| “ | The name's Attai Zehn. I'm here to do my job. | ” |
–Attai's usual introduction. | ||
| Attai Zehn | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Species | Human |
| Home World | Earth |
| Alias | Wunderwaffe Project Deca (X) |
| Personality Type | ISTJ-A |
| Part In Team | Leader (Temporarily) |
| Alternate Counterparts | Ubermensch |
| Relationships | Professor Paradox (Mentor) Millennia (Rival/Found Family) |
| Age | ??? |
| Status | Active |
| Abilities and Equipment | |
| Abilities | Limited Timewalking (First Body) Timewalking (Current Body) Psychokinesis (Current Body) |
| Equipment | DecaSystem (Formerly) CataloGun (Formerly) CataloGun Zwei |
| Details | |
| First Appearance | Team Player |
Attai Zehn is the main character of Project Deca. He also appears in Tech Cross and stars in the Project Deca sequel movie Project Deca: The Final Hour.
History[]
Pre-Series[]
Attai Zehn is most often described as being "a man with no past", and not even he himself knows where he came from. The furthest back he remembers is being recruited by Professor Paradox to become an agent for the Cosmic Archives, a dimension in the center of the multiverse where backups of various Earths are stored in case said Earths are ever destroyed. Attai's task is to travel the multiverse and scan key events of these Earths to create their backups for the Cosmic Archives.
Project Deca[]
Attai's travels across the multiverse bring him into contact with various heroes and villains and eventually place him in the sights of the Unendlich Reich, an interdimensional extension of the Third Reich from a timeline where the Nazis won World War 2 with the assistance of alien technology. As a result, he finds himself in conflict with Millennia, a Chronian bounty hunter and inventor later revealed to be trying to keep Attai alive, Terox, a sadistic, godlike alien being that joined the Reich for shits and giggles after destroying his own universe, and Ubermensch, a timewalking superhuman that acts as the Reichsmarschall and later Fuhrer of the Unendlich Reich.
As he visits various worlds and fights these recurrent threats, he gradually unravels the mystery of his past, learning of his origins as an unfinished parallel version of Ubermensch. During all of this, he takes notice of his body gradually starting to break down; since it was never finished, he never became a full Timewalker, leaving him vulnerable to the degenerative effects of temporal warping. Continuing to do his job even as he approaches an inevitable death, he is captured by Terox in a pocket dimension known as the Transmundane, which Terox uses to explore his lost memories.
As Attai relives his past, he discovers exactly what he is: a human chimera made up of parts from two Jewish twins named Dieter and Jurgen and a paralyzed German soldier named Johann as part of Josef Mengele's twisted human experiments during the Holocaust. When the Reich of Ubermensch's universe won the war, they proceeded to erase every other timeline in their universe where they had failed, destroying most of Ubermensch's counterparts but leaving Attai intact as his body, while unfinished, was still far along enough in development to have achieved temporal erasure immunity.
After managing to escape from the Transmundane, Attai ends up in Earth-44-A, AKA the World of Horizons. He eventually scans and obtains a piece of technology from this world known as the Hybrider Belt, which is capable of merging his disparate DNA into a single form, allowing him to transform into a complete, armored body he dubs as Gesamtkunstwerk.
His journey continues, and he ends up being joined by a revived Miguel Rivers, Terox's main rival, who is intent on defeating Terox and using his energy to recreate their universe. The two are temporarily separated when Ubermensch, using the powers of Earth-83's Anti-Life Entity, flings Attai out of the multiverse, unintentionally ejecting him into the World of BTFF, a higher layer of reality where Attai learns of his nature as a fictional character. He is found and helped out by that world's CaT, and after a brief existential crisis, uses Imperialance- an alien created on the spot by CaT for this specific situation- to return to the multiverse.
Having been given a new perspective by this experience, he resolves to take down the Unendlich Reich as quickly as possible. He goes directly to Ubermensch's timeline of origin and takes over the Reich's primary governing building, issuing a direct challenge to Ubermensch and the Unendlich Reich's army. Upon being confronted by them, Attai uses an upgrade item from the World of Horizons on his Hybrider Belt while transformed, assuming his all-powerful Gesamtkaiser form in order to counter Ubermensch's own unlimited power as the Anti-Life Entity. He summons an army of his own composed of hundreds of heroes and aliens from every world he's ever visited to fight the Reich's army, and engages with Ubermensch in one-on-one combat.
