The morning after the battle at the garbage dump, the Eds met up with Rolf in Eddy's room. They discussed what to do next. Rolf had meditated a little before he went to sleep, trying to recall some of the worst of Rolf Yarrick's memories. He even explained why. His body had subconsciously suppressed them, and to get them back, he needed to meditate. Edd wondered if Rolf was a probable psyker. At this, Rolf gave a sneer.

"Why do you ask such blasphemies, Ed-boy?" Rolf asked. Eddy rolled his eyes and sighed. Rolf's personality had become even less understandable since the commissar came into him. If Eddy hadn't known better, he would say Rolf now had a shrine or something in his house where he prayed every morning and evening in praise to the Emperor.

"Because I've sensed another psyker mind in the cul-de-sac lately. And it's becoming stronger for every day. It wasn't there a year ago..." Edd's voice trailed off.

"To get back on subject:" Eddy intervened, "There's no doubt there'll be more of these... things out there... in space."

"Yes," Edd answered, "and it goes without saying that these robots cannot be allowed to come to Earth."

"The cost would be far to high," Rolf finished off.

"Then there's only one choice, and that's the good old way of taking the fight to them." Edd said with a half-hearted smile. "We'll have to go back to the Imperium, or whatever's left of it..."

"But how do we do that Double D?" Ed asked, taking his eyes from the big poster of the very casually dressed girl in Eddy's room. "We don't have anything to make a travel hole in the Warp with."

"That is taken care of Ed," Edd replied simply. "Last night, I managed to contact McKenzie."

This comment gave Edd confused looks from his two life-long friends. Ed was sitting with a gaping mouth, looking like a fish, and Eddy just stared. Rolf, on the other hand, simply nodded as if he had expected to hear this. There wasn't much nowadays that startled Rolf. Yet again, that could be blamed on his split soul. As a matter of fact, he'd managed to become school president the year before he left for High School. And in High School, it had taken him two weeks to get a grand majority in the next School President election. He was on his second year, and would probably hold it his entire High School time. Eddy put it down to charisma, that he in some odd way knew, all commissars possessed. All great leaders for that part. He'd fared to understand so as they'd read history. Every one of the great leaders had seemed to possess charisma in spades: Napoleon, Churchill, Montgomery, Eisenhower, Hitler, Stalin, and Lenin... The list could be made endlessly long. Personally, Eddy knew he possessed himself some vague resemblance to charisma, but not the true thing. It was the one thing he didn't want to have in spades, although, it would help up his cons somewhat gravely in success.

Eddy laughed dryly to himself. But he was torn from thoughts by Edd's voice. How long had he been talking?

"The details aren't important, but McKenzie and his two friends are aware of what happened last night." Edd said and stood up. This was no good sign concerning Edd. It meant a speech or the like, but Eddy was to be wrong. "I can only assume they're making their way here as soon as possible."

"That still doesn't solve our main problem: How to fight them?" Eddy said with and open-handed gesture. "How does four teenagers and three 'retired' Space Marines battle who knows how many robot soldiers, when all the gear we have is theirs and the Legendary Yarrickian Sword."

Eddy paused before going on. "Don't get me wrong, I've no doubt in that McGranth, McKenzie and Charleston are still living fighting machines, and I know the potency of that sword; I've seen it kill a Deamon Lord! But, it still leaves three of us with our bare hands and Double D's psychic powers. And that is not with mentioning the fact that there are probably hundreds of thousands of the robots."

Eddy fell backwards in his bed and gave a small sigh. "I hate to say this, but I'm not sure the seven of us can pull this off, even with the sword, and as it only scared the living daylights out of deamons..."

"I must agree and disagree with that at the same time Eddy," Edd said with a thoughtful look upon his face. "We have done most of our fighting with comrades at our sides. Those comrades are since long gone, however they still do exist, in a matter of speaking."

Ed made the fish-face again, Eddy stared again and even Rolf gave a look of confusedness now. No one seemed to understand what Edd was talking about. The wiry young man gave a sigh.

"Those people we've fought alongside, or at least alternate versions of them still exist, right before your eyes, here in the cul-de-sac."

Still the confused looks. But the looks slowly changed into a range of different feelings. But they all led to a final one: disbelief.

"Are you nuts?" Eddy simply blurted out.

"I understand your meaning, brainy Ed-boy," Rolf said giving a sorrowful look, "but our dear friends in the cul-de-sac have no combat training, neither do they have our experience."

"On that with dear, I couldn't differ more..." Eddy muttered sourly, remembering how Kevin still picked on them. If he only knew...

