An Unexpected Turn of Events(1)

The scene slowly came to show a peaceful rocky hillside covered in grass where a raven stands pecking around. The raven flees to join another raven in the air as explosions occur in the background and two humanoids with drills on their arms and a jetpack on their backs bolt over the hill as more explosions fill the area.

These were Karl's Jet Soldats. 

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The two Jet Soldats were heavily damage though and their jetpacks badly damaged as a result of being attacked by the forces of the dark aether and were quickly trying their best to run away from them as they were being constantly being bombarded by their projectile attacks and using the jetpacks was useless since they were heavily damaged. 

BOOM!

One Jet Soldat gets thrown to the side by a nearby explosion, falling on the ground as the other Jet Soldat rushes away.

The Jet Soldat that was lying on the ground tries to crawl away but collapses as a volley of rockets home in on him.

The Jet Soldat turns around when he hears the whistling noise to see three rockets about to hit him.

"!"

BOOOM!

The resultant explosion sends the damaged Jet Soldat flying across the grasslands before crashing and face planting himself into a pane of glass at Heisenberg's factory which luckily didn't break it as a startled crow on the other side of the window inspects him through the glass with curiosity.

*Music Play — Tf2 Intro Theme*

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[Meet Karl Heisenberg] 

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Inside the building where the Jet Soldat was slid off to the window panel while the battle rages on outside...

"Wait wait, it gets better!"

The camera pans to show inside the factory, revealing a makeshift lab littered with scrap metal and tools, with Rodeo and Heisenberg discussing something while Rodeo's armor was lying on a table with a large vertical gap on the armor's chest plate. Karl holds a red glowing spherical shaped mechanical heart in his hands, the same one he uses on his Soldat army everytime to keep them powered up, but this one was the size of a baseball. 

In addition, a machine, which Karl calls an electro uber, was on the ceiling with electricity rods on it was sending a blue electricity ray or beam to Rodeo's high-tech foundation armor to power it up while a couple of crows sat in the lab and watched them from above.

"When we woke up the next day, we never heard from that Lycan again!" Karl finishes the story before laughing wildly.

"...Right." Rodeo said cluelessly, unable to even process his joke, not even once.

Karl chuckles, "Anyway, that's how I almost got myself in trouble with Miranda," he adds as his laughter subsides. Rodeo's expression then shifts to one of deep concern.

Out of nowhere, a crow pops out from a small gap in Rodeo's armor, surprising both Karl and Rodeo.

"Mason! No! It's filled with wires in there, you might break something!" Karl shouted as he quickly removed Mason the crow out of the armor and flew away, landing on one of the ceiling pipes with two other crows. "Damn idiot," Karl mutters as he stares at Rodeo, who gives him a deadpan look, "Birds, am I right?" 

"Karl. Armor. Now."

Karl let out a sigh and pointed the electro uber at the mechanical heart he was holding in his hand, charging it up.

"Now most mechanical hearts I've built can't withstand this voltage, but I am fairly certain that this one can-"

The mechanical heart explodes into fragments and a random piece knocks Mason off a piece of machinery.

"Uhhhh…"

"Don't worry, kid. This is progress." Karl nonchalantly flicks off the remnants of the exploded mechanical heart from the device before moving to a cabinet and searching for a replacement. The cabinet door is opened to reveal multiple hearts and a few bottles of beer.

"Ah, perfect." Karl grinned, glancing at the basketball-size mechanical heart and grabbing it to uncover a Mangler's head laying in the cabinet, which was surprisingly still alive.

"Destroy. Me."

"Later."

Closing the cabinet on the Mangler's face, Karl walks up to Rodeo's armor.

"Now where was I?" He wondered as he recalibrated the dials on the mechanical heart, "Ah yes! Here we go…"

Karl then points the electro uber's beam at the mechanical heart, which swells and begins to glow red while he holds it in both hands. 

