[Fanfiction] Cross-Existence: Construction of a New War

[SgtBloxx]

So, welcome to my first fanfic on this site. It explains the origins of my characters and how they joined the Nexus Force. Criticism appreciated.

Prologue:

Spoiler

In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no space and time to be traversed. And even if the concept of space and time existed, there was no one to traverse them.

There was only the dark emptiness of the void. And for so long, that was the only constant throughout the entirety of existence.

And then, by a mere miracle… A single singularity was created in the empty void. From this singularity, a massive explosion was created, rocking the entire empty void… Until it was no longer empty.

By a mere miracle, a universe was created. And for many, many years, a concept that was created alongside the universe, was the only one in existence.

As gases compressed together to form planets within the lone universe, biological life would soon be created on suitable worlds. Some of the life would soon evolve into sentient, intelligent beings that learned to have a grasp on concepts that others lack: emotions, comradery, morality, identity, love, and finally, creativity.

It was this creativity that would lead to the creation of brand-new universes.

One of the first new universes was created as the first drawings were drawn within the caves where the cavemen of Earth resided. Despite how simple these drawings were, it was all that was needed for brand-new energy to flow out of the universe:

Imagination.

This flow of Imagination was weak, proportionate to the simplicity of the drawings that were drawn by the primitive cavemen. And yet this Imagination coalesced together outside the universe to create a brand new one. The lone universe… Was now no longer lonely.

As time passed by, the technology of the intelligent lifeforms within the first universe evolved. And with that, the amount of Imagination and the speed that it flows out of the first universe increased immensely, leading to the fast creation of new universes that were more complete than those that came before them.

However, Imagination can only travel so far away from the baseline universe. This was a well-known fact amongst a race called the Mythrans. A mythical race created as a side-effect of the ever-increasing flow of Imagination, the Mythrans have made it their duty to assist in the creation of new universes.

The Mythrans would begin their duty in a universe near the baseline one where all life has ceased, choosing a planet that was unlike the others, in which its shape was a cube instead of a sphere. The Mythrans would call this Planet Crux. Calling upon their powers of creation, the Mythrans constructed a structure that would focus the Imagination into a beam, allowing it to flow further out into the void to create new universes farther away from the first universe. Their work would bring life to Planet Crux, creating plants and animals on its surface before finally completing their structure. The Mythrans called this structure the Imagination Nexus.

Their duty thought to be completed, the Mythrans went dormant within the walls of the Imagination Nexus, watching over the flow of Imagination as it reached further out into the void to create new universes.

For a time, the inhabitants of the universes were blissfully unaware of each other, unable to contact those inhabitants outside of their universe. Instead, they focused on the events that occurred within their universes, developing their worlds according to the stories from the baseline universe that created them.

However, that would change as the inhabitants of one universe made up of LEGO Minifigures would unlock the secrets of inter-universal travel via the use of portals. Discreetly, the four inhabitants that learned inter-universal travel would explore the wide collective universes, which the explorers would soon call the multiverse.

As the explorers explored the multiverse, they would soon come across a universe that was in the middle of being created from the flow of Imagination. The explorers would follow this flow of Imagination until they discover what they believed is the source: the Imagination Nexus.

Their attention turned towards the focused beam of pure Imagination, the explorers descended from their spaceship onto the surface of Planet Crux to approach the Imagination Nexus. Once the explorers were close to the beam of pure Imagination, they discovered that it had the power to turn their ideas into reality. The explorers were jubilant at this groundbreaking discovery!

However, this discovery was short-lived. One amongst them was more chaotic in thought, seeking to control the Imagination Nexus… Through destruction. The chaotic explorer created a creature of chaos, which roused the Mythrans from their years-long slumber. Realizing that the odds are seemingly stacking against him, the chaotic explorer orders his creature to attack his allies.

Unfortunately for the chaotic explorer, creatures of chaos… Have no master.

The creature of chaos turned on its creator, grabbing the chaotic explorer and dragging him into the beam of pure Imagination! Before the other explorers and the Mythrans could process what had transpired, a purple cloud slowly spread out from the base of the Imagination Nexus, replacing the harmonic blue glow of the beam.

The chaotic explorer's thoughts had corrupted the Imagination Nexus, converting it into a destructive Maelstrom!

The Mythrans scramble to stop the spread of the corruption in the Imagination Nexus as the remaining explorers are forced to fight for their lives, the newly created Maelstrom destroying their ship and using the pieces as weapons. But despite all of the Mythran's efforts, the spread of the corruption proved to be too much as Planet Crux shook from the immense and chaotic power until it finally exploded into countless smaller worlds!

Many Mythrans perished in the resulting explosion, though some, including the explorers, survived. The flow of the Maelstrom may have been stopped from exiting the universe, but at what cost? The very structure that boosted the distance that Imagination could travel is no more, along with the majority of the race that constructed it. The Imagination Nexus is thought to be lost forever…

But the Mythrans weren't alone.

Refusing to see the situation as hopeless, the explorers use the last fragment of pure Imagination to create a new, smaller Nexus; a beacon of hope and defiance against the encroaching Maelstrom corruption.

And though the original Imagination Nexus was destroyed, the explorers find that its properties now manifest throughout the universe as a new source of energy. Feeling this energy surge through their bodies, the explorers use it to build a new spaceship within minutes!

Realizing that the Mythrans will need all the help that they can get, the explorers recruit fellow Minifigures from their home universe to wield the powers of Imagination against the Maelstrom; to answer the call and save Imagination. This was the birth of the Nexus Force.

For two years, the explorers, along with a protégé that was taught by the chaotic one, would lead the Nexus Force in pushing back the Maelstrom, reclaiming each part of the universe alongside the Mythrans bit by bit. Though the leaders each had their different ways to defeat the Maelstrom, they ultimately learned to work together to supply those within the Nexus Force with new technologies to gain the upper hand.

But the Nexus Force's dominance against the Maelstrom's forces was short-lived.

No one at the time truly understood what had happened, but almost instantly, after two years of fighting, most of the Nexus Force's agents had mysteriously vanished. The leaders, shocked by the sudden disappearances, thought that they could continue the fight against the Maelstrom with fewer forces on their side.

They were wrong.

Within weeks, the Maelstrom slowly started to retake the universe, overwhelming the Nexus Force's remaining agents and hunting down the remaining Mythrans… Until they were almost no more. This war has become a losing battle for the Nexus Force… And the leaders know it.

But what were the leaders going to do? They cannot continue to have their remaining forces fight against the growing strength and coordination of the Maelstrom. However, they also cannot leave the last pure source of Imagination for the Maelstrom to claim.

There was only one option for the Nexus Force to choose from.

The leaders ordered a full retreat of all that remained of the Nexus Force, directing all of their agents to the Imagination Nexus where a tower was constructed around the beam earlier during the war against the Maelstrom. With the powers of Imagination, the remaining Nexus Force agents turned the tower into a massive spaceship! With it, the Nexus Force begins their final retreat out of the universe, bringing the Imagination Nexus with them and leaving the Maelstrom behind without a way to leave.

The universe had been lost to the Maelstrom… But with the Imagination Nexus out of the Maelstrom's grasp, some hope still lingered that the universe could be reclaimed one day.

But the Maelstrom proved to be more resilient than the Nexus Force thought. As the Maelstrom grew in strength over four years, their ability to corrupt anything, organic and artificial, became stronger. It was only a matter of time before the Maelstrom, using the portal technology left behind by the Nexus Force in their abandoned ships, found a way to leave the universe they were trapped in.

As the Maelstrom slowly started to invade universe after universe, it was feared amongst those within the Nexus Force that the leaders would choose to do nothing. Even after four years, the Nexus Force is still licking their wounds, substantially weaker after losing most of its agents and technology in the war.

But the Nexus Force leaders did have a plan; a plan that involved a prophecy.

A prophecy relayed by a Mythran early during the war against the Maelstrom, it was foretold long ago by the eldest, and the wisest, of the Mythrans. The Elder Mythran prophesied that seven younglings from the world that created worlds would be the catalysts in bringing together the multiverse against a common foe, saving all from destruction.

