Battleworld 2.0

Labyrinth

"Crap, they're still there but I see a break in their swarm, hold on!" Cana shouted at Madoka as she charged ahead, following in the direction Sayaka had run off. She had one arm keeping the kid on her shoulder in place, and her free hand drifted towards her deck of cards, ready to fling something out at the first sign of trouble. Every now and then, she threw an explosive card back the way she had come from, just in case.

Eventually she finally managed to catch up to Sayaka... and company. Huh? Where had these other people come from?

"We're here! We're okay, don't worry... huh, there's more of you? Who are your friends? Man, I could really use a drink...." She pulled out a large bottle of liqour and gave it a quick pull, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Fairy Tail Guild Hall

"We've gone over what we know with her, Mavis is the most brilliant of all the Fairies," Erza told Shanoa.

Mavis looked halfway passed-out from how hard Mirajane was hugging and shaking her, while the others awkwarly watched, unsure what to do.

"Well then, five of you, that shouldn't be an issue. We were sent here with our guild hall and all its rooms, yet with most of our guild's members missing. So what land is it that you come from, then?"

Whitewood Shrine

"Don't worry I'm really strong I won't drop you, nope, definitely won't!" The Wolf monster said with certainty, and started to jog down the path, her two wolves following along. "Just tell me where to go, eheheh!"

After a few moments she came to a stop.

"Oh, uh, I guess you can't see where we're going...." She pouted and looked like she was busy trying to think of a solution to this problem.

"...Leave."

Satori's single word carried much weight under it. She turned away from Majin Saber, to look at the crumbled waste that sat in front of her.

"You have done nothing wrong." There was a long pause. "I...I shall go find you when I have the chance. When things have settled. Until then, Majin Saber, I ask that you leave. Take any animals you can find outside...and just get out of my house."

She ran a hair through her head, and placed a hand onto the wall nearest to her. It felt like the only stable thing here, but Satori knew that it was anything but right now...

Rin, torn between comforting her boss or assuaging the great blow to the samurai's honor, had to pick the latter. As Satori stewed in her angst, the kasha walked up and quietly began to speak.

"Heya...sister. Look, I think you did a better job than anyone else here could have. We couldn't have done anything. But...Miss Satori's got trust issues...big time ones."

She placed a hand on her shoulder.

"The fact that she even said she'd try and contact you's a big thing, ya know? I don't think I'd worry that much, in your case. Just...give her some space."

"...Do we need help?"

A rare piece of existential quandary for the fairies, posited by Lemon Shine. Truly, they often felt like their lives were very satisfactory and comfortable ones. However, can one ever be truly ridden of the chains of every day contrivances and annoyances, even in the most idyllic of existences lead by these three? They could need help for many things, perhaps even in finding out what it was they most desired to be aided in. Perhaps they even needed help shaking things up, introducing that element of dnager that provides the sharp edge a life needs to cut through tedium. Maybe, ultimately, the fairy trio just needed help, pure and simple.

Or, alternatively, they didn't.

"No, I think we're good," Lyre Robin said.

"Yeah, it's fine," Daily added.

"Okay, we're alright and we don't need any help," Lemon Shine said. She lowered her white flag and looked up at the human. "We thought you guys needed help landing, so I think we did a good job on that. We did, right?"

Aside from the three winged kids themselves, and the corpses around them, there didn't seem to be much reason for Alfred to give pause. The other two fairies dropped their pants flag.

"If you were looking for the danmaku fight, it ended like ten minutes ago," Lyre Robin said. "I won!"

Luca's request was soundly denied by the trio, her sarcasm undetected. "No," Lyre Robin firmly rebutted, "I could beat the poop out of you any day. I got those people to run away just by showing up, so you're gonna need something a lot bigger to scare me!"

Waiting no longer than what it took to make her arms move in response, Satori covered up her ears as tightly as she could. These foreign youkai and their hostility seemed to often prey on the senses, so she internally rationalized it just about as quickly. Hear no evil, and whatnot.

Perhaps there were better ways to insulate sound than Satori's tiny baby hands.

She pressed harder into her skull when she heard that first fragment of a note, and it continued singing regardless of how painful the sensation of my hands gripping my ears becomes. I instantly feel a terrible rush of pain that precipitates something indescribable in full, only partially even thinkable...something that rocks my mind in its totality, that shifts my consciousness into a realm of ever-more maddening and horrifying feelings.

Doubling over in pain, my floating body curls itself into a tight ball as the singing brings me over the precipice, and I realize what I can see.

Oh, the damned singing!

Something like the mythical siren, it digs its razor nails into my frail brain and cuts it to pieces! It feels like I'll bruise my skin or even crack apart my skull with the force I'm hammering in, and though I the last shreds of my rational mind tells me I cannot stop it, my body stands at risk of killing itself in a mad last attempt to bring it to a close. That sweet song the abomination sings would be so pleasant anywhere but here...the song, the song!

I can see things that don't make any sense; it's as if a book was opened in front of my eyes, and my unwilling head dragged in front of it. I can see my thoughts where I once hear them and the brief glimpses of my straining Third Eye into the uncaring world present it as nothing more than a washed-out color, half-detail version of the same looming room I saw mere moments before.

My thoughts break apart into total nonsense, and I can feel them stretch before me...except, at the same time, they are the thoughts of others! The thoughts of ones both parallel to me and aside, forward and paradoxically backward, the twisting directions these memories play in their madcap film reel threatening to choke and sever off the mind like a tourniquet! I see moments days ago as clearly as they are now, from the moment I stepped foot into this true hell of a world until some time later from now, where I see terrible visions of things to come that cast me into terror!

People I've never seen, people I never could see, all presented in terrible true-to-life detail that omits and removes and includes far too much for me to handle in one, passing thought. In one thought I am my sister dancing across an alien landscape and grasping at glittering spheres of unthinkable prisms of color, another I dream of a hulking giant with nothing but the blackest heart imposed onto mine, the sheer cruelty driving me away and exciting me all the same, as if we were one!

It is both unlimitedly, hopelessly expansive and more constraining than any one feeling I could see. All of it feels as though my own soul is staring back right at me, a Third Eye unblinking with every recalled passage, and it is at this point I cannot truthfully see anything. My mind scrambles to find the barest of simple analogies to scrape together a narrative to calm myself; wildly like the mad scribbles of those lost in the throes of schizophrenia, I try to append my own thoughts beyond what I think and find a cause; an explanation beyond what I can hear pounding into my head...both the song, and the cascading pain.

With my flailing, I look beyond the memories and into the words themselves, and my hand finally grabs purchase with the thin line that presents a single, solitary boundary that divides beyond the white void of "other". I almost mentally pause my own disintegration, and I look around that chasm, a grey cliff being all that keeps me from oblivion. I see an ellipsis...

My mind shatters. A book...a book...a book!

"A BOOK! A BOOK!" I helplessly scream in the thin veneer of narrative that presents a physical anchor. I scream it repeatedly, far louder than I have spoken in decades, threatening to shred my lungs as my mind has been, and I do not care. Maybe I am trying to define something ultimately real to me, and maybe I am trying to warn the others before they can continue their masquerade. I know it does not matter, as in my infinitesimal smallness I see that everything is set in an alabaster stone that I cannot chisel no matter how hard I strike against it. Even as it all screams ahead, I can see it being spliced apart like a Frankensteinian creation at the same speed and uncaring. The concepts of "train", "Dragon Cannon", "wolf-man and cat-woman" array themselves in front of my name, appearance and age, and I cannot do anything but helplessly repeat my revelation.

Edited by wikkit on Aug 27th 2019 at 12:08:36 PM

Mitakihara Hospital - Side alley

The cop that was positioned at the alley entrance most certainly did not fail to notice the Hunters heading towards him. "Hey, what are you people doing? Stop!" His face was pretty darn serious, not looking accommodating at all about four teenage-looking strangers suddenly heading towards him while his right hand hovered near the hand radio clipped to his belt; it meant that the two Magical Girls that were sneaking into the alley behind him would manage to disappear from sight without him noticing.

Labyrinth

Madoka looked up to see whom Cana was talking about. “Oh, Mami-san! And Kyoko-chan’s over there too. I don’t know who those other people are, though — maybe they’re Magical Girls too?”

"Not quite, Kaname-san." Mami managed to slip her way towards the new arrivals after fighting off another of the moths with a point blank musket blast. "I'm glad to see you're alright, Kaname-san. Miki-san will too." She looked up at Cana and made as much of a greeting nod as she could while keeping her eyes out for Familiars.

"Oh, this is Cana." Madoka introduced. "We told her about the Witches already."

"Right, Miki-san told me. Mami Tomoe. If that's the case, then you should know we have to find it in this Labyrinth and defeat it in order to escape." She turned her head back towards where the sons of Sparda had been clashing with Nyarlathotep.

"What's going on there, Mami-san?"

"...a rather complicated story."

Talbain & Felicia, Disciplinary Department, Facility X-394

When Erza, Wendy, and Carla showed up and just barely avoided being hit by a train, they heard a howling wolf before seeing Jon Talbain appear from behind the train wreckage looking like he was a dog who just brought in the paper. Felicia followed right behind him ready to fight, but then calmed down when she saw Erza, Wendy, and Carla.

"You guys okay?" Felicia asked.

With the internal discussions of their ad-hoc religious tolerance advisory board stalling, Utsuho pondered. These guys with guns lived in a destroyed power plant. If they were very rude and shot at people, nobody would listen to them...and nobody would give them bullets for their guns, right? They must resolve this quandary by just not firing very often. Unlike the other guys at the checkpoint, Utsuho figured they were too poor to danmaku at her.

So, both coming to a conclusion and getting antsy, Utsuho said to the group hiding in the bushes "Okay, if it works...and it's probably gonna work, trust me, don't come out until I give the all-clear. And make sure to treat me like you think you should a God, okay?"

With a flap of her wings, she launched herself into the air for all of the Monolithians to lay eyes upon. Then, conjuring a blazing ball of fire behind her, she held her arms out at her sides in a welcoming pose as she spoke to her newly appointed divine children below.

