The pale white tentacle creatures seemed endless. One after another silently pulled themselves into being, and, one by one, See-More shot them down using his eye lasers. Yet, it seemed that for every one the young teen shot down, three more pulled themselves out.

"Man! How did Herald fight these things by himself?" See-More muttered to himself. He then cranked up the dial alongside his eye, increasing the intensity of his laser to heights he never before reached.

Turning around, the young thief aimed his eye towards a large group of the tentacle creatures and prepared to fire, only to have a great mass of molten flame erupt in his face, burning the group of eight or nine to a blackened crisp. With a gasp, See-More turned towards the great dragon. He could still feel the heat of the fire burning on his face.

"Hey, careful there, Malchior!" See-More called out to him, taking a quick moment to shoot down several more of the pale creatures. "That one was a little close!"

"Fool human, leave me be. You are just getting in my way!" the dread dragon roared. His body was in constant motion, talons flailing, tail whipping, and mouth breathing constant fire. The creatures obviously saw the dragon as a larger threat, circling him thirty to forty strong. Malchior was stuck, and if things didn't change soon, the dread dragon would fall.

See-More's eye caught Malchior's for a split second before the dragon resumed in his thrashing. For most people, any chance to leave a dragon, unscathed, is the one first taken. But for the thief, that glance told him everything.

"I'm not leaving you alone, man!" See-More shouted, knowing his voice could be heard even through the noise of the clashing, "I don't care if you hate humans! We are stuck in this together and the only change we are escaping if we work together! So, like it or not, I am going to help you!"

With that, See-More cranked his laser to full capacity, despite the permanent damage he knew he would do to his eye, took quick aim, and fired.

The red laser that shot from his eye was massive; at least three times the teen's width, and one-hundred times the force. The blast tore through one half of the beasts circling the dragon like they were nothing. Quickly noticing his opening, Malchior flew free from the beasts.

"Yes!" See-More cried, pumping a fist in the air. The teen looked overly thrilled despite being completely exhausted and having several new cracks decorating his lens.

Malchior's red eyes regarded him quietly.

Suddenly, numerous tentacles launched themselves from mid-air and latched onto the unsuspecting thief. See-More did not even have time to gasp before they began dragging him back, their tentacles slowly disappearing back into the invisible void, threatening to take See-More with him.

"Hey! Get offa me!" See-More cried violently as the tentacles continued to work their way up his body as they dragged him. The teen's widened eye was trained solely on the great hovering dragon, his one free arm stretched out towards it. "Please, Malchi-!"

But the tentacles finally reached his face and covered his mouth, silencing his pleas.

Still the dragon did not move. Malchior only watched as his human savior was dragged into nothingness. Only when See-More's feet started to disappear did a single, faint twitch of muscles sprang in one of the dragon's legs.

"Foolish boy!" a voice cried as a blue laser suddenly tore through the dimension, easily slicing through the tentacles snared around the teen. The tentacles loosened enough for See-More to slip out; his feet reappeared just as the remaining tentacles disappeared.

Malchior surveyed his surroundings, quickly noting the absence of the other creatures, before turning his attention towards his savior's savior. He snarled venomously. It was that elderly human, the one with the golden suit, he watched as the child hovered down to the rock his savior had stood on when he shot the blast.

"Thanks...for saving me," See-More said meekly, though still trying to catch his breath. Warp looked down at the child. His body was shaking, sweat was pooling down his face, and the lens of his mechanical eye was cracked and heavily damaged.

"Foolish boy," Warp repeated with a sigh. "You are lucky I bothered to come back at all. A few more seconds and you would have disappeared through that portal for good."

Warps words sent another chill through See-More, who was busy trying to forget what had just happened to him. The tentacles had been ice cold. They had seeped into his body like a disease, threatening to chill him to his core...to numb everything...

"That's just what you should expect from trying to help a thing like that..." Warp continued, his tiny eyes focusing on something above the teen.

See-More turned to try and get a glimpse of Malchior, but his damaged lens showed him only a giant black blur in the sky. In fact, as See-More tried to look around him, everything was starting to look more out of focus.

"Come, child, we are going," Warp commanded, grabbing See-More's wrist and dragging him across the rock.

"Going where?" the thief questioned. He turned his head to get another glimpse of the black blur and, as far as See-More could tell, it still hadn't moved.

"To find that blasted trumpet, where do you think?" Warp shot back, neither slowing nor turning to face him.

When they reached the edge of the floating rock, the time-based villain released See-More's wrist. "Do you have the strength to...fly?" Warp asked, his eyes once again focusing on See-More's damaged lens.

"Yeah, but...I can't see all that well..." See-More said, smiling sheepishly and pointing at his broken lens.

Warp merely sighed. "Just take the thing off then, it is of no more use to you."

"Well...if I did that..." See-More said, his smile falling a fraction. "Then I wouldn't be able to see at all..."

The time traveling villain stared at the boy's downcast eye without speaking. He silently lowered himself on one knee, and placed a hand on the teen's shoulder, lowering him as well.

"You are truly hopeless," Warp chided. He then raised a hand towards See-More's face, which, to the teen, looked simply like a giant golden blur. "This wont fully repair you, but it will certainly make you more useful."

Although See-More couldn't see what his companion was doing, he could feel warmth against his face and could see a bright light reflected off his lens. In a matter of seconds, the blurring of his vision had cleared up immensely, along with many of the cracks.

