Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Velvet Room
Minako turned and smiled briefly up at Hei as he imparted his vague truism. To her ear, however, there was something deeper to pick up on, and she nodded in acknowledgement, a knowing look in her eyes.
"I understand, Joker," she assured her counterpart from Tokyo, then shook her head, "Misaki is just overthinking the entire thing, though. I really don't think you have anything to worry about from Lady at all, as long as you don't openly say you're working with us. Just don't, like, go blabbing about everything in the middle of the Common Room, and you and your team should be perfectly fine."
Manhattan, Times Square
The authoritative woman and the blue-shirted officers exchanged a look. One shook his head. Another rolled his eyes. The woman turned back to the trio of visitors and sighed, then reached under the edge of the tape, grabbed a hand of each of the pair from 'Bandle City's best commando squad', and attempted to pull them (gently at first, then with increasing strength) underneath and across the yellow line. "Alright, kids, fun's over now," she declared firmly, "I know you're excited for Halloween, but this portal is a dangerous place where you shouldn't be playing, understand?"
"You too, Miss Blue," she added to Juvia, "back under the tape, please. Don't make us get physical."
East Midtown Rooftop, Manhattan
"Your 'benefactor'?" Spider-Man cocked his head. "What is this, the Gilded Age? Like I said, she's confused," he imparted in a whisper to Sombra, then strode after Anna. "Anyway, you're not going to be able to get down that way, because-"
As the Contractor would immediately find... the double-doors leading inside were locked. Maybe that explained why the thugs strewn about the patio had brought a crowbar. "Listen, Madame," Manhattan's hero began, "I may not know Mister Xanatos or the Eyrie Building, but if you just come with me, I can get yourself and the old-timer to the ground safely." He extended a hand in open invitation. As it would happen, however, at that moment, the door Anna didn't have a hold of popped open, and a man stepped out.
"Aw shit, it's the fuzz!" the yet wallstuck thug exclaimed in a sort of half-whine. Why was this happening to him?! All he'd wanted was an easy payday burglarizing some rich assholes!
The cop, face adorned with a bit of stubble, tossed a doorstop on the rooftop and wedged it in place with his foot, glancing about with half-lidded eyes as he did. "Oh hey, it's the webslinger!" he greeted with a low-energy wave, "You don't usually stick around this long after calling 'em in. What gives?"
"Oh, hey Officer..."
"Vega."
"It's a long story, Officer Vega. It's kinda tied up with everything around The City disappearing."
"Oh wow, you're involved with that? That's some crazy business going down, amigo."
"You're telling me! Anyway, you'll probably be hearing some details on tonight's news. Stay tuned!"
"Gotcha..." Vega stepped over and crouched down to begin wrenching a thug's arms behind his back and slapping some cuffs on his wrists. As an afterthought, he lifted his head to glance at the evident civilians on the rooftop. "So, you people witnesses? If you are, my associate and I will need to ask you a few questions."
As if on cue, a fresh-faced young officer burst onto the doorway, then gripped it for support as he doubled over, panting. "Oh, there you are. I was startin' to wonder if you weren't coming," Vega prodded with a lazy smirk.
"You left me!"
"What can I say, you were being slow. Did you take the stairs, kid? Listen, next time, take the elevator."
If anything, the junior of the two looked even more miffed. "This building only has one elevator! And you took it! It's not like I could wait for it to come back down, sir! What if the perps had overpowered you and-" He drew back with a gasp, finally spotting the costumed arachnidman. "SPIDER-MAN! FREEZE! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"
"Oh, come on!" Spider-Man groaned, planting the hand not extended toward Anna on his hip.
"Nah, we're cool, Spidey. Don't worry about it," Officer Vega assured with a dismissive wave.
"B-But Sir!" his partner sputtered, "He's wanted for rampant vigilantism! He's a criminal! We should be arresting him!"
"Yeah?" Vega arched a brow. "Where'd you hear that from? Your buddy JJJ? That stuff'll rot your brain, you know. Trust me, Rookie, stand down. In fact, consider that an order."
The younger officer's mouth opened and closed silently as he failed to process this contradiction of his training. It seemed there was an opening for someone to say something, even if only to ask him to get his ass out of the doorway.
Sugar Hill, Manhattan
"Alright then..." The priest nodded to himself as the last couple of passengers seemed to descend from the parked aircraft. "Well, gentlemen and lady, please follow me." Pacing away at a surprisingly brisk pace for a silver-haired old man, he led them to the front doors of the church, a brief walk, and held the way open for the party. "Please, after you."
Officer Ward, taking up the rear, glanced back at the crowd that had followed them from a respectable distance. "And no sneaking in and eavesdropping, you hear me?" he barked as he headed in after the last of the Strahl's crew and guests, "Anyone who does I'll be arresting for trespassing!" He slammed the door shut behind him.
The interior of the church was large and rather generically Catholic, if a little more richly decorated than the typical. Father Frost led them to the front of the pews and gestured to the first row. "Please, sit," he implored, taking a seat himself on the steps of the altar, where he was joined by the officer of the law. "Now," he continued once everyone was settled, leaning in intently, "what is it you have to tell us so furtively, Captain Balthier?"
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
The guard huffed as she took the missive into her big oni mitts, looked down at it expecting to see nothing...and found a seal that was rarely in the hands of someone so mundane. Her eyes bulged.
"...Yes it is, ma'am," she calmly said to Weiss as she started meekly folding up the note. "This way, please. Sorry for giving you trouble."
This way was up the many steps of polished black and white stone, through imposing doors adorned with knockers shaped like human heads in screaming agony. By more guards, even beefier and less friendly than the one they met, and splendiferously adorned oni attendants waiting by a closed door. The trio could hear something like a heated argument coming from hoarse, muffled voices inside, which quickly grew to a silence.
The guard opened the door for them, and the first words they heard were a loud call: "Four, five, six! It's mine!" and a further uproar!
Sitting down on little pillows on the floor were a little over a dozen old demon men. Ranging from wrinkled guys with horns jutting from bald heads who probably would've been called "octogenarians" if they were human, to a much younger-looking and good-looking one that still could be called old, just by less than 20-30 years, to a big ol' guy with a wild mane of grey hair and moustache that did well to conceal his scrunched up face (that other travelers from before might recognize as Suiki), the lot of them had a pretty clear descriptor: old fogeys.
The only outlier here was one tiny demon girl, Suika, who was more concerned with the gourd she was nursing than the game they were playing.
Arms wrapped in fancy bathrobes threw themselves into the air in equal measures of elation and shock, and all eyes were away from the trio of Lady, Weiss and Dmitri. Instead, they were all looking down at a tiny bowl with three dice in it that had just settled into place.
In fact, they still seemed oblivious to the three of them once the furor died down. The ones without red skin belied their drunkeness with red cheeks, and remained blissfully unaware until the door guard had walked up to the side of Suiki and whispered into his ear.
"...Oh," he eventually said. He held up a finger to an old woman sitting in the back, knitting, and said "Hey, Michikooooo, while I'm out, could you ge—"
"Get it yourself, you lazy shit!"
"Oh...yes, fine, honey. Thank you~"
Then he finally, after some time, stepped over to the trio. He seemed a little less jolly than before. The other Kishin mostly continued with their dice game, only giving the group some anxious looks on occasion.
"...So, you have a warning regarding some invading demons, then? Or half-demon swordsmen, whatever you want to call it. That's very nice of you, of course...I hope you don't take it personally, but I got to ask."
"Why would we turn over one of our own to a professional demon killer? I know about your little hunting company already. Forgive me, but it sounds very unpleasant."
The owner could only stare at her with trepidation, the act of grabbing a sword coming off as a threat. The swordsmen of other worlds could probably sunder her into 108 pieces in the blink of an eye, and to imagine what power this one had hidden away was...oh, she's just walking away.
From that day forward, she would regale customers with the story of how her life was almost taken by the mysterious woman that she had so faithfully drawn a portait of...one which sat next to a written challege: finish The Big One in under an hour, and get your normally hundred dollar plus meal for free!
The Majin Saber's were pretty calm. The streets were busy, even moreso than before, but unlike most of the other visitors she could get by without anyone bothering her. Maybe it was just some intangible thing that marked her as more youkai-like to them, or maybe it was that she fit in with about half the populace. For every grotesque monster straight from a ukiyo-e printing, there was at least one extravagantly-dressed and attractive man or woman out there intermingling, and Majin fit that role well enough.
The gossip was pretty mundane, for the most part, but some of the jucier bits are transcribed below:
...without even looking flush in the cheeks even once! We're still convinced that she must have been dumping it somewhere like that gap hag tried to pull once. Me and Gorii were thinking about trying to find her, and at least challenging her to where she can't cheat, and...
...been outside of the house. Heard it from a raven who heard it from a raven, you know how it goes. Hope she leaves one day and never comes back, that accursed satori...
...Cities? Yeah, they got them. Taller than mountains, their buildings were! We're going to go back, maybe bring some friends along. They say there's demons out there, even, so it can't be that foreign...
...What do you mean? No, this haori does not make me look fat. You're full of shit, Miki.
...You ever wonder if...you know...like, hellcat girls like a...nevermind. Is it just me, or did you feel a little out-of-shape this morning, too? Something like...
This was the most piss-poor excuse for a lake that Utsuho's ever seen, and she resides over a damned waste-coolant reservoir in her reactor that's as big as one. She's even taken a dip in that one, because at least she wasn't going to get...uhh...
...what kind of diseases do ravens get? She had no idea.
Anyway, she was quick enough to put two and two together. That bunker probably had some guys she wanted to talk to to get things that allowed her to ignore things to get close to the place she wanted to sight-see at.
The question was if these guys were also going to be rude and ask for money. I mean, beyond the amount for the gizmo they were going to sell.
She couldn't risk getting off on a bad foot. Something tells her those undead guys (at least that's what they looked like) probably couldn't either. With so many of them around, and humans usually not liking corpses for whatever reason, she had an idea on how to make herself look friendly!
First swooping low over the bunker with a friendly smile, and not stopping, she'd then proceed to fire off wild shots in the direction of the undead, looking towards them to see if they'd start shooting at her any time soon. See? She's just like you humans, she hates spirits too! That means she's a good person.
Ozen wondered: would it benefit her to eat all of the cookies once they were done, in plain view of everyone? Or to simply be rid of them now, and let them draw their own conclusions on whether it was her or the fairy that wasn't even as big as a cookie?
