Jack and the Crimson Waste

As wind whipped across the dunes of the lifeless desert, a no man's land of sorts, one man stood strong. Standing at a little under 6 feet, his long black hair, which was tied up in a chonmage, blew with the wind. He was wearing white and gray gi, worn in the style of a kimono, a white obi tied around his waist, and a pair of wooden shoes, called geta, clacking as he walked. This man was named Jack, also known as Samurai Jack or The Samurai by others he had fought with and befriended in the past. He had no idea where he was. Last he remembered, he had jumped into a portal, to go back in time and destroy Aku, the master of darkness, the essence of evil, a shapeshifter who had imprisoned his world, with his magic samurai sword, a katana. This weapon was formed by the divinities of his world and once wielded by his father.

As the wind began dying down, he shouted.

"Hello! Anyone out there!"

There was no response. It almost seemed as if the world had abandoned him, since he was, after all, in a desolate place, one of the worst he had ever encountered. The thought crossed his mind that he was in a parallel dimension, that the time portal had been distorted somehow, creating a wormhole through spacetime, but he quickly dismissed this as happenstance. However, another thought occurred to him: since Aku had tricked him and transported him through time, perhaps this could be just another one of his tactics. He shivered at the thought that he had been deceived again, denying this as a possibility.

On the other side of the desert, at the same time, three figures walked together. The first was Bow, a man of a tan complexion, with kinky hair, which was dark brown, and eyes that were almost black. He was wearing a sleeveless mid-drift, which was white, covered by armor with a breastplate embellished with a heart, a back piece, a metal sleeve on his shoulder, and a forearm guard. He carried a quiver of arrows over his right shoulder, and a bow in his right hand, while wearing jeans with a brown belt and nearly knee-high boots. He was accompanied by Princess Glimmer, a stocky and short woman, with thick and bushy hair colored pastel pink on the top and sparkling purple on the bottom, while also sporting curled bangs. Apart from her thick eyebrows and sideburns, she had tan-colored skin, brown/pink eyes, and long eyelashes. She was wearing a sleeveless dark purple-colored leotard, stopping at her mid-thigh, sitting underneath a light purple-colored tunic colored tunic, along with purple-colored boots that matched the rest of her outfit. She also had on light blue-colored fingerless gloves, a blue cape that sparkled in the sunlight, and an armored circular plate on her left shoulder.

There was one final figure in their group: Adora, the group's second female. She had dark blonde hair, brown eyebrows, and bluebell eyes. She wore, on this occasion, a white short-sleeved shirt, underneath a red jacket with sleeves of a quarter-length, with a beige-colored popped collar. She was also sporting gray-colored pants and a brown-colored belt, fastened with a golden wing buckle, symbolizing her allegiance to the Rebellion, accompanied by red-and-white boots. She carried the Sword of Protection with her, which allowed her to turn into a princess of power: She-Ra.

Frustrated with the fact that they were still journeying across this barren wasteland, with the hot summer heat beating down upon their necks and arms, Glimmer huffed and complained.

"I knew this would be a disaster! Bow's dads were right! We should have stayed away. I can see why no one comes back alive!"

However, Adora, countered that negative sentiment, sternly addressing Glimmer.

"We need to figure this out, otherwise we will never know what those constellations mean!"

Just then, Bow hugged both of them, exclaiming, "best friend squad...EVER!"

They continued to walk across the dunes of the desert as the wind whistled around them.

With the wind dying down, Bow looked at his tracker pad, usually used to track down the technology of the First Ones on Etheria. He announced to them both that he was "detecting a disturbance of some kind on here. It looks like someone came out of a portal about one click from here, in this very desert!" As Glimmer exuded a sigh of frustration, Adora augmented Bow, declaring, "let's go check it out" and led the group forward. They heard, in the distance, the voice of an unfamiliar man. He shouted, from what they can hear.

"Hello! Anyone out there!"

Rather than shouting back, as that would lead to a useless shouting game, they ran in the direction of the voice, following the location of Bow's tracker. They had, now, stumbled upon the legendary and skilled warrior of Earth: Samurai Jack.

