Galactic Nexus/Episode 5: Arboreal Discord I

**Arboreal Discord I** is the fifth episode of the first season of Galactic Nexus.

## Story so far

"As inscribed in the prophecy, a young man named Frisch Celerent walks on a path where the future of being the ruler of time and space, the Harvester, awaits him. There was an intrusion in the facility, and it resulted to a power outage. But Master Altus was keen enough to use his gift of perfect sight to locate the perpetrator. As soon as they cornered them... It was a lady in her twenties. Master's group decided to surround her with good intentions but a striking lack of discernment, what with Verzleinir weakening their body and mind. And that was when a schism formed between us and the others. How will they prepare to stop the Hollow Empress at this state? Such marks the fourth page of the history of the Harvester in another realm." — Irissia

## Roleplay

Jack, Patricia & Layla are seen recollecting themselves while trying to train the body & Mind, trying to recenter themselves as soon as possible, which is a difficult task at first, but must complete their training in order to ensure Planet Mobius's survival against the Hollow Empress.

While the Mobians were having their private time back at the headquarters, Frisch, Seele, and Julia were having a conversation back at camp.

"Sorry for the crapshow back there. I think it kinda scared you..." Seele apologized to Julia for her sudden erratic behavior.

Julia would be glancing down at the ground with her hands still clamped together on her upper chest. Upon hearing Seele, she'd glance up at her nervously.

"O-Oh, u-um, it-it-it's okay... I-I-I don't think yo-you meant to-to..." she said, accepting said apology.

Seele let out a hearty smile. Deep down, she was concerned about Julia, which is why she did not want her to feel trapped back at the headquarters by not joining in what the group just did.

But it just seems she hates it when people just can't take a hint and show off just how much they care without actually discerning.

That drama was unavoidable to the drama queen—they made the sparks to make the fire and she added fuel to it.

"... Anyway... Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you really emerge from a closet in the facility?" Frisch asked Julia.

Julia caught a glimpse of her hearty smile, but couldn't help but avert her head and eyes away out of sheer shyness. Though they'd soon face Frisch upon him asking his question.

"Th-That was a-a-a closet? I-I-I thought i-i-it was a s-small storage s-space... bu-bu-but yeah... I-I don't know h-h-how I got i-in there at all. I-I just s-sort of woke up in-in there," she answered his question.

*"She woke up in there...?!"* Seele thought.

"Frisch, is it just me or I think the anomaly is getting weirder?"

"... Waking up in such a space is peculiar, yes," Frisch affirmed. "But the possibility of the anomaly causing it... it is likely, judging from her clothing. I presume you are from a distant world, is that correct?"

"A-A-Anomaly?" Julia asked with raised eyebrows. She didn't know what this anomaly was kind of put her in suspense, since she didn't know what they were talking about.

"Di-Distant world? Wh-Wh-What world are we o-on now?"

"The dummies say we are currently on Mobius," Seele answered.

Wow. She couldn't get over how she thinks that the others are stupid.

"Mo-Mobius? U-U-Uh... um-um... I-I've never he-heard of a place c-called that... ar... ar-are we still in M-Moros Latex?" she asked, getting increasingly nervous.

"... I don't think so. The anthropomorphs never mentioned anything like that, and I doubt they've heard about it. Which proves... you have been sent here by the anomaly."

"We-We're not in... we-we-we're not in..." Julia muttered to herself, and had averted her head down to the ground. If Frisch or Seele noticed, they can see that she was slowly beginning to tremble.

Uh oh, that can't be a good sign.

"Uh... Julia? Are you okay?" Seele asked in a concerned tone.

Frisch was currently observing her behavior in order to determine how he could deal with her properly.

If the two observed closely, they could notice her chest was almost convulsing, implying she was breathing at an abnormal rate. Not only that, but it looked like she was starting to lose her balance, and although they probably couldn't notice, her heart rate increased drastically.

These were the signs of the beginning of a panic attack, or one in progress. But what was the cause?

"... Tch, a panic attack. Elainne, respiration."

