Metaverse Crash Course

The Story As We Know It...

A group of strangers is randomly pulled together by a shadowy organization known as The Program. They are coerced through various means of blackmail, bribery, and threatened legal action to take part in a something known as the metapilot program. Through some strange and unknown technology they are sent into new worlds known as metaverses where they take over new bodies known as avatars. But all is not what it seems.

The Program is fighting against another metapilot group known as The Founders. The Founders are revealed to be descended from ancient peoples, going back thousands of years, as is The Program. Both have existed since long before man ever heard the word “metapod”. Metapilots, those with the ability to travel through metaverses, are rare and possess runes buried within their very DNA. Those who possess said runes are known by many names such as wizards, demigods, druids, shamans, and so on.

Each world, each avatar brings the pilots closer to the truth, not just about The Program and The Founders but about each other and the very nature of the Metaverse itself. The pilots also bring pieces of the Metaverse with them as they travel, powers that bleed through into them from the various avatars. But the powers aren’t the only things that are bleeding…reality itself is beginning to break and bend.

Essential Episodes

Episode 8: Collateral Damage Is A Given

Episode 14: The Nick Of Time

Episode 17: Galaxy Force 5 Chapter 3: Clear And Present Rangers

Episode 19: GalaxyForce 5 Chapter 5: Battle Royale of the Bands, Pt 2

Episode 24: ...So Far | Season One Finale

Episode 31: MacGuffin Acquired

Episode 32: Founder's Day

Episode 38: Fartherall Good Things Must Come To An End

Episode 39: Sequelibrium: Jingle Hells

Episode 40: Sequelibrium: Back In The Saddle Again (Masters Of The Metaverse LIVE From ZOE Con) | Season Two Finale

Season Summaries

SPOILERS AHEAD! Read at your own risk!

Masters of the Metaverse Seasons One and Two

Summary:

A group of strangers is brought together, through various means of coercion, to take part in an experiment known only as The Metapilot Program. Run by an organization known as The Program, the first mission is to a world known as Sentinel City. Super heroes are commonplace and reality TV is the thing, but heroes are being murdered and the avatars inhabited by our pilots, also known as The Alpha Squad, are the prime suspects.

Their mission to Sentinel City is abruptly ended, just as they are about to confront Armor Guy…who seems to believe that they are the ones killing people. Back in their pods, the pilots begin to notice that certain things are not the same as Aquamarine demonstrates that she has retained some of her avatar’s (Lady Veil) powers. During the night Aquamarine and Rosie are removed to an unknown location and the remaining pilots are sent into a new world in search of one, Nick Krieger.

This new world is similar to the old west of our world but with more zombies. And Theodore Roosevelt is a King. And the Civil War didn’t happen. But other than that! The pilots make their way to the Kingdom of Yosemite to find King Teddy, the last known avatar of Nick Krieger. Nick has been hiding in this world and is so immersed in his avatar that at first they are unable to reach him. Eventually they break through, during an encounter with some mysterious assailants on a train who are bound and determined to keep them from their final destination. Not to mention the smoke monster and the dark watchers in the mountains. Nick finally emerges from his avatar and tells the pilots that The Program is using them to harvest powers from various avatars throughout the worlds. He doesn’t want to return to the real world but eventually relents due to Crash’s intervention.

Back in the real world, Nick is wheeled away much to the chagrin of the rest of the team. Later that night, Crash punches though a wall and disappears into the night. Rosie and Aquamarine return and along with Jenika, and a new scout named Thomas, they are sent into a world of magical space princesses. What they don’t know is that their team leader has been hijacked by a woman named Tessa who is looking for her contact who has information about the missing children stolen by The Program.

