The Forge of Destruction

**The Forge of Destruction** was a group of villains from across the multiverse. Each was attempting to prevent their demise awaiting them in their original universes.

## Members

* **Taryn X:** An unofficial member of the group, but technically the reason they were brought through the multiverse in the first place. Following the events of *The Final Word*, Taryn was unintentionally trapped in the form of Alien X. She then set out to traverse the multiverse in search of Omnitrixes, or Omnitrix-like devices, such as Yellowtrix Alan's Simplicitrix. Her goal was to become the multiversal protector to defend from threats such as the Xerge Virus, believing only herself capable of doing so.
* **Adam Taurus:** The official leader of the group, Adam Taurus hails from an alternate version of Remnant, the universe where *BLAC* takes place. Adam was pulled from his timeline during his battle with Dani Lancer, Ilia Amitola, and Cody Drake, a battle which otherwise resulted in his death. When Taryn returned to take Clock's Omnitrix, Adam and the other villains were allowed to escape, and Adam convinced the others they didn't need to return to their own universes to die, and could instead rule over this new world they found themselves in.
* **Miraak:** Miraak was the first Dragonborn, also known as Dovahkiin, opposite Cassian J. Valiance, the last Dragonborn. Miraak was pulled from his universe just as judgement was about to be passed by Hermaeus Mora, right after his defeat by Cassian. Of the group, Miraak proved the most skeptical of Clock's ability to send them home without dying.
* **Van Kleiss:** Van Kleiss came from an alternate version of Generator Rex's universe, wherein Generator Clock exists instead. From Van Kleiss' point of view, he had been brought to Earth-7102 at the time of a time warp, which had originally sent himself to the past while sending Generator Clock three months into the future. Van Kleiss determined that he and Larry would likely perish, given the fates of the others involved, and thusly decided against going back home. On the same topic, Van Kleiss was the only one of the group to see potential in Larry once the group escaped, and thusly used his gauntlet to turn Larry into an E.V.O. for their fight.
* **Giovanni:** Giovanni was the Gym Leader of Viridian City's Gym, specializing in Ground Types, and more importantly, leader of Team Rocket. He was an adversary to Poké-Clock in his universe. Giovanni had hoped to bring Team Rocket's influence to the Galar Region, with the help of Grunty Boi's recon, with Giovanni himself working with and manipulating Chairman Rose. When the legendary Pokémon known as Eternatus was summoned, the Dynamax Energy released in a chaotic fashion, destroying the building around those present, which originally killed Giovanni, though here he was shown being taken from his universe to Earth-7102. Having no interest in dying, and tempted by Adam's words of ruling New Earth, Giovanni sided with the Forge of Destruction.
* **Larry Butz:** Larry Butz was the first onscreen client of Lawyer Clock, though the specific case from which he was pulled was left unclear. All that was said by Larry was that the verdict was about to be reached when he was pulled into Earth-7102, where Hippocrates Firefly as Chrono-Spanner found him. As he had no idea of his impending verdict, and three of the other multiverse men had realized they were going to die, Larry realized there was a possibility he would, too, and wanted nothing to do with it. Upon the five escaping after Taryn took Clock's Omnitrix, Larry was initially denied joining with them, as they believed him useless. However, Van Kleiss saw some potential, specifically in being able to turn Larry into an E.V.O. under his control.

## History

Upon entering Earth-7102, Taryn X demanded Clock's Omnitrix, prompting the two to fight. During the fight, Taryn forcefully tried to grab for the Omnitrix. As Taryn was trapped in effectively a future version of Alien X by a future version of the Omnitrix, this caused an energy feedback within the pre-existing removal failsafe which set Taryn X back, and caused a rift in the multiverse.

The first multiversal person Clock met was Van Kleiss, who had mistaken him for Generator Clock, at least until Clock transformed into Ammouflage, causing Van Kleiss confusion. After their fight, Hippocrates Firefly (the version that came from the same future as Taryn X) in his Chrono-Spanner brought Clock and Hope to Ledgerdomain, where he had also brought and trapped Van Kleiss, as well as Larry Butz, whom Hip had found. Hip explained that the others who made it through the rift before he could stabilize the timeline needed to be found so he could fix it.

