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[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A NEW DESTINY: Book 2
PART 3: Keys to the Past

By Robster80

A/N: Sorry this took so long, everyone. Summer work and too much thinking ahead in the story sorta held me up. I hope you'll forgive me with this late chapter. One last reminder, save for King Robert, I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS!!!!

Notice: This is the Mega Avengers backstory part of the series, for all those who wanted it. Be prepared, though.

Previously: Kaneda, one of the founding members of the Mega Avengers, was murdered. The team was put on high alert by order of King Robert, meaning TK had to study on his own. Davis, still sore at TK, made an alliance with the monster that murdered Kaneda. After studying at Kari's, TK ran into Davis, who revealed that he had bonded with the Stryker symbiote, an old enemy of the MA from long ago. TK confronted Robert, who revealed that Kris Nurdoc, the original Stryker, was an expelled founding member of the MA that he killed years ago and trapped the symbiote and fellow MA Akira in limbo. After saving the Kamiyas from Stryker's attack, they all decided to relocate to the Mega Mansion for protection...


The last time TK had seen the Mega Mansion packed with so many people was at the return party over 7 years ago. Now, it was packed with his parents, Kari and her family, current team members and most of the original team, discussing the events of the past few days. Kaneda, founding Mega Avenger known as Iron Knight, had been murdered by a symbiote.

It wasn't just any symbiote: it was the Stryker symbiote, which belonged to former MA member Kris Nordac. King Robert had fought and killed Kris years ago in dimensional limbo, and trapped the symbiote there. It escaped after years of imprisonment, killed Kaneda, and now had bonded with TK's rival, Davis Hibiki. Reborn with a new host, Stryker had tried to both kill TK and kidnap Kari yesterday, but he failed thanks to TK's increased power from fighting Friezor and King Robert's interference.

Kari sat beside him on a couch in the lounge. Their parents had gone with ALF to call Principal Kuno about their children's absence from school for a while, and they had been asked to wait while the team was brought to date about Stryker. This meant they were left alone, or so Kari thought. She leaned closer to TK and sighed happily.

"Alone together, again."

TK didn't move. "You can come out now," he said, confusing Kari.

Just then, Cell appeared from the shadows, shaking his head. "I forgot you can sense power levels."

"Nah, I could hear you breathing from across the room."

Cell chuckled. "I was coming here to offer my services to the King, but I saw you two kids here and thought I'd see how you were."

Glancing at Kari's annoyed face, he said, "Well, I'll be on my way. Kari, you keep this joker in line for me like you did last time."

Kari watched him go, thinking back to 8 years ago when she first met him...


****************************************************** *************************


8-year-old Kari followed her brother Tai and cousin Hotaru into the Mega Mansion for a big party. She saw all kinds of people, aliens, and more as they came into the lounge. "Hotaru, tell me again how you got invited to this party?"

Her teenage cousin smiled. "Well, let's just say I have friends in high places."

"That's a good one," a boy her age with dark hair said as he walked over.

Hotaru kissed his cheek. "Thanks for letting my cousins tag along while I watch them, Rob."

"No sweat! Ranma brought his family with him, too. His cousins are the same age as yours, I think."

Tai smiled, hoping that his longtime crush and best friend Sora would be here. "Are they pretty?"

Rob raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Only if you like other guys." He and Hotaru then burst into laughter as Tai fumed.

Kari giggled at how her brother had humiliated himself.

Rob regained his composure quickly. "Hotaru, we need some help in the kitchen. Would you mind if I have Cell take these two over to hang with Gohan and the other kids?"

Kari looked as a tall, multi-colored man with black wings walked over to her and Tai. He smiled. "Hi there! My name's Cell."

Kari smiled back, sensing Cell's goodness somehow. "My name is Kari. This is my older brother, Tai."

"Kari... where have I heard that name before-?" Cell snapped his fingers. "I remember! TK was talking about you."

Kari's eyes lit up at the mention of her best friend. "TK's here?!"

Still smiling, Cell lead Tai and Kari through the crowds, saying "hello" and "how are you" to several people. They soon saw several boys talking in a secluded spot, two of the older boys were holding babies. Tai recognized some of them right away: Matt and TK.

Kari smiled. "TK!" she called out before rushing at him and tackling him playfully in a hug. They collapsed to the floor, TK on his back and Kari on top of him.

The boy smiled at his best friend. "Hey, Kari! Fancy meeting you here. Looking good."

There was a light chuckle from nearby. "Looks like you got the same lady trouble as I do, TK." The kids and Cell looked to see a teen with black hair and a pigtail walk over. The two kids got up.

"Kari," TK said. "This is my cousin, Ranma Saotome. Ranma, this is Kari."