"I rise with the day! My name is Utsuho-Yatagarasu, the Red Sun, and I am the Goddess of Nuclear Energy, giver of life and warmth! I have come for all of you guys, who have worshiped my earthly incarnation and its shrine for a while now. You have done a good job, so now come and partake alongside me of the brilliance I shall share with you! After that, I can go destroy your enemies or whatever you want."

Okuu, of course, felt pretty cool. Man, it's been a while since she pulled this shit...

Utsuho would make her presence known to the squad of patrolling Monolithians. At first they seemed..confused, thinking she was some kind of mutant. They couldn't harm the children of the Zone, not at all. But when she spoke to them, their posture changed to one that seemed downright hostile, raising the guns they had lowered.

"Heresy." One monolithian bluntly stated with a monotone voice.

"Lies." Another spoke with the same tone of voice.

The one in the front, which seemed like the leader of the squad, had some kind of large cloth that covered his whole face, yet he seemed to walk unhindered. The priest stared at Utsuho, with scorn being hidden by the cloth.

"You will not trick us, deceiver. A false god such as you stands no chance against the might of the glorious crystal, the bringer of light, the holy Monolith. You will not escape the children of the Monolith."He quickly grabbed his radio and spoke to it. "Brother Strider, ring the alarm. There is a heretic attempting to destroy the Holy Monolith."

Just as that was done, the squad of Monolithians would immediately raise their rifles at Utsuho and start firing at her from her position at the air. One monolithian in a watchtower took notice of it and raised his RPG-7 at Utsuho, firing at her, a missile flying to her position in the air. While the firefight rang out, everbody in the Red Forest, including the Syndicate and the Phantom Thieves would start hearing a siren, as if a alarm to every Monolith forces in the area that a intruder is here. They could also notice that the siren sounded...broken, as if it wasn't mantained for years and was barely working. It seemed they used this for intimidation.

As this happened, if they were to turn their backs to the entrance to the Red Forest, they could see a group of stalkers....shambling away from there. Once the teams noticed them, they could see they....were not regular stalkers. They apparently had milky white eyes, along with a really pale appearance, with their body armor looking downright dirty and badly mantained. It seemed they were the victims of the Brain Scorcher, and they were curious of the strange sounds.

The zombies mumbled uncoherent words as they shambled...until they noticed the teams. They seemed to growl and scream, and then...

Pulled out their guns. 5 of them pulled out pistols and started shooting at them in a sideways position, while a zombified mercenary and a zombified stalker wearing a exoskeleton pulled out their rifles and fired at them from the hip. The zombies shots were inaccurate, mainly due to the fact they can't seem to aim, and their firing position doesn't seem to help them at all, but sooner or later, with so many bullets fired at once, one will hit their mark...

The freedom guards gave helpful directions to Lucy and Grant where the traders of Freedom were, though the guards gave some curious stares at Lucy.

As they made their way to the store, they would hear the sounds of a loudspeaker. But compared to Duty's propaganda, it was....different.

"EEEEEEEYYYYYYYYY YAR!"

Very different.

"Yeah?"

"Look what I got here!"

"What you got in there Ashot?"

"Come here and see!"

"You got nothing that would impress even a little girl. No, you come over. I've got something to show you, or should I stick it out for you to see?"

"I NO HAVE MICROSCOPE!"

A third voice rang from the loudspeaker, this one sounded pissed off beyond relief.

"HAVE YOU BOTH LOST YOUR FREAKING MINDS?! WHAT IS THIS, A DICK MEASURING CONTEST? SHUT THE HELL UP NOW!"

As the interesting...loudspeaker argument ended, Lucy and Grant would find themselves in the trader shop. They would see plently of guns and gear in stock around the shop. They would see a moustached man with glasses and another stalker with armenian faciall features, both laughing their asses off.

"How does Lingov not out you guys are doing this on purpose to fuck him over?" Skinflint said, trying to calm himself down.

"Screw keeps finding ways to keep it secret, yeah? Besides, the boys here like hearing funny stuff! They love us!" Ashot spoke with broken english. The duo of traders would then turn around to face Lucy and Grant.

"Greetings, folks. What is it you need?" Skinflint asked.

"Ey buddies, looking for good deal eh?" Ashot spoke next, noticing Lucy. "Holy shit, Yar is right. There is ladies on Zone now! And here I thought he was bullshitting, eh! Anyways, what can we get for ya?"

Edited by Darkomega245 on Aug 29th 2019 at 4:37:08 AM

Labyrinth - Cana

"Uh, hi," Cana gave the others a wave as she set Madoka down and glanced over at the fighting going on. "Well okay then.........."

She frowned as she looked over, and took another drink from her bottle. She was about to put it away, but held it out and tilted it towards the girls in case anyone wanted a swig.

"So uh... are we just going to ignore that....?"

Lobotomy Corp. - Erza and Wendy (and Carla)

"Blast," Erza grabbed Wendy under one arm and grabbed Carla in one gauntleted fist, and then threw herself off and away from the incoming train. When she looked back to see what she was going to have to deal with, she saw a wolfman blasting the train apart with a monstrous beam attack.

"I-I'm fine!" Wendy called out as Erza set her and Carla down.

"Yes, after everything we've faced so far today, it would be rather disappointing to be defeated by a simple train," Erza added.

The Zone - Freedom Store

"What the hell........" Lucy shook her head at the loudspeaker talk, and rolled her eyes at Grant, pointing at the loudspeakers and making a goofy expression. These guys were morons.

"Ehehehehe, these guys are funny!" Happy exclaimed. These guys were awesome.

"Ugh, fine, whatever," Lucy powered her way through to the store, all her willpower focused on not punching Happy in his stupid laughing face. And what do you know, the first thing the storekeepers mention is that she's a girl. Wonderful. She really ought to have remembered to put on her S.T.A.L.K.E.R. suit before heading into the Zone, but she was kinda stuck now until she had a chance to change.

Still, nothing like a bunch of desperate guys for making money.

"Oh, hi!" she waved at Skinflint and Ashot and went over to their countertop-desk-place-thing, fluttering her eyelashes as she set her hands down on the counter. "Just passing through, and I realized my friend here doesn't have a good suit at all. I was hoping maybe we could find something affordable for him?"

She leaned in slightly.

"I would really appreciate it."

Morioh Police

Being a completely normal person, the cop reacted with shock at Kintoki's bike suddenly disapearing. "How the fuck did you... Nevermind, that's another question for later. Come on in." And with that, the policeman opened his car's door.

Upon hearing Yukari's explanation of her powers, Josuke turned toward her. "Crazy Diamond can repair whatever it touch. Having another healer is good, but I don't know if we'll manage to convince the hospital to let us near the patient. Normal people can't see stands, so I assume this also apply to your personas, doesn't it?"

As for Okuyasu, he responded to the teenage girl's suggestion about calming the townfolks. [[blue:"Yeah, that's what we were thinking of doing before that Havoc chick made a massacre."

After Hei made his exposition speech about Havoc, Koichi was the first to speak. "So the Cure can bring back people from the dead?" That prospect made Josuke, Okuyasu, Yukako and even the normally callous Rohan went silent, thinking about the possibility of such a gift.

Rohan was the first to recover and speak. "...I see why you care so much about her now. But you said she had amnesia had some point, right? There's a possibilty that without it, she may never become the Havoc you knew." The others wanted to protest at the mangaka's insensitivity, but they couldn't really find a rebutal in their rather downcast mood.

Except Mikitaka, who noticed something. "We have arrived." And sure enough, the group was in front of the Morioh Hospital, were several ambulances were parked nearby and a great number of severaly hurt people were being brought in from them. "Now what do we do?"

Nishijima's response really put Gate in a bad mood. He supposed that areas with lower levels of technology would be easier to take the control of, but he already had enough of the idiots of his world before hearing he had to deal with even more backward people. Not to mention their ridiculous superstition of calling whatever they don't understand 'magic'. This is probably why his next question was significantly more overt about his intentions. "So we must share this world with primitives? What a disapointment. Are there at least people that rise above the rabble? Talented people who are ready and able to do what is necessary to advance progress, no matter the idiotic boundaries that the masses set up?" If there were no reploids in this world anymore, then maybe the scientist could at least find common spirits amongst the humans. Tough he had a less than favorable image of their kind in general, the man he has been speaking at least showed himself to be a particularly inteligent individual.

Mitakihara, Hospital Side Alley: And the Oscar Goes to...

Maki trailed a little behind Nora, tethered by her hand in his. He spotted the cop before they were noticed, and instantly jumped to his default diversion tactic.

"Nora." he half muttered, half croaked. "I'll take care of him. Just hide your weapons, and avoid the path to the entrance."

And with that, he released his friend's hand and dashed straight for the officer. Four teenagers there were, but the cop had overlooked the little boy in a Halloween costume(?) who reached for his sleeve. Judging by the rapid breathing, the sniffling, the flush in his nose and cheeks, and the water swelling to the breaking point in his mismatched eyes, the kid was one bad thought away from absolutely bawling.

"O-Off-Officer." he whimpered. "Can you h-help me find my mom? Sh-she got taken in and nobody will tell me w-wh-wh—"

He was hyperventilating. Like a sailor fallen overboard, Maki dedicated what little breath he could control to calling for help.

"Everyone's scared!" The boy fell to a knee, apparently losing the will or ability to stand. "There's a lady—sh-she ran in w—with a gun!—A big gun! What if she hurts..."

As the full "realization" of what was happening clicked in the boy's head, whatever details he could give became unintelligible. He spoke only in sobs and desperate gasps for air.

However, one thing would be clear to the officer: there was an armed individual storming the hospital.

HGT, Outside Tanaka's Noodles: Gai Catsbane

Akali's shift from monster to civilian brought about a shift in the detective: from blood-chilling terror, to fire-in-the-belly indignation!

"Well then what the hell was that for?! Is that how people say 'hello' on your planet?! Running around and giving each other heart attacks all d—"

He paused, stunned by a peculiar scent on the ninja's clothing; a scent she might not have noticed herself, if she didn't consciously think about it. The detective sniffed. Then sniffed again. Then turned his eyes to Akali's with a deathly pale expression.

"You...you were with...that flea bag...in the alley...weren't you..."

