The overly large insect spread its shell open fluttering out massive quad wings and began to hover in place over the stunned Wit. Its layered abdomen began to glow neon green again, casting eerie shadows in his peripheral vision. The brightness stunned him into submission, and his thoughts ground to a halt in utter fear.

The creature's glowing bulb seemed to build up power as each layer lit up one at a time, their lumens blinding and the humming noise that rose along with the light's intensity spoke of immediate danger.

Seeing another overgrown insect fly down following the first, broke Wit out of his stupor, his brain began to think again and it told him he needed to run and fast. Scrambling in the dirt he got up just in time to watch a beam of light shoot out of the white-hot bulb of the energy bug, superheating the spot he was just in and blasting him with a spray of debris.

Screaming as the hot dirt burned its way across his face, Wit stumbled and fell backward. Adrenaline and fear kept him from staying down for too long though as he turned over and began to run on all fours with his tail tucked between his legs. Another beam created a line right above his head turning a portion of the concrete near him into slag; Wit shuddered at the thought that that could’ve been him.

Daring to look back, he noticed only one was chasing him while the others were fighting over something in the area he fell in. Not believing his luck, he looked around for a way to lose the last one, it was fast and had the aerial advantage; he needed cover and fast. The area lit up with a hum as the large laser insect charged another shot, Wits eyes grew frantic in his search.

Not seeing anywhere he could hide, he picked up a rock, threw himself backward behind a random piece of concrete, and tossed the rock in the creature's direction. Two seconds later light splashed over his measly cover as the chunk of concrete melted around him. Holding in a scream as some of the slag landed on his shoulder, he ran out the other end once the onslaught ended.

Glancing back revealed one of the creature's bulbous eyes was squinting from the thrown rock while it inspected his previous cover. The large hairy insect was preoccupied with licking the wall he had his back against while he was dodging its neon beam of light. Wit didn’t give it much thought, he just took the opportunity to keep running away.

Eventually finding a crack large enough for him to crawl his way inside, he squirmed his small body through with desperation. He entered a dark pocket made by the stacked fallen debris, panting from the frantic escape. He looked through the opening he crawled through to see if any were following him, and so far the coast seemed clear.

Blowing out a sigh of relief, he looked down while turning his body to see what exactly he fell on earlier. All matted up in his fur were the remnants of an amber-snail, with shards of amber crystal shell and oozing sap clumping up his curly locks. Thinking back they all seemed to be more interested in the leftover slime than actually chasing me, maybe this was their main food source.

“Wow, that sure was a close one huh Poindexter, did you see that throw, I got that thing right in the eye! How freaking mathematical was that! What even were those things, some type of laser flies? How cool were those beams of light? How were they shooting it like that, they almost melted me!” Wit whispered excitedly, still working off the adrenaline rush.

Poindexter’s reply was a lot more subdued. “I did indeed capture your ‘mathematical’ throw of the rock Wit.” The a.i. then proceeded to show a pixelated recording of the encounter, showing Wit hovering inches over the floor, turning backward with a look of sheer concentration as he beamed the creature with the rock. “No current data collected on the designated name ‘Laserflies’ other than visual.” The a.i concluded.

“Woah, I completely forgot that you can record footage. How much do you have recorded? Also, the name Laser Flies doesn't have that ring to it, it wasn’t straight like a laser; it was kinda wonky now that I think about it. What do you need by the way, to give me more information on them” Wit asked, wondering how he would fit the huge bug in his scanner while admiring his desperate maneuver on repeat.

“I have been recording since you put me on, however, I delete anything after forty-eight hours to reserve memory storage unless you save it to your {memo}. Of course, you can change the name whenever you're ready, and all I would need is time to scan the body, be it alive or dead. I currently have two other partially scanned species waiting on designated names along with the completed scans of the [firefly] currently in storage.” Poindexter replied.

