As the Z-mage exited the room, he caught his first site of War World.
For a brief second, he considered using War World to destroy this universe. He quickly turned that idea down, since he couldn't take any credit if that machine destroyed this world. Destruction happens every day in the multiverse, some parallel universe manages to self destruct every day, without sending ripples through the multiverse. But when an outside source causes it to happen, ripples are sent back at least as far as the world the destroyer comes from, changing the past, present, and future of the worlds it ripples across.
So the Z-mage had to find an apocalyptic source on this world to control, so he used his magic to do a quick search. This world happened to have the largest amount of those than any other world he had come across.
"I'll have to start somewhere," he said to himself, "So why not go for the one closest to me."
A few blocks away, there was someone who counted as an apocalyptic force and was also looking for the Z-mage himself. Fresh from a potential future, this was one person who was quite fed up with the Z-mage. Ironically, he had traveled back in time to kill him. The ironic part was that he had stolen and used the Phoenix Gate to get him, not realizing that it was that kind of thinking that led to the Z-mage's rampage through time.
These two converged within a block on top of a roof top where no aliens had even thought about landing yet.
"YOU!!" the force yelled. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!!! TIME TO DIE, Z-MAGE!"
As the man leapt forward, his orange hair, silver skin, red suit, and yellow orb in the middle were all evident. They were even more evident when he crashed into the forcefield like a bug on a windshield. He began blasting some form of toxin at the force field.
Though the toxin was beginning to erode the force field, the Z-mage remained calm.
"I don't know you, so tell me why you're trying to kill me when I've never met you before."
"You simply haven't met me yet. I trusted you and you betrayed my trust. I was your lackey, until you did this to me! Which is why I stole your phoenix gate and traveled back in time to kill you!"
At that, the Z-mage lost all composure and began laughing. Not an evil laugh, like you'd expect from a villain, but a guttural belly laugh. At this his enemy lost his concentration, and stopped the assault.
"WHAT!!!!!!!" his enemy yelled. "What's so funny?!?!?!?!?!"
The Z-mage stopped laughing. "The Phoenix Gate is incapable of changing the past. Believe me. I know." and the look in his eye convinced his enemy of that. "But my quest is to find some way to do so. If you would be willing to help me, then when I find out how to change things, I will stop myself from doing whatever has been done to you. Just tell me your name."
The other man laughed a bit. "That was what I was here for. What you did in the future has destroyed my identity. I used to be Captain Pollution. I'm now just Cap. If you're telling me the truth here, I'll help you. But if I find out that you're lying to me, I will kill you without a second thought."
"Before we go on," the Z-mage said, "Tell me in what way I wronged you."
"You merged my body with my enemy, Captain Planet."
"Why?"
"To give me more power."
"And you object to more power?"
"No, I object to having my body polluted with that moron's essence and I hate having his wimpy earth powers in my body. Even if all of my powers and his are seriously amped."
"I am truly sorry for your pain." And the Z-mage seemed to mean it. He silently thanked his parents for pushing him into acting lessons. "But I could use some help destroying this universe. It could result in your future being changed as well."
"Are you crazy already?" Cap asked. "This is the center of the multiverse. You destroy this, and the entire space-time continuum crashes down around you. There are better ways around here to change the future."
"Really?" Z-mage asked. "I think we could use the chaos of this situation to work on getting one of those. You know what I've always wanted? Mjolnir. Or the Necronomicon. Let's work on those."
"I don't think we'd be able to get past all of those aliens alone."
"True, it would be easier with help. You mentioned other minions. Lead me to them."
"OK, I will." Cap responded. Silently, in his mind, he added 'for now.'

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