The ninja might recall the cat sifting through garbage near this man's first hiding spot. Whether she had taken a moment to pet it, or the hungry feline had rubbed against her leg in the hopes of getting food, the scent of cat was certainly on Akali. A scent that compelled the detective to sneeze uncontrollably, and nearly faint in fear. The jump-scare alone was terrible; throwing a cat into the mix formulated into the private eye's personal nightmare. If Akali shouted that Gai owed her money, poor Kurusawa might drop dead then and there.

Ignoring her boss' melodrama, Kiko had turned her attention to the...well, she didn't say she was a kitsune. The fox woman.

"I just love your ears and tail! They're so CUTE!" the cosplay enthusiast cried, perhaps with just a hint of desire to go Cruella De Vil on the pop star. "How do you give it so well-kept? It's hard enough to handle the hair on my head sometimes! Is there a special shampoo or something for your fur?"

Needless to say, the strange pair had very different priorities here, yet both were somehow equally incorrect.

The Zone, Red Forest: Joker's Next Orders

Puck, Ariel, and Horai all shared a puzzled look at the strange woman's proposal. Puck even looked to the Phantom Thieves for answers, and was left to scratch his head when he found none.

So off the weirdo went to convert the radical fundamentalists...and was met with the expected response.

"Nice knowing you." Ariel muttered in frustration.

With the alarm sprung, the Contractors focused on the incoming Monolithians. Taking cover as best they could, Ariel turned her silenced pistol on the exoskeleton-sporting stalker and opened fire. She aimed for the head, knowing from experience that these bastards could just shrug off most other wounds.

Puck kept his focus on the five zombies. His body glowed a starlight blue, and the piercing red tint in his eyes generated a near overbearing force on the brain-dead creatures. With any luck, their shambling stances would make them naturally unstable, and the added pressure would force their bodies (or at least the guns) to the ground.

"Boss!" he cried.

Regretfully but without missing a beat, Director Horai revealed his ace to the Phantom Thieves: slamming both hands on the earth, sparks of red lightning danced from his arms and hopped across the dirt towards the hopefully pinned Monolithians. From there, the sparks spread into a circle around as many of the targets as the Stones could permit. If left uninterrupted till then, the earth would give way under the enemy, and swallow them in a deep pit. For extra caution, Horai grit his teeth and harnessed more power from the Philosopher Stones, and returned the piles of displaced dirt back into place as best he could. Were all this successful and undisturbed, the Monolithians would have been literally buried alive.

"Your orders?" Ariel asked Joker. She didn't have the time or temperament to add any sarcasm.

Former Hell, Outside Chireiden: ...ow.

Silence.

Sweet, comforting, life-saving silence.

Majora lay face (or rather, mask) first in the tunnel, just a few feet from the bottom of the courtyard's well. This place made it feel a little sick, but that was a drop in the ocean compared to what might await it in any other hiding spot.

That boy...had gotten dangerously close to killing it. The brazen cut down its left eye was proof that luck had chosen it over its enemy, but not by much. And luck wouldn't eek out another favor like that anytime soon.

It had to escape.

Slowly mustering what fragile strength it could, Majora's Mask floated out of the tunnel and back up the well, taking a few extra minutes to listen for any voices or footsteps. When it heard none, it ventured further into the courtyard, then up to the roof, then waited once again. Bit by bit, landmark by landmark, it journeyed through Chireiden's exterior to the mouth of Goht's destruction in the East Wing, and out towards the mouth of the caverns.

As they walked far away from their shambled home, Koishi and Goht might sense a pair of eyes on them. Should they turn around, they'd find orange orbs silhouetted by the furnace: the right eye humanoid and unharmed, the left scarred and reptilian.

"Are...are you two okay?" Majora asked, even its voice seemed weak.

Morioh, Hospital: Pulling the Scooby-Doo Move

"It wasn't her memory that was the problem." Hei answered Rohan, completely undisturbed by the mangaka's question. "She could live a normal life because she was stripped of her powers.

"You're not wrong, though." he conceded with a sigh. "It's possible this Havoc's beyond saving. But this Havoc's much weaker than the one I fought beside five years ago; trying to fight the Red Giant of Heaven's War would be nothing short of suicide—she could kill all nine of us, and everyone within a few blocks with one flex of her power. You can imagine why the Cure wouldn't want someone to have that kind of ability; it's not entertaining to watch such a one-sided fight."

Naturally, the last words were dripping with venom.

"There's no guarantee she'll change; she has to choose that path. But I want to give her a chance. If she refuses...I'll make sure she can't hurt anyone ever again."

And on that morbid thought, the group arrived at the hospital! Due to his attire, Hei chose to stay behind most of the Stand Users. If spotted, the authorities would probably have a lot of questions for a man wearing a mask.

"There's nothing I can do here, and it's possible the attackers haven't flown far; Carmilla's wings had to support more than her own weight. If you'd like to join me Trevor, I wouldn't mind the company. If we cross their path I have something to track them through portals. We'll be more appealing prey if our numbers stay small, so only one of you locals should join us."

So the Black Reaper stood silent, turning his mask from Stand User to Stand User as if to ask "any volunteers?"

Meeting Room: The "Geniuses" of Battleworld

Well. The machine's mood certainly went south at that news. Whatever for?

It wasn't hard to see why; you had to be blind not to spot the menace in the appearance of Gate's subordinates. Apart from that, Gate's first targeted question made their intention obvious: the Reploids were parasites. Either they wanted to infect synthetics of similar caliber to sabotage the work of others or—more likely—reprogram the machines to serve them. The latter would be the smarter move, of course: turning an enemy's asset into one's own killed two birds with one stone.

Such a shame Gate chose to consort with brutish, clearly sinister machines; his deception might've stood half a chance.

Still, Nishijima shot the Nightmare Investigators a polite smile. "I can assure you that there are brilliant minds on this planet, though whether or not they would grant an audience depends on the circumstances. Allow me to check PANDORA's database for you."

It wasn't entirely a lie. Checking his phone, Nishijima turned to the page listing the portals entered by either Misaki and Goro's sort, or known members of the Evening Primrose.

"Magonia, led by Tatsu Frampt; Former Hell, led by Satori Komeiji; Zi-Jin Cheng, led by Sun-Tsu; and Vector, led by Emperor Gestahl. Magonia, Vector, and Former Hell in particular have gained quite some attention, lately. As for why, I'm afraid I do not know. Should you find out what all the commotion is about, please don't be a stranger."

In truth, Nishijima didn't know the first thing about any of these states, let alone their leaders or their intelligence. What he had listed were the states suspected to have allied with PANDORA's enemies. Should the Nightmare Investigators find what they were looking for, the damage to his resources would be minimal, while simultaneously crippling to Goro's and Amber's.

A bold and potentially dangerous move, but the likelihood of either the Reploids or their chosen prey surviving Battleworld long enough to threaten PANDORA was remarkably small. The mass production of Gen 2 synths would be ready by tomorrow, and Gen 3s by the day after that. Combined with the fruits of his other labors, Nishijima saw no reason to fear six A.I.s, to hell with how advanced they were.

In the meantime, he saw no harm in pointing them to his enemies and encouraging them to do what they wished.

"Is there anything else you would like to know?" he asked Gate.

Trevor, Hospital, Morioh

"Yes, he has done it multiple times, Koichi," Trevor answered him without a single bit of hesitation when asked about the Cure bringing back the dead. "And Hei is probably right about Havoc being weaker."

Trevor pulled out what looked to be a large pocket watch with thirteen numbers on it instead of twelve, "Normally, this Stopwatch would magically slow or stop time, but since I have been brought to this realm, I have found it completely nonfunctional."

"I am sure the Cure is responsible for it not working," Trevor pocketed the Stopwatch again, but glanced over at others. "If you find that your Stands are weaker or do not work right, it is likely the Cure who weakened him in his desire for fair play."

"On any hunt for Carmilla, I should go since I know I could take her down," Trevor glanced over at Yukari since they were just leaving her here to heal the injured. "And I will not be of much use here."

Demitri & Morrigan, Mitakihara, Hospital

As the two Darkstalkers watched the scene unfold between the Huntsmen, the police officers, and Maki, Demitri looked over at Morrigan, arms crossed.

"Aren't you going to do something?" Demitri asked Morrigan. "This should be boring for you."

"Not yet... I'm having fun seeing the humans and catwoman try to solve this mystery," Morrigan smirked at Demitri, flirting with the vampire. "Besides, someone will need to be here to tell the others."

Edited by GameGuruGG on Sep 1st 2019 at 4:00:39 AM

"We've got no reason to get in your way." Tatsu agreed with a small nod, staring at the woman and looking her and her small companion over. One arm rested casually over the hilt of his sword, not a threat but just a simple gesture. "And I'm sure the feeling is shared, right? No one here is going to attack when someone's back is turned. Not that it would end well for those involved." The warning was clear, and the obvious lack of trust the young captain had for the two; Now that the woman had thrown any pretense out.

The youth fixed 'Jane' with a firm look, meeting her eyes with his own red ones. "I want to make one thing clear though. They," He jerked his head in Amagiri's direction, "are with us now. I don't care what happened in the past, but your Tokyo isn't involved anymore. If you ignore the fact that they're here, regardless of whether you find what you're looking for or not, I'll ignore the attempted genocide. That fair?" He watched the woman closely as he finished, watching to see what her reaction to such a claim was.

Alfred, meanwhile, grunted and shot the woman a light glare as her elbow dug into his side slightly. He rolled his eyes quite obviously in exasperation and said, "Seems like they don't want to surrender in the first place."

A slight smile lifted his lips as he looked at the three bickering girls, now that he was sure there wasn't any possible danger. They were strange, but that seemed to be common now. "I'm sure the pilot appreciated the help. What are you girls doing out here, then?"

With how tightly and eagerly she clung to the wolf, voiced high as she kept asking to be put down, it was obvious how little faith Delfi had in that claim. Every bounce in time with the monster's jogging dragged another yelp and squeeze from the girl, who felt very much not safe. Showing the most emotion she had since arriving as she almost babbled.

The moment the wolf came to a stop, Delfi leapt on the chance to escape from the situation. "Wheels! My chair- it has wheels! Put me down, and you can push me along and I can see where we need to go! Just, put me back on the ground! Please!"