Despite some attempted assistance from Millennia, Ubermensch and Attai's omnipotent forms end up placing them in a stalemate as neither can gain a permanent advantage over the other. Realizing this, Attai uses his powers to erase the abilities of both himself and Ubermensch as he transports them to the past. He takes the bullet that would end up paralyzing the German soldier who became himself and Ubermensch, undoing the events that led to their creation and erasing the Unendlich Reich from existence. He bleeds to death in the snow of Stalingrad and his body eventually fades away alongside Ubermensch as both are erased.
To his surprise, Attai's consciousness survived, reappearing in The Void thanks to his earlier exposure to Void Energy on Earth-83. He receives a new body based on his Gesamtkunstwerk form from Divara, a half-Celestialsapien that had been heavily involved in the events that transpired during his time in the universe before.
With the fully-formed body of a Timewalker and a new lease on life, Attai continues his journey through the multiverse, preserving backups of various worlds in the Cosmic Archives and stepping in to assist wherever he can.
Tech Cross[]
Attai makes small, unnamed cameos throughout the first season of Tech Cross, seemingly having some difficulties with the timeline the series takes place in.
He makes his first full appearance in Time X Walker after being officially introduced at the end of the previous episode, making an ungraceful entrance inside the Cross Bullet as the timeline starts falling apart. He explains that he's been looking for the source of the timeline's fracturing and is having trouble navigating the timeline due to said fracturing.
He eventually realizes that Teresa Challice is the source of the fracture, as the prevention of her death by suicide at the beginning of the series was never supposed to occur, only taking place due to the machinations of a malicious AI known as Oberon OS. The OS appears before them and explains that saving Teresa was an action taken specifically to counter Attai; if he were to restore Earth-83 to its original state, undoing Oberon OS's larger plan, he would be responsible for Teresa's death.
Teresa begs Attai to reset the timeline anyway, but Attai refuses, declaring his intent to find another solution. Oberon OS proceeds to take advantage of Teresa's guilt over the situation, hammering the idea that the end of the world is going to be her fault into her already fragile mind until she breaks down completely, in essence becoming a husk that Oberon OS is able to inhabit and control. The AI then takes over the CrossTrix and creates a powerful new transformation called Nightmare OS that can channel the powers of all 113 Evolvyrns, becoming powerful enough to defeat Attai with little effort.
After gathering a few heroes native to Earth-83 to team up and battle Oberon OS, Attai uses his psychic abilities to manifest inside Teresa's mind, breaking her out of a traumatic flashback and having a heart-to-heart with her that eventually gives her the spark of hope needed to break free from Oberon OS's control. After joining the fight as Teresa is ejected by Nightmare OS, he witnesses her obtain the power of Titania Forms and ultimately use them to throw Nightmare OS into the sun, destroying Oberon OS for good.
After the Nightmare OS incident, Attai uses Ultimate Alien X to stabilize the fractured timeline without changing the previous events, and travels to another part of the timeline in order to obtain a new scan of Earth-83.
Personality[]
Attai originally had a cold, detached personality, and often treated others as if they were beneath him. He was solely focused on his job, finding the idea of extra heroics on the side pointless; that being said, if a villain he encountered personally annoyed him, he had no qualms about helping to take them down.
Having visited many versions of reality without much context to them, he was of the opinion that individual lives didn't really matter since there's always another version of them somewhere in the multiverse. As such, he treated people in general as disposable and relatively worthless, though he'd never have made an attempt to hurt an innocent civilian.
As the series goes on and Attai meets more heroes and villains alike, he gradually matures and begins to see every individual as valuable, alternate versions or not, and ultimately turns into a hero in his own right. While still cold and sardonic at times, Attai is much more empathetic towards people, especially those in vulnerable positions, and takes care to avoid going too far with his cynicism.
