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[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Gohan (VO)

Last time on Trance Trauma, the crew finally made its way aboard the ship, warped in using the J3. A lot of new faces joined the remaining Argetlahm crew members, mostly mercenaries, but, hey, help is help, right? Me, V2, Cody and Armadillomon docked at the Argetlahm to join up with some of the new recruits, including Locke Cole, Jim Raynor, Trunks, Goten, Crono, Takato, and Rika, for a new mission. Ulty seemed pretty upset at the entire situation, so it's got to be big. However, he got even more assistance from the tag team of the Super Saiyan Eric Cloud and the crafty Shaun Garin, both stopping aboard the Argetlahm and joining in on the group. While Ultimanium even has still to brief us, I'm pretty sure that we have sufficient forces to finish this quickly. Don't tell anyone, but I heard personally that Ultimanium may bring more veteran Argetlahm crew members aboard if he gets up enough nerve.











********< br>

Cody tapped a button on the wall, causing the gate in front of them to slide open slowly with a loud hiss. Everybody hopped back as a metal growl spat out of the machinery, causing the doors to come to a halt halfway through opening. Still, it was a sufficient opening to squeeze everybody through.

"This place is falling apart," V2 muttered. "Hasn't it been touched ANY during the last nine years?"

The group halted a short distance away from the opening, and examined the room. The war room of the Argetlahm appeared just as it did during its last tour, with a large ring of theatre-style chairs around a large, circular central platform. Asides from dust, there was little damage to the room itself. The hologram projector on the stage had several large wires sticking out of it, that ran up the aisle opposite of everybody and through a drilled hole in the wall. Several messy heaps of paper lied next to a TV that had been placed on the stage next to the projector.

"We'll probably sit on the chairs..." Locke started.

"...and the armrests'll come off..." Raynor sighed.

"...and the backs will fall off..." Takato continued.

"Is it seriously that bad?" spat Gohan. "The place is in better shape than I was thinking..."

As people began filing into their seats, Ultimanium burst through the doors on the far side of the room, and darted to the stage in a half-run. "Eh, hey, guys, sorry about that, I had to talk to the guys that docked onto the Argetlahm, and they're going to be staying with us for a while. Anyways, I'd better get this briefing done with... I'm sure more than one person here is confused by now... anyways, did any of you happen to look at the Argetlahm databases before you came here?"

"We don't even have rooms yet." Trunks droned.

"Well... anyways... it's important that you know about something first... the notice I sent each of you told of something called a "J theft", right?"

Everybody nodded.

"The J is a series of dimensionsplitter devices that were built by relations of mine. I personally constructed the J2 and got assistance from Lord Raul to create the J3, but there was in fact an original J out there somewhere. It was the J series probe that was used in the First Jump, the very first testing of dimensionsplitter technology in both the fourth and fifth dimensions. Several researchers from the original J used their new probe to make a jump to the sixth dimension. The sixth dimension was, at some point, fairly normal. Residents of the sixth dimension are able to edit reality as they please. Things took a turn for the worst when the crude J design punched straight through the dimensional structure rather than warping through it in the journey to the sixth dimension, allowing influence to sift through from the fifth dimension, right below it. This in turn, for lack of better description, screwed things up."

"Wait, wait, wait.." Locke butt in. "What the hell is with this '6D' and '5D' crap, anyways?"

"I haven't explained THAT to you... I forgot... okay, here goes... Gohan, Cody, you guys already got this talk... just sit tight...

Ultimanium turned out to his expectant crowd. "The Dimensions. Ultimanium's view."

"Alright. We all know how alternate dimensions work, right? For every choice you make in your life, there is a split right there and two seperate dimensions continue on, each with a different resolution to the problem. This continues on for any person, any body until the number of possible directions numbers virtually infinite."

"The Zeal Dimensional Theory states that while all these dimensions do in fact exist, they are not easy to traverse, with the amount of space-time bending that goes on to make bridging dimensions possible. To this extent, only dimensions three tiers up or three tiers down may be reached with Zeal machinery, and that is all that is physically possible. While the six dimensions accessible to us differ radically, they remain constant for each person, an anolomy if you will. These are known as the Six Dimensions."

