All of The Protectors started attacking the machines at once... all of them fuelled by rage... the machines seemed to be very weak... they were all being destroyed rather easily. "This can't be the force that destroyed this place." Michael thought to himself as he effortlessly tore one machine to pieces. "Where's Raptors?" One of The Protectors asked as they were concerned. "Over here!" Raptors replied... but when Michael looked over... Raptors had turned into one of the machines. "What? Haven't you seen a shape shifter before?" Raptors questioned. "You're a shape shifter? Why can't you shape shift into Omega and just beat him down easily then?" Michael replied with another question. "There are limits you know! I can only retain these forms for a set amount of time... and the bigger they get, the less time I have to use their powers... in Omega's case, I would only be able to become him for a couple of seconds before I have to recover." Raptors explained before he turned back into his normal form. "Great...now that form is wasted." Raptors spoke whilst sighing. "Hey guys! Whilst you were talking and minding your own business, we found out who caused this!" One of The Protectors shouted. Michael rushed over to them to see what they have found.
"Michael... I'm surprised Omega didn't destroy you at the first chance it got." An unseen foe told Michael. "You remember me don't you? I mean... you never heard my voice... but you should at least remember what I look like right?" The voice asked. When Michael finally saw him... he remembered immediately... it was X. X had a human like face with dark blue armour and a red crystal on his head. "It seems that fate could not hide you from me Michael... I have been observing you very closely... and I think that you of all people should know what a mimic does when they see people fighting." X explained. "Well... are we going to get this battle underway or what?" Michael asked. "Well...I think it would be a bit unfair if I fight all of you... why not just one?" X replied. "I'll take him." Raptors spoke confidently. "You won't stand a chance Raptors." Michael informed Raptors. "I think you've forgotten who you're talking to Michael... I'm the Phantom of Reality." Raptors replied. "Ah... so you're the other one that escaped from your containment chamber... of course you would want to be as big of a nuisance as possible." X said whilst grinning. "Come on... let's get this over with." Raptors demanded as he was clearly getting tired of just constantly talking.
X stretched out his arms to his sides... he then began glowing white... and after a few seconds, he had gold and white spikes coming out of his limbs and his head. Raptors dashed at X whilst his scarfs were flailing wildly at him. Next, X retaliated by jumping into the air and then flying towards Raptors whilst being surrounded by energy... the scarfs hit X but they seemed to have no effect. Soon after, Raptors was hit by X and he disappeared... all that remained was his scarfs and his mask. "What a pushover. Now... who's next?" X asked whilst dusting his armour off. He walked slowly towards the rest of The Protectors... but then, Raptor's scarfs wrapped around him and a strange energy came from them... suddenly, X's body just seemed to disintegrate into a strange yellow substance. "Yeah... you're right X... you were a total pushover." Raptors explained whilst returning his scarfs to his body.
Everyone was filled with fear and confusion as they looked at Raptors... it had now became obvious that they did not know the full extent of his powers. "What? You seriously didn't think that I would call myself 'The Phantom of Reality' and proceed to lose every fight possible did you?" Raptors asked. Nobody spoke... they all just stared at him. "He's not dead... I just brought him into my reality... but he might not survive in there for much longer. Let's get him out shall we?" Raptors told everyone before rubbing his scarfs together which then released the same substance that consumed X. X appeared once more except he seemed to be badly damaged. "What happened? Where is everyone? Guys... where are you all?" Lukas shouted from the distance. "Lukas! The Sanctuary was attacked and we seem to have suffered heavy losses but we have defeated the culprit." Michael explained as he was running over to Lukas. "Oh... why? Why is it that when you are around Michael, destruction seems to follow?" Lukas replied before running over to the other Protectors. "I'm sorry about that Michael... he's... not himself today... Bete certainly didn't make him feel any better." Niko spoke as an apology to Michael. "Yeah... I can tell that he's not the same person that I knew... he used to be really happy all the time. Now... he's more focused on survival rather than anything else. I suppose I can't blame him though." Michael replied. "So you knew him when he was like that too? I really miss those times...where he was just a fun person to be around... instead of... well... this." Niko agreed which confused Michael a bit.