Seele nodded as she stood up and kept her distance from Julia while muttering something inaudible from a meter in front of her. Frisch, on the other hand, tried to give her a comfortable sitting position.

"... We're here for you. Please close your eyes and take deep breaths. Inhale, exhale..."

From Seele emerged calm, cool breezes that bathed Julia in an attempt to stabilize her respiration. There was a strange yet fragrant scent mingling with it—the scent of lavender.

Julia was put into a comfortable sitting position by Frisch, while she felt cool breezes with a scent of lavender. The former helped a bit in general, but neither didn't stop the shaking, and the latter only helped a small bit.

It was due that she didn't heed Frisch's advice to take deep breaths, and thus couldn't calm down. She couldn't focus enough to do so, which meant the cause was probably an internal one.

Frisch examined her heartbeat, pretty much confirming she has tachycardia—a symptom of a panic attack, like hyperventilation.

"... Elainne, she's unresponsive," Frisch described her condition to Seele. "... This might be an internal problem."

Seele nodded in affirmation as she focused on the state of Julia's soul with Ether Vision, allowing her to sense any acute psychological anomalies.

The breezes she was producing were now getting more spiritually therapeutic in nature. This was grounded in the attempt of stabilizing her psychological condition via the breezes carrying spiritual waves of positive amplitude emitted by Seele herself. Since she is keeping track of Julia's current psychological state, she made sure that the waves she emitted were uniform so that Julia's negativity would be attenuated enough for her to focus.

Seele's ultimate goal at the moment was to help Julia focus and return to her senses. If this does not help her at all, what will?

While it did take a bit of time for the breezes of spiritual waves to take into effect, they did eventually begin to calm her down a little. Her breathing slowed down enough to where her hyperventilating had ceased, though even then she was still breathing just a little bit fast. She also stopped trembling, and was thus able to focus without the gist of the panic attack overwhelming her mind. She'd glance down at the ground while still sitting down, now embarrassed.

"...S-S-Sorry... a-about th-that..." she said.

"... Fear no more," Frisch reassured her as she rubbed her back. "... We are here for you."

"Good to have you back!" Seele perked up to get the positive mood going. "We'll be helping you cope with it from now on. You can count on us."

Seele pat Julia's head gently—a reward for thr latter's success of retrieving her focus.

Julia's eyelids seemed to have lowered a bit from the backrubs, and she'd glanced up at the two when Seele perked up.

"...Th-Thank you... b-b-both of you..." she said, making an internal effort to smile, though all that was there was just her signature shy look.

She'd notice Seele's hand reach out for her and wondered what she was going to do. When the pats came, her brows raised quite a bit for a second before lowering... along with her eyelids... wait a minute, did she like that?

Seele noticed her reaction and caressed her head in glee.

"There, there..."

Julia couldn't help but raise her head a bit with Seele caressing her head. Seele could notice her cheeks got a bit red, but yet she had a small shy smile on her face too.

Awww, how wholesomely cute.

Seele let out a soft chuckle.

"Glad you like it."

Meanwhile, at a distance near the woods of a forest, there is a battalion of strong robotic humanoid foot soldiers with Mohawks & wearing camo singlets, pants, combat boots & gloves that are known as "Jack-4 Robots", created by a tall one eye Green mad doctor leader & strategist with antennas, with a blue jacket with green buttons & sleeves, black pants & Boots named "Dr. EggPlankton", along with 4 smaller & skinny robots with claw hands, one red intellectual robot named "Redbot", one Yellow defensive robot named "Yellowbot", one Green wildcard named "Greenbot" & one Dark blue lackey support named "Bluebot".

Along with the mad doctor are an orange metallic robot version of Jack named "Metal Jack", a more titanium & chrome skinned Jack-4 Commander with the same name & next is a bald headed Vulture with a pink face, white feathers on the head, black beak & black feathers on the body & arms, wearing black shades, collar, white shirt, brown gloves, black jacket, pants, metal boots, who is named "Vulcan the Vulture", a mad genius & technology specialist. And finally a Black & Blue Crocodile with Black scales, blue muzzle, belly & arms & Green spine back, wearing gloves, spiked bracelets & Boots with medium armour, a leader of a group of crocodile bandits from Patricia's past, his name is Archer the Crocodile. And right now, this band of villains of the EggPlankton Empire is currently running an investigation on strange occurances that have been happening around lately.