"Come on, come on." Karl whispers earnestly, watching as the mechanical heart starts beating and shines unevenly as he begins laughing maniacally.

"Oh boy."

As the mechanical heart begins to glow neon red, Rodeo stares at Karl, a bit more wary and with a very concerned face.

As Karl continued laughing, the mechanical heart surges very brightly, blinding him and Rodeo and forcing them to look away from the heart. As the brightness of the heart dies down and beats, Karl stops laughing as he and Rodeo look at the heart to see it was still in perfect condition, still a shiny and almost translucent red. 

"Perfect." Karl said with a satisfied smile, and started attaching the mechanical heart into the gap of Rodeo's armor chest plate as the latter observed him working. Both could hear the sound of explosions outside happening, but felt it gotten closer than before.

Rodeo looks outside the window with apprehension. "Do you need any help?" he asks in a hesitant tone. "The battle seems to be getting close," he added.

"Screwdriver quick."

Rodeo quickly handed him a screwdriver, and Karl finally installed the mechanical heart without issue. 

"Now then."

Using his magnetic abilities, Karl started to attach two small sized minigun barrels on the armor's forearms, adding ammo boxes to the armor's back, and repairing the gap in his armor together. In a matter of seconds, the armor was now good as new with fresh new modifications. 

"Woah." Rodeo looks impressed with his armor's recent enhancements.

"Put it on."

Putting the armor on, Rodeo felt it wasn't heavy and still light weight as it was before even though there are additional ones such as the small miniguns, the mechanical heart and ammo boxes being the only new modifications to the armor. 

"Okay, so what happens now?" 

"Now," Karl chuckled before saying with a malevolent grin. "Let's go practice mayhem."

*Music Play — Team Fortress 2 Soundtrack | MEDIC!*

The 'Medic' soundtrack begins playing as Karl quickly puts on his gloves, glasses, and a metal backpack with a small generator made out of scrap metal and holds an electric rod with a trigger and a wire that attaches and connects itself to the metal backpack.

An electro uber backpack of his own design. 

A shudder door opens, revealing Karl Heisenberg with his electro uber backpack and multiple crows flying out as a choir sings with harps.

Rodeo rushes past Heisenberg into the battlefield, turning to see explosions and projectiles flying haphazardly through the air as the battle between the Dark Aether forces and Karl's Soldat army raged on, joined by Lycans and their horses in the fight.

"Just another normal day."

(🎵Nex est totus in terra, medicus commodo servo, vel nos mortuos inter…Aaaaaaah…🎵)

Just then, one of Karl's Jet Soldats was seen running towards him, but was immediately shot by a Krasny Soldat's grenade on the back, blasting the Jet Soldat in the air before subsequently face-planting into the soil in front of Karl.

With smirk on his face, Karl adjusts his glasses before hitting back the switch which activates his electro uber backpack and shoots out a current of electricity at the fallen Jet Soldat. Instantaneously, the Jet Soldat stood back up and all of its injuries were immediately repaired before heading back into the battlefield with a nod.

Karl sends another beam onto another fallen Jet Soldat, completely repairing him, which got it back up on his feet. The Jet Joldat activated his jetpack and launched himself into the air at full speed and rushed past Rodeo into the fray before straight up drilling into a Mangler's head with his drill arms.

Rodeo was taking cover behind a large rock to avoid projectile fire when he glanced over the cover to see a massive horde of Dark Aether zombies, Manglers, Kransy Soldats, and Tempests charging over the hill at them.

Turning toward Karl's direction, he shouts. "Karl! Are you sure this will work?"

The beat drops as Karl laughs. "Ahahaha! Kid, I have four words for ya... I have no idea!"

Karl flips a switch on his backpack, which surges and begins powering up with red electricity, producing powerful crackling sounds that brighten his surroundings with red.

"Here goes nothing."