The first clear thing See-More saw was Warp's hand, or, more accurately, a completely altered version of it with tiny flames coming out of the index and middle finger and strange looking needles jetting out of the thumb, ring, and pinky fingers. See-More watched in awe as the flames slowly died and the blades sunk back into Warp's fingers, the small compartments sealed and the time master's hand appeared normal again.

"Warp, your hand...it's...?"

"Animatronic?" Warp finished, raising his eyebrow at the teen. "Well of course it is. In my time, most humans are given a robotic hand at birth-- makes life much simpler."

"Whooooooooa, that's so rad!" See-More cried out.

"Yes, well, it is time for us to be moving," the elder of the two spoke, hiding his hand from See-More's view. "We have a lot of dimension to cover."

"Then, perhaps, you humans will require some assistance," a deep, roaring voice spoke up behind them. See-More felt a chill in his spine as a dark shadow fell over them. Heavy wing beats drummed in his ears.

"How simple do you think we are?" Warp shot, rounding on the great dragon. "We have not forgotten the last time you tried to 'help'."

The dread dragon leered down at the small, golden human. His red eyes still had a feeling of malice and hate to them. But, as the dragon turned his attention to the teen, See-More saw some of that hate soften.

"You...boy, you risked your feeble life to save mine. While foolish, it is the only time in thousands of years that someone has done this for me...the only other time being my mate."

Even through his cracked lens,See-More could read Malchior like a book. He was telling the truth, every word. A very deep and powerful sadness had entered those eyes when he spoke that final word.

"Rubbish. I do not know why you bother, dragon, but your words are just poison trying to send us into some sense of security--"

"If I wanted to kill you, golden man, I would, without hesitation, but your slightly more intelligent friend has shown me that I can trust, at least one of you, with getting me out of this dimension."

See-More looked like he was about to speak, but Warp was quicker.

"Don't think I did not see you, dread dragon," Warp hissed, taking a step towards the beast. "If it weren't for my timely intervention you would have let your rescuer be swallowed up by the very same creatures he saved you from. So do not speak to me about trust when you obviously have not learned it yourself."

The dragon and the time traveler locked gazes for what seemed liked ages until, finally, Warp smirked and turned back towards the edge of the rock, preparing to jump.

"If you jump, you will fall," Malchior spoke, flying a little closer towards the two.

"What nonsense are you speaking of now?" Warp scowled, still facing the rock's edge. "This dimension does not have the same properties as Earths, in case you haven't noticed, everything has the ability to float here."

"Wrong, human," Malchior hissed, his eyes deadly trained on the two. See-More was taken aback by the intensity of his words. "My eyes see more than your tiny ones do. Those pale creatures bend the properties of this dimension as they will. You may not be able to feel it, but I see the weight in this air. I am forced to use my wings to fly, in case you haven't noticed, and if you foolishly step off from that rock, you will fall, perhaps for all eternity, with only yourself to blame."

Warp simply stared out into the dimensions strange colors for several seconds, without moving.He walked a few steps to his left, picked up a tiny fragment of stone, and tossed it off the side of the large rock. The little rock plummeted as though it was 20 times its weight, quickly vanishing from view.

"...I hate dragons," Warp muttered darkly.

...

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the trio flew through the endless dimension. The colors and the shapes of the sky appeared to blend together; even the rocks looked as though they were repeating shapes. The hovered silent and motionless all around them, as if watching their progress.

"I'm startin' to get the strange feeling that we're being watched," See-More whispered, his damaged eye darting all over the place. He did not dare to miss the slightest change in movement, or the smallest hint of the tentacle monster's return.

"Those creatures have made you paranoid," Warp observed, though he too kept checking the corner of his eyes. "If these things are in fact watching us, it matters not, they see now that we are a force to be reckoned with and will not strike without due cause."

"But we can't keep this up forever!" See-More pointed out, already feeling the weariness tug at the back of his brain. "I've got a feelin' that those things don't need to sleep or eat as much as we do..."

"That is why it is imperative that we find that boy or his trumpet as soon as possible..." Warp continued,but he soon trailed off, his eyes catching something. He pointed down towards a jumble of  floating rocks. "There! Dragon, past those rocks, I believe I have spotted something!"

"Truly? I have not seen anything," Malchior rumbled. See-More could easily see wariness in the great dragon's eyes as it turned its head towards them. "For your...meager human eyes to catch something mine did not...would be very unlikely."

"Do not think yourself so high and mighty, 'oh dread dragon' Malchior," Warp sneered. "Or did you forget it took a meager human to save your worthless life?"

"If my life be so worthless, then perhaps I should have left you sitting, helplessly, on that rock...In fact..." The dragon's head then leaned dangerously close to Warp, smoke spewing from his great, toothy mouth. "If I am not mistaken,I do not even require your presence, golden human. The younger child has the ability to repair and could work the trumpet while you...are only good for one thing...

The dread dragon then opened its mouth wide, whether to devour the time warping villain or burn him to a crisp, See-More wasn't too keen on finding out.

"Whoa, whoa,guys,hold up!" See-More cried, standing up between the two. "Malchior,you do need Warp...no matter how much you might not want him. If that Titan's trumpet is broken or lost,the only thing we have left to escape is with is Warp's time-whatever."

"It's a Space Time Dimensional-." Warp began only to be cut off by Malchior's frustrated grumble.

The dread dragon turned his head to the cluster of rocks Warp had indicated. "You should pray, golden human, to whatever gods you worship that the human child is slightly intelligent enough to spare you," Malchior hissed before turning his head a fraction. Warp's golden body reflected perfectly in the dragon's red eye. "Though, you should pray even harder that I do not discover the trumpet first..."

...