By the end of the series, Attai fully realizes and accepts that his greatest ability to is to change and grow as a person, and he explains as much during his final battle with Ubermensch, noting that the Nazi commander's supremacist ideology kept him from absorbing other people's ideas and growing as a result while Attai gradually outpaced him.
Relationships[]
Professor Paradox[]
Paradox is the only man Attai really respects, although that might not be obvious from his behavior.
Millennia[]
| “ | “Hang on, ‘friend’?” Attai scoffed. “Millennia isn’t my friend, I can’t stand her; we’re just kinda joined at the hip.” He paused for a moment before sighing and shooting Millennia a resigned yet sincere half-grin. “If anything, I guess that makes her family.” |
” |
Attai had evidently encountered Millennia a few times before the start of the series and considered her obnoxious at best and potentially malicious at worst. As the series goes on and he learns more about her motivations, he softens up to her a bit, but remains wary of her overall.
During the events of Project Deca: The Final Hour, Attai eventually snaps on Millennia, pointing out how many lives her actions have endangered; to his surprise, this causes Millennia to have a breakdown where she comes clean about how much her mistakes eat away at her and admits that she's beyond scared that she'll ruin everyone's lives. While still annoyed, Attai can't find it in himself to stay angry with her, and ultimately vows that he'll help protect the new life she's built.
During the climax of the film, Attai appears just in time to stop Epact from killing Millennia, and thanks to a brief misunderstanding about how Chronians work, the two of them end up sharing a body as Attai's Chronian form Decade. Despite some initial trouble adjusting, they find themselves surprisingly in-sync, allowing them to ultimately defeat Epact for good.
Some time after the Chronia incident, Attai attends Millennia and Divara's wedding, even serving as a sounding board for Millennia's look and talking her through her pre-wedding jitters, having fully accepted that the two of them are, even if in a bit of a convoluted way, family.
Abilities[]
Attai is a Timewalker in a similar vein to Professor Paradox and Eon, and as such, can freely travel through space-time and jump between universes. He is also immune to temporal distortion effects, such as slowing or stopping time.
In his new body, Attai retains the psychic abilities displayed by his Gesamtkunstwerk form.
While not strictly a unique power, Attai's travels have made him extremely genre-savvy, allowing him to exploit certain storytelling tropes to his advantage.
After regaining his memories of being the three people that made up his original body, he gained a natural resistance to fear-based abilities. This is demonstrated in Over the Revolution when Timekiller attempts to freeze him with the sight of Toepick's face and he only pauses for a moment before jumping back into action. When questioned about this, he handwaves it by stating that he's seen worse, indirectly alluding to Dieter and Jurgen's time in Auschwitz and Johann's military service in Stalingrad.
Forms[]
Gesamtkunstwerk[]
Gesamtkunstwerk Form
Attai's Gesamtkunstwerk form was achieved by using a Hybrider Belt to unite the differing DNA comprising his body, giving him a stable, complete form.
Gesamtkunstwerk was capable of using all standard Timewalker abilities alongside psychic powers originating from the children Josef Mengele had used in his experiments. These psychic abilities allowed him to summon and use cards handless without the use of the DecaSystem, making his use of them far more efficient.
After receiving his completed body and thus becoming incompatible with the Hybrider Belts, Attai can no longer access his Gesamtkunstwerk form.
Gesamtkaiser[]
Gesamtkaiser Form
Gesamtkaiser was an evolution of Gesamtkunstwerk created by attaching the King's Emblem to the front of Attai's Hybrider Belt. Attai's connection with the Cosmic Archives combining with the ability-infusing capabilities of the King's Emblem created a form capable of using any power from any creature of any universe Attai had ever scanned, making him essentially omnipotent if using the form correctly.
After receiving his completed body and thus becoming incompatible with the Hybrider Belts, Attai can no longer access his Gesamtkaiser form.
Equipment[]
DecaSystem[]
The DecaSystem was a set of technology used by Attai to aid in his task of scanning universes. The system's core was a module attached to the front of Attai's belt. This core was linked directly to Attai's brainwaves and could be controlled with thought alone. Functions of the DecaSystem included:
- Summoning the CataloGun.