Tapping his chin. “Okay, save that clip under a new {memo} called ‘Badass’ for now. Ah, so you have other ways of getting data, what a resourceful right hand. And two other species, are you talking about the sap-slugs and amber-snails?” Wit asked, wincing in pain when he moved his shoulder that got burned from the melted concrete.

“Names have been designated respectfully [Sapslug] and [Ambersnail] ; they have been automatically saved in your {Memo} under known organisms. Only visual data has been acquired so far.” A pixel hologram of the two sappy creatures was displayed.

Wit stopped paying attention due to the pain in his shoulder beginning to throb unbearably. Using the light of the Omnitrix he inspected the injury. It was a lot worse than he originally thought it was, as the adrenaline wore off it revealed he must have subconsciously suppressed the pain that kept him moving during the action.

His shoulder was burned badly, the fur on it was singed to the alabaster leafy skin underneath which had red-amber blood oozing out around the worst of it. Wit felt woozy just looking at it, not knowing any real first aid, he wondered what he was going to do.

As he sat there contemplating how we would clean the wound with no water nearby, a static itch began to mix and mingle with the pain.

Focusing back on the wound showed the clearish amber sap in his blood dimly glowing alongside the raised leaf veins. Before his very eyes, the sap pulsed and grew larger over the wound, encompassing part of his shoulder in a dollop of its slimy liquid. The itchy staticky pain gradually became a soothing and comfortable cool feeling, leaving Wit sighing in relief.

The skin healed new, though a lighter shade of alabaster; while the fur grew over it in no time at all. Wit stared in awe, remembering his recent dip in the molten sap and his subsequent healing after. He was just starting to understand what it meant to have absorbed the Phenomenon from the heart of [Yggdrasil].

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Once the healing seemed done, and the refreshing feeling subsided, there was a glob of clear amber sap with a tiny crystal in its center sitting on his shoulder. It began to quiver and shake before rolling up his neck to his cheek, reminding him that his face was also injured as it began to itch with static as the sap healed him again. Well, that solves that. Wit thought with a grin.

The sticky substance reminded Wit of the [sapslugs] but without the eye stalks or any of the defining features other than the glowing spherical core. Trying to grab it off his face once it was done restoring his cheek, had him even more surprised as it seemed to launch itself into his palm as if magnetized. The crystals of amber encrusted in his [exoBark] briefly glowed and sparked along with the core in the sap.

“No way,” Wit whispered, unbelieving, as he hovered his other hand over the ball of sap. Nothing happened until he concentrated on the static feeling he kept getting into his opposing hand. The glob jumped into his empty hand the second his [exoBark] crystals glowed with power.

“This has gotta be some form of effect from my new [nucleiamberius] organix. Nuclei huh, I'll call it a nucleus from now on.” He said excitedly, building up static in both hands now, leaving the spherical clear sap floating in between the two of them.

It felt like when you put two opposing magnets together and they kept trying to push and pull each other away. After a few minutes, he realized the static output is what adjusted the strength in each hand in the game of tug of war over the nucleus amber core. Wits mind began to puzzle out the new senses with remarkable ease.

Playing with the static adjustment ended up becoming second nature, to the point where he had the sap booger bobbing up and down over one of his outstretched hands.

It was an oddly satisfying feeling holding the sap aloft, he could still feel the weight of it as he controlled it telekinetically. The static control seemed to give him direct command over the crystal nucleus in the middle of the sap, while the sap revolves and goes wherever the nucleus goes.

Cutting the static and letting the sap fall into his palm showed that it was still sticky as he played with it using his fingers, but it didn't leave any residue behind. Spinning it around his arm as he made it follow a trail of static up to the bark covering his neck.

Wit stared at his arm not believing how clean it was, his curly black fur glistened healthily without a spec of dirt or dried-up sap that kept it matted and mangy looking.

Healing, telekinetic control, and now self-cleaning. Wit was floored at the potential this glob of sap now had in making his life a whole lot easier. He instantly used the booger to run a circuit around his whole body, getting all the matted goo and debris out of his literal everything. He even took off his underwear so it could get those too inside and out.