"Dimensions work rather understandably... For each dimension you are in, the previous three tiers are accessible for editing, while the current dimension runs in the background and cannot be physcially affected. For example, in the fourth dimension, you can move physically freely, being a three dimensional object. And while time runs in the background and takes its toll on you, it can never truly step in and edit time as you please. The fifth dimension is similar, as well. Three dimensional movement is possible and time travel was acheived through the efforts of the Guru of Time that lived in the Zeal kingdom, a man by the name of Belthasar. He was the one that designed and implemented the technology of time travel. And the current tier, the fifth dimension, the very editing of reality itself, can be achieved partially through magic, the art of wielding the earth's elements as you please."


********


As Ultimanium continued, Eric and Shaun watched from an observation window a short distance above the war room, connected to a small, plain lobby, with beige-painted walls. Several chairs were lined up in the far corner, next to an ashtray.

Shaun just shook his head. "You understanding anything this guy's saying?"

"A bit," Eric mused. "He says that we're in the third dimension. Time is one dimension up, so it doesn't exist here. Tell me, have you ever seen an old person?"

"Many of the personnel at the starbase are at least 30, they've been there long enough to learn the ropes. A lot of them are pretty young-looking though... actually, now that you mention it, I haven't seen any old OLD people... tell me, what do you define as old?"

"Cripples. Amps. Grey hairs. Walkers. With Ultimanium's theory, none of these OLD people are supposed to exist in the third dimension. I used to have a lot of science texts and journals at home, speaking of the development of the human body. My dad said that they were recovered from the same point as a strange portal appeared several weeks before. So I took a look at them, and it had facts on the deterioration of the human body over time... and I found nothing of the sort around me. Everyone seemed so youthful... and I know why now. Time doesn't exist here, or, more specifically, time has no negative effect on people. Everybody simply gets to their physical and mental apex and stays there forever, at least until SOMEONE manages to kill them. Nobody is capable of dying of old age."

"So you're saying we and everyone else in third-dimensional existance is technically immortal."

"Pretty much."

Shaun turned back to the pane window. "..freaky.."


********


Raynor threw his hands up. "You know what? This is totally screwed up. Why the hell am I listening to this crap? You insisted that I work with you on this mercenary mission and all I'm getting is a sci-fi flick. What does all of this have to do with the mission? I don't even understand half of this..."

Rika laid back in her chair, arms folded. "It's weird, yet possibly true. Keep going."





Ultimanium cleared his throat. "Well, anyways, scanners indicate that the first J probe has found itself into the third dimension and Magnopolis somehow, and has fallen under the control of one of the members of Magnus Power's vice-presidency." Ultimanium flipped on the projector. The green light flickered rapidly until it lit up, showing blueprints of some sort. "It would be problem enough that anyone got hold of the J2 or J3, but this is far worse. The J, as witnessed in its experiment years ago with the First Jump, travels dimensions, but this is the very first prototype - a highly UNSTABLE one. If it were to be activated, we could have another situation like what happened to the sixth dimension on our hands, with the space-time fabric between dimensions ripped to shreds. Think of the events within the sixth dimension on a much grander scale, and you get my picture. And since this is happening on the third dimension, a lower tier than where most of you live, those effects would carry through through those higher tiers. This would skew the fourth and fifth dimensions to hell, but it gets worse - the fabric of the sixth dimension is already extremely damaged from the First Jump, and if another event like it were to take place, the entire dimension would collapse in on itself, with a flux of energy roughly equal to the Big Bang."


















Crickets could be heard chirping in the distance.




"English, please?" Cody sighed.

"If we allow the J to be used again, the sixth dimension will most likely fold in on itself, and the outburst of energy will probably eradicate the remaining five dimensions."

That one got a sweatdrop from everybody.

"This guy is freaking me out." Locke whispered to Raynor.

Takato leant over to Gohan. "Did you guys have to deal with anything like this before?"

"Well... um..." Gohan tugged at his collar. "Sure, we had to deal with dimensional ruptures, damages, rips, or other damages... but all of creation being demolished? I don't think so."

Takato sunk in his seat. "...oh."





Ultimanium was apparently becoming distressed with the response he was getting. "Please.. listen to me. I'm not done yet. This is a routine mission! C'mon! We can do... this..."

Raynor nearly shot out of his chair. "Listen, Ultimanum-or-whoever-you-are, we don't have time to listen to this crap! I don't know WHAT you're smoking, but I insist you give me a serious job or I leave! You seriously can't convince me that I'm in some sort of alternate dimension as I speak! Do ANY of you believe this guy?"