The first one sounded like the more sensible option. Besides, maybe they tasted better fully cooked.
Ozen followed the path of Mirajane shortly afterward, out to the dining room and leaving Tatl to complete cookie-eating secrecy.
Catching just the end of a sentence, Ozen felt just a little nostalgia over the idea of a romantic candlelit dinner...and how she never got to actually have one with her ladyfriend. Fuck.
Nostalgia being a codeword for anger as she recalled a positively awful time in her life, she used her incredible strength to bottle up that smoldering hatred and sit down in peace.
"...Before now," she remarked, though she seemed only half-interested in a response, "Magic was just a fantasy where I come from. How many people can simply break reality like you two can?"
Fairy Tail, Guild Hall: The Magic of Chocolate!
Tatl heard Mirajane's murmured rebuttal, but chose to ignore it. She couldn't pretend that Terminans monopolized loss, but comparing misery was a pointless exercise. Besides, it's not like Mirajane was a little kid like her partner; pity couldn't be distributed evenly like that.
So when Mirajane left for the hall, the fairy turned her attention to the...ugh, what was Trevor holding?!
Judging by the position of her wings, Trevor might notice that Tatl stared at the chocolate chips, to Trevor's face, and back down to the chocolate chips.
"Really?" she asked, the word drowning in skepticism. The little pieces of chocolate didn't look enticing. But trusting the vampire hunter's insistence (though not without some hesitation), the fairy fluttered to his hand, and one of the chocolate chips was raised and seemingly absorbed into the little yellow ball of light. A few moments later, and:
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! How could something that looks like rabbit droppings taste so good?!"
Oh no, Mirajane's warning suddenly came to mind! Perhaps these things were too delicious!
Well, with these concerns on her mind, Tatl flew (literally) over Ozen's head as the Unmovable Lord left the kitchen. The fairy wanted to distance herself from those delectable pieces of dessert, and wouldn't be able to open the kitchen doors on her own anyway. Better to just follow everybody else than succumb to temptation.
The first sight she'd see on entering the Guild Hall was Trevor using one of those magic rectangles; the second sight was her partner with his chin and hand covered in tomato sauce. The little savage.
"Before we eat those cookies, you're washing your hands and face." she ordered. Link responded by sucking up some of the last strings of spaghetti into his mouth, a drip of tomato sauce splattering his cheek as the pasta passed through his lips.
"You're such a pig."
The little hero giggled as Mr. Belmont and Mr. Grant got all red in the face at the idea of eating with lady friends. Grown-ups sure acted funny sometimes!
He didn't know what Shanoa meant by Take Over powers, but conjuring magic from the paintings on your body sounded really neat. How many spells did she know? Did the spells look like the image on Shanoa's body? If she got a picture of a dog on her back, could she summon a magic dog?
Once Ozen asked how many magic users were present, Link's (clean) hand shot straight up.
"Magic's pretty commonplace in Termina." Tatl explained. "Though it takes tons of study and discipline to use it, and the extent the kid can use it is just plain unheard of. He can summon guardian spirits, exorcise demons, heal wounded souls, create storms, sprout wings to fly across the kingdom, make copies of himself, and manipulate time. And that's just what he can do using his ocarina!"
As if to undermine Tatl's boasting, Link finished his plate of spaghetti, patted his belly, and burped.
Netherworld, Overlord's Castle Halls: GAH! Precious Babu Approaches!
Her Most Illustrious Highness, the Princess of Prettiness, Jai of...Jailandia, passed the guards and entered the Overlord's Castle. To hell with their warnings—she must have that pudding!
The variety of creatures in the halls didn't seem to faze the princess—not even the succubi, who couldn't match the crown's Jai's fierce confidence in her own looks.
Of course, that confidence was completely shattered when she turned her head towards whoever was calling for her. The sight of such a child fuckin' radiating adorableness was enough to cause the impossible: Princess Jai's eyes shot wide open.
As Flonne introduced herself, Jai fumbled to both say something, and to connect what few thoughts passed through her head far as what to do. She couldn't just greet this little ball of concentrated cute. Should she hug her? Pat her? Pet her? Squeeze her between her bosoms and swear a blood oath to never let anything harm her? All of the above?
Yes. All of the above.
Without warning, Princess Jai embraced the cherubic child and pat her head.
"Too cute. Just...too cute. Nothing will harm you as long as I live."
The Zone, Helipad: Field Trips Require A Parental Guardian's Signature
Ariel gave the slightest wince at the Snork's description, both because of the grotesque image it brought to mind, and the accuracy to the thing Puck had run over. This place was just a few steps down from Hell's Gate, far as habitability goes.
They weren't prepared for any of this shit.
Her mind came back to the present as Yar offered to fix the car, free of charge—but naturally, with a catch.
"I'll have to talk to the boss, first." she answered, "But I don't see any problems with that. It's not like we'll get a better deal anywhere else."
More like we won't get any help anywhere else. she thought.
So with that squared away, Ariel asked Yar and Screw how to reach Lukash, and departed the helipad for now.
The Zone, Lukash's Office: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 101 with Professor Lukash
Horai listened to Lukash's explanation, already drawing some conclusions just by context. It seemed unlikely that these "Stalkers" were any nationally backed armed force; no self-respecting military would allow their ranks to be doped and drunk on duty—at least, not one that was so hopelessly optimistic about sharing these artifacts.
Speaking of which, the power held in these objects greatly interested the Director. If he could obtain one to bolster his own strength...
He tucked that thought away, and typed out some more questions:
Perhaps that question was a long shot; while there were plenty of soldiers walking around this base, Freedom's militia couldn't possibly be larger than two, maybe two and a half hundred men. Far as he could see on the ride here, that wasn't even close to covering all of the Zone.
So instead, he followed up his previous questions with something more on-topic:
It wasn't hard for the teen to realize that Amber wasn't as into his awesome build up as he had hoped, but Tatsu continued onwards regardless. The Cloud Ruler was that awesome after all, and he was sure she'd agree once she saw it. It also kept her attention away from what had happened before, and not let the younger girl worry about it. Still grinning, he paused for a moment as they arrived at a landing and at the start of another short walkway; A console of some sort visible in the distance with a young boy sitting at it and throwing a ball in the air. "You bring the clouds to you!"
With long strides, Tatsu moved down the hallway and out into the open. It was a massive space, for an air ship at least, as the group found themselves standing on flat metal platform in a circular room, circling around a massive structure hanging from the ceiling. It was a massive drill-like machine
◊ humming faintly as bright white light and crackling electricity spilled from the spiral running down its length. As the boy that had been sitting back in his chair scrambled to his feet in surprise, the young captain glanced at Amber as he gestured at the device. "This is the Cloud Ruler. Using electromagnetic power, it pulls water from the air and creates a cloud bank that follows the Red Sprite and hides it. At least, that's what the professor said it does. Pretty awesome, right?"
By the look on the soldier's face as Blake spoke, she didn't have to worry about him not taking the claims seriously at all. Alfred listened intently, his focus entirely on the faunus as she spoke.
"I see. Do you believe he's the kind of person to lay low if he's being hunted? Or would he just move on if found out? This isn't too different from someone we've faced before, but I could be wrong. This teleportation, does it have any limits you might know of? And what is this 'creature'? Do we have to worry about it as well?"
"That's normal where I'm from." Delfi replied coolly to the girl's words, sounding like a perfectly normal statement, but her voice carrying the barest suggestion of something. A touch of what might have been disgust or revulsion if someone was listening closely. She kept her eyes firmly ahead, not wanting to look at the girl and what she had confirmed. The blonde had hoped that the human girl might have been more normal than the strange beings that seemed to swarm this land, but she supposed she had been suspicious already.
"And that isn't." The wheelchair bound girl continued as she browsed books. "There were no dungeons in my world, or hellhounds. I suppose you travelled a lot, however. That sounds like adventure from my world. Journey all over, seeing different things you could never have imagined existing, with friends..." Tone growing quieter as she continued, a distance growing as old memories began to surface once again, until Delfi simply sat quietly with her hand outstretched. Eyes hazy and her face twisted up in a bitter, pained expression.
Snapping out of it, the blonde girl asked. "If you were so good at it, why would it have been your last job? Did you not enjoy it?"
Glory to Arachnos
Lukash was curious by the first question. As far as he knew, the Zone looked pretty normal....well, as far a radiactive hellhole could be normal. The fact that man seemed to know about Strelok seemed quite curious too.
"I admit, it's hard to get news of the outside world inside the Zone, so we're not really up to date to whatever is this "abduction". But we do know of the stalker named Strelok, one day ago he came to our base and helped us deal with a group of rogue Dutyers attempting to wipe out our base, along with protecting the barrier from a large amounts of monolith stalkers."
As Horai's next message asked who the Monolith were, Lukash's face soured. He seemed to really not like them.
"Think of middle eastern terrorist groups, combined with advanced technology and suicidal fanaticism, and you'll get the average monolith stalker. To be clearer, though, they're a group of stalkers who worship the so called "Wish Granter" in the NPP. They have full control of the power plant, Pripyat and the Red Forest, and regularily attack the border we guard with mutants or zombified stalkers in a attempt to have full control of the Zone. While many assume they are just crazy and that their god doesn't exist, considering the fact they have advanced technology, can shrug off pain somehow, mutants don't attack them, and they are flat out willing to kill themselves with explosive belts with no care of their lifes...maybe it does exist."
As Utsuho fired at a group of the zombies in the distance, one of her shots would hit one of them, blowing the husk into nothing but gory pieces. The other two zombies reacted by.....pulling out their guns, and starting to fire at the air, not aware of where their shooter was.
Yes.
Zombies with guns.
Utsuho's presence would be noticed by a mercenary with a blue SEVA suit
◊, who looked downright confused at her, before pulling his sniper rifle and aiming it at her, thinking she was some kind of threat since she suddenly appeared with a extremely dangerous gun and flying somehow.
Thankfully though, one ecologist in a full SSP-99 suit would suddenly sprint to the mercenary, waving at him. "Wait, no stop! Leave her be! I don't think she's a hostile! She would had shot us a long time ago if she was!"
"You're too trusting, egghead. With this whole crap of the Zone kidnapped and all that jazz, you expect us not to be jumpy? Who knows if the expedition crew isn't dead by now."
The ecologist sighed. "Look, I know this might seem bad for you, but we're the ones paying you for our service. So, unless you want us to fire you, please, leave her be, ok?"