This prophecy is the reason why the Nexus Force has been lying in wait, hidden above the world where the entire multiverse had been brought into conception; searching for those prophesied to unite the worlds against the Maelstrom.

But the Maelstrom are aware of this prophecy as well, sending a small team to the first universe as the main bulk of their forces take over another. The goal of this small team is simple: kill the six that are in the prophecy.

As the Maelstrom closes in, seven children, all on the verge of growing into their teenage years, will find that their lives will change in ways that they could not have ever imagined. And it will all start… With several dreams.

But be warned, dear reader… This won't be a tale for the faint of heart.

 

[Sonic Fan J]

I don't have a lot of feedback to provide on anything LEGO related so in regards to well you adapt concepts from the source material I won't be able to offer much feedback. That said, I can appreciate almost any story so I'll try to keep up with your story and provide what feed ack I can. Right now at least, asides from a couple of rough transitions leading in and out of the dialog section which I'm not certain how address myself right now I feel like you've done a good job at establishing the current state of the setting. Looking forward to what you write next and hopefully being able to provide some useful feedback myself.

[SgtBloxx]

Chapter 1: This isn't Another Dream, is it?

Spoiler

An adolescent boy slowly opens his eyes, slowly starting to wake up. As he does, he realizes more and more that he is in a place he doesn't recognize. Pine trees can be seen grown high into the sky while tall grass surrounds the boy. Yet, there was something peculiar about the forest.

The sky wasn't the normal shade of blue that he was used to. Instead, it was colored a dark shade of purple. A rather big contrast to the dim light-blue glow the trees and the grass gave off. This wasn't something the boy was used to.

What? Where the heck am I? He asked himself as he sat up, taking the time to analyze his environment. Is this a dream? This isn't like the other dreams that I have been having the previous nights. The boy pushed himself off the ground and got on his feet, brushing some strands of his short black hair out of his face's way.

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" The boy heard, recognizing the male voice.

"Armando?" He whispered to himself, beginning his way towards the voice. He cautiously approached it, as one would do in an unknown area.

The boy followed the voice to the edge of the forest, which turned out to be an island suspended in the air. On closer observation, more floating islands were also visible, albeit far from here. Looking down the edge of the island, the boy saw a swirling vortex far below all of the islands, producing what looked like dark clouds from its bright center.

"What?" The boy said to himself, somehow vaguely recognizing some of this world he found himself in.

"Andrew? Is that you?" The voice said again, this time close. The owner of the voice slowly came out from behind one of the trees, revealing another adolescent boy with brown hair and medium skin color.

The other boy, now known as Andrew, sighed in relief. "Looks like I'm not alone here," he said in reply to Armando's question.

Soon afterwards, five more people their age came to where they are, attracted by the two boys' voices.

One boy has neat, short black hair and fair skin color. He also wears eyeglasses.

Another boy has neat, short brown hair and very fair skin color.

The third boy has the same hair and skin color as the second boy, but his hair is curly and a bit messier.

The fourth boy also has black hair combed to the side and fair skin color.

The only girl out of the seven teenagers has white skin color, green eyes, and blonde hair tied into a ponytail. She also dons eyeglasses.

Andrew recognized all of them respectively as Jacob, Tynan, Aidan, Christian, and Liliana.

"Does anyone know where the heck we are?" Tynan asked.

"No clue," Liliana replied.

"Actually, I'm not sure why, but I recognize this place," Andrew spoke.

"So what is this place?" Jacob asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. I could've sworn that I've seen something like this in a video game or something."

Suddenly, a new person approached the group from the forest. It was strangely in the shape of a LEGO Minifigure. Its body is light-blue and slightly translucent, giving off the same glow as the trees and the grass. It had no visible mouth, but its eyes were lighter than its body. A circle is shown in the middle of its torso, several smaller circles being seen inside of the bigger circle.

"This world used to be so beautiful," the Minifigure said with a female voice in a sad tone. It caught attention of the group, the teenagers turning to face it. "That was until everything fell apart."

"Who are you?" Aidan asked.

"Wait...are you a Mythran?" Andrew asked.

"I guess I should've expected you to recognize my kind, since you used to work with us," the Mythran said.

"So this is supposed to be LEGO Universe?"

"Correct."

"Why are we here, then?" This time it was Armando's turn to ask.

"Because all of you are part of something big. Something that will bring the entire multiverse together."

"Oh God, we became protagonists, didn't we?" Jacob muttered.

"Apparently," Christian replied.

"You're joking us, right? We're just a bunch of teens trying to get through life," Andrew pointed out.

The Mythran sighed. "That's what I'm worried about, yet the prophecy doesn't lie about you,"

"What prophecy?" Liliana asked.

"I can go into detail, but it's already nearly time for you to wake up." As if on cue, Andrew's vision started to darken, fast. He he felt his body waver, and he noticed his friends going through the same condition, almost as if they've been drugged into sleeping. "Listen to me, the Maelstrom are at your world, searching for you."

"You need to survive, please."

At those words, Andrew's vision fully blacked out, a faint ringing noise reaching his eardrums as he lost consciousness.

Note: At the beginning of each chapter and throughout some chapters, bold lettering will show who's point of view the story is showing. Keep this in mind.

[Sonic Fan J]

So, what I really like about this chapter is how you establish the mystery and allow the audience to really sympathize with the confusion and disbelief of the protagonists. As a result you create a sense of curiosity about what comes next, or a desire to see it.

Now for weaknesses in this particular chapter I would say that it's a bit harder to pinpoint as I need to grow more used to your style of prose before I get into detail. That said, you introduced seven characters but I found a rough physical description detached from their names and any blanket descriptors of their characters left them feeling more like an info dump than characters. I probably would have felt more attached to them if you had gave an idea as to how each of them stepped out from behind the trees to join Andrew as well as mentioning any minor actions while conversing with the Mythran. Without those little details to latch onto I feel I'll have to reference this chapter when they are all brought back in subsequent chapters to remind myself of who is who.

Anyway, though my critiques bring with it the longer bit of text I am genuinely curious to see how these seven are pulled into the conflict and how their already hinted at to be troubled lives are overturned by the arrival of the Maelstrom.

[SgtBloxx]

Chapter 2: Revelation

Spoiler

Andrew slowly opened his eyes, irritated by the beeping sound that has woken him from the weird dream. Without bothering to look, he reached out to the source of the annoying sound next to him and slammed his hand on it, ending the noise.

'Weird dream and I'm still feeling tired. Yup, I stayed up too long gaming again,' he thought as he grabbed the source of the noise; his phone.

'September 28, 2016; 6:32 A.M.' Andrew read from his phone. Sitting up, the eighth-grader rubbed his eyes.

'Just one more week until Fall Break. Might as well get ready now before mom gets mad.'

Getting off his bed, he walked out of his bedroom, being careful to not trip on any of the toys scattered across the room. 'Why do I even still have these anyways? Aren't I getting a bit too old?' Andrew thought as he left his room, with one simple turn, entered the bathroom that is conveniently next door. He took a look at himself in the mirror over the sink.

Black, short, and usually neat hair that is suffering a bad case of bed hair. Brown eyes. Olive skin color. That's what Andrew saw when he looked at himself through the mirror.

He began his usual morning routine of brushing his teeth, combing his hair, and changing his clothes. Once he finished, Andrew's hair had been neatly groomed and he now wore a black t-shirt underneath a red hoodie, dark-blue jeans, white socks, and grey sneakers.

Andrew headed down the stairs, finding his mother already downstairs getting ready to leave. His mother had dark-brown hair and slightly lighter skin than Andrew's. She has always been pushing him to get good grades, and it's showing from the all A's the eighth-grader would get on his report cards from both this year and last year. However, it did take a toll on Andrew's patience and temper, which caused him to break down at times.

The boy's sisters, Cathy and Ashley, are also already downstairs waiting to leave with the mother. They both had short, black hair that reached their shoulders and slightly darker skin than Andrew's. And yes, they're twins. Andrew and the girls would often fight at times but overall they love each other very much. It tends to show when they play video games together.