Ranma kneeled down. "So, how long have you two been boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Tai and Matt took offense. "They are NOT dating!" they shouted together.

Ranma raised his hands in defense. "Peace, boys! I was only joking!"

Kari looked over at TK. <Boyfriend and girlfriend, TK and I? Well, he's kinda cute. Maybe someday...>

Little did Kari know that Cell was reading her mind. <Too bad Bardock's not around anymore. He could figure out if these two kids are destined to be together.>

"Well, have fun, kiddies. Kari, you make sure TK doesn't get out of line for Ranma and I, okay?" With that, he put an arm around Ranma's shoulder and walked away, talking.


**************************************************** ***************************


The memory faded from TK's eyes as he heard footsteps coming towards him and Kari. Rusty appeared, followed by Mrs. Kamiya.

"Kuno's agreed to let me pick up your homework and teach you both while you stay," he said.

TK stood up. "What's the plan on dealing with Stryker, Rusty?"

"Sorry, kid. This is personal Mega Avengers business-."

Everyone was shocked as TK grabbed Rusty by the neck and lifted him up as he hovered above the floor a few feet. "I'm a part of this just as much, Rusty!" he stated, anger in his voice. He looked like he was ready to turn Super. "Stryker's taken over Davis, tried to kill me, and almost kidnapped Kari! So don't you DARE tell me I'm not a part of this! Like it or not, Davis is MY responsibility!"

"Takeru, I know that and you know that! But these orders are from Rob himself. As much as I'd like to help you, all my hands are tied."

TK gently let Rusty down, then stormed off. Kari got up to go after him, but Rusty stopped her.

"Let him go, Kari! He's got every right to be angry. Honestly, a lot of us are on his side, but Robert's making this way too personal."


************************************************** *****************************


No one was surprised when TK barged into the conference room, especially Robert. The Goblin sighed heavily. "I assume Rusty told you-."

"Why, Rob?" TK cut him off. "I told you I was a part of this!"

"I know that Davis is your rival and your responsibility, TK, but the symbiote is mine! You don't know how to deal with that kind of enemy."

"It tried to kidnap Kari. You were there-!"

"Yes, I know Stryker tried and failed to. However, the answer is still no, TK! You will not be involved in this!"

TK then went Super Human, shocking most of the room. Robert, however, wasn't impressed. "That didn't work for Gohan when he tried it on his mother, and it won't work for you on me. We will handle this, and you will NOT interfere, period!"

Fuming more than ever, Super TK stalked out of the room.

Amy stood up from her chair, but Robert raised his hand. "We'll break for a bit."

"Fine by me. However, I wish to go after young Takeru, your majesty."

Robert looked at the source of the French-accented voice, and nodded. "Very well, Freddie. You go keep an eye... er... go keep tabs on him. ...Sorry!"

"No harm done, old friend. Come, Hellhound!"


************************************************* ******************************


<Damn him!> TK thought as he walked down the hallway. His ki had been lowered so as to not damage anything as he walked. <He knows I have a stake in this as much as he does! Why is he doing this to me?!>

He then stopped in front of a door he had not seen before. There was a sign above the door: the Hall of the Honored Allies.

"Originally, it was called the Hall of the Honored Dead."

TK looked to see a human-like frog walking towards him, wearing sunglasses and holding a cane in one hand and the leash of a Houndour the other. He could tell the frogman was blind. "Are you Freddie the Frog?"

Freddie nodded. "Oui. Formerly agent FRO7 of the France Secret Service, and long retired founding member of the Mega Avengers." He then moved his cane to point at the Houndour beside him. "And this is Hellhound, my seeing-eye Houndour."

TK knelt down and slowly stretched out his hand. Hellohound moved forward and sniffed the hand cautiously. Finally, though it still had a mean look on its face, the Dark Pokemon rubbed its head underneath the hand, emitting sounds of friendliness.

This made Freddie smile. "He likes you. It is very rare of him to like anyone this quickly. I do hope you are not sore at Robert, though I agree that you are as much a part of this affair as he is."

TK stood up and pointed at the door. "I've never been in here before. Can you tell me about it?"

Freddie felt for the door handle and turned it. "Telling you is no good, I think. Showing you would be best, no? Follow me, and tell me what you see." Not waiting for an answer, he opened the door and went in, led by Hellhound, and followed by TK.

The teen's eyes came upon several statues and personal items of several heroes. Among them, he recognized Ranma and Burter, and felt his eyes begin to water.

As if sensing the boy's sadness, Freddie placed a hand on his shoulder. "Please tell me, young TK... are they perfect likenesses? I put a lot of work into them, all of them."

"They... they're perfect! You did them?"

"Not bad, for a blind frogman, no? Though I made the last two statues after my sight was lost, I consider them my greatest work of art."

