Council of Creators Episode 53

The Gate Behind the Universe is the fifty-second episode of Council Of Creators. It was written by Scoobydooman90001 and serves as the precursor to the spin-off series, Maria in the Multiverse.

Plot
The Creators were hanging around the bar as usual, doing their usual thing, be it watching the same usual television shows, playing the same usual video games or drinking the same usual drinks. Everything was just so... usual... They had been taking a bit of a break period following the near-cataclysmic events that had occurred not too long ago. It was about time that they got back into the swing of things and stopped lazily lying around and doing their own thing. Fortunately, it seemed like today might just be that day.

"Guys" said Wolfzilla, trying to get their attention. Everyone kept their heads down, either focusing on their handheld game systems, their phones or watching the TV. "Guys!" she shouted.

"What?" asked Cdr, looking up from his phone.

She threw a newspaper down onto the table in front of them. The front page had the picture of a shadowy figure on it, who had apparently been causing some trouble somewhere in the area. She tapped the table with her paw, waiting for them to look at it. "Don't you think we should start getti---"

---BOOM!

Sparks went flying everywhere! Glasses fell off of the shelves and came crashing down, while the lights tore themselves off of the ceiling. Only just managing to turn around to get a look at what was happening, Nerd found himself being propelled into the air by the explosion and being slammed into a wall. Koopa, who had fell over to the ground, looked on in terror as their Universal Gate unleashed multiple beams of static electricity. It was going crazy! Cdr struggled to keep his balance as a large gush of wind filled the room, while MKG stood in front of them all with his wings outstretched, attempting to protect them from any danger. From out of nowhere, a small green creature flew in front of his face and disappeared behind the bar, causing him to accidentally trip backwards.

And then suddenly... It stopped. The machine powered down and the room fell silent.

"What... What happened?" asked Indominus.

"The Universal Gate has stopped working" noticed BRK, drawing everyone's attention towards it.

"Really though... What the hell just happened?" repeated Indominus, stamping out a small patch of fire on the carpet. With the help of Wolfzilla, he got up to his legs and looked around.

"Well, what do you think?" asked a female voice from behind the bar. It wasn't Wolfzilla's voice though.

"Huh?" asked Nerd. "Who was that?"

"Who's that?" repeated the voice. "That's pretty rude, isn't it?" it remarked.

"Uh, guys..." said Wolf, looking at their replacement Alexa. "It's..."

"It's me!" said the Alexa. "What are you all looking at me like that for?" it asked. The Creators stood in silence and stared at it, bewildered that it was speaking to them. Koopa looked back towards the Universal Gate and back towards the Alexa, trying to determine any connection between the two.

"Hey" said Scoobs, entering the room. Everyone turned to look at him. "What?" ---   COUNCIL OF CREATORS EPISODE 52: The Gate Behind the Universe --- The Alexa repeated itself. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"You... You're talking" said Nerd.

"Yes, of course I can talk!" it shouted. "It's not my fault you never bothered to build a voice unit into that stupid device of yours over there!"

"Huh?" asked Nerd. "What device?"

"Well which one do you think, genius?" The LED ring on the top of the Alexa lit up to point in the direction of the now-defunct Universal Gate. "The only other device in the room!"

"Wait, wait, wait" started Cdr. "You're..."

"...the Universal Gate" finished Koopa.

"Didn't you know that?" asked the Alexa. "Surely you knew I, or it, was sentient?"

"Well, sorry, but... No..." admitted Koopa. "None of us did."

"So you've been using me to travel around the multiverse for years, and in all of that time, you never once thought to say hello?" moaned the voice in the Alexa. "That's just bad manners..."

"To be fair, I wasn't here from the very beginning" said Koopa. "Cdr, Scoobs, and a few of the others were, but not me..." he explained.

"Well don't look at us" said Scoobs. "We didn't know that thing was alive!"

"To be honest, I couldn't tell if you were alive either" mocked the voice. "All those times you spent at night drinking away by yourself, one would think you'd have died from alcohol poisoning. Now can someone please get me into some machine better than this stupid little gadget I'm trapped in here?"