"Ok everyone, listen up. We've got strange readings coming from these precise locations. Today, it be a seek & destroy mission. We don't know what's out there or how powerful these levels really are, so we're going in blind. Be on guard." Said Dr. EggPlankton, leading the charge, sending out his battalion of Jack-4 Robots out on a seek-and-destroy search party to find out where these readings are coming from, while a Jack-4 Commander & Metal Jack also scouts out the area for any sightings.

"Can you believe that we've been selected, even hired by EggPlankton himself to do the dirty jobs? My Crocs & I are itching to search & take down on what we can find!" said Archer while becoming excited a more aggressive tone.

Vulcan sighed as he is less than enthusiastic & also self defensive about this whole ordeal & then he asked "Why is it always this time of year we get dangerous assignments like this?"

A small ways away, things were quiet, rather.. It seemed so very wrong, animals steered clear of this particular spot and the air itself seemed unusually still, not a sound could be heard in this area. All was well, until a sound very reminiscent of a zip-lock bag resonated in the clearing, with one individual being deposited from what looked like a tear.

With the man standing up, the tear itself sealed before he could even react, leaving whoever it was stranded without any hope of return to wherever he came from. This man was named Locar Du-Mas, someone who fought for peace in his land using methods that were arguably evil, even going on to acquire the vessel containing one half of a chaotic entity as a symbol of his authority. Currently he was using this symbol, a finely carved wooden staff with a golden bust of a cobra coiling around the top section of the staff, its head poking upwards like it was ready to strike.. For it's eyes, two emeralds were slotted where the eyes should be.

Locar himself was an aging individual weighing in at 157 Ibs and clocking a height of 6'1"; further more his face was set in a rather confused grimace. Those serpentine yellow eyes of his flickering back and forth in confusion for a moment, before he ran a hand through what looked like shortened black hair that started to grey at the ends.

His attire was simple, a crystal-steel gambeson with a few metals resting neatly atop the upper left side of his gambeson, with a velvet cape on the right side; followed by what looked like crystal-steel gauntlets and greaves. Wrapped around his head was a white cloth of sorts, as he was last seen traversing through a desert region of his home territory. However, with such a temperate climate, he undid the wrap around his head and began to wrap it around his neck like some sort of scarf.

After some time spent looking at his surroundings, Locar decided it would have been best to just start walking in a direction and hope to meet someone; not like he had any clue what was going on.. Regardless, he kept his staff at the ready, no doubt some unruly beast might try and ambush him for all he knew, better to be prepared.

Several yards away from the battalion stood a particular tree with sturdy branches in the middle of a bushy grove. Keenly observing the robots from that tree was a pair of crimson irides. It came from a young man with unkempt ashen brown hair, donning some sort of charcoal-black light armor with crevices faintly glowing in orange due to spiritual heat—radiation exuded in the spirit realm instead of the material plane.

*"First, I ended up here for some reason; second, similar draconic signatures nearby; third, a junkyard with... Uh..."*

He glanced at Dr. EggPlankton and his organic accomplices from the tree.

*"Some weird-looking... thing... And animals standing on two feet... And a group of automatons... Hold on, why am I even seeing this...? Anyway, I have to get to Frisch, and fast...! ... Wherever he is."*

Now, odds are after a long ass period of wandering; Locar might have encountered at least someone, maybe even coming across Dr. EggPlankton and his accomplices.. All the while grumbling about how he wasn't used to traversing temperate regions.

A dark, sinister laughter is heard from behind them as it draws closer to the group, "It would appear that my invitation to his meet up was lost. Not to worry," a "man" with firey orange hair with half his face clawed off walks in a slitted pupil staring daggers at them, "For I, Vorkata Everburn, have arrived."

Serpina slithers in with a hiss and extending her cobra hood, it is evident that she is not in a talkative mood.

