Earth Zero-X

Not long after the oceans formed 4.5 billion years ago, Earth is visited by a mysterious alien race known throughout the entire multiverse only as the "Seeder" - the bringer of life to worlds.

Shortly after their departure, the earliest life forms emerge in form of microscopic organisms (microbes) which leaves a type of carbon molecule in rocks that is produced by living things.

Evolved from the reptiles during the Triassic Period (252-201 million years ago), the dinosaurs appear in Pangaea, ...

... live on Earth for about 165 million years, and go extinct along with approximately 47% of genera and 76% of species on Earth in a mass extinction event caused by the impact of a massive asteroid in the Yucatán Peninsula of southeastern Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Already around for perhaps 160 million years before the asteroid struck, mammals are marginal, small creatures and restricted to specific niches.

But after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that eliminated about three-quarters of plant and animal/dinosaur species on Earth, a group of small, nocturnal, arboreal, insect-eating mammals called Euarchonta takes the opportunity to fill the now free niches and begins a speciation that will eventually lead to the appearance of the first true primates in Eurasia not too long after.

Over the course of many million years, these first primates give rise to all extant primate species, including the lemurs of Madagascar, lorises of Southeast Asia, galagos or "bush babies" of Africa, and to the anthropoids, which are the Platyrrhines or New World monkeys, the Catarrhines or Old World monkeys, and of course the great apes, including humans and other hominids.

After the split from the line of the chimpanzees 3.9 - 2.9 million years ago, the earliest hominin species, known as "Australopithecus", emerges in eastern Africa and starts the evolution of the human species.

• 2.5 - 2 million years ago
  Speciating from Australopithecus afarensis appeared the early Homo who was using sophisticated stone tools, earning him the name "Homo habilis".
• 1.9 – 0.8 million years ago
  Although significantly different of anatomy and physiology of its ancestor, and coexisting with them for half a million years, "Homo erectus" arrived and was the first to develop control of fire and use complex tools. They were also the first to leave Africa, spreading throughout Eurasia, between 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago.
• 800,000 to about 300,000 years ago
  Homo heidelbergensis, the most recent common ancestor between modern humans (H. sapiens or H. s. sapiens) and Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis or H. s. neanderthalensis) emerges.
• 400,000 to about 28,000 years ago
  Homo neanderthalensis, alternatively designated as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, evolves from the northern Homo heidelbergensis lineage with superior adaptation to cold environments by superior retention of body heat, significantly larger brains, a higher body mass, and a better visual acuity than modern humans.
• 300,000 years to about 130,000 ago
  Homo sapiens (the adjective sapiens is Latin for "wise" or "intelligent"), likely derived from the southern lineage of H. heidelbergensis, emerges in Africa and through a merging of populations in East and South Africa arise the early modern humans.
• 287,000 to about 14,500 years ago
  Little is known of the archaic humans called "Denisovans" ( H. denisova or H. altaiensi) other than that they were the descendants of an earlier migration of H. erectus out of Africa, completely distinct from modern humans and Neanderthals and that they lived in Siberia, Tibet, and Laos.
• 130.000 to about 80,000 years ago
  In one of the earlier waves of migrations, Homo sapiens leaves Africa heading to the Middle East into modern Israel and settles in places like the present-day United Arab Emirates and Oman and eventually reaches the Indian Subcontinent, but these early colonisations don't last long and recede by about 80,000 years ago.
• 75,000 to about 50,000 years ago
  Following the subsequent, more recent Out-of-Africa expansion, some sub-populations of Homo sapiens have been geographically isolated for tens of thousands of years. Combined with sustained archaic admixture, in Eurasia notably with Neanderthals and Denisovans, this has resulted in a significant and distinctive human genetic variability.
• 56,800 years ago
  One of these sub-populations of Homo sapiens and the first anatomically modern humans in Europe, continuously occupying the continent for the next hundreds of thousands of years, and known to interbred with the indigenous Neanderthals, are the Cro-Magnons.

Leaving behind a highly advanced, but dying ancient civilization, a group of desperate aliens calling themselves the "Mato'Nai" go on a journey to seek out new life and new civilizations on strange new worlds in hope to find a cure for the mysterious sterility that brought their species to the brink of extinction.