"He sounds legitimate." Locke mumbled.

"He provided evidence..." Goten groaned.

Crono just shrugged.

"We've USED the J3." Gohan and Cody said in unison.

Raynor stopped there, and eyed the crowd around him. "I still don't think that way. I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, you can shut up." Scowling to himself, he returned to his seat.

Ultimanium sighed. "Where was I? Oh, yeah...





"Since the J was taken, the person in question removed himself from Magnus' government with little notice, and immediately departed for unknown parts. Several days later, witnesses on a cruise liner passing across the Atlantic Ocean claim to have seen a massive tower on an island several hundred kilometers from Hawaii. Just hours after reports came in, the man hijacked a mainland news broadcast and announced his motives.

The man revealed himself only as the Prospector.

Whoever this guy was, he appeared to have some sort of idea of the effects that use of the J would have - the Prospector insisted that he be issued 10 billion dollars within the next month, otherwise he will activate the J. Using the same information provided by the cruiseliner, the government, operating in Magnus' absence, launched a missile attack on the island the same day, which was mysteriously repelled. A quick scout of the area revealed that the island wasn't even THERE when the missiles hit. Since then, the entire third dimension has been in a rut, trying to figure out exactly where the Prospector is at any given point. The only time the island was seen since, two days after, was by a passing passenger jet that took notice of the armament of the island - the place is extremely heavily fortified, with some sort of private army run by the Prospector watching the place. And there's no telling what could be actually inside the tower... one thing's for sure, it's too damn tall, and the roof and every window in the joint is laser-gated, making airborne delivery of troops or supplies impossible.

Normally, we would just find the tower and blast it to bits before the Prospector disappears on us again, but we need to take special care to get the J out of there - there is the possibility that it could be triggered in any large assault. Therefore, the powers that be have called the Argetlahm and its specially trained troops to take care of the situation. I intend to lower the Argetlahm out of orbit, and try to plan the island's movement so we can launch an assault on it and get the J out of there safe and sound."


Gohan shrugged. "Hell, we've been through worse."

Takato scratched his head. "Well, I'm not one to nitpick, but we're attacking an ARMY here. And, well, I... can't really fight an army."

"We can!"

Takato jumped at the voice, turning in his chair to look towards the door. Indeed, standing there was Guilmon, basked in the lime-green light radiating off the projector. "Hey! Buddy! What's up?"

As Guilmon began to approach Takato, he began to slow down. "Takato, what happened to your forehead?"

Takato blinked. "My forehead? What do you..." he reached up and started feeling his forehead, and stopped as his hands started running over the goggles. "..oh! Yeah, you mean these. I got them a while ago. They're new!"

"Can I get a new forehead, Takato?"

Cody looked up and down the monster. "Is he a... digimon?"

Takato grinned. "Sure is! Designed 'im myself. His name's Guilmon, his attack's Pyrosphere, he's a rookie, he digivolves to Growlmon, HIS attack is Pyroblaster, he digivolves further to Wargrowlmon, HIS attack is..."

Cody sat with a blank stare on his face as Takato continued blabbing for the next several minutes.

Ultimanium clicked off the projector. "At the moment, we have exactly 2 weeks and a day to get to the Prospector and whip some sense into him. Everybody, I want you to spend the rest of the day and just hang out around the Argetlahm, get to know your bunkmates, get familiar with the Argetlahm training facilities, and relax - tomorrow is going to be planetfall. We're going to head into Magnopolis and get as much information on the Prospector as we can before we go island-hopping. Understood?"

Everybody nodded in agreement, except for Raynor, who was kind of staring into thin air.

"Okay, then. I've already posted your assigned bunks in the halls. Have a good day, the next couple probably aren't going to be too luxurious..."

As everybody began to file out of the war room, Rika stood and glanced over her shoulder. Standing there was Renamon, who gave Rika an acknowledging nod before phasing off to her own business.


********


"Hey, Shaun, who's the chick down on the floor?" Eric pointed down into the front seating area directly next to the projector, where Rika had already slung a backpack of hers over her shoulder and was on her way to leave the theatre.

"I heard.. Rika Noonka or something? That wasn't it.... wait, Rika Nonaka, that was it. Why?"

Eric paused. "...oh.. nothing." As the war room doors clicked shut behind the Tamer, Eric got up and left the lobby silently. Shaun kept a watchful eye as the lobby doors floated shut.

