The Equation

"The Equation" is the first episode in the series Variable X.

Plot
Gravinox's multi-dimensional invasion is put into action; secrets are revealed to a group of 49 unaquainted strangers whom are destined to save the universe.

Story
Tap Tap Tap.

The boredom began to get the better of Joe. It was Wednesday afternoon, and similar to every other day since Joe's summer vacation had started, he was once again doing nothing. Nothing, except wasting his time on his computer. As the days dwindled away, Joe didn't have a variety of things to do, besides play online games or draw useless pictures. He ruffled his brown hair, which grew every which way. He needed a haircut. But what he needed even more was a shower. Joe could feel the grease on his fingers after rubbing his unclean scalp. He figured he was on the computer a lot more than he thought. Then again, he wouldn't be surprised if he was on the computer too much. Every day was the same.

As Joe emerged from his room, a blast of cooling air blasted him. He really wished his room was air conditioned. These hot summer days were unbearable. For the past few weeks, the town has already had at least 3 Heat Waves, all consisting of 3 or 4 days of 102 degree weather.

As Joe undressed in the bathroom to take a shower, he noticed his Omnitrix, as if it was an old friend he hadn't seen in so long. The Omnitrix is an alien device that transforms the user into a variety of alien species. You'd think that would contain Joe's boredom, but it really hadn't been. For some reason, the Omnitrix had been glitching out lately. Sometimes, when he went to activate it, a random hologram of an alien he didn't recognize would appear. When he attempted to transform into said alien, the Omnitrix would instead transform Joe into one of his own aliens. Never had he actually transformed into any of the mysterious aliens whose holograms left Joe guessing.

Joe climbed into the shower, feeling the relaxing hot water run down his back. He knew he had to think of something to do besides go on the computer. He'd be wasting his whole summer vacation! And he wouldn't be 14 years old forever. Before he would know it, he'd be an adult. He mind as well enjoy being a kid while he still could. Joe squeezed a small portion of shampoo into the palm of his hand, and lathered it into his messy hair. His thoughts wandered on what he could possibly do on a day like this, when suddenly a bit of shampoo dripped into his eye.

"Ah!" Joe yelped, losing his footing on the slippery shower floor. He fell sideways into the shower curtain, instantly ripping it off the hooks it hanged on as he fell to the bathroom floor. He wrestled the shower curtain, trying to find a way out. Seconds later, Joe managed to worm out of the coccoon-like curtain. Ugh. Now his eye stung and his shoulder throbbed with pain after its collision with the bathroom's tile floor. Suddenly, Joe's whole house shook. His wet feet once again sent him down to the ground. After managing to find his footing, Joe scrambled over to the bathroom window and pulled the shade up a bit. Peeking out, he could see a gold-colored monster of some sort rampaging through his back yard. A Chronosapien. Joe ran into his room, preparing to go outside and stopping the Chronosapien. He shoved through a pile of his clothes, but since he was still wet from the shower, Joe didn't want to put any good clothes on. He quickly pulled on a plain green shirt that matched his gleaming, green eyes and a pair of black soccor shorts. He quickly slipped on a pair of sneakers, then he ran into the hallway, gripped the stair bannisters, and slid down. Already out the front door, he realized he left the shower running. He figured this wouldn't take long anyway.

When he entered his back yard, Joe expected a Chronosapien. Well, in a way, he was right. But this Chronosapien had to be atleast five or six feet taller than the average Chronosapien. Its gears glowed red, as did its eyes. The key-like semi circle on its head spun rapidly as it shot time rays at trees and plants.

"Hey!" Joe shouted at the Chronosapien. When it turned to look at Joe, it's circular red eyes widened. But it remained silent. The Chronosapien's internal gears whirred as it lifted a gargantuan arm in effort to smash Joe. However, Joe's senses were keen, and he was fast enough to dodge it.

