Unity/Chapter 1: Home Bitter Home

A Note For The Readers
Just so that everyone knows, I, MaxIrvaron, will be writing the majority of this chapter. Nitro will be telling me what to do on some parts.

Also, this chapter is hypothetically after Depths of Dimensions, Kennedy's return to Chaos Mobius, Fragment World, and the future Max/Lee/possibly Wiki roleplay. So, if you are reading, expect spoilers for my characters.

Chapter 1: Home Bitter Home
The Zone between all of the dimensions, flowing with images of different worlds, was surely a magnificent place. Its blue interior was always pleasant to look at, and rectangular photo-like picture of each new world floated around, allowing anyone to get a glimpse at a place they’d never been before. After his about 50th visit to this area, however, Kennedy McLeod was starting to get mighty sick of it.

With a fiery purple aura following him, Kennedy flew throughout the hub base, noting all of the twists and turns he had to take to get back home. He was donning only his torn-up purple undershirt and his grey shorts that were formerly pants but now only went to his knees. He just had the worst luck, it seemed - stopping Luna on its own, deserved a break in his eyes, but then he had to be plunged into an apocalyptic realm immediately after, only to assist save someone who he’d recently helped a different version of after that.

I need some rest… I wonder what everyone’s been doing without me. Though Jana-Su, the other Xavis and the others were pleasant people to hang out with, he missed all of his friends dearly. He hoped Alexia would have been deroboticized by now.

Suddenly, an intense headache came upon him. As much as he wanted to ignore it, he knew what was happening - someone was messing with the space-time continuum again. I’ll have to handle that later - I don’t have near enough patience to deal with something like this immediately.

Kennedy stopped flying abruptly to look at one of the rectangular images. In it, he saw the buzzing central area of Trikon City, his home. A smile crept across his face just thinking about all of the memories he’d made. Not wanting to waste any time, Kennedy disappeared in a flash of white light.

 

What were Kennedy’s expectations when he teleported into the Lamak Zone? Most likely landing perfectly into his room in the Hartley Mansion, where Mac and Scarlet would been tearing up at just seeing his face. Kennedy would start crying also, and they’d share a group hug, having Team Mask reunited.

However, that was probably as far as he could get from reality. When Kennedy teleported into the Zone, he found himself appearing into the sky, facing upwards. Before he could get a hold of what was happening, he started to fall, and suddenly his back hit something.

Groaning, Kennedy rolled over. He found himself on top of a red car whose driver had apparently not noticed something was on it. Kennedy attempted to stand, but the speed of the driving car made him trip and start to fall again… on another one, this time blue. The driver stopped immediately, which was an unintelligent move on their part - with the business and rushing that went on in this part of town, about five more cars crashing into the blue one, sending Kennedy rolling onto the road.

Kennedy got up, dazed, to see the driver of the blue car, a yellow beaver, get out and give him a fierce glare. “The hell do you think you’re doing? This is a busy road! I don’t know who you are, but blah blah blah blah blah blah-” The beaver might have been saying something intelligent, but Kennedy was honestly so tired that it all just translated into a rush of gibberish. It was strange that this man did not recognize him as the Extreme Gearist or buddy of the famous Mac Hartley, but Kennedy didn’t let it get to him. It was enough to make the Chaos tiger feel guilty, however, so he looked at the driver earnestly.

“I apologize, my dear sir, but I can honestly inform you that this was not my fault.” As nice as he was trying to look, Kennedy kept a completely straight face, angering the beaver and causing his face to flush with rage.

“You think you’re a smartass, don’t you? You think you can cause these kind of damages and just say ‘sorry’ with an excuse to get away with it? Who the hell do you think you-”

“If you could kindly shut up for a moment, you are not the only one troubled here. Now, I have more important things to attend to, so I must go. Call the police if you must, but I am leaving.” With that, Kennedy started to levitate into the air and fly away. The beaver didn’t like that.

