//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Begin To Pieces Fall Into Place // Story: Amalgamation Verse: The Beginnings of a Much Larger World // by Saiyan Cartoon Champion //------------------------------// In an unknown forest, a dark haired man in a black suit with the jacket undone laid against a tree, rubbing away a nasty headache that he assumes was just one of his regular hangovers. “How much did I have to drink last night?” He asked himself as searched into his jacket pocket for his cell phone. This was Anthony “Tony” Stark: Iron Man.     But when he pulled it out, he noticed there was no signal. Despite it being hooked up to a global satellite network that covered even the most remote regions on Earth. Causing Tony, who up until now, had brushed off the fact that he had woken up in forest with a splitting headache as just the result of bad (or good) bender the previous night, to look around at his surroundings more closely. Alarm bells started to go off in his mind, as he hit a button on his phone that was designed to send an emergency signal to Shield in the other Avengers and hoped they would get it somehow.  Just a few dozen yards away, in a small clearing by a small, clear stream, laid a purple, little, winged unicorn-like creature with a pink stripe running through her mane. She was rubbing her eyes with a groan. “Spike, can you please close the window?” This was Princess Twilight Sparkle. And she had just started to wake up with a terrible migraine and sore back, before trying to go back to sleep, despite the fact that the sun was shining and the surfaces she had woken up on, feeling oddly hard and uncomfortable this morning.  “Spike, I asked you to close the window. Spike?” She sniffed the air around her, hoping that Spike was just in the middle of making breakfast, only for her nostrils to be hit by the smells of the outdoors. Her eyes shot open as she realized something was wrong. And she started frantically looking around her surroundings.  “Spike!” Her voice had a hint of panic in it now, but she tried to keep her cool. “Rainbow Dash! Pinkie Pie! This isn’t funny!” She called out to her prankster friends, in the hope that this was just one of their silly games.  She forced herself up, in spite of the creak in her back, and started to jog in place and sweat a little as she thought over what to do. Before deciding on casting a spell that should detect any nearby life forms. Hopefully this was still just one of Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie’s pranks, and they’re just being bigger jerks about it than usual. Hopefully.  Meanwhile, in the clouds several dozen miles away and a couple hundred feet above the ground, a blue rainbow maned pegasus, Rainbow Dash, flew through the air. She had woken up in a similar predicament as Twilight and was now doing her own search for anyone nearby. Her reddish-purple eyes scanning over the forest, that seemed oddly empty aside from the many trees and other vegetation. Which wasn’t the first oddity about the area she had woken up in, as earlier, she came to an edge of the forest where the land just suddenly shifted to a sand dune filled desert without any kind of transitional environments you would normally expect between such drastically different areas.   Though strange, she had decided to keep searching over the forest for anypony before she went off into a desert or started asking too many questions, like where the heck she was. Eventually coming across a muddy river cutting through the tree line, seemingly coming from a mountain range out at horizon. And seeing this as her best bet for finding other ponies, she flew down to a lower altitude over the river and followed it for a few miles, until she did find someone. Specifically, a bipedal creature in a strange red, white, and blue suit carrying a matching circular shield. Deciding to take her chances, Rainbow Dash landed harshly, about thirty feet in front of him, doing her best to look strong while giving herself some space in case this creature was trouble. He cocked his head in response, while looking over the pegasus with a degree of surprise and curiosity in his eyes.     While another bipedal creature that had been following her hid in the trees and watched them. Captain Steven “Steve” Rodgers, better known to his homeland as Captain America, had woken up with a real bad headache and a pain in his back in the forest near the river, some forty minutes or so ago. Not sure what else to do, he had decided to follow the river and hope he could run into someone that could help him. Maybe even a town. Or who or whatever was responsible for him ending up here.  What he did not expect was to find himself face-to-face with a three foot tall, blue, rainbow haired, little horsey that seemed to be doing its best to try and look imposing to him. So he was just a bit too taken aback to say anything right away. “Hello there,” he asked hesitantly after a moment.  Watching over the two from the top of one of the trees was another man, this one with dark, spikey hair wearing an orange gi with a kanji symbol on one side of the chest and another across his back. This was Son Goku. Champion of Earth. Or at least, his Earth.  He had woken up in this forest after going to bed on King Kai’s planet and, after trying to call the deity both telepathically didn’t work, jumped up to the top of the treeline to get a better view. Opting not to fly, so as to preserve ki he may end up needing later.  