Well, the attempt to literally split Nyarly in half worked. But now, rather then kill him, Nyarly had two, independent halves walking around. Oops. One leaned down and grabbed Vergil, who was now shaking and convulsing as dark energy started to consume his body. A portal opened, and Nyarly threw him into it. The other Nyarly half suddenly teleported in front of the twinblade holding Nero's arm.

   This belongs to me   

Then he grabbed the twinblade and crushed its head, grabbing the arm, which then turned into an exact copy of Vergil's sword. He threw his single hand toward Ruby.

   Agidyne!   

A large burst of fire flew out of his hand. Easily enough evaded, but the point was less to hit and more to distract, as by the time she moved past it, both Nyarly halves were exiting through a portal.

Nero, on the other hand.....he's reacting about as well as one expects to Yang's cauterizing of his wound.

Meanwhile, somewhere on the 4th floor of the hospital, Lady was rounding a corner, still holding her giant missile launcher. She stepped out of view of Dimitri, Maria, and anyone else who was behind her for a second. Then she came flying backward, impacting the wall behind her hard, the clang of her missile launcher hitting the floor clearly audible. Then, Nyarly stepped forward. He still lacked a head, and his body was split literally in half down the middle, but this seemed at best a minor inconvenience. One of the halves strode toward Lady slowly as she pulled out a sawed off shotgun and unloaded both barrels directly into the thing's chest, while the other half turned toward Dimitri, Maria, and anyone else in the hallway.

   Tell me. Are you ready to die for her? I make a simple offer to you. Turn. Leave her to her fate. And I assure you, I will cease considering you and yours an enemy.   

Well the entire situation went to complete shit. The thieves were left flabbergasted that the bird had actually attempted such a thing, but they weren't exactly surprised at the result. They pulled out their respective guns and joined the contractors in laying down supressive fire. When asked for orders, Joker spoke quickly.

"The alarm's been raised! We have to pull back, it's too dangerous to storm an entire fort with just us!"

The Thieves were quick to nod, and started moving backward as they continued to fire. Joker reached for his earpiece.

"Mona, we need a pickup! Get here on the double with the rest of the team!"

On any other day, the Samurai would be curious. Clearly he had just stumbled upon the end of a duel of great importance. Today however, he was only tired and in need of a way...well, home was two worlds away, but back to his place of rest.

He approached without fear, palms up and out to show he meant no harm, regardless of his shirtless, bruised and blood-soaked appearance and giant sword.

"Excuse me? I have overheard that you are a ruler in this place. Could you possibly aid me in reaching one of the travel portals of this world? I am in dire need of rest..."

Whether the two responded to his questions with kindness or cruelty, Jack was weary of fighting...

Former Hell, Surface: Searching for Cinderella—Emphasis on "Cinder"

"How generous." Jane Doe replied. If Tatsu was expecting surprise from the 'attempted genocide' comment, he'd be quite disappointed. He would, however, learn an interesting new detail:

"That wasn't a unanimous decision, you know; I rather like being alive."

Amagiri's closed eye eeked open. So this woman wasn't just a Contractor, but a high-ranking member of the Syndicate? Talk about a black sheep, though she didn't share that comment to advertise their enemy's diversity: it was another saber rattling. Perhaps the Captain wouldn't catch the meaning, but Miss Doe was warning the she had abilities of her own—abilities that they hadn't the faintest idea of what they were or how they worked.

She really wanted them to back off. How peculiar.

Unless hindered, Jane would steer her giant chicken past the Magonian soldiers and begin searching around the perimeter of the battlefield.

"She will tell her superiors about us." the big man informed Tatsu once Jane and little John Doe were out of earshot. "She can't avoid telling them. The Common Room is bugged, and they're a breath away from understanding where Magonia is on the map."

Amagiri paused, sighed, and elaborated. "Forgive me. I do not disagree with your decision, Captain; in your place, Amber would do no different. I only wish to inform you of the precarious position this woman has put us in."

...

The Dog frowned. She couldn't find even a hint that Terra Branford had fought here. All the corpses were male, and what remnants of the extra-crispy bastards pointed to Imperial infantry attire. Perhaps the mopst frustrating obstacle was that she had no idea what Terra Branford looked like; it wasn't like she had a portrait of this so-called 'secret weapon.' The only thing she could use to ID Branford's body was that tiara Doctor Cid mentioned, but she didn't know what that looked like, either!

So she scanned, re-scanned, and triple-scanned the battlefield, only to find dead men and molten machines. Either Branford survived without a scratch of evidence to leave behind, or she had never been here at all. Both seemed unbelievable.

So the Dog turned her eyes from where the battle ended and tried to pinpoint where it began. The charred earth suggested high-energy weaponry, like the Galactic Empire's blasters on steroids. Though the point of impact wasn't the only place there were signs of intense heat. With a swift kick in the stirrups, the chocobo rushed over towards the hill where a cluster of trees were torn, charred, and at points still on fire. From there, she could spot tracks in the ground: machines of various sizes, but all larger than anything she could deal with alone.

One important indicator that this was where the victors stood was the complete lack of causalities. Slaughter didn't seem to begin to cover this fight; it was so one-sided, the Dog had to wonder why the Cure hadn't stopped it out of boredom. If she followed the tracks, she would be trailing the rear of a force that effortlessly decimated Cid's magicite-infused war machines. But if there was even a chance of finding Branford among any Imperial prisoners, she had to try.

With a nervous sigh, the Dog ordered July to hold on tight and kicked her steed into high gear, following the tracks to Zi-Jin Cheng.

Here's hoping they didn't hate chocobos.

Mitakihara, Hospital: Deal, or No Deal?

In one voice, the Contractors cried Lady's name. They didn't need to see their target to know it was here; who else could throw an adult across a hallway like they were a bouncy ball?

Maria turned off the safety on her pistol. Dmitri unzipped his duffel bag. But whatever signs of rushing to Lady's aid were deterred when the...well, the horrific mess of a mangled corpse, gave them the chance to walk away.

The Contractors shared the briefest of glances, and turned back to the demon.

"That the kind of crap you fed Wei?" Maria smirked. "Empty promises for doing what you want? It's easy Contractor bait, I'll give you that. Bet the jackass ate up every word."

"But we've got a counter-offer." Dmitri replied. He had quietly removed a basketball from his duffel bag, and held it in both hands. His body began glowing an eerie blue and his one visible eye shined with a red glow.

"Catch."

Whether Nyarlathotep (the chattier half) caught the ball or tried to destroy it in midair was irrelevant: the ball would explode in a massive plume of smoke the moment it came within three feet of the thing. The smokebomb's range expanded to cover the hallway's corner and about ten feet down either side from floor to room. While visibility for the shapeshifter and the human arsenal would drop straight to zero, at least Lady would be grateful to know the gas was safe to breathe.

The diversion set, Maria aimed her pistol towards where Nyarlathotep's aggressive half had stood, and opened fire. If they couldn't stop this thing (or even half of this thing), then they had to move on to plan B: rescue Lady, and outrun it.

Through the fog as thick as pea soup, Lady might feel the sudden pressure of a woman's hand on her shoulder; Maria had rushed in to rescue her!

"We have to go. Can you walk?"

Common Room: Help Wanted: Brave Heroes to Join Party

Like a lonely star, it shined above the cave: a brand new canopy to the surface, gracing the light of Heaven on the former Hell. Tatl and Link weren't bothered that they hadn't noticed it before now; compared to the cave, that tiny breach was unnoticeable. The locals probably spotted at once, though. When you live in a place where the "sky" never changes, the appearance of something new to look at must be a monumental event!

One of the townsfolk claimed that they saw a mask matching Link's picture had flown up to the cave's roof, and straight through that hole to the surface. The fact the nice lady by the portal hadn't seen Majora run back to the Common Room supported this claim. The mask wouldn't last long if it couldn't find another way to travel from state to state aside from the portals; fortunately for it, the thing could fly and Link couldn't.

They'd just need to find another way to Former Hell's surface. If they traveled through another portal first, they might be able to warn more people along the way. Then, if that mask showed up in that neighboring land, the people could sound the alarm and they could end this fight once and for all!

Not the best plan ever, but it made sense in Link's head.

So as they thanked the nice lady by the portal and departed for the portal, Tatl decided to talk strategy: starting with getting more people in on this game of cat and mouse.

"We've got a taste of what it can do in a fight, and let's face it: we could use a little help."

Link shot the fairy an offended look. He could handle Majora's Mask! Didn't he come just a few hits away from destroying it in Chireiden? There wasn't any need to drag someone else directly into the fight, and he retrieved the white-haired mask to prove his point.

"That mask is half the problem, you idiot! You lose all self-control when you wear it! You want to turn every place we find Majora into an encore of Chireiden?"

With an objecting whimper, Link pulled out Mirajane's light pen and defended the mask.

"Feers...Fierce Deity? Where'd you hear something like that?"

"It means 'angry god.' Which kinda proves my point: you shouldn't be using a mask that dangerous in the first place. Majora obviously gave it to you as a trick; when you go berserk and destroy everything in sight, you're doing exactly what it wants! So let's go find a fireplace and get rid of that stupid thing."

Link fiercely shook his head.

Tatl's wings fluttered faster; she was growing angry. "Get rid of it, or I'll go ask Trevor or Ozen or Mirajane to get rid of it for you."

Link tucked the Fierce Deity Mask safely away in his utility belt.

"I'm warning you: last chance!"

Link crossed his arms, and frowned.

...

...

...dammit. The kid called her bluff.

"...fine. But promise me that you'll ONLY use it in emergencies, and NEVER without my permission. Got it?"

The boy took a moment to mull over the deal, but soon smiled and nodded. If it meant he and Tatl could still be friends, he was willing to keep the Fierce Deity Mask as a last resort.

"So with that settled, let's go find someone to help us beat Majora."

Her partner went straight back to the objecting whimpers. Was this some sort of time loop?!

"That form it took was too fast for you! If we get even one other person to help out, we can plan a better attack than just shooting arrows at it and preying it slips on the floor!"

Link shook his head again, and wrote out why.

"That has to be..."

