To a linear mind, they live out an average lifespan on a single planet within a vast universe. But known to a select few, while theorised by others, theirs is but a single universe that exists within a larger multiverse. But known to fewer is that theirs is a single multiverse, that exists in the greater Omniverse, forged by the Hands. The Hands consist of two types, the Judges, who review multiverses to see if they have fallen to justice or doom on a schedule, with those in the former camp being spared, while the latter are destroyed. The others, the Super Celestials, exist to create multiverses and then sacrifice their existence so those multiverses can live forever. But the Hands may keep the Omniverse safe from threats, but even they have the task of keeping those universes flowing outsourced.
The current Guardian of the Omniversal Spectrum hailed from a corner of reality where the inhabitants of a primitive world called Gallifrey had monopolised time travel and bodily regeneration early in the lifespan of their native universe. He on the other hand was originally a human, before a race of cyborg oh-so-creatively named the Cybermen had attacked his colony, killed his wife and replaced every part of his body but the brain with metal and plastic. They had rebranded him Kroton and attempted to erase every aspect of who he was, though cracks in his conditioning had led to him rebelling during the Mondaran campaign and wandering the universe looking to find what purpose a Cyberman with a soul could have. Thanks to the help of a man in dapper outfit know as the Doctor and his young friend from a sleepy village in Gloucester or Norfolk or wherever, Kroton had done battle with a guy known as Sato or Morningstar and won the Glory of looking after all of creation. And that meant dealing with people like the armoured guy with the red glow surrounding his face. “Ah, you’re the Chronicler, right?”, he asked. “The Hand in charge of watching these universes to gather evidence for the Judges, right?”
“That is indeed my function, Guardian.”, the Chronicler answered. “However, today I come to you with grave news for the survival of not just one multiverse, but all of them.”
“Oh.”, Kroton realised. “I imagine that’s a serious matter that requires some kind of council.”
“That it will.”, the Chronicler nodded. “We must assemble the Super Celestials.”
What seemed like an eternity later - it wasn’t easy to measure time in a realm that existed outside of the confines of it - several universal creators or other relevant entities had gathered. Among them were Arceus, progenitor of the World of Pokémon, The One Above All who crafted a multiverse that went through multiple iterations known as “Cosmos” (currently on its 8th Cosmos), Mar Novu the Monitor, Mobius the Anti-Monitor and Alphaeus the World Forger, children of a rogue Hand from a multiverse that had gone through several of its own resets known as “Crisis”., The Brothers of Light and Darkness from the Ever After that had crafted the world of Remnant, Eru Ilúvatar, the father of Middle-Earth, the Mother of Existence, Primus and Unicron, fragment of the Source of the Transformers multiverse, with the former’s scion Vector Prime also in attendance, Number 100: Numeron Dragon, a monster that had created universes with a tear that became a card and Code Eve, the Mother Light of all the Bakugan. “Is this it?”, Kroton asked the Chronicler.
“This is all who could assemble.”, the Chronicler answered. “While other Multiversal progenitors or their affiliated entities exist, these are all that could attend this meeting.” He then stepped forward, generating a podium to speak into. “My fellow higher deities, I have summoned you here for a purpose.”
“Nobody summons Unicron.”, the Chaos Bringer among them growled.
“I see that even situations that require all the higher beings of creation will not grant you humility, brother.”, Primus commented.
“Indeed.”, the being known as the Anti-Monitor nodded. “After my mother Perpetua returned, I was blinded by my ambitions of recovering my power once more. But following my recent demise at the hands of the Flash, I have regained perspective of the flow of the Multiverse.”
“A flow that seems to have been disrupted, hence this meeting.”, the Chronicler bellowed. “Recently, I discovered a new multiverse within the vast Omniverse, one with worlds copied from those of other multiverses, with slight modifications, be they deliberate or a result of imperfect recall.”
The others were shocked by this. “And I’m guessing that this multiverse is made up of photocopies of some of our universes. Who created it?”, the One Above All asked.
