Midlife Crisis (series)

Midlife Crisis is a RMPFTD series primarily set in Universe 2, in a world between the world of the living and the Afterlife, dubbed Midlife. It follows main protagonists, David Smith, Leonardo and Hannah, three people that died in Universe 2 and went to Midlife, and their battles in this place.

Setting
Midlife Crisis is set in a world in-between the world of the living and the Afterlife, created by a man known only as 'the Founder' with an alien species known as the Heiwana's technology. The Founder has named this place Afterlife Paradise, but most people there call it Midlife. It revolves around how people react in a life beyond what they considered the end, and them awaiting returning to the world of the living, the mysterious history and intentions of the Heiwana and the mysterious main antagonist, Genie's goals.

Characters

 * David Smith - David was run over by a truck in Universe 2, and was brought to a world between life and death by Heiwana technology. He patiently awaits the moment that the Founder and the Heiwana create technology to allow them all to return to the world of the living, as he just wants to see his wife and son again. He slowly learns, however to fight for what he believes in, after all of his encounters with enemies in Midlife.


 * Leonardo - Leonardo is a computer genius who died after a university prank went wrong. He tries to use his intelligence to help the Heiwana, and it is often a valuable asset. He believes Midlife to actually be a paradise, and prefers it to the world of the living, in which he always seemed distant.


 * Hannah - Hannah died in Universe 1 during space travel to Jaakkon, and got sucked into a black hole due to reckless flying. She is one of the few people in Midlife to be originally from Universe 1. She is the most strategic of the group but still denies her own death.


 * The Founder - The Founder was the first to die but, while he was still alive, he made a deal with the Heiwana and together they used ancient Heiwana technology to store human souls in an Afterlife Paradise. The founder was the first to die and arrive in Midlife, and he constantly works with the Heiwana to revive all those in Midlife.


 * The Heiwana - The Heiwana are a hive-mind species with amazing technology, who were scarred by the Eyeless One to all have eyes on their chests for him to see out of. The Heiwana were later took advantage of and controlled to perform a massacre of those in Midlife.


 * Lucy - A young woman in Midlife whom was scared of death. She has come to terms with it now, however, and likes to help David, Leonardo and Hannah any way she can.


 * Genie - Genie, AKA the Eyeless One, is a being that wants to become omnipotent. Many years ago, the Heiwana banished him away, and he returned to get his revenge, controlling the Heiwana to massacre everyone hey cared about in Midlife. When his plan was foiled by David, Leonardo and Hannah, he gained a vendetta against them. He gets stronger the more souls he consumes.

Afterlife arc
David Smith is run over and awakens in what he thinks is heaven. The Founder tells him what it is and introduces him to the native alien species there, the Heiwana, as well as showing him the Ancient Texts of the Heiwana. As he shows him around, David meets some of the natives around Afterlife Paradise, normally referred to as Midlife, and comes to terms with being dead.

The Killer arc
The Founder discovers that there is a murderer amongst them who has been killing people and sending them to the actual afterlife. David decides to team up with Leonardo and Hannah, who he becomes close friends with, to crack the case of who the killer is. It is revealed that Jenny is the cause of the murders, and she has gotten bored of this 'eternal paradise'. Instead of killing her outright, the Founder uses the Heiwana technology to delete Jenny's soul from Midlife and send her to the afterlife.

Heiwana Crisis arc
The Heiwana hive mind is about to be hit by a meteor shower, and those from midlife have been called to help. The Founder, David, Leonardo, Hannah, Lucy and the Heiwana manage to use the Heiwana's technology (and some reckless plans) to send the meteor shower around the hive mind. A small unnamed planet's search party sees this activity and 'discovers' the Heiwana hive mind. They decide to make a fortune by breaking into the hive mind and placing the idea into the hive mind for the Heiwana to become slaves that can be sold on the black market. The search party is found, however, and the Heiwana put their hive mind under lockdown while the Founder ties the search party up in their ship and sends the ship into a nearby sun. David points out that the Founder was all about trying to save lives back at Midlife, but the Founder says that he is just trying to protect the Heiwana, as they are his allies.

Genie arc
A mysterious man named Genie arrives in Midlife and tells everyone there that he can return them to the world of the living. The Founder gives his soul to make it happen, and Genie kills the Founder, while everyone else returns to life. Genie then somehow causes the Heiwana to attack everyone as they try to escape back to Earth. David, Leonardo and Hannah discover that Genie is the Eyeless One that the Heiwana fought eons ago, and that he placed the idea into their mind that he is an ally of theirs, and the idea evolved through the generations of Heiwana. They make the Heiwana remember that Genie is their enemy by showing one of them the Ancient Texts of the Heiwana, which spreads around the hive mind. The Heiwana turn of Genie and throw him back to Earth, while David uses Heiwana technology to hijack Earth's missiles and shoot them at Genie. Genie survives because of his enormous power, however, and everyone in Midlife can no longer return to the World of the Living as Genie has broken the deal. Leonardo tell the Heiwana that he will work with them to return everyone in Midlife to the world of the living.