This would lead to Clock and Hope finding and capturing Miraak and Giovanni. Adam, however, and ironically enough, came with the two calmly, and wasn't trapped in one of the cells. The multiverse men recounted the situations in which they were brought through the multiversal rift. The group realized how many of them either were going to die or were likely going to, but soon Hip and trapped Adam in one of the cells. Despite pleads from Clock and Hope to find a way to send the villains home without killing them, Hip insisted on simply sending them home to save the multiverse, particularly through the use of an augmented Chronosapien time bomb. This led to a fight between Clock and Hip, wherein Hope trapped Hip as a totem in her bag of tricks. Hope held onto the time bomb as Clock took the villains away.

Clock led the villains to Jerry's getaway apartment, using it as a base of operations to come up with a plan to help the villains. This plan would ultimately be using Somnambulizard to plant subliminal thoughts of becoming better people into their heads, as displayed with Larry. The villains, notably Giovanni and Adam, didn't take well to this idea, considering the situation to be Clock forcing them to choose between life and freedom.

What might've been the villains ganging up on Clock was interrupted as Taryn X managed to finally return, augmenting reality so the Omnitrix's failsafe wouldn't activate this time, allowing her to take the device. She warned the others of trusting Clock, and proceeded to destroy the apartment complex, sending Clock flying down floors of stairs through the debris, with Adam absorbing a majority of the explosion with his sword to protect himself and the others.

With the villains escaping, Adam proposed that they become the leaders of the young New Earth, rather than finding a way to return home to their demise, to which the other villains agreed. Somnambulizard's influence wearing off, Larry asked if he could join, but was initially denied. However, Van Kleiss saw potential in him and allowed him to join, though this came with the condition of Van Kleiss turning Larry into an E.V.O. under his control.

Upon The Clock Brotherhood broadcasting their plans via Radio Chatter, the Forge of Destruction made their way to the crash site of the previous Plumber HQ, where they began their final fight with each of their versions of Clock. As the fight dragged on, Hope attempted to set Hip free, but was interrupted as Taryn X returned, revealing she could not leave this timeline due to Hip's time bomb containing the multiversal rift. Taryn X destroyed the device, causing a tremor which set Hip free. The destruction also caused the rift to only worsen, opening up The Great Divide.

In a split second, Hip dilated time so he could remove Clock's Omnitrix from Taryn X and return it to him. The exposure to Taryn X caused Alien X to be reunlocked in the device, and Clock used the opportunity to access the transformation. Through deliberating, Alien X agreed upon sending the villains back to their universes of origin, each being prevented from dying in the way they did originally, should they have died at all. They would still be able to die later on in their timeline, as is the way of life, but not through the context from which they were pulled.

After the multiverse visitors were sent back to their original universes, including the alternate Clock's, Taryn X was still within Earth-7102, though her multiple Omnitrixes were being sent to their original timelines as well. Once they were all gone, her form changed back to her human self, where she explained the situation of her fight with Clock 10,010 forced her into the form of Alien X, where she then travelled the multiverse looking for other Omnitrixes so she could become a multiversal line of defense against forces like the Xerge.

It was decided Taryn X would be kept in the present day as a prisoner, thusly keeping her from being sent back to her timeline to die, as well.

### New Fates

Although not elaborated upon in the episode itself, "word of god" statements would list the new fates of the Forge as follows:

* Van Kleiss and Larry Butz did not die in their original fates, and thusly their timelines remained unaffected.
* Adam was spared by Cody after his sword was broken, and was taken into custody.
* Miraak was banished from Apocrypha by Hermaues Mora, being sent back to the mortal plane of Mundus.
* Giovanni is sent back to his world, but through a wormhole which thrusts him into the Festival Plaza, where he forms Team Rainbow Rocket.
* As stated above, Taryn X was kept in the present day in Plumber custody.

## Trivia

* The Forge of Destruction's name is a play on The Forge of Creation, home of the Celestialsapiens.
* The Forge of Destruction takes inspiration from the villains of *Spider-Man: No Way Home* by being a group of villains unintentionally brought from multiple universes into one.
	+ This makes them the second group of enemies to be inspired by the *No Way Home* crew, after The Vengers.
	+ Although Taryn X proves to be the main villain, Adam very much takes on a Green Goblin role with his manipulation of the other villains to join him in ruling their new world instead of returning to their fates.
* The Forge of Destruction is the second group of enemies to include a Celestialsapien, after The Negative 10.
* Had the villains been allowed to succeed, the Forge of Destruction likely would've fallen apart from in-fighting, as each's ego would make them want to become the leader.