Joy was riding along his glider to Manehattan to find the Nexus safehouse. Ben came back after all his clones suddenly vanished, and they explained everything, Rarity had to translate given they had a mouth full of ice cream. “Ben really needs some fucking help…” Joy muttered. “Like...I understand his problems but still…” He muttered as he flew down towards the streets, not fully knowing where the safe house would be and having a bad feeling asking around would cause problems.

Where would this safehouse even be? The sewers might have been undamaged in the attack that destroyed it, maybe it’s down there? A bit cliche but effective. Joy Pondered, finding a Manhole cover and opening it. Hopping into the sewer and taking out a flashlight.

“Alright...now to go through this massive thing…” Joy muttered as he started to walk in a direction, not really knowing which way to go but might as well start walking.

Looking around there wasn’t any sludge or anything of the like, all dried up. Joy figured they didn’t fix up the system yet. Or are making a new one. Looking around Joy found a small maintenance room with an old map and notes from employee likely long since dead. The map helped and Joy found an anomaly there was a pathway to the right that according to the map, does not exist.

“Well...let’s hope these people are friendly…” Joy muttered as he walked down the hallway that shouldn’t have been there.

Walking down there lead to a dead end, or so it looked, there were three hand outlines drawn on the wall.This has to be some kind of puzzle.

“Oh?” Joy muttered while looking over the hands, wondering how the puzzle should work. “Well...maybe?” He muttered as he tried to press one of the hand outlines.

Upon touching one it glowed blue, touching another it glowed but the other shut off… a pattern?

“Okay…” Joy muttered while pressing the one and then pressing the other one.

After trial and error Joy managed to get the proper Pattern and a doorway opened in a flash of blue light to the right.a

“Cool.” Joy said while entering the new door that opened up for him.

This hallway was very high tech looking. All metal, and sifi looking.

“Well...alrighty then.” He said honestly while seeing this all. “Wonder how long it’s been here…”

Joy finally reached an auditorium area…… SWEET MOTHER OF! Joy couldn’t see the ceiling! Or the walls! It’s massive! “Well...shit.” Joy muttered. “This is...not what I expected…” He muttered. “Hello?”

Walking around for a whie I found a guide post, and according to this there was someone in the dinner. “Alright…” Joy muttered while heading to the dinner, wondering who might be here and hoping there wasn’t just one person.

Upon finally arriving at the first booth next to the kitchen door sat a roughed up older man, dozens of beer bottles just tossed about like dust. Joy walked over to the man, and he looked over at Joy. “Come to finish me off? Make it quick, before I’m sober.” He said drunkenly.

“I’m not who you think I am.” Joy said. “Who are you?”

“I’m former General Krot. Nott that that title matteres for shit now. Fucking hell…”

“I’m sure to Ben and Coco they would think otherwise.” Joy said honestly. “What happened?”

“Ambush. On our way here they came out from the other portals leading to and out of the Main Base, he killed off the last of us… everyone but me.” He said, taking a swig of beer. “It’s just me… I’m all that’s left of our founders beliefs…”

“Coco’s still alive.” Joy brought up. “And who’s ‘he’?”

“Jericho...and all his little lackeys he’s gathered so far.”

“Why am I not surprised…” Joy muttered. “Well anyways, your work isn’t done yet, Ben would like to talk to you about everything.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Everything you know.” Joy said. “Anything to fight against Nexus and wake Coco up.”

“What can this old fool even do?”

“Help.” Joy said simply. “You can help us fight against Nexus, and bring back what it was supposed to be.”

“What would I know that could help you?”

“Literally anything and everything about Nexus?” Joy brought up.

“Fine then. Ask away.”

“First up, where’s the main water supply of Nexus?” Joy asked. “Cause we were told to cripple their water supply to start off.”

“It’s in Cofrothes. A Realm entirely made by the founders, endless sea of all the fish of every ocean on ever world, and also endless water. Cup is somewhere sunken at the bottom over two million miles down.”

“Cool.” I said. “Next question, how else can we cripple Nexus besides their water?”

“Resources they have to gather from a world called Intret. Whole planet formed within a black hole, and somehow filled it, the entire place is one massive mineshaft of every resource you can imagine. Take that and the’ll be scarce for resources.”