Andrew's sisters have their shoes on and are about to leave soon, Andrew's mother first dropping off his sisters at elementary school and then heading off to work as an engineer for a commercial airline company.

As for the boy's father, he is a soldier for the military. He has already left an hour earlier so he wouldn't be late for work.

"Morning, Mom. Morning, girls," the eighth-grader greeted as he reached the end of the staircase.

"Good morning, Andrew," his mother greeted back. "Come on, girls. We're leaving now. Andrew, make sure the door is locked when you leave."

"Got it," Andrew replied as he watched his mom user his sisters out through the door to the garage. He could hear the garage door open and her mom's car startup, driving out of the house. The garage door closed afterward, signifying that Andrew is now alone. He sighed. "Too bad I still have to go to school."

Andrew headed out of the house through the front door, where his bike, colored green, waited in the front yard. The yard is surrounded by white picket fencing and has grass covering most of the area. The outside corners of the yard have numerous different plants that helped to liven up the place.

Despite the month being September, the temperature is still fairly warm due to the tropical climate of Hawaii.

Putting on his helmet, Andrew grabbed his bike by the handlebars and pushed it out through the gate. He hopped on, kicking the bike's stand up before riding away from the house and towards his school. Little did he realize, though, that he's being watched.

A drone, powered by four propeller rotors, is watching the boy from above. A camera has been attached to the bottom of the drone. Its cloaking device is activated, obscuring it from sight from civilian eyes. It seems to have spotted Andrew as a person of interest.

---

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"[Are you sure this is one of the people in the prophecy?]" A robotic voice in a garbled, unknown language asked as he looked at the live feed of the drone.

"[We've been monitoring his brain waves for the last twenty-four hours through the drone]" another voice, much more organic but still speaking in the same language, replied. "[They were tampered with by an outside force. Readings indicate that macros were used to tamper with the waves.]"

"[I see,]" the robotic voice said. "[Follow the boy. We must find the rest of the prophecized.]"

"[Yes sir.]"

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The drone followed Andrew, the boy unaware of it following him as he rode his bike over to his school.

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Armando Orduno sighed as he put his pencil down, satisfied with the finished homework that he's done at the last second. He is in the school cafeteria, a big room with tables and chairs lining the length of it. The stage is next to the entrance of the hallway that the classroom wings are connected to. The cafeteria itself is buzzing with student activity as many teens socialize and prepare for the beginning of the school day.

Armando is wearing an orange t-shirt, blue jeans, white socks, and black running shoes. Nothing special, since it's just another school day.

As the boy put his homework away into his bag, he is greeted by a friendly voice.

"Hey, Armando."

The boy in question turned around, realizing that the voice came from Andrew. The two may not have adequately met until the beginning of middle school, but they quickly became good friends once they did.

"Oh, hi Andrew," Armando greeted back as Andrew took a seat next to him. "So, what are you doing during Fall Break?"

"Eh, probably not much. Just stay at home and play games, I guess." A typical answer from Andrew. It's a surprise to a lot of people that he managed to keep a skinny frame despite his current lifestyle. "You?"

"I heard that the school is gonna do a campus cleaning event during the break. Figured I might help out with that."

"Seriously, on break? Armando, you need to hang loose now and then. I don't want to see you overworking yourself," Andrew replied.

Armando has always been known in their small group of friends to be the yes man. He would often accept every task that people ask him to do to the point of exhaustion. It bothered his friends, including Andrew.

Armando sighed. "You're right. I just don't have any plans for Fall Break."

"We can always hang out when neither of us is busy," Andrew suggested.

"Sounds good," Armando smiled.

A few minutes of silence occurs between the two friends. Nothing else is on Armando's mind at the moment besides the weird dream that he had last night.

I have to know, Armando thought, turning to Andrew to ask him only to be interrupted.

"Armando, did you have a weird dream last night?" Andrew asked, unintentionally questioning the same thing Armando was thinking of.

"...Yeah, I did," Armando responded, taken back by the question.

"Did it involve this being called a Mythran and how it said that we're in danger?" Andrew questioned again, trying to get more information.

"Yeah it did," Armando replied as the pieces clicked together inside his mind. "Oh my God..."

"So it wasn't just a dream..."

"You had it too?"

"Yeah, it was so weird. Wait, our friends were with us as well."

"We have to tell the others," Armando stated. "We need to know if they had the dream as well."

As the two friends stood up to meet up with the others, the bell ring, signaling the start of the school day.

"Recess?"

"Recess."

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Hours passed before recess began. While some students opted to stay inside the building, others went outside to wait for the next period to begin.

Jacob Perez sat on his bag, his back leaning against a wall as he worked on finishing his homework; homework that isn't due until a few days later.

Jacob is wearing a yellow t-shirt, grey shorts, grey sneakers, and white socks. He also has his eyeglasses on.

While Jacob tends to prefer working on his homework as soon as possible, it's not the whole reason why he was working right now.

Why can't I get that stupid dream out of my head? Jacob thought. He was hoping that working on his homework now would help him forget about the weird occurrence last night. It wasn't working. His dream was too vivid for him to just easily put to the side.

"You do realize that assignment isn't due until Thursday, right?" A voice asked Jacob, interrupting his train of thought. He looked up to see the voice belonging to his friend Tynan Tanaka.

Tynan is wearing a blue t-shirt, black shorts, black sneakers, and white socks.

Tynan is known as the jokester of the group, always making quips and jokes with his friends. However, there are times when he ends up offending some of his friends accidentally when he jokes around.

"Shut up, Tynan. At least I'm doing something useful," Jacob replied with some irritation in his voice.

Jacob is the hardest-working of the group, often found working on any assignment he has during his free time, working to finish them as fast and efficiently as possible. However, like Andrew, Jacob has a short temper, but not as short as the former's.

"Besides, you should help your brother out over there," Jacob pointed to another student sitting next to them, visually confused from the notes he's studying.

"This doesn't even make any sense," the student muttered to himself.

"What are you studying for, Aidan?" Tynan asked the student.

Aidan is wearing a black t-shirt, beige shorts that's knee-long, black sneakers, and white socks.

Aidan is oftentimes very anxious, usually self-doubting himself when he makes choices. It's a far cry from his brother's joking personality, but the two still manage to keep a good bond with each other.

"I've got this math test today for period six and these notes the teacher told us to write down makes absolutely no sense at all!"

Tynan sat down next to Aidan. "Here, let me see those notes," He said, starting to help his brother cram for the test

As Aidan gave the notes to his brother, a fourth student, who is also sitting next to the group, said, "Wait, we have a test today?"

"Seriously, Christian? Our teacher gave us the entire week to study!" Aidan replied in disbelief at his classmate.

Christian is wearing a white-collared, short-sleeved shirt, beige khakis, and white sneakers and socks. It was more formal than what the rest of his friends are wearing since he's trying to look cool.

As a matter of fact, Christian always tries to look good in both looks and personality. However, he tends to try too hard and ends up being embarrassed, which he hates. It didn't help that he also tends to forget important things, like the aforementioned math test.

"Well, um...I just..." the boy stuttered, trying to find a good excuse.

"You forgot?" Jacob deadpanned.

"Of course not! I was just...busy..."

"Sure you were," Jacob replied. rolling his eyes at his friend's failed attempt to still look cool.

Christian sighed. "Can you just help me out with this test?"

"Fine. Give me your notes." Jacob gestured for the student to sit down next to him and hand his notes over, setting aside his homework to do later.

Before Jacob began helping Christian, Armando's voice called out to the four boys. All of them turned their heads from the notebooks to see Armando and Andrew walking over to them.

"Hey guys," Armando casually greeted. "What's up?"

"Mostly studying, or cramming in Christian's case, for tests coming up," Jacob answered for Tynan, Aidan, Christian, and himself. Christian scowled at Jacob, feeling a little offended at the statement.

"Look, we can't talk right now, guys," Aidan said to Andrew and Armando as he and the others shifted their focus back to their notes.

"We do have to talk. It's important," Andrew replied with urgency in his voice.

Hesitantly, the boys brought their attention back to Andrew again.

Jacob sighed. "Alright, just what exactly is it?"

"Did you guys have a weird dream last night?"