"Alright," Joe mocked, "I didn't have to beat you senseless. But it looks like I don't have a choice!" He activated the Omnitrix. He slid his index finger and middle finger together over the touch-screen, and scrolled through the holograpic images of his aliens. But which one would be able to stop a Chronosapien? Well, they were a robotic-type of alien. Maybe Hydro-Tide was the way to go. Joe selected Hydro-Tide's hologram. The touch-screen slid backwards, and a dial underneath popped up. As soon as Joe was to push that dial back down, he would transform into an alien. Specifically, his alien called Hydro-Tide. But before he could, the Chronosapien blasted a time ray at Joe. At first, he thought he was a goner, until the light from the ray faded and he could see he was pefectly fine. However, he turned around to find a red swirling portal behind him. That was kind of concerning. Before he could react, the swirling red vortex started to suck Joe in. Joe tried to reach for the Omnitrix's dial, still up and ready to be pressed down. But he knew it was already too late as his grip on the rugged earth slipped away, sending him spiraling into the red vortex, leading to who knows where.

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When Joe finally woke up, his vision was very blurry. He felt as if he was knocked out. He... did vaugely remember a hard impact, involving his skull and the ground. He pushed himself up, trying to get himself to his feet and find where he was. Chronosapien teleportation vortexes usually don't lead anywhere good. Rubbing his left temple to check for injury, his wrist felt funny. When he looked down, he could see even through blurry vision that his Omnitrix was missing. Oh great. Suddenly, a hand perched itself on Joe's shoulder. He looked up, and he could see someone, but he wasn't sure who. And the blurriness didn't help Joe identify the stranger. But whoever it was, the person helped Joe to his feet.

"Are you okay?" A voice said, coming from the stranger. After standing up, Joe could see he was at least a head taller than the stranger. Joe rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the cloudiness from his vision.

"I... I think so," Joe answered. But he took no time at all to ask, "Where's my Omnitrix?" It took the stranger a few seconds to respond. Or maybe it was Joe's spinning headache that made it seem like time was moving slower.

"What's an Omnitrix?" The stranger asked. Joe shook his head. Maybe he should keep information on his Omnitrix a little more secret.

"Ah, nothing." Joe replied. "Where am I exactly?" His vision was starting to clear. In front of him stood a boy with dark brown hair, going every which way, just like Joe's. The boy also had olive green eyes, which seemed to dart around, observing his surroundings. He was jogging in place, like he couldn't stand still. The kid couldn't of been older than 11 years old or so.

"I think Unetta told me this is... the Fork of Creation," replied the boy, after having to think hard about it. "By the way, I'm Nicholas. Nicholas Grover. But you can call me stump," he said, still hopping around. Joe had a lot of questions. Who was this guy? Where was he? He certainly wasn't at the creation of a fork. However, he kept a positive attitude. Being negative wouldn't get him anyway.

"My name is Joe, and I'm from planet Earth." Joe said, throwing in that last part for the heck of it. Stump gave a laugh.

"As far as I know, I'm from Earth, too." Stump chimed in. Then Stump began to trot away energetically, but spun around and signaled for Joe to follow. "Come on, man!" He called. "I'll show you around."

As they toured around, Stump showed Joe some basic stuff, like the '''giant alien whos hands they were standing on. '''Seriously, how could Joe have not noticed that before? The sky was a blue-purple color, and surrounded by other floating aliens, all black in color. Stump noted they were "sell-us-ians," but Joe figured that wasn't fully correct. While they continued walking, Joe noticed a red mark on Stump's left wrist, somewhat similar to the red mark that Joe's Omnitrix had imprinted into his skin that he only noticed after the device was removed.

"What's that red mark from?" Joe asked out of curiosity. Stump lifted his left wrist, and arched an eyebrow, seeming somewhat puzzled.

"My Increditrix is supposed to be here," Stump remarked, pointing to the vacant wrist.

"Increditrix?" Joe questioned. Stump nodded.

"The Increditrix is an alien device that can turn whoever's wearing it into a bunch of aliens," Stump explained. Joe realized it must be like his Omnitrix... but how could more than one Trix exist in one universe?

"That's like my Omnitrix," Joe pointed out. "The Omnitrix I have... um, had... transformed me into aliens and stuff." Stump listened, tried to think of a logical connection of some sort, but just shrugged. The conversation was then disrupted by the obnoxious stomping of a large Chronosapien. A- what!? Large Chronosapien!