The mercenary stared at the ecologist for a second, before grunting in annoyance. "Fine. But don't say we didn't warned you." He would then lower his gun away from Utsuho, before returning to his patrolling....but not before shooting the two surviving zombies in the head, the husks dropping dead.
Some of the ecologists would stop their experiments they were doing outside, a crowd of scientists looking at Utsuho with curiosity, the ecologist who vouched for her would slowly get close to her position and address her, his face hiding his interest at the fact she had wings to fly and carried such a strong weapon. "That weapon is amazing..um, I mean. Could you go down, please? We won't harm you, we promise. We're just a group of sciencists, and we would like to speak with someone from this new world."
General Voronin examined Lucy, normally a female stalker is a very rare thing, but, Duty doesn't care about genders, only for stalkers who see the truth that this place is a utter danger for the rest of humanity. He had to admit, his mutant cat pet seemed annoying. Hopefully she could keep it in control.
"You wish to join our ranks, huh? We're always glad to see stalkers who see that this place is a danger to the world."
His tone then turned serious.
"Be warned though, by becoming a member of Duty, you will have to take a oath and promise you will stay true to our goals, not faltering away from protecting the world from the Zone, or betray our ideals to anarchists, bandits or any other nonconformist who would let the world be harmed by the Zone. Understand?"
"Whoah, hey, what are you guys doing? What's a halloween?!" Fizz said as he was grabbed by one of the officers, the Yordles looking confused at the fact they mistaked them for kids and were not taken seriously.
"Kids? Haven't you guys seen a Yordle before or what?" Tristana said, looking annoyed at the officers. "I mean, 19 is pretty young for Yordle years, but come on, a kid?"
Once they were dragged away from the portal, Tristana looked at the female officer. "Seriously buddy, you guys don't think it's weird a fish guy and a yordle girl with a large trident and a large plasma cannon came out of this portal? These weapons aren't toys, let me tell you that."
-Spider Lizard Noises-
Netherworld Overlord Castle Halls, Flonne
Flonne gave a surprised gasp when Jai suddenly got all huggy and headpatty.
“Oh my!” she giggled and hugged back. “You’re certainly very affectionate! We don’t get a lot of people like you in the Netherworld, but I’m glad there’s someone else who understands the power of hugs!”
The other demons watched in bewilderment at this overtly friendly display, muttering something about how they suddenly had a clone of Flonne in their midst. Flonne looked Jai over curiously, as though something about her was just a bit unusual.
“Say… you don’t look like a demon, but you don’t quite look like an angel, either. Are you from the Human World? How’d you get here?”
She looked at Jai with those curious puppy dog eyes that could convince anyone to spill their darkest secrets.
Laharl, Common Room
“So we’re not the only demons here? Good, that means this should be interesting.”
He found it a bit strange that a fellow demon was being so helpful, but then again perhaps the demons of his world weren’t as prone to bickering with each other as the ones he was used to. Still, he would need to keep his guard up.
Jade, Sakura Dungeon Garden
After who knows how long, Jade stopped being nonexistent and decided to take a trip into the Sakura Dungeon portal. She was amazed at not only the beautiful surroundings, but also… floofy people! Many of the residents had animal ears and big floofy tails, which made her feel right at home.
“Oh, hello!” she waved the foxgirls. “I hope it’s ok for me to visit. I heard the people here were pretty nice, so I wanted to stop on by.”
She then noticed Teemo. So… cute! She had to resist the strong urge to give the little guy headpats, as that would be rude.
“Omigosh, you’re adorable!”
Koichi Kizakura- Hope's Peak Tour w/ Nagi & Dante
Kizakura sighed and shook his head a bit. So it was that kind of 'Mother sends the Awkward Father" situation. Thought that only happened in sitcoms...
Coming back up, he responded to the white-haired guardian's questions.
"Well, I can't really attest to other schools just yet, given we're on a whole other planet and all. But we are certainly unique, especially if we're the only chunk-dedicated one. See, Hope's Peak isn't just a normal school, in that it's purely academic. I may have mentioned non-traditional enrollment, yes? Each student in the main class is the "Ultimate" at their given field. Normally, this means that you get scouted first, and then get an invite to join. The academy then helps set those students up for life. That said, we also added a reserve corps a few years ago. This is a more traditional enrollment system with a fee. Study's for those students, as well, are a bit more traditional of what other schools offer. You can guarantee, though, that both paths are the top of the line where we came from."
Tsubaki- Red Sprite, Dining Hall w/ T.V.T. and Alfred
Finally, someone else. She didn't expect a banquet to be laid out for them, but that was a bit much. Was her world really that out there that this didn't phase her all that much?
"From what I've been told," Tsubaki addressed Alfred, "Vergil is someone who'd fight you and then move on once he's finished. He's not one to lay low all that much. I do not know the limits of his teleportation, but I can presume it's somewhat limited in range, given the Cure seems to pride himself on being "fair". As for the "creature", that would by Nyarlathotep, who is as dangerous as Vergil, if not more so. A shape-shifter. If he is here, it would be more than advisable to not approach them as well. Though you are more likely to find Vergil before them."
Lady, once having put away her cell phone, followed the group into the building, giving Weiss a silent nod of thanks for her assist. On being questioned by what seemed to be an....odd council of demons (She was starting to wish these the the demons she had to deal with on her world, her job would be far easier if they were too busy playing dice games to do anything), she nodded, not trusting herself to give a convincing smile, she rather adopted a neutral, professional face.
"Firstly, I should be clear. We're not out to shoot any and all demons. In fact, most of my business associates are part demon in some way, shape, or form, one of which has already been here, as I'm sure you're aware. We only hunt the demons who cause havoc, chaos, and death in the human world. Any other demon, we're perfectly fine with."
"As for Vergil, he won't see it the same way. If he enters this place, it won't be with friendly intentions. At best, you'll be seen as an obstacle to whatever he seeks to accomplish, one he won't hesitate to cut down if he has to. At worst, you'll be his direct targets. We've confirmed that he's allied with a shadowy being, more powerful then anything we've ever encountered, who is an enemy of the planet. Two days ago, this thing joined with a threat that planned to blow the entire planet to pieces, and supported them in their goals. His actions before and since have only proven it has nothing but foul intentions."
"All that said, we're not asking you to capture him and turn him over. He's a powerful threat in his own right, and I woulden't ask you to put your fellow demons at risk. All I ask is that if you see him, you contact us. We'll move in and take him down. In fact, I'd honestly prefer it if you not approach him. Outside of the risk to yourselves, the absolute last thing we want to do is alert him that people are after him."
Dante nodded as the guide explained the concept behind the school.
"I like the sound of that. Kid's pretty smart." He patted Nagi on the head. "What do you think, kid? You up to the challenge?"
Then he looked down at the paper again, the next entry being circled and highlighted. He switched back to his "Reading off a card" tone of voice.
"Have you, in the past, ever had any demonic incursions, military assaults, states of emergencies, campus wide lockdowns, or any other type of event which could be classified as creating a threat to your students? If so, please give details and an action plan for how you plan to prevent such incidents in the future. If not, do you have an action plan in place for the likely incidence that this may in fact happen on a planet called "Battleworld"?
He sighed.
"Are you serious, Lady? "Action plan"?"
Bond would not hear anything else of paticular note from the group of teens, as they fell silent. However, he might notice Makoto pull out a cell phone and beginning to compose a text message.
Joker silently nodded at the girl's words, then pulled his phone out and swapped out of his thieves gear.
"We'll be in touch."
Then he turned around and left.
As Joker left, he would hear a tone that signaled an incoming text. He pulled it out, read it, then put it away without reaction. Then he kept walking, and entered the common room. He ignored his team at their seats and walked into the room, looking around. Then he seemed to make a decision, and walked over to Bond.
"Excuse me. You got a minute?"
Bond might happen to notice that Joker had carefully positioned himself so that, in order to look at him, Bond would have to look in the exact opposite direction of the rest of his team.
Rostok - Zone - Lucy and Happy
"Oh uh, well, thanks for the offer but I don't know about joining like that, you know?" Lucy replied to Voronin. "I'm not a biiiiig fan of doing oaths like that, I was thinking more about if there was something you guys needed help with."
"Uuuugh, wooooow....." Happy grumbled as he picked himself up.
"Cause there's a lot of weird stuff out there, I'm sure you guys could use a helping hand!" she continued. "Plus, if I'm not going around wearing a Duty patch and waving a big banner around, it gives me a little more flexibility when I'm out there, like I could get into places controlled by those Freedom guys or the military without starting a war between everyone."
Times Square, Manhattan - Juvia
Juvia couldn't help but laugh a little - quietly, but still there - as she saw the officers escorting the Yordles like some sort of misbehaving children.
"Oh thank you so much, you know how they are, so imaginative but always getting into trouble," she said to the apparent policewoman, stepping on over and going under the tape. She held out her hands to take Tristana and Fizz from the officer. "Come on now children, we'd best be going now, let's go somewhere else before you cause more trouble for these police officers." She tried to subtly emphasize the last few words for the sake of the 'kids'.
"We're on a vacation... of sorts... and just arrived, you wouldn't happen to know where we can find a place with information about this city?" she asked the officer. "Information for... tourists."
Fairy Tail Guild Hall - Mirajane
Mirajane happily ate her spaghetti, completely unaware of whatever sort of mental weirdness Grant and Trevor were going through.
"Huh you're right, I guess our magic works a little like each other's after all - that must explain why you're so cool, ehehehe!" Mirajane joked around with Shanoa. Though when she mentioned Mirajane amnesia, she couldn't help but feel a little sad, something like that must be so tough. But she went on to answer Owen's question easily enough, so if she wasn't going to dwell on it there was no point in digging into it for now. Even Tatl was getting in on it, so it seemed like everyone was more than willing to get along now. Yay!
"Magic's super common in Earth Land too," she contributed. "Not everyone puts in the time to try using it though, and especially not at the level of a guild mage, but it's definitely not uncommon. Pretty much every vehicle uses an SE-Plug, and there's always plenty buzzing along down the roads."
A buzzing sound suddenly started coming from the kitchen, the egg timer indicating the cookies were ready.
"Oooh, time's up! Excuse me!" she quickly got out of her seat and back into the kitchen to turn off the alarm. After opening the oven she stuck a toothpick into one of the less-flawless cookies on the sheet, withdrew it, and spent a good four seconds studying it.