“Cool.” Joy said with a nod, writing down the second one down. “And where would those two places actually be?”

"Safeguarded. The only way to each is guarded by Abominations. A failed attempt at making Admins. About as strong as one but as wild and unpredictable as a Psychopath bull."

“So basically their easy to deal with?” Joy asked honestly.

"Hardly. Basterds can tank a big bang sized blast. They were made from extracted bits of code from of the most feared Admins of the Admin war. Kro, the Admin of Berzerkers."

“I think we got way past the ‘big bang’ levels of power a while ago.” Joy brought up. “And a Berserker admin? Well that just makes them pretty predictable to be honest.” Joy said honestly.

"You say that. You want a demonstration there's a simulation deck ten floors below us. You can see what they are like."

“That would be interesting.” Joy said. “But I think that could wait until we talk more, especially for me to lend an ear to your plights so you don’t drink yourself into a coma.” Joy said simply. “Especially when Ben is going to ask you to be his General, need you to be in top form instead of being a sad drunk.”

"Spent most my life a field agent like the majority of us. Becoming a general basically means you're too old for field work, so they put you in a desk and if you don't adapt to it they put you in some automatic retirement home where even going to the bathroom is done for ya, doesn't matter how healthy you are."

“Well that’s not how General’s work for us.” Joy said. “Your still young enough to drink more than a goddamn fish and still be conscious, what’s stopping you from being the General for us and being what you really are, a fighter who helps others in need.”

"I want too… I really do. But like you said, Coco is in a Coma and I'm the only one who remembers our founders true goals. People these days don't want to hear it, but our reality is harsh, and not what it's meant to be."

“And when someone is actively putting out a hand to help you? That same person that saw Coco’s memories and believes there’s at least one person still left to help fight the good fight?” Joy asked. “You don’t have to be the only one who remembers the founders true goals.” Joy said while bringing out a Memory Card from Castle Oblivion. “You can teach people your founder’s dreams and goals for a better future.”

Krot sighed, contemplating his next words as he took another sip. "Alright. On one condition."

“What would be the condition?” Joy asked curiously.

"You. I want you to learn the ways of Nexus. The True Nexus. We are quite literally at the edge of extinction, a person of your influence might save what we once we're."

“True.” Joy said honestly. “So, how to start?”

"Follow me." Krot said, standing up and then nearly falling over, Joy catching them.

“More like you point out which direction.” Joy said while keeping the poor guy up.

Krot pointed Joy towards a room some ways down a long corridor. The room was small, oddly, and held a small statue of three arms each holding onto each other's end.

“Oh? And the statue is supposed to be?” Joy asked curiously.

"When our founders died, all that was left of them was three arms, latched onto each other with a grip that never faltered. We keep them back at the Capitol, it's a religious thing really."

“I get it...a solidarity between three people, never letting go and never giving up.” Joy said. “Right?”

"Pretty much. They marked their brother and sisterhood with a small blue dot imbedded within the palms of their right hand. For them it was just symbolic. For us today it's the equivalent to those fancy wrist devices you have."

“Assistants?” Joy asked. “Honestly we don’t see these as symbols...more like portable menu screens to be honest.” Joy said honestly.

"To each their own." Krot said, managing to stand on his own and walked over to the statue. "Place your hand in the center, and let them speak to you."

“Alright…” Joy nodded as he gently put his hand in the center.

Suddenly Joy found himself in a dark room, three hooded figures around him. "You seek knowledge?" The one in front of Joy asked, their voice deep and commanding.

"You seek our teachings?" The one to the back right of Joy asked, their voice feminine and wise.

"You seek answers?" The one to the back left of joy asked, male also, a younger voice than the other two.

“Yes.” Joy said slowly.

The environment changed, the group, Joy Included now atop reflective water, like standing on a mirror. "Which of us do you wish to speak with first?" The three asked, now in front of Joy.

“Well...let’s go with you.” He said while pointing to the feminine voiced one first.

"As you wish." She said, holding out a hand.

Joy wasn’t fully sure but took the ladies hand nervously.

She grabbed him by the wrist, fell back and dragged him down into the water underneath. As they got deeper until the water was it's darkest, everything was dark, only white/grey people appearing all around the two. "My earliest memory, waking up. It was just us all, where we woke up, never moving, never doing anything. How could we? We did not know what we were, or what we could do." She began speaking.