Normally, Jacob would scoff at such a question and go right back to work. However, this time the question made him freeze in shock.

"So what? We all have weird dreams once in a while," Christian shrugged at the question.

Jacob turned his head towards his friends. While it seems that Aidan is also in shock, Christian and Tynan don't seem to care too much.

Tynan continued, "Yeah, so what's so important about our dreams?"

"Did your dream involve a being called a Mythran?" Andrew questioned, being more specific this time.

Tynan and Christian's bravado faltered, recalling the lucid dream that they had.

"Y-you can't be serious," Aidan stuttered, slowing coming to understand the situation.

"We're serious, Aidan," Armando grimly said otherwise.

Despite what he's hearing, Jacob still denied that this apparent "vision" is true.

"This is all just one big coincidence," Jacob argues out loud with irritation in his voice. "There's no way that some prophecy would choose us, some very normal and young teenagers, to be saviors of whatever!"

"Uh, guys?" Aidan interrupts Jacob's rant, pointing towards another group of students closeby. Judging by their weirded out expressions, it didn't take a genius for Aidan and his friends to realize that they overheard the conversation.

"Oh...um, don't mind us," Christian said, trying to think of a good explanation. "We're just...practicing for acting class. Right guys?"

"Definitely, we're not actually talking about weird stuff or anything," Andrew replied, playing along with Christian's act.

The rest of the group followed suit, trying to deny the fact that their conversation was serious. Soon enough, the other group of students rolled their eyes and turned back to each other, continuing what they were doing earlier.

Armando sighed. "That was close," he said in a lower tone, trying not to attract any more attention. "Jacob, you need to be more careful."

"I get it," Jacob snapped back, albeit in a similarly quiet tone.

A few moments of silence passed before Aidan said, "Hold on, wasn't Lily also in that dream?"

"You're right," Andrew replied. "Where is she?"

"She's in the library studying for her science test. Apparently her teacher wants her class to take the test today instead of at the end of the week," Christian answered. "I doubt that she would want to be bothered right now, especially with the lunch period ending in a few minutes."

"So we'll just meet up with her after school, then," Armando said.

"Can we do it somewhere less...crowded?" Aidan asked, a nervous look on his face. "I don't want to get any more weird looks from other students."

"What about that coffee shop nearby? Barely anyone going to this school goes there anymore ever since the smoothie bar opened up near it."

"Who's going to tell Lily, though?" Andrew asked.

"I'll do it," Christian volunteered. "You guys go ahead after school."

"Sounds like a plan, then," Tynan replied just as the school bell rung, ending the lunch period.

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"Ugh, I still don't get why Mr. Jason decided to have that test today," Liliana groaned, mentally exhausted from both studying for the test and taking the said test.

"I guess he really wants to save that experiment for Friday. Then again, he could've given us the test on Thursday," another girl walking with Liliana theorized.

"Well, at least it wasn't too bad. Thanks again for helping me study, Sophia."

The girl, named Sophia, has curly black hair reaching her shoulders and fair skin color. She is wearing a white t-shirt with a cyan hoodie over it, blue jeans, white socks, and white sneakers. She is also wearing a pair of eyeglasses.

"No problem, Lily."

Liliana, often called "Lily" by her friends, is wearing a white jacket over a green t-shirt, blue jeans, and green trainers shoes. Just like Sophia, she is wearing a pair of eyeglasses.

Liliana cares a lot about those close to her, including her family and her friends. It's to a point where she tends to blame herself too much

"Anyways," Sophia continued, "I need to get home now. My parents are trying to install a new TV and I promised that I'd help them."

"Alright. See you later, Sophia!" Liliana waved, with Sophia replying with another wave before splitting up from her.

"Hey Lily," a voice behind her greeted, making the girl jump a bit before turning around, seeing Christian.

"Oh, Christian it's you. You surprised me a bit."

"Sorry. Didn't really mean to," Christian apologized. "I've been looking for you. We need to talk about last night."

Liliana's eyes widened up, realizing almost immediately what her friend was talking about. "Where's everyone else?"

"At the coffee shop nearby. Come on, the others are waiting."

"Right, okay."

---

---

As the two friends departed for the coffee shop, the drone following Andrew earlier this morning watched them leave. It has been watching over the school the entire time, spotting Armando, Tynan, Aidan, and Jacob as well in the process.

"[That's the last of the prophecized, sir,]" the organic-sounding voice notified.

"[Good,]" the robotic voice replied. "[Keep watching them. I'm going to rally the invasion force.]"

"[Yes sir.]"

"[The Darkitect will be pleased with this operation. We will have them all killed before they truly realize their role in this matter.]"

I'm scrapping the bold lettering transitions since they're unnecessary. Expect me to get rid of them as well from last chapter.

[SgtBloxx]

Chapter 3: Not Your Typical Meet Up

Spoiler

Mechanical stomping sounds echoed through the hallway as a big robot walked through it, heading towards its destination. The mech's one red eye seemed to shift around its eye socket as it looked through its heads-up display, overseeing the preparation of its troops in a different room. The robot's body, in contrast to its glowing red eye, glowed purple of different tones; from dark purple from the top of its head and slowly becoming lighter downwards until the bottom, which ends in its white feet. Most notable of all was that it seemed to be made out of enlarged LEGO pieces.

As the mech turned to open a door to the armory where its troops are preparing, it suddenly paused as it received a transmission from its superior. The robot accepted the call, being greeted verbally by a voice that is recognized well enough amongst both the robot and its troops.

"[ED-902, report,]" the voice began, awaiting the mech's response.

"[My Darkitect, we have found the prophecized and we are preparing as we speak]" The mech, classified as ED-902, reported.

"[Good. This is what you and your units have been working for]" the voice, belonging to a person named the Darkitect, sounded pleased. "[I do not care who you and your troops kill, but make sure that the prophecized are included in the body count. Do not fail this mission.]"

"[Understood, my Darkitect.]"

The call ended as ED-902 opened the door to the armory, greeted by the sight of troops of different shapes and sizes gearing up for the mission.

----------

---

Tynan walked back to the table where Aidan, Armando, Andrew, and Jacob are seated, having placed an order for himself. He had some spare money and decided to buy himself a drink while the group got together to talk.

The coffee shop's interior consisted of green walls and grey stone flooring. Windows took up most of the front wall, allowing plenty of sunlight to flow into the building. The group decided to sit at a table at the front wall, giving them a nice view of the outside world. Not many people come at this time in the afternoon since adults still have work and other teens don't have much of an interest to hang out here, making this shop the perfect place for Tynan and his friends to hold this impromptu meeting.

Normally, Andrew and Armando would be on their phones playing a game together, Aidan would be also on his phone doing his own thing, and Jacob would have his homework out trying to finish it. However, this meeting isn't under normal circumstances. Everyone in the group was thinking about last night.

"How much longer until they get here?" Jacob asked the group, referring to Liliana, who we will be calling Lily from now on, and Christian.

"Probably in a few more minutes," Armando answered. "Look, maybe we should try to focus on something else other than what happened last night."

"You're right," Andrew replied, thinking of a different topic to discuss. "Tynan, Aidan, do you remember the airsoft match last weekend?"

Occasionally, the three boys would play airsoft with each other when they all can find the time to. Airsoft is a sport where players shoot at each other with realistic replicas of guns that fire bbs, six-millimeter white spheres. Andrew and Tynan started playing when their fathers started to participate in the sport as well. Aidan started later than the other two after some convincing by Tynan. It took the three boys some time to get used to the painful sting from getting hit by the high-velocity orbs, but eventually, they came to enjoy the sport a lot.

"Yup, especially that one time when I hit one player in the butt during this one round. It must suck for that guy," Tynan snickered as his gaze slowly shifted towards Andrew.

"Haha, very funny, Tynan," Andrew sarcastically replied, a bit irritated that his friend brought that embarrassing and painful moment up. "But I did see Aidan hit someone from far away with his sniper rifle."

"Well, it's not too bad once you got the hang of using it," Aidan sheepishly replied, feeling a bit awkward from the sudden praise he got.

Jacob sighed. "I don't see the point of airsoft. It's a waste of time and it's painful."