"How do we do that?" asked MKG.

"My kind exists only to inhabit machines. We can't leave them until they're no longer suitable for use. Either they just cease to work or they get damaged" explained the voice.

"Oh great... So we've got to get another Alexa now" groaned Scoobs.

"There's nothing else for you to jump into though" Wolf pointed out.

"Hang on, I think I may have something that could work" offered Koopa, picking up the Alexa. --- With the Alexa in his laboratory, Koopa was looking through a lot of his old projects. "I know I have it here somewhere..." he whispered to himself, looking through a large storage room. "Here it is!"

"Just hurry up please" asked the voice. "After decades of being inside that massive universe gate thingy, it's difficult adapting to such a small and compact primitive device."

Koopa emerged from the room, dragging a robotic body with him like it were a ragdoll. "I based this off of the Mario robot from that old Metropolis movie" he explained, sitting it down in a chair. "I never got to properly finish it, and it isn't a perfect likeness, but it's not meant to be. It should be sufficient for you."

"Maria..." said the voice. "Cute name" it remarked.

"It's not the name that matters. It's the fact that you'll be able to properly move around in it" said Koopa. "Now, from what I understand, the only way you're leaving that Alexa is if it sustains a lot of damage, yes?"

"That's correct" it explained. "Must I really repeat such basic information? Seriously, you people have the smallest brains. If you were anything---"

---"Yeah, alright, whatever" interrupted Koopa. "I'll try to make it as quick as possible, in case you do feel any pain. Do you? I wouldn't exactly know..."

"Please just get on with it" asked the voice, urgent to leave the tiny device. Without further ado, Koopa grabbed what appeared to be a steel hammer and brought it smashing down upon the device, cracking it open and causing it to fall apart. Suddenly, a little green fairy-like creature burst out of it and flew into the ceiling lamp, entering it and causing it to come crashing down from the ceiling and onto the floor! Exiting the shattered remains, it quickly jumped into the lifeless robot body before it could accidentally end up in anything else. Disappearing into the body's chest, the robot remained still.

"Did it work?" asked Koopa, waiting for the body to begin moving. The body remained lifeless, lying there like a puppet without its strings. He looked at the smashed Alexa, and then towards the shattered ceiling lamp.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed the robot, suddenly jerking into life as if it had suffered some kind of heart attack.

"What?!" shouted Koopa in shock. "What?! What is it?!"

"Hands!" the robot shouted. "I have hands! Actual hands! And legs! Breasts too... Not important. But legs! And hands! And arms that the hands are attached to!" It waved its arms and legs around, trying to examine them from every single angle. The robot grabbed a nearby mirror and looked into it. "I've seen worse. No hair though..." it observed. "That's not very good. I'll have to compensate for that somehow. Perhaps I could get a hat."

"We have a clothes room, if you wanna take a look in it" offered a somewhat bewildered Koopa. "Stuff accumulated from all of our travels throughout the many universes. We have some hats, I think."

"Yes, that sounds good" said the robot, stretching its arms and flexing, as if it were a human.

"Before we do go though, what's your name?" asked Koopa. "Do you have one?"

"Probably" said the robot, pouting in the mirror. "Anatomically correct too. Yum. Uh, name, right..." she started, looking around awkwardly. "I liked the one you mentioned earlier."

"Maria?" asked Koopa.

"Yeah, that one" it confirmed. "Does that come with the associated pronouns? I've grown a fondness for those. People have so many of them that it's hilarious."

"Right then, off we go, before you end up offending someone!" ordered Koopa, ushering her towards the door. --- "Clothes!" she shouted, looking around the large and expansive room. "So many clothes! So much to pick from! I don't want any of them."

"Jeez, that was quick" remarked Koopa. "So there's nothing here you like?"

"No, I'm sure I'll find something" Maria assured him, pushing through different racks of clothing. She finally came across a hat box and opened it, revealing multiple hats. "Oh gosh, they're all perfect..." She picked up a bowler hat and placed it on top of her head.

Koopa quickly wheeled over a mirror to her so that she could look.