“Okay then…” Joy muttered.

"Time had yet to exist, so we have no idea how long we just existed like this. Days? Years? Eons?"

“Makes sense.” Joy said honestly.

"Then, one 'day'-" There was a sudden explosion in the distance, Code flowed out in all directions as everyone began moving towards the source once it does down. "Death. One of us discovered our Code, and the other discovered we could die. Our first two discoveries."

“Oh?” Joy asked curiously.

"Suddenly, as if the floodgates were opened, we began creating. Languages, art, mortal beings, souls, hearts. We finally discovered our purposes. As we built and built, we began to divide, some wanted to build together, others alone. In our infancy we began arguing, fight after fight over how we'd even make these places that would one day be called realms. And in eons to come, a new word, and our final discovery would be made." Suddenly, everything, the void itself and entire realms all across the vastness were broken, burned, and blood soaked. "War."

“Yeah...that’s a thing.” Joy said worriedly. Armies of Admins marched across the void, each slaughtering one another in a grand battle. Each summoning code enhanced weapons and armors, hacking away at each other until they no longer healed or moved. It was an endless battle across creation and void. He'll didn't even come close to describing what Joy was witnessing. “Jesus…”

"Our group, we dubbed Nexus, we stood for coexistence and compassion. We were ten thousand Admins strong, and at the war's end, it was just us three."

“Well then…” Joy muttered worriedly.

"We flew to our own realm, we named after our Group, Nexus. We stood for what we all believed in, a single creation devoid of separation by reflections and barriers. The Mother appeared to us, and gave us a task, told us a secret."

“Oh? And what would that secret be?” Joy asked curiously.

"She was created, not made. Each time she makes us Admins, was after she had been created in a different creation altogether, transforming the old into something marvelous, our vision of a unified reality. She told us we were the ones to build and create here in this creation, and so we went to work, spending so much of our lives trying to create her. But we quickly realized we lacked something we could never have, but our offspring could. Potential. Admins have no higher limits to break, no higher mountains to climb, but mortal life does. Your kind has always intrigued us with how resilient and resourceful you all can be."

“Well then…” Joy said, not really sure what to say given all the news he’s getting.

"We bred with the mortal creations we made, and in time, we died, defending them from those who went mad after the war. It pains us to see our life's work and defendants largely lead by such a false shepherd, but we do know it was to be expected. The mother told us the day one of our own was born from pure evil, our goal would be close at hand, but it would be up to the course of fate to decide if the new her would be like herself, or like the evil that would spawn her."

“Well…” Joy muttered, not really sure what to say about that.

"Now that you know this, what will you do?"

“I mean...besides what we were going to do to begin with?” Joy asked. “Doing the same thing you wanted to...just with less of a horrific backstory.”

"Then will you help rebuild our society, our people?"

“You can read my mind, do you really need to ask?” Joy asked bluntly. “Also, would I be here if I didn’t want to do that?”

"Then raise your right hand, and swear on the mark I shall bestow upon you, that you will fight only to obtain Mother's goals, create the her, and rebuild this creation as she had hoped."

“Some people might stab me for this…” Joy muttered before raising his right hand and pledging to help.

As Joy raised his right hand a blue glow emitted from the palm. "I, Dia, Admin of Justice swear in this Dire Wolf known as Joy to the True Nexus, our family helps its own, and now I will give the one gift of your choosing."

“Gift?” Joy asked curiously. “What kind of gift?”

"A gift of myself. A gift of Justice. In our time trying to craft Mother ourselves, we created many of the abilities you know and even use today. I can gift you one of these three." They said, waving a hand as three multi colored balls of light appeared between she and Joy.

“What are the three choices?” Joy asked curiously.

"To your left is known as Karmic Justice, to those who have sinned and done wrong additional damage is dealt, eating away at their very being. In the middle is Clairvoyance, enter the minds of the guilty to view their memories and pass Judgement. Lastly is Console, bring forth the death the wrongdoer has slain to fight at your side for some time."

Joy blinked at those three abilities. “I’d say I want all three but you will only give me one...why not Console, that sounds cool.” Joy said, thinking that it would be hilarious to see Nexus suddenly have to deal with something it can’t deal with by just numbers alone.