"I think it's supposed to be fun once you get used to the pain," Armando responded despite not having played airsoft before.

"Maybe you could join us during fall break," Andrew suggested to the two.

"I'll pass. I've got better things to do," Jacob curtly replied.

"I guess I could try it out with you, guys," Armando answered, his yes-man behavior showing once again.

The store's front door opened as Liliana and Christian arrived, looking for the rest of the group.

"Hey, over here," Armando waved at the two friends, notifying them of where the group sat.

Lily and Christian took a seat at the table as Jacob cleared his throat, getting the group's attention. "Let's get this over with. I've got stuff that I need to do."

"Yeah, let's start," Armando agreed. "The reason why all of us are meeting here now is that we all had the same odd dream last night, and it revolves around a closed online game. LEGO Universe, right?"

"Yeah, it is LEGO Universe," Andrew replied, remembering the late massively multiplayer online game. "The floating islands and the Mythran were dead giveaways."

"You've played it before?"

"It was my favorite game before it shut down. A shame that it was closed."

"I never played or heard of this game before until now," Jacob said in response.

"Okay, who else has never played LEGO Universe?"

The rest of the group responded by raising their hands.

"Figures."

"Okay, so if Andrew is the only person here who's played this game, then why are we all in this little 'prophecy.'" Jacob questioned, not expecting a valid answer.

"I'm not sure," Christian answered, but then smiled. "But guys, think about it. If none of this stuff is actually nonsense, then we could end up going on some kind of adventure. Away from our boring, everyday lives in our efforts for the greater good. Doesn't that sound awesome?"

A silence overcomes the group as everyone hesitated to answer. Each of the teens had mixed reactions about the thought of them going on an adventure.

"Um, guys?" Christian asked, taken back by the hesitance from his friends.

Jacob sighed. "Look, Christian, while going on an adventure may sound like fun, I for one think it's going to be too much of a left turn in my life. I've been working too hard in school to suddenly have to deal with something as unbelievable as the K-Pop community becoming less toxic all of a sudden."

Tynan smirked as Jacob made that statement. "Nice one," he said as he raised his hand for a high five from the hard-worker. Jacob's hand didn't slap the jokester's, which is something that he should've expected.

"Jacob's right," Aidan agreed. "All of this just seems so... sudden. Besides, we're just middle school students. The only people in this group who have some sort of gun training are me, Tynan, and Andrew; and we've only fired airsoft guns."

"...Maybe we're missing something here," Armando said.

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't been sharing this since I was sure that no one else was involved, but the three nights before last night I've been having dreams where I was in those three LEGO TV shows that are, or were, showing on Cartoon Network. I'm pretty sure they were called Legends of Chima, Nexo Knights, and Ninjago."

This shocked Tynan immensely. He has also been having those dreams before the vision last night, but he shrugged them off as a result of watching too many cartoons. Tynan looked at his friends and judging by the looks of the rest of the group, it seems that everyone is in the same boat.

"I guess that you've also been having those dreams," Armando concluded.

"How is this supposed to help us, though?" Jacob asked.

"...I'm not really sure, to be honest."

"Exactly. They're just dreams that are related because they take place in cartoons made by the same company."

Andrew turned his head towards Lily, who has been quiet for the entire conversation so far. Now that Tynan thought about it, he realized that Liliana looks like she is troubled with something had that kept her deep in thought.

"Lily, is everything all right?" Andrew asked the girl.

Lily gave out a sigh. "I've just been thinking about this one part of the dream last night where that...Mythran told us that we have to survive."

The group froze as Lily brought this up, having forgotten to discuss this part of the dream. As Tynan processed this information, he realized that the group will have to fight, regardless of their inexperience.

"I can't believe I forgot about that," Armando said in disbelief.

Lily turned her head towards Andrew again, looking for answers. "Andrew, do you know what the Maelstrom is?"

"It's been a while since the Maelstrom crossed my thoughts, so I don't remember much. One sec." Andrew pulled out his phone and opened up its browser app. "Maybe there's a LEGO Universe Fandom page that I can look up."

"How is a closed game supposed to have a Fandom page?" Jacob asked, thinking that such a website doesn't exist.

"You'd be surprised what you can find on the internet."

----------

---

Meanwhile, in a different part of the shopping center, a couple exited an Italian restaurant after having paid for their meal. The two lovers were happy as they had finished another date together.

The Hispanic woman, whose name is Maria, and the Caucasian man, named Tyler, have been in a relationship for a few years and have deepened their bond during that time frame. Despite their occasional arguments with each other, the couple loved each other unconditionally.

Now Tyler is ready to bring their relationship to the next level.

"That was a good restaurant," Maria happily said as they left the restaurant.

"I told you that you'd like it," Tyler replied, equally happy.

"Hm, it's still pretty early. Is there something else you want to do?"

Tyler hesitated at his girlfriend's question. Nothing crossed his mind as to what the two should do, except for one thing.

'I have to do this now.'

"Yeah, just follow me. It's a surprise," Tyler answered, set on doing what he has been preparing to do for the past week.

Without question, Maria followed Tyler to a statue of a surfboard placed in the center of the shopping center before Tyler stopped in front of it. There were other people in the area, but that didn't deter Tyler in the slightest.

"Maria, we have been together for years now. Even through thick and thin, you've stuck with me, and I have done the same." Tyler began reaching into his back pocket, pulling out a small box before going down on one knee. This was a gesture that many people know, including Maria judging by her shocked emotion on her face. This even began to attract other people into spectating.

"I don't think that there would be someone else that I would want to spend my life with." Tyler opened the box, revealing a silver ring with a sapphire on top of it. "Maria, will you marry me?"

Maria's eyes teared up; tears of happiness. "Yes, a thousand times yes!"

The couple kissed as the people watching the proposal cheered for the two's newly engaged status.

This moment didn't last.

As Tyler and Maria broke their kiss, shots echoed through the air as people began to panic and run away from the source of the sounds; some of the screams were cut short. The couple turned towards the source of the attacks.

What Tyler saw shocked him; abominations of different shapes and sizes, mostly humanoid, attacked everyone unfortunate enough to be within their presence using different kinds of weapons, some of which were never seen before on Earth.

Before Tyler could register more about the sudden situation, another shot rang through the air; the last sound that he would hear before darkness consumed his consciousness.

He was never given the change to embrace Maria one last time.

----------

---

"So that's what that Mythran was mentioning last night," Armando said after Andrew finished his internet-aided explanation about the Maelstrom.

The new information weighed heavily on Tynan's mind; a chaotic force of evil that could evolve by infecting organic beings and technology, memorizing the forms and anatomy of those forcefully pulled into its ranks so that they can be cloned for future use.

"...Do you think that the Maelstrom has grown stronger over the past few years?" Lily worriedly asked.

"I'm not too sure. I hope not, but it's still possible."

"Order for Tynan," the barista announces, indicating that the boy's drink was ready.

"One sec, guys," Tynan tells the group before going up to the counter to pick up his drink; caffeinated strawberry juice with ice cubes and strawberry slices dropped inside of it.

Just as Tynan turned back around to the table with his drink, he saw a multitude of people run past the shop, screaming in panic. The faint sound of banging and zapping could be heard coming from outside. His friends have taken notice of the mass panic and looked at where the sounds were coming from. Their faces depicted shock as they take a good look at the aggressors.

"Oh my God!" Jacob exclaims, standing up from the table.

"What the heck is happening?" Tynan asks the shaken students.

The group quickly stands up with Aidan rushing towards his brother's side.

"There's no time to explain, but we need to run!" Aidan hastily answers his brother.

"Through the back door! It's too risky to leave through the front door!" Andrew quickly tells the group.

The group quickly rushed to the shop's back door behind the counter, Aidan pulling the confused Tynan with him, causing him to spill his drink.

"What's happening?" The barista asks the group, dumbfounded at the sudden predicament she found herself in.

"Just go through the back door!" Andrew yells at her, the group entering through the aforementioned door. The barista quickly follows suit, understanding of Andrew's tone of voice.

The store was left empty as the chaos grows outside, the spilled drink over the grey stone floor serving as the only sign that the group was here.