"And... done!" she declared, smiling as she grabbed a pair of potholders and used them to take the trays out of the oven, and then carefully brought them back to the table and set them down.
"Just... be careful, they're really hot."
Sakura Dungeon Library
"If you say so...." Hiriko told Morrigan, though she didn't sound particularly convinced about anything.
"Well, in the end, one cannot force their opinions on another. You must see something that Hiriko and I do not. Though you won't have any success trying to convince any of the monsters in this dungeon of such a thing, as you may have noticed all of our are rather aligned," Yomi teased Morrigan.
"S-so what? Are you happy about how normal people treated you back in your home?" Ceri asked Delfi defiantly, crossing her arms and huffing. If we let other people tell us what to do because it's what they think we should do, then it's like we're not even living. Would you be happy if you were forced to do what other people say instead of being with someone you lo-. Um. Right?"
She pressed her fingertips together.
"And this was going to be my last dungeon because, well, I wasn't being challenged by all the other ones I cleared or getting any real glory for it, and I wasn't enjoying the work. I thought maybe I'd either die clearing it out, or else I'd have to retire from adventuring and try to go back home and live a... normal... life."
Sakura Dungeon House/"Adventurers Guild"
"Wow, those sure are some exotic names alright. No need for directions though, we're going on this together! Yay! Our first quest!" the Fox Knight cheered. She quickly tucked her book away into a humbly-sized sack that she hung at her waist, and led the way to the door and out into the town.
The town turned turned to grassy plains
◊, the plains turned to a bamboo forest,
◊ and eventually the bamboo broke away into another grassy cleaning with the ocean visible in the distance.
A short ways away there was a bamboo fence that ran out of the forest and into the clearing, creating an impassible physical barrier that encapsulated an area of both grass and forest. Behind the fence, a few tallish bamboo huts jutted out high enough to see their rooftops.
There was a woman with fuzzy panda ears who was wearing an Asian-styled dress and thick black gloves standing in front of the fence. Behind her was a gate, where another similar-looking woman (with a different hair color) was standing on some sort of guard post that let her stand with her head a few feet over the fence so that she could keep watch, holding a pointy bamboo stick in her hands.
"Who's there?" The Panda outside of the gate called out at the visitors, her voice very snippy. "And... what are those?" She pointed one of her black-gloved fingers at Twitch and Veigar.
Sakura Dungeon Gardens
The Cat Witch by the portal waved back at Jade and held out a humble wooden mug fill with a fruit smoothie with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, in case she was into that sort of thing.
"You may be tiny, but you have a big spirit," the Tribeswoman said with a faint smile.
Then she turned to look at Jade as she bothered Teemo.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice once again gruff and tough and rough and buff.
Fairy Tail, Guild Hall: From One Legendary Weapon-Wielder to Another...
Like a puppy, Link tilted his head at the flicker of sadness that passed Mirajane's face. He didn't know what "am knee zja" was or why it would be a problem for anyone, but he guessed Mirajane did. He would've made a funny face to try to cheer her up, but the concern was gone almost as soon as it appeared. Guess it was nothing.
"What's an SE-Plug?" Tatl asked. "The ground vehicles in Termina are drawn by animals, and the ships use either oars or sails. Does Earth Land magic make them faster or something?"
It wasn't hard to imagine something that could travel faster than a horse or a crew of oarsmen, though she wondered how everything could be kept safe and stable at high speeds. The wind must be crazy!
Then the cookies called for Mirajane's attention, which meant it was high-time the kid washed his hands and face! Practically barking the little hero into the kitchen after Mirajane, Tatl led him to the sink, where she'd watched Grant and Trevor use the knobs on each side of the spout to make water come out. A few seconds of instruction later, and cold water was pouring out, and Link was scrubbing his hands clean...before shoving his face into the stream of water.
"...well I would've used a wet rag or something, but good enough!"
With his chin, cheeks, and bangs dripping with water, the boy shook his face like a dog wringing water from his fur. He took a rag at his companion's insistence, then returned to the Guild Hall to wait for the cookies to cool; not that the smell throughout the building didn't tempt him to gobble up a few molten handfuls then and there.
While Link took a new seat beside Mr. Belmont, the little hero had his first real glimpse of the holy weapon they'd fought through Castle Vania for: the vampire killer.
It was a strange weapon to Link's eyes: part rope, part hookshot, and even part sword at the hilt. The fact that a soul was supposed to be inside it made the weapon stranger still, though it was that part that compelled the boy to write a question for Mr. Belmont.
Link pointed to the whip at the vampire hunter's side, in case there was any confusion.
Red Sprite, Cloud Ruler Chamber: It Makes Clouds. What A C-Class Secret Weapon.
To say that Amber's reaction was underwhelming would be a soul-crushing understatement. She studied the machine, nodded slightly, raised her lower lip in approval, and gave the Captain a smile.
"Very impressive, Captain." she said, in a tone closer to "Yeah, that'll work" than any genuine praise of ingenuity.
"Long as there isn't much air traffic, this could be invaluable." she added, a touch more enthusiastic this time.
She could almost smell Tatsu's disappointment, so she winced and gestured apologetically. "I'm sorry, this is a really unique machine and it's clear you're very proud of it, but where I come from, even the smallest aircraft can easily fly through clouds—many planes can fly through storms, even if they get struck by lightning! If Tokyo or another twenty-first century state were to establish air routes..." her wince deepened with the suggestion. "We'll just need to be on top of that development. Steer clear of wherever bigger, faster aircraft show up."
The Zone, Lukash's Office: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 101 with Professor Lukash (Extended Period)
Horai noted the Freedom leader's ignorance of Battleworld, but chose to explain nothing. That was a discussion he wanted to avoid for the moment, if only because the staggering amount of typing he'd need to do to explain this nonsense.
Of course, he couldn't help but wonder why Lukash didn't ask what the "Hell's Gate" part of Tokyo's name referred to. Either it had slipped the Freedom leader's mind, or worse: this was a tangent reality, where Hell's Gate existed as well. That thought would explain the Director's straightened posture at the mention of a "Wish-Granter." The resemblance to the rumor of Hell's Gate was...
Focus. This wasn't the time for speculation. When Lukash had finished his summary of the monolithians, Horai typed out another message:
Netherworld, Overlord's Castle Halls: Mortal, but Still A Goddamn Angel
Princess Jai (reluctantly) released her new darling from the hug to give Flonne a nod. "Not human though. People like me are called Contractors. Got here from..."
Suddenly, two brain cells rubbed together to spark a critical idea in Jai's mind: if she mentioned the portal, wouldn't that punch a hole in the story she told the guards? How could a princess from another dimension pay a visit to this castle? Especially if the Overlord wasn't here to confirm the whole 'abducted to form a planet-wide blah blah blah' thing?
No. As much as Jai didn't want to lie to this precious bundle of cuddlebugs, it was clear there wasn't any other option. It was for her own good!
"Eh. Not important. Know where I can get some food? Kinda craving some...dessert."
That last word wasn't ominous or dramatic at all.
Common Room: All the Different Shades of Hell
Goro's eyes narrowed a few eyelashes as Mr. Dohma all but ignored him. Despite the sophisticated apparel, it seemed the nobleman of Makai still held a demon's etiquette—humans weren't worth his time.
Still, the information the sickly-skinned creature shared wasn't entirely worthless: seems that whatever group Mr. Dohma arrived with had members in high places. Good to know.
"The land known as Former Hell hosts a variety of demons as well." Goro added largely for Laharl's benefit, since he continued the point with: "Its Governor—Satori Komeiji—is an ally of ours, and a fundamental member to the pact you have agreed to join, Tyrant Overlord Laharl. The demons under her charge resemble those of the Tao and Shinto mythos, if you are familiar at all with Japanese culture."
Goro neglected to mention the tension between Acting Governor Komeiji and her subjects, for obvious reasons.
"As a matter of fact," the frowning man continued, "Battleworld has seen more than its fair share of Hell: from my recollection, the Netherworld is the third variety on the planet's Eastern Hemisphere—its predecessors being Hades and New Hell."
There was also Toto Bunny, another Netherworld, but its representatives had only made themselves known briefly during the Tournament, and the surveillance Specter had missed any mention of demons or the like.
Manhattan, East Midtown Rooftop: Onward, to More Confusion!
Anna replied to the jeers with a huff, and returned to her task of taking her leave as swiftly as possible. "Confused" indeed. Was this not New York City? Was this not Manhattan? And this masked lunatic had the notion (let alone the nerve) to claim she had no idea what she was talking about, and then offer his assistance! As if she would accept his help now!
But fate seemed to favor her, and an officer (followed by his excessively annoying partner) broke through the doors. A brief exchange followed which she held little to no interest in, and only replied to the need for witnesses with another indignant huff:
"I witnessed no crime, officer: just the insulting insinuations of this spandex-sporting miscreant!" at which point she shot an accusatory finger at the web-slinger.
Apart from that, her only other contributions to the scene were a loud (and clearly forced) laugh at the name of Peter Parker's alter-ego:
"'Spider-Man?' What, was 'Arachna-Lad' already taken?"
And a final line to mark her (and her 'dear papa's') exit:
"I have no testimonies to give far as...whatever this is is concerned. The reason for my presence here can be explained by the others, now if you would please excuse me: my dear Pappa and I are late for an appointment."
And with that, the Contractor would try to step past the officers with the elderly Doll, and leave for the Midtown streets.
Kabukicho, Live House: Who's Hungry?
Mr. Nakamura was impressed: most of his talent were procrastinators when it came to prepping. These girls even helped him with some of the lighting repairs!
To show his gratitude (and maaaaaaaaaaybe to earn a few brownie points with "Grumpy Goro") the live house manager presented K/DA with a magnificent gift: coupons for four free bowls at Tanaka's Noodles! TA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
If they accepted the gift, the pop-stars would discover that Tanaka's Noodles was a run-down little stand just a few blocks away from the live house away from Kabukicho. It was the kind of seatless shack that ventured just off the level of "quaint" and threatened to enter "where did they really get the meat?" territory. The fact Mr. Nakamura had four coupons for the place suggested how frequent of a customer he was; judging by the live house's condition, it wasn't completely by choice.
Glory to Arachnos
Lukash face also soured at the mention of Duty. If he seemed to not enjoy the monolith, then he seemed to really dislike Duty even more.