The pilots become members of Galaxy Force Five and Thomas finds himself thrust into a new role as pilot when he takes on the avatar of Chad, Magical Space Prince Esteban. With the power of friendship and his trusty Chadblaster named Brad, Thomas helps the others to fight Queen Lorrianna who has allied herself with a mysterious new evil. They are joined in their final confrontation by none other than Nick who has been patched in by Crash. Tessa, who has learned from her contact named Hollywood that Thomas has information she seeks, is unwilling to let the others leave the metaverse so quickly after the fight. Thomas resists but Nick reveals that Thomas is the reason he was trapped in Yosemite. Thomas was part of Nick’s team and got Nick killed during a mission. Nick had no body to return to and became a gestalt entity instead, an amalgamation of memories and traits scrapped together from avatars. It is at this point that it becomes clear that all is not normal in the outside world. Nick and Crash have broken the pilots out of The Program and are fleeing with the pods in a high speed chase. Emerging from the pods, Crash demonstrates super strength a la Kid Titan as he loads the truck. Once onboard the pilots find out that they are being recruited into The Founders, sworn enemies of The Program.

Now members of The Founders, the pilots return once again to Sentinel City in search of the murderer. What they find is far worse then they could have ever imagined. It appears that Kid Titan’s old friend and mentor, Dr. Migraine, has been taking over people’s minds and killing superheroes. The group travels to visit Kid Titan’s ex-girlfriend, Molly Migraine. She knows what her father has been doing and helps the team recover the mind of Blue Streak, Kid’s friend and Migraine’s latest victim. The Alpha Squad travel to the cemetery in search of answers about Migraine’s son Mikey and are confronted by Death Blossom, who attacks the group. Once she is dispatched they finally realize the truth…that all of Sentinel City is covered by a large dome, with no normal people inside at all, and no one remembers that this ever happened. Retreating to a brand new Joe’s Diner to confer, the team is shocked to see themselves on TV ransacking a hospital. They go to confront the duplicates and barely manage to defeat them. They race back to Molly’s house and find Migraine outside in the body of Major Tom. He accuses Kid of failing Molly and everyone else. Kid Titan knocks him out and Hex uses her magic to keep him from hopping bodies. The team enters Molly’s house in the hopes of gaining more answers.

END OF SEASON ONE

Sometime later, Rosie, Nick, and Aquamarine are sent along with new pilots Scott and John in to a new world where it seems to be the eighties on earth. They are settling in for some jury deliberations in a food poisoning case when the aliens attack. The pilots escape with the rest of the jury and find that there is something odd about this avatars. None of them are very skilled or powerful, and they keep jumping around the twelve of them. Fleeing from the aliens, Scott uses his avatar to attempt to strike a deal with the invaders. He gets is mind sucked out into the ether for his trouble and his avatar is killed. When Crash, along with new pilot Nathan, finally rejoins the group, he confirms that Scott is very, very dead in the real world. Speaking of real, the pilots have just been to Joe’s where they met Cook, who confirmed for them what Crash already knew…that avatars are real people and all the worlds they are traveling to are real as well. Reeling from this information the group is stunned to find themselves on board an alien spaceship. They are even more surprised when Crash tells them that The Program has killed all the avatars in this particular world because they are looking for something…and that something ends up being Brad otherwise known as The Chadblaster. They take Brad to Joe’s Diner for safe keeping as no one from The Founders or The Program can hear them inside. The pilots then return to their home just in time for it to be attacked and blown up by pilots with powers sent from The Program. In the ensuing chaos, Thomas is killed and has his consciousness merged with the metapod system. Only the pilots can see him and he can only interact physically with objects in a metaverse.

Having fled on a boat, the pilots are sent into a locked world in order to learn more about it and the gods within. They find themselves in the fifth age of Fartherall, searching for the baby godling Amalia and her missing binky, milk, and blankie. Along the way they meet her sentient bunny and the jello wolf trying to lead an unwilling chosen one to destiny. After nearly failing their mission and unmaking a world, the group succeeds and returns to the boat which is now somewhere in the Adriatic Ocean. The spy a Megalodon out of time who pushes their boat onto a small island. Inside a cave on that island they meet Xerates the Spartan who has been waiting for metapilots for 2500 years. He tells them that The Founders created travel between metaverses and that every pilot possessed runes or DNA in their blood which marked them as such. Pilots used to travel between worlds, each metaverse sending their own pilots to help other worlds, slaying beasts, righting wrongs, doing things that ordinary people could not do. These pilots were known as demigods and they were the heroes of their age. But then The Program rose up and became what would be known as The Roman Empire. They sought to go against the teachings of “the priests” and in an effort to control the metaverse they killed every pilot they could find. Xerates has been guarding the pillars within his cave all this time, waiting for pilots to complete The Arena mission contained within so that they could journey to the world of “caged gods” and save the world.