The fairy paused. She had assumed the kid was just refusing help out of pride, but that...that wasn't the worst reason in the world to shun help. Majora was actively trying to drag people into this battle, and while the differences between its motives and theirs were night and day, she could understand why her partner would shy away from endangering others. This wasn't their fight. They owed no debt to the Terminans, and if the kid had his say, they never would. It was a noble idea at its core, made all the more noble because Tatl could tell her partner was being honest.

She smiled—though no one could see it—and decided that Link's honesty deserved honesty in return:

"...the stupidest idea I've EVER HEARD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! In case you haven't noticed, we're not in Termina anymore: there's tons of warriors who could help us in a fight! And yes, I'm sure there's some who are even stronger than you! If we get their help, we'll be saving lives that the mask would've taken while we were busy playing catch-up. Or worse, wandering off to answer every cry for help like you just LOOOOOOOOOOOVE to do! So we're going to stop goofing off, and find someone to help us on our quest!"

Link let out another objecting whim—

"DON'T START THAT AGAIN!"

Edited by TheodoreHastings on Sep 2nd 2019 at 4:29:14 AM

Talbain & Felicia, Disciplinary Department, Facility X-394

Jon Talbain and Felicia looked around the area, having had enough of the entire Facility. Both almost instantly tried to claw apart the singing 2D Drawing like both had a primal animalistic desire to make sure this thing was dead. Neither had the luxury of letting it continue singing. After all, both were more sensitive to sound, but both also seemed to just barely being able to hold on to their sanity at this point. Once the two Darkstalkers made sure the 2D Drawing was absolutely dead, they turned to the Fairy Tail Girls.

"Help kill the spiders," Talbain said in an unnaturally feral voice. He was so done with this place. "Kill any 'Anomaly' here! Felicia and I will see about saving that crying child."

Assuming that Erza and the others helped do as they were told, Talbain and Felicia would check on the crying child.

Edited by GameGuruGG on Sep 3rd 2019 at 6:47:50 AM

Ruby and Yang - Looking For The Keystone; Labyrinth, Mitakihara

As Nyarly started violating the laws of physics by walking one-legged (the teleportation and surviving being cut in half things were both possible on Remnant), Ruby couldn't help but let out a sigh. Was there genuinely anything they could do to even slow this guy down?

She twirled her scythe in front of her, dissipating the flames, and went to take a shot at Nyarly's retreating form(s), but the portal closed before she could pull the trigger.

"Dammit." She swore, before swinging her scythe in wide arcs at the approaching twinblades.

Yang stood up from besides Nero, trying to shake the dried and burned blood off of her gloves, to no avail. With a glance towards the swarm of double-moths, she fired off several explosive rounds into the swarm, before turning her head to address the newcomers.

"Mind sharing with him?" She asked Cana, nodding towards the prone Nero. "I was able to stop the bleeding, but I have nothing for the pain."

There was a tremor in voice as she spoke.

"Which way to the Witch?" Ruby called out from her position, trying to slice and toss as many twinblades as she could. "We need to get Nero to the Hospital quickly, and you said the only way out is through her! So where is she?"

The ragtag quartet took Maki's whispered advice, stowing their weapons and hanging back, while simultaneously shuffling slowly around the guard in a wide circle, hoping to catch a glimpse down the alleyway.

Honestly, if Maki hadn't intervened, they likely would have just blown right past him and into the alley, but as he had, they had to at least try and act somewhat sneakily.

Even if every bone in there bodies hated that they were wasting precious time like this. Blake, especially, as she had to stop her ears from lying flat across her head.

They didn't even dare speak, and possibly draw the guard's attention off Maki and onto them.

It was at this point that Jaune and Pyrrha burst out the portal from Chaldea at a quick jog. They took a moment to look around the room, regain their bearings after the mild disorientation that came with portal travel.

After catching sight of the portal marked Mitakihara, they headed towards it at quick pace, not paying the rest of the room any mind.

Unless interrupted, they would reach the portal, and more than likely go through it.

Labyrinth

"Ignore wha…" Sayaka seemed only now to notice the whole other fight going on at the far side of the chamber that didn't involve Familiars or the Witch, at least directly. For a moment, she'd be more confused than anything about who those people are.

"Nothing we can do about it now," Mami replied with a note of melancholy to Cana as the girls were all too far to do naught but watch Nyarlathotep split in more ways than one. As if on cue, a low but meancing screeching roar would echo throughout the Labyrinth, reminding everyone that though Nyarlathotep might be gone they were still in a Labyrinth. "And there will be nothing we can ever do about it unless we defeat this Witch." She turned to Sayaka and quickly tapped the side of her temple before turning towards Kyoko a medium sized distance from them, still working to keep Familiars at bay. <Sakura-san, Miki-san, go on ahead and locate the Witch. We will catch up to you.> She summoned a small but bright yellow ribbon and sent an end towards Sayaka.

<What about Madoka?> Sayaka asked, taking the end and quickly wrapping it a couple times around her wrist.

<I will take care of her.> Mami took a moment to summon a larger-than-usual musket, about twice as tall as herself, before letting loose upon the horde of Moths and Twinblades blocking the entrance to the presumed lair where the Witch laid in wait. <Hurry!>

Once Kyoko and Sayaka sped off through the tunnel, Mami turned her eyes towards Ruby and Yang in the distance, a little relieved they seemed to have figured out her intentions already as they approached. "Sakura-san and Miki-san have gone ahead to find her first." She had to interrupt to make a quick shot on a nearby moth. "How well are you two holding up? We may need all the help we can get."

"Are they going to be OK?" Madoka asked, gripping her bat tightly even as her eyes looked on at Vergil and Nero in the distance.

As for Kyubey? The little rascal had made his way back towards Mami's group once he saw Nyarlathotep skedaddle, delayed only somewhat by the need to dodge the occasional Twinblade strike or Moth zap.

Hospital Service Entrance Alley

Homura wondered for a moment if she was catching a cold with that sneeze — May is an unusual month for that, isn't it? A moment was all she would give it, though. Out the corner of her ear, she heard the shaky whimpering of a young boy pleading with their only line of defense. And he wasn't saying anything. Great.

Meanwhile, the officer stationed at the alleyway entrance maintained his stoic, no-nonsense composure in front of the crying kid from nowhere. His heart hardened from the annoyance of this whole situation he found himself in, this "BattleWorld" nonsense with all these strangers coming in and acting like they own the place, not having seen his wife in a week because they were apparently on different worlds now, now this snotty kid in front of him causing a ruckus. He focused his frustration and annoyance at this moment in front of him, channeling everything into silently focusing on this kid…

...and not on his peripheral vision. For those who got around his steely tunnel vision, the way around him and past the corner would be clear, just in time to see two oddly-dressed teenage girls in front of a purple-tinted swirly magic-looking portal on the side of the building about six feet high.

Oriko would look silently at the group before turning to Homura; Homura would look at the group with a look of mild resignation and stern warning before the two slipped through. The group would be left with an open portal and Homura's voice echoing in their heads: <Don't get in our way.>

Hospital interior

Well...to put it mildly, Lady raised the rancor with each floor of the hospital she ascended — the military escort that had been trying to reign her in from causing more disturbances could only use that to track her as they soon lost her and her own entourage. Startled patients, surprised technicians, perturbed patients, the occasional doctor demanding to know what's going on. The sounds of explosions and other not-normal-for-a-hospital noises coming from the fourth floor of the hospital (a floor of testing equipment and supply storage as there were no patients on this floor) would draw the military's attention, while most of the dispatched police would be busy trying to help calm down the hell Lady's impatient headlong rush had brought among the hospital staff and patients that had nothing to do with the supernatural. On the plus side (for Homura, anyway), the distraction drew away the police's attention from the security cameras enough to not (yet) notice the strange going-ons in the service entrance alley.

"Are you gonna give me the full experience by turning on the sirens while you drive as well?" Kintoki asked within the police car while lounging back on the seats with a satisfied grin, looking for all the world like he was reclining in at a cafe rather than on the inside of a government lawkeeper's vehicle meant to cart criminals to lock-up.

"Very well. It is an accomplishment for me to receive this much recognition then. Please take the time to calm down and... collect yourself after this event. As trying as everything is, you need to be logical if you want your sister back. If you ever require my services again, go to the location of Chaldea and request for Majin Saber." Giving a slight nod before turning around and walking away with slow and steady steps while her scarf billowed dramatically in the now substantially breezier building, the Servant would continue moving until she was both out of sight, hearing, and mental thought detection range...

Upon which she would simply collapse on one knee while huffing and puffing. Now that she was in a place where weakness didn't need to be hidden, the Alter Ego gasped and tried to recollect herself after pushing on for too much when she was both an imperfect existence as well as severely weakened by the rules of Battleworld- just the use of the severing technique alone was something that was good enough to destabilize her to the near brink.

"...For now, a rest. My mission is not yet over..." Muttering to herself, Majin Saber then slowly fell over onto her side before golden particles began to drift away from her unconscious form... before Nobunaga and Okita separated from each other in an ungraceful heap. The Demon King resulted in a face plant while the manslayer was once more vomiting out a bucketful of blood, the two Guda Guda Servants once again being the joke of the multiverse.

"What the hell was that all about?" Murmuring before pushing her face on up from eating dirt and rocks, Oda Nobunaga sighed while rubbing her scratched up face before hoisting her ill girl companion over her shoulders and marching right on out of Former Hell territory while muttering something about stupidly long unskippable cutscenes.

"Geeze, it was just a prank, bro. You should have applied to be a drama or theater major. You certainly have the chops to make it on Broadway you know." Once again amused by seeing the fireball crash and burn due to the dreaded cat allergies, Akali chuckled even as Kai'Sa hurried forward to hand him a pack of tissues due to her ninja friend taking out her smartphone to record the scene for future amusement.

"Hmm... while special shampoos and conditioners help with the gloss and shine, it's mostly a formality at this point. So long as I can keep up a special diet that provides my body with the necessary supplies it needs, you'll find that my appearance will be just as healthy as you see now." Answering airily even as she showed off due to her inner narcissist, Ahri smirked before wiggling her ears and fanning her tail out like a proud peacock despite having no evolutionary tracing to avians in general.

