in his head like a broken record. Replica...replica...replica...

"Shut up!" he shouts, "Stop torture me!"

"You're doing this to yourself, you idiot!" the cloaked one replied, "Repressing the memories that made you who you were. It was only a matter of time before that resentment got the better of you, REPLICA!!"

The clone's eyes widened at that, "So he's...he's also a-"

"A replica," the stranger finished, "or clone in your world's words."

Luke, however, bared his teeth and charged in, clashing blades against the cloaked one's blade, but made it slip and losing his balance, giving the cloaked one the chance to slash Luke's shoulder. The replica backed off, blood streaming down his arm. The stranger swung the blade down, but it became clear he didn't really want to kill Luke after seeing him back off a bit.

"A replica of one of the Six God Generals...created to be a part of a new world that one man was trying to create, and destroy the old world..."

"Shut up!" shouted Luke.

The other cloned swordsman stared in disbelief himself, "Luke...is he telling the truth??"

"So you never told them?" asked the stranger.

Luke panted, "Because no one calls me that anymore!" he looked down on the ground now, "My friends accept me for who I am...not because of my past as an ignorant boy...or because I'm a replica. I made a promise to change, and I kept it at the very end...even when things seemed hopeless. I promised them...that I was going to change..." he rose his head at the robed one, "and I'll be d**ned if I ever break that promise!"

The clone continued to stare. All this time, Luke was another clone, just like him. Why didn't he see it before??

"What the hell does all this have to do with me anyway?!" asked Luke to the stranger.

[ganondorf2]

Ganondorf made a short laugh to this as Nova said, ready to defend Luke, "Way to target me too."

"As well me," Neutron said.

"I'm glad you made the choice Luke," I said with a smile.

[Shadow Dragon]

"Just making sure you don't go back to your old ways and do anything you'll regret," said the stranger.

Luke bared his teeth at this, until Zephon's clone stepped in, "If you expect me to be all about justice and having the pride of a swordsman mumbo-jumbo, you can drop that fantasy! I'm nothing like my original! I fight for the ones who created me, and whatever their reason, is my reason, too. That's where our similarities end!"

"That doesn't make it any better," said the stranger, "but if you're really happy with that life, so be it. I can't help you."

"It.is.MY.decision!" the clone hissed before something in him snapped, and he charges at the stranger with his sword in hand. Said stranger blocks the sword with his own.

"Stop!" shouted Luke to the swordsman.

"You say you want to separate yourself from the one you were cloned from, yet you follow your creator and do everything he says?" the stranger hissed, "Blindly serving a man once hellbent on world domination?"

The clone ignored him and continued his assault on the stranger, who continues to block.

"Even if that man told you to destroy a country for his own gain, would you listen to him then?!"

The clone didn't reply as he continued to fight the stranger. Attack after attack, block after block, it was clear that there was no winner here.

"Your skills are even more unpolished than I expected!" said the stranger, "that alone proves it!"

The clone stops, panting, "Proves what?"

"That you're fighting for all the wrong reasons!"

That alone made the clone's eyes widen, but before he could block the stranger's attack, said stranger rushes in and delivered a devastating blow.

A horiffic pained scream exited the clone's lungs.

[ganondorf2]

"Why you?!" Neutron shouts at the stranger, and charged at the swordsman with a blade of his own, saying, "You didn't listen to what I said did you?! I said I gave him the choice to follow me or not! Are that deaf to this just to kill him?!"

"No!" I shout in horror.

Josuke wants to rush over as well to try and heal the clone, but something was holding him back

[Shadow Dragon]

It happened so swiftly that Zephon's clone didn't have enough time to register the hit before feeling the blade of the opponent slicing through his left eye, completely destroying it. Blood, along with what was left of his eye, streamed through his fingers as he held his hand over the wound, seething in pain. One thing was clear; there was no saving it.

"No!" shouted Luke, rushing over to the injured warrior.

"Let this be a lesson to you replicas," said the cloaked stranger, storing his sword away, "unless you know exactly what you fight for in this world, unless you let go of your resentment, you won't make it very far."

Luke bares his teeth in anger and grips his blade, "You'll pay for that!!" He charges at the stranger and swings his blade, only for the man to block every swipe Luke attempts to make, before the replica was pushed to the ground.

"I'll deal with you later," said the cloaked one, then to everyone else, "just make sure that clone gets his head on straight before he fights again." He prepares to use an ability to teleport himself away from the area.

"You think we're going to let you get away after all that?!" Tikal hissed, black fire surrounding his hand and he throws it at the stranger, which manage to catch his cloak, and burn it up.

Luke's eyes widen at seeing who the man was.


But before Luke could say anything, the man uses a spell to teleport himself out of the forested area.

"Wait!" shouted Tikal, but it was too late.

Meanwhile, the clone snarls at what had happened, even though he didn't have the energy to try and go after the stranger. Hand still over his damaged eye, his mind replayed the strangers words...