Freddie slowly removed his sunglasses at that moment. He let TK look at his eyes. They were a pale blue color as a scar ran across in a straight line from either side of his face.

"An assassin's sword did this to me," Freddie explained. "It was shortly before your cousin's death. I tried to block the attack with my own sword, but I underestimated the strength of the attack, no?" He then put the sunglasses back on. "Though blind I am, I can still see some things in this world we live in.

TK looked away and examined the statues carefully. Every detail about them was flawless. It was almost like the McFarlane action figures he once saw in a toy magazine, except much bigger. He read the nameplates slowly. "Ranma Saotome... Burter... Scarlet Spider... Ryu... Livewire... Star... Storm Shadow..." TK stopped as he heard Freddie sighed heavily. "Are you okay?"

"I am sorry, young one. It's just that... Storm Shadow was my friend. Not a day goes by that I do not think about his sacrifice."

TK smiled sadly. "That's how I feel about Burter and Ranma."

"But it does not hurt as much as time goes by. He died to resurrect several of our friends who were trapped in hell."

TK took one more look around before facing Freddie again. "Freddie, how did this all start? The team, I mean. I've never heard the actual story."

Freddie was taken aback a bit. "You do not know the tale? Come! We shall find Rusty and have him help me enlighten you..."


***************************************************** ***************************


Seated in front of the main computer, TK, Freddie, and Kari watched, as Rusty stood ready at the keyboard. "You do the storytelling, Fred," he said. "I'll bring up the pics."

Freddie nodded, sipped his cup of tea that Mrs. Takaishi had made for them, and then began his tale:

"It begins over 1000 years ago, during the final years of the Silver Millennia. Back then, there were four major peacekeeping empires: the Goblins, the Nameks, the Saiyans, and the Children of the Moon. The representatives during those years were King Frodo the Goblin, Guru the Eldest Namek, Akon Kaguya the Saiyan, and Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom.

"Now, King Frodo had a human wife named Queen Melissa, and they had a son, Prince Robert. The day he was born, he was betrothed to the just born Princess Mercury of the planet of the same name. They grew up as friends, and eventually fell in love with each other, though it was Melissa's tragic death when they were but five-years-old that brought them to meet face-to-face.

"However, there was a rival for Mercury's affections: Sir Gregory, one of Robert's court. He made his desire known during their sparring matches."

"Sounds kinda like Davis," Kari remarked. "Oh, I'm sorry! Please go on."

"No harm, no foul, my dear. Anyway, Robert got so fed up with Gregory, he actually told him to tell Mercury how he felt, which he did. To his utter shock, Mercury told him she loved Robert, so he kidnapped her. Robert followed them and finally faced Gregory in a duel to the death. Robert would have been killed if his father had not come to the rescue. Gregory was banished for eternity for his action, but he swore revenge.

"Two years later, tragedy struck the galaxy. The Goblin home planet of Xavier was destroyed and all but a handful of Goblins killed by an unknown power. Those who survived were Robert and his friends David, Paul, Andrew, and even Gregory. At the same time, the Negaverse launched a powerful strike upon the Moon Kingdom, where Robert's court was attending a party with Princess Serena and her court. Queen Serenity used all of her power combined with the Imperial Silver Crystal to banish Queen Beryl and her minions and send the children of the Moon to a new future on Earth. It was her last act of love, as she soon died immediately. Yet, she lived long enough to reveal the tale to Guru, who had arrived too late.

"Guru then explained to the arriving Robert and Akon Kaguya. Robert was most devastated, having lost him homeland, people, friends, father, and true love in one day. Using their powers, Guru and Akon sent the young Goblin prince to join Princess Serena and the others to the future."

TK nodded. "I remember Vegeta telling me this story. He said after that, the Saiyans fell under the dark influence of the Negaverse, and hungered for battles. Also, a sudden and devastating storm appeared in Planet Namek, and one boy, Piccolo, was sent away in their last spaceship."

"Oui, it was both Piccolo, and the future Kami. However, we are straying from the subject, no? In the year 1994, Queen Beryl and her minions returned to gather energy to tale over the world. When this happened, Serena, Robert, and their courts became the Sailor Scouts and the Goblin Squad to stop them. They fought bravely, but Queen Beryl was merely defeated, not killed. Also, Robert was tricked into abandoning his identity and left Japan after being accused of being a Negaverse ally.

"A year or so later, Beryl reappeared, stronger than ever. Not even the Sailor Scouts could withstand her. The ghost of Akon Kaguya had foreseen this, and decided to grant Robert the power of Blue Lighting, and the strength of a Saiyan. This meant he could become stronger with each battle and each time he recovered form near death. Yet, Robert still knew he could not fight Beryl alone, and that the Scouts and the squad still thought little of him at the time. So, he sought out several warriors, kindred spirits, to help him save the world.