Coming closer, they all smiled, with Adora saying, "Hello I'm Adora," followed by an inquisitive question.

"Who are you and how'd you get here?"

Jack, skeptical of them and confused by where he was, identified himself.

"I'm Jack. Some people call me Samurai Jack. I went through a time portal to go back and rid the world of the evil of Aku. But somehow I arrived here."

He paused and asked, seeing Adora's sword and Bow's quiver, "so, fellow warriors, where might I be?"

Bow responded in kind.

"You are in the desolate crimson wasteland of Etheria."

Jack shook his head in dismay.

"I must have been transported across dimensions. I need to get back to my own time and place to fight Aku, to defeat him once and for all."

He paused, adding he could defeat Aku "by using this magic sword," pointing to his samurai sword. He followed this by describing the sword.

"It is the sword for a righteous and skilled warrior who wishes to banish evil from the world."

Adora laughed.

"Magic sword? Skilled warrior? You have clearly never heard of She-Ra. If you are such a skilled warrior, then prove it!"

She then shouted, "For the Honor of Grayskull!," turning into an (almost) eight-foot-tall warrior named She-Ra. Different from her usual appearance, when Adora is She-Ra she had long and wavy blonde hair, light blue-colored eyes, a golden tiara, gold-colored arm cuffs, a white dress with a six-pointed-flower on the chest, golden pauldrons on her sleeves, and a v-shaped belt at her waste. She was also wearing white-colored skin-tight shorts covered by white-colored ruffles, white-colored knee-high boots with golden trimming, and a knee-length red cape. Jack looked at her utterly terrified. Predictably, he thought: what have I gotten myself into? This is one of the toughest challenges I have faced yet!

The swords of Jack and She-Ra clashed while Glimmer and Bow watched with astonishment, telling She-Ra to stop the fight since it wasn't worth it. Each sword had a magical origin, so no one sword is more powerful than the other. Despite Jack's developed fighting skills, his kimono was damaged. Just like in other past fights, he tore off the top half of his kimono, and continued to fight, yelling "AGHHHHH!" as he went in for the attack. Even so, this skilled warrior was no match for the superhuman strength and agility of She-Ra, who had the ability to project a rainbow-colored energy blast, and to transform animals into flying creatures. Just as Jack was being overpowered, Glimmer stepped in and teleported him away from the fighting, while Bow fired a net around She-Ra, using one of his arrows, to stop her from fighting.

As the dust cleared and the fighting stopped, She-Ra turned back into Adora, putting her sword into its a sheath on her back, and Jack, in turn, also put his sword away into a sheath hanging by his left leg, anchored by rope which went about his waist.

He bowed, telling Adora, "I know a great warrior when I see one. You are as strong as the warriors from where I come from."

Pausing he added, with great confidence, "it would be an honor to serve alongside you."

Continuing his pleasantries, he effusively commented: "now that I know this great warrior," pointing to Adora, who blushed and radiated happiness at his reverent praise, he turned to Bow and Glimmer, questioning them: "what's your names? Tell me about yourselves."

Bow described himself as a master archer and tech whizz, while Glimmer noted her role as a princess who can teleport from one place to another and can even teleport her staff to herself remotely! She also noted her power over light, allowing her to create pink-colored spheres, which can be used as a light source, and fire blasts of light at her opponents, temporarily blinding them.

Astonished at these magical powers and looking at all three of them, he asked, "so what brings you to this desolate landscape?"

Bow, thinking about it, responded, "well, we were trying to figure out what this constellation means," pulling out his tracker pad.

Exuding good will, Bow insisted to Jack, "perhaps you can join us on our quest. We can bring you to our home Bright Moon, where you may find answers for how to get back to your own time."

Glimmer, frustrated and impatient with all the standing around, pleaded, "fine, let's get going already!"

And with that, all four were off on the quest, one to figure out the meaning of the constellation, which may have profound importance in their fight to preserve Etheria.

On the way, Jack walked beside Adora and inquisitively inquired, "where did you learn to be such a brave and powerful warrior? I haven't seen skills like that for years."