"Just don't touch without permission, these fangs and claws aren't for show you know.~" Annnnnd there we go, just the barest hint of a threat in case a certain someone couldn't keep their grubby human hands to themselves. For whatever reasons a huge subsection of her fandom were INCREDIBLY invested in her floof so it always paid to be on guard. "Now tell me, why were you spying on us like that? We would have easily had a perfectly normal conversation without all... this happening you know."

Former Hell/Zi-Jin Cheng Border — Michael Hyung-Tsei

As the Dog and her companion approached Zi-Jin Cheng, the first sign of the chunk's nature would the skyscrapers reaching towards the firmament. Many of them wouldn't have looked out of place in a major Asian metropolis, at least at this distance.

When they got closer, they would notice other things - such as the clearly highly advanced construction of the buildings. This was not your average city by any stretch of the imagination. This impression would only be reinforced once they crossed over into the Capellan capitol proper. For one thing, the road was completely and utterly deserted of both people and vehicles... and strewn with a wide variety of mines. Some of them were smaller anti-personnel types, others were what must have been unusually large anti-tank mines, and yet others were of unknown type. Seemingly the giant machines' tracks vanished at this point.

Assuming that the Dog took a look further up the street, however, she would have noticed the unmistakable presence of a military outpost. It was clearly makeshift, consisting mostly of hastily pitched tents, but it was swarming with activity. Soldiers manned sandbag barricades, their bulky weapons trained on various approaches to the outpost. Other harried-looking troops went to-and-fro between tents, sometimes empty-handed but more often brandishing strange tablets or cajoling prisoners.

About the only people who didn't look busy were a cohort of men and women in plainclothes. They were so nondescript that the eyes seemed to slide right off of them, as though by mastering the art of appearing unremarkable they could project auras of sheer normality. They were scattered around the camp, but most were near a man in his early 30s, his military bearing and short, neatly trimmed hair telling its own story. Roughly half of this group were flanking the man, and the other half were keeping close to a young woman and a prisoner.

The chocobo riders' appearance looked to have roughly the same effect as kicking a hornet's nest. Soldiers scattered and either shepherded prisoners away or sprinted to defensive positions. The plainly dressed men and women seamlessly formed a silent protective cordon around the short-haired man - presumably their leader - and the young woman and prisoner. Weapons were drawn from concealed holsters and readied.

For his part, the short-haired man seemed remarkably unconcerned, striding up towards the edge of the camp as his protection detail began to scan their surroundings for any sign of danger. The man held up a hand to gain the riders' attention and made the universal "come here" gesture.

In the car > Maskirovka Safe House — Ion, Nancy, & Shin-Ichi

In a perhaps surprising display of emotion, Ion Rush allowed the ever so slight hint of a wry smile play across his mouth at Daichi's joke. But if there had been any mirth present among the Capellans it was quickly quashed by the revelation of the Dolls' existence. Nancy in particular felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. Dolls and their Spectres sounded like the perfect surveillance system. Even worse, it seemed as though it would be impossible to insert their own assets into Hell's Gate without them being compromised. Neutralising the network would take too long, never mind trying to turn segments of it. Nevertheless, she began weighing options.

Deniable agents that could be "burnt" at will were one choice, if a desperate and inefficient one. Making use of non-physical intelligence gathering would also be viable. But perhaps the best option was simply giving the Dolls no reason to search for them. It sounded as though their free will was extremely limited - at least limited enough that they would not search for someone of their own volition. Never make their handlers suspicious, or disrupt their ability to talk to the Dolls, and the network was effectively neutered. Unless they make use of M.E., Nancy thought grimly. Only a few days and already Battleworld was giving her reason to suffer a monstrous headache. Suddenly she found herself longing for the days when she "merely" had to deal with the LIC, DMI, ISF, SAFE, the startlingly inept Clan Watches and... ROM.

Nancy stole a glance at Precentor Yoshizumi. Doubtless he was also chewing over the implications. Hopefully ROM had some sort of trick up their sleeve so that she wouldn't have to spend far too many late nights in her office drinking obscene amounts of coffee. Quietly she rued the fact that chava became so damn hard to find after Clan Jade Falcon conquered Trell I.

The Precentor was indeed mulling over what he had been told, though he had come to somewhat different conclusions. Dolls would be an incredible boon for the Word of Blake. If he could somehow acquire one - or better yet, more than one - it could open unheard of opportunities. Blake's followers were far from easily thwarted, but even the Word had its ambitions frustrated occasionally. The promise of Hell's Gate's treasures was an intriguing one. As for the problem of actually getting into Hell's Gate Tokyo, he was confident in the abilities of the Manei Venatori. They were resourceful, ruthless, but above all prudent. Better yet, the Word - and especially ROM - would likely enjoy the first mover advantage against the Syndicate; they had not ventured outside of the Capellan borders, and they were infamous for their airtight internal security. Let Blake's wisdom illuminate the path to glory.

Meanwhile, Nancy regarded Hanna and Eli with genuine sympathy, even if she knew in the back of her mind that the Maskirovka would use all of the tools at its disposal. Including, if need be, children. The Syndicate, at least, had had no compunctions about such things. The car pulled up outside an unassuming house that was just like any other on the street.

"Well, this is our stop," said Nancy, waiting for Ion to exit the vehicle first. Once everyone got out, Nancy showed the refugees around the property, including security measures and the locations of both panic buttons and hidden refuges. Apparently they would be assigned their own protection detail just in case and would even be given Vid-Phones to ensure they could contact her at a moment's notice..

Sitting in the traditionally decorated living room, Nancy said, "I have just two more questions for now - you said that this... 'M.E.' can render Dolls semi-independent. Just how independent is 'semi-independent'? I realise that may seem like an inane question, but my superiors like to ensure every possible base is covered. And I imagine that the Syndicate will come sniffing around here eventually. What should we keep an eye out for, and is there anything we can do to help ensure your safety? Beyond that, though, I'm willing to answer any questions you might have."

Placed on a large table was a fruit bowl with a variety of fruit both familiar and distinctly exotic.

Common Room: "Hey, Listen!"

Two familiar faces emerged from the portal marked "Chaldea,"^note  "How do you pronounce that? Chal-DAY-uh? Chal-DEE-uh? Maybe with a hard "C" at the beginning? Hmm." which drew Tatl's attention away from the little spat with her partner.

"Jaune! Pyrrha! Could you wait for a minute? We need your help."

Should the Hunters choose to stay (or even hesitate) for a moment, they would not be given a chance to explain the urgency of their mission; Tatl was off to the races.

"So you remember that evil mask we mentioned earlier? Well, we found it in Former Hell. The kid tried to beat it, but the stupid thing was too fast and unpredictable. He hurt it—he might've even hurt it badly—but it got away. We're thinking that it escaped the underground cave Former Hell's planted in and broke to the surface. So we're trying to think of a way to walk around the neighboring places and reach where Majora's Mask would've emerged, but we don't know the first thing about Out World, Lunnah Noovuh, Vekterr, or Z-Gin Kengee. You know anything about them?"

Before they could even open their mouths, Tatl added: "We were also hoping to get some help dealing with this mask. The kid's good at fighting monsters—we can all agree on that—but Majora's Mask is just too tricky for one person to fight alone. If we had even one of you on the team, we could kick its butt faster than you can blink!"

Behind the chatty fairy, Link dragged his feet to approach the Hunters. Judging by his downward gaze and sullen expression, it'd be clear that the fairy wasn't speaking for the two of them.

Mitakihara, Hospital: Sound the Nyarly Alarm!

As chaos erupted on the fourth floor, the members of Lady's Army waiting by the lobby would be met with breaking news:

"Something's here." Yin reported.

"What kinda somethin'?" Huang asked, as he fished for a cigarette.

"A monster."

The old man paused, and studied the Doll more closely. It was so damn hard to read people like her. Blank faces, calm body posture, never a hair out of place no matter—

Wait a minute. Yin's free hand (the one not dipped in a cup of water) was clutching her dress. It took him a moment, but Huang's jaw clenched as his eyes spotted something very, very out of place: the hand was twitching, compelled by subtle spasms to move against whatever willpower the Doll had.

Yin was trembling.

Urgency sharpened Huang's voice. "Where?"

"Fourth floor."

"Where on the fourth floor?"

"East half, near Rooms 414 and 416."

"Anyone else there?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

Huang was losing patience fast. Seizing the Doll's trembling hand, he nudged her chin up so her blind eyes stared directly into his.

"Why not?" he seethed through gritting teeth.

"There's smoke."

"Good enough for me." muttered a baritone voice on the chair beside Yin.

The furball had a point. Releasing his grip on Yin, Huang quietly approached B.B. Hood and whoever else chose to wait in the lobby.

"We've got contact: fourth floor, east side, hallway near Rooms 414 and 416. It ain't Vergil, so it's either his boss, or an unfriendly local. Fingers crossed it's the latter."

His message passed on, Huang would leave the lobby and repeat it to Dmitri and Morrigan, who stood idly outside the hospital.

Zi-Jin Cheng, Border: Pretty Much the Dog Right Now

Part of her wanted to admire the metropolis stepping into view; the rest of her knew that sightseeing would just make her easier to line up in a rifle's scope. So the Dog kept her eyes on the road, and thankfully spotted the mines a dozen of yards before her steed would endanger their lives.

The military outpost was both what she'd expected given the circumstances, and monumentally disappointing compared to the rest of the city. Naturally, her eyes focused more on the soldiers (and more importantly, their apparent weaponry) and almost ignored the plain-clothed individuals. That said, she could venture a guess for what role the supposed civilians held; after all, the humble demeanor wasn't all that different from practices on her world:

They were clergymen.

The Dog tugged hard on the reigns as the first of many guns were frantically pointed at her and her passenger. When the chocobo obeyed the command to halt, the Dog released the reigns to raise both her hands in the air. She muttered something the soldiers and clergymen were too far away to hear, and the little boy riding behind her raised his hands as well.

She'd been forced to parley twice in just as many hours; she was growing tired of walking into a platoon's worth of jumpy soldiers. Least she didn't recognize any EPR members among this lot, which was a plus.

Then there was that young woman among the men in Imperial armor...

