Major General Tina stood with her Titans, guns blazing. To her back, Tesla Titan stood once more, lighting surging from his suit.
This was a battle across time. The people here were not so much physical bodies as representations of themselves from their timeline. So when they appeared, they arrived in their peak physical condition up to the present moment. Even those who had fallen in the past could appear once more, so long as they represented a difference between the two timelines.
So fallen and wounded heroes like Tesla Titan could join the fray once more.
And he was not the only one…
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Icy Rose grit her teeth, thrusting her hands forward. Sickly green beams slammed into a wall of ice ahead of her. Icy Rose pushed back, reinforcing the wall as quickly as she could as a squad of mutants tried to pierce their way through.
Suddenly the wind picked up around her. A snowy gale blew around the area.
A rain of hail fell upon the mutants, forcing them back.
Someone landed behind Icy Rose.
She turned around.
Icy Falcon made a wry smile and slowly waved his hand.
“Hi Constan…OOF!”
Icy Rose tackled the hero, driving the air from his stomach.
“Falcon!”
He patted her head as she sobbed.
“I’m here, Constanza. Let’s win one last fight, together.”
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Captain Hot Devil blew through the battlefield, a blazing star spreading infernos everywhere he went. He held nothing back, mustering up all the flames he could.
He would not let that reality come to pass.
And he was not alone.
Another blaze joined up with his own as a second star came up behind him.
20NS joined his flank.
His face was covered in tears…of joy.
“Relieved Observation: You saved them. You didn’t fail.”
Captain Hot Devil’s eyes widened as he looked at his alternate. He shook his head lightly.
“I did, but I had help. So I got a second chance.”
20NS’s core began to glow bright, the heat from the device adding into his blaze.
“Resolute Declaration: That is enough. I will not lose them again.”
“Nor will I.”
The two nodded at each other and flew across the battlefield, raining fire from above.
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Of course, the fallen returning to battle did not apply solely to heroes…
A sickly green beam cut across the field, stopping Aurora Legion in their tracks.
The Atomic Herald from their own timeline stood before them, flanked by his disciples, the Dazzling Vulture, the Warped Warrior, and the Electron Pirate. The Herald’s face was twisted in rage.
“You…you are the ones who stopped the New Dawn, kept the Sacred Light from the masses. I will not allow you to do so again!”
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The Atomic Herald unleashed a massive beam of radioactive light, no longer holding back as he had in their first fight. The Dazzling Vulture unleashed a flash of light to blind them in the process, with the Warped Warrior and the Electron Pirate rushed forward, preparing to strike.
But Aurora Legion was not the same bunch of kids that the Atomic Herald had first encountered.
The Warped Warrior appeared behind Voidspeaker, sword ready to strike, only for Chronolock to appear and slam a kick into his stomach. He tried to teleport away but Chronolock was waiting for him, kicking him again.
And again.
And again.
His teleportation was no protection when Chronolock could simply stop her own time at will and search for him at leisure.
The Electron Pirate turned into a bolt of lightning and shot forward, appearing behind Pink Star. Electricity surged from his palm into the girl.
But a pink Quantum Burglar immediately appeared behind her and soaked up the attack, stepping forward to grab the Electron Pirate by the neck. Pink Star turned to face him, a smile on her face.
And a clone of Wonder Knight formed around her body, especially her fist.
The Electron Pirate’s eyes widened.
Caught in the energy drain of the Quantum Burglar, he couldn’t transform into lightning.
So he couldn’t escape.
Pink Star slammed her fist into his gut, launching him across the field.
The Atomic Herald and Dazzling Vulture’s views were obscured by their own attacks, massive amounts of light flooding the field.
Then the light began to dim.
The Atomic Herald’s eyes widened.
He was still channeling his attack at full strength. The light was not dimming because he was letting up.
Suddenly pitch black tendrils exploded out, wrapping around the beam of light and tearing it to shreds.
Voidspeaker had grown as well.
And the power of the void was at a peak in this place, the gap between timelines.
Wonder Knight shot out from behind one of the tendrils, launching himself at the Dazzling Vulture with all his strength. He shot like a rocket, the villain barely even noticing he was under assault before Wonder Knight socked him in the face.