Surprised by the adoration, Adora smiled, telling of the years of training as a Horde soldier, with various courses and training with her team. She confessed that when she left the Horde and joined the Rebellion, she left her team behind, but that, as she excitedly bubbled, "I have two great friends right here!," immediately hugging Bow and Glimmer. "What else could I ask for?" Their quest went onward.

Just as they thought they would never discover the meaning of the constellation of Serrenia, a mystical First One, its connection to Maura, the previous She-Ra 1,000 years earlier, and the connection to a portal, they stumbled upon a decaying building. It was a temple in the wasteland, partially engulfed by a sand dune. Doing what she did best, Adora used her ability to read First One's writing to get them inside the temple, the entrance still unimpeded. With some exploring through the decaying facility, they discovered a screen. It was broadcasting the message with the constellations shown on their tracker pad to a place outside Etheria itself! Was it, Bow thought, an indication that some of the First Ones were still alive? Maybe they were living on another world. It was a thought neither Bow, Adora, nor Glimmer had ever considered. Still, it was a clear and distinct possibility they had to consider and take seriously.

With that, Bow began messing around with the keypad. Just out of curiosity, he typed in SHE-RA. Nothing came up. There was the same result when he typed in GLIMMER and BRIGHT MOON. As a wild guess, he typed in ADORA. A message appeared on the screen, shocking them all. The video that played showed a young baby girl with blonde hair held by a woman with a flowing dress embroidered with flowers, bluebell eyes, and flowing blonde hair. The other figure, nearby, was a man with short-cut black hair, a uniform that made it clear he was part of an army of some sort, and piercing brown eyes.

The woman shouted "The Horde is attacking! Whoever gets this message, please come and help us! The facility is being overrun" while the man fired his laser beam rifle at the approaching Horde tanks.

"This will be," the man lamented, "Our last message. Please help, we can't stop them..." and the video cut off.

While Glimmer and Bow were shocked, Jack was puzzled, and Adora was aghast. These must have been, she conjectured, her parents, and was being held by her mom, the woman with the bluebell eyes and blond hair.

Before she could take time to process all of this, the system, realizing that an "administrator" was not accessing it, declared, in a robotic voice: "unauthorized access detected. System shutting down."

This was different than what had happened at the Crystal Castle in the past, but it was still terrifying as they could be trapped in the facility! Adora demanded Glimmer teleport them out of there. As she was about to do just that, Bow had already downloaded all the information from the temple onto his tracker pad, in case something funky happened. All four of them were teleported outside the temple, to a nearby ridge, watching as the system shut down. There was little they could do but change their course. After all, with shutting down of this temple, there were no records or anything else that had been left behind to give them further information about their mysterious message.

With that, they all walked back to Bright Moon, to rest, and help Jack get a portal back to his time. Glimmer, who was warming up to Jack a bit, beamed.

"Before you get the audience of my mother, it's probably best that you...," looking at his ripped kimono, "get some new clothes."

Using her magical powers, she teleported all three of them into her room, and pulled out a ruffled shirt, declaring, "this should do!"

Jack looked skeptically at the piece of clothing, but resigned himself to it: "this will do...although I would like to get a new white and gray gi to replace my old one," thinking of its importance to his heritage and its ties to his family history.

Glimmer chirped with a smile, "Sure, that can be arranged! How hard can it be to make a new gi for you?" she told him, although she had no idea what a gi was. She only used the word in order to maintain her composure before someone who is older than herself. Little did she know, every other time his kimono had been ripped in the past, he had repaired his clothing on his own, without the assistance of others.

Before he was to meet Glimmer's mother, Queen Angella, Bow, puzzled, quizzed him.

"You talked about Aku before when we first met in the wasteland. Tell us more."