"Hang on a minute... Lukas was like... well... how he is now at the very start of the war... how can you know the happy side of him if you only lived in The Multiverse when the war had already begun?" Michael asked curiously. "I knew him before all of this... I just... I didn't know him for too long. I think we should get back to the rest of The Protectors now." Niko replied before walking away. "Did Lukas interfere with a universe's citizens? Protectors were never allowed to do that." Michael thought to himself whilst following Niko. When Michael and Niko caught up with Lukas, they could see that they had put X in a glass container and they were already analysing him. "This is so weird... there is barely any programming within X... how is he so advanced?" Lukas asked himself as he was getting visibly annoyed. "I know! I saw how they built these things... I know how they're made." Raptors excitedly answered. "Well... go ahead then... do whatever it is that you need to do." Lukas spoke to Raptors as he walked away from X. Raptors floated towards X before he broke through the glass and thrusted a scarf into X's chest area. Everyone looked at Raptors in confusion and shock... before he brought his scarf out of X's body and showed everyone what he had took from him... it was a green orb surrounded by a green ring... the orb seemed to be growing and shrinking over time whilst it was releasing strange glowing dust like particles. "What is that?" Lukas asked. "A Cyber Elf I believe they call them... they are strange little things... they're like ghosts except they can only possess mechanical things... that is if the things they want to possess are in a good enough condition." Raptors replied.
"I'm surprised by your power and intelligence Raptors." A voice spoke that was coming from the Cyber Elf. "Aw... don't say that X, you'll make me blush... oh well it's not like anyone would be able to see it." Raptors replied. "Wait a minute... that Cyber Elf... is X?" Michael asked. "Indeed... oh wait... Michael... well I have something that probably everyone would like to know about Michael." X explained. Michael froze... he couldn't let everyone know about it... he couldn't let them know about his secret. "Well... anything that comes out of your mouth is probably a lie anyways... so go ahead...tell them what you want them to think." Michael said whilst trying to seem calm. Before X could say another word, he started to release a lot more particles than normal. "Oh... yeah I forgot that happens." Raptors admitted. "What is happening if you don't mind me asking?" Lukas asked. "I don't want to alarm anyone... but I do feel that X' life force is fading." Niko explained with a panicked expression. "Since when could you sense life force?" Michael asked. "That doesn't matter Michael! X is dying and we won't get anything out of him if he's dead!" Lukas yelled as he was clearly panicking. "Don't worry... I've got it." Raptors reassured everyone as he pushed X towards a machine. "He won't die if he is possessing a machine that is in a stable condition." Raptors explained. "I'm not going to possess it... you're not getting any information out of me... I'll hopefully see you in the near future... goodbye." X said before being enveloped by a white light and disappearing. "Niko and I are going to check how bad the damage is... the rest of you wait here." Lukas explained after a minute of silence. The search seemed to take hours... it seemed to concern Michael... and then Michael remembered something... Niko could sense the life force of others... couldn't Niko just have told everyone whether anyone had survived or not?
"There are no survivors." Lukas explained as he returned from searching the entirety of The Sanctuary. "Wait... you don't really mean that they got everyone do you?" Michael asked. "Michael... when I say there are no survivors I mean that everyone is dead. "Lukas replied. "So that's it then? There are no survivors so there is nothing for us to protect... we failed our only job in life... no universes survived either." One of The Protectors spoke as they seemed to fall into despair. "No... we can still protect the core... if the core survives then more universes will be created... and then we'll have a lot more to fight for." Michael replied. "Michael's right... everyone can you let me and Michael talk for a second? Call for us if Perfection starts attacking again." Lukas asked everyone. "So what did you want to talk about?" Michael questioned Lukas after everyone had left. "Well... I've been thinking recently... and I think that..." Lukas explained.
A few minutes later...
"You're siding with The Destroyers? How could you? You'd rather join a bunch of heartless emotionless beings that wish for nothing but destruction?" The Protector's heard Michael shouting. "What? What are you talking abou-" Lukas was saying but he was interrupted by The Protectors rushing into the room. "What's happening?" One of The Protectors asked. "Lukas has just admitted to siding with The Destroyers!" Michael explained. "I-" Lukas said but he was interrupted again. "Don't speak another word Lukas... I'm going to give you the chance to leave here before I think about attacking you." Michael spoke in a cold voice. Lukas at this point was overwhelmed by fear and confusion... and he released a dangerous amount of energy to try and save himself. "No!" Niko shouted as Lukas disappeared after the energy had faded.
"What do I do now? What can I do now? I can't go back... and it's too dangerous out here. Maybe... no that's not possible... they're all dead... even if I was siding with The Destroyers they're all dead." "Calm down kid... seriously... I could've probably sensed all of that negative emotion from the other side of The Multiverse." "Woah! Wait... you're still alive?" "We all are... I didn't come here to talk... I came here to remind you that she wants you on our side and if you accept then we can probably act immediately." "No... not yet... I don't see any reason as to why I should join you right now plus... I need to test my strength alone against Perfection." "The offer is always there if you ever change your mind."