stjorthotic Chapter 274, the Time-Space Showdown, is complete!
Chapter 274, the Time-Space Showdown, is complete!
……
The filming progressed at breakneck speed, as if it had been put on fast-forward.
The abandoned old warehouse was completely transformed by the art team into a secret base full of childlike fun.
An old sofa, a hand-painted Ultraman poster, a "command post" made of cardboard boxes, and handmade origami fighter jets hanging from the ceiling... every detail reveals the earnestness and clumsiness of elementary school students.
That night, Xiao Mian lay alone on the floor of the secret base, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Moonlight streamed in through the dusty skylight, casting a hazy patch of light on the floor.
Just then, a faint red light suddenly appeared in his schoolbag.
Xiao Mian sat up abruptly and hurriedly unzipped his schoolbag—a red glass ball the size of a fist was lying inside.
This ball is exactly the same as the one in my dream.
"Who...who are you?" Xiao Mian asked.
The red ball did not provide a direct answer.
A soft light spread from the surface of the sphere, and within the light, a voice seemed to be heard:
"I can... grant you any wish."
Xiao Mian's eyes widened instantly.
The next day after school, the secret hideout was packed with Xiao Mian's best friends.
They surrounded the red ball, their faces filled with doubt.
"Xiao Mian, have you been watching too many cartoons?"
"This can't be real! How could such a thing exist!"
Xiao Mian panicked, her cheeks flushing red: "It's true! I really saw it glow! It even talked to me!"
The friends exchanged a glance, clearly not believing it.
The questioning gaze stung her pride. Xiao Mian gritted her teeth, grabbed the red ball, closed her eyes, and almost defiantly shouted:
"If all wishes could really come true... then I want to meet the real me! The higher me from the TV show! Ultraman Gaia!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the red ball suddenly burst into a blinding flash of light.
The entire secret base trembled. The children looked out the window and saw a silver-gray shadow streak across the sky with a long trail of flame, crashing down onto the plaza not far away.
XIG's EX fighter jet descended upon this ordinary world without monsters or Ultraman in an impossible way.
……
Then, due to the antics of the older bullies, the red ball lit up again.
I dreamt that I was forced to transform in this world and face a monster.
However, unlike the original work, Gu Nan did not arrange for the psycho-parasite Bizom to be Gaia's opponent here.
After all, this character is not a mindless grunt monster in the original design.
Moreover, as a character who appears in the mid-to-late stages of the story, her appearance now still carries a hint of spoilers.
Therefore, the monster summoned here to fight Gaia is the classic monster Gob!
……
Faced with this red ball that appeared out of nowhere, Goga from another world displayed his power as a super scientist in the tokusatsu zone.
In a corner of the secret base, he used a simple analyzer he carried with him to scan the red ball from all angles.
They pinned their hopes on AI PAM being able to analyze the information about the red ball.
Inside the studio, Su Ye, who plays Gao Womeng, sits on a prop box, holding an aged copy of Gulliver's Travels.
He turned the pages of the book and slowly read the lines from the script to Xiao Mian and the children sitting around him:
"In quantum physics, there is a hypothetical theory called the 'many-worlds interpretation'."
"Multiverse...interpretation?" Xiao Mian tilted his head, trying to digest this overly difficult term for him.
"This theory posits that different selves can coexist in multiple parallel worlds simultaneously."
I closed the book in my dream, my gaze passing through the small window of the secret base, looking into the distance. "Just like this book, Gulliver's Travels. On the surface, it's a social satire, but if you look at it from another angle... Gulliver can also be understood as a time traveler who freely traverses countless parallel worlds."
He skillfully wove together cutting-edge physics theories with the oldest fairy tale fantasies in a way that children can understand.
Xiao Mian nodded thoughtfully, her eyes sparkling with curiosity and longing for the unknown world.
However, the peaceful time did not last long.
The piercing sound of sirens shattered the tranquility of the secret base.
Dozens of fully armed defense team members surrounded the warehouse, their dark gun barrels pointed at the exit from all angles.
Their orders were simple and direct—to arrest the dangerous individual who had illegally entered their airspace in an unidentified flying object.
I dreamt of raising my hands and slowly walking out of the warehouse.
"I meant no harm! Please let me explain—"
He tried to resolve the crisis with reason and goodwill.
However, the defense team members only saw vigilance and hostility.
In this peaceful world that has never experienced a monster invasion, the sudden appearance of an advanced fighter jet and a stranger claiming to be from a parallel world are all too illogical.
No one was willing to listen to his explanation.
The conflict erupted instantly.
In the chaos, my dream's body suddenly began to flicker violently, distorting and blurring as if a television signal was being interfered with.
His figure, along with the EX fighter jet in the distant square, vanished completely from this world that did not belong to him.
It's as if they never existed.
……
However, the real aftermath of this riot has only just begun.
While everyone's attention was focused on the standoff between my dream and the defense team, no one noticed that three figures had quietly slipped into the chaotic crowd.