The pilots enter The Arena and find themselves in the 1990s in Colbie, OH where movies are taking over a town and coming to life. The pilots that have remained outside the pillars are alarmed to find themselves under attack by more pilots sent by The Program, lead by none other than Jebidiah Lexington, their old teammate and friend…and the person who designed the metapod system. He also used to be in a wheelchair but now can walk. They are about to engage in battle with him and his team when the entire island shifts violently and begins to sink. Jenika is thrown into The Arena and Nathan is forced out. Once inside she is surprised to find that the avatar Nathan was in, the one she is know inhabiting, fades away leaving her real self behind. Aquamarine’s avatar soon disappears as well, while the battle on the island rages on and the sea levels climb. Inside The Arena, Jenika and Aquamarine see a sign with four little words on it. “Welcome To Sentinel City”.

END OF SEASON TWO

Project: Metaverse Arc One

Summary:

Four players are taking part in, what they believe to be, a simulation called Project: Metaverse. After completing a scenario where they have to take out various High Value Targets, and SWAT Team members, the players are taken to the office of the creator of Project: Metaverse…Jebediah Lexington. They are in the top fifty players and will now be placed on a team with the goal of chasing down an opposing team of metapilots across various metaverses.

The team is made up of singer-songwriter Andi Jaymes, private security specialist Maddox McPhernon, ex-con and CPA Wyatt Maxwell, and professional gamer Robert Munson. Robert aka Brony is especially eager to track down the other team when he learns that his nemesis, Crash Jaxun, is one of the members. Newly formed up, the group is sent into a new metaverse with TOM, the Tactical Operations Matrix, as their guide and assistant.

The new avatars are those of the Knights of Borkdom. A cross between a gumdrop and a hamster, Borks are sweet, lovable, cute, and innocent. They are also worth fifty points each and the team decides to murder the entire village before setting off to find the Eldest Bork who has taken off with the Borkstone, their true objective in this scenario. After the carnage is complete, the group realizes that the littlest Bork has escaped and resolve to burn down the forest in order to find him. Maddox is less than thrilled with this plan and takes off to save him. It is about this time that TOM steps in and removes the pilot’s immersion inhibitors. For the first time they are able to feel the full emotional impact of their avatars. It is less than pleasant to say the least, especially when they realize they have murdered all their friends in cold blood.

Reeling from this emotional wallop, the team finds the Eldest Bork and the borkstone which, when touched by Brony, turns into a doorway leading to a new metaverse. Before they can step through however, Jebediah appears in the form of a newly pubescent Littlest Bork and tells them that this is a world they have not yet been able to access at least not in that timeline. He urges them to no longer worry about points, much to Brony’s chagrin, and instead focus on gathering as much information as they can. With that he disappears and the pilots step through the door.

They find themselves in Sentinel City circa 1995. They have dropped into the avatars of various super villains, namely Balthazar the Black, The Skinwalker, Ezekiel the Undying, and Rita Riot. What first appears like a self help group for ex-villains is soon revealed to be a cover for the real evil plotting. In a hidden evil lair, behind the picture of Teddy Roosevelt on Mt Rushmore, the child named General Mayhem lays out his plans for world domination. Well, for getting rid of the superhero population anyway. He intends to erect a force field in the shape of a dome over the newly constructed Sentinel City, thereby trapping the majority of the superhero population inside. He plans to power this by using Butch Baker aka Kid Titan as a batttery, his connection to the Titan Matrix a perfect energy supply. And he just so happens to have Kid Titan tied up behind a curtain at this very moment, with his companion Rosencrantz the Superchimp.