Eventually arriving at Earth and examine its predominant lifeforms, they discover that the early modern humans DNA differs only 1.5% from their own, and so they decide to take a closer look at these strange furry creatures who despite their similar genes are so different from themselves.

To this end, they establish a permanent city-sized base called "At'luun" (City of Science) on a large uninhabited island north of the Azores
and several smaller research facilities all around the world:

• Cor’Bei
  Caral, Peru, South America
• As'Gar / Wa'Na
  Northern Europe/Scandinavia Die Asen und Vanen galten den Wikingern als rivalisierende Göttergeschlechter.
• Ti'An
  Mount Olympus, Greece
• ...
  Egypt
• ...
  Asia
• ...
  India Das Alter des Hinduismus wird auf ca. 8000 Jahre geschätzt
• ...
  North & South Africa

nearby population and kidnap from time to time some specimens Their curiosity worked up, the hidden , from where they want to study the most advanced human species.

To this end they isolate one selected tribe of each the Neanderthals, the Denisovans, and the early european modern humans in form of the Cro Magnon; as test subjects for their biological studies and genetic experiments.

This lead to the genesis of several completely new and far advanced human subspecies:

• The Corya'Nai
  Derived from a tribe of Denisovans that lived in southern Siberia in the Altai Mountains, the "Corya'Nai" (Children of the Star Gods) evolved physically, emotionally, and culturally far faster than any of the other human species and outperformed them quickly.
• The Nai'vil
  The experiments on Neanderthals who were assumed to have gone extinct 40,000 to 35,000 years ago lead to 3 divergent lineal descendant speciess
• • Yetis & Sasquatch (Bigfoot)
  • ...
  • ...
• Tis'Ya / Ya'Tis (New Gods)
  Splicing their own genes, those that make the difference between them and the humans, into the DNA of Cro Magnon, ...

"They ruined a perfectly good monkey!"

It was Heisenberg (no, not the eponymous meth cook) who postulated a strange assumption of quantum theory, that has long fascinated philosophers and physicists alike. He told us that any kind of observation influences the existence of these objects. Or in other words: Just by observing something, the observer already influences it.

• 50,000 to about 40,000 years ago
  Well, this was certainly true for several sub-populations of Homo sapiens, who experienced the constant observation and frequent abductions by the Mata'Nui first hand. They themselves watching and studying the overwhelmingly superior aliens, began to adopt some observed cultural and behavioral traits.
  This sudden transition from the use of stone tools to a behavioral modernity included a specialization of tools, the making of clothing from animal hides, use of jewellery and images (such as cave drawings), organization of living space, rituals (such as grave gifts), specialized hunting techniques, exploration of less hospitable geographical areas, and barter trade networks, as well as more general traits such as language and complex symbolic thinking.
• ~ 40,000 years ago
  Europe The recent expansion of anatomically modern humans ("Cro-Magnon") reached Europe around 40,000 years ago from Central Asia and the Middle East, as a result of cultural adaption to big game hunting of sub-glacial steppe fauna, reached sites in Arctic Russia
• 40,000 to about 35,000 years ago
  East, Southeast and North Asia originated in Mainland Southeast Asia at ~50,000BC, and expanded through multiple migration waves southwards and northwards respectively
• 25,000 to about ?,000 years ago
  During this time, the Neanderthals were slowly being displaced
• 20,000 to about ?,000 years ago
  Eurasia Around 20,000 years ago, approximately 5,000 years after the alleged Neanderthal extinction, the Last Glacial Maximum forced northern hemisphere inhabitants to migrate to several shelters (refugia) until the end of this period.
• 20,000 to about 15,000 years ago
  humans reached North America south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet The settlement of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Bering land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of sea level during the Last Glacial Maximum (26,000 to 19,000 years ago)
• ~ 10,000 years ago
  The Peopling of South America These populations expanded south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and spread rapidly southward, occupying both North and South America, by 12,000 to 14,000 years ago The earliest populations in the Americas, before roughly 10,000 years ago, are known as Paleo-Indians.

...