There he had spotted what appeared to be a fast moving rainbow and, looking closer, he had realized it was some kind of little, rainbow haired pegasus streaking across the sky. Which is something that he just had to check out. Especially since he didn’t have any better ideas at the moment. So he followed the pony, while trying to keep just below the tree line so he didn’t spook it. On the gray and beige, rocky mountains overlooking the forest where the others had awoken, a pudgy boy with dark, curly hair in a red shirt with a gold star on it scurried along a narrow path along the side of the mountain. He had just woken up on a small plateau in the shadow of one of the taller mountains and while looking for help, he was jumped by some kind of ninja that seemed to come out of nowhere. But by some miracle, had managed to escape his grasp and jumped down to a lower level of the mountains. Though he bruised his leg a bit, he was able to power through it and flee.  But now that he had put some good distance between himself and his attacker, he had decided it was probably safe to take a moment to breathe and rest his sore leg… At which point he almost immediately found himself lifted off of his feet and shoved into the earthen wall behind him. Looking into the blank, white eyes of the ninja.  “WHERE AM I!!!” He yelled in a deep, almost demonic voice to the boy who gulped in fear at his predicament. The ninja was wearing a black and gold garb that left his muscular arms exposed, except for a pair of large shoulder pads, bracers, and some straps. And strapped to his back was a pair of swords.  “Uh, I don’t know! I just woke up here!” Steven responded with panic in his voice. “But if you let me go, I’m sure we can find some help together,” he said while trying to put on a friendly smile in spite of his fear.     The Ninja seemed to stop for a minute to ponder this, while Steven sweated in terror. “Ok,” he snarled out. “But if you are lying, you will not live to regret it.”  “No! I swear I’m not!” But before the “conversation” could continue, Scorpion was struck in the side of the head by a thrown object of some kind, before being tackled to the ground by another dark clad figure. Causing him to drop the boy onto his hands and knees. A position from which Steven could examine the object that had struck his attacker: a bat shaped piece of metal. As he looked over the strange trinket, four yellow hooves landed on the ground in front of him. Causing him to look up slightly to meet a pair of gentle, light blue eyes surrounded by a concerned yellow face topped with a long pink mane. “Oh dear, are you ok? Did… did that creature harm you?” She asked in an almost maternal voice. “Oh man! This stinks!” A young brown haired and green eyed boy in a white, black striped shirt of around ten years yelled in exasperation, as he trudged through water and much waist deep while hoping he wouldn’t step an even deeper part and trying not to think of what could be in this water. On his wrist was a strange black “watch” like device with a red hourglass like symbol where the face would be. This kid was Benjimin “Ben” Tennison or “Ben Ten” as he has recently begun to be known, the wielder of the omnitrix. An advanced piece of alien technology that had managed to bind itself to him and allowed him to shapeshift into various aliens with various abilities that would be superhuman by human standards. At least for a time.    He had awoken alone in the forests and began looking for his grandpa and cousin, before running into a bunch of black and white, wolf-like creatures that came after him. So he turned into Four Arms, one of his alien forms, to fight them off. Which he had been doing quite well, until his “watch” began to time out and he had to flee, before he found himself facing down these monsters in his regular human form.  Managing to duck into this swamp, just as he changed back and lay low till the creatures had seemingly left and he could continue his search for help. But now, while stuck trudging through the disgusting swamp water, filled with who knows what, Ben was starting to regret his decision and kick himself for not working up the courage to swim back to land.  “But no! I just had to keep going deeper into the swamp. All because I was too afraid of some ugly mutts!” He looked down at the device on his wrist. The symbol is still red to signify that it was not done recharging. “Stupid thing.”   “Oh! For Celestia’s sake! Could this get any worse!” Ben stopped in his tracks as heard an unfamiliar voice. Feminine by the sound of it. Though clearly its owner wasn’t having any better a day than he was. Ducking behind a nearby swamp tree that was jutting out of the water, Ben scanned his eyes in the direction of the voice, where they fell upon a most unusual sight: a little white unicorn with a long purple mane making her way through the algae covered waters that came up to her neck. Her mane was visibly disheveled and her face had an irritated and disgusted look on it. She seemed to be trying to keep her snout pointed up away from the water, while still having to reluctantly look back down at filt around her every step or so to at least try and know where she was stepping.    On the sands of a beach, an orange pony walked along the edge of a beach. Wearing only a simple brown cowgirl hat over her blond mane, which oddly enough, was done in a ponytail along with her actual ponytail. She was muttering what could be considered profanities in her homeland under her breath as she walked.  This was Applejack of The Apple Family of Ponyville. Earlier, she had found herself waking up in the blistering heat of the desert, unsure of how she had gotten there. And after what felt like hours of forcing herself up sand dunes, she had stumbled across this beach and immediately ran to take a gulp of water, only to spit it back out after realizing it was salt water. Before kicking the ground out her bad luck and a bit out her lapse in judgment. Though she took some solace in atleast getting to cool off her body in the water, before having to move on. And the fact that at least now she could follow the edge of the water in hopes of finding a seaside village or something, insead of wandering aimlessly through open desert. So she continued onwards, looking dejectedly down towards the ground. Watching waves splash lightly against the bottoms of her hooves. Thinking to herself on how she had gotten in the predicament and about her friends and family, and whether or not she would even see them again.Until she was brought out of her thoughts by what sounded like the cries of a young foal. Looking up, she did indeed see a small creature out in the distance by the water, seemingly hunched over and crying to itself. And she immediately began galloping towards it.     "Hey!" she called out as she got near him. Causing to look up towards her. Confusion clearly grew in his tear covered eyes as he saw the strange equine creature coming towards him.   "Ar ya alright, sugar cube?" She asked in a concerned and soft voice. He just stared at her. Not really sure how to respond to this. Upon getting closer, she saw this child only had hair on the the top of his head, which was black and formed into spikes in places. He was only wearing a white tank top and black pants. His exposed skin seemed to be developing a sunburn.  " Wat ya doin all the way out here by ya'self?" She asked, knowing full well he probably couldn't give her a better answer than she could give him. Still not getting a response, she held out her hoof for him and asked a different question. "What's yer name sweetie?"  Hesitantly, he took her Hoof in his hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet. "It's… Gohan, miss…" "Applejack" "Miss Applejack. I'm looking for Mr. Piccolo."  "Mr. Piccolo?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. At first, she instinctively assumed that would be this child's father. But she didn't think many children would be calling their father Mr.".  "Yeah, he's… well, I guess you can call him my uncle." Meanwhile In a white void floated a gray stone platform with a golden trim around the edges. At the center of this platform was a large rectangular house with a large well like hole next to it, surrounded by a ring of columns separating this section from the outer edges of the platform. From which a series of small stone bridges jutted out to connect it with many smaller platforms, on top of which sat little square houses. By the entrance to the large central structure were seven colorful individuals: One was a man wearing a brown cowboy hat and duster with a scoped M-16 swung over his back and a large duffle bag by his side. Leaning against the wall while absentmindedly twirling a revolver in his hand.  By the well was a gold colored cat girl in a green robe inspecting the well curiously. A small bag hanging off of her arm and hatchet at her side.  And laid down on the open ground between them was a heavy set man with blond hair and a ripped out flannel shirt over a plain white shirt stuffing his maw with copious amounts of chips and other snacks. Beside him sat his own bag, as well as a large toolbox.  The fourth of the assembly in front of the main building was what to some, would seem the strangest of all: a small, pink equine like creature with blue eyes and feminine eyelashes balancing itself on a beach ball while juggling three smaller balls and a potted cactus. Somehow on her hooves. She was also the only one that didn’t seem to have a bag of any kind.  The fifth member of the group was another tough looking man with a large duffle bag standing at the corner of the building. This with long black hair and a red bandana around his brow, wearing fairly casual attire, though with a large survival knife towards the front of his belt. He maintained a tough exterior, but still wore an expression betrayed that he was not sure what he had gotten himself mixed up in.  The Sixth member was a young woman with dark hair, sitting anxiously on the stone floor with her arms on her knees. She wore a beige cloak over herself, masking much of her features and seemed to be trying to keep to herself while staying inside the group. Though she did spare a few amused glances towards the pink pony playing by herself, despite otherwise barring a rather solemn expression.     And finally, the seventh member of the group would probably seem the most ordinary to the same that saw the fourth as the most bizarre; a young man of about 16 with a large book and his own bag to his sides, wearing a cap with a pine tree on it. He was watching the little horse-like creature inquisitively. Unlike most of the others, who seemed very calm, like this was no big deal to them, he was somewhat uneasy, though he did his best to keep his cool.   Looking over the scene from beside one of the columns about a football field away, was a shifty looking and rugged man with a glowing, red cybernetic eye and chest piece, sharpening a knife. His own bags sat beside him as well as an assault rifle. The others knew he was there, but none of them were very keen on inviting him to come any closer.  And on the opposite end of the group, though not quite as distant from them, was a blue humanoid female in a matching blue dress with what looked like a large blue gemstone on her exposed upper back. She was sitting slouched on the ground dejectedly. Between a couple of columns directly in front of the five, was a large golden ring on a golden base, in which a dark purplish portal swirled. Electricity crackling, seemingly erratically in its center.   The group loitered around like this for some time, occasionally taking glances at the swirling portal in front of them. Some of them began to grow impatient while others grew awkward. Except for the pink horse one. She just continued to happily play with her balls. Finally, a robed figure stepped out of the portal and all present turned to him. “Greeting my new agents,” he said in a surprisingly soft spoken voice. Coming in from behind him through the portal was a messy haired blond boy of about fourteen in an orange jacket with a hunting rifle slung over his back. Who continued on in and took his own spot alongside the assembled grouple wordlessly.  “I’m glad most of you all can make it on such short notice. I’m afraid that things are processing a bit faster than I expected…”