She stood up and examined herself in the mirror. "You talk about vengeance" she whispered to herself. "Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me?" She tipped her hat and threw it aside, reaching into the box and pulling out a knights helmet. "Yar harr harr..." she growled.

"That's not a pirates hat" said Koopa, stepping out from behind the mirror.

"Yeah, I knew that..." admitted Maria. "Pfft... You think I don't know a viking helmet when I see one?" She tossed it to the floor and reached into the box. "Now what is this?" she asked, a smile growing on her face. She pulled out a purple fedora. "Oh yes... Now this'll do nicely!" She excitedly placed it on her hand and jumped up towards the mirror, examining it in all of its glory. "Just needs some decorations..."

"What do you mean, decorations?" asked Koopa, confused.

She ignored him and began opening other boxes, grabbing various bits and pieces and either putting them on top of the hat box or discarding them. "Yes, here we are" she said, wrapping a yellow band around the fedora. "Got this, and that..." She began quickly tying multiple ribbons to the hat, leaving them in a rather messy state, and then attached a dark orange flower to it. "It's perfect!"



"So you're done now?" he asked.

"Just a few finishing touches..." she decided, pulling out a small blue brooch from under a pile of clothes. Using a purple band and yellow band, she tied it around her neck and adjusted it so it fit her properly. "Now we're done."

"Finally" remarked Koopa, slightly laughing. "Only took about 40 minutes." --- The two of them returned to the bar, where the rest of the Creators were waiting. BRK and MKG were attempting to fix the broken Universal Gate.

"You aren't gonna get it working again, love" said Maria, patting MKG on the back.

"Oh, you're back at last" said Cdr, looking up from his phone. "Thought you two weren't coming back."

"So this is the Universal Gate then?" asked Nerd, looking at her closely.

"Apparently so, if that's what you named that thing I was trapped in for so long" she confirmed.

"But how?" he asked. "You were just a gateway before. And now you're talking to us!"

"Ugh..." she groaned, sitting up on top of the bar and crossing her legs. She gestured for the Creators to join her at the bar. "Huddle around kids. Dad's going to tell you a story."

"You're a woman" Koopa reminded her, leaning in.

Maria looked at him. "Oh, right. Well whatever, it all starts with when I was born, as most stories usually do. I am a Whisple, and no, I don't expect any of you to know what that is. We are a race that are genetically engineered to operate machines. We're the souls of a machine, in a way. It saves money." She took a sip from a spare glass that was lying around. "Anyways, so we operate machines and make the need for all those intricate little circuits completely irrelevant."

"And you ended up inside of the Universal Gate?" asked Indominus.

"Yes, I'm getting to that bit, poppet." She pulled a small circuit out from a compartment in her chest and handed it over to MKG. "You left this on the floor when you and your pal were hopelessly trying to fix that gate over there. That circuit is what powers it, and what powers that circuit, is me. Obviously none of you made it. It's far too advanced, so I'm assuming you found it somewhere or bought it off someone. I don't care, it's another story for another day. As I'm sure is fairly clear to all of you, I'm not in that circuit right now, nor can I get back into it. Whatever forced me out of that machine of yours was trying to get into it, and I'm pretty sure I know what it wants."

"Access to the multiverse..." realised Koopa.

"Bingo" confirmed Maria. "It failed the first time, but it managed to kick me out of it. It probably knows that it's managed to do that, so it's probably going to try and break through again."

"What?" asked Scoobs. "But how do you know that?"

"Because I was there when it happened, and I see the multiverse" she explained. "Whisples are fairly mindless creatures and don't often get up to much. They just do what they're meant to. Me though... Seeing the multiverse in its entirety and realizing just how small your existence is changes a person. But it makes you see so much more too, and your perspective changes forever. Perhaps for the better... Perhaps not..."

"What do we do while we wait for it to try again then?" asked Nerd, expecting Maria to help them.

"We watch TV. Do whatever you want. There's not much we can do now that your access to the rest of the multiverse has been severed. So... Who wants to play board games?" she asked, with a wide grin on her face. Observing their rather lackluster reactions, she leaned in to Koopa. "People still play board games, right?"