He, Adora, and Glimmer sat patiently on the ground, in a semi-circle, ready to listen to Jack's story, like they are listening to one by an elder. "Very well," Jack told them all, "I'll do my best to recount the evils of Aku." He cleared his throat, and began a story:

         "In my universe, many eons ago, an evil force radiated from the universe. It was beaten back by a team of mystical warriors with magical powers, but one part of it was not destroyed. It crash-landed on my home world, Earth, creating a huge crater, and began to grow. For years, people did little or nothing to stop its growth. But eventually, my people sent a legion of some of the most brave and noble warriors to defeat this menace. All were killed off, except the one who led this effort: my father. In an attempt to destroy it, he inadvertently released a manifestation of this evil, Aku, from his prison, unleashing him upon the world. After wreaking havoc on the nearby village, where I grew up, and tying up my father, the mystical beings of the universe released him. A magical sword, coming from the righteousness within him, forged by these beings, was formed with the express purpose of killing Aku. My father did not defeat Aku, but banished him underground, where he stayed for years upon years."

With Bow, Glimmer, and Adora entranced, he continued:

         "Once I had the appropriate training, I went to confront Aku, ignoring the warning of my father that I was not ready, fighting him with my magic sword. While Aku was gravely injured, and I was about to strike the final blow, he opened a portal in time, sending me forward thousands of years to a time when he dominated the world. Therefore, it is my quest is to return to the past and kill Aku, ridding the world of such evil."

Having finished, Adora told him that his story reminded her of the Horde, on a path of destruction to destroy all that is good and decent in their world, to bring darkness to Etheria. But, all that stood in the way of such armies was the Kingdom of Bright Moon, the Whispering Woods, and the newly constituted Princess Alliance, the latter which she was a part of. It would be, she gushed, a wonderful honor to fight alongside him. He grinned.

"I am dedicated to fighting any evil, whether it be Aku, or some other being or force, in order to restore balance."

Soon, he met, Angella, who had purple-tinted skin, long pinkish-colored hair, a gem at center of her forehead which functioned as sort-of-crown, and a pair of see-through, shimmery wings. She was also wearing a pink-colored leotard, light purple-colored leggings, purple-colored boots, a long blue-colored cape, matching necklace and earrings, and long white-colored gloves, reaching to her elbows. She was anxious to meet him after learning about his cunning nature and strong fighting skills, as a master in the martial arts, melee, and swords, with peak abilities in agility, endurance, senses, speed, and strength. While she didn't know of his hunting, survival, archery, marksmanship, or his dedicated willpower, if she had, it would have strengthened her view of Jack as a dedicated warrior. Additionally, as a good mother, Angella, wanted to know who Glimmer is keeping as friends these days after her secretness surrounding Adora when she first arrived in Bright Moon a few months before.

Shaking his hand in the throne room, she thanked Jack for coming to meet her, although she internally laughed at Jack's ruffled shirt, which did not match with the lower part of his kimono.

"There is so much for us to talk about. I have never seen anyone looking like you in these parts, ever before. I hear you are a great warrior. Will you help us in our quest to rid this world of evil?"

Pondering it, Jack, who already knows the answer, enthusiastically answered, "yes!"

He did say, however, "with all the magical powers in a place like this, among your daughter, and Adora, have you constructed a time portal of some kind? I would very much like to get back to my time and place to defeat Aku, the manifestation of evil incarnate."

She hesitated, describing how all of their resources were being used to defend from attacks by the Horde, including the powers manifested in the 10-member Princess Alliance, and that they can't afford, to use their resources, at the time, to build a inter-dimensional time portal.

Furthermore, she lamented, "Entrapta would be the perfect person to help you with constructing such a device, but...," she sighed, "she is now working with the Horde, bringing her technology genius and inventor abilities to the side of evil."

On a more positive note, for Jack at least, she told him: "Our spies inside the Horde have indicated that the Supreme Leader of the Horde, Lord Hordak, is building a portal, likely with the help of Entrapta."

She then cast doubt on any possible effort to get to the portal, noting that the Princesses are playing a fundamentally defensive role and are not on the offensive, while also reminding him that they barely escaped alive when they attempted a rescue mission of her daughter who was kidnapped by the Horde.

Accepting this reality, Jack fretted, "even with this opportunity closed to me, I will still help you defeat evil in your land," while he optimistically told her, "perhaps, when the war with the Horde is over, then such a portal can be built through the use of powers wielded by all that are all good and righteous, even if a tech genius is on the side of evil."