The contaminants in the sap were zapped with a tiny spark of electricity from the nucleus destroying anything foreign. Once he had his freshly cleaned undies back on, he sat down and had the nucleus crawl up his leg to his knee resting it on the dark [exoBark] that grew there. Staring at it curiously, he started to see some of the parallels between him and the tree and was beginning to realize the world was nothing like he expected it would be, it was so much better.

Wit honestly felt like a new person after the tickling static cleaning seshing. His fur was loose again, and the chitinous linked plates on his head-tail were un-gunked; making him feel light and free. He sat there alone in his dark hidden alcove thinking that things weren’t so bad, even though he had no idea how he was gonna face those tentatively named ‘laserflies’ outside or when he’ll meet another person.

Not dwelling on those depressing thoughts for too long he went back to playing with the nucleus. He wondered how far he could control it, as it could possibly play a role in maybe distracting the creepy crawlers. Due to the crumbled walls around him being somewhat crowded, he decided to send it up and see where the thing stops.

It bobbed up and down as it slowly drifted up the broken wreckage of Wit's old home, casting a dim amberish light in its surroundings. The farther it went, the more juice Wit had to put into his static, leaving the amber in his [exoBark] glowing somewhat brightly.

The glob hit the ceiling, attaching itself and cutting off the static charge from Wit's end.

It got stuck up there before he felt like he reached his static threshold limit. Informing him that he had at least roughly fifteen feet of control. Fortunately, it still glowed, even if it was like a fading lightbulb.

The light cast off by the nucleus barely illuminated the area around it, but what it revealed made Wits' heart clench with emotion. A part of the rebirth door from the floor of no return laid balanced across the stacked debris, partially revealing some of its crystal motifs in the dim light. Wit now knew for sure he was on the first floor.

He couldn’t describe the feeling that washed over him after finally seeing a remnant of his past. To him, it was a few days ago, but in reality, it's been thirty-four years since he last walked through that door to become what he is today.

It reminded him of the choice he made to become Omni, an accumulation of all three entities that held up the natural balance, the first of his kind.

“Platinum” He whispered, remembering the moment when he stood beneath the Grand Rubix and put his life on the line in his mad gamble to do something impossible. He looked at his new hands and squeezed them tight feeling a burst of anxiety pass through him at all the danger he's been in due to his stubbornness.

He took a deep breath holding it in his diaphragm for a few seconds before letting it out and with it, the anxiety slid away making room for what he truly felt.

Pride, his chest flooded and swelled with ego, knowing that even with the huge time gap; he made the impossible possible. This is just the beginning. Just you wait, world. Wit thought with a twinkle in his fractal-colored eyes. He also wondered if his sticker with the ‘dead-end’ skull on it was still sticking somewhere.

If it was, he probably should rip it off, as he wouldn't want to send the wrong message.

There was no longer a metaphorical dead end on this side of the door. Now there were only endless options to explore and things to discover, all he had to do was put his mind to work. Feeling oddly motivated by his glimpse of the past, he refocused on the nucleus attached to the door-made ceiling.

The center light was fading fast but he could still feel the core, adjusting the pushy static to reverse its role, Wit pulled with his outstretched hand forming a fist. Only to be yanked off his butt with a surprised yelp as he floated off the ground for a few seconds before crashing back down.

Rubbing his aching side, Wit stared up in shock as he began to connect the dots. “This just keeps getting better and better.” He said as a smile began to break its way across his face.

Reaching out again he locked on to the nucleus and pulled through the static. His feet lifted off the ground a few inches before the energy the static required became too much for Wit to handle, leaving him light-headed and dizzy before he cut it off, landing on his feet with a wobble. He grabbed his head trying to fight off the frazzled feeling.

After a minute it subsided thankfully. He guessed that he probably used too much energy too fast, he could still feel small tingles in his hand from the exertion. Shaking them out and rolling his shoulders to loosen them up; his gaze landed on the nucleus once more. Maybe it just takes some practice. Wit thought with a grin as he got ready to try again.