Nodding, Clairvoyance and Karmic Justice vanished as Console floated over to Joy. Taking it Joy felt the Ability flow into him, and merged with the others. "Thank you for aiding this Noble cause young one."

“No problem, it’s what heroes do ya know?” Joy said with a smile, still a bit thankful for his and Ben’s mental connection so Ben could know what’s going on as well.

"May we meet again, young one." With a nod, the Admin of Justice vanished as well as the area, the white void clearing back up into the room with the statue, Joy looked at his palm, and there was the blue dot, though now, Joy saw it looked a bit different. How he couldn't tell, it just did.

"I see you did accept after all." Krot said, walking up to Joy, sober some. "Which founder did you speak to?"

“I mean...I was expecting to talk to the other two given they asked ‘who first’.” Joy said, a little confused why he couldn’t talk to the other two. “Unless I have to go back and talk to the other two right?”

"If you want. You can take their tests and trials to gain more gifts." Krot said. "After that they can give you information, tasks that are vital in one way or another to the final goal."

"Well sounds about right." He said honestly. "So I'm gonna be spending a lot of time with this, unless it was barely two minutes here."

"Five hours." Krot said, surprising Joy.

"Oh boy." The wolf said. "And I was just told things and given a...pretty stupid strong ability from Lady Justice."

"It's to be expected. They are echoes bound to this world, this creation by their determination and will alone. What felt like at most half an hour for you was much longer in reality."

“Question, couldn’t Ben figure out how to...you know, fully bring their bodies back?” Joy asked. “I mean, we have their genetics, their conscience, and Code actually given these hands still hold all their powers…” Joy said with some thought.

"Funny you mention that. They should have been able to bring themselves back, got enough code in their arms and such to do so easily. But they don't. I think they might be waiting for something to happen before making a grand reappearance."

“Like when the fighting actually starts?” Joy asked curiously.

“Possibly, maybe. Hard to say.”

“Might as well ask them.” Joy said while putting his hand back into the center of the three.

This time though… nothing happened. "You can only visit them once a day, such efforts like this exhaust them." Krot informed.

“I doubt I could just...pour an elixir on their arms and have that work right?” Joy asked sheepishly.

"Your enthusiasm is appreciated but ill placed. Come, time to show you what this base holds and can do." Krot said, leading the way.

“Alright…” Joy said while following Krot.

The tour was impressive. Krot showed Joy the armory, which held some of the Nexus made Replicas of Ben's weapons, mostly the lower tier versions but a few hundred of the newest ones were here also, enough munitions to put a million bullets in every being on Equis, a complete food conversation room, converting both matter and antimatter into food resources, a training deck that made the castles look inferior, and enough vehicles to completely cover Equis's surface. "I wasn't sure how many of us there were, I managed to make twenty thousand of these bases in my career, each well stocked and fit to build up armies and rebuild Nexus. The True Nexus. Pocket dimensions are very useful."

“Well then…” Joy blinked. “This is...quite a lot to be honest.” Joy said. “Jeez...Ben’s gonna get a kick out of sending all his soldiers here…” Joy muttered. “So...question, why the hell are the teachers in Nexus teaching children quantum mechanics?”

"While other Admins realms life was barely learning to use rocks and sticks for weapons, we were already taught all, at the time, current sciences and magics, many most realms still have not learned all what we were taught in our beginnings. We learned more as more developed and by the time the first cities emerged within other Admins realms, we already had colonized many other worlds within the realm our Founders made for us."

“Yeah, nothing like getting the special treatment while everyone else was living like normal people…” Joy muttered. “I can imagine it was difficult but still.”

"Now then, the final room on the tour." Krot said.

“Can’t wait to see what it is.” Joy said, wondering what the final room could be.

After a long elevator ride, the door opened to a single hallway with one door at the end. "I am sure you are aware of the Abilities vault yes?" Krot asked as the two walked to the door.

“No.” Joy said. “What do you mean by that?”

"You think Cript and all the other Experiments have those powerful abilities naturally? Nexus has stockpiled such powers since their earliest. It's our most safeguarded location. The powers in there are many and various. I wasn't able to get the Class B abilities and up, but C-E abilities can be useful and are a lot more common." He said, opening the door and for as far as Joy could see, glass canisters each holding some form of glowing energy lined the walls. "It's not much but should help out."