"They're our main rivals. They're a large faction of stalkers who were former ukrainian soldiers or Spetsnaz and created a military-like group whose sole mission is to destroy every single thing that comes out of the Zone, not caring whatsoever that killing mutants or destroying anything in the Zone could cause the Zone to get angrier, releasing more blowouts, sending more mutants or creating more anomalies. They think us as nothing more than anarchists and a threat to the world, when we simply want to help the world and the scientists of the planet with the scientific advantages that the artifacts of this place can create. Strelok told us these dutyers who intended to destroy our base were not following the orders of their leader and had went rogue, and wished to help us."
As soon as Kruglov was just about to knock on the door, he and his crew would suddenly find themselves back in the Common Room out of nowhere, the Ecologists looking around in confusion, while the mercenaries raised their weapons quickly, as if thinking they were going to be attacked.
"Doc, what the fuck just happened?!" Mist said to Kruglov, who looked downright confused even though his helmet hid it.
"I...I don't know! I was just going to knock on the door and suddenly, we're here! I don't know what happened! Stefan, Petro, Semenov, check if the footage and gear are okay!"
Kruglov ordered his other fellow scientists as they checked that their tech was fine and working well, and they one by one, they nodded.
...What just happened?
Kruglov would notice a group that was talking to each other. A strange blue like being, a shirtless kid and a man with a frown that seemed to not disappear. Maybe they could answer him what just happened?
Kruglov motioned to the group to follow him, and they would after a few moments, approach Laharl, Goro and Jedah, Kruglov being right in front of them, while the Mercenaries were both at his side, eying at them with suspicion.
He would clear his throat and then speak to them. "Um, excuse me? I hope I'm not interrupting any of you. I am Professor Kruglov, part of Kiev's Research Institute that was sent to the Zone to study it. We were in the land called The Underground in a mission to document the lands of the Battleworld, but we suddenly were teleported back to this place. Would any of you know why?"
Teemo chuckled at the tribeswoman compliment of him. Maybe finally she'll let him join her now..
Well, then suddenly some kind of human appeared out of the portal and started to call him....cute?
Cute? If she seen some of the things he did back at the war, she wouldn't call him cute at all.
"Well. Thanks for the compliment." He said to Jade. "But yeah, I agree with her. Who are you?"
Well, that's a new one. While the fact someone denying Duty membership was not very common, maybe having a free agent could aid them. Besides, he has a mission that would be perfect for that.
Voronin nodded. "Hmm...maybe you're right. We do have a task that requires some infiltration within Freedom. A weapon they have we do not have. I want to ask you to do one thing, personally for me, you see? We're in the midst of a territorial warfare with the Freedom faction and we need some weapons more powerful than what we have. Freedom has some excellent RG-6 granade launchers. If you could penetrate their territory and steal at least one such granade launcher, I would generously reward you, and put a good word for you. Since you aren't in our faction, you can quickly gain the trust of Freedom and, if you're lucky, get a hold of the RG-6."
He continued. "If you agree,I'll upload the location of the Freedom base for you. You'll need to find the stalker called Chef. He's a member of Freedom. He knows where the RG-6s are kept. And he likes his booze so bring a lot of vodka with you. So, what do you say?"
"Oh, lead the way!" Twitch exclaimed as he and Veigar accompanied Amalie to the defense mission. Other than some bickering between Twitch and Veigar, the way to their task was pretty calm itself. Well, until they found this..bamboo forest, and the place this "pandas" lived in. Seems they found their objective.
Veigar grumbled as the Panda guard asked what exactly they were again, haven't these folk seen a yordle and a mutant rat before?
Well, judging from their reactions, probably not.
Veigar spoke to the gate guard. "I'm a yordle, and he's a rat. Anyways, I am Veigar, he is Twitch, and she's Amalie, the leader of the Adventurer's guild. We heard that you're having some trouble in your home, so we're here to help you with these troubles you're having!"
-Spider Lizard Noises-
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Ruby and Yang - Show And Tell; Portal Alleyway, Mitakihara
"I'm Yang Xiao Long." Said the aforementioned Yang Xiao Long. "And these are Ember Celica."
With a pump of both her fists, Yang's chunky metal bracelets
expanded into forearm-covering gauntlets
.
"They're Dual-Ranged Shot Gauntlets, shotguns built into a pair of collapsible gauntlets. These babies can seamlessly switch between short-range and long-range Fire Dust rounds, which either gives me extra punch, or lets me blow things up."
"And I'm Ruby Rose." Said the girl of the same name. "And this is Crescent Rose."
The small girl pulled a large block of metal
from the small of her back, letting it expand into a sniper rifle
in her hands. Then, taking it by the stock, she spun it underarms, upon which it folded out into a massive scythe that was actually taller than the girl herself.
She planted the spear-tipped butt of the scythe into the concrete below her feet, slicing into it like a hot knife through butter.
"She's a High-Calibre Sniper Scythe." She said, as if that explained everything.
Ren and Nora - To The City That Never Sleeps; Common Room -> Manhattan Portal
Maki's packing didn't go without notice, but did go without comment. Even if Nora didn't want him fighting or anything like that, she was unwilling to let him go through that torture Shaw had put him through ever again. Keeping a Thermos on him was akin to keeping first-aid supplies: you hope you don't need them, but you'd rather have them and not need them, than not have them when they're needed.
When they arrived in the Common Room, and Maki started tugging them along towards the portal, the pair shot each other a glance, and with an awkward shrug from Nora, followed Maki's lead and went through the portal.
"Who's Spider-Man? Is he like a superhero back in your world?"
Bond - Plan B; Common Room
Bond couldn't help but smile as the cameras picked up another teenager approaching him. They'd definitely rumbled him, and were now attempting to run interference. Clever. Much too clever.
But they couldn't counteract what they couldn't see. From the outside, Bond's glasses didn't look like anything special, but the display on the inside would continue showing him a view of the Common Room, no matter what they did.
But now he needed a cover. Something that threw suspicion off him. To be honest, if he could avoid their lookouts too, that would be perfect. In fact...
Bond had an idea. Risky, of course, but it was exact sort of risk he was used to.
When Joker spoke, Bond started, pretending to be taken out such deep concentration that he hadn't noticed the young man's approach.
"Sorry, didn't see there." Bond said, putting on an Irish accent. South Dublin, if MI 6's accent coaches were to be believed. He closed his phone, and slid it back into his pocket. "You'll have to make it quick, though. I'm supposed to be looking for someone."
He sheepishly shrugged his shoulders and rubbed the back of his head.
"I don't suppose you know where I can find a Minako Arisato? I know she has a room, but I was told she might have left it by now, but she'd probably be coming through here at some point."
They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
Vampire Hunter
Jedah, Common Room
"I've been to Former Hell," Jedah admitted to both Goro and Laharl. "I helped to plug one of the tape players that land had there."
He sounded like he was not all that happy about having done so, but breathed in again. "But I suppose I could visit it again."
Morrigan, Sakura Dungeon Library
"Interesting..." Morrigan stroked her chin as she had become infinitely curious about something. "I'm now curious as to how monsters here... reproduce as it were."
B.B. Hood, Dining Hall, Red Sprite
"Clearly, Vergil ain't here, given everyone is... talking to us and not trying to stop a rampaging, teleporting half-demon," B.B. Hood seemed to have had enough of Garnet's crap at this point. "We warned you about him, told you what to look out for and told you how to contact us."
B.B. Hood was so done with the Red Sprite at this point. If they wanted to be stupid and get themselves killed, why should she give a damn?
Wizard Needs Food Badly
"I quite like your exoskeletons. They are rather advanced and helpful." Making small talk as they loaded everything up into the vehicle, it wouldn't take all that long for the strapping young chaps to be finished with their task with military supplies (including chocolate) were stowed away nicely. "Have fun, boys." Doing the stereotypical two thump salute against the vehicle's walls to indicate that everything was good to go, Da Vinci then gave a cheery wave before going back inside of the observatory so as to let the boys do their job.
"Which Joan are you talking about? We have three of them so far." Muttering a reply and being from the part of the timeline from before there were a whole five of them, Ritsuka was given a rough jostle by Mash for blabbing so easily about their organization's inner workings before the whole group was taken into the cavernous infrastructure that made up the observatory.
Opening lounge room that was located on the side, Mash would then deposit the redhead on the cushion before taking out what appeared to be tea supplies from the cupboard, measuring the temperature of water while placing out accompanying snacks to go along with it. "It'll be Tieguanyin oolong tea today, sempai. Roasted traditionally in the Muzha standard and served with mooncakes.
"
Pouring out the steaming hot reddish brown liquid that had an aroma not dissimilar to that of freshly roasted nuts onto cups that were placed over saucers, the eggplant would then partake of a sip while Ritsuka grabbed hold of her own cup to down the thing that would wake her up. "Now then, where did you hear of Joan of Arc from? Also are you from the planet Earth? With all these various worlds and timelines about, it's a question that must be asked so as to know where to begin."
Astolfo popped back in the general area after the Underground all but disappeared. "Well, that was something." And then he went off to explore somewhere else.
Nagi continued following her tour guide with a spring in her step, her exuberance a sheer contrast to Dante's stiltedly robotic monotone as he read from flash cards given by Lady about the pros and cons of privatized education. "Y-you bet I am! The whole Ultimate thing seems a bit out there, but I can at least fix up machines and invent devices and um stuff maybe..." Trailing off toward the end after hearing Lady's questions, the poor girl blinked with confusion on her face. Human schools weren't like Netherworld schools... were they?
Yes, this was the life. Simply drifting about in a bustling market street with her stomach full of the best food in the world and being allowed to move about unmolested, enjoying the splendor of traditional Japanese atmosphere in a place synonymous with hell flames and peace. Tilting her head slowly to the side, Majin Saber focused her senses to more properly listen in on the conversations regarding the Satori and the one with people feeling a bit more tired than usual. Perhaps she could glean something new there?
Nitocris simply perused some books and read out of it like the nerdy bookworm that she was while everyone else got into a moral debate, knowing full well it wasn't going to end anytime soon.
"..." Ahri stared at the establishment with barely veiled distaste on her face, having been far too used to the finer things in life such as A5 wagyu beef or five star traditional French cuisine. Even when she enjoyed the more rustic Korean cuisines it still had SOME sort of quality with their pedigree and sources easily verifiable. Here though... she was beginning to think that man they were sent to was a giant flint.