What General Mayhem doesn’t know, and what the pilots suddenly realize, is that Rita, Baltazar, Skinwalker, and Ezekiel are all working undercover to discover and possibly prevent this evil plan. Before they can stop him however, General Mayhem demonstrates his mind control abilities by making Butch Baker shoot Rosencrantz in the head. Balthazar manages to communicate with the distraught young man and let him know that not only are they on his side but that they want to help him. Balthazar knows two key pieces of information thanks to his power of prophecy. One, the world is going to end and so a dome would be very helpful to have. And two, if Butch Baker dies so does his beloved granddaughter Hex Destiny.

Butch reveals that he has a panic button on the inside of his belt buckle which, when pressed, will summon The Sentinels. The Skinwalker is decided to be the best one to do so, after Rita and Butch get into a bickering match about their shared past. Balthazar begins to work on resurrecting Rosencrantz as the button is pushed and Butch calls Rita by her real name, Abbi.

A sudden sound from the teleporter reveals a strange, non super, woman named Wendy Gates. She is an investigative reporter and an anomaly in the metaverse. Every metaverse has a Wendy Gates in it and every Wendy knows what every Wendy knows. She can also sense metapilots inside avatars and confronts the team as to their purpose. She tries to show them that this world and the people in it are real but they remain unconvinced. She does however agree to help them save Butch and get out of the lair of General Mayhem.

Titan soon crashes through the wall of the lair, summoned by the belt buckle, and begins punching Ezekiel. Balthazar and Skinwalker attempt to convince him that they are not the enemy while Rita appeals to Butch. She sets him free and he tries to kiss her, but manages to just bump heads instead. A fight ensues and the team manages to calm Titan down slightly and fight off the rest of the villains. In a final push, Rita wraps everyone up in The Skinwalker and literally punches Mt. Rushmore into oblivion. Seeing this desecration of a national monument, Titan readies himself for another fight.

The team are suddenly aware that Andi is no longer in the avatar of Rita. When asked, TOM states that she has logged out of the system and can provide no further information. Meanwhile, Titan has decided that he is going to punch Rita, who looks very weak after this massive exertion, in retaliation for destroying Mt Rushmore. Butch pushes himself in the way and takes the full brunt of the blow. He is killed instantly and Titan suffers an acute psychotic break as a result. TOM announces that the main objective is now to save Butch Baker which can only be done by killing Titan.

The team tries their best to convince Titan to give up the Titan Matrix to save Butch but he is beyond reason. As he tries to destroy them all, TOM initiates a System Override and leaps into Rita. He then uses the Presto Gun obtained from a loot box and transfers his consciousness into Titan. He forces Hal to send the Titan Matrix into Butch Baker, transfers back into Rita just as Titan crushes his own head between two rocks at TOM’s command. His system override fails and TOM is sent back into the system as Rita looks around in confusion and goes to check on Butch. Rosencrantz, alive again, takes General Mayhem’s plans for the dome and agrees to start working on its creation which will take several years.

The Skinwalker uses her ability to change into Titan and hides his body, after shrinking it down and turning it invisible…don’t ask. The rest of the Sentinels arrive including Dr. Migraine, Armor Guy, and Cybotron. The rest of the Sentinels have no problem accepting the new Titan but Dr. Migraine knows something is amiss. Upon learning the truth from Balthazar, he agrees that the team had no choice and decides that the secret must be kept. He is introduced to Wendy Gates at this point who is horrified to feel him rooting around in her brain without permission. Disturbed by this, and the deep brokenness she senses inside of him, Wendy ejects him from her mind and spits on him. But Dr. Migraine has no trouble wiping the memories of the Skinwalker, Ezekiel, and Rita. Disturbed by this turn of events the team feels themselves starting to be pulled back to reality. But before they can be removed completely, TOM pulls them into a new place of pure white light. It is there that he tells them that they are going to help him save the metaverse and asks them how they feel about the old west?

Back in reality the pilots have more questions than answers, something that is compounded when they see that Andi’s pod is empty and there is a giant hole punched in the concrete wall. before going to speak with Jedediah, the team heads to the common room where they do an internet search for Wendy Gates. They find one who looks very familiar…and who happens to be sitting across the row from them.