Aiming at Rodeo's direction, Heisenberg unleashes a massive beam of crimson energy at him. Simultaneously, Rodeo moves out of his cover and turns towards the battle and begins revving his two gatling guns in his arms.

As soon as the beam attaches to his armor, the electricity travels throughout his armor and the mechanical heart on the armor begins pumping at full overdrive, powering his armor and surrounding him in a miniature electrical forcefield.

"YEEEAAAAAHHH! HA HA!"

The ultimate duos push forward as a huge storm of projectiles from the Dark Aether forces hits Rodeo all over his body only for him to continue moving through the smoke, still laughing as he revs up the miniguns and starts firing at the horde. When the bullets reached the horde, they started dropping like flies as Rodeo continued moving forward with Karl behind him, still fueling Rodeo's armor and the horde being gunned down without mercy. 

The combined force of Karl's Soldat army and the Lycan army watch in awe as the duo move towards the onslaught, still laughing like maniacs.

Two Manglers fired their cannons at Rodeo, but due to the electric force field he suffered no damage, and the two Manglers were immediately gunned down at the next instant.

"I AM BULLETPROOF!"

With guns blazing in his arms, more and more zombies were mowed down and still unwavering. Slowly, the duo makes their way up a mountain of zombie corpses.

Soon later, Karl walks up and stands on the very top of the pile, the clouds parting, the sun rises from the horizon and shone behind his back, smiling and savoring his glorious victory made by his new invention, and a flock of crows flying overhead as the music crescendos.

"I'm a fucking genius!"

*Music Stops*

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An hour has passed, after Karl's soldat army and the Lycan army wiped out the remaining Dark Aether monsters, they all rounded themselves up back at his factory and headed back to the underground areas of the factory for repair and guard duty.

It's been two days since the last zombie attack which happened at Castle Dimitrescu and the village. Ever since then, it's been a non-stop wave after wave of zombie attacks, but most of them have been successfully repelled, or the zombies would straight up retreat under the orders of the powerful being that Rodeo assumes to be... The Forsaken. 

Currently, Rodeo was sitting on a rock after wiping out the horde with Karl's new electro uber backpack, his armor still on him but with his armor's helmet off while being in the grasslands outside the factory. 

'Another wave has been stopped, but how long can we keep this up though?' He pondered. 

Rodeo was well aware that the Forsaken was forcibly trying to deplete their resources or, at the very least, devising a strategy to strike them from a different angle. Which angle exactly? He wasn't sure, but the dark aether was a threat he could not ignore considering how much destruction happened in the original dark aether timeline of Call of Duty zombies as a result of it.

"Hey kid."

Rodeo notices Karl approaching him, to which he responds, "Hey, Karl."

"So, I want to ask you something."

"Go ahead." 

"Why doesn't the Forsaken want to show itself if he's so powerful? Clearly he can wipe us out without hesitation if he needs to, and we can fully attack him with everything we got, right?" 

"Karl, he's not gonna make his presence known that easily, and he knows if he shows up in the battlefield it will be an easy victory for us, and if we straight up attack him we might get caught in a trap or something worse... dark aether corruption." Rodeo said solemnly, "I'm trying to come up with a plan of an offense but with these non-stop zombie horde attacks on an hourly basis isn't helping."

"I get it, but we can still win, right?" 

"...It's hard to say. Fighting something like the Aether and The Forsaken... will basically depend on how we plan our attack on him or how the Forsaken will approach us, but if we mess this up, then it's over." Rodeo said, feeling a bit tense.

"...I see. Welp, as long as luck is on our side, we might pull through this, but if it doesn't go well, there's always the option of running away... probably."

Rodeo chuckles, "Yeah, probably."

Turning around, Karl adds, "I'm heading off into the factory, better not get eaten while being out here. If you do, I'll be disappointed that you went down easily like a bitch." he said before heading for the factory while Rodeo merely rolled his eyes at Karl's words and put on his armor's helmet before heading for the village to check out what's going on. 