"Look out, Stump!" Joe exclaimed, pushing Stump behind him and pointing his index finger and middle finger together to where his Omnitrix used to be. Suddenly realizing he was missing his Omnitrix, Joe felt frustrated that he couldn't transform, but continued to guard Stump anyway. It was when the Chronosapien pointed its finger at them was when Joe began to worry. A red time ray engulfed them, and teleported them with a group of other people. Joe felt dazed, but otherwise okay. He looked to his right, to find Stump standing next to him. His expression was calm, as if the abnormally large Chronosapien didn't seem strange to him at all. At the front of the crowd, the large Chronosapien was lifting a girl, around Joe's age, onto its shoulders. The girl said something to the Chronosapien, but Joe could hardly make it out with the deafening hum of the crowd.

"Hello, everyone!" The girl finally called. The crowd fell silent in a matter of seconds. "My name is Unetta, if you haven't already met me. I'm agent #1. And the rest of you are agents numbers 2 through 49. We've decided this through the trace of your trixes, which will be returned to you. I appologize for not explaining, but the foundation of the universe is in danger, and I had to do this as quickly as I can."

The Chronosapien gave a happy humming sound. "Oh," Unetta added, "this is Chonotto. He was the one who escorted you all here."

"Where is 'here' exactly?" A voice called from the crowd.

"This is the Forge of Creation," Unetta added. "The Forge of Creation can be reached from any universe out of all fifty Universes, which we call the Multiverses, so I figured this was the best of all places to bring you guys to."

The hum of the crowd slowly built up again. They were surely all confused on all of this. Joe knew he was.

As if answering everyone's question, Unetta explained, "The Multiverse is basically the name for all the univserses. Yes, there is more than one universe. Each of you is from your own universe. Your operative number will be given to you, based on what number universe you are from."

Chronotto hummed something, which Unetta seemed to understand.

"Oh, the trixes. Right," Unetta said. She hopped off of the Chronosapien's shoudlers, and retrieved a metal tray from behind them, which held a pile of miscellaneous devices. She gave the tray to Chronotto, who apparently was told to give the trixes back to their proper wielders. When Chronotto got to Joe and returned his Omnitrix, Joe glared at him.

"Thanks, Tin Man." Joe mocked. Chronotto's eyes glowed red, but he walked away, continuing to give the trixes back to their rightful owners. Strapping on the Omnitrix, Joe felt more secure. More confident about being somewhere he didn't know. At least if he got into any trouble, he had 10 super-powered aliens at the tip of his fingers.

"Your code number will be encoded into your trix. Just activate the playlist, and the number will show. But it will only show once." Unetta informs. Joe activates his holographic playlist, and the number 42 appears.

"Hey, I got 42," Joe tells Stump. "What did you get?"

Stump twists the dial on the increditrix, and a holographic 8 appears. "8," he says, making it more obvious than it already was.

"So, Chronotto and I have brought you here because there are 50 dimensions, and each has one person who wields some sort of Trix. And we're going to need to combine all 50 of those people together to defeat Gravinox." Unetta explains.

She goes further explaining that Gravinox is an all-time evil villain. His plan is to destroy the Forge of Creation, so that no longer will species of various planets from different universes shall mingle.

"What's so bad about that?" asks Stump. He randomly starts jogging in place again.

"Because he wants to rule over all of the Multiverse," says Unetta.

"So we can all go beat this guy up right now?" I ask.

"Well... not exactly. He plans to destroy the 50th dimension. And members #1 through #49 are present today. Chronotto wasn't able to locate #50 in the 50th dimension. We can only beat Gravinox if all 50 heroes are gathered as one. If we aren't able to find #50 and destroy Gravinox, he'll destroy the 50th dimension, and we'll lose #50 forever."

Trivia

 * No alien transformations are used in this episode.
 * However, Hydro-Tide is mentioned by Joe.
 * There are 49 other agents, but only three agents were introduced in this episode: Unetta-#1, Stump-#8, and Joe-#42.
 * Gravinox's plan is revealed.
 * Joe and Chronotto seem to have a friendly rivalry between eachother.