"Thus the first Mega Avengers were gathered: Robert, myself, Savage Dragon, She-Dragon, Akira, Iron Knight, 8-man, Storm Shadow, Teknoman, Stryker, and Rito Revolto. The Mega Mansion was given to us by our original backer, David Xanatos, who had intended on using it as a museum, but abandoned it. After Beryl had been killed, the team got together and decided to remain a team, though we had to battle the Avengers to keep our name."

With that, Freddie ended his story. Then, Kari realized something. "Stryker was a member of the MA?!"

Rusty punched up Stryker's file as he spoke. "Sadly, he was. A few months after the team became official, they began to suspect him of keeping secrets and lying to them. Finally, he was caught stealing and tried to frame Iron Knight for it all. He was expelled from the team and his founding member rank given over to Spawn, but he-."

"Swore revenge," TK finished. "Rob told me about it. He, Akira/Testuo Shima, and Stryker fought a final battle in dimensional limbo some time after Stryker was expelled. Rob killed the symbiote's host and trapped it in limbo... until it escaped somehow. Also, Akira chose to stay to make sure the symbiote never got free."

Freddie rubbed his green chin. "It's possible, since both Stryker's host Kris Nordac, and Tetsuo both had great telepathic powers, that the symbiote slowly manifested its own versions of the Akira powers since Kris's powers were dormant for a long time.

"Takeru, you said that Stryker told you once he regained his full power, he would strike. Rusty, you'd better bring up Tetsuo's file and power records."

Rusty had already brought up the required data, but a sudden gasp from Kari turned the attention to her. "I saw him," she exclaimed, pointing to the file picture on the screen. "The day Burter died. I was looking around the mansion for TK, and he appeared from behind and gave me directions to find TK. After looking the way he was pointing, I turned to thank him, but he was gone."

Freddie shook his head. "I am sorry, my dear, but that is impossible. Tetsuo's been in limbo for years now. How could he-?"

Suddenly, a strong wind came upon everyone in the room. It caught everyone off guard, especially since there were no windows in the room. A bright light filled the room for a few seconds before dimming itself. TK was the first to see a teenager with black hair, a torn red cape, and street clothes standing weakly before them all.

Kari saw him, too, and gasped once more. "It's him!"

The boy looked up and smiled weakly. "I'm back," he whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear him, though. "Yes!" He then fell to the floor, out cold.

It was Freddie's turn to gasp now. "TETSUO!!!!"


************************************************ *******************************


Picking the lock off his old room quietly, Robert opened the door and then closed it after entering, keeping the lights off.

Tetsuo was back, but he was in critical condition. He had been immediately moved to the med room for treatment, where he babbled in his sleep about what had happened.

The symbiote had caught him off guard one day, cutting him in his arm and stole some of his blood to open a portal to their world. Tetsuo had healed himself, but was too late to stop the symbiote from escaping limbo. He then watched as Stryker was reborn with Davis Hibiki as his host, and then took desperate measures: he cut himself and used his blood to return, though he did not heal himself in his haste to return and help stop Stryker. The traveling between dimensional planes had taken its toll on him, and he may now be dying.

<Damn you, Kris,> Robert thought bitterly and he pulled out an old chest. <And your goddamn symbiote! You killed Kaneda, and now Tetsuo is hurt, maybe dying, because of you... because I was blinded by your so-called friendship long ago.>

Quickly, he removed his kingly clothes and put on his old white shirt and shorts, then his white Saiyan armor and boots. <I'll redeem myself to those two,> he swore to himself as he pulled on his white gloves. <Tetsuo, Kandea, I swear that symbiote will die if it's the last thing I ever do!>

"Robert! Robert, where are you?!"

Robert looked to the door in surprise. <Amy!> In haste, he opened the window and jumped out into the night air. <Forgive me, my darling! This is something I must do. I have to be the Blue Goblin... maybe for the final time.>

The door opened and Queen Mercury rushed in, only to find it empty. She turned on the lights and saw, to her horror, Robert's royal clothing on the floor, next to an opened chest, and the window wide open.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"

Her legs gave out and she fell to the floor. Hot tears poured from her eyes as her hands fled to her cheeks.

Cell, TK, Kari, and ALF soon came into the room. Cell was the first to reach Mercury's side. "Amy, what's wrong?"

What she said, with a voice filled with fear and anxiety, shocked them. "Rob... he's gone after him... he's gone after Stryker alone!"



TO BE CONTINUED...


Notes: well, looks like the MA has their work cut out for them now. They must save Davis, defeat the symbiote, and make sure Robert stays alive, while Tetsuo's condition is up in the air. Read and review, please.