She waited patiently for the invitation to approach. Assuming these more numerous (and better armed) soldiers would frown at her cantering the chocobo up to their leader, the Dog chose to dismount her steed at a distance. However, she ordered July to stay on the giant poultry, and to hold the reigns tight. Worst-case scenario: they would try to shoot her, and she'd be forced to jump into the chocobo's body to escape. Living without a human body would be a nightmare existence, but at least it'd be an existence.

"My name is Alice Sawyer." The Dog announced. It was an old alias; she doubted these troops would accept 'Jane Doe' as an introduction. "I come here on behalf of Misaki Kirihara, ambassador of Hell's Gate Tokyo. We were informed that a Gestahl Imperial had been assigned to a scouting party into Former Hell. When I arrived at their last coordinates, I discovered tracks that lead me here."

She paused, gulped down some silent fear, and added: "Whatever happened in Former Hell is none of my concern; my only mission is to ascertain the whereabouts and condition of Miss Terra Branford, and to return her to her family if found alive. If she is among your prisoners, I'm willing to negotiate for her release. If she is not, I will assume she was KIA, and leave you in peace."

And that was it. Standing a safe distance from the leader, hands in the air, the Dog waited for either the order to lower their weapons, or to open fire.

Utsuho, Time 2 Leave Ok

"...Sorry?"

It didn't really seem like that last-minute apology was gonna work on these guys, Utsuho.

She only kept her guise up for a bit, even as the old sirens were rung and the first signs of trouble appeared, perhaps being slow to react or perhaps hoping for a better result.

The hailstorm of fire was wild, but not in the slightest was Utsuho prepared. The light of the sun behind her vanished in an instant, and she raised her cannon in front of her! A beam of light shot out to intercept the RPG rocket before it could be a danger to her; causing a second brief sun to appear.

That danger was gone, but everything else...everything else, wasn't going to halt along with it.

Utsuho fired another shot from her control rod, a white hot beam of fusion-born fire wide and sweeping across the Monolithian's front. She wasn't trying to hit anything specific; only giving enough of a distraction to give her some space. Hopefully it hit something explodey, as she wished.

She flew away, and as far away and as high as she could, but not without loss.

Even with the miracle that she wasn't outright dead, the adrenaline pumping through her body refused to let Utsuho notice the bullet wound in the leg she had taken. She had heard the ricochets and felt the punching impact of the rounds hitting her control rod and concrete-encased foot, but she was unaware at the moment. It would only be later that she'd process it.

At the moment, the graze of a bullet smashing the Ecologist's device was the greatest loss to her...along with the chance of a lifetime to see a cool reactor...

In the desolace of a customs-born no-man's-land, Majora found Koishi and Goht.

The wide amount of safe space between the Old Capitol and Chireiden, little lived and fewer were standing. There were many reasons to try to live as far away from that manor as possible, and everyone in this city knew of them by now. However, throughout Chireiden's history there have been the uninitiated and the foolhardy who have sought to exploit the cheap-as-free land.

It was hardly even the Komeijis of that day or today's fault that they usually got their houses burned down at some point for seemingly betraying their status as a proud youkai to consort with the unthinkable things.

Even if they were still a quarter mile away from the mansion grounds and just as terrified as everyone else.

In the long-ago burnt shambles of one house, with only the orange glow of the Furnace in the distance illuminating the black brim of Koishi's hat through the horizontal slits of a half-ruined window, they were sitting. Separated, but still linked.

Her head buried in her knees, Koishi barely managed a blubber in response to Majora at first.

"Majora! You...didn't manage to kill him..."

Even Goht could tell by his tone that his was a battle of survival, not victory.

"...It's okay! You were strong and you did something none of us could. Me, Gyorg..."

The mask turned to Koishi, who hadn't yet looked up. "What's wrong, Koishi?"

"Muh mmbdr mm mmmmmmmmnnnn..."

"...What? I can't hear you..."

She finally turned her red, puffy face towards them, accompanied by tears and snot running down her cheeks. "My sisder habes meeeeeeee...I can'd ebber go bag hoooooomee..."

"I was trying to hunt a demon," Lyre Robin said, "one with hateful eyes and big orange feet. I got it to—"

"No you didn't," Lemon said. "You were as scared of it as the rest of us were!"

"Okay, fine, I was trying to cower a demon. I really was gonna punch it, though. Anyway, we heard a loud noise and the demon flew away. It was like a...hssssshhhhh"

"Kind of a pszh-pszh-pszh noise," Daily corrected.

"I think it sounded more like pucho-hurh-hhh, shhhhhaaaaaa..." Lemon added.

"Something like that, but we looked out there and we saw...danmaku!"

"A really big one!"

"Big lights and everything! Lasers that don't curve!"

"And I came in to join it because it looked like the big furnace-bellied things were winning too hard, and they got scared and ran away. Like...out where she's going," she said, pointing towards the distant lights of ZJC and Dog's trail towards it.

"I think after that we just congratulated me, and then we looked at all the free stuff on the field. Like the pants flag."

"..."

"...So what are YOU doing here, mister?" The little fairy suddenly seemed very suspicious of the man.

In brief lines of matter between endless centuries of void, the other so-called "existences" in the narrow cone of wordwrought sight afforded have ceased the thread/threat of the barreling cascade of metal that once inexorably headed towards a plane familiar. I am barely able to comprehend even the idea that they and some new things, crimson and white and blue, are speaking to one another in the aftermath of that event. The torrent of sights and sounds from every corner of every point of every life in this world drowns me repeatedly.

"A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK!"

I cannot die! I feel something constantly dragging me back into a life that I do not want, forcing me to exist in this new torment! I stretch my mind and its strings out to that inhospitable force, begging it to release me from this pain in sweet death, but each particle of thought that comes forth carries with it the knowledge that whatever must happen involves my torment. I cannot die, for I am not allowed to.

"A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK! A BOOK!"

The words of the conceptual wolf at the front of the bridge - or perhaps the beginning of time; the distinction is both blurred and unimportant to me - arrive at the same terminus point of rending talons. KILL spears me in its hostility, a red mark on my eyes that renders me blind for the impossibly long time it takes for it to pass through the points of reception where the tan meets pink; in that time I dream of casting myself into the oblivion that acts as the sea around the island of "here" and "now", wondering if I may be free of it all!

Mocking men and the visages of the dead; faces known but frozen statue still driving nails into my eye; a blue pool that drops into infinity; emblems and insignias that make me stare into worlds whose alien geometries scrape into my soul as they hostilely force me out.

Such is what I see in the briefest moment I hold my head up to look at the sky of my new existence between paperless paper. I weep!

And yet, for the infinite suffering inflicted to me each modicum of time, each and every concept that stretches me out beyond points that cannot be counted or observed, a slow, dawning inkling brings itself to my foreview.

I can almost reach out and reveal it, drawing open its tiny wooden door illuminated by candle in a pitch black room. With just a little lean forward, maybe...

It comes onto me all at once in the same way this revelation had, being the first thing to deafen the cacophony of intersecting lines: the curtain fire of vibrations bringing forth the torment...the damnable song...has concluded. Silence.

In that silence, the pain of the infinite point existence has yet to lessen, but the haze of colors caked upon layers of color begins to shudder and crumble, if just the slightest. I am able to focus with just the slightest lesser amount of pain that is still debilitating: [黒-赤-黄-紫] lies in shambles. That talonmark KILL has given me the key to salvation!

The elation I feel almost gives me joy enough to wish I was alive, real. Almost.

Lower, enter-enter-enter I bring myself down, tearing apart the infinite words I have etched in blood that cover the mountains: "You Cannot Change Fate". What was once stone has become dust; I bring myself to my saviors...or at least, the ones who I can find in the sea of word/word/living thing/word.

I am safe.
So why am I...

A dread reminder. The revelation that shattered self and other; real and unreal...it has not lost its meaning! I cannot save myself from this madness, but I must warn others of it...the futility! The sheer, unchanging, laughing and happy futility of our existence! Erza-Red must know, even if she might share my pain!

Edited by wikkit on Sep 5th 2019 at 11:21:57 AM

Morioh - Hospital

When Hei asked for volunteers, Okuyasu answered."I want to come! Morioh is also my home, and my stand is only good for fights anyway." To accentuate his enthousiasm, he put his fists together.

Josuke put a hand on his best friend's shoulder and spoke to him with great concern. "Then stay safe. And if things become hopeless, then one of you should hesitate to run. I almost lost you once, and I don't want it to happen again."

After this, Koichi "Then the rest of us will split and try to calm down the townspeople, like we said before. Tough," he sheepishly put his hand on the back of his head, "it's probably going to be even harded than before."

Rohan, for his part, seemed to be deep in tought. "While I would prefer to get even on those who bested me before, I think I'll do what Koichi said. I have some preparations to make." The mangaka didn't elaborate anything about what that could possibly mean.

The policeman just groaned at Kintoki's little joke before heading toward the police station. There, he made the Rider get out of his car before entering the place and walking toward the chief's office. There, he knocked on the door, waiting for his superior's authorization to enter.

Said consent came quickly. "Enter." Which the Morioh cop did. Upon seeing his subordinate, the quite tired-looking chief expressed his surprise. "Hachiro? What the hell are you doing here so soon? Don't tell me you already finished investigating the scene."

"No chief," Naegi admitted, "but I got someone who claim he's from outside and know what happened to the town." The policeman pointed to the biker-looking servant behind him.

Chief Sakamoto's (that's his name) eyes widened as he turned toward the punk. "What, seriously? You know what's going on with this nonsense?"

Utsuho found that the trio of Monolithians were engulfed in the fusion-fire. While the two monolithians died, their bodies completely scorched, the priest seemed to be alive, ignoring the utter pain a normal person would pass through with the burns on his whole body, pulling out his pistol and firing at Utsuho's disappearing figure in the sky, but eventually, she escaped, wounded but safe.

As for The Thieves and the Syndicate, Puck would find himself successful in holding the zombified stalkers to the ground, the zombies writhing in the ground like worms, screaming incoherent words and blabbering, until they found themselves sunking to the ground, and stuck forever in the ground.