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Arriving at the village, Rodeo could see it was still in  good condition. Most of the people in the village appeared to be up in arms with farming tools as weapons and guns such as hunter shotguns and other forms of armament for defending themselves against the zombie horde, which they've been doing for the last two days. Some were determined, while others were afraid of what might happen next, but nonetheless they were prepared to defend themselves if the zombie horde of the dark aether came marching towards them. 

"They can fight, but how long can they keep up with this?"

Rodeo knew they were ready to fight since this is their home and they have loved ones that they wish to defend, but they are still human, and what they are dealing with is something beyond their abilities, particularly the Forsaken, and only people with powerful abilities like Rodeo can go up against something like him, so he couldn't help but feel worried for their safety.

Another issue that bothered Rodeo was the possibility that the dark aether may corrupt the mutant fungal root, the Megamycete, and used it as a way to disseminate the dark aether through its roots and across the whole world itself, or turned it into a deadly ally for conquering then it might lead to huge problems. 

"Why do I have to go through this every damn time? One day it stays normal, and the next thing you know you've to save the world, but hey with great power comes great responsibility... and bigger threats."

Rodeo sighed as he pondered about today's problem until he saw a swarm of flies heading towards him. The fly swarm landed in front of him and transformed into Daniela. 

Daniela smiled warmly as she greeted, "Hi, Rodeo."

"Hey, Daniela. What brings you here?"

"I heard from Mother that another horde almost tried to break through uncle Heisenberg's factory, and you two already deal with them with ease."

"Yeah, we would've been overwhelmed if Karl's army hadn't held them off in time."

Coming to a halt, Daniela looked at Rodeo and asked, "I was wondering, since when Uncle Karl made a whole army of metal men?"

Rodeo stopped when he heard her question. Of course, none of the villains were aware that Karl was assembling an army for a rebellion, except for Miranda, who seems to already have known his plan from the beginning but for some reason did not intervene, instead she doesn't seem to mind or appears to be unconcerned.

Perhaps it's because she doesn't feel threatened due to her immortality.

"...He can control metal, Daniela." Rodeo lied, "I guess he borrowed some Lycans to upgrade them for two days and used them to fight the Dark Aether forces more effectively."

"Hmm… make sense, he is a genius at building things in such a short period of time after all."

"Anyways, has the castle or any other houses been breached?" Rodeo then asked.

"Fortunately no, but with them still having access to the underground mining tunnels, anything can happen." Daniela stated, "Lycans are still patrolling the village's outskirts as we speak, so we'll be notified in case these dark aether zombies try to pull something big."

"..."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing Daniela, it's just that do you think things can be better without me being anywhere at all?" 

Rodeo's question seemed to confuse Daniela, "What do you mean?"

"I told you and the rest about the other world and what I did there, and every time I go or stay somewhere, chaos wants to follow, and even now that it has followed me here, and... now we are up against a cosmic monster that can kill us without mercy." Rodeo said, "Daniela, I feel like no matter what I do to fix things more, chaos shows up and no matter where I go, it follows, and harms everyone around me. What if things were better without me?" 

"I highly doubt that even if you weren't here, things would be much worse."

"It might be true and I'm just overthinking things, and yet, I still feel that fate has something in store for me, and I can't help but wonder if it will be good for me or bad for everyone else."

"Now only time will tell, Rodeo."

"Yeah, but time is also something we don't have, the Forsaken might be planning something, sooner or later."

"But we'll stop them, right?" 

"We will." 

"Excellent." Daniela said with a warm smile, "Now let's head for the castle, I'm sure you're exhausted after today's work."

"You're right, I'm tired, and I really need to rest," Rodeo remarked as he and Daniela made their way to Castle Dimitrescu. 

Unbeknownst to them, the G-man was standing next to a house, watching them leave without noticing his presence. At the following moment, he disappeared mysteriously.