"Neither did we at first, but we managed." Edd said, completely ignoring Eddy's comment.

"But," Eddy shot in, "We had armour, and psi crystals to give us experience directly, get me? And Rolf here had a living legend's experience to back up on."

"I know we have none of out gear now, but McKenzie might know where to get some stuff. And, speaking frankly, I believe that we right now need all the help we can get."

"This might sound stupid," Ed of all people shot in, "but the other kids don't know a fig about this, so what makes you think they'll believe it? I know my sister, she only believes what she can see with her two eyes and touch with her fingers." Ed had been about to add nail-clawed fingers instead, but decided not too.

"Then we'll have to give them rock solid proof, then." Edd said with a simple gesture.

"All right," Eddy said with scepticism in his voice, "if we somehow manage to convince them, and if they agree to go with us, then what?"

Then we wait for McGranth, McKenzie and Charleston and hope..." Edd said and shrugged. He wasn't going to tell them he had no idea what to do next, but it had to wait.

"Okay, I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we?" Eddy sighed and sat up again.

"Uh, Eddy..." Edd said and hesitated a second. "It's not quite as simple as that..."

"Whaddya mean?" Eddy asked and gave Edd a stern look.

"Well, when I say we need all the help we can get, I really do mean ALL the help we can get..." Edd let his voice trail of and waited for the next cog to fall into place in the machinery. "So, unfortunately, we'll have to..."

Eddy's facial expression said what his pained soul wanted to say for ten long seconds. Eddy was in no way slow-witted, in fact the contrary. He was in fact extremely quick witted, when it got to saving his own skin and soul.

"Don't say it..." Eddy hissed.

"Afraid I have to, Eddy," Edd said with an overcome look, "I'm afraid we'll have to ask Kevin as well as the Kankers for help."

"Can't believe you said that..." Eddy muttered.

"But weren't the versions of Kevin and the Kankers in the Imperium bad guys?" Ed asked.

"Bad guy is a fuzzy word combination," Edd said and looked down unto the floor for while before looking up. "But they started out on the 'good' side."

"Besides, our Kevin and our Kankers aren't influenced by Chaos or infested by the Hive Mind." Edd continued.

"That's a matter of opinion..." Eddy muttered sourly, but Edd had heard him.

"Eddy, I know how you feel about Kevin," Edd said kindly, "And none of us really is keen on the Kankers, but you must admit, that they all are fairly tough."

Eddy's reply was a grumble.

"I do not see as we have any choice," Rolf put in. "My only concern is how we'll convince them that all this is true..."

"That, Rolf, will certainly not be easy." Edd sighed. "We can show them the sword, of course, and tell them about the robot we fought in the garbage dump yesterday. Anyway, I still think we'll have to wait for McGranth, McKenzie and Charleston to arrive. Even with them at our side, it might still not be enough to convince our neighbours."

"This is going to be one long day... " Eddy sighed and fell backwards unto his bed again. "So, how do we convince them, then?"

"My thought is that we gather them all in one place and tell them there and then, in that way, we only need to tell the story once." Edd replied.

"That, Ed-boy, would be difficult, concerning the fact that we all are rarely in the same place at the same time." Rolf said and looked worried.

"Yes, we'll have to gather them in some way, perhaps send them all some kind of invitation."

Ed, who'd been sitting quiet for a good while now, made a sign that he wanted to say something: "I think I know how to do it."

Rolf, Edd and Eddy gathered beside Ed and they all huddled together, like a football team discussing what to do next. Ed's little explanation took a few minutes. But when they were done, they split up from the huddled position.

"Good idea, Ed." Edd complimented his friend. "Odd I didn't come to think of that?"

"Easy solutions often escape even the biggest geniuses." Rolf said simply as he opened the door to Eddy's room.

"Right." Eddy said with a forced happy tone in his voice. "See you tonight. And Ed, this better work..."

Before long, a number of notes were delivered to all the cul-de-sac kids’ houses, even the Kanker's trailer. The notes weren't handwritten, they were printed from a computer, with a strange sigil at the bottom: a twin-headed eagle with its wings spread. Most kids were puzzled by the sigil, except Jonny, who thought it looked nice and Plank wanted him to save it.

The message on the notes was short: "Important Meeting" it read. "Come to the campsite in the woods tonight. Way to it marked with torches." To make sure everybody showed up, Edd had added: "Free S'mores" to Eddy's frustration.

