The blue sky cracked open, revealing the darkness that pooled in. A sudden primal fear sunk in Kalius's heart, and a simple look at Alpheus revealed she felt the same. Darkness in the shape of meteors began to launch itself at the lively planet, appearing again and again. "He's already here? We gotta go."

Before he could refute, not that he wanted to, the woman grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and ran as a meteorite stuck where the two were standing. A deathly game of dodgeball commenced, the meteors each tried to strike the red blur of a woman as she sprinted through the ruinous terrain of a once abundant forest, Kalius flapping behind her like a flag.

"There's a Gateway on a mountain on the other side of the planet" She zigged to the left, avoiding yet another chuck of void from flattening them both. "We need to get there before he gets to us, if he already hasn't" The barrage of meteors are starting to become less random and more focused, on them.

He wanted to ask so many questions, about why this was happening to them. And who is he? But as another meteorite ravaged the earth besides him, he figured now wasn't the best time.

His eyes flickered towards the sky, and if it weren't for his need of glasses, he'd swear he saw a being drenched in darkness thicker than blood, levitating within one of the cracks as the sky began to shatter like glass. "Don't look at him." Alpheus demanded. "He controls minds through eye contact, so its best we don't test the limit of its reach."

Lightning flashed besides them, expect it didn't flash, it darkened the area around them. The strikes of unholy black lightning continued, as she continued to maneuver around them. While she raced to their destination, his own mind raced, if this was what his journey was going to become, then he didn't want to become useless. He spent his entire life trying his best to understand the universe, and with that knowledge he become exceptional at recognizing patterns. And if all these unnatural phenomena came from one being, there had to have been a pattern of some sort.

As he examined the scene around him, it seemed to have slowed down to him. As he made observations in this extremely focused state. The meteors have lessened in their number and descent speed as the lightning appeared. The lightning itself was at least 1/3 slower tha-

A sudden sharp turn disrupted his thought process as Alpheus as she practically through herself in another direction. They were there, the Ring was right in front of them, so why did she turn away?

Her face became distraught "No, no no no." She stopped running as she went back to get better look at the Ring, which was completely blacked out. A circular void took the place where he guessed the Ring Of Apotheosis was supposed to be. "This was the doorway, our escape. The twelve should've opened it by now. Where...where are they?"

A voice spoke within his mind. "Hello Human, I'm unable to enter Alpheus's mind but could you tell her we're at the beach location instead? I go by Siyrus." The sudden invasion of his mind made him question the authenticity of the message, but finding the the fate of being crushed by a meteor fare worse. He relayed the message back to her.

"Oh, right. I completely forgot about Plan B." She grabbed Kalius once again and zipped away, before another lightning bolt struck them.

It was only a moment till they reached the beach, the soothing waves and the sunset by another star welcomed them. As they neared the beach, he felt an unseen force brush over him as if he were passing some sort of threshold. Alpheus dropped him on the grounded before rushing off somewhere.

He looked around, the sky above them was untouched by the dark deity he's seen before. In front of him, and endless sea stretched out beyond his eye could see and, for a moment, he thought he could rest. Looking for the nearest rock he could find, he sat upon a large granite stone when Alpheus came back, kicking up sand with her superspeed. "Hey, aren't you coming along?"

"Oh, uh sure? Where are we goi-" Being dragged along was second nature at this point, as she zipped off again with him in tow.

"Here he is" She announced as she he placed him on his feet. In front of him were ten being, all in unnatural styles of attire. A muscular man in blue and golden stepped from the center of the group. He extended a hand out towards Kalius. "Pleasure to meet you, I am Kindris. And we are the remaining Nexuisuans. Sorry to drag you into our problems."

(Keith’s name has been changed to Kalius Hawthorne, it sounded more regal

The sounds of child’s play in the background, a young girl was playing with a set of toys one an Optimus Prime action figure and a some hybrid of a Ninja-Princess doll. Kalius was seated at the round glass table of his apartment. Laid in front of him a monumental stack of papers, scribbles and scrawls of intricate equations were scattered across the pages in disorder. Next to it, Cosmea laid there, open to an illustration of a neon thin ring

The mind-numbing math equations got to him, he felt his mental reserves drained. He ran his head throw his full set of auburn hair, he needed coffee. He reached for his mug, but when he put it to his lips, nothing was there. He sighed in disappointment, and stood to get his refill of dirty bean water when the sounds of an improvised jet (or was it a spaceship) came closer.