“Hey! You! What about all of this?” The beaver was quickly waving at the line of damaged cars and confused civilians. “Who’s going to pay for all of these damages?!”

Kennedy’s eyes turned green for a second, but then they turned back to their usual grey. He replied, “Your insurance,” and teleported away.

 

When Kennedy appeared at the doorstep of the Irvaron Mansion, he was intrigued by two things - one, why was his teleporting off? Was it an effect of being thrown in different realms? And two, why didn’t he sense Mac and Scarlet’s energy signatures? Usually, they were booming.

Kennedy tried knocking on the door, but after five minutes, he got no response. Confused, Kennedy teleported through the door and ran through the mansion, looking for any sign of his teammates. He ran to his room - nothing. He ran to the kitchen - not a trace. He ran to the game room - nada. He ran to the party floor - no cigar.

Finally, Kennedy decided that the best place to check was their actual rooms. Maybe they were chatting together and were so caught up in their conversation that they didn’t hear the doorbell or his constant running?

Kennedy went into Mac and Scarlet’s room with high hopes, but when he looked at their beds, he only found their outfits and open drawers.

 

Earlier that week….

Mackenzie Hartley and his dear friend Scarlet June were in the Hartley Mansion, chilling - at least, one of them was. Scarlet was on her bed, listening to music on her headphones, but Mac was furiously fiddling with his thumbs. This…. It didn’t feel right. Not without him.

Scarlet took off her red and black headphones, being able to see Mac’s stress. “Hey, Mac you seem troubled. What’s up?”

Mac tried to fake optimism, something he didn’t usually need to do because he normally had a reason to smile. Not like he needed one now - in the past year, after Luna’s conquest, a lot of good things happened. Alexia was deroboticized and she learned a bit about her destiny, which was cool. Schnee and White got to make amends with their mom - double cool. Terra found a thief and returned a sacred artifact to her village - triple cool. Mac finally got that stupid Chaos Energy out of him - quadruple cool. But even with all of that… without his best frenemy, it felt like he’d excluded him from their life.

Scarlet lowered her eyelids while glaring at the tiger, giving him a smirk. “Mac, you do know I’m not retarded, right? I know you’re down. What are you down about, though? So many good things have happened since last year!”

“Have you… forgotten about him, Scarlet?” Mac said this in an unusually somber tone that made Scarlet feel sad just hearing it. This wasn’t the only reason her face suddenly shifted between emotions, however - she knew very well that he was talking about Kennedy.

“Mac, be serious. You really think I’ve forgotten about the ‘k’ to our ‘Mas?’ I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spend every day hoping he’d come back, wishing that he’d just teleport into our home with a smile on his face.”

Mac looked at Scarlet, his eyes starting to water. “What if Luna killed him, Scarlet? We have just been living under the assumption he was teleported, but… what if the Oracle Stone destroyed him completely? What if life is giving us false hope?”

It didn’t take Scarlet long to sit next to Mac on his bed, putting her hand on his shoulder. “Mac, I understand you and Kennedy were close. I know that Kennedy disappearing has been the most hurtful punch in the gut since I met you. But we can’t give up, Mac. We can’t let ourselves be depressed because we’re assuming that the worst thing possible is the truth.” Scarlet sighed as she cupped Mac’s cheek. “We have to keep believing.”

Wiping his eyes, Mac smiled. “Dammit, Scarlet, you know just the wrong right things to say to me at the right times.” Scarlet rested her head on his shoulder as their thoughts synchronized on one single topic. It was five whole minutes before Mac jolted with electricity, shocking Scarlet.

“Ow! What the hell, Mac?” Scarlet was starting to fuss, but all of her anger subsided immediately when she saw Mac’s big old smile dance across his face. “What are you so happy about now? You look like a fool.”

“Scarlet, I’ve just had the best idea ever! What if instead of waiting for Kennedy to come, we bring him to us! It’ll be a lot less stressful, and then we could just mosey on back home singing Kumbaya!”