----------

---

Hael Storm stood behind his giant golden telescope in the Nexus Tower's observatory, reminiscing how it overlooked the scattered lands of LEGO Universe. Now, the only thing that one could see through the telescope was Earth.

The pirate gave out a sigh before turning to leave the room, not before being stopped by the sound of a holographic Minifigure taking form next to the telescope. The Minifigure was mostly colored grey with light-blue accents scattered throughout her form, resembling wiring connected throughout her entire body. She also dons a helmet that covered the entire backside of her head.

"Naomi, I presume that my scouts have news for me," Hael says to the hologram.

"They have good and bad news," Nexus Naomi replies. "Which one do you want to hear first?"

"The bad news, lass," The Venture League faction leader answers.

"The Maelstrom has made the first contact with the denizens of this world, and they are slaughtering them."

"And the good news?"

"They're not 100% sure, but the scouts think that the Stromlings are looking for the people in that prophecy that Vanda mentioned. If that's true, then they won't last long down there."

Hael's face morphed from sorrow to determination. "Deliver this news to the other faction leaders and notify every member to gear up. We need to get down there and rescue the lads."

"But Hael, our forces are barely strong enough to fight and what your scouts reported is just speculation."

"I'm taking that risk. We've been watching from the shadows for too long and that gave the Maelstrom time to grow. Not this time, never again."

 

[SgtBloxx]

Chapter 4: Skirting The Frying Pan

Spoiler

"This is Sergeant Polaski responding to a Code 244 at the local shopping center, requesting immediate backup! Suspects are extremely armed and hostile! We have multiple officers down and there are civilians caught in the crossfire! Call in SWAT units, the National Guard, anything that we can use against these things!"

Polaski finished sending out the distress call as more projectiles strike the patrol car he and his partner, Corporal Adams, were taking cover behind. The sound of gunfire pierced the usually peaceful tropical atmosphere as police officers in the shopping center's parking lot traded shots with the unknown assailants. Bodies of the invaders, fellow officers, and unfortunate citizens littered the ground, having fallen victim to the firefight.

The chaos and confusion hit Polaski hard. He has been in the police force for around a decade, having to deal with robberies, murders, and even the thankfully rarer hostage situations. The experienced officer had thought that he has seen everything during his time as a cop.

He was wrong. And in the worst way possible.

"10-4, Sergeant Polaski. Backup is on the way," the dispatcher acknowledged through the officer's radio, giving him some relief. It didn't help much considering the bullets, plasma, and lasers hailing his cover; A fact that Polaski still found hard to believe. Just what are those attackers and where were they from?

"AGH FUCK!"

The sergeant wasn't given much time to ponder on that question as he heard Adams cry out in pain. Looking to his side, he saw his partner down on the ground, clutching a fresh bullet wound in his shoulder.

"Shit, Adams!" Polaski quickly rushed to his partner's side, dropping his pistol to try to tend to his injury.

"Polaski, don't worry about me!" Adams was quick to reassure his companion. "Just focus on those damn things!"

As if Polaski had much of a choice. Picking up his gun from the ground, the officer popped out of cover to shoot at the attackers. Just as he was about to take a shot, he heard lasers shoot from above, blue bolts raining down on the hostiles taking out some of them while pushing back the rest. Polaski looked up at where the lasers came from and couldn't help but gape at the sight in the sky.

An aircraft bearing transverse rotors descended upon the area, colored white and blue. What stood out the most was the fact that the aircraft was made out of giant pieces of LEGO bricks.

The helicopter soon landed on the parking lot, opening its rear door to let its occupants out. Life-sized LEGO Minifigures rushed out of the aircraft, bearing weapons and gear that are a mixture of futuristic and fantasied.

The newcomers fired at the remaining invaders, pushing them back further into the shopping center with ease. Some of the saviors split off from the group to tend to the police officers and civilians injured from the firefight. One Minifigure came to Adams's side holding a glass bottle carrying a red liquid of sorts in her hand.

The Minifigure sported a hairstyle in which the front part of her hair was blond and hung loosely on both sides of her head while the rest of her hair was red and tied up in a small ponytail. She wore an unzipped sleeveless blue jacket over a red cropped tank top, blue pants, metal-grey cuffs on her wrists, and armor of the same color on her pants. Whether or not she did wear any footwear wasn't apparent to Polaski since they weren't visible on her feet.

"Here, drink this," the Minifigure said to Adams, who was reluctant to consume the bottle's contents. "Look, mate, the faster you down that potion, the faster that nick in your shoulder is going to heal."

After some more moments of hesitation, Adams, deciding to trust the stranger, gulped down the red liquid. At first, the effects weren't noticeable. However, Adams slowly became less tense as seconds passed. The corporal threw a hand over his shoulder where the bullet wound was, shocked. Polaski inspected his partner's shoulder, realizing why he was so surprised.

Within seconds after drinking the potion, Adams's wound had fully healed itself.

However, instead of thanking the Minifigure who offered him the healing potion, Adams fearfully crawled away from her, backing himself against his police car. "W-what the hell are you people?"

The Minifigure huffed out a bit in annoyance. "Geez, mate. A little 'thank you would've sufficed. I guess the shock from that bullet wound is still there," she commented before continuing. "As for who we are-"

"Melodie, we're moving up," one of the Minifigures told her, interrupting the conversation between her and the two police officers.

"Guess that's my cue to leave," Melodie told the cops as she got up and began leaving to regroup with her team.

"Wait!" Polaski tried to stop the Minifigure to no avail, watching as she and the other misshapen people began fighting their way into the shopping center.

---

---

"We can't stay here. Sooner or later, they will start looking in here and start killing us!"

Liliana knew Jacob was right. Even with the group hiding in the kitchen with all of the coffee shop's lights turned off, it was only a matter of time before whatever those things are start looking for survivors inside the stores, including this one. Once the group is found, that's it.

Yet she couldn't bear to move a muscle after huddling in a corner of the kitchen. The cries of innocent people outside being cut down disturbed her to no end. Even after trying to cover her ears with her hands, Liliana could still hear the chaos and death that took place just outside the coffee shop's front door. She wanted to go out there and help get everyone to safety. But she and her friends were just mere middle-schoolers. They had no chance against armed mass killers.

Never did she feel so...helpless.

Liliana remained in her huddled position for what seemed like hours, desperate to block out the maddening sounds outside. Her rising adrenaline made her jump as she felt someone tap her shoulder. She suppressed a scream as Liliana turned around.

It was just the barista.

"Hey honey, take a deep breath. Calm down," she said in a soothing voice. Liliana didn't register the barista's look, barely thinking straight with her vision being very blurry.

She didn't even realize her breathing was rapid until now, along with her heartbeat. Following the barista's advice, she took in a long, deep breath before exhaling it out. Liliana felt her heartbeat slow down a lot, showing that she is starting to calm down. Of course, she didn't feel fully calm considering the situation she was in, but at least she is starting to think more clearly.

Liliana's vision starts to become clearer, finally managing to register the barista's look. She has brown hair going down just past her shoulders, along with tan skin... At least, Liliana thought she has brown hair and tan skin. It was a bit hard to be sure considering how dark the room is. At least she could confirm that the barista is a young adult, considering the lack of wrinkles and her high-pitched voice.

The barista wore the store's uniform green apron over a grey shirt and black jeans. Liliana looked at the barista's name tag clipped to her apron.

Bailey Kekoa.

Liliana mentally took note of the barista's name before she noticed Christian walking up to the two, staying low and trying to keep the noise of his footsteps to a minimum.

"Lily, are you alright?" Armando had a worried look on his face, which Liliana often saw as the most caring person in the group.

"I-I'm fine," Liliana replied.

"I calmed her down, don't worry," Bailey reassured Armando.

Armando let out a short sigh of relief. "That's good. Thanks, er..." Armando squinted, looking at the barista's name tag. "...Bailey."

"It's the least I could do," Bailey said. "Now, as he said," she gestured towards Jacob.

"My name is Jacob," he said, briefly interrupting the barista.

"Um, as Jacob said, we can't stay here. We should start head out soon."