“One known to his followers as ‘the Weigher’.”, the Chronicler answered. “He began by creating amalgam universes using related instances, such as pairing the Boy Who Lived with the warriors of the Light, and having the World Breaker launch his assault for vengeance during the battle between heroes over the Superhero Registration Act. But this was different. It began as a merger between two of the pillar realities from the Multiverse the Monitors watch over, with one from that of the One Above All.”
“Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what are ‘pillar realities’?”, Arceus asked. “I have never heard of such.”
“I can field this question, great Chronicler.”, Vector Prime spoke up. “According to my friend Rhinox at Axiom Nexus, a pillar reality is a universe that has an especially prominent place within the multiverse, with there being a lot of attention towards them in worlds where our creations exist as fiction. The pillar realities spin off into lesser universes, which can be destroyed with no harm to the greater multiverse, with the existence of pillar realities allowing them to be reborn with time. But if a pillar reality was to be destroyed, then the Multiverse itself would begin to fall apart. Our corner has 14 pillar realities that spawn the rest of the multiverse: Primax 984.0 Gamma (The Transformers (Marvel))
* 984.17 Alpha (The Transformers cartoon)
* Primax 996.16 Alpha (Beast Wars and Beast Machines)
* Viron 901.08 Alpha (RID 01)
* Aurex 802.23 Alpha (Armada, Energon and Cybertron)
* Primax 1005.19 Gamma (IDW’s Hasbro Comic Universe)
* Tyran 707.03 Delta (the live action movies)
* Malgus 1207.26 Alpha (Animated)
* Uniend 1110.29 Alpha (the Aligned continuity)
* Khathos 918.01 Alpha (Cyberverse)
* Gaius 1122.11 Alpha (Earthspark)
* Primax 623.14 Gamma (Skybound’s Energon Universe)
* And last but not least, Tyran 924.20 Alpha (Transformers One).”
“An interesting proposition.”, Numeron Dragon noted. “With that in mind, my multiverse would have 7 pillar realities.”
“And ours would have 15 pillar realities.”, the World Forger added. “But this discussion seems to be detracting from the issue at hand.”
“Right you are.”, Kroton spoke up. “From what I’ve seen, the Weigher didn’t stop at three universes. He stuffed ina. Load of universes from several other multiverses. Some were edited into the original 4 of his universe, with little edits made to fit them into their new realities. And then he created a whole new universe, with some resemblance to real life.”
“This world contained an order of Monks who followed the Weigher’s worlds as sacred text.”, the Chronicler took over. “They were subsequently empowered with the same powers as he to edit realities together within this multiverse. But there was one who didn’t stop at bringing other universes in. She edited the content of two pillar realities, rendering them further divergent from the worlds they were copied from, removing significant moments, altering the characters’ facial features even though it those who observe these worlds should not be able to perceive faces outside their imagination, and shattering the histories of those worlds open. In the process, this also accelerated the gradual breakdown of these worlds that the Weigher kickstarted through combining two opposing elements from Code Eve’s section of reality.”
“Infinity and Silence.”, Code Eve clarified.
“In particular, the power of Infinity in the hands of a Mad Titan, and a copy of one of our guests to bring forth Silence.”, the Chronicler resumed. “And as a result of the crossovers, not only has the risk of Incursions tearing reality apart increased, but several heroes have been denied the growth and closure of their originals, as the alterations stuck them into familiar patterns they should’ve outgrown. They may not be ready for when either the Crisis on Infinite Earths or the Incursions tear their reality apart. Especially with a Monitor who has been fractured even more than Mar Novu was following his first restoration, with potentially billions of aspects, only one of whom is trying to avert disaster with a fraction of his true power.”
“So this one multiverse may or may not be able to avert disaster.”, Numeron Dragon growled. “But how does that affect our worlds?”