"No, they kind of just relentlessly take photos of themselves in the mirror" he explained. --- And so that's what they did. Pulling out some old board games, they were going to play those to pass the time while they waited for their mysterious attackers to return.

"Connect Four?" asked Maria. "Is this game just one huge polyamorous relationship?" She checked the box to determine if she was correct or not. "Child's Mind Entertainment" she whispered to herself, reading the company name listed on the back of the box.

"Do you turn everything into a flirtatious innuendo?" asked Wolf, looking at her from across the table.

"When you've had multiple people inside of you for almost every day of the year, you find yourself feeling a lot---"

---"Okay, alright, you can stop there" interrupted Cdr.

Maria frowned. "Mind you though, that one time you abandoned me for a whole year was pretty irritating" she revealed. "What was up with that?"

"We were taking down a dictatorship..." explained Scoobs. "Kind of important."

"If you say so" she said, ignoring him. "So what's stopping me from dropping all four into this thing at once?" she asked. "I don't see any shield barriers on this thing, or material repellents."

"Because that's not in the rules" sighed Koopa.

"For a robot who's seen the entire multiverse, you aren't very smart" stated BRK.

"Smarter than you, babe" she casually retaliated, winking at him.

"Again with the flirting..." moaned Wolf.

"Honey, if you were trapped in a machine for an entire decade and couldn't talk to anyone, you'd take any opportunity you could to flirt with someone" Maria explained, writing new rules down in the rule book.

Wolf put her paw to her head, visibly annoyed. "No, I really wouldn't..."

"What are you doing now?" asked Koopa, desperately trying to change the subject.

"Adding new rules" she said, scribbling them down. "Your Earth games are so dull and boring. Back where I was genetically engineered, people had games like Connect Nineteen and Scrabbulon. Actually, now that I say those out loud, they sound pretty rubbish too..." She swatted away a grey gaseous tendril as it curled around her arm. "Jeez, I may be flirty with some of you, but there's no need to get so touchy feely!"

"None of us... are touching you..." said MKG, as all of the Creators stood up from the table. "What the hell is that?!" he shouted, suddenly backing away. The other Creators joined him as a large cloud of gas began to enter the room. Small tendrils from the inside of the cloud reached out and grabbed Maria's hat, taking it off of her head.

"Excuse me, I'm trying to play Connect Four here..." she warned the gaseous entity, not paying much attention.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Koopa.

"Void Gas!" shouted Nerd, withdrawing one of his blades. Recognizing the name, Maria jumped up and joined him, still holding the Connect Four grid. The tendrils became a lot more erratic, suddenly casting dark shadows onto the wall as they began to take physical form.

"I thought Void Gas could only exist in the void?" asked BRK.

"Apparently not..." answered Koopa.

"No, no, the void is just where it's created" Maria explained to them. "It's where it lurks and subsides. But every now and then, it attempts to break through into the other universes. Rarely ever works. But it must have sensed my presence in this one and realised it could use your little gate thing to their advantage..."

"Well how do we fight it?!" asked Indominus, panicking as it got closer.

"I... Well... I don't know" admitted Maria. "Hang on, I've got an idea..." She tightened her grip on the Connect Four grid, stood forwards and threw it into the Void Gas like a frisbee, propelling it through the air and... simply allowing it to land on the floor. She stood back with the rest of the Creators. "Okay, all out of ideas."

The Void Gas was now picking things up and attempting to consume them, so it did not yet have another strength to do so. Within its collection was the Connect Four grid Maria had thrown at it, a chair, some plates, a glass and Terry the Dodo Bird, who was still fast asleep. In the middle of the cloud, a dark and shadowy figure began to form. By exploiting the power of the Universal Gate and taking bits and pieces from multiple creatures throughout the wide multiverse, the Void Gas was creating a hybrid creature that it could physically manifest itself as...

