The giant Thunderbird settled onto the earth and dropped its cargo. The Thunderbird shimmered into a middle aged Native American. "This is where the Guardians disappeared," said Shaman. "Are you up to this?" "If I feel no better, at least now I see" replied Entropy.
Entropy walked over to the crowd of officials. A Chess Knight stepped over to meet him. Entropy soon had the facts. A group of hostile paranormals had emerged from a glowing yellow portal by the strip mall. They had attacked the crowd, causing several causualties. Chess scrambled the Guardians in response. In the end, all combatants had been sucked into the portal, which then disappeared. Eyewitness accounts were confused, but at least one saw a flying blur escape the portal. The energy residue suggested the portal was a controlled dimensional rift. A Rook joined the group. "Entropy, there is someone to see you. It is Dr. Stevens, the renowed doctor who solved clonal regression syndrome." "He probably is a skilled plastic surgeon as well." Entropy watched the man come closer. It was not who he expected. Close, but not identical. Entropy carefully replayed all conversations about Desist's family, the Steven family. His eyes dimmed as he drew power from other biological systems to support the search. As the newcomer extended his hand (the other held a briefcase) Entropy came to a startling conclusion. He was shaking hands with a dead man�
Dr. Stevens explained that he was Desist's brother, and that Desist had left a message for Entropy. A message, and a package, contained in the briefcase. Entropy took both and left. As Entropy left the site of the Guardian's disappearance, he was stopped by a vision. A most colorful vision.
Magnet Master. ART's problem child. It seemed that much of ART's resources were dedicated to assigning Magnet Master as far away from their headquarters as possible. In all fairness, Magnet Master didn't stir up anmosity the way some, like Shadow Knight, did. However Magnet Master was cocky, careless, and condensending, the Ascelon Rift equivalent of a teenager. His attitude torward 'inferior' races didn't help. Not when you remember that humans were considered one of the lesser races.
Magnet Master told Entropy that Chess had assigned him to help find the Guardians. They left for Guardian base. As Magnet Master looked like a punk rocker covered in a rainbow, sneaking in was a challenge. The situation of the base was complicated. Guardian Foundation, the economic arm of the Guardians, was all but defunct. Assets had been sold or given away. The destination was charity, but that didn't help the team now. Fortunately, the land, headquarters, and underground base were tied up in longterm lease. As a 'historic' site, it hadn't been sold, and wouldn't be. However, with the Guardians officially gone, Entropy needed to keep a very low profile.
Entropy checked the base records carefully. He had been blinded in the final battle with the Kritagorf, and hadn't been able to do much in his one brief visit before. Now, he carefully reviewed the data logs. As he suspected, Desist had visited the base several times since the events of the Armada invasion. There were other potential intrusions, but no video on file.
With Desist's message, and the data logs, Entropy was able to put the data together. The Black Eye of Quan had used a massive amount of energy to restore the galaxy to the state it was before the Kritagorf had ravaged it. Some of the waste energy had created temporal rifts that Desist (and others) had used. Desist had saved his brother and remove his family from harm. Someone had also used the available energy to remove the Guardians.
With Desist's schematics and suggestions, Entropy devised a temporal/spacial rift portal. He made a historical search for White Leopard. Based on his search, he thought White Leopard had ended up in the Mongol period. He could find White Leopard, and use her temporal signature to track down the rest of the Guardians. After a month of work and research, he was ready to try. The portal opened, but to the wrong spot. The female that emerged was not White Leopard. She was very upset at being snatched by the portal. Fortunately, Entropy was able to use diplomacy to calm her down, since he was not ready for battle, and had only Magnet Master to aid him.
After upgrading the lab defenses to the point that the Kritagorf himself couldn't survive an invasion, Entropy recoded the portal and tried again. With his Mongol dictionary and taped message, he ventured to the time of Genghis Khan. He was able to find White Leopard and bring her back. He then used the data gained from White Leopard to recalibrate the portal. The Guardian Quest was near its end.
Meanwhile, the Guardians had arrived during the Armada occupation. They interrupted an Armada attack on resistance couriers and defeated the pirates. The surviving courier, Johnny Maxwell, lead them to a resistance outpost. A teleporter, Warp, one of the Organizers elite guard, met them at the outpost and led them to the Organizer, the head of the resistance. The Guardians realized that they had arrived in a redundant timestream, one that had/would be wiped out when the Guardians defeated the Kritagorf, as they had already done. They agreed to help the resistance and hope to escape.
Entropy and White Leopard arrived in the same timestream soon after the Guardians. The resistance patrols, stepped up after the arrival of the Guardians, found Entropy and White Leopard as they were hiding from Slaughter Droids, also patroling the area. They joined the rest of the Guardians. Entropy led them back to the portal point. Warp decided to join the Guardians as he was tired of constant war. The Guardians relunctantly agreed.
The Guardians came back to reality. After years of travel, the Guardians had come home. However, their enemies had been biding their time, waiting for their return