At 5 years old, Thena, the apple of his eye, came rushing in, and the bumping of Optimus Prime against the Ninja-Princess indicated that an epic battle was commencing.

“Brrrr-ummm Brrrr-ummm.” She purred, followed by other onomatopoeia of epic proportions. “Daddy look! Look! Adonia is winning!” She held up her doll which was flawless- so that was her name – on the other hand Optimus has seen better days. His right arm was dangling by a couple wires, as if he being directed by Micheal Bay himself instead of a 5 year old’s imagination.

Even in his depleted state, he couldn’t help but smile at her, she was proud of herself and that sent sparks within his own heart.

“Yes she is, but perhaps Optimus could take a little break. If he’s all battered and bruised, who is going to defeat Megatron?” He made his way to the kitchen, Thena following close behind.

“Adonia would. She beat Optimus, Optimus beat Megaton, which means she’s more powerful than Megatron!”

He didn’t want to correct her paralogy, so he simply nodded.

“It seems like you got it all figured out. So could you figure if you’d like pancakes, eggs or bacon?” The question was rhetorical, he was going to order all three from the local Denny’s.

“All three!!” She exclaimed

“Right answer.” He placed the order on the phone, and headed back to the couch sitting next to his daughter. He didn’t need coffee, the two simply talked and that was all he needed to relax his mind.

* * *

Waking up from the comatose state, his mind brought him from his pleasant memory into his new reality. After stepping within the Ring Of Apotheosis, he woke up, surrounded by the void of space. However, instead of the feeling of expansive and infinite darkness, he felt like he was in a cosmic cave. The brilliant light of nebula unnaturally surrounded him, their colors piercing through the darkness of clouds presumed to be made out of dark matter.

Where am I? He thought to himself, however it echoed throughout the cosmic dimension as if he were in a cave.

As if he did say it.

An abnormal silence pierced the darkness, it was obvious no one was here, and he was unsure whether or not to be happy about it. He helplessly drifted throughout the dimensional plane, he was unsure how he was alive, about how he was breathing. However, he didn’t question it too much, although he was a physicist, the universe proved that there was more to it than just physics.

He looked around. Was he trapped here? Did all of that research end in him being destined to drifted in some weird realm? Was he never going to see his family again? His daughter? His thoughts echoed throughout the space, adding onto his worry

The full weight of it hasn’t settled, yet. So he looked for an escape, perhaps the Ring was still open? It may be his way out of here.

So he turned and thrashed his body around, while the area he was in had many deviation from the norm of “normal” space, it shared that same lack of propulsion, so while he tried his hardest to ‘swim’ in a direction, it was met with not avail as he continued to drift. Further into the darkness.

Alone.

Or at least he thought he was alone.

Suddenly, an invisible force pulled him in another direction at incredible, no, impossible speeds. His thoughts, a long string of profanities that would’ve soiled his reputation as a professor significantly, echoed and the force couldn’t help but laugh. It sounded feminine. Suddenly, he blacked out, again.

* * *

He woke up, again, on the floor on a planet, a different one than the one he initially landed on. Its skies much bluer and the grass much greener. Standing over him was an African American woman in a red and white skin-tight suit, appearing no older than one of his students, she looked down at him with a lighthearted grin, extending her hand for him. “Sorry about that geezer, I forgot how the Gateways Of Ikari have an effect on you humans.” She pulled him up “Alpheus is my name. And I’m glad I bumped into you while making my escape.”

“Escape? From what?” The thinker in him couldn’t help but ask, and Gateways Of Ikari? Why did she refer the rings that way? “Where am I?

“Where are you? Somewhere livable. Somewhere that can support life, I just don’t know which planet. I didn’t exactly have a map on me How you ended up in the Aether was odd.”

This entire situation was odd, and the sudden shaking of the sky made it seem like everything was going to get more odd.