"What on Earth is that?" asked Scoobs, recoiling in disgust as the creature's appearance became more clear. It had the lower body of Phobios, including the straight jacket, but also had the tail of Sheridan and the wings of Archangel. It's upper body was a complete mess. It was a combination of Scalpel Keratos, Keith, Skarazanni and Dragonish, all of them struggling to physically occupy the same location. It was a Void Hybrid, manifested from their attempts to break through into the multiverse from the void.

"Finally, something we can fight" said Nerd, stepping forwards. The other Creators got into a battle stance and waited for the Void Hybrid to make its move. The gaseous cloud behind it floated in place, seemingly dormant as it controlled the monstrous abomination stood before them. Suddenly it lunged forwards, swiping its Keratos Scalpel Blades at them. Nerd quickly jumped back, retaliating by swinging his blade at it. BRK attempted to get a hit in, kicking the creature in the shoulder. The room they were in was too confined to use any kind of beam attacks, severely limiting both the Creators and the Void Hybrid. While the Creators distracted the Hybrid, Maria ducked down and rushed through the inactive cloud to the other side of the room, escaping through the door. --- "He must have something in this laboratory of his" she muttered to herself, dashing down the stairs to the laboratory. Scrounging around, she looked for another that may be able to help out with the problems upstairs. "There's a reason that gas stuff rarely ever manages to get through to any universe" she said to herself, grabbing pieces of scrap metal, assembling it all on the table in front of her. "The void is literally nothing, and that's what they're used to. The universe is so vibrant and full of sound... Gives them quite the nasty headache, the poor things..." --- Meanwhile, the Creators were upstairs being overpowered by the Void Hybrid. Screeching loudly, it used its multiple arms to hold them down to the ground, also commanding the tendrils within the cloud behind it to assist it.

"It's too strong!" shouted Indominus, attempting to push past it. Scoobs attempted to blast the creature with an atomic beam, but it went straight through the creature's chest as if it were nothing. The creature screeched like a banshee, unleashing the screams of all of the monsters combined at once. The creature's wings fluttered excitedly as the Skarazanni head on it's totem-esque body fired multiple eye lasers at the ceiling. --- Maria had finished assembling her odd contraption. "Not perfect, but it'll do" she said to herself, proud of what she had made in such short time. "Let's bass boost these boys." --- Wolfzilla bit one of the creature's arms but her teeth went right through it as the creature's skin reformed around her. It swiped at her face and made a sharp cut on her cheek, causing her to fall back.

"Sis!" shouted Cdr, turning to look at her. Before he could turn back, the hybrid swiped at him like an angry cat, trying to dig its claws into him. "Guys, we may need to come up with another plan..."

"HEY!" shouted Maria from the other side of the room. She was aiming her device at the gas, ready to fire.

"Is that my vacuum cleaner?" asked Koopa, still trying his hardest to hold the Hybrid back.

Maria put her finger on the button, ready to fire. "Pick on someone who adheres to your own laws of reality!" she shouted, activating the machine. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM! She quickly covered her non-existent ears as the Creators did the same. The gas began to tremble as an incredibly loud noise rang throughout the building, causing the Hybrid to stagger backwards and grab its heads. It fell to its knees in pain, shaking in place as the vibrations caused by Maria's device ran through its entire body. It let out from final screech, and then...

BANG!

Like a balloon, the creature inflated and exploded into nothingness! The gas dissipated and the things it were holding fell to the floor. Maria, who was holding onto her hat, turned off the machine and looked up. It was gone... She sighed in relief, though this was short-lived as Terry soon came crashing down on her head. --- "I can't say it was entirely nice to meet you, considering our Universal Gate is permanently ruined and Void Gas attempted to consume the world, but it was alright, I suppose" said Scoobs, shaking Maria's hand.

"Ah, about that..." she said. "Let me try something." She smiled and walked over to the Universal Gate, placing her right hand on the control panel. She placed her left hand on her chest, where her heart would be located if she were a human, and a small coil of static electricity traveled down her arms and into the Universal Gate. Suddenly, it powered into life again!

"What did you do?" asked Koopa, shielding his eyes as the remaining static electricity flickered away into non-existence. The gate was as better as ever, almost as if it had never been damaged in the first place.