Dr. EggPlankton, Archer, Vulcan, HenchCombats, Metal Jack & Jack-4 Commander turn to the sound of the hissing, surprised & shocked to see Vorkata Everburn & Serpina arrive to join them. "Everburn? What are you & your lovely accomplice doing here?" asked EggPlankton who had a surprised look on his face.

"Who the actual heck is Everburn?" asked Vulcan who was a bit scared, thou does his best to stay intimidating, unlike Archer who is doing his best to stay brave.

"Yeah, who's he?" Archer also asked with confusion & a bit of fright.

*"Yeah, who the hell? I mean... what in the world is happening?! A lot of people just came in, and it's a forest, of all places!"* the young man thought as he was observing all this. *"But wait... if it's expected that people would gather at this time, maybe Frisch and the others would arrive...? I better get to him before I starve. Man, I'm getting hungry..."*

"He was one of Darkstorm's enemies long ago from what I've heard. But back to he subject on hand." said EggPlankton while still wondering on what Everburn & Serpina are doing here during their investigations.

Everburn somewhat smirks and walks to Archer, "Since you were not told I shall inform, I am the Clone of Darkstorm himself," he says while circling him, "Serpina is the Queen of the Naga Homeworld."

Locar couldn't help but smile widely, raising a hand and pointing a finger at the assembled group and the newcomers. His expression detailed a sense of mirth; like he had been told a joke that only he would get. "My my, I would never have expected to see people and creatures quite as interesting as you..? Pray tell, may I ask you something, do you think you can enlighten me as to where I am..? I'm unfortunately lost and the assistance would be most appreciated~"

"How fascinating. DNA Cloning is advanced technology. And a Naga is a very interesting species & are not to be trifled with." said Vulcan while he is fascinated about Everburn being a Clone of Darkstorm & Serpina as an interesting species of Naga.

"Anyway, since you're here. I might as well give you three the lowdown on what we are doing. First things first, your on Planet Mobius and second, We have recent readings of supernatural chaotic energy coming from certain points of the Planet of Mobius. I brought along Archer, leader of the Crocodile Bandits & Vulcan, technical genius of advanced technology, along with my battalion of Jack-4 Robots & Jack-4 Commander & Metal Jack to investigate. It even reacted with the Chaos Emeralds that are glowing brighter than usual. Your willing to join us so that the investigation will be a lot more easier. We don't even know what's lurking around every corner. Best to stay on your toes." said EggPlankton, who is explaining the situation to Everburn & Serpina & the newcomer Locar.

*"Mobius...? Wait..."* the young man pondered on their words. *"Then that means... Reginull's attack just yeeted us out of Crystialga?! And all this talk about chaotic energy and Chaos Emerald thingies... This is all too much in one session. ... As if I'm with them. Not! Better stay a bit so that I wouldn't leave this place empty-handed."*

"Ah, I thank you for your concise explanation." Locar nodded, staring at EggPlankton with a bemused expression, however he did pause for a moment when he heard Chaos Emeralds, for some unknown reason the named caught his attention, his gaze drifting towards the gold serpentine vessel that rested at the top of the staff he carried.

"Very well, I will offer my services for now." Locar nodded, while inwardly pondering the connection between a myth of his homeland and these 'chaos emeralds' as they were called, well, he was offering his services to them for now, maybe if he could assemble them Locar would come to his own conclusions as to why he was brought here.

"I am Locar Du-Mas. In my homeland, I fought and bled to ensure that peace will one day be established in my war torn land; so long as your intentions are true, I shall work with you."

Serrpina smirks and hisses in delight, "Good because we have just the plan to gain a foothold," she motions to three prisoners; Teniahk, Tosha and Drakon.

Of course, it caught Heiz's eye.

*"They're holding prisoners... But for what?"* the young man thought.

"And remember, we're gonna need all the clues we can find on the unknown energies & it's origins. And also, we don't want to be disturbed by... 'uninvited guests', if you know what I mean. our investigations will be prefromed quickly & quietly." Said EggPlankton while checking the scanner with Jack-4 Commander & Vulcan for anymore readings to the unknown energies that appear recently not too long ago.