The Atomic Herald began to sweat.
And the tendrils of darkness continued to creep up the beam of light.
He could see Voidspeaker on the other side now, the hero snarling at him.
“This is for what you tried to do to Chrono!”
The tendrils reached the end of the beam and began to wrap around the Herald.
The Sacred Light faded once again.
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The Necrosaurus, founder of the Resistance, grimaced.
His undead were losing the tug of war.
While both Necrosaurus’s were equivalent in talent and potential, the Necrosaurus from the original timeline had significantly more time and resources to focus on his fell craft. He had thus reached a truly intimidating level of power, with most of the world’s oil reserves at his command. He could produce a world-conquering army entirely on his own.
The Resistance Necrosaurus was hypothetically capable of these feats, but not within the timeline he had experienced. The Day of Sorrow had forced him to go on the run, scrounging for scraps to fuel his rituals, and spend what forces he had fighting off the Concordat hunters tracking him down. And then he had founded the Resistance, gaining a great many duties besides just his mystic arts. He simply never had the opportunity to gather the sheer amount of resources available to his counterpart.
He did have some experience contending with more powerful foes, so he was holding the line surprisingly well.
But he could not defeat his alternate.
And when he lost…the hordes of the Jurassic Cemetery would roll over the ILS once more, occupied as they were with the Atomic Cult…
Just then he heard a roar. A skeletal dragon had punched its way through his lines and was rushing straight towards him. It opened its mouth, purple flames gathering…
“HAVE AT THEE!”
Just then alternate Arvid soared through the air, having been thrown by his counterpart. His sword shone bright as he rocketed towards the skeletal dragon, swinging the blade at its neck.
The blade cut through the skeleton with ease, decapitating it.
And then…
The magic holding the monstrosity together unraveled, the bones fading into dust.
As it turns out, Arvid was not the first of his line to defeat a dragon, nor to face an undead horde. Even though alternate Arvid had no deeds to his name, his saga was already perfect to face the Necrosaurus in particular. The man took up his position in front of the Resistance Necrosaurus, holding the line against the undead tides.
And he was not alone.
The two Saydaas landed behind him. Original Saydaa turned to her alternate and smiled.
“Ready?”
The other Saydaa smiled back.
“Ready!”
The alternate timeline Saydaa thrust out her hands, pushing out as much power as she could muster. Original Saydaa twisted and spun her arms in graceful arcs, her own power flowing out as well in subtle, curving flows. These flows wrapped around the raw power from her alternate, guiding and shaping it as both streamed towards the center of the undead horde.
And then a truly massive cyclone burst out, pulling in the majority of the horde.
Both Necrosaurus then winced and shielded their eyes. Arvid landed in front of the Saydaas, his sword glowing as bright as the sun. He lifted it above his head.
“Begone, foul creatures! Return from whence you came!”
He swung his sword down.
The light condensed into a blast that ripped through the ground, disintegrating every foe in its path. It shot through the horde, heading straight towards the massive cyclone at its center.
It hit the cyclone and twisted up along it, red wind being replaced with golden light. Once it had reached the top the entire cyclone condensed down into a glowing, twisting ball of light and wind.
And then a massive explosion rang across the battlefield, bathing the entire area in golden light and gusts of red wind.
The Necrosaurus’s hordes faded to dust.
Both Necrosaurus’s were left with their jaws dropped as low as they could go.
And then a gunshot rang out.
The original timeline Necrosaurus grunted, dropping his staff from the impact. His eyes widened.
Glowing seals now wrapped around the amber at his staff’s tip, cutting him off from the crucible of his power.
And then Kiyosuke appeared behind him with a flash of light, swinging his blade at the necromancer’s back.
And so the Jurassic Cemetery was purified once more.
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And so the battle raged. Nemesis, Aurora Legion, and the Nova Guardians in particular were tearing through the battlefield, their growth in the alternate timeline and the additions of the alternate Saydaa, Arvid, and Roxanne significantly boosting their capabilities. Dangerous foes from their past now could hardly stand against them.
And yet, no matter how many foes they defeated, no matter how many had switched to their side, their opponent’s numbers never seemed to diminish…