Hiroshi Shikata, a senior student a head taller than Tsutomu, has a great hobby of bullying younger students with his two henchmen. He always says with a disdainful look that Ultraman is "childish stuff for little kids," then turns around and goes home to watch tokusatsu shows on TV.
However, he prefers monsters to Ultraman!
In his spare time, he likes to use origami, clay and other materials to make one monster after another.
At this moment, he tightly gripped the red glass ball in his hand, his eyes blazing with ever-growing desire.
"That's nothing! I can summon something even stronger!"
He held the red ball tightly, his eyes completely changed.
Initially, it might have been out of malice and a desire to show off, but now, there's something more in those eyes—a frenzied obsession with power.
"But this time... I'm going to add my own creativity! I want a truly invincible monster!"
He shouted at the red ball.
The color inside the red ball is getting darker and darker, and the ball itself is starting to expand and deform!
It absorbs desire, malice, and all the darkest corners of human nature.
Then, enlarge and materialize them all.
The sky cracked open again.
This time, it is King Orb Mengus who has descended!
The end of the world has come.
In this world without XIG, without high-tech weapons, and without experience fighting monsters, people can only helplessly look up at the sky and watch those three behemoths crush the city bit by bit.
Skyscrapers collapsed, streets caved in, and flames and thick smoke dyed the sky the colors befitting the end of the world.
……
The timeline jumps back to the present.
A full week has passed since the premiere of the 26th episode of the first season of "Ultraman Gaia," which featured a stunning showdown between two Ultramen that shocked the entire tokusatsu industry.
The online discussion shows no signs of abating.
Inside the headquarters of Light Chaser Animation Studios, there was an exquisite hard drive on the table in front of Gu Nan.
He has just completed the final full review of "Time Wars".
The CG animation depicting the three-front battle between Orb, King Basilius, and Scylla, after months of polishing by the special effects team, finally reached his "perfect" standard.
The rendering precision of each frame has been pushed to the limits of the film and television industry. The texture of the monster's skin, the refraction of light on the scales, and the diffusion of particle effects during the explosion all reveal the foundation of top-level industrial standards.
But what truly made Gu Nan smile was the last twenty minutes of the film.
As Gaia was forced to retreat under the onslaught of the three-headed monster, as its red and silver body crashed heavily into the ruins, as the timer's rapid flashing turned into a suffocating, continuous blare—
Xiao Mian's transformation amidst the ruins!
This boy, who had always been protected and saved, stood before everyone for the first time. He held the twisted and deformed red ball in his hands, tears blurring his vision, but his voice was firmer than ever before:
"Everyone! Yes, I'm not alone!"
In the flames of the explosion
He was fearless!
"Ultraman isn't alone!"
"Oh, the light—!"
With Xiao Mian's heart-wrenching scream, the red ball burst forth with its final brilliance.
The light was a warm, golden light, like the light of dawn.
Within the light, two enormous figures slowly coalesced into shape.
Giant of Light, Ultraman Tiga.
Miracle Light, Dyna.
The Heisei Three, oh no, I should call them the Light Chasing Three!
First time meeting!
Ultraman Tiga and Specura engage in a fierce battle in the turbulent ocean.
Waves and beams of light intertwine, and purple and gold forces collide on the sea surface, creating a spectacular water column—a most sincere tribute to Ultraman Tiga's final naval battle.
Dyna carried Basilis straight into the sky, two beams of light piercing the atmosphere and chasing each other among the stars.
The energy fluctuations, like those of a supernova explosion, spread through space—a most heartfelt recreation of Dyna's final interstellar battle.
And Gaia, the guardian of the earth, rose anew from the ruins. The ground beneath his feet began to glow, the earth's power flowed through his legs into his body, and the timer lit up with its blue light once more.
Under the ultimate light, he transformed into the supreme being!
Opposite him was King Orb Mengs.
Earth and fusion, protection and destruction.
The three major battlefields—sea, land, and air—are ignited simultaneously!
Ultimately, under the overwhelming force of the three Ultramen fighting side by side, the three monsters were defeated one by one.
As the last monster turned to ashes in the explosion, the three giants stood side by side between the ruins and the rising sun, the golden morning light outlining their majestic silhouettes.
That scene alone is enough to bring tears to the eyes of anyone who loves tokusatsu.
Gu Nan gently placed the hard drive into the prepared suitcase and locked it.
From the groundbreaking documentary-style filming that reconstructed the chase scenes, to the repeated polishing of each character's micro-expressions, and then to the nostalgia-inducing reunion of the three protagonists that is worthy of being recorded in the history of tokusatsu—this film, "The Great Battle of Time and Space," which embodies countless efforts, has reached perfection in every aspect, from character details to overall quality, from science fiction setting to humanistic sentiment.
Everything is ready.
We're just waiting for that moment when we're illuminated by the light.
The miracle of tokusatsu is about to explode on the big screen.