Edd's extra add-on paid off. All kids arrived that night at the former campsite of the Urban Rangers. Even the Kankers showed up. The Eds had arranged a kind of set for it all. Rolf had helped of course. He wanted the camp to be restored to its starting state easily. As the camp was far into the forest, all the kids had brought sleeping bags. They knew there was no going home in the middle of the night. They all sat down on various places before the set, using jackets and cushions not to get cold as they sat on the ground. The Eds and Rolf could feel the cul-de-sac kids’ curious eyes watching them from the darkness. There was a long pause before something happened. Kevin happened.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" he said in an irritated voice. "Get on with it!"

Being the good friend he was, Eddy shoved Edd forward a bit. Edd felt the blush heading for his face. It started at his bellybutton and headed north.

"Oh my..." he whimpered silently before starting to talk in a clear voice. "Well, thank you all for heeding our call and coming."

"I said get on with it." Kevin sourly shot in. Rolf shot his friend a mighty dark look, but Kevin didn't notice. Edd felt the blush was at his chest now.

"Right, right," Edd said as he tried to calm down and stop the blush. "Well, you're all here because we must ask for your help."

As Edd had said this, he managed to calm down, find his nerve and stop the onrushing blush. His explanation became a speech. He explained everything: From the discovery of the probe and their first meeting with the Imperium of Man more than three years ago. Their first battle and kills on the ice planet Volrath, the massive assault against the Hive world Armageddon. Their encounters with Kevlinn and later, even the Deamon Kharn. He told them of the many dangers they'd encountered; from treacherous Eldar to zombie robots. Some of his description might have been a little to evocative, cause he thought he heard Jimmy whimper in the crowd, as he described his own show-down with the mighty A'mon C'hak'ai, and how Rolf killed the Deamon Lord Kharn.

Two and a half hour later, Edd came to the tail end of his speech: "When we had defeated Kharn, we returned home. That was about two years ago."

Edd made a little pause to let it all sink in, before he began describing the true nature of their new problems: "It's been a few years, yes, and we all thought our adventures had come to an end. Until last night, that is. Somehow, some kind of killer robot managed to make its way here, to our own cul-de-sac. There can be only one solution to how it came here. The warp-signature of the probe must still be able to be picked up, and that is why we assume it came from what once was the Imperium of Man. There are most certainly more of these murderous machines. We have encountered deamons, yes, and we once allowed two deamon lords to tread Mother Earth's ground, but we can never allow any alien abhorrence to do that again. So this time, we have no other choice than to go to the Imperium again, and stop the problem in its cradle."

"Alas, we no longer have our weapons and equipment that we had then, and even though we still have a sword of aeons old, we are not at our best right now." Edd continued. "So that is why we have decided that our only option is to come to you for help."

The following silence was a tense moment. As a certain Mr. Terry Pratchett has said once "silence is not the lack of sound, it's a sort of sound itself" and that described very well the kind of sound that met Edd for two whole minutes.

"You expect us to believe that?" Lee Kanker said with obvious distrust in her voice.

"Well, we do have some proof to offer for you." Edd replied scratching his head. Without shooting anybody a glance or anything, Rolf silently moved out of sight, backstage. No one paid heed to the blue haired foreigner either.

"You did hear the commotion at the garbage dump last night, didn't you? At least some of you did, I hope?" Edd asked, looking concerned for the first time this night. He'd looked nervous, yes, but not concerned."

"Yeah, so?" came Marie Kanker's snapping answer.

"That was the four of us, attempting to stop the robot." Edd answered. "We managed to destroy it, but sadly, I doubt that it was the only one..."

"Then where's the robot now?" Sarah asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, we buried it, to keep anyone else from finding the remains. Uninvited people, that is..."

"So, we can't see it?" May Kanker said, drawing a simple conclusion in her mind.

"I'm afraid that would prove to be a bit difficult..." Edd replied with a sheepish smile.

"So, you can't actually prove to us that it exists, dorks!" Kevin snapped, getting impatient with this highly probable scam.

"We don't need to show you the robot, as we have other evidence." Edd replied calmly. "Rolf!"

On cue, Rolf came back on stage. This time however, he was wearing the commissar's uniform over his ordinary clothing. The peaked cap was put squarely on his head and the leather strap that held the sword sheath on his back was slung easily over his right shoulder. In his right hand, he held the silver gleaming Yarrickian Sword, its golden parrying bar glittering in the gloomy light from the torches nearby. Although it wasn't in its true owner's hand, it still had an aura of power around it. The black jackboots on Rolf's feet were polished immaculately, they too shining in the light from the warm torches. Even the all too often muddy greatcoat was spotless.