After the final confrontation with his archenemy Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls where he supposedly found his demise when he plunged into the depths, Professor Moriarty was found with multiple shattered bones and a severely damaged face after hitting the rocks at the bottom of the cascades by his accomplice Colonel Sebastian Moran, who managed to salvage his severely injured partner in crime and bring him to a sanatorium where Moriarty was treated.

Believed to be dead to the rest of the world, Moriarty slowly recovered from his worst injurys in a swiss sanatorium while being in a coma for over 3 years and when he finally awakened, he realized to his horror that he was now cripled and paraplegic. Since his crime syndicate was crushed by his nemesis Holmes in the meantime, he used his still superior criminal intellect to start a new criminal organisation that will later become known as the global operating "Network" - a sort of job center for thieves, killers, mercenaries and whatnot.

But there was still the problem with his health. He wasn't getting younger and his physical condition deteriorated in the following years so much that he was even willing to fall back on unconventional methods to prolong his life. One of these methods included the work of a german scientist who already had experimented with transplantations some decades earlier. When searching for his scientific journals Moriarty eventually encountered Viktor Frankenstein's very own monstrous creation "Frank" who would oppose him to prevent his "fathers" work to fall in the wrong hands.

In search of allies in his battle against Frankenstein's monster Moriarty eventually rallied more infamous monster of its time and founded a group called "Monsters Society". With their help, he managed not only to get possession of said documents, but also to collect several powerful ancient artifacts from around the world. Through the combination of magic and science Moriarty was finally able to overcome his physical limitations and become even more powerful than ever.

After a lost battle against a gigantic, monstrous man with supernatural strength in his "fathers" former laboratory at the university of Ingolstadt in Germany, Frankenstein's "Monster" had found refugee in an old abandoned abbey near Munich where he recovered from his injuries, when a mysterious scruffy man in ragged clothes and with an old musket on his back entered the ruins.

Hidden in a dark corner he studied the strange man who seemed to search for something when suddenly the man turned around and stared directly at the spot where the monster was hiding.

"You can come out now, I know you're there."

"Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"People call me "The Walker". I'm here to help you - and ask for your help in return."

"You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know me."

"Of course I do, Frank. Can I call you that? Frank? I know you don't have a real name, but Frank somehow sounds appropriate for Frankenstein's so called "Monster"."

Frank slowly stepped out from his dark corner and studied his opponent suspicious.

"How do you know about me? Most people think I'm just a character in a novel."

"Well, to be honest I thought that too once. But as I had to learn the hard way, this world is stranger than most people think possible. Take me for example - did you ever think that there could be a man who travels through time to fix historical events that have gone wrong?"

"You are a time traveler? That explains how you knew where to find me."

"Huh - now I'm somewhat disappointed. I didn't think you would swallow it that easy. I'd already prepared myself for lengthy explanations."

"Not much unlike you, I have seen many strange things in the 127 years that I have now roamed this world. And what exactly is it you think you could help me with?"

"Well, in fact I think we can help each other. After all, it is about a common enemy."

"I guess you're talking about Moriarty?"

"Bingo!"

"Bingo?"

"A word you'll probably learn in about 11 years which means that you're right. Anyway. Yes, it is Moriarty who I need your help to fight."

"Why?"

"Well, unfortunately, the attainment of your father's research documents was only a small piece of the puzzle in a much bigger scheme by Moriarty, which could mean the end of the world as we know it. If we want to save billions of lives, we have to stop him."

"That sounds pretty ominous. And how would this mutual aid, of which you are talking about, look like?"

"As you may already have noticed by now, you don't stand a chance against the combined power of Moriarty and his so-called "Monsters Society" - and neither do I. But with a little help of friends? So, what do you think of joining - or rather founding - a team of adventurers?"

"Umph. Never been a good team player."

"Well, then it's time to change that. I think we should start our recruiting tour in London."

"Why? Who is there?"

"Ever heard the name Van Helsing?!"

The archaeologist Lance Walker finds a vast underground vault under a 5,000-year-old pyramid in Caral, Peru and a vast array of ancient, several thousand years old machines inside of it. After a rather onesided, short "conversation" with a disembodied computer voice, Lance is teleported to an unknown location ... and time.

...

...

3 weeks later - 1947, July 7 (Monday)

...

...

...

...