"Hmm, very well then.." Locar nodded, sizing each of his erstwhile companions up with an observing gaze. So far they seemed like worthy enough companions despite their unknown origins and Serrpina's.. Well, how he would say, admittedly strange mannerisms. "Then lead on, I doubt anyone would be so foolish as to engage a group filled with so many unknowns."

*"That Locar geezer though... I can confirm he has draconic signatures in him. And a Prismite too. Where's he from...?"*

With that said however, he rested the staff he carried on his shoulder in a more relaxed position, a showing of Locar's current calm demeanor and relaxed posture.

Serpina looks at Teniahk, "Of all the people Nista chose to be her heir, she chose an Apocalian. Not just any Apocalian but the daughter of the Drak'Vorkata," she hisses before slapping her.

"I take it you are not a fan of this 'Drak'Vorkata..?" Locar asked Serpina, though his tone had a hint of whimsy that might have bordered on mockery, it was admittedly hard to tell with Locar's rather offhanded question and relaxed posture. "If it consoles you, someone bearing a title as grandiose as the name suggests generally comes off as an unlikable person from my own personal experience." It was unlikely that anyone here might understand what Locar was referencing but the message was clear, from the title alone Locar assumed this *Drak'Vorkata* was an unpleasant fellow. Especially since it was easy to surmise that this fellow was the leader of a group or race that are called *Apocalians*.

But that is just Locar's personal tastes.. Not that he could talk with the two or three titles he bears.

Serpina hisses and nods, "Her father has been a thorn in my side for too long. Taking his Daughter and Sons will force him to surrender."

Vulcan nod & said with a bit of a cautious tone. "We understand & also, EggPlankton asked us to keep an eye on these mobians, especially the ones that are named Jack, Patricia, Layla & Blaze THC & the Freedom Fighters around the world. Including this one."

"Plus the other Eggman Forces like the Egg Grandmasters, Egg Bosses are all busy, even the Horde Commanders or Egg Foremen. So we need to watch our backs incase the Freedom Fighters, Darkstorm or otherwise might try to interfere with our chaos energy investigations." said Archer, not wanting the operation to be interrupted by Freedom Fighters.

Locar couldn't help but laugh at the notion, not specifically at Serpina but at how small, to him at least, she was thinking. "You want to force a man to surrender, you'll need to do more than that; you need to set an example. Taking his children is a start. It certainly proves that you can strike at him even in his most secure sanctum. But, to send the message that you mean business; you need to get your hands dirty, send this man the severed head of one of his children, if he is a caring father than he will most likely yield, and if not; keep killing his children one by one until he submits to your demands.."

For someone who said he fought for peace, what Locar spoke of was certainly brutal, and from the sound of his voice he has utilized such gruesome tactics before.. Well, it's a good thing he never proclaimed himself to be a hero, otherwise he would be a very poor example of one.. Hell, even his laughter sounded more ominous were Serpina were to listen to it and compare it to what he previously stated, both in his introduction and the advice he gave.

However, he did turn to Vulcan with a soft smile of his own. "Then let us be off, no more sense in talking; wouldn't you say, the quicker we can find the answers to these readings, the less opportunity these so called Freedom Fighters and this Darkstorm have to interfere with our agenda.. Who knows, we may even find these so called 'Chaos Emeralds' you mentioned earlier." Locar actually grinned, taking a few steps forward before turning to face the assembled group and giving them a crooked grin, one that just barely scratched the surface of numerous atrocities gleefully committed for the sake of his own ideals.

While the forces of EggPlanket and his associates were busy "keeping an eye out" on the Mobians, something was flying somewhat close to the ground yet not too much where they'll hit the trees. Hell, the group could possibly hear it, along with those at Freedom HQ if both sides were close enough to it. A jet engine, roaring through the sky as it flew over the forest.

Those who managed to catch sight of it, they could see it was a small fixed-wing jet, black as the darkest void. Had it been night out, this thing would've been impossible to sight - but it was day, so it pretty much stuck out like a sore thumb in the blue sky. The jet didn't seem to be doing nothing other than fly around the forest and the general area.