"Unless you know exactly what you fight for in this world, unless you let go of your resentment, you won't make it very far."

Those were his last thoughts before collapsing on the ground and his consciousness faded.


{And I am done for the night. I'll see you later.}

[ganondorf2]

Neutron growls at this and said, "Great, I'll have to give him a replacement eye. Right now, I need to stop the bleeding!"

"Let me try with my stand," Josuke said, "I can make the eye reappear."

"If you can do that, I welcome it," he said, "What that fellow just did doomed himself. His goal is to fight him now. I know it."

Those words hit Nova as well, and said, "Sad he said that. I had no goals when I was made...nor I didn't know what to fight for. Just a promise."

"A promise?" Big Band asked.

{I'm out too.}

[The Melee Master]

((OK, now I'm sorry for not coming here earlier! ))

"What kind of promise?" asked Pit, confused on everything that had just happened.

Upon watching what was just uncovered, Alvis and his group didn't say or do anything else, knowing that this was more or less Luke's and the clone's fight. Jade, however, had a suspicion he knew who the hooded figure was, but that was impossible considering that he was... Seeing the cloak burn up from Tikal's fire, however, confirmed the Malkuth's officer's suspicions, but that only raised even MORE questions! Why was the guy here? And what is he up to this time?

"Surely he's not just here to egg Luke on again," Jade said to himself, then after getting himself together, he keeps himself turned away.

One thing's for sure, Jade planned to have a very serious discussion with the two replicas once things calmed, but this was not the time nor the place.

[ganondorf2]

"To protect her," Nova said, referring to me.

"Now I'm confused," Peac0ck said.

Ganondorf walks away a little bit before thinking to himself.

"You know him...don't you Jade?" Neutron asked in rage, "Speak up now or do you want to suffer the same way as my clone...?"

[The Melee Master]

"I'm going to have to decline," Jade said, plain and simple.

"Jade!!" shouted Pit.

"You're just asking to lose an eye, aren't you?" asked Viridi.

"Having the explanation come from me won't make any sense without hearing it from Luke, first," Jade clarified, "I'll be glad to explain everything then, but now's not the time when we have an injured person that needs medical attention!" Of course, he was referring to the clone.

"We could use the rest anyway," Alvis stepped in, "so please spare any further hostility in the meantime."

"You stay out of this!" Viridi hissed at Alvis.

"No, Viridi, he and Jade are right," Palutena replied, "we won't get answers by fighting like this, and I'm sure everyone's just exhausted from our earlier situations. That's not going to help the explanations anymore than forcing them will."

[ganondorf2]

"How sad...I'm going to act now anyway," Ganondorf said changing into his demon king form before raising his arm up high. The sky turns red as well the moon and monsters start to appear and run off to find the stranger, "They won't kill, but will locate him. Even if they die, that's a signal."

"Smart move..." Neutron said as Josuke works on the clone.

"Are you insane? That's no way to go about it!" Nova said.

"And you go a better one? Wake up clone. If Elfilis is controlling him we will see it more when he fights himself," Ganondorf said.

"Fight himself? Wait a minute, you are using your own version of-"

"Phantoms. He said that 'Unless you know exactly what you fight for in this world, unless you let go of your resentment, you won't make it very far.' What if said 'copies' are mindless? Built to kill without thought and hesitation? Neutron's clone is not that. He was thinking, has a will to go his own. My phantoms just do as told, if they killed or not. I bring them back anyway."

"Let me guess, you made some that look and act like us too?"

"If it's flush the boy out, yes."

"Didn't we just get put to sleep not long ago?" I asked when it comes to being tired, "Though in the worst way..."

[Shadow Dragon]

Tikal's mouth becomes twisted with a snarl of his own, "And allow me to help with the search!"

Luke swiftly turns to Ganondorf and Tikal, "No, wait!"

Meanwhile, Armstrong walks over to the unconscious clone, gently picking him up, "Excuse me, but this guy's in need of medical attention! How about we worry about that stranger later?"

[ganondorf2]

"Do as you wish," Ganondorf said, walking ahead, "Let's go Tikal, before that boy gets anymore ideas."

Nova and Neutron didn't know what was on the man's mind, but at the same time, they rather not find out. The good clone tries to call something in, but something was blocking him and he said to Josuke, "You're up."

"Got it," he said as his stand appears. It touches his face and tries to heal the wounds.

[Shadow Dragon]

"Dammit!" screamed Luke, "Will you guys listen to me?!"

"I wouldn't use magic on a wound like this," Tikal said, looking at the clone's facial wound, "looks bad."

[ganondorf2]

"He's out cold too, so a potion won't work..." Nova said.

"What about this?" Goku said holding out a bean.

"I wonder on that too."

Ganondorf sighed and said stopping for now, "Nothing will work on him."

"What?!"