Scarlet chuckled at Mac’s enthusiasm, but she retained her serious demeanor. “As cute as that sounds, bud, you have to realize that Flash must’ve been thinking something like that before he joined Luna. How would we know if we were joining the right side or not?”

“I honestly don’t care about if we’re on the right side or not, I just want to bring Kennedy back. But there’s something else, too… When Luna came, we were doomed. It took all of our everything to stop her. I…. I don’t want to experience that type of fear again. Nuh-uh. We need to get some power, so that if a wannabe Luna appears out of nowhere, we can stop them. Plus, if we do find Kennedy, I’m worried about him. When we last saw him, he was pushed over the deep end.”

Scarlet shuddered, remembering the malicious aura Kennedy gave off when Turles was attacked. “Yeah. His energy signatures… they kind of reminded me of Konton’s, to be honest. They gave me the creeps.”

Mac made a gun sign with his hands, and then he pretended to fire a shot. “Bingo! Luna sure was a nightmare, but Konton was strong enough to give her shivers. If we find Kennedy and he becomes a maniac again, he need the strength to take him down. You with me?”

Mac got off the bed and put his hand out for Scarlet to grab. “You bet!” She grabbed it, and he pulled her up. Two questions popped up in Scarlet’s head, though. “Are… you sure you just want me to join you, though? We have White, Tina, Sepht-”

Mac shook his pointer finger. “Nah, none of them would really work. Schnee, Alexia and Terra would try to stop us if we joined the ‘bad’ side, and I feel like White, Tina and Sephtis should continue trying to live their lives as normal as possible.”

Scarlet crossed her arms and smirked. “Clever. But dimension-transcending warlords don’t appear out of nowhere, y’know.”

Mac lowered his eyelids and gave his friend a determined look. “Not until now, that is.”

 

Mac and Scarlet were in the party room, standing side-by-side. They were wearing brand-new outfits for a brand-new adventure - Mac wore a short-sleeved yellow shirt and yellow shorts, along with red, white and yellow shoes. He had put slits in a red cap for his ears to go through, and he wrapped sports tape around his hands (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MpNgGfZ42UYgwmqcc4Mm1eOEH9N9ykHS). Scarlet wore a modified version of her yellow tank top that now had pink sleeves, with very short jean shorts accompanying them. She wore white and green socks with cyan and green boots (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OcAKr8ECGBrFlp8G25iEPyVTO6hM-Iye).

Scarlet looked at Mac again. “So, what’s the plan?”

Mac replied, “Okay, so if there’s anyone who is tearing up time, then they’ll want someone powerful. We’re going to raise our power to the maximum and hope that we alert them.”

Scarlet said, “That makes sense, but are you sure that I’ll be able to raise my strength high enough? I think that you’ll have to-”

“Already prepared, hon.” Mac, as fast a lightning, grabbed a pair of scissors from off the table and snipped a centimeter of Scarlet’s hair off. The gunslinger noticed shortly after, and she started getting very angry.

“WHAT THE HELL, MAC! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR A GIRL TO GROW THIS?! GO TO HELL!” Scarlet gained an explosive red-aura that shined in the smiling Mac’s face.

“That’s the spirit, Scar! Now, it’s my turn! Hyah!” Mac started off by going into High Tension, giving him cyan/blue coloring, but not altering his clothing. Mac noticed. “Oh, so my clothes stay yellow now? Cool!” Mac decided to go into the next stage of High Tension, powering up even further. His blue aura turned lime-green, and his shirt and pants turned grass-green, with cyan stripes over them. Mac’s hair spiked up, similar to this, and turned lime-green. His fur turned a light shade of green. This was Completed High Tension, known to Mac as UTAI (Ultra Total Awesome Incarnate). They both unleashed all of their power while yelling, desperate for someone to arrive.