Inside the cockpit of this jet was a man, who was looking around the forest via cameras that viewed everything in a 360 degree angle. Amazingly this jet didn't have windows - all the reason while cameras were needed, which their live feed was projected on a screen. The man sighed to be himself.

*"Kinda' a nice world I found myself in. Problem is, I don't know where the hell I am. Ugh, first Lar's frienemy's daughter vanishes from nowhere along with some of her crew, and now I'm suddenly here. Lar is probably wondering where the hell I am... ah well. Least I have the Felon, just gotta find a place to set her down without crashing horrifically,"* the man said in his thoughts, while flying his jet around.

The young man heard the familiar sound of the jet engine. His sharp auditory senses managed to track its coordinates; his eyes following the trajectory of the aircraft. Though he deemed it nothing out of the ordinary since he has not seen its full capabilities so he went back to what he needed to do at that point: find Frisch.

*"Not much people around... Then that means I have to follow those people from behind. Though that geezer Locar might be a decent detector. I have to be careful around him—he could probably sense me even when I'm in Sveionagoria if I get too close."*

Now Locar came from a place that was well before the advent of modern technology like jets, so when Locar heard the thunderous sound of a jet flying overhead, he would have reacted like anyone would when faced with such a strange sight; which would be to move by the trees for cover; unaware of any sensory devices and the likes inside the cockpit of the jet.. Still, he glanced at the others as if to ask just what the hell was flying over them.

Everburn smirks and puts on a face mask to cover the skull half, "There is something you should know. Thanks to Drakon here Shoko and Darkstorm are being driven apart." Teniahk glares daggers at her big brother while Tosha stares in disbelief.

Now, Locar was still admittedly in a more relaxed posture, otherwise he would have sensed the young man in Sveionagoria partly due to his own personal background experience and partly because of one of his Precepts, being the Granddark Dragon. Still, as Locar seemed to be relaxed, he was in the clear for now.

However, he was getting bored of the standing around and talking, and started to move; gesturing for the others to get a move on as they had been standing around and floating for the longest time.

Now was the time for action after all.

With that said, Locar was hoping that one of the others would take charge, what with them knowing the terrain better. "I'm sure this Darkstorm will be saddened to know, but I doubt we'll get to see what happens unless we get a move on those readings. So let us be off."

Metal Jack begins scanning the area, detecting a faint chaos energy signature unlike any other, as EggPlankton begin to notice & asked "What did you find, Metal Jack?"

Metal Jack shows the readings of chaotic energy, emitting from opening & closing portals in the sky, not knowing that it does belong to a much higher & darker power.

"Of course. It's no wonder we meet new & unknown faces recently. They're indeed from other worlds. Though the chaotic energies from within the portals are off the charts. The only question is, why here & now?" said Vulcan, while checking the readings of the chaotic energies.

"Even I am uncertain, best we make sure we try & kidnap those that knew the situation before hand. I had a feeling someone else know something that we don't. These Chaotic energies from within are the source of the power & it must be discovered for future use or otherwise." said Dr. EggPlankton, who is trying to formulate a plan to capture those that know about the situation & the chaotic energies within. Jack-4 Commander silently agrees, knowing that the chaotic energy could either be useful or too dangerous in the wrong hands.

*"They're gonna use that power and kidnap those who know...!"* the young man realized that fact in his mind. *"They must be up to something grim then. I better head to Frisch and tell him everything I've heard from them."*

Since Locar was distant enough to not feel his presence, regardless of which plane he currently was, he slipped into Sveionagoria. That way, he could prevent the others, save Locar, from attacking him, much less engage him. Thus, he phased through the trees and floated out of the forest. From his raiment grew a pair of strange metallic wings reminiscent of a Western dragon and an avian. His face was then concealed in a helmet similar to the Harvester's, albeit with orange lines. He glided above the forest in roughly similar altitudes as the jet plane while surveying them from the sky and looking for Frisch at the same time.

Hopefully, he could see Frisch from this view, thanks to his generally sharp sensory capabilities.

His eyebrows rose up as if he saw something. What did this mean...?

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To be continued in the next episode...

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