“The presence of us three in this meeting proves that more than just the rules of the copied realities are being stretched to breaking.”, Unicron answered. “For you see, Primus, Vector Prime and myself should not be here as we are.”
Vector Prime had a shocking realisation. “He’s right. A few years ago, a would-be conqueror from a negative polarity universe emerged into the multiverse, causing massive damage with his Terminus Blade. In order to repair it, the members of the 13 Priems from several realities gathered to pool their powers into our brother Nexus, as he combined the Star Saber and the Terminus Blade to not just fix the cracks in the multiversal barriers, but strengthen them. His made multiversal travel difficult if not impossible, and fractured us multiversal singularities so that we only existed as counterparts in every universe where we were needed. Even today, the Shroud should still be holding, preventing us from having the knowledge required for this conversation to make sense.”
“That’s right.”, Kroton nodded. “But a while back, I noted that some Autobots from what you call the Khathos Cluster were able to interact with their multiversal counterparts through contact with Unspace. This created a small hole in your shroud. One which caused one of your universes, Primax 919.15 Zeta, to drift out and be collected into the Weigher’s multiverse, where it was branded Earth-1984. And from what I understand of Incursions, that’s pretty much one of them on a biiiiig scale.”
“You understand perfectly.”, the One Above All nodded. “An Incursion occurs either from a universe dying before its natural lifespan has expired, or natives of one universe staying for too long in another.”
“And with an entire planet crossing over into another multiverse, this Incursion has punched a hole into other realities.”, the Chronicler continued. “Therefore, when the Crisis comes, it risks targeting all our multiverses through similar holes in reality. All of creation, wiped out like that.” He clapped his hands to make his podium disperse.
“Therefore, it is time for us to begin making preparations to try and minimise or perhaps avert the damages our worlds may suffer from this Multiverse’s Anti-Monitor and his ambitions.”, Kroton spoke up. “Protect your pillar realities, or all we have built will fall, with nothing good rising from the ashes.”
“Your concern is admirable, great Guardian.”, Arceus said as he turned around to depart. “But I am not concerned. My pillars will always exist in some form. And those with an interest in experiencing it will create multiple new splinter realities through how they decide the events will play out. My mutliverse will be repopulated.” And with that, Arceus vanished.
“Even I must admit, the total destruction of everything, while intriguing, would grant me no enjoyment if I am not a part of the destruction.”, Unicron stated. “I may have to ally against the coming chaos.” He then made his disappearance.
“As much as I detest saying this of Unicron… he’s right.”, Primus mused. “We need to protect the pillar realities from being destroyed.”
“Perhaps if we could focus on expanding the Shroud in those areas.”, Vector Prime suggested. “Then they might have additional layers of protection from a threat of this magnitude. But in order to create it, the artefacts of my brother Primes may well be needed.”
“Yes.”, Primus nodded. “While the Omega Lock with the four Cyber Planet Keys would allow me to close any breaches, I would need all the Artefacts of the Primes together to fully end this crisis.” He and Vector Prime made their disappearances.
“Alright, it appears some of us have made their choices.”, Kroton noted. “As for the rest of you… I suppose it’s up to you to decide to act or not. We don’t really know how bad things might become.”
“You can be assured that my brother and I will protect our own world.”, the Brother of Light spoke up. “After all, we are giving the people of Remnant time enough to stake a case for if humanity should be destroyed or not.”
“And though the people of our world have forsaken me, I will not forsake them.”, the Brother of Darkness added. “You can count us among the ones who will fight to contain this Crisis.”
“And as for me, I will venture into the Weigher’s mutliverse.”, the Chronicler stated. “While you are preparing to contain this crisis, I will both examine the worlds to decide if they deserve a chance at existence in their own right, and then I will act to act to contain the breach regardless of my choice.” He then summoned a floating chair beneath him, which he flew away on until he disappeared.
“Well, I think we all know what preparations we need to make.”, Kroton said to those who remained. “As for me, I’ve got an old friend to meet with. He might know what to do.”