Chapter 11

-[Kenneth]-

He stared at Rex who had a look of shock in his face, his hood still up and hopefully hiding his identity.

"What do you mean you don't have nanites?!" Rex exclaimed in shock.

Kenneth frowned as he saw Six walk into the tower, having just finished dealing with the knights outside.

"What's so surprising?" He asked, trying to figure out a way out of this.

"That's impossible. Every living thing has nanites! Unless…" Rex gasped in horror. "You're a zombie?!"

There was silence as Kenneth was stupefied by the other teen's train of thought. "Are you dumb?" He couldn't help but ask as he heard a static noise come to life.

"Rex, if what he's saying is true then he might be the key to our EVO problem. Bring him in." He heard a voice say from what he realized was Rex's communicator in his ear.

He was now glad that he raised his perception stats when Rex was still in shock. His hearing was absurd.

Rex formed giant mechanical hands. "Sorry about this."

He stretched forward to grab Kenneth only for him to roll under it. As the hooded teen ran to the exit, Six was there waiting.

"Come quietly and we won't have to hurt you." Six offered, his swords out and ready to fight.

Kenneth leaped backwards as giant mechanical arms tried to grab him, missing him by a hair. Rex's attempts continued for a while but Kenneth dodged them all.

He raised his arm to block a kick from Six, immediately throwing a kick that the agent easily blocked.

Leaping over another kick, his eyes widened as Rex's mechanical hand moved to grab him in mid air.

"Ha! Gotcha!" The boy said.

A moment of quick thinking led Kenneth to activate [Power Strike], smashing his fist into the mechanical ones.

He expected it to make a dent at least but the result was shocking as that part of giant arms crumbled to pieces.

"Huh?!" Rex exclaimed in surprise.

Quickly reforming it as Kenneth landed, he slapped the hand at him, narrowly missing him as Kenneth threw another [Power Strike] at the arm, causing it to crumble once more.

"Rex, what's happening?!" Six questioned in confusion.

"I don't know!" Rex admitted in equal if not greater confusion.

The two of them were now facing Kenneth whose attention was on his fatigue meter. Just before Kenneth could make a move, a voice rang through the air.

"Oh my. This won't do at all." A male voice said, causing them all to tense as a figure walked out from behind the destroyed computer.

"Who are you?" Six asked cautiously.

Kenneth's eyes widened as he saw the man who spoke, recognizing him immediately. 'Professor Paradox! What is he doing here?'

"Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? I'm sorry but we must take our leave." The time walker said, snapping his fingers.

Immediately, Kenneth found that his immediate surroundings had changed. He was now standing in what looked to be an abandoned building.

He spun around to see Paradox behind him.

"I don't mean any harm to you. Of course you already know that, don't you?" Paradox said, shocking him to his core.

"What are you talking about?" He asked cautiously.

"I'm afraid that will take a long time to explain. Gumball?" Paradox offered, holding out a handful of the snack.

Carefully taking it, he popped one in his mouth. He was aware that Paradox was a good guy but that didn't explain how Paradox knew that he knew him.

"Each time we have met, or were supposed to have met, you were always aware of who I was. Rather, who I am. Time can be very confusing." Paradox said lightly as Kenneth slowly digested what he was hearing.

"You're still not making any sense." He pointed out.

The man held up a hand. "Patience. This isn't the first time we've met, or rather this is the first time we've met in this run."

"This run?" Kenneth echoed.

"Yes. This is the tenth do over of this timeline and unfortunately it will be the last." Paradox said in a grave tone.

He froze as he heard that. Just as he was aware of who Paradox was, he was also aware that he only showed up when something really bad was going to happen.

"What do you mean?"

The man tapped his cane on the floor. "See for yourself." A bright light engulfed them dying down as their surroundings changed again.

It was like a scene from an apocalyptic movie. The buildings were destroyed and everything he could see in the distance around him was in shambles.

"Where are we?" He asked, despite the gnawing feeling in his gut.

"This is earth. Or at least it will be earth if we fail to stop it this time." Paradox answered as they returned to where they once were.

Cold sweat ran down Kenneth's back as the vivid scene of the wasteland that was apparently earth stuck to his mind.

"What happened?" He asked, forcefully calming his nerves.

"Unfortunately I can't tell you much in that regard. A consequence of my repeated interference. You see, I have attempted to prevent that outcome with the aid of a few heroes of that time. Nine times we tried and nine times we failed. Each do-over ended in an even greater loss." Paradox revealed, his revelation not doing anything to calm Kenneth's nerves.

"Then why tell me this?" If this was the TENTH time that Paradox was attempting to stop whatever horrors happened, what made this any different that the past attempts.

"That's the interesting part. Every time we had a do-over, there was always one constant, you. You always knew who I was before we even met, though you never told me how." The man said, giving him a questioning look.

"Not happening." Kenneth shot down but the man's demeanor didn't change.

"Oh well, back to important matters. You are the constant in each time of those nine timelines but each time, you were unfortunately killed before you could make an impact." Kenneth froze for a moment, not wanting to believe what he was hearing but what reason would Paradox have to lie?

The man continued speaking. "After our last rerun, I received a gift from the last hero standing. A gift that would hopefully be the key to saving the earth. You're doing quite well with it really."

Kenneth's eyes widened at what the man was implying. "Don't tell me…"

He remembered the black box that his predecessor touched before he transmigrated into this body…the black box that gave him the system.

Paradox nodded. "Yes. Your video game-like ability. Truthfully, you're doing better than we expected."

"Who created it?" He asked…no…demanded.

"Your cousin Ben of course. A truly wonderful thing Alien X is. Though, it wasn't without consequences. There are laws that limit even celestialsapiens. You'll learn about multiverse preservation laws when you get older." Paradox said, letting Kenneth digest what he had heard.

"Consequences…what happened to Ben?" He asked.

"The intergalactic court is strict but Chadzmuth is a wonderful lawyer. On to other matters…while I dislike the pressure this brings on you, I must inform you that you are our last hope."

Kenneth fell silent as he understood the gravity of the situation. The whole of earth was at risk and he didn't know what exactly the threat was. 'No pressure.' He thought sarcastically.

"Oh before I go, I have one last thing. A gift from your future cousin. We managed to slip this one past the court." Paradox said, pulling out a glowing blue marble from…somewhere.

"What's that?" He asked in confusion.

The time walker smirked. "Why tell you when you can see for yourself?"

The man tossed it at Kenneth's chest, the glowing marble sinking into him as a bright light enveloped him.

It was brief but by the time the light died down, Paradox was nowhere to be seen but that wasn't what caught his attention. It was the notification that popped up the next second.

-[You have received 60 stat points!]