"I repeat: Nothing will work. You said yourself Tikal that many wounds might not heal right if not at all...you cursed yourself saying that," he said walking off again.

[Shadow Dragon]

The mage sneered at Ganondorf for that remark. He knew better than anyone that any kind of magic, even healing magic, have the tendency to backfire. To attempt it on a wound as grievous as the clone received...

"Fine, what-the-f*ck-ever!" Armstrong countered as he watches blood cover the clone's face, "Let's just hurry and get out of here!"

[ganondorf2]

"It's best for him anyway. He could choke on the potion and the bean. He'll recover, just he won't have an eye," he said stopping again, and tosses what looks like a bandage to Armstrong, "This is not the first time I've seen this happen."

"What do you mean?" I asked, but got no answer.

"OK, what is going on?" Nova thought

[Shadow Dragon]

"He's useless to us right now anyway," Tikal said, not showing a hint of remorse, "just send him somewhere to get medical attention and we'll deal with him later!"

After taking the bandage, Armstrong turns to Tikal, "Listen you-"

"I need to have a talk with him anyway! It's not that stranger's fault the clone wound up this way! He did it to himself!!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Luke.

[ganondorf2]

"I think the portal is still open. I'll take him to the exit and see what I can do," Nova said, picking him up.

"Do tell mage," Ganondorf said, his head turned to Tikal slightly about the 'did it to himself', "Go ahead. Say it louder to those that don't want you dead for saying that."

"What do you mean?" Neutron asked, now wondering.

{I better go. Wow.}

[Shadow Dragon]

{Yeah, I'm having too much fun here myself. lol! Good night!}

"Are you kidding me?" Tikal turns to Ganondorf, his eyes widen with a crazed look, "you haven't noticed it from the clone? That godd*mn superior complex he has?!!"

"That might have been a rhetorical statement, Tikal," said Armstrong.

[ganondorf2]

"With arguing with him and insulting him to get him riled up...no. I must have missed it," he sarcasticly said, "Do tell."

"Nova don't," Neutron said stopping him, "He's my problem too. I'll take care of him. Steven help them whenever you can."

Nova gives the clone to Neutron at that point

Rugal, being silent to everything happening thus far, starts to remember some things he did, but starts to shake it off.

[Shadow Dragon]

"I was trying to wake him up!" Tikal hissed, "But it seems the stranger did a number on him in that regard anyway."

"I thought you said 'he did it to himself'," Armstrong eyed Tikal, then to Neutron and nods, "You got it!"

Tikal speaks through clinched teeth, eyeing Armstrong with an angry look, "...Nevertheless..."

"And then there's you," Armstrong turns to Luke, "that guy called you a 'replica', didn't he? So all this time, you're a clone yourself?"

"I-" Luke hesitated, "I don't want to say yet, not with the other guy being..." of course, he was talking about the clone, "maybe if I explain, it could talk some sense into him, too."

"Hopefully you're right," said Tikal.

[ganondorf2]

{You'll have to tell me when you're going use him again. It's your thing}

I start to think in that regard as well as Neutron walked off with the clone.

"Sounds like an idea," Nova said, "We still have to find that guy though."

"I think some of us will have to stand back. The way the stranger is with copies..." I then said, "Either that or Elfilis got the guy too..."

"That's why I sent more mindless 'copies' after him to try and try to slow him down or locate," Ganondorf said, looking out.

[Shadow Dragon]

"Yeah, that's another thing I want to find out," said Tikal, "if he's working for Elfilis or not."

"It doesn't seem like it," said Luke, "but who knows. And..." he heard what Ganondorf2 said, "that's another thing I want to talk to him about! More importantly, he's suppose to be...or at least I thought he was..."

"We're not going to get answers by standing around here,"

[ganondorf2]

"I wonder what would have if he say me? I'm not a clone...but I can change to look like someone else," I said.

"he didn't say anything about me either," Sans said.

"or me for that matter," Dark Sans said.

"you're not a clone?"

"different universe, bub. neutron lied about that and for good reason."

"Let's just keep moving," Ganondorf said agreeing with Tikal.

"Are you alright?" Torial asked Rugal seeing him struggle.

"I don't know anymore. I think I'm ok."

[Shadow Dragon]

"He was more concerned about me and the other guy," said Luke.

"Sounds to me like he hunted you two down," said Tikal, preparing to leave as soon as everyone else were ready, "but how did he know you were here?"

Luke clinches his fists, "I think I know...but I'm not sure."

[ganondorf2]

"Stay together," Ganondorf said, walking ahead, "If we don't watch our backs, who knows what else will happen to any of us."

"Something else is on his mind..." I thought then asked, "The dark heart isn't the only thing you want isn't?"

He stops to that and said, "No."

"Then what is it?"

He doesn't answer and keeps moving. Nova and I stare at each other for a moment, before moving our selves as Ganon changes back to his more human once more.