"H-hey now, it won't be too bad! It's free after all..." Seeing how much of a mental shock that the fox had gone through, the foodie (Kai'Sa) of the group attempted to get her back into the realm of the cognizant even as she took her by the hand into the establishment, nose sniffing at potential aromas to see if the fare could be viable and/or edible at the very least. Who knew, there were eateries out there that were humble hole in the wall treasures that hid their quality underneath a veneer after all!
"Man, this reminds me of the streets back home. I used to hang around these sorts of places back in the day... I hope they make a mean bowl of the good stuff. Proper ramen is something I've missed for a while." Rather gungho about the whole experience was everyone's favorite glam ninja rapper, idly spinning what appeared to be her smartphone before posing in front of the rundown thing to take a selfie before following the others inside. Hashtag #readyforsomenoods indeed.
The last member meanwhile kept her features at a lukewarm level of 'going with the flow' due to the fact that while she COULD eat human food for the most part, she much preferred her own meals to be fresh enough that one could see the life fly out of its still living body when she supped. Ah well, at the very least she could enjoy a bit of fun with the other girls.
Common Room (to Manhattan): Geeking Out
Maki shook his head as he, Nora, and Ren approached the portal.
"Spider-Man's from the same world as Genosha. Quill told me all about him; he said Spider-Man was the reason he signed up to join the Hellions in the first place. He was a late-bloomer Mutant who came out back when humans still hated them, but after King Magnus ended the war on Mutants, Spider-Man became one of the most famous superheroes of all time! He's super strong, can shoot webs from his wrists like this," here Maki flicked his wrist with the signature thwick! sound effect "and his spidey-sense make him so aware of his surroundings that he can even dodge bullets! He's an actor now, but he does all his own stunts!"
The boy continued his trivia knowledge as the three of them stepped through the portal into Times Square:
"He's fought a ton of super villains: Vulture, Iron Fist, Green Goblin, Luke Cage, Kingpin...well those are the only ones I remember, but Quill must've listed a hundred of them!"
Stepping up to the police officer, Maki asked: "Excuse me, sir! Do you know where I can find Spider-Man?"
The officer would see that the latest arrival was a ten year-old boy with sandy hair and mismatched eyes: one red, one green.
◊ Like the other little Halloween enthusiasts, he wore some form of military uniform, though this one being composed of a dark blue suit with white reinforced pads on the knees, arms, waist, and shoulders.
◊ He carried a backpack which—as the officer would see when the boy turned around to beckon his friends over—bore a distinct symbol of an eagle.
Common Room (To Former Hell): Freaking Out
It all happened so suddenly. One second, Majora was flying past the lab in Hotland. The next second, and the lab, the heat, the flap of powerful wings, it was all gone; replaced with the big white room from before.
"Oh." the masked child mused, staring at the giant ball in the room's core. No more Underground. No more lab, or lava lakes, or graffiti'd dummies, or pleading goat ladies, or estranged brother. No more Chara.
...and no more hiding spots!
"Oh!"
This was bad. This was very bad! What if they find it?! No, no no no no no. That would not do at all!
"Oh no." Majora thought aloud in a part desperate, part thrilled excitement way. "Oh no oh no oh no oh no."
One could hear the smile in the masked child's voice. He repeated the two word chant with more and more emotion, till his words dissolved into a frightening little cackle and he flew into the air. He soared right over the globe, and nose-dived straight into the portal to Former Hell.
Joker crossed his arms, giving the seemingly lazy man an odd look.
"The name rings a bell, sure. But I couldn't tell you where she is this second."
As he said that, Makoto rose from her seat, and Ann and Ryuji resumed their previous positions, only to stare in shock as a skull masked kid suddenly appeared and rocketed into another portal, not even having time to take a picture. As Makoto started walking away, Bond would see on his cameras the last member of the thieves, a blue haired male, exit the hallway with a black cat sitting in his bag. He walked at a considerably faster pace until he caught up with Makoto, at which point he evened his stride.
Nether of them stopped to look or speak to anyone else as both of them entered the portal marked "The Zone". Joker, meanwhile, followed up his statement.
"What's your interest, anyway?"
Flonne, Netherworld Castle - Jai's Big Adventure: Pudding Thief Episode 2?!?
"A Contractor?" Flonne asked with a curious expression on her face. "I've never heard of those before. Well, I guess you can tell me all about them while I get you something to eat!"
Flonne leads Jai over to a large refrigerator.
"Let's see... we've got eclairs, sundaes, flan, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate. What would you like?"
No mention of pudding. There doesn't seem to be any in the fridge, and a good girl like Flonne wouldn't steal from Laharl's pudding reserves. What kind of monster would ask an innocent angel to do something like that?
Laharl, Common Room
"I see," Laharl said with a nod. "Since our captor is a demon himself, I suppose it makes sense that several other Netherworlds have been caught up in this 'game' of his."
The Tyrant Overlord pondered what the demons of Former Hell might be like, given his admittedly limited knowledge of Earth cultures. He had some exposure to Japanese culture thanks to anime, but that was about all he had.
"I'll have to meet Overlord - er, Governor Satori sometime, then.”
Laharl looked around at all the chunks in the room before coming to a dooming realization.
“Man, keeping all these weirdos out of my castle is going to be a serious pain in the ass. As if I didn’t have enough of them to deal with before all this...”
Jade, Sakura Dungeon Garden
Jade looked a tad embarrassed at the apparent faux paus she made by barging in unannounced.
“Oh, sorry about that! I didn’t mean to sneak up on you guys or anything. My name’s Jade!”
The perky dog eared lady smiled, hoping she’d be able to recover from the first impression she made.
“Hm… do you guys need help with anything? As long as I’m here, I’ll try to make myself useful.”
Glory to Arachnos
As Makoto, Morgana and Yusuke entered the portal to the Zone, they would find themselves in a military outpost, they would notice soem soldiers patrolling the area, while some were on a watchtower, standing guard as if watching for any intruders. Meanwhile, the trio would see on their right a memorial statue of the Chernobyl liquidators.
Their presence would be noticed by 4 Spetsnaz Operators standing guard near the portal checkpoint. While they didn't raised their AK-74 rifles at them, they still had them ready just in case they could be potential hostiles. Looking at the Phantom Thieves, one of the Spetsnaz adressed them.
"State your business in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone."
-Spider Lizard Noises-
Kizakura- Hope's Peak Academy w/ Dante & Nagi
"Hm... Can't say we've had a full lockdown Code-Red situation yet, not that I'm aware of, save for our arrival here of course. Nor military or demonic situations, despite some of the students... interest in the subjects. As for threats... hm... generally nothing substantial, but we have had some times, though, that things got outta hand, mostly due to Monokuma's intervention. Nothing bad has happened yet, and we have more than a few Students who Ultimate talents involve health and medicine in case something does."
The recruiter took a breath, and a moment to ponder his response to the second part of that question.
"We don't quite have the nitty-gritty in place yet, but the thought of "Battleworld" not being safe did cross our minds, yes. While the security here is the best we could muster, we are currently looking into other safety plans. Worse comes to worse, we did discuss that the school could be converted into a sustainable shelter from any issues that may be thrown our way. This is a last resort, of course."
Nagi's description of her talents gave way to another moment of pause.
"We do have an Ultimate Mechanic, and an Ultimate Inventor... Not a problem, however. That said, we have to see what you can do, first." Having two people with the same talent isn't impossible (Besides the "Lucky Students", they do have two Ultimate Detectives, after all), so if the kid's got it, she's got it.
Ultimates being "out there", however, is an apt point.
I have a plan.
Vector Armory
General Christophe nodded, and headed over to more cases with high-tech experimental weapons on display. "The sword and spear have been sufficient for the needs of our military. And besides that, the reason many of these weapons are still prototypes is because we've simply skipped past the stage where they would be useful. Vector's crowning technological achievement is Magitek. We've been able to weaponize laser beams and explosive-tipped missiles with the use of Magitek, and in the near future, I'd reckon magic itself could be a regular component of our forces."
General Christophe started to show off more experimental gadgets and weapons. One of the pieces appeared to be some sort of metal arquebus, with thin back tank hanging from its side.
"Bioblaster. This weapon here can spray just about anything you put in the tank, but we've had good use with Magitek-created acids. You might want to use a mask with this one, and I'd advise against using it indoors or around fires."
Then he picked out another strange metal device, only this one looked more like a blunderbuss.
"Noiseblaster. This one makes a deafening noise as long as you have your finger pulling the trigger. Good for scaring off animals or controlling crowds without hurting them too much. We've designed it so that it doesn't hurt the user's hearing, but noise doesn't discriminate against friend our foe, so be careful with it."
Finally he took out another metal arquebus, except this one had a light-bulb in place of a barrel. "Sunbeam. One pull of this trigger and it creates a powerful laser beam. All it can really do is disorient and blind a target. We have more lethal laser weapons, but those require a full Magitek system."
Vector — Lower West Side -> Magitek Research Facility
As the banana-coated scientist lead his guests further eastward, the depressing industrial hellscape of Vector only worsened. The factories and refineries that loomed over the shabby residences of the west gave way to various collieries and blast furnaces that fed Vector's insatiable appetite for power and iron. Towering above this cursed land was an immense metal facility that rivaled the size of the typical airplane assembly building. Cid pointed to the huge industrial complex, even though it was pretty obvious that they were now at their destination.
"There it is. The Magitek Research Facility. The heart of the Empire. I suppose nobody will object if I gave you both a little tour..."
Cid lead his two guests to one of the many steel-door entrances leading into the Magitek Research Facility. The two Magitek armor units flanking the doors gave way for the chief scientist, and Misaki and the Dog were allowed to proceed behind Cid.
The interior of the Magitek Research Facility was a man made labyrinth of steel walls, pipes, and catwalks that stood high over the factory floor. The hallways gave way to a vast open room with various conveyor belts all proudly displaying suits of Magitek armor. Various workers in coveralls and overalls were working diligently at the assembly lines as they took barren frames and built them into usable weapons. The overpowering chemical smell that lingered over Vector luckily wasn't present in this air-conditioned building, but the noise was impossible to drown out in here.
"I think there's no better way to start this tour than to show you the Magitek factory. Here, our top engineers are working on suits of Magitek armor for the use of our military. We can produce a single unit of Magitek Armor in a hundred minutes! Unfortunately, I cannot show you the part of the process where we infuse each suit with Magitek energy."