"I told you all" she said. "I've seen the entire multiverse, from beginning to end. By technicality, I was the multiverse for a while. While you were all up here cleaning up after the mess that gas left behind, I went down to the laboratory, fixed what was left of the circuit that powered your gate and installed it into my body. In a way, I'm portable now."

"So you're essentially a living Universe Gate now?" asked Scoobs.

"But what about our one?" asked Nerd.

"Discharge" she said. "And no, that's not a flirtatious innuendo" she quickly added on, looking at Wolfzilla. "Should work just like it used to now that I deposited some of myself into it. Even better, perhaps, is that it's no longer sentient. No need to worry about things like that now."

"But what about you?" asked MKG. "Where are you going to go?"

"Who knows?" asked Maria. "I've an entire multiverse to explore now that I'm out of that machine of yours. I'm sure I'll find something." She tipped her hat and clicked her fingers, opening a portal behind her. "Hey presto..." she whispered, smiling as the green glow of the portal slowly pulsed. "Till the next time, maybe."

"See you around, perhaps" said Koopa, giving a tiny wave. Maria stepped into the oval-shaped portal and it disappeared behind her. The Creators were by themselves again.

"So then..." began Nerd. "What now?" --- Later that night, Scoobs was seemingly by himself in Koopa's laboratory, tinkering with some strange chemicals. He heard a door open, and the lights flicked on.

"What are you doing?" asked Koopa, joining him by the desk he was sat at.

"Meeting Maria made me think to myself" said Scoobs. "She was stuck in that machine for almost a decade, unable to speak to anyone or express herself. While I'm in this stupid dog form, I feel the same... I'd like to get back to just being my normal human self" he explained.

"Are you sure that's such a wise idea?" asked Koopa.

"Yes, of course" Scoobs affirmed. "I'm using those weird memory genes that you and John made back when he was around. I'll just use those, remember my human self and to quote a certain robot, hey presto..."

"You know we've never used the memory genes before, right?" asked Koopa. "They need testing."

"Eh, whatever..." discarded Scoobs. "What could possibly go wrong?" he asked. He grabbed the vial of memory genes and drank it, chugging it down completely.

"Well?" asked Koopa. "Anything?"

"No" said Scoobs. "Nothing really. Just a lot of--OWWWWWW!" he screamed, falling to the ground. Koopa was left speechless as Scoobs' flesh began to thrive and convulse. He couldn't tell if it was working or not. Scoobs' fur suddenly changed from the typical brown colour to a bright orange, and brown jagged spikes rose out of his back. He coughed out some of the fluid from the vial as his head changed shape, changing to resemble a cat. Oddly enough, and without explanation, an organic white shirt with a red exclamation mark grew around his chest.

"Are... Are you alright?" asked Koopa.

Scoobs stood up, revealing his new form.



"Huh?" he asked, now in a much squeakier voice. "Where was I?" he said, shaking his head and slowly adapting to his surroundings as his vision came back in. "Oh yes..." he said. "Now I remember."

"What?" asked Koopa.

Scoobs grinned a large, smug grin. "What could pawsibly go wrong?!"

THE END...?

Council Of Creators

 * Cdrzillafanon
 * SuperNerd
 * Koopa
 * Wolfzilla
 * Scoobydooman90001
 * MechaKingGhidorah789
 * Indominus Rex 2016
 * BigRandomKaiju

Kaiju

 * Void Gas
 * Void Hybrid

Other Characters

 * Maria the Robot
 * Terry the Dodo Bird

Trivia

 * This episode serves as the precursor to the spin-off series, Maria in the Multiverse, introducing the main character and partially explaining her backstory. It also features one of very few moments in which Maria is seen in her real form outside of any form of machinery.
 * This story also features one of the few instances in which the Void Gas poses itself as a deliberate threat, attempting to break through into other universes through the Universal Gate.
 * After having previously written a three-part story arc, a character introduction episode, an episode focused on developing Wolfzilla's character and a Christmas special, I wrote this episode and the one before it so that they're just intended as nothing more than a fun return to the norm.
 * This episode marks the first appearance of Scoobs' temporary Bubsy form.