"Well, obviously we can't go out through the front door..." Christian widened his eyes. "Ooh, maybe you got some kind of secret passageway in case of an emergency, like in those movies that show these kinds of situations!"

"Er...no," Bailey replies before pointing to a door in the back wall. "But we can go through the back door."

"...Oh." Christian sheepishly looked downward. Knowing him, Liliana could tell that he was feeling both embarrassed and disappointed.

"Hold on, there's no way going through the back is any safer than getting out through the front door," Andrew said, highly skeptical about the plan. "Those things, those...Stromlings? They probably have the back covered."

Aidan, after staying silent from his fear of the entire situation, finally decides to put his two cents on the matter. "A-actually, I didn't hear anything coming from the back. It's probably safe...I-I think."

Tynan nods. "Yeah, it's our best chance. Better than staying here and being easy pickings."

Andrew takes a moment to think about it before sighing. "Well, if it's our best chance, might as well take it."

"Alright." Bailey stands up. "I'll lead us out. I'm the adult, so I should take the responsibility."

"I don't mean to be rude, but can you be the leader? Just because you're the oldest doesn't mean that you have the qualities of a leader," Jacob points out.

Bailey sighs. "Even then, if something were to happen to any of you, I'd never forgive myself. It's better that I shoulder the responsibility."

She gestures for the group to follow her as she starts heading to the back door. "Now come on. The sooner we start heading out, the better."

Liliana follows the others as Bailey silently opens a crack in the door, carefully checking if any of the Stromlings, as Andrew calls them, were on the other side. After looking to the left and then to the right multiple times, Bailey gestures the group to go through the door as she slowly opens it. Aidan and Tynan stayed behind the others while Liliana followed everyone else.

The group enters a wide hallway that is as wide as a grocery store aisle, with other doors lining the walls. Liliana quickly assumed that they went to the other stores in the shopping center. The hallway was lit, making it a lot easier for her to see.

"Huh, I always did wonder what it's like behind the stores," Christian, slightly amazed, comments as the group followed Bailey down the hallway.

"What the heck is even the point of this hallway?" Andrew questions, not understanding the need for the shopping center to have something like this.

"This hallway connects the stores to a storage room where our stock is dropped up and can be picked up by the employees," Bailey explains. "Honestly, I'm not sure why we needed something like this. But then again, the shopping center is still fairly new."

It wasn't long before Bailey led the group to the end of the hallway, where another door waited for them. This one was a rolling shutter door, unlike the others that lined the hallway. The door was labeled "Storage Room."

Bailey knelt and grabbed the door handle. Slowly, she pulled it up and opened the door, trying to not make too much noise. After pulling it up halfway, she checks the room from underneath the door before gesturing for the group to get in.

Liliana went in last, letting Tynan and Aidan go before her. Bailey pulls down the door slowly, closing it.

"All right, everyone seems to be accounted for so far," Bailey says in a lower voice, making sure it's enough for everyone else in the group to hear.

Thankfully, like the hallway, the room was also lit up, making it easier for Liliana to see her surroundings. The room was square, with two larger rolling shutter doors opposite of where the group entered from. There is also another door to the right of the two shutter ones, which is tall enough for a normal human and can be swung open. Large crates were stacked on top of each other along the walls, while some loading equipment, including a forklift, were scattered across the room. To the right of where the group entered, a small hallway could be seen, leading to an office that probably belongs to the supervisor.

"It looks like whoever was here left in a hurry," Aidan observes.

"Probably were glad that they didn't have to work today," Tynan quipped.

That earned a glare from Liliana. "Are you serious? People are dying outside, and you are joking about that?!" She kept her voice low but struggled to not yell out loud.

Tynan raised his hands defensively. "Okay, okay! Sheesh, I'm only joking."

"Now isn't the time for jokes," Jacob curtly reminded, also glaring at Tynan.

"Hey, calm down you three," Bailey warned the three. "Now isn't the time for us to start arguing."

Liliana sighed. Bailey was right. Getting sidetracked now would only get the group killed, especially with those things outside still actively looking for more people to slaughter.

Christian eyed one of the doors leading to outside. "You think we might make it if we make a run for it?"

Aidan shakes his head. "I don't think so… They have guns, I can hear it."

"Yeah, definitely not a good idea. We're gonna get shot way before we make it out of the shopping center." Andrew had been shot enough times in airsoft while retreating to know that running is probably, maybe even definitely, futile.

Liliana shakes her head. "We can't just stay in here though! They might start searching for us in here any second!"

"She's right…" Bailey looks at the exit door, and then to the supervisor's office. "…I have a plan, but we need to split up."

"I can already see that it's not a good plan," Jacob interjected, crossing his arms.

"Don't worry, you'll be able to see me the entire time," Bailey reassured. "Now, you will go hide in the office while I go to the door and check outside. I will wave you over if, and only if, there is nothing outside."

"And if there is something outside?" Andrew questioned. "What are you gonna do if there is something outside that's trying to kill us?"

Bailey didn't say anything, hesitating to answer. "…I'll just have to improvise. Right now, your lives have priority over mine."

While Liliana worried about Bailey's life, she couldn't help but understand. Bailey was an adult. Everyone else was just in middle school…

…They were just kids.

However, Andrew didn't seem to budge. "Oh, just because we're kids, you see it as your duty to protect us? You're only gonna get yourself killed thinking like that! At least have one of us come with you in case things go south."

Bailey shook her head, not budging as well. "I can't do that. That would mean one of you might be in danger." She sighed. "Look…this is the only plan that I can think of. Just trust me on this, all right? It's for your own good."

"Maybe we should listen to her, Andrew," Armando says, siding with Bailey

Andrew glared at Bailey for a few seconds. "…Fine," he says, relenting. He turns to the rest of the group, gesturing for them to head into the office. "Let's go, then. The sooner we're out of this mess, the better."

Liliana takes one last look at Bailey before following the rest of the group into the office, uncertain about the plan.

The office itself has windows looking out into the warehouse, making it easy to see where Bailey is. The room was also surprisingly larger than Liliana thought, which is about as big as the kitchen back at the coffee shop. Besides that, it just has the typical office furniture; a desk and a chair in the center of the room, a few filing cabinets lining the wall opposite of the windows, and a board to the right of the entrance filled with posters and pictures.

"Lily, you might want to turn the lights off in here…you know, just in case," Andrew says as he ducks down next to the wall separating the office from the warehouse.

Liliana looks over at the light switch to her right. She flicks it down, turning off the lights in the room before closing the door behind her. She was tempted to hide behind the filing cabinets far away from the windows, but she wanted to see if Bailey would be all right. She crouched down behind Andrew, leaning against the wall.

Christian crouched down in front of Andrew, probably not wanting to miss what is going to happen. Aidan and Tynan hid underneath the desk, the brothers preferring to stay together. Armando hid behind the desk, preferring to be in the middle of the group. And Jacob hid behind the filing cabinets, which was probably the most logical thing to do.

Liliana peeks through the window, watching as Bailey starts making her way to the exit door. Bailey takes one quick look over at the office, flashing a thumbs-up to the group. Andrew replied with his thumbs-up, showing that the group is all in the office.

Liliana also ended up flashing a thumbs-up to Bailey, though… She didn't exactly understand why. Maybe she was admiring how well Bailey took control of the situation, being the leader of the group and all? Perhaps… But Liliana doesn't see herself as a leader, considering how much she was panicking when the attack first started.

But… What about Bailey's drive to protect the rest of the group; the need to make sure that everyone else makes it out alive? Liliana thought back to the people outside that she heard being killed, and how she wished that she could do something to help save them. Sure, Bailey may be too late to help save the lives outside, but she is doing what she can to protect the ones that are with her.

Yes… Maybe Liliana should strive to be like Bailey and try to help save as many lives as she can. Perhaps that is why she is looking up to Bai-

"AAAAAHHH!"

Bailey's scream violently rips Liliana from her thoughts. She looks through the window, seeing a horrifying sight: Bailey pushed down onto the floor as two of those murderous creatures enter the warehouse from the very door the group could have escaped from.