Meanwhile Ariel would find that.....well, there is a reason many stalkers consider the Exoskeleton the best combat armor in the Zone. She would find that the bullets aimed for the Zombies head bounced off the tough plating of the helmet, mainly due to the fact the caliber of her silenced pistol wasn't enough to pierce through the helmet. While pained somewhat by the impact, the zombie kept going, firing at the group while shamblnig forward.

Then....everybody would feel for some reason the ground shaking, as if a earthquake was happening. The trees started to shake. What caused this?

The shaking of the ground started to intensify, until the group found the source of the quake.

Stomping it's way out of the entrance to the Red Forest was a disgusting behemoth of a creature standing at 9 feet tall, the only thing that made it resemble a human was it's arms and the feet uselessly hanging on the back. Everything else made it seem like a abomination with different parts of animals.

The Pseudogiant glared at them, letting out a loud screech as it stomped its way to them, going rather fast for a being of it's size. Meanwhile they would notice a group of 4 monolithians marching to their location, performing suppressive fire upon them in order to protect the Pseudogiant's charge.

"Protect the child of the monolith! He will aid us in cleansing the heretics!" The wounded priest yelled as he joined forces with the squad, along with the exoskeleton zombie.

Ashot's eyes widened somewhat, as if the flirting attempt worked on him. "Y-yeah! While we primarily have freedom outfit for sale, we do also have modified Loner suits which are cheap and reliable for sale for any Free Stalker who comes with us! Me believes you won't find best deal in Zone that doesn't involve us, pretty la-"

"Keep your pants on, Ashot." Skinflint scolded Ashot, before turning his attention to Lucy. "Yes, we may have something for your friend. It depends on what would he want though, for dealing with anomalies, psychic hazards or radiation, the SEVA suit would be the best bet, costing 35,000 Rubles. For a balanced suit with good all around protection, the sunrise suit costs 15,000 rubles. For a heavier suit, but one that will stop plently of bullets in it's tracks is a rare CS-1 suit. Once belonged to a mysterious faction calle Clear Sky. Some of our scientists spoke to them and had friendly interactions with them...but went extinct. This outfit was the last thing they gifted to us before they vanished. It costs 20, 000"

Edited by Darkomega245 on Sep 6th 2019 at 8:17:47 AM

The two warriors turned as Jack approached them. Vayne nodded while the other man staggered to his feet.

"Ah. The Samurai warrior from the bridge. I had been made to understand you were dead. Clearly, this was incorrect. I would be pleased to escort you to the portal, provided you are willing to respond to a few questions during the walk."

He turned to the other man

"Gaius, please report to Gabranth, tell him I sent you. He will get you sorted."

"As you wish.....my lord."

He nodded, then turned and left.

"Now, let us away."

A few minutes later, Jack and Vayne entered the Common Room

"Thank you, once again, for consenting to my questions. Rest assured, we will remain vigilant against future assaults, both from this "Vergil" and the shapeshifting demon."

At about the same time, Dante and Nagi emerged from the Hope's Peak portal, Dante still carrying the large briefcase of money.

"Sorry it didn't work out, kid." He said as he walked in. "I wanted to enroll you, but once I saw that weirdly high number of kids who've disappeared on their watch, couldn't let it go through, otherwise Lady would have rightly shot me in the head again."

Nero gritted his teeth and waved Yang off.

"I'll live. Go! Kill this bitch so we can get out of here!"

Meanwhile, the dude that had come out of Vergil was still laying on the ground.

"I.....I don't.....how.....how is this even possible?"

He didn't look anything like Vergil, didn't sound anything like him, but there was no doubt that he'd been ripped out of Vergil somehow.

As the smoke bomb went off, Nyarly laughed. Lady started to get to her feet.

"I can move, yes, we-"

   Garudyne!   

That was as far as she got before a sudden gust of wind smashed Maria in the chest, sending her flying back down the hallway

   Stupid fools! I don't even have a head right now! You think I need eyes to see!?   

The gust of wind had cleared some of the smoke, and they could see one half of Nyarly fly forward and catch the rising Lady by the throat, slamming her head against the wall. She grunted in pain, but still had enough self awareness to pull out more guns, an SMG which she shoved into its chest and started to hold the trigger down on, and a pistol that she pointed at the wrist of his sole hand and started to fire. Black blood started to coat the hallway for a moment before another hand sprouted from his neck, and slapped the guns away, skittering down the hallway and coming to a stop near the contractors, still half loaded.

The other Nyarly half, meanwhile, just raised his hand.

   Agidyne!   

A gust of fire in the form of a flamethrower started to come out of Nyarly's hand, aimed directly at the contractors.

As the mutant demon thing emerged from the forest, the team would hear loud beeping as Mona, in van form, drove up, Yusuke in the driver seat. The door opened.

"Come!" He yelled. "We must leave!"

"Makoto, cover them!" Joker yelled as he spun around.

"Arsene!"

Behind him, Joker's persona◊ appeared, and lifted his hand. Out of the hand, dark energy shot out at the demon and the surrounding enemies. Not particularly powerful, but probably enough to encourage most of them to take cover. For those who didn't, Makoto's swift and accurate hip firing of her revolver would probably knock them out (It was still in non-lethal mode) or otherwise drive them into cover.

Former Hell, Ruined House: A Call to Adventure!

Majora rested onto the heap of what might've been called furniture decades ago; back when this house was someone's home. The new "seat" was about as comfortable as a bed of rocks, but it wasn't in any condition to complain.

Unlike Koishi. She wouldn't be blubbering about her sister forever, right? There were much better things she could be doing: planning a way out of this cave, keeping a lookout for the boy in green...not blubbering about her stupid sister.

"Of course you can go home, Koishi." said Majora. Unfortunately, its current state made its chipper inflections near impossible to pull off. "But we need your help, and your sister needs time to calm down. It's better for everyone if you stick with us for a while; at least till we can get rid of that murderer, cuz then we can set the record straight with your family."

Not an hour had passed since their grand escape, and Koishi was already homesick. How utterly pathetic. She'd become a liability if she didn't stop that damn sniveling, though the worst part about it was that she'd probably be forgiven if she rushed back to the manor and apologized. The albino brat didn't seem the "capital punishment" sort, and they were sisters after all. Koishi needed to be nudged away from those second thoughts, or else it and Goht were doomed.

"Think of it this way: you know how stories about heroes start with them leaving home? Well that's what you're doing right now. You're off on a great big adventure with Goht and me! And together, we'll go to other kingdoms and make new friends and play games and make sure nobody gets hurt by that killer ever ever again. And when our adventure's over, when all my friends are back, when that monster is gone forever, we'll all come back here and tell your sister we're super duper sorry, and you can go home."

With a little more effort than it should require, Majora eased itself into the air, and floated towards the weeping Komeiji.

"I know you're sad. It's not easy to start an adventure without looking back. But you won't be gone forever, and we've got a whole planet to explore! Maybe instead of looking at what we can't fix right now, we should get out of this cave and find someplace new. What do you think?"

Assuming that Koishi agreed, the mask would turn its now asymmetrical eyes towards the sky...or at least that tiny pocket of light piercing through the earthen roof. Taking charge of this little band of runaways, Majora would raise itself higher and higher into the air to reach the surface as soon as possible.

It would find a new land to take shelter in. And once it had rested, it would seek out the biggest, baddest, meanest creature on this planet, and recruit it by any means necessary.

Majora would see that murdering brat dead—even if it had to drag down another moon.

The Zone, Red Forest: Non-Lethal's for Chumps

Seeing her efforts were in vain, Ariel cursed and stuck to what dwindling cover she could. The silenced pistol couldn't even slow that bastard down, so there was no use in wasting all her ammo on it.

With his targets buried, Puck was free to shift his attention to the exoskeleton Stalker. He wasn't eager to use his power a second time this hour (he'd just gotten his rings and jacket back on), so he turned to the weapon he stole from that shish kabob of a Monolithian, and aimed it in the exoskeleton's direction. He dug into his cover, aimed, and:

"No scope!"

Pulling the trigger without a clue what kind of kick the Gauss Gun had, Puck looked forward to seeing what kind of damage this baby could do...and would pout if his arrogant idiocy resulted in completely missing his target.

5, perhaps 6 Monolithians down, and no casualties on their side; so far so good for the odd band of infiltrators. Of course, that's when a creature from the depths of Hell decided to stroll their way. Without any sort of communication, all three Syndicate members came to the same conclusion:

The battle was lost; they needed to make a swift retreat.

With Makoto and another one of Joker's creatures^note  a detail that Horai didn't let go unnoticed providing suppressing fire, Ariel and Horai rushed into the cat/van. Puck soon followed, but not before trying to fire one desperate shot at the pseudogiant's head; after all, it wasn't exactly a small target.

Mitakihara, Hospital Fourth Floor: ...This is Getting Out of Hand

In a lighter situation and mood, the Contractors might've lopped the smokescreen as a "good try." Unfortunately, Nyarlathotep's comment just brought the error to the front of their minds. They had thrown themselves into an unwinnable fight, and not even their best diversions could slow this bastard down.

The gust not only threw Maria down the hall, it knocked the wind out of her. She landed in a fetal position struggling to breathe, let alone get back to her feet.

With the SMG sliding to a halt just a few feet from Dmitri's feet, the Contractor dropped his duffel bag and seized the weapon. He couldn't fire upon the creature pinning Lady to the wall without shooting his boss in the process, so he aimed at the chatty half. The magazine would be empty by the time Nyarlathotep uttered his spell.

And what a spell it was! A column of fire threatened to engulf Dmitri. It lapped his hands, his sleeves, his arms, and even brushed his knees and feet. The result was a man—rationally-focused Contractor or not—screaming in agony as he dashed away from the fire before frantically rolling on the ground to smother the flames on his clothes.

Maria, curled on the floor a fair ten feet behind where Dmitri had stood, was spared from Agidyne for the moment. Recovering her breath, the Contractor had just enough time to scramble to her feet and retreat to a safer distance.

"We need backup!" she shouted behind her, though she hadn't a clue if anyone but Lady and Nyarlathotep could hear her. She fired a few shots at the talkative figure, even if she knew they were useless against it.

So with one Contractor down (likely maimed for life) and another putting up a futile effort from a distance, it seemed like Lady's chances of rescue were fading fast.