"Nice outfit." Nazz giggled with a smile. She'd become quite a beautiful young woman in the three years that had passed, she and Kevin and Rolf all coming to the age of 17 soon.

"This is no mere outfit," Rolf replied steely, "this is the uniform of a Commissar-General, and this sword is many thousands of years old."

"Oh, come on Rolf," Kevin groaned. "We all know that you've been taking sword-fighting lessons."

"Yes, Kevin, I have been training, preparing myself in case the need should arise for us to fight again, and sadly, now it has."

"I don't know about this..." Johnny said hesitating. He stood up, and made to leave. He didn't care if it was late, he wanted home.

"Wait, please, we still have three pieces of evidence to show you, but they haven't arrived yet..." Edd fell silent for a moment, and looked like he just seemed to have come to a realization. It was only on his face for a few seconds, before it was gone and he talked again. "Ah, and here they are now!"

A few seconds later, the sound of three big motorcycles could be heard. The rumbling closed in and the three big bikes came into the campsite. Upon each bike sat a man. They all gave away an aura of power. The shortest one, riding a Harley Davidson, was around 1m80. The tallest one measured around 2m50.

The bikes stopped ten metres from the cul-de-sac kids, and the riders stepped of their steeds. Removing their helmets, they showed off faces that were alarmingly alike the Eds. The one looking like Ed had the big exception of no zits and no freckles. The one that looked like Edd didn't wear the mandatory cap and had an orange tattoo at his left temple. Eddy's copy had a thin, black moustache on his upper lip and the remnants of an old scar over his left eye. McKenzie had, being the apt psyker he was, used Edd's psychic signature to lead himself and his friends to the campsite.

The kids looked at the three tall men with different faces, their looks going from fear, through distrust to awe.

Edd broke the silence: "May I present, our alternate selves from the Imperium of Mankind: Lieutenant Commander Ed Charleston, Master Lexicanum Edward McKenzie and Grand Commander Eddie McGranth!"

"Ah, no way..." Kevin silently said to himself. He was genuinely impressed.

"Double D," McKenzie said, looking the kids over. "Who are all of them, and what are they doing here?" McKenzie soon recognized the faces of the kids, and realized whom they represented from their worlds. He got a stern look on his face as he called the Eds to him.

"May I have a word with you? Just for a minute?"

The Marine commanders, the three young Eds and Rolf all went out of earshot from the others.

"What is this?" McKenzie asked flatly as the seven gathered away from the others.

"We're sorry for this, but let's face it; we need all the help we can get!" Eddy said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"But what can they possibly do?" McGranth asked concerned. "They don't have any battle experience. And what the frekk is HE doing here!?"

"I assume you mean Kevin." Edd replied simply. "I know how you must feel, but he's not Kevlinn, no more than I'm McKenzie. This is a completely different person. Besides, imagine how we must've felt when we had to fight against people we counted as neighbours and friends, not sworn enemies."

"Believe me, I don't like it anymore than you do, but I suppose it had to be better to have him with us, than against us, right?" Eddy said and looked up at the others.

"And we thought that you guys could find some armour for them, just like you did for us, right?" Ed finished off.

McKenzie rubbed his brow, as if he had a headache. He was quiet for a while, until he spoke. "We don't even have the bleakest ray of hope that we can in fact get back to the Imperium, and let alone find armour at all. As for their battle-experience, they'll have to learn it the hard way. The data-file I had on how to create psi-crystals is gone. Must've lost it somewhere..."

Rolf put a hand on McKenzie's lean shoulder. "I know that this will not be easy, but we believe that this is our best chance, if not the only."

McKenzie nodded slowly. He seemed to get an idea.

"You go tell the others, that those who wish to join our crusade should tell us. I don't want anyone drawn into this who doesn't want to be coming along. Weak minded people, or non-willing, could get us attacked by deamons, or betray us. Maybe even worse." McKenzie made a pause. "I think I have an idea on how to be able to get back to the Imperium..."

With that, he walked off towards his bike. There, he picked out a 2m10 tall, and several centimetres thick package. How it had been able to fit onto the bike, no one asked or knew. McKenzie began picking out several other items from a box on his bike, but the Eds never got to see what it was. Charleston and McGranth herded them back to the stage, where they made their announcement.

After that, all the kids crept down into their sleeping rolls and bags, except Charleston and McGranth, who kept watch over the fire. McKenzie had disappeared into the woods nearby.

Eddy, being one of the last to fall asleep, lay contemplating what had happened. It was much, he concluded.

"I knew it was going to be one long day..." he yawned before he went to sleep.