And one of the murderous creatures was aiming their gun at Bailey

Bailey raised her hands, fear starting to take over. "N-No, wait! Plea-"

*BANG*

Liliana felt her heart drop as she helplessly watches Bailey go limp.

 

[SgtBloxx]

Chapter 5: Not a Video Game

Spoiler

 

In his young age, Andrew rarely thought about death and the possibility of him dying early. The only times he worried about dying was when he was playing video games, but even then, those games allowed him to respawn over and over again.

But Andrew wasn't naive. The gunshot cutting off Bailey's scream reminded Andrew that the entire situation was very, very real. And that there was no such thing as respawning in real life.

Seeing Bailey's lifeless body fall to the ground, Andrew was quick to push Liliana down underneath the window out of pure instinct, not even checking if she was going to duck down anyways. Not that it even mattered, seeing that her eyes were wide from shock and her hands clasped over her mouth. Andrew figured that Liliana wouldn't mind.

That wasn't a person that killed Bailey, was it? It certainly looked human, wearing a grey jacket, brown cargo pants, and a black ski mask. It also wielded an assault rifle that Andrew definitely saw before in one of the futuristic Call of Duty games, but the name was lost to him right now.

But everything else about it looked so wrong. Part of its jacket was torn, revealing half of its purple ribcage that caged something that glowed red inside of its body. The skin around his eyes was dark purple. And speaking of the eyes, they also glowed red.

Was that thing… No, that can't be a Stromling from LEGO Universe. Andrew doesn't remember them being this brutal and wearing stuff like that… Right?

Ugh, focus Andrew! Survival first, pondering later!

Andrew turned his head towards the others, shakily bringing a finger against his mouth to tell the others to stay quiet or they were all going to die. The others may have already gotten the message though.

"Okay… This just got a lot more real than I thought it would…" Christian whispered to himself, his own eyes wide in shock as well.

"Stay. Quiet," Jacob reminded Christian through gritted teeth. No doubt the stress was getting to him as well.

"…Guys, we gotta do something. That… Thing out there is gonna come in here," Armando pointed out.

He was right. With Bailey dead, there's no reason that whatever killed her was going to check in here for more people to kill, if the massacre outside was anything to go by.

Something had to be done.

"…I'm gonna go wait next to the door. If that thing comes in here, I'm gonna catch it off-guard," Andrew explained his plan.

"What?! You can't be serious, Andrew! There's no way that you can deal with that thing," Armando replied, worried for his best friend.

"We're gonna die if we don't do something. Besides, I played a ton of airsoft before, so it should help me a bit here… I think." Andrew mentally face-palmed himself. Who was he kidding? No way shooting at other people with airsoft guns will help him with hand-to-hand combat.

Aidan wasn't convinced, curling up into a fetal position and burying his face in his knees. "Oh god, we're going to die…"

Tynan kneels to pat his brother's shoulder. "…As if I'm gonna let that happen." Tynan's face suddenly bore the look of determination. A far cry from his usual jokester personality. He looks over at Andrew. "This plan is crazy, but crazy is just what we need right now. I'm helping."

"Count me in as well," Armando chimes in. "I'm not letting you two do it alone."

Andrew nods to Armando and Tynan. Three-on-one meant the odds were in their favor, Andrew hoped. "All right, well… Let's go wait next to the doorway. Everyone else, hide."

As everyone else quietly moved to the darker corners of the room and hid behind whatever they could find, Andrew, Armando, and Tynan crept toward the door. Andrew and Armando would crouch on the right side of the opening, while Tynan stood to the left where the door would swing in towards.

Just in time too as Andrew started to hear footsteps outside the door. The footsteps slowly got louder and louder as the thing outside approached the door... Though they weren't as loud as the beating of Andrew's heart in his chest. At least to just the boy, thankfully.

The clicking sounds of the door handle turning made that beating heart drop within Andrew. The door swings open, and the first thing that Andrew caught a glimpse of was a gun. And as more of the supposed Stromling walked into the room, the gun was the first thing that Andrew lunged at and grabbed.

Caught off-guard, the Stromling lurches forward from the sudden weight of Andrew. Soon after, Armando jumps onto the back of the Stromling, causing it to lose its balance and fall face-first onto the ground.

Unfortunately for Andrew, he would fall to the ground with the Stromling. "Woah- Oof!" Andrew hits the ground on his back, hearing the clattering of the Stromling's gun as it hits the ground and slides away from its owner.

Andrew lets out a groan as he pushes himself up into a sitting position, seeing Armando struggle to keep the Stromling on the ground by weakly hitting its head with his fists. As if things the whole situation wasn't enough, he spots the Stromling's buddy start to walk through the doorway and aim its rifle at Armando.

Thankfully, Tynan slams the door into the face of the standing Stromling just before it could shoot. The Stromling stumbles back, briefly stunned by the door hitting its face. However, Tynan doesn't seem to notice it as his attention was turned towards the Stromling on the floor.

"Come on, then," Tynan loudly shouts as he runs to the downed Stromling and starts stomping its head as hard as possible.

Andrew was quick to point out the Stromling standing in the doorway. "Tynan, behind you!"

But it was too late. The Stromling shook its head, recovering from having a door slammed into his face. It raises its rifle at Tynan.

BOOM!

A loud gunshot made Andrew's ears ring, and it felt like time slowed down as he waited for Tynan to fall to the ground.

Instead, the Stromling behind Tynan fell.

Having heard the gunshot from behind, Andrew turns around with wide eyes. He saw smoke come out of the barrel of the gun that the tackled Stromling dropped.

And the person holding the gun was Aidan.

"O-Oh, my god..." Aidan's arms became shaky as he realized what he did. He lets go of the rifle, letting it drop to the floor.

Tynan and Armando briefly stopped focusing on the last remaining Stromling to look at Aidan. Said Stromling started trying to push himself back up, trying to take this opportunity to recover.

"Hey! He is trying to get back up," Jacob shouted, quick to try and get Armando and Tynan to focus on the Stromling.

Christian, briefly looking at the gun that Aidan dropped, takes it and holds it by the barrel. "I got it!" He stands up and charges toward the recovering Stromling before sending the butt of the gun's stock against its face.

The attack was enough to knock the Stromling out cold as it collapsed back down on the floor, now no longer moving.

Armando stands up, looking at the unconscious Stromling. "Phew... Nice one, Christian."

Christian nods to Armando. "Thanks... Just can't believe we just did that."

Meanwhile, Tynan would go to Aidan's side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, are you all right?"

"...I-I killed someone..." Aidan's voice squeaked out as he quivered, his eyes shifting between the Stromling he shot and his own hands.

Tynan kneels so that his head was at the same level as Aidan's. "Hey, look at me. You didn't do anything wrong. He was gonna kill us, and you saved us."

Andrew, letting out a sigh, slowly started to push himself up to his feet. Hearing someone walk to him, he looks to his left, seeing Jacob offering a hand to him.

"Here," Jacob simply said. Andrew grabs his hand and gets pulled up onto his feet. "We should move... Before more of them come."

"Right... Come on, guys." Andrew takes a glimpse outside the window, making sure that nothing else was outside in the storage room, before walking to the door out of the office.

Looking back, he sees Jacob, Christian, and Armando immediately following him. Though Tynan, Aidan, and Liliana weren't as quick.

Tynan had just finished comforting Aidan the best that he could in this situation, offering him a hand. "Come on. We'll be back home soon."

Aidan was about to take Tynan's hand when he sees Liliana still huddled in the corner of the room. "...H-Hold on." He crawls to Liliana and taps her shoulder. "Lily-"

"I-I know... Just..." Liliana takes a deep breath in before looking up at Aidan. "Okay... Let's go..."

Aidan and Liliana soon stand up and walk with Tynan to join the rest of the group. Andrew leads everyone back out into the storage room and towards the door leading to the outside of the building.

He takes another glimpse back, seeing Liliana start to fall behind as she looks at Bailey's body lying on the ground.

"...Lily, come on," Andrew calls out to her. "There's nothing that we can do for her. We need to lea-"

The clicking of the door handle turning made the group stop dead in their tracks. Andrew turned his head just in time...

...To see the door creak open.