- Summoning the DecaCycle.
- Cross-timeline communication.
- Key Event detection.
The DecaSystem was erased from history alongside the Unendlich Reich, and most of its functions have been rendered obsolete by the Timewalker abilities of Attai's new body.
CataloGun[]
The original CataloGun
The CataloGun Zwei
The CataloGun was a unique handheld device resembling a cross between a scan gun and a credit card reader. It could be used to scan Earths via Key Events, scan and transform into aliens, and scan and utilize various items. The CataloGun could be summoned and dispelled using the DecaSystem, and could itself summon and dispel the cards it was compatible with.
The cards used in the CataloGun fall under two main categories: Transformations and Items. Transformation Cards allow the user to transform into whatever alien is depicted on a given card by swiping them through the slot on the side of the gun. Item Cards allow the user to summon any miscellaneous object they have a card for by swiping them through the side slot. If either card type is loaded into the slot located at the back of the gun, they will modify the gun's offensive output, and if a card is swiped through the side reader with the rear slot still loaded, the resulting transformation/item will be modified by the rear-loaded card's properties in some way.
After the original CataloGun's erasure from history, a successor called the CataloGun Zwei was built by Millennia and given to Attai for use. The CataloGun Zwei is a bit sleeker than the first model and can be reconfigured into a sword for melee combat.
DecaCycle[]
The DecaCycle
Timewalking can greatly wear out an inexperienced person, so having a motorcycle that can be ridden across dimensions when you cross them seems like an obvious idea. What makes the DecaCycle unique is its ability to use cards from the CataloGun via a slot in the dashboard; when a card is inserted, the DecaCycle will reconfigure itself based on the data from the card.
The original DecaCycle was erased from history with the rest of the DecaSystem, but due to Attai having scanned it in MEGA Disappointment, copies of it can still be summoned at any time using the CataloGun Zwei
Metatransference Suit[]
Constantly jumping entire universes can put a strain on the body of a Timewalker, so to negate the wear and tear from frequent universe-hopping, Attai wears a unique Metatransference Suit that keeps him safe from extratemporal forces. The Metatransference Suit was commissioned for Attai by Professor Paradox and designed by Millennia, who wears the only other known suit of its type in existence.
Metatransference Suits can have their abilities modified and expanded upon by the use of special "Modules" that plug into the belt on the suit's midsection. Attai's modules include:
- OV Module (Obtained Pre-Series): The Omni-Visa module gives the suit the ability to act as a Chrono Navigator, which allowed Attai to navigate the multiverse before he gained the full abilities of a Timewalker.
- UAF Module (Obtained in Three's a Crowd): The Universal Arms Field module allows the suit to generate a force field around itself, making the wearer practically immune to incoming attacks.
- OS Module (Obtained in To Protect and Get Served): The Overtime Superpositioning module allows the user to see glimpses of the immediate future a few seconds before it happens, giving them the advantage of brief foresight in any given situation.
Attai's Metatransference Suit survived his erasure due to it being created by Millennia and not the Unendlich Reich, but its protective effects have largely been made redundant by Attai's new body, resulting in it being placed into storage.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Attai's first name, "Attai", means "my time" or "my hour" in Hebrew. His last name, "Zehn", is simply the German word for the number 10.
- Attai speaks with a slight Germanic accent and sprinkles German phrases (usually curses) into his speech when he becomes angry or annoyed.
- Attai tends to use the alien Ridejacker as his default transformation, as Ridejacker's species is naturally immune to the negative effects of time.
- Attai's original body had heterochromia, with his left eye being blue and his right eye being yellow.
- Completing his body with the use of Gesamtkunstwerk form changed his eyes into a uniform green, which carried over into his new body.
- Attai's initial appearance references the general Omnitrix color scheme used in Omniverse.
- "Gesamtkunstwerk" and "Gesamtkaiser" translate out to "complete work of art" and "complete emperor", respectively.
- While not directly stated in the series, Attai is asexual, having no form of unique attraction to anyone he meets.