Tournament of the Dead arc
The Heiwana realise that everyone is becoming stressed now the Founder has died, and tell everyone in Midlife that they shall be commencing three tournaments; a tournament of strength, a tournament of intelligence and a tournament of beauty. Leonardo enters the tournament of intelligence and his friends go to cheer him on. A Heiwana participates in the tournament of strength and proves just how fearsome they are, but are beaten in the semi-finals by a man known as a monster back when he was alive. Leonardo and a Heiwana get to the finals of the tournament of intelligence, and Leonardo beats the Heiwana. The tournament raises lots of funds to upgrade technology to try and bring everyone there back to the world of the living. Meanwhile, some people begin to fear that overpopulation will soon become a reality.

The Mind Download arc
A company hears of Midlife and uses a breach in reality to gain entrance to it. They reveal that they have been doing something similar; after people have died, they have managed to store them in a data cloud (that appears as an ordinary cloud over the planet). They then download the minds into humanoid robots, and allow eternal living. As the robots cannot reproduce, it means that there is no threat of overpopulation. Those at Midlife are in debate whether to follow in this company's footsteps and return to their families in humanoid robots. The company assures them that their mind is left completely unabridged and that all that changes is their body. David tells them that being immortal is not really living, and the Heiwana tell them that they have no need for such technology, especially considering that no-one at Midlife is currently downloaded onto a data cloud. The company shows them their work, but the Heiwana tell them to go away, and the company creates another breach in reality to leave.

The Peaceful Planet arc
Due to the breaches in reality caused by the company, a tear in the fabric of reality is created leading to the world of the living. The Heiwana tell them that they can create a simulation of living that will fool the mind for 6 hours, so they can see what is through the tear in the fabric of reality. They also tell them that if they do not return within the next six hours, they will die. The planet is full of different species living in harmony, getting energy and information provided by a giant database, that can overload any being that touches it and painfully kill them. Genie discovers that they have arrived there with no allies, and sets out to kill them to get his revenge. David and his allies explore, while Genie breaks into the database building and hacks the AI to attack everyone. David and his group try to fight the AI but they cannot, and they are cornered by the AI. They find a pothole leading into an underground passageway, and use this to escape from the AI. Leonardo took a map earlier, and notes that they need to get to the database building to deactivate the AI. The underground passageway does not directly lead there, but does lead into the library, which is next door to the database building and also has lots of connections to the database. They come out in the library, and Genie sets the AI on the library and goes there himself. They are all cornered by Genie and his AI, but Leonardo manages to distract them while David overrides the AI. Genie and the AI hunt them down through the library, but David's group escape into the database building, somewhere the AI cannot follow. Genie kills Lucy with his shotgun, but David turns the database into a giant magnet and overloads Genie with it, leading them to believe that he is dead.

New Life arc
Those at Midlife discover that, on Earth, the dead are returning to life. It seems that no-one can die, either, and everyone there sets out to investigate what it could be. As they look into it, they realise that it is actually an alien invasion with microscopic spores infesting the deceased and controlling them, while taking some of their memories that still exist in the carcass. Leonardo uses Heiwana technology to try and separate the memories from the body, to make the invasion appear obvious, but all of the spores leave Earth and instead travel to Midlife. As the spores attack, David manages to get a piece of technology to blast some of them into oblivion. The spores all connect into one humanoid being, and attack, but will not tell them what their species is doing, where they came from, or why they are doing it. David obliterates them with the laser, and they all relax with the dilemma sorted out.

The Disease arc
A mysterious disease begins to spread around Midlife, something the Heiwana believed to be impossible. As they look into anything that could be spreading a disease, large hospitals are erected to nurse the sick back to health. With bizarre readings coming from patients, everyone becomes afraid. When people begin to die, everyone becomes determined to find a cure. When a patient touches a doctor, the doctor also gets the disease, and the entire hospital is quarantined, with David and Hannah trapped in there as visitors. Leonardo tries to communicate with them, but also communications have been cut off. David and Hannah must hide in a storage cupboard as the infected begin to roam the hospital. Leonardo and the Heiwana are desperately trying to create a cure, and realise that the disease is actually the soul slowly disconnecting from Midlife after being there so long. The Heiwana boost their technology just as David and Hannah are found, and run, and everyone is instantly cured (apart from the dead, who just disappear). The Heiwana apologise and tell Leonardo that they will pay closer attention to their machines in case anyone begins disconnecting from Midlife again.