Cid moved over to a less busy part of the factory floor. There were various control panels lined up in a big row. "Over here we have—"
Suddenly, the lights inside the Magitek Research Facility went red, and a blaring klaxon sounded throughout the building. Cid instantly put his hands in his coat pockets. "Another false alarm? How many times do I have to tell them, to adjust the sensitiv—"
The entire facility shook and rumbled for a few seconds, and the workers who were at first ignoring the alarms finally started to panic and flee from their stations. "What? It isn't a false alarm this time? This can't be happening..."
Before Cid could lead Misaki and the Dog to a safe exit route, his path was suddenly blocked by a tall, tan-skinned man
◊, who had a pair of horns sprouting from his head. The man was kneeling on the ground and clutching his chest with one hand, but his mere presence was enough to stop Cid dead in his tracks. "I found a way to free myself from you, Cid. We all have. Your machinations end here."
Cid backed away from the humanoid. "I-I never wanted it to come to any of this, Maduin! The Emperor and Kefka made their demands clear!"
'Maduin' bared his fangs at Cid. "You make me sick! You could have said no to this at any point... Get out of here before I kill you!"
Cid complied, and ditched Misaki and the Dog as fast as he could. Now it was just Misaki the Dog, and Maduin, and a whole bunch of factory men and women fleeing for their lives.
Magitek Research Facility — Crisis
Maduin started to stare at Misaki, oblivious to the deafening alarms and the workers who were fleeing past him. He got up onto both of his feet, though it seemed to take a lot of his strength to do so. Then Maduin suddenly broke into a hacking cough, covering his mouth with his hand. A few drops of blood dripped from his wrist as he coughed away, until he could finally compose himself. "The Emperor's men will be here soon. I'll do my best to get you out of here safely."
Maduin moved over to the closest exit as fast as his weakened body could carry him. A dozen scared workers were all crowded in front of the steel doors, but found themselves unable to exit.
"Come on!" one of the workers shouted. "Why are the doors locked?"
"Because it's not break time anymore!"
"We're all gonna die!"
Maduin shoved past the engineers, and put all of his strength into a punch. The locked steel doors broke wide open, and the workers all fled outside into the safety of the streets. Maduin was starting to wheeze and cough some more after the show of physical exertion. He lead the two back out onto the streets of east Vector. Before he could help Vector's two latest guests escape from the city, Maduin collapsed. He just didn't have the strength anymore stand on his feet, so he put his back against the steel walls of the facility's exterior. "I don't think I have a whole lot of time left... I... I don't want to die alone out here. Will you... stay with me? I can tell you the truth about the Empire, and explain the situation my people are going through.."
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"
Mall?
“Mind thing? Voices?” Madoka craned her neck enough to look at Kanda’s, a look of realization dawning on her face. “Oh, she must have been under the influence of a Witch.”
“And it sounds like she was trying to get you too. Probably the one in here.” Sayaka turned back to face the others once she was satisfied they were fine for the moment. She waved her hand in refusal at Cana's drink offering. “We're too young for that,” she answered, showing discomfort on her face as Cana downed some more in front of her.
“Us? We're, uh...” Madoka began before trailing off, seemingly unsure of what to say when Cana asked for their names.
“Just passing through!” Sayaka made an attempt to cover. “Yeah, just, uh, just a couple of good samaritans! Walking by! In costume! In a dark, weird, creepy...yeah, you’re not buying that, are you?”
CXZ - Sid’s Bunker
Perhaps her streak of good fortune had run out. Only three magazines and two grenades? Homura could expend all of that and not even clear out half a Witch’s contingent of Familiars.
She stared at the ammunition laid out on the table, letting her disappointment show on her face as she looked back at Sid. “Could you go more?”
Mitakihara - Industrial Area
“Whoa, OK, not so suddenly, please.” Anderson instinctively took a step back when Nero drew his sword, only relaxing a bit when he saw Mami had also moved a bit into a defensive stance out of instinct. As the rest of Nero’s showcasing went off without a hitch, though, that would be the extent of the Americans’ alarm; only matched when Crescent Rose extended out further than any of them had been expecting. Anderson’s fellow soldiers wouldn’t hide the fact that that camera over there was recording the visitors declaring their weapons.
Once all three had declared their weapons and it didn’t seem like Ruby was going to say anything more about hers, Anderson spoke up: “‘Sniper-Scythe’...You know, five days ago we’d have detained all of you for showing up with weapons like these, even if we didn’t believe you could actually use them. That said...” He turned to face Mami. “We’re going out on a limb and trusting you guys not to make needless trouble. I know you said you were looking for this Vergil, but the past few times we’ve had some unexpected visitors, things...got rather messy.”
“We understand, Sergeant — as I said, we want to protect this city as well.”
“Alright. You said you would try the hospital first?”
Mami nodded. “It seems as good a place to begin as any.” With a wave from Anderson, Mami turned to the others. “Shall we go?” She would begin to lead the way towards the city center.
Ozen was quick to clean up her hair after the fairy had rampaged through it, harshly swatting it back into shape as she gave her a dirty look.
Just after everyone talked about their own world, she remarked "Odd that I'm the most normal person in the room. All of this just means I'll have to try harder to stand out, I guess." Why Link hadn't manipulated time to before he left was a question unanswered.
Then, the real important part of this day was here. Something that was promised to banish her worries and cure her life-long depression, all in a baker's dozen! It was going to be great once she could eat them, and that was now because she didn't wait a single fucking solitary second for them to cool.
With a mouth just as hardened as the rest of her body, she ripped one of the semi-molten cookies off of the tray with a gloved hand and shoved it right into her mouth.
...Yeah. She could dig it. Unlike some people's unsightly moaning, she simply nodded to show her gratitude.
This danmaku was getting to be way too much for her. Utsuho could maybe understand it when all the bullets were really big and shiny like fresh control rods but asking to dodge bullets you can't even see is just not fair!
Giving up like a little baby, she didn't wait for anyone to kill her attackers before she swung low towards the base. Going down was just a matter of feet, before her rattled self stepped foot onto earth once again.
Collecting herself, she took a moment before she said "That's what I'm supposed to say. You're from a new world, not me! I guess you can talk to me still, but you'll have to settle with someone from the usual one."
"What do you wanna know that's valuable enough to get me something?"
Yes, yes, it's okay. Some of your friends are demons! Where had Suiki, in his advanced age, having traveled across the mountains of Japan, to the lands to the west and even further, heard that one before...
"Oh, that's a little more understandable. We shouldn't trust one of our own, even after lifetimes of our city accepting in anyone, no matter the crime...I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said, his bushy moustache perking up. "I don't really mean that. I just have to give you a bad time, you know. It's been decades since I've seen a killer like you in person and...it feels nostalgic, yeah?"
The good old days. Back when Former Hell had to be protected from those who sought to harrow it, and when he would see his brothers erased from existence or permanently ensorcelled and bound...the days when men were men!
"If that's all you came to do, then you're just about the kindest demon hunter I've met. The local one...or at least back when we were back home, never even stopped to say hello to us. We'll keep an eye out for this Vergil fella, and it's not like it's easy for him to get in here without us noticing."
"Though, do you mind?"
He brought up his old, yet firm hand, and waved it about. A pair of cushions came out from underneath a table to the side, and placed themselves alongside the other old men. They stopped their racous rolling, finally giving Lady and friends the time of day.
"It's not often we have time to entertain people like you, and really...it's just not becoming of me to not challenge you. If you're in a hurry, leave...but otherwise, why not gamble a little?"
What could be gathered from those two lines of dialogue was this:
Apparently, whoever Satori was, she didn't leave her spooky mansion very often. So little, in fact, that her leaving at all was vaguely newsworthy. More importantly, this Satori lady was such a horrible, dispicable person that being near that piece of shit's general presence was awful.
Whoever they may be talking about, she was bad business and they hoped she'd move to somewhere else in the world. Also, hopefully die, but that's very rude. The two women, both visibly dead and sitting by a gate, were sipping tea and just enjoying their day.
Otherwise, the trio of young men working on replacing some roof shingles mostly talked about how to pick up chicks. But a few nuggets stood out among the inane conversation seemed to imply that they woke up feeling weaker than usual. Even if it was merely that they couldn't lift as much as usual, it was something they all commented on, but didn't understand the significance of yet.
The room that Majora barreled through face-first wasn't much like the half-finished facade he found yesterday. Fully furnished, tiled, lit, staffed, uhh, upholstered, the little guard house of Former Hell was now fully operational.
Not like it mattered, because he had places to be! Flying over the beleagured, and soon to be much more beleagured customs lady Parsee, he shot out the door like a greyhound at the races.
Unless "hey, wait," said in a half-bored tone was enough to stop this little mask, he'd find that he had nothing stopping him between here and there.
There being Chireiden, of course. The monolithic front doors greeted him with their austere silence, the smell of brimstone still being strong and the garden looking very nicely cared for as usual. The only thing he shared that courtyard with was a large tortoise, who seemed to be asleep. Or awake, but very slow.
Whether he knocked, or knocked quickly, or just started banging on the door like a madman, a familiar face was quick to answer.
Dressed the same way as she was before, and with the same warm smile, Koishi poked her head out the door and looked down at him. She blinked. "Hi there! Who are you?"
Eternal Princess
The thing stood there silent, watching Wendy with unblinking eyes as the wrapping paper fell away. The Sefirots did much the same, unable to hide their curiosity. This was the first time they had actually seen Rudolta pass out a gift, most the time he just kind of wandered around creeping out the staff until someone directed him back to his containment cell. This was something new.
What was inside was a large natural vial
. Bark grew over translucent sac like a claw grasping a gem. Inside was a thick red sap. If one looked closely, they could see small, nearly microscopic, glowing green life forms swimming in the liquid. Wendy would probably remember it from the meeting. Sap from Giant Tree.
Malkuth's initial excitement flat lined. I mean, a surprise is kind of disappointing when you have already seen it before. But more then that, who did this thing think had to pick up after it if it went taking things around the office!? She looked the strange taxidermy creature, her polite smile showing signs of slight annoyance.
"Rudolta, please don't take abnormalities out of their containment units without permission."
Just then the bag twitched, knocking over a picture in the sleigh. Noticing the photograph, and the bits of stuffing, she had a pretty good idea who was in the sac. She looked at abnormality, wondering if she should repeat what she just said.
The twins seemed much more surprised by the gift giving ritual, having never experienced something like that themselves. After witnessing that, the female Tippereth had only one reaction.
"Where's my gift!?"