"This is most interesting..." Shaun rubbed his chin as he looked down again onto the empty war room stage, still covered with a layer of scribbled papers. "...this IS the group that utilized the J3...is this really the guy that wiped out Ultramagnus? The place still seems a little bit unorganized for me to believe... hmm...maybe I'll stick around a little longer... this Ultimanium guy has to have some sort of secret..." Shaun looked over the theatre once more, before turning and heading out of the observation room.


********


Meanwhile, Gohan, V2, Armadillomon and Cody kept a constant pace on both sides of Ultimanium, peppering him with questions. Ultimanium ignored the effects of the crossfire and patiently explained everything.

"Did we ever figure out how Ultramagnus was able to warp his forces aboard the Argetlahm during the endgame? I was always wondering..." Gohan stopped, staring at a sheet tacked to a corkboard that hung from the wall. After noticing their left-behind comrade, both Ultimanium and Cody came to a halt.

"It's like I told you before. Minonim's program was linked to a database at ground zero in Magnopolis. Somehow, Ultramagnus' forces were able to trace the downlink and find the exact celestial coordinates where Minonim was in the first dimension - aboard the Argetlahm. The J2 was then able to jump to the first dimension in that position, and it wouldn't go through linear compression because it was within the J3's anti-dimensional field." (A/N - Argetlahm Adventures, chap. 23)

"Magnopolis..." V2 froze at the thought. "The capital of the third dimension. That was where Veemon had to fight Megakimeramon... he told me all about that during the first tour..."

Gohan turned back to the group. "Ulty, you sure picked some funny bunking partners."


MENS BUNKS

1. Raynor/Takato/Guilmon
2. Gohan/Crono
3. Trunks/Locke
4. Goten/Eric
5. Cody/Shaun
6. V2/Armadillomon

MISC. BUNKS

1. Rika/Renamon



"Well, at least I got a legitimate partnering." Armadillomon chirped.

Cody looked down the list. "...well, it still IS kind of funny, but that's not really what hit me. It's more the fact that the Argetlahm population's kind of fallen... and you put Raynor, Takato and Guilmon in the same room."

Ultimanium shrugged. "Well, is something wrong?"

Cody turned back to Ultimanium. "Raynor... is not particularly on peaceful terms with our crew. And he has a gauss rifle."

"Guilmon can keep him in line. As for our little lack of labour, I'll call some more people back aboard the Argetlahm as we need them. I already had to get in touch with Conker to borrow the J3, and I've got a hold of Lord Raul, he said that he'll be on his way as soon as he's back from his vacation."

"Vacation?"

"I don't know exactly what his idea of a vacation is, but he said that he was going to spend a couple of years meditating in the Temple of the Winds. I think it's somewhere in hell."

Gohan nodded. "Ah."

"Are you guys headed down to the rec room by any chance? I wanna play Tribes 2 for some reason."


********


Raynor walked down the halls a short way. Then he stopped. Then he turned and walked the other way for a while. Then he stopped and turned around and walked that way for a while. He did this for a while. Then he screamed.

That was when Locke walked by. "Hey, Raynor, what's up?"

"I'll TELL you what's up, this damn capship was designed by chimps, THAT'S what! Where the hell is the elevator?"

Locke pointed down the hall, to the turbolifts. "That's the turbolift."

"Fine, then, but where's the elevator?"

"I said, THAT'S the elevator."

"No, you said it was a turbolift."

"But it's an elevator, too, see..."

"How can something be an elevator AND a turbolift?"

"They're the same thing, except turbolifts are faster..."

"So what is this, and elevator or a turbolift?"

"Well, it's a turbolift."

"Then it isn't an elevator!"

"Yes it is, it's a turbolift!"

"DAMN IT, SHADDUP!!" Raynor just yelled a lot, stamped his feet, and generally went into a tantrum, before he turned and walked back the other way, only to get lost again. Locke just sighed and headed for the turbolift.

It was going to be a looooooong night. Well, more so for Raynor, but that's not the point.









So what exactly IS going to happen on our little festival night here? Why is Eric giving creepy stares to Rika? Will Takato stop saying 'Guilmon' in every sentence? Will Ultimanium suck at Tribes 2? Will Crono be able to keep his vow of silence? And what exactly is there to be done about the Prospector? Find out next time, on Trance Trauma!