New Visitors arc
Strange readings show that a ship is trying to gain access to Midlife, and the Heiwana construct what they refer to as 'the gate' to harness enough energy to allow them to travel through. A man and a woman come through, and are sceptical of Midlife and it's inhabitants, and refuse to tell anyone their names. The woman is terrified of the Heiwana, and the Heiwana slowly become more and more suspicious of the couple who travelled through. David overhears one of their conversations, however, about how, soon they can steal the Heiwana's technology. The next day they are confronted, and reveal that they are actually scavengers who came for the Heiwana's technology. David tells them that that would lead to the death of everyone in Midlife, but they say that they do not care. They say that they are part of an intergalactic empire, who is trying to use the technology to take over the universe, and that they are just simple clones programmed with neither name nor emotion. They then call for soldiers from their species to help them, and everyone tries to send the duo back through the gate. As they try and steal technology, a Heiwana blasts them with a paralysis gun, and they are thrown back through the gate. Their species is already making it's way through the gate, however, and it cannot be closed while something is travelling through it. David tries to disconnect it, but can only rewire it, and, with nothing to rewire it to, he absorbs all of the electricity, causing the gate to deactivate and the clone army get trapped in an endless abyss.

Five Universes arc
Genie reveals that he is still alive and makes a deal with a businessman to regain all of his former strength. David manages to pinpoint his location and travels there, only for Genie to reveal that, because his absorbed the database, he now has almost impossible power, before reversing time and changing the cause of history. He does this five times to create himself the perfect universe: The first is a universe in which he became prime minister and voted against friendly interactions with Jaakkon, leading to a war in which Earth became a wasteland; the second is a universe in which Genie became head of the Nazi Party before World War II instead of Adolf Hitler, causing an even bigger war than World War II, before taking over the world and creating the Human Empire with the help of his cyborg military, though his military was defeated by a civil war; the third is the same as the second apart from the fact that Genie stopped the civil war and continued ruling the Human Empire until an attack began, led by those who would have been Squad 5 Beta if they were in Universe 1; the fourth is a Steampunk world which was created when Genie gave alien technology to the Victorians, and in this universe he controls almost the entire universe; in the fifth and final universe, Genie existed from the dawn of time, and every being obeys him, and the Heiwana were enslaved millions of times by a paradox machine until they forgot that they ever had free will.

As David sends out a distress call, it is answered by Tona Gondilie and the Gondilie Force, whom used their technology to universe-hop. David tells him what Genie has done, and Tona universe-hops to see the damage in another universe, the one he sees being the one where he took over the Nazis, but then a civil war took place. Tona says that David should not be doing things such as that, before destroying that entire Universe with his cigarette, and saying that he knows exactly the place that Genie needs to be locked up in. He returns and sends out Roremon Cajikhess and the Three Nightmares, who make easy work of Genie's military. Those from Midlife try and navigate through the vents on Genie's mothership, but the Heiwana manage to catch and kill some of them. David uses his equivalent from that Universe to distract Genie, and Leonardo destroys the Universe in which Earth had been destroyed. Leonardo and Cliathan then reverse the paradox machine, and Tona throws Genie out of his ship and into a Heiwana burial ground. David reveals that they asked for permission from the Nightmare Reality Government to open the Nightmare Reality, and they chose the Heiwana burial ground as the spot to open the portal. As the Gondilie Force and everyone from Midlife escape and universe-hop away, Genie and the entire universe he is currently in is sucked into the Nightmare Reality and sealed away, forever. David still has some electricity in him from the gate, which can keep him alive for two minutes longer, and he has a choice, return to the world of the living for two minutes but then die and go to the Afterlife, not Midlife, or go back to Midlife and perhaps the Heiwana will bring them all back to life (which Tona tells him is actually impossible to do). Tona also says that he can stretch the two minutes to two weeks if he wants, and David returns to the world of the living. Tona tells Roremon that it is actually three weeks, but he wants David to live every day like it will be his last. He then says that David's strong will has shown him that perhaps he will die naturally, and actually has a second chance at life. Meanwhile, David meets with his dumbfounded wife and son.

Cameos

 * The Seagull the Size of Australia - The Seagull the Size of Australia died after Peri became ULTRA-PERI and unleashed a hoard of darkness upon Universe 1 from a pocket dimension. He can often be seen flying around Midlife or in crowds, but has never been specifically mentioned or had any interactions with the main characters or the plot.


 * Gaseous - Gaseous died after his battle with Brad during the F4CT0RY_01. He believed that everyone in Midlife should have their minds downloaded, as he wanted to see his son again. He was also one of the people trapped in the hospital, but survived.


 * Squad 5 Beta - Squad 5 Beta made a cameo during the Five Universes arc as a group of freedom fighters from Jaakkon.