Her small hands clenched into fists and quivered as her face redden. She let out a discontented huff. She was pretty good and keeping her emotions in check, especially compared to those stupid upper level Sefirots, but it was hard not to feel frustrated at this indignity. She didn't quite understand it, but it felt like she was being left out of something important, especially to a child. The male twin could only pat her back in condolence.
"I don't think we make the nice list this year..."
The abnormality would not respond, merely staring at them silent. Despite the gift, the animosity that flowed from the thing was almost palpable. But in this pathetic state, it was helpless. It could do nothing but carry on with its duties, no matter how much it hated it. If not stopped, Rudolta's sleigh would start again, pulling the thing down the hall. As it slowly disappeared form sight it kept eye contact with Wendy, careening its neck 180 degrees to do so.
As it was leaving, Malkuth whispers alittle gossip to the fairy tail duo.
"You know, I heard that he used to be a big fat jolly guy...or was it a flying reindeer...maybe it was both? Eh, it doesn't matter. Lets go find some healing bullets!"
As Malkuth turned to go deeper into the Welfare department, she could see there was an employee still alive. He didn't seem to see them though, as he quickly scurried in the opposite direction, dragging behind him another large sac. She suppose she should go get him, employees were a valuable resource after all.
"Hey, Wendy, think that guy might also have a gift for you?"
"It should be completely inert. There should be no chance for growth according to our data."
Yesod's voice was completely dry as he reassured Satori that her new accessory was harmless. Netzach noticed the other teenage girl eyeing that thing like it was piece in a jewelry store and looked away in contempt. He kept his mouth shut though, instead choosing to listen to others desire to continue on. They had to keep moving or they were going to die. They were probably all going to die anyway, but if they wanted to keep pretending they had a chance out of here, they had to keep moving.
"Come on, lets go."
Whatever they were expecting from the department, it probably wasn't this. The grand architecture of the Central Command Department opened up to an enormous factory like complex
. It was all steel and rust. A single walk way with no rails was before them. Over the sides was what appeared to be a bottomless drop. Any OSHA compliance long forgotten when you measure employee casualties by the minute. It was around 20 feet in width and led to another part of the facility. Similar walk ways jutted out of their destination on the other side, spreading out in different directions and levels. Their ultimate destinations unseen as their paths became swallowed by shadows.
Darkness permeated the area with only the eerie glow of red lights along the structure and weak single bulb lights that just barely lit the path before them. They could however see containers the size of a single room
◊ move about on pulleys, each marked with strange serial numbers. They pulled from somewhere deep below them before being whisked away to some unseen location, making it was hard to tell exactly how big this department truly was. The wide open space had an eerie silence to it, though in the distance was the sound of heavy machinery working, rythmic and constant, like a heart beat.
Hod seemed to shrink in on her self as she entered the area. This place...she hated this place. Netzach, almost single minded in his objective, strode forward.
"We should be able to get to an elevator up ahead and double back to Central Command, right next our ticket to the upper levels."
But as they began moving forward, Yesod motioned for everyone to stop. In the middle of the path before them was single large safe like entity.
It remained motionless, but peering out its keyhole was an eye watching them
. To encounter O-05-76 right after O-04-72, what horrid luck. He spoke out, telling them the only thing they would need to know to circumvent this encounter.
"Don't look at it."
The three sefirots looked off the sides of the walk way as they strode forward. But as they did so, they could hear the entity begin to rumble and stir, as if agitated. Was someone looking at O-05-76 !? What were those idiots doing!? They were going to get them all killed! Netzach turned back to yell the others only to see it wasn't necessarily them who was breaking the one rule.
Following them from the Central Command Department was half a dozen humanoid automatons.
Their skeletal frames shuffled with uneven janky movements. Occasionally one would have fits of spasm like twitches before snapping out of it and continuing on its slow march. They smelled of burnt matches, and scorches on the metal showed that they too survived that burning landscape they just came from. While their faces were devoid of features, their glowing red eyes seem to emit hostility toward the group none the less. A fact only further confirmed by the dried red blood that stained their fore arms.
Hearing the rumble of O-05-76 only grow more aggressive, Netzach yelled out at the others.
"Take those things out, now!"
But before the group could act, thee large objects dropped from above, slamming into the metal walk way just behind O-05-76 with a loud clash. They seemed like large metal containers
, but soon unfolded and stood at its full height to reveal what they truly were
. They were the size of a small mech, standing around 13 feet in height. A rusted auto cannon hung off one arm, a heavy nasty looking circular saw off the other. The one in front spoke out in a deep distorted robotic voice.
"SCANNING"
Its large glowing central eye looked from member to member of the group, each time repeating the same conclusion.
"ERROR...ERROR...ERROR..."
That was until it finally pointed its gaze at the Hopes Peak teens. The others matched the description of the hated humans, but preliminary observation showed their parameters were slightly...off. These two were a 100% match. The large saw began rotating with a whining buzz as the large caliber auto cannon pointed at the group and began firing wildly.
"INITIATING - KILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILL"
Gebura smirked at the comment, as if saying I would like to see you try. It wasn't condescending, but as if the prospect legitimately excited her. Seeing Ezra handle herself, yeah, clashing blades with a warrior of that skill level sounded great. But this wasn't the Backstreets, and they had more pressing matters to attend to. Besides, she was on a smoke break.
The blue haired Chessed smiled, not completely sure how he should respond to the offer to suck her sword. Perhaps it was the seeming inherent danger of doing so, or just the Freudian phallic imagery, but some how he couldn't bring himself to take her up the offer. He held up his hand in a polite decline.
"I'm afraid I only drink coffee."
Being yanked to his feet, he gently brushed him self off. Just what sort of twisted things go on in this place? That was a difficult question, in more ways then one. He remembered a younger him, and Angela, and could not help but to smile bitterly. Rather then address the topic head on, he skirted around the subject by instead talking about the abnormalities she mentioned.
"The bird is an old legend. One so old they out lived their own story. Its usually quite a well behaved old guy, keeping to him self. But he gets like that from time to time. When he sees some one who looks strong, someone who might be interested in chasing down the old legend, he gets all fired up. Official protocol states to completely ignore him when he gets like that, not that would have helped us here. He eventually tires himself out and slinks back to his chamber of his own accord. But I think your right. I think he would refer to go out in a blaze of his former glory then to whither away forgotten.
And her..."
He looked up at the pink slime, her humanoid features continuing to stare down at them. He gave the Fairy Tail knight a cheeky smile.
"She your type? I wouldn't recommend it. Much to clingy. The type who wants to start having kids right away and gets under your skin, literally so."
Admittedly, even if he wanted to tell her about the origins of that abnormality, he couldn't. So much that happens down here is kept secret, even from him. All he could do was make the lives of those of us trapped down here a little more bearable, and they were all trapped down here.
The rock worms below them was starting to breach the surface again. The room was becoming more unsafe by the minute. Gebura stamped out her cigarette.
"We need to split up."
Yeah, yeah. She knew that was the first no no of horror movies, but they had to catch a few certain abnormalities before this whole thing became irreversibly fucked.
"Yin and Yang. Two giant floating fish. If they are allowed to rejoin with the other, we all die. And those big stupid birds from the Black Forest. If left alone they going to bring that thing here. We need to kill them before that happens, and the only way to do that is we cover more ground and find them first. Since we are the only ones to toughed it out, I think that makes those present the most capable of pulling it off."
She gave a darted look at the lanky blue haired man, as if to clarify.
"Not you."
She then turned her gaze at those she did mean. Looking first to Ezra, then at the automaton girl. Aigis they said her name was. That nifty beam cannon of hers did a number on those rock worms, and should come handy in the trails ahead. A bird each, and a bonus fish for first come first serve. Easy work to stop Armageddon.
"Someone also needs to take care of the kid."
She motion toward a body on the ground. The red headed teenager
◊ that came with the tour. Ren something or another. In her berserker rage, she wasn't clear on what exactly had happen. She didn't even know where Binah and Hokma had ran off to. But the kid was breathing, something she couldn't say would continue if he stayed in the state he was in.
Jedah, Common Room
"Fair enough," Jedah nodded as if accepting that answer. "One would not suspect the Queen of Makai, Morrigan Aensland to be the most powerful of her realm either."
"In any case, our room is down the hall over there if you seek fellow demons, even if we are not from your Netherworld," Jedah pointed his hand over in the direction of the Common Hallway.
Shanoa, Trevor and Grant, Fairy Tail Guild Hall
As both Trevor and Grant sat down to eat their spaghetti and Mirajane talked about ladyfriends, both men blushed profusely as they each imagined themselves having a candlelit dinner with Sypha. All they could really mutter out to the woman was an embarrassed thanks. Meanwhile, Shanoa continued eating her meal when she looked up at Mirajane.
"My body channel the power of Glyphs through the tattoos on my shoulders and back," Shanoa stopped eating her spaghetti to lift up her hair so as to show off her back tattoo. "And it is closer to how your Take Over works."
"Monsters that I kill may create a magical Glyph which I can then absorb through the tattoo on my back," Shanoa explained as she let her hair drop down and returned to eating. "I can also gain Glyphs from finding weaponry, so it does work a bit like how this Requip works as well, but I am no master of it, not with my amnesia."
With the focus not on him and now that they had downtime, Trevor finally decided to start calling up his various allies to inform them of what happened, starting with Sypha.
Sypha, Luna Nova Kitchen
Sypha seemed to lay her head down again as Akko, Lotte, Constanze, and Reisen discuss their plan when her cellphone rang. Thinking nothing of it, Sypha answered it.
"Sypha here. ... Trevor? How did the mission go? ... Hmm. I see. I am glad you were successful with it, and I'm glad you remembered to charge your phone this time... Oh, you met Jaune as well?"
To any observer of Sypha, it would be clear that she was talking on what was very clearly a modern technological device.
Morrigan & Lilith, Sakura Dungeon Library
"Uh-huh," Morrigan nodded slightly at Hiriko and looked over to Ceri, before smirking seductively at her. "It's clear dear Ceri found her true love in Yomi."
"Oh, some men are fine," Lilith said innocently to everyone. "Jedah helped me out."
"Jedah is not exactly someone you should be trusting, dear sister," Morrigan warned Lilith. "Him and Demitri."
After mentioning his name, she rolled her eyes in annoyance.
Edited by GameGuruGG on Mar 22nd 2019 at 10:42:53 AM
Wizard Needs Food Badly