“That depends on what all the abilities are.” Joy brought up. “Cause it’s not the strength of the ability that matters, it’s how you use it...also to be perfectly honest, yes, I did expect that cause it’s pretty easy to naturally get abilities when your creating new things.”

"Hehe." Krot laughed lightly, walking over to a green glowing canister and picking it up. "This is a class D ability, known as Pressurize. You use Lindworm, right?"

“Yes I do.” He said while summoning Lindworm. “What, can it create a pressurized zone of air or something?”

"You can do that with Lindworm Naturally, but the Data Coco gathered states that the densest you can make the air is about as hard as steel. Maybe a diamond if you damn near kill yourself doing it. With Pressurize added not only will your wind currents be diamond tough naturally, given it's both an active and passive ability, you can make the air so dense it forms its own gravity."

“Mine.” Joy said bluntly. “Even if I could just train and have my abilities be on par with that, I want to double up on the kind of crap I can do with it.”

Chuckling Krot handed the Canister over to Joy. "Open up the top, and keep your hand inside until the energy completely gets absorbed into it."

“Alright.” Joy nodded, kind of expecting this to hurt as he opened the canister and shoved his hand into it.

It didn't hurt, in fact it felt more like putting his hand inside water and feeling it drain away. Once the ability was completely absorbed by Joy, he checked it out in his Assistant. "It has three levels, the first is basic pressuring, secondly allows for pinpoint precise pressure placement, the third is the fun stuff."

“I’m gonna have fun with this.” He said with a smile. “By the way, can it also take away pressure?”

"Yes, at level two."

“Cool.” Joy said with a smile, already knowing how to use this ability in a lot of fun ways.

"Well if that's all here then go fetch Ben, I'd like to speak with them and honestly I'd rather not leave this place alone."

“He is...currently eating a boatload of ice cream...because he thinks he himself believes he’s failed his family twice in the same week…which is technically true given that his kids were kidnapped and Coco is in a coma…” Joy sighed out.

"I see. I wish I could help but for all I know most Nexus must have changed already with Jericho in command so most of the facilities I know of might have different uses now."

“Okay who’s the current leader of Nexus? Cause honestly this civil war thing isn’t just because Vincent died off screen right?” Joy asked honestly.

"Well, according to law of the founders the next leader of Nexus should be Cript. While all the experiments of his classification are related to Vincent, Cript is the only one directly made by him, sexual wise I mean. However Vincent was rewriting the laws, trying to ensure the next leader was his own council, and that's where the infighting began."

“And so Cript just...left Nexus to implode without doing anything?” Joy asked. “He literally owns Nexus, why didn’t he start doing something to stop their mad ravings?”

"You'd have to ask them that. I couldn't tell you if I wanted to."

Joy sighed out. “And did he even help evacuate or was it after he helped?”

"I haven't seen him since he was a newborn so I don't think he helped any. Though it's not impossible to say he does still have a plan, what though is hard to say."

Joy wanted to tell the guy who Mother was, but decided against it. “Well I’m sure when his plan does come full circle you’ll probably be questioning a lot of things.”

"Likely. Now then, let's get some life into this base. It's creepy in here with only two people."

“Ya think?” Joy asked before clapping his hands, several Shinobi Nobodies appeared and were kneeling to Joy. “How long have you been here?” Joy asked honestly.

“Since you entered my lord.” One of the five shinobi’s said simply.

*Impressive. Do they remember who they were in life, we, when they had their hearts I mean?" Krot asked.

“Our Lord has given us all the choice of remembering our past selves.” The head Shinoi, which Krot noticed was a lot different than the other four and also how the being seemed to be there but also not was interesting. “To some of us we agreed to remember, to others they felt their past was their past.”

"Interesting." Krot said simply.

“So, need more people here? Cause I can just give some people a call and get people here.” Joy brought up.

"Alright then." Krot said. "Get calling. Time to put it to use. When Ben is ready to talk I'll see him, till then I'll be making maps to the other bases like this one."

“A lot of